Rory and the Duckletts ~ Part 5

                                                  “’Member when this story was actually ’bout me’n the Duckletts?”


       “So do I just-”

       “Go on.” Rudyard placed his hands on the Chespin’s back and shoved him forward. “Go . . . grow up. Say hello. She won’t bite you. She’s on a diet or something. And let’s hurry, please. You see those clouds over there? Simon says it’s going to rain soon.”

       A wall of white stretched before him. Higher than the market stalls. Higher than the clouds. Higher than the sun. Every few seconds it swelled like a plastic bag filling with air. When he listened, he could just pick up the sounds of sloshing water inside over the distracted mutters of the market patrons behind him.

       Adrian wrapped his arms around his torso. His feet turned sideways until his claws brushed together. Breaths scratched at his throat. His ears lay flat and dripped sweat down his back. Try as he might, he couldn’t raise his nose any higher than his shoulders. Adrian stood this way for a few seconds more, then sat down.

       No, sat wasn’t even the right word. Other, better words included ducked, crouched, and cowered. He cowered on the cobblestones before her - before It - with his hands clapped over his muzzle so It would not see him. His head turned sideways and he wasn’t even lying prostrate anymore, but just flopped over on his side like a dead thing. Dust crept onto his ears. The tip of his tail wrapped around his foot.

       “He . . . hello.”

       The word was fire on his tongue. Adrian’s hands shifted over his eyes. He tried again as his fur clumped up in spikes all down his back.

       “Hello . . . Marissa.”

       The white wall moved.

       It moved!

       Adrian jerked back, every hair he had puffed around him now, even the ones that weren’t supposed to flare up. His mouth fell open.

       It couldn’t have heard him. It couldn’t have. He was too quiet, too far, too small, too . . .

       . . . Insignificant.

       There were brushing sounds. Scratching sounds, of tough skin dragging across stone. She rocked slightly to Her right, slightly to Her left as She found footing for Her fins, and then the Wailord sat up.

       No, sat wasn’t even the right word. Other, better words included supported, burgeoned, and towered. She towered on the cobblestones before him, taller than the buildings, taller than yesterday’s rampaging guardian statue. Her throat gleamed with whiteness. Her frame blocked the sun out completely and left him sitting in quiet darkness. When she turned her head just slightly, Adrian could just make out the violet flash of her eye zeroing in on him.

       She. Was. Colossal.

       He couldn’t move his muscles, and there was no point in running anyway. She was omniscient. All-powerful. All-knowing. One of the Creators of the universe, surely - a living god before him who knew each creature of the world by name, their strengths, their weaknesses . . . their thoughts . . .

       “Rudy.”

       Her voice - melodic by Her very nature - swept across the street, the market, the city, the continent. Adrian felt pebbles tremble beneath him. He kept his eyes on his fingers, his teeth clamped shut with muteness instilled upon them by a force greater than he.

       “What species is your friend there? I . . . cannot quite make him out.”

       Adrian slid his gaze upward. A black speck appeared at the tip of the Wailord’s snout, hopping from foot to foot like it was too hot to sit.

       “Chespin!” he shouted back, his hands cupped around his mouth.

       “A Chespin?”

       “Yeah! Adrian the Chespin!”

       Adrian cringed beneath the shrill sound of his name. The Wailord shifted again, twisting Her neck as much as She could. The result was the look of a puzzled Lillipup, its head cocked to one side, ears pricked.

       “And what is he doing on the ground?”

       “I dunno! Maybe his friend’s with the podiatrist’s office! Adrian, hey! Over here, buddy!”

       A tiny flicker of anger lit deep inside him. He was Adrian. Adrian, a Thatmonson, Montague-blooded, crosser of deserts, friend of Serperior, rider of Blitzle, chaser of bandits, fighter of giant statues, next in line as defender of the Sager family, researcher extraordinaire . . .

       . . .  and Rudyard had less fear than he did.

       “All right, gang. Back to the back!”

       He climbed to his feet and, with a breath, forced himself to look again at the Wailord. She had already lost interest in him and was now staring cross-eyed up at the Gothita on Her head.

       “What happened to the orange one?”

       “Huh? I’unno. Who cares about the monkey? The monkey was just a minor detail. She probably got stuck in a drainpipe. Hey, come back towards her tail. Yeah. All right, man, just use my rope ladder.”

       Adrian walked with careful steps, so close to the Wailord he was practically brushing Her side with his ear. He could feel the power in Her, feel the shifting of Her muscles beneath Her frame. One slip and She would crush him. All the reflexes in the world couldn’t save him then.

       But it was better now that Her sight was no longer directly on him. The closer the Chespin got to Her tail, the faster he could move. The weight clinging to his shoulders evaporated. There would be no more groveling in the dirt.

       He stopped at Marissa’s tail. “So where is this rope ladder of yours?”

       “What? I can’t hear you down there!”

       “Rope ladder!”

       “Oh, that’s a metaphor for how our city should return to simpler times! Climb up her skin! Watch out though, it peels.”

       Adrian regarded the tough blue and white hide before him. It was mottled in color and lumpiness and pockmarked with cavities. Marissa still glistened with moisture from Blastoise water jets. The Chespin stretched up and placed his hands on Her tail. Her skin squished slightly beneath him like a rubber ball and overall looked as though it would make his climb very unsafe and very unpleasant.

       But Rudyard had made it to the top easily enough.

       And the Wailord could fly . . .

       Summoning his courage with a breath and a shudder, Adrian curled his fingers against Marissa’s rough skin and heaved himself upwards. His hind claws scratched against Her and She flinched with a twitch of Her tail. Adrian gave a grunt and sought again for his hold. His fingers slipped. He strained at Her side, kicking for a place to cling to, lost it, and fell with a thump on his tail on the dusty ground.

