Chapter 10 – Home Alone

The two Rangers and their Pokémon companions finally escaped the seemingly everlasting woodlands and faced a vast area of countryside. The land was bare, save for a single detached house further up the hill. The entire area was silent, with a subtle breeze blowing across the land. Clouds were drawing in, making the entire land look more ominous than it was. Alexa and Keith followed the tyre tracks with their eyes and saw that they went all the way to the house. But no vehicle was in sight, and there wasn't a garage of any description attached to the house. There was also an old, but sturdy, barrel on the left hand side of the house, which was on the right from Keith and Alexa's perspective.

"Odd place for a house," Keith remarked. Ryder nodded, agreeing at the strangeness behind a home miles away from civilisation.

"You should see Fortree City; the place is mostly tree houses," Alexa said quietly.

"That sounds awesome," Ryder smiled.

"The tracks go up to the house," Keith observed. "Can't imagine Jordan living out here where there's nobody else for miles."

"We've already establish that," Alexa scolded quietly. "But people would think he'd be hiding in Johto or Kanto, given his attack pattern." Ryder observed a second set of tracks, identical to the set they followed, leading away from the house and back into the woodlands.

"Well, there's another set leading away from that place," he said. "Must not be home. Then again, lack of vehicle gives that away."

"Perfect," Alexa said under her breath. Without a second thought, she ran up towards the house. Caught off guard, Keith, Ryder and Robbie ran after her.

"Alexa!" Keith called. Alexa ignored him, her mind set on finding her little brother.

Colin hovered in place above the thickening layer of clouds; by now, the ground was completely invisible to him, Keenan and Iara. Keenan and Iara sighed with relief.

"Thanks, Colin," Keenan said gratefully. "We should get home now."

"Fear," Colin nodded in agreement. He flapped his wings a little and proceeded forward. The flight was casual, and there were the odd bird Pokémon flying around, including a very familiar-looking Chatot flying next to a Pidgeotto.

"Skywing!" Keenan called. The Chatot and Pidgeotto hovered in place and watched the Fearow approaching them.

"Keenan!" Skywing exclaimed happily. "Mew be praised, I am extremely relieved to see you well!"

"You have no idea how glad we are to see you!" Keenan said joyfully. He looked at the Pidgeotto, feeling the tiniest bit awkward. "Hi, Xavier."

"S'up?" Xavier's voice escaped the Pidgeotto's beak. "Look, what possessed you to disappear like that? You had me worried!"

"Uh..." Keenan recoiled and considered his motive for pulling such a stunt; he was, in fact, unsure as to why he snuck into the crate in the first place.

"Xavier, this is not the time and most certainly not the altitude," Skywing cautioned. "Say, Keenan, Darcy is back at the house, why don't we head back there together?"

"B-but Mum and Dad!" Keenan exclaimed fearfully. He was scared of their reaction if they found out he practically ran away from Keith's care and got himself held captive, which was completely out of his character.

"They won't be back until nightfall," Xavier replied. "They went to Unova a while ago."

"And Alexa left to search for you," Skywing added before Keenan could utter a second word. "There's no sense in tracking her down now, you would only be chasing your tail feathers." Iara looked at her tail in confusion; she had a fish-like tail, not tail feathers. She was confused. "Come along."

"Okay," Keenan nodded. Colin followed Skywing and the disguised Xavier through the sky.

Keith was the first to enter the house through the wide open front door. Alexa followed him inside, looking very cross with Keith. The Pokémon followed behind her.

"You shouldn't have rushed into this," Keith said quietly. Alexa moaned.

"Keith, we know there's nobody home, why are you being so unnecessarily protective?!" Ryder sniffed the aroma of the house and found it...unsettling to say the least.

"Hang on, can anyone else smell blood?" he asked. Keith and Alexa remained silent as they took in the unpleasant smell. Keith closed the front door, allowing the smell to remain inside the house.

"Hey, yeah! Can't tell were it's coming from, though," Keith stated.

"We'll have to find out while we're looking for-" Alexa stopped. While she was looking around, something in the lounge caught her eye, and she felt her heart beating slower.

"Alexa?" Keith's concern bypassed the girl as she raced into the lounge, and up to the table with the blue whisky bottle on top of it. Keith and the Pokémon ran over to her, but it wasn't the whisky that caught Alexa's attention.

