Rising Smoke (a black randomized gijinka storylocke)

[Noblejanobii]

@Suicune's Fire Okay so HOPEFULLY this has made improvements on those changes you have recommended. Maybe? We'll see. It's weird because I was always taught a new speaker ALWAYS started a new paragraph, and that actions couldn't come before the dialogue, only after. But after you pointed it out I consulted with some other writers and it's not true. I don't remember where I learned that but hey I'll try to fix it for the future. Anywho, here's chapter 3, let me know what I need to fix oh miss beta reader baby!

Chapter 3

They didn’t stop running. They couldn’t risk it. They could hear the shouts from the guards growing closer with each passing second. The trio dove into the woods, avoiding the clear path to buy some time.

Tyson fumbled with his pocket and produced a burner phone. Flipping it open, he quickly dialed a number and held it up to his ear. A few seconds later, someone answered. “Ninette? Yeah, it’s Tyson. Get Leon ready, we’re going to be leaving Striaton as soon as possible. … I’ll tell you what happened later. Just get Leon and the stuff ready. We’re going to try and wait them out in the Dreamyard. … yeah, tell him I said love you too. I’ll see you soon.” Tyson closed the phone and slid it back into his pocket. He’d have to dispose of it later.

Tyson gestured for Shayla and Ashur to follow him. “If we get into the secluded area of the Dreamyard then we should be fine. The only thing we’d have to worry about there is the guy who owns the land and I doubt he would mind us crashing the party for a little while.”

Staying clear of the road, it appeared to Shayla that they were venturing further and further away from Route 2. She could barely see Striaton City on the horizon, the tall dark buildings stretching high into the sky. They were heading east of Striaton though, towards whatever this “Dreamyard” place was. Shayla glanced at Ashur, the krookodile appearing to have little trouble keeping up with Tyson’s pace despite all the sweat coming down his forehead. She wondered what was going through his mind right now. Why had he saved them? Tyson had said he had always tried to stay out of the spotlight, so why did Ashur decide to change that?

“Almost there, just be careful, this place is usually littered with ferals,” Tyson said as the forest started to thin.

They came across the ruins of what appeared to be a science facility that hadn’t been touched in years. The walls were crumbling and had scorch marks all over them as if there had been some sort of explosion or something. Tyson slowed down and took special care to stick to the shadows as they moved through the Dreamyard. Was it because of the landowner? Was he that much of a threat or something?

Tyson stopped after a moment, scanning around before motioning for everyone to sit down. “I think we’re in the clear for now. Ninette and Leon know where to meet us. Once we meet up with them, we’re getting out of here and heading straight for Nacrene. I’ve got a few contacts in the area that should be able to help us either lay low or get us the hell out of there.” Tyson locked eyes with Ashur then turned his attention back to the woods around them. “Sorry about getting your house burned down, man. If I had known I wouldn’t have-”

Tyson stopped when Ashur pat the steelix gijinka on his head. Ashur smiled. “It’s alright. That house was getting old anyway. It was about time I got out of there anyway.”

“Why did you come after us?” Shayla asked.

Ashur cocked his head to the side in thought before shrugging. “Because it felt like the right thing to do. When you and Tyson left, I saw the police officers entering the town, so I was going to come after you to warn you anyway since I didn’t know the number of Tyson’s burner. But as I was grabbing my things, I saw they weren’t coming after you, they were coming after me with the Firing Squad. I squeezed out my bathroom window and fled before they could see me. As I was fleeing, I saw you guys getting into trouble and you know the rest.” Ashur laughed a little as he told the story.

Shayla stared on with concern. How could he laugh about his this? “But Ashur, you lost your house,” Shayla whispered.

Ashur gave her a warm smile. “Ah, it’s okay. I was able to save you guys, wasn't I? I must have looked pretty funny to anyone that saw me while I was climbing out the window though. Besides, Officer Cheren’s really tough, especially for you guys, since Tyson doesn’t know any ground moves yet.”

Tyson snorted at that comment. “I could've taken him,” he boasted with a smirk.

Asher laughed and tapped Tyson’s head. “That's not how I remember it. If I remember correctly, you nearly got done in by a bubble attack! That hardly looked like handling him.”

“Well excuse me for being alarmed when your house was burning down!” The two men began to laugh but paused when Shayla started laughing along with them.

After a moment, Shayla noticed that she was the only one laughing. “… was it wrong of me to laugh with you?” she asked sheepishly.

