Pokemon: The Unknown Continuum
Chapter 21: Nyctophobia
Roughness. That was all I could feel right now as consciousness started seeping in, as I was reminded somewhat of the time where I woke up on the beach just outside of Treasure Town. It didn't feel nearly as painful though and all I had was a dull headache with the taste of grit in my mouth, caused by the tiny little stones on my tongue. The ground on which I lay on jagged ever so slightly at my green, slightly scaly skin as I began to open my eyes to see where I had ended up. This didn't do any good though, I might as well have kept given how dark it was, and I had no idea whether I was outside in eerily windless conditions or stuck in a room of some kind. My brain started kicking into gear as I tried to stand on the rocky ground, accidentally kicking a small stone that bounced into the blackness. Where was I, and how did I get here? It didn't take me long to figure out that I travelled into the future, and that Dusknoir must have accidentally knocked me in. He could have shown more courtesy than to put me in a black room of some kind! If it was him that put me here that is.
It was so quiet here that I suddenly became aware if the sounds my own body was making: Every slight gurgle from my digestive system, each pulse of blood running through my veins, and every breath. Everything around me felt so still and quiet that it almost felt like it was dead, as if the very life essence sucked dry from my surroundings. I took a few steps forward into the dark void. I could hardly even see my feet or the ground I was stepping on, so I took things very slowly, wanting to avoid stepping on any sharp stones that could cut my feet. I stopped suddenly, thinking I heard a noise to my right, but it was probably just the sound of my blood in my body, which was starting to give me cold shivers with its foreign sound. My left foot suddenly touched something furry and warm, and whatever it was suddenly shivered and moved. I sincerely hoped that was just Serge – a friendly voice would do me a world of good right now.
"…Floyd? Please say that's you, please…" It sure sounded like my good friend, and giving a loud sigh of relief, I helped him to his feet. He wobbled slightly; clearly feeling slightly disoriented from the presumed time travel, but soon found himself firmer on his two legs than I did.
"Mind lighting your back so we can see where we are?" I said, breathing a little heavier out of unease as his back stiffened and lit up on fire, lighting what turned out to be a cave covered in the dullest shade of dark grey. It was extremely hard to tell whether it was a natural cave or whether it was dug out by someone, but one thing was for sure – I didn't like it at all.
"That Dusknoir…why, I was so sure he was full of shit..." Serge said bitterly next to me as he grabbed by arm to get his attention. "I am kicking myself for not speaking out sooner, but I always felt that he had some other motive. I cannot apologize enough for not warning you about this."
"Now calm down for one second – we can't even be sure he pulled us in!" Serge was clearly not listening and he cut me off before I could continue.
"Oh, and let's suppose for a moment that it was all a big accident and think about this: Why would he have us thrown into this empty cave?! Did you not think of that Floyd? Of course not, because he can do no wrong in your eyes because he's also a Dialgan, right?" He continued, grabbing both my arms, looking me dead in my eyes.
"Serge…" I looked away for a moment, thinking about what he said. "Look, let's just find a way outside. The cave walls are over at these three sides, which leaves only that way…" I said, pointing into the depths. I picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it in that direction to see if it'd bounce off a wall that was too dark for our eyes to see. It took a bit longer than I had expected for the stone to hit something, so perhaps the passage out lead deeper into the planet's crust.
"…Let's just move slowly down." Serge said as I let him and his fiery light lead the way. The surroundings didn't let up with its raw stillness, and the strange feeling of death never left this cave. Each footstep was almost soundless from us as I could see the paranoia in Serge start to set in, as it did the same to me. The strangest thing was that the cave floor seemed to be very flat, unlike what the stone throw told us, and the sense that the very nature of the atmosphere was very askew was only reinforced. Straining my eyes, I caught sight of an end of this cave – a shabby, yet sturdy looking grill door that fit surprisingly well in the narrowing cavern walls, and I began to be eerily reminded of a prison.
"Lemme guess…" Serge said, running up to the door and trying to open it. "Locked, as I suspected. Explain that one Floyd." I had nothing to say about this, but perhaps Dusknoir was locked up somewhere else. I slowly walked up to the locked grill door and gave it a little shake, the bars being extremely close together so it was hard to put my hands through them. Something odd sprung to mind at this point – I don't think this sort of metal was used by the pokemon back in Treasure Town, possibly due to them not knowing how. Definitely the future alright.
"Floyd, think you can cut through these?" Serge asked, looking at the bars closely. "They don't seem too thick, whatever this material is. Seems to be very hard though…"
"Nope, not a chance…" However, I did think of something right there. I couldn't cut through it alone, but with Serge's help…
"Try heating up these bars, I might be able to cut through them if they're softened by fire." Serge seemed a bit confused at first but understood as he started blowing small, but very focused hot flames over the bars. I was glad to be with Serge and the heat and light from his fire, else I'd start feeling sluggish from the cold and darkness even faster. The sound from the cackling flames, however, did not make me feel better, and I swore I kept on hearing other sounds behind those flames, but I just chalked it up to paranoia.
