The Path of Destiny

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 71 – Haven

There was still a day or two left before Solus was likely to return.

Ashend hovered silently at the edge of the camp, facing the direction she knew Yenn had gone. The misdreavus hoped that there would be no news, no scouts coming back to tell Cyclone that his twisted plan had succeeded. But deep inside, there was a part of her that wished news would come. She hated not knowing, having to wonder whether Yenn was dead or alive. She had found out from one of Cyclone’s commanders that he had flown into a desert. A desert.

He was probably dead, she had forced herself to admit. There was not nearly enough food in a desert to satisfy a yanmega’s extremely high energy needs, and she had no idea if there was even water on the surface. Feeling tears starting to form, she closed her eyes and lowered her head. ‘Not now...’ she told herself. ‘Not while they could be watching.’ With great effort, she pushed the thought away.

“Ashend?” a quiet voice said behind her.

The ghost type turned to see Itora. The manectric was standing with her tail hung low. Luckily, there was no one else with her, but Ashend knew that they were in view of scattered groups of nearby army pokémon.

“Yes, Itora?” she asked, managing to wipe the emotion from her face.

“Don’t worry, no one’s around to hear us, and they don’t have any psychic types as strong as Solus who can read our minds from here.” She slowly trotted over and then sat beside where the misdreavus was hovering. The wind blew furrows in the patches of fur on her head and shoulders. “So...what are we going to do?” the manectric asked after a few moments. “About everything Cyclone’s-”

“I don’t know yet,” Ashend snapped, but seeing Itora’s surprised look, her expression softened. “I don’t think there’s anything I can do now, but I’m learning everything I can about Cyclone and the strongest who work for him.”

“I could help, you know. I-”

Ashend shook her head. “It’s too dangerous. Observe what you can, but don’t go looking for trouble.” There was another silent pause after the statement.

“I don’t think Silverbreeze believed me when I said I used Voltgale today,” Itora whispered.

Ashend looked to her in alarm.

“She didn’t do anything, I swear,” Itora insisted. “I told her to go stick her head in a magmortar’s arm cannon. Then she just wanted me gone.”

Ashend moved closer to her. “Dear, they haven’t noticed anything odd about-”

“They think I’m mad at Yenn, don’t worry,” the manectric replied, her eyes downcast.

“Listen...” Ashend took a deep breath. “Itora, when Solus and the others...come back...I want you to stay in your cave for a long time. They know we care...cared...about Yenn, but they don’t have to find out how much we know. Solus will be busy with Cyclone at first, so we need to make sure they...” Her voice faltered. “If anything happened to you too, I’d...”

“They won’t, I promise!” Itora protested. She perked her ears up, trying to seem strong and determined for Ashend. “Look at them over there,” she said, turning her head to where the nearest army pokémon were resting, on break from training. “Most of them are too stupid to-”

“Itora, you can’t just assume that,” Ashend said seriously. “They can’t know. Nothing is more important than that right now.”

Itora turned her head away. After a moment, she said, “I wanted to kill a few humans for him. Find some in white coats...the humans in the lab Yenn was in couldn’t have been much different from mine...shock the life out of them. He said he’d do the same for me.”

Ashend didn’t reply at first. Her eyes narrowed, and she looked for a moment as if she was about to use an attack. “I want to kill Cyclone first,” she hissed.

Itora gave her a look of surprise, then a worried glance back at the groups of army pokémon in the near distance. “Ashend, you can’t say that out loud!”

“You said they can’t hear us,” the misdreavus responded dryly.

“Yes, but...Ashend, how would you ever do that? We can’t even get Cyclone alone now, and his Acidstorm attack is far more powerful than-”

“I don’t know, Itora, and it may be a long time before I do. But after what he did to Yenn, I’ll make sure it happens, one way or another.”

Itora said nothing and stared at the ground. She suddenly wondered if anyone would think they were acting suspicious, staring out over the landscape like that, but Ashend didn’t seem worried.

“I was the first of us to be accepted into the army,” Ashend said quietly. Her voice had a hollow, pained tone to it, and there was a faraway look in her eyes. She seemed lost in a memory, and Itora remained quiet as she continued. “It wasn’t long after that Blazefang houndour had left. Everyone talked about it back then, but at the time, Cyclone simply didn’t have the resources to go after him. He tried, but there weren’t enough pokémon and Blazefang took a dangerous route. Cyclone gave up and sought other stones and, well, very soon, learned the location of two of them.”

“Bug and ghost,” Itora said.

“Yes,” Ashend replied. “I believe he found out about the bug one first. Maybe even before I arrived. When he told me about this, I thought he was going to hand it over to Silverbreeze. You see, it wasn’t as hard for him to get our stones as it was yours. The legendaries didn’t know their locations, so they weren’t guarding them. I’m not sure who was, if anyone. I wasn’t there for either retrieval. But for whatever reason, he didn’t give it to Silverbreeze. He had some pokémon retrieve the stone, and he just kept it. Soon after that, I was given my own. I still don’t know where he got it.”

“Then they brought in Yenn.” Ashend’s voice shook, but she carried on. “I can imagine how Cyclone and Solus decided he was suitable. Someone they deemed ‘broken’ enough to be manipulated the way they wanted him to. Just like me. But of course, we didn’t know that then. And in the beginning, I think Cyclone did care about us. Not as much as his own agenda, but I do believe...he cared. At first.

“Yenn didn’t act nearly so calm back then. He would often go into a panic, or start screaming at the underlings and even the higher ranking pokémon. Cyclone ordered them all to be patient with him and leave him alone, no matter how much of a...‘scene,’ as Cyclone put it, he was making. I didn’t pay much attention at first. I just ignored Yenn, like I ignored every other pokémon – save for Cyclone and the ones who brought me food and other comforts – and Yenn didn’t try to talk to me either. Whenever we were forced together, we seemed to have a sort of unsaid rule to keep to ourselves. I didn’t want to bother with Yenn at all; he always acted so angry.

“After a few weeks, Yenn started focusing that anger elsewhere. He was very enthusiastic about stopping the humans, and much more outspoken about it than I was. He later told me that having a solid goal helped him focus on other things, gave him hope. I can also remember some things, things that didn’t seem important at the time, that Cyclone and his higher ups said to him. They told him that he needed to focus if he didn’t want more pokémon to be tortured by humans, or for the humans to come after him, and that if he did everything right...everything they wanted him to...we could stop the humans and it would all be over. They said the same sorts of things to me, and to you.”

Itora’s eyes narrowed as she tried to think back to what was said to her, whether anything sounded odd, but Ashend continued speaking and she directed her attention once again to the misdreavus.

“Obviously, I had no idea what he and I were getting into. One night, though, I couldn't get some of the things that had happened to me at Team Rocket out of my head. I went out of my shelter and in a fit of anger I started using psychic to throw rocks around. It was silly, but I was so upset I didn't know what else to do. There weren't many pokémon around, and I think the other army pokémon must have tried to steer clear of me.

“Then Yenn appeared. He had been flying close by and spotted me, and for some reason I didn’t understand, he stopped. He had been acting calmer than he previously had by then, but it had been one of his bad days as well. I had heard him screaming hardly an hour ago...much like I was at that moment, but he had calmed down by the time he saw me.

“I just sort of stared at him for a moment, not caring what he might think of me and ready to go on ignoring him. But he came right up to me. And he just said ‘The humans did something terrible to you too, didn't they?’

“It was obvious what the answer was; Cyclone had let it be known that we had had horrific experiences at the hand of humans, and Yenn couldn't exactly hide his scar. But up until that point, I had mostly kept hidden away. He hadn't seen my anger or sadness. I had no scars. Maybe he had just assumed that I was calmly fighting for the freedom of other pokémon, that I didn't really have any lasting anger of my own. I guess he realized then that I'd just been hiding it.

“Then he told me I wasn't alone, that I could go to him if I needed help. I guess I was surprised...Cyclone had given me understanding, but he had never asked for me to come to him for something like that. Yenn told me that I didn't have to right then, or ever if I didn't want to, just that I could. I decided I wanted to be alone that night, but the next night...I decided to reach out to him. And the night after that.

“It didn't take us long to become friends. The other army pokémon were just doing their jobs, but Yenn actually took the time to listen. Cyclone was often busy and well...we both know what his true colors are now. But neither I nor Yenn had anyone ordering us around, or places we needed to be. We spent a lot of time together, and found we could talk about happy things sometimes. It was so nice to finally be able to laugh again, to talk about things like normal pokémon. After all my time in Team Rocket, I had almost forgotten how.

“Then you came along. In the weeks Yenn and I had known each other, we had become more relaxed, and opening up to you was easy.”

Itora was still silent, thinking back to her own introduction to Cyclone’s army. It had seemed so welcoming at first; she had been given food, safety, power...but Cyclone had been using them the entire time.

“I wanted to protect you two,” Ashend continued. “I thought we were doing the right thing by following Cyclone's plan. I didn't care about him killing legendaries. After all, what had the legendaries ever done for me? But now that he has probably killed Yenn...I hate him. I hate him more than the humans. And Acidstorm or not, if he so much as lays a paw on you, I will make him regret it tenfold.”

“Well, then I’ll help you, Ashend. We’ll find a way to make him die, even if it’s not by our own attacks. Then we’ll figure out what to do with the humans.”

Ashend gave her a grim smile, but something told her that they were unlikely to get a chance to attack Cyclone and also escape with their lives. “Don’t do anything rash,” she warned. “If we attempted it now, we’d both end up dead. But we’ll wait. We’ll learn everything Cyclone and Solus know.”

Itora turned her gaze back to the horizon. “I bet Yenn’s still alive,” she said. “I bet he’s shown Solus a thing or two as well.”

Ashend smiled. Though she couldn’t quite share Itora’s optimism, she didn’t want to give in to defeat. Until she learned otherwise, Yenn was alive. Until she knew Solus had killed him, she wouldn’t give the sadistic espeon or his followers the credit. And when the day came that Solus returned, the espeon would be wise to watch his back.

-ooo-

Trees...there were trees all around him. Enormous trees.

Where was he?

Yenn was flying as fast as his dying body would let him. Everything around him was bathed in a murky light, and with his fading senses, the outlines of the trees seemed to blur into each other, creating confusing patterns. Frightening images leapt at him from the gloom.

He faltered, and for a moment he was heading straight for the ground, the world tilting sideways.

Then he managed to right himself, barely swerving with enough time to avoid a large object that could have been a tree or boulder. His vision swam; everything was going dark.

He couldn’t stop. They were...no, something was chasing him. Something was after him, and there would be terrible pain if it caught him. He had to...he had to...

The yanmega blacked out for a moment, his wings clipping painfully on the side of a tree. He almost allowed himself to fall to the ground.

Then hazy images started to appear through the blackness. Smeared objects that he knew were trees flickered in front of him. A beam of light coming through a break in the branches seemed to stand out from the muddy blur.

Something glimmered on the forest floor.

It was thin and winding, snaking through the trunks of the trees. As he tried to look at the shimmering patch, he realized that it moved, rippled like...water.

He headed toward it, realizing as he got closer that it was a stream, just barely distinguishable through the muddled objects fading in and out from the blackness of his vision. He readied himself to land on the bank, but his movements faltered, and he found himself splashing into the water.

Yenn’s legs collapsed beneath him, but luckily the water was very shallow and his head did not go under. His body started to shake, seizing from the cold, so drastically different from the heat of the desert. For a few moments it felt hard to breathe.

He tried to focus on what he could see above him, the waving beams of light coming down from the treetops so high above. He wanted to cry out for help; he was vaguely aware that the sudden temperature change was such a shock to his system that it threatened to throw him into unconsciousness. Some part of him was confused at his reaction; the small part of his mind that was still rational knew that the stream itself couldn’t be so terribly cold, as the forest was green with the coming of summer.

His vision went black, but the muffled forest sounds around him remained. He lay still, feeling his awareness flickering in and out, before light and color began to return again.

As soon as it did, he shakily stood up and lowered his head to the stream’s surface. He began gulping down water, losing track of everything else around him. He wasn’t quite sure the cool water wasn’t some sort of vivid hallucination or dream, but at least if it was, it was a good one. As he drank, he momentarily forgot that anything was following him.

After he finally finished, his mind felt clearer, and his vision was steadier. He lifted his wet wings, gave them a small shake, and weakly forced himself back up into the air. He flew the short distance to the bank, then collapsed. In spite of finding water, Yenn didn’t think he had enough strength to fly up to a tree branch in order to rest. He had spent his last bit of energy on finding water, and now that he had it, he could go no further. He would have to sleep on the ground.

It was then that he remembered the fear. Something was coming for him. His mind couldn’t grasp any details, couldn’t remember what had led him to where he was, but he knew he had been in grave danger.

He could see a few large bushes near the stream, a short distance from where he lay. If nothing else, he could at least rest under them to be safer from the watching eyes of whatever was following him. With his last bit of willpower, he forced himself to fly to the bushes and crawl underneath. He had to curl up to fit beneath the bush’s leaves, but it would at least keep the red of his eyes and spots from standing out amongst the green.

If anything was still coming after him, there was nothing he could do. He had been awake for so long, flying for so long, starving, dying of thirst...he had no more energy to keep fleeing. He couldn't think...could only lie down...

Before he knew it, he had slipped into sleep, lying beneath the bush near the bank of a sparkling stream.

-ooo-

Snowcrystal and the others rested right beside where the portal, which had transported them to the forest just minutes before, had vanished. Trees reaching higher than many of the tallest buildings surrounded them, their thick roots spreading across the ground. The uppermost portions of the trees were impossible to see through the mass of leaves and branches far overhead, and pokémon cries of all kinds echoed back at them on all sides.

On the forest floor, the group of travelers huddled in a ragtag circle, trying to catch their breath and plan their next course of action. Pokémon sprawled out in the bushes, beneath clumps of ferns, or even over tree roots as they lay, both exhausted and overwhelmed by what they saw around them. At the base of one of the enormous trees, Damian quietly checked Nightshade for new injuries while Thunder looked on. Beside him, Katie was cleaning the scratches on Wildflame’s face.

Luckily, there had been no serious injuries from the brief battle, only scrapes and bruises. The pokémon were more tired than anything, and still trying to wrap their minds around everything that had occurred.

“Okay,” Katie said once she was sure that Wildflame’s wounds were clean. “Arien, ask the pokémon what they know about this yanmega and anything those pokémon out in the desert might have said about it.” She gave a nod to both the alakazam and Damian.

The pokémon conversed quietly while the three trainers waited. To their surprise, Nightshade joined in the conversation as well. Less surprisingly, Thunder hung back a short distance from the main group, looking appalled that they were even discussing seeking out a strange pokémon.

“Well,” Damian said after a few minutes, “Arien told me that Nightshade and the others who stayed by the rocks saw the yanmega up close. He said it was a young adult male, very sickly looking, and he had a scar...something like this...” He leaned down and made a long mark in the soil with his finger, intersecting it with smaller marks.

“That’s weird...but it’ll be immediately recognizable at least,” Katie stated, though she sounded less than hopeful. "But a forest this big is bound to have hundreds of yanmega in it, probably thousands. And even if the one from the desert didn’t get far, we could be looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“Arien also told me that Wildflame thinks this yanmega is named ‘Yenn.’ That espeon working for Cyclone...Solus...he or one of his pokémon mentioned the name before we came to help.” Damian turned to the other trainer. “At least that gives us something more.”

“Yeah, let’s ask around and see if any of the forest creatures happen to know a random pokémon’s name,” Justin scoffed.

“It might be useful when we do find him,” Katie argued. “Tell him we know who he is and want to get him away from those maniacal pokémon chasing him.”

“Yeah, sure,” Justin muttered with a roll of his eyes.

“Well, obviously the yanmega’s going to be looking for water,” Katie said, ignoring him. “We’ll find ponds and streams and start from there so we-”

“Well,” Justin muttered, suddenly seeming very uneasy about the whole prospect, “it probably already found water and continued flying. I mean, it thinks pokémon are trying to kill it. Shouldn’t we not go charging after it now that it’s been chased for who knows how long? If it has a Forbidden Attack, and it’s weak, it’ll probably fire it at any living thing it finds following it.”

There was silence, and Spark suddenly looked to Justin with wide-eyed fear. Katie and Damian exchanged glances.

“Good point,” Damian said. “We’d better wait. Give him time to rest, and time to realize that Cyclone’s pokémon aren’t coming after him. That’ll give us time to rest too.”

“Doesn’t mean we shouldn’t start getting a head start on finding out where he might have gone,” Katie responded. “And we shouldn’t wait longer than a day or two, in case this pokémon really does have a Forbidden Attack.”

“This is crazy,” Justin muttered, turning away from the trainers and the quietly waiting pokémon. “What do you expect to do with this thing once we find it?”

“Hopefully the legendary has an idea,” Katie replied.

“Oh, right,” Justin mumbled. “Here’s hoping.”

Katie ignored him, pulling out her pokégear. After a few taps and swipes of the screen, she had pulled up a three-dimensional rotating image of a yanmega. The small blurb of information next to the image made Justin scowl as he looked over Katie’s shoulder.

“Katie, this says here that a yanmega’s wings can create shockwaves strong enough to cause serious internal damage. That and they’re pretty infamous for being good at biting apart the heads of other creatures. Forbidden Attack or not, you’ve got to be insane to want to go after this thing.”

Katie gave him a glare. “You see this forest? You want it destroyed?”

“A yanmega is a killing machine! It’s basically like a scyther that has more powerful wings, only with bigger teeth instead of blades,” Justin retorted.

From the center of the group of pokémon, Katie saw Stormblade flinch a little and draw back. She turned to Justin again and said, “Yeah, you’re right. One and the same. Things Justin really should stop being afraid of. Your jolteon could kill you just about as easily.”

“Uh...look guys,” Damian said worriedly, not wanting a fight to escalate. “We have some time to figure out what to do. This yanmega is a wild pokémon and we don’t know how he reacts around strangers. We’ll be cautious, Justin.”

Katie flicked her finger over the ‘more information’ section on the pokédex screen, revealing a new page of listed facts. She read over them while the others rested in silence.

Watching her, Snowcrystal suddenly felt bad that she had left the first aid kit she’d carried across the desert back at the rocks. She knew the trainers had plenty of other medical supplies, but it still made her feel like she had somehow failed her companions, even if in a small way. The humans and the other pokémon had done so much for her. And it wasn’t only them who had, but many others as well. Moonlight and Darkfang had lost their lives. Darkfang had died trying to save them down in the tunnels. She suddenly felt a new wave of sorrow as the thought crossed her mind, and she wished more than anything she could have thanked him.

Suddenly she felt claws rest gently on her back. “Snow?” Nightshade’s voice whispered to her. “It’s okay. We’ll figure this out.” She allowed him to draw her closer, resting her head against his side.

“We’d better get moving and at least find a suitable place to camp,” Damian called from up ahead. “We’ll rest and scout the area for water sources. We can start looking for the yanmega tomorrow. He’ll probably be looking for a place to rest too.”

“Fine,” Justin sighed. “Let's find a place to set up camp so we can go find us our giant flying murder machine.”

The weary pokémon all got back to their feet, and after Nightshade was returned inside his poké ball, they set off. Despite the massive size of the forest, there was enough room for several pokémon to walk side by side on the ground. The group bunched together, keeping their eyes and ears out for any sign of potential trouble.

“Wait,” Thunder stated to the other pokémon, glaring at the group as they headed off. She had become much more agitated after the humans had returned Nightshade. “Are you just going to let some random stranger come with us? Let the yanmega fend for himself. He’s not our problem.”

Redclaw looked over his shoulder at her. “If he uses his Forbidden Attack in this forest,” he said gravely, “it will be everyone’s problem.”

The scyther had nothing to say in response. She merely trailed after the group, shooting glares at anyone who turned to look at her.

-ooo-

It wasn’t long before Damian had found them a good camping site. Sheltered between two of the massive trees, they set up their tents while the pokémon rested or scouted the nearby area.

Snowcrystal lay at the base of an ancient tree with a large fire scar, a short distance away from Damian’s tent. She wanted to be out with Spark and Stormblade and the others who were exploring the forest, but she had decided to stay with Nightshade to wait at the new campsite. As the day wore on into afternoon, she started to feel glad that she’d given her feet a rest. It also allowed her time to take in everything that had happened.

The portal had activated at precisely the right moment, and though she didn’t understand why, she wasn’t worried about not knowing. There were much bigger things on her mind, and the forest itself provided another new sense of wonder.

She had never even dreamed that trees could be so big. The other forests she’d traveled through had been nothing like this; those trees now seemed like tiny twigs in comparison when she thought back to them. And there were so many pokémon. Anywhere she looked, she could see winged pokémon flying, not even seeming to care that the trainers were there. Larger pokémon occasionally wandered through the hazy underbrush in the distance, a few even giving them what looked to be curious glances. Sentret scampered up and down trees, and she even saw several heracross clinging to the branches and trunks higher up.

She wondered how Nightshade felt about being in such a place. From what she could see, he looked awed and amazed. She wondered if, had circumstances been different, Nightshade would have wanted to live here.

Not surprisingly, Thunder had also stayed behind at the camp, and she was currently pacing back and forth in agitation not far from where Snowcrystal was sitting with Nightshade. At least, the growlithe thought, she didn’t seem quite as distrustful of the humans, or at least wasn’t paying them as much attention. Snowcrystal hoped the fight with Solus had helped convince her, even a little, that the trainers were on their side.

Snowcrystal still wasn’t used to seeing Thunder so healthy. She had been very weak and sick before being recaptured by Master, or Mausk, but now she was strong, no longer bearing any serious injuries. She was also missing the old collar she had worn. Mausk must have fit her with one of those deadly ones that detonated, but it had obviously been taken off for the arena fight. Now she was free from any means Mausk used to control her.

A few paces from Snowcrystal and Nightshade, Wildflame was resting, taking in the details of the forest herself. The houndoom looked amazed, her eyes wide as she watched a group of light green and blue vivillon fly far over their heads. “This sure is different than anything we had back by the mountain,” she said, her voice full of wonder.

Suddenly, Thunder stopped her pacing and turned her head toward Wildflame. “I saw you standing in front of Nightshade,” the scyther said. “Between him and that twisted excuse for an espeon. I guess I can believe you now. You weren’t lying.”

The houndoom lifted her head in surprise. Thunder had been the one to throw Wildflame’s apology back in her face, to tell her that she could never be trusted because of her past lies. “R-really? You do?”

Thunder didn’t reply with words, instead just nodding before starting to pace again, this time with less agitation.

“...Thanks,” Wildflame told her gratefully.

Thunder didn’t respond, but she seemed less on edge, so Snowcrystal relaxed. At least Thunder didn’t seem to see the humans as such a large threat anymore, and the growlithe could only hope it would last.

Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, Stormblade appeared through the undergrowth, making Snowcrystal jump. “Everything seems fine,” the scyther announced. “The forest pokémon didn’t give us any trouble.”

“Where are Spark and the others?” Arien asked from beside Damian’s tent.

“Still out there exploring,” Stormblade replied. “Some of them went to find berries. The native pokémon here don’t seem to mind us at all. Well, those that aren’t prey species, of course. Some were even friendly.”

“Well, that’s good news,” Arien stated, heaving a sigh of relief. “And it’s about time we had some.”

As Stormblade took a drink from the bowl of water the trainers had set out, Snowcrystal peered up at the towering trees. “I wonder what the growlithe in my tribe would think if they could see this,” she whispered.

Stormblade lifted his head. “They’d be pretty amazed, that’s for sure. I bet they wouldn’t have met any flying types that had seen-” He paused, noticing that the growlithe’s expression had turned a bit forlorn. “Do you miss them a lot?”

Snowcrystal gave Stormblade a smile, not wanting him to worry. “Yes, but I want to try to help them, and that’s why I’m here. If I can’t bring Articuno back, well...getting rid of the Forbidden Attacks will make the world safer for everyone. And after they’re gone, or put away where no one can find them, Articuno could return.”

“I’m sure your tribe will be proud of you,” Stormblade responded. “I bet they’re thinking of you too. Your parents, family...”

“I hope so. It’s not so much my parents I miss, but...” Seeing that Stormblade looked confused, she explained, “My parents...didn’t really spend a lot of time raising me. They were important in the tribe and well, I guess they decided they had better things to do. But don’t worry, I wasn’t lonely! Some of the other adult growlithe took care of me. They pretty much raised me. I really miss them...”

Most of the time, she had tried not to think too hard about her tribe, the growlithe she had left behind. Instead, she had always focused on her goal of helping them. Even if she couldn’t save their home, she wanted to make sure they could live in a world safe from the Forbidden Attacks. And to do that, she had to seek the help of other legendaries, as well as the pokémon she had come to know who were now family as well. “Do you miss your old swarm?” she asked Stormblade. “Or whoever you were with before meeting Spark and Justin?”

The scyther was silent for a moment. “Well,” he finally said, “of course I do, but that’s in the past now. I try not to think about it much.” Though the growlithe looked to him curiously, he did not elaborate. “Besides,” he said, “I’ve got you guys.”

A shadow passed over the sunlit patches on the ground, causing both the pokémon and the trainers to look up. Fernwing swooped over their heads before landing on the ground near the tents. “Well, I didn’t see any yanmega,” she told Arien. “Though he can’t be far; he would have found someplace to rest. He was in bad shape.”

“Maybe we could leave some food for him once we find out where he is,” Wildflame suggested. “Show him that we’re friendly. Er...that is, if we can find a way to keep the forest pokémon away from the food...”

The tropius gave Wildflame a look that told the houndoom she was skeptical.

“We only have a few hours before it starts getting dark,” Stormblade said. “We can look around and ask more of the forest pokémon until then.”

“Look, Stormblade. I asked. No one saw him,” Fernwing protested. “Most pokémon aren’t going to be paying attention to what some specific yanmega looks like. If they see one, they’re going to focus on moving as fast as they can in the opposite direction.”

“We’re not going to really start searching until tomorrow,” Wildflame sighed. “Give it a rest.”

“Katie wanted us to have a head start,” Stormblade argued. “Asking the pokémon is a head start.”

“I’m surprised we haven’t seen a Forbidden Attack going off already,” Blazefang muttered.

“Well, it’s not likely anything’s going to bother a yanmega, is it?” Wildflame asked.

“Of course it’s likely,” Blazefang snapped. “We’re the idiots who are going to do it!”

“Hey, look,” Stormblade interjected. “I think if he was going to use his Forbidden Attack on anything that looked at him funny, it would have happened by now. We ask around, wait until morning to actually seek him out, and I doubt he’ll assume we’re part of Solus’s group.”

“Stormblade...you don’t know that he feels the same way about the Forbidden Attacks as I do,” Blazefang replied shakily.

“He was running away from Solus...doesn’t that give you a clue?” Wildflame asked.

Blazefang didn’t respond, and the pokémon fell quiet. Soon afterward, the makeshift scouting parties returned and the group gathered together around the tents. Before long, night had fallen over the forest.

-ooo-

Yenn’s dreams were a confusing haze of images. Many times he would see pokémon racing across the desert, only to jerk into semi-wakefulness and then fall back into the darkness of the dreams. Several times he would hear Ashend or Itora’s voice, stare at the body of the dead smeargle beneath him, or look into Solus and Cyclone’s wicked eyes.

In one such dream, trees shot up from the ground around the army’s camp. A river ran through the center of it, and a group of bloodthirsty arcanine and rapidash charged through the water as if was not there. Yenn only just then realized that he was hovering at the south end of the river, where it wound into the trees. He could hear the calls of pokémon coming from deep within the woods. They were fighting, or in great distress; Yenn couldn’t tell. Then Cyclone was sitting behind him. The vaporeon turned to look into his eyes.

“It was always like that,” he said, and some part of Yenn’s mind registered that his voice sounded strange and not like Cyclone’s at all. “What did I tell you?”

Then Cyclone and the mismatched scenery around him faded, the real world replacing the dream images and showing him a dark mass of leaves through which soft moonlight filtered.

He struggled to collect his thoughts, unsure of where he was or what had happened. The dream was little help; it had seemed so vivid and clear in his mind, almost like it was important, but now that he was awake, he realized that it made no sense at all. His body shook as he recalled the images, but at least the dream hadn’t taken him down the darkest path of memory lane, and he was able to will himself to relax.

He tried to recall where he was, and what had happened, but nothing came up. The remnants of the dream tugged at the edges of his mind, telling him there was something he needed to remember, yet he couldn’t grasp it. He gave up trying, his mind and body too exhausted to keep up with the whirling thoughts.

After several minutes of lying beneath what he realized was a large bush of some sort, the yanmega lifted his head. His vision swam at first, then it cleared again. He realized he could hear something. Running water.

The sound put his mind on high alert, and his senses became less muddled. It also brought about the sensation of pain. His throat and mouth felt like they had been burned by fire. He cried out, but the cry only came out as a weak gasp. Yenn realized he could taste blood in his mouth, but it was only a small amount, so he knew it wasn’t coming from inside him.

He needed to get to the water. Yenn shuffled his six legs, trying to find enough purchase on the ground to lift his body. He hardly had any strength left, but he managed to stand. Focused on the sound of the running water nearby, he crawled out of the bush. It was slow going; a yanmega’s legs were not well suited to walking, but he knew he lacked the strength to fly. His wings simply dragged on the ground beside him.

He came upon a shallow stream and lowered his head to the water. It burned his throat as he drank it, but he did not care. Once he had his fill, he let himself collapse on the bank.

Yenn was sure he was about to drift into sleep again, and as the thought struck him, so did the memory of the dream. As he pictured the arcanine and rapidash running through the dream-river, everything came back to him all at once.

His mind raced in panic, his wings fluttering but his body still staying pathetically on the ground. He was fleeing from Solus, who, under Cyclone’s orders, was out for his blood. His heart raced and he found himself staring through the trees, imagining that every pokémon cry or rustle of bushes was an enemy waiting to strike. His whole body froze as if his limbs had suddenly locked into place, and he found himself almost too terrified to move.

Then he realized that the sounds of the creatures around him were not frantic, not organized, not malicious. They were pokémon going about their normal nighttime activities. No one was crashing through the undergrowth, screaming at the forest pokémon or shouting orders. The place was peaceful. He could not fully put to rest the fear he felt of his would-be murderers, but he could tell that, by some miracle, they hadn’t followed him into the forest. If they had, they would have already found him, or he would at least have heard some type of commotion.

He focused on what he could see around him, not able to make out much detail in the darkness, but nonetheless able to tell that he was in a forest like no other he had ever seen. His memories of the desert came back stronger, leaving him confused and lost. How had he gotten here? He remembered some pokémon shouting about a...portal? Then he’d landed in the stream. Yet apart from that, he couldn’t recall anything that had happened after he’d realized that Solus’s group was finally closing in for the kill.

‘A portal?’ he thought, finding the idea absurd but too exhausted to care much. Somehow, he had ended up in a massive forest, and if Solus and the army pokémon had been able to follow him in, he would have been dead by now.

He let the thought sink in. Somehow, by what could be nothing short of a miracle, he was alive and had escaped Solus. He had ended up in a place where the espeon and Cyclone’s army could not follow. Something had happened that he didn’t understand. It didn’t matter. He was safe from them...safe...

Yenn felt such a flood of relief that he started to wonder if it was still some sort of dream. Less than a day ago, he had been so certain that there was no hope, that he was going to die, that all his efforts in evading Solus’ army and surviving the desert wasteland would amount to nothing. The thought of safety was so incomprehensible, he was afraid to believe it, even while he was standing in an almost surreal oasis.

Yet it was real. The water, the trees around him, the cries of the pokémon...it was all real. He moved the tip of one leg through the water, the doubts easing away from his mind.

As he rested on the edge of the stream bank, he thought back to his two friends at the army, suddenly realizing that they would have no idea he was still alive. For a moment the fear came swarming back to him, this time a fear for his friends, but then he remembered that Solus would return empty clawed. He would have no Forbidden Attack to present Cyclone. Then Ashend and Itora would know he was alive. They wouldn’t be left to wonder. He desperately hoped they would be safe, and reminded himself that Ashend would know how to protect Itora.

He lowered his head down in front of the calmly running water. Sleeping there was the smarter option, he thought. He’d need the water as soon as he woke up again. When he’d rested enough, he’d follow the stream until he came upon a suitable place to stay.

The forest would be a place he’d likely stay for a long time, if not the rest of his life. He’d follow the other yanmega when they migrated for the winter, then return, year after year. He was clearly far from Cyclone’s army, but he knew that if he ever ventured near them, he would be killed on sight.

For the rest of the night, Yenn drifted in and out of consciousness, confusing thoughts meeting him every time. Yet he had a source of water, and with each time he woke, his mind became a little clearer. But still at the forefront of his mind was the fact that he would never see Ashend or Itora again.

-ooo-

At first light, the group set off through the forest. Both the pokémon and trainers were quiet, speaking only when they thought it was necessary. Everywhere they looked were pokémon of all shapes and sizes, in the undergrowth, climbing in the trees, or soaring above them. Many of them stopped to watch the odd traveling party curiously, as if they’d never seen a human before.

“Arien told me that Fernwing found a river nearby, as well as a stream or two,” Damian announced, turning to Katie, who was leading the group.

“We’ll go to the river first, then,” she said. “That’s got to be the most likely place.”

“We’re not splitting up, right?” Justin grumbled from somewhere behind.

“No,” Damian answered, and Katie shot him a glare that he didn’t notice.

“It would be faster to go into groups,” she protested. “We’ll each have powerful pokémon.”

“Well,” Damian began, “I’m not sure...”

“Katie, Damian’s right,” Justin insisted. “We don’t know what’s out there. We should stick together. Sooner or later the forest pokémon will have to have seen it.”

“We’re not going to cover enough ground that way,” Katie replied. “We’ll have to split up. Flying pokémon search from the air, water types in the water, the rest of us on foot in groups.”

Damian and Justin glanced at each other. “All right,” Damian began hesitantly, “but we shouldn’t search too far from each other.”

“Hopefully we won’t have to,” Katie said. “And hopefully we don’t get caught up in some sort of giant bug infestation or a tornado ripping through the forest...whatever sort of attack this yanmega has.”

“We don’t know he’d actually use it,” Damian cut in. “If he was running from Solus like the pokémon said, he might be just as against it as Blazefang.”

“And if not,” Katie said, “then the pokémon have some convincing to do. Either way, we need to find this pokémon fast.”

In the center of the group, Snowcrystal watched Blazefang struggle over a tree root taller than he was. She pushed her head against his foot to give him leverage, and then jumped up beside him with ease. The houndoom gave her an annoyed glare and leaped down the other side. His injured leg buckled, but he remained standing.

“When we get there,” Alex was telling Stormblade, “I’ll be swimming up and down the river for any signs of the yanmega. You and the other flying types will search from above. The other pokémon will check out the foliage and...”

As Alex talked to Stormblade and repeated the same thing to Redclaw further ahead, Rosie paused before hesitantly glancing to where Snowcrystal stood, Wildflame and Blazefang beside her. “Are we doing the right thing?” the ninetales asked, sounding uncertain. “Maybe we should be trying to find this legendary as fast as possible. Get out of here before the pokémon with a Forbidden Attack can-”

“No,” Wildflame said firmly. “We’re doing the right thing. If this legendary can help Blazefang, it can help the other pokémon. The least we can do is try to reason with him.”

“The yanmega...Yenn...tried to warn us about Solus,” Snowcrystal reminded her. “If he was going to attack us, wouldn’t he have already? He could listen to us.”

Rosie thought for a moment, but the wary look in her eyes remained. “I guess,” she replied.

-ooo-

They could hear the river before they actually saw it. The forest was still bathed in a sort of green twilight, most of the sky blocked by the canopy. Yet up ahead, they could see a bit more light, where the forest surely gave way to open sky to make room for the river.

Nightshade had been sent out of his poké ball to enjoy the forest scenery, riding on Fernwing’s back. Though the heracross was still weak and unsteady, he clearly felt calmer among the massive trees, and Fernwing took care to make the flight as smooth for him as possible.

Far above them, a large swarm of butterfree fluttered through the thin shafts of sunlight. Snowcrystal watched them with wide eyes, pondering for a moment what the forest would look like from such a height.

As they walked, four of the butterfree turned away from their group and flew down toward Snowcrystal and the others. They were completely unafraid, seeming more curious than anything. They gathered at the back of the traveling group.

