Ian

  —

  I think I was starting to go a little crazy.

  I mean, I personally hadn't done anything crazy yet, it felt more like I was just from sheer proximity.

  Because this group was fucking insane!

  They trained for hours and hours each day! Humans and Pokemon! They sparred together! Erin sparred with her Clefable named Stabby! He stabbed her! Frequently, joyfully, and viciously! After he stabbed her boob and she got pissed, that was now apparently his favorite place to stab her! I mean, it made him more predictable, so he got stabbed more as well, but still!

  The Tiny Tyrant, Erin Greenwood? Well, her insanity was almost expected. The PokeNet had a lot to say about her, and her reluctance to engage with anything resembling a reporter or news outlet didn't help. She didn't even have any social media accounts! Well, Leaf's was private, but Alex didn't have one either…

  It wasn't hard to find information on her, though. The Saffron Extermination, as it had been dubbed, was still a hot topic. A single girl and four Pokemon had destroyed a Team Rocket base hidden underneath Saffron City! Not captured them, no, she had killed over thirty humans herself! With her own two hands! I hadn't asked, but the general consensus on the PokeNet was that she had maimed roughly twenty more, too!

  There had been more than a few cameras recording the situation from the moment the police entered those tunnels, and judging from the missing limbs on most of the Rocket's detained alive, it had been Erin who did that! I'd heard that a few had surrendered, but not very many… The bodies she produced, however, had taken much longer to retrieve. Not to mention the… pieces. Most of the bodies hadn't come out in one piece, and it was easy to tell even through the body bags, especially the ones where the head was obviously separated from the torso! I knew those had been with her terrifying kukri that she trained with!

  Seraphina, Hecate, and Kallen left their kills mostly intact, so it had to have been her or Cerberus. But Cerberus… Well, according to Erin he didn't like the taste of humans, but those were easy enough to identify. The chunks removed certainly made the body bags sag in places…

  Of course, that wasn't all. There were videos of her calling out the infiltrators as she was herded by police, police that she called out for being ineffective and dared them to touch her! There were videos of her inside the Saffron Police Department lobby stomping up to a uniformed police officer and making him almost piss himself in fear as she called him out as an infiltrator! With the Champion looking on as she dripped blood everywhere and he cracked and admitted it!

  After Heather had… unwisely led our group to challenge hers, and we had badly lost, I had done more research on her, and found very little.

  Her surviving the Crown Tundra's Lowlands was, of course, old news by that point, but still startling enough. Then she had just appeared in Pallet Town somehow. That hadn't been really found out until after Saffron, actually. A clothing store employee there had posted about seeing 'The Savage Trainer' in their store, but the single post hadn't gained much traction at all before then, honestly. Why would she have been in Pallet Town when her last known location was in Galar? The only thing interesting there was Professor Oak's Lab!

  The next time she popped up was in a few news reports from Pewter City. She had taken down a small Team Rocket cell that was in the process of abducting people and Pokemon from the Breeder's there. Her, and a Galarian Gym Leader! Because that made sense, of course! Well, it did, kind of? Prior to that the only real information about her had been the infamous video at Freezingpoint's southern gate, some pictures of her going to their tanner, and then more than a few selfies with her and Gym Leader Raihan!

  Now that we had met her human mom over the phone, however, some things made more sense. She had come to Pallet Town for some reason, but mainly to start her own Journey. Professor Oak had supposedly asked her for help with Hazard, the almost-murderer of Leaf… Which still freaked me out! Me, Heather, and Zavier, of course!

  Leaf hugged him! All the time! He only returned it occasionally, but still! He tried to murder Leaf, and she just… loved on him! That actually almost made sense. Leaf loved her Pokemon… All of their Pokemon, actually, including Ahab and Yanmega! Even Yanmega seemed to like her… All of our Pokemon liked Leaf too, actually…

  Still, I had no idea how that turned into Erin being adopted by Ms. Greenwood, or how that resulted in Ms. Greenwood opening the first Rescue organization in two years! The others, the ones still running? They refused to accept new rescues, too! After Victoria, well, most people didn't blame them…

  The whole… situation was just insane! Erin was only a year older than us, but she had a Master level Alpha Tyrantrum as not only her Pokemon, but her other, first adopted mother! What?! Well, after being around Leto for a few days, I could actually see that, too. I knew that Leto had eaten at least forty three people in Galar, but now? She was… motherly. Still a huge, vicious predator, but she liked kids. Even us!

