The Squad Attempts to Fight Ferals

The call of Feral Pokemon extended out even as far as the guild-lain continent’s own coasts, and as a result, most Rescue Teams considered the quest’s criteria closer to home. Nonetheless, few chose to travel outwards, and Team Hierophant was among that group, if only in the form of a scrawny little owl-lass.

Lohse, or Satella, La Pyre found herself in a wonderland of jungle plants and skin-tearing rock, both swathed in worlds of greens and whites and illuminated against a river that begged to be an ocean. Being the puffs of pinks and purples that she was, she stood horrifically out amidst such colors - and yet she remained hidden all the same, her guise some incomprehensible trick of light. Whoever looked her way saw little interest, and whatever wanted her for feasting found slippery guile - and though it certainly wasn’t that she was incorporeal, she did have that way about her.

For the moment, she kept her stave close to her form and kept an open gaze, looking for anyone to scrutinize. And who else would she find besides…

Of course it had to be none other than the dynamic duo of Nora and Kell of Team Tomfoolery. With Nora being the team leader, Morel had no power to tell her "no kids allowed," and she had invited herself along on this dangerous and potentially deadly mission. Of course the pair could handle it! They were like level two billion hundred or something. 

While Satella's walk and demeanor were secretive, Nora crashed through the undergrowth like a comet, wet dew from the luscious jungle plants coating her fur. She, annoyingly, paused to shake it off every five minutes or so, drenching her companion in the process. Kell had taken to flitting from tree branch to tree branch overhead to escape the downpour every time Nora tried to dry off.

"So ferals are, like, stupid, right?" said Nora. Above them from his perch just below the canopy, Kell squinted through the jewel-green, humid darkness of the jungle, nervously watching for the aforementioned ferals.

“They aren’t,” Satella replied smoothly, gliding down from a particularly engorged leaf. “As I understand it, at least. They’re taken from the wild and are left addled and angry. I suppose it’d be like losing everything to a soul and knowing that you could never defeat that soul, or know that soul’s story or who they are-” A step forward along the bank of the river she went, dodging around a fluttering Yanma. Noticeably, they lacked the ringed eyes, and as such, the fluffy owl batted them away.

“And then they’re dumped back into the wild they were taken from, changed in ways they can’t understand,” Satella finished, scouting from her tiny form for a clear way to go. It was hard to imagine the direction she was looking, what with the Reflects and Light Screens distorting the light. At almost every angle, her massive beak was present, as was her left foot or the tuft of the right of her side. And she was dry. The wets of the jungle slunk down against the air a foot or so away from her. “I suppose you could call a person full of fear and anger stupid. But I don’t think that’s right here.”

"Well, I think they're pretty stupid," said Nora, fluffing out her fur. "Stupid enough to get caught in the first place, anyway. Only dumb people get caught." Totally leaving out the fact that Nora herself had been apprehended in the midst of comitting a heist by a certain Aron mercenary not even a week ago.

The kaleidoscopic optical illusion fuckery made Satella hard to look at without getting a headache, so she didn't, instead pouncing at colorful leaves that caught her attention. Her paw pads were caked in mud, and her Silly Bandz (™) were splattered with it, but all of that was washable. Unlike most cats, Nora had no problem getting dirty, and even found it enjoyable - which made this muddy, mucky jungle all the more enticing.

"And anyway, being scared is stupid. There's nothing scary in the world," she stated with authority. "Even, like, serial killers and stuff. Dealing with them is easy. Just don't die."

As Nora spouted her philosophical nonsense, Kell suddenly tensed in the branches above them, feathers fluffed out goofily. "I think I see som-" he started, then stopped himself. "No, never mind. Just another Yanma."

Nora lowered her voice as an aside to Satella. "You see? Kell's scared of everything, and he's dumb as heck. It just goes together."

"I heard that!"

“Mm! Thankfully, the stupid can learn. Or we’d be truly doomed,” said Satella. Supposedly, she was specifically staring at Nora when she spoke - however, it was just as likely that she was looking at the Oddish down the way, or the Carnivine flopping across the bend. “You are fearless, though, then, Nora?”

As she spoke, she continued looking around, eventually coming upon a leading trail of hooves deeper in the forest of mud and pricks. She started walking with the utmost expectation of being followed. Or not.

Thankfully, the glamors surrounding Satella prevented Nora from taking that statement the wrong way, as direct eye contact would have most likely cued her in to the possibility that the owl was calling her stupid, or insinuating it.

"Nope. Not scared of anything," she stated brightly, kicking a twig forward.

"Don't you have claws - cluster - closto… uh… aren't you scared of tight spaces?" put in Kell from above.

"No!" she snapped back, with perhaps too much force. "I am not!"

