Tails of a Dinosaur

[DinosaurNothlit]

I got all inspired to write a "Memoirs of a RAFian" tie-in book along the lines of what gh had done, and I sort of implied to Cloak that I would wait to post it until it would fit into summer/spring in the timeline, but I'm just going to re-write it a bit for fall and post it anyway because I'm way too impatient to wait.

Oh, and this probably will take place, at least somewhat, between books.  Cloak will show up in this story at some point, and those chapters will be assumed to fall between-books in Memoirs.  The chapters with just me in them might take place during another Memoirs book, I'll leave that up to Cloak to decide which one(s).

Apologies for a short first chapter (and potentially short chapters after that, I haven't really decided what my standard chapter-length for this book will be).

Okay, I'm just rambling now, onto the book!

Chapter 1
Of Knights and Dragons

It was a beautiful day, bright and sunny, without a cloud in sight.  There was a slight chill in the air, but it was still unseasonably warm for as late in the year as it was.

Dino was on 'vacation,' off of mission duty and outside of RAF.  She was using the rare opportunity to visit her sister, Hydrargyrum.  Hydrargyrum, or Hydra for short, was a dragon.  She was not a 'hydra,' mind you.  She only had one head, Hydra was just her name.  Hydra had actually very briefly joined RAF, a long time ago, but had quickly gotten bored of it.  She'd only joined as a courtesy to her sister in the first place, so Dino didn't hold it against her for leaving.  The point was, Hydra loved Dino, and vice versa, like the sisters they were.

Still not quite sure how I ended up being related to a dragon, Dino mused to herself as she lumbered along through the forest towards the cave where her sister lived.  She didn't remember anything from before she had become a nothlit, so when a dragon showed up, claiming to be her sister, and knowing things about Dino that only a sister could know . . . well, how could she argue with that?  As for how they were related, Hydra refused to tell.  The dragon seemed very amused by the air of mystery it gave her.

Dino pulled herself out of her thoughts once she could see Hydra's cave through the forest.  She tried to quietly sneak up to surprise her sister, but the tremors of her footsteps rustled the leaves of the trees, giving her away.

"So how is my favorite RAFian doing?" came a gentle voice from the dragon's lair, as Dino approached.  Hydra blinked in the sunlight as she poked her angular serpentine head out of the shadow of the cave that she called her home.

"I'm doing good!  How about y-?" Dino started to say, when she noticed a small, bloodied patch of cloth between the dragon's teeth.  "What is that?" she accused.  Then she looked a little closer, turning her head to use her good eye (she was near-sighted in her left).  She could see the Knights of Humanity logo embroidered on the crumpled square.  " . . . Oh god, you didn't.  Tell me you didn't."

Hydra brought a claw up to her mouth and picked at her teeth, not sure what the fuss was about.  "Oh, yeah, that.  Well, look, the guy came to MY cave and was trying very hard to KILL me.  One of those idiot 'vanquish the evil dragon for honor and glory' types."  She sighed.  "And anyway, I didn't actually kill his dumb ass.  The stupid coward weaseled right out of his clothes when I grabbed him, and then ran off in his underpants.  A little scratched up from my teeth, but otherwise fine."  She grinned, and flicked the patch of cloth to the ground.  "Contrary to popular belief, I'm not a monster."  Then she made a disgusted face.  "And he probably would have tasted nasty, anyway."

"Good, because RAF has enough PR problems as it is.  I know you aren't a RAFian, but you used to be, and if that got out, the Knights of Humanity absolutely wouldn't see it as 'self-defense.'"

Hydra humphed as she looked down at the embroidered patch of cloth, noticing the logo for the first time.  "Knights of Humanity?  I didn't even realize the moron was affiliated with those bigots."  Dino wasn't surprised Hydra had heard of the KoH.  Despite being a dragon, she watched the news.  Of course, she was smart enough to avoid the rhetoric of Bern Bridges and the like, and smart enough to draw the correct conclusions from what she did watch.  "The world would be a little better off if I HAD killed him."

"I don't disagree," Dino agreed.

They moved on to talking about other things, but neither of them had noticed yet that the square of cloth had actually been a pocket, back when it was still attached to an article of clothing.  And, against all odds, there was still something inside.

[Cloak]

Just going by just this chapter, I think it could fit into Book #180.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Okay, that sounds good.  Also, I guess this book is just going to have short chapters.