  The Tyrant Queen of Galar liked us, specifically!

  All of that was only touching on just Erin's insanity!

  Leaf wasn't as insane, thankfully… barely. She still had multiple fae, ones not under contract! One's with names! Well, she had only named Hope so far, but she planned on giving her shiny Morgrem a name when he Evolved!

  Let me repeat that! She had a Morgrem! You could easily look up stories of the violence the Impidimp line enjoyed visiting on humans and Pokemon! They delighted in pain and terror! Most of them, I guess… According to Leaf, Hope enjoyed inflicting pain more than him, but only in battle. Also lightly in training… Morgrem liked fear more…

  He certainly enjoyed terrorizing us! Even if he never actually touched us, he would still cackle when we froze from him charging us! From turning to find a halberd made of hair in our faces! He dulled the edges, just to be sure, but still…

  Tinkatink was fine, though. Fae or not, the Tinkatink line was one of the nicer fae species. They could still kill people and take from them, sure, but most of them preferred to work for humans, and they had almost no stigma attached to them. Not to mention Leaf's Tinkatink was adorable! She had also proudly gifted each of us… forks. Nice forks, with brass designs embedded into the handles, sure, but… forks.

  It made a lot more sense after Leaf explained why Tinkatink was so happy to give them to us, not to mention how she had squirmed in happiness from our thanks. We used them too, obviously…

  Alex wasn't as insane, at least? She seemed much more normal, even if she had adjusted to the insanity she was surrounded by. Her biggest claim to insanity would be Yanmega. A Yanmega who had been cannibalizing its unevolved swarm here in Kanto. Honestly though, sure, Yanmega was fucking terrifying, but in a normal way. He wasn't an uncontracted fae, he hadn't tried to murder anyone. He was just a gigantic Bug who liked to eat. A lot.

  I felt a lot of sympathy for Alex, honestly. Not because of her choice of Journeying companions, no…

  It had taken me a while, but I had finally figured out she was trans. I mean, she had obviously started treatments, and voice trained, so it took her mentioning she had been legally disowned before I really put the pieces together. I had thought she was just kind of androgynous, but nope, trans. We hadn't asked for more details, of course, but it still sucked to think about. She was nice, and I felt bad for her… although, maybe not too much?

  She obviously loved Lance, the Champion and her adopted father, and had been so overwhelmingly dismissive of her old 'parents' that I had to imagine it wasn't a huge deal for her… It still must suck on some level, though… My parents were awesome, and I couldn't imagine them being like… that, even if I was trans. They probably wouldn't care in the least. I mean, mom would be happy to have a daughter, and dad might find it a bit weird, but that's about it.

  Dad was weird as fuck with his insect collecting hobby, anyway. Especially considering we lived in the mountains! There were still insects up there, but nothing compared to down here!

  I couldn't help but compare our situations a little, either. I hated how girly I looked, even with the short cropped hair. I had hit puberty a couple months before the Circuit started, though, so at the very least that should change soon enough. Hopefully… Alex was still very androgynous, but I got the feeling she wouldn't be in a year. Hopefully in a year I would have a beard or something… as long as it wasn't those scraggly-looking ones I had seen older boys with. I'd take looking girly until it all grew in over looking like that.

  So they were all insane, even if Alex was mostly normal.

  I still couldn't get the image of Erin climbing onto Yanmega out of my head, though. I really couldn't get over the sight of her sliding off of him into the ocean from forty feet in the air! Freezing up a fucking Wailord with her aura as Ahab slammed into it! Dignity dragging said very dead Wailord in, and Leto forming a stone platform to drain it before 'processing' it with huge stone blades was a bit… crazy…

  Well, the actual disassembly didn't bother me at all, my family was full of hunters. We actually made a good bit of our money from supplying the Blackthorn compound with hunted meat, in fact. I had only personally killed smaller Pokemon a few times. Guns were so heavily restricted we only had two in the entire family because we were hunters, but dad had let me shoot a Pidgeotto once, and a Sentret another time. I'd had Snazzy, of course, but I think dad had me do it that way to impress on me just how… visceral it was to take a life. To respect the Pokemon we hunted and ate…

  I knew most people didn't hunt, and that the vast majority of people only ate farmed Pokemon, and not all that often, even if that was just because meat was expensive, hunted even more so. Still, it seemed kind of… hypocritical, almost, that they sometimes refused to eat a 'smarter' wild Pokemon, but happily ate the bland-tasting, constrained, 'dumb' Pokemon from farms. I had been to a small Pidgey farm once, in fact. They weren't horrible places, honestly.