“I’ve never seen such an odd pack,” one of them muttered. “You must be one of the new ones let in.”

At this, Wildflame stopped walking. “Let in?”

“Into the forest,” the butterfree answered.

“By who?”

“By who?” the butterfree repeated, confused. “From the portal.”

The other pokémon had stopped as well, and the three trainers turned, looking confused.

“The portal just...lets pokémon in?” Wildflame asked.

“How does it work?” Snowcrystal added.

The look in the eyes of the four butterfree told Wildflame and Snowcrystal all they needed to know; the butterfree had no idea. Wildflame heaved a sigh.

The butterfree turned their attention to Nightshade and Fernwing, suddenly seeming overjoyed. “They let in another heracross!” one cried. “Please,” she asked Nightshade, “come to our part of the forest. You can stay with us.”

Snowcrystal was momentarily confused until she remembered that heracross helped release tree sap for the butterfree. Even though she had seen several heracross climbing the trees, she figured the butterfree would want as many as possible to live among them.

“Sorry, no,” Nightshade said, pulling his clawed arm back from a butterfree who was urging him to fly from Fernwing’s back. “We’re looking for someone. Have you seen a yanmega with a scar that-”

“No, no yanmega,” another butterfree quickly said, and Nightshade gave a sigh. Of course. If any butterfree spotted a yanmega, they wouldn’t stick around to pay attention to its details.

“We’re also...looking for a legendary,” Snowcrystal added.

The rest of the group, who had stopped, gathered closer to the butterfree and those who had lingered behind. Thunder was staring at the curious forest pokémon with a mixture of disgust and annoyance on her face.

“The Guardian,” a butterfree replied. “You want to see the Guardian?”

“Yes,” Snowcrystal said, eagerly nodding.

Stormblade stepped forward, and the butterfree backed up, wary.

“Where do we find this Guardian?” he asked.

Snowcrystal and Stormblade both expected the butterfree to hesitate, to be secretive, or to even outright deny them an answer. But to their surprise, the butterfree seemed completely calm and willing to explain.

“There’s a lake in the forest,” one told them. “If you follow the river upstream, you will find it. There is a pokémon there who can take you to the Guardian if you ask. You’ll know him when you see him. If he thinks that what you need to say is important enough, he will lead you there.”

One of the butterfree from the swarm high above called down to the four who had come to investigate the newcomers. “Good bye,” the butterfree who had spoken about the Guardian said hastily. “And good luck.”

With that, the forest bug types rejoined their companions, leaving the traveling group standing in awe. Arien quickly turned to Damian, and the look on the boy’s face told the pokémon he’d received the translation.

“Well, if one pokémon knows where this ‘guardian messenger’ is,” Snowcrystal began, “then more will. I think this is it. I think we’ve really found another legendary. And now we know how to get there.”

“But first,” Arien interjected, “we find the yanmega. This concerns him as well.”

As soon as Damian had relayed the information to Justin and Katie, the group set off at a brisk pace, some of them practically running. Their tiredness was forgotten; now they had a clear goal, and that goal was in sight.

To be continued...

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 72 – Stormy Decisions

Rain fell over the forest. Thick and heavy, it broke through the treetops to spatter the ground below. Overhead, thunder rumbled, and many of the normally active tree dwelling pokémon hurried back to their nests. Flashes of lightning sent bursts of light through the leaves of the canopy.

At the riverbank, the weary group gathered, their moods dampened as they realized that the search had so far been fruitless. The pokémon huddled together at the base of one of the immense tree trunks, watching the river surge by, while the trainers stood a short distance away.

“We didn’t go far enough,” Katie said, shielding her eyes against the rain as she looked over to Damian. “What did Arien tell you?”

“Fernwing said there are a couple of other streams, but they didn’t have time to check them out. We can still look there.”

“What about the river?” Katie asked, looking to Alex and her azumarill, who were waiting in the water for the group to make a decision. “Did they see anything like that place those butterfree were talking about?”

“They haven’t found a lake yet,” Damian responded. “It must be pretty far up ahead. Further than that yanmega could have flown, most likely.”

“Stupid storm,” Justin muttered under his breath, his feet squelching in mud as he walked toward the pokémon. “Of course it had to rain right now, in the middle of the search.”

“It’s only around noon,” Katie replied. “The storm should pass well before nightfall and the flying types will be able to see things more clearly. Damian, does Fernwing still remember where she saw those streams?”

While the trainers conversed, Wildflame looked up toward the treetops, wrinkling her nose when several drops of water landed in her face. “It’s going to be impossible to find a scent in this,” she sighed. “We’re better off waiting for the rain to let up.”

“Katie doesn’t want to wait too long in case it gets dark before we find him,” Spark replied. “I guess I can kinda understand, with this pokémon having a Forbidden Attack and all...”

“Yeah, well Stormblade, Fernwing, and the others can hardly see anything down below in this storm. I’m not sure we’ll have much more luck on foot.”

The jolteon was about to reply when he saw Katie and Damian walking toward them. His ears pricked up, looking to Justin confidently before turning to the other two trainers and awaiting instruction.

“A few of us are going to wait here,” Katie explained, “and the rest will go in groups. Fernwing’s going to lead several of you to the first stream.” She waved her hand in front of the group of waiting pokémon. “Damian and his pokémon are going to the other with me. When we get there, he’ll head upstream and I’ll head downstream. Justin, you’re staying with the pokémon here.”

“That’s fine with me. Believe me,” Justin muttered.

“We’ll meet up back here in an hour. You two!” Katie pointed at Azumarill and Alex. “Take a break. We’ll search the river again later if we have to.” She unclipped a poké ball from her belt and returned Azumarill before pointing at Alex. “Stay here with Justin and anyone who wants to stay behind.” She then pointed to the group of waiting pokémon. “Those of you who aren’t staying are going with Fernwing. You can decide for yourselves when you get there who will search what side of the stream.”

As the pokémon conversed with one another and split off into their respective groups, Katie and Damian set off. “You sure you know where this stream is?” she asked warily.

Damian nodded. “Yes,” he said. “And I mean it this time. Finding my way through the wilderness is one thing I can do right.”

Katie cast a brief glance back at the pokémon. The search party was being led off into the trees by Fernwing already. Justin was watching her as he sat with the remaining pokémon. “All right,” she told Damian. “Let’s go.”

-ooo-

Yenn awoke to find that he was drenched with rain and shivering from the cold. The stream he was lying next to looked deeper than he remembered, and he realized that it was swollen with rainwater. He immediately crawled to its edge to take another drink, ignoring the thunder that boomed overhead. It didn’t occur to him to question how he’d slept through the storm.

He was certainly no longer being followed, that was much was certain. He had lasted what had to have been a day in the forest. With that came the first thought he’d had in what seemed like ages that didn’t revolve around mere survival.

He was filthy. Sure, the rain had washed away much of the dust from the desert, but the stream bank he was lying on had turned to mud. As he looked at what he could see of his reflection in the rain-battered stream, the sight filled him with sadness. He decided that he would fly to a tree branch so he could try to groom himself. Even if it didn’t help much with his present situation, it might make him feel a little better.

Taking to the air seemed to take more effort than it had before. Every time he forced his wings to move, it felt like his body was a little closer to giving out. He focused on a branch jutting from the nearest tree, the closest one to the ground, and slowly but steadily made his way to it.

Once on the branch, he rested for a few minutes, watching the rain fall all around him. He noticed pain in one of his wings that wasn’t coming from exhaustion. Remembering the encounter with the cacturne, he carefully looked over each wing, seeing a few small holes in one. He suddenly thought back to the healers in Cyclone’s camp, realizing that he would get no such assistance from anyone out in the wild alone.

The thought bothered him more than he thought it should have; the tears in his wing membrane were small and would heal on their own. He had been lucky; he wasn’t even sure if a healer could do anything for a large tear. Surprisingly, the thought didn’t make him feel any better.

Feeling some of his strength return, Yenn began brushing his front legs over his head and eyes, trying to clear them of any mud and dirt. As he did so, he realized that he needed to start thinking about his next course of action. Finding food, that was obvious. Food was his most pressing need now that he’d found water. Then he needed a place to stay that had access to water and prey, which wouldn’t be hard to find in the forest. After that...well, he’d think about it later.

He knew he would miss Ashend and Itora, especially once he became strong again and no longer needed to focus so much on mere survival. A far more pressing concern was what could be happening to them back at the army. What would Ashend and Itora do without him? Would they eventually be forced by Cyclone to use their Forbidden Attacks or be killed?

He tried to remind himself that Ashend knew what she was doing. She had figured practically everything out on her own. She could protect herself and Itora. He had to trust in her abilities. There was nothing else he could do.

Yenn was sure his weak attempts at grooming weren’t doing much good, but the sensation was calming to him, so he kept doing it. However, he found his thoughts wandering to the humans, wondering if what he’d fought for in Cyclone’s army was even possible now that the vaporeon had turned on wild pokémon.

Yenn was just one pokémon. He couldn’t hope to stand against the humans on his own. And the only pokémon with enough power and numbers on his side was doing far more harm than good. As much as he hated to admit it, it was over. There was nothing left he could do, no way he could help the pokémon still suffering in human buildings. Out here, he was useless to them.

All of a sudden, the thought of the humans and what they could do sent fear coursing through him. He knew he was far from Cyclone, but was he still far enough from the humans?

He had to know. Although he was weak, he wanted, before he did anything else, to get a good look at where he was. The only way to do that was to fly above the treetops.

Launching himself into the air with some difficulty, he forced himself to fly up toward the tops of the trees. They were so tall that he worried he would spend all his energy flying into the canopy, but he hardly cared. He needed to know.

The further he got, the more he had to swerve to avoid branches. It was something he’d done so effortlessly – and without thinking – many times before, but it took every ounce of his strength and concentration now.

Finally, he broke through the covering of leaves and into the raging storm above the forest. The wind and rain pounded at him, threatening to throw his frail body off balance. He was sure that if he were still a yanma, he would have been sent hurtling back through the branches. Yet through the dark haze that covered the sky, lit by jagged flashes of lightning, what he saw filled him with relief.

There was forest as far as his eyes could see in every direction. There were no signs of human dwellings, no sections of trees being cut down. No vehicles, no aircraft, no sign that humans had done any damage. The place seemed to be a vast sanctuary, an untouched refuge of the wild.

The fierce winds threatened to overcome him; he simply did not have the energy to keep fighting against them. He ducked back down beneath the shelter of the trees, heading back to his perch near the ground and the stream. Feeling too weak to do anything else, he landed on the branch and rested there.

It didn’t seem long before the rain let up, and the forest seemed still and quiet as the thunder faded away. Feeling a bit less tired, Yenn flew back to the stream, hardly caring that he’d landed in mud as he drank the cool water. He was then reminded of something else he desperately needed. Food.

Though the rain had stopped, the forest was soon alive with sounds again. Yenn could tell there would be plenty of prey to hunt. He just wasn’t sure if he was strong enough to catch anything. However, he wasn’t going to keep lying there in the mud.

He took flight, still unsteady but with a clearer mind, and headed downstream, hoping to detect the nearby movement of a bird pokémon or a winged bug type. He could hear the sounds of pokémon all around him, but none of them were particularly close, and he was afraid of running out of energy if he strayed too far.

Unfortunately, he soon realized that his energy was going to run out whether he left the stream or not. His wings faltered and he felt himself starting to pass out, forcing him to land on a low hanging branch. There was no way he could catch prey in his state.

Yet for the first time in the past several days, luck was on his side. Yenn heard a distressed squawking coming from further downstream. The pokémon who’d made the noise quieted almost immediately after, likely realizing that the panicked cries would attract predators, but the sound had been close. Yenn forced his wings to move again, following the flowing water until he passed the base of one of the large trees and saw a swellow hobbling on the forest floor.

From the bird pokémon’s awkward movements, Yenn could tell that its wing had been broken, and recently too. The swellow hadn’t seen him at all; it was too distressed to notice him.

He waited a moment to gather his strength, then zipped toward the bird pokémon, biting down on its head and tearing out a chunk of flesh and bone before it could blink. Yenn felt a rush of energy flood through him and he landed, ecstatic that he’d managed to catch something despite being so weak.

He started eating his catch right on the ground, not wanting to waste energy even taking it up to a tree branch. He stayed there, devouring it until there was little meat left. He then looked over at the remainder of the carcass, deciding that he should take it and put it where a scavenger was likely to see it. He leaned down and picked up the swellow’s remains in his mouth, hooking his legs around it as he took to the air.

Yenn flew downstream for a short time before spotting an opening in one of the trees about a third of the way up its trunk. A branch jutted out right beneath it, and on it he could see dark feathers. Murkrow.

Upon reaching the branch, Yenn could see that although the murkrow were gone, it looked as if they had been there recently. He set the swellow carcass down near the opening and rested on the branch, trying to catch his breath.

Despite feeling more energized, he found his wings going limp as he rested his body against the tree branch. It was a few minutes before he felt like his legs might be strong enough to support him again.

As he shakily stood up, he noticed movement from a group of bushes growing next to another massive tree that stood near the stream bank. He tensed, immediately thinking of Solus’s group, before remembering how extremely unlikely that would be. Then the creature emerged, and the sight of what had just walked out of the bushes made his blood run cold.

Stepping from behind the tree and through the branches was the distinctive form of a human. The human didn’t wear white clothes, but the very sight of him made Yenn’s body freeze. Immediately the yanmega felt his tiredness vanish, his senses suddenly on high alert.

An image of metal walls flashed through his mind, vivid enough to almost make him believe they were actually around him. Everything in Yenn’s brain screamed at him to flee. This was not simply one of the humans he had pictured in his imagination many times at the army; this one was real and breathing, and it was standing right below him.

Then the rational part of his mind reminded him that this human wasn’t standing in a lab. He was in a forest, a world that belonged to pokémon. That disgusting creature was the one out of his element, not Yenn. However, that thought was met with further alarm and confusion.

A human? Here? How? This was a safe place. He’d seen no sign of humans. How could it have come here?

Yenn couldn’t seem to will his body to move, even as he felt the worst of his fear subsiding. He hadn’t expected to have such a strong reaction to seeing the human. He hadn’t seen one, even from afar, in the months he’d been at the army, but he had imagined encountering them again more times than he could count. He wasn’t supposed to simply freeze up at the sight of one. What was wrong with him?

The human had stopped, almost right below Yenn’s branch, but he hadn’t noticed the yanmega through the thick foliage and the gloom. Yenn was worried that his red eyes and spots would stand out like beacons amongst all the green, but the human’s attention was fixed on a small device he held in his hands.

As Yenn watched, he felt his fear fade to be replaced with anger. Standing right below him was one of the beings responsible for the death and torment of thousands of pokémon. The pain that Yenn so vividly recalled at that moment had been caused by creatures just like the one standing so out of place on the forest floor. The memory of that agony was now enough to drive the last traces of fear from his mind. He hated that human. Hated that he dared to set foot in such a pristine place. Hated his very existence. And he was ready to wipe that existence from the face of the forest.

Lifting his wings, he willed the strength to come back to his body. He had pictured this moment many times during his stay in Cyclone’s army, the killing of his first human. He hadn’t anticipated the fear that had come before it, but that was over now. The human was hardly moving; as soon as Yenn gathered his strength, he would fly down and tear the human to pieces. It would be easy. One bite and the human’s skull would be ripped apart in his jaws. He could practically feel the blood flowing down his fangs. In spite of his anger, he managed to form a smile. This was what he’d been waiting for.

Adrenaline was lending his body strength, and he poised himself for the attack. He would do it quickly. The human’s brains would litter the forest floor before he could blink. It wasn’t going to be like the one he’d encountered during his escape from the lab. Not this time.

Then, right as his muscles tensed, ready to lift him into the air, an image appeared in his mind’s eye. He saw the smeargle lying in a pool of blood on the cave floor, part of his head crushed from Yenn’s bite. The thought made him freeze up again, and he suddenly remembered the way he’d felt, even when believing he’d done the right thing. He had hated the feeling of killing when he was not hungry. His attention was briefly drawn to the remains of the swellow lying beside him on the branch. Some part of his mind was still screaming at him that killing when not hunting for food was wrong.

That human wasn’t one of the ones whose faces he’d seen at the lab. This one wasn’t even doing anything...he was just wandering, and seemed to be alone. Yenn realized he wasn’t sure if he could justify murdering him. He'd thought he wanted to do it. Really, truly believed that he wanted to do it. There had been so many times where the thought of killing humans felt like the only thing keeping him going. And now, here he was. And he wasn't sure.

Below him, the human looked up from his device and scanned the area, but his attention was mostly focused on the branches above the stream, not the one where Yenn rested. The human seemed frustrated, like he couldn’t make much out in the gloom the storm clouds had left over the forest.

Yenn watched him, willing his wings to move but finding that they were locked into place. He could do this, he told himself. This was what he had waited so long for. He had imagined himself killing humans every day, imagined being able to finally feel a bit of peace after what the humans had done to him.

Yet as he thought about this, he felt his wing muscles relaxing. Anger wasn’t enough to set him on a deadly course toward that human. Even after focusing on every bit of anger he had, he didn’t have it in him to end the human’s life.

Turning away from the stream, he launched himself into the air and flew out of sight.

-ooo-

Damian paused, glancing back into the depths of the forest. For a moment, he’d thought he’d heard something, but he couldn’t see any movement through the branches. If there had been anything, it was gone now. He sighed and turned back to the pokégear.

Katie had sent him a message saying she’d found a yanmega, and, at her request, he’d waited for further instruction before she’d sent him another message telling him that the yanmega was scar-less. Discouraged, he placed the pokégear back in his pocket.

The sound of a pokémon crossing the stream alerted him to Arien’s presence, and the alakazam walked up to him.

“What did she say?” Arien asked through the psychic link the two shared.

“It was a normal forest yanmega,” Damian replied. “Did you find anything on the other side of the stream?”

“Actually, yes. Follow me.”

The two headed over to the stream, leaping across rocks to reach the muddy bank on the other side. Arien knelt beside of a patch of mud, and Damian came to crouch beside him. There he could see, clearly imprinted in the damp earth, the imprint of a thin, spiked leg. Another similar one was right next to it, and as Damian’s gaze traveled along the mud, he could see the partial imprint of a bug type’s wing.

Looking at the size of it, quite bigger than a scyther or scizor’s wing, Damian nodded. “That’s definitely a yanmega.” He glanced to Arien. “They don’t usually lie on the ground like that. This one was obviously sick or weak. And wanted to stay near the water.” He nodded to the stream.

“You think this is it, then?” Arien asked.

“I think it could be. The rain just stopped, which means these marks are fresh.” Damian stood up. “Before we do anything, let’s go get the others.”

-ooo-

Yenn hadn’t gone far when he had to stop for water. He had stuck close to the stream, and as he lowered himself to the water’s edge, he focused intently on his surroundings, suddenly afraid that humans could start appearing from any direction.

‘It was just one human,’ he tried to tell himself. ‘There were no buildings. There can’t be a lot of them here.’

He thought he saw something coming from behind another tree, but it was just a small pokémon rummaging in the undergrowth. He willed himself to relax.

He knew he had to get far away from the human, yet he also couldn’t afford to stray from the stream. On top of that, his energy was nearly spent. He needed to rest. But he couldn’t. Not yet. He felt like crying in frustration. How were there humans here? He had wanted to get away from them. He didn’t want anything to do with this anymore.

He had been so stupid. He’d had a chance to rid the world of a human, and instead he’d been a coward. It had not been the first time he had stared down a human and fled. His final day at the lab, he’d had a chance...one chance to kill one of the humans in charge of it all...and he’d panicked. He had vowed never to let such a thing happen again. He had failed.

With an enraged cry, he lifted himself into the air and sent a shockwave from his wings at a nearby tree. It hit the tree with a loud crack, and large strips of bark fell to the ground. Suddenly overcome with exhaustion, Yenn was forced to land. He had made the same mistake all over again.

No, he thought, trying to shake the thoughts away. That human hadn’t been one of the ones from the lab. It wasn’t the same thing. It didn’t matter as much. The human would probably die out in the forest alone anyway...wouldn’t he? And maybe the human had a gun, or a tranquilizer. Maybe he had powerful pokémon who could have brought him down. Yes, that was it. It was smart of him to flee.

However, Yenn knew immediately as he thought it that it was a lie. He hadn’t been afraid in those final moments. Something else had stopped him that time. Something that, unlike the time back at the lab, wasn’t fear. The realization filled him with shame.

He couldn’t kill a human. What sort of pokémon was he?

Yenn realized there was nothing left to do but to keep moving. Maybe he could find other yanmega, and they could tell him where humans did and didn’t roam the forest. He could belong to a swarm again. He could have companions.

Taking to the air again, he continued flying along the stream, scanning the area for any human threats. He saw none, and was soon forced to stop, as he simply had no strength left. Resting on a branch near the stream, he settled down, facing the direction he’d come from, where he’d seen the human. He would watch in case any appeared again.

-ooo-

When Damian met up with the rest of the group, including Katie and the pokémon who had returned from their searches, it was easy to tell that he and Arien were the only ones who had found any clear signs.

“I didn’t think it was a good idea for us to go after him alone,” Damian explained once Katie had asked him why he and Arien had turned back. “I think we should choose some of the pokémon and have them find him.”

A few of the waiting pokémon glanced at each other and then at Damian, confused as to why he didn’t think the entire group should go.

“Why just the pokémon?” Katie asked.

“Well,” Damian began, scraping the soil with one foot as his eyes looked downward and away from Katie’s, “Arien gave me Nightshade’s description of the yanmega’s scar. It was obviously some sort of surgical scar and it didn’t sound like the sort of thing a pokémon would need to have done at a pokémon center. That, combined the fact that he was with Cyclone...”

“Means that it’s probably not fond of humans, right?” Justin asked, crossing his arms. “I told you this was stupid.”

“Okay,” Katie said with a sigh, glancing around at the waiting pokémon, “so I guess what we’re dealing with here has got to be some sort of escaped lab experiment with a very likely grudge against humans and a Forbidden Attack. Point taken. So what pokémon are we going to send?”

“Send?” Wildflame repeated with a growl, knowing that Katie couldn’t understand her. “Arien, tell Damian she’s not our trainer.” To her annoyance, the alakazam ignored her.

“Wait a minute...” Justin muttered. “You still want to go after this thing? Didn’t you hear what Damian-”

“Look, even if he doesn’t like humans,” Damian interjected, “the pokémon can explain everything to him.”

“He was running away from Cyclone,” Katie added. “He’s probably not out to murder us. But just in case, we won’t be the ones going near him until the pokémon have talked to him. But if he has a Forbidden Attack, we need him to come with us to find this legendary.”

Spark gave Justin a reassuring glance, rubbing his head against the boy’s hand.

“Okay, fine,” Justin sighed. “I want to stop the Forbidden Attacks as much as you do. I’m just not fond of the fact that we keep collecting all these monster carnivorous bug types.”

From where she sat, Katie’s scolipede narrowed her eyes at the boy. “Well, that’s just rude.”

“I stared down a wild yanmega today, Justin,” Katie responded. “And you know what? It hardly even cared that I was there. And grudge against humans or not, the one we’re looking for is going to be weak. But if it makes you feel better, we won’t send Spark.”

“I think...I want to go,” Blazefang spoke up, surprising the other pokémon. He limped toward the front of the group, looking from Arien to Damian. “If this pokémon has a Forbidden Attack, I can be the one to convince him not to use it.”

“But...you’re injured,” Wildflame said worriedly.

“After what we just went through, this shouldn’t be so hard. Just show me the way to the stream.”

“Are...are you sure?” Damian asked, obviously having gotten the message from Arien.

The houndoom nodded. “I’m not changing my mind, Arien. You can tell Damian that. I fled from Cyclone’s army too. He would listen to me.”

“Okay...” Damian replied, clearly worried for the houndoom. “But you’ll need a healthy pokémon to go with you. Someone who can fight.”

Snowcrystal was about to suggest Stormblade, when Wildflame stepped forward.

“What about Scytheclaw?” Wildflame asked. “He has a...Forbidden Attack...or something like it, as well. Maybe he should go.”

To the surprise of everyone watching, Scytheclaw turned toward his trainer and nodded. “I want answers,” the scizor said. “Maybe this pokémon knows something we don’t.”

“I want to go too!” Snowcrystal called, coming up to stand beside Blazefang.

“You?” Scytheclaw questioned. “You’d barely be a snack for a yanmega.”

“I’m not afraid,” Snowcrystal protested.

“Forget it,” Scytheclaw said with a smirk. “You’d just be in the way.”

“Hey, who says?” Spark growled from where he stood by Justin’s side, and several pokémon voiced their agreement.

Snowcrystal gave a small smile, happy to see that her friends had immediately jumped at the chance to support her.

“Hey, if it makes you feel any better, Scytheclaw” Wildflame said, walking to Snowcrystal’s side, “I’ll go with her. Besides, yanmega don’t normally hunt prey off the ground. And he’s weak and exhausted. He wouldn’t try to attack a group of fire types and a scizor.”

“I’ll come too,” Redclaw offered, standing up.

“Actually,” Snowcrystal replied, “maybe it should just be the four of us. It’s not that I don’t want you to come, I just think...we might look like a threat if there’s too many of us.”

“She’s right,” Wildflame agreed. “We don’t need a miniature army of fire types walking up to him. Just enough to keep us safe in an emergency. We can handle this on our own.”

After a bit more discussion, both the pokémon and the trainers agreed with the arrangement, and the four who were chosen to find the yanmega were given a quick meal. At Blazefang’s insistence, Damian removed the bandages from the houndoom’s shoulder, back, and leg. The wounds had closed, and Blazefang felt that it would be best if he didn’t have any signs that he’d interacted with humans. He also told the others that it would be better to save the remaining supplies for Nightshade, as wounds in bug pokémon didn’t close as easily, and the heracross needed them more.

After that was done, Damian gave the four pokémon detailed directions to the stream, and wished them luck in quickly locating their target. Many of the other pokémon cheered them on as they set off, assuring them that they’d be waiting there by the river. Snowcrystal bid them farewell before she followed the three larger pokémon into the trees.

-ooo-

The journey to the stream took less time than Snowcrystal had anticipated. Even Blazefang was moving at a fairly swift pace, determination clear in his eyes. Wildflame stuck next to Snowcrystal, keeping an eye out for dangerous wild pokémon, and Scytheclaw took the lead. Though the scizor still bore injuries from the machamp’s attack in the underground, he was by far the strongest of the four of them.

They traveled upstream, stopping when Snowcrystal and the other canine pokémon caught the scent of the yanmega near the bank. “I think it’s the same scent,” Snowcrystal told Scytheclaw. “Though I’m not sure where he went. We can’t track something that flies.”

“Thanks for stating the obvious,” Scytheclaw muttered. His gaze scanned the surrounding trees. “He shouldn’t have moved far in his state. Let’s keep going.”

As they continued to walk, Snowcrystal cast a concerned glance at Blazefang. “Are you okay?”

“Fine. Let’s just find this pokémon,” the houndoom replied, panting but no less determined.

For a while, they carried on in silence. It was nearing late afternoon, and the forest seemed darker apart from the patches where sunlight broke through; at least the clouds were starting to clear up.

When they rounded a bend in the stream, the four of them suddenly stopped, Scytheclaw reaching out with his claw to halt them, though he needn’t have bothered. For resting on a branch far above their heads, they could clearly see a large bug type pokémon. He might have blended in with the foliage were it not for his red eyes and the spots that lined his body, which prevented any sort of camouflage. The yanmega was facing the stream, not turned toward them, but there was no doubt in any of their minds that he could see them.

Snowcrystal realized that her group probably didn’t seem of any importance to the yanmega until they halted and looked up at him. Then he responded by slowly and painfully lifting himself to his feet. From the angle she stood at, she couldn’t see if he had the scar, but even from a distance she could tell that he was weak and exhausted. There was little doubt in her mind that they had found the right one.

“Ex...excuse me?” the growlithe called up to him, her voice faltering. Truthfully, she hadn’t expected to come upon him so quickly after finding the stream, and the thought of him being dangerous flashed through her mind. She reminded herself that he had tried to warn her and her friends about Solus, but from the look of him, something told her that he didn’t recognize her. “We don’t mean any harm. We want to talk to you.”

“We’ll make it worth your while,” Scytheclaw added, making sure his voice was loud enough for the yanmega to hear.

Blazefang backed up. He was suddenly nervous, knowing that this yanmega also had a Forbidden Attack. The dragonfly creature had the bug type one and he had the fire one. If it came to a battle where they were forced to use them, Blazefang thought, they both would lose. He tried to steady himself, telling himself that the thought was irrational, but the fear remained.

“Hey, you know you’re safe here, right?” Wildflame shouted to the yanmega. “No one’s coming after you. We think we can help. Your name is Yenn, right? You warned us about Solus in the desert.”

Snowcrystal and the others couldn’t read any expression in the yanmega’s eyes, but his body language suggested surprise, or confusion. To their surprise, the winged bug type took off from the branch. His movements were listless, not the agile and speedy flight she knew the species was normally capable of, but he landed on an enormous root that arched high above their heads and faced them. There, they could see him clearly, for a patch of sunlight filtered down onto the root from above. He still stood quite a bit higher off the ground than they did, but it would be far easier for his words to reach them. From there, Snowcrystal could clearly see his scar. It made her cringe, and she hoped the yanmega didn’t notice.

From his perch on the tree root, Yenn watched the newcomers cautiously. “Who are you?” he asked. His voice was so raspy and hoarse that he didn’t recognize it as his own voice. But at least he could talk. “How do you know my name?”

Snowcrystal walked closer, Wildflame hurriedly coming to her side. The yanmega didn’t seem afraid of them, but it was clear that he couldn’t recognize her or the two houndoom, couldn’t remember what had happened between them out in the desert. “One of Solus’s pokémon mentioned it,” the growlithe explained, coming to a stop once she was directly in front of the massive root. “They can’t follow us, though. We’re safe here.”

The bug type stood still, and Snowcrystal couldn’t tell what he was thinking; his enormous eyes were unreadable. “Not safe,” the yanmega replied, sounding as if it pained him to speak.

Blazefang and Scytheclaw edged closer to their companions, Blazefang watching the yanmega but remaining silent.

“Look, you’re...probably confused,” Scytheclaw said, his voice sounding kinder than Snowcrystal was used to. “Solus and his pokémon couldn’t get through the portal. Do you...remember any of that?”

“Not what I meant,” Yenn replied.

Scytheclaw stood up straighter, and for a moment Snowcrystal was reminded of the confident, collected leader he used to be, only without the cruelty. “We’d like you to come back to where our group has set up camp. We can get you food. Help. We have healers-”

“What do you want from me?” The yanmega’s voice had a wary edge to it that time.

Snowcrystal was surprised by his sudden change of mood. His wings moved, like he wanted to fly away or attack, but he remained standing on the tree root above them.

Beside her, Wildflame tensed, but Scytheclaw walked up next to them, completely calm. “He wouldn’t attack us in that state,” the scizor said, quietly enough that the yanmega couldn’t hear.

Snowcrystal wanted to remind him that having a Forbidden Attack put him at an advantage, at least over herself, Wildflame, and Scytheclaw, but kept her mouth shut. Up above, the yanmega continued to watch him, but it was clear that his unease was growing. At least, Snowcrystal thought, he didn’t seem to have any interest in trying to eat any of them, despite looking emaciated.

“We just…want you to listen to us,” Snowcrystal began, calling up to the yanmega again. “We think we know something that-”

“I’ll do the talking,” Scytheclaw hissed at her, pushing her aside with his claw. The growlithe narrowed her eyes at him as he took his place at the front of the small group. “As I said,” the scizor addressed the larger bug type, “we can get you help. Plenty of food, water…”

“Scytheclaw, we can all do the talking,” Snowcrystal protested, bracing herself in case he tried to push her away again. She turned her attention to Yenn. “You were running from Cyclone’s pokémon, weren’t you?” she asked. “Well, so were we back there. If you need help, our group can give it to you. And…what we want to know is, why were they chasing you? Do you have something Cyclone wants? A…”

“Forbidden Attack?” Yenn answered.

“I...yes...we’re looking for a way to stop the Forbidden Attacks. Get rid of them, and we think there might be something here that can help us. And you.”

Seeming to lose his strength, Yenn slumped against the tree root, his wings falling limp. At least most of the wariness he’d felt seemed to have faded away. “I know you’re not with them,” the yanmega said, still sounding like he had to force the words out. “They never called it a Forbidden Attack in the army.”

“The army?” Blazefang spoke up for the first time, limping forward to join the others. “You were-”

“I joined Cyclone,” Yenn said bitterly. “But he did some terrible things. I didn’t want to be a part of it, so I left. That’s all you need to know.”

“He tried to force me into joining.” Blazefang’s voice was stronger, more confident, and he stood taller as he looked up at the yanmega. “My name is Blazefang, and I have the Forbidden Attack Shadowflare. I’m looking for a way to get rid of it, and there’s a legendary in these woods that might be able to help us both, or at least put us on the right path.”

“Blazefang…” Yenn repeated, turning his head to face the houndoom. He sounded unsure, as if he didn’t believe them, but then he turned to look at Snowcrystal. “Someone back at the army said a group of pokémon helped him escape…a white growlithe?” He sounded more like he was talking to himself, but as he stood up, Snowcrystal could imagine that his exhausted mind was finally starting to make the right connections.

“I…I remember you,” Yenn stammered, his voice still faltering with weakness as he addressed Snowcrystal. “You were out in the desert. The houndoom too. There were others with you, weren’t there? There was a ninetales…and someone else…and you were all huddled in the rocks and you didn’t even know…” He trailed off, trying to search his mind for more memories, but seemed unable to conjure up more as he looked at the small group before him, baffled.

“Yes, the rest of our group is waiting elsewhere,” Scytheclaw told him, the niceness returning to his voice. Snowcrystal realized that he must desperately want answers, and thought that if the yanmega came along with him, the legendary might be more willing to help them. That is, if the legendary knew what could help at all.

The edges of the yanmega’s mouth curled downwards, and he turned his head toward Scytheclaw. “Wait a minute…what is a scizor doing out in the wild? And why is Blazefang injured? Did you…escape from something?”

Snowcrystal’s fur bristled; she suddenly had a feeling things were about to go south. Before she could say anything, however, Scytheclaw spoke up.

“Just from Solus’s army,” the scizor explained. “And a crazed trainer back in Stonedust City. But that’s hardly-”

“The city?” There was a dangerous edge to Yenn’s tone now.

“Look, we both want answers,” Scytheclaw responded, sounding a little less friendly. “I’m sure you don’t want your Forbidden Attack going out of control, and if you come with us and back to our group, we can find this legendary.”

“And who makes up your group?” Yenn asked.

“Several other wild pokémon,” Scytheclaw answered. His voice gained a hardened edge as noticed the yanmega’s sudden change of demeanor. “Three trainers. Their pokémon. And I assure you that my trainer has everything that-”

All at once, Yenn seemed to snap. His wings flared out and he drew back, baring his fangs. “Traitor!” he shouted, and in spite of his weakness, the sound of his voice sent shivers down Snowcrystal’s spine. “You come here, standing by doing nothing while humans roam this place, threatening all the pokémon here? And you consider them part of your group? What else have you stood by and watched them do?”

Wildflame let out a low growl, crouching beside Snowcrystal. Blazefang stepped back, glancing to Scytheclaw as if expecting the scizor to do something.

“Don’t talk that way about my trainer,” Scytheclaw said coldly, his eyes locked on the yanmega’s. “He’s done nothing but try to help pokémon.”

“You’re lying!” Yenn shouted, the fierce sound of his voice echoing through the trees.

“Oh boy,” Scytheclaw muttered under his breath to the others, clenching his pincers. “Cyclone did a good job brainwashing this guy.”

Snowcrystal looked from the scizor to the two houndoom, both of whom looked like they were expecting an attack. If Scytheclaw kept arguing with the yanmega, she thought, there might be one. Weak or not, she remembered what Justin had said about Katie’s pokédex and what a yanmega could do. Even without the Forbidden Attack, Yenn was dangerous.