       Rudyard’s tone was patient, but his words stung like pebbles underfoot on a hiking trail. “Okay, Ordinary Boy. I was sort of expecting a cheer but I see where I went wrong. Let me give you a lift.”

       He pointed his finger and the world went black.

       Or maybe it didn’t. The instant Adrian became aware of Rudyard’s finger leveled at his chest, the air was colder, the ground was softer, and the Chespin was sitting on a blanket on top of the Wailord.

       “Gah,” he squeaked, clapping one paw to his chest. He felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. He coughed, sniffled, and finally discovered he was able to breathe.

       “Oh yeah,” Rudyard said, chewing on his thumbnail. “I should’ve warned you. You may feel short of breath for a minute or two. These changes are perfectly normal. It’s just your body recovering from the fact you almost suffocated just now.”

       “Suffocated . . . Gosh darnit. S-so that’s what your Telekinesis f-feels like?”

       “I don’t know. I can’t use it on myself. Oh yeah, and your memories of being lifted are supposed to come back too, once your brain finishes processing them and stuff. Once it’s finished helping you breathe again. Priorities. You know how it goes.”

       Both of Adrian’s claws had snagged in the yellow blanket. As he tugged them out, he looked around for the first time.

       “Oh . . .”

       “What? I got something on my face?”

       “The city, it’s . . . This view is incredible.”

       “Is it?” Rudyard blinked and looked around too. “Yeah, it’s all right. But when I become king, I’ll have to move those big white buildings over there to make room for my castle. And I’ll make the lake bigger too so I don’t have to take care of Marissa all the time.”

       “Did you say-”

       “Speaking of which, let’s get this baby off the ground. You ready, ‘Ris? Hey ‘Rissa! I said, ‘Are you ready for this?’ Yeah, I’m ready for this. Really ready for this? Let’s get ready for this.” The Gothita held up one hand, palm upturned. As his bows took on a blue sheen, he glanced back at Adrian over one shoulder. “Please keep your cheeks on the blanket at all times and do not tap, tickle, jab, prod, stroke, poke, feel, bother, or tease your pilot, who is not a murderous winged devil. In the case of emergency, you will find exits in literally any direction you move.”

       Adrian clenched the blanket in his fists, his tongue between his teeth as the Wailord - the Wailord! - lifted off the ground. Five feet, maybe. Ten. Then twenty. Then thirty.

       Then they were floating above the buildings. Rudyard tilted his hand and Marissa rotated slowly clockwise until they were facing away from the sun.

       “So, where we hittin’ first, comrade?”

       “Hm? Can we sweep over Chantelle’s? I’m dying to see the look on Woman’s face when she realizes what she’s missing.” Adrian leaned over as far as he could without setting paw off the yellow blanket. The market lay sprawled across its three streets far below him, a quilt of colored stall coverings. Pokémon gathered in clusters to gawk and point at the sheer mass of blubber that slid over their heads, dusting them with shade as She passed. Adrian couldn’t help but break into a grin. He waved at them. One slack-jawed Riolu gave a tentative wave back.

       “Hello, Parai to Adrian. Come in, Adrian. Do you copy? Over.”

       “Sorry?” The Chespin flicked up his ears.

       “I said, why did you stop, drop, and roll back on the ground, huh?”

       “Oh. You mean- Oh.” Adrian blinked and sat back on his heels. “Well. I, erm. I rather had to.”

       “That’s not what you said last night.”

       “You mean this morning? I . . . didn’t see Her.”

       “Didn’t-? Shhoooooot!” Rudyard slammed his knee with his left fist and spun his right in the air to turn Marissa around. “I knew I should’ve invested in those streaming ribbons!”

       “I mean to say, I did see Her, I just didn’t realize . . . I wasn’t so close . . . I didn’t feel . . .” Adrian struggled with the words a moment longer, then dropped his hands in his lap with a groan. “Woman was with me. And when she’s around . . . I don’t feel so afraid. We’ve been through thick and thin together, facing down bandits, Krokoroks, and Ghosts among countless other impediments during our journey. When we were together, the Wailord was just another check off our list.” Adrian peered again over Marissa’s side. The city inched by beneath them. “I’m sorry, is it safe for you to have a conversation while you fly?”

       “Don’t sub me out, coach - I got this.” Rudyard held out his arms and rolled his wrists. “I’m about to drop her now, so hold on tight.”

       “About to- WHAT?”

       The blue glow around the Wailord’s frame whooshed away. For half a second, they hung in empty air.

       Then reality snapped into place. Marissa dropped like a boulder. Adrian squeezed his eyes shut, still pinwheeling his arms in search of the yellow blanket. Before he could find it, he slammed against Marissa’s back with a squishy thump. The world steadied around him. The Chespin opened his eyes. Rudyard sat on the far corner of the blanket, slowly steering their ride as though he didn’t have a care in the world.

       “Gosh darnit, Rudyard! What the heck was that for?” snarled Adrian, jolting up to four legs. His tail bristled like a pine tree, stuck straight in the air behind him. “I thought you said you were fine!”

       “I am.” Rudyard put down one hand and swiveled half around with a puzzled scowl. “You didn’t think I was going to let her hit the ground, did you?”

       “Then what, pray tell, possessed you to-”

       “Ah,” Rudyard said, slicing one hand through the air to cut him off.

       “You nearly-”

       “Ah!”

       “But-”

       “If I don’t release her from Telekinesis every few minutes, she won’t be able to breathe, remember? And if ‘Rissa can’t breathe, then she is going to die. And I am going to cry.” The Gothita traced a line down his cheek. “Like this.”