“Wonderful,” Satella chirped, deep within the thicket once more. “Because ferals, the sort we hunt today, are the sort only the brave can quell. So, for your sake, I hope you’re the brave sort of fearless. There’s much to be said about the seconds between a lunge and the tear of sinew, the rip of flesh, of life and death. Of…”

A crescendo of striking steel and whatever the fuck an angsty teen bat did in the combat department drummed from ahead of them, from wherever those hooves led to.

“Oh! Conflict! Are you two ready?” Satella asked.

It was at that point that Kell, the talented lookout, yelled, "they're up ahead! There's, uh, there's guys!" Which was completely unnecessary, as everyone had already heard the "guys" going at it with ear-splitting shrieks and the crash of metal. The Starly was trying his best, though.

"I'm gonna smash some butts together into a BUTT PANCAKE!" whooped Nora, though she struggled to match the volume of the conflict up ahead. "JUSTICE AWAAAAAAAITS!"

"You're starting to sound like Ellis," noted Kell as he fluttered down from his perch to join Nora and Satella. Though he looked nervous (when didn't he?), he was ready to crash the party.

“Justice?” Satella snorted as she brandished her staff, shattering the glistening light surrounding her. When the enchantment ended, a new one took its place; only this time, it surrounded both Nora and Kell as well.

Satella used Reflect!

“I’ll be relying on you both, my dears. Do your best.” And then Satella hustled ahead, breaking through the brush and charging into a clearing of a yodeling spring.

A pink deer, decorated with two blades, one of which was in her maw, landed from a lunging pounce. A plethora of torn scars, healed and reopened and healed again, adorned her body and blended with her fur as she galloped into a twist, facing down her foe of a bat. The newcomers caught her attention easily enough - Satella’s shroud was lesser now, and there was no quieting Nora - so the Deerling adjusted her stance so that she was now facing down four enemies.

“Keh,” she huffed around the leather of her sword, the circumstances slowing her attack.

The Noibat committing targeted harassment against the Deerling did not notice or care that a whole trio of new Pokémon had approached. Her back was to them, after all, and one must never look behind them - only live in the now. Or something. It was doubtful the bat had the intellectual capacity to come up with a reasoning behind her actions at the moment.

Nora did not hesitate. Not a second was wasted to analyze the battlefield and come up with potential plans of action - waiting was for cowards and losers, and true heroes charged forth like reckless idiots.

With a shout into the wind, Nora sent an Energy Ball flying at the Deerling, who was holding a sword and therefore the more intimidating target. Part of Nora hoped the deer would play baseball and swat at the Energy Ball with the blade, just for shits n giggles.

Nora used Energy Ball!

Kell, on the other hand, approached with much more caution. Keeping behind his friend, he used Growl, which came in the form of a sweet, tinkling birdsong, just pretty enough to lower one's guard while simultaneously being just annoying enough to be distracting.

Kell used Growl!

The Noibat didn't turn, instead screeching and screaming incoherently at the Deerling. Was she even using moves? Arceus only knew.

Observing the throw of the Ball like a fluff of cotton in the wind, the Deerling galloped to the side, looking to dodge Nora's attack. Kell's growl confuddled her, however, and her pause was enough for the ball to smash into her side. It didn't look like it hurt her very much, though. 

Rather than retaliate, the fawn huffed liquid smoke, turned on her legs, and galloped further into the jungle, scampering away with incredible agility.

"Oh!" Waddling to the side, Satella brandished her stick. Perhaps in a bid to keep the Noibat from also leaving, or to have her ease off the throttle, she shook her torso and ejected a fine layer of fairy dust into the air.

Satella used Aromatherapy!

Rather than calm the Noibat down, the aromatic powder worked the feral into even more of a rage. With a shriek that sent literal shockwaves through those assembled, she blasted after the Deerling like a bat out of hell, making terrible noises as she pursued her target.

"After them!" commanded Nora eagerly, and bounded in pursuit without waiting for the advice of her teammates.

Though the jungle was thicker than a public school's cafeteria worker, the Deerling's tracks were easily to follow, over ferns and around a bend and through a particularly girthy mushroom to another clearing. This one was pushed up against a white cliff and had a plethora of Gravelerock ripe for the tossing, if the trio of Pokemon could reach it.

The Deerling herself was nowhere to be found, her hoof-prints lost in the shrubbery.

Nora crashed into the clearing, her fur splattered with mushroom bits from where she'd plunged headlong into one, and screeched to a halt below the cliff face. Ignoring the Gravelerock for now, she took a deep, loud sniff, then sniffed again, then started inhaling the ground to try to catch the Deerling's scent. The Noibat's squawks could be heard in a vague direction, but the echoes from the cliffs made it hard to pinpoint where it was coming from.

Kell flew to the top of the cliff to survey the jungle. Not that having a vantage point would help much, since the thick tree canopy obscured everything below them, including a Deerling running along the ground.

Satella was the last to waddle in, and when she did, she stuck to the side, rather out of harm's way.