And yet, as she watched him, she began to wonder why he was acting in such a way. Even Thunder hadn’t reacted so badly toward pokémon who were friendly with humans; she hadn’t ever had any major problem with Spark for caring about Justin. There was something wrong. She began to wonder if, under all the anger, what Yenn truly felt was fear.

As she thought of what Scytheclaw had said, something clicked. Perhaps Cyclone had influenced some of Yenn’s hatred, or at least contributed to it. She didn’t blame the yanmega for being wary of humans – his scar alone was proof that he had had some sort of terrible experience – but he genuinely seemed to believe all humans were evil.

“Look, Yenn,” the growlithe began, having to raise her voice over the sound of the yanmega’s shouts and Scytheclaw’s responses, “if Cyclone told you that all humans were cruel, he was lying.” She waited for Yenn’s response, suddenly aware of how small she was compared to him.

Yenn’s demeanor seemed to suddenly change. The yanmega didn’t turn his head toward her, but she knew he had to be watching. She didn’t imagine his eyes missed much. His voice was lower when he spoke, not a shout, but cold and menacing. “And you would know all about these humans and their intentions?” he asked, his words filled with barely concealed anger. “Do you honestly believe there isn’t cruelty in them?”

“Cyclone lied to you…and I’m sure of it,” Snowcrystal continued. “The trainers with us…they’ve been trying to help us. Help Blazefang. Cyclone just wants his pokémon to believe whatever he wants. If you don’t believe me…”

“I believe you,” Yenn replied, this time turning his head toward the growlithe. He suddenly seemed exhausted again. “At first I thought you were well informed about what you were doing, but you really do sound just naive. You may think your humans are fine, but you're gambling with your lives. You should take this opportunity and run away now, before anything happens.”

“We’re not running away,” Snowcrystal stated firmly.

“Then I can’t help you. Find this legendary yourself, if it even exists.”

“Wait!” Snowcrystal cried as he lifted his wings. “We can help you! To find out what can stop the Forbidden-”

“I’m not going to use my Forbidden Attack,” Yenn hissed back at her.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too.”

Each of the pokémon turned to Blazefang, who had spoken up. The houndoom seemed more confident as he looked up to the yanmega. “Look, you can’t fight it forever,” Blazefang called up to the weakened pokémon. “If we don’t find a way to put a stop to it, we’ll lose our minds. Go insane.”

At this, a strange, uncharacteristic sense of fear seemed to come over the yanmega, who stiffened at Blazefang’s words. “Not if we resist using it,” he said, though his voice sounded shaky and uncertain.

“You can’t resist it forever,” Blazefang growled.

“Maybe not,” Snowcrystal interrupted, “but I’m sure he could resist it for longer. You weren’t really sure how to resist it when your Shadowflare attack set that forest on fire, were you?”

“No,” the houndoom muttered, turning his head away, “but even now that I know, it’s…harder. Much harder.”

“How many times have you used your Forbidden Attack?” Wildflame called up to the resting yanmega.

“Once,” came Yenn’s shaky reply.

“Good. Let’s keep it that way,” Wildflame replied. “Come with us, and we’ll try to help you.”

The yanmega looked uncertain, so Blazefang stepped in again. “If you use the attack again, you’ll lose control. You’ve lost some control already, just by touching that stone and using it the first time.” The houndoom paused, glancing at Yenn’s scar. “Look, you’ve been under the control of humans, under the control of Cyclone, and now you’re under the control of this thing. But we're going to try to help get rid of the Forbidden Attack. Then you will truly be in control again.”

The yanmega was silent, and the four pokémon waited for his response. Scytheclaw tensed, his eyes narrowing, while Wildflame continued to regard Yenn with wariness. Blazefang looked worried. Snowcrystal watched the three of them, and when no one spoke, she looked back at Yenn. “Please…we can help you. We don’t want you or any other pokémon hurt by these attacks any longer.”

To her surprise, the yanmega gave a sigh, lying back down on the branch. “All right. I'll go with you. To this legendary. Not to your humans.”

“Fair enough,” Scytheclaw replied before Snowcrystal could speak.

“Wait,” Wildflame interjected. “What about the others?”

“We’ll work it out later,” the scizor replied, already walking off into the trees. “There’s a pokémon who can take us to the legendary,” he announced to Yenn. “We’re going to find him.”

Snowcrystal watched them go, letting Blazefang pass ahead of her. The yanmega up above hesitated as well, and she looked up to give him a reassuring smile before she set off after Scytheclaw through the trees.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 73 – The Forbidden Attacks

Snowcrystal sat in a clearing, Blazefang and Wildflame by her side as they rested at the base of a tree. Though the storm had passed, the air remained cool, and Snowcrystal was reminded that it would be evening soon. They needed to get going if they wanted to find the pokémon who would lead them to the legendary before nightfall.

Scytheclaw had gone back to the rest of their group in order to tell them about the change in plans. Snowcrystal hoped the others weren’t going to argue with him; Yenn might refuse to come if the trainers insisted on going with them. She knew Damian would listen, but she wasn’t sure about Justin or Katie.

Yenn was resting on a tree branch, appearing exhausted even after the short distance they’d traveled. Snowcrystal felt bad for making him travel in that state, though she did see Scytheclaw’s point in that waiting another day might not be wise.

As she thought this, the yanmega stirred, lifting his head as he asked the group of fire types, “That scizor…is he your leader when the…humans…are not around?”

Wildflame threw back her head and laughed. “Our leader? In his dreams!”

“We don’t have a leader,” Snowcrystal explained. “We try to work things out together. I guess some of us take turns being in charge, but it depends…” She paused, realizing that something was still troubling her. “I guess Cyclone was always in charge of that army of his. How many pokémon do you think are on his side?”

“Hundreds,” Yenn replied, flying down from the branch to land on the forest floor. He didn’t land too close to the fire types, and Snowcrystal wondered if he was still wary of them. It seemed almost silly, considering Yenn had a Forbidden Attack.

Snowcrystal walked up to the yanmega, Wildflame watching her carefully. “And…he is after pokémon with Forbidden Attacks…has he found any?” the growlithe asked.

Yenn gave a sad sigh. “There are two others who have one, apart from Cyclone himself,” he answered.

“Wait…what?” Wildflame sputtered in disbelief, leaping to her feet.

“You’re…you’re kidding, right?” Blazefang cried, aghast.

Snowcrystal froze, the immensity of what Yenn had just said feeling like a weight dropped on her. “Cyclone…has a Forbidden Attack?”

“Yes…you didn’t know?” Yenn replied. “I…I assumed you knew about Cyclone, based on what you said to me earlier.”

“We didn’t know he had a Forbidden Attack!” Wildflame cried. “When was this? When did he get it?”

“I don’t know,” Yenn answered. “He already had it by the time I joined the army. It’s called Acidstorm. But…I really don’t want to talk about this right now. At least now you know.”

As Blazefang and Wildflame began worriedly whispering to each other, Snowcrystal stepped toward the yanmega, lost in thought. Her group hadn’t heard anything about Cyclone’s army in the time that had passed since they almost ran into them at the canyon; she assumed it was partly because they had stayed so close to a human city. Now she knew that the threat of the Forbidden Attacks was bigger than she had imagined. They needed to find the legendary of the forest, find help as soon as possible. “This…this is bad,” she whispered. “And he has two others with him? Yenn, what do you think he’s going to-”

“I really don’t know,” the yanmega sighed, exhausted. “He…wasn’t exactly honest with me about what he was planning to do. I’d rather…not think about it right now.”

Snowcrystal realized that this wasn’t a good time to drill Yenn with questions, and she figured that if there was anything they really needed to know, he could tell them later, when he had rested, or he could tell the legendary. “Just one more thing,” she said, aware that she was probably only going to irritate him, but wanting to try anyway. “Cyclone was lying to you about the humans. I promise you he was.”

To her surprise, Yenn didn’t get angry. He paused, lowering himself to the ground as if his legs were already having trouble supporting him. “I’m sure Cyclone lied about a lot of things,” he said, sounding defeated. “That’s one thing I notice when I look back. He never lied by telling the opposite of the truth. He would lie by leaving out details, twisting his messages so that the meaning was very different. He was clever in the way he lied. I’m sure he tried to convince everyone that he wasn’t actually lying.” He stopped for a moment, seeming lost in thought. “But I believed him. Like an idiot.”

Snowcrystal wasn’t sure what had prompted him to say those things, but she was glad he had. She briefly wondered what had finally caused him to see the error in Cyclone’s ways, what had made him turn his back on the vaporeon and his army. However, she didn’t think it was her place to ask. She barely knew him, and whatever he had gone through, it certainly wasn’t anything pleasant. “One of the trainers – Damian – knows some things about healing,” she began. “The human medicines help a lot more than the ones wild pokémon use. If you need help, I’m sure they’ll be willing to…I mean, they wouldn’t hurt you-”

“I said Cyclone lied,” Yenn responded, the harsh edge to his voice returning. “I never said I trusted humans.”

The bushes rustled and Scytheclaw’s bright red body came into view. The scizor looked over the group with a weary expression, but Snowcrystal knew he would snap at her if she suggested they rest longer. “I told them,” he explained. “We’ll come to the river further upstream from the group, so we don’t run into those big, bad, scary humans.” He shot Yenn a glare, but the yanmega did not respond. “Then,” Scytheclaw continued, “we’ll head to the lake and find this legendary’s ‘messenger.’”

“All right, Scytheclaw,” Wildflame sighed, standing up and walking toward him. “But first…boy, is there something we need to tell you.”

-ooo-

Snowcrystal listened to the roaring of the river as they reached the top of a small hill overlooking the rushing water. The river was wider here than back where the rest of the group was resting, so more light shone down from the gaps in the trees, catching on leaves and ferns and painting the whole area a shimmering green. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

“We should rest here for a bit,” Snowcrystal said, no longer caring if Scytheclaw got angry at her for it or not. She could tell that the whole way there, Yenn had had trouble keeping up. From what she had seen of yanma during a few of her excursions to Stonedust City, she knew that Yenn’s lethargic behavior was extremely abnormal for his species. They needed to stop for a while.

Scytheclaw, luckily, didn’t object. Nor did Wildflame, who flopped down on her side. Yenn landed on the bank of the river, lowering his head to drink. Blazefang glanced at the others, then looked worriedly at the sky. “It’s getting really close to evening. And we still have a fair bit of ground to cover.”

“We won’t stop for too long,” Scytheclaw replied. The scizor didn’t even look at him as he spoke; he seemed deep in thought, likely pondering over the news he had been given about Cyclone’s Forbidden Attack.

Yenn backed away from the river, lying down on the bank. Wildflame glanced at him and then turned back toward the trees. “I’ll be back,” she told the others before bounding off.

Scytheclaw just shrugged, sitting down on the top of the hill overlooking the river. His eyes weren’t focused on any one thing.

They couldn’t have been resting for long when Wildflame returned, a dead bunnelby in her mouth. She set it down, calling to Scytheclaw, “Go tell Yenn I brought him something.”

When the scizor didn’t respond, Snowcrystal got up instead and padded to the edge of the river. Yenn made no movement at all as she approached him. Instead he was lying still, his breathing calm and steady. She thought he was asleep, but it was hard to tell, as his enormous eyes lacked eyelids. She reached out with her paw and nudged him a few times, and the yanmega suddenly jolted awake, looking alarmed. He relaxed once he realized it was only her, and she pointed with her muzzle toward Wildflame, who had picked up the prey again and was walking toward them.

Yenn watched warily as the houndoom set her catch down in front of him. He hesitated, as if waiting for Wildflame to do something else, but she merely smiled at him.

“I caught this for you,” she said. “I thought you might be hungry.”

“Oh…” Yenn replied, sounding surprised. “Thank you.” He paused. “This isn’t part of some bargain…?”

Wildflame shook her head.

“Oh…sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I just thought that…” Yenn trailed off. “Never mind.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure you were strong enough to hunt on your own,” Wildflame explained. “And we have a ways to go until we get to the lake.”

“Well, that’s very kind of you,” Yenn replied.

Snowcrystal looked to him curiously as he began eating the bunnelby. His actions had surprised her. She supposed that she had expected a tough-looking pokémon like him to be annoyed by another pokémon pointing out his weakness, or maybe embarrassed at needing to be brought food. But Yenn was neither of those things. He only seemed grateful. The growlithe suddenly found the whole situation incredibly odd; this yanmega didn’t seem like the type of pokémon who would work for Cyclone. Not only was he polite about Wildflame’s gift, but he had been straightforward and honest with them about having joined Cyclone and even about some details of the army itself. She couldn’t help but wonder what on earth he had been doing there.

Yenn looked up from his meal, watching the other pokémon up on the hill. “Those three are all injured,” he began, addressing Snowcrystal. “Not just Blazefang. What happened to them?”

He had obviously noticed the scratches on Wildflame’s face in addition to Scytheclaw’s wounds. Snowcrystal knew that if her own injuries had been more severe, and her fur less thick, he would have noticed them too. “Wildflame – that’s the female houndoom – got hurt when we ran into some trouble with Solus’s group. The others were attacked by pokémon controlled by some bad…” She stopped herself before she said ‘humans,’ but she was sure Yenn had already guessed what she was going to say. “We were in a bad situation,” she continued, “and some pokémon attacked us.” To her relief, he said nothing in reply.

Once Yenn had finished eating, Scytheclaw announced that they were heading out again. No one objected, and they headed upriver, staying close to the edge of the water. A few hours passed as they trekked onward. Snowcrystal and the two houndoom occasionally exchanged words with each other, but Scytheclaw and Yenn were mostly silent. When they finally stood on the edge of a slope leading down to the shore of a lake, the river flowing steadily beneath them, the sky was starting to grow dark.

Snowcrystal stared down at the dark expanse of water through the trees, feeling a strange sense of wonder as she looked at the lake, like something was drawing her to it. Or maybe not to it, specifically, but whatever lay beyond it. Some deep inner instinct was telling her that there was something there, something old and mysterious, and she longed to find out what it was.

“You think we should stop for the night?” Blazefang asked. “We could find this ‘messenger’ tomorrow.”

“I can keep going,” Snowcrystal said. “Maybe we should look for the messenger now, and see what he says. If he thinks we should wait for morning, we can wait.”

“Okay, good idea,” Blazefang said after a moment.

Scytheclaw gave Snowcrystal a look she couldn’t read before turning to face Wildflame and Yenn. “What do you two think?”

“I agree with Snowcrystal,” Wildflame said. “Let’s at least see if we can find this messenger and make a plan from there.”

“That sounds fair enough,” Yenn added.

The small group headed down the slope toward the lake’s edge. With the coming darkness, even the middle of the lake was shrouded in shadow, the remnants of storm clouds still drifting overhead. They paused at the foot of the slope, seeing that much of the ground around them was covered in ferns. They could hear pokémon nearby, rustling in the undergrowth.

“Anyone hungry?” Wildflame asked.

To Snowcrystal’s surprise, the others all shook their heads, even Yenn, who had needed to be brought prey several times during their journey upriver.

“I guess we’ll just keep going then-” the houndoom responded, then froze, for as she had stepped into the ferns, she noticed a large shape zip by and then swerve toward the edge of the water.

Snowcrystal bounded over toward Wildflame, having to sit up on her haunches to see over the tops of the ferns. She realized that the large shape was another yanmega. Comparing it to Yenn, it looked far healthier, stronger, and what she was sure yanmega were normally supposed to look like. It was flitting about along the edge of the lake as if looking for something.

“Yenn,” Blazefang growled, “tell that one to steer clear of us.”

“Why?” Yenn asked, as if he found the request incredibly odd.

“Because we don’t want trouble, that’s why. It would probably listen to you.”

“Wildflame said that yanmega don’t usually hunt prey off the ground,” Snowcrystal told him.

“Well, I don’t want to take our chances,” Blazefang muttered, still watching the yanmega zip from one spot to another.

“It’s a big forest, Blazefang,” Scytheclaw muttered. “So there’s gonna be yanmega in it. And don’t tell me you’re also afraid of the scyther, or the ursaring, or the…”

“Well, we didn’t have any of those back at the mountain,” Blazefang hissed.

“Right. You were used to houndour being the biggest predators around,” Scytheclaw said with a roll of his eyes. “Things are different in forests.”

“I don’t think I’m being unreasonable by saying Yenn should talk to-”

“She won’t bother you,” Yenn interrupted. The others turned their heads toward him, wondering why he sounded so sure. “Don’t you see the way she’s acting?” he told them. “She’s looking for a place to lay her eggs. That’s probably her mate.” He nodded toward something, and the others peered across the lake, spotting the distant form of another yanmega up on a branch overlooking the water.

Snowcrystal jumped a bit in surprise; she hadn’t even noticed the second yanmega. It seemed that the longer she looked across the lake, the more pokémon she would see.

“You sure?” Blazefang asked Yenn skeptically.

“Yes,” Yenn replied with an irritated edge to his voice. “They don’t care about you. Trust me on this.”

“So let’s get looking for the messenger,” Scytheclaw announced, striding forward through the ferns, his body standing out strikingly from all the green. Wildflame bounded after him, followed by a more hesitant Blazefang.

“That yanmega’s going to lay her eggs by the water?” Snowcrystal asked curiously as Yenn hovered beside her.

“Yes,” he replied. “When yanma are small, they eat insects, and this is the perfect place to find them.” He flew after Scytheclaw, but not far enough that Snowcrystal felt she was being left behind. “Summer’s started. There will be yanma hatching soon.” He paused, watching the other two yanmega. “After we find this legendary, I’ll come back and find them. Join their swarm.”

An uneasy feeling settled over Snowcrystal at those words. If Yenn planned to do that, she could only hope that the legendary they were seeking could do something about the Forbidden Attacks, or at least tell them more.

“Hurry up!” Scytheclaw’s voice called from up ahead, and Snowcrystal bounded after the others.

Navigating through the thick ferns was easier once they got closer to the lake shore, where the ferns thinned out. To Snowcrystal’s left side, the water shimmered under a patch of moonlight, and she wondered if the lake itself was the legendary’s home, and only the guardian could summon it from the depths.

“So which one of these pokémon is the messenger?” Scytheclaw muttered to himself as he peered around.

There were plenty of pokémon out and about, including a group of volbeat and illumise who were flying over the lake, their bright lights reflected in the water. The silhouettes of stantler lined the spaces between the trees across the lake before they vanished into the forest and were replaced by a large ursaring that bent down to drink from the water. The distant cries of bird pokémon and bug types filled the air.

“Maybe the messenger’s already asleep,” Wildflame responded. “I don’t see anyone here who looks like they’d be in charge of leading pokémon to a legendary.”

She turned around and trotted along the lake shore, Scytheclaw heaving a sigh and following. Blazefang yawned and shook his head before trailing after them. Snowcrystal was about to run to catch up with them when she noticed that Yenn had stopped, and was turned in the direction of the thick growth of ferns, facing away from the lake.

“Yenn, what-” Snowcrystal tried to follow his gaze and paused.

There was a pokémon watching them from the ferns. It sat on its haunches, still as a statue, its long body poised above the undergrowth as it stared back at them. Snowcrystal recognized the species. It was a furret, and one that seemed to be aging. It was so still that she hadn’t even noticed it at first, and when she turned to look at the creature, it didn’t move aside from a small nod of its head.

Scytheclaw and the houndoom had noticed too, because they stopped. “Who are you?” Scytheclaw demanded as he took a few steps toward the furret. “Can you take us to see the…Guardian?”

The furret ducked down and disappeared into the ferns, only to pop up again a shorter distance from the traveling group. He did this a few times before he emerged and stood in front of them, seeming completely unafraid of the newcomers.

“What is your business with the Guardian?” the furret asked, his voice sounding rough and worn.

Snowcrystal hadn’t known what to expect from the messenger, but it certainly wasn’t this. He was frail looking, and now that she could see him up close, he acted like he couldn’t see well, squinting as he looked the ragtag group up and down.

“We need to find out something important,” Snowcrystal began. “Are you the pokémon who can lead others to the Guardian?”

The furret nodded. “I am.”

Scytheclaw glanced down at Snowcrystal, giving her a small nod which took her by surprise. “It’s about the Forbidden Attacks,” the growlithe said.

Immediately the furret became more alert, his ears standing on end and his eyes widening. “You came from outside the forest,” he began, assessing each of the five travelers. “How did you get here?”

“We…” Snowcrystal paused, wondering how much of the story she should tell the old furret. She figured that most of it wasn’t important, and decided to skip to the main details. “We went through the portal. We’ve been looking for a legendary who might be able to help us, because Articuno couldn’t, and-”

“What?” Yenn interrupted, sounding shocked. “Articuno?”

“We’ll explain later,” Scytheclaw muttered, cutting the yanmega off before he could say more.

“Three of these pokémon have Forbidden Attacks,” Snowcrystal explained. She turned and pointed with her snout to Blazefang, then to Scytheclaw, then to Yenn. “And if this legendary knows anything…anything that could help us, we-”

“Come with me,” the furret said urgently, bounding ahead through the ferns. He stopped a few paces ahead, turning back to look at the group. They had paused, not expecting such a sudden reaction.

“You mean that this…Guardian…can really help us?” Blazefang asked, sounding suddenly skeptical.

“Maybe,” was the furret’s reply. Then he bounded off again.

The others followed, Blazefang struggling to keep up. “Maybe we should rest until morning!” he called. “Are you sure this isn’t…I mean-”

“The Guardian must see you now,” the furret cried over his shoulder. “He will not harm you, I swear it.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Blazefang growled through his teeth as he hopped over the root of one of the smaller trees. “I just…” He stopped, and suddenly the look in his eyes was one of fear. “What if it’s all for nothing? What then?”

Up ahead, the rest of the pokémon stopped, turning their heads toward the commotion. “We don’t have time for this,” Scytheclaw muttered. “Do you want answers or not?”

Wildflame ignored him as she approached Blazefang. “Then we’ll find someone who can help us. We did it this once; we can find another-”

“If you have Forbidden Attacks,” the furret interjected, “as I believe you do, seeing as your group was able to get through the portal, the Guardian will want to see you. It is incredibly important.”

Wildflame and Blazefang quieted, and the others stared back at the furret.

“Does that reassure you?” Scytheclaw asked Blazefang. “Clearly this… ‘Guardian’ knows a thing or two about the Forbidden Attacks, so let’s go.”

Wordlessly the group followed the furret through the dense ferns and away from the lakeshore. Snowcrystal turned her head to see the water’s sparkling surface swallowed up by the trees. She had assumed the legendary would be at the lake itself, but wherever they were going, it was further than she had imagined.

Without the opening in the canopy the lake provided, the forest was even darker, and night had not yet completely fallen. Snowcrystal wasn’t used to being in such an enclosed, dark space, and a few times she nearly tripped over rocks or her own paws as she followed the moving forms of her friends. Even Blazefang was keeping up now, excitement glimmering in his eyes. Unlike the others, Blazefang and Wildflame felt right at home in the darkness.

As they carried on, the canopy seemed to get thicker, the trees even more massive than the ones they had seen earlier. Soon Snowcrystal was relying more on the scent of the pokémon running ahead of her and the sound of Yenn’s wings than on her sight. She could barely see the furret’s tail as he charged ahead, navigating the forest expertly as if he’d made the journey a thousand times.

After a while, they came to a place where the ground sloped downward, leading to a part of the forest that looked more ancient and wild than any of the places they had been to before. Snowcrystal paused at the top of the slope, realizing that even through the thick canopy, the moonlight illuminated enough to show her that down below, not only were the trees taller, but the plants that formed the undergrowth were massive in places too. She could see ferns that looked like they would tower over a pokémon several times the height of Katie’s scolipede.

The others followed the furret down the slope, but Yenn paused, hovering near Snowcrystal. “Is something wrong?” the yanmega asked.

“No, I just…didn’t expect to see something like this. Even here,” Snowcrystal replied breathlessly.

“Come on!” Wildflame called up to them.

Snowcrystal charged down the slope after the others, Yenn flying overhead but keeping close to her until she caught up. Once with the rest of the group, she slowed down, not wanting to stumble while there was quite a steep slope in front of her.

“How far is it?” Wildflame asked the furret.

“Not far,” the messenger replied.

The group followed the furret to the base of the slope. Snowcrystal immediately noticed that it was a bit colder, and it suddenly made sense why there was now enough light to see by. The spaces between the trees were wider, allowing smaller trees and other plants to flourish. Moonlight was already filtering down through the gaps between branches, turning the earth beneath her paws silver.

“This way,” the messenger whispered almost reverently, leading them toward a hulking gray shape sitting in the middle of a moonlit area surrounded by massive ferns.

As they got closer, Snowcrystal could see that it was a huge slab of rock, worn by time and weather. She had a strange feeling as she looked at it, realizing that it was the first thing she’d seen in a long time that reminded her of her mountain home. There were carvings on it, crude carvings that looked as if they had been made by something with large claws. Even under the moonlight, it was hard for Snowcrystal to make out some of them. She could see one that looked like a flame, another that looked like a root or vine, and others she didn’t fully understand. However, it was clear to her what the symbols were meant to mean.

“The Forbidden Attacks,” she whispered.

“There is something you must know,” the furret said, placing his paw on the stone as he turned to face them. “Our Guardian, the legendary of this forest, was one of the pokémon who created what became known as the Forbidden Attacks, long ago.”

A stunned silence fell over the traveling group. Blazefang’s mouth dropped open in disbelief, and Wildflame glanced to the furret with a shocked expression. Scytheclaw tensed as he watched the older pokémon, his eyes alight with excitement. Yenn, hovering at the back of the group, looked both surprised and confused.

Snowcrystal herself was unsure what to think. Even Articuno had not known who had created the Forbidden Attacks. And here they were, about to meet one of the very pokémon responsible, if what the furret said was true.

“Wait a minute…” Wildflame said. “Spark said that there weren’t legendaries involved in the creation of the Forbidden Attacks. He said they just appeared and-”

“Don’t you remember?” Blazefang asked her. “The stories are all mixed up on the subject of where the attacks came from. No one knew the right answer.”

“I don’t know what the stories say,” the furret interjected. “But if you don’t believe me, you can ask the Guardian yourself.”

“Wait,” Snowcrystal began, “if this legendary really helped create the Forbidden Attacks, he can take them away, can’t he? Articuno said the ones who brought them into existence could do that.”

To her dismay, the furret’s expression was grim. “I think you should talk to him yourself,” he said. He gave her a small smile when he noticed her downcast expression. “But I believe that he can help you, one way or another.”

Snowcrystal wasn’t sure what to make of the comment. Something wasn’t right if a supposed creator of the Forbidden Attacks could not destroy them. She tried to push the thought out of her mind, telling herself that they would hear what the Guardian had to say before they tried to figure anything out.

“Why hasn’t anyone heard of this before?” Wildflame asked. “Why does no one know who the attacks’ creators are?”

The furret turned to look at the stone, speaking without looking at the houndoom. “It is said that after they realized what they had done, they hid their faces from the rest of the world, taking up homes in remote places such as this forest. But in dire times such as this, some of them have decided to make themselves known to wandering pokémon. You won’t be the last travelers to meet the Guardian.”

Beside Snowcrystal, Scytheclaw snapped one of his pincers to get the furret’s attention. “Well, take us to him then,” he said impatiently.

“This is as far as I’ll go tonight,” the messenger responded with a wave of his tail. “Head in that direction.” He pointed to the cluster of trees, moonlight making the path clear. “You will find him. I must return to my nest. If you need a guide to lead you back the way we came, you can wait at this rock until morning.”

“Thanks,” Scytheclaw replied, “but I don’t think we’ll be needing a guide.”

“All right,” the furret replied calmly, and he turned to leave.

“Wait!” Snowcrystal replied, and the brown and tan pokémon stopped. “Thank you. For helping us find this pokémon.”

The furret turned around, giving her a small smile. “You’re very welcome.” Then he bounded off and was gone.

For a moment, no one moved. Then Blazefang quietly said, “What if…what if this is a trap?”

“What reason would that furret have to trap us?” Scytheclaw growled.

“Well, we’re strangers to this forest, and-”

“I don’t know,” Snowcrystal told him. “I didn’t get any sort of bad feeling from him. I think…I think he really wanted to help us.”

Blazefang hesitated.

“We can’t pass up this chance now. And if it is some sort of trick, how were those butterfree we met earlier in on it too? They mentioned the Guardian as well.”

“Well, you two can keep talking about it,” grumbled Scytheclaw. “I’m going to find this legendary. Anyone who wants to can follow me.”

The other pokémon quieted as they watched the scizor stride into the darkness of the trees. Snowcrystal saw Yenn, who had remained quiet during the whole exchange, turn and follow him. Blazefang and Wildflame glanced at each other before Wildflame gestured after Scytheclaw and led Blazefang towards him. Snowcrystal gave the crude carvings on the stone one more glance before she ran to catch up with the others.

Scytheclaw strode at the head of the group, pushing aside any tall patch of undergrowth with his claws. He could hear the others following behind him, but he didn’t turn to look at them. He found it a bit odd that even the yanmega stayed behind him, hovering near Snowcrystal and the two houndoom.

“Guardian?” the scizor called into the fading light. His voice bounced back at him from the trees, but there was no answer. Scytheclaw walked faster.

He wasn’t sure what he was expecting to find. He ran through a list of legendaries in his head, thinking briefly about what he’d heard of each one as he did so. In the end, he was clueless as to what legendary had made its home in such a remote and wild place.

“Scytheclaw, wait,” a voice whispered from behind him. It was Snowcrystal.

He paused, briefly giving thought to how quiet and still the forest was, silent enough that he could hear the growlithe’s whispers. “What?” he asked, not quite sure why he was listening to her.

“Something feels different here,” she responded.

As Scytheclaw turned around to look at the others, he realized that they were all acting strangely. Blazefang was shifting his weight from paw to paw, looking around at the darkening forest. Yenn and Wildflame seemed more alert, their eyes scanning the darkness. Snowcrystal was looking straight at him.

Scytheclaw turned away from them and looked around the area he had so frantically charged into. They were in what seemed like a clearing of sorts, a place that was brighter than the rest of the forest. Up ahead, immense ferns blocked the way from view, and the areas between the trees further on looked even darker by comparison.

Then, as if some instinct of his was kicking in, he began to feel as if there was something nearby, something he should listen to. He froze, not hearing anything.

Then again, maybe it was just the forest itself.

Then he heard footsteps.

The scizor tensed, but remained at the front of the group. Something was coming towards them through the ferns, and by the sound of it, something big. Scytheclaw narrowed his eyes. He’d assumed the legendary was going to be a grass type, and he quickly ran the list through his head again. ‘Sounds like we’re meeting Virizion,’ he thought to himself.

Yet as the footsteps got closer, it sounded like something bigger. Scytheclaw watched the ferns directly in front of him, but none of them moved. Suddenly the footsteps stopped, leaving eerie silence once more.

“Well?” Scytheclaw cried out. “Are you this forest’s ‘Guardian’ or not?” When there was no answer, he spun around, addressing another group of ferns. “Come into the light where we can see you!”

He wasn’t sure whether he expected the source of the footsteps to shout back at him, or to simply ignore him. What he saw, however, was that the other members of his group had suddenly gone stock-still, their eyes widening in disbelief. Then Scytheclaw heard a deep voice behind him.

“I am what they call the Guardian, yes.”

The tone of the voice sent shivers down his back, and suddenly he regretted yelling into the forest the way he had. Unsure what he would see, he slowly turned around.

The creature he saw looked to be around three times his height, even on all fours. Though most of its body was shrouded in shadow from the ferns surrounding it, he could make out a dark green, bony plate covering its head and upper jaw, leaving small spaces for its eyes. Wide, clawed feet lifted from the ground as it stepped forward. Scytheclaw stared in shock.

“What…is that?”

Suddenly losing his nerve, he darted back beside Snowcrystal and the others, realizing that he was looking at a creature that matched no description of any legendary he knew of. Having spent a long time around humans, the thought was jarring, alien to him. Everything he had been told had taught him that humans were at least aware of each type of legendary that existed, even if most of them never saw one. To see one that humans had no depictions of, as far as he knew, didn’t add up in his mind. He stared at the beast, unsure if what he was looking at was really real or not.

As the five stunned pokémon watched, the strange being stepped into the light. It resembled an ursaring walking on all fours in shape, but its fur was a dark green, looking nearly black in the moonlight. Around its neck was a ring of thick leaves, a vine in between each of them. And unlike an ursaring, it had two sets of forelimbs, each ending in thick claws. A row of leaf-like spines ran down its back.

What struck Scytheclaw the most was the plate making up part of the creature’s head, which was marked with strange patterns. It looked to him like…a mask. Suddenly, the furret’s words came back to him, reminding him that this was one of the pokémon responsible for the Forbidden Attacks. ‘It is said that after they realized what they had done, they hid their faces…’ The thought sent chills down his spine.

“Who are you?” It was Snowcrystal who spoke.

“I am called Sequoiarc,” the beast replied, coming to a halt and standing sturdily on its six limbs. The light that flickered down from above outlined the creature’s form, making it stand out from the foliage it had emerged from.

Scytheclaw stood still, watching his companions out of the corner of his eye. Blazefang and Wildflame were standing still, tensed as if ready to run. He could not read Yenn’s expression.

“Se-Sequoiarc, three of these pokémon have Forbidden Attacks,” the growlithe explained. She pointed her snout to Blazefang, Yenn, and Scytheclaw in turn. “We’re looking to find a way to stop them. Can you help us?”

The great legendary leaned back, moving to a sitting position and crossing his front pair of forelegs. Sitting upright, he only looked more massive. If he was surprised at Snowcrystal’s statement, he did not show it, nor did he seem to doubt her words. “I believe that I might,” he said, his voice sounding surprisingly gentle. “First of all, how did you get to this forest?”

“We were in a desert, and we found a portal,” Snowcrystal answered. “It…let us in here somehow.”

“That would explain what the scizor was doing here,” Sequoiarc replied, causing Scytheclaw to step back. “And you said he is one of the ones with a Forbidden Attack?”

“Yes…or, at least we think so,” said Snowcrystal. “But…what was that portal? Was it something you put there?”

“The portals were placed here, and in different parts of the region by another legendary long ago,” Sequoiarc answered. “If certain species in the forest begin to dwindle in numbers, members of those species may be allowed in through a portal, should they happen to find one.”

“The humans aren’t unaware,” Snowcrystal told him, worry in her voice. “They know pokémon have vanished, and-”

“So I am told,” the legendary replied, but did not elaborate.

“Snowcrystal, this isn’t what we came here for,” Scytheclaw hissed in a whisper toward the growlithe. Beside him, the two houndoom glanced at each other, but neither of them spoke.

“I’m willing to answer your questions,” Sequoiarc explained, not seeming bothered by Scytheclaw’s comment at all. “The one who created the portals allowed me to alter them if needed, or close them off. They now open for pokémon with Forbidden Attacks, as long as they still regain a good measure of control.”

Snowcrystal thought back to the incident in the desert. Yenn had gone through the portal seemingly without doing anything, yet every other time it had been inactive, until they all went to it at once…

With Blazefang. Damian had been holding Blazefang while he was on Fernwing’s back. Suddenly, it all made sense. Solus and his pokémon couldn’t have gotten through, because none of them had a Forbidden Attack. She suddenly wondered if it would have activated for Scytheclaw if the scizor hadn’t been in his poké ball at the time.

“Well, I have the next question,” Wildflame said, stepping forward boldly. “Did you really create the Forbidden Attacks? And if so, what happened? Why are they being found now?”

Sequoiarc looked, if anything, sad as he comprehended the houndoom’s words, though it was hard to read his expression behind the mask-like armor on his face. “If three of your group have Forbidden Attacks, then you of all pokémon deserve to know the truth,” he began, and instead of intimidating, his voice sounded almost old and weak. “I was one of the legendaries responsible for creating what you now call the Forbidden Attacks. There was one of us for every type, set to guard over this region. Perhaps there were so many of us because this land was so massive, but we were lesser legendaries, not given the sort of power others like Dialga were. But in the end, we still had more power than we should have.”

“There’s a legendary…like you…for every type?” Snowcrystal said, astonished. “And humans don’t even know? How long ago were you sent here to guard the region? Why are you hiding?”

The other pokémon stood in silence, trying to take in what the legendary was saying. They looked to Sequoiarc expectantly.

