Legend High Chapter 21
Story by Account Discontinued on SoFurry
Your eyes do not deceive you.
You've waited. You've grieved. You've pined. You've pained. You've wondered. You've doubted. And soon you gave up, for the world of which I gave you while I was young was left to wallow in a closet for who knew how long….
Then I return and slowly-ever so-I give you what people used to talk about plenty in the height of my development.
Consider this the first of few to come, as I know drawing this story out with too much “slice of life in high school" scenes will suck the life and originality of this fic as I tried to present to you all. I will be spending most of my time with this fixing the catastrophe that is my early days of writing.
Fixing every mistake, every smart remark given through narration and eliminating too much 'Focus on me, the writer' hidden in the walls of what I call story. You all deserve better. A better series of conflict between Tanner and those who dislike/hate him, a better series of comical events within the school and outside, and better means to instill a sense of drama over small, menial things that get blown out of proportion for the sake of a story chapter-which is commonly seen in TV today.
And three years of growing farther than what I dreamed of will give you that.
Yes, this means no more of my narrative quips. You can rest easy.
Characters-
Tanner Volsorate-Human [Blue shirt, green pants, white shoes]
Peter(/Py-Shan)-(Shadow)Lugia[Blue Jeans]
Vanessa Condria-Ho-Oh[Red tube top, scant shorts
Aurora|AKA Ro|-MewKoraru Kinomoto's OC)[Pink tube top, daisy dukes]
Kevin Enderson-Dialga[Blue classics]
Jackson Hellinger-Palkia[Pink classics]
Gaius-Groudon(ChronosSplicer's OC)
Mia Anderson-Kyogre[Primal Kyogre-themed tomboy classics]
Jake Excher-Virizion[Blue shirt, red pants]
Kyle Excher-Cobalion[Royal Blue Compression Shorts]
Natalie-Shaymin[Park ranger uniform; hot pink shirt + floral pattern, green jeans torn into shorts]
Andy Bellington-Latios
Morgan Banks-Raikou
Alegaesia Bellington-Latias
Sol Verecunde-ReshiramSolopuppy's OC)[White shirt and jeans, red shoes]
Athena-Human
Yvonne Jills-Yveltal
Jethro Jills-Yveltal
Donny Anderson-Kyogre[Barista uniform]
Previously on “Legend High"
“Down with gays! Down with gays!"
“Let them be to-gether! Let them be to-gether!"
~~~~
“Okay...Is...Jake and Sol here!?"
“Gaius and Don?"
“GAIUS AND DON, THAT'S RIGHT! Can they come up here?"
~~~~
“....fine. Let's go forgive them."
“Don't go up there yet! You might regret it!"
~~~~
“That...wasn't….part...of….the plan…"
“Work dammit!" Vanessa nearly stomped out the ignition to her wheels as nothing happened for the umpteenth time, feeling like panic was gonna settle in anytime soon as Ro waited for things to kick off so she'd put Tanner down and let him rest while he remained floating in suspended air. All around them, people and Pokemorphs were making a break for safety, for one body became two as another dropped down from who knows where and showed the grisly sight of someone covered in lacerations with freshly spilled blood pooling beneath them. Their murderer didn't leave a bit of them visible for identification, but since it was not a Pokemorph it wasn't any powerful concern.
“Maybe th-the killer cut the line while we were on stage….! What if we're next!?" Ro's panic was unsettling to listen to, for it hastened doubt between the Ho-Oh, the human and the others as they ran up to keep an eye out.
“That's crazy, Ro!" Mia was doing her best to pull a brave face, but it failed tremendously with her visible lip trembling. “The killer would never think of attacking us!"
“If they're leaving h-humans...looking like…-" Sol couldn't get a word out without preparing to vomit, Jake trying to soothe him with back rubs until Tanner finally wormed himself into a position that wasn't completely out of his control.
