Ok, this is my first attempt at a pokemon fic. This is about an Umbreon living in a city. It's a big, industrialised city, the kind that has permanent smog over most of it.
He has a Leafeon mate (Some human was dumb enough to throw a leaf stone at her as an eevee. They didn't know what it was.) who isn't in the best of condition. They're trying to get out of the city.
Easier said than done.
An Umbreon at night, even if on it's own, is not a force to be trifled with. Regretfully, a lot of adolescent pokemon, although they instinctively know that it's not a good idea to get in a fight with one, completely ignore their instincts.
'Why does this childish Meowth always think it can get the best of me?' Sleek thought, jumping clear over the head of said pokemon, casually firing a confuse ray over his shoulder. 'He never even touches me, and yet he's always full of swagger, always trying to satisfy his own self image.'
Shaking his head ruefully at the foolishness of youth, Sleek continued walking further into town. He had no time to fulfil the Meowth's wishes to be pummelled tonight. Tonight was Soft's birthday, and Arceus help anything that prevented him from getting to her. Last year had been all but ruined because some fool had let a Magnezone loose, and it had taken offence at Sleek existing. THAT had not ended well. Not only had he almost been caught by that Officer Jenny and her Growlithe (Curse the both of them to an eternity in Giratina's world) but he had also gotten a scolding from Soft about his injuries.
Something like that was never pleasant. He hated seeing his Leafeon mate in distress over anything, let alone annoyed and angry because HE had very nearly ruined her special night for her. He still shuddered with guilt whenever he thought about it.
'Still, the city seems rather quiet tonight. Thank Arceus… I really do hate the noise of this place sometimes. Can't wait until Soft is ready to move a bit further out of the city. Darn air pollution fouling up her synthesis…'
Soft had been badly injured by a stray Monferno about two weeks ago, and she was still trying to recover from the attack.
The problem: Soft's ability to heal and recover depended on the weather. The weather in this city was not pleasant. Ever. Perpetual smog hung over the centre of it, and there were usually foul grey clouds over the rest. Soft wasn't quite up to travelling further out of the city yet. But in order for her to heal faster, she needed to. Unlike Sleek, who simply had to find a patch of deep shadow to speed his healing up a fraction, or better yet, wait 'till night. At night, he healed fast enough that you could literally watch the skin repair itself. A first degree burn would be gone in two minutes or less.
Sleek turned a corner, slipping into shadows. He didn't want another adrenaline pumped pokemon trying to jump him.
'Just two more streets, and I'll be home and dry,' he thought happily.
He was headed to one of the few parks in the city. Parks were really the only place a Leafeon could even consider living in, in this sprawled out mess of a city. Anywhere else, and the pollution would be a rapidly accelerated death. Sure, they could travel through it, but if they weren't at full strength, they'd be in a bad way by the time they stopped. The parks were few and far between. Sleek had, in fact, been trying to find the quickest way to the next park he and Soft were going to go to. The next step towards being out of here.
Sleek started running as their park came into view. He couldn't help himself. He had only been away for a day and a half, but he had sorely missed being in Soft's company during that time.
"You sure you saw that Leafeon around here?"
Sleek stopped dead.
"Yeah, 'course I'm sure. Park's gotta be the only place it can live in, ain't it?"
Human voices. Much too mature to be teenagers. And they sounded slightly drunk. And they were talking about a Leafeon. His Leafeon.
None of the above factors painted a pleasant image.
'Soft!' Sleek thought desperately, breaking out into a run again. He couldn't allow them to find Soft. Humans trying to find a pokemon in a city when it didn't belong to them had only a few explanations. And all of them involved pokenapping. Soft wouldn't be able to put up any sort of a fight, not in her current condition. He had to get to her before the humans did!
"Come on, that thing's in here somewhere! Probably it's hiding under one of dem bushes. I heard they like stayin' close to da ground."
"You only hear things when they got somethin' to do wit money!"
"Shut your gobs and find it!"
Sleek crawled up behind one of them with his mouth open, preparing to fire a shadow ball. If nothing else, it would grab the guy's attention. And he knew his power well enough to know that it would do more than just that.
The instant he had a clear shot, he fired, straight between the man's shoulder blades. The ball exploded, knocking the man clean off his feet, headfirst into a tree trunk. Sleek quickly concealed himself by jumping up a tree. In the current light, he'd be all but invisible.
"What tha hell was that?"
"Sometin's knocked Dave out!"
"Keep looking! We can't expect to sell a Leafeon for a good price if we don't even have the bloody Leafeon!"
Sleek lost it right there. NO ONE was going to even try to sell Soft. Not over his own dead body!
