Brennan ran down the route that he and the others had been following. The only light he currently had was the lantern he had brought with him. He was alone, in the middle of the night, heading towards the most dangerous place he had ever been before. But he wasn't going to stop. He couldn't.
He ran, not knowing how far, or how long he actually had. He had only had one thing on his mind the whole time, Gardevoir. Sitting in camp wasn't an option for him anymore. He couldn't waste anymore time. He needed to go. He needed to get her back.
Brennan ran, kicking up dirt and gravel as he did, as the lantern wildly swung back and forth in his hand. The only noise being heard were his heavy, repeated footsteps running down the dirt trail, his loose items being thrown around inside of his backpack with every step he took, and the squeakiness of the swinging lantern.
Brennan kept going for what seemed like hours, ignoring the sounds of nearby wild Pokémon' as he did. He got to a point where he was growing so tired, he couldn't even feel his legs anymore. Sweat had dripped down his forehead, soaking the inside of his hat. His shirt was also drenched at this point.
Eventually, after hours of nonstop running, the lantern finally started dimming. Occasionally blinking in and out. He knew it was going out, and he didn't have much longer until he was left running in the darkness of the night. He had left his phone at home, and didn't have a watch, so he couldn't even check to see what time it was to get a clue of how much longer it was until the sun rose.
As the lantern dimmed even more, and the darkness started to consume him, he felt himself feeling sick. His legs continued to grow more and more weak. His determination to get to Gardevoir was the only thing keeping him going at this point.
Even as the lantern finally went out, and the darkness of the night surrounded him, he still refused to stop. His heart was pounding heavily inside of his chest, his shirt was soaked in sweat, his shoes filled with small pebbles and dirt he had kicked up. But still, nothing was stopping him.
He continued running through the darkness, until he heard low growls closing in on him. He looked around, not seeing anything... at first. Then glowing eyes started appearing in the darkness. Brennan finally came to a stop, as he looked around. The eyes came closer and closer to him. They had him surrounded.
He knew he wasn't going to be able to outrun them. So whatever they were going to do, they were going to do.
"Come on..." Brennan said tiredly, as he raised his fists, ready to try and fight off his stalkers. There were more low growls as they continued to close in on him. He was ready to attack, when he started feeling dizzy. He held his head, as his knees started wobbling. His breathing picked up heavier than it already was, as he started falling to the ground.
He dropped to his knees, trying to keep himself up, but eventually fell on his face. He couldn't see. Even the blackness was blurry in his vision. He weakly looked up, as he started slipping under. He heard a loud growl, before finally passing out.
•••
•••
•••
Gardevoir tiredly sat propped up, and strapped down to a cold, metal chair in a dimly lit laboratory. Her head lazily flopped to the side, as she tried to look around the room.
The scientists, Carter and Luciana, had been running tests on her for what seemed like hours. They had taken blood from her multiple times already. Finger printed her and swabbed saliva out of her mouth, and cut off a small chunk of her hair. She honestly didn't know what else they could do.
She was feeling sick. The world was spinning. If it wasn't for the straps keeping her held down to the chair, she would have slid to the floor like jello.
Gardevoir finally managed to look in the direction of where Carter and Luciana were. They were standing by some sort of machine. She had no clue what it was, or what it did. She watched as they discussed something. As they did, Gavin approached them. Gardevoir's tired glare returned to her face when he walked into her line of sight.
They talked for several minutes, before Gavin finally looked her way. A small smile formed on his face as he approached her.
"Ahh, Gardevoir. How are you holding up, my dear?" He asked, stopping in front of her. Gardevoir kept her glare on her face as she stared at him. "I see you may not be too enthused about these tests. But I assure you that they are almost done. There are just a few more things I need to find out about you." He explained. His tone still sounded hard, and threatening.
Gardevoir sat in silence, as her weak glare hardened. This man-Gavin, he was a bad man. That was obvious to her. As he stared into her eyes, his evil, chocolate brown eyes felt like they were reading her sole. He stayed silent for several more seconds, before beginning again.