“L-look!" They all stared at him, making him shirk away momentarily before he started back up again, “let's stay calm and think of a better way out of this! We're all together, so let's keep it that way. Nobody running off anyw-"
“Bye!" Jackson was already making his way through a portal riddled with enough energy to make it obvious that it was his doing, Kevin not wanting to be removed from the scene when their friends were in danger yet being dragged in with the space warden teen before they were both out of the scene with a *crack*.
Just in time for another headless human body to fall where they had been.
Ro, Jake, Peter and even Mia screamed, the symphony of key and off-key voices shrill to anyone's ears before the sudden upset to the attempting calm had them scatter for the hills. Tanner felt himself being yanked out of Ro's hold only to get dragged into Peter's as the Lugia ran off with him. Good, no more slowly moving around like he was an idle icon for a PC but bad since he couldn't move for himself anymore.
“C'mon, let me go! I've had enough of being dragged around today as is!" The human's pleas were left on deaf ears, and soon the pair found themselves around the corner away from the protest where only the fleeing others of civilians were visible. Cars had cleared out but the killer must have been planning to do more than just leave one body on the ground for there were some abandoned by their drivers. What would have looked like a robber's gold mine-or a black market supply intake-back in the day was left to bask in the waning sunlight as everyone ran home or somewhere they could hide. Peter took to panicking his way into a nearby antique shop and that would be where Tanner was released and free to move on his own.
Though being rocked hard from being hauled under someone's arm had his head throbbing.
“Wh-what's going on…? Why are we being attacked?" Despite seeing that only his species were being killed, Tanner was still confused.
Peter barely mustered up an answer he could make out from the avian's quivering though, “...meone...h-hates….us…"
“Oh...g-great…." So he was a target, unless that shriek of terror he and Peter both heard outside and looked up at like startled cats meant there was a new victim that wasn't human. “So until...we get out of the city...we're likely...to lose our heads…."
“Maybe." The duo jumped again, only for Tanner to immediately recognize th-
“Aren't you that old man wh-"
“-who tried to tell you not to go up there and make that scene worse? Yeah, I am." The withered human slowly meandered to the door, locking it up tight so that no one else came in and no one unsavory tried to waltz in like they owned the place and planned to kill whoever tried to contest them.
“How'd you know ...that the killer was coming…?" Peter was slowly coming to a false sense of calm but his fear was still evident in his barely visible pupils.
“Wasn't it obvious?" The old man went, “The people, the problem and the conflict. They always come when it's about the gay folks…"
“But that's not fair...Just because we do a lot of crazy things when we're riled up...doesn't mean someone should go around killing people…"
“Yeah", Tanner cut in, “it's not moral in the slightest."
“Bullshit!" The old human's hands met the countertop of his register, getting both boys to jump. “If that maniac cared about morals, then they'd be in prison, not free to kill whenever they feel like."
“I don't think anyone who's seen this guy or girl lived to tell the tale…"
“That shouldn't stop you from seeing that there is an end put to this! You do more good stopping it from happening again than hiding and hoping it stops on its own."
“What am I supposed to do!? It's a killer! I'm just a dude!"
“You have them", the old man pointed out Peter, who swiftly tried to shake his head in the negative, “and they aren't exactly a weak breed or a Mistake."
“What exactly makes him anywhere close to being a Mistake, sir?" Tanner was not pleased with the jargon this stranger was spitting. Forget the fact that he was offering a safe haven for him and Peter, he just called his boyfriend feeble and defective.
“I didn't say he was one."
“Then what were you getting at then?"
“Let me finish, boy!" The two humans panted, steam rising from both the situation and their growing conflict, before the older between them rubbed his face down. And his face was pulled back to reveal…
A Sableye 'morph.
“Holy fu-fuck! You're…" Peter's outburst trailed off into the wind, for the old-man-now-exposed-Pokemorph nodded.
