It's time for the next chapter! Eric has finally met the wounded gardevior and her kirlia, but now they have to find the rest of the squad and escape Iron Island. Will they be successful? Let's find out in this chapter, I hope you enjoy!


Chapter 4: Rendezvous

Eric held the wounded Gardevoir in his arms. He looked down at her. Her eyes were barely open, looking back at him. He had never seen a Gardevoir in person before. They were just as beautiful as he saw on TV and in nature articles. She was still breathing, but it was slow and shallow. He needed to get her to help immediately. He began to walk away when the gardevoir glowed in an aura and was slowly being lifted out of his grasp.

The soldier turned and saw the Kirlia behind him, her eyes faintly glowing. She was trying to take her mother back from him. She didn't seem to understand what he was tying to do, or maybe it was that she didn't trust him. The pokemon had tears streaming down her face. Eric could only imagine what these two had been through, but he refused to let go of the Gardevior. He knew they were psychic pokemon, mind readers. He had to make it clear he meant them no harm.

"Please," Eric began, looking at the Kirlia in her eyes, "I want to help, she's hurt bad. I will get her the help she needs."

The Kirlia paused, looking up at Eric. She was shaking. Her psychic grip loosened slightly, but then tightened again as she tried to take her mother out of Eric's arms. Eric mentally pleaded with the pokemon, and the Kirlia weakened her grip once more. She was looking at her mom, her mother was looking back at her. The two seemed to be talking telepathically.

No, the human means what he says. The Gardevoir spoke to her daughter. The Kirlia shook her head.

I don't want to lose you...I can't trust him...what if he tries to kill us? The Kirlia responded, trying again to take back her mom.

The Gardevoir's eyes glowed slightly, the Kirlia's grip being weakened by the psychic move. Listen, please. You must trust me okay? I can sense his intents. He is different from the others. Please, my sweet child, let him help us.

The young pokemon stood still for a moment, trembling. She was so scared to lose her mother. She did not want to be alone. After another second, she slowly nodded.

The Gardevoir smiled faintly, Thank you. Please follow and stay close.

Eric watched the silent exchange between the mother and daughter. After a few quiet moments, the Gardevoir looked back at Eric and nodded at him. Her eyes then closed as her breathing got weaker. They needed to go now.

The soldier shifted the pokemon's weight in his arms as he reached for a pokeball. He held it out and pressed the button, releasing Garchomp. The dragon-type seemed wore out a bit, but otherwise was ready to help his master. The Kirlia seemed frightened at the sight of Eric's pokemon, but stayed calm.

"Garchomp, I need you to escort us. Make sure we don't walk into any traps, so keep an eye out. We have to find Sgt. Burke." Eric ordered.

Garchomp nodded, knowing what to do. Part of the training Eric went through involved escort practice using his pokemon. Garchomp had trained often with his master and knew exactly what to do in these situations. The dragon-type went ahead, making sure the coast outside the cave was clear. He looked back at Eric and gave out a short snort-like noise, signalling all was clear for now.

Eric walked out of the cave, pausing to look down at the Gardevoir and further assessing her injuries. Her wounds were worse than he thought, now that he could see them in the sunlight. He needed to try to patch her up now in order to hold her over until they got to help, but he didn't have any medical supplies. He needed to think quickly, and then he remembered. When trying to run from enemy he remembered seeing the squad's medic, Corporal Ando, killed in the gunfire. It hurt to think of his fallen brothers, but he needed those medical supplies. The group began to make their way to the battle site. As they passed Joe's body, Eric refused to look at him, feeling his heart sink once more. He couldn't bare to look. The Kirlia, on the other hand, stared at the corpse as they walked by. She looked curiously back at the human carrying her mother, taking note of the human's emotions.

The group neared the site of the battle between the Defense Force and Team Galactic. Eric knelt down and shifted the Gardevoir's weight again in his arms. He looked to Garchomp, who nodded and slowly went ahead. After a few moments, the pokemon returned. Garchomp nodded again, telling Eric it was good to go. He slowly laid the Gardevoir onto the ground.

"Garchomp, stay here. I'm going to get the medical supplies." He said, patting Garchomp on the head.

He quickly ran around the corner. He scanned the hills around him, it was still clear it seemed. He looked ahead into the open and saw Corporal Ando still laying. He moved as fast and as low as he could over to his dead comrade. When Eric reached him, he saw that Ando was looking up at the sky, his eyes still wide open. His mouth was gaping as if still in shock. Both hands were clutched to his neck. He was covered in his own blood.

Eric suppressed the sick feeling in his stomach at the sight. He quickly removed Ando's medical bag.

"Thank you brother, please rest easy..." he said, his voice trailing off. He reached out and gently closed Ando's eyes. Eric then ran back across the open, looking around for any signs of movement.