Chapter 2
The Pokéball

The minutes turned to hours, and as the day faded into evening, the wind started picking up, forcing Hydra and Dino to take shelter inside the dragon's cave.  It was almost November, after all, and neither of the two huge beasts had any protection from the cold (they were both warm-blooded, no matter what anyone has told you about dinosaurs or dragons, but if anything, that fact only made them both feel the cold more keenly, shivering for warmth rather than going lethargic as true reptiles would have done).

However, before they could get all the way into that nice warm cozy cave, Hydra noticed something out of the corner of her eye.  Dragons were attuned to notice anything bright-colored or shiny, and this object was both.  It was a red-and-white sphere, with a white button on the front.  It had been revealed when the cloth part of the Knight's pocket had blown away in the wind, leaving its contents behind.

Hydra shrugged and went over to grab the thing in her teeth.  It had been a while since she had added any treasure to her hoard.  She didn't know what it was, so she assumed it was nothing more than a pretty bauble.

Dino had noticed that something had delayed Hydra from the cave.  But Hydra was smart (quite possibly smarter than Dino, but don't let Dino hear you say that), and kept her snout carefully turned to the side where the dinosaur couldn't see that the dragon had anything at all between her teeth.  Hydra didn't want the RAFian to know that she'd taken something that had belonged to the Knight, lest Dino claim it was 'RAFian jurisdiction' and confiscate it, or some such nonsense.  Hydra's patience for RAFian business went only as far as her affection for her sister.

Perhaps she was being selfish, she thought.  Not to mention distrusting, not to even let her sister know about what she had found.  But it wasn't going to hurt anybody, was it?  It was only a harmless trinket.

In any case, Dino simply shrugged off her sister's slightly odd behavior, figuring that Hydra had just needed to straighten out some of the plants around her cave, or something.  This was her home, after all.  Whatever it was, wasn't Dino's business.

Hydra made an excuse to go visit her hoard (this, unlike the pause outside the cave, was normal behavior for the dragon and didn't arouse Dino's suspicions at all, since dragons need to check on their hoards regularly or else they get anxious), after which they resumed their previous conversation.

"So anyway, that's how I saved a bunch of people from a would-be mass murderer by dancing ballet*," Dino finished.

Hydra stared at Dino for a long moment, then sighed deeply, and put her face in her claws.  "I cannot believe I'm related to you," she groaned affectionately.

While the two sisters conversed late into the night, the Pokéball sat, forgotten, between an Egyptian-looking cat idol and a pile of pearlescent nail polish bottles, deep within Hydra's hoard.  It glowed for a moment, and wobbled very slightly, almost anxiously, like a distressed person rocking back and forth to try to comfort themselves.  After a moment, it lay still again.

*True story.  Memoirs Book LXXXVI.  (For the record, yes, I know it's slightly unrealistic that I could have put all the pieces together and figured out the full story of what happened that day, but it wouldn't be impossible.  Stranger things have happened.)

[Cloak]

PokeBall, eh? If you're going with this like I think you are, it could very well fit with something in a future book that I have planned . . . perhaps I've already said too much.

[DinosaurNothlit]

I wouldn't be surprised if you already know where this is going.  This whole book is based on a story I've told you before.  And the possibility of that story meshing with a planned future book of yours is exciting! 

Oh, and this is where Gh shows up, so insert obligatory language warning here.

Chapter 3
How (Not) to Train Your Togetic

It was a couple days later, and Dino was at home in her thread.  Her communicator rang.  She answered.

"Dino!" Hydra said frantically from the other end.  "I'm sorry but I have a problem!"  Behind Hydra's voice, there were other sounds in the background, crashing noises, along with some kind of animal sounds, but like no animal Dino had ever heard before.  "Can you, uh . . . do they allow pets in RAF?"

Dino sighed.  "Yes," she answered truthfully.  She wasn't happy, though.  Being a RAFian was a full-time job and she didn't really think she had time to take on the added responsibility of a pet.  But she had a feeling she'd end up agreeing to it by the end of this conversation, anyway.  "Do I at least get to know what it is?"

"It's a . . . thing," Hydra said evasively.  "Look, I'll bring it over.  It came in a little red-and-white carrying case sort of thing."  She sighed through the phone.  "I should probably mention that I found the thing in the Knight's pocket.  That Knight whose clothes I stole?  It was his.  I assumed it was just a trinket, and I didn't want you to worry about it."

