Chapter 4: Some Needed Assistance

The voices in her head slowly brought Jeana back to being aware.

“This one’s so weeeeeeeeird. I don’t like her.”

“You’re just saying that because you hate it when people tell you to do things!”

“...That’s not untrue…”

“Stop using double negatives, it’s so confusing! Say what you mean already!”

“...You two do realize that we’re inside her dream, and so she is capable of hearing us, correct?”

“Nope!”

“She can!?”

“Yes. Now silence.”

Jeana opened her eyes to find herself in a somewhat familiar, but very different, location. The sun was out and shining, in a pale blue sky. The grass was dark green, lush, and damp with dewdrops that caught the light and sparkled in a way that made the grass blades look like a rainbow, almost. Nearby there was a gate, similar to the Gate of Horn. This one, however, was off-white, polished, and gleaming. It was covered in elaborate and elegant carvings, and looked like it belonged in front of an expensive mansion, not in the center of a field. Within the gate danced alluring, hypnotic colors far brighter than those in the Gate of Horn. The colors in this new gate captured her imagination, made her heart race, and made Jeana feel as though she could fly…

Something unpleasant churned in Jeana’s stomach, and she tightly shut her eyes. After a few moments passed and her stomach settled down, Jeana opened her eyes and looked down.

...Paws. She was still an espurr.

She looked up, and identified the sources of the voices she had been hearing.

They were easily distinguishable, and yet similar enough to easily be triplets. Each had two tails, pure white skin or fur, it was hard to tell, and bright red gemstones set between their eyes, and on each fan-like tail. Two of them had platinum-gold irises, the third it was difficult to tell as their eyes were shut. Despite these similarities, one could easily tell them apart by looking to their heads. One had a yellow head, similar to a turban. One had a triangular blue head. And the third had a pink head, with appendages on it similar to a lucario’s aura-sensors.

The pink one immediately floated over to Jeana, getting into very close proximity with the espurr. “...You’re the human-turned-Pokemon one?” it asked. It sounded feminine.

“...Yes?” Jeana replied, backing away. “...I’ve come up with an alternate way to explain this whole experience…”

“Elaborate?” the yellow one asked. It was hard to determine that one’s gender by voice.

“I have gone insane,” Jeana said, rather complicated.

“You mean you weren’t already?” the pink one asked.

“This is not a delusion,” the yellow one assured.

“But she is crazy, I mean her emotions are so wacky!”

“Mesprit, you’re wacky,” the blue one huffed. “And you need to learn about personal space!”

The pink one, Mesprit, back up, hovering several feet off the ground and away from Jeana.

“Sorry about Mesprit,” the blue one said. That one sounded like a male. “She’s… well. You saw. Anyways, I’m Azelf! And the yellow one is Uxie! We’re Legendaries, maybe you’ve heard of us?”

Jeana shook her head, and Azelf visibly deflated. “Oh. Well…”

Azelf perked up again. “Now you know about us, though! And I can tell you in person and see your face as you find out how awesome we are, and that’s even better!”

Uxie sighed at Azelf’s enthusiasm. “Xerneas summoned you,” the yellow Legendary said. “You’ve met him.”

“I have,” Jeana confirmed.

“He sent us to assist you,” Uxie continued. “He thought you would have a difficult time adjusting to your new form, and so believed that, since we were your fellow Psychic types, we would be capable in helping make the transition from human to Pokemon easier for you.”

“...That is thoughtful of him, sir,” Jeana spoke.

“Don’t say sir. Formalities get in the way of things,” Azelf said. “We’re all Psychic types, and about the same height. And we’re here to help you.”

“We can explain to you why, exactly, you were called here,” Uxie said. “And we can assist you in learning moves. Battling is an essential part of Pokemon life, and moves are an equally essential part of that.”

“Both would be extremely helpful, thank you,” Jeana replied.

“I’ve got a really good move I could show you,” Mesprit hummed.

Jeana turned her attention to Mesprit.

“But you have to apologize to me before I teach it to you.” Mesprit grinned wickedly.

“But she didn’t even do anything?” Azelf asked.

“Why?” Jeana asked at the same time Azelf spoke.

“Because,” Mesprit said in response to both. The pink Legendary crossed her arms and leaned backwars, letting her tails hang limply. The smirk stayed on her face.