"So when do you think we'll be getting home?" I asked, not thinking that Serge would be as clueless as I was.
"No idea, and it'd depend what you'd count as 'home.'" Serge said, taking a small breather before continuing to heat up the metal bars. "Seriously, what is this stuff?"
"It's some kind of metal. Maybe steel, but you pokemon back where you come from don't have steel in your civilization yet. We must be real far in the future!" I muttered as Serge kept speaking to me through brief ten second breaks of blowing flames, and it seems like it was tiring him out ever so slightly.
"You sound more curious than afraid, and what's steel anyway? I'm assuming that it's common in your home-world, right? Anyway, that's as hot as I can get it." Serge said before backing off as I looked at a few of the bars glow the dullest red in the darkness. I kept looking behind me and past the bars, as I heard unnatural sounds in the surrounding darkness, and I could not tell whether it was just my imagination getting the better of me or not. I'd say we're alone in here, but the shadow of doubt that wrapped around my brain always made me question that.
"Just…just trying not to panic and dwell on this predicament too much…" I said and used all my strength and might in both mind and body to slice at the bars with my tail leaf as a very loud clang sounded as I did so that strangely enough didn't resonate much around the cave walls.
"Ow, fuck!" I said, rubbing my tail after I had sliced once, seeing that I had only cut through two of the bars. Clearly, they weren't well made, but it was still enough to keep us in for the time being. Just who was imprisoning us here? I doubt it was Dusknoir; perhaps he was in a different cell. After all, he was likely unconscious when we arrived in the future as well. Making another cut, a small gap formed, but it was not big enough yet for us to squeeze through with our fairly large heads. This was clearly going to be a war of attrition between us and the door, but a war we would surely win.
"Right, heat the bars up here, and when I cut through them, it should be big enough. Too bad the hinges seem to be well jammed into the rock from what I can see." I pointed at the spot as I saw down to wait, casually looking past the door to see if there was anything in the black void I could see as my eyes were now slowly adjusting to the darkness.
I sat down patiently, tilting my head roughly every ten seconds, squinting my eyes constantly as if I was determined to see something move. I knew fine well that someone must have put us in here, and when we'd break out, we might encounter whoever or whatever done this to us. I suddenly jumped and gasped when I thought something strange crossed my field of vision, causing Serge to also be startled.
"Floyd?! What is it?!" He said, coughing as he turned to look at me.
"…Just some flames sparked a bit." I said, remembering to make sense of what I saw and Serge continued heating up the bars, and it was nearly time for me to cut the rest of the way to our freedom, but it was at that point where I saw something else. A pair of small blue lights came into view ever so slowly and hovered there for a brief few seconds. I wanted to believe it wasn't alive, I wanted to believe it wasn't the eyes of something that wanted us dead or at least apprehended, but I knew all too well that wasn't the case. Thankfully, whatever it was went away almost immediately; maybe we wouldn't have to deal with it if we're lucky.
"Right I'm done…Floyd?" Serge said as he tapped me to pull my attention from whatever that thing was and I chopped a couple more pieces of the bars off. Now we could squeeze through, but that'd still be a bit easier said than done. Serge was a bit smaller than I was so he was able to squeeze through just fine, but while I was able to get most of my body through, my head got a bit stuck.
"Almost there…ow!" I said as I pulled myself through, albeit with some pain on the right side of my head. Touching it, there was a bit of blood I could feel, but nothing to worry about. "Right, now which…" A fast flutter of footsteps sounded that faded quickly down the tunnel of which I could barely see.
"...I think it knows we escaped our prison cell..." I suddenly whispered very quietly and everything returned to a state of dead stillness and the sounds of my body became audible once more.
"...What did?" Serge said, dimming his flames as he shuddered slightly, obviously thinking it'd help hide us.
"I really wish I knew so we'd know if we'd be devoured by whatever it is that saw us or whether we could fight it...no point in standing here, the way out is surely ahead of us." I whispered quietly. Serge and I stood shoulder to shoulder as we slowly took the slowest and most cautious of steps forward into the unknown. Did whatever spotted us need light to 'see' or was it just as blind in the darkness as we were? Did it already know who we were and what we were capable of? My heart was already a hair's breath from going into overdrive, suddenly accelerating at the slightest unusual noise, including Serge's footsteps that were slightly off the expected rhythm. I assumed there was no one behind us, but even now I could envision the cave walls themselves having eyes, unknown entities watching our every move, and waiting.
