Chapter 2 – Carried Away
The sound of footsteps echoed through the tunnel as Solonn walked along the route that led to the snowgrounds, and he walked alone. At the age of nineteen, he was old enough to go there unaccompanied and had been for several years.
Solonn usually didn't run into anyone when traveling to the snowgrounds, and this was shaping up to be yet another uneventful trip. He heard no steps other than his own, and the level of the blue eyelight shining on the ice-covered surfaces that surrounded him stayed constant and low. There was nothing to indicate anyone of any other kind around, either.
Without much farther to go to reach his destination, Solonn took to wondering who might already be there. He also wondered if today's activities would include sparring—he rather hoped they wouldn't. He'd battled on not only the previous day but the day before that; he wanted something different for today's trip to the snowgrounds.
Then, abruptly, he ceased to care about the other snorunt's plans—or anything else, for that matter. The light in the tunnel cut out altogether, and the footsteps stopped and gave way to the sound of their now insensible maker falling to the floor.
- o -
The next sight to greet Solonn's eyes quickly confused him. The space surrounding him was significantly wider now but also far less empty—a crowd of glalie now surrounded him. No sooner had he awoken than a great rush of murmurs rose up around him.
"Oh, thank the gods, he's awake!" said a voice that he recognized as Azvida's, which just managed to rise above the din. "It's all right now, Solonn," she told him, responding to the growing bewilderment in his eyes. "You're home again."
"Huh?" Solonn sat up, trying to finish coming to his senses quickly. "What's going on?" he asked.
"We found you here this morning. You were unconscious for a while; you've only just awoken," answered an elderly male glalie whom Solonn didn't know. At the sound of his voice, the crowd ceased its murmuring.
"Solonn, this is Sile Van-Kil," Azvida said, introducing the glalie who had just spoken. "He's with the Security Guild. Don't worry, you're not in any trouble with them," she added quickly, seeing the worried look that flitted across her son's face. "He just wants to ask you some questions."
"That's right," Sile said. "First, we'd like to know if you left the warren of your own accord, or if you were taken involuntarily."
Solonn's eyes widened. "…What? I didn't leave the warren," he said, growing even more confused. He hadn't set foot outside of Virc-Dho's borders even once since that day roughly twelve years prior when he'd encountered Sophine and her mother—or, at least, he couldn't recall having gone out there since then… What in the world is going on here?
"You did leave, Mr. Zgil-Al," Sile said, his tone considerably sterner than before. "You were gone for nearly fifteen days."
Solonn's confusion shifted toward fear. Part of his life was missing from his mind, and it wasn't exactly a small part… "I… I don't remember going out there, though, sir," he insisted. "Last thing I remember, I was on my way to the snowgrounds…"
"You're certain you have no memory of where you went or whom or what you might have encountered?" Sile asked.
"Yes, sir… I'm certain," Solonn answered shakily. "It's… it's like nothing happened at all."
"Well, I'm afraid something did happen," Sile said, his tone softening with what sounded like pity. "As for what… well, we can't be certain, but one possibility is that your missing time is the result of a deliberate act of memory erasure. That, in turn, could be evidence of abduction by unknown psychic pokémon." At these words, murmurs arose in a fresh wave among the attendants.
"But why? What would any such creatures want with him?" Azvida asked.
"Your guess is as good as mine," Sile replied. "Needless to say, this means we'll all have to live with increased vigilance. We must keep our eyes open for anything strange. Mr. Zgil-Al is safely among us again, but the next victim may not be so fortunate…"
"Well, whoever and whatever it was that took him, they'd better not show themselves around me. Not if they want to avoid pain, anyway," Azvida said with a flash of her eyes. She smiled weakly at Solonn. "I'm just so glad you got back safely. You had me worried half to death!"
Solonn might have been glad to be back, too. The only obstacle was that lingering hole in his memory. Guess it's my turn to be worried half to death, he thought dismally as the crowd dissipated and he and his mother headed for home.