  In fact, it had looked nice enough, with fields in the open air… surrounded by tall barbed wire fences. Fences that were themselves mostly barbed, and tall enough that the Pidgey were rarely able to fly high enough to get out with their small wings, not with how small the individual fields were to keep them from gaining altitude, like a series of open-air cells…

  Not that it had been nice behind the scenes, of course. They were herded inside at night, and their enclosures had been… cramped. Any attempts to build nests the workers didn't maintain were systematically destroyed, and leaner Pidgey that practiced their flight too often were quickly separated and culled…

  I didn't hate people for eating farmed Pokemon, and I didn't hate them for existing. They met the demand for meat in a way that hunters couldn't. I still hated eating anything farmed…

  So Erin hunting a Wailord? Still insanity, but I could get behind the basic idea, for sure… Also behind her in a swimsuit. She was fucking terrifying, and that scar on her face was intense, but she was still cute.

  Cute and terrifying all at once.

  Still, I would never bring that up. If I had to choose one of them to date, it would have been Leaf, or even Alex, before it was Erin! Not that I was looking. I'd had plenty of lectures about 'starting anything' while I was on my Journey from dad… and mom, and I tried to forget those lectures in particular… Mom apparently thought the best way to keep me on the 'straight and narrow' was to embarrass me…

  So they were insane, but I still liked them all, honestly. They were all kind, even if Erin was more… vicious. The way she had deliberately licked her lips when she saw Snazzy had been… mean. Cruel, almost, but she had stopped, and I didn't blame her all that much after hearing how she had lost her pinky! At this point even Snazzy had relaxed around all of them, actually.

  It was still startling to see her casually talk to Leto and Leto's Weavile-skin mantle, though. Casually talking, but still giving the huge skin draped around Leto's neck looks.

  Arceus above, how fucking insane was my life right now? I was surrounded by Alpha Pokemon, uncontracted fae, and dragons!

  Heather had adjusted to everything but the hunting easily enough, though, considering before this I had let Snazzy do her own hunting and didn't slow roast her kills… I got the feeling Heather really enjoyed having more girls to talk to, actually. Not that Zavier and I were rude! I mean, I think Zavier kind of liked her, but me? Heather was great! I just wasn't interested, thankfully. It would have made Journeying with her a bit too awkward…

  Heather and Leaf were already friends, it looked like. Good friends, considering how they both liked cute Pokemon, even if Leaf considered Hazard cute… Erin did too, honestly. She seemed to like every Pokemon, even Snazzy after she got over her instinctive… desire to kill her.

  I kind of understood that, though. If a species had eaten my finger, I'd probably be kind of hostile to them, too… I don't think I would have looked at them like food, though, especially not a biped…

  Zavier was decently enthusiastic about us staying with them to train, but Zavier was also just kind of going through the motions, considering he wasn't planning on being a trainer in any capacity after this Circuit. Not that that was unusual, of course. Most people released all but one, or just all of their Pokemon after they gave up on being a trainer, but Zavier was actually a good trainer, so it still seemed like kind of a waste to me.

  We were going to have to adjust our training after we separated from the insane trio, though. Wigglytuff had actually been learning Heal Pulse from Hope and Grace, so we could go a little harder in training than before, not to mention Gravity! I still despised that training, but I knew it worked. Their Pokemon barely reacted to it these days, for the most part, and the girls?

  They were all much stronger than they looked, and Leaf? Leaf could easily pick up Erin and throw her! I knew that for a fact, because she had! As they sparred, because of course they fought each other almost daily! Well, Alex had said it that first time, and I had seen it myself. Leaf and Alex sparred with Erin. Erin fought them, she just got her ass kicked a lot, being smaller and slightly weaker than the other two, outnumbered with a shorter reach.