"Was that...?" Serge whispered and pointed. I couldn't see whatever it was, but by now my eyes were so sensitive to movement that anything that moved that wasn't me or Serge sent spikes of fear into my brain. Serge shook his head and he lead me onwards as I irrationally checked behind me every few seconds, not caring that it'd be almost impossible for someone or something to be tailing us. From my shrouded vision, I could see the cave seemed to be opening up, and considering how many opening-up caves I've been in since I've become a snivy, it felt homely for a brief second. Serge suddenly shut off his flaming back and pulled me into the side of the tunnel, presumably to hide.
"What is it?" I flat-out mouthed at him, hoping he could read me from the movements of my mouth alone even through the trembling I was starting to do. I could now see there was more than one of those things as two pairs of moving dim blue lights were moving around. I guess they were communicating with one another as they made the strangest sounds that only resembled speech in the vaguest way. There was really no way to tell how close they were as their 'eyes' seemed to glow slightly on their own, and anything between fifty and a mere five meters would have been possible. As a guess, they seemed to be slightly bigger than us, presuming that they were indeed eyes, and that their eyes were near the top of their body and wasn't some ten foot tall monstrosity that looked like it was designed by Picasso on a bad trip.
"This way." Serge 'said' with no sound as we looked at the rocky ground beneath us, being sure to avoid stepping on or kicking any stone that could make a sound that would spell our doom as we kept to the cave wall as we entered what I guessed was a large chamber. Each step took great focus and under the stress of those things spotting us, suppressing the urge to panic and leg it was becoming extremely tempting. I honestly wanted to cry right there and then, and the overwhelming feeling that we might be spotted and have our lives snuffed out at any second forced me to cover my mouth to stop a whimper escaping my lungs.
"I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die..." I thought to myself, feeling as though I was about to heave up my heart and vomit it out. It was at that moment that a third set of pale blue lights came into view from the far side of my right eye, and I saw them stop and they slowly turned towards the other two entities to us. This was surely it now, we were seen. I decided to stay dead still; maybe it was just casually looking in our direction, not realising that we were there. Worse still, the chamber seemed to curve round by looking at the cave walls a meter ahead of us which would lead us closer to those things, so I seemed to be stumped. Yet I seemed to come across a solution as my eyes looked downwards without moving my head – those stones could be a good distraction, but could I move without being seen?
My eyes gazed over to those blue lights again and I could see the pair of them move back to the others. I only hoped that Serge would catch onto my plan. I picked up one of the stones very quietly and hurled it to roughly where I thought the entrance tunnel was to our cell. Once again, the stone seemed to take an oddly long time to hit something, but the sound as rock collided with rock still sounded, breaking the dead silence in the caves.
"Move." I mouthed at Serge, pointing him where he was to go as we kept our footsteps light in spite of our increased pace. The creatures were indeed tricked by the stone as they scampered very quickly over to the sound, making blood-chilling raspy screeches as they ran. As we pushed onwards we could just make out something to the right that only made me feel worse – a wooden structure with rope. It had to be a gallows for use on Serge and I, and I couldn't help but wonder briefly how the pokemon got such a similar idea for old execution methods to humans. I could still hear those things scampering in all directions behind us, and a way out of this giant room could not come sooner.
I was nudged by Serge who pulled me gently in what must be another corridor of rock as we left those creatures behind. By now our adrenaline-fuelled bodies almost caused us to flat out run through the underground, but our steps remained as light as the air, with only the slightest of noise. The scuffling behind us could be heard once more, but at the rate we were travelling at, we'd surely leave those things behind unless they decided to give proper chase. Then I stopped dead in my tracks. The most awful coarse breathing echoed very mildly in front of us as another pair of pale blue lights were seen again, and as much as I wanted to make a u-turn to not have to face this denizen of the darkness, I knew it'd be folly with those others somewhere behind us. I looked around frantically, maybe there was another corridor we could leg it down, and when I saw there wasn't, my legs trembled slightly as panic caused me to stop my quiet breathing and break into hyperventilation.
It suddenly shrieked so loudly it flat out caused physical pain in my head and suddenly charged right at us. I yelled in terror, and was initially too afraid to even think about fighting whatever this thing was, and it was only thanks to the bolder Serge who decided to shed light on the situation by breathing an intense jet of flames in the direction of the monster, seeing as how our cover was blown. I still couldn't quite make out what it was, but it seemed to be dark purple in colour and blended very well in the darkness, but it certainly wasn't immune to fire as it gave another one of those ear-splitting screams as it writhed in the flames.
