Fight or Flight: Escape Continued

Restart

Daryn sighed with relief. He helped Ed the rest of the way to the couch, though the boy was still stumbling and doing his best to get his footing. There seemed to be something wrong with his left leg, but Daryn couldn't do anything about it. Once Ed was sitting, Daryn pulled another empty pokeball from his pack. He pressed the button at its center before tossing it. It landed smack on the edge of the Mismagius's hat, cocked upwards from its awkward position on the floor. It was sucked inside in a river of red light, and the ball fell gently to the ground. It shook once. Daryn noticed the zangoose had turned to watch the ball. The ball itself shook again.

"How can you speak English?" He asked. She continued to stare at the ball with a serious expression.

"I don't know," she answered, just as the ball shook a third time.*

xxxxx

Sirene prowled aimlessly that night, eventually finding herself in a decrepit alleyway. The entire neighborhood that surrounded her seemed to be, for the most part, abandoned. Her nose caught the smell of human filth still present in the air, but it was distant and faded; she was entirely alone, for the most part. She had somehow gotten lost within the human city. Isorfold was long gone, off to play with his little red stone, while she got herself spectacularly misplaced. If there weren't so many damn humans she might have been able to keep track of his disgusting scent. It might have been easier if her leg wasn't injured. Or if she hadn't wasted time talking to prey, but they needed to know what Isorfold had obtained if she wanted to screw him over. Regardless of the reason, she had failed to keep up with the mad man.

Her thoughts turned now to the humans. What was it about them in this world? Why were they constantly taking her by surprise? Was she not head of the Startail Clan? The humans shouldn't have been able to lift so much as a finger against her, let alone a fist. And yet they regularly defied her at every turn, summoning the earth and commanding it to their will as if they were pokémon themselves. Besides that, they had zero business using her as a tool either.

Sirene inwardly cursed, thinking of that women and the shape-shifter, Envy. Those humans… there was something about them that, aside from inciting her anger, that made her uneasy. It wasn't just the fact that one of them could transform like a ditto either. Their presence was unsettling. Then there was the fact that they were using Isorfold just as much as they had been using her. But what for? She couldn't find an answer.

She was quickly torn from her thoughts when her senses picked up another presence entering the alleyway. A human presence. It wasn't the smell of blood or the sound of footfalls that ticked her off first, however. It was the seemingly endless intent to kill that was pouring out, washing over her and challenging her own. Sirene quickly turned around face the source.

Standing before her at the other end of the alleyway was a dark skinned man with bleached white hair. His face was harsh and his eyes were concealed, but his most drawing feature was the scar on his forehead. It seemed to be carved out from the skin in the shape of an x. He wore a tan coat over a white shirt, and black pants with white stripes on them.

"Yet another Chimera," The man started saying, his voice like gravel. "Will these heathen alchemists never learn to control themselves? Do not worry, pained creature, I will send you to join God's domain." He took a step forward.

Sirene growled. While she did not quite understand what was said, she did not like this man's words nor their implication. She would not be killed so easily. "Take one more step human, and I will kill you." She said, despite realizing in the back of her mind that he wouldn't understand.

The man faltered in his steps for a second, his eyes widening behind the dark shades. "Luxray? An odd sound for a chimera to make. However," The man's expression became stoic once more. "It matters not." The human charged at her, right palm stretched outward with blue lightning dancing about it.

Sirene, while momentarily surprised, was quick to dodge his attack; instinct had screamed at her to not let that hand touch her. The man came at her again for another attack and Sirene dodged appropriately, this time letting loose a Discharge attack at him. The unfocused attack missed, but it caught him by surprise, forcing him back. Using this to her advantage, she rushed forward to strike with a Thunderfang, but was caught mid-stride by a sudden jolt of pain in her back leg. She stumbled, giving the man enough room to maneuver away. Annoyed, she remembered that she was still injured from her earlier encounter with the blonde boy.

Once the man had gotten over his shock at her abilities he tried to grab her once more. Shrugging off the pain, Sirene dodged the attack and ran towards the wall. She jumped off of it towards the other wall, where she repeated the action one more time. Having landed behind the hostile man, Sirene charged up as much electricity as she could into her fangs, to which she used on the man's now exposed backside.

Or at least, that's what would have happened had her wall jumping not sent a paralyzing wave of pain from her leg throughout her entire body, nearly sending her tumbling to the ground. It only lasted a moment, but that moment was long enough for the scarred man to turn around and make another attempt at an attack. Pain struck her again, which, to her luck, caused her to collapse out of the way, causing the man to miss yet again. The whiffed attack gave Sirene an opening, to which she charged up as much electricity as she could in that second and bit into his left side.

