Chapter Thirteen:
Escape

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon in any way, shape, or form. The only "ownership" I can claim are the personalities and my interpretation of howPokémonlook in a more realistic light, but other than that...yeah, I don't own anything on them. XD I do, however, own my original characters and writings, unless otherwise stated. In an exceptional case, a few special OCs belong to their respective owners, I'm merely borrowing them for the story that's to unfold. I'll point them out when their time to show up comes. :3

Note: I'll say this. John Williams' composition for the Jurassic Park films were brilliant for inspiration and setting the tone. And thank you to those of you who took the time to review; I greatly appreciate it! :D

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"Okay, I just figured this out…RUN!"
-Malcolm, "Malcolm in the Middle"

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"We shouldn't be here. This place is bad news. Zubat swarms, Geodude clusters—I even think there's some Onix roaming this area. This is a bad place."

Lupin ignored the nervous chirping in her ear. Riptide didn't seem to hold the same opinion, because he snorted rather indignantly. "We'll be okay. We're not going into the caves. Not far, at least. I just want a good look."

"Look when you have a team that can stand up to them rock-types and those filthy little bloodsuckers—look, I'm a bird. I have fragile little wings, as much as it pains me to admit. Tough ones, mind, but only to a point. If you threw a rock at me, I'd probably be hurting. You throw a boulder at me like some of those Geodude can, or Suicune help me, an Onix's head, I'm down. I'm out. I'm gone. There'll barely be any feathers to properly bury me. Trust me when I say this, the Dark Cave is a bad place for a beginner like you. And that's just the inner chamber of the first cave. This place has lots of them and they only get worse further in. Or so I heard."

"If you're only going off second-hand accounts, you do realize that gossip tends to double the lies and exaggerations, and they bury the truth, right? I doubt we'll get swarmed the moment we step inside, Syd."

They hadn't gone much further than the entrance, and he was already a nervous wreck. Further into the cave, she could see the first antechamber, the ceiling high, with plenty of crevices and hidey-holes in which something could hide. The ceiling was clear of anything living, but the claims of living rocks and any places they could be was endless. Somewhere deep within, Lupin could hear water running, dripping, sliding. A part of her wanted to go further in, where she could see another tunnel readily available for additional exploring, but this little outburst had Lupin hesitating as her nose picked up the clear nervousness Syd was radiating.

She reached up to scratch his head and he nipped her fingers. She withdrew them quickly, sucking on the tips and glaring out from the corner of her eye at the little brown bird.

"Hey!"

"I've seen it happen, I told you before; I lived in this area. I flew all over the place between here and Violet City, and all the way down to New Bark Town. I know a thing or two more than you and that bratty little reptile you got over there."

Riptide hissed in reply. "What was that, you scrawny meal with wings?"

"You heard me," Syd countered back with a nasally hiss of his own. "What're ya gonna do to me? Nothing. Lady, trust me. The cave is bad news. You're not ready. Not with us, not like this. I'm good for an adventure and all, but not this. Not now. I prefer not being pitted against friggin' rock-types, they tend to have an advantage over us flying-types."

She hesitated again, taking in the little bird's words that were being chirped into her ears. She could sense the unease in his tone, although for all his worth, he was trying not to sound afraid. She reached up again, and this time she was allowed to rub at his head and he tilted this way and that, allowing her to get at all angles of his little skull.

"I'm taking your word into consideration, Syd. Don't think I'm not. But I'm not going much further than the entrance. I promise. We'll be fine," she reassured him. He was silent except for the flutter-ruffle of his feathers puffing up. Riptide let out a long sigh through his gaping jaws.

"You also seemed to conveniently forget I'm a water-type. I can compete against the weaker rock-types."

"Say that to me again when you get hit by a Zubat's supersonic and you're too busy bouncing off walls to deflect rock attacks. No, really. I'll wait," the Pidgey muttered back before sighing. "But, whatever. You're the boss, Lady."

"I have a name. Please use it," Lupin softly chided. Syd shrugged his wings.

"Naw, I like 'Lady' better. More classy, ya know?"

"Ugh. You sound like a punk kid."

"Says the woman who can't even remember who she is."

"Not you too!"