       Adrian had no words for several long seconds as Rudyard turned back around. His fur smoothed out down his spine. His tail swished across Marissa’s skin. His ears curved back against his head.

       “That is very easily the stupidest thing I have ever heard in my entire life. And after the twenty minutes I’ve spent with you now, that’s saying rather a lot. You do realize this Wailord is a Water-Type, don’t you? Specifically a Water-Type capable of swimming below the ocean’s surface for extended periods of time?”

       The Gothita gave an anxious jolt. “There’s no need to be rude. We don’t talk about U-N-D-E-R-W-A-T-E-R while we’re around Marissa. It hurts her feelings. Like if I told you I thought you were a big, snotty jerk who smells like cough drops, that would hurt your feelings.”

       “Yes, but the Wailord can, for lack of a better term I’m confident you will understand, hold Her breath for hours at a time.”

       “Oh.” Rudyard drummed his fingers on his knee. “Well, it’s still a polite thing to do, to let her really see the scenery after how she’s letting us ride on her. It’s worked for us so far, so I’m not gonna risk it.”

       Adrian shook his head. “The ones you’re risking are us. Marissa will be fine without these air-pocket breaks of yours, but what if you don’t catch Her in time as She falls? What will happen to us? Or if you won’t care for your own safety, think about the people you’d be smashing as you landed!”

       “. . . Who?”

       “That’s it. Get me down. I refuse to put my life in the hands of someone who is clearly insane.”

       “Hey,” Rudyard said, turning around again. He was glaring now, for the first time Adrian had ever seen. “I don’t criticize the way you live your life. No, I don’t do that at all. I’ve been flying her for four months now, I think I know what I’m doing. Maybe the next time you start baking cookies, I should drop in and list all the reasons why you’re doing it wrong.”

       Adrian imagined Rudyard coming by and dropping Marissa directly on top of his and Rory’s house, then sliding down Her snout to shrug and grin and say, “Whoops, I missed!”

       “Don’t you even dare.”

       Rudyard’s glare melted into a smile. “Y’know, I’m glad we had this little talk. I think we both learned something today, don’t you? Hey, wanna see how far Marissa can fall before she hits the buildings?”

       “You do that and I’ll have Woman suffocate you in your own ribbons, and that’s before she throws you in the lake to drown.”

       “You’re funny.” Rudyard glanced towards the city and spun his finger to adjust Her course. “Is your Ability Sap Sipper? Because you just take the fun out of everything you touch.”

       Adrian lay down on his side, his head resting on his folded arms. “Forgive me for prioritizing both our lives above your ‘fun’.”

       “Adventure is out there!” Though he kept his right hand glowing blue, Rudyard let dark purple and gray form at his left wrist, like a Shadow Ball. Within seconds, the ball had taken on a distinctive Wailordish shape. “Is there a cure for your sickness; have you no heart? Haven’t you ever taken a risk before? Risk made me king of Copperport. It got me’n Sourdough into the Researchers’ Guild at that one cliffy desert place. Oh yeah, and when I first met ‘Rissa-”

       “Risk has nearly gotten me killed every time it and I cross paths.” Adrian peered over Marissa’s side. The city was moving beneath them faster now, and he could hear a slight wind in his ears. It felt good. Far better than the sweltering sun. Despite the fact that Rudyard had almost snapped both their necks already, Adrian didn’t regret taking the Gothita up on his offer.

       They were nearing Chantelle’s now. Adrian scanned the ground for Rory. Was she that ginger smudge over there, or was that a Buizel?

       “Hey Rudyard, what was it you said you’d do to identify our thief again? Something about red all over? You are thermosighted, aren’t you? Like the rainforest Ekans?”

       “But risk is the greatest rush of all,” Rudyard carried on, oblivious to Adrian’s questioning. “Risk makes waterfalls out of lakes. It’s time to take chances, make mistakes-”

       “I’m not the type of person who makes mistakes,” Adrian said. “I don’t believe in them.”

       “I believe I can fly! Now I’m a believer! Hey, that’s perfect!” Again the Gothita turned, brimming with so much excitement his bows looked like they would burst. “I know a way to make this hunt for your notebook thief more pleasant for both of us.”

       “And how’s that?”

       “We’ll take a little detour - It’s super short, swearsies - and I’ll entertain you with something special. Marissa and I just finished the lyrics a week ago. It’s ‘Light a Life’ - You’ve gotta hear it! We wrote it just for you, except we didn’t know you existed back then.”

       “Lyrics? Oh, don’t tell me you’re about to start-”

       Rudyard cleared his throat. “In the beginning, there was darkness. And from the darkness, came the life.”

       “Rudyard . . .”

       “And with life came simple pleasures, like em’ralds and cereal and breathing!”

       “Rudy, stop. Stop.”

       Not only did Rudyard not stop, he stood up. With his hands held out to either side and Marissa picking up speed, he looked as though he’d be blown off the Wailord’s back faster than Adrian could blink.

       “But the best thing about life is that it gets you down. Least that’s what Mama says. But hey, I wouldn’t know.”

       Adrian sat up and reached for the Gothita. “Rudy, get down. I would prefer my journey to be as safe and as boring as possible.”

       “There are some folk who never seem to smile; never feel the joy to laugh.” Rudyard lay his finger on Adrian’s nose. “They despise anyone whose mind they cannot read. But I’m not one of them. And between us two, I’d way rather you than me.”

       “Rudyard, please! Put your full concentration into carrying the Wailord!” Even as he spoke, Adrian knew he was much too late. Rudyard had already slipped away into a world that only he could see. He spun both his pointer fingers through the air and Marissa tilted forward until Her nose pointed towards the ground. She started to plunge. Adrian screamed. And Rudyard sang.

