Chapter 14
Paraslit
—August 1st-2nd 128 CR
Russ had been lagging behind for several kilometers. It wasn't unusual for one of them to pause for a moment, retie one's boots, examine a bush or a rock, or keep watching for something sighted out of the corner of the eye. He would stop and stand and stare at nothing. Sylvia appeared from her ball uncalled and started following alongside him. She'd startle him awake with her nose or by mouthing his hands.
She called out to them when that wasn't enough. He looked muzzy; he spoke like he was dreaming.
Sylvia whined. "What's wrong with him?"
"Sunstroke?" Moriko said.
"It's so early in the day," said Matt.
She put her hand to his forehead and snatched it back. "He's cold," said Moriko.
"He's—"
"Something's wrong," Vleridin said, squinting at him. "He smells terrible, like carrion and mushrooms."
Matt stopped at that, an explanation dying on his lips, eyes searching Russ's bleary face. "Let's find a place to sit down."
They led Russ on, as one leads a sleepwalker, toward the shade of a rocky column. Matt hurt his back catching him when he fainted.
Russ's pokémon appeared from their capsules then, Keigan and Celeste, Conall and Sauza. Sylvia whined and sniffed his prone body as Matt supported his head.
Moriko dug through Russ's neatly packed bag and tore out his bedroll, and they maneuvered his scarecrow body onto it. Sylvia and Conall curled up on either side of him while Sauza was persuaded back into his pokéball; Celeste refused.
The celestiule changed color with the sky; at the moment, she was pale blue and shining, and at noon she would be blinding white. "There is a wrong thing here," she declared. "I feel its intent."
"Where is it?" said Moriko, snatching up Rufus' pokéball.
"Here," Celeste said, tossing her head at Russell.
Moriko and Matt looked at each other. The celestiule had only hatched a few weeks ago, and was prone to strange fancies; they'd been reassured that it was echolalia from her time in the egg or the remnants of ancestral memory, but now and then she said something unnerving. Like now.
"The dream-child is right, I think," Vleridin said, pacing. "There's… something…"
Matt shook his head. "Let's check him for bites or, or stings or something."
Celeste clicked her teeth impatiently. Moriko took off Russ's boots; nothing there but the same fetid socks the three of them wore. Matt checked his hands and wrists.
"Maybe the back of his leg, maybe something bit him there. Help me turn him," said Matt.
Moriko went to Russ's knees and lifted them, and Matt raised his shoulders—
Matt screamed and leaped away, dropping Russ's head back onto the camping pillow. Moriko was about to snap at him, alarmed, as his forearms blossomed into a network of red slices. Sylvia snarled and yelped, dancing away with her snout streaming dark sap; Conall scrabbled away on his belly.
Moriko jumped up. "What the fuck—"
"There's something on his back!" Matt said, his arms held rigid. "Let's just—I need—Moriko, I need a potion—"
Moriko obliged, cracking the spray bottle. Matt and Sylvia hissed at the stinging spray but the shallow wounds closed up, healing rapidly. Conall approached Russ slowly, managing to rest his head on his stomach without incident. Celeste trotted over to them, pointing with her head as if to say "See?"
"I don't know what's wrong," said Matt, sounding small and scared, and that was terrifying.
More pokémon let themselves out of their pokéballs: Tarahn, Maia, Tak; the honchkrow perched on a jut on the side of the rock pillar, watching with lurid interest.
"What's going on? You guys stink of fear and, uh, feet," said Tarahn.
"Can you smell him?" Vleridin asked, nodding at Russ.
Tarahn sniffed and recoiled. "Mor, he smells like that squirrel that died under the house that time. What happened?"
"He—he was acting weird, and then he fainted—and there's something—"
"Something sharp, and fast," said Maia. "I couldn't hold it," she said, walking toward them on three legs. Moriko sprayed more potion on her lacerated paw, where she had tried to grab… whatever it was.
Tarahn looked from Maia to Russ and back. "Moriko… I could thunder wave him, paralyze whatever it is."
"Is that safe?"
"He's not high enough level to hurt," said Matt. "But be gentle."
"I'm gentle like kittens and flowers," Tarahn said, rolling to look cute but merely showing off his claws.
"You bit me once, and I had to get regen," Moriko reminded him. She twitched his tail when he put his ears back, abashed. "Long time ago. Go easy."
Tarahn sank to the ground and crept belly-down along the red dirt, sandy coat and purple markings an inappropriate camouflage. Yellow rings of electric-type energy pulsed outward from him as he drew near to Russ, whose body absorbed them harmlessly—but something whipped near his head, scoring the dirt.
It grew slower, and finally they were able to catch a glimpse of something, something metal-bright and filamentous, as it jerked fitfully on the ground. Moriko and Matt darted in, turned Russ onto his stomach, and then stepped out of reach again.
There were six oozing spots of blood on Russ's shirt, aligned three to a row vertically down his back on either side of the spine. The filaments—antennae?—pierced his shirt, and led to the spots of blood. Something moved under his shirt—under his skin—and they recoiled.
There was a high cackle and cawing from Tak.
Moriko stared; it was too hot, the sun too high. "Matt. What am I looking at?"
Matthew scurried away. Moriko found him throwing up a few strides around the column.
