Far Cry : Pokemon

Chapter 8: They Said Aloha… Right?

"Ready?" I asked, my voice tight. This was it, our shot at something new. But would she let go of the past?

Citra didn't answer right away. Her eyes were glued to the temple's exit, a jagged stone frame spilling blinding light. 

Now we were stepping out, leaving that damp, shadowed hell behind. I didn't know what waited for us, but anything had to beat the ghosts whispering in those walls.

I took a step, and the light slammed into me like a fist. I squinted, throwing a hand up to block it, but it was brutal, hot, white, searing. 

Citra stumbled beside me, her breath catching as she shielded her face. The air hit next, thick, salty, laced with something sweet and wild, like flowers gone feral. 

It stuck to my skin, prickling, like the world had shifted while we were trapped inside.

"Vaas..." Citra's voice trembled, barely cutting through the hum in my ears. 

I forced my eyes open, blinking until the blur sharpened. We stood on a ledge, high up, staring out at a sprawl of green that stretched forever. 

Twisted trees, cliffs like knife wounds, and an ocean glinting blue in the distance. But it was the creatures moving below that froze me. 

Some flapped through the air, others slunk between roots, a few just floated, glowing faintly. What kind of fucked-up place was this?

"What the hell..." I muttered, but my voice sounded wrong, high, thin, like a kid's. 

I shook my head, trying to clear the fog, but something felt off. My body was too light, too small. I looked at my hands, and my stomach dropped. 

They were tiny, smooth, no scars from years of carving my name into the world. My arms were scrawny, not the ones I'd built breaking bones. 

I touched my face, no stubble, just soft skin. Panic clawed my throat.

"Citra..." I said, my voice cracking. "What... what the fuck happened to us?"

She turned, and I saw it, her face younger, eyes bigger, the hard edges she'd earned gone. She looked twelve, maybe less. "Vaas... you... you're a child."

I stared back, seeing the same in her. "So are you, hermana... This some kind of trick?"

Before she could answer, a soft chirp broke the tension. That sparkly starry-cloud, her pet from the temple, was still there, bobbing above her shoulder.

Its big eyes gleamed, drinking in the view like it was on vacation. But its glow pulsed unevenly, like it was restless. 

"Great..." I growled. "At least someone's having fun."

Citra reached out, and it nudged her hand, cooing like a puppy, but its glow flared briefly, making her flinch. 

She forced a small smile, but her eyes stayed sharp, scanning the land below. "We... we need to figure out where we are," she said, steadier than I felt.

"Yeah... alright," I swallowed the panic, nodding. "Let's... get a better look."

We inched closer to the steps, the stone slick under my boots. The view hit harder up close, lush, chaotic, alive. 

Those creatures were everywhere. A red spiky thing scuttled past a tree, while a blue, sleek one spat water at a rock. 

Further off, something green sparked with light, clashing with a yellow blur. It was like a war zone of freaks I couldn't name.

"Those... those things," I said, pointing. "What the hell are they?"

Citra shook her head. "I don't know... They're alive, but... not like anything I've seen."

The starry-cloud chirped again, louder, drifting toward the edge. Its glow flickered wildly, like it was trying to tell us something. I was about to snap at it when a voice cut through from below.

"Alola!"

I jerked my head down. A woman stepped out from the trees, blonde hair tied back, dressed in gear like she was hunting big game. 

She waved up at us, grinning wide, a group of people trailing her. "Alola!" she called again. "Are you two alright up there?"

"Oh my... what Pokémon is that cloud-like creature with you? Incredible!"

"Alola?" I muttered, frowning. What the hell was that supposed to mean? Rook Island was nowhere near Hawaii. 

"You heard it too, right?" I asked Citra. "They said Aloha... right?" She nodded slowly, just as confused.

"Hey! Hermana! You said aloha, right?" I shouted back to the blonde woman below.

"Hermana? Aloha? No! It's Alola! What's a hermana?" she shouted back.

I didn't answer her, just watched as the Barbie-looking señora marched up with her Power Rangers squad, barking out names like she was directing a goddamn luau.

Her team moved with her, hauling packs and weird gadgets on their belts. More of those creatures tagged along, smaller, calmer, sticking close like trained dogs. 

She started climbing the steps toward us, calling out names. "Kanoa, Lani, keep the perimeter! Kai, Mele, check the gear! Kona, stay sharp!" They nodded, fanning out, while two others, a skinny guy and a woman with glasses, stayed close to her.

Suddenly, the starry-cloud let out a piercing wail kinda like an alarm, its glow exploding into a blinding pulse. 

I cursed, shielding my eyes, and Citra gasped, stepping back. "What's it doing?" she whispered. The air above the steps shuddered, then ripped. 

A hole tore open midair, a swirling mess of colors, violent, wrong, like the starry-cloud had summoned it. Something huge crawled out, black and yellow, a hulking nightmare with mouths gaping like pits, tendrils thrashing like snakes. The woman's smile vanished. "Ultra Wormhole!" she shouted. "It's Guzzlord!"

