Chapter 17: Wrath
"Wait for me!" Skitty screams.
The Kitten Pokémon scrambles from her group of nurses and runs back over to Turtwig and Snivy. She stands behind the two of them and watches as Turtwig uses the Nature Power-turned-Tri Attack several times just to bust up Sludge attacks. Snivy stands back and watches as she only has physical moves at her disposal. The attacks get closer and closer to the trio, but a plump beaver-like Pokémon steps in front of them.
"I don't know you lot very well, but I want to earn my keep!" Bidoof says.
Bidoof covers the group in a protective barrier and they all run away from the rampaging monster. Muk has officially made it into town, but it is only unleashing a couple globs of sludge every now and then. It appears to be studying its surroundings, but it doesn't quite understand what the scene means.
"Let's go to the Pokémon Gym," Snivy says, pointing a vine straight in front of them.
As Bidoof covers the rear with Protect, the rest of the group sprint frantically and eventually make it to the building. Skitty and Snivy run through first, then Bidoof, and Turtwig stays still as he holds the door. He looks at the monster for a brief moment. In one second, the still picture of a sad face on a malevolent body sticks in his mind, sticks to his conscience. He almost feels pity for the creature since it was forced into this state by its own trainer, but he cannot let it destroy his life.
. . .
Nearly every citizen of Fortree City resides within the walls of the gym. Ranging from the screaming elemental monkey duo to the somewhat-ill Frogadier, Snivy decides to bestow upon herself the duty of calming everyone down one by one. As she walks from the group, Chikorita runs to her side and offers her own help. The two girls walk to those in distress in order to clarify the situation.
"Yes, ma'am, we are under heavy attack," Snivy explains to a screaming Ms. Miltank.
"Are we all going to die?"
"I'd like to think not," Chikorita says.
"Probably," Snivy admits, but she soon adds a "not" to her response upon seeing several pairs of eyeballs glaring at her.
Chikorita separates from Snivy and walks over to Pansage and Panpour. She taps her head's leaf to the cheek of each monkey. She sits down between them and smiles warmly. They have cried for the past few hours since Pansear's death.
"Never forget Pansear and you will always be a happy group. Never split up, either, and the two of you will make it far. We're protect you and I won't let you guys get separated," Chikorita reassures them.
"Thank you," they both whisper through their tears.
Ralts walks around the gym's interior walls and pushes against them as if to test their strength. She glances out the windows and sees the savage Muk just looking around in a confused behavior. She ducks away from the window and presses a finger along the ridged cracks of a brick-made wall. She traces a block path and makes it down almost to the floor, but she quits her fiddling and looks at the scene before her. In the front are Turtwig, Snivy, Skitty, and Bidoof, while the others are loudly yelling at each other. She continues pacing the inner perimeter and decides to keep to herself.
"Is everyone here and accounted for?" Snivy asks in a nervous whisper.
"I believe so—well, everyone that isn't fighting, at least," Turtwig says.
"Maybe it won't sense any movement and it will move on from the city."
"We'll just have to wait it out and see."
Turtwig looks past his serpentine friend and notices that, in the dark shadows straight above him, Skarmory sits proudly, alone and proper.
"I heard he sent the leaders out in danger instead of himself," Snivy gossips.
"I wouldn't put it past him."
He focuses his attention on Ms. Miltank once again. The pink cow is now huddled with Panpour, Pansage, Litleo, Swellow, Taillow, Elekid, and Tyrogue—the whole group of children from her class…minus one: Pansear. Turtwig feels a knot form in his trachea, a knot so big that he could barely breathe. He begins to cough awkwardly as if to choke on air, but he eventually steadies his breathing and avoids unleashing a tear or two.
The shopkeeper and night watchmen, the loony Noctowl from before, is actually standing side-by-side with Xatu. Bunnelby and Tropius are trying to calm down a group of citizens, though Noctowl begins to peck at Tropius's bananas and Xatu looks at the sunlight from the window. Bunnelby gets thrown by a frustrated Frogadier—one that is still complaining about a headache. Turtwig puts a stubby foot to his face and shakes his head in disappointment.
"This way," Trapinch says to Bidoof.
He, Bidoof, and Skitty decide to go walk to Skiddo and Ponyta, who are talking nonchalantly in a corner. The three of them are greeted fondly, but the two expedition members seem to ignore them afterwards. Skitty frowns and turns to see Turtwig's reaction, but she just catches a glimpse of his shell as the Tiny Leaf Pokémon ventures out into danger.
. . .