- o -
Weeks passed before Azvida felt certain enough of her son's safety to let him set foot outside their residence again. Once she had, however, Solonn quickly came to wish she hadn't. It seemed there wasn't a single person Solonn could run into who didn't try to ask him a battery of questions about his disappearance. He had no answers for them regarding that topic, and at first he was able to explain that to them in a calm and patient manner. But it quickly became clear that they wouldn't accept that answer. They continued to hound him about the matter, and it wasn't long before he lost patience for their persistent interrogations.
As a result, he took to spending as much time alone as he could. He visited the snowgrounds only when he was absolutely sure no one else was there (he'd long ago learned how to detect snorunt trying to hide in the snow) and thus not very often. For a time, at least, he was able to successfully avoid others and their questions both in the snowgrounds and everywhere else.
Ultimately, it wasn't a snorunt or a glalie who broke his solitude. It was a zubat, one who came fluttering unexpectedly into the snowgrounds one day. It wasn't the same one Solonn had seen all those years ago, however; this one was noticeably smaller. He did have something in common with the previous zubat, though: he looked lost—very lost, in fact, and very anxious about it.
Solonn watched as the zubat flapped about in frantic figure-eights overhead. The flying creature didn't seem to notice him at all and talked continuously to himself about how scared he was, how he didn't know where he was, and how he didn't know what to do—Solonn half expected the poor thing to pass out and fall to the snow below from not pausing to take a breath.
When Solonn thought he could get a word in edgewise between the zubat's chitterings, "Hey!" he called up to him. "Do you need help?"
The zubat gave a startled squeak. The next second, he plummeted from the air without any warning, diving right into the snorunt's face—Solonn braced himself for a wing attack or something equally unpleasant, but the zubat thankfully didn't attack him. Instead he merely asked, in a very high-strung voice, "Where am I?"
Solonn winced at the volume and pitch of the zubat's voice. "You're where you don't belong," he then answered, which immediately earned a shriek of terror from the zubat. "Relax! It's all right. I can take you to someone who knows the way out of here."
"Really?"
"Yes, really," Solonn said. "Now, come on; I don't want you to freeze."
If the zubat had possessed eyes, they might have been sparkling. "Oh, thank you! Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you—"
"Are you coming along or not?" Solonn interrupted. He turned and started walking away.
"Oh yes, yes, right," the zubat said hastily, fluttering after Solonn in a hurry.
As Solonn made his way through the warren, he tried to ignore the person following him. True, the last zubat he'd encountered had been rather hostile, but at least she'd also been relatively quiet. This zubat, on the other hand…
"Wow! This place is so weird!" the zubat chittered, rattling on and on and on. "But it's still pretty cool, though! Super cool! …And super cold. Brrr! I don't like the cold. No, I sure don't like it. Of course, for that matter, I don't really like the sun, either… But that's okay, cause I still like you! And that's cause you're helping me get out of here! What a pal!" he squealed.
Solonn cringed, his ears ringing. He reminded himself that he was doing the right thing by aiding this creature… or tried to remind himself of that, but the zubat's voice seemed to be trying its hardest to destroy his mind. Every word was like a little stone splinter in his brain.
The zubat got right in his face—again. "Name's Zyrzir, by the way," the zubat said.
Solonn knew that already. Zyrzir had already introduced himself six times since leaving the snowgrounds.
"So, what's your name? Huh? Huh? Huh?" Zyrzir asked as he resumed following behind the snorunt.
"Mr. Ice Beam," Solonn said, utterly deadpan.
"Hey… that's not what you said last time!" Zyrzir said with a frown. "Last time, you said your name was Mr. Bitey! The time before that, you said your name was Mr. Snowball! And all the times before that, you didn't say anything at all, as if you didn't have a name, and that was your answer! Why won't you just please cooperate and tell me what your real name is, huh?" Zyrzir whined.