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There was a strain in the air that continued to build and make the air thick with unbridled pressure, the heralding of an oncoming storm. The sky had long ago been drained of its colour and the air was wet with promise of fresh rain. When they had entered the first cave chamber, it had started sprinkling. Now a reprieve seemed to have taken place, yet from the looks of things, and from the heavy moisture in the air, the clouds above were heavy with their liquid burden and looked ready to unleash it all. But there was the ever-present tension in the air, a heavy pressure, the spark of more. It made Lupin tingle and buzz with unspent energy begging to be released. She continued to eye the angry dark clouds that had stolen away the cheery blue that had been there earlier that morning, if only briefly. There was going to be more than just rain, the sky seemed to promise.

"Another storm," she noted offhandedly. They stood at the threshold of Dark Cave, the darkness to their backs, the wrathful looking sky leering down at them from above.

"Looks like," Riptide carefully intoned. Syd shuddered.

"Hate these things. Especially when the sky lights up and makes everything too bright. Always feels like Raikou's going to come crashing down on our heads, wrath and all."

"You keep mentioning those names. Raikou, Suicune. Who are they?"

"You'll have to forgive the amnesiac, she has no idea about anything whatsoever."

"Rip…" Lupin murmured warningly.

The little blue reptile rattle-laughed. Syd crawled down her arm as she slowly dislodged her pack and sat, staring at the sky warily still. She cast her eyes around the forest beyond, tempted to make a run for it in the shelter of the trees, but then she remembered it wouldn't be wise to do so. If a stray bolt of lightning hit a tree they were under or close to, it probably wouldn't end well. Syd settled onto her knee, puffing up into a little feathery ball while Riptide slid from her shoulder to occupy her lap. The Pidgey eyed the blue gator suspiciously for a time before turning his gaze to Lupin.

"I'm not sure how you people tend to tell it, but this is how we pokémon tell it. A long time ago, the great sky god, Ho-Oh and the great beast of the sea, Lugia, lived in harmony. Lugia is the god of the seas and the storms, and swims in the deepest, darkest parts of the ocean, keeping the world from being torn apart by following a great deep sea current. If he doesn't, the world will fall to ruin. And Ho-Oh, she is the guardian of the sky. She flies all over the world, keeping the balance in the air like Lugia keeps it in the seas."

Syd paused to preen one of his wings.

"So all is good, for a long time. The elders in my flock have even said that Ho-Oh has brought wars to a halt or stopped altogether by simply appearing to warring parties and clearing the darkness in their hearts. She brings happiness and peace to those who lay eyes upon her, her gift to humans and pokémon alike, and her way of keeping the balance. And the same can be said when the balance of the world is threatened and only the beast of the sea can quell it all. But, like every legend, there comes a tragedy."

Riptide shifted in her lap to stare at the bird more properly, his eyes half-lidded and boredom clearly dominated them. Lupin suspected he's heard this before.

"Ho-Oh never lands on the ground. She flies everywhere, never ending and whatnot. But there was one perch in which she took her rest, and that would be in Ecruteak City, which is to the northwest of here. The Bell Tower was where she took roost, and even then it was on rare occasions. Here, it gets a little iffy, this part. Some say someone provoked the great sky god and she took wing to defend herself and in the crossfire, she burned down the tower. Others in my old flock argue that it was a storm that had struck the tower and burned it to the ground. Other variations have been told, too, but the bottom line is, Bell Tower burned down, and the fire claimed the lives of three innocent pokémon."

Syd ruffled his feathers again and turned his head to look out the cave mouth. It was drizzling again, the soft patter of water hitting the ground catching his attention.

"Ho-Oh took pity on them and felt a heavy remorse for the deaths of these poor creatures. So, she revives them, brand spanking new, as compensation for having their old lives taken away. She gave them new forms, new abilities. They were as fleet-footed as the wind, and as destructive as the forces of nature that they were crafted after. There was Raikou, the god of thunderstorms, and he was said to be able to travel in the very lightning he creates in these storms of his. Entei was created as the god of fire, and he was claimed to have the power to create volcanoes by merely roaring. And lastly, there was Suicune, the swiftest of the three and according to legend, the embodiment of the North Wind. She can purify any tainted body of water with the mere touch of her paws, and can run across any watery surface as though it was land."

"Bah. Rubbish. No one's proven their existence. People have chased those folklores for years and have come up with nothing."

"Just because you can't see air around you doesn't mean it doesn't exist. You feel it filling your lungs, don't you?"

"Air has been proven as the substance we require to live and breathe, since we're organic beings, you tiny-brained bird. And you talk about these Legendaries as though they exist."

