Chương 67: 67-Brave

Struggling to his feet Taillow feels his wings spasm with every cough, trying to force his lungs to clear while both his inner and outer eyelids blink rapidly to get rid of the smoke and clear his vision. He has no idea why he didn't agree to the swap. He did it, he beat one of the gym 'mon, but fighting one of them pushed him to the limits of what he can do. He's not Chansey, he can't fight the rest on his own.

He was terrified, when he was in that smoke, dodging fire while searching for a hidden enemy, the only reason he'd not cut away and run was because he didn't have time to think to do it before it was too late. But even as he thinks that, watching the white light fade into a slugma on the other side of the dirt, he knows why he didn't agree to swap.

Because he can feel his human friend's intensity like wind under his wings, pushing him forward and so powerful he used it to quite literally orient himself when he was almost blind in the smoke.

"Right! Taillow! Get height!" his trainer shouts, fiery intensity flaring with every word.

"Go easy!" His lungs and eyes burn, his flight feathers are damaged, everything hurts. But at the command the 'mon rips his wings from his side and forces himself into the air, not pushing himself too hard so he can recover at least a little. Topping out at what he'd been taught is the optimal safe height, the 'mon enters into some lazy circles above his opponent. Below, Slugma tracks him with white-hot eyes, dirt beginning to blacken and steam around the 'mon with the heat.

Just behind, he sees the Gym leader looking at him with a similar expression.

"... Rock throw!" She shouts eventually.

"And let out some heat!" Hearing the first order, Taillow immediately splits into two and banks cleanly past a half molten rock flies through the double, but as he levels off he can see Slugma's glow brighten to be almost stronger than sunlight. Taillow feels the air currents surrounding him shift, for an instant feeling almost like he's on the edge of a forming thermal before the heat and wind becomes something wholly unrecognizable, so powerful that even up here it's almost unbearable.

Splitting into another pair of doubles to dodge some red hot rock, Taillow gathers power into his wings and throws down two blades of air. But as they shoot down through the hot and turbulent air, the chaotic atmosphere causes them to collapse in on themselves before they can even get halfway. He cant hit Slugma at this distance, and he cant get any closer, not only because even up here the turbulent air disrupts precision flying. He needs to get closer, the idea which has the fear in his chest rumble in warning.

"Dive!" His trainer shouts all the same. This is a bad idea! But for some reason Taillow tucks his wing to dip below another thrown rock and enters a steep dive anyway, closing his inner eyelids against the searing wind that only gets stronger until it becomes up bearable before– Muscles strain as the 'mon throws his wings open and struggles to keep steady flight in the turbulent air, beating them down again to fire off two more blades of wind then enter a steep climb.

He doesn't see the attacks land, but he hears them, a hissing scream of pain that sounds like grinding stone and falling sand, accompanied by an even more intense blast of heat. Once he levels off, Taillow looks down just in time to see two long divots along the back of his opponent finish sealing up. It healed that fast!? How is he supposed to fight someone like that? He can't do thi–" Yes!" His partner shouts, sounding overjoyed for some reason.

"Keep it up! Slugma's cooling!" Cooling? Taillow blinks as he gets back up to his optimal height, and sure enough he notices that the heat isn't as bad, and the color of his opponent has shifted from white and yellow to orange and yellow. Suddenly, he remembers something from those long 'study sessions' he'd been forced to listen his friends do, and he remembers that Slugma can't make their own heat, that they store heat at their core. Which his attack had just exposed.

"Ugh!" The gym leader shouts.

"Slugma! Ignore Taillow! Block with rock throw!" Slugma begins gathering more of the surrounding sand and melting it into a projectile rock in its back, but the knowledge that his opponent isn't going to be aiming for him means he can focus less on being ready to evade and more on making sure his attacks land.

"Double team in!" Amelia calls, mirroring his thoughts, and before she could open her mouth the 'mon is already splitting into a small swarm of duplicates that tuck their wings and dive in sync. The chaotic wind disrupting his concentration has three of the seven disappear in the middle of the dive, trying to form the attack has him losing grip on one more, but as three identical Taillow send out an attack and enter a climb Slugma is forced to pick which one to intercept. They choose wrong.

Taillow flinches as the resulting blast of heat from the exposed core disrupts the last of his illusions, but the temperature afterward is lower again. He doesn't even bother getting back up to his original height before he splits into illusory copies and dives back in a third time. By now Slugma has black spots on its edges and looks almost as if it's drooping when it throws out another attack.

Either by luck or Taillow giving some kind of tell the 'mon chooses correctly and the rock flies through the attack and he's clipped as he tries to dodge. Taillow barely hisses at the pain from sheer focus and drops, trading height for speed, beating his wings so close to the ground he could scrape the sand with a talon as he comes into the final approach.

At the last possible moment when the heat is almost unbearable, he brings his wings together and– Twin blades of wind dig into Slugma's molten body, exploding into another flare of heat as Taillow falls to the ground, having thrown all his speed into the attack. But as the gash closes Tailow can see the spots of black across the 'mon's body spread further and further, until the dull orange color of its body is nowhere to be seen. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

For a moment Taillow doesn't believe it as he tries to catch his breath, but when Slugma disappears in a flash of red he's forced to realize that he did it. He can feel his excitement rise in time with his partner's and for a moment he can feel her fire again. He can almost feel something almost like it stirring within him as well–"Spook!" Then there's a flash of light on the other side of the field. And on the other side of the sand, Taillow sees a monster.