"Run Floyd!" He said, running past the wailing creature as I followed, boldly attacking it along the way with my tail leaf. Incomprehensible chatter and fast footsteps behind us told me that the chase was on as we hurtled through the endless blackness, only cut occasionally by Serge lighting the way with the occasional burst of flames. It all looked the same, and the feeling of being surrounded slowly started creeping in as I banked on the feeling that they were all behind us. I put one arm in front of me, hoping that It'd stop me from crashing horrible into a wall. My vision became blurred when I felt blood pumping through my eyes, only seeing endless shadow and rock aside from Serge who was a few feet in front of me.
"Straight on!" I guessed, seeing a fork to the left. I heard behind us that we had not lost those entities that were pursuing us, only driving me to run even harder, outpacing Serge. Maybe there was light at the end of the other tunnel, but dismay hit me in the face when a blast of flames from Serge revealed that we had only encountered another grill door – a locked grill door.
"Shit shit shit!" I blurted in panic, but it seems like Serge thought of a solution I had in mind to this. Seeing that the door was slightly damaged at the hinges as if someone else tried to escape, Serge immediately begin to heat them up, much faster than the earlier instance. I could hear them fast approaching from behind so I weighed in all my strength to try and cut the hinge, but only succeeded in cutting them to a partial degree. I screamed loudly as I tried again and the hinge was broken with a loud clang. The other hinge was even more damaged and we managed to bring the door down, but those monsters were almost in sight now, many pairs of blue eyes and sets gleaming sharp teeth almost within striking distance. Was this an empty room? Would we be forced to get into a fight where we were outnumbered and out of our element? Or was this the way out to a free and open landscape? Then a voice sounded that was somewhat familiar, but highly disgusting to hear.
"Hrm?! Who is that?! ...Never mind, we're escaping!" Looking up at the man, I could see it was the scourge of existence itself, Grovyle. I would have sliced his legs and leave his fate to whatever those things wanted, but I was far too distracted with the creatures who were already upon us.
"Need help!" Serge yelled as he tried keeping them at bay with torrents of fire, but he was exhausting himself fast. Grovyle leaped right into action and was preparing another one of those balls of energy stuff in his hands. I couldn't get a clear shot at them at all, so I was left at the back, desperately waiting for a chance to zip right past the. The explosion caused by Grovyle, similar to the attack that maimed me, caused so much confusion among the hostility that I lost all sensibility and made a beeline for the fork in the corridor earlier. I soared over one of the creatures and I thought I escaped until I felt something cut me fairly deep from behind, leaving burning, searing pain on my body.
I cried out in agony, but my legs refused to let me fall as I hurtled down the dark passageway, hoping not to bump into another one of those things. The fighting behind continued, and a few seconds later, heavier footsteps could be heard, which I assumed were Grovyle and Serge following me. The incomprehensible natter behind sounded quite alien, but all was put at the back of my mind as I charged down the fork in the cavern. It needed to be a straight passage to the surface, it had to be! I could never stop unless I hit solid rock! The walls all looked the same, all watching, starting. I started begging for the light at the end of the tunnel, yet that light did not come, even as the tunnel opened up, leaving nothing but darkness on either side. Another chamber, or was it night time?
Looking behind me, I saw that Grovyle had caught up with me, and I did ponder about crippling him. It'd be easy and sudden, slicing at his legs, leaving those creatures to do whatever they were going to do with him. However, killing a human or pokemon is something is the ultimate crime in the eyes of Dialga, but does it count in this case? I wouldn't be killing them, those things would be, but memory did tell me that taking actions that you know would likely lead to someone's death is also forbidden. A shame really, I would like to hear his blood-chocked cries as Serge and I would flee into the night. Grovyle didn't even bat an eyelid at me as I saw Serge coming out of the tunnels, looking quite exhausted, not being as good a runner as I was let alone that accursed Grovyle.
"They'll not give up so easily, you should keep moving. I wonder why you two were wanted though?" Grovyle said, his voice alone reminding me of my religious duty to bring punishment to those who had done wrong. To my astonishment and disgust, Serge was actually following him! That fucking traitor!
"Woah, Serge, what are you doing?!" I said through clenched teeth in a low voice as I ran alongside him, hoping that he may be out of their vision range in this very dark night.
"He isn't trying to kill us, they are. It's the best option we have." He replied. To think he'd sell himself out this suddenly! I sincerely hoped that my best friend in this world would have better moral integrity than this!
"After Grovyle did the things he done, you're still following him?! Serge, I saw you fight your arse off just to defend me! I was touched, really! ...And then you do this. How opportunistic...where is your sense of decency?!" I said, spitting in disgust as I spoke.
"And what of your sense of foolishness? I know you like to be a noble moral crusader and fight evil, but you won't be alive to do that any more if you keep up that attitude." Serge said, breathing heavily, struggling to keep up with the fast pace. I found it hard to argue with what Serge said right now, but I'd think of something. I don't know why Grovyle wanted us to come, maybe it was way of thanking us for setting his horrible self free.