“Yeah...I'm Blane...The first victim to this bastard's attacks…"
Mercy Hospital…
Mary whimpered as the overhead lights keeping her room brighter than the sun made her head feel as if someone was drumming it hard for a heavy metal band that her son listened to without earbuds in, rousing Nelson from his seemingly permanent place at her side and getting him to stroke her head.
“You're not ready. Please, rest." Shows what he knew, since he looked like he just got off from working overtime for the past month and today was his only day off before he was back at it for another month and then one more Abroad.
“N-no...Something's wrong ...I can feel it…" Mary tried to get up, but the Nidoking was still stronger than her despite them both being practically lethargic in energy.
“Nonsense. If there was something wrong at all, we would both know."
“My….son…."
“Is fine. Trust me, we'd know if there was something amiss." And right on cue, the small TV in the upper left hand corner of the room droned a noise to gather both of their attention as a “BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN" appeared on the screen.
“We interrupt your special weather report with breaking news!" An Exploud was on the screen, looking almost as disturbed as Nelson did when he feared that Mary wouldn't recover since she'd been sleeping for the past few days fighting off the remnants of the toxins in her bloodstream. “Downtown Neo NYC in shambles! Citizens suddenly taking to a trot for the hills as they scream in terror from a 'killer' on the loose! Witnesses say it's the Protestor Executioner, and after seeing the handiwork of what they've done in the past brought back to now it's clear that they're back on the scene!"
Nelson eyed the TV closely, for the cameraman looked as if they were just about as shaken as the reporter in view, and what he saw made him glare.
“Now what on earth is that…?"
“So you came back to life...as a Pokemorph?"
“I'm standing here in front of you, aren't I?"
The boys were still in the shop, panic still going on strong outside but now they had more pressing matters to tend to now that their savior turned out to be someone who was killed in the name of gay marriage rights.
“I just...I'm wonderin if that'll happen to me if I...you know…"
“I hope not!" Tanner's moping was cut off by Peter's objection, being pulled into the Lugia's arms in a near bone-crunching embrace. “I'd rather you die of old age then come back a simple Darkrai or something! Not murdered and turned into a Spiritomb!"
“Sheesh, glad I made the right choice on telling you the truth." Blane crossed his arms, having shed the rest of his human disguise like a scuba diver coming in for a rest after being out in the water for a while but coming up short. “Making it seem like I wanted to be a Mistake."
“S-sorry…" Tanner gave him a pat on the head, making him smile for a split second before the frown was back.
“Listen", the human was back on detective mode, “I'm still not getting why you're showing us who you really are. You told us you were killed by the killer and you woke up as...this."
“A Sableye, thank you very much." The gem-loving imp grumbled something about uneducated humans but Tanner pressed on.
“But you haven't told us what a Mistake is."
They sighed, hauling themselves onto their counter as if it were a throne with no backrest and crossed their legs together. “You really wanna know what Mistakes are, kid?"
Tanner looked around as if he had just asked the guy if they were able to make smoothies with their eyes but went ignored before looking back."Uh yeah, I would love to know. Got all day."
“Well buckle up with your uh...boyfriend...and make sure you left your tissues nearby. This is gonna get sad."
“I just watched three dead bodies fall near me, I think we're well past any trauma at this point."
“Hmph. Fair enough." Blane clicked his tongue before blowing air out of his mouth. “Now, as you know, humans and Pokemorphs have been living in peace for a good few years now. You got loads of folks that you knew to be pixels on a video game's screen walking around like your next door neighbor and whatnot, and everyone looks like they have it made."
“Uh-huh…."
“But...Just as there are nice 'morphs that have their life set, there's 'morphs that don't. That's where people like me end up. You commit a crime as a human and die for it, you get brought back as a Mistake; you get killed by someone who committed a crime, you come back as a Mistake; and if you were killed by a Mistake, you become a Mistake based on your life choices. For me, I fall somewhere between the first two. I've stolen cash in my life to pay off my student debts and get my life together as a pickpocketer, but I always put others before me in the end. And even though I didn't want to be brought back into this...gremlin...I have to live with it."
