Tales of Reborn - A Pokemon Dungeon-Crawling Adventure

Three against three would've sounded like a fair fight to most, especially when one of the people they were up against was limping and desperately pressing a hand against the deep wound on his thigh, cursing under his breath.

Sabrina disagreed. Fair fights were for chumps who didn't know how to turn the tide of battle in their favor. Idiots who masqueraded their weakness with honor instead of ingenuity.

She spun one of her new Pokeballs on her finger as the fire grew behind them, slowly consuming the market. Screams of terror and general sounds of panic and fleeing made their way to her. The three reapers facing her seemed somewhat startled by what she'd done. Her gaze fell on the beaten old man between them, covered in dirt and blood. It would've been merciful to take him out of his misery, but she had plans for him yet.

"Aren't those…" spoke the masked woman whose leg was bleeding. "…Mullac's trainers?"

"They are," the one next to her confirmed, narrowing his eyes through the holes in his mask. "We have orders not to kill them but… they did just set the market on fire."

The third one smiled under his mask, "And accidents do happen."

Sabrina rolled her eyes at their pathetic attempt at intimidation, deciding it was time to get this over with. Taking in a deep breath she looked at the back of Silver and Ñako's head, concentrating. It had been a while since the last time she had to use her powers.

"Hey."

Both men shivered as a voice boomed inside their heads, almost immediately turning to look at Sabrina. Her eyes were closed, lips pursed.

"Yes, I am talking to your minds and no, you are not crazy."

"W-Wha…?" Silver tilted his head to the side. "Flaca, you got yourself a Walkie-Talkie or somethin'?"

Ñako placed his fingers on his temples, wincing. "Is this one of those witchy things that lets you look into people's heads?"

"Ha. No, at most I can just send messages. Now listen. If we get this old guy out of here he'll be indebted to us. And I'm sure all three of us could enjoy some extra cash."

Ñako and Silver exchanged looks for a moment and then proceeded to shrug in unison.

"Well, if you say so…"

Silver grabbed his remaining Pokeball and smiled as he opened it. Spearow emerged from its light, flapping his wings strongly enough to send gusts of wind down upon the three reapers below, forcing them to take a step back.

"Alright Pogo, we're gonna follow Flaca's advice," he told the bird, pointing towards the young girl at his side. "You and Flancito, fly her out of here! I'm sure her dad's gonna want her alive."

At first the girl seemed horrified as the two flying Pokemon grabbed her by the arms with their talons, but once her body lifted off the ground she seemed to understand Silver's plan. Desperation clear in her voice, she screamed one last thing before being carried away by them:

"S-sir! Please, save my father!"

Her silhouette became smaller as she was flown towards Route 7. Silver grinned in relief.

"Very noble of you," one of the reapers said, clear sarcasm in his voice. "Giving away your only route of escape…"

"Yeah yeah shut the fuck up already." Ñako interrupted him, pointing his blade forward. "We doing this or what?"

Sabrina felt the heat of the burning market in her back. They needed to end the fight and escape as fast as possible.

With the familiarity of someone who'd done it a million times before she threw the Pokeball forward, releasing her new partner. The light materialized into a green creature a bit taller than her, her body segmented into various oval pieces and two enormous scythes where her arms should've been. Her eyes were red as rubies. A Scyther.

"I'm aware we don't know each other and all that…" said Sabrina, hands on her pockets, "but I'm gonna need you to help me kill these guys. Also, you're gonna have an awful name and you'll be in countless bloody battles without ever receiving an iota of gratitude. Nice to meet you, Carrie."

The insect Pokemon lowered her glare shyly, as if their meeting had been some kind of epic, foretold event.

"Now, kill."

The Scyther jumped forward with enough speed to form a small vacuum of air behind her, her wings turning trans-lucid from the speed at which they were flapping. She wound her arm back and slashed at the reaper in front, slicing both the fabric of his cloak as well as a few inches deep into the skin underneath. His body hit the floor, head bouncing on the cold cement, as blood started spouting from the wound.

"Shit!" The woman next to him yelled, eyes going wide. "We need to…!"