Because you're annoying me to death, and I'm trying to ignore you so my brain doesn't explode! Solonn thought.
But then Zyrzir laid down his ultimatum. "I won't stop asking until you tell me the truth."
The snorunt produced a sound halfway between a groan and a sigh. "Fine. My name is Solonn. Satisfied?"
"Oh yes, yes, yes! Thanks a thousand, Mr. Satisfied!" Zyrzir squeaked joyfully, at which Solonn made a face. "Oh, by the way, are we almost where we're supposed to be going? Are we? Are we? Are we?" the zubat then asked.
"Yes, luckily for you." And even more luckily for me, Solonn added silently. Sure enough, they soon reached the Zgil-Al residence, where they were greeted almost immediately by Azvida.
"Oh good," she said. "I was hoping you'd get back soon. Zilag was here looking for you. He just left not too long ago. I told him he could come back here after a little while."
Solonn started to turn to leave at once.
"No, you don't," Azvida said. She shifted the ice on the walls to form a barrier in front of Solonn. "Now, I don't know what's going on between you two, but I think it's time you sorted it out. And you're not leaving until you do just that."
Solonn grudgingly started toward his room, but was obstructed once again, this time by his mother's face.
"And might I ask why you've brought a zubat here?" she asked.
"He needs out," Solonn said.
"Fine, then. I'll deal with that, and you'll stay here and wait for Zilag," Azvida said. "And I mean it, stay here. I'll know if you don't." With that, she left, leading Zyrzir away with her.
And just how would you know? Solonn wondered, but he decided not to chance it. He went to his room, and for several minutes he just sat there with nothing to do but dread Zilag's visit. He wished he could devise a way to distract himself from that inevitability, but when he tried to think of one, he couldn't come up with anything at all.
The reason was that Zyrzir's voice was still infesting his brain for some reason. It was leaving no room whatsoever for any other thought processes to take place. Solonn tried to displace those memories, but it remained firmly stuck in his head, the words repeating again and again at a maddening pace. It was genuinely giving him a headache at this point.
He groaned. "Why couldn't he just shut up?" he wondered aloud. "Gods, it was nonstop: 'Are we there yet? Brrr, it's cold! You're my friend!'"
Solonn abruptly shut his mouth in surprise. That impression of Zyrzir's voice had been eerily close to the real thing… Feeling a giddy little spark of wonder, he tried it out again. "Hi, I'm Zyrzir! And I'm… so… annoying!"
Dead on! he congratulated himself silently, bursting into laughter. It was then that the iron grip of the Zyrzir-voice on his brain finally relented, the headache subsiding all at once. In their wake, an idea occurred to him: maybe now he could give people something to talk about that they just might find more interesting than his recent abduction…
Grinning in anticipation, Solonn put on the Zyrzir-voice once more. "Wait'll Zilag hears this!"
- o -
In time, Azvida returned, checking at once to see if her son was still home. Shortly thereafter, Zilag arrived. Azvida showed him to Solonn's room right away, then left the two snorunt alone.
"Uh…" Zilag started somewhat warily as he stood several paces behind Solonn, who had his back turned toward him.
Solonn turned slightly to acknowledge Zilag, wearing an unreadable expression.
"Yeah, hi," Zilag said awkwardly, sounding a bit troubled. "I just… you know, wanted to make sure that you're okay."
"Why wouldn't I be?" Solonn asked nonchalantly.
"Well… since that thing that happened—"
"I really don't want to talk about that," Solonn interrupted flatly. "I can't anyway—I said I don't remember anything about that, and that's the truth."
"I know! I believe you!" Zilag said.
"And what about the others?" Solonn asked. "Have they finally got it through their heads yet?"
"I told them to quit bugging you about that. I figured out that was why you've been avoiding everybody."
"And you're sure they'll really listen to you?" Solonn asked, wearing a skeptical look on his face.
"Well, even if they won't listen to me, I bet they'd listen to you. You're taller than any of us," Zilag pointed out.
