Procession of Freaks
Guest star in this story, Sam, appears courtesy of Mistie Kidder
"It's always the same," Kameron said, as I hold him for comfort. "It's the same dream I've been having these last few weeks, since we found Fenrill. Its terrible." I gently stroked his hair. Shadeon jumped up on the bed and nudged him.
"I know this is going to sound scary," I replied, "but would you allow Shadeon to animate the dream?"
The young man shuddered, and I knew he really was terrified of that dream, but I knew there had to be a purpose in it. You just don't have reocurring dreams for no reason! Especially not when you're an empath! It seemed plain to me that someone was trying to contact him, perhaps using Fenrill as a transmitter, since the dreams had not begun until we had met the Mew.
On the floor, one of the Vaporevees stirred and was tackled by Flora, who was getting very strong and gutsy now.
"It's not that the dreams are scary," he replied after a pause, "not compared with half the things that we've been through! No, it's just the feeling of despair that they fill me with. I hate that feeling, that life is pointless, aimless, nothing but a living hell."
There was a rapping at the door, we both jumped, causing Maki to fall over laughing. He taunted us for a little bit then began grooming Kiki. I sighed and opened it. It was Doctor Warwick. Kameron immediately looked embarrassed.
Doctor Frances glanced at his watch. "Excuse me," he said sternly, "but I hardly think it is appropriate for a fifteen year old to be entertaining an older man in her quarters at five fifteen aye em."
"We haven't even begun entertaining you yet, Doctor Warwick!" I quipped. "Why, might I ask, are you here at this hour."
"I haven't been able to sleep," he replied, "so I thought I would do some late night scouting of the halls, you know, to look for young men in the girl's dorm, that sort of thing," he stared pointedly at Kameron, "and I heard voices in here, one male, so I just had to investigate."
"Flori," Florion stated accusingly. He didn't like the nightly interruption, felt it was disturbing his babies, although three of them were awake and wrestling anyway.
"Why are you really here?" Kameron asked, giving the Professor a penetrating look.
"Well, err," Doctor Warwick shuffled his foot in the carpet.
Kameron chuckled. "Don't tell me, you've come to Kat for relationship advice?!"
Doctor Frances blushed.
"Let me see," Kameron grinned like a pumpkin, "you fancy that blond girl who works in the cafeteria?"
Here the good Doctor just looked puzzled.
"Hrm… Maybe, nah…" Kameron paused, then turned his brown eyes to stare at Frances. "It's Freyja, isn't it?"
The Doctor's red face said it all. "How-how did you know?"
Kameron grinned, "I'm telepathic, remember."
"No your not," Fenrill replied sleepily, "you're empathic, I'm telepathic. But it was a damned fine guess anyway."
The Doctor did not of course hear any of this, not having any sort of psychic bond with the pink cat.
"Anyway," I continued, "what advice do you want from us? I'm fifteen for goodness sake! And you're…" I paused, I didn't actually know how old he was, "older." I concluded weakly.
"I'm twenty six," he replied. "Why does it matter?"
"Just that you should've had more experience then us," Kameron pointed out. "What do you want to know?"
"How I can capture the heart of a young lady."
"I could hypnotise her, if you want," Fenrill offered helpfully.
"I don't think that will be entirely necessary," I informed her, "now," I turned my attention back to Frances, "chocolates and flowers are always good."
Kameron rolled his eyes, "that's just cheesy," he stated, "no, I think the best way you can catch her heart at the moment is to be there for her, to keep her company and maybe get her a job and to listen to her rant about how terrible her life was."
I looked at him amazed. "Wow, that's pretty good Kameron!"
He shrugged, "what can I say? I've had some experience of this!"
"Hey!" I exclaimed, "I never ranted about nothing!"
"Thank you," the Doctor replied, "I'll try that, now, tell me, what's a young man doing sneak into the women's dorm at four am?"
"I've been having these terrible dreams," Kameron stated, "perhaps you could help explain them?"
"I can try," he replied, "but you'd have to tell us first."
"Not exactly," Kameron replied. "Shadeon, come here!"
The Shadow Pokemon padded over and sat before him. Suddenly Azriel darted out from beneath a bench and ambushed Frances's foot. He was decidedly larger now, being an Umbreon and all, but despite our worries that he would change for the worst, he had not changed much at all. Although the added size made his playfulness a little harder to cope with! The doctor picked him up. And stared at him.
"When did little Azriel become an Umbreon?" He asked.
"When we healed him after our last fight with Loki," I explained.
"Ah, anyway," Doctor Warwick placed Azriel on the ground, "let's hear about this dream."
"Shadeon," Kameron added, "do your stuff!"
"Sshhhhhhaaaaaa!" Once again we were surrounded by thick mist. And we were on a valley road. It was a terrible, wet road, with huge mud puddles expanding everywhere. It was raining. It was cold. We were surrounded by hoards of people, all of them wearing shapeless hooded cloaks and tattered robes that looked to resemble old sheets. They were shuffling, heads down, hearts broken. There was a band of pain about my ankle and looking down, I realised it was shackled, a tight metal clamp about it. The pain was irritating, and blood trickled around the shackle, suggesting that it had been on there a long time and was too tight. It seemed odd that we were no longer on the outside looking in, as we had been in Shadeon's previous vision.
I saw Kameron beside me, and almost failed to recognise him in a shapeless grey robe. His hair hung about his face in matted clumps, the length of it had been chopped off so that it barely covered his ears, the rest of it was jagged and wretched, like we felt. My own hair had been cut crudely too, I could feel the wind on the back of my neck.
"Where are we?" I asked, realising that something was missing from the dream, my Pokemon. I felt lost without my animal companions.
"I would say that we are somewhere in Eastern Europe," came a voice from my left, "but I cannot be too sure."
"Silence!" A voice bellowed and someone pushed their way through the hoards to get close to us. It was a man, clad in black clothing, wearing a silver mask. In one hand he held a whip. This he raised menacingly. "You will be silent, child, or you will be punished!"
Instantly, silence ensued. We marched on, through the mud, feeling it squelch through the soles of our thin shoes. The pain, the despair, it surrounded us. There was no purpose, no life, just this endless march.
And then things returned to normal. I was seated on the bed, cradling Shadeon, whilst Kameron sat beside me and Doctor Frances Warwick crouched on the floor before us. Azriel was playing with his shoelace.
"That was weird," I stated, after a lengthy pause.
"Indeed, it was," the Doctor agreed, "now, these are your dreams Kameron?"
Kameron nodded.
"I think we've got some sort of psychic channelling their pain into the world for all to see," he stated. "All empaths and telepaths anyhow."
"I didn't dream it," Fenrill pointed out, bouncing into Kameron's lap and touching him lightly on the nose with one stubby paw.
"Fenrill's psychic and she didn't dream it," I translated.
"Well, human empaths and telepaths then," he recovered himself quickly. "Do you think this relates to the missing Mews?"
Fenrill frowned in concentration and then nodded. "I can sense my sister there," she replied, "when I look into the boy's mind."
"Hey, you looked into my mind!" Kameron snapped, "that's rude!"
