Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - SoF - Twist in Time

Chapter 21 - Captured

My head was spinning and my senses were dulled by pain when I slowly regained my consciousness again.

Becoming aware of my body, I felt that I was hanging in the air. Something that felt like a rope was tied around my hands and the tension I felt from my arms indicated that my body was held up by them.

As if the pain from my injuries wasn't enough, I now had to deal with an increasing soreness in my arms with every moment that passed.

My senses slowly came back to me, making me even more aware of the signals my body was sending.

I tried to open my eyes. A blurry image of my lower body and legs entered my vision. The ground underneath me wasn't far away... I was just high enough in the air, that my feet barely didn't touch the ground.

My hearing returned too, and I was able to hear muffled voices all around me. However, I wasn't able to understand a single word from them.

Trying to move my body only sent a wave of pain through my body, making me stop my attempts to free myself from the bindings around my hands.

The image of my body slowly became clearer. A few spots of ice were still covering my fur. The bruises and cuts from my previous fight were still visible. My body was covered with dust and red stains of blood. My pouches were nowhere to be seen and I couldn't feel my goggles around my neck.

I moved my eyes to my right and saw a tattered piece of cloth hanging down my upper arm at the edge of my vision.

'What happened? Ugh... Fuck... This hurts...'

A weak whimper escaped my mouth. The cut from Sunflora's Razor Leaf was beginning to hurt like it was on fire... My weight was pulling my body down, making me feel the tension in my upper and lower arms.

Struggling against the pain, I rose my head to find out where I was.

I was still inside of Crystal Cave. I could tell by the crystals which were growing out of the stone walls all around me. A huge opening was in front of me.

Some strange creatures caught my attention. Purple imp-like Pokemon were standing next to the entrance to whatever room I was in right now. Inspecting them further made me realize that they were Sableyes.

Two others of them were standing right next to me, watching the opening closely.

'Sableyes? Aren't they supposed to be Dusknoir's minions?'

The thought about Dusknoir made me remember what had happened.

'God dammit... I... I need to get out of here.'

Not trying to get noticed, I looked up above me. My hands were bound with a rope which was attached to a wooden beam above me. The beam was sticking out of a log that was rammed into the ground behind me.

While I was able to see what was behind me, I noticed that about twenty other Sableye were scattered across the room.

I realized what was going on here while I let my head sink down again.

'This... This is the ambush... When Grovyle shows up here, they are going to...'

My thought was interrupted when somebody came out from the opening.

Dusknoir was floating into the room, giving orders to the dark-types around him.

My hearing had completely recovered and I was finally able to hear what the Pokemon around me were saying.

"We need more of you by the entrance!" Dusknoir ordered, pointing at a group of Sableeye next to him.

He began to approached me.

I acted like I was still unconscious and closed my eyes.

"You two! Keep an eye on her..." Dusknoir's voice said in a strict tone.

"Yessir!" the two voices next to me replied.

"You know what to do when he shows up." the ghost-type added.

He was giving out another couple of orders to his other men. His voice moved away from me, so I opened my left eye to see what was going on.

About ten Sableye were covering the opening now. A few of them had crawled above the entrance clinging onto the wall above it.

'I need to do something... I...Ngh!'

Another quiet whimper escaped my mouth as the pain from my right upper arm was starting to become unbearable. I felt how a warm liquid ran down my arm. The wound must've opened up again.

'God dammit... This sucks...'

Gritting my teeth, I tried to stay silent.

Dusknoir's voice was coming closer again. The ghost-type was probably right next to me now.

"Okay! Everything is set up! Get ready!" he shouted into the room.

Then everyone went silent. All eyes were fixed on the rooms entrance.

I didn't know how much time really had passed after what felt like an hour of waiting. The struggle against the pain kept my mind busy all the time as it had intensified to an unignorable agony. Not able to really form a single clear thought, I could only try to bite through this torture.

I was beginning to hear footsteps, coming out of the entrance.

My eyes shot open.

The Pokemon all around me tensed up, ready to jump at anyone who might enter the room.

I immediately opened my mouth and screamed when I was able to recognize the shape in the shadow of the opening.

"RUN! IT'S A TRAP!" My voice echoed through the room.

The Sableyes next to me jumped to the sound of my voice and reacted immediately as my face made an unpleseant contact with a fist.

In my dazed state, I wasn't even able to resist against the hands which were tying something around my mouth.

The punch was harder than I expected as the edge's of my vision became black.

Only able to see blurry dots, I watched a green one become covered by purple one's.

I heard the sound from a fight and the green dot became visible again.