Dino sighed back.  "I'm glad you let me know," she said patiently.

However, to be perfectly honest, Dino probably would have assumed exactly the same thing that Hydra had.  The Knights of Humanity weren't usually competent enough to acquire magical items or creatures of any sort, let alone carry such things around with them on their person.  Nine times out of ten, anything found on a Knight would have been just a harmless trinket.  After thinking about it, Dino added, "There really wasn't any way you could have known."

So it was that a couple hours later, Hydra was waiting patiently outside of Code Avalon.  Dino came outside to meet her, whereupon Hydra handed her a small red-and-white ball with a white button on the front, and slunk away in what looked like embarrassment.  Dino wanted to tell her not to worry, and that she hadn't really caused any harm nor done anything that anyone else wouldn't have done, but at that point it was too late to say anything.  The dragon was already gone.

So Dino quickly went back into RAF, and found a few of her most trusted RAFian friends.  Goom was always good for analyzing and figuring out these things, Cloak had experience in many other Realms besides this one, and Gh . . . could provide comic relief if anything went wrong.

When the three of them were gathered, Dino tossed the ball onto the ground, causing it to open in a flash of light and belch forth the creature inside.  The thing* that came out of the Pokéball looked not unlike a chicken, but with a long neck, red and blue markings, stumpy wing-like arms, and fairy wings on its back.  It looked around apprehensively at the RAFians, as if it had already made up its mind that it didn't trust any of them.  Goom had a clipboard out, and was already taking notes.

"Still not sure why I'm here," Gh grumbled.

Dino shrugged, and replied, "You have a kid, right?  How different can it be?"

The Pokémon chirruped at the RAFians, and then started waving its arm in a way that suggested a wagging finger, even though it didn't have fingers.  Cloak's eyes widened.  "Be careful, it's using Metronome.  Literally anything could happen."

"It's using wha-" Gh began, but was interrupted by a thunderclap, as a massive bolt of lightning arced across the room.  Gh jumped backwards, but not before the electricity passed so close to his face that you could hear and smell his hair sizzling.

He clapped his hand to his forehead to hide his missing eyebrow, his eyes still shut tight against the flashbulb glare.  "To answer your earlier question, Dino, please pardon my french, but REALLY ****ING DIFFERENT!!!"

The Pokémon looked at the assembled RAFians with a defiant, rebellious expression, as if to say, "Your move, punks."

*This.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 4
Of Knights and Pokémon

"Why you little piece of . . . " Gh began, before he angrily picked up the now-empty Pokéball, deciding that he would put the creature that had tried to electrocute him back where it belonged.  That would teach the little **** a lesson.

But as Gh reached for the ball, the Togetic's expression instantly changed.  His look of wild defiance evaporated in milliseconds, replaced by a look of pure terror.  The Pokémon squeezed his eyes shut, and quivered.  In that fraction of a second, the previously-unruly creature now looked like an abused animal that was expecting punishment.

"Gh, stop! " Cloak yelled, the only RAFian who had noticed the change in demeanor.  But it was already too late, and Gh had clicked the button on the Pokéball, recalling the Togetic, who now fearfully went inside his containment without protest.  The whole scene, from Gh picking up the Pokéball to clicking the button and recalling the Pokémon, had passed almost instantaneously, too quickly for any of the non-feline RAFians to even realize what had just happened.

Cloak turned to Dino, who was staring in bewilderment at the tiny container that somehow held a creature larger than the object itself.  How had Gh even figured out so quickly how the thing actually worked?  Dino supposed it wasn't rocket science, as there was only one button on the device.

"Where, exactly, did you say your sister found this?" Cloak asked Dino quietly.

"She got it . . . from . . . a Knight of Humanity . . . " Dino said slowly, as the terrible truth finally dawned on her.

Gh looked down at the ball in his hand, realizing the same thing that Dino had.  "Oh my god.  The Knights are AWFUL people.  If one of them owned a creature like this, the poor thing can't have been treated well."

Cloak nodded.  "In at least one Realm, these creatures, called Pokémon, fight one another for sport.  Some of them have kind owners, who engage in these fights only with the Pokémon's permission and only if both Pokémon enjoy the competition.  But many evil people force them to fight against their will.  That one is called a Togetic, and it's a species that is said to seek out happiness.  It must be deeply hurting."

