Chapter 24: Choices

He was warm all over. The warmth was liquid and swirling, encompassing him completely in this sizeable space. His eyes were closed, but he knew exactly what was surrounding him.

It was whatever he wanted it to be.

But he didn't care to see. He was just content to rest. Mina hadn't needed him yet, and worrying his tail off wasn't going to solve anything, so he surrendered to waiting and decided to cop a nap.

What else was there to do inside a pokeball?

His ears pricked all of a sudden. It wasn't a noise that startled him though; it was a feeling, more like. Though he knew that if he opened his eyes, nothing would still be there. Actually not nothing, but whatever he wanted it to be, which wouldn't provide any help in this situation. The workings of his ball wouldn't aid him in anything pertaining to the real world; maybe that was why a Pokémon could lose touch with the real world if they spent all their time cooped up in their ball. They could just build their own ideal worlds within their balls, and nothing in the real world would matter to them anymore. Even if their trainer abused them, they would never really notice because their real world was in here.

Eevee smiled to himself; if only he worked like that. He knew exactly what his ball would show if he opened his eyes. It'd be absolutely nothing, probably not even a color; it would show him his worse fear. Nothing more, nothing less. Even if he focused all his energy into just creating the simplest of objects, his mind always refused and refluxed the emptiness back into him. The thing about pokeballs was that the 'ideal' environment for a Pokémon wasn't just created the moment the Pokémon was caught or sealed inside; the ball's occupier had to fill the space itself. This could prove a problem to the more slower-witted varieties, but it shouldn't have posed a problem for Eevee, who thought of himself was a simple, basic-is-best sort of Pokémon; and yet, his mind did not work well enough to supply him with anything other than a place to sleep.

So, sleep it more often than not was his pastime.

But now… it was different. Eevee longed to open his eyes. The 'feeling' was there again, but it didn't feel like anything he had ever experienced before. Being summoned from his ball was like having a fishing hook caught in your navel; you were swung around widely into tight turns and then you surfaced and reformed on the other side; trying to form things with your mind into your habitat was like plunging your head into warm water, you felt melty for a second and then you adjusted and felt normal again.

This… was… strange, unlike any of those feelings at all. Yes, the pull to come out was there, but he knew he wasn't being summoned by Mina.

The 'feeling' had strung its way into his body now, and it was almost like it was trying to reach deep inside him, searching, searching for something. Searching for a lost memory, or feeling, or anything that could be connected to this feeling. Eevee wasn't apprehensive about the feeling's invasiveness at all though; he was genuinely interested why he was being so thoroughly searched.

But then he found it.

A single strand of green was all that was in his mind now. He hadn't thought it up himself, it had just appeared. And now it was trailing out of him now, stretching into the fathomless reaches of his ball. He still longed to open his eyes, but just not yet, he told himself. He tried to get a sense of the feeling, his turn to search for any connection he had with it. The green strand gave nothing away with thoughts though, it was all through sensations. He felt tingles all over, like his cells were coming alive and trying to remember how to work properly.

Eevee's eyes sprung open, but it was not nothingness that met his amber eyes. The green strand was trailing off into the black reaches of his ball, and even seemed to go fartherthan that. It was forming a path! Eevee thought startled to himself.

Stairs… I must walk up them… he was being drawn along the path, his paws shimmering as they touched down over and over on the glinting green path as he followed its trail wherever it has leading him. The strand swirled and shimmered along with him as he broke into a run up the green path; it felt strangely alive, like the very essence of every living thing that ever was was guiding him up into the upper reaches of his ball; it all felt so verdant.

There's a wall up there…? He thought breathless to himself, still running up the stairs. This was-!

CHPOP!

He broke though the white barrier and was momentarily blinded by something silvery. Eevee was forced to shut his eyes at the strain of it, squishing up his face and grinding his teeth together. As he collapsed to the ground in shock, a soft whisper of grass brushed past his toes, and he could smell the scents of hundreds of Pokémon and plants around him, and the wispy hint of someone in particular dominated his senses. He shivered slightly.

Don't… open… just yet… he begged his eyes. He was still afraid. This had never happened before. He wasn't ready yet.

"Eevee?" A smell suddenly asked.

Erm…no…!

"Eevee! What the hell…? Did I do that?" The smell was confused now; he could sense it. But under that, the scent of something much more dark was looming underneath; rotting, festering, and overloading his sense of smell with its abrasiveness.

He had no choice. He opened his eyes.

The moonlight that greeted him was just as abrasive as the scent of his trainer's dark aura, but with all of his senses restored, both dulled to a reasonable level and he could function just fine. The grass and dust continued to lick at his feet, momentarily drawing his attention to the world around him rather than the trailing green strand, wherever it had disappeared to.