He made it back to the others. Garchomp was keeping lookout behind them. The Kirlia was kneeling on the ground next to her mother, they were looking at each other. Eric dropped to his knees next to the Gardevoir and opened the medical bag. He retrieved bandages and medicine spray from the bag. He began using the medicine, spraying the pokemon's wounds. The wounded mother winced in pain at the potion's sting. The Kirlia seemed alarmed at first at her mother's pain, but stayed calm when she saw the Gardevoir continued to lay still. Eric knew it must have hurt, but she needed it. He quickly prepared the bandages and grabbed gauze out of the bag.

He began to stuff the wounds with gauze to stop the bleeding, but he didn't have enough. He did the best he could before beginning to wrap the wounds with the bandages. It was hard wrapping the wounds on her chest. The large, blade-like protrusion from her chest seemed in the way of a tight bandage. He was trying the best he could, but no matter how tight the gauze or bandages were, the bleeding wouldn't stop. He began to panic, he was trying, but he couldn't help but feel helpless trying to save the pokemon. He knew they didn't have time to get to a pokecenter, they were too far away. He thought if he could patch her up that she'd have a chance. He felt that hope quickly fading away.

Eric began to choke up again as he tried to make the bandages tighter. He searched the bag for more gauze, but there wasn't any more. The panic feeling got worse, he didn't want to fail another soul. He clenched his eyes shut, fighting back tears. Then he felt a hand gently grab his arm. Eric opened his eyes and saw a three-fingered green hand gripping him; it was the Gardevoir. He looked at her face and into her large red eyes. They sparkled, tears of pain collected in the corners. She smiled though, as if to try to comfort him.

The Gardevoir fought through the pain. She looked into the soldier's eyes. She knew he was trying to save her, that he wanted to save her. She also knew she couldn't be saved. She was dying. She looked over at her daughter. The Kirlia was trembling.

My sweet daughter. The Gardevoir said weakly, smiling through the pain. May you have many years ahead of you.

Mom? Questioned the Kirlia. She reached out and held her mother's hand. The Gardevoir squeezed it, then let go.

My time in this life is done my loving child. The Gardevoir said, reaching up and stroking her daughter's cheek. You must go now, please. Go and live your life.

The Kirlia shook her head, she didn't want to believe her mom was dying. No mom...I don't want to lose you...

The Gardevoir smiled a little more, wiping the Kirlia's tears away.

I will never leave you. I promise to always be there for you in spirit. I will always watch over you darling. The Gardevoir could feel herself slipping away. The bright red of her eyes beginning to fade. Now please...go...me and your daddy will always be with you...I love you sweetheart.

The Kirlia stared at her mother as her life left her. The Gardevoir's eyes faded in color and closed. Her breathing stopped. The young pokemon just kept staring at her mom, she didn't want to believe she was dead. She felt alone, she had nobody left. She broke down crying.

Eric looked down at the pokemon's body, he had failed. He felt himself break apart on the inside. Dammit! He yelled in his head. He felt a lump in his throat. Garchomp slowly came over and rubbed his head against Eric's shoulder. He patted Garchomp on the head, he knew that the dragon pokemon was trying to make him feel better. He looked at the Kirlia, who was sobbing over her mother. He could only imagine the pain she felt. After a few moments, the Kirlia looked up at Eric. The two locked eyes for a moment. She then teleported in a flash of light.

Eric jumped up, shocked at what the pokemon did. He needed to find her, there was still bound to be enemies all over the island. He knew they wanted to hurt her, and he was bound to keep his promise to protect her.

"Garchomp! Help me find her! I can't let her get hurt!" Eric said. Garchomp nodded in agreement and began to use his hammerhead-like horns to sense for the Kirlia. The two began to make their way towards where Garchomp sensed the Kirlia went.

Eric unslung his rifle and shouldered it. He let his pokemon lead the way. His heart was pounding. He could feel sweat run down his face and neck. He ignored the heat of the rocks beneath him and continued, almost in a run. The two crossed up and over several hills and through multiple ravines following Garchomp's senses. Eric took a quick swig from his canteen and noticed it was almost empty. He put it back and continued to run when a Steelix burst from the ground.

"Shit! We don't have time for this!" Eric yelled out, rifle at the ready. He remembered he didn't have stun rounds loaded. He had swapped it for live rounds when he engaged the enemy soldiers earlier.

Garchomp let out a roar and waved for Eric to go on and let him deal with the Steelix. Eric stood still for a moment, not wanting to leave Garchomp. He knew as a part dragon he would be weak against the steel-type, though it wouldn't be the first time he won since he WAS part ground as well. He did defeat one earlier that day too. Still he worried though.