Her team scrambled, yanking red-and-white balls from their belts. They tossed them, and more creatures burst out, flashes of light, claws, wings, but the big beast didn't care. 

It roared, a sound that shook my bones, and charged. One swipe of its claws sent a spiky rock flying, smashing it into a tree with a wet crunch. Blood sprayed, and the blonde woman screamed, "Kanoa, look out!"

The lean guy with a buzzcut, dodged, but not fast enough. The big beast's tendril lashed out, catching him across the chest. 

He hit the ground, screaming, his creature, a blue clown seal thing, trying to drag him away. "Kanoa!" the woman yelled again, her voice cracking as she ran toward him.

"Lani, behind you!" she shouted next. A woman with a braid was firing a beam from a gadget, but the big beast spun, its jaws snapping. 

It caught her creature, a green thing with vines, in its mouth, swallowing it whole. Braided woman stumbled back, but a tendril whipped out, slashing her leg. 

She collapsed, clutching the wound, and the blonde woman screamed, "Lani... hold on!"

"Kai, Mele, Kona... fall back!" she ordered, but it was chaos. A stocky guy tried to pull a small woman with a headset away, but the big beast's claws raked through their creatures, a fiery red one and a winged thing, tearing them apart. 

Blood and feathers flew, and she shrieked, "No!" as the stocky guy dragged her back. A tall guy stood his ground, his creature, a rocky four-armed thing, taking hits, but the big beast swatted it aside like nothing. "Kona... get back!" the blonde woman pleaded, her voice raw.

The skinny guy and glasses woman, Faba and Wicke, she'd called them, were trying to regroup. "Faba... help Wicke with the injured!" she yelled, dodging debris as she kept climbing toward us. 

Her face was pale, but she didn't stop, even as her team broke apart below.

I grabbed Citra's arm, yanking her from the edge. "We need to get out of here... now!"

She didn't move, eyes locked on the slaughter. "Vaas... what... what is that thing?"

"I don't know, alright? But it's gonna kill us if we don't move!" My grip tightened, dragging her back. 

The starry-cloud zipped around us, glowing brighter, its chirps frantic, like it was scared or pissed, I couldn't tell. It darted toward the wormhole, hovering near it, as if drawn to the chaos it had unleashed.

Below, the blonde woman dodged a chunk of debris, climbing up the temple, shouting, "Stay there! I'll... I'll get you to safety!" But then the air shifted. 

A black fairy floated up, graceful, with a shell-like body and a calm glow in its eyes. It hovered over the mess, radiating power.

"Tapu Fini," the woman breathed, hope cracking through her voice.

Black Fairy in a Purple Shell unleashed a wall of water, slamming the big beast back. It roared, thrashing, but the water pushed harder, forcing it off the steps into the clearing below. 

The woman sprinted up the last stretch, panting, blood on her hands from trying to help her team. "Are you two… Haah… okay?"

"Yeah," I said, still holding Citra. "But what the fuck... is going on?"

She opened her mouth, but Citra cut in, pointing behind her. "Look... over there!"

I turned. Another hole split the sky, this one blue and steady. An armored blue titan stepped out, towering, eyes like steel. 

The starry-cloud zipped toward it, hovering close, its glow pulsing in sync with the new hole. It stood by the first wormhole, and the swirling colors calmed, shifting, like it was rewriting the chaos the starry-cloud had started.

"Dialga..." the woman whispered, awestruck.

The big beast and the black water fairy stopped their battle, both turning to eye the armored titan warily. The starry-cloud floated near the titan, its glow steadier, like it was part of whatever the armored thing was doing. 

The titan roared, deep and commanding, and the wormhole pulsed once, then it vanished. I blinked, head spinning. "What... what was that?"

"I don't know," the blonde woman said, shaking her head. "That's... that's not supposed to happen…"

"Dialga is not from here either… It's from Sinnoh, a region far northwest of Alol-AGGHHH!"

BOOOM!~~

A deafening boom cut her off. With the armored titan gone, the big beast lashed out, and the black water fairy deflected it, unfortunately straight at us. 

The blast hit like a wave, knocking me back. I shoved Citra aside, shouting, "Look out!" but the force caught us all. 

I saw Citra tumble down the steps, her head cracking against the stone. The woman grabbed her, both collapsing in a heap. Citra went limp.

"Citra!" I scrambled up, heart pounding, but another blast rocked the ledge. I stumbled, and the ground vanished. I was falling… straight into that blue hole.

I was able to see the black water fairy's eyes, heavy with regret. Citra, crumpled in the woman's arms. 

"Keep her safe!" I shouted to the blonde woman pointing to Citra as I was falling.

The last thing I saw was the blonde woman shouting incomprehensible words at me as the portal was tuning everything out and swallowed me whole.