Mige and Ace stood looking into the lush forest ahead of them. Gaps in the trees above let in some sunshine here and there-- but for the most part the forest floor was completely shrouded in shadows. Ace’s eyes saw as the nearest ray of sunshine acted as a spotlight for the trunk of a nearby tree. A small weedle was using a hole in the bark to hide and was peeking out at the two trainers and Eevee.
“Ey’. Hold up a sec.” Ace took a knee to get onto the Weedle’s level and started drawing it as the sun illuminated his subject. Ace wasn’t sure if the Weedle was scared or curious of Ace’s actions-- and didn’t really care. This was gonna be a decent sketch.
“So we gonna find anything wild out here? Ya’know-- beyond weedles and caterpie?” Ace asked Mige as he squinted a bit to focus a little more on the scene.
“Bugs for sure-- they vast amount of shade makes it easier for them to stay outta view from Pidgey or Spearow lines. We might see a Paras or if we are really lucky a Heracross or Pinsir.”
Mige walked over to a nearby tree and placed his hand on it for a moment and stared off into what seemed to be an endless line of trees. Eevee hoped onto his shoulder and climbed halfway on his arm to cautiously sniff some sap that was leaking from the tree. After three sniffs he made a sour expression and went back to Mige’s other shoulder.
“Of course we’ll probably run into a few grass types here and there. I also think I’ve heard rumors of a water source somewhere hidden in here-- so maybe they’ll be some surprise water types too.”
Ace closed his sketch pad and stood up straight and walked towards Mige. He watched him staring out into the forest for a bit before setting his eyes back on the road ahead of them.
“A hera-what now?” Ace asked
“You don’t….Heracross. It’s uhhhh….” Mige reaches into his back pockeet and pulls out a hunter green pokedex and flips around in it for a while before holding up a picture of the single horn pokemon and showing Ace the screen.
“They are a bit more common in Johto but it’s a symbol of power for a lot of people over there. Especially in the south due to stories from the Ilex peoples. You really don’t know that?” Mige asked and Ace just shook his head with a half-caring frown.
Mige shrugged and then took a look at the sap Eevee was sniffing. He wiped the tip of his ring finger against it and sniffed it for a moment and made the same expression Eevee made. He still reluctantly gave it a taste only making his expression more intense.
“Yeah I’m with you buddy. Too sweet.” Mige said as he took a cloth hanging around the strap of his bag and wiped his hand off a bit. Eevee gave Mige a confirming nod but a little confused as to why he even gave it a taste.
“Well. I hate the stuff and so does Eevee-- but a Heracross will love this sap. If we can find more trees like this further from the trail the truck takes we might be ablee to spot one if you wanted to see one for yourself.” Mige said as he poured a bit of water from his canteen onto his hands to further clean off the sap.
“I’m not the best with direct--”
“Fuck it. I wanna draw the Symbol of Power.” Ace said as he started heading deeper into the forest. Mige and Eevee both tilted their head a bit in tandem while Mige’s eyebrows rose as the two followed Ace.
“You know quite a bit about pokemon. Ya’know-- considering you just started.” Ace said as he took point. Ace might not about pokemon habitats or what they like to eat but he and Mige determined that he definitely had more survival skills. As long as Mige could point out what they needed to track-- Ace could definitely follow some sort of trail.
“It kinda came with the lifestyle. Living with Bill just meant a bunch of natural and pokeology books were always lying around.” Mige said as he trotted around wayward branches trying not to snap them to scare off any Caterpie that were resting.
“Who the hells Bill?” Ace asked, not caring about stepping around branches and trotting somewhat boldly through the forest floor as old leaves and brush swept against the bottom of his boots.
“Ummm...Bill took me in when I was young. He created the Storage System.” Mige said nervously-- perhaps worried that Ace’s noise would attract something they weren’t equipped to deal with.
“Oh. Damn. That Bill. I thought he was like a roommate or something.” Ace said as he found a sturdy stick on the ground and swung it around a bit.
Ace didn’t wanna push it anymore. He knew he was a bit of an idiot but he wasn’t that much of an idiot. “took me in” screamed therapy or some sort of trauma that Ace didn’t wanna poke at. Still-- this Mige guy seemed pretty put together.