"Not by that much," Solonn said, rolling his eyes. "And I am not going to start pushing people around just because I'm bigger than them," he said, sounding slightly offended.
"That's not exactly what I meant… " Zilag said—although it was almost what he meant. "Look, I just want you to be able to go out without having to worry about being harassed," he said earnestly, "and I promise I'll do whatever I can to keep people off your back about—well, you know what."
Solonn turned around completely to face Zilag. Smiling, he said, "Thanks. I appreciate that."
"No problem," Zilag said coolly. "So, uh… feel like hitting the snowgrounds and letting everybody know you're still alive?"
"Well…" Solonn began. Then, he smiled craftily. Time to bring out the secret weapon… "Sure, why not?" he said perkily in his impression of Zyrzir's voice.
Zilag stood completely still and silent for a moment as if petrified, his mouth slightly agape as he stared like an idiot. "…What was that?" he finally asked.
"That," Solonn said slyly, "was the voice of a zubat."
Zilag continued staring stupidly for a moment. Then he broke into disproportionately loud giggles, which brought Azvida rushing into the room.
"What's going on in here?" she asked, sounding fairly bewildered.
"I'm sorry," Zilag said, gasping a bit. He gestured toward Solonn. "It's just him; he's doing something funny. Do that zubat voice again!" he then requested of Solonn.
"Zubat voice?" Azvida asked with a puzzled look at her son.
Solonn hesitated, not sure how his mother would react to his impression; perhaps this sort of thing fell under the category of disrespecting the "sacred prey". In the end, he reckoned she probably wouldn't take it too seriously—it was just a silly little impression, after all.
Proceeding with his performance, "Hi, I'm Zyrzir! My voice causes brain damage!" he chittered cheerfully.
Azvida's eyes widened. Then she laughed, albeit in a much more subdued way than Zilag had. "Oh gods," she said once it had subsided, "that sounds exactly like him. I'd thought I'd never hear that horrid voice again!"
"Isn't it just awful?" Solonn said, keeping the zubat voice.
"Oh yes," Azvida agreed, chuckling a bit more as she turned to exit the room.
"You have got to go and do that at the snowgrounds," Zilag said once she'd left. "I bet everyone'll be there if we go now."
"Okay, then," Solonn said in his own voice, smiling. "Let's go."
The two of them passed by Azvida as they headed out. "Guess you're going to go show off to everyone you can, aren't you?" Azvida teased Solonn.
"Guess so," Solonn admitted as he and Zilag left the Zgil-Al residence.
Azvida was glad to see that Solonn was up for social interaction again, especially given the way that he'd found to go about it. She chuckled to herself again in amusement and pride as she thought about Solonn's zubat impression again. She not only thought it was funny—Zyrzir's was the single most ridiculous voice and manner of speaking she'd ever heard, after all—she also thought that it was uncannily, even disturbingly accurate.
How does he do that? she wondered. Solonn's zubat impression was so accurate that it was as if he wasn't just using the zubat's voice, but also—
Azvida stopped laughing, quite astounded, as she realized that no, her son wasn't merely using the voice of a zubat. He was using their language, as well.
- o -
Once Solonn and Zilag arrived at the snowgrounds, Solonn produced the zubat impression yet again. It went over fairly well with the crowd of snorunt who were gathered there.
"That was so cool!" Reizirr said.
"Yeah," Davron agreed. "Hey, let's see if I can do it." Davron's attempt at a zubat impression didn't sound like anyone or anything other than Davron, however. "Aw, crap…"
"Just keep trying," Solonn said, and using the zubat voice in demonstration, added, "Like this, see?"
"Wow, that's so impressive," said a sarcastic voice, one not belonging to a snorunt. Everyone in attendance turned toward its source. There, at the entrance to the snowgrounds, lingered a smirking glalie.
"Kashisha, go away!" Zilag hissed. Kashisha was his older sister—though he wished she weren't.
