[PKMN] SPACE CASE!

[skinstealer]

LAST TIME...on SPACE CASE!
The first League gyym...with zero idea what they're in for, the Shooting Stars have officially begun their challenge!

Waivers signed, strange conditions agreed to- into the hall they go...

EPISODE 5: PEWTER GYM (PT. 2)
 

---

The first hall feels endless. 



No matter how much you walk down its candlelit carpet, nothing changes-








-rows and rows of doors.

FROND: ....sooooo
FROND: The challenge started, right?
EERIE: Dude said it would as soon as we entered the hall.
FILIGREE: There's nothing here, though.
FILIGREE: ....just a lot of identical, unmarked doors.

 

You pause, looking over the one to your left.

Unmarked, yes.



And then crossing the hall to the right.

Identical...

STRETCH: They're not the same.
EERIE: ...huh?

 

You gesture for everyone to come over.

STRETCH: Look.

 

Upon looking closer, there's a scratched symbol on each doorknob- barely visible until you deliberately checked.

STRETCH: Diamond on one, triangle on the other.
STRETCH: W-

 

Frond is already running to check more doors.

FROND: SQUARE!!!
FILIGREE: H-hey, wait up!









STRETCH: ....six symbols, repeating.
MINERVA: Stands to reason that it's one per party member, wouldn't it? 
MINERVA: Should we split up?
EERIE: Yeah, and end up in some kind of spike pit. 
STRETCH: It's that or keep walking.
STRETCH: Everyone pick a door.
















 

You are now Eerie.


You picked the diamond door.


You have thankfully not ended up in a spike pit-








-but this ridiculous slide sending you tumbling ass over teakettle doesn't feel much better.

EERIE: FUCKING
EERIE: DOGSHIT
EERIE: WHY

 

You land directly on your stomach when you hit the ground, swearing violently as you get to your feet.

EERIE: Fff-
EERIE: The fuck do these people get off-

 

Your eyes widen.




You are surrounded by more plastic tubes, leading any which way.

EERIE: ....Oh, I get it.
EERIE: I got the clownshoes bullshit door.
EERIE: Awesome.

 

You stomp around the clearing you've ended up in, the floor padded with some kind of foam mats.

EERIE: No sign of the way out.
EERIE: Fantastic.

 

Think.
Fucking.
Just think.

You cannot be the last one to get out of here-



God, they'd make fun of you so bad.



That prick-


Stretch would look down on you even MORE if you couldn't make it out of this.







What if there was- some kind of hidden timer?


You snort, going directly for the one in front of you. 


It's a straight tube, big enough to climb through if you get on your hands and knees. Your back plating occasionally scrapes the ceiling, sending a wave of irritation with every grating noise.

Stupid. 
Stupid. 
How is this even theatric?
Just a rhyhorn stuck in a tube. Yippee!




You fall onto another mat clearing, far less dramatically this time.







....More pipes, in all directions.

EERIE: COME ON.

 

You struggle to catch your breath, panting in frustration.
Before you can stop yourself, you grab your club and swing it at one of the pipe entrances, only for the vibration echoing back through the club and into your hand.

You drop the club, snarling.

You just got into the first gym challenge. 
The first challenge, of the first gym.

And you're blowing it.


Of course you are.

You thought you could do this- hah, fat chance!



You didn't even get to do fancy shmancy self defense courses, just some barebones credits at a podunk college-




.....




.................



But you did get training earlier today.
Stretch-
During your practice, it had told you to slow down.


You make all these. Stupid impulse decisions when you get stressed.
You panic.



Focus.




Focus. 


Analyze. Look for the weak points.


You stand up.

Four tunnels. 

One in front of you.
One to your left, one to your right.




....and one directly up above you, ladder rungs up inside.


Ahhh, that's it. Those motherfuckers thought you wouldn't look up.
Joke's on them. 
You're the smart one today, assholes.
You came down the slide to get here- 
So clearly! If you go back up, you'll get to- to the hallway or something.
Maybe you just got the shitty door.  Like, one door was specifically meant to torture you.
The way that guy Caress looked at you, you wouldn't be surprised!


