BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie breathed a small sigh of relief when Zev returned to the car, with his Pokemon and the man's corpse nowhere in sight, and started driving. Violence and beating people up were one thing, but she wasn't sure that she would ever get used to killing, or helping to kill, others. On jobs like these, she was grateful that Zev, as the consummately professional hitman, could take the lead, but she doubted that she would ever be as effortlessly comfortable as he was in the presence of death—particularly untimely, calculated death.

Turning down the radio, the red-haired smith shrugged when he asked if there'd been anything interesting to hear. "The strangest thing I heard was a news report of a patient escaping from a nearby psychiatric hospital," she answered, shaking her head and chuckling. "History of violent behavior, psychotic illness, alcohol and drug abuse, the works. Doesn't it sound like something out of an urban legend? I almost expected them to say he had a hook hand, or something!"

She tilted her head to one side as she tried to recall what else she'd heard. "Oh yeah, they talked more about the manhunt. They're already widening the search radius for the missing man. I guess we cleared out of the area just in time."

By now, the sun had descended below the horizon, and a deep-purple dusk was falling rapidly across the landscape, the shadows of the trees and buildings outside deepening and taking on a ghostly, menacing aspect. Aurelie watched them go by as she continued absently, "Hmm, and I heard some story about groups of Paras wandering around the area, acting strangely. Something about the mushrooms on their back turning odd colors. But Rangers are already trying to corral them and figure out what's going on."

The red-haired smith glanced sidelong at the man calmly sitting in the driver's seat beside her, pursing her lips. The thought of the Rangers made her think of Jack Wainwright, of course, but it also reminded her of another man, one who had affected her life much less but who had made a striking impression on her nevertheless. With the job completed and a long drive ahead of them, now seemed like a good time to satisfy her curiosity.

"Speaking of the Rangers, do you happen to have a cousin or something in the Rangers, Zev?" she asked tentatively, eyeing him thoughtfully. "A man from the Rangers came to my shop a few months ago who looked a lot like you. Same hair, same eyes, kind of similar build and voice, I think, but different last name."

A faint grin curving her lips, Aurelie added, "I've been wondering off and on if he really was a relation of yours. And if so, I can't help wondering what those family reunions are like! But..." She shrugged and spread her hands wide. "If not, maybe it's a mysterious doppelganger of yours or something. Weirder things than that have happened, right?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Though he showed no other sign of being affected, the mere fact that Zev even responded to what she'd thought was an idle, silly question about a possible family member in the Rangers was enough to alert Aurelie that something wasn't quite right, considering that he'd barely seemed to be listening to any of the other news she'd relayed. The increased intensity in his tone, subtle though it was, only confirmed this impression. If Aurelie had been a guard dog or a wolf, her hackles would have risen at the sound of his voice, harder and more forceful than before.

But being neither dog nor wolf, it was her turn instead to restrain herself from whirling around to face him—from acting, in any way, like she'd noticed the change in the atmosphere or sensed anything amiss. She forced herself to keep her face turned toward the passenger window as if she were still watching the landscape speed past. The red-haired smith wasn't even sure why she reacted so warily, except for her acute, ever-present awareness that Zev was a dangerous man. Aurelie did not ever want to see him roused to full intensity, particularly not anywhere where she lived and worked.

"Hmm, well, like I said, it happened quite a while ago. And I've never been great with names," she replied with perfect honesty, keeping her tone light and inconsequential. "I think his name was...Sharp? Which is kind of a funny name for a guy visiting a blade shop, when you think about it."

At that moment, to her profound relief, the little alarm for the low-fuel indicator started to chime on the dashboard. She sat up straight in her seat, genuinely startled by the alarm. "Oh no! Do we need to stop for gas?" she exclaimed, glancing questioningly at Zev.

"I'd certainly hate to walk all the way to Lilycove if we ran out of gas," Aurelie added with a hint of humor. Seeing a roadside sign pass by, she pointed eagerly. "Oh, thank goodness, there's a gas station coming up in a few miles. Hopefully, we can chug along that far." She grinned, feeling thankful and pleased to have been diverted onto the harmless topic of fuel.

As they pulled toward the deserted, ill-lit gas station, abundant in cracked flooring, erratically flickering lights, and slightly dirty-looking pumps, something rustled in the dense, overgrown bushes nearby. A pair of eyes peered out as the car drew close. Something was watching them.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie let out a sigh of relief when Zev appeared to let the line of questioning about a possible Ranger relative go in favor of the more immediate and pressing issue of fuel. It was strange when she felt more comfortable around someone when they had a knife in their hand, rather than when they didn't, but that was how she felt about the Rocket hitman. He held knives—especially her custom knives—as if they were a natural extension of his body and used them with consummate, single-minded skill, and the red-haired smith certainly trusted him to use them on the right people for the right reasons. But when he didn't have a knife in hand, when he was just talking or threatening or thinking dangerous thoughts, then he made her shiver.

Absorbed in these musings, she was startled when the dispenser suddenly stopped pumping. Peering out the driver's side window, Aurelie groaned when she saw they'd only gotten a couple gallons from the pump. Ugh, that figures, she thought with disappointment. Now, we have to keep looking for another gas station. This better be the only nuisance we run into on this trip!

