Written Story Kalos Gijinka I Can Break These Cuffs

[Uberle]

New year
Been a year since this run has begun and look where I am
Thanks to everyone who's stuck around and joined in the meantime

The 2021 Extravaganza has begun to start up and the promos thread is up now
Go there to advertise runs, like this one for example, as well as your own and maybe find some last minute reads
I'll be making my own later but for now replies and update

Spoiler: replies

@Spectacles It wasn't until she met Korrina did she realize this and I do like it finally clicking for her
Freak probably has the lung capacity for SSJ3

@Leon Yorunaki It is on the easier side, but oneshots are more late game
Also I want a faster pace so Korrina "losing" in one hit is more her not wanting to fight Freak and get him out of her city
And you'll figure out who Freak is. Eventually. He's not in a hurry to tell.

@QuietGuardian Welcome back
Freak is a dedicated entertainer, no matter how little of his mind remains
And don't worry, you'll figure out exactly what Wilhelm is up to eventually
Not sure how long, but I'll try to get there as fast as I can without rushing things

Spoiler: Chapter 13: Then You Get Wilhelm

“Diantha is waiting for us?” Elly felt her feathers ruffle as Malva told her the news while clacking away at something.
“Yes she is, but don’t worry Elly dear you don’t need to tell me about it if you don’t want to, as amazing a scoop that would make.”
“Malva, that’s not what I’m concerned about right now,” Elly was thinking of trying to figure out how to explain Fenice, but couldn’t exactly communicate that to Malva.
“You sound like you think you’ve been called in for doing something bad. This isn’t the first time the two of you have talked, it’ll be fine.”
“We barely talked, most of the cafe visit I spent paralyzed with fear that Lysandre and Freak were going to fight.”
“The luggage does like to tempt fate like that, doesn’t he?”
“Phrasing it as ‘tempting’ would imply that Freak didn’t want to get in a fight.”
“Pft. Fair enough.”
“But why does Diantha want to talk anyway? Is it related to her asking for Freak to receive a Mega Stone?”
“SHE DID WHAT?!” Elly almost dropped her phone so missed what Malva said immediately after but it didn’t sound coherent. “Ah, sorry, Elly. So this may sound a bit unprofessional, but what the actual hell was she thinking?”
“I don’t know, but she was right. He got a stone for a species named Aerodactyl, does that sound familiar?”
“Um…” More clacking, louder this time. “No, don’t have anything on those, what was it like? I can make an entry and be ready with the story when he shows it off in public.”
“Well it’s Rock/Flying, its wings look like a Dragon type’s but covered in rocks…” Elly tried to remember the other details Fenice and Freak listed off, but there was a lot there. “Actually I can write it all down and send it to you later, that’ll be clearer than me talking about it.”
“Mhm, you do that Elly,” Malva now seemed focused on something else. “I should stop delaying you, do say hi to Diantha for me, bye!”
“Bye, Malva,” Elly hung up and let out a sigh. “This is going to stress me out.”
“I mean you can just sit there while I chat about whatever she wants-” WHACK Freak looked at her with his unamused face slightly obscured by her fist and knife against it.
“Ok is that just going to be a thing now?” Freak pushed her arm away and readjusted his mask.
“Your mask’s face is terrifying when I’m not prepared for it. Who let you out anyway?”
“Um, hi,” Fenice leaned into view. “The guards recognized me and they wanted to get rid of him, so they just handed him off.”
“You’re good, Fenice. Freak, what did you do?”
“You’re not my mother, I don’t need to inform you of anything I’ve done.”
“I’m your escort so you do- Wait you have a mother?” The mute sign popped up on Freak’s mask for a second and he stomped the ground so Elly guessed he was swearing at letting that slip.
“She’s my mother in the sense that during my creation she was the female involved in the equation,” He strangled out.
“I mean that makes sense, why wouldn’t he have one? But…,” Fenice tried to word their confusion. “Sorry, I can’t picture you as a child.”
“Technically I’ve never been a child.”
“Is this another Being thing?” Elly had long given up on trying to figure out how Freak’s species worked but this topic compelled her to ask.
“No, it’s a me thing. As far as I know anyway. I was not born, I was created, and I’ve never been concerned enough to ask how the other route works.”
“Created?” Fenice tried asking, but Freak ignored them completely.
“Are all Beings this quiet about their history or just you?” Elly ventured after some silence.
“Gabrielle, you must understand that we Beings are a secretive bunch. We generally don’t like emphasizing details about us that aren’t obvious. It’s less about specific topics and more that bragging about how above others we all are is frowned upon because it’s just an obnoxious thing to do, so we collectively have a silent agreement to keep things known about us as a species to a minimum.”
“And what if a Being just doesn’t care?” Freak looked at her with... His eyes didn’t change, but his voice suggested irritation at the implication.
“Then you get Wilhelm.”


“Nice of you to want a chat, Ms Champion.”
“Thank you for meeting with me, Freak. I’m aware this is a bit unorthodox,” He still wasn’t used to hearing that name said with any form of respect. Gabrielle was star struck and Fenice didn’t know how to react so it looks like he’ll be one on one for this.
“I’m unorthodox to begin with, so not that out of place really.”
“Heh, I suppose that’s accurate. May I ask how your gym challenge has been going?”
“I’ve only really had one fight which was fun, but lacking.”
“You may want to keep your guard up for the second half of gyms, you might find yourself on the backfoot.”
“Well, I do have a Mega Stone now, thanks for that by the way, so I believe I can keep along this difficulty curve.”
“You are welcome, but it’s normal for those who would be capable of performing Mega Evolution to receive their stones at that point. I didn’t know if you were, so put in a word to the Guru.”
“You did. And that made me wonder a bit. People do not help me. I specifically act in ways that would cause people to do the exact opposite of that.”
“Well... I suppose you can say that I felt empathetic after our last meeting.”
“I struggle to figure out why you feel that way.”
“That would be because I am an Absol and an actress. I regularly play characters with tragic stories, femme fatals who work to always keep their true intentions under wraps. Characters who hide themselves under carefully crafted masks and names,” He realized where Ms Champion was going with this and didn’t like it. “And you remind me of them. You remind me of them so well.”
“....” He wanted to protest, but he wasn’t going to fool anyone. So he stood up, gave his thanks, and walked over to the rail cart and sat inside. He’s not going to continue that conversation right now. He’s not... Ready, would be the word.



Elly followed Freak and was saying something but got cut off by the cart’s door closing, leaving Fenice alone with the region’s champion. Who is an Absol. They wondered if the rumor surrounding the species was still told. “Oh... I- I didn’t overstep did I?” Diantha stammered. “I- Was that bad or..” Fenice realized they were the only one she could be talking to.
“Uh... Well... I think it’s more..,” They thought of a way to phrase things without mentioning anything weird. “You made Freak think about the past and he doesn’t like doing that. So he just... left.”
“Ah. Tell him I’m sorry for prying on a sore spot... Oh I apologize, I never got your name.”
“.... Oh right, I’m Fenice, a Moltres.”
“And a shiny, by how your skin sparkles, I’ve met a few and it’s always a wondrous sight.”
“I keep forgetting it does that,” Fenice waved their pink arm around. “You’d think I would be more aware of that.”
“Well when you live with something your whole life you tend to forget that it stands out,” Diantha tapped her horn. “I’ve gotten in trouble with many directors for not remembering how this thing can interfere with a shot. I need to keep people to my left or this can block them out.”
“Um, yeah, I guess that’s it,” Fenice tried to bluff. They thought of how to steer the topic to something else and said the first thing that came to mind. “So... I want to know... Is the whole thing about Absol’s... That true or?”
“Oh, that” Diantha sounded a little sad but answered. “It’s not that we bring bad luck, it’s more that we sense something isn’t pleasant is going to happen. I’ve explained this more times than I can count-”
“Crap,” Fenice regretted taking things in this direction. “I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t-”
“No, no you’re fine, you were just curious. I don’t blame you, and I do appreciate you simply asking rather than stepping around it. It’s rare that-” Diantha got cut off by her phone ringing. “One moment. Hello? Oh already? Apologies, I lost track of time, I’ll be there soon,” She hung up and sighed. “I’m sorry Fenice, but I need to go. Say bye to Elly for me, and tell her to rest if she needs to, she’s under a lot of stress and I don’t think she realizes just how much. I’m the same way sometimes, so do look out for her.”
“Um, yes, I’ll tell her.”
“Thank you,” The champion took her leave and Fenice just stood in place for a while until the cart arrived back down and Elly exited.
“Where’s Diantha?” Elly looked around the room.
“She got a call and had to leave. Um.. Where’s Freak?”
“He wanted to be alone for a bit that wasn’t in a guarded room. There’s a spot that looks over the sea, I left him there and he said he wasn’t going to move.”
“Are you sure that’s the best idea though?”
“Fenice, at this point I think I can trust him enough to not move from a spot. He was being sincere, as tough as that is to tell.”
“It’s not that I don’t trust Freak, but.. Isn’t the place a gym town?” Fenice remembered Freak telling them about what happened right after the opening ceremony at the League HQ. “Wouldn’t there be challengers who very much don’t?”
“...... Shit,” Elly’s eyes filled with guilt and shouted more at herself than Fenice. “Get into the car now!”




Data Log

Nothing noteworthy today.
After the amount of new factors I’ve needed to keep track of, I like this break.
The only noise was Malva asking about Aerodactyl, but as no one knows that was dealt with easily. As much as I have a fondness for all the fossil Pokemon, I didn’t create any Gijinka for them in case any actual fossils are found and complicate things.
Nearly a thousand species, hundreds of lines, not everyone made the cut.
After all this is only the first proper experiment, I need to keep things manageable.

 

[Leon Yorunaki]

I don't really know who is surprising me more in this chapter: Freak, for letting a bit of his past slip by; Diantha, for being so open-minded at Freak; Elly, for taking this so easily; or Wilhelm, since now we figure out created the Gijinka.
Now I feel this plot can go like anywhere and I'm not prepared for that. No one of them could be, I guess...