"Keenan's Poké Gear!" Ryder exclaimed. Alexa took the green and orange communication device into both hands. It appeared to be unharmed.

"So he's been here!" Keith guessed. Alexa just stared at the Poké Gear, rather sadly.

"Keenan..." Ryder closed his eyes and lifted his aura sensors while Alexa placed the Poké Gear around her neck. She was relieved to have finally found a solid lead, but still worried as to his condition, his location and his state of mind.

"Hm? Hey, Alex, I can't sense anyone else here." Ryder finally spoke up. "It's just us."

"So they've either taken Keenan with them and are trying to find us or he escaped and they're trying to find him," Keith assumed. Alexa subtly cringed at the thought of the first possibility; after seeing Keith held hostage, the last thing she wanted was to see her brother in a similar situation.

"He must've escaped," Alexa said shakily. "The door wouldn't have been wide open otherwise." Keith blinked.

"Yeah. You wouldn't do that unless you were in a hurry," he agreed.

"Where do we start looking?" Ryder asked. Alexa looked towards the slightly open basement door...and had a thought.

"Is the smell coming from the basement?" she asked. Keith and Ryder looked at one another. Ryder shrugged before they both faced her. Robbie looked around at the oddly humble abode, quivering in his hooves, as if he was expecting an ambush.

"Probably. It'd be a good place to start at any rate," Keith replied. "We could find clues while we're at it."

"Clues?" Ryder asked.

"Clues to indicate if Keenan was down there, clues about what Jordan's doing with his captures...things of that nature," Alexa explained. Ryder nodded, showing his understanding.

"Well, let's get down there." Alexa and the Pokémon followed Keith towards the basement.

Skywing, Xavier and Colin flew through a cloud and down towards the idle Rapidash lying worriedly on the grass near the house. She stood up when she saw the birds flying towards her. Pidgeotto changed into the Illusion Fox Pokémon as the magenta energy wave flowed down his body. Keenan and Iara jumped off of Colin's back, where Keenan was immediately greeted by the ecstatic fire horse. Keenan was equally happy to see her, considering he virtually abandoned her when he began his infiltration.

"Darcy! Oh, I'm so sorry I worried you, girl!" Keenan apologised, stroking his pony's nose. "I don't know what I was thinking!" Darcy whinnied with relief.

"Hey, the important thing is you're safe," Xavier said reassuringly.

"Now, shall we proceed indoors? I believe it unwise to loiter around in the event those ghastly poachers discover you here," Skywing said cautiously.

"Yeah," Keenan agreed as he recalled his Fearow back into his Poké Ball. Xavier looked up at the roof; Lupin continued to nonchalantly lie on the roof.

"That means YOU as well, Lupin!" he called. Reluctantly, the Alakazam disappeared in a flash, reappearing behind a window, inside the house. Keenan approached the house, took the spare key from under the doormat and unlocked the door. After replacing the key, he proceeded into the house, the Pokémon following him.

Upon entering the basement, Alexa observed the smell of blood was neither stronger nor weaker. She also picked up the faint smell of rotting flesh. Ryder flicked the light switch and the contents of the basement were made clear to the teens. An Ursaring pelt hung from a piece of string attached to two parallel walls, various blood stained crates hogged up one corner, different sized cages took up another corner, a black toolbox sat near another crate, and a stuffed Sawsbuck was placed near the final corner. Robbie's eyes widened and watered at the Sawsbuck. He cried out and ran down to the adult Season Pokémon, in tears. Alexa held her hand over her mouth in disbelief as she saw the foal running over to the dead adult.

"Robbie?!"

"Keith...that Sawsbuck's his father," Alexa whispered. Keith's eyes widened as he obverved the Deerling weeping over the dead Sawsbuck. Sawsbuck didn't appear to have been injured in the slightest; it stood tall, as if with pride, despite no longer being a lively Pokémon. There were no visible wounds on its entire body; whoever made a full-body trophy out of it did a masterfully professional job of it.

"...really?"

"No; he cried papa for the heck of it," Alexa scowled sarcastically as she brushed passed him. Keith walked down the stairs and tried his best to calm Robbie down, but he kept sobbing with absolute sorrow. His greatest fear was realised.

