Chapter 23

"Uh…" We looked around and found that Ninetales and Sam and had just… Disappeared!

"Wha…!" Confusion over took me as I looked around frantically looking for any of them but they were all gone… Without a trace. I shivered with a kind of grievous anticipation. Suddenly the ground beneath us began to quake.

"Earthquake!" I shouted as Natascha dived into my arms. I clung onto her as the Earthquake got worse and worse until. 'CRASH!' The ground cracked and buckled underneath our feet revealing an odd purple-ish glow. Fear began to over take my thinking as the ground began to rise underneath our feet.

"Hold on!" I shouted as Natascha dug further into my chest. I began to run down the mound that had been formed underneath us until it exploded into smaller chunks of rock, unfortunately that wasn't enough for me to balance so I fell a couple of feet to the floor.

"Ow…" I groaned as I got up off my back, "You ok…?" I looking down at Natascha who slowly lifted her head and nodded. I watched as the rocks began to float outwards, revealing Elliot. We continued watching, awestruck as his eyes were bright pink and he was literally floating out of the ground.

Suddenly he moved his arms and the rocks were thrown aside, and thankfully not at us. He gracefully floated down to the ground that he hadn't torn up and looked straight into my eyes.

"Elliot…?" I said hoping to converse with him rather then get pummelled. But he didn't flinch, he looked totally cold, it was if he couldn't hear me at all.

"Elliot! I'm sorry!" I called out hoping to get his attention. Unfortunately it had no effect. Suddenly everything stopped, everything froze as if we were in a picture. Even I held my breath as silence ensued.

I felt a slight breeze begin to pick up, I looked wondrously at the 'magic breeze' until I realized something. It was going straight towards Elliot. I scrambled to my feet as the breeze quickly turned into a gale and picked up Natascha. I ran to the nearest tree and used that to keep me safe. The wind continued to worsen so I peeked round the tree and my jaw dropped.

"Oh… Crap…!" It was a full blown tornado! The tree began to creak as it waved too and fro due to the huge amount of wind being fromed.

"This isn't safe…" I said to my self. I dived behind another nearby tree and as I looked out I saw the tree slowly being ripped out of the ground. I looked back at the tornado which had quickly grown bigger and had gathered plenty of debris. I watched as one particular object began to emit a faint glow and began to circle faster round the tornado. Suddenly the tree that I was previously hiding behind flew out of the ground and was added to the tornado's mass of flying debris.

I looked back at the slightly purple item I was looking at before and it encircled once more before escaping the tornado's grasp and it was headed straight toward us.

I dived from behind the tree and watched the boulder completely devastate the tree we were hiding behind, which would have surely crushed us if we had stayed put.

"Natascha! I'm sorry!" I shouted as I still clenched her in my arms and backed away from the tornado slowly.

"I've been a jerk this whole time and you've always stuck by my side… But this time you can't…" I turned and practically threw her.

"Run Natascha… Run!" I shouted as the wind almost completely deafened us.

"No I will never leave you!" She protested. But she had to go. I couldn't live with myself if she got hurt because of me. Or worse.

"Natascha I love you... And that is why you must go… We've faced everything together because we are mates but… Now is different… I brought this upon myself and I alone must suffer the consequences!" I hoped she would understand now and it looked like she did but I could see that she was hurting.

"Go!" I ran towards her and picked her up only a few centimetres off the ground trying to get her going. Suddenly a small tree crashed into the ground just a few inches behind us. I then let go and she began sprinting off into the distance. I smiled at the knowledge that she would be safe and so I turned towards the nearing tornado. It was weird, the scene was solemn and almost calm for a few seconds. There were instances where the wind just died down enough to release a sort of calmness emanating from the swirling destruction.

"Ok… It's just you and me Elliot…" I said in almost a jokey manner as the wind began to increase again almost ripping the clothes from my body. I could see the outline of him and his eyes glowing radiantly. If he wasn't trying to kill me it would have actually seamed really cool. I began to charge electricity through my body as Elliot began expanding his tornado. Electricity now began to dance up my body and occasionally shoot down from my arms into the ground.

I looked back for a second, just to check if Natascha was there watching, thankfully she wasn't.