 

[Uberle]

Little late today but I do have an update this month
Backlog didn't last as long as I thought it would so gonna have to do some speed writing for future chapters

Spoiler: reply

@Leon Yorunaki I'd say Freak, as he did not have to elaborate but did choose to.
By this point Elly has accepted that nothing will make sense, Diantha gave her reasons, and Wilhelm is Wilhelm

Spoiler: Chapter 14: I'm Recalibrating

Elly took off as soon as she was outside. She probably should’ve done that in the first place, but she didn’t have time to berate herself for that or for leaving Fenice behind. She flew to where she had left Freak and found him on a bench with a small crowd around him. There was music playing from his mask that Elly could hear as she dove down.
Yeah maybe I’m a broken man, but I still work. Freak clicked the song off as she got closer and shouted up to her.
“Be aware of the barrier, Gabrielle,” Elly stopped in the air as she got her thoughts sorted. Freak was surrounded by a translucent bubble that gave off a slight reflection, so he was safe as were the Gijinka around him. She landed on top of it and looked down at everyone gathered. “Alright, what’s your business here?”
“Business here,” A Chatot repeated and pointed at a Kingdra.
“I want a fight,” The Kingdra was direct at least. “This is his first season, and he’s mowed through almost half the leaders without pause. Or much trouble from what I’ve heard.”
“I got rumors?” Freak swiveled around to engage in conversation. “Neat.”
“You gave quite a show against Viola, and many have seen the path you made at Grant’s gym. And if you are here then that means you’ve beaten Korrina and her gym trainers as well.”
“Yeah, sure, let’s go with that,” Freak’s left eye flickered to blue for a second. Elly remembered it also did that when Korrina forfeited. Maybe it was his version of an eye twitch. “Gabrielle, you fine with this?”
“..... No, not really. If this goes wrong at all then I’ll have Distortion to pay.”
“I will take responsibility for my own actions,” The Kingdra raised his hand in promise. “And my friends here will attest to this being my choice. I aim to reach the League, and if I am to face Diantha eventually then I’ll need experience against more than just the leaders. I need to see if I can stand up again whatever power he has.”
“I get that, but this is still Freak fighting another League challenger, the exact thing I was told to prevent. The League will have so many complaints if anyone tries to make a headline of this.”
“Elly,” It took her a second to register that it was Freak calling her.
“What?”
“Malva.”
“.... Right,” Elly didn’t want to use Malva’s position to cover things up, but this was an acceptable exception. Kingdra wanted a fight, and Freak was willing to go along with it. She trusted him enough to not go overboard. “Ok take your places,” She flew off the barrier as Freak dropped it and moved to stand across from the Kingdra. “Quick rules. This will keep going until one of you calls it, or I decide to stop it. Ready?” Both fighters nodded and Elly called to begin.
Once she shouted “Go!” Freak dived in with a Poison... Fist. Fang probably wouldn’t have worked out well for anyone. Kingda was quicker and covered Freak with a Bubble Beam before taking the hit. The two fell down and jumped right back up, Kingdra launching another Bubble Beam, and Freak this time hitting back with Payback. Elly noticed Freak had an HP bar on his mask that had plunged into the yellow, but he didn’t seem to care and charged back in.
But she could see that the Bubble Beams had hit his speed seriously and Kingdra was able to hit him with Brine. Freak got knocked down and stayed down.


Brine. Doubles damage when the target is below half HP. He kept forgetting it wasn’t when the user’s HP was half. And that was costly. His ‘starter’ power, Drapion, gone. Well not gone, just that his self imposed rules mean he can’t use it for now. That was a bummer. But still. At least this guy wasn’t boring.
“I’m recalibrating, give me a sec,” He called to onlookers. He swapped to Conkeldurr and jumped back to his feet. He would need to look through his box for a replacement but that can wait. What needed to be done was give Noble the fight requested.
He charged forward then slid to Low Sweep the Kingdra’s legs out and followed up with Wake Up Slap to set some distance. While his opponent was getting back up, his mind wandered to what he was thinking about on the bench before Elly showed up.
Miss Champion. Who tried to relate to him. No one really could do that, but she probably knew that.
No one aside from the seven foot asshat anyway.
Well technically one other, but Chromia’s never shown up again so she doesn’t really factor into any of this.
Kingdra was back and attacking, but that wasn’t what was grabbing attention.
He forgot what to call this feeling. Some urge that maybe he should do something. Maybe he should actually try to find a solution to whatever made him this way.
But doing that would require him to engage with that issue.
And he didn't want to engage.
He didn’t want to talk about it.
He didn’t want to think about it.
He just wanted to get lost in this fight, lost in his power.
Then it stopped. His power was shut off and his arms locked.
He felt a heat he hadn’t noticed as it faded away and that was it.



“He was on fire?” Fenice
“Just for a second. Once the flames started up I locked him down.”
“Hm…”
“They were the same color as his eyes. Like his actual eyes.”
“You’ve seen them?” Fenice remembered Freak removing his mask only to show A his face, but they didn’t actually see what was under it. They’re not sure if they wanted to.
“Yeah I... I did rip his mask off at one point. Early on when we really didn’t get along. Not my most shining moment.”
“So you are self aware,” Freak appeared behind Fenice in his usual impossible to detect way. His eyes were in their half closed unamused way, but something about them made him seem more... tired. Elly got up and pulled out her phone.
“Ok, Fenice watch him for me, I need to make a call,” And she left without waiting for a response. Again. Freak plopped down in a seat and sat there in a half limp state.
“So...” He turned his head in their direction as they spoke. “You caught on fire?”
“Yes,” Freak was as monotone as he could get with a voice that always had three different pitches at once.
“Do you know why?”
“Yes.”
“.... Are you going to tell either Elly or myself why?”
“No,” Fenice had heard these answers many times before, with extra words shoved in to make them amusing, but still the same weight. And that made them ask something different.
“I’m never going to get a straight answer out of you, am I?
“To be fair I have provided some.”
“Only when you couldn’t keep them down.”
“Accurate.”
“.... I want to know what happened. The events that’ve lead us to this point and how to prevent Wilhelm from doing it again. But you have no interest in any of that,” Fenice spoke as the fear they’ve had for a while finally settled in. “So why am I still traveling with you?”
“Rather simple really,” Freak’s tone turned cynical. “You have to, there’s nowhere else to go. No one else you can talk to. No one else who knows. Without each other we are alone, and that is the greatest pain imaginable.”

Fenice didn’t respond. But they knew Freak was wrong about him being the only one. There was another. Maybe he’d be more helpful.

Data Log

Someone actually challenged Freak, how interesting
And Elly’s report of a green fire starting to emerge...
That sounds like Overflow, and if it is, then that’s more a danger than anything I could ever produce
The actual mechanics of Freak’s power are not fully known to me, so I suppose there may be something to it that would result in Overflow, or it may be a case of Freak’s apathy coming to a point where any restraint he may hold is finally slipping
I want to test this, but I know it’s too dangerous
If Freak does Overflow then nothing short of Above could stop him and even that is uncertain

 

[Leon Yorunaki]

Spoiler: And away we go...

A death. A starter death, none the less. To a random trainer of all things. I don't really know what to say. I mean, randomizers have that thing where starters aren't quite unique, so it boils down more to gut feelings than the powerful loss.
Meanwhile, that's not even the biggest part of this chapter. Overflow, you say? In a guy like Freak? This is surely not ending well.
I wonder what it means, because that's something quite hidden for a run who treats the protagonist as the player character as it is. Quite literally, because I can't think of another run who managed to break the 4th wall with the literal nuzlocke rules like yours...

 

[Uberle]

Ok will be honest I completely forgot to update yesterday
I knew it was the first of the month yet that didn't make me register that it was time for a Cuffs update
So let's get to it

Oh right, ganza stuff
So Freak ended up in the running for Best Protagonist
He didn't win, but it is still amazing that he ended up there so thanks to everyone who nominated/voted for him

Spoiler: replies

@Leon Yorunaki Technically the death was to a rival battle which I've gotten set up to have a full team
But yeah that did catch me off guard and it was legitimately because I can never remember how Brine works
As for Overflow, you'll get an answer soon-ish

Spoiler: Chapter 15: It Was A Thing To Do

“What’s with your eye?”
“Hm?”
“Your left one, it’s brown.”
“....” Freak tapped his mask and the regular green flicked back on, though his eyes were still in his expression that was similar to his annoyed one, but not quite. “Ignore that.”
“No.”
“Gabrielle are we really-
“Yes. Why do your eyes change color? It was blue a couple times earlier, and now brown.”
“Involuntary reflex based on my mood. Blue is annoyed. Brown is exhausted.”
“Any others?”
“I’ll tell you when they appear. Where’s Fenice?” He changed the subject as elegantly as he did anything else.
“They wanted to stay inside for today. I’m going to assume that it’s due to something you said.”
“Why?”
“Because what else could it be?” She wanted to ask what Freak had said, but that was between him and Fenice. If either wanted her involved then they would ask her to be. “Fair enough.”
“Now let’s get you to the gym so we can move on.”
“Speaking of which, been meaning to ask, but See You Later Girl-”
“Are you going to call her that every time?”
“Yes. I do not retreat from the hills I find myself on. Now back on topic, she mentioned something about Ramos that implied that I would be quite irked.”
“Ramos is a gym leader, but he doesn’t fight.”
“Of fucking course.”
“Ramos was meant to retire, but the League couldn’t decide on a replacement in time, so he stayed on board for this season.”
“.... great,” His left eye went back to brown.
“He’ll just want to talk a bit and try to see if you know what you want out of this.”
“... I don’t like how many people have been trying to get into my head recently.”
“To give them credit, you’ve been working awfully hard to keep people from doing that. Even Fenice.”
“You keep bringing them up.”
“And you keep putting them down,” Freak turned his face away and tapped his mask so his eye flicked back to green when he turned back. “So you do care.”
“What of it?”
“Don’t ask that, you know ‘what of it’,” She took the role of mimic for once and quoted Freak in a raspy voice of her own. They had arrived at the gym and although Freak kept walking in, Elly didn’t stop talking. “You’re not as good at hiding your feelings as you think you are!” Freak paused and turned his left side towards her, a new eye color present for just enough time for it to not be imaginary.
Maybe she should get involved, just a bit.


