Author Topic: The Pokemon Prometheus  (Read 4938 times)

foxgamer01

  • Solid Fox, Daren Crevan
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    • Foxgamer01 of DA
on: December 20, 2018, 07:36:45 PM
Wow. When have I last posted a story here? :|

Also, yes! Finally finished a story in a long time! This one is made thanks to ideas exchanged between Tails230 Tails230 and myself. It was originally meant to be a short story; just a misadventure with Jirachi misunderstanding what Faith wanted when she had an allergic reaction with a Fire Stone. But then ideas bounced in my head and caused this story to grow into, well, a novella. XD

Anyways, enjoy!

++++++++++

The bones stood as high as four Wailords stacked on top of each other in Arkanilacum. The pierced the sky, the remains of a giant Arcanine’s ribs, with the backbones partially buried in the ground. The skull, carefully maintained by the inhabitants of the Pokémon city, was removed from the rest of the skeletal remains in a century-long project and placed onto the nearby high hills up north, looking down at the city.

Stories go from an unknown number of centuries ago, when a mysterious looking group called ‘anthros’ came into the world, they brought with them knowledge on how to increase the size of anything and everything. The Pokémon of the time took the knowledge and became the first of the giants, revered as gods when they increased themselves up to the size of mountains. That knowledge spread and more Pokémon became giants before entire landscapes became battlegrounds between two macro Pokémon that could destroy mountains and forests while creating valleys and deserts.

At the peak of the destructions, the anthros disappeared from the six continents of the world with no one really knowing why. Some said that they were all wiped out from any one of the battles while others said that they simply left the world, struck with guilt at what the firestorm the knowledge of size shifting become. Yet a few said that they went into hiding, in fear of what they brought and caused, and were waiting until the day they could return.

Yet, despite the question on what happened to the anthros, what happened later was clear: when they left, so did what was used in the power of changing sizes except what the Pokémon kept, which then failed one by one. Because the ‘gods’ kept no record on what they were, how they used them, and how they were made, the giant Pokémon’s population decreased, whether to them dying out or whatever they used to become macro were gone. By the modern day, only rumors and stories of giant Pokémon remained along with their bones.

Arkanilacum was founded many centuries ago by 600 feet tall Arcanine only remembered as the Great Protector, her real name forgotten. Yet, despite her intimidating size, she was very gentle to the ones much smaller than her and, when another macro came to cause destruction, she would always stand up and fight for their protection. It was said that, in her final battle, where she earned her title, she fought against a Vaporeon four times her size and won at the cost of her life, protecting the small.

-----

A Vulpix walked down the main road in Arkanilacum, her baby blue eyes stared intensely ahead. A pouch was sling around her neck and shoulder, brushing against her mint green bowtie. Her red-brown pelt shined against the midsummer’s sunlight as her white legs stepped onto the yellow ground.

“This is the day. I’m sure of it,” she said to herself, her eyes gleamed at the market ahead.

“If you say so,” a voice behind her said, causing her to jumped and looked back, the speed loosening the button off of the pouch and a gold Poké fell out.

Behind her was a Flareon, his reddish-orange fur gleamed in the light. His green eyes shined brightly, complementing his yellow turf, mane, and tail, which slightly wagged. A silver necklace hung around his neck against his chest, engraved on it a triangle on top of two triangles.

“Adrian!” the Vulpix squeaked out at the taller Flareon by a foot while she picked up the loose Poké. “Don’t scare me like that! I could’ve lost all of my hard-earned Poké because of that.”

“Hehe. Sorry, sorry,” Adrian said as he nuzzled the red-orange locks on the Vulpix’s head, causing her to blush. “Just curious to see what you were doing, Faith.”

“Well,” Faith explained as she walked towards the market with Adrian following, “I heard that there’s a Fire Stone for sale. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to buy it and use it to evolve, just as you did. Then I won’t be the short one anymore.”

“Ah,” Adrian remarked as he skipped over a small hole on the ground. “Then I’ll be the butt of your shorty jokes again.”

“Hey, that was only the first couple of years since we met-”

“-and until our final year at school, where I was the last one of our class to evolve.”

“It’s only because we needed a stone to help us evolve,” Faith remarked as she turned around and winked as she stuck out a tongue. “And I recall you passing over other means to evolve, like a Water Stone. Heck, if you really do care about being short, you should’ve picked Vaporeon to evolve to. Or Umbreon, Leafeon, or even the fabulous Sylveon. All of them bigger than a Flareon like you.”

“W-w-well, I-I just like my tail to be massive and super fluffy!” Adrian declared as he blushed hard at Faith’s unconvinced face.

Faith looked at his face for a few seconds before shrugging. “Besides, I’m not that short compared to other Vulpix, being only an inch shorter than average.”

“Only an inch shorter?” Adrian remarked as he stuck out a tongue back at her. “The way you act at times is like you’re only a half foot tall.”

“OK, so it is no big deal for me,” Faith admitted as she stopped walking and looked back at the Flareon. She then raised one of her white paws and booped Adrian’s nose, causing him to blush. “Then again, it’s not like you acted any better when you were the shortest one.”

“H-hey!” Adrian said, twitching his ears and nose. “OK, perhaps maybe I overreacted to some of your jokes about me being nearly a foot shorter and maybe I overdid it when I teased you back, but.” He paused.

“But what?” Faith asked, winking at him with her baby blue eyes.

“W-well, I don’t think being little is too bad nowadays,” the Flareon answered as his paws shuffled below him and his tail fluffed up even more. “L-like going through tight spots or that you need to relearn your sense of balance and strength. I mean, when I evolved, I broke a lot of stuff by just not knowing my newfound strength.”

“Yet you still hopped around me like a wild Mankey,” Faith teased before she licked Adrian’s cheek. The Flareon flustered with his fur fluffing up while she went back to walking to the market with several vendors filled with colors like red, green, and plenty of more. Adrian shook his head before following the Vulpix.

Her eyes darted from right to left to back to right, looking for the shop that had a Fire Stone. While one might think that being in a city filled with a high Fire-type population would make such a product in high demand, few were ever brought over to them as a way to drive up the price for such treasure. Faith idly wondered if the other cities in the continent would hold Fire Stone in abundance while her ears twitched, hearing Adrian catching up to her. They both looked around and saw several Pokémon of many types there, browsing and bartering with the shop owners. Though she would’ve liked it if one such bartering attempt wasn’t between two Loudred over a berry.

Her hearing slowing recovered as she felt a nudged to her side. She blinked and turned back, her eyes now facing the green-eyed Flareon’s face, the eyes bright as the sunlight. She opened her mouth only for him to nudged his head over to a shop twice. She then observed a shop at Adrian’s direction, ran by a Kecleon.

The green reptilian Pokémon was standing behind the wide desk, his black eyes looking around for customers. Directly in front of the Kecleon was a yellowish stone with a red streak inside of it, giving off a look that it was on fire. Next to it was a sign that read, “Fire Stone! 1000 Poké!”

Faith gave out an excited yip, hugged Adrian with a paw, and ran over to the shop with the Flareon close behind her.

“Excuse me, sir,” Faith said to the Kecleon in between breath and excited heartbeats, “but I would like to buy that Fire Stone from you.”

“Ah! Clever eye you have,” the Kecleon said proudly with a wide smile. “Especially since I just got it yesterday from a Lycanroc and at quite a bargain too! She looked somewhat off, but it might just be my imagination.”

“Very interesting,” Faith remarked in a very uninterested tone as she leaned over to the Fire Stone. “It’s not like a Lycanroc can use it for its true intention.”

“That’s perfectly obvious,” the Kecleon responded with a nod. “I also had it be inspected since there had been some cases of counterfeits Fire Stone in the market lately and I did overhear her saying stuff about ‘tests’ and ‘research’, which nearly made me suspicious enough to just cancel it altogether. Yet all the tests it has been put through confirmed that it’s a functional Fire Stone, perfectly normal.”

Adrian shivered as his sight turned from the Kecleon to the Fire Stone. “Um, Faith? I don’t like the sound of that. I’m sure that there’s another Fire Stone here, so I think that it’s best to hold off on getting this one.”

“Adrian, you don’t fool me for a second,” Faith teased as she handed the gold Poké to the Kecleon. “You just don’t want to be a victim of my revenge plot over getting teased being the short one of us.”

“I-it’s not like that!” the Flareon said in a panicked tone while the Kecleon picked up the Fire Stone. “I just think that you might be too hasty in getting it, especially since he got it from someone who’s suspicious enough to warrant exanimating it. It might be dangerous!”

“He checked over and found it to be perfectly safe, so I’ll find it to be safe as well. I’m evolving and you can’t stop me,” Faith declared before she reached over to the Fire Stone and touched it.

The stone glowed in white light while Faith’s body was engulfed in the light. The Flareon’s green eyes widened as he took a step back, the Vulpix glowing brighter.

Then the Fire Stone exploded.

-----

Faith groaned as her baby blue eyes slowly opened, her body felt sore and her right paw having a fair amount of pain, which gave her vibes of a Tauros stepped on it. Her eyes saw a Flareon figure near as her vision cleared. Her head then, in an instinct, looked upwards to the white ceiling with bright, cold lights glowed downwards to the two Pokémon. She twitched as she slowly realized that something soft was covering her and, when she looked over to what was on her, she realized that it was a blanket made out of Mareep’s wool. The Flareon lifted his head and jumped to her, his face written in surprised and relieved.

“Faith! Don’t try to move much,” The Flareon said, his voice sounding familiar to the Vulpix.

“A-Adrian?” Faith softly asked as her eyes opened up more and saw the Flareon’s green eyes and the silver triangular necklace. “What happened? Where am I?”

“You’re in a hospital,” Adrian answered as he sat next to the bed Faith was on. “What happened was,” he hesitated with his words choked in his throat, “when you touched that Fire Stone, it had exploded. It had blasted all of us away and, when I got up, I went to you as fast as I can. You-your right forepaw was bleeding so badly, I almost vomited. The Kecleon and I managed to get you into a hospital as fast as we can and the doctors here managed to packed your leg up. The Kecleon, I must say, was heavily regretful for what happened, and he not only refunded the Poké you used to buy the Fire Stone but also paid your hospital treatment.”

“Huh. Well, that’s nice of him,” Faith said, straining up a smile.

“Hah! I bet he did it because he doesn’t want you to press charges against you!” a sly voice said nearby, causing Faith’s ears to twitched and Adrian to jumped up.

“GAH!” Adrian yelped out, looking for the source of the voice. Yet, there was only two Pokémon here as far as he can see. And yet. “David! I know you’re here! Stop using Illusion to make yourself invisible!”

“Eh, sure,” the voice responded and a figured phased into existence, standing behind the Flareon with his dark arms around Adrian’s neck. The vulpine face grinned widely with his glorious ponytail-like mane flowing down from his head, red asides from thick stacks of tips. Red markings were around the mouth and eyes of this Pokémon as his red claws rubbed against the unimpressed Flareon.

“Now that I know you’re there, David, that trick doesn’t work on me,” Adrian said, his ears flickered in anger. “Please stop acting like you’re going to kill me or worse.”

“I think kids like you should learn to take a joke,” David said, his arms uncurled around the Flareon’s neck and walked back to the white walls.

“Kids?! You’re barely a year older than us!” Adrian said, his eyes white as his teeth barred at the Zoroark.

“Eh, true. But unlike you two, I got married,” David said as he shrugged and walked up to the Vulpix and gently rubbed the curled-up turfs on her head. “I hope that this makes you feel better.”

Faith, who was struggling to resist a snicker, laughed out loud. “Hahaha! Yes! Thank you, David! You made my day after what happened.”

“Yeah, I’m so sorry about what happened to your leg and paw,” David said as he leaned over and licked Faith’s turfs. “Is there anything I can do to help you.”

Adrian answered before Faith can. “Yes. You can get the doctor here and tell her that Faith is awake.”

“Sure,” David said with a grin and picked up Adrian. Adrian gave out a yap and wiggled against the larger Zoroark’s grip while David hugged the Flareon like he was a stuffed toy.

Faith’s ears flattened back as a growing sense of loneliness grown in her chest. Her eyes darted around the room before she looked at herself and gave out a heavy sigh, unhappy that, even after all of that, she didn’t evolve. Her eyes then looked at the tight wool around her right forepaw and, when she moved it, she felt a sharp pain through it. Her head then fell back onto the pillow as her eyes looked up at the window. A flower encased in a pot was on the open window sill as she heard a buzzing noise through it. A Beedrill appeared, hovered around the flower, and shook her head before flying away.

She blinked, confused about why the Beedrill didn’t take any nectar or pollen from the flower before her ears twitched. Feet pad steps echoed into her ears as she lifted up her head and saw Adrian and David entering the room with another Pokémon.

The Pokémon was a pink and cream colored one who stood on her two stubby legs. She was mostly covered in the color of cream with pink around her torso like it was a lab coat that anthros were said to have worn when they were a part of the world. The top half of the Pokémon’s face was pink while the bottom half was cream with two large, floppy ears with long lobs reaching down to her hips. Her bright green eyes looked at the Vulpix and smiled as she stepped to the bedside.

“Hello. My name is Dr. Lulu Erelah and I am your doctor for the duration of your hospital stay,” the Pokémon called Audino said. “I am glad to see that you’re awake, especially since I sensed something was off during your sleep.”

Faith nodded as fear swelled up inside of her stomach. “What do you mean by that?”

Dr. Erelah doesn’t answer and instead, she pressed one of her earlobes against the Vulpix’s chest. David and Adrian looked on behind the Audino as a concerned expression formed on her face. Adrian managed to look at Dr. Erelah’s face and his green eyes widened.

“Is there anything wrong?” Adrian asked, barely hiding the fear in his voice.

“Yes, there is,” Dr. Erelah responded as she removed the earlobe from Faith’s chest. She then gave out a heavy, wearily sigh. “Your front right leg and paw will be alright. Just give it a week of resting on the bed and another on physical therapy and it’ll be just as good as it was before. But.”

“But what?” David asked, his orange eyes shaking in distress.

“To start with, when you touched that Fire Stone, it actually did trigger your evolution into Ninetales. Yet, as can plainly see, you’re still a Vulpix.” She gestured all over Faith’s body. “The reason why is because, due to the Fire Stone exploding, it placed your body in an evolutionary flux, which is to say that your body is both canceling and enabling your evolution at the same time, canceling each other out. Because of this, even if you find another Fire Stone, one that’s actually is perfectly normal, you cannot evolve.”

Faith felt a sharp pang within her heart while her stomach muscles tightened and her throat dried out. Adrian and David, when they saw her expression, leaned over and petted her. Dr. Erelah, when she saw them, closed her eyes as she gave out another sigh.

“Is-is there anything you or anyone here to help her?” David asked, his face down toward the ground.

“To be honest, I’m not sure what I or anyone can do to help her out,” she said as she shook her head. “There have been no reports as far as I can tell about Pokémon being put in an evolutionary flux. However, that wasn’t even the worse part.”

“Wh-what do you mean by that?” Adrian asked, his eyes drooped down.

“Because a Pokémon evolution generates a lot of energy when it happens so you can change. However, due to her body being put in a state where she’s both evolving and not at the same time, it keeps building up energy for something that won’t happen. Again, I have no idea what will happen due to having no previous case where this happened. But, my best guess is that, after some time, her body will explode in pure energy and she’ll die.”

 Adrian’s mouth and eyes widened in complete horror as tears formed around David’s eyes. Their gaze then turned towards Faith and, while Adrian’s eyes curled down, David’s tears really flow out of his eyes. The Vulpix’s eyes were closed tight as hot water also flown out of her closed eyelids. The Flareon then leaned over and hugged her gently while he patted her back.

“I’m so, so sorry,” Adrian said, struggling not to cry himself.

Dr. Erelah gave out a sigh before her ears twitched, a buzzing sound echoing in the room. She looked up and saw a flower there with a Combee hovering around it. The Combee gave out an angry buzzing noise before flying away. Dr. Erelah, while still looking at the flower in its pot, tilted her head to the side.

“Did you two or anyone else brought a flower for Faith?” the Audino asked as her left ear twitched.

“Huh?” Adrian responded as he looked up at Dr. Erelah. “I didn’t bring a flower. Did you, David?”

“I didn’t bring one myself. I thought it belonged to the hospital,” David said, his triangular ears twitching.

“We don’t have any flowers here,” Dr. Erelah explained. All of them looked at each other before looking back at the flower and all of their eyes widened. The flower that was there was gone.

-----

Despite Dr. Erelah’s estimate on how long Faith needed to stay in the hospital, the Vulpix was out within the week. The Audino examined Faith on the final day and was surprised on her quick recovery before helping Faith checked out. Especially since, as anyone who was helped under Dr. Erelah and worked with her knew, she was rarely wrong on her estimates and especially to such a degree.

Faith, however, didn’t really enjoyed her newfound luck in recovering super quick from her injury since it at least distracted her mind from her failure in evolving with not even a chance of evolving ever again. Yet, there was no one to blame for her incident but herself; she brought the Fire Stone against Adrian’s suggestion and touched it as soon as she could. If she hadn’t been so impatient, she would’ve been alright, still capable of evolving, and perhaps find another Fire Stone to evolve with. How could she ignore the obvious signs of how dangerous it was and how could she ignore her dear friend Adrian’s warning until it was too late? Her ears drooped as she walked out, wondering where had he been for the past week.

Faith passed by several Pokémon as she, at a slow pace, walked to her home. Her baby-blue eyes then saw it, a fairly plain brick house painted dark blue with a wooden grey roof. The dark blue chimney sticking above the house while light green fences surrounded the grassy lawn and the house. Faith gradually walked up the dirt path to her home as she pulled out a key from her pouch. She inserted it into the side of the door, which was a wooden slab, and turned it. The wooden slab lowered onto floor level and she pulled out the key, golden in color. She then entered her home and, with a flick of one of her tails, lifted a small switch, causing the slab to rise up and closed the doorway.

