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

[FedoraChar]

Phew, finally got around to reading chapter 2! :D Sorry it took forever, but crazy life stuff happened, and it was crazy. STILL, great read (despite not much happening xD But hey, it really built up the suspense. I feel like you're dangling plot in front of me like a carrot in front of a rabbit xD) The descriptions were beautiful, as ever--the way you described the camp fire was poetic, really ^^ I'm also liking Dusty's personality as well--she doth be spunky and rash, and I look forward to the adventures to follow. :D

[Suicune's Fire]

Chapter three: Abduction!


[Reeeeeeally ooooolddd picture xD]

How could I be so ignorant as to attack my own friend? Shocked, I instantly scuttled off her frail body. “Sorry ‘bout that, Izante!” I laughed sheepishly. “I guess my instincts got the better of me.” She too lifted herself up, shaking off the dust and mud stuck to her fur thanks to my paws. She mumbled a sentence of forgiveness, and then asked me what I was doing up so early. “Oh...” I started, slowly making my way back to the lake I already treasured. Izante trailed behind me, awaiting an answer. I curled my lips to the inside of my mouth, feeling my sharp fangs press against the soft skin tissue. “I couldn’t sleep,” I simply answered. My eyes were fixed on the water that trembled at the sight of us.

“Hmm... Is there something wrong?” Izante questioned quietly.

“I... I was busy thinking about...” I trailed off.

“About what?”

I sighed before replying, “Things.”

“What kind of things?” she pressed.

“Things! J’st...things...” I was a little frustrated about her questions, so I gave her an agitated answer... But I thought again. “Uhh, it’s just th’t...” I frowned. I then explained to my best friend all about the peculiar things I had been told by Roarake. About being taken, about the respect thing...

Izante’s thinking face became her expression once I had finished my explanation about Roarake’s weird words. “Odd,” she replied. “I wonder what he meant.”

“Surely you heard him as they were leaving...right?” I questioned.

She took a second to say, “Me and Master went back to the tent before they left. But...what he said seems weird. Eh, it’s probably nothing.”

But to her words I just turned away, faintly raising one of the corners of my mouth. “Yeah...” I tried to smile. “For now, though...let’s just enjoy a sight one could only appreciate at night,” I smiled, presenting my words calmly. I then chuckled, realising I had rhymed without intending to.

***

“Oh, come on! J’st, just do it!” Izante scowled, annoyed at me.

She stood right in front of me as we were placed on the edge of the lake, our feet squishing the mud underneath our toes. She was desperate to get me into the water, because it was not often that we could take the time off to go swimming, but she knew that I was uncomfortable with it.

In response to her bleating, I shook my head frantically with a frightened face. “Why not? You too chicken?!” my friend teased, and began to make clucking noises like a torchic. “Tooor! Chic-chic, tor!”

“Exactly!” I smirked, admitting it proudly. Izante lowered her eyebrows to form an unimpressed face, and when I was least expecting it, she rammed into me, sending me skidding across the mud and tumbling straight into the water. Luckily I managed to not get my head wet. I was surprised even further as I realised the fast drop into deep waters, which was only just away from the edge! My paws were kicking and waving about wildly, and I called out to her in distress.

“Relax!” she yelled back, smiling as if she had done nothing.

“RELAX?!” I exclaimed, panicking. ‘How could she say that at such a time?!’ “Izante, I’m a freakin’ Fire type! I can’t just relax in water!”

“Just chill,” she called to me. “Don’t be a baby!”

“WHAT?! Come on—get me out! Stop fooling around!” I squealed, binding my eyes in fear.

“Pfft, no!” Izante huffed with a rude tone. These were the times when I wished she had a better and friendlier attitude. “You’ll be fine,” she calmly stated, holding my charcoal eyes in her gaze.

***

Izante had succeeded. She had managed to get me back into the water without a kafuffle. I was almost comfortable in the lake, but the feeling of water rushing past me and slipping into unexpected places of my body – like under forelegs in that little ditch of skin and fur – was just creepy and weird. Despite the fact that I was too scared to put my head underwater, I felt pretty brave. Swimming had never been my strong point due to hating water, and when I was only little I had almost drowned in a lake much like this one. I had been rescued by my trainer. If she hadn’t been there...I surely wouldn’t have made it...

I waved my paws in front of me under the water one at a time, keeping myself afloat. I wasn’t swaying them fast, but it was consistent. Izante was also swimming, and she seemed to do it like it was an everyday easy activity. Though to her, it probably was just as simple.

Izante always went swimming, and she wasn’t even the slightest bit afraid of water. I found that strange, considering how I couldn’t comprehend how I or any other pokémon could ever like the awful substance. “So, just why are you so scared of water? You’re fine at swimming,” she stated while paddling around me.

“I’m not fine,” I corrected, “I’m just not drowning.” I could feel the cool water passing around me steadily. I barely noticed the ripples that Izante caused to bump across the water’s surface as she showed off.

“Get your head wet!” she insisted, suggesting that she was willing to do it for me.

“NO!”

“Come on, why not?” Izante continued to circle me almost mockingly.

“Why do you think?! I don’t want to drown! And I don’t wanna get my tuft wet!” I panicked, almost losing my focus on staying above the water level. “Also, I barely ever swim, so it’s fine to be afraid.”

Izante laughed cruelly. “Why would you drown?”

“Why? Well, simple. ...I’M A FIRE type! I don’t swim!” I yelped, more playfully than angrily. Izante stopped for a second, as if pondering something. “D-don’t even think about it!” I snapped.

She grinned. “Seems tempting. Maybe you sh—” Suddenly she paused, frowning slightly. She stayed silent. I frowned with concern. What was she doing? “Did you...did you hear that?” she asked slowly. I only panicked.

“What? Here what?” I frantically looked about, my eyes searching. There was nothing. “...I don’t hear anything.”

“Y-yeah—just listen,” she instructed, waiting in angst as if expecting something. But then I did hear it. It was a faint rumble, but became louder and louder. Izante’s attention was drawn completely to the noise, her eyes set on the bushes to the left of where we came.
But then...it stopped. I tilted my head. I waited. “...Where did it—”

All of a sudden, a large dark blue pokémon came crashing through the bushes from where I had pounced on Izante! His long, sharp arms, which looked like powerful weapons, were terrifying, as well as the two red eyes coming out of either sides of his face. A tail protruding from his back-side pounded the ground angrily, the two rounded spikes on the end of it made it look like a dangerous tool.

With a threatening roar, the creature charged towards the water, targeting us. He appeared focused and dedicated to whatever he was doing, showing no fear or emotion.
I shrieked and flicked my head to Izante. Her face represented both fear and seriousness. I imagined mine to be merely fear. If we were on land, then maybe I would think twice about being afraid. But I had hardly ever swam—I wasn’t capable of a match in water! “I’ve battled one of these once. It’s an armaldo!” Izante urgently spluttered. I groaned even at his name.

The beast stomped his way closer, and I knew I had to act fast. “Dusty! Swim!” Izante yelped. I nodded frantically, not daring to disagree, and began to unintentionally paddle towards the centre of the lake where I was vulnerable to predators. Not even the thought of foes in the water had crossed my mind. And only now I had thought about it. It was not very enlightening, nor pleasant.

Izante was in front of me, paddling away as I dawdled behind without meaning to. My struggle to keep up didn’t do me much good, and I felt a pain in my stomach caused by the trauma. My paws were aching, I felt like I was sinking, and I was sure I had a few stitches. My large bushy tail was also dragging me down, and the extra weight of it was enough to slow down my already-slow pace. The strain wretched at my chest, and I felt like screaming.

I heard a splash behind me, and I squealed in agony. I knew that that thing was trying to get us, but I couldn’t help but to wonder why. As far as I knew, I had done nothing bad, so this pokémon had no motivation!

The pokémon sped up, gaining more speed as he swam faster. ‘Oh, great,’ I thought, ‘he has to be an expert at swimming too!’ The soundless forest had become noisy as the armaldo splashed his way up to me, and from my back, he crossed his arms around me. I felt nothing but sheer fear as the long arms held me hostage and I was rendered helpless. I screamed at the top of my lungs, rattling the trees and disturbing all of the sleeping pokémon. The armaldo with sinister red eyes that glowed brightly in the night growled deeply. Assuming he was to drown out my alarming cries, the big pokémon sank into the water as he powered through the lake, not even giving me a chance to take a breath before doing so.

Just before I could no longer see above the water’s level, my eyes darted to Izante’s and I cried out her name as loud as I could, only to have it cut short. As my face hit the water, it was as if a whole ocean of fear swallowed me into its being. It rushed passed me, and I could barely open my eyes. The lake would probably have been see-through, but due to the fact that no sun shone this early in the morning, the water was almost pitch black at the depth that the armaldo had taken me—or at any depth!

Almost already out of breath, I was starting to struggle. The feeling of knowing that you are being abducted is one thing, but the feeling of knowing that you are being abducted and unable to breathe is absolutely traumatising. The only thing keeping me from fainting by now was that tiny burning flame alight in my mind that allowed me to think about that ounce of hope. I could still hope that Izante would come to my rescue. But with that realisation came the thought that I also needed to contribute.

With minimal amounts of strength, I faced the armaldo by looking straight up. The water made him hard to see, but I could make out his face. He didn’t look at me; he was too busy streaming along his path.

But I had to attack him. For my sake. But how? How could I do it? I had enough intelligence to know that my fire wouldn’t do me any good under water whatsoever, so I didn’t even consider it. I couldn’t use anything like skull bash... But maybe a bite attack would work.

I shut my eyes, feeling the pain of doing so seeing they had been open for a while underwater without me blinking. I could feel the sharp arms holding me too tight for my liking. They would be my target.

As the lake’s contents spiralled towards me, my lips separated, making way for my strong teeth which managed to latch awkwardly onto the armaldo’s tough skin.

With a yelp and a scowl, the Bug and Rock pokémon clenched me even tighter, slowing down a fraction, but planning not to set me free. However, if I did end up escaping his claws, there would be no chance of me getting away without being caught again—but I’d worry about that later. I snorted and bit down even harder, almost piercing the armour-like skin this time and allowing the loud sound of the armaldo’s cries to burst into my ears—even underwater.

I could barely hear the pokémon shortly afterwards as he accidentally released his grip. But it was a good thing that he did—another few seconds without air and I was sure to pass out—or possibly even drown! Waving my paws to send back the water from around me was hard work, but I had to do it in order for me to catch a breath. I could feel my heart pounding over and over; it was so fast I couldn’t count how many beats it did even if I tried! The need for air was crucial, and I could feel my lungs just about to escape through my throat. The feeling was horrible! I couldn’t bear it any longer. I was going to give up. I was too far underwater.

As my paws slowed, so did my mind. Everything was ready to shut down. Even my heart seemed to stop beating.

Just as I was getting ready to pass, I felt a cool breeze on my forehead, and my ears popped. The sound of rushing water was no longer ringing in my ears. I was shocked—I had made it to the surface!

Opening my eyes, I gasped, inhaling breath after breath, absorbing the oxygen I felt had been gone for so long. ‘This is the most relieving feeling I’ve felt in a long time!’ I thought.

I panted repeatedly, overjoyed to finally have air in my system. It was overwhelming, but the thing I longed for so fondly now was land. To place my four paws onto a hard surface seemed like a thought of heaven at this point!

Shortly after I had regained my senses, my eyes pointed out Izante; the swimming leafeon was merely metres away. I wanted to reach out, but the energy seemed to be flushed out of me. I wanted to call to her, but my voice was slowly disappearing. I tried to focus on her, but my eyelids drooped in front of my eyes. I could no longer keep my head afloat...and my mind was...beginning to drift away from reality...

[Suicune's Fire]

Chapter Four: The Capture


Again...really old picture. xD

As I opened my eyes and awoke, I was surprised to find myself alive. All of the drama that had occurred in the water had almost wiped me out permanently—or so I thought.

The wet tuft of fur laid upon my head sagged in front of my face and into my eyes. My tail drooped with sogginess, and the rest of my fur was pressed firmly against my skin, giving me a cold chill and making me feel uncomfortable. I stood up and shook off, sending droplets of water spraying all over the place and causing my fur to puff up. I felt rather ridiculous, but I’d rather feel and look that way than be...wet.

My eyes scanned the area. ‘Wait a sec... I’m not in water.’ How had I possibly have washed up there? I looked out into the water which was only a few metres away. Had someone saved me? I had no idea... But glancing over both shoulders, I developed another question: where was that armaldo?

Disregarding this for a second, I weakly scrambled away from the water’s edge to observe my surroundings. I had no clue where I was...or how I came to be there. In front of me was a large tree with thick, light grey bark. There were wood grains covering the tree which made it appear as if someone had spent days carving them all in. It was quite a scene. Even something so small managed to catch my attention and hold it for so long. But what mattered to me now was something else. Something of high importance and meaning to me.

Frantically I whizzed around, no longer facing the tree, alarming myself with a sudden thought.

I had no idea where Izante was.

Had she been the one to save me? If so, where did she disappear to? It bothered me that I was unaware of the beast’s location, either. It had dragged me under the water and tried to drown me. The memories were all too clear, and when it dawned on me that the two pokémon were both missing, I came to the conclusion that Izante may be the armaldo’s prisoner now that I was not within reach. But there were pieces of the puzzle missing. Why would he have wanted to capture either of us? Did he want to save me from something? Did he want to drown me? Perhaps he was doing somebody’s dirty work for them. Pokémon were used like that too often. It could have been very possible.

Trying to think my way into the answer, I sat down to ponder further. But before I was going to collect the missing pieces so I could glue them back together again, I had to do something. First things first. I needed to find Izante and the armaldo. If they were together, who knows what would happen—and where they could be. ‘Maybe Izante is fighting him right now,’ I thought with concern. “And I should be the one to save her!” I declared, deciding for myself. Maybe it wasn’t the best way to go about things for me, but I wanted to know that she was alright. I also wanted to make sure that that rotten pokémon wasn’t attempting to chew her up and spit her out. Or worse—swallow her! “Izante!” I called out into the early morning. I figured it would be the best way to allow her to hear me. However, as I repeated her name several times, I received no reply—from her, anyway.

All of a sudden, a tiny, squeaky voice made me jump. It said something that alarmed me, and then again. “Oi! Some of us normal pokémon are tryin’ to sleep, you know!” someone ranted. I could tell she was someone very angry just by her tone. I spun around, facing the tree once again. What I hadn’t noticed before was a small gaping hole at its base. And out of it had scurried a small figure. She had a squirrel-like while body that was probably quite agile. Her tiny blue ears twitched with annoyance when she spoke, and the single tooth that stuck out of her mouth was frustratingly distracting. Her large tail was probably mostly fluff, as it seemed not to weigh her down at all.

“Sorry,” I sighed, looking about, “I need to fi—”

“Yeah, yeah! I don’t care about your stupid personal life. Just shut your trap so we can sleep!” she huffed as she growled in anger and exhaustion. What that rude pachirisu had just yelled at me made me frown. I just turned away, not interested in a lecture. I had no time for such petty nonsense. If I was going to look for Izante, I would have to make haste. We needed to get back to our masters. I knew they would be upset if they awoke to find us missing. And if they attempted to search for us, they could end up in the same position as me!

“Hey!” that same annoying voice interrupted. I rolled my eyes, and my face grew a furry frown once again. “Did you even hear what I said? Flareon?!” Impatience filled the tiny Electric pokémon’s voice as I ignored her once again.

“Would you shut up?” I exclaimed, turning back around after I received no reply. Instead, the electric squirrel pokémon puffed her chest...and she started again. As the pachirisu’s ranting began once more, my nose twitched with aggravation. I swung my head around again, so I was up close to her face. “Are you asking to be fried?!” I hissed, feeling the spit slip through my gritted teeth and onto the pokémon in front of me.

She seemed to be offended, and huffed, her chest large and puffy. “Don’t you speak to me li—” started the pest, but was abruptly cut off by the stream of fire I released.

She jumped back, both shocked and upset about the humiliation. She choked for a second, but got back on track. The little pokémon bounded her way back into her hole with a furrowed brow. And at that I snorted. “Looks to me like she could have used that,” I murmured, rolling my eyes. “Pesky brat.”

“Ahh! Let me go!” a voice protested. But not just any voice—a voice I would recognise from kilometres away.

“Izante,” I whispered. “Izante!” My fluffy body took off towards the distressful cries just moments away. Into the bushes I flew, determined to seek her out. “I’m coming!” I called. Whilst my paws swept beneath my body, I sneered, imagining how hot I could make the flames that would swallow the armaldo. I burst through a bunch of leaves that scratched at and brushed against me. One tickled my ear on the way past, making it flicker.

I landed with a soft thud on the earth covered with forest floor underlay. In doing so, I attracted a great pokémon’s attention, as well as a familiar friend’s. The armaldo stood high, metres in front of me, with Izante hauled over his shoulders to face over his back, rather than having the same view as her pokénapper. The large pokémon was clenching her tightly, and it was clear that he had the experience to be able to control her movement. Noticeably, Izante could not set herself free, and was very possibly injured.

“Woah,” I mumbled, a little shocked at what I was seeing. My friend lifted her head, managing to see over her shoulder and past the armaldo. She was in an awkward position, and probably found it difficult to turn and face me because of it.

“Dusty?!” she exclaimed, obviously not expecting to see me. “Get away! It’ll come after you!” The leafeon sounded urgent and bothered—because she was!