  Insane didn't begin to do them justice, but-

  "Ian!" I jerked out of my musings at Erin's voice, and looked over the fire at her. She gave me an easy smile.

  "Lost in thought, huh? Want to do some early-morning hunting tomorrow? I mean, Tauros for dinner is fine and all, but I was thinking some more Pidgeotto sounds nice for breakfast or lunch. Tauros is just too heavy to eat for every meal that has meat…"

  I gave her a long look, though.

  "I mean, shouldn't you be asking Snazzy? I don't exactly have a gun, obviously." Her mouth dropped open slightly, and she looked mildly embarrassed.

  "Oh, yeah, that makes more sense… Do you want to, though? I know your family hunts." I shrugged.

  "Sure, but I doubt even you have a gun." She laughed easily, even as Leaf and Alex looked at her in exasperation.

  "I don't, actually! I'm always armed, though…" Now Heather and Zavier were looking wary, but I was intrigued.

  "With a ranged weapon?" She smiled and lifted her arms. Her weird looking bracers were there, but… wait….

  "Check it out!" She bent her palms back and suddenly there were two blades almost as long as her forearm sticking out of those bracers! Heather and Zavier both jumped in their seats, but I didn't… much. That was still startling…

  "Okay, what the hell are those?" She grinned evilly and chuckled.

  "These are my… work tools, I guess you could say?" Now all three of us were a little nervous, even as Leaf and Alex just rolled their eyes.

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  Erin took one of them off and walked over to me. I didn't flinch, because if Erin wanted to kill me for some strange reason, well… I'd never have known… She turned it over and pointed at a small hole in the 'top' of them, a hole that faced… forwards…

  "You can't trigger the blades, I bought aura triggers meant for Lucario for those, but I do have magnetic bolt throwers in them! That's how I do most of my hunting, actually. Well, most of my small Pokemon hunting. The blades themselves are for the bigger Pokemon and humans… The bolt throwers are manually triggered, though." She straightened and walked back to her spot, strapping her 'bracer' back on.

  "So if you want to hunt tomorrow, I'll lend you one. Your call." I thought for a long moment, ignoring the green faces of Heather and Zavier.

  Fuck it.

  "You know what? Sure! I haven't been on a hunt in awhile, actually, and I feel kind of bad eating all the meat you hunted…" I did, too. I mean, I could just eat our trail rations, but they weren't that great compared to fresh meat…

  Erin gave me a wide, happy smile.

  "Great! Maybe we'll get really lucky and find a small herd of Ponyta, too! They aren't super common all the way up here, but I know for a fact that Tauros occasionally wander up here across the bridge, so Ponyta would be nice… Or another Tauros, honestly. We could use another one to replace what we've all eaten so far."

  I frowned at the thought of attacking a herd of Tauros, but… they were delicious…

  "It would be nice to add one of those to my 'personally hunted' list, too…" Excuse me, what?!

  "How?!" She grinned at me.

  "Well, I do the sneaky sneak, freeze them up with aura, then stab the base of their skull. Easy. At that point Artemis and Cerberus could come out and hunt the rest of them, too…" Cerberus grinned from his spot as her seat, both heads looking happy at the thought.

  She was… way too insane…

  —

  —

  "Erin, do you have any songs you've finished that we could hear?"

  Erin's eyes flickered towards us before she glared at Leaf so hard it looked like she should be bursting into flame.

  "Leaf…" Leaf just smiled at her growling sister.

  "I mean, you go off with Dexter every night, I know you're working on some! Come on! They can't all be dirty, right?" Wait, that was what she did each night?

  Erin's glare grew more intense as her eyes blazed royal purple. Because of course the most insane girl's eyes did…

  "Leaf, you make it sound like I'm dirty! Those songs aren't dirty, either! They're just not-" She cut herself off and turned her glare on us briefly.

  "They're just not age appropriate!" Now I was confused. More confused, I guess.

  "Aren't you fourteen? They can't be that bad, right? Also, you sing?" I honestly couldn't imagine Erin singing at all.

