Flareon tensed. "But that… That means…" He couldn't finish. He knew he was right, and so did everyone else. Espeon was the one who worked up the courage to say what they were all thinking.
"Leafeon has returned," Espeon said. "I felt it this morning. The disturbance. She's back, and it's not to apologize."
Jolteon was in shock, (ha ha, Jolteon pun) so Flareon decided to take charge. "We have to get Vaporeon a Sitrus berry, and then we need to get out of here as fast as we can. We can come back when we're sure she's gone."
"No," Espeon said unexpectedly. "We have to stay and fight."
"Why?" Sylveon squeaked.
"Because of that!" Umbreon shouted. To everyone's horror, a wall of thorny vines had grown on the other side of the river and was spreading fast, creating a barrier around the family's woods.
"Run! NOW!" Flareon barked. "Surround Vaporeon and head home. I'm going to try to stop this thing."
Once everyone had done as they were told, Flareon turned to face the thorn-clad wall that was creeping towards him, and conjured a wall of his own. A wall of fire.
The wall of thorns was incredibly strong. Or rather, it regenerated at such a speed that penetrating it would be impossible. And on top of that, it seemed to be spreading faster. Flareon started to back up, but kept his concentration on the wall, just in case he could somehow burn it. That just made it increase speed until Flareon had to run as fast as he could in order to avoid being impaled.
"Come on, come on, come ON!" Flareon muttered, the volume of his voice increasing to a roar. He was a ten yards from the clearing now. A little farther, and a little more running, he burst through into his family's home.
His legs felt like rubber and his lungs ached. Whether the wall kept spreading or not, he had to stop running. So he collapsed on the ground.
Luckily for him and everyone else, the wall stopped, and the clearing was surrounded.
"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" Vaporeon asked, scurrying to his side now that she was healthy again.
"Fine," Flareon said in a mixture of a gasp and a moan. "Fireproof," he panted, nodding towards the wall.
"I noticed," Vaporeon said.
Flareon slowly hauled himself to his paws and looked around. They were surrounded. Completely surrounded.
"Can anybody else hear that or is it my imagination?" Sylveon wondered aloud.
In fact, when they listened closely, everybody else could hear that. It sounded like the beating of wings. And then followed a screech that sounded like a mixture of the call of a furious bird and the grinding of gears. It made Flareon's fur stand on end.
A metal bird soared over the thorns and landed with a thud at one side of the clearing. But the metal bird, Skarmory, wasn't what interested the family. What interested them was their sister perched upon his back, smirking maliciously.
"You're ever so predictable, Flare. Not to mention incredibly stupid. Did you really think that you could burn through my thorn wall?" She said, using the wing of Skarmory as a ramp and stepping onto the ground.
"Only Glaceon gets to call me stupid," Flareon snarled, conjuring a fireball in the air beside him.
"Wow, I really took your stupidity for granted. Did you know how hilarious you are?" As Leafeon said this, her eyes lit up with purple in a way that reminded Flareon of Espeon. Then, to his amazement, the fireball just went out.
"How'd you do that?" Flareon demanded, sounding less threatening than he would have liked. Even Vaporeon had trouble putting out his fires.
Espeon cleared her throat. "That power is not yours to have," she said. "Put it back where you found it. You cannot possibly control it, or even begin to understand it."
"Hmm. I'll take my chances. I've done pretty well so far," Leafeon responded coolly.
The next moment went by so quickly that they all would have died before even knowing so if Espeon hadn't intervened. She darted in front of Flareon with enormous speed just as Leafeon sent out a blast of psychic energy. Although it was directed at Flareon, the blast was so powerful that it would have killed anything in the clearing. Luckily, Espeon was psychic. She simply absorbed the power through the red stone on her forehead. The most effective move she could have made.
"Did you know you nearly killed us all, including yourself? You can't control it, Leafeon. You have to listen to me," Espeon begged.
Meanwhile, the others backed away. There was nothing they could do. This was Espeon's fight now, and there was honestly nothing they could do.
Leafeon actually seemed to consider this, if only for a moment. "Can you help me?" she asked. "Can you end it?"
"What do you mean?" Espeon asked, the real concern for her sister showing through.
"I mean, can you stop me? Can you put an end to my reign? Because that would truly be amazing." Leafeon's voice went from pleading to snarling in an instant. Then, with a fierce roar, she unleashed a more concentrated and less powerful pulse. Espeon caught this one as easily as the first.
"I don't want to hurt you, Leafeon," Espeon said. "But I will protect my family. So don't think I won't defeat you."
"You haven't seen my secret weapon yet." With that, Leafeon released a third pulse. But this one was darker. Stronger somehow. This was obvious even to the non-psychic pokemon present.
Espeon was startled. She had never seen anything like this. Not ever. This was something no pokemon should have. There was only one thing for it. She couldn't absorb it. No, this was psychic power gone bad, and would kill her from the inside. Instead she had to match it.
She drew up her power and sent it out as a glowing beam that struck Leafeons pulse. But Leafeon was strong. Very, very strong. For a while, the two pulses remained locked in the air, but eventually and to her great surprise, Espeon was over powered. She shut her powers down to avoid absorbing the dark power, unfortunately leaving herself defenseless. She was immediately unconscious.
"Skarmory! We have a bird to cage," Leafeon called to her slave. The bird, ignoring the irony, lowered his wing for Leafeon to climb aboard. Then, he scooped up Espeon in his talons.
Umbreon was the one to act first. "Espeon!" she howled, lunging forward. All she could grab was her sister's tail, and the forked thing didn't offer much of a hold. Umbreon fell back to the ground without her sister in her grasp.
I'd love to hear your thoughts or comments on chapter two!
CrimsonWarrior9785