It was a plain single room house with hay as a bed across from the door. The walls were painted light red with a brown wooden cabinet on the right side of the door, the absolute bottom holding a Never-Melt Ice to preserve the foods above. At the left side held a bookcase filled with books about ancient Pokémon Rescuers, Explorers, and Expeditions throughout the six continents of this world. Above it held a framed picture of a sea-blue eyed Ninetales with a green scarf around his neck and a stylized Explorers badge on it with a light green A. At the center of the room was a table with four chair stools around it. Next to the bed was a fireplace filled with a Charcoal, burning a low fire.

Faith walked around the table, pulling out her mint green bow off of her neck and putting it on the table, and flopped onto her bed, the smell of hay entering her nose, as she closed her eyes. She felt a deep desire to sleep for hours, even days, yet she had so much energy that she could not fall asleep. She twisted and turned, so much so that she didn’t notice that there was knocking until a few minutes had passed. She gotten up with a blush on her face and, putting the bow back on, flicked the switch down and opened the doorway. The figure of Adrian sat there, causing her to blink, as he grinned, the pouched he wore holding a book.

“Hello Faith,” Adrian said as he walked inside, the tone he has that sounded like he just recently regained his voice. “I went to the hospital to meet you, but I was told you’ve been discharged. So, I ran all the way here.”

“Adrian!” Faith said as Adrian hopped onto the chair stool. “What’s wrong? You sounded like you ran a hundred miles.”

“I’ve been reading books from the libraries here,” Adrian explained as he pulled out the book from the pouch, “hoping to find the solution to your problem.”

“But-but there shouldn’t be,” Faith blurted out as she hopped onto another chair stool next to Adrian. “You were there. We were told that there hasn’t been a case like mine and they didn’t think there was a solution to the evolutional flux.”

“No medical solution,” Adrain said he gave out a wink. “But I think I founded a solution to it.”

“You did?!” the Vulpix squeaked out in surprise and joy. “What is it? And why wasn’t it suggested to me by the hospital?”

“A couple of reason why I think they didn’t tell you is that they either didn’t know since it’s a very old and rare thing or that it was just too risky to try. As for what it is, we go out to meet Jirachi and ask him for a wish.”

“Jirachi?” Faith remarked as she tilted her head. “Who’s Jirachi?”

“Jirachi is the wish Pokémon,” Adrian explained as he opened the book. “Jirachi has the power to grant wishes to whoever asked for one and it said that he could grant up to three wishes.”

Faith blinked as she looked at the page the Flareon opened up to. It had a colored drawing of a small, white Pokémon. It looked like it was wearing a yellowish cap the size of its head with three tags on the top, right, and left corners, and a pair of bangs hanging down to both sides of its face. A pair of sleeve-like wings was on its arms while a pair of cape-like ribbons hanged down on its back. On its belly, it had a curved seam that reminded Faith of a closed eye.

“Woah,” Faith remarked as she stared at the drawing. “That sounds like it could work!”

“Yeah! Well, aside from a couple of ‘minor’ problems,” Adrian admitted as his left ear flickered and his front leg paws poked at each other.

Faith’s eyes half-closed as she looked at the Flareon. “Should’ve known that it was too good to be true. What are the problems and how ‘minor’ are they?”

“First off, he’s asleep and can only awaken for only seven days in, er, a thousand-year gap.”

“WHAT!?!” Faith screamed out at Adrian, his eyes wide and his ears blown back. “There’s no freaking way this is one of those seven days periods! The chances of that would be-”

“1 in 365,250,” Adrian said as he pressed a paw against Faith’s nose, causing her to blush. “I know. Believe me. There are a couple of alternate ways, though. One is that he can be awakened by a pure voice. Although, I doubt that yours is pure enough.” Faith gave a glare that caused Adrian to shuffled his back-paws. “The other is that we can wake him by fighting him.”

“Oh!” Faith remarked, her ears pointed upwards. “That sounds like that can work.”

“Yes, though there’s another problem connected to this,” Adrian admitted with a sheepish grin. Faith gave an exasperated look while Adrian continued, “Namely, that Jirachi is one of the Mystical Pokémon.”

“Oh,” Faith remarked with a soft voice. Mystical Pokémon were some of the most powerful Pokémon in the world outside of Legendary Pokémon, capable of creating and destroying entire regions on their own. “I admit that I have high doubts about defeating him.”

“I’m very much aware of that,” Adrian said as he placed a paw over the book. “While Jirachi, as said in the book, is part Steel-type, I doubt that we can defeat him. However, it says that you don’t have to defeat him. Just fighting him long enough and hard enough until he wakes up, which I think is more like trying to outlast him. I think we can do just that.”

“Really?” Faith asked with a squeak-like tone. When the Flareon responded with a nod, she glomped him tightly. “Oh, thank you very much!”

“Ack!” Adrian said as he flopped back with the smaller Vulpix on top of him, both falling off of their chair stools.

“Hehe, sorry,” Faith said with a shy smile as her ears flattened to the side of her head. “Anyways, where is Jirachi?”

“That’s the other ‘minor’ problem,” Adrian said as he, with a gentle paw, pushed Faith off of him. “Though one that I have a solution to right away. The book said that he lives in Star Cave, which is thousands of miles away.”

“Well, crud,” Faith said as her tails twitched. “How many thousands of miles to be exact?”

“4,155 miles,” Adrian answered as Faith’s fur stood up straight. Adrian shook his head as he stood up onto his four paws “I’ve also done the math for that. It’ll take 112 days to get there on foot.”

Faith’s ears drooped down. “That sounds like it’ll take forever to get there and back and, given what’s happening in my body, I doubt I’ll make it a quarter of the way there. But you do have a solution to this problem. What is it?”

“We’ll use the Dragonite Travel and Delivery Service!”

“Are you for real?!” Faith yelled out as she stood up straight, her knees shaking. “There’s no way! A one-way trip will cost us around 250,000 Poké! There’s no way you have that much Poké on you!”

“I admit that I don’t. But I’ve been working on a solution for the past week and I managed to succeed,” Adrian explained as he went into a pouch and pulled out two tickets for the service. Faith blinked as she stared at them. “I’ve done a bunch of favors for Mayor Richard and he eventually agreed to send me and one other on a delivery for a fellow mayor at Bojelin-Radeau. Once there, it’s only over 200 miles from Star Cave.”

“Oh wow! That’s amazing!” Faith said as she went over to hug Adrian. The Flareon felt his bones getting crushed as she continued, “Again, thank you!”

“No problem,” Adrian said as he wiggled a paw free and booped Faith’s nose.

The two gave a blush at each other as Faith let go and took a step back.

“Sorry for choking you in joy earlier,” Faith said as her tails fluffed up. “Also, it’s nice of you to start up a fire in my fireplace.”

“Um, no I haven’t. And what fire?” Adrian responded as his ears twitched and he looked at the fireplace.

“You know, the fire in the fi-” Faith tried to answered before pausing. The Charcoal that was on lit on a low flame was gone. She jumped over to it and there wasn’t even ash as remains in the fireplace. Like there never was a Charcoal on fire in the first place.

“Errrrr, I would like to stay at your place, if you don’t mind,” Faith said as she sidestepped towards the bookcase while staring at the fireplace.

“Um, sure. Especially since the flight is scheduled for tomorrow,” the Flareon answered as he looked at the Vulpix with confusion written over his face.

“OK-thank-you!” Faith said as she took the Ninetales picture off from on top of the bookcase and, with a shove, pushed Adrian along with herself out the door. Adrian yelped as he only, after the initial shove, grabbed the book off from the table.

-----

The next day, Faith and Adrian went out to the Dragonite Port. A Dragonite, while a rare species of Pokémon, was still far more common than Legendary and Mystical Pokémon. As such, a group of a thousand Dragonite was formed throughout the world for fast delivery and travel, especially for small Pokémon since they averaged at 7’3”. They, for the most part, delivered mail and packaged between towns and cities for large amounts of Poké and, while they tolerated the small Pokémon, they charged more for them.

When Faith entered the Dragonite Port, shaped like a giant Dragonite with two mailbags wrapped on both sides, her jaw lowered as she looked around the massive place within. Several Dragonite at once flew above the two with their small teal wings, tiny compared to their large, pear-shaped bodies. Their antennae twitched on their heads while they hovered from one wall to the next, picking up mail and packaged on the shelves and stuffing them into their pouches before flying out. Several Dragonite came in just as fast as they left and removed the contents from their bags and, with great care, placed them onto a conveyer belt, where they were carried over to the local delivery service and mail them. Faith wondered how could such big, bulky Dragonite with their minuscule wings be able to move in the air so quickly as she followed Adrian to their Dragonite.

The Dragonite was looking over the packages with his thick arms as his thick tail swung from side to side. Faith observed the striated underbelly, cream-colored, that went from the neck to the tail and the small horn in-between the antennae pair. His gray eyes shifted from the packages to the pair of Fire-type Pokémon in front of him and smiled with his round snout.

“Welcome to Dragonite Port,” he said with an unfitting light voice for such a big body. “My name is Captain Galeron and I’ll be your Dragonite for your flight. Do you have your ticket?”

Adrian nodded and pulled out a pair of tickets from his pouch with a paw and handed it to the Dragonite.

“So,” Captain Galeron said as he looked over the two tickets, “you are Adrian and this is your plus one?”

Adrian nodded and the Dragonite bit a hole into the tickets. He then, with a gentle hand, picked up Adrian and Faith and placed them into an extra-large pouch designed for small Pokémon flight.

“Very good,” Captain Galeron said as he spread out his large wings. “And, with the packages in order, we can start very soon. Though I admit that I could’ve sworn that I was scheduled one less package for today. Might be a last-minute package, though I hope the one had the extra Poké to afford it. Anyways, hold on tight. We’re off to Bojelin-Radeau!”

With a flap of his wings, Captain Galeron hovered over the floor before he flew out of the Dragonite Port. Faith clung onto the wall of the pouch as she felt the Dragonite flew higher and faster. Faith felt pressure in her ears as she gritted her teeth and a sharp whistling sound echoed around the pouch. After what felt like a year of traveling (though it was only an hour), Faith’s limbs felt too tired to clung onto the wall and she breathed in and out, controlling her breathing.

“Try to relax,” Adrian said as he rubbed Faith’s back. “I know it’s rough, especially since we’re traveling beyond the speed of sound.”

“I’m just glad that this pouch is tougher than it looks,” Faith remarked through gritted teeth as she went through her pouch and pulled out a picture of a Ninetales with a green scarf.

“Huh. I didn’t think you’ll take that,” Adrian said with a hint of coldness. “Who is that Ninetales?”

“He’s my idol, the famous Pokémon Explorer,” Faith explained as she stared at the sea blue-eyed Pokémon. “He calls himself A-Ninetales.”

“E-excuse me?” Adrian said as she tried to stifled a snicker. “A-Ninetales? That’s like the dumbest name to call yourself. I-I mean, is there a B-Ninetales or a C-Ninetales? Or how about an edgy X-Ninetales?”

“Hey!” Faith yelled out, feeling her head heating up. “There is, in fact, a good reason why he calls himself A-Ninetales and it’s not because of his custom Explorer’s badge. Look at his back and see.”

Adrian laughed as he scooted up closer to the picture. His eyes skimmed over the Ninetales’ back and saw what looked like a half of an A in light green. He then laughed out even louder.

“S-so he’s ‘A-Ninetales; because of some mark on his back?!” the Flareon asked as he flopped onto his back in a giggle fit. “Heck, I bet that he had it drawn in because he wanted to be cool when it really just looks stupid!”

“He is cool! Cooler than you!” Faith protested as her eyes narrowed at Adrian and her head felt even hotter. “In fact, last I heard of his exploits, he fought the Legendary Pokémon Groudon and won.”

“Hahaha! Wow!” Adrian said as he laughed some more, clutching onto his belly. “T-that meant that either Groudon is weak and dumb for a Legendary or that the story is a complete lie. In fact, I bet that it was a lie because there’s no possible way a Ninetales can go one on one against a Legendary, especially with a type weakness against him, and win!”

Faith glared at the still laughing Flareon as smoke poured out of her mouth. Her sense of sight turned red as she leaped up and slammed her head down against Adrian’s head. The Flareon stopped laughing and instead groan as the Vulpix rolled forward. She looked over Adrian and saw him fell into unconscious as she walked over to the poster and gazed into it more, hearts appearing before her eyes and not noticing how quickly her head pain faded away.

-----

The rest of the flight went on without any more such incident with the fainted Flareon sleeping away as Faith at times looking at the poster and other times read the book Adrian got with the Jirachi info. She felt the pouch shook as the Dragonite slowed down and landed in the Dragonite Port of Bojelin-Radeau. By that time, Adrian woke up with a sore head and a sorer mood.

“You really need to control that temper of yours,” Adrian said through gritted teeth as the Dragonite picked up both Faith and Adrian from out of the pouch. “That could kill someone someday.”

“Maybe if you’ll learn not to make fun of my idols and thus make fun of me, I’ll do so,” Faith replied, her tone cold as Captain Galeron lowered them onto the floor.

“I suggest that, for your return trip, that you’ll behave better,” Captain Galeron said as he loomed over the two. “Just be glad that it was only a headbutt since you’re both Fire-types here and can burn this pouch into ashes. If you did, you’ll die crashing into the ground going over a thousand miles an hour until you two are nothing but dust if our lungs didn’t burst first.”

“Sorry Captain,” both Faith and Adrian said in a union and lowered their heads.

“It’s no worries. Just keep that in mind for your return trip,” the Dragonite said before he gave a hearty laugh and patted both of their heads. “Assuming that you’ll be flying back with us and not with the Pidgeot Aerial Express, our blossoming rivals.”

“Don’t worry. We will,” Faith responded with a smile as her eyes shifted to Adrian. The Flareon’s fur ruffled as he gave a stiff nod.

“Anyways, have a safe trip!” Captain Galeron said before he spread out his wings and he hovered away.

The two Pokémon stepped through the Dragonite Port towards the exit without a word as she continued to look at Adrian. She noted that he was looking at the ground as if he was carrying heavy weight over his back. Soon they walked out of the Dragonite Port and Faith’s eyes widened as she looked out and saw the amount of water Pokémon around and the giant Floatzel statue at the center of the city with a ring of eight Floatzel statues surrounding the city.

There were stories when the word was full of giant Pokémon that a refugee of water Pokémon was defended by a group of nine giant Floatzel. This group, all brothers and sisters, defended the small with their lives while they were alive. While they were not known for their size (the largest was at 75 feet, only barely getting into the top 50 largest Pokémon relative to their normal size), they were known and remembered for loyalty to each other and their teamwork which had defeated far larger Pokémon.

The Vulpix and the Flareon soon reached the center of the town, with Faith feeling nervous around the many water Pokémon. The two looked around and, with a poke from Adrian, she followed him to a stone building, delicately carved with water in the shapes of lines and Pokémon figures that shown the nine Floatzel with the largest at the center. Adrian gestured Faith to wait outside as she looked up at the carving in awe, each figure holding what looked like a light.

After an hour had passed, Adrian stepped out of the building, looking both happy and nervous. Faith smiled at him as she leaped towards him and licked his cheek.

“Did it go well?” Faith asked as she then noses his cheek.

“It went as well as I expected,” Adrian answered as he gave an anxious smile. “Most of the time was spent on her giving a detailed history of Bojelin-Radeau and what it means.”

“Aww. Lucky,” Faith responded as she stood beside the Flareon. “So, we rest, get ready, go to Star Cave, get a wish, and come back here for the return trip.”

“Yeah, about that,” Adrian said as his ears flattened to the sides.

Faith blinked and remembered the Flareon’s body language an hour and a half ago as her mind clicked and her stomach tightened. “You didn’t have a ticket for a return trip.”

“No, I did not,” Adrian said before he blinked and looked at Faith’s face.

Faith’s eyes narrowed as she said in a controlled fury voice, “So tell me, how can we get home other than walking all the way there, losing a third of a year in the progress?”

“D-don’t worry,” Adrian said as he took a step back and seemed to shrink in size. “I thought of that as well. Namely that, since we’re going to face Jirachi anyways and he grants up to three wishes-”

“Except that we can’t guarantee can outlast Jirachi, let alone defeat him!” the Vulpix cut in, her voice becoming colder. “After all, I’m unevolved and you’re a Flareon, who is more well known for their good looks, not for their ability to fight.”

“Hey!” Adrian said, his right ear flopped to the side. “I’m capable of fighting Jirachi.”

“So, we are left without a backup plan in case it’s too much for us,” Faith muttered under her breath, not noticing the Flareon’s comments.

“Besides, it’s not like I didn’t try to have a backup plan,” the Flareon explained as his tail twitched. “I did try to get Mayor Richard to give me a return ticket, but he was unwilling to pay out the funds for that since this year’s touring season to see the bones of our great protector has been so low. He did offer to let it wait a month or so to get the needed funds, but I declined.”

“So, basically we’re trapped because you didn’t have the patient to wait a month,” Faith observed as she rolled her eyes.

“It-it’s not like that,” Adrain said as he took another step back. “It’s that, when I heard that you were recovering much faster than you such, I feared that it was the build-up energy caused by your evolutionary flux that causes it and that, I thought, the timeline of your body reaching your limit is much sooner than we expected. As such, I fear that, if we wait, then you wouldn’t-you wouldn’t-”

Faith blinked as she saw the Flareon exploded into tears. He crouched down, tears swelling out of his eyes as his ears flattened back. Faith’s ears also flattened back as she walked up to Adrian’s side and rubbed his back. She felt thorns in her heart as she recalled her recent actions and words to the crying, scared Flareon.

“Oh, Adrian. I’m so, so sorry,” Faith said as she rubbed her cheek against his, tears swelling out of her eyes as well.

