Abhorrence

There was once a time when Marvin was young, yes, indeed there was such a time. It was when he was but a child who, like all children, feared tales of monsters conjured up by their young imaginations or their parent’s machinations. Those nasty creatures - the ones that hid under beds, in closets, in basements, in all the places that were dark and scary or where grownups said not to go. But for Marvin, he learned quicker than most of his long gone childhood friends were monsters truly dwelt. 

He was paddling down a river one summer’s morning, a brisk swim around Oat Lake.  It was the sort of morning that made one glad to be alive, but for a child such as himself, it was just another splendid, carefree day, where the world seemed so much brighter and where his worst problems stemmed from his brothers eating all the sitrus berries for breakfast.

It was drifting down this lake that Marvin saw him, a lone Absol.

Marvin had never seen one before in person. Some were reclusive creatures, living in the wilds and making precious little contact with villagers and other locals. Something seemed off about them, a weirdness the likes of which couldn’t be explained, and like all things that can’t be understood they were shunned, cursed and feared.

Marvin could tell the Absol was male, he was fairly certain it was. He seemed broad enough. He was sitting on his hind legs, the reeds around the river had been pressed down from him sitting there for so long. His head solemnly drooped down and gazed into the waters of the river. Marvin couldn’t see his face. He was still, so unnaturally still. Even from a distance, nothing about him seemed natural, and that’s exactly what made Marvin all the more curious.

He had always loved things that others disliked. He was always one to explore the caves that kids were told not to wonder into, or talk to Pokémon that his parents would refer to as strange. Abnormals, the town folk would refer to them as, a breed of Pokémon that were marked by their pairs of ghostly blue eyes and powers that inspired thoughts of the supernatural. But Marvin never saw strangeness in anything, only mystery that drove his curiosity.

It was that curiosity that drove him to pull himself onto the shore of the river and plod through the reeds towards the Absol. He seemed young, about Marvin’s age, a youth. Eventually Marvin got close enough, expecting the Absol to react to his presence. He got nothing. Whatever he was staring at, it must have been consuming all of his attention. Marvin wondered what would happen if he spoke to him.

“Uh, hey? Hello?”

The Absol remained unmoved, rooted on the spot, continuing to explore whatever it was in the river that consumed its attention. Marvin crept closer and closer, the thought of the strange Absol rearing on him and attacking him never once entered his mind. Things like that never did and whenever they did, he always had an uncanny ability of shaving them into the back of his mind.

He was close now. Almost close enough to touch his white bristly fur. “What yer looking at?” asked Marvin, hoping to get some sort of response or strike up some form of greeting.

Again, much to his dismay, he got no response and began to wonder if-

“A monster,” the reply from the Absol came. It was sudden, quick, and abrupt. It left Marvin wondering if it was even spoken at all. “An…abhorrence…,” the Absol then added.

A monster? What kind of vicious monster could possibly be hiding in the river’s pristine clear waters on a pleasant morning such as this?Marvin soon came to the Absol’s side and gazed down into the river. There, he saw something that made his heart stop. The Absol’s reflection was gazing back at him, his pair of ghostly blue eyes chilled Marvin to his core.

“Randhir…” the Absol’s name rolled off Marvin’s tongue in a whisper as Thrax’s corpse was dissolved in the flames of a makeshift pyre by the lake. His gaze then shifted to both Vagus and Mycaelis, “Are dey truly as lost as ye were?”

The stars had gathered in their thousands that night, a sign that the storm clouds had finally cleared. Marvin watched on as the Arbok that nearly ended him perished in the flames. There was only silence that night, from both Marvin and the two boys he had found.

He wanted to scream at the Charmander in particular, tell him that Thrax didn’t need to die, that killing in any form was wrong, but Marvin knew there was something more in both these boys than a simple lack of morals. Someone had raised them with morals of their own, taught them to tear things apart first and think about their actions later. His thoughts then turned to the sketch Charizard in the journal he had found. Was she responsible? Who would raise a child like this? If the boys truly did come from the madness of Prismatic Jungle, then he would have understood her reasons. A sudden pang of regret came over him, she would have been a far better parent than he ever was; at least she made sure her sons would stay alive.

