Dastardly Desires (Chapter 7) (Patreon)

A gentle crashing of waves echoes outside my window as I sit with my arms crossed, Loki sits on my lap as I gaze blankly at the wall.

There are two beds in this room. Firstly, there is my own, then, against another wall is her.

The pink haired menace that the world itself seems to be pushing me towards.

She just quietly reads a book, without a care in the world.

She has been lingering around me for quite a while.

Was she ordered by Team Magma to scout me out? Does she have foul intentions?

I don't know and that unsettles me.

But... she is pretty much the only person at school who has given me the time of day, so I don't shove her away... just keep her at arms length.

The past three or so months of school have been pretty standard.

As standard as a school training people to command fire breathing dragons could be, at least. I've sort of gotten into a cycle of repeated actions. Days blur together as I trudge forwards boredly.

Merlin got his gold and is working on his sling ring, Loki is beginning to struggle a bit against some of my classmates' pokemon- which is good, he is improving leaps and bounds- and, well, no progress has been made on my attempts to learn magic.

Anyways onto the topic of my temporary roommate, I suppose there are some questions I need to ask... like 'Is she even a part of team magma in the first place?' I mean, I always assumed with the horns on her hoodie, but I never really personally looked into it.

We are set to arrive in Castelia city tomorrow afternoon, where we will spend the night before going north into route four.

Then, we'll get on a bus or something. I suppose I could look it up then.

**Linebreak**

The little bus we are sat in rattles slightly, my eyes briefly scanning around the people taking part in this expedition.

Courtney... is probably one of the only relevant ones from my class. The rest are just a bunch of no-names.

Like, run of the mill anime background characters.

Bunch of classic 'nerd' characters, actually.

White lab coats, glasses, literally just the basic 'researcher' trainer class look. Like. How basic could you be?

Ah well, I'm probably going to be going around wearing a cape, so who am I to judge.

The breaks hiss as we slide to a stop. I can see numerous large tents outside the window.

Well, we're here...

"Alright, students, we have arrived!" Mrs Fennel beams as she stands from a seat towards the front of the bus. "Come along, let's get you all settled in!"

I slowly rise from my spot in the bus, looking to Courtney as she shifts her bag and follows after me.

I wouldn't call us friends, but at the very least, she is the one person I sort of respect at this place.

Both social outcasts who more or less do our own things, pursuing our own educations above pretty much all else.

We both apparently took out loans for schooling-

Speaking of said loan, I spent some of my remaining money to pay it back already so I don't have to worry about it in the future.

So, I have roughly two point two million poke remaining.

Enough for a house, at the very least.

Here's hoping that whoever comes to scout out students will buy my invention... I don't really feel like interning though, I'd be happy with just one paycheck.

We step outside, sand crunching underfoot.

The hot sun above beams down upon us as Courtney shifts uncomfortably. She looks a bit unusual to me right now as she's wisely ditched her hoodie for much lighter clothing.

I am roughly in the same boat, honestly, wearing just a t-shirt... oh, and the black arm sleeves to hide my crippling previous life's attempt upon his own life.

Considering that I am here now, I guess he succeeded.

Still fucking ridiculous all of that happened because of a Lechonk.

I can barely enjoy a nice porkchop now without thinking about all this all began and almost letting out a few giggles..

Courtney and I are given a spare tent that we'll probably sleep in only once, then begin our trip back to Castelia City in the afternoon.

Professor Fennel has more or less had us group up into twos... and seeing as how Courtney is basically the only person I am at the very least amicable towards in the entire school...

Yeaaah.

Not many options there.

Oh well, at least I determined after a few google searches that she's not team magma- beyond buying their merch online... those guys are apparently some sort of nature conservation group but they haven't gone off the deep end yet.

As for Team Aqua?

Pirates.

Yep.

Literally just pirates.

They also don't seem to have the goal of awakening Kyogre yet.

I've already decided I'm going to put a stop to both of those organizations if push comes to shove. The pirates are one thing, I could likely take or talk them down, but Team Magma? It is an advanced organization backed by dozens of scientists all coming together to combat climate change and the destruction of Hoenn's natural resources.

They should know better.