Ryder wandered over to the crate cluster and used his cyan aura to lift the lids off of all of the crates. His telekinesis died out as he saw the contents of the crates, dropping the lids as a result. He looked around at the contents, eyes widened and ears dropped down the sides of his head. He spotted various Pokémon parts in the crates, including Donphan tusks, Beedrill spears, Cinccino fur, Swablu wings, the occasional Rapidash horn and Pokémon skulls. Ryder felt his stomach turning as he tried to identify the Pokémon skulls; he could only identify Ponyta, Tauros, Growlithe and some kind of bird Pokémon as some of the skulls inside the crates. He felt faint; they were not well-made counterfeits.

Alexa looked around the basement herself until something in the corner caught her eye; a pile of rope, randomly placed not too far from Sawsbuck. Ryder managed to overcome the urge to empty his bowels and paid attention to Alexa, noticing her moving towards the corner. He quickly placed the lids back on each of the crates with his psychic powers and approached Alexa.

"What're you on to?" he asked. Alexa looked at Ryder before looking down at the rope again.

"That," she replied. Ryder collapsed onto all fours and sniffed the rope as Keith approached Alexa.

"Keenan's scent's all over it," Ryder stated.

"All over it?" Keith questioned. Alexa jumped a little, having been oblivious to Keith approaching her. "If he was tied up, there'd be another scent on it, right?"

"Keith, the imagery of my brother tied up is not a welcomed one," Alexa said nastily. Keith was about to argue with her.

"There is another scent, but it's fainter," Ryder said, sniffing the rope some more. "I don't know whose it is, but it's not Keenan's, that's for sure."

"So we don't know who-"

"I don't care!" Alexa exclaimed quietly, trying to not disturb Robbie in his time of mourning. "I'm just glad Keenan's out of this mess."

"So we know he's safe," Ryder said as he stood up on his back legs again. "Now what?"

"Look upstairs, maybe?" Keith suggested. "See if that smell is stronger up there." Ryder looked at him, eyebrow raised.

"...why?"

"If they've killed someone, we should know about it," Alexa explained.

"Oh."

"Okay." Keith looked at the crying Deerling. He was sobbing at his father's feet, crying his little heart out. "Robbie, we should-"

"No, let him be," Alexa said quickly. She approached Robbie and crouched next to him. Robbie looked up at her sadly. Alexa recognised his look all too well. "Robbie? Listen...come and find us when you're ready," she said sweetly, stroking his head gently. "We won't leave without you." Robbie nodded slowly at her, as if to thank her for her kindness. Alexa gave Keith a cold glare as she stood up and walked towards the stairs. Keith and Ryder followed her up the stairs and out of the basement. Ryder looked at Robbie again, his paw ready to turn the lights off. But considering the things he saw, Ryder thought it best to leave the lights on. As he left, Ryder kept the door open, but wider than when he and the Rangers entered in the first place.

Keenan sat at the kitchen table, bandages wrapped around his wrists. Darcy lay on the rug in the sitting room, her worried glance fixated on Keenan. Skywing sat on the table near him as Xavier approached the boy with a glass of orange juice in his claws.

"Here you go, dude," he said as he placed the glass on the round coaster next to him.

"Thanks," Keenan said quietly. Xavier placed himself on the chair nearest to Keenan. He and Skywing looked concerned.

"Keenan, are you certain you're all right? You don't appear to be yourself," Skywing observed. Keenan sighed.

"I'm not. I think I might have single handedly ruined Alex and Keith's relationship," he said sadly. Xavier and Skywing, having witnessed the latest heated conflict between the teens, exchanged looks of misery. Keenan noticed the looks and became unsettled. "I have, haven't I?" Skywing sighed heavily.

"We're not going to lie to you. They did have another confrontation after Xavier and Keith returned," he said hesitantly.

"And from what Shade told us, it was more heated than last time," Xavier added.

"So I DID ruin them!" Keenan exclaimed. He slammed his head down on the table and groaned.

"Now, now, neither one of them said anything of the sort!" Skywing said with hasty reassurance.

"Nobody said 'we're through', either, so they're still together as far as we're aware," Xavier added.

"Besides, should they decide to terminate their romance, heaven forbid, it will most certainly not be because of you," Skywing smiled nervously.

"I hope you're right," Keenan said as he raised his head from the table.