Silver and Ñako jumped forward, weapons in hand, before she had a chance to finish her sentence.

"Eat it hoodie!" the first declared, grinning from ear to ear.

"Ah… senseless killing," the latter whispered to himself. "I like these people."

It was over before it began. Soon enough the only people still in the market were the three trainers, the beaten old man, Sabrina's Scyther and the newly added pile of corpses in front of them.

Ñako folded the shuriken, still dripping with blood, and hung it from his back as he approached Sabrina.

"Not that I didn't enjoy that…" he said, raising an eyebrow, "but do you mind repeating why we're provoking the guy who's paying us?"

"That geezer Mullac needs us. It'll be fine," she shrugged. "Besides, you saw how little he cared about the guys he sent to the train."

Silver nodded. "And we're saving this guy, which means a sure reward!"

Their collective gazes fell on the almost unconscious old man, still covered in a not negligible amount of his own blood.

"Oh right, we should probably make sure he doesn't die," Ñako said, walking towards him.

The flames were almost on top of them as he opened his Pokeball, releasing the Abra they'd all seen in the train the night before. He fell on his butt and leaned his head to the side, breathing in deeply with his eyes closed.

"Paja, could I get a Teleport out with this guy?" he asked, grabbing the man by the collar. "I'll take your snoring as a yes."

The Abra lazily extended his arm to touch his trainer, a purple light coating their bodies a moment after as their shapes began to dissipate.

"See you outs-!" Ñako said as he vanished into thin air.

Silver looked around with a certain amount of worry in his expression, seeing the fire get closer and closer. Sabrina however didn't seem very bothered by it as she tapped her Scyther on the shoulder.

"Carrie, fly me and this guy out of here," she ordered, tone bored. "And make it quick. I hope you're getting used to this."

She lowered her head once more and obeyed without hesitation. Flying two humans on her back was a bit much, but they managed to get through the fire just fine. After a couple minutes they spotted the funny looking ninja and his Pokemon next to the old man they'd saved and his daughter. They were on the outside of town, next to the tall grass of Route 7. Nothing but dirty green and yellow as far as the eye could see, nature having devoured most roads and constructions in the past decade.

As they touched ground Sabrina noticed the girl with her arms around her father, tears running down her cheeks. Judging by all the bandages covering his body it seemed she'd gotten herself busy and patched him up as fast as humanly possible.

"I'm so glad you're okay!" she sobbed, hands shaking. "Oh dad, I was so worried!"

"I… I know," the man replied, smiling weakly. "It was thanks to these youngsters. I owe my life to them."

Silver approached his two Pokemon and let them land on his shoulder, patting them both in the head.

"Nice one! You two deserve the best birdseed money can buy!"

Carrie looked at the scene with unmistakable hope in her eyes and turned towards Sabrina, who simply frowned and turned around. She could almost feel the sadness of the insect's glare on her back, and sighed.

Making sure no one was looking at them, she slowly raised her hand, giving the Pokemon a thumbs up. She could swear the thing lightly screeched in glee.

Once father and daughter stopped crying over how happy they were or whatever, Sabrina approached them with the look of someone ready to do business. They both raised their heads towards her and saw as she extended her palm forward.

"Money," she said.

The man narrowed his eyes in confusion, looking all around as if he expected her to be talking to someone else.

"Wh-…"

"The money, geezer, the reward for saving you," she repeated, shaking her palm. "And make it quick, I wanna get out of this dump as fast as I can."

More silence, more confused looks. Had she really done all that for nothing? No, she still had one more card to play.

For the first time since meeting her, Ñako and Silver saw as she took off her hat, grasping it strongly over her chest. She closed her eyes, expression turning to one of intense sadness.

"She's… she's almost her age, my little sister." She pointed at the blue haired girl with shaking fingers. "They even look alike. The doctors say there's no cure for her sickness... all I can do is try to mitigate her suffering." She tried to summon tears and forcibly made her lower lip shake. "But it is too expensive."

She could almost picture the look of surprise and disgust in the faces of her companions behind her, but decided to ignore it.