"The other kind of possession," Matt said. He shivered uncontrollably, head pressed up against the rock, until Maia came and circled him with her body.
x.x.x.x.x
The desert is all red sand and black meteorite fragments, glinting like shattered swords in blooded fields. It floats, the burning sun and icy stars orbiting.
It can see in all directions; the earth is hollow, crossed and crisscrossed by endless faults and tunnels; the sky curves down upon it, flutters across its skin like butterflies; the desert goes on forever, faulted by arches and canyons and mesas.
Things come and intrude on its perfect awareness, crude nightmare figures, dissonant; it slashes them away.
Not much longer now. It is growing strong, and the masters are near.
x.x.x.x.x
"We need help, Matt. We need to save him."
Matt had flown off with Sylvia and Maia, searching for pokédex phone reception. Their maps showed geologic features, contours, satellite photos, but precious little human activity. They had water and water pokémon, but either would eventually run out, and it wasn't good to separate for long; there were wild pokémon and strange powers abroad.
She'd yelled at him for taking pictures of Russ and his wounds from various angles, but subsided at his haggard, drawn look. "For evidence," he'd said.
Matt had showed her an article on her pokédex; they weren't connected to the cloud, but it was available in offline mode. Cryptopokémonology was the study of pokémon and pokémon abilities described by folklore and urban legend, but never captured or properly studied by pokémon professors. There were hundreds of articles under the heading, some with names that Moriko recognized, some for pokémon that had been shown to be real, and others that sounded made-up or cribbed from movies.
Matt selected one that collected references to a belief in an elemental that would invade the body of a host and take control of their body, eventually fleeing and never being seen again.
A rather racist article by a Kantonian pokéanthropologist suggested that the legends were inspired by botflies and other parasites as an explanation for fly-by-night spouses who might disappear when they tired of family life, not into the hinterlands of regions like Tanos or Coere where the legend was common, but merely to the next settlement to start the cycle over again with a new life and new spouse. Or, alternatively, to explain young people suddenly developing mental illness. Improved communication and access to medical care in the modern era had made the belief disappear into occasional ghost story, and indeed even in the age of ubiquitous pokédex cameras no one had ever provided clear documentation.
Another article judged that a few of the reported cases might be genuine; specifically, the ones where a pokémon companion, especially a psychic- or dark-type, reported the presence of an entity nearby before the afflicted person fell ill and disappeared.
Internet cryptopokémon enthusiasts had dubbed it "paraslit" or "myiaslice". Numerous lurid drawings of it flattening its wormlike body and slipping into expert incisions in the skin were provided. Some of them were too large to have been automatically downloaded by the pokédex, and Moriko was left to wonder based on the comments.
There was little consensus: its appearance varied, as did the proposed method of cutting; there was disagreement over how it approached and invaded a victim, what its type and powers could be, and if it evolved or not. Gruesome drawings of that were also provided, ranging from the human host taking on worm- or bug-like characteristics, or the worm growing huge and decorating itself with the husk or bones of its victim.
Moriko had turned the pokédex off at that and gone to lie face-down on her sleeping bag. Somehow the whole thing was less fun when it was someone you knew who might imminently leap up and run possessed into the night, or reduce into bones and mummified tissue on the side of an enormous parasite.
Matt returned at sunset. He'd located a spring and filled up their canteens, and had stumbled on an automatic weather and astromonitoring station with a shelter. "I'm not sure how we can move him, though."
The paraslit had gotten more violent after being paralyzed, and wouldn't let anyone near Russ, even to give him water. Moriko was terrified he was getting dehydrated.
They stood a distance away. Celeste, part dark-type, claimed the paraslit was a psychic-type and could sense intent, and they were inclined to believe her.
Moriko had slowly put together a plan after the cryptid art images had faded from her mind. "We paralyze it again, wrap him tightly in a groundsheet so those sharp antennas can't move, and then we tie him to Liona to fly to your monitoring station."
Sylvia whined. "I want to carry him," the borfang said, rattling her wings.
"You have to carry us," Moriko said. "Liona can carry one person only."
"Actually… maybe we should tie him to Sylvia, and then someone else ride with them," said Matt. "I'm not sure how he'll shift around… Say the blanket comes off, and the paraslit starts slicing Liona's back or wings."
"Do we have anything that will last longer than paralysis? Does anyone know a sleep move?" Moriko asked.
Matt pulled out his pokédex. "Can a dirfox learn hypnosis? Or a celestiule…?"
"Celeste?"
The celestiule turned her head. Her body was purple and red, striped with far-off wispy clouds, with a few bright stars showing through. "I can sing," she said.
Moriko smiled. "That might put us all to sleep if you're not careful. Can you direct it only at the paraslit and Russ?"
Celeste gave her a daggery look. "Of course," she said, rising.
"She's too low level for the attack to affect us," Matt said. "Who's going to lift him up? He's like a scarecrow full of long lead weights."
"Rufus," said Moriko. The oxhaust nodded; he cast an orange spirit glow in the fading light.
"Hold," Vleridin said. "You're going to all fly off without me?"
"Oh gods." Moriko pressed her eyes with both fists. Why can't you just go in a pokéball was the thought she did not utter.
"You could wait here, and Liona could come back and show you the way on foot," Matt offered.
The mooskeg huffed a 'no'. "As you know, I am the equal of ten others, but I dislike intensely the idea of being left behind in the dark, especially at a time like this."