They were in a field surrounded on all sides by thick undergrowth, the temperate rainforest plants making up the Pinwheel Forest brushing against one another in a symphony of things lush and bright and alive in the moonlight. The ground was soft and fertile, curling under his paws with a delightful squish; it reminded him of the time he dug up Mina's uncle's garden because he knew the carrots were ready to be harvested. Eevee liked carrots; he was the only one of his brothers that did. Mike had been mad at him at first, but forgave him when he told him that he was only trying to help; Mike was very compassionate like that. Eevee liked that; it was a respectable quality.

Momentarily lost in him memories, he didn't notice Mina coming up to him and running a hand down the length of his back. His butt hitched up instinctively as she scratched the base of his tail at the lower part of his back, tail flicking straight up and wiggling happily. He blinked for a moment before turning back to his trainer and meeting her befuddled blue gaze.

She cracked a crooked smile, running her hand down the rest of his tail before settling her arms on the knee she was kneeling on. "Eevee…? Did you do that… yourself?" she asked crunching her eyebrows over her gleaming dark blue eyes; they seemed even darker than normal, her face turned away from the moon. Unfamiliar scratches and bruises were all dark purple in the shadows and ran up and down her arms, decorating her entire being; most of which were not bandaged and still lightly seeping. It was all he could do to blink and try to comprehend this situation.

It all had come back to him; the green strand. He had followed it up through his ball and miraculously had been able to break the seal that held him inside by himself. He closed his eyes all of a sudden, daring to plunge himself into the nothingness that was his mind in search for the strand. His vision gone, all the other senses took over again, the rustling of the trees and leaves around him crescendoing to a fever pitch; his nose twitched longingly, picking up everything it could in an effort to restore his environment to his mind now that his sight had been turned off; but his sense of touch had overridden every other sensation, drowning them out until they were just nondescript hums in the background. The grass under his paws seemed to grow closer to him with every passing second, their roots trying to seep into him, but for why, he was uncertain.

But he wasn't scared anymore.

The green thread was back. It was still there.

He felt his paws moving forward, dragging him into a 180 turn and pulling him forward. He still didn't open his eyes. He didn't want this to fade until he was undoubtedly sure of what it was. He would contend with the uncertainty of the unknown until then.

"Yo… Eevee?" A voiced echoed in the background; his trainer had become nothing but a scent again, something familiarly scented, but also something so unfamiliar it was something all its own; his senses dulled into the darkness and then disappeared completely, only faint hints of Mina remaining. Still he continued forward, the magically pull he was experiencing almost tangible, it was so strong.

He knew he was being drawn towards something; that living, tingly feeling was looming everywhere. The cells in his paws closest to the ground were going haywire, each step making them even more alive. Every atom in his body was bouncing rapidly in place now, and he couldn't stop it. Just like the green strand, it was familiar to him, like his body knew what it was doing but couldn't remember exactly what. The green strand held the answer; it beckoned him closer, growing shorter with each step until it diminished completely into the fabric of space and Eevee was forced to open his unknowing eyes again.

It was a rock. A big, green covered rock. It was covered in healthy, verdant moss from the very base all the way up to the top, the moss changing colors several times as it climbed up the monumental thing. Emerald green moss clung close to the base; asparagus hued moss covered the majority of it, circling it from the fringes of the emerald colored lichens all the way up to the crown of olive drab moss forming a cap at its peak. The whole seemed to amplify every bit of natural energy around it, giving it a green glow. At least, that's what Eevee saw.

"What the hell? It's just a friggin' rock…" Mina mumbled from several feet away. She hadn't followed him closer and seemed to be keeping her distance from the green rock; Eevee wasn't surprised for some reason.

Up close, the magical pull of the rock was almost too much to deny. His body was in an absolute frenzy, every cell, molecule, and hair in him bouncing rapidly like boiling water. The energy flowed through him as powerful as a river, trying to make him succumb to its green power; all he needed was to touch it, and the river would flow into him. But was this right?

Eevee squinted at it; his body seemed to know what was going on, but he sure didn't. The sensation was familiar… but… it wasn't right. He didn't want it. The feelings were allthere, but they just didn't belong.

His paw was hovering over a crack on the rock's mossy surface, toes centimeters away from touching the moss coating. He had been reaching out, he realized, completely lost in the pull of this strange object and not even noticing the act he was about to commit. His pulse was quick, his body aching and heaving, desperate for the change; could he deny the natural instincts of being a Pokémon? He sweated the question.

"Eevee-?"

