Well, hi everybody! Sorry it took so long, but this is my longest chapter yet!
Sasha Diva Angel: Thanks! Um...POOF! Your wish has come true! Here's the chappie! Thanks for the review!
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. (I feel like a broken record.)
Enjoy! A bit of fluff, and some humor, too!
It was pitch black. Nothing could be seen in the dark vassal of emptiness in which Lucario stood. He closed his eyes. Not a single Aura was wavering. How had he gotten here? No idea. Where was he? Not a clue. Lucario searched for an exit, but as soon as he moved, flames shot up from the ground and surrounded him. They closed in on him...tighter and tighter until he could no longer breathe...
...Lucario woke up, sweating. Then he sighed. It was only a nightmare He sat up and looked around. Kiki, Umbreon, and Mew weren't there. "They couldn't have all needed to go to the bathroom," the fighting type thought aloud. But he was interrupted by a loud explosion.
"Lucario!" It was Umbreon. "Lucario, run!" she shouted. Lucario couldn't see her, but did what she said anyway. Jumping to and fro to dodge the millions of grenades being chucked at him, he exited the Tree and got as far away as possible. Then he concealed himself behind a boulder and waited for the others.
Hours passed by, but no one came.
Lucario began to worry. It didn't take that long to get out of a place under siege, did it? But what if they didn't make it? Lucario had never thought of that. That couldn't be possible! Umbreon would be okay, Mew knew her way around the Tree, and Kiki had those two. They'd be fine!
But what if they weren't?
The gruesome question kept stabbing Lucario's mind. There had been so many things he hadn't said! He hadn't told Umbreon how he felt, he didn't know if she felt the same way! Lucario sat and looked to his left. There was another flower, like the one that had brought him so much agony before. "Well, it doesn't get worse than this," he told himself, so he gently touched the flower, which released a spore. Lucario backed up as the spore familiarly burst into a projected image.
It was Eevee, burying something, tears welling up in her eyes. She finished patting down the dirt, then walked away. She had only gotten three steps, however, when she turned to face the spot in which she had buried the...whatever it was, and whispered, "I miss you." Then she commenced running in the opposite direction. The image started to collapse, but Lucario caught the location of the object in question.
He was sitting on it.
Lucario began to dig until he hit something hard. He pulled it out and looked at it. It was a chest. The fighting type opened it and gasped at what he saw.
Inside, the first thing on top was a photo album. Lucario picked it up and leafed through the pages. There was a picture of him and Eevee sitting on the rock, the picture of him getting splattered with birthday cake. He sighed. Tama always picked the right moments to snap a photo with that camera he had found in the valley one day. After that, there were pictures of the day Eevee began to learn to see Aura, the day that she had made her first truly successful Aura Sphere. Then came the pictures of Christmases and Halloweens, the Thanksgiving disaster and the St. Patrick's Day gold hunt. Finally, Lucario came to the last page, donning his first Valentine's Day with Eevee's family. Eevee was timidly handing him a handmade Valentine, covered in little pink hearts. Lucario smiled and put the album down. He pulled out a few rotten Apricots and Pecha berries, a drawing of him and Eevee, and some ribbon that Eevee had collected, before coming across a strange envelope. Lucario opened it.
"Seventeenth Day of the Month of Februs, Year of the Rat, Freya's Day..." he read to himself. Two days before the Pack had arrived.
"...Dear Lucario," the fighting type continued. "There's something I've been wanting to tell you for a long time. You see, I consider you more than a friend. Ever since you agreed to teach me, I was always excited about our lessons because I wanted to learn Aura. But, later on, I became excited because I wanted to spend more time alone with you. I know that you're going to think that I'm too young, and I guess I am,..." And this from the head of a child? he thought to himself. "...but I just wanted to tell you how I feel. Enclosed with this letter is a flower that I thought you'd like, an iris. It's my favorite flower..." But it was his, too! "...so I believe that it makes the letter more special. So, I guess what I've been trying to say this whole letter is that..." Lucario gulped as he looked at the four words following. He read them in a hoarse whisper.
"...I love you, Lucario."
Lucario placed the letter, unmistakably from Eevee, on the ground beside him, then looked in the chest once more. All the way at the bottom was a wilted iris, bent and worn. He gently took it out and turned it around in the palm of his hand. The Pokémon dug a small hole in the ground and placed the iris there, and it took root, ever so slightly, clinging to the only shard of life it had left. A tear rolled down Lucario's cheek and hit the ground. Then, pulling himself out of his trance, he got up and shook the tears away.
There was no way that he was losing her. Not now. Lucario readied himself, then set off toward the burning Tree with a speed no living creature had ever reached before. This was his destiny.
Behind him, where that single tear had fallen, the iris sucked up the water from it. The special nourishment from the drop rushed through the iris's stem and to its leaves and petals. And the iris bloomed once more.
"Not you, too?" Rose sighed as Umbreon, Mew, and Kiki were shoved into the mobile cell that had carried her and John deep inside the Tree of Beginning. Oh joy, there goes their last hope of getting out of here.
"Ouch!" squealed Kiki as she landed with a thump on her bottom. Rose sweatdropped. It wasn't much of a hope to begin with. As soon as one of the Pack grunts locked the cell and left, Mew began slamming against the bars, trying to break them.