Turtwig peeks out from the Pokémon Gym door to see two Pokémon—both lightning bugs, one red and one purple—running frantically to the building of sanctuary. The savage, however, doesn't seem to care about their destination. In seeing his next prey, Muk uses a Sludge attack to at least stop them in their tracks. Volbeat ducks and watches in horror as his purple friend gets hit by toxic waste. Within seconds, her body begins to bubble from the poison and her skin deteriorates. She begs for forgiveness and then quickly ends her breathing. Volbeat screams out in pain as his love dies. Turtwig lunges to the Pokémon, which is approximately 30 yards away, and reaches the red-necked Volbeat.
"I can't go on," he says.
"Illumise would want you to. Come on!"
Volbeat looks at his hands, which are covered in the red blood belonging to Illumise. The savage Muk inches closer and closer until the poisonous sludge begins to spread around near Turtwig's and Volbeat's feet.
"You don't have a choice—come on,
now!"
Turtwig grabs Volbeat by the neck and drags him as fast as he can. The two Pokémon barely make it inside; a Sludge attack hits the ground directly in front of the door and begins to eat away at anything it can. Turtwig shoves Volbeat into the care of others and runs back out the door, around the sludge, and in between attacks to see if there are any more civilians around.
He looks toward the former trees and sees no one. He looks at the eastern gate and only notices leaves twisting and turning in the wind. Summer is ending soon. Turtwig then looks toward the Pokémon Center and sees it: Audino is scrambling from the hospital with an armful of medical supplies. Turtwig sighs and begins to run around the slime lake once again to meet Audino.
. . .
The seagull Pokémon floats along a gust of wind and takes in the beautiful scenery: the green, flowing trees, the swaying of the long grass, the small pieces of debris flying in the air. It's a bird's paradise until he breathes in through his nose.
"This is absolutely
disgusting!" Wingull says with a distorted, gross face.
Behind him, a Japanese robin flies fiercely in the same direction. Fletchinder was told to come along in case backup is necessary, but Wingull is a slightly stronger fighter than his Fire-type Fortree counterpart.
Fletchinder also reacts negatively toward the stench, but neither bird is aware of the smell's derivation. They search the area and find nothing until they reach the northern edge of Fortree City, where there is no wall. In an attempt to circle around, they ended up stopping short to see a long, purple trail of toxic sludge coming from the mountains. Wingull immediately sends Fletchinder on a retreat mission in order to warn Scyther, but he ultimately decides to stay and figure out what is going on.
Fletchinder doubles back and glides swiftly toward the location of their expedition squad. Wingull watches with a hint of depression since he's now alone in the fight against whatever is attacking.
Then he sees it. Inside Fortree City, approximately halfway between the castle walls now, lies a giant heap of waste: a savage Muk, grimy and powerful, now resides in his former home. Wingull perches on the stone wall and studies the surrounding area. The town looks almost vacant. The three westernmost tree-houses are smashed into the ground with a mixture of stone and slime. Tree trunks lie rotting against each other in a position almost like a campfire. The Pokémon Center has now imploded on itself and allowed the roof to crash overtop the walls, leaving Fortree City without a hospital. Houses have pieces of wood, probably debris, protruding from them, and the remaining trees are rotting away, leaving a poor foundation for what tree houses do remain. Fortree City is nearly gone, nearly out of life.
Out of the corner of his eye, Wingull sees a green turtle with a rabbit-looking Pokémon, and they seem to be running away from the Muk. He narrows his eyes to see Turtwig and Audino desperately scrambling from the purple sludge. Wingull leans forward from the edge of the wall so only his claws cling to the edge. He repositions them and then pushes off, jetting himself close to the threatening savage.
Wingull ignores the other figures nearby him, the administrators of Fortree City, and focuses his attention on saving his friends. As he tucks his wings in and dives toward them, he fails to recognize his father watching him from above with bulging eyes. He fails to recognize Altaria begging him to be careful, Swellow screeching that there's already backup. He fails to recognize anything other than the danger at hand.
Wingull lashes out a powerful Air Slash, a gust of swift air strong enough to break one of the sturdy tree trunks of Fortree City, and slices an incoming glob of sludge in half. He swoops down and zips around the Muk's head in an effort to confuse it, which allows Turtwig to shove Audino into the Pokémon Gym.
. . .
"Oh, an Oran Berry!" Shuppet gasps as he floats from a bare bush to one holding a single blue berry. He glances around to see no lurkers or distractions and then shoves the succulent fruit into his mouth happily.
. . .
"Get in there and stay with the others!" Turtwig shouts as he shoves Audino inside the Pokémon Gym.