He turned to Mycaelis, the air of smug satisfaction about him had since faded. Marvin then uttered his first question, one of many that were pressing to leave his mind. “So what were ye and yer friend doing oyt in dat storm, eh?”

“Friend?” Mycaelis grumbled. “He’s my brother.”

Marvin scratched the back of his head, seeing little resemblance in the two supposed siblings. “Yer pa was a Feraligatr?”

Vagus however was as sharp as ever. Brimming with questions, his head swept around. “How do you know that the Feraligatr wasn’t our mother?”

Marvin gulped nervously. “I erm…looked through that journal yer brought ‘ere. Yer mother was a lovely drawer.”

Vagus was quick to shoot him a dirty look that, for the most part, Marvin felt he deserved. “And you just thought you’d help yourself to someone else’s journal, did ya?”

“Fuck’s sake, Vagus,” Mycaelis snarled and kicked a loose stone into the nearby lake. “She’s dead. What does it matter now?”

“She’s not dead, she’s alive. She’s out there. I never saw her body, did you?”

“She’s fuckin’ dead, you naive prick! They probably dragged her off to be eaten!”

“No! W-why would you…?”

“They tore her wings apart…easier to get the tendons….”

“Stop…” Vagus was covering his head with his hands, anguishing and refusing to listen to more.

“Then they gutted her and cooked her from the inside…”

“Please…enough…”

“That’s if they cooked her at all, probably just ate her alive. Tore her apart…limb from limb.”

“Shut up!” Vagus took Mycaelis completely off guard; he tackled his brother to the ground and launched a volley of fists into his head.

Mycaelis took some time but was quick to overcome his shock. He rammed his head into Vagus’ and threw a punch so hard into the Totodile’s abdomen that it sent him flying several feet into the air where he landed in the sand by the shore of the lake.

A sibling punch-up was something Marvin had known all too well in his life, he fought with his own from dawn till dusk only to watch his own sons do the same many years on. The only difference here was that these two looked like they were almost dead set on murdering each other.

Mycaelis then charged at the downed Totodile and before Marvin could get between the two feuding siblings, an arc of electricity shot from the lake and hit Mycaelis dead in the chest, flinging him backwards and leaving him stunned on the ground. Narda’s head had emerged from the water of the lake and bathed the shore with light from her bulbs as the fire from Thrax’s pyre began to fade.

Narda was never one to look angrily on others, but her eyes were menacing enough to embed terror in anyone. “Well, this is hardly the family reunion I was expecting from two siblings!”

Vagus stumbled and fell before managing to get to his feet, gasping for air. Mycaelis had knocked the wind clean out of him in a single punch. Marvin was soon at his side. “Anything broken, Vagus?”

“I’m fine,” he grunted, soldiering on as he always did when Mycaelis or Gaius knocked him around. Vagus got to his feet and stared down Mycaelis who had managed to clamber to his knees. “What’s your problem?” snarled Vagus, “I drag your ungrateful arse through that storm and that’s what I get?”  

“I never asked you to!” roared Mycaelis, fury in his eyes. “I told you to fucking leave me, you blasted cunt!”

“Dad said that I was…”

“Fuck what he said! He’s dead, too! Both of ‘em. Fucking wasted!” Mycaelis punched the rain muddied ground, his fists driven by pure anger and frustration. “And yet here we both are still breathing because there was nothing we could do! Maybe you feel fucking terrific with that, but I don’t!”

“Enough!” roared Marvin above Mycaelis’ screams. His voice boomed as though he were reprimanding his team back in his guild days. Silence fell. Naught could be heard save for Mycaelis' ragged breaths as he recovered from his outburst.

“Now,” chimed Narda, the anger in her eyes draining disturbingly fast, “I think it be time dat we got to know ye two a lil' bit better, now that yer wide awake and 'ave de energy to kill just about anything dat moves.”

“I suppose we owe you two that much for getting us out of that storm,” Vagus sighed. He proceeded to head back inside the cavern when Marvin ushered him and pacified Mycaelis forward. “Sorry about your arm by the way,” Vagus mumbled remorsefully seeing that Marvin’s arm was heavily bandaged.  

