The Path of Destiny

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 60 - The Resting Place

Moonlight shone across the surface of a vast lake, but with the shouts and cries of hundreds of pokémon gathered there, the spot was far from peaceful. Swimming nearly every inch of the lake, swarming the shores and patrolling the fields around it, and circling the air in mismatched flocks, were pokémon of every shape and size. Some of the stronger ones made their way through the throng of agitated creatures, shouting orders, shuffling groups around or welcoming returning hunting parties or gatherers.

On the far side of the lake, on the edge of a rocky outcrop, stood a vaporeon. The water type’s gaze was fixated on the shape of a tall mountain in the distance.

“We can reach the mountain in a day if we move quickly,” a voice spoke from behind him, and the lithe shape of an espeon moved forward to stand next to the other eevee evolution. “There’s no mistaking it,” Solus continued. “Some of the scouts have seen for themselves; that’s where Articuno is.”

“And where the electric stone is, right?” a female voice asked from somewhere behind him. Cyclone angled his head toward the speaker, one of his fin ears twitching. The speaker was the scyther Silverbreeze, a pokémon who had proved loyal, despite some of her misgivings regarding Solus’ torture methods. “And you’re certain that’s the one?”

“Very sure,” the vaporeon responded, turning away. “Silverbreeze, help organize the others down there. The psychic pokémon can’t keep track of everyone.”

Wordlessly, the scyther stepped down from the ledge onto the rocky path that led from the outcrop of the boulders down toward smooth ground. She gave Solus a nervous glance as she did so, but the espeon didn’t notice.

As soon as she was gone, the two eevee evolutions heard pawsteps approaching them from higher up in the rocks.

“It better be the right one,” a pokémon growled, huffing as she came to a stop behind Cyclone and Solus. “I’m done waiting. I want my stone like the others have.”

Solus raised his hackles and gave a slight growl at the sight of the other pokémon, but at a look from Cyclone, he forced himself to relax.

The speaker was a manectric, a canine pokémon with spiky blue and yellow fur, and a pointed yellow crest on her head. Yet there was something disturbingly wrong with her. Over large portions of her body, she was completely hairless. Where she did have fur, it was thin and brittle looking, and rather than having a vibrant sheen like a normal manectric’s, its color was dull and faded. The lack of fur showed skin that was rough and dry, either bleeding or caked with dried blood in several places. It was also weirdly discolored, having a deep, sickly green to it that gave off the impression she was seriously ill. But the manectric’s eyes were bright and alert, and Solus knew that her nasty-looking appearance was the result of a human experiment, not illness. Nevertheless, he hated having to be around her. She was disgusting, and her skin looked like it was rotting. Her attitude was even worse.

“It will be, Itora,” Cyclone assured the manectric, his voice uncharacteristically warm. “We’ve confirmed it.”

The pokémon gave another irritated growl at these words, sparks flying off the tufts of yellow and blue fur clinging to her shoulders as she paced back and forth. “If any of them were wrong I hope you claw their throats out,” she growled. “It took us long enough to get here.” Itora gave Cyclone a piercing glare. “If it were me, we wouldn’t be stopping by this lake. We’d be heading straight to the mountain now.”

“If we rest for the night, we can be at the mountain by the time it’s dark tomorrow,” Cyclone said calmly, acting as if he hadn’t noticed the manectric’s display of disrespect.

“By the time it’s dark? How would that help? You think we could surprise the bird?” Itora cried mockingly. “From below a mountain?” She laughed. “You must be crazy! Unless the real reason is that you want to give all those lazy jerks down there a rest. That shouldn’t be our problem. The strongest are going to have to endure worse than that if they think they’re going to swipe an Attack stone right from under Articuno’s beak.”

Cyclone didn’t respond to the manectric’s question. “You want to kill off some humans, don’t you?” he asked calmly. “You’ve waited this long. You can wait another day for this.”

“Fine,” Itora grumbled. “But what are we going to practice on first? We won’t find any humans out here.”

“I know,” Cyclone replied gently. “We won’t be encountering humans for some time. But I want your attacks at full strength for when we do. When we reach the deep caves, you can practice all you want on prey pokémon.”

“Right, right, don’t destroy pokémon habitats. I get it,” the manectric muttered. “But don’t pokémon live in the caves?”

“Not as many,” Solus replied, giving the electric type a sneer. Itora stared right back, her eyes narrowing to slits.

“You got something to say to me?” Itora snapped at the espeon. Solus gave her a dangerous glare and looked away. Itora smirked. “I didn’t think so.”

“Itora, I want you to stay here with the others,” Cyclone stated, giving the manectric a respectful nod as he climbed down the rock ledge and moved toward the group of pokémon.

“Sure, Cyclone,” she replied with a shrug.

Itora peered over the edge, watching as Cyclone moved toward the center of the resting army. Groups of pokémon parted as he passed them, none of them even daring to lay so much as a scratch on their leader, even the ones who had been forced into joining. They knew that if Cyclone was threatened, he just might use his Attack, and it would be all over for the aggressor. The manectric pressed her claws against the rock in frustration. She wanted that sort of power. She wanted what was promised to her. She had waited long enough. This was her first chance at something good – no, wonderful, and if anyone messed it up for her, she would make sure Cyclone made them pay for it.

“Itora, try to be calm,” a smooth voice stated, and the manectric turned her head toward the small but spooky looking form of a misdreavus.

The blue-green ghost type floated gently above a wide ledge next to another pokémon, a yanmega. The large flying bug type was resting, his six legs gripping a pointed spur of rock that tilted slightly upward, which gave Itora a good view of the thick scar that ran perfectly straight along his underside, starting from beneath his neck and ending almost to where his tail met his body. Smaller scars criss-crossed it, showing that it had once been stitched together with some human implement.

The misdreavus, however, bore no scars, yet she hated humans just as much as either of them. Both she and the yanmega had glowing stones hanging from tough vines that hung around their necks, a symbol of the power Itora was anticipating so badly. The misdreavus gave Itora a concerned look, and the manectric sighed. The large yanmega turned his head pointedly in Itora’s direction, even though he didn’t need to do so in order to see her.

“Shut up!” Itora growled at them. “You two already have your Attacks. I’m just a little bit uncomfortable with the fact that we have to go through a legendary to get this one.”