He sniffed; his whole being was still going nuts, swarming and swirling within itself like it was desperately trying to erode itself away so it could be reformed anew. But it just wasn't right; the puzzle piece fit, but it was the wrong puzzle. Eevee drew his paw away. The power diminished immediately, not even fading away, being blow away like a stiff breeze had come and it uplifted it away from him, smacking its wrist and chastising it for being so forward. Eevee could breathe in relief again.

"Eevee?" the voice and accompanying scent was right next to him now. His chin was lifted up and backwards, so he was bending over and looking right into Mina's eyes. The scruffy fur on his head mixed with her own dark hair and seemed to disappear into his fur, and they were one being conjoined at the hair. "Hey, are you ok? That was a little freaky right there…"

Eevee blinked at her, realizing how close their faces were; he could smell her even better now, but the darkness that was lingering before was gone. She smelled differently now; more gentle, something like care. She was smiling, but he knew she was a little set aback by the situation, and that smiled was only the surface of what she was feeling underneath: startled, a bit nervous, but foremost and upmost, hurting. He didn't know if it was his fault, but he wanted to right it anyway.

His tongue flicked out and he gently licked her on the nose, earning a squeak and minor recoil from her and a little snicker from the back of his throat. Mina thumped him gently on the nose, giving him a half-closed eyed smirk and picking herself up from the ground.

"I'll take that as a yes, ya little mutt." She grinned, tickling him behind his ears with affection; she was teasing him, but she did seem a little more at ease.

"Yes. I am fine."

"Hmph…"

"I'm okay too, thank you all for worrying so much." Another familiar scent approached and spoke, slithering through the grasses with a very amused, red look on his face. Thorn came right up to them, puckering his mouth at Mina and casting a neutral glance at Eevee.

"Short stuff; what goes on?" Thorn asked with a mild smile.

Eevee shrugged, giving his friend an earnest grin in return. "I'm alright. But you're not that much taller than me." He sniffed at the Servine. Thorn had evolved; he noticed. Thorn now stood at least an astute foot taller than he was, but his hands shrunken in the process and the result was comical. Eevee resolved to make sure to tease Thorn about it; no doubt Thorn would have his own arsenal of witty comebacks to defend with, which was part of what made him so much fun. Eevee liked being friends with him; just like he enjoyed carrots. People were put off by lots of the things he liked, but he liked them regardless of what others thought. Just like he liked Mina despite her flaws; he liked everything about both her and her quirky Servine. He just liked everything.

Eevee was that one piece, that one fragment of the full picture, that could literally fit anywhere. He got along with most everybody, liked just about everything about just about everybody; he could fit into all kinds of families and situations with no trouble at all; he could always find the good in everything.

But something about this peculiar duo unit made him want to try even harder; to find everything out about them, both good and bad, and take it for all it was forth. But it wasn't an obligation, it was a choice; they were all puzzle pieces, floating about until they found something to latch on to. Sometimes the pieces were part of the same picture; sometimes not. They were on the latter category: all different pieces of pictures that somehow found a way to fit together, and Eevee had latched on just like he had with so many others before; he was the worn, connecting piece that was all spaces, that somehow on every angle, someone could attach to him and make themselves whole. Now it was the opposite. He was the one connecting to someone, finding his turn to be complete. He liked the challenge. He just liked everything.

"Woa… we gotta go, chillin's. We're down to eight minutes 'fore TP bails…" Mina interrupted his thoughts, casting a glance down at her two Pokémon. "So, reunion over, let's skedaddle…"

Eevee nodded dutifully, Thorn giving a shrug. Together, the trio traipsed off into the trees, leaving the rock and its mysterious powers behind.

A piece that didn't quite fit; but not a completely worthless piece at all.

OOOOOOOOO

The threesome continued their trek through the forest.

Thorn had taken the lead, nose twitching nonstop as he tried to scout out the grunts they were looking for; Mina filled Eevee in as they walked, taking carful time to adequately express her extreme dislike of the bushy-haired one named Burgh and the episode with the grunt. Thorn would interject his own two cents in from time to time, earning sharp glares from their trainer, which he shrugged off without a care.

"And then the ranger was like 'These are not the grunts you a looking for' and then at first I was like… and then I was like, and then Mina went all like… 'AAAAAAAAH' and I then I was like-"

"Thorn that didn't happen." Mina cut him off gruffly.

Thorn hardly bristled at the comment. "You weren't there. You wouldn't knooooooooow."

Mina's eye twitched, which had Eevee first panicking that she had something in her eye but then realized with somewhat relief that it was an involuntary reaction to Thorn's snark. He did have that ability to rub her up the wrong way… Eevee mused moodily to himself.

