Forest of Secrets; A Pokemon Fanfiction

Chapter 1 Part 9

Dasher
Did Psycho scare you half to death with that one? I bet you thought we lost.
SUCKER!

Psycho went down as soon as Bright hit him with that Close Combat. Normally, a Close Combat wouldn't be a 1-Hit-KO if this was a normal battle with normal Pokemon. Unless you consider that Bright is Lvl 100 - How did a nervous scatterbrained klutz like Joy-Joy raise insane Pokemon like him? - and Psycho is a Lvl 30 at the most. INSTANT KO.

Sparkle and me, Joy's weakest Pokemon with little real skill against... that. We SHOULD have lost. I was panicking, and according to Sparkle, clinging to her like it was Doomsday, and we were the last to be massacred. The only thing that I could think of was to Focus Blast Bright. If I was in my right mind, I would have used Psychic.

Raising my hand, I feel my horns light up and pulse with power, forming the orb of energy. But I can't summon a Focus blast bigger than a golf ball. My whole body shook, and it wouldn't appear for longer than two seconds. Really, I don't have enough focus.

The only thing that saves us two is that Sparkle is panicking too. If she was in HER right mind, she would have... I dunno, I'm not sure what she thinks when she's not half-paralyzed by fear. But she isn't in her right mind either, so instead of using any common sense what so ever, she pauses while Bright circles malevolently over to us, taking his time with finishing us weaklings off. And then, she used Dream Eater.

I know what you're thinking. Dream Eater, when he is obviously AWAKE. Probably a very dumb move.

Sparkle's eyes rolled up into her head as a wave of strangely darkened glitter swirled from Bright to her, and she collapses flaccidly into the grass by my side, shoving me away from her as she does. The Infernape himself just pauses, wracked with shudders as the glittering wave of Dream Eater sucks out his dream... Or maybe nightmare. Either way, he falls over, snoring.

I must be standing there for two minutes, staring at everyone's limp forms. Me, the only one still standing. This had been a serious battle. Once I gather my thoughts back into coherent sentences, it occurred to me that a serious battle tends to make people seriously hurt. Psycho had been injured already. How much worse could he had gotten after that Close Combat?
Sparkle was worrying me too. She twitched every so often, and muttered weird stuff. I think I may have heard her say "wait!" a couple of times!

One thing was for certain, that I had to get them back to the mansion. Joy has lots of healing items stored up for battles and such, so she could fix them up. Alas, if they stayed here, they could get worse.

I'm not a very strong Pokemon in the first place. I relearned that after I tried to drag Spark by her tail. She couldn't be budged an inch. The only one I could drag was short Psycho. Being a few inches smaller than the species expectation came in handy for him after all. Whereas, my added inches give me no extra strength. Just my luck.
How would I move five unconscious Pokemon home if I could only drag one?

Wow, that really got me there. If only there were someone left to comment sarcastically to...

Joy-Joy
To my irritation, I never think things through unless I'm Pokemon battling. Go figure that while the journal contains important knowledge, I can't quite grasp how it works in with what is going on right now. Go figure that Lotus and Rascal aren't sure how Full Moon and Moon Shadow and everything tie in to our situation either. Go figure that when we walk back us the basement stairs, puzzling over the journal, Loppily woke up, and then woke up Twirla, who is not pleased with us abandoning her on the couch.
We find her sitting on the couch next to Loppily. Twirla has her arms crossed, and her eyes make me think of the sentiment, "If looks could kill". Loppily looks close to bursting into tears. That miiiiiiight because she and Bright have been very close friends ever since I caught her. Bright's disappearance must have upset her more than a little...

"You haven't bothered to wake up anyone else for this... problem?" I suppose Twirla might be miffed that I didn't seek her help in solving this mess... "You did not consider that some of us who were asleep might be mildly concerned about the Pokemon whom have been... affected? Psycho and Bright?" Uh-oh. She's mad.