He leaped down out of the tree, landing right behind another one of the men. Before he could turn around, Sleek fired a dark pulse at his head, sending him tumbling, head over heels. He dashed forward towards another one, jumping and using iron tail to land a blow at the base of his spine. The pain of it quickly sent him into unconsciousness. Upon landing, Sleek looked around, checking to see if any of the humans had spotted him yet. He wasn't quite sure how many there were, but he knew that there were at least another three.
"Everyone! Get together!"
'Ah, thank you so much for your help,' Sleek thought with a grin on his face. 'That makes my job much easier.'
Sleek watched as they remaining men all grouped together.
'Four more,' he thought. 'I can handle four. I just have to get in the middle of them and use a broad dark pulse. That'll take care of 'em.' With his plan in mind, Sleek quickly climbed up another tree, and tried to get above them, jumping agilely from and to the nearest tree branches. He couldn't afford long jumps, they'd spot him.
He watched the group carefully, not wanting to miss one of them moving away.
"I've had enough of this…" one of them mumbled, pulling out a red and white sphere. Sleek paused. Whatever pokemon this guy was about to send out, Sleek would have to knock out quickly, before the men could surround him.
"Go, Kadabra!" FLASH.
Sleek couldn't help but laugh. A pokemon like that would probably fall from a single shadow ball.
The Kadabra looked around at it's owner.
"Find the Leafeon that's living in this park! Then catch it!"
"Dabra!"
Before the psychic pokemon could even take a step, Sleek formed a shadow ball and fired, hitting it squarely in the chest.
"I don't think so, pally!" he growled at it, forming another attack.
"Kadabra, use psychic! Knock that thing out!"
Sleek didn't bother waiting for the attack to happen, firing his attack before Kadabra could determine where he was.
The ball hit with more power than previously, exploding and knocking it back into the group of humans.
Leaping down before they could rally themselves, he ran into the centre of them, and let out a small howl as he fired a dark pulse all around himself.
The sudden silence was exactly what he had been hoping to hear. He sighed softly.
'Good. Now I've got to find Soft, and get her out of here. We can't stay here if these people know where we are.' Turning, he called out, "Soft! Where are you?" He listened, hoping to hear her voice.
"I'm hiding up in this tree, to your left." She sprang down, wincing as she hit the ground heavily. "Ok, I know I've said this before dear, but I really do hate Monfernos now. And I mean REALLY hate them!"
Sleek dashed forward, nuzzling his head against the back of her neck. He laughed softly.
"I don't think anyone would say you're not allowed to, considering what that one did to you. Happy birthday. Are you alright?"
"Thanks, and apart from just injuring my leg further, and being woken up by something that wasn't my mate returning, I'm fine. The clouds actually cleared up slightly, so I healed a bit more today. Any chance we might be able to reach the next park tonight?" Sleek sighed.
"I don't think so… Not without exhausting you completely. The next park is about ten km's away. There's no way you'll be able to go that far during night, injured. During the day, maybe. But at night, when you naturally shut down? There's simply no chance." Soft lowered her head slowly, clearly disappointed.
"Hey," Sleek murmured. "Hey, don't worry. We can wait until tomorrow. We just need to wait a couple more hours, then we can move. Try and get some sleep, I can keep these guys knocked out."
"But you'll be tired tomorrow…"
"If I don't keep these guys knocked out, we could find ourselves in cages, ready to be sold. I'm completely healthy; I can take a few extra hours staying awake. Go get some sleep." Soft let out a gentle breath.
"Fine. But if you don't get some serious rest when we reach the next park, you-"
"Can expect to be severely scolded. I will, Soft, don't worry. By the time we get there, I'll be so tired you'd have to fight me to keep me awake. Now go." Soft walked over to a low bush, laying down and curling herself up. Her eyes were still open however.
"Soft, go to sleep."
"Hm…" she muttered back at him.
Barely a minute later, her breathing had slowed to the pace of one who's asleep.
"'Bout time," Sleek said under his breath, before resuming his guard over the unconscious humans. He wasn't looking forward to this.
"Come on Sleek, it's only a few streets away," Soft murmured into her mates ear. "You can go that far. You just have to get a bit further along, then you can rest."
"I know that," Sleek replied tiredly. "I'm just tired… Those guys kept waking up more often than I thought they would. And that damn Kadabra just wouldn't stay down for more than ten minutes…" Soft just sighed quietly with her head lowered. She felt about as tired as Sleek did, but she knew they had to keep going, She, at least, couldn't afford to stop for very long, not outside a park.
"You can get to the park, Sleek. You can get there. Just put one paw in front of the other." Sleek just groaned in response, his right hind leg collapsing.