There was a sick kind of satisfaction in her when she tasted blood. Another when the man cried out once her attack had taken its full effect. The man recovered quickly, however, and it was over as soon as it happened when he landed a punch to her side. She stumbled back and then dodged when the man swiped at her again. However, the scarred man had anticipated it; when his palm hit the wall behind her there was a flash of light. The wall exploded, shooting brick and rock in a cloud of dust at her. The attack was unavoidable, and Sirene was pelted by the debris in her surprise, while her vision was obscured by the dust-screen.

But she was a luxray; her eyesight was far superior to any other creature her world, or this world, had to offer. It allowed her to back away when she saw the man make another attack at her. She barely avoided it however, as the blue lightning that surrounded the man's arm was dangerously close to her face, just passing by her nose, when she dodged. As a result of all the moving, her hind leg began throbbing with pain to the point that it was no longer ignorable. She couldn't keep this up, she realized; her leg was useless now that it hurt so much.

There was a moment in the fight when both combatants weren't making any moves at each other, waiting for the dust to clear respectively. When it did, Sirene was able to see that scarred man was holding onto his injured side, panting in his own pain. His glasses were lost somewhere amongst the commotion, and Sirene was almost startled by the man's red orbs glaring right at her. She was not entirely startled, however, and returned a glare of her own.

"I will admit," The man began, positioning himself in a fighting stance and letting go of his left side, revealing a rather large spot of red in his shirt. And on the palm of his hand "You are a quite the opponent. This has become far more of a challenge than I earlier anticipated." The scarred man raised his right arm up as lightning began to flash around it, and Sirene tensed up. "But this ends now!" He finished, slamming his palm to the ground.

Sirene tried to dodge once more by jumping away, but it was for naught. There ground beneath her roiled up beneath her violently like an ocean wave. Light poured out from every crack in the street, and lightning danced about and between the two in a blinding display. There was a sound like ripping sheets and shrieking metal before it ended.

And then the ground beneath them collapsed entirely.

xxxxx

He sat there quietly in the dark, paying no attention to the room around or the cage that held him. He was dreadfully tired, but not from exhaustion. Or, perhaps, it was… he wasn't sure. What happened? He asked to himself not for the umpteenth time, concerned less with how he specifically got to this place in rather than in general. His life had been perfect before. He had a fantastic trainer; a young boy with great ambition and a deep love for pokémon in his heart. Together, they had decided they would take on the world's challenges, and become the best. They believed in that goal earnestly, and did all they could to reach it. Whether the challenges they faced came in finding food to eat, mountains to climb, trainers to defeat, or Gyms to complete.

Then, less than a week ago, it all changed. Suddenly he was taking orders from an uncaring human, being threatened by his luxray, and stealing this world's creatures so that more pokémon could be brought over. Then more humans had gotten involved, and now he was sitting in a cage in the dark, injured and alone. So he sat there, staring at the floor as he silently desired this nightmare to be over.

The typhlosion was soon stirred out of his brooding, though. There was a rustling and creaking noise to his left, turning his attention to its direction. It was too dark to see, but he was able to register, albeit barely, the sound of whispers between two individuals. It was a moment before he realized that the whispering was being done in the language of pokémon, not humans. At this, he tensed considerably.

From the darkness emerged a figure that he instantly recognized. The spikey mane, piercing eyes, and star-tipped tail were all features indicative of a luxray. The recognition brought his mind straight to Sirene, and he felt his rage building. The typhlosion fiercely growled and ignited his mane of fire, hating and blaming her for all that had transpired. It was not until more features became apparent that he started to calm down, realizing the creature before him was not Sirene.

It was a luxray, of that he was sure, but its features matched nothing of Sirene's. Its frame was masculine, yet it was somehow slender in form and feminine at the same time, putting its gender up for question. In addition, the mane was longer and spikier than any luxray he had seen in his life, although he hadn't seen that many. Perhaps its most drawing feature, however, was its eyes. Instead of a predatory yellow, they were a piercing violet.

The sight of the different luxray was enough to stop his growling at the least. The typhlosion still maintained his glare and fiery mane, however, lighting the rest of the room in the process, and revealing its other occupant in the corner. With its large belly, green and tan fur, as well as its large eyes, he saw that it was a munchlax. His attention remained focused on the luxray walking to the front of his cage regardless.