"Some believe they do, and apparently, some don't. It doesn't really matter. Strange things happened in the past, and people and pokémon alike told stories in which to justify the results and fill in blanks or to explain phenomena that they didn't really understand. And maybe there are those who don't believe in the stories, but we like to tell them anyway because they're entertaining," Syd countered haughtily, glaring at the reptile below him. "Not that I can expect much from a sheltered lab pokémon like you. You ain't ever been out in the wild and seen what me and mine have seen."

"I've seen plenty, and I've heard more about the whole of Johto from a more introspective side of things, thank you. Being a part of a research team has its advantages over a feral."

"Don't you look down your snout at me, lizard!" Syd leapt into the air and beat his wings, screeching in warning.

"Say that again to my face, you overgrown feather duster," Riptide snapped, baring his gaping jaws at the Pidgey. He crawled up toward Lupin's knees and gnashed his teeth. Lupin grabbed him around his middle and pulled him back in alarm. He squirmed at first, of course, but she held him steady while Syd stayed overhead, making tight little circles above.

"Enough, you two. You got me? Or it's back in the pokéballs you two go," Lupin hissed warningly. Riptide stopped struggling and leaned against her, looking rather sullen but for the moment, willing to give in for once. Syd gave a few more lazy circles around before coming back down to land near them. He hopped closer, pecking at the ground. Lupin reached over and rubbed at the top of his head and the back of his neck, beneath the downy of feathers and he leaned into the touch. The flesh beneath was warm to the touch, insulated by his feathers. He gave an unhappy coo when she finally stopped and pressed her hand toward his feet, forcing him to step onto it.

"Look, we'll have to wait out the rain until it lets up enough for us to leave, but in the meantime, try not to kill each other. You're supposed to be teammates, remember?"

"Tell bird brain to quit spouting off those tall tales and we'll all be just pecha keen."

"Oi, I'm serious. Knock it off."

The werewolf gave Riptide's belly scales a quick squeeze and he hissed at her, but grumbled a begrudging final affirmative. Syd sneezed.

"Lab pokémon. They think they know it all just cuz' you got it a little more privileged than most of us ferals," the little bird gruffly replied. "I see your type plow on through with new trainers all the time. You think you got the world pegged, but you'll see soon enough."

"See what?" Riptide demanded, glowering at the bird perched on Lupin's hand. Lupin frowned, tightening her grip on the Totodile, just in case.

"The world ain't all black and white with only a few smidgeons of gray here and there. It ain't cut and dry like you might believe it is, and not everything can be written down and explained away in a pretty little textbook or research paper. Even your esteemed bookworm professors can't explain everything about pokémon and the world we're in. I can't either, for that matter. I'm just a little Pidgey, but I know a few things more than you do about the real world. And if you're gonna go strutting around with that attitude across Johto, than Ho-Oh help ya, 'cuz you're gonna end up in a world of pain soon enough if you don't straighten up."

Riptide continued to quietly glower at the little bird, and as a precaution, Lupin moved her hand holding Syd a little further away from the blue-scaled reptile. He made no moves to attack, but she knew he had ranged attacks like water gun that he could have easily unleashed. She was glad he didn't as he finally curled in her lap, his back facing the Pidgey.

There was a long minute that passed between them all, a strained tension that seemed to drag on the seconds and make them feel like an eternity was passing for each and every one of them. When Syd himself deemed he was safe, he slowly crawled up the length of Lupin's arm before settling against her neck and cheek, preening at her bangs. Her ears occasionally twitched at the movement and he would teasingly nip at them in response, or even try to preen the fur of her ears.

Lupin laid her newly freed hand on Riptide's back. He was tense and angry, and she could understand it, to a degree. He had just had his hide handed to him, so to speak, by a tiny bird only a quarter of his size. But she had to agree with Syd; the Totodile could be a little bratty and he had a know-it-all attitude sometimes. While he was being more helpful nowadays, he still tended to be smug and not very humble about it.

Syd had laid a verbal smack down on Riptide, and for once, he didn't have a witty comeback to fall upon. He was unhappy and hurt, she could sense that much from his sullen silence. She glanced at Syd from the corner of her eye, but he gave no indication of apologizing and continued about his business.

"We should go soon. The Zubat tend to stir more often the closer it gets to nighttime, and those Geodude, I dunno. They look like boulders at first, until you trip over them," Syd finally warned, tugging at a strand of Lupin's hair.