"For two years I've been traveling the world as a mercenary, accepting the most dangerous jobs from the wealthiest of clients." She clenched her fist, voice breaking. "Without stop, without rest, all so… all so I could see her smile, one last time…"

With her act finished she looked up, taking in the reaction of the two. The man looked down, biting his lip and clearly moved by her words. The girl was a whole different story; new and bigger tears ran down her cheeks as she tried her best not to sob.

Hook, line and sinker.

At least so she thought, until the girl lunged forward and grabbed her hand with both of hers, smiling with difficulty.

"I… I'm studying medicine and I'm good at healing people and… and…" she tried to speak through the tears. "I'll follow all of you, and I promise I'll do everything in my power to help your little sister!"

Sabrina's smug smile died as soon as she heard those words, soon followed by the stifled laughs of Silver and the ninja behind her. She looked down at the girl's hands, sighing as she let her shoulders fall.

"God dammit."

Horrible people, asking me to come here all of a sudden. I should've stayed in the Orange Islands with all those pink Pokemon and be stupidly happy forever.

Those were the thoughts going through the girl's mind as she walked through the outer slums of Saffron with Mullac's letter in hand. Her brown hair was separated into two well crafted braids and on top of her head sat a strange, white hat with eyes and kitty ears. The sweatshirt she wore was more than a few sizes too big for her, so the sleeves went past her hands and flopped around with every step she took.

She heard something past the corner of the next street and froze with her heart in her throat. She'd seen that group of strange people before and they were fighting… things. She'd decided it would be to her benefit to get away from them.

What came out of the shadows didn't look like any of them, which at first she thought was a good thing. Then she noticed the state of the person walking towards her; empty eyes, several cuts and injuries all over and clothes covered in blood.

The thing swatted at her. She choked on a scream as she took a step back and dodged, eyes going wide in horror. The smell hit her, as potent as a punch to the nose and all encompassing. She had to summon all the will she had in her not to throw up on the spot.

"A-agh, what the…!?" She took an arm to her chest, hand shaking. "People in decomposition? What…?"

She heard various steps approaching and feared more… whatever these things were would surround her. Fortunately it was just the group of people she'd seen before, running through the street as a small army of undead followed them.

"The politics of failure have failed!" declared the one with the pink afro, a chubby Pikachu hanging from his shoulder. "We must look for shelter!"

The ones in front of her turned towards the sound and, for a moment, she had the hope they would chase those people instead of her. It was short lived as the second one made another attempt at grabbing her.

Looks like I have to choose between the pink afro and this, she thought to herself, cursing her luck.

She considered it for a good five seconds before making the decision.

"Pink afro, goddammit!"

She lunged past the two zombies and ran in the same direction as them.

Rhin felt guilty for jokingly thinking they would encounter a zombie movie situation when they entered the outer slums. Now he was pretty sure the cosmos did listen to him, except instead of trying to help, it simply laughed while watching him suffer.

He smiled to himself as he ran from the zombies, Wyvern hanging from his back. If the stars wanted a good show then he'd give them one.

"There, that place!" Sammy yelled, pointing towards a nearby building. "The door is open, come on!"

A worn sign hung above the entrance: Winchester II.

Once all of them were inside, Sammy and Siegfried locked the heavy wooden door by putting in front as many chairs and tables as they could find. Rhin decided to make himself useful and stumbled his way to the fuse box, turning the lights on.

The first thing he saw after being momentarily blinded was a beautiful, ornate pool table in the middle of the room. At its right was what looked like a counter full of unopened bottles of alcohol, covered in dust. A jukebox rested near the counter, its weak lights still twinkling after what must've been years.

Of all the places, it had to be a pub, he thought, frowning.

"We need to check for other entrances so we can block them," Sammy ordered, looking around desperately.

"Ugh, this place is dirty," Mycroft shuddered as he tiptoed through the filth covered floor. "Wait, why are we boxing ourselves in?"

"These aren't real zombies," she said. "Either the Gastly stop possessing them and come inside to fight, or they get bored and leave after a while."

Or they wait forever because they're ghosts and they have all the time in the world, Rhin thought hopelessly.

