Story Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.Retrace I - in remakeRetrace II - in remakeRetrace III - in remakeRetrace IV - in remakeRetrace V - in remake
Retrace II - in remake
Memory I
Shattered Sand
Retrace II
Frozen Precipice
Shizue gazed from beneath the shadow her hood offered, before her a few people hurried by, stealing glances at the two figures lingering outside the Conel Detention. She whistled for a bit and slipped her paw down into her left sleeve, running her finger down the reassuring smooth surface of her blades' sheaths. Lives were so fragile, how easy it would be to end them, just like that.
"Shizue?"
Shizue let her paw slide from her sleeve as she turned to look at Skye. "Yeah?"
"Thanks for helping me back there."
"No problem."
Shizue bent down to pat lightly the Eevee on her head, smiling gently as she did, then joined the filtered procession as they hastened down the street, all decided on heading for home.
*****
Fray hated being a Private, he should have never joined Roost in the first place.
Roost was the personal militia of Terrano, an entirely voluntary military force established to repress any rebels or terrorist activities, which General also happened to be the highest government of Terrano itself. In the field Akierra Zabuto was a terrifying force to be reckoned with, as a president she was deadly influential, and she was probably the principal reason why Fray had enlisted initially. Fray admired her in secret, but he had figured long ago that he had no chance at all.
Though he had for nearly a year been in the force, he remained the lowest rank of private, and that meant sometimes taking up the worst jobs like guarding a detention center. And when that happened, he thought that his only friend was his laptop.
Just a few hours ago he had locked up a Vulpix in one of the cubicles. He had been shocked genuinely when a Typhlosion had entered suddenly with the Vulpix claiming that she was the rumored serial rapist, and had been shocked even more when the Colonel had affirmed the Typhlosion's authority to detain her. If anything, the Colonel was keeping things from him.
Fray sighed as he paced by the vacant cubicles, adjusting his uncomfortably stiff Roost uniform jacket. The Vulpix was banging on the door, her dulled voice resounding from behind it. He couldn't wait for the transporters to collect the crazy little thing, then he would once again be alone with his laptop and his friends over the Internet.
He frowned and looked into the cubicle, completely unprepared for what he saw.
Who the hell?
Fray fumbled with the electronic combination lock and flung open the door, to be rewarded with a full view of a completely naked Eevee trembling in the doorway, the same Eevee he had seen earlier outside with the Typhlosion.
"What the heck are you doing inside? Where the heck's the Vulpix?" Fray took a step towards her.
The Eevee was suddenly onto him, stripping manically the navy jacket from the dumbstruck Luxio.
"WHAT DO YOU -?"
Fray paused, eyes thrown wide in surprise when the Eevee pressed her maw to his, her coarse tongue shoving against his lips. In that instant his mind overloaded with all manners of thoughts, emotions of fear and dirty ideas, he was too afraid to react and yet at the same time he wanted bad this Eevee. Something must have finally gotten through to him, because he had split his lips, even if slightly, and the next moment the Eevee had slipped her tongue in.
Fray's primal instincts had overridden his senses; though his conscience was screaming for him to pull away, he found himself returning almost as passionately the Eevee the kiss. Her scent was maddening, it was strong as though she was actually in heat; how it could be he wasn't in the mental state to think even about what he was doing. When the Eevee had finally broken their kiss, Fray was breathing heavily, and as was she.
She smiled and crouched dangerously close to his ear.
"My name's Gren. Remember it."
*****
Shizue paced silently down Hacren First Street, nobody but her roaming the streets on this particular night. She doubted that Shiza would eventually join her for dinner, but she found herself reciting her recipes as she neared her apartment down Hacren Second Street. As she muttered to herself she gazed skywards, the stars that drifted in the artificial night sky remaining as realistic as ever.
"That's not the Storm Assassin that I know." Shizue stated aloud into the seemingly vacant lot.
Behind her a Blaziken in an attire much similar to hers appeared, smiling to herself. She let loose her black jacket, revealing underneath a shirt and slacks of matching color, and stuck carelessly her claws into her side pockets.
"Alert as always, Shizue."
Shizue snorted in amusement. "I didn't become a Segundo for nothing. And I want my payment now, Glacie."
The Blaziken yawned, then extracted a green card from inside of her jacket and reached out her claw to Shizue. "Five hundred Centoll in full."
"Cheap as you are." Shizue smiled and received gladly the credit key from Glacie's claw.
"Demanding as you are." Glacie laughed and brushed her blonde hair, her lustrous mane swaying in the moonlight. "I'm not going to bug you today, I'm feeling dead tired after my assignment. So, bye."
Shizue examined for a moment the credit key in her paws, then slipped it into her jacket's inner pocket.
She continued a little further down, then stopped before an apartment, 1-H29 printed in clean white onto the door. She inserted an orange card into the slot above the number pad, then punched in a six-digit combination, which in turn unlocked the door as the bolt mechanism beeped in affirmation. Shizue pushed open the door, surveying her room as she remembered it.