It stopped right in front of the cage's iron bars, inspecting it with casual indifference and then finally looking him in the face. The typhlosion maintained his fire and his glare, and after a moment, the luxray finally spoke. "Hey now, what's with the hostile look?' Its voice was sickly sweet in tone and caught somewhere between a male and female inflection. "I'm not here to hurt you."

The typhlosion didn't speak. His gut instincts were telling him to be wary of this luxray, so he obeyed.

"Come on now, don't be like that" The luxray started, something akin to a grin beginning to form on his face. "Aren't we both pokémon caught in a world we hate? Who knows… maybe we can find a way out?"

The typhlosion narrowed his eyes, carefully considering its words before deciding to speak. "Who are you?"

"Would you look at that! It can talk!" The luxray exclaimed, a look of triumph on its face. "For a moment there I thought you were mute. Since you asked, my name is Envy. What's yours?"

The typhlosion frowned at the name. Envy… that was another word for jealousy, wasn't it? It was definitely not common, and too odd to ignore. His suspicions about the luxray were risen once more, so he decided to remain silent.

For a moment, Envy's grin became deflated. "You seem to be a little stuck in there. If you want, I could give you a little leg room, if you catch my drift." The luxray's grin went wide when he said that, forcing the typhlosion to take notice of the abnormally sharp teeth that it sported.

He turned away from the luxray; he was tired of looking at it. "Go away and leave me be."

"Whaaaat?" Envy cried, shocked. "Are you actually telling me you want to be in that cage? You do know what's going to happen to if you stay in there, right?"

Again, the typhlosion found himself looking at the floor. He sighed. "I do not care." He started. "I hate this place. All I want is to go home. To get away from this… nightmare. If letting the humans kill me does that, then this will all be over…"

For a few seconds, Envy was silent. When the luxray spoke again, his tone was almost condescending. "I won't argue if you've made up your mind, but you should know that it's not going to be that easy. I don't know a lot about this world, but I do know that the humans here know next to nothing about us. You see, once they take you to their labs, they're going to try to figure what makes you tick. And let me tell you, it is going to be all kinds of painful." Envy's tone had taken a dark turn, and its grin returned, now vicious, he could tell. "Who knows exactly what they'll do to you? They might pick your brain apart, or cut off a limb, or maybe slice into your guts, all while you're awake and screaming. I honestly have no idea. The most important part, however? It's not going to be the slow and painful death, but the fact that when they do kill you… it's all going to be in vain. Because once you do die, you'll be no closer to home than you had so desperately hoped."

The luxray's words stabbed painfully into him. He did not want to admit it, but deep down he knew them to be true. Gruesome images of what the luxray described the humans would do flooded his mind. Including the pain he might feel. Regardless of the mistrust he felt towards Envy, he could see the facts of it all, including the dreadful realization that, as the luxray had said, it would all be in vain. He turned his gaze back to Envy from the floor, the luxray's viscous grin now transformed into a friendly smile.

"Of course," Envy began with a tone that was sweet once more. "If you side with me, that fate could be avoided all together. In fact, you might even get a chance to get revenge against the humans who did this to you. Like, perhaps, Isorfold?"

At the mention of his name the typhlosion's face contorted into anger again. The same despise he felt for the luxray, Sirene, he also felt for Isorfold. He was the one who had stolen him from his trainer, and then set him upon this nightmare. While he hadn't considered taking revenge against him, it now seemed like a very ideal course of action to take. The typhlosion wasn't fully convinced on it, however, as his gut told there was something not right with Envy. Unfortunately, He didn't get to dwell on that for long.

"Psst. Hey!" The muchlax he had barely noticed before called out to them, whispering. "We don't have much time! I can hear some humans coming this way right now!"

Envy smiled again. The typhlosion found he really wasn't liking this, or the luxray before him. Something about the luxray was completely off. "Time's up!" Envy exclaimed. "Looks like you've got to make a decision. You can either stay here and painfully die for nothing, or come with us and get some well deserved revenge. What's your choice?"

The typhlosion growled again, but this time in frustration. To him it almost seemed like he was deliberately being placed between a rock and a hard place. As much as he didn't trust the luxray in front of him, he knew that if anything Envy had said was true (and he had a sinking feeling that he did) then there was only one choice he could make. He had to escape with the luxray.

"Fine." The typhlosion reluctantly said. "I will go with you."

