Intata's Tall Tales
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Cobalt in Red - Chapter 6
🕑 Added 2024-12-29 00:14:01 +0000 UTCCobalt blinked the morning sun out of his eyes, his face scrunched up in displeasure. At first he had been excited to learn that pokecenters had rooms for trainers to sleep in overnight, however that had been ruined immediately by the snoring.
Pokecenters apparently worked like hostels, or some other communal rest spot for travelers - in that they had a few large rooms filled with bunk beds. So long as someone had a trainer’s licence, they could reserve a bed for free. There were also a number of private rooms, but those actually cost money, and Cobalt hadn’t felt like dishing out the cash for it.
He was regretting that now, since his only fellow traveler had snored like an old tractor all night. In fact, the old man - wearing the most antiquated nightwear, sleeping cap included - was still snoring away.
Cobalt turned his head to glare at the man, utterly jealous that Kong got to stay the night in pokeball storage behind the front counter. He quickly threw off the covers and dug a set of clean clothes out of his magical bag. The dirty set, swiftly shoved into a side pocket for later washing. He wouldn’t have to worry about that just yet, since he had the foresight to pack his entire wardrobe - but it was probably a smart idea to keep it all as clean as possible. There was a communal laundry room somewhere in the center that he would find later.
Nobody ever had to do laundry in the show, besides maybe Ash’s mom - to show that she was in fact, a mom (gotta perpetuate the gender roles, and whatnot). He couldn’t remember, so he might have been wrong on that. Brock might have done a load while caring for his siblings- Regardless, he still had to worry about his crap getting dirty.
Anime rules were apparently not ubiquitous.
He sent one last glare at the conked-out old man, and slammed the door closed on his way out. The guy’s startled snort brought a smile to his face.
“That was mean.” A voice said from behind him.
Cobalt turned from the door to see a girl giving him the creepiest grin he had ever seen outside of his mother’s Haunter. A girl around his own age, maybe a year older at the most. She had hair as black as the void, and a dress to match, but her skin was almost too pale. Like it would have been transparent if it were any more devoid of color. The only thing on her that didn’t look like it had come out of a black-and-white film was a simple, violet hair band that desperately tried to keep her gravity-defying hair under control.
Did he mention that her hair was undulating around her, as if she was floating in water? Because that was happening.
The other two details about this girl that made him think Haunter was using dream eater on him again, were her eyes - which were literally just swirls. No pupil, no iris. And the other was that massive, cheshire smile. Cartoonishly ‘u’ shaped, and open-mouthed.
Cobalt blinked and rubbed his eyes, but the literal embodiment of the Hex Girl from Gen Six was still grinning at him.
“It’s too early for this shit.” He mumbled.
“Rude.” She grinned back.
He sighed. “So what does an apostle of Giratina want with me, this morning? Also, please stop it with the eyes. They’re giving me a headache.” They were literally swirling like mini vortexes, and he was getting dizzy.
The girl’s head tilted to the side, and somehow, her grin grew. “You are… interesting.” She purred - like, her voice got all husky at the end, and she licked her lips.
“Goddamn you’re creepy.”
She just kept grinning at him, and he wondered if she would start drooling soon.
“Nope.” He said, and turned down the hall towards the front desk, dutifully ignoring the girl’s stare as she watched him go.
__________
“So we’re just going to head west for today.” He told Kong through gritted teeth, his right eye twitching uncontrollably.
The mankey ignored him in favor of looking back over his shoulder with a disturbed frown.
Cobalt had power-walked from the pokecenter towards Route 4, and then released his starter without pausing his stride. Kong had to stumble a bit to keep up at first, but quickly fell into pace.
“Was planning on staying in Cerulean for a day or so - pick a couple fights or whatever, but figured ‘no time like the present,’ right? Might as well make some headway while the day is young, and all that.” He rambled, keeping his eyes on the path in front of him. Not daring to look behind him for a second - as if he was Orpheus, walking out of Hades.
Yep, this was a heroic walk. Definitely not one filled with terror and denial. No sir.
“Man. Mankey?” Kong glanced at him, and flipped a thumb to point back behind them.
“Nothing’s behind us, buddy.”
The pokemon raised an eyebrow at him, unimpressed.
“Just keep walking and ignore it.” He hissed.
Kong came to a stop, and crossed his arms with a glare. “Key~ man makey.”
“Kong.” He groused. “I do not want to interact with the creepy girl.” He came to a stop and glanced backward carefully, as to not include said girl in his vision.
His starter just shrugged and punched the air. “Key-mankey?”
“She doesn’t want to fight.” Cobalt sighed. “She wants to have my babies, then sacrifice them to the devil for untold power and chaos.”
The Hex Girl giggled creepily from where she stopped along the path.
“See?” The boy pointed at her. “She’s twisted!”
Kong opened his mouth, some comment on how stupid he was being on the tip of his tongue - Cobalt was sure - but stopped half way. He turned to look at the girl, studying her carefully. The gears turned in his head for a moment, and Cobalt could tell his starter had come to the same realization he had.
After a two second pause, and a widening of the pokemon’s eyes, the little bastard recalled himself into his pokeball.
“Get back out here, you coward!” Cobalt ripped the ball off of his belt and pressed the button repeatedly, only for it to do absolutely nothing but wiggle in his hand.
__________
“You’re very arrogant.” The girl said from behind him.
He didn’t look back. One foot in front of the other. Don’t trip. Don’t trip. She’ll steal your soul if you stop moving.
“I don’t want your babies.” Her creepy-ass smile was evident in her tone. He didn’t have to look back to see it. “We’re too young for that.”
He couldn’t help the shiver that ran down his spine.
“My seed will not grace the halls of Satan, demon.” He growled and kept walking.