"Joy-Joy! You should know by now that every Pokemon in this mansion is willing to help you, no matter the time nor emergency!" She's... not mad?
Dissenting that thought, she gives me a hard look. "You ought to remember that I like to be woken up for emergencies, particularly concerning Psycho or Dasher. Not that most emergencies don't concern them. Or Lotus..." Ok, she's a little mad, but willing to help. PHEW.

I explain the entire thing to Twirla and Loppily, and Lotus adds unhelpful, but well-meaning commentary to the tale. I show them the journal, and tell them about Moon Shadow and Full Moon's tale. It happened at the date given in Bright's riddle, but how is this important? More soever, what exactly are Moon Shadow and Full Moon?
"You say this Full-Moon Pokemon specializes in sleeping attacks? And he's not from around Unova?"
"Yep."
"And he's Dark Type, or darkly-colored, or both?"
"Uh-huh."
Twirla picks the journal. "Have you bothered to look for foreign sleep-inducing Dark Types/dark colored Pokemon in the computer's Pokedex program? Or read the rest of the journal, for that matter?"
"Ye- uh, no."

Twirla sets down the journal and walks over to the computer. Loppily follows close behind, unusually mute. "Lets get started then," Twirla says. Of course, Queenie flies into the room. She's the Vespiquen I mentioned earlier. She speaks in kind of a sing-song buzz, which makes her almost as hard to understand as Lotus at times.
"Heaaard I did, that Pzzzycho mizzzing and Briiiiight mizzzing. Heaaard I did, that otherrrzzz look for them?"
What is with my Grass and Bug types and listening in on conversations? "You heard right, Queenie. Can you help us figure out how Moon Shadow and Full Moon are important to the problem? I was just about to read the rest of the journal." I gesture slightly towards the journal.

Indecisively, Queenie flits between the computer and the journal for a minute. Twirla is searching the pokedex on the computer for Dark Pokemon that specialize in sleeping moves, from regions other than Unova. Queenie flutters over to the journal. "Leeetterzzz mizzing? Haaard to read?" She picks it up. "Nooo zzzenzzze it makezzz to you?" Peering closely at it, she clacks her mandibles together, deep in thought. For some reason or other, she runs a finger down one of the pages. "Mooon Zzzhadow transform? What zzzhe beee, Ditto?"
Wait, it says that Moon Shadow transforms? I remember it mentions that she tries to imitate a smaller Pokemon. What could that even mean?
"Nooot Dittooo though. Daaark zzzhe be, Dark as Full Moon. Dark type."
"Where does it say this Queenie? I don't remember it saying that Moon Shadow is a dark too."
"Ooobviouzzz. Full Mooon be unlucky luuunar phazzze, dark in luck, light in reeeality. Weeerewolvezzz and zzzuch legendzzz. The Moon's Zzzhadow be dark part of Moon, no? Zzzo zzztandzzz to reazzzon that Moon Zzzhadow be dark too."
Where'd she pull that out of? The logic is sound, one supposes, but what does that indicate? I can't think of any transforming Dark Types... all I can think of is Ditto.
"Mmm... Zzzhe not tranzzzform after all. If zzzhe transform, zzzhe would be able to zzzlip free of boondzzz. Nooo, not tranzzzform."
We all look up from what are doing when the back door knocks three times. When I look up, I realize that Rascal and Lotus have managed to slip off when I distracted myself with Queenie. Queenie shuts the journal and buzzes, "I get dooor." She absentmindedly drops it on the coffee table from the five feet she hovers above it. It lands on the fragile binding, of which the glue is old and disintegrating. With a a flutter of pages, the journal's binding tears from the pages, and they scatter all over the table as Queenie exits the room for the hallway to the backyard. Twirla is preoccupied with the computer, but Loppily turns and gasps. A sharp intake of breath comes from me, and I walk hesitantly over to the ruined journal.
Bang goes any help from THAT source.