It has the body of a growlithe, but only a monster could look at someone with so much hatred. A snarling rage that defies reason or sense, a message of violence so clear it roars louder than the heartbeat in his ears. But even louder than that are the thunderclaps of fear ripping apart his thoughts as he stands there frozen, held by his own emotions as the monster breaks into a dead sprint toward him with horrifying speed.

There are noises all around him, voices, he can almost recognize one of them, but as the monster gets closer the need to get away overrides even his paralysis. His wings jitter into motion, sloppy and uncoordinated, he's barely able to lift off the ground. There's no training in the panicked movements, no sign of his skill in flying, terror overriding everything else as the monster is right on top of him.

Taillow makes it barely higher than the monster's shoulder before those snarling jaws open wide and shoot forward. It's only some faint reflex not suppressed by terror that has him split into two and dodge the attack. He needs to run! He can't fight this! The thundercloud inside of him roars in approval, ever louder as he's forced to abandon trying to get higher and dodge again. Why is he even here!? He can't do this! He'd ignored his fear and now he's going to die because of i –" Taillow!"

A voice cuts through the thunder. Her voice pushes back the fear for a single instant, and Taillow blinks. … Amelia? Then he senses a disturbance in the air from behind, and his world goes orange. Flames catch on a few of his feathers and the turbulent air robs him of his ability to fly. He hits the ground and tumbles, each impact draining him the slightest bit more before coming to a rest, smoldering and with a searing pain in his left leg.

He can fear the fear rising again, but then his partner's voice calls out once more.

"Taillow! It's not real!" She shouts from the other side of the arena, between them is the monster with its hate filled expression.

"It's a move! Scary face! It's supposed to make you afraid! It's not real!" … Not real? Before he can process the words the monster is on him again, jaws snapping down on nothing as Taillow flings himself into the air, trailing flickering copies as he struggles against exhaustion, pain, and terror to dodge the attacks. Then the monster leaps and those jaws lock around one of his legs and start to drag him back to the ground.

In a blind panic Taillow uses his other leg to scratch and claw at the monster's nose and manages to wrench himself loose with yet another injury. Breaking free finally gives him enough time to climb into the air, wings stumbling as he struggles to operate his own body through the fear. Because it doesn't matter if the expression isn't real, the fear is. The monster didn't make him afraid, he is afraid. His entire life he's been afraid, he'd thought that when he'd got caught a trainer could fix it.

But every time he thinks he's fixed, he's almost immediately reminded he isn't. The thundercloud hasn't gone anywhere, that's who he is. Growlithe opens his mouth and a stream of fire shoots upward and Taillow can't dodge it, his left wing caught in the flames as he tries to bank around, only going out after a few panicked flaps and yet more pain. He can't do this.

"Taillow! Dive in right after the next flamethrower!" Amelia shouts, but the 'mon ignores her, pumping his wings to fly even higher and circle above. He can't. Do this." Taillow!" He's not… whatever he was trying to be when he'd agreed to this, he's fooling himself. He can't–" Taillow!" He feels more than hears the voice, fire so bright and so certain that for a moment Taillow can almost sense reality itself twisting around them.

"Just like in training! Dive!" She shouts, pointing at their opponent as the monster opens his snarling mouth, tongues flame licking at the edges as the back of his throat starts to glow." You Can Do It!"

Looking down at the monster, Taillow feels like his mind is being ripped apart, thundering fear, his friend's fire, Chansey's voice whispering tactics, all the while he feels something white in his chest growing ever stronger beneath it all and– The world seems to slow, like the fear instead of slowing him down feels like it's speeding him up. In that moment of almost frozen time he looks at the monster, really looks at it.

And for a split second he stops seeing the monster, he sees a Growlithe looking at him with a mean expression. The fear doesn't go away. He tucks his wings anyway.

He's twice as high as he should be, so as he flares out his damaged tail feathers and struggles to keep control with increasing speed Taillow can feel the wind clawing at him as he slices through the air He's not even halfway down when fire erupts from below, shooting toward him with a roar he can barely hear over the thunderous fear already inside him, screaming that he needs to run.

Taillow just tightens his wings against his body and closes both sets of eyelids the instant before the fire hits and searing pain engulfs his body. He can almost feel it burning him from the inside out, white hot and growing stronger the faster he speeds toward the ground blind. A stern voice in his memories tells him how close he is to the ground and when he needs to adjust his descent vector, even with his eyes closed, and he flares his wings trusting her voice.

His partner's fire drags strength he didn't know he had from deep inside and he channels everything into his wings, just as they'd trained. But no matter how strong everything else is, the thundercloud is still there, barely diminished despite everything. It roars in protest, like lightning it tries to paralyze his muscles, make him duck away, run, anything other than continue what he's doing now.

To let that constant fear control him like it has his entire lif– Taillow's eyes snap open to see Growlithe's shocked expression just as he feels the searing flames abate and he opens his mouth in a shout.

"No!" He brings his wings together. And his vision goes white.