“Because the Forbidden Attacks all but destroyed this region,” Sequoiarc growled, but his anger was not directed at the five pokémon below. "Many other regions have specific pokémon that are native to them. Ever wonder why a region this large has no species that are exclusively native to here? Well, there used to be many, but they perished in the destruction the Forbidden Attacks caused."

“…What?” Snowcrystal gasped.

“That was long before humans ever settled here. Surely they’ve found signs of past disasters, but none of them have known for sure what caused it. Other pokémon had come to the land and settled in it long before the humans ever did, and in time they and their environments had flourished again. And it was only because we were able to stop the madness.” Sequoiarc suddenly slammed one of his six paws into the ground, causing a tremor to run beneath the feet of the watching pokémon.

Snowcrystal and the others stared in silence.

“You see,” the mighty grass type continued, “something went very wrong when we created the Forbidden Attacks. I believe it was partly because it was something we were never meant to do. When we gave them to other pokémon, it warped their minds, twisted the attacks into something far worse than they were meant to be. Though we did not know it at first, creating the attacks drained us of our powers, and as they grew stronger within the pokémon that used them, that effect only seemed to grow worse. Even after we managed to remove the attacks from the pokémon using them, the strength of our power did not return. Even still, though it is at a much slower pace, our power continues to wane, and years and years of it have unfortunately taken a toll.”

The legendary straightened up, pointing his muzzle to the sky. “However, regardless of our waning abilities, we were still able to seal them away long ago, and keep them safe from other pokémon. This forest was created not long after that, by a legendary that wanted to help this region grow. It was one of the safe spaces made for pokémon after the disaster our attacks had caused. There are still a few of these safe havens kept hidden in Inari…that is what you call this land, isn’t it?”

None of the pokémon spoke; Snowcrystal only nodded slowly.

“Pokémon could come to the safe haven through portals. One was guarded by a harsh desert, put there to further protect the entrance. From what I have been told, it was much bigger in the past, until other lands gradually took over, leaving only the area it originally occupied. That is the desert you must have crossed. The other portals were put in places not easily accessed, though those weren’t quite as guarded and served other purposes.”

“And what about the other legendaries?” Yenn asked. “Where are they?”

The sad look returned to Sequoiarc’s eyes. “We were once tasked with protecting this region, but after we nearly destroyed it, we hid, even from each other, and let other legendaries settle here in our place. We no longer felt that we had the right to guide this land. We have been separated a long time, having only messengers to carry news between us from across different lands. This was mostly out of choice, but now, things are different.”

Snowcrystal felt a chill run up her spine. She was beginning to feel the enormity of the situation weighing down her chest.

“Most of the others do not want their presence to be known to the outside world,” Sequoiarc continued. “But I think that is wrong. So I let pokémon into my domain, even pokémon with Forbidden Attacks, providing they still have a good degree of control over it. I let pokémon speak with me. I tell them the truth, rather than have other pokémon muddle up part of the story as some of the others do.”

Snowcrystal suspected that there was more than just intentional meddling of the story; a story would change a lot when passed from pokémon to pokémon to human stories, though somehow, accurate details and the names of some of the attacks had gotten through. Perhaps in some way, these legendaries had a hand in preserving those details for future generations of pokémon.

“If all this happened so long ago,” Wildflame asked, “why are Forbidden Attacks just being found now? Some of them haven’t even been released from their stones. They’re still being guarded.”



The leaves along Sequoiarc’s spine seemed to wilt as he lowered his head. “They were…found, and scattered recently. By whom I do not know. We learned about it too late. I am not even sure where the remaining stones are now. By the time we realized what had happened, at least one pokémon had already found one and lost control.”

“The ice type…” Snowcrystal whispered.

“Other legendaries such as Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno learned of what had happened, and decided to guard the Forbidden Attack stones. When we learned of this, we let them. They are stronger than we are now. And in some cases, more willing to help.”

Snowcrystal remembered Articuno telling her that many legendaries had been called upon. As she pondered over that, she then remembered something else. “But…I met with Articuno. He said that the ones who created the Forbidden Attacks could destroy them. If you had to seal them away, does that mean…”

“We cannot destroy them, no,” Sequoiarc replied, reaching a claw to his mask. “Maybe we once would have had that power, when we were at our strongest, but if we did, by the time we realized what we had done, our strength had already begun to leave us. We took the Forbidden Attacks away from pokémon and sealed them inside stones, but after all this time, we lack even the power to do that again. That is why it is important that legendaries guard the other ones.”

“You can’t…you can’t take them away?” Blazefang gasped, looking horrified. “Does that mean…”

“I never said it was hopeless,” Sequoiarc told the houndoom. “Just that we lack the power to do what we did before.”

Blazefang didn’t reply, and it seemed like Sequoiarc had more to say on the subject, but first, Snowcrystal needed to know something else. “Articuno also said that he didn’t know who created the Forbidden Attacks, and that it wasn’t his place to know. Why hide it from him? Why are you letting other legendaries guard the attacks, without even helping them, when they don’t know who you are?”

“It was not my choice,” Sequoiarc sighed. “Because of the humans, it was too dangerous for me to leave this forest. I don’t know why most of the others haven’t contacted the other legendaries, but some of them were adamant that we do not.”

“Surely you don’t have to listen to them,” Snowcrystal called, feeling incredibly bold to be standing up to the huge legendary. “You have messengers of your own; why didn’t you send them to Articuno and the others?”

Beside Snowcrystal, Yenn stiffened.

Sequoiarc spoke again. His words were hollow, full of shame, but the five pokémon could tell he spoke the truth. “Because I knew they believed we could destroy the Forbidden Attacks, and we cannot.”

Snowcrystal paused, not having expected that sort of response. She wasn’t sure what she had expected, perhaps excuses, or attempts at justifications, but there was none of that in Sequoiarc’s words. At least, she thought, it was honest. “But that’s not right,” she said. “They’re defending the Forbidden Attacks for you. They should know what’s going on!”

“Snowcrystal,” Scytheclaw hissed quietly, “drop it.”

“What good would it do to know these legendaries can’t help them?” Blazefang growled.

“No, Snowcrystal’s right,” Wildflame said. “They should know the truth.”

Sequoiarc looked down at the small growlithe, his demeanor softening. “Some of us wanted to,” he began. “Some of us still want to. But we aren’t just leaving them to deal with it on their own. We are trying to come up with a solution.”

Snowcrystal and the others were stunned.

“You think we want our land to be destroyed again? And not even just our land, but others as well. The place you call Inari is a land separate from other regions; the Forbidden Attacks were contained the first time they went out of control. Now, with human means of travel, it might not be so simple. Even if a pokémon with a Forbidden Attack is killed, it will merely get transferred to another of the same type.” Sequoiarc turned his head to Yenn. “Which do you have, yanmega? The bug or the flying type?”

“The…the bug type,” Yenn stammered.

“Your attack isn’t just harmful to pokémon,” Sequoiarc told him. “In its stronger stages, it will drain the life from any living thing. Plant, pokémon, human, it doesn’t matter. It would ravage the lands just as Shadowflare would. You must do all you can to avoid using it. All three of you.” He swept his gaze over the group, pausing briefly when his eyes met Scytheclaw’s and Blazefang’s.

“Wait a minute,” Scytheclaw said, stepping forward. “My Forbidden Attack…doesn’t even seem like one. It doesn’t work like the others and I have no problem controlling it. And what sort of ‘Forbidden Attack’ heals?”

Though it was hard to tell, the watching pokémon thought they saw Sequoiarc’s eyes widen in surprise. The grass type was still for a moment, but when he spoke, his voice sounded calm and collected. “Then yours is not one of the Forbidden Attacks.”

“Is that why it has no name?” Scytheclaw asked. “Why I can control it? What is it, then? Did you create it too?”

“No,” said Sequoiarc. “Not me, specifically. It was created by some of the others, with what little strength they had left, in an effort to combat the effects of the Forbidden Attacks. I was against its creation; I knew by then that we were not meant to try to make other pokémon powerful. But they feared we would be too weak to use it ourselves in the future, so they created that power and gave it to a pokémon.

“The original intent was to make that power able to spread from pokémon to pokémon, so there would be many users. As you can see, it doesn’t actually work that way. We believed it would take a toll on the user, one way or another, so I managed to convince the creators, at least, to ensure that only a very psychically strong pokémon could be its bearer.”

Scytheclaw thought back to the moment when he’d touched the stone that had given him his power. It had been back at the canyon, before he’d lost his leadership. He’d seen something odd in the fangs of an arcanine statue at the bottom of a pool, and asked a zangoose to retrieve it. Nothing had happened to the normal type when he’d grabbed it; it was only when Scytheclaw had touched it that the power was transferred. Scytheclaw realized that, as much as he hated to admit it, having had a trainer in the past – before Damian – had made him stronger, more skilled in using moves, than a good number of wild pokémon. Obviously, he had been a much better candidate than that zangoose. He wasn’t sure how to feel about that information.

“It needed a very tough pokémon, who would be able to handle the strain,” Sequoiarc continued. “But as I’m sure you’ve realized, it is not harmless.”

“It almost killed me once,” Scytheclaw growled, suddenly feeling bolder. “One of the trainers traveling with us said it would kill me the next time.”

“And they are right,” the legendary responded. “When this power was created, it was meant to get stronger, like the Forbidden Attacks but in a good way, gaining more power to heal as time went on, though it did not work out that way. Even the strong pokémon that could carry the power…it took too much from them. Their bodies couldn’t handle it. To heal, it needed to take energy from the user, and we greatly underestimated just what it would take. Not only that, but it took more and more from them each time. They would die, and there would be a new user. Then the cycle repeated. We decided that the good this power did was not worth the loss of life. So it was sealed away when the Forbidden Attacks were.”

“But I don’t understand…I heard a weird voice, the last time I used it,” Scytheclaw said. “It told me it was failing, that I needed to ‘pass it on,’ but the pokémon I was healing did heal; it hadn’t failed at all. Why did that happen? What is that supposed to mean?”

Sequoiarc looked thoughtful as he answered the question. “Like it was meant to spread from pokémon to pokémon, it was also meant to be passed on completely from one pokémon to another easily if the first user could not handle it. It was created to give its user a warning if it posed any threat to them, so they could find another worthy pokémon and transfer the power to them. But it did not work; the healing power had as much of a grip on its user as the Forbidden Attacks did. The only saving grace was that it did not come with a loss of control, did not warp the user’s mind.”

“So I was supposed to be able to get rid of it?” Scytheclaw’s voice was calm, but there was an edge of anger to his words. “Give it to a pokémon who could use it properly? But I can’t?”

“Yes, it was meant to,” Sequoiarc replied. “But like the Forbidden Attacks, it was unstable. It was not meant to do what it did, to bring pain and suffering to the pokémon wielding it, nor to be harder and harder to use each time.”

Snowcrystal watched the scizor as he processed the information. She was beginning to get the idea that the Forbidden Attacks were like viruses that had mutated, becoming something completely different from what their original intent was to be. Sure, they didn’t spread like a virus, but it was the only thing that Snowcrystal could think of to compare it to. Perhaps that meant that the Forbidden Attacks themselves…weren’t originally meant to be forces of mass destruction.

“Sequoiarc,” she asked, stepping closer to the huge grass type, “why did you create the Forbidden Attacks?”

She could not tell what the great legendary was thinking when he turned his head in her direction. “That is not something I choose to share with you,” he said. From his words, Snowcrystal knew that the matter was closed.

“Well, you’ve told us about the Forbidden Attacks,” Blazefang began, “but what do we do now? How do we get rid of them?”

“We’re not the only ones who have Forbidden Attacks either,” Yenn interjected. “A vaporeon named Cyclone has one. He’s building an army and is looking for more. There are…two others that have Forbidden Attacks. But they, at least, know better than to use them. Cyclone is a different story.”

“He’s right,” said Wildflame. “We need answers on how to stop this madness.”

“I do not know the answer,” Sequoiarc replied, “but I do believe something can be done, if you seek out some of the other legendaries of the Inari region.”

“The others?” Wildflame repeated, sounding unsure.

“Most of the others do not live in as remote a place as this,” Sequoiarc said. “A few roam, keeping out of sight – though only the ghost and psychic type are able to do this while still keeping their identities hidden – and others have less elaborate hiding places but still keep away from humans. Those close to human settlements have hidden themselves in deep places like caves. Others live in isolated areas. Not all of them will be willing to listen to you, but I can get you close to one who would. He is a rock type, living deep within a cave.”

“How are we supposed to get there?” Wildflame asked. “We’ve traveled so far already and we have injured pokémon…”

“There is…a shortcut,” Sequoiarc answered. “Within this forest is a portal that will take you near his cave. Though be warned, there is a city very close to it now, and he will not be easy to get to. His cave won’t be made up of large or magnificent caverns, but a series of dark, narrow passages.”

“So these other portals here…” Wildflame began, “they could take us anywhere?”

“No, there are only three of them in this forest. Only one leads to one of my former companions.”

“Are there more of these portals elsewhere? More secret lands?” Snowcrystal asked.

“Not many,” Sequoiarc told her. “But I believe finding Tanzenarc can help you. I have been told that he, as well as some of the others, are coming up with a plan. They have not yet decided enough to have their messengers tell me the details, but Tanzenarc may tell you. His followers are trying to search the region, so you won’t find them so easily. I have no idea when they’ll next visit this forest. You’re better off going to the source. Then you can be of help to him.”

“I don’t understand,” Blazefang said. “If legendaries have a plan, then…why would they need our help?”

“You have Forbidden Attacks,” Sequoiarc answered. “You are invaluable to them.”

Snowcrystal turned to look at the others, who were all reacting differently. Scytheclaw was resolute and determined, Wildflame was filled with wonder, and Blazefang was hopeful. Yenn looked completely uncomfortable with the idea.

“What about the other legendaries?” Scytheclaw asked. “Why can’t they do something?”

“Any legendary that has the power to stop the Forbidden Attacks is one that cannot interfere or leave their position. Enlisting their help would only cause even more terrible problems, were they to stop working to keep the balance of our world in check,” Sequoiarc replied. “But when the plan is in place, I can only hope the lesser legendaries will help. Regardless, we must do all that we can.”

Sequoiarc began to turn back toward the ferns, and Snowcrystal realized that he had told them all he was willing to. As he lumbered back through the leaves, he turned his head briefly and said, “I will have the messenger who brought you here bring you to the portal tomorrow. You mentioned trainers traveling with you; you may discuss with the rest of the group what you want to do.” Then he was gone.

The pokémon stood in silence for at least a few minutes, each with their own thoughts.

“I don’t think there’s any question,” Wildflame said. “We got more answers than we hoped we would. More than Articuno knew. I say we find out what this other legendary knows.”

“Good idea,” said Blazefang. “If they’re coming up with a plan…they must know some way to fight this. Damian will have a lot of explaining to do, but the humans should listen to us. I don’t think we’ll have a problem convincing the other pokémon.”

“I’ve got my answers,” said Scytheclaw, “but I also don’t want to be killed by a Forbidden Attack once Cyclone makes things worse. I’m with them.”

“I am too,” Snowcrystal said. She turned to the yanmega. “Yenn, will you come with us?”

“No,” Yenn said, prompting the others to look at him. “I’d sooner take my chances with the Forbidden Attack than go near a city. And I’m not going to travel with your party.”

“What? You can’t stay here,” Blazefang growled. “Who knows how long it will take Sequoiarc to get more answers? In that time, you could have lost your mind!”

Yenn looked visibly taken aback by the comment, but he did not relent. “I won’t travel with humans.”

“You’re not going to get to another legendary by yourself,” Wildflame told him. “We stand a much better chance together and you can’t risk letting your Forbidden Attack go unchecked for too long. The humans won’t hurt you, I promise.”

Yenn gritted his teeth. “You don’t understand-”

“They’re not all evil!” Scytheclaw cried, exasperated. “Look, I went through a time when I hated humans too. So I know what you’re talking about, but just trust me on this. If legendaries think we can be a valuable help to them, we need you to come along.”

Yenn was reacting to Scytheclaw as if the scizor had lost his mind. “You don’t understand what they can do,” he growled. “You can’t just say they’re harmless when-”

“Listen, I wouldn’t be a scizor if a human didn’t force me into evolution,” Scytheclaw interrupted.

Yenn was taken aback again, and he remained silent as the scizor continued.

“I know humans can be cruel. But so can pokémon, like those nutjobs out in the desert that tried to kill you, right?”

“No…no, you don’t understand,” Yenn said again, taking flight and backing away, but when he tried to elaborate, his words faltered. He shook his head and tucked his legs close to his body, suddenly appearing quite scared.

Scytheclaw was fast losing patience, and Snowcrystal was afraid he would say something that would make Yenn give up on them. “What are you afraid of?” she asked him, keeping her voice much calmer than Scytheclaw’s agitated one.

Yenn, however, didn’t seem to want to answer directly. “Humans have ways that pokémon don’t.”

“These humans won’t try to trap you, or make you do anything you don’t want to,” Snowcrystal explained. “Even with their poké ball technology, a pokémon can learn to come out of a poké ball when they want to.” She didn’t want to mention that some humans, like Mausk, had to have some sort of modification that prevented that. Yenn didn’t need to worry about something that Damian and the others didn’t even have access to. “They won’t catch you, though. I’m just saying that even if they did, you wouldn’t really be trapped. You could leave if you wanted to.”

“I’m not afraid of poké balls,” the yanmega spat back.

“Honestly, I think they’d be more afraid of you than you are of them,” Wildflame stated. “One of them is terrified of large bug types.”

For some reason, that information only made Yenn grow more agitated. He gritted his teeth. “The answer is no.”

“Oh come on, you’ve got a Forbidden Attack and they know it!” Blazefang cried. “They wouldn’t do a thing to you even if they wanted to, for that reason alone.”

Yenn was silent.

“Yenn, what we’re doing is going to help a lot of pokémon,” Wildflame said calmly. “With the Forbidden Attacks being found, there are a lot of pokémon that could be in danger, from Cyclone, and from others…from the Forbidden Attacks still out there. Was there…was there anyone back at the army you cared about? Someone who you’d want to help?”

Yenn gave a sigh. “Fine. I’ll go with you.”

Wildflame smiled at him and Snowcrystal beamed, giving a wag of her tail. Blazefang and Scytheclaw looked relieved.

“But remember this,” Yenn warned. “You may think these humans are ‘friends,’ but if there’s any trouble, I won’t be helping them. Even if they’re about to die and I’m the only one between them and death.”

Scytheclaw’s eyes narrowed at the yanmega, but he said nothing.

“Very well,” said Wildflame. “Welcome to the group.”

To be continued…



Author’s Note:

Sequoiarc is "Sequoia" + "Arc"

Story time!

Years ago, way back in 2010 or so, I told a few people that I wanted to put fakemon in Path of Destiny. The thought was always in the back of my mind, for years, but I didn't get any ideas that really inspired me. Until I got this one. I've been waiting to write this chapter for over a year now (mainly because writing was slow...but I think that will get better!), and now I finally have. I want to say that I am very excited about the direction this is taking the story. I have had so much PoD inspiration lately and it's still going. I have a few things planned for the next several chapters that I am very excited to show you.

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 74 – New Companion

In the early morning light, the five pokémon who had visited the legendary made their way back to the rest of the group. They were silent as they trekked through the forest, each with their own thoughts about where the journey would take them. Knowing that the Forbidden Attacks could not just be taken away, even by one of the legendaries that created them, weighed heavily on their hearts, but at the same time, they felt hope now that they had a clearer path to follow.

Snowcrystal’s ears pricked up as she heard voices. They had nearly arrived back at the group; the others were sheltered behind one of the massive nearby trees, from which she could hear conversation between Redclaw and a few of the others.

“Well, we’d better go tell them everything,” Wildflame said with a smile, knowing how daunting a task that probably seemed to the four who were with her. “And introduce you, of course,” she added with a nod to Yenn.

The yanmega didn’t reply. His body was tense, his mouth nearly forming a snarl as he stared ahead.

“Let’s make one thing clear first,” Scytheclaw said, stepping in front of the other bug type. “You’re not going to hurt any member of our group, for any reason. Especially my trainer. If you do, I will-”

“He knows, Scytheclaw,” Snowcrystal interrupted, giving his leg a small shove. She gave the scizor a look, hoping he would drop it. If he started flinging threats around, tension between Yenn and the others was just going to rise.

Luckily, Scytheclaw didn’t continue the conversation, and merely gave the yanmega a warning glare, which Yenn didn’t even seem to be paying attention to.

“Just…come with us,” Wildflame said, noticing his unease. “And remember, they’d have to have a death wish to do anything to you.”

“Let’s hope you’re right,” Yenn mumbled in response.

They walked around the tree’s gigantic trunk, coming into view of the tents and resting pokémon. Immediately, a yellow shape slammed into Snowcrystal, sending her tumbling over onto her back.

“You’re back!” Spark cried joyously, making a few small jumps as Snowcrystal clambered back onto her feet. “Did you meet the legendary? What was it like? Did it tell you-”

“We’ve got a lot to tell all of you,” Wildflame interrupted. “Let us rest a bit first and we’ll explain everything.”

Spark reluctantly agreed, and the other pokémon in camp began to gather around them. They cast curious looks at Yenn, and some even greeted him, but the yanmega did not respond. He was watching as the three trainers emerged from the tents, welcoming the little group of pokémon back.

Yenn felt his whole body tense, his senses on high alert. But this time, he was able to suppress the thoughts that seeing the trainers brought up. Looking at them clearly, he recognized one of them as the one he had seen out in the forest, the one he had come close to killing. Now that he was able to properly focus on him, and with a clearer mind, he could see that he didn’t look nearly as intimidating as the humans he had been used to.

For one thing, his clothes were different. He had noticed this before, but now he could tell that there was nothing to indicate this human had any authority, any power. The other two humans wore similar clothes, and he could tell that those two were younger. Adolescents. The one he had seen in the forest was a young adult, but he was scrawny and didn’t seem particularly threatening, now that Yenn thought about it. However, he knew what they were capable of, what they had at their disposal. The only thing keeping him relatively calm was the fact that the pokémon around him were not acting afraid.

“So…he’s coming with us?” the ninetales asked, clearly nervous about the idea as she eyed the yanmega.

“Yes,” said Snowcrystal. “He wants to stop the Forbidden Attacks too.” She turned to Yenn cheerfully. “I guess I should introduce you to everyone.”

Before she had a chance to begin, Damian approached them, Arien at his side. “No one’s hurt, right?” he asked, looking at Snowcrystal in concern. The growlithe shook her head in response. The boy lifted his head to look at the yanmega, and immediately Yenn backed up in midair, his wings beating faster and louder than before. Damian hesitated, obviously sensing the hostility, but nonetheless reached around to his backpack and pulled it off his shoulders. “Calm down, we just want to-”

He was cut off as Yenn shouted at him, the yanmega’s wings beating so hard that Damian was pushed backwards. He glanced to Arien, who replied to him through their psychic link that he probably didn’t want a translation of that.

Several of the other pokémon were giving Yenn odd looks, though most weren’t particularly surprised at the reaction. Katie had warned the group that the yanmega likely wasn’t fond of humans.

Arien told Damian to back away, and stepped forward on behalf of his trainer. “I believe there is a misunderstanding here,” he told the angry bug type. “My trainer was trying to assist you, and what you just did-”

“You know what?” Snowcrystal interrupted, not wanting an argument to break out. “This is probably really overwhelming. Why don’t Yenn and a few of us – I mean those of us who came with him,” she added when she saw Arien about to speak, “– go find another place to rest for the moment.” She bounded away from the group, looking over her shoulder to see if Yenn was following.

To her surprise, he seemed to jump at the chance to get away from the humans rather than argue with Arien, and he didn’t seem annoyed at her quickly made excuse. Wildflame walked forward as well, coming close to Snowcrystal’s side. The growlithe looked back at the rest of the group, who watched them with uncertain expressions. She was suddenly glad that Thunder didn’t seem to be around at the moment; her hostility toward strangers would have only escalated the situation.

They turned and left, and Snowcrystal cast one last glance back at the group, hoping they’d trust her to try and make things a little more peaceful. Pausing in his walk toward Damian’s tent, Scytheclaw rolled his eyes.

“Nice first impression,” he muttered.

Snowcrystal and Wildflame ignored him, instead walking out into the trees until they were a fair distance away from the others, but still close to the riverside. Once they stopped, Yenn landed on the ground, suddenly returning to his weak and exhausted state.

“Look, you can’t just go yelling at them,” Snowcrystal told him, trying not to sound at all angry or annoyed. “We need to work together if we’re going to stop this-”

“Look, I didn’t plan on working with humans,” Yenn spat bitterly after he’d caught his breath. “I was pretty much forced into it because I don’t have a better plan. All I can say is that they’d better stay the hell away from me unless they want their arms ripped off.”

“You can’t hurt the trainers,” Wildflame told him. “They’re part of our group whether you like it or not. And we won’t allow you to harm them.”

“If they try to harm me, I will defend myself,” he replied.

“Oh, for goodness sake, they are not going to harm you!”

“Damian wasn’t doing anything,” Snowcrystal added, confused. “What about him seemed threatening?”

“He was reaching for something!” Yenn hissed. “He was…never mind.”

“Look, whatever it was, he didn’t want to harm you,” Wildflame explained. “And trust me, you can move a lot faster than he can, so he wouldn’t have been able to do anything anyway. He was probably just concerned. Helping injured and sick pokémon is what Damian does.”

Yenn just stood in skeptical silence, and Snowcrystal reminded herself that all this was probably foreign to him after living under Cyclone’s rule. From what she could gather, it seemed like Cyclone and his higher ups were practically brainwashing the army.

“They’re not like any humans you’ve seen, or heard of,” Snowcrystal continued. “Just…trust us on this.”

Yenn looked like there was anything he’d rather do, but for whatever reason, he seemed to calm down. “I guess they are a little young,” he replied. “They never let any young humans into the…” He shook his head. “Well, I’m guessing they don’t have the access to the same things other humans do. I’m hoping I’m right about that.”

“They don’t have guns, if that’s what you mean,” Wildflame answered.

“What do they have then?”

“Just food, water, traveling supplies, and things to help sick trainers and pokémon,” Snowcrystal answered. “That’s it.”

“Remember what we said?” Wildflame asked. “You have a Forbidden Attack. They aren’t going to mess with you.”

“The humans are here to help us, Yenn,” Snowcrystal added. “That’s all they want to do.”

Yenn snarled, “Then where were these ‘good humans’ back when… Okay, you know what? Forget it. Maybe these humans will try something, maybe they won’t, but at least you’re right in that they don’t seem very threatening either way. I’ll fight back if they try to harm me, but if not, I’ll try my best to pretend they’re not there.”

“Believe me, there’s nothing to be worried about,” Snowcrystal told him.

“Not to me, at least,” Yenn continued. “But what about pokémon that don’t have Forbidden Attacks?”

“Look,” said Snowcrystal, “if you don’t believe us, just wait and see for yourself. But for now, why don’t you rest? We’ll go back and tell Arien – he’s the alakazam – to tell his trainer that you don’t want the humans around you. I’m sure they’ll understand.”

Yenn still seemed doubtful, but in the end he chose to trust her. “Okay, make sure that’s clear to them, and I’ll leave them alone.”

Snowcrystal managed to give him a small smile. “Okay, we’ll do that.”

With that, Yenn left to find a place to rest, and Wildflame and Snowcrystal headed back to the group.

When they arrived, they found that the others were gathered around Blazefang and Scytheclaw. Though Thunder was still missing, and Nightshade was probably in one of the tents, everyone else was eagerly awaiting what the pokémon who had met the legendary had to say.

“Oh, there they are,” Justin said, watching Wildflame and Snowcrystal walk back into camp. “Damian, don’t leave anything out when you tell us what they say.”

Damian and Arien glanced at each other, Arien sharing a few psychic words with his trainer, and Damian nodded.

Blazefang and Scytheclaw stepped aside to make room for Wildflame and Snowcrystal, then the four of them sat down in the center of the group. “Well,” Scytheclaw said, “I might as well start.”

For the next hour, the four pokémon told the waiting group all that they had learned, including what Yenn had told them about Cyclone’s Forbidden Attack, and that there were two other pokémon in addition to him that also had one in the army. A few of the pokémon wondered why Yenn wasn’t there to give his side of the story, and Snowcrystal decided to briefly explain his unease around humans.

As they described the meeting with Sequoiarc, a few of the pokémon expressed disbelief, to which Scytheclaw replied that they could probably go to meet him again if they really needed proof. Luckily, it didn’t take long for them to trust the words of the four pokémon, as they clearly were not making anything up. They described every last detail of the conversation, down to what the legendary had suggested they do next.

After that, the group as a whole discussed it over for quite a while. Justin and Katie were mostly kept out of the loop, getting only the important bits from Damian whenever Arien felt something was particularly noteworthy. Because of this, the two mostly just listened, still trying to piece everything together in their minds.

In the end, everyone was firmly convinced that following Sequoiarc’s instructions was the best course of action to take. Though many were eager to head out to the second portal that very day, it was agreed that they would wait a few days to gather their strength, make a plan for what to do when they came close to the city near the cave they were looking for, and give Yenn time to recover.

“We’re not really sure what city it’s going to be,” Katie was telling Justin as the pokémon conversed excitedly with each other. “Lots of them have caves around. I guess we’re just going to have to see where we end up.”

“As long as we don’t get caught,” Justin sighed shakily. “Me and Damian probably can’t get close.”

“You think they’d be looking for us even if we’re far away from Stonedust?” Damian asked.

Justin nodded. “They could think we’re working with Team Rocket for all we know. That’s who everyone thought set fire to the library-”

“That was a rumor,” Katie interrupted. “I think anyone sensible would realize Team Rocket would have no reason to…” She trailed off, her eyes widening in sudden realization. “Wait…I just remembered something. Justin, when I went back to the city to get supplies – you know, the time I saw that program about the arch’s portal on TV – I didn’t see anything about the library. No news, nothing. It was like everyone forgot about it. I can’t believe I didn’t remember until now…”

“That doesn’t mean we’re off the hook,” Justin replied nervously.

“No, but maybe they realized it was an accident. Maybe they connected the fire to something else. I don’t know. But I can ask around when we get to the other city.” Katie switched on her pokégear and began looking at maps of Inari cities and their surrounding lands.

“Sure,” Justin sighed, not sounding very hopeful.

Spark, having heard the whole thing, rubbed his head on Justin’s leg, wishing he could reassure his trainer with words.

“At least we know what we’re doing now,” Katie sighed. “A lot more than we did before, that is.”

“So these Forbidden Attacks…” Justin began. “…It’s like they sort of took a life of their own. Well, maybe not that. Maybe it’s more like a computer program that went haywire. And we don’t actually know whether or not they were created with good intentions.”

“Regardless, the legendaries are working against them now,” Katie replied. “And they’re our best bet.”

They looked up as Thunder strode into view, looking frustrated with something. Immediately, one of the pokémon began trying to explain everything to her, and Thunder just looked on with irritation. It wasn’t clear how much she cared about the new information.

Damian walked over to the tent where Nightshade was currently resting, both he and Arien tired of acting as translators. The heracross had been able to hear the whole thing from where he was, so Damian wasn’t worried about having to explain anything. He looked at the heracross worriedly. Though Nightshade had been able to calmly rest during the journey, his injuries were still very serious, and Damian had no idea how long they’d take to heal.

Nightshade looked up from the blanket he was resting on as Damian walked in. He could see the trainer’s worry, so he said a few reassuring words to him. Damian didn’t need Arien’s translation to understand.

-ooo-

Yenn returned to the camp of the group he had joined up with in a state of unease. As he appeared around the trunk of one of the massive trees, several of the resting pokémon cast him uncertain glances. Yenn tensed; he didn’t like being stared at.

As he was pondering whether to leave and come back later when most of them were asleep, a pokémon appeared from around another tree. This one had not been there when he’d first been introduced to the white growlithe’s companions. She was a scyther, but unlike the male scyther, she was covered in scars.

The sight shocked Yenn. Something terrible had happened to this scyther.

As he thought this, the scyther suddenly turned her head towards him. Her eyes narrowed. “So…this is the pokémon that’s tagging along?” she said, her voice full of disdain. “Let me know if you’re going to drag any more random bystanders into this little adventure of ours. I sure do love it.”

Yenn watched the scyther turn away from him and walk toward one of the human’s tents. The yanmega froze as she did so, but the scyther seemed relatively calm as she stopped near the entrance. A moment later, a human appeared from the tent’s opening.

It was the one called Damian. The yanmega gritted his teeth as the boy leaned down toward the tent opening and called to someone else inside.

“Come into the light where I can see better,” the human calmly instructed whoever was in the tent.

Noticing his unease, the white growlithe, Snowcrystal, came over him. “Don’t worry. He’s trying to help. Just watch.”

However, Yenn wasn’t paying attention, for a pokémon had slowly emerged from the tent entrance. It was a heracross, and one that was severely injured. Though most of those injuries were covered with human-made bandages, he could tell from the bug type’s movements and the fact that one of his arms seemed to be completely useless that he was badly wounded. The sight startled him, as it had with the scyther, and he wondered what had happened to the heracross. He only hoped that the humans weren’t involved.

“Spark, can you go get my bag?” Damian asked.

The jolteon sprang to his feet, dashing across the camp to where the trainers’ packs lay. He grabbed the one that must have been Damian’s and ran back with it. The trainer then reached inside and pulled out a new roll of bandages.

“What is he doing?” Yenn growled.

Snowcrystal looked to the yanmega in confusion. “Like I said, he’s just trying to help. You see, Nightshade got injured when we…when we ran into a dangerous pokémon.”

Though Yenn was obviously suspicious, he remained still and watched as Damian treated Nightshade’s wounds. The heracross did not struggle, and remained calm while the scarred scyther watched carefully. It was then that Yenn noticed something odd. Despite injuries that were obviously serious, the heracross did not seem to be in a great deal of pain. With the sort of injuries he seemed to have, Yenn thought he would be in agony. He didn’t look drugged either; his expression was calm, not vacant.

Yet Yenn was worried. What he was seeing didn’t really add up, and he could not understand what was making the heracross so calm. “Something’s not right here,” he whispered to Snowcrystal, hovering down closer to the growlithe.

“What do you mean?” she whispered back, confused.

Damian reached into the bag and took out some sort of bottle, offering a small object from it to the heracross.

“What is that?” Yenn asked.

“It’s medicine,” Snowcrystal answered. “Pain medicine.”

“I don’t think so,” Yenn replied, flying past Snowcrystal and toward the tent where the human and the two bug types were. He zipped toward the human, causing Damian to stumble back. “Get away from him!” he yelled, and though the trainer couldn’t understand his words, the meaning was clear.

“It’s okay,” Damian stammered, getting to his feet. “I’m just trying to help.”

By now, the attention of every pokémon and human in the camp was drawn toward the small commotion. Most of them looked tense, or simply confused, and Thunder watched with an unreadable expression. They could tell that the yanmega was too caught up in his emotions for logic to work on him.

“You’re not helping,” Yenn growled. “He doesn’t need that. They said I could trust you.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Spark asked, tilting his head as he looked at the yanmega.

Redclaw shifted uneasily. “Yenn…that’s your name, right? Relax. He’s just trying to treat Nightshade’s wounds.”

“They’re right,” said the heracross behind him. “It’s okay.”

Yenn didn’t move, still hovering between Nightshade and Damian, who had gone completely still as he watched the yanmega. “What are you trying to drug him for, then? That’s what I want to know,” he asked, his voice dripping with hatred as he hovered with his head mere inches from Damian’s.

“Get…away…from my trainer,” Scytheclaw suddenly growled, stepping toward Damian and Yenn. He looked ready to take a swipe at the yanmega, but before either of them could do anything, Nightshade spoke up.

“There is nothing to worry about,” the heracross said, his voice as strong as he could manage it. “I trust Damian and he has been nothing but helpful. The medicine is only going to help me. I’ve had it plenty of times before. You don’t have to worry.”

Yenn backed away from Damian, but was still confused as he looked at the heracross. “Why can’t you find a pokémon healer then? Why would you trust human medicine?”

“A pokémon healer can only do so much,” Snowcrystal explained. “It's not only for pain. If Nightshade doesn't get the medicine, his wounds could get infected. The humans have better ways to fight that than any pokémon does.”