"Well I do know you ripped a bug off my side and waved it around like a showgirl's fan, weed. You of all things should know not to pull shit like that."

"Well perhaps I'm not that inclined to pay attention to you every second of the day."

"Well perhaps you're just not as smart as you make yourself out to be."

"And well perhaps that is the truth."

"Indeed."

"Fine by me."

"Like I care."

"You will not get the last word in this argument."

"If I put you in your ball, I will."

"Indeed."

"Fine by me."

"Like I care."

"But I do."

They both shot burning glances at each other before turning roughly away and glaring in opposite directions; Thorn focused on the front, Mina turned all the way around and started walking backwards. It was an effective way to kill the conversation.

Eevee padded silently along with Thorn, glancing over his shoulder every few seconds to look at Mina's back. She just kept swaying on, speed-walking in reverse like someone had hit the rewind button on the real-life remote control. Thorn was just as chill, creeping along with a bit of a limp to jar his efforts, though he was well composed. Eevee was forced in between the turned stalwarts, the awkward middle to this strange sandwich. A connecting piece between two rather rash and prideful hotheads.

Eevee longed to take a pause and knead at his temples with his paws; their fights always left him stressed out, but there was an all-new war waging right now. This had been brooding for a long time, there was no doubt. Whereas he had been just contently musing about the happiness he found in this dysfunctional family, Eevee was now groaning inwardly about the sheer stupidity this family also possessed; and Eevee did not like to use that word. But, there really was no other way to describe it. It was all just stupid.

He sniffed; the uneasiness was so thick it even pervaded the air around them. The stench made his ears flatten and his heart beat numbly. He may fear nothingness, but fighting and frigid temperaments were also up there in the in the 'Do Not Like' category, a list that was remarkably short. This made him unhappy; but he was the peacemaker betwixt the two fools, as it had been proven in the past, and so it was his duty to fix them.

But this job of sorts was something else, in fact, that he also liked.

"Bum bum."

Two heads snapped up; one with a narrowed-eyed red gaze, and then other with a sputter as she tripped over another rock. Eevee quieted at this exact second, letting to two look around bewilderedly as he glanced casually at a drifting Cottonee overhead. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched the two glancing confused between the three of them, Mina snorting and turning away, walking forwards this time, and Thorn hurling a glob of spit at the ground before continuing. Eevee suppressed a giggle and puckered his lips again.

"Bum bum,"

Mina and Thorn's heads were up again and glancing wildly from side to side. Eevee grinned to himself, watching the two's momentarily befuddled glances before they sunk back into their sour frowns with pride. This wasn't the way the commercial had gone originally, but if he could get them to sing along, he wouldn't have to start a rendition of "I'm a ninja, I'm a horny ninja" which when he originally saw it with Mina's uncle, he asked what 'horny' meant, and Mike had gone deathly silent with the strangest of looks on his face. He still didn't know what horny meant, but it must have been funny to warrant such a comical response.

"Bum,"

Mina twitched. Thorn just shuttered. Neither of them moved.

"Bum,"

Both heads flew out to the shadows of the forest surrounding them. No one looked down; no one suspected it was him. He smiled again.

"Bum,"

The silence settled.

"Bum,"

Thorn sniffed. Eevee made sure to draw this pause out for a good minute and a half.

"Bum bum. Ay ay ay-"

Thorn literally jumped up about a foot in the air this time; he flew into the air, face contorted in a half-psychotic screech as he was in free fall for all of two nanoseconds before suddenly lashing out at a large rock a few feet over with a vine and making it explode in a shower of rocky bits. The rock bits scattered everywhere, Eevee taking a pause to shield his face from them as they descended to the ground. When he looked up again, Thorn was still looking kinda insane, a weird wiggly, open-mouthed grin on his face as he turned, his head swiveling to turn his entire body. He staggered on.

"It was that rock… yeah, it was the rock…." Thorn echoed to himself, not looking back.

Eevee was panicking a bit inside; there was no rock smashing in the commercial; they had been in a car. And everyone was joining in. Maybe I should make car noises… he fuddled his brow and focused hard. He summoned a coughing noise from the back of his throat in an effort to sound like an engine, followed by the whine of a turning wheel and the screech of breaks.

This was getting extremely awkward.

"Shrshr," Eevee took a moment from car noises to cough up the next part of the song, imitating the slushie cup one of the kids had been shaking. It sounded more like a sputtering vacuum cleaner than anything, and he was losing his breath.