"The trainer you were with when my men found you, he isn't coming to save you. I know that's what you're hoping for. I can feel it. But as I said before, you'll get used to it here. And you'll forget all about him." Gavin said, his low tone sounding more harsh than before. This infuriated Gardevoir. She jerked her hands up, trying to free them from her restraints... but she couldn't. Her angry expression on her face was being directed right towards Gavin. She couldn't break free, and she couldn't use any of her moves, so she did the next best thing. She spit in his face. His smirk instantly faded, being replaced with one of anger. He closed his eyes trying to calm his anger, as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his face.
"No, no. See, now that isn't going to work. Not at all." Gavin said, returning his hard gaze to the Pokémon. He stared at her for several more seconds, before pulling a small remote out of his jacket pocket. "I'm sorry you made me do this." He apologized halfheartedly, before pressing the single red button that inhabited the small remote. Gardevoir felt another powerful shock from the collar run through her body. She let out another loud cry in pain as it did.
Gavin stood with a grin on his face, watching as Gardevoir weakly fell back against the chair, panting as she did. Luciana and Carter stood in silence in the background, watching their boss.
"Now, Luciana and Carter over there are going to finish doing their tests, and YOU'RE not going to give them any problems. Because if you do *Chuckles* you'll regret it." Gavin said, holding the remote up as he did. Gardevoir's weak glare returned to her face, as she stared at the man. He leaned in towards the weakened Pokémon and gently ran the back of his right hand across her cheek. She pulled away from him as he did, causing a fake-sad frown to form on his face. "I'm not here to hurt you, Gardevoir. You need to trust me about that. Once you start playing along, you'll realize that this isn't a bad place to be, and that I'm not that bad of a guy. In the end, you'll eventually realize that I'm doing all of this for... you." His voice got more low in tone as he leaned in closer to her. Their faces were mere inches apart at that point. The way he said it made Gardevoir feel very uneasy. More uneasy than she already was by how close he was to her. What did he mean he was doing all of it for her?
Several seconds of Gavin holding his stare on Gardevoir passed, before he finally backed away from her. Gardevoir felt like she could finally breath again. Gavin turned his attention back to his two scientists, who had pretty much remained stagnant, as they stood off to the side watching their boss.
"Luciana, Carter, you know what to do. You are to report to me once you've finished your testing." Gavin said in a very strict tone. Both scientists nodded in response.
"Yes, Sir." They replied. Gavin stared at the two for several seconds, before saying anything else.
"Good. I have a few things to check on elsewhere, so I'm going to be taking my leave now." He said. He threw one last glance at Gardevoir, who's tired glare had returned to her face. He smile made its way onto his face, one that once again sent chills down Gardevoir's spin. He kept the smile on her for several seconds, before finally turning and making his exit.
Luciana and Carter waited until he had exited the room, before they finally looked back over at Gardevoir.
"Lets get this finished." Luciana, a tan skinned, Hispanic decent female with her long black hair tied in a pony tail said. "What do we have left to do?" She asked, looking over at her partner. Carter, the averaged height blonde, and very pale skinned man pushed his round-framed black glasses back up on his nose, before looking through the papers attached to the clipboard in his hands to clarify what tests still needed to be done, before replying.
"With the results we've gotten so far, we still need to perform a CT scan on her to see just how big of a brain she's working with. And I want to test out that EEG headset we've been working on to see if I can read any of her brain activity." Carter replied, before finally looking back up at his partner. Luciana looked at him, before glancing back over to Gardevoir.
"Lets do the CT Scan first. The EEG headset is still a work-in-progress, so there's no guarantee its even going to work how we want it to." She said. Carter nodded.
"I'll go get it set up. You bring her over." He directed, before walking off to do what he said he was going to. Luciana walked over to Gardevoir, who hadn't taken her eyes off of them since Gavin left. She stood in front of the weakened Pokémon, staring down at her for several seconds. She was honestly curious why this Gardevoir was so special to Gavin. She wasn't one to question her boss, and she didn't plan on starting now. It was just a question she had been asking herself all day now.
She finally unlocked Gardevoir's wrists from the chair, before pulling her out of it. Gardevoir almost fell to the floor as she did.