Hot on the trail of stank deer perspiration, Nora neared a bush sporting a lemon-tinted flower. Once she was firmly amidst its britches and leaves, a full body helping of pure American venison slammed into her, full force!

The Deerling Used Trailblaze!

"Oh! Mind yourself!" Satella chirped, hustling towards the two battling Pokemon.

Nora went rolling like a ping pong ball from outer space, head over heels through piles of leaf litter and into a shrub. Dazed, she sat there groaning, stars bursting in front of her eyes.

"Nora!" shouted Kell, and he swooped down from above, wings tensed to perform a sweeping Aerial Ace of revenge - but before he could make contact with the Deerling, the Noibat, its eyes ringed with red and slobbering as though it were rabid, took his victory in one fell schmovement. Screeching as loudly and incoherently as a dumbass Christian protester at a Pride event holding a poster about sin or some such nonsense, it batted its wings into the Deerling's face.

Noibat used Wing Attack!

With nothing else to do but take the attack head on, the Deerling stumbled into spinning with the momentum of the Noibat's attack. In a flash, she stuck her ass up at the bat before kicking her legs up in a reckless bid for power-

The Deerling Used Double-Edge!

The Deerling's hooves punted the Noibat what looked like a mile into the air, wheezing like a deflating basketball, except the wheeze was ear-splittingly loud. Such was the life of a Noibat.

Immediately after the attack, the Deerling glanced at Kell, scowling.

"You aren't feral? Leave!" said the feral, who was obviously so, since she had kool-aid stains in her eyes.

"Hey, that's racist!" complained Kell, hanging back next to Nora, who was still taking her time to recover.

“Are you feral?” Satella asked, an eye both on the Noibat in the air and the deer before her. “You’ve the eyes, of course, but…” 

The Deerling’s hesitance to speak was palpable, solid and frothy and gross - enough that the Noibat likely had enough time to recover.

Finally, when the Deerling spoke, she backed a step into the jungle.

“I’m not right now. So I’m hunting her.”

Nora, shaking leaves and sticks off herself, had cleared her daze, more than a little annoyed about having been foiled by slamming into a damn bush. That was a novice level mistake, and one she was unwilling to repeat. On her feet again, she hissed and arched her back, eyes narrowed, as threatening as a small green cat could be. And she charged forth, vengeance on her mind and fury in her eyes-

Except she didn't charge at all, because she ran right into Kell's wing and tripped.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorry-" stammered Kell as Nora went sprawling, sheer guilt in his voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean - you were too fast, I had to - hhh… she's not feral!" He shuffled his wings. "She's talking to us!"

Nora turned her head to stare into his eyes as though she were staring straight into the camera on the Office. The obvious blazing rage in her expression startled the poor well-intentioned Starly, and he took back off into the air with a chorus of "I'M SORRY!"s.

Nora growled. She didn't care that the Deerling was talking to them. She didn't care if she had her wits about her. She'd kicked Nora's butt, and the Sprigatito wasn't going to take that. Nobody fucked with her and got away with it… nobody. She'd deal with that idiot Kell later, but for now, her sights locked onto the sword-wielding ninny of a pink deer, who thought she could do whatever she liked to whoever she wanted. Well, she couldn't, and she wouldn't - Nora would see to that.

And so the Deerling found herself oppressed on two fronts: one from the air, as the Noibat she'd punted into the stratosphere came screeing back down in a meteoric descent, incapable of considering anything other than beating the shit out of her opponent; and one from the ground, as Nora rampaged without a single thought in her head.

Despite the all encompassing danger, the Deerling didn't stumble when danger encroached. Instead, as hell rained from above and society pressed her front, she reached back and unsheathed one of her blades meant for serious harm. This one had a silly little flower welded into the blade and a strange language that definitely spelled out 'I eat ass'.

Nora never quite got the chance to meet the doe's blade.

Satella used Ally Switch!

It was likely strange, being pulled through time and space and the dead air of horrors unspoken between here and there and back again. A sort of zip of the pants in its instant influence, as subtle as the flushing of a toilet or the flick of a light switch. At the end of it, Nora was there, on a fluffy shroom, and Satella was here.

She met the deer's katana with her staff - and thanks to her Reflect, she blocked it perfectly.

"Hello!" Satella sung, before glancing back at the floral cat. "I think you need a tea break, hm?" Then she winked, and the deer grunted - confused but not stoppable for long.

Jumping back, the deer breathed, found Buddha, talked about pride, and then focused that zen-

The Deerling used Zen Headbutt! (On the bat!)

And then she swiped with her sword!

"Wait! Can't we just… talk about this, guys? Please?"

