The Path of Destiny

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 21 - The Hope of Escape

Cyclone was lost.

All the vaporeon could see was sand. In every direction, there was nothing more, simply miles upon miles of sand and dunes. Where was his trainer when he needed him? Gone. Long gone. Miles away by now. He would never find him again, and truthfully, he didn’t care. That boy was a traitor.

The vaporeon wearily stumbled across the shifting sand, ignoring the pain that seared across his scorched paw pads. He was far too dehydrated to manage even the simplest water attack, even now, when he needed it most. He regretted the day he’d made the decision to travel with the boy instead of being released into a forest. But the water stone had been far too tempting.

As the weary pokémon carried on, his paw slipped, and he was sent crashing into the burning sand. Why had his trainer been foolish enough to think he could travel all the way through this desert? He was probably just as lost…that fool… The vaporeon was glad he had left the boy, left before he lost the strength to perform water attacks. He had needed the water more than that stupid human and his other worthless pokémon.

Realizing that he needed to keep going, or else perish, the vaporeon staggered to his feet, only to fall. He tried yet again; once, twice, and a third time. All his attempts failed.

Cyclone was hopelessly lost…

…Yet he would not let himself die. No, his trainer didn’t deserve that satisfaction.

Wearily, his paws scrabbled in the sand as he slowly dragged himself forward, when a glimmer of sunlight reflecting off of something nearby caught his eye.

There were rocks close by, and it looked as if they had once been deeply covered in sand. Another bright flash of light made him blink. He crawled closer. His eyes widened as he reached the burning-hot stones, noticing what looked like a deep green emerald placed firmly into a crack between three different rocks. He stared, perplexed, at the stone. It looked far too tightly jammed to be pried loose, but out of curiosity, he reached out with his paw and touched the center of its shiny surface. What felt like raw energy surged through his body, and his eyes widened in shock, his mouth open in a silent scream.

Then it all went dark.

-ooo-

Rosie’s cage now seemed very, very small. After evolving, she was quite a bit bigger than she had been before, and although still small by a ninetales’s standards, she wasn’t small enough for the cage. The ceiling was far too low to allow her to stand, and she found it hard to turn around in the narrow space.

Irritably, she clawed at the cage’s door, but more out of frustration than actually thinking she could escape. Eve was nowhere to be seen, and the guards were being switched out often. For a while now, the humans had ignored her. She was no longer being trained for battle, and probably wouldn’t ever be. Now she was just a rare pokémon to be sold for a high price.

However, since her evolution, she had not been feeling afraid. Angry and aggravated for sure, but no longer scared, not even when the poachers had brutally stopped her from escaping. She was done being frightened of these humans…she was a ninetales now, and a ninetales didn’t need to be afraid of anything. Glaring angrily through the bars of the cage and looking around the room, Rosie figured it was about time she found a way out of the place.

The problem was…she didn’t know how.

Sighing, she glanced down at where the bars met the cage floor; a few of them were scorched black, a result of her previous attempts at trying to use ember to help her break the bars. Looking back up at a few of the other caged pokémon, Rosie wondered how long they had been trapped in there. “Hm…” she mumbled, realizing something. “Wonder if any of them know how long they keep the pokémon here before they sell them…” Reaching her paw out, she tapped her claws against the cage of another pokémon, a linoone. “You,” she muttered quickly, “how long are we gonna be stuck here?”

The linoone stirred and looked at her drowsily; he must have been asleep. “Er…what?” he muttered.

Rosie rolled her eyes. “Never mind, you’re hopeless. Uh...you. Idiot guard…how long do I have to wait before I’m sold to some stupid trainer?”

The tropius standing as guard gave her a rather un-amused look, then shook his head and looked away. “Fine!” Rosie growled in annoyance. “Don’t answer!”

“Why does it matter?” the linoone in the cage next to her suddenly mumbled. “You’ll probably just end up being treated the same way whatever trainer you’re sold to. I suppose we’ll be living in cages for the rest of our lives.” He sighed. “That’s a long time…”

“You think it’s bad for you?” Rosie replied. “That’s a thousand years for me, and I don’t plan on spending it all belonging to some worthless human!” Turning away from him, Rosie started to think to herself about escape. She had found a slightly loose bar at the side of her cage, but no amount of moving it had made it any looser, and she had abandoned that plan a while ago. She could do nothing to open the cage door, and the only way the cage would ever be opened was when the humans came to feed her. If she attacked them, she would get electrocuted. “Maybe I can be stronger now…” she whispered quietly to herself. “Maybe I’ll be able to stand it long enough to get out and run…If someone like Thunder can do it, I can…”

A noise from the room beyond interrupted her thoughts. One of the humans was shouting at another, and Rosie tried to peer through the doorway, hoping to be able to see what was going on. To her annoyance, she couldn’t see anything, though she could hear what sounded like fighting, and it wasn’t a normal battle considering that both humans and pokémon were screaming.

“What’s going on?” a pokémon in a cage somewhere near to her cried, equally confused.

Rosie listened carefully, hearing the sounds of battle and cries of pokémon and humans alike rising in volume from the room further on. Could it be that some of the pokémon were actually managing to fight back?

-ooo-

Thunder awoke slowly, dazed and confused. She realized she was still outside, but in a much grassier and less rocky place than she remembered. Confused, she opened her eyes, instantly closing them again at the brightness of the sun.

Wait…brightness?

Thunder opened her eyes again. Last time she remembered, it was barely reaching dawn, but now, it looked like midday.

Confused, Thunder stood up, looking around for any signs of humans. But all she could see were several trees and many strange-looking plants, but not far away from where she was standing, something else startled her. Through the leaves of the plants and trees, she could see the bars to some sort of gate. Confused, she walked closer, and as she did, the glint of metal from another direction caught her eye. Turning, she could see bars on the opposite side of the area.

As she ran towards those bars, she noticed something strange. Looking down at her arm, she realized with surprise that the chain was gone. The shackle was still there, however, though the chain itself had been severed. Reaching up with her arm to the collar around her neck, she could feel that it was still there as well; maybe if the humans who’d put the gate there had wanted to remove it, they hadn’t found a way to do so yet.

Looking down at her other arm, she noticed it had been bandaged, as had many of her other wounds. Both confused and annoyed, she quickly tore each bandage off, before hastily running alongside the barred gate, realizing that it completely encircled the small area she had found herself in. There was a similar set of bars above the enclosure, meaning she couldn’t fly out. Carefully, Thunder peered at some of the bars that stuck up from the ground to form one section of the gate. They didn’t look very strong…

Mustering all her strength, she swiped both of her scythes at the nearest two bars, though despite them being rather thin, they were incredibly strong, and seemed barely scratched despite her efforts. She kept trying, and finally stopped when a small piece of one of her battered scythes chipped off.

Frustrated and angry, Thunder thought with a hint of panic, ‘I’m in a CAGE…a very large cage…’

“Thunder?” A voice startled Thunder into turning around. Another pokémon had approached the bars from the other side. Thunder quickly recognized Redclaw, and though many of the arcanine’s wounds were bandaged, he looked much healthier than he had before. Thunder peered further through the bars and noticed more a ways away, and realized that Redclaw wasn’t outside, he was in another large ‘cage’ just like hers, which was also grassy and had several plants and trees within it as well. However, if the humans thought they were replicating an arcanine’s natural habitat, they were doing a poor job; Thunder didn’t recognize most of the plants and she doubted if some of them were even real. However, Redclaw seemed calm. “Relax,” he told her, “the humans have been gone for a while. And there’s food here. It isn’t poisoned. There should be some-”

“Where are we?” Thunder snapped, glaring at him. She could only begin to wonder why Redclaw was so calm when they were clearly once again in the possession of humans.

“I don’t know,” Redclaw admitted. “There’s a large building near all these pokémon enclosures, but there are nicer humans there. You’ve been knocked out all morning so you wouldn’t have seen, but they gave me medicine that made me feel less pain. They’re trying to help us, I think…”

“If they were trying to help us, then why are we in cages?” Thunder spat.

“I…I think it’s more to keep other pokémon out,” Redclaw stammered. “There are lots of other pokémon here, though I think they bring the larger or wilder pokémon to these areas outside. Just be glad they didn’t keep you in that building; it’s kind of frightening, there’s strange smells and lots of injured pokémon. I wonder what’s happened to all of them…I think…I think they put us out here because there were too many pokémon in there already, or maybe it’s because they thought we’d be more comfortable outside. The gates might be to keep us from running off into the wild before our wounds have healed…”

“But why didn’t they give us a choice?” Thunder growled. “I’m not dependent on humans, and if they’re going to force me to stay here I won’t believe they’re trying to help. And by the way, what do you think they’re going to do with us once we’ve recovered enough, huh?”

Redclaw stiffened, and Thunder could tell he was uncertain, but he replied, “There’s nothing we can do now. I suppose we should wait until we’re stronger and then we can find a way to-”

“I feel stronger already,” Thunder remarked, knowing that, if anything, the humans had treated her wounds-not even the bullet wounds hurt as much anymore. “I’m ready to leave. Now. I won’t stick around to find out what these humans have in store for us. I say we find a way out and…and…where the heck is Stormblade?”

“Stormblade?” Redclaw repeated, puzzled, before realizing who Thunder meant. “The other scyther? He’s one of the ones they kept inside…he was one of the worst injured of all the other pokémon I saw…and there were many with really horrific injuries…”

“Well that’s just great!” Thunder muttered sarcastically, looking down at where the end of the gate bars were stuck into the ground. “Redclaw!” she said suddenly, looking up. “Do you think you could dig underneath the bars?”

“Well…” Redclaw began hesitantly, “they must have made it so that pokémon can’t dig under them…I mean…”

“Just try!” Thunder told him. “I can’t dig well, and if you can dig an opening big enough for me to fit through, you could dig another way out of your cage and we can both get out.”

Redclaw said nothing and only nodded, starting to scrape his claws against the damp earth, and, surprisingly quickly, he had dug deep enough to see the end of the bars. “I can dig under them,” he told her, “they don’t go very far underground, but they’re really sharp at the ends.” Careful to avoid the pointed ends of the metal bars, Redclaw swiftly scraped out more earth, soon creating a large pile of dirt behind him. Thunder stood by and waited, though she could see that Redclaw was quickly tiring. He was still weak, she realized, from the electric shock.

After a minute of digging deeper, Redclaw realized the earth had become much harder to dig through, and more rocky. Thunder tried to help dig from the other side, and eventually they made a hole to crawl through, though it was very shallow. “Are you sure it’s big enough?” Redclaw asked her uncertainly.

“It’s fine!” Thunder replied, annoyed, and began to crawl through the small opening. Redclaw knew that it wasn’t big enough for any scyther who wasn’t as thin as Thunder to fit through, but despite the fact that the sharp ends of the metal bars scraped across her back, Thunder managed to make it through and into Redclaw’s enclosure rather quickly. “Come on,” she muttered, “let’s find a way out of here…”

“Wait…” Redclaw told her, still sounding a bit uncertain, “I think we should wait a little while first. I’m far too tired to dig any more right now, but we’ll both be stronger if we rest for a little bit. I don’t think we’ll have any trouble from the humans for a while; they’re all too busy inside the building. And it will be easier to get away from here during the night. They left food and water here, so I don’t think they’re planning on coming back soon.”

Thunder looked about ready to argue, but simply muttered, “Fine…” and turned away. She didn’t seem at all pleased with the idea, and Redclaw noticed her staring through the bars, not at the other outdoor pokémon enclosures, but beyond them. It was quite clear how she felt about being trapped in such a place, though he couldn’t help but wonder if she was really mistaken about the humans who had put them there.

-ooo-

Both Justin and Katie had been shocked to discover the amount of injured pokémon who’d been taken to the pokémon center. Katie’s pokémon couldn’t even be checked on, as everyone working there was far too busy caring for pokémon with worse injuries. Katie was confused as to why so many pokémon had gotten injured, though she figured that poacher traps were at least part of the cause. Some of them had been caught in traps meant for bigger pokémon; she’d seen someone bringing in a poochyena that had gotten its leg severed by one such trap. She shuddered as she walked away from the pokémon center with her shinx and Justin walking beside her.

Justin had returned, and had gone to the pokémon center to wait for her. He had seen her arrive, and to his great surprise, she had brought three injured pokémon with her, with the help of Nurse Joy and a pokémon ranger. When asked by a nurse, she had said that the three were wild, not mentioning that one of the scyther had once belonged to Justin. Katie had not said anything to Justin about what had happened the previous night when they’d found the hurt scyther, and he was very glad of it.

Katie had grown a bit tired of Justin constantly pestering her to search after the white growlithe again, no matter how many times she told him that it would be nearly impossible for any of their pokémon to track it. However, she had eventually relented, and thought that maybe her shinx would be able to find a clue as to where the growlithe had gone. It seemed pointless, but she figured it was worth a try, and the best place to start would be the rocks where she’d found Justin’s scyther. Sighing as Justin suddenly raced ahead, she ran after him toward the outskirts of the city, her shinx following closely behind.

-ooo-

Snowcrystal and Spark were exhausted; Wildflame had insisted they travel as quickly as possible, and even though Snowcrystal was used to running long distances, she felt weak and tired after walking for so long. At last, however, they stopped to take a break. During that time, no one said a word. Snowcrystal was still too shocked, but at the same time she realized that Wildflame was right, and that they needed to keep moving on.

After their little break, which was all too short, Wildflame told the others that it was time to move again, and they carried on.

“Will ya slow down?” Spark grumbled after a short while, far behind the other two. “I can’t run for THIS long! I…hey wait! What’s that?”

Snowcrystal and Wildflame stopped. Spark was sniffing the air, and Snowcrystal did as well, soon noticing an enticing scent. “There’s food nearby!” Spark shouted to the others as he ran off through the bushes. Snowcrystal watched him in confusion.

Then a thought struck her. “Spark! Wait, don’t-”

Her words were cut off by a scream.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 22 - Danger Arises

Snowcrystal jumped in surprise as Spark’s scream reached her ears. She and Wildflame darted forward, Wildflame leaping over the bushes and Snowcrystal crawling through them. They found Spark lying dazed near the base of a thick oak tree, his left hind leg clamped in the jaws of a metal trap.

Snowcrystal walked forward, sniffing the trap, and Wildflame pushed her aside. “Let me look at it,” she muttered to the growlithe, who backed away. Carefully looking the trap over, Wildflame sighed. “It’ll be hard to get it open…” the houndoom muttered. “If only Stormblade were here…he could probably pry it apart…” Sighing to herself, she tried to think of the best way they could free the jolteon. She noticed that because Spark’s paw was caught between the ‘teeth’ of the trap, it was open slightly…enough for Wildflame to carefully squeeze her paw in.

Spark looked up, giving Wildflame a frightened look as he muttered, “Don’t…you’ll only make it worse…”

“You want me to leave you here?” Wildflame cried, pulling her paw out of the trap. “Look, at least this trap is a small one…your paw isn’t broken. All we need to do is get it open a little bit, and you can pull your leg out.”

“Oh yeah?” Spark rasped, his voice sounding strained although his usual attitude seemed to have returned. “Sounds real simple doesn’t it? And just how do you plan on doing that? You put your paw in there and try to pull it open and you’ll only get all cut up!” He glanced down at his trapped leg, giving it a sharp tug.

“Stop that!” Snowcrystal hissed at him, agitated. “You’ll make it worse! Hold still…I’ll try and find something we could use to open it at least a bit wider…” Her voice trailed off as she turned around to search, eyes scanning the rocky ground. All she saw were rocks, sticks, a couple flimsy broken tree branches, mud, and…wait, rocks… “Hang on, Spark!” she cried, turning to the jolteon, who seemed ready to try and pull his leg free again. “I think I have an idea!”

Spark watched as Snowcrystal searched around a bit before walking back to him with a long, thin, and almost pointed rock. Snowcrystal set it beside the trap and nudged it inside as far as it would go until it got stuck. She then placed her paws on the other end of the pointed rock and pushed downward.

Nothing happened. “This isn’t working!” Spark muttered through clenched teeth. “And you two better think of something that will work soon, because this HURTS!”

“We’re not idiots,” Wildflame replied icily. “We can figure out that it hurts by ourselves.” Spark merely scowled in response. Ignoring him, she walked toward Snowcrystal, who was still trying to use the sharp rock to lever the trap open. “Let me do it,” she told the growlithe, nudging her aside. “Spark, the moment you feel the trap open a little, pull your leg out, as quick as you can, all right?” Spark nodded, and Wildflame paused a moment before pushing down on the pointed end of the rock with both forepaws.

Spark felt the metal teeth of the trap pull out of his leg, and, fighting the pain, he pulled his leg away as hard as he could, feeling the trap’s steel claws scrape through his fur and flesh as he did so. However, he’d done it fast enough, and he half collapsed on his side, his leg a bloody mess, but free of the trap.

“There,” Wildflame stated calmly. “Problem solved.”

“Problem solved?” Spark cried, looking down at his injured leg. “You call this solved?” The jolteon staggered to his feet, keeping his bleeding leg held above the ground. “Look! I’m injured! Who knows how long it’ll take to heal…and how do you expect me to travel all day like this? And it hurts even worse than the burns from those stupid houndour!”

“Quit making a big deal about it,” Wildflame snapped. “The trap wasn’t very strong. Your leg’s only badly cut up. You can still walk.”

Spark’s eyes narrowed and he gave Wildflame a seething look but made no reply.

“Look, Spark,” Snowcrystal began, hoping to calm the tension between the two pokémon, “I can see a small forest not far from here. We can rest there and maybe Wildflame can try to hunt, plus there might be some berries we can eat if there’s nothing else.”

Spark merely nodded sullenly, and the three set off, Spark occasionally complaining about the traps and his wound. The sky was beginning to darken by the time they reached the forest.

Stopping to rest in the shelter of the leafy trees, the trio felt too exhausted to search for food, and surprisingly, none of them were particularly hungry. Instead, they had stopped to drink from a small stream and then settled down to rest, making small nests from moss in the undergrowth.

Snowcrystal was asleep almost instantly; all that traveling had taken a toll on her small body. Spark was kept awake a little longer by the stinging pain in his leg, but despite that, the jolteon was soon asleep as well. Wildflame stayed awake longer, several conflicting thoughts clouding her confused mind.

To her annoyance, she had found herself worrying over Stormblade and Thunder – and Rosie too – wondering where they were, when she had far more important things to think about. Her main concern was finding Articuno; she didn’t have time to worry over Snowcrystal’s friends. After all, they weren’t really her friends…were they?

Sighing, she laid her head against her paw, the faintest traces of doubt that her plan could have any success nagging at her mind. She knew that her main focus should be helping the other houndour and houndoom…those at her homeland…but did she even want to go back? Thinking of what things had been like, she wasn’t quite sure anymore…but did she really want to be here? With them? She wasn’t sure about that either, and it bothered her. Why should she want to travel around the wilderness, facing humans and whatever other dangers happened to come upon them, and having to see pokémon with horrific injuries and not being able to do anything about it…? But yet…serving under Firedash, even with a reward if she somehow managed to find Articuno, didn’t seem pleasant either. As much as she tried to convince herself otherwise, Wildflame was doubting her mission.

But it didn’t last long. Pushing her conflicting thoughts away, the houndoom settled on the fact that her life with her tribe back by the mountains would be far better than it ever was before, once she returned. She would make sure to succeed, make sure that life would be better…for all her tribe. And she’d never have to worry about these other pokémon ever again…

And with those thoughts, Wildflame soon lulled herself into sleep…

-ooo-

Blazefang wasn’t far off. In fact, he and the rest of the pack were quite close to where Wildflame, Spark, and Snowcrystal were resting, but they were unaware of it. The houndour was in a dark mood.

The journey had been slow. One houndour had been caught in a trap, and it had taken a long while to get him free. Blazefang had been angry about the entire thing afterward and as soon as they had stopped to rest, the other houndour had given him a wide berth.

Blazefang sat moodily on top of an old tree stump, his claws digging into the rotting wood. Angrily he tore a large chunk from it, swatting it with his paw into the undergrowth below. Leaping down from the stump, he started to head deeper into the trees…when he heard a voice.

“Leave…!”

The hairs on the back of Blazefang’s neck stood up straight, and he turned toward the sound of a large pokémon crashing through the bushes. In no more than a few seconds, a grizzled old ursaring stood before him. The larger pokémon’s eyes bored into Blazefang’s, and the houndour, feeling intimidated, stepped back.

“You…” the ursaring muttered in a low growl, pointing a shaky claw in the direction of where the pack was resting. “You and those others…leave. This part of the forest belongs to us. We don’t allow other predators here.”

Blazefang didn’t answer, but paused to look the ursaring over. The bear-like pokémon’s fur was matted and dirty, as if he hadn’t bothered to take care of it in a long time. The fur around his muzzle was tinged with silver, and he looked shaky and feeble. He was also very thin, and Blazefang suspected that he had frequently had to deal with competition from other predators. Thus, he and whoever else was a part of his group had probably lost a lot of their territory. The old ursaring was obviously going through rough times.

Blazefang smiled. He didn’t seem like much of a threat. “Don’t worry,” he muttered, “we aren’t staying here. We’re just resting. We’ll be gone well before sunrise. So leave us alone until then, and we can all get on with our lives!”

The ursaring bared his teeth in a snarl. “No,” he growled, “there are plenty of other resting places. As long as you and those others are here, you endanger my family!”

Blazefang felt his temper rising. “We’re not here to harm anyone but prey!” he spat. “We-”

Before Blazefang could speak further, the ursaring had latched his claws around his throat and lifted him clear off the ground with a forced that greatly surprised the houndour leader. A moment before, the ursaring had looked weak and feeble.

Blazefang gasped and sputtered as the ursaring brought him close to his face, his claws closing around Blazefang’s windpipe, leaving him struggling for breath and unable to focus on creating any fire attacks. “Lissen…” the bear pokémon hissed, “you take what little prey we have…you threaten my family! Now either you leave…or I’ll drag you and every other houndour here out of the forest myself!”

The ursaring suddenly released Blazefang, who lay coughing on the ground, gazing up at the larger pokémon in cold fury.

He felt…angry…far more angry than he thought he should feel, considering the ursaring’s poor condition, and the obvious predicament he was facing. Yet, that seemed to matter less and less the more that anger grew. Baring his fangs, he snarled back at the ursaring’s face, “Make me!”

A look of fear and disbelief crossed the old ursaring’s face as he realized he’d have to put up a fight. Yet fighting was something he was clearly no stranger to. With a roar, he charged at Blazefang with a speed that surprised the houndour, slicing his claws across Blazefang’s flank and knocking him to the ground.

That was it.

Without thought, without contemplation, Blazefang rose as if he hadn’t even felt the pain. He opened his mouth, and saw, without thinking, his vision fading into a blinding yellow and white, and then white flames erupting from his jaws.

The ursaring’s scream of agony hardly registered to him; he barely saw the old pokémon flailing in anguish as the bright flames surrounded him in a small, fiery tornado. He didn’t care, he didn’t think, he just saw.

And then the brightness faded, and Blazefang’s senses returned. He looked forward, and gave a startled cry of shock. The ursaring was dead. The smell of burning flesh was overpowering, and Blazefang felt himself choke.

He had killed a pokémon…and not for prey. It felt so wrong…

He averted his head from the sight of the ursaring’s charred remains, horrified. A memory of one of Wildflame’s meetings passed through his mind. While telling him about the growlithe and the other pokémon accompanying her, she’d told him what one of them had said about the ‘Forbidden Attacks.’ Blazefang remembered it too well, and he became even more horrified. Why had he used that attack? And why had it seemed…so beyond his control? And even…more powerful?

Shuddering, Blazefang forced himself to look back at the ursaring, but immediately had to turn away again. He was shaking uncontrollably, still in shock from what happened.

“What have I done…?”

He looked up again, averting his eyes from the dead ursaring, as he glanced at all the burned foliage. So much of it was burned to nothing, and other trees and plants had started to burn, small white flames with bluish-black streaks flickering over their branches and leaves.

Blazefang stared at the scene in a trance.

Then the sudden realization of what he'd done hit him like a freight train. Whirling around, he suddenly darted back toward the pack, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"GET OUT! EVERYONE OUT!"

A frantic energy seemed to pulse through him, giving him seemingly boundless energy as he bolted toward the pack. He'd felt this energy before, several times, but this time he didn't like it. It hurt. It throbbed through his veins, making him almost wince with every step. It was odd...it didn't really hurt physically, but the feeling...he couldn't stand it. It felt dark and foreboding, and although it made his frantic dash swifter, he felt as if he had to fight against it to move in that particular direction, like it wanted him to stay and witness the destruction he had caused.

It wasn’t long before he spotted the pack. “GET OUT OF THE FOREST!” he yelled, looking frantic and wide-eyed as he skidded to a halt in front of them. “GET EVERYONE OUT…NOW!”

“What?” one of the houndour asked. “I thought we were here to rest-”

“GET OUT!” Blazefang cried, his voice rising to a fearful howl. “GET OUT OF THE FOREST YOU IDIOTS! UNLESS YOU WANT TO DIE!”

Startled, all the houndour stood up and started to back away. One of them still looked hesitant. “But what’s-”

“OUT! GO THAT WAY! NOW! JUST GET OUT!” Blazefang started to race ahead, and the others, though confused, felt like they had no choice but to follow. Blazefang was moving so fast, they had to struggle to keep up, knowing that they would not get any answers until Blazefang thought they were in the clear. Luckily, they didn’t have too far to run.

In a deeper part of the forest, unaware of the commotion, Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame slept soundly…

…as the fire burned.

-ooo-

Stormblade opened his eyes, finding his surroundings new and unfamiliar. Because there was currently no light in the room, it took him quite a few moments to realize that he was inside a pokémon center, but in a very unfamiliar pokémon center. He tried to lift his head, but the movement only sent pain shooting down his neck and the wounds in his back. He lay still again, the memories of the past events, and the battle, slowly coming back to him. In a panic he wondered just how much damage Volco’s attacks had caused him. At the moment, however, he had no way of knowing. He couldn’t see much of the room, which surprised him, as he could usually see well in the dark, but he could tell that he was lying on some blankets on one of the beds he’d seen so often used in pokémon centers he’d been to in the past. He could still feel quite a lot of pain, but nothing close to what he’d been enduring before, and if he lay still, it was at least tolerable.

Gradually, as his eyes adjusted to the gloom, he could see the faint shapes of other pokémon, though they weren’t very close to him and he couldn’t really tell what species they were. As he tried to make sense of how he had gotten here, he vaguely wondered if the humans’ medicine could heal a wound from a Forbidden Attack, and whether what Spark had said had been a lie or simply just a myth. But remembering Blazefang’s attack, how completely unnatural it was, he found it hard to believe that what he’d heard from the others over the past few days had been lies.

After a moment, another thought came to him. If he was here…where was Thunder? Suddenly alarmed, he lifted his head, slower and more carefully this time, so he had a better view of his surroundings. He couldn’t identify Thunder’s scent, or the scents of the other pokémon for that matter; there were too many strange and confusing scents in the place and he still felt dazed and only half-awake.

As he turned his head toward the side, he noticed that a bowl of water had been placed on the bed right beside him. Ignoring it, he tried to push himself up to stand, but found it harder and more painful than he had imagined, and only managed to stand very awkwardly on all fours before he collapsed from exhaustion.

He heard someone moving in another part of the room, and realized it must be one of the nurses’ pokémon.

“I…I need to find out where my friend is,” Stormblade called, surprised by how weak and frail his own voice sounded. The pokémon didn’t respond, and he lay his head down, realizing that whoever it was, they had already left … Dazed, he tried to ignore the pain that raced up his leg like fire; standing on it hadn’t been the best of his ideas, as he thought to himself that Thunder would be all right. If he was here, she had to be here too…right?

At the sound of approaching human footsteps, Stormblade fell completely still; for some reason he himself was unsure of, he didn’t want the humans to know he was awake. As they came closer, he opened his eyes slightly, and noticed one of the humans who worked at the pokémon center, and a pokémon ranger, who was carrying an injured poochyena.

“Right here?” the ranger asked, as she walked out of Stormblade’s line of sight and to what had to be another bed.

“Yes,” Nurse Joy responded, and Stormblade heard the poochyena whimper as it was set down.

“Was this one wild or trainer owned?” the ranger asked.

“Wild,” Nurse Joy replied. “A lot of them were.”

“What about the three we brought here this morning?” asked the ranger, and Stormblade held still, listening. One of those ‘three’ could be Thunder.

“Well,” began Nurse Joy, “the arcanine is recovering, but he still has some serious wounds that have been untreated for a long time. The female scyther seems a lot stronger, but we haven’t been able to get near her since she woke up. I suppose in the morning we may have to tranquilize her again. As for the male scyther…well, I honestly don’t know what to think.”

Stormblade relaxed a bit; Thunder was here, and doing better from what the human had said. The scyther felt relieved at that statement, but he was quickly becoming afraid for himself. What did that human mean? Didn’t know what to think…

Stormblade heard the pokémon ranger sigh and move across the room, Nurse Joy following. “Well, I just wish I knew what caused it,” she whispered. “That’d probably be at least a bit helpful. It had to be a trainer’s pokémon; there aren’t any wild fire types anywhere near this area strong enough to do that much damage…and the scyther couldn’t have gotten far in that condition…”

Their voices faded, and Stormblade realized that they had left the room. Out of curiosity he lifted his head and tried to peer towards where they had left, but immediately regretted it as pain flared up his back and neck again. Letting out a faint groan, he lay back down.

Outside of the room, Nurse Joy and the pokémon ranger were still talking. “I don’t think one of the poachers injured the scyther,” the ranger was saying, “or at least didn’t give it those burns. From what you told me, it seems like the scyther had been injured like that for days.”

“His trainer could have wanted to abandon him,” Joy replied sadly, “and those wounds could have happened in a battle.”

“If so,” the ranger replied, “whoever owned the pokémon that used the attack was breaking the law. That’s taking a battle way too far.”

Nurse Joy nodded dejectedly and peered into another room, where many injured or sick pokémon were also resting. “I always try my best to help pokémon in need,” she mused quietly, “and I know my assistants do as well. But it’s been a long time since I had to treat so many…and several have been lost already. The male scyther might end up having to be put to sleep…”

The ranger sighed. “Well, I’ll make sure I do everything I can to prevent things like this from happening again. I will do my best to help make sure that the poachers are stopped.”

-ooo-

Night had fallen upon the Stonedust City Pokémon Center. Thunder and Redclaw had rested throughout the day, wary of the humans who passed by the enclosures frequently to tend to the pokémon. However, thanks to Thunder’s aggressiveness, no one had dared to venture near the scyther, so the freshly dug hole beneath the gate where her enclosure bordered with Redclaw’s had gone unnoticed.

Thunder had gone back to her own fenced in area, and both she and Redclaw had eaten all of their food. Now that darkness had fallen and the humans wouldn’t be coming back for quite a while, she was eager to leave.

She quickly crawled through the hole again, moving into the arcanine’s enclosure without a sound. Redclaw motioned toward a new hole he had dug beneath the gate, one that led into an open enclosure which currently held only a few ponyta and tauros. “It’ll be easy to get out from there,” Redclaw muttered quietly, sounding worried. Thunder could tell he was still not very enthused about the escape plan.

Thunder glared at him, then approached the hole. She muttered to Redclaw, not for the first time, about it being too small for him.

“I’ll be fine,” was all Redclaw said.

With a sigh Thunder walked forward, and Redclaw noticed her limping. He found himself staring at the nasty burn across her leg that Volco had inflicted. He could also see that her wing was still in bad condition; she’d have a hard time clearing the fence once she made it into the ponyta’s enclosure. She was in very bad shape, obviously, but Redclaw knew enough about her to know not to say anything on the matter. Thunder didn’t like others to think of her as weak or in need of help, it seemed. He shifted uncomfortably, pausing to lick a bandaged paw, as Thunder made it through the hole he’d dug and into the open area of the next pokémon enclosure.

“Well…” Thunder began icily, startling the arcanine for a moment, “aren’t you going to dig the hole…bigger?”

“I…” Redclaw began uncertainly, unsure of how she would take what he was about to say. “I’m not coming. I’m going to stay…to stay here.”

“And be a slave to the humans?” Thunder scoffed, not seeming surprised in the least. Redclaw knew she must have been suspecting this by the way he was acting, but she hadn’t said anything on the matter until now. “Look,” the scyther continued, “I know they gave us food but they still imprisoned us. Obviously they don’t want us to leave but are still trying to gain our trust…nothing more.”

“I…I think they’re going to let us go once we’re healed,” Redclaw replied. “Trainers bring their pokémon here so obviously they trust the other humans…”

“But we aren’t trainer pokémon!” Thunder growled. “We belong to no one, so to them we’re free for the taking! And I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a slave!”

Redclaw sighed; he had expected Thunder to react this way, but even just looking at her wounds made him even more determined to convince her to stay. “Look, Thunder,” he told her, looking her in the eyes, “I know why you feel this way…you’ve been Master’s pokémon your whole life, or as long as you can remember, but I haven’t, and I have seen that humans can help poké-”

“Sure!” Thunder retorted, her voice almost rising to a shout. “When it’s convenient for them, right? When they have something to gain. Don’t you see? These humans are taking advantage of our weakness to gain our trust, but they aren’t letting us leave! Look at the bars of these gates! Does that not mean anything to you? Do you just suppose these humans are all on our side and want nothing more than to help when they’ve tried to rob us of our freedom? THINK, Redclaw! These humans are up to no good and it seems like I’m the only one who notices! Am I the only one who sees these bars, and that they’ve got Stormblade locked up inside?”

Redclaw looked shocked. “Thunder, Stormblade’s-”

“Listen!” Thunder shouted, and Redclaw was shocked that none of the pokémon near their enclosures had woken up. “What reason would a human have to go out of their way to help us? They want fighters! Pokémon to battle for them, and they want healthy ones! Why else would they run a place like this?”

“But Thunder, we don’t really know-”

“Forget it,” Thunder snapped. “If you want to stay here and be their prisoner, then fine. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. As for me, I’m getting out while I can!” She turned abruptly away, walking further into the small field of the ponyta’s enclosure.

“Wait!” Redclaw shouted, and to his surprise, Thunder stopped. “You shouldn’t…” he began, but once again, Thunder cut him off.

“All right, listen,” she told him, “where was Stormblade? If I can, I’m going to try to get him out too-”

“Don’t,” Redclaw said with a sigh. “Stormblade wouldn’t last another day out there. At least here…he still has a chance.”

Thunder paused for a moment, calming down a little and realizing that what Redclaw said was right. “Okay…” she replied. “I guess you’re right…Stormblade was injured by a Forbidden Attack. He has no future out in the wild or…or any future at all, actually.”

“Injured by what?” Redclaw replied, confused.