“I’m not leaving you!” I answered, scoffing. It was true, and I was sick of untrustworthy pokémon. It was time to right some wrongs before it was too late! “Alright, you overgrown fossil—you’re goin’ down!” My body sprung forwards, aimed at my friend’s captor. I saw a type of fury and determination within the armaldo’s eyes which frightened me. However, it didn’t distract me, nor did it contribute to the fact that the armaldo counter-attacked my leap with his heavy tail, which slammed into my belly. I felt the pain spread, and I was physically sent flying metres away from my best friend. I had become completely winded; the oxygen was knocked clean out of me.

As I slammed onto the stony ground, I could not breathe, and I was beginning to relive my memories in the water. Luckily it didn’t last for more than five seconds, and in no time, I had regained the strength to hold my position on my four paws. Although I was already beginning to run out of energy, due to the small amount of time I was allowed to recover from my scene in the water, I still had the will to fight. “Take...this!” I called viciously to the armaldo, spewing up poison after feeling a toxic bubbling inside. The purple poison swallowed my foe, almost causing him to drop Izante. He managed to hold his grip, but the pokémon also seemed somewhat affected by the attack.

Unexpectedly my foe charged up, looking as if he was building power, and summoned small, jiggered rocks to swarm around him. He took off towards me, preparing something big. I watched in awe as the rocks flew along with armaldo as he charged at me, Izante still in place over his shoulder.

A scream was coming from the leafeon’s mouth as well as some confused words as she was taken with the armaldo to attack me. And from then it all happened too fast. With great power, my enemy and I collided, the rocks brutally injuring me as the main attack.
I had never experienced an ancientpower attack...until then.

***

I was carried to a campsite by the armaldo. Izante and I both were. All around us were people wearing black uniforms and most of them were followed by a cream coloured cat-like pokémon with coiling tails that were half brown—like their hind paws. Several of them were transporting cages – which held pokémon for some reason – and dumped them into openings in machines on wheels, whereas others were shifting different containers of various sizes. Many more were standing around, guarding the exits with solid and heavy weapons that required two hands to support.

The dirt appeared infertile and unnaturally mixed with muck, and there was countless packaging scattered around both the ground and caught in bushes. It was a foul sight, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I was to pick out not one wild pokémon.

The armaldo had dropped Izante and had put her with a female human who appeared to interrogate her with the help of her meowth. However, I was left upon his shoulder, facing the way he was facing, for another minute or two before another human approached. In the meantime I tried to make out what the woman was saying to my leafeon friend, and right before I was released I noticed an older looking man approached her and mumbled something to the female human. Izante was then led – or forced – away with them both.

As the leafeon disappeared from my view, I was carelessly tossed across the bumpy ground, scuffing my thin coat of fur and jingling my chingling bell a few times over. I landed at the feet of a suspicious human male who sneered at me. The human wore a black cloth covering his front, and other black material around his hind legs. A black rounded piece of cloth also fitted his head. On the designed piece of cloth that stretched across torso, there was a dark pink logo which looked like one of the human race’s markings that they use to write with.

The man was thinly built and didn’t appear at all pleasant. There was a particular feeling about him; a bad one. A grouchy expression was printed on his bare face, but he also looked almost happy to see me in front of him...defenceless, vulnerable, and without my master.

Then I realised something. I gasped, witnessing the human grin darkly in response. The familiar scent, the recurring expressions, the suspicious feeling... I knew I recognised it! This was the man whose pokémon Izante and I battled hours before!

The human was suddenly called by one of his colleagues, so he quickly walked away, standing only a few metres from me. I felt adrenaline begin to flare up as I thought I would have a chance at escape, but before I let myself take off, a female meowth that was accompanying the man blocked my way. Her greasy grin was discomforting as the whiskers on her face twitched. In between two whiskers on the top of her head was a golden, oval-shaped coin that shined in the dim, man-made light surrounding. Her large eyes were not very friendly-looking, each with pupils like slits.

She laughed, and I assumed she read my actions. “Y’ think you can escape?” she questioned, speaking in the humans’ language. Master used the same dialect, so it was easy for me to understand—but it was a surprise to hear her using it.

I had heard a rumour a while ago about a particular group of meowth. Ever since there was a first one to speak English, some humans (which I now presumed to be the ones wearing black clothes) discovered that the cat pokémon were capable of learning it. In time, they managed to breed an entirely different race of meowth which were trained to speak only human, which I didn’t understand the use of until recent minutes. They were translators.

But not only had these people trained their meowth to speak human, but also to stand on their hind legs at all times—except when sitting or sleeping. The majority of meowth I had both met and battled with had walked on all-fours. To see so many of these pokémon at once like this seemed strange—not to mention cruel. It was unnatural and just proved how selfish certain groups of humans could be...

I snapped out of my thoughts as the Normal type glanced over her shoulder, and it struck me then to try to make a break for it—or to at least find Izante. So, with the assistance of my quick attack, I dashed past the pokémon and left behind a slightly dazed scratch cat pokémon. The screech she emitted alerted a collection of humans and other pokémon, and I noticed frantic glances settling upon me as captured pokémon noticed my attempt at freedom.

However, just as I spotted Izante – who was, for some reason, eating from a bowl provided by a nearby female human behind one of their vehicles – I was apprehended. I barely had time to register what had happened as I felt a heavy body pinning me down and growling in my ears. I fought to find Izante again with my eyes, but the leafeon was gone and only the bowl and the human remained, leaving me considerably confused.

In no time at all I had been brought back to where I was previously where Roarake’s ‘trainer’ and his meowth were, as well as a number of new humans and their pokémon—probably to ensure I didn’t try to escape again.

“Well, well, well! It’s the flareon from the battle,” the horrid man began, and I was thrown to the ground by the pokémon who had caught me. I stood up and shook off, baring my fangs at all the surrounding figures. “Your ignorance got the better of you! You thought you could escape?” He let out a cruel laugh and signalled for the extra guards to return to where they had been. “We haven’t had one of your kind before. You should be honoured,” the man told me in human language.

In response I sprung backwards to be away from him. I spread my legs apart, lowering my head and growling deeply. That wretched armaldo stomped behind me, obstructing my backwards exit. However...I wouldn’t try to escape again. The beast had worn me out from the beating I received from him earlier, and the attempt I made only moments ago had been futile and tiring. Besides, it would mean leaving Izante to deal with everything herself. I simply did not have the energy, or even the will for that matter. My exits were sealed and there were far too many guards...

The human male just smirked, raising his head with a frown and a heartless smile. His meowth snarled, teasing me with the swaying of her body and jiggle of her tail. “Team Rocket rules!” she mouthed to me.

“You will be loyal to us!” snapped the human, attempting to intimidate me while spraying me with his spit. “Team Rocket officially owns you from now on!” Next to him, the Rocket’s meowth stood with a satisfied look on her face.

I blinked it utter disgust. ‘Who does he think he is?!’ my mind roared at me. I grew hot, wanting to fry him. It wasn’t fair to do this! I felt furious! I spat at the jerk, my saliva splattering on his left foot which was shrouded with another human material. “I’m loyal to nobody but my master! I’d never give respect to a low-life like you!” I hissed, wishing the human could understand.

I saw the meowth chuckle, and shifted my angry gaze to her. “Uh-oh, you’re in f’r it now!”

“Meowth! What did it say?!” grunted the Rocket man impatiently. His soulless eyes left mine and met those of his meowth’s. His female pokémon snorted, and her whiskers twitched.

“You ain’t gonna like dis, boss! Dis little fire-fox here says dat she ain’t loyal to nobody ‘cept her master.” Meowth snickered, blowing through her nose afterward in a miniature laugh. She looked as if she wanted to see me suffer the consequences. I growled back at her. “She also says dat she ain’t payin’ no respect to a low-life like y’self. Not dat ya are one or anytin’.”

The Team Rocket human glared at me, his face looking ugly with frustration. I winced slightly as he streaked the back of a furless paw across my face. To be verbally harassed by a human was one thing, but being beat by one was another...even just a mere slap! As well as being humiliating, it was wrong. I immediately felt how Roarake must have felt...

I listened to the meowth’s rotten cackle while my head stayed in the position it had been forced into by the slap. I tried contemplating my decisions, but nothing came to mind. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t believe my situation. It was so...insane. I could only glower with hateful emotion as I felt myself unable to attack due to known consequences.

I had officially been captured...and there was nothing in my power that I could do about it.

[Suicune's Fire]

Chapter five: Boxed and Caged

I couldn’t help but to feel miserable. The capture had made me feel unwell and shaky.

The fact that I was being transported away from my master pushed me into feeling even more dreadful. Although Izante being with me had altered my thinking slightly and drove me into slight relief, I was still not nearly comforted enough to change my down-in-the-dumps mood. I didn’t know whether she shared my emotions or not, and I was not very keen to find out. If she felt the same way as I did, that would merely make matters worse, and I would feel even more upset. But I would have to cheer up sometime if I was going to think up a plan for escape. There was no way that my brain would be able to function properly if it had no proper stimulation or determination flowing through it.

We had been at the little camp for another day after we were moved again. The time we spent at there was when we were in cages separate from one another, barely able to hear the pokémon next door. Team Rocket had treated us like we were lower than dirt and all we could do in return was growl at them in our hopeless cooped up state. There were a lot of other pokémon, but the men had set out all the cages to be far away from one another so that we could not communicate, and so that we were purposely isolated.

Every now and again, the Team Rocket men had strut past me with mocking grins and smirks on their faces merely to spite me. One even poked his fingers into the cage in an attempt to torment me. However, since the only feeling I had been experiencing was anger, I automatically snapped at them, slicing through one with ease. The moment after I did so, I realised I would have effortlessly been able to take a finger off.

“ARRGGHH!! You beast!” he had screamed, a hideous expression upon his face. “Poliwhirl,” he had called, withdrawing a poké ball from his tattered black belt. “Water gun!”

Landing on the ground in front of my cage, the dark blue pokémon with a swirl on his belly shot a stream of water out through the centre of his body, and it came gushing onto my devastated face. I had screeched at the shock of the attack, spluttering and spitting. I'd known I had to endure it until it was over, so that was what I had done.

When the attack had finally broken off, my drenched body appeared small and feeble. An attack like that may have been simple, but it had hurt! I shook off and growled at the man. I knew that he couldn’t differentiate between the tears streaming down my face and the water dribbling from every strand of my fur as he jeered and stumbled away.

“And that’s why you shouldn’t mess with Team Rocket!” he smirked, picking up a stone and tossing it at my forehead. I winced and drew my head back, huddling at the back of the cage. I had felt my eyes flickering with fear. My loud exhaling had become a sign of fury as my whole body trembled. I could not understand how these awful people could do this to pokémon. All of the trainers I had ever met were kind and they loved their pokémon... Well, maybe not all, but most of them. And what did these horrid humans do? Attack innocent pokémon, dragging them from their loved ones. I hope they knew...they wouldn’t get away with it.

***

I sat in a steel cage inside a moving van—a large metal human form of transport that moved with wheels. Izante, a marill, a drifloon and a sandslash were in the same compact space as me. I had been in the same spot for three days without food, and only a small amount of water which the Rockets had supplied us with. The rest of it was thanks to the marill. When we drank the liquid generated by the water pokémon, it had been slimy. I had felt the fluid flush throughout my system, and it tasted like salty...spit. Every time I swallowed it, I couldn’t help shivering with disgust. It would have been a whole lot better to be used as a substance for cooling off with. But it wasn’t. And I had to deal with it if it was nearly all that I had.

Thinking everything over, I raised my head slightly to see another cage nearby. It contained the marill and his drifloon friend. The cage next to it held a sandslash captive. They were all victims of being captured, along with me and Izante. They all belonged to the same trainer. I figured that they had all been taken at once, and were stolen for the same reasons we had been...which had not been set in concrete yet.

The sandslash, who I had overheard was called Wulua, was an irritated and a bully of a pokémon. He had displayed this by sitting around, fiddling with his sharp claws and pondering over how let he let himself be caught—and bullying the marill.

The marill, Koi, was a little male water pokémon. He often took deep breaths to calm himself, and apparently loved rolling around on the ground absent-mindedly. He was not very old by the looks of him, and didn’t seem to have matured yet, either. His intelligence wasn’t very high, and I suspected he was born as a marill rather than an azurill.

The floating balloon pokémon called herself Vesp. She was very quiet, but once I had been around her long enough, I would describe her as friendly.

“Are we there yet?” a small voice asked restlessly. My eyes scanned across the small room. A rounded blue body was rolling along the floor inside metal bars not too far away from me. The white patch on his stomach was appearing and then disappearing as he rolled. His black crinkled tail was big for his size, and ended in a blue bobble.

Making the decision not to reply, I merely shifted my gaze to the floor. There was a black spec of dirt placed in between my two eyes’ stare, and it caught my gaze long enough for me to zone out a little.

“No, Koi. Can’t you tell?” a rough voice snapped, and I heard claws clicking against a metal surface as he must have paced his paws on the floor.

“I wasn’t talking to you, Wulua!” Koi retorted, a child-like tone to his voice. As I moved my eyes to his face, I saw that he had crossed his arms.

“Your point?”

“It means you can’t answer!”

“Oh, really? Answer, answer, answer, answer. Are you gonna arrest me now?” smirked the ground type. Frankly I found him to be just as childish as the marill.

“...What’s ‘arrest’?” Koi asked Vesp, cocked his body to one side.

“‘What’s arrest’?! You’re dumber than I thought!” Wulua mockingly s******ed. He got to his feet as his restlessness grew.

“Wulua, leave him alone...” Vesp intervened, looking at him with a frown.

“Well I’m SOR-RY!” came a sarcastic voice. Koi snorted at him.

“You should be!”

“Oh, go play with your liquids, water boy!”

“Go and dig a hole, you meanie!” he shouted back.

“We’re nowhere near dirt, blubber head! Sheesh, I thought all pokémon had brains until I met you!” Wulua hissed. Still watching, I observed what happened next.

Very rapidly, Koi had grown a wobbly upside-down smile, and his nose began to twitch. His breathing had become slightly heavier, and tears began to gather at the bottoms of his little eyes.

All of a sudden, the water pokémon burst out into tears, and turned around to find himself being hugged by Vesp’s string-like arms with little yellow hearts on the tips. Her purple balloon-like body was not too big, but provided comfort for Koi as he bawled his eyes out. I felt sorry for the little fella.

“What did you do that for, Wulua?” Vesp questioned, throwing a hard glance at the sandslash that was leaning against the bars of his cage. His yellow body stood out against the dark wall behind him, but his black eyes blended in perfectly. His thick, brown spikes located on his back sagged a little as he was pressed against the wall.

“Eh, felt like it,” he muttered, sounding a little proud.

“Do you think this is a joke, Wulua?” the drifloon started. She was obviously not impressed. “Being captured is bad enough. A little marill having to deal with that as well as a bigger pokémon teasing him is not good. And far too much for someone of his age!” she scolded, clutching Koi tightly. The little marill moved his body in the sandslash’s direction. With a helpless frown, Koi’s mouth continued to tremble.

“What are you, my mother?” Wulua laughed. By looking at her face, I could tell that Vesp had had enough.

“I could start acting like it,” she replied calmly.

“Go ahead! And why don’t you put on some spikes while you’re at it?!”

From here, I couldn’t stand it any longer. Those three bickering made me so agitated! They’d been going on for the past...what, three days? Couldn’t they give it a rest already?! “Guys! Stop it!” I yelled, eying the two pokémon in the other cages.

“Your arguing isn’t making anything easier! J’st...chill!” growled Izante, her eyes averted in order to avoid visual contact. She didn’t much like confrontations.

“Oh, great,” Wulua sighed gruffly, “another pair of—”

“Would you just shut up?” I hissed, feeling embers sizzling inside. They felt about ready to leak between my teeth as invisible smoke stung my eyes. “We’re in cages, for Entei’s sake! You’re ruining any...drop of hope we have, Wulua! And, Vesp, I know you’re trying to help, but you’re just making it worse!” I explained with a hard scowl, rising to my feet.

Izante looked about to agree, but she contained herself and just growled impatiently. A small chuckle came from nearby, not surprised it was the sandshrew evolution as I swerved my head.

“And what are you gonna d—”

In a split second, a gushing stream of water shot directly into Wulua’s face, causing him to splutter and spit. I stared wide-eyed, and trailed it back to where it had come from. Koi was the water’s source.

When the attack stopped, I could have sworn Wulua was about to cut Koi in half – despite the fact that they were in separate prisons – when suddenly, we were thrown across our cages and we bashed into the walls.

We had all screamed and tumbled, feeling limbs poke through holes in the metal, Vesp still clutching Koi. Several thumps and bangs sounded as I realised the moving humans’ vehicle had come to a stop.

I moaned, heaving myself to my feet again. The cage had turned onto its side, and it seemed to become smaller.

“What the hell?!” Wulua questioned. I didn’t think he quite knew what was going on... Although, he wasn’t the only one.

There was a bright light before something hairy reached towards us. The light was blinding, and I found it difficult to focus after it bounced off my face. The spot-light shone on us all, and hissing could be heard as most of us recoiled into the unrealistic depths of the cages. The hairy thing baring the light was found to be an arm—a human arm. With a few grunts and murmurs, the human clicked a switch on his item. Somehow, the light dimmed and disappeared, almost like it had been sucked back into the contraption.

I looked at the other pokémon. Izante seemed to be upset and growling, Koi was huddling up with Vesp, and Wulua spat while covering his eyes with one of his strong, yellow arms. Next, a big man stepped into the room, and stuck his fingers inside Izante’s cage whilst lifting it up. Izante stumbled, and looked as if she found it difficult to balance.

