The Great Bulk Part 11: The Sinister Woods
Prologue: Eye for an Eye
Mark walked into the high school he went to, and wandered towards the lockers. He checked to see if everything was properly organized, but as he was sorting through it, he heard footsteps. He looked to see who it was – a short, rather mouse-like boy with glasses had arrived. It was Dougie, one of the multitude of friends he had made.
Everyone Mark was close with had something in common: none of them held perfect lives. The poor, the beaten, and the downtrodden turned to each other for friendship and support, and Mark was a part of the nucleus that kept them all together.
"Hey, Markie, how're you doing?" Dougie asked, initially ignorant as to his friend's status. He analyzed Mark's features and took a couple steps back – he had bruises along his arms, and even a black eye! "What the heck happened to you, man? I thought you said you were going to stop getting into trouble!" Dougie exclaimed, shocked by what he seen.
"It's nothing," Mark said dismissively. "I'm alright, aren't I?"
"Don't act so flippant about it," Dougie responded. "Didn't you say you made a promise to your brother, a few years back? You said you wanted to be a better role model for him, so why're you getting into fights again?"
Mark paused, unsure of how to answer. He didn't want to tell his friend the truth, but at the same time, he needed to reassure him and make sure he knew nothing was wrong. After a few moments of silence, he spoke.
"I saw someone else getting bullied and beat up," Mark answered, omitting certain details of what had happened. "I had to act."
"So you were playing hero again?" Dougie teasingly questioned. "That's one part of you I can never get. I've always been one to keep my head down."
"It's just the way I am," Mark replied. "Now, how about we get to class? We don't want people thinking we're skipping out."
Another Encounter
Things have been surprisingly uneventful for the last few days. We bought some supplies in Salzland and made our way north, eventually making our way to another town, Little Grove. Fitting to its name, there were a bunch of trees around, and for whatever reason, I could tell it made Assy nervous. Every time she looked at one, her body tensed up as if she were about to fight! After one such instance, I tapped her on the shoulder, snapping her out of it. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Why are there so many trees?" she replied. "It's making me feel claustrophobic, and Lombre could be hiding up in any of them. Why did he have to figure out the Sneak Scarf thing, it's such a pain!" She continued to fidget, clearly uncomfortable with her surroundings.
"Well, this place is called the Grass Continent for a reason," I responded. "You'll just have to get used to seeing more greenery in your life."
"I suppose so," Asana conceded. "Let's get some more information."
The two of us went around Little Grove, asking the residents about the surrounding areas. A couple particular things stuck out. Firstly, there was a Mystery Dungeon tucked away in a forest to the north named the Worn Woods. We were advised to go around its location instead of through it as many travellers went through it and never returned. Northeast of that, however, was an inn. It was a perfect place to stop and rest, and now, we had a path forward!
We bought some supplies, and as we were getting close to the town's edge, I spotted something strange atop one of the trees. There was something there that was a combination of two different shades of green. I nudged Asana and pointed upwards. "Do you see that?" I questioned. "What the heck is that?"
Asana looked up, concentrating for a few moments. Suddenly, she tackled me to the ground, a projectile whizzing towards where I was before! "Damn it!" she yelled. "We can't get up to him!"
She took a couple of moments to lift me up and began to make a break for it. I pondered how she managed to lift my corpulent frame while she ran, and I soon remembered a factoid my partner told me once. Meditite and Medicham are deceptively strong in spite of their starvation diet and anorexic looks. Assy herself claimed that it was yoga exercises that granted her kind that power, but it always sounded a bit far-fetched to me.
She fled with me out of Little Grove and deeper into the trees, and I looked back to try and find out who was chasing us. To my surprise, it was Lombre! It was strange enough that he was able to follow us all the way here, but it was how he acted that sent a chill down my spine. He wasn't pissed off or shaken up. He was cool-headed in spite of the situation, calmly calculating where to shoot next! It took everything Assy had to evade his fire while carrying me, and after some time running, we saw a part of the forest that was shrouded in mist. She approached it, and it was like the very air we breathed changed! Lombre had vanished, and the sense of danger we felt was replaced by dread.