(19:14:28) Virmir: All of Foxgamer's pics are either super happy or BATTLE.
(19:14:53) Virmir: Except that one roo one.
--


foxgamer01

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Reply #1 on: December 22, 2018, 01:15:24 AM
Here is part two of the story. This is where things get interesting and where we have our first proper macro Pokémon appearance. Enjoy!

++++++++++

For the night they had stayed in a hotel, which Faith felt alienated since she was far too used to the wooden buildings of her own home that the stone buildings felt so strange to be in. At the very least the bedding was made of soft hay, which she was happy about. Adrian slept on a hay bed separate from her, which made her feel lonely for some reason, but she figured that it had to do with being so sleepless that night as well.

The next day after they paid for the room, the Vulpix and the Flareon went to various stores to get supplies for their two to three-day hike up and through the mountains nearby. Meanwhile, Faith felt a throbbing pain in her head that wouldn’t go away no matter how much she twisted and turned her head. She hoped that Adrian wouldn’t notice her neck stretches and stumbling during their walks through and out of the city, but when they were only a few steps out, he turned around and looked at her with a critical eye.

“Is everything alright?” the green-eyed Flareon asked as he walked around her.

“Yes, yes. Everything is alright,” Faith insisted before she, overwritten by instinct, shook her head again. “Although, I have been getting a nasty headache.”

“Glad to hear that you’re perfectly alright aside from one thing,” Adrian remarked as he rolled his eyes. “Not to mention that I did notice that you were unable to sleep last night.”

“I-it’s no worries! Honest!” Faith declared as she tightened the pouches and small bags on her, gained from their shopping trips. “Just been so nervous. That’s all.”

Adrian’s left eye half closed as his right ear flattened to the side. Then, with a quick paw, he placed a paw onto Faith’s forehead and rubbed it. Adrian’s eyes widened, his ears shot up, and his tail fluffed up as Faith shook the paw off of her.

“What was that for?!” Faith demanded as she glared at the Flareon.

“Faith,” Adrian said with a soft voice, “you’re burning up. I mean, like you’re on an open fire burning up. Are you sure you’re not sick?”

“Yes, I’m not sick!” Faith replied with her ears flattened back and her fur bristled. “It’s just a headache. That’s all!”

“Or is it just a headache?” a new voice said close to them.

Both Faith and Adrian blinked as they stared at each other before looking around. Soon Faith spotted a gray-brown colored Pokémon leaning against the exit gate, her arms crossed. This Pokémon was large compared to the two as she stood up with her two legs, her red claws clicking on the stone ground. The triangular ears flickered as her red ponytail-like mane somewhat dragged on the ground. Her face, with the red rimmings on her mouth and eyes, was a satisfied smirk as she holds a large pouch around her waist.

“It’s nice to finally properly meet you, Faith and Adrian,” the Zoroark said.

“W-what? You know our names?” Adrian squeaked out as he took a step back, his green eyes wide. “H-how did you know? And what are you doing here?”

“Oh, I’m just here to do one last test before you two meet Jirachi,” the Zoroark explained as she shook her mane off of the ground with a hand. Faith blinked as she stared at that arm, noticing an unusual device grafted onto it.

“She-she knows that we’re finding Jirachi!” Adrian said as his ears flattened back in horror. “Who are you? Some sort of guardian protecting Jirachi?”

“Oh, ho ho ho,” the Zoroark remarked as her eyes shined in the light. “I’m not that important and I doubt any Pokémon can be ‘guardians’ of Legendary and Mythical Pokémon without being Legendary and Mythical themselves. I’m just a simple, not so normal Pokémon who spends time researching the old anthro technology left behind.”

“Anthro technology?” Adrian asked. “What does that have to do with us? And you still didn’t answer our question. How did you know our names?”

“Haven’t you guessed?” the Zoroark remarked as her grin widened. “I’ve been following and observing you since Faith touched my Fire Stone.”

“Your Fire Stone?” Faith said, her mind flashed to the Fire Stone that exploded during her evolutionary progress. “You mean you set it to explode on me?!”

“It was just simple research,” the Zoroark explained as she shook her head. “To test out an anthro tech, which could convert ordinary stones to evolutionary stones. Though I must say, I didn’t expect it to explode. At worse, I’d expected for you to evolve into a giant Ninetales, which is why I’ve been observing you in the shadows until now, hiding in the hospital, your homes, and your flight here.”

Both Faith and Adrian blinked as their memories flashed back to those times.

“You were the potted plant that Bug-type Pokémon wouldn’t go near in Faith’s hospital room!” Adrian said with his eyes wider.

“And you were the low burning fire and Charcoal in my home!” Faith squeaked, her eyes just as wide.

“And I followed as an ‘extra package’ in the Dragonite flight,” the Zoroark concluded as she flicked dust from her shoulder. “All to see what will happen. But alas, it was all for nothing. Because, Faith, your evolutionary flux is in acceleration now. It’s speeding up. Your body is building up more energy than can be safely dispersed far faster now. Your body heating up is the symptom of that. In time, you will die of the overflow and I can imagine that the result of that will be a city-sized crater. Such a shame.”

“You,” Faith muttered under her breath in a controlled voice. “You evil-”

Faith then sprinted towards the Zoroark, not seeing anything else but her, with deep fires in her eyes. But the Zoroark gave a swift kick to the side of Faith’s head, knocking her off her paws and flung a few feet away. She growled as she braced her paws to get up, only for a dark foot with red claws meeting Faith’s cheek, pinning her down.

“Feisty little one, aren’t you?” the Zoroark commented as she crossed her arms. “Again, it’s such a shame that you won’t last long in the world.”

“Faith!” Faith yelled out before breathing in. He opened his mouth and a burst of fire came out. “Flamethrower!”

The Zoroark leaped out of the way, the flames flying over Faith where the intended target was. The Zoroark grinned wider as she held her arms cross with her hands near her face.

“You want to battle me?” the Zoroark yelled back, her eyes wide and filled with confidence. “The great Maya? You’ve made a grave mistake!” She swung her arms and spiky stones appeared from her hands. “Stealth Rock!”

The stones fell around Faith and Adrian, both blinking at the attack.

“Wait. A Zoroark shouldn’t be able to use Stealth Rock,” Adrian commented under his breath. “Must be an Illusion.”

Faith rolled up onto her paws and took a deep breath. She opened her mouth, eyes staring at Maya. Breath only came out.

“What’s wrong?” Adrian asked as his ears twitched and his eyes shifted to Faith, the Vulpix coughing her lungs out.

“I-I tried to use Flamethrower, but nothing came out,” Faith explained, her face red from stress.

“W-w-what?! You can’t be serious, Faith!” Adrian yelled out as the Zoroark before the two rubbed her lower jaw.

“Mmmmm. Very interesting. A Fire-type that can’t use a fire attack,” Maya said with a smug grin. “Of course, the most likely reason is that your body is so swollen from the evolutionary flux’s energy it’s actually blocking out your firebase attacks. I guess you can’t do nothing more than just Roar at me.”

Adrian let out a low growl as he bent his knees and charged ahead. “Quick Atta-”

Paw met stone.

Adrian jumped up from the pain, the sharp rock following from within Adrian’s front right paw, blood coming out in small amounts. He fell down on his back and slid towards Maya, who gave a toothy grin.

“W-what? That Stealth Stone attack was faked,” Adrian said as he glared up towards Maya, walking towards him while licking her teeth.

“No. That attack is very much as real as my next one,” Maya said as she opened her mouth. “Crunch!”

Her fangs pierced Adrian’s shoulder, causing the Flareon to gave out a sound-piercing scream. She lifted him off the ground, shook him to the point that he felt like his leg was going to get ripped off, and threw him several feet away. The Flareon twitched on the ground as the Zoroark stepped closer.

“NO!” Faith cried out as she stepped over Adrian’s body, smoke coming out of her mouth. A glow emitted from there as a small fireball came out. “Flame Burst!”

Maya gave out a laugh as she swung her arms to their side, welcoming the attack. The ball of fire, in response, exploded with a force that can blow up a stone wall. Faith blinked as smoke and dust covered up the Zoroark, who was flung back with a great force onto the wall, causing it to shatter. The smoke cleared up as Maya fell onto the ground, fur covered in sparks, as she gritted her teeth on all four.

Her mane gradually shortened from its hair-like form as her neck thickened out and four red spikes protruded around it. She also grew out a tail as the teal fell from her ‘hair’ to her tail between the base and tip. Her body morphed from an anthro stance to a feral stance as her fur color changed from dark gray to light brown and white while still retaining the red claws. Her face also changed from a vulpine to a lupine look, with white around her eyes and muzzle and light brown on her forehead between the eyes and large turfs of fur on her cheeks, though she still had the red rimmings around her eyes.

Adrian rolled himself up and blinked, staring at Faith’s surprised face, before changing his gaze towards Maya, his face twisted into just as surprised.

“W-what are you?!” Adrian asked through gritted teeth as the changed Maya glared at them.

“The truth is, I am really a Lycanroc,” Maya answered as she crouched low and walked towards them. “Specifically, the Midday-form.”

“But a Lycanroc doesn’t have the Ill-” Faith froze when the unusual Lycanroc gave a soul-piercing stare.

“An accident happened when I was researching one of the anthro technology,” Maya explained in a cold voice. “An accident that happened because I was attacked by a Zoroark. Apparently, I was too close to her territory when I was testing it. It grafted some of her traits to me, including the ability Illusion. I don’t know if the same happened to her, but I hoped so. Although I admit that the ability she inadvertently gave me was very useful, especially with my greatest prize, the additions to my looks were very unnecessary.

“Now then,” she continued as her eyes darkened, “taste the true potential of Illusion empowered by the greatest anthro technology!”

The device on her front-right leg hummed as a shadow formed around the Lycanroc until she became just as dark. The shadow that was Maya then started to grow in size as Faith and Adrian looked on in horror. Their necks bent upwards as the darkness kept on growing and became more solid. The ground cracked below the paws of the giant as the colors returned to Maya until the only real difference between her before and after was she was 20 feet large.

The giant Lycanroc grinned as Faith and Adrian looked up in fear. The Vulpix grabbed the Flareon’s scruff with her mouth and tried to drag him back, yet he was too big for her. She then hugged Adrian from behind as Maya raised a paw above them.

POP!

Zzzzzzzz

Maya gritted her teeth as one eye closed as the device on her exploded and gave out sparks. The giant Lycanroc soon lost her colors and became shadow again as she shrunk in size. The shadowy Maya figure shortened down more until she was her normal size. She panted as she stood on the cracks she made with her massive mass before as the device gave out more sparks.

“Grah. So, it failed again,” Maya said as she ripped it off of her with her jaws and placed it on the ground. “Though it’s much better this time.”

“T-that’s impossible,” Adrian blurted out, his green eyes wide with fear as his fur shot up straight. “I-Illusion doesn’t have the power to cause true physical changes. Just make them look and feel real.”

Maya gave out a laugh. “You’re a clever one, aren’t you? While it’s true that it was Illusion, this amazing anthro technology can amplify it to such an amazing point that it does become real, not imaginary. That’s what makes it the real jewel in the stash of leftover technology made by the anthros. But it needs more power and something that could store that power safely in order for it to really work. Thought I had it this time with some help, but, as can be plainly seen, it still needed work.

“Just considered yourself lucky this time,” she continued as she gave out a quick glare at the two. “But know this, when I finally got it working, I need a test area. And I do believe I know the perfect place. We’ll meet again.”

Maya then picked up the device, which had stopped giving out sparks, with her mouth and faded from sights, leaving the two Fire-type Pokémon there. Faith then, with a slow pace, went over to where the Lycanroc stood and touched the cracks. They felt real, too real. And they didn’t disappear when Maya did.

“I-I can’t believe it,” Adrian said, his voice shook with fear. “Illusion shouldn’t have any physical effect. It can make you feel like you’re in a real landscape, but it shouldn’t actually make it a reality. Just indistinguishable from it.”

“Yet these cracks are as real as us,” Faith pointed out, her voice also full of fear. “Not to mention that kick from before.”

“What do you mean?” Adrian asked, doing his best to stand up.

“That ability, Illusion, shouldn’t let a Zoroark, or in this case, a Lycanroc, truly change into another form. Just make it looks like they can,” Faith explained as she looked back at Adrian. “Yet, she seemed to actually be a Zoroark, not a Lycanroc pretending to be a Zoroark; especially since a Lycanroc like her would have difficulty pretending that she’s the more anthro Zoroark. So how could’ve she have faked that kick?”

Adrian blinked as his fur fluffed up. “Still, we wouldn’t discount it being an Illusion. After all, it can be so convincing that, from what notes that were left over from the anthros, even their machines were fooled.”

“Even then, these cracks shouldn’t still be here since she’s long gone. I don’t think there’s any doubt that it works as she said it does.”

Adrian closed his eyes as he limped towards Faith, his mind spinning with facts. When he got to Faith his eyes opened up. “Whatever it was, she’s gone and we have other pressing concerns. Namely that, if she was telling the truth, we need to find Star Cave and confront Jirachi to get a wish from him as soon as possible. Before your swelling power kills you along with anything nearby.”

“I know,” Faith said, her head feeling like it’s in some furnace. “Also, that Flame Burst attack I hit her with. You saw how little it was and how much it packed a punch like a Voltorb using Explosion.”

Adrian nodded as his gaze changed to the mountains. “Then we can’t waste time on waiting until my paw gets better. We need to get there.”

-----

The two Pokémon, after Faith had wrapped up Adrian’s injuries, walked towards the mountains, with snow still atop of their caps. Faith felt like a Shuckle crawling towards a hill only ten feet away, with the imposing mountains barely changing their height even after hours had passed. The day had turned into night with Adrian flopped down on the grass to sleep, though Faith couldn’t join him in sleep. The ability to sleep, she felt, had left her.

The next day the two continued to walk towards the mountain and Adrian felt the air gradually become colder as they went closer. The Flareon, once or twice, shivered as he looked at the Vulpix with concerned, yet realized that she wasn’t cold at all. He went closer and felt the heat like from the summer’s sun being emitted out of her.

They kept on walking towards the mountains towards the day and, faster, it had seemed taller than before. Yet they only reached the base of the mountains next to a river when night crawled over the sky, with stars shining down them and the moon half full and waning. Adrian set up a fire and slept near it while Faith sat near the water, the river so cold that it almost felt like tasting ice.

Throughout that time, Faith didn’t have a bite to eat.

The next morning, as soon as the Flareon’s eyes snapped opened, he turned around and looked towards Faith and found her near the river, alive and breathing. The ground below her was emitting a glow as it seemed to slightly melt from just her touching it. Adrian ate his breakfast in a quick pace and offered the Vulpix what remained of it.

“No thanks. I’m not hungry,” Faith said as she looked down at the river.

“Is there anything wrong?” Adrian asked, his green eyes shook. “You need to eat if you want all the strength you need.”

“No. I’m not hungry,” Faith responded as she leaned down to the river. “I just feel thirsty.”

Adrian blinked as she drank from the river directly with no sign of discomfort from the cold. He hovered a paw over the running water and felt the cold emitting from it, a cold that could freeze a Slugma. He then hovered it over Faith and felt heat like lava coming out of her body.

“I believe I know what you’ll say,” Adrian said, his ears flattened to their sides, “but are you feeling alright?”

Faith stopped drinking as she sat down again, her eyes closed. “No, I’m not. I’ve been feeling worse since we left Bojelin-Radeau. It-it felt like I’ve been using Flash Fire to absorb a never-ending fire. Like the Legendary Pokémon Arceus came down and blessed me with a small amount of his power, yet it’s still too much for my small body. I feel far, far more power than I can handle. I-I can’t take it! I want it to end!”

She then leaped towards Adrian and gave him a tight hug. He gave out a winced since, while a Fire-type like him could handle intense heat, it felt like he was tossed into lava. Yet he hugged her back and patted the turf of fur on her head.

“Don’t worry. We will end it. One way or another. Let’s go and find the Star Cave and, I promise you, that we will get the wish needed to save you.” Adrian then nosed Faith on her nose and steamed appeared between their nose. He blinked and pulled out his nose while waving his paw at it. “There must be some clue to the location to Star Cave.”

“Well, along the way in that Dragonite flight,” Faith explained as she undone her bow, “I read that,

Five points with five ends and one middle,

The core of the star illuminates where to meddle.

I don’t know what it means, but I’m sure it’ll make sense once we start searching.”

“Faith,” Adrian said he’s given the bow from Faith.

“At this rate I’m heating up, I need it to be kept safe,” Faith explained as she smiled. “Keep it until we meet Jirachi or forever if we can’t.”

Adrian blushed as he felt his stomach muscles tightened, yet he decided to say nothing. So, the two then packed up their camp before they went out to explore around the base of the mountains, looking for the entrance to Star Cave.

Hours passed by at a slow pace, with the sun crawling higher into the sky, while Faith stumbled a number of times. Every time Adrian helped her up and he felt her body getting hotter. It’s to the point that he wondered if, by just being on the very peak of one of the mountains, that she could melt all the snow away,

“Let’s go a little faster, Faith,” Adrian said with a nervous grin.

“I’m trying,” Faith responded, her ears flattened to their sides.

By midday, Faith and Adrian explored half a mile worth of nothing but dead-end caves, a steep cliffside, and loose boulders rolling beside them. The Flareon, after walking out of the fifth dead-end cave on one mountainside, walked passed Faith and down the side, his ears drooped as low as his tail. The Vulpix followed him, one of her ears flattened to the side. When Adrian stopped he gave out a heavy sigh.

“I-it’s no use, Faith,” Adrian said, his back to her. “Even if the cave is here, I don’t think we can find it in time. I’m so sorry for failing you, my dear friend.”

“Don’t say such things,” Faith responded as she went around him and to his face. “If we gave up now, then it’ll really be no use.”