"Brooo-oo-oo-oo-"

"What on Arceus's green earth is that?!" a voice exploded from a nearby bush, startling everyone this time. Eevee covered his mouth so suddenly, he got a paw-full of dirt smushed into his mouth as well, which he had to hold back from sputtering back out. Mina froze in her tracks, one leg still up in the air, teetering on one foot as she tried to stay absolutely still. Thorn froze as well, his dark eyes sweeping slowly over to the direction of the voice.

Before Eevee could start to panic, which he was doing on the inside, Mina has swooped them all up, depositing them all in a large fern and peeping a head over the top of it as she glanced out to see who appeared. Eevee rubbed his cheek with a paw, grimacing at the scratch he had gotten on his cheek from landing on Thorn's back upon being dumped in the plant. The sharp leaves on his back hadn't cut him deep, but it still stung; Eevee failed attempt to make them feel better ending in a conundrum stung more though.

"Owie…"

"I got cut up by a sword-you have no right to bitch."

"Team Plasma…"

The two words uttered from their trainer's mouth sobered them both instantly. Thorn wormed his way from under Eevee's bum and stuck his face in the fern, only so that his pointed nose was all that was visible of him. Eevee peered around Mina's legs; nose twitching as he tried to figure out what was going on.

The Team Plasma member was wearing the exact same costume the others had been wearing that day back at Wellspring Cave where Eevee had first encountered them, only this time, the grunt appeared to be alone. He was moving cautiously along the gravel path the three of them had been treading on only moments ago, eyes sweeping back and forth scanning the area. This grunt had his helmet off, and the hood to his chainmail resting on his shoulders, and he seemed to be a little off-guard. Eevee studied him carefully; he looked to be about eighteen or nineteen, had black hair that was mostly straight until it curled inward slightly at the ends, and fell to his mid-neck; the boy had dull brown eyes, and other than that, didn't seem to out of the ordinary. Eevee sniffed the air a bit, trying to recognize the boy.

He's not from Wellspring Cave- Eevee reached the conclusion. He breathed a sigh of relief; the grunts from the cave had seemed extremely hostile, pulling their swords on teenagers and Pokémon. The fact that this boy wasn't part of that incident gave some hope to Eevee for some reason; maybe there wouldn't been any need for violence-or tying up- this time.

"Hh…hurk!"

"Whaa-!"

The attack was swift; Mina had been in the bush one second, the next she was kicking the grunt in the back and barreling him over. They handed on the ground with a mutualoof! sending rocks scattering and making Eevee cringe.

Thorn popped up from the bush, skirting over to Mina's side without a look back. Eevee frowned as he felt the hairs on his back spike up a good inch; this was going to end badly for the grunt-he could just feel it. Still, he dashed out of the brush and sat at Mina's side as she picked herself up off the ground and flipped the grunt over so that she could see his face.

She climbed up on his chest, straddling his torso, and grabbed him by the collar. "Talk, bastard-!" she slammed his head into the ground and held him back up again, holding onto his costume so hard her knuckles were turning white. The look on her face was murderous, but not as psychotic as he would've thought it might have been.

The grunt coughed a bit, a half-grin forming on his face. "So you've made it this far, Sni- oh, Servine girl." The grunt didn't sound very malevolent, more like a teenage boy poking fun at his mom. He tried to rise to his elbows, but Mina dropped his head again, letting it bounce a minute before grabbing him by the collar again.

"You're staaaaaalling," she sing-songed to his face. "Just tell me where the other grunts are at before I have to beat it out of you."

The grunt got a hand up to rub his jaw. "Somehow, I don't think you're joking."

Mina's eye twitched. "Imma gonna break your nose now-"

"Hey, hey-! Cool it, I'll tell you if you… beat me in a Pokémon battle!" the grunt held his hands up, trying to work his way out from under Mina, to which she just rammed his head into the ground again. Eevee sucked in a little gasp, biting back the words he wanted to spit out for the grunt; he sensed something about him that he wasn't as bad as some of the others were.

Thorn suddenly appeared over the grunt head, dangling something over his eyes with a huge grin plastered on his pointy face. "Oh, with these Pokémon?" the grunt's belt hung from his tiny grasp, the three balls attached to the side of it just millimeters from the boy's nose.

"Servine got your tongue?"

"Thorn, is that really necessary-?" Eevee frantically tried to reason; this really wasn't needed, the grunt would have just told them if Mina beat him in a battle, which would prove to be an easy feat without the need for petty theft.

The grunt stopped wiggling, sighing as he visibly deflated. He looked he genuinely worried for his Pokémon. "You got me there. Fine I'll tell you…" the grunt exhaled, eyes flickering to his belt dangling in front of him. "The rest of us are stationed a coupla hundred meters that way-" he jerked his elbow north of them "-in the clearing right next to the cliff base. Ok, then?" he finished with a grimace.