Red.
That’s what his eye turned to for a second.
The color they were as Z.
A color they hadn’t been for a while.
Red like the bleeding heart that made him into this.
But that’s not really where the color came from. Red is what’s left when you drain the yellow from orange.
That was his logic of it anyway, it never really made sense to start with. But nothing ever made sense in his life, so why question?
Eyeballs of solid red tended to scare, which is why he even put on a mask to start with, back when he cared how people saw him. Now the mask is for comfort, a thing that is his alone. The hoodie was like that too, but lately he had been thinking of getting a new one. He missed the sleeves and if Fenice could get a wardrobe from the League then-
...
Their name shouldn’t have thrown his train of thought off that hard and yet it did. Hm.
Suppressing the urge to go down that rabbit hole and moving on.
The gym was a genuinely lovely place. Massive tree right in the middle covered in ropes and platforms, it looked like a fun thing to climb, and it was. But there was still the thing at the top to deal with.
Ramos was a Gogoat with massive curled horns on his head and was nonchalantly clipping a bonsai.
“Sit,” Ramos pointed at a chair with some tea next to it. “I’ve been looking forward to this, actually.”
“That keeps happening and I’m starting to think I’m losing my touch at being unwanted. It’s worked out quite well for a while but not so much nowadays.”
“You’re far too interesting to waste being left alone.”
“Hm.”
“I thought you would have more energy considering your previous bouts in the gyms.”
“Not in the greatest of moods.”
“I would like to ask why, but I suspect that very question is behind your drained state. I know Diantha met with you right before your arrival, worn out by conversation perhaps?”
“There has been a distinct lessening of prose lately.”
“Hmph, well I don’t buy the notion of actions speaking louder than words, so don’t let anything get in the way of our dialogue ok?”
“Perhaps,” He took the cup of tea and lifted his mask slightly to drink from it.
“Let me get to it then. Why are you fighting the gyms?
“It was a thing to do.”
“If I remember correctly, you said you wanted to entertain at that opening ceremony,” He did, didn’t he? He would say it had been a while ago, but time was a hoax.
“Well that’s more something I try to do while fighting. As said, this league challenge thing is just a thing to do.”
“Hmm... I don’t believe you.”
“Why?”
“No one just does something for entertainment, there’s always something more to that, whether you realize it or not. And you don’t seem like the type to lie, so I’m betting on ‘not’. There is more to this, you just don’t know it yet.”
“Now the issue there is that I don’t like not knowing stuff and I would think I know myself pretty well.”
“Take this from a Gogoat who has been around the block a few times, you’re never done learning things about yourself.”
“pfffffWAHAHAHAHA!” He didn’t intend on bursting out but that caught him incredibly off guard. “Sorry, just- PAHAHA!” This kept going for a bit before finally collecting himself. “To explain, if you're around the block a few times, then I’ve taken a boat, circumnavigated the globe, and returned to port laden with exotic spice.”
“And yet you haven’t aged much,” Ramos was mildly amused it seemed. “But maybe that is simply how you Not-Dittos-”
“Oi”
“Experience life. Here,” Ramos tossed over the Fourth Badge. “You’ve met my requirements. All I ask is that when you learn the answer to my first question, you tell me.”
“.... I will,” And so the pact was sealed.



Fenice’s plan of joining A wasn’t going particularly well. They barely knew how to get around the region, and there wasn’t even a guarantee that A would still be where they last saw him. It would be near impossible to track him down for as tall as he is, the main method of identification is species and ‘human’ wasn’t exactly an option.
They sat in the room the local League building had provided and could only hope to distract themself from Freak’s earlier words.
Then Elly kicked the door open.
“Outside.”
“What-” Fenice hurried to get up off the bed with Elly half dragging them out of the room.
“Both you and Freak are sulking and I’m not going to sit waiting for you to get over your problems,” Elly guided Fenice up to an area that overlooked the town. The terrain was scuffed up a bit, and Fenice wondered if there had been a fight there recently. “I’m gonna get you airborne. After our last session you had been getting better at takeoff, so let’s start with that.”
“... ok,” Fenice spread their wings and flapped and got a little bit of lift off but couldn’t keep a balance and dropped back down in a heap. They weren’t getting anywhere. They still couldn’t make progress, no matter who they went to. Before that spiral could continue, Elly picked them up and shook them to get attention.
“Ok I think I know what’s going on,” She tapped Fenice’s head. “You’re thinking too much. Worrying about what your wings are doing and how the rest of your body should work. So stop that. Think about what you want. What do you want?”
“I want…” Fenice thought about that. There was a lot they wanted. Maybe that was part of the problem. They took too much on at once. So... Maybe they should focus on one thing. Like the thing their friend was helping with. “...to fly. I want to fly!” And so they did. Fenice flapped and actually lifted off, going up into the sky and climbing higher. Closer the clouds became and they looked down, the city and sea spread out below like one of those rugs they had as a child. And it was getting closer. Fenice realized they had stopped flapping and were falling. They flapped their wings again and managed to slow, but their head was getting filled with panic again. A blur of white flew up beside them and a second later Elly was carrying them back down to the ground.
“You still need to do a little thinking, but you’re on the right track.”
“I’ll keep that in mind,” Fenice walked back into place and spread their wings to try again. There were people who could help them, teach them. It’s just unfortunate that Freak couldn’t be one.


Data Log

AZ has decided to try something again. It seems I was correct, and he had been hiding out in Parfum Palace when Freak and Patient Zero arrived.
He wandered and found himself at the power plant. I don’t know if he knew that was a stronghold of ours, or if he was just trying everywhere he could go, but now some grunts have captured him and he’s asking for me by name.
Freak is nearby, and he has no reason to go there. But AZ being so close isn’t a coincidence.
AZ is trying to lure me into a trap. He knows something I don’t, he wouldn’t do something like this if he didn’t, and he thinks that gives him an edge.
He may be right
He may not
Maybe he thinks that spilling secrets to grunts will compromise me
Maybe he doesn’t think that I would hesitate to eliminate them
After all, if Freak does pay the power plant a visit
Well...
Such a shame that a known murderer was allowed to roam free on a technicality only to strike again despite the League’s efforts
A tragedy, truly

 

[Leon Yorunaki]

Oh boy, I've been delaying my visit and I didn't know what I was missing...

Freak giving Elly the red eye was... something, but everything beyond that point was a spiral of questions and wonders. There's so much going around and I can't help but wonder stuff...

if you're around the block a few times, then I’ve taken a boat, circumnavigated the globe, and returned to port laden with exotic spice.

What's an old guy next to a creature living for three millenia? But then, how do you expect a bored gym leader to know?

“You still need to do a little thinking, but you’re on the right track.”

To be fair, their problem is doing too much thinking...

Such a shame that a known murderer was allowed to roam free on a technicality only to strike again despite the League’s efforts
A tragedy, truly

oh boy I'm shuddering in anticipation

 

[Uberle]

No not April Fools
I'm not the biggest fan of this holiday to be completely honest
So just a regular chapter
Enjoy

Spoiler: replies first as always

@Leon Yorunaki Red was his default. Wonder what emotion that was
Many questions indeed. How fun they are to present
I did steal that 'exotic spice' joke, but Freak usually does that and I think it fits quite well here
Wilhelm has plans

This month's chapter is fun
Freak has a not good time
Also Elly gets to fight
There's a lot

Spoiler: Chapter 16: I’ll be doing an escort quest

“Not even going to ask why, just tell me, but I swear to Above if it’s what I think it is I will... Ok I won’t do anything, but I am going to get very annoyed,” Barely even a few feet into Route 13 and Freak was talking to a small creature holding a black and red flower with large triangular petals. “... Right should introduce you two. This is-”
“Chromia. A’s Floette,” Fenice spoke very quietly. The creature bowed in greeting.
“Correct,” Freak held out his left hand for Chromia to rest on, but she floated away from the offer. His head tilted down slightly as he lowered his arm.
“... This is a Pokemon?” Elly felt a sense of familiarity towards Chromia coming from something she couldn’t pin down. “She’s... Smaller than I would’ve guessed.”
‘And you’re awfully tall for a Togekiss, but I don’t comment on that’ Chromia spoke in something that wasn’t words yet Elly understood it perfectly.
“I- Wait- How?”
“That’s a weird feeling,” Fenice said. Apparently they could understand Chromia too.
“You can understand her because you’re Gijinka,” Freak said like it was obvious. “You’re both half Pokemon.”
‘Honestly it’s weirder for me. I’m used to not being understood by humanoids, Z excluded.’
“It’s Freak.”
‘I’m not calling you that, it’s incredibly dumb. And close that grin, it’s more goofy than whatever vibe you want it to give off.’ Freak looked at Chromia for a moment then pushed the bottom of his mask up and the cracked toothed grin sealed shut. Simple as that. ‘Alright let’s get down to business,’ Freak and Fenice both hummed a tune earning themselves a glare from Chromia. ‘A has been captured by Flare. We know what Wilhelm will do to him if he remains there.’
“I believe we refer to that as karma,” Freak kept adjusting his mask to keep it centered on his face. “And why don’t you save him if you’re so concerned for his safety?”
‘Because it is still too early for him and I to meet. He wasn’t even meant to know for certain that I was alive, but you ruined that.’
“You have some grand plan for him?”
‘A has something to learn. He has to figure it out himself.’
“And because of that you’re asking me? ME!?”
‘It’s that or try to take on a crowd with only one move.’
“What move?” Fenice reminded the two that they and Elly were present.
“Light of Ruin,” Freak exposited. “An incredibly powerful move with equally powerful recoil. Yes, Chromia could storm the place, but she’ll inevitably self-destruct. It’s the only move she knows, as death tends to wipe away one’s knowledge.”
‘I would have rather given that information myself, but Z is correct. It won’t turn out well for me, so regretfully I must ask for you three to be involved.’
“Sure,” Elly really wanted to stay out of the personal drama Freak was dealing with, but this was something more.
“Absolutely,” Fenice was raring to start the mission. “Where is he?”
“If Elly could give me a power I’ll get us on the road to him,” Freak didn’t look at her. His voice made it clear how tired even agreeing to this made him. She dialed up to six and Freak clapped his hands, a pulse of something expanding over the area. “Found him, let’s jump cut, bye Chromia.”

