Candle and Arno jumped and dashed about, trying their best to avoid the three offending pokemon's attacks. Arno had just barely dodged an attack that had made a temporary slice in the area he was just at (Air Slash). Arno's attention quickly shifted back to where his three new opponents.
"I'm really starting to dislike grass-types!" he shouted to Candle as he dodged another Air Slash. "Probably not more than I do!" Candle replied back with short-lived wit as the Sewaddle used Cut, failing to hit the Fennekin. Before they both knew it, the Fennekin and Axew were back-to-back, the Bellsprout, Sewaddle, and Mothim surrounding them to prevent any chance of their escape.
The two situationally imprisoned pokemon were trapped and were thinking drastically on what to do next. Then Arno's though prepossessing brought itself to an apparent conclusion. "Why can't we just fight them? I mean, the last time we did, you went all scary on me and torched the living crap out of those other three pokemon. Why can't you just do that again?" Arno asked, promptly looking back and fourth at the three offenders.
The Fennekin looked at Arno with a puzzled look. "What are you talking about, Arno? I-I can't remember spitting any fire...or anything of the-"
Before she could finish, the Mothim charged from the formation and hit Candle head-on with a Tackle. She was launched back hard and rolled backwards on the ground before coming to a halting stop.
"-sort." she finished as she lay on the far end of the cave's floor, bruised and hurt. This set Arno off as his eyes glared back at his enemies. "That's it, you're ALL going down!" Arno commenced into a near blind-speed dash, jumping into the air and slamming full speed into the Mothim. As he landed on his two feet, he looked up just in time to see the Mothim hit the ground, fainting in the process.
"Wait...did I just use Tackle?"
This contemplation of thought was abruptly brung to an end as he felt a stinging pain grow against his back. "Arrggh!" Arno turned around to see vines retracting back to the Bellsprout, the Flower Pokemon smiling teasingly.
Arno grew angry at it's cockiness and readied to attack once more. "Oh, you're so going to regret that." Arno silently fumed, moving towards the two remaining pokemon with much intent on causing harm. Just before anyone else could retaliate, a stream of flames shot passed the Axew and struck the Sewaddle head on.
Arno looked back at Candle, the Fennekin now back on her feet. Small puffs now left her mouth as she coughed out any smoke remaining in her lungs. "*cough, cough* Huh, I guess I really can spit fire." Arno was at a loss for words at seeing what move Candle had just used, despite the fire vortex incident that had happened earlier.
"it isn't normal for a Fennekin to know Flamethrower at her level! What's going on?"
Before he would question that to her, he would have to deal with remaining pokemon.
Arno turned back the Bellsprout, continuing his walk towards it. "So, where were we again?" he said, trying to be intimidating. Well it worked; the Bellsprout panicked due to his lack of pals and tried desperately to escape. "Oh, man! We need to get outta here!" The Bellsprout whipped out it's vines, which immediately put both Arno and Candle on guard.
The expectancy of another attack was soothed as the vines whipped past them and over to it's comrades, wrapping around them and making a run out of the floor level they were on. "Hey...I think we did it." Candle told Arno as she walked up to him. Arno's eyes were still on the staircase where the Bellsprout took his friends back down, leaving them there for a few brief seconds before turning back to his own companion.
"Yeah, looks like they're gone...hey, Candle?" Arno asked, his attention back on what had happened earlier.
"Yes, what is it?"
Arno turned around to fully face her direction before continuing. "Just earlier, did you use the move Flamethrower?" The Fennekin blinked twice, and then remembered.
"You mean...yeah, I guess so...I mean I once saw my mum use something similar on a thief who tried to steal one of her antiques. Boy, she really sent that crook running for a good mile, haha!" she laughed, unintentionally coughing up more access smoke still present in her lungs.
"Yeah, well that's really strange..." Arno said in near-whisper.
"How so?"
Arno blinked at her pushing question, even though he knew she would ask it.
"Way back before all of this, you know, when I was human..." It was when he said the word 'human' he noticed her roll her eyes. Ignoring her response, he proceeded to explain. "...I was a Pokemon trainer and I...I..."
Arno seemed to blank out before coming to his conclusion. "Well, I can't exactly remember. but I trained a lot, particularly with one of my most trusted Pokemon...can't quite put my finger on who, but I'm sure it had red claws. When it evolved, it had learned Flamethrower right on the spot and used it on my opponent's pokemon to win the match."