"Up here." Grovyle pointed and a dead tree could barely be seen several feet in front of us, which he climbed very quickly. There had to be another way, surely! Nevertheless, I couldn't think of anything, so I decided to follow him up, this very action making me physically ill. After helping Serge up with my vines, Grovyle gave a gesture to remain quiet. It was pure silence once again, though not quite of the purity when Serge and I woke up in the cell, but that silence was broken when we heard a familiar sound of footsteps. Clearly one of them had tracked us here, and I could already see its eyes looking up and down the tree. Grovyle very suddenly dive-bombed right into action as he leapt from the tree and silenced him so quickly I couldn't tell how he did it, or whether it was dead or not.
"Fortunately, these sableyes aren't too much of a threat when they're alone." Grovyle said, climbing back into the tree. Even if that were the case, they sure knew how to make me hurt as I gently touched the gash in my back, feeling some blood on my fingers.
"Huh, so they were just sableyes. Couldn't really tell, I guess that's not as bad as I thought." Serge said, remaining fairly composed.
"But with the home-field and environment advantage..." I muttered before Grovyle spoke.
"Sincerely, thank you for breaking me out, I'm not sure I couldn't have done it without your help."
"You think we done that on purpose?! We simply didn't know the way out! I'd have loved to let you rot there, even if it meant you were to be executed a few hours later!" I snapped back at him, still keeping my voice low.
"That's really too bad, we made a pretty good escape team." Grovyle said, sighing roughly. "Trust me, we'd be stronger together in the endless night until we get back home."
"Ooh, trying to use us to help protect yourself from the forces of justice, eh?! And the endless night, I knew it! Well, Grovyle, I hope your happy with what you've done! Look all around you! You did this! You literally ruined everything! The biggest enemy of Dialga! And I already know fine well that you're probably going to betray...no, you know what, I am sick of your presence, it's making me physically ill! The only reason why I haven't tried to kill you is because my lord and master forbids it. I probably can't even wound you because Serge will no doubt try to play peace-keeper! Well, I hope this horrible little creation of yours backfires and gets you killed! And to think I stopped this from happening too...right, I'm fucking off now – I'd rather die horribly than ever accept or give assistance to you! Even living with letting you free...hrmph!" I jumped down off the tree and started to storm off, trying to contain my desire to scream so loudly in anger that my vocal cords would risk being ruptured.
"...Dialga? Are you..." Grovyle sighed and jumped down. "Well, I'll be heading south. Both of you should go south as well if you want out."
"Then I'm going north! The further away from you, the better it'll be! Come, Serge!" I said as Serge sighed and climbed down from the tree with a degree of awkwardness. "It's a miracle I never freaked out and tried to slice your arm off Grovyle! You're coming with me, Serge! Don't you even think about crossing me!" I glared at Serge firmly.
"For your information, if you tried to attack me, I'd leave you in the state I left you back in Azelf's cave. Perhaps having the sableyes deal with you would slow them down for catching me and interrupting my mission." Grovyle said as Serge got between us, just in case another fight was about to break out. It was exactly what I expected, and the reality was, both Serge's efforts and my own combined were not enough to take down this monstrosity. "I wish you luck in surviving here, I'm off back to the past." And with that, he ran off so quickly that he was completely shrouded in darkness in less than a mere second.
"...Floyd, you do realise that was our potential guide in getting back home, right? Back to our time?" I looked at Serge with a slightly open mouth.
"You take me for an idiot?! Of course I knew! I just have the integrity not to use it! You seemed like you wanted to go with him though, even though he beat the fuck out of us both, and quite possibly committed the most reprehensible act that any living being has ever done! But I suppose you were just going to use him for your own ends, right? Makes sense mate, you're no stranger to that sort of thing!" It was at this point that Serge suddenly snapped. Clearly having enough of me, clearly too selfish and dense to see that I was right. He suddenly charged at me, throwing me roughly to the ground and pounced on me.
"Floyd! You will calm the fuck down! Oh, and before you start going on about this Dialga crap, open your mind to this: I don't care about Dialga, and if the so called 'Deity of Time' even allowed this catastrophe to happen, then he's a pretty shit deity! If you are so adamant in going north when Grovyle clearly said he was going south to go back to our time, then you're going alone!" Serge, his teeth looking so tightly clenched that they looked like they were about to burst right out of his mouth. He got off me slowly and stood upright. "...But I don't want to go alone. I don't know what's out there, and I could really use someone by my side. Please Floyd, don't be an idiot...I'm begging you – come south with me."