Mina picked herself up off of him, stepping over his arm to join Thorn on the right side of his head. "You better be telling the truth, bub, or I'm really going to break your nose." She smacked her palm with a balled-up fist, looking dead serious.

The freed grunt held his hands up in surrender. "Honest! I was just following orders back there…"

Mina made another grab for him, but Eevee swept in front of her at the last second, causing her to grab his furry chest instead of the grunt. His heart was beating loudly in his chest, and he blinked his watery eyes and tried to calm the nervousness that was filling him from head to toe. He knew Mina wouldn't hurt him, but he couldn't say the same for the grunt; but, somewhere deep inside, he knew the grunt was telling the truth, he could just smell it, a warm, honest feeling without anything to hide.

"Mina! He's telling the truth, let's just leave him and hurry, we're running out of time!" Eevee pleaded, staring right into her eyes. Beside her, Thorn stiffened, but didn't interject.

Mina's mouth puckered, and she stared down the grunt. "Hmmph. You believe him?" and then after a moment she sighed, calming down and taking in a deep breath. "Well you are a better judge of character than I am so… I'll trust you."

Eevee felt himself smiling, the nervousness and tense feelings evaporating. He could sense the grunt was staring at his back, but he kept his eyes on his trainer. "Thank you."

The grunt fidgeted, sighing nervously as she glanced back up to Mina. "I was only here to buy time. So if you don't step lively, they're just gonna get away…" Eevee turned around to look at the grunt, and they met eyes briefly, a silent and confused thank-you sent from the grunt to Eevee received with a smile. He knew the grunt couldn't understand him, but he felt the gratitude wholly.

"Shit, he's right! We're down to five before they split." Mina yelped, immediately turning and starting jogging away from the grunt, Thorn trailing behind her. Eevee dug his paws into the ground to catch up, running as fast as he could in an effort to join his speeding trainer before she could sprint away.

The was a scuffle from behind, drawing Eevee's ears behind him. "Wait! My Pokémon-can I have them back?!" the grunt hollered from behind, sounding actually frightful to Eevee. Eevee stopped for a moment, turning back to glance at the stricken grunt, who had risen up to a kneeling now, holding his pants up as they threatened to droop.

Oh yeah, we have his belt, Eevee thought with an exasperated moan.

Mina stopped but didn't turn around for a good few seconds, Thorn looking up at her from her side, still holding the belt of pokeballs. Mina cocked her hip to the side, almost like she was giving this some serious thought.

"I don't think so." She turned, flashing a dangerous smile in the boy's direction. "You're just gonna force them to do more bad stuff like the shit you guys pulled tonight and back at Wellspring cave, and I don't think that's very cool. You don't deserve them back."

Eevee had never seen her so adamant about something before, or so cold. It was frightening. His determined face fell as he looked at the steely look on his trainer's face; he wanted to whimper, but told himself to keep strong. This was no different from back at the library… from when Mina asked him if he would stay with her. He had been the one in the position she was in now, and he gave himself back to the one who had wronged him; because he knew better. More than just his own feelings and wants were part of the equation, and you can't be so narrow-minded to think your feelings are the only ones that matter.

He had sensed sincerity in the grunt, and he was going to stand by him.

In a few strides, he was at Mina's feet, dashing past her and snatching the belt with his teeth from Thorn's grasp, turning on a dime and sprinting back to the fallen grunt. Eevee came up to his knees, taking a step up onto his lap with a single paw and dropping the belt into his lap. Eevee took a step back, staring at the boy's face with determination.

"I believe in second chances." He said simply. He knew the words wouldn't reach the grunt, but he had spoken them anyway, and he knew they'd at least mean something. He turned on his heels and dashed back to Mina.

He came up to her feet, looking straight into her blazed cobalt blue eyes with his own deep amber ones. He didn't feel remorse for disobeying his trainer's orders; he just felt relieved he had had the guts to do it; and he didn't fear Mina. She had given her word to him, and he knew she had heard what he had said.

"I believe in second chances." He repeated, firm and adamant as he was before. He needed the words to reach her; this was the exact same charity he had preformed for her in the library, a second chance to one who had done wrong in the past. The past was the past, and you can't change it just as much as you can't run from it. She had to understand this. She needed to understand this.

Mina just sighed; her hardened face softened, and her high-strung feelings seemed to fall. She gave a shrug, offering a small smile as she regarded her Pokémon. He couldn't tell what she was thinking from the look on her face, but he hoped his words had hit home. "You have such a bleeding heart."

