The Trial of Juno Saga [PG-13]

[Neo Emolga]

Chapter 6
Grim Reunion

No, damn... it! I couldn’t believe what I just did! Randy had me just where he wanted. I was right, damn, was I right. I couldn’t understand why the hell I had just done that. He was going to screw all three of us, and I just walked into one of his sick traps. He just turned David into a fairy and Alex into a butterfly. Now what the hell was going to happen to me?

Those blasted little pixies were gone. Right now I wanted to wring their little necks and twist their little heads off, but they already flew off and were a hell of a lot faster than I was. I even said to myself we couldn’t trust anyone while we were here. What the hell was I just doing!? All because of hunger? I could have sucked it up and kept on going.

I dropped the pewter cup and it tumbled on the grass. I then felt a weird tingling sensation in my hand, and I was hoping I was only imagining it. After I looked at the palm of my hand, it had turned a soft light green color, along with the rest of my arm. All of my skin turned a soft green color and became this weird, smooth texture. Then my fingernails vanished. I swore under my breath. To hell with Randy and his stupid dream world.

"Come on... don't do this...!" I grimaced, hopelessly trying to fight whatever the hell this was.

And then, in less than a single second, my jeans were torn to shreds as a gigantic skirt of rainbow-colored flower petals surrounded my waist and reached down to ground, all in the shape of a giant bell. And then a belt of bright and colorful lily flowers blossomed around my waist. I shook my head and must have cursed a dozen times…

“Randy Ferguson, I swear I’m going to make you cry blood…” I growled angrily.

But screw me, it didn’t end there. I felt the back of my t-shirt tear open as another giant lily suddenly emerged from my back, and when it bloomed, it became a giant, rainbow eighteen-petal lily that covered my entire back. My t-shirt was instantly reduced to ribbons, which fell to the ground like a rag. Out of feral instinct I tried to put my hands on my back, only to feel the massive lily flower itself. The thing was a freaking monster…

And then to further my misery, a headband of colorful lily flowers circled around my head. Only seconds later, it felt like someone had just opened up an umbrella over my head, only instead it was another sickening giant lily flower. I swore, I've never screamed like the way I did when that happened.

And then to finish it all off, large bracelets of lily flowers blossomed on my arms, right near my wrists. After that had happened, I fell on my knees and just stayed there for nearly five minutes just hoping it was all over with. I wanted to wake up from this traumatizing nightmare so, so badly but I knew it wasn't going to happen.

But it was hopeless. My jeans lay completely ruined on the ground, and I was wearing nothing except this stupid flower petal skirt. Like David, trying to rip any of this off resulted in utter failure, so when it failed at first, I wasn’t going to try it again.

After I finally mustered the motivation to get back up on my feet and get going again, all that I could do was take the belt with my Poké Balls on it, attach the wallet that was in my pocket to it, and put it on. Now all I had to do was find David and Alex to show and tell them what happened.

I was freaking furious in ways I never thought were possible. Now Jeff, Frank and that little freak Randy were going to have a laugh and a half just looking at us. I was certain as hell that it couldn’t possibly get even worse than this.

I only needed to walk for fifteen minutes through shrubs, bushes, and around trees before leaving that tropical forest of nightmares. Then, I saw them, as if I was meant to just happen to run into them at that moment. I didn’t expect to encounter them so soon, but I figured this had been planned from the start. They had already left the forest, and were waiting for me.

“That…” Alex turned to me with a bit of shock, “That... holy crap, that isn’t you, Jake, is it?”

“Randy Ferguson’s going to have a hard time laughing once I punch his face so hard that his brain ends up in his throat,” I told them both with my feral rage.

They knew it was me. Alex looked shocked at first, and David had even more of a grimace.

“Oh, man, Jake,” Alex remarked with dismay. “Damn it to hell, you look like an overgrown Bellossom. What the hell happened, man?”

I certainly didn’t need to hear that "overgrown Bellossom" comment. I felt like a complete idiot, and the thought I was going to have to show myself to Randy like this was an inevitable horror I was not looking forward to. I felt ready to crush Randy’s skull in with my own hands, that’s how angry I was.

“I’ve never hated Randy as much as I do now,” I told Alex and David. “Look, I don't want to talk about what happened back there, let's just nail this freak and go home. Seriously.”

“And then we never, ever talk about this crap again," Alex replied.

I nodded to that, knowing this was one horrific experience I was hoping I could forget forever.

There was still a part of me that felt like staying away from Randy and his two stupid, moronic friends as much as possible because of what happened to the three of us. However, I kept telling myself that was just idiocy. We had to fight him because if we didn't, we were only going to be stuck here longer.

