Chapter Twenty-One: Protective Daddy Mode: On

Gin couldn't possibly stand around and wait. Sapphire was in trouble and she needed him, so the small Pokemon didn't bother waiting around. Despite Marine's now long gone cries for him to stop before he disappearing into the night. Gin was sure she'd go and fetch Kurrin, but for now, he was going to help find Sapphire.

The dim lighting of the moon was of great help, but not enough as he almost fell below when leaping wildly from branch to branch, almost missing a step or two. He figured traveling by the trees would be much faster as he headed in the direction he was sure he saw Sapphire get taken. Of course his dread and now slowly building fear was still growing ever so in his chest was something that wanted his body to stop and turn around, but he continued on. Everything began to blend in as wildlife seemed all the same the longer he traveled from Littleroot. Gin took a second to stop and look around, not sure how he'd get back, but it was too late to worry about that now. He proceeded again with his branch leaping, occasionally having to risk taking a huge leap in order to get to another tree that was a bit far off from the next. Thank heavens for having this ability, he thought to himself.

As the Treecko reached deeper and deeper into the dense forest, the fear growing inside him reached its highest peak when he heard a terrifying scream. The sound forced him to stop and frantically look around, trying to recall which direction the scream came from. All the while, his heart raced like a Rapidash, hoping that Sapphire was okay. She had to be okay! He decided on heading right, which after a while, had led into the more darker parts of the forest. Light barely came in through the trees which was proving to be a problem when he suddenly slammed into bark. The tree Gin had leapt from was a bit shorter or this one was freakishly tall, but whatever the case, it hurt and he went spiraling down into the ground below. White spots danced around his vision as he lied there, barely able to make out anything around himself thanks to the chilling darkness.

"S-Sapphire..?" He tried to call out, but everything felt dizzy and heavy at the same time. Gin carefully sat himself up, but was knocked into by a heavy force, sending him painfully crashing across the ground. This caused the small Pokemon to cry out, worrying the figure that hit him.

"Gin..? What are you doing here?!" Gin recognized the voice to belong to Ivan. What a blessing it was to see the angrily frowning Mightyena.

"I'm sorry, I had to-" Gin tried to apologize, still a bit frazzled up in his head, but was cut short when a new sound finally registered to him. The sound of cackling, loud and multiplied. Ivan turned his focus from Gin and quickly stood to his feet, acting as a wall to protect the Treecko behind him. Soon, out of the patches of darkness before them that held none of the moon's spotted light, came multiple Murkrow, all cackling and taunting. Gin got to his feet as fast as he could, determined to help Ivan out, but the older Pokemon wasn't having it as he took a second to glance back at him.

"Don't. You stay behind me." He snarled then turned his attention back towards the birds coming at them. He readied himself and ushered out an attack that made Gin awe. A beam of interlaced, dark and purple circles erupted from Ivan making contact with a good amount of the flock, causing a lot of them to drop from the air, flinching painfully on the ground. This was an attack Gin recalled during one of his more book-learning lessons as a Dark Pulse. Ivan continued his attack, trying to hit as many as possible, but whenever five went down, ten more took their place, drawing closer until one managed to dodge the vicious attack to zoom towards Ivan and drill their sharp beak into his head. The action had split the Mightyena's head and caused a good amount of blood to seep out.

"Ivan!" Gin called out and quickly smacked the bird away with a tail attack. The Mightyena dropped to the ground, panting heavily. One of his eyes forced to close due to the dark, warm blood now leaking down from his wound.

"Stay back, Gin." He ordered harshly and slowly got back to his feet.

"No, you need help." Gin fought back and turned his attention to the Murkrow now surrounding them. The laughing they were doing were scaring him a bit, but he had to help. He had no idea how long the older Pokemon was fighting, but he looked tired and Gin had a feeling his HP wasn't at its best at the moment. Gin then launched a Bullet Seed attack, trying to hit the flying targets, but they simply scattered, allowing him to only hit a few who were thrown off from the suddenness. And even still, they didn't fall like Ivan's attack did to them.

"I needed you to stay home." He growled at the little Pokemon standing with him. He used another Dark Pulse attack, but it was abruptly stopped when he couldn't continue it. He staggered and dropped to his feet, the wound on his head still leaking blood. Gin tried to turn his attention to Ivan, but was cut off when the group of the Murkrow summoned a volley of Shadow Balls. "G-Gin..you need to get out of here!" He barked, but the sound was distant and faded to him when Gin stared at the intimidating orbs of darkness before him.

Ivan saw Gin stand there motionless, despite his orders for him to leave, to move, dodge, something! His eyes went from the Murkrow to Gin and just as they released their hold on the orbs, he pushed himself to his feet and quickly rushed over to shield Gin completely with his body.

Marine was old, too old to be trying to run, but now was no time to complain. The little old Pokemon had scurried as fast as she could to Kurrin's and by the time she reached there, she was a tired mess of aching bones and joints. She took a second to try and calm her heavy breathing, but it was useless and proceeded to bang on the door with her little hands.

"K-Kurrin! Please help..!" She cried.

Inside, the old Linoone had gone to sleep shortly after Gin and Sapphire's departure and stayed asleep until he was woken by the banging. He lifted his head from where he was curled up on his bed and quickly made his way over to the door, cursing to himself when his back cracked with pain from the sudden motion. He slowed his pace down just a bit, still moving quickly enough when he answered the door. The old Mudkip fell forward as she was pressing all her weight against the it when banging.

"Marine, what are you doing here? What's wrong?" He helped her up back onto her feet and flinched when he saw tears in her eyes. He had known the Mudkip for quite some time and rarely ever saw her cry. If she did, it must be because of something really serious. "Marine, what happened?" He asked calmly. Marine panted and shivered from her body aching and her heart racing a mile a minute.

"Sapphire..Sapphire got taken and my Aqua and Ivan went off to get her..but Gin went too, he took off so fast I couldn't.." She sobbed miserably, worried to death for all of them. She looked up to Kurrin who was utterly shocked, deep blue eyes as wide as ever. "They need your help!"

Kurrin shook his shock away and offered a ride on his back for Marine. She took his offer and climbed on as he ran, making it to the berry shop way faster than Marine could ever hope to and noticed the small group of familiar faces swarming around the shop's entrance. He let Marine climb off and the two made their way over.

The first to notice them was a tear-faced Poochyena who dashed over, hiccuping and crying like an infant. She stopped just at Kurrin's feet, looking up to him with large tears in her eyes. Ivan's daughter, he realized.

"Where's my daddy?!" She cried. Soon the other residents joined the little one, all eyes going from Marine to Kurrin. The Linoone turned his attention to Marine.

The old Mudkip went over the list of events, leaving everyone to go from worried to terrified, some like Willow and Ivan's daughter turning to tears. Ms. Potter fluttered over to Kurrin a little too closely.

"Are you going to get them?!"

"Of course," He nodded to the frantic Beautifly.

"Please do, Kurrin.." Willow added in such a sad tone that it made Kurrin's heart nearly break in two.

"I will," He answered. He then looked to the teary mess of a child, clearly distraught about her father. He lowered himself as best as he could to her level, causing her to turn her attention to him again. "I'll bring them all back." This managed a little smile from the girl, but it disappeared again once she returned to crying. The Linoone looked to Marine, demanding where they ran off to. She told them they were heading northwest and with that, he took off with blinding speed.