  Erin growled before her glare turned squarely on Leaf again, but Leaf was just smiling sweetly at her. Too sweetly, even as she spoke again…

  "Erin's heard a lot of songs before, and she's remaking some of them. She won't let us hear the ones that talk about relationships, though, and I guess she knows a lot of those." What?

  Erin continued to glare at her, but Dexter apparently found that funny, because he laughed from his usual spot hovering over Erin's left shoulder.

  "Most of them aren't even remotely dirty, either! She's just embarrassed to sing them where other people can hear them! She-" Erin's snatching hand was blasted by what looked suspiciously like a weak Spark. Wait, was that a weak Spark, or just a normal one? There was electricity dancing on the fingers of her opposite hand!

  "Dexter! Don't do i-" Dexter did, though.

  "In fact, if she refuses to sing, I can play at least one that has no naughty stuff!" He giggled and zoomed higher into the air as Erin leapt for him.

  Alex was smirking at the sight.

  "Erin, you act like thirteen year olds have never heard of hand holding, much less kissing! I know you have to have a few that aren't 'dirty'!"

  Erin clenched her fists so tightly I saw them turn pale beneath the tan we'd all gotten on the beach and cliffs around here. Leaf just kept going, though.

  "What about that one you said you'd send mom? Even if you told her you'd send just the lyrics, I know you did the whole song!" Erin glared at her, but sighed after a long moment.

  "Fine! It's not that bad, I guess… Seraphina, could you pull the subwoofer out, sweetie? Mom, could I get a platform? Not that there's much dancing for this one, but I like to move a little…"

  Leto grinned and closed her eyes. A moment later small stone pillars shot up off to the side of the fire, before stone flowed into a wide platform. Erin stomped over to the platform as Seraphina plugged a large subwoofer into the mobile powerbank their group had. That had been very convenient, actually. We had a smaller one, but no solar panels, so we usually had to ration our electronics use between Centers. They obviously had the panels, what with Dexter eating electricity…

  Erin scowled at Leaf and Alex as she turned around, and I grinned a little at the sight. Erin might be… Erin, but she was cute, even with that nasty-looking scar on her face. Especially in that light purple sundress. Her eyes flickered towards me, but I'd quickly learned that actually averting my gaze only made the glares worse, so I just smiled at her.

  "So, as usual, this is just my horrible recreation of an actual talented artist's song… One not meant for my voice… It's called… 'Waiting for Love'..." Her face was a little red, but Dexter started playing what sounded like piano notes, then some drums beats.

  Erin's voice was… deeper, more resonant? It was still kind of… high pitched, she wasn't forcing it, but still deeper…

  "Where there's a will, there's a way, kind of beautiful

  And every night has its day, so magical

  And if there's love in this life, there's no obstacle

  That can't be defeated..."

  Erin honestly didn't have the best singing voice in my opinion, but she put some decent emotion into the words, at least…

  "For every tyrant a tear for the vulnerable

  In every lost soul the bones of a miracle

  For every dreamer a dream we're unstoppable

  With something to believe in…"

  Eventually she finished after a few minutes, and I had actually kind of enjoyed that. To my vast surprise…

  Her face was red as she looked at us, then glared at Leaf and Alex.

  "Happy?" Leaf just shook her head.

  "Erin, that was nice, sure, but… what about that other one? Shivers, I think?" Erin growled at her, but Dexter had a few things to say.

  "She actually finished that one! I could play it right now! Although, let me tell you two some disturbing information." I was confused, but Leaf and Alex got a little green, even as Erin turned red.

  "She may have joked about Lance singing it to Ms. Greenwood, but she still sent it to him! Considering they're dating now? I almost guarantee he sang it to her or will in the future! Want to hear the love song Lance sang to your mom? Alex, want to hear the love song your… Lance sang to Ms. Greenwood?" Judging by the disgusted faces, no, no they did not…

  "Dexter, why did you have to ruin it?!" Alex was mildly upset, though.

  I cleared my throat to get their attention.

  "Maybe just… sing it anyway? It can't be that bad if she sent it to the… the Champion."

  Still kind of weirded out by that, but compared to everything else in this group? That made some sense. I mean, being Champion didn't exactly mean Lance had to be single forever, and the three of them were Journeying together, so them meeting each other in the first place wasn't strange…

  Leaf was scrunching her face up too, though.