“Cyclone must have a plan. And we’re not even going to be heading to the deep caves yet,” the misdreavus went on. “Yenn and I won’t be able to use our attacks before then either. You aren’t going to fall behind. And there are probably others waiting for Attacks as well.”

“Yeah, but Cyclone hasn’t picked anyone else, has he?” Itora shot back. “We don’t even know where any of the other stones are! Well, apart from the one that houndour has, and supposedly someone’s got the pokémon with the ice attack locked up somewhere. But hey, I actually want to become a part of bettering the world. Put the humans in their place, you know? I can’t just sit down and do nothing after what they’ve done. And I don’t care what pokémon I have to hurt to get there.”

“And neither do we,” the misdreavus replied. “But we can’t do anything until we have enough Attack users to stand a chance.”

“It’s a bit hard to wait after what they did to me, Ashend,” Itora growled.

“Believe me,” Ashend continued, “before this is over, the heads of thousands of humans and their pokémon are going to roll. We’ll make sure of it.”

The yanmega leaned down to where one of Cyclone’s underlings had brought him an offering of several small prey pokémon. He grabbed the limp body of a sandslash in his jaws and snapped through its neck with his fangs, shaking it once so that the head became dislodged and rolled down the rocks to Itora’s feet. “Like that,” he stated. “But picture it happening to some idiot trainer.” He gave a small satisfied laugh.

The electric type smirked. “I can’t wait to see you do that to a real human,” she remarked. “A live one.”

“Neither can I,” the green bug type replied.

“And when we’re ready for that stage of Cyclone’s plan, you can do that, Yenn, but for now…let’s focus on the journey ahead.” Ashend’s eyes flashed with an eerie glow as she turned toward the mountain.

She heard Itora give a yelp as Yenn took to the air, nearly knocking the manectric back with the force of his take off. Ashend assumed he just needed to burn off some energy, but instead he only moved toward the edge of the outcrop beside her. He was looking to the mountain, she presumed, though it was hard to tell, given that his eyes could see in so many directions at once.

“Yeah, it’s easy for you two to wait,” Itora grumbled from behind them, resuming her restless pacing. The yanmega and misdreavus exchanged a wordless glance before looking disdainfully down at the gathered pokémon of the army.

“Worthless idiots…” Ashend muttered, her gaze turning toward a group of cowering new recruits, obviously reluctant to enter Cyclone’s growing army. Beside her, Yenn gave a nod of agreement.

Solus, who had been trying to block out the conversation between the three other pokémon, flattened his ears in annoyance. Cyclone may possibly have picked good candidates in Yenn and Ashend, but he was already fed up with Itora. Still, there was nothing he could do about it, and he had made a point to ignore the manectric when he could. Sighing, he jumped down from the rock and began to make his way through the gathering of pokémon toward where Cyclone had gone. The army’s leader sat near the center of the throng, where the pokémon had cleared a wide circle in the grass. The vaporeon was surrounded by several other high ranking members of the army. Solus had no trouble getting there; the pokémon parted and cleared a path as he walked by as well.

“Cyclone, is everything ready for tomorrow?” he asked as he walked into the center of the makeshift clearing.

Cyclone nodded. “Yes,” he replied, not giving any further explanation.

A rhyperior, looking a bit too unnerved about the whole thing for Solus’s taste, shifted his feet uncomfortably. Solus remembered him. A new recruit. One who had been allowed to join this small circle of high-ranking members through sheer strength and the fact that he’d sought out the army on his own. Unfortunately, he hadn’t shown to be the smartest of pokémon. “And what, exactly, are you and the others going to do when you reach the top of that mountain?” he asked. “How do you expect to slip past Articuno long enough to get to the stone?”

The vaporeon straightened up, letting his cold glare wander over the assembled pokémon. Solus noticed that the scyther, Silverbreeze, couldn’t help but flinch a bit.

“We’re not,” Cyclone said. “What we’re going to do is simple.”

A hushed silence fell over the group, seeming almost eerie despite the noise of the army surrounding them on all sides.

“We’re going to kill a legendary.”

-ooo-

Under the same moon and stars, a gloomy clearing lay empty, untouched by wild pokémon save for a few small rattata foraging in the night. Tall, battered-looking trees surrounded the secluded area on all sides.

Through the bushes on one side of the clearing, a teenage boy fought his way through the leafy vegetation until he emerged from the gloom to stand in the patch of moonlight filtering through the treetops. A nervous jolteon followed him, coming to stand at his side and casting a forlorn look at what was to be their new resting place.

Justin leaned over and gasped for breath, throwing his backpack onto the ground. Spark walked forward into the clearing, pacing anxiously around as he cast several glances to the patch of sky overhead. “It looks big enough,” the pokémon’s trainer muttered. “Go get the others.”

Spark nodded and shot off into the trees, leaving Justin alone.

The boy crouched down, backing into the shadows beneath the trees and toward the shelter of a large bush. He shivered against the cold, his thoughts drifting back to the warm hotel he and Katie had spent their nights in since arriving at Stonedust City. It seemed like much more than a few months since he’d last camped out in the wilderness, and at the moment, he couldn’t fathom why Damian preferred to sleep out in the open.

Katie was going back to Damian’s old camp, retrieving his supplies and tent. She had already picked up their own supplies from the hotel; Katie had been smart enough to realize that there would be trouble if she was found and questioned – being Justin’s roommate – by the police. She had gone back for the supplies the moment they’d informed her of the situation, and luckily had gotten in and out without any trouble. She had left behind just enough unnecessary items to give the impression she still planned to stay, thus, hopefully, removing suspicion.

Justin still couldn’t believe what had happened. The image of the television screen above the city shop was burned into his mind. His worst fears had become a reality, and not for the reasons he’d thought they would. Almost subconsciously, he turned toward the darkness of the forest, longing for his jolteon’s return.

This place was further from the city than any of their camps before. It had to be. The police would expect them to flee into the wilderness. They hadn’t merely vandalized something; they had damaged, possibly irreparably, one of the most important historical buildings in the Inari region, and the rare and valuable information kept inside.

The bushes behind him twitched, and Justin jumped, only to breathe a sigh of relief as Spark came bounding back to him. He managed a small smile as the jolteon nuzzled him gently with his head.