       “I was born of shooting stars and made livin’ life into an art form! I’m the one who laughs at fear and dances in the rainstorm.”

       Chantelle’s passed in a blur of pink and white stone. Adrian covered his eyes, but at the last second before they hit the steps that led down the grassy hill, Marissa’s dive turned into a swoop. When Adrian looked back he saw Rory pressed flat against the stone, hugging the pail of Duckletts to her chest.

       “Th-this is legal, isn’t it?”

       “If you mean legal like my blindness, then yes. I can sing the Wailord songs and I can soar with Butterfree, and when I’m through you’ll beg encore and sing this song with me!”

       “R-Rudy! You’re going up too fast! Too steep! I can’t hold on!”

       “Use your Shadow Tag!”

       “That’s not my AbiliTY!” Adrian rolled backwards head over heels over ears over tail. The ground dropped away beneath him. He snatched out with his fingers, caught a rubbery hold, and was shocked to realize he wasn’t anywhere near Marissa’s tail. He had slipped into a deep hole in Her head. Beneath him was darkness, no telling where it ended. The air was warm and moist. Liquid sloshed against the walls far below.

       “I’m not saying that I’m perfect just because I laugh at scorn, but I’ve had a place in Heaven promised me since I was born.”

       “Rudyard McLean, stop singing this instant and help me! I’ve slipped into Marissa’s blowhole!”

       “What? I can’t hear you! I’m busy putting my full concentration into carrying the Wailord!”

       Adrian kicked his legs. Marissa’s blubbery skin wasn’t so slippery after the time spent under the hot sun, but it wasn’t easy to cling to either. “Just use your Telekinesis!”

       “What do you think this is, a stinking buffet? I lift heavy things. Not multiple things.”

       “Use your hand then! I don’t care! I’m about to fall into a whale’s digestive juices!”

       Marissa’s upward course leveled out and Rudyard finally turned around, his blue eyes small. He surveyed the scene with both fists held to his chest. “Touch your . . . hand?”

       Adrian set one foot against Marissa’s skin, but it wouldn’t hold. He lashed his tail, fingers slipping. As he fell Rudyard dove forward, hands splayed. They never touched.

       Then Adrian slammed back-first against Marissa’s tough hide. He blinked at the swirling white sky, groaned, and covered his face with his hands.

       “There must be a better way to do this.”

       “No kidding,” panted Rudyard, sucking on his fingers. “We fell pretty far, like, you had to wait twenty seconds?”

       Adrian forced himself to sit with shaking limbs and squinted around.

       Nothing.

       Nothing but white.

       Marissa floated through a vast, cold emptiness with neither ground nor sky.

       Adrian curled his hands into fists and slammed them against the Wailord’s back. “I knew it! I told you this would happen! I told you, you stupid . . . psycho . . . crazy little . . . We’re both dead because of you now! You vile cretin!” Adrian shot to his feet, and Rudyard flinched away. “Do you have any idea what Woman’s going to do to me when I don’t show up tonight? I wasn’t . . . I wasn’t ready yet!”

       The Chespin’s gaze dropped to his hands. He opened and closed his fingers. It was getting hard to breathe.

       “I’m not ready to meet my gods. I . . . I’m not.”

       “Relax, cousin.” Rudyard held out his hands, but he stayed several steps out of Adrian’s reach. “Nothin’s gonna happen. We’re not dead yet.”

       Adrian put a hand around one fist and massaged his knuckles as he looked around. Marissa was still rising through the icy whiteness, slowly. Wisps of frost tickled his nose.

       “. . . This is a cloud.” Adrian’s ears pricked up. “Rudy, look! We’re inside a cloud!”

       “Cool, huh?” The Gothita beamed. “Told ya I could handle myself. And anyway, if this were Heaven, you wouldn’t be here.”

       Adrian stretched out his hand to cup the clouds. They turned to moisture at his fingers, like steam. “Funny joke.”

       “I don’t make jokes,” Rudy said happily. He turned to face forward again, his arms high above his head. “When I was small I’d grin and dream of all the joy my words’d bring-”

       “How do you have enough air to keep that up at all? I can hardly hear my voice anymore.”

       “-e’en if my world were a comic book’n the reader could not hear me sing!”

       On the final few words, Marissa broke free from the clouds. The sunlight was blinding. Adrian shielded his eyes, and when he took his arm away he froze where he sat. His mouth dropped open.

       “I came to light your life and now I wanna see you smile. I sought you out so I could hear your song for just awhile.”

       They were so high above the clouds that Adrian couldn’t see the ground. The clouds were the ground. They flowed in every direction, rippling in the wind like waves along the seashore. Wherever he turned, birds burst from the whiteness in swirls of wings, then dove back under again.

       “If you wanna be my friend then I’ll I’m askin’s don’t be fake, ‘cuz I learn to stand when I fall down, so don’t clean up the mess I make.”

       “They look like leaping fish,” he murmured.

       Starly, Fletchling, Pidove, Beautifly, Murkrow, Swablu, Tranquil, and a dozen others Adrian had never seen before twirled in an infinite kaleidoscope of shifting rainbow feathers. One, a small blue bird with a scarlet chest and twin tails, zipped twice around his head before executing a somersault and plunging into the clouds after a Chatot.

       “I’ll keep on at my merry ways until the day I die, because every angel’s gotta sing to fly.”

       Adrian shook his head, unable to peel his eyes away. The sun reflected pink and gold off the tufted clouds. Some of the larger fliers had taken to tailing the Wailord like an honor guard. A white bird with an enormous bill like a bucket touched down on Marissa’s back. “Give over,” Adrian snapped, waving one hand at it, but the bird tucked up its feet and settled down to enjoy the ride. Adrian let it stay.

