The Path of Destiny

[Scytherwolf]

The Path of Destiny
Chapter 76 – Toil on the Mountaintop

Ashend waited alone in her cave, pondering. Itora was down in the bigger caves, hopefully doing a convincing job of making it look like she’d used her Forbidden Attack. Ashend had instructed her to continuously use thunderbolt on both the prey and the ground around it until it convincingly looked like damage from Voltgale. Ashend herself had killed hers with ghost type attacks that didn’t leave any physical mark, and had Itora consume it before it could be examined. So far, Cyclone hadn’t asked to be witness to the Attacks himself, and Ashend hoped it would stay that way.

The misdreavus glanced to the amulet that was resting on a small ledge nearby. Using her ghostly energy, she lifted it and held it front of her face, gazing into the deep blue stone. The thought of what she had given up for that stone made her simmer with rage, but only for a moment. She was reminded of another stone that was just like it, only red instead of blue. Yenn’s. Where Yenn was now, she had no way of knowing. She only knew that he was alive and he’d escaped.

She missed him. Apart from Itora, he was the only real friend she’d had in the army, the only friend she’d had in a long, long time. And if it weren’t for sheer willpower and a whole lot of luck, he’d be dead. Her gaze hardened. Cyclone was going to pay for it in blood.

“Ashend,” a voice said.

The ghost type whirled around, the amulet dropping to the ground in her momentary distraction. The speaker wasn’t Itora. Instead, the tall figure of a scyther stood in the entrance to the cave.

“What is it?” Ashend snapped.

“Something urgent,” the bug type replied.

Ashend narrowed her eyes. Silverbreeze’s sudden presence was an unpleasant surprise; she didn’t want to deal with one of Cyclone’s high-ranking lackeys at the moment. “Is it so important that you really felt the need to barge in here?” she spat, not caring how the scyther took her rudeness. “I’ve done my duties for the day, and I already told the others that I did not want to be disturbed.”

Silverbreeze ignored her obvious displeasure, walking further into the cave until she was face to face with the misdreavus. “We need to talk, Ashend.”

“Can’t it wait?”

“Not really,” Silverbreeze replied. “I know that you were talking to different pokémon about the Forbidden Attacks. You and that smeargle.”

Ashend froze. Silverbreeze’s voice was deadly serious, and the accusation had taken the misdreavus by surprise enough that she couldn’t think up an immediate response. Her mind raced with thoughts of having to kill the scyther before she could leave, before she could spread the secret, and then somehow convincing Cyclone that she had reason to do it. However, something Silverbreeze had said stuck out to her. The scyther had used the term ‘Forbidden Attacks,’ which was something Cyclone never did.

“I think I can trust you,” Silverbreeze stated. “I want your help.”

For a moment, Ashend just stared, unsure what to make of Silverbreeze’s sudden confession. Once she knew the danger had passed, she was left with confusion. Didn’t Silverbreeze know what could happen to her if she made the wrong choice, said such a thing to the wrong pokémon? Did she not understand the risk she was taking?

If this was some kind of trick, Ashend didn’t want to fall for it. Yet as she watched the scyther, she found herself convinced that Silverbreeze was being honest. The near-panic in her eyes looked real, and she hadn’t even bothered with formalities. This wasn’t the Silverbreeze she was used to.

“I shouldn’t stay here long,” the scyther said, walking past Ashend to pace in the open space of the cavern. “So we don’t have much time.”

“What exactly do you want?” Ashend asked.

“I’m sure you’ve realized that Cyclone’s…well, that the Forbidden Attack is doing something to him. Most of the pokémon deny it, but…” The scyther paused, suddenly glancing fearfully toward the cave entrance, but whatever she had thought she’d sensed was a false alarm, and she relaxed.

“How do I know I can trust you?” the misdreavus responded.

“Because I covered for you and Itora,” Silverbreeze answered. “I know you haven’t been using your Forbidden Attacks but I let it go. I don’t want you two using those attacks anymore than-”

“Okay, I understand,” Ashend said with a fierceness she hadn’t intended. The thought of Itora in danger made her seethe with fury, and Silverbreeze had brought the fear fresh to her mind.

“The point is,” Silverbreeze continued. “I want out. So do a lot of the pokémon in the lower ranks. Look, I know this is hard to believe. But I know you helped the yanmega-”

“Yenn nearly died escaping,” Ashend replied. “Solus and his followers nearly killed him. I can’t get you out of the army if that’s what you want.”

“Maybe not,” Silverbreeze said. “But maybe we could do something about Cyclone.”

A small smile appeared on Ashend’s face. “That’s what I plan to do. But there’s nothing we can do now; we don’t have a proper plan. If you act before-”

“I won’t,” Silverbreeze said hurriedly. “I want to help you.”

Ashend wasn’t sure just what had led the scyther to want to go to such lengths; Silverbreeze had seemed loyal from what Ashend had always seen of her. Yet for whatever reason, she had become disillusioned with Cyclone and his ways and wanted a way out. Silverbreeze was also close, in some ways, to Cyclone. She could be valuable.

“All right,” Ashend replied. “Let’s work together.”

“Thank you.”

“We’ll have to be careful and lie low for a while,” Ashend said. “Even Itora and I couldn’t hope to stop Cyclone now, so don’t think our…Forbidden Attacks…are going to be the answer to this.” She paused. “Have you spoken with the new recruit…Sandra? They’ll be bringing back her Forbidden Attack any day now.”

“I wouldn’t take the risk with Sandra just yet,” Silverbreeze said grimly.