Alex the floatzel darted in next, followed by Rosie and Wildflame. Justin found himself backing up toward them, knowing that the newest addition to the ragtag group of misfits was a scyther. One of those nasty fighting ring pokémon, too. When he found himself standing in the bright moonlight again, his thoughts shifted to wondering if the police had sent out flying types to search for him. He decided he was more afraid of the police than he was of scyther, and edged toward the undergrowth again.

However, the next pokémon to appear were Snowcrystal, Blazefang, and Arien. Both Snowcrystal and Blazefang were limping, but the growlithe seemed more exhausted than hurt. There was blood on the back of her neck, but the wounds only went as deep as her skin. The houndoom was a different story, but from what Justin could see, his wounds didn’t look terribly deep. The bony ridges on his back seemed to have blocked most of the blows. However, he was walking on three legs; one of his shoulders was still glistening with blood. Justin had never liked the houndour – or now, houndoom – but he still felt worried. Would being injured make him weaker mentally, make it easier to trigger the Forbidden Attack?

As the two canine pokémon made it into the clearing, Arien arrived, walking slower than they were. The alakazam had no wounds, but he was still supporting Damian, who looked to be in a state of either shock or near unconsciousness. Justin wasn’t sure which, but whatever the cause, Damian wasn’t reacting to much of anything around him.

Justin turned away to let the alakazam deal with trying to find a place for his trainer to rest. He sat warily beside Spark, dreading the scyther’s appearance yet opting to focus on that rather than on his more pressing fear.

Redclaw appeared next. The arcanine was moving as carefully as he could so as not to agitate the injured heracross on his back, but it was clear that it was proving to be a futile effort. Justin didn’t know how badly Nightshade was hurt, but he didn’t want to think about it. Nightshade was one of their strongest pokémon; they couldn’t afford to lose him.

Once Redclaw had stepped into the clearing and lowered himself to the ground, Justin caught sight of movement in the darkness of the trees. He saw a flash of wicked blue eyes staring in his direction, and the shape of a scyther moved off, slinking away into the forest.

Spark, reluctant to leave his worried trainer, turned his attention away from Thunder, instead looking to the rest of the group. This was one of the times he wished his beloved trainer could understand his words; perhaps he and the other pokémon could reassure him somehow. But with Damian unable to respond much, and Katie currently fetching supplies, no one could help with that at the moment. But Spark could still be there to comfort Justin in whatever way he could, and when he felt the boy grip his fur tightly, the way he did whenever he wanted support, he knew that he was helping, even if only a little.

“So…what’s the plan, Arien?” Spark asked, looking from one pokémon to another, wondering if they had any input as well.

“First, we need to conceal the camp,” the alakazam responded, leaning Damian back against a thick tree. “Katie has a flying type, but all we’ve got now is Fernwing to help create a canopy. Anyone else able bodied, use whatever you can find to hide this clearing from all sides.”

No one objected, and slowly, the uninjured pokémon got up, trudging into the unfamiliar forest. They vanished into the trees, leaving the wounded pokémon where they rested. Spark hesitated.

“Look,” the jolteon began, “we’ve gotta find food. We have no idea where we are, and we need to know where the best hunting spots are if we’re gonna-”

“Katie will get food from the city,” Arien responded, cutting him off. The alakazam didn’t even look at him; his attention was on Damian.

“And how long will that last?” Spark cried. “If they find out she’s helping us they’ll stop her. And for all we know, there could be hostile pokémon in this place! We didn’t come this way when we left from Snowcrystal’s mountain. We have no idea what we’re up against here!”

Wordlessly, Arien released Fernwing from her poké ball, giving her the instructions. The tropius didn’t argue, but merely nodded and flew off to find branches or vines she could stretch between the treetops surrounding the clearing.

“The least we can do is not leave this place unguarded,” Spark continued. “We’ve got several injured pokémon here. I don’t think I should-”

“Go,” said Arien. “I’ve got Inferno and Todd to help as well.”

Spark huffed, but stood up, feeling like arguing with the psychic type would be a waste of time. “Come on, Justin,” he sighed, nudging the boy’s side as a wordless means of communication. “Let’s find bossy-pants some sticks and stuff.”

Justin didn’t need a translation to understand where Spark wanted him to go, but both of them halted in their tracks as a dark shape soared above the clearing. For a moment, Spark and Justin both prepared to dart into the cover of the trees, but as the pokémon descended, they both recognized Katie’s pidgeot.

The bird pokémon was carrying bundles of supplies in his talons. Luckily, they seemed to have managed to get all of Damian’s belongings. Pidgeot set the items down on one edge of the clearing and then landed. Katie hopped off his back and ran toward Damian and Arien.

“He’s…going to be fine, right?” Katie asked.

The alakazam nodded, but motioned for her to leave. Katie ignored him, crouching down so that she was level with the other trainer. “Damian, what-”

“I’m just tired,” Damian said softly, barely lifting his head to look at her.

“He…no longer has any severe injuries,” Arien began, “but….” He trailed off, remembering that Katie could not make any sense out of his words, and he had no psychic link to her.

“That scizor did that?” she mused, straightening up. “Healing him, I mean? He can…really do that…”

“If it’s a Forbidden Attack,” Justin stated, “he shouldn’t.” Katie gave him a glare and he froze. “I meant that he shouldn’t do it again…obviously it’s good that he did it that time!”

“What about the pokémon?” Katie asked, watching her pidgeot converse with Fernwing as the tropius returned with branches. She then ignored them to look at the group of injured pokémon, currently three pitiful-looking shapes lying in the grass. Damian’s pokémon were all back in their poké balls.

“We can’t take them to a pokémon center,” she continued. “Or at least, not the growlithe or the heracross. They know what Nightshade looks like and he has that recognizable scar. And Snowcrystal…well, that goes without saying. Anyone who examines the wounds will see her fur is dyed.”

“So what about Nightshade?” Justin began. “The growlithe isn’t that hurt. But you take the others. Ignore any weird questions they ask. Say you found them in the wild or-”

“They know I was your roommate at the trainer hotel, Justin,” she began. “If I turn in a heracross that looks just like the one that was registered to Damian…they’re going to think I was connected to this. More importantly, they might find out I’m helping you both hide. But that’s not the only reason I can’t take him.”

