Moonshine slowly opened her eyes, having heard several sets of footsteps and a pair of wings flapping in the still dawn sky.
With a neutral face, she watched as several of her teammates emerged from the forest, the first being the embrace and blade siblings, who both relaxed upon seeing the shiny umbreon. Those two were followed by an audino and Moonshines's niece, Greenleaf. Her own apprentice, Goldeye followed them, and greeted her mentor with a respectful nod, which Moonshine returned. Crestfeather landed beside the two psychic types, and the final two members of the patrol stepped out of the forest at the same time.
"Flameflare." She said, nodding to her brother-in-law, who nodded back as he sat down beside her, his own apprentice making his way to her and dropping a medium sized rattata at her feet.
"I caught this for you." He said meekly, his head down in respect for the older pokemon. Moonshine smiled lightly, silently thanking Arceus that she could have freshkill. The human's food hadn't been bad, but she would always prefer food that was freshly caught. "Thank you, Redtail. I appreciate it."
The vulpix just nodded, embarrassed, and made his way to sit beside his mentor.
Burnet sat on the porch, her focus entirely on the shiny umbreon as well as the new group of pokemon that had emerged from the forest, which included the pidgeot that had flown off the evening before. She quickly jotted down several notes in her notebook, noting how the luxio and strange kantonian vulpix seemed to stay with Moonshine and the flareon respectively.
She had been relaxing on the porch with a cup of coffee, watching the sun rise and getting ready for the day when she saw the umbreon that had stayed with them overnight slip out of the poke-door and settle at the edge of the forest. Curious, Burnet had watched, her notebook ready.
After a few minutes, she heard the distinct cry of a pidgeot, and soon after saw several shapes emerge from the forest to greet the umbreon.
She had been mildly surprised to see the audino, leafeon, and luxio all carrying palm leaves, each of which seemed to have various other leaves and objects inside them.
They were followed by the pidgeot from the evening before, as well as a flareon and small, spotted kantonian vulpix. The vulpix carried what she assumed was a rattata, which he presented to the umbreon, who ate it gratefully.
Moonshine likely lives primarily off of caught prey. Cal's pokemon may do the same. She wrote, frowning.
It was rare for caught pokemon to willingly eat prey, as many found the taste of man-made food to be much better.
Hesitating, she also made a note that the young vulpix may have caught it, which, judging by the fox's size, was an impressive feat for it's age.
Greenblade narrowed his eyes. "You are aware we are being watched, correct?"
Moonshine's yellow gaze broke from the rattata, which was mostly gone. "Don't worry about it. She's harmless."
The blade pokemon grunted, not fully satisfied with the answer. His sister chuckled, and he glared at her.
Pinkear, Crestfeather, and Moonshine rolled their eyes, and Flameflare sighed. "Knock it off you two."
Goldeye changed the subject, looking at her mentor. "When are we going to Cal?"
Moonshine sat up, the rattata's meat gone, and swallowed. "The teacher, his name is Kukui, said he would bring us this morning. Other than that, I have no idea."
Flameflare got up. "In that case, Redtail, let's train on the beach."
The spotted vulpix nodded and stood, following his mentor down onto the beach.
Pinkear glanced at Greenleaf. "Let's check our supplies." The leafeon nodded, opening the three palm leaves.
Goldeye glanced at her mentor. "Can I train to?" The shiny umbreon nodded towards the beach. "Practice your dig in the sand. Make sure to stay away from Flameflare and Redtail."
Although the electric type frowned, she made her way down to the beach without complaint.
"Looks like they're going to train."
Burnet nodded, keeping her eyes on the pair of fire types as they approached the beach.
Kukui frowned. "They seem very organized."
Once again, Burnet nodded. She had deduced that the audino and leafeon were carrying herbs, which she assumed were for Cal, considering his freakout the day before.
The luxio, meanwhile, had gotten to the beach, and was practicing dig, which was impressive, considering that the electric type was doing it in the sand.
Meanwhile, the flareon was teaching the vulpix ember, which the vulpix looked like it was close to mastering.