The werewolf finally nodded. Perhaps it was time to go. She could set up the tent and they could enjoy a relatively quiet evening inside it and then—

—and then, at that moment, the sky had decided to drop its rain upon the world. Heavy sheets came pouring down, and even from several feet away, she could feel the iciness that permeated off the water. Lupin stared in incredulity and consternation, disappointment building up inside at first before a small sense of hope began replacing it. At least they had shelter for the time being.

Syd shuddered and let out a soft, disgruntled chitter in her ear.

"Oh, Arceus above, you're kiddin' me…" he grumbled, puffing a breath noisily through his little nostrils. "Great, now we have to stay in the cave and pray to the Legendaries above that we don't wake up with all our blood sucked dry or our bones broken by boulders."

"Syd, as much as I appreciate your oh-so-bright and cheery outlook on life…shut it. No, really. You're bringing me down with all this doom talk, man."

"I'm looking at this from a realist's point of view, all right? I told you earlier, I'm just one little Pidgey. I have fragile bones compared to a rock-type's, well…rock-hard body." He fluttered nervously against her, stilling momentarily. "I just, I don't wanna die in a place like this, okay? I don't wanna not see the sun and the sky in my last moments. If I have to go out, then that's fine, but…I wanna do it with the sun on my face and the wind in my feathers. Not in the darkness and cold."

Lupin was, for a few moments, taken aback by his words. Even Riptide stirred from his spot in her lap to glance back at the bird on her shoulder. He studied both her and Syd with those yellow-red eyes, and Lupin reached up to cover the Pidgey's feather backside with the palm of her hand. She stroked him a few times reassuringly, settling his feathers down with each one.

"I won't let anything bad happen to you in this cave tonight, okay? I promise."

"As sweet as that is, Lady, you can't promise something like that." He pressed tightly against her and rubbed his beak against her cheek a few times. "But I appreciate the sentiment all the same. Just…please, don't make me go back in that place again. I couldn't see anything. And I need my sight. I depend on it. Not seeing anything in there was driving me nuts, I thought we were gonna get offed for sure."

"We'll camp out right here, close to the cave entrance. When the storm passes, we'll know about it." She continued to pet him, ignoring the disgruntled mutters from Riptide. What Syd lacked in sight in the darkness, her own only seemed to thrive. She could see every pebble, boulder, stalagmite and stalactite that ringed the chamber they had explored with what little light they could work with earlier. Temptation had called to her more than once to summon fire at a moment's notice in order for the other two to see, but the way Syd had quivered and shook against her earlier, she was afraid it would have startled him too much.

But her answer for the time being seemed to satisfy him. With that confirmed, she started setting up her sleeping bag. Riptide had, for the time being, waddled off into the rain to soak up the water as it fell. She couldn't understand why or how he could stand being in cold water but not cold air. Must be a reptile thing, she concluded for the moment.

For a while, she let him romp about in the puddles and the rain water, while she and Syd watched. It grew darker and Syd progressively shuffled closer to Lupin's neck and hiding under her hair. Occasionally he'd shiver and ruffle his feathers.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just…keep an eye on that blue brat, would ya? He puts up a tough front and he slings around all that knowledge he learned at that lab of his, but…that's all it is. It's a front. He doesn't know as much as he likes to think he does and he knows it. You can see it in those eyes of his. I'm not saying he's stupid or nothing, but…he's got a lot to learn. And if he keeps carrying on the way he does, I'm afraid it might turn out to be a painful lesson. You're his trainer. Try to ease it up for him, ya know?"

"You seem to know an awful lot for a wild pokémon."

"Like I said before, I'm a little bird. I get overlooked a lot and I can listen in on things. You pick up a lot from traveling trainers. Labs and professors know plenty too, but I don't see that professor out in the field all too much when I fly around New Bark Town. I think he coops up in the labs and research departments too much. Sheltered life don't do too good for most pokémon. Makes 'em complacent."

Her ears twitched on occasion as he spoke, and every so often, her eyes would stray to the field outside the cave, where she could make out Riptide pounding through puddles. He didn't move like a traditional crocodilian could move. He could push up to his hind legs, and his tail was semi-prehensile. He was an odd thing, but then again, so was the bird perched on her shoulder. His wings were tiny, yet they could create a gust powerful enough to harm. He claims he was only a little bird, but she couldn't think of a regular bird having the muscle strength to create something even half as powerful as the buffeting drafts Syd could produce.