Matt muttered, "I have an oddish, a torchic, and an electrike, and the boat only seats two…"
They contemplated the dirt for a few moments. Moriko willed herself away, closing the distance to Port Brac with her mind, but the kilometers remained stubbornly uncrossed.
Vleridin scuffed the sand with a hoof. "Well… I offer this hesitantly since it affected you rather strongly the last time… but I could ensoul you, Moriko."
"I'm… not sure if I feel good about you taking over my body," Moriko said, after a silence.
The mooskeg grunted. "No control, just… you would have a passenger."
Moriko rubbed her eyes again. "Let's… put Russ's passenger"—she saw Matt flinch—"to sleep, while we think about it."
Celeste stood a distance away from Russ and began the sound-type attack. Moriko caught a few of the echoes off the stone pillar and felt a lance of drowsiness—See, Matt?—although he was right, Celeste should have been too low-level to affect a human—
Celeste walked forward slowly, close enough to see the swipes of the metallic antennae in her direction and avoid them. It seemed like an age before the antennae finally slowed; Celeste crept forward, only to dance away when one slashed at her. A feint, but Celeste continued singing, changing her angle of attack. Matt and Moriko shifted as well.
Finally Rufus was able to rumble forward and lift Russ bodily; the paraslit made some ineffectual swipes that skittered harmlessly along his steel-type armor. Rufus trapped the antennae with one giant hand, and helped Matt cover them with the thick groundsheet, wrapping up Russ's upper body like a bandage. Moriko encircled the whole thing with several layers of duct tape, and was able to tape the antennae as well where they protruded from the blanket. They were long, stretching down to Russ's knees when pressed flat and limp, and with a metallic iridescence, like a beetle or bluebottle fly.
They hoisted Russ onto Sylvia's back, putting him over her shoulders like a bound cavalry prisoner. They'd used nylon rope to make her a harness and then tied Russ to it, looking up the knots and the design in survival and pokémon riding articles on the pokédex.
Thank goodness for Prof. Willow downloading all the files, Moriko thought. Had it really only been six weeks? Seven?
"I hope this holds," Matt said. He put on multiple coats, his and Russ's, to give a bit of padding if attacked, as well as the sun-sand goggles they'd purchased in Russet for their trek through the desert. He was sweating into them in the warm evening, impatient to go.
Moriko nodded. She had her bag and Russ's; everything was packed up and the pokémon were in their balls, except for Liona and Sylvia, and Tak to provide dubiously loyal scouting ahead in the dark. Liona would lead the way with her darkvision, and Sylvia had provided a flyer's description of how to reach the station.
And last, the mooskeg.
"…Okay, Vleridin," Moriko said. "Is this going to hurt?"
"No. Probably not. I don't think so. Anyway, it will only take a moment."
"Great."
The mooskeg began to glow, runnels of energy capillarying out and growing until she was entirely light, like she was evolving. The shapes of her body softened and withdrew until Moriko was only facing a faintly teal-colored sphere at chest height. She squinted as it approached silently, like a bad effect in a movie, and it passed through her clothing and then into her body without sensation. Her skin glowed briefly, teal light shining through her flesh.
"So… any change?" Matt said, after a moment. Liona and Sylvia looked on with interest.
Moriko shook her head. Nothing, except Vleridin was gone, and there was—
Moriko put her hand to her sternum. "Like I have a second heart, here, out of sync," she said.
She relaxed, and then started, as Vleridin said See? No problem.
Matt looked at her, eyebrows raised in a question.
"I can still hear her," Moriko said, "but sort of like she's whispering in my ear."
"That's hard to quantify, given that all pokémon conversation is telepathic, but I suppose you—"
"Thanks, professor. Let's roll."
Sylvia and Liona summoned air-type energy and launched straight up into the air. They soared over the desert, sand and scrub and rock dwindling below them and passing away into shadow as the sun disappeared. Soon Moriko couldn't see anything beyond the shadow of Liona's black and burgundy feathers, just flat darkness with the bowl of the sky overhead.
Oh! she heard Vleridin whisper. Flying is wonderful, even through senses as drab as yours.
Rude, Moriko thought at her.
If you guys don't keep it down back there, Liona joined in, I will turn around.
They flew in silence, the nigriff influencing the air to move out of her path for greater speed. Time passed as Moriko's pokédex beeped the hour and her arms and legs cramped around Liona's body and Russ's backpack. Her own pack pulled at her shoulders. Surely they'd reach the station soon—
Moriko noticed a light, yellow-green and blinking, on Liona's right flank. She watched it grow closer, and thoughts of aircraft and somehow getting their attention raced through her mind, but she heard no noise of an engine and antigrav was usually blue…
The light got closer, and Moriko could see a blur and hear the buzz of wings. She punched Liona's shoulder and leaned forward—
"HELLO STRANGERS, PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT YOU ARE ENTERING KALAMATOS HIVE TERRITORY," a jovial voice boomed. "IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE TRAVELING IN SOME HASTE. MAY I BE OF ASSISTANCE?"
x.x.x.x.x
Fulgurant, the locust pokémon. A bug- and electric-type, it evolves from privant with high speed values near level 25. It is a fast and effective aerial scout. It can deliver a powerful electric attack from its abdomen.