The windowless apartment was divided into a kitchen and a bedroom, which entrance stood at the far end of the room. A set of cupboards, stoves, sinks and an oven positioned to the left of the room, and the other side a round glass table encircled with chairs and a mini MPD screen affixed onto the center of the wall.
Shizue stepped onto the wooden flooring.
Within a split second she had released her blade from her right sleeve and slashed diagonally up at the Sceptile immediately behind the wall, who deflected incredibly the strike with his leaf-blades. He shoved the heavy blade away before Shizue could draw her second and retreated to the other end of the room, scrutinizing her movements with his ocean blue eyes. Shizue scowled and slipped her second raven blade from its sheath, pulling her arms before her chest.
"As expected of the Endless Assassin." The Sceptile smiled, edging sideways towards the door to Shizue's bedroom.
"You know me." Shizue growled, revealing her keen fangs. "And executing such a perfected Leaf Blade in less than a second, who the heck are you? What are you doing here? No, how did you get in here?"
"Seeing as I was the one who broke into your room, I'll answer your questions this time." The Sceptile brushed his claw over the smooth surface of the door. "First of all, my name's Yao Lin. You asked me how I got in? I just hacked into your number lock. And what am I doing here?"
He laughed softly. "I want you to answer my questions."
The second that the Sceptile had spoken his last word Shizue switched to the offensive; she aimed a blade at the Sceptile's right arm and ran at him, propelling her body forward with her left foot as the trigger. As the Sceptile had deflected with his leaf-blades the projectile, Shizue swerved sharply left, slashing in a flash of black her other blade right across the Sceptile's defense, then in the same instant as she did, caught in midair the blade that he had deflected and brought it past his face.
The Sceptile cocked his head left to evade the blow and smiled, but his grin changed instantly into an expression of sheer surprise as a shallow incision appeared on his right cheek.
He let his knees collapse as Shizue swung her blade down, sliding from underneath her arm into the corner of the room. He laughed weakly, pushing himself from the ground.
"What the hell was that?"
"My Ryuuzekidou." Shizue raised surgically her blade up to her eye level, staring daggers at the Sceptile. "Is crafted with the highest purity of meteorite core, thereafter the blade is welded around it with the lightest compound of tantalum hafnium carbide. By channeling heat into the material I can form an aura of immense heat around the blade similar to a linked aura, like an extension of its edge. And because my Ryuuzekidou is crafted with meteorite rock and tantalum hafnium carbide I can heat this thing up all the way past four thousand degrees Celsius and it still won't melt."
The Sceptile looked genuinely surprised.
"Caught your mouth there? Yao?"
"My name's Lin."
The Sceptile concentrated his energy into his right claw, a dark violet aura enveloping it as he charged a Dragon Claw, slamming it in a burst of energy into Shizue's blade and pushing her backwards. Shizue pulled back her free arm and gripped her blade's hilt tightly, smiling to him.
"You fight quite well for a Sceptile, Lin."
"Thanks."
Shizue stabbed swiftly at Lin's face with her right blade, a golden red flare burning around its raven surface. When Lin had caught her paw with his other claw, Shizue pulled her left blade away from his grasp and pressed her body low onto the ground, spinning as she did and kicked his legs from down below him. Shizue swung her left arm around and caught his neck, then slammed him hard onto the wooden ground and pinned securely down his limbs.
"Got you. Now you -"
Suddenly Shizue's vision blurred like the colors on a buzzing screen, and for a moment her mind had stopped thinking completely and her bodily instincts had shut down on her. Lin had kissed her, on her lips, and even though she knew exactly what had transpired she didn't know what to think. Never in her life had she kissed anyone, let alone a stranger.
She backed away from Lin, when he took the sudden opening to throw her into the corner of the room and force her paws against the wall, and she loosened her grip on her blades, dropping them onto the floor, whimpering. She looked up and right into Lin's blue eyes, feeling her face flush, and shied away from his gaze. She didn't understand the emotions she was feeling, nor the sudden burning sensation deep in her chest, but she did know that she didn't like it.
Lin grinned to himself. "I figured that would work on someone like you."
*****
A Luxio stepped into the faint moonlight outside the Conel Detention, pulling tightly over her body a slightly oversized navy jacket. Before her a Froslass and a Weavile materialized from the shadows thrown onto the alleys, and she was unable to conceal her smile as they neared.
"Hi guys."
"Gren!"
The Weavile ran towards the Luxio, dark maroon cloak fluttering after her, and embraced her passionately. Rain threw her turquoise scarf over her arms and drifted over to Gren's side.
"I should've figured you would escape without our help."
"Of course. You just need to ask them nicely and they'll let you out."
"How astute." Rain smiled and folded her arms. "How many people did you rape to get yourself landed in jail?"
"I can't remember." Gren seemed to ponder, tipping innocently her head, then smiled deviously as she licked her lips. "But I have to say, the last one was quite eager."Chapter End Notes:That was quite fast ... hope you enjoy this chapter though