The three sat down at the table which had survived its clash with Thrax. There were just enough chairs left for the three of them, Marvin’s heart still ached over the loss of the fourth. As soon as Narda’s head looming out of her pool nearby, the tale began.

If Marvin wasn’t terrified before of the two boys, he certainly was by the time Vagus had concluded their story. He wasn’t sure what to fear more, the monsters that dwelt in the shadows of the jungle or the Feraligatr named Gaius that was their father, a creature so large and feared that it put most of the stories he had heard previously to shame. And within that moment, Marvin suddenly realised that the stories he had heard of the jungle were true, the freaks who wore armbands, the grim fates of dozens upon dozens of prospecting teams from the guild, the monster that may have taken them had sired two sons who had now arrived at Marvin’s doorstep. 

Their story continued, Vagus certainly had a knack for recounting past events while Mycaelis simply sat silently. The Charmander uttered not a word while his brother spoke, simply gazing into space with a pair of empty, emotionless eyes.  He seemed a near polar opposite of his Totodile brother, like he was a vessel filled to its brim with hatred and violence by some creature of ill-repute. Laconians, they were called, a breed of Pokémon unlike any other, one taught to defend a land far from the shores of Oat, a land that neither of the boys had ever seen or walked upon.

“Elysium?” Marvin let the name roll from his tongue, his eyes wide with intrigue.

The more he heard Vagus speak about it, the more he felt as though he were a child again, feeling the fire and desire for adventure burn within him again, to visit a place of myth and legend, a place where most would say never existed to begin with. He wanted to plant his feet in the sands of its shores, pace his way through its green pastures and press forward under the warm canopies of its jungles which surely must be much friendlier than the ones of Oat. To Vagus, Elysium was but a tale told by his mother, nothing more. To Marvin, it was a place worth searching for, a place that may have sounded too ideal to exist, but he nonetheless wanted to see it for himself.

But while Marvin’s yearning heart soared at Vagus’ tale, his aged and experienced mind was drawing conclusions left right and center, each one leading to the same ultimate point, their mother was full of shit. Laconians, paradises, creatures that hid in shadows; the only Pokémon Marvin had heard tales like that from were the ones who had lost their minds looking for them. They were gripped by denial leading to self-delusion which in turn lead to downright madness. But yet Marvin truly wondered what it was that would make their mother tell such stories to her children. He had traveled as far west as the snow covered mountains and as far east as the shores of Mantine Beach. He had come across oddities of all sorts, the most fascinating of which first presented itself to Marvin in the form of an Absol with ghostly blue eyes.

“Tell me, Vagus,” Marvin spoke after Vagus had finished his tale, “have yer ever heard of Abnormals?”

“Abnormals?” Vagus cocked his head, “That’s a name for something around here?”

Marvin sighed. As much as he despised the name, it is one that nonetheless stuck. “There were once was a time long ago where they were called a different name,” he explained to Vagus, “one long since lost in time; stamped oyt by de ignorance o' Oat’s newer inhabitants.”

Vagus then shook his head, a response that was sheepishly mimicked by Mycaelis. “Never heard of them.”

“Interesting,” Marvin stroked his chin. “Then we shall meet with them on the morrow.”

“We’re not going anywhere.” Mycaelis finally broke his silence, much to Vagus’ discomfort.

“And where, fa fooks sake, do yer intend ter go?” snapped Marvin, tiring of Mycaelis' insolence. “Wanna sit ‘round here like a sack ‘o shite all dae? I need ter find oyt what yer are. Even if yer are just a simple sack ‘o shite, at least den I’ll know it so.”

Mycaelis rose in defiance, “I know who I am, ya old bastard!”

Marvin rose from his chair, and stood Mycaelis down. He wasn’t angry, how could he be? He was too tired to be angry. His tussle with Thrax had left his body aching like it had been chewed up and spat out by a Gyarados. "Enough. Ye two best try to get more rest, because I tell yer now, I need it more than yer do with all the shite ye’ve stirred todae. Off with yer. Narda will wake us come dawn. We’ll have a fair walk.”

Without another word, Marvin soundlessly made his way over to his bed of reeds. He sighed the moment his head made contact with the makeshift pillow. He watched on as Mycaelis and Vagus nestled up in the bed they had made for them earlier. Marvin’s eyes did not close until he watched Mycaelis close his eyes and slip into slumber.