“How can we be able to find it then?” Adrian asked, his eyes closed. “All the writings about Star Cave say that it’s around in these mountains, but we’ve searched for hours with no sign of getting there.”

“I’m sure there got to be some clue around in the mountains,” Faith insisted, getting close to the Flareon. “L-like a five-pointed star drawing or something. After all, how else would-” she paused for a couple of seconds. “Would someone find it?”

“Exactly,” Adrian said as he shook his head. “But whatever this clue or drawing is, it must be too subtle for us.”

“Or it might be staring at our faces.”

“Perhaps it’s so old that it wore out over the ages. After all, who knows when was the last time-”

“Adrian!”

Adrian looked up, his eyes opened, and saw that Faith wasn’t in front of him. He looked back and found her standing behind him looking up at the mountainside with the five caves on it, one at the top, two below it spread out, and two below them closer. The Flareon stared at the Vulpix, who’s waving her right paw around as one of her eyes closed and her ear flickered.

“Faith, what are you-”

“Getting the idea where the sixth cave it. The one that’ll lead us to Jirachi,” Faith answered as her one eye opened and the other eyes closed while leaning her neck to the side.

“Sixth cave? What are you talking abo-”

“Think, Adrian! Remember the poem I said this morning?

Five points with five ends and one middle,

The core of the star illuminates where to meddle.

This is what the poem was referring to!”

“I don’t get what you-” Adrian began as he looked at the cave openings again and felt something clicked in his mind. His mind pictured lines, lines that connected to each of the caves. The lines get longer in his mind until they formed a five-pointed star. “You have got to be kidding me.”

Faith and Adrian pounced over to the center of the ‘star’ with Faith following. Hopping over from boulder to ground and back onto the boulder, they reached to the heart of it. From pure sight, it looked like a rocky wall of a mountainside. Faith tilted her head and pressed a paw against it, her paw phasing through.

“So, there is a hidden sixth cave,” Faith said as she went in with the Flareon following. Both Pokémon’s eyes widened when they went through the fake wall and saw within the hidden cave.

White gems illuminated the cave from the walls that have a bluish-purple hue. The ground had what looked like small craters appearing occasionally with small back rocks at the center of each one. But what really amazed them was, at the surface of the cave’s ceiling, a blueish-white five-pointed star glowing down to them.

“We made it,” Faith said with a soft tone. She then declared much louder, “We actually made it!”

“Yes, we did,” Adrian said before he was pounced by the Vulpix. Her body was burning hot, enough that even Adrian felt pain from the intense heat. But he suppressed a yelp by gritting his teeth and hugged Faith back with a forced smile. “Now, let’s find Jirachi.”

-----

The two Fire-type Pokémon traveled through the cave, what was long and filled with turns. Sometimes upwards, sometimes downwards, and sometimes in spirals, they went, with them wondering if they even traveled to another mountain next to this one. All sense of directions and even time had left them, with the only thing certain was the path they’re on.

In the end, after what felt like a week of nonstop walking through the one tunnel, they had entered a pit that was huge, both in how spacious and high up the ceiling was. White gems glowed on the walls with craters littered on the ground. Yet these craters left the five-pointed star engraving, as large as two Groudon standing on top of each other and just as wide, at the center of the room untouched. At the center of the star was a purple crystal while had multiple gems sticking out of it.

Both Adrian and Faith, with caution, walked towards the purple crystal, their fur bristled with fear. The two stepped onto the engraving, going closer until they were close enough to even touch it. Their eyes were wide with fear, wonder, and confusion.

“Is that supposed to be Jirachi?” Faith asked as she looked over the crystal. “This looks nothing like the drawing in that book.”

“. . . . . . . . . . . . Phewwwww . . .”

Both Fire-type Pokémon blinked as they looked around. “Did you say something?”

“I didn’t say anything,” Adrian responded.

“So sleepy . . . Yaaaaawn . . .”

“Who’s there?” Adrian demanded, his fur bristled more.

“. . . Whooo iis iit?” a child-like voice said, not heeding any of Faith and Adrian’s words. “Whoooo’s therrre? Yaaaawn . . .”

“Er,” Faith said as she looked up to the ceiling of the pit. “My name’s Faith. Who are you?”

“Meee? Yaaaaawn . . .” the voice said, echoing through the pit. “Fwaaaaaahhhhhhh . . . I’m . . . I’m . . .”

“Get back, Faith!” Adrian said with a sudden urgency in his voice.

Faith turned her head down towards the crystal and her eyes widened. The crystal glowed in bright, white light, brighter than any of the gems in the cave. She took some steps back as the crystal illuminated brighter, enough that it felt like the day just appeared within the cave. Both the Vulpix and the Flareon covered their faces with a paw when the light became too much for them.

The light, at a slow pace, faded away as Faith and Adrian uncovered their eyes. They looked ahead and saw a small humanoid Pokémon, largely white in color, but also yellow with a bit of blue. The ‘sleeves’ on the arms flapped along with the three of the blue tags and streamers on the back. The Pokémon’s eyes were closed while floating above there the crystal was.

“I’m Jirachi,” the Pokémon said while it still appeared to be sleeping. “Yaaaaawn.”

Both Faith and Adrian stared at Jirachi with wonder and a bit of fear.

“So, you’re Jirachi?” Adrian asked as he stood next to Faith. “To be honest, I was expecting you to be larger, not so small and, um, cute.”

“Mmm-hmm . . . That’s right,” Jirachi answered. “Speaking of . . . Whoooo are yoooooou?”

“Oh, um. I guess I didn’t introduce myself,” Adrian responded as he gave a nervous smile. “My name’s Adrian.”

“Whaaaaaat?” Jirachi asked, his head tilted like he was getting into a better position to lay down his head on a pillow. “Zzz . . . Snorf . . .”

Faith and Adrian blinked as they took a look at each other. “He’s not listening to us, is he?”

“I don’t think so,” Adrian said as he shook his head. “Or at least he’s forgetting super-fast because his 1000 yearlong sleep was interrupted.”

“Well, either way,” Faith said as she turned to Jirachi. “Is it true that you can grant wishes?”

“Yep, it’ssss truuuuuuue. Yaaaaawn . . .” Jirachi answered as he glowed blue. “But right now, I’m pretty sleeeepy, so I can’t really help you. Sorrrry . . . Zzz . . . Zzzz . . . Snorf . . .

“And . . .” Jirachi continued as he glowed brighter and lifted his heads up into the air. The light then morphed off of Jirachi himself and into a ball over his hands. He then tossed the ball at Faith, who braced herself to jump away, yet the ball disappeared halfway. “I usually toss and turn in my sleep . . . Zzz . . . Snorf . . .”

“Toss and turn are right,” Adrian commented as he felt a flame in his throat, swallowing all fear. “Are you ready, Faith?”

Faith stared at Jirachi with fear and surprised as her head pulse from a massive headache. Her belly was tight, especially with the uncontrolled and near impossible to be released flame within her. Her baby blue eyes shook as her paws felt sore from walking for hours yet were still fine. She then closed her eyes and imagined the giant Maya from who knows how long since she last met her, before opening them, filled with determination.

“So, if you’re nearby . . . I’ll probably attack you . . . Sorry if I do . . . Zzzz . . . Snorf . . .”

“Ready as I’ll ever be, Adrian,” Faith answered. “Let’s wake him up!”

“Yaaaaawn . . .” Jirachi said had his head glows bright purple and he charged at Adrian. “I’m so sleepy . . .”

Adrian gave out a yip as he jumped out of the way from Jirachi’s attack. The yellow Pokémon flew on towards to a wall, causing a psychic explosion and the pit to rumble. Loose rocks fell down while Faith and Adrian braced themselves from them. When the last of the rocks hit the ground, the two Fire-type Pokémon looked at the massive dust cloud where Jirachi slammed against the pit’s wall. The dust fell and there floated Jirachi, still sleeping and unharmed with a giant dent on the wall.

“Flamethrower!” Adrian shouted as a streak of flames came out of his mouth and hit Jirachi dead on. Jirachi mumbled in his sleep as he charged at the Flareon again with a purple light glowing on his head. The yellow Pokémon charged through the flames coming out from the horrified Adrian and was halfway there when Faith jumped forward.

“ROAR!” Faith shouted as a massive sound blast knocked Jirachi a tad off course and zoomed beside the Flareon and into the wall.

Adrian blinked before giving out a sigh. “Thanks.”

“Now’s not the time for ‘thanks’,” Faith responded as she hopped over to Adrian’s side and looked at the wall where Jirachi made his impact. “Especially since he not only went through a Flamethrower like it was nothing but even a powerful Roar only barely knocked him off course.”

“Yeah. Do you feel like you can force your flames to come out now?” the Flareon said as the dust settled and the Jirachi floated there with not even a scratch on him. “Because, at this rate, I think even a Flamethrower from you can defeat him.”

Faith nodded and she breathed in and out, doing her best to force out the fire. Yet only breath came out. “Adrian, I-I’m doing my best. But I can’t get it out.”

Adrian gritted his teeth while Jirachi ahead breathed in. “Damn it. If you can’t use even a minor Flame Burst, then we’re so screwed.”

A blast of water came out of Jirachi’s mouth towards the two Fire-type Pokémon, who stared back in astonishment. Both Faith and Adrian jumped out of the way as the ring of water flew passed them into the wall and drilled into it.

“I wasn’t expecting that!” Faith yelled out, fear inscribed all over her body. “Now I really need to force out some flames!”

“Yeah!” Adrian responded, dread also running from his head to his tail while the water attack stopped. “We really need it! Or a miracle!”

“I-I’ll do my best,” Faith said as a blue ball of energy reappeared behind her and fired itself again towards the Vulpix. Faith only had a second to look back, her eyes wide as a pair of Electrode, before the attack impacted her. She was sent flying over the Flareon and crashed into the wall, with the only thing he could do was stare. Adrain turned around and prepped himself to sprint where Faith made her impact on the wall, only for Jirachi and his glowing purple head to slammed against him. A psychic explosion occurred, sending the Flareon soaring into a wall himself.

Adrian let out a grunt as he fell off from the Flareon-shaped crater and onto the ground. His mind spun, like he did a hundred flips in a second, as he groaned and struggled to get back up to his paws, feeling massive pain all over his body. His sight cleared as he saw Jirachi breathed in. The Flareon attempted to move, yet his knees buckled down. He then closed his eyes and thought of sweet, sweet Fai-

“ROAR!!” Adrian heard as he shot open his eyes. The ground crumbled around him as a massive blast of water slammed and drilled against the wall, sprinkle of a water landing on his fur as his ears heard a high piercing noise of stone cracking.

Ahead he saw Faith panting next to Jirachi, who’s water attack was still ongoing. She then gritted her teeth as she breathed in and out, yet only smoke came out of her mouth. Jirachi then floated upwards to the ceiling, his body emitting a bright glow. Adrian’s eyes widened as Jirachi surrounded himself in streaks of lights colored silver and purple, shining as bright as a clear night’s star.

“No, no, no. It can’t end like this,” Adrian said, his voice filled with dread. “He’s using Doom Desire! Stop him, Faith!”

Yet Faith looked up in dismay herself, her tails puffed up and her eyes wide. The light emitted by Jirachi was, by that point, almost too much for her. She closed her eyes, in part in an attempt to block the light and in part to remember. Memories flashed, of her parents, of meeting Adrian for the first time as an Eevee, of him evolving into a Flareon, of receiving news of her parents’ death while in an explorers’ mission.

Her mind then flashed to her failed evolution attempt, her hospital’s stay where she learned of her fatal condition, flying in Dragonite’s pouch in a journey to fix her condition, confronting Maya who indirectly caused it, and discovering the entrance to Star Cave. Her breathing calmed down, the image of Adrian on her mind as she opened her eyes. She glared upwards at the sleeping Jirachi, now glowing as bright as a sun before he fired the light in a concentrated bundle.

“FLAME,” Faith screamed out as she breathes in, “THROWER!!!”

Fire from Faith’s mouth met light at the middle before the flames overwhelmed the light. It plowed through Doom Desire, sending itself and Jirachi’s attack back towards the sleeping Pokémon. The combined attack slammed against Jirachi, with them drilling upwards through the thick rocks.

-----

Two Pokémon, the smaller one on top of the bigger one’s head, where traveling towards the mountains themselves when they saw a bright light piercing up through the night’s sky. They stopped walking as they stared at the line of lights, red, orange, purple, and white, shining from one of the mountains. The larger Pokémon sit down, creating a slight shake on the ground, as the smaller one jumped off.

“Well, that’s curious,” the smaller Pokémon commented as a gush of air blasted from the mountains and blowing back the turf of fur on his head. “Under one of those mountains, it is said that Jirachi sleeps there. Did someone disturb his slumber?”

“Must be another Legendary Pokémon or a Mythical one,” the larger Pokémon said as the fur on the side of her face was also blown back from the sudden gush of wind. “After all, there’s no possible way a normal Pokémon or even a pseudo-Legendary Pokémon could do that attack. That attack is way too powerful than anyone under Legendary could do.”

“That, I’m not too sure of,” the smaller one responded as he looked up at the larger one. “After all, we’re not ‘normal’, are we?”

“A fair point since you did defeat a Groudon,” the larger one said as she gave out a mischievous grin. “Either way, shall we check it out?”

“I will,” the smaller one said. “It’s not that I doubt your capabilities, my love. But if they are in the mountains, I doubt that you’ll be able to fit into the cave entrance. Besides, given from the light, at least one of them is a Fire-type and I have a massive advantage against them thanks to my ability.”

The larger one sighed as she lay down, her fur brushing against the tree branches next to her. “Very well. Good luck and come back safely.”

(19:14:28) Virmir: All of Foxgamer's pics are either super happy or BATTLE.
(19:14:53) Virmir: Except that one roo one.
--


foxgamer01

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Reply #2 on: December 22, 2018, 09:26:14 PM
Here's the next part and the one you've all been waiting for. Enjoy!

++++++++++

Adrian opened his eyes as they felt smoke, dust, and steam. His nose smelled the same as his paws helped him get up, feeling the small rocks underneath. He opened his mouth in awe before he coughed out a storm.

He stumbled around as the dust settled and the steam faded into water particles, his eyes able to see the small Vulpix sitting down in the middle of a massive crater where the star engraving once was. She was panting as her body gave out a reddish glow with smoke coming out of her mouth. The Flareon walked over to her with a deep fear written all over his face.

“Faith? Are you alright?” Adrian asked when he got near her, feeling a massive amount of heat from her.

“N-no,” Faith answered as she stood up on all fours and faced the Flareon. “But at least I'm alive.”

Adrian gave out a sigh, yet he still felt his stomach tightened. “That's good. But, where's Jirachi? Did you blast him out to space?”

As soon as the Flareon uttered those words, the pit shook. They looked around as the shaking got worse, the two Fire-types Pokémon's ears flattened back. They then crouched low, bracing themselves as the quake got worse. A massive light appeared in a flash, illuminating the pit that would've blinded them if they didn't shut their eyes quick enough. A few seconds and the earthquakes stopped. They at first slowly opened one of their eyes only to shot them both opened.

All the destruction caused in the fight, the cracks, the craters, even the hole to the outside were all gone and fixed. Even the engraving on the ground was returned and repaired, the five-pointed star underneath them that was, just a minute ago, a huge crater. The two looked at each other in shock, neither having felt the ground changed.

Their ears twitched as they heard a yawn above and, when they looked up, they saw the yellow Pokémon floating above them, stretching his limbs.

“Hah! Alright, I'm fully awake,” Jirachi said with a grin and both of his eyes wide opened. “So, so awake! Ahhh!” His eyes then looked down at the two bewildered Pokémon. “My name is Jirachi! Who are you?”

Both Faith and Adrian blinked at the very casual, child-like Jirachi. Just a few minutes ago, Faith had blasted Jirachi with a Flamethrower so powerful, it blasted Doom Desire back at his face and sent him through the mountainside and to the sky. Yet, here he was, grinning without pain or worry in the world. Did those attacks, they wondered, even hurt him?

Faith looked back at Adrian for a second before stepping forward. “Um, my name is Faith.”

“And my name is Adrian,” the Flareon said.

“Your names are Faith and Adrian,” Jirachi said as he floated down to in front of the Vulpix with the white paws. “So, Faith and Adrian, you better listen well.” The three tags on his head glowed. “I grant wishes for those who managed to wake me up.”

Faith nodded as she felt her heart swelling up. This was the moment, the moment that she had been waiting for ever since she left Arkanilacum. Where if it's a day or an hour away from herself exploding, she succeeded. Yet, she had a hard time finding the words to say.

“Well, um,” Faith finally said. “I admit that I have a complex issue that only you can fix.”

Jirachi nodded before he coughed, blowing out smoke. He blinked at the smoke in confusion before changing his sight to Faith. “All right. I'll listen.”

Faith looked back at Adrian, who smiled back at her. Faith nodded as she smiled back and looked at Jirachi. “OK, to make the long story short . . .”

Faith, with some assistance from Adrian, explained what happened, starting with the Fire Stone created by Maya and her failed evolution from it, resulting in her evolutionary flux that was in constant growth. Jirachi nodded with politeness, though Faith sensed that most of the more complex parts went over his head. When Faith finished her explanation, Jirachi looked up to the top of the pit.

“So, um, let me get this straight,” Jirachi said. “You tried to evolve into a Ninetales, it failed because of some merged Pokémon named Mia-”

“Maya,” Adrian said.

“Whatever this Pokémon's name is. Anyways, she used some weird technology that creates evolutionary stones and caused herself to grow-”

“I think they're separate tech, Jirachi.”

“Whatever. And, because of this fake Fire Stone, it created a 'flux' (what does flux means anyways?) that resulted in a buildup of power that may cause you to blow up like a firework-”

“Honestly, it's more like a hundred Golem using Explosion at once,” Faith said, rather self-conscience of herself glowing.