“...I’m very sorry?” Jeana asked.

“Close enough,” Mesprit hummed. “Now, you wanna learn that move?”

“Yes. Please,” Jeana said.

“It’s called Frustration,” Mesprit said. “I think you’re going to be very good at it!”

“Oh. That move,” Azelf sighed. “That move’s dumb.”

“You’re dumb.”

“Just because I’m not as smart as Uxie--!!”

“Mesprit, Azelf,” Uxie sighed. “Frustration?”

“Right, right,” Mesprit said.

Jeana sat, staring silently at them.

When she had met Xerneas, she had felt multiple emotions. She had been intimidated when she first saw him, and his imposing height in his deerlike form. She had been in awe once he had transformed into human form. She had be impressed, and a bit afraid when he gave her that probing and accurate summarization of her personality after a little over a dozen seemingly random questions. And she had felt slightly touched when he asked her to reconsider.

Overall, she had been given a rather good first impression of Legendary Pokemon. She had thought they were powerful, mature, and caring.

The triplets were not giving her any of these impressions.

Uxie seemed to be the most mature out of the three. They settled the disputes of their brother and sister in an efficient way, and was by far the most rational and calm. They were the closest by far to giving off that aura of something unspeakably ancient, powerful, and intelligent.

Azelf was very different from Uxie and Xerneas. Azelf didn’t feel like an entity of power, a force of nature to be feared and worshipped. Azelf seemed like a normal Pokemon, a bit full of himself, yes. But also genuinely and sincerely helpful. Someone you would be lucky to have as a friend. While he did come off as the most normal of the three, it led to Jeana having a hard time respecting him.

And then there was Mesprit. There was something about the female that Jeana disliked. From what she had seen, the other Psychic was immature, bratty, and generally illogical. She did not know what Mesprit’s dominion as a Legendary was over, but it was really only the fact that Mesprit may have the power to seal Jeana in the bowels of the earth, drown her in the deepest depths of the sea, or tear her brain apart molecule by molecule into sludge that kept Jeana speaking respectfully toward her. In fact, Jeana’s efforts to try to remain respectful and polite to the triplets caused her to say as little as possible, to minimize the chance of something that could be considered ‘rude’ slipping out.

“Hello? Helloooooooo, Mesprit to Jeana!” Mesprit asked, loudly getting Jeana’s attention.

Jeana blinked, turning her attention back to the triplets, and nodding to show she was listening.

“So! Frustration,” Mesprit began. “It’s basically weaponizing your hateful emotions. You’ve got a lot of those bottled up in that little head of yours, I can tell.”

Jeana gave Mesprit a blank look.


“...You’re really creepy, you know?” Mesprit stated, not like a question but as a fact.

Jeana chose not to respond to that.

“...You don’t actually want to teach Jeana the move, is that it?” Azelf asked Mesprit.

“Eh,” Mesprit responded.

Azelf crossed his arms and gave Mesprit a pouting face. Suddenly Mesprit’s posture shifted, mimicking Azelf’s exactly.

“Stop that! Fine, I’ll do it already,” Mesprit growled.

This was rather confusing to Jeana. It still did not improve her opinions about the triplets.

“You take a negative emotion. Hatred works best. Anger, envy, and the like okay too. Annoyance works, but is kind of wimpy honestly. And sadness and depression make the attack just sort of fizz pathetically,” Mesprit instructed Jeana, speaking in what sounded like a low growl.

Jeana shut her eyes. Mesprit had said that it would grant unimpressive results, but quite a bit of annoyance was accessible to the espurr simply from being near Mesprit. She concentrated on the annoyance, coaxing it out into the center of her mind. Then she fanned it, nourished it, building it up.

“You focus on that emotion. You intensify it. And then… imagine you’re hurling it at your enemy!” Mesprit coached.

The annoyance buzzed and bounced around Jeana’s chest, and her breathing hitched. She was choking on something sour-tasting. She started loudly wheezing and hacking, trying to cough something up. It was just when Jeana thought she was going to start hacked up blood she was coughing so hard, that instead she hacked up something completely different. It was a black gooey blob, and it tasted like the most sour lime one would ever taste. It landed on the grass in front of Jeana, fizzling and spitting with spite. It gave off a harsh scent like accrid smoke.