Cloak tried not to think too hard about just how familiar he was with that kind of pain, the pain of abuse.  It was difficult to turn his mind from those thoughts.

All four RAFians then closed their eyes, each of them imagining how the creature must have suffered at the hands of the Knights of Humanity.  Mental images of underground dog-fighting rings, where similar creatures to this one would have been forced to fight one another until they collapsed from exhaustion, and then harshly punished for 'giving up,' raced through all of the RAFians' minds.

Without saying a word, Gh tossed the Pokéball back onto the ground.  The Togetic reappeared in another flash of light, and looked up in surprise.  He seemed stunned that Gh had not punished him for his outburst.  "It's okay," Gh said gently.  "We aren't going to hurt you."

After a long moment of awkward silence between the RAFians and the Pokémon, Goom looked up from his clipboard.  "That ball . . . it seems to give off an energy signature, of some kind.  If I'm right, I think that energy can be tracked.  Which means . . . we can get to the source, and stop this from happening ever again."

Gh nodded.  "We're going to make the bastards pay for this."

[Cloak]

Okay, I think this book would be better suit of occurring in canon at the same time as "Schism" (#181) would technically take place, where the latter actually canon (as "Schism" is a noncanon one-shot). I hope that makes sense.

But this is interesting, and still fits with what I want to do.

[DinosaurNothlit]

Edited because I forgot Realm Walkers were omnilingual.

Chapter 5
Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness

It took several days for Goom to pinpoint the specific energy signature given off by the Pokéball, and a couple days after that to amplify the very weak signal enough to be detected at long range.

In the meantime, Dino ended up being the one to take care of the Togetic.  Goom was too busy, Gh and the Pokémon had gotten off on the wrong foot (not to mention that the Pokémon was much more anxious around humans than any other species of RAFians, probably because he had had such negative experiences with humans so far), and Cloak preferred to keep to himself.  And in any case, Dino was the one who had agreed to take care of the Pokémon in the first place, when her sister had given it to her.  She felt it was her responsibility.

So the Togetic stayed in Dino's thread.  She didn't want to keep him in his Pokéball any more than absolutely necessary, but dealing with the Togetic was proving much more difficult than she had planned.

"No no no no get down from there!" Dino said firmly. "I know you've been through a lot and you don't like taking orders but you are GOING TO HURT YOURSELF!  Get down!!"  The Togetic was playing with a light fixture, and furthermore, spitefully ignoring Dino.  She was certain that he took some kind of perverse pleasure from disobedience.  Once he had figured out that Dino would not physically hurt him, no matter what he did . . . well, then he was going to do whatever he darn well pleased and he wasn't going to care about the consequences.

The Togetic gripped the glass bulb, flapping his wings now and again for balance.  But then he started to drift to the right, and he gripped the glass harder to try to pull himself back to where he was, and the glass shattered.  True to what Dino had said, a piece of glass lodged itself in his stubby arm.  As the light-bulb went out it sparked, and the electricity hit the Togetic in the wing, causing him to lose his balance completely and fall to the ground.

"I TOLD you," Dino said, trying to keep the frustration out of her voice.  "Why do you do things like this?  You keep refusing to listen, and you keep getting hurt.  Why?"

The Togetic turned away angrily.  Dino thought maybe she understood why he was acting out, though.  He had lived most of his life without any freedom at all.  Taking orders, being told what to do.  Dino could hardly imagine what that would have been like.

Dino sighed.  "Look, I think I understand why you don't want to listen to me.  I just want you to understand that your actions have consequences.  For you, maybe you don't care, but your actions have consequences for others, too."  She looked out a window at the blue sky and green grass outside, wondering if . . . but no.  As much as she might like to simply release the Togetic into the wild, he wasn't ready.  He had been in captivity all his life, and in any case, who knew what impact a Pokémon could have on the local ecosystem?  Perhaps, someday, he could be released.  But not today.

In any case, there were more urgent matters to attend to.  Indeed, later that same day, Goom (with some help from Yarin and Xeno) finally finished the Pokénergy Sensor.  They were ready to track down the Knights of Humanity and their underground Pokémon operation.