“A Forbidden Attack,” Thunder responded. “Some sort of super powered attack or curse or something…that inflicts wounds that won’t heal. Unless of course, the jolteon was making the whole thing up…” Redclaw looked confused and Thunder began to turn away. “Look, not that having pointless arguments with you hasn’t been fun, but someone’s going to wake up, or the humans are going to hear us. So I should get going. But remember, you still have your chance to escape…and if I were you, I’d use it!”

She started to walk away from Redclaw for a moment, then stopped. A look of surprise and anger crossed her face and she ducked back into the shadows by the barred gate. “Look,” she hissed in anger, “the humans heard us!”

“What?” Redclaw replied, peering through the gate as Thunder pointed out a dark figure strolling by one side of the fence that made up the ponyta’s enclosure.

“Well at least he’s not coming this way…” Thunder continued, watching the human head toward the pokémon center. “False alarm I guess…” She stood up straighter, as Redclaw’s ears suddenly perked up and he stiffened.

“Wait…” he murmured. “Something’s not right.”

The tone of his voice made Thunder pause; she couldn’t tell what was troubling him, but a look that was almost fear had crossed his face. “What?” she asked, sounding annoyed.

“I…I don’t know,” Redclaw admitted, “but look…that human’s going into the building but not from the main doors…”

“So?” Thunder asked, watching as another human stepped out of a much smaller door in the building’s side and told the other human something before running off towards one of the pokémon enclosures. “Let the humans do what they want…I’m getting out of here!” She walked out of the shadowed area and into the moonlight, heading for the far fence. Redclaw could tell her limp was getting worse.

For a moment Redclaw felt torn; he did not want Thunder to go off on her own; she would starve! And if he couldn’t convince her to stay, what good was he to her here? He struggled with his thoughts for a moment, then a final decision reached his mind.

“Wait!” he called to Thunder, as loudly as he dared. “I’m coming!” Thunder stopped and turned, and Redclaw frantically widened the hole beneath the gate, until he could squeeze under it. Being very careful to avoid the sharp ends of the bars as much as he could, Redclaw tried not to get dirt in his bandages. Unlike Thunder, who had torn hers off the moment she’d noticed them, he was quite determined to keep his on. Redclaw wasn’t interested in getting an infection. Once on the other side, he stood up and limped toward Thunder, gritting his teeth against the pain the new stinging cuts across his back caused.

The arcanine opened his mouth to say something to Thunder, but a new sound distracted him. Whirling around, he watched a struggling ponyta break free from a bright red beam coming from a red and white sphere that lay open on the ground. A moment later it was hit by another, and this time it didn’t break free. The other pokémon nearby had already woken up, but Redclaw and Thunder hadn’t been noticed.

“Glad you decided to come with me?” Thunder asked from up ahead, not seeming at all concerned about the ponyta’s plight. However, she looked wary and alert, waiting for Redclaw to catch up so they could make their escape.

The arcanine didn’t reply but merely hurried to catch up, turning his head in alarm as for some strange reason, a fleeing ponyta stopped running. A second later he realized he’d hesitated a moment too long. A strange, glowing energy surrounded his body and began lifting him into the air. Redclaw tried to struggle but found he was frozen in place, suspended eerily over the grassy field. Only his eyes moved, and they darted back and forth as he frantically gazed at his surroundings in terror and confusion.

Redclaw could then see the strange humans…the ones that didn’t belong there, standing alongside psychic pokémon of various types. Off in the distance, from what sounded like somewhere on the other side of the pokémon center, some type of battle had broken out, and he could hear a few humans shouting. He wondered why none of the good humans were stopping these other ones. Maybe they were trying to help wherever that battle was taking place. Then he realized…a lot of the humans like the ones who had helped him – the rangers and the police – would be in the forest, helping other victims of the poachers.

Thunder had seen the humans and psychic pokémon as well. She turned and ran toward the nearest human, who had a lithe espeon sitting by his side. As the espeon was concentrating on holding Redclaw and one of the ponyta still, he did not see the scyther coming until the last instant.

Turning his head toward Thunder, the psychic pokémon’s concentration was lost, and Redclaw and the ponyta fell to the ground. In the same instant, an almost transparent barrier of psychic energy materialized in front of the espeon; Thunder’s scythes met it instead.

Quickly realizing what had happened, Thunder wasted no time in sidestepping the barrier and running toward the espeon from the side. The psychic type skillfully leaped out of the way, but a moment too late, and Thunder’s scythe slashed a deep gash in his back. Espeon landed on all fours, hearing his trainer back away and shout a command.

Espeon’s head turned towards Thunder as his eyes began to glow. A strange bluish glow, just like the glow that had surrounded Redclaw, appeared around Thunder. However, this time, Espeon’s concentration was broken by the pain searing across his back, and Thunder managed to break free.

Redclaw, meanwhile, was still recovering from the effects of the psychic’s attack, struggling to stand as he willed his trembling paws to move. He could hear the fight that had broken out between Thunder and Espeon and wanted to help, yet he felt so weak…

Espeon growled as his eyes began to glow again, summoning yet another psychic attack. Once again the glow surrounded the scyther, but Espeon, knowing he couldn’t keep it up for more than a few seconds, jerked his head to the side, and in the same movement, the psychic energy forcefully shoved Thunder against the nearest object, a rather large tree.

Thunder’s eyes widened as she felt her outstretched scythe forcefully pushed deep into the tree’s trunk, with so much force that her entire scythe and arm, up to her shoulder, were embedded into it. She could feel dozens of sharp pieces of splintered wood being forced into her open wounds. Enraged, she began trying to tug her arm free, while fiercely hacking at the side of the tree with her other blade. Espeon wasted no time in attacking the struggling pokémon, and ran towards her, his tail glowing bright silver.

Thunder managed to free herself just as Espeon was in range of attack, and leapt forward to slash the psychic pokémon with her blades, but at the same time Espeon dodged and attacked. Espeon’s attack hadn’t been aimed well, and the iron tail struck the scyther in the leg. However, it struck a particularly nasty wound from the fight with Volco…hard. The attack created a gash in the scyther’s already damaged leg, reopening the old wound. Blood leaked onto the grass. Thunder dropped into a crouching position involuntarily, and it was at that moment that Redclaw recovered enough to start running towards her.

Standing up, Thunder stared the arcanine in the eyes. “Redclaw, run!” she yelled, watching the angry espeon carefully and not noticing the psychic pokémon’s trainer reaching for a poké ball. Just as the human lifted his arm to throw, Redclaw came racing toward the espeon.

Startled, the trainer tossed the poké ball at the snarling arcanine and before he reached Espeon, Redclaw vanished inside in a beam of red light. The poké ball dropped to the ground and twitched a few times before finally becoming still. Thunder stared in horror; whatever type of poké ball it was, it must have been a powerful one to capture Redclaw so quickly, injured or not. Seeing Espeon standing in front of his trainer, Thunder ran towards him, striking him three times in quick succession across his shoulders and chest. Bleeding, the espeon collapsed from the pain, but still looked up at Thunder long enough to create an orb of dark energy in front of his open mouth. A shadow ball attack.

The orb hurtled toward Thunder, creating a small explosion that knocked her off her feet. Feeling weakened and drained of energy, she staggered upright, facing the espeon and his trainer again. She ignored the sound of chaos from other areas nearby, where small fights and struggles had broken out. Running past the weakened espeon, Thunder headed straight for the human who now had Redclaw’s poké ball in his hand…

At that moment, another of the humans who’d heard the struggle came to the espeon trainer’s aid. “Get away from him!” he shouted, lifting his gun and firing.

Thunder saw and ducked, feeling the bullet zip past her wing. Knowing there was no other option, she turned and fled, running toward the fence that bordered the enclosure. The human fired the gun twice more. Thunder didn’t slow her pace; the bullets had missed. Leaping clear over the fence, she headed away from the pokémon center and toward the outskirts of the city. The human made as if to follow, but the espeon’s trainer stopped him.

“Leave it,” he muttered. “Let’s work on getting the rest of them.” He then walked toward his fallen espeon.

-ooo-

As soon as she was out of sight of the pokémon center, Thunder collapsed in an alleyway. Breathing heavily, she lay still for a few minutes, unable to force her exhausted muscles to move. Her wounds were on fire with pain, and she felt too weak to get up.

But she wasn’t willing to stop until she was out of the city. Struggling upright, Thunder took one step forward before collapsing again, more from pain this time than exhaustion. Reluctantly, she came to realize that Redclaw had been right. Now, she’d only managed to make her wounds worse, and she hadn’t been able to bring Redclaw with her…

Thunder could feel her senses beginning to fade. The pain was becoming too great; she was loosing consciousness. Struggling to fight it for a few moments, Thunder soon realized it was no use, and she slipped into unconsciousness. She was simply too worn out, and was now forced to lie alone in an alleyway in the midst of a human city.

-ooo-

Back at the pokémon center, Solus was seething. Some makeshift bandages made from strips of clothing had been wound around the espeon’s shoulders and middle. As he sat obediently by his trainer, he didn’t even look up as the other trainers helping his own returned from the building, many carrying poké balls. Some of them belonged to trainers and had been stored in the pokémon center, others they had used to catch unclaimed pokémon themselves.

The eevee evolution was glad his psychic abilities were able to block some of the pain from his wounds, though that took effort. He found it even harder to focus, remembering the shameful event that had just taken place all too well.

He…a strong eevee evolution, a cunning fighter …beaten by an injured, half-starved scyther! The stupid pokémon hadn’t deserved to win. If he hadn’t been distracted…if he had been ready, he would have made her wish she’d never been born.

Trying to distract himself from his angry thoughts, Solus lifted his head and watched the trainers, the members of Team Rocket. They were safe for now. Most of the humans his trainer called “police” had left the city earlier, trying to catch poachers. The ones that had come to defend the pokémon center had been dealt with already.

Solus looked up as another trainer approached his own, followed by a younger, not yet fully grown human. “Did you find all the pokémon that could be of use to us?” the espeon’s own trainer asked.

The other experienced trainer glanced at the younger one, who nodded. “I caught all the ones inside the pokémon center that looked strong enough to battle,” the boy stated.

“Good,” Solus heard his trainer answer as he turned to look at the older of the two humans. “And the healthy ones?”

“There weren’t many,” the other trainer replied sheepishly. “I suppose the nurses were too busy helping injured pokémon to check on relatively healthy ones. But I brought the ones that were there.” He set down a backpack, which was filled with poké balls of various kinds. Solus leaned forward to sniff them curiously, wondering what new pokémon he would be helping to train in the future. Around him, several of the other Rocket members nearby had sent out a few abra, and some of them had already teleported away from the area.

Solus stood beside his trainer, listening to the man speak. “Well, it’s not as good as what I was hoping for, but I’m sure we got quite a few decent pokémon. Luckily you didn’t seem to have much trouble taking them, did you?” The other trainer simply smirked and he continued, “Now all that’s left to do is to make sure the police who are left can’t try to follow us quickly.”

“How do we do that?” the younger trainer asked, feeling nervous now that he and the other two were the only ones who hadn’t teleported yet. The last abra sat beside Solus, who turned his back to her disdainfully.

“Simple,” Solus’s trainer replied, returning the psychic eevee evolution. “While you two were in there, others placed explosives in some of the rooms. Oh don’t look at me like that!” he added, seeing the boy’s shocked face. “The nurses and the ranger all came outside during the commotion. They’re well away from the danger. The main building will be the only thing damaged.” He lifted up a small device, and the boy noticed the man’s finger move over a button. “Stand close to Abra, you two,” he ordered, and the two trainers hurried to obey him.

Still, the boy looked worried and shocked. “What about the other pokémon?” he asked. “The ones that were too weak? What will happen to them?”

Solus’s trainer shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. They’re weak…worthless. And for all I care…they can burn and die.” He quickly pressed the button.

Abra then teleported the three trainers, as the main building of the pokémon center went up in flames.

-ooo-

Justin and Katie had not gotten very far, but somehow they had managed to keep out of sight of any dangerous pokémon or poachers and also, though they didn’t realize it, the police. It had grown dark, and there had been no sign of the white growlithe. The two had reluctantly headed back to the city.

Upon reaching it, Katie immediately knew something was amiss. Huge columns of smoke were billowing up from somewhere near the center of the city, and though most of it had been obscured by the trees and the dark, cloudy sky before they’d reached the city, the bright lights of the buildings made it very easy to see. Justin and Katie gave each other alarmed looks before racing toward the source of the smoke.

By the time they got close enough, panting and out of breath, they could see that entire sections of the pokémon center had collapsed completely, and the flimsy looking remains of what was still left standing were blazing brightly. Several humans, including those who worked at the center, and water pokémon had gathered around the building, trying to put out the fire. However, there was little left of what had once been the main building of the Stonedust City Pokémon Center. Unable to look any longer, Katie turned away.

“Let’s get out of here…” the girl whispered to Justin. “I don’t want to watch this…”

Justin said nothing, but sullenly followed Katie, not knowing what he could say or do to comfort her.

“Those pokémon…” Katie whispered. “All those pokémon that were in there, and the three that I helped…they must all be dead now…there’s no way they could have survived…there’s hardly anything left of the pokémon center! They probably weren’t able to get out in time…”

Justin nodded his head sadly. He couldn’t bear to think of what it would be like for him if one of his own pokémon had been in there, supposedly safe…only to die. At least from what he’d seen of the building’s remains, the people who worked there had somehow gotten out safely, but they must not have had time to rescue all the pokémon. Up ahead, the faint rumble of thunder told Justin that it would probably rain again soon, but he didn’t care. He still couldn’t believe what had happened to the pokémon center…and all the pokémon who had been in it. He knew that now, or very soon, several trainers would have to go through the pain of losing their faithful companions. Suddenly, Justin felt angry, though at first he was not exactly sure why. He felt his thoughts wandering back toward the three pokémon he had seen Katie help bring into the pokémon center. Not looking at Katie, he muttered quietly, “Scyther deserved it.”

“What?” Katie replied, turning to look at him.

“He deserved to die,” was Justin’s only response.

Katie turned away and said nothing.

After a few moments, she stood up again, noticing a few small drops of rain hitting the sidewalk. “Let’s go…” she sighed, starting to walk forward. Justin didn’t ask where; he wasn’t sure Katie even knew. She just wanted to get away from this place, and possibly start to head to another city…maybe one not so isolated as Stonedust was. Maybe one where she could get another badge.

The two said nothing as Justin followed Katie through alleyways and across streets, ignoring the rain that had started to fall down harder. It wasn’t until Katie stopped suddenly that he spoke. “What’s…”

But Katie didn’t give him time to finish. She ran forward, quickly disappearing into another alleyway. Justin followed her quickly and stopped, seeing her standing beside the unconscious form of one of the three pokémon she had helped earlier.

The female scyther.

-ooo-

Rosie could hear the angry cries of pokémon and humans alike, all coming closer to the doorway. Leaning her head as far into the bars as she could, the ninetales hoped to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

Before she could even register what was happening, the large form of the granbull guard burst through the doorway and into the room, lifting the limp form of a persian high in the air. With a growl he flung the pokémon to the ground, where it gave a weak cry as it collided with a group of empty cages. Rosie felt her own cage rattle, and she grimaced and looked away, back toward the doorway through which the granbull had come.

Various pokémon, captives who had escaped, were fighting with several others who were clearly on the humans’ side. After a brief struggle, several escapers bolted into the room, the granbull guard soon charging after them. One of them, a nimble glameow, managed to slip away through another door and down a hallway, out of sight of everyone else. Rosie’s ears pricked as she strained to get a better look of the hallway, and although she couldn’t see much, the scent of fresh air slowly wafting from that direction told her that the glameow had managed to open a door. That was a way out…

Her thoughts were interrupted as her cage was suddenly knocked over by two struggling pokémon, an escaped absol and a grovyle guard. From the looks of it, the guard was winning. The leaf attached to the grovyle’s forearm began to lengthen and glow, and with a sudden, fluid motion, he whipped the now blade-like leaf across the absol’s face, causing him to scream.

Rosie glanced away as flecks of the absol’s blood splattered over the bars of her cage. A second later, the two pokémon had moved away from her in their struggle. Rosie looked up, calling out to anyone who would listen, her voice blending with those of the other still caged and helpless pokémon. “Let me out! Open the cage! How did you all escape?”

She needn’t have called for help. Almost as soon as she had shouted, a billowing plume of red-hot flames moved swiftly in her direction from the other side of the room. Ducking instinctively to avoid the blast, Rosie didn’t even think to try to convince herself that the flames wouldn’t harm her much…

After the blaze passed, Rosie looked up to see that the bars of one end of her cage were twisted and melted. Seizing her opportunity, she painfully squeezed her way through the opening, ignoring the heat of the metal against her cream-colored fur. Once out, she started to make her way towards the hallway she had seen the glameow escape through, when something stopped her.

Eve was lying prone on the ground near the opposite doorway, the granbull standing over her. After a moment the guard turned away and hurried after another escaper. Dodging a few ranged pokémon attacks, Rosie ran to the mightyena’s side, noticing that her black and gray fur was thickly matted with blood.

“Eve…?” she whispered, fear and worry making her voice sound shaky.

The mightyena looked up, recognition dawning in her eyes. “You got out of your cage…” she whispered happily. “You can run free again now…”

“But Eve, you need to get help! You have to get away from here and quickly!” Rosie was aware of the fighting around her, but only vaguely. As she wasn’t trying to escape, none of the guards seemed to care that she was standing there.

“Don’t worry,” the mightyena replied weakly. “The humans won’t let me die. Traitor to them or not, I’m still a valuable pokémon in their eyes. Now look,” she continued, seeing that Rosie was about to argue, “I can’t get rid of my collar, but I can take off yours. You need to get out of here while you still can. The humans and guards are bound to restore order soon.”

Before Rosie could reply, Eve sank her teeth into the collar around her neck and began to pull. Rosie gasped as minor shocks flickered over her fur. Eve bit down harder. Rosie felt a large shock surge through her body for a split second, then the collar was gone. The ninetales gasped for breath as Eve flung the collar away. “Go,” the mightyena ordered.

Rosie hesitated for a moment, but she knew that to stay there and be recaptured after Eve’s efforts to help her would be foolish. “Th-thank you…” she managed to stammer.

“GO!” Eve yelled, and, suddenly realizing the danger she was in as more humans and pokémon entered the room, Rosie made a dash for the hallway.

Suddenly well aware of the battles around her, Rosie barely managed to dodge stray attacks as she turned into the corridor, her claws skidding against the smooth floor. Light shone through a still-open doorway down the hall, and relief flooded through her as she realized that miraculously, the humans and guards hadn’t noticed it yet.

But when she had been looking at the door, Rosie had also been distracted. Taking the ninetales completely by surprise, the granbull guard leaped toward her, his powerful paws slamming her to the ground.

Rosie’s eyes widened in shock as she was forcefully knocked against the tile, her right foreleg crumpling beneath her. She then gave a cry of agony as she felt the bone snap. Turning her head, she bared her fangs in an angry snarl and launched an ember attack, right in the granbull’s face. Howling in pain, he turned away, allowing Rosie to painfully haul herself upright and limp toward the doorway and to freedom, holding her broken leg above the ground.

Once outside, she broke into a hobbling, stumbling run, gritting her teeth tightly against the pain shooting up her forelimb, not stopping despite the agony the broken bone was causing her. After what seemed like hours, but what really couldn’t have been anywhere near that long, Rosie finally allowed herself to stop in the shelter of some bushes and trees.

Lying on her side against the soft grass, Rosie closed her eyes and tried to forget everything that she had seen. There were so many pokémon who, unlike her, hadn’t made it to freedom. She spent a few moments in silence, listening. Apart from a few distant bird pokémon, no one was nearby. She was safe…at least for now. Softly licking her broken leg, Rosie closed her eyes, letting exhaustion overcome her.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 23 - New Troubles Begin

Surprised, Katie walked over to the still form of the unconscious scyther. A quick look determined that the chain around the scyther’s arm had been removed, but the collar and shackle still remained. Her wounds didn’t look any better, and she had new injuries in addition to the old ones. Katie knelt down beside the pokémon.

Justin backed away, his eyes narrowed as he watched the motionless figure at Katie’s feet. This scyther looked smaller than the one he had owned, even if only slightly so. It was also much thinner than he knew healthy scyther were supposed to be. That, combined with its injuries and the fact that it was unconscious did not make it a threat, but Justin didn’t like the thought of getting closer to it regardless. However, he ignored his fear and walked over to stand beside Katie.

Stepping up to the scyther’s side, Justin sneered at it, mumbling under his breath, “Stupid thing…probably didn’t know how to find food for itself…must have been too busy attacking other pokémon and people and getting into fights, by the look of those scars…” He gave the scyther a sharp kick, but the pokémon didn’t stir. He quickly glanced at Katie, but she was looking through her backpack for supplies, too focused on her task to have noticed. Crouching down, Justin peered at the scyther’s wounds closely, calling over to Katie, “Forget it, you’re not a nurse. Quit trying to act like one. None of your supplies are going to help.”

He expected her to yell at him, but to his surprise, she only sighed and stood up. “You’re right,” she agreed. “Maybe I should go find help…and I’m NOT going to leave her here!” she added, giving Justin a glare.

“Why do you care so much?” Justin scoffed, but Katie was already walking away, intent on finding someone to help the wretched pokémon. Realizing that she probably wanted him to wait there, he sat down, watching the scyther. It still wasn’t showing any signs of waking up, and from the looks of it, Justin suspected that it would be unconscious for a while longer. He was about to get up and follow Katie when he noticed something strange. The glint of metal in the dim light reflecting off the scyther’s neck caught his eye, and as he peered closer through the gloom, he realized the pokémon was wearing a battered, heavy iron collar.

Curious, Justin ran his finger over the collar, feeling many shallow scrapes and scratches along its surface…that from the looks of it had to come from something thin and sharp, like a scythe. Moving his hand away, he noticed the shackle and remains of a severed chain around the scyther’s arm. This too was covered in scratch marks, though some looked like the marks of sharp fangs rather than scythes.

He paused to wonder, had this scyther, time and again, slashed and bit frantically at this shackle and collar, out of sheer desperation, in some vain attempt to get them off? And if so, why had it been so desperate? Why did he care…? That was a better question. Standing up on the dusty concrete, he kicked dirt over the scyther, strangely feeling disappointed that it did not move. He realized then that it wasn’t going to move. Not anytime soon. It was out cold, and would be for a while, considering that it hadn’t woken up yet. His least favorite pokémon, which had fueled his hate ever since his trainer license was taken away…was simply lying in front of him.

And it was defenseless.

A slow smile crept across Justin’s face, one that shocked even him. But what did it matter if he took out his anger on this one? Even if it was awake, it would simply shake off any pain he caused it anyway; scyther were fighters. They were violent pokémon who were used to pain. What did it matter?

Narrowing his eyes at the scyther, he walked toward the side of an old building, picking up a large piece of a dusty, broken brick. He hesitated-would Katie know he had hurt the pokémon? Forcing the thought into the back of his mind, he tried to think of his pokémon, the friends he had lost along with his chance of competing in a pokémon league, when all the other trainers his age had gotten to continue their journeys…

A sudden rage took hold of him, and he hurled the brick down at the scyther, feeling strangely disappointed once again when it didn’t react. Annoyed, he picked up another brick and got ready to throw, when he hesitated. The emaciated scyther was starting to stir. As it lifted its head, blinking in confusion, Justin panicked. Backing away, he was painfully aware that he was without protection if it attacked; he had no pokémon and Katie was gone. He didn’t know whether to run, but somehow the thought of running didn’t seem like a good idea. ‘Scyther go after the weak, right?’ he thought to himself frantically. ‘I just can’t appear weak to it…’

While the scyther was trying to stand up, Justin threw the other brick, watching it strike the scyther’s shoulder and knock it down. Staying put, Justin watched, his fear ebbing away, as he realized the pokémon was probably too hurt to attack him anyway.

He was surprised when the bug pokémon sat bolt upright, its head turned toward him and its eyes fixing him with a piercing glare. Its mouth opened and it muttered a few words under its breath; words that Justin couldn’t understand.

“What’s this? A little Master?”

Justin froze as the scyther stood up, swaying slightly, but standing all the same. Backing up against the wall of the building, he reached down for another brick and threw it. After all, the scyther was injured…badly. What could it do to him?

To Justin’s surprise, Thunder calmly stepped aside, dodging the brick and narrowing her eyes. This was just another human trying to cause her pain. She walked closer, her eyes focused on the terrified boy, then leaped straight toward him, scythes raised.

She would show this human a thing or two about pain!

-ooo-

Snowcrystal woke up with an odd feeling. Glancing at her two companions, she could tell they were still asleep. Deciding not to wake them, she turned and headed toward a stream that she had scented through the trees. She had not gone far when she sensed something wasn’t right. Frightened flocks of bird pokémon soared over the trees, calling warnings to others of their kind who were still asleep in their nests.

Snowcrystal padded toward a small hill that overlooked another part of the forest, wondering if something was wrong. Before she got three paces, she was knocked off her feet by a linoone who was racing the other way. Quickly scrambling to her feet again, she called after him, “What’s going on?” However, he was too panicked to answer her.

Before she could try to follow him, several other pokémon darted past her through the trees, all looking wide-eyed and panicked, and all heading in the same direction. Confused, she turned to the hill and quickly climbed it.

What she saw took her breath away.

The forest below was ablaze, but it was no ordinary forest fire. The flames were bluish-white and streaked with black and violet, and the rate they consumed the trees, burning them into nothing but dark ashes, was startling.

In very little time, that inferno would reach them. Still frozen with shock, Snowcrystal concentrated on the distant flames, watching the white blaze rapidly destroying the forest, as weird blue smoke rose high into the air. It was then that she realized…

Blazefang had used Shadowflare again…

Tearing her eyes away from the sight, Snowcrystal bolted back toward the others, startling Spark and Wildflame into wakefulness.

“Hurry! Get up!” she cried, fear filling her voice. “We need to get out of here now!”

Seeing Snowcrystal’s expression, Wildflame stood up quickly, and Spark, still half asleep, just groaned, “I’m still asleep…wake me up later…”

“Spark!” Snowcrystal shouted. “Blazefang used Shadowflare, and the forest is being burned to the ground!”

At that statement, Spark leapt up. “Shadowflare!” he repeated. “Well then…then let’s get out of here before we all burn to our deaths!”

Spark limped off, though he hardly seemed to mind the pain now, and Snowcrystal and Wildflame followed closely. By now the blue smoke was visible above the trees. Wildflame noticed it too, not needing to ask Snowcrystal about Blazefang. Still, she was shocked. Hadn’t she told him during one of their meetings about what Spark had said about the Forbidden Attacks?

As she ran further, Snowcrystal was so focused on getting away from the danger that it took her a moment to realize that they had lost sight of Spark. “Wildflame!” she cried. “Where’s Spark?” Somewhere behind her, a tree toppled over, and Snowcrystal could hear fire crackling over it.

“He’s somewhere up ahead!” The houndoom replied. “Keep going!”

Still worried, Snowcrystal kept running, when she noticed some of the trees around her had started to catch fire as well. Panic overtook her, and for a moment she nearly forgot about Spark. Blue smoke filled a clearing ahead of her, and she held her breath as she raced across it; there was no telling what that smoke would do to her if she breathed it in.

After she made it through the clearing, Snowcrystal sprinted frantically in a daze of fear, dodging blazing bushes and trees as she fought madly to escape the oncoming inferno. Wildflame, who had vanished somewhere up ahead moments before, could not be seen.

“Wildflame!” Snowcrystal called out, but she received no answer. Now truly panicked, Snowcrystal darted to avoid a fallen tree, half burnt through by Shadowflare. Running along a new path, she stopped as she realized with horror that she had reached an area blocked off by large boulders. It was a steep climb to the rest of the forest, and though Snowcrystal was used to climbing rocks, these looked far too steep even for her. Turning around, she noticed flames surrounding her on all sides, and some were moving towards her, burning across the dead leaves and branches, getting ever closer.

Having no other option, she leaped at the nearest boulder, feeling her claws slide down it as she fought for a grip. Unable to find one, she slipped and fell to the ground, leaping up again immediately and just barely managing to avoid touching the deadly flames. Scrabbling at the rock’s surface, she managed to find a small niche in the stone and placed her back paw inside it, before leaping up towards the top of the boulder.

Snowcrystal’s claws scraped against the top of the stone as she slowly fought her way up its side, straining her muscles and praying that she wouldn’t fall. Inch by inch, she scrabbled up the rock’s side until she collapsed, exhausted, on the top of its smooth surface. Wearily, she got up, realizing that since the rocks had slowed her down, she would have to move even faster…

But she didn’t get any further. A blazing limb from a nearby tree broke off as the flames burned through it, sending it crashing down against Snowcrystal’s back and head, knocking her out instantly. Luckily, the branch rolled away from the growlithe’s limp body before the flames could touch her.

Coming into wakefulness ever so slowly, Snowcrystal thought she could hear someone shout, but her senses were too dazed to register if she had been imagining it or not. She could feel unconsciousness fighting to overcome her again, and fearfully tried to raise her head. A large, dark shape came into view, and she blacked out again.

-ooo-

Wildflame was shocked to find Snowcrystal unconscious, but she did not hesitate before picking the growlithe up by the scruff and hurrying through the forest in the direction Spark had gone. However, it was clear that going back for Snowcrystal had been a dangerous choice. Fire blazed all around her, and she had to leap over many flaming patches of grass or moss. She could not tell where Spark was, but she hoped that he, being a jolteon and therefore faster than she or Snowcrystal, had managed to outrun the fire already despite being injured.

Wildflame kept her grip on the unconscious Snowcrystal as she raced past the trees, white flame blazing on all sides. She tried to keep her head low, as the strange blue smoke was floating above her, and if it harmed her in any way, she was afraid she would never recover.

Up ahead, the burning remains of a fallen tree blocked the houndoom’s path. Bracing herself for the leap, Wildflame sprang over it, lifting her back paws and tail free of the flames. Landing roughly to the ground, she took off again, feeling hope rise within her as she spotted a clear area up ahead; she could faintly tell it was rocky and the flames had not spread there. She was almost out…

As she neared the edge of the forest, she noticed a large clearing in front of her that was completely ablaze. In a panic, she darted in another direction, and seeing a stream up ahead, leaped into it and ran through the shallow water, avoiding falling branches from burning trees.

She dashed through the water until she came near enough to the place where the forest trees ended. Leaping clear of the stream, she raced onward, when something out of the corner of her eye attracted her attention. A huge tree was toppling down toward her, its trunk blazing with blinding white flames. Trying to give herself an extra burst of speed, Wildflame leaped to the side, hearing the tree smash to the ground behind her, sending a shower of white hot sparks into the air. Some of them singed her fur slightly, but she hardly cared. Now that she was free of most of the trees, she kept running, heading toward the rocks.

When she reached them and moved well away from the burning forest, she knew she was safe, far enough from the flames. Shakily, she set Snowcrystal down before collapsing on the muddy earth. Beside her, Snowcrystal opened her eyes.

“Wildflame…” she whispered quietly, obviously still weak, “you…you saved me…thank you…”

Wildflame smiled at her, and through her fading senses she heard Spark’s relieved shout as the jolteon ran over to them. He had made it out too…

Smiling again at that last thought, Wildflame lay her head down against the muddied ground, grateful to be alive.

-ooo-

A shout caused Redclaw to stir as the world slowly spun into view. The arcanine felt smooth metal beneath his paws and looked around, realizing he was in a large metal cage. He could hear a human a little ways behind him, and a glance to his side told him that if he dared attack, there would be several other humans with tranquilizer guns to stop him. Unsteadily, the dazed arcanine stood up, feeling something brushing against his face. When he reached his forelimb up to rub against the side of his head, he felt metal.

Alarmed, Redclaw gasped…well, tried to. He soon realized that around his head and snout was some sort of steel muzzle, and he could only open his mouth the tiniest bit. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to breathe the amount of fire he would need to cause any damage to the muzzle or the cage, which were probably fireproof in some way anyways. Redclaw sat back, confused. Why was he in a cage and not a poké ball...and how had he fallen unconscious?

Shaking the thoughts from his mind, he glanced around at the room and noticed several other pokémon in cages; some unconscious and some awake. A quick look all around told him that Thunder wasn’t among them.

Next to him, a caged girafarig was waking up. The pokémon looked around before turning to Redclaw. “Where are we?” she asked, giving Redclaw a confused look.

“I…I don’t know…” the arcanine stammered, when a voice interrupted him.

“You’re in one of Team Rocket’s training facilities.”

The speaker was an espeon who wore a black collar with a red symbol on the front of it. The espeon had a few dirty bandages wrapped around his shoulders and middle, and Redclaw recognized him. He was the pokémon who had tried to stop him with psychic attacks and fought Thunder.

Before Redclaw could say anything, the espeon continued speaking. “Wondering what Team Rocket is doing so far from Kanto? Well you’d be surprised…we have plenty of other bases elsewhere, and not many people come by this part of the region. This base was built for pokémon training and experimentation, and it’s far from any police and trainers. Anyway, you are all in cages because you’re going to be put through a test that you will get to watch. We only want strong pokémon fighting for us. And no, it’s not optional, so don’t get your hopes up. The test should be in a little while, as soon as my trainers sort out all the pokémon they’ve caught.”

“You…” Redclaw growled, glad that he could still talk in spite of the muzzle. “You’re the one who-”

“Please,” the espeon muttered, rolling his eyes, “call me Solus. I don’t like being referred to as ‘you,’ especially by low-ranking pokémon such as yourself.”

Redclaw momentarily forgot his anger. “Low-ranking?” he repeated, puzzled.

“You haven’t been given the test yet,” Solus replied, “and you’ll have to work your way up to get to my status…you’ll have to prove that you’re loyal.”

The girafarig in the cage beside Redclaw’s suddenly reared up angrily. “Loyal?” she spat. “Give me one good reason why I should be loyal to humans like those! They took me from the pokémon center and away from my home forever! Why should I serve you?”

Solus merely turned, looking uninterested. “That’s what they all say…” he muttered slyly, before turning his attention to a boy wearing the same uniform as the other Team Rocket members, who had just walked into the room. “The new recruit…” Redclaw heard the espeon mutter.

The boy hesitantly picked up a backpack, which Redclaw could see contained more poké balls. “What’s he doing?” Redclaw whispered to the girafarig.

“Bringing in more pokémon for the cages,” the girafarig snorted. “I assume they want us all in this big room at once, for whatever reason.” She glanced around the room and turned to Redclaw. “What’s your name?” she asked.

For a moment, Redclaw considered giving her his real name, the name his parents had given to him in the wild, but he rejected that thought immediately. He wouldn’t be able to bear being called by that name; the memories of what he once had and lost would be far too painful for him. “Redclaw,” he stated at last.

“My name is Ardunia,” the girafarig replied, nodding to Redclaw.

Redclaw was about to reply when he noticed that, one by one, the boy with the backpack was releasing pokémon. The other Rocket members looked unimpressed as one by one the boy released mildly or fairly badly injured pokémon who were then taken to cages, some tranquilized first, others just carried, too weak to fight back.