And on top of it all, I didn’t know who to believe anymore. Black seemed like he was trustworthy, and he seemed to have helped us big time. And then again, I thought I could trust those blasted little pixies, and they completely screwed me over. I certainly didn’t want to walk into a trap like that again, but I didn’t want to turn down someone who was only trying to bring us one step closer to defeating Randy. In the end, I didn't know how to play this stupid game besides trial and error. I figured at this point, what difference did it make, we didn't have much more to lose than what we got swiped away from us in the first place.

As we kept walking through that valley, hoping we’d find Randy or at least someone capable of bringing us to him, I could only think of one thing. Exactly how were we going to stop Randy? And even if we really did beat him, would we wake up in the real world again? I was certainly hoping this hideous and humiliating transformation wasn’t permanent, because I was quickly getting sick of it.

The three of us didn't say much as we walked away from that tropical forest, heading more into the rolling valleys along a barely visible dirt path. I didn't really feel like talking, and I was getting sick of this wandering around and hoping to find something. Randy's stupid world sure didn't have much to look at. Even the number of wild Pokémon was very few and far between, and as I suspected, they were obviously only the kind Randy liked and had trained. It almost seemed like the only kinds of Pokémon that existed now were mostly harmless, unevolved ones that just minded their own business.

And after nearly an hour, we encountered another shady figure. When he drew closer, we saw he was wearing a gray cloak with a hood over his head, and I was beginning to think this might have been another one of the jackass cultist that threw Alex into the cocoon. He moved toward us very quickly, almost running.

"Who's this psycho!?" David exclaimed, reaching for his Poké Balls.

I had my hand on Raichu's Poké Ball, but didn't even have the chance to prime it before he reached us, then stopped, and then stood completely still. I couldn’t even see his face from the shadow of his hood, despite how bright and how close we were to him. He kind of looked and sounded like the Grim Reaper, just not as dark as usual.

"Who the hell are you!?" Alex shouted, ready for a fight.

“He… didn’t….” The figure groaned.

“I said who are you!?" Alex demanded. "Don't even think of trying anything!"

He stopped, and then slowly turned toward Alex. This guy was really freaking me out.

“Depression,” He mumbled. “That’s right, I’m King Randy’s depression. His worst nightmare. He fears me.”

“That's just great,” I told him sarcastically, still unsure about this guy considering the last episode I had. “What do you want with us!?"

Depression then started laughing hysterically, which was a heck of a complete turn-around from his previously dour composure. He quickly threw off his hood to reveal a gaunt, scarred face with frizzy, gray hair. We were instantly shocked.

“Oh, yes!” Depression smiled, still snickering. “Now I know who you three are. I didn’t recognize you at first. Obviously King Randy's traps have gotten to you first, but there’s still time. Yes... time to do lots and lots of damage to King Randy…”

“Where do we find him?” I asked again, hoping he could help us get out of this hideous mess.

He mumbled a bit, and then looked up again.

“He… likes to spend his time in Victory City Stadium,” Depression told us, happy to reveal that fact to us. “It almost seems like… he’s waiting for you…”

“Can you take us there?” David asked, hoping to speed up the process. “We want to make him lose.”

Depression stopped moving, and then he looked at David.

"Oh, you're not too far off," Depression smiled with a creepy grin. "Follow this road and then turn right at the next crossing. Victory City should only be a few hours on foot to there."

Might as well trust him. If he led us in the wrong direction, well, we sure as hell weren't heading in the right direction before anyway. And then again, it wouldn't make sense for Randy to keep himself away from us forever. I figured that little punk would try to have us be naturally led to him in time anyway.

"However," Depression warned us. "Be warned. He’s knows more about Pokémon and battling than anyone else now. No one has ever beaten him. If you really plan on battling him, you should take these, for the protection of you and your Pokémon. They'll make sure Randy's powers can't be used to weaken or misdirect the attacks your Pokémon use. It's very important you keep it on when you fight him. The odds may still be against you, but at least there will be some chance.”

He then took his shriveled hand and reached into the pocket of his cloak. Then, he handed us three ordinary-looking silver rings. We slipped them on, and then looked back to Depression.

“Remember what I told you,” He grinned. “Make him lose miserably. Make me happy…”

And like that, he laughed, and ran off again. I watched him run away, floating over the grass like a specter before he suddenly sprouted two black, Honchkrow-like wings and just take flight seconds before vanishing into thin air. It was freaky beyond hell.

"Not sure I trust that freak," David muttered, having watched him fly off as well.

"Whatever," I shrugged. "Not like we've got much to lose at this point."