“And you’re kind of getting in the way of that,” Thunder told Yenn. “So can you leave us alone? We don’t have time for this.”

“They’re right,” Nightshade said. “It’s fine.”

Though Yenn remained facing the human, he could see the sincerity in the heracross’s eyes. He wasn’t lying, and though Yenn still distrusted the human, something about the heracross made the yanmega want to trust him. “You’re sure?” he asked, turning to face Nightshade.

“They have been helping me and I trust them,” the heracross continued. “The medicine is not going to do whatever you think it will.”

Slowly, Yenn started to back away from Damian. “Trust them if you want,” he said quietly. “But if they do anything-”

“Look, you can think whatever you want,” Scytheclaw began, “but you can’t harm any of us, human or not. We’re working together, don’t forget that. Nightshade can make his own decisions and you can stay out of it.”

Yenn realized that all the pokémon were staring at him, confused at his reaction. He didn’t understand it, but he was tired of trying to reason with them. He could hear the growlithe and a few of the others trying to reassure him, but he wasn’t paying much attention. Turning away from Damian, he headed out of the camp, realizing that they weren’t going to listen to him. Still, he thought, he would stay nearby, just in case the humans tried anything.

-ooo-

The group rested until nightfall, no one but Thunder straying very far from the camp. As darkness fell, most of the pokémon gathered together in a wide circle with the trainers, to once again discuss their plans.

“So, we all still agree we should rest here for a few days?” Redclaw asked the others. “Some of us are still recovering.” He glanced at Blazefang and Scytheclaw. When the rest of the pokémon gave words of agreement, he nodded to Arien, who sent a quick translation to Damian.

“That sounds good,” Wildflame began. “And I definitely think it would be better to let the new pokémon get to know us a bit more before we go near the human city.” There was worry in her voice, and the others noticed it. At the moment, Yenn was nowhere to be found.

Thunder, who was looking at the group from a short distance away, turned to Nightshade, who was lying near the tents on some blankets the trainers had provided him. “Are you sure you still want to go with them? This sounds…dangerous.”

“I’m sure,” Nightshade replied. “And I’m sure the city itself will be safe, as long as we’re careful.”

Thunder turned her head back to the group, speaking lowly so that they could not hear. “You really consider these pokémon…family?”

“Yes.”

Thunder gave Nightshade a sad look. “I won’t try to persuade you to leave, then. Just…be careful. I can’t watch over you all the time, and if we’re going to where there’s more humans…”

“You don’t need to watch over me,” Nightshade told her. “I’m safe with them. Don’t worry about it. Just come talk to me when you want.”

Thunder gave a stiff nod in response and again focused on the rest of the group.

“We’ll probably have to set up a new camp outside the city,” Redclaw was saying. “And there might be trouble if Damian and Justin are found, if the humans in this other city have heard about the library.”

“Well, we shouldn’t even have to go into the city, right?” Rosie asked.

“We’re gonna need more supplies soon,” Spark told her. “But I guess if nothing else, Katie can just get them for us.”

Redclaw was about to reply when he noticed the sound of faintly beating wings. He turned to see Yenn hovering at the edge of camp, looking uncertain.

Alex waved a paw to him. “Come on over! We were just talking about what we’re going to do next, when we go through the portal in a few days.”

Yenn jumped at the sound of her voice, startled. “No thanks,” he said as he backed away, unsettled by the sight of the humans sitting so freely among the pokémon.

“Yenn, wait a moment,” Redclaw said before the yanmega could leave. “Could a few of us have a word with you? I think we’d like to know a bit more about Cyclone, and maybe you could help us.”

Yenn turned his head toward the arcanine. “If you want, I’ll tell you what I know. But not here. Somewhere safe.”

“What do you mean? Of course it’s-” Spark began.

“That’s fine,” Redclaw interrupted. “I’ll go with you. Snowcrystal? Wildflame? Blazefang? Yenn traveled with you. Why don’t you come?”

“I’d…rather not,” Blazefang admitted. “I don’t even want to think about Cyclone right now.”

“I’ll come,” Snowcrystal said, and Wildflame nodded.

The three of them followed the yanmega into the dark forest. Even in the dim lighting, they could see that Yenn still looked weak and emaciated, but at least he was a lot stronger than he was before.

“I think this is far enough,” Redclaw said after they’d passed several of the enormous trees.

“We should go farther,” Yenn replied, not turning toward the arcanine.

Redclaw sighed, following the yanmega as he flew ahead, occasionally zipping in a different direction as if he was worried something would follow them. After they’d walked in silence for several more minutes, the yanmega finally stopped, landing on one of the smaller tree roots. “Okay, ask away.”

“You said there were two other pokémon with Forbidden Attacks in Cyclone’s army,” Wildflame began. “Besides Cyclone himself, I mean. What…what sort of pokémon were they? What type of attacks did they have?”

Yenn suddenly looked as if someone had struck him. He obviously hadn’t expected that question. Wildflame paused, wondering if whatever she’d asked had reminded him of anything unpleasant. She was almost ready to tell him he didn’t need to answer and they could move on to another question when Yenn spoke.

“A manectric and a misdreavus,” he said. “Electric and ghost. And…to be honest, they’re the reason I agreed to join you. Why I’m forcing myself to work with humans. I don’t want them to lose their minds either. So I hope you’re right about being able to help them.”

“Oh…” said Snowcrystal. “Well, if these legendaries have a plan, there’s definitely a good chance. It’s not just us trying to figure it out anymore.”

“Well, I have another question,” Redclaw began, sitting down and brushing the ground with his tail. “You were being chased by Solus and those army pokémon. How did you manage to escape?”

“I don’t want to talk about that,” Yenn answered sharply.

“Okay, well, do you know if Cyclone’s planning anything? Is he…going to attack a human settlement soon?” the arcanine asked.

“I don’t know,” Yenn sighed. “He was never truthful with me. But…I don’t think he was lying when he said he wanted more Forbidden Attacks first. Not long before I left, I…tried to convince him that we had enough to fight the humans, and he didn’t think so. I think if Cyclone was ready to attack, it would have happened already.”

“Um…about your friends with the Forbidden Attacks,” Snowcrystal asked Yenn, trying to tread lightly on the subject. “They’re not…they know not to use them anymore, right?”

“Yes,” Yenn replied. “They want to work against Cyclone but that’s dangerous. They won’t use their Forbidden Attacks though. Ashend will make sure of that.”

“Let’s hope so,” Redclaw said worriedly.

“Ashend said that we could control it,” Yenn continued, “that it was at a weak stage and we just had to never use it again. But apparently that isn’t true. We already have some loss of control just by using it once.” The yanmega shifted his legs on the tree root, looking worried. “I resisted against using it a second time, but…”

“I think you probably have more control than Blazefang did,” Snowcrystal told him. “Blazefang didn’t know how to resist it after he used it the first time. Just…be careful.”

“You know, if this…Ashend and your other friend have Forbidden Attacks,” began Wildflame, “isn’t Cyclone not much of a threat to them?”

“They wouldn’t be able to kill him, if that’s what you mean,” Yenn replied. “Cyclone’s Forbidden Attack is stronger, and Ashend said that pokémon with Forbidden Attacks can’t easily kill each other with them. She also said that Cyclone’s already corrupted, he just doesn’t act like it. He-”

“Cyclone didn’t seem insane?” Wildflame asked.

“No, not really,” Yenn replied. “But Ashend said that it affects him differently, because he never tried to fight it. He seems…well, perfectly normal. But I guess he-” Yenn paused, lowering his head. “Never mind.”

“I have to ask,” Wildflame said. “How did a pokémon like you get mixed up with Cyclone?”

“It’s a long story,” Yenn answered. “One that I’d rather not talk about. But the short version is…I had just got back to the wild, I had nowhere to go, Cyclone took me in, and after everything, it seemed like…” He sighed. “Let’s just say I made some really bad mistakes.”

“Believe me, I know all about making bad mistakes,” Wildflame said. “If you don’t mind me asking, what was it like in the army? The more we know about Cyclone, the better.”

Yenn seemed reluctant to answer. "Look, I’m really tired,” he sighed. “Maybe we can talk more about this later. But…I’ll say that my experience in the army wasn’t the norm for pokémon there. Cyclone was real nice to me. Gave me pretty much anything I wanted. I just didn't know what sort of things he was really doing, didn’t start to realize it until he killed Articuno."

“What?”

The other pokémon turned to Snowcrystal, who had frozen as she stared at Yenn in horror. The growlithe’s eyes were wide as she shook her head slowly.

“What do you mean? Articuno…Articuno can’t be dead…I…”

Yenn looked taken aback, realizing he had so casually said something the growlithe clearly found horrifying. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “I…I know you said you met Articuno, but…I didn’t know you…”

Snowcrystal didn’t answer. She backed away, her breathing coming more rapidly. She could hear Redclaw and Wildflame trying to talk to her, but she wasn’t sure what they were saying. A large part of her wanted to believe that Yenn was lying, though the rational part of her knew he had no reason to. Articuno, the guardian of her mountain home, was dead. Killed by Cyclone.

“Snowcrystal?” Redclaw asked, his voice coming through to the growlithe.

“Cyclone…really killed him?”

The arcanine looked to Yenn, who nodded grimly. “Snowcrystal,” Redclaw began, “the other legendaries had to have heard about this. They’ll be on their guard. No one else will have to-”

“A legendary is dead!” Snowcrystal cried. “And my tribe…what will they do now? They can’t stay on their mountain.”

Wildflame came up beside the growlithe, giving her head a few small licks. “As soon as this is over,” she said, “I’ll help you and the tribe find a new home. I’m sure some of the others would be willing to help as well. We won’t leave them on their own, I promise.”

Snowcrystal looked up at her. “I’ve been gone so long already. How many more months do they have on that mountain?”

Wildflame and Redclaw looked to each other.

“The mountain?” Yenn questioned with some hesitation, as if he wasn’t sure he should be interrupting. “You had a tribe on the mountain where Articuno was guarding the…Forbidden Attack?”

“No,” Wildflame answered for the growlithe. “It was another mountain. Articuno left the tribe’s home to guard the Forbidden Attack. Like Sequoiarc said.”

“He was the only one who could save my tribe’s home,” Snowcrystal said shakily. “And he didn’t deserve to die like that. If Cyclone can kill legendaries…” She broke off, unable to continue.

“There’s nothing we can do for Articuno now,” Redclaw told her. “But Wildflame is right. When we’ve found a way to put an end to the Forbidden Attacks, we can find a way to move your tribe to a safer place.”

Snowcrystal nodded in response, beginning to feel numb from the shock. She didn’t want to believe it, but it was plausible and it didn’t seem like Yenn was lying.

She swallowed. “Okay,” she said. “Thanks…you two.”

Though the growlithe’s voice still sounded hollow, at least some of her hope had returned, even if it was too late for Articuno himself.

“I’m sorry,” Yenn said after a moment. “I didn’t know.”

“It’s not your fault,” Snowcrystal replied. “I’m glad you told me.”

Without another word, the growlithe got up and headed into the darkness of the forest. At the moment, she wanted to be alone.

-ooo-

For the next few days, the group rested and planned ahead as well as they could. The trainers speculated about which city they would be arriving at; Katie had narrowed it down to the ones that had known caves nearby. The first thing they planned to do upon arriving was to have Katie go into the city and stock up on supplies.

Yenn had not grown any more comfortable around the humans, and spent the majority of his time away from the main group or high up in the trees. However, even in just the few days that had passed, he already looked healthier, thanks to the abundance of prey in the forest.

The other pokémon enjoyed their time to relax, happy to rest after the exhausting journey through the desert. Blazefang’s wounds were looking much better, as were the more minor injuries the group had sustained.

On the morning they were to continue their journey, Wildflame and Stormblade were sent to find the furret guardian and bring him back to the camp so that he could show them the place where the portal would take them to their new destination. The rest of the group gathered their supplies and then waited, talking amongst each other, pacing around the camp, or simply getting some last bit of rest.

“Snowcrystal, are you ready?” Redclaw asked the growlithe, who was sitting off by herself, looking lost in thought.

“Oh. Yeah, I am,” she said, trying to shake off any hints of sadness that may have been visible on her expression.

“They should be back any minute now,” the arcanine replied. “Let’s go wait with the others.” He turned and walked toward the main group, with Snowcrystal trailing slowly behind.

Despite the fact that most of the pokémon, and even the humans, had agreed to help Snowcrystal’s tribe after their main objective was complete, she was worried. If the tribe was forced to leave before help could arrive, they could run into all kinds of dangers. Maybe even Cyclone. As well as that, she still found it hard to come to terms with the fact that Articuno was dead.

She didn’t want the others to see her worry, however. They had more important things to think about, and many of them had also been saddened by the news of Articuno’s death. She didn’t want them to worry about her.

Yenn had also joined the group in waiting. He stayed at the edge of the camp, looking nervous and wary. To Snowcrystal’s surprise, Thunder was standing near the main group, seeming relatively calm with Nightshade beside her.

“I think everything’s ready,” Damian told the others as he finished fitting Redclaw with a traveling pack. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag of pokémon treats, tossing a few to the excitedly waiting pokémon.

Spark leapt to catch one in the air, turning to Snowcrystal. “Why don’t you try it?” he asked. “There’s plenty.”

“No thanks,” Snowcrystal replied.

“What about you, Thunder?”

Thunder turned to him, surprised that he had spoken to her. She gave the jolteon an annoyed glare before shrugging. “I’m not going to jump for one. Tell the trainer to set some on the ground.” After relying on them for food in the desert, the idea of taking food from humans had started to seem less and less repulsive.

After a few minutes, most of the treats were gone, and Damian took the remaining ones in his hand, hesitantly approaching Yenn. As soon as he took the first step in the yanmega’s direction, Yenn stiffened and flared his wings.

“It’s okay,” Damian said, though his voice betrayed the fact that Yenn’s signs of hostility made him nervous. “Here, try some of these.”

“Not going to work,” Justin muttered at him. “Just like all the other times you tried it. Give it up.”

Yenn could pick up on Damian’s nervousness, and it only made him grow more agitated. He gave the human a hateful stare before flying off, landing on a branch far above the others’ heads.

“You know, maybe you should just leave him alone,” Katie said without looking up from her pokégear.

“I just thought that-” He paused as Wildflame and Stormblade charged around a tree, a furret bounding behind them.

Snowcrystal looked up as her friends returned with the messenger. She jumped up and ran toward them, the others gathering around her.

“I see you’re ready to go,” the furret said calmly, showing no fear of the large predators surrounding him.

“Yes,” Snowcrystal began, “but the legendaries guarding the Forbidden Attacks…I think they’re in more danger than we thought. I mean, they probably know by now, but Cyclone is-”

“We will send winged messengers to spread the word to those legendaries,” the furret assured her. “Though I’m sure many are already aware of the threat. Our Guardian does not want more Forbidden Attacks to be found.”

“Thank you,” Snowcrystal said, feeling a bit better about the situation. At least the other legendaries wouldn’t be unprepared.

The group followed the furret messenger through the forest, taking in the breathtaking sight of the towering trees one more time. Though the death of Articuno had shocked them, most of them were filled with hope now that they had a clear path in mind.

They arrived at a spot that looked no different from the rest of the forest. They stood looking up at a hill where two enormous trees grew closely together. The furret nodded toward them, telling the group that the portal would now open for them.

Several of the watching pokémon let out a gasp as the massive form of the forest’s legendary appeared from the gloom, stopping at the top of the hill to look down on them. Both the pokémon and the humans froze at the sight, looking at Sequoiarc’s form with awe. In the light from above, they could make out the leaves surrounding his neck as well as the patterns of his mask.

The legendary nodded to them, then turned and made his way back into the forest. Immediately, Arien sensed a powerful force coming from the portal between the two trees.

Together, the pokémon and trainers climbed up the hill, took one last look at the magnificent forest, then one by one they stepped through the portal.

-ooo-

At the head of the group of pokémon he’d led into the desert, Solus walked back into the army camp. Many pokémon stopped what they were doing to watch the espeon’s return, noting from the looks of his and his followers’ faces that they had returned empty pawed.

Solus didn’t pay attention to any of them. It had taken his group longer to return to the army’s camp due to injuries some of his pokémon had sustained in the battle with the white growlithe’s group. Cyclone wouldn’t be happy about that. And on top of it all, he would have to explain to his leader that the pokémon he’d been targeting had vanished into thin air.

At least he wouldn’t have to mention Blazefang.

Whispers spread through the group of watching pokémon. The higher ranking ones looked disappointed or angry, while the lower ranking ones mostly looked worried. Soon, a familiar figure appeared through the crowd, pokémon parting to make way for him.

The vaporeon stopped in front of Solus, taking in the two scratches the espeon bore across his face. Solus knew that he didn’t need to tell Cyclone how the search for Yenn had turned out, but he bowed his head and spoke anyway.

“Yenn is gone. He escaped through some sort of…portal in the desert. We tried everything, but couldn’t follow him.”

Cyclone didn’t reply. He showed no anger, nor disappointment. Somehow, that only made Solus feel worse. The vaporeon closed his eyes and gave a small sigh. “Solus,” he said, “this can wait for later. There is something I need you to do now. And I expect there to be no failure, not now that we’ve had yet another setback.”

Solus wasn’t sure he liked seeing the vaporeon leader so calm about losing Yenn, but he wasn’t going to press the issue. “Yes, and that would be…?”

“Follow me,” Cyclone told him. “We’ve discovered the location of another Forbidden Attack, and I need you to evaluate our new candidate.”

-ooo-

“So Yenn made it…” Ashend whispered to Itora, watching the newly returned pokémon from their position near the entrance of Ashend’s cave. “He’s free.” The ghost type smiled.

“Cyclone’s still going to pay,” Itora growled.

Ashend’s smile vanished. “Itora, we still need to be careful,” she warned. “Especially now that Solus is back. If you sense his presence in your mind, don’t let him find-”

“I know, Ashend, I know,” the manectric grumbled. She sighed. “So what are we going to do now? We can’t escape, we’ve got no way to take down Cyclone yet, and-”

“We keep waiting, and learn what we can,” Ashend replied.

After a short while, the two of them headed back into the cave, leaving the rest of the army to themselves. So far, Cyclone hadn’t asked to see their Forbidden Attacks in person, so they had been able to do a good job of simply pretending to use them. Eventually, they knew, he would want an audience. Ashend was still thinking about what they would do when that time came.

Once in the cave, Ashend used her levitation powers to lift the glowing stone amulet off of her neck and set it on a stone ledge. She had grown to hate the thing more and more, but still treated it with respect, knowing that doing anything else would lead to suspicion. Beside her, Itora flopped down on the ground, scratching at a patch of her scruffy fur.

“So we still have no plan,” the manectric sighed.

“Not yet,” Ashend responded.

For a while they waited in silence, each with their own thoughts. Despite the daunting task of keeping their intentions a secret, the two had felt an immense burden lifted from them at the news that Solus had failed to kill Yenn. That gave them the peace they needed, and would make it easier to hide their feelings from Solus.

“Hello, Ashend. Itora,” a calm voice stated, and the two turned to see Cyclone standing in the cave’s entrance tunnel. Beside him was the sleek form of Solus.

“Yes, Cyclone,” Ashend said stiffly. “What is it?”

“Though Yenn’s capture was a failure, we have good news,” he replied. “We have discovered the location of another Attack stone not guarded by a legendary. I have already sent some loyal pokémon to retrieve it.”

“Good,” Ashend replied. “But it won’t be enough, will it? We’ve got to get more of these things before we actually use them on humans.”

“Yes, and there have been major setbacks,” Cyclone replied. “But with time, that shouldn’t matter. With time, it won’t matter that the legendaries are gathering stronger forces to guard these stones.”

Itora gave Ashend a glance, but neither of them spoke what was on their minds. The misdreavus carried on as if everything was normal.

“The army only gets stronger. That won’t be a problem in time,” she said.

Cyclone nodded. “Now, I want you to meet our new partner. Sandra, come here.” He turned his head back toward the tunnel, and another pokémon walked into the gloom.

The stranger was a ground type, covered in tan and white fur with a mass of brown spines lining her back. As she watched Ashend and Itora, she lifted a forepaw and scratched the side of her face with a massive claw.

Ashend tried not to show much surprise at the sight of the sandslash, instead giving a smile as if she was pleased with the newcomer. She noted that Sandra bore no scars of any sort, and briefly wondered what the sandslash’s story was. As she pondered this, Itora gave the ground type a convincingly cheerful welcome.

“Hm,” Sandra replied absentmindedly. “I already know who you are. Everyone treats you like royalty. Let’s hope you’re actually skilled enough to deserve it.” She turned away from them, not bothering to watch their reactions. “So Cyclone,” she began, running a claw through the fur along her jawline, “how many more do I have to kill before you really trust me?”

“I trust you already,” Cyclone replied, with a nod to Solus.

“Good,” the sandslash replied, grinning. “Now where is my stone?”

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 75 – Shellreef City

The group stepped through the portal into pouring rain. Despite it still being morning, the sky was dark and thick sheets of rain made it hard to make out much of what was around them. The trainers and pokémon took careful steps over dark, slick rock, becoming soaked within seconds.

“Ugh,” Rosie muttered, trying in vain to shake some of the water out of her fur. “Where are we?”

“Katie’s looking it up,” Arien told her, nodding toward the trainer, who was hunched over and peering at the screen of her pokégear while her hand shielded it from the worst of the rain.

“We’re very close to Shellreef City,” Katie called to the others, having to raise her voice to be heard over the torrent. “We’re near one of the routes leading in to it. Now we’ve just need to get off these rocks.”

Snowcrystal stood beside Redclaw, peering at her strange surroundings. There were masses of dark gray stone on all sides, jutting up into steep cliffs or twisting into strange formations. The rocks around them, even many of the ones at their feet, were sharp and jagged, and the rain made them slippery. Careful of where she put her paws, Snowcrystal stepped forward. They were on some sort of hill or small mountain, because in the breaks between the rocks, she could see places where the ground sloped downward.

Stormblade shook himself, fluttering his wings and sending water flying in all directions. “We’ll need to be careful finding a safe way down,” he informed the others, “because there’s a steep drop over here.”

Snowcrystal walked closer to where Stormblade was standing, near one of the openings in the rock walls. Sure enough, it only sloped gently for a few paces before it plunged into a steep cliff, water flowing off the edge and into space.

“Yenn!” Blazefang called up into the air, where the yanmega was hovering above the group. “See if you can find us a way down.”

Yenn brought himself lower, hovering just above the heads of the tallest pokémon. The rain didn’t seem to bother him at all. “Okay,” he said. He zipped off, leaving the others waiting.

“This feels so nice!” Alex cried, spreading her arms as she lifted her head to the sky.

“Glad someone’s enjoying themselves,” Scytheclaw replied, the raindrops striking his metal carapace making an odd sound.

Lightning flashed across the sky, followed immediately by the boom of thunder. For a second, everything was illuminated in white light. Spark, excited by the feeling of electricity in the air, bounded in a circle around the group, carefully leaping only onto patches of rock that weren’t jagged.

Justin made his way toward where most of the pokémon had gathered, stepping carefully between the rocks at his feet. He passed an opening in the rock walls around them, trying to see what lay in the distance. He realized that he’d made a misstep a split second too late. Before he could register what had happened, he was on the ground, sliding toward the edge of the precipice. He felt something grab his sleeve and saw Spark holding on desperately, his paws scrabbling against the slick rock. Justin felt something slip out of his pocket – his phone – and slide over the edge. The storm was so loud that he didn’t hear it strike any of the rocks below.

“Help!” he cried out, but Damian had already reached his side and began pulling him away from the edge and toward the startled group huddled behind him.

“Are you okay?” Katie asked, her voice barely audible over the pounding of the rain.

Justin just nodded, feeling nothing but numb shock over what had just happened.

Redclaw was the first to spot Yenn returning and called out to the others. “He’s back!”

“I’ve found a safe way down,” Yenn informed the arcanine. “Follow me.”

“Lead the way,” the arcanine replied as Yenn flew forward, leading them to a narrow gap between two towering rock formations. “Uh…” Redclaw began doubtfully. The space between them looked very tight, and Redclaw, being the largest of the pokémon, wasn’t sure he’d be able to fit.

“You can squeeze through without all that human junk on your back,” Yenn informed him. “Once you do, though, be careful. There’s a big drop on the other side and it looks slippery. Just follow the ledge until it widens out.”

“Are you sure it’s safe?”

“After you get past the ledge, it’s a much more gentle slope to the bottom,” Yenn replied.

Redclaw sighed and informed Arien that the trainers would need to remove his traveling pack. As Damian and Katie struggled with it in the rain, the other pokémon walked one by one into the crevice.

“Careful!” Yenn warned as Rosie slipped, her leg hanging over the edge of the cliff before she quickly pulled it back up. “Walk along the ledge. I’ll catch you if you fall.”

“Hang on there, I’ll help!” a voice cried, and Rosie looked up to see Fernwing the tropius hovering near the ledge, Ray the pidgeot by her side. “Damian thought it would be safer if we carried you. I’m afraid we can’t carry Redclaw, but everyone else should be fine.”

Rosie carefully climbed onto Fernwing’s back from the cliff, and the tropius flew her over to where the ledge widened out. After a moment, Ray arrived with Snowcrystal. Stormblade and Thunder flew across themselves.

Soon everyone but Redclaw was past the narrow part of the ledge. The arcanine squeezed himself through the narrow gap, stepping precariously onto the makeshift pathway. Yenn watched worriedly, knowing the arcanine was too heavy for him to carry, but to his relief and the relief of the others, Redclaw made it across safely.

“We’ll be flying overhead,” Katie announced to the others. “I’ll take Justin with me. Damian, you can take Blazefang since he’s injured. The rest of you, be careful. There may not be any more steep cliffs on the way down, but you could still get hurt.”

After Damian and Katie strapped the traveling pack around Redclaw again, the pokémon carried on, walking across the wide ledge toward where the rocky ground sloped downward. They could see the land waiting below them, but it was hard to make out much of anything through the heavy rain.

With the trainers on their pokémon and Yenn flying above them, the rest of the group carefully descended the slope. Yenn flew down low, guiding them to where there were less slippery or steep patches. After they were about halfway down to what looked like a grassy area below the rocks, the rain started to let up. To their surprise, it quickly dwindled from pouring to barely sprinkling, and most of the pokémon were quick to breathe a sigh of relief.

“Look!” cried Alex, leaping up and down as she pointed at something on the horizon. The others made their way up toward where the floatzel was standing. From that vantage point, they were suddenly able to see their destination much clearer.

Below the rocks they were standing on was a well worn path, snaking toward an enormous city lying on the edge of the biggest body of water most of them had ever seen. Snowcrystal found herself gaping at the sight; the water went on seemingly forever, all the way to the horizon and beyond. She could see sailboats near the shoreline, sailboats just like the ones she’d seen in pictures at the Stonedust City library. She was sure that if weren’t for the rain, they’d be floating out into that great expanse of water. This, she realized, was the ocean. She had heard about it many times, but she had never imagined it was that big.

“It’s the ocean!” Alex cried. “I’m finally here! All my life I’ve wanted to see…I can’t believe we’ve found it!” In her excitement, she grabbed Spark and spun him around, laughing joyously.

Redclaw watched them and smiled. “The ocean…I’ve wanted to see it too.”

“Really? But you’re a fire type,” Rosie pointed out with a cheeky grin.

“As long as I don’t go in too deep, it won’t harm me,” Redclaw replied. “Besides, it looks beautiful, doesn’t it?” The arcanine sat down as he gazed at it, seeming lost in thought.

Snowcrystal smiled to see the others so happy after their brief ordeal up on the rocks. Though the sight of the ocean had at first intimidated her, she could see so much beauty in it. She wondered what it would look like up close. After a few more moments, she turned her attention to the city. It was very large, with towering buildings like Stonedust, but it looked different. The buildings formed unique shapes, most of them glistening and white. Beyond the city she could see mountains. That was probably where Tanzenarc’s cave was.

Yenn, however, had frozen. The moment the skies had cleared and he had seen the city, a flood of memories had washed over him. He had no idea why; the city looked nothing like the one he remembered. But the memories kept coming, and a small part of him still wanted to set his Forbidden Attack loose in the city’s streets. He pushed the uncomfortable thought away.

“Uh, Yenn?” Rosie asked. “Is something wrong?”

Yenn looked down at the ninetales, suddenly forgetting what her name was. “I’ll…I’ll be back,” he muttered, not sure if she could even hear him, and flew off.

Rosie gave a confused glance to the others who had noticed his odd behavior.

“Well, I’m not happy about having to go to another city either,” Thunder muttered. “But I’m not afraid of it. If Nightshade trusts you…I think I can trust his judgment.”

“You can trust all of us, Thunder,” Snowcrystal told her, and though she wasn’t sure, she thought she saw what might have been a hint of a smile before Thunder turned away.

They carried on down the rocky slope, avoiding steep drops and puddles of water. When they reached the grass at the bottom, the storm clouds were already starting to move on, and they could see patches of a bright blue sky.

Deciding to take a rest, the trainers and their mounts landed among the pokémon. Nightshade was sent out, and Thunder gave him a happy look before she lay down on the grass, resting in the cool air.

As the pokémon lounged in the shade of the rocks above them, Justin paced back and forth with an uneasy look. “Katie, I still don’t think it’s safe for me and Damian to go to the city. I-”

“We’ll work something out,” Katie tried to assure him. “I mean, maybe we can convince them it was an accident.”

“I’m not sure that’ll work,” Justin replied glumly.

“Well…” Katie began, standing up and glancing to her pidgeot. “I can go ahead of you. See if everyone’s still talking about the library or if they’ve found out anything more. Like I said, they might have realized it was an accident if everyone stopped talking about it.”

Justin and Damian glanced at each other.

“I guess that makes sense,” Damian said. “And if they are looking for us, well, we don’t have to actually go too close to the city. Katie can just bring supplies back.”

Justin looked uneasily at the female trainer. “Well…okay. I guess it wouldn’t hurt if you tried to figure things out.”

“I’ll be back in an hour or two at most,” Katie told them before mounting the flying type, who launched himself and his trainer into the sky.

Snowcrystal watched them go, hoping that Katie would encounter nothing but good news. However, her thoughts were on other things, and she found herself focusing once more on the death of Articuno, the pokémon who had once guarded her mountain home. The other pokémon hadn’t talked about it much since the night that Yenn told them. She supposed she didn’t blame them; she hadn’t wanted to talk about it either.

“Is something wrong?”

Snowcrystal looked up to see Stormblade standing next to her, his eyes looking concerned. “Well, um…”

“Is it about Articuno? Your tribe?”

“I don’t really want to talk about it right now,” Snowcrystal answered with a sigh.

Before Stormblade could reply, Spark bounded over to them and said, “You know we’re going to help your tribe after all this. Remember? Articuno may be gone, but that doesn’t mean we have to-”

“I said I don’t want to talk about it,” Snowcrystal snapped, but immediately regretted it at the sight of Spark’s taken aback expression. “Sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just…”

“It’s all right,” Spark said with a shrug, his optimistic attitude returning. “If you don’t want to talk about that, well…there was something else that’s been on my mind ever since we learned we’d be going near a city.” He gave a small smile as Snowcrystal looked to him curiously. “Snowcrystal, have you ever thought about evolving?”

Snowcrystal hadn’t expected the question. “Well…I haven’t really thought about it much,” she admitted. “I mean, I think that someday maybe I’d like to. But I’m not ready now.”

“That’s fine,” Spark replied. “I was just thinking that…if you wanted to, one of the trainers could buy you a fire stone from one of the shops there. Just know that it’s an option whenever you decide.”

“Evolving isn’t for everyone,” Stormblade reminded Snowcrystal. “Don’t think that you have to. If anything, you can always make the decision later.”

Snowcrystal looked back at the two of them, two pokémon who had made very different choices about evolution. She turned to Spark. “I’m curious. What made you decide to become a jolteon?”

“Well,” Spark began, tilting his head to the side as he smiled, absorbed in memories, “I admit I was pretty overwhelmed with all the choices when I was younger. But when I thought about it, I knew there were some evolutions I wasn’t really too keen on. I didn’t like swimming enough to become a vaporeon, I didn’t really like the nighttime much, so umbreon was out, and I wasn’t keen on the cold either, so I didn’t want to be a glaceon. As for the rest, I wasn’t sure. It took me a while, but Justin was patient with me. Then one day, I was watching a thunderstorm and I guess I just realized…I really, really wanted to become a jolteon.”

“It happened just like that?” Snowcrystal asked.

“Well, no. I waited a while – Justin insisted that I did – just so that I knew I was sure. But I realized that out of all the elements, I was drawn to the lightning element the most. I evolved, and I’ve never regretted it since.”

“It must have been hard to have so many choices,” Snowcrystal said, “I admit I’m glad that growlithe don’t have to choose between so many. It seems a bit silly that I don’t know how to make the decision even with only one evolution.”

“It’s difficult for a lot of pokémon,” Stormblade told her. “Don’t feel silly about it.”

Before she could reply, the beating of wings announced Yenn’s return. The yanmega landed on a nearby stone, keeping his distance from Damian and Justin. Snowcrystal noticed that he was tense, breathing hard, and had the look of someone who had flown for quite a long time, despite the fact that he hadn’t been gone long. Snowcrystal wondered if she should try to reach out to him more; he obviously didn’t feel comfortable in the group, when suddenly something in the yanmega seemed to snap, and he turned to the others, stating, “I’m not going into that city.”

“You don’t have to,” Stormblade explained, stepping closer to the yanmega. “Some of us might have to stay here anyway.”

Arien watched the agitated bug type, seeming displeased. “It’s your choice to make,” he told Yenn. “All that really matters is that you’re with us when we search for the legendary.”

“So assuming all goes well,” Scytheclaw muttered, “when Katie comes back, I say that we head to the city, stock up on supplies, then start looking for this cave.”

“But by that time, it’ll be around midday,” Alex sighed. “Can’t we start the search tomorrow? I want to see the ocean for myself.”

“It might take us a while to find this cave,” Scytheclaw replied. “We should start looking as soon as possible. We probably won’t find it on the first day. But,” he added, seeing the floatzel’s downcast expression, “I’m sure we can find some time to visit the beach. We might be here a while.”

Alex gave him a smile in return.

-ooo-

Katie had wandered through the lively streets of Shellreef City until she came to the police station, a grand looking building near the city’s center. It was away from the activity going on in other streets; Katie had quickly learned that it was the week of the Shellreef City water pokémon festival, and most of the streets were crowded. She walked through the police station’s doors after recalling her pidgeot, then rushed up to the front desk, where she asked one of the waiting officers if there had been any news of the Stonedust City library incident.

The policeman looked at her curiously, not having expected what probably seemed like a very odd question to ask in a city so far from Stonedust. The arcanine lounging at the foot of his desk gave a yawn and sat up, watching Katie closely.

“I just want to know if…they’re still looking for the two trainers that they think caused the fire,” Katie explained.

“Every city has been alerted and we are looking for them now, yes,” the officer told her, and Katie felt her heart sink.

“And the officials at Stonedust City…they don’t still think it was Team Rocket, do they?”

The man at the desk gave her an odd look. “Didn’t you hear?” he asked her. “They found out that a wild pokémon caused the fire.”

Katie glanced up in surprise, and quickly tried to act as if she was shocked at the idea that a wild pokémon could have started it. “R-really?”

“A wild pokémon somehow broke in that night and started the fire,” the officer told her. “They eventually questioned the pokémon tasked with guarding the library with the help of a psychic type, and the pokémon had only seen a growlithe, no trainers. Of course,” he added in disdain, “they only thought to do this after they’d jumped to conclusions and scared those two boys half to death, which is obviously why they ran away. Without access to pokémon centers and hospitals, they could easily end up in trouble. There’s already a few rangers searching the-”

“Wait a minute…” Katie interrupted. “The pokémon in the library…they didn’t think to question them until after they’d accused Justin and Damian?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Justin owns no pokémon and Damian was said to have had a growlithe at one point, but quickly released it. There were no growlithe registered to him at the time of the incident.”