Before she even managed to finish that thought, she heard the sound of a wild scream. No way that was Zev! she thought. Was there someone else out there? Aurelie pushed open the door to look outside.

"Zev, what the hell..." she started to ask, before her voice failed her at the sight waiting for her outside.

A tall, unkempt man in a hospital gown was rushing at Zev with a crazed look on his face, only to be knocked back to the ground from Zev's punch. The man crawled backward on all fours, seemingly in retreat, before reaching for something hidden in the bushes and leaping back to his feet, bellowing triumphantly. Aurelie gasped in alarm when the crazed attacker brandished an axe: a woodcutter's axe, from the look of it, its honed edge gleaming pale blue in the dim, erratic gas station lights.

This must be the escapee from the psychiatric hospital! she thought, remembering the news report on the radio. They'd shared the grisly story of how he'd murdered his entire family, including his two young children, with an axe, and only the arriving Officers stopped him from attacking his neighbors. The man aggressively swung the axe back and forth in weaving, unpredictable patterns, trying to hold Zev at bay with his weapon's long reach, while occasionally letting out hysterical giggles and angry growls as he stared at the hitman.

Aurelie frantically tried to think of a way she could help. All she remembered seeing in the glove compartment were a GPS, a tissue box, and some zip ties. In the ever-present sheath at her hip, she had a bowie-style survival knife, but she didn't relish attempting to close on their axe-wielding attacker.

Instead, she pulled out the knife and threw it at their attacker, snapping her wrist and flinging it end-over-end like a throwing knife. Unfortunately, the knife didn't do much more than graze the man's bare arm before clattering to the ground, leaving a thin cut across his bicep. But it was enough to give him pause as he stared at the blood welling up from the cut and then looked toward her for the first time. "Blood...blood!" the man snarled. "Show me more blood! Show me your blood!"

The feral rage that Aurelie saw in the man's eyes shocked and scared her more than she was willing to admit. Mentally praying that the moment's distraction was enough for Zev, she dove for safety behind the half-open car door, while groping blindly for the glove department and the zip ties inside.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie let out a breath that she hadn't realized she'd been holding as Zev took advantage of the axe-wielding escapee's momentary distraction to incapacitate the man quite decisively. While the sudden and bizarre encounter had frightened her, the Rocket hitman thankfully hadn't been fazed. Afterward, the red-haired smith rolled her eye a little at Zev's terse command but headed forward obligingly, taking some of the zip ties from the glove compartment with her.

Moving quickly, she picked up her fallen knife and sheathed it, before gritting her teeth and then—not giving herself any time to think about it—grabbing the unconscious man's uninjured arm at the wrist. The escapee stirred slightly at this motion but didn't awaken. With a grunt of effort, Aurelie dragged the man away from the bushes toward one of the tall metal posts next to the gas pump. She winced at the signs of needle marks all along his arms, as well as old scars down his wrist, but didn't hesitate to pull out a zip tie and circle it around his forearm.

As the man stirred again, his eyelids fluttering and breath coming quicker, she swiftly looped the other end of the zip tie around the tall metal post and locked the two ends together. With a sharp grinding sound, she ratcheted the zip tie as tightly as it would go, fastening the man's arm securely to the post. At this point, the man moaned weakly, and Aurelie hastily hopped backward and hurried back to the car.

"Now, I feel a little better," she remarked as she closed the passenger door and Zev started up the car. "At least, he'll be easier to find for whoever is out there looking for him. And he can't go around waving axes at people this way."

Letting out another long breath, Aurelie gazed intently out the window for signs pointing to another gas station, hopefully a fully functioning one. The darkened nighttime landscape showed mostly trees and grass, to her disappointment. She did let out a gasp, however, when she spied a slender white figure in the distance, standing by the side of the road and waving a thin, pale arm toward the car.

As she watched, the figure looked back and forth from one side of the road to another, its slumped form betraying a feeling of distress. Or perhaps it was confused or lost. Aurelie looked questioningly at Zev.

"Do you see that?" she asked, pointing toward the white, distant figure. "Is that a hitchhiker over there, do you think? Or maybe a homeless person? Should we...stop for them?"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie quietly nodded in peaceable acceptance when Zev brusquely declined to stop for the strange hitchhiker, citing their tight schedule. It made sense not to invite a complete stranger, even a well-intentioned and benign stranger, into their car during a road trip when they were coming back from a Rocket-sanctioned hit. Besides, this particular figure was definitely eerie. The white clothing it wore looked strangely like a ragged wedding dress, and from certain angles, the figure seemed to flicker or disappear from view entirely, almost as if it weren't really there.

As they drove away, the red-haired smith couldn't help shaking her head over the road trip so far. An eerie hitchhiker on the side of the road was mildly odd, but that scuffle with the psychiatric hospital escapee in the parking lot was just bizarre. She spared a smug little smirk at the thought of the deranged patient zip-tied at the deserted gas station. While she couldn't care less about the patient—nor for the prospect of drawing attention to herself and Zev by calling the police—Aurelie felt good knowing that the man wouldn't be lunging out of bushes at other hapless victims and attacking them with an axe, the same way he'd reportedly attacked and killed his unsuspecting family.