Ashend’s eyes drifted to the entrance to the cave. At almost the same moment, so did Silverbreeze’s. “We should talk later,” Ashend told her. “Somewhere safer.”

“Yes, of course,” the scyther replied, backing toward the entrance. “I know all the commanders’ schedules. I could find us a safe place.”

Ashend thought there was no need; she could find places well enough on her own, but she nodded. “All right.”

The scyther nodded in reply, and then she was gone.

-ooo-

Snowcrystal waited, looking up at the mountain as Damian and Arien began sorting everyone into groups. Blazefang was to ride on Fernwing’s back during the search, and Katie and Damian’s remaining pokémon were going to help look with their trainers.

As Damian and Arien discussed it, Yenn glanced to Blazefang, who was sitting beside Fernwing while the tropius waited for orders. “You know…” the yanmega began hesitantly. “There were stories about you in the army. They said that when you refused to join, you threatened to attack them with Shadowflare. That wasn’t true, was it?”

“Of course not!” Blazefang cried back. The fact that the yanmega had brought it up made him uncomfortable, and he could see that Yenn regretted saying anything.

“Yeah, I didn’t think so,” Yenn replied.

“Stormblade,” Damian said after a bit of silent conversation with Arien. “I want you to lead a group. Take Snowcrystal, Yenn, and Rosie.”

Stormblade called his team over, Yenn following somewhat reluctantly. Stormblade figured he didn’t like taking orders from a human, but luckily he didn’t argue.

“Redclaw, you lead another group,” Damian instructed. “You take Thunder, Wildflame, and Alex. Me, Katie and Justin will go together with our own pokémon.”

“Fernwing and Ray will be searching from the sky,” Katie told the two winged pokémon, and the pidgeot and tropius nodded.

“All right, are we ready?” Spark cried. Several of the pokémon gave a cheer in response.

“We shouldn’t run into any hostile pokémon, but just in case, stick with your group,” Katie advised. “We’ll meet back down here in a few hours.”

With that, each of the groups split off in different directions, Fernwing and Ray taking to the sky. Redclaw led his group with confidence, Wildflame and Alex by his side. Thunder kept behind them, but surprisingly she didn’t object to the task.

As they climbed a rocky slope, Redclaw let the fresh sea air waft through his mane. He cast another glance at the ocean before looking ahead to their path up the mountain. The slopes were gentle up toward a certain point, where the rocks became steeper. Though the ground was still moist from the rain, there didn’t seem to be any danger of rocks coming loose and falling.

Wildflame trotted behind him with Alex right beside her. The two were in a good mood, eagerly following behind Redclaw. Thunder, however, was clearly displeased as she trailed after the others, not paying much attention to her surroundings. Redclaw wasn’t sure she’d be willing to lend much help finding a cave, but he didn’t worry. He, Alex, and Wildflame could handle the search on their own if Thunder didn’t want to participate. Still, he figured, it was worth a try to see if Thunder would be willing to help them out.

“Thunder,” he called down to the bug type, “maybe you should scout the way ahead. Your wings will surely give you an advantage when-”

“No,” Thunder replied, not looking at him.

Redclaw had expected that answer, but he still lowered himself from the rock he’d just climbed and walked back toward the scyther. “Is something wrong?”

Thunder just shrugged, still without looking at him. The action seemed odd, coming from her.

“Well, I guess you could stay behind if you wanted to,” Redclaw told her. “You don’t have to come with us.”

Thunder looked him in the eye, then nodded. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do that,” she mumbled in a distracted voice, then turned and headed back down the slope without another word.

Wildflame watched her go, her eyes narrowing. “Redclaw, are you sure that’s-”

“Let her go,” the arcanine interrupted, sweeping a paw in front of Wildflame as she made a move to follow the scyther. “It’s all right. The three of us can do this.”

They watched Thunder stop at the base of the slope and start to pace around. Redclaw couldn’t really blame her for wanting to stay behind. After all, this was their quest. Thunder didn’t seem like she really wanted to be a part of it. She was mainly with them because of Nightshade and a need for food. Perhaps, Redclaw thought distractedly, he could try teaching her to hunt one day, if she’d let him, perhaps with Stormblade’s help. After a few moments of contemplation, he turned and headed back up the mountain.

-ooo-

Damian walked at the head of the group, running his hand through the long swaying grasses that marked a trail used by rangers. They were only following the trail until they got higher up; if there was a hidden cave on the mountain, it was going to be outside of the rangers’ usual routes.

“So how big do you think this cave actually is?” Justin asked from somewhere behind. “You told us that the pokémon said the cave’s just a bunch of narrow passages. Tanzenarc must be small compared to Sequoiarc.”

“Maybe,” Katie replied, “or maybe there’s a bigger cavern far underneath and he’s just sealed off the other entrances. I don’t know how much we can assume about the legendary himself.”

Damian kept walking ahead of the others, not paying much attention to their conversation. He had Arien and Inferno by his side, and at the moment the three of them were simply enjoying their surroundings. There was a pleasant breeze in the air, and the whole mountainside smelled fresh and clean after the rain. “It’s been a while since we’ve been here,” Damian mumbled to his pokémon. “I forgot how beautiful it all was.”

A call from his pokégear interrupted him, and he reached for the device, confused. Answering the call, he looked at the screen uncertainly. “Hello?”

“Hi!” the other trainer said pleasantly. “Sorry to bother you, but do you by any chance know someone named Katie?”

“Oh…uh, yes,” he stammered. “She’s…right here.”