“What else, then?” Justin asked.

“Because he could get confiscated at the center,” she began.

Justin remained silent.

“If they think a pokémon is connected to some crime or some criminal, they can confiscate it – keep it under their watch wherever they deem fit – until the whole thing is sorted out. He’d still be at the center but he couldn’t…well, couldn’t be set free. I think they usually put those pokémon up for adoption for other trainers if they turn out to have no owner or the trainer is deemed unfit. We couldn’t do that to Nightshade without his consent…”

“So you’re worried the heracross will get a trainer he doesn’t like?” Justin blurted out. “Why don’t you step in line to adopt him or something? We-”

“Did you not listen to what I was saying before?” she cried. “If I caught Nightshade, or wanted to adopt him, that would just give them another reason to be suspicious of me. I already had to be careful coming to find you out here without being seen. And don’t you think it would seem really strange, bringing in that same heracross the very day they found out the names of the two trainers who set fire to the library?”

“Yeah, but-”

“And honestly, I don’t know what happens to the pokémon they don’t put up for adoption,” Katie continued. “Sure, the people at the pokémon center are great, but in these cases, pokémon that have any connection to crimes are taken away until everything’s found out. And if everything’s found out, they’ll know I was helping you get away. Nightshade wouldn’t belong to me anymore. He’d belong to the city.”

“So why couldn’t we-”

“You don’t hear a lot about what goes on in that place, do you?” Katie snapped. “And no, I’m not talking about the fighting ring. I’m talking about the other things that go on. Not every pokémon facility is a reputable place like that breeding center you got Spark from. A lot of bad things are done to pokémon there and I don’t just mean by the criminals.”

“What on earth are you talking about?” Justin growled, his eyes narrowing.

“Plenty of abuse goes on in that city. And…and you know what happens if there are too many of certain wild pokémon too close to the city? They kill them. If you don’t believe me, I can look up the article on my pokégear because as much as the officials don’t want you to hear about it, it’s-”

“Okay, I get it!” Justin cried. “But don’t you think it’s kind of a stretch to assume they’d kill off Nightshade because-”

“No, I don’t,” she began. “An injured, possibly permanently disabled pokémon? Among the thousands of heracross they breed there for trainers? Why wouldn’t they?”

Justin shook his head. “The nurses at the pokémon center wouldn’t allow it.”

“It wouldn’t be up to them,” Katie responded, turning away.

“You know, you’re speaking right in front of them,” Justin stated, gesturing toward the huddled forms of Blazefang and Snowcrystal, and nearby, the prone form of Nightshade. “We might not understand them but they can understand us. I don’t think you’re helping.”

Katie looked ready to argue, but after a brief moment she merely turned her head and sighed. “Look, there are just too many risks. Including risk to you…and Spark. You’re not supposed to be a trainer…what would happen to him?” Justin looked to her in shock, and she could tell that at least she had driven her point home.

“We’ll take care of them ourselves,” she said, walking over to the group of pokémon. “Damian knows the most about treating pokémon wounds; he can help us tomorrow. And I can still buy supplies from the city.”

Katie examined Snowcrystal first. Running her fingers through the growlithe’s fur, she found nothing but bruises, and quickly determined that they were not serious. The bite on her neck was a bit more worrying, but like Justin, she quickly realized that the puncture wounds hadn’t gone deeper than her scruff. “This’ll be easily fixed,” she said to Justin. “I think she’s mostly just exhausted from the fighting.” She smiled a little as Snowcrystal licked her hand.

Katie moved on to Blazefang, who was lying in a heap beside the growlithe. She wasn’t used to seeing the dark type in his much larger houndoom form. His new size made it a bit harder for her to maneuver him in order to see his wounds, but she managed it with little complaint from the houndoom.

“Most of these cuts aren’t as bad as they look,” she said after a moment. “At least…I don’t think they are. We’ll have Damian check in the morning. He’s got a bad wound on his leg but I think it’s mostly just the skin that’s damaged. But his shoulder…that might pose a problem.”

She stood up and walked over to Nightshade, suddenly dreading what she might find. The heracross’s body was smeared with blood in places, and she wasn’t sure where it was coming from. Now that Fernwing and Pidgeot were making a thick canopy overhead, there wasn’t much light to see by. She took out a flashlight, flicking it on and turning it toward the motionless bug type.

“Turn that off, someone’s going to see us!” Justin hissed in a frantic tone.

“No they won’t,” she replied, annoyed at Justin’s paranoia. “Not unless they were standing right outside the clearing. Now, be quiet.”

She shined the flashlight over the heracross, realizing at once that his worst wounds had to be internal. There wasn’t much she could see just by looking at his body, and she knew that the tough shell and dark coloring would make it hard to see even the injuries that were close to the surface. She could see many of what looked like the beginnings of bruises, but it was hard to tell in the darkness.

“It’s hard to tell, but I think he’s got some really bad internal injuries,” she reported, addressing Justin rather than the pokémon around her. “And I think I’ve found out where the blood’s coming from…” She moved the flashlight over the areas of Nightshade’s body where his shell had been cracked, unable to properly analyze the open injuries due to the drying blood covering them. She didn’t think it was a good idea for her to try to clean the wounds on her own. “Damian will have to deal with this,” she said sadly.

Damage like this to a heracross’s shell was more serious than a cut in a pokémon like growlithe or houndoom. She remembered vividly how long Nightshade had had to stay in the pokémon center when they’d first found him, after he was attacked by Thunder.

However, he had sported bad wounds before that happened, according to the pokémon. Scytheclaw had been the one to give them to him, and she knew the scizor’s pincers could cut through just about anything. Nightshade was a tough pokémon; he had dealt with things like that. What worried her were the wounds she couldn’t see. The cracks could possibly be signs of worse damage underneath.

Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to try to take him to the pokémon center. Justin didn’t really understand what could happen, but he understood that it would make it far more likely that the police would follow her back to the camp. At least that would shut him up for a while. Maybe in the morning, when Damian could properly talk to them, they could really see how the pokémon felt about everything.

“I’m going to go back to the city to get some supplies,” she told Justin, standing up. “I’ll find the place again somehow.” She looked up toward her pokémon. “Pidgeot, we’re flying back now!”