Asana placed me on the forest floor, looking far less exerted than I expected her to. "This must be the Worn Woods," she observed. "I didn't want to go through a Mystery Dungeon with such a reputation, but we wouldn't have been able to lose him otherwise. Don't forget to pace your eating, we are not going to fail this because you've consumed all of our food again!"
That was old news! I definitely wouldn't do it a third time! "I can't believe you'd think I would do that," I responded. "This isn't just any old mission, this is life and death we're talking about!"
Assy sighed, shaking her head. "Just don't screw up," she mumbled. "We've got enough to worry about."
A Bad Trip
We could barely see five feet in front of us due to the fog, and the path just kept on winding around and around. It took some time for us to realize that we had been walking in circles, and that was only because we saw our own footprints! We tried other paths, but they all yielded the same results, looping back to the same starting point. Yet, that wasn't the weirdest part.
We were constantly breathing something in. Every time I inhaled, I felt my head becoming a bit dizzier, and our surroundings began to make less and less sense. Colors began to blend together, my head began to hurt - it felt like that time I got drugged up at Redkiln, but worse! However, we were slowly making it in deeper, and as we did, the fog began to recede. In addition, mushrooms began to slowly take over the scenery. They were on the floor, they were growing out of trees, in fact, I expected them to fall out of the sky!
"I think we're finally getting somewhere, Makuhita," Assy said, rubbing her head. "We need to remain on-guard. We haven't seen a single enemy yet, and my sensing isn't working like it should... I can't concentrate with this stupid headache."
"So, we can just follow the mushrooms and get out of here?" I asked. "That's good news!"
The two of us proceeded, although we didn't have a spring in our step. As we drew closer to the center of the forest, the leaves of the trees seemed to begin to change color and the trunks began to warp in shape, becoming far more crooked. I couldn't tell if I was just tripping, or if the forest really was becoming some sort of psychedelic nightmare. The mushrooms began to change, too. They began to be slowly replaced by what looked like a single species. It was white and purple, and if I squinted, they seemed to sway slightly. After some more wandering, Asana stopped in place and began to shoot beams of energy all over the place!
"Damn it, how'd you get here?" She yelled. "I'm not just going to sit there, you know!"
She seemed to be fighting against something, but there was nothing there. Was she hallucinating? I stood there for a few seconds as she "fought" against whatever she was seeing, thinking of the best way to snap her out of it. I waited until she got close enough to me, then I grabbed her!
"You're tripping balls, Assy!" I exclaimed. "Whatever you're fighting isn't real, you're just seeing things!"
"Get off of me!" Asana cried out, struggling in my grip for a few seconds. She then abruptly flinched, her demeanor becoming much more calm. "Makuhita, let me go," she ordered. "You might be right. I need to examine my wounds."
I did as she asked. She rubbed at her head, and examined her hand afterwards. "It looked like Lombre shot me in the head, but I'm not dead and there's nothing coming out of the wound," she said, analyzing the situation. "I can't believe I fell for such trickery." She yawned and began to walk forward, with me following close behind. "I think we're close to the end," she observed. "Yet, I cannot shake the feeling that we're being watched." I nodded in agreement, silently watching her back for any enemies.
It didn't take too long until we got to a clearing, and what I saw was mind-boggling. There were mushrooms as tall as trees, and others were the size of us! I felt as though our every move was being tracked within this area, but thankfully, there was a way out. There was a single path out of the area, which could very well be the way out of the dungeon. As Asana continued onwards, I continued my watch from behind, and I saw something alarming!