Tyson shook his head and smiled a bit. “Hardly, you're just so serious all the time, it felt weird hearing you laugh. It's a very pleasant sound coming from you, Boomburst.”

Shayla bristled and punched Tyson’s shoulder. “Don't call me that!” she cried out in frustration, despite the smile on her face. “I do not snore!”

“The neighbors beg to differ,” Tyson retorted as laughter erupted from the trio again.

Shayla sighed happily after a moment, the direness of the situation somewhat losing its impact with this sudden burst of laughter. She started to ask a question about their next move when a scream rang out across the Dreamyard.

“Please! Stay away!” It came from deeper within the Dreamyard. Shayla furrowed her brows in frustration. That sounded like a kid’s voice. She started to stand up, wanting to investigate, only to have Tyson grab her arm.

“Don’t. Look, I want to help too, but we have to leave as soon as Leon and Ninette get here. We can’t risk drawing any attention to ourselves,” Tyson warned.

Shayla pulled her arm away. “I get that, but I want to see what’s going on. What if it’s a child molester or something? That’s not something that should just be left alone.”

Tyson didn’t argue further as Shayla ventured deeper into the Dreamyard.

The ruins were very creepy, each having a pink sheen to them like they were just figments of her imagination or something. They were obviously old and worn to time, which explained some of the dark stains on the surfaces of these walls, but Shayla couldn’t stop the shivers crawling up her spine at the sight of deep red stains. They had long since dried, but Shayla wondered what had happened here that would leave such markings. Shayla heard leaves crunch behind her and glanced over her shoulder. She saw Ashur following her from a distance. He waved with a shy grin and signaled for her to keep going. Shayla nodded and continued forward, sticking closer to the trees as she proceeded.

The child’s cries grew louder as Shayla got closer. She could make out a few other voices too, but they were hushed, so Shayla couldn’t understand what they were saying. This area of the Dreamyard seemed a bit more illuminated than the rest, indicating Shayla was approaching a clearing or something. Then she saw them.

Past some of the bushes up ahead, she could see two gijinkas in uniform. They were standing over a small boy with short pink hair and dressed in long robes with purple flowers all over it. Shayla ducked behind a tree to watch, Ashur coming up behind her to do the same.

“Ah come on, kid, we just want some of that dream mist,” the first man said.

He was facing away from Shayla, so she wasn’t able to see what kind of gijinka he was, though given she could barely make out what looked like yellow petals, she was guessing a grass type of sorts. Still, what struck Shayla as odd was that these guys were wearing what she thought were Team Plasma uniforms. Why were they beating up a kid of all things? Wasn’t one of their ideals freedom for the future generations or something?

“Stay away from me!” the child cried in return. He tried to pull away only for the second grunt to step on the kid’s robes.

“Sorry, kid, we tried to be nice. But we gotta have that dream mist,” the second guy said. He swiftly kicked the kid in the face, with the first man following suit.

Shayla had zero idea what gijinka that guy was, but she had already made up her mind they were both going to the Distortion World if she could have her way. She started to stand up when Ashur grabbed Shayla’s arm to stop her.

“Hey! Stop that!” A rock came flying past and smacked the second guy square in the face. He stumbled back before collapsing. The first guy straightened only to have a rock meet his face as well. Shayla saw two figures come into view, a woman pushing a much younger man in a wheelchair. The man was forming the third rock between his hands and growled, “I should bash your faces in! That’s not very nice at all! Don’t you guys know anything about basic gijinka decency!”

Now free, the little boy scrambled away. He quickly dashed into a large cluster of ruins in the Dreamyard to get out of harm’s reach.

Shayla started to move out of the way when the man in the wheelchair saw her. “Aha! So you thought you could get away didn’t you!” He chucked the rock at her but before it could strike Shayla, Ashur jumped up and smashed the rock with a bite attack. As the purple jaws crushed the stone, the man in the wheelchair went pale. “Ashur? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with Tyson?”

“He is,” Tyson said as he approached. “Leon, I’m disappointed in you. Didn’t I always tell you to not attack people unless they provoke you first? You nearly just killed our latest client.”

The younger boy blanched and bowed his head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I just saw the kid and I assumed.”