  "I agree, actually, Dexter ruined it. I'd rather not hear that song, now…"

  Erin got a devious look on her face before she smiled. What confused me was how Hecate smiled, too.

  "So, I have another song… this one is fun, but I'm not a musician of any sort… Luckily Hecate spent some time with the Hypno and Drowzee at the Ranch, and she learned to do memory sharing from them. Not enough to pull more than one person in, or to do it often, but enough that she could show Dexter a few memories. They won't sound exactly the same, since Dexter can't record a memory, but honestly, he's far better at reproducing the sounds than I am." She smiled at Dexter, then frowned at Stabby.

  "Curses in a song don't count, Stabby… No, they do not count!... I don't think mom specified that! In fact, I know sh- I'll knock you around if you do, dude!" She shuffled in place a few times before getting into a fighting stance! To punch her fae best friend out of the air!

  Still never got an explanation on why it didn't hurt Erin to commune with fae, and I got the feeling I never would…

  What sounded like an electric guitar began playing, then I understood Erin's warning to Stabby…

  "All you need is just some good fucking music that you headbang to

  To forget all your problems and what's bothering you

  So come on raise the volume, it will soon feel good

  Alright, alright, alright

  Here we go!"

  Erin was very correct. The second she said 'fucking' Stabby flew at her, smiling widely, and she punched him right out of the air. The only thing was, he never stopped trying… I saw her aura flare visibly a few times, and I had to assume she was doing something to him, considering how he would freeze occasionally…

  She was punching a fae, let me repeat that… She was punching. A. Fae!

  Arceus, she was insane… and she didn't let Stabby's lazy attempts stop her singing, of course…

  "You've had a rough week, a rough month

  It seems like nothing goes your way, nah

  You need some music, a good song

  That makes you forget all the trouble.

  So put your headphones on

  And come on and singalong

  All you need is just some good fucking music that you headbang to

  To forget all your problems and what's bothering you

  So come on raise the volume, it will soon feel good

  Alright, alright, alright!"

  She kept going, and eventually the song finished. Stabby kept going, though, and with a wide grin Erin stomped him out of the air, pinning him down with her boot. Stabby laughed, of course, but… still! Insanity!

  She released him, and he floated back, still smiling widely… Erin jogged over to her pack, though, and pulled out a… tight-fitting headset with a microphone before jogging back, putting it on as she did.

  "Okay, one more. I haven't actually gotten a good chance to do the vocals for this one, simply because I wasn't trying to be that loud, so it's not a bad chance to actually record it… I do love a good scream… This is called 'Heavy is the Crown.'" Scream? Excuse me?

  What?

  A few repeating sounds started playing, then a decently heavy guitar and drum sound. I actually enjoyed it. Rock was one of my favorite genre's… Erin was smiling so widely though.

  Her voice was once again deeper than normal as she started…

  "It's pourin' in, you're laid on the floor again

  One knock at the door and then

  We both know how the story ends

  You can't win if your white flag's out when the war begins

  Aimin' so high, but swingin' so low

  Tryna catch fire but feelin' so cold

  Hold it inside and hope it won't show

  I'm sayin' it's not but inside I know."

  Her voice got softer.

  "Today's gonna be the day you notice

  'Cause I'm tired of explainin' what the joke is-"

  Her voice went higher, but still deep compared to her normal voice, and I had to assume this was supposed to be two singers, one male and one female. It was also almost raspy somehow.

  "This is what you asked for, heavy is the crown

  Fire in the sunrise, ashes rainin' down

  Try to hold it in, but it keeps bleeding out

  This is what you asked for, heavy is the-, heavy is the crown."

  Some of those words had been… not shouted, but louder for sure… then she went back to a deeper voice.

  "Turn to run, now look what it's become

  Outnumbered, ten to one

  Back then should've bit your tongue

  'Cause there's no turnin' back this path once it's begun

  You're already on that list

  Say you don't want what you can't resist

  Waving that sword when the pen won't miss

  Watch it all fallin' apart like this."

  She was frowning in concentration, switching between two voices… Neither of which was great, honestly…

  "This is what you asked for, heavy is the crown

  Fire in the sunrise, ashes rainin' down

  Try to hold it in, but it keeps bleeding out

  This is what you asked for, heavy is the—, heavy is the crown."