The Pokemon-sized mushrooms emitted clouds of spores that wafted towards our direction! "Asana, cover your mouth!" I warned. "Those mushrooms just-"
I was interrupted as I inhaled the spores, and I could hear Asana choking as well. She lost her balance and dropped to the ground. I ran up to her, worried that she was hurt, but a faint snoring let me know that she was merely taking a nap. Come to think of it, I felt rather tired as well. A quick nap normally wouldn't hurt, but Assy was completely off-guard!
I forced myself to think through brain fog, headaches, and fatigue for a way to remain conscious, and I could only see one solution! I clenched my fist and
began to punch myself in the head as hard as I could, forcing myself to stay awake from the pain I was inflicting upon myself! Then, to make matters worse, the big mushrooms turned around and began to walk towards us. They had little smiling faces on them, their happiness almost mocking us. It took me a couple moments to realize just what they were.
They weren't mushrooms! They were Shiinotic, and I was outnumbered two dozen to one! I marched up to the first one and grappled its neck with my arm. I applied as much force as I could and it snapped, the feral disintegrating into smoke! I destroyed another one with a series of Arm Thrusts, and followed that up by grabbing a third Shiinotic and throwing it into a fourth! I suppose this was why they lulled people to sleep and attacked in groups: they were flimsy as hell! They were like a bunch of twigs, really!
The rest of the Shiinotic began to glow, but I didn't care. I was going to keep Asana safe and destroy them all! I charged into another part of a group, and then, they began to flash with an overwhelming pink light, one after another. Each attack burned my flesh, and by itself, it didn't do much. However, with twenty attacking at once, it really screwed up my day! I staggered back from the pain they inflicted on me. I wished Asana was awake, as she'd be able to tell me what kind of attack it was, but I was on my own.
I tripped and fell on the ground, and the Shiinotic surrounded me like a pack of starving dogs! They laid their hands on me, and I could feel them burying into my skin, slowly sapping my strength and vigor away. Was this going to be the end of our journey? We tried so hard to save ourselves, only to be sucked dry by a bunch of feral mushrooms! This was a reality I could not accept!
I felt my Aura flare up, in spite of my injury and what my enemies were doing. I felt as though I could move it again, just like the last mission I had on the Sand Continent before Lombre reared his head. I forced it into my arms, and grabbed one of the Shiinotic by the head before crushing it with minimal effort. Just like the others, it began to disintegrate into smoke. The others stepped back due to this display, giving me the chance I needed to get up. I began to rampage through the ranks of Shiinotic, each Arm Thrust being enough to take care of one each. I didn't even need to grapple them to take care of them!
One after another, they went down. It was like watching a bunch of dominoes! After the last of those stupid ferals were destroyed, I scooped up Asana in my arms and walked onto the path forward, and as abruptly as we entered the Worn Woods, we left. The trees were back to normal, and when I looked behind me, there wasn't a single mushroom in sight. I retrieved our map from Asana's bag and looked at it, and plotted our course towards the inn which was supposed to be nearby. I hoped they had good food there, I'm starving!
The Executioner
Asana and Makuhita disappeared into the fog, and I followed close behind. As the mist swallowed me up, I came to a realization: they were gone.
I couldn't hear them, or even smell them, and to make matters worse, information began to flood my brain. Intuitively, my brain worked out the entire layout of the location I was in, and that was when what happened dawned upon me.
They had used a Mystery Dungeon to throw me off. The only reason I knew what I had gotten myself into was because one of the strange powers Gummi consumption had given me. There were three overall, but the one that was currently relevant was the ability to intuitively know my surroundings. It worked differently depending on where I was.
If I was in a normal area, it only worked within a certain radius. However, if I were in a Mystery Dungeon, I would learn of the entire area's layout. Whenever it triggered in one, it felt like someone was burying their claws in my brain and injecting foreign memories into my brain, but it was extremely helpful. With it, I could make it out of here far faster than Asana could. Killing them would be as simple as ambushing them as they left.
