Firing Blind
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"I say that we get rid of the human!" shouted Artemis, and many of the gathered beasts yelled agreement, forming a deafening vortex of sound.
"Quiet!" a voice in all of their heads snapped. "Now." Somehow the second command was more forceful than the first one, and all of the creatures screaming immediately closed their mouths or beaks. As a lilac cat with two tails firmly pushed Artemis from his position, the voice continued, no longer dripping with ice, "We know that the human possesses a gun, and may be dangerous to us and our Lady. He is not."
"How can you guarantee that, Athena?" snarled the Scizor, green eyes blazing. "How?"
The cat rolled her eyes almost comically. "Have you forgotten that I, Athena, am the only true telepath among us? I can guarantee whatever I like."
Eyes sheepish now, Artemis stepped back from the Espeon, pincers up in a gesture of defeat. Athena sighed in mock despair and continued. "He only intends to repay a debt he owes our Lady. Afterwards, he intends to leave, although this will not happen."
"What do you mean," demanded the usually-lax Ellie.
"I mean just that," replied the Espeon. "He will not leave us when he repays his debt."
The atmosphere had intensified. "Why not?" Everyone asked, if not all at once, then at least once.
"I only receive vague premonitions. Farewell."
With that, the cat vanished into thin air, inciting a few rolled eyes and grumbles. "Pretentious psychic," Artemis muttered. Most of the assembled company privately agreed.
"I guess that means that she wins, then," surmised Ellie, clapping her enormous claws. "Back to the house, guys."
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"So where are we going?" I asked the psychic cat walking adjacent to me.
"We're looking for an ancient device."
"And why would you want to find one of those?"
The cat gave a sigh of annoyance. "Need-to-know basis, remember? You have no need to know that." The girl, who was apparently called Di, was walking alongside the Feraligatr and Scizor from before. Athena, an Espeon, was acting as a bodyguard, although I strongly suspected that she was guarding Di's body more than my own. The other Pokemon had been recalled into their balls, and most had been left behind at the girl's house- according to Athena, trainers could only carry up to six Pokemon at a time, and having more than that would seem suspicious. For some strange reason, both the Feraligatr and Di had been convinced that I knew loads of things about this world, but the psychic cat was able to show them otherwise. I was grateful for that, but it was frustrating not knowing anything about their quest other than the fact that they were searching for some ancient artifact of anomalous quality.
"Untrue. There are several of these devices, it is just that there is only one on this landmass."
It was unsettling to hear one of my mental statements contradicted by an external being. "I suppose you know everything about me now, right? Must be great to have a big fat look in my brain," I muttered sarcastically. I knew that there were memories in my head best left alone.
Athena did not reply, instead showing a sudden interest in the trees ahead of us. I guess even psychic felines know when to shut up.
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We'd been on the figurative march for three hours, give or take, when we came to the canyon. Frantically, I tried to think of a canyon within thirty miles of Violet City, and came to the conclusion that there wasn't. My 'bodyguard' saw the thought processes in my and released a vicious hiss, stopping in complete synchronisation with Di and the others. Artemis also made a guttural, threatening sound, this one directed at the rent in the earth rather than myself. Then I saw why.
"What are those?" I asked no-one in particular. There were at least a hundred creatures, all covered in sharp blades and bronze armour, barring our way to the canyon. The blue reptile standing next to Di grunted something to her small companion, and Athena instantly teleported in front of the two, proving that she really was guarding Di more than me. Then a telepathic voice reprimanded me sharply.
"I am simply preparing to return your weapon to you. You may only fire at enemies, and should anything so much as graze one of us, you will be held responsible," she hissed. I could've sworn that her hackles were raised as she was speaking. A moment later, my gun appeared directly in front of me, and I snatched it up from the ground as if afraid that someone would take it away. Maybe I was.
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The first line of foes advanced upon us, taking their time. At least, until one of the blade-armed things mysteriously vanished and confusion flew into their ranks like an invisible enemy. Some of their eyes started glowing, and glowing green orbs zipped through the air, striking each other in a serene imitation of the chaotic battle below. Three or four were lying on the ground, either dead or unconscious, but their ex-comrades continued to war amongst themselves, oblivious. Then Artemis and the Feraligatr moved in, slicing through their armoured necks and chests with obvious ease. In seconds, the organised line of menacing things had fallen to the floor, most of them dead. Our two fighters returned to our cluster of safety, Artemis bearing a gash in his scarlet armour but otherwise unscathed.