She breathed a sigh of relief when Zev found another gas station that looked much cleaner and better maintained. Zev's offer of coffee was highly welcome given the long day they'd had and the drive ahead. "Yes, please!" Aurelie responded. "I'd love some coffee too. One cream, one sugar. Thanks."

While Zev went into the convenience store, Aurelie hummed tunelessly to herself as she fueled up the car. Past the gas station was a grassy meadow surrounded by thickets of trees, leading into a forest that looked like it could've come out of a sinister fairytale. She started when a psychedelically colorful Paras scurried through the tall grass, the fungi on its back looking noticeably swollen and lurid. A cloud of tiny, shimmering spores surrounded the Paras' head like a halo. Aurelie instinctively reached for a Poke Ball, but the Paras skittered away toward the trees before she could approach.

A few seconds later, a tall, gangly Ranger in full uniform and armband stumbled into view, looking about wildly. "Howdy there, ma'am. Ah—ah—achoo! Ah, have y'all seen a—achoo!—a wild Paras 'round here? Achoo!"

Aurelie nodded, realizing that this must be one of the Rangers trying to corral the outbreak of strange-looking Paras that she'd heard about on the radio. "Yes, I saw one just now, but it vanished into the trees." She pointed toward the direction it had gone.

"Achoo! Achoo!" the man sneezed, each time looking as if he were about to hack up a lung. "They sure do be acting funny lately. Weren't nothing I could do to keep this one from getting away."

His gaze fixed onto Aurelie's face, lingering long enough to make her feel uncomfortable. "Urgh...urk, I sure do feel strange...real strange. Ma'am, your face...something about it..." He licked his lips in a way that made Aurelie shudder, reminding her of predators salivating over a kill.

Another Ranger appeared behind him, this time a shorter, heavyset woman, also looking wildly around and sneezing madly. She too immediately fixated on Aurelie's face, staring at her with glazed yet somehow intense eyes. Both Rangers began slowly but inexorably staggering toward Aurelie, their attention never wavering. Feeling unnerved, Aurelie began to back away toward the convenience store.

In startling unison, both Rangers suddenly shouted, "She's a monster! A demon!" and lunged toward Aurelie, their arms outstretched before them. Aurelie fumbled to pull open the car door, but it wouldn't open, perhaps because it had locked automatically after she got out. Remembering that Zev had the car keys, she turned around and dashed toward the doors of the convenience store, unsure why the two Rangers suddenly started chasing her but definitely not wanting to stay around and find out.

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

BY GUNSMILE

[attr="class","aurelie"]

[attr="class","aurelie_body"]Aurelie was in full agreement with the convenience store cashier. What the hell is going on? she thought wildly, as the first Ranger's seemingly mindless charge was only stopped by Zev's expedient defense of throwing boiling hot coffee at her face. Rangers weren't supposed to act like this, attacking random strangers for no reason! For that matter, normal people didn't act like this, lunging and flailing at anyone nearby with unrestrained, rabid aggression.

The word rabid particularly stood out in her mind as the second Ranger, the lanky man, rushed through the door after his colleague, growling like an angry beast. His yellowed teeth were bared in a feral snarl, with strings of saliva vibrating visibly and unpleasantly between them. When he swung at her, Aurelie barely managed to duck in time so that his fist whooshed an inch or two above her head.

The teenage cashier wasn't so lucky. The force of the Ranger's missed punch sent him crashing into the heavy metal register, while his fist collided with a display rack of gum and candy bars right in front of the hapless cashier. Plastic-wrapped goodies went flying everywhere—as did a cloud of colorful dust from the Ranger's sleeve, shimmering in the fluorescent overhead lights like a vivid rainbow halo.

Suddenly, Aurelie remembered the cloud of spores surrounding the strange Paras she'd glimpsed just before the Rangers' arrival. The Ranger had even said he'd been chasing the Paras! She threw herself to one side, away from that fearful cloud of spores, and opened her mouth to shout a warning. "Don't breathe that stuff in!"

Unfortunately, the cashier was already drawing in a deep breath to scream. Thus, he got in a good lungful of the spores. A look of confusion crossed his face, quickly followed by a glazed expression that reminded the red-haired smith of how the Rangers had looked when they first approached her.

Aurelie rose unsteadily to her feet and gestured to Zev. "Those spores are causing this somehow! Making them crazy," she gasped out, striving to speak semi-coherently while breathing in as little as possible. "Let's just get out of here!"

Following her own advice, she dashed toward the now-open door of the convenience store, before stopping stock-still at the threshold. Her jaw dropped as she stared out the door. A family of four—father, mother, and two young children, carrying picnic baskets and Poke Balls—were lurching around their parked car, gnashing their teeth and salivating in a disturbingly familiar way.

"Oh no..." she groaned. "You've got to be kidding me!"

[attr="class","cred"]VEL OF PIXEL PERFECT

BY GUNSMILE