“Please tell me you caught something worthwhile and didn’t go catching all the badly injured ones,” one of the Rockets, whom Redclaw recognized as Solus’s trainer, said while rolling his eyes at the new recruit.

“I…I didn’t think these were too bad…” the boy stammered. “With a bit of healing they could become strong fighters…” The other trainer didn’t reply, and the boy reached for another poké ball, hoping that this one contained a pokémon that would impress the others; he knew he’d caught some that were fairly strong. Taking a deep breath, he released the pokémon.

The moment he released it, he knew he’d made a bad choice. The pokémon couldn’t stand, and when he released it, it toppled over onto its side, grimacing in pain.

Redclaw, however, just stared. It was Stormblade.

He watched as Solus’s trainer walked over to the boy, looking anything but amused. “What…is this?” he muttered, pointing to Stormblade.

“It’s a scyther…uh, sir…” the boy replied shakily.

“I know it’s a scyther, you idiot!” the older trainer snapped. “Why on earth did you catch it? I specifically told you…get the ones we can battle with! Not the ones that were going to be put to sleep anyway in the next few days!” Reaching for the backpack, he grabbed it from the boy’s hands, glaring at him. “How many other poké balls did you waste?” he growled, throwing the backpack to the ground.

The boy looked frightened. “I…I did what you said,” he whispered sheepishly, “I caught the ones I thought we could use…it may be hurt but it’s still a scyther…once it heals it’ll be a powerful fighter for us.”

“Really?” Solus’s trainer sneered. “And what makes you think we want to waste medical attention on something so weak?”

Beside him, Redclaw could hear Ardunia fidgeting uncomfortably in her cage. He turned to see that the girafarig looked worried as she stared at Stormblade and the other badly injured pokémon. She paced back and forth in the small space, though there was scarcely enough room to turn around. Redclaw felt sorry for her; it must be hard for a girafarig to have to stay in such a small confined area.

“It can be strong!” the new recruit was saying. “Pokémon like scyther are tough…and if this one survived getting these injuries in the first place…it must be strong.”

Solus’s trainer looked down at Stormblade, who lay curled up on the floor. He aimed a kick at the scyther’s back, where it was bandaged, and Stormblade merely growled in response. “It didn’t even try to strike back,” the trainer muttered, shaking his head. “Doesn’t seem strong. However…since you seem so keen on convincing me that this scyther was worth catching, I’ll make a deal with you. We’ll test it. If it survives, we’ll let it recover and you’ll have succeeded in your task. If not, then you’ve failed.” He glanced scornfully at the other pokémon the boy had captured, and they shrank back fearfully in their cages.

“F-failed?” he replied, looking frightened.

The other Rocket member smiled. “Yes, failed. So do you accept the deal or not?”

The boy hesitated for a moment, looked at Stormblade, and nodded.

“Well then…” came the other trainer’s reply, “let’s see if this scyther really is as tough as you claim it is…” He crouched down, fitting a metal collar with a chain around Stormblade’s neck, noticing that the scyther didn’t make any move to stop him. Without showing the slightest sign of wariness, he began dragging Stormblade across one side of the room, where he stopped next to a large flat metal surface, like a large table close to the ground. A small machine rested beside it. Stormblade still hadn’t moved.

“What are they doing?” Ardunia spat, disgusted. Redclaw said nothing and continued to watch.

The new recruit followed slowly, now looking uncertain. “Are…are you sure you should be doing this? I mean, it’s an injured flying type…and even healthy pokémon die sometimes…”

“But it’s tough, right?” Solus’s trainer replied mockingly. “What do you have to worry about?”

“Stormblade!” Redclaw cried out, though the sound was muffled by the muzzle. “Get up and move!” At the moment, the Rocket’s back was to Stormblade, but to Redclaw’s dismay, the scyther didn’t even look up. Redclaw lowered his head. Stormblade was too weak…

As some of the other Rocket grunts walked over to Stormblade, one of them asked, “Isn’t this a waste of time? We have work to do…it won’t survive…”

“Jeremy here says it will!” Solus’s trainer replied, and the boy who’d brought in Stormblade merely glanced at the floor.

“What’s…what’s happening?” Redclaw asked Ardunia, watching as the humans, with the aid of some of their pokémon, moved Stormblade onto the slab of metal. They attached part of his chain to one of the many rings on the wall near the machine, but in a way that shortened the amount of chain from Stormblade’s collar to the ring, making it impossible for the scyther to sit or lie down. When Stormblade tried to raise his scythe at one of the Rockets, a blow to the head from a Team Rocket aggron stunned him.

Redclaw watched as shackles were attached to Stormblade’s arms and legs and then chained to certain parts of the metal table, immobilizing him. The arcanine glanced worriedly at Ardunia, who pawed angrily at the floor of her cage, scraping her hooves sharply across the metal.

Stormblade could feel burning pain shooting up his injured leg, and he tried to lift it, even if only a little bit, knowing that even putting his weight on it a little had caused him excruciating pain before. Even though he tried, there wasn’t much he could do, and he could tell that he was being purposely forced to stand that way.

As one of the Rocket members moved toward the small machine, Solus, who was sitting near Redclaw’s cage, began a whispered conversation with a Rocket golduck. Meanwhile, the human near the machine smiled and stepped back. And at the same moment, Stormblade started screaming.

Redclaw stepped back, his eyes wide, as Stormblade began to struggle and thrash as tremendous volts of electricity began surging through his body from the machine. Every caged pokémon was staring in horror at the struggling pokémon, fearing they might be the next.

“So far, so good, eh?” Solus’s trainer smirked with a glance at Jeremy, the new recruit. “Too bad it’s only just starting…”

As he spoke, the electricity flowing through Stormblade’s body seemed to intensify, and he thrashed harder, trying desperately to reach the shackles or collar with his blades, teeth, anything! Stormblade no longer seemed aware of anything around him. All he could think of and feel was this horrible agony that he could do nothing to stop.

“It’s still alive!” Jeremy shouted. “You can stop now. It’s proven that it’s strong…”

“We’re still just beginning,” Solus’s trainer replied smoothly, not giving the boy a glance.

Stormblade’s struggles were growing more desperate. The scyther's wings were flared out, and he was straining against the collar and shackles in some frantic attempt to break free. He pushed back with his legs against the metal table, so hard that blood began seeping from the bandages around his injured leg. However, Stormblade didn’t even seem to notice. He pulled madly at the chains, unable to do anything else but stand and endure the torture.

Jeremy could not understand the scyther’s words as it cried out, but he was sure it was probably begging them to stop…to end it. Shakily, he turned toward the others. “It’s lasted long enough…” he began.

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Solus’s trainer sneered back at him.

Stormblade’s shouts intensified, and he continued to thrash madly, unable to bear the agony any longer.

“Please just stop!” Jeremy shouted desperately.

This time, Jeremy got no reply, and the Rockets merely watched the scyther calmly. Redclaw watched in horror as Stormblade’s struggles grew weaker and his screams stopped. The scyther could do nothing but feebly pull against the chains now.

Then suddenly, it all stopped. Stormblade’s collar chain was carefully detached from the wall and he collapsed, jerking and trembling as sparks flew across the table and his body. Smoke rose from the collar and shackles; the heated metal had burned into his neck and limbs.

Redclaw glanced at Ardunia, who seemed as if she'd been holding her breath the whole time. "He's alive..." the girafarig whispered slowly.

By Redclaw’s cage, Solus nudged the Rockets' golduck. "Pay up," he said with a smirk, and the golduck grudgingly placed a few pokéblocks in front of the espeon.

“Well, I suppose you were right about this one…” Solus’s trainer admitted. “We’ll treat its injuries, though if it doesn’t show improvement within a few weeks, we’ll have to dispose of it.” He turned toward Stormblade, who was still lying against the slab of metal and trembling uncontrollably, his breathing coming in ragged gasps every few seconds. The trainer picked up Stormblade’s poké ball and returned him before striding out of the room. “Get the rest of them in cages,” he called over his shoulder, motioning to the backpack containing the rest of the poké balls.

As he left, Solus turned toward Redclaw with a smirk. “It’ll be your turn soon…” the espeon said with a grin.

-ooo-

Stormblade woke up slowly, vaguely aware that he must have passed out some time after being returned to his poké ball. He was still shaking uncontrollably, and he could feel the pain in his leg getting worse as he woke up more fully. His hazy vision cleared enough for him to realize that he was in some sort of small cell, next to many others. He was lying on an old blanket, but there was no food or water. In the cells next to him, he could hear a few pokémon crying out or whimpering. What was this place…?

Feeling worried, but too weak to stand up, he lifted his head, listening to the cries of the other pokémon. He could see some of them wearing dirty bandages, and he assumed this was where injured pokémon were healed. However, Stormblade knew that if this place were a pokémon center, it would be closed down immediately; these pokemon were all obviously still in pain, and none of them had received anything close to adequate care. They had probably only had their wounds bandaged and been given medicine to fight infection, and then were just placed in the cells.

Laying his head back down, Stormblade tried to appreciate the thin blanket the humans had given him to lay on. It didn’t offer much warmth or comfort, but it was better than the cold concrete ground of his small cell. He was actually surprised they had given him a blanket; none of the other pokémon had one, and he wondered which human had given it to him. He wished whoever it was had given him some food or water too. Apart from a single rawst berry to help heal his wounds from Thunder’s trainer’s Arcanine, he hadn’t eaten since he and Spark had passed through the forest alone. That had been before meeting Snowcrystal. Scyther were tough predators that could last a while without eating when they needed to, but it had been too long, and his hunger was rapidly weakening him.

He wasn’t quite sure how long he would be allowed to stay in the cell, but in the back of his mind, he feared that the humans would grow tired of waiting for him to heal, and they would find a way to get rid of him.

-ooo-

Rosie knew that she couldn’t rest long. Painfully, she staggered upright on three legs, holding her broken foreleg above the ground. Limping forward, she decided to try and make it as far away from the poachers as she could, ignoring the pain in her leg…or trying to.

A few times, Rosie collapsed when the pain was too much. Every time however, she would get up again and keep going. Her fear of what the poachers would do if they caught her motivated her to carry on. She knew they probably wouldn’t even be looking for her anymore, but all the same, she had to keep going…

To get away as fast as she could…

-ooo-

Back at the ruined pokémon center, a police officer was talking to Officer Jenny, while standing beside a small, sandy-haired boy, who kept looking worriedly at Jenny.

“He says his meowth had a tracking collar,” the other officer explained. He turned to the boy before asking, “Was your meowth injured when you brought it to the pokémon center?”

Looking surprised, the boy shook his head. “No,” he replied, “I just wanted the nurses to check on him…I thought he might be getting sick…they said they had a lot of other injured pokémon to take care of but they said they would check on him…”

Listening, Jenny waited until he was done speaking before replying, “If the meowth was taken in just to be checked on, it must have been in its poké ball for most of the time. I think there’s a very likely chance it was stolen. Where those people took it, no one can be sure, but the areas beyond this city are mostly wilderness. It’s very likely that they could have set up some sort of base there. Stonedust is one of the most isolated cities in this region, and most trainers don’t venture north of here. Vast wastelands, dangerous ice mountains and many other harsh territories that have never been fully explored...it’s no wonder.”

Ignoring the boy’s horrified look, she continued, “But if they’ve only barely captured all the pokémon, I’m sure we can use the meowth’s collar to find their location, before they realize it’s a tracking collar…and that’s how we’ll find out where they’re hiding.”

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 24 - Battle at the Rocket’s Base

Justin backed away, terror marked on his face as he watched the scyther leap forward. With a cry of shock he ducked as the outstretched blade moved toward him, coming dangerously close to impaling him. Justin knew he had only managed to dodge fast enough because the scyther was slowed down by its injuries. As Justin had ducked, the pokémon’s blade had become partially embedded in the crumbling wall of the building he’d been standing against, giving him the time to scramble to his feet and run.

Yanking her arm free, Thunder watched Justin through narrowed eyes before giving chase, ignoring any and all pain from her wounds.

Justin bolted out of the alleyway and back towards the ruined pokémon center, where he was sure Katie had gone to ask for help from the nurses who were probably still there. Not for the first time, he wished he had a pokémon – any pokémon – with him. Fear coursed through him as he heard the scyther run up behind him, and though he tried to dodge, he felt one of its razor-sharp blades slice across his back. The cut wasn't deep enough to cause any real serious damage, but it felt as painful as if he had been lashed by a whip.

Justin cried out, collapsing on his hands and knees, feeling blood trickling down his back and wondering why someone hadn’t come to help him. At about that time, the scyther’s other blade struck him, creating a long cut very similar to the first and knocking him over on his side. Panicked, Justin tried to stand up and run away, all the while calling for help as the scyther lifted its blade above him.

To his surprise, his cry was answered almost immediately. He heard a man shout something, and the scyther scream and back away. Looking up, he saw a manectric dart between him and the scyther, sparks flying from its wiry fur. Glaring at the electric pokémon, the scyther looked ready to fight, but as the manectric’s trainer came into view and got ready to release another pokémon, it turned and limped off, vanishing into the dark alley again.

“Manectric,” the trainer told his pokémon, “make sure that scyther doesn’t attack anyone else.” The electric pokémon nodded in reply and darted after the bug type.

Meanwhile, Justin had gotten to his feet and turned to the man whose pokémon had saved him. “Th-thank you…” he mumbled shakily.

“That wasn’t…your scyther, was it?” the trainer asked, giving Justin a strange look.

“No,” Justin replied shakily. “It was just lying in the streets…until it woke up and attacked me!”

The trainer looked confused. “You didn't provoke it in any way, did you?”

“No…” Justin whispered, shaking his head. The man continued to look at him oddly, and without another word, Justin turned and ran, hoping to find Katie. The trainer shouted something after him, but he ignored it.

Trying to forget the wounds in his back, Justin kept running, as if afraid the trainer had actually seen him harm the scyther.

He just wanted to get as far away from the area as possible…

-ooo-

Thunder was relieved when she at last made it away from the city and her claws finally touched soil. She had just undergone a frantic dash through the city, and had just managed to get away from the trained manectric. Shakily she walked forward, feeling worn out after running and in pain from her wounds. Blood was oozing from several of them, but she paid it no notice. Being free was all that mattered.

Picking up her pace, she broke into a run again, heading further away from the humans and their city. She was once again free, and now she was on her own. No longer would she be able to travel with the group, but she figured that was for the best; relying on others for help or safety was never a good idea.

-ooo-

After a long while of traveling through the darkness of the night, Thunder stopped to rest in a large grassy field, unsure of which direction she would take next. She knew she could not head back to where they had found – and disturbed – the combee hive, and putrid, blue tinged smoke rising in the distance in another direction was proof that some fire had started, convincing her not to head that way either.

Lying down, she decided to rest as she forced thoughts of pain from her mind, focusing on more important tasks. If she was to survive, she would have to learn how to hunt on her own.

For a moment, she felt a pang of regret as she thought of the other pokémon she had traveled with, who had wanted to help her, but she forcefully pushed the thoughts away. She could not accept help from them. She had never even needed help. There had been no point in traveling with them. She was far better off on her own, and she always had been.

-ooo-

Justin had reached Katie before she and the nurse had gotten to the area where they had found the injured scyther. After the wounds the scyther gave him had been treated, the two watched in silence as the police, as well as many skilled trainers who had volunteered to help, prepared to seek out the thieves who had killed and stolen so many pokémon.

They had gone back to the area near the pokémon center, where most of the nurses were still trying to help any surviving pokémon from the outside enclosures that had been injured from the blast.

It wasn’t long before the trainers and police had all assembled in front of the pokémon center. Wasting no time, they left quickly, either in vehicles or riding on the backs of pokémon.

After they had left, Katie smiled and turned to Justin. “I’m going to follow them,” she stated firmly, walking in the direction they had gone as she had reached for one of her poké balls.

“What?” Justin replied. “I thought you’d have to be a skilled trainer to-”

“Nobody’s going to stop me,” Katie replied. “They’ll be far too busy trying to catch those people. They won’t care that I’m following.”

Justin watched as Katie walked out of sight of anyone by the pokémon center, and sent out her pidgeot. The large brown and tan eagle-like pokémon immediately soared into the air, circling some of the buildings before coming to land beside his trainer.

Climbing onto the bird pokémon’s back, Katie turned toward Justin. “Are you coming?” she asked.

“But…but I don’t have any pokémon!” Justin stammered angrily. “And in case you haven’t noticed…I’ve just been attacked by that ‘poor hurt, innocent’ scyther!”

“If you want to stay behind, you can,” Katie replied, sounding disappointed. “But if you come, you can use one of my pokémon.”

For a moment, Justin hesitated, but to Katie’s surprise, he mumbled, “Fine…” and hesitantly climbed onto Pidgeot’s back behind Katie.

“Hold on!” Katie warned as Pidgeot spread his wings and took off, soaring into the air high above the city at frightening speeds.

Shocked, Justin gripped Katie’s waist tighter, averting his eyes from the sight of the streets now far below him. ‘What was I thinking…’ he thought to himself as he closed his eyes tightly, wondering if being able to battle with a pokémon again would be worth all this, and wondering if either of them really knew what they could be getting into.

-ooo-

Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Spark had only rested a short while before moving on, leaving the burning forest behind them. The smoke hadn’t traveled far, and the three walked at a leisurely pace through a wide grassy field, knowing that they were now well away from the danger.

Her mind still in turmoil about why Blazefang had used the Forbidden Attack, Wildflame quietly followed the playful growlithe and jolteon. ‘Why did he use that attack?’ she thought. ‘I thought he’d know better than that after what I told him about Shadowflare…is he really that power-hungry?’

Every once in a while, Snowcrystal, who led the way with Spark, would spot a small prey pokémon up ahead and run toward it, hoping to catch it. She didn’t have any success. While stalking yet another pidgey, the growlithe heard a cry of pain which sent the small pokémon flying off. Turning to find the source of the cry, she noticed that Spark had collapsed on the grass a little ways behind her.

Painfully, Spark stood up. “Ow…my leg…” he moaned. “Do you think we could rest for a little while?”

Giving Spark a concerned look, Snowcrystal turned her questioning gaze toward Wildflame. The houndoom jerked herself away from her thoughts as she realized that Snowcrystal had asked her a question, and replied, “Okay,” regardless of the fact that she had hardly heard what the growlithe had said.

“Wildflame…” Snowcrystal asked, noticing the houndoom’s strange behavior, “are you all right?”

“Huh? Oh…yeah, I’m fine,” Wildflame replied quickly. “I was just…thinking.”

Suddenly Snowcrystal’s ears pricked up. She sniffed at the air curiously. The growlithe padded through the grass as she scanned the area ahead of her. Wildflame noticed the odd behavior and trotted over to her.

“What is it?” the houndoom asked.

“It’s this scent…” Snowcrystal whispered. “It smells really familiar, though still sort of different…”

Wildflame lifted her head and sniffed the air, soon catching the scent of a pokémon on the breeze. The more experienced pokémon’s eyes widened. “Rosie…” she whispered.

“Rosie?” Snowcrystal repeated, perplexed. “Are you sure? How can you tell?”

“Follow me,” Wildflame said in answer and bounded ahead with Snowcrystal and Spark following.

-ooo-

Rosie had been limping through the grassy field solemnly, not even stopping to enjoy the fresh scent of the many flowers dotting the field. Her head hung low and her nine tails dragged behind her as she stumbled along.

“Rosie!” a distant voice shouted, causing the ninetales to lift her head in surprise.

Leaning back on her hind legs and trying to peer around, she noticed that three distant figures were running towards her.

At first, she thought of running away, but as the shapes got closer she could see them a bit more clearly, and Snowcrystal’s white fur stood out starkly against the flowery background.

Relief and excitement filled her mind as she recognized them, and she ran toward them on three legs, shouting, “Snowcrystal, Wildflame, Spark! It’s me!”

Hearing that shout, the three travelers increased their pace, now definitely knowing that the scent they had found actually did belong to their lost friend. The four pokémon met in the center of the field, all shouting joyfully to one another in relief and forgetting their exhaustion.

“Rosie!” Snowcrystal cried. “You evolved! You’re a ninetales now! And…and what happened to your leg?” the growlithe asked, looking startled as she noticed the injury.

“It’s broken,” Rosie replied, her gaze darkening. “It happened while I was escaping…”

A pause fell over them; all four knew that the past few days had been harsh, starting from when Blazefang’s pack had attacked them. After they had sat down and Rosie had related her story to them – from the capture to the battles and how Eve the mightyena had helped her – she asked the others a few questions herself.

“Where are Thunder and Stormblade? Are they all right? And…and what happened to your leg, Spark?”

Rosie soon found her answers in the form of her friends’ stories. After each had explained what they needed to, another stunned silence fell over the group as they each contemplated the situation, though none voiced their thoughts.

Snowcrystal thought back to the two scyther. Were they all right? What was happening to them now? Snowcrystal knew that worrying would only cause more problems at the moment, so she forced the thoughts from her mind.

‘When we find Articuno,’ she reassured herself, ‘he could find them…If any of them could rescue them…Articuno could…’

For a while they all rested, and Rosie made sure to keep her leg as still as possible, hoping it would heal well. Wildflame and Spark managed to hunt, and for once in what seemed like a long time, despite the pain and turmoil they had undergone and the worry about their friends, the four pokémon could have a moment of peace.

-ooo-

The police and trainers who had been hunting down the pokémon thieves were lucky. Thanks to the meowth’s tracking collar, they had found the location of the pokémon and the Rocket members who had taken them. Now, they stood in view of a massive building, partially hidden beside towering columns of dusty colored stone forming a ridge around the structure on all sides but one. Several more of these tall stone cliffs were scattered over the area, and even in the afternoon sun, the place still seemed eerie.

The location had not been as far from Stonedust as many of the trainers had thought; it hadn’t taken nearly as long to reach it as they had suspected and many of the trainers recognized the towering stone formations from pictures. It was an area that was in some places inhabited by hostile wild pokémon, and the steep rocks themselves posed a threat to travelers. If it hadn’t been for the meowth’s tracking collar, it wouldn’t have been the first place anyone would have thought to look. It seemed far too hostile a territory to bring stolen pokémon to train.

“Who do you think built this place?” one of the trainers asked.

“Not sure,” replied a police officer, “but if we’re going to find the pokémon, we have to get inside quickly. Follow me.”

Without another word, the trainers and their pokémon headed along the base of the towering rock cliffs and closer to the building.

-ooo-

Redclaw was not sure how much longer he could take it. One by one the pokémon had been brought up to the machine and tested. Some survived the electric shock and were returned to their poké balls or put back in cages; others fell still and never got up. Horrified, Redclaw had tried not to watch, though even when he looked away their screams still echoed in his ears.

And it would be his turn soon. Despite trying to fight it, Redclaw was afraid. If the test had been something other than an electric shock, he knew he wouldn’t be so scared. But the memory of the collar Master had given him was far too strong, and Redclaw was terrified.

Ardunia glanced toward him, sharing his fear. Most of the pokémon the new recruit had brought in had not survived, and several others who were injured or sick had perished as well. How Stormblade lived through it, she would never know.

A sound alerted both Redclaw and Ardunia as the bayleef in the cage on the other side of Redclaw’s was returned to its poké ball and brought over to the machine. Fearfully, Redclaw rubbed his head against the bars of his cage, in a hopeless and futile attempt to get his muzzle off.

However, just as the bayleef was released and shackled to the machine, all activity stopped as another Team Rocket trainer ran into the room, looking startled. “Intruders!” he shouted. “And they brought the police!”

“What?” replied the trainer who owned Solus in an outraged tone. “How did they-”

He didn’t get to finish, for at that moment, a large section of the far wall was blown apart, sending debris flying in all directions. Through the new opening in the wall, several trainers and police officers stood, as well as several pokémon. At the front of the group was a trainer standing next to a tyranitar, who had obviously used hyper beam.

Enraged, Solus’s trainer lifted his gun, but as he fired, a large translucent barrier from a trainer’s psychic pokémon materialized in front of the humans and their pokémon, blocking the bullet. Lowering the gun, he glanced toward Solus. “Espeon, attack!” he shouted, pointing toward the trainers.

Solus leaped up and ran toward the trainers and police, followed by several other Team Rocket pokémon. Redclaw pressed his paws and muzzle against the bars of his cage, watching the battle beginning to take place.

Pokémon of all types filled the room, some fighting, others protecting the trainers and police or the Rockets. Near the back of the group of trainers, Justin and Katie, who had snuck in after the others, yelled commands to some of Katie’s pokémon, Katie commanding Azumarill and Justin commanding her persian.

For reasons he could not explain, Justin did not feel afraid. Watching Persian fight was an amazing feeling. It seemed like such a long time since he had watched a pokémon battle for him. “Persian, thunderbolt!” he shouted, watching the tawny cat-like pokémon’s fur stiffen before she fired several jagged bolts of electricity at the Rocket’s pokémon. Nearby, Azumarill was battling head-to-head with a croconaw.

The trainers and police who had come to the rescue had quickly realized that they far outnumbered the Rockets, and their pokémon had soon disarmed most of the grunts. The sheer amount of pokémon fighting and protecting the trainers, as well as the suddenness of their attack, gave the Rocket members little chance of fighting back.

As Redclaw was watching, he noticed several other trainers moving away from the battling pokémon and finding poké balls. He watched some of them release captured pokémon and others find empty poké balls, returning the pokémon trapped in cages and letting them out in the room. One of the trainers had managed to steal keys from the Rockets, and she ran up to Ardunia’s cage, unlocking it and letting the girafarig run free. Next, she opened Redclaw’s, and after carefully examining his muzzle, found a way to open that too and took it off.

Leaping to the smooth floor outside the cage, Redclaw heard a police growlithe shout, “Pokémon, follow me! The way out is this way, hurry!”

Redclaw, along with Ardunia and several other freed pokémon, started to follow while the Rocket pokémon were distracted. Then Redclaw suddenly stopped. “Stormblade…” he whispered.

“What?” Ardunia called from up ahead.

“Keep following them!” Redclaw shouted, turning around. “There’s someone I need to find!”

Watching the arcanine turn and run toward an open doorway, Ardunia sighed worriedly before turning and following the other escapers.

-ooo-

Katie’s pokémon were soon tired and wounded, and having no choice, she and Justin had had been forced to follow some of the other trainers out of the building. The ones that remained were still fighting, but the Team Rocket agents were quickly being driven back. Already, several of the Rocket’s fighting pokémon had been taken by the trainers and brought outside as the trainers’ pokémon protected them from attack.

At last, outnumbered and unprepared, the Rockets turned and fled, with the police soon following. One of the trainers led some others into other rooms, searching for more pokémon who still remained trapped in the building.

-ooo-

Redclaw hadn’t gone far down one of the dimly lit hallways when a voice from behind stopped him. A male houndoom was running toward him, calling for him to wait. Redclaw watched as the sleek dark type came to a halt beside him, looking out of breath.

“The way out is back that way,” the dark type told Redclaw, obviously assuming that the arcanine had gotten lost.

“I know,” Redclaw replied, “but my friend…that scyther they took away, is in another room somewhere, and I have to…”

“Stop!” a harsh voice called from behind. The two dog-like pokémon turned around to see the espeon, Solus, walking toward them from the end of the hallway they had come from.

Without a word the houndoom leaped forward with a speed that surprised the espeon. Knocking the injured psychic type to the ground, he pressed his paw against Solus’s throat, leaning his head closer to him. “All right, you obviously know your way around here,” the houndoom growled. “Where did your trainers take the scyther?”

Solus’s eyes widened in shock as he realized how much he was at a disadvantage. The houndoom was a large and powerful dark type, while he was injured and would be weak to the dog-like pokémon’s attacks. Gritting his teeth, he hissed back, “The Medical Ward…what do you think…genius?”

“Where…is…that?” the houndoom muttered in a low growl, pressing his foot down harder.

Solus gasped as he struggled, kicking his back legs frantically at the houndoom. “It’s on one of the lower floors!” he spat. “Below the first floor…underground…” By now he was struggling to breathe.

“How do we get there?” Redclaw asked.

The houndoom was about to ask a similar question when shouts reached their ears. Letting go of Solus, he pounded through the halls beside Redclaw as several Rocket grunts appeared around the doorway.

“Guess we find it ourselves…” the dark type muttered grimly.

-ooo-

Stormblade had also heard commotion. Next to the room he was currently resting in was the largest experimentation room in the Rocket’s base. Though he did not know what the room actually was, he could hear shouts coming from within it.

“What’s that?” a young linoone asked, sounding frightened.

“Something’s going on in one of the experiment rooms…” a rapidash replied.

“Experiment rooms?” a beedrill repeated, confused.

Before anyone could answer, a door to the room opened, and a young female trainer, obviously not belonging to Team Rocket, stepped inside.

“Who is she?” Stormblade heard the linoone ask, but his question was quickly answered.

Finding keys and moving as fast as she could, the trainer began unlocking the cages, letting every pokémon run free. Stormblade saw the door to his cage swing open, but he did not think he could stand. He watched as the last of the pokémon were freed and they, along with the trainer who was showing them the way, left the room.

“Wait!” Stormblade called out weakly, trying to crawl toward the open doorway. He didn’t make it far, and collapsed, pain overwhelming him and preventing him from moving as the others made their escape, leaving him behind.

-ooo-

Meanwhile, other pokémon were being released from cages and poké balls within a large experimentation room, the room right next to the Medical Ward. The room was massive and contained several huge, strange looking machines as well as rows of tables to which pokémon were meant to be strapped to. The shouting had stopped; the Rockets there had fled. The pokémon were told to follow a trainer pokémon up flights of stairs to the first floor at ground level.

Freeing a small mareep from a cage, one of the trainers began carrying it toward the other freed pokémon when something made her stop in her tracks.

Over twenty Team Rocket trainers surrounded by several large pokémon were entering the room. The trainers helping the pokémon started to back away, knowing that their own pokémon were outnumbered, and the strongest trainers were elsewhere, as the Rockets gave their pokémon the order to attack.

-ooo-

Redclaw and the houndoom darted through another hallway, looking for a way to the floors below ground level. Redclaw stopped, hearing several pokémon coming their way. “That way!” he cried, heading in their direction, soon finding a large flight of stairs leading down to the next floor. Many pokémon were running up them.

“Help them,” Redclaw told the houndoom. “I’m going down there to find Stormblade.” The houndoom nodded in reply as Redclaw addressed some of the fleeing pokémon. “Did any of you see a scyther? Or the Medical Ward?”

Quicker than he expected, he got an answer. A small linoone looked up at him with wide blue eyes and nodded. “There was a scyther in that room down there!” he told Redclaw.

“Where?” the arcanine asked.

“It’s a room with a lot of cages,” the linoone answered. “Down three flights of stairs and you’ll see a large door with a big window on it near the bottom of the third set of stairs. Go there!”

“Thanks,” Redclaw told the linoone as the smaller pokémon ran off. Bounding down the stairs, he quickly passed the first flight, and soon spotted the second. Following the linoone’s instructions, he raced down the narrow stairways until he reached the bottom of the third flight of stairs.

Looking around, Redclaw tried to spot a door like the one the linoone had described. Walking through the hallway a bit, he soon spotted a large open door, one with a window. Racing through the doorway, he found himself in a strange room. The room looked like it belonged in a very low-budget pokémon center, with several syringes and other instruments lying along a counter in disarray. Redclaw noticed stains of blood both on the floor and on the thin sheets covering the bed that stood in the center of the room.

Pushing past another slightly open door, he walked into a room with rows of cages and small cells. At first he thought it was empty, until he noticed the still form of a scyther lying near the other side of the room, still in the cell.

“Stormblade!” Redclaw shouted, running over to the injured pokémon’s side.

Stormblade looked up at Redclaw in disbelief, having thought for sure that he’d been completely abandoned. “Who are you…?” Stormblade whispered in a feeble voice. “How do you know my name?”

“Thunder told me,” Redclaw replied. “I was there at the pokémon center with her. My name is Redclaw. I’m your friend.”

“Thunder?” Stormblade replied, his voice sounding weaker. “Where’s…Thunder?”

“I believe she escaped back at the pokémon center,” Redclaw answered. “She wasn’t brought here.”

“Is she…okay?” Stormblade asked, clearly not comprehending that Redclaw couldn’t know much about Thunder at the moment.

“I think so,” Redclaw answered, though truthfully he was uncertain. “Now we need to get out of here…and quickly, before anyone sees us. Most of the pokémon have already escaped. We need to get out now and follow them.”

“I…I…can’t stand…” came Stormblade’s weak reply.

“You have to!” Redclaw cried worriedly. “We need to leave…I can help you! I’ll help you get up and you can lean against me…”

Stormblade made no reply and Redclaw began to fear that he was far too weak to move. The sounds of battle reached his ears and the floor suddenly shook beneath his paws. A huge battle was taking place in a room nearby…

-ooo-

The trainers who had freed pokémon from the experimentation room found themselves in what seemed like an impossible fight. The Rocket members attacking them had to have come from another part of the building, unaware of the defeat of their comrades, because they were not backing down. Humans and pokémon alike had already been injured, some seriously. Fearful, some of the trainers hid behind machines or tables as the remaining trainers and pokémon fought.

One of them, the trainer with the tyranitar, knew that if there were many Team Rocket grunts here, there must be several still trying to hold the police off somewhere else, unless they had used their pokémon to teleport away. If so, he wondered, had the others who’d come to stop these people already escaped the building and left them alone down there? He shook the thought from his mind, focusing on the battle they were now facing.

His tyranitar was weak; wounded in several places and nearly out of strength to fight. The trainer realized his pokémon could probably only manage one more attack. “Might as well make it a good one…” he muttered grimly to himself, and shouted to his pokémon, “Tyranitar, use-”

He paused for a second, his gaze moving toward the Rockets who were standing beside one of the large machines. In a sudden burst of fleeting hope, he finished, “Use hyper beam on that machine!”

With a strength borne of desperation, the tyranitar fired the attack straight at the machine the Rockets were standing by. Another trainer, looking on, noticed that it was only one of many machines in the room, and a look of fear crossed her face. “Wait!” she shouted, far too late, as the blast of energy struck the machinery.

The tyranitar and his trainer ducked behind a row of cages as the machine exploded, hearing several of the Rockets scream in anguish. Another explosion followed almost immediately after, engulfing several other machines and sending them and most of the room up in flames.

Weakened by the explosion, a part of the ceiling collapsed, damaging several nearby rooms and part of the floor above, while fire spread quickly toward the other machines.

Not wasting any time, the trainers stood up and fled through the doorway on the mostly undamaged side of the room, knowing that they needed to get out of the building…and fast.

-ooo-

Redclaw heard the blasts from nearby and felt the walls and floor shake. Looking toward Stormblade, he tried to help the scyther stand, letting him lean against his shoulder. Stormblade’s eyes were glazed over with pain and the effort to stand seemed almost too much for him. Redclaw tried to help him walk slowly, making his way carefully toward the door leading into the hallway while Stormblade limped beside him.