After some time passed, she rummaged through her pack and pulled out the dishes she had for her two pokémon, filling them with some chow. Syd hopped down to his perch as Lupin called to the little blue gator outside. He came trudging back, rivulets of water still sluicing down his blue hide. He collapsed beside his dish, half-heartedly digging into the food. Lupin noted the still-present surliness he kept directing at Syd with his glares. Not even halfway done, he finally pushed the dish away and muttered that he was tired.

The werewolf watched the sullen Totodile, her brow scrunching up in worry. She glanced over at Syd, who had watched the exchange as well. He ruffled his feathers, cocked his head, and then returned a quiet stare back at Lupin. He held her gaze for a few moments before turning back to watch Riptide.

"I'll go talk to him. You just sit tight," he said, and with a last peck of his food, he hopped away toward the blue-scaled reptile. Lupin wavered, almost tempted to get up and follow them as the little Pidgey motioned for them to head back outside. She stopped, however, at the parting glance from the little bird and sat back down on her sleeping bag. Her ears flicked and swiveled about, suddenly feeling hypersensitive to the lack of immediate company. She curled up, drawing her legs up to her chest and resting her chin on her knees. It was chilly, but she didn't feel it so much as she registered it.

Her thoughts came to a sudden halt at the sound of a loud crash further in the cave, however and she sat up, ramrod straight. Every inch of fur on her tail stood on end, and she sat there, stock still, muscles coiled and ready to spring. She stared into the dark abyss, suddenly paranoid of being watched. She stared hard and long, her ears no longer concerned or tuned to the conversation Syd was holding with Riptide. She didn't even hear them returning until Syd flapped around her ears and landed on her shoulder, his feathers dripping wet. She jumped in surprise, startling him in return and he jumped back into the air. Water sprayed everywhere and she flinched as some of it flicked onto her.

"Sheesh! You'd think with flappers like those, you'd hear us and anything within a couple square miles heading your way."

Lupin tried to settle her nerves, breathing deeply and evenly, but there was a shake in her hands she couldn't quite get rid of yet. She smiled, nonetheless, and waved the Pidgey's concerns away and offered her hand to him to land on when she felt steadier.

"I'm fine, just…thought I heard something else while you lot were talking, but it was nothing. Just the rain."

She avoided the pointed stare she received from Syd, and glanced instead over at Riptide as he came waddling over. She offered her lap to him and he readily clambered into it. He looked less morose, and she had to wonder what Syd had said to him. Her question, however, remained glued to the roof of her tongue.

"We should get some sleep and hope this storm is gone by the morning. We'll make it to Violet City by midday, if we're lucky." Riptide said with a gaping yawn, interrupting her thoughts. Lupin scratched his snout and laid down, letting Syd flutter into her sleeping bag's hood. He twitched and shifted until he was comfortable before settling into a squashed feathery puffball beside her head.

"You sure we'll be okay?"

"Yes, Syd. I'm sure." She reached up and gave him one last scratch behind his head and he chirped back. "If you say so, Lady…"

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Her head was ringing. Or was it her ears? She wasn't sure which anymore. But everything was spinning, that much she was sure of. The palms of her hands were bleeding—or they were. Or was it a part of her imagination? The copper taste in her mouth told her she'd bitten her tongue or her lip for sure, but the supposed wound was gone, no pain at all lingered. Her legs were still tangled in her sleeping bag, but they ached from where rock debris had fallen on them. She heard Riptide snarling and hissing, the noises he made echoing off cave walls and bouncing all over the place, making it hard to pinpoint where he was. Syd was screeching; there was terror in his voice. The air practically vibrated with fear and confusion and it was all reinforced by the frantic beat of wings. Dust clogged the air, making it hard to see past, but that wasn't what stilled her from getting up, to spring into action, to do anything but sit there looking dumb and dazed.

No, it was the sudden, growing rumble that made pebbles tremble along the cavern floor, softly at first. It was almost muted by the rainfall outside that had grown to a downpour, accentuated by the occasional growling clap of thunder and bright flash of lightning to follow up. But then it grew, and at first, Lupin thought it to be the oncoming onslaught of more thunder, but in between the rousing silence in the sky, the growls grew deeper and remained steady until it exploded into an offensive roar that shook the very air.