"We're trying to finish these tests. You heard the boss, don't trying anything dumb." Luciana said strictly, as she dragged Gardevoir towards the machine that Carter was setting up.
Gardevoir stared at the large machine as she was dragged over to it. She didn't know what it was, or what it did. What she did know, however is that she was kinda intimidated of it.
"Alright, it's ready." Carter said, as he messed around with something on the side of the machine.
"Lay down right there." Luciana said, as she pointed towards the long bed-like that was part of the machine. Gardevoir stood there staring at it for several seconds, before Luciana finally groaned. She pushed Gardevoir forward, before jerking her around to face her, and forcing her into a sitting position on the bed. Gardevoir didn't seem too thrilled with that. "Lay down." She ordered, this time more strict than before.
Gardevoir held a glare on the women for several seconds, before finally listening to her. She slowly, and nervously laid down on the somewhat hard bed, still feeling pretty intimidated by the machine. She heard Luciana and Carter saying things to each other, but stopped paying attention to them.
She was honestly scared at this point. Brennan was coming for her, right? He had to have been. She could feel it. She wanted to badly be in his arms again. To feel him holding on to her, protecting her, making sure nothing was going to happen to her. That's what she wanted. But for now, the only thing she could do was obey these... people, and keep hoping that Brennan would show up and save her.
She lay there, unmoving. She closed her eyes and pictured Brennan in her mind. Just imagining him made her feel less scared. Keeping him in her mind was what she was going to have to do to get her through this.
•••
•••
•••
Luna slowly blinked her eyes open. The sun was just coming up, so the morning sunrise she woke up to was beautiful. She looked over and saw that Lane was still sound asleep next to her. She yawned, before unzipping the sleeping back and sitting up. She looked around the small campsite they had made, noticing that everyone else was also still asleep.
She was one of the last ones to fall asleep, and the first one to wake up. That's when she realized she wasn't the last to fall asleep. She looked over to where Brennan was sat when she went to sleep, he wasn't there. She was slightly confused. She looked over to where the sleeping bag was and saw it was gone too. Her eyes wandered the small campsite for a second time, that's when she realized that the sleeping bag she had laid out for Brennan was being used as a cover for Machamp.
She stood up and started looking around. She wandered a little ways out of the campsite, calling for Brennan as she did. She was hoping he just walked off to use the bathroom or something.
"Brennan, are you out here?" She called, but to no response. She walked around for another two minutes before heading back to camp. Once she made it back, only then did she realize that her lantern was gone. Once she saw that, she quickly looked over to where Brennan's bag was sat next to hers. Hers was still there, but his wasn't.
"Oh, no." She said to herself. She quickly walked back over to Lane and shook him. "Lane. Hey, Lane. Wake up." She said.
"Huh? Wha-what?" Lane muttered, still half asleep as he did.
"Lane, get up. We have a problem." Luna said, continuing to shake her sleeping boyfriend.
"What is it?" Lane asked, finally waking up enough to understand her.
"Get up. We have to go. Brennan's gone." Luna said, this made Lane sit up.
"What?" He said curiously, trying to rub the tiredness out of his eyes.
"Brennan's gone. Help me wake the others up. We have to get moving." Luna replied, as she stood up and walked over to Frankie. Lane scratched the back of his head, still somewhat confused. He pushed the top of the sleeping bag off of himself, before climbing to his feet.
Luna walked over to Frankie and roughly started shaking him awake. He quickly sat up and looked around the area in a tired surprise, before finally locking eyes with Luna.
"W-what's the matter with you, Luna?" He asked, slightly irritated by the females actions.
"Get up and get you're things together. We have to get moving." Luna replied, as she stood up and went to move on with waking the others up. Frankie was just as confused as Lane had been.
"What's the big rush. Seriously?" Frankie asked, as he climbed to his feet, stretching and yawning once he got to them.
Luna walked over to Blaziken and Delphox and woke them up in a similar manner to how she had woken Frankie up. Once they were up, she turned back to Frankie.