"It's no use!" shouted Rose. "They're indestructible." She slumped down to the floor. "We're all gonna die."
"Thank you, Miss Sunshine," Umbreon shot at her sarcastically.
Kiki whispered to John, "When did Rose go emo?"
Mew finally gave up and instead started banging her head on the floor. "Uh, Mew?" Umbreon asked. "You okay? Kiki's supposed to be the crazy one."
"Hey!" the brunette yelled. John chuckled.
"Right on the money there!" he replied. At that moment, Ciar walked in.
"How are you enjoying your stay?" the Pack leader asked smoothly.
"Um, I could go for some food right now, the décor is kinda drag, you need to add some beds, remove the bars, but, other than that, you could start a fine business here!"
Ciar glared at Umbreon. "That was a rhetorical question!" The black fox shrunk back.
"Oh."
The pink Pokémon stopped bashing her head against the ground and broke into song, until she suddenly started bawling uncontrollably. "I think Mew's finally lost it," muttered Kiki.
"Your feline friend has not, as you say, 'lost it'," the menacing man explained, "but Mew is connected to the Tree of Beginning, so any changes in homeostasis it experiences, she does also." He snickered. "And with all my men here, the Tree is raging out of control. It has never felt this much human activity."
"The Tree has homeostasis?"
"Mew hasn't gone insane?"
"She's connected to the Tree?"
"Mew's a cat?"
"KIKI!" the other three screamed.
"Sorry," she whispered.
"Were you buffoons listening?" he shouted. "YES! And soon enough, the Tree will implode on itself, with you in it!" Ciar laughed.
"But I don't wanna be blown up!" Rose pouted.
"I will only stop if Lucario gives himself up to me. So, either way, I win!"
"He'll never do that, you..." Umbreon searched for the right word. "...you creep!"
"Creep? Ha, that's a new one! I've heard evil, horrifying, crazy, moron, and..." BEEP!
"Huh?" John asked. Ciar shrugged.
"Those stupid filters follow me everywhere I go." He continued to list the names his victims had given him.
"How about 'dead meat'?" came a voice from the ceiling.
"Hmm, dead meat, dead meat, I don't think so," the crime boss wondered aloud. Then, with sudden realization, he snarled. "Where are you, Lucario?"
"In your nightmares!" the fighting type cried as he burst through the top of the room and landed on Ciar's head, knocking him out. He rushed to the cell release switch and pulled it. "He's not going to stay out cold for long," Lucario told the former captives, looking at the unconscious man in a heap next to him. He swore he heard him mutter "Ooh, look, pretty ponies...Hi, pretty ponies!" but decided not to think about it too hard.
"So, what's the plan?" Rose asked Lucario as the group sped down the natural hallways of the Tree of Beginning. Kiki glanced at Mew, who was having fits while lying on Umbreon's back.
"Get out," Lucario said simply.
"But we have to save Mew first!" Kiki shouted. They stopped.
"Alright then, how do you suppose we'll do that?" John looked at Kiki skeptically. "Kill every single Pack member in the Tree? Sorry, but I'm not being turned into a murderer." Kiki sighed. That kinda had been her plan.
Suddenly, Umbreon shouted, "I've got it!" Then she flicked her ears back and forth and transformed into a life-size version of Ciar.
"OH MY GOD! CIAR'S FOUND US! SAVE ME!" Rose screamed.
"Rose..." Kiki rolled her eyes.
"Alright, Umbreon, you go do what you're going to do, and I'll keep us hidden," Lucario said. The three humans nodded, and Lucario pointed to a tree trunk that stuck out from the wall. "There," he told them, and they flocked behind it. "Good luck, Umbreon." Then he too hid himself. Umbreon took a deep breath and marched in her leather boots to a small cliff overlooking the disaster the men had created.
"Wonderful," she muttered to herself. There were fires everywhere, trees on their sides, bushes uprooted. She knew what she had to do.
"MAGGOTS!" she shouted in Ciar's voice. "I have captured Lucario! We are through here! Leave NOW!" The grunts cheered and ran out the exit. Umbreon-Ciar smirked, then, once she was sure all of the henchmen were gone, morphed back into her normal fox form. She motioned for Lucario and the others.
"Yeah! We saved the Tree! We saved the Tree!" Kiki started singing. Mew flew up into the air and landed on Umbreon head. While the other members of the group were partying, Mew whispered in a hoarse voice to the black fox,
"Umbreon, I don't feel so good."
Then she collapsed. The Tree started to turn a deathly black color, the bushes and leaves on plants shriveled up. "Um, guys?" Umbreon said. They all looked at her.
"We've got a major problem."
There you go! But now, I've got a bit of bad news (but I guess it could be good news):
The next chapter is the last one. So, I decided to give everyone a formal invitation.
To: YOU
What: The last chapter of Moon and Sun: Escape from the Pack
Why: 'Cause it's important!
When: As soon as I get it up.
From: Umbreon Mastah
B.Y.O.H. (Bring your own hanky)
THERE WILL BE A KISS!
See ya there!
Umbreon Mastah