You take a few deep breaths before jumping up, managing to scramble for the first ladder run and haul yourself onto it like your life depends on it.





....


You have now discovered a fear of heights.


Why the- WHY


You're BARELY OFF THE GROUND





STUPID MOTHER-


You're trembling as you reach for the next rung, your limited claw grip feeling all the more dangerous than usual. 
Did anyone think of that? Oh, no. You had two claws and a thumb, surely that'd be enough. As if you didn't have to bust your ass just to hold a fucking pen back when you went to school!
That bitch Minerva- she didn't even have thumbs, but she clearly knew how to use what she had- had to have gone to a fancy school with that big ol' sack of cash she must have back home with mommy and daddy-



The next two rungs make you want to throw up. 




You didn't even get a proper pen grip. 
And here you are. Expected to climb a ladder in a terrible plastic tube. 
All by yourself!
Just like all the other shit NO ONE helped you with!
Of course!



If you close your eyes, it becomes a little easier- up until you almost slip, and are pretty sure you'll never blink again in your entire life out of pure fear.




How high up were you? 
Would you die if you fell?

No, the mats-

But you're covered in rock. What if something shattered?

Sure, it took drilling to get the hoops in-





Your hand touches flat ground, and that's all you need to scramble onto the landing. 





You didn't realize you were hyperventilating before now.




The landing is plenty big to hold you, similar in size to the clearing from below. 

However-





There's only two tubes this time.

One directly in front of you- a slide leading down. You know. Where you just came from.




....and another ladder tube above your head.

EERIE: FUCK
EERIE: Y-

 

Your voice shakes.

EERIE: You-
EERIE: You have to be joking-

 

You look back and forth between the tubes.
This is fucking insane.


Go forward and

end up right back where you started. 


Go up and-




No. 
You have to keep going. 


Up's the only way that makes sense. 


Why would you go all the way back down?






That's the quitter route. You're no fucking quitter. 


You clamber up to the second ladder. 









You're halfway through before you feel your shoulders start to hurt. 

You're strong, but your body is heavy.

All of the rock weighing on you feels less like armor and more like a horrible burden with every reach. 


Your limbs are stubby, fucking useless-


Range of motion limited, thigh and shoulder plating digging scratches into the plastic around you. 


Your nose horn thumping against rungs if you weren't careful, even hooking into them when you rushed.







It hurts.

The second landing is the same as the first.

EERIE: Wh-
EERIE: What-
EERIE: Is this-?

 

Was this a part of the BDSM thing? 
This is- sadism, right? 
This is sadistic. 
Making you go through something like this-




Everyone was probably pointing and fucking laughing. 
Live TV, they said!
One way mirrors! 
Bet the perverts in the crowd were LOVING watching a rhyhorn with her ass out in a tube right now!




You slam yourself into the tube overhead.




You're practically rabid this time.
They can't win. 
They can't beat you- it's a stupid fucking playplace.
Just some dumbass-



Your hand nearly slips, and you don't care. You keep grabbing.




More and more near falls. Who cares.



Your foot slips, your grip only saved by hooking your horn deliberately under a rung.



The impact reverberates in your skull.



It hurts.
It hurts so fucking bad. 
Every part of your body is screaming.








you want to go home.
you never should have left.






You can barely breathe. 





you never had the choice. 




You stare down the tube in front of you. 

You're close to collapse at this point, panting and wheezing and snarling.

There's more up above.



You have to be close now.

 

You-

EERIE: I-
EERIE: I can't-
EERIE: i can't do it-




 

You manage to drag yourself forward





and roll into the tube slide.







You aren't even sure why you did it.
Maybe you are a quitter.



Good for nothin', that's what your dad told you.




Proved him right. 





It-













You let out a gasp as you fall onto a far, far more squishier mat- almost bed-like.

Confetti falls on your head.

EERIE: Wh-
CARESS: Congratulations!!

 

His voice comes over a filtered loudspeaker, tinny and almost gramophone-esque.