Marvin's dreams seemed kinder to him that night, as though a hole that had been torn in his heart was being filled by something that he had lost many years ago. His little ones played in the lake before him, paddling and splashing one another in some game that only children could understand. It made Marvin smile to see such a sight as the sun bore down on him in all its brilliance. He enjoyed dreams like this, his grey and tattered Floatzel fur returned to the orange of its prime years, his muscles ached no longer and his heart soared, no longer feeling broken.    

It was then he noticed a blue eyed Absol at his side. Randhir was older here, fully grown, just the way Marvin recalled him when he was in good health and before he sired two sons of his own. Randhir was an excellent specimen of his kind, he stood proud, motionless, watching the children play. Marvin rarely ever saw him smile, yet there would have been little for him to smile about. Marvin's little ones were enjoying an experience that Randhir's children would likely be denied during their lives. 

"Hey," Marvin regarded his friend with a smile, "maybe one dae when yer have kids o' yer own. Ye'll know de same joy." 

"Perhaps." Randhir's was as deadpanned as always, his eyes fixed on the two Buizels in the lake. "But I doubt there will be much joy. The young are ever so vulnerable. Always in need of protection." 

Even in these more pleasant dreams, ones that seemed like long forgotten memories, Marvin could not escape his failure. He sighed and regarded Randhir mournfully, "I...tried all I could." 

At this Randhir's brow furrowed, "No, I tried. You? Not. Hard. Enough." He promptly turned his back on Marvin, walking away.  

Before Marvin could pursue, he could hear whispers from Mycaelis and Vagus, whether they were part of the dream or seeping in from the outside, he could not tell.  

"He seems like a good bloke," Vagus' candid voice whispered. 

"What if he's with those monsters," Mycaelis hissed, "he'll be the end of us." 

Marvin's head darted left, right and center, searching for the source of the noise. He never found it. 

Vagus giggled. "Afraid of an old man, son of Gaius the Great?" 

"Hey, I'm afraid of no one," snarled Mycaelis. 

"Then we've got nothing to worry about. Look, we're in this together. There's a whole world here for us. We can be whatever we want."

Vagus words seemed wise, but it was Mycaelis that spoke words of wisdom that even Marvin could not dispute. "And what makes you think this world wants us in it? We can be lots of things, but being normal will never be one of them."  

And so the dream faded, giving way to pure sleep in which Marvin found a large measure of comfort. 

The rays of early dawn did their best to seep through the thick layer of forest branches as Marvin, carrying a bucket laden with berries hanging by his side, led the way into the depths of the forest. Creeping Forest, as it was known, was frequented by locals, but passing through its deeper crevices were usually avoided in favor of main roads.  

“Abnormals,” Marvin began, speaking back at the two boys who followed him. “We know dem as de native inhabitants of Oat. They’ve been ‘round for as long as history has been ‘round to record dem. At least our recording of history. Most folk never really care to hear much of theirs. They didn’t care for it then, and dey certainly don’t care ‘bout it now.”

Mycaelis let out an insulting yawn. “And I don’t honestly blame them, who the fuck could care about boring crap like that?”

Marvin simply ignored Mycaelis’ snide comments whenever they arose. Vagus seemed to have caught onto the tactic and followed Marvin’s example. Still, Mycaelis remained being Mycaelis as he always was and as he always would be for many years to come. 

“What’s so interesting about Abnormals?” asked Vagus.

“They are like you two in almost every respect,” answered Marvin, moving aside some foliage. “You two showed strength yesterday da likes of which I've only ever seen in an Abnormal. Yer fight like them, walk like them. Yer share der strength, der perception,” he glanced at Mycaelis, “an’ der wrath as well.”

“Everything?” asked Vagus surprised.  

“No…not quite. While many types o’ Pokémon can fall under de Abnormal breed, all o’ ‘em, at least the pure blooded ones, have a pair o’ startlin’ blue eyes. They will be certain to strike a chill into ye the moment ye see dem.”

Vagus exchanged a look with Mycaelis and could tell that even he was surprised and intrigued at what Marvin was telling them. Vagus soon had his answer.