       “Singing is what singing was, and don’t give me your flak. You can’t soar with weighted wings and-”

       The Chespin cocked his head. “And what?”

       Rudy did not reply.

       “Rudy? Rudyard, what’s wrong?”

       “That shape . . .”

       The clouds exploded beneath them. Enormous black wings sent a shockwave through the snowy white, tearing holes and sending up a swirl of misty frost. The big bird on Adrian’s right screeched and took off, melding with a dozen others who whirled about in panic and confusion. Rudy fell into a crouch. Adrian sunk his claws into the yellow blanket. Both of them watched in silence as the black creature soared upwards through the feathered whirlwind.

       “Dark-Type,” Rudy whimpered.

       It had the wing design of a Salamence. An Eevee’s mane ringed its neck. Its belly was purple, the underside of its wings green. Two huge discs perched on its head instead of ears. The tail sliced like a whip. A red slash made up its nose. It was, without a doubt, the strangest, most mishmashed thing Adrian had ever seen in his life. Including the Druddigon kid’s holiday science project.

       “She’s eating them!” Rudy shrunk into a ball, his legs tucked beneath his chest. “A dozen dead in less than a second. Oh, like it were nothin’!”

       “She isn’t eating them, look. She’s . . . dancing, perhaps?”

       The bat creature spun in circles, flaring her wings and surfing on the updrafts. She didn’t chase the fleeing birds, but she didn’t fly with them either. The scattered flock regrouped half a block away. She danced alone.

       “Of course she wants to eat them. She has crazy eyes. When s-something’s that much bigger than you, you can’t trust ‘em any farther than you can kick an Aggron. A-and she’s a Dark-Type too, I think. She looks extremely stubborn and suspicious. Her soul is made of the deepest red fire, not gold like yours. See how she seeps with matchless evil.”

       “Rudy, your closest friend is a Wailord. I don’t think you have a right to-”

       “P-pull her ears, poke her in the forehead!” Rudy snatched the blanket from Adrian’s hands and threw it around himself like a cloak made of bright buttercups. The blue aura around Marissa flickered dangerously. “They’re savages, savages!”

       “Fine, fine.” Adrian ran a hand down his face. “Just stay collected, Rudyard. Keep your mind clear and concentrate on holding Marissa. The last thing either of us wants to do is hit the ground from this height. Focus on that. I’m here to protect you from the big bad dragon.”

       The blues of Rudy’s eyes had shrunk to mere flecks. “It’s all a game to you but not to me. Dark-Types stole my lunch money once.”

       “Which ones?”

       “All of them.”

       “I said I’ll protect you.” Adrian placed one hand on a corner of the blanket and Rudy flinched away. “Ignore her. If she really causes you that much distress, then maybe we should get on with the task I invited you to help me complete in the first place.”

       Rudy stared at Adrian’s face for several more seconds, then shifted his gaze to the bat creature behind him. Telekinesis dimmed for half a heartbeat. The Chespin put back his ears and swallowed as Marissa dropped a few inches in the sky.

       “Rudy . . .”

       “I was born of shooting stars and made living life into an art form.” Rudy pointed a trembling finger past Adrian’s shoulder. “I’m the one who laughs at fear and dances in the rainstorm.”

       “And you’ll keep singing until the day you die something something angels flying. Now let’s calmly go back down where we can see the city-”

       Rudy fired off a Shadow Ball.

       Adrian closed his eyes and tightened his right hand into a fist. This he set against his forehead.

       “Oh dear Venka, why do you try me this way?”

       “Wickedness must be punished!” Rudy shouted, slinging a Shadow Ball from each hand.

       “Excuse you,” sputtered the bat creature as she pivoted on one wingtip.

       “Start flying, Rudy.” Adrian dropped into a crouch, his mouth as dry as his fur. “She can’t hurt us if she can’t catch us.”

       “Shut it down, shut it down!” cried the Gothita, but the only movement he made was to pull the blanket over his face. Marissa’s glow of Telekinesis pulsed in time with his whimpering.

       “I said, start flying.” Adrian kept his gaze locked on the pumping wings. He tried to stand strong like a Thatmonson should, but as he watched those scarlet talons sweep ever nearer, all he could think was how much he wished Rory were here. Rory would know how best to fight a Flying-Type in its natural environment. She would’ve taken one look at the bat and thrown herself at it, even if she didn’t know what it was or what its strengths and weaknesses were. And he respected her for that.

       The great bat swooped higher, her wings unfolded like enormous bed sheets, her claws spread out beneath her. She opened her mouth to attack. Adrian clenched his fingers around Rudy’s shoulder.

       “Rudyard, start flying!”

       Rudy jolted like he’d been shocked with a Thunderbolt. He slapped a hand against Adrian’s arm, maybe to shove him off, but that only seemed to upset him more. Telekinesis sputtered around Marissa’s body, lit up like a blast of sunshine, and went out. The Wailord dropped away beneath their feet.

       Adrian screamed. Rudy screamed too, but he was screaming words like “Stop, stop, let go of me, stop it!” and Adrian did.

       “U-use your Telekinesis!”

       “It doesn’t work on Leadfeet! I mean, me! It doesn’t work on me!” Rudy still had the yellow blanket tight in his fists. It didn’t make a very good parachute. He flipped onto his back and fired a sixth Shadow Ball at the bat creature, which started and shook its head and jack-knifed after them.

       Wind streamed past Adrian’s ears. It tore at his eyelids and sucked at his cheeks. He flailed his arms. One hand cupped around his muzzle. “You could use it on me so I don’t have to be conscious when I die!”