“Same difference. Which is why you came here so I can fix it,” Jirachi said as he nodded. “Although, I admit that it's a little embarrassing to admit to. I have no idea what a Ninetales is.”

“Wait, what? You don't know what a Ninetales is?” Faith asked, blinking. “It's my next evolutionary form.”

“You do realize that, though I've been given a title of a 'Mythical Pokémon', it doesn't mean that I know absolutely everything,” Jirachi explained with a sheepish grin. “Especially since I'm only awake for a week after each thousand-year of sleeping. Unless I've been fought into an awakening, which is rare. Heck, from what you guys said, the world had changed a lot since I was last awake. Like, what are these 'anthros' mentioned? Are they Pokémon too?”

Both Faith and Adrian sighed as their ears lowered.

“What can you do so that she doesn't end up being, I don't know, a Venasaur?”

“What's a Venasaur?”

“Er, nevermind,” Adrian said as he shifted his eyes. “So, how do you think you can solve it?”

“Hmm,” Jirachi said as he rubbed his chin. “First off, what does a Ninetales look like?”

“Oh, ah,” Faith said as a vision of her favorite Explorer entered her mind, “unlike my reddish-orange fur, a Ninetales has a golden-white fur. Also, they have nine tails rather than my six and, unlike my curly top on my head, their turfs of fur are rather straight.”

“OK. That'll help. Now just wait for a moment while I do my super-duper sightseeing search!” Jirachi said with pride in his voice as his eyes closed and his arms spread out. Glass-like bubbles formed around the three as images of Pokémon appeared in them, at first filled with rock-types and ground-types. Faith and Adrian looked around in amazement, their eyes reflecting the images of those Pokémon doing various actives.

The numbers of glass-bubbles expanded in the pit, showing grass-types, bug-types, and normal-types in them. Faith opened her mouth with a complete sense of wonder before her eyes saw a golden-white Pokémon in one of them. She raised her front paw and pointed at it.

“This is it. This is a Ninetales,” Faith said as she looked back at Jirachi.

Jirachi opened his eyes as the glass-bubbles popped except for the one Faith is pointing at. “Huh. That's a weird looking Pokémon. Not to mention how uncool it looks compared to the others. Like that massive, long body one that looks like it's made of metal!”

“That's Steelix,” the Flareon said as Faith looked closer to the Ninetales one. Her eyes widened when she realized that this Ninetales was wearing a green scarf.

“Isn't that-”

“OK,” Jirachi said as the glass-bubble floated away from Faith and towards himself. His hands rubbed against it as his head glowed blue. Faith blinked as she looked down at her own body and saw blue around her as well for only a few seconds. “I believe I got it! I now know what moves, what abilities, what size a Ninetales should be along with how one should look! Comparing it with you, Faith, I can see now what needed to be changed. In fact, two things that needed to be changed so you're better. So, tell me you wish!”

Faith blinked, thinking of what the yellow Pokémon just said. “Jirachi? What do you mean by-”

“What is it?” Adrian asked, his voice anxious.

“Jirachi said that there were two things that's wrong with me,” Faith answered, looking at the Flareon. “I just want to know what he means by-”

“Isn't it obvious? He means your evolutionary flux and your failed evolution. Isn't that right?”

“It is true that, in order for me to evolve Faith, I have to cancel the attempt fully,” Jirachi said, floating around the two Fire-types. He opened his mouth to speak again but shut his mouth like a polite child when Adrian spoke up.

“See? So just wish for your body to be fixed.”

Faith hesitated for a second before breathing in and out. “Jirachi, I wish for myself to recover from this failed evolution.”

Jirachi smiled as the topmost tag on his head glowed in a golden light. Faith's own glow changed color from red to golden as well. She felt a smile forming on her face, feeling Jirachi's power flowing through her, as her eyes closed. The growing pressure, like she was continuing filled to the brim with fire, was gone.

“Faith, your wish has been granted,” Jirachi said as Faith opened her eyes.

She looked over herself and saw that the glow she was surrounded with was gone. The curse she felt she was under since she touched that Fire Stone was gone. She was free, yet, while she no longer felt the pressure of growing power, she still felt the power she had since it started. Would it dissipate in time?

Faith looked over to Adrian and said, “It's ov-”

“Um, Faith? Why are you growing?” Adrian asked as he took a step back.

The Vulpix blinked as she looked at the Flareon more and her eyes widened. When just a minute ago she was a foot smaller, she had just equaled Adrian's size for a second before growing past that. She found herself looked down at him when it was normally the other way around, finding Adrian to be the small one. Jirachi floated around Faith when she reached the fifth foot mark and kept on growing.

“Huh. I didn't think a Vulpix can grow,” Jirachi said as Faith soon surpassed the height of a Blazakin.

“They're not supposed to in the first place!” Adrian yelled out as Faith's growth pace increased and doubled in size, reaching the twelve-foot mark. “What did you do!?”

“A-all I did was changed her body so that it's back to normal,” Jirachi explained as Faith's eyes widened, her body now larger than the star they were on. “I spotted a flaw in her evolution that was causing that so I stopped that and I saw that her ability was wrong.”

“What do you mean 'her ability was wrong'?” Adrian asked as he got onto Faith's growing paw so he wasn't crushed by it.

“When I compared her body to that Ninetales, I saw a tiny difference,” Jirachi explained as Faith crouched low, reaching the amazing size of fifty feet. “They worked by absorbing flames, but I saw that the Ninetales' body reacted differently from it. So I thought that it's because of a flaw she has. I didn't think it could've caused it to grow.”

“Well, that's just-” Adrian said before being pressed up against the wall of the pit.

Faith kept on growing as if her body wanted to fill up every space in the pit. She felt like she was being crushed by the walls she was surrounded with, with both Adrian and Jirachi pressed against her and the wall. She closed her eyes, growling in pain.

“Ji-Jirachi! Ad-Adrian!” Faith said as her growth caused the cracks to formed again around the pit. “I-I am really getting crushed here!”

You're getting crushed?!” Adrian yelled out as he's pinned between a wall and a growing paw. “I-I can barely breathe in here!”

“Jirachi, I want us out of here!” Faith yelled out, feeling so pinned between the (from her point-of-view) shrinking pit that she couldn't move anymore.

“O-OK!” Jirachi said, his voice muffled by a giant tail. His eyes closed as his left tag glows, with blue light enveloping the three Pokémon there. A flash shined out and they were gone. All that remained were massive riffs on the walls and ceiling, with huge chunks of rocks falling down.

-----

The three Pokémon reappeared outside of the mountain, with both Adrian and Jirachi on Faith's back. Both of them were dazed for a second, before giving out a sigh, their chest free to breathe again, not noticing that the Vulpix they were on was still growing. Faith looked down at the surrounding trees, almost like tall grass to her, as she gained another growth spurt. Her paws slammed against the trees below her, tumbling them down and shattering them like fragile glass, as a swung of one of her giant tails smashed against the mountainside behind, throwing several huge rocks away. She gave out a yelp as she fell down, with Adrian clinging onto the fur, causing the ground below her to quake and knocking down several surrounding trees with an accidental Earthquake.

She grew and grew, with Faith feeling her stomach tightened, wondering when would she stop growing. Then, as if that's all she needed to do was ask, she stopped growing at a behemoth size of 250 feet tall. Her eyes looked down, wondering if Adrian and Jirachi were down below as her heart stopped like a Glaceon grabbed her heart with their cold paws.

“Wh-what happened to me?!” Faith asked to herself, her voice carried over for hundreds of feet away. “Wh-why am I so HUGE?! Adrian! Jirachi! Where are you?!”

“Right here,” Faith barely heard behind her. She blinked as she looked behind herself and saw a tiny Flareon on her back with an even smaller Jirachi floating nearby. Jirachi motioned one of his arms and, with Adrian enveloped in a bluish-white light, the two floated up to Faith's muzzle. Adrian was placed onto her muzzle, with the Vulpix's giant baby blue eyes looking towards the two. “Jeez, I knew that you wanted to be big, but I think you had overdone it.”

Faith blushed, her cheeks fur fluffed up, as she crouched down low. “I didn't want to be this big! Why did I grow to this size!”

Adrian grabbed onto the Vulpix's muzzle, feeling every movement she makes like it was some sort of earthquake. “Jirachi said that he thought that there was also something wrong with your ability.”

“Yeah, my bad,” Jirachi said as he rubbed the back of his head with a hand. “When I compared you with that Ninetales, I honestly thought that your fire absorption power-”

“Flash Fire,” Adrian said, looking up at the floating yellow Pokémon next to him.

“Whatever. I thought that there was something wrong with that as well caused by your failed evolution. So I've copied that Ninetales' ability and placed it over your ability, Faith,” Jirachi explained, giving out a very nervous smile. “Again, I never knew much about the outside world and other Pokémon outside of a few.”

“But what kind of Ninetales has Flash Fire that causes it to grow?” Adrian asked as his ears flattened to the sides. “Not to mention that Faith hasn't been hit by flames at all. So, how could she be this huge?”

“Adrian, you're embarrassing me!” Faith said, giving out an even bigger blush as her back legs dug onto the ground behind her, making massive holes.

“I-I didn't mean it like that!” Adrian said, his face blushing as well.

“Hmm,” Jirachi said as he rubbed his hand against his chin. “The best I can think of is that pile of power she'd build up since it happened. It built itself up like some sort of fake fire absorption power thing and, when I changed her ability, it acted on it, causing her growth. As for why that Ninetales has such a power, I don't know.”

Adrian sighed as he rubbed his face with a paw. “So, we now have a very massive problem thanks to your screw-up. Can you fix it?”

“Um, there's good news and bad news for it,” Jirachi explained as he pointed at his left tag. “The good news is that I can reverse it with a wish. The bad news is that I took Faith's command as a wish, which means-”

“-we only have one wish left,” Adrian said, his eyes wide as his paw was back onto Faith's muzzle. “And we're over 4000 miles away from home.”

“Th-then, if I wished I was back to my normal size, it'll take months to travel back home,” Faith said as she lifted one of her paws and rubbed it against one of her eyes. “If I wished for us to teleport home, I'll still be a massive Vulpix. There's no good option here!”

“I don't think our trouble is as bad as you think,” Jirachi said with a childish smile. “That Ninetales was at what I think is a normal size when I located him, which means that you'll be back to your normal size in time. I can't say for how long, but, as long as you aren't attacked by a Fire-type attack, you won't grow and instead shrink.”

“That may take weeks!” Faith responded as she shut her eyes. “And being at this size, “I'll just be seen as some sort of monster.”

The Flareon looked as what he could see of the giant Vulpix's face before his lower his sorrowful eyes. His ears flattened back as he felt his chest tightened and he gritted his teeth. His claws clutched the fur underneath him.

“I-I don't think of you as a monster!” Adrian said with tears falling out from his eyes.

“You-you don't?” Faith asked, opening one of her eyes before closing it again. A tear swelled up on the corner of her eyes. “No. You're just being nice, Adrian. I am nothing more than-”

“-the most beautiful Vulpix I've ever met!”

“W-what did you say?” Faith asked, opening her eyes with them pointed at Adrian as she lowered her paw back onto the logs and boulders. Her chest felt a stab when she saw that the Flareon was crying as well.

“It's-it's true!” Adrian explained as his tail drooped down. “Ever since we met many years ago, I-I thought of you as beautiful and amazing. I didn't think you would've noticed a little, lonely Eevee like me, but you did. You are a bright part of my life, Faith. It's why, when offered various stones and means to evolved with, I chose a Fire Stone. To be closer to you!”

Faith stared at her dear friend, Adrian, in complete surprise, feeling that she now know him a bit more than before. She felt the heart in her chest beat slower from the panic state it was in as she, in a slow and gentle pace, gotten back up. Not a single tree or rock was smashed as she sat down, giving out a teary smile.

“Oh, Adrian,” Faith said. “You're always a sweet and understanding friend. I think you're just being nice here, but thanks anyway.”

Adrian blinked and looked up at her giant eyes. “No. I meant every word I said. No matter what you look like or how big you get, you are the most beautiful Pokémon I've ever met. I'll do my best to be with you, wherever and however you are.”

Faith gave out a massive blush as her eyes shifted away. “Adrian, stop. You're embarrassing me.”

The Flareon gave out a shy laugh. “Sorry. Anyways, I think that makes our answer to the third wish clear.”

Faith gave a slight nod before her eyes turned to Jirachi “OK, Jirachi. I wish for us to go back home. Or rather a mile away from Arkanilacum so I don't smash anyone by just appearing there.”

“Arkanilacum? Strange name,” Jirachi said before he closed his eyes. His eyes moved in circles above his head as an image of a globe formed above, with massive oceans and seven continents displayed on it. Adrian's ears flattened to their sides, confusion written all over his face, as the largest of the continents grew in size and the globe flattened up. It zoomed in until an image of a town with giant Arcanine bones around it like a mother protecting her children was displayed on this psychic map. “You wanted to be away from this place, yes? Like a mile off? How long is a mile anyway?”

Faith's left ear flattened to the side as Adrian said, “Er, may I point out where we want to teleport to?”

“Sure!” Jirachi said as he expanded the map and lowered it to Adrian.

Adrian looked at it and, spotting the high hills where the Arcanine's skull was on, pointed at it. “There.”

“There? Why? It looks so rocky.”

“Exactly,” Adrian said with a wink. “For a couple of reasons. One is that only a few Pokémon could be able to spot her while she's there and another is that it's a sacred spot of our home, where the only ones allowed to be in there are high officials.”

“You-you mean that you want to involved Mayor Richard in this?” Faith asked as she looked at Adrian in shocked.

“It's not like we can do this alone,” Adrian explained with a weak shrug. “To be honest, I would rather just deal with it with just you and me, Faith. But I don't see how we can do it alone. At least through him, we can pull out the help needed to hide you and give you food and water while keeping knowledge about you to a minimal.”

“That does make sense,” Faith admitted as her eyes looked up and her face blushed.

“Okey-dokey!” Jirachi said as the right tag glows. A light enveloped both the macro Vulpix and normal Flareon. Then, with a wave, they disappeared in a flash with only Jirachi still remaining. “Wish granted. Although, I wish there was a way to fix all the mess we left behind. Oh well! Back to sleep!”

Jirachi glowed for a few seconds before he disappeared from the area as well, himself leaving behind the ruined trees and shattered giant rocks. If Jirachi stayed a bit longer, he would've met another Pokémon, one who had listened to the latter part of the conversation.

“Huh. Arkanilacum, isn't it?” this Pokémon said as he stepped out from under the shade. His sea blue eyes looked over the carnage caused by Faith with sadness yet also with amusement. He then stepped onto a trunk of a tree, his nine tailed brushing against it. “That sounds like it'll be my next destination. But first, there's something I should do with this. Might as well call her in.”

-----

Massive rocks stood high in the what is called the high hills north of Arkanilacum, their tips piercing the skies as high as 500 feet tall with the half-moon shining down on them. It was thought to be, long ago, the remains of a battle between the Great Protector and another giant Pokémon, often theorized to be Rhydon or Rhynerior. The citizens believed it to be her final battle and chose preserved the remains in remembrance of the battle where she died protecting them.

A light flashed within the center of the high hills and a giant Vulpix materialized there with a Flareon on her muzzle, tiny in comparison. Faith felt her head spun as she steadies herself by laying down with care, with the hills very close to her. Adrian clung onto her muzzle until he felt his limbs went numb.

“Long-distance teleportation is not good for the body,” Faith said as she lowered her head.

“No kidding,” Adrian said as he hopped off of her muzzle. “I wish I could stay with you. Just that, if we need to get Mayor Richard here, I'll need to head over to Arkanilacum so I can meet him early when I can meet him.”

“It's OK,” Faith replied as her giant eyes looked down at Adrian. “Good luck.”

Adrian gave her a quick nuzzle before he ran out, his fur fluffed up from the cool breeze. Faith placed her head over her paws as her body relaxed and her mind reflected on what happened. When their quest began a few days ago, she thought that the best-case scenario was that she would be on her bed sleeping for days when they came back, her problem fixed. But instead, she's this giant Vulpix, perhaps the first in a long time. Everything that was solid and strong now felt like they were brittle.

She with a gentle shook of a head knocked that thought out of her head. What's done had been done and there's nothing that she could do about it outside of not making things worse. She closed her eyes and her mind drifted into a sleep that even an earthquake couldn't wake her up from, with a nice cool breeze brushed against her fur and the half-moon illuminating over her body.

-----

The morning sun shined upon Faith's face, with her struggling to keep them closed before she sighed and opened them. For a second, she wondered why she was surrounded by a number of rocks before she remembered what happened last night. She, with a gentleness of a Jigglypuff, moved her body so that she doesn't knock over the high, rocky hills around her. She then looked around, trying to see any sign of restless sleep and destruction, but found none.

She sighed in relief as she lay back down and waited for Adrian and Mayor Richard to come. The giant Vulpix at times looked up at the sky to tell what time it was, with the shadows shortening up and the sun crawling up higher in the sky. When it was at the highest point of the sky, her ears twitched as she heard paw-steps coming closer to her location. She lowered her head, attempting to look smaller than she really was when she saw Adrian and Mayor Richard.

Mayor's Richard's dark brown fur met his light brown legs, tail tip, face, and chest. His mane was magnificent large around his face, most of the colors being red but with golden streaks. His piercing blue eyes looked up at Faith's giant body with his feline face, plain to see by both Flareon and Vulpix, with amazement.

“Boy, if you haven't convinced me to come, I would never have believed that your girlfriend has become a giant,” Mayor Richard said. “Yet, here she is. Like out of the story ages past.”

Faith blinked as Adrian said, “Sir, we're not together like that!”

“Could've fooled me, boy,” Mayor Richard responded as his long tail flicked. “Of course, now that I see that you were honest about this, it is a question about what to do next.”

“Um, what do you mean?” Faith said with a soft voice.

“To explain, I gather that you wanted to be hidden. Is that right?”