For a quick second, he thought he saw Envy's smile become a predatory grin, but it was gone just as soon as it was there. In an instant the bars to his cage were sliced clean through, creating a large enough space to exit. The luxray moved out of the way, and the typhlosion crawled out. Finally able to stand up, he took a long stretch, relishing in freedom from his earlier imprisonment.

"Well then, I'd say it's time to get moving. Follow me." Envy said, trailing away from the typhlosion with his tail flicking about. He was followed closely behind by the munchlax.

"Wait." The typhlosion started, halting the other two pokémon in their tracks. Envy looked back at him with annoyance. "Earlier, you asked me what my name was. It's Aster**, and I'd like to thank you for freeing me."

Envy nodded in response, before turning back around and continuing on his way. His new companions followed, and the small group of three left the room. What they were unaware of was that Asters' escape was one of three special events taking place that night. To the south of East City, a confrontation was taking place between two dangerous, but wholly different individuals. In the household of Edward Elric, a young trainer and his host were in the middle of capturing a ghost.

xxxxx

When Sirene awoke, it was in a pained daze. Her brain was muddled and confused, stricken with a terrible headache. She could not remember what she had been doing earlier, nor could she remember why she was in as much pain as she was now. It was not restricted to her head alone, however. Her entire body was hurting as if some pokémon had used Close Combat on her repeatedly. Her leg, feeling especially off, was sending out intense and unbearable waves of pain. Finally, she noticed an intense pressure in her lungs, as well as a strange dampness on (in?) her chest. The nausea she felt from it all was almost overwhelming, but she endured, holding back the urge to vomit.

Sirene struggled desperately against the pain to open her eyes. It took a moment, but when she did, everything was a in a dark haze. Despite that, she was able to make out a few vague shapes. There were the juts and rectangular shapes of the stone and brick that made up the pile of debris she had collapsed on. There was musty stench and the sound of water flowing by, indicating a river of some kind with in the human constructed cavern she found herself in. It was likely a tunnel, she thought.

There was one other shape she saw, and it was a human shape. At that recognition her eyes widened, revealing to her the man she had been fighting before. The full memory of the battle returned to her, and she realized he was the one who was responsible for her current circumstances. Once more his hand was raised in the air, poised to attack.

Sirene tried to get up and move out of the way, panicked, but her injuries and the pain resonating from them paralyzed her. Thus, she instead closed her eyes tightly, inwardly preparing herself for the inevitable strike. In her mind, however, she cursed at the man and damned herself for being in this position. Is this how I die? She wondered. At the hands of a lowly human? How pathetic.

"Well now, this is a surprise"

Sirene's eyes shot back open, startled by the voice of the newcomer. The man also seemed surprised, for his arm was no longer poised to attack, and the lightning that was arcing about it had dissipated. His eyes widened, and he looked back to face the new speaker.

"So Scar the Ishvallan is alive and well after all." The voice continued, silky and feminine. It was agonizingly familiar to Sirene. Where had she heard it before? "I was starting to believe that you really were underneath all that rubble back then."

"Lust! It's that Ishvallan I never got to eat before. Can I eat him now Lust? Can I please?"

What?

Sirene strained her head up, trying to get a proper look at the newcomers. That other voice, which almost sounded childlike, was one she hadn't heard before. It was quite jarring, and her curiosity had been peaked as a result. Between the difficulty in moving, the pain in doing so, and her blurred vision, however, she couldn't catch much detail before her head fell back down. All that she did see was a dwarfed, apish figure standing alongside a taller, slender body.

The silk voice spoke again, this time with evident glee. "Go ahead Gluttony. He's all yours. Don't leave anything behind."

At that point, Sirene was barely able to register the sound of explosions and flesh being sliced into before she blacked out entirely.

xxxxx

The night's perils are now over. The morning's perils, however, are not. As they move on into the day to catch their madman, what horrors will the daylight beget? Step forward into the dawn and face life as you were meant to. Escape is impossible.

NEXT TIME:

Morning Tidings

* This story is a fan sequel to Phantom SunsSong's story, Escape. If you have not read it, go do that. Reading this story will be impossible otherwise. Specifically, it follows after chapter 17.

** Aster, while a name of my own product, is a name that is forfeit to Phantom SunsSong, as it was assigned to her original character. Naming him was not meant as a means of taking him from her and making him my own; that would be stealing, and thus (at the very least) disrespectful. Naming him was simply done in the interest of ease in writing.