Kell's shaky suggestion fell upon deaf ears, Nora being far too lost in the sauce to listen to reason, or anything else other than what her dumb brain told her to do. She saw only a blur of rage and heard only her own frenetic heartbeat slamming in her ears and felt only the humiliation of continued defeat and Satella's ol' Switcheroo. Her eyes were for the Deerling only. She was not just some kid who could be tossed around and scolded to stay out of the fight like a good little girl while the adults did all the work. She was sick of being told what to do, when to do it, and how, and Satella was an idiot if she felt like she had any sort of power over Nora.

So Nora charged once again, taking advantage of the Deerling's beef with Satella to slip in under the sword swipe and somersault into her legs, clawing and biting with a feral intensity of her own.

Nora used Play Rough!

The Noibat had a little cartoony circle of scribbles and stars rotating around her head. Just like Nora, though, it was one-minded, and its goals were the same: beat the shit out of that Deerling. So, despite its disorientation, it beat its wings rapidly, whirling up a column of wind that whirled leaves and dirt about within itself. The miniature cyclone tore through the Deerling's personal space, catching Nora and Satella in the process, since the Noibat wasn't exactly aiming to be precise.

Noibat used Gust!

Despite the flurry of attacks sent her way, the Deerling was able to fly through the bombardment by means of a massive leap. She was quicker than a falling acorn, thanks to the boost from her Trailblaze, so much so that she was able to reposition herself by the end of it.

Lazy eyes stared at Nora. Oh, she was so not taking the cat seriously. She glared up at the Noibat, though, grunting something through the worn hilt of her sword.

"My!" Satella began, utterly tanking the wild winds of the flowing gust, the frilly balls of her hat flailing in the wind. Thanks to the howl, she had to shout some, which was all the better, as she had a bird to address. "Kell! Could you talk your friend down? This is downright silly!"

With not much else to do, Satella released another bout of sweet smelling air.

Satella used Aromatherapy!

Kell, caught in the terrible position of having to do something, faltered on his perch above the clusterfuck. He looked desperately at Satella for a moment, hoping she would say something else - "never mind, Kell, don't worry about a thing!" Or "leave it to me, I can talk to her!" But no such words came, and at last he was left with the momentous choice: fly back to base and hide under the covers, or dare to intervene?

When Nora got like this, talking to her was like trying to teach a cinderblock how to play sudoku. It scared Kell - she got mean, she got nasty, she said horrible things, she even threatened him sometimes. He knew she didn't mean it, she'd never really hurt him… or would she? From the look in her eyes, it seemed like he was the second name on her hit list right now, just below the as yet unnamed Deerling.

But he was just as strong as she was, wasn't he? He could hold his own, couldn't he? If he just kept letting her walk over him whenever she felt like it, he'd… well, he didn't know what would happen. Nothing good, most likely.

Nora was going toe to toe with the Deerling now, flirting with death in the form of that wicked sword. As much as the deer would rather set her sights on the Noibat, Nora was trying to make herself a bigger problem, and she was getting reckless, not looking where she was going. That sword could be the end of her if she wasn't careful, but she just… didn't care. It was like she'd forgotten mortality was a thing that existed. If death itself had a personification, she'd probably fight it, too.

Kell couldn't let that happen. He was scared of Nora, but he was far more scared of what would happen to her if he didn't do something.

So he dove into her, that savage little green ball of spitting hisses and clawing paws, all sharp points and untameable chaotic energy. Talking was off the table now. He spread his wings and engulfed her face with his feathers, knocking her off balance and obscuring her sight. She clawed and kicked and shrieked in the midst of a tantrum. Kell fought the instinct to fly away from that scratchy weapon his friend had become.

"LET ME GO OR I'M GONNA KILL YOU FOR REAL!" she screeched.

"I don't care!" gasped Kell. "You're gonna get hurt! You have to stop!"

"NO I'M NOT! LET GO OF ME!" She kicked him. "YOU ALWAYS RUIN EVERYTHING!"

Oh, it would be so easy to let go, to free himself from getting ripped to shreds by sharp cat claws, to run away and shut up and bend to her will like he always did. 

"Just… calm down, please, I-"

"RRRRRNGGGH I HATE YOU!" More kicks, more swipes. 

He would not bend this time. Not when he might lose the only person who'd ever really believed in him, who'd ever made him feel like he belonged… and yet, had that all been a lie? How could it be real when Nora always expected him to back off and behave himself when she wanted him to? Had she forgotten he was a team member too? Had she forgotten 

"Never," he said fiercely, and gripped her tighter, displaying a strength beyond what even he himself had thought possible.

In the meantime, the Noibat had no understanding of the childish drama going on, not when it had its own childish drama to attend to. Its red-rimmed eyes bore down on the Deerling, but it was clear the bat was reaching the end of its rope, having been knocked six ways from Sunday and battered with that sword. It was bleeding from cuts and nicks in its wings and fur, which it didn't seem to notice but slowed it down regardless.

Nonetheless, Noibat used Bite!

