Through the Eyes of a Flareon [PG] (Chapter 31 FINALLY up)

[Suicune's Fire]

.;Through the Eyes of a Flareon;.

And welcome to TtEoaF's Crossroads thread! I haven't got much to say, but basically I have stopped posting new chapters on PE2K for obvious reasons (but if you would like to see its old thread, it is located here), and now, as well as ff.net and DA, I shall post them on Crossroads!

Notes:
- This story was started in 2009. Chapter 30 was written in 2013 I think, while Chapter 31 was written in 2016. Just as a disclaimer, my writing style has evolved and improved over years of practice, so please do note that older chapters will likely contain weird wording, awkward sentence structure and irrelevant content. xD I also had a bad habit of over-describing things. If you hit a wall of description, feel free to skip over it. XD
- As of the time I am posting this, 30 chapters have been written. I will post them steadily as I go, but bear in mind that everything up until chapter 30 has already been written.
- I do not capitalise the first letter of pokemon species names, nor do I capitalise "pokemon" itself unless I am referring to the franchise. This is a choice I choose to make and therefore not a story error/flaw, as are non-capitalised items, abilities, attacks, and anything else in the games/anime/whatever which is unnecessarily capitalised in my eyes. Please do not point these out as errors, since they are a conscious choice.
- PG for mild violence and the occasional swear word. These will most likely have an asterisk in the middle for younger readers.
- Most of the chapter pictures are old. XD Keep this in mind.

Summary:

Dusty the flareon has a normal life with her trainer until she's kidnapped by Team Rocket and forced to face an enemy that had always been closer than she thought. She finds new allies in a colony of random pokémon who take her in while planning to return to her trainer. Little does she know, Team Rocket has other plans for her and many other unsuspecting pokémon.

Chapter Navigation:

Book One: Voyage

Chapter one: The Battle
Chapter Two: Night Sky
Chapter Three: Abduction!
Chapter Four: The Capture
Chapter Five: Boxed and Caged
Chapter Six: High Seas
Chapter Seven: Escape Plan
Chapter Eight: Fighting for Freedom
Chapter Nine: Rough and Tough
Chapter Ten: Futile Conflict
Chapter Eleven: Attempted Murder
Chapter Twelve: Unpredicted Revelation
Chapter Thirteen: Washed Up
Chapter Fourteen: Travelling Just Drags On
Chapter Fifteen: A Wet Quest (Oh, Dam!)
Chapter Sixteen: The What-sters?
Chapter Seventeen: A Tour
Chapter Eighteen: Expedition Challenge
Chapter Nineteen: Tasting the New Life
Chapter Twenty: Stories

Book Two: Uncovered

Chapter Twenty-one: Confrontation
Chapter Twenty-two: Interrogations
Chapter Twenty-three: Separate Paths
Chapter Twenty-four: Past and Present
Chapter Twenty-five: Unearthed
Chapter Twenty-six: Knock-knock
Chapter Twenty-seven: Attracting the Wrong Crowd
Chapter Twenty-eight: Aim and Fire
Chapter Twenty-nine: All Shapes and Sizes
Chapter Thirty: Between Stone and Soil
Chapter Thirty-one: Untimely Reunion
Chapter Thirty-two:


Character Directory & Pronunciation:
A little spoilery

Spoiler:

Dusty ♀
Zhol ♀
Zaion ♂

Recurring Characters:
Shaz ♂
Tooloo ♂
Sed ♂
Izante ♀
Raiys ♂

Usster Colony
Azure ♀
Tarla ♀
Aemara ♀
Habib ♂
Ikari ♀
Larse ♂
Splash ♂
Derino ♂
Hunter ♂
Etire ♂
Rentana ♀
Wynore ♀
Bibi ♀
Shardclaw ♂
Skop ♂
Flop ♀
Oktau ♂
Quish ♂
Citaru ♀
Cubbs ♂
Libbi ♀
Mynk ♀
Sorrento ♀
Yukra ♂
Mosst ♀
Hyso ♂
Gigin ♀
Taka ♂
Ollie ♂
Mio ♀
Greech ♂
Doltei ♂
Krinn ♂
Politoad ♂
Chius ♂