“So you're a criminal…"
“Easy with the labels...I turned over a new leaf, thanks. No point in stealing if I have rules laid out to stay alive."
“Doesn't change the fact that you did it."
“Whatever."
Peter's silence was almost as daunting as the people no doubt still trying to find a means to keep out of sight, but Tanner shook him from looking out the glass door and got his attention. “Wh-what?"
“Anyone we know yet?"
“No…"
“Good…" Tanner's gaze returned to Blane, who took to picking their teeth with a toothpick they got from seemingly nowhere. “Now, could you tell me why you being a Mistake matters?"
The Sableye groaned, as if he were already planning on doing so much more than tell sob stories but being forced to do so anyway. “I was killed by a Mistake. That means it's not a human doing the killing."
At this Peter's eyes found themselves as big as saucers, pupils almost completely out of sight as this point. “So you mean…"
Blane nodded, a grim foreboding message being given right after, “Yeah. They can kill Pokemorphs too."
~ ~ ~
Vanessa and Co…
This was crazy. This was stupid. This was insanity. This was so many other things that the avian couldn't think of as she tried her best to wriggle down alleyways that her frame proved too built for the job. Curse her need to exercise with her dad so that she didn't look like a twig as most folks assume out of a bird.
“'Nessa...I can't…" Ro's announcement stabbed into the Ho-Oh like stones, the phoenix coming to find her pink-furred best friend trying to fall down to catch her breath. But in reality, she was too fear-stricken. And Vanessa couldn't blame her. Neither of them were gay-or showed it well enough to make one presume from first impression alone-but since they didn't back down from lending a very public hand in supporting the cause for homosexual couples they knew they were liable targets for this killer. It made Vanessa want to vomit, but most importantly she really wanted to find a way out of her without being met with false hope after hope.
“It's okay...It's getting quiet anyhow…" There weren't any pedestrians in their way and there was barely anyone running around in the street they just cleared after yet another failure of a car escape from this madness. It was as if everyone had suddenly...vanished.
Though the idea that they could make a clean getaway was cut short when a body dropped down behind them and was soon followed by who dropped it.
The poor victim had been left in chunks that split away from the body after landing, but neither Vanessa nor Ro were gawking at the gruesome display of murder. No, their eyes were on the cause, bloody arms being crossed in an “X" that slowly began to glow a sickening dark purple.
“AHHHH!!!!" Ro had enough in her system to make another run for it, leaving Vanessa to slowly gather her bearing to follow after her friend. But instead of making another dash for it like she were practicing the ability to channel energy for moves, the Ho-Oh was cut from escape by a slash that nearly cleaved her leg off if not for her stumbling in the middle of it. Even before she hit the ground, she knew there was no chance of standing on that limb ever again. And that's if she was gonna be alive for it.
Vanessa shakily turned onto her side, eyeing her dangling limb clinging to the rest of her like a hangnail before eyeing her attacker with a glare. Their arms were still crossed in that same X that incapacitated the avian, but there was no sinister glow accompanying it anymore.
And those arm blades were no mistake for identification.
“A fu-fucking Bisharp...just great….wh-why can't god make Mistakes less edgy…?" Vanessa dared to crawl out of the alleyway where Ro had left, keeping her eyes on the assailant despite the glaring pain down below making her vision blur. Never mind the blood.
Though it seemed her comment was amusing to her attacker, for they discarded the hood over their head to show two things in the middle of chuckling; corroded scars over their left eye and a rusty head blade. “God...didn't mold me. I chose this life weeding the weak…"
“Oh great, a killer with a p-p ...passion for being philosophical. Save your br-breath...don't wanna hear anything about some...f-fabricated sob story…" Vanessa's stride was lethargic at best, and her leg's uselessness was making it extremely difficult not to just lay herself out on a platter to be diced like a couple of carrots. While Roost should have made sense here, the phoenix always flunked her Move Usage teachings even before she got moved to this realm, and it wouldn't work on a severed leg.