"No way in hell am I leaving you!" Eric called out, refusing to leave his pokemon. The Garchomp just looked back at him and let out another roar, telling him to just go and that he could handle it. Garchomp then charged forward at the Steelix. The steel pokemon charged a hyper beam but was hit with a giga impact before it could attack. The Garchomp smashed the Steelix against the ravine wall, sending dust everywhere and obscuring Eric's view.

Eric wanted to stay and help his pokemon, but then heard another battle happening just over in the next ravine. He wished his pokemon luck and turned to run towards the sounds of the fighting in the distance. Upon coming up to the edge of the top of the steep ravine wall, he looked down into it and saw the Kirlia. She was surrounded by several pokemon being used by the enemy. Their grunts also surrounded her, ordering their pokemon to attack her. The Kirlia dodged several attacks and grabbed the nearest enemy Geodude with psychic and slammed it against several other pokemon. She then grabbed a stunned Golbat from the air and tossed it like a toy against the ravine wall.

The angered enemy grunts yelled more orders to their pokemon as the Kirlia somehow managed to slowly fight them away. Suddenly though, a Charizard, the one Eric thinks was part of the earlier battle, attacked with dragon claw. It caught Kirlia off-guard and knocked her to the ground. Seeing the little pokemon get hit put a fire in the pit of Eric's gut. It enraged him.

"Hey fuckers! Up here!" he screamed, opening fire on the enemy grunts below. Several got hit and either dropped clutching their wounds or started to run for cover. A few returned fire but missed as Eric jumped over the edge and slid down the steep wall. He kept up the fire, keeping their heads down as he swapped ammo to stun rounds and fired on the enemy pokemon closest to the Kirlia. The non-lethal rounds hit their marks on the hostiles, who flinched in pain and jumped away from being hit. They retreated a short distance towards their masters.

The Kirlia was hurt by the attack she sustained from the Charizard. She felt dizzy from straining her powers. She could hear gunfire around her and looked up. A short distance away she saw the human from earlier jump down behind a rock, several bullets hit around him. What is he doing? She thought to herself. She wished that the human wouldn't have come looking for her. Why did he follow me? She pushed the thoughts to the side, she needed to get up and continue fighting.

The Kirlia got back up. The human didn't seem to notice she was standing again. He was firing over his cover at the Team Galactic grunts. She turned and saw the Charizard approaching her, hate burning in its eyes. It attacked with flamethrower, but the Kirlia teleported out of the way. She rushed the pokemon, her fist sparking with electricity as she swung with thunderpunch. The attack connected, launching the Charizard back into the ravine wall, badly hurt by the electric attack. An enemy Graveler came out of cover to help its comrade. It lifted a rock out of the ground and threw it. She dodged the attack and threw a shadow ball. The Graveler managed to dodge it as well.

Eric glanced over and saw the Kirlia fighting again. He didn't want her getting hurt. He grabbed a pokeball and summoned Gyarados. The large water pokemon roared with determination.

"Gyarados, help the kirlia! I got the enemy grunts covered!" Eric yelled to his pokemon, who nodded and rushed over to give aid to the Kirlia.

Kirlia didn't like the Gyarados, but she ignored it and threw another shadow ball at the Graveler. The Graveler was hit and knocked back in pain, but threw another rock in retaliation. The Charizard recovered from the attack and was in the air once more. He was furious as he glared at the Kirlia and wanted her dead. He swooped in for an attack when he got hit by a hydro pump from the Gyarados. The water attack hit hard and knocked him out of the air. The Charizard crashed and tried to get back up, but instead fell unconscious.

The young Kirlia watched as the Gyarados quickly turned its attention to the Graveler, attacking again with hydro pump. The Graveler was hit hard and immediately knocked out of the fight. She watched in awe at the strength of the water pokemon. The two pokemon moved near each other, watching the enemy as they exchanged fire with Eric. Two more pokeballs were thrown by their enemy as a Manetric and Gengar were released. The Manetric wasted no time and attacked with thunderbolt, aimed right at Gyarados. The water pokemon tried dodging the attack but was hit. The shock hurt Gyarados badly and he collapsed to the ground. Kirlia was shocked to see the large pokemon fallen, and didn't see in time that the Gengar was attacking with shadow fist. The ghost attack smashed into the Kirlia, knocking her back and onto the ground. The hit took it all out of her, she felt worn out. Her strength started to fade away when she heard her mother's voice in her head.

Do not give up my child! The voice said.

The Kirlia got back to her feet, and felt something within her. She began to glow. She hovered off the ground and was enveloped in a shroud of light. Both sides momentarily stopped fighting and could only stare at what was happening to the pokemon. The light was blinding to look at, Eric found himself shielding his eyes from it. A few moments passed, and the light began to fade away. When Eric looked back at the Kirlia, he was shocked. She wasn't a Kirlia anymore.