Minor Characters
Roarake ♂
Maka ♀
Thunderquake ♀
Kori ♀
Undol ♂
Luck ♂
Pokol ♂


Pronunciations:
Only for characters whose names are not obvious to pronounce.
Zhol - ZOLE
Zaion - ZAY-on
Izante - eye-ZAHN-tay
Raiys - RAY-iss
Azure - AZH-er (AZH is like the 'sure' part of 'measure')
Aemara - em-MARA
Etire - ET-eye-er ("Entire" without the n)
Rentana - ren-TAHN-ah
Wynore - win-OAR
Citaru - sit-AH-roo
Doltei - DOLT-ay

---

Chapter one: The Battle

I stood by the side of my best friend.

The only friend I had had in a long time who understood me. She would always be there to comfort me in the darkest of times, and help me along the way when things got tough. The fact that we were both females only made it easier to connect. We were meant to be best buddies. And we knew it.

Although she did have a somewhat different way of expressing herself and going about things, we both felt comforted by one another. Ever since I was a little eevee, my trainer and I would search all over the regions for new pokémon to befriend. We came across thousands upon thousands of pokémon throughout our journey, but not once did I admire a pokémon the same way I look up to Izante.

One day, when I was still an eevee, both my trainer and I happened to bump into a human. A male human. Straight away did I sense a something special between him and my female trainer, and I was happy for her. She seemed attracted to this gentleman, as did he to her. And that had to mean his pokémon would make a great friend.

It was that same fateful day when I met Izante, of course. She too was an eevee, but we both eventually evolved. She had evolved first, growing many new features. The deep green curvy leaf on the top of her head had waved while her sword-like tail, being almost fully green, had danced in the soft breeze. Her whole body became a light, sandy cream colour, matching her large head. Her big brown eyes were full of wonder, but not the slightest bit of wisdom. She had brown socks on her paws, or so they were called because of the colour change from the maize. Her ears were big and nicely shaped, and were an emerald green colour, with obvious, darker green veins flowing through them, resembling leaf veins. These same lines scribbled her tail. She was as beautiful as the moon's reflection shining off the sparkling surface of a lake back then, and just the same today.

The thought of ‘today’ caught me off guard and snapped me back into the present. The sweet smell of a near-victory passed through my nostrils as I stared back at the two pokémon that Izante and I were facing, eying them carefully. They must have thought about the irony of two female eevee evolutions up against them at once. Maybe the combination of a flareon and leafeon together was perhaps a little bit intimidating. However, there was no way I could have known. The two pokémon in front of me had minds that I clearly had no access to.

One of the pokémon was a butterfree, who was a butterfly pokémon with large rounded wings, each twice the size of her body. The wings had black trails flowing through and outlining them like thin string. Her body – not too much bigger than her head - was a deep purple, and she had two red orbs for eyes on either side of her face. A small mouth-like feature was placed below in the centre of her head, under the eyes, which had two small pointy white teeth poking out. Two blue feet, the same colour as its three-pronged small paws, were dangling from the body, and a long pair of antennae protruded from the top of the butterfree's head like two strands of hair. The pokémon was hovering above ground by slowly beating her large wings back and forth.

The second opponent was a golem—a very round and heavy boulder-like pokémon. His small, snake-like head was copper, holding two vicious eyes with scarlet irises. There were two strong arms poking out both sides of the rock pokémon, embedded with three fingers that had sharp claws on the ends. The two powerful legs under his body were obviously strong, being able to support his weight.

Seeing as the golem was a rock and ground type pokémon, Izante had been attacking him, as she had the advantage. The butterfree, however, was all mine. The few fire attacks that I had launched at her seemed to have weakened her quite a bit, and I could see her panting with exhaustion. Obviously, we had the upper hand.

Izante glanced at me with a grin and frowning eyes, making her appearance malicious-looking. I reflected her expression, thinking that this battle would end now if not sooner.

“Dusty!” called my master. I flung my head towards her. The long brown wavy fur on her head swayed in the wind as the calls reached my ears. The small hazel eyes on her face glinted as sunlight passed through them. Her expression was filled with determination and belief in me. I was so lucky to have such a trainer. “Attack that butterfree with a flamethrower!” she commanded, and I nodded a brief ‘okay’.