"...All right. We'll go south." I slowly got to my feet and stood beside Serge. "But I'm not going with Grovyle, if we find him, we'll make do with just tailing him instead. Also, don't talk like that about Dialga, that doesn't help anyone. It's just...seeing that bastard and this place...oh, let's get back home quickly before this future gets to us both! So...where exactly is south? I know Grovyle ran in that direction, but it didn't even seem like he knew where..." It was at that moment when I heard the same horrible slavering and erratic 'speech' from earlier. I guess hanging around only a short distance outside the dungeon was a really stupid idea.
"I guess we should run that way regardless!" I said as the hollow screeches sounded once more from almost all directions except the one we were running in. Their eyesight didn't seem to be fantastic in the dark, but still leagues better than ours, and while they didn't seem as threatening out in the open, it wasn't a fight I wanted to enter. Looking back for a brief second, the faintly glowing gem-eyes seemed to almost be swarming,. I had no idea whether there was just two or three of them, or a miniature army! Their twisted diction sounded like they were saying 'they're there' over and over and over. What did they even want from us?! Serge relit the flames on his back to give us a bit more vision in this dead night, showing a faint outline of our relentless pursuers and revealing even more assailants trying to cut us off from the right.
"Veer left!" Serge yelled as we did so, but given all the running we had done, exhaustion was starting to seep in as our bodies were starting to feel drained, but our will to survive remained even stronger. Could our attackers run forever? I had no idea, and seeing a sturdy tree that came into vision just a short distance away from us, I had an idea to try the tactic that failed when we were fleeing from the manectric pack. I'd make sure it'd work this time, I had to be strong!
"In front of me Serge!" Serge looked a little doubtful, but I'd make it work for sure this time. After I caught sight of a strong looking branch, I sent my vines up, held Serge from behind after he put out his fire and pulled up, focusing all my body strength into making sure we'd be up in that tree. If they tried to climb up, we'd have an easier job fending them off. The pain was staggering as I pulled as our feet became suspended in the air, but almost guaranteeing heavy shoulder injury was worth it to survive. Yet as hard as I tried, I simply couldn't keep a firm enough grip on Serge as he slipped through my grasp and landed some distance in front of me as I landed on the tree branch. Oh, what have I done...
Serge, seeing that there was no chance to get up the tree, was forced to continue fleeing. I would have leaped down and join him at his side, but it was already too late as I saw the sableyes running beneath me, some on two legs, others running on all fours. Did they see me escape in the tree, or did they think I fell in another direction? As much as it disgusted me to admit this to myself, I could not help Serge at all in my situation. I watched helplessly as I saw his body vanish into the night, leaving only the flames visible. I knew I wouldn't deserve forgiveness from Serge if he survived their attack, but given how I couldn't see any faintly glowing shapes left, maybe I could try to find Serge unhindered by those creatures.
I gently climbed down, remaining very silent, just in case one of them was waiting for me. The dead grass felt coarse on my feet, each step I took making a very faint crunching rustle. Peeling my eyes and tuning my ears, I could see nothing potentially hostile, not that I could see or hear much. I couldn't even see the moon or the stars in the sky, and only the faintest, dullest greys ever broke the pitch black. Being slow and careful might not be an option or I might lose Serge forever even if he did survive, so I had to make my way quickly over the lifeless fields that I soon found myself on. I slowly began to feel weaker and hungrier, being deprived of light, and I knew that unwavering determination would only take me so far. My body wasn't an eternal battery of energy after all, and in the distance, I saw Serge's flame go out, but I had faith that it wasn't him taking a dirt nap.
The mad rasping began to get fainter as I began to push through the thickening graveyard of a meadow, bristling noises becoming impossible to avoid as the dead turf almost reached up to my nose. Tracking their movements was almost impossible by now, and I just hoped that Serge hadn't changed direction. My eyes had further adjusted to the darkness, but all I could see by this point were several shades of grey, and the only thing I saw with any colour at all was fire. The footsteps I made seemed to come from all around me; I knew they were out there, stalking and waiting. Surely they wouldn't have given up on slaughtering me that easily, whatever the reason.
My breathing became heavier, no longer able to keep it quiet since my body felt like it was on my knees, begging me to do anything for more oxygen. I'd jump to try and get a better view of what was ahead, but I'd get an additional five to meters of vision at the absolute most. Eventually, I decided to stop for a ten second breather and get my bearings and think for a second what I could do about the situation when I caught up with them. Serge and I would be slaughtered trying to fight them all at once, so we'd surely have to try and lose them somehow. Wish I knew how, their stamina seemed endless!