       “What’s your moveset?”

       “What?”

       “Your moveset!”

       Adrian tumbled head over heels as he fell, but when he caught sight of the city so far below he pressed his palms against his eyes. A sickly trickle clenched his stomach. He didn’t want to know what would happen if he threw up while he hurtled down.

       “P-P-Pin! Pin Missile! Reflect! Um . . . um . . . Vine Whip! And . . .”

       Two, four, six, eight, ten, twelve seconds, and he was still falling. Eighteen, twenty-four, thirty, thirty-six smudged buildings far below.

       What was that last move? Why couldn’t he think of it?

       “We’re most probably dead!” Adrian shouted back. He choked on the words - The air ripped his breath away and he wasn’t sure how much Rudy could hear.

       “We can’t be dead! That’s not what happens in the books! There’s no winging in the book! I’m one of the good guys! And good guys can live through anything! You’ll see!”

       “And what, it will turn out that Gothita can fly?”

       “What about your Reflect, huh?” Rudy’s bows glowed blue, and he pointed downwards. Maybe at Marissa, if She was still below them. It was difficult to tell whether She was, let alone how far, with the wind pulling at their eyes. “Turn ‘em into mince meat, bake ‘em in the flames! All my friends are end tables!”

       “Make a table? It doesn’t work th-that way!”

       “Well, make it work that way!”

       Two, four, six spikes he could see on Rudy’s stomach stripe.

       Adrian spat the chant for Reflect and a pink glow washed over his arm. Rudy too took on a shine of silver.

       “Incorrect coordinates,” the Gothita mouthed, clutching the blanket to his neck. The look in his eyes was full of emptiness. He was out of tricks.

       Adrian strained to look up, but the bat creature was nowhere to be seen. As he rolled in the wind, he glanced down to take in the great city, in case maybe, maybe, they were about to fall into one of Andalusst’s few lakes. No such luck.

       And on top of that, he realized as he flipped onto his back again, water splashed against his face. It was starting to rain.

       “Have any a-astounding last words?” he shouted to Rudy, who gave a mournful shake of his head.

       “The only things I can think to say at this point are illegal!”

       The torrent was worsening fast. Adrian clenched his eyelids shut, then opened them a crack to see the bat creature plunge through the clouds after them at the speed of sound.

       “I-I could die in happiness if I died knowing you’d been f-fixed! If I gave you hope for just o-one day, don’t matter if I’m missed!”

       But she was too far, too late, and Adrian braced himself for the collision with the ground.

       “I’ll keep on at my merry w-ways until the day I die-”

       Would his insides splatter across the cobblestones, he wondered, or would he simply crack his neck and lay still for the Honchkrow to find?

       “-because e-e-every angel’s gotta sing to fly!”

       Rudyard. Poor, stupid Rudyard, still singing his heart out until the very end.

       There was an enormous crash. Splitting stone. Shattering glass. Carved holes in the road. Marissa had made contact with Andalusst.

       Long way to fall, Adrian thought as his spirit slipped away.

       Dying, it turned out, was a wet experience. First came the blast of hitting his head - Icy cold and left him soaking as he passed through the veil - and then the thump as his body hit the damp, peaty earth he’d expected to find in the underground world of the dead.

       But the first thing he noticed was that he wasn’t underground. No soul-sucking dirt. No infinite darkness. The sky was blue and dotted with clouds of pink and white.

       Adrian smiled and closed his eyes. “And you said I didn’t deserve Heaven.”

       “I’b alive,” whispered Rudy, his voice hoarse from the screaming he’d done just before they’d smashed into pieces in the world before.

       “Can’t be. We only think we’re alive because we’re in denial. It’s one of the seven stages of grief. ‘Mon like us just don’t survive falls like that.”

       “No,” said a deep, raspy sort of voice from directly below him, “I can assure you we are all still breathing.”

       Adrian jolted to his knees, his fur fluffed up. Actually, he didn’t. Pain shot through his body when he tried to move, and he didn’t make it off his back.

       “Marissa? Oh, I’m . . . You’re still alive? Are you hurt?”

       Her response was a bellowed sort of groan. “Nothing that has never happened to me before. Probably be sore for two hours, but I will get over it.”

       “Gosh darnit. I thought that fall would have killed us.”

       A light spray of warm air and droplets spouted from Her blowhole in response. “It probably would have. But I was here to cushion your fall with Water Pulse. And Hidden Power Flying.”

       “Oh.” For some reason, Adrian felt a little bit . . . robbed. “That’s awfully convenient.”

       “Look sweetheart, I have been waiting for this day to come ever since I first met Rudy. I have a lot of free time to plot these things out.”

       “Is ib a bad ding ib I can make my vingers go so var back dey douch my wrist?”

       “You don’t need to talk so loudly. I’m right here.” Adrian shifted to his side. Fire shot through his chest. Fire armed with knives. “What’s the matter with you, you knock all your teeth loose or something?”

       “Duh-uh. Is my dose.” Warm liquid trickled onto Adrian’s leg.

       “Are you ble- You’re bleeding. Get off me.” Adrian tried to sit up, only to squeak like an infant Tepig and collapse back where he lay. Voices echoed from every direction, but he couldn’t make out their words. The bat creature thumped down on Marissa’s back beside them. Adrian couldn’t muster the energy to care.

       “My goodness,” she said, bending her neck to examine his twisted body. Her warm breath ruffled his face. “That was quite the fall you had.”

       Adrian cringed at the shrillness of her voice and grunted, “Was it?” He slid his gaze from the bat creature’s bright blue eyes to her sharp crimson claws. Up close she looked so much smaller than she had up in the sky and, between pants, he asked, “What are you?”