Justin turned away as Katie mounted her pokémon, casting another nervous glance into the woods where that scyther was still lurking somewhere. He knew he wouldn’t be able to sleep well with that creature slinking about, in spite of all the protection he had. The only one who seemed to have any power to reason with it was the heracross, and he wouldn’t be able to do anything in his state. Perhaps, he thought, in the morning, they could use Arien and Damian to talk back and forth with him. Maybe he could convince the scyther to leave. She sure didn’t seem like she wanted to stay.

Yet underneath all that, the biggest problem screamed at him loud and clear, and his mind was once again brought back to the fact that he had no idea what they were going to do next.

-ooo-

Snowcrystal woke up just as the sun was beginning to rise. Despite her fitful night’s sleep, she was immediately alert, but she felt as exhausted as if she hadn’t slept at all. Images of the previous night were still racing through her head – the fighting ring, the jeering trainers watching, the pokémon forced to kill and be killed, Darkfang’s lifeless body, being forced to watch helplessly as Nightshade was beaten within an inch of his life, Damian getting shot in the chest – it seemed like some sort of twisted nightmare. But it had been all too real, and she had the wounds to prove it.

The previous night, Katie had treated her wounds to the best of her ability. She wasn’t as old or experienced as Damian was, but she had taken care of Stormblade for a time, so she had obviously known what she was doing to some degree. The bite marks on her neck had been cleaned, and she had been given some strange tasting medicines to help with the pain and stop infection. A bandage had been fitted around her neck, and her amulet could still hang from her neck safely.

The center of the clearing seemed to have become a sort of infirmary for the group. Beside her was Blazefang, who was still asleep, curled up with his tail resting over his nose. Katie hadn’t been sure what to do with some of his wounds, other than to clean and bandage them. She had seemed confident that he would heal in time, however, as long as infection was kept at bay. Across from the houndoom was Dusk. Damian’s pokémon had all been sent out of their poké balls and looked over sometime during the previous night. The absol’s injured paw had been treated, but instead of returning to his poké ball, he had decided to sleep outside with the others. There would have been a fourth pokémon joining them, but Scytheclaw had certainly not wanted to sleep near them, instead choosing to return to his poké ball. There was also Thunder, but she hadn’t shown her face near the camp since they’d arrived.

Nightshade had been moved away from the others, near the corner of the clearing where two trees had grown very close together. Katie and a few of the other pokémon had quickly made a bed for him out of dead leaves the previous night, and when Katie got supplies from the city, she had brought back a thick blanket for him to lie on. As Snowcrystal looked in his direction, she could see him lying completely still, almost like he was a dead pokémon.

For a brief moment, alarm flared through her body, and she suddenly wondered if it were possible that Nightshade had died during the night. No one had really been able to assess his wounds properly, and they couldn’t be sure what sort of internal damage he had sustained. She rushed over to him, heaving a sigh of relief when she realized that he was still breathing.

Though she realized the way she had reacted was probably silly, she couldn’t help but notice that the heracross looked a lot worse than he had the previous night. Katie had obviously done her best to treat the wounds on the surface, but there wasn’t much they could do for the internal ones other than to wait for them to heal. Nightshade didn’t look like he was asleep, merely too exhausted to move.

“Don’t worry, Nightshade,” she told him. “You’ll be all right.”

Nightshade opened one eye weakly for a brief moment. “Thanks, Snowcrystal,” he said quietly.

He looked so tired that Snowcrystal didn’t want to bother him further. She quietly crept backwards and looked toward where Damian was sleeping.

The trainer was no longer there. Worried, Snowcrystal walked to the spot where he’d last been, noting that his scent was still fresh. Wherever he had gone, Arien had gone with him, and as she looked around the clearing, she realized that Katie and Justin were gone too. She heard a noise from somewhere nearby and saw Redclaw returning from the forest with Alex. The floatzel had a goldeen in her mouth, but Redclaw carried no prey.

“Where’s Damian? And Justin and Katie?” Snowcrystal asked them. “I think we need to-”

“Katie went back to the city for supplies,” Alex stated, setting down her prey. “You know, for Nightshade and the others. I think the other trainers left so Arien…well, Damian – since he’s Arien’s translator – could tell Justin what happened without bothering the pokémon who were asleep.”

“Oh…that makes sense,” Snowcrystal replied, though she wished they would come back soon. She knew that a lot of this would be news to Damian himself, as he was unconscious during the fight with Mausk’s machamp. Nightshade now certainly needed help, though at least Blazefang and Dusk didn’t seem to be in any danger or debilitating pain. “What about Scytheclaw?”

“I dunno,” the floatzel shrugged uneasily. “I haven’t seen him out of his poké ball. From what Arien told me he should be fine in a while though…at least I hope.”

Snowcrystal was about to reply when she heard footsteps coming from the woods, and the sound of Justin’s voice through the trees.

“You sure that lunatic isn’t going to come after us?” he was saying, almost shouting it, and causing Blazefang to jolt awake and turn his head warily in their direction. “As if the police aren’t enough, now we have to worry about some madman too?”

“He…he thinks I’m dead,” came the reply from Damian. The trainer still sounded weak, but significantly less so than the previous night.

“But he probably realizes Blazefang’s not,” Justin responded. He emerged from the bushes into the clearing, Spark at his side.

“But he tried to have his pokémon kill Blazefang,” Damian cried as he stumbled into the clearing after him, Arien beside him. “He obviously had no use for him, or else…”

“I don’t know,” Justin interrupted, “but I don’t like it. We should get out of here as soon as we can.”

“And go where?” Spark blurted out, realizing an instant later that his trainer could not understand. He looked to Arien as if hoping he would translate, but the alakazam was focused only on helping his trainer walk back to the clearing.

“Where are we going to go?” Alex asked, but neither the growlithe nor the arcanine had an answer for her.

Justin pointed over to where Nightshade was resting on Katie’s blanket. He turned to Damian. “You’ve gotta do something. You’re the one who knows how to treat pokémon wounds out in the wilderness.”

At this, Damian seemed to snap back into full alertness. He left Arien’s side and walked shakily over to the heracross. From the look of horror on his face, Snowcrystal guessed that he hadn’t been able to get a good look at Nightshade before Justin dragged him into the woods to explain things. “What…what on earth happened?”