"Why don't you explain everything to her when she gets back?" Xavier suggested.

"I'm sure she'll understand," Skywing said with little confidence.

"I hope so," Keenan sighed. As he drank from the glass, Xavier and Skywing looked at one another again, also fearing the consequences of Keenan's capture.

Keith, Alexa and Ryder followed the smell up the stairs. The first floor of the house was a long corridor with a series of doors mostly on one side. The end corridor in front of the teens was closed and had a padlock on it, while the room behind them was wide open, but it was just the bathroom. The bathroom looked recently cleaned, making it impossible for the room to house the almost unbearable and sickening smell resonating from somewhere on the floor. The carpet underneath was almost completely worn out and had dried stains of blood here and there, which seemed to lead from the only dirty door on the entire corridor. All of the doors were white, except the one with the bloodied hand print near the door handle.

"Eurgh! We're definitely close!" Alexa exclaimed, trying to block the stench. Keith gagged and coughed under the grotesque smell. It was the smell of blood, all right, but there was the smell of rotting flesh to back it up.

"What the hell died up here?!"

"Whatever it was, the smell's strongest here," Ryder said, standing next to the stained door.

"Oh, God..!"

"Why do I get the feeling we don't want to open that door?" Alexa asked, dreading the answer with a passion.

"We probably don't. Still, we can't ignore it," Ryder sighed.

"Let's get this over with..."

Keith slowly opened the door. The odour overwhelmed them instantly, and Keith only opened the door slightly. He opened the door fully when everyone barely managed to compose themselves after the unwelcoming stench. What awaited inside made everyone stop dead in their tracks. Pardon the expression.

The room was empty, derived of furniture of any description. The carpet was stained with blood, old and new, with bloodied footprints all over the place. But it was the centrepiece of the room that struck the Lucario and teenagers with more horror than they ever experienced so far. In the middle of the room were two corpses. One was a more aquatic species; its head was completely chopped off, and its back looked as though something was hacked off. Its skin was pale and dry from dehydration, blood originating from the wounds on its neck and back. The other was the more sickening of the two. Not only was it beheaded like the aquatic corpse, but it had no fur whatsoever, having been skinned after death, and its underbelly sliced open. There were no organs inside the second corpse, and its flesh looked bloated. The land based creature must have died earlier than the sea based creature was, and was definitely not as recognisable of the sea creature. The smell everyone picked up came from those two...Pokémon? Without heads, they didn't appear to look like Pokémon at all. Ryder looked around, but the heads of the two dead Pokémon could not be seen at all. He turned pale.

"...there are...there are just...no words..."

Keith could hardly breathe; never in his life had he ever seen Pokémon as decapitated as the two that lay before him. He felt light headed from the disgusting sight combined with the unbearable smell they gave off.

Alexa couldn't tolerate the sight any longer. She darted out of the room as fast as she could. Keith and Ryder watched her, and became concerned when they heard the sounds of retching and coughing from the bathroom.

Keith and Ryder left the room, closing the door behind them, and ran over to the sickened Alexa with concern. She knelt over the toilet, breathing heavily. Ryder looked around; considering the atrocity he and the teens saw, he found it strange to see such a clean room; the blue tiles were perfectly clean, the bath was unused, yet sublime in condition, the shower looked more recently used, but was without mildew all the same. The fresh bathroom rug was slightly out of place, as if Alexa nearly slipped on it when she raced into the room.

"Alexa..?"

"I-I'm all right," she said groggily. Ryder looked at how pale and sickly she looked.

"You don't look it," he said worriedly. "Alex, y-you don't think that Lapras...?"

"U-Union Cave," Alexa said, nodding really slowly. Ryder was overcome with so many emotions it was hard to tell which he was experiencing.

"How could they do that to Lapras!?

"And that other Pokémon! What WAS that thing?!" Keith asked in horror.

"S-Stantler," Alexa replied shakily. Keith faced her in astonishment; there was nothing on the second Pokémon to distinguish its identity in the slightest. No head, no tail, no organs!

"How do you know that!?"

"T-the hooves..." Alexa replied simply. Alexa gagged and coughed, head leaning towards the toilet in case she was going to hurl.

"I know they're poachers, but what the Muk?! Why are they killing Pokémon?!"