"Brennan's gone. He left without us to go to Team Scavenger's hideout. We have to catch up to him." She replied. Not only did this surprise Frankie, but it also surprised Brennan's still half-asleep Pokémon. Especially Blaziken.
"Blaziken?" Blaziken asked, as he quickly stood up. Luna turned to him.
"He left sometime during the night. There is no way of knowing when. That's why we need to get moving." She replied. Blaziken stood there staring at her, trying to process the news he had just found out. He couldn't believe that Brennan was so hellbent on getting Gardevoir back that he left camp in the middle of the night, alone to go get her.
Luna headed towards her backpack to grab it when she heard soft whimpers escaping Mightyena. She looked at him, and could easily tell how affected he was by the news of his missing trainer.
"Don't worry, we'll catch up to him." She said in a sympathetic tone, she gave him a few rubs on his head to calm him down.
Machamp had gotten up confused as to why he had been covered up.
"Champ?" Machamp said curiously, as he held up the sleeping bag. Luna walked over to him and grabbed it.
"This is the sleeping bag a laid out for Brennan last night. He covered you up with it before he left." Luna said, knowing that that was exactly what happened. Machamp knew already that that was something his trainer would do.
Luna rolled the sleeping bag back up and walked over to her backpack. She was strapping it back onto the bag, when she noticed a note sticking out of the front pocket. She stared at it for several seconds, before grabbing it and opening it.
"Guys," Luna said as she stood up and faced the group, getting everyone's attention as she did. "Brennan left a note." She said, showing the note to the group.
"What does it say?" Lane asked.
"Guys, I couldn't waste anymore time. I had to go. I didn't want to wake any of you either because I knew you all needed the rest. I'm going to get Gardevoir back. We'll meet back up with you after. Don't follow me, I can't risk any of you getting hurt because of me. And don't worry, I'll be fine. See you soon." Luna read Brennan's note, before looking back up at her boyfriend.
"Blaziken." Blaziken said as he shook his head. Not doing what Brennan told him to do was something he had grown used to recently. So he didn't mind not listening to his trainer about something else. He stormed past Luna headed back towards the trail.
"Blaziken, hey, wait!" Luna said, but Blaziken ignored her. She quickly ran and grabbed her backpack, before following behind. The others did the same.
Blaziken reemerged back out onto the route, and continued walking in the direction they had been headed in the previous day. He didn't make it far before the others burst out of the forest behind him.
"Blaziken," Luna said, as she caught up to the Pokémon, placing a hand on his shoulder when she did. "I know you want to get to Brennan, but we have to stay together now. We can't risk getting anymore separated than we already are." She explained. Blaziken just continued to stare ahead, not even glancing her way.
"Blaziken." He replied, before he continued moving again. Luna looked back at the others, before motioning them to follow with her head. They had a long way ahead of them if they wanted to catch up to Brennan. So she knew they didn't have any time to waste.
•••
•••
•••
Brennan slowly struggled to open his eyes. When he finally managed to, he was unsure of where he was. He pushed himself up wards, using his elbows to prop himself up. He looked around and realized he was inside of a tent.
"W-where am I?" Brennan asked weakly, as he continued to look around.
"Psy?" A Psyduck said curiously, as it popped up out of nowhere.
"Gah!" Brennan exclaimed, startled by the Pokémon's sudden appearance.
"Psyduck, I told you not to bother him." A freckle-faced redheaded girl said in a heavy southern accent, as she made her way into the tent.
"Psy." Psyduck said, before backing away from Brennan. Brennan watched him, before looking up at the girl.
"Mornin'! Glad you're finally awake!" The girl exclaimed. Brennan was still pretty confused. "Made y'all some soup for when you woke up." She continued, pointing towards to small bowl that rested a few feet away from Brennan. Brennan looked over at it, before looking back at her.
"I... appreciate it, but I don't even know what's going on right now. Where am I?" He asked.
"You're at my camp. My Pokemon n' I stumbled across ya last night on the trail. We scared off the pack of Mightyena that tried attackin' you." The girl replied. "We didn't want to leave ya unconscious on the route, so we brought you back here to sleep it off. You were dehydrated. I figure you've been travlin' a lot." She continued. After she said that, Brennan tried to remember back to what had happened. He was running, then the next thing he knew it was dark, and he heard growling, and that was it. That's when he remembered why he had been running...