It made Lupin's heart race and her blood turn to ice in her veins. The anxiety that riddled her the night the Ariados and her brood nest had attacked her and Riptide paled in comparison to how it felt now. She was scrabbling up at last, ignoring the tearing feeling in her aching muscles, realizing a good amount of the debris that littered the cave floor around her must have hit her legs. Then a heart-stopping moment later, she realized it must have hit her head too, and that's why she hadn't awoken at first, why she had gotten up with blood in her mouth and a ringing in her ears.

I might have a concussion. And my legs—did they break? Is that why they're hurting?

She pushed it all away, her worry growing for the other two. She wasn't hurt now, and she could move. Lupin dove deeper into the blackness of the cave, and she could see a long, slithering shape make itself known, rising up nearly to the top of the cave's ceiling. Blundering about in the dark, whipping back and forth with uncertainty in his movements, was Syd. He was beating his wings frantically, screeching up a storm, perhaps in an effort to confuse the wavering, snakelike creature before them. It was gargantuan in length and girth, and its head was broad in length and width as well. A horn rose at the crest of its head and when it wagged its head, it brushed against a few stalactites above and broke them off with ease. They dropped down without a care, littering the cave floor. They shattered upon impact, kicking up more dust.

A gushing stream of water suddenly shot out from the ground toward the monstrous creature, the user hidden behind a wall of rock, but Lupin knew who it was. Roars punctuated the cave walls with each successful hit, the sounds of pain and rage balled up together. She rushed around, ducking on instinct when a tail came sailing toward her. She scrabbled forward, finding Riptide among the wreckage of boulders and fallen spears of rock and stone. He saw her approaching and stopped his torrential attack, waddle-running toward her. She scooped him up, ignoring the roars above them.

"That thing came out of nowhere—you got hit by the rocks, you weren't waking up—and there was blood, there was a lot of blood, but we had to get it away from you—"

"Come on, let's get out of here, let's go—Syd! SYD! Get away from it, let's go!"

"I can't see where you guys are, where are you?!"

She hesitated, glancing at Riptide clinging to her. His breathing was rapid and shallow, his eyes gone to mere slits. Fear wafted off of him, stinking up the air and she saw the worry in them as he turned to stare back at her.

"Don't get scared. Okay? Just…hold on to me."

He stared at her questioningly, before something lit up in those eyes.

"No, no, no. You can't use teeth and claws against that thing, that's an Onix! You don't even know what they are, do you? It's made of stone!"

"I just want to surprise him a little," she warned, and despite the confidence she was trying to exude, she felt none of it in her core. Everything felt nervous and fluttery in her chest, like it was sinking away further and further down until it had dropped away completely. She had no idea if this was going to work or not, but she hoped her idea would work long enough for them to make a quick getaway.

"These things, they dwell in darkness a lot, right?"

"Yes, they do, but I don't know much about them beyond that—"

"Are they sensitive to light?"

"They're made of stone, they don't have the same organic reflex as we do when light sears our eyes. Just what—what are you planning on doing, are you going to wave a flashlight in its eyes?"

Lupin didn't answer him. Instead, she directed her attention to the fluttering form in the air. Syd looked so tiny and insignificant compared to the Onix.

She breathed in deep, digging for that hot spark she'd felt that night in the forest she had first summoned her fire. It was there, an internal flame that never seemed to dissipate, but neither was it overwhelming. It churned and danced, suddenly flaring to life as she coaxed it forward to the surface. She waggled her hand and it grew brighter, the tips suddenly sparking until a bright yellow flame sat atop there, growing until her hand was engulfed. Riptide made a strangled noise of surprise and alarm, his jaws gaping to unleash another water gun, but she squeezed him.

"Shhh, it's okay, I'm fine, it doesn't hurt. Look. I'm not burning."

His breath came in raspy swallows, a hiss growing in the back of his throat.

"You…you can make fire…" He said, almost in a trance by the flickering light. "So that's how you fought off all those Spinarak that night…you scared them with fire."

She nodded, turning her attention to the great stone beast that loomed over them. Syd paused, fluttering in midair, taken aback before taking a nose dive toward her. He landed on her shoulder and buried himself against her neck, shivering violently. Lupin kept her gaze locked on the Onix, its great head hovering in the air just above them. Even in the dark, she could tell the stone boulders that comprised of its body was at least twice her height, but to see it in the light was as though it was truly confirmed and not just a trick of the shadows.

The Onix slithered around them, trapping them in a pen made by its encircled length. It leered down at them, like a snake would do upon its doomed prey. Lupin tried to hide the shiver that ran down the length of her spine as it brought its face closer to bear on them, a growl building in its stone throat.