"You're talking about Sawsbuck, aren't you?" Keith asked, looking towards Ryder.

"Not just that! There were other things down there!" Ryder exclaimed. "Skulls, fur, tusks and even Swablu wings! And they weren't fake either, I think some of the skulls still had some-"

Combined with the lingering smell of rotting flesh, Alexa couldn't tolerate the mental imagery of Ryder's discoveries. The sound of her vomiting a second time cut the conversation short.

"Ryder!" Keith scolded.

"Sorry, sorry!" Ryder apologised quickly. Alexa didn't reply; instead, she coughed, occasionally gagged again and breathed heavily, trying to keep calm. Keith and Ryder looked at one another with concern before they faced Alexa.

"What do we do now?" Keith asked. Alexa would have scoffed if she wasn't feeling so rotten; she was supposed to be off duty, yet Keith was asking for advice? She found the idea ludicrous, but had little energy to argue.

"...we leave," she said finally, and quietly.

"Huh?"

"But shouldn't we do something about the stuff we saw?" Keith asked. Again, Alexa found the fact that a uniformed and on duty Ranger seeking advice from an off duty Ranger ridiculous, especially considering Keith was a Rank 10 Top Ranger like she was.

"...Robbie might not be ready yet anyway." Keeping her head close to the toilet, she dug out her mobile phone from one of the pockets on her shorts and held it out to Keith. "U-use my phone to take photos. I hope someone at the Ranger Union has a strong stomach..." Keith gently took the phone, but kept looking at her with concern.

"Alexa..."

"Hurry up. Jordan could be back any moment," she said, rather coldly.

"...just get better," he said quietly. Ryder waited for Keith to exit the room before kneeling next to Alexa. She pulled the lever on the toilet to flush it.

"How long are you and Keith going to dispute?" he asked worriedly.

"I don't know," Alexa admitted sadly.

"Alex, it's not because of you and it's not because of him that you're at each others' throats," Ryder said gently. "Jordan's putting so much pressure on the pair of you."

"I hope that's the case..."

Keith re-entered the room with the deceased and decapitated Lapras and Stantler, gagging and almost throwing up himself as he entered. He took a more careful look at the Stantler corpse, particularly its hooves; they looked different compared to those of a Rapidash or a Sawsbuck, and it looked too big to be Ponyta or Deerling, as well as too thin to be Tauros. He was impressed that Alexa was able to identify a corpse in the state it was in. He shook his head to snap him out of a distracting train of thought and began to struggle through Alexa's mobile. After nearly calling his own number by accident, he finally found the phone's camera and managed to work out how to use it. Trying not to contaminate the scene himself, he took photographs of the whole room, including the corpses. Satisfied at the photographs he took, he saved them. He accidentally exited from the camera as he left the room, cussing under his breath when he did so. He stared at the wallpaper on Alexa's phone and recognised it immediately; it was the picture he sent to her while he was an Area Ranger. He didn't know why he hadn't noticed earlier. Alexa took the time to scan the photograph into a computer, turned it into a digital picture and sent it to her phone to turn it into the wallpaper. Keith pocketed the phone and quickly went down the stairs before tears could form in his eyes.

Alexa finally stood up and approached the wash basin. Ryder watched as she opened the cabinet in front of her and looked inside for something to quell off bad breath, an inevitable side effect of vomiting.

"You sure you're okay now, Alex?" Ryder asked with concern. Alexa pulled out a bottle of green liquid and read the label; mouthwash. That might do the trick, she thought.

"Yeah," she said quietly, twisting the lid of the bottle. She pulled the lid off and poured some of the liquid into the lid. She quickly sipped the mouthwash, being careful not to swallow it, and swished the mouthwash in her mouth as she placed the lid back onto the bottle and the bottle back into the cabinet. As soon as she closed the doors of the cabinet, she spat the mouthwash out and coughed; it was too strong for her tastes. She turned the tap on momentarily to clean the basin of the mouthwash mixed with saliva.

"Alex..."

"Come on, let's see if Robbie's ready to go." Alexa and Ryder left the bathroom relatively untouched. Ryder moved the rug back to its original position, trying to keep it as it was when they found it.

Keith and a calmer, but still saddened, Robbie exited the basement just in time to meet Alexa and Ryder on the stairs. Keith held Alexa's phone out to her.