Faith nodded as a thought entered her mind. Is he going to expose her?

“While I do wish to profit out of this since our lovely town hasn't got any good amount of revenue lately, I understand that I can't force you to come out into the light,” Mayor Richard said in a diplomatic voice. “Besides, at your size at the moment, it'll take everyone in town to pull you out along with two others. As a result, I have to respect your wish to hide in here, gal.”

Faith gave out a sigh, with the resulting wind blowing through Mayor Richard's mane.

“Although, now we have a logistic issue for you to remain hidden,” Mayor Richard said, annoyed at that sigh as his ears twitched. “We can't have you come out since there will be a chance of you being spotted. So we need to get resources for you like food and water, which can't be handled by only Adrian and myself.”

“Um, Mr. Mayor?” Faith said. “For the last few days, I haven't felt hungry. In fact, I still don't feel hungry. I do feel thirsty, though.”

“You aren't hungry? Even though it's been a few days?” Mayor Richard asked as his ears twitched. He then looked at Adrian. “Do you know why, boy?”

“N-no,” Adrian answered, looking up at Mayor Richard. “I don't have a guess why.”

The Pyroar closed his eyes for a few seconds before looking up at Faith. “Gal? Do you mind if I also bring in some researchers while you're hiding here?”

“W-wait,” Faith said as she looked down at them, flustered. “I don't want to be some science experiment. I just want to hide until I'm normal again.”

“Don't worry,” the Pyroar said reassuring with a slight smile. “I'll make sure that the worse that they'll do to you is observe your shrink rate. They will not hurt you, take your blood, or stick you into a room isolated for their observation, gal. You'll have my word that I'll make them back off if you felt uncomfortable.”

“It's good to have your word for it,” Adrian said with his head tilted and his ear flopped to the side. “However, on writing is better since you can't back out from it.”

“Oh come on, boy and gal,” Mayor Richard said as his mane fluffed up. “Don't you think of me as a trustworthy fellow?”

Faith and Adrian stared at him in response. The Pyroar looked back and forth between the normal-sized Flareon and the giant Vulpix and swallowed when he saw her, at a slow pace, lifted her paw.

“All right, I'll put it in writing.”

-----

With the agreement done and in writing, Mayor Richard went back to Arkanilacum for some private recruitment of various Pokémon who's unique talents would be useful in hiding a giant Pokémon. Of course, vision is always an issue since, although the high hills can cover her from the ground, it still doesn't hide her from any flying Pokémon above. Which was why it was a convenient thing that there were two Pokémon best suited for it, for their powers can cover the entire landscape in their Illusion.

“So let me get this straight,” David said with his wife standing nearby, his hair-like mane brushing against the floor. “My friend, Faith, after some adventure far off east met with Jirachi in order to cure her evolutionary flux, has accidentally become a giant at around 250 feet tall.”

“Yes,” Mayor Richard said, standing behind his desk in his office. “I know it sounds like I'm lying, but that's what really happened.”

“Eh, it's very crazy talk,” David said, his arms crossed and his eyes squinted. He then gave out a laugh as he leaned back. “But I don't see any reason why you're lying.”

“You-you don't?” the Pyroar asked, his ears pointed upwards.

“Of course I don't. Because you're giving me a job and I know how much of a tight-ward you are,” the Zoroark said with a wink.

The Pyroar's ears flattened to the sides as David's wife laughed. “Very funny, boy. Now then, will you accept the job?”

“Eh, I see no reason why I shouldn't. But,” David's lips curled into a grin, “may I suggest how much you're paying me?”

“Is it something I'll regret?” Mayor Richard asked, his eyes half-closed. The Zoroark gave a quick nod and whispered into his ear. The Pyroar, after listening to David for a minute, gave out a glare. “Unacceptable, boy! Please take this seriously or else everything I and the others are working on will be for nothing!”

“Eh, I had to ask,” David said as his wife laughed louder. “Say, is that a genuine anthro artifact?”

His eyes skimmed over what looked like a box with a cylinder on the side of it, but at the end of it was a circle of glass. The Pyroar gave out a small gasp as he, with surprising speed, picked it up and placed it inside of a shelve behind him. He then turned back to David, who's looked back with squinted eyes.

“Y-yes, it is. The anthros of old called it a 'camera',” the Pyroar answered. “It allows instant pictures to be made with a click of a button. Very sensitive stuff and can break if mishandled.”

David rubbed his chin as he gave out a low hum. “I understand that part. Of course, that looked like it's pristine. Where did you get that?”

“None of your business!”

“Eh, alright,” David said as he placed his arm around his wife and walked out of the office.

So far successful. With their help, it would be many times easier to hide a giant Vulpix with their Illusion. Another issue was the travel since, in particular on foot, a mile of distance was far and it would be hard to hide a stream of Pokémon, even a few, going to and from the high hills. Even under a cover of 'official business', it would be considered odd. As a result, they needed to set up some sort of fast travel to and from for them. It also wouldn't hurt that they would also have a fast way of communicating so they could take care of Faith's needs.

“I thought I saw something red while on my flight over there last night,” Captain Galeron said, his arms crossed. “Don't worry. I haven't told anyone yet since it's been a long time since any macro Pokémon ever appeared and I thought I was seeing stuff. Though why are you bringing them along too?”

His eyes shifted downwards to the other guest being offered this job, an avian Pokémon with a brown plumage with a cream-colored torso and under-wings. His pink beak was short and hooked while a long crest of red and yellow hung from his head to his tail and perhaps even longer. His talons were also pink and sharp, which gripped on the floor to the point that the claws pierced them.

“Because we need all the help that we can get,” Mayor Richard answered, his tail flicked from behind.

“I doubt that things are so bad that you need to get help from our rivals as well,” the Dragonite said, slamming his hands on the desk. Splinters flew off up and around the three Pokémon. “After all, they're smaller, slower, and weaker than us.”

“Yet, in only a few short years, the Pidgeot Aerial Express has already rivaled the Dragonite Travel and Delivery Service,” the Pidgeot below said. “You're right that we aren't as big, strong, and fast as you, but that's like saying that an Alakazam is an idiot compared to Uxie. Not to mention that we outnumber you 10 to 1, so we can handle more Pokémon deliveries and travels than you can.”

“S-settle down, boys!” the Pyroar said, looking over the remains of his desk, shattered into pieces of lumber. “This isn't just to get as much help as we can get, but also kill any potential leaks about a giant Vulpix in the open a mile away. After all, I can guarantee that you two would be looking into each other's business if I only hired one of your business.”

The Pyroar smiled to himself when he saw the pear-shaped dragon and the large bird glaring at each other.

“Yes, that's true,” the two said.

“There we have it, then. I suggest that you two do your best to work together here since you may be doing this for weeks.”

The two stepped out with the Pyroar thinking about how would he get Captain Galreon to pay for the destroyed desk's replacement. Either way, that's another job done. He managed to get two groups to ship out supplies and Pokémon to and from the high hills. Still, that's not all that was needed for this duty. While he had promised that he wouldn't put Faith into a lab for examination regarding her abilities and such, he did ask for them to at least observed her. Besides, they would need someone who would be able to check her health for the coming weeks.

“You're telling me that my former patient has gotten herself in a giant mess?” Dr. Erelah asked Mayor Richard while fiddling with her earlobes. “And by 'giant', you mean that she is a giant?”

“Yes, exactly,” the Pyroar answered as he shifted his eyes. “Now, I know that it may be hard to swallow, but-”

“Why shouldn't I believe you?” the Audino asked, cutting in as her eyes glared at him.

“I honestly thought that telling people that we have a giant Vulpix within a mile would be hard to convince Pokémon of,” Mayor Richard said as he backed away with a paw raised, ready to defend himself. “But this is easier than I thought.”

Dr. Erelah stared at him like he was an idiot. “You do remember that our town is surrounded by the bones of Great Protector, who was a giant Arcanine in her time, right? While I do believe in facts rather than baseless claims, the idea that a Pokémon could've become a giant as they told in the old anthro legends today isn't that far-fetched since we have evidence surrounding our very town.”

The Pyroar blinked at the Audino. “Yes, yes. Will you help us maintained her health while this is going on? And perhaps we could be able to learn more about how the old Pokémon giants lived during those days as well.”

“Yes, I will,” Dr. Erelah said with a smile. “Just be warned that I wouldn't do anything that would make her uncomfortable.”

“Believe me, that's why I picked you,” Mayor Richard said with a shrug. “Besides, Faith had me put in writing that she wouldn't be some lab experiment during and afterward as you can see.”

Mayor Richard pulled out from what remains of his desk a paper and showed it to Dr. Erelah. She smiled wider as she said, “Smart girl. And I guess it wasn't that hard to convince you?”

“When you're face to face with someone who's at least 250 feet tall, you'll agree to anything they demand.”

Dr. Erelah laughed as she stepped out as the Pyroar shifted his eyes, wishing that he would be able to stay at home in bed rather than endure another round of mocking. But there's still one last thing to do if what Adrian said earlier was true; that, despite Faith at this moment having no need for foods, she still needed water. But she couldn't just step out of the high hills and go to the closest lake without being spotted. Even with the Zoroark cloaking her, they needed to coordinated with the Water-type Pokémon living there and there would be too many to keep this a secret. Good thing he knew two who worked for him who had enforced some unreasonable Pokémon in the past.

“So you want us to help this giant Vulpix by giving her water?” a Water-type Pokémon asked. This Pokémon and his companion were a large, blue Pokémon with a shell, brown on the back and pale yellow on the front, encompassing most of their bodies. White ridges surrounded the brown part of the shell with a pair of large cannons opened on the top part of their backs. Their blue, triangular ears twitched as their yellow eyes stared down at the Pyroar.

“Yes, that's exactly right,” Mayor Richard answered. “I know that it'll be a tough job since, at her size, she'll need a lot of water-”

“What I'm more interested in is why keep her a secret at all?” the second Blastoise asked, cutting in. “It'll be far better if she revealed herself. After all, it's been a long time since a macro Pokémon appeared in this world, so she'll be renown throughout the entire continent if not the world. Not to mention that given on what you told us about her, she's not a destructive type, so the town won't be harmed outside of an accident. And the citizens will worship her like they worship the Great Protector, so all of her needs will be met. Sounds like a win, so why not convince her to reveal herself?”

“Um,” Mayor Richard said, remembering Faith and Adrian hours ago. Of course, all of these points struck him back then when he saw Faith and how huge she was. It would be beneficial for him if she revealed herself as a giant to the town. But it wasn't the time for her to become reasoned with. “I know what you said is true. But she isn't interested.”

“Why not convince her to do it?” the second Blastoise asked again. “I'm sure that she'll listen to facts.”

“Boy, if you recalled what I just told you, she's now 250 feet tall,” the Pyroar answered. “Even though you both are water-type Pokémon, you're talking about fighting someone who'll require the entire town to even move her a foot. Just be patient.”

“But-”

The first Blastoise waved his hand at the second one. “We'll take the job. We'll be patient. Also, what happened to your desk? Is it something we should fix?”

“It was caused by a Dragonite named-”

“Oh. I know a carpenter who can replace it for you.”

“Er, thank you,” Mayor Richard said in a kind voice while, in his mind, he was annoyed that his hope to get Captain Galeron to replace it had failed. He watched the two walked out the door as he gave out a strained smile. Well, all of the pieces to hide Faith had been placed. Let's hope that it wouldn't take too long for her to shrink to normal, which would be the perfect time to convince her to reveal herself.

After all, she wouldn't be big enough for her to resist him with their help.

-----

The two weeks passed by in a Slowpoke pace, Faith felt as she hid in the hiding spot. Though it didn't diminish her happiness when she saw the help that Mayor Richard gave to her so it would be easier during those days along with Adrian. She was comfortable with Dr. Erelah and her team with them observing her, learning about giant Pokémon and how they could've lived.

“I do believe that I have a hypothesis on why you don't feel hungry anymore,” Dr. Erelah said to Faith on the third day.

“Oh? What is it?” Faith asked, laying down low so she could be at around eye level. Yet, because of how huge she still was, she's still looking down at the doctor.

“My theory is that, because of the huge influx of energy Faith built up until recently, it had temporarily replaced the need for foods since they would be needed for energy,” Dr. Erelah answered, her hand rubbing her feelers on her ears. “Of course, the water part isn't as easily replaceable since we don't drink water for energy usually, but for body regulations. Like making sure the body temperature is at the right level.”

“OK, but why haven't Faith needed foods now?” Adrian asked, who was sitting next to the Audino. “The influx of power she built up due to the evolutionary flux had stopped for days now.”

“That is something I thought of when developing my hypothesis,” Dr. Erelah answered again. “I believe that it's because, despite not in-taking any foods during the last few days, she just has that much energy to spare. Of course, that would mean that, when Faith is back to normal size, she'll have intense hunger pains due to not eating for so long.”

Faith blinked and imagined herself on the ground, laying down and unable to move. “I-I hope that there's something to eat by then.”

“Very much so,” Dr. Erelah said as she looked down at Adrian in amusement, seeing Adrian's horrified expression. “I must say, this is very fascinating. I wondered if all macros back in those days were like that or only those like you. At least most of them would've been like you, Faith, since such a massive body would require a ton of energy in order to just move a single step without collapsing in on itself. So much energy that, even if a giant ate everything and everyone in Arkanilacum, they wouldn't have a quarter of the needed energy needed.”

The Vulpix looked down at Dr. Erelah, her face turned green at trying to comprehend it. Still, at least noticeable progress has been seen in her shrinking down from 250 feet. It also meant less time for the other Pokémon to brush off all the dirt and grime off of her since there's less space to cover.

Four days afterward, Faith was chatting with David's wife, Amber, when it was her shift. The two Zoroark's agreed that the two would take turns in maintaining the Illusion around the area, hiding Faith and the crew. Faith also noticed Adrian talking to Captain Galeron around that time as well, but she was unable to hear what they were saying.

“I do wonder what my silly husband is doing,” Amber said before she blushed. “Did I just say that out loud? Sorry, can you ignore that?”

“Er, what do you mean?” Faith asked, ignoring Amber's requested. “Wouldn't he be at home while you're here?”

“I thought so too, but some of my friends near our home told me that he rarely goes inside. They don't know where he is. I'm just worried that.” She paused as she rubbed a red claw against her chin. “That he might have been-”

“Oh. I wouldn't worry,” Faith said, realizing what was on Amber's mind. “I knew him for years before I met Adrian. I knew, even back then when he was a Zorua, that he's not that type of Pokémon.”

“Yes, I guess,” Amber said. She rubbed one of her ears with a claw. “Yet, where does he go? And why doesn't he talk to me about it?”

Faith paused as she rubbed her own white paw against her chin. “Perhaps you should ask him then. I doubt that he'll keep it a secret any longer from you if you confront him about it.”

“I know I should,” Amber said as she shifted her eyes and feet from side to side. “But what if my fears are confirmed? What if he's not the Zoroark I thought I knew?”

“Then give him one hell of a smack-down,” Faith answered with a wink of her baby blue eyes. “And leave room for me when you're done.”

Amber looked up at Faith, a grin forming on her face. “OK. I'll do it and I'll make sure he'll regret it if he's been fooling around behind my back.”

The next day, when David left for the day and Amber took his spot for maintaining the Illusion, Faith asked, “How did it go?”

“It went extremely well,” Amber answered, her face radiating happiness. “When I talked to him about it, he did explain what he was doing and even gave proof on it. It turned out to be not as bad as I thought. In fact, it's even better than what I thought it might be.”

“That's great news,” Faith said, smiling down at the Zoroark. A pause passed by as Faith tilted her head. “What was he doing?”

“He made me swear not to tell,” Amber answered with a giggle. “Don't look disappointed, Faith. Just know that, when all this is over, you won't have to worry.”

Faith nodded as she spied Adrian coming in, looking high in spirits himself. “Hey there, Adrian. What's up?”

“Nothing,” he answered, his fur fluffed up as he wagged his bushy tail. “I had some talks and made some preparations with Captain Galeron. I know what you'll ask and I'll say no, I won't tell. Sorry, Faith?”

“But why?” Faith asked in an exaggerated whiny tone as she booped Adrian's tone with a soft touch that wouldn't knock over a boulder down a hill. “Pokémon around me are keeping secrets that I want to know.”

Adrian laughed as he pushed away from the giant paw much larger than him. “Because I know you'll want in on it. While this would normally be a good thing with me, it does involve Arkanilacum and, with you being at the size you are, it'll attract too much attention and ruined the surprise I'm planning.”

“Surprise? A surprise for me?” Faith asked, wagging her six tails while not chipping out boulders from the high hills.

“No, not for you. In fact, the one who'll get it will hate it,” Adrian said with a wink. “Just be patient and, who knows, maybe it wouldn't come to pass.”

Faith gave out an exaggerated sigh and relaxed. She does feel happy and not even the secret keeping done by her friends would dampen it since she had shrunk down massively since the previous week. Instead of 250 feet tall, she was just under 150 feet tall and, while it's too slow for her taste (and everyone for that matter, in particular, the ones who helped brush off the soil off of her), it at least won't take weeks for her to be back to normal.

The next week passed by with no real incident and her shrunk pace had stayed constant and, when the second week ended, she's only fifty feet tall. Just one more week, she thought, and things will go back to normal. Then she would get her long bath washing out the weeks of stress and filth off of her fur.

(19:14:28) Virmir: All of Foxgamer's pics are either super happy or BATTLE.
(19:14:53) Virmir: Except that one roo one.
--


foxgamer01

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Reply #3 on: December 23, 2018, 09:12:04 AM
Here is the final part of the story. Don't worry about how it ends, though. I admit that I do have an idea or three on how things will continue when I write a sequel to this story. Enjoy!

