Last of the Wilds [Private]

[Australian Chaos]

Tanga took Viola's response to his thanks with the beginnings of hope...hope that he may have found a friend at last. His optimism was only cautious...he'd been betrayed by apparant 'friends' before...but he, for once, allowed himself that tiny ray of light within...she wasn't of his pack, so maybe this friendship could be real...just this once?

But as Viola slowly and unsteadily replied to his question of something being wrong, he instantly felt terrible as the poor Vulpix fought the need to cry...slowly losing the battle as tears streaked down her muzzle, explaining what the Trainer had told her.

With the Vulpix's revelation, Tanga felt a whole series of emotions hit him, one after the other. Here he was, constantly angsting about his rough cubhood, and Viola was telling him that the good life she had known was being ripped away form her...permanently. But was it really true? Could this Vulpix be the last one alive?

In the end, Tanga reasoned that it was not possible, but figured that Viola's emotional well-being needed to be taken care of first. But how to help her calm down? Whenever he was upset over his treatment at home, all he could do was simply find some place to be alone, where he could get himself under control again...just suck it up and tough it out. But he also knew that he was an exception to the usual rule, and that it would be highly insensitive of him to just leave her to wallow in her misery.

"Hey," he said, making his voice as gentle as possible. "Don't listen to that Trainer...I'm sure that can't be true. You said yourself that your parents were captive, so he must be lying, or just thinks you're the last one." Part of him wanted to approach her, to put a paw on her shoulder, or maybe hug her, just do something to help her calm down and feel better...but his social awkwardness interfered, and he didn't know what to do.

In the end, he settled for a small gesture...he hobbled up to her side, sitting down beside her, close enough to offer some small comfort, but also giving her a little space if she needed it. "It's okay, Viola," he continued, trying to be as soothing as possible. "I know it must be hard...but what I said before still stands...anything I can do to help, I'll try and do." He sighed softly, feeling so useless in that moment. Here Viola was, obviously stressed and emotionally strained, and he had not a clue what to do to help her.

[Zorayda]

Viola was vaguely aware of Tanga’s emotions swirling around as she told him, finally, what was wrong… it felt immediately better when she let it out, but she wondered if the lion would understand… she was aware of his presence when he sat close to her, trying to soothe her with his tone and his words. Lying… no, she didn’t think that the trainer would lie about something stupid like that—why would he? But maybe Tanga was right about the latter…perhaps the human was mistaken. Maybe he wasn’t privy to the information of the whereabouts of her parents because of their rarity or something… a small, piercing ray of hope entered her heart at his suggestion, but it was still clouded by doubt. Her jaw trembled and her teeth clenched in self-restraint, fighting her tears, but it only made it worse. She was torn between guilt for not finding her parents, hope of them still being alive, and despair at the thought of the other possibility… Viola hesitated before leaning her head on his paw, being relatively large in size compared to her smallish body. She knew he wasn’t touchy-feely, but she needed at least a tiny amount of physical touch for reassurance. Closing her eyes, she took calming breaths before trying to speak again.

“Maybe you’re right… maybe that trainer was wrong. Maybe they’re okay,” she said softly, more to herself than to Tanga. She opened her eyes and looked up at him, having to crane her neck to look up at the relatively tall lion. “Maybe… would it be okay if you helped me to find them? At least… to see them, if not to free them… I just want to know… I have to find out if… if…” she trailed off, unable to finish her sentence. The words were just too horrible to say out loud.

She allowed herself a few more seconds of self-pity before she righting herself again, sniffling.

“Right, let’s keep moving and get you cleaned up. A gimpy luxray is a dead luxray, after all,” she pointed out, her steps more determined than before. Her fire had partially returned, thanks to Tanga’s words… she’d have to repay him someday for picking her up when she’d fallen apart. As she walked, her ribs twinged painfully, causing her to cringe, when suddenly a thought popped into her head.

“Hey… can’t luxrays see through things? I normally wouldn’t ask, but… can you check and see if I have any broken ribs?” She asked sheepishly. “I think there’s one on the left somewhere that might be cracked or something…”

[Australian Chaos]

Tanga waited patiently as Viola struggled with her emotions, letting her have the time she needed to let her mind process and deal with everything that had been piled on her. He flinched slightly when she leaned against his leg, but somehow, through massive effort of self-control of his part, manage to fight his fear of physical contact enough to let her have the comforting touch he knew she needed right now.