“Hey!” I yipped, the man merely looking in my direction. I head-butted the cage bars blocking my way, but nothing happened. It was useless! Next, I tried firing a stream of hot flames at the man, and he yelled, and backed off—but still held onto Izante’s cage. He then pulled out some sort of small device, and neared me with a bushy frown on his face. I huddled to the back of my small enclosure and rumbled. However, it didn’t stop him from sticking the device in between the bars, about a hair away from touching me, and pressed a button.

Unexpectedly, my whole body stung with pain, and a sizzling sound came from my fur. “Ahh-aaahhh!!” I screamed. This was unlike any raichu’s thunderbolt attack! The pain surged through me, and I could only imagine that the other pokémon watched with shocked expressions. Hopefully, this would keep them from being as careless as I was.

I slumped on the floor of the cage, my fur bristling and my painting notable. The smell of electricity popped near my nose, and suddenly my body began chattering. I felt paralysed. The man smirked with a face of satisfaction, and continued out with the cage that had Izante in it. Before she disappeared through the opening, she looked at me with certain sadness. Her ears poked through the sides, between the metal bars, and it was blatantly obvious that the cage was barely big enough for the rest of her body. I tried desperately to cry out, but the best I could manage was a flicker of my lips and a hushed groan. My delicate hope was hanging by a thread as it marched behind the man with Izante’s cage, and before she completely disappeared, the leafeon’s turned away.

Soon enough, all of the cages were being carried by men all dressed the same. My large and bushy tail was poking out of all cracks in the cage I was in, and I was beginning to regain feeling in my legs again. Soon enough I was in full control once again, but I soon realise I was unable to stand due to the roughness of the man’s handling. Every time I tried to get onto my paws, I would be knocked straight back down again. It was another thing that made me feel helpless and weak.

I decided to pay attention to where I was being taken, so I looked ahead at the path in front of me. And it was astounding.

Hundreds of men, wearing the same black outfits, swarmed the area. They were everywhere! Their dirty clothing and hard faces told me they were all the same; they were followers of one another.

Apparently this area was the shore to the ocean, which stretched as far as my eyes could see. The men were all carrying one cage or more, which all held pokémon. Trees were scattered everywhere, because it was the edge of the forest, but the dirt was stale and dry. Nothing attractive grew—what vegetation there appeared to be was dry and soulless. Much like the humans themselves. ‘This must be where their proper camp is...’ I thought. Tents and human vehicles also occupied the premises, which supported my guessed theory.

One man, far ahead to the left, was holding a sneasel captive. She was a small, dark-coloured pokémon with one of her ears coloured pink—which was longer than the other one. The claws on her arms – two on each paw – looked sharp and deadly, while the two on her stout legs were no more than pins. A circular yellow orb both on her forehead and her chest glistened as she swayed by her carrier’s side, and three pink feather-like tails protruded from her lower back.

She hissed and swiped at her captor, nicking his shirt and tearing through it easier than a magikarp could lose a battle. The Team Rocket guy shrieked, dropping the cage. He cursed and yelled at the pokémon, kicking her cage several times to send it tumbling. The dark and ice type seemed to shake it off, looking hardly affected, and resumed her attempt to shatter the cage. The man then reached into his pocket and revealed the same device that shocked me into paralysis. I clenched my teeth.

‘Oh no...’ I thought as another bump from my carrier threw me over.

The man, completely without hesitation, shoved the electronic weapon in through a hole in the cage, and I watched in horror as the dual-typed pokémon sizzled and cried out in pain. I seriously thought that the man held his hand there for an entire minute, and after he finally stopped, the sneasel fell to her paws and knees. She cringed. “Learned your lesson yet?!” The Team Rocket man prodded the sneasel with the device, then pressed the button once more. For absolutely no reason whatsoever, the man shocked the pokémon for a second time, and s******ed at her suffering.

I boiled inside. He kept at it, and soon he was shocking the sneasel even after she had stopped moving. I couldn't help but to imagine her pain... It must have been excruciating considering she probably had no strength due to the poor conditions we were forced to survive in! And to be punished for wanting to return to her master sickened me, and stirred up my mind. If I could, I would have leaped to the pokémon’s rescue and happily defeated the man. But in my current state, it was clearly impossible—an unattainable goal.

Even if I did manage to break out of my cage, there was no way I would stand a chance against the number of enemies here. There were far too many bad humans in this place to even consider my chances...

[Suicune's Fire]

Chapter six: High Seas

I had my mind taken off the sneasel as I finally reached my destination: a huge wooden crate. It was aboard a giant ship, which held nineteen more of these—according to the man carrying me.

The man brought the cage up to his face, reached a fat hand in, and ripped off my most valuable possession: my chingling collar. My neck jerked down as he did so, and shortly after, the pain kicked in. He smiled greasily as he threw it to the ground, and I watched as he crushed it with his foot.

My eyes clouded over with fury. “My master bought that for me! How dare you!” I shouted at the human as he threw me into the crate, my cage scraping along the bottom and my fur getting caught between the metal and the wood. I knocked my head on the solid surface, and I screamed as one of my ears became wedged between my cage and the cage I had smashed into.

“You won’t be gettin’ outta there!” the man called, thankfully exiting the scene.

I whimpered as I felt the pain in my ear, and attempted to find a way to free it. I tugged at it once, but immediately regretted it as the pain surged through my ear. Deciding to endure the pain and keep pulling, I shut my weary eyes tightly. But it was no use, and for the sake of my pounding pain, I had to stop pulling.

I panted, my eyes still closed. I leaned my head against the metal bars as my limbs tensed under me. Just when I told myself I’d have to adapt to a trip forcing my trapped ear in place, I began to feel something strange. My eyes opened, revealing the scene before me. The wooden crate was turning! However, it only took me a few seconds to realise that it was me moving, not it! ‘Duh.’ I was turned over and my ear became free as I fell onto my left side with a thud. I shook my head, blinked a few times, and pushed myself up onto my paws again. My ear was finally unstuck, which made a feeling of relief relax my shoulders, and it didn’t take me long to wonder why. I turned to my right to investigate the reason for my fall, as I certainly hadn’t done it myself.

“S-sorry about the tumble,” apologised the pokémon inside the cage I was staring at. He seemed to shrink as he mumbled quietly, “I had to do it to get your ear free.” A smallish dinosaur-like pokémon had his long, green vines out. They trailed back to a giant bulb that rested on the pokémon’s back, which was also green. He had a large head with two triangle shaped eyes holding red irises. The pokémon was a light shade of blue with a tinge of green, and had darker green patches scattered in random places. He gave me a nervous smile as he waited to be either thanked or scolded—for whatever reason.

Looking this pokémon up and down, I recognised him as a ‘bulbasaur’. A few young pokémon trainers in the Kanto region would have them from the start of their journey. Commonly they would also have either an orange lizard pokémon who stood on two feet, or a cheeky blue turtle pokémon who was bald.

“That’s...alright,” I murmured. I was a little too focused on my pain to bother about giving a reasonable response to the stranger. However, he did do me a favour. “...And thanks,” I mentioned. He nodded shyly and sat his rump on the floor.

“Do you know...what’s happening?” I asked after a moment of silence. It was only then when I noticed we, along with about five others, were the only pokémon in the giant crate.

“I’m sorry...but I don’t know,” he mumbled. To this reply, I sighed heavily and tried to figure out why, in fact, we were being imprisoned. “But I think we have been captured, sorry to say. One second I was with my trainer...but now I’m here. The humans treated me roughly and without care. I’m...I’m scared of them,” the bulbasaur trembled, the fear in his eyes stressing his youth and timid nature.

“If they try to hurt you, you could use your vines to hold their arms or trip them over.” I gave him a faint smile. “Don’t be afraid of them.”

“B-but...they have those shocking things. A-and, us, as pokémon, aren’t supposed to attack humans. We’re bad if we attack them.” The bulbasaur had a panicking quality to his voice, and it showed as his fear began to speak for him.

“I believe that we’re allowed to attack them for our own self-defence. Just remember that the humans have no right to abuse us...” It felt weird thinking about abusive humans. I had only ever come across ones loyal to their pokémon, and in return their pokémon were loyal to them. Master never once mistreated me, and prior to now I hadn’t necessarily believed in humans such as the ones working for this ‘Team Rocket’.

I flinched as seven more cages were hurled into the crate, their occupants shrieking and crying out as they bounced against the hard wooden floor and metal of their cages. I flinched as every cage crashed to the floor; as every innocent, helpless pokémon were harmed. It began to build up. These pokémon were being hurt. “Bulbasaur!” I cried to the alarmed pokémon in the cage beside me. He looked me in the eyes with a frightened expression. “Use your vines to catch the cages!”

“B-but...that might hurt me! I-I’m sorry...I don’t think I can do it,” he retorted grimly.

“Would you rather try to help other pokémon with a small risk of you being slightly injured?” I snapped, my fur straightening out. I then blinked, as did the bulbasaur. I was getting pushy—and angry.

Another scream came closer as a different member of Team Rocket flung a cage in towards the other cages containing pokémon.

“Ahh! Quick! Catch that nidoran!” I pleaded, unable to stand another crash and shriek.

Long, green, almost string-like vines rapidly extended from under the bulbasaur’s bulb, and they stopped at the guessed landing spot of the cage. The cage continued through the air until it hit the vines, but as it did, both the cage and its supposed stopper plunged into the floor of the wooden crate, and the grass type pokémon beside me bellowed with a distressed cry.

‘Aw, geez—this kid is hopeless!’ I thought to myself as tears began to well in my neighbour’s eyes. His large mouth continued to let out an ear-piercing yell as I found myself feeling sorry for him, since it was my fault.

“Lift them up! You have to lift them up to free yourself!” I shouted at the bulbasaur, who was traumatized. It took few seconds to process, but the pokémon obeyed me as he heaved his thin vines up, standing the nidoran’s cage upright.

The vines dropped and retreated to their bulb as the bulbasaur continued to blubber. “Oowww!!” he whined. I could see that I had given him the wrong instructions. Maybe he was just too young to take the pressure and physical weight.

“Look...” I sighed impatiently, gathering myself. “I’m sorry. I got a little paranoid,” I guiltily explained.
I heard the bulbasaur beside me sniff and stop crying. He drew his vines near and inspected them. To me they seemed fine. It was probably just shock that affected the bulbasaur so.

“I’m...I’m alright,” he sniffed. “I forgive you, flareon. I think I was doing it wrong...” he replied with a red face.

“Dusty. M-my name’s Dusty,” I corrected. “My idea of catching the cages was to grab them while they were still airborne. It wouldn’t cause you any pain that way.”

“Oh...okay.” He seemed to lessen the sadness about him. “I can try that... But, my name’s Sed. It was the name my trainer gave me.”

“...Same. I was given to Master too early to have a name before-hand. She raised me since I was just a pup.”

“Oh. I’ve only been with my trainer for two weeks and...three days. He’s the only family I got,” Sed mentioned forlornly.

‘It must be terrible,’ I thought with sympathy. ‘He’s only been with his trainer for two weeks, and he’s already been separated from him...’

However, my thoughts were taken elsewhere as I heard another human approach. My ears perked up and stood high on my head as I stared with great interest at the entrance to the crate. “Sed...”

“I think I know what to do now.”

I turned to him. He gave a reassuring, cheek-raising expression. “You can do it. Just remember: catch them while they’re in flight,” I prompted. I shifted my paws to a more comfortable position as I watched in slight anticipation for a metal-barred box to enter the huge wooden crate at an unexpected speed. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” Sed answered. His focus was kind of questionable at first, but as the cage was tossed in towards us, he really proved himself as the vines reached out and caught the cage with little effort. The pokémon inside it opened her eyes after having them closed, and cheered as Sed set the cage down in front of us.

The pokémon’s body was a faint yellow colour, except for half of her ears, paws, cheeks and tail—which were all red. There was a cross pattern on her red cheeks, and her tail was shaped the same way. “Thanks for catching me!” she happily sung—or, at least, as happy as one could get given the situation.
“That’s okay. Glad...to help out,” Sed shyly responded.

“Incoming!” I broke the happy moment with my sudden word, my eyes trailing the new cube.
Sed looked past the plusle’s cage, hearing a grunt before another cage soared through the air. With a determined look on his greenish face, the bulbasaur outstretched his handy vines and snatched the cage out of the air.

I smiled both on the inside and the out. He was getting better! And with every new catch, Sed became more and more confident about his selfless actions, and he was swiping the cages one after another with reasonable ease. And pokémon after pokémon, I could see that he was happy with himself for doing something good.

***

Brown eyes set at half-mast in the far corner of the crate were locked on the two vines’ movement. The pupils moved back and forth as the vines caught and placed down each pokémon cage that was carelessly thrown into the wooden prison one at a time. The eyes belonged to a dark face which was somewhat rounded. A very small smile was placed at the bottom of the muzzle, which completed the being’s unreadable expression. Further up the face, past the eyes, were two smallish ears which match the eyes in size, and were also dark. His body was long and slender, and ended roundly and without a tail. The top half of the body, including most of the muzzle, was dark green—which was often mistaken for black. His underbelly and limbs were yellow, however. Two oval-shaped red polka dots were between his ears, and they showed up quite clearly. The same sort of spots appeared in a group of three at the rear—before the dark green colour rounded off and turned to a light, faded yellow.

The pokémon was sitting down, his front paws out in front while its chest sat up. “Hmm,” he began, “seems like this bulbasaur’s confidence has grown...” His theory was supported as the vines caught yet another cage which was about to collide with a different one on the floor. “Impressive... But he’s not the one with the brainy ideas. That flareon is instructing him... I wonder where she’s from.”

“I doubt it’s near,” interrupted a voice that came from behind him. “That flareon’s not from around here...”

The quilava moved his head coolly towards whoever spoke to him. He noticed a light blue body seated in about the same position as himself, who had long ears and a darker blue almost hat-like head piece. There were the same dark coloured blue socks on all of her paws, and she had dark blue marks on her back. Her swishing tail looked the same as two appendages coming from her headpiece, which ended in a darker blue diamond and drooped down on either sides of her face. She was a glaceon.

“Good observation,” the pokémon mentioned in response, looking back briefly.

Seconds went by, and the two pokémon continued to watch the green vines move around. However, one of the pokémon was getting impatient, her agitation growing by the moment. “Raiys!” the pokémon snapped. The pokémon she was talking to didn’t seem to flinch at all. “When are we getting out of here? I’m tired of being held in these cages, and it’s not necessary.”

“Soon enough, Azure. Once the humans load up the crate completely, we can break free.”

“We shouldn’t have to escape,” she growled.

“While at it...we should also free the other pokémon.”

“What? Why should we? They’re all just insignificant strangers,” Azure hissed, “and it’s not part of our mission! As a matter of fact, being in here isn’t part of the mission, either!”

“We could use their help. This capture is merely a minor hold up. And we’re quitting. Or have you forgotten?”

The glaceon narrowed her eyes. “No, I have not! Our last mission is to hunt that pokémon down and report his whereabouts. We should see to it instead of being held hostage.”

“Yes. After that...you and I part ways,” Raiys murmured. “I assume that you’ll be returning to your co—”

“Working with you has been a pleasure,” she muttered hastily. “Now let’s break free! Why do we have to wait?!”

“Calm yourself. Your icy body might melt if you grow any hotter with agitation. You could use some of that energy to help me set some pokémon free instead.” Raiys still kept his cool, speaking with a calm tone.

“I told you—we don’t need their help!”

“We need all the help we can get. Who knows how many Team Rocket grunts are out there who don’t know our identities?”

“Do what you want. But I’m sticking to escaping my way,” huffed the glaceon. “I can fight them off myself.”

“It’s a wonder why he hired you. Even I’m having trouble keeping you on your lead. And that’s saying something.”

The glaceon would have shuddered at the mention of her boss, but focused too much on Raiys’ comment. “I am no-one’s pet! My lead is far beyond broken, Raiys. And I was hired long ago...”

“Yes...your temper fires up too easily. I’m surprised you’re an ice type,” Raiys remarked. However, his supposed friend simply looked away, not wishing to listen to her fellow teammate. “It’s only a matter of time...”

***

Black shoes clapped against the hard ground, almost sounding like they were walking upon stone. Black clothes rustled and the red ‘R’ on the front became creased and almost unreadable. A man with high authority about him approached a large wooden crate aboard the large Team Rocket ship. He had a well-built body and was reasonably taller than the others around him. His facial expression – which suggested that he was always sneering – kept people from questioning his word.

As he neared the crate, he observed members of Team Rocket passing cages of pokémon from person to person, until it got to the crate entrance, which was only a tiny crack between two massive doors which nobody bothered to pay attention to. However, as the Rocket man was thrusting the cages into the crate, the man standing and observing him noticed something which made him mad. He tapped his foot until he realised it was, in fact, missing. “Why don’t I hear a clash?!” the angry Rocket member demanded.

“What?” scoffed the man tossing the cages. As he turned around, he regretted saying it immediately. The man he had spoken to with such disrespect in his tone was one of the Team Rocket admins.

The highly ranked man snatched the lower man by his shirt, and brought him close to his face. “Would you care to re-phrase that?” he growled.

“I m-mean, s-sir!” the young man stuttered, feeling completely terrified by the unwelcome visitor.

“Better,” replied the man with a raised right end of his lip, and a greasy tone, “but how about you answer the question?”

“Qu-question?”