I would like to thank Tails230 who has been very supportive of me while I was writing this story. Not to mention that the characters here, aside from A-Ninetales and Saria, are as much his characters as they are mine. ^.|.^

++++++++++

Faith lay down on her back while a pair of Blastoise used Water Gun at her open mouth. By that time, despite help from the others, the toll of living outside in the tall hills had grown onto her with unkempt fur and covered in dirt. She was also exhausted as she remembered the images created of the Great Protector and wondered how she managed to maintained her looks in those times.

She waved a pat at the two Blastoise and they stopped using Water Gun, with their cannons folding back into their shells. “I'm good for now. Thank you.”

“Thank goodness,” one of the Blastoise said as he flopped onto the ground. “Anymore and my tank will really be empty.”

“It's for a good cause, bro,” the other Blastoise said, patting the first's back.

“I don't think 'blasting water into a giant's mouth so she doesn't die of thirst' is a good cause. Especially since, if the rest of town known of her, they'll be treating her like some sort of queen,” the first said as he winced at the pats. “I'm just hoping at this point that it'll worth it.”

“Come on, bro,” the second Blastoise said as he helped the first one back up. “I'm sure resting at home and refilling your tank will restore your mood.”

“Yeah, yeah,” the first one said as the two folded into their shells and spun out.

“See you later,” Faith said out loud as she rolled onto her stomach. “And thank you very much again.”

Her baby blue eyes looked around the high hills surrounding her. They did look much taller than two weeks ago when it felt like she could only be hidden if she lay down as low as she could. The area around her was also much wider to her, with more room to move around and the stones being much tougher.

“Hello there, Faith,” a voice below her said. Faith looked down and saw Dr. Erelah with Mayor Richard. “How are you feeling today?”

“Feeling much better now that I got water,” Faith answered with a smile. “Still, I also continue to hope that they'll also help wash out my fur.”

“Gal, you know how sacred the high hills are,” Mayor Richard said as he flicked a tail. “Massive amount of water could damage them in a way that we can't repair it.”

“I know,” Faith said with a shrug. “I just can't wait until I'm back to my normal size. Then I can finally relax. I hope that this week will pass by quickly.”

“It won't be all of this week,” Dr. Erelah said with a smile. “I calculated that, at your shrink rate, it shouldn't take any more than four days from now.”

“That's a relief.” Faith gave out a slight smile that shined as bright as a star. “As cool as it is to be this big, I think I'll do my best to stay as a normal Vulpix from now on.”

“Very much so, gal.” Mayor Richard poked his own nose with the back of his paw. “This is costing the town so much Poké. Oh, if only there was a way to repay it-”

The Pyroar paused when a sound-piercing noise came to the area. Everyone there cringed and covered their ears as a Pidgeot of the Pidgeot Aerial Express pierced through David's Illusion. The Pidgeot landed right between Mayor Richard and Dr. Erelah, his face etched in pure panic.

“Sir, something terrible is happening in the town!” the Pidgeot said, his face blue.

“What the hell is it?” Mayor Richard said, yelling out in anger. “Damn it, you could've blasted all of our ears off.”

“Sir, Arkanilacum is under attack!”

“What?” Mayor Richard looked at the Pidgeot in horror as his face turned pale. “By who?”

“Just one Pokémon, a strange looking Lycanroc,” the Pidgeot answered. “Yet this Lycanroc was growing in size and smashing everything in the way. When I left to came here, the Lycanroc had just reached 20 feet.”

“A strange looking Lycanroc,” Faith said and her mind pictured Maya just two weeks ago, looming over Adrian and herself. “This Lycanroc, was she strange because she has attributes from a Zoroark? Like coloring and teal on her tail?”

“Y-y-yes,” the Pidgeot answered, blinking up at the 50 feet tall Faith. “How did you know?”

“Because I met her and she could grow in size then too.” Faith's eyes narrowed. “She's also the reason why all of us are here since that Fire Stone that exploded when I tried to evolve and caused the evolutionary flux was from her.”

The three Pokémon below the Vulpix looked at each other.

“S-she's the cause of this mess,” Mayor Richard said with an angry tone. “Why, she should be captured and squeeze all the money I can get out from her so I can pay for this money sink.”

“I doubt that it'll be that easy,” Dr. Erelah said in a controlled voice. “Unless you have a secret weapon that can fight a Pokémon that big. Maybe several secret weapons since she might be even bigger than 20 feet by the time we get back.”

The Pyroar flustered as Faith closed her eyes. She imagined the destroyed buildings, smashed because of a bored, giant Lycanroc. This Lycanroc was grinning in her mind as it soon flashed to an imaged of several Pokémon getting crushed under her paw. And, worse of all, was an image of Maya with her jaws wide as Adrian fell into it.

Faith opened her eyes as they glared in determination. “I'll stop her.”

The three Pokémon below her blinked and, before they could say anything, Faith was already climbing over one of the high hills around her. Close to her was a giant Arcanine skull, much larger than her entire body, as she with a gentle walk went through the hills. On one of the hills was a Zoroark, looking at the town with fright himself. Even from this distance, he could see a growing Lycanroc rampaging through Arkanilacum.

David spotted Faith walking out of the high hills and jumped up high and grabbed the giant Vulpix's back leg. He with shocking speed climbed up the leg and soon ran up to Faith's head.

“What? Are you trying to tell me to stop? That it's too dangerous?” Faith asked, having felt every movement David made during his climb.

“Even if I did, would you stop?” David asked in turn, as he grabbed onto the turf of fur on her head.

“No,” Faith answered as her walk changed into a sprint with her paws digging into the ground, causing huge chunks of the ground to fly off.

“Then let me help you by hiding you,” David said with a grin. “So this threat won't see you coming.”

With that declaration, the two faded in sight like a mirage in a desert.

-----

“Huh. This is the maximum size I can get to at the moment,” the massive Lycanroc said as she looked down at her fore-paw and the device onto it. “It'll have to do for now.”

The Lycanroc towered over the houses at 60 feet tall, her red claws piercing anything below them, whether if they were the roads or buildings. Her tail swayed behind her, the teal on her tail smashed through several buildings at once like a huge Golem rolling through them. Indeed there was a trail of destruction behind her from the heart of town to where she was near the edge, growing larger and destructive as she gets there. Yet, despite how huge she was, the Arcanine bones above her were even larger.

She stepped forward, stepping on a building with it crumbling under the weight like it was made of paper, as her eyes saw a number of Pokémon flee before her. Maya smirked, feeling like she was some unstoppable deity of destruction, even if it was in the name of testing her technology's limits. Her eyes then spotted a familiar Flareon to her and she grinned even wider. He could've run faster, she knew, if he only didn't stop and helped out any Pokémon close to him.

With a quick movement, she stepped near the Flareon so her claws are between him and grabbed him. She could've ended it for him, but why make it quick? Better to relished in his fear, his despair in knowing there was no hope no matter how much time she gave him than to kill him the second she got him. Maya lifted him up so that he's near her nose and showed him her fangs.

“Well, well, well,” Maya said. “I didn't think it'll be this soon that we'll meet again, Adrian.”

“Why? Because you thought I'll be back in the mountains?” Adrian asked as he struggled against the claws.

“Yes, I did think so. I didn't think you'll waste a wish to get back home in an instant, let alone awaken Jirachi,” Maya answered as she, with deliberate force, smashed down several buildings as she turned to the side, towards one of the giant Arcanine's ribs. “I was hoping that, when you and maybe that brat Faith get back here, all you'll find is ruins with not even the bones here standing.”

“You sounded like you have a major beef against Arkanilacum,” Adrian said, growling as he looked past Maya's head. “Letting a Fire Stone you created fall here, not even knowing what it can do. Following the one who used it, waiting for some side effect. Attacking Arkanilacum personally when you could've just found some valley.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” Maya said as her voice became cold. “Everything I've done here was done in the name of researching the anthro technology. After all, science doesn't just happen when you create something. You needed to test it out on the field, hoping that any 'theories' created became true and modifying it when it doesn't. This town is just a convenient place to test them out on.”

“I will not deny that things will not go as plan. That what you think will happen and what actually happens are different,” Adrian said, wincing at the increased pressure. “But it's no excuse to just defect fault when things go wrong, like with Faith who could've died and who knows how many else if we didn't meet Jirachi in time. And, as I just said, you could've used any other to test out your machine rather than my home. You aren't doing research work, seeing what the technology you found work. You're nothing more than a bully hiding behind your so-called 'science' to justify pointless deaths and devastation.”

Maya's smirk morphed into a frown as she gave out an ugly glare. “Please tell me why I won't just eat you here and now?”

“Because I was just buying time for them.”

Maya blinked as she looked behind her. “What are you-”

“HYPER BEAM!”

Five powerful yellow beams met the giant Lycanroc's face. One she could've shrugged off, but five Hyper Beam at once in the face caused her to stumbled and fell down with a deafening crash, dropping Adrian in the progress. The Flareon twisted in the air as he braced his knees before being caught by a pear-shaped dragon with small wings. He gave a grin as the Dragonite reunited with the other four.

“Thanks, Captain Galreon,” Adrian said as the five flew up to the top of the Arcanine's bones.

“No problem,” the Dragonite replied as he along with the others landed on the rib cage. “Thank you for telling us that this could happen.”

“You're welcome,” Adrian said as he was lowered down. “I admit that I wasn't expecting her to come this quickly, but I knew that I couldn't just keep this possibility to myself.”

“If you were so worried about this 'Maya', why didn't you tell the Mayor?” another Dragonite asked as he leaned down and observed the giant Lycanroc on the ground with loads of rubble around her.

“To be honest, I think telling Mayor Richard about it could've made it worse,” Adrian answered as he looked down himself. “Knowing him, he would've made it into one big show in order to draw lots of Pokémon around the world and, with Faith nearby, he could've portrayed it as one giant battle of the century. And, with loads of more Pokémon in the town, there could've been loads more needless deaths. No, we couldn't let him know about her.”

They crouched down, looking at Maya as she gotten up, with debris flying around.

“She's a tough one, isn't she?” Captain Galreon said.

“Yes, since that was five Hyper Beams to the face,” another Dragonite said. “Being that huge made her much tougher to powerful attacks like that. And there's nothing we can do about it until we can recharge.”

“To be honest, I don't think it'll be needed for you guys to do another Hyper Beam attack on her soon,” Adrian said as he glared at Maya, who responded by roaring at them. “Besides, that surprise attack can only work once.”

“Are you saying that we should watch the town get destroyed?” a third Dragonite asked, his tone shocked.

Adrian would've responded to it, but his green eyes saw a giant Vulpix materialized and, with a sharp bite to the Lycanroc's scruff, dragged her out of the edge of Arkanilacum. The Vulpix then, with a sharp turn of her neck, threw her to the field. Adrian gave out a grin as the others looked on in surprise.

“I thought Faith will come when the news got to her,” Adrian said. “Sometimes, in order to fight a giant, you need to bring in another giant.”

-----

Faith, with a great amount of effort, flung Maya into the air. Her baby blue eyes were icy cold as, hundreds of feet away, the Lycanroc impacted the ground and rolled back with huge chunks of the ground flying. Her knees braced as she crouched low with the town behind her, like a mother protecting her kits. The Lycanroc rolled back up to her paws and saw the giant Vulpix glaring at her.

“F-Faith?!” the Lycanroc's eyes widened. “How did you become so massive?! It-it couldn't be the Fire Stone, could it?”

“Not really,” Faith answered, feeling the fire within her swelling up. “Just a mess up when we got our wishes from Jirachi.”

“A 'mess up', huh?” Maya said as she crouched low herself, looking past Faith to her prey. “I'm curious to learn more about what happened, but I'm in a strict time-frame. Perhaps if you're willing to work with me to unlo-”

“With you? You created that Fire Stone that nearly kills me, acted like it's some minor mistake in your study even though you knew that I could've exploded, taking who knows how many Pokémon with me, and you just were in the progress of destroying my home!” Faith said, spatting out the words in all the anger she could muster. “After all that, I have to be insane or stupid to even think of working with you!”

“That's a shame,” Maya said as she gave out a confident smirk. “I guess I'll have to test you and perhaps open you up after defeating you. Perhaps after that, I may have enough time to destroy Arkanilacum as well.”

Faith, seeing red, sprinted forward to Maya. Fire flowed into her throat as smoke was emitted out of her mouth, with energy swelling in there. The fire then blasted out of her mouth as she continued her charge. “Flamethrower!”

Flames met the Lycanroc's pelt as she closed one of her eyes. Maya's teeth bared as she had energy built up into her left fore-paw. When Faith was within 30 feet, Maya swung her paw to Faith's side. “Brick Break!”

The Vulpix was knocked into the air with her flailing her limbs. When she met the ground, it shook with a force that every Pokémon felt in the town with huge lumps of the earth flying into the air. Faith rolled around as the Zoroark on her was still on the air, with him flailing his limbs in panic. Faith's claws extended and grabbed onto the ground with them creating small valleys with quick speed while David landed not too far behind her.

Maya glared at the Vulpix before noticing that, during that impact, Faith shrunk down by 5 feet. “Huh. That's curious.”

“Wha-why did I shrunk?” Faith asked, yelling out as she felt the spacious paw impression on the ground.

“Perhaps it's because, in order to recover from that attack, your body shrunk in response,” Maya answered before giving out a wide smirk that would slash down anyone who saw it. “That makes things much easier for me. I don't have to deal with a huge body to carry around when I defeat you but instead your pathetic, small size.”

Faith's eyes widened as the larger Lycanroc crouched low to the ground before leaping up to the air with her jaws wide open.

“Crunch!”

Faith's natural instinct was to jump back, but instead, she ran forward and leaped. Her body twisted upwards as she felt a fireball swelling in her throat, her eyes staring at Maya's stomach. “Flame Burst!”

A concentrated fireball exited from her mouth to Maya's stomach. The fireball exploded upon impact as the Lycanroc gave out a cry. The blast's force kept her on the air, over the Zoroark, and crashing on her back with a quake. Faith panted, feeling that she just shrunk more to 40 feet, as Maya ahead of her twisted back to her feet, shaking the ground. When their eyes met Faith realized that, at the way this fight was going, she wasn't going to win as long as Maya doesn't shrink down while she does. Her eyes diverted onto the Lycanroc's legs and an idea formed in her mind.

“This has been fun, little one, but I'll end this right now,” Maya said as she forced herself up on her hind legs. She then slammed her fore-paws onto the ground as the earth shook. “Stone Edge!!”

Faith's eyes widened as the ground broke around her and huge slabs of stones shoot into the air, surrounding her. They clamped around her with a force that left her unable to move, feeling them slicing through her fur and skin. She gave out a massive hour that pierced the air for miles.

-----

“Oh Arceus, Faith's getting herself killed there,” Captain Galeron said, his voice trembled with fear.

Adrian stared downwards, feeling like something had pierced his heart. His face was filled with pain and whitening as his claws shook.

“We-we need to get down there now!” Adrian said as he looked back at the Dragonite. “We need to save her!”

“How?” another Dragonite asked. “That huge and crazy looking Lycanroc took five Hyper Beams to the face and didn't do any lasting damage. Not to mention that she managed to resist a few of the attacks from Faith, despite being nearly as big. What can we do that can stop that giant?”

“I-I'll think of something along the way,” Adrian answered, his entire body shook as if winter had come when it was only summer a few minutes ago. “Right now, Faith is in danger and we can't just watch.”

“Adrian,” Captain Galreon said as his short arms petted the Flareon, “we can't just blindly leap into action that can lead to certain death. We need a plan, something that can counter that giant, and we need it before leaping into action. Can't you think of an idea now?”

Adrian closed his eyes, doing his best to think. Yet all of this thoughts were about seeing a dead Vulpix. “I-I can't focus!”

-----

Maya gave out a harsh laugh as she walked over to the massive slabs of stone 200 feet high, ignoring the Zoroark below her in the progress. Her smug grin radiates a monolithic sense of victory since not even a Charizard could still be awake after such an attack, let alone a Vulpix. All she needed to do, she knew, was to collect Faith's fainted body, finish up destroying Arkanilacum, and she would be on her wa-

SMASH!

Maya blinked and looked up, with her eyes wide in surprise. Standing on top of the stone slabs was a Vulpix, who had broken through the stone with her now 25 feet tall body by her observation. The Vulpix gave out a soul-piercing glare as she leaped down, her body giving out a red glow. She then landed before Maya's legs and gave out a massive yell.

“OVERHEAT!!”

Flames and smoke engulfed the two giants and the surrounding area as the ground shook and a shock wave was emitted throughout, blasting David on the ground away by several feet. The stone slabs broke apart from the force with boulders flying around behind with the occasional few flying forward. David, with speed even he thought wasn't possible for him, moved out of the way from such boulders as his face screamed out panic.

The few trees and the grass field in the giant's battlefield was caught on fire, yet, despite Arkanilacum wasn't too far away, it was left unharmed from the behemoth of an Overheat attack, with the rib bones blocking the severed parts of the attack. What did go through the rib bones wasn't enough to do any lasting damages that Maya did. Every Pokémon, from the top of the high hills to the city, stared at the smoke in anticipation.

The smoke and dust soon faded and settled with Faith, now back to 1'11”, and Maya, still 60 feet tall. Maya, with a smug grin, looked down at the now tiny Vulpix while Faith glared back.

“Nice try, tiny, but I barely felt that.”

“I'm surprised that you did since I wasn't aiming at you.”

“What? What are you talki-”

POP!

Zzzzzzzz

Maya's eyes widened in horror as she looked down at one of her forelegs. The illusion device that she wore there was now melting as it gave out sparks and explosions. She gave out a horrified howl as she darkened into a shadow. The Lycanroc shadow shrunk down in size from an imposing 60 feet to an almost pathetic 2'7”. Colors came back to Maya as she stumbled and ripped out the device, with it almost burning through her skin.

“You-you little,” Maya said as she gave out an ugly glare, anger emitting off of her body. “I'll end you here right now!”