"Surrender, Grovyle! Or do you want to get your partner killed?" Dusknoir's voice yelled. Just when he said those words, I began to feel something sharp touch my throat. Probably a claw from one of the Sableye.

The fight ended and I was able to see clearly again.

Grovyle was standing in front of the opening, looking at me with a shocked look on his face. His leaves were extended and a couple of unconscious Sableye were laying around him.

I wanted to scream and tell him to leave me behind, however the muzzle around my snout made me only able to blurt out unclear grunts.

Another group of Sableye was surrounding him.

His eyes focused on Dusknoir, who was slowly floating towards him.

"Do you think you can get out of this? First of all, you would have to deal with the fact that we would kill your partner, should you decided to make another move." the ghost-type said with a confident voice. "Secondly, you would have to fight your way through about thirty Sableye and me, the only Pokemon you never managed to defeat before."

Grovyle grit his teeth and looked at me again. His inner conflict must've been at its climax right now as his whole body was shaking.

"So... What is your choice?" Dusknoir asked with an evil chuckle at the end.

...

My friend let his head sink towards the ground and pulled his leaves back in, cursing under his breath while he did so.

He let out a deep sigh.

"I'm sorry, Riley." the grass-type said before the Pokemon around him began to beat him up.

Ripping his backpack from his back, the dark-types sliced at him with their claws.

One of them carried the backpack to Dusknoir while the others continued to attack Grovyle.

The Sableye stopped and a beaten Grovyle was revealed underneath them. Two of them tied his arms together behind his back while another one attached a muzzle around his mouth.

Dusknoir floated up to the defeated grass-type, already holding a Time Gear in his hand, which he pulled out from Grovyle's bag.

An evil laugh left his mouth before the ghost-type gave out his next order. "Knock them out and take them to the prison-cart."

At the exact moment he ended his sentence, I felt something hard, hit the back of head.

My head hurt like it was about to explode when I woke up again. I was laying on my right side what made me forcefully remember the open wound on my upper arm again.

I opened my eyes and found myself inside of a metal room. The room was shaking constantly, making my head hurt even worse.

Trying to move only made me realize that my hands were now bound together behind my back and that the muzzle from before was still on around my snout.

'Where... Where am I?'

Another tremble went across the room.

'Ugh... Right... Dusknoir said something about a cart.'

With a grunt of pain, I managed to bring my body up into a sitting position and leaned against the wall behind me.

A metal door with a small window with steel bars was at the other side of the carriage.

To my right was Grovyle who seemed to slowly wake up too. The grass-type was moving and grunted when he noticed the bindings around his hands and snout.

His body was covered with cuts and bruises. The Sableye beat him up really good. His face was swollen and the green scales on his body have become a brownish color due to the dirt and dust that covered his skin.

His eyes opened and it took him a while to orientate himself. The grass-type sat up too and leaned himself against the same wall as I did.

I looked into his golden eyes, giving him a questioning look.

Something was off... The thing, I admired the most on him, was missing. The look that told you that everything would turn out good was gone and replaced by a look that mimicked my own.

I tried to say something... The "words" that left my mouth were not understandable.

The grass-type responded by shaking his head.

Breaking eye-contact, I let my head sink towards the ground.

'God dammit... I'm not even able to tell him now...'

...

I took another quick glance at Grovyle. His was hanging down as well.

'What are they going to do with us?... Kill us? Lock us away?... Ugh... There is nobody that could help us... Riley... Ozu... The guild... They must hate me now... I... I've lost everything...'

Another tremble went across the room, which made me bump closer to the grass-type next to me. The wound on my arm crashed against his upper arm and another wave of pain shot through my body.

As if the pain alone wasn't enough, I had my mind crowded with thoughts of doubt and loss.

A desire to do something I really hated, was beginning to slowly well up inside of me as tears were starting to form in my eyes.

The anger that always came with them got turned into even more desperation very quickly. There was nobody I could project it at, other than myself.

'Don't cry... Not... Not in front of him...'

That last thought flew through my head before another signal of pain finally broke my resistance.

With a loud whimper, I let go and the tears began to flow out of my eyes.

I closed my eyes and let my head sink down... I felt how the warm drops my tears fell on my lower body.

The muzzle on my mouth kept me from sobbing loudly and all that came out were grunts and whimpers.

Another tremble pushed me against Grovyle. I didn't want him to see me like this, but my mind decided to look up to his face.

The image was blurry but I was able to see a look on his face, that I had never seen before. A look that said something like, "I understand your pain." The grass-type slid closer to me and looked at his shoulder as if he tried to indicate me to cry everything out there.