CARESS: You chose to-
EERIE: FUCK YOU MAN
CARESS: -choose the route of not wearing yourself into the ground!
EERIE: THE FUCK KIND OF CHALLENGE
CARESS: Please wait in the rest area for your team to rejoin you!

 

The rest area is a simple room with couches, similar to the parlor. You're seething, ready to slam something as you walk in-

FILIGREE: Hey.
EERIE: F-
EERIE: Scared me!
FILIGREE: oh
FILIGREE: Uh

 

They fold their leaves, sitting a bit more cautiously.

FILIGREE: Sorry.
EERIE: ....
EERIE: ...s'whatever.

 

You flop into a larger chair, groaning.

EERIE: Please tell me your challenge was really stupid.
FILIGREE: ....more or less.
FILIGREE: It was some sort of...
FILIGREE: Spinning disc, with a button in the center.
FILIGREE: It started up while I was crossing it, and got fast enough to knock me down. 
FILIGREE: If I got back up-

 

They make a splat motion with their leaves.

FILIGREE: Right to the wall.
EERIE: Eesh.
FILIGREE: Yeah.
FILIGREE: But- I could see the button, and a locked door straight across from where I came in.
EERIE: ....how'd you do it, then?
FILIGREE: Well....
FILIGREE: First few times, didn't work out. 
FILIGREE: Just kept getting thrown back.
FILIGREE: I tried running, jumping....
FILIGREE: ...eventually I just-
FILIGREE: Crawled on.
FILIGREE: I had to drag myself so slow-
FILIGREE: And it was dizzying, the force of it....
FILIGREE: But taking it one scoot at a time let me hit it.
FILIGREE: Got easier the closer I got to the center, and then I could just. Go. 
EERIE: ...huh.

 

The bellsprout shrugs.

FILIGREE: ....I feel like trash, though.
EERIE: You and me both. 
FILIGREE: ....yours, then?
EERIE: Tch-
EERIE: Wasn't-!
EERIE: Y'know, it was-
EERIE: ....

 

You sigh, your voice exhausted.

EERIE: I had to climb up some damn tubes.
FILIGREE: ....uh huh.
EERIE: And slide down a slide.
FILIGREE: Right.
EERIE: And it hurt a lot.
FILIGREE: Getting that impression so far, yeah. 
EERIE: I-
MINERVA: I- I did it!

 

The golbat stumbles out of her exit with a wheeze, covered in sweat.

MINERVA: Y-

 

She listens to the loudspeaker- getting the same message- and heads over.

Her flop onto the nearby lounge is even more heavy than yours.

MINERVA: yyyyay
EERIE: ....
FILIGREE: .....
FILIGREE: So, uh-
MINERVA: They- 
MINERVA: They put me in a tube!
MINERVA: A really fast tube!
EERIE: Yeah, this place seems obsessed with the whole.
EERIE: Tube thing.
MINERVA: i want to sleep forever

 

She faceplants into a pillow, not elaborating further.






It's awkward as the two of you sit there.



Frond should be out of there soon.


Little guy can tank anything, so, like-
Should be easy.



Could probably plow right through.






Your thoughts are interrupted as another door slams open, Stretch eating shit so fantastically into the mats that it puts your dismount to shame.

STRETCH: ugfhgfgfhhhhh
CARESS: Congratulat-
STRETCH: pleeease no more

 

It takes a solid minute before dragging itself back up, posture slumped and brushing off-


Were those plastic balls?


Stretch's skin is crackling as it enters the room, teeth gritted.

EERIE: You look like sh-
STRETCH: Not.
STRETCH: A.
STRETCH: Word.

 

It looks around, taking in the three of you.

STRETCH: ....
STRETCH: Where's Frond?

 

Filigree shrugs, Minerva still out cold.

EERIE: Thought he'd be out by now.
STRETCH: ....
STRETCH: Nn.
STRETCH: Okay.

 

The electabuzz opts into leaning against the wall, staring at the last remaining door.

EERIE: ...so
EERIE: You two are like, friends, right?
STRETCH: ...

 

Its stare doesn't break.

EERIE: Earth to-
STRETCH: He'll make it.