“Huh. You did show,” A Darmanitan clad in Flare’s uniform stood in their way. “Unfortunately I got orders from the top to not let you through so let’s not make this difficult.”
“Agreed,” Freak walked forward and when the Darmanitan swung a fist, Freak just shrank, walked between the fire-type’s legs, and returned to his original size as he walked to the door the Flare agent had been guarding.
“Wha- Hey!” The Flare grunt turned around to grab at Freak, so Elly raised her hand to launch an Aura Sphere at the back of the grunt’s head then used Extreme Speed to dart forward and deliver a quick knockout blow.
“Good work, Elly,” Freak tried to open the door, but it was locked. So he just ripped it off the hinges. Once Elly and Fenice walked through the threshold he put it back and slapped the door which repaired itself.
“Exactly how many powers like that do you have?” Elly asked while pulling out her knife in case more grunts appeared.
“Yes.”
“There’s a split up here!” Fenice had walked ahead and waited at the choice between stairs leading down and a hallway helpfully labeled ‘To Generator Room’.
“Hm,” Freak clapped and another pulse flowed through the air. “Volcarona down that way,” He pointed towards the generator room. “And A is downstairs. So that’s where I’m heading.”
“Wha- Hey!” Elly stopped Freak from trying to walk away. “I thought you’d be up for fighting Flare grunts.”
“Usually, but no, I’m surrendering main character privileges for this bit, you go do the interesting stuff, I’ll be doing an escort quest. Fenice,” Freak walked down the stairs with Fenice right behind him. Left by herself, Elly walked down towards the generator room and was met by the Volcarona Freak warned her of. Once she entered the room the door slammed shut behind her and the Volcarona pulled out a phone.
“This is Aliana. The escort is with me,” Aliana reported and then she turned off her phone and put it away.
“I was expecting more of you,” Elly readjusted her grip on her knife while looking around to make sure there wasn’t anyone lurking in the shadows.
“We’re not exactly ready to go public yet, you see,” Aliana’s wings fluttered and glowed with ember-like scales. “Getting this place empty in the first place took a lot of work, so if anyone unwanted shows up we need to run and hide. I think it’s cowardly, but my boss has made it very clear that this is preferred. Besides most of us are on the lower levels, most likely apprehending Patient Zero,” Elly turned on her heel to run out of the room, but a pillar of fire forced her to duck to the ground. “Ah ah ah, I can’t let you go Gabrielle. This is far too important to let you run free.”
“So we’re fighting?” Elly picked herself back up.
“We don’t have to, we can just chat,” Elly shot an Aura Sphere at the Flare Admin. “Well a fight it is then,” Aliana snapped her fingers and a spiral of flame shot up around Elly. The Fire Spin forced her up into the air, but the room wasn’t exactly made with air travel in mind and it was clad in metal. Touching the metal wasn’t going to seriously injure, or even noticeably harm, but it would cause pain which could distract her just long enough. Now up in the air she could see that this was the upper level of the reactor room, the lower half visible through the catwalks. She found a gap and tried to dive through, but a Heat Wave cut her off and forced her to rise back up into view. She was getting tired of being shot at like a clay pigeon, and fired another Aura Sphere at Aliana, but it barely made the Admin react.
“Why don’t you stop fluttering around?” Aliana asked as her body glew with a Quiver Dance. “I’d hate to hurt you but if you won’t stop this then I don’t have much of a choice.”
“You’re trying to kidnap my friend, if you’re looking for peace, then you should know that’s a nonstarter.”
“Oh you are pals, that’s lovely. Don’t worry though, capturing you is part of the plan too, so you can keep each other company once you’re both safe in our custody,” Aliana gave a sweet smile then sent another Heat Wave up at Elly. Caught between a steel ceiling and a wave of fire, Elly went with her best chance at winning. She reached for something in her pocket and dived down through the flames as her wings started to glow.
“A delayed-action move? My you’re desperate,” Aliana taunted while she flew up to try and cut Elly off before Sky Attack could charge. But Elly had hoped for that and finished eating a Power Herb Bar she had stored. The glow of her wings intensified and were near blinding when she slammed into Aliana, sending the Bug type hurtling down through the grating and a loud thud announced her rough landing. Elly flew down and confirmed that Aliana was down for the count. She walked around the lower level and found an unlocked door. She wasn’t sure exactly where she should head, but then heard screaming along with shouts of ‘MUDA’ and guessed that’s where Freak was so followed it.



“If you’re not going to do anything, then aren’t I escorting you?” Fenice asked.
“As I’m the one who knows where we’re going, no,” He clapped to make sure he was on the right path. There weren’t that many but he’d still probably get lost somehow.
“You don’t need to clap every few seconds. We’re heading down, it’s not that complicated.”
“Yes, but my sense of direction is, to put it lightly, shit,” He clapped again. That’s an electronic. He punches through the wall and pulls out a camera. He’ll need to keep an eye out for those now. “Also because it lets me find these. Also also this lets me keep tabs on Elly in case we need to change course. There are a bunch of grunts about, but the Volcarona Elly is someone more than just a grunt. Fortunately all the ones down here I can deal with without putting in enough effort to prove that I care.”
“Do you usually do that when you’re trying to save someone?”
“When it’s A. Look I’m doing this more as a favor to Chromia. When she died I was the only thing keeping A from going off the deep end. Unfortunately that didn’t last because memory loss and all that. A needed someone who could empathize with him. I couldn’t do that and we all know what that resulted in. But Chromia still cares for him and I would like to retain at least one relationship from before the nuke.”
“I thought you didn’t care about anything, much less relationships.”
“I don’t care for many of those,” He said with as few words as he could manage. “Consider this a highly specific and rare exception.”
“And where does ours land?”
“Not answering,” Ignore the problem, make it go away.
“So can I take ‘you have nowhere else to go’ as how you view it?” Ignore the problem, make it go away. Ignore the problem, make it go away. “In here.”
“What’s this?”
“Security room,” He clapped again. He could only detect the people inside, but their positions give him a solid enough idea of the layout. “Apparently they have a cell. Guessing previously for semi-important items and currently A,” He walked to the side with the door’s handle and laid against the wall. “So the plan is we wait for Elly and then-” And then a Flare grunt opened the door and he immediately floored the guy with a punch. This of course altered the entire room which started charging at him. “Ok we’re doing this then,” He closed the door and made sure Fenice was in a spot that would be hidden when it opened again. He wanted them to be safe. “Stay behind the door then, once they’re all out, run in and free A.”
“Free him how exactly?” They’ve been fairly argumentative lately.
“You’re a Fire type, melt the lock.”
“I can barely keep a handle on my flames, you can rip the door out,” Maybe ignoring the problem was a bad idea. To be not considered later.
“Yes but I’m more likely to just leave him there out of spite, I’m not the most responsible Being,” The door shook as the grunts tried to force it open. “Also you’re the one they’re after. It’s better they not know you’re right here,” He needed them to be safe. “READYBREAK!”



Freak didn’t give Fenice time to say anything else and opened the door. He punched another Flare grunt then ran away. Fenice waited behind the door until A spoke up.
“The room’s empty, you can come in.”
“How’d you know I was here?” Fenice sped over to the cell and grabbed the lock.
“Z wouldn’t have held the door closed if he was alone.”
“Ah....... Ok I know this is maybe not the best time,” Fenice said while trying to focus their heat into their hands. Which Freak taught them. They tried not to think about that. “But... I want to travel with you.”
“That’s a terrible idea,” Despite his instant shutdown, A sounded mildly amused. “Why would you want to wander with me?”
“I want to find a way to stop Wilhelm, but Freak won’t tell me anything. Nothing that he doesn’t end up accidentally rambling out. I want to learn more about what happened, but he refuses to help me with that. I want to stop Wilhelm. I want to actually do something. But Freak doesn’t. He refuses to do anything, so how the hell am I meant to work with-”
“Fenice. You can stop now,” They looked down to see a puddle of molten metal in their hands that was once the cell’s lock. Fenice stepped back to let the door swing open and looked at their hands. They were perfectly fine. Pink and sparkling. A walked out of the cell and took a seat to be eye level with Fenice.
“Stay with him.”
“Why?”
“I have come to terms with what has happened, and I accept that I can’t do anything about it. Wilhelm has spent enough time with me to know what I will say and do if I get involved. His power is... Well I don’t know what it is but I know that it is frightening. But he does not know Z. So if you truly want to stop Wilhelm, you need Z’s help.”
“But I’m never going to get it. Please, I know you can do something-”
“I’m sorry but it is not my place. I have something else to learn. Chromia said something like that when she asked for your help didn’t she?”
“Yyyes. How did you know that? Actually how did you know any of that?”
“Chromia was my partner for decades,” A smiled faintly. “I know how she thinks and how else would you have known to look for me? But back on what I want you to do. You are the only one who can get Z to help stop Wilhelm.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“Back when he accepted that he was Z, he dedicated himself to helping others. It is as fundamental a part of him as his power as much as he may fight against it. He needs someone to remind him of who he was.”
“And why is that me?”
“Because you care, and he cares about you.”
“No he doesn’t.”
“Test him then. Break his mask,” It took all of Fenice’s willpower to not roll their eyes. “Fenice, please. What happened to our world will happen again. Z will go through hell again, and this time he won’t have either of us keeping his sanity tethered. Save him. Please.”
“Hey,” Before Fenice could respond, Elly walked through the doorway, took a look at A, then turned to Freak who stayed outside the room. “Are there any others that we need to worry about?”
“I’ve- Hold on,” Freak did the clap again. “Yeah everyone’s down.”
“Alright, I’m heading upstairs and going to give a report. Any of you are free to join me except A. No offense, but... You know.”
“None taken,” A made his way to the door. “I should be making my way out of here myself,” He stopped a little ways outside the room and turned in Freak’s direction. Neither said anything, but A looked back at Fenice. Then he left.
“Was that about more past stuff?” Elly asked.
“Yes. Also no but... Look it’s... I’ll explain it when I can.”
“Take your time, I’m in no hurry to get deeper into this,” She left the room and paused just outside. She looked at Freak then patted her pockets. “Where’d you get that?”
“I made it,” Came the muffled reply. “Needed something to calm down.”
“...... Ok sure,” Elly walked away, leaving Fenice with Freak. He popped his head into the room holding the wrapper of a chocolate bar. He looked around for a trash can, then just burned the foil to ash.
“Also gonna go upstairs, mainly to scream into nothingness, care to join?”
“Freak. Hold on, I want to talk to you about something.”
“I’m going to regret this, but sure. What’s up?”
“I’m leaving,” Fenice spoke with all the conviction they could and Freak froze in place. “I’m going with A.”
“Why?”
“Because he will actually talk. Unlike you he remembers and cares about what we lost, and wants company. I don’t know what it is you want.”
“You really think A will-”
“Yes,” Fenice walked past him and in the direction A had gone. “Can you explain the situation to Elly? I would but I need to get to A before I lose track.”
“That's just gambling, and you know it!” Fenice didn't respond, just kept walking. "Fenice? Fenice, wait!
“I DON’T WANT TO BE ALONE AGAIN!” Now both eyes were red and the left one was flickering on and off. “I… shit.”
“No, keep going, it’s the best chance you have.”
“I don’t want to be alone,” Freak’s left eye flicked faster and Fenice realized it wasn’t turning on and off. It was changing color to white. “I’m scared of what it’ll do to me.”
“You got Elly.”
“Ah yes, the one who is counting the days until she can ditch me,” The eye stabilized at white for a second, then resumed flickering.
“You’re not exactly helping that.”
“Reflex,” Freak covered his left eye and tapped his mask. His right eye turned back to green, but it didn’t move as his eyes normally did. He was still trying to hide.
“Reflex?”
“It’s a bad idea for anyone to be around me for any length of time, and I wish to remind people of it.
“So why don’t you want me to leave?”
“Because you’re in the same spot as me and A. And yet you still care.”
“So does A.”
“He’s why we’re in this mess, he doesn’t count,” A flash of blue came from under his hand.
“And he regrets it. He has to live with that pain, but all you seem to do is insist on making him hurt more.”
“Why? Why do I need to forgive him? Because of him I lost so much it broke me. Because of him Wilhelm had the power to kill the planet! BECAUSE OF HIM I WAS ALONE!” Freak finally took his hand off his mask and Fenice could see that his left eye was flickering between white and black, the latter sticking around longer and getting darker as he talked. “He knows he fucked up? Well good! That doesn’t make me obligated to show him mercy. That doesn’t mean I have to ignore that he didn’t think of me until after everyone else in his life was gone. It wasn’t until I was the literal only other living thing on the planet that he suddenly cared about me again!” His breathing grew shaky as the black faded to blue then red then brown and flickering white all the way. “so why do i have to care about him?”
“I- I guess you don’t,” They hadn’t expected anything like this. Rage certainly, but not the sadness Freak was now showing.
“Lovely. Now leave with him if that’s what you want. Quit wasting both our time,” His tone didn’t carry the bite needed to make Fenice believe he was sincere.
“One thing. I will ask one thing of you, and if you can’t answer then that proves my point.”
“... You get one.”