When Redclaw peered out of the open doorway, what he saw made him gasp. A large part of the hallway to his left was destroyed; the walls in one part of it had been broken down and a section of the ceiling had collapsed.

In his shock, he did not realize the danger he and Stormblade were in until it was too late.

The flames from the ruined machines in the experimentation room had triggered another, much bigger explosion as they consumed an even larger machine. Without warning, a huge section of the wall near Redclaw was blasted away, sending him and Stormblade flying backward toward the opposite end of the hallway.

Redclaw felt his leg strike something sharp – Stormblade’s scythe – as he landed against the scyther, causing Stormblade to cry out in pain a moment before his head slammed against the wall, silencing him. Dazed, Redclaw looked up as a large section of the ceiling above them came crashing down. Unable to move away in time, Redclaw didn’t even have the chance to scream before something crashed into his head and everything faded into blackness.

-ooo-

Outside, the last of the trainers had finally made it out of the building, helping the injured. Several pokémon had not made it out, but the humans knew there was nothing they could do now.

The building was unsafe; part of the first few floors had collapsed in some places, damaged by the explosion caused by the tyranitar’s hyper beam. Since the remaining Rockets had probably managed to use their abra to teleport away by then, the police had decided that it was best to get back to Stonedust City as soon as possible. The trainers and pokémon who were injured needed help.

Knowing the Rockets who hadn’t been caught would be distracted by the damage to their building, the trainers and police, along with the pokémon who were rescued, headed quickly back to the city, leaving the damaged building behind.

-ooo-

Justin and Katie, however, were not with them. Riding on the back of Katie’s pidgeot, they had decided not to return to Stonedust City. Justin had wanted to look for the white growlithe one more time, and Katie, who was also fascinated with rare and unusual pokémon, had eventually agreed.

It wasn’t long before the pidgeot landed, near the group of rocks where the two had come across Stormblade before. Now that it wasn’t raining, Katie was sure that her poochyena, whom she had exchanged for one of her other pokémon back at the pokémon center before it had been destroyed, could follow the growlithe’s scent now that the air was clearer.

Justin watched as the form of the black and gray pup-like pokémon materialized in front of him. After Katie told her what to do, she ran off, happily searching for the scent of growlithe.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Justin asked skeptically. “The growlithe’s scent probably washed away by now…”

“Well, it ran somewhere in these rocky fields when it left the city,” Katie replied. “It’s probably nearby…which means there’s definitely a scent to find. It couldn’t have been captured yet, or else everyone would know about it by now.”

Up ahead, the poochyena began yipping excitedly. Katie and Justin ran to catch up, noticing the large footprint of a houndoom imprinted in the drying mud.

“There…there was a houndoom with the growlithe, remember?” Justin whispered.

Katie nodded. “Poochyena can follow their scent now,” she replied. “I’m sure we can catch up to it.” Without another word they headed through the field of pebbly mud, the little poochyena happily leading the way.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 25 - Race Against Time

Rosie, Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Spark had begun their journey again, searching for Articuno with renewed hope. Snowcrystal believed that if Rosie had managed to escape, there was certainly hope for Stormblade and Thunder, especially if they could convince Articuno to help them. The going was slow, however, because of Rosie and Spark’s injuries, but this time, no one seemed to mind.

Wildflame had caught prey for them all earlier, and they had rested at a cool, fresh stream. Even Rosie was feeling better, though she was still forced to limp awkwardly. Spark stayed close to Rosie as they followed Wildflame and Snowcrystal. Rosie was quickly growing tired of his comments.

“You know what’s good about being injured, Rosie?” the jolteon asked.

“Nothing…” Rosie muttered, annoyed.

Spark carried on as if he hadn’t heard. “Everyone does stuff for you! Like that spearow Wildflame brought us…and how Snowcrystal brought me some water in a leaf…”

“Only because you were too much of a wimp to go to the stream yourself,” Rosie muttered silently to herself.

“You know,” Spark continued, “I wonder if Articuno will help find a new home for me…somewhere without dangerous humans or pokémon or traps, or fire, or any of those other things that have given us trouble on this journey. I hope that when we get Stormblade back he’ll stop being so angry about Justin. There’s nothing wrong with Justin…”

Suddenly Spark stopped, and Rosie felt a yank on several of her tails. Turning around, she saw Spark holding some of them in his mouth, grinning widely at her. Releasing the tails, the jolteon stated, “I’ve always wanted to pull a ninetales’s tail…and now I have!”

Rosie rolled her eyes. “When I find out how to place a thousand year curse on someone,” she muttered to herself, “I’m putting one on Spark.”

The four pokémon carried on at a slow pace, seeing no sign of danger as they traveled.

But they were unaware that they were being tracked.

-ooo-

Blazefang and the rest of his pack did not have much to worry about. Traveling ahead of Snowcrystal’s group, they had all luckily managed to leave the forest well before it burned to the ground.

Now further away from the human’s city, Blazefang felt some of his confidence returning, despite not knowing whether Wildflame could find out anything about Articuno yet or not.

Blazefang had tried to put both Shadowflare incidents behind him. He had used the attack both times out of self defense, and there was nothing that could be done about the consequences of the attack now.

…Yet still in his mind, was the lingering fear of Shadowflare. He shuddered as he kept walking; sincerely hoping he would never have to use it again.

-ooo-

Katie and Justin stood in shock at the ruins of what had once been a small forest. Poochyena whimpered, hiding behind Katie and trembling in fear, clearly spooked by the area somehow.

“I don’t understand…” Justin muttered. “It’s spring time…I didn’t think the forest would be dry enough to catch fire and burn down this easily…” he added, looking at what little charred remains of trees were left. The small pieces littered the ground, but there were hardly any trunks left standing. “Let’s go back…”

“No,” Katie replied, “let’s go around. I want to see if there are any pokémon that escaped the fire…they might need help.” As she and her poochyena headed off to travel around the burned forest, Justin had no choice but to follow them.

A few yards ahead, he heard Katie gasp and her poochyena whimper. He walked forward, seeing the charred remains of a shinx lying in their path. The pokémon had managed to escape, but too late. It was dead, it’s body covered in deep, terrible burns. Justin realized that by looking at it, Katie would be reminded of her own shinx.

He backed away, not wanting to look at the dead pokémon, but to his surprise, Katie crouched beside it. “Katie…” he muttered. “It’s dead. There’s no use staying here.”

“These burns…” Katie mused, gazing down at the shinx. “They look strange…just like the ones your scyther had…”

Justin flinched as Katie mentioned ‘his’ scyther, but only replied, “I don’t see why that’s such a big deal. Scyther got burned badly, and so did this poor shinx. There’s nothing more to it than that.”

Katie sighed and stood up, still looking confused, but nonetheless carried on as her poochyena searched for pokémon scent, hoping no other pokémon had ended up like the shinx had.

-ooo-

Redclaw awoke slowly, feeling dazed and light-headed. The arcanine carefully lifted his head, feeling a sharp pain in his leg. Ignoring it, he slowly stood up, vaguely hearing the creaking of the walls around him, and stepped in something warm and wet.

Looking down, he noticed that he was stepping in his own blood. There was a small, yet deep gash on his back leg, and it had obviously been bleeding quite a lot, though it looked to be only a small wound. Ignoring the blood, he looked around the hallway he’d been lying in, feeling himself start to wake up more fully.

As his hazy vision cleared and he gazed around the dimly lit hallway, he noticed debris strewn all around from the blast. Several of the walls were damaged, some blown away completely. Looking up, he noticed a gaping hole in the ceiling; he could see clear up into the room above him.

Turning his gaze to the rubble-strewn floor, the arcanine searched for Stormblade, quickly spotting the scyther’s limp form against the wall near where he had been lying before. Limping over to him, Redclaw could tell he was still unconscious. There was a small dark stain on the wall where Stormblade’s head had struck it, and as Redclaw inspected him closer, he noticed a wound on the scyther’s head; a long gash that started from between his eyes and ran along the top of his head. Redclaw was unsure of what had caused it, but he figured Stormblade had to have struck something sharp; maybe a part of the ceiling that had caved in.

Worried, Redclaw nudged Stormblade’s head with his nose, but didn’t get a response. He looked closer, and could tell that the bug type was still breathing, though it sounded weak and raspy, much like his own.

Whimpering, Redclaw sat down beside the motionless scyther, softly licking the gash on his head, hoping to clean the wound. After a short while, Stormblade began to stir; his head turned away and his wings twitched. Redclaw nudged him again, and Stormblade opened his eyes and looked up at him, though one of his eyes seemed unable to open fully. A moment later, he lay his head back down weakly, closing his eyes again.

“Stormblade,” Redclaw began, “we need to get out of here…”

Stormblade made no response and Redclaw wondered if he had even heard. “Stormblade…?” he asked again slowly.

“Whoareyou?” Stormblade mumbled in a dazed voice, opening his eyes only a fraction.

Redclaw stared back at him, confused. “I’m…Redclaw…I told you that already,” he said calmly, wondering if there was something wrong with Stormblade’s memory.

However, a few moments later, Stormblade seemed to recognize him, and asked, “Why did you come in that room to find me?”

“Everyone else was leaving,” Redclaw replied, watching Stormblade shudder as the walls creaked loudly again and realizing that any sound probably made the pain in his head worse. “Some trainers freed us, and they and the other pokémon left. I went back to find you, since it seems like the trainers were too busy to really notice how hurt you were.”

“You should have just gone with them…” Stormblade whispered, closing his eyes against the pain that lanced through his skull.

“I wasn’t going to leave anyone here, especially not a friend,” Redclaw replied. “And I don’t plan on leaving you now. We should…” He paused, seeing that Stormblade was obviously in no condition to stand up, let alone walk, and finished, “You should rest for now…stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Turning away from Stormblade, Redclaw headed down the hallway, hoping to find an easy way up to the first ground level floor and out of the building. As he turned a corner and headed toward the stairs, he noticed with shock that a part of them had collapsed, and the doorway to which the stairs led had been blocked by rubble. Worried, he decided to look for an easier path, one that Stormblade would be able to manage traveling through.

Pushing aside a door that looked badly damaged, he walked into a partially destroyed room, finding nothing but large wooden boxes inside. Several were damaged and their contents strewn across the floor, but a few had been knocked over and broken open; some containing packets of pokémon food. Grabbing as many as he could fit in his mouth, Redclaw limped back to Stormblade.

When he returned, the arcanine was dismayed to see that Stormblade had passed out again, or else settled into some sort of half-conscious sleep. Setting down the food packets, he carefully opened each one with his teeth while waiting for the scyther to recover.

It took a while longer for Stormblade to wake up, and in that time, Redclaw had eaten his fill, having gone back to the room for more pokémon food. As Stormblade woke up this time, however, Redclaw could tell that he was more fully awake.

“Where are the humans who took us here?” Stormblade asked after a short while, painfully trying to sit up. “Have they all left?”

“I think so,” Redclaw answered. “I don’t think anyone’s here but us…at least not in this part of the building.” He glanced toward the remainder of the pokémon food packets and pushed them toward Stormblade. “I found these,” the arcanine explained. “I was looking for an easy way up to the first floor, where I’m sure we can find a way out of here. The way I came from was blocked…I suppose we’ll have to find another way. We’re safe for now though,” he added, and sat down, while Stormblade ravenously started eating the pokémon food.

Redclaw lay down, feeling worried. He didn’t know how he and Stormblade were going to get out of the building any time soon, especially when Stormblade was so weak. Idly licking the cut on his back leg, Redclaw shivered as one of the few working lights in the hallway flickered and went out, leaving him and Stormblade in semi-darkness.

Wearily, Redclaw leaned against the wall, feeling exhausted. The arcanine was still uncertain of what path they would take to get out of the building, but at the moment he felt too tired to search for another way to the first floor.

He was startled when the wall suddenly gave a violent shudder, and dust rained down on his head from the ceiling. Shaking his head to free the dirt from his mane, Redclaw stood up and backed away, hearing the walls around him creak and groan loudly.

Stormblade looked up from his meal, staring at the wall with his good eye. “What was that?” he whispered, his voice still sounding shaky and weak.

“I…I’m not…” Redclaw began, a moment before he had to duck out of the way as a large chunk of the ceiling fell to the floor, raising a cloud of dust which caused the arcanine to start coughing.

“Stay here,” he told Stormblade between coughs, knowing the scyther really didn’t have much of a choice. “I’m going to try to find an easy way out…”

Without waiting for a reply, Redclaw bounded off, clearing a heap of rubble in a single leap as he headed in a different direction from where he’d gone before; veering off into another hallway. He was certain there had to be more stairs on this floor somewhere; it was only a matter of finding them.

Yet when Redclaw turned a corner of the hallway, he didn’t find stairs. Instead, he found something else that made him stop in his tracks. Ahead of him, the ceiling had caved in, damaged by the blasts. The way was nearly blocked, and it looked as if more of the ceiling could collapse at any minute. Startled, Redclaw turned and ran back toward Stormblade, who was still eating. He noticed that the gash on the scyther’s head was still bleeding, though not as badly as it had been before.

“Stormblade!” Redclaw gasped as he came to a halt beside the injured pokémon, feeling the floor shake as small pieces of the ceiling fell down on his head and shoulders. “We need to get out now…I think…I think whatever caused those explosions must have really damaged most of the walls, and…” He paused for a second, looking around, before continuing. “And I think the whole place is about to…to come down on top of us…”

Stormblade stared back at him, first with a look of confusion, then one of fear. “Did you…find a way out?” he asked hesitantly.

“Not yet,” Redclaw answered worriedly, “but we need to go now…we can try and see if there’s another way out near where I found the pokémon food. Now stand up, I’m not sure how much time we have…”

As Redclaw had half expected, Stormblade did not move at first. After he asked again, Stormblade started to try. Shaking, the scyther closed his eyes, before pushing his blades against the floor and slowly heaving himself upright. It pained Redclaw to see him like this, and he fought back a lingering doubt that Stormblade was going to make it.

As the scyther got to his feet, using the wall for support, Redclaw stood beside him, letting him lean on his shoulder in case he collapsed. Fighting back his panic at the prospect of being trapped, the arcanine attempted a smile as he looked back at Stormblade. “See? It won’t be so hard if I’m helping you. Just…try not to put any weight on your hurt leg.” Redclaw lightly flicked his tail over Stormblade’s bandaged shoulder, immediately regretting it as he saw his friend wince. Muttering a quick apology, he started to head in the direction of the ruined stairs, forcing himself to walk slowly as he ignored every instinct that told him to leave Stormblade and save himself.

As the two pokémon came upon the partially destroyed set of stairs Redclaw had seen earlier, the arcanine glanced at the rubble blocking the doorway where the stairs had led, and sighed. “I don’t think we have much time to…” He paused as the walls and floor shook again, and went on, “Searching for another way out will take too long. Let me see if I can clear the way for us.”

As Stormblade shakily sat down, Redclaw bounded away from him, running up to the stairs and clearing the gap between them caused by the collapse easily. He quickly reached the blocked doorway. Using all the strength he could muster, Redclaw pushed aside the debris, moving enough of it until the pile collapsed, leaving most of the doorway open.

Eyes widening in shock, he stepped back.

Nearly the entire hallway ahead of him was up in flames, including the next set of stairs. Fearfully realizing how quickly the fire had spread to that part of the building, Redclaw could only wonder how long it would take the flames to reach him and Stormblade.

As his thoughts drifted back to the scyther, Redclaw felt at a loss for what to do. Being a fire type, he could make it through the fire, but Stormblade… could not.

Turning away from the blaze, Redclaw bounded back down the ruined stairs and into the room where he’d found the pokémon food, suddenly getting an idea. Walking up to some of the large wooden boxes, he quickly pushed one of them out the door as Stormblade watched him, looking confused.

Redclaw pushed the box underneath the gaping hole in the ceiling he had seen when he had first woken up. It was just tall enough for a pokémon of Stormblade’s size to climb onto it and up through the opening. How Stormblade was going to climb up there, however, Redclaw wasn’t sure.

Moving fast, Redclaw found a smaller box and pushed it next to the first one, hoping that would make it easier to climb, and then darted back to Stormblade.

As Redclaw helped the scyther back toward the boxes, he couldn’t help being worried about how painfully slow they were moving. Stormblade was almost constantly stumbling, and when Redclaw walked too fast, he would sometimes fall over. By the time they reached the boxes, more of the ceiling had collapsed further down the hallway, though thankfully not near them.

Pushing Stormblade toward the two boxes, Redclaw told him, “We can climb up to the next floor from here. You go first…I know the boxes won’t break if you stand on them.” Redclaw could tell that the boxes were definitely strong enough to hold a scyther’s weight…but he was unsure if they would hold an arcanine’s. He shook the thought from his mind. If the boxes were too weak, he could always reach the second floor using the stairs…but would it be wise to leave Stormblade alone for that time? And would using another route take too long?

Stormblade looked up through the hole in the ceiling worriedly. Trying to ignore the pain, he dug his scythes into the first wooden box and wearily hauled himself on top of it, with a little help from Redclaw. Once on top, Stormblade took a few shuddering breaths before painfully climbing up onto the next one.

Redclaw watched, still worried. “Hurry!” he called, pacing back and forth across the shaking floor as he watched Stormblade try to stand on the box without putting weight on his injured leg and using his scythes for support instead.

Carefully setting his injured leg down, Stormblade lifted his scythes toward the opening in the ceiling, but immediately gave a cry of pain and collapsed, nearly causing the box to fall over.

“Try again!” Redclaw yelled, and Stormblade detected a hint of panic in the arcanine’s urgent voice.

Wiping the blood from his eyes with the dull side of his scythe, Stormblade carefully stood up, hearing the walls around him creak again. Reaching up with his scythes, he lodged them into the floor of the room above him, trying to pull himself through the opening, but after a few moments, he started to slip.

Redclaw could see that pain was preventing Stormblade from climbing up to the next floor. Leaping onto the taller box, Redclaw felt the wood splinter beneath his paws as he leaped upward, his front paws landing on the floor of the hallway above them. Scrabbling with his claws, Redclaw climbed up and onto the next floor, feeling the box beneath him splinter and break.

Once he was safely on the next floor, he ran toward Stormblade, grabbing the scyther’s wing in his teeth and lifting him up safely away from the opening and onto the floor. Ignoring Stormblade’s small cries of pain, Redclaw peered around, seeing smoke from the fire starting to fill the hallway. Nearby was a room with walls that were barely intact and about to collapse. “This way!” he told Stormblade, pointing with his muzzle in the opposite direction.

Helping Stormblade, Redclaw looked around for another set of stairs that would lead them up to the next floor. Slowly, smoke started to fill the hallway, and though it didn’t bother Redclaw much, being a fire type, it made Stormblade start to cough terribly.

Redclaw glanced ahead, noticing a large, mostly undamaged room nearby. They walked inside it, spotting some thin metal stairs leading up into another room. Redclaw hesitated, not sure if he could help Stormblade up those stairs, as there seemed to be barely enough room for an arcanine to climb them.

“Stormblade…” Redclaw began, nudging his friend toward the stairs, “you can climb them…just use your scythes to help you…”

“All right…” Stormblade replied shakily, feeling the building shudder, “I’ll try…”

As Stormblade agonizingly limped up the stairs, Redclaw followed carefully, hoping the flimsy looking metal wouldn’t be damaged before they made it to the top. Luckily, although Redclaw was forced to move slowly, the stairs held until they made it into the room in the floor above.

Wanting to look for a way to the first floor while Stormblade rested a bit, Redclaw walked further, looking for another set of stairs. If they got to the floor above them, all they would have left to do would be to find a door leading outside.

Smelling smoke coming from a room nearby, Redclaw increased his pace, soon breathing a sigh of relief as he came across the a set of stairs leading up to a door that was wide open. Hearing the fire growing steadily closer, Redclaw dashed back to Stormblade, once again helping the scyther back to his feet. Stormblade looked as if he could pass out any minute, and Redclaw sincerely hoped he could make it up the rest of the stairs and out of the building.

As the two pokémon neared the stairs, Redclaw lifted his head at a crashing sound from above. Both scyther and arcanine froze, listening as the crashing grew louder, combined with the splintering of wood and the roaring of flames. In a panic, Redclaw realized that the fire had caused far too much damage to the building.

It was starting to collapse.

“Hurry!” Redclaw shouted, increasing his pace as he headed up the stairs.

Stormblade tried to keep up, but he didn’t get far, and collapsed near the foot of the stairs.

“Stormblade, get up!” Redclaw cried, fighting the urge to run through the open doorway and find a way to freedom right then and there. Around him, several chunks of the ceiling were falling, and the floor, walls, and stairs were shaking.

Stormblade tried to stand, only to collapse again. Redclaw leaped to the top of the stairs, before turning around and facing Stormblade. “It’s not that far!” the arcanine shouted. “You can do it!”

Trembling, Stormblade stood up and began to stumble up the stairs, not getting very far before all his strength left him. Redclaw watched the scyther collapse, this time passing out. Fighting panic as he tried not to think about how much longer the building was going to last, Redclaw leaped down the stairs to Stormblade’s side. Grabbing Stormblade’s wing in his mouth, he began to drag the unconscious scyther up the stairs.

Just as he was about to reach the top, a roar louder than thunder filled his ears. The stairs beneath him broke apart and fell, and at the same time, the ceiling above crashed down on him. Redclaw felt something large and heavy strike him in the head, sending him crashing to the floor. Redclaw tightened his grip on Stormblade involuntarily as he was knocked to the ground; he felt the scyther’s wing rip and tear. He let go, and at the same time felt something strike his wounded leg and cause it to bleed more.

Before Redclaw could register what had happened, something much larger and heavier crashed into him and smashed through the floor, taking him with it. He struck something hard; he assumed it was the floor of the room below him, and felt his senses beginning to fade. Some large and heavy chunks of debris lay on top of him, immobilizing him. Glancing weakly upward, he saw the walls and the ceiling begin to collapse.

‘No…’ he thought desperately. ‘It can’t end this way…’ He looked up once more, hearing the crashing sounds grow louder, and a moment later, darkness stole his thoughts away.

-ooo-

Thunder was wandering on her own as the sun began to set on the horizon. Her wounds made her movements stiff and painful, but she had refused to stop. In the distance, she could see large sandy colored rocks and cliffs, and close by them, a small grove of trees. That was where she was headed, as she felt too exhausted to search any further until her wounds healed a little more.

Pausing to scratch idly at her collar with her scythe, Thunder glanced at the rocky fields around her. She felt strangely weak and vulnerable, though there was no sign of any other pokémon around.

The scyther stood still, feeling lost and hopeless. She hadn’t thought that being alone would ever make her feel uncomfortable, and she wasn’t sure why it was happening now.

For a moment Thunder considered continuing her journey to the trees by the cliffs, but quickly decided to rest instead. She sat at the base of a large rock, waiting for her strength to return.

It wasn’t long before exhaustion overcame her, and she slowly drifted off into a fevered sleep…

…Not noticing the human who was approaching.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 26 - Journey Through Darkness

Snowcrystal, Spark, Wildflame, and Rosie had continued walking at a slow pace. Rosie, who was trying her best not to complain, had been struggling to keep up with the others. When one of her friends asked her if she was all right, she would simply make a short reply saying she was, and continue hobbling after the others.

“Snowcrystal?” Spark asked as he limped over the grass. “Do you think we should stop and rest? I don’t see why we have to keep going like this…we have no clue where to start looking for Articuno…”

Snowcrystal was about to agree that they rest when Wildflame interrupted them. “Humans are near,” the houndoom stated quietly, sniffing the air, “and a pokémon. We have to go…”

Fearfully, the four pokémon increased their pace, running through the tall grass without looking behind them. Up ahead, Wildflame spotted a tall group of rocks with a dark gaping hole at their base. “We can hide in that cave!” she cried, noticing that Rosie and Spark were starting to have trouble keeping up.

As soon as they reached the large grayish stones, the four pokémon darted into the cave, keeping to the shadows and huddling against the cold rock. Snowcrystal turned around, noticing drops of water trickling down the walls.

“Do you think they’re poachers?” Spark asked Wildflame fearfully, distracting Snowcrystal.

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Wildflame replied. “All humans are bad news for us, now quiet!”

Snowcrystal found her thoughts drifting back to the strange wounds Thunder had gotten from the poachers. Those wounds had seemed small, but they had been very deep, and bled a lot. She hated to think of a poacher giving a pokémon a wound like that in their neck; they would die for sure.

These thoughts only worried her further, and she edged backwards into the cave, fearful the humans might walk closer and spot them.

Suddenly, without warning, a clawed paw covered her muzzle, and a thick vine looped around her neck. Snowcrystal made a strangled cry, causing the others to turn towards her.

Wildflame rushed forward, but long vines looped around her paws, bringing her crashing to the ground. Rosie and Spark were soon in the same state, other vines wrapping around their muzzles and silencing them. Spark’s head had struck a rock, and he seemed too dazed to use any electric attacks.

Snowcrystal snapped at the paw covering her mouth, causing its owner to yelp and draw back. Struggling against the vine on her neck, she moved towards the others, hoping a fire attack could free them, when suddenly a strange, choking scent filled the air around them.

Snowcrystal coughed as the pungent fumes become stronger, and she began to feel dizzy and disoriented. She soon stumbled over her own paws, landing flat on the ground. She was tired…very tired… She tried to fight it, but her efforts seemed to be useless as she continued to breathe in the scent and her vision started to fade. She struggled to stay awake, but a few moments later, her senses faded into blackness as the pokémon who had attacked gathered around them.

-ooo-

Justin stopped and stared. For a moment, if only just a split second, he had thought he had seen the white growlithe and some other pokémon running in the distance. He sighed, realizing that it could have been any other white-furred pokémon, and decided not to mention it to Katie.

They had traveled far, and not found any sign of the growlithe. Katie, however, had a new goal in mind. She had told Justin that she believed many rare pokémon lived in the areas most trainers didn’t bother to explore. She had explained that she planned on exploring those areas, though how far she was going to explore, Justin didn’t know for sure. He was actually pleased with the idea, for it gave him a chance to make a new discovery. What if there were even other species of pokémon out there just waiting to be found?

Whether there were or not, traveling through more uncharted areas would be a lot better than having to watch Katie follow the routes, battling other trainers and winning gym badges in the cities, which was something he could no longer do. At least here he’d be able to be of help, as he’d had plenty of experience traveling in the wilderness when he was a trainer.

Watching Katie’s shinx and poochyena happily chasing each other, Justin fingered the poké ball he always carried in his pocket. He knew he really wasn’t allowed to use it on a pokémon, though he was sure the police would make an exception if he found something new or rare and made a discovery. Sometime, he hoped, they would find a very rare pokémon and he’d have a chance to use it, and if they could find the white growlithe…it would be a good target.

-ooo-

When Redclaw woke, he found himself in complete darkness. Dazed, he tried to move, finding himself trapped beneath large pieces of wood and metal. Feeling panicked, he pushed with his back legs against the ground, scrabbling forward until he was free. Hearing some of the pieces of wood collapse, he shuddered, but nothing else happened. Confused by the darkness, Redclaw blew a tiny flame into the air, looking at the scene around him before it flickered out.

He was in a hollow space, most likely deep within the collapsed building. A part of the wall to the left of him had held, forming the small enclosed space when the floors above him had collapsed.

Standing up, Redclaw limped around the area, feeling the walls with his nose and paws while occasionally using a small bit of flame, trying to determine if there was any way out. Finding none, he looked around frantically, alarm filling his mind as he remembered that Stormblade had fallen too.

Finding it hard to walk with all the chunks of debris on the floor, Redclaw searched for any sign of his friend, knowing he had to be nearby. After a moment, he paused as the scent of blood reached him.

Walking toward it, he found a large wooden beam that took up a big part of the enclosed space. He hadn’t given it much notice before, but now he could tell that the blood smell was coming from that direction. Following the beam, he came to where rubble blocked off any exit, but there was no sign of Stormblade, even though the scent of blood was strong.

Redclaw paused before starting to dig through the rubble. After pushing aside a few slabs of wood, he came across an even smaller space. Stormblade was lying inside, half covered by broken wood or metal. Redclaw crawled in halfway, grabbing Stormblade’s wing in his mouth and carefully dragging him out of the small space, before sitting beside him near the large wooden beam he had found earlier.

Stormblade’s left wing was torn to shreds near the top, and Redclaw could see various other cuts and bruises along the scyther’s body. He nudged Stormblade, expecting a response, but getting none. Leaning closer to him, the arcanine could hear his friend’s feeble breathing. Relieved, Redclaw lay down beside him, knowing there was nothing more to do now but wait. Wait, and hope for a miracle.

As time dragged by, Redclaw stayed beside Stormblade, feeling unusually tired. Stormblade had woken up a little while ago, and had been coughing a lot, which worried Redclaw. He knew that Stormblade had breathed in the smoke and needed to get to where there was fresh air, but there seemed to be no way out unless he moved a lot of the rubble, and even then…would there still be a way out at all? Redclaw closed his eyes, trying to calm down. He was starting to get a headache, and the wounds he had gotten from the fall pained him.

Stormblade was faring a lot worse; the gash on his head had started to bleed again and the pain had intensified. Though his burns had been at least somewhat protected by bandages, the scyther’s weakened state meant that it was a wonder he’d survived at all.

As Stormblade tried to rest, Redclaw got up and searched around the room yet again for a way out, like he had done before. Wearily, he pushed against the heap of rubble that blocked one side of the small area, but it barely budged. Sighing, he walked over to Stormblade, who had started coughing again, and sat down.

“There has to be some way out of here…” Stormblade whispered weakly to Redclaw once his coughing had subsided. “I think the only way is to climb back up…”

Redclaw looked upward, using the light of a small, flickering ember attack to brighten up the area. Above them, the ceiling had collapsed, and so had most of the one above it. Yet what surprised him was that the long wooden beam that took up a good part of their area seemed to lead up to what was once one of the higher floors. Redclaw quickly created another small flame, looking as closely as he could. There looked to be a way they could climb further using the rubble.

“You’re right…” Redclaw murmured, letting the flame die away. “The only problem is the climbing…” He turned to Stormblade, and though he couldn’t see the scyther’s face, the silence that followed his statement was enough to tell him that Stormblade was afraid…afraid he wasn’t going to make it out.

Looking up at the beam, Redclaw pressed his paw against it. Leaning against the rest of the rubble, it seemed sturdy enough for him to climb, if he climbed quickly. Gripping it with his claws, the arcanine scrabbled up the pile of rubble using the beam until he reached a flat surface above, and climbed up onto it. He turned and looked down at Stormblade, softly blowing a small flame to light the scyther’s way and make his climb easier.

Stormblade, doing his best to endure the pain from his many wounds, tried to climb up the beam multiple times, but each attempt failed. At last, overcome by exhaustion, he sat down, his injured wing hanging limply at his side.

Redclaw made a sad, low-pitched whine, feeling hopeless. After a moment, Stormblade lifted his head and looked upward through the blackness. To Redclaw’s surprise, the injured scyther struggled to his feet again, attempting to climb up the beam another time. This time he sunk his scythes deeper into the wood as he went, helping himself to climb further.

Redclaw watched him, using another small fire attack to light up the area until Stormblade was close enough for the arcanine to help him up the rest of the way. Redclaw let Stormblade rest for a moment as he sat down again, feeling some of his hope returning. Stormblade was still weak, but it made Redclaw hopeful to know that he wasn’t going to give up easily.

As they were resting, Stormblade suddenly spoke up. “Do you smell that?” he asked in a weak voice. “There’s fresh air…coming from over here…”

Redclaw used yet another small fire attack to light the way as Stormblade awkwardly limped over to where a wall had collapsed, looking for any opening. Redclaw approached as Stormblade broke into a fit of coughing, and examined the collapsed wall himself.

After a few moments, he smelled what Stormblade had, and realized that there was a small opening near the top of the destroyed wall, where air was coming through. Frantically digging at the rubble, he used all his strength to push the large pieces of debris out of the way while Stormblade watched.

After a moment, the section of wall collapsed, raising a small cloud of dust. A couple pieces of the ceiling fell down, but most of it was supported by another part of the wall that had held still. Redclaw carefully peered inside the opening he had created using the light of fire. He noticed that most of the room ahead had been completely destroyed, and there was only a small space the two could stand in.

Redclaw could still faintly smell fresh air, and he walked forward, quickly realizing that it was coming from somewhere above them. Helping Stormblade climb over part of a collapsed wall, Redclaw reached another place where an opening led them into what was once another room. Obviously the ceiling from below had collapsed, but most of the one that was now above them hadn’t.

“This way,” Stormblade whispered, taking a few unsteady steps forward with the aid of his scythes. “I can smell the fresh air coming from-” He stopped mid-sentence, as the ground beneath him suddenly gave way. Redclaw darted forward, grabbing Stormblade’s wing in his teeth and yanking him back before he could fall through the opening.

“Careful!” The arcanine whispered to the cringing scyther. “Let me go first…”

Cautiously skirting the opening in the floor, Redclaw followed the faint scent of fresh air, soon spotting a dark opening at the base of a wall. “Through here!” he whispered, leading Stormblade toward it.

Slowly Redclaw crept inside, feeling something sharp brush against his fur as Stormblade followed, much more slowly. Several times, Redclaw had to duck or move to the side when a large piece of wood or rubble blocked his way. After a while of crawling over strewn debris and occasionally having to clear the way for Stormblade, he could smell the fresh air much stronger.

“I think we’re getting closer!” the arcanine shouted excitedly. After a short while of climbing and crawling, he could sense that they were very close to the surface. The fresh air could be smelled much clearer, and they had been climbing upwards through the destroyed building for a while.

Helping Stormblade, Redclaw walked forward, stopping when he felt a faint breeze. “This way!” he called, excited, as he made his way over the rubble-strewn floor, soon noticing a thin sliver of moonlight shining down on them through a small hole near the top of a thick wall.

Going ahead of Stormblade, Redclaw placed his front paws on the wall, peering up through the small opening. He couldn’t see much through the darkness, but he could tell that even if they broke through the wall, they would have to climb over a large heap of debris that blocked the way. Telling Stormblade to back up, Redclaw studied the wall for a weak point. “Guess I’ll have to make us a way out of here myself!” he told the scyther, determined, before running up and slamming his shoulder against the weakest part of the damaged wall.

-ooo-

Thunder woke up suddenly, feeling strangely wary and nervous. At first, she was unsure what had woken her. Then, a strange scent reached her and she froze, recognizing it instantly. Human… Standing up, Thunder darted behind the rock she had been laying against, watching the human come into view. She could not see him clearly, but he didn’t seem to have noticed her, as he had stopped near another rock and put something on the ground.

Why he had come here, she wasn’t sure, but she stayed put, watching with interest as the human set up a trap before moving onto another spot. This was a poacher…but what was he doing here?

Deciding it was best to move on in case the human had a gun, Thunder slipped away into the darkness, heading for the grove of trees. For some reason, seeing the poacher had made her unsettled, but she figured that if she left, she wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.