I did just that and leaned my head against Grovyle, not caring about how close our bodies were nudged together.

For probably an hour I was sitting there, leaning against him and crying out my depressions.

...

My body was still pushed against his, when the tears on my eyes had dried down again. At the back of my head, I had a thought of how this might have looked like but I didn't care.

I just wanted somebody to be near me... Somebody to share my pain with...

...

After a while, it felt like as if the carriage had stopped. We heard voices from outside... A lot of voices...

When the iron-door in front of us opened, I knew where they were coming from.

Behind the silhouette of a Sableye, I was able to see the main square of Treasure Town. A huge crowd of Pokemon was gathered all around it.

"Come on! Get out!" the dark-type ordered.

I looked at Grovyle, who was already getting up.

I tried to lift up my aching body, and after a short struggle, I managed to get onto my shaky legs.

We walked closer to the exit of our metal prison and when I was right in front of the Sableye, he grabbed me and pulled me out of the carriage.

The dark-type pushed me to two other Sableye, who put me between them and grabbed me on my upper arm.

I looked around myself.

The huge crowd of Pokemon was looking down at me and a lot of mumbling and straight up insults towards me could be heard from them.

The metal-carriage behind me had a Tauros attached to it. Another group of Sableye was untying the ropes the normal-type used to pull the cart.

The Sableye from before pulled out Grovyle and pushed him against two other dark-types, who grabbed the grass-type like the other ones did with me.

My view went back in front of me. The crowd was building a circle around Dusknoir, who had something like a portal next to him.

The Sableye pushed me forward... I heard more insult from the crowd...

Letting my head sink towards the ground, I tried to evade the looks of hate and disgust everyone was giving me.

When we were almost at the circle around Dusknoir, I noticed something strange... A familiar dizzy feeling entered my head and my vision became blurry...

I knew what made me feel like this but how it could happen right now was a mystery to me... Maybe Dusknoir still had the Time Gears with him.

We entered the circle and I let out a mental gasp, when I noticed who was standing a couple of feet away from the ghost-type.

My friends and the rest of the guild members... They were covered in bandages and gave me similar looks to the rest of the crowd.

I didn't even dare to look at Riley... Letting my head sink down again, I tried to evade their hateful looks.

The Sableye brought me next to Dusknoir and the portal... The dizzy feeling became worse with every second.

When Grovyle and his captors were in position too, Dusknoir floated forward and got everyone's attention.

"I can proudly announce that we managed to capture the timegear-thief Grovyle and his accomplice!" the ghost-type said with a loud voice.

The crowd responded with cheers and mumbles.

"We will bring them back to our time and give them their proper punishment, based on the heaviness of their crimes!" he continued.

Dusknoir then looked at the Sableye who were holding me, indicating them to push me through the portal.

I tried to resist but in my current state there was nothing I could.

The dark-types dragged me in front of the portal which I assumed to lead into the future.

My vision was completely blurry now and the dizzy feeling made it hard for me to keep on standing.

"Do it." Dusknoir's voice ordered.

The Sableye pushed me up by my arms, what made a grunt of pain escape my mouth and threw me into the portal.

As soon as I touched the passageway to another time, everything began to spin and a strange sensation ran over my body. My left arm felt like it was on fire and overall I just felt like I'm being ripped apart.

The pain and spinning faded and I felt how my face made an uncomfortable contact with the ground.

Rolling onto my belly, I felt how the bindings on me were suddenly gone.

I opened my eyes and was greeted with the blurry image a stone floor.

Above it was a blue portal...

I was able to see underneath the portal and noticed a group of Pokemon who's eyes were focused on the portal in front of me. The rest of the scenery looked exactly like the main square of Treasure Town.

Nobody seemed to take any notice of me as a couple of bushes were occupying the view behind the portal.

'What the... I... I'm still here...'

At the left corner of my vision, I was able to see a black paw with something like a spike sticking out of it. I didn't know if it was mine or not... My whole body was aching and my head was spinning.

At the right corner, I was able to see a Grovyle that was dragged towards the portal in front of me by two Sableye.

I tried to move and do something but my muscles didn't respond to any of my orders.

My hearing was muffled but I managed to hear another order from Dusknoir.

The grass-type was thrown into the portal and unlike me, disappeared when he went through it.

'What is happening?'

The dizziness became worse and I felt myself losing conciousness.

Something touched my sides all of a sudden... Something or somebody was picking me up from the floor.

The last things I was able to see, before everything went black, was the image of a blue tail and two black, dog-like feet.

End of Chapter - 21

...

Mind blown?

Haha, another twist! I love it!