"Oh never fear, I will not share those thoughts." The Mew replied cheekily. "I think we have a mystery to solve, any takers?"
"I'm in," Kameron replied straight away. "If it gets rid of those dreams, I'll do almost anything…"
"Anything eh?" I queried, leaning towards him.
Doctor Frances frowned. "Excuse me you two," he said with fake sternness in his voice, "I know you're teenagers and the hormones are running rampant, but get back to the ground!" He chuckled.
"Yessir!" Kameron saluted. Fenrill almost fell off his lap, she was laughing so hard.
"We're going to need a bigger map," I stated, dragging out the atlas. "Fenrill, chose the page!"
Fenrill pounced on the atlas and immediately opened it at, you guessed it, Eastern Europe, she pointed to somewhere in the middle of Poland. It appeared to be some forest on some hills, nothing unusual for Poland.
"We're going there are we then?" I asked. "Can you take us there Fenrill?"
"Like I said earlier, give me chocolate and I'll take you anywhere, even Siberia, to find my sister." She quirked her head on the side, "chocolate?"
"Oh yeah, fine!" I pulled a block of chocolate from the refrigerator. The Mew polished it off in about five minutes, she wiped the chocolate from her face.
"Are we ready to go now?" She asked.
"Hang on, let us get ready first!" Doctor Warwick exclaimed. "Don't forget you guys, Loki is getting pretty powerful now, and you'll need all the help you can get."
I glanced at the hoards of Pokemon about the room.
"We have to leave the pups behind," I stated, "and I should leave Flora too, she's a bit too young yet to cope with such adversity. But we can take the rest, right?"
Kameron nodded. "Come on guys!" He shouted. "We're going to Poland, those who want to join us, come here now, those who don't, stay asleep!"
"Shhhhaa sha!"
"Umbre!"
"Maki maki."
"Maki."
"Slash."
"Marrill."
"Freeeee."
"Sii!"
"Chiko rita!"
"Okay, is that everyone?" I asked as all the Pokemon minus the proud parents clustered around us. "We'll just put on some decent clothes, then let's be off!"
We were in a lonely valley, surrounded by high hills and tall trees. It appeared to be early morning. We picked our way out of the thorny bushes that surrounded us. Even Maki and Kiki looked disturbed.
"Okay, where are we, wise Doctor?" Kameron asked Doctor Warwick. He shrugged.
"In a tree filled valley," he replied.
I scowled at him. "And that's why you have a degree and we don't?" I queried.
"Something like that."
I released Chiko from her ball, this seemed like the right type of habitat for her anyway and she hadn't been off campus for some time.
"Chiko! Chikoritaaa!" She trilled.
"At least someone is happy to be here," I commented. Kameron grinned and took my hand in his.
"I don't mind it here," he said. "I think the mist is kind of pretty."
Mist shrouded the tops of the trees, caressing them. It was kind of pretty, but I could not hide the fact that after Shadeon's vision, I was a little bit on edge. Something flashed past in the bushes and Kameron quickly whipped out his Pokedex, but he was too slow.
"Ever studied the Pokemon fauna of Poland?" I asked Doctor Warwick.
He shook his head. "No, although the fauna is not that different from the ones you will remember from back home. Apparently Hinorashi are common, as are Otachi."
As if on cue, Maki suddenly whirled around and called excitedly. "Maki kiki!"
I hurried over to see what he had found, dragging Kameron with me.
"Oh, the poor thing!" I remarked. Before us was a torn up patch of grass and in the midst of it lay a strange Pokemon with rings about its body.
"Ootachi," Doctor Warwick remarked, about the same instance as Kameron pointed his Pokedex at it. "Also known as Furret. Looks like we have some trappers around here."
I crouched down, and the blue-eyed creature whimpered in fear, drawing back from me. Chiko immediately danced over and nuzzled it.
"Chiko," she said reassuringly.
"We're not going to hurt you, little guy," I added.
"Ta!" It spat at me. The jaws of the trap had closed around its long tail, and its fur was caked with blood.
Doctor Frances handed me a large chunk of wood. "Use this to wedge it open," he urged me. "I'll grab the creature and pull it out."
"It'll bite," Kameron cautioned. It was not mere paranoid, but a genuine warning.
I nodded and knelt down before the terrified creature. "Kameron," I suggested, "you pull the jaws apart, I'll jam this between them and Doctor Warwick, you pull it out!"
Kameron nodded and took a firm grip on the sides of the trap, heaving them apart. As quickly as I could I slammed the piece of wood between them and Frances grabbed the Ootachi, then squealed as it closed its sharp teeth about his forearm.
"Get it off!" He urged.
"Chiko?" I suggested, "do you want to put it to sleep?"
"Ko!" She nodded and sprayed it with light powder. Its grip lessened and Doctor Warwick managed to remove it from his arm.
"Well, that was painful," he said, dabbing at the bite marks with a handkerchief. I was left holding the sleeping animal.
"Now what?" I asked. "Do I heal it and we let it go?"
"Hrm," the Doctor pondered, "I could, I suppose, take it back to the laboratory to study…"
I scowled at him, although I knew he was joking. And I placed my hands on its wounded tail. The familiar feeling coursed through my veins and I set the creature on the ground. Its tail had stopped bleeding and the sleeping powder's effect had been reversed. It scampered away, somewhat slowly.
Suddenly someone shouted at us in a language we couldn't understand. We whirled to find ourselves facing a rather burly looking man with animal carcasses strung from a rack on his back. In one hand he held a rather nasty looking club.
"I don't think he's too happy about us releasing the Ootachi," Doctor Warwick muttered. "Perhaps we should get the heck outa here!"
Glancing around fitfully, we made a run for it. The hunter did not follow, but something else did.
A short while later we found ourselves on a road, and collapsed panting to the tarmac. Or rather the shingle, as it appeared to be largely a dirt road.
"Well, that was invigorating," Doctor Warwick grinned.
Fenrill sat down on the road. "I can't feel her," she said softly. "I've lost her."
I stroked her on the head, scratching her behind the ears. She tried to hide a purr. "Don't worry, we'll find her," I reassured her.
"I feel empty," she replied, "lost." She curled up in my arms.
Suddenly the sky flashed golden and thunder rolled across the heavens. Fenrill's fur stood on end.
"There's a thunder storm brewing!" Doctor Warwick remarked intelligently.
"Maki…" Maki rolled his eyes.
I chuckled. "State the obvious," I translated for Doctor Frances. He grinned.
"We should seek cover." Kameron pointed out. Maki sprang from his characteristic place on my shoulder and suddenly sprang down the far bank.
I glanced at Doctor Frances. "We follow?" I queried.
He nodded in affirmation and I scrambled down the bank after my runaway Pokemon. Fat droplets of rain plopped to the ground around us.
Maki led me to what appeared to be a cave, formed by two rocks leaning into each other and covered in moss and bits of fallen trees. He dragged out something and handed it to me. It was a stuffed Vaporeon toy, obviously well loved for it had a certain worn look to it.