We decided to follow Depression's directions, heading down the road until it seemed to grow wider and was easier to make out. Eventually, we finally came across a paved highway, which was much easier to follow than that dirt road we had been on for the last few hours.

The highway to Victory City was extremely easy to follow, and it was nice to not have to be wandering around in the damn wilderness. A few cars and trucks passed by us every now and then, and I felt even more embarrassed to be seen in public as a freaking walking flower bouquet. Meanwhile, Alex and David tried to walk further away from the road to avoid being seen.

Up ahead, this Victory City was easy to make out. It was just as big as Saffron, but it looked like it was futuristic and high tech. From the distance, I could make out many neon lights, huge skyscrapers, and it definitely seemed like a busy place.

"Do we really have to go walking in there like this!?" Alex complained as he walked along. "I swear, just give me some kind of blanket or tarp to cover this crap up."

Even then, I didn't think he'd get too far with that considering his giant pair of rainbow-colored butterfly wings. David had the same issue with his ridiculous fairy wings and there wasn't a chance in hell I'd be able to wrap a cloth over the fatass-sized flower on my back and the one on my head either.

"Just keep going," David told him. "This stupid place will be gone, so don't care what anyone here thinks of what you look like."

He had a point there. I nodded as we walked along the road, knowing it would be at least another few hours before we got to the city itself. As we got closer, I took a better look at the stadium itself, and I knew that would have cost billions to build if it was actually real. If Randy really was in there, man, he sure liked to overcompensate.

Victory City was pretty much Randy's paradise. The whole city was high-tech and neo-futuristic. Meanwhile, everything he liked to his favorite colors, sports teams, video games, and whatnot was the focus of attention all over the place. Everywhere from the hologram television screens, billboards, on massive neon signs, and anywhere else you could stuff an advertisement. Either you had to like what he liked, or you'd never find it. I swore, not even the biggest celebrities got anything even close to this kind of fame.

As we stepped further into the city, the kind of people that inhabited this place were pretty much whatever Randy could dream up. Most people were dressed in the exact same kinds of clothes Randy liked to wear, and they were the kind of people Randy would think were "cool" and "awesome." There were people with blue jeans, graphic t-shirts with all of Randy's favorite things, and black sneakers. Others seemed to wear more of the fashions Randy would probably like as well from sweatshirts, hoodies, cargo pants, and a few had leather jackets also. Meanwhile, though most of them were human, some of them were completely different races, like half dragon half human hybrids, werewolves, vampires, and other races yanked out of fantasy stories, now totally made as if they were real.

When we walked into town, I wasn't surprised about the kind of reaction we got.

"Hey!" One of the taller, more roughneck werewolves shouted at us. "Well if it isn't Loser Lily, Failure Fairy, and Bumbling Butterfly themselves!"

"Listen here, jackass!" Alex snapped, giving the werewolf a deadly stare, not even the least bit intimidated by the tough lycanthrope. "I'm not in the mood for that crap. And by the way, when Randy gets his carcass beaten to a pulp and this stupid creation of his falls apart, you're going down with it!"

"Ha, ha, ha!" A rather tough-looking human woman laughed at the sound of it, tossing her raven-black hair as she put one hand on the hip of her blue jean shorts while pointing at us with the other. "Like that's ever going to happen!"

I didn't feel like saying a word to this idiotic fan club of imaginary friends Randy decided to create for himself. As we passed through the city and pushed our way through the crowds, I just focused on the stadium, treating this place and these people like it was nothing more than a sinking ship. But all along the way, almost every senile dimwit on the street had some stupid, annoying, and harassing insult to vomit out at us while some of the others threw their garbage at us.

Behind the stadium, the sun had begun to set, and by the time we had arrived at the stadium, it was night and the stars were out. Before we had finally made it there, we had been subjected to three annoying hours of harassment from Randy's imaginary friends, and my god was it aggravating. I had plenty of trash and garbage thrown at me also, but the worst had to be the brick that some stupid harpy bastard wearing blue jeans and a ragged t-shirt hurled at me.

The silver stadium was huge and it would have easily been the most famous of stadiums ever created in reality... if it actually was created. When we entered the interior arena field, there were probably enough chairs to seat a million people. The place was empty at the moment, but it was easily ready for the biggest and most ferocious Pokémon battles that could ever be held.

In the center of it all was a gray battle area for Pokémon with the white outline of a Poké Ball as the playing field. That definitely wasn't out of the ordinary when it came to standard Pokémon stadiums. And then, we saw him. We had suddenly laid eyes on Randy, who was seated on a metal throne on a platform at the far end of the seating area, reaching at least fifteen feet high.