Considering just who is behind that group, they should honestly know how poorly raising entire landmasses from the sea would affect the planet.

Not as bad as flooding everything, mind you, but they are just a bunch of fucking stupid pirates, not academy graduated scientists.

Oh, son of a bitch... I have to worry about Team Galactic as well... AND Team Flare!

At least team yell, skull, and star are just a bunch of goobers.

Rocket and Plasma on the other hand...

Not as large of an issue, Team rocket seems to realize that destroying the planet is a bad idea because they are some of the idiots who live on it and Team Plasma... is a much more immediate issue as they are actually operating in Unova.

But, once more, they haven't actually started to be terrorists yet.

I've got time.

How much time, I don't know. But I've got time all the same.

I don't trust easily enough to leave my stuff behind. I make a mental note of the location, then I walk back outside, followed shortly by Courtney as we reconvene with Mrs Fennel.

We stand there in the hot sun for a brief moment allowing the others in our little group to show up.

"Alright students, we will be staying here at the archeological site for the next day. I want all of you to stick close to your partner and help out where you can. Remember the lessons I've taught in class. A lot of this stuff is extremely fragile, and the archeologists here won't humor you if you want to just play around. Be on your best behavior, as you represent our school."

A chorus of 'Yes Ma'am's echo out, my gaze strays to Courtney.

"So... Where do you want to go?"

The girl ponders for a moment, letting out a low hum. "Actually, there is something that has been mildly bugging me."

"Well, lead on, then." I shrug, watching as the girl turns.

I follow her through the camp as we slowly meander around tents and around sectioned off pillars of sandstone.

We eventually come to a large pedestal with three rotund little squat statues upon it.

The area has been blocked off with stakes and rope, likely just a warning that the area has some significance as there are people standing around it, brushing sand off a stone floor underfoot.

"Those statues..." Courtney frowns.

"You mean the Darmanitan?" I question.

The girl blinks. "Huh? Darmanitan?"

She tilts her head slightly "I can see it. Does that mean that in the distant past there was a regional variant?"

"Not... Really." I mutter. "They've just got a rare ability called 'Zen Mode'. It's likely that they entered this state due to some famine or drought, staving off hunger or thirst for potentially thousands of years."

"Wait... you are saying that these are actual pokemon?!" She whispers.

"Are they not?" I mutter.

"I have never heard of this ability 'Zen Mode'.

"..."

I pull out my rotom phone, pushing a button to power it on.

"Yes sir?" It questions, now far more reserved.

"Search up the pokemon Darmanitan, please."

"Yes sir!" It chirps.

The screen glows and text scrolls across it. Eyes glowing.

"I have finished searching the requested information, what do you want to know!" It chipperly hums.

I...

I should get me my own rotom.

They're amongst the only ghost types that can breed, but the way they breed is more akin to porygon. That'll make it vaguely difficult to alter its genes, though.

"What are their abilities?"

"Darmanitan have the sheer force ability which improves the power of some of their attacking moves!"

"Hn." I hum looking to Courtney. "Would you like to write a co-operative paper? I doubt I would have even really noticed these three as anything special without your help."

"You... know a lot about pokemon." Courtney observes.

"A bit." I agree.

"I would be glad to." The girl nods as she pulls out her own rotom phone and begins typing.

It floats out of her hands.

"Mark the date." Courtney commands.

"It is Saturday. October Twenty First. Three Forty-Nine Pm." The rotom intones.

"Entering speech transcribe mode." The rotom continues.

"Since we arrived at the archeological dig site, I have felt unnerved by something, and, after a brief search I believe that I have found the source of this discomfort. Three statues towards the outskirts of the dig site. According to my traveling companion, Xander Welsh, these appear to be Darmanitan, and upon closer inspection I believe this to be the case. However, it is his belief that these are not merely statues of the fiery pokemon and the pokemon themselves, locked in a meditative trance to fend off possible starvation of dehydration due to an ability he refers to as 'zen mode'. I have no real opinion on this beyond the acknowledgement that it will be quite difficult to prove."

"It shouldn't, actually." I cut in.