Eevee smiled back; it was a compliment. His own nerves diminished and he felt joyously energetic all of a sudden. "Let's go!" he yelped, taking a running leap through Mina's legs and dashing on in the direction the grunt had pointed them, feeling the strength that had been previously been wavering returning and spurring him on. He rushed in a bush, finding the gravel path unfolding in front of him and he sprinted on, leaving behind all the animosity and fear behind him. He felt free; he liked it.

Mina and Thorn's crunches soon joined his own as they all thundered down the path, the moon glowing above them aiding in their frenzied hunt. He felt like he was running blindly without anyone else to lead him, but Mina's soon took the lead, ushering them in a slightly different angle as she spotted a path and veered right.

"Through here!" she shouted, taking a turn off through a fallen log, ducking her head as she dashed through the slightly concave space. Thorn and Eevee dashed through without hindrance, springing out on the opposite side and sprinting to catch up to their trainer's charging form. Spiked bushes and the sharp fingers of jutting tree branches tried to reach out at them as they printed past, but none of them could touch the trio; Thorn spun out of the way with a leafy flourish; Mina dodged and skidded around them, daring to crash through huge tangles of bushes and kicking over small trees with triumph; Eevee just ran through it all, feeling the undeniable freedom of his family's teamwork spurring him on. He got numerous cuts and scratches from his reckless trampling, but he didn't feel any of them.

They took another sharp turn, trampling over a chunk of worn rubble on their way over; Eevee dared a look back, but it was nothing but a pentagon-shaped rock, and turned his vision forward again. Mina was taking another leap into the air, bouncing off of rounded green shape sitting on the ground, hardly pausing to land before speeding off in the direction of another fallen log. Thorn bounced off the top of the green bump as well, landing with a chirp of laughter as he slithered off after Mina. Eevee finally took his turn to bound off of it, spreading out his feet as he flew for the oncoming ground, feeling the huge smile on his face. He liked it all so much it felt like he could just keep sailing through the air forever, all incased in this exact moment.

The green bump took its turn to leap up as well at that exact moment.

The top of the bulbous shape struck Eevee in the underbelly, disrupting his flight with a sharp pain. He let out a gasp as the ground was suddenly much closer than it had been a second ago, only this time he was about to face plant into it. He covered his nose with his paws as terror filled him up again, closing his eyes with the oncoming impact.

This was just like that time when Mike told me about when he jumped off the swings in first grade and broke both of his arms when he landed and he couldn't do anything and I-! Eevee was frantic, more frantic than he had been a minute ago with the grunt. His heart stopped, his breath stopped, only his mind still churning as it spat out manner of nonsensical banter that only made his fear worse. The fall going so fast, he could hardly register anything other than fear and a sharp rock that seemed to have set its sights on the middle of his forehead.

I don't want to-!

Eevee was suddenly motionless; He wasn't falling. He bounced slightly as he felt something strangely solid underneath him: a basket. A basket made of woven vines. Not the rocky ground.

It took him a moment to register he had stopped plummeting to the ground, opening his eyes one at a time. He sucked in a breath or relief; he was okay. Alive. Not broken.

He attempted to roll over and get up, but a shot of agony ripped up his left foreleg and he collapsed back onto his side. He tried to rise again, but ended up whimpering as he found he had landed on his paw during the fall after all. He had fallen on his back exiting from the summersault that he had spiraled into upon getting struck in his midsection, crushing a paw that he had flung out in terror upon landing. It didn't hurt too bad, he realized as he gave it an experimental lick. He felt the world underneath him moving again, and basket below began unraveling, and he found himself being gently placed on the ground, becoming sedentary again.

Thorn retracted his vines back underneath his stiff leafy collar, giving a small sigh of relief at seeing him with all four paws on the ground again. He crossed his small arms across his chest, which ended up looking like he was just holding his own hand, letting his soft smile melt away and shot Eevee a cross look. He turned sharply on one foot, tapping Eevee stiffly on the nose with the side of his tail. Its razor-edge brushed only his cheek, but it didn't cut Eevee.

"Baka." He muttered, tail twitching.

"Hey, I was blending into the wilderness there!"

Thorn and Eevee both jumped at the sudden outburst of the voice, Thorn falling flat on his butt and Eevee trampling over his hurt paw again. He ended up tripping over his tail and rolling over onto his back, a look a surprise undoubtedly on his face for the umpteenth time this evening. He rolled over to his side, ignoring the flaming pain clawing at the inside of his paw, and glanced up at the dark shape that had materialized above him.