The show of desperate emotion tore the Deerling from her true foe, and it left her stuttering in front of the proverbial doorless Jeep that was the empathetic part of life. Like a stick of butter melting under the screech of the sun, she sort of… deflated. As though she hadn't felt pain until then, as though she were seconds away from bed and the strain of life promised to relent for the day.

Naturally, she wasn't quite so lucky. She was tired, but not out of it. A fighter at her core, full of scars and open wounds and a lack of sleep. She even looked regretful, staring at Nora and Kell.

It was more than enough for the Noibat to catch her off guard, and her face was chomped upon, as though she was the victim of a love song gone wrong.

"Keh!" Backing off, she batted the feral away with her sword, before sheathing it. Maintaining eye contact, she formed a bond of mutual hatred and turned, ready to bolt. "I'm leaving," she said to Satella. "Help them."

The Deerling Attempted to Flee!

"Hmph!" Satella huffed, though rather than dash to the childrens' side, she shuffled towards them defensively, and she tried to watch where the two ferals would run.

The Deerling's counterattack, such as it was, proved strong enough to knock the Noibat just a few feet closer to sleepy time. The feral blinked slowly, eyes watering, then shook its head. For a split second, a flash of something akin to comprehension crossed its face, and it paused, staring into space. 

Nora and Kell continued their dastardly tug of war, though, neither caring about the fact that the whole point of their fight had left already.

"Stop hitting me!" said Kell, as Nora ignored him and continued to do just that. "I'm trying to help you!"

"No you're not!" It sounded like the Sprigatito was close to tears. "You're always dragging me down like everyone else does. Just cause I'm a kid doesn't mean I can't do anything by myself!"

"I'm just - trying not to let you get killed," Kell choked through his own tears. It was a wonder it had taken him this long to start crying. "I don't want you to die, Nora! That Deerling had a sword! She's like if Ellis were actually trying to kill people!"

"I'd rather get killed than get pushed around all the time," Nora clapped back. "Nobody ever lets me decide anything for myself. I thought you were different, but you're not. You're just like my dad. I hate you."

The Noibat, having evidently already forgotten about the Deerling, hovered above the bickering duo, staring at them blankly. Perhaps it was trying to understand this strange interaction through the haze that had overtaken its brain, observing the way non-ferals behaved like a scientist, or perhaps it just a matter of the loud noises having piqued its interest.

It took the Deerling a moment to realize she wasn't actually being followed. The first thing to set in was panic, so she flew around and started to reach for her blade, stopping soon thereafter. Her eyes of crimson heavied, and she stumbled in place, choosing her words wisely.

Alas, she had no tact and the charisma of a gecko both.

"Are you back?" she asked the Noibat, as though she were a parent gone for milk. She tried to stabilize herself, to fight off her exhaustion - and like she had probably done a million times before, she found some second wind and used it to walk towards Nora and Kell.

What attention she could spare, she gave to the Noibat, trying to ensure her foe was actually coherent. 

The Noibat wasn't quite there, not yet at least. While it certainly heard the Deerling with those enormous ears, it didn't seem to understand her any more than it understood the two squabbling children it was watching. It nibbled on its claws as the drama played out below it, perhaps using that as a substitute for popcorn. It was hard to say how much it could comprehend, though the anger seemed to have dissipated, and the red spirals in its eyes had grown faint.

Grunting like the million does before her, she lowered her head and twitched her flower hat, having heard their tear-wrenching conversation.

"I’m sorry. We can fight now if you want, uh, green one," the incredibly poetic deer said.

"No, don't say that!" butted in Kell immediately as the Deerling invited Nora to a tussle. "She's being a butt right now, so she doesn't get to fight." There was anger in his voice, and there were tears, and there was a pre-adolescent voice crack, all mixed together into a fine cocktail of awkward but genuine emotion.

"YOU CAN'T TELL ME WHAT TO DO-"

Kell, still somehow restraining the cat with every ounce of strength he posessed, slapped a wing over her mouth. "You can't tell me what to do either," he said stoutly. "Especially since you hate me and whatever."

"NGGGGGGHNFFFFFF!"

"We're teammates. That means we're supposed to work together." The hurt in his voice made it tremble. "You can't just say you hate me and I suck and all that and expect me to let you do it."

She batted his wing away from her mouth. "Then fucking let me go, you stupid idiot!" she snarled. "Maybe if you actually helped me instead of being a pain in the butt all the time, I'd be nicer to you." She sniffed hard, inhaling her own angry tears. "I don't know why I ever bothered trying to make a team with you when all you can do is be useless."

Abruptly, Kell let go of her and hopped back, clearing the way between the Sprigatito and the Deerling. "Fine, then," he choked. "Go and get yourself killed for all I care."

Despite her way suddenly being free, Nora did not immediately throw herself at the Deerling. She hesitated, still sniffling, staring at the not-feral with red-rimmed eyes and a dribbling nose. She wiped it with the back of her paw.