The women pushing the wheelchair pat Leon’s head and waved to Tyson. “It’s my fault, I should have taken on the task myself. But all is well.” The woman turned to Shayla and smiled. “My name is Ninette, I’m a sudowoodo gijinka, born and raised right here in Striaton City. The onix gijinka right here is Leon. He’s is Tyson’s younger brother and I am his nanny. With Tyson gone so often on these smuggling trips, he found it was suitable for me to take care of Leon while he is gone. Plus, it frees Tyson to go out on date nights. Speaking of which!” Tyson tensed up and preemptively raised his arms to block Ninette’s slap. “I thought you were supposed to be in Nacrene to see a movie with Alain! Why are you running around escorting someone?”

“Uh, yeah so funny story. I was actually on my way to Nacrene when I got a call from an old pal, said he needed an emergency escort. Said his daughter was a high priority prisoner and that he knew she was leaving that night. He wanted to know if I could do it. I initially was going to say no but… well the money he offered as payment would have put us substantially closer to getting out of Unova. Alain said he understood and wasn’t mad. Just told me to swing by on my way to Castelia and on my way back. Though, I doubt he meant like this. You got the stuff?”

Ninette reached over her shoulder and placed the brown backpack she had been carrying on the ground. She tucked some of her brown hair behind her green hair clips and dug through the bag. She produced several items. “I brought everything we had in the safe. There’s the dread shard, the shiny stone, the TM and HM, the dragon scale, and the yellow flute. Leon is wearing the hard stone and you have the king’s rock. I also brought the metal coat, just in case.”

Tyson nodded his head. “That should be enough for now. Hopefully we won’t need to sell any of it but for now… Ashur you know how to use shards right?” The krookodile shook his head. “Okay, Ninette hand me the plate.” The sudowoodo gijinka stood up and passed the dread plate off to Tyson. Ninette handed a bangle to Tyson. Tyson set the shard into the bangle and showed it to Ashur before slipping it on the krookodile’s wrist.

Shayla tilted her head the sight of the black shard covered in strange runes. They glowed in various colors, each shifting to various different colors every few seconds. Shayla knew the stories behind these plates. They were relics of Father Arceus that had been lost long ago. Many had been retrieved, but only partially. Supposedly, shards of the plates had broken off, still able to amplify the power of the holders, albeit not as much. She had heard this myth quite often growing up since it happened when she was very young. Still, though, Shayla had to wonder how Tyson of all people had stumbled upon one of these. From the way he was handling this, that seemed to indicate it wasn’t his first time dealing with plate shards before.

“The shard shouldn’t come out now unless you want it to. There’s a button on the inside of the bangle that will pop the shard out if it’s necessary. This is a Dread Shard so it’ll amplify the strength of dark moves like bite. Now, for Shayla, hm… you won’t really have much control on ember since you just learned it. This TM is a physical move, Dizzy Punch. You should be able to learn it a bit more easily since it’s along the same lines as Tackle, which you should already know.”

“Dizzy Punch?” Shayla stared at the TM before frowning. “Cyndaquils can’t learn that last I checked.”

“Not legally, no. If you were in any other region, this would not be a legal move to use in a formal competition. But, we’re already kinda breaking the rules, and this is hardly a formal challenge, so what’s breaking a few more?”

Shayla scratched her arm, eyeing the TM a bit longer before shrugging. “Alright, how are we gonna do this then?”

“What? Never used a TM before?” Tyson handed Shayla the disc before taking an audio player from Ninette. “I’m disappointed in you, Shayla. If you’re going to be a hardboiled criminal you’re going to need to know how to use these so you can become a true god.”

Shayla gave Tyson a flat look and snorted. “Alright, so the show me how to use these so I can become more powerful than Fa-the Original One, himself.”

“Alright, alright.” Tyson opened the audio player and placed the disc inside. “Place the disc in here, then put on the headphones and listen. It might take a few listens but it should be able to teach you the move. Don’t ask me the logic behind it. A guy explained it to me once but I tuned out after he started delving into quantum physics.”

Shayla rolled her eyes at Tyson and slipped on the headset, starting up the TM audio file on Dizzy Punch. A boring voice began to play over the headphones and Shayla immediately found herself fighting to stay awake.

“This Technical Machine tutorial is a multistage arm building test that progressively gets more difficult as it continues. The twenty punching reps will begin in thirty seconds. Raise your arms up in the proper position at the start. The punching speed starts slowly but gets faster each minute after you hear this signal, bodeboop. A single rep should be completed every time you hear this sound ding. Remember to punch in a straight line and punch for as long as possible. The second time you fail to complete a rep before the sound, your test is over. Repeat the test until you can meet the proper amount of reps. The test will begin with the word start. On your mark. Get ready!… Start. Ding.”