“Okay, good! My name’s Teresa, and you see, there was a mistake and somehow I ended up with her pokégear. You were the first contact who knew where she was. Are you still nearby? The contests are still going so I can’t return Katie’s pokégear now, but I want to as soon as possible. Where should we meet up?”

“Um…well, anywhere is fine.”

Katie and Justin caught up, peering at the screen of Damian’s pokégear. “My name’s Katie,” she interrupted, “and I have your pokégear right here.” She held up the device. “We could just meet up at the beach.”

“Okay, that’s great! I’ll call as soon as the contest is over. Thanks a lot, you two.”

“Well, at least this will be resolved soon,” Katie sighed. “So, let’s get a move on. Tanzenarc could be anywhere on this mountain.”

Damian took the lead once again, but he hadn’t taken more than a step before he stopped.

There was a pokémon standing in their way, and it had approached so silently that none of them had heard it. The pokémon stood on four legs, and had ice blue eyes and a fluffy mane of fur from which four sharp rocks protruded. It was a lycanroc.

Damian noticed Inferno’s fur stiffen as the flareon looked to the larger pokémon. Arien tensed too, and Damian braced himself. Something about the wolf-like creature was off.

Inferno shouted something at the stranger, something that Arien didn’t bother to translate, and the lycanroc shifted its paws, but did not reply. Damian’s hand moved toward one of his other poké balls.

“Damian…” came Arien’s voice in his head. “Something’s not right.”

Before he could reply, the lycanroc suddenly darted forward, its lips drawn back in a snarl. Damian reached for Scytheclaw’s poké ball and threw, not before the rock type slammed into Arien’s protect barrier, mere inches from Damian himself. The lycanroc jumped back onto its feet and tried to move around the barrier, but was sent flying backward after Arien lifted it with psychic. As soon as it was standing again, it lunged once again toward Damian.

But like the first few times, it never made it. Scytheclaw gave the wolf-like pokémon a few quick blows to the head with bullet punch and it collapsed.

“What on earth was that?” Katie cried, peering at the unconscious form of the lycanroc. “There aren’t supposed to be hostile pokémon here. Especially not ones that attack trainers!”

“I don’t know,” Damian replied. “It doesn’t make any sense…”

He and Katie conversed tensely amongst themselves for a few minutes, unnerved that a hostile pokémon had been lurking so close to a city.

“Look, I don’t know why it was there, but we should really get moving,” Justin interrupted.

They paused as the lycanroc roused, shakily getting to its feet. No one made a move as it hobbled off, letting out a few small whimpers. They watched as it broke into a faster stride and vanished amongst the boulders further ahead. After it disappeared, they could hear it howling. Damian suddenly felt more at unease than before.

“Damian, you should know…” Arien’s voice echoed through his mind again. “That lycanroc was warning others that we knew about the cave. About Tanzenarc.”

“He heard us?” Damian asked, and Katie and Justin gave him confused looks. He quickly explained what his alakazam had said.

“So now these pokémon are going to fight us the whole way?” Justin asked.

“Guess it’s not like the forest where they were all friendly,” Katie said warily. “Maybe we should go after that lycanroc and try to talk to it. Explain what we’re doing.”

“Yeah, good idea,” Justin responded. “I’m sure it’ll just love to talk to the ones who just gave it a beating.”

“Well it did try to attack Damian; what else could we have done?” Katie replied. “Look, okay, maybe we should leave that lycanroc alone. But there’s bound to be other pokémon. We’ll talk to one of them and see what the problem is.”

“Okay,” Damian replied. “Let’s do that.” He sent out the remainder of his pokémon, and Katie did the same.

-ooo-

Stormblade’s group had made good time. They were already far up the mountainside, in an area filled with large boulders near some small but deep ravines. Snowcrystal was in her element among the rocks, and Yenn and Stormblade both possessed wings. It was only Rosie who struggled a little.

Stormblade stood on the edge of a ravine, peering down in it. “I’ll give this place a quick look,” he informed the others. “It doesn’t look like there’s anything down there, but it would be best to make sure.”

Yenn, who had been growing increasingly agitated throughout their short journey, suddenly flew in front of the scyther. “Wait. Before you do that, I have a question for you. Why were you letting the humans run everything?”

Rosie gave a loud sigh and rolled her eyes while Snowcrystal cringed, hoping an argument wasn’t about to break out.

Stormblade, however, remained calm and collected as he replied, “We’re all working at this together. The trainers just happened to be the ones to organize us into groups, that’s all. No one’s really ‘in charge,’ and if it makes you feel better, Snowcrystal here’s the reason we started on this journey in the first place. The trainers joined later.”

Yenn didn’t seem impressed with the answer. “And you’re all okay with this? As a bug type?”

“I don’t see why that should matter,” Stormblade replied, a bit confused.

“You’ve heard that Justin brat,” Yenn growled. “He hates us. And as a whole, humans value our lives less than even those of other pokémon. They exterminate us, use us in their sick little tests-”

“What are you talking about?” Rosie replied. “I mean, sure, I get it. I hated humans too. But the ones with us are helping us out, and helping you. Shouldn’t you be grateful?”

“I don’t need the humans,” Yenn spat. “I’m here to work with you pokémon, not-”

“All right, Yenn, look,” Stormblade sighed. “I know our group wasn’t your first choice of companions. But we should focus on finding Tanzenarc for now.”

“I just thought that as a bug type, you would understand.”