However, even once she was out of immediate danger, she still felt apprehensive, though she was unsure why. Pausing as she noticed a pidgey land on a small rock nearby, she pushed the thought from her mind. She was going to learn to survive and hunt on her own, so why worry?

Trying to keep quiet, Thunder edged closer to the pidgey, but it noticed her and flew away before she could get close enough to strike. Frustrated, she turned and ran toward the trees, deciding to try and hunt again when daylight came.

-ooo-

Redclaw felt the wall shake as he tackled it again, ignoring the pain that raced up his side and shoulder as he used his take down attack to damage the wall further. He could tell that it was close to breaking, and put all his strength into the next take down. Feeling a large section of the wall crumble and break, Redclaw tumbled through the opening, landing in a heap on a pile of debris outside.

Looking up, the arcanine saw what was left standing of the damaged building shake, and noticed another wall beginning to collapse. Springing to his paws and leaping back inside, he grabbed Stormblade’s uninjured wing in his jaws and pulled him through the opening, turning his head as the wall crumbled and dust filled the air.

Once it cleared, Redclaw let go of Stormblade and looked down at him. The scyther seemed a lot weaker than he had when they had been looking for a way out, and it worried him. However, he knew Stormblade only had to go a little further.

Lifting his head, Redclaw took a deep breath of the cool night air, looking gratefully at the starry sky. At last…they were free. Free from Team Rocket, and free from the destroyed building. Redclaw sighed and took another deep breath. Fresh air had never smelled so good.

His thoughts were interrupted by Stormblade’s pitiful-sounding coughing. Looking up at the large pieces of wood and metal surrounding them, Redclaw nudged the injured scyther to his feet. “It’s not much farther,” he told him. “We just have to climb over this…and move away from the building. Then we’ll be safe.”

“I want to get away…from this place…” Stormblade replied. “We need…to find Snowcrystal and the…others.”

“We need to find a healer,” Redclaw stated, looking over Stormblade’s bandaged wounds, “or the pokémon center building…though I’m not certain that’s safe…and I really don’t know where the city is from here.”

“We’re not…going to find any help…here…” Stormblade replied shakily, “but I’m not sure…how much farther I can go…”

“We should rest for a while,” Redclaw said calmly, helping Stormblade along as they climbed the pile of rubble and picked their way carefully over the rocks and strewn debris. “There should be a safe place…” His voice trailed off as he noticed something in the moonlight a little ways away…a group of trees. “Let’s head there,” Redclaw stated, and turned to Stormblade. “Do you think you can make it?”

Stormblade nodded slowly before coughing a few times, and worriedly, Redclaw helped him begin their short journey to the small group of trees.

-ooo-

It didn’t take long for Thunder to reach the trees, but to her disappointment, there were no streams or ponds, and no sign of prey either. The ground beneath her feet was dry, and there were hardly any plants other than the trees. Sighing in frustration, she turned and walked toward one of the larger trees, deciding to get some rest.

The snap of a twig behind her made her turn around, and she scented a pokémon, a fire type. Narrowing her eyes, she darted toward the sound, breaking through a group of small bushes and lashing out at the strange pokémon.

The fire type gave a cry of shock and stumbled backward, rubbing his paw against a stinging cut on the side of his face. Thunder stood still, realizing that the pokémon was Redclaw.

“Redclaw?” she shouted, confused. “What are you doing here? Are you being followed?”

Redclaw looked up, surprised. “Thunder?” he whispered, his shock quickly turning to relief. “You’re all right! And no…we aren’t…being followed…”

“We?” Thunder asked, and Redclaw noticed sadly that Thunder didn’t seem to be excited or relieved to see him, or at least if she was, she wasn’t showing it.

“Stormblade is here too, in the clearing behind us…but he’s resting right now,” Redclaw explained. “We managed to escape those humans, and now Stormblade needs to get back to the city where the good humans can help-”

“Don’t bother,” Thunder muttered, turning away. “The building where the humans were ‘helping’ us is destroyed. I saw the smoke. It was burned. And you’d probably only get captured again if you went anywhere near that city!”

Redclaw paused for a moment, before sighing and continuing, “Then we need to find a healer…or…Stormblade’s friends…he said something about them, and I’ve seen them before. One was a white growlithe, right?”

“Yes…” Thunder replied, sounding annoyed.

“Do you know where they might be?” Redclaw asked hopefully, though he wasn’t sure that she would have any idea.

Thunder sighed and pointed in an eastward direction. “They were heading that way when I was traveling with them,” she explained in a dull tone. “I saw some sort of fire over in that direction before, but I haven’t seen any smoke so I suppose the fire is gone by now. You can head that way past the city, just be careful of poachers.”

“You’re coming with us…right?” Redclaw asked carefully, and Thunder didn’t answer. “We need to stay together,” Redclaw explained, worried. “There are too many dangers to wander off alone! If we find Stormblade’s friends, I think they can help us…we just can’t stay here for long. And if you go back the way we came from, you’ll only find rocky cliffs and sand…I think we should go in the direction Stormblade’s friends went. Stormblade is very weak…he needs someone who can help him.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Thunder growled as she heard Redclaw’s last statement about Stormblade. “I can’t do anything to help him. And if he’s too weak to go on, then that’s his problem.”

“But you have to stay with us!” Redclaw cried. “I know how to hunt, Thunder; you don’t!”

At that statement, Thunder paused for a moment and then just sighed. “Fine,” she muttered, “I’ll travel with you until my wounds heal and I learn how to hunt, but no longer than that.”

Satisfied, Redclaw smiled. “Well, if that’s what you want, that’s fine. Just please don’t run off when you’re in no condition to travel alone.” He turned and began walking back toward the trees. “Follow me,” he told her, “I found a good place to rest over here.”

Thunder reluctantly followed Redclaw as he led her over to a large clearing, quickly explaining everything to Stormblade, who was lying down nearby. The arcanine then walked over to where he’d managed to gather enough moss and leaves to make a nest. He gestured towards it with his muzzle, indicating that Thunder could sleep there, but she ignored him completely, flying up to a thick tree branch instead.

She lay down on the branch and looked down at Redclaw, who now lay curled up on the nest of dry leaves and moss. Thunder felt more worried; this wasn’t a good idea. She should be traveling alone, without depending on anyone…and now, she had agreed to let others help her…again.

Yet at the same time, she somehow felt glad that she wasn’t alone anymore. Even though she knew it was a bad idea, she felt some small comfort from being near these two pokémon, however injured and weak they were. And that thought only angered her more. She shouldn’t let them try to befriend her… Feeling frustrated with herself, but deciding to try and forget it for the time being, she closed her eyes, not knowing whether to feel relieved or angry with herself about the situation.

Thunder hadn’t been asleep for long when Stormblade’s coughing woke her. She tried to fall back asleep, but Stormblade soon began coughing again, and she stood up. Feeling a burst of anger, she flew down from the tree and landed in front of him, glaring at him. “Stormblade…” she growled, “how am I supposed to rest if you keep waking me up?” She kicked him lightly, before pointing to some trees on the other side of the clearing. “If you’re not going to stop coughing, then leave! Go over there where no one can hear you. I may be traveling with you for a while longer, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to put up with you all the time. Now go!” She motioned with her scythe in the same direction.

Stormblade looked up at the other scyther in confusion, feeling too weak to stand up and leave. But with another glare from Thunder, he reluctantly staggered to his feet and painfully hobbled away toward the other clearing. “Can you go any slower?” Thunder muttered angrily under her breath as she watched him limp away, before flying back onto the tree branch and lying down again. After a while she, like Redclaw, was fast asleep.

Stormblade, however, couldn’t sleep. Constantly distracted by pain and thirst, he found it hard to rest. After a while, he gave up trying, and lay down at the base of a tree away from the others, willing himself to fight through the pain and waiting for morning to come.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 27 - Captive

Cyclone was relieved to have finally made it through the desert. As the vaporeon padded softly across the sandy earth and sparse grass of a spacious field, he could see trees ahead, and smell water. He was surprised he’d managed to make it through that desert when he had been so weak. Yet the stone he had touched had given him new strength; he’d even been able to use his water attacks again for a short time, enough to keep him going.

And the attack he had gained from it…it was very strange indeed. And Cyclone had an idea of what it was. He had used it once, in the desert, just to try it out. When using the attack, he had felt powerful…invincible, almost. He had liked that feeling.

If this attack really was what he thought it was, then it could be just what he needed. Increasing his pace, Cyclone dashed toward the trees, reaching them quickly. Remembering the fearow he’d talked to just a short while ago, he set about looking for the tallest tree, enjoying the feeling of grass and soft earth beneath his paws after the long trek through the desert. Based on what the fearow had told him, the pokémon who could give him the answers he needed lived close by.

Spotting a very tall, thin tree with several damaged branches, Cyclone ran until he reached the base of the tree, peering into a small den made between two of the roots. Reaching out with his paw, Cyclone raked his claws down one of the tree’s roots, alerting the attention of the pokémon in the den.

A zigzagoon scurried out, ruffling his brown and tan fur and staring at the vaporeon. “A newcomer? Well, what is it?” he asked in an annoyed tone. This pokémon seemed to be used to getting visitors. Cyclone supposed many others must come to see him.

“I was told you know much about stories and legends,” the vaporeon stated calmly.

The zigzagoon shuddered; for some reason, he found it uncomfortable to talk to this pokémon. Cyclone spoke with such a calm and unreadable expression, it was difficult to know what the water type was thinking. Somehow, that unnerved him.

“Yes,” the zigzagoon answered slowly, “I can tell you one of those legends…but I don’t do it for free. Find me some berries, and then you’ll get your story.”

Cyclone smiled ever so slightly, though his eyes remained calm, not betraying his true emotions. “I have no berries,” the vaporeon stated in his same smooth and quiet tone, “but I’m willing to offer you something much better. Do any humans ever come around here?”

“Humans?” the zigzagoon asked. “Uh, yes…why?”

“Do they try and capture you? Take berries or fruit from this place? Set out traps?” Cyclone asked, sitting down and wrapping his tail neatly around his paws.

The zigzagoon shifted uncomfortably. “Well,” he began, not seeming to want Cyclone to know that the pokémon in the area had much trouble, “they’ve taken our food before, and there have been a few trappers, and it’s a bit difficult to hide from trainers sometimes…”

“Well then,” Cyclone stated quietly, “you and I both have received ill fate at the hands of humans. Do you think they can be stopped?”

The zigzagoon shrugged. “Dunno,” he replied uneasily. “Humans just do what they want. I don’t think there’s any stopping them. It’s just better for us to avoid them.”

For a moment, the look in Cyclone’s eyes took on a dark tone, but he quickly regained his tranquil and indecipherable expression. “Listen,” he began, “for a long time, I have thought otherwise. There used to be a great many lands uninhabited by humans, but those areas are quickly shrinking. Do you want to send a message to the humans? To tell them that these lands were ours to begin with? To tell them that pokémon aren’t their servants? To tell them that they cannot maim or abuse pokémon any longer?”

“Well, that would be nice but…how?” the zigzagoon asked, looking at Cyclone with a puzzled expression.

“If there was a way,” Cyclone replied in a clear tone, his voice sounding calm and mysterious, “would you?”

After a moment’s hesitation, the zigzagoon nodded.

Cyclone smiled another one of his faint smiles. “Then tell me…” he whispered, “about the Forbidden Attacks.”

-ooo-

Snowcrystal was running frantically through a dark, thickly wooded forest. Branches and vines seemed to jump out at her as she ran, causing her to stumble and fall or force her to stop and claw her way through. This frightened her, for something was chasing her. She was trying to get away, but as she went on, the branches became more thick and tangled, and she was fighting back panic as she ran. She did not know what was following her; she just knew that she had to get away, at all costs.

Suddenly she emerged into a quiet clearing, strangely feeling the threat of her pursuer lift. Whatever it was, it was gone, though how, she didn’t know. She was staring instead at a pool of water, and around it were other pokémon. She recognized her friends among them.

Noticing Thunder and Stormblade sitting by the pool, she ran up to them, feeling relieved. She noticed that the other pokémon, the ones she didn’t know, looked faded, as if they were made of nothing but shadow. She chose to ignore them, and sat beside Stormblade, who was leaning down to drink from the pool.

“Stormblade!” she cried in relief, “I’m so glad you’re here, I thought you might’ve-” She stopped, for Stormblade had suddenly gone rigid; his eyes grew wide and he jerked away from the water and stumbled back from the pool, only to fall down on his side where he lay gasping for breath. Wondering what was wrong with him, Snowcrystal quickly turned around to ask the others for help, but surprisingly, they were gone. She and Stormblade were alone.

She turned back to the scyther, who was trembling, and seemed to be having trouble breathing. “What’s wrong?” she shouted desperately, seeing that his eyes were wide with pain and his struggles seemed to be growing weaker.

“Thunder! Wildflame, Rosie, Spark!” she shouted, looking frantically around for her friends, “Something’s wrong with Stormblade and I don’t know what it is-” She stopped and glanced at Stormblade, whose breathing seemed to have stopped altogether. She tried to rush to his side, but sharp fangs met roughly in her scruff and pulled her away. She was released, and turned around to see Icefang, her tribe’s leader, looking at her sternly.

“Have you forgotten what you went on this journey for?” he growled, advancing toward her and coming to stand between her and Stormblade. Snowcrystal shook her head vigorously. “Then move on!” Icefang growled, pushing her forward and rushing after her, until she was forced to take a completely different path from the clearing, heading through the darkened forest, which seemed to be fading now, once again…

Snowcrystal’s eyes opened as she woke suddenly. She looked around slowly, for a moment unsure of where she was. Faint starlight glinted in her eyes, and she tried to look up toward the source of the light, only to find that it was hard to move. Small vines had been tied around her paws and muzzle. They were not the moving vines that had captured her, but strange thin, yet strong, normal vines that she couldn’t break when she tried to struggle.

Trying to calm herself down, she moved her head in order to glance around. She was lying in a fairly large cavern next to a few large columns of stone reaching up to the ceiling. Near the center of the roof of the cavern was a large hole, through which moonlight was shining. She could hear whispers all around her, but at first she could not see any of her friends.

Through the darkness of the cave, shapes began to appear. The shapes of various different pokémon, all grass types, were moving in and out of various cave tunnels. Two of them, an ivysaur and a young tropius, rested on rock ledges near the moonlit hole in the ceiling. Though there was a way for light to come in, at least in this cavern, it seemed odd that there would be grass types living in a cave.

A groan from behind her made her try to turn around, but it was difficult to move. She craned her head backward, noticing Spark’s spiky yellow fur close behind her.

“Spark!” she whispered, finding it hard to speak with the vine around her snout. “Are you awake?”

Spark painfully turned his head toward her, glancing around the cave in confusion. “Where are we?” he asked, his voice sounding muffled because of the vine around his own muzzle.

“I don’t know,” Snowcrystal replied quietly. “Deeper in the cave, I guess. These grass pokémon must have taken us here…”

“Well of course they did!” Spark growled, looking around. “Watch me give them a little surprise…cover your eyes, Snowcrystal!”

At first Snowcrystal was confused at his request, but immediately placed her bound paws over her eyes as hundreds of small, thin spines shot out of Sparks pelt and toward the grass pokémon. Several of them struck her, and she whimpered. However, a moment later, and it was over.

None of the grass types had cried out, but the ivysaur and young tropius glared at them, and so did a small oddish who had just entered the cave. Spark gave them a threatening growl, his fur crackling as he readied an electric attack.

Snowcrystal knew that the attack wouldn’t do much good against these strong-looking grass types, but she couldn’t attack, so it was their only way of fighting back. She wished she knew where the others were.

With surprising speed, the ivysaur lashed out with one of its vines, striking Spark across the face and causing him to skid backwards a few feet. The jolteon turned his head toward the grass type and growled again.

Snowcrystal cringed; they weren’t going to get anywhere by fighting while they were tied up. Maybe the whole thing was all a misunderstanding. If they had trespassed in the grass types’ cave, it had been an accident, and she knew it wouldn’t hurt to try and explain.

“Please listen to us!” Snowcrystal cried from between clenched teeth. “We didn’t know this was your cave. We’ll leave, just let us and our friends go!”

“Quiet!” snapped the young tropius. “We know that you’re either spies, or you were planning to attack us…a foolish move, I might add.”

“Are you insane?” Spark snarled angrily. “We came into the cave to hide from humans. You can have the stupid cave; we just want to get out of here!”

“You’re lying!” the tropius shouted, but the ivysaur interrupted him.

“Wait a minute,” he said quietly, “it does seem strange that they had an electric type with them, and this is certainly the first white growlithe I’ve seen. Besides, they don’t seem to know what we’re talking about…”

“Yeah,” Spark agreed, “what are you talking about?”

“Shut up!” the tropius yelled. “They’re probably just trying to trick us,” he added with a glance at the ivysaur. “They’re some of those fire pokémon that took our land and forced us to live in this filthy cave! We barely have any food and it’s all because of them!”

“Calm down,” the ivysaur replied impatiently. “It’s very possible that this could be a trick…but…” he added, seeing that Spark was about to protest, “we should talk this over with the others first before we decide on what to do with them.”

The tropius nodded reluctantly and followed the ivysaur through a tunnel and out of the cavern. A moment later, a bayleef appeared, followed by Wildflame and Rosie, who was limping. Neither of them had any vines tied around them, but they both seemed fearful of attacking. “Stay here with the others,” the bayleef ordered them, and left the cavern.

Wildflame quickly broke the vines from around Spark and Snowcrystal’s paws and snouts, and the two stood up, looking relieved.

“Wildflame,” Snowcrystal began, “do you know why they’re keeping us here? We heard they-”

“Yes,” Wildflame replied. “Apparently, there’s a group of fire pokémon who drove these grass types out of their home…” Snowcrystal remembered the cool streams and lush grass they had passed through before; maybe that had been where the grass types’ home had been.

“And since we’re fire types,” Wildflame continued, “they think we’re some of the ones who drove them out…” Her gaze drifted to the hole in the cave ceiling. “Do you think there’s a way we can climb up there?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” Snowcrystal said quietly. “Those ledges look too high up for me to climb…and I had to climb plenty of times back at the mountain. I think the grass types use vine whip to pull themselves up or something…and that tropius can fly…I don’t really know how we’d get up there…”

“I think it’s ridiculous that they think we’re responsible for what some wild fire types did!” Spark growled. “Can’t they realize a white growlithe wouldn’t live around here?”

“They think we’ve been sent here as spies,” Rosie whispered, and Snowcrystal could see pain in the ninetales’s expression; her leg must be hurting badly. “They see you and Snowcrystal…and me as well, because I’m injured, as just a way to get them to think that we’re not trying to trick them…” She shrugged. “I’m not sure how we’re going to convince them otherwise…”

For a little while more they talked quietly amongst themselves, and then the ivysaur and tropius returned. “We’ve made a decision,” the ivysaur stated, sitting calmly in front of them. “Attack us, and you’ll regret it. I don’t think you want to deal with poisonpowder.” Rosie and Spark cast nervous glances at each other and then looked back at the ivysaur as he continued, “It is entirely possible that you could be travelers passing through, and it’s also entirely possible that you could be spies or attackers. I’m afraid we can’t just let you leave unless we have proof of your innocence…and to prove that,” he added, “we have decided that you will help us battle the fire pokémon and reclaim our home.”

“What?” Rosie cried, outraged. “That’s not fair. This isn’t our fight! It doesn’t concern us at all! And how exactly am I supposed to fight in a battle with my leg broken like this?”

“Quiet!” hissed the tropius. “He’s giving you a simple choice; help us fight the battle in a few days…or rot in this cave.” He narrowed his eyes angrily, before finishing, “It’s your choice. I’d choose wisely if I were you.”

-ooo-

Stormblade wished that morning would come. Even though he knew he would have to travel again, he was desperate for the long night to be over. He knew there was no way he’d be able to sleep, not when he was in so much pain, and he felt miserable and alone. Sitting up, he began slowly sharpening his scythes, hoping that the simple action would be some distraction from the pain he was feeling.

The sudden snap of a twig somewhere behind him caused him to turn. To his surprise, he noticed Thunder limping through the clearing on the other side of the trees, obviously not noticing him.

“Thunder?” he whispered quietly, but he didn’t receive an answer. Worried, he stood up slowly, using the nearest tree for support. He sat down as he began coughing again, and waited for it to subside before staggering upright and slowly following Thunder.

He tried to keep as quiet as possible, though it was hard when he kept stumbling. However, Thunder never turned or noticed him; she seemed too distracted. Stormblade almost felt that he could have made as much noise as possible and she still wouldn’t have turned around.

He increased his pace as much as he could, getting closer until he could see Thunder clearly. One thing that both surprised and worried him was that she was stumbling…limping…almost as badly as he was, not bothering to hide her pain. Every few steps she would let out a gasp or a hiss of pain, and sometimes paused to struggle for breath and quietly mutter words that Stormblade couldn’t hear. It was so unusual and surprising that he stopped suddenly, wondering if he should ask Redclaw, the arcanine who had saved him, for help.

Only too late did he realize that he’d paused for too long. Giving no warning, Thunder whirled around, an enraged look in her eyes that made Stormblade realize that she really had only just noticed him. Before he could move, Thunder raced toward him, lashing out at him.

Stormblade felt the dull side of the other scyther’s blade slam into his uninjured leg, knocking him off balance and causing him to fall flat on his back…which due to his burns, hurt. Thunder stood over him, placing her foot firmly on his chest to hold him down and raising her scythes above him.

However, Stormblade could tell that she didn’t intend to attack him. She was just angry, and that anger was quickly fading away to be replaced with annoyance.

“Why are you following me?” Thunder asked, regaining some of her calm, though she did not let Stormblade up.

“I…I was…” Stormblade rasped, “just trying…to see if you were all right…” He wasn’t sure how Thunder would react to his statement, as she had never seemed to approve of him being concerned about her.

Thunder narrowed her eyes, and Stormblade noticed that she was standing firmly again, nearly all traces of pain gone from her expression. “I’m fine,” she spat. “I always was. There’s no need for you to follow me around!” She pressed her foot down harder, and Stormblade winced.

“I’m sorry…” Stormblade replied weakly, not knowing what else to say. To his relief, Thunder backed away from him, allowing him to sit up. He looked up at her, suddenly realizing with shock that crimson blood was slowly oozing from the gunshot wound in her side. The wound hadn’t been bleeding that badly before, except for when she had first gotten it. “Your wound!” he gasped. “Are you-”

“SHUT UP!” Thunder yelled, her anger coming back. “I came here to be alone. Alone. I thought you’d at least have the decency to let me be by myself for once without having to come and follow me. There’s no way you could help me anyway.”

“How do you know?” Stormblade replied. “I’m your friend…I want to help you.”

Thunder stiffened at the mention of the word ‘friend’ and glared at him. “You can’t even help yourself,” she retorted. “You’re helpless and weak. There’s nothing you could do.”

Stormblade remained silent for a moment, confused over Thunder’s last statement. Maybe it had just been his imagination, but it almost seemed like, for once, she wanted help…she just didn’t think anyone could help her. “Well…” he began hesitantly, pausing when he had to cough, “it seemed like something was bothering you…and not just your wounds and I-”

He didn’t have time to finish, as Thunder interrupted him, completely changing the subject. “Why on earth do you still have those bandages on?” she asked in an annoyed tone. “Everyone who sees you can see that you’ve let humans…willingly let humans try to ‘help’ you. It shows how weak you are. You would never survive as one of Master’s pokémon…ever.”

Stormblade was about to make an angry reply, but stopped himself just in time. Instead, he just muttered, “I don’t want my wounds to get infected any worse than they already are.” He turned his gaze away from her, staring at the ground instead. It was hard to think clearly through all the pain, and he was beginning to regret following Thunder. He was surprised that she hadn’t tried to drive him away yet.

Thunder didn’t reply to his statement. She turned away from him, leaning against a tree for support. Stormblade could tell that she was leaning rather heavily against it, looking as if she could collapse any moment. He knew now that her tough attitude was just an act…and he wasn’t sure she could keep it up.

“Look,” Stormblade told her, “I just want to help…but if you want me to leave, I will.” He was aware of Thunder glaring at him, but she said nothing, so he hesitantly continued, “You know…you don’t have to hide the fact that you’re in pain. It’s not a weakness…and if you let others help you, it’ll be a lot easier to bear.”

For a moment, Thunder looked furious, obviously angry with the fact that he could tell that she was hiding her ‘weakness,’ but to his surprise, she seemed to calm down after he finished speaking. “How?” she asked curiously. “If a pokémon is in pain…another pokémon can’t just simply take that pain away. They’d be wasting their time trying to help.”

Stormblade wasn’t sure how to reply. He was still surprised that Thunder hadn’t run away or forced him to leave yet. He wondered if she was just listening to him because she needed a way to pass the time. As he was about to speak, Thunder interrupted him.

“You aren’t a healer,” she told him, “so you can’t help me…not that I really need a healer anyway. I survived most of my wounds on my own. Master only ever treated the injuries of his pokémon if they were serious or they got infected. I’ve lived through worse than this. I’ll be just fine…” She emphasized the last word with a growl, digging her claws angrily into the dry earth.

Stormblade decided that he shouldn’t press the matter further. “Do you want me to leave?” he asked sadly, leaning against the tree and getting ready to stand up.

Strangely, Thunder just shrugged. “I don’t care,” she stated crossly.

Stormblade stayed where he was, not replying. He really didn’t feel strong enough to walk all the way back to where he’d been resting. Though he knew it was only a relatively short distance, he felt too weak to stand up and walk back, and he was dizzy from pain. Remembering what Thunder had mentioned about her ‘Master,’ Stormblade sighed and told her, “I think I understand…at least a little…about what your master did to you, and what it was like. I mean, Justin never injured me, but well…he wasn’t exactly the best trainer.”

“So you think you understand?” Thunder asked, sounding more amused than angry. She watched him through narrowed eyes, though she seemed curious about what his response would be.

“Well…you see,” Stormblade began, “when Justin captured me…I had been…separated…from my swarm. I was lost and had recently been in a fight. I was injured, and I had been wandering through the forest aimlessly when Justin appeared. He was very frightened, and sent his jolteon, Spark, to attack me. We fought, and I was winning, despite my wounds. Spark scarcely had the energy to dodge my blows and Justin could see that he was going to get hurt, so he threw a poké ball at me while I was distracted. He was trying to give Spark time to get out of range and catch his breath, but…he didn’t expect the poké ball to actually capture me.”

“He caught you the first time he threw a poké ball?” Thunder asked, coming as close to smiling as Stormblade had ever seen her. “That’s pathetic.”

“I was weak from the fight…” Stormblade muttered, looking at the ground. At first he felt angry, but then he realized that Thunder hadn’t tried to silence him, and she still wasn’t making him go away. Whether it was just for amusement or not, it seemed as if Thunder really wanted someone to talk to right now. Deciding to forget her last comment, he continued, “I was confused at being captured, but even while in the poké ball, I could hear a little of what Justin was saying. He hadn’t wanted to capture me. He didn’t want a scyther, and he wanted to get rid of me, but he was afraid to release me because he thought I might attack him.

“I found out later that he was going to tie my poké ball to a rock and just drop it into a river, but he didn’t. He realized that I was a good fighter after my battle with Spark, and chose to keep me, because most of his other pokémon weren’t as skilled in battle as I was. But that was all he cared about; other than that I meant nothing to him. He was always afraid of me, and he never got over that fear…I suppose it’s even worse now…

“That fear stopped him from ever trying to get to know me like he did with his other pokémon. I was often made to stay in my poké ball, not getting to eat as much as the other pokémon did…he neglected me most of the time, though I know he didn’t always mean to.

“After a long time, Justin went back to his house during the winter time and let me out in the snow. I tried to find shelter and ended up finding a hurt human and trying to protect her from a kabutops…but by the time the other humans had found her, she had died. They thought I was the one who killed her. Justin was made to release me, Spark, and the others, and he got his trainer’s license taken away…”

“What’s a trainer’s license?” Thunder asked curiously.

“It’s what all trainers have to have to own pokémon,” Stormblade told her. “It’s like a small card or something. If a trainer shows up at a pokémon center without one, they can get in big trouble.”

“Hm…” Thunder muttered to herself, “I think Master had something like that. He never had to use it in the places where I battled, though.”

Stormblade wasn’t sure what to say, so he went on, “Not many days ago, soon after Rosie was captured…” He gave a sad sigh and continued, “I went looking for water during a rainstorm, because I knew I couldn’t make it to a stream by myself with these injuries. I heard a human coming and quickly ran into a cave. That human was Justin…and there was another human there…it must have been his friend.

“The female human wanted to help me, but didn’t have the right medicine. Justin was afraid and threw rocks at me, but he didn’t recognize me. His friend wanted to take me somewhere where I could get food and help, despite the fact that Justin didn’t want her to. However…Justin somehow found out who I was. He made the other human go out of the cave and told her that I was a murderer…”

“I suppose it makes no difference,” he sighed. “Those Team Rocket humans would still have invaded the pokémon center and I would have gotten captured anyway. I’m just glad Redclaw was able to help me get out of that building...”

Thunder didn’t ask what Team Rocket was, but she looked confused, and a little angry, after Stormblade finished speaking. “So that’s it?” she asked, sounding un-amused. “That’s your oh-so-horrible trainer story?”

“Well…” Stormblade began, “I thought…”

“Your trainer was nothing but a cowardly weakling!” Thunder growled. “And you felt bad about the way he treated you? What did he do? Forget to feed you for a few days? Leave you out in the cold for a couple of hours? Is that all?”

“I just…” Stormblade replied quietly, “I just wanted you to know that I went through some of the same things you did…of course not everything, but I understand what you had to go through.”

“You’re far from understanding…” Thunder stated coldly, and her dark blue eyes narrowed. “You’re complaining about a trainer who was a forgetful coward, but nothing more. I don’t see how this has anything to do with me, or how it’s supposed to make you understand.”

“I’d understand if you told me…” Stormblade replied slowly.

“Told you what?” Thunder replied, seeming annoyed and almost angry again.

“About your trainer,” Stormblade told her. “What he did to you…maybe if you told me, I could understand better.”

“What’s there to understand?” Thunder asked. “If you want to know about Master, ask Redclaw. He knows too.”

Stormblade hesitated for a moment, before replying, “Redclaw wasn’t your master’s pokémon for as long as you were…was he?”

The question caught Thunder by surprise, but she just muttered, “You’re right. He wasn’t.”

Stormblade paused for a moment before asking, “How long were you owned by your master?”

Thunder stiffened and gave him an angry glare; Stormblade wondered if asking her these questions had really been a good idea after all, and she merely hissed at him, “Why do you want to know? And more importantly, why do you care?”

Stormblade wasn’t sure how to answer. He didn’t feel like she would understand if he tried to tell her that it was because he wanted to help; she hadn’t responded kindly to him when he had said that before. Pain was still filling his mind, making it hard for him to think. He wished it would go away…for only a few seconds, so he could think of what to say. “Because I don’t want you to be hurt,” he managed at last. “I want to know if there is some way I can help you…and I think if you told me about your trainer, I would understand better, and maybe find a way.”

Thunder remained silent, staring at Stormblade with a mixture of confusion and uncertainty. However, she had to admit, she wasn’t entirely sure she disliked the idea, though she was still hesitant. “What good would that do?” she asked, but there was no snarl or growl to her voice this time.

“You said I didn’t understand,” Stormblade responded. “Well…I want to understand.” He reached out with his scythe and lightly touched the side of it to Thunder’s, but she jerked her arm away as if he had burned her.

“Why?” she asked. “All I’d be telling you about is events in the past… memories that don’t matter anymore.”

“But they do matter,” Stormblade told her. “If they can help me understand and be able to help you, they do. You can tell me about it now, if you want to…there’s no reason to worry. I only want to help you.”

Thunder hesitated, not liking the way Stormblade seemed to imply that she was worried. There was no reason she should be, after all. Stormblade was the one who was worried, and worried for no real reason. She wondered if it was even worth listening to him anymore…

Yet the way he had spoken to her, he had seemed so sincere, and so willing to listen to her, for the sole purpose of trying to help. She wasn’t sure any other pokémon would ever be willing to do that. Most of the others she had traveled with hadn’t wanted to put up with her after a while, and had left her well alone for the most part. She had wanted it that way. But now…she wasn’t as sure.

And she wasn’t sure she wanted to share her memories either, but she felt that if she didn’t now, there might never be a time again when someone would willingly offer to help her. And besides, the memories were just thoughts of the past…they didn’t matter in the present. They were long since over. ‘If the memories don’t matter anymore…’ she thought to herself, ‘then there’s no reason not to share them…’

“Fine,” she muttered, crossing her blades and fixing her gaze on Stormblade. “What do you want to know?”

“Well…when…and how, did you get caught by Master?” Stormblade asked calmly. Feeling the pain of his injuries start to get worse, he slowly lay down on the dry ground and watched her.

Thunder sighed impatiently, as if she was annoyed already and just wanted to get the whole thing over with, but nevertheless, she answered his question. Surprisingly, her answer was much longer than Stormblade had expected.

“It was a long time ago,” she began, speaking calmly. “I was very young and small…my wings had not yet grown enough to carry me in flight, and my blades were not sharp enough to inflict any bad injuries. I was somewhere in a forest, and I had a bad wound in my head. I couldn’t remember anything, but I was probably too young to remember much anyway. There was another scyther there, a small male, even younger than I was. He could have been my brother…I never knew. We were both injured, but he was worse off. He was missing two of his wings, and one of his scythes was broken in half. He also had a lot of deep cuts in his back. Whatever had happened, it certainly hadn’t gone well for him, whoever he was.

“I didn’t know what had happened to us, and he wouldn’t talk…or couldn’t talk. We stayed there in the forest, and for some reason I tried to take care of him. I couldn’t, really, but I still tried. I did not know how to hunt so we went hungry for a while.

“Then a few days later, a human showed up, with a cyndaquil. I didn’t know what a human was at the time, but I could tell that him coming there wasn’t a good thing. He didn’t see us as a threat and he picked me up. I cut him, and he made his cyndaquil attack me. After that, he took us in a human vehicle and away from the forest.

“We got taken into some building and put together in a cage. We were left there for a little while, sometimes given food that tasted strange. I think that other scyther was the only reason I got through the first few days…I was scared then. The room and the cage were cold, so we huddled together most of the time.

“After a while that human…Master, came back. He took me out of the cage for a moment and said something to Volco, his cyndaquil. He caught me in a poké ball but didn’t want me to stay inside it, so he let me out and then put me back in the cage. Then he took the other scyther out.

“He must have decided that scyther was too weak, so he ordered Volco to kill him. He did it right in front of me…” Thunder paused for a moment and turned away, and Stormblade could see a spark of anger in her eyes. Yet she remained calm, though her voice was a little shaky.

“I realized later that Master never wanted to bother training him. He knew his injuries were too bad, and he’d never make it through the training. He kept me, though he didn’t think I would be very strong at first.” She shrugged and turned back to Stormblade. “That’s it,” she stated simply. “Don’t know how this is supposed to help you or me, but you have your answer. Happy now?”