Escorted by the bug pokémon, they reached the station without further incident. Vleridin emerged from Moriko's body in reverse sequence, and she felt unchanged, very much unlike her earlier experience.
"A paraslit? What on earth is that?" The fulgurant was perched on the roof of the station shelter, a partially buried dome with reinforced windows that could be opened to allow airflow, or closed to shield from sandstorms. It had accepted a can of lemonade from Matt and held it in one of its legs, its mandibles open to drink from it.
"It's bad," Sylvia said. "It's burrowed into his body and stealing his energy."
"It's a demon's servant," said Celeste. The celestiule kept letting herself out of her ball; her hide was now black velvet studded with stars, reflecting the sky. "It will kill him and return to them." She cast an appraising eye on Russ. "Perhaps we should follow it when it does," she said.
Moriko looked at Matt at that, and he made a "yikes" face and raised his hands helplessly.
"We don't want him to die," Moriko said, patient. "Do you know if there are any humans nearby? He probably needs to be operated on to remove the paraslit."
"This is way beyond my knowledge," said the fulgurant cheerfully. It shifted on the roof, whirling the disco-ball glow from its abdomen. "Demons sound pretty bad though, I'll ask about it at the hive. Be back soon!"
With a whirr, the fulgurant shot away into the night, its light rapidly dwindling to nothing.
"Huh. Seemed nice," said Tarahn.
Matt sighed. "I've got Russ set up on a cot inside."
Russ was on his back, propped up and still wrapped in the sheet. Matt had been able to give Russ some water; the antennae flopped around ineffectually, tied together with tape. He hadn't needed to use the toilet the entire time, which was a relief, but it pointed to the paraslit shutting down Russ's systems as it took over.
"I'm going to look for a better phone or a radio or something," Matt said. "If I can't find anything… well, get some rest."
Moriko found a chair and drew it up close to the cot, and she sat in silence for a while. Tarahn wandered in and sat beside her. She massaged his face, her hands working along his purple mask of fur, and down onto his white chin and bristly whiskers as she stared at nothing.
"No-one wanted me on this journey," she said. Tarahn grunted. "Rachel tried to stop me, Angela tried to make Russ ditch me, Matt has been a shit the whole trip. No-one but Russ. And now…"
She gestured at Russell, helplessly, and all the day's sights came to her at once: his weird, dreamy stare, fainting, blood on his clothes, a thingin his body, ruined husks of victims penned by some darkly eager internet artist. She felt her face crumple, and her chest convulsed with hideous sobbing. Tarahn patted her awkwardly with one paw.
"He's dying," she choked out, between sobs that were like whole-body convulsions. She ground her fists into her closed eyes. "Why not me? Why—"
"Making it all about yourself again, I see," Vleridin said.
Moriko snarled wetly. "Go away—"
"Cry it out, human." Vleridin stood over Russ, wrinkled her nose again at the smell. "You should be no stranger to losses. This isn't your first sickness, nor your first death—"
Moriko unfolded like a spring and seized Vleridin's snout in both hands, leaning over the cot. "Don't," she said.
Vleridin glanced at Tarahn, whose fur was all on end, and looked back at Moriko until the weird light in her orange eyes dimmed.
She slumped back onto the chair. "Don't," she repeated. She ran her hands through her hair, unwashed and straggly and slipping out of the elastic, and new sobbing took over.
x.x.x.x.x
"There's a ranger station two or three days away," Matt said. "Take Sylvia and Liona. If you fly all day and night… I'll stay here with him."
Matt had activated a rescue beacon in the observatory, and it droned out a repeating tone. Patrolling pokémon rangers or emergency services from a nearby village should eventually hear it and send someone, but they had no way of knowing how long that would take or how long Russ had.
There were maps in the station that revealed their location: right in the middle of nowhere, a site chosen for its clear skies and only occasional sandstorms. There wasn't much beyond the small shelter, just a shed full of equipment and a landing pad. There was a small amount of emergency water and fuel, but certainly not enough for a long stay.
They'd snatched a few hours' sleep in their camping gear. Boredom and dread lent them inspiration, and they'd tried various remedies on Russ, cures for battle-induced sleep or poisoning, which did nothing, and potion spray on his open wounds, which failed to close. Moriko blunted her knife on the paraslit's antennae, which were like steel wire.
Finally, they asked Celeste to use dark-type energy on the parasite, and it had reacted with fury: blood had gushed from Russ's wounds, and his body had convulsed until they all withdrew to a respectable distance. Matt had had another panic attack after that. Russ accepted water to drink with little trouble, but he still hadn't urinated, and he looked sicker every hour.
Moriko sat against the shelter wall, watching the sun rise.
"Why did we come here, Matt? Why didn't we just fly? Why did we go on this stupid journey?"
Matt hesitated and then sat beside her.
"It should have been fine. Lots of people get through this league just fine. We were old enough."
Matt said nothing. Maia came over and sat beside him protectively.
"I killed him, Matt. I as good as did. He should have gone with Angela and them and left when they did. We all should have. It's my fault."
Matt shook his head. "No," he said, sighing. "No, I think it's mine—"
The earth rumbled, and a plume of dust went up slightly away from the station. There was a scrabbling, and a host of ant pokémon poured out. Another—the fulgurant, from the previous night—buzzed out of the sky and landed on the station roof.
"Come with us! You're going to meet the queen!"