“YES, fool! Why isn’t there a loud noise when you throw in the cages?! We don’t want these pathetic creatures to feel like they’re at home!”

The grunt swallowed hard, searching his mind for an answer. “U-um...I-I don’t know, s-sir.”

The admin tightened his grip, saliva seeping through his many teeth. “You pathetic WASTE OF SPACE!” he roared, his face radiating hatred. “I want them TREMBLING AT THE SIGHT OF TEAM ROCKET! NOW SEE TO IT!”

The intimidating Team Rocket member struck his victim across the face, then thrust him to the ground, hearing a thud as he landed. The smaller man scrambled up against the closest side wall of the crate, shaking and whimpering until his attacker spat and walked away. The frightened man slowed his breathing and reached to his eye where he had been punched. He could only see fuzzily through it, and when he pulled his hand away from to inspect it, red stained his dirtied gloves.

“Are you okay, man?” asked another random member. He bent over, placing down the cage he was holding, and attempted to tend to his colleague.

“Get OFF me!” he snapped, and the man who offered his help huffed, throwing the pokémon cage in himself. The man with the injured eye knew that the cage had been thrown into the large wooden crate, and he noticed something missing. “...He’s right... There’s no noise...”

***

“Get ready; another one!” I informed as an incoming cage appeared.

“SWIIII!” a pokémon cried as he soared through the air. The vines whipped (literally) into action, wrapping ‘round the swinub’s cage and holding it up in the air safely.

I smiled. This bulbasaur had really done a good job, and I intended to tell him.

“Thank you,” nodded a clogged-nose sounding small brown pokémon with stripes of black on his back.

“Hehehe...” Sed chuckled, still holding the cage in the air. I really thought he was having a great time. And with all these “thank you”s, he was bound to feel somewhat higher of himself than before.

I suddenly shrieked as a loud, ear-piercing screech echoed throughout the crate. A number of other pokémon cringed and squinted as it happened, and everyone turned their gazes towards the entrance. A rough looking man was hunched at the doorway, hanging one of his arms while the other one leaned against the door to the crate. His black clothes contributed to his unidentifiable silhouette as we stared, and I noticed Sed beginning to tremble.

The human stood with a rotten frown on his face and scanned the room as if searching for that someone to blame. But I was soon to find out that he was—and who that someone was. “YOU!” he boomed, directing a finger covered in black material at Sed and his frightened face. “YOU got me into trouble... This is YOUR FAULT!”

The man, looking like he was possessed with anger, drove himself into the crate. Sed screamed in both fear and confusion as he dropped the swinub’s cage and cowered at the back of his own. I stepped forward, my eyes widened and my chest puffed up. ‘I must protect him!’

The man reached for Sed’s cage, his hands progressing towards it in a frightening manner. However, it was then when I realised I couldn’t help my new friend—if I used my flamethrower attack, it would be more likely to hit Sed than to hit the man—who now had Sed’s cage.

In a desperate attempt to change the deranged human’s mind, I screamed, “NO,” and fired the flamethrower anyway. It powered through the bars of the cage and onto Sed, only mere embers jumping out to attack the Rocket member. I gasped horridly as I yelled out an apology, and screamed internally at myself for making a decision I knew would turn out horribly.

The man rammed spears into my eyes as he cast a wicked glare upon me, and I was beyond startled. “SHUT UP! You wanna be executed too?!”

I staggered backwards. ‘E-executed?!’

From Sed’s cage came another startling cry, and it killed me to hear him suffering while I stood helplessly and watched. I tackled into the bars surrounding me, but to no avail. I tried blowing scorching flames onto the metal, but still, nothing happened. I had come to assume that the cages, naturally, were pokémon-proof.

“Sed! I’m sorry! This is my fault!” I yelled to him, his eyes drowning in tears.

“WHY?!" wailed the green pokémon, his voice mangled with his whimpering despair. “Why did you do this to me?! I thought you were my friend!”

My pupils shrunk. Violent tingles ripped down my spine. My face became overpowered by the unrepairable guilt that plagued my very soul. I crinkled my nose and clenched my jaws together, the tears failing to contain themselves. My heart felt as if it had stopped beating, and it seemed to sink in my chest.

It was my fault, and I had let him down completely. How could I ever forgive myself?! ‘He’s gonna be killed because of me.’ I stabbed my claws into the metal floor, squeezing tears from between my eyelids. ‘BECAUSE OF ME!’

I slumped my body into a sitting position, hanging my head low as my tearful eyes followed my screaming friend out of the giant crate. I longed to do something...anything, but it was useless. He looked as if he would never feel happy—ever, ever again. And he wouldn’t.

As he disappeared from view, I couldn’t stop hyperventilating. In a matter of time he would be dead...because of me.

***

My eyes were shut. Emptiness lingered as meaningless throughs whizzed around inside my head. It had been roughly five hours since Sed was taken away, and he hadn’t come back. I knew he never would. All the pokémon were grateful to him for saving them from plummeting into the floor of the crate, but it would have been better for him to never have met me. He was surely... He had surely been executed by now. And for what—catching the cages of pokémon?! It was insanity! It was simply sick and despicable! And it made me feel more frightened and insecure. What kind of a monster would kill a pokémon? We were designed to battle, so being killed would take a whole lot more than a flamethrower and a tackle... Unless they used evil human ways.

The guilt that stirred inside of me made my breathing unstable. It made me only able lie on the ground with eyes that continuously dripped tears which were building up. The pain in my ear throbbed, but only reminded me of my horrible mistake. Even worse, it reminded me of Sed’s kindness, and how that was what got him killed.

During the more recent time of the five hours, the ship had departed, and the crate I was in was swarmed with cages. It must’ve been stacked up as high as three rhyperior—and I was on the bottom row. I truly hoped that the cages were strong enough to support the weight of so many pokémon. If not...then soon enough I would be as flat as a gengar who melted into a shadow.

“You shouldn’t blame yourself,” a calm voice interrupted my thoughts. “There’s nothing you could have done to stop it.”

I looked in the direction that it came from, and realised it was to my right—the cage beside mine. “You shouldn’t be listening to my thoughts,” I responded.

“It’s my job. If I don’t know what pokémon are thinking, how can I connect with them?”

“You don’t.”

“Haha, okay,” laughed the dark coloured fire type. However, I stayed quiet. I needed not to get involved with more pokémon I could possibly endanger... “Sorry to bother you. Just curious.”

“...Leave me alone,” I grumped, placing my chin on my paws and turning to face away from the quilava.

“Alright. Just thought you might like some help.” He didn’t seem to take offence, but instead he tried to lure me into talking to him again. ...And it worked.

“I don’t need help. What I need is some time to myself,” I mumbled, not bothering to look at him or take my head off my paws to be heard clearly.

“Sure looked like it earlier,” he stated. To this I twitched, and felt something make me frown. I clenched my teeth, automatically assuming he was talking about...the bulbasaur... “When your tackling didn’t seem to do anything but give you a headache.”

My tense feeling released. He was talking about me trying to escape, not about Sed. ‘...Wait...’ I realised. “What?” I asked, this time actually raising my head and facing him. My eyes darted from his right one to his left as a sly grin spread across the left of his face (from my point of view). The grin vanished, being replaced with a regular smile, and he nodded casually. “Are you planning to escape?” I questioned, the tone in my voice suggesting that the task was impossible.

He chuckled. “Yes.”

I really had no time for a jester. “...How?”

“Like...this.” One of the quilava’s claws fiddled around with the lock on the outside of the cage.

‘Oh yeah, that’s really gonna work,’ I thought sarcastically, nearly turning back to my paws.

Before I could say anything though, a small click sounded. “Ah-huh!” My eyes were wide with disbelief as the quilava then rammed into the cage door, and he stumbled out, falling onto his side.

“How the hell did you get out?!” I questioned.

The quilava lifted himself onto his paws and shook off. “I’ve been working on breaking this lock for hours. Lucky I have sharp claws, right?” he chuckled, smiling.

“Can you—can you get me out?” I asked with a slight frown and urgency.

“Hm, I don’t think so. I had been working on that for a while.”

To that response my ears dropped and my eyes became covered by a disappointed frown. I noticed him smirk.

“...However... If I can’t do it, I know who can,” he mentioned, causing my head to rise again and look at him.

Doing the last thing I expected, the quilava leaped onto a nearby cage which was poking out slightly from the stack, and continued making his way up to near the top rows. I couldn’t follow him for very long though, especially because I didn’t particularly want to look directly up from me. I was looking underneath a green and white pokémon... Let’s just say...it wasn’t the prettiest aspect of a kirlia.

As I was distracted about trying to find a way to keep track of where the quilava was going, a large explosion sounded. Many pokémon whipped their heads in the direction of the noise, including me, and before I found out what it was, a figure dropped down in front of me. In his mouth was a rather large seed.

“What’s that?” I questioned in a curious but also suspicious manner.

“I suggest shielding yourself.”

Slightly annoyed that the fire type ignored my question, I pulled my tail in front of me as I pressed myself against the back of the cage—which was barely different from the front’s space, considering the cage’s size.

A blur of yellowy colouring flew towards me—and frankly, I wasn’t expecting what happened next.

KABOOM!

The sudden explosion caught me completely off guard, and I shrieked as the sound carried out through the huge wooden crate. Lucky I had covered my ears.

As the smoke cleared, and several pokémon coughed and spluttered, I began to stare at the small hole that was only a few seconds ago not there. The silver metal around it had blackened, and it looked fragile and hot. That’s when the quilava dropped from above.

“That, Miss Flareon, is a blast seed,” he answered, smiling coolly with his eyes half shut.

***

A Team Rocket grunt snored loudly as his inanimate body lay slumped against one of the many large crates. His snoring would surely have disturbed anyone in close range. Drool dripped from one corner of his mouth while the other emitted the loud noise. His rough hair was carelessly shoved under a grubby hat which was pulled over his eyes, and his clothes were stained and stinky. The saliva slipping between his lips gathered in a small pool on his shirt, which was propped up because of the position he was ‘lying’ in.

A sudden explosion type of noise woke him with a start. His hat fell off his head as he jumped, and the drool trailed down the side of his top.

“Uh, what, what?” he uttered in a low, dopey tone. His hat brushed against his side as he brought his hat up, plonking it back on. He glanced around the place, expecting to see someone nearby with something like dynamite or a gun. This face searched around the premises, and only after did he get up to poke his head around the closest corner. He waited.

After seeing nothing strange, he sat back down in the same spot and lowered his eyelids. Again looking around to make sure nobody was looking, he lay back up against the wall of the crate, drifting off once more.

[Suicune's Fire]

Chapter Eight: Fighting for Freedom

All of the pokémon had now laid their eyes on me, staring intently. I was finally beginning to think that I was gaining respect, and I suddenly felt more important. “You all want to escape, and because of that, I know you’ll help me complete the task willingly. But for this to work, I need your full cooperation and you all need to listen to my instructions!” I glanced around, seeing some pokémon here and there looking doubtful. Some were intrigued by my words, and probably thought that my plan was a small flame still illuminating their shallow pools of hope.

I felt sorry for most of them, actually. Pokémon who were presumably respected and honourable, standing by the sides of their trainers were now attempting to gain shelter in their shells of negative thoughts and impossible ambitions.

But not me. I wouldn’t stand to be pushed around by the apparent superiors who call themselves Team Rocket. Did they seriously expect to catch Dusty the flareon without a struggle? I may have been weak back there in the water with Izante and we were ambushed by the oversized fossil, but on land I can kick serious behind. Especially that of some amateur humans. And with the whole room overflowing with pokémon, we stood a perfect chance against them all.

I was yet to discover how many Rockets patrolled the top of the ship—or however many were on the entire sea vessel, but I was sure we could conquer and defeat them all. Deaths in the process were the cost of freedom, and I was more than willing to accept that. It was a horrible fate, but we would die with dignity still in our hearts. Because it was the last chance we had. And to survive, you must be willing to sacrifice.

I wasn’t the only one to assume that there were other crates just like this one onboard, and if that was correct – and I knew it was – then there would be all the more pokémon to help us battle our way out of here. However, that also meant more pokémon to free. And I would have to issue a battle plan. If everyone followed my suggestions and commandments, we might just be able to pull it off. But...you can’t put a poliwag straight into hot water—you have to gradually heat it up.

“Ghost pokémon! What kind of ghost pokémon do we have in here?” I called out, my voice echoing throughout the crate which was now silent. I had climbed up onto Luck’s shoulders to see from a higher perspective. We’d piled some cages on top of one another so I had a wide view, and I assumed that most could see me. “Just raise your paw...or tentacle, or fin, or claw, or flipper, or hoof, or hand, or tail, or foot, or crest, or—” I stopped as a lone purple hand rose. It was floating—not connected to an arm. It belonged to someone near the back of the middle of the group, and the pokémon rose from the crowd.

He stared at me with large eyes planted either side of his jagged mouth, one of his two hands coming down by his side, curled over and with three pointed fingers. “Well?” I started. “Come on up here.” The deep purple haunter floated through the crowd, the harmless spikes protruding from the sides of his body brushing against the occasional pokémon, before levitating to my side and facing the audience. “Anyone else? Come on, there can’t just be one ghost type in this whole bunch.”

“I-I’m ghost type,” a voice admitted. It sounded low and dopey—the kind of voice you would expect to hear from someone who had a master he always followed around. A five-fingered grey hand popped up from about the second row. A browny-grey body with horizontal black lines across his body stood on two stubby legs without paws or feet. There was a singular eye placed near the top of the egg-like-shaped pokémon, and on top of his head was a thin cloud of browny-cream fluff that flew behind it.

“Come on up,” I prompted, and the dusclops followed my directions. “Okay, now: which of you can go through walls?”

“W-walls?” the dusclops questioned, stuttering a little.

“Yes, walls. You know—those tall plastery things that keep houses and other structures together?”

“...I can,” the haunter said, his eyes almost looking through my own.

“Good,” I began, leaning over Luck’s large paws and dropping on my own front two. “I have a plan. If you can get through that wall there,” – I signalled to the broad wooden wall that had two large doors which were bolted down – “and you hide in the shadows until the humans aren’t looking, you can attack the lock on the doors. If I’m correct, the doors could then swing open and we’d all be free!”

Hearing my plan and probably figuring it to be one that might work, the crowd of pokémon began cheering and beaming. As happy as I was to see them like this, I had to shut them up again.

“Guys, GUYS!” There were a few voices muttering bitterly to each other, eying me, but I heaved another sigh and ignored them. “Thinking ahead here!” I turned back to the floor, my mind sorting through possibilities. “Hm... All bird pokémon, please make your way to the right of the room.” Presumably waiting for someone else to make the first move, nobody fluttered an inch. “...Hello? Come on!” Muttering once again and hesitating to do so, the huge group of pokémon all shuffled to the side in order for the flying types to bunch in one area. “My right. Not yours!” I restated, and they all stopped. Beginning to change their course, I called out again. “Wait! Don’t worry about it now.” I closed my eyes and brought my face down to the paw I raised. Master used to call this ‘face-palming’. Once the pokémon had come to the appropriate place, I sighed again—this time with relief. “Alright, now, you lot: as soon as we get out there, fly to the shore to find things like rocks to bring back and attack the humans with.” I hoped that this was a good idea, but since the humans possibly had guns, they could hurt the pokémon. “Hm...but, in any way possible, tempt the humans to bring out any flying types of their own. If their pokémon are in the air with you, then they probably won’t want to take their guns and shoot you in case their pokémon are struck.”

With a huff, one honchkrow opened her short yellow beak. “That’s suicide! What happens if they do shoot at us, hmm?” She had her fluffy white chest puffed up, and the hat-like feature on the top of her head made her look more ‘proper’.

“Yeah!” another pokémon shouted, and, soon enough, they were all crowing again.

“I don’t think this will work...” muttered another sadly. “It sounds scary!”

Near the back of the group of bird pokémon, an altaria – who had large, cloud-like wings and blue feathers – turned to a pelipper which sat with his gaping yellow beak. “Ha! I’m just going to fly away and not come back. What’s the point in returning?!”

The pelipper laughed, exclaiming, “I was thinking the same thing! That flareon’s plan is ridiculous, anyway. It’ll never work. Don’t know what in the world she’s thinking.”

“What about all those pokémon who would just fly away and not return?” a voice in the non-flying type bunch queried. I simply scoffed and a sour expression formed upon my face.

“Any kind of sick-minded selfish flying rat that chooses to do such a thing won’t be going to the nicer of the two Afterworlds. They’d be leaving us all! They’ll live to carry in their hearts a great deal of guilt.” I glared at the bird pokémon with a threatening frown. If that didn’t shut them up, then I don’t know what did. After a few seconds of silence, I changed the topic. “All vine whip users—throw the humans off board, along with any pokémon that try to oppose us! Pokémon with confuse ray—confuse them until they can be confused no more! Pokémon with quick attack, speed charge or agility—use your speed to your advantage! By the way,” I turned to the haunter beside me, “you’ll have to repeat all this to the pokémon in the other crates before you break their locks.”

“B-but...how can I remember all that you’ve just said?”

“...Hm... Can you go through walls with other pokémon?” I asked.

“O-only one,” he replied.

“Good enough!” My eyes jumped flying pokémon’s heads until I came across a black one that resembled a music note. “You, chatot!”

“Yeah?” came a reply.

“Come up here, will ya?”

Hopping along the wooden, muck covered floor, the music note pokémon cocked his head to the side once stopping in front of me. “What?”

“Chatter.”

“Excuse me?”

“You’re excused. Chatter,” I repeated.

