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roxannarambles · 8 months ago

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Title: Wings of a Butterfly, Eye of the Tiger (Part 5)

Ship: Nemona x Juliana (Julinemo/Terajules)

Summary: Nemona and Juliana just can’t resist returning to Area Zero once more. They find new places to explore, new pokemon to discover, and a new things to learn … about pokemon battling, but also about each other. (Sequel to Picnic in Paradise)

Chapters: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

Tags: Slowburn, Romance, Friendship, Crushes, Action/Adventure, Pokemon Battles, Fakemon

You fell backwards into the chilling lake, disoriented and floundering. When you managed to kick back to the surface of the water, gasping for breath, you could noticed frantic splashing, Scarlet caught in a fierce struggle with some kind of water pokemon– from the looks of it, a massive shark, Terastallized in a rainbow of colors. The beast had chomped down on one of Koraidon’s legs and Koraidon was desperately scratching at the shark’s face with his claws, trying to escape so he could use a proper battle move. A bit further away, Nemona was treading water, mercifully in one piece.

“Juliana, are you okay?!”

“Ye-” Your head dipped below water and you popped back up, coughing and sputtering– “Y-yeah!” You weren’t as good at treading water as Nemona was.

“Can you swim? We need to head to that island!”

“I-I think so! I’m not really–”

You stopped and turned when Scarlet cried out, and you saw he had managed to get the shark to release his foot and was now swimming away at full speed. This made sense: while Koraidon was a good swimmer, he just didn’t work well in the water for combat. He couldn’t even get into battle form while he was swimming. He’d need to reach the same island as you did.

Thinking he could pick you up along the way, you called,

“Scarlet, this way!”

Scarlet cried out again and adjusted his course, starting to swim in your direction. Her voice laden with fear, Nemona shouted,

“Juliana, careful, he could lead that thing right to you!”

You thought it would be fine, Scarlet seemed to have a head-start, he could just pick you up and whisk you away, but then you realized the problem.

While Koraidon was a good swimmer, the shark was a better one.

You watched as the glittering dorsal fin closed the distance far too quickly. And as the shark approached Koraidon, its head lifted out of the water. The broad, flattened shape of the head that included a pair of torpedo-like horns reminded you of Garchomp right away, but the massive pair of scythe-like blades on the side of its face– which rested horizontally like a pair of insect mandibles– were certainly a terrifying addition. When the shark had drawn close enough, it swung that mighty pair of blades closed, latching onto Koraidon’s tough dragon hide. Scarlet gave a startled cry.

“Scarlet!”

The shark’s eyes began to glow blood-red, the glow rapidly reaching the rest of its body, and it went into a death roll, spinning in the water and dragging Scarlet along with it. It roared and thrashed, its savage fury whipping up waves in the lake. You coughed and choked on water, struggling to keep your head afloat.

“Oh my god, Juliana– hang in there, I’m coming!”

The truth was, you had swimming lessons when you were younger, but it had been a long time since you’d really needed to put them to the test– Koraidon had always been there for your water excursions in Paldea. This also wasn’t the ideal set of circumstances to try and remember how it went, but you gave it a shot anyway, kicking your legs and swinging your arms in a very poor backstroke. The trouble was you couldn’t remember how to get a proper breath while moving, and you kept choking and knew you weren’t getting very far. The sounds of Scarlet and the shark thrashing about violently nearby wasn’t helping matters, and you were starting to panic.

Luckily, it seemed Nemona was a very strong swimmer. She reached you shockingly fast, coming up from behind you and wrapping her arms under yours.

“Easy, I’m here, I’ll help you out, okay?”

You stopped struggling, letting your body go into a neutral position in the water and trusting Nemona’s hold.

“Great job, just keep calm, I’ll do the work. I’m gonna–”

You saw a little flash of blue light, the telltale pulse of energy that indicated a pokemon returning to its pokeball, which skittered through the water and returned to the ball in your pocket. You both looked to see a dorsal fin rising up from the water.

It was far too close.

“Shit, okay, uh, one sec,” Nemona said, fumbling around her pokeball belt. You reached for your pokeballs too, but you knew the only ones in your pockets were Paradox Pokemon that were either exhausted or would be virtually useless in the water– nothing seemed a good pick. What’s worse, you knew Nemona’s belt only had her Paradox team at the moment, too.

Nemona flung a pokeball, and a bright-green tiger went tumbling into the water with a shocked scream.

“I’m so sorry to do this Hellcat but we need you and we need you now. Play Rough, right there, now!”

Nemona started to swim backwards towards shore, pulling you along with her, so you happened to have a perfect view of the unfolding drama. Hellcat didn’t instantly sink like a stone, to your relief– in fact, it immediately started swimming, moving very gracefully and effectively in the water, honing in on the giant fish without a single hint of fear. The shark breached from the water again, lifting its head into the air, its huge scythes glowing an intense bright blue. When it reached Hellcat, the blades swung together with an incredible clashing sound that echoed enormously in the cavern and rang painfully in your ears.