Candle sighed and moved ahead close to the next room on their floor. "Look, I'm sure you must have hit your head on something before I found you...I mean, you really believe you were once human before?" Candle asked in dismissive doubt.
"I'm not lying to you, Candle! I was a human once before, I just don't remember much from memory...but I-I can prove it to you!" the Axew said aloud, his eyes filled with the determination to convince her of his truthful tale.
The Fennekin, now a bit frightened of his loud exclamation, stepped back a little in reaction. Arno quickly realized how he sounded to her, and immediately felt guilty.
"I'm sorry, Candle. I didn't mean to yell."
The Axew turned away from her, looking at the vine-covered ground, and contemplating all that has happened in the past few hours. He suddenly felt a paw land on his shoulder, comforting him a bit. "It's alright Arno. We can talk about this later. Let's continue onto the next floor, I think were almost there!" she said, turning slowly to walk to the next room.
Candle was just about to leave the room they were in, only to find Arno was still standing in the same position. "Arno, ya coming?" Arno immediately snapped back into reality and looked up to his friend.
"Yeah...I'm coming." he replied rather cheerlessly.
The two then both walked through another hallway, only to find no one there. "Heh, hey Arno? I guess all of the Pokemon here got word quickly about what we did to those mean Pokemon! Serves them right..."
"Candle!"
The sudden shout from her ally caused her to turn to him at a moments notice. "What is it?"
Arno pointed across the room to another staircase. Without another word, the two ran for the entry to the next floor.
They made it up the stairs in haste, Arno nearly forgetting why they were in the first place. But not Candle. She had her mind on their mission at all times, desperate to complete it. And in her mind she thought one thing:
I've got to get my necklace back!
Floor 4
In just five steps, the Axew and Fennekin went from the third floor to the next. They were now on the fourth and final floor, even if they didn't know it yet. The first thing they noticed was a path that went straight ahead, the ground finally visible, void of any overgrown plant life. The two easily guided themselves through the pathway, the worry of trudging through the aggravating vines and moss no longer presenting itself as a problem.
It didn't take long for the pathway to give way to a total clearing. The cleared path had ended, and in front of them was a door-shaped passage that led to the inside of another room. The two looked at each other and nodded, signifying their agreement to move forward.
The pokemon duo cautiously stepped through the entrance, amazed at the sight before them. The walls were covered with vines and leaves of many different colors. On the far left & right of them, two oversized roses stood tall in all of their glory, the top slightly squished against the room's roof, given it's enormous ground was no longer flourished with vines & moss, but rather short blades of grass.
Candle's eyes were focused on everything at once, the beauty of it all gleaming through her bright-orange eyes. "This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen EVER." she gasped.
"Are you sure this is the most amazing thing your ever seen?" a voice called out from seemingly nowhere. The Fennekin and Axew jerked their heads rapidly in every direction trying to find the source of the teasing question. "Who said that?" Arno asked, internally tired of all the untimely confrontations they had gotten into.
Instead of pressing on Arno's demanding question, Candle decided to growl. She knew exactly who it was. "Come on out you STUPID ghost, I know it's you!"
Venom seeped from every word. This slightly shocked Arno, never hearing her sound so...angry. Even the incident with the Nuzleaf and his gang didn't seem to succeed in matching the level of anger that was put out in that one sentence.
'I hope she's in right mindset right now...' Arno thought worriedly to himself..
It wasn't very long before Candle got her response.
"Very well then..." the mysterious voice responded back. Three figures slowly appeared into view, the last one to fully become apparent being a Gengar. "Heheheh! I didn't think you actually had the balls to follow us! We were actually just about to leave."
Candle tensed at the sight of the object in the ghost's hands. "My necklace! Give it back now!" the Fennekin screamed, her eyes glaring him down as if making eye contact with them would set him on fire. The Gengar simply laughed, keeping his typical imitating grinned widened on his face.
'Heheh, you're going have to do more than mere screaming to get this beauty back!" the Gengar said menacingly, handing the treasure to the Sneasal next to him who hesitatingly took it. Arno was growing very irritated about how smug the Gengar was acting.
"Who are you three, exactly?" the Axew asked, wanting to speed up the "dramatic" climax. The Gengar's arrogant smile grew even wider (being a Gengar, it wouldn't be much of a task) as his mouth began to move again.