The Noibat blinked at the cat. "Wow. You're a jerk," it said abruptly, then stared in shock as if its own voice had caught it off guard. 

The Deerling stared back at the cat, much more confused than she had been at the start of the conflict. With a breath, she let the broken light of the sun guide her to the jungle floor, where she sat, curled up. It took her an entire season’s change to figure out what to say, and it came out like a waterfall fresh out of winter - choppy and gross.

“I get angry, too,” she started, lowering her chin to the ground with the weight of shame. “I used to not feel it, or if I did, I understood it and could pull myself out of it before anyone got hurt. I had friends and family and a life, and I could write poetry, and…” She scowled amidst her prone, her red eyes somehow incapable of anything but anger.

“I lost that one day. For some reason. I lost a fight and was taken by a Bisharp. It’s hard to remember, but… I wasn’t ever talked to while they ran their experiments. I think I was there for a month. When they let me out, I found that I lost the ability to think rationally and wanted to hurt myself and anyone around me.”

She jostled in place, remembering old wounds.

“It was a few more months before I woke up. Before I regained myself. I think I… hurt my best friend? So I ran, and I took his sword with me, so I had two, but I didn’t need two because I didn’t even know how to use my own - but I learned! And eventually I lost again and got angry again. And hurt someone again. My anger kept coming back until I was here, convinced I could help others like me by stopping them before they could hurt again.

“I don’t think... Pokemon like me can have friends like yours,” she said, nodding towards Kell. “Who can help you stay you, even when you get angry. Who can tell you it’s not worth it. We can’t see reason - I can’t see reason until it’s too late. You were dragged into my crusade, but it was not my intention to inquire your wrath. It’s not worth it, getting angry at Pokemon like us.” She gestured to the Noibat now. “We will fight because that is all we can do, and we will not stop unless we are stopped, because we can’t. We just… can’t. You can be stronger by just not stooping to our level.”

Gradually, Nora's sniffling evolved into full-blown crying, hiccuping, and sputtering as she tried to choke down the tears. The part of her that longed to be one of the Big Kids knew she was embarrassing herself by throwing a fit in front of everyone, but the part of her that was still very much a child didn't give a shit, and so she was stuck in limbo, halfway between crying her heart out and sucking it up like an adult. A fleeting shred of self awareness told her she'd really fucked up now, she'd finally driven Kell away for good, but rather than making her want to apologize, she just cried harder.

It was hard to respond to the Deerling when she knew her enemy was right. Giving in and agreeing would incriminate her even further, and the one thing Nora could never do was admit she was in the wrong. She was not being reckless, she was not being unwise, she was not being a jerk to Kell, and most of all, she was not overreacting! This was just a… normal emotional response.

All she was able to bring herself to say was a mumbled "you hurt people?"

Kell, far above in the treetops, was crying too. He'd taken more emotional abuse than his fragile psyche could handle, and it hurt more than the one time a Nidoking had tried to use him as an impromptu basketball. He hid his head behind his wings to block the sound of his sobbing. As much as he wanted to be alone, he was not allowed such a luxury, for the Noibat has decided the best place to sit was a few feet down from him on the same branch. She nibbled on an Aspear berry she'd gotten from… somewhere... and watched the show avidly.

The Deerling stared at Nora while she had her moment. At the same time, she found it impossible to respond to the cat's desire for confirmation, and it wasn't until Satella wandered closer that the matter was pushed towards any particular direction.

"Everyone has or will hurt someone in their times," Satella chirped, digging at the dirt with her staff, watching as the doe slowly turned to look towards her. "That's the nature of emotion. And it's not the part that matters. What matters, Nora, is our ability to amend and make up for our transgressions afterwards. I believe that is the difference between us and ferals, non? We have our friends and bonds and our minds, and- You don't. You're outcasts."

Although initially flinching at the declaration and fully looking away to the oversized leaves dancing in the wind, the Deerling nodded.

"Well! I happen to be in a band full of outcasts, all of us, I believe, dedicated towards being just a little bit better in this world. You could join us, madam…?"

The deer squinted at nothing in particular, still refusing eye contact.

"Narset, once…" she said, eventually. "I have been branded Ares, now."

Nora watched miserably as Kell hid himself and cried. As the situation de-escalated, she found herself realizing just how inconsequential the whole matter had been. Such was the nature of the comedown, the encroaching mass of guilt and shame that followed every moment of lost control. Did ferals get that, too, after they woke up from their rampages, as she now knew they did? Did they also feel like the worst person in the whole world when they surveyed the damage? Nora couldn't bring herself to ask, but she hoped against hope she was not alone in this. If only Kell were here… oh wait, she told him she hated him.

Satella and Narset made their introductions. It gave Nora time to think, for once in her life. For one so spontaneous, this moment of introspection proved as bizarre as the taste of Church's Chicken's chocolate sauce. Plumbing the depths of her own mind, she found, revealed far too much of the piles of bullshit she'd been avoiding for a good reason, so she quickly gave up.