Katie thought back to when Justin had briefly caught Snowcrystal and the others to bring them to Stonedust City. He had released Snowcrystal as soon as he’d arrived in the city, before the workers at the lab she was briefly sent to would have let her out and seen her odd coloring. They had never known Snowcrystal was a white growlithe; Damian’s image on television the night the fire had occurred had shown a generic image of a growlithe. She only hoped the pokémon of the library had neglected to mention Snowcrystal’s white fur.

That worry quickly left her and was replaced with anger. “So they just jumped to conclusions? Didn't even think to get any input from the pokémon?”

“Some of the pokémon had been injured in the fire and were in Stonedust’s makeshift pokémon center,” the officer replied. “Or at least, that was the excuse. After the Team Rocket attack a few months back, I suppose the city was on edge. Not that that’s much of an excuse either. By the time they realized their mistake, there was no sign of either of the boys. Now we have rangers trying to bring them back when they obviously don’t want to be found.”

“Well, that’s why I’ve come here,” Katie said. “I know where they are…and they’re nearby.”

The man looked surprised, but was trying not to show it. Katie wasn’t sure if he believed her. “If you can bring them here, that would be incredibly helpful,” he replied. “Granted, they did sneak into a restricted area of the building, and possibly broke a window – although that could have been caused by the wild pokémon – so they will need to pay a fine. But if they can come here, we can get this sorted out.”

“Okay,” Katie replied, breathing a sigh of relief. “I’ll tell them. I think they’ll listen to me.”

“And you for sure know how to find them?”

“Pretty sure,” Katie replied, hoping she wouldn’t be seen as the one who had helped them run away.

“Well, that will be a relief for a lot of people,” the officer sighed. “Last I heard, Justin’s parents were down in Stonedust demanding answers. This whole thing was a mess. Doesn't surprise me that Stonedust officials wouldn't even consider consulting pokémon until after they'd terrified the two boys.”

Katie paused. It did bother her that the police had thought to ask the pokémon last, when doing so could have avoided the whole messy situation. She knew that pokémon weren’t ranked on the same level as humans in Stonedust, or even in most of Inari, but the thought still really concerned her. However, she guessed it didn’t surprise her. People in Stonedust wouldn’t immediately think of involving the pokémon in matters like this. There, it was 'humans are in charge, humans make the decisions,' and pokémon that weren’t even working for the police didn’t have much of a chance for their voices to be heard. Now, however, she knew why the news surrounding the library had suddenly died down the day she went back to Stonedust and saw the video about the arch.

“The Stonedust City officials were wrong to do what they did,” the officer continued, stroking his arcanine’s mane. “But if you can help, we would all be very grateful to you. And oh, if you haven’t heard,” he added, seeing that Katie had started to turn away, “they found out something very interesting about that growlithe. Apparently, its fur was white.”

Katie froze.

“It’s not the first time one’s been sighted, either,” he went on. “A few months ago, someone in that same library claimed to have seen a white growlithe. People have been searching around Stonedust for them, but to no avail. Some think the pokémon were lying about it.”

A human had seen Snowcrystal too… Katie had heard about Snowcrystal’s own little library ‘adventure’ from before she had joined up with her and the other trainers. If people hadn’t believed that one library worker before, they might now, after all that mess had been in the news.

“That…that sounds really interesting,” she stammered, before hurrying out of the police station and releasing her pidgeot in a flash of light.

-ooo-

Once back at the place where the rest of the group was resting, Katie helped Damian get to work dyeing Snowcrystal’s fur orange and cream so that she resembled a normal growlithe. Their plan was to take all the pokémon into the city, get Damian and Justin’s situation cleared up with the police, and then they could head to the beach while Katie got supplies.

“I’ll keep Spark’s poké ball safe for you,” she told Justin, and the boy gratefully handed it over. Katie put it, along with Nightshade’s, into her pocket.

As the pokémon gathered together, Arien turned toward Yenn, who was perched on one of the rocks, refusing to join the others. “You don’t have to go into the city,” the alakazam told him, “but I want you to meet us at the beach in a short while. There will be humans there, but you won’t be close to the buildings. Do not attack any humans.”

Yenn just muttered something disdainfully under his breath and turned away.

Despite her dislike of humans and cities, Thunder insisted she come with them. They were bringing Nightshade, and were going to take him to the pokémon center as soon as they were sure Damian’s name was cleared and he’d no longer be associated with the library incident. Though Thunder didn’t like the idea of Nightshade being kept in a building, the heracross had convinced her it was for the best. Yenn, on the other hand, didn’t know of that part of the plan, and they weren’t sure it was best to tell him yet.

As they walked into the city, without Yenn, Snowcrystal stared in awe at the buildings around her. They were like those at Stonedust, tall and massive, yet they were different. They formed more interesting shapes, and looked somehow brighter and grander. There were people everywhere in the streets, so many that sometimes she nearly got lost in the crowd as she followed the others. All along the streets, small stands had been set up, selling food and other items. The smell was enticing to her; some of the scents were new to her, and she wondered what sort of food was being sold. In addition to the stands, the streets were decorated with ribbons and balloons of bright colors. On one corner, several stands displaying games were set up, people and pokémon laughing as they attempted whatever challenge the games presented.

“What’s going on here?” Snowcrystal whispered to Spark, trying to keep close to him to avoid getting separated again.

“Oh, Katie says it’s the water pokémon festival this week,” Spark explained. “I’ve seen it on TV before, back when Justin had his license. In a couple days, there’s going to be a huge parade, and a big celebration at the beach.”

“Oh…” Snowcrystal mused, looking up at the brightly colored decorations. They did seem to be themed after water pokémon. “I’ve never heard about anything like that before.”

“I hope we’ll be here for the parade,” Spark said happily. “It’s a lot of fun for humans and pokémon alike.”

They said no more as they focused their attention on weaving through the crowds of trainers and pokémon to catch up with the others. Most of the group’s pokémon were curious but calm as they walked through the streets. Only Thunder seemed really nervous, but she kept silent as she walked ahead. At one point, one of the passing trainers expressed concern over Thunder’s scars. Katie had replied by telling them that Thunder was a rescue pokémon.

Before long, they reached a less crowded section of the city, where they came upon the police station. Katie told the pokémon to wait outside, and went in with Justin and Damian.

As Katie watched the police talk everything over with Damian and Justin, she neglected to say anything about the white growlithe. She found herself glancing toward the building’s front windows, watching the pokémon that sat waiting for them outside. Snowcrystal was among them, looking quite unremarkable with her orange fur die. Katie let out a sigh. She was safe.

“We’ll pay the fee for trespassing,” Justin was saying, “but the window…well we don’t-”

“One of my pokémon broke the window,” Damian interrupted, and Justin shot him a look. Damian didn’t notice. “I’m…really sorry. I’ll pay for it.”

Katie turned to the two trainers briefly, hardly paying attention as they conversed in low tones with the officer about what to do next. Luckily, she thought, it seemed like they could pay the fine and move on, hopefully without having to resort to anything like the library plan ever again. And with luck, she thought, the news about the pokémon seeing a white growlithe would die down.

-ooo-

A while later, once things had been sorted out with the police, the group headed toward their next stop, the Shellreef pokémon center.

“Well, at least that’s over,” Justin said, tossing Spark’s poké ball up in the air and catching it again as he walked down the street.

“Those pokémon told the Stonedust City officials there was a white growlithe in the library…doesn’t that bother you?” Katie asked. “It’s not like that guy who apparently saw Snowcrystal in the library a while before we met her…this is linked to an event that was on the news and…I don’t like it.”

“Well, they’re not going to find her unless the dye somehow comes off,” Justin replied. “I guess in that case one of us can just catch her.”

“I guess,” Katie sighed.

“I need to call my parents,” Justin said as he looked at the poké ball in his hand. “I’m sure they’re worried about me after what happened.”

“Good idea,” Katie replied. “We’re almost to the pokémon center.”

Snowcrystal’s eyes widened as the Shellreef City Pokémon Center loomed into view ahead of them. It was an absolutely massive dome shaped building surrounded by a large lawn that looked very well taken care of. Snowcrystal was awed by the sheer size of the building; even though other buildings were much taller, this was the widest one she’d seen.

They crossed a street and then walked up the pathway leading to the center’s main doors. Snowcrystal leaned her head back to look up at the wide windows overlooking the doors, the sunlight reflecting off of them brightly. As they walked inside, Snowcrystal realized that the windows were there to let sunlight into a large lobby room. There were a few trainers waiting with pokémon, and a couple of them looked up curiously at the sight of so many pokémon walking freely beside the humans together.

“We need to deactivate Nightshade’s poké ball,” Katie whispered to the others. “It’ll look weird if he’s in an unregistered one.”

“Yeah, you’re right…” Damian replied.

“Damian,” Katie told him, “you can transfer one of your pokémon and catch him instead. We’ll let Justin capture him again when this is all done so you can have all six of your pokémon back.”

Snowcrystal sat with the other pokémon in the middle of the lobby floor as the trainers walked over to where some strange machines were positioned. She recognized the one Damian was now using to transfer one of his six pokémon to the lab, but the other she wasn’t sure about. She supposed it must be used to deactivate poké balls.

“Anyone can deactivate unregistered poké balls,” she heard Katie explaining to Justin in low whispers. “It’s ones that are registered to trainers with licenses that need to be deactivated by the owners. Otherwise it’d be much easier to steal pokémon.”

“There,” Damian said as Nightshade was released, and he picked up the empty poké ball from the machine. “Okay,” he told the heracross. “This is just temporary. It’ll look less weird if you’re registered to me.”

Nightshade merely nodded, and allowed one of Damian’s own poké balls to capture him in a burst of light. Damian glanced nervously toward the counter where the nurse was meant to be, but no one was there at the moment. A few of the waiting trainers were looking at him and his friends oddly, though no one questioned them.

“I guess we might have to wait a bit,” said Justin, looking at the empty counter. “I think I should call my parents now.”

He walked off toward a set of video screens, and Damian hesitated a moment before following. “And I should call my brother.”

While the humans went to call their relatives or, in Katie’s case, wait around by the machines, the wild pokémon remained clustered together, trying not to draw too much more attention to themselves.

“Nightshade better be right about these places,” Thunder said with a sigh. She didn’t sound especially worried, just uneasy about the idea.

“It’s not the first time he’s been in one,” Redclaw reminded her, and Thunder didn’t reply.

“Maybe you ought to go with him,” Wildflame told Blazefang.

The houndoom shook his head. “I’ll be fine,” he said. “Besides, you might need me if we find Tanzenarc.”

Snowcrystal found herself looking around the room to pass the time as she waited. She noticed that two hallways branched off from the lobby, one to the left and one to the right. At the entrance to the left hallway, a large glass display case was set up against the wall. Curious, she left the others and walked over to it. In the display case were framed photographs and newspaper clippings, showing pokémon going from sickly and weak to healthy and happy. There were also pictures of the humans and pokémon that worked there, lined up together.

As she looked at it, she thought of Yenn, left behind while the others went into the city. She wished he could have come and been able to see this. Maybe then his opinion on humans could be swayed, even a little.

Suddenly the nurse was back at the counter, and Katie beckoned to Damian, who walked up holding the poké ball with Arien at his side. He released the heracross, and as Katie explained what she knew of Nightshade’s injuries and the nurse called a chansey and blissey over, Nightshade beckoned to Thunder.

Slowly, the scarred scyther walked over to him, still looking nervous about the humans and the building itself.

“Don’t worry, Thunder,” Nightshade told her, resting his claws on her blade. “I’ll be okay.” He turned to the alakazam. “Make sure Damian knows that as soon as I can, I want to be back with the group. I’m sure they can let me recover outside the center. There isn’t as much chance of infection this time.”

Arien nodded, and as he informed Damian, Thunder gave a sigh. “I wish you didn’t have to do this at all.”

“This is the best way I can be helped,” he told her. “I promise I’ll be okay.”

“I know,” Thunder replied.

“Your heracross will need to stay for at least a few days while we assess and treat his injuries,” the nurse explained to Damian. “Preferably longer. But afterwards, he may recover in the care of his trainer if you wish.”

Thunder stepped back as the blissey helped Nightshade onto some sort of moving bed. Though she knew this was not anything new to him, she still felt worried. No, not just worried. Sad, too. She would miss him.

As she watched Nightshade being wheeled into another room, the scyther heard footsteps as Alex walked up to her side.

“He’ll be okay, don’t worry,” the floatzel told her.

“I’m not worried,” Thunder muttered, and there wasn’t much irritation to her words.

Thunder and Alex watched as Nightshade disappeared into a back room, and Katie suggested that Blazefang’s wounds be looked at before they left. The rest of the pokémon remained waiting until Blazefang’s cuts were treated and he was given the okay to go back with the group.

Once that was done, the trainers and pokémon left the building and headed back through the city.

Though a few of the pokémon voiced their irritation about having to go back to retrieve Yenn, Damian solved the problem by having Fernwing fly back for the yanmega, giving her instructions to meet them on the beach.

With that, they headed toward the beach themselves.

As they walked through more crowded streets, Snowcrystal was again awed by the decorations that filled the lively city. Both the people and pokémon seemed happy and excited, and the whole atmosphere of the place was much different from Stonedust. She craned her neck up at some large umbrella-like structures overshadowing the front of a building, seeing several wingull perched peacefully on them. Turning her attention to a shop across the street, she saw several pokémon walking out its front door with colorful looking treats she had never seen before. If it wasn’t so crowded at the moment, Snowcrystal thought that she would have liked to explore the city more.

Luckily, the beach itself didn’t seem very crowded at all. By now, most of the clouds had cleared; perhaps the earlier storm had kept most humans away. The moment they came in view of the ocean, Alex and a few others shouted with excitement.

“I think Damian should help me get the supplies,” Katie said. “Justin, you can stay here with the pokémon.” She tossed Spark’s poké ball to him.

“Won’t it look weird if I’m around this many?” Justin asked uncertainly.

“You can say you’re watching them for us,” Katie replied. “Wouldn’t even be a lie, anyway.”

“I…guess…” Justin muttered.

“Well…if it makes you feel better, you can take some of my pokémon while we’re gone, just in case there’s any trouble,” Damian said, handing two of his poké balls to Justin. “Fernwing will meet up with you too.”

“And don’t worry. We won’t be gone long,” Katie said. “There shouldn’t be any trouble anyway.”

“All right,” Justin said with a sigh. “But Katie…can I borrow your pokégear while you’re gone?”

“Why?” she asked, before remembering that he’d lost his phone on the rocks during the storm. “Oh, right.” She handed it over to him. “Call Damian if there are any problems.” She and Damian turned and walked back the way they’d come, leaving Justin and the pokémon standing at the edge of the city, where the buildings gave way to sand.

“All right, everyone, let’s go to the beach!” Spark cried, charging forward.

Several of the pokémon ran after him, leaving Justin and the others in the dust. “W-wait!” Justin cried in alarm, stumbling forward and breaking into a run.

Snowcrystal followed, keeping pace with him as he bolted after the running group of pokémon, who were nearing the water. Thunder and Blazefang trailed behind, looking as if they didn’t know what to make of the situation. Stormblade hung back with them. Justin and Snowcrystal rushed past dozens of umbrellas and chairs, some of them occupied by pokémon or people, until they reached the tideline.

The two of them stopped at the edge of a gentle slope leading down the water, where the other pokémon were currently frolicking. Redclaw made great leaping splashes in the shallows as Spark and Rosie chased each other through the sand. Wildflame was taking in the view and Alex was already among the waves, floating on her back with a blissful expression on her face. A few of the trainers and pokémon who had been playing near the water shot the newly arriving group amused looks.

Snowcrystal and Justin glanced at each other before Justin took the two poké balls Damian had lent him. After enlarging them, he tossed them in the air, and Arien and Scytheclaw formed in front of him.

“Of course,” Justin muttered. “I got the scizor.”

Wildflame, Thunder, and Stormblade caught up, looking with awe at the sight that lay before them.

“All right, I guess you can all have fun,” Justin said, fiddling with Katie’s pokégear. “Just don’t go too far from each other, and don’t drown. Oh and Snowcrystal, you better not get in the water. The dye might come off.”

Snowcrystal nodded in response, a little disappointed, but she tried not to let it show. She smiled as she followed Wildflame and Stormblade down to the water, telling herself to be careful not to get her fur wet. She found that she liked the feeling of walking on the damp sand, watching paw prints form as she followed the others.

-ooo-

Alex was in her element. The ocean was nothing at all like the lake she had called home after being released by her trainer. It was vast, limitless, and she felt like she could swim forever. If it hadn’t been for the group, she would have tried to swim toward one of the distant islands she could see on the horizon.

Floating on her back, she could see a wave coming toward her, and, closing her eyes, she let it carry her up and over its surface, leaving her back on calm water. Opening her eyes again, she could see that the others were still on shore; it was mainly water pokémon that had gone as far into the waves as she had.

Turning over, she deflated the floatation sac around her body and sank. Underwater, it was like being in an entirely different world. Sand shifted beneath her, a few small pokémon scuttling on the bottom. Rays of sunlight filtered down, the light painting everything a stunning blue. She could only imagine what the deeper ocean might look like.

Excited, she propelled herself forward, the movement of the water immediately feeling natural to her. It was nothing like the lake. It was so much more.

Up ahead, she could see the rolling of the water where another wave was forming. She shot toward it, letting the water flow over her body as the wave moved past her. She continued on, watching the sand slope further and further downward. She did not yet feel the need to take a breath. She watched as the loose sand gave way to a rockier area, where strange plants grew and small pokémon darted out of her way. As she went further, she even saw an alomomola drifting by.

After a while of swimming, she felt the urge to breathe and swam to the surface. As soon as her head emerged into open air, she realized with shock that she had swam quite a distance from the shore and from the others. The pokémon and their trainers looked like tiny specks from her distance.

Suddenly realizing that they’d worry about her before long, the floatzel dived back under again, heading closer to the shore. ‘This is just a quick stop,’ she told herself. ‘There will be time to explore the ocean another day.’

-ooo-

Snowcrystal was sitting on the dry sand when Fernwing and Yenn arrived. The yanmega looked uneasy to be around so many humans, but at least most of the trainers around were further off down the beach.

“Well, here we are,” said Fernwing, plonking herself down in the sand.

“Justin’s over there,” Snowcrystal told her, angling her head to where the boy was seated on one of the beach chairs, excitedly messing with the pokégear.

“So I see,” Fernwing said simply, lying down to soak in the sun’s rays.

Snowcrystal got up and headed toward where Rosie was excitedly digging patterns in the sand. She watched Redclaw and Spark go tearing past, sending up large splashes of water in their wake. “What are you doing?” she asked the ninetales as she came to stand beside her.

“Oh, I’m just trying to make patterns,” she explained. “Some of the other pokémon around here were doing it. Think we could build a sand-den?”

“I guess there’s one way to find out,” Snowcrystal replied, starting to dig.

Nearby, Blazefang and Wildflame stuck to the shallows, trying not to get much more than their paws wet. Both houndoom had quickly discovered that the salty water stung their wounds, and Wildflame, who only bore scratches on her face, had decided to stay with Blazefang rather than follow Redclaw and Spark. They enjoyed letting the waves chase them, running up the shore as the water followed.

Near where Justin was, Arien sat by himself as he watched the waves crashing against the shore. The ocean breeze was calming to him, and he was glad that the group had a chance for a bit of peace before they would begin trekking the mountain to find Tanzenarc.

However, not all the pokémon were peaceful. Thunder still stood away from the rest of the group, uncertain, and Yenn flew overhead, likely watching everything that was happening down below. Arien was uncertain about the yanmega. A hatred of humans was going to do nothing good for the group.

On the shoreline, Scytheclaw was standing near the water with hesitation. He could see Stormblade off to his left, standing up to his waist in water. Scytheclaw wasn’t so sure about it. Ever since he had evolved, water hadn’t held the same pleasant, calming sensation it had for him as a scyther.

As he stared at it, he noticed an orange shape burst from the water and bound onto shore.

“Hey, Scytheclaw!” Alex stopped beside him, panting. “Come on in!” she gasped. “It feels great. It’s not cold at all, I promise.”

“No thanks,” Scytheclaw replied.

“Why not? I mean, at least try it! Or do you not like water?”

“It’s not…” Scytheclaw sighed. “It’s not the water that’s the problem. It’s more the steel typing, if you know what I mean.”

“You won’t drown, silly,” Alex replied. “Let’s just go where Stormblade is. Come on!” She grabbed onto his pincer but didn’t pull him, simply waiting for him to follow her.

Scytheclaw hesitated, but didn’t pull away. Admittedly, he did want to remember how the water had felt to him before, or at least get as close to that feeling as possible. As awkward as it was having Alex to lead him in, he certainly didn’t feel like yelling at her. He gave another sigh. “All right.”

“Yes!” Alex cried with glee, bounding into the water with the scizor following.

Stormblade watched them, immediately thinking back to one pokémon who hadn’t joined in the fun. Thunder. He shook water from his wings before taking to the air, landing on the beach near where Thunder stood. She just watched him, a confused look in her eyes.

“What do you want?” Thunder asked.

“I was just wondering if you wanted to come down to the water with us,” he replied.

“That seems like a weird thing for a scyther to do,” she remarked, noting the water dripping from his wings and body.

“Wild scyther enjoy water,” Stormblade told her. “As long as it’s not too deep. We won’t go far. You might like it.”

Thunder looked uncertain, as if she wasn’t sure she trusted Stormblade’s words. Eventually she pushed past him, heading down toward the water. “I’ll go by myself,” she told him.

Not bothering to look back at his reaction, she made her way to where the waves lapped at the shore. Letting the water wash over her feet, she did find the sensation somewhat pleasant, though she wasn’t sure she liked the idea of standing in the deeper areas.

However, she didn’t mind. Standing where she was, that was enough. Lifting her head, she stared out into the distance, at the water that seemed to go on forever. She had never seen such sights when she was under Master’s control, though other pokémon had sometimes spoken of the ocean. It felt surreal to be seeing it for herself.

From a little way away, Snowcrystal came dashing up the sandy slope, narrowly avoiding the wave that wiped out the sand-den she and Rosie had made. The ninetales followed more slowly, her fur soaking wet.

Snowcrystal paused to catch her breath, glad that the dye still perfectly coated her fur. “Well, that was close,” she sighed.

Rosie jumped as Yenn landed nearby, the remains of a wingull in his mouth. “Weren’t we going to look for the legendary?” he asked, setting the carcass down. “How long are we supposed to stay here?”

“The trainers are just getting supplies. Didn’t Fernwing tell you?” Rosie asked.

The yanmega shook his head.

“Well, they’ll be back soon,” the ninetales said, turning her attention to the waves.

Snowcrystal followed her gaze as well, watching the waves form and crash beyond the playing pokémon. “I wish I could see the waves up close,” the growlithe mused.

Yenn turned to her. “Do you want to?” he asked.

She looked back at him in surprise. “I can’t get my fur wet,” she explained. “If the humans know what my real fur color is, then-”

“I won’t let you touch the water,” Yenn replied. “Do you want me to take you closer?”

“Well, okay,” Snowcrystal replied, and Rosie narrowed her eyes.

“Better not drop her,” she said.

“I won’t,” Yenn replied, and he hovered above Snowcrystal, locking his legs around the growlithe and lifting her into the air.

Snowcrystal immediately felt a gust of the sea breeze as Yenn shot out over the water, over the heads of her friends and other frolicking pokémon and toward where the largest waves were building up. Up close, they looked even more powerful than they had from the shore. Snowcrystal found herself feeling a bit afraid, not sure she wanted to know what waves that strong could do to a small fire pokémon. But the basket formed by Yenn’s legs felt sturdy, and at no point did she feel like she would fall.

Yenn zipped toward a large wave that was cresting, about to crash. He was so close that for a moment, Snowcrystal was afraid the water would crash into the both of them. Yet as the top of the wave started to fall, Yenn darted forward, keeping Snowcrystal close to the wall of water while the wave crashed just behind them, never quite reaching them.

Snowcrystal’s eyes widened. She was so close to the water, she could have reached out and touched it with her paw. It looked so clear and blue beneath her that she really wished she could.

After a moment Yenn flew away from the wave, lifting higher into the air so that Snowcrystal had a good view of the ocean from above. She stared at it in wonder before turning her head to the mountain that rested beside the city. Somewhere in that mountain was Tanzenarc, and today they were going to find his cave.

A few minutes later, Yenn set Snowcrystal back down on the beach. To her surprise, Justin had stood up and was calling to her.

“Hey, Snowcrystal! Want to come with me to get some snacks?”

Snowcrystal glanced to Yenn, who looked disgusted, but walked over to Justin anyway. He probably just wanted some company. Spark, at the moment, was distracted. She looked over at the jolteon, who was digging in the sand and shouting “Everybody bury me!”

The growlithe walked over to stand at Justin’s feet, noting that Arien was staying in place.

“You can help pick out the snacks for the pokémon,” Justin told her. “Arien, watch everyone while I’m gone.”

They started walking off toward a small stand near a group of clustered umbrellas. Snowcrystal heard buzzing wings behind her and turned to see that Yenn had taken to the air again, warily following.

Once they reached the stand, Justin gave a cry of frustration. “Closed,” he muttered. “Must be because of that stupid storm. Seriously, of all the days to-AARGH!” He jumped back as Yenn landed on top of the stand.

“Yenn, what are you doing?” Snowcrystal asked.

“Making sure this human is doing what he said,” Yenn answered.

Snowcrystal watched as Justin stepped away and pulled out Katie’s pokégear, as if he wanted to call the others over Yenn’s odd behavior.

“He’s not doing any harm,” Snowcrystal argued, hoping Justin would understand her meaning even if he couldn’t understand her words. “He-”

She broke off, because another trainer had suddenly come running from behind the stand and crashed straight into Justin.

Both trainers fell to the ground, the pokégear flying out of Justin’s hand. A small pokémon came tumbling off the other trainer’s shoulder and hit the sand near Snowcrystal.

Snowcrystal stared as the pokémon shook her head and got to her feet. The pokémon was a purple imp-like creature even smaller than she was, with large gemstone-like eyes. As she noticed Snowcrystal, the sableye gave her a grin showing pointed teeth. “Nice running into you…haha,” the stranger said.

Snowcrystal wasn’t sure what to reply with, but was interrupted when Justin and the other trainer got to their feet and started speaking. “Sorry!” the newcomer blurted out. The growlithe could now see her clearly; she was a female human with brown skin and black hair that looked to be about Damian’s age. “I didn’t see you. I was just in a hurry; I might be late for a contest and my flying pokémon is too tired to fly me there, and I lost track of time.” She leaned down to hurriedly pick up her spilled belongings.

“Uh…it’s not a big deal, I guess,” Justin replied.

“Is this your growlithe?” the other trainer asked, suddenly distracted as her eyes lit up with excitement. “She’s adorable!” She reached out her hand toward Snowcrystal, and the growlithe stepped forward to let the human pet the tuft of fur on her head.

“She…she belongs to a friend,” Justin said, but he wasn’t sure the trainer had even heard him, because she quickly fixed her attention on something else…the yanmega perched on the top of the snack stand.

“You have a yanmega too?” she asked, excited, and Justin tensed as she approached Yenn, who looked momentarily frozen in disbelief. “Male or female?”

“Uh…male,” Justin replied with a nervous glance at the bug type.

“He’s beautiful,” the trainer said in admiration, reaching out with her hand toward the dragonfly-like creature on the roof of the stand.

For a moment, Justin was sure she was about to get her hand bitten off. But before he could shout at her to back away, she drew her hand back, obviously having recognized the hostility that was radiating from the yanmega.

“You’re such a lucky trainer,” the girl continued, obviously mistaking Yenn’s reaction for mere nervousness around strangers. “They’re magnificent creatures. What is that scar from though? It doesn’t look like anything…” Suddenly a look of alarm crossed her face and she scooped up the sableye on the ground and took off running. “Oh, sorry, gotta go! I’ll see you around!”

Justin stared at her in bewilderment before he sighed and picked the pokégear off the ground, wiping the sand off of it. He glanced at Snowcrystal, who gave him an odd look, and then at Yenn, who was still crouched on the snack stand. Luckily, the yanmega didn’t look ready to do anything hostile, but he certainly didn’t look pleased either. “Well that was weird,” Justin sighed. “Let’s get back to the others.”

He and Snowcrystal walked back down to the beach, Justin stopping in surprise when he came upon his jolteon, buried up to his neck in sand.

“Well, I see you guys are having fun,” he muttered.

-ooo-

It wasn’t long before Damian and Katie both returned with supplies. They gathered all the pokémon together, and Katie explained that they were only going to look for the cave’s entrance that day, not actually going inside if they found it, and they would be splitting into groups.

“We might not have time to search much of the place,” Katie told them. “But I still think we should get a head start.”

“Can I be in Scytheclaw’s group?” Alex asked.

“We’ll decide groups when we get there,” Arien told her.

“I think that covers everything,” Katie continued. “Let’s head out now, everyone.” She turned to Justin. “Oh, and I’d like my pokégear back.”

“Here,” Justin replied, handing it to her.

Katie took it from him, but after looking at it up close, she suddenly frowned.

“What’s wrong?” Justin asked, afraid that he’d damaged it somehow.

“This…isn’t mine,” she replied, showing him the screen, which showed a trainer’s name registered: Teresa Jones.

Justin stared at it in shock. “Oh…that other trainer…we must have gotten them mixed up when…never mind. I’m sure we can get it back. She was headed to a contest.”

“A contest which isn’t going to be over anytime soon,” Katie retorted. “Only the big contests are held here. There will be a lot of competitors and…” She paused, then sighed. “Look, it’s not your fault. We’ll head up to the mountain, and once we’re done we’ll go to the contest hall and try to find that trainer.”

“Okay…good idea,” Justin responded, glad that she hadn’t blamed him. He turned his attention to the mountains ahead of them, lying just beyond the city. “In the meantime, let’s start looking for that cave.”

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 76 – Toil on the Mountaintop

Ashend waited alone in her cave, pondering. Itora was down in the bigger caves, hopefully doing a convincing job of making it look like she’d used her Forbidden Attack. Ashend had instructed her to continuously use thunderbolt on both the prey and the ground around it until it convincingly looked like damage from Voltgale. Ashend herself had killed hers with ghost type attacks that didn’t leave any physical mark, and had Itora consume it before it could be examined. So far, Cyclone hadn’t asked to be witness to the Attacks himself, and Ashend hoped it would stay that way.

The misdreavus glanced to the amulet that was resting on a small ledge nearby. Using her ghostly energy, she lifted it and held it front of her face, gazing into the deep blue stone. The thought of what she had given up for that stone made her simmer with rage, but only for a moment. She was reminded of another stone that was just like it, only red instead of blue. Yenn’s. Where Yenn was now, she had no way of knowing. She only knew that he was alive and he’d escaped.

She missed him. Apart from Itora, he was the only real friend she’d had in the army, the only friend she’d had in a long, long time. And if it weren’t for sheer willpower and a whole lot of luck, he’d be dead. Her gaze hardened. Cyclone was going to pay for it in blood.

“Ashend,” a voice said.

The ghost type whirled around, the amulet dropping to the ground in her momentary distraction. The speaker wasn’t Itora. Instead, the tall figure of a scyther stood in the entrance to the cave.

“What is it?” Ashend snapped.

“Something urgent,” the bug type replied.

Ashend narrowed her eyes. Silverbreeze’s sudden presence was an unpleasant surprise; she didn’t want to deal with one of Cyclone’s high-ranking lackeys at the moment. “Is it so important that you really felt the need to barge in here?” she spat, not caring how the scyther took her rudeness. “I’ve done my duties for the day, and I already told the others that I did not want to be disturbed.”

Silverbreeze ignored her obvious displeasure, walking further into the cave until she was face to face with the misdreavus. “We need to talk, Ashend.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“Not really,” Silverbreeze replied. “I know that you were talking to different pokémon about the Forbidden Attacks. You and that smeargle.”

Ashend froze. Silverbreeze’s voice was deadly serious, and the accusation had taken the misdreavus by surprise enough that she couldn’t think up an immediate response. Her mind raced with thoughts of having to kill the scyther before she could leave, before she could spread the secret, and then somehow convincing Cyclone that she had reason to do it. However, something Silverbreeze had said stuck out to her. The scyther had used the term ‘Forbidden Attacks,’ which was something Cyclone never did.

“I think I can trust you,” Silverbreeze stated. “I want your help.”

For a moment, Ashend just stared, unsure what to make of Silverbreeze’s sudden confession. Once she knew the danger had passed, she was left with confusion. Didn’t Silverbreeze know what could happen to her if she made the wrong choice, said such a thing to the wrong pokémon? Did she not understand the risk she was taking?

If this was some kind of trick, Ashend didn’t want to fall for it. Yet as she watched the scyther, she found herself convinced that Silverbreeze was being honest. The near-panic in her eyes looked real, and she hadn’t even bothered with formalities. This wasn’t the Silverbreeze she was used to.

“I shouldn’t stay here long,” the scyther said, walking past Ashend to pace in the open space of the cavern. “So we don’t have much time.”

“What exactly do you want?” Ashend asked.

“I’m sure you’ve realized that Cyclone’s…well, that the Forbidden Attack is doing something to him. Most of the pokémon deny it, but…” The scyther paused, suddenly glancing fearfully toward the cave entrance, but whatever she had thought she’d sensed was a false alarm, and she relaxed.

“How do I know I can trust you?” the misdreavus responded.

“Because I covered for you and Itora,” Silverbreeze answered. “I know you haven’t been using your Forbidden Attacks but I let it go. I don’t want you two using those attacks anymore than-”

“Okay, I understand,” Ashend said with a fierceness she hadn’t intended. The thought of Itora in danger made her seethe with fury, and Silverbreeze had brought the fear fresh to her mind.

“The point is,” Silverbreeze continued. “I want out. So do a lot of the pokémon in the lower ranks. Look, I know this is hard to believe. But I know you helped the yanmega-”

“Yenn nearly died escaping,” Ashend replied. “Solus and his followers nearly killed him. I can’t get you out of the army if that’s what you want.”

“Maybe not,” Silverbreeze said. “But maybe we could do something about Cyclone.”

A small smile appeared on Ashend’s face. “That’s what I plan to do. But there’s nothing we can do now; we don’t have a proper plan. If you act before-”

“I won’t,” Silverbreeze said hurriedly. “I want to help you.”

Ashend wasn’t sure just what had led the scyther to want to go to such lengths; Silverbreeze had seemed loyal from what Ashend had always seen of her. Yet for whatever reason, she had become disillusioned with Cyclone and his ways and wanted a way out. Silverbreeze was also close, in some ways, to Cyclone. She could be valuable.

“All right,” Ashend replied. “Let’s work together.”

“Thank you.”

“We’ll have to be careful and lie low for a while,” Ashend said. “Even Itora and I couldn’t hope to stop Cyclone now, so don’t think our…Forbidden Attacks…are going to be the answer to this.” She paused. “Have you spoken with the new recruit…Sandra? They’ll be bringing back her Forbidden Attack any day now.”

“I wouldn’t take the risk with Sandra just yet,” Silverbreeze said grimly.

Ashend’s eyes drifted to the entrance to the cave. At almost the same moment, so did Silverbreeze’s. “We should talk later,” Ashend told her. “Somewhere safer.”

“Yes, of course,” the scyther replied, backing toward the entrance. “I know all the commanders’ schedules. I could find us a safe place.”

Ashend thought there was no need; she could find places well enough on her own, but she nodded. “All right.”

The scyther nodded in reply, and then she was gone.

-ooo-

Snowcrystal waited, looking up at the mountain as Damian and Arien began sorting everyone into groups. Blazefang was to ride on Fernwing’s back during the search, and Katie and Damian’s remaining pokémon were going to help look with their trainers.

As Damian and Arien discussed it, Yenn glanced to Blazefang, who was sitting beside Fernwing while the tropius waited for orders. “You know…” the yanmega began hesitantly. “There were stories about you in the army. They said that when you refused to join, you threatened to attack them with Shadowflare. That wasn’t true, was it?”

“Of course not!” Blazefang cried back. The fact that the yanmega had brought it up made him uncomfortable, and he could see that Yenn regretted saying anything.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” Yenn replied.

“Stormblade,” Damian said after a bit of silent conversation with Arien. “I want you to lead a group. Take Snowcrystal, Yenn, and Rosie.”