I took less than a second to lock onto my target before a hot jet of streaming flames shot towards the bug and flying foe. “Hhaaaaa!!” I called into the afternoon light.

The two trainers we were up against commanded their golem to block the attack, and the fire did not harm him in the slightest. ‘What a waste of energy!’ I thought, scoffing as the golem barely felt the warm fire against his rock shell. But that was when Izante jumped in. She had probably been thinking along the same lines as me. Great minds think alike!

My friend swung around and savagely used a leaf blade attack with her tail on the golem, which injured the foe badly due to the type disadvantage.

I seized the chance of an off-guarded butterfree, and released a stream of fire onto her frail body, scorching her and causing the butterfly pokémon to shriek in pain. I smiled greasily with satisfaction. It wasn't too often that I was involved with trainer battles – because they weren’t easy to stumble upon – and when I was, I loved to win and know that I was controlling the fight—relating to power and advantages.

The butterfree reeled back and fluttered her broad wings furiously at me. I struggled to stand my ground and fight the whirlwind attack. It was working, but barely. The force was just not enough, and I managed to stay on the spot, although being pushed back a little bit at a time.

All of a sudden, an explosion of pain erupted in my left side, and I was tossed through the air to crash land on the dirt, grazing my skin a little. A gravel-grinding sound zoomed around me while I contemplated my pain. “UHGH!” I yelped in a cry of discomfort. I instantly knew that I had been hit with something I was weak to.

“Dusty,” a familiar voice chanted, “watch out for that golem’s attacks!” It was Master calling to me.

I lifted my head from the ground, and spotted the golem close—too close! I swiftly bounded to my feet and barely dodged the great rock pokémon’s rollout move in time to still be standing. He skimmed my bushy tail as he screamed past, but seeing my tail was almost entirely fur, I didn’t feel anything relating to pain... Unless I was referring to the aching pain in the side of my body. But that was a different issue.

I nearly stumbled as I stood on all fours. The rollout attack had really caught me at a bad time, and when I was least expecting it. It’s a pretty terrible feeling to be hit unexpectedly—especially when the attack is one of the worst to hit me.

I eyed the golem with focus as he sped towards me along the ground. Golem could heat-seek their targets when they were curled like a ball so as to guarantee a direct hit—or at least to be able to stay on track.

He whirled around and came back at full speed towards me. I stood a little dazed at the incoming attack before me, and that’s when I heard a shriek from my trainer. “Dusty! Watch out, girl!”

I pushed off the stony dirt and sprang to the left. However, the golem came straight back around and flew into my right side this time. I screamed before I hurtled to the ground, inconveniently landing on Izante, who was nearby. We both tumbled, and I could feel my energy going down at a rapid pace. I rolled off my friend and onto the ground beside her. The little bell attached to the collar around my neck jingled and made a pretty little sound. The bell was a miniature chingling—yellow with a red and white scarf-like feature wrapped around its neck. However, the features were minuscule, but detailed magnificently. I think it had been quite expensive in human currency.

Izante seemed to yell at me a bit after we were done groaning in pain, but only because I crashed into her while she was in the middle of regaining her health, using her synthesis attack to do so.

“Sorry!” I blurted out, turning towards her. We both hauled ourselves back up. Izante’s tail was sagging, and her eyes were tinged with fury. Mine would have been, but I was too busy feeling sorry for myself because of all the injuries I had withstood. ‘I wonder how Izante’s feeling... I hope it isn’t too bad,’ I thought. ‘Well, better get back on track. The butterfree and golem’ll be coming back any second.’ Izante and I stood next to each other, eying the golem that sped toward us, still curled in a ball. “Wait for it...” I slowly said, standing with my legs shoulder-width apart for support.

“Wait for it..!” Izante mimicked.

The spinning golem neared and we readied ourselves. “Now!” called our masters.

“Feel the wrath of my fire!” I yelled, boiling hot flames spilling out from inside of me.