You could hear Nemona gasp from behind you, but it wasn’t from exhaustion from swimming. She whispered,

“That was Guillotine.”

Oh. You’d never seen the move used before, but you sure as heck remembered talking about it in class. There were many, many pokemon you did not want to be in the same water with, but something carrying Guillotine was at the top of the list.

The blades had missed Hellcat, thankfully– the tiger had barely even flinched in the face of it. It dove into the water and launched itself at the shark. You couldn’t see the battle for a while, since it was under water, but when the two re-surfaced, the shark had its teeth sunk into Hellcat’s haunches.

“Hellcat, keep using Play Rough!” Nemona yelled. You turned your head to look and see how close you were to the little island– not far now. It had taken a while since Nemona had to help you, but at least you were almost out of danger.

Hellcat did its best to twist around and attack the shark again, slashing at its eyes, forcing it to release its crushing bite. The pair of blades came crashing together again and missed again as Hellcat dove under. Whatever went on under water must have been good, because you could see a spray of rainbow fragments, indicating Hellcat must have broken the shark’s Terastallization.

“Yesss! Great job, Hellcat!” Nemona called, even though the pokemon were still under water.

However, it seemed it was premature to celebrate. A few seconds later, a blue flash returned to Nemona’s pokeball.

Then a ragged dorsal fin surfaced on the water once more.

“U-uh, Nemona–”

The fin went careening through the water, heading straight towards the both of you, and you started to flail, trying to see how close you were to shore.

“We’re almost there, don’t panic, Jules–”

It was true, you were almost there, hardly more than a few yards, but it wasn’t fast enough; you felt Nemona yanking you as fast as she could, gasping for breath, but it just wasn’t enough. The shark’s head surfaced from the water, jaws and blades opened wide, and you pulled a ball from your pocket and chucked it, screaming.

The poor Brute Bonnet you sent out floated and bobbed in the water, wriggling its stubby legs and crying, looking very confused. The shark took the bait, its curved, red blades slamming together into the spongy body of the Bonnet.

The pokemon fainted instantly, at the same time that you and Nemona reached the island. You both scrambled ashore, out of reach of the beast’s behemoth blades.

“That thing sure has a lot of fight left in it!” Nemona yelled, sounding equal parts exasperated and impressed.

“Y-yeah, might need to weaken it a bit more for catching. At least we’re safe here?”

The shark stopped at the water’s edge, snapping its jaws and snarling, frustrated. Now that its tera was broken, you could see its coloration better and realized it really did resemble Garchomp in a lot of ways, the same slate-blue color with a red underbelly, and the same yellow star-shape on its snout. Nemona dropped to the ground and panted out,

“Right, maybe you can send something out, Jules, I think I need a minute.”

You obligingly pulled your soggy backpack off and zipped it open, accessing the pokeballs for your regular team.

“Let’s see, not sure which one I should use . . .”

You glanced up when the shark turned tail and swam off a ways. At first you thought it was retreating, but you could see it was swimming in a large circle, gradually picking up speed. The water around it began to glow a bright blue.

“What’s it doing?”

Nemona stared, her confused expression soon shifting to one of alarm.

“Weeee might not be safe here after all, Juliana . . .”

The swirling water was soon seething with power, and the shark turned. It began to charge directly towards the island you were sitting on. It finally occurred to you what the move looked like.

“That– that’s Wave Crash, isn’t it? Um, um, hold on!”

You tossed a pokeball, releasing your Aqua Breed Tauros. You pointed and quickly ordered,

“Tauros, I want you to use Wave Crash, okay?!”

Tauros looked around in confusion and then spotted the rapidly approaching shark. It lowered its head and water began to gather around its body like a glowing cloak.

Nemona stood and grabbed your hand, backing you both away several paces and asking nervously,

“Are you sure that’s going to work?”

“Nope!”

There wasn’t really time to consider an alternative; the shark was barreling down on the island with all the rage of an out-of-control freight train, a towering wave of water at its back. Tauros had just enough time to fully power his move and back up as far as he could on the island before the shark was virtually upon you, and then the bull charged forward and leapt into the air, at the same moment the shark launched itself from the water.

The two pokemon collided mid-air, their bodies slamming together hard. In their wake, the two opposing waves of water crashed together as well, a terrific roar that shook the entire cavern, white foam spraying absolutely everywhere. You had hoped that the two waves would completely cancel each other out, but it seemed they had only softened the blow– the opposing waves continued to pass through one another, and a few seconds later, the shark’s wave came crashing down on the island, sweeping you and Nemona off your feet and sending you right back out into the water. Fortunately, it didn’t carry you too far out, and once you’d popped back up on the surface, you battled your way back to shore, sputtering and heart pounding. You found the shark still out for blood, although it was clearly growing exhausted, its scythes crashing together again and again as it pursued Tauros, missing each time.

