Chapter Text
Incomprehensible, funnily enough, is a hard concept to comprehend. Our brains try everything in their power to understand. And so we try. And try. And that is what lands us in these situations. Where we need a word to say that there aren't any words to use. Because no matter how hard one tries, sometimes there is no way to understand
The only thing faster than her feet on what she assumed was ground, was her thoughts.
What is it? Doesn’t matter. A Pokémon? Maybe. Probably. It is easier to think of it as that shadow. A shadow with a red smile and eyes? Is that what it seemed back in spear pillar? Isn’t that just like some random ghost type? No. A ghost type is tricky on purpose. There is intent when a ghost type looks like a shadow, intent to scare, intent to protect itself. This thing, this thing, isn’t intending anything. It simply is. It is a shadow because it isn’t light.
She needs to think of something else. She grasps for another train of thought. It’s world. For it’s definitely its world. No other being would…
Focus. Focus on what’s around you. Its world is dark. A type of dark that feels like standing in a shadow on a hot day. Or maybe an eclipse. Like there’s light somewhere just not here. It’s being blocked. It is not the total darkness of night. At least there’s that going for her. The ground she runs on is dark. It’s hard to tell if it’s the lighting or if the dirt itself is a dusty purple.
The lake guardian Mesprit floats past high above. Her pink and blue colors catching her eye. She didn’t think any of the lake guardians would come here of their own free will. She certainly didn’t have a choice in the matter. The sight of something familiar calms her enough to slow her running. Where was she running to? Was she running from something? She reaches for the memory but her hands meet dead air. She shakes her head back and forth to clear it like an etch-a-sketch. The thought makes her mouth twitch upwards but it never gets to form a smile as the so-called shadow descends and it-
S̷̭̩̥̩̟̄̌͒ç̶̢͇̻̃̍͘ȑ̶͇̓́͘e̷͙̼̓e̴̥͙̰͒̎̓c̸̩̟͖͉͂h̸̛͉̟̰̤̾́ͅe̸̛͜s̵̩̙͂̌̕̚̕'; ( Screeches )
It sounds like a Pokémon. It sounds like human speech. It sounds like a hundred voices. It sounds nothing like a voice. It is loud. It makes no sound whatsoever. Whatever it sounds like its intent is now clear. It wants a fight. She hopes a Pokémon battle will do. She is not fighting this thing with her bare hands.
She sends out her Spiritomb, Kishin, from its Dusk Ball and it laughs. Of all her Pokémon it is the most human-like. It simply knows things the others could not. But it laughs. At her? At the shadow? Impossible to tell without questioning it.
She goes to speak, to call out a strategy, but it’s as if her vocal cords are connected to a different frequency than the rest of her. She cannot speak. She doesn’t want that thing's attention on her. Not now, not ever.
Kishin seems to accept this. It has always been smart. She’s not sure if she caught it, or it chose her all that time ago. Or maybe it was yesterday? Her sense of time seems to be slipping. She falls back on her childhood ways of using body language to communicate. It was something she learned to do with her siblings. It wasn't very complex, for example a head tilt and thumbs up was a "you ok?". In this case she would act out the type of move she wanted her pokemon to use. Like spiritombs sucker punch just being her mimicking a punch.
It is almost like a really high stakes game of charades. She almost snorts at the thought. She used to use this to plot with her siblings for new pranks. With such low stakes as getting caught mid prank. Now she does not know what will happen if she loses this "game". If her Pokémon do not understand her. If the shadow does and uses it against her. It would be hard to get to a Pokémon center from here. Hell she doesn’t even know where here is. Or even if it can be defeated at all. But she has to try. Mostly because the platform behind her has dissolved into nothing. Torn apart like a spectral piece of paper. Probably this things doing
She keeps fighting. She has exhausted her flight and now all she can do is fight. Slowly but surely it weakens. It manages to take out Kishin with some kind of two turn move. and it does seem to be a Pokémon move. Less than ideal, but it seems considerably weaker than before. If it can weaken it can be defeated. Probably. Maybe. Hopefully. She sends out her Infernape, Vulcan. He was her first Pokémon. He has known her the longest and will hopefully pick up her little game of charades. He is confused at first and takes a couple of hits for it but quickly picks it up. She tries a fighting move but it seems to have no effect. Probably ghost type then. That would be her luck.
She does not switch out her Pokémon. She’s not sure the others would pick up on her charades and if they did it would certainly not be quickly. But she continues on, not that she has a choice in the matter because again, no ground behind her. She tries to calm down enough to speak. But just looking at the thing… it’s enough to make her panic all over again. It sounds like cracking bones every time it moves. But the edges of it are in constant flux, not solid enough to break and make that sound. It seems to bubble, tiny pieces of it floating off and disappearing somewhere almost like it’s underwater. If it has limbs they are not distinct enough for her to pick out from the rest of it, besides maybe some long tendrils. Sometimes it seems to shine like gold but the shine does not seem to brighten its dark shadowy appearance. Its glowing red eyes give nothing away. But it’s weakening. And that’s all that matters. That’s what she tells herself anyway.
The moves it’s using seem to be Pokémon moves. And so right when she thinks it’s almost defeated she again questions, is it a Pokémon? Could she catch it? Does she want to? Does she want this horrifying, unknowable but almost knowable, thing to be her responsibility? Part of her, the fearful part, says no, leave it. Defeat it and get the hell out. Another, just as loud, part of herself says catch it! For Rowan! We can dump it on him for his research. Unfortunately she has never had the best sense of self preservation. That's probably what got her into this mess in the first place if she's being honest
She guesses it can’t hurt to throw one Dusk Ball. If it’s not a Pokémon it won’t work. If she catches it, she’ll throw it at Rowan. (Metaphorically, she probably wouldn't literally throw a ball of metal containing this thing at the Professor, probably.) If she doesn’t she’ll defeat it and run for the hills. Either way she’s almost done. Besides, this thing probably despises her and won’t let her catch it anyway. Vulcan looks back at her exasperated like it can sense her bad ideas.
She throws the Dusk ball.
One shake.
Oh.
Two shakes
Oh no.
Three shakes
She was kidding!
Caught!
The only thing she thinks as she stares at the, now occupied, Dusk Ball across from her is that Rowan is gonna kill her.
Professor Rowan did, in fact, not kill her, thank Arceus.
He did, however, lecture her for hours on end. “You shouldn’t have been there in the first place!” And “why did you throw a pokeball instead of running?!” among other things. Whatever, her plan of throwing it at the Professor was ruined, metaphorically or otherwise. He said she could study it since she was so smart as to catch it. She thinks that last bit was sarcastic; probably.