The alien made June’s skin crawl across her muscles, but it had yet to turn around and electrocute them to death. Thus, it was hard to do anything but keep the thought to herself as they wandered in the dark. Where they went was anyone’s guess, but she hoped it was close—and had a way to the open desert.

And would make Annalise not ask such questions of her.

“Well,” she crossed her arms and turned her face away, “I wasn’t about to have a boss that wasn’t me. An auto-mechanics degree didn’t give me many options otherwise, and I was… am… look, money’s tight, alright?”

“It was piss easy to figure out, I had the Pokémon for it, and I had a motorcycle. And the money isn’t terrible…” she trailed off. The explanation left so much off the table, but it felt strangely wrong not to say anything about it. She’d never felt that way with anyone else, except maybe Grigori. Maybe because of their talk last time?

And the money wasn’t even crazy. Decent, but not nearly enough for the mountain of debt that smothered her every decision. Debt from… from…

“Does it matter? I did it, I’m here.” Her voice grew abrasive, harsh. Defensive. “Not much else to say.”

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annalise henderson

“No, just–ugh,” June dug her nails into her sleeves. Fuck. She might’ve overreacted to Annalise, based on the ranger’s defense. All her Dad’s friends had asked similar questions, only to pry further and further until she got upset and snapped. Meanwhile, her ‘boss’ didn’t seem to have bad intentions.

She also had the decency to ask if it was off-limits. That was different, but she’d done so before. “Look, I’m… sorry. A lot of people asked me that question before. For bad reasons.”

“An auto-mechanics degree– associate, gets me into repair shops and stuff. But, like I said, I wasn’t about to have a boss over my shoulder,” she said slowly. As they started to walk again, she let her arms fall back to her sides.

“So that leaves… almost nothing,” she sighed. It was the first thing she looked into when push came to shove. It was also the first thing to get disappointed over. Especially when she’d been so close to the dream, literally within her grasp. And then That happened, and she got knocked back on her ass. Like the start of a race, but instead of a head start she got shoved backwards.

“Like I said, not a lot of money,” she looked straight forward, eyes focused on the shapes she conjured in her mind. That might’ve been another building in the distance, or it was a rocky cliffside. “Delivery stuff was one of the few options, given what I had. Runner-ups to delivery business were pyramid schemes, taxi stuff, personal trainer, or OnlyFans.”

When was the last time she’d even brought half of this stuff up? Must’ve been… Arceus, she couldn’t even remember. Such ingrained-in-her-mind facts felt alien as they became common knowledge, but not in a wholly bad way. Like some unknown pressure deep inside her bones had been siphoned out.

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annalise henderson

“Have you seen how much they make? Could’ve been out of debt by now,” she said. Sure, her tongue slipped, but she’d already stated her tight financial record. And a lot of people were in debt nowadays– that was, like, half the potential recruits of Rocket. Not like she said the reason behind it either. That’d be a lot harder to get past her throat.

Yet as she stepped ahead to examine the thing she’d likely have to figure out to open the door to this new structure, Annalise got something out of her. A strange noise escaped her lips, and she violently flinched away from the ranger’s words. Like she’d been physically assaulted by the phrase.

Annalise had pulled the ball of clay and thorns out from its hole and shoved it into her chest.

“Yea,” she muttered. A slight chuckle was forced past her teeth, an attempt to play off the sudden awkwardness, the frustrated-yet-pained expression. “Would be… nice…”

Back up the walls went. Not out of necessity, but desire. When they finally got to the door, she pushed on it and was mutely surprised to find that it opened with little resistance. The dreadful squeak of rusted hinges filled the air as she forced her way inside. June did not hold the door open for the ranger, instead letting it struggle to shut behind her.

Of all the things to be brought up. Fuck. One hand rested on her backpack strap, the fabric scrunched tight beneath her fingers, while the other clicked on a flashlight. Just like last time, there was little else besides the black cables and various machines. However, it was condensed into a much smaller location. A museum into the dead, decrepit past.

She stood silent, her light a spear that pierced the pitch black of the miniature power plant. Each breath punctured the thick silence like a Tauros, moments before it charged.

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annalise henderson

“I don’t know,” June grumbled as she switched her light over to the mass that Annalise mentioned. Once the light caught the figure, the second Xurkitree that sat as motionless as the dust that covered the walls, she quickly moved the light elsewhere. Arceus, they sure did love these dead power plants.

Maybe… “You think these things come in here just to ‘eat’ the electricity?”

It made sense, to a perfect degree. They clearly loved power, and these were places designed to harness the passive electricity. Why go hunt for it when it was conveniently located in a concentrated location? She’d do it too, if she were a strange wired creature with a big, white, spike-y head.

“Here, I can test this,” she quickly darted for the nearby machinery. This gave her an excuse to forget about what Annalise had said, had unintentionally done. All her attention was instead focused onto the main control panel, which she tore apart with desperate fingers. “If I turn the power back on, will that thing come to life like yours?”

Soon enough, like last time, she’d dug out the tools necessary to start going to town on the guts of the machine. She didn’t even spare Annalise a wayward glance as he poured her everything into the process.