“Tauros! Retreat!” you shouted, although he already seemed to be doing exactly that. A few moments later, the bull made it to shore, stamping onto the soggy ground and snorting, turning about to shield you protectively. The shark breached from the water, its toothy maw wide, letting out a draconic roar.

“Take that!” Nemona yelled, flinging one of your Dusk Balls. The shark caught the ball in its mouth, teeth chomping down on it, then dissolved into light as the ball sucked it inside. The pokeball bobbed in the water briefly before clicking. The remaining waves in the water carried it to shore, where it gently came to rest.

The two of you stared for a few moments, as if needing confirmation that the thing was finally safely contained. Then you reached out your ball and mumbled,

“Good work, Tauros. Return.”

Nemona dropped to her knees, panting. You proceeded to have a minor coughing fit, trying to expel the water that’d gotten into your lungs, then dropped to the ground too. Nemona crawled her way over to sit under the crystal tree, so you followed her, splaying out on the ground beside her, still shaking with the occasional cough and feeling completely exhausted. For a long time, the pair of you just laid there, and the only sounds were your gasps for breath and the drips of water that fell from the glistening branches of the tree.

Eventually, Nemona started laughing, a breathless, wobbly laugh, her voice cutting in and out. You turned your head to see the mirth sparkling in her amber eyes. She said,

“Man . . . that was pretty nuts. What a rush, huh?”

You gazed at her for a few beats, then answered,

“Of course you loved that. You know, you’re a little crazy, Nemona.”

She turned her head to the side to look at you too.

“And you’re smiling.”

You turned away, trying to smother your smile, saying,

“No I’m not . . .”

She giggled, nudging her head closer to yours, her voice full of glee.

“Yeah you are, you goober, you can’t fool me. You loved it just as much as I did.”

Losing your battle with keeping the smile off your face, you turned your head to look at her again.

“I–”

Your foreheads were practically touching now. You felt your heart climb to your throat, choking out whatever words you’d planned to say. You were helplessly lost in her eyes, as vibrant and fiery as the sunrise.

You knew that you were staring, that you were blushing. That your face was an open book. It had to be. She had to see it, didn’t she?

Nemona gazed back at you, silent at first. Her tongue briefly wetted her top lip and she asked quietly,

“You what?”

Her voice was soft but carried some sort of undertone you weren’t confident in identifying. You swallowed, desperately trying to remember your previous train of thought.

“Uhh, I . . . I . . . forget.”

You were pretty sure you didn’t even remember your own name in the moment. Nemona’s chest bubbled with a short, silent giggle.

“You forget?”

“Mmm,” you mumbled. You would have felt embarrassed, but Nemona was looking at you with such overpowering affection that there was literally no space in your head for anything more.

Nemona’s gaze shifted, dropping just a little below your eyes, before quickly shifting back up again. There was something suddenly very nervous in her energy. Her voice soft and vulnerable, she began,

“Jules, could I . . .”

You waited, but she trailed off and seemed to freeze.

You asked,

“What?”

She suddenly pushed herself up to a sitting position, letting out a nervous giggle.

“U-uh, I-I– forget. Hey, um, we’re both pretty wet, huh?”

You sat up as well.

“Soaked. But really, what did you wanna ask me?”

“Nothing, it was nothing! W-we should probably figure out how to dry off though, any ideas? I was thinking maybe some kind of Flying pokemon move to give us a quick blow-dry, but I don’t think any of my pokemon have moves that would work.”

You looked at her for a few moments, processing the fact she wasn’t going to fess up to you.

Sighing, you answered quietly,

“I dunno, lemme think a minute.”

You went to your backpack and considered your monster collection. Your main team was stacked with high-power moves that wouldn’t work as a gentle blow-dry; Corviknight’s Brave Bird certainly wouldn’t fit the bill. None of the Paradox Pokemon you captured would probably work, either, since they also seemed stacked with powerful moves. While you mulled it over, Nemona busied herself with letting out Hellcat and Scarlet to revive and treat with potions and pets. Eventually, you had an ‘a-ha’ moment, pulling a ball from an inner pocket in your bag. The pokeball belonged to the very first pokemon you had caught back in Cabo Poco, all those months back. While you hadn’t kept him on your main team for very long, you still loved him dearly and were sentimental enough to always keep him with you.

You returned to where Nemona sat under the crystal tree, two pokeballs in your hand.

“Okay, I think I have a solution.”

“Oh, great!”

You tossed the first ball, releasing your Volcarona. Nemona looked a little wary.

“Um . . . Flamethrower might be a bit much . . .”

“Not Flamethrower. Volcarona isn’t going to use any moves. But she has Flame Body, remember?”

Your friend brightened.

“Of course! That’s so smart, Jules. It might be a little slow, but we should dry out way faster than if we just sat here.”