“I think I do,” Stormblade replied. “Yes, there are trainers that don’t like us, but there are also plenty who do. But if you want me to understand more, I can try to. You can come to me and explain whatever you want once we camp for the night.”

Yenn looked surprised by the response, and just lowered his head, quietly answering, “All right.”

Snowcrystal watched the two bug pokémon, aware that Yenn wasn’t entirely wrong, if Nightshade’s history was anything to go by. Stormblade had no way of knowing about that, however, and she wasn’t going to break Nightshade’s trust by bringing it up. It made her a little sad to think about it, wondering if Yenn’s hatred of humans was in some way justified.

Stormblade flew down to the bottom of the ravine, leaving the others among the boulders at the top. Snowcrystal peered down at him as he examined the rock walls.

“We should hunt soon,” Yenn muttered to them, not seeming interested in what Stormblade was doing. “I’m starving…”

Snowcrystal looked up as Yenn flew overhead, and before she could reply, she noticed that Yenn’s attention had snapped to something further up the mountainside. Something that was moving.

The growlithe froze, immediately aware that something was amiss. There wasn’t just one shape moving, but many. They were weaving between the boulders higher up the mountainside and coming straight for them.

Rosie glanced in their direction, immediately noticing what was wrong. “Uh, Stormblade? You better get up here…”

The scyther reappeared, looking puzzled, before he too noticed the oncoming pokémon. Pokémon that were now racing toward them at full speed. There were several lycanroc – both day and night forms, which puzzled Stormblade, as the sun was blazing brightly – as well as a good number of graveler and golem, and even one tyranitar. Every pokémon was hurtling towards them with bared fangs and furious cries that grew louder as more came out into the open.

“Follow me,” Stormblade said urgently, whirling around and racing back down the slope, the other three following him. “We’ll head toward the ranger trails and follow them down to the beach.”

Snowcrystal nodded to him, though she was sure they wouldn’t be able to outrun the group of rock types for long. Some of the graveler and golem had tightened themselves into balls and were rolling down the slope toward them, and the lycanroc had much longer legs than she did. Her frantic mind tried to piece together why they were being attacked; Katie had said that there weren’t meant to be any hostile pokémon on the mountain.

Though Stormblade could outrun the enemies, he kept his pace matched with Snowcrystal and Rosie. Yenn flew overhead, sometimes darting behind to send a shockwave at a golem or graveler that came too close.

By the time a ranger trail came in sight, the pack was almost upon them. Stopping at the edge of the dirt road, Stormblade turned around, crossing his blades. “We don’t mean you any harm,” he called to a golem who had stopped mere yards from them. “We’ll leave if that’s what you want-”

“You’re not from here,” the golem roared. “You with those trainers?”

Stormblade didn’t reply, but the surprised look in his eyes gave his answer away. The golem’s scowl deepened. Suddenly he heard a shriek, and turned to see that a few of the other rock types had cut off Rosie and Snowcrystal’s escape.

The remainder of the mismatched pack reached them, looking at them with a certain hatred Stormblade didn’t understand. The golem gestured for some of the other rock types to leave. “Keep looking,” he told them. “We’ll take care of these ones.”

As most of the rock types ran off, Stormblade glanced behind him at Rosie and Snowcrystal. They were each being pinned down by a graveler. Yenn was hovering overhead, out of reach of the mountain dwellers.

Stormblade watched nervously as the tyranitar approached him. This one seemed to be the leader of the group. “What are you doing here?” the rock type demanded. “Who told you?”

“Told me…what?” Stormblade asked.

“What your humans are looking for,” the tyranitar snarled, slamming his fist down on a rock and sending a large crack through it. Something told Stormblade that if this pokémon attacked him, he would not hold back as if they were in a trainer’s battle. This tyranitar could very likely kill him.

“We-”

“Sequoiarc sent us!” Snowcrystal cried from behind him, causing the tyranitar to look over at her. “He needs Tanzenarc’s help.”

The tyranitar stomped over, reaching down for the growlithe and lifting her upwards by the fur on her head. Snowcrystal cried out, but he ignored it. “How do you know that name?” he growled.

“Let her go,” Stormblade demanded. “We don’t mean you any harm. We just want to talk. You seem like you could help us.”

“You’re not supposed to know that name,” the tyranitar growled at Snowcrystal. Stormblade could see in the rock type’s eyes a hint of panic, desperation…and knew that that was fueling the fire behind the tyranitar’s violent actions, for reasons he could only guess. This wasn’t a loyal guard of Tanzenarc’s, nobly protecting the legendary’s home. This was a crazed, desperate pokémon. He watched in dismay as the beast raised his fist toward the growlithe.

Two things happened at once. Snowcrystal fired a blast of hot flame into the tyranitar’s face and Stormblade darted forward, slamming the dull side of his blade into the creature’s rocky hide. The rock type dropped Snowcrystal and focused his attention on Stormblade, lunging toward him with a thunder fang.

As the scyther dodged, he heard cries from behind him that told him that Rosie was struggling with her captor. Stormblade felt something slam into his back from behind, sending him teetering off balance. The tyranitar leaned toward the ground, readying some type of rock type attack. Still dazed, Stormblade braced himself for the pain.

It never came. Instead, the tyranitar gave a shout of agony himself, and Stormblade saw that Yenn had his teeth sunk deep into the tyranitar’s arm. While the yanmega’s jaws didn’t seem to be strong enough to completely bite through the rocky hide, it was clearly causing enough pain on its own.