Shayla knit her eyebrows together and stared at Tyson in disbelief. Was she supposed to learn Dizzy Punch from this? Father Arceus above, she’d go insane if she had to keep listening to this for every TM she had to use in the future. Shayla paused the tape and started to ask Tyson a question when a loud voice caused her to tense up.

“There, I see them! The escort and the prisoner are over there, but be careful they have backup!”

Shayla quickly stood up as Ninette quickly gathered up all the items on the ground and shoved them back into her black hole of a bag. Leon grabbed the wheels of his chair and slowly maneuvered the chair so that it was facing back towards the entrance of the Dreamyard. He squinted his gray eyes in frustration at the approaching SWAT team led by three figures in tailored suits. Tyson stepped in front of his younger brother protectively, snapping his chain in front of him.

“Why are there bartenders coming to attack us?” Shayla hissed out. Leon raised his eyebrows at Shayla’s question.

“Those aren’t bartenders! They’re waiters,” Ashur corrected.

“That doesn’t answer my question!” Shayla snapped back.

“Those are the wardens,” Leon answered quietly, “every district in Unova has them, twelve in all.”

Shayla glanced at the very well dressed men again. So these were the Striation district wardens. Uriel had mentioned them in the past but Shayla had never seen them before. Shayla frowned as she looked them over, trying to remember what Uriel had said about each one.

First was Cilan, a dewgong gijinka. Uriel had warned her not to let his goofy expression with his tongue constantly hanging out and horn protruding from the middle of his head to fool her. Not only was he exceedingly dangerous due to his type advantage, but he was also a warden for a reason. He and his brothers were all master battlers from the Sinnoh region supposedly. Then there was Chili, the xatu gijinka. His green spiky hair was tied back with a red bandanna, a deceptively chill look for supposedly the most ill-tempered member of the trio. Finally, rounding out the group was Cress, the swalot gijinka. HIs purple wavy hair made him almost seem like a poisoned water type. Though, the only thing that could make him even more Kalosian looking beyond the fancy suit and thin yellow mustache would be if he was carrying a baguette and wearing a beret.

“Your journey ends here, prisoners,” Chili stated as he approached calmly. “We have one rule in the Striation district, you should know that. You are free to do what you please. You can smuggle, escort, whatever suits you. Just don’t cause a disturbance.” He spat at Tyson’s feet and narrowed his hazel eyes. “But if that incident in Accumula Town was anything to go by, I’d say you’ve broken this rule into a million pieces. So, we’ll have to take you in and deal with you from there.”

Shayla glanced down at her fists. She had only listened to the TM once, and not even the full way through, so using Dizzy Punch was out. But perhaps she could summon fire for ember again? Shayla took a deep breath and began to concentrate.

“Over my dead body,” Tyson growled out.

Chili didn’t seem to like that answer and snapped his fingers at Cress. “Poison them.” Cress took in a deep breath before spewing a black smog with purple bubbles towards the group.

“Cover your noses and mouths!” Tyson yelled before spinning his chain, trying to blow the gas away. “That’s a tox-”

Tyson’s joints suddenly froze up, preventing him from speaking. He couldn’t move! The poison wouldn’t affect him but the others were fair game. Tyson spotted a familiar blue glow and realized it was Chili holding him in place with psychic. There was a smug grin on the xatu gijinka’s face. Tyson so wanted to rub that smile away with the sole of his boot.

Shayla quickly found herself reacquainted with the familiar burning sensation from inside of her. It was still so unfamiliar to her that Shayla wasn’t quite sure she could control it, but this was an emergency. Shayla took another deep breath and mentally embraced the warmth. Little flames began to form on her arms. Shayla opened her eyes and yelled, “Everybody, get down!”

They didn’t need to be told twice. Except for Tyson, everyone hit the deck, even Leon took cover behind his wheelchair. Shayla took a deep breath and forced the warmth out like a hot breath. A weak wave of flames shot forward, seemingly harmless at first, but when the orange flickers of light met the giant gas cloud, the explosion was strong enough to knock Shayla off her feet.

Chili was sent sprawling back, freeing Tyson, who sadly took the brunt of the explosion. He didn’t look too worse for wear, but his right ear was bleeding and his clothes all had singe marks on them. Still, he wasn’t down. Tyson snapped his chain again and formed a medium sized boulder at the end of the weapon. Using a move similar to Leon’s, Tyson slung the rock forward and took out one of the SWAT members hiding nearby.