As she slowly agreed to his words, Tanga offered her another small, reasurring smile. He could still hear the doubt in her voice, but she was trying to be optimistic, and that, in Tanga's mind, was far better than her mental state a few moments ago. As she posed her request, Tanga cut in over her, knowing she did not want to finish her sentence...nor did she need to. "Of course, Viola. If you need to see them, of course I'll help you find them. I don't know how much good I'll be, but I'll help any way I can."

At that point, Viola seemed to calm herself, reminding them that they had to keep moving, adding a slightly humourous play to her phrasing that might have given Tanga the barest of amusement if it weren't for the rather dark conversation preceeding it. As Tanga nodded, resuming his hobbling walk beside the Vulpix, he noted her more determined stance, a small fire seeming to burn in her amber eyes now...she had some hope back, and Tanga was glad to see it.

But when Viola asked if he could check her ribs, Tanga's entire world came crashing to a terrifying halt. There it was, the one aspect of his being he loathed more than anything else...his defective eyes...and Viola had finally, inevitably brought it up. Tanga's immediate response to the request was to simply freeze on the spot, his entire body going tense, as he fought to control the overwhelming waves of shame and self-loathing that any thought about his eyes brought up.

The tension in his body was soon replace by an uncontrollable shaking as the thought train uncontrollably moved on, his defective eyes reminding him of the rest of his body...of how just how different and freakish he really was...and what it had meant for his time in his pack. Now the roles were reversed, and he was the one fighting back his emotions while Viola was left to figure out what had just happened.

And as Tanga remembered Viola, he realised the situation he was in was bad. Part of him wanted to shout at her, to demand that she never bring it up again, but he squashed that. Not only would it just anger and upset her, but in his old pack, it usually only provoked more violence. But at the same time, Viola would want and explanation to his sudden cahnge in mood...but he could not bring himself to admit his greatest flaw to her...it was his deepest, darkest secret, one he had vowed to keep to himself.

[Zorayda]

Viola was grateful for the lion’s support, and a big wash of relief flooded through her body. It was nice to know that there were still decent beings out there, those that truly cared for others and had good hearts. She could tell that they’d be friends for a very long time. Already, the possibilities of adventure whirled around in her head, making her excited to begin… but first, they needed to heal and rest. And they needed to hide… she would need to form some kind of idea to conceal their presence or lead the humans away somehow. She shrugged it off for the moment—it would be easy for her to trick those silly beings with her clever wits.

She sensed his content when she’d calmed down and appreciated the sentiment. It was a lovely feeling to know that someone truly cared for her well-being, especially since she’d been alone for so long… but when she was blasted by waves of horribly dark emotion after asking him to examine her ribs, she stopped where she was, the hairs along her spine raising in automatic self-defense, trying to ward off the negative energy emanating from the electric lion. Self-loathing, indignance, anger, shame, guilt… all of it crashed down upon the two of them, and she could almost feel the physical pain of such terrible emotion. She turned around immediately, eyes wide with fear and shock, to see the cat trembling, halted behind her. It took her a good, long minute before she could shake off his emotions, separating his from her own, and she approached him cautiously.

“Tanga. Tanga, calm down,” she ordered sternly, trying to knock a little sense into him. “Hey, whatever it is, it’s okay. You don’t have to use your ability if you’re afraid to,” she said clearly, wrongly assuming the problem. She wasn’t aware of the reasoning behind his panic, his fear… “I’m not all that badly injured, and even if there is a broken rib, I can’t do much about it, so let’s just forget I asked, okay?” She added gently. Her eyes scrutinized his reaction to her words, shrewdly taking in his state and his answer. They really, really needed to get to the river… to cover their scent and to get him cleaned up before infection took his leg, or worse, killed him. That snake bite was horrendous.

[Australian Chaos]

Viola's voice did have the desired effect of snapping Tanga out of his violently deteriorating thoughts, but her misconception that he was afraid to use his ability just stung even more...so he was either a freak or a coward, then, in Viola's eyes. Some choice, he thought bitterly, even as he spoke up, not really taking the time to think his words through. "No, Viola, it's...I..." he voice was shaking as badly as his body with emotion, trying to contain the burning swell of emotions...throwing a huge fit at Viola was not something he wanted to do.