So Fence asked the first thing that came to mind.

“Who is your mother?” Freak’s eyes immediately flicked back to green but his voice remained tired.
“..... This’ll take a chapter.”





Data Log

Above damn it all.
I suppose I should get used to worse case scenarios but that is of little comfort when I’m watching everything fall apart so spectacularly on the camera feeds I have to monitor as Gabrielle beats one of my aides and Freak breaks every camera he finds, even the ones he has no right knowing exist
Fortunately what I do have is more context to work from
Any iota of information I get is a new path for me to walk down and consider its events
But ultimately it doesn’t matter
Learn from AZ
Defeat my aides
Cause hell for Flare
It’s not little, but it is far too late
This is a bit of stumbling right at the end of a three thousand year experiment
I can still handle the clean up easily

Spoiler: Author comments

I don't usually do these because I often don't have much to say about a chapter other than lines I like and I don't fell like I should tell you what you should be finding funny or interesting
But do have stuff I wanna say so here we gooooooooooooooo

Elly's bit

So will mention this again, but Freak's narration was meant to open this chapter
It was from his POV that Chromia is introduced and that whole opening bit happens then swap to Elly at jump cut
Changed that because I liked showing Elly reacting to a Pokemon more and also Freak worked better at the middle bit
Also Elly finally gets to fight seriously
It's great
I always worry my fight scenes are too short, but I do like this one and Elly's snacks being the key to victory


Freak's bit

Originally this wasn't meant to be here
My initial joke was that Freak wanted to little to do with this he was "surrendering narration privileges" for the whole chapter which is why he was the opening originally
But as he has the breakdown in Fenice's bit I wanted to give a look into his head when it was just the two of them


Fenice's bit

So this is something I've been building up to recently and I'm really hoping that it works
Dialogue took a while to figure out how to click in a way I liked
I know this is Fenice's bit's author's notes' section's time to be analyzed by me but the main focus here is Freak
Because boy do his eyes go through a lot of colors
I'm just gonna list all the ones he has here and their general meaning

Red: Default when Z, generally anxious or unsure of himself
Green: Current default, apathetic and a bit unstable
Blue: Loud Anger, irritated and really wants to get it across
Brown: Exhausted and tired, he really wants to just sleep and not engage in anything
Black: Quite Rage, he is pissed beyond belief and shuts down his actions to hide it as best he can
White: Terror, he is genuinely scared and feels that he has no control over the situation
Orange: ???????

This has been something I've been building for Fenice and Freak to arrive at
And I'm just sitting her hoping that it doesn't feel out of nowhere
As said, don't want to tell you what you should be feeling
I just hope you enjoy it



Wilhelm's entry
I will be honest in saying that I now question starting all his bits with "Data Log" not sure why
By now it's just habit so guess it's stuck
My original plan was to just have his entry be "Above damn it all" and next update he gives a proper reaction to what happened
But while I still like that joke the entries at the end are to give an idea of what Wilhelm is up to since he's MIA
I consider it important that my audience knows what my antagonist is up to and normally I do that by having the protags regularly interact with the antag
But here Wilhelm is specifically meant to be in hiding and behind the scenes so he has his entries
They're quite fun to write and I hope they work as a way to build tension as you get to see what he's thinking before he enacts his plans



Yeah that's everything I wanted to note
Thanks for reading
Oh right, there's gonna be a Q&A soon
It'll open with next month's update as that one is mainly Freak providing answers anyway
More details will be presented then, so you don't need to think of questions just yet
Bye and thank you for reading!

 

[Leon Yorunaki]

oh god oh dear, everything went better than expected...

For the bright side of things, well, there's no murder to blame on Z Freak this time. For the dark, he had a sort of a breakdown, and it scares me to a point to see what he can do. Worse, Elly isn't there to lock his powers back.
At least Fenice is smart enough to get him on calming (a bit) down and talking. And the icing on top of that plot cake is the last line, when he obliterates the fourth wall in a different way than usual. WRYYYYYY

 

[Trollkitten]

‘A has been captured by Flare. We know what Wilhelm will do to him if he remains there.’
“I believe we refer to that as karma,”

Kek. Freak never tells lies, but he is a savage.

 

[Spectacles]

‘I’m not calling you that, it’s incredibly dumb. And close that grin, it’s more goofy than whatever vibe you want it to give off.’

If I were Freak I would feel very attacked.

Freak walked forward and when the Darmanitan swung a fist, Freak just shrank, walked between the fire-type’s legs, and returned to his original size as he walked to the door the Flare agent had been guarding.

This is hilarious.

Freak tried to open the door, but it was locked. So he just ripped it off the hinges.

Lots of excellent Freak action in this chapter, I love it.

What happened to our world will happen again. Z will go through hell again, and this time he won’t have either of us keeping his sanity tethered. Save him. Please.

Still, this is such an interesting concept. Freak is just a super interesting and complex character which is even more highlighted with Freak and Fenice's conversation. It's interesting to see his vulnerable side.

 

[Uberle]

HEY

Now that I have your attention
Just letting people know that I'm doing a Q&A this month
Figured it'd fit as this chapter itself is one
I've done.... one Q&A before, a few years ago, so not exactly practiced but I think I know what I'm doing

Ask the characters, or even me the author, anything about the story or in the case of the characters about themselves
You can ask multiple characters a question, just be sure to make it clear who is being included
I trust that you'll keep the topic of the questions reasonable, but do have fun with it

I'll keep this open for the month, so answers will come with the June update
Comment your questions and hope you enjoy

Spoiler: and now for replies

@Leon Yorunaki Things definitely could've gone wrong many ways there
Thankfully Elly is high competent and Freak is an unstoppable force for better or worse
Everyone gets a crisis today!

@Trollkitten As the rest of the chapter shows, Freak really does not like A, he will not hold back

@Spectacles Oh he absolutely did, but Chromia has earned his compliance
I very much enjoy writing Freak using the non-Pokemon related powers, he's very casual with them and it's fun
I usually describe Freak as a complex character trying to be a simple one
He acts in ways that make it seem like he's just a chaos for chaos' sake person, but the reasons for how he got to that are various and fun to explore

Spoiler: Chapter 17: No I Will Not Elaborate

Everyone was gathered. Fenice was at attention and Elly had no idea what was going on. Eye color was stable. Hoping that remains the case during this.
“What did you two talk about while you weren’t here?” Elly was very much thrown out of the loop.
“A lot,” Fenice answered for him. “I... Look stuff happened and now we’re here.”
“Talking about Freak’s parents.”
“Well, I only asked about his mother.”
“Why?”
“I was having a crisis, ok!?”
“So my mother,” He got the ball rolling. “Her name is Nnez and she has the power to ‘right’ a ‘wrong’.”
“That sounds vague,” Elly was the only one engaging in conversation. Fenice sat and listened.
“Oh it absolutely is. It goes entirely by her subjective view of right and wrong, which can result in not great things. You know how one’s morality can greatly vary and not consider everything. She used it to keep everything in line. Even herself, which was no small source of pain. Imagine being unable to express yourself because you considered it ‘wrong’ of your position.”
“What was hers?”
“Monarch.”
“She was a queen? You’re a prince?”
“Yes, but no. It’s a title for the ruler of her home. However she didn’t start as Monarch. She stole the title.”
“From?”
“My father, Zenn,” Neither ‘mother’ nor ‘father’ were words he was used to saying, and neither of the ones he was referring to truly fit their definition. They were the female and male beings who created him, yes, but he imagined that there was more to the role of parent than that.
“.... Isn’t Nnez just Zenn backwards?” Ah the age old question.
“She’s the older one, so it’s the other way around. Their father wasn’t the most creative I guess.”
“Yeah he really- Wait. ‘Their father’?”
“My parents are siblings, yes. But wait! It gets worse!”
“I can’t see how.”
“Zenn killed Nnez.”
“Ok nevermind.”
“The quick version is that Nnez betrayed Zenn so when he came back for revenge, she knew she had wronged him. So her power was at war with itself. What was the greater ‘right’? Her not being hurt, or Zenn punishing the one who wronged him. In the end Nnez couldn’t decide and so her power did two things. It let Zenn kill her, but didn’t let her die. An ounce of her power remained and latched onto Zenn. Now I don’t know what happened next, but the working theory is that he no longer had a will to live after accomplishing what he set out to do. So his soul left his body, and Nnez’s power sees death as ‘wrong’.”

He found himself existing.

“But it was also ‘wrong’ to give life to someone who didn’t want it.”

Surrounded by endless sand.

“So it made a new soul to occupy the now vacant body.”

He asked himself who he was.

“It made me.”

A single letter was the response.

“I wasn’t born. I was created. Forged from the power of my mother and the body of my father. There was the one known as Z, now me, Freak.”