You smiled and said,

“Well, we can do even better.”

You released your second pokemon, a Vivillon. Then you sat down beside Nemona.

“Volcarona, head over there. Yeah, that’s good. Florian, I want you to go behind her, facing us. Okay, great. Now just keep using Gust. Nice and gentle, all right? Slow and steady.”

Your Vivillon flapped his wings, the air moving across Volcarona’s body, sending a warm breeze rolling over you and Nemona. It felt really good, your skin rippling in goosebumps at the warmth, making you realize just how chilly you’d become in your soggy clothes.

“Okay, you really are a genius, Julinana,” Nemona said, sounding thoroughly impressed. You glanced away shyly, chuckling,

“I dunno about that, but thanks.”

Nemona gave a luxurious stretch and leaned against the trunk of the crystal tree, crossing her legs and reveling in the warm breeze.

“Mmm, not gonna lie, I’m glad we get to rest a bit, I’m beat. Promise to wake me up if I nod off, okay?”

Nemona’s eyes fluttered closed, her head nodding forward slightly. At some point she had pulled her hairtie out and let her hair down so it could dry off better, the long, dark strands gathered in damp bunches at her shoulders. Her wet clothes were all rumpled and wrinkled and her red tie was loosened to the point of nearly falling off. Your fingers itched to reach out and remove it for her.

“Jules?”

You jolted a little when she said your name, but she hadn’t even opened her eyes again.

“Y-yeah?”

Sleepily, she repeated,

“Promise, okay?”

You smiled faintly. God she was cute.

“Mmmm,” you answered. You didn’t actually want to promise, you wanted to let her sleep. Fortunately, Nemona didn’t seem to notice your lack of promise, or she was already too far gone. You resumed shamelessly admiring her as you were warmed by the beating of a butterfly’s wings. Water droplets in the branches of the crystal tree above caught the light and reflected a soft rainbow across your friend’s face. The vision was positively arresting. You couldn’t look away.

However, the exhaustion from your recent terrifying encounter started to catch up to you, and coupled with the growing warmth, you felt your body grow heavier and heavier. And before you even realized it, you’d also drifted off asleep.

Your head slumped onto Nemona’s shoulder, the soft rainbows cast across both of your faces.

You dreamed of Nemona kissing you under the crystal tree. It felt so vivid, so real, and as you gradually woke, you could swear that you could still feel her lips on yours. They were hot and wet and a little bit rough, and . . .

“Pffft! Ptyyuck! Gackkk!”

You realized there was something big lapping at your face that was decidedly not Nemona, and you squirmed and sputtered, trying to get it off you. You pushed a giant lizard’s muzzle out of your face.

“Sc-scarlet, geez, get off!”

Scarlet trilled happily, wagging his tail. You wiped lizard spit from your face and grumbled. From beside you, Nemona stirred awake. She sleepily mumbled,

“Jules?”

You looked to her, unable to help savoring the way her long lashes slowly blinked awake, the adorable, brief moment of confusion in her eyes. She stared at you for a few beats as her senses returned.

“Nnngh, Jules, you said you’d wake me if I fell asleep!” she complained, looking slightly embarrassed over having fallen asleep.

“I didn’t actually say that! Also, um, I couldn’t really do that anyway, since I fell asleep too.”

“Hmmph. Well, okay, I guess I can’t fault you for that . . .”

She yawned, then climbed to her feet, stretching wide.

“Ow, ow, ow.” She rubbed her neck, wincing.

“I gotta stop falling asleep under trees, that is not good neck support.”

You stood as well, feeling a wave of empathy for her. Your neck didn’t hurt, but you were pretty sure you’d been using Nemona as a pillow.

“At least we’re all dried out now,” you said, running a hand through your messy, tangled curls. Your Vivillon and Volcarona had landed in the branches of the crystal tree, apparently resting up there. They looked very picturesque. Hellcat was curled in a ball, sleeping soundly.

“Yeah, that blow dry really did the trick.We’ll have to keep it in mind for future adventures,” Nemona said. She pulled her hairband from her pocket and worked on gathering her hair up and putting her ponytail back into place. Her tie had come entirely loose by now, and it slipped off from her neck while she was busy. You picked it up off the ground.

“Whoops. Thanks, Jules.”

Her hands were still busy with fixing her hair, so your brain had the genius idea to just reach out and loop the tie back around Nemona’s neck for her, which you started to do before you had the chance to question whether that would be a good idea. Nemona’s eyes widened just a little and she let out a giggle.

“Oh, thanks! You wanna help tie it for me? I was never any good at that part, honestly.”

She was looking at you intently and there was a playful little quirk to her smile that was doing dangerous things to your heart, but you couldn’t very well stop now. You leaned in closer to her, gently running your fingers along her collar so you could turn it up– accidentally brushing against her neck for a few seconds, which you thought you might die from– before carefully adjusting the length of the tie around her neck. It somehow felt terribly, terribly intimate and you could feel her eyes on you as if they were boring holes, but you tried very hard to focus on tying the knot without turning into a blushing mess. It took you longer than it should have, but you were proud you’d managed to produce something halfway decent.