“It is not much of a sob story as it will be the last thing you hear besides your own screams…." The Bisharp flashed one of their bloodied arms at the downed bird, only to have it cast a white glow and extent like a Gallade. The second it was aimed at Vanessa, she saw her life flash before her eyes.
Meeting Peter; meeting Aurora; discovering rock music and the passion behind talented voices; learning how to ride a motorcycle for the first time; coming to terms with her developing femininity; the last thing she told her uncle Harry Ho-Oh before he was admitted to an ICU ward for dementia….she really...should decide on better things to with her life.
Just as she was to close her eyes to accept the oncoming slash from her would-be murderer, she saw the arm that was surely about to cleave her head in two like someone splitting a watermelon open down the middle from its widest point get shoved off-course, and nearly slice her other leg off if not for the Bisharp before flung back into the alley like he had been hit with a point-blank Hurricane. Vanessa sat dumbfounded at the propelled blade killer getting up shakily from the impact with the brick wall that collapsed a little from the crash they caused, only to gasp as two figures materialized before her.
She didn't recognize either of them, but they both seemed to have a “scarf thing" with their aesthetic as the one on the left had one as gray as their attire and the other on the right was yellow but streaked with black. They also, as Vanessa felt her adrenaline finally drop and allow her to emote with more than just her eyes, pose for a long time, and the phoenix just came to glare at the two idiots just heroically standing still while her assailant got back on their feet. Only when they mindlessly charged the two newcomers did the dark one disappear again.
And the Bisharp getting pummeled by a force Vanessa couldn't see.
“And just when you think it was a challenge…" A voice-for the yellow guy wasn't talking-spoke through the air until the Bisharp got launched in the air by a gray fist that melded into sights with the gray stranger that flicked out of view moments earlier.
“....they have a big weakness." It seemed they thought themselves heroes in heart if the yellow guy was gonna finish the ...Vanessa wasn't sure what to call the shorter one. They looked like the shadow of a feral Ditto if they were trying to stand like a human but unsure of how anatomy worked for someone so small, but she looked away before she got caught staring to see the yellow-feline now that she saw their face-stranger punch the Bisharp like a volleyball back into the wall they hit earlier. They went through it, and after a moment of silence and the cat's landing with no sign of them getting back up, the duo looked to Vanessa, flashed a thumbs-up at her, and left in a blurry flash.
“..." She stared at where they had been standing, feeling the pain of her leg course into something cataclysmic until she just straight ignored it to crawl up a pole to use her other foot. “You save me...from getting killed….but the least….those idiots could do...was give me a fucking CRUTCH!"
Luckily for Vanessa-and unluckily for whoever left it behind-she found a discarded cane left on the sidewalk by an abandoned car. She snatched it up before she ended up falling back to the ground, and began to meander the streets. Maybe if she were lucky, she could find an abandoned ambulance, or a traveling one.
Or 'Ro to kick their ass for leaving her to die.
~ ~ ~
Kevin and Jackson
“We shouldn't have left ...We shouldn't have left, we shouldn't...we-we shouldn't have...no no, we shouldn't have left…" Kevin has been panicking in the mystic pocket dimension exclusive to Dialga and Palkia everywhere in the world, to which they had extra privacy thanks to Jackson being involved with the casting to be here. However, the premise of their arrival left the Dialga marred with the idea that the two of them left their friends to die to save their own skin.
“Kevin, c'mon. This is Tanner we're talking about here. He survived being bullied by the gym teacher, and being bossed around by Andy. Leave the guy some credit." Among other things, but Jackson didn't quite know the guy to really list off their accomplishments.
“N-no, no...we...no...we shouldn't have...we shouldn't….oh god….we shouldn't have left….we shouldn't have left…" And from there on, the blaring possibility of their companions in a heap of body parts, entrails and an amassment of blood that not even god would fix left Kevin whimpering into his knees as he dropped down to weep. He didn't want to, but he was a being that dealt with time. And all he saw was a very disturbing future. Jackson knelt down before they got too deep in the tears, but by the time the Palkia forced that head up, Kevin's eyes were baggier.