“How…” Fenice spoke for the first time since the story began. “How do you know any of this?”
“Nnez told me. It’s also why I don’t really know what was motivating Zenn.”
“...... Isn’t she dead?” Elly took over again.
“She was. Then she wasn’t,” A conversation to be continued never.
“What are you people even?” Her question was a balance of wonderment and disbelief. Nothing he said should be remotely plausible. But as was evident, nothing about him was to begin with.
“Beings,” He wasn’t even being facetious, that’s all he had.
“That answers everything and nothing.”
“That describes Mother Mine quite well. She only gave the objective details, so I was left to figure out a lot for myself with no small amount of existential horror.”
“Like what?”
“Like why my power is mimicry,” This ventured from the initial deal, but he felt it would be wrong to stop here. “I was made from an empty shell. No powers of my own, but Nnez’s power had to give me something because I am a Being and it is ‘right’ that a Being has a power. But it would also be ‘wrong’ for my power to be chosen for me. So I was made a mimic. I get to choose my power. And it fits the lovely trend of me having nothing of my own. From my strength to my physical body, all of it stitched together from something else. This metal right arm is more ‘mine’ than this organic left arm.
“Adding onto the problems was that I had no place. Anything I could do was already being done, usually by someone who had actual experience with their power and had control over it. Then I interacted with humans more and found that I could help them along. They didn’t care that I wasn’t unique because everything always required multiple people with the same skill set and as someone who could fill any role I always had something I could do. I met more Beings, encountered more Pokemon, and my power grew. I had a place......... Then the nuke. You know the rest from there,” He ended his tale and let it sit.

... Stable green. Huh. He hadn’t talked about this before, he figured it would cause some shift. Maybe there was no reason to be afraid about this.

“So Fenice had a question. Do I get my own?” Elly asked. He could probably manage.
“Yes.”
“Why did you catch on fire?”
Flicker to white.
dammit




“Ok everyone, Being Studies 201 time,” Freak’s mask put on glasses as he started his explanation. Elly set aside everything he said for the moment. That needed time to process and here was not the place for it. “Overflow. When a power is so strong it threatens to tear the body of its user apart. My body is capable of utilizing every power individually so when I use too many at once things tend to go bad. Think of a fuse box. Every power I’ve copied is its own switch that I can turn on and off. And when a fuse is overloaded it blows. Except in this metaphor I am the fuse, and if I overload I explode. Quite violently.”
“And what are the chances of that happening?
“..... At the current time, it is higher than usual,” Freak’s left eye flickered to white. Not very quickly, but enough for Elly to realize that he was uncomfortable with how close to the edge he was.
“Elaborate.”
“So I have quite a lot of powers active right now and running in the background. I had to turn them on to not die during the death wave and... Well with so many gone, I had more value to what was left and kept all of them on. Not the smartest thing, but I don’t really care enough to turn them back off. Also I don’t know if I’ll remain alive if I do. I’m not exactly well strung together.”
“You’re a bomb. I’m guarding a bomb.”
“Elly you thought I was a deranged murderer at the start of all this,” She did have to give him that. “The fact that I’m an immediate danger was why you were assigned to me anyway. And besides, I think I have a handle on things.”
“You almost exploded a day ago.
“I wasn’t in the best place then.”
“What’s different now?
“..... I think I’m starting to care,” Elly looked at Freak’s eyes. They stayed green, without any hint of flicker. She didn’t know what he meant exactly, but he believed it. So... She would trust him.
“Ok. I don’t have anything else to ask. I do need time to think, and I’d rather do that when we get to Lumiose, so I’ll wait outside,” Elly walked over to the door and paused at it. Freak had broken it then repaired it without even thinking. He also shrank at will earlier and then there was that clap radar. He could do anything, probably even escape. Yet he remained with her throughout all this. He didn’t act like an ancient deity who could bend reality to his whim. He was... Well he was Freak. But what else could he be?


“You were pretty quiet throughout all that,” Freak commented after Elly stopped studying the door and left.
“I didn’t want to pressure you anymore than I already did. I guess I just wanted to listen to your story without me interrupting.”
“Giving up narration privileges for the moment?”
“Not giving them up, whatever that means, just... Not using them fully.”
“Hm. Well that ends my Q&A section for today, we should get to Lumiose,” Freak headed over to the exit then spun on his heel to face back to them. “Actually you asked me something else before. But I think you deserve the answer, so this is a freebie. It’s not ‘you have nowhere else’. It’s ‘I have no one else’,” He went through the door then poked his head back in. “No, I will not elaborate,” And outside he went.




Data Log
Aliana reported to Lysandre
It took all I could manage to get her to not mention AZ and she went with what I told her
It was thanks to Elly’s previous reports to Malva that my Status could calculate the most likely story Elly would come up with
The story Lysandre believes is that someone was careless and was spotted heading to the power plant so Freak dragged the others there
Combat ensued and we know how that ended
Both Aliana and Malva reported this to him so he has no reason to suspect I may have done something
But he does have an interest in Patient Zero now, and they’re heading to Lumiose
And he plans to meet them there
I don’t believe anything negative would result, but I am still curious about the new paths this could create

 

[Spectacles]

Her name is Nnez and she has the power to ‘right’ a ‘wrong’.

Oooooh that's interesting.

It goes entirely by her subjective view of right and wrong, which can result in not great things.

OOP that can cause problems!

What a demented yet cool parental backstory though. No wonder Freak is so messed up.

I have a question for Freak, Fenice, and Elly: what are each of your hobbies when you're not wreacking havoc/trying to minimize said havoc?

 

[Leon Yorunaki]

“Her name is Nnez and she has the power to ‘right’ a ‘wrong’.”

Doesn't every mother have this sort of power?

But wait! It gets worse!”
“I can’t see how.”
“Zenn killed Nnez.”
“Ok nevermind.”

Can't say I didn't laugh at this because I totally did.


I don't really trust Freak's narration. Like, at all. Being a "Being" only makes sense due to the fact it makes no sense at all. Maybe he made all of that up after surviving the nuke just to have something to believe in, because that backstory doesn't match properly what we've seen from A. I probably am might be wrong in that regard, but I have serious doubts about anything that doesn't give Freak an eye twitch.
But, being sort of a bomb himself, I don't judge him for driving himself and everyone else around him insane.

“Hm. Well that ends my Q&A section for today,

Well, guess you don't. I have a few questions around:

Z: Why do you call yourself "Freak" and not something else entirely when you could have chosen any other name?
Elly: What do you feel about Freak now you know him better, and how does it compare to when you first met him?
Fenice: How do you like being able to fly?
[whoever is behind the Data Log]: Why? Just why?
Uberle: Did you really catch a Shiny Moltres in-game, or Fenice is just there for story purposes?

 

[Uberle]

First of the month, time for a new chapter
......... usually
Ok being completely honest, I thought I had the next chapter ready but I absolutely did not
So uh
I'll keep working on the next chapter and post it when I'm done with it
Which should hopefully be sometime this month
I apologize for this oversight

Fortunately you're not left with nothing, because we have some Questions that require Answers so let's do regular replies and then get those all set shall we?

Spoiler: replies

@Spectacles Nnez's power is one of my favorites that I've made
I don't think I'll utilize her here, but maybe in a future run, we'll see
Freak already had some existential problems and having 3000 years with nothing to do but ponder them did not help

@Leon Yorunaki I very much enjoyed the timing of that bit
As absurd as the story is, it is true
While there are probably some stories Freak tells that should be taken with a grain of salt, this is not one of them
He doesn't get an eye twitch because he knows Elly and Fenice will believe him on some level, but he does get an eye twitch when explaining overflow because that is something even he is uncertain on how to handle

Spoiler: Cuffs Q&A

I have a question for Freak, Fenice, and Elly: what are each of your hobbies when you're not wreacking havoc/trying to minimize said havoc?

Freak: Now the issue with this question is that I literally don't have anything else
It's why I wanted to fight the gyms in the first place
So I shall cause problems and nothing else
ahem
I shall cause minor inconveniences
Fine.

Fenice: Reading anything I can find. Elly shows me where to get brochures and how to use the digital databases.
I have only been awake in this time period for a very short amount of time, and it's where I'm going to live from now on so I need to learn about it

Elly: Cooking.
I am shocked.
Yeah, yeah. I tend to eat quite a lot, I burn a lot of calories and eating power bars is like trying to drink tar, so I've learned how to prep stuff for myself so I don't run out of steam after a few Extreme Speeds.

Z: Why do you call yourself "Freak" and not something else entirely when you could have chosen any other name?

..... First off my name is currently "Freak" so use that when addressing me please
Secondly it's about sending a message
I really do not want people getting close to me in any way shape or form, so my name is meant to discourage that
Also during the considerable time I was alone I did a lot of screaming
I noticed that a lot of said screams sounded like "Freak" so that may have contributed in some way

Elly: What do you feel about Freak now you know him better, and how does it compare to when you first met him?

Well I can say that my opinion of him has dramatically improved since I first met him.
I would not say that we are friends, but given what I know about him I don't know what the right word would be
I do trust him though. As insane he is and the amount of sheer nonsense he says, I do trust that he is honest to me when it matters
The realization that I trust Freak is never going to be something that sits right
I don't know if it's worth comparing to how I felt before because I barely knew the persona he wanted me to know
The Freak I met in the jail cell and the one that walks with me today are night and day. Same sky but the change of lighting does wonders

Fenice: How do you like being able to fly?

I quite like it, now that I have the basics down
The starting lessons were... rough
And still don't think I'm clear of vertigo
But I now know how to use the new limbs that are attached to my back
It's really fun now that I can manage it, but I doubt I'll be able to actually use them to fight anytime soon

[whoever is behind the Data Log]: Why? Just why?

I dislike the vagueness, it leaves too much up to guesswork, but I will assume you just want to know my general motives
In short, it is because I can
I do what I do because I am a Being, I have abilities that surpass even the Pokemon that are hailed as deities
It is simply the logical order of things. I stand above all others, so I should be free to do what I want, and what I do has allowed the ones beneath me to get ever so slightly closer
I am something so much more than any other entity and what better way to prove this than creating the Gijinka species?
The bond between humans and Pokemon has always been great, so how would that energy be increased when the two are truly one?
The Gijinka are a complete success, a flawless combination of human and Pokemon, but this experiment is far from over
I seek mastery, to show even the One Above that I have complete control over all creation even if it would seem that my power wouldn't allow for such a thing

Uberle: Did you really catch a Shiny Moltres in-game, or Fenice is just there for story purposes?

