Hey guys. Welcome to chapter nine. If you don't know, I have a new story out. If you want to read that one too you can. I'll be uploading that one and this one side by side. But anyways, onto the story.
With all the recent things that had been happening, Sam forgot that he was in houndoom territory. But another meeting with one fixed that right up. And this time, the houndoom found them.
The houndoom was watching down on the interlopers from a small cliff. Beside her was a houndour. It was obvious that the houndour was a lot younger than the houndoom, but much older than an infant.
"Alright, this is the final part of your training," the houndoom whispered to her apprentice. "This is one that you'll be doing with me. We'll set an ambush and take them by surprise. If you show good knowledge about battling as well as courage, then I'll tell the leader that you are ready to become a fully fledged warrior."
"Alright," the houndour said with anxiety in her voice.
"Just remember your training and everything will be alright. That glaceon is going to be easy prey for your fire attacks, so you might want to go for her first." the houndoom comforted her apprentice.
"Right."
"We haven't found any other berry fields to resupply our stock," Lily observed.
"I think we'll have enough to be able to get to Sam's house. Let's just hope that we can find some more for the trip back," Cassius said.
"We should just be grateful that berries grow year round," said Sam.
"That is true. The only problem is that we weren't able to find a lot of rawest berries," Drake commented.
"And the ones we did find we used to heal the burns from that one houndoom attack," Lily reminded them.
"So if one of us gets burned, they'll just have to wait it out," Drake concluded.
"They won't be able to do that," Sam said grimly. Everyone looked at him in confusion.
"Why not?" Kate asked.
"Because houndoom burns never heal naturally," Sam said without looking at anyone of his partners. "The only ways to heal the burns are with rawest berries or burn heals. Of course, pokécenters also work, but I don't see us just walking into one of those."
"Nor can we just find burn heals," Cassius added.
"There's got to be another berry field around here somewhere," Lily was thinking out loud.
"That's a good thought," Cassius said. "Let's just hope it's true." He then turned around and faced all of the rest. "Since we didn't really eat eat dinner at Amber's house, how about we stop here and eat."
"That sounds good to me. I'm starving," Sam said. "Hey, Cass, how close is my house now?"
"Not much farther. In fact, if we hurry, we could get you there by tomorrow."
"Really? I thought you said that it would take a full week."
Cassius shrugged "I'm bad at estimating. Anyway, I'm going to see if there might be another berry field around here so we can collect some rawest berries. As Lily said, there could be one close by. I hope that we won't need to use any of the rawest berries, but it's better safe than sorry.
"Don't you need to eat too?" Drake asked as he slung the berry bag off of his back.
"I will later. Just don't get burned by houndoom before I get back, alright?" Cassius said with a playful attitude.
"Are you going alone?" Lily asked the espeon.
"I would prefer not to because we are still in houndoom territory."
"I'll go with you," Kate volunteered.
"Thanks, Kate," Cassius said with a nod.
"Don't mention it," she replied back in a tone of voice that suggested that she didn't want Cassius to mention it because she just didn't care more than just being modest. Cassius and Kate headed out, and the other three started to eat the berries that they had taken out of their berry bag.
"So how long ago did you guys evolve?" Sam asked to spark a conversation.
"I've only been a flareon for about two months and Lily has been a glaceon for… two and a half weeks now," Drake told Sam.
"So not that long ago, huh?" Sam said, thinking that they had been in their evolved forms a lot longer than they actually were. "Could I ask another question?"
"Go ahead," Drake said.
"So I can tell you guys are decent fighters. Where did you guys learn to fight?"
Drake turned to Lily and Lily turned to Drake.
"We haven't been taught by anyone," Lily said while turning back to Sam.
"And I wouldn't call us decent at fighting. We barely know the basics."
"Really? Seems like you've been doing a good job to me."
"That's only because Cassius is here protecting us. If he wasn't here, I'm sure we would have all been ashes by now."
"Oh…" Sam reflected on what Drake had just said. "If you're not that good at fighting, then why follow me into houndoom territory, where there are very strong pokémon that want to kill you?"
"I went with you because I wanted to keep Lily safe," Drake answered.
"Then why did you come, Lily?" Sam questioned.
Lily stared at the ground while thinking of what to say.