“How’s that?” you asked, your eyes finally flicking back up to hers. Her easygoing smile was strangely absent, her jaw hanging slightly slack. Her mouth swung shut again and she seemed to force a smile back in place, answering quickly in a thin voice,

“G-great, that’s– that’s great! Thanks!”

You let go of the tie and backed off a pace, and Nemona added on awkwardly,

“Although, uhm, it’s not like I can really see it, so, uh . . .”

You laughed nervously, feeling very silly.

“Yeah, that’s true . . . well um, it, it looks good.”

“Great!” Nemona repeated, a little louder than was strictly necessary. She cleared her throat, glancing around. Sounding a bit antsy, she said,

“Anyway, um, guess we should get going, huh? We can’t spend the rest of our time here napping, not when there’s so much to do!”

You nodded, looking out across the still waters of the underground lake. You felt slightly nervous about going back out there, despite how peaceful it looked. It had looked just as peaceful last time, after all.

“Okay. Maybe keep your eyes peeled, though. I don’t really feel like dealing with another ambush.”

You both got your bags and prepared for the ride. You didn’t like how vulnerable you’d been last time, without any strong pokemon choices in your pockets during the heat of the moment. You made sure to take a few pokeballs from your main team to keep in your pockets, just in case of any more nasty surprises. Nemona returned Hellcat to its ball, and you returned your Volcarona. You decided to keep Florian out of his ball, though, so he could fly along above you and keep an eye on the waters around you. You felt a lot safer with those safety measures in place. You and Nemona hopped aboard Scarlet once more and paddled your way out of the lake. As you drifted back through the tunnel-of-love, Nemona said that you both should definitely return again sometime soon and have a picnic under the crystal tree. You agreed that it sounded like a lovely idea.

Once you were back safely on land, Nemona was very eager to return to the chamber that was full of overgrown crystals.

“That shark was Terastallized, so maybe it was the right one we needed to clear the road block!”

You and Scarlet followed after her down the passageway. You answered reluctantly,

“Yeah, but . . . I dunno, Nemona . . .”

She turned to you.

“What’s wrong?”

You hesitated.

“Well it’s just . . . these encounters we’ve been having have only been getting more and more dangerous. And it’s starting to get pretty late in the day, and um, you still wanna have at least one pokemon battle with our Paradox pokemon, right?”

“Oh, yeah, definitely!” she answered immediately, then seemed to think about what you said.

“Hm . . . I guess I see your point. We want enough time to battle . . .”

Your steps sloshed through the shallow water as she thought about it. She soon suggested,

“Okay, how about this– if the roadblock is gone, we just take a quick peek at what’s past it. Just real quick. Then we’ll get ready to battle. How’s that sound?”

You nodded. You had to admit, you were just as curious what lay beyond the roadblock.

“Deal. Only a few minutes, though–”

“Yeah, yeah, of course! We’ll just take a peek.”

Once you’d reached the portion of cave where the walls were thick with layers of crystal like piled snow, Nemona let out an excited squeal, the roadblock now mysteriously gone just as you’d hoped.

“I knew it!!”

She rushed up to the unblocked tunnel entrance and gazed into it. You joined her and looked in as well, your eyes going wide at the sight. The cave tunnel was completely coated in dense layers of glittering tera crystal on every conceivable surface– to such an extreme that the passageway itself was restricted down to a relatively narrow hole. Looking into it felt like gazing into a dizzying spiral. You breathed,

“Geez, I’ve never seen so much tera crystal in my life.”

Nemona turned to you and said,

“It feels important, doesn’t it? Like there’s something important in there.”

You nodded. It really did. You didn’t have any rational reason to assume it, since it could just be a portion of cave where the tera crystals had run amok, but somehow looking into the tunnel really did make you feel like you were standing on the threshold of something magical and significant.

You smiled at her and asked softly,

“Shall we see what’s inside?”

She grinned and nodded, then took your hand. You stepped together through the opening, Scarlet following behind.

The crystal-coated floor was slippery, so you had to move slowly and carefully. There was also a slight swirling optical illusion as you moved, due to the twisting way the crystals had grown, combined with the fact that so much light was shining and re-reflecting in the confined chamber. It made you feel dizzy, which was another good reason to move slowly and keep hold of Nemona’s hand. The tunnel narrowed the more you progressed, until it was so narrow that even Scarlet couldn’t fit through the gap. You returned him to his ball and walked the remainder of the passageway with Nemona. When you exited the tunnel into the darkened chamber beyond, you both stood still, gazing about in awe.