As I took a long, winding path through the forest, the quality of the air I was breathing seemed to change. I felt as though I was inhaling something with each breath, and whatever it was, it began to sicken me. I took my Sneak Scarf and wrapped it around my mouth. It would hopefully block out the contaminants, and due to it being composed of fabric, it would allow me to breathe.
The walk was eerily uneventful. I couldn't see or detect a single Pokemon around, and the forest twisted and changed as I got further in. The trees began to turn crooked, branches looking almost like limbs and hands, and mushrooms began to pop up. I observed one for a few seconds and saw it releasing some spores. That must've been what was permeating the air! My pondering was interrupted by something tugging at my scarf. I felt it ripped right off of me, and the force made me fall to the ground! I looked to try and see what had stolen it, but by the time I got up and turned around, they were gone. Only a set of footprints I didn't recognize remained.
Why didn't I detect them? Every other time an attack was imminent, I was able to do so! I thought about it as I traveled down the path, and after a couple of minutes, I understood what the problem was:
The mystery Pokemon didn't intend to hurt me, it only wanted to steal from me. This exposed a loophole in my sixth sense that I didn't realize until now: if it can only detect those who wish to harm me, then a Pokemon who doesn't carry such intent wouldn't register to it. A thief or a stalker would be able to trail me as long as their intentions didn't change. This was useful information, but there was another conundrum I was facing.
My Sneak Scarf was gone, so I had no way to protect myself from the spores that littered the forest. I could feel the symptoms of exposure slowly creep in. I gained a splitting headache, my vision was blurring and distorting, and I felt as though my brain had to swim through a metaphorical vat of tar just to process my surroundings. I was becoming more vulnerable with each passing moment; it was clear I had to leave quickly! I remained cautious as I advanced even deeper into the forest, where I spotted yet another oddity. There were giant mushrooms the size of Pokemon. I got a bad feeling looking at them, so I kept my distance. I didn't want to trigger any traps.
I soon came to a clearing. The surroundings were breath-taking, intimidating, and awe-inspiring all at once. It was completely enveloped by mushrooms of all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes, the most impressive of them being larger than most Pokemon I've seen. They were like looming titans, quietly watching an interloper pass through their domain. It made me feel even more uneasy, but thankfully, I saw the path out. Yet, there was a single complication:
There were more of those suspicious, Pokemon-sized mushrooms.
I could feel my sixth sense pick up hostiles surrounding me all at once. I looked around, but all I could see was fungi. A cloud of spores then erupted from them and enveloped my entire body! I took in multiple gasps of contaminated air, and felt a drowsiness come over me. I stumbled to the ground, struggling to maintain consciousness. It was there that I came to a disturbing realization.
What if the hostile Pokemon were the mushrooms? I dredged my memory for anything related to that, and a singular recollection emerged.
There was a Mystery Dungeon not too far from the village I grew up in, back on the Mist Continent. It, like these woods, was infested with mushrooms, and there were feral Pokemon that were said to mislead and abduct others, who were said to never return. I tried to think of what they were called, but before they could, I finally fell unconscious. Normally, I couldn't be made to fall asleep artifically, but the spores had weakened me enough to the point where that was no longer the case.
When I woke up, the forest was as silent as a graveyard. I couldn't feel any enemies around me as I looked around. It was only when I peered behind me that I saw something floating in the air that filled me with a deep sense of dread.
It was a Medicham, but not one like I've seen before. The top of its head was different, mainly: it resembled a turban. A countless multitude of spectral arms were behind it, all of them holding nooses with Pokemon dangling from the end.
As I observed the new visitor from behind, I could recognize a few of the deceased. The first was Thievul the Shadow, a bandit that Cacturne said he met once. He always called him a yellow-bellied coward, and the story of his encounter with him always cracked me up. Then, there was the Shah. Most Pokemon thought him invincible, and only the daring or stupid ever robbed his territory. Cacturne and I were the former: My partner may have been illiterate when we first met, but he was by no means stupid. He knew that man had poor control over his troops, and it was easy to trick, ambush, and mislead them. His regime collapsing was inevitable, but it shouldn't have happened the way it did.