"Strange…" I pondered, peering into the depths of the cave and suddenly something sprang out at me.
"Hoothoot!" It hooted. I stumbled back in alarm.
Maki, who knew owls love to eat small furry Pokemon, immediately dived into Kameron's trenchcoat pocket.
My heart was pounding, but I leaned against the tree and took some deep breaths. It was just a small, circular bird.
A moment later it fluffed out all its feathers and hooted at me once more. I waved my hands at it, hoping to frighten it away, but it flew towards my face, talons outstretched.
"Maki!" Maki shrieked and a beam of light shot from his forehead and sent it tumbling into the ground, flapping weakly.
A startled voice came from behind us. "What are you doing to my Fidget? Puffy, deal with them!"
Suddenly a Coffin' materialised. It opened its mouth and some noxious fumes started to pour out.
I held up my hands, "no, you don't understand, we don't want to hurt…." And then I started coughing crazily and fell to my knees.
"Dancer!" Kameron shouted, "blow the fumes away!"
"Freee!" The Butterfree trilled, happy to be doing something. She flapped her wings, sending the smoke cloud back. The attacker, and my first thought was that it was a boy, stumbled backwards, recalling his Coffin'.
"Now, please," Doctor Warwick tried to explain, "can we be civilised without fighting?"
I dragged myself to my feet. "Your Hoothoot attacked me," I tried to explain, "Maki was just defending me."
The newcomer nodded. "She does that," the person said, and I realised from the voice that it was a female. But a female with a particularly boyish figure.
Fenrill sat herself on the roof of the dwelling and stared dejectedly at her tail.
The woman frowned. "Is that a Mew?" She asked. "I thought they were just a myth!"
Fenrill looked up at her with bright blue eyes and tilted her head on one side. "Mew?" She enquired sweetly.
"Um, sorry to interrupt and all," Kameron butted in, "but I'm getting a bit damp here, can we kinda like get out of the rain before I drown?"
Doctor Warwick sighed and rolled his eyes. "Hi," he said, "my name's Frances, Doctor Frances Warwick."
"He's a Pokemon Ecologist." I explained.
"Which makes him very popular with the girls," Kameron cracked. Frances rewarded him with a glare.
"I'm Kataryna," I interrupted, "and this little bundle of fur is Maki. And as for this obnoxious young man… This is Kameron, my boyfriend."
"Watch who you're calling a boy," Kameron joked.
The woman looked at us as if we were completely insane. "I'm Samantha," she said, "now come inside, if we can all, err, fit…"
"Oh, that's okay," I said with a grin. "We'll just leave Kameron out there, a cold shower will do him good!"
Samantha picked up the Hoothoot, which was just starting to try and flap upwards and we all hurried into the dank little cave. Maki immediately placed the stuffed Vaporeon in Samantha's lap and then set about dismantling Kameron's Pokedex, until the boy removed it from his curious paws.
I moved into the small, for want of a better word, den. The Hoothoot took a roost above the entranceway, glaring balefully at Maki. It was a rather small den, and we managed to sit down on what appeared to be a picnic blanket. Maki used his star to illuminate the room.
"So," I asked, "whatever are you doing a forsaken place like this?"
The Coffin' did a little loop in the air. Sam smiled. "I'm trying to find a new home for my Coffin'," she replied.
"Coffing…" The Coffin' agreed, hiding behind Samantha's head.
"She's a little shy," Samantha stated. "Anyway, my wanderings led me here of all places, and I was wandering down the road when a strange noise caught my attention. It sounded like a lot of shouting and many people moving. Being naturally curious," I nodded in agreement, "I investigate, and came across what appeared to be an extremely large group of people, all of them marching along the dirt road."
Kameron grabbed my arm, tightly and squeezed it. "My dream," he mouthed.
I nodded, but said nothing. Doctor Warwick just sat there, staring at her in fascination.
"Continue," he suggested.
"Anyway," the woman continued, "I decided I better stay well away, maybe observe from a distance, but then they became aware of my presence. As I tried to sneak away, they came after me, two of them, clad in dark clothing and hoods. I released my Pokemon quickly, hoping they would help me, but these people were too fast and they could do things no normal people could… I found myself unable to move, like I was paralyzed."
"Like when you're caught in a disable attack?" Doctor Warwick asked, sounding fascinated. We were all fascinated.
She nodded, "I guess so… Anyway, Fidget and my little Vulpix escaped, as did Puffy, although they followed us at a distance. As they grabbed me by the wrists, one of their hoods slipped back and I saw that they had pointed ears, like…" she paused, staring at us with wide eyes, "you're never going to believe this, but like a Kadabra!"
I gulped. I had no great love of Kadabras (for obvious reasons – my enemies had used them against me many times…). "You're saying these people were Kadabras?"
She shook her head, "not quite Kadabras, but like them, with the ears and long thin faces, but they looked human as well."
"Some kind of mutant," Kameron stated, we had read about such things in cheap paperbacks, but had never thought they could be real. "So, what happened next?"
"They took me up to the group of people and slammed a band about my ankle, see," she pulled up her trouser leg to reveal a dark bruise. "And then they made us march along. I wasn't paralysed by then you see. My Tauros, Crete, they took away from me, tying him up as well, and my Ditto, well, it shifted into a scarf shape so they could not see it."
"We marched for days," she continued, "they stopped to give us water on occasion, and bits of dried bread, and we saw that many of them were Kadabra, although there were also Abra amongst them. The leader appeared to be an Alakazam-like woman, who dressed in nothing but a huge cloak. If we lingered, we were dragged cruelly forward by the ankle bands, if we talked, we were whipped."
"Just like your dream," I whispered to Kameron, "do you think someone called us here?"
"My sister," Fenrill remarked, "she called us here, because she is here and she cannot help. Even the powers of one Mew are nothing against the powers of many psychic Pokemon, especially ones led by something as intelligent as an Alakazam. She is here to help them, but I am afraid that the Mew Hunter might be after her too."
Samantha looked confused as the Mew went through her speech that the woman could not understand, yet Kameron and I nodded. Frances and Sam shared a confused look.
"It appears they can understand it," the Doctor concluded.
"So could you if you'd learn to listen," Fenrill replied. "We must find my sister and protect her."
"But what about all these people? We cannot leave them here to be tortured and used as slaves. What exactly are they using them for?" I asked. I hoped it wasn't anything too terrible.
Samantha paused, "well, at night they left us in chains but left us only guarded by two of them, so we could do some talking. I found a young man called Stefan. He said that years ago the air of this country had been polluted by a strange substance – it was actually the thought of the pollution that brought us here, because I thought Puffy might fit in, anyway, this pollution caused mutations in the children, they were born with ears and tails, along with the powers of Abras. It was not known why these psychic Pokemon were the only ones that appeared, but still, it happened.
"These children were often abandoned or sent to institutes, such as orphanages, and most of them grew up hating or fearing humans. They were mistreated, being regarded as little more than animals and having no legal rights. Two years ago, they all disappeared. Nobody knew what happened to them. And then people starting vanishing, mostly youngsters out in the fields, or vagrants, anyone who was alone basically. The President investigated, but nothing was ever found. I guess now we have our answer."