This place was strange. So many of the Area Zero caves were well-lit, because the tera crystals glowed brightly and there were plenty of them around. The chamber you stood in now should have been the same, and yet, it was much, much darker. The problem wasn’t the number of crystals, because there were plenty of crystals growing here along the walls and ceiling– in fact, they grew in towering, thick pillars, larger than you’d seen anywhere else. But the majority of them simply did not glow with the same intensity, for whatever reason, and only threw out an incredibly dim light. You could tell the chamber you were in was large, but it was hard to say how large; you couldn’t even see all the way to the ceiling, only spotting fleeting glimpses of the reflections of crystals.

However, not all of the crystals were dim. In the center of the chamber stood a collection of crystals that glowed with an intense rainbow aura. They were enormous. A central one grew like the trunk of a massive, elderly tree, with several other thick pillars that had grown around it in a circle, only for them to topple over in their weight and come to rest against each other, like the poles of a teepee. Your eyes were naturally drawn to the sight, which seemed especially dazzling to look at in the relative darkness of the cave.

“Whoa. Talk about the mother of all tera crystals,” Nemona whispered. You murmured,

“Yeah . . . I wonder why they’re so big down here? And why it’s so dark here?”

You both began to slowly approach the collection of massive crystals, which seemed almost overwhelming in their splendor. As you got closer you saw there was a flat platform at the base of the collection of pillars, low off the ground, around the height of a stage. It gave the impression of a royal throne, the pillars behind acting as its grand ornamentation. Sitting upon the platform was a small hexagonal gem. It actually looked rather plain when compared to the other huge tera crystals in the room, but was noteworthy in how uniformly it was shaped and how neatly it sat there, almost as if intentionally placed.

The gem had caught Nemona’s eye as well. She reached out curiously and touched it, saying,

“This one’s kinda cute.”

As her hand made contact with the gem, a silvery little swirl of sparkles flowed down her arm and into her body, and she gasped. You grabbed her, alarmed.

“Are you okay??”

She let go of the gem, staring at her hand, looking more confused than concerned.

“Yeah, it didn’t hurt, just felt a little tingly. Kinda like static electricity? Honestly, my hair’s felt like it’s been standing on end since we came into this room. . .”

You noticed the silvery sparkles were still swirling around her a bit, but they were concentrated especially around her backpack.

“Hold on, Nemo, hold still for a sec.”

You zipped open her bag, reaching in. You located the source of the energy and pulled out her Tera Orb. Normally the orbs glimmered very softly with power, but hers now was shining as bright as a star, almost painful to look at.

“What the heck? My Tera Orb’s going nuts!” Nemona said, taking it from you.

“Yeah . . . I think what you felt was tera energy running through you.”

She gave the orb a gentle shake and laughed,

“That makes sense! I mean, look at this place, the amount of energy here must be off the scales! You should see if yours is like this too.”

You took the Tera Orb from your own backpack, but it wasn’t shining as brightly as hers was. Nemona said eagerly,

“Touch the gem here, that did the trick for me!”

You weren’t exactly sure if it was a good idea to overclock your Tera Orb in the first place, but the temptation was too great. You reached out and touched the gem, feeling the power flowing through your body and into your Tera Orb. The hairs on your arms prickled and your skin tingled.

“Heehee, it kinda tickles,” you said, admiring how brightly your Tera Orb shone. Nemona looked pumped.

“I wonder if our pokemon’s Terastallization will be stronger now with these?? Ooh, I can’t wait to test it out! Maybe we should take this gem back with us?”

She pocketed her orb and reached for the gem again, trying to pick it up. However, it seemed to be stuck to the crystal platform it was sitting on.

“Hmm, maybe we could break it off?” she mused, tugging a little harder on the gem.

You suddenly felt uneasy, as if somebody was watching you. You glanced around, saying,

“Maybe we shouldn’t mess with it, Nemona. We don’t even know how tera energy works, not like Sada did . . .”

Nemona grunted,

“Yeah, but we could give it to a researcher to figure it out, right?”

She had a point, but you couldn’t shake your feeling of anxiety as you watched her.

“I think I almost got it . . .”

You thought you saw something in the corner of your eye, and you jerked, glancing to the side. There wasn’t anything there, though, other than the gigantic tera crystals towering all around you. You peered into the darkness.

“Nemona, stop.”

“Hm? Why?”

“Just stop.”

Your friend let go of the gem and backed away a step, looking at you. You were staring intensely at the crystals around you, and she followed your gaze. After a tense silence, she whispered,

“What is it?”

You shook your head and whispered back,

“I don’t . . . know, something isn’t right.”