“Eat grass!” Izante exclaimed, looking as if she was doing the same. I stole a quick glance from her, confused at what she had said as opposed to what I had said; she just shrugged by widening her eyes, focusing back on track.

Simultaneously, Izante and I unleashed a staggering combination of fire and grass, which stopped the golem in his tracks, and I watched the colourful power surge through his body. Izante had struck him with the glittering shards of a magical leaf, while I harnessed a powerful flamethrower right at the butterfree. All around us, dirt and dust from the ground rose and whipped wildly around the trees, forcing the grass to bow down before us.

After a good, long burst of energy and tiring effort, our attacks ceased, and we both stared at the golem who had been knocked out cold, and the butterfree who had been blown away by the flames—but was still going!

Exhausted, I collapsed onto the ground, panting. I could still fight – I could tell by the rage and the boiling feeling inside of me – but I wanted just one moment to catch my breath again. I heard Izante bound off, most likely to attempt to now faint the butterfree and end the match for us. However, I lay on the cold earthy ground with my eyelids closed, making an effort to regain the most energy I could get my fangs around. Maybe after I had rested for long enough, I would be able to stick with my best friend to fight the bug and flying type. After all, I did have the advantage over her.

I managed to get a grip of some more strength, but it would take a while before I was going to be fully recovered enough in order to put up a good fight if need be. However, I did not think it was necessary to be thinking about fighting now. Izante had bounded off to take care of our flying foe, which she could most likely handle on her own, and the golem had fallen hard.

“Great job, Dust!” praised my master from another side of the field, and I smiled inwardly.

Just when I thought I could get a few minutes to myself, I sensed and then heard someone approaching and I assumed it would be Master. I stayed put and kept my eyes closed. Sometimes it was better to use my hearing instead of my sight.

I then heard a voice trying to persuade me to get up and continue fighting... But wait... This one wasn’t one I recognised. It was extremely low and gravelly, and had an angry quality to it. And when I came to think of it, the footsteps were loud and too irregular for it to be my master.

It was then when I sensed a shadow towering over my back. As my heart pounded, I quickly whipped my head around to see two large, brown, rough feet. I looked upwards at the figure, and to my surprise, it was the golem again. I shrieked, wondering how in the world he could still be standing. Maybe he was holding a reviver seed, or he did actually have energy left, and he ate a berry he was holding or something to boost what remained of it.

“Dusty! Quick, get to your feet as fast as you can!” called a familiar voice, this time. My eyes darted across the area for a face. I laid eyes on Master.

Frantically, I sprung backwards about a metre, obeying my commands and making sure I wasn’t easily within the golem’s reach. I would have expected him to come after me, but when he didn’t, I frowned slightly. I met his eyes. He did not seem to have any intention of coming after me...which was strange—considering before he was supposedly full of determination to attack.

I thought too soon. With a notable rumble, a strong leg came down upon the ground, alerting me that the golem’s eyes now held the urge to defeat me. I scowled, trying to figure this all out. There was something about that golem that made me glower. He looked so sinister... And already, his eyes had changed, now to look so eager to win the match. ...Although, for something more than a victory, it appeared. Pleasure, maybe? I had no idea. But I did know that I had to take him down. Right down. And right now. There was no time to wait.

“Give it a taste of poison! Use toxic!” Master instructed.

‘Toxic? That’s a bad idea. It’ll barely affect him!’ I thought with a bit of confusion. ‘Ahh, well. If that’s what Master wants, then that’s what Master gets!’

A bubbly sensation exploded somewhere in my body, and I felt my throat begin to burn softly with the taste of acidic fluid. Usually this wouldn’t happen, because I was used to using Fire type attacks so often. Although this time, it was a Poison type attack. In a blurted mess, the purple poison erupted from my mouth, spewing all over my opponent. Personally, I didn’t at all fancy using toxic, but it was one of the TMs that Master wished for me to learn. With the TM’s power and enough practice, I was able to learn a Poison type attack without accompanying more weaknesses.

The golem shielded himself as the attack slopped onto his rocky shell by turning his head in the opposite direction and holding up one of his arms. Following the toxic attack, Master instructed me to use bite, a Dark type attack.