Rather than advancing in a single line, the next group approached us in a group of rows- there were a lot more of them than before. Just as the frontrunners reached the point that their predecessors had fallen, literally all of the front row vanished from sight, probably to join the first bladed thing to vanish. This time, however, their disappearance was unheeded by their fellows, although they halted. The Feraligatr gave an almighty roar, and then what had happened to the first row of foes became clear. They had simply become invisible, like some Pokemon were supposed to be able to. The roar seemed to have another effect, though. As before, chaos en masse reigned through the ranks of the grim-faced soldiers, and the eyes of a few started glowing again. This time, however, they proceeded to run in the opposite direction from us- to the main group of our bladed foes. When the mindless ones reached their destination, rather than calling green orbs from their fellows like they did before, they started slashing maniacally at everything in sight. Including the other armoured things. Especially the other armoured things. The armoured things they had left behind stared confusedly at each other for a few seconds, then took flight, heading in the same direction as the others.
"Do you understand what is happening?" Athena asked me, telepathic voice strained.
I thought it over for a second. Glowing eyes, attacking each other... "Some kind of mind control?"
"Correct. It's a psychic ability."
"So are you trying to get them to kill each other off?"
"Yes." She fell silent, and I guessed that mind control needed a lot of concentration to pull off. So instead I examined my gun, now that it seemed to be unneeded. There were still three bullets left in the barrel, out of a possible seven. Three had been used on the guards and their dog, and I always left one slot empty for the hammer to rest in. I didn't want to shoot myself when my gun was in my pocket! Thinking about my latest kills brought me back to the purple cat who was pretty much using our enemies like a real-life war game. She didn't seem to have known about the dog, if not the two humans. Or perhaps she was ignoring that unsightly blemish in my memories in favour of diplomacy- probably the latter.
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At last, the last one fell to the ground, as dead as a doornail. Athena promptly followed it's example, falling to the ground, and curled into a furry ball. Di sat down to rub her back comfortingly.
"Good work Athena," she murmured quietly, before standing back up and holding out one of the red and white spheres. "Return!" In a flash of red energy, the psychic cat was sucked into the ball, almost as if she had never been out of it. The girl compacted the ball and slipped it into her pocket, taking out another one. "Come out, Earthquake!" Another fighter appeared in front of us, this one about the size of Elegance the Feraligatr. It's craggy skin was light brown, and it had a scaly belly that would have been fitting on a snake or crocodile. The creature's build was like a Tyrannosaurus Rex's, although it's arms were at least the size of it's legs, and it seemed more upright. The topping on the cake was a saurian head, rocky spikes jutting from the back of it, and two horns shaped like drills stuck out from the front of it's head, one between it's eyes and the second on top of it's snout. Earthquake, if that was the thing's name, looked like something out of a Godzilla movie, and probably could have flattened all of the blade-armed things by flexing it's tail.
"He's a Rhydon," said Di proudly. "I found him a year ago."
His rocky fists came together, generating a seismic wave that bowled everyone in the area off their feet. Pleased with his performance, he bounded over to the edge of the canyon and looked down into it. Before my amazed eyes, a pillar of rock and earth sprouted from the middle of the gorge, closely followed by others, making a pathway of stone across the obstacle. Presently, the Rhydon returned to Di, his rocky face set in a grimace that might have been a smile. Artemis was the first to cross over, bouncing swiftly on the balls of his armoured feet. Elegance, with Di cradled in one massive arm, quickly followed, the scaly soles of her feet leaving shallow footprints in the improvised bridge. Earthquake gestured me forwards with a stone claw, and I hurried onto the bridge, not keen on being left with this rock-hewn juggernaut.
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As I drew nearer to the other cliff, I saw signs of combat. A bloodstained boulder there, smoke rising from a piece of dead foliage, that sort of thing. Still I pressed on, hand on my gun, but otherwise perfectly calm. I was the best shot in Johto- who cared if it didn't seem to exist anymore? At one point, a huge dragonfly thing descended upon me, but a massive boulder thrown by Earthquake knocked it clean off the radar. This guy was coming in handy. First the impressive bridge, and a dead shot with rocks and stones. All of a sudden, we'd reached the other side, and things were not looking good. Elegance was locked in combat with a green and red dragon that was spewing flames at her, while Artemis was trying to fight off both a dark purple bat and a tortoise that continually emitted smoke from it's snout. A yellow animal with a glowing red orb on it's tail was frying seven or eight blue turtles with volts of electricity as they struggled to near it, and a blue bird with clouds for wings was aiming attacks at a huge version of a Pidgey, while it dodged aerial attacks from two pterodactyls that were coloured a dull lilac. Upon seeing this battle, Earthquake hurled himself into the fray, immediately swinging a diamond-hard fist at the bat accosting Artemis. I didn't wait to see if he hit it, instead scanning the area for the girl, Di. If there was a time and place to save her from death, this was it.