In the end, though, his emotions desperately needed a release, and before he could explode, Tanga left, moving as fast as his injured leg would allow, ignoring the pain it sent every time he put weight on it in favour of putting as much distance between himsef and Viola as possible. He would not throw a tantrum at her...she couldn't possibly have known, it's not her fault.

But as Tanga's desperate flee reached the banks of the river they had been searching for, Tanga's emotions exploded with the force of an Electrode at full power. With a loud, agonised, roar, he let loose with a wild, and rather powerful Discharge, bolts of electricity arcing in all directions, leaving scorch marks on several trees as Tanga vented his emotions the only way he could.

When he had finally spent his emotions...along with a good portion of his electric stores, Tanga simply let himself fall onto his belly in the shallows of the river, which allowed the gently flowing water to clean his shoulder wound, and the water soaking his fur to hide his tears as he fought back a sobbing fit. "Why, Viola?" he whispered. "Why'd you have to bring that up?"

[Zorayda]

The fox opened her mouth to say something, anything, to Tanga, to help fix whatever she’d said or done, but the anger came rolling off of him in waves and her words faltered. She took a few steps back in automatic self-preservation and her hackles raised half-heartedly out of pure instinct. Who knew that the soft-spoken lion could feel such rage? She really must have fiddled with a nerve… She held her breath as his anger rose faster and faster, until he finally just ran off, hurt leg and all.

Flabbergasted, Viola stood there with her mouth hanging open for a good two minutes before dashing off to find her friend. Her ribs still ached dully, but she ignored it, figuring that she’d sleep it off… her breath came in sharp gasps as she looked for Tanga. It didn’t take long to guess where he went—she heard a distant roar and the sharp explosion of electricity somewhere in front of her, through the trees. He couldn’t be left alone in such a state… how could he defend himself from a trainer if they so happened upon him right now? He’d be much too emotionally compromised to do much of anything… Sure enough, she heard the soft sniffles of Tanga’s crying.

She slowed her gait, easing her paws carefully on the grass with each step. She didn’t want to upset him further with her presence… But he needed someone with him right now, at least until he’d regained his composure. Softly treading the grass, she got a little closer to him, his face turned away from her so that she couldn’t see his expression. Her ears flattened apologetically and she laid down near him, her head on her paws, six tails waving mindlessly behind her.

“Hey…” she finally said, a little awkwardly. What was she supposed to say? She knew that she’d angered him, though she didn’t entirely know why… but she had to fix this… whatever it was. “Heck of an explosion, there,” she tried feebly, a weak giggle escaping her throat. Her smile faded after a second and she stood up, averting her gaze.

“Can I tell you a story?” She asked, and without waiting for an answer, she continued, “Once there was a lonely little red fox who had strange yellow eyes, different from any other fox she’d ever seen. Her parents had been taken away a long time ago and she was very sad, even though she tried to hide it with laughter. One day, an equally lonely lion showed up, a lion who was also different from any other of his species. Together, they encountered an evil giant snake who wanted to take the two of them away to a bad place. The lion had a good and brave heart, and he protected the fox from the worst attacks. They defeated the snake, becoming fast friends.”

Viola finished her little ‘tale’ and got even closer to Tanga, leaning down to whisper in his ear.
“I think I’m really beginning to like the color yellow,” she whispered, her eyes sparkling with mirth. After planting that little seed in Tanga’s head, she trotted away, acting as though nothing had ever happened. “So, let’s get you cleaned up the rest of the way, bathe in the river—“ here, she wrinkled her nose in distaste; being a fire type, she hated all water—“And we’ll find a safe place to plot.” Viola grinned wickedly at her last statement, ideas of adventure forming in her mind.

[Australian Chaos]

Tanga did not hear Viola's approach, so lost in his own mental sea of misery that he missed her soft footfalls completely as she laid down on the bank of the river behind him. He very nearly had a panic attack when her voice spoke up, awkward and nervous, but he managed to limit it to a small, startled twitch, but continued to stare out into the river, although he never really saw it.

When Viola commented on his rather wild Discharge before, he fought back to urge to shoot a scathing retort at her, instead settling for a stifled snort, no humour in it whatsoever. If he had bothered the look back at the results, he probably would have noticed that his venting had actually been the most potent electric attack he had ever launched in his life...but he never looked, and in his current state, it was unlikely he would even care...all the electrical power in the world could not stop him from being a freak.