After about half an hour, Kukui had decided to greet Moonshine. As he approached the umbreon, followed by Ash's lycanroc, who seemed excited to meet several other pokemon. However, as he approached, the gallade, which had remained sitting the entire time, not doing much, jumped up and got up, putting himself between Kukui and the shiny umbreon.
Moonshine, however, seemed to tell him off, as after several seconds, it grumbled and got out of his way. Frowning, he continued to Moonshine, while Lycanroc just bounded off to the beach, his gaze focused on the pair of fire types that were training.
Kukui sighed. "Sorry about Lycanroc" he said, to which the umbreon just nodded, her face remaining neutral. "We'll probably be leaving in about half an hour."
Once again, the umbreon just gave a neutral nod, which made Kukui slightly uncomfortable, and he walked away, heading back towards his house.
"I guess I'll call Hobbes." He said, mostly to himself.
Lillie frowned as she watched Cal interact with the pokemon in the small playground next to her house. When he had asked if he could interact with them, she had been slightly worried that he would be cold towards them, but to her surprise, he was kind to the pokemon, especially the young ones, and they loved him, despite typically avoiding human contact.
Her watching was interrupted by Hobbes and her father joining her on the balcony. She turned to them. "Yes?"
Hobbes smiled. "Master Kukui just called. He and Cal will be here in an hour."
Her father chuckled. "Thanks Hobbes, go ahead and take a break." The butler bowed and left, leaving the father-daughter duo alone on the balcony.
They sat in silence for a few minutes before Mohn spoke.
"He seems good with the pokemon." Lillie didn't respond, just nodding.
Silence once again overtook the duo, just watching Cal interact with the pokemon.
As they made their way to Lillie's house, Kukui kept a close eye on what he assumed were Cal's pokemon, finding the odd group highly interesting.
Moonshine, along with the flareon, seemed to be in charge, leading the group after him. The pidgeot, who was currently fishing, seemed to hold some authority as well, as well as the audino and leafeon, to some extent. The gallade hung back, not seeming to trust him, while the gardevoir floated along, carefree. Lastly, the two younger members of the group, the luxio and the spotted vulpix stuck close to Moonshine and the flareon respectively, although the luxio seemed much more willing to explore.
He glanced at his wife, who was rapidly noting something down in her notepad, occasionally glancing up to look at the group.
Moonshine sighed, wishing that the woman would stop writing so much in her little book. Although she personally didn't mind it, she could tell that Greenblade was on edge, and she preferred to have him not focused on the humans.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a light rustling in the foliage near them. Immediately on alert, she stopped, and sensed Flameflare doing the same. She glanced around, her eyes narrowed, searching the foliage. Beside her, Goldeye, Flameflare, and Redtail did the same.
Then, without warning, a large form smashed into her, bowling her over. Grunting, she quickly got up, facing the attacker.
She sighed. Or attackers…
Silverflame rolled his eyes, not at all surprised by his apprentice. Behind him, his mate chuckled.
"Why can't we?"
Rocktail appeared to be at a loss of words, but quickly recovered. "Because we aren't allowed to." The rock type looked at Silverflame in exasperation. "Care to help?"
Whitetails continued chuckling, and Silverflame just shook his head. "Rocktail, if you want pups, you need to get experience with the younger members of our team."
The Alolan wolf groaned. "I bet Dusktooth didn't have to deal with this last night" she grumbled under her breath. Whitetails spoke up. "Snowstorm told me he had a pretty hard time with Softfoot."
Before the younger rock type could respond, they heard a cry in the distance. Silverflame and Whitetails glanced at each other in worry. "That sounded like Redtail." they both said, before turning to Rocktail, who had already made up her mind. "Let's go" she said, and the group quickly ran towards where they had heard the cry.
They soon arrived to find a battle taking place on a path overlooking the ocean. Moonshine was locked in combat with a large houndoom, while Flameflare was fighting a large superior with help from Redtail, while Goldeye was helping Greenleaf hold off a group of perzerker. Greenblade was locked in combat with a pair of sawk, and Angelwing was fighting off several throh. Pinkear sat in the back, watching over a man in a lab coat.