Paraslit
—August 1st-2nd 128 CR
Russ had been lagging behind for several kilometers. It wasn't unusual for one of them to pause for a moment, retie one's boots, examine a bush or a rock, or keep watching for something sighted out of the corner of the eye. He would stop and stand and stare at nothing. Sylvia appeared from her ball uncalled and started following alongside him. She'd startle him awake with her nose or by mouthing his hands.
She called out to them when that wasn't enough. He looked muzzy; he spoke like he was dreaming.
Sylvia whined. "What's wrong with him?"
"Sunstroke?" Moriko said.
"It's so early in the day," said Matt.
She put her hand to his forehead and snatched it back. "He's cold," said Moriko.
"He's—"
"Something's wrong," Vleridin said, squinting at him. "He smells terrible, like carrion and mushrooms."
Matt stopped at that, an explanation dying on his lips, eyes searching Russ's bleary face. "Let's find a place to sit down."
They led Russ on, as one leads a sleepwalker, toward the shade of a rocky column. Matt hurt his back catching him when he fainted.
Russ's pokémon appeared from their capsules then, Keigan and Celeste, Conall and Sauza. Sylvia whined and sniffed his prone body as Matt supported his head.
Moriko dug through Russ's neatly packed bag and tore out his bedroll, and they maneuvered his scarecrow body onto it. Sylvia and Conall curled up on either side of him while Sauza was persuaded back into his pokéball; Celeste refused.
The celestiule changed color with the sky; at the moment, she was pale blue and shining, and at noon she would be blinding white. "There is a wrong thing here," she declared. "I feel its intent."
"Where is it?" said Moriko, snatching up Rufus' pokéball.
"Here," Celeste said, tossing her head at Russell.
Moriko and Matt looked at each other. The celestiule had only hatched a few weeks ago, and was prone to strange fancies; they'd been reassured that it was echolalia from her time in the egg or the remnants of ancestral memory, but now and then she said something unnerving. Like now.
"The dream-child is right, I think," Vleridin said, pacing. "There's… something…"
Matt shook his head. "Let's check him for bites or, or stings or something."
Celeste clicked her teeth impatiently. Moriko took off Russ's boots; nothing there but the same fetid socks the three of them wore. Matt checked his hands and wrists.
"Maybe the back of his leg, maybe something bit him there. Help me turn him," said Matt.
Moriko went to Russ's knees and lifted them, and Matt raised his shoulders—
Matt screamed and leaped away, dropping Russ's head back onto the camping pillow. Moriko was about to snap at him, alarmed, as his forearms blossomed into a network of red slices. Sylvia snarled and yelped, dancing away with her snout streaming dark sap; Conall scrabbled away on his belly.
Moriko jumped up. "What the fuck—"
"There's something on his back!" Matt said, his arms held rigid. "Let's just—I need—Moriko, I need a potion—"
Moriko obliged, cracking the spray bottle. Matt and Sylvia hissed at the stinging spray but the shallow wounds closed up, healing rapidly. Conall approached Russ slowly, managing to rest his head on his stomach without incident. Celeste trotted over to them, pointing with her head as if to say "See?"
"I don't know what's wrong," said Matt, sounding small and scared, and that was terrifying.
More pokémon let themselves out of their pokéballs: Tarahn, Maia, Tak; the honchkrow perched on a jut on the side of the rock pillar, watching with lurid interest.
"What's going on? You guys stink of fear and, uh, feet," said Tarahn.
"Can you smell him?" Vleridin asked, nodding at Russ.
Tarahn sniffed and recoiled. "Mor, he smells like that squirrel that died under the house that time. What happened?"
"He—he was acting weird, and then he fainted—and there's something—"
"Something sharp, and fast," said Maia. "I couldn't hold it," she said, walking toward them on three legs. Moriko sprayed more potion on her lacerated paw, where she had tried to grab… whatever it was.
Tarahn looked from Maia to Russ and back. "Moriko… I could thunder wave him, paralyze whatever it is."
"Is that safe?"
"He's not high enough level to hurt," said Matt. "But be gentle."
"I'm gentle like kittens and flowers," Tarahn said, rolling to look cute but merely showing off his claws.
"You bit me once, and I had to get regen," Moriko reminded him. She twitched his tail when he put his ears back, abashed. "Long time ago. Go easy."
Tarahn sank to the ground and crept belly-down along the red dirt, sandy coat and purple markings an inappropriate camouflage. Yellow rings of electric-type energy pulsed outward from him as he drew near to Russ, whose body absorbed them harmlessly—but something whipped near his head, scoring the dirt.
It grew slower, and finally they were able to catch a glimpse of something, something metal-bright and filamentous, as it jerked fitfully on the ground. Moriko and Matt darted in, turned Russ onto his stomach, and then stepped out of reach again.
There were six oozing spots of blood on Russ's shirt, aligned three to a row vertically down his back on either side of the spine. The filaments—antennae?—pierced his shirt, and led to the spots of blood. Something moved under his shirt—under his skin—and they recoiled.
There was a high cackle and cawing from Tak.
Moriko stared; it was too hot, the sun too high. "Matt. What am I looking at?"
Matthew scurried away. Moriko found him throwing up a few strides around the column.