“So rude.” She giggled. “Have you even hit puberty yet? Your voice hasn’t squeaked or anything, so far.” He could hear honest curiosity in the tilt of her voice.
Cobalt spun to face her with a twitch in his eye. “My body will do what I tell it to.”
What kind of conversation was this? He was trying to get her to go away with the sacrificial children thing, but she had just leaned into it. What kind of child readily talked about puberty and such with another child of the opposite sex?
Cobalt, obviously - but he was trying to freak her out. Was this girl just too freaky to be freaked out?
Her grin was beaming. “So what have you told it to do, then?” Her swirly gaze seemed to pierce directly into his soul.
He blinked, not really having a witty comeback for that, and narrowed his eyes. “Why are you following me?”
The Hex Girl just shrugged. “You’re interesting, and we’re going to the same place, I think.”
“And what place would that be?” He challenged.
“Pewter, to start the circuit.”
“And leaving this early in the morning?” He raised an eyebrow. It was like, seven in the morning, or something. Hardly any kids his age were even awake at this time.
“Might as well make some headway while the day is young.” She echoed his earlier words with that aggravating grin.
He squinted at her. He knew she was lying, and he knew she knew that he knew she was lying.
“Well,” he crossed his arms, not pressing the issue - as much as he wanted to, “as plausible as that sounds, what’s a girl from Hoenn doing competing in the Kanto circuit, anyway?”
Her hair seemed to stall in whatever etherial current it had been caught in, and her smile widened. “How did you know I’m from Hoenn?” She asked, smirking as if she knew something he didn’t.
“Mainly because of the sableye in your shadow.” He bullshitted, bypassing the fact that he had seen her sprite a billion times while playing Omega Ruby.
He had actually noticed a gem-like gleam coming from the girl’s shadow a bit ago. Two pinpricks of light that weren’t as red as most ghost types tended to have. He had quickly ran through the possibilities, and a sableye was pretty much the only option for such a thing - their eyes being made of gemstones due to their diet. The species was pretty much only known to inhabit Hoenn, as well - Cobalt knew they existed elsewhere, but that information either wasn’t known just yet, or wasn’t shared beyond regional borders.
“Arrogant and observant.” She grinned back as her sableye’s purple, spiky-eared head poked up out of her shadow - its gemstone eyes unnerving the boy with a blank stare.
“I did the Hoenn circuit last year, and wanted a change of pace.” She shrugged again, and gestured to the pokemon at her feet. “And I’m looking for someone to help with Sabie.”
Cobalt frowned, getting a bad feeling. “Anyone in particular? Kanto’s ghost type experts have been kinda thin since the war.”
The girl nodded with a sort of distracted excitement. “Well, Agatha, of course - if I can manage to get a moment of her time. But if I can find Clarisse Kent, that might be better.”
“God-fucking-dammit.” He mumbled, and spun on his heel to keep walking.
“Wait, what? What did I say?” She sputtered, and ran up to his side. Her earlier aloofness seemed to drop, showing the girl underneath the veneer.
Cobalt glanced over to her, and narrowed his eyes at what he saw. For a moment, her skin seemed less pale. For the barest fraction of a second, her eyes stopped swirling. He kept walking, but his gaze didn’t leave the girl.
“You said you needed help with your sableye?” He hedged.
The swirls and the smile were back, but the boy noticed the gem-eye’d pokemon’s concerned gaze towards its trainer, even through the girl’s shadow.
Cobalt had a lot of experience dealing with ghost types. Sure, most of his mother’s team avoided human contact, but Haunter was a constant presence in their house, growing up. The Lady Kent’s gengar was also constantly in her shadow, and he was almost certain the terrifying purple blob wasn’t the only one in there. Her dusknoir was the only one that he couldn’t find if he put his mind to it.
This sableye was not nearly as good as even Haunter, though. She - Cobalt guessed it was a she, with a name like ‘Sabie’ - seemed young, though definitely not inexperienced. He turned to the girl, who’s smile had turned from aggravatingly happy, to hesitant.
“You couldn’t find help at Mount Pyre?” He asked, instead of pushing.
She tilted her head at him, then shook it slightly. “We trained there a lot, but the problem got worse the longer we stayed.” Her grin grew, and she gave him a suggestive look. “Why? Are you… interested?”
His whole face convulsed. “I don’t even know who you are, dammit. So stop it with the flirty shit, we’re basically infants!” He looked to the sky, glaring at whatever god now ruled his life. “Is every ghost specialist a fucking degenerate?!”
The girl let out another creepy giggle, and skipped ahead of him only to stop - bringing him to a halt as well. “Well, I suppose I should introduce myself.” Her eyes swirled, locking their gazes as she curtsied. “You can call me Valerie.”
Cobalt gritted his teeth, wondering if it was a good idea to tell her his name. She was utterly nutty, but if what he had seen so far was any indication, something was definitely wrong with her - and it was likely some type of magical, pokemon bullshit, rather than a personality flaw.
In the end, his weak, soft little heart gave out. “I’m Cobalt…” He said through his teeth. “Kent.”
Valerie blinked up at him - and only then did he realize that this was the first time he had seen her blink. “Kent?”
He nodded slowly.
Her eyes widened, and her smile was replaced with open-mouth shock. “Like Clarisse Kent, Kent?”
“That would be my mom, yeah.”
There was a flash of something like relief in her eyes, before it was swirled away and her grin came back full force. “Oh I knew you were interesting.”
Comments
Flygar
I'm super excited to see what team he makes!
Andrew Holmes
The power of Arceus compels you!
Apostle_of_Tea
STAY BACK FOUL WITCH, YOUR TEMPTATIONS HOLD NO SWAY OVER ME!!!