Her gaze strays to me as I reach into my bag and pull out my scanner. "This tells the statistics of pokemon. Realistically if I were to use it upon them, their physical abilities will show up."

"If scanning these pokemon would reveal their nature as living pokemon, why haven't the people around here used a Pokedex and come to the same conclusion."

"Well, that's quite simple. The pokedex does not reveal moves, nor does it reveal physical abilities. What it does have, however, is image recognition software. You can scan a pokemon from a picture book and find its pokedex entry that way. It is likely they have already scanned the Darmanitan, and have made the assumption that they are just statues."

"I see." The girl mutters. "That is Believable. Rotom. Take a photograph."

The rotom clicks slightly.

"So... the next thing you must do is scan them, correct?" The girl questions.

"Yes"

"Oh. So we meet again." A voice speaks up behind us, causing both of us to flinch.

My hand comes to my chest as I turn.

Fuck.

Again? Seriously?

Ah. Wait.

Archeology.

Should have expected. Her to be here.

A woman with long flowing blonde hair stands before us, she wears relatively light, airy and breathable clothing.

Our rotoms turn.

"It's champion Cynthia?!" Both exclaim.

"Oh. Hey." I frown.

"it's good to see you are keeping up with your studies... ah... I... Don't believe I got your name last time."

I didn't give it.

"It's Xander." I reply as I turn back to the trio of statues.

"Ah. I see..." The woman begins as she walks up beside us, gazing over the three statues. "Fascinating, are they not? These three statues were dated to be well over two thousand years old."

My eyes stray downwards to a line of text that has been brushed off, the lettering a different color than the sandstone brown of the rest of the pedestal.

"The three guardians of Sapeset, hn? Well, I actually think they're real Darmanitan."

"What?" The woman mutters.

"The easiest way to figure this out, would be for me to walk over there with this scanner of mine, then scan two of them- as I've never scanned a Darmanitan to get a baseline."

"No no, before that- Guardians of... Sepeset?"

"Yes? Isn't that what the text at the bottom of that pedestal reads?"

"..."

"..."

"Ah. Fuck." I curse blandly as I realize I have made a critical error on my part. "Well, it was pleasant meeting you yet again, miss, but I believe the heat is going to my head I think I'll go stay inside for a bit."

To be fair, this one isn't my fault.

I haven't really been around ancient languages, so it's not like I knew I had a built in understanding of- apparently- ALL languages.

I thought the shift from English to poke-speech was honestly just a one-time limited thing... like, I have a fucking system. It wouldn't be that hard to shift my- admittedly shit, as I somehow make it look like my primary language is a second language- mastery of the English language to whatever they use here, right?

Cynthia's hand comes to my shoulder.

"Hold on a moment... you can read the ancient Kemet language?!"

"What? No." I deny instantly. "That's crazy. You must be mishearing things. The heat can do crazy things to your mind.'

"There is nothing wrong with knowing, I was just surprised. You must have taken quite a lot of effort to learn it. I know a few ancient languages, but I haven't begun learning Ancient Kemet quite yet. I have a question, could you assist me translate a few things here? I'll pay."

"How much?" I question, interests piqued.

"Fifty thousand."

"Alright." I agree immediately. "I'll agree if you help me with one small thing."

"What is that."

"If those statues wake up, I'll probably need you to stop them." I admit while gesturing to the three Darmanitan.

She seems to recall what I said earlier. "Wait... you think they're alive?"

"They should be." I nod once. "Which is why I'll be using this thing I made to check."

A wave if light washes over one of the statues.

I look at the scanner's, seeing quite a few question marks. "And... now to confirm."

I scan a second.

Ah. There we go.

I turn the screen to Cynthia.

"As you can see. This device here works sort of like an advanced Pokedex. Taking into account the physical build of the pokemon in question."

Species: ?
Ability: ?
Type: Fire/Psychic
Moves: Fire Punch, ?, Uproar, Dig, Brick Break, ?, Zen Headbutt, ?, Takedown, ?, Flame Charge
Size: 3'7 Feet tall, 3'6 feet long
Size Comparison to Species Average: -2.6%
Weight: 372.1 Pounds
Weight Comparison to Species Average: +1.1%
Physical Strength: -3.5%
Spiritual Strength: +1.08%
Agility: +1.34%
Durability: +12.2%

I turn the scanner around to face her.