       “Why, I’m a Noivern, of course. My name is Victoria.” She tilted her head one way, the other, and then almost entirely upside-down. “Where are you hurting the most?”

       “Um, Rudy?” Marissa asked, Her frame trembling.

       “Is a Noivern a Dark-Type?”

       Victoria crossed her eyes as she thought about it for a moment, then said, “I don’t think so.”

       Adrian groaned, “Rudy, trust me when I say that I don’t make this offer lightly, but I am going to kill you.”

       “Is it hurt?” called a distant voice. Another asked, “How do we get rid of it?” The third, “Hey, there are people up there!”

       “Ah, that’s right. I came to see if you were still alive, and perhaps take you to Sacred Ashes if you weren’t.” Victoria glanced around, round ears twitching. “Where is your rude friend who shot the Shadow Balls at me? If he isn’t dead yet, I have a scolding to give to him.”

       “I believe you’re standing on his hand.”

       Victoria fluttered into the air, sputtering her apologies. Rudy was too busy trying to form another attack with his injured fingers to reply.

       “Rudy, drop it. She isn’t going to hurt you.”

       “I’m not.” The Noivern probably meant her statement to be comforting, but the last word ended on the slightest upwards inflection and made it sound too much like a question. She opened her wings, then changed her mind and folded them back into place. “I worried for you when you dropped your Wailord friend, but it seems he caught you in the end, didn’t he? Of course the city took a rather-”

       “She. She’s a she.”

       Victoria blinked. “Is that right?”

       “Duh, she has an eyelash.”

       Far away, “Run for some Psychic-Types - We’ll need all the help we can get if we’re going to move the Wailord. Oh - And call for Luke too. I think he’ll want to be here to see this mess.”

       Rudy looked up at Adrian. Pointing to Victoria he whispered, “She’s black end whibe and red all over.”

       “I’m black and purple,” she corrected, drumming her claws.

       “Whabever. I’b therbisighted.”

       Adrian could only stare blankly back. Rudy had said those same words that morning, but he couldn’t remember why. “What does that mean?”

       “I see de heat of-”

       “No, the first thing you said. Red all over.”

       “She’s de vireball at de parby.”

       “What?”

       “I’m a Noivern, dear,” sighed Victoria. She flipped her ears in Rudy’s direction. “How much do you hurt? Are you hurt? I can fly you to a healer if you think you’re well enough to be moved. Or,” she continued, glancing over Marissa’s side to the ground below, “They just might be here already. Hm. Oh dear, would you look at that?”

       “Hello, she’s a denbacle.”

       “I need a few more context clues than that, if you don’t mind.”

       Rudy sighed. “She’s de dief who stole your dotebook, maybe.”

       “Still no confirmation on what caused such a horrific accident,” muttered a Pokémon far below, “but we have a pretty solid speculation . . .”

       Adrian shook his head, winced with pain, and said, “I don’t think so. She wouldn’t have left those pawprints in the sand. She’s much too big. I don’t know if she could see my sketchpad from the height she would’ve been flying at, let alone grip it in those big claws of hers. And Tyr would’ve seen her from a distance, too.”

       “I can hear you,” Victoria said, sounding slightly hurt. “And whatever it is you lost, I didn’t take it. Unless it was a crate of belue berries. Those I ate. Because they were delicious.” She crouched down closer to Rudy’s level. He shrunk onto all fours, but kept his eyes on her. “Did you hit me with those Shadow Balls up there?”

       “Rudy?” Marissa whimpered, Her whimper sounding more like a scream.

       Rudy opened his mouth, then closed it again. He scratched behind one bow with his foot and glanced at Adrian for support. The Chespin merely rolled his eyes. Holding up one finger on each hand, the Gothita finally cleared his throat, wiped his bloody nose, and said, “Really, what does ib mean vor one to be hit by a Shadow Ball? Is ib a destament to de shooter’s accuracy and skill in babtle, or to de darget’s inability to dodge at a speed greaber den dat of de ibpending collision with de abtack?”

       “Rudy,” Adrian said. Marissa shifted beneath him, and he put down one hand to steady himself on Her rubbery back. For the first time, it occurred to him that his hood had snapped back in the fall and gathered like a scarf around his neck. That explained the burning sensation on his sensitive ears, then. They tingled with wetness and cold.

       Victoria tucked the clawed tips of her wings beneath her chin. “It’s very rude to fling attacks at bystanders without first asking whether or not they are pacifists, if they are suffering from an injury, if they have the time for a battle, and above all if they were ready. I tell you this for your own safety as much as for etiquette. Please don’t do it again.”

       Marissa made a noise like She was either clearing Her throat or snarling at a rabid Hydregion. “Rudy? I am starting to think the little people might all hate me.”

       “If ib makes you veel any bebter, I dhrew an egg ab a bember of de Royal Guard’s vace daday, and he arrested me!”

       With a groan, Adrian rolled onto his stomach and dragged himself by his elbows across Marissa’s bumpy back. What he saw on the ground below made him groan again. They’d landed across Spirewood - Not one of the city’s busier streets, but frequented enough at this time of day to churn out a heavy crowd.

       “Rudy,” he called back, “perhaps we should hit the skies again, maybe before Chelle discovers I was here and chooses to throw me out of the Guild before I’ve even begun. Also we still haven’t found our thief. _{Guilt turns a ‘mon black and white and red all over, honestly, how stupid can I be?}”

       “That . . . actually doesn’t make me feel any better,” Victoria was saying slowly, “it only makes me feel deeply concerned.”

       Rudy smiled, still pressing one palm against his snout. “You can roll your eyes and durn your shoulder icy cold but busic gives be life and you can’t drag be down dat low.”