You pulled your phone from your pocket and switched its little flashlight on. You aimed the beam around you, scanning the area very carefully, slowly lifting the light higher and higher in your search, eyeing all the towering crystals. Nothing looked out of place so far, but you continued to scan, the sense of unease still sitting heavy on your chest. You cast the flashlight on the ceiling, all the gems glinting and gleaming in the light. You kept going until your head was tilted all the way back, gazing directly overhead. The pattern of crystals growing up there looked kind of strange to you, a number of them jutting outwards to the sides before growing in a new direction and curving around, as if the tera crystal columns were jointed in several places; it almost gave the impression of gangly legs, a strange tangle of columns that all reached for the same point, crowned in a white, fluffy mass of material you didn’t immediately recognize. You squinted at the ceiling, trying to identify it. You were so distracted trying to figure out what the white stuff was that it took you a while to bother following the crystal columns with your eye the other direction, away from the white material, to see if you could locate where exactly in the ceiling they sprung from.

The columns did not lead back to the ceiling. They led to a center crystal mass that contained the largest pair of eyes you’d seen in your life.

You gasped.

They were perfectly round dark voids, as black as the pitchest of black, and would have been imperceptible in the darkness if not for the way the flashlight glinted off them. The shape of the thing suddenly came together in your head: the crystal columns didn’t simply look like a tangle of gangly legs, they were legs, holding a taut stretch of spiderweb between them like a fishing-net. The colossal spider hovered on the ceiling directly overhead in perfect silence, as still as stone, its eyes as empty as a pair of black holes.

You froze to the spot as the full picture dawned on you, an icy chill sweeping down your back and through your limbs. The spider’s fangs were about the length of your forearms. Its eyes were almost comically oversized in comparison to the rest of its body, each one large enough to swallow you whole and then some, if they were indeed the black holes they seemed to be. You were not particularly squeamish about Bug types– in fact, you normally loved them– but this sight was enough to strike terror in the hearts of even the most hardcore Bug maniacs.

You let out a tiny squeak.

Nearby, Nemona breathed in a small voice,

“J-jules?”

It sounded as though she’d definitely seen it, then. You were too afraid to actually turn your head and check.

“Don’t. Move,” you whispered.

“Then what do we do,” she whispered back. You tried to think. The silent monster stared back blankly as you struggled to formulate a plan. You ran what you knew about Bug types through your mind, about Spidops in particular, since this seemed to be a horrifying version of one. Spidops hung from a web in silence while holding its net, using its massive, hypersensitive eyes to spot prey on the ground below, even in the darkest of places . . .

You had a sudden flash of inspiration.

“I’m gonna throw my Tera Orb directly at it,” you whispered carefully.

“. . . how is that going to help?”

“They’re supercharged now, I think the light might blind it for a bit. The moment I throw it, we gotta both run for our lives, though. Okay?”

After a beat, Nemona answered quietly,

“Okay.”

You set your Rotom phone to auto-flashlight so it would hover above your head and remain pointed automatically. Then you started to reach your hand towards your pocket, moving your arm slowly, just a few inches at a time. Once you’d gotten into your pocket, you carefully grasped the orb, pulling it out just as slowly and holding it low– your eyes never straying from the menacing sight overhead the entire time.

You swallowed, pulling your arm back and doing your best to aim.

Then you flung the Tera Orb with an underhand throw directly upwards, as hard as you could.

You opened your mouth to shout “Run,” but the spider reacted way faster than you expected, the enormous creature dropping down so rapidly that it was all you could do to gasp. You heard Nemona cry out,

“Jules!”

You tried to run, desperate to dodge out of the way of the net. By some miracle, it seemed you were able to evade it, your shoes slapping noisily against stone ground as you ran, carrying you away from that nightmare.

But Nemona wasn’t so lucky.

You screeched to a halt when you heard Nemona’s scream pierce the darkness and echo in the cavern.

Turning, you were met with a sight that made your stomach drop to your feet: Nemona caught in the spider’s snare, the spider rapidly climbing its line like a cable back to the ceiling. It was using its legs to wrap Nemona over and over in its net, producing a tightly-wrapped package, Nemona’s screams quickly muffled into silence.

“NEMONA!”

You ran back, but the spider had withdrawn back to the ceiling far too quickly, out of range of most pokemon attacks. You ran your hands over the pokeballs in your pockets, heart pounding, trying to choose something that would work, but it was a little hard to concentrate when it felt like an icy hand was squeezing all the air from your lungs.

“F-fly, we need to fly,” you muttered, your panicked thoughts finally producing something useful. You yanked a specific ball from your pockets, throwing it with a shaky hand. Your Corviknight appeared and you climbed aboard, yelling,

“Up there! Quick!”

Corviknight took off immediately, carrying you up towards the vicious creature that held Nemona captive. It was still winding silk around her immobile body, but you knew once it was satisfied with the job, the next step for a spider was always the bite– to inject venom to paralyze and, eventually, digest its prey from the inside.

You weren’t going to let it get that far.

“Corviknight, I need you to aim right there, okay? I need you to– ugh, this is too complicated to just explain, h-hold on, um. . .”

You struggled for a bit to think of a quick solution and ended up yanking off the tie from your neck and unknotting it, then pulled the fabric through your pokemon’s beak so you could grip it like reins.