"Here we go..." I pumped myself up. I released a huge charge of electricity entered the tornado and for a split second it fizzled around the twisting mass, lighting up the internals and uncovering everything that had been caught in the monster's grasp. I gasped in awe as the tornado continued to grow and I began to feel my body begin to escape the ground.

"STOP!" Suddenly a huge jet of fire blazed across the field in between me and Elliot causing both of us to loose concentration. His tornado within a second almost completely dissipated, but Elliot continued using his psychic abilities to place the objects (Which was a huge amount considering how long the tornado had been going and how strong the tornado was) scattered around the area.

"Ninetales? Thank god you're ok!" I said breathing a sigh of relief.

"Yes I am... Elliot...? Darius...? By the way... WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING!" He shouted angrily. We both kind of scratched our necks in awkwardness.

"Well he attacked Sam!" Elliot accused me angrily.

"No... She attacked me remember! Anyway Natascha was the one who knocked Sam out..." I trailed off. Suddenly Ninetales looked around a couple of times and then asked,

"Where is Natascha anyway?" I looked around and everything was empty... The whole area was pretty flat so you could see right to the horizon...

"I don't know... I told her to run when Elliot went all tornado on us...?" He looked slightly concerned but I knew she was ok. To be honest I was more concerned about him, he was still covered in scars after our battle.

"I suppose we better go looking for her...?" Elliot suggested somewhat reluctantly.

"What about you look after your mate and I look for mine!" He just nodded and went back into the hole he created which is weirdly enough the same hole Ninetales was stood next to.

Ninetales looked at me with eager eyes which unnerved me slightly.

"That was a good battle..." he said with a slightly happier tone. I wasn't sure whether he meant the one I had with him, Sam or Elliot. They were all pretty hard.

"Come over here... This is something I've been meaning to show you..." He beckoned me over and faced the hole Elliot had created. I walked over and to my astonishment there was Sam sleeping peacefully. But what was more amazing is that she was in a room, with doors... Underground!

"What is this!" I said shocked at what I was seeing.

"An old bunker we found, it leads all the way back to the den... Good huh?" He said sounding impressed. I grinned and nodded.

"Well I better go find Natascha..." I said concerned. The more I thought about her being missing the more I worried about her.

"Go..." I began to walk in the direction of where I told her to run but paused for a second looking back as Ninetales walked back into the hole with the stones following, completely filling it in making it look as if there was never a hole there in the first place.

"Hm, Psy power huh...? Pretty powerful stuff" I murmured to myself knowing very well that I would have definitely lost that match with Elliot.

"Well there is a chance that..." I kept reconsidering in my mind about the battle between me and Elliot. Going over the events that had just unfolded and ended, what I could have done differently.

"Oh well, it's over now... What the...?" My mouth dropped as I spotted a small spot of blood on the dried out grass.

"No..." I looked over to see a small trail of blood headed over in the direction of the forest.

"Natascha!... Natascha!" I shouted as my walk turned into a run as I continued following the blood trail. I then began to here faint shouting in the distance.

"Hey kill it... Disgusting creatures!" My eyes widened as I quickly recognised who it was... The man from the café of the last town we visited... The one who didn't like us showing our Pokémon affection... Well love to put it more bluntly. I looked down at Natascha who was bleeding quite heavily with cuts and bruises all over her body.

"You!" The man said angrily... But I was way past him in anger... I was furious... and unfortunately for him... There was no one to stop me exacting a little revenge.

"What have you done?" I said darkly.

"People like you disgust me... And Pokémon like yours disgust me too, Get them!" He shouted as Pokémon began to appear behind bushes and trees.

"Humph..." I smirked as the began to close in on me. I stood over Natascha protectively ready for any one of them to attack. My veins were charged with adrenaline and electricity and whatever other hormones circulating my body. All I knew was I was ready.

"You know what to do..." The man said grievously. Suddenly a Houndoom jumped and opened its jaws but I was quicker, I quickly released a blast of electricity and the Houndoom was hurtling towards the man.

"Gr... Kill him!" The man said after dodging his falling Houndoom.

"Hah try it!" I laughed anxious to release my quickly building energy.

"Oh we're going to destroy you!" One of the Pokémon said, a Charizard I think. It almost startled me but I quickly remembered the whole being able to understand Pokémon thing.

"Come and get it..." I mocked as I waved my hands, which were now buzzing with electrical energy.