"The other kind of possession," Matt said. He shivered uncontrollably, head pressed up against the rock, until Maia came and circled him with her body.
x.x.x.x.x
The desert is all red sand and black meteorite fragments, glinting like shattered swords in blooded fields. It floats, the burning sun and icy stars orbiting.
It can see in all directions; the earth is hollow, crossed and crisscrossed by endless faults and tunnels; the sky curves down upon it, flutters across its skin like butterflies; the desert goes on forever, faulted by arches and canyons and mesas.
Things come and intrude on its perfect awareness, crude nightmare figures, dissonant; it slashes them away.
Not much longer now. It is growing strong, and the masters are near.
x.x.x.x.x
"We need help, Matt. We need to save him."
Matt had flown off with Sylvia and Maia, searching for pokédex phone reception. Their maps showed geologic features, contours, satellite photos, but precious little human activity. They had water and water pokémon, but either would eventually run out, and it wasn't good to separate for long; there were wild pokémon and strange powers abroad.
She'd yelled at him for taking pictures of Russ and his wounds from various angles, but subsided at his haggard, drawn look. "For evidence," he'd said.
Matt had showed her an article on her pokédex; they weren't connected to the cloud, but it was available in offline mode. Cryptopokémonology was the study of pokémon and pokémon abilities described by folklore and urban legend, but never captured or properly studied by pokémon professors. There were hundreds of articles under the heading, some with names that Moriko recognized, some for pokémon that had been shown to be real, and others that sounded made-up or cribbed from movies.
Matt selected one that collected references to a belief in an elemental that would invade the body of a host and take control of their body, eventually fleeing and never being seen again.
A rather racist article by a Kantonian pokéanthropologist suggested that the legends were inspired by botflies and other parasites as an explanation for fly-by-night spouses who might disappear when they tired of family life, not into the hinterlands of regions like Tanos or Coere where the legend was common, but merely to the next settlement to start the cycle over again with a new life and new spouse. Or, alternatively, to explain young people suddenly developing mental illness. Improved communication and access to medical care in the modern era had made the belief disappear into occasional ghost story, and indeed even in the age of ubiquitous pokédex cameras no one had ever provided clear documentation.
Another article judged that a few of the reported cases might be genuine; specifically, the ones where a pokémon companion, especially a psychic- or dark-type, reported the presence of an entity nearby before the afflicted person fell ill and disappeared.
Internet cryptopokémon enthusiasts had dubbed it "paraslit" or "myiaslice". Numerous lurid drawings of it flattening its wormlike body and slipping into expert incisions in the skin were provided. Some of them were too large to have been automatically downloaded by the pokédex, and Moriko was left to wonder based on the comments.
There was little consensus: its appearance varied, as did the proposed method of cutting; there was disagreement over how it approached and invaded a victim, what its type and powers could be, and if it evolved or not. Gruesome drawings of that were also provided, ranging from the human host taking on worm- or bug-like characteristics, or the worm growing huge and decorating itself with the husk or bones of its victim.
Moriko had turned the pokédex off at that and gone to lie face-down on her sleeping bag. Somehow the whole thing was less fun when it was someone you knew who might imminently leap up and run possessed into the night, or reduce into bones and mummified tissue on the side of an enormous parasite.
Matt returned at sunset. He'd located a spring and filled up their canteens, and had stumbled on an automatic weather and astromonitoring station with a shelter. "I'm not sure how we can move him, though."
The paraslit had gotten more violent after being paralyzed, and wouldn't let anyone near Russ, even to give him water. Moriko was terrified he was getting dehydrated.
They stood a distance away. Celeste, part dark-type, claimed the paraslit was a psychic-type and could sense intent, and they were inclined to believe her.
Moriko had slowly put together a plan after the cryptid art images had faded from her mind. "We paralyze it again, wrap him tightly in a groundsheet so those sharp antennas can't move, and then we tie him to Liona to fly to your monitoring station."
Sylvia whined. "I want to carry him," the borfang said, rattling her wings.
"You have to carry us," Moriko said. "Liona can carry one person only."
"Actually… maybe we should tie him to Sylvia, and then someone else ride with them," said Matt. "I'm not sure how he'll shift around… Say the blanket comes off, and the paraslit starts slicing Liona's back or wings."
"Do we have anything that will last longer than paralysis? Does anyone know a sleep move?" Moriko asked.
Matt pulled out his pokédex. "Can a dirfox learn hypnosis? Or a celestiule…?"
"Celeste?"
The celestiule turned her head. Her body was purple and red, striped with far-off wispy clouds, with a few bright stars showing through. "I can sing," she said.
Moriko smiled. "That might put us all to sleep if you're not careful. Can you direct it only at the paraslit and Russ?"
Celeste gave her a daggery look. "Of course," she said, rising.
"She's too low level for the attack to affect us," Matt said. "Who's going to lift him up? He's like a scarecrow full of long lead weights."
"Rufus," said Moriko. The oxhaust nodded; he cast an orange spirit glow in the fading light.
"Hold," Vleridin said. "You're going to all fly off without me?"
"Oh gods." Moriko pressed her eyes with both fists. Why can't you just go in a pokéball was the thought she did not utter.
"You could wait here, and Liona could come back and show you the way on foot," Matt offered.
The mooskeg huffed a 'no'. "As you know, I am the equal of ten others, but I dislike intensely the idea of being left behind in the dark, especially at a time like this."