Stormblade tried to gather his strength to come to his companion’s aid, but something happened before he could. Slamming his fist into the ground, the tyranitar forced a spire of rock out of the earth and toward the yanmega. It struck Yenn’s head above his snout, and blood sprayed across the tyranitar’s face. Yenn dropped, completely limp, to the ground.

Stormblade froze for a second before realizing that during the commotion, Rosie and Snowcrystal had both managed to free themselves. Seeing that the tyranitar’s attention had turned to them, he bounded toward his friends. “Run!” he cried, seeing that they had hesitated upon seeing Yenn collapse.

Luckily, both fire types trusted his word and bolted down the ranger trail. A golem immediately pursued them, but Stormblade knocked it off course with an attack of his own. Seeing that the rock types were ignoring Yenn’s still form and coming after the three of them, Stormblade reluctantly turned away from the yanmega and followed after Snowcrystal and Rosie, trying to cover them from any attacks.

“That way,” he called, leading them off the ranger trail and toward a rugged path that ended in a steep cliff edge.

Snowcrystal’s eyes widened as she realized that he wanted them to jump. As she approached the cliff, she could hear ocean waves crashing against the rock.

Rosie reached the edge first and froze, realizing that it was quite a drop. Before Snowcrystal could shout words of encouragement, Stormblade gripped her between the dull sides of his blades, lifting her off the ground.

“Sorry, Rosie,” the scyther said, before he gave the ninetales a nudge that sent her over the cliff edge and into the water with a scream. Stormblade took off, leaving the rock types snarling at them from the cliff edge.

He watched them from the air, trying to ignore their shouted threats, when suddenly a roar interrupted his thoughts. From around one of the boulders bolted Redclaw, fearlessly snarling at the rock types before turning and running the other way. To the scyther’s relief, they followed him. He knew Redclaw could outrun them; he would be safe. However, Stormblade had no idea where the rest of Redclaw’s group was, and he scanned the sky worriedly for Ray or Fernwing before flying down to the beach and setting Snowcrystal in the sand. A bedraggled Rosie staggered out of the water a few seconds later.

“So what do we do now?” Rosie asked, coughing a few times.

“I need to find the others,” Stormblade said. “Someone needs to help Yenn and-”

“Yeah, and let’s hope he’s the only one in trouble,” Rosie replied. “I think the humans should be okay…the rock types outnumbered us, but they’ve got more numbers on their side.”

“Let’s hope. I’ll be back soon,” Stormblade said. “Wait for the others here.” Without waiting for a reply, he flew off.

-ooo-

Damian, Justin, and Katie stood on the remains of what had been a battlefield. Their group and Redclaw’s had suddenly run into each other right before the mountain’s pokémon struck back with a vengeance. Though the pokémon had been defeated without any serious injuries occurring, it had become clear that they would probably have to retreat, even though there had not yet been a chance to talk peaceably with one of the wild pokémon.

Then stronger foes had appeared. Redclaw had lured some of them off while the rest had been dealt with by the group’s combined strength. Now it was time to regroup and make a new plan.

Damian was about to recall some of his pokémon when he received a call on his pokégear. Seeing that it was Teresa, he answered it, and her smiling face appeared on the video screen.

“Oh hey, Damian! The contest is over, so you and Katie can come pick up the pokégear now.”

“Oh, um…” Damian paused, hearing Redclaw’s howls coming ever closer. Suddenly the arcanine appeared over the rise of a cliff, several powerful pokémon behind him. The arcanine’s eyes widened as he realized he’d led them back to his companions. “Uh…can that wait a bit? We’re a little…busy.”

“Okay, sure,” Teresa replied, but he wasn’t looking at the screen.

Redclaw had sprinted away, and what appeared over the cliff were pokémon a lot tougher looking than the ones they had faced, including, to Damian’s surprise, a tyranitar. He turned to Scytheclaw, who merely nodded at him in understanding and prepared to fight.

The rock types headed toward them, but before anything started, the sound of engines rang through the air, causing all the pokémon to halt. From around a bend in the road, two ranger jeeps appeared, and with them a large amount of well trained water pokémon. The rock types hesitated, and as the ranger’s pokémon shouted something at them, some reluctantly turned and left. Others attempted to put up a fight, but were quickly driven back by the highly trained water types. Even the tyranitar was sent running with the others. Within minutes, the area was clear, leaving the confused group and the rangers alone.

“Are you okay?” one of the rangers asked them, and Katie, deciding to answer for everyone, nodded in response.

“We’re fine I think…some of the pokémon might need a trip to the pokémon center just to be sure,” she said.

“We can give you a ride there,” another ranger offered.

“That would be great, but…first we still need to meet up with some of our pokémon,” Justin explained.

“We can help you find them,” the ranger told her. “We have other groups scouting the mountain as we speak. If we don’t find your pokémon soon, they will.”

“Why don’t you go on to the pokémon center,” Katie told Justin and Damian. “I’ll find the others and meet you there.”

“Okay,” Justin said. “Just stick with the rangers, all right?”

Katie nodded, and as she did so, she heard the buzzing of wings and saw Stormblade come to a halt near the rangers’ vehicles. “That’s one of them,” she cried, and beckoned to Damian and Arien to come forward as she approached the scyther.

During the quick conversation that followed, Damian translated for Stormblade, telling Katie that Snowcrystal and Rosie were safe, but that Yenn had been injured. At one point Redclaw also chimed in, telling Arien that Thunder was waiting at the bottom of the mountain.