The Lycanroc then sprinted forward towards Faith as the Vulpix, teeth barred, braced herself. She felt so drained from that battle that, even though Maya with great speed got closer, she couldn't even produce flames despite her life being depended on it, let alone move out of the way. Maya leaped onto the air towards Faith with her jaws wide open.

“Crun-”

A foot met Maya's face, knocking her to the side.

“Eh, I won't let you harm my friend, so I suggest that you leave while you still can.”

Maya rolled back up and saw a Zoroark standing in front of Faith now, his arms crossed.

Maya growled. “If I have to fight you too, I will. I will get that Vulpix!”

“Eh, maybe. If you can fight off five Dragonite too.” David looked up at the ribs protecting the town, his eyes observing five pear-shaped figures flying towards them.

Maya closed her eyes. “It seems that everything's going against what I planned on doing. Good-bye for now.”

The Lycanroc faded from sight as David blinked in astonishment. His eyes shifted towards where the device Maya ripped off from her foreleg was laying, yet saw that it too had disappeared. He then turned back towards Faith and saw that she wasn't surprised at all.

“Wh-where did she and that machine went off to?” David asked.

“Who knows,” Faith answered, feeling her knees shaking before she let herself fell onto the ground. “Especially since she knows the ability Illusion. I know, she's a Lycanroc. But she told me more than two weeks ago that she gained it after a mishap with another anthro device and a Zoroark. In fact, that device she was using was making her Illusion ability reality, even her giant size just earlier.”

“That-that does explain why she looks funny,” the Zoroark said as he kneels towards Faith. “So, her being a giant was nothing more than an Illusion brought to life?”

“Yes.” Faith yawned as she lay down her head. “I feel so tired now.”

“Faith! Are you alright?!”

The Vulpix's ears twitched as she looked up and saw a Flareon running towards her. Her eyes widened as Adrian pounced her, leaving David and the five Dragonite standing there and watching in bemusement.

“Thank goodness,” Adrian said, squeezing Faith into a hug. “When I saw you trapped in that Stone Edge attack and later in that explosion in attacking her, I-I thought that you-that you-”

“It's OK,” Faith said as she patted the Flareon's back in an attempt to break off from the hug. “It was a tight fit in there, but it also caused me to shrunk just enough for me to break out from the top. I'm alright aside from feeling tired.” A massive groan came out of Faith's stomach. “And hungry.”

Adrian gave out a loud laugh as he released Faith from the Ekans-like hug. “Alright. I'll get you something to eat when we head back into town. But there's one last thing for me to do.” Faith blinked as Adrian looked into his bag and pulled out a mint-green bow. He smiled as he puts it and ties it around Faith's neck. “There you go, Faith.”

“Thank you very much,” Faith smiled as she patted the big bow on the back of her neck and her belly growls again. “Now let's go out to eat before my stomach eats itself.”

“You bet, Faith.”

-----

The Pyroar walked down the empty road at dusk, thinking about the events that happened several hours before. It's good that the problem with Faith ended a few days ahead of schedule, yet it also resulted in a great deal of destruction of Arkanilacum even if the two were only somewhat related. He dealt with a great deal of paperwork trying to cover what's been destroyed and how many of his citizens got killed, which got boring after a while.

Mayor Richard looked from side to side, now heading towards the suburban parts of the town. No one, except those who already knew the truth, knew that Faith was the giant Vulpix that saved them all. The Pokémon of the town believed that their savior died in a suicidal attack in an attempt to stop the monstrous Lycanroc rather than returning back to their normal size as Faith did. It did help that her bow that she always wore wasn't on her since it couldn't grow with her.

Perhaps he could be able to talk some sense to Faith to admit the truth. After all, loads of Pokémon died or become homeless because of the attack. With the publicity that she's the newest Pokémon who can turn into a giant in a long time would bring in every Pokémon around the world to see her. She could rake in millions of Poké just for them to see how big she can grow and how it could help the town. Couldn't she see? And, if not, perhaps his help will convince-

“Hello, Mr. Mayor.”

Mayor Richard blinked and looked around before his eyes saw a Zoroark standing behind him. His ears twitched, having heard nothing of being followed.

“Hello, boy. What can I do for-”

“Going to see Faith?”

Paused. Then he answered, “Yes, I am.”

“Eh, thought so,” David said as he walked around the Pyroar. “And are those papers of how many died or are homeless because of the Lycanroc attack?”

“L-look. What are you here for?”

“To make sure that my friend isn't in some debt for the rest of her life,” David answered as he rubbed a claw under Mayor Richard's neck. “If it wasn't for her, the entire city would've been demolished with who knows how many lives lost.”

“You know how much money I lost because of this!”

“And I know how many more you still have,” David said and grinned when he saw the Pyroar paled. “What? I've been following you on my off times and looked around your paperwork. I saw how much Poké the city really gained from tourism and how much you've pocketed.”

Mayor Richard regained his composure as he said, “You have no proof. You're just scaring me.”

“Am I?” David went into his pouch and pulled out several pictures before showing them to the Pyroar. “Hehe. Is that a sweat drop? I must say that the camera you have was very helpful in getting proof of your embezzling.”

Mayor Richard, through a pale face, gave out a glare. “How did you know?”

“Eh, it was an educated guess. When I saw the camera for the first time, I did note how new it seems. For, you see, a new camera like that, especially one made by the anthros long gone from this world, would be worth an absurd amount of money, which I thought was odd for a tight-wad like you. I did some digging, at first by my own and later with my wife's help when she was getting worried on where I was going, and I found out just how much you kept for yourself. With a convenient excuse that you don't want to shell out money because of how broke the town's income was and, thus, had to keep spending to a minimum, you managed to produce a scheme that made you one of the richest Pokémon in the world.”

The Pyroar's claws extended. “Thank you for the explanation, but, fortunately, my enforcers will silent you since I'm never alone.”

The Pyroar twitched his tail and two Blastoise leaped down on beside both of Mayor Richard's side as he gave out a sneer to the Zoroark.

“Take him out.”

The two Blastoise nodded and they extended their cannons before aiming them at the calm Zoroark ahead of them. They stood like that for a couple of seconds before they, with a grin, leaped onto the Pyroar, pinning him down.

“W-what's the meaning of this!?” Mayor Richard said as he gave out a roar. “Don't you know how much I've been paying you two?! Why betrayed me?!”

“Because they aren't your men,” David answered and two Blastoise materialized beside David, both fainted on the ground. The two Blastoise on top of the Pyroar shifted into another Zoroark and a Dragonite as the Mayor's eyes widened in horror. “And even if you did kill me, I sent out copies of the photos, ready to be read with eager eyes by reporters. There's no way you'll be able to silence them all without looking suspicious.”

Mayor Richard gave out a low chuckled. “You don't think I've paid off the reporters already? The ones who really enforced how poor our town is?”

“I didn't,” David answered with an indifferent shrug. “Good thing I've also thought of sending the pictures to the other towns as well.” He smiled as the Pyroar become white. “And I have one just waiting for Faith. You really didn't think it through at all, did you?”

“What do you want?”

“For you to leave Faith alone and to stop stealing the town's money. If you do, I'll guarantee that you'll last for the next few weeks for your 'retirement'. Deal?”

The Pyroar gave out a low growl. “Sure. I'll put it in writing.”

“Good,” David said as he gestured the two Pokémon on top of the Pyroar to get off of him. “Don't be so sad. After all, the world will know that a giant rampage and battle did happen here. Pokémon will come to visit here more than ever, so it's not like the town will be left poor or anything. Just leave your filthy paws off of the money, though.”

The three Pokémon left Mayor Richard with high spirits as the Pyroar left the other way, head low and with tail and ears drooping.

When they got outside of the Pyroar's range of hearing, Amber said, “Good thing you thought of creating copies of those pictures.”

“I didn't,” David said with both Amber and the Dragonite blinking at him. “There was no way I could think of that can create more copies of those pictures. At least, without taking more with that camera and I'm not sure how long it would've taken before he noticed that someone used up a full reel and was looking for another one. But it doesn't matter now. He accepted the deal.”

-----

Indeed, as David said, Pokémon did come to Arkanilacum in droves, in part to donate for the loss of lives and property and in part to look over the battle where the two giants, the Vulpix and the Lycanroc, fought. They looked over the paw-steps in the battlefield the size of parks and claw-marks as wide as a river and remarked how incredible they were. But, most of all, they looked at the Stone Edge remains, where the climax of the battle happened.

The Mayor noted in his report two weeks afterward that, because of what happened, tourism revenue increased by 400% (in actually 300% because of him not stealing money anymore), allowing the town to be repaired like it never happened within a month. Though it didn't improve his mood, some Pokémon noted, and the citizens were surprised when he announced his retirement, with his final day being when it was scheduled for the end of the repair period. Many believed that the sudden stress after a long lull of nothing might have broken his spirit of leading the town.

Faith, for her part, tested to see if she could grow in size again and blushed when, after using Flash Fire to absorb a fireplace's fire, she grew an extra six inches. She decided to keep it to herself and Adrian, who she told, so she could be able to live in harmony rather than be some sort of tourist spot or protector. After what she went through the last few weeks, being big like that was stressful to her and everyone around her and she doesn't want to be put into that spot again.

Though, she admitted to herself, a part of her enjoyed it and wouldn't mind if she was big again.

-----

Faith walked down the main road, her baby blue eyes looked around the shops on both of her sides. She wore a pouch around her neck and shoulder as the mint green bow flapped in the breeze. The late summer sun shined against her red-orange pelt with her white paws walked on the yellow dirt road.

“I really hope to find a Fire Stone this time and not one that's been tampered,” Faith said with a smile.

“If you say so, Faith,” a voice behind her said as her ears twitched and she looked behind her.

“That trick won't work on me again, Adrian” Faith said as she pressed a white paw against his nose.

Adrian blushed as he took a step back. “I wasn't trying to scare you this time. I just wanted to talk to you. That's all.”

“Oh? What is it?” Faith asked as she nuzzled the Flareon's blushing cheek.

“W-well, I've been thinking,” Adrian said as he shifted his eyes. “After what had happened the last several weeks, I-I wanted to ask you something.”

“Adrian, being shy like this isn't like you,” Faith said in a teasing tone. “But please try to spit it out.”

“W-w-well, here's the thing,” Adrian said while sweating. “It's had something to do with what I said during our meeting with Jirachi. Namely, I want us to live together from now on.”

“W-what?” Faith replied, blushing as well. “What do you mean by this?”

“Faith, I-I meant to tell you this. I-” Adrian said before choking on his words. “I-I-”

“Hello!” a new voice said as a Zoroark appeared between both, causing them to jump back, with Adrian on his back. “Sorry to interrupt you two, but there's a famous Explorer in the city visiting!”

Adrian glared at David as Faith said in a high-pitch voice, “A-an Explorer?! Who?!”

David turned around and pointed up the road as Faith and Adrian follow the red claw to the new figure coming their way. The foxy Pokémon's golden-white fur shined in the light with all nine tail-tips being orange in color. The green scarf he wore bore an Explorer's badge, with yellow wings on both sides. Yet the oddest thing about this sea blue-eyed newcomer's badge was a light green A engraved on it.

Faith let out a gasp. “It's it's him!”

“Who?”

Before Faith could answer Adrian's question, the Ninetales approached them.

“Hello there. My name is Daren, but folks called me A-Ninetales,” the Ninetales said. “I was hoping to meet with the leader of this town to discuss with, from what I heard, an attack by a giant Lycanroc.”

Faith held her breath, her face as red as the top half of a Voltorb while Adrian's green eyes glared at A-Ninetales, his face just as green.

“Sure. Of course, Mayor Richard won't be mayor for long, but I don't see why you shouldn't meet with him,” David said as he glanced at the Flareon with a mischievous smile. “I'll see you two later.”

A-Ninetales bowed his head to David before he gave a glance at the Vulpix with a curious face. The Zoroark gave a poke to the Ninetales' shoulder and walked for a couple of seconds, but he doesn't seem to notice, his eyes still looking at Faith. Adrian's face, if it was even possible, got greener as his claws dug into the ground.

“Didn't you noticed?” Adrian asked, his voice as cold as a Glaceon's attack. “He wants you to follow.”

“Oh, sorry,” A-Ninetales answered as he glanced at the Flareon, not bothered by the piercing glare. “Just that I also heard that a macro Vulpix was there at the time and your friend, Faith, reminded me of her.”

“Faith had nothing to do with it,” Adrian said, his tone still cold. “And, in case you didn't notice, this Vulpix isn't large like the one from before.”

“It is true that she isn't a giant at the moment, Adrian,” A-Ninetales said before looking back at David. “Sorry to keep you waiting. Let's go.”

The Zoroark smiled as he nodded and gestured the Ninetales to follow. A-Ninetales nodded back and walked behind David, though he gave one last look at Faith. Adrian breathed back and forth, doing his best to think and relax again, as Faith looked at A-Ninetales, still awestruck.

“We just met the legendary A-Ninetales! I just feel so-so honored!” Faith said with an expression that screamed out how much her mind was up in the clouds. “Don't you feel the same way, Adrian?”

Adrian closed his eyes as he lowered his head, feeling like he was next to a cliff and was about to slip down. Something was holding him back. Something said before that was trying to reach into the forefront of his mind.

“Adrian? Are you being envious of how great A-Ninetales is?”

It drifted to the back of his mind. All he could think of was falling.

“I think that he's a devious, arrogant Ninetales who's just full of himself!”

Adrian lifted his head as he realized what he just said in horror. He opened his eyes and recoiled, meeting a glare from a pissed off Vulpix.

“Adrian! How could you?” Faith said as her paw slammed against the Flareon's face. He felled back onto the ground with a stunned look on his face. “How could you not see how awesome A-Ninetales is? As a result, I don't think I want to live with you!”

Faith stormed off, leaving behind a flustered Flareon behind. Adrian's ears then flattened back, his eyes glanced towards the ground as he felt a massive pain his chest. He had a chance to be with Faith for the rest of his life and he blew it! All because he couldn't keep his thoughts straight; because he couldn't help but noticed how much A-Ninetales looked at Faith and how much she idolized him. His mind went through ways on how to apologize to Faith, how he was jealous of A-Ninetales, who knew them by-

“Wait,” Adrian said to himself. “He referred to us by our names. But we never even told him our names. How did he know? And, come to think of it, he was certain that the giant Vulpix who defended this town was a she. How?”

Adrian looked down the road where A-Ninetales walked down with David and, with a leap back onto his paws, ran down the road. Whether if this was a way to make up with Faith or to learn more about A-Ninetales, one thing was certain, Adrian realized. This Explorer might have guessed or even knew the truth about Faith and her giant part in defending this town.

(19:14:28) Virmir: All of Foxgamer's pics are either super happy or BATTLE.
(19:14:53) Virmir: Except that one roo one.
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foxgamer01

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Reply #4 on: December 24, 2018, 07:31:46 PM
For anyone who read all four parts of this story, thank you very much. I know how much of a hassle it can be to read what is one of my longest story. <3

It basically began a few years ago with discussions about macro Pokémon and he asked for a story with a macro Vulpix. We exchanged ideas (he was the one who named the Vulpix Faith and I was the one who named the Flareon Adrian) and a basic story idea. The initial story idea was about how Faith tried to evolve into a Ninetales, but she had a nasty allergic reaction to the Fire Stone. In her despair, she blindly wished to the night's sky be bigger and Jirachi, not knowing that she meant to evolve into Ninetales, mistook what she meant and instead thought it meant that she wanted to grow big. This causes growth spurts throughout the next day which caused a fair amount of destruction, which caused her to leave her home. Adrian managed to catch up to her and confessed her love to her; swearing to never leave her side no matter how big she got. Jirachi then shows up, now realizing that he messed up and removed the allergy problem, but not the macro part, leaving her as a macro.

I did admit that I tried to write it down, but it wasn't working with me. It doesn't help that I was working with Amazon at the time, which, if you haven't read my journals about it, is a horrible, moral draining place to work in. So much so that, since getting fired from Amazon and even with the craziness of my new job (Safeway as a deli worker), I find it much better to write now. By that time, this story that's been bouncing in my head had changed so much that I decided to start from scratch and start off again.

If you read the story, you'll notice some similarities with the original outline (bad reaction with Fire Stone, meeting and getting a wish from Jirachi, Faith becoming a big girl despite still being a Vulpix), but changed from the context. It's what happened when I have years of thinking about this one story. It doesn't help that A-Ninetales wasn't originally supposed to be a character here, but Chris loves the idea of Faith fangirling over him (even suggesting that she has a painted letter F on her back) that I have to work him in. In a way, it does make what happened with Jirachi works better since it's a subtle change rather than exact words literal genie thing that caused her to gained her macro abilities.

As for the title, the prototype for the title was 'Faith and Adrian L&L Story', but I changed it in part because of, while it's a Large story it's not really a Love story due to how it ended and in part to call back the legend of Prometheus. While Prometheus was well known for creating mankind in the Greek mythologies, he was also known for giving fire to mankind as well, allowing them to grow and build civilizations along with all the messy stuff that comes with it. It works with my story two-fold. One is, as detailed in the prologue section at the beginning of the work, originally only the anthros have macro abilities, but then, whether through a mistake or as a gift, Pokémon gained such abilities as well, which gave rise to the macro Pokémon in this world with all the messy stuff that comes with it. Indeed, just like as fire can be a blessing and a curse, growing as large as trees and even mountains can be a blessing and a curse. Another major reason is that Faith gained her ability to grow because she inadvertently took the edited ability Flash Fire from A-Ninetales, allowing her to grow in size.

Whew. Well, I hope you all enjoy this novella of sorts and I hope you guys will enjoy the sequel I have in mind (still need to work on other writing stuff I've been neglecting and still needed to iron out some ideas).

(19:14:28) Virmir: All of Foxgamer's pics are either super happy or BATTLE.
(19:14:53) Virmir: Except that one roo one.
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