A tall blond man wearing the rounded green thing on his head was hunched in front of them, an equally-as-Eevee's-own terrified look on his face and his forest green eyes wide. He was wearing a burnt orange ensemble similar to the one Mina had described on the female ranger she had encountered earlier, only he was wearing a pair of baggy orange pants and ankle-high boots in contrast and clutching a pair of beaten, night-vision binoculars in his fist. He whipped the green thing off his head, exposing his orange hat-topped head with a growl.

"You three can't pass through here! I need you to-!"

But the ranger didn't get to finish his sentence; Mina was there again, sweeping the two of them into her arms and taking a backwards leap away from the livid ranger, landing on her toes with only a slight wobble. She crushed them hard against her chest as she regained her balance, and Eevee could feel a jaunty rib poking out from her side jabbing into his hindquarters; he started to involuntary whimper as his paw was being shoved against Mina's side, but at the last second, Mina pulled his paw away and rested it more comfortably against her shoulder. Eevee gaped at her.

Mostly because she was doing a one-handed aerial cartwheel through the air while doing this.

He didn't even have the breath to mutter 'Yolo'; the sight was that startling.

"Take a number, dude; you're not the first one to come barking for a battle-!" Mina landed with a low grunt, skidding on one hand and flipping over to one foot and rising to a standing, both Eevee and Thorn quivering against her chest now. "Get lost, ranger dude!" she sang, taking another leap for the fallen log they had been headed for moments ago.She sounded almost giddy, disobeying authority like that, Eevee thought agape despite the food churning in his stomach.

"Wait, no! That's not it-!"

Mina blew him a raspberry as she ducked under a puff of moss covering the log, going into another dizzying cartwheel to top it off. The grunt disappeared from view a moment later, but then again, so did everything else all within that same second.

Gurp- I think I'm gonna faint… Eevee thought drunkenly to himself; the whole word was spinning now. Was the sky always moss-covered? Colors and sounds were blurry and indistinct, and Eevee felt for sure this was what a hangover feels like.

"Mina-"

There was a sudden skid of pebbles and a low moan. Then everything fell silent. There wasn't a single breath to be heard, not a single heartbeat, even the world around them had seemed to fall silent. The leaves didn't rustle, and the wind didn't even blow.

At least that was the way it seemed; Eevee couldn't see anything. Or smell anything. Or hear anything for that matter. In the rapid process of skidding, stopping, and silence, Eevee and Thorn had become a jumble of limbs and tails buried within Mina's midsection, nothing visible except for the small spaces of dark air they had for breathing, clutched up against Mina's chest.

Eevee tried to wiggle, but Mina's grip on him was tight; he couldn't move. He told himself not to panic, and to his surprise, he wasn't. The silence wasn't even scaring him; the unknown wasn't looming, waiting for a crevice to seep itself into. He was just aware of Mina's warmth, and her steadily returning heartbeat.

Only her heartbeat wasn't so steady; it was pounding. Running. Running for its life.

"Oh, Arceus, no…" he could just barely hear Thorn mumble. His tone was terrified; worried beyond what Eevee had thought was even possible for cool, collected, expressionless Thorn. Now he was panicking. He was really scared now. Thorn's dead tone had been the catalyst, but now his own wild mind was running with the fear streaking through him now.

"Mi-na-?!" he tried to cough out, but got a mouthful of tank top instead. He wiggled more feverishly this time; what's going on out there?!

"KKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKHH!"

Something screamed.

"MINA!"

Something else screamed; Eevee wasn't sure who it was this time; it may have been him; it may have been Thorn; it may have been the ranger; it may have been his imagination.

The Scolipede in front of him was not his imagination.

"KKKKKKKKKKRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRKKKKKKKKHH-KK!" the huge beast's scream was cut off abruptly this time, and it fell to the ground with a fierce struggle, lashing out in fear with its multi-poison-tipped barbs. Piles of dust and rubble went flying through the air, blanketing all three of them in a cloud of filth and panic. Eevee felt his lungs burning from the dust, and it was getting hard to see with how much grit was accumulating in his eyes. He coughed again, and he heard the echo of another cry in the background of his thoughts, but he ignored it as the salty bits in his eyes began to burn.

"DAMMIT IDIOT MOVE!"

'Ello luves, Pokegirl and company here-

Thorn-"Yodels."

Mina-"Konnichiwa."

Eevee-*eats a cookie*

N-"Yep."

So we gots some of Eevee-s POV-lemme know how you guys liked that BTW-and some more feels.. so... yeah. This and the previous chapter were once one but it was WAY to long, so I did some edits.. yup.

PF conclusion next time-'bout fecking time.