“We’ll find Yenn, don’t worry,” Katie told Damian. “Fernwing and Ray should be safe wherever they are, so I’m not worried about them. Take everyone else to the pokémon center and I’ll be back with the others. And…we’ll figure out what to do with Yenn when we find him.”

Once everyone had agreed to the plan, Justin and Damian took most of the pokémon and headed down the mountain with one of the rangers, leaving Katie to search for their injured companion.

-ooo-

The ranger gave a sharp cry as hit the brakes and his vehicle ground to a halt. He had just turned a sharp corner, and lying on the dirt path ahead of them was an unconscious yanmega. The ranger gave his companion a puzzled look before both got out of the jeep and approached the pokémon.

“A yanmega? That’s odd. We never see them this time of year.”

“Think it was attacked by those rock types?”

The two conversed with each other in low tones as they examined the yanmega, who showed no signs of waking. It was immediately obvious that the bug type was in need of a trip to a pokémon center.

One of the rangers pulled out a special temporary poké ball, one used for easily transporting wild pokémon. When he tossed it at the yanmega’s side, however, it merely bounced off, telling him that the creature already had a registered poké ball somewhere.

“We’ll have to drive it back the old fashioned way. Here, help me.”

Together, they lifted the limp yanmega and set it gently in the back of the jeep underneath a covering of tarp. Seeing nothing else in the area, they decided to head straight back, and within minutes they were on their way back to Shellreef City.

Not long after, Katie, flying on Ray’s back, passed over the road, her eyes scanning the landscape for their missing companion. Stormblade flew close behind her, assuring the trainer as best he could that it was the place they had left Yenn, but the yanmega was nowhere to be found. Whether it was because of the rock types or the rangers or if Yenn had simply left himself, he didn’t know. The only thing left to do was to keep searching.

-ooo-

The pokémon center lobby was busy. Justin and Damian waited awkwardly, the pokémon clustered around them while they waited for Katie to return. Stormblade had known where Yenn had been at the time they were attacked. It seemed odd that they weren’t back yet.

It worried Justin that a dangerous pokémon with a Forbidden Attack was on the loose, injured or not. He glanced at Damian’s pokégear screen, hoping he’d see a call from Teresa’s, and that Katie would say that she’d found him, before some disaster happened.

Thunder was even more agitated than Justin. With the pokémon center as crowded as it was, she was getting a lot of stares, and she tried to ignore them as she paced restlessly back and forth.

Noticing this, Damian stood up and walked over to her, ignoring her challenging glare. “If you want,” he said, “I think they’d let us go back and see Nightshade.”

Thunder stared at him uncertainly, clearly lacking much trust in the trainer. But she nodded, still watching Damian warily as he walked up to the front desk.

“Hey, wait,” Justin began, stopping him. “Can I borrow your pokégear in case Katie calls back? I just want to…” He trailed off, then quickly added, “I promise that this time, I won’t get it swapped for someone else’s.”

“Oh, sure,” Damian said, handing it to him. “We shouldn’t be gone long, though.” He turned to the desk and Justin walked back to the group of waiting pokémon.

He was glad no one questioned why he was with so many. He knew it must have looked odd, and some of the pokémon were clearly uncomfortable about being in the pokémon center.

After Damian and Thunder had been taken somewhere in the back, Justin heard the lobby doors open again. To his surprise, in walked a ranger who was wheeling in a pokémon with large, insect-like wings. Justin’s blood froze. He recognized the yanmega lying lifelessly on the gurney as the ranger walked up toward the front desk. Yenn. But where was Katie? Why had she brought him here?

“Stay here,” he told the confused group of pokémon, weaving his way through the small crowd of waiting trainers as he approached the ranger. “Uh, excuse me,” he began, tapping the ranger on the shoulder, “but did Katie tell you to…” He paused, for when the ranger turned to him, he realized that it wasn’t one of the ones who had come to their aid on the mountain.

“Is this your pokémon?” the ranger asked while the nurse quickly looked Yenn over, calling for one of the blissey that had been checking up on another waiting patient.

“Uh, well, sort of,” he began uneasily. “It’s more of a…well, it was following my friends and they’d really want it back, you see…” He was aware of how stupid he sounded, but he wasn’t sure what else to say. “It’s a wild pokémon we…befriended, I guess.”

“This one’s in worse shape than the others,” the nurse said, cutting off any reply the ranger was about to give. “If you want,” she addressed Justin, “you can come back with it.”

Justin wasn’t sure if there was anything he’d rather do less, but figured that going with them was a good way to make sure they put Yenn back outside before he could wake up. As he was led into a door opening into a wide hallway, he quickly used Damian’s pokégear to send Katie a message: “We found Yenn. They brought him to the pokémon center.”

He followed the nurse and her chansey down a hallway into a side room, where another nurse – or a nurse in training, seeing how young she was – was preparing the area where the next wounded pokémon would be examined. Justin glanced down at the yanmega, who still showed no signs of moving. “Um…this is a wild pokémon,” he began hesitantly. “I think you should put it back outside. It’ll…” He glanced at the gash on the pokémon’s head. “It’ll be fine.”

“Wild or not, it’s our job to help the pokémon who come in here,” the nurse responded, not looking at him. “And unless we close that wound, it could easily get infected.”

“All right, just…make it fast,” Justin replied, hoping that if nothing else, Yenn would stay unconscious, or that he wouldn’t lash out if he did wake up.

Both nurses ignored his rude remark. Together, they lifted Yenn onto the clean white table, taking care to make sure his wings and tail didn’t brush the floor. Justin then watched as they cleaned the wound, and noticed when a few of Yenn’s legs started to move.