Standing tall and strong was a Gardevoir. She had evolved! Eric stared at her for a moment, he couldn't believe his eyes. She was beautiful. The light faded away and her long flowing dress blew slightly in the breeze. The newly evolved Gardevoir opened her eyes and felt power pulsing through her veins. She held her arms out in front of her, a pulsing orb of energy appeared between her hands as she charged a shadowball. She threw the powerful attack directly at the Gengar, who was hit. The ghost pokemon was blown back with a huge amount of force, knocked out with the single powerful attack. Gardevoir then charged up a moon blast and directly hit the Manetric with it, knocking it out as well. Several other pokemon came rushing out of cover to attack her, but she grabbed them all in a powerful display of her psychic powers. She held them all in place in the air as they struggled to break free. She smashed them against the ravine walls and then threw them away from her. She felt stronger than she ever had before. I can do this. She thought to herself.

"Fuck this, kill the bitch already!" yelled one of the Team Galactic members, who brought his rifle back up and fired a shot at the Gardevoir. The round hit her in the side. The pain was horrible. She fell to the ground holding her wound in shock.

"No!" yelled Eric, who quickly aimed his rifle and gunned down the enemy who shot the Gardevoir.

Gardevoir got back to her feet, she saw other rifles being aimed at her. She closed her eyes and braced for it. Shots rang out, but none hit her. She slowly opened her eyes again and saw the human's Gyarados. He had jumped in front of her and took the hits. The water pokemon roared out in pain and dropped, barely breathing.

"Gyarados! No!" Eric screamed, seeing his pokemon mortally injured. He jumped up out of cover and went to go run to help him, but an Electrode cut him off and exploded. Eric was launched back as the whole ravine shook with the blast. Dust filled the air as he was smashed against the ravine wall. The ground still shook from the explosion and a rock slide along the ravine walls came crumbling down, with a large boulder smashing Eric's right leg below the knee and pinning him where he laid. Eric screamed in agony, he never felt a pain like this before. He tried in vain to push the rock off of his leg, but couldn't. The dust settled and he saw Gyarados struggling to get back up, trying to fight through his wounds to save his master. More shots rang out and the Gyarados was hit several more times. He fell again, exhausted.

Eric felt tears running down his face, he couldn't believe this was happening. He lost his childhood friend, several of his fellow soldiers, and now was losing his pokemon. The Gardevoir was slowly walking towards Eric, clutching her side. Another Graveler leaped out and, like his comrade, exploded. The ground shook again as the detonation jarred Eric's head. The dust began to settle as he saw the Gardevoir fighting to stand up once more and move towards him. She got about 10 feet away when a few more shots rang out and another bullet hit her. She let out a yelp in pain and fell to the ground. Looking up at Eric, she crawled a few more feet. She reached slowly reached out for him. He reached his hand out to her, but then she collapsed, falling unconscious. The Gyarados saw this and tried again to get up, to do something. The enemies then were rushing out of their cover and running towards them. As they ran by, one stopped and fired a a bullet into Gyarado's head, killing him. Eric could only stare in disbelief at what was happening. This was it, this was the end. He tried to move the rock once more, but it was far too heavy. He couldn't feel the part of his leg that was trapped beneath it. He could feel himself starting to black out. The enemy grunts slowly approached him, their rifles at the ready. Eric thought to reach for his own rifle, but it was just too far away. He felt so weak. His vision blurred as he heard other gunshots ring out from somewhere above him. The enemy soldiers sprayed blood and dropped. One that survived started firing at something above, but was also hit several times and fell dead.

Eric tried to stay awake, but he slowly felt himself losing more strength. He saw a few figures slide down the ravine wall to his right. He could barely tell who they were, but that they were wearing camo like his. One of the camo-wearing figures ran over to the Gardevoir and checked on her as the others ran to him. One tried to push the rock off Eric's leg but struggled. Garchomp then appeared, hurt but not down, and helped shove the rock off of Eric's smashed leg. Garchomp then poked at Eric with his snout, trying to get a response out of him. Eric just laid there, happy to see Garchomp was alright. His head was swirling. The other blurry figure knelt down beside him and started yelling, trying to have Eric hear him.

"Private stay with me! You're going to be ok!" the voice yelled. It sounded like Sgt. Burke, but Eric could hardly tell. He slowly began to black out as he thought about the gardevoir. He hoped she would be ok.

"Come on soldier stay with us!...Dammit we got to get him out of here!" the voice yelled again. Eric fell unconscious as everything faded to black.


That is it for chapter 4! Thank you for reading, I hope you all liked it and I'll see you all in the next chapter. Peace!