Yes also no
So the reason for Fenice being a Shiny Moltres is that my original plan for a Y run that involved multiple trainers that were rotating between gyms, each with their own teams
Ultimately scrapped that because I lost motive for that story but I still wanted to do a Y run so I did another run of it which has been turned into Cuffs and decided to include Pokemon from that scrapped run as characters
In that scrapped run the plan was that one of the trainers was a Being with super luck, so all of their mons were shiny and I even turned up the shiny rate via the randomizer I used to accomplish that
One such encounter was a shiny Moltres that was named Fenice and who ended up on the final team
This is also why Elly is here, as another member of the final team was a Togekiss named Gabrielle
Freak meanwhile has no connections to the scrapped run, I threw him in here because he was a character I had been using in PMD rps with friends and though he'd be a good protag

 

[Uberle]

To show the power of flextape I cut this update in half!
Except I have no flextape
So really this is just half of Chapter 18
See the Elly and Fenice sections came along nice and smoothly
But then the Freak part of this chapter decided to make me hit the brakes as it's combat and fight scenes either go really well for me or completely throw me off the tracks
So Freak's gym battle against Clemont, and another section of the chapter, will be posted at a later date, hopefully also this month
Doing this because I want to give you guys some actual story this month
Apologies for the delay and please enjoy

Spoiler: Chapter 18: Hello again

“Ok let’s get you some actual clothes,” Elly walked out of the gym, Freak would be occupied for a while so she and Fenice had some free time. Fenice had been mainly using gift shop clothes donated from the League, but now that they were back in Lumiose there was no better place to shop for a wardrobe. A little message to Malva got the League to provide a generous budget, so Fenice would be able to get some nice stuff. Elly walked over to them and noticed that they kept glancing in a certain direction. “What’re you looking at?”
“Um, the tower,” Fenice pointed towards the massive structure at the center of the city. “That was the gym before but I’m guessing it’s been remodeled?”
“It’s haunted, I had to explain this to Freak as well. Though by now I’m willing to bet my knife on Wilhelm having something to do with it. Was there anything special about it? Besides being a gym?”
“Well there was the weird phenomenon where it accelerated the speed of eggs hatching, but that may have just been a rumor.”
“... Eggs?”
“Yeah. Pokemon eggs,” Fenice said incredibly nonchalantly.
“... Th-they came from eggs?”
“Yes.... Do you-”
“No we very much don’t,” Elly cut in. She really did not want to think about what producing an egg would entail.
“But you’re a Togekiss.”
“.... Why does that matter?” Elly was more scared of the answer to that than any question she asked Freak.
“Because Togepi don’t... Hatch fully. Their egg stays on like a, well like a shell.”
“And does it fall off or..”
“It kinda merges with the body, really. At least I think it does. The red and blue triangles remain but that may just be how an egg sometimes mimics-”
“Ok done with that, back to clothes,” A sentence Elly never thought she’d say with so much conviction.

“What’re you looking at over there?” Elly didn’t really know the shopping area of Lumiose that well, but knew a few clothing stores that had specialty items for those with wings and took Fenice to one of them.
“Skirts,” Fenice held up a long one with a flame pattern. “Pants are great, but I just like how I look in skirts,” They shuffled through the rack of skirts a bit more. “Ooo, this one has pockets.”
“Fenice, I do want you to remember that you can fly now and skirts barely handle wind on the ground.”
“Then I’ll try not to fly when I’m wearing a skirt,” They added a couple more items to the pile in their arms then noticed Elly’s face. “What?”
“Sorry, but I can’t comprehend someone opting to not fly. Escorting Freak has been distortion for me entirely because I have to remain on the ground for so long. Meanwhile you’re fine with it for... fashion.”
“Being fair, flying is still rather new to me. As is being pink,” They held their arm up to study. “You think cool colors would still work, or am I trapped with warm ones?”
“I’m not the one to ask.”
“Right, I should see how I look with them first,” Fenice walked over to the changing rooms as Elly’s phone started to ring.
“Hello?”
“Hello, Elly dear, I hope I’m not interrupting anything vital.” Malva’s voice came through with the sound of absolutely furious typing.
“You sound more busy than I am.”
“I’m just revising my script for tonight, nothing major. The fiasco at the power plant is still generating wonders. There’s also been sightings of a very tall man wandering around, one such location was the power plant before you raided it. Any ideas on him?”
“No,” Elly hated lying to Malva, but A was best left as an unknown to everyone.
“Hm, shame, but that’s fine. No one really has a read. Anyway the actual reason I called is that Lysandre wants to meet with you. Well he wants to meet the one you’ve added to your party. Fenice was it? A Gijinka of a new species, but no one has really talked to learn about them. Possibly my fault as I think I’ve intimidated anyone else from covering your adventures.”
“I’m just gonna be known as ‘the Togekiss that was also there’ aren’t I?”
“Elly dear, be honest, do you actually want to be in the headlines?”
“........ No. not really. So Lysandre Cafe?”
“Yep. Don’t worry you’ll be fine. Do be sure to keep the luggage a safe distance from Lysandre ok?”
“Ok,” Elly stifled a laugh. “Will do.”



Fenice sat in the Lysandre Cafe, the velvet furnishing going well with their new outfit. They had picked out the long flame patterned skirt and found a black sleeveless top that they liked Elly left them there, assuring them it was a safe place, then left to gather Freak from the gym. The staff kept glancing over to them and whispering. A waiter asked if they wanted anything, but they politely declined and scribbled in their notebook to look busy. Then a voice spoke up.
“You’re the new companion that Elly has taken under her wing, correct?” A rather large man with a literal mane sat down at a neighboring table. Fenice quickly realized that this was Lysandre.
“Y-yes. Fenice.”
“That’s a curious name. I don’t think I know where it’s from. Does it have any meaning?”
“It means phoenix which…” They spread out a flame patterned wing. “A bit on the nose, now that I think of it.”
“Hm,” Lysandre chuckled. “Mine can be translated to ‘liberator’ which is ironic considering my team developed the very cuffs Freak is chained by. Well, my lead scientist did, but he’s not as independent as he likes to think he is.”
“Lead scientist?” Fenice didn’t know exactly how the cuffs worked, but given that they actually restricted his power, they were very interested in who this scientist was.
“He rather values his privacy, so unfortunately I won’t elaborate further.”
“Ah. Well that’s fine,” It really wasn’t but they weren’t about to say that aloud.
“But I will share what I know if there’s something that’s been an issue for you. I understand that you are a stranger to this region, and you feel a bit lost.”
“Oh! Well... There has been one thing,” Fenice hesitated asking Lysandre this, but they figured that there were few others who had the reach this man did. “What do you know about Team Flare?”
“Right... Flare,” Lysandre’s expression grew dark for a moment and the cafe staff tensed as well. Then it passed and everyone went back to work. “They’ve been a thorn in my side, you could say. No one really knows what their goal is. They cause inconveniences and I try to fix what they break as best I can, but I haven’t been able to stop them before they make a mess,” A waiter set down a cup of tea and a wood block on Lysandre’s table. “Allow me to ask you a question, if you wouldn’t mind,” Lysandre picked up the wood block and started whittling it with a claw. “I feel that Flare has been on your mind for a while, so let me vent about something that has been on mine. Knowing what you do about Freak, do you believe that he is guilty of the crime he is accused of?”
“No,” Fenice barely hesitated. “And yes, I know what he got arrested for, I still don’t think he killed Ebony.”
“... hm,” Lysandre kept whittling, lost in thought. “I do appreciate that you’ve chosen to learn her name. So many just refer to her as ‘the Seviper’. More focus given to the one accused than the one lost.”
“Yeah... I wish I actually got to know her,” They didn’t realize they said that aloud until Lysandre’s whittling abruptly stopped.
“... Did you know-” All conversation stopped as the door opened and Freak entered the cafe with a bow.
“Hello again, Sir Lysandroth,” Freak tilted his head to the side. “I don’t get a sense of burning anger, are you feeling well?”
“... Take a seat, Freak,” Lysandre gestured to an empty chair. “I have something to ask of you.”



Data Log

Keeping things quiet has provided me with an easy task for once
While eliminating roughly half a dozen grunts to keep what AZ said away from Lysandre’s ears would sound difficult it really wasn’t
I worked hard to maintain Lumiose Tower as my personal base and build the rumors surrounding it. Anyone who may have seen those grunts sneaking in would simply think them foolish adventurers fallen to the curse
While I don’t like having to risk exposing myself like that, unlike with the Seviper I can’t make a show of their remains, so they must simply vanish
The other grunts won’t question anything, events are moving quickly nowadays everyone is getting shuffled around so the ones who failed at the power plant being sent somewhere obscure won’t draw that much attention
My power makes formulating false reports at the end of each day for those missing an afterthought
Lysandre has a public persona to play that keeps him occupied
Should any concerns be raised I will be able to get ahead of most
And if someone does finally start to catch on...
I’ll think of something
I’m rather creative

 

[Trollkitten]

“... Eggs?”
“Yeah. Pokemon eggs,” Fenice said incredibly nonchalantly.
“... Th-they came from eggs?”
“Yes.... Do you-”
“No we very much don’t,” Elly cut in. She really did not want to think about what producing an egg would entail.
“But you’re a Togekiss.”
“.... Why does that matter?” Elly was more scared of the answer to that than any question she asked Freak.
“Because Togepi don’t... Hatch fully. Their egg stays on like a, well like a shell.”
“And does it fall off or..”
“It kinda merges with the body, really. At least I think it does. The red and blue triangles remain but that may just be how an egg sometimes mimics-”
“Ok done with that, back to clothes,” A sentence Elly never thought she’d say with so much conviction.

I will admit, I love the meta aspects of this story, and how it pokes fun at the Pokemon mechanics we all know and love.

“Fenice, I do want you to remember that you can fly now and skirts barely handle wind on the ground.”

Kek.

“Right... Flare,” Lysandre’s expression grew dark for a moment and the cafe staff tensed as well. Then it passed and everyone went back to work. “They’ve been a thorn in my side, you could say. No one really knows what their goal is. They cause inconveniences and I try to fix what they break as best I can, but I haven’t been able to stop them before they make a mess,”

I do not trust this man... but given what else has changed in this world, he might actually be legit in this universe. Still... I do not trust this man.