“They're fine. I'm sure of it. Vanessa is a tough cookie, Ro can run at the speed of light, Peter would literally fight until he wouldn't have limbs left, and the others definitely wouldn't sit idle to being killed. You have to understand, this attack...it wouldn't just kill them. They're the most important people in our lives-it wouldn't be fair." Yeah, all of that is what we would call plot armor, but Jackson isn't the one breaking the fourth wall here, now is he?
“Ho-how...can you be sure….YOU'RE THE ONE THAT DRAGGED ME HERE!!!" Kevin's meager voice seemed like quite the low on the spectrum, but when he snapped, he looked something straight out of a suspense movie building up to the big reveal of the actual antagonist. Jackson was thrown back by the force of their octave, and was left there to recoil as they went on. “YOU KNEW I WANTED TO HELP, YET YOU STUCK ME IN HERE LIKE WE'RE HIDING FROM NUKES! YOU KNEW WE COULD STOP THIS IF WE JUST TRIED YET WE'RE IN HERE HIDING LIKE BITCHES! YOU KNEW THE KILLER WOULD ONLY HAVE ONE ON THEIR BODY COUNT AND ONLY ONE IF WE STAYED AND HELPED!!!! WHY ARE WE HERE IF WE'RE JUST GONNA DO NOTHING!??!"
Kevin was right; the might of a Dialga and Palkia was something to behold, and it was always the reason why the two species were never allowed to do anymore mingling beyond friendship lest they start disturbing space and time itself, but the use of it in the middle of a murderous attack on innocent people was justified. When Jackson was sure he wasn't deaf, he slowly got on his feet.
“....I don't know." Was the Palkia's words, and that got him to pray his eardrums weren't shot.
“ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!? YOU DON'T KNOW WHY YOU CHOSE FLIGHT OVER FIGHT!? YOU DON'T KNOW WHY WE'RE NOT HELPING OUR FRIENDS OUT THERE, WHO'RE PROBABLY GETTING KILLED AS WE SPEAK!??! YOU DON'T KNOW WHY WE-"
It would seem that Kevin was running low on ammo to scold Jackson with yet he went on to keep rehashing things to assert the point that their doing nothing wasn't going to prevent anymore casualties when they're the most effective reinforcement the city has to offer, but Jackson wouldn't let him finish as they came down to kiss him. The anger that had boiled up from the thought of being made useless by the spatial pokemon's fleeing; the pessimistic presumption that their departure sealed the demises of their classmates and closest friends; and the grief of having seen them dying or dead in his head so many times over faded as the two counterparts locked lips. His eyes burned, but the kiss made it seem more like a flickering ember than the blazing fire Kevin's tears was moments ago. He was almost a little too obviously reluctant to separate when Jackson eventually pulled away.
Not for air, mind you.
“Do you want to go save our friends? In style?" The Palkia sounded a hell of a lot more determined than he previously did, but Kevin didn't care. Hearing that they were finally gonna do something rather than twiddle their thumbs was better than anything pertaining to being bystanders in another realm of existence.
“Yes….Fuck yeah, let's do it." The Dialga was obviously not used to cursing, as he covered his mouth right after and blushed, though Jackson was there to slyly cover up caressing his cheek in the middle of them wiping the remaining tears. The Palkia's arm began to glow, the signature pearl attached to it pumping power through the limb before Jackson slashed the space in front of them. A rift appeared, showing off the ruins of the city as everyone had fled the scene where they had left, and Jackson used the chance of looking at what could possibly be the most gruesome thing they've witnessed to quickly kiss Kevin again before running back in. The Dialga sputtered from responding, but they were quick to gather themselves.
Maybe the two of them...could be a thing after all.