Lyra gave a sigh of relief as she returned her Pokemon to their Pokeballs, watching as the Rockets she had just defeated ran out the door. She heard their footsteps stomping up the staircase for several more moments before they reached the top floor and fled the building. She heard something move behind her and turned to see Silver stepping out from behind the generator. "You should follow them, you know. Your father will probably be here soon."
"Were you there the whole time?"
Silver ignored her question. "You shouldn't push your luck. You escaped him once, you may not be able to again."
"No thanks to you," Lyra said, narrowing her eyes. "You're welcome, by the way."
"I'm not going to thank you," Silver said, taking a step closer to her. "What you did was stupid. Self preservation should be your first priority, idiot."
"Did you want to get arrested?" Lyra asked, clenching her fists. Then she perked up her head, hearing footsteps. A few seconds later she saw Lance standing in the doorway of the stairwell. His eyes widened when he saw Lyra standing with Silver.
"I thought I got rid of you earlier," he growled, moving to stand in between Lyra and Silver, his eyes never leaving Silver's.
Lyra pushed Lance aside. "Lance, it's fine. I know him."
"Is this caped freak your babysitter or something?" Silver asked with a snarl.
"No," Lyra spat. She was just about ready to smash their heads together and give them both a good talking to when she heard the faint sound of sirens approaching. "Fuck," she whispered, and made a run for the staircase.
"Lyra wait," Lance said, trying to grab her arm, but she was already out of reach. He took a step to follow her, but before he got any further Silver grabbed Lance's shoulder and pushed him to the floor before following Lyra up the stairs himself.
Silver got to the main floor just as Lyra managed to force open a window at the back of the building. She didn't notice Silver until she was already half through it, as he walked up beside her. "What are you doing?" she hissed.
"The police are no more my friends than yours," he said simply, following her out the window and closing it shut behind them. "Come on, we'll have to escape through the woods."
"That was my plan," Lyra said with a roll of her eyes.
The woods outside Mahogany were silent except for the sounds Lyra and Silver made as they pushed their way through the brush. "I wonder why there aren't any Pokemon in these woods," Lyra thought aloud.
"They're probably too terrified of your face to show themselves," Silver said without looking at her.
"Oh ha ha," Lyra said, rolling her eyes. "It's just that we couldn't take a step without encountering a wild Pokemon when we were near Ecruteak. This is odd."
"Don't worry about anything until it poses a problem," Silver said, then stopped. "Did you hear that?" he whispered.
Lyra stopped too and listened. A loud bark echoed through the woods. "Growlithe?"
"Probably Arcanine," Silver said. "Shit, the dragon freak must have told the police about us." He started to climb the tree next to them.
"What are you doing? I don't get it."
"What's an Arcanine's strongest sense?" Lyra's eyes widened. "Exactly. Now get up here. If we're not on the ground they won't be able to follow our trail." Once they were both up in the branches, Silver turned to her. "You don't have a flying Pokemon, do you?"
"Not with me, no," Lyra replied.
"Shit," Silver said, looking up at the sky through the leaves. "Okay," he said, looking straight ahead again. "We're going to have to tree jump. If we stay in this tree the Arcanine will lead them right to us. Follow me, and don't fall behind."
"Tree jum-?" Lyra started to ask, but before she could Silver started to walk along one of the thicker branches of the tree, and grabbed another tree's branch and pulled himself up.
Silver turned to look at her. "Come on, hurry up. There's not much daylight left." Lyra nodded, pulled her wood collecting gloves out of her bag, and followed behind Silver.
When they stopped half an hour later Lyra had no idea how much distance they had covered, or where they were. Silver didn't seem bothered at all. He had calmed down once they had stopped hearing the Arcanine barks, which had ceased ten minutes before. Lyra's heart was still pumping hard, but her hands had stopped shaking. "I wish we could go further, but the light's going to disappear soon. I don't like it, but we're going to have to make camp now. On the ground," he muttered the last sentence, looking down to glare at it.
"Couldn't we sleep in a tree?" Lyra asked. "It would be safer, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah, until you rolled the wrong way and fell and broke your neck," Silver said, glancing back at her for a split second. "But at least you thought of it. That's good."
"What about in that tree?" Lyra said, pointing to an evergreen about five hundred feet away that could be seen through the leaves. The lower branches stretched above two hundred feet of ground and the branches seemed to sprout in even rows all the way around the trunk. "If we could find a large enough flat area it would probably be safe to sleep there."
Silver didn't say anything, but started to make his way towards the tree. Lyra followed wordlessly behind him.
Not long after that they settled on a layer of branches near the middle of the tree which were sure to support their weight and were close enough together that there was no fear of falling through. Lyra had released her Cyndaquil, whose Pokeball she had finally found in her bag, to provide her and Silver with some light as they set up their things in the dark. When Lyra was finished setting up she turned to see Silver already rolled up in his sleeping bag, facing away from her. "Silver?"
"What," he said, his voice slightly muffled by his sleeping bag.
"Don't you dare leave before I wake up like you tried to this morning," she said. Her voice softened slightly. "I have idea where the fuck we are."
"You shouldn't ever have to rely on other people," Silver said, turning over and opening an eye to look at Lyra. "Now shut up and leave me alone. I want to actually sleep tonight."
"Hey, it's not my fault you-"
"I said shut up," Silver said, closing his eye and turning back over.
Lyra humphed and crossed her arms, but decided to follow suit. Returning her Cyndaquil to its Pokeball, she crawled into her sleeping bag and waited for sleep to come.
So I'm planning a Nuzlocke run of Soulsilver once I get it (I refuse to restart HG), and I'll be writing a fic about it. This is basically me testing out the characters I've come up with (they won't keep the same names in my run) and making sure their backgrounds are workable past the first couple of gyms. Seems like I'm good to go =P
All comments are welcome; if I can improve anything it's definitely best I work it out now before I start. Note that this does take place after Lyra has several badges and is well into her adventure, so there are some things that won't make sense until you know the back story.