"I'm Wilfred, the Pinsir is Zeke, and the Sneasal is Leon. Now are you gonna fight us or what?" the Gengar, now known as Wilfred, said impatiently, his grin turning into that of a lowly frown. "That's just what I was about to say." Arno quipped as he got into a defensive position,
Before he could even think on his plan of action, Candle had already zipped past him and dashed eagerly at the Gengar. Being a ghost-type, the Fennekin merely passed through him, giving her the feeling of the chills which flowed through her body.
"What's the matter foxy? You cold?" Wilfred taunted, snickering at her foolish decision. Candle stumbled in her attempts at staying on her feet, eventually regaining control over her stance. Almost immediately after, she turned around and unleashed a stream of fire targeted directly at the Gengar. Wilfred dodged the unexpected attack, but nearly at the cost of his balance.
Regaining his footing, he laughed once more. "Well, well, lookie here. The kitty's got a new trick."
Zeke the Pinsir laughed along with his partner, leaving the Sneasal the only one void of childishness. Candle suddenly felt her mind go blank, and everything went black. Arno saw something that he could only describe as a 'shadow' slither across the grassy grounds and up to Candle and enter inside of her. The anger suddenly increased within the Fennekin, causing her to reply with a surprisingly menacing tone of her own.
"Oh, I have a lot more to show you."
Arno immediately noticed his friend's sudden change of personality and grew extremely weary. "Are my eyes tricking me, or did I really see that?" Arno thought deeply as he contemplated. This however was cut short by a comment from the Pinsir. "Are you going to fight us, or are you just another worthless coward!?" the Pinsir known as Zeke shouted, the echo of his voice moving quickly about the room.
Arno's attention was now on the other two thieves. "Let's fight then!" the Axew shouted back as he changed from a defensive to an offensive position and ran at the two full-speed. "Hmph." Zeke exclaimed as he easily dodged the Axew and kicked him backwards. Arno grunted in pain as he was sent flying into the room's wall, falling back to the ground with a solid thud.
He didn't waste any time in getting back up, knowing his opponents would gain this opportunity of weakness to pounce on him. His quick actions saved him a lot of pain. The moment Arno dolphin-dived away, the Pinsir had used Pin Needle, dozens of glowing needles embedded in the spot where he once was.
"Whew, that was close..." Arno thought as he fell into the roll that commenced after his succession in dodging the attack. Back on his feet, he panted lightly as he promptly surveyed the move's aftermath. "Pin Needle...of course."
"RAGHHH!" The scream brung Arno's attention back to the fight, his eyes now focused on the Sneasal known as Leon. Just as fast as Arno brought his eyes to his attacker, the Sneasal brung down his right claw against his side.
"Unngh!" Arno grunted in reaction to his sharp swipe. He began adjusting his defenses to the style of fighting he was now forced to master. Leon brought down claw after claw, trying to hit the now evasive Axew. The more he evaded, the faster the Leon seemed to swing them. Arno had to think of something fast, knowing full well that he couldn't keep exchanging offenses for defenses.
Then something clicked.
"Ahah! I've got it!"
In an almost perfected fashion, he motioned his head in different angles, letting his tusks collide with the Sneasal's shinning claws. To others watching, it would seem like a graceful dance of motion. To them, it was a battle of evasion and coordination. But something felt off to Arno.
"Hmm...it seems as if he's more focused on parrying than attacking...I mean, he hasn't really tried to hit me yet. With tusks these small it wouldn't be that hard..."
"Come on! Finish em' off already!" Zeke yelled from the short distance. Arno couldn't help but say something back. "Pssh, at least he's doing something, unlike yo-" Arno's witty remark was cut short as Leon rammed straight into his chest, sending him flying backwards and having no choice but to let gravity do it's job. The Axew landed hard onto the ground, the wind knocked out of him from the apparent Headbutt attack.
"Ouch..." he weased, to winded to say anything else. In just a second thereafter, the Sneasal was over him with a blinding speed, his razor sharp claw at his neck. "Just...get it over with." Arno said, closing his eyes in apparent defeat. He awaited the final blow, but to his luck, it never came.
He opened his eyes just in time to see his opponent withdraw the claw away from his neck, and action that confused Arno. He couldn't help but ask. "W-why didn't you do it?" His eyes searched diligently for the answer, only getting two words as a response.
"I...cant..."