Ignoring her brother entirely, Kashisha advanced into the room, shoving aside any snorunt unfortunate enough to be in her path. "Seriously, I thought there was an actual zubat in here," she went on, "but it turns out to be just a bunch of snow-twerps. Shame, really. I was looking forward to biting its wings off."
She stopped in front of Solonn. "You're the one responsible for that little trick?" she asked.
Solonn remained utterly still and silent, wary of interacting with Kashisha in any way.
"Better answer her," Zilag said. "She's evil incarnate."
"Why, thank you for the compliment, dear brother," Kashisha said in a sugary tone, abruptly getting in Zilag's face; with a tiny squeak of fright, he dove into hiding under the snow. Then she got in Solonn's face. "Well?"
"Yes," Solonn confirmed in a small voice.
"Oh, I'm sorry, what was that? I didn't hear you…" Kashisha said melodiously.
"I said yes! It was me!" Solonn shouted.
Kashisha backed off slightly—very slightly. "Well, then. I guess that makes you pretty cool—for a stupid kid, anyway," she said.
Stupid kid? Solonn thought indignantly. You're barely any older than I am! Which was true; Kashisha was only twenty-one months his senior, and just a year older than her brother. But she, like all her friends, had chosen to evolve early (six years ago, in her case). And like them, she treated those who waited until a respectable age to evolve like dirt.
"I have a request for you, zubat-boy," Kashisha said then. "Let's hear… a spheal. Can you do that? Or is that too hard for the little baby?"
The distinct feeling that Solonn got from Kashisha was that he'd better deliver. He tried hard to remember the way that Sophine had sounded. All of a sudden, the memory of that voice flooded his mind in just the same way that the memory of Zyrzir's voice had done right before he'd replicated it for the first time, though without the pain.
"Is this what you mean?" Solonn asked, using Sophine's voice. This earned some impressed noises from the crowd and an approving nod of sorts from the glalie hovering before him.
"Bravo," Kashisha said, grinning wickedly. "Say… why don't you come with me and entertain some of my friends?"
"I don't know…" Solonn wanted to back away from her, but he felt rooted to the spot.
"Oh, I think you'd better—unless you'd rather I snap you in half…"
"Okay, fine, I'll go!"
"Good! And while we're at it…" Kashisha plunged her face into the snow, pulled Zilag out of hiding, and dropped her protesting brother at Solonn's feet. "He'll be coming along with us, too. He is your best friend, after all, right? Surely he wouldn't want to miss your big debut in front of a real audience?"
"No, ma'am, I wouldn't," Zilag said weakly in defeat.
"Off we go, then!" Kashisha said merrily. She circled around Solonn and Zilag and began shoving them along before her. The two snorunt got moving in a hurry as Kashisha herded them out of the snowgrounds.
"What should we do?" Reizirr asked once Kashisha and her victims had left.
"Start composing their eulogies," Davron answered grimly.
- o -
Solonn and Zilag scrambled to stay on their feet and ahead of Kashisha's periodically snapping jaws. She'd driven them into a part of the warren that Solonn had never seen before. With one last shove, she brought the journey of the two snorunt to an end, forcing them into a wide, low-ceilinged room.
Solonn saw at once that he, Zilag, and the glalie who'd brought them here weren't the only ones present. The room was also occupied by nine other glalie who were sitting in a row and glaring at the two snorunt like some sort of sinister council.
"I see you brought your pathetic little brother again," the male in the center of the row said. "I'm getting bored of tormenting him, though… but who's this other brat?"
"This is Solonn," Kashisha told him. "He's our new court jester," she added with a grin. She nudged Solonn toward the glalie in the center of the row. "That, Solonn, is Sanaika, the Master of Ceremonies. And I do mean 'master'. Bow before him!"
"Yes, bow!" Sanaika snapped.
Solonn lowered his head slightly. Sanaika responded by spitting a chunk of ice that struck him in the forehead, eliciting a shout of pain from the snorunt.