  "Today's gonna be the day you notice

  'Cause I'm tired of explainin' what the joke is-"

  She took a quick gulp of air, and her smile turned feral as she switched back to that higher pitched, almost raspy voice.

  Then I understood why she hadn't done the vocals for this song yet…

  "This is what you asked for!"

  Arceus above! She screamed out that 'for'! For what felt like fifteen fucking seconds, just a continuous 'oooorrrr' sound! I swore I felt aura hit me and freeze me for a split second, too! I'd heard similar screams in songs before, but never up close with aura!

  She took a quick gasp of air, because she was slightly red in the face, before continuing in the same voice.

  "This is what you asked for, heavy is the crown

  Fire in the sunrise, ashes rainin' down

  Try to hold it in but it keeps bleeding out

  This is what you asked for, heavy is the—, heavy is the crown!"

  She held that 'crown' for a few seconds, and the next one, too!

  "Heavy is the crown!

  Heavy is the—, heavy is the crown!"

  Erin took a few seconds to breathe deeply, then rolled her head a few times.

  "I like that song, but honestly, it doesn't sound good with just my voice… Or my voice in general, actually. I don't think most of the songs I know do…"

  I glanced over and saw that I wasn't the only one who hadn't been expecting that. Leaf and Alex looked mostly unsurprised, but Heather's eyes were still slightly wide, and Zavier… Zavier looked happy, actually!

  "That was really good, Erin! Think you could send that to me?" Erin narrowed her eyes at Zavier, but I guess she could tell that he was serious. He had liked that song… I had too, honestly, but I wasn't brave enough to ask for her to send it to me…

  I would just get it from Zavier at some point…

  —

  —

  The next morning I was awoken far too early, and I really regretted agreeing to go hunting… in the morning, at least. I still grumbled my way awake as Erin collected her team, a process which I found pretty funny, actually.

  Apparently most of her Pokemon would rather sleep in as well, considering even Cerberus growled at her, but she just popped him on his heads and he quieted down. Artemis was the only one seemingly ready to rise before the sun, and Erin got glares from everyone else before they retreated into their Luxury Balls.

  Snazzy was enthusiastic about going hunting, of course. Weavile were pack hunters, and during our Journey so far she had been very limited in what she could actually hunt by herself. I mean, sure, she could easily kill a Rattata by herself, but according to her they didn't taste good or have enough meat. Bug types like Weedle and Caterpie were nasty, too, so the single Raticate had been her 'best' hunt so far here in Kanto. They apparently tasted much better than their unevolved forms… The Pidgey line was her usual prey, but most Pidgeotto and Pidgeot were either too fast or too high up for her, even with her ranged Moves.

  I left the rest of my team behind, however. Delibird and Mr. Mime were both herbivores and not fans of hunting, and Eevee preferred a few different flavors of the highly compact, nutritious Pokemon food from stores. The others didn't, and would only eat it as a last resort, but I guess she had gotten used to eating it at the Breeders… It was expensive, and I still tried to get her to try new things, but hey, everyone had preferences…

  We moved a decent distance away from the camp before Erin turned to me with a wide smile. A wide, sleepy smile.

  "I should have made some coffee before we left… Are you right handed or left?" I was too groggy to answer and just held up my right arm, and she handed me her right bracer, showing me how to tighten it up and the hidden safety and trigger.

  Then she went to a tree and pulled out one of her terrifying kukri before slashing a thin X in the trunk.

  "Get a bit of practice in with it. It's not a gun, and the bolts don't have large vanes or anything, so try from ten yards or so at first." She swayed a little on her feet, but shook her head a bit before steadying herself.

  I kind of expected a kick from the bracer, but no, there was zero kick when I unleashed my first shot. My first, wide shot. Gradually, however, I got the hang of it. There weren't any sights on it, but there were a series of stitches on the leather exterior that lined up with the bolt-thrower.

  After ten minutes, and draining the twenty bolts in there, Erin decided I was good enough. She took my arm briefly, and after a moment the top of the bracer popped open, allowing her to slide another 'magazine' of bolts inside.