Outside of it comes Snivy and Ralts, both wishing to help some way. The three of them step in front of the Pokémon Gym and look at the rampaging Muk. Even if they kept hiding, they would eventually be covered in the slime. They have to destroy this creature once and for all.
"I don't think you should come, Ralts," Snivy says while putting a vine around the small Psychic-type's shoulders.
"But I have super effective STAB attacks that I can use—I can help defeat this thing!"
Suddenly, a streak of white swoops down and lands on Turtwig's shell: Wingull. The Pokémon greets them and waves a blue-striped feather in Muk's direction as if to show them the danger. They nod softly and blink a couple times as the creature finally catches their movements in its eyesight.
The group decides it best to attack head-on until backup arrives. In the event that no one survives or even if it gets too hazardous, all the citizens will be evacuated through the eastern wall and around the northern side of the wall in order to get far west without running into the purple trail of slime.
Turtwig stores energy in its leaf, drawing in the power from residing buildings. He then aims his twig at the creature and unleashes three powerful Tri-Attacks. The spinning triangles of power collide with the beast as it yelps back a couple of yards. As Turtwig recharges, Ralts jumps ahead and uses Psychic to pick up pieces of sludge and throw them back at the creature. Wingull uses Water Gun to wash away any leftover grime, but Turtwig does the most direct damage to the creature. Snivy, having only physical attacks at her disposal, runs into the Pokémon Gym to check things out really quick.
Though Wingull was part Water-type and Fennekin was part Fire, Tropius completes the group with his Grass-STABs. However, he himself sits in the Pokémon Gym with only a small rabbit to accompany him.
"We're not fit to fight," Bunnelby frowns.
"Sure we are," says Tropius.
"We're sitting on the job."
From behind, a throat is cleared and Snivy steps in front of them. She analyzes the two head-to-toe and shuts her eyes for a brief pause, though one long enough to distinguish from a blink. She tells them to get out there and fight, which causes both faces to light up.
The Grass-type garden snake walks past many civilians and meets up with two of Turtwig's friends: Skitty and Trapinch. The two of them, cat and ant, are tending to a sick Litleo, but Snivy whispers in the Kitten Pokémon's ear that she's now in charge of the entirety of the building. Skitty readjusts her head a bit and makes a facial expression that looks almost completely straight, straighter than the dead line of an EKG graph.
"What about Skarmory?" she asks quietly while she bandages a wound.
"He's just standing there," Snivy says in a hushed voice.
. . .
Altaria's Hyper Voice only deafens the Muk for a minute at most. Pelipper's Hydro Pump doesn't quite damage the Pokémon enough, either. Swellow, like Snivy, only has physical attacks, so even the smallest of touches would kill it.
Turtwig pants loudly as he ends his long streak of Tri Attacks. Wingull, Tropius, Bunnelby, and Ralts have attacked the Pokémon for a long time now, but nothing has happened that is really noteworthy.
He snaps out of his break and sees Snivy rushing back to him with some news: everyone is okay right now. She suggests that maybe Ground-types should be focused on since Ralts does have a weakness to Poison-types.
"I resent that and I will continue breaking this monster's sludge up!" she says.
The stubborn Pokémon stands alone and focuses all of her attention on the monster—not on her friends or her surroundings—and attacks it with Psychic, lifting debris and hurtling it in the direction of the savage.
"Trapinch's Dig would probably cause the savage to cave in on the tunnel and fill it with poison if he was to try and dig a giant hole," Turtwig says aloud.
Turtwig freezes his movements and begins to think about what to do. Instead of breathing heavily in fear because of the savage, which he has been doing almost nonstop, he decides to look at the big picture on how to approach this thing. If he can't go above it, below it, or through it, what is he going to do? He notices that, like him, the Muk has quit attacking. Though the town administrators above are still firing off attacks, the savage doesn't seem to mind them anymore.
"Wingull," Turtwig suddenly says quietly.
"Yes?"
"I need you to use Rain Dance right now."
"
Right now?"
"Yes."
. . .
"There is a giant savage Muk attacking the city!" explains a small Fire-type bird.
"What?!" Scyther screeches.
"Yes! Apparently there was a breach in the wall and the savage almost slipped through without leaving any trace—all we could find was this purple, slimy residue! If we don't hurry, we may be seeing a row of corpses along the perimeter. It doesn't look good. We must make a full retreat at once," Fletchinder says.
"So be it…give me ten minutes to get the others ready. We will be on our way. Until then, feel free to pilfer through our food and gain some of your energy back," he sighs.
. . .
The first drop. When you feel it, you feel rushed. You want to get inside. You want to grab an umbrella. Duck for cover. Find shelter. You want to get as far away as you can. The first drop is a signal, a warning, for what's about to come. It's almost always received with pure anxiety or arrogance. However, this rain was not a bad omen: it's exactly what Turtwig needs.