Stormblade called his team over, Yenn following somewhat reluctantly. Stormblade figured he didn’t like taking orders from a human, but luckily he didn’t argue.

“Redclaw, you lead another group,” Damian instructed. “You take Thunder, Wildflame, and Alex. Me, Katie and Justin will go together with our own pokémon.”

“Fernwing and Ray will be searching from the sky,” Katie told the two winged pokémon, and the pidgeot and tropius nodded.

“All right, are we ready?” Spark cried. Several of the pokémon gave a cheer in response.

“We shouldn’t run into any hostile pokémon, but just in case, stick with your group,” Katie advised. “We’ll meet back down here in a few hours.”

With that, each of the groups split off in different directions, Fernwing and Ray taking to the sky. Redclaw led his group with confidence, Wildflame and Alex by his side. Thunder kept behind them, but surprisingly she didn’t object to the task.

As they climbed a rocky slope, Redclaw let the fresh sea air waft through his mane. He cast another glance at the ocean before looking ahead to their path up the mountain. The slopes were gentle up toward a certain point, where the rocks became steeper. Though the ground was still moist from the rain, there didn’t seem to be any danger of rocks coming loose and falling.

Wildflame trotted behind him with Alex right beside her. The two were in a good mood, eagerly following behind Redclaw. Thunder, however, was clearly displeased as she trailed after the others, not paying much attention to her surroundings. Redclaw wasn’t sure she’d be willing to lend much help finding a cave, but he didn’t worry. He, Alex, and Wildflame could handle the search on their own if Thunder didn’t want to participate. Still, he figured, it was worth a try to see if Thunder would be willing to help them out.

“Thunder,” he called down to the bug type, “maybe you should scout the way ahead. Your wings will surely give you an advantage when-”

“No,” Thunder replied, not looking at him.

Redclaw had expected that answer, but he still lowered himself from the rock he’d just climbed and walked back toward the scyther. “Is something wrong?”

Thunder just shrugged, still without looking at him. The action seemed odd, coming from her.

“Well, I guess you could stay behind if you wanted to,” Redclaw told her. “You don’t have to come with us.”

Thunder looked him in the eye, then nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do that,” she mumbled in a distracted voice, then turned and headed back down the slope without another word.

Wildflame watched her go, her eyes narrowing. “Redclaw, are you sure that’s-”

“Let her go,” the arcanine interrupted, sweeping a paw in front of Wildflame as she made a move to follow the scyther. “It’s all right. The three of us can do this.”

They watched Thunder stop at the base of the slope and start to pace around. Redclaw couldn’t really blame her for wanting to stay behind. After all, this was their quest. Thunder didn’t seem like she really wanted to be a part of it. She was mainly with them because of Nightshade and a need for food. Perhaps, Redclaw thought distractedly, he could try teaching her to hunt one day, if she’d let him, perhaps with Stormblade’s help. After a few moments of contemplation, he turned and headed back up the mountain.

-ooo-

Damian walked at the head of the group, running his hand through the long swaying grasses that marked a trail used by rangers. They were only following the trail until they got higher up; if there was a hidden cave on the mountain, it was going to be outside of the rangers’ usual routes.

“So how big do you think this cave actually is?” Justin asked from somewhere behind. “You told us that the pokémon said the cave’s just a bunch of narrow passages. Tanzenarc must be small compared to Sequoiarc.”

“Maybe,” Katie replied, “or maybe there’s a bigger cavern far underneath and he’s just sealed off the other entrances. I don’t know how much we can assume about the legendary himself.”

Damian kept walking ahead of the others, not paying much attention to their conversation. He had Arien and Inferno by his side, and at the moment the three of them were simply enjoying their surroundings. There was a pleasant breeze in the air, and the whole mountainside smelled fresh and clean after the rain. “It’s been a while since we’ve been here,” Damian mumbled to his pokémon. “I forgot how beautiful it all was.”

A call from his pokégear interrupted him, and he reached for the device, confused. Answering the call, he looked at the screen uncertainly. “Hello?”

“Hi!” the other trainer said pleasantly. “Sorry to bother you, but do you by any chance know someone named Katie?”

“Oh…uh, yes,” he stammered. “She’s…right here.”

“Okay, good! My name’s Teresa, and you see, there was a mistake and somehow I ended up with her pokégear. You were the first contact who knew where she was. Are you still nearby? The contests are still going so I can’t return Katie’s pokégear now, but I want to as soon as possible. Where should we meet up?”

“Um…well, anywhere is fine.”

Katie and Justin caught up, peering at the screen of Damian’s pokégear. “My name’s Katie,” she interrupted, “and I have your pokégear right here.” She held up the device. “We could just meet up at the beach.”

“Okay, that’s great! I’ll call as soon as the contest is over. Thanks a lot, you two.”

“Well, at least this will be resolved soon,” Katie sighed. “So, let’s get a move on. Tanzenarc could be anywhere on this mountain.”

Damian took the lead once again, but he hadn’t taken more than a step before he stopped.

There was a pokémon standing in their way, and it had approached so silently that none of them had heard it. The pokémon stood on four legs, and had ice blue eyes and a fluffy mane of fur from which four sharp rocks protruded. It was a lycanroc.

Damian noticed Inferno’s fur stiffen as the flareon looked to the larger pokémon. Arien tensed too, and Damian braced himself. Something about the wolf-like creature was off.

Inferno shouted something at the stranger, something that Arien didn’t bother to translate, and the lycanroc shifted its paws, but did not reply. Damian’s hand moved toward one of his other poké balls.

“Damian…” came Arien’s voice in his head. “Something’s not right.”

Before he could reply, the lycanroc suddenly darted forward, its lips drawn back in a snarl. Damian reached for Scytheclaw’s poké ball and threw, not before the rock type slammed into Arien’s protect barrier, mere inches from Damian himself. The lycanroc jumped back onto its feet and tried to move around the barrier, but was sent flying backward after Arien lifted it with psychic. As soon as it was standing again, it lunged once again toward Damian.

But like the first few times, it never made it. Scytheclaw gave the wolf-like pokémon a few quick blows to the head with bullet punch and it collapsed.

“What on earth was that?” Katie cried, peering at the unconscious form of the lycanroc. “There aren’t supposed to be hostile pokémon here. Especially not ones that attack trainers!”

“I don’t know,” Damian replied. “It doesn’t make any sense…”

He and Katie conversed tensely amongst themselves for a few minutes, unnerved that a hostile pokémon had been lurking so close to a city.

“Look, I don’t know why it was there, but we should really get moving,” Justin interrupted.

They paused as the lycanroc roused, shakily getting to its feet. No one made a move as it hobbled off, letting out a few small whimpers. They watched as it broke into a faster stride and vanished amongst the boulders further ahead. After it disappeared, they could hear it howling. Damian suddenly felt more at unease than before.

“Damian, you should know…” Arien’s voice echoed through his mind again. “That lycanroc was warning others that we knew about the cave. About Tanzenarc.”

“He heard us?” Damian asked, and Katie and Justin gave him confused looks. He quickly explained what his alakazam had said.

“So now these pokémon are going to fight us the whole way?” Justin asked.

“Guess it’s not like the forest where they were all friendly,” Katie said warily. “Maybe we should go after that lycanroc and try to talk to it. Explain what we’re doing.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Justin responded. “I’m sure it’ll just love to talk to the ones who just gave it a beating.”

“Well it did try to attack Damian; what else could we have done?” Katie replied. “Look, okay, maybe we should leave that lycanroc alone. But there’s bound to be other pokémon. We’ll talk to one of them and see what the problem is.”

“Okay,” Damian replied. “Let’s do that.” He sent out the remainder of his pokémon, and Katie did the same.

-ooo-

Stormblade’s group had made good time. They were already far up the mountainside, in an area filled with large boulders near some small but deep ravines. Snowcrystal was in her element among the rocks, and Yenn and Stormblade both possessed wings. It was only Rosie who struggled a little.

Stormblade stood on the edge of a ravine, peering down in it. “I’ll give this place a quick look,” he informed the others. “It doesn’t look like there’s anything down there, but it would be best to make sure.”

Yenn, who had been growing increasingly agitated throughout their short journey, suddenly flew in front of the scyther. “Wait. Before you do that, I have a question for you. Why were you letting the humans run everything?”

Rosie gave a loud sigh and rolled her eyes while Snowcrystal cringed, hoping an argument wasn’t about to break out.

Stormblade, however, remained calm and collected as he replied, “We’re all working at this together. The trainers just happened to be the ones to organize us into groups, that’s all. No one’s really ‘in charge,’ and if it makes you feel better, Snowcrystal here’s the reason we started on this journey in the first place. The trainers joined later.”

Yenn didn’t seem impressed with the answer. “And you’re all okay with this? As a bug type?”

“I don’t see why that should matter,” Stormblade replied, a bit confused.

“You’ve heard that Justin brat,” Yenn growled. “He hates us. And as a whole, humans value our lives less than even those of other pokémon. They exterminate us, use us in their sick little tests-”

“What are you talking about?” Rosie replied. “I mean, sure, I get it. I hated humans too. But the ones with us are helping us out, and helping you. Shouldn’t you be grateful?”

“I don’t need the humans,” Yenn spat. “I’m here to work with you pokémon, not-”

“All right, Yenn, look,” Stormblade sighed. “I know our group wasn’t your first choice of companions. But we should focus on finding Tanzenarc for now.”

“I just thought that as a bug type, you would understand.”

“I think I do,” Stormblade replied. “Yes, there are trainers that don’t like us, but there are also plenty who do. But if you want me to understand more, I can try to. You can come to me and explain whatever you want once we camp for the night.”

Yenn looked surprised by the response, and just lowered his head, quietly answering, “All right.”

Snowcrystal watched the two bug pokémon, aware that Yenn wasn’t entirely wrong, if Nightshade’s history was anything to go by. Stormblade had no way of knowing about that, however, and she wasn’t going to break Nightshade’s trust by bringing it up. It made her a little sad to think about it, wondering if Yenn’s hatred of humans was in some way justified.

Stormblade flew down to the bottom of the ravine, leaving the others among the boulders at the top. Snowcrystal peered down at him as he examined the rock walls.

“We should hunt soon,” Yenn muttered to them, not seeming interested in what Stormblade was doing. “I’m starving…”

Snowcrystal looked up as Yenn flew overhead, and before she could reply, she noticed that Yenn’s attention had snapped to something further up the mountainside. Something that was moving.

The growlithe froze, immediately aware that something was amiss. There wasn’t just one shape moving, but many. They were weaving between the boulders higher up the mountainside and coming straight for them.

Rosie glanced in their direction, immediately noticing what was wrong. “Uh, Stormblade? You better get up here…”

The scyther reappeared, looking puzzled, before he too noticed the oncoming pokémon. Pokémon that were now racing toward them at full speed. There were several lycanroc – both day and night forms, which puzzled Stormblade, as the sun was blazing brightly – as well as a good number of graveler and golem, and even one tyranitar. Every pokémon was hurtling towards them with bared fangs and furious cries that grew louder as more came out into the open.

“Follow me,” Stormblade said urgently, whirling around and racing back down the slope, the other three following him. “We’ll head toward the ranger trails and follow them down to the beach.”

Snowcrystal nodded to him, though she was sure they wouldn’t be able to outrun the group of rock types for long. Some of the graveler and golem had tightened themselves into balls and were rolling down the slope toward them, and the lycanroc had much longer legs than she did. Her frantic mind tried to piece together why they were being attacked; Katie had said that there weren’t meant to be any hostile pokémon on the mountain.

Though Stormblade could outrun the enemies, he kept his pace matched with Snowcrystal and Rosie. Yenn flew overhead, sometimes darting behind to send a shockwave at a golem or graveler that came too close.

By the time a ranger trail came in sight, the pack was almost upon them. Stopping at the edge of the dirt road, Stormblade turned around, crossing his blades. “We don’t mean you any harm,” he called to a golem who had stopped mere yards from them. “We’ll leave if that’s what you want-”

“You’re not from here,” the golem roared. “You with those trainers?”

Stormblade didn’t reply, but the surprised look in his eyes gave his answer away. The golem’s scowl deepened. Suddenly he heard a shriek, and turned to see that a few of the other rock types had cut off Rosie and Snowcrystal’s escape.

The remainder of the mismatched pack reached them, looking at them with a certain hatred Stormblade didn’t understand. The golem gestured for some of the other rock types to leave. “Keep looking,” he told them. “We’ll take care of these ones.”

As most of the rock types ran off, Stormblade glanced behind him at Rosie and Snowcrystal. They were each being pinned down by a graveler. Yenn was hovering overhead, out of reach of the mountain dwellers.

Stormblade watched nervously as the tyranitar approached him. This one seemed to be the leader of the group. “What are you doing here?” the rock type demanded. “Who told you?”

“Told me…what?” Stormblade asked.

“What your humans are looking for,” the tyranitar snarled, slamming his fist down on a rock and sending a large crack through it. Something told Stormblade that if this pokémon attacked him, he would not hold back as if they were in a trainer’s battle. This tyranitar could very likely kill him.

“We-”

“Sequoiarc sent us!” Snowcrystal cried from behind him, causing the tyranitar to look over at her. “He needs Tanzenarc’s help.”

The tyranitar stomped over, reaching down for the growlithe and lifting her upwards by the fur on her head. Snowcrystal cried out, but he ignored it. “How do you know that name?” he growled.

“Let her go,” Stormblade demanded. “We don’t mean you any harm. We just want to talk. You seem like you could help us.”

“You’re not supposed to know that name,” the tyranitar growled at Snowcrystal. Stormblade could see in the rock type’s eyes a hint of panic, desperation…and knew that that was fueling the fire behind the tyranitar’s violent actions, for reasons he could only guess. This wasn’t a loyal guard of Tanzenarc’s, nobly protecting the legendary’s home. This was a crazed, desperate pokémon. He watched in dismay as the beast raised his fist toward the growlithe.

Two things happened at once. Snowcrystal fired a blast of hot flame into the tyranitar’s face and Stormblade darted forward, slamming the dull side of his blade into the creature’s rocky hide. The rock type dropped Snowcrystal and focused his attention on Stormblade, lunging toward him with a thunder fang.

As the scyther dodged, he heard cries from behind him that told him that Rosie was struggling with her captor. Stormblade felt something slam into his back from behind, sending him teetering off balance. The tyranitar leaned toward the ground, readying some type of rock type attack. Still dazed, Stormblade braced himself for the pain.

It never came. Instead, the tyranitar gave a shout of agony himself, and Stormblade saw that Yenn had his teeth sunk deep into the tyranitar’s arm. While the yanmega’s jaws didn’t seem to be strong enough to completely bite through the rocky hide, it was clearly causing enough pain on its own.

Stormblade tried to gather his strength to come to his companion’s aid, but something happened before he could. Slamming his fist into the ground, the tyranitar forced a spire of rock out of the earth and toward the yanmega. It struck Yenn’s head above his snout, and blood sprayed across the tyranitar’s face. Yenn dropped, completely limp, to the ground.

Stormblade froze for a second before realizing that during the commotion, Rosie and Snowcrystal had both managed to free themselves. Seeing that the tyranitar’s attention had turned to them, he bounded toward his friends. “Run!” he cried, seeing that they had hesitated upon seeing Yenn collapse.

Luckily, both fire types trusted his word and bolted down the ranger trail. A golem immediately pursued them, but Stormblade knocked it off course with an attack of his own. Seeing that the rock types were ignoring Yenn’s still form and coming after the three of them, Stormblade reluctantly turned away from the yanmega and followed after Snowcrystal and Rosie, trying to cover them from any attacks.

“That way,” he called, leading them off the ranger trail and toward a rugged path that ended in a steep cliff edge.

Snowcrystal’s eyes widened as she realized that he wanted them to jump. As she approached the cliff, she could hear ocean waves crashing against the rock.

Rosie reached the edge first and froze, realizing that it was quite a drop. Before Snowcrystal could shout words of encouragement, Stormblade gripped her between the dull sides of his blades, lifting her off the ground.

“Sorry, Rosie,” the scyther said, before he gave the ninetales a nudge that sent her over the cliff edge and into the water with a scream. Stormblade took off, leaving the rock types snarling at them from the cliff edge.

He watched them from the air, trying to ignore their shouted threats, when suddenly a roar interrupted his thoughts. From around one of the boulders bolted Redclaw, fearlessly snarling at the rock types before turning and running the other way. To the scyther’s relief, they followed him. He knew Redclaw could outrun them; he would be safe. However, Stormblade had no idea where the rest of Redclaw’s group was, and he scanned the sky worriedly for Ray or Fernwing before flying down to the beach and setting Snowcrystal in the sand. A bedraggled Rosie staggered out of the water a few seconds later.

“So what do we do now?” Rosie asked, coughing a few times.

“I need to find the others,” Stormblade said. “Someone needs to help Yenn and-”

“Yeah, and let’s hope he’s the only one in trouble,” Rosie replied. “I think the humans should be okay…the rock types outnumbered us, but they’ve got more numbers on their side.”

“Let’s hope. I’ll be back soon,” Stormblade said. “Wait for the others here.” Without waiting for a reply, he flew off.

-ooo-

Damian, Justin, and Katie stood on the remains of what had been a battlefield. Their group and Redclaw’s had suddenly run into each other right before the mountain’s pokémon struck back with a vengeance. Though the pokémon had been defeated without any serious injuries occurring, it had become clear that they would probably have to retreat, even though there had not yet been a chance to talk peaceably with one of the wild pokémon.

Then stronger foes had appeared. Redclaw had lured some of them off while the rest had been dealt with by the group’s combined strength. Now it was time to regroup and make a new plan.

Damian was about to recall some of his pokémon when he received a call on his pokégear. Seeing that it was Teresa, he answered it, and her smiling face appeared on the video screen.

“Oh hey, Damian! The contest is over, so you and Katie can come pick up the pokégear now.”

“Oh, um…” Damian paused, hearing Redclaw’s howls coming ever closer. Suddenly the arcanine appeared over the rise of a cliff, several powerful pokémon behind him. The arcanine’s eyes widened as he realized he’d led them back to his companions. “Uh…can that wait a bit? We’re a little…busy.”

“Okay, sure,” Teresa replied, but he wasn’t looking at the screen.

Redclaw had sprinted away, and what appeared over the cliff were pokémon a lot tougher looking than the ones they had faced, including, to Damian’s surprise, a tyranitar. He turned to Scytheclaw, who merely nodded at him in understanding and prepared to fight.

The rock types headed toward them, but before anything started, the sound of engines rang through the air, causing all the pokémon to halt. From around a bend in the road, two ranger jeeps appeared, and with them a large amount of well trained water pokémon. The rock types hesitated, and as the ranger’s pokémon shouted something at them, some reluctantly turned and left. Others attempted to put up a fight, but were quickly driven back by the highly trained water types. Even the tyranitar was sent running with the others. Within minutes, the area was clear, leaving the confused group and the rangers alone.

“Are you okay?” one of the rangers asked them, and Katie, deciding to answer for everyone, nodded in response.

“We’re fine I think…some of the pokémon might need a trip to the pokémon center just to be sure,” she said.

“We can give you a ride there,” another ranger offered.

“That would be great, but…first we still need to meet up with some of our pokémon,” Justin explained.

“We can help you find them,” the ranger told her. “We have other groups scouting the mountain as we speak. If we don’t find your pokémon soon, they will.”

“Why don’t you go on to the pokémon center,” Katie told Justin and Damian. “I’ll find the others and meet you there.”

“Okay,” Justin said. “Just stick with the rangers, all right?”

Katie nodded, and as she did so, she heard the buzzing of wings and saw Stormblade come to a halt near the rangers’ vehicles. “That’s one of them,” she cried, and beckoned to Damian and Arien to come forward as she approached the scyther.

During the quick conversation that followed, Damian translated for Stormblade, telling Katie that Snowcrystal and Rosie were safe, but that Yenn had been injured. At one point Redclaw also chimed in, telling Arien that Thunder was waiting at the bottom of the mountain.

“We’ll find Yenn, don’t worry,” Katie told Damian. “Fernwing and Ray should be safe wherever they are, so I’m not worried about them. Take everyone else to the pokémon center and I’ll be back with the others. And…we’ll figure out what to do with Yenn when we find him.”

Once everyone had agreed to the plan, Justin and Damian took most of the pokémon and headed down the mountain with one of the rangers, leaving Katie to search for their injured companion.

-ooo-

The ranger gave a sharp cry as hit the brakes and his vehicle ground to a halt. He had just turned a sharp corner, and lying on the dirt path ahead of them was an unconscious yanmega. The ranger gave his companion a puzzled look before both got out of the jeep and approached the pokémon.

“A yanmega? That’s odd. We never see them this time of year.”

“Think it was attacked by those rock types?”

The two conversed with each other in low tones as they examined the yanmega, who showed no signs of waking. It was immediately obvious that the bug type was in need of a trip to a pokémon center.

One of the rangers pulled out a special temporary poké ball, one used for easily transporting wild pokémon. When he tossed it at the yanmega’s side, however, it merely bounced off, telling him that the creature already had a registered poké ball somewhere.

“We’ll have to drive it back the old fashioned way. Here, help me.”

Together, they lifted the limp yanmega and set it gently in the back of the jeep underneath a covering of tarp. Seeing nothing else in the area, they decided to head straight back, and within minutes they were on their way back to Shellreef City.

Not long after, Katie, flying on Ray’s back, passed over the road, her eyes scanning the landscape for their missing companion. Stormblade flew close behind her, assuring the trainer as best he could that it was the place they had left Yenn, but the yanmega was nowhere to be found. Whether it was because of the rock types or the rangers or if Yenn had simply left himself, he didn’t know. The only thing left to do was to keep searching.

-ooo-

The pokémon center lobby was busy. Justin and Damian waited awkwardly, the pokémon clustered around them while they waited for Katie to return. Stormblade had known where Yenn had been at the time they were attacked. It seemed odd that they weren’t back yet.

It worried Justin that a dangerous pokémon with a Forbidden Attack was on the loose, injured or not. He glanced at Damian’s pokégear screen, hoping he’d see a call from Teresa’s, and that Katie would say that she’d found him, before some disaster happened.

Thunder was even more agitated than Justin. With the pokémon center as crowded as it was, she was getting a lot of stares, and she tried to ignore them as she paced restlessly back and forth.

Noticing this, Damian stood up and walked over to her, ignoring her challenging glare. “If you want,” he said, “I think they’d let us go back and see Nightshade.”

Thunder stared at him uncertainly, clearly lacking much trust in the trainer. But she nodded, still watching Damian warily as he walked up to the front desk.

“Hey, wait,” Justin began, stopping him. “Can I borrow your pokégear in case Katie calls back? I just want to…” He trailed off, then quickly added, “I promise that this time, I won’t get it swapped for someone else’s.”

“Oh, sure,” Damian said, handing it to him. “We shouldn’t be gone long, though.” He turned to the desk and Justin walked back to the group of waiting pokémon.

He was glad no one questioned why he was with so many. He knew it must have looked odd, and some of the pokémon were clearly uncomfortable about being in the pokémon center.

After Damian and Thunder had been taken somewhere in the back, Justin heard the lobby doors open again. To his surprise, in walked a ranger who was wheeling in a pokémon with large, insect-like wings. Justin’s blood froze. He recognized the yanmega lying lifelessly on the gurney as the ranger walked up toward the front desk. Yenn. But where was Katie? Why had she brought him here?

“Stay here,” he told the confused group of pokémon, weaving his way through the small crowd of waiting trainers as he approached the ranger. “Uh, excuse me,” he began, tapping the ranger on the shoulder, “but did Katie tell you to…” He paused, for when the ranger turned to him, he realized that it wasn’t one of the ones who had come to their aid on the mountain.

“Is this your pokémon?” the ranger asked while the nurse quickly looked Yenn over, calling for one of the blissey that had been checking up on another waiting patient.

“Uh, well, sort of,” he began uneasily. “It’s more of a…well, it was following my friends and they’d really want it back, you see…” He was aware of how stupid he sounded, but he wasn’t sure what else to say. “It’s a wild pokémon we…befriended, I guess.”

“This one’s in worse shape than the others,” the nurse said, cutting off any reply the ranger was about to give. “If you want,” she addressed Justin, “you can come back with it.”

Justin wasn’t sure if there was anything he’d rather do less, but figured that going with them was a good way to make sure they put Yenn back outside before he could wake up. As he was led into a door opening into a wide hallway, he quickly used Damian’s pokégear to send Katie a message: “We found Yenn. They brought him to the pokémon center.”

He followed the nurse and her chansey down a hallway into a side room, where another nurse – or a nurse in training, seeing how young she was – was preparing the area where the next wounded pokémon would be examined. Justin glanced down at the yanmega, who still showed no signs of moving. “Um…this is a wild pokémon,” he began hesitantly. “I think you should put it back outside. It’ll…” He glanced at the gash on the pokémon’s head. “It’ll be fine.”

“Wild or not, it’s our job to help the pokémon who come in here,” the nurse responded, not looking at him. “And unless we close that wound, it could easily get infected.”

“All right, just…make it fast,” Justin replied, hoping that if nothing else, Yenn would stay unconscious, or that he wouldn’t lash out if he did wake up.

Both nurses ignored his rude remark. Together, they lifted Yenn onto the clean white table, taking care to make sure his wings and tail didn’t brush the floor. Justin then watched as they cleaned the wound, and noticed when a few of Yenn’s legs started to move.

“You weren’t the one who did this to the yanmega, were you?” the younger nurse asked, and from the annoyed look her superior gave her, Justin figured she wasn’t supposed to ask things like that.

“No,” he shot back. “Wild pokémon did this.”

“It's okay,” the older nurse told him. “Even in trainer battles these things sometimes happen. And wild pokémon can be unpredictable."

The younger nurse watched as Yenn’s slow movements grew more noticeable. “It’s waking up,” she said. “We want it asleep when we close the wound. It should be quick enough for sleep powder, right?”

Justin knew very well that sleep powder didn’t last long – a few minutes at most – and the thought made his unease grow. Nevertheless, he watched as they put some sort of tube and mask against Yenn’s face, presumably to make him breathe in the sleep powder, and he found himself wishing frantically that Katie would show up and somehow fix everything.

He said nothing as the nurses numbed the wound and tried not to pay attention as they closed it with what looked like two thick staples. Yenn showed no sign of moving at all, and Justin breathed a sigh of relief when it was done.

“He can go back outside now, right?” he asked.

“We’ll need to monitor him for a while,” the older nurse told him. “Pokémon that have had a head injury can sometimes-”

“Pokémon faint all the time!” Justin cried. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

“He may be, but we want to be sure. When pokémon pass out for more than a few minutes, we need to check and make sure there isn't anything wrong. Try not to worry,” she added, mistaking Justin’s distress as concern for the yanmega. She turned to the nurse-in-training. “While he’s still asleep let’s quickly check him for other injuries.”

The nurse quickly did a scan of the pokémon, confirming that he was a male and seemed to be in decent health apart from the injury. They then lifted him onto his back, sliding the two halves of the table apart a few inches to accommodate the spikes on his back, and for the first time they had a clear view of his scar.

Both of them looked stunned, and the younger nurse turned to Justin in confusion. “What is that from?” she asked.

“Look, I don’t know,” Justin replied, suddenly finding himself growing more uneasy, for reasons he couldn’t understand. “We found him that way.”

The young nurse turned to the more experienced one. “Is that from some sort of procedure we do here? Have you ever seen-”

“No, that’s not right. Do a full pokédex scan on him.”

The younger nurse quickly did as she was told, and Justin watched nervously, suddenly wishing he could leave the room.

“The OT comes up as some weird code..."

“Let me see,” the older nurse said, taking the pokégear from her hands. She walked over to a laptop in the corner of the room and sat down in front of it. A few seconds later Justin heard the sound of typing.

“I should give him the antibiotics now, right?” the younger nurse asked, and after a confirmation, she opened a drawer and pulled out a syringe.

“It’s not coming up with anything…” the older nurse mused, staring at the computer screen.

The trainee nurse walked over to Yenn, bending one of his legs to expose the soft tissue in the joint. Justin tensed as she gave him the injection. When she was finished, she lifted the needle away, and that was when Yenn started to move again.

At first his movements were slow, dazed, but then as the nurse was about to hand off the empty syringe to the chansey, Yenn suddenly flared to life.

The yanmega’s body tried to jerk upright, his wings beating strongly enough to send several of the objects on the counters smashing to the floor. His jaws made snapping motions as he tried to lunge at the nurse holding the needle, and only the fact that he was on his back in an awkward position stopped him from harming her.

His tail lashed as his wings beat harder; something else shattered on the floor. The movement from his wings gave him enough of a lift that he could scramble back onto his feet. He lunged at the young nurse and slammed into a protect barrier that the chansey conjured up at the last moment. Justin backed against the wall, his hand reaching for the doorknob next to him and his face white with terror.

In his dazed and confused state, Yenn did not know who Justin was. He did not know what had happened to him earlier in that day. All he could tell was that he was back in the place he had sworn he’d escaped – or maybe he’d never really escaped at all. Everything was muddled in his mind. Thoughts swam in and out of his head that made no sense. He watched as the boy flung open the door and fled into the hallway. He focused on the doorway and his possible route of escape.

He launched himself at it. His wings didn’t work the way he wanted them too. They slammed into the doorframe on both sides, nearly sending him crashing to the ground before he turned his body so that they fit through. He emerged into a long hallway and his mind flared with panic. He didn’t see the boy. He didn’t care. He needed to get out.

The area was brighter down one end of the hallway. He flew in that direction, but he felt as if he’d been drugged; his movements were sluggish and there was a pounding ache in his head. He found it hard to focus on anything. His vision swam. He kept flying toward the light.

Suddenly he slammed with full force into a large glass cabinet. It shattered and he collapsed to the floor. Several humans and pokémon screamed.

Damian rushed into the lobby, Thunder right behind him. The glass cabinet that had been set up in the hallway near the lobby had been smashed, and a yanmega was thrashing about in its remains. “Yenn…” Damian began, alarmed. He rushed toward the bug type, ignoring the confused shouts of the other trainers.

“Yenn, what happened? Did-” He suddenly froze, for the yanmega’s body had gone still, standing on all six of his legs with his wings raised. His eyes were glowing.

Damian backed up, aware that Yenn’s attention was now solely on him. The yanmega’s eyes were an odd shade of blue, which was a clear sign that what he wasn’t about to use any ordinary attack.

“Damian!”

It was Katie’s voice, somewhere behind him. He didn’t dare turn around to look. He could only think back to the underground arena, when Blazefang’s eyes had glowed moments before…

Snowcrystal acted before she could think. Almost without realizing it, she was suddenly between Yenn and Damian, and the yanmega flinched, the glow starting to fade from his eyes. “Yenn, don’t use that attack,” she pleaded with him. “There’s a reason you’re not…listen to that reason. No one is your enemy here!”

Yenn shook his head, as if trying to fight off the effects of the Forbidden Attack. But the glow was gone.

“See…you did it. Now don’t worry, we’re getting out of here. Just come with me.” She moved closer to him, taking care not to step on the shards of glass that littered the floor.

Blazefang quickly limped up to her, holding a paw in front of her to halt her progress. “Let me talk to him,” he explained, then added in a whisper, “His Forbidden Attack can’t kill me.” He edged toward the yanmega, careful of the glass. “Yenn, listen to me,” he began. “You’re not in danger here. You-”

He was interrupted as one of the nurses emerged from the hallway, looking at the scene in dismay. Before she could react, before Blazefang other the others could tell him otherwise, Yenn lifted into the air and shot toward the windows above the entrance to the lobby. The glass shattered, some of it raining down on a few of the trainers below who gave startled cries.

Damian rushed out of the lobby and into the open air, watching the small shape of the yanmega fade into the distance. “Come on, we need to find him,” he shouted to the others, then sent out Fernwing.

-ooo-

By the time the sun was setting in the sky, the group was gathered at the edge of the city, with no sign of Yenn. How he had managed to fly so far so quickly, Katie wasn’t sure.

Yenn at least seemed to have some degree of control over his Forbidden Attack, more than Blazefang must have at that stage, but she couldn’t write off Yenn’s being able to fight against it as more than a fluke. If Snowcrystal had arrived more than a moment later, it would have been over. And the fact that Snowcrystal’s presence had snapped him out of it long enough to fight back was a miracle in itself. It was too close. Katie felt a great sense of apprehension. Their peaceful search of the city had been shattered.

“We’ll have to keep looking tomorrow,” she said, addressing the trainers and pokémon gathered around her. “There’s no way we can find him in the dark.”

Damian was about to reply when he noticed an incoming call on his pokégear, which Justin had returned to him. Katie glanced over and could see that it was Teresa.

“Hello? Damian?”

“Tell her we can’t switch the pokégear back now,” Justin said.

However, what Teresa said next had nothing to do with the mixed up pokégear. “Do you and Katie know another trainer, who was at the beach with a growlithe? The one who had Katie’s pokégear?”

“That was me,” Justin said, leaning toward Damian so that she could see him on the screen.

“Oh, good. Well…I think I found your yanmega.”

-ooo-

Nathanial Mausk sat alone in his office room, the only light coming from the glow of his computer. Volco was beside his desk, taking an early nap. Mausk paid the typhlosion little attention.

He had just returned home after a brief excursion training some more pokémon. It had been a long while since he’d sat silently in his own home, catching up on the news he’d missed while he was away. That evening, however, he’d stopped browsing the news and was merely focusing on his own thoughts. He’d had a lot on his mind since the incident with the houndoom down in the arena. Shadowflare, that attack had been called, if he was to believe what the legends of the Forbidden Attacks had said. It wasn’t like him to rely on mere myths and rumors instead of facts, but the information he’d gathered since the incident seemed to match.

An incoming call from his pokégear interrupted his mind’s wanderings, and he picked the device up. Volco let out an irritated groan as he shook his head, woken from his nap.

“Yes?” Mausk asked politely.

“I heard you just got home,” the man on the video screen began. “And just in time, too. I found something I think you need to see. It’s about those…Forbidden Attacks, you called them?”

“Show me,” Mausk responded, and waited as the other trainer sent over a file.

“See what you think,” the other man told him. “If it’s really one of them, this could be bad news.”

Mausk and the other trainer briefly conversed before ending their call, and then Mausk opened the file. It was a clip from the evening news, one of the things he’d skipped watching. He watched as the camera of a pokémon center showed a yanmega crashing into a glass case, a trainer and later a growlithe running up to confront it. Mausk didn’t miss the glow in the yanmega’ eyes. However, he wasn’t entirely convinced. Yanmega could be taught to use psychic.

He was about to close the file when suddenly the yanmega took off, flying toward what he assumed was the window, and the trainer lifted his head to follow it. Mausk’s blood ran cold.

It was the same trainer he’d confronted in the underground. The one he’d shot. The one he’d been sure was dead.

Mausk rewound the clip, noting that there was a houndoom approaching the yanmega near the end, a houndoom that bore the same wounds his own had gotten in the arena. That kid still had that twisted pokémon…still had a pokémon with a power that even Mausk refused to get involved with again. The fact left him deeply unsettled.

He looked at the other pokémon – a growlithe, and realized that it was the same one he’d seen in the underground. That unusually small, runty growlithe.

Mausk focused again on the boy before he turned back to his computer. He’d remembered seeing that boy’s face somewhere else, on the night he shot him. Within minutes, he’d pulled up the news headline he’d recalled, connecting the boy and one other, younger one to the library fire in Stonedust City.

Seeing that there was a follow-up article, he began reading that, stopping when he got to the part about the ghost pokémon claiming that a white growlithe was responsible. He looked back at the pokégear, where the video clip was paused. The growlithe in the video was orange, but it looked the same size as the white one he’d briefly gotten his hands on in the wild before the scrawny trainer had taken it from him.

He turned back to the first article and the picture of the boy that had originally been posted for all to see, then looked at the words beneath it. Damian Cooke.

If nothing else, now he had a name to go with the face.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 77 – A Time to Regroup

The group met up with Teresa at the edge of a small but thick grove of palm trees and lush vegetation. To their surprise, it hadn’t been very far from the city itself, and was near a stretch of the beach inhabited by several trainers. They supposed that, in his weakened state, Yenn hadn’t been able to fly far.