"Here. I caught everything I thought was relevant," he said quietly. "Sawsbuck, the Ursaring, the crates and their contents, whatever related to the poaching." Alexa gently took the phone and placed it back in the pocket it came from.

"I'll send them to Professor Hastings tonight," she stated. "Let's go." Alexa and Keith walked out of the front door, their Pokémon following.

Outside, all four of them were stunned to find Jordan's Jeep parked further down the hill. Whatever they were doing, none of them were looking at the house, but amongst themselves. Alexa saw red.

"Wow, that was well timed," Ryder said in bewilderment.

"Not for them," Alexa said spitefully. Keith panicked. Alexa began to race towards the parked Jeep and its ignorant passengers, but Keith grabbed her in an instant, holding her waist with one arm and clasping his other hand over her mouth. She struggled violently as Keith pulled her back behind the barrel. Ryder and Robbie followed them and lay low. As the Jeep approached the house, Keith became annoyed with Alexa's struggling.

"Shut up, you're gonna give us away!" he whispered spitefully. Ryder shook his head, fully understanding Alexa's reason for her struggling; under normal circumstances, one would only be grabbed in such a manner if they were being kidnapped.

The Jeep finally pulled up to the house and Andy turned the engine off. Jordan looked at the wide open front door. Keith almost panicked; they forgot to close it behind them.

"Shit. We left the bloody door open! I knew we forgot something!" Jordan complained.

"Fuck. Never mind, nobody knows we're here," Andy said on a slightly more optimistic note.

"Unless that kid spills," Gabby spat.

"Gabby, he was inside a crate, there was no way he could tell which way we went," Jordan sighed.

"On the bright side, though, at least we won't have to put up with his whimpering," Andy said rudely.

"I couldn't hear anything," Gabby said casually.

"Should've muzzled him, though. Son of a bitch..." Andy's words offended Alexa greatly, as she began to struggle again. Keith held her as tight as he could, which was almost too tightly for her to cope with.

"Just get inside," Jordan moaned. He, Andy and Gabby entered the house and closed the door behind them. Keeping his grip on Alexa, Keith began to carefully move away from the house, Ryder and Robbie following closely.

Gabby ran into the lounge and flopped back into the armchair with her CD player and headphones on one of the armrests and sighed contentedly.

"Finally, I can relax!"

"By the way, you gonna get rid of those corpses?" Andy asked, entering the lounge with Jordan. He noticed something obvious when he approached his chair and whisky. "The place is stinking up."

"Eventually," Gabby shrugged. She and Andy heard Jordan growling under his breath and faced him in confusion. "Jordan?"

"The Poké Gear's gone," Jordan said angrily.

"Who would take that thing anyway?" Andy asked. Jordan had a very good idea to answer that question. He said, spitefully...

"Alexa..."

As soon as they entered the woodlands, Alexa finally freed herself from Keith's incriminating grip and faced him angrily.

"What the hell, Keith!?"

"You were going to give us away, I had to do something!" Keith yelled furiously.

"Did you HAVE to grab me like that, though?! I had flashbacks of Ice because of that!" Alexa scolded. Keith recoiled; he hadn't considered the cruel treatment she sustained when Kincaid and the Sinis Trio held her captive. Flashbacks of his escapade to rescue her played in his mind during the silence between him and Alexa.

"...sorry. But if I let you confront Jordan, that would've meant we'd be in the same predicament Keenan was." Now it was Alexa's turn to recoil; she hadn't thought of the consequences that her confronting Jordan would have had not only on her, but on Keith and the Pokémon as well. She avoided eye contact with Keith as she thought about what could have happened to her and Keith; they could have been held hostage together, with little to no hope of someone coming to their aid. And considering the fact that they saw a lot more than what they had in the basement, Jordan would not have let them go so easily. As the silence was prolonged, Keith's concern grew.

"Alexa?"

"Let's just go back home," Alexa sighed, running passed Keith. It took a little while for Alexa to realise nobody was following her. She turned around and saw Keith, Robbie and even Ryder looking at her with concern from afar. "Come on!" she yelled, almost angrily. Ryder was the first to comply, running towards her. Keith and Robbie then followed. The four of them ran back the way they came, finally ready to return to Violet City. Alexa prayed that she would find her brother there.

To be continued...