The RAFians assembled a team, consisting of Saffa, Cloak, Dino, Aquilai, Underseen . . . and, strangely enough, the Togetic itself.  The Pokémon couldn't speak in any way most of the RAFians could understand, but he did seem to understand what was going on.  And it was obvious that he absolutely would not be kept away.  He chirrupped angrily whenever the RAFians tried to get him to go back to Dino's thread, and even bit Dino's ankle when she tried to force him to go back in his Pokéball.  That was a surprise, as up until that very moment he had still shown fear of his containment device.  It was obvious that he had found a reason to be brave.

"Okay, okay!" Dino said, walking with an intentionally exaggerated limp on the ankle that had been bitten.  "You can come, but I sure do hope you really understand what you're getting into."

Cloak nodded at the Togetic, acknowledging his words, but feeling no need to translate since the Pokémon had already made his meaning quite perfectly clear.  And in any case he wasn't going to try to translate that many obscenities.  "He does," Cloak answered Dino.  "But more importantly, he understands what's at stake."

[DinosaurNothlit]

Chapter 6
Into the Dungeon

"Yes, hi, I would like to enter the Pokémon tournament," Aquilai said to the guard with as much confidence as he could muster.  He flashed a small wallet containing a blank piece of paper.

"Yes sir, of course sir," the guard said, nearly tripping over himself with urgency to let Aquilai in.  "I must say, I was not expecting you here, Mister Giovanni.  The entrances to the Gyms are the first doors on your left and on your right.  Big double doors, can't miss it."

Aquilai sighed as he put his psychic paper away.  He really had no control over what other people would see on the paper, but it was still useful for tricking those with weak minds.  He nodded to Saffa, signaling to the guard that she was with him.  And just like that, they were in.  Along with, of course, the Pokémon that they were entering into the tournament.  Saffa was entering with a Tyrantrum and a Togetic, and 'Giovanni' was entering with an Incineroar and a Ditto.

 . . . It obviously helped that the Knights of Humanity had only seen a small handful of Pokémon, and quite honestly didn't know the difference between a Tyrantrum and an Ankylotyrannus, an Incineroar and a tiger-form Realm Walker, or a Ditto and a Liquidiforme-DNA Solidification Shapeshifter.  That's what the RAFians had been banking on, and it worked like a charm.  The guard let them walk right past, not even asking why their 'Pokémon' weren't in Pokéballs.

"This feels too easy," Aquilai muttered ominously.

They had used Goom's device to trace the Pokénergy to a water treatment plant that had once been the home of one of Demos' fiends.  Some of the water had been drained away since then, as the RAFians who came through this time weren't wading through water as Shenmue had done when she was here before.  "We kick one rat out of the sewer, and a whole rat pack moves right back in," Underseen commented.

"Quiet," Saffa hissed.  "You're a Ditto, remember?  Dittos don't talk."

"Er, Ditto," Underseen grudgingly confirmed.  He oozed along the floor in an amorphous shape, with two pinpoints for eyes and a flat line for a mouth.

The group quickly came up on two ornate sets of double doors, one on either side of the hallway, the left one with an intricate spiderweb motif, the right one with an equally intricate feather motif, each jarringly out of place in the sewer-like water treatment plant.  They were clearly a relatively recent addition.

"And we already have to split up," Aquilai grumbled.  He raised his fist above his open palm in an invitation to play 'rock paper scissors' with Saffa.  They played, but Aquilai lost, picking rock to Saffa's paper.  Saffa smirked, as Aquilai was forced to take the spiderweb door, and she herself walked through the feather door.  Dino and the Togetic followed Saffa, while Cloak and Underseen followed Aquilai.  Just like they'd planned.

"Now the fun begins," said two playful voices, in both rooms, simultaneously.  The two sets of doors shut behind each team of RAFians, cutting them off from the way out and from one another.  "Oh, you have no idea," Saffa said with a mischievous smirk.

[Cloak]

Uh, Cloak probably could have understood the Togetic . . . Realm Walkers tend to be omnilingual. None of us knows why exactly.

And I have to laugh at the Incineroar thing. Simply because, going off his Smash moveset alone, our fighting styles clash spectacularly. Cloak's not much a grappler. Not to mention, still a tad pyrophobic. Sorry, it just amuses me.

Then again, Knights of Humanity, at their core, aren't very smart. Perhaps its because it's subtle commentary on how bigotry lessens your intellect, or it's easier for them to be comedic adversaries akin to Team Rocket in the early Pokemon anime.