Stormblade looked both shocked and horrified. “Why would your trainer kill one of his own pokémon?” he blurted out. “How could he do something like that? Why did he even take that other scyther from the forest if he was just going to-”

“You said you wanted to know about Master?” Thunder asked suddenly, interrupting Stormblade and fixing a piercing gaze on him. Now that she had told him a little about her trainer, she seemed willing to tell him more, and Stormblade wasn’t sure he knew why.

“Well then listen,” Thunder continued, and some of her anger faded. She wasn’t exactly certain why she wanted to tell him this, but she had nothing to lose, and it wouldn’t matter to her if Stormblade told anyone. Maybe telling him about Master would be a good thing, after all. Maybe he would finally leave her alone after this. She leaned closer to Stormblade, speaking more quietly this time, as if trying to make sure that her voice wouldn’t wake Redclaw up. Speaking in a calm tone once again, she began.

“You see,” Thunder told him, “Master wasn’t a trainer like yours was. Yes, I’ve heard of trainers before…and I’d never trust one, but Master was worse. He fought pokémon for money, and got a lot of money from it. Humans would make bets during the battles. Master’s pokémon won lots of times. Humans mostly bet on him.

“Master caught most of his own pokémon. He usually didn’t buy them from others…well he did sometimes, but not often. He usually caught young pokémon. I think he wanted to train them early. He caught pokémon all the time. He would bring them back to one of his training places and put them in cages for a few days, then later make them wear a collar and chain them up. He didn’t usually keep them in poké balls unless he was taking them somewhere. Master had older pokémon, ones he had trained a long while, but I didn’t see them very often at first. I was mostly in a cage in one of the many buildings Master had to put us in, or chained up outside when we were far enough away from cities. I was usually around other small pokémon when I was little.

“Master had a way of training his pokémon. He caught a great many of them, and found the strongest by process of elimination. To put it simply, he put us through constant training, day after day, and those who didn’t survive were simply just too weak. Most of them died, but Master didn’t care. He had a lot of pokémon, and only the strongest mattered to him.

“The only one I knew of who never had any training was Volco. Master was kind to him, and Volco greatly adored and respected Master. I always hated Volco…despised him. He would often taunt me with food, insult me…stupid things like that. That didn’t really matter, but Volco got to punish me with fire attacks sometimes. It was never enough to seriously injure me; it was just to cause pain. The wounds usually healed fast.

“Like the others, I got trained from when I was little. There was what he called the ‘usual training,’ the battles, the attack practice. I got hurt a lot, but it usually wasn’t so bad. The other training was worse. Master wanted pokémon who could fight while enduring great pain. So he trained his pokémon to do that. He would well, torture us.

“I think he believed that if we got used to such pain, any pain we felt on the battlefield would be insignificant in comparison to it. He did that lots of times, just causing me pain so I could get used it, so I could have better endurance. He started out by just giving me small jolts of electricity when I was little, but it got worse as I got older. It got a lot worse.

“Before I had done enough training to be put in a real fight, I would get put in practice ones, against another of Master’s pokémon, usually one he didn’t consider very valuable, one that had survived but that didn’t handle the training well. If I fought well against that pokémon, Master would have me fight two. If I got hurt, he said it was just to make me stronger. I couldn’t stop battling because Master always had Volco around him and he would use some fire attack on me, plus Master had a device that would electrocute me if I stopped. I sometimes passed out from this, and only got punished later. I learned that it was better to just obey him. He would be able to make me do what he wanted later anyway, and I got food if I obeyed him the first time.”

At this moment, Thunder paused, but Stormblade didn’t want to interrupt her, and after a moment she went on.

“At first…” she began, and Stormblade thought he detected a hint of sadness in her voice, “I tried to make it through everything by asking for help from some of the other young pokémon there. They would give me food sometimes if I didn’t get any, and I gave them some of my food sometimes too. We were always trying to help each other, and I became close to some of them, but…the ones I befriended eventually died. They didn’t make it through the training. I had to watch some of them die. It used to horrify me whenever one of them was killed.

“As time went on, I saw more pokémon die…but after I’d seen a large number of them pass away and become distraught after each one, even if I hadn’t known them, the other pokémon started telling me to just forget it and move on. And after a while…after a time of seeing more and more deaths…I started to listen. They told me there was no point, that it didn’t matter…that this was just the way things were. And in time…I stopped caring.

“I kept being trained by Master with the other pokémon, being repeatedly told these things, and I believed them. It was all I was ever told. I no longer cared if someone else was hurt or killed; all that mattered to me was surviving the day, proving myself tough enough so that I could become one of Master’s stronger pokémon, so I would not have to go through torture anymore. When I was old enough and Master was satisfied that I was strong enough, he began putting me in real fights.”

At this moment Thunder paused again, staring around the grove of trees briefly before continuing. When she did, she had regained her calm and almost emotionless voice again.

“The fighting areas he brought me to were strange. They didn’t look like the ones we practiced in. They were usually in a big building, or outside. Lots of humans always came to watch. There were others like Master, too. They would bring a strong pokémon, and me or one of Master’s other pokémon would battle them. Master and the other human would release their pokémon into an enclosed area or sometimes a deep pit, which had a force field over the top so we couldn’t fly or climb out. I think the humans were afraid we would attack them.

“I never tried though. I only wanted to win so Master would be happy with me. When he was happy, he treated me better. Master would starve me before these fights, not for too long, only a few days, but enough to make me want to win. If I did win, he gave me food as a reward. In most of these fights I just had to make the other pokémon faint, and it took a long time; they didn’t faint easily, and it was usually only after they had lost a lot of blood. But I was used to fighting, so most of these battles were easy enough.

“But there were some that were far worse. Not many humans made their pokémon battle in these fights. But Master did. He knew he was taking a risk by entering one of us because of all the time he spent training me and the other pokémon he used. We had won a lot of fights and he had gotten a lot of money, but he took this risk so he could earn even more. In these fights though, pokémon fought to the death. Sometimes there were a lot of us in the arena at once; other times there were just two at a time. Either way, there was only one simple rule. To win, you had to be the last one alive.

“I never wanted to kill my opponents at first, but he made me do it so many times it started to feel like the natural thing to do. These battles were much fiercer. Pokémon were fighting to stay alive; they were desperate. But I was trained to ignore pain and keep fighting regardless of any injuries I sustained. I almost always came out of these battles badly hurt.

“Later, Master would treat my wounds himself. Unlike the other humans, from what I knew of them, he would do it while I was conscious. Even though I was chained he knew I could still attack him, but I never did. He knew I wouldn’t. He would not give me any medicine for the pain, but he would give me some food while he did it, but only a little. I didn’t injure him, because I knew I wouldn’t get any more food if I did. And I couldn’t kill him; I would starve to death if I did because I was chained, and no one would be there to bring me food. And he knew that.

“I believe Master was looked up to by the other humans who trained battle pokémon. I think they admired the way he could always keep himself in control, and that he showed no fear of his pokémon. I once saw a human who was whipping his pokémon after a battle, and he lost control of the pokémon and it nearly killed him. Aside from him and a few others, most of the humans didn’t dare try to use whips on their pokémon, but Master did.

“I think the only reason he used a whip was because he wanted to show that he could do it. To prove to other humans that he could do it and his pokémon wouldn’t turn on him. To show that he was in control.” Thunder turned away from Stormblade and focused on a single star shining in the night sky, seeming lost in thought, though she still looked calm.

“After a while,” she continued, though she seemed to be getting tired of talking, “the fights stopped. I think other humans made the fights stop. Master couldn’t go to some of his buildings anymore because he was worried they would find out what he was doing.

“For a while Master didn’t try to find any new places to battle other humans, though I knew it was bound to start again sooner or later. He kept training me though… I was special to him. Not ‘special’ like Volco was special, but I was an excellent fighter in his eyes…I won him a lot of money, so I was valuable. He did not torture me all that often, though he did tell a pokémon to attack me or else use the whip on me when I lost a practice battle or did something to displease him. I was used to it.

“He still often brought in new pokémon, but he did not torture them, or if he did, it was very rarely. He seemed to be satisfied with me and the others who’d gone through the torture-training, and wasn’t so harsh on the newer and younger pokémon, like Redclaw. Master usually just chained me up every day and left me, except for when he put me in a practice battle. Then there was that one night, at one of his training buildings, when you found me. After you set me free, I flew into the forest and wandered around for a while until I found you and the others again.”

She stopped for a moment and thought of something else. “That typhlosion you battled, the one I was fighting after I left you and the rest of the group…that was Volco. The human there…that was Master.” She turned toward Stormblade again and waited for his response, wondering whether she would be angry or amused by whatever he said.

Stormblade was hardly sure what to think. He was angry and shocked by what Thunder’s trainer had done to her, and surprised too; he had known that Thunder had been abused, but he’d never known the full story…the extent of it. He wanted to help her now, more than anything, but he wasn’t sure he knew how. He could scarcely believe what Thunder’s master had done. This human had ruined Thunder’s life, and all for the sake of money. Stormblade knew that if he himself had been put through the same thing Thunder had, he would most certainly have died. Thunder had gone through so much pain…even his own wounds seemed like nothing in comparison.

“Thunder…” he began, and the other scyther looked at him uncertainly. “I’m sorry…” Stormblade whispered quietly, unsure of what else to say, “I’m sorry for everything you had to go through.”

‘Why?’ thought Thunder. ‘You didn’t do it…’ She then realized that Stormblade had said a lot of other confusing things already, and didn’t bother to question him.

“I hate Master…” she growled before Stormblade could say anything more. “If I ever find him again, I’ll kill him!” She spoke with a ferocity that surprised Stormblade, and there was a deadly gleam in her eyes. She wasn’t looking at Stormblade; in fact, she almost seemed to have forgotten that he was there.

“I…I think I understand now…” Stormblade said quietly, attracting Thunder’s attention once again. His voice shook, but he continued, “I mean…I still probably don’t entirely, but I understand better now. I’m sorry…I should have tried to help you more before. I wanted to…I was just never sure how. I’m not even sure what I can do now… But at least it’s over now…you don’t have to worry about Master or Volco or any of them anymore.”

Thunder just stared at him, not knowing what to think. She wasn’t sure whether to make an angry reply or to just leave. It felt better to have talked about Master; she was calmer now. Why was Stormblade acting as if everything was worse? She felt like telling him she was fine, that she didn’t need his help and that she could manage on her own. She felt like telling him to leave so she could go back to sleep and worry about everything later. But she didn’t.

“It’s not over,” she replied quietly, causing Stormblade to look up at her in surprise. She hadn’t wanted to confess any weakness to anyone, but somehow telling him this now seemed like the right thing to do. “Back when I fought the vespiquen…and Volco…I lost control…I was ready to kill both of them…I would have killed both of them. When I left Master, I thought the same thing you did…that I could start over and forget about it, but I can’t…it isn’t over…and it won’t ever be…” She stared silently at the ground, and didn’t even move when Stormblade limped closer to her.

“Don’t worry,” he told her softly, touching the tip of his blade lightly to her shoulder. Thunder stiffened at the touch, but this time she didn’t move away. “Back then, when you were Master’s pokémon…” Stormblade said quietly. “No one was ever really able to help you. But you’re not in this alone anymore. I’ll find a way to help you somehow.”

Until then, Thunder had still been staring at the ground, but now she looked up at Stormblade. She could not understand what compelled him to want to help her so much; her problems had nothing to do with him, and he had enough of his own. She thought it was silly of him, but at the same time, she had to admit to herself…she didn’t want to be alone. She had never wanted to be.

“I have to stay around Redclaw for a while anyways,” Thunder said softly. “I don’t know how to hunt. I’m not used to being wild.”

“I’m sure Redclaw would like to teach you,” Stormblade said, smiling a little. “I know he cares about you. I’m sure he’ll be a good teacher.”

“Can he hunt like a scyther?” Thunder asked, looking doubtful.

“No,” Stormblade replied, “but he can show you the basics. I can help teach you how, but I won’t be able to show you. You can fight well, though. I’m sure hunting will come easy for you.”

“Is it hard at first?” questioned Thunder, giving Stormblade another curious look.

“A little,” Stormblade answered, “but it gets easier. Once you see how it’s done, you should get the idea.”

For a while the two of them talked, sitting beside the trees, listening to the soft calm winds and breathing in the cool night air. Thunder didn’t see any real importance in their conversation, but it had been a long while since she had been able to talk to a pokémon – about anything – without getting angry or upset. For the first time in a long while, she felt somewhat at peace... Somewhat.

Stormblade was taken by surprise when Thunder suddenly stood up, a look that was almost anger in her eyes. “This is pointless!” she snapped, though it seemed to him as if it almost pained her to say it. “All we’re doing is wasting time. I don’t see how I honestly thought you could help me. Are you a healer? No. Can you hunt? No. I don’t see why you insist on sitting here, wasting time, when we should be resting! And all you’re trying to do is falsely make me believe that you’re going to help me. You’re pathetic!”

She narrowed her eyes, then turned and stalked away. Casting a glance over her shoulder, she sneered, “Better get some rest…we’re going to travel tomorrow. And I don’t want you slowing us down. If you do, I’ll make Redclaw drag you the whole way.”

Before Stormblade could call out to stop her, Thunder had dashed off, leaving him behind and heading back to the tree she had been sleeping in before. Stormblade lay down miserably on the ground, feeling confused and helpless. Why had she suddenly reacted that way, when before she had been calm enough around him? What she said hadn’t even made sense, considering that she had been talking to him peacefully before. What had he done to make her act that way? Why was she so upset with him?

Stormblade felt too weak to walk back to the nest Redclaw had made for him, so instead he curled up on the ground beside the tree he and Thunder had been sitting by. He’d wanted to help Thunder, show her she wasn’t alone, and for a while, it had seemed like it had worked. But now, he couldn’t help but feel as if he had just made everything worse.

-ooo-

Thunder feebly slashed at a branch that hung in her way as she slowly walked back toward the tree near where Redclaw was sleeping. Truthfully, she had wanted to be friends…she really had. Yet she knew she couldn’t; it would only hurt her in the end, and she wasn’t sure she could face that sort of pain again.

When she had been small, she had always looked to other pokémon for support and even friendship in order to help her make it through all of Master’s tests. But after she had to watch each of them, one by one, fail those tests and die, she had made a point to not get to know the other pokémon too well. In the long run, making friends had never helped. Only caused her pain she didn’t need. She wished she had never tried to help that young scyther in the forest, never grown close to him. It would have been better.

Thunder stopped herself, quickly reminding herself that all of that was in the past. She had made mistakes, but she would learn from her mistakes. She wouldn’t talk to Stormblade anymore. She wouldn’t let him try to get close to her. She would make him leave her alone, make him hate her if she had to, but she had to get him to realize that they were not friends. They couldn’t be.

Thunder’s thoughts wandered back to Snowcrystal and the others she had traveled with. She had tried to help them sometimes, even when she wasn’t sure why herself. And where had it brought her? Briefly, Thunder remembered trying to help free Rosie, and glanced at the bullet wounds in her side and shoulder. It had gotten her nowhere.

Out of all the pokémon she could possibly trust, Stormblade was the last one she should try to befriend. He was injured, and by a cursed attack that gave him wounds that would never heal, wounds that would just get infected worse and worse and never get better. There was no way he would survive that…

And when she had to watch him die, she didn’t want to care.

-ooo-

As the moon glistened silently overhead, the wreckage of Team Rocket’s secret base lay forlorn and silent. Wind echoed sadly through the area, moving small bits of rubbish across the sandy ground.

Suddenly a bluish glow surrounded a large chunk of debris and lifted it into the air before tossing it away into the rubble. From a pile of twisted metal and splintered wood, Solus painfully hauled himself onto firm ground, picking his way over the wreckage before collapsing in the dust near the ruined building.

He had been abandoned…forgotten. The Rockets who had the chance had teleported away using their abra at the sound of the explosions, but Solus hadn’t been around them, and no one had come looking. Dust and traces of blood stained the espeon’s fur, and he gave it a few quick licks, smoothing it out and cleaning some of the small cuts he’d received. The wounds the scyther had inflicted still stung, but he left them alone.

Still feeling outraged, Solus stood up and limped away, hardly giving the Rocket’s building a second glance. He had no way of locating his trainer; he was a wild pokémon now. Surprisingly, he didn’t feel intimidated by the thought of having to live a life fending for himself. He had been a high-ranking Rocket pokémon for a reason; his psychic powers were legendary among Team Rocket’s pokémon.

Though he was secretly still seething with rage about being forgotten, he pushed the feeling to the back of his mind. He would have no problem surviving in the wild. The only ones who had to worry now were the ones who got in his way.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 28 - The Forgotten City

Snowcrystal growled in anger at the grass pokémon, raising her voice in unison with Rosie’s. “That’s not fair!” she cried, hardly believing that they expected her to battle for them. “This isn’t our fight!”

“Do you think we’re going to just let you walk free?” the tropius replied, giving her a cold stare.

Snowcrystal had to wonder what had happened to these pokémon to make them so hostile around strangers and so quick to assume things. She could hear Spark and Rosie still trying to argue with him, but she wasn’t sure any of them would really be able to reason with the grass types.

Suddenly, Wildflame spoke up, causing everyone to glance at her in surprise. “All right then,” the houndoom told her captors. “We’ll fight for you.”

“What?” hissed Rosie, casting a furious glare at the dark type. “Are you crazy? I won’t be able to fight!”

“True,” the ivysaur agreed, glancing at the ninetales. “But you’ll be here to guard the cave and alert us to any sign of danger.”

“No way!” Rosie shouted back defiantly.

Snowcrystal gave Wildflame a confused look, and the houndoom mouthed the words “don’t argue” to her. Seeing the look in her eyes, Snowcrystal realized that Wildflame had thought of a plan, and gave Spark the same look, whispering, “Just go along with it.”

Before Spark could question her or Rosie could argue further, Snowcrystal spoke up. “We agree,” she said, facing the grass pokémon again, “as long as you let us go afterward.” She then waited for an answer, ignoring the scathing looks Rosie and Spark gave her.

“We will let you go,” the tropius replied as he and the other grass pokémon turned to leave. “That is…if you can prove to us you aren’t traitors!” He then took off after the others, leaving the four friends alone in the cavern.

“Why did you say that?” Rosie hissed at Wildflame and Snowcrystal. “I don’t want to defend this cave for these pokémon after they’ve tried to imprison us!”

“Yeah!” Spark agreed. “I don’t want to get injured in battle for someone who-”

“Quiet!” Wildflame interrupted, casting a nervous glance at the tunnel where the grass pokémon had left. “Now, let me tell you this quick because some of them could be back at any minute. I told them we would fight because it’s probably our best way of escape. When the battle starts, we can slip away back to this cave and find Rosie, who should be near the entrance, and attack the other guards if we have to, then make a break for it!”

“But they said the battle wouldn’t be for a few days!” Spark replied. “Are we going to have to wait here for that long?”

“I’m afraid so,” Wildflame replied. “But it’s the only way we can get out of here without a high chance of getting hurt.”

Snowcrystal nodded, and reluctantly, Rosie did so too. Wildflame was right; this seemed like the easiest way, and while they were trapped, they could at least rest for the journey ahead of them.

-ooo-

For the next two days, the four friends stayed within the cave, being given water and strange food every once in a while. Despite the situation they were in and the desire to escape, Rosie and Spark were grateful for the chance to rest and to not have to travel with their painful injuries.

Snowcrystal, however, was growing restless. She had to find some sort of clue about where Articuno was…but she couldn’t even start to look for one while she was trapped, and it worried her to think of her home and the growlithe there who might soon be facing threats from the houndour tribe. After a while of pacing around the cavern and worrying, Snowcrystal sat down beneath the starlight hole in the cave ceiling. It was the night of the second day they’d had to spend in the cave since being captured, and the next day was the day of the battle, and the escape.

Snowcrystal glanced at her three friends, who were already asleep. She turned her gaze to the section of starlit sky she could see through the ceiling, and was almost instantly reminded of her home in the mountains once again. She almost wished she were back there now, that she had never taken this quest, and was safe back in her snowy cave at home.

“No…” she whispered to herself. “I can’t go home…not until I find out what made Articuno have to leave…” She lay down on the cold stone floor, gazing at the stars a moment longer before her thoughts slowly lulled her into sleep.

-ooo-

“Wake up,” a voice hissed in Snowcrystal’s ear. “It’s time.”

Snowcrystal stirred, blinking in confusion at the ivysaur that stood over her. “Time for what?” she asked, still a bit dazed after just waking up.

“The battle,” the ivysaur calmly replied, and went to wake up Wildflame.

Snowcrystal sat up, shaking her fur free of dust and waited, trying not to let her excitement or fear show. Today was the day they were going to escape… However, she could not shake off the lingering dread that something was going to go wrong. Pushing the thought from her mind, she went to stand beside Wildflame and Spark as they waited to be led out of the cave and toward the battle. Rosie sat a small distance away, trying not to act as if she was planning anything suspicious.

After a moment, the four pokémon were taken into a different cavern. Snowcrystal picked up a stronger scent of fresh air and grass, and figured that this cavern must be close to the cave’s entrance. There was a large amount of powerful-looking grass types there, and Snowcrystal shuddered. She didn’t want to imagine fighting them. She wondered how strong the fire type pokémon they had heard about were.

As the ivysaur from earlier made a few brief statements about the battle, Snowcrystal crouched down, hardly listening. Looking down at the crystal she had been given, she noticed how battered and worn it looked now. Scratches covered its shiny surface, and it was covered in dust and bits of dry mud. She felt guilty for letting Iceclaw’s gift get in such a condition, when it had been so special to him.

A cry from the grass pokémon around her jolted Snowcrystal out of her thoughts. Standing up quickly, she followed them as they made their way out of the cave, watching as Rosie was made to take her place at the cave’s entrance with the other guards. She was trying to appear brave, but Snowcrystal could tell that she was scared. She tried to give Rosie a comforting look, but she wasn’t sure the ninetales could see her in the crowd of grass pokémon.

As the small army of pokémon moved on, surrounding Snowcrystal, Wildflame, and Spark on all sides, they soon lost sight of Rosie. Worried, Snowcrystal glanced at every tree, rock, and bush, trying to remember them. She didn’t want to get lost and be unable to find Rosie after they left the battle. Wildflame seemed to be doing the same thing as they walked, though none of the grass pokémon noticed.

Once Snowcrystal was starting to get a little tired, and Spark had started limping much worse, the grass pokémon stopped at a large rocky and grassy area near a stream. “We’re…here…I guess…” Wildflame whispered to her friends.

“Then where are the fire types?” Spark asked, looking around at the trees and at the groups of large boulders nearby, which could have easily made a den for pokémon.

Some of the grass pokémon seemed just as confused as they were. “This is where they live now, right?” one of the younger ones asked.

The sceptile beside him nodded, looking around warily. “They might have been suspecting an attack and moved somewhere else last night!” he called to the leading grass types.

“You’re probably right,” another said, “maybe we should-”

His voice cut off as without warning, several columns of flame launched toward the group from all directions. “Get down!” Wildflame hissed, pushing Spark off his feet and out of the way of one of the blasts as it came near.

Snowcrystal ducked her head as the flames seared by, then looked up to see the shapes of several fire pokémon appearing from various hiding places. She had to duck again as they fired several more bursts of red-hot flame.

Since Snowcrystal, Spark, and Wildflame had been in the center of the group, they had been mostly safe from the attacks. Many of the grass pokémon however, were wounded.

“Don’t just stand there!” the ivysaur shouted back at them. “ATTACK!”

Most of the grass pokémon either ran forward or shot a razor leaf attack at their enemies, while the fire pokémon stayed where they were, still launching their attacks. Snowcrystal saw the tropius from the cave launch himself into the sky and slam down on an unsuspecting flareon. Another fire type, a quilava, was wrenched into the air by vine whip and thrown forcefully onto the rocks before he even had a chance to attack. Despite this, it was the fire pokémon who seemed to be dealing the most damage.

Snowcrystal darted away from the main fighting, but there seemed to be enemies on all sides. “Hey!” shouted a bayleef, causing Snowcrystal to turn around. “What are you waiting for? Attack!” Snowcrystal ignored the shout, looking frantically around for Spark and Wildflame, who had gotten separated from her in the confusion soon after the battle had started. After a few worried moments, Snowcrystal spotted Spark’s spiky yellow form and ran over to him.

“Spark! Where’s Wildflame?” she asked, noticing that the houndoom wasn’t with him.

“I don’t know!” Spark replied. “I had to avoid another flamethrower and-”

“Look out!” Snowcrystal cried, knocking Spark out of the way as a massive thorny vine broke out of the ground and whipped toward them. Frantically, Spark and Snowcrystal scrambled away as more vines broke free from the earth. They darted further away, hearing the cries of several fire types who had gotten caught in the attack.

“I’ve seen that before!” Spark shouted breathlessly once they were out of range. “That’s frenzy plant! How on earth did one of these wild pokémon know frenzy plant?”

“I don’t know,” Snowcrystal gasped. “Let’s just find Wildflame and get out of here!” She looked around, ignoring the sounds of battle, and soon spotted Wildflame darting to avoid one of the fire pokémon, who was shouting something angrily to her. Snowcrystal only caught the word ‘traitor.’

Wildflame fired a flamethrower in the pokémon’s direction, and it stopped chasing her. Hearing Snowcrystal’s shout, she began to head in the direction of the white growlithe and Spark.

Snowcrystal watched the houndoom bound closer to them with long strides, avoiding the sparring pokémon. “Stay there!” Wildflame called to them, not wanting them to run toward her and into the commotion. “Once I’m there, follow me!” The distance between Wildflame and Snowcrystal was closing, but as the houndoom neared her friends, several razor sharp leaves sped in her direction, cutting her back legs and causing her to stumble.

Wildflame looked up to see a meganium staring at her in anger, obviously mistaking her for one of the enemy fire pokémon. “Don’t attack me!” Wildflame shouted at him, leaping to her feet. “I’m fighting for you, remember?”

A moment later, she realized that she had stopped too long. The same vines that Spark and Snowcrystal had seen erupted from the ground again, trapping all pokémon unfortunate enough to be close by. Wildflame was one of them.

The houndoom let out a painful howl as the thorny vines wrapped around her middle and lifted her into the air before slamming her down against the rocky ground. Stars exploded in the houndoom’s vision, and she clawed and bit frantically at the vine as she felt it lift her into the air again.

Snowcrystal stood frozen to the spot for a split second, Wildflame’s screams of pain echoing in her ears. Then she was running, running towards the massive twisting vines that wrapped more tightly around the dark type and sent her crashing to the ground another time before lifting her up once more.

Hardly believing what she was doing, the small growlithe leaped towards the vines, opening her mouth and releasing a whirling blast of flames. Snowcrystal stared in disbelief as she watched her own attack, which looked like several columns of flame twisting together, strike the vines and burn through them. Wildflame was released, and as she fell to the ground, Snowcrystal ran over to her. The houndoom stood up, luckily not badly injured. Snowcrystal’s fire attack had hardly hurt her, and Snowcrystal had stopped the frenzy plant attack from doing any serious damage.

“Snowcrystal…” Wildflame whispered with a hint of pride in her voice. “You…you learned flame wheel!”

Snowcrystal smiled back at the houndoom and the two of them ran toward Spark, who looked just as surprised.

“You finally learned a new attack!” Spark cried. “Now you can actually fight!”

“Yeah, sure,” Snowcrystal replied nervously. “Let’s just get out of here!”

Wildflame nodded and the three pokémon headed away from the battle, avoiding any remaining fire pokémon were still surrounding the area. Luckily, the three managed to make it away unnoticed, and they quickly scampered back in the direction of the cave, hearing the sounds of battle gradually fade away.

“Well that worked like a charm!” Wildflame exclaimed, still excited about Snowcrystal’s new attack. “Now we’ve got to find Rosie and get out of here!”

The three pokémon ran toward the cave, Wildflame in the lead. However, when the cave came in sight, the houndoom stopped, seeming suddenly worried. Confused, Snowcrystal walked up to her side, looking at the cave. What she saw filled her with dread.

The guards in front of the cave had either fainted or run away, and she wasn’t sure that one of the unconscious ones was actually still alive. All around the cave were signs of a struggle, and Rosie was nowhere to be seen.

-ooo-

Nearly three days had passed since the night Redclaw and Stormblade had met up with Thunder. Because of Stormblade’s injuries, the going had been painfully slow, and they had had to take long breaks often. Stormblade had attempted to talk to Thunder many times, but she had always ended up either yelling at him or ignoring him. Redclaw had tried to talk to her about why she seemed so angry, but she hadn’t answered him either.

Prey was scarce in the area, and though it had recently rained, there was little water to be found at all. It had soaked into the ground and turned it to mud, which had mostly dried under the heat of the sun. They had traveled east until they reached the burned forest, which they were now going around, heading in a northward direction.

Redclaw was worried. Underneath the hot midday sun, there were very few trees or shelter in the area. The last time they had found a good source of water was two days ago. Redclaw was thirsty, though he wasn’t worried for himself; as a fire type he could go without water longer than most other pokémon, but he was worried about the two scyther.

Thunder never complained of thirst, but Redclaw could tell that she was weakening. She had been thin and malnourished before, and the lack of food and water was making it all the worse for her. However, she had tried her best to hide that fact, and surprisingly, she had kept up with Redclaw well.

For Stormblade, it was a different story. The injured pokémon had grown weaker and weaker, not just from lack of food and water, but from his wounds as well. Even though Redclaw had been helping Stormblade walk, the scyther had grown so frail that he had been forced to stumble along using his injured leg as well as his good one, causing it to become even more painful than before. The bandages around his wounds had become filthy and bloodstained, and they were starting to stink. Stormblade’s cough seemed to be gone for the most part, but other than that, he didn’t seem to be getting any better. And they still hadn’t found one pokémon who knew anything about healing.

Redclaw and Thunder walked on, the arcanine supporting Stormblade along the way, when Stormblade suddenly slumped to the ground and collapsed. Redclaw turned toward him instantly, nudging the motionless scyther with his snout. Stormblade didn’t move; he was out cold.

“Oh no…” Redclaw whispered worriedly. Stormblade had collapsed before, but he had never passed out, not since he and Redclaw had escaped Team Rocket’s building. “He needs help…” Redclaw murmured to himself. “And right now what he needs most is water…”

“How very clever of you to realize that,” Thunder muttered sarcastically, walking over to him. “My advice…don’t bother going to look for water. There isn’t any here. And I doubt it would help anyway; at this point, there’s not much hope for him.”

Redclaw noticed Thunder looking at Stormblade with a strange expression, and he thought she looked angry, though he couldn’t tell what she was really thinking. “We have to try,” he told her urgently. “We’re going to stop and look for water. Maybe you should fly up above and see if there are any streams…”

“I’ve done that…” Thunder muttered. “I did it twice yesterday and once the day before. There aren’t any streams here. There were some when me and Stormblade passed this way before, but we were much closer to the human city and also in danger of poacher traps. I don’t know if there are any other streams.”

“Well, it wouldn’t hurt to check a little further,” Redclaw told her. “And we’ve made progress this way…there has to be something! A stream leading to that destroyed forest, maybe?”

“There probably is one,” Thunder replied, finding it hard to speak due to thirst. “But none near. And searching for it would bring us way too close to the poachers. I guess I’ll check north of here.”

She spread her wings and took off. Redclaw realized with guilt that it was hard for her to fly; her wing was still injured from the fight with Volco. He felt bad for sending her out to search when she was so weak, but Stormblade needed it now. He sat down and waited, licking the dried blood from the cut on Stormblade’s head.

After a while, Thunder returned, looking exhausted. She staggered toward Redclaw, waving her scythe in the direction she had flown. “There aren’t any streams,” she told him, and before Redclaw could feel disappointed, she went on. “But I saw some sort of really old human town. It looked completely abandoned by whoever lived there, and there were pokémon wandering freely in the streets, but no sign of humans. It might be worth looking there. There’s always water in human cities, and rain could have collected in a lot of places. I’d say that’s our best bet.”

Redclaw nodded. “We’ll go together. You look too tired to fly anymore,” he began, and Thunder gave him a seething glare. “We’re going to have to wait for Stormblade to wake up…let’s just hope he’s strong enough to make it. How far was the town?”

“Not far,” Thunder replied. “It wouldn’t take that long to reach it, though with Stormblade, of course, it might.” She gave Stormblade an annoyed glance. “I’m honestly surprised he’s lasted this long,” she muttered.

Redclaw glared at her, but said nothing. Thunder turned away from Stormblade, seeming uneasy around the injured pokémon. “Anything we can do to wake him up?” she asked, clearly impatient.

“I don’t know,” Redclaw told her. “We might just have to wait.” He leaned down toward Stormblade, who was, surprisingly, starting to stir. Seeing that his friend was waking up, Redclaw carefully nudged his head, watching as Stormblade opened his eyes. The scyther instantly closed them again, reluctant to try and stand up.

“Thunder found a place that’s bound to have water,” Redclaw told him. “All we have to do is make it there and we can rest.”

Stormblade slowly stood up, quickly leaning against Redclaw for support. Thunder watched him impatiently, seeming annoyed that it took him so long to stand. “Well, now that he’s awake, let’s get on with it!” she growled.

Redclaw nodded, pausing to scratch at his metal collar before following Thunder as the scyther walked on ahead. Thunder stopped and waited for the arcanine, who was still helping Stormblade. Redclaw looked at the injured scyther and sighed; this was going to be a long walk.

By afternoon, the three pokémon had left the burned forest well behind them and came to the outskirts of the abandoned city Thunder had discovered. Redclaw stared at it uncertainly. They were standing in front of an old, faded sign placed on top of two tall wooden posts in front of the first buildings and ruined streets. There were human-made markings carved on the sign that looked damaged and worn.

Redclaw turned to Thunder. “It…does look abandoned,” he whispered quietly, still looking wary of entering.

“I flew over the town before,” Thunder snapped. “It’s fine!”

“All right,” Redclaw replied, still nervous. “Let’s go.”

The three pokémon walked under the archway created by the old sign. “You sure there’s water here?” Stormblade asked, lifting his head weakly to look at Redclaw. Though the arcanine was relieved that Stormblade looked a bit stronger, now that he knew they would probably find water soon, Redclaw was still fighting the lingering doubt that Stormblade would make it to a healer alive. The infection in his wounds had to be getting worse.

“There has to be some place where rainwater has collected,” Redclaw told him. He motioned with his head toward the crumbling buildings and streets. “Let’s have a look around.” He knew it would be easier to find water if Thunder flew around to search, but he also knew that she was weak, and he didn’t want to ask her. She didn’t offer to search, either.

As they walked further into the old city, Redclaw began to catch glimpses of pokémon. Most of them were small normal or electric types, but there were a few larger species as well. All of them scampered away the moment the travelers came into their view. Redclaw tried to ask a raichu if it knew where water was, but it darted into an alley before Redclaw could even finish his sentence.