Her eyes slowly scan the data in front of her, eyes widening slightly. "What is... this, I've never seen one of these before."

"I made it." I explain blandly. "You have been here a while, right? Do you know if any of the archologists have a Darmanitan as a pokemon?"

"Ah... I think one does?"

"Can you find him? That way we could get a much better idea how strong these three are? As of this moment, the average is based entirely off these two. At the moment, these three could be stronger than any champion's pokemon and we'd have no way of knowing."

"I will see what I can do." The woman nods as she turns and quickly makes her way off into the camp.

"..."

"So... you were correct." Courtney observes, peering over my shoulder at the screen of the scanner. "Fascinating... What are the question marks?"

"Oh, that's information I haven't filled out yet... information that I suppose I should do so now."

I quickly type out 'Zen Mode' for the ability, then 'Darmanitan' for the species.

As for the four missing moves? I have no idea.

"You have been filling it out yourself?"

"Yes." I nod once.

"Interesting."

We stand there, quietly waiting in the hot sun as minutes pass.

Eventually Cynthia returns with a husky man with a brownish pocketed vest, a large cap atop his head to keep the sun off.

"What is all of this?" The man questions.

"This blueberry academy student here made a scanner to estimate the physical abilities of pokemon, and, has found out that those three statues are living, breathing Darmanitan."

"What?" The archeologist whispers, eyes growing wide.

"I sought you out because you also have a darmanitan. We don't exactly know how strong those three are, as he was unable to form an average, but with your darmanitan, we should be able to form a reasonable baseline."

The man lets out a small sigh. "Ah. Damn. Alright. Come on out Brutie."

With a dull flash of the red and white sphere in his hand, a large circular ape-like creature lands on the ground, it pounds its chest with its large fists.

"Calm down, Brutie," the man soothes. "This kid here is going to scan you. You might see a little light, but it won't hurt you."

"Dhrr." The ape nods, eyes slowly turning to me.

There's a dull flash as a wave of light washes over the ape.

I look down at the screen, my mouth suddenly becoming a flat line.

"A-Ah... so... minor question, here, but... how strong would you say your friend here is?"

"Well, he and the rest of my team helped me earn my fifth badge back before I started digging up old stuff, so he's pretty strong. We may not train as intently any more, but his strength hasn't really been lost. He's about the same."

"Oh fuck." I hiss as Cynthia steps over.

Species: Darmanitan
Ability: ?
Type: Fire
Moves: Fire Punch, Brick Break, ?, Zen Headbutt, Flame Wheel, Ember, Flamethrower
Size: 4'3 Feet tall, 3'9 feet long
Size Comparison to Species Average: 10.86%
Weight: 204.4 Pounds
Weight Comparison to Species Average: -35.17%
Physical Strength: -86.52%
Spiritual Strength: -82.08%
Agility: -89.34%
Durability: -90.2%

"Oh... Oh dear..." She whispers.

"What does that mean?" The man frowns.

"Oh... well... it's just that those darmanitan are each about... ten times as strong as yours on average."

"T-Ten times?!" The man whispers.

"Yes. And that's horrifying as yours is by all means fairly impressive."

Above average, at least, if it has competed in a fifth badge gym battle.

"It's probably closer to twelve times, as the average was brought down slightly." I note. "Which means... you, champion Cynthia, should probably figure out how to deal with them before they wake up and kill somebody!"

"I'd imaging having the city around them appear destroyed in what might possibly be an instant for them would be quite jarring, even more so by the large amounts of people lingering around."

"Wait... you think these pokemon where from this original city?!" The man with the Darmanitan questions. "Mamalian pokemon don't typically have lifepsans that long? Are= are you sure? How would we even wake them in the first place?"

"..."

I reach into my bag. "I've got a rage candy bar and a bottle of water. Any food or drink might do it."

I offer the two food items to Cynthia then turn and begin speed walking away. "Now, I'm going to go watch from a safe distance."

Courtney is quick to follow me as we take a spot atop a large dune overlooking the camp.