The two kept on walking for a while as it started to get dark. To be fair it was hard to tell when it was getting dark before it was too late in the Viridian Forest. Ace became much less careless in his movement and slowed the pace down a little bit. Up until this moment the two exchanged occasional words with one another but both seemed to enjoy silence just as much-- which Ace highly appreciated. He may have been a loud mouth but he was a loud mouth that liked thinking time as well.
“Hey-- take a peak at that.” Mige pointed out and Ace took a look around before noticing a small cabin. Ace did take a gander towards the cabin. He could see light illuminating the inside through one of the windows. This was no typical Tojo cabin-- it was definitively styled more like a northerner would build. That struck Ace. Why wasn’t it Tojo style? The Viridian Forest, of all places, seemed like it would have a very Tojo aesthetic to it. But this was just a wooden rectangle with a door, a window, a roof and shitty porch.
“Maybe they’ll let us camp nearby. Or might have seen some Hera--” Mige started but Ace interrupted him without taking his eyes off the cabin.
“I dunno. This is kinda weird.” Ace said and started digging through his bag a bit. He eventually pulled out some binoculars and started looking at the cabin closely
“I dunno if it’s polite to do that.” Mige said with Eevee giving an affirmative nod to support Mige’s thought.
“Fuck off.” Ace said. He tone was jovial but his expression was serious. He tinkered with some sliders to get a better look at the window-- hoping to see if anyone was inside. He noticed that the light was from a fire and it seemed like someone was tending to it. He watched the shadow for a bit and determined they were using a fire poker. If there was anything Ace had with him that was more precious than Tommy, his art supplies and drawings-- it was this absurdly technical pair of binoculars that he got on sale.
“Someones got a fire going...” Ace said as he put his binoculars back into his bag before grabbing a pokeball from inside his jacket and letting out a Sandshrew.
“Oh. I didn’t know you had any pokemon besides Tommy.” Mige said as he got on his knees and put out his hand to shake Sandshrews. What a weirdo. Mige stood up after greeting Ace’s Sandshrew and looked up to a tree for a while. Ace wasn’t sure what he was looking at-- which was odd. Usually the two seemed to notice things around the same time as one another but it seemed like Mige was just looking off into the distance.
“Yeah…..I have a sandshrew….” Ace said slowly somewhat confused as to why Mige was spacing out before focusing again and heading towards the cabin. Mige, Eevee and Sandshrew followed Ace until he stopped on the porch of the cabin. After setting one foot on the floor boards his movement was instantly heard as the creaky wood scared off some murkrow watching from above. Mige’s eyes wandered and looked up at the three murkrow flying away. While Ace noticed the murkrow flying away and Mige rubbing at his left temple a bit out of the corner of his eye he was focusing on the shadows from the fire inside. Whoever was in there was just standing still in front of the fire.
Ace exhaled as quietly as he could and proceeded to walk on the creaky porch. None of the floor boards were as loud as the first one he stepped on but none of them were silent by any means. Ace had a terrible feeling. He still felt like he had to be brave though-- besides it’s probably just the atmosphere that was tripping him up. He kept telling himself ‘it’s just a cabin in the woods.’
Ace brings himself to knock on the door of the cabin when the door opens. Ace’s fist is still held up when he see’s a 6’8” man with a beard going down to his chest and his hair poorly slicked back with pieces of it sticking up wildly like straw. Ace could see his torso slowly inflate every time the tall man took a breath. Ace backed up a bit and lowered his fist thinking of what to say when the mans arm quickly thrust a fire poker towards Ace.
“What the fuck man???” Ace dodged to the left as the fire poker singed a bit of his red coat. Ace tripped over the porch railing and quickly stood up only to look back and see that the fire poker was stuck inside a wooden beam. Ace started backing up cautiously and putting his arm in front of Mige’s chest to make him back up too.
“Saandshrew! Sand Attack!” Ace commanded but his sandshrew refused as it hid behind Ace’s leg in fear
“Gahhh-- little bitch.” Ace said and picked up a nearby rock and chucked it at the tall man who stood trying to grab at the fire poker while the two trainer, Eevee and Sandshrew backed away.
“I dunno if that was the sma--” Mige started when the tall man looked beside him to see a hatchet stuck in a nearby log and a pile of wood. He walked over and picked it up out of the stump and looked at the group and let out a loud and long scream that echoed through the forest.