I took a few more moments to observe this strange figure, but my eyes were drawn to one body in particular. When I saw it, my heart sank: It was Cacturne. He was limp and lifeless, and I could feel my instincts and my rational mind quarreling with each other.
The former registered the strange Medicham as a threat, feeling fear and anger at what happened to my partner, but the logical side of myself had a counter-point: Cacturne was likely to be imprisoned for the rest of his life, but the Sheriff and all who worked under him were not fond of executions. The Shah was captured alive as well. I knew this because that was one of the details the public fixated upon once the coup was over.
Whatever I was looking at wasn't real. I didn't know if it was an illusion, a feral Pokemon, or a manifestation of something within the dungeon itself, but I could feel a palpable sense of danger from it. Its extra spectral arms dropped the bodies that were hanging, all of them being swallowed up by the soil at an accelerated rate. It turned around and looked at me, and I instinctively braced myself for any ensuing violence that was to come.
The Medicham's left eye was blue, but its right was scarred, just like Asana. I knew she couldn't have evolved in such a short timespan, which only deepened the mystery of what I was seeing. Was this place digging through my memories? Is this meant to be a depiction of what she would become, or are these woods showing me my perception of her?
The arms behind the false Asana were reduced to a more manageable four as it floated towards me. It pointed a finger at me, its single working eye judging me.
"You are sentenced to death," it said as it assumed a fighting stance. Its arm moved faster than I could perceive, hitting me in the torso and sending me flying! I hit one of the tree-sized mushrooms and felt a great pain in my chest. Did it break one of my ribs?
I definitely knew it wasn't a hallucination at this point, and furthermore, it outclassed me entirely. I tried to run towards the exit of the clearing, only for more mushrooms to spring up, their stalks extending far into the canopy of the forest. The Medicham rapidly approached my location, its spectral fists preparing to barrage me, but before it could strike, I kicked some dirt into their eye and lept aside! I grabbed my Mach Ribbon and put it on, but I could tell that the impostor could still see me.
Like the real thing, it had its "Aura" ability, allowing it to see without using its eyes. The dirt was merely meant to disorient it for a few precious moments. It switched tactics as one of its false arms rubbed its working eye, its true arms beginning to fire beams of Psychic energy at me.
I was put on the defensive again as I dodged shot after shot. Frankly, it was using quantity over quality: It wasn't nearly as precise of a marksman as myself, but if a single projectile hit, I knew I'd be crippled or worse. In between shots, I pulled out a Rainy Orb, and as I used it, I saw an odd contradiction in the fake's behavior.
It didn't shoot at my item, like the real Asana would. I didn't know whether there was something I wasn't getting or if its temperament was just different from its counterpart, but it was a needed opening. As rain began to fall, I could feel my movements and reflexes growing sharper. My opponent had finally cleared their eye of dirt and began to charge at me again, giving me the perfect chance to fire.
It evaded my Bubble Beams perfectly, almost seeming to know when I was about to fire. It drew close, and in a bid to escape, I fired roots towards a nearby mushroom. I grappled away from my enemy's path, only for hyphae to burst out from the ground and grab me.
They wrapped around me, firmly securing me in place. I wasn't nearly strong enough to get out, and as the impostor drew closer, I could feel a deep sense of dread permeate my very being. It quit floating, walking towards me in an agonizingly slow fashion. As soon as it loomed over me, it smiled.
"You failed," the fake Asana taunted. "You're such an insignificant pest. You couldn't save your partner, let alone yourself. How does it feel to know that you'll die here, forgotten for all time like the rest that tread here?"
I couldn't bring myself to reply. I merely braced myself for what was coming next. My opponent began to barrage me with a series of bone-crushing punches, hot agony flaring up at each location struck. It only lasted seconds, but it felt like an eternity, only ending when my neck was crushed by its grip. As I began to fade away, it walked away from me, and the hyphae that grabbed me dragged me into the ground.