The three of us aggressively walked toward him, ready to slug him in the face with our bare hands if it was necessary. However, it was hard to feel like a tough guy when I knew the three of us looked so completely ridiculous. When we finally arrived before that overly high-tech and futuristic throne of Randy's, I caught sight of the stupid necklace he was wearing and wished for anything I could use to rip it off his neck and smash it into a million pieces.

Besides him were Jeff and Frank, seated on similar thrones on platforms ten feet in the air. And to even further our anger, they were all dressed in black leather and wearing black sunglasses, as if they thought they were actually cool and badass. When we approached them in the big, empty stadium, I could hear the snickering. I could feel that feral rage coming right back out again.

“Well, hello there, ladies,” Randy smiled. "Welcome to Victory City! Hope you had a nice warm welcome upon your arrival!"

“Listen up, you stupid freak!” Alex shouted to Randy. “I don’t know what your problem is, but if you don’t unplug this stupid dreamland of yours right now and get us the hell out of here, I'm going to make you pay in blood for it!”

Then, Randy took off his shades, and looked at us cynically. After that, he crossed his arms. Now he was starting to act pompous and arrogant, and I swear I was ready to pummel the stuffing out of him.

“Well, how does it feel?” Randy asked with a sick smile. “Doesn't feel great, does it? Well, guys, that's just desserts for you. You harassed me every day of the school year and then some, and you picked on poor Frank here when he did nothing to any of you. And look at where we are now!"

"This isn't anything like what we did to you!" Alex shouted at him again.

"He's got a point there, Randy," David chimed in. "This is way overboard and you sure picked a horrible way to solve your problems."

Randy didn't seem to care, and I could tell he thought this was justice for what we did to him. The problem was he seemed far too cozy to ever consider giving it up.

"I think it's a perfect way to solve problems," Randy smiled. "Hey, why don't we have a few Pokémon battles? I think you'll be interested to know I've got a whole new team and strategy. Which one of you three wants to be first to lose to it?"

“That’s what you think,” I told Randy. “You really think we didn't come ready for this?”

“Oh really?” He asked, almost laughing.

Suddenly, I heard a snap, followed by what sounded like metal links hitting the ground. When I looked down, I saw the gold necklace Black had given us, only it was in pieces scattered and twisted all over the ground. Alongside it was Depression’s ring, reduced to a twisted and misshapen lump. When I looked to my left, I saw Alex and David were without protection either. Somehow, whatever those things were supposed to do, it sure didn't look like they were going to do much now.

"Damn it, how... how the hell did he know!?" Alex growled under his breath.

“I knew it...” David muttered coldly as he looked down at the shattered necklace and the twisted ring. “I didn't trust that junk anyway…”

“You might as well get used to living here, ladies,” Randy smiled, leaning back in relaxation, “You can spend the rest of eternity in my world, and you’ll always be under my power, under my rules, and don’t forget, you’ll always be weaker than me.”

“Rest of eternity, Randy?” Alex asked, nearly laughing.“I don’t think so. No one lives forever, remember? One of these days, you'll be an ugly, old man wondering why the hell you wasted your life on a stupid parade like this.”

“Well, my little butterfly friend, everything is different here,” Randy said with another smile. “In my world, time doesn’t weaken the body, so everyone lives forever. It’s the perfect place… for me anyway.”

I didn't even want to think about being stuck as a giant flower forever.

I was getting more and more sick of this by the moment. Was this seriously the only way Randy could come out on top? Then I saw Frank, who just kept giggling constantly by looking at us. I was ready to slaughter him like the swine he was. And there was Jeff, just sitting there like he was a freaking celebrity. It was making me sick.

“Frank,” Randy said, looking to his right to face Frank. “I would like to give you first honors to battle Jake and his Pokémon. He's been pretty heartless to both of us and obviously thinks his Pokémon will win again, so let's show him how we've prepared a response. Could you do that for me?”

"Oh, with pleasure," Frank smiled smugly, making a cheeky face that was asking to be punched.

And then, Frank’s metal platform was lowered, and when it reached the bottom, he approached me. I couldn’t stand his fat face with his stupid shades on. I didn't care what he wore, you just can't fix ugly. Even as bad as it was, I'd rather be stuck as a ridiculous flower than look like Frank.

“Hell-oooo, Jake Kossak,” Frank giggled. “Ready to lose right now, or would you like to do a little curtsy first before we begin?”

“Suck it down, Frank,” I told him, pulling out one of my Poké Balls. "When I'm through with you, you'll finally learn to keep your pie-hole shut."

I couldn't help but feel this was not going to be as easy as touch and go this time. Hopefully Frank was so bad at battling that even when he cheated, he still couldn't pull it off.