“Wh—Holy fuck! Mige we gotta go!” Ace returned Sandshrew and started booking it away from the cabin with Mige and Eevee following behind. The axe man started to chase the two. At first it seemed like he was slow as his legs slowly lounged forward one after another and creating a thud with each step but as he ran he started picking up momentum. He was only a few meters behind the group He was wildly slashing the axe behind them cutting down branches and brush.
“Ace! Look!” Mige pointed upwards towards a tree branch that was rattling-- and Ace didn’t really care.
“What the hell do you want me to see?” Ace said with winded breaths separating his sentence. Ace was slowly realizes that he was all strength but Mige had way more stamina than him. Mige didn’t seem that tired yet. Looks like not having gym class for two years actually has taken a toll on him.
“It’s that Natu! I think we should go this way!” Mige suddenly cut a hard right through some trees before Ace could react.
“Natu? What’re you--” Ace looked at Mige’s figure disappear into the trees before looking forward and realizing he was heading down an incline. Ace tried his best to go down the hill while keeping his balance but also didn’t want to slow down. He caught a root beneath his left foot and started rolling down the hill. Within the span of maybe 5 or 6 seconds Ace got cut up by branches, pummeled by rocks sticking out of the ground and smashed his forehead into a tree. It hurt like hell and Ace wanted to scream to relief his pain but had enough sense to be quiet and shuffle behind the tree.
Ace held his breath. He listened carefully to see if the leafs were rustling behind him to figure out if the Axe man had followed him. He didn’t look but he knew that the tall figure was standing atop the hill looking down in his direction-- it was just a feeling he had. He held his hand over his mouth and tried to steady his breath. A few more seconds passed when he heard another loud scream; louder than the one he heard before. The scream was followed by footsteps thudding at the ground again-- but they seemed like they were running in the opposite direction.
Ace waited for a few minutes before finally looking up the hill. There was no sign of the axe man…...and no sign of Mige.
Ace paced back and forth a bit. His head hurt like hell and he had countless scrapes all over-- luckily his jacket was the same color as his blood. He thought about booking it. It’s not like anyone really knew he was with Mige. He could just go back to Viridian and find another job. As stupid as it was though something tugged at him to see if he could find Mige. He couldn’t leave the kid out here alone-- not with that crazed axe freak. With one big sigh Ace started climbing the hill he fell down to go see if he could find Mige and hope he could do so before the Axe Man found either of them.
Ace did his best to track where Mige could be and unfortunetly it looked like the Axe Man was doing the same thing. He carefully looked at the ways the leaves and dirt were being pushed around. It looked like the Axe Man followed Ace until he fell down the hill and than doubled back to try and find Mige. Ace knew better than to shout for Mige-- it would only possibly attract the Axe Man back in his direction. Maybe that’d save Mige? “Nah” he thought “I’m risking enough coming back and looking for him.”
Ace decided to keep on following the tracks at a rushed speed but did his best to be a little more silent. He eventually figured out where Mige took that sharp right-- which was now a left for Ace. Sure enough the Axe Man’s tracks were following him.
“Fuck” Ace muttered to himself. He thought of getting cut up by and axe and despite only knowing the guy for a day or two got really worried. He’s the one who insisted they look for the symbol of power in the first place. Ace moved from a quick but silent walk to a sprint and caring a little less about if he made sound or not.
Ace eventually came to a clearing and there was too much to take in at once. There were strange statues surrounding what looked like a well? Or a fire pit? It was too old to see exactly what it was but it seemed like Mige was trying to move the statues to face it. Meanwhile the Axe Man was swinging his Axe wildly at Mige who was ducking and weaving the best he could but also trying to do...something? Ace didn’t really know but he noticed that it seemed like Mige had been swiped at by the axe quite a bit-- and it looks like some swings landed.
Ace wasn’t quick to act and was almost freezing with fear. A small childs ball rolled towards his feet and it brought him back to the then-and-now. Yeah it’s just a plastic ball but-- at least it would give Mige time to do whatever it was he was doing? Or at least he could book it. Ace picked up the ball and hurled it at the Axe Man. The Axe Man turned around and locked eyes with Ace-- which made Ace want to puke. He re-swallowed the day old sauerkraut that came up his throat and stuck to his guns. He picked up another rock on the ground and threw it towards the Axe Man as it landed near his feet.