But then Viola pressed on, asking if she could tell him a story. "Viola..." he called with a hint of irritability, clearly not in the mood for stories. He really just wanted to be alone for a few minutes, but Viola cut over him, beginning her story without letting him stop her.

As Viola's story progressed, Tanga actually pulled his muzzle around to look at her, realising rather quickly that she was telling the story of how they met, in blatantly simple and cliched terms, but their story nevertheless. Part of him wanted so badly to correct her, to explain that his differences were not just on the surface, that he was defective on the inside, too...but he couldn't. There was something about the childish way she phrased her tale that made the worst of his self-loathing and misery vanish.

When the Vulpix leaned in and whispered to him about her new fondness for his rare colouration, he could not stop the tiniest chuckle escaping his throat, a small sparkle of life dancing in his unique eyes once more. He was still far from defeating his inner demons, but the hope had returned...maybe, with Viola by his side, things wouldn't be so bad any more.

As Viola suggested they clean up before planning their next move, Tanga nodded, a hint of firmness in his gesture that showed he had the vaguest traces of confidence in himself back. He turned to wade deeper into the river, before pausing as a couple of Magikarp floated lazily by, and turning back to face the firey fox. "Viola...thank you. I...maybe one day, you'll understand why my differences make me weaker and inferior to everyone else - please don't say they don't. But for now...it's something I have to deal with on my own. Just...thank you for snapping me out of that."

With that, he turned back, wading into the river, letting the gentle flow pull all the dirt and grime out of his fur, and clean his shoulder wound. "Now come on...let's get cleaned up before that Trainer decides to come back."

[Zorayda]

Viola was relieved and happy when, after showing signs of irritability and anger, Tanga finally gave her the tiniest laugh at her comment that she’d whispered to him. She saw his tear-streaked face and her heart lurched a bit, but when his eyes crinkled in a tiny smile and a spark of—well, electricity—entered his eyes, she finally felt that he’d be just fine. When he spoke, she cocked her head to the side and listened, wanting very much to contradict his comment about himself, but remained silent as he’d wished.

Aw, Tanga, I wish you could see yourself how an outsider sees you… she thought. That Discharge attack was quite powerful—though she hadn’t had much experience with electric types and their attacks, she was pretty sure that his was above average, at least.

“Hey, it’s no problem. I’ll be here when you need me,” she answered him after his mini-speech. She had a feeling that he didn’t want to talk much more about it, though, so she winked at him before briskly trotting over to the river’s edge where he’d begun to wash his wounds.

She watched him clean up to make sure that he got his entire wound and the surrounding area, and noticed with a grimace that the river downstream ran a light pink with his dried blood. But the bite marks looked good and clean. When she was satisfied, she stepped reluctantly closer to the river, gingerly dipping a forepaw in. She took it right back out, shaking it and sticking out her tongue in disgust. She absolutely hated water.

“Urgh… all right, Viola, just get in…” she muttered to herself. She knew that doing so would cover her scent for at least a little while… but the water would cool her off and probably make any fire attacks weaker for a short time. At least for about half an hour or so… Closing her eyes and sucking in a deep breath, she leapt in. The cool water rushed around her ears and fur—Viola kicked out with her small paws, bursting through the surface and spluttering. She really hated the water… Stabilizing herself on the smooth river rocks, she jumped out onto the other side, dripping wet. She rather looked like a half-drowned rattata… Her forelock hung sloppily over her irritated gaze and her six tails looked rather scrawny without her fur’s fluffiness.

“Bluh,” was all she could muster, scowling up at her taller lion friend.

--------------

“Rrrr…” the yellow fox crouched low, fur crackling with static electricity as he faced his opponent—a dummy, made of real rock, shaped like a deformed onix. Though he growled—a long, unbroken stream of quiet rumbling—he showed nearly no signs of aggression. He’d learned a long time ago that such acting was unneeded when one had the ability to defeat enemies with singular attacks. Within the blink of an eye, the jolteon struck out, using momentum to slam his body into the dummy. It looked as if it had exploded, and was reduced to a pile of crumbling dust after the Rock Smash attack—a signature move of the Pokemon. Scowling, he turned about and began cleaning his paws. Such simple, stupid tasks… for so long, he’d wished for better training, and for so long, his wish had gone unheeded. He was much more advanced for these facilities…

“Storm, get over here. We’re needed,” a voice called, attempting to sound authoritative. The jolteon scowled even more deeply before obeying the order, muscles thrown in sharp relief as he began slowly walking towards his trainer—an adult man, short and balding, with no real power of his own, save for the kind he got with help from technology. Storm prepared to get into a Poke ball, but the man shook his head.