I began pushing through once more, my steps sounding more erratic than ever. They were all my own footsteps, right? I ignored my building paranoia as I kept up a firm pace, hoping this dense field would make way for something else, given I haven't been able to see anything except dead grass for quite a while. I heard the same erratic pattern of footsteps again and it was then I stopped immediately and listened out. There! I heard something from behind and looked in that direction. I still couldn't see anything aside from thick grey lines endless black as if the whole field embodied a giant darkened zebra. The rustling stopped on the second I turned round, even though I tuned my ears right into it. It couldn't be the wind, the air was as static as it was back in the underground prison. I took a few steps backwards, hoping it was my imagination.
Eventually I turned around and ran right through once more, keeping my head down, as it pushed aside all obstacles. Both pairs of feet sounded again, and I simply couldn't take it any more – I had to give myself the peace of mind that nothing was there, or at least see exactly where and what it was. I hacked away, sending many sharp leaves in the direction where I thought my stalker was. A lot of the grass was cut, but I could see nothing except a very swift movement. I couldn't make it out, but I assumed it was a sableye. It only made sense that at least one of them would wait behind to try and get me. I had no idea where it exactly was now, but I was pretty sure it knew exactly where I was. I was sure I'd fall prey to a sneak attack from an unexpected angle if I stayed to try and take it on, and without Serge to light the area, it only made matters worse.
As I turned to run once more, a sudden rustle and a ghostly crackle sounded to my left, and I had to thank my instincts that I veered right as it suddenly landed, slashing the air in which I occupied a second ago. With what seemed to be with a claw, enlarged and darkened by the creature's power. It made a hollow, eerie swiping sound as it did and I wasn't sure if I'd still be standing if I was slashed by it. It didn't hesitate to strike again and followed up immediately, forcing me to dive to the right to avoid another incapacitating strike. It zipped out of sight once more, but not long after it did so, I suddenly heard a familiar scream some distance in front of me. Serge.
Sprinting towards the sound of my friend, I heard more screaming and jets of flames. Behind me, I could hear my assassin give chase, sounding like he was saying my name over and over whilst choking on its own saliva. The field gave way to trees as the grass thinned out and from here, I could now get a view of Serge who had clearly had enough of running and was trying to fight back. The streams of fire he shot revealed several sableyes, yet any details were still hard to make out, even with a couple of the trees set alight by his constant fiery assaults. It was clear it wasn't going to end well for the poor cyndaquil, but as I ran up to try and assist him, he seemed to explode in fire and even lava by the looks of things, similar to his tactic of trying to take out Grovyle.
The shorter grass and the tree carcasses near by stood no chance as they all started to erupted into flames, starting what surely would be an inferno. If the sableyes didn't get me, the smoke and fire would surely snuff out my life if I stayed here. Serge seemed to have cut them all off, as many of them tried to run round to get him. I would have called out Serge's name to get my attention but given how his pursuers would turn on me, it'd be the equivalent to signing my own death warrant. One of them screeched so loudly after being burnt horribly that it made me recoil for a moment in pain. At least with the forest ablaze, I could see the one attacking me far clearer, albeit through a red filter from all the flames. Now it no longer had the environment to his advantage.
"Assassinate this!" I said through gritted teeth while barely opening my mouth as I turned on my pursuer who leaped at me, trying to strike me again to which I responded with a heavy slash from my tail leaf. Both my tail blade and its enhanced claw clashed, causing us both to stagger slightly. I recovered the quickest, or so I thought as I went to slash at the sableye again, the wildfire reflecting brightly off his eyes, but then the unexpected happen. He seemed to sink into the ground in the form of a shadow, and quicker than I could react, the shadow very swiftly moved behind me and before I knew it, it covered my mouth from behind with one hand and stood firmly on my tail, causing panic to shoot through me, only amplified by that same crackling sound, and it was then that I knew what was to come next.
As soon as it tried to rake its shadowy claw across and into my throat, I managed to catch its arm in both of my hands. It moved its wrist, trying to reach my throat with its ghostly aura. It slowly entered my skin, causing a strange shuddering in my nerves that seemed to sap my strength, forcing me to lock my arms in position so it couldn't dig itself in. Yet the surrounding conflagration seemed to be just the thing my body needed as the leaves absorbed the light, giving me the strength to hold on, but I needed more energy to escape this potentially lethal hold on me. My oversized nose also came in handy, meaning it couldn't block my nostrils to suffocate me, but it was at this point I figured out how I could escape.
My arms glowed green as I began to absorb energy from the sableye into me, and the progress he was making to try and cut into my throat stopped dead and was soon reversing. The flames around me grew more intense but it didn't stop me as I was able to push the interloper off from me as it gasped for air with its choked-sound breath. It appeared far less hostile and threatening by now and it was too slow to get away a I cut it down with a heavy strike from both my leaves, causing it to fall to the ground in a state where it'd be unable to continue its pursuit. By now, all darkness was dispelled and I could see very little but fire and smoke by now, all other traces of life had vanished. The flames themselves seemed to be slowing down, crackling away at about half the speed that they should have by now. Seeing a possible exit, I dashed with my head down to try and avoid breathing too much smoke which by now caused everything to be a blur of red, orange and yellow.