I frowned. This would be difficult. Aiming for his arms, either of his legs or his head would be the only way of not breaking my fangs. In this case, a bite attack was a risk. I didn’t want to go to the pokémon vet. I hated it there. They inserted painful needles into a pokémon’s skin, injecting them with liquids that were apparently helpful. They would grope you and keep you still while they searched your ears for parasites. I couldn’t fathom how a human would want to do that to a pokémon.

My foe simply shook off the sludge and stared at me for a moment, catching my gaze and holding it in place. I released my frown and clenched teeth, and noticed something. Had the golem wiped off his anger along with the poison? At this, I was utterly confused as I stared hopelessly into his eyes. The crimson colour in them seemed to quiver and shake me to the bone. What was this rock type thinking? Did he have something he wished to tell me? Whatever it was, I think it was upsetting.

“Dusty, what’s wrong? Why can’t you use bite?” Master called to me. I wanted to answer, but I couldn’t.

“Hey! Golem! Get your stony butt into a rollout attack, now!” yelled a harsh voice. I glanced at where it was coming from, losing my concentration on ‘Golem’. It seemed to be a shaggy looking male trainer who had something mysterious about him—I could sense it. There was somewhat of a shady character behind that pretend smile and kindness he had displayed towards Master when he said he wanted to battle. He had a female as a partner, or so it seemed, who was just about as suspicious. She was the one who owned the butterfree.

“My name...is Roarake. Not Golem,” the pokémon standing before me grumbled.

I was shocked. I snapped back to him. “...Wh-What?” I answered after the hulking rock pokémon muttered something under his breath about a ‘stupid human’. ‘How could his trainer not know his name...?’ I thought. The male golem exhaled deeply and looked hard into my eyes. But I just couldn’t believe that he had just talked back to his trainer—even though he couldn’t have heard.

“Do not pretend you didn’t hear me, fool,” snapped the pokémon. I narrowed my eyes with scorn.

‘How dare he say that. First his master, then a fellow pokémon!’ I thought. “Have you no respect?” I questioned. He just sneered, widening his nostrils to make room for his mouth movements.

“I have plenty of it. Why else do you think I am trying to defeat you? Getting up after that blast was not easy, you know.”

After that remark, my brow furrowed. He didn’t make any sense. ‘What?! How on Earth is trying to faint somebody respectful?!’ I just shook my head. I had no time for this ridiculousness. If he wanted to play games, he could bring it up with someone else. “Well, then. If you’re gonna ‘defeat me’ then why in the world are you just standing there?!” I teased, raising my voice to be loud and clear. With an air-trembling roar of anger, the so called ‘Roarake’ launched himself at me shaped like a ball, and looking like a boulder. ‘Well, they don’t call them ‘golem’ for nothing!’ The thought rang in my head as I readied myself once again for the incoming attack. The boulder-like pokémon skidded on the spot at first, but then I realised that it was only to charge himself up to be faster for when he released his attack.

When he did come at me, I lowered the front part of my body near to the ground, then pushed off, this time leaping over Roarake rather than dodging it by flying off to one side. I landed on the ground, my paws absorbing all force caused by landing. Quickly swinging around, I saw the boulder do a u-turn and come straight back at me. I dodged to the left, and then he came at me another time. Once again, I pounced over the rolling stone. But this time I miscalculated my jump and the tip of my tail was caught on the spinning pokémon, and I flew backwards, trailing down the boulder and under its bottom in one blink of an eye. I screeched in pain as the boulder trampled over me, squashing me under its weight. The awful feeling shivered up my body as I had the weight pass over my chest and then my face before I flung out.

My distressful calls carried out across the battle field, which managed to catch Izante’s attention, thankfully. Master also seemed worried by the tone of her voice as she cried out towards me.

“Dusty! No! Are you okay, girl?” were her words. I was in a fair amount of pain, and for someone to ask if I was “okay” was completely ironic.

I winced at the aching I was experiencing, but if I didn’t move in a flash, that golem would come back and cause me more damage until I ran out of energy and fainted. And if it happened again, I would be in danger of breaking something—and I was lucky it didn’t happen the first time. The rock type performed another burnout, causing his attack to charge up to become stronger.