"That is the most bizarre story I've ever heard," Doctor Warwick exclaimed.
"Um, Doctor Frances," I reminded him, "we did tell you about the haunted house didn't we?"
"And the Alakazam that wanted to take over the world," Kameron added.
"And the secret breeding ground of the Lapras."
"Okay, okay," he rose his hands in surrender, "one of the strangest stories I've ever heard. You kids sure know how to collect them, don't you!"
Samantha stared at us in confused fascination. "You must have some tales," she said.
I rolled my eyes. "Do we ever! One day I'll write them all down!"
"We can't forget that one about the colony of ant Pokemon living beneath Celadon City," Kameron exclaimed.
"Yes," I said slowly, "we can, and we shall." That was certainly one I would never write down, it was just too bizarre, even now I could not believe it had happened.
(note to readers: sorry, I'm in a weird mood at present, please forgive me!).
"So what do we do now?" I asked.
"Hang on," Doctor Frances stated, "I believe you folks are being rude – Samantha has not finished her tale yet."
"Oh, sorry!" I hadn't realised, I had got distracted. Kameron did that to me. Sometimes I worried that we were too occupied with each other and tended to overlook more important things. As if anything could be more important then Kameron!
"Anyway," she continued, looking quite non-plussed, "I had been there about a fortnight when the cloaked guards had some sort of party. We were roped together, and bound to a tree. Only, because the guards were distracted, Kabuki transformed into a crowbar and I managed to force myself out. Then Puffy sent a choking gas over everyone so I could sneak away, free Crete and get the heck out of there. It was terrible. And if it wasn't for my Pokemon I would still be trapped." She patted Puffy. The Coffin' looped happily in the air.
"We have to free them," Kameron stated.
Doctor Frances and I both nodded in agreement.
"But how?" Samantha asked.
"With the help of my sister, we could show them the error of their ways," Fenrill suggested, "we have a number of very strong psychic and dark Pokemon here – me, Shadeon, Azriel, Maki, Dragosi… I am sure we should be able to do something."
I nodded, "and a Ditto too, that could be extremely useful."
Doctor Warwick smiled, "I suppose I should have brought Puppy," he said. Puppy was his Growlithe, who was not a Puppy at all, despite the name.
"Shadeon will be best against the psychic types," Kameron pointed out. "How many of them are there?"
Samantha pondered for a moment. "Between two and three dozen," she declared.
"And how many prisoners?"
"Too many to count."
"We have to stop them – Fenrill, can you find your sister?"
Fenrill quirked her head on one side. "I think so."
"Good, then let's track her down!"
*
We made our way carefully along the side of the hill, whilst above us Fenrill hovered in the air, doing the occasional little twist and turn as she orientated on her missing sister.
Suddenly she paused and pointed. "That way!" She declared.
Following her carefully, we made our way up a slippery scree slope. Suddenly Kameron reached down and pushed me so that I slipped behind a bush. Startled, I grabbed onto his ankles, dragging him with me.
"What did you do that for?" I asked him.
"Sshhh!" He hissed at me urgently, "someone's coming!" Seeing our example, Samantha hid herself, dragging Doctor Warwick with her.
A moment later, two hooded figures made their way up the slope, mere feet from where we stood. Kameron clung to me as we watched them walk past. I saw the edge of one's cloak rise so that its foot, a great gnarled claw-like thing, was clearly visible. A moment later, its tail dragged across the ground behind it. They had passed us by, and we were just beginning to let out a sigh of relief, when one of them paused. It reached up with long fingered hands and pushed back its hood, revealing a face that was mostly human, although the nose and chin were stretched grotesquely into a muzzle and its ears were greatly extended. It appeared to sniff the air, them muttered something to its companion. The second morphic mutant also pulled back its hood, its eyes glowing as it tested the air for the presence of life.
It was only a matter of time before they would catch us.
Suddenly smoke started to pour into the air, as Puffer floated out from the cover of the bush and tried to confuse them. I nudged Kameron.
He nodded, drawing out the special Pokeball, "go Shadeon," he whispered, as the Shadow Eon sprang into the smoke. Suddenly Puffer came tumbling out of her little smoke cloud and bounced in amongst us.
"Oh no! Confusion!" I whispered, as I fell choking to the ground, trying to drag myself away from the filth that tried to coat my lungs in foulness.
Suddenly I felt something grab me, something that was not quite physical, more like… energy. I struggled against it and I was dragged from the bush, and held, suspended in the air. Maki, clinging desperately to my shoulder, scrabbled for a better hold, then slipped.
The Kadabra said something in Polish that I did not understand. Fenrill, partly obscured by the shrubbery, sprang out and aimed a psychic blast at it. The other morphic-Kadabra shouted a warning, and waved its hand, sending a beam of psychic light to meet that of the Mew's. The two beams met, and exploded in a spray of vivid violet.
Now the Kadabra-man that held me suspended waved its other hand, and Kameron too was lifted from the bush, held in the air beside me. The mutant chuckled softly to itself. Both of us were unable to move, and hovering at such a height, that if we were dropped, then injury would surely result. Not to mention that I had housed all my Pokemon safely in their Pokeballs afore we had set off on the trek, comfortable in the knowledge that I could call them out, should the situation demand. Alas, I had been wrong…
Shadeon, not held back by fears of hurting us, obviously, leapt at the Kadabra attacking Fenrill, turning herself into shadow as she did so. I knew what she was trying to do - devolve the creature, but a moment later she stood on the ground, shaking her head in confusion. It appeared you could not devolve these mutant Pokemon. As if recognising her powers, instead of attacking her psychically, the Kadabra kicked at her with its hideously deformed foot. With a yelp she tumbled into the bushes.
And then, suddenly, everything went dark.
*
When I awoke, the smell of sweat and fear surrounded me. I blinked as a flashlight was shone in my eyes and found myself staring into a golden mask, carved into the shape of a Kadabra's head. It seemed oddly familiar – a figment from Kameron's dream.
My head throbbed. And Maki was nowhere in sight. In fact, all my Pokemon were missing. I glanced around, but Kameron too, was missing, and I was surrounded by hollow-eyed men and women, all of them looking two steps from death.
"Where are we?" I asked, as the jackal-masked creature moved away.
"Sssh," hissed a voice in imperfect English. "You speak, you get bad pain. No good to speak. You are in," the speaker paused for a moment, as if struggling to gain the right words, "Camp of Death."
"Why?" I asked, but the hollow-eyed man who had spoken to me merely shook his head and would say no more.
I sat down in the darkness and stared at the stars above, shrouded by clouds. And I worried – I worried about where Kameron was being held captive and how Sam and Frances were faring. But most of all, I worried about my Pokemon, Maki and all the others. Had they been taken captive? Or had they escaped?
As I watched the moon pass across the sky, unable to sleep out of worry and fear, I felt something cold nudge my hand and almost jumped in fear. A pair of blazing red eyes shone at me from the darkness.
"Shaaa," the shadow Pokemon whispered.