"I… I don't know," Lily responded. "At the time, it just felt like the right thing to do. I knew that I couldn't let you guys go into houndoom territory alone. I knew that I needed to help."
"But you didn't even know me back then. Why help someone who you don't even know, especially going into such a dangerous area as houndoom territory?"
"Because that's what friends are for."
Once again, this phrase hit Sam ears.
...friends are for… he thought. But we weren't even friends back then.
"You alright?" Lily asked him when she saw his wired expression.
"Never been better," Sam lied.
"So, I was wondering," Lily said after she swallowed some of her berry, "you're going to come and visit us from time to time when we get you back to your house, right?"
"How can I, Lily?" Sam asked. "The whole reason that you guys are traveling with me is because I can't travel on my own. I wouldn't be able to come back this way."
"Oh yeah, guess I forget," Lily said with her head down.
"You guys just live too far away. I'm sorry."
"No, it's fine," Lily said solemnly
Sam didn't really know what to say. Sure, he would be able to visit them at their hut once he was back as a human, but they wouldn't know he was that one eevee that they had traveled with. Even if he told them, they would just be angry that he lied. They wouldn't accept him anymore. Over these past few day, Sam had grown close to these pokémon that he had been with. The thought of leaving them just didn't appeal to him. He wished he could have the best of both worlds, become human and keep them as friends, but that was a fantasy. He was kidding himself if he thought that was a reality. Not only would they be hate him for being human, but pokémon and humans can't be friends. The only reason he was close to them now is that he looked like a pokémon. But on the inside, Sam was just a human. He wasn't truly friends with them.
Was that right? Was he not friends with them? Or was he just lying to himself and not facing the truth.
Sam was snapped out of his thoughts by him hearing footsteps behind him. He assumed they were Cassius'.
"Were you able to find any-" Sam started to say as he stood up. But he stopped when he turned around. The footsteps that he heard certainly did not belong to Cassius.
"Sorry, honey, but I'm not your little psychic friend," the houndoom in front of Sam said. Both Drake and Lily were now standing as well.
"What do you want?" Drake growled.
"Nothing really, just for you to get out of our territory, that's all," the houndoom said with snark in her voice.
"We're just passing through," Lily yelled out.
"Sorry, sweetie, but to us you're all just trespassers."
"Us?" Sam asked. The houndoom just smirked.
Suddenly, Sam heard what sounded like fire behind him. Drake and Sam turned around just in time to see Lily get hit by a flamethrower that came out of nowhere. It hit her directly on one of her front legs. The ice type screamed out of pain as her flesh was burned. The flamethrower was so powerful that it knocked Lily off her feet and she went flying towards Sam, who then was smashed by Lily. The two of them tumbled for a bit before they came to a stop. Sam got hit by a little bit of the flamethrower, but not nearly as much as Lily had. Sam jumped up onto his feet as quickly as he could and check on how bad Lily got hit.
It was bad.
Her entire front-right leg was a deep red color. Sam couldn't tell if that was a burn from the fire or if that was blood.
"Lily! Are you alright?" Sam cried out. Lily just whimpered a bit, tears falling out of her eyes.
"LILY!" Sam shouted.
"...sam…" Lily whispered.
This was unacceptable. He was going to get whoever did that and make them wish they hadn't. Sam turned around to see Drake was already fighting the houndoom that had distracted them. Sam saw another black and red figure a little to his right. It was a lot smaller than a houndoom but had the same body structure. Sam recognized it as a houndour just before it smashed into him, causing the eevee to once again go tumbling through the air. Next thing he knew, the houndoom had Sam pinned to the ground.
"Looks like I'm going to be promoted," she taunted.
"Think again," Sam rebutted as he shot stars out of his mouth, each one of them making contact with the houndour. The dark type recoiled and stumbled a bit, allowing Sam to get back up onto his feet. The houndour then shot embers out of her mouth. Sam dodged it and tried to tackle her, but she dodged just as efficiently. For a counterattack, she shot more embers, this time they hit. Sam grimaced as each one of them hit him. After the assault was over, Sam ran towards her and tried a head-butt, but she dodged it once again. This time, the houndour shot out a flamethrower. Sam rolled to the side in order to dodge it. He tried to get back up, but his legs failed him and he fell back down onto the ground.