       Victoria scratched her head. “Er, right. Specifically, I was thinking about everybody who you might-”

       “Rudy? Are we ready to go yet? I am feeling really intimidated right now.”

       A Natu touched down on Adrian’s wrist, followed by a Murkrow with a quill pen gripped in his claws. “I have arrived at the scene of the crime,” the Natu announced, “and am about to get an exclusive interview with one of the ‘mon confirmed to have initiated today’s attack. Tell us, fiend, who sent you to ravage our beautiful city? Ooh, I know! It was those monsters from New Astirm wasn’t it? Anyone who lives in a paradise like that has bad news written all over them. Or could it have been the pirates - Yes, the pirates who lurk deep in the distant coves, plotting their revenge . . . Or, better yet, the Treecko who-”

       “Oh, that is it.” Adrian covered the bird’s face with his hand and shoved himself to his knees. “Marissa, I want to get down now.”

       “Easier said than done, sweetheart. Sit tight a titch longer. If Rudy will not handle his people, I will.” With the sound of a collapsing building, the Wailord pushed Herself up on Her forefins. Half the crowd screamed and scrambled back. Victoria, pitched by Marissa’s sudden motion, took to the air. Rudy finally turned around. The smile died away on his lips.

       “. . . Oh.”

       Adrian gave him the iciest glare he could muster. “And just what do you have to say for yourself?”

       The Natu under wriggled his beak far enough from beneath Adrian’s fingers to say, “Yes, inquiring minds want to know.”

       Rudy thought about that for a moment, then shrugged. “Yes. Kind of. Dot really. Dhank you.”

       “You just dropped a Wailord from a thousand feet up and knocked down like six buildings in two minutes!” Adrian lurched to his feet, cried out as pain filled his chest once again, and fell face-first on Marissa’s back.

       He shrugged, bored. “You still got your vears and cares and baybe dat’s just fine, but if you dink you can fool a fool den you’d be best left blind.”

       “Dear, kindly little people of Andalusst. As you have probably noticed, I have just fallen from really high in the sky. My stomach feels really awful, and I think I may just be about to-”

       The shrieks drowned out the rest of the Wailord’s words, but Adrian could fill in the blanks. Evidently Rudy could too. “Come on!” he shouted, running and sliding towards Marissa’s tail.

       “How many people do you think you’ve killed?” Adrian snarled as Rudy flew past. He scooted along Marissa’s back after him. “Fifty, let’s say fifty. Imagine fifty ‘mon lying dead on the ground. How does that make you feel? Ow, ow ow.”

       “Your friend the Chespin makes a very good point,” agreed Victoria, circling just overhead. “Speaking of which, I must see if my services are needed. Remember to maintain proper etiquette, Gothita. Fifty dead ‘mon . . . Oh dear, I hope not.”

       “Wait,” wailed the Natu, running circles around the Noivern’s shadow, “I haven’t gotten an exclusive interview with you yet! Wait for me!”

       “See Darian, your problem is dat you’re always going on about de Wailord being half empty, but I dink ib’s half full. Let’s not worry about ib until we’re actually sure dey’re dead.” Rudy cupped his hands around his mouth. “Okay, ‘Rissa! Do de ding!”

       Her body gave a slight tremble. Adrian, still picking his way down Her sloped back, stiffened up.

       “Do what thing?”

       He was answered by droplets that fell on his neck like rain. Water ran in trickles down Marissa’s back, turned to streams, turned to waves. Adrian fumbled with his feet, only to lose his grip and slip down after the Gothita.

       “Gosh darnit, Rudy!”

       His laughter bubbled back like that of an excited child. Which, Adrian officially concluded, despite his having advanced psychic power was entirely what he was. “Her dail’s a slide! I’ll be dakin’ dis, see?”

       Adrian didn’t open his eyes again until he zipped off Marissa’s tail and tumbled to a stop on stone. His jaw hurt. His fingers hurt. His head hurt. Most of all, his ribs were throbbing.

       “Ruuudy,” he groaned into the road.

       “Let’s get out of here before de Royal Guard show up and drow us in jail,” Rudy said, with the same voice he might have used to say, ‘My name got pulled out of the lottery and I just won a thousand starcoins’.

       “I can’t walk,” Adrian said, not budging.

       “Aw, really? I’ll wipe your Dotodile dears but I can’t wear your shoes. Dis will break your heart to hear but - Hey, if dis was by dhird crash in dwo days, are dey going to dake away by license?”

       “Rudyard, I’m serious. I can hardly sit up, I can crawl only with considerable pain, and I don’t think I can walk to the sidewalk on my own, let alone all the way to Chantelle’s by sunset.”

       “Dat was a drick question. I don’t have a license.” Rudy squatted by the Chespin’s side. “Is dat why such a dasty scowl still bars your pretty vace? And who daught you to dink a smile’d bake you a disgrace?”

       “Carry me, please,” Adrian whimpered. “But no more Wailords. Never, never, never again. Pull me up.”

       Rudy tapped his thumbs and cocked his head like he was trying to listen to the screams of the ‘mon on Marissa’s other side. “Dey’re here. And keep all dat cuddly Deddiursa stuff to yourself, okay? I don’t do douchy-veely dings.”

       “Then use your Telefreakingnises.”

       “Not widout a leppa berry, vriend. I’b out of PP for dat. I bean, um, energy. I’b spent.”
       
       Adrian clenched his teeth in a smile. “Then I suppose that, unless you want to leave me lying here for the Royal Guard to interrogate, you will simply have to suck it up and take my hand like any kind-hearted soul would do.”

       Rudy sighed. “You’re a huge pain to have around, you know dat?”