Not hesitating, the patrol quickly joined the fray, with Silverflame immediately pouncing into the houndoom on top of Moonshine, who growled at him before realizing who he was, when she gave a sigh of relief. Nodding to each other, they both rejoined the fight.
Soon, they had turned the tide, keeping the attacking pokemon on their back foot, but this was halted when a new, fresh group of the attackers joined, once again pushing the defending pokemon back.
Moonshine growled as she watched her apprentice get hit by a mach punch, throwing the small electric type several feet. Her thoughts were forced off of her apprentice when the houndoom she was fighting launched a powerful fireblast at her, forcing her to dodge and fire a dark pulse in response.
She had hoped that the arrival of Rocktail's patrol would be enough to turn the tide, but the attackers had just gotten reinforcements, once again outnumbering them.
Seeing another fireblast heading towards her, she jumped to the side, only be be hit by a krookodile's dragon claw, throwing her onto the ground, before the houndoom pinned her legs, immobilizing her, before it used fire fang on her.
Ow. I don't know how much longer we can go, she thought, as she watched Rocktail get hit by a sismitoad's hydro pump and Greenleaf get hit by a flamethrower.
However, for the second time in the battle, the houndoom was thrown off her, allowing her to get up and see who her savior was. She smiled, before she jumped right back into the battle, hitting an attacking darmanitan with a dark pulse, allowing Greenleaf to evade its fire punch.
After a few more minutes of fighting, they had driven off the last of the attackers. Panting, Moonshine made her way to her apprentice, who was struggling to get up, and nosed the electric type up. "You ok?" she asked, seeing the gnash down her apprentice's side.
The young electric type nodded. Moonshine glanced up, seeing their saviors. "Hey, Iceslash, thanks for the save." The Alolan Sandslash nodded, his metal claws scraping together. "No problem." he said, before redirecting his attention back to the forest. Probably keeping an eye out for more she thought, before tending to her own wounds.
To say Kukui was confused would be an understatement. They had been walking down the path to Lillie's house when Moonshine and several of the others had suddenly perked up, before they were attacked by a decent group of pokemon. Cal's pokemon had been quickly overwhelmed, being outnumbered, before several other pokemon had emerged from the forest and began helping, at which point another wave of attacking pokemon had joined the battle, once again turning the battle against Cal's pokemon.
As the audino had been defending him, he had briefly wished that he had brought some of his pokemon, just to feel like he was helping. His eyes had then drifted to Cal's bag, which Moonshine had dropped right before she had been attacked. He picked it up, and rummaged through it, finding three pokeballs. Glancing at the audino for permission, who nodded thankfully, he threw them in the air, releasing them.
He had taken a moment to admire the pokemon that had been released, which included an alolan sandslash, a torterra, and an ampharos, all of whom quickly joined the battle, once again turning the tide once again in favor of Cal's pokemon.
Bringing his attention back to the present, he saw that the Leafeon and audino had begun healing the others, while the three pokemon he had released, who were mostly uninjured, stood guard, keeping the injured pokemon safe. Glancing at Moonshine, who was licking her wounds, he frowned. What is going on?
Flamebranch sighed, wincing as his daughter placed the poultices on his injured shoulder. Greenleaf grunted in sympathy as she placed a wad of cobwebs over it. He thanked her, and she nodded in response before leaving to help Rocktail, who had a large wound on her neck from being bitten by one of the attacking liepard. Getting up, he made his way to Moonshine, who was with Silverflame and Whitetails. He nodded his head to the two ninetails. Whitetails looked at him. "Is Redtail ok?" Flameflare nodded. "Greenleaf says he'll be fine." Both Whitetails and Silverflame visibly relaxed. Flameflare glanced at Moonshine. "I didn't recognize any of them. Did you?"
The shiny umbreon shook her head, along with the two ninetails. Flameflare groaned. "Great." He glanced around, seeing that Pinkear and Greenleaf had just finished healing Crestfeather, who was the last injured member of the team, and Greenleaf had begun heading over to their small group.