  It took a few more minutes to pull the used bolts out of the trunk, and there may have been more than a few that were lost to the underbrush…

  After my practice was done Artemis popped out and began excitedly sniffing, and after another moment I tapped on Snazzy's Pokeball. Her and Artemis growled at each other for a long moment before they spread out, and I followed Erin deeper into the woods.

  —

  —

  "I didn't think we would actually find some Ponyta, but this is great!"

  Erin's voice was gleeful, but I kept my voice low as I cautiously responded to her enthusiasm.

  "So are you going to try to hunt one of them yourself?" She gave me a look like I was the insane one, and not her!

  "Not a Fire type, hell no! Even if I freeze it up and kill it instantly, I get the feeling their fire will flare up, and I like having hair and eyebrows, not to mention the rest of the herd! That Rapidash looks mean…" It did, honestly.

  There were plenty of open fields and meadows in the woods, and we had found a small herd of Ponyta led by a single Rapidash in this one. The Rapidash would bend down, pull out some grass, and whip its head around as the Ponyta idly munched down plant matter. There was no way to get close enough for Erin to pull her insanity.

  "Then how are we-" I cut off as she shushed me, and I noticed the Rapidash looking in our direction. Crap.

  Erin held a finger up and pointed at the ground, and I knew she wanted me to stay put… Snazzy crawled over to my side as Erin… she didn't disappear, not by any means, but all the sudden her form was just… indistinct, like my eyes wanted to slide right over her. I guess that was aura?

  The Rapidash snorted out some fire before bending back over and I hunkered down to wait. Not that I had to wait very long.

  After a couple minutes an intense Water Gun shot out from the side of the meadow, drilling right through a Ponyta's head. The herd began to panic, but they only had a few seconds before Artemis burst through the edge of the other side of the clearing. She Roared at the herd, causing a Ponyta to stumble as it attempted to run, and she was on it in a flash, tearing its throat out even as flames covered her momentarily.

  Then Cerberus burst from the woods directly opposite me with his own dual Roars, snatching up a blazing Ponyta like it weighed nothing with one head even as he continued to charge another Ponyta, and I grew nervous. For good reason, as the remaining Ponyta and Rapidash started running at me!

  Still, this wasn't the first time I had been in this position before by any means, even if the fire was kind of different…

  "Snazzy, see if you can hamstring one as they run past, but be careful." She nodded at me even as I retreated behind a tree.

  The herd lost another Ponyta to a second Water Gun, but now they were hitting the treeline. I pulled my head around, not wanting to catch a flaming hoof to the face, and watched Snazzy dart in to slice at the last, trailing Ponyta's leg.

  It stumbled, falling to the ground momentarily, and my buddy struck. A Metal Claw tore that unfortunate Ponyta's throat out as it tried to stand, and then she was darting away from the blast of fire that erupted momentarily. She didn't need to do anything else, as the Ponyta quickly collapsed, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  I was mildly worried about all the fire in the woods, but I assume the entire reason this herd was here was because of the sheer dampness of this forest. Ponyta weren't exactly immune to fire itself, especially external fire they hadn't created with type energy, so it made sense that they stayed in the plains or damper areas. They stuck close to damper areas and water in both locations even if they didn't like water, actually, because not even Ponyta enjoyed outrunning a wildfire they had created.

  I tried to ignore the sounds of crunching from behind me as Cerberus devoured one of his two kills and stood back up.

  The meadow was a bit of a mess right now, actually. Five Ponyta corpses, one being actively devoured, along with torn and scorched earth and grasses met my eyes. I gulped a little as my eyes accidentally passed over Cerberus. I was a hunter from a family of hunters. Blood and carcasses weren't exactly unknown to me, but the way he tore limbs off was a bit… visceral.

  Erin jogged over to me, face practically shining with joy.

  "That was great! Good job, Snazzy!" My Pokemon practically preened as her back straightened. Erin's smiling face rose to meet my slightly-stunned one, and she grinned.

  "Ever had Ponyta tenderloin?" My stomach rumbled, because no, I had not…

  —

  —

  Heather and Zavier looked more than a little green when we made it back to camp, Artemis and Cerberus dragging corpses behind them, but they certainly perked right back up when we all had our first taste of Ponyta tenderloin.

  Maybe insanity paid off sometimes, if this was one of the results… Insanity and a strong team…