The Axe Man let out his booming scream once more and started towards Ace. Mige kept on pushing the statue. Ace couldn’t get a good look at it since he was focusing on not getting hit by the axe-- but he saw it was some sort of creature with old stones for eyes. The moonlight seemed to hit the eyes of the statues and bounced between them before illuminating the well centered between them.
“Ace! Help me!” Mige cried out as he was trying to push a circular wooden lid on top of the well. It looked like each of the five statues had a chains attached to the lid. Ace wasn’t really in the position to help him-- he was dodging axe swings and trying to stay alive. The Axe Man almost seemed distorted to Ace. It was hard to focus on him. Ace chalked it up to the reflection of the moon that was starting to brighten up the area.
For whatever reason in that moment he trusted Mige and ducked under one of the Axe Mans swings. He caught a bit of Ace’s jacket but didn’t use enough force to stop him in his steps. Ace dashed forward using one of his hands like a third foot momentarily to push him forward and meet up with Mige. Mige and Ace tried to push the lid on top of the well-- and it seemed like they weren’t going to be able to do it. Eevee was starting to cry frantically and even though Eevee wasn’t Ace’s pokemon he knew that meant the Axe man was closing in on them. Ace shut his eyes and let out one loud scream and tried to lift and push the lid with all his might. He knew that he might get an axe in his back so he thought screaming would distract him from what could be his own death.
He didn’t die though. He looked as he and Mige managed to push the lid on top of the well. The glowing faded and the stones that made up the well crumbled. The chains seemed to turn into dust. Mige was equally confused and slowly started shifting through the stones only to find dirt.
“You looked down the hole right? There...There was a hole here….Right?” Mige asked Ace as he picked up a few rocks in confusion before leaning over to Eevee and making sure he was alright. Eevee hoped into his arms and the two hugged for a moment. Ace went over to one of the statues and leaned his back against it while he sat on the ground to catch his breath.
“What on—Where’d that guy….What are these statues?” Ace said with all exhales. Everything happened a bit too fast for him to put it all together. Mige’s composure struck Ace a little bit. He was clearly just as tired as him but he still stood and took a look at the statues when Ace asked that. Ace didn’t actually expect any answers from Mige but he seemed determined to at least come up with something.
“Well-- this one that you are leaning against seems to be...an old stone carving of Mew?” Mige carefully ran his fingers on the eyes that were once glowing. He looked at the others statues for a bit and did the same type of inspection. Ace watched Mige really couldn’t care less. The two nearly just died and Mige was pretending to be an archaeologist.
“I dunno about these two. This one looks like it might be Victini? That’s odd...Why would a statue of Victini be here. And this one is clearly the wish mak--” Mige said before Ace interrupted
“Mige. I really don’t care. We almost just died.” Mige came over and put his hand out to help him up.
“Yeah-- that was pretty intense.” Ace took Mige’s hand and helped him up. Ace brushed off the legs of his pants and Eevee even helped pick a few twigs that were stuck to him off.
“Thanks Eevee.” Ace said as he began brushing off his coat next. Ace looked to Mige again who was staring up at a tree branch again. Like the last time it was a tree branch that really stuck out from the other trees and lacked many leafs at all. Mige seemed oddly distant when he did this. With a blink Ace looked and saw a green bird stoically perched upon the tree.
“Do you wanna draw that Xatu?” Mige asked as he put his hands in his pockets and just watch the flying pokemon for some time. Ace didn’t respond verbally and simply shook his head left and right. The two watch for some time before it flew away.
“I know you’re probably pooped but we should probably hike through the night. I hit my head pretty hard and who knows if it a concussion or something. Not only that I wanna get far away from here.” Mige nodded and got ready to start head, to what he could best concern, was the way towards the main trail.
Mige looked at the branch the Xatu was sat on once more and walked over and jumped up to reach it. He pulled down an old necklace of some sort. Or maybe a pocket watch? Locket? Whatever it was it had an old silver chain with a bronze circular pendent with a blue gem on it.
“Interesting. You want this?” Mige motioned to Ace who was to terrified to take anything from this area. They just dealt with some sort of psycho that just...vanished? Did he run off? Ace isn’t entirely sure what happened. The well crumbling bothered him too. Mige getting distracted by every little thing around them didn’t really help either.
“Nah-- I don’t want that shit” Ace muttered and started heading the way Mige was heading. Mige pocketed the piece of jewelry and the two hiked on through the night.