I sank for what felt like hours, somehow still alive in spite of the mortal wounds dealt to me. It felt like it would never end, but just when I was about to give up clinging to life, I dropped down into a new scene.
I fell down from the dirt onto a platform below, surrounded by a black, starry expanse. It felt utterly surreal, even more questions popping up in my head. I could hear footsteps, and I turned my head towards the source.
Someone was walking towards me. Their footsteps were off: They weren't Makuhita's heavy stomps, Asana's cat-like gait or even like Cacturne's firm, assertive steps. They were distinctly my own, being carefully measured and almost soundless. I could only see a black cloak that covered their legs, and as my eyes gazed up, I was met with a most unusual figure.
It was a new Pokemon. It was as tall as me, and almost everything from its head to its toes was covered by its clothing. The only other feature I could make out was a distinctive mask that covered its face. It was bone-white in color, seemingly made from ceramic. It was almost barren in terms of decoration, save for where the eye holes should've been: There were none, and in their place, there were closed eyes that were painted on, looking as though they were sewn shut.
"Wake up," the strange figure demanded of me. "This is naught but a nightmare. You must not let the forest-dwellers consume you."
Concentrating every ounce of my will, I sat up and looked at the masked man, even though my broken bones should've prohibited my movement. "Who and what are you?" I asked. "If this is a dream, then the Asana I saw must've reflected how I feel about her. That begs the question as to what you are."
They shook their head. "This is a bad time for questions, but I must answer," they replied. "When you looked upon the two who were once separated, what your eyes saw offended you. So, you plucked them out."
The Pokemon extended its left arm out from under its cloak to help me up. Again, it seemed to be linked to me: the arm had the very same scar that I had. It should've been anatomically impossible for its cloak to cover its head like it did if it were based off of me, yet it did.
I regained my bearings, my injuries somehow having vanished. It lent credence to the masked man's words, but I was getting a bit frustrated with him. "Can you quit speaking in riddles?" I asked. "I don't have the time to play games."
"You're the one who refuses to see what's in front of you," it retorted. "Now, wake up. There is much to do."
I awoke on the ground, feeling significantly drained. I forced my eyes to open, and what I saw was alarming: there were Shiinotic swarming around me and burying their tendrils within my body! How long was I out for? I felt as though I could barely move, but that didn't matter. I was going to die if I did nothing! I raised my arm and pointed a claw towards one of them, water dripping from the tip. I fired a single Bubble Beam through their skull, their body slowly turning into smoke. I sat up and shot each one as they backed away from me, each projectile hitting its mark! As soon as the herd was thinned, I got up and began to shoot at the remaining Pokemon as they ran away.
Wait a minute. They were running away? That's odd, ferals usually aren't that smart. It was a lucky break for me, at least. I looked into my bag and retrieved my Mach Ribbon: I had only grabbed it inside of my dream, so it was still stored when I woke up. I put it on and exited the clearing, the air shifting as I finally exited that damned Mystery Dungeon.
It was evening, and my targets were nowhere in sight. I must've been out for hours! I collected myself and thought of ways I could catch up to them. I thought of a single way, but it felt degrading.
Nonetheless, I lowered my head to the ground and sniffed it like a dog. The scent of Makuhita's body odor was unmistakable. Having found my lead, I began to follow their trail. I noted to myself that I needed to develop a better knowledge of my surroundings, as this blind spot is what Asana exploited to evade me. I'd have to wait a while before attempting to attack them again, as well. That dungeon drained me of nearly all of my energy, and I wasn't currently in good enough shape to fight. It'd be a while before I'd be ready to fight those two again, but in the meantime, I could still follow them.
I now knew that I needed to catch them in a situation that they couldn't escape from. When the time comes to strike, I won't fail again.