Chapter 2: To journey forth…

I had reached the Academy gates just before we were scheduled to leave, with Null and Hazle already waiting for me and Ritch. There was a small pouch on Null's leg, likely holding her Mystic Water, and two similar pouches were lying on the ground next to her. Hazle was looking at me like I had something on my face. Well, the scar over my eye is new, I guess. Null, who had not met me before, was sizing me up, guessing just how strong I was. I looked down, I wasn't strong enough.

Hazle, as if reading my thoughts, walked over to me. "What the hell happened to you?" she asked me. "You know," I said. "I tripped over a rock, landed on a large pile of rocks." She frowned, started to say something, but she stopped herself. "Just watch where you're going, okay?" she said after a moment.

Null motioned for me to take something, a small pair of glasses. Choice Specs. I put them on, keeping them above my eyes, back near my ears. I felt slightly more powerful.

Ritch decided to arrive exactly on time, a first for him, and proceeded to scoop up one of the pouches. He opened it, it contained a Charcoal. The little bugger always knew what was his. Hazle took the last pouch, and we started out the gates.

….

After an hour of walking, we made it to the EVE border, fifty kilometres from the Academy. We were all exhausted by then, so Null, the newly appointed team leader, called a stop to our march. "We need to be rested for tomorrow. We'll be going into hostile territory." She said. Ritch went straight to sleep, Null stood watch, and Hazle and I went to find food.

We had walked only a few moments when she pounced on me, pinning me to the ground. "Alright," she said. "What really happened to you?" I sighed, and repeated the same story I had told her before. She saw through my ruse. "Rocks wouldn't cause these injuries, and wounds of this size wouldn't heal that quickly. You're hiding something, Tal." I sighed. "If it's that important to you, I was attacked." She gasped, stepping back. "But, you weren't, they, HOW FAR DID YOU GO?" she almost screamed the last words at me. I rolled my eyes, so she HAD fallen for my good looks. Just great. "If you must know, I went FURTHER into EVE lands. They must have been looking for me." She regained most of her composure, enough to roll her eyes, chuckle, and ask why anyone would be searching for me.

I decided that I wasn't hungry and started to walk back to Null. Hazle stopped me. "I'm sorry," she said. "For being so nosey, but…..I'm worried about you." I brushed her off, and started to walk faster. She chased me. I smiled evilly, and began to run. She tried to follow me, but like I said earlier, I am faster, stronger, and wittier than the other breeds. She never had a chance of keeping up.

I slowed before getting to close to Null and the sleeping Ritch, seeing if I could get past Ms. Super watchdog. She had her back turned to me, and I walked as stealthily as I could. I stopped less than a meter from her, and just before I could say anything, she spoke. "I know you're there, genius. You're very, very loud." I sighed, and settled down to sleep.

….

I woke up later, and looked around. Everyone else was asleep. Even Null, who was on watch. I looked around a little more, and saw a strangely familiar blue glow. A figure stepped through the grass cover, an Umbreon. An Umbreon with blue rings. "You again!" He smiled, motioned for me to follow. I had other ideas.

He had next to insulted me earlier, adding insult to injury, so I wanted revenge. He had obviously Hypnotized the others, Null would be awake if he hadn't. They wouldn't wake up, no matter what I did, so I decided to even the score.

I launched a Shadow ball at him, and used Faint Attack to get behind him. Whether he saw the attack coming or not, it had no effect. I tackled him, but I seemed to bounce off. He turned, and I felt myself fly through the air. I hit a tree a good sixty feet away, with a very obnoxious crunching noise. I fell to the ground, unable to get up as he walked toward me. He stood there, looking at me with the same mocking look he'd worn before. "W-who are y-you?"

….

I woke sometime later, not even aware that I had fallen unconscious. I was lying quite far from the tree I had been slammed against, so I logically concluded that the Umbreon had attacked me again. My vision was covered in red, he'd popped one of my eyes' blood vessels. I groaned, trying to stand, but not succeeding. Ritch was standing over me, looking over my various bruises and cuts, evidence of the fight I had lost. He sighed, and walked away, not aware that I was conscious.

Hazle and Null were examining the tree with the me-sized dent in it, more evidence of my weakness. I groaned again, still incapable of talking, as Ritch began to talk to the girls. My ears were broken, I couldn't hear anything. I tried to drag myself towards them, but my legs wouldn't work either. So I did the first thing I thought of. I shot a shadow ball at the tree. It exploded, taking the tree with it, knocking Ritch and Hazle back. Null seemed untroubled by it. Null came over to me, an unimpressed look on her face. "Nice try, newbie, but you need to practice more to make me flinch."

I sighed, all the while replaying the battle in my head, and vowing to get revenge. How had I been beaten so easily? That…thing was certainly not an Umbreon. It was far too powerful, and it had used moves no Umbreon could master. The question was, what was it? I groaned, struggling to rise, yet my legs continued to betray me. They weren't broken, but they would not move. Maybe, just maybe, that thing had broken my spine.