Without warning, a searing heat radiated from their left. Flinching from the exposure of such a temperature, there was no other reason except to look at the source. In their view was a massive vortex of blazing fire, a massive vortex of fire that undoubtedly surrounded Candle and Wilfred. "Oh, no. Not again!" Arno said aloud as the vortex spun in a spectacularly terrifying cycle around the two pokemon that were inside.
The main difference this time was that this one was dramatically more powerful than the previous one. Arno snapped his attention back to the Sneasal that pinned him down. He took advantage of Leon's focus on the spectacle of fire and used his feet to launch the pokemon off of him. Although not seeing the act of retaliation coming, Leon quickly adjusted himself and landed on his two feet.
"What the heck is freaking going on!?" Zeke yelled as he attempted to shield is face from the raging circle of searing heat. The fact that Zeke was a Pinsir-a Bug type- wasn't exactly making the situation any better for him.
Inside of the circle of fire, the Fennekin and Gengar were squared off with nowhere to run. "Y-you think your fire tricks scare me? " Your going to have to do more t-than this!" Wilfred shouted at Candle, obviously terrified of the situation he had been put in.
The Fennekin snickered out loud, her unnatural laughter unadmittedly giving the Gengar the creeps. "By the looks of it, you ARE scared." Candle teethed back mockingly, the smile forming wider on her face as if to mock his usual ghostly grin. One thing Wilfred hated more than anything was being mocked.
"Why yoouu!" the Gengar shouted as he began his next attack. "SHADOW SNEAK!" he cried as he melded within the ground and moved swiftly towards the Fennekin.
"Really?" Candle responded, leaping into the air just before his shadow passed over her.
Wilfred then arose from the ground and looked to the air.
"Shadow Ball!"
Wilfred formed a shadowy sphere in his right hand and threw it at Candle like you would a rock. Not even blinking at the fast-approaching attack, she merely side-stepped the move with finesse and performed one of her own. "Time to end this..." she whispered to herself.
"Fire Fang!" she cried as she zipped towards Wilfred with a speed double that of his Shadow Ball. Wilfred could only flinch as the madly over-powered Fennekin's flame-covered fangs bit down on the ghost's arm, causing him to scream in reaction to the burning sensation that followed.
"RAAGHH!" Wilfred cried as he flung his arm left and right, trying to shake the Fire-fox (no pun intended) Pokemon off, which proved to be in vain. It wasn't long before the Gengar cried 'uncle'.
"Okay, okay, You win! Just let go! Wilfred cried in fearful desperation. "Only if you SWEAR to leave us alone and go back home!" the divergent Candle stated boldly.
"I swear!"
The second Wilfred uttered the last word, she let go of her toothy grip on the Gengar's arm. He stumbled backwards and landed on his back, lifting his head to stare back at the perceptively different Fennekin. After witnessing the Gengar's defeat, Arno layed eyes back on Leon and made a quick dash for Candle's necklace, which hung around his neck.
The Axew ran head-first into the Sneasal, the contacting force sending him flying backwards onto the ground. Arno ran up to the downed Sneasal and snatched the necklace off of him. "That was for Candle." he said simply to himself. As he was just about to turn back around, he noticed the way Leon was looking at him.
"It's almost as if he wanted me to take the necklace back...he didn't even put up a fight..." Arno thought.
As if on cue, he looked behind him, noticing the fiery vortex calm and die out, leaving an expressionless Candle and a severely shaken Wilfred as the main attractions. Wilfred scrambled to his feet, back-peddling away from the unmoving Fennekin. "This is insane! Fennekin's aren't even supposed to know those types of moves! Let's get outta here guys!"
The Gengar floated full-speed towards the exit. "Y-you guys better watch your backs!" Zeke warned with a terror-stricken face. The Pinsir ran after their leader, pushing Arno aside roughly as he passed him. Leon quickly followed suit. However, just before he left, he took a quick glance at Candle and Arno, and then he was gone.
Now sure they were genuinely safe, Arno raced up to the lusterless Fennekin.
"Candle?"
Also, just in case it isn't clear, Candle, the Fennekin, is not really herself right now, but in the next chapter ALL WILL BE REVEALED! MUHAHAHAHA!
...
Anyways...
Ecari- Am I in the next chapter yet?
No! Now shut it and be patient!
Ecari- Whatever...
~REVIEW AND COMMENT!~