Her ears ringing, Shayla dizzily got to her feet right as a SWAT member started to rapid fire poison stings at her. Shayla took two the shoulder before releasing another burst of flames in the SWAT’s members direction. It didn’t seem to phase him much, but the rock to the face definitely did.

“What are we going to do?” Ashur squeaked out as he helped Ninette get Leon back into his chair. Leon launched another rock at a SWAT member that was drawing too close, but there were just too many of them.

“Maybe if we take out the big dogs they’ll leave us alone!” Shayla suggested.

“Sorry, Boomburst, but that is not how SWAT teams work!” Tyson called back as he bound a SWAT member with his chain then slammed his knee into the guy’s face. Shayla scrambled to figure out what to do. Nothing came to mind. They were cornered. That was that. Would it be better to just turn herself in?

“Now now, young lady, no need to think such heavy thoughts.”

Shayla blinked as a shimmering figure faded into existence. He was wearing robes like the child from before, but more elegant in appearance. Instead of having a flower pattern, they faded from pink at the top to purple at the bottom, a soft pink mist appearing as they moved. The man’s eyes were closed but the red jewel in his forehead almost had the appearance of an eye from the angle Shayla was looking at it.

He smiled down at Shayla before glaring at a nearby SWAT member. “If you will kindly take your leave and let these people be, I would most appreciate that.” The SWAT member paused before aiming some form of water attack at the stranger. The regal man sighed. “As you wish.” A green ball of light formed in his hand and he fired it at the SWAT member causing an explosion of dark green smoke and a pleasant smell to fill the air. That drew everybody’s attention.

“Those of you that trespass on my territory, I have heard the cries of help from those that need it and hereby grant them sanctuary. From this point on, so long as they remain within my lands, you cannot touch them.”

Shayla could see Chili’s face growing bright red in anger. “Do you realize what you’re doing by agreeing to this, Jardim?” Chili asked with a low growl.

The man only smiled and nodded his head. “Why of course, granting sanctuary to those who need it most, like I’ve always done. Though, you are free to take these two hoodlums off my hands.” Jardim snapped his fingers and the two Team Plasma members were teleported in front of Cilan. “I have no need for them. Now, the rest of you, come along.”

Shayla glanced at her teammates. Ashur seemed just as unsure as she was, but Tyson, Ninette, and Leon didn’t seem bothered by the proposition at all. Tyson signaled for Shayla and Ashur to follow.

Led by Jardim, the group was taken to the deepest point of the Dreamyard, where Shayla had seen the young boy fleeing earlier. At first glance, it appeared to be in just as worse for wear shape as the rest of the Dreamyard, but as Jardim drew closer to the ruins, they began to shimmer and the illusion faded away. The ruins were replaced with a medium sized building with white walls and flora surrounding the whole place. It was quite the juxtaposition to its surroundings.

As Shayla scanned the house, she noticed several faces in the various windows of the house. At first, she only spotted gijinkas, but as she looked further, she started to spot a few ferals as well. It was strange since she had always been told ferals were dangerous creatures that were not to be messed with. Yet, they seemed to be quite tame just from how they appeared through the windows of the house.

“Welcome, travelers, to my sanctuary, the Dreamyard. I am the landowner and caretaker, Jardim Affini. You are welcome to stay here as long as you like. You would not be the first group in your situation that I have granted sanctuary to in the past.” Jardim’s robes gently swept across the ground as he opened the door. Shayla felt a smile spread across her face when she saw the familiar face of the young boy poking his head around the corner of the front door. He quickly ducked out of sight, but it was uplifting to know he was okay.

“Thank you, Jardim, we appreciate your kindness,” Tyson replied as he bowed to the man. “Without your intervention, I do not think we would have made it out of that situation in any other way than in body bags or handcuffs.”

Jardim brushed back some of his long pink hair and sighed. “Yes, it was not a favorable situation for you all. Normally, I would not intervene, since you did not ask for sanctuary, but you saved my child. He vouched for you. No true criminals would have intervened to protect my son.” Jardim approached the house and opened the door. “Please, come inside so that we might properly thank you.”

Shayla looked at the house before following the others inside. They would have to leave eventually, or at least she would. But for now, she supposed it was a good time for a rest. For now, she could settle for a place to sleep and a meal of any kind, which Jardim seemed happy to provide

EDIT: @Suicune's Fire I updated the chapter a bit just fyi.