"You are trespassing upon my territory," it finally spoke. Its breath smelled of dust and dirt, of darkness beneath the earth that no human—and very few pokémon—would ever traverse. "Do you know what happens to trespassers that come here?"

"I would guess you kill them."

A sound akin to thunder rumbled deep from the stone body around them, and it took a very long, belated moment for Lupin to realize that the Onix was laughing.

"I eat them," it corrected, its voice rumbling deeply like stone grating on stone. It paused, swinging its rock skull around. Lupin turned as it did, keeping it within sight at all times. Riptide hissed quietly and Syd pressed even tighter against Lupin, hiding under a curtain of her hair.

"But you're a curiosity…I have never encountered one such as you. Tell me, to slake my thirst, so to speak…what manner of pokémon are you?"

Syd chirped nervously in her ear, but she heard the strangled gasp he emitted in between rapid breaths he took.

"Fire—you-you can make fire? Oh, sheesh, and here I thought the tail and the ears were it!"

Lupin ignored the nervous mutterings from the bird, trying to keep all her focus on the stone snake before her.

"I'm not a pokémon. I'm—I'm not even human, but I'm definitely not a pokémon."

"Don't try to lie to save your skin. You have fire dancing around your flesh, and those twitching appendages on your head and coming out your backside…you walk and look like a human, but you're anything but. I've heard tales of pokémon who use trickery to walk amongst the humans, but I have never seen it before, not like this. Perhaps one of those bedeviled nine-tailed foxes?"

Lupin was all too aware, of the continuous circling the stone body was making around her, trying to keep her and the other two hemmed within the Onix's perimeter. It dipped closer every now and then, as though trying to spook, but she held her ground even when her heart was pounding and every instinct told her to run.

"I've never heard of anything like that, but I can assure you I'm not some tricky pokémon."

Second time, second bloody time I've done this. Gone against warning, gone against instinct…I don't even know what to trust anymore.

And they had only camped at the cave's entrance to get out of the rain. Instinct had told her to leave, to find shelter elsewhere, and so had Syd. I didn't listen, I should have listened.

She caught a glimpse of light, the faint glow of lightning as it briefly illuminated the cave entrance. She could just barely make out her rumpled sleeping bag, the pieces of rock that had fallen near or around the entrance…

Her eyes strayed back to the leering Onix before her, chills still racing up and down her spine, but now the ice had spread to her limbs, her chest, her gut, everywhere. Even the warmth of the fire could barely be felt as she tucked Riptide closer against her. He clung back in return, digging his claws into her shirt.

"Syd…Riptide. Hold your breath, for as long as you can."

"What?"

"Just do it."

"I can't do it for long, Lady. What're you planning?" Syd trembled against her. Riptide bumped the tip of his snout against her shoulder, pulling himself up to it.

"Just do it," she repeated more firmly. "Just trust me. You'll be okay. Close your eyes. Hold your breath. I promise you'll be okay."

There was no point in whispering, her voice carried all over the place even when she spoke softly. The Onix tilted its head quizzically at her words.

"What is it that you plan to do? Threaten to melt me, like so many other fire-types have tried before?"

Another rumble of laughter gurgled from the Onix, vibrating the air around them. The tip of the rock snake's tail slid past them, just enough to show the cave entrance again. Time was up. Talking was over. The Onix was coiling to attack.

"No," Lupin responded, willing the fire to spread up her arm. Syd shrieked, but she shushed him. Riptide watched from her other shoulder, fascinated and terrified all at once. The Onix paused as well, drawn in by the sudden revelation.

"No?" The Onix inquired.

"No," Lupin repeated, trying to exude a little more confidence in her tone. Syd closed his eyes, cowering into the crook of Lupin's neck, feeling the heat drawing closer. Riptide watched, muscles frozen, terror and captivation keeping him rooted to his spot. "Hold your breath," she told him and Riptide again.

She turned back to the Onix and said, "I'm going to set myself on fire. Ta."

And that's just what she did.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Note: Syd is a cheeky little guy. And apparently, Lupin gets a new and endearing enough nickname, learns a little about Legendary pokémon, and then decides to set herself on fire—along with her teammates—and oh right, and that Onix is one bad mofo. *cackles* Feel free to drop a word in the review box or a note to me personally! I'm always open to either. :3