What she failed to notice, in her haste to forget the frustration and pain of what could’ve been, is that the Xurkitree wasn’t the only creature on the far side of the room. A single bright blue eye would blink to life, half covered by the span of wires. It focused directly onto Annalise and her own Xurkitree, but it did not move.

Not yet.

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annalise henderson

Connect that wire… move that one… fuck with that thing… and… there! June nodded to herself and quickly replaced the top of the box. “Should be good to go. Let’s see what happens.”

She flicked the first switch. Nothing. The second one too. But the third one did the same thing as the last power plant: light flickered into existence from the dim, weathered bulbs. Their surroundings were painted in the filtered illumination, which aged everything by a couple of decades. Ugly, but better than her shitty flashlight.

“Wait, Annalise, you see that thing?” A cautious finger pointed straight toward the illuminated eye. Comedically timed, though, as its gaze shifted upward to the heavens. Cables shifted, and something moved.

Yep, the power did alert the still Xurkitree, which swiveled its head to sense where the problem was. It obviously determined the two strangers, aliens to its land, and the second Xurkitree as the disturbance. They stole its food, and it would not tolerate it.

The sudden whine of electricity got June to move, and it brought her straight to Annalise as she tried to pull her behind a row of machinery. “Move!”

Just in time, too: a streak of pure electricity shot straight past where they’d just been. It went further, straight through the door they’d entered from and further still. A couple more followed suit and made a funny picture in the back wall. If she had the time, she would’ve connected the dots to see what the picture was supposed to be.

Instead, she looked to the ranger for guidance. “How the fuck do we get out of here? That thing will shoot us dead if we try to…”

PROMPT COMPLETE: 22 Find a way to bring power to a deactivated power station, but any instruments or machinery within will fail to work yet.

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annalise henderson

Wait? That was Annalise’s bright idea, just wait and hope that those fuckers didn’t accidentally kill them in the process? June gritted her teeth and peeked around the corner. The Ranger’s own pile of cables had closed the distance and sucker-punched the other one with crackling electricity. The wild one didn’t appreciate that at all and pulled most of its limbs together.

And it swung much, much harder. Its Brutal Swing absolutely demolished its foe and sent it reeling into the wall. Machinery cracked underneath the weight and bolts scattered everywhere. “Okay, we can NOT wait it out!”

But… what to do? Flygon wasn’t over the last time, and would probably get bodied. Again. Matchstick was a similarly bad idea, and Buddy would probably hurt them in the crossfire. Cathode wasn’t an option, and Midnight wouldn’t fit. That left… oh no. Not her. June groaned but pulled the last Poke Ball off her belt.

“Alright you bucket of bolts,” she tossed the Poke Ball like a flash bang, “make me proud!”

Out from the white light of the ball came… a second ball. Maybe double or triple the size of its holster, yet twice as immediately inanimate. A blue and red thing with a meager fin on its head and stubby, short arms. She gave off the biggest smile and held her limbs up high into the air, oblivious to the conflict that unfolded right in front of her big, lifeless eyes.

Gible had come to, as the kids say, ‘Fuck Shit Up Yo’. What would she do?

Nothing. But, maybe, that was perfectly fine. The wild Xurkitree, still mounted in its spot, immediately unloaded another volley of Thunderbolts right toward the small creature. Yet each one was absorbed into its body without any spasms or twitches. She didn’t even flinch in the face of an overloaded Gatling gun.

“Good enough!” June ran out around the corner, a second Poke Ball in tow. With all the strength in her body, she chucked the orb straight at the mounted death machine. Thankfully, it did not have the time to react to her and soon evaporated into the ball. Shake… shake…

Click!

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Special Hunt: Catch the Xurkitree!
annalise henderson

“No promises,” June said. She could only watch as the Stakataka pulled itself from the very foundation of the building and scurry away. Into the open desert, which apparently bordered the small power plant they stood in.

This was… perfect. She walked up to the Poke Ball and pocketed it as she examined the structure of the wall closer. Needed something to help it, but if the place was stuck between the edges of two massive rocky cliffs then it’d hold for long enough to make it better. Annalise’s idea could be done.

“Yea,” she kicked a bit of wall off to the side and pulled another away from the gap, “and we could throw up some tarp over it for now. So long as those aliens aren’t that smart, we could definitely get by for now. Natural protection on two sides, straight shot back to the entrance of this place…”

Open area to watch out for the Regieleki. A place to fall back in case it tried to kill them again. Too small for that massive thing to worm its way inside. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense.

“I fuck with it,” she recalled the Gible and walked back to Annalise. And then she walked past her, back to the back door. “But first, I think we should probably get a third eye here. Get someone else to build it. Lets us do more recon.”

In all honesty, she just wanted to dodge the potential continuation of their conversation as they came into this fucking place. It nearly got too personal. In a way she wasn’t… prepared to handle. But how long could she ignore the main reason she was here? Keep it from Annalise.

She bit on her fingernail, unsure of where this left them. Just had to keep kicking the can down the road, and she’d be fine. Right?

PROMPT COMPLETE: 17 Begin building a base camp/settlement of some kind.

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annalise henderson