"The Master approves! You are now initiated into the Fellowship of Slaves!" Kashisha said gleefully. "Now! Perform for your master!"
With a small sigh, Solonn ran through his impression of Zyrzir's voice, followed by that of Sophine's voice. Then, after rummaging briefly through his memories, he produced a third impression: the voice of Sophine's mother.
"What an entertaining little weenie you are!" Sanaika remarked once Solonn had finished.
"I knew you'd like him!" Kashisha exclaimed proudly. "That sealeo voice trick at the end was a nice touch, by the way," she told Solonn.
"Yeah, but I can think of one impression that I guarantee you he doesn't know," Sanaika said. The glalie at either side of him gazed expectantly at him with looks of toadying curiosity. "Human."
"Oh, that's brilliant!" Kashisha crowed, her eyes flashing diabolically. The other glalie echoed her enthusiastic approval.
"…Wait, did you say 'human'?" Solonn asked. He was sure he couldn't have heard that right…
"Yes, you little turd, human," Sanaika spat disdainfully. "You know, those weird, stupid-looking things with the long limbs and tiny little heads who sound completely ridiculous when they talk…"
"And taste like crap," the glalie to Sanaika's left offered.
"You wouldn't know," Sanaika scoffed at him. "But yes, they do taste like crap."
"Humans don't exist," Solonn dared to say. "They're just a myth…"
All of the glalie stared incredulously at Solonn. Zilag quickly looked away from him, fearful that something hideous was about to befall his friend.
"Oh, they do exist," Sanaika said in a low, rather ominous voice. "In fact, you're going to find out for yourself just how real they are, and you might find yourself very, very grateful that they are, too."
Sanaika brought himself to hover right in front of Solonn, just inches away from his face. "I am giving you a quest and an offer. You'll go up to where the humans are. You'll meet one, see them with your own eyes, and hopefully get to hear the idiotic sound of their voice. And if you can return to us with a perfectly realistic impression of that voice, then I promise you'll never have to come here again if you don't want to."
"What do you say, little baby? You want to go human-hunting?" Kashisha asked playfully.
"Oh, it's not his choice," Sanaika told her. "Now, you and the others can stay here and babysit your little brother while I deliver this twerp to his date with a human."
"Aw, we wanted to come and watch!" Kashisha said. The other glalie griped, as well, and one of them even snapped at Sanaika in her outrage. Sanaika turned toward the offender. His eyes suddenly turned a blazing white, and a resounding crack split the air. His would-be attacker's eyes rolled back, and she dropped heavily to the floor.
Solonn shuddered. That had been a nhaza, a glalie's primary predatory weapon. It can't kill us, he reminded himself. Azvida had told him as much. The worst it could do to any of their own kind was to knock them out. Sure enough, the stricken glalie quivered very slightly where she lay—still breathing.
He shuddered again all the same.
"You brain wrecks!" Sanaika said. "We can't all gather at the exit like that! Do you not realize how conspicuous we'd be? What if we were spotted by some ball-chucking human, huh? Or worse, by the authorities? Now, all of you, stay put, or else you'll all find icicles where you'd rather not."
With that, Sanaika seized Solonn rather harshly in his jaws and set off into the warren with him. He carried the snorunt through a series of tunnels that led, much to Solonn's surprise, up to the very same cavern where Solonn had met Sophine and her mother all those years ago. Then Sanaika left the cavern, sealing the exit behind him with a wall of ice.
Solonn knew there was no way for him to get through that ice wall. Barriers like that one were commonplace in the warren, existing to control where snorunt could and couldn't go. The ice they were made of was too thick for even teeth like his to break through. It was reinforced with the raw power of the ice element and could only be removed by the kind of control over ice that no snorunt possessed.