“These Abnormals,” said Mycaelis, “how strong are they? Stronger than me?”

At this, Marvin simply smiled, “perhaps ye may have met yer match yet, young Mycaelis.”

The group of three continued to walk for hours, some of them spent in silence others spent in conversation, this was until Marvin came to an abrupt stop. So abruptly did Marvin bring himself to a halt that Vagus and Mycaelis bumped into his back nearly sending him toppling over. “Keep yer voices down,” hissed Marvin his eyes scanning the forest ahead.

They had reached the entrance to a hidden glade, concealed by mist and darkness and flanked by a rocky promontory that loomed over Marvin and his charge. The rays of the morning sun did not reach this far and the mist kissed the trunks of trees all around. Marvin had been to this spot many times before, but never had he once let his guard down. His friends, the Abnormals, were dangerously cautious and Marvin knew that they had every right to be, especially considering what the other townsfolk would think of them.

“Stavros?” he called out, hoping his call would rise up the promontory and reach the ears of the glade’s lone sentinel. “It’s me, Marvin. I got two lil ones with me. We’re coming in.”

Before Marvin could even take a step forward a pair of glowing blue eyes shot out at him from the mist, piercing their way through the distance and making Marvin’s fur stand on its end. The mist soon gave way as the ground trembled slightly. From the promontory that loomed over them, the rocky and robust sphere of a Golem emerged to tower above them; his eyes were as blue as the mid-day sky and glowed with an eerie aura that made Vagus shift uneasily on the spot. There was an air of something supernatural about Stavros, an unworldly feel that inspired unease in anyone. It was no wonder why his kind were forced to hide so far within the depths of Oat’s largest forest.

“Well met, Marvin,” his voice rumbled calmly, looking down at Marvin. “It is a pleasure to receive you,” his eyes wondered to the bucket at Marvin’s side, “and your provisions.”

Marvin simply regarded Stavros with a smile, greeting his old friend. “I trust it will also be a pleasure to receive these two here?” He stepped aside and allowed Vagus and Mycaelis to present themselves before the sentinel. They were beginning to look like a pair of scared children trying to hide behind their mother’s skirts. Marvin knew they had to look worthier than that in order to make a good first impression on an Abnormal.

With a leap Stavros jumped from the top of the promontory and landed with a rumble before them. Birds darted from trees as the earth resounded with Stavros' landing. Stavros snarled, eyeing the two boys and showing his disdain for outsiders. He had every right to as far as Marvin was concerned; the villagers back in town would have likely lynched him on sight or would have at least found a reason to do so. Mysterious fires, illnesses, missing children, a tainted water supply, it mattered not; whenever something occurred that could not be explained, Abnormals were always brought in to make them explained. They were, after all, to blame for everything.

With a heavy heart, Marvin recalled the day when he and his mate debated the subject with the Toxicroak, Crass. “These freakish creatures,” Marvin recalled him saying, “they peer at us with their glowing blue eyes and isolate themselves from us and the world. Why? I’ll tell you why. It’s because they think they’re too good for it. They are an abhorrence, and thus we shall treat them as such.”

Stavros meanwhile continued to eye Mycaelis and Vagus. “These two are not permitted to enter,” he moved closer and shot a disappointed look at Marvin. “You should know better than to bring outsiders here, you old fool. We cannot risk another migration to escape the scrutiny of the villagers. We lost too many in our last one as it is.”

Marvin said nothing for a moment, but then uttered words that made Stavros’ sapphire eyes bulge. “Stavros,” he whispered, “dey came from Prismatic Jungle.”

Stavros was quick to compose himself. “Very well, but you must take them straight to Daedalus. No loitering unless he approves.”

“Understood,” Marvin nodded and handed Stavros the berry bucket. “I trust ye will know where to take these.”                                  

“Of course,” Stavros accepted the bucket with a polite bow. “We’ve been getting desperate. This blasted forest produces so little in these parts. I do miss the mountains.”

Marvin gave him a reassuring pat on his large rocky shell and slid past him into the glade with Mycaelis and Vagus following close behind. His thoughts took pity on Stavros, but nonetheless came to a cold resolve. This is yer home now, me friend. And as much as me heart breaks ter think of it, it may also be yer grave.