“This place sure is strange…” Thunder whispered quietly, glancing at Redclaw.

“I wonder why all the pokémon here are so nervous…” the arcanine replied, pausing to glance around.

After a short while, Redclaw and the others started to smell a putrid stench, and noticed several grimer and a few muk lurking in dark alleyways. These alleyways were almost all coated in mud from the rainwater and strewn with debris, making them good places for grimer to hide. Several small pokémon darted fearfully in and out of the alleys, paying the grimer and muk no heed. Whatever they were scared of, it certainly wasn’t them.

All the buildings were crumbling and old; some had even collapsed. Very few of them still had doors, and several had broken windows. Every once in a while a pokémon would come in or out of one of the buildings, and Redclaw realized that they probably took shelter there. He caught a glimpse into one of the crumbling structures, but it was only filled with mud and old, useless pieces of some strange human items that he couldn’t identify.

“I guess you were right, Thunder,” Redclaw told the scyther as they walked along. “Guess it’s safe to say there are no humans here…wonder what made them have to leave…”

“Don’t know,” Thunder replied, not seeming as curious as Redclaw was about the whole thing.

The group stopped suddenly as they came upon a tall wall surrounding one of the ruined buildings. Along this wall were intricate carvings, each depicting a detailed image of a pokémon. Curious, Redclaw walked over to it, careful to help Stormblade. He looked at each of the carvings around him, seeming lost in thought. For a reason he couldn’t describe, there seemed to be a strange air of mystery around the place.

Thunder glanced at a section of the wall where a large door used to be. “There could be some water in that building,” she suggested, noticing that parts of the old building’s roof were broken, and rainwater could have easily collected inside.

Redclaw nodded and walked toward the doorway in the wall, when two carvings, an arcanine and a scyther, caught his eye. Stormblade noticed them too, and looked around to see if there were carvings of the species of his friends, but only found a growlithe one.

The three pokémon walked through the opening and into the large building, which seemed to be on the verge of collapsing. There was no water there, but something else caught Stormblade’s attention. “Look,” he whispered. “It’s Articuno.”

Stormblade’s voice was so quiet that Redclaw hardly heard him, but he followed the scyther’s gaze to a large faded painting that had been badly torn. Yet the image of the legendary bird could still be seen clearly. Redclaw could tell that if the painting had been in better shape, it would have been beautiful.

“Yeah, so?” Thunder muttered, interrupting Redclaw’s thoughts. “It’s only a stupid painting! There are lots of them here!” She motioned with her scythe toward the opposite side of the room, where several damaged paintings hung from the wall or lay strewn across the floor. “We came here for water, didn’t we?” she reminded them, and they followed her through a corridor and into another room. The ceiling was badly damaged there, and sunlight shone through onto the filthy floor.

Around this room were several old statues, most of them broken, as well as slabs of stone depicting strange carvings. The strange soft floor underneath them was damp, but there was still no sign of any water.

“Let’s try somewhere else,” Redclaw told the others quietly. “There’s nothing here.” He started to turn, when he noticed Stormblade looking at something. He looked up to see one of the old carvings, one that was still placed on the wall.

This one was different than most of the others. It depicted several small pokémon of various species lying across the ground, either dead or dying. Redclaw noticed a growlithe among them. Above the dying pokémon stood a scyther, its blades raised above a tiny eevee, ready to strike.

“Well that’s lovely,” Thunder muttered sarcastically, eyeing the carvings of the dead pokémon. “Wonder what human made this…someone like Master I’m sure.”

“I don’t know,” Redclaw replied, wondering why the human had carved the picture in the first place. He looked around, noticing a few other carvings somewhat like it, depicting pokémon battles or a predator stalking prey. However none of them showed dead or dying pokémon, apart from a pidgey in one carving of a pouncing persian. “Maybe it was supposed to give a warning or something,” Redclaw mused, glancing at the scyther picture again. He turned back toward the way they had come.

The arcanine started to leave, but then stopped, noticing that Stormblade was still staring at the carving of the scyther, with an expression that made it hard to tell what he was thinking. “What’s wrong?” Redclaw asked him.

Stormblade turned away from the carving as if being snapped out of a trance. “Nothing,” he said quickly, limping over to Redclaw. “Let’s look somewhere else…there’s no water here at all.”

Redclaw nodded and they walked out of the building, leaving it and the strange wall of pokémon carvings behind. They walked further down one of the many roads, seeing only a few rattata who scampered away with frightened squeaks at the sight of them.

After a short while, Thunder stopped suddenly. “I think I can see water up ahead…” she told the others. “Follow me.”

Redclaw didn’t see the water, but he followed Thunder as she led him across an old, cracked road and through what had once been a small field. It was now nothing but mud and dust, strewn with debris from collapsed buildings. Thunder led them through the field and to where a long, deep channel ran through a part of the city, passing by them and nearing another section of buildings. Flowing through the channel, which Redclaw assumed must have once been some sort of canal…was water.

“It had to have come from the rain,” Thunder stated, looking down at the water. It appeared dark and murky in some places, but it was flowing smoothly, and would probably be the only relatively fresh water they were going to find anytime soon. “It doesn’t look too bad,” Thunder muttered. “There was probably just a lot of dust that blew into it.”

Redclaw nodded as the three of them approached the water, and gently pushed Stormblade forward and towards it. “See? I told you we’d find water!” he told him. “Good thing it rained a little while ago. Now go get a drink.”

Stormblade immediately stumbled to the water’s edge and leaned down, plunging his head into it and drinking as much as he could. It tasted strange to him, but he was far too thirsty to care. Redclaw quickly followed him to the water’s edge, and Thunder walked up to it as well.

As Thunder bent down to drink the water, Redclaw stiffened, realizing that a faint, but still foul, stench was slowly wafting toward him from it, and growing stronger. “Wait!” he shouted. Thunder paused and looked up at him with a confused expression.

Redclaw dashed toward Stormblade, pushing the scyther away from the water. “It doesn’t smell right!” he cried, and Stormblade simply looked at him, confused, while Thunder bent down to give the water a closer sniff.

Almost instantly she bared her teeth in disgust and backed away. “It smells disgusting!” she exclaimed.

“It’s getting worse…” Redclaw mused, feeling the strange scent drifting more strongly towards him. Something caught his eye and he glanced into the water, seeing a thin trail of something dark and purplish flowing through it. A feeling of dread crept over him as his eyes followed the trail to a place further down in the canal. He froze as he noticed a large muk heave itself out of the water and slowly ooze into a dark alleyway. Thunder noticed the muk too and backed away from the water as if afraid to touch it, looking thoroughly disgusted that she had been about to drink it.

Redclaw cast a panicked glance at Stormblade, who was looking at Thunder with a puzzled expression; obviously he hadn’t seen the muk and didn’t know what was wrong with the water. Redclaw fought to keep his worry under control and looked at Stormblade again.

“So uh….how are you feeling?” he asked, instantly realizing how stupid he sounded.

“What do you mean by that?” Stormblade asked; a hint of panic beginning to show in his eyes as he realized by Redclaw’s tone of voice that something was definitely wrong.

Redclaw opened his mouth to speak, knowing that making Stormblade panicked would just make things worse, but Thunder spoke before him.

“He means you’ve just ingested poison,” Thunder told him calmly. “Nice going.”

Redclaw shot her a glare, and turned to Stormblade, who suddenly looked very frightened. “P-poison…?” the scyther whispered quietly.

Reluctantly, Redclaw nodded. “There was a muk in the water…” he said worriedly. “I’m sorry…I should have checked it out first…I knew something wasn’t right…”

“It’s his own fault!” Thunder shouted, pointing to Stormblade with her scythe. “He just started drinking the water without even bothering to smell it first!”

Stormblade shrank back from Thunder’s gaze. Redclaw walked to his side and stood beside him. “It’s not his fault,” he told Thunder. “He didn’t know, and he’s hurt. If I was in as much pain as he was, I probably wouldn’t have noticed it in time either. It isn’t anyone’s fault.”

Thunder’s eyes narrowed and she turned away, annoyed that Redclaw had stood up for Stormblade. “So what do you suppose we do?” she asked, turning her head enough to give Redclaw another annoyed look.

Redclaw lowered his head, feeling helpless and knowing that if Stormblade really had swallowed any poison, it could start to affect him at any minute.

“I…I don’t know…” he admitted.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 29 - Unexpected Attacks

Snowcrystal tried not to panic as she glanced frantically around. “Where’s Rosie?” she cried.

“She might have gotten away…or she might be in the cave…” Wildflame replied quietly.

“I don’t think she would run away without us…or at least she wouldn’t have gotten far if she had,” Spark replied. “We should check in the cave…those fire pokémon might come back and it would be better to search while they aren’t around!”

Wildflame nodded and ran into the cave. “Snowcrystal, follow me! Spark, stay there. You need to keep watch in case they came back, and you’re injured!”

Spark mumbled something grudgingly under his breath and reluctantly took his place by the entrance. Snowcrystal followed Wildflame carefully inside.

The houndoom was sniffing the ground, trying to determine how recently Rosie had been there. But with all the confusing scents of blood and other pokémon, it was impossible to tell. After a moment, Wildflame gave up trying to find Rosie by scent. “Let’s just look around…and quick!” she whispered.

Snowcrystal nodded and followed Wildflame as she dashed through the tunnels to the one where they had been held captive. There was no sign of anyone, and the scents of blood and battle seemed to be faded there. Wildflame sighed, turning around and starting to head back.

“Wait!” Snowcrystal shouted, pointing with her nose to a few scraps of creamy white fur lying strewn across the ground. Wildflame turned and ran over to them, barely being able to distinguish Rosie’s scent as she got closer to the scraps of fur. The ninetales had been there…recently, but why was the scent so subtle?

Then both Wildflame and Snowcrystal realized it. There were specks of blood dotted around the floor of the cavern, the signs of a small and brief battle, but the scents of the pokémon had faded to be replaced with what was now a weak, yet recognizable scent of a grass pokémon’s attack, possibly stun spore. The once strong scent now lay over everything, making it hard to distinguish the other scents.

“I guess some of the fire pokémon invaded the cave and fought the grass ones in this cavern,” Snowcrystal told Wildflame. “I just wish I knew where they are now…and where Rosie is!”

Wildflame nodded and they walked into a dark tunnel leading out of the cavern and deeper into the cave, looking for any further signs of a battle. Snowcrystal found traces of blood leading off down another tunnel, and they turned and followed that one. Up ahead, there was no light, save for the glow of Snowcrystal’s luminous crystal.

As they emerged into a small cavern, Snowcrystal stopped suddenly. Several grass types, both young and old, were huddled together in the small darkened space, each looking fearfully at the two fire types as they approached.

“Don’t worry!” Snowcrystal told them. “We aren’t here to hurt you…we’re just looking for our friend!”

At this statement, two of the grass pokémon looked at each other knowingly and stepped aside to reveal Rosie, who lay unconscious on the ground behind them.

“What happened?” Snowcrystal asked, running to her friend’s side. Luckily, Rosie didn’t seem badly hurt; she looked as if she had been knocked out by sleep powder, or something of the sort.

“Those fire types attacked us in here…” a tiny bulbasaur said in a timid voice. “There weren’t enough strong fighters in the cave to stop them…”

Snowcrystal looked down, seeing Rosie starting to stir. Wildflame helped to nudge the half-conscious ninetales to her feet, while Snowcrystal headed back down the tunnel. “You grass pokémon should get out of here!” she warned them, running off with Wildflame and Rosie stumbling together behind her.

“But it’s not safe!” one of the pokémon cried, but Snowcrystal insisted again that they leave. Hesitantly, the grass types began to move, speaking to one another softly as one by one, they stood up. Snowcrystal wanted to stay and help if she could, but Wildflame urged her out of the cavern.

“Let me guess…” Rosie muttered as she began to wake up more fully, “not everything went according to plan?”

“Not really,” Wildflame admitted, “but let’s just find Spark and get as far away from here as possible.”

As they walked into the big cavern, the one with the large hole in the ceiling, a pokémon emerged from one of the tunnels and stood to face them. Snowcrystal tensed; it was obviously one of the fire types who had attacked the cave. Red scales covered the lizard-like pokémon’s body, and its tail ended in a brightly burning flame. It stared at them strangely and called out, “Who are you?”

Snowcrystal realized from the look on the pokémon’s face that this stranger knew that they weren’t on his side, and that surprised look quickly turned to suspicion.

Wildflame’s eyes narrowed. “Get out of our way!” the houndoom hissed, snarling and raising her long pointed tail.

Before the charmeleon could even make a decision, a massive tropius, much bigger than the one that had called them spies before, burst into the cavern. Rearing over the unfortunate fire pokémon, the tropius quickly brought both of its hind legs crashing down against the fire type, knocking him out cold. The tropius then charged past Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Rosie, and vanished into another tunnel.

Soon afterward, other large grass types entered the cavern, looking furious and ready to do battle. None of them paid Snowcrystal or the others any heed as they thundered past. Wildflame glanced at them before leading Snowcrystal and Rosie back toward the entrance.

When they emerged, Spark was waiting for them, looking satisfied as he watched several grass pokémon chase away enemy fire types from the cave. “I think the tide of the battle has turned,” he stated. “Apparently, these grass types just got reinforcements. I suppose their tribe must have been separated a long time ago, and it looks like the other half of it came just in time.”

“That’s great…” Rosie muttered, lashing her tails. “Let’s get out of here before we’re caught in the middle of it again.”

The others needed no second bidding, and together, they hastily fled from the scene of battle, leaving the cave far behind.

-ooo-

It was nearly dark when the four friends stopped. Not far away, the remains of the burned forest loomed dark and desolate against the late evening sky. After they had fled from the grass types’ battle, they had ended up close to it again, though now, none of them minded. They were simply glad to be free.

“We should rest for now,” Snowcrystal told them. “We’ll have to wait until we’re stronger to try and find out anything about Articuno…though I’m really not sure how we’re even going to do that…” She sighed, placing her head on her paws.

“Well it’s certainly not impossible,” Wildflame told her, walking closer to her. “And at least we aren’t separated-”

“What do you mean?” Snowcrystal cried, anger flaring up in her eyes. “Stormblade and Thunder are gone. Did you forget that they were taken by poachers after you saw it with your own eyes?”

Wildflame was taken aback at this reply, but to her surprise, Snowcrystal just sighed.

“I’m sorry…” the growlithe muttered quickly. “It’s just…I’m worried about what’s happening to them…I don’t know if the poachers would even want to keep Stormblade…what if they just left him in a forest somewhere alone?”

Wildflame was about to make a comment on how even that would be better than being owned by poachers, but she thought better of it. “Don’t worry,” she told Snowcrystal. “Things will turn out all right in the end.”

“How do you know?” the young growlithe asked, looking up at Wildflame with wide eyes.

“Because,” Wildflame replied simply, giving her a smile, “I believe that things will go right. That’s certainly better than believing that things will go wrong, isn’t it?”

“I suppose…” Snowcrystal replied, not convinced.

“Now, I certainly don’t know how things will go right,” Wildflame continued, “but things like what happened to us recently won’t be happening forever. When things in my tribe went wrong, it always turned out okay, even if it turned out differently than we expected. But it will be all right…I promise.”

Snowcrystal gave her a small smile, and Wildflame smiled back. She wasn’t completely sure she believed the things she had said, but her words had at least seemed to have satisfied the small growlithe.

“You’re right…” Snowcrystal replied. “We shouldn’t give up…I just hope that wherever Thunder and Stormblade are, someone’s helping them too.”

Wildflame nodded, glancing back at Spark and Rosie, who were already dozing off nearby. “I’m sure someone is. They’ll be all right…somehow…” the houndoom replied, relieved that her words were at least calming Snowcrystal down. For all she knew, Stormblade and Thunder could be dead, but Snowcrystal didn’t need to believe that. She needed to have hope, even if the situation itself was hopeless.

Lying down, Wildflame paused to glance up at the stars. There seemed to be so many now, without the large clouds and snow-strewn winds of the mountains to block them from view. It seemed peaceful here, despite all that had happened. Wildflame lay her head down, letting the cool wind ruffle her fur.

Snowcrystal sat a little ways away, her fur fluffed out against a small breeze that rushed by from beyond the forest. While the others rested, she had decided to keep watch for a while, as she did not feel tired, and there could still be enemies lurking about. Curling her fluffy tail around her, she sat and gazed out over the fields, deep in thought.

-ooo-

‘Poison…’ Redclaw thought frantically, thinking back to what he had learned from the battles he had participated in while under the control of ‘Master.’ Rarely did a pokémon get poisoned, but when one did, his owner usually had some medicine to cure them with. However there was certainly none of that in the abandoned city.

“Well…do you know what to do?” Stormblade asked hopefully, giving Redclaw a pleading expression.

“Calm down,” the arcanine told him. “You might not even be poisoned at all. You could have drank the water before the poison had time to spread far from where the muk was. Now come on, let’s find a cleaner source of water.”

He helped the scyther to stand and walk away from the water, hoping that he was right about Stormblade not being poisoned. Maybe if they started walking, Stormblade would at least be somewhat distracted from that, and wouldn’t panic at the slightest thought that poison could be affecting him. After all, Stormblade didn’t look any worse now, so maybe there really was nothing to worry about.

The three pokémon walked down one of the crooked streets, and even though he was a fire type, Redclaw was starting to feel weak from lack of water. He hadn’t been in the best health when he had first set out to find Stormblade’s friends or any other help, after all. Thunder was probably a lot worse off.

After a short while, during which Stormblade seemed to be having an increasing amount of trouble walking – though Redclaw had hoped it was just his imagination – the scyther suddenly stopped altogether. He placed his blades against the ground to stop himself from falling over and took several deep breaths. Redclaw noticed that he was shaking.

“What’s wrong?” Redclaw asked, alarmed at the thought that Stormblade might be poisoned after all.

“I…I feel sick…” Stormblade whispered quietly.

That was the answer that Redclaw had been dreading to hear, and from the look of Stormblade, this was probably a lot worse than just ‘feeling sick.’ The look on Stormblade’s face told him that the scyther knew what it meant as well. “Stay here,” the arcanine instructed. “I’m going to go try to find some help. Thunder, you stay here too.”

“NO!” Thunder shouted, and both Redclaw and Stormblade were surprised at her sudden hostility. Thunder looked as if the mere idea of staying behind with Stormblade greatly angered or even frightened her, though neither of the others were sure why. “I’m going with you,” she insisted, glancing at Redclaw.

“All right…” the arcanine agreed reluctantly. “You can come with me. Let’s see if any of the pokémon here will talk to us…”

“I don’t want to stay here alone!” Stormblade called weakly after them as they turned to leave.

“We’ll be back soon,” Redclaw told him, and pointed with his muzzle toward one of the buildings. “You can stay in there. It’s safer.”

Stormblade reluctantly let Redclaw help him into the building, where he lay down on the muddy floor, watching as Redclaw and Thunder walked away.

“But what if-” he began worriedly, but Redclaw interrupted.

“You’ll be better off here than if you came with us,” Redclaw told him. “And we can search for someone who can help faster this way.” He then turned and ran away down the street.

“Yeah, do you want to die from the poison, or do you want us to help?” Thunder called over her shoulder before running to catch up with Redclaw.

Feeling helpless and vulnerable, Stormblade laid his head down slowly and waited for the two to return.

Redclaw and Thunder darted through the streets ahead, keeping watch for other pokémon. They saw several small ones, but couldn’t talk to them before they darted away. Redclaw worriedly noticed that the sun was starting to set. They hadn’t been looking long, and it would be harder to search in the dark.

“This is hopeless!” Thunder muttered after a while. “There’s no one here who’s actually going to be willing to listen to us for even a second! We should get Stormblade and get out of here…maybe there are other pokémon near the city who can help us.”

Redclaw nodded. Thunder was right; most of the pokémon in the city were prey species or species that could easily be overcome by a powerful arcanine or scyther. He wasn’t surprised that they didn’t want to stick around to listen to them. “All right…” he agreed, “let’s go back…quickly…”

They turned and quickly ran back to where they had left Stormblade, peering around for the building they had left him in. It didn’t take them long to find it, and Redclaw ran past Thunder, walking toward the building’s open doorway.

Stormblade was lying on the floor of the building, though not calmly as he had been before. He was lying on his side, almost doubled up, jerking and trembling and looking like he was in terrible pain.

Redclaw was about to run to his side when he noticed something so surprising that it stopped him in his tracks. It had taken him a moment to notice it, but there was a pokémon, a small cubone, standing beside Stormblade near the entrance to the building.

At first, Redclaw wondered if the cubone was trying to help Stormblade, but as he walked closer, he realized that the ground type was simply watching the scyther writhe in agony, giving him a blank, hollow stare that gave away no remorse or concern. The cubone didn’t look surprised or worried either, as if he was used to this sort of thing happening. Somehow, that unnerved Redclaw.

The arcanine rushed to Stormblade’s side, and the cubone stepped aside as if making room for him to stand there. The strange pokémon didn’t look up, but kept watching Stormblade. It seemed almost as if he had nothing better to do and this dying scyther had simply attracted his interest.

“Stormblade, calm down!” Redclaw cried, wishing that his friend would lie still and not help the poison spread faster. Leaning down, Redclaw nudged Stormblade, but the scyther paid him no heed. Redclaw had to step back as one of Stormblade’s scythes lashed towards his forepaw.

As Thunder stepped in the doorway, giving Stormblade an almost worried look, Redclaw turned to the silent cubone. “Have you seen something like this before?” he asked desperately. “Do you know how to treat it?”

Looking up at him with wide eyes that looked almost sad, the cubone nodded his head to the first question and shook his head to the last.

“Well, do you know anyone who can?” Redclaw asked, though he was sure he knew what the answer would probably be.

Yet to his surprise, the cubone paused a moment, staring at him, before nodding.

“Can you take us to them?” Redclaw asked.

The cubone paused again before nodding and turned to walk slowly past Thunder and out of the doorway of the building.

Thunder rolled her eyes. “Why didn’t you say that in the first place if you already knew where help was?” she muttered, and turned to look at Stormblade.

“We won’t be able to take him anywhere if he doesn’t hold still…” Redclaw mused, wishing the cubone had at least stopped to wait for them.

Sighing, Thunder stood up and walked over to Stormblade, placing her foot on the weakening scyther’s neck. Lifting her scythe above him, she suddenly brought the dull side of the blade down hard against the side of his head, and Stormblade cried out in pain before falling still. “There,” she told Redclaw quietly, “problem solved.”

“What did you do that for?” Redclaw growled.

“So you can bring Stormblade to where help is,” Thunder muttered, turning and walking out the door. Knowing that time was valuable, Redclaw lightly gripped Stormblade’s wings in his jaws and dragged him as carefully as he could across the muddied floor and out of the building.

Thunder was standing beside the strange cubone, who was eyeing her metal collar strangely. Redclaw caught up with them, trying to cause Stormblade as little damage as possible while carrying him.

Tapping Redclaw lightly with his claw, the cubone pointed to a road which led further down the street. Then he began walking again, though slowly, as if he didn’t see any real need for urgency.

“What’s the matter with you?” Thunder shouted to him, annoyed. “Can’t you talk?”

The cubone didn’t answer, just kept walking. Redclaw followed, setting down Stormblade for a moment to ask, “Can you just show us where this pokémon is? We have to get there fast!” To his dismay, the cubone kept walking, not giving any indication that he had heard. Seeing no other option, Redclaw picked up Stormblade by the wings again and followed.

For a while longer they walked, and Redclaw was growing increasingly worried about Stormblade. Even Thunder seemed a bit nervous, and kept glancing at the unconscious scyther. Just when Redclaw was about to give up and try to look elsewhere for help, a strange human-made statue loomed into view up ahead.

Redclaw approached it, realizing that the statue stood in the middle of a large circular area surrounded by buildings. The ground there was different, and though there were no human scents, there were several pokémon ones, much fresher than the ones he’d smelled in other parts of the city. He wondered if a lot of pokémon had gathered in that spot recently.

The statue itself was large and strange. It was a brownish-gold statue of a rapidash rearing back on its hind legs, with a human sitting on its back. The statue was much bigger than a real rapidash and human, and it towered over Redclaw and Thunder. The strange thing about it was that some parts of the statue looked melted, mostly the head, mane, and forelimbs of the rapidash. It was as if some very powerful fire attack had distorted the statue long ago, giving it an eerie and rather grotesque look. Redclaw assumed that it had originally been made to look as if the rapidash was yelling a battle cry, though now it almost seemed as if it was screaming in pain or fear. The base of the statue, which the rapidash was standing on, had many human-made markings on it that the pokémon could not understand.

The cubone had stopped, and seemed to be waiting for something. Redclaw set Stormblade down against the base of the statue, feeling relieved that he could still hear the thin scyther’s feeble breathing. He turned to Thunder, who was idly slashing at the base of the statue, creating long scratches across its once shiny surface.

“Stupid human made thing…” she muttered, looking up at it. “I’m glad some pokémon ruined it!”

Redclaw turned away from her and to the small cubone, who was now walking away, much to Redclaw’s dismay and surprise. “Wait!” he called, running after him. “Where are you going? Who’s going to help us?” The cubone neither stopped nor acknowledged him, and Redclaw was about to try and catch up to the pokémon when an earsplitting screech stopped him in his tracks.

Redclaw whirled around, just in time to see the pokémon who had made the cry, a vigoroth, launch itself toward Thunder, taking her by surprise and knocking her to the ground.

Forgetting the cubone for a moment, Redclaw bounded toward her, watching as the vigoroth raked its claws down Thunder’s injured side. Thunder quickly retaliated, slashing with her scythe across the vigoroth’s shoulder and making him step back with a hiss of pain.

As Redclaw reached Thunder, he prepared to use flamethrower in order to stop the vigoroth from attacking again, but soon realized there was no need. The pokémon turned and fled back to the safety of a nearby alleyway.

“What was that all about?” Thunder spat, staggering to her feet.

“I don’t know,” Redclaw replied, looking around for the cubone, but there was no sign of him. “But I think-”

He was cut off as several angry cries sounded from around him. He watched in terror as many different pokémon, moving as one, began emerging from buildings and alleys all around them. Redclaw could see several vigoroth, nidorino, nidorina, sandslash, marowak, muk, and grimer, though there were a few of other species as well. He spotted some charmander and linoone, and even a flareon. All of them looked and acted as if they belonged to one group, and to Redclaw’s horror, they all looked pleased and willing to begin a fight.

As Redclaw backed against the statue, he couldn’t help but wonder how those other pokémon could stand the grimer and muk’s stench. With so many around, the smell was now overpowering, though the other pokémon did not seem to mind at all. Redclaw then felt furious at the fact that the lone cubone had led them into a trap; what had they done to him?

His thoughts were interrupted as several of the pokémon darted forward, while others simply sat back to watch. Redclaw leaped away as a nidorino charged passed him, narrowly avoiding having the pokémon gouge its long horn into his leg. As he paused to catch his breath, two vigoroth jumped toward him, slashing through his fur viciously with their curved claws. Redclaw turned his head to send them away with a fire attack, but something struck his shoulder hard and caused him to fall to the ground.

A marowak, holding a long, thick bone stepped toward him, though Redclaw ignored him, focusing instead on using his hind legs to kick one of the vigoroth away from him. He could hear more pokémon racing toward him, and fought to regain his footing again. He managed to scramble to his feet and quickly send the marowak away with a flamethrower attack. He glanced at Thunder, who was fighting with a sandslash, before he had to stop and attempt to fend off the many pokémon that were attacking him from all sides.

As Redclaw fired a blast of flame at several of the pokémon and raked his claws across the flareon’s back, he heard the sandslash Thunder was fighting cry out and run back to the safety of the buildings. The watching pokémon, seeing that the two strangers were starting to put up a good fight, came racing toward them, eager to join in the battle.

Knowing that there would be far too many opponents for him to even have any hope of fighting, Redclaw did the only thing he could think of at the moment. Opening his mouth wide, he released a billowing cloud of red-hot flames, the biggest flame wheel attack he could manage. Turning his head, he spun around quickly, encircling the statue and himself in a wall of brightly blazing fire.

The enemy pokémon caught in the center of the blazing circle backed away fearfully, though Redclaw knew that they wouldn’t be fearful for long. Quickly he ran over to Thunder, who at first seemed to have no serious injuries, until he noticed that one of her arms – the one with the shackle still attached to it – was cut very deeply, and she seemed to be having trouble raising that arm.

“You all right?” Redclaw asked her, giving her a worried look.

Noticing this, Thunder scowled at him. “Shut up and worry about yourself!” she snapped.

Deciding it was best to do as she said, Redclaw turned to Stormblade, who still lay unconscious. He couldn’t see any new injuries on him, and realized that the attackers must have left him alone while they concentrated on him and Thunder first.

Redclaw’s ears pricked as the pokémon inside the ring of flames walked toward them, not seeming worried that their comrades could no longer reach them because of the fire. ‘That fire won’t last forever…’ Redclaw thought, growing worried. ‘At least we’ll be able to take these pokémon down easier!’

With a roar he leaped forward, knocking a nidorino off his feet and sending him crashing into one of the other enemies. Thunder tried to run toward another foe, raising both of her arms, but immediately stopped, crying out in pain and stumbling.

Alarmed, Redclaw glanced toward her, not noticing a marowak lifting its arm to throw. When the bone slammed into his head, it took Redclaw by complete surprise. Stunned, he didn’t even realize he was falling until his head hit the rough ground underneath him. Still dazed, he was barely aware of the pokémon still battling with Thunder, who was slashing at them with one arm, and the pokémon who were now approaching him.

As he tried to force his exhausted limbs to move, Redclaw pointed his head toward the enemy pokémon and tried to use a fire attack, but the attack wouldn’t come. Wearily he pushed himself up on his paws, ignoring the stabbing pain in his head, as he braced himself for a fight he didn’t think he could win.

A sandslash bolder than the rest of the pokémon braced itself before leaping toward the weakened arcanine, its lethal claws outstretched. As Redclaw braced himself, something flew down at the sandslash from an angle, not only cannoning into the pokémon, but also sending it flying over the slowly diminishing wall of flame. The pokémon who had struck it came to a halt as it landed between Redclaw and the other remaining enemy pokémon.

This newcomer obviously didn’t live in the city. It was a tall and powerful looking dark blue bug type, covered in tough armor thicker than a scyther’s. It had long, curved claws at the end of its arms and feet, and two spikes jutted out of the sides of each of its arms. The pokémon’s most deadly weapon was obviously its horn, which curved upward from its head and had two very sharp-looking prongs at its tip. There was a notable scar over the pokémon’s left eye, which showed that he was no stranger to battling. Redclaw recognized this species of pokémon; it was a heracross, and he knew that though they were incredibly powerful, they were usually docile. He couldn’t help but wonder…what was a heracross doing here?

Before he could stop her, Thunder darted at the heracross from behind, obviously not realizing that he wasn’t one of the enemies that had attacked him. She lifted her arm, and Redclaw expected the heracross to be cut badly by the blow; he knew that even when injured, Thunder was a formidable fighter.

However, to his surprise, the heracross whirled around at the last instant, blocking Thunder’s scythe with the spikes on his arm. “Stop that!” he growled, though his voice sounded neither intimidating nor threatening. “I’m trying to help you!”

Without another word he pushed the surprised Thunder away and ran toward the other remaining pokémon, two nidorino, a marowak, a vigoroth, and the flareon. The first two, one of the nidorino and the vigoroth, were slammed forcefully against the statue as the heracross rammed them with his horn. Spreading his wings and flying above the other nidorino who had leapt to attack him, the heracross turned to the vigoroth, dodging a blast of fire from the flareon.

Feeling some of his strength returning, Redclaw leaped up and ran to his new ally’s aid, knocking the flareon through the wall of flames with a massive swipe from his paw. The pokémon was obviously not hurt from the fire, though it did not return to do battle. He then bolted toward the nidorino who was still conscious, while the heracross battled with the vigoroth.

Thunder, however, was not fighting. At first, she had run toward the enemies just like Redclaw had, though the pain in her right arm had stopped her, and she still found it very difficult to move it. For a moment, she could picture her Master, calmly telling her to get up and keep fighting, with a look in his eyes that spoke all the threats his words didn’t. She closed her eyes and stayed where she was. She didn’t have to keep going. Master wasn’t there.

Redclaw had managed to knock the nidorino out, though it had been difficult, and the heracross had finished his battle with the vigoroth. Turning to Redclaw, the bug type told him, “I think it’s time we got out of here. Can you run?”

Redclaw glanced over his wounds, which didn’t seem serious, and nodded.

“Good,” the heracross replied. “This circle of fire won’t last much longer. We need to head out of the city the quickest way possible. Did you see an old sign at the city’s outskirts while you were here?”

“Y-yes…” Redclaw stammered. “We came in that way. But how are we going to get out without-”

“Me and that scyther can fly out,” the heracross told him. “As for you…you’re going to have to make a run for it. Shouldn’t be too hard if you don’t let them corner you first…arcanine are some of the fastest pokémon, you know.”

Redclaw nodded, and flicked his tail toward Stormblade. “What about him?” he asked. “I can’t carry him and run at the same time, and he’s been poisoned…”

“I can carry him,” the heracross replied, walking over to Stormblade. “Now hurry, we don’t have much time. Get ready to run, arcanine.”

Redclaw nodded again, and watched as Thunder spread out her wings and took to the air. He idly wondered why she hadn’t tried to fly away and leave them before, which seemed like something she would have done. He shook away the thought, watching as the heracross approached Stormblade and lifted the bigger scyther with surprising ease. “Go!” he yelled to Redclaw, spreading his wings just as Thunder had.

Turning around, Redclaw burst through the circle of flames, dashing past surprised pokémon and leaping over a muk that was in his path. Several of the pokémon darted after him, and in the growing darkness, Redclaw saw the flickering light from the flames glimmering against the buildings fade and vanish. The fire had died out.

Redclaw ran on, unable to hear the wing-beats of Thunder or the heracross due to the loud cries of his enemies as they chased him. Frightened, he sped up as much as he could, hearing the growls of a particularly speedy vigoroth right behind him before its cries slowly faded into the distance. Even after the last pokémon had fallen behind, Redclaw kept running. He didn’t stop until he had made it past the sign that stood in front of the city. Then he collapsed in a heap, exhausted.

After a short while, Thunder and the heracross both arrived at about the same time. Redclaw watched the blue bug type set down Stormblade gently, noticing that the scyther’s bandages had been torn accidentally by the heracross’s claws.

“You shouldn’t have gone in there,” the newcomer told Redclaw and Thunder calmly. “It’s not safe. A lot of pokémon come there to use the buildings for shelter, including small ones who forage for food elsewhere and come back there to rest and be safe from most predators, such as bird pokémon. It’s hardly safer though…that big group of pokémon you saw…well, those that are predators hunt the smaller pokémon, so they’re always wary of any pokémon that looks dangerous. That big group considers the city theirs…and they aren’t friendly toward intruders whom they think might be there to steal their food or water supplies. A lot of them take pleasure in fighting, too.”