 

Its tail tip lashes, antennae blinking every so often.



You wait.





It feels like forever before the gloom steps through, jumping directly into his mat with a pose.

FROND: WHOO-

 

He freezes, seeing you all waiting for him.

FROND: Ah-
FROND: Oh man, how about-
FROND: Those challenges, right? 
FROND: Haha
FROND: Yeah!
STRETCH: ...are you okay?
FROND: Never better!

 

The closer he gets, the more you pick up the distinct whiff of rot.

EERIE: Eugh-!
FROND: Wh-
FROND: Oh, sorry-
FROND: Happens when I get pumped up, haha!

 

Stretch's eyes narrow, approaching the gloom.

STRETCH: Let me take a look.

 

It examines the gloom as much as it can without touching, pulling back after a moment.

STRETCH: Bit banged up. 
FROND: Happens when you go hard!
STRETCH: ...right.

 

The speaker interrupts your little first aid session.

CARESS: Shooting Stars!
CARESS: Are you ready to proceed to your first fight?
STRETCH: ...

 

It looks around at you all, its stare just as freaky as usual.

STRETCH: Yes.
STRETCH: We're present and ready to go.
CARESS: Excellent!

 

The elevator door in front of you opens.

CARESS: Come forward!
CARESS: Meet your opponent!
EERIE: Finally.

 

It's a smooth ride down, though the amount of time it takes worries you.





How deep does this mine even go?





The lift stops.


The door opens.



There's a short set of steps-






-opening into a large, antiquated ballroom.



Caress floats in the center of the field, arms crossed.

FILIGREE: ...you're our first opponent?
CARESS: Well of course!
CARESS: Consider this the final gauge of your limitations.
EERIE: ....

 

You seethe at him, looking so smug.

CARESS: You all completed the challenge- congratulations.
EERIE: Some challenge-
EERIE: What was even the point of all that?!
CARESS: Mm.

 

He stares you down.

CARESS: The path considered "normal" often leads to suffering by those failed by it.
CARESS: Even with a sense of triumph, of doing things the "right" way-
CARESS: You're sweating, sore...
CARESS: To expend all of one's energy, all for appearing "strong"...
CARESS: Doesn't it hurt?
CARESS: I'm sure a rest, not having to worry about anything at all-
CARESS: Would feel so good right now.

 

The balaclava-clad pokemon snaps his wrists, gaseous clouds solidifying into whip-like beams.

 

CARESS: Why don't we get a little lesson in self care?

 

 

Stretch steps up-

EERIE: HEY
EERIE: I've got a bone to pick with you, buddy!
CARESS: ...interesting phrasing!
CARESS: Please.
CARESS: I would love to take you on. 
EERIE: Feeling's mutual!
EERIE: COME ON!

 

 

It only takes a moment before you're knocked backwards, the piercing sound of a whip cracking the only indication the only sound of anything happening at all.


Your eyes widen.


Your arm is completely bound, wrist against your shoulder, a gaseous ring tightening a bit above your elbow. 


You can't move it at all beyond ineffectual, tied up flailing- like a baby bird's undeveloped wing.

CARESS: I told you-
 

 

The other arm, struggling to keep balance as both of your upper limbs are rendered useless.

CARESS: You're here to be taught a lesson.

 

He darts around you, floating at speeds far beyond what you'd be capable even on a good day.






]You fall on your face, horn slamming into the mats as he lashes your left leg- knee bent, foot against your ass.

CARESS: Pushing yourself to your limits, past the extent of your body-
CARESS: Pointless!

 

Angry spit starts to build in your mouth, your chest heaving.

 

 

Your other leg pulls tight, forcing you into a desperate crawl-

You can't even cover ground like this. 
You wouldn't even be able to make it up




a long horrible ladder



a single stair, onto a bed, anything!



Forced to- 




Forced to lay here-

CARESS: You are, in this instant-
CARESS: Mine!
CARESS: Accept the futility!