The sound of crashing wood was happening more times than I could count as I feared that I too would collapse like the tree right next to me did, falling a few feet in front of me. I felt like a rat in a maze of death, and each turn would greet me with thicker and thicker flames, and I started fearing that trying to leap through the fire would be a choice I'd be forced to make. Could Serge's desperate actions be the end of me? I stumbled, the sheer heat making me dizzy as I struggled to get my bearings. I felt sick; I could throw up from this, but I had to keep going. I had no intentions of dying to the flames or any of the sableyes! Each possible way out lead to a dead end, yet each dead end lead to more possibilities. I soon discovered this when I had to double back and saw that the flames had died down somewhat on the dead grass, to which I soared over with mild pain and a horrible landing due to each and every part of my body feeling assaulted from all manner of injuries and illness.
Right then, another sableye pounced seemingly out of nowhere, jaws wide open, looking like it was going to bite my neck and puncture my throat, leaving me to die of too many causes to count by this point. I had no time to try to slash at it as I instinctively tried to swipe at it with my right hand, as useless as it'd be. Useless, however, is not the word I'd use though as it screeched as it was sent to the ground next to me, my hand feeling quite strange and darker in colour. How did that happen? I didn't question it as we both got to our feet, and I was ready to get this one out of the way too, until it was blasted by a torrent of flames to my left.
"Serge!" I said, coughing and gagging up some of my stomach contents, not that there was even much there. He turned to look at me, clearly not finding the heat as dangerous.
"Floyd!" He said and grabbed my arm. "I see a way out, we're almost safe now!" He said, briefly pulling me in the direction of refuge before letting me run. By now I could barely see any details, only running in the direction that looked the least orange. My body was begging to collapse, it had suffered more than enough today but my mind was more powerful as it ordered each and every muscle to pour everything it had into escaping. I felt like I was falling with each step, constantly stumbling as my eyes watered but shortly, the environment felt less red and felt less hot, as it made way to darkness once more, something I'd never thought I'd be glad to see.
I tried to speak, but my body kept trying to expunge my stomach contents, even though there wasn't anything in there any more. Not even a single word could escape without my shaken frame gagging. I merely looked at Serge, and even though he looked roughed up from the detail I could make out, he was still firm enough to support me.
"Floyd, I'm truly sorry, that was all my fault man! I almost got you killed there! My best friend killed! By me!" I'd never seen him look this guilty, this miserable. I looked back at the raging fire that Serge had started, lighting up the pitch-black sky somewhat, showing the shadows of unmoving clouds. It looked very slow now, and perhaps it would just stay there instead of going out. Who knew exactly how this horrible future worked! "I know that you disprove of forgiveness but...oh, it's not the time! Here, I'll get us to safety, I don't think they'll be following us any more, I'll keep you safe, I promise!"
It looked like he was crying a bit, but I was starting to feel better already. The smoke may have ravaged my throat a bit, but now that I was free of it, I felt as though I could recover. With no way to tell where to go, we set out in a straight line, ploughing through another empty field that didn't seem quite as dead as the last until we eventually reached a road at this point. The path was abandoned and empty, which although it's not something I usually liked, I was glad to experience being alone with Serge, without this future's inhabitants trying to kill us.
"Serge..." I said with a very hoarse voice. "...I need to to lie down...food...lot's of food...and water." Was all I managed to say.
"We'll get some, there has to be at least something out here we can eat or drink, else there'd be no life at all...we should find a fairy hidden spot though f we can, such as...hey, a wooden sign post!" Serge helped me over to it to have a look. He reignited his back to shine light on it, and it showed that we were heading in the wrong direction the whole time.
"So south is to the left of where we are...huh...oh! Treasure Town is five miles to the south! Must be en-route then. I knew Grovyle had no idea where south was and just needed to figure it out! Look, those may even be his footprints on the muddy side here!" He pointed as he lit it up, but I couldn't really tell. They could possibly be though, that's for sure.
"I can't...make it that far. Need..." Serge knew exactly what I needed though, but a hug probably wasn't one of them as he embraced me.
"Don't worry, I promise I'll find food and water and give it to you! ...I just want your forgiveness Floyd." With the forest still burning in the background, I began to wonder what we'd find in Treasure Town. Would it be a relief of a homecoming, or would it also be horribly tainted like the rest of this dead world we've seen? But whatever it was, it surely had to be better than this, and as much as I criticized the pokemon world, I was begging for life back at the guild. Oh dead future, I bid thee a most unfortunate welcome as I came across the cruel reality that I was not the grand hero of time I thought I was.