Matt muttered, "I have an oddish, a torchic, and an electrike, and the boat only seats two…"
They contemplated the dirt for a few moments. Moriko willed herself away, closing the distance to Port Brac with her mind, but the kilometers remained stubbornly uncrossed.
Vleridin scuffed the sand with a hoof. "Well… I offer this hesitantly since it affected you rather strongly the last time… but I could ensoul you, Moriko."
"I'm… not sure if I feel good about you taking over my body," Moriko said, after a silence.
The mooskeg grunted. "No control, just… you would have a passenger."
Moriko rubbed her eyes again. "Let's… put Russ's passenger"—she saw Matt flinch—"to sleep, while we think about it."
Celeste stood a distance away from Russ and began the sound-type attack. Moriko caught a few of the echoes off the stone pillar and felt a lance of drowsiness—See, Matt?—although he was right, Celeste should have been too low-level to affect a human—
Celeste walked forward slowly, close enough to see the swipes of the metallic antennae in her direction and avoid them. It seemed like an age before the antennae finally slowed; Celeste crept forward, only to dance away when one slashed at her. A feint, but Celeste continued singing, changing her angle of attack. Matt and Moriko shifted as well.
Finally Rufus was able to rumble forward and lift Russ bodily; the paraslit made some ineffectual swipes that skittered harmlessly along his steel-type armor. Rufus trapped the antennae with one giant hand, and helped Matt cover them with the thick groundsheet, wrapping up Russ's upper body like a bandage. Moriko encircled the whole thing with several layers of duct tape, and was able to tape the antennae as well where they protruded from the blanket. They were long, stretching down to Russ's knees when pressed flat and limp, and with a metallic iridescence, like a beetle or bluebottle fly.
They hoisted Russ onto Sylvia's back, putting him over her shoulders like a bound cavalry prisoner. They'd used nylon rope to make her a harness and then tied Russ to it, looking up the knots and the design in survival and pokémon riding articles on the pokédex.
Thank goodness for Prof. Willow downloading all the files, Moriko thought. Had it really only been six weeks? Seven?
"I hope this holds," Matt said. He put on multiple coats, his and Russ's, to give a bit of padding if attacked, as well as the sun-sand goggles they'd purchased in Russet for their trek through the desert. He was sweating into them in the warm evening, impatient to go.
Moriko nodded. She had her bag and Russ's; everything was packed up and the pokémon were in their balls, except for Liona and Sylvia, and Tak to provide dubiously loyal scouting ahead in the dark. Liona would lead the way with her darkvision, and Sylvia had provided a flyer's description of how to reach the station.
And last, the mooskeg.
"…Okay, Vleridin," Moriko said. "Is this going to hurt?"
"No. Probably not. I don't think so. Anyway, it will only take a moment."
"Great."
The mooskeg began to glow, runnels of energy capillarying out and growing until she was entirely light, like she was evolving. The shapes of her body softened and withdrew until Moriko was only facing a faintly teal-colored sphere at chest height. She squinted as it approached silently, like a bad effect in a movie, and it passed through her clothing and then into her body without sensation. Her skin glowed briefly, teal light shining through her flesh.
"So… any change?" Matt said, after a moment. Liona and Sylvia looked on with interest.
Moriko shook her head. Nothing, except Vleridin was gone, and there was—
Moriko put her hand to her sternum. "Like I have a second heart, here, out of sync," she said.
She relaxed, and then started, as Vleridin said See? No problem.
Matt looked at her, eyebrows raised in a question.
"I can still hear her," Moriko said, "but sort of like she's whispering in my ear."
"That's hard to quantify, given that all pokémon conversation is telepathic, but I suppose you—"
"Thanks, professor. Let's roll."
Sylvia and Liona summoned air-type energy and launched straight up into the air. They soared over the desert, sand and scrub and rock dwindling below them and passing away into shadow as the sun disappeared. Soon Moriko couldn't see anything beyond the shadow of Liona's black and burgundy feathers, just flat darkness with the bowl of the sky overhead.
Oh! she heard Vleridin whisper. Flying is wonderful, even through senses as drab as yours.
Rude, Moriko thought at her.
If you guys don't keep it down back there, Liona joined in, I will turn around.
They flew in silence, the nigriff influencing the air to move out of her path for greater speed. Time passed as Moriko's pokédex beeped the hour and her arms and legs cramped around Liona's body and Russ's backpack. Her own pack pulled at her shoulders. Surely they'd reach the station soon—
Moriko noticed a light, yellow-green and blinking, on Liona's right flank. She watched it grow closer, and thoughts of aircraft and somehow getting their attention raced through her mind, but she heard no noise of an engine and antigrav was usually blue…
The light got closer, and Moriko could see a blur and hear the buzz of wings. She punched Liona's shoulder and leaned forward—
"HELLO STRANGERS, PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT YOU ARE ENTERING KALAMATOS HIVE TERRITORY," a jovial voice boomed. "IT LOOKS LIKE YOU ARE TRAVELING IN SOME HASTE. MAY I BE OF ASSISTANCE?"
x.x.x.x.x
Fulgurant, the locust pokémon. A bug- and electric-type, it evolves from privant with high speed values near level 25. It is a fast and effective aerial scout. It can deliver a powerful electric attack from its abdomen.