"How do you make up for things?" she asked, still teary eyed. All that crying had left her exhausted, and her tail drooped. 

"Ho hum~" sang Satella, with a melody so sickeningly sweet that if there had been snow, it would have bunched up into cotton candy. "For things like this? Kell was there to help you not go further than you have, yeah? I'd apologize, work on doing better, and then have his back the next time. You can trade that way, then."

"...How do you apologize?" Jesus fuck, Nora.

"You say 'sorry'," said Narset, picking up the slack.

"And it's okay to take back what you said and cry with him, yes?" Satella finished.

"Hnnnnnngh." Say sorry? Say SORRY? How could she say sorry? She'd never said sorry in her whole life, and she wasn't about to start now!

But…

She glanced back up at Kell. Somehow, some way, he and the Noibat seemed to be having a deep conversation, judging by the animated arm gestures and head nods, which struck Nora as odd considering how ferocious and stupid the feral bat had been acting not even thirty minutes ago. How had both it and the Deerling come to their senses like that, seemingly out of nowhere? She'd heard rumors of a cure for the rampaging zombie-like Pokémon that terrorized this world, but… eurgh, now was not the time to ponder such matters. The important thing was that her role, her job, her position as team leader and friend… she had failed it. And in that moment of her failure, someone else, a freaking feral no less, had stepped up to the challenge. And letting that happen hurt even more than apologizing.

"KELL!" She balanced on her hind legs against the tree her friend had taken refuge in. "I'M SORRY!"

Kell barely even glanced at her. His eyes caught hers for a half second, then he rapidly looked away again.

"KEEEELLLLLL!" she tried again, but this time he didn't look at her at all. She could hear the pair conversing, but couldn't tell what they were saying. 

"KELL, COME ON! I SAID I'M SORRY!" Once more, no response.

Tears sprung to her eyes again, and in her frustration, she kicked at the tree, which did just about absolutely nothing. It was a massive, ancient jungle tree, after all, and she was but a miniscule weed cat.

Sniffling, she made her way back to Narset and Satella. "It's not working! I said sorry, and he's not even answering me!" she said, butting into whatever conversation the others were having.

"I won't go with you yet, I have…" Narset's ear twitched as the weed cat returned from a job not yet done. Just as hopelessly lost in the ways of friendshipping, she offered a shrug. 

Satella was far more useful here. "Give him some space first. I should have mentioned that, yes, but you did say some really awful things, you know? Oh! And it always helps to apologize better. Tell him what you're sorry for and why it wasn't something you should have said."

Miserably, Nora stared at the ground. "But he knows I didn't mean it! Of course I didn't mean it, he was just pissing me off! Maybe he shouldn't have been so annoying if he didn't want me to-"

Okay, let's back it up a bit there, Nora.

She sighed. "...Okay. Yeah. I guess I'll give him some space, or whatever." She doubted it would work, though.

Clicking her tongue, Satella wandered a little ways towards the expansive cliffs that reached for the heavens. “I suppose we aren’t actually defeating any ferals tonight…”

“It doesn’t work out doing that anyways. Not for people in your work,” whispered Narset, a tad too tired to keep talking normally. “I’ve seen it. You can knock them out, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll leave their rage. And even if they do, they wake back up alone and confused. I wait with them sometimes.”

“Ah, I see. That makes sense. That’s rather… goofily like outbursts, no?” Satella turned back to Nora. “It’d take my parents hours to pull themselves together after a fight and apologize. Perhaps a walk around could help your nerves?”

Walking was about the last thing Nora wanted to do right now. She wanted to curl up in a hole and never leave again, and she was close to digging one right then and there and screaming into it, lacking a pillow to vent her frustration into.

She shook her head. "I just wanna go home," she mumbled. It was half true.

The Noibat chose that moment to leave her perch beside Kell and flap her way into the conversation, her small wings slapping the air way louder than they ought to have. Sidling in next to Nora, she gave Narset a long glance, then fluffed out her ruff and cleared her throat.

"Uh. How do I not go crazy again?" she asked, getting immediately to the point. "That sucked. A lot. You kicked me really hard." Her red-eyed gaze was reproachful. 

Nora, caught up by the mysteriosity of it all, put aside her emotional turmoil for the moment. "How did you stop going crazy in the first place?"

"You were literally being so annoying that it inspired me to do better." The Noibat flicked a speck of dirt off her shoulder.

"Oh."

“I don’t know,” Narset said back, just as simply. “I don’t think there’ll ever be a time where we stop going crazy. I recommend you find some friends who will watch your back.”

"Where am I supposed to find those?" The Noibat cocked her head. (Hehe, cock.) "Is that how you're doing it? I think I had friends before, but I don't… remember who they were. Or if it was a dream or not. Feels weird, being able to think and not have… icky stuff in my head everywhere."