“No, Storm. You need to help us find two wild Pokemon—a shiny luxray and a vulpix,” the trainer explained, knowing that the jolteon would understand his words. “They were last seen in the forest south of here. They’re strong—they defeated John’s arbok together, but he says that they were wounded in the battle. They shouldn’t be too difficult to take on, but I’m bringing the whole team for this one, just in case,” he added, tapping the two other Poke balls attached to his belt. “Here, you can explain the situation to them,” the trainer said, and released the luxio and luxray hidden within.

[Australian Chaos]

By the time Tanga had sufficiently cleaned himself off...his wounds stinging painfully the whole time...and look up once more, using a paw to pull his sopping mane out of his eyes, Viola had already jumped into the water, and had just resurfaced with a very uncomfortable look on her muzzle, one Tanga quickly understood as he remember Viola's nature as a Fire-type.

Resisting the urge to chuckle at the Vulpix's sodden look as she raced out of the water, clearly unhappy as she sputtered incoherently, Tanga headed after her, fighting to hold back his amusement at her expense...he knew he had to look pretty terrible, too. "There...hopefully that'll throw them off a little if they come looking for us," he said, wincing as he tried to step with his bad paw again, settling for tucking it awkwardly against his torso and limping on three legs again...no point overexerting it when there was no specific destination in mind...not yet, anyway.

He moved a short distance from Viola, before shaking his fur off violently, scowling slightly as he felt his mane fluff up considerably from the sudden removal of water. "So..." he began lamely, trying to decide what to do. "Where to now?"

----------

With a burst of light, Storm was accompanied by two more figures, a male Luxio, who had been born under the name Zamani, but had since adjusted to the name the human had given him, Rumble. The second one, a female Luxray whose pride meant she would never respond the anything other than her birth name, Tani, except when her Trainer called her by her pet name Jolt, since the human could not understand her.

Both blinked their eyes, shaking off the effects of being contained within the PokeBalls quickly, before turning to Storm, Tani instantly taking charge, clearly the more dominant of the two blue-furred felines. "Alright, Storm, what's the story this time?" she asked simply, mild curiously in her otherwise flat tone, as Rumble simply watched on, letting the two do most of the talking, casually inspecting his claws as he let sparks of electricity dance across them.

Rumble was a 'less talk, more shock' kind of Luxio, and in the past, had revelled in dealing that sort of behaviour out to a very specific, highly freakish pack member before the Luxray's exile, and his pack's capture not too long after. Tani, on the other paw, was much more methodical, preferring to think her actions through beforehand, and often played mind games with her opponents to throw them off their game before striking them.

[Zorayda]

Viola frowned at Tanga, sensing his laughter even if he wasn't actually laughing out loud. She guessed that she DID look rather silly... she shook out her fur, using her inner heat as a sort of blow dryer to make herself dry out faster.

"Hm... well, we need to find shelter of some kind, so we can rest up... but we'll have to carry a branch or something with lots of leaves to 'erase' our tracks... I want to try and leave a false trail, so maybe we could walk a ways in one direction and then step on our own tracks again backwards before traveling in a different direction. That may slow any trainers down or make their teams split up..." Her brow furrowed in thought, trying to come up with ideas.

"In any case, we should start walking somewhere. Hopefully your leg heals quickly," she added worriedly.

----------

Storm watched his two companions exit their Poke balls with a somewhat bored expression on his face, allowing them to get over their brief captivity inside their containers before speaking. The luxray towered over the smaller yellow jolteon, but he held a power over them nonetheless, exuding power and authority as he stood before them.

"We have a mission," he said, his voice short. "We are to find a luxray, distinctly colored as a 'shiny', and a vulpix. They were last seen traveling together, and they defeated Ngaya, the arbok. However, despite this obvious show of power, they were injured, which means that they shouldn't be hard to catch up to. We are to capture them--not maim or kill them. The humans probably want them in top condition."

He began to walk away, expecting them, including their trainer, to follow him without question.

"Move out, and stay in wing formation. We will take them down as a unit."