Physically and mentally drained by this effort, Jeana fell back onto the ground. She felt dizzy and light-headed, and her lungs and throat both burned.

“Hey, you did it!” Azelf exclaimed. “You used Frustration, on your first try, too!”

Mesprit nodded. “That’s really sucky aiming, and it’s way too small to do anything more than sting a bit. But I was expecting it to be like ten tries before you got anything out at all. So good job.”

Mesprit said ‘good job’ like she was congratulating a recently potty-trained toddler on using a toilet correctly.

All Jeana could really do was lay on the dewey grass and catch her breath. The dew soaked into the fur on her back, causing her pelt to become damp and cold. Once the dizziness faded from her head, Jeana sat up again. “Uxie,” she panted. “N… now that I have managed a usage of Frustration… Could you please tell me about the situation in Leginda, and why, exactly, I was called here?”

“Certainly,” Uxie said. “Next time. I believe you’ve had an exciting enough 36 or so hours. You should probably do some proper sleeping now. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Jeana!” Azelf chirped. Mesprit said nothing.

The fogginess of sleep crept into Jeana’s head. Her eyelids grew heavy and she found herself falling backwards onto the soft but cold grass again.

---

When Jeana next opened her eyes, she was back in the Infirmary of the Meadow Guild. She had a pounding headache, and much of her body felt sore. Her fur was dried, and stuck together uncomfortably, probably making her look bizarre. She shifted in the bed, and winced at the pain, before swinging her legs to the side of the bed and letting her paws touch the ground. Her joints ached in protest.

She looked down. Bandages were wrapped around her legs, back, stomach, and arms. It felt like there were some around her ears, too. But they did not impede her movement, and she could easily ignore the pain in her body. That was simple.

The hard part would be convincing others that she was perfectly fine.

Slowly and unsteadily, she managed to rise until she was in an unstable standing position. She then took a shaky step forwards. She managed to get a fair distance away from the bed before the Guild’s medic entered the room Jeana was in and saw her.

“Hey, what do you think you’re doing!?” the grotle snapped. “You should be resting! You were hit by a bunch of super effective moves just yesterday, you should not be rushing about now!”

Jeana frowned. “I’m capable of moving unimpeded,” she said, in a slow and forceful tone. “Therefore, I am fine.”

“No, you are not. You look like you could fall over at any moment,” the grotle corrected. “Trust me, I trained under the best medic in Pixie City for years. I can tell just by looking at you that you need more time to recover.”

Jeana stubbornly remained standing, as if trying to convince him through the act alone that she could handle more difficult things. It did not work. The turtle could quite plainly see that the feline was trembling, and would probably be unable to do anything more physical than a brisk walk. And even that would probably be risky.

“This you last warning, get back in the bed, or I will carry you there myself and ask a guild member to tie you up to keep you in there,” the grotle warned. “We have some very Pokemon who are very skilled with Vine Whip. It’s because of all the practice they get, since half the rookie guild members are exactly like you, insisting they can still do their missions when they have a big bloody gash in their arm. Absolutely ridiculous.”

Jeana let out a heavy but short sigh, moving back towards the bed and getting on it.

“Thank you. I was really hoping you’d do that. I hate the taste of tanga-oran salve, and it doesn’t leave your mouth for hours,” the grotle sighed as well, but him in relief.

“Tanga-oran… That’s what’s all over my fur?” Jeana asked.

The grotle nodded. “Yes. Tanga to neutralize the effect of the Bug type moves on you, and oran to speed up the healing process. As a Psychic type, Bug attacks are bound to hurt more and for longer than on other kinds of Pokemon. Tanga takes the super effective quality away,” the grotle explained. “And don’t go licking your fur to get it off like I know you feline species sometimes do. It’s kind of creepy to watch, and the salve needs to stay on the wounds and out of your stomach to work.”

Jeana obediently nodded.

“Good, good,” the grotle said, nodding. “I was just coming in to check on you before I get dinner. Now that you’re awake, I’ll ask one of the other guild members to bring something up for you.”

“I slept that late?” Jeana asked, incredulous.

“I’m not surprised. You’re new to battling and therefore don’t handle pain or super effective attacks very well yet, and you’re a species not renowned for incredible regenerative or defensive abilities,” the grotle said. “Now, bye. Get plenty of rest, and stay in that bed.”