“Ch-chatter?” he questioned.

“Chatter! Use your move, chatter. This haunter will take you through the wall and into all of the other crates so you can repeat what I’ve said. That way, everyone in the other crates’ll know what to do if they haven’t already figured it out, and he won’t have to remember anything I’ve said.”

“What?! I’m not doing that! It’s putting me in danger!”

A wicked “HA!” escaped my mouth, making the chatot withdraw slightly, and by the look on his face that held a pink beak, he began to use the move out of fear. “You think that nobody else is going to be in danger?” I turned around, looking Luck in the eyes and he held out his paws. I pounced onto them and followed my route to his right shoulder. “Listen!” I commanded. “This is not a game! Neither is it a guarantee that everyone is going to escape unharmed...or even alive.” I turned to the flying pokémon. “If you lot think you’re in more danger than the rest of us, you’re wrong! Every one of us is going to be fighting for our lives. If a bullet from the humans’ guns is fired at any of us land pokémon, we’ll be more likely to be hit than any of you! Team Rocket humans will have more land than sky pokémon. That means we will be the ones being injured the most!” I stood proudly and high as I made my speech, and I watched as some of the bird pokémon turned away with shame. “I want you to all understand that we have to work as a team and co-operate if we want this to work out. The humans are going to put up a fight...and we must counter it with all we've got.”

Just then, a moan drew everyone’s attention and gave half the pokémon near it a start. Realising it was the Team Rocket man, I continued to watch what they did next.

“AAHHH!” exclaimed a spinda nearby, using a dizzy punch with her right, red paw to hit his face. A beedrill, who had zipped over from the flying type group, hastily thrust one of her pointed needles through the man’s chest, instantly killing him with a sickening squish. The man had no time to react, and couldn’t possibly have seen what was coming.

My jaw dropped and my eyes widened as I held a breath in my throat. I didn’t know what to do about it whilst standing there, but the scene ended with me having a single thought. ‘Many Team Rocket members and pokémon are bound to be killed... That man could have been one possible murderer of someone in this room if he had lived...’

***

“So you know what you’ve gotta do?” I asked, attempting to comfort the unsure pokémon to my left. He nodded slowly, hands on either side of two blue, folded-up-and-by-the-side-of-a-body wings. “Go!” I commanded, and the nervous haunter seemed to melt into the wooden wall without a trace. I was left staring at the spot that it vanished into, reassuring myself that the pokémon had done what I had said. And by keeping solely to the shadows, he would surely be able to stay hidden.

I turned back around to the large cluster of fellow pokémon. They all seemed fidgety and biting their lips in anticipation. I didn’t blame them, though. I bothered Luck to give me a boost once more and addressed the pokémon in the crate. “Once he gets back...we’re movin’ out!” I yelled enthusiastically, attempting to crank up the morale.

“YEAH!” everyone cheered; I saw some smaller pokémon be tossed into the air—probably by pokémon who didn’t have anything else to throw. My eyes widened, but I said nothing as I stepped back down.

***

Outside, human men patrolled the area, poké balls here and there on belts. Most of them had black bulging bum-bags hanging at their waists as well. Their uniforms were dirty put neat and repelling yet enticing.

Once a Rocket member with a straight face marched by, the nervous haunter bearing a flying friend slipped into the man’s shadow so as not to be noticed. The ghost type was glad to be a haunter. Haunter and gengar could melt into shadows and basically become part of them. The chatot was also brought into the human’s shadow, being masked by the haunter. However, unknown to the ghost type, he was covering not all of the bird pokémon.
Passing by another member of Team Rocket, the haunter hovering to keep up with the shadow removed a hand from one of the chatot’s wings, reaching up to scratch its face. With the other hand, he held the uncomfortable pokémon against his body. Unknowingly the chatot—who was told not to move—came into view a little.

The minion stared with a frown at the man’s shadow, confused to be looking straight at a pink beak that seemed to be floating. He blinked repeatedly, and when the man rounded a corner, the perplexed grunt followed. Once he peeked his head around the side of the crate, however, he saw nothing following his fellow Rocket member. Figuring it was due to lack of sleep, the man shrugged and returned to his post.

‘Phew! That was close...’ thought the haunter, the chatot agreeing without hesitation.

“This one!” the chatot whispered, straining to be heard over the bickering of humans and waves of the sea while simultaneously trying to stay quiet.

Making his way to the closest crate, the haunter timed his exit perfectly, slipping into the wall with the chatot cringing, not understanding how it was possible to do so.

***

For the fifth time so far, pokémon in their cages began to yell and pout, trying to interrogate the random free haunter and chatot. The two positioned themselves near the front of the crate where a thin strip of space fit them nicely, and the haunter cringed as his rather loud comrade began to speak over the loud uproar.

“Shut up, shut up! Listen to me at once!” the chatot exclaimed. The pokémon seemed to continue shouting, but after the flying type screamed out something about him and his partner being able to free them all, the bunch quietened down to a soft mumbling. “You have been here for a long time, trying to break free. None of you have succeeded! That is because the cages are pokémon-proof on the inside and can only be broken from the outside. The crate that this haunter and I come from is filled with as many pokémon as there are in here, but a flareon has spoken up and issued a plan to free us!” The pokémon cheered and the chatot could see that a lot of them jiggled with excitement while others sighed with relief. “I will now repeat a speech made by the flareon with my special move, chatter. It’s quite long and some of you near the back may have to listen hard!”

***

“All young pokémon are to be evacuated by flying and water types! This should ensure that they all get to safety. All fish pokémon are to be set into the water before it’s too late for them! Break this formation and you forfeit the plans for safety and freedom. Good luck, and may the Legendaries watch over you!” The end of a pre-recorded speech spoken by the fire type left pokémon of the other crates with hope. The flame in their eyes was relit, enlightening their thoughts and paths. Belief and courage arose within them, causing their breathing to become deeper and their claws sharper. Their hearts seemed to lift again, the unmistakable beating of each loud and clear.

The blue-winged pokémon who was now strongly for the escape plan slashed at cage locks with wing attack and peck, followed by sucker punches and hidden powers from the haunter. Cage after cage and crate after crate, pokémon were released. They were all excited beyond what they had been in days or possibly weeks, and filled with the appropriate attitude.

Finally the seventh crate came, and the haunter was relieved to finally be attending to the last few. He and the chatot had been at this for at least three or so hours; it was a painful process.

At one stage they were forced to wait for over twenty minutes for the path from one crate’s shadow to the next to be safe from the humans patrolling the area. He and the chatot knew that it was vital that they stay hidden. In another crate, a pokémon had died from malnutrition amongst other things, and the other pokémon were not only complaining about it, but insisting that that haunter throw the body overboard, for they demanded that it be ridden of, and he could not leave it in the open where it could be seen. Therefore he’d been forced to take care of that, no matter how much he resisted, which had slowed he and his partner.

Held in a cage at the front of the bottom row, a tan coloured figure sat with her head on her brown paws. She had large green ears atop her head and a green leaf-like, jagged tail that was wrapped around her body. The haunter had noticed that at the mention of a brave flareon, the leafeon had raised her head almost in surprise. He pretended not to pay her any attention, but secretly kept a pupil on her. Figuring she must’ve known the flareon, he approached her after the speech had subsided.

“Do you...know that flareon?” he wondered, a little shy about talking to her.

The leafeon stared at him for a moment. “Uhh...yes. I...I think so.” She swallowed and looked down, then back up. “Is she okay?”

“Yes, yes, fine. She...c-came up with the plan,” he replied calmly. Pokémon around him momentarily snatched his focus as they screeched for liberation and wriggled impatiently, including two other pokémon in the same cage as the leafeon. The ghost type frowned before she spoke again.

“I gathered that,” she mentioned. The haunter had a feeling she was trying not to sound rude so as not to start conflict of any kind rather than in an effort to be polite to him.

“O-oh,” the haunter mumbled. Deciding the conversation ended there, he then readied a hidden power attack, closing his eyes and pressing his hands together. He looked as if he was building up pressure of some kind, only to release it when he brought his hands apart again. White spherical orbs of light were thrust out from his body and sent soaring horizontally until they came in contact with metal locks that were rusted and clamped shut. Four at once were destroyed, and the remains of the metal blocks clinked against the ground as they dropped.

Cage doors swung open, a number of pokémon swarming out of each one. This surprised the haunter, as this was the first crate which held more than one pokémon in a single cage. He figured since it was the last one, space must have been tight and therefore the humans were forced to cram as many into these cages as possible.

One of the pokémon in the cages that was liberated was the grass type. She stood up cautiously and then slipped out of the cage, the two other pokémon having exited before her, and she seemed happy to be out. Instead of thanking the haunter, the pokémon ran straight to a large buff coloured pokémon. The feline pokémon strode out of his cage, acting like he was of high importance and shook off, closing his eyes as he did so. As the haunter analysed him briefly, he noted that he was the evolved form of a meowth—a persian. The rounded red gem on his forehead glistened as his small ears, similar to a meowth’s, straightened upon spotting his new company. His whiskers were smaller than his pre-evolved form, but his sleek talk with a curled end was nearly the same.

“Talyn!” exclaimed the leafeon as she dashed over by his side. She began to rub against the side of the persian’s neck, and the pokémon himself looked down at her, closing his own eyes and rubbing against her head.

“Izante,” he replied in a straight-forward kind of voice. Once they stopped nuzzling, he continued to look at her, not spying the haunter from the corner of his eye.

More and more pokémon spewed from their cages as time passed, and they anxiously rushed to other ones to help break more locks. The haunter saw many different pokémon—small ones, tall ones, brown ones, blue ones... He could’ve seen about fifty by now. But one thing that caught his attention was not the fact that there were so many pokémon, nor was it that the chatot he had escorted endlessly severed locks on cages and the cages themselves, but it was a small discussion going on in the far left corner piled with cages that were unoccupied.

Curious, the ghost type neared the two pokémon he had seen before with lowered voices. He melted into the shadows of the many cages, concealing himself slyly.

“That flareon...is that not the same flareon you have known for years?”

“I think that’s her,” Izante responded. She didn’t seem excited as such, and she said it in an emotionless tone.

“Are you going to be escaping with her?” he questioned.

“I...I have to. ...I do have obligations...and she’s...my friend,” the leafeon stated, raising her voice a little.

“Shh! We don’t want to be heard!” the persian hushed, checking his surroundings to ensure he wasn’t being watched. Upon seeing this, the haunter crept a little closer, still invisible in the casting shadows. “Friend? Don’t tell me...” The persian shook his head disapprovingly. However, he took another path. “She’s going to get in our way!” The grass type, absorbing the reality, sighed heavily, looking completely unsure of what to do. A sort of helpless expression found its way to her features, winding itself between her facial fur.

“Haunter!”

The sudden voice shook the likes of the purple ghost pokémon as he eavesdropped, almost knocking him out into the open where he would be spotted by the secretively chatting duo.

“Haunter, where in the world are you?! Report here at once! We must move on!” the chatot squawked, flapping his wings with intolerance.

Sighing much like the leafeon he had just examined, the haunter made an effort not to come into the view of anyone until he popped up behind his partner. “I’m here...” he stated, barely above a whisper, levitating behind the flying type. The chatot jumped, fluttering his blue wings once more before recomposing himself and straightening his feathers.

“Don’t do that again!” he huffed, shaking his head briefly. “Let us be off at once,” he demanded, basically handing himself over to the haunter.

“Alright...” the pokémon agreed, wrapping his detached hands around the pokémon’s wings. Effortlessly the haunter turned and dissolved into the wall, noting from the corner of his eye that those two suspicious pokémon were once again snuggling. It made him shudder, wondering why they were doing such a disturbing thing, and began to set his mind back on the task ahead: to free the last of the pokémon!

***

With the haunter and the chatot having returned some time later, I was grinning with satisfaction. All the crates had pokémon craving freedom running around in them—almost how it was supposed to be. ‘And to think that I was once lying in my cage without any sort of plan...’ The thought made me realise something: I had come up with this plan, and so far it was working. With the help and support of fellow pokémon, I had successfully managed to rid every pokémon on the ship of their wicked imprisonment stages and to bring them all justice. Now there was just one thing left to do before the attack—break the massive locks on the crates.

Spirits were high, and I knew that the right time to make our move was nearing. Although most of the pokémon – including me – were half-starving as a result of a lack in nourishment, I hoped we would hold up. As pokémon, I assumed us all to be tough. After all, a lot of us would naturally live in extreme weather. Ice types would live in the icelands raging with constant blizzards; most fire pokémon could withstand extreme heat temperatures – even fire itself – and rock types dealt with solid and difficult ground, treacherous mountains and the waterless underground.

“We all good?” I asked, raising my voice to be heard. The pokémon who were sorted out into groups shouted in response, cheering and roaring with excitement and agreement. They, like me, waited in anticipation for the right moment to strike. I had sent out the haunter again – this time by himself – to go around to all of the other nine crates spread throughout the massive ship to ensure that they were all ready and to then break their locks once ours was broken. Whilst he was gone, I had really gotten the crowd pumped.

“Nice work,” a voice praised, not as loud as the noise surrounding me. I knew who it was and smiled without rotating my head in his direction. A sly grin crept across my face.

“Thank you, Raiys. I thought so myself,” I chuckled, not boasting, but saying it humourously. He also chuckled, padding to stop beside me.

“I’m eager to get out of here. You really have done the pokémon of this crate a big favour,” he added, nodding.

“Aw, well, I couldn’t have done it without your motivation and Pokol’s blast seeds.”

“Heh,” he chuckled again, acknowledging the fact that what I had said was true.

Smiling at him friendlily, I happened to notice that there was someone behind him. It was a canine pokémon like myself, but slightly larger and had blue fur. My facial expression changed instantaneously, and a frown fell onto my face out of nowhere. ‘Oh—HER,’ I thought with bitterness. It was Azure—the glaceon with something against me.

“Raiys, let’s group with the other pokémon,” she butted in, facing him and speaking as if I wasn’t there.

The quilava blinked a few times, just registering that she was there and speaking to him. “We will not be in the same elemental group,” he told her, but to the statement, Azure continued to insist, however, clearly thinking something of snatching him from me. My face grew even more contempt, and I tried to talk over her pointless ranting.

“Raiys, stay here. We’re not ready to go yet!” I snarled at her, leaking smoke from my nostrils.

“No—” she started, throwing a harsh contemptuous sneer at me. “Follow me. I am your partner.”

“HEY!” I exclaimed, getting her attention. “He chooses! He was here with me first!” I formed a defensive battle stance, and, to my surprise – but at the same time, expectations – she, without warning, shot an ice beam at my face. It struck me head on, and I was forced to keep my eyes bound and endure the attack whilst standing my ground.

“Azure, stop it!” commanded Raiys, making a move to leap out in front of the attack. However, before he could do so, the glaceon broke off the attack.

Pieces of frost flew as I shook off once the beam faded, but it had taken a bigger toll on me than I had expected. Not because of the strength of an ice type attack like that, but because I was already weak. I flared up, fire enveloping my body until I released the pressure, and I blinked. It felt warm again, as did my toes and tips on my ears. After that was over I threw daggers at her in a piecing glare. “YOU—”

I heard the patter of pawsteps before a body appeared before my own. “You okay?” the quilava asked. I nodded, glaring past him at the stubborn and unfriendly glaceon who had seemed to look down on me with the sense that I was inferior to her.

“Dusty! There you are!” called out someone from behind. My gaze was torn from Azure to a black, blue-ringed figure approaching. He seemed somewhat relieved to have found me, and I noticed that in his wake was the same species of pokémon that had stepped on my paw a while ago.

“Hey...” I grumbled, finding that his face seemed overpowered with worry. “What’s wrong?”

“You have to come quickly! There’s a crazed sandslash holding a ralts hostage!” he explained, a serious expression upon his face.

“WHAT?!” I yelped, confusion smacking me in the face much like the ice beam had.

“You have to hurry; he’s injured her badly!”

“Oh, for—” I left my sentence there, taking off with Reaver delaying before tailing me.

As we were running, the umbreon called out to me, “He said he wanted our leader to come forward, so, since you came up with the plan, I assumed he meant you!”

To that statement I managed to smirk quietly to myself. He had referred to me as the leader... I didn’t think I’d ever be considered the head of a group or anything of the sort. But, then again, it wasn’t some really important one. Focusing back on the matter at paw, I scowled, hoping he hadn’t done too much damage as of yet. ‘Gahh, I wonder if it’s that Wulua kid again...’

I almost slipped several times on muck and waste on my way there, running as fast as I could with pokémon everywhere. I was constantly dodging creature after creature, and a few times I had banged into a couple, and I heard Reaver apologise for me as he passed them behind me.

Once coming into the opening of a large circle of pokémon near the very back of the crate, Reaver and I having come from the front, I stuck out my paws and skidded to a halt a few metres in front of the sandslash who tightened his grip at the sight of me. As my dark type friend and the grotle slowed to a stop behind me, I began to assess the situation.

It was Wulua.

“Stay back!” the ground type demanded, the claws on one of his paws laid across a ralts’ neck. The ralts’ head was drooping, and I could clearly tell that she was unconscious. I knew I had to take this seriously—considering that a pokémon had already fainted. If he had used a number of attacks on her to knock her out, I knew that it was very possible for him to be now able to kill her with his claws. And if I made the wrong move, he could easily extinguish the psychic type’s life.

“Wulua! What are you doing?!” I blurted out, spreading my front legs further apart.