Escorted by the bug pokémon, they reached the station without further incident. Vleridin emerged from Moriko's body in reverse sequence, and she felt unchanged, very much unlike her earlier experience.
"A paraslit? What on earth is that?" The fulgurant was perched on the roof of the station shelter, a partially buried dome with reinforced windows that could be opened to allow airflow, or closed to shield from sandstorms. It had accepted a can of lemonade from Matt and held it in one of its legs, its mandibles open to drink from it.
"It's bad," Sylvia said. "It's burrowed into his body and stealing his energy."
"It's a demon's servant," said Celeste. The celestiule kept letting herself out of her ball; her hide was now black velvet studded with stars, reflecting the sky. "It will kill him and return to them." She cast an appraising eye on Russ. "Perhaps we should follow it when it does," she said.
Moriko looked at Matt at that, and he made a "yikes" face and raised his hands helplessly.
"We don't want him to die," Moriko said, patient. "Do you know if there are any humans nearby? He probably needs to be operated on to remove the paraslit."
"This is way beyond my knowledge," said the fulgurant cheerfully. It shifted on the roof, whirling the disco-ball glow from its abdomen. "Demons sound pretty bad though, I'll ask about it at the hive. Be back soon!"
With a whirr, the fulgurant shot away into the night, its light rapidly dwindling to nothing.
"Huh. Seemed nice," said Tarahn.
Matt sighed. "I've got Russ set up on a cot inside."
Russ was on his back, propped up and still wrapped in the sheet. Matt had been able to give Russ some water; the antennae flopped around ineffectually, tied together with tape. He hadn't needed to use the toilet the entire time, which was a relief, but it pointed to the paraslit shutting down Russ's systems as it took over.
"I'm going to look for a better phone or a radio or something," Matt said. "If I can't find anything… well, get some rest."
Moriko found a chair and drew it up close to the cot, and she sat in silence for a while. Tarahn wandered in and sat beside her. She massaged his face, her hands working along his purple mask of fur, and down onto his white chin and bristly whiskers as she stared at nothing.
"No-one wanted me on this journey," she said. Tarahn grunted. "Rachel tried to stop me, Angela tried to make Russ ditch me, Matt has been a shit the whole trip. No-one but Russ. And now…"
She gestured at Russell, helplessly, and all the day's sights came to her at once: his weird, dreamy stare, fainting, blood on his clothes, a thingin his body, ruined husks of victims penned by some darkly eager internet artist. She felt her face crumple, and her chest convulsed with hideous sobbing. Tarahn patted her awkwardly with one paw.
"He's dying," she choked out, between sobs that were like whole-body convulsions. She ground her fists into her closed eyes. "Why not me? Why—"
"Making it all about yourself again, I see," Vleridin said.
Moriko snarled wetly. "Go away—"
"Cry it out, human." Vleridin stood over Russ, wrinkled her nose again at the smell. "You should be no stranger to losses. This isn't your first sickness, nor your first death—"
Moriko unfolded like a spring and seized Vleridin's snout in both hands, leaning over the cot. "Don't," she said.
Vleridin glanced at Tarahn, whose fur was all on end, and looked back at Moriko until the weird light in her orange eyes dimmed.
She slumped back onto the chair. "Don't," she repeated. She ran her hands through her hair, unwashed and straggly and slipping out of the elastic, and new sobbing took over.
x.x.x.x.x
"There's a ranger station two or three days away," Matt said. "Take Sylvia and Liona. If you fly all day and night… I'll stay here with him."
Matt had activated a rescue beacon in the observatory, and it droned out a repeating tone. Patrolling pokémon rangers or emergency services from a nearby village should eventually hear it and send someone, but they had no way of knowing how long that would take or how long Russ had.
There were maps in the station that revealed their location: right in the middle of nowhere, a site chosen for its clear skies and only occasional sandstorms. There wasn't much beyond the small shelter, just a shed full of equipment and a landing pad. There was a small amount of emergency water and fuel, but certainly not enough for a long stay.
They'd snatched a few hours' sleep in their camping gear. Boredom and dread lent them inspiration, and they'd tried various remedies on Russ, cures for battle-induced sleep or poisoning, which did nothing, and potion spray on his open wounds, which failed to close. Moriko blunted her knife on the paraslit's antennae, which were like steel wire.
Finally, they asked Celeste to use dark-type energy on the parasite, and it had reacted with fury: blood had gushed from Russ's wounds, and his body had convulsed until they all withdrew to a respectable distance. Matt had had another panic attack after that. Russ accepted water to drink with little trouble, but he still hadn't urinated, and he looked sicker every hour.
Moriko sat against the shelter wall, watching the sun rise.
"Why did we come here, Matt? Why didn't we just fly? Why did we go on this stupid journey?"
Matt hesitated and then sat beside her.
"It should have been fine. Lots of people get through this league just fine. We were old enough."
Matt said nothing. Maia came over and sat beside him protectively.
"I killed him, Matt. I as good as did. He should have gone with Angela and them and left when they did. We all should have. It's my fault."
Matt shook his head. "No," he said, sighing. "No, I think it's mine—"
The earth rumbled, and a plume of dust went up slightly away from the station. There was a scrabbling, and a host of ant pokémon poured out. Another—the fulgurant, from the previous night—buzzed out of the sky and landed on the station roof.
"Come with us! You're going to meet the queen!"