Jeana let out a lungful of air the moment that the grotle medic exited the room. She sat, simply staring at the opposite wall of the room for several minutes, before there was a voice in her head. Lina’s voice.

‘Jeana, can I come in?'

Jeana blinked, somewhat surprised by this. “...Yes?” she answered, loudly but hesitantly.

The door swung open again. This time, the small chingling waddled into the room, her braids occupied by a tray of food. Lina set the food down on Jeana’s bed.

“...Thank you,” Jeana said. Only upon seeing and smelling the food did she become aware of the dull ache in her stomach.

“Not a problem,” Lina said. Then she paused. “Uh… You know, that plan of yours… It was clever. You were doing the best you could with what you had. If you’d been faster, or there hadn’t been scyther there, or we’d found a Petrify or Totter or Slumber orb instead of a blast seed, we could’ve completed the mission… And you could’ve gotten into the Guild, and--”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jeana cut Lina off mid-sentence. “It’s in the past. Unchangeable now.”

Lina nodded. “...You know,” she said. “You really look like you’re having trouble with using your Psychic moves. If other Guild members find out… Well, the ones here would probably be helpful, but teams from other Guilds might get snippy or something about it. I could help you out a bit with learning to use your Psychic powers?”

“Yes. Please,” Jeana said, quickly.

“Great, awesome!” Using her braids to launch herself upwards, Lina leaped and landed neatly on the bed, ending up near Jeana. “Right! So first of all, all Pokemon have a large amount of power locked inside themself when they’re hatched, and using moves is them releasing that power in a controlled burst. More powerful moves use more of that power, but you can use less of them. Less powerful moves use less of that power, but you can use more of them. And we call that power energy.”

Jeana nodded.

“Your energy is affiliated with a certain type,” Lina continued. “We’re both affiliated with Psychic type. We can use that energy to use moves of a different type, but it’s far easier to use energy for moves of the same type, and so we can make those moves more powerful with less energy. We also have a second source of energy, called life. The more sick or injured you are, the less life energy you have. At some point if your life energy gets too low, it causes you to become too sluggish to use moves or really energetic movements, or you could even fall unconscious. If you run out of energy, you can start converting life into energy to continue fighting, but it’s really dangerous.”

Jeana nodded again.

“When a move of a type hits you, it hurts both your energy and your life. You’re going to get a distinct feeling of wrongness from that, that’s your life and energy telling you you’re up against a really dangerous enemy, and to get away. It’s kind of like your paw hurting when you stick it in a fire, the pain is your paw telling you not to do that. It’s the same thing.”

Jeana thought back to when she had attended classes in school about basic Pokemon biology. She remembered the teacher talking about things like HP, PP, and levels… Terms that technology used when tracking the health of a battling Pokemon. She had been distracted by immature students giggling over some of the terminology(it had been about middle or elementary school), but she thought ‘HP’ translated to life, and ‘PP’ translated to energy.

“It’s usually a lot easier to focus energy when you’re using a certain action while drawing on it,” Lina said. “Like, when a hitmonchan channels energy, they usually do it in the form of a punch.”

Jeana nodded again. She recalled her usage of Scratch the previous day. While she doubted she had been much, if any, channeling energy then, the action was rather basic and easily identified. She also thought about when she used Psychic and Frustration on the respective times she had successfully attacked with them.

Frustration’s motion was also relatively easy to identify. The hacking up of… whatever that was. It was probably going to be painful, but Mesprit was right, she did need to work on that move. Perhaps with practice it would become less painful, and easier to aim.

Psychic… Jeana could easily guess what had triggered it. But she would prefer a simpler and less stressful action she could perform, rather than having a meltdown.

“Anyways, let’s try something simple. Not a move, so it’ll be easier to perform. Try some plain old telekinesis,” Lina said. “Usually, I do this.” The chingling stood up, using her braids like feet, and then swept her stubby arms upwards. A bit of food from Jeana’s dinner leaped from the tray towards Jeana’s mouth. The espurr opened her jaws, and then snapped them shut around the tasty tidbit. She chewed for a moment before swallowing it.

“Right. How about a game, you can eat as much as you can! But you can only eat food brought to your paws or mouth with telekinesis,” Lina proposed, grinning wickedly.

Jeana gave Lina a look. “Any living being needs food in order to perform actions. How am I to use telekinesis to eat food, if I need energy to perform telekinesis, and I need food to regain energy?”