The first drop fell, then a second, and a third, and then thousands more as the white, puffy clouds above begin to cluster into one dark mass shaped like the mushroom cloud of a bomb. Turtwig, Snivy, Wingull, Bunnelby, and Tropius stay side-by-side while the other Flying-types fly around in distress.
"This water isn't going to dilute the poison or even just wash it all away," Bunnelby says in a frown.
"I'm not trying to make it do that," Turtwig says.
"Then what?"
"I want to try and—" he begins until the savage does something unpredictable: he uses a different move.
Suddenly, upon the creature raising its arms higher, a wave of toxic waste begins to emit from the end of the monster's body. It spreads out quickly and begins to invade the city—a Sludge Wave of sorts. One of the remaining large trees begins eroding from the eating-away of the poisons. Buildings, such as the remains of the Pokémon Center, turn to a mere occasional hunk of wood lying about. The muddy earth turns into a layer of purple.
The mud! Turtwig says to himself.
The rain pelts the ground with a rhythmic, steady beat. Turtwig begins to draw in the energy from his surroundings—the mud and sediment—and yelps as he tries to overcome his new move. Snivy watches in awe as the energy flows through his body in vivid white strings. They enter the tip of his twig and then emit a bright white light.
"Mud Bomb!" he shouts.
Suddenly, he lowers his head and points his twig at the wave of poison. He shoots globs of sturdy mud to make a small hump, an in-between of a castle wall and a speed bump, to make the poison stop in its tracks. He then aims the attacks at Muk. The creature bounces the mud off of itself and, as a result, is pushed back a little each time. As Muk gets further back, the mud begins to miss until Ralts uses her Psychic-type attacks to control the mud's path.
The clumps of sediment, outlined in a tint of light purple, are thrown repeatedly at the creature. It begins to slide back at larger intervals, and Turtwig and Ralts are therefore forced to step closer, inch by inch, to the edge of the muddy barrier. Snivy, Bunnelby, Tropius, and Wingull stay put as the three Flying-type administrators settle down beside them. The rain finally stops, the puddles soon soaking into the ground. The group seems upbeat with the new scenery and newfound hope. They cheer as Turtwig and Ralts suppress the savage, but as soon as Ralts looks their way with a smile, she trips over a rock and smacks her head against the mud wall. Turtwig stops attacking and attempts to backtrack to the others with an unconscious Ralts on his shell. However, Muk quickly recovers and unleashes another Sludge Wave.
The savage slams a pulse of poison onto the ground and unleashes its second wave. The poisonous liquid sloshes against the mud barrier and, after a few pushes, eventually breaks free from the restriction. It then proceeds to loom onward toward Turtwig's back feet. The Tiny Leaf Pokémon kicks off farther with his back legs until he meets with his friends. A puffy-winged Pokémon, Altaria, tells Turtwig that she will bring Ralts with her, and so she slips the Pokémon off his shell so he can be with his friends. She, Pelipper, and Swellow stay put for the time being despite the purple sludge coming on its way. Turtwig hops on Tropius's back, as does Snivy and Bunnelby. The banana-neck Pokémon kicks off the ground and flies toward the Pokémon Gym. Behind him, Wingull and Pelipper follow.
"What are you doing out here, son?" Pelipper asks.
"I'm here to protect my friends," Wingull says blandly.
"Well, aren't you the hero of today?" says the sarcastic father.
"Look, Dad, I
can be strong—I
can be a survivor! I'm going to make it farther in life than you will," Wingull sneers.
"I wish—" Pelipper starts angrily, but then he grows silent and flies past Wingull in an upset mood.
Tropius thuds against the ground beside the Pokémon Gym and lets Bunnelby, Snivy, and Turtwig run inside. Soon after, he ducks his head in and stomps around. Out from under the dinosaur-like Pokémon's belly comes a curious Bidoof. Bidoof sees the giant Sludge Wave and screams loudly, though the lack of any reaction makes him seem inaudible. Beside him, on the side of the building facing the savage Muk, Wingull and Pelipper sit on opposite corners. Both are using the move Protect on the building, though it only gets part of the gym and not the whole thing. Bidoof studies how they use the move and then gets in between them to join in on the support. He smiles when he notices the whole building submerged within the green protective sphere.
. . .
Turtwig walks around and sees Altaria and Swellow perched at the end of the gym, which is home to the nearly invisible Skarmory. He begins to direct his path toward them until he hears some trouble around him.
"I miss Illumise so bad," cries Volbeat. "I don't know if I can make it without her."