"Hey!" Soft cried out. "None of that; get back up. You need to keep moving. Come on, if you don't get up yourself I'll have to drag you to the park! You know perfectly well that you don't want that to happen!"
Remarkably, (Soft hadn't really expected that to work) Sleek slowly stood up once more. Albeit, shakily. He was still on his four feet, that was the important thing.
After only a few minutes, Sleek and Soft were hidden in an alleyway, just one road crossing away from their goal. It was nowhere near the busiest street in the city, but it was, unfortunately, busy enough to ensure they'd have to be careful when they crossed. If anyone spotted them, they'd have a repeat of last night. Sleek was plain exhausted, while Soft was weak from travel and pollution. They couldn't afford to be spotted.
Soft carefully poke her head out of the alleyway entrance, keeping as close to the wall as possible. The sun was currently still off in the east, so staying hidden in shadows was a very good option at the moment.
'Well,' Soft thought. 'I can't see cars coming from the left or right… Ah, no, there's one now… We could probably cross when this one goes by…'
She called out quietly to Sleek, "Hey, get ready. When this car goes, we'll cross, ok?"
"Ok… As soon as we're hidden I'm collapsing. I'm way too tired." Soft laughed.
"Don't worry, I can keep an eye out for anything untoward. You need the rest." While Umbreons didn't really keep hours of any kind, (They didn't really tire just by being awake. An Umbreon could feasibly go an entire four days, with only light to medium activity, with only brief rests, no sleeping at all.) They did tend to slow down during the day. A side effect of being connected with the moon. It would be best for Sleek if he went to sleep as soon as possible.
The car flashed by. Soft looked out again for a bare second, and then said, "Go!" The two eeveelutions quickly ran across the road, not stopping until they reached some of the bushes and trees inside the park.
"Well," Sleek said, panting. "We're finally here. Now let's find somewhere we can hide."
Soft smiled. "Follow me. I know trees and bushes like the back of my paw."
She walked further into the park, pausing here and there, seemingly to sniff at the air. After a while, she stopped in front of a rather dense clump of bushes.
"Here we go," she said with a grin. "Now get in there and go to sleep Sleek. I'll keep guard. Besides, I get the feeling the clouds might clear for a few minutes soon. I can't make use of that if I'm hiding under a heap of leaves.
"Ok…" Sleek muttered, tiredness beginning to overpower him. He walked under the tangle of twigs and leaves, curling up and, finally, falling asleep.
Soft watched him fall asleep, smiling slightly. He tried so hard, just to keep her safe. It was really quite touching.
She settled herself at the base of a tree, and waited for the sun to show itself.
Sleek woke up gradually, slowly turning on various parts of his brain. After the time spent awake, that sleep had been deep enough to require his brain to all but shut down.
He wasn't used to sleeping so deeply. He supposed it must have been because he had been forced to keep those humans knocked out last night. Definitely one of his more tiring experiences so far in his life.
Sleek opened his eyes slowly. He looked around, trying to find Soft when he heard a voice. A human voice.
"-anted to see a Leafeon…" the voice said wistfully. It sounded like a young girl's voice. Perhaps nine years old.
"Do you mind if I pat you?" the girl continued. Sleek heard a faint purring noise, coupled with light footsteps. Too light to be a human.
'Soft must have been seen by her," Sleek thought, rather sleepily. 'I hope she doesn't tell her parents that Soft's here, or anything like that…'
Usually he would have been worried out of his mind that they had been discovered. But he was still tired, and the girl didn't sound like she'd tell anyone.
Sleek let his eyelids close again, drifting off to sleep.
Well, I hope this wasn't too shoddy.
Just to clear a few things up.
1. I hold in this fic that Leafeon and Glaceon are evolved to due exposure to stones, like Flareon, Vaporeon, Jolteon. Glaceon is because of a new type of stone called a Frost stone.
2. I have it that Umbreons don't tire just by being awake. They need to actually do something to expend energy. So if one were to just sit, not moving, it could without sleep indefinitely. There is the problem of food though.
3. Umbreons heal slightly faster in shade. They heal much faster at night.
4. A Leafeon's healing capabilities depend on the weather. So permanent smog is not good for them. If they get injured, it could be a dang long time before they're anywhere near healed. Give 'em a full day of sunshine, and they'll heal from just about anything, given that it's not a mortal wound, and they can spend the entire day resting. Also, Leafeons can sort of choke up in pollution, if they stay out for too long away from trees and the like. The trees help by removing pollutants themselves, thus taking a large burden off of the photosynthesis capabilities of a Leafeon.
5. I know Umbreons don't learn shadow ball and dark pulse naturally. Sleek stole some TM's when he was younger.
-Eidorian999