"Shadeon!" I hissed loudly. "You got away!" Of course she would, the Pokemon could pass through darkness as if she were naught but a shadow. No cage could hold her. And her presence here meant that Kameron could not be far away. I peered at her dark shape, umbra in the darkness, and fancied she seemed fainter then usual. When I tentatively reached out to touch her, she felt like nothing more then cloud, or mist. Kameron must not be that near, and she must be suffering intense pain just being this far from him. Provided her special Pokeball had not been taken by the Kadabra-freaks as well. "I need you to find Kameron," I informed her, "and Samantha and Doctor Warwick, if you can get that far. Please!"
"Shaaa, shaaa!" She said eagerly, and I knew she would do so, to the best of her ability. And then, she sprang into the air and disappeared into the shadows.
"What was that?" The old man hissed, glancing furtively about, reassuring himself that he was not being watched by the guardians.
"A friend," I replied. "And a good one."
*
To take a break from my normal writing style, the following bit is not written from my point of view. It was retold to me in this fashion from Doctor Francis Warwick, therefore, I am only assuming it is the truth, for he is a scientist and a scholar and I doubt such a person would tell untruths. I am writing this so you know what happened to the others, once we left them behind.
I wanted to help them, I really did, but Samantha held me back and once we saw them dragged away assured me it was better for us to remain free.
"The dark Pokemon went after them," she informed me, and for a moment I thought she meant Azriel. "The odd one," she added, "what is that thing?"
"Oh, right, Shadeon," I replied, "a mutant Eevee. I believe it always must stay near its Pokeball, so it will be with Kameron for the moment. Should we follow them?"
Samantha chuckled, "of course we should," she replied. "But what happened to the Mew?"
"Fenrill?" I called hesitantly, but the Mew did not reveal herself. "Do you think they caught her?"
The young woman shrugged. "Possibly. Anyway, we must proceed as we can." She drew out a Pokeball, "Foxfire, sweetie, can you track the nasty creatures?"
The little Vulpix shuddered slightly then nodded. It was extremely young, having only three tails, instead of the usual six, yet it showed the same sort of dedication to its Trainer that I had seen already in Kataryna's Pokemon. She set the creature on the ground and after a moment, twisting its mouth as if at something distasteful, it "vul'd" and trotted off, taking great care to never get to far from us.
"Without Kameron and Kataryna's Pokemon I think we're going to have some difficulty," I stated, in a cheerful enough manner. Apparently though, Samantha took this as something of an insult.
"There's nothing wrong with my pokemon," she scowled, showing the same sort of fire I have seen in you Kat. Determination can be a wonderful aide to one's cause.
"Oh, I was not complaining about your Pokemon," I tried to explain, stuttering a little (as you know I am prone to around women, Kat), "merely that you do not have any that are particularly strong against Psychic types."
Samantha then pointedly stared at me. "I have a Ditto," she said simply.
"Um well, very well then. I think I have an idea. Do you think your Ditto could assume the likeness of one of them?"
"Of course he can!" Samantha exclaimed, "provided we have one come in contact with us. That way it is much easier."
And so we trailed the morphs, armed with a confused Coffin', a baby Vulpix, an irritable Hoothoot, a Taurus and the dependable Ditto.
We had not travelled far when Foxfire stopped and whimpered, the fur on her neck standing on end. She shuddered. At first we thought it meant that we had been found out, but then a pair of gleaming red eyes blinked at us from the darkness.
"Shadeon?" I recognised her immediately, from both her size (quite large at the moment) and also the fear exhibited by the Vulpix. Natural Pokemon were understandably somewhat disturbed by the presence of this unnatural mutation, and although Kameron and Kataryna's Pokemon had become used to her presence, conditioned, one might say, Samantha's Pokemon had not. Shadeon stepped from the shadows into the slightly lighter part of the darkness and I could see that she was more shadow then real, something which meant she had travelled almost too far from her Pokeball.
"Have you found them?" I asked her, as Foxfire hid behind Samantha's leg, shuddering madly.
She nodded, understanding at once my inability to understand her language.
"Are they okay?"
She shrugged, seeming somewhat confused. I took this to mean that they were alive, but maybe not in a particularly happy state of affairs. I may have been wrong with this interpretation.
"Are they together?" Samantha asked, perhaps a little more sensibly.
"Shaaaa…" She shook her head furiously. They were not together. That boded less well.
"We need to find Fenrill," I continued. "Did they take her too?"
Again, Shadeon shook her head.
"Could you find her for us?"
It appeared the answer, again, was no. That meant Fenrill was out of Shadeon's travelling range. We needed to find her, but alas, were somewhat lacking in terms of Psychic types. Shadeon, the only free Pokemon that could find her, was unable to travel far enough to actually reach her.
"Can you at least point us in the right direction?" Samantha, very sensibly, asked. I was beginning to rather like this woman, her mind seemed to be in the right place.
"Shaaa sha!" Shadeon nodded and pointed her muzzle in the direction we had come from, more or less. She seemed to be trying to tell us something more, but I, alas, could not understand her complicated gestures and movements. Suddenly a shudder passed down her spine and she turned and disappeared into the shadow. I guessed the distance was getting too painful for her. We had not properly tested how far she could travel from her Pokeball, but we had discovered that anywhere further than a hundred feet was painful to her.
So, marking this place in our minds, we set back, in search of the missing Mew.
The landscape around here was light woodland, and rather damp, which made tracking of any kind extremely difficult. Add to this the fact that it was dark and that Mews do not have particularly noticeable scents. It took us the next few hours to find the Mew, and then it was Fidget, the haughty little owl, that did so. She came flapping back to us, hooting madly and perched on Samantha's shoulder, before flapping off again.
Fenrill lay in the long grass, her tail over her nose, almost rolled up in a ball. I quickly scooped her up and she rolled over, opening her blue eyes.
"Mew," she insisted, "me-ew, ew."
I had no hope of understanding her, but all signs indicated that she too had been affected by the Kadabra-morph's confusion attack. Her pupils were narrow, despite the darkness, and her eyes seemed unable to focus. All signs of a confused Pokemon. It appeared we were, indeed, on our own.
Suddenly we heard footsteps coming towards us, and Fidget hooted in alarm. I gallantly took Samantha by the arm and pulled her behind a sheltering rock, still cradling the Mew in one arm. In the darkness I could see the shape of one of the morphs. A lone one.
I fancied I could see Samantha smile slyly as she drew out a Pokeball, releasing her Taurus.
The three-tailed bull saw the danger immediately, and scraped one foot through the dirt, lowering its wide horns to charge. He was a pretty impressive specimen , if I do say so myself. Just as the cloaked morph realised the presence of Crete, he charged. It threw up its hands, preparing some sort of deadly Psychic attack, but the Taurus clearly had the advantage, not only of surprise, but also because it had a natural advantage over psychic types. Almost before the purple light had formed in its hands, the bull sent it flying into the dirt, then reared up on its hind feet and trampled it enthusiastically. Samantha had not said a word, but had a look of intense concentration on her face as though she were making every move with her Pokemon. It was almost as if they had a psychic bond, but if that were the case, the Kadabra morphs could have sensed it as surely as they had sensed the presence of Kameron and Kataryna.