"This is your end!" the houndour shouted and launched another flamethrower. Sam couldn't move. There wasn't anything he could do to avoid it. Oddly enough, the fact that he was about to be roasted wasn't what Sam was sad about. He was disappointed that he wasn't able to fend off one houndour for Lily. She had done a lot for him, even so much as go with him into an area that could mean death. She had always been there for him for support when he couldn't go any further. She was always concerned for him when he was in trouble, like in the sableye den.
Lily had done a lot for him, and Sam hadn't ever been able to repay that.
No.
No, he wouldn't allow it. He wasn't going to let his teammates down now, when they needed him the most. Sam felt power building up inside of him. He wasn't going to give up now. Not when they were so close to getting home. But most importantly…
…he wasn't going to let Lily down.
"NO!" Sam shouted as his body started to glow white. He had no idea what this power that was enveloping him was, but he didn't have time to ponder that right now. This was his last resort. Sam charged straight into the fire. When the fire hit Sam, it surrounded him, but Sam didn't feel any heat. He didn't feel the pain of the fire. He kept charging towards the houndour through the fire she was spitting out. Sam ran right up to the dark pokémon and slammed his body into her with all that he had. She let out a yelp as the force of the attack hit her. The houndour went flying and slammed into a tree, making a substantial dent in it. She slid down onto the ground and stayed there. The white glow around Sam subsided. He was breathing heavily. He had no idea what that was, but it worked.
Sam turned around just in time to see Drake get hit by a head-butt from the houndoom. He fell on to his back and had a hard time getting up after that. The houndoom followed it up with a takedown which knocked Drake backwards to where Sam was.
"Drake?" Sam asked in concern. He didn't answer. Lily was struggling to get up from where she had fallen. The houndoom saw this.
"Sorry, sweetie," she said as she turned towards the glaceon, "but that's where you're staying." The houndoom opened her mouth and was about to shoot a flamethrower right at Lily, and there was no way that she was going to be able to dodge it. Sam had no attacks that would be able to hit her in time to stop the flamethrower from going off.
No, there was only one thing to do in this situation.
"NO YOU DON'T," Sam shouted as he got in between Lily and the houndoom. The fire type launched the flamethrower. Sam watched as the flamethrower was speeding towards him. He wasn't going to let this dog hurt his friends anymore than she already had. Sam closed his eyes and waited for the fire to hit him.
But it never happened.
Sam never felt the heat.
He opened one eye and saw the fire was almost touching him, but it wasn't. He opened his eye wide open and looked at how the fire would just stop right in front of him.
That kinda looks like light screen. Sam thought. Then, he saw something pink out of the corner of his eye. He knew what that pink blur was.
"Cassius!" Sam shouted out as the houndoom too saw that her flamethrower wasn't doing anything and stopped her attack. She looked over at the espeon and let out a low growl.
"You've got some ner-" she started to say before she was tackled by something large and black. Kate pinned the houndoom down and bit into her neck. The fire type squealed until Kate got off of her. The houndoom got up and started to back away slowly.
"I suggest you get moving before I regret my decision of letting you live," she said in an intimidating voice. The houndoom let out a growl, but the turned around started to leave. She went over to pick up her apprentice by the neck and then headed off into some unknown place in the forest.
Sam was glad that Cassius had arrived when he did, or this battle would have ended a lot quicker. He was just happy that Lily was safe. Sam wasn't able to think of much, however, as he lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
"So Meowth, please elaborate us on this amazing plan of yours," James said, expecting that it would just be the same old same old.
"I got one that will go in da record books," Meowth said after biting down into a cracker. They had been lucky enough to be able to find a box of crackers and they were all devouring their share.
"So what is it? Tell us already?" Jessie said with her mouth full of crackers.
"Alright, so I've been listenin' to that group talk. One time I caught that mightyena talking to herself."
"What did it say?" James asked.
"She thinks that eevee that they are traveling with is actually a human."
"Why does she think that?" Jessie wondered in bewilderment.
"I don't know, but that's going to be our key. We are going to fake evidence that that eevee is really human. Once we do that, the mightyena will turn on her buddies, making them vulnerable to capturing."
"That's genius, Meowth!" Jessie complimented her teammate.
"How are you going to fake evidence?" James asked.
"Don't worry; I already have a plan for that."
This are heating up for our protagonists, (no pun intented). Hope you liked the chapter. Thanks for reading.