“Why are we still here?!” he yelled at me, his eyes drained of their sanity. I recoiled a little at his aggressiveness, wondering what had driven him into such a state—but it then popped into my head as the most obvious thing currently on my mind It was surprising not everybody had flipped out by this stage. “Answer me!” he hollered, raising his muzzle. Pokémon around me flinched, waiting for me to step in.

“W-we have to wait for the haunter to come back,” I calmly replied, my mane settling down a little. Maybe if I remained relaxed, he wouldn’t feel as threatened.

“NO! Not wait, now! We have to get out NOW!!” he shouted hysterically, actually worrying me a little.

“Look, just calm down! He’ll be back soon,” I tried to reassure, my voice a little stressed. However, I knew I wasn’t telling the full truth. I had no idea when the ghost pokémon would return—but now, I hoped it was sooner than I had originally predicted.

“Shut up! Shut up, shut up, SHUT UP!!” He pressed his long, sharp claws into the Ralts’ neck, and my eyes widened.

‘A little more pressure and he could pierce her skin.’ I kept silent, watching him breathe heavily; He looked ready to explode into a rage-induced frenzy. However, when he started twitching his eyes, I had to say something. “What is it that you want?” I quietly asked, attempting to hide the frightened and/or agitated side of me.

“I want to get OUT OF HERE! I’m SICK of being held hostage by this wooden prison!” I then lowered my eyes, finding him a hypocrite. He was doing himself and everyone around him a disservice.

“We all do,” I mentioned. “We all want to get out...” He kept up his breathing, but before he could speak, I decided to go about it another way. “...If only that stupid haunter would hurry the hell up!”

Wulua seemed to frown a little at my sudden attitude fluctuation, but the stress in his face loosened up just a little. “What’s taking him SO LONG?!”

“You’re right! Doesn’t he care about us?!” I pretended to fire up. I turned to the pokémon around me, widening my eyes to enforce my encouragement for them to join in.

“He’s too selfish to help us!” Wulua accused, the spikes on his back lowering.

“All he cares about is taking FOREVER!” I droned, rolling my eyes. By this stage a few more pokémon had joined in, and I smiled on the inside. My plan was working.

“He’s a brainless ghost type!” he rumbled, distraction clouding his head as the pokémon in his claws slowly slid away.

“Yeah! What’s the matter with him?!” A look of disgust that passed across my face apparently edged on the sandslash.

“I want to get out!” he roared.

“Well, attacking the wall will help. Your claws are so strong!”

The ralts was now lying on the ground, and the sandslash’s arm had dropped with her. Without a word, Wulua glanced behind him. The wall was less than four metres behind him, and as tempted as he was, suspicion kept him from releasing his prisoner and going for the jackpot.

I readied my paws as the insane pokémon considered his chances, beginning to look as if he was about to ignore his protective instincts and stick with those that told him that he wanted to escape and he would do anything to fulfil that goal. Midway in pondering over what he should do, the sandslash turned away towards the wall.

Seizing the opportunity, I lunged at the pokémon with a soundless push-off, opening my jaw and pointing my small claws at him. With a screech from my opponent, I knocked us both to the ground, and the sandslash released his grip on the fainted ralts completely. We tumbled to the end of the crate, smacking against the wall. However, much to my dismay, I was the one who slammed against it, and Wulua was in front of me. He rolled onto his back, shook, and got to his feet.

I ducked with a yelp as he thrust a clawed paw at the wall—however, since it couldn’t be harmed from the inside, the claws were forced to change direction to downward, a cry emitting his mouth as a cringed. With his other paw, however, he swiped at me without hesitation, striking me in the gut. I gasped, but rapidly generated a weak shadow ball before sending it spiralling at close range into the pokémon’s face. Luckily it made him vulnerable for a few moments, and quickly I glanced to my wound. It was only a scratch on the surface, thankfully.

I pounced past him, then turned to face him as my paws skidded against the wood and muck, and leaped at him with a bite—big mistake. I rammed into his spikes, causing my body to take the shock and clunk against the ground. I shook off, barely being hurt by it as they folded rather than speared me, and I jumped backwards as he suddenly swung at me with his paws yet again. Countering it with a leer attack, my piecing glare made him have to cover his eyes as if a bright light had just shone into them. Letting his guard down by mistake, I cast a flamethrower in his direction, searing the pokémon only to the point of unconsciousness. Collapsing in a heap of defeated sandslash, Wulua fainted on the floor.

“...That haunter is trying his hardest.” I narrowed my eyes and exhaled in a long puff before hearing a number of worried pokémon storm over to us.

“Dusty!” called one of them. “Are you alright?”

“Yes, fine,” I simply replied. I smiled slightly, happy that my plan had worked, but it vanished quickly as I remember that Wulua had officially gone off the sanity scale—and it seemed like nothing could make him return to a safe state of mind, posing a difficult decision as to what to do with him. “Somebody watch him,” I commanded, turning around to whoever was there.

The umbreon beside me nodded to several pokémon around me—two ninjask who were cicada-like pokémon of assorted colours. Nodding, they followed orders and buzzed over to the inert ground type. Among them was also a loudred – a blue pokémon with an enormous mouth with two ears that looked as if they absorbed sound – and a shuckle who had a red shell with white rings where the holes for her long, yellow legs and neck were.

I strode over to the unconscious ralts, gathering that she looked in a somewhat fine state. I examined the pokémon briefly and nudged her. She didn’t move straight away, so I took her small body softly within my jaws and trotted over to the nearby grotle standing with Reaver. I plonked her onto his shell-armour, and his umbreon friend nudged her further up onto his back in a stable position so she wouldn’t fall. I figured keeping her immobile up there was a suitable idea, being off the ground, and being in someone else’s care.

Most of the pokémon around were silent. “...Don’t do anything wrong, and you won’t end up like that sandslash over there,” I announced, nodding my head in the pokémon’s direction. “Do something wrong...and you’ll get the same treatment.”

[Suicune's Fire]

Welp...it's been about three years since I've written any of this story because I am a huge disgrace. xD I'm so horrified at myself for not writing in so long... Anyway, I hope all one of my readers enjoys this chapter. :3c @Dragon Master Mike if you wanna read it at some stage. cx GUESS WHAT. THEY GET OUT OF THE CAVE! *rejoice* I also updated the first page with a list of characters just so that you can double-check if you forgot who someone is. (I nearly forgot who a few were...and I write this thing! XD)

---

Chapter Thirty-one: Untimely Reunion

It was nightfall before we finally made it out. I was exhausted from all that travelling, and I knew that the rhyhorn (whose name I still hadn’t learned and didn’t particularly care to learn) and Rentana were too. The latter was still worn from the psychic energy she had exercised on both me and the rock type, and judging by the way she kept swaying, I suspected that she might collapse with exhaustion if we didn’t find a place to rest soon. I was certainly unfit to try to carry her in my current state, and even if there wasn’t a gaping hole in my side, I was probably too small anyway. I had no idea if the rhyhorn was willing to have her on his back or not, but given his positive attitude towards her, I guessed that he would be willing. Had it been me in her position, and I highly doubt he would have been interested.

Once we emerged into the crisp night air, I took in an overdue lengthy breath. The temperature had drastically dropped, and if I hadn’t been a fire type, I would probably have been shivering as much as the kirlia. I nearly proposed that she could encase herself in some sort of force-field to act as a shield from the weather, but the suggestion became rather silly once I revisited the amount of energy I knew she had already spent.

Still, I directed my attention at the psychic type. “I can create a bonfire for you. You know, provided we can find some wood.” I began to toss my head about, but no trace of logs – that were dry and detached from a tree – surrounded us. “Which...might be harder than I thought.”

“We don’t need a fire,” grunted the rhyhorn, who began to trudge up the side of the cliff we had emerged onto. The path stretched for a while before it came to the edge and was, from what I could tell, flat. There was a separate rise which was much narrower that stretched up the side of the mountain to our left, but I hoped that somewhere there was a slope leading back down to around where ground level was.

“Right. I bet you also don’t need food and water,” I smirked, watching him snort and turn away.

After I stalked to the edge of the cliff, I peered down and spotted the ground not too far down. It was much too steep of a drop to try jumping, so I was going to need to find another way down. If I was a mankey or an aipom, the possibility of leaping into a nearby treetop would be something I could consider, but given that I had no opposable thumbs, the idea was useless. I couldn’t imagine Rentana would have wanted to try, and the rhydon would succeed only in generating a crater in the ground if he tried jumping.

I returned to my companions, who were huddled against the wall of the mountain. “Cold?” I teased, and the rhyhorn ignored me. Rentana looked up but said nothing. “Come on. If we keep moving, maybe we’ll find somewhere adequate to spend the night. And warm ourselves by walking!”

I was clearly more enthusiastic about the journey than the others, but it was really just a facade. My wound was pounding with endless pain and I had to fight the urge to collapse and try to lick it clean. I was sure it had been leaking the entire time we had been travelling, and at occasional points, I had pretended to show interest in something such as moss which we spotted in moist parts of the caves, telling them to keep moving, but stayed behind to rest my wound. I had hoped they hadn’t pick up on the truth, even though in hindsight I considered a flareon showing interest in moss for no apparent reason pretty unrealistic. Other times, I had just suggested that the kirlia rest, as she appeared more physically worn than me or the ground type. That had worked too, and I was free to take the liberty to close my eyes for around half an hour before we got going again. I had certainly been looking forward to evening—that was for sure.

“Dusty...I’m tired...” heaved the kirlia, leaning against the wall with her head cocked back and her eyes closed.

A little worry washed over me; I knew she was tired, but I did not want to pause yet. “We shouldn’t stop here...” I began carefully, hoping I wasn’t going to give her any kind of fright. “Look, there’s a downward slope!” I exclaimed, noting a path which I had initially missed.

“Would you give it a rest?” the rhyhorn barked, standing beside the kirlia as he made somewhat of a move to guard her. “We all know your wound has been hurting you this entire time. You’re not tougher than us, and you’re a fool for thinking you can push others the way you’ve been pushing yourself.” He emitted a low rumble. “Just let her rest.”

I was about to snap back with my own retort, but felt no words make their way to my tongue. I failed to find a valid argument altogether and snorted, gritting my jaws as my nose twitched continually. With a gruff snarl I tore away from them and continued on my own. I had apparently forgotten my wound for a moment as I was engaging in conversation with him, as my leg began to beat louder than before once I applied pressure, agitating me and forcing my jaws more tightly together. I controlled my breathing and began the slow descent down the gradual slope, head low as I twitched with agitation. “I wasn’t pushing her,” I muttered grudgingly, mind on the rhyhorn.

The scenery around me was coated in snow. Peculiarly, the snow didn’t reach most of the cliff, which was probably due to the angle at which it had blown. Considering this, I wondered if it was really a good idea to go off in search of more shelter. I was a fire type, sure, but that didn’t mean I could sustain my body temperature forever. If I were an ice type, my body would be able to regulate the freezing temperatures and adjust itself to them, just as I could in hot climates. But there was only so long I could handle the harsh embrace of the cold.

Before deciding that splitting from the only two nearby pokémon I knew were my allies, I stopped partway down the slope. If there were more caves around in which we could spend the night, I would be lucky to find them. I realised that we could simply retreat back into the cave we had come, and although the idea didn’t excite me, it was possible that it could be the most sensible option. At the same time, though, I wondered if we were going to be found by the others. Currently we were lost, and I was willing to admit that. Not to do so would be pointless anyway. I just hoped the others – who we had been separated from hours ago – knew where they were going and how to get out. For all I knew, they could still be in the caves. Either that or they had beaten us out long ago, and I was wandering around blindly while they had found some grand shelter elsewhere.

As I sighed to myself and worked my way back up the gently slanting rock, I thought to myself about the other pokémon. Although I didn’t know him, it was a relief to know that the granbull, Derino, was okay, as the steelix had reportedly not been out to harm anyone and likely knew his way around the caves if he lived there. It was possible most of them had been separated and were alone, and I realised how lucky I was to have encountered the kirlia and a random rhyhorn—one that did not wish to attack us at that. I was still wary of him, but things such as his concern for Rentana persuaded me that he was not a bad pokémon, despite our intolerance of one another.

‘I really hope they find us soon...and know what they’re doing...’ I gave a sigh and tilted my head skyward, focusing on several different glowing dots among the murky blue. ‘...We certainly don’t.’

***

“FINALLY,” groaned the glaceon with such enthusiasm that she thought she might cause an avalanche.

She sprawled onto the grass that grew sparsely on what looked to be a rather high cliff, rolling over onto her back and peering up into the limitless sky. She could once again see stars and wispy remains of the day’s clouds, which smeared into indecipherable smudges as night crept across the horizon. She moved her head to Tarla, who was a big fluffy blob beside her.

“Fresh air,” the altaria added, closing her eyes to breathe it in through her small ivory beak. She felt the freezing wind sail by as her two distinctive head feathers danced behind her, stretching her wings to allow the air to flow through them. Her left one still ached, and she hoped that a night’s sleep might help, even if only a little. She had injured it that same day, after all, and it hadn’t had any proper rest.

She thought that the glaceon’s endeavour to save her must have done something positive, however, as she suspected that the bone, which was likely to have been out of place, had clicked back into the correct spot. It had felt much better to move around since then. The circumstances of the bone’s relocation weren’t ideal, but she was glad that the eeveelution had done it regardless. Both were still alive and well, which was what mattered the most. The same couldn’t be said for the geodude who suffered a tragic fate, of course, but she was reluctant to think of that again.

“We need to find somewhere to stay,” the rhyhorn behind them grunted as she emerged from the cave. She glared at the lying glaceon and stepped around her, intentionally ensuring her steps were laboured to display how much of an inconvenience she was. The rock type walked around the small area, which was a rounded-off cliff with only traces of ice on top. There were a few slants that angled down from the cliff, which presumably led to lower levels and more crossable land, and it was clear that the rhyhorn intended to descend them presently.

Tarla turned to Azure. “We don’t need to go down any further. We can stay up here for the night.” She glanced to Thunderquake, who was already metres away and peering over the edge of the cliff.

“Yeah...we could,” Azure muttered, her paws hanging lazily as she angled her head toward the rhyhorn. More rock types circled around her and she gave a tiny smug smile, happy to be in their way.

After mere moments of deliberation, the rhyhorn had picked a path and decided to move off. Tarla and Azure had little desire to see them off, but Thunderquake turned and plodded toward them, her glare present as always.

“Do not cross into my territory again,” she grumbled, traces of a thread evident in her tone. She switched her gaze to Azure, who proceeded to get off the ground. “This is the last time I will help outsiders. Do you understand?”

“Yeah,” the glaceon muttered with a raise of her brow, uninterested in enduring a lecture. “Bye. See ya! Nice to have the company.” She rolled her eyes.

Thunderquake merely watched her for a few seconds, making the ice type uncomfortable, before turning to Tarla. “Fare thee well.”

The two Usster pokémon followed with their eyes as the fragment of the rhyhorn herd trudged away, disappearing out of sight.

The dragon type took a deep breath, deciding it was time to relocate her focus. She turned to the mountains in the distance and settled her gaze. From where she was, she could see the distant mountains and their many differences. The mountain range stretched beyond what she was able to see without taking wing, but even then she would have to fly a fair distance to see its end—and that was its width, not length.

Memories began to flood back through her mind as she continued to stare, almost as if in a trance, and she waddled forward to the edge of the cliff to cast her curious gaze across the surrounding areas for a more detailed assessment. The view was breathtaking. She had seen similar sights many times before, but they never ceased to rob her lungs of air.

Azure strode up beside her and took a seat at the flying type’s side. Although the swelling darkness stole many details which would have been stunning in proper light, what could be seen was still amazing, and Azure was happy to be anywhere with snow. It was only a thin layer under her paws, and she didn’t intend to sleep on it, but she was happy to be in an icy climate. Sometimes she dreamed of straying from the colony – temporarily – just to visit the snowy mountains. However, she was rarely allowed the luxury. All business she had away from the colony was not free time, and often she wasn’t to choose where she would go. She tried to block that out for the moment, allowing herself to feel the breeze and inhale the fresh air around her. Its coldness was comforting.

“You know something...?” began Tarla unexpectedly, and the glaceon faced her with a questioning look. “...I used to live here. Not on this mountain...but one of them.”

“You did?”

“And before that, I used to live far from here. Until I was banished.”

The glaceon’s eyes lit up at the words and she stared intently at the pokémon at her side, interested in what she had to say. “You were banished...as well?”

Tarla frowned a little. “...As well?”

“Uhh,” the glaceon began, suddenly growing uncomfortable. “It’s a stupid tale. Really, it’s not worth hearing about...”

The altaria looked at her for a few seconds longer before she removed her gaze and redirected it out to the mountains once more. “When I came here, I was attacked by a skarmory...” Her eyes narrowed but she didn’t blink. “One of the most frightening experiences of my life.”

Azure processed the information without a particular response, then queried, “Why’d it attack?”

Tarla’s mind worked as she tried for the hundredth time to figure that out for herself. “I wish I knew.”

--

The swablu awoke with a heavy head. The crash had rendered her a little disorientated, and her wings both ached with shooting pain that she hadn’t felt anything like before. It was horrible, and she longed to have it disappear. She knew she wouldn’t be so lucky, however, as she was not familiar with any healing moves. Even then, what she had sustained was probably too serious to be healed with a mere pokémon’s move. Rest and recover were good for minor injuries gained in battle, but not broken bones and fractured ligaments.

