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…