"G-Gardevoir. Gardevoir!" Brennan exclaimed, when the realization hit him. He had wasted who knows how much time sleeping. "I-I have to go. I have to go." He continued, as he tried to push himself up.
"Whoa, whoa. Slow down. What's the matter with this Gardevoir you're talkin' about?" The girl asked.
"My G-Gardevoir was kidnapped and I'm going to get her back. I didn't need to stop. I'm wasting time!" Brennan replied, starting to grow frustrated. Not with the girl, but with himself.
"Kidnapped. Oh, no. Who kidnapped her?" The girl asked.
"T-this group of people. Team Sca-" Brennan started, before being interrupted.
"-Venge. I've heard of them. They're'a bad group." The girl said. Brennan had heard that from a few different people already. He grew more and more worried every time he did. "People don't like gettin' involved with them. I hear 'em say all the time that they're like the infamous, Team Rocket but much worse. They like capturing n' experimenting on Pokémon, like its some kinda game or somethin'. Makes me sick." She continued. Brennan's heart felt like it shattered into a million, tiny, little shards, at the thought of what they could possibly putting Gardevoir through. He shook his head, before finally getting up.
"I-I have to go." He said, as he grabbed his bag and tried to leave the tent.
"Hang on there, aren't ya goin' to at least eat first?" The girl asked. Brennan shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have the time. I've wasted enough time sleeping." He replied, as he made his way past her, and out of the tent.
"Hey! Wait'a second! Are you out here alone?" The girl asked. Brennan nodded.
"Yeah." He replied.
"Doncha have any other Pokémon besides Gardevoir?" She asked. Brennan stopped, before glancing back, and sighing.
"I do. But they aren't with me." He replied.
"Well why not?" The girl asked. Brennan stayed silent for several seconds, before saying anything.
"Thanks for the help. I have to go." He finally replied, as he continued walking again.
"Hey! Wait!" The girl exclaimed. Brennan stopped, and sighed again. He was starting to grow more annoyed, even though he was trying not to. "Let us come with ya." She said. This caused Brennan to turn around and face her again. He shook his head.
"No-No. This is my problem." He replied.
"Come on! We want to help!" The girl exclaimed, as she pointed down towards her Psyduck.
"Psyyy." Psyduck said. She turned around looking for something else, but didn't see it.
"Hey! Come on out! He's'a friend!" She exclaimed. Several seconds passed, before a Gloom and a Swampert walked out from behind some trees. The girl still didn't look too satisfied. "Hey! You come out, too!" She said.
Brennan stood in silence for several seconds, watching her. A few more seconds passed before a Gothitelle appeared. She had a noticeable scar across her face. Her and Brennan stared at each other for several seconds.
"So... will ya let us come with you? You can't go n' get your Pokémon back alone." She said. Brennan looked off to side, before turning back to the girl. He was getting ready to reply, when he glanced back over at Gothitelle.
"*Sigh* Fine. Please, just... hurry." Brennan replied. The girl smiled and nodded.
"Okay!" She exclaimed. "Come on team! Lets pack up camp and get moving! We're goin' to help... uh-" she continued, before stopping as she glanced back at Brennan in embarrassment when she realized she didn't know his name.
"Brennan." He said, knowing that's what she wanted to know. Her smile returned.
"We're goin' to help Brennan get his Pokémon back!" She exclaimed.
After, Brennan stood there watching this girl and her Pokémon tear their camp down and pack it up. It took longer than he would have liked, but eventually, they got on the move.
Someone else to worry about was the last thing Brennan wanted. But she had helped him out. And after his close call with that pack of Mightyena' the previous night, a little help from some ally Pokémon may be a good thing.
Regardless, the only thing he cared about was getting to Gardevoir. And if he had to bring this girl with him, then so be it. He made the decision to leave his group behind and keeping moving forward, that was on him. But after this, he really was done wasting time. He wasn't stopping anymore. Not until he had Gardevoir back.