“It probably wasn’t a dream. I’ve have similar things before, and I know them to be real because they were at the end of my rage, however many moons ago.” Narset squinted for a moment, probably wondering how to laugh at the fact that the Noibat’s neck just made a genital-related gesture. “You could go with her,” she suggested, nodding to Satella, who looked back with a quizzical stare.

"You didn't answer my question," pressed the Noibat. "What are you doing about it?"

“I’m hunting down whoever did this to me. Otherwise, nothing. I’m trying to help others get through it, too.” By beating them senseless. Epic stuff, Narset.

"By kicking the shit out of them?"

“I’m working on it,” hissed Narset. Which was entirely weird, as deer didn’t usually hiss, and being the hoofed menace that she was, she was just about as far from a cat as one could be. “You’re the first feral I’ve found, actually. In a long time.”

"Weird. I can't remember if I've run into any other than you." The Noibat shrugged expansively. "I can't remember much of anything, actually. But the Starly already offered me a place to sleep back at his base, which I think counts. He said I had to ask you first, though." With that, she trained her large eyes expectantly on Nora.

"Whuh? Oh. Whatever." She looked away. Did that mean Kell wasn't deserting forever? 

"Uh, cool. I'm Pyrite. If you care."

"I don't."

Pyrite twitched her nose. Nora's cattitude didn't phase her, and she turned back to the much more agreeable and reasonable Deerling. "Sorry for spitting on you, by the way. And trying to eat your eyeball."

“That’s okay. Sorry about stabbing you with my swords. And kicking you. I know hooves to the face hurt. Are you three going to be alright heading back? You… four?” Narset asked, shuffling in place before releasing the mother of all doe yawns.

“Oh, dear, I actually think I’m going to accompany you for a bit,” Satella said, tilting her head. “You told Pyrite - lovely name, by the way - that having friends is a great way to combat turning full feral - but that’s precisely what you’re lacking. You don’t have to join my group, but I still want to go with you until you finish up your business.”

“You don’t need to-”

“Want to, dear. My mind’s already set! You couldn’t stop me if you tried!” 

Well, that wasn’t true. Something about the way Satella spoke convinced the Deerling, though.

“Okay. But I’m taking a nap.”

Taking a nap sounded exactly like what Nora wanted to do, badly. All the pep in her step had evaporated, and if she had to listen to one more second of boring adult talk, she was going to lose it again. So, without speaking, she turned and began to make the long, lonely trek back home.

If she could even call it home. It wasn't like anywhere she'd ever lived had really been a home. She'd tried so hard to make it so this time, but in the end, the only thing she'd ever be good at was school. Taking tests, studying, being an obedient little girl, making her parents happy as they hung her awards up on the walls of their dull, beige suburban house and bragged about her achievements to their friends. But they never talked about her. And rightfully so. She wasn't meant to do anything else, wasn't meant to have friends, wasn't meant to belong anywhere, because she'd always fuck it up somehow or other.

She paused. "...Bye, Satella," she said. "Thanks for letting me come with you." Not that she'd ever let Nora join her again, obviously, but whatever.

The Noibat watched the dejected little cat blunder her way back to base for a moment, then returned to where she'd left Kell on the tree. She didn't like kids much, and she was terrible at talking to them; rather than getting the Starly to open up to her about his feelings, she'd been distracting him by infodumping about rocks. Which seemed to be working, sort of. So she may as well continue.

And part of her, newly awakening in the wake of her self-awareness, was terrified. Now that the mists of the past few months of mindless rampaging had fallen away, a new fear snaked to the front of her consciousness: she didn't want to go back. Whatever had been done to her, whatever had made her this way, she couldn't let it win, couldn't lose it all again to become a mindless animal. With every second she spent without some form of distraction, that fear got larger and larger, and man, if she had to beat it by talking about rocks to a child who could barely do addition, then that was what she was going to do, God damn it.

"Don't let her go crazy again," was all she had to say to Satella. "Or me either."

“Bye, Nora! I’d love to adventure sometime again soon!” Satella cheered, and even Narset offered a nod of her head, before plopping the long of her snout onto the ground like a discarded glizzy.

“Pyrite. I carry my swords with me, because when I lose myself, I can’t use them. They’re proof that my rage isn’t all that I am. They’re my grace, my skill, my calm - maybe acquiring an item like them for yourself can help. We may think about these things while we rage, too,” Narset said in her bloated goodbye. “But safe travels. I’m glad I didn’t end up hurting you too badly.

Pyrite didn't look convinced. She looked constipated, actually, constricted by resurfacing emotions that anger had kept suppressed for months upon agonizing months. She twisted her mouth, searching for a response, but found none. Though the words did sink in. An item, something special, something tangible… something that could bring her back to herself.

"Yeah, you too," she said, her voice low and contemplative. And then she flew off once more ro continue her in-depth geology lesson.