She groaned in pain, her breathing sharp and uneven as she tried to focus herself and still her rushing mind. So much had happened, and so fast. The skarmory had come for her like a golbat thirsty for blood, and she was truly confused as to why. She had done nothing to agitate it. It seemed vicious, like it was trying to protect something. She wasn’t sure what; she only knew that the monster was gone now, and she was tangled in a tree, between thick and thin branches and their many leaves. Her face hurt, her feathers had been yanked out, and she was sure she could see droplets of blood in a few places. One such place was on her cloudy wing, which showed up brightly and almost shockingly against the pure white.

She glanced around, trying to make out anything other than trees and their limbs. It wasn’t long before she tried to free herself and wriggled amongst the leaves and twigs, finally unlatching herself and feeling her body tilt. The small sphere-like shape of her form tumbled from the tree as she tried to beat her wings, having little success as she only turned in circles faster. She softened her landing, at least, but her wings felt too sore to hoist her into the air once she thumped against a large mound of snow. Her beak had accidentally closed on her tongue, and she felt the pain shoot through her mouth as she groaned. Suddenly she was alerted to the sound of cracking, and to her horror, a tree branch not much longer than her began to fall her way. With no time to escape, she let out a tiny peep before she was knocked out by the weight.

A night passed before she awoke to the brightness of the sun-kissed snow around her. Miraculously she hadn’t grown overly cold in the bed of snow, and wondered if it was because, in addition to her cloudy wings, she was also encased in the draping branches around her, including the one that had caused her to fall unconscious.

She was unsure what to do as she struggled to make a decision in her mind. She had lost everything: the flock she used to belong to and call family; the only friend she had made since she had lost her way; even her ability to fly had been taken from her, and she was left with nothing but snow and a new, unfamiliar day.

Her motivation had depleted, leaving her without any ability to right herself and navigate her way to safety. The idea was horrifying to her; she hated knowing that she was helpless in the face of destruction. The chances of encountering another friendly pokémon like Kori were slim, and she almost felt like giving up before she tried again. Right now, she had nobody to rely on but herself. Perhaps if she had stayed with Kori, all would have been fine, and she would be safe and sound, away from harm and out of the freezing snow. Her injuries wouldn’t have happened and she would have a home. Not only that, but she wouldn’t be alone.

‘What have I done?’ she wondered with endless regret, clenching her eyes. She felt tears forming at the edge of her eyes and then trail slowly down her facial feathers, eddying around her beak. She watched the snow surrounding her through blurred vision and wept quietly.

“I...is somebody there?”

The swablu jumped, knocking snow from the tops of her wings and head, trying to blink out the tears in order to see properly. Other than that, she stilled herself completely, holding her breath as she swallowed hard and stared out through the long, giant leaves of the tree which had sheltered her for a night.

“Hello?” the voice began again, and Tarla swallowed, contemplating her options.

As she thought about the possibility of lowering her voice and growling with the hope to intimidate or frighten off the intruder, she realised that the voice had sounded just about as afraid as she was. When she reevaluated the situation, she realised she had not heard this pokémon approach, and therefore they were either able to float or were small and didn’t make much noise...and was alone. Just to be sure, she waited again.

“I just...wanted to see if you needed help...unless nobody’s there...” the voice murmured. It was clear that the pokémon speaking was female, and she sounded timid.

The idea of a timid pokémon, probably small and by herself, was comforting to Tarla. Not only did it mean that she would likely not have a large portion of trouble if she was forced to engage in combat with this creature, but it also meant she was likely able to elude the pokémon if need be. Then again, Tarla considered that she could have been an ice type, given she was hanging around an area infested with snow, and figured that she could have been dangerous after all, especially if she was frightened and reacted with a flurry of ice or snow.

“Okay...well...I guess there’s nobody here,” she said, and waited a moment before presumably making her way from the pine. The shuffling of snow was soft and barely audible, which made sense as to why Tarla hadn’t been able to hear it over her sobs before, and held herself still until she deduced that the pokémon was a safe distance away.

She poked her body between two hanging branches, watching as the stranger walked off without the knowledge that she was being watched. From the back, Tarla could see that she was a yellow pokémon with a cone-shaped body, and had orange diamond-shaped patterns. The altaria felt her heart rate increase as she wondered what she should do. If she called out to this pokémon, there was still the possibility of an attack, but she didn’t want to let slide a possible opportunity for safety or help. The decision was hard, and she knew she was running out of time to make it.

Before she could voluntarily choose, however, the pokémon stopped and turned. Tarla’s eyes widened and she ducked back through the branches instantly, watching as they swayed back into place. She felt herself panic as she dashed behind the tree trunk which, she realised too late, was too thin to be of any use as a hiding spot.

The pokémon was evidently drawing closer and the swablu, frozen with fear and the burden of indecision, had not a clue for what to do. She couldn’t move a limb, and her wings were hammering with pain from the attack and the fall. She tightly compressed her beak.

The branches moved aside and the pokémon stuck the tip of her triangle through before her face came into view. The sight of it shocked Tarla and she felt a jolt of surprise zip through her bones. A charcoal face with a wide-set row of teeth and small eyes which bore no trace of hostility stared at her, cautiously analysing the unfamiliar pokémon.
Instead of showing a potential intruder aggression, she was projecting something closer to frightened concern.

The two pokémon stared at one another, both too frightened to do or say anything to one another, before the yellow pokémon finally raised a small, stubby arm and uttered, “...H...hello...”

“Hi,” answered Tarla abruptly, and after their exchange of two measly words, they didn’t speak again for about ten seconds. In the passing moments, the duo continued to analyse one another in an effort to build a profile.

“I...live around here. I’m a...snorunt,” the ‘snorunt’ explained, and Tarla watched her intently, adjusting her beak as it seemed to sit uncomfortably.

“I come from far away...” Tarla admitted, unwilling to reveal any more information to begin with.

“W...what’s your name?” asked the snorunt, resisting taking more steps into the shelter of the pine tree.

“Tarla... I’m a swablu.” She held up her wings, not taking her eyes off the snorunt. “They’re injured and I...can’t fly.” She swallowed again, hoping that her information was not going to be seized and used against her. Based on first impressions, she didn’t imagine that this snorunt was the type of pokémon to do such a thing, but she certainly knew that looks could be deceiving.

“I-if you want, I can help you get better,” the snorunt offered, and Tarla watched her with newfound hope. She forced herself to remain even just a little suspicious, as she knew that letting her guard down could easily be her downfall.
“How would you do that?” she questioned with narrowed eyes.

“Well, uh...we ice types know a thing or two about healing. Ice helps to soothe wounds. Of course, we ourselves don’t often need to be treated with ice because our bodies naturally generate it...but sometimes we help travellers and many of them are grateful...and-and some even come to us by themselves and—” She paused a second, noticing the light frown on the flying type’s face. “Oh...I’m talking too much, aren’t I? Sorry.”

The swablu didn’t particularly agree, but had no wish to discuss the topic. “Where do you live? Is it...possible that I could maybe...” She didn’t want to finish her sentence, looking down in shame. She had been booted out of her flock and now she had to go asking someone she had just met for help. She hated asking for help.

“Do you want to stay with us for a while?” guessed the snorunt, to which Tarla blinked a few times with a frown.

“What? N-no, I don’t want to...”

The snorunt watched her carefully. “It won’t be any trouble.”

The swablu, taken by her desire to be healed, frowned a little harder. “R...really?”

“Yes,” she answered with an innocent nod. “We treat travellers all the time.” She turned around and signalled outside the area the pine covered. “We live in a cave not too far from here. Actually, it’s a whole mountain.”

“Do I have to fly to get up there? Because my wings are injured and I don’t think I’ll be able to...” She stopped when she noticed the snorunt’s amused expression. The flying type continued to look at her with a questioning look, a small frown upon her delicate feathered face.

“We don’t...ahem. Have wings,” she explained, not wishing to embarrass the blue pokémon before her.

With wide eyes of realisation and a grunt of annoyance at herself, the swablu looked away. “J-just forget I asked.”

The snorunt, still somewhat concerned, gave a slow nod and a small smile before peeling away and ducking out from underneath the branches. As she vanished through the leaves, the swablu elected to follow, slowly scuffing through the snow that layered the ground at her feet. They walked for a time, the tall trees slowly passing by as the snorunt led the way. The whole time, the swablu tilted her head and observed the surrounding area, noting that they were in a shallow gully which was entirely covered with snow. It seemed to stretch for a while in both directions, but eventually stopped when mountains protruded from the earth and created bulky triangular fists punching from the ground.

“You might not know it, but ice types are great healers,” the snorunt from up ahead mentioned, and Tarla looked to her, although she was staring at the back of her body. It was then that she realised this pokémon’s head and body were joined, just as hers were. It made her feel less of a stranger to this pokémon.

“Wait a second,” the swablu realised, coming to a halt. To her words, the snorunt stopped as well. Tarla eyed the ground in thought, her mind buzzing with implications only then addressed. “Ice types...” Her eyes widened and she took a step back, at which the snorunt grew a look of alarm.

“What’s wrong?” she asked, a little frantic.

“I’m...I’m weak to ice. I’m a flying type and when I evolve...I’ll be doubly weak...” She swallowed, keeping her eyes on the pokémon in front of her. Suddenly she felt cold. The snow felt like a stranger’s territory. “What are you...what are you going to do with me?”

The snorunt pulled back at the sight of the flying type’s wild eyes of fear. She found it horrifying that she could have frightened someone in such a fashion, and felt herself begin to grow anxious. “I...I...we...”

Tarla knew the snorunt had lost her words and she watched the pokémon shrink back, lowering her gaze to the ground as if in shame. The bird pokémon didn’t remove her eyes, however, but started to feel sympathy for this seemingly harmless pokémon. As the snorunt had been leading her, she had felt as if there had been an invisible vine lightly pulling her along, like she didn’t have a choice. Upon seeing the shy snorunt’s reaction, it felt as if the vine was sliding off. Neither pokémon had control over the other, which was liberating. In order to retain that feeling, Tarla knew she needed to make her own decisions.

The two were silent for a beak-full of seconds before Tarla spoke up. “I...can’t go with you. I think I’ll...stay here until I get better and then...I’ll leave.” She offered a tiny smile, hoping her words were inoffensive.

The snorunt took a step forward with pleading eyes, obviously deciding against verbal protest. She instead gave a solemn nod. “Will you at least...let me bring you remedies?”

The swablu felt a pang of sympathy as she stared at the pokémon and gave a tiny nod. “Okay...”

The snorunt hesitated before blurting, “You can use the snow to keep your wounds cold. I-if you want. It’s a good idea though, as long as you yourself are warm...”

The blue pokémon acknowledged the comment and turned, trudging back to her pine tree. Doing so after encountering such a willing stranger almost felt wrong, and she couldn’t help but wonder if she was making the correct decision. It was possible that staying with those ice types would be her second chance in life, but it was equally as possible that they would only bring her harm. Despite the friendly messenger, she was not willing to chance the other members of her clan after mistakenly trusting a community before.

‘At least she seemed friendly...’ she thought to herself, happy to know there were other friendly pokémon existing out in the wild like Kori. Thinking of the swoobat made her feel another ripple of regret, but she turned her attention to other matters.

Only a few steps in, she realised something: she hadn’t caught the snorunt’s name. Whirling around, she was dismayed to see that the pokémon had disappeared. For a moment she was overcome with disappointment before her hope rose when the ice type walked out from behind a tree she happened to be crossing behind.

“H-hey!” she called, and was a little surprised when she realised how far the gully threw her voice. The snorunt turned around. “I...didn’t get your name!”

The ice type hesitated for but a moment. “Aemara!”

The swablu smiled with an open beak, feeling as if she had officially made a friend. “I’ll...see you ‘round!”

The snorunt, as she could see from afar, brightened up and grinned before nodding and turning around to race away.

--

The altaria gave a reminiscent nod. “...After a few days, I trusted Aemara enough to eventually live with her clan. She became my best and closest friend, and we’ve stuck together ever since. When we heard about a nearby clan who needed a healer, Aemara’s family told her she should go. They had plenty of healers and she was interested in following in their footsteps, so it was good for her to branch out and make her home somewhere else. Just as she wanted, she got to spread the healing touch her clan so highly valued.”

“How long ago was this?” asked Azure, who had been sitting and listening to her tale in the mouth of the cave for the past ten or so minutes. She was genuinely interested in the flying and dragon type’s past, as she had no idea how she had come to be at the colony.

“Years ago when the clan was first formed,” she answered. “Maybe...seven years ago?”

“Wow...” Azure whispered. “You’ve been with them for that long?”

“Yep,” she answered. “Most of the other colony members who have been here for that long were much older than we were when they joined. Pokémon like Luck and Wynore, and Krinn and Shard. Yukra too, I presume.” After she stopped talking, Azure stood and gave understanding nods before the altaria turned to her. “How’d you wind up with the Ussters?”

The glaceon held a breath in her throat, clearly reluctant to answer. She glanced almost fearfully at the altaria, who withdrew her head a little in perplexity. “I...I don’t like to talk about it.”

Tarla analysed her face for a little longer as the eeveelution swallowed nervously. “...Alright.”

Letting go of the question so quickly surprised the glaceon, and she began to stare at a shard of ice which had fallen from the entrance of the cave and had split into a few pieces. Her thoughts ran in circles as she contemplated sharing, even if it wasn’t something she normally did. She had come to trust the altaria and believed she wouldn’t do or say anything to enrage her. At least, she hoped not.

She lowered her head and drew a short breath, as if a little ashamed to begin her story. “Back in my pack... We lived in icy regions way up north, where not many others go. Trainers certainly don’t. I was always...looked down upon for my back.” She rotated her neck around to spot the odd patterning running down her flank. “It’s not much more than a strange discolouration and extra patterning, but because none of my family had such markings, some of our rival families and one of the wiser glaceon believed I was some kind of warning for bad things. They thought I was a sign from the gods and that I was not to be trusted or nurtured properly.

“When I was old enough to survive on my own, they drove me out and told me that they always planned to...but my mother convinced them to wait until I was old enough to hunt and find shelter on my own. If you ask me...she didn’t try hard enough.”

The altaria sat in silence, her face contorted with an expression of sympathy but misunderstanding; she could not fathom how they would discriminate against her for looking a little different from the rest of her kind, especially if it was only a minor marking. She resisted commenting, given how equally short-sighted her flock had been, and instead listened.

She still failed to meet her friend’s eyes as her gaze lingered on the ground. “Up north, there aren’t many other clans at all which could provide us with explanations for things in nature, so those that live up there are often superstitious or create their own beliefs to justify things they don’t understand. It’s what isolation does to you.” She heaved a sigh and sank to a lying position to rest her front legs. She stared at the cave floor. “So after I was banished, I ended up...finding other friends and then eventually joining the Usster Colony. It was something I could confide in and believe was my home... Like a sanctuary where I could be safe. Or as safe as I can feel.”

Despite not knowing what she was referring to with her last comment, Tarla dismissed it as a general statement. Times were dangerous and she had every right to feel unsafe some days. “I never knew that about you either,” she commented.

Azure glanced to her and then gave a nod accompanied with a bottled sigh. “I’ve...never told anyone, except one other pokémon, so...don’t repeat it.” She met her eyes again. “Okay?”

“Okay,” the altaria shrugged, understanding how she felt. “If it makes you feel any better, not many pokémon know about my past either. Being kicked out of my flock was one of the best and worst things to happen to me. If I stayed, it would have been because I decided to go along with their little plan...and I could feel that it wasn’t right, so...I didn’t do it. I never would have met my best friend or learned about healing...and I never would have wound up at the Usster Colony.”

Azure stared at her; she hadn’t considered the repercussions as something she should have been thankful for. She always resented her pack for evicting her and even one day thought she might seek revenge of some kind. However, hearing the altaria talk of such things in a positive light really put it in perspective for her. It was a large realisation to know that perhaps being exiled wasn’t the worst thing that happened to her after all. At the same time, she wondered what it would have been like to have been able to stay with her family and her friends her whole life. The icy lands were her home, and she found herself missing them every day.

Suddenly she felt extremely grateful for the chance to discuss her past with someone, and gave a shy smile. “Tarla...I just wanted to...”

When she looked up from eying the ground, she noticed that the altaria’s head was angled completely away from her, off to their right, and looked to be alert. The glaceon tipped her head to one side, a little curious about why she was doing such a thing.

“Is there something—”

“Shh!” snapped the flying and dragon type, and to it, Azure felt a little offended. Her pride resurfaced and she made the decision that she wasn’t going to thank her after all.

The feathers on Tarla’s head barely swayed in the soft wind as she focused, and suddenly Azure found herself interested in what had distracted her.

“I hear...something...” she explained, and got up, ruffling to the cave entrance and sticking her head out. The glaceon followed and tipped her head in questioning.

“I don’t hear—”

The altaria flicked a solid gaze at her instantly to silence her, and the glaceon gave a stoic glare. After a moment longer, she turned to Azure again and spurted, “We have to go.”

“Wh—what? Where?” fumbled the glaceon, who clearly had no idea what the fuss was about. Tarla looked about to lose her patience.

“We need to go now. Something’s happening down there,” she commented, and Azure narrowed her eyes in concern.

“Well how do we get down?” Azure trundled up to the edge of the cliff and peered over, spotting a small slope down the side of the mountain. It was laced with a thin coating of snow, and she only hoped neither of them would slip. With a small growl, she uttered, “Would be nice if you could fly.”

“Well, I can’t,” grumbled Tarla, who was already pushing past her and making her descent.

Azure watched her go a few steps before she called, “Where exactly are we going to?”