 

CARESS: Accept it-
CARESS: Or use your safeword!
EERIE: NEVER
CARESS: Then face me!
CARESS: Brute strength is hopeless against these binds!
CARESS: The more you struggle-

 

CARESS: The tighter they get!
CARESS: Bound not by these whips-

 

They burn your skin, digging into the soft areas between your armor- 




right where Stretch had warned you not to get caught.

CARESS: But your own recklessness!
CARESS: Your neglect!




 

You should have listened.

CARESS: How does it feel?!
CARESS: To be forced to consider more than just striking, to exhaust yourself!


 

You feel dizzy.


Your head is swimming.


You were already pushing it from earlier.





It



You can't



You can't lose here


Anything but-



The word feels dry on your tongue.

EERIE: M-
 

EERIE: MARIGOLD-
EERIE: I TAG IN MINERVA!
MINERVA: H-HUH?
CARESS: THERE you go!
CARESS: Accept your limitations!
CARESS: You cannot do this alone!
 

Minerva's on her feet, rushing for the field-

Your bindings breaking as you tap claws.

MINERVA: Go!
MINERVA: Y-you can rest!

 

You huff as you haul yourself back to the edge of the field.

Your elbows and knees hurt.

....


But-


Minerva is instantly hit with a clamp to the midsection, binding her wings to her torso.

CARESS: Let's see how you fare!
 

You can see Stretch's breath catch.

FROND: YOU CAN DO IT, MINERVA!

 

Hmph. 
No one cheered for your ass.

MINERVA: I-

 

Her initial struggles are just as pointless as yours, falling with her legs kicking.

MINERVA: A-ah-!
CARESS: Sending yourself in for your comrade-
CARESS: Admirable!
CARESS: Support is all we can ask for in these times-

 

Another around her ankles, dropping her entirely to the ground.

CARESS: But everyone has limits!
CARESS: You too will give!
CARESS: What makes it worth it to you to try?!
MINERVA: I-

 

She takes a deep inhale.

MINERVA: Because I want to be part of a team!
MINERVA: I want-

 

The bindings strain.

MINERVA: TO BE A PART OF SOMETHING!

 

 

The rings snap.

CARESS: Prove it to me!
CARESS: Show these are people y-

 

Caress is knocked back hard, Minerva slamming into him with her hip.

She rears back, so immediate that Caress' whip misses entirely.

MINERVA: I don't-

 

Kicking off the ground, going in for another slam.

MINERVA: Need to prove-

 

The whip grazes her, only for her to flap her wings and pivot-

MINERVA: ANYTHING!

 

And knock him onto the ground.

MINERVA: I just know that whatever I do-

 

 

 

MINERVA: I WON'T HAVE TO BE ALONE!

 

She slams his chest against the mat with a stomp, a buzzer blaring.

The match is over, just like that.

FROND: Holy shit.
EERIE: N-
EERIE: No kidding-

 

Stretch hasn't blinked since she got out on the field, Filigree looking equally stunned into silence.

Caress lays there, a pleased smile on his face.

CARESS: Y-
CARESS: You have passed.
CARESS: Excellent work...

 

Minerva bends over, offering her claws.

CARESS: ...and a proper good sport to boot-!

 

He gets to his feet with a stretch, grimacing as something in his back pops.

MINERVA: ...are you alright?
CARESS: Oh, yes.

 

He gives a shaky thumbs up.

CARESS: Just a bit of the chronic pain kicking in.

 

Minerva's expression grows concerned.

MINERVA: Then why-?
CARESS: You're not the only ones who get a nice, long rest after this.

 

He laughs, the widest smile on his face.

CARESS: Sometimes it does pay to push yourself-
CARESS: So long as you give yourself time to heal.
CARESS: That push and pull is vital, both to BDSM-
CARESS: -and to maintaining one's body. 
CARESS: Go forth-

 

He gestures, the door behind him creaking open.

CARESS: Your next challenge awaits.

---

 

Eerie's first exposure to League battles certain has left an impression...even with the first taste of what Pewter's dishing out, who knows what's coming next?!

 

No suggestions this time, folks- this is a FIVE PARTER! 

Find out next time...on SPACE CASE!