"Are we good to set out?" asked Moonshine. Flameflare's oldest daughter nodded. "Everyone's good to travel, although you and Goldeye may have a bit of trouble." She pointedly looked at his shoulder. Moonshine sighed. "Fair enough. Let's get going."
Lillie quickly made her way to the door, having heard the doorbell ring seconds before. When she opened it, she was greeted by Kukui and Moonshine, although there were at least a dozen other pokemon behind them, almost all of them with some kind of injury on them. Mohn, who was right behind her, raised his eyebrows at the shirtless professor, who just sighed.
Opening the door more to let the odd group in, she counted the additional pokemon. Fifteen pokemon, excluding Moonshine she thought, admiring the Alolan Ninetails who had entered. Then, she realized that she recognized most of them. They were at Cal's camp she thought, realizing that the alolan ninetails, along with the shiny kantonian ninetails and the spotted vulpix, were all the ones she had seen the day when Cal had helped them find her father.
Snowy, who had hidden behind her legs, squeaked out a greeting to the spotted vulpix, who barked in response.
Moonshine glanced around the large entrance room, not seeing Cal. Sighing, she glanced at Angelwing, who was in the process of reprimanding her brother for something. "Angelwing" she called, gaining the embrace pokemon's attention. "Can you sense where Cal is?"
The Gardevoir paused, still glaring at her brother, and nodded. However, before the Gardevoir could find the trainer, the girl, Lillie, Moonshine remembered, offered to lead them to Cal. Sighing, Moonshine nodded, and glanced at the group of pokemon behind her.
"Crestfeather, go back to camp and tell Flamebrach about the attack and that Rocktail and her patrol are safe with us. Greenleaf and Pinkear, come with the girl and I to Cal. The rest of you, stay here and make sure that we don't get attacked." The pokemon all nodded and began to move about, with most of the pokemon moving outside to stand guard, or, in the case of Crestfeather, head back to camp. Meanwhile, she, Greenleaf, and Pinkear began following Lillie.
Mistfeather sighed in relief, sensing that Moonshine had finally arrived. Glancing at her trainer, she noted that he was unaware of the arrival of his pokemon. Rolling her eyes, she began making her way over to him.
When she reached him, leaning against the railing of the balcony they were on, she stopped. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke. 'Master?'
After a few seconds, her trainer hadn't responded, and she began to worry. However, he soon responded. "What is it, Mistfeather?"
'Moonshine and the others have arrived.' Cal nodded. "I know. I just saw Crestfeather fly off towards camp."
Mistfeather frowned. 'Are you ok?' She watched his expression carefully, but it never changed. "About as ok as I ever am."
She sighed. Of course. How did I not see that coming?
Cal's frown deepened the smallest bit. "I suggest you hide yourself. Lillie is in the hall."
Rolling her eyes, she did as her trainer said, eager to find out Moonshine's thoughts on the situation with their trainer.
Mohn glazed at Kukui. "What happened?"
The shirtless professor sighed. "We got attacked by a group of pokemon on the way here."
Mohn glanced at the flareon, who was in the process of glaring at its shoulder, which was wrapped in a collection of cobwebs.
"Must have been serious." he remarked. Kukui nodded, pointing at a midday form lycanroc. "Look at her throat."
Mohn looked at the rock type and noticed the large wad of cobweb, which was stained with blood. He frowned, before looking at Kukui. "Is she…" He stopped, unable to continue.
The professor nodded. "The leafeon and audino checked her over and put some herbs on. I checked the job myself, and was pretty impressed. Those two know what they're doing."
Mohn nodded, before his attention was caught by something else. "What's up with that vulpix?"
Kukui glanced over to where the blonde was pointing, where Snowy was playing with the white and red spotted vulpix, while being watched over by a pair of ninetails, one of which was a shiny kantonian variant. He shrugged.
"It arrived with a small group at my house at dawn. I think it is the pup of the two ninetails."
Mohn nodded, stroking his chin.
There you go, Chapter 12!
I hope you guys enjoyed it, and please feel free to review. See you next time!