“Okay, follow my lead, Corviknight! USE U-TURN!”

Corviknight glowed yellow and surged forward, diving straight for the oversized arachnid. You guided your pokemon to fly right into the spider’s dangling legs, striking them as hard and quickly as possible, each in turn. The sudden, jolting impact caused the creature to lose grip on its prize, the package of wrapped silk slipping and starting to fall.

You yanked hard on the reins, bringing the curving U-turn around so that you flew under the falling silk package, in time for it to land on Corvinkight’s head. Releasing the reins, you reached out and grabbed hold of the bundle, dragging it back with you and holding onto it for dear life. You shouted,

“Take us out of here, Corviknight, now!”

Once you had the silk package secured with you on Corviknight’s back, holding it steady with your legs, you tore into the silk with your hands, digging until you found Nemona’s buried head within. She gasped for breath once you’d cleared enough silk out of her face.

“Nemona,” you whimpered, thanking every single one of your lucky stars that you’d gotten to her in time.

“Juliana,” she coughed, sounding very shaky but very much still alive. You pulled thick strands of silk away from her head, enough to be sure she could breathe fine, then switched your focus to holding onto her while Corviknight carried the two of you out of the dark cave. Your pokemon had to land once it reached the crystal-lined tunnel, however, as it was much too large to fit through.

Spidops was mostly a slow pokemon– it was an ambush predator, which meant it lay in wait for prey to wander along and then it would suddenly spring with a quick burst of energy. It was not built to chase its prey down, though. There was good reason to believe the ancient form of Spidops was the same, since it seemed to behave in a similar way. So, you were probably already safe at this distance.

However, you still were not terribly eager to hang around and put that theory to the test.

You started to dig the rest of Nemona out from her silken cocoon as quickly as you could, grabbing handfuls of the sticky, fibrous material and ripping.

“Juliana, you saved me . . .” Nemona said, her eyes wide, still looking very dazed. Quite frankly, you didn’t blame her, but you needed her to recover fast. You answered tersely,

“Not yet I haven’t. Help me get this stuff off you, I don’t wanna give that thing a chance to come back for seconds.”

She seemed to respond to your tone and wriggled in her silken bonds, but she couldn’t help much until you’d helped her get an arm free– once she did it went a lot faster, the both of you ripping the thick strands apart as fast as you could. A lot of the strands kept re-sticking and sticking to you and slowing things down, but you did your best under the circumstances. Once you’d snapped all the major strands around Nemona’s legs, you leaned back up and grunted,

“Okay, we should be g– ughh, damnit–”

The accumulation of broken silk strands had become a problem, which you now found an annoying percentage had reattached to both you and Nemona.

“Get off, you crummy– get off!” you yelled, yanking at the strings. Nemona tried to help, leaning forward and grabbing handfuls to pull off you, but all this accomplished was sticking the strands still attached to her to the ones stuck to you. The opposing strands gripped to one another tightly, and when you tried to pull away, it only seemed to cinch tighter. You grumbled,

“Are you kidding me?”

“I’m sorry Jules, I think I made it worse.”

You shook your head,

“It’s not your fault, I shouldn’t have rushed it. Here, don’t move too much, just see if you can sorta . . . jimmy it, you know?”

“Yeah, okay, like this?” “Yeah–”

It was so ridiculous you probably would have laughed, or at least, you would have if the spectre of death wasn’t lurking so closely nearby. Nemona ended up wriggling and writhing against you to get the silk loosened up enough, and it rapidly went from laughable to something . . . else, something that made your face flush scarlet and the thoughts short-circuit in your brain. Thankfully it was over quickly, because you were pretty sure you would have literally died if that part had lasted long.

Finally, though, you both were able to pull free of the cursed silk, clambering off Corviknight and into the iridescent tunnel of freedom, withdrawing Corviknight back into its ball along the way.

It was only when you’d reached the other side of the tunnel that the pair of you stopped running. You sat down on the floor just to catch your breath, Nemona flinging herself onto one of the crystals to pant there like a racehorse. You gazed up at the ceiling as you gulped in air, your vision spotting over for a while.

You heard Nemona pant out,

“I think– that’s, that’s enough exploring for one day.”

You nodded, leaning your back against the coolness of the cave wall. You answered heavily,

“Yeah.”

You both continued to rest for a while in silence. You picked strands of spider web off yourself as you tried to process what had just happened. Mostly your thoughts were just glazed over in exhaustion, though.

Eventually, when Nemona had caught her breath enough, you heard her voice echo in the cave, sounding uncertain but hopeful.

“. . . we’re still on for that pokemon battle, though, right?”

#pokemon #pokemon s/v #pokemon scarlet/violet #2nd person Juliana POV #julinemo #terajules #juliana x nemona #nemona x juliana #fakemon #julinemo fanfic

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