 

[sky_]

hello i am so so sorry i did not comment fldsjkfhsk work has been hell for a long long time and only now this year do i feel freer from it and i can actually comment on more runs

there is so so much lore and character development here omg??? i love all of them so much, especially Fenice, and i want to give every character massive cuddles even though none of them may appreciate that kjsdhfk i love references to pokemon mechanics and mega evolutions and all of these strange things that happen

for example...

“Yeah. Pokemon eggs,” Fenice said incredibly nonchalantly.
“... Th-they came from eggs?”
“Yes.... Do you-”
“No we very much don’t,” Elly cut in. She really did not want to think about what producing an egg would entail.

“Fenice, I do want you to remember that you can fly now and skirts barely handle wind on the ground.”

pffffffft kjsdjhk;KJSHDKJASH these two made me laugh out loud. fenice u are epic xDD

also i do not trust lysandre at all

 

[Leon Yorunaki]

And I came with the expectations of a freak-less chapter after you mentioned the early notes. Good, because I really want to see them in a nice, controlled environment for character studies... j/k.
It's fun how it's not Freak's work to disassemble the fourth wall; Fenice can do the same as well, and with even more grace. Pokémon Eggs mentioned in a Gijinka scenario are definitely a weird flex, and Elly being from Togepi's line doesn't help a bit. No wonder she's so done with that.
Then we get a call from Lysandre, and I'm sure things will go downhill. Okay, kind of expected to see Flare being mentioned, and then they start to talk about Freak. Well, he's the freak member of the crew, so that curiosity can't be helped... until he slams into the place for the most cliff-hangering ending of a chapter. You're mean! but not as much as Freak obviously.

[on a side-note, lovely answers on the Q+A]

 

[Uberle]

Good news
Was stuck on this
Came up with an idea
Wrote a bit
An hour and ~800 words later had Freak's part done
Will I have chapter 19 done in 10 days for July?
Probably not
But that's for future Uberle to worry about
Right now here's the second part of chapter 18

Spoiler: also replies

I notice some common themes in these comments

@Trollkitten The egg conversation is less me being meta and more that I like having Elly react to information about Pokemon
Like Pokemon come from eggs, that's just how they work, so how would a Gijinka react to that?
Fenice shall make their skirts work
Well Lysandre in this world is still working on the Ultimate Weapon
But it's clear Wilhelm is hiding information from him, so how much does Lysandre actually know?
Questions for later

@sky_ Welcome back, do hope you enjoyed catching up
I think Fenice would accept a hug. Less certain on Elly. Freak very much doubt
The egg conversation is going to go down as one of my most popular bits I've written if not the most popular and I'm proud of it for that
Lysandre? Being evil? What would give you that idea?


@Leon Yorunaki Freak bashes the fourth wall in terms of being in a written story while Fenice more leans on the odder aspects of Pokemon's mechanics that is just basic reality to them
Ye, everyone wants to talk about Freak, there are several topics of conversation when it comes to him
Unfortunately you do need to wait just a bit longer to figure out which one Lysandre has chosen

Spoiler: Chapter 18.5 ROCKS!

“Ok what the hell is this?” The place looked like the stage for a gameshow. Three elevators each with a screen above them displaying the gym’s badge spinning for an idle animation. Then a voice sounded from the void.
“Welcome challenger- Oh wait, shit, it’s you,” Clemont, the gym leader, he assumed.
“Oi.”
“So uh... Any chance I could talk you out of the actual fighting?”
“No. I didn’t get to fight the last couple leaders and everyone has been hyping you up for a while, I would like to actually hit something.”
“... Alright, but that does mean you need to complete my puzzle.”
“Do I need to climb something again? Because I feel like that keeps happening.”
“Nah, just some trivia.”
“Neat.” He headed onto the elevator door that just opened and wondered if he should just use a power to cheese or legitimately try to figure out the questions. He decided to try to guess them with what he actually knows, it’d be fun. But it would take a while, and he didn’t want to fill up his allotted narration with this when there was punching to be done soooooooo

King Crimson.

“I have arrived,” Freak rose up to a fairly barren room with fortified walls. The gym arena. He thought back to Viola’s gym and how fun that bouncy web was. That was fun.
“Alright, challenger, here’s how my gym works,” A podium rose out from somewhere with a Furret on it. Clemont. Not what was expected but really he didn’t care at this point. “You have four opponents, you’ll be facing two at once until you beat them all. Understood.”
“Yes. Begin. Please,” As soon as he was done accepting, a Bellossom rose up first and shot Magical Leaf at him. Fortunately he had Chesnaught active and it did little damage.
“Fire punch!” Clemont shouted out and a new shape entered the battle.
“Please do!” A Spiky Shield was summoned in anticipation of the punch, but instead it blocked an Air Slash from a Charizard. “Ah. Clever,” His shield dispersed but now he knew what he was working with. Two opponents, and following purposefully misleading orders. This was indeed the fun he wanted. Quick assessment, Charizard is probably more annoying. Fortunately the Ancient Arts will provide.
“Sweet Scent and Fire Blast again,” Clemont called over. Ok so those are gonna be- Oh wait no that’s an actual Sweet Scent. He felt his reaction speed slow and knew that following up was an actual Fire Blast.
“Swapping,” He muttered and equipped Aerodactyl for the resist. Should he mega or is that not proper etiquette? Nah, once he transformed he wouldn’t be able to swap and he wasn’t planning on staying in that long. “ROCKS!” He shouted as he summoned and yeeted a Rock Tomb towards Charizard. The draconic wasn’t down just yet so he swapped back to Chesnaught and smacked down Charizard with a Power Up Punch.
“Down!” Clemont declared. “Next up, Flash Cannon!” Bella hadn’t let up on the Sweet Scent so when a Probopass showed up Zap Cannon hit him square in the chest. Resists only got him so far, now with paralysis Chesnaut wasn’t going to be that useful.
“Swap,” He shifted to Blastoise and put up a Protect as another Zap Cannon and a Magical Leaf bounced off.
“I thought you were going to brute force this,” Clemont commented while giving cryptic signs to his fighters. “Consider me surprised.”
“Well I haven’t needed to use anything else so far,” He called back and launched a Water Pulse at Zappy Boi. Confusion stuck and a follow up Surf finished that fight off. “But points for making me take cover.”
“Hm. Light Screen,” A Noctowl flew overhead and a screen appeared in front of himself and Bella. It was tough at a glance to tell if it was actually a Light Screen if it was, no problem, but if it was a Reflect...
“Time for true brute force then,” He pulled out his Key Stone and Aerodactylite. The light from his transformation blinded the Screen Bearer so he didn’t have time to dodge the ancient arts. “ROCKS!” The barrier shined and reduced the impact, so it was a Reflect. Screen Bearer fought him off with an Air Slash, but it was no problem-
What was that?
“FUCK!” Was shouted as a Sunny Day was suddenly spawned in front of his face. Even with the mask, the light blinded him for a moment. He felt a Stun Spore fall on him too and the chip damage from Screen Bearer was starting to mount up. So he folded up his newly grown wings into a shield and waited until he could at least make out shapes. He managed to use an Agility and get some speed back. Screen Bearer had decided to circle him closely and keep pecking away. He waited and then shot an arm out to grab the Noctowl and attack. “ROCKS!” He shouted and threw a Rock Tomb through the Reflect and felt Screen Bearer hit the ground.
“Down!” Was called out
“Fold,” Bella raised her hands in surrender. “Sorry but I’m more a support you won’t get much a fight outta me.”
“That’s fine,” He waved over to her as he used a regen power to get his eyesight back. “Hazards add a good amount of spice to fights, you did that well.”
“Th-thanks?” Bella sounded unsure whether to take the compliment from him. Understandable.
“Well congrats, challenger,” Clemont tossed down his badge. “Also, hope this isn’t rude, but didn’t your mask have a smile or something before?”
“Oh right,” His hand moved over his mask where the cracked toothed grin had been. “I received some feedback and decided to close it up,” He slotted the badge into its slot on his arm. “Anyway I think that’s all I needed to do here. So away I go. Same elevator?”
“Yep,” Clemont pointed him in the direction and Bella gave a small wave as he hopped down. He liked that wave. He wasn’t sure why, but it was a nice wave. While he was thinking that, he found Elly waiting for him outside the gym. Turns out Lysanderoth wanted to talk.
What even more fun.






Data Log
My name is Azula, I am a Zangoose and a member of Team Flare
I’m writing this now as the situation has escalated to where I fear for my own safety along with the other lower-level members of Flare
This message will be sent to everyone in Flare should two days pass by without me logging in so if you’re reading this then continue to figure out what happened to me
I am far from the only one, but with this I hope to be the last

For a while I’ve felt as though something was off
It started shortly before Ebony’s death
I didn’t know her very well, but we worked literally next to each other doing our own projects so I saw her often enough to notice a change in her behavior
It was after she had been called to assist with something in Lumiose Tower, where the lead scientist Wilhelm works
I know basically nothing about Wilhelm, barely anyone does, only that he’s a Magnezone and he’s critical to Lysandre’s goal
But after she returned, Ebony wasn’t the same
She got lost in thought, jumped at the slightest noise, and was working on something almost non-stop
Then she vanished for a day, no one knew where she went, and then she returned even more nervous about something
A couple days later she disappeared and was found dead, fried, and chopped up

These are things that only I know about because of the glances I sometimes got of her screen in passing
Before the first MIA she was mainly looking at security camera footage, but of no place I’d ever seen, now I realize she was editing a loop
Cyber security was her specialty, mainly because she used to be a hacker herself. It’s probably why she was called to the Tower in the first place
And there was another thing
The days before her death she was looking into someone, someone who had a face covered by a white mask with a cracked toothed grin
She was trying to learn about Freak for some reason
I looked at his League application, and there was just absolute nonsense about Beings and mimicry, but I think this is what led Ebony to trying to contact him
Then she died, security footage found Freak being around an area she had been in before, and everyone knows where that lead

But that was over a month and a half ago at the time of writing, so why am I writing this now?
Because several more Flare members have vanished
Yeah, the official memos are that they got relocated someplace discreet after the catastrophe at the power plant, but I’m calling bullshit
Wilhelm did something, he’s been more frantic ever since that red feathered Gijinka, Fenice, appeared
Though right before they were found with Elly, Wilhelm sent a couple grunts to a random cave
Those two are gone too
Fenice is at the center of this, but I don’t have everything to put it together
And me actually getting the other pieces will get me on Wilhelm’s radar which means I may vanish as well
For now I need to gather more information, make an actual case
I just hope I’ll remain alive long enough to build it

 

[Trollkitten]

That data log is ominous. What exactly IS happening to all these Team Flare members?