He knew the tunnel that led up into this place from the snowgrounds had been blocked off in the same way not long after Kashisha had told on Zilag for encouraging others to travel through it. Zilag had told him as much years ago. So it seemed there was no option for Solonn other than to sit and wait for some glalie—and hopefully a decent one rather than someone like Sanaika—to discover he was here. He figured he couldn't rightly get into trouble like last time once he'd had a chance to tell how, and because of whom, he'd ended up here—or, at least, he hoped he couldn't…
Solonn fidgeted where he sat, hoping he wouldn't have to wait much longer to be discovered, regardless of any punishment that might or might not be awaiting him. He was getting nervous about being here, and when he realized that it was because of those humans that Sanaika had spoken of, he couldn't help but give a little laugh.
Gods, that's not what you're afraid of, is it? Solonn thought incredulously. Don't be stupid, he scolded himself silently. You know there's no such thing as humans!
"Well, well, well. I just knew that if we kept coming back here, we were sure to find one sooner or later."
Startled, Solonn jumped to his feet at the unexpected, somewhat gruff-sounding voice. He turned toward its source. Standing only a couple of feet away was a manectric, but Solonn had no way of recognizing that. The electric-type had managed to sneak right up behind Solonn, completely unnoticed until he'd spoken.
"Who… who are you?" Solonn asked nervously.
"Oh, there'll be plenty of time for introductions once we're back in Lilycove, buddy," the manectric said. He then unleashed a chilling, wavering howl, which was magnified and echoed by the cavern.
As the howl faded, another sound arose. Solonn recognized it as the sound of snow crunching underfoot, but these footfalls sounded much heavier than those of any snorunt. The footsteps were approaching swiftly, and soon their owner came into view.
For a very long moment, Solonn's mind went blank at the sight of the newcomer. They do exist, he finally managed, his eyes wide with wonder. Some tiny part of him still insisted it was impossible, but the creature that now stood a short distance before him fit Sanaika's description of a human well enough to make him believe otherwise.
"Ah, Brett, you found one! Good job!" the human said brightly. Her voice surprised Solonn; he didn't think it fit Sanaika's descriptions of how humans sounded at all.
The human detached a pokéball from its resting place at her hip. It expanded in her hand, more than tripling in size. "Come out, Aaron!" she said.
The sphere burst open at its equator. Energy exploded from within it in a surge of white light, and then, much to Solonn's astonishment, it coagulated into a living creature. Another unfamiliar creature—a sceptile—now stood at the human's side.
"Don't be afraid, snorunt," the human said gently. "We don't really want to hurt you. We're going to make this as easy on you as possible. You won't even feel a thing."
She looked toward Brett and then toward Aaron. "Thunder wave and false swipe, please," she instructed them respectively. The two pokémon gave quick nods of acknowledgment, then began moving toward Solonn. Brett's fur crackled with dancing sparks of electricity, while one of the bladelike structures at Aaron's left wrist took on a white glow.
Solonn could only stand and stare at first, transfixed by fascination and lingering disbelief at the human and the two pokémon who accompanied her. Then he screamed and tried to make a run for it.
Brett released a small pulse of electric-type energy, which caught the fleeing snorunt with ease. Solonn cried out at the initial pain as the attack struck him, but a second later, that pain was gone—along with all other sensation throughout his body. His legs gave out from under him in the next instant, and he toppled over onto his side.
Aaron was now standing over him, peering down through dull yellow eyes as he raised his glowing wrist blade. But Solonn couldn't see this. His view of Aaron was limited to the sceptile's tail and clawed feet. He didn't see the careful, precise strike that left him on the sheer edge of consciousness, and just as the human had promised, he didn't feel it either.
"All right, that ought to do it," the human said. From a pouch strapped to her shoulder, she produced another capture ball, a great ball this time.
Barely able to stay conscious, Solonn didn't quite register the human's next action: she threw the ball at him. It opened in midair before him and released a red beam that struck him and filled his fading vision with crimson light.
One second, Solonn was lying paralyzed and nearly unconscious on the cavern's floor. The next… he was nowhere.