“You weren’t the one who did this to the yanmega, were you?” the younger nurse asked, and from the annoyed look her superior gave her, Justin figured she wasn’t supposed to ask things like that.

“No,” he shot back. “Wild pokémon did this.”

“It's okay,” the older nurse told him. “Even in trainer battles these things sometimes happen. And wild pokémon can be unpredictable."

The younger nurse watched as Yenn’s slow movements grew more noticeable. “It’s waking up,” she said. “We want it asleep when we close the wound. It should be quick enough for sleep powder, right?”

Justin knew very well that sleep powder didn’t last long – a few minutes at most – and the thought made his unease grow. Nevertheless, he watched as they put some sort of tube and mask against Yenn’s face, presumably to make him breathe in the sleep powder, and he found himself wishing frantically that Katie would show up and somehow fix everything.

He said nothing as the nurses numbed the wound and tried not to pay attention as they closed it with what looked like two thick staples. Yenn showed no sign of moving at all, and Justin breathed a sigh of relief when it was done.

“He can go back outside now, right?” he asked.

“We’ll need to monitor him for a while,” the older nurse told him. “Pokémon that have had a head injury can sometimes-”

“Pokémon faint all the time!” Justin cried. “I’m sure he’s fine.”

“He may be, but we want to be sure. When pokémon pass out for more than a few minutes, we need to check and make sure there isn't anything wrong. Try not to worry,” she added, mistaking Justin’s distress as concern for the yanmega. She turned to the nurse-in-training. “While he’s still asleep let’s quickly check him for other injuries.”

The nurse quickly did a scan of the pokémon, confirming that he was a male and seemed to be in decent health apart from the injury. They then lifted him onto his back, sliding the two halves of the table apart a few inches to accommodate the spikes on his back, and for the first time they had a clear view of his scar.

Both of them looked stunned, and the younger nurse turned to Justin in confusion. “What is that from?” she asked.

“Look, I don’t know,” Justin replied, suddenly finding himself growing more uneasy, for reasons he couldn’t understand. “We found him that way.”

The young nurse turned to the more experienced one. “Is that from some sort of procedure we do here? Have you ever seen-”

“No, that’s not right. Do a full pokédex scan on him.”

The younger nurse quickly did as she was told, and Justin watched nervously, suddenly wishing he could leave the room.

“The OT comes up as some weird code..."

“Let me see,” the older nurse said, taking the pokégear from her hands. She walked over to a laptop in the corner of the room and sat down in front of it. A few seconds later Justin heard the sound of typing.

“I should give him the antibiotics now, right?” the younger nurse asked, and after a confirmation, she opened a drawer and pulled out a syringe.

“It’s not coming up with anything…” the older nurse mused, staring at the computer screen.

The trainee nurse walked over to Yenn, bending one of his legs to expose the soft tissue in the joint. Justin tensed as she gave him the injection. When she was finished, she lifted the needle away, and that was when Yenn started to move again.

At first his movements were slow, dazed, but then as the nurse was about to hand off the empty syringe to the chansey, Yenn suddenly flared to life.

The yanmega’s body tried to jerk upright, his wings beating strongly enough to send several of the objects on the counters smashing to the floor. His jaws made snapping motions as he tried to lunge at the nurse holding the needle, and only the fact that he was on his back in an awkward position stopped him from harming her.

His tail lashed as his wings beat harder; something else shattered on the floor. The movement from his wings gave him enough of a lift that he could scramble back onto his feet. He lunged at the young nurse and slammed into a protect barrier that the chansey conjured up at the last moment. Justin backed against the wall, his hand reaching for the doorknob next to him and his face white with terror.

In his dazed and confused state, Yenn did not know who Justin was. He did not know what had happened to him earlier in that day. All he could tell was that he was back in the place he had sworn he’d escaped – or maybe he’d never really escaped at all. Everything was muddled in his mind. Thoughts swam in and out of his head that made no sense. He watched as the boy flung open the door and fled into the hallway. He focused on the doorway and his possible route of escape.

He launched himself at it. His wings didn’t work the way he wanted them too. They slammed into the doorframe on both sides, nearly sending him crashing to the ground before he turned his body so that they fit through. He emerged into a long hallway and his mind flared with panic. He didn’t see the boy. He didn’t care. He needed to get out.

The area was brighter down one end of the hallway. He flew in that direction, but he felt as if he’d been drugged; his movements were sluggish and there was a pounding ache in his head. He found it hard to focus on anything. His vision swam. He kept flying toward the light.

Suddenly he slammed with full force into a large glass cabinet. It shattered and he collapsed to the floor. Several humans and pokémon screamed.

Damian rushed into the lobby, Thunder right behind him. The glass cabinet that had been set up in the hallway near the lobby had been smashed, and a yanmega was thrashing about in its remains. “Yenn…” Damian began, alarmed. He rushed toward the bug type, ignoring the confused shouts of the other trainers.

“Yenn, what happened? Did-” He suddenly froze, for the yanmega’s body had gone still, standing on all six of his legs with his wings raised. His eyes were glowing.

Damian backed up, aware that Yenn’s attention was now solely on him. The yanmega’s eyes were an odd shade of blue, which was a clear sign that what he wasn’t about to use any ordinary attack.

“Damian!”

It was Katie’s voice, somewhere behind him. He didn’t dare turn around to look. He could only think back to the underground arena, when Blazefang’s eyes had glowed moments before…

Snowcrystal acted before she could think. Almost without realizing it, she was suddenly between Yenn and Damian, and the yanmega flinched, the glow starting to fade from his eyes. “Yenn, don’t use that attack,” she pleaded with him. “There’s a reason you’re not…listen to that reason. No one is your enemy here!”