“I thought Arien told you that,” Justin replied. “He was fighting that Mausk guy’s pokémon-”

“But he didn’t say…” Damian trailed off, looking down at Nightshade. The bug type was almost completely unresponsive.

“That heracross is the reason you’re still alive, so do something.” Justin said. He looked down at Nightshade with what Damian guessed was a forlorn expression. “We don’t know what to do.” He paused again. “And we can’t take him to the pokémon center either.”

“And why not?” Damian snapped, turning to glare at Justin.

“Because they’re looking for any of your pokémon and they have a picture of him. That scar on his face is kind of a defining trait…it’s not like he could easily be confused for some other heracross.”

“So what?” Damian retorted. “I don’t care if it’s going to be a greater risk for us; we have to get him to the pokémon center.”

“Katie says that if we do, Nightshade would be connected to the crime because he was once registered as your pokémon, and he’d be confiscated…she isn’t sure what they’d do to him after that.”

Damian hesitated, as if what Justin was saying had started to sink in, and he was now unsure how to respond.

“Why don’t you and your psychic type ask Nightshade?” Justin continued. “See what he thinks, since he’s the one going to be affected by all this.”

Damian turned his gaze downward. “Okay,” he said, obviously trying to sound calm. “But later.” He knew that Nightshade needed more rest before he could answer questions. “Right now, we need to do whatever we can to help him. Justin, grab one of the pokémon’s water dishes and go find some water. Have Alex show you.” He gestured to the floatzel, who still carried the goldeen.

As Justin left, Damian shakily reached a hand toward the injured pokémon, but the moment he touched Nightshade’s shoulder, the heracross flinched and drew back. Even though he had treated Scytheclaw’s injuries in the wild, Damian was beginning to feel a bit unsure of himself. He could clean the wounds where Nightshade’s carapace had been broken or cracked, but most of the injuries were internal, and there was little he could do for that.

He looked over Nightshade, realizing that Katie had left one of her blankets for him to lie on, though now it was stained with blood in places and had several tears from Nightshade’s claws. The heracross opened his eyes slowly, giving him a dazed look. Damian reached out and placed his hand on Nightshade’s head. “It’s all right…” he said, “you’ll be all right. We’ll figure this out.” After a moment he stood up, walking to where his supplies had been dropped off the previous night. He came back with another blanket, which he draped over the heracross. “You can have it. I don’t mind if you tear this one up too.”

From where he was sitting, Blazefang tilted his head in Damian’s direction. “Does he expect us to just stay here?” he asked Snowcrystal, giving the growlithe an alarmed look. “How are we going to get back to the library now?”

“Maybe Katie will-”

“Have you both forgotten that the library was set on fire?” Rosie asked, her frustrated glare traveling over the growlithe and houndoom. “What’s there left to find?”

“It wasn’t burned to the ground,” Blazefang growled in protest. “All we’d need to do is wait for them to repair the damage and sneak back in.”

“And until then, what are we going to do?” Rosie snapped. “Watch you incinerate everything that looks at you the wrong way until you’re as mad as that Cyclone freak?”

“Stop!” Blazefang growled, his lips drawn back in a snarl. “If you have some sort of brilliant plan, I’d like to hear it. Otherwise-”

“Don’t fight!” Snowcrystal cried, running between them. “I know you’re worried, but...we’re all on the same side here. We’ll think of something, but we’ve got to work together, not against each other.”

Blazefang gave a small snort and rolled his eyes, turning away from the other two fire types and curling back up on the grass.

Rosie watched him and huffed, but didn’t try to argue further. “Fine, Snowcrystal,” she stated. “I’ll put up with these pokémon if I have to…but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

“All right,” Snowcrystal sighed, and the ninetales turned around to head to the other side of the clearing.

The sound of human footsteps stomping through the underbrush distracted her, and Snowcrystal turned around to see Katie walking back to the clearing. Her azumarill was beside her, helping to carry bags that she knew contained supplies for the pokémon. Blazefang immediately perked up, sniffing the air as he caught the scent of some sort of tantalizing pokémon food. Snowcrystal could smell it too, but at the moment she was a bit too worried to be very hungry.

“I brought food and medicine for the pokémon,” Katie said, directing her words at Damian although she didn’t look him in the eye. “You’re the one more experienced with this stuff. What do we do?”

Damian remained crouched by Nightshade, thinking back to when he’d treated Scytheclaw’s injuries out in the wilderness, before meeting Snowcrystal and the other pokémon. “Well,” he began, “we can keep the wounds from getting infected, and give him medicine for the pain…but that’s about it unless we take him to the pokémon center.”

“We can’t do that.” she replied.

Damian turned back to the heracross. The wounds in Nightshade’s shell were not cut cleanly, as the wounds he had gotten from Scytheclaw and Thunder had been, but instead were cracks created with a lot of force. If this was the damage on the outside, it was much worse on the inside. However, Nightshade didn’t appear to be in any major danger, simply exhausted. Damian beckoned to Katie to come help him, and the two trainers readied themselves to do what they could.

Snowcrystal heard a sound coming from the bushes, and for a moment thought it was Justin returning with the water, but when she turned toward the sound she saw nothing. She heard a shout from Nightshade, presumably in reaction to the sting of the humans’ medicines, and a blurred shape suddenly exploded from the underbrush.

“Back off!” a furious voice shouted, and Snowcrystal’s eyes widened in surprised as she realized that Thunder had darted in front of Nightshade, and was staring down at the trainers furiously. Damian stumbled back frantically as Thunder made a warning slash in the air, but the scyther did not attempt to harm him.

“You’re the one who needs to back off!” Wildflame growled, racing to stand protectively in front of the human. “He was trying to help.”

Snowcrystal bristled, fearing that another argument was about to take place. “Thunder…” she began, trying to remember how Nightshade had spoken to the scyther. “They’re just trying to help Nightshade be in less pain, okay?”

“I wasn’t talking to you,” Thunder spat, her eyes narrowing to slits.

The other pokémon in the clearing had begun to gather warily around the trainers, each of them watching Thunder with a sense of great unease. As much as she wanted to trust in Nightshade’s judgment, a part of Snowcrystal didn’t blame them for not trusting her.