He looked at Vard, who walked around the room curiously, studying the place as though it were a tourist spot. He was probably considering turning it into his base of operations or something similar. He smiled; he really couldn't be mad at a guy like that. He was in the middle of wondering where the man's confidence came from when the sound of breaking wood made him jump. A long, pale arm made an attempt at his neck, but Rhin's reflexes allowed him to lower his head and barely avoid the swat.

"Shit, they're coming in!" he yelled, gritting his teeth.

"Ah, bastards!" Vard said. "We must teach them a lesson!"

More and more arms broke through the crumbling defense they'd managed to put in front of the door. Slowly everyone gathered on the back of the bar, Pokeballs in hand and sweat running down their foreheads.

A few more seconds is all it took before the shattered splinters of the doors flew to the side, letting in at least ten of the corpses inside. They growled and walked slowly towards them, heads leaning to the side and eyes empty.

Mycroft took a step back towards the jukebox. "Merde, we need to do something!"

Siegfried nodded, looking down to the Cyndaquil. "Elliot, I'm counting on you," he said, voice completely calm.

"Our only chance is to attack the Gastly and take them out," Sammy said, lower lip trembling. "We need to combine our Pokemon's strength and attack all at once."

"That is, if our Pokemon can even see the Gastly," Siefgried whispered.

"Oh, right!" Mycroft said, "Maybe I can…"

As he took a step back he accidentally bumped his elbow on one of the buttons of the jukebox. The machine roared with an electronic buzzing sound and came to life, startling all the trainers in the room.

"Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time…"

A voice came out of the device, bathing the bar with the low hums of music. Mycroft looked at the jukebox, then at the zombies and then at the jukebox once more.

"Why is Queen playing?" he asked, nose crinkled. "Ah, it doesn't matter. Ludovic, Foresight!"

The Riolu's eyes turned red once more, and just as it had happened before the gaseous shapes of the Gastlys appeared above the corpses' heads, smiling maliciously as they approached.

"Now!" Sammy yelled, throwing a Pokeball to the ground. From it emerged a bulb like Pokemon with four stubby legs, and a leaf coming out of her head. The Chikorita planted herself in front of her opponents. "Fiona, Razor Leaf!"

"Wyvern, Scratch!"

"Elliot, use Tackle if you may."

"Pikachu, destroy those mutants!" Vard ordered. "Storm of Osiris!"

As their Pokemon pushed back the zombies and tried their best to leave the Gastly out of commission, someone approached from the back entrance of the bar. The girl with the strange hat scurried as silently as she could through the dark corridors, hearing commotion close. She carefully opened the door at the end of the hallway, finding herself behind the counter of the bar. At her right were the five people she'd followed, furiously battling what was at her left. At least ten of the horrible living corpses, their combined stench flooding the room like poison gas.

"Agh, disgusting!" she yelled, covering her nose with the sleeves of her sweatshirt.

Everyone in the room turned towards her, including the zombies. She froze for a moment, cursing herself, and grabbed the Pokeball hanging from a small holster in her jeans.

"I need to get out of here! Milkshake, Icy Wind!"

In front of her materialized a creature resembling a snake, with soft blue scales covering everything except her belly. Two small, white wings grew from the sides of her head. The Dratini wound her head back, inhaling deeply, and spat a powerful torrent of frozen air into the room. The miniature blizzard swallowed every single Gastly, releasing enough mist at the sides to hide her and her Pokemon from the trainers sharing the room with her.

"W-what was that!?" Rhin asked, covering his face with the folds of his sleeve.

Once the mist and cold dissipated they were left alone with a room full of immobile corpses, the Gastly controlling them having fled after the devastating attack.

"S-she took them all out at once," Siegfried said, incredulous.

"Wait, where is she?" Mycroft asked.

They looked towards the door behind the counter where the strange girl had previously been. It was now empty, no trainer or Pokemon to be seen. They waited for a few moments to see if more zombies would approach them, but only silence followed.

About a street away from the bar, the girl they'd just met ran as fast as her legs allowed, her long sleeves flapping in the wind behind her. Dratini followed her by slithering on the ground, a look of boredom in her eyes.

"That place didn't look very safe, Milkshake!" she smiled nervously. "We should probably run back to Saffron at once!"