As soon as the creature had stopped moving, Samantha hurried to its side, and Crete stopped what he was doing and stepped nimbly to the side. She bent over it, removing the cloak from its battered and bloody form and establishing the fact that it was, if not dead, then no longer any sort of threat.
"It is some weird sort of mutant," she remarked, displaying its features for the both of us to see.
I tried to hide the fact that I was feeling somewhat queasy. It had the standard features of a kadabra, but they were twisted into those of a human. Samantha stepped over to it easily, removing its cape and the mask, draping the former across her shoulders.
"Now what?" I asked.
She stroked her chin in thought. "Well we can't really just leave it here, or they will find it and follow us, but at least we have proven something."
"Yes?"
"They can be beaten."
"Maybe, but what are two people and five Pokemon supposed to do versus an army of psychic morphs?"
"Be very subtle." She replied.
In the end we dragged the dead morph into the bushes and buried it under a pile of leaves and dirt. I doubted it would remain hidden for long, but it was better then just leaving it in the open for anyone to see.
Samantha released her little Owl. "Fidget," she said carefully to it, "I want you to go out there and see if you can find Kat and Kameron, okay? Or, failing that, Shadeon. You better behave yourself too, or it will be on your head." She drew out her Ditto. "Kabuki, go with her, okay?"
The Ditto changed form so that it was also, more or less, a HootHoot. The two of them quarrelled for a brief moment, then flapped off into the darkness.
"Okay," Samantha continued, "now we have to revive that Mew."
We lay Fenrill down on top of the cloak we had taken from the morphic being and both leaned over her. Her breathing seemed fine, although a little irregular, but that was not what disturbed us. What disturbed us was that her eyes were wide open, a bright blueness staring into nothing. Samantha ran her fingers through the legendary creature's short, pink fur and I must confess, I had experienced a similar feeling to do the same.
"How can we awaken her?" She asked, staring at me as if I had the answers.
I shrugged. "I do not know," I confessed.
She seemed almost accusing in her expression. "And you call yourself an Ecologist," she said with a sigh.
"I study wild Pokemon," I replied calmly, "not legendary ones."
"What would you use to waken a normal Pokemon?" She asked. "Oh, let me see, a Pokeflute?"
"That might work," I felt a little abashed, being upstaged by a woman who lacked in my Scientific knowledge, yet still knew more then me. "If we had one."
"Well," she replied, "as a matter of fact, I do." And she dragged something from her knapsack.
"Where did you get that?" I didn't mean to say it, it just burst out. I began to feel as though I were making a fool of myself. Women tended to make me a little nervous at the best of times.
"I stole it from a little kid," she replied, almost bitterly, "what do you think? I won it in a Pokemon Battle."
"You must be a good Trainer," I hastily tried to repair the damage I had caused.
She brushed her hand through her hair. "Hardly," she scoffed, "just better then those amateurs." And she brought the Flute to her lips, blowing over it delicately.
The noise, when it came, was lighter than the wings of a Butterfree, sweeter then the heart of a Chansey. It seemed to make the dance with life and with it came the stirring of a fresh breeze.
The Mew blinked once, twice, her eyes slowly gaining focus.
The tune played on, as Samantha's fingers danced gaily over the notes. And I felt my heart dance with it.
"Me-eewwwww!" Fenrill shrieked suddenly. Her hands clenching and unclenching. She began spasming, still shrieking. We both grabbed her, in an attempt to stop her making so much noise, and she buried her head in my shoulder and began shaking with sobs.
"Fenrill? Fenrill? Are you okay?" I asked, although it was obvious that she was not.
"Mew," she replied, wiping her large blue eyes. "Mew-ew." She nodded sharply, curling her tail around my neck.
"We need to find your sister." I stated.
Suddenly a Hoothoot came swooping through the darkness to perch on Samantha's shoulder.
"Hoot hoot!" There was urgency in its voice. Samantha picked up on its meaning.
"They're coming! We must run!"
They must have heard the shrieks of the poor Mew.
Cradling Fenrill to my chest, I ran across the field as best I could, raindrops beating against my face, matting my hair close to my scalp. Behind me, Samantha ran too, whilst around her head her Hoothoot flapped and dove, making no noise, but still resembling a grey ghost. My foot stumbled beneath me, crumpling under me and I fell, tumbling down a slight incline, and into what appeared to be a dark pit. Fenrill clung to me desperately, making no noise but a tiny whimper as we fell through darkness and into a pile of dirt. It knocked the wind from me, but did not hurt me.
A moment later Samantha landed beside me, on her feet, having jumped down the same hole. We crouched in the darkness, horrified at the thought of being discovered, and aware that if they had ignored us once, they might ignore us again.
Except that Fenrill was psychic, and they seemed able to pick up on psychic beings.
Suddenly something was thrown over both of us, the cloak that we had removed from the creature. It was heavy, almost smothering and I was not in a particularly good state. The smell was bad too, it reeked of sweat and poor hygiene. Above us, I could hear footsteps, and a few pieces of dirt showered down on us, but the voices above shouted to each other and then were gone into the distance.
Samantha dragged the blanket off of us and wrapped Fenrill in it. The little Mew whimpered some more.
"Why didn't they find us?" I asked in a hoarse whisper.
A shrug was my reply, "I think the blankets somehow muffle the psychic signal," Samantha added as an explanation. "Maybe they wear them so they can track psychics without stumbling upon each other."
You just had to admire this woman.
"Now what?" I replied, trying to drag myself to my feet. I think I had broken my ankle, for the pain was unbearable, but I was hardly to confess that to Samantha, was I? She had already been made too aware of my frailties.
Samantha drew a Pokeball from her belt and called out her tiny Vulpix pup. Foxfire stared up at us out of bright orange eyes. Her body glowed slightly, as do most Fire Pokemon, and we could vaguely see the outlines of the area we were in. It appeared to be some sort of underground tunnel. The way we had entered, the pit, rose above us, its sides steep and crumbling, quite impossible to climb, with or without a rope.
"Looks like we are stranded," I stated.
"Not quite." Foxfire pointed her muzzle into the darkness and shot out a thin beam of fire. It was nothing powerful yet, but it was enough to illuminate a passageway, leading deeper under the earth. "If we can't go up, we go down." Samantha said, almost ominously.
"Right." I didn't want her to see how nervous I was.
Following the lead of the tiny fox, and leaning on the wall for support, I hobbled down the passage, whilst beside me Samantha strode almost boldly, placing each foot in exactly the right place. She would not stumble, she would not fall down a pit. In her arms she cradled the swathed form of Fenrill, who lay quietly, almost like a baby. Stabs of pain erupted from my ankle, as I hobbled onwards, into a darkness lit only by the fire of the baby Vulpix.
And then the passage opened up, and Fenrill cried out from Samantha's arms, "Mew"ing in pain I thought. But I may have been wrong. Foxfire's weak flames only lit a few feet, but it was easy to see and feel that the place we had entered was extremely large, a cavern of some description.