Yet I could move my body, shaking it, so I wasn't paralyzed by injury, maybe just fatigue. It had been a long day. I closed my eyes, using will alone to shift my legs. They shifted, but did not move fully. I sighed, resigning myself to my temporary paralysis. Null nudged me with her foot. "Get up, newbie. We're leaving, and we will leave you here if we have to." I groaned again, tried moving my legs again, but I couldn't.

Hazle walked over, more concerned than Null, and began to examine me extensively, wasting little time in getting a somewhat extensive report on my injuries. About a hundred cuts and bruises, temporary paralysis, and one of my scars had reopened, the reason my sight was tinged with red. I was incapable of movement; most of my muscles had been torn, so I was going to be off my feet for a long time. The mission was over for me.

I sensed more than heard the approach of a certain human a few moments later. Null was deciding what to do about me, conversing with herself as much as the others. The same human who had found me earlier had stumbled into me yet again. Null and Ritch went into a defensive stance, both had been abused by humans sometime in their life. Hazle just stared. The human, just a boy really, sighed. "You have a knack for hurting yourself." He said in his language. I nodded. He smiled, and before anyone could stop him, he threw something at me.

For a moment, I was scared it was a Pokéball, but it turned out to be a berry. "That's a Lum berry, sure to cure any ailment. Eat it before your condition gets even worse." I nodded again, eating the berry. It was disgusting, hard, and dry, very, very dry. There was almost no moisture in it. Yet the moment I swallowed it, I felt better. I tried to stand, and this time it actually worked. I groaned, the blood rushing out of my head. I was so dizzy that I fell over again.

I noticed his three Pokémon behind him, the Dragonite hovering in the air, the Toxicroak lying down, and the Feraligator just standing there. The human turned, signalling his Dragonite. It flew up into the air, disappearing behind the clouds. The human winked at me, before walking away. His Pokémon continued to watch me for a moment, before they, to, walked away.

I continued to look at the point that they had been standing, long enough that Hazle had to shake me to get me to move. Even then, it took an effort to tear my eyes from that spot. Looking up, I could see the Dragonite, which was likely watching me as well. I looked back towards the tree I had destroyed, and began to walk. I really didn't care where I walked to, just that I get away from where I was.

….

I kept walking until late in the evening, and I looked back to see that they had followed me. Ritch, Hazle, even Null, who claimed not to like me. "We're just heading in the same direction" was her excuse. I smiled, looking around for a place to rest. There was a small cave just over a small ridge, hard to get to, easy to protect. Which meant that anything could be in there.

I went in first, my rings providing enough light for me to see. There was a small family of Rattata at the back of the cave, but there was nothing that posed a threat. The cave turned out to be a tunnel, which lead very deep into the ground. It seemed safe, so I called the others in, and made a quick deal with the Rattata. We get to stay here for a night, and they get to live. They were quick to agree.

Null, who was a veteran of many missions, was cautious when entering the cave, looking around at every rock and pebble in the place. When she was satisfied that we would be safe, she called Ritch and Hazle in.

The three of them left me on watch, and quickly fell asleep. I kept an eye on the Rattata, and my ears on the world beyond the cave. Unfortunately, the one person I was listening for was still silent, walking without noise. I glanced toward the cave mouth, and saw Him. He stood there, watching me. I felt anger well up inside me, begging me to attack him. But I didn't want to end up hurt again. So, we stood there, staring at each other, neither of us willing to back down.

Our staring match lasted well through the night, into the dawn. When Hazle began to stir, He simply left. But he smirked before he did, he wanted me to know that I had lost.

It was time to go, and Null was angry at me. Angry that I had spent the entire night awake, not giving watch to anyone else. I was going to state that I was never tired at night, a consequence of my genetics, but I thought better of it at the last moment. Let her vent, I wasn't tired. She continued to go on about how I weakened the strength of the group if I was lethargic in battle, how I would become a liability.

Eventually, I lost my patience, and left the cave. BlueRings had been nice enough to leave tracks for me to follow, so I quickly picked up the scent, and began to follow him.

The tracks went for about three kilometres, well beyond where Null was willing to go, so I went in alone. Or so I thought. After I had reached the end, I turned back, only to see Hazle, standing right in front of me. I sighed, beginning to regret leaving the Academy in the first place. "I was just wondering where you were going," she said. "Admit it," I said. "You've fallen head over heels for me." She growled, not liking that I'd found her out.

We headed back towards Null, after the trail went cold. We found her very close to where we had left her, proving that she was reluctant to let me go. I smiled, poking fun at her. "Did you miss me?" She growled a warning. I looked around for Ritch, surprised that he wasn't there. "He left about an hour ago." Null explained. "He wasn't as patient as I am." I rolled my eyes. Ritch was known for staring at a block of wood for an hour without getting bored. He was also great at staring contests.

That's when we heard him scream. "SON OF A-"

We rushed over to where the scream came from, and found a very not pretty scene.

Ooh, a cliffhanger! What has Ritch gotten himself into this time? Also, Woot! 2,206 words!