For a moment the flying and dragon type said nothing, and once she reached the bottom of the narrow slope, she whirled around and shifted her weight to one leg so she could point the other in a rough general direction instead of using her wing. “Voices; pokémon! It sounds like someone’s in danger and it could be one of us.”

The glaceon was sceptical of the bold claims based on little but some near-inaudible vocalisations. More pokémon could easily mean one or more of many things: a fight over territory, a heated dispute, casual but loud conversation, or even something as unlikely as a trainer disturbing the mountains in search of new pokémon. She doubted the latter, but even knowing it was a possibility, she found herself growing more and more wary of the situation.

Obediently she slid down the slope, her claws scraping streaks into the ice as she momentarily thought her paws might betray her and throw her off the slope. She managed to maintain grip, ending at the bottom with her body rotated. The eeveelution span around and met eyes with the flying type, who was focused on their next location. It was then that Azure heard voices as well, which were accompanied by a following scream. Instantly she recognised the voice, and when she turned to Tarla, she could see that she was not the only one.

“Dusty!” both yelped.

The duo fled down the mountainside, trying with as much accuracy and speed as possible to spot fast routes as they fought to reach their target before anything menacing befell her.

***

“It’s been at least half an hour,” began the krinar tentatively as he trudged behind a small party in front of him. “That sandshrew’s either dead or dying.”

“She’s not dead,” Maka growled back, the weight of the ground type thankfully not hindering her much.

“Can’t you sense a life when you’re near it?” Zaion mocked, walking a short distance from the rhyhorn. Etire pressed his lips together in thought at the question.

“Unlike you, some of us aren’t fortunate enough to have the nose of a thousand pokémon.”

The houndoom raised his brow a fraction. “Very kind of you to say.”

The fighting and psychic type rolled his eyes. He glanced over his shoulder to spot the figure of a quagsire waddling behind him and sighed, turning back to Maka. “This sandshrew won’t hold us up, will it?”

Maka only seemed agitated by his comment, and had been for the past half hour. His constant opinions were beginning to get on her nerves, especially considering he himself had nothing to worry about. She was the one carrying the extra weight and she, by proposing to take the stranger in the first place, had given herself the responsibility of another life. If he had been the one forced to carry her, then his comments would have been more justified. Considering he was not, Maka felt a strong inclination to make a trade with the cave: the krinar for the sandshrew.

She suddenly felt movement that was more than obviously not born of her own actions and became alerted to the possibility of the sandshrew regaining consciousness. She stopped in her tracks with a few alarmed grunts. Zaion doubled back and saw the movement himself; the sandshrew was unfurling.

With a dull thud, the ground type hit the tunnel’s floor with a small grunt. The pokémon rubbed her head in a daze, swaying on the spot as she remained seated. Her small orb-like eyes revealed themselves slowly at first, but took only a few seconds to snap open at once. She drew her arms against her dirty cream chest, quivering at the sight of strangers. Not only were they strangers, but she had never seen some of these pokémon species before.

“Relax, sandshrew,” Zaion hummed, lowering his neck to appear less intimidating.

“Where are you taking me?” the squeaky voice of the ground type peeped. Her orbs darted between the various faces.

“I am Maka,” the rhyhorn stated in a firm voice, “and I am with Thunderquake’s clan.” She glanced briefly to Zaion and Entire, who were nearby. Splash stood motionless a number of paces toward the back of the group. “These are my travel companions. They will not harm you, I assure you.”

The sandshrew knew not what to believe, but the attempted understanding which flashed across her face suggested that acceptance was trying to push its way through a wall of fear. She breathed for a few moments before tilting forward and catching herself with her arms. On all-fours, she crept to Maka’s nose and reached out with a claw. “I was hurt,” she whispered, touching the rock type’s stony snout. “You were trying to help me?”

Maka closed her eyes and dropped her head while the ground type’s claw remained. “Cave-dwellers must assist one another in times of need. I was merely doing my duty.”

The sandshrew’s mouth stretched in a smile. “My thanks. I must be going...” She withdrew from her fellow underground inhabitant and gave another wary stare to the travelling party. Then, like a goldeen going from land to ocean, the citrine pokémon dove into the earth and vanished with a spray of dirt.

“Really? That’s it? She’s just...gone?” Etire questioned rather monotonously.

“She had other business,” Zaion concluded, peeling away from the scene and trudging on.

Maka felt her eyelids settle together as a warm smile spread across her snout. “Our work has been done.” She, too, departed and Splash followed contentedly behind.

Etire released a sigh, somewhat unable to conclude why they had even bothered to carry the stranger in the first place. He shook his head, shooting out a bottled breath. “Let’s just get out of here.”

Not two rooms later, Etire, Maka and Zaion were surprised to encounter the sandshrew yet again after she had burrowed up from beneath the floor. This time, she was with some of her friends. The small ground type party explained that they were grateful for the help that the travellers had provided their fellow sandshrew with, and offered to lead them out of the cave.

Surprised but happy, the group followed the pack of ground types until they reached what they claimed was the final room before the cave dipped and then morphed into a steep incline, leading out of the cave. The two groups parted ways and Maka, Zaion, Etire and Splash followed the path.

The upward hike was worth all the effort it entailed, for resting at the top of the slope was an opening to ground-level outdoors. Zaion and Etire spewed from the cave, thankful for the blinding light pouring down from the sky and into their sensitive eyes. Splash seemed happy at the sight of scattered snow, an assumption which was confirmed when he dove into a mound resting beside a looming tree trunk. The ground was icy, but somehow grass still managed to sprout through and stretch towards the sun.

“Thank the legends!” shouted Etire, collapsing within the snow beside Splash. He felt his wounds sear into the frozen powder, grimacing at the pleasant but stinting bite of his dissatisfied nerves.

Zaion turned to Maka, who remained at the mouth of the cave, marvelling at the outside view but appearing hesitant to emerge. With a pair of narrowed eyes, the houndoom understood. “You’re not coming.”

Maka made no move to deny it. “I must stay. In truth, there were moments when I imagined I would leave my home and travel, perhaps to find a new home. But my clan is my home, and it must be where I die.”

“Don’t die too soon,” Zaion joked, his tail swaying patiently behind him.

Maka emitted a fragment of a blunt hum and turned around, making her slow descent back into her natural habitat.
The psychic and fighting type, still embraced by snow, sat up, his brow knitted with befuddlement. “Where’d she go?”

Zaion stood, slowly moving past his travel companions with little regard. “She went back home.”

“Oh.” Etire moved his mouth to the side of his face in contemplation. He thought she would have at least said goodbye. “Wait, didn’t that rhyhorn leader say that they don’t live underground?”

Zaion shrugged, a number of possibilities crossing his mind. Perhaps this was the wrong exit, or Maka was unlike the rest of her clan and lived beneath the surface. Whatever the case, all ties of its relevance had been severed.

The fire and dark type was already several paces away before he inclined his head back. “I’m not one for teamwork, but we need to meet up with the others if we’re gonna survive another wild pokémon attack.”

Etire hauled himself out of the snow pile and heaved to his feet. “I know. I’m not letting another pokémon lay a hand, or paw, or claw, or wing on my mate.” He sneered at the thought of his beloved falling under threat yet again. A single time was enough for one day. He turned to the quagsire making snow-angels beside him. “Time to go.”

He began to hobble after the houndoom as the water and ground type remained encased in frostiness, docility coating his wide-set face. He stayed for another few seconds before shimmying out of the snow and waddling happily after his colony mate. However, something made him stop. Something distant. His simple mind skipped a few beats as he tilted his head in order to understand. Was it...a voice?

“Siiiire,” droned the pokémon, drawing the krinar’s attention.

“Splash?” he questioned a moment after having turned around. For the first time, he saw concern painting the quagsire’s face. He was completely still. “Splash, what is it?”

“Ssssire,” he murmured in somewhat of a whisper, his body beginning to be pulled in the opposite direction as if a magnet had him in its tide.

“Hound—houndoom,” shouted Etire, snaring Zaion’s attention. The quadruped paused as he continued, “Splash is onto something!”

The houndoom’s brow pressed down on his eyes. He was sceptical of this pokémon’s ability to detect, analyse and conclude matters, but when his mind flashed back to the heroic act of saving that wild geodude, he was reminded that this pokémon was indeed capable of things others weren’t. Not only that, but his unnaturally broken composition and apparent anxiety – a trait he had not displayed until now – inclined the dual type to believe something was significantly wrong.

Before he could ponder any longer, the quagsire trundled off, drawn away in the opposite direction to either of his travel companions. The houndoom snorted through his heated nostrils as he galloped to Etire.

“If this lead proves to be nothing but an empty-minded pokémon taking a detour, I might be tempted to relieve him of his duty.”

The krinar’s jaws parted, appalled at Zaion’s gross judgement. Splash may have been challenged, but he was in no way less valuable than any other colony member. He was insulted at the mere assumption that the quagsire was incapable of proper thought or circumstance assessment.

With a mere snort, the dual type muttered, “Stupid control-freak houndoom,” and stumbled after them, knowing he would have to rely on tracking skills to follow.

***

“I have to get to the cave,” the rhyhorn stressed, his voice carrying tones of regret and uncertainty.

“I...I know. Just go!” I wheezed to the rhyhorn, who stood hesitantly behind me. I could feel his conflicted eyes boring into the back of my skull as he probably analysed the situation at hand. I tilted my head, hoping I could afford the luxury of relocating my gaze for a short period. “Get out of here.”

I threw my gaze back to the predicament I had been greeted with not two minutes prior. The scene I looked upon was one I dearly wished I could handle on my own, but even if my wound was sealed and my energy was replenished, the sight of a hovering claydol watching me from a distance with its inconsistent head rotations would have planted seeds of doubt inside my mind. The real deal-sealer was the giant armour-plated bug-like beast which had already dealt blows to the rhyhorn and me in several places. The creature stood on two legs and possessed mighty strength which, as much as I hated to admit, was far superior to mine.

I heard the rock and ground type trundle off while keeping my eye on the brute of a pokémon pacing back and forth, flexing his many limbs and stopping to stretch. He was as cocky as they came, which made me seethe. Not only was this pokémon obnoxious, but he was actually as good as he thought he was. That annoyed me more than the attitude itself.

Normally I would not normally place myself before a giant adversary capable of slicing me in two, unless it was to protect Master, but Rentana had suffered enough and she needed to be away from harm. As frequently as the rhyhorn and I got on each other’s nerves, he was interested in protecting her, which I could not only appreciate, but acknowledge as a rare quality. I was also notably stronger than he, despite my weeping wound.

Discarding my thoughts of the others, I glared at the presumed bug and water type beast sneering at me from a few paces away, taunting me with his stretching. The cold didn’t seem to penetrate his haughty demeanour one bit. In fact, not much seemed to grab his attention. Since he and that creepy claydol had arrived, the only target either of them had taken an interest in was me. In fact, it was almost as if they didn’t acknowledge the presence of the others until the rhyhorn had gotten in the way and fought alongside me. Now, however, I was alone.

The beast’s mandibles clicked together as sharp movements possessed his head. I still had no idea what either of the strangers were doing here, but this one seemed to be enjoying prolonging whatever his mission was.

“Look, I don’t know what you want, but I have powerful friends you don’t want to anger,” I bluffed, glowering.

The creature emitted a very odd bug-like trill which I imagined was laughter. “When flareon present challenge?”

I scrunched up my muzzle, confused as to why this creature was speaking like a cavemon. However, I had bigger things to worry about. “I’m injured, you idiot. Can’t you see?” I growled, showing my gaping wound to the great bug type.

The pokémon angled his head, apparently not insulted but instead seeing reason in my statement. However, the show-and-tell prompted him to come closer, which in turn influenced me to take a step back.

“Stay away. I’m warning you,” I hissed, nearing the wall behind me.

“Or what?” gurgled the pokémon as he closed in.

Before I could do anything, he shoved a giant scaly hand into the air as if he was summoning something. Instantly I seized the chance to unleash a billowing stream of fire into his chest, causing him to recoil for a mere second before his forearm lit up with cyan light. He drove the arm into me, striking my face and forcing me to the ground.

I cried out and spluttered in pain as my wound berated me for neglecting its treatment. It had gotten more agitated in the few moves we had exchanged before the rhyhorn disappeared to follow Rentana, which further worried me. It didn’t seem like this pokémon and his floating psychic buddy were here to simply beat me to the ground for amusement; I had a sinking feeling that I knew exactly who they worked for and why they were here.

“Nighty-night, flareon,” the creature bellowed, calling a puddle of water from the surrounding snow, which melted into liquid armour encasing his body.

“DUSTY!” screeched a familiar voice, causing my ears to prick up.

Both the giant dual type and I glanced toward the source of the sound, which was in the direction of the slope which led upwards to a higher point on the mountain. My heart raced as I realised that there were two voices calling my name. If my ears weren’t deceiving me, it was Tarla and Azure.

My foe didn’t even give me a second glance before plodding over to the only slant heading up the mountain while still encased in the watery armour, and began to stalk steadily up it. My gut wrenched at the potential outcome of the coming encounter; although Tarla would have a type advantage if the brute was part bug as I imagined, his sheer willingness to crush anything in his path gave me a reason to be worried.

The moment he reached the tip of the ridge, there was a flurry of white wings as the altaria crashed straight into him, bowling him over and ridding him of his temporary liquid shell. For a second I thought he was going to tumble off the side of the ledge and succumb to the long fall towards the ground, but he caught himself right before he came to the border of the slant and righted his body in a moment. Furiously he slashed at her with the same cyan glow around his fist as he did me, striking her with surprising speed in the side.

Tarla screeched in pain, and it occurred to me that back in the cave when we were fighting the rock and ground type clan, she appeared to be favouring one of her wings. I thought nothing of it at the time, but the realisation that she had met with my foe on foot as opposed to from the air was what made me consider that something could be wrong. Without an aerial advantage, there was no possible way she could defeat this warrior.

As Tarla engaged the bug beast, a cobalt form with swinging appendages came skidding down the ramp and properly into my view. My heart thundered faster as I tried to call out to her, but Azure was taken by surprise as the watchful claydol shot an army of glowing rocks directly at her. Her legs tangled over one another as she tried to stop and plot a course, but the immediacy of the attack combined with her surprise smashed through her guard and exploded against her flesh, sending her back and into the wall that I currently lay up against.

With a moan, she lifted her head and glared at me, as if frustrated that I had put her in this position. I gave her a shrug and a growl of annoyance while trying to fight off the pain gnawing at every square inch of my body.

The claydol gave her a mere second of rest before he launched a second attack, still only targeting her despite having a full view of me while I was down. I watched it soar towards the glaceon as she scrambled to her feet and bolted to the side, probably assuming she had avoided it. However, the boulders took a sharp turn and chased her like a cub following its mother, relentlessly trying to catch her.


Azure shrieked, bolting away from the rocks as they pursued her. She began to near the claydol, and it looked as if she was about to trick the giant airborne pokémon into hitting itself with its own attack. Just as she came into close proximity, another wall of rock suddenly appeared suspended between her and the claydol, causing her paws to scramble at the ground before she collided with it. The trail of rocks still pursuing her got the chance to catch up and smashed her from behind before she even realised it was still after her.

“Azure!” I screamed in horror, fear scaling my body in a shiver as I contemplated what sort of damage must have befallen her.

Once the rocks crumbled into useless piles of dust, Azure could be seen lying at the edge the flat mountain outcrop that this whole battle had been staged on. I swallowed hard, feeling uneasiness crawling up my throat and trying to burrow its way into my brain.

Tarla gave a shriek as a stream of cloudy ultramarine gas crackling with yellow sparks flooded down the slope she and the bug type were brawling at the top of. Suddenly I witnessed her form appear as she scurried desperately down and onto the flat surface where Azure and I had been. Her eyes were quick to meet with the glaceon’s unmoving form as she presumably worked her brain fast for a next step. Her gaze then swiftly shifted in my direction as an outcrop of rock from the cliff-side above broke off while surrounded by a pink casing.

We all watched as the onslaught of newly detached boulders shot directly at Tarla, who could do nothing but leap at Azure’s inert body and surround the glaceon and herself with her own giant wings. Her whole body was a ball of cotton as the boulders struck, rocking her visibly but not taking her down. After the attack, she remained completely still, not a trace of blue showing among the igloo of white.

I tried to hoist myself up as the floating claydol focused its many creepy eyes on me and projected its psychic abilities. I felt myself lift off the ground, my limbs dangling in the air as I slowly began to levitate to where the pokémon was. I flailed violently, trying to somehow break free of the psychic powers through pure will, but internally knew that it was hopeless. I could not use my mind to attack like this psychic type could, so there was no way to combat its assault.

Before I knew it, I was hovering before the claydol. I shook my head repeatedly, attempting to push myself away from the menacing, expressionless pokémon. I attempted to call out for Rentana or that rhyhorn, or for either of the pokémon encased in the cotton just behind me, but I could produce no sound. Whatever psychic barrier the claydol had erected was blocking my attempt to do anything but breathe.

The giant water and bug pokémon stumbled down the slant and locked his eyes on me. Satisfaction appeared to smother his foreign face and nervousness gripped me.

“Time to leave,” he grumbled to the ground and psychic type indirectly holding me. “Boss waiting.”

‘No,’ I thought, my face hardening with fear and denial. ‘They can’t take me! Let me go!’

The claydol began to rise as the pearly armoured pokémon gripped one of its ball-like feet, when suddenly my stomach churned.

In a flash of magenta, blue and blinding white, we vanished.