Suddenly something jumped in front of us.
"Sycth, sycth!" Two Sycthers, slashing at us with their blades leapt from the darkness. Their eyes seemed to glow red in the part light. Foxfire whimpered but bravely stood her ground.
I really wished I had brought my Puppy.
Suddenly the HootHoot swooped down and transformed itself into a Sycther too. The Ditto retalliated by slashing its blades through the air too. Nobody had made any move to attack yet, the slicing blades seemed more for intimidation so far.
Fenrill whimpered again.
"Go Crete!" Samantha shouted, releasing her Tauros. At least the cavern was big enough for the rather large bull. It would not do to let the Coffin' free here – for in such a space the gas would affect us as much as the attacking Pokemon. Crete snorted and pawed the ground, lowing his impressive horns in preparation for a charge.
"MEW!" Fenrill shrieked, and the Sycther stumbled back. Crete rose his head and quirked it at the pink cat.
"Taurrr?" He bellowed.
"Sycther?" The Sycther queried.
"Mew, mew mew mew!"
And then, both Sycther bowed to her.
I began to wish I could understand Pokemon as well as you, Kat, for surely it would make things less confusing.
And then the Sycther walked further into the cavern, beckoning with their blades for us to follow. Samantha, without even looking at me, recalled her Tauros, picked up Foxfire (Kabuki flapped to her shoulder, a Hoothoot again). We followed them further into darkness, and due to my injury, I had to lean on Samantha for support. It was not something I was proud doing, but it was necessary. The pain was pretty terrible.
"Are You alright?" She asked me.
I gritted my teeth against the pain. "Fine, just fine, but I have hurt my ankle."
"You poor thing," she said, and I wondered if she was being sarcastic or not.
We walked (or in my case, hobbled) further into darkness.
And after a time we reached the end of the cavern. The two Scythers stepped aside, bowing all the while, and nodded at something we could not see in the darkness. We moved closer, Samantha holding Foxfire towards it, almost as if the little Vulpix were a torch.
It was a Mew, almost completely encased in ice.
"Mew!" Fenrill shrieked and leapt from Samantha's arms and onto the block of ice. How it had not melted I did not know, for although it was cold in here, it was hardly that cold. The Mew placed her hands on the ice block and closed her eyes. A keening sound filled the ear.
"Mmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww…."
Dirt showered down on us from the ceiling, Samantha cradled her Vulpix close to her chest and I crouched there, leaning against the wall, too terrified to move. The ice that encased the Mew began to crack. The two Scythers shielded their faces with their blade.
And suddenly the ice exploded, showering us all with shrapnel. And before us, the Mew dragged herself into a sitting position. Fenrill floated down to sit beside her.
The new Mew had a greenish tinge to its fur, and her tail terminated in a ball of spines. She seemed dazed, which was hardly a surprise, given the state of affairs.
"Right," Samantha stated. "We've found the Mews. Now I guess we ask them for help." She knelt down in front of the two Mews. "Please, help my friends."
Fenrill nodded, and put a finger to Samantha's lips to silence her. "Mew, mew mew mew meeew me-ewww mew," she explained to the other Mew.
"Me-ew, mew, ew mew." It appeared to agree.
Fenrill nodded at us. "Mew," she said, making some complicated hand gestures.
The two Scythers stood to attention, saluting with their blades. Suddenly the ground beneath us began shaking and from it erupted the rounded heads of Digletts and Dugtrio.
"Dig-lett," one croned, and the others echoed it.
"They're going to help us save our friends?" I asked.
Fenrill nodded. "Mew."
* * *
Now, back to me again, yes me, I know you've been missing me, right?
As dark passed through its zenith and was well on the way to dawn, Shadeon returned once more. She crawled under my chin and nuzzled me. But she could not stay long, since her Pokeball, which she was bound to, was somewhere else. She brought with her a message of love from Kameron, and informed me that Doctor Frances and Samantha had escaped. Then she had to disappear again, to spend the daylight hours in her Ball.
I felt empty without my Pokefriends around, and hoped that Maki and Kiki had made it away. Maki had not, of course, been in his ball at the time of capture, so they couldn't have caught him too, could they? And I did not even have the companionship of Kameron. It was like an emptiness in the pit of my heart, a hollow feeling. A feeling of being incomplete. And I knew I was incomplete without Kameron. Without Maki.
And I had to put my trust in someone I didn't know and a Scientist who studied animals in a laboratory. Hardly an encouraging fact.
I was falling into the depths of despair when suddenly something nudged my arm.
"Maki?" Maki stared up at me from his dark mask. He put out his hand and placed it on my arm.
"Maki!" I cried, wanting to pick him up but being unable to do so.
"Shhh!" The man beside me hissed. But it was too late.
The little Lemur dove under my clothing as one of the morphic guards walked up to me.
It muttered something, and then struck me across the back with its whip. The pain was horrid, but I was too worried about Maki, sheltering in my clothing, to really notice it.
The guard hit the ground beside me with the whip and was about to stroll away when Maki jumped up onto my shoulder.
"MAKI!" He challenged. I wanted to grab him but could not move. How could one little Makimur stand up against the Kadabra morphs? Of course, I was forgetting who Maki was…
The guard bellowed and turned around, its eyes glowing behind the jackal mask. Maki stood on his hindlegs, putting his tiny hands on his equally tiny hips.
The Kadabra threw back its head and laughed, before a bright light blazed from the eye-holes in the mask. Maki jumped aside. The psychic blast blazed across the side of my face, leaving a funny tingling sensation on my cheek. But it did not hurt.
And little Maki was running across the ground towards the morph in its cloak, avoiding another blast of light from those glowing eyes. And suddenly he sprang up its leg, and under the cloak.
The Kadabra-morph swatted at Maki with its large, disfigured hands. And then another guard strolled up. In the midst of its shrieking, the first morph managed to point in my direction, and the new guard strolled over to be, grabbing me by my collar and hoisting me from the ground.
Its strength was immense, I could not resist being lifted off the ground and carried across the grass.
I did see, out of the corner of my eye, Shadeon appear, her black fur flashing in the early morning sun. She sprang at the guard holding me and clamped her jaws about its arm. It struck at her, but she simply turned to shadow. I was dropped, falling to the ground. At the same instance, the other guard fell over too, as Maki executed some effective move on it from inside its clothing.
Wrapping my arms about the morphs legs, I dragged it to the ground, whilst it screamed and thrashed at the air, Shadeon attacking it with her special powers of hallucination. She would be weakening though, as it was almost sunlight. Something jangled as the guard fell down and I found keys tied to its belt. My fingers, trapped in their restraint, fumbled madly as I tried to pull the ring from the belt, fumbling all the while.
Maki scampered free of the unconscious kadabra-morph and over to me, his small fingers easily freeing the keys. It did not take me long to undo the leg brace with the keys and I scrambled free.