His tail, home to a usually bright glow, is dim. The thick red band around his neck is covered with the soiled texture of drying tears. He doesn't seem able to think of anything else but poor Illumise, who was killed by the sludge earlier. Turtwig sighs and moves on.
"I wish I was in a coma. At least I wouldn't have to go through this. I'm getting a headache," says Frogadier's voice from afar.
"Oh, Frogadier, please calm down!" Skitty shouts.
"Is the poison ever going to stop?" asks Panpour.
"I'm getting tired of all this staying inside," Wurmple says while frowning.
"How long are we going to be in here?" Chikorita gasps.
"How long…in here?"
"Are we …die?"
"I'm….not …good!"
Turtwig begins to feel overwhelmed by all the complaining. He begins to try and ignore the voices, but they come at him faster than a Sludge attack. Everyone shouldn't be whining when there is a life-threatening danger going on just beyond this building.
"Wait," Turtwig says slowly, "what's going on outside?"
He runs to a window to see the savage still trying to drown the city. However, the whole view is in a light green tint, almost as if he's wearing some sort of 3D glasses. Almost right under his eyes, he sees Bidoof, Wingull, and Pelipper creating the green field—they're using Protect to keep the building safe. Why Turtwig didn't worry before, he isn't sure, but he does hear one name being screamed several times: Ralts.
"Ralts! Ralts! I forgot to grab Ralts!" Altaria chokes behind tears.
"
What?"
. . .
Turtwig, Snivy, and Altaria look to see, beyond the green tint of the Protect, a limp body floating in the poisonous ocean outside. Turtwig narrows his eyes to see the corpse: it's almost purely white, though there seems to be some green at one of the ends of the body. It is lying face down in the water-like poison.
"She's…she's gone," Snivy says solemnly, and despite no tears erupting from her ducts, Turtwig can tell that single fatality has injured Snivy deeply.
"I'm going to go talk to Skarmory," she says after swallowing down her emotions.
Altaria continues to scream and cry in self pity, but all Turtwig can do is look at the previously hopeful body now floating in its own deathbed.
. . .
After two hours of persistent waves of poison, the savage finally rests. It breathes heavily, debris and leaves flying in its open mouth. Soon after the attacks stop, so does the flooding of poison. The ground soon comes into view, and after Snivy bravely walks outside first, several other Pokémon join her to investigate the remains of their previous home.
"We can't stay out long. It could recover any minute," Bunnelby whispers.
"Sludge Wave is so strong…we only have two large trees left—the Pokémon School and one of the squad cabins," Turtwig notices.
"I'm so glad I'm not a kid. I'd be so mad if the school building was still up," jokes Snivy, but she quickly hushes after receiving several glares.
Altaria goes to where Ralts's body was last seen but finds no remains. Whatever happened, there is nothing to bury as far as she can see. The Pokémon wails loudly and slams her body on the ground in a seemingly pathetic rage.
To Turtwig's surprise, Volbeat comes out to look around. Turtwig asks him why he decided to come outside, but the Pokémon only says that he wants to look at Fortree one last time. As the Muk begins to stir again, Bunnelby, Snivy, Altaria, and most of the others run inside the building for more cover. Bidoof, Wingull, and Pelipper, although tired, decide to use Protect again just in case.
"We need to go, Volbeat," Turtwig says hastily.
"No."
Turtwig steps back a little in surprise. "What do you mean? Aren't you coming in?"
"No."
"You can't just stay outside!"
The savage Muk moves closer and decides to resort back to its primary move again—Sludge. It spits out three sludge attacks, one hitting one of the last tree trunks, another missing the Pokémon Gym, and one slamming just beyond Turtwig and Volbeat. After another Sludge attack, Volbeat closes his eyes and opens his arms out.
"Stop this, Volbeat. It doesn't have to end this way!"
Volbeat maintains his posture. "It will eventually. There is no escaping this new world. There is no escaping death. This is God's wrath on us all. Whatever we did, Arceus wants us to pay for it. This is for you, Illumise. I love you."
When Turtwig tries to intervene, Volbeat does open his eyes. He sees the Sludge coming right towards them, like a mythical meteorite that some little girl, probably miles away, wished upon that night. Volbeat unleashes a purple orb of dark energy and launches it straight in front of Turtwig, causing him to fall back directly into the open Gym's doors and landing inside. One of the citizens, in a panicky state, shuts and locks the door. Once Turtwig recovers from the Shadow Ball, he runs to open the door.
However, he only sees a small yellow tail's glow soon fade into darkness as the rest of the body is submerged in the engulfing giant purple sludge.