“Thunder…” Nightshade’s weak voice came from the leaf pile he was resting on. “It’s all right…they’re helping…not making it worse.”

Thunder stiffened at the sound of his voice, looking at the heracross uneasily. Snowcrystal wondered if it was because of how weak he sounded at the moment, after the exhaustion of the previous night had caught up with him.

To her surprise, Thunder gave a brief nod before backing off, moving several paces back and allowing the trainers to approach Nightshade again. However, she kept a wary eye on them, and Snowcrystal could tell that she didn’t trust them.

Thunder looked more stressed than she had when they’d left the arena the previous night, and she had an idea that it was because of Nightshade’s condition. The scyther seemed worried, anxious, and as Snowcrystal tried to remember what Nightshade had said, she realized that Thunder probably wasn’t used to feeling that way about another pokémon. Perhaps she was in some way worried that Nightshade was going to die, the way weakened pokémon always had during the course of her life as Mausk’s slave.

Several of the other pokémon had started to close in around the trainer and Thunder, as if readying themselves for any sign of attack. Arien walked forward so that he was standing beside his trainer. He turned and gave Thunder an unreadable look, and when he opened his mouth to speak, Snowcrystal braced herself for another argument.

To her surprise, the alakazam seemed very calm, not at all tense and frantic like he had been the previous night. “Your friend will be taken care of,” the alakazam tried to reassure her.

“Then they better do a good job,” Thunder hissed in reply. “It’s bad enough that we’re stuck with the humans. And you had better treat us with respect, understand?” She stepped forward, her blades lifting upward a small bit toward the psychic type.

“I understand,” Arien replied calmly. “I’m sorry about the way I treated Nightshade earlier.”

“Apologize to him then!”

Further talk was cut off at the sound of a pokémon approaching, and Alex burst into the clearing, followed closely by Justin, who was carrying a bowl of water. The moment Justin stepped into the open, his eyes locked to Thunder and he began backing away, a horrified look crossing his face. Spark raced to his side, his fur bristling to spines. Snowcrystal knew that the jolteon was not going to hurt Thunder, and it was merely a way to reassure his trainer that he would defend him if the need arose.

“Calm down,” Katie sighed in exasperation. “She’s not doing anything. Give me the water.”

Justin moved around the clearing in a wide circle, making sure to keep the other wild pokémon between himself and Thunder, until he was close enough to Katie to hand her the water.

Thunder glared at Justin, obviously noticing his unease, and the boy crouched lower beside Spark and backed off. They watched as Damian went back to tending Nightshade, waiting nervously as the tension between Thunder and the other pokémon slowly began to die down.

-ooo-

For the rest of the morning, both the pokémon and trainers rested, foraged for food, or helped set up the new camp in sullen silence. Once Nightshade had been left alone, Thunder had vanished into the forest again. Redclaw had taken up a role as the group’s guard, and no one was quite sure whether he was looking out for hostile humans and pokémon, or for Thunder.

The whole clearing was dark and gloomy, even in broad daylight, thanks to the covering of branches the flying pokémon had woven above the clearing. Snowcrystal didn’t like it. She was used to open sky. Even throughout most of their journey, they’d been in places where they’d had a lot of space to run. This felt too much like the caves they’d wandered through while trying to escape from Cyclone’s army. Though logically she knew that the forest was much friendlier, she couldn’t help but feel just as trapped. And she was worried for Nightshade; even though Katie had brought back several types of sap and honey from the city, the heracross hadn’t even touched the bowls she’d poured it into. Snowcrystal had been around Nightshade enough to know that heracross fed often throughout the day, so she could tell this wasn’t normal.

“Um…everyone?” Came a nervous voice from somewhere over near the heracross. Everyone in the group turned their heads as Damian stood up and walked to the center of the clearing. “Can I have your attention?”

“Hmph…what else have we got to do around here?” Blazefang muttered from where he lay, painfully shifting himself so he had a better view of the trainer.

“I…well, I just wanted to say…” Damian began, before pausing long enough that Katie and Justin shot him irritated looks. He sighed. “All right…I'm sorry for being incompetent. I'm sorry for ruining your lives. I'm sorry that I stink at heists, and impersonating gamblers, and…and not getting shot... I'm sorry for doing stupid and dangerous things and then not being able to come up with a solution when it goes wrong.” He cast his gaze over the watching people and pokémon. More than a few of them had looks that seemed to demand him to go on. “I'm sorry that I helped burn down countless years worth of knowledge…and put us at risk of burning to death in the process.” He paused. “And I'm also sorry that my pokémon got you all banned from the Pokémon Park. Scytheclaw has behavioral problems; I'll admit that now."

From beside Katie, Justin stood up from where he’d been kneeling. All the terror that he’d shown the group – of Thunder, of the police – was gone now, replaced by anger. “You…idiot!” he hissed through gritted teeth. He pointed an accusing finger at Damian, stepping forward. “This is all your fault!” he yelled. “You were the one who had to sneak into that library! And you didn’t think they’d find our fingerprints? You didn’t even think to bring gloves, you incompetent moron?”

Damian looked taken aback. “I…I didn’t think they’d actually arrest us for-”

“You set the library on fire! You let a fire type become our distraction, against ghost pokémon who were willing to attack her! How did you think that was going to turn out?”

From where he was resting, Blazefang let out a growl, obviously not in the mood to have whatever peace and quiet he could find be disturbed. “And you agreed with him, dim-witted human,” he growled, but his words were more out of frustration than anything, as Justin couldn’t understand him.

“I think we’d all be safer with that psycho scyther than you!” Justin cried.

“Stop. Arguing. Now,” Katie cried, glaring at Justin. “Or I’m going to fly right back to the city where I don’t have to deal with this anymore.”

At that, Justin went quiet. He gave Katie an unreadable stare. “What’s stopping you, then?”

Katie didn’t answer, but instead walked toward Damian. The pokémon watched her in silence until she came to stand beside him. “It’s nobody’s fault,” she announced. “Snowcrystal didn’t mean to set fire to the library…nobody meant for any of this to happen. But we can’t start arguing about it. We need a plan.”

Damian looked to Katie with grateful surprise, but after a moment lowered his gaze to the ground and shuffled his feet awkwardly. As Snowcrystal watched him, she realized that deep down, he probably knew that Justin was right, that he and the others had every right to be angry with him.