“We didn’t know…we only came in there to look for water,” Redclaw explained before Thunder could say anything. “We found some, but it had been polluted by a muk’s poison. And he drank it…” He glanced toward Stormblade, who still lay unnaturally still on the ground.

The heracross worriedly looked down at the scyther, who now looked very pale, but was still breathing. “I don’t know much about muk or grimer…” he began, “but I do know of something that might save him. It’s been known to cure a lot of other types of poison and it might cure this. It’ll be hard to find the herbs I need now that my forest has been destroyed, but I’ll try my best to find them.” He turned and quickly flew off, leaving the three travelers alone.

Redclaw lay down by Stormblade, deciding to watch over him until the heracross came back. He was glad to have found a pokémon so willing to help them, even when he hadn’t even known them before. The bug type had also seemed very skilled in battle, which surprised Redclaw, considering that wild heracross didn’t usually fight unless they absolutely had to. Remembering the scar over the heracross’s left eye, Redclaw wondered if he’d had to fight off enemies quite a lot.

Sitting a small distance away from the others, Thunder was gently licking the deep cut on her arm, paying Redclaw and Stormblade no heed. Sighing, Redclaw glanced back toward the silent city resting in the fading light of sunset, waiting for the strange heracross’s return.

To be continued…

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 30 - Blazefang’s Departure

Snowcrystal yawned, resting her head on her paws. She hadn’t been keeping watch for long, and she was already getting tired. She stood up and walked around, hoping that would help her keep awake. She did not want to be attacked by any potential enemies if she fell asleep. Sitting down, the growlithe drowsily glanced over the rocky plain, wondering if she should wake one of the others up.

Movement from nearby caught the growlithe’s eye and she sat upright, instantly alert. Cautiously moving toward Wildflame, she prodded the houndoom with one forepaw.

“Wildflame, wake up. Something’s moving out there.”

Wildflame sat up, looking much less weary than Snowcrystal was. After all, she was a normally nocturnal pokémon. Quickly spotting the source of movement, she whispered, “There’s only one of them. I don’t think it’s a threat, but let’s check it out.”

“All right,” Snowcrystal whispered, padding forward carefully while Wildflame boldly approached the pokémon moving about in the dark. It didn’t seem to notice as Wildflame crept around a boulder, giving it a closer look.

“It’s nothing but a heracross,” Wildflame whispered. “No problem for us. Let’s go back.”

Snowcrystal nodded tiredly in reply and the two turned around. Yet their whispers had attracted the heracross’s attention, and he turned toward the boulder. Snowcrystal paused to glance back at him, noticing hostility in his yellow eyes.

“Who’s there?” the heracross cried warningly, pausing to drop something that he was carrying on the ground as he neared the boulder where the two fire types hid.

Still not feeling threatened in the least, Wildflame boldly stepped around the large slab of stone, Snowcrystal following more timidly. “We’re just resting over there,” Wildflame told him, inclining with her head toward the place where Spark and Rosie slept. “We saw you from a distance and thought you might be one of those hostile fire or grass types.” Wildflame didn’t feel that it mattered if the heracross knew where they were resting; heracross weren’t predators, and they were not prey either. Being far too tough to take down without risking serious injury, heracross were left alone by predators, and in turn left them alone. From what little Wildflame knew about them, they seemed to normally have little to do with species other than their own and butterfree.

The heracross didn’t bother to ask what Wildflame meant by the hostile grass and fire types, and instead leaned down to pick up the items he had dropped. Wildflame noticed pecha berries among various types of plant leaves. Now that he knew Wildflame and Snowcrystal weren’t a threat, the blue bug type didn’t seem to want to bother with them anymore.

“What’s all that stuff?” Snowcrystal asked, glancing at the leaves and berries. Just after she’d said it, she realized that the heracross seemed to want to be alone, as he had begun walking around as if searching for something.

“Berries and herbs to help a sick pokémon,” the heracross replied, not looking up as he paused to look through a group of bushes.

“Great!” Wildflame muttered. “That’s all we need…local pokémon spreading disease around here!”

“It’s not a disease,” the heracross replied, beginning to search more frantically. “A scyther’s been poisoned and I’m the only one around here who knows anything about healing.”

“A scyther!” Snowcrystal exclaimed. “Poisoned? What did the scyther look like?”

Snowcrystal suddenly noticed Wildflame going slightly pale, with what looked like fear. A moment later, however, and she had shaken it off, giving the heracross an indifferent stare.

“Just like any scyther,” the heracross replied, “only this one had been injured. He had bandages and had obviously been to a pokémon center. He also had a wounded leg-”

“That’s Stormblade!” Snowcrystal yelled. “Where is he? Can you take us to him? Is Thunder there?”

Wildflame didn’t say a word, but she had also suspected that Stormblade was the scyther this heracross had found. She didn’t understand what he had said about the ‘pokémon center’ much, but his words were obviously true. This pokémon had found Stormblade, and if the scyther told anyone anything, the others could very well figure out that she had been lying about him being taken by poachers.

“I don’t know anyone named Thunder,” the heracross replied, interrupting Wildflame’s thoughts, “so I don’t know what you mean. But if you know this scyther, I can take you to him…” His voice trailed off as he seemed to find what he was looking for, grabbing at a few unripe oran berries nearby. Knowing that those would have to do, he turned to Snowcrystal and Wildflame again. “Follow me,” he told them urgently, beginning to look worried. “We have to get back there fast.”

“Wait,” Snowcrystal told him, “let me get the others.” Without waiting for an answer, she raced back to where Rosie and Spark lay, quickly rousing them and explaining everything as she led the way back to the heracross and Wildflame.

“You sure this guy knows where Stormblade is?” Spark asked as he darted beside Snowcrystal, his paws sending up puffs of ash as they raced over the burned soil near the destroyed forest.

“Yeah!” Snowcrystal replied. “He said Stormblade’s poisoned. But he knows about healing. He can help him!”

“Hope so…” Spark replied uneasily. In the many battles he’d fought for Justin, he had only been poisoned once or twice, and Justin had immediately treated him. Never had the poison been anything serious enough to kill him or cause him excruciating pain, but that was because the poison types were not allowed to attack with extremely powerful poison in trainer battles. But out in the wild, it could be different. He shook away the thought.

Rosie followed behind the others more slowly, with Wildflame at her side. The ninetales was limping fast, despite her injury, and her nine tails streamed out behind her as she fought to keep up with the others, hopeful at the thought of their group being reunited again.

Wildflame, however, felt differently. If she couldn’t somehow find a way to make her earlier explanation not seem like a lie, she knew they would never trust her again.

-ooo-

Redclaw waited for what seemed like a long time, crouching beside Stormblade as he watched the city anxiously. The unconscious scyther still showed no signs of stirring, though Redclaw had tried his best to wake him. Thunder was now lying down on the grass, not seeming concerned at all.

Redclaw could still hear Stormblade breathing, but it seemed to be growing shallower and weaker. He didn’t understand; Stormblade should have woken up by now. Placing his paw on Stormblade’s shoulder, he shook him gently, but got no response. Suddenly the sound of quick wing-beats overhead caused him to glance up, and the heracross he had met in the city landed beside him.

“Did you find what you need to help him?” Redclaw asked anxiously.

“Yes,” the bug type replied, “but he needs to eat it. Have you tried waking him up?”

Redclaw nodded and watched as the heracross set down the berries and leaves and tried to wake Stormblade. The arcanine looked up in surprise as four other pokémon appeared, dashing toward him. One was the white growlithe he had seen when Master had ordered him to attack the intruders back in the dark forest, and he recognized the jolteon from that same battle too. With a leap of hope he realized that these pokémon must be Stormblade’s friends.

Thunder looked up as the others approached, suddenly seeming hostile and wary. Quickly she backed away from the others, not wanting any of them to try and talk to her.

Snowcrystal stopped in front of Redclaw, Stormblade, and the heracross, looking horrified as she glanced over Stormblade. “Is he going to be okay?” she asked, turning to the heracross in alarm. Moving closer, she tried to push the heracross aside to get a better look, but Wildflame pulled her back by gripping her scruff.

“Leave them alone,” the houndoom told her after setting her down. “They’re the ones that know what to do.” Before Snowcrystal could protest, Wildflame turned back to the others, knowing that the small growlithe would probably just get in the way.

Wildflame and Rosie approached Stormblade, neither of them saying a word at first. Rosie looked shocked that Stormblade now had several new injuries, including a jagged cut across his head and new burns on his arms, legs, and neck. Spark looked completely horrified at the fact that the big and powerful scyther who had protected him in the wild and showed him how to hunt could look so pitifully weak now.

“You need him to wake up, right?” Spark said quietly, stepping forward a bit more. “I think I can-”

“Spark, DON’T!” Rosie growled, knowing what he was about to do, but Spark ignored her, sending a tiny jolt of electricity into Stormblade’s body.

At first Stormblade didn’t move, and Spark cringed as Rosie shot him a furious glare, but then after a moment, he slowly began to stir. Spark carefully nudged him and Stormblade opened one eye before closing it again, lying still once more.

Redclaw realized that either Stormblade had realized that he needed to hold still, or he was simply too weak to move anymore. He sadly admitted to himself that it was probably the latter, as Stormblade hadn’t even made a sound. He probably just didn’t have the strength.

Redclaw and the others watched as the heracross picked up one of the pecha berries, knowing that it was probably the most important item he had brought back. “Here, eat this,” Redclaw said before taking the berry from the heracross and setting it beside Stormblade’s mouth. However, Stormblade made no move to try and eat it, and continued to lay there motionless.

“I don’t think he’s going to be able to eat it,” Thunder stated, walking over to the others and ignoring the surprised glances from Spark and Rosie. Redclaw slowly nodded; he wasn’t sure if Stormblade was even able to move.

Picking up the pecha berry, the heracross carefully opened Stormblade’s mouth, and crushed the berry in his claws, letting the sweet pecha juice drip into the scyther’s mouth. “I think this is the best I can do,” he said slowly, reaching for another berry to do the same. “At least until he starts to recover. I just hope it will be enough for now…I’m not really an experienced healer; I only know a few things, so I’m not entirely sure pecha berries are going to be enough. I think we can only hope for the best until he gets strong enough to eat more.” He glanced at the pile of herbs he had brought back.

“But, if he eats the berry juice, won’t he get better?” Spark asked.

“This isn’t like a small pokémon’s tale,” Rosie replied, turning to Spark. “Pecha berries don’t cure poison instantly like they do in stories. And don’t tell me you think an oran berry will suddenly make his wounds vanish.”

“I know all that!” Spark cried. “It’s just…pecha berries usually cured poison when I was a trainer pokémon, though they weren’t as fast or effective as the medicine Justin would buy. But…I do know that that poison was never as bad…”

Only half listening to the others, Redclaw lay down as he watched Stormblade, who seemed to have slipped into unconsciousness again. The heracross had left his pile of herbs nearby, having already used up the berries. A sudden thought struck the arcanine; this heracross had been such a big help to him and Stormblade, when they were complete strangers to him, and he hadn’t even thanked him. Standing up again, Redclaw turned to the heracross and smiled a little. “Thank you,” he told him, “for helping us. If it weren’t for you, Stormblade would never have had any chance at all.”

The heracross gave him a small smile back, and Redclaw thought of something else.

“Why were you near that city if it was dangerous?” the arcanine asked. “And did you say your home was in that forest? The one that got burned down? Did you…wait…” he quickly mumbled, realizing that he had forgotten something. “What is your name?”

“Nightshade,” the heracross replied. “I lived in that forest before it burned down. I know that the pokémon in that human place you left harmed forest pokémon who ventured too close, usually. Everyone there knew to avoid it. I assume you are travelers?”

Redclaw nodded. “Yes,” he replied, “we’re looking for a new home…well, some of us are.”

“I’m looking for a new home too,” Nightshade told Redclaw. “For a few days I tried to live in the rocky plains outside of the forest, but there’s little food there. I decided to leave tonight, and while flying over that city, I spotted you.”

“Well,” Redclaw told him, “if we’re all looking for something, we might as well look together, right? And we’ve been through a lot of dangers around these places. I’m sure you know some areas better than we do too. We can help each other.”

“I don’t know,” Nightshade whispered quietly, but to Redclaw’s dismay, he didn’t say anything more.

“We’ll have to wait until Stormblade’s a little better,” Redclaw continued, giving the scyther another glance. It might have just been his imagination, but Stormblade’s breathing seemed calmer now.

Nightshade nodded. “Like I said, I’m not a full healer,” he replied, “but I was taught a few things from a heracross who was. I can show you what plants will help stop infection and ease pain, once it gets lighter.”

Redclaw nodded and lay his head down on his paws, watching over Stormblade once again.

Snowcrystal watched Redclaw and Nightshade from a short distance, listening to their conversation. Looking up at Wildflame, she asked, “Shouldn’t I go over there and see if Stormblade’s all right?”

“He’ll be fine,” Wildflame replied, though she really didn’t have much of an idea of how badly poisoned he could be. “Just stay here. The others will take care of everything.”

Snowcrystal sighed and sat down, watching Rosie and Spark lying a short distance away, both glad for a chance to rest after having to travel so far while injured, as they waited to hear whether Stormblade would be all right. Thunder had distanced herself from everyone else, lying underneath one of the few trees that grew in the area. Blood from a small but very deep cut on her arm was staining the dry grass beneath her, but she seemed too distracted by her thoughts to care. Snowcrystal wondered what had happened. Had Thunder started yet another fight? If she had, it had gotten the big arcanine in trouble too, from the look of him. She shuddered. The last thing they needed now was another fight. They were weak now, and would have a hard time finding food and water the next few days while they waited for Stormblade to recover from the poison.

If he did recover…

Pushing away that last thought, Snowcrystal scraped some scraps of dry grass into a small nest and curled up inside it, deciding to try and sleep. She would need to save her energy for the next day if she was going to be of any help to her friends.

-ooo-

When Snowcrystal woke the next morning, she was surprised to find that she had slept long enough for it to be past sunrise. She stood up, stretched, and quickly walked over to where Wildflame now lay beside Stormblade, her tail tip resting on his shoulder. To her surprise, Stormblade was awake, though he didn’t seem to be in any condition to answer any questions, and he didn’t look much better than he had the night before. He was shaking all over and looked as if he was too exhausted to move, but Snowcrystal could see the remains of the herbs Nightshade had brought, and knew that Stormblade had to start getting better soon; at least he wasn’t going to die.

Deciding it was best to let him rest, Snowcrystal walked up to Thunder instead. She wasn’t sure that the scyther would be willing to talk to her, but she was too relieved to have found Thunder alive to care. “Thunder!” she cried, jumping playfully up to Thunder’s side and resting her paws on her uninjured leg. “How did you escape from the poachers? Did you help that arcanine too?”

Wildflame lifted her head, the hairs on her neck rising as she heard Snowcrystal’s first question. ‘Think of a lie…’ she thought to herself. ‘If she says they weren’t captured by poachers, make something up…’

The houndoom tensed as she listened for Thunder’s answer, her tail curling up stiffly as she watched the growlithe and the female scyther. Feeling Wildflame’s tail move away from his shoulder, Stormblade opened his eyes wider and weakly glanced at her before closing them again.

Thunder glared at Snowcrystal, pushing the growlithe away with her leg. “I don’t think they were poachers in the sense that you’re thinking of,” she replied, “but all humans are the same to me. We got away from them…that’s all that matters.”

Wildflame felt like breathing a sigh of relief. It seemed as if Thunder and Stormblade had been taken away by some group of humans, and the others would understand if she told them that she had mistaken them for poachers; all humans looked the same to her. Hopefully though, no one would even bother to ask. Stormblade was far too weak to explain anything and they certainly wouldn’t get much information out of Thunder. That, and the arcanine probably didn’t know much either.

Wildflame looked up as Snowcrystal walked back toward her after Thunder had told her to go away. The growlithe stopped to glance at Rosie and Spark, who were still asleep, and back at Wildflame. “Where are Redclaw and Nightshade?” she asked.

“Redclaw went hunting,” Wildflame replied. “Nightshade should be back soon. He decided to stay with us for a while. He doesn’t know if he wants to travel with us just yet.”

“Wildflame…” Snowcrystal began, changing the subject, “I haven’t seen any sign of Blazefang’s pack in a while…it’s worrying me. Do you think they might be planning something?”

“I don’t know…” Wildflame replied, looking uncomfortable about answering the question. “Maybe they’ve just forgotten about us and moved on.”

“Maybe…” Snowcrystal answered, not convinced. She turned away from Wildflame and Stormblade, deciding that she wanted to be alone with her thoughts for now. Something was worrying her.

The white growlithe walked slowly over the sharp rocks littering the ground, not even turning her head at the sound of a few pidgey and spearow nearby. After a short while, she stopped on top of a large, flat rock and sat down, looking out over the plains.

She knew that Stormblade couldn’t travel until he was at least cured of the poison, yet she felt a growing worry about the delay. A nagging worry told her that she was taking too long, resting too often. She tried to shut it out, telling herself that at the moment, the most important thing was that Stormblade rested. Soon, the nagging thought faded, and she felt herself relaxing. They would get there, she promised herself.

They would get there.

-ooo-

For the next week, the group concentrated on resting and regaining their strength. Nightshade stayed with them, helping to find herbs or berries for those who were injured. Stormblade was still gradually recovering from the effects of the poison, and some of his wounds which weren’t caused by Blazefang’s Shadowflare attack were beginning to heal.

Redclaw had been trying to teach Thunder how to hunt, but without much success. Frustrated, the arcanine had realized just how hard it was to teach a pokémon of a different species hunting techniques. After the two returned from another unsuccessful hunt, Redclaw noticed Snowcrystal approaching him hesitantly.

“Do you think Stormblade’s fit to travel yet?” the small growlithe asked.

Redclaw shook his head. “I doubt he’ll be fit to travel for a long time,” he replied. “He shouldn’t be traveling at all while he has those wounds anyway.”

Snowcrystal knew that he was right. “He can’t stay here either,” she whispered. “It’s too dangerous, and there isn’t much food…we can’t stay here much longer.”

“I know,” Redclaw replied sadly. Over the past week, he had heard all about Snowcrystal’s quest, Spark, Stormblade, and Rosie’s goals to find new homes, the Forbidden Attacks, and Blazefang’s pack. He too realized that it was urgent that they keep going, but he couldn’t shake off the feeling that if they forced Stormblade to travel, he would surely die. “You see, Stormblade’s not going to make it much further if those wounds don’t heal. When we have to leave, when there’s no more prey, we’ll have to make sure not to travel too far or too fast.”

“Why don’t we just do Stormblade a favor and put him out of his misery?” Thunder replied. “That would solve everyone’s problem.”

“What? No!” Snowcrystal cried, as both she and Redclaw turned toward Thunder, shocked.

“It was just a suggestion,” Thunder muttered. “And not a bad one in my opinion.”

Redclaw and Snowcrystal decided not to reply. They, along with Thunder, slowly walked back to where the others were resting.

Rosie looked up as the three pokémon returned. “Any luck?” she asked.

Redclaw shook his head. “There’s hardly any prey,” he replied. “This isn’t a good place to teach someone to hunt.”

“Which makes me glad I’m not a predator,” Nightshade muttered from where he was trying to persuade a reluctant Spark to eat some foul-smelling herbs.

“I caught two pidgey this afternoon,” Wildflame told the others. “We can share those today.”

Under the cool evening sky, the seven friends gathered to share Wildflame’s catch, while Nightshade set off to find food of his own. Stormblade, noticing that Wildflame had given him a bigger share than the others, gave most of his share to Redclaw, not feeling very hungry.

Snowcrystal sat up after finishing her small meal, cleaning her forepaws of any traces of blood. “At least we know that not all the prey has left this area,” she stated.

“Yeah, but it’s getting harder to find any,” Wildflame replied. “We need to move on, and soon.”

The others nodded reluctantly. Snowcrystal heard the flutter of wings as Nightshade returned. “I’m not sure which direction you’ll be leaving, but I guess what I’ll do will depend on whether I stay with you or not,” he told them.

“But we need you!” Spark cried. “You’re the smartest icky-medicine-finding heracross I’ve ever known!”

Nightshade paused for a moment, seeming to like the thought of being part of a group and able to help others, then sighed. “I’m not sure yet,” he told them. “But I know that I can stay as long as you stay here. There’s enough food for me for now. And in case I do leave, do you remember what herbs cure infection and ease pain?”

Wildflame and Rosie nodded; Nightshade had taught them earlier. Spark half-nodded and then shook his head, realizing he didn’t remember after all. Rosie rolled her eyes.

“I’ll be sure to teach you all then,” Nightshade replied, and Spark looked relieved.

As the sky darkened, Snowcrystal, Redclaw, Rosie, and Spark all curled up beneath one of the few trees in the area, while Nightshade flew up to a high branch. Wildflame, being a nocturnal pokémon, decided to keep watch, while Thunder found a place to herself to sleep. Stormblade decided to sleep alone as well, and lay down beside a large rock, laying his tattered wings across his back.

Snowcrystal snuggled up against one of Rosie’s bushy tails as she watched her crystal glow a dull red. She yawned and closed her eyes, letting sleep slowly overcome her.

-ooo-

Blazefang and his pack had not gotten far. Confused and lost, they had wandered around in circles for the past week or so before stumbling upon Stonedust City and deciding that it would be better to seek out Wildflame and see if she had discovered anything about Articuno. Blazefang realized that it would be next to impossible to search for him without any clues, no matter how fast they traveled. Their wanderings had simply been a waste of time.

Now further away from the city and any sign of poacher traps, Blazefang and the pack rested. Boneclaw had recently reported that he’d picked up Wildflame’s scent and the scent of the growlithe and some of her companions, but Blazefang insisted they wait there until morning.

During the night, the houndour were much better hunters, and many of them were taking this opportunity to catch prey for themselves and then relax. Blazefang, however, wasn’t so calm.

Coming near the burned forest had spooked him, and he was reminded once again of how devastating Shadowflare really was. Unintentionally, his thoughts drifted back to the scyther that his attack had mutilated, and he wondered if he was still alive. A while ago, Wildflame had told him that the group had left him behind. He was probably dead.

Blazefang tried not to look at the burned forest anymore. He remembered how quickly, almost without thinking, he had used Shadowflare the second time, and shuddered at the thought of having to use it again.

Boneclaw, who was eating a spearow he’d caught, glanced sideways at Blazefang. “Something troubling you?” he asked, as he lifted his head away from the prey he held between his paws.

“It’s nothing,” Blazefang replied, looking irritated. “We’ve found Wildflame’s scent. Everything’s going well.”

Not convinced, Boneclaw continued to eat, knowing that his leader probably didn’t want to be bothered. Suddenly a shout from one of the pack members startled both of them.

“Bl-blazefang! There’s some strange pokémon coming toward us…”

Aggravated, Blazefang stood and walked over to the one who had shouted, pushing past her and climbing the small rocky hill from where she’d been watching. The sight that greeted him nearly took his breath away.

Pokémon, hundreds of them, were all making their way toward the hill in one vast group. Most of them, Blazefang could see, were common species, but there were quite a few larger and more powerful ones. Blazefang was both confused and startled by the fact that the group consisted of both predators and prey, all mingled together. Though sunset had long past, many of the pokémon in the massive assembly belonged to species that normally hunted or foraged during the day.

“Who are they?” Blazefang asked, his gaze traveling over them, able to make out details because of the flickering flames of species like ponyta and charmeleon.

“I…I don’t know,” the smaller houndour replied. “This is too weird…”

Blazefang turned and walked back to the pack, feeling worried and confused. As he approached them, a large pidgeot soared overhead, making Blazefang cringe as it emitted a shrill cry. It wheeled back toward the hill, when the first shapes of the enemy pokémon emerged over the rocks at the top and walked steadily toward them.

The houndour all shrank back, their teeth bared in a snarl, but Blazefang silenced them. “They’re probably just passing through,” he told them. “I’ll deal with this. Boneclaw, come with me.”

The big houndour nodded and followed Blazefang as he approached the first few pokémon, who had stopped at the bottom of the hill.

They were only a small group out of the much bigger one, and this small group seemed to consist of some of the stronger pokémon. Blazefang looked over the ones standing on the hill, a charmeleon, an ivysaur, a rapidash, and, to his dismay, a female scyther. Memories flooded through his mind of the pack members who had been wounded badly by the female scyther that traveled with the white growlithe. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. There were more pressing matters to deal with. At the front of this small group stood a vaporeon, and beside him, an espeon bearing a black collar with a splash of red on it.

“Who are you?” Blazefang asked, trying to break the silence. “This…this isn’t our territory. We’re travelers. You can go right on through!”

The vaporeon, who Blazefang assumed was the leader, ignored his statement and walked forward with graceful strides. “My name is Cyclone,” the eevee evolution told him, with no hint of friendliness or warmth on his calm features. “These pokémon…” He gestured toward the group standing behind him on the hill, “…Are a part of my army. In a very short time, I have recruited many, and in time, this army will grow in numbers.”

Blazefang saw a flicker of unease pass between the charmeleon and ivysaur, and he realized that they looked…worried. It suddenly dawned on him that these two hadn’t joined this army willingly, though how he knew that, he wasn’t sure.

Cyclone continued speaking in his calm voice, waving his tail toward the espeon who stood behind him. “This is Solus,” Cyclone explained, as the espeon’s face broke into a wide grin, “being one of my most trusted, I leave the others in his paws while I am away. We have come to ask you something. Do you know a houndour called…Blazefang?”

Blazefang took a step back, shocked, but afraid to lie. “I am Blazefang,” he said.

Not a flicker of surprise or amusement crossed Cyclone’s face. “Well, that makes things easier,” he replied. “Not long ago, a pidgeot we came across told us of a battle he witnessed. He said that a houndour whom the others had called Blazefang…used a strange attack on a scyther. That attack, I believe, was Shadowflare.”

Blazefang froze, every hair on his body standing on end. Something was wrong with the vaporeon and his army…something was very wrong. Whatever these pokémon wanted, he wanted nothing to do with it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about…” Blazefang replied. “I don’t know what Shadowflare is. I was using flamethrower on that scy-”

“Solus…” Cyclone said calmly, almost with an air of annoyance, and the espeon focused his glowing eyes on Blazefang.

To the houndour’s dismay, images…memories, of the time he’d first used Shadowflare surfaced in his mind. The strange feeling, the way his eyes glowed a bright yellow, and the way it followed the scyther through the air and wounded him so severely… And then after that, the image of the ursaring and the burning forest crossed his thoughts. Solus’s eyes stopped glowing.

The espeon shook his head, muttering in a mock-disappointed voice, “Lying will get you nowhere, you know! That was no normal attack you used, it was Shadowflare through and through. Fit the description of the attack perfectly. Oh Cyclone, if only you could have seen the look on that scyther’s face. Priceless! I’m glad your memory was so vivid, Blazefang! Haha!”

Blazefang stared at the espeon in disbelief. A psychic type had read his mind…there was nothing lying would do now. That espeon had to be more powerful than any psychic type Blazefang had ever heard of, and the houndour shrank back in fear. The fact that Solus was laughing at having seen the memory of the scyther getting hurt so badly suddenly made Blazefang wish he were anywhere else but there.

Boneclaw didn’t look as surprised, simply confused. The rest of Blazefang’s pack had gathered closer to listen, most of them looking frightened or puzzled.

“You see,” Cyclone said calmly, “I have gathered this army to help me find and track down other Forbidden Attacks. I believe that with them on our side, no human weapon can stand against us.”

Blazefang looked confused. “H-human…weapon?”

Cyclone gave him one of his rare faint smiles. “Yes. For too long, humans have caused pain and misery to pokémon. We are here to set them free…to show the humans that pokémon are not meant to be slaves. Our land is not for their taking, and we are not tools to use for their work or their silly battles. Nor are we pets to keep locked inside a building. Nor are we things to be beaten and tortured.”

“You’re crazy!” Blazefang shouted. “If you want to wage war against the humans, be my guest! But I’ve never even come in contact with one. I don’t have anything against them. This isn’t my fight!”

Blazefang couldn’t tell if Cyclone was angry or disappointed. The vaporeon was about to speak when Solus spoke up.

“Can I torture him to make him join?” the espeon asked, grinning widely. “I’ve been practicing-”

“No,” Cyclone replied. “It wouldn’t be wise. Not for him. However…if he is unwilling to join…we could always kill him. After all, if the legend is correct, Forbidden Attacks get passed on to the nearest pokémon of the same type once the first user passes away…and I’m sure there are plenty of willing fire types here.”

Blazefang stared at Cyclone in utter shock, while the charmeleon standing behind Cyclone looked suddenly pale, and the rapidash looked eager. Blazefang still stood as if frozen, paralyzed with disbelief and fear. “I…I…”

“We’ll give you until tomorrow to make your decision,” Cyclone replied calmly, turning away from him and beginning to walk up the hill.

“See ya in the morning!” Solus cried mockingly as he followed the other pokémon over the hill and out of sight.

Blazefang stood where he was, staring off into space, his body rigid and stiff.

Then he ran.

“Blazefang-what?” one of the houndour called as the leader bolted past him, but Blazefang gave him no heed. The houndour kept running, not letting exhaustion or even cuts on his paws from the rocks slow him down. Terror filled his mind at the thought that someone from Cyclone’s army could be following him. He kept running. He had to get away…far away…at any and all costs.

-ooo-

Boneclaw looked around at the astonished group of houndour, his gaze traveling over each of their startled faces.

“He’s not coming back…” one of them whispered. “Are you going to be our leader now?”

Boneclaw wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t know how to be a leader, and he wasn’t sure what the pack should do now. “Well…I…” he began.

“I say we talk to Cyclone,” a small, mangy houndour called Flarefire spoke up. "From the looks of it, he forced a lot of those pokémon to join him. Maybe we should join willingly before he decides to make us. Then he might let us go after we’ve served his army for a while."

“What?” another houndour cried. “Have you forgotten about the tribe? About Articuno?”

“The tribe will be fine!” Flarefire snapped. “I still say we talk to this Cyclone. And maybe if we help him, he’ll help us.”

Boneclaw was ready to argue, but he realized Flarefire was right. The pack couldn’t hide from such a great number of pokémon, so talking to Cyclone was likely the best course of action. Perhaps the army leader could help them in some way. He knew that it would be wiser to try to gain the vaporeon's favor than be forced into serving him.

-ooo-

Cyclone looked up as the entire houndour pack, minus their leader, skidded to a halt at the base of the hill in front of the large army of resting or sparring pokémon. The vaporeon walked slowly over to them.

“So, you want to talk?” he asked them before any of the houndour had said anything. “May I ask…where is Blazefang?”

“He ran off,” Boneclaw replied truthfully.

“Disappointing, but it’s no problem at all,” Cyclone replied. His eyes flicked toward Solus for the briefest moment, and the espeon ran over to converse with some of the stronger-looking pokémon. “Now, what did you come here to tell me?”

“We want to know how long you expect us to serve under your leadership if we choose to join you,” Boneclaw told him. “And whether we’d have to fight, or just help out for a while.”

“We could always use help,” Cyclone replied. “Strong houndour like you would make good prey hunters. And only as long as we need it.” He paused for a moment, then said, “I can tell you want something in return. What is it? Food? Territory?”

“Yes,” Boneclaw replied, feeling excited. “Our territory by the mountains isn’t large enough, and there are these growlithe-”

“And you want their territory, am I correct?” Cyclone asked, and Boneclaw nodded. “That’s a simple thing to ask,” the vaporeon continued, “very simple. We are definitely capable of driving out a few growlithe for you. If you join me, consider it done.”

Excitement and eagerness rippled through the houndour pack, and Boneclaw smiled.

“Then we’re in.”

-ooo-

Blazefang was afraid he was going to collapse from exhaustion. He was running blindly now, paying no heed to his tired limbs and cut paws as he blundered through the darkness, ignoring all sound and scent. Then suddenly, he burst into a clearing full of other pokémon.

Blazefang stopped dead in his tracks; he recognized many of them. The white growlithe, the jolteon, Wildflame, and one of the two scyther were all staring at him in shock. Blazefang took one look at Stormblade’s wounds and reeled back, shocked and disgusted.

Suddenly long, sharp claws sank into the fur of his neck and he was lifted bodily upward. He found himself staring into the yellow eyes of a large heracross, who held him as effortlessly as if he weighed nothing. He struggled, but could not loosen the heracross’s powerful grip. He found himself staring into the bug type’s eyes again, noticing the long thick scar that ran over one of them.

“Stop!” Blazefang gasped.

The heracross’s eyes narrowed, as a confused arcanine and an angry ninetales approached them. “What are you doing here?” the heracross growled.

“Nightshade, put him down!” Wildflame cried, and Blazefang sensed worry in her voice.

“Why?” Rosie asked. “Didn’t he drive you out for evolving? And he made his pack attack us…and…just look what he did to Stormblade!”

Hearing this, Nightshade’s grip tightened on Blazefang, and the terrified houndour knew that if he tried to use a fire attack, this heracross could snap his neck.

“Let him go,” a voice spoke up. “He’s not here to attack us.” Blazefang turned in shock to see that the speaker was Stormblade, the scyther he had wounded. “Just send him away…you don’t need to hurt him.”

Nightshade’s gaze softened a bit and he lowered Blazefang to the ground, pointing in the direction he had come. “Get out,” he muttered.

Blazefang realized that these pokémon must have told the heracross about him. He could scarcely believe that the one who had told the blue bug type to stop had been the scyther he’d injured so badly. All the same, it was clear that he was not welcome here. Yet, though they were his enemies, he was terrified of running blindly in the dark again.

“But…I have nowhere to go!” Blazefang gasped.

Before anyone could say any more, a noise from ahead startled Blazefang. He watched as the female scyther stepped out from behind a tree, carrying the limp and bloody form of a pidgey in her mouth. Seeing him, she froze, dropping the prey. Then without any warning, she ran toward him with an enraged growl, scythes raised and ready to kill.

Blazefang leaped to the side, feeling the scythe scrape along one of the bone-like bands on his back. He landed roughly on all fours, while Thunder turned and ran at him again before anyone could try and stop her.

Blazefang felt a dark feeling creep over him, and everything around him began to take on a yellowish tinge. He shook his head, feeling strong energy starting to pulsate through his body. He couldn’t use Shadowflare…not again. But the scyther was trying to kill him, and enemy pokémon were all around him…did he really have a choice?

Blazefang leaped away as Thunder slashed at him again, ignoring the cries of Wildflame and some of the others. Nightshade rushed to stop her, but Thunder moved too fast for him, heading straight for Blazefang again. He was finding hard to fight it now; every instinct was screaming at him to use the attack. Ignoring it, he fired a flamethrower, which Thunder dodged easily.

Thunder swept the dull side of her scythe at him, knocking his off his feet and pinning him down. “Well…” she growled angrily. “Look who it is…”

To be continued…