“Dusty!” Master called. “Hit that golem with a flamethrower before it hits you again!” I nodded, frowning harder, and stepped with my legs apart to give me more balance. As quick as I could, I heated up rapidly inside and flicked my head in a half semi-circle, looking up. The flames were tingling in my throat, and I could feel the pleasant sensation that tickled inside. With a deep breath, I spurted a long stream of fire into the my opponent. He ceased his attack, uncurling from his ball. He had barely endured the attack which continued on for about three seconds before I ran out of breath. Even though he was a ground and rock type, I could see that Roarake was struggling to hold onto his consciousness by the way he seemed to keep drifting away from reality. The flames engulfed him, chewed him up, and spat him out. Roarake toppled around as if he had consumed a rotten berry and become drunk. But even after all of the damage that this golem had taken, he shook it off, but was heavily panting.

‘He must now know how I feel,’ I thought, not having to remember about the pain that I had to deal with. But still, how on earth could this golem keep getting up?! It didn’t make sense to me, and I thought of it to be absurd. “‘Will Power’ must be your middle name. You won’t let yourself give up!” I commented, and the golem looked up at me while frowning.

“You are not bad at surviving attacks yourself,” he replied with a grunt, but slight respect. And because of that, I was a little surprised. Maybe he had been impressed by my strong attack that fended off his own. “But that does not mean I can let you win! If I lose this, you will regret it; I promise you! So I shall do all I can to prevent you from winning this battle—for your sake!” Roarake vowed. But I was left stunned once again.

“What are you on about? That makes no sense! Contradictory much?” I shouted. However, he didn’t seem to be listening at all as he charged at me. I snorted with frustration. If he didn’t want to listen, then I wouldn’t waste my time trying to talk.

I watched as he neared, running on his two massive feet. Every step he took made the ground rumble slightly, sending little vibrations crawling up my legs. I steadied myself, and calculated my jump just right this time.

Pushing off the ground, I leaped forwards onto the golem, using his head like a stepping stone to bounce on. Straight after I gained the elevation from the pokémon’s head, I bounded over his body and landed on the ground. Quickly I snapped my head around in the rock and ground type’s direction. He ended up falling over from the small force my legs caused. ‘He’s getting much weaker...as am I. I have to finish this!’ I silently declared. However, just as I was about to unleash another powerful flamethrower, I heard pawsteps padding behind me. Instantly I span around to find Izante in my face. I blinked a few times, then smiled. “Long time no see!” I laughed, my eyes closed with glee. She nodded.

“Hehe, yeah.” She smiled back at me while I reflected her expression.

“I’ll give you the pleasure of finishing him off. I’m pretty much exhausted,” I told the leafeon with assurance. She nodded back.

I watched carefully as my best friend charged up her power and then loped towards Roarake, her paws becoming squashed each time pressure was applied to them. The golem slowly and shakily turned around once on his feet, and his eyes widened instantly. For a split second, I felt sorry for him because of the worry that showed in his eyes. To him, this match seemed important. Very important. The crimson irises were fixed on Izante, but also seemed to touch me somehow, too.

I snapped out of it. This was merely a golem that we were battling for friendly competition. How could it be significant? It’s not like this was an experience we would never forget, or even remember for that matter. Guiding my mind back to the battle in front of me, I shook my head.

My leafeon friend sped past the golem, striking him with a glowing tail—iron tail. She then came to a sudden stop, but with the stop came a rebounding push of the ground to come racing back in Roarake’s direction. Next, Izante magnificently leaped, jumping so she would land perfectly on top of her opponent, and came crashing down with her tail first.

Right before the leaf blade attack slashed at Roarake’s shell, a cry emitted from the golem’s mouth. “Flareon, forgive me for my weakness! I failed to p—” His voice had been cut off from Izante’s attack, and he landed on the ground with a loud thump, bearing no remaining energy. His eyes danced with swirls as a moan escaped his mouth before they closed.

I spotted the butterfree not far off ready to be nursed by her trainer. She had been defeated by Izante. The golem had been knocked out cold by us both now, and it became evident that Izante and I had won the match.