“I’m going to go look around,” he mumbled to no one in particular, walking toward the trees. As he did so, he sent out all his pokémon, all of whom but Arien had been resting in their poké balls for the majority of the morning. “All of you, stay here.”

“Hey,” Inferno muttered, turning to his companions. “Where’s he going?”

Scytheclaw shot the flareon an irritated look. “He told you to stay here, so it’s probably none of your business.”

“Sorry,” the fire type murmured sadly.

“Be careful, Damian,” Katie said to him as he reached the edge of the clearing.

Scytheclaw turned away from his teammates, still kneeling on the ground. The scizor looked completely drained of energy, and it looked to Snowcrystal like he was only still kneeling out of pride; it seemed like a wonder he didn’t topple over. She could see dark bruises all around his neck from where the Machamp had grabbed him. The steel type watched as Damian walked into the forest, and then stood up.

“I’m going with him,” he announced.

“Good,” Rosie stated, obviously not taking into account his weakened state. “It’s probably dangerous in this rotten forest.”

“Yeah,” Spark chimed in, a grin spreading across his face. “Trainers should always remember to bring safety scizors!” Though most of the pokémon didn’t understand his joke, it got a laugh from Rosie.

Ignoring them, Scytheclaw took a step forward. His leg immediately buckled, and he stumbled to the ground, too weak to even catch himself. He lay on the ground, his eyes widened in surprise as if he hadn’t expected to fall that easily.

“Scytheclaw?” Snowcrystal asked, running up to the scizor and giving the side of his face a few quick licks. “Was it this bad before, when you-”

“Leave me alone,” Scytheclaw hissed, and the growlithe backed up.

“Hey, uh, she was just trying to help,” Spark spoke up, the joking tone in his voice gone. When Scytheclaw didn’t answer, he turned to look at Rosie, who made her way over to him. “Everyone’s sure in a rotten mood,” he began, “but we shouldn’t take it out on each other.”

“Yeah,” Rosie agreed, flattening her ears as she came to stand beside the jolteon. “Take it out on Mausk and his awful pokémon.”

“Yeah. Let’s just hope we don’t run into them again,” Spark replied with a half-hearted chuckle, nudging Rosie’s shoulder. She managed a small smile in return.

-ooo-

By the time night had started to fall, no one had yet come up with any sort of plan of action. Yet they didn’t seem to mind, most of them too exhausted to do much of anything. Everyone seemed willing to let that discussion happen another day. Damian had returned from the forest, bringing a few plants with healing properties he had managed to find, as well as several types of berries and fruits. She could tell Damian was doing his best to put his knowledge to good use.

Katie walked slowly over to Nightshade from across the clearing. She had gone back to the city just before dark, bringing back more supplies as well as food for the pokémon. Snowcrystal looked up from the bowl she was sharing with Blazefang, Spark, and Rosie. She left the others to the food and crept up behind the trainer.

Katie was holding another blanket in her hands, one that looked a lot newer than the others the trainers kept with them. She moved the one Damian had given him, wrapping it around his front limbs, and carefully spread her own across the heracross’s back. “It’s going to be cold tonight,” she said, and Nightshade tilted his head up a small fraction to look at her. Katie reached down to where he was lying and ran her hand across the back of his head, and he closed his eyes. She then glanced toward the bowls of food she had left out for him, which remained untouched. She sighed as she stood back up and then walked back toward her tent.

Snowcrystal quietly moved toward Nightshade. He had hardly moved the entire day, except when he needed to crawl into the forest to relieve himself. She knew the humans had brought him pain medicine from the city, stronger than any of the berries or herbs they might find in the forest, and though it helped greatly, it still wasn’t enough.

Nightshade heard her coming before she reached him, and opened his eyes. She was surprised – and glad – to see that he didn’t look distraught, or stressed. He mostly just looked tired. She could tell he was still in some pain, despite the effects of the medicine, but he looked surprisingly calm, even peaceful, especially in comparison with the rest of the group.

“Snowcrystal?” he asked quietly, wincing as he looked up and accidentally shifted his injured arm. “Is something wrong?”

“No…I…just wanted to make sure you’ll be okay tonight,” she said.

He smiled at her, looking genuinely touched that she was showing him concern. “Don’t worry,” he assured her. His voice was weak and raspy, yet still warm and gentle. “I’ll get well. It will just take some time. The trainers will take good care of me.”

Snowcrystal hadn’t mentioned that she was afraid that Nightshade’s health would take a rapid decline from the state it was already in, but he had seemed to guess exactly what she was thinking. Still, even if Nightshade was beginning his long road to recovery, she couldn’t help being concerned. “I’m still worried about you,” she said.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he said reassuringly.

“I know that,” she began, a bit confused. “But…of course we’re still worried. You would be, if what happened to you happened to any of us, wouldn’t you?”

Nightshade stared back at her a moment before replying, “Yes…yes of course I would. But Snowcrystal, you should-”

“It’s not really bothering me,” she said. “I just want to help. And besides, you spent so much time trying to protect us. Now it’s our turn to do the same for you.” She gave Nightshade a small lick. “We’re family now. That’s what families do.”

Nightshade looked to her in silence for a moment, and this time, his look was filled with joy, despite his tiredness.

“I just wish you hadn’t had to do that,” Snowcrystal sighed.

“We’d probably all be dead if I hadn’t,” Nightshade replied. “But it’s okay. I’m glad I could protect my family this time.”

Snowcrystal looked at him, remembering what he’d told her when they’d wandered to where he and the group of heracross he’d lived with had once called their home. But Nightshade didn’t look sad. Underneath the pain and tiredness, he looked happy that they were safe, grateful for Snowcrystal’s concern.

And for the first time that day, she could truly believe that they would find a way through the new threats that had arrived. They always had, and she knew she wouldn’t want to face a new threat alongside any other pokémon than the ones that rested around her. She realized that, despite the relatively short time they’d had to get to know each other, she felt just as at home with them as she did with the growlithe tribe back at the mountain.

Yawning, she took another look around the clearing, seeing Wildflame, who was standing guard, give her a nod, and Rosie smile at her from beneath a leafy bush. Then she curled up beside Nightshade, and soon they had both fallen asleep.

To be continued...