“You also regain energy from sleeping, and you just slept for about eighteen hours,” Lina pointed out.

Jeana sighed. She tried sweeping her hand upwards, however nothing happened. She looked to Lina as if to say ‘see?’

Lina shrugged. “So what. You didn’t get it first try. It took me like five tries.”

Jeana let out a huff of air throught her nostrils, and tried again. About five minutes of the espurr waving her paw while the chingling eagerly watched passed, before Jeana crossed her arms. “This is ridiculous.”

“No, no. Just be patient!” Lina encouraged. “Are you just doing the motion?”

“I don’t know how to channel energy,” Jeana sighed.

Lina crossed her braids, some of the frayed bits at the end rubbing her chin like fingers. “Hrmm… Okay, try it like this. Imagine that there’s a really long magic lasso in your paw, and that when you move your paw so does the lasso! If you move your paw just right, the lasso grabs the food, and the brings it to you. And that lasso is your telekinesis.”

Jeana closed her eyes, trying to clear her mind of annoyance and irritance. Ever since she had woken up after learning Frustration from Mesprit, the emotion had been rather eager to creep in around the corners of her mind whenever possible.

Jeana then opened her eyes, and tentatively stretched out her arm, clenched her paw into a fist, and drew the fist back towards herself.

A cup trembled, rose a centimeter into the air, tilted sideways, and then fell, spilling cooled liquid all across Jeana’s bed.

Jeana groaned in irritance.

“No, no! That was really good! You did spill the cup, but you managed to move it with your mind! That’s progress!” Lina reassured her.

Jeana buried her muzzle in her paws as her stomach growled to highlight her frustration.

“Hey, don’t be like that…” Lina sounded disappointed at Jeana’s reaction. “Wait, you know what I find makes it easier to move something? If it’s already in motion! You know that they say, about objects moving like to stay moving, and still objects like to stay still. Just… please please try just one more time?”

Jeana rubbed her cheeks and forehead with the heels of her paws rather roughly, before looking up.

Lina ripped a chunk off a slice of break, squished it into a ball, and tossed it up in the air. Jeana squinted, and repeated her motion. Stretch, clench, back.

Miraculously, the ball of bread zipped back towards her. She opened her mouth, and clamped her fangs onto the bread, taking an extra long time to chew it, relishing it before she swallowed.

Lina used the ends of her braids to applaud her, before raising her small arms up again, bringing more of the meal under her telekinetic control. She moved the food towards Jeana.

Jeana frowned at Lina. Lina shrugged, and grinned sheepishly. “I said you could only eat what was brought to you through telekinesis. So you can eat these too.”

Jeana managed to enjoy the the rest of her meal. While Jeana was eating, Lina used a rag the grotle medic(Lina claimed his name was Grub) had stored away to mop of the spilled drink.

When Jeana had finished, Lina grabbed the tray once more with her braids. As the chingling hopped off the bed and moved towards the door, Jeana voiced a question that had been weighing on her mind.

“Lina,” Jeana asked, “what happened to the medicinal berries I had purchased? I brought them into the dungeon, but I haven’t seen them since I woke up…”

“...Oh.” Lina turned to face Jeana. “The wild Pokemon must’ve eaten them. A lot of them were using Bug Bite, and when a Pokemon uses that move there’s a chance that they could eat any seeds or fruit you’re carrying.”

“Ah.” Jeana was disappointed that Eona had spent her own money to purchase berries to help Jeana with her mock job request, only for them to be devoured by Pokemon that probably did not even truly exist.

“Goodnight!” Lila chimed as she exited the room.

Jeana said nothing, staring at the wall for a few moments, before snuggling into her bed and closing her eyes. Being humiliated on her mock job request yesterday had only made her more determined to pass. Before she had been unsure about whether or not she truly wanted to join the guild. But now that she had tasted bitter defeat she knew she absolutely had to get in. There was no other option. And with a new move and useful skills learned, even if they were not yet mastered, she felt sure she had a far better chance of succeeding this time.

As Jeana drifted off to sleep, she hoped fervently that she would not have to deal with the triplets again so soon. She felt drained, both physically and mentally, from the past two days, and wanted some true rest.

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This was a rather fun chapter to write... How's everyone been enjoying the fic so far?