I can feel her gaze on the side of my head as I shift my bag.

I cross my arms, 'my' rotom floating beside me as we stare out into the distance.

*FWOOOSH*

"Huh..." The girl to my left mutters as a titanic gout of flame ignites the sky.

Numerous spires of rock shoot from the ground as I assume Cynthia's garchomp enters conflict.

I cup my chin as I lean forwards.

"Rotom. You're floating higher than my vision. Can you give me a play by play of what just happened?"

"Cynthia summoned her garchomp then opened that candy bar in front of one of the Darmanitan... that seemed to wake it up, at which point Cynthia retreated to gain some distance.... seeing the garchomp, the Darmanitan became defensive, blasting the dragon type with an incredibly powerful overheat that turned most of the surrounding sand into glass."

"This really didn't phase Cynthia's carchomp that much-"

"Dragon type resistance to fire." I note as there's another shuddering explosion.

"-And it proceeded to strike the ape pokemon with a crushing Giga Impact! Sending it shooting out of the archological site with a shuddering boom! But! The other two woke up from the noise and began to rise to a defensive position, but Cynthia's pokemon proceeded to strike them with a brutal Stone Edge! Knocking one flat and injuring the second! At that point, her Spiritomb appeared and with a quick Shadow Sneak it was able to take it out of the fight!"

"The first darmanitan was knocked into the sky by her Garchomp as it landed a powerful dig, also taking it out of the fight and the final darmanitan was washed away with a Hydro pump by her Milotic!"

"Interesting." I note. "So, when Darmanitan are in 'Zen Mode' sufficient noise will be enough to wake them... the archologists were speaking and touching them, though... perhaps it was the killing intent of the pokemon? They are psychic type while they are meditating, after all."

"Regardless, something with a strong scent seems to be the easiest way to bring these pokemon out of this 'Zen Mode'... like the energy bar you gave Cynthia... though it is up for debate whether or not something else would affect them... smelling salts perhaps?" Courtney observes.

"That could work." I agree. "I feel as if this little discovery has already made this little trip very worth it."

"Indeed. The extra credit received will look very good within our academic records... in addition to whatever profit we make for the posting of this research." The girl replies. "Regretfully we weren't able to go as in-depth as we probably should, but a pokemon of that strength is not necessarily something I feel comfortable around as I am right now."

"I agree." I mutely nod. "Far too powerful. To give debatably the strongest champion minor difficulties... they were probably pokemon comparable to an Elite Four's that she was only able to defeat due to element of surprise and type advantage."

"Indeed." The girl nods.

"It appears Cynthia has caught the three Darmanitan in pokeballs!" My rotom informs.

"Eh, she probably won't add them to her team... she more than likely just caught them so they'd stay out of trouble... plus shipping them off to professor Oak would probably earn her a favor. He would probably be delighted to study a pokemon that's over two thousand years old." I observe.

"I should finish up this report, would you like to join me? To fact check my work? Frankly, I doubt I would have even gotten this far without your assistance so I feel slightly... foul... for putting my name on this in any form."

"Once more. You found it. I would have overlooked it."

"Observation... you possess far more knowledge about pokemon than most... obscure knowledge... like Zen mode... yet, you yourself do not realize that said knowledge is obscure. Taking it as mere common knowledge... that is... unusual... as is your ability to read Ancient Kemet language."

"Are you really one to talk, girl who is clearly some sort of untapped psychic?" I question with a raised eyebrow.

"..."

"I am not psychic." She denies.

"Really?" Sounding not at all convinced. "Cause you pin-pointed those three statues from across the camp just like- *Snap*- that merely because they were- and I quote- 'bugging you'. Despite the fact you had seen nor heard a single sight or sound of the darmanitan."

"..."

"..."

We both face forwards, both deciding mutually to drop the conversation.

"Ah, right." I eventually speak up. "I'll try and help out on the report, but it's likely that she will come find me again then drag me off somewhere to read some dusty rocks."

"I see. Very likely." She agrees. "I would say my condolences, but you will make around fifty thousand Poke in just a single day and I am quite jealous."

Ah. Right. She has to worry about student loans as well.