Teresa stood near the forest’s edge, looking worriedly at Justin while her sableye, resting on her shoulder, gave the newcomers curious glances. “I couldn’t get close to him,” Teresa explained. “Maybe if you go in there, he’ll come down from the trees. Or if not, you can just recall him.”

Justin shot a desperate look at Katie, who only gave him a glance and nodded her head. “Uh, look, Teresa. I kind of…well, that yanmega isn’t exactly mine. It’s wild.”

Katie gave a frustrated sigh, and Justin knew he’d probably messed up by not playing along. Teresa, however, didn’t seem bothered. “Well, okay, if you want me to help you catch it, I guess I can do that. And oh, here’s your pokégear, Katie.” She held the device out, and Katie stepped forward and returned Teresa’s before taking it.

“We’re not looking to catch the yanmega, really,” Katie explained. “We just want our pokémon to talk with him. That’s it, really. He got frightened at the pokémon center and we’ve been trying to find him.” She glanced at the darkening sky with a frown.

“Yeah, we can take it from here,” Justin said, nodding to the group of pokémon before looking back at Teresa. “Thanks for the help.”

Snowcrystal stepped forward, Stormblade and Redclaw at her side. “We’ll go find Yenn,” she told Arien, who quickly sent the message to Damian so he could tell the other trainers.

As the growlithe walked past Teresa, she noticed the trainer’s gaze following her, but what unnerved her was the gaze of the sableye. The imp-like pokémon gave her a grin, like it suddenly knew something it wasn’t supposed to know. Glancing over herself, Snowcrystal noticed that some of the dye on her back leg had come off somehow. She froze, trying to think back to when it could have happened, but she couldn’t pinpoint an exact point during the day where it could have washed off. She darted ahead of Redclaw and Stormblade and into the palm forest. If Teresa had noticed, she didn’t say anything.

As soon as she was in the shelter of the trees, Snowcrystal could hear Teresa conversing with the other trainers. She was insisting she could help, and Katie, Justin, and Damian were sounding worried when they tried to explain Yenn’s disdain toward humans. She supposed the situation did look odd; groups of trainers didn’t usually travel around with wild pokémon, especially not pokémon who disliked humans.

Snowcrystal quickly turned her attention away from them and to the search for their missing companion. They walked fairly quickly through the thick foliage, scanning the trees for any sign of the yanmega. It was rapidly growing darker, and Snowcrystal was getting worried. However, sure enough, they soon spotted the familiar form of Yenn, perched at the top of one of the palms.

He looked exhausted, his wings drooping and legs weakly clutching the base of the leaves, his back toward them. Snowcrystal was sure his large eyes could already spot them, but he made no move as they approached.

“Yenn?” Snowcrystal called. “It’s us…we need to talk to you. What happened back there…it wasn’t-”

Yenn’s head slowly turned toward them. “You…what?”

“We just need to talk to you. The others are waiting back there, and we all want to make sure-”

Suddenly Yenn took off, the force of his wingbeats causing the palms around him to sway. He came to a stop in front of the three of them, and Snowcrystal could see that he was breathing hard and still looked panicked. Now that she was staring right at him, she had a good glimpse of the gash on his head, and the two thin pieces of metal holding it closed. The sight, along with Yenn’s crazed state, made him seem so different to the pokémon that had happily taken her to fly above the waves at the beach earlier that day.

“Wh-where were you?” he asked, his voice shaking. His words were somewhat slurred, and it sounded like it took him effort to speak. “How did I get in that…where were the rest of you? Why didn’t anyone stop them? I th-thought we were in this together.” His tone was now tainted with rage, and it frightened Snowcrystal. She stepped back.

Stormblade and Redclaw glanced at each other before the arcanine answered, “You were taken to the pokémon center. We didn’t know until later. But Yenn, you were never in any danger. Something else happened though. You…tried to use your Forbidden Attack.”

That caught Yenn off guard. He froze, as if trying to wrack his memory for details of the incident but unable to come up with much. “I…did?”

Stormblade sighed and stepped forward. “That place you were taken to…it wasn’t any sort of lab. It wasn’t a place where pokémon are harmed. It was a hospital. An infirmary.”

Yenn just stared at him, looking like he wasn’t quite sure whether to believe the scyther. “They…they had an infirmary back in Cyclone’s army. But that…was no infirmary- Arrrghh!” He cried out as he ran his legs over his head, as if trying to dislodge the pieces of metal that held the gash together.

“It was,” Snowcrystal told him, trying to keep her voice calm and steady. “Humans have different ways of helping pokémon that work better than what wild pokémon can do. Things like medicine, for things like pain relief and fighting infection. You know, like the way Damian was helping Nightshade, but stronger. They know what they’re doing. They’re…” She trailed off, unsure whether or not Yenn was believing any of the things she said. “I promise, the humans there meant no harm to you. Nightshade’s there now. He can tell you when he gets back.”

“You left Nightshade there?” Yenn replied, horrified.

“The humans at the pokémon center can help him better than we can,” Stormblade answered. “They have better medicines for fighting pain, too. He’ll be more comfortable there.”

“That can’t be true,” Yenn growled. “It won’t…they won’t work. Won’t stop the pain. He…you can’t leave him there for them to do who-knows-what to him!”

“We would never do that,” Redclaw protested. “It’s not the first time Nightshade’s been in one of those places. He was there for a long while quite recently. I’ve been to one too. All they did was help us, treat our injuries. Like we’ve been saying, it’s an infirmary for pokémon. That is all.”

“Why would humans run infirmaries for pokémon?” Yenn asked, though there was less of a frantic edge to his voice. “What would they get out of it?”

“I guess that’s something Cyclone didn’t tell you about,” Redclaw replied.

Yenn was silent in reply, but his quick breathing told the small group that he hadn’t really calmed down. Suddenly turning away from them, he lifted his head toward the treetops as if he wanted to fly. “I-I can’t keep following you,” he said. “If this is what happens when I do-”

“Yenn, look,” Stormblade interjected, coming around to stand in front of the yanmega again. “I’ll make sure everyone else is more careful next time. You won’t be taken back to one of those places if you don’t want to be. But…please try to believe us. I was in a human hospital for months. No one did any…” He paused. “…Anything bad to hurt me or anything like that. These humans aren’t like the ones you knew. You could ask anyone, even Thunder. They’d tell you the same thing. We wouldn’t lie to you.”

Yenn was silent for a moment, and it was clear that Stormblade’s words were starting to sink in. He didn’t look so sure that the humans at the center had ill intentions anymore. And suddenly he started yelling, as if every bit of fear he had was coming out at once. “You don’t understand! You weren’t there! It looked just like it! All that equipment everywhere, humans staring…everything was just-”

Snowcrystal glanced at Stormblade, unsure how to react to Yenn’s frantic rambling and hoping the scyther had some idea.

“Yenn, listen,” Stormblade said patiently. “You were never in any danger.”

The yanmega stopped suddenly, drawing back from the others as if he wished they hadn’t seen his outburst. “It was an infirmary…” he finally whispered, his voice sounding small and weak. “I thought I had this under control. Why is this still happening?”

“You…you didn’t use your Forbidden Attack,” Snowcrystal said, “so that shows a lot of control, I’d say.”

“No, it’s not enough…” Yenn replied, his voice gaining a frightened edge to it again. “This isn’t right, I should be able to…I shouldn’t have…”

“Look, just come back with us,” Stormblade told him.

Yenn was silent before he quietly whispered, “Okay, I’ll come back. Tomorrow…I’ll come back tomorrow.”

Stormblade looked like he was about to object, but Snowcrystal caught his eye and shook her head.

“I’m not going to leave,” Yenn said, clearly noticing Stormblade’s reluctance. “I’ll be back t-tomorrow morning like I said. Now please leave me alone.”

Snowcrystal could tell that Yenn still seemed too shaken up to be able to calmly come back to the others, and hoped that he’d be more at ease when tomorrow came. She glanced from Stormblade to Redclaw before turning around and walking back the way they’d come. Without another word, they followed her.

-ooo-

When Snowcrystal and her small group met back with the others a few minutes later, they were surprised to see Teresa still there.

“Did they find him?” the trainer asked, her sableye still staring curiously over her shoulder.

Damian turned to Arien, who gave him a quick translation from Snowcrystal. “Yeah,” he said. “He’ll be back in the morning.”

“I just wanted to make sure,” Teresa said. “I’d be worried sick if one of my pokémon was missing. The yanmega was injured…how did that happen?”

Justin gave Katie a wary look, and she turned to Teresa. Before Katie could say a word, however, Damian spoke up.

“We were looking for something on the mountains. The wild pokémon attacked us there.”

Justin shot Damian a glare, but he didn’t seem to notice. Teresa, on the other hand, just looked confused. “Why would the pokémon attack you? They’ve been nothing but peaceful since I’ve been here. Are you sure…I mean, I’m not saying I don’t believe you, it’s just…”

“It’s a long story,” Justin said. “We’d rather not get into it.”

“Well,” Teresa began, “what were you looking for on the mountain? I mean, if you want, my pokémon and I could help you look. There won’t be another contest for a while and I’m just staying here until I decide where I want to go next. I’m sure the wild pokémon won’t cause any trouble if there are more of us together.”

Alarm bells began to ring in Justin’s mind. He thought about what he could say that wouldn’t seem suspicious or odd, but like before, Damian managed to speak first.

“Actually, we could really use the help,” he told her. “We were looking for a cave that’s supposed to be in those mountains. We were looking for the entrance, but we didn’t get far before those pokémon attacked us. If you could help us find it, that would-”

Justin shot him a look, one that Teresa noticed. She looked at Justin uncomfortably. “If you don’t want me to, I won’t bother you. I just thought-”

“Actually, it would be great if you could help us,” Katie began, causing Justin and several of the pokémon to look at her in surprise. “We just need help finding the cave entrance, that’s all. We’ll go back and look, but probably in a day or two from now.”

Teresa beamed, excited at the prospect of a small adventure. “Okay. I’m pretty familiar with the groups of wild pokémon around here. They’ve never attacked me before. My pokémon could have a word with them if we run into any trouble.”

Katie and Damian smiled back. “We’ll stay in one big group this time instead of splitting up. That should help,” Katie said. She looked back to the group of waiting pokémon.

After a few more details of the search were discussed, Teresa said her goodbyes and sent out a flygon. She took to the air, leaving the large group behind.

Justin turned to Katie and crossed his arms. “Do you mind telling me why we just told a complete stranger she could help us look for a legendary no one knows about?”

“No one said anything about a legendary,” Katie replied. “And let’s face it, she’s right. There will be more safety in numbers the next time we go up that mountain. All we have to do is find the cave entrance, then she’ll leave and we’ll have what we need.”

“Well…I guess,” Justin responded, unenthusiastically. “But no one else, okay? We can’t have everyone finding out what we’re really doing. If word got out that there were undiscovered legendaries, and one so close to the city, imagine what people would do.”

“I know, I know,” Katie agreed. “No one else…unless there’s a really good reason we need their help. And no, Justin, I won’t take that lightly.”

Snowcrystal watched both the humans and the other pokémon. Some of them seemed uneasy, or simply shaken up after what had happened with Yenn, but others looked at peace with Katie and Damian’s decision. Snowcrystal was happy with it; Teresa really did just seem like she wanted to help, and she knew that if Teresa had been a pokémon, the others would have welcomed her more readily. But with another trainer on their side, the mountain search didn’t seem quite as daunting as it used to be.

-ooo-

The next morning, Yenn returned, just as he’d said. He didn’t say anything to the other pokémon, and avoided Stormblade, Redclaw, and Snowcrystal. The others informed him that they were taking a couple days to rest before attempting to search the mountain again. Yenn had just nodded dully after hearing the news that a new trainer would be helping them. He didn’t object or verbally lash out, but stood silently contemplating it.

Soon, the trainers came back from the hotel, bringing food for the pokémon. Yenn took one look at it and refused, flying off on his own among the trees.

“So,” Thunder began, watching the trainers through narrowed eyes and addressing no one in particular, “what exactly are we supposed to do once we find this cave? I’m not wandering around in dark underground passages again.”

“No reason you should have to,” Wildflame told her with a shrug. “I’m sure some of us will be staying behind anyway. The entrance is probably going to be small.”

“Well, I won’t be going down there, that’s for sure,” the scyther replied. She gave the houndoom a wary look. She had been wrong about Wildflame before; that much had been proven during the conflict with Solus. She remembered her promise to Nightshade, the promise that she would try to trust the others. “I can cover for you if those pokémon bother us again. I’m not afraid of them.”

“You would be a big help,” Wildflame replied. “Just don’t…kill them. I don’t think they’re really bad, they just…see us as a threat to Tanzenarc for some reason, from what I can guess. And Nightshade should be able to come back, according to Damian. Though of course he’ll have to stay in the poké ball while we’re on the mountain.”

Thunder thought back to her visit with Nightshade at the pokémon center. He had told her the humans were going to perform surgery to repair the damage to his arm, and now that it was morning, she knew the surgery had already happened. She was sure he’d be all right; she may not have trusted the humans much, but she did trust Nightshade’s judgement.

“Yes…that will be good,” she replied absentmindedly. Her thoughts quickly wandered to other things. The rest of the group was searching for a legendary, planning a way to stop the Forbidden Attacks, and Thunder still wasn’t sure she really wanted to be a part of it. She was mainly with the group because she had nowhere else to go, and Nightshade was the main thing connecting her to these other pokémon. She gave a sigh. Being dragged around the region was still a huge step up from being with Master, and better than trying to fend for herself. If anything, there was something almost calming about having a sense of direction, however odd it was.

-ooo-

Yenn, off by himself near the top of a tree, tried to ignore the pain in his head and thought back on the previous day’s events.

It couldn’t have been a lab, he realized. He’d escaped much too easily. The other pokémon – though he was still reluctant to admit it – were right. But what bothered him most was how he’d reacted.

He’d lost control. He’d panicked. That shouldn’t have happened. He should have realized there was nothing restraining him, that any grogginess he’d felt was from the head injury, not from being drugged. But no, he’d panicked like some mindless creature and tore his way out of the building, rather than keeping calm, getting the humans to back off and finding an exit point afterward. Sure, he’d escaped from…whatever the ‘pokémon center’ really was, but he’d gone about it all wrong.

He was supposed to think rationally, analyze his situation and come up with a plan of attack or escape. That’s what being in Cyclone’s army had taught him to do. He’d practiced this technique so many times, planned for what to do in many different situations where an encounter with humans went south. But when actually confronted by any of those things in reality…he had fallen apart. It was as if all that time he’d spent preparing had been useless. He felt ashamed of himself.

A noise from down below startled him, and he jolted involuntarily as he saw the bushes rustle and a pokémon walk out. It was the floatzel. Alex, he recalled. He hadn’t spoken to her much since joining the larger group of pokémon, and he found it odd that she would be wandering off alone…looking for him? No, that couldn’t be. And yet…

Alex suddenly caught sight of him and gave him a friendly wave with her paw. Yenn just stared back, not sure how to respond as he watched the floatzel bound closer.

“What do you want?” he called down to her, realizing he sounded more rude than he intended.

He was sure the floatzel noticed, but she didn’t seem to care. Cupping her paws to her mouth, she called up, “Why don’t you come down?”

Yenn shook his head and remained where he was.

“I just want to talk to you,” Alex called back. “No one’s mad at you. I promise!”

Yenn hadn’t even considered that the others would be angry with him. It would make sense that they would be, he thought. He had acted completely irrationally in a situation he could easily have taken control of. Alex didn’t sound like she was just saying that to calm him, though, so he tried to put it out of his mind. He sighed. He supposed there was no harm in talking to the floatzel for a bit; if he changed his mind, he could simply fly back up to another tree and she’d be forced to leave.

He flew down toward her, faltering a bit in midair due to the small amount of dizziness that persisted when he moved too much. He opted to land on a tree stump about the floatzel’s height rather than the ground. “Okay,” he began, his voice sounding more tired than he’d hoped, “what did you want to say?”

“Well,” Alex replied, “I think you should come back with the others. You really shouldn’t be on your own while injured.”

“I…” Yenn thought of what he could say, but in the end decided to just tell the truth. “I feel safer out here. I know the humans haven’t done anything yet, but…”

“They’re not going to hurt you,” Alex replied, showing no annoyance over his distrust. “But…if you’re still unsure, the other pokémon are there. You know some of them don’t have poké balls. It’s not like the humans could do much of anything if they wanted to with them around.”

Yenn wasn’t fully convinced, but yet another pokémon was there trying to reassure him and he didn’t want that to be in vain.

“You see…” Alex fiddled her paws nervously. “…I also wanted to say…well, I mean I wanted to suggest…I think you need to let the humans treat you with their medicine.”

“What?”

Alex looked down at the ground, well aware that her suggestion wasn’t going to go over well. “There’s no reason to refuse help. The human medicine isn’t bad, not like the, uh...whatever the humans you knew before used.”

Yenn stiffened. Why did she have to bring that up? “And I’m supposed to just let them do whatever they want to me?”

“No, I mean, they know what to do already. If you’d stayed at the pokémon center, they would have given you medicine anyway. So you can heal better. And so you won’t get an infection.”

“I…,” he began, realizing that what Alex said was true. He did know that human medicine was incredible at keeping infection at bay. The humans he’d known back in those dark days in that terrible building had been extremely concerned about infections. He knew she wasn’t making that up. “I’ll be fine,” he said, sounding unsure.

Surprisingly, Alex didn’t press the issue. “Okay,” she replied. “But if you change your mind, you can just talk to me. They have stuff to help with pain, too.”

“Is that all you wanted to say?” Yenn asked.

“Well, not really. I mean, if you don’t want to talk about the humans, we don’t have to.” She thought for a moment. “Before I joined up with Snowcrystal and the others, I lived in a lake near a mountain. You must have lived around water, too. All yanma do, don’t they?”

Yenn nodded, realizing that Alex meant to try to distract him from his worries about the humans. He decided to let her. “There were lots of ponds where I grew up. The yanma and yanmega spent most of the year there. Of course, we’d migrate for the winter, but…” Thoughts of his old home returned to his mind. Though he was sad to admit it, he’d known for a long while that he didn’t want to return there. He didn’t want the other yanma and yanmega to see his scar and wonder what had happened to him. He couldn’t quite explain why; he just didn’t want them to know.

For a while the two of them talked of their lives in the wild, and Yenn found himself becoming less tense. He started to feel silly for avoiding the other pokémon, when some of them so clearly wanted to make him feel comfortable.

“Just…know that you can ask me or Stormblade, or anyone else really, if you’re worried about something,” Alex said after they had finished talking. “The humans are really here to help, I promise.”

Yenn decided not to comment on her statement about the humans. “Okay,” he said. “Thanks.”

-ooo-

As the day wore on, everyone was glad for the rest and no one seemed keen to go back to the mountain. Damian took some of the pokémon down to the beach again while the others relaxed or had friendly practice battles.

Sometime near the evening, Teresa contacted Damian again and asked to meet everyone, including the pokémon, at their meeting spot near where they’d found Yenn. Damian had called Katie, and she made sure everyone had gathered in a clearing at the time Teresa was going to arrive.

To Snowcrystal’s surprise, both Thunder and Yenn showed up, though the latter was perched at the top of a particularly tall tree, quite a distance from the rest of the group below. He looked wary and uncomfortable, and the growlithe wondered if he was mainly there because he wanted to learn everything he could about Teresa in case she confirmed his suspicions.

Thunder, on the other hand, didn’t look concerned. She may have been a bit displeased, but at the moment, she mostly looked bored. She hung near the back of the group, not meeting gazes with anyone.

“So…what are we going to tell her when she asks whose pokémon are whose?” Justin asked, glancing from Katie to Damian. “It’s kind of weird for us to be traveling with these wild ones.”

“Who says she needs to know?” Katie replied. “Me and Damian just won’t send out any more.” She glanced over at Scytheclaw and Arien, who were the only two pokémon Damian currently had out. None of her own, except technically Stormblade, were out at the moment, but after a second thought she sent out Ray, and the pidgeot greeted her happily. “I’ll probably need him when we search the mountain,” Katie told Justin. “Better send out Fernwing too,” she said to Damian.

Almost as soon as the tropius was released in a flash of light, the waiting trainers and pokémon caught sight of a flygon swooping low toward the trees. A few moments later, Teresa landed in the clearing and stepped off her pokémon’s back, her sableye clinging to her shoulder.

“So, I guess we should all introduce ourselves now,” she said, sweeping her gaze over the pokémon. “I’ll go first. My name’s Teresa, and this here-” She gestured to the flygon. “-Is Aero. She’s won me plenty of contest ribbons, right?”

Aero smiled shyly and turned her head away.

“And I guess you’ve already met Vicky,” she said with a small laugh, turning her head to look at the sableye on her shoulder. Vicky grinned back.

Teresa reached down to her belt and unclipped three more poké balls. Why there wasn’t a sixth, Snowcrystal wasn’t sure, but didn’t find it strange enough to question. Teresa tossed them into the air and the pokémon formed in front of her.

The first gave Snowcrystal a small jolt of fear – and at the same time, she heard the brief beating of Yenn’s wings before he stilled – for it was a creature Damian had shown her on his pokégear at some point while they were in the desert. A cacturne. The same pokémon that had stalked them as they’d traveled to find the portal. The spiny green pokémon didn’t look at all unfriendly though, and gave a cheerful wave to the watching pokémon. Teresa then told them his name was Hal.

The second pokémon was one Snowcrystal had never seen. It was a large beetle-like pokémon with blue and black armor covering its body and two enormous spiked mandibles. “The vikavolt here is Skylar.” Teresa said as she gestured to that pokémon.

The third was a pokémon Snowcrystal had only seen in books. It was a drapion, a massive purple scorpion-like pokémon, and Snowcrystal would have found it intimidating if the pokémon wasn’t calmly looking around the clearing like the others were.

“His name is Bruce,” Teresa said, indicating the drapion. “So, what about your pokémon?”

“Uh, I guess I’ll just introduce everybody,” Katie said before Damian or Justin could speak. One by one she went around the group, introducing the pokémon by name and giving a brief fact about each of them. When she came to Thunder, the scyther shrank back, noticing that Teresa was giving her scars odd looks. At Snowcrystal, Katie faltered a moment before introducing her as simply “Crystal.” “And, well,” Katie added once she was done, “we also have a heracross that’s recovering in the pokémon center. Damian wants to get him back by tomorrow night.”

“Oh…I hope he’s okay,” Teresa replied.

“Yeah, so do we,” Katie replied, and before anything more could be said on the matter, she turned to the other two trainers. “So…why don’t we let some of the pokémon rest here while we go get a look at the festival?”

“That sounds like a great idea,” Spark cried, nudging Justin’s leg. The boy, though he couldn’t understand his words, looked down at him and smiled.

“That’s fine by me,” Teresa said happily.

Snowcrystal decided to stay behind. As the trainers talked together and turned to leave, she caught a glimpse of Vicky the sableye giving her an odd look through her diamond-like eyes. Snowcrystal looked down at her fur uncomfortably, but no one said anything.

-ooo-

That night, after the trainers (apart from Damian, who had stayed behind in case the pokémon had trouble) had gone back to the city for the night, Snowcrystal and some of the other wild pokémon stayed behind among the trees. Perhaps it would have made more sense for them to go with the trainers, she thought, but she knew some of the pokémon still weren’t comfortable with human buildings, and it might look odd to Teresa if they never went into poké balls. She wasn’t sure exactly why Katie and Justin insisted that Teresa should not know that anyone besides Yenn was wild. However, she guessed that Katie thought that the less they had to explain, the better, and she left the thought alone.

For some reason, her thoughts shifted to Articuno, and she felt her mood immediately drop. Most of the time, it didn’t seem real, like it had been a dream, but every so often the thought would come to her. Articuno was dead. And then it was all too real. Cyclone had killed a legendary. That really happened.

Snowcrystal had never really known Articuno personally, but he had always been a constant presence in her life, someone who guarded her home and allowed herself and her tribe to live peacefully in their element. At least he had, until the Forbidden Attacks resurfaced, then all that was shattered. But all the same, it was still so strange to think that Articuno was never coming back. What her tribe was hoping for, depending on, would never reach them. All Snowcrystal had was herself and her friends, those who were willing to go back to help her tribe once this was all over.

Snowcrystal tried to push those thoughts away. They weren’t helping her now. What she had to focus on for the time being was how to help put an end to the Forbidden Attacks. Her tribe would have to come later.

-ooo-

Yenn hesitantly approached the sleeping group of pokémon in the night. The pain in his head had not allowed him much sleep, and as much as he hated to admit it, part of him knew he needed help. He sighed. He really wasn’t sure he liked how he was suddenly becoming okay with these things.

Then again, he realized, he had been okay with much worse things in the near past. He couldn’t believe he was once okay with Cyclone’s methods, turning a blind eye to the fact that Solus tortured pokémon because Cyclone had said it wouldn’t leave physical marks on them. The thought disgusted him now.

Besides, he thought, he’d planned what he was going to ask. It was going to be safe, even if something went wrong. The humans wouldn’t be able to do anything to him.

Carefully, he nudged Alex awake, and as the sleepy floatzel looked up at him, he felt guilty for waking her. “Sorry,” he told her. “I just…could I talk to you?”

Alex rubbed her eyes and shook her head a few times. “Yeah, sure,” she said, yawning.

Yenn led her away from the main group so as not to disturb them. He also wanted to be away from Damian’s tent, in case the human’s alakazam heard him somehow. He sighed again and turned to Alex. “You said the humans had medicine…that prevents infection, right? I know that’s true. I want to make sure…nothing bad happens. And if they really do have pain medicine that works, maybe-”

“Oh, of course,” Alex replied, seeming more awake. “I can wake up Damian for you. Arien will explain everything.”

“No, don’t do that,” Yenn quickly said. “That’s not…that’s not safe. I was wondering if you could get it for me instead. Then I could go somewhere safe, away from the humans, in case…”

“Wait a minute,” Alex interrupted, looking alarmed. “I wouldn’t know which are the right ones. I could ask Arien, but…I’m not even sure he’d tell me, or if he even knows himself. We should really get Damian-”

“We are not ‘getting Damian,’” Yenn said. “Look, I already have to deal with the fact that I’m going to have another scar that reminds me of humans. I don’t want to know what the consequences would be if Damian decides to-”

“Wait a minute,” Alex said, holding up a paw. “If you’re worried about having a scar, well, pokémon get in battles a lot, and sure, they don’t usually end up hurting each other badly, but lots of stuff happens. So, humans have a medicine that helps to avoid scarring while the wound is healing. Your wound looks small enough for it to work. I mean, you’ll probably still have a scar, but you wouldn’t be able to notice unless you look really close.”

Yenn paused, not having expected her explanation. “You’re not…making that up, are you?”

“No,” she said. “I know pokémon who’ve had it. Really, as long as you do it soon, it should be able to help, not that that’s most important. You need to be able to fight infection first and foremost, but…” She trailed off, and then said, “But I really need to wake up Damian. He’s the one who knows about these sorts of things. You should let him help you.”

Yenn took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

“I mean, if it makes you feel better, you could have Redclaw or Wildflame there to watch. Or maybe we could even get Thunder; she doesn’t like humans either, as you know.”

“I…” Yenn was silent for a moment. “I’ll think about it.”

“The humans really haven’t done anything to hurt us, you know,” Alex said. “They have no reason to, anyway. The humans you knew of clearly wanted something with you, but these-”

“All right, all right, I get it,” Yenn snapped back, a little too hastily. “I said I’ll think about it.” And with that, he took to the air.

-ooo-

The next day, Damian was able to bring Nightshade back from the pokémon center. He’d been a little unsure about it, thinking it would be better for Nightshade to rest at the center, but the nurses had told him that it was fine as long as they were careful, and that Damian just needed to bring him back to the center every week or so to make sure he was doing fine. Damian had brought the heracross to the group’s meeting place and then gone back to the pokémon center to deactivate Nightshade’s poké ball and officially release him. After that, he gave a spare poké ball to Justin and allowed him to capture the heracross again, leaving Damian able to carry all six of his pokémon.

“You know,” Katie began, glancing up from her pokégear, “the water pokémon festival parade is supposed to be today.”

“Yeah,” Damian said, “the pokémon center was really crowded. I’m not sure I want to go back to the city today.”

Katie glanced at Justin. “What about you? Ever seen the parade in person?”

Justin shook his head. “I watched it on TV, though. Think we could go see it? I doubt we’d get a good view, but…”

“Well, we could watch from the rooftops,” Katie said. “We could take some pokémon and fly there.”

“And I’m sure you’re not the first person to think of that,” Justin said, and Katie gave him a shrug. “But, yeah, let’s go and see.”

Katie agreed, and though several of the pokémon voiced their desire to come along, Katie shook her head. “There probably won’t be any room. But you guys can still watch the beach celebration tonight.” She then glanced to Snowcrystal. “I could take you, though. You’re small enough.”

Snowcrystal wasn’t sure it was fair to the other pokémon if she went, but when she looked at them, they just nodded to her encouragingly. She walked over to Katie.

Justin recalled Spark as Katie mounted her pidgeot, holding Snowcrystal with one arm. Justin climbed on the large bird’s back after her, and a moment later they took off.

They were soon soaring above the city, coming up to the main street, which Snowcrystal could see was more crowded than it had been before. Apart from the underground fighting ring, she remembered with a shudder, she had never seen so many humans in one place. She couldn’t see any of the parade, and figured it still hadn’t started yet.

Justin had been right; they certainly weren’t the first to try getting an easy to reach spot with a flying pokémon. There didn’t look to be much space anywhere. Seeing as the rooftops were already crowded, Katie had her pidgeot fly lower to look for a spot.

She was getting frustrated when suddenly she heard a shout and saw none other than Teresa waving at her from her place on the ground in front of a small shop. It wasn’t the best spot, as there were several trainers in front of her, but it was better than anything Katie had been able to find, so she landed there anyway.

Katie returned her pidgeot and Teresa, seeing that she had Snowcrystal with her, pointed up at the ledge of a windowsill where her sableye was sitting.

“Your growlithe can watch from up there,” she told them, smiling at Snowcrystal.

Katie nodded and reached up, setting Snowcrystal on the ledge next to Vicky. From there, Snowcrystal had a fairly good view of the streets despite the excited crowds waiting.

“So…Crystal, was it?” the sableye asked, giving Snowcrystal another one of her eerie grins. “Today’s the biggest day of the festival, so I’m guessing that tomorrow we’re going looking for that cave?”

“I think that’s the plan, yes,” Snowcrystal replied.

“Hm…wonder what we’ll find there,” Vicky said. “There are always strange secrets to discover, aren’t there?”

“Y-yeah, I guess so,” Snowcrystal said, suddenly feeling uneasy.

For a while she sat in silence while the trainers talked, wondering how long they’d have to wait for the parade to start. Then, all at once, she heard cheering and noticed movement from down the street.

Two massive mudsdale were pulling a large wheeled contraption decorated to look like the rocks one would find near the ocean. There were real pools of water in it, Snowcrystal could soon see, and various types of small water pokémon were leaping about, making patterns in the air with their water gun attacks. This was all under the direction of a trainer who sat at the top of the contraption, making movements with her hands that all the pokémon seemed to follow. The pokémon themselves seemed to be greatly enjoying themselves, and they would occasionally spray some water over the waiting crowd.

“That’s just the first float,” Vicky said excitedly, her claws gripping the ledge as her legs swung back and forth. “Wait until you see the rest.”

Snowcrystal watched as the ‘float’ came closer to where they were standing, more following behind it. Each of them had an elaborate design relating either to water pokémon or the ocean, and most had performing pokémon on them. They looked bright and cheerful, and Snowcrystal couldn’t help but smile as she looked at them and watched the water types entertain the crowd. For a while, she could forget her worries.

“Trust me,” said Vicky after several floats had passed by, “it may seem like just a bunch of harmless fun, but it’s more than that. Every year, the people running this parade raise money to help pokémon in need. Pokémon all over the city, and even elsewhere in Inari.”

“Really?” Snowcrystal asked.

“Yeah,” Vicky replied. “They’ve been trying to rescue pokémon from shady places that abuse them, and to shut down the people responsible for those sorts of things.”

“I wish more cities could do things like this,” Snowcrystal said, thinking back to all the time she’d spent in Stonedust. There hadn’t seemed to be any causes dedicated to helping abused pokémon, at least not any that were well known like the parade. She wondered what Thunder and Yenn would have thought of it all if they could have seen the parade and believed Vicky’s words.

Snowcrystal enjoyed the rest of the parade, seeing water types she had only ever heard of in books at the Stonedust City library, and some she had never heard of at all. Vicky was happy to tell her the names of the species she didn’t recognize, and she found herself getting caught up in the excitement of the people and pokémon watching. This, she thought, was how humans and their pokémon were meant to be, having fun together, enjoying what they were doing and working for. The things she had seen in Stonedust seemed a long way off. Perhaps this city didn’t have such darkness lurking within it.

Once the final float had passed and some of the watching trainers had started leaving their places and heading into the shops or across the street, Snowcrystal glanced to Katie and Justin, who were talking excitedly amongst themselves. She was about to call out for their attention when something else caught her eye. Above the heads of the trainers now crowding the street, she could see a television screen above the doors of one of the shops on the opposite side. A human was talking, although the noise of the crowd was too great for Snowcrystal to hear anything, and she couldn’t read the words scrolling across the bottom. However, she could clearly see the artist’s depiction of a white growlithe next to the speaking human, and she suddenly felt her blood run cold. The humans were still talking about that? All because she’d helped the others sneak into the library?

Vicky noticed what she was looking at and gave Snowcrystal a small smile. “A white growlithe, huh? Wouldn’t that be…interesting.”

Snowcrystal remembered the look Vicky had given her on the night they’d met up with Teresa to find Yenn. She turned away from the sableye, leaped down from the windowsill and lightly butted her head against Katie’s leg.

“Oh, hi, Crystal,” she said. “I guess that’s it then. We should head back to Damian and the others. See you tomorrow, Teresa.”

The trainers exchanged a brief goodbye before Katie sent out her pidgeot and she, Justin, and Snowcrystal were off.

-ooo-

That night, Damian, Katie and Justin brought the pokémon to the beach to watch the grand finale of the water pokémon festival. Since most of the beach was crowded, they had chosen a place on a grassy hill further away from the water, but still with a good view of the ocean and the bright fireworks being sent into the air above it.

Only Yenn had refused to come. Thunder, surprisingly, hadn’t objected, and seemed calm as she sat near where Nightshade was. The heracross’s arm had been fitted with a proper sling, and he sat on a blanket beside Katie, who was giving him some of the jelly treats she’d picked up from a shop.

“I didn’t know humans did things like this,” Thunder remarked, jumping a bit as a particularly large firework went off.

“Well, you see, Thunder,” Spark interjected, “most of them aren’t monsters like the ones you were used to.”

Thunder gave the jolteon an annoyed glance, but she didn’t retort. “I guess not,” she said instead, looking to Nightshade.

At the front of the group, Snowcrystal gazed out at the shimmering ocean, the moonlight and fireworks reflected on its surface. It was beautiful, and the sight of so many pokémon and trainers celebrating together made her smile. There was a calming, happy feeling to it all, something she hadn’t really felt in a long time. After her last experience at Stonedust, Shellreef City was certainly a welcome change.

And in the light of the fireworks, beyond the celebrating trainers and pokémon, she could see the mountains that concealed Tanzenarc’s cave. Tomorrow, they’d all search together, with safety in numbers, and sooner or later they would come upon their second unknown legendary.

To be continued…

[Arrow-Jolteon]

Whew, I finally caught up! Great chapters here. I don't know if you've drawn Sequoiarc yet, but it'd be amazing to see him.

[Scytherwolf]

Whew, I finally caught up! Great chapters here. I don't know if you've drawn Sequoiarc yet, but it'd be amazing to see him.

Awesome, thank you! I've drawn him, but mostly doodles in a notebook. I do plan to make proper drawings of him eventually.

[Arrow-Jolteon]

Awesome, thank you! I've drawn him, but mostly doodles in a notebook. I do plan to make proper drawings of him eventually.

Awesome! Must have been fun coming up with his design. From descriptions of him he seems to be a mix between a tardigrade and a bear and that sounds awesome.