"Shadeon, quickly, where is Kameron?" Shadeon leapt up from the shadows, reforming and batted me with her head, she then streaked off so fast that I had to struggle to catch up with her. My legs were weak from being chained together and cramped. We stumbled through the throes of people, leaping their legs and arms. Maki had vanished, taking the keys with him, and I judged by the discontent and the bellowing behind us, he was freeing the prisoners.
I had not gone far when a shape rose from the darkness in front of me, a shape in what appeared to be a ragged cloak.
"Shadeon!" I hissed urgently, then suddenly realised that far from being ready to attack, she was bounding towards the figure excitedly.
It was then I recognised the tattered trench coat, long matted hair…
"Kameron!" I shouted, running towards him, overjoyed.
"Makiki!" Kiki jumped up onto his head, sitting proudly in his hair, clinging to it with her little hands.
"Kat!" We ran into each other and embraced.
Behind us, the dissent continued.
Suddenly a buzzing filled the air, as if of many wings. The sky was filled with dark shapes, their wings blurring.
The Kadabra morphs whirled, they had stopped whipping their prisoners for long enough to face the skies.
And then the Sycthers descended.
And what insured was utter chaos.
Screaming people, men, women, children, ran everywhere, trying to get away from the skies which were filled not only with Scythers but also with hoards of Venonat. The Kadabra morphs aimed psychic attacks at the skies, but many fell, some of them sliced apart by the Scyther, others trampled by a large and irritated looking Taurus.
Kameron and I merely hugged each other close and waited for the insanity to die down.
A pink shape blurred through the air in front of us and hovered before us.
"Fenrill!" I shouted delightedly, "where's the Doctor? Where's Sam?"
She turned one quivering hand and pointed back at the way we had come from.
Somewhat shaken by her lack of speech, we followed her gaze and saw before us a terrifying spectacle.
Loki, huge wings of fire spread above his head, and tendrils of light dancing across his forehead. Where he had come from, I could only guess, except that he had made his appearance during the fight. But what terrified me more was the fact that in each arm he held Doctor Frances Warwick and Samantha, hugging them close to his body, as though he were their father.
"Prepare for chaos," he said with a wry smile, and flames shot from his eyes, sending a nearby tree exploding into flame.
"It sometimes fails," I replied, although without real enthusiasm. He just kept getting more and more powerful.
"No," he said shaking his head, "it never fails." And he began to flap his wings, sending scraps of clothing and bodies blowing across the area, catching in the trees. "I have the power of fire, and the power of the air, soon I shall be entirely undefeatable."
A small shape rose up in front of her. "You have hurt my sisters," I heard it say, "and we will defeat you."
And Loki threw his head back and laughed. He flung Samantha aside and grabbed the Mew in one hand. The Mew squeaked in surprise, and began to radiate with purple light, but it was too slow, too weak. The power seemed to slide up his arm, radiating against his skin, making him glow purple, before it settled back to its normal colour. Samantha picked herself up from the ground, and threw herself at him. He laughed and pushed her aside, purple light flaring from his arm. She fell backwards.
"Shadeon, do something!" Kameron shouted.
"Maki, Kiki! Fenrill!"
But the small Pokemon were already gone, the Mew a pink blur, blasting a beam of bubbles straight at Loki. I ran closer, hoping to help.
A burst of flame sprung out, sending the two Lemur Pokemon tumbling into the grass, trying desperately to escape the flames that shot through.
And as I got closer, I saw Loki, having cast Doctor Warwick aside (I think he had passed out due to fear, but let's not tell!), turn his attention to Samantha, who also lay unconscious on the ground. Atop her body, crouched her tiny Vulpix, growling furiously.
Cackling like a maniac, Loki pointed at the tiny fox, and a ray of strange purplish-gold light shot from his finger and struck the little creature. It tumbled backwards and whimpered, yelping. But the yelp was quickly cut off.
The Vulpix was, to all intents and purposes, gone.
Then suddenly something seemed to rise from where it had fallen and a strange dark shape leapt into the air. Loki aimed a shot of fire at it, but at that another blast of violet energy shot from where the two Makimurs had fallen, followed by a blast of dark energy. Something large that glowed purple erupted through the sky.
"Goooo-siiii!"
And Loki was shot backwards, flapping into the air on his wings of fire.
Another blast of wind flattened us all to the ground, and then everything was calm and quiet.
Loki was gone.
Fenrill crouched in the grass, cradling her sister, who lay as if dead. Doctor Frances and Samantha, on the other hand, were just beginning to stir.
"What in hades just happened?" Frances exclaimed, somewhat out of character for him.
"Where's my Foxfire?" There was pain and anguish in Samantha's voice. Then she saw the shape, almost transparent, standing by her foot. "Foxfire?" She asked.
The ghost Vulpix nodded.
"What did he do to you?"
"I think almost what an insane scientist did to Shadeon," I replied. "Killed the body but freed the soul."
Shadeon crawled under Kameron's shirt, sheltering from the bright sunlight. Maki returned to my shoulder and Kiki was attempting to comfort the Mews. The new Mew was almost conscious. Almost, but not quite, she was muttering strange things.
"So what do I do now?" There was helplessness in Samantha's voice, "how can I help her? Can she get her body back?"
"Keep her away from bright lights," Kameron replied, "and love her as you always have. She obviously loves you, but understand, your other Pokemon may fear her, now."
As if in reply, Fidget swooped down from the sky, closely followed by Kabuki, in Scyther form. Crete had already been recalled, obviously, and he would be tired from the battle. Suddenly there was a noise not far away, and across the battle scarred ground came a small procession. Bounding ahead, leaping joyfully to greet us came Azriel, bowling into Kameron's legs, and then mine, and standing on his hindlegs to butt us with his hard head. Following behind in a much more reserved fashion was Chiko, her poor holey leaf bobbing. And behind them came all our other Pokemon, looking somewhat bedraggled, some of them, but fine, never-the-less. And in amongst them I caught sight of a strange shape, long and sinewy, its fur decorated in stripes of brown and beige.
"Ootachi?" I queried, as I welcomed my friends back once more.
It appeared we had made ourselves a new friend, whether we liked it or not.
* * *
Aftermath
We took Samantha back to Siryntown with us, because it seemed like the best thing to do. And, of course, the poor injured Mew came with us too, although she was in a particularly uncomfortable state. We put her on fluids, and Doctor Warwick looked after her, for the time being.
Ootachi came with us too, although he remained reasonably wild, preferring to lurk in the grounds then keep us company. He seemed grateful for us saving his life, and seemed to want to repay us, although the fact that he had released my Pokemon from their balls was gratitude enough for me.
Doctor Warwick resolved to never go on an adventure again, although I am sure that he did not really mean it. His interest in Freyja seemed to have changed too, taking on a new direction, one involving Samantha, although we can only speculate if anything ever becomes of that!
Samantha stayed with us for a while, possibly because of her new Shadow Vulpix, although maybe also because she sensed Doctor Warwick's interest in her. Who knows? I am sure there shall be more to report on that in the future!
Dragosi returned to the welcoming arms of his Charizard girlfriend, and we are all anxious to see what offspring, if any, will come from there!
And as for the rest of us? Well, be patient and out tales will continue soon!