Yenn shook his head, as if trying to fight off the effects of the Forbidden Attack. But the glow was gone.

“See…you did it. Now don’t worry, we’re getting out of here. Just come with me.” She moved closer to him, taking care not to step on the shards of glass that littered the floor.

Blazefang quickly limped up to her, holding a paw in front of her to halt her progress. “Let me talk to him,” he explained, then added in a whisper, “His Forbidden Attack can’t kill me.” He edged toward the yanmega, careful of the glass. “Yenn, listen to me,” he began. “You’re not in danger here. You-”

He was interrupted as one of the nurses emerged from the hallway, looking at the scene in dismay. Before she could react, before Blazefang other the others could tell him otherwise, Yenn lifted into the air and shot toward the windows above the entrance to the lobby. The glass shattered, some of it raining down on a few of the trainers below who gave startled cries.

Damian rushed out of the lobby and into the open air, watching the small shape of the yanmega fade into the distance. “Come on, we need to find him,” he shouted to the others, then sent out Fernwing.

-ooo-

By the time the sun was setting in the sky, the group was gathered at the edge of the city, with no sign of Yenn. How he had managed to fly so far so quickly, Katie wasn’t sure.

Yenn at least seemed to have some degree of control over his Forbidden Attack, more than Blazefang must have at that stage, but she couldn’t write off Yenn’s being able to fight against it as more than a fluke. If Snowcrystal had arrived more than a moment later, it would have been over. And the fact that Snowcrystal’s presence had snapped him out of it long enough to fight back was a miracle in itself. It was too close. Katie felt a great sense of apprehension. Their peaceful search of the city had been shattered.

“We’ll have to keep looking tomorrow,” she said, addressing the trainers and pokémon gathered around her. “There’s no way we can find him in the dark.”

Damian was about to reply when he noticed an incoming call on his pokégear, which Justin had returned to him. Katie glanced over and could see that it was Teresa.

“Hello? Damian?”

“Tell her we can’t switch the pokégear back now,” Justin said.

However, what Teresa said next had nothing to do with the mixed up pokégear. “Do you and Katie know another trainer, who was at the beach with a growlithe? The one who had Katie’s pokégear?”

“That was me,” Justin said, leaning toward Damian so that she could see him on the screen.

“Oh, good. Well…I think I found your yanmega.”

-ooo-

Nathanial Mausk sat alone in his office room, the only light coming from the glow of his computer. Volco was beside his desk, taking an early nap. Mausk paid the typhlosion little attention.

He had just returned home after a brief excursion training some more pokémon. It had been a long while since he’d sat silently in his own home, catching up on the news he’d missed while he was away. That evening, however, he’d stopped browsing the news and was merely focusing on his own thoughts. He’d had a lot on his mind since the incident with the houndoom down in the arena. Shadowflare, that attack had been called, if he was to believe what the legends of the Forbidden Attacks had said. It wasn’t like him to rely on mere myths and rumors instead of facts, but the information he’d gathered since the incident seemed to match.

An incoming call from his pokégear interrupted his mind’s wanderings, and he picked the device up. Volco let out an irritated groan as he shook his head, woken from his nap.

“Yes?” Mausk asked politely.

“I heard you just got home,” the man on the video screen began. “And just in time, too. I found something I think you need to see. It’s about those…Forbidden Attacks, you called them?”

“Show me,” Mausk responded, and waited as the other trainer sent over a file.

“See what you think,” the other man told him. “If it’s really one of them, this could be bad news.”

Mausk and the other trainer briefly conversed before ending their call, and then Mausk opened the file. It was a clip from the evening news, one of the things he’d skipped watching. He watched as the camera of a pokémon center showed a yanmega crashing into a glass case, a trainer and later a growlithe running up to confront it. Mausk didn’t miss the glow in the yanmega’ eyes. However, he wasn’t entirely convinced. Yanmega could be taught to use psychic.

He was about to close the file when suddenly the yanmega took off, flying toward what he assumed was the window, and the trainer lifted his head to follow it. Mausk’s blood ran cold.

It was the same trainer he’d confronted in the underground. The one he’d shot. The one he’d been sure was dead.

Mausk rewound the clip, noting that there was a houndoom approaching the yanmega near the end, a houndoom that bore the same wounds his own had gotten in the arena. That kid still had that twisted pokémon…still had a pokémon with a power that even Mausk refused to get involved with again. The fact left him deeply unsettled.

He looked at the other pokémon – a growlithe, and realized that it was the same one he’d seen in the underground. That unusually small, runty growlithe.

Mausk focused again on the boy before he turned back to his computer. He’d remembered seeing that boy’s face somewhere else, on the night he shot him. Within minutes, he’d pulled up the news headline he’d recalled, connecting the boy and one other, younger one to the library fire in Stonedust City.

Seeing that there was a follow-up article, he began reading that, stopping when he got to the part about the ghost pokémon claiming that a white growlithe was responsible. He looked back at the pokégear, where the video clip was paused. The growlithe in the video was orange, but it looked the same size as the white one he’d briefly gotten his hands on in the wild before the scrawny trainer had taken it from him.

He turned back to the first article and the picture of the boy that had originally been posted for all to see, then looked at the words beneath it. Damian Cooke.

If nothing else, now he had a name to go with the face.

To be continued…