Chapter 2
"Escape."
-- By Shadow~Of~Shadows --
Disclaimer: Oops, I forgot this part last time! ^.^;; Gomen. I don't own Pokémon, so there. If the Pokémon people want to sue me and take my 37 cents, I guess they can. It doesn't seem very reasonable though...
On to the story!
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Lyra gasped in awe, and fright, the same kind of feeling you sometimes get from watching somebody do flips, on a tightrope, minus the net. Her Crimson Dragonair was quietly glowing until suddenly he shrieked, a grating sound that gained intensity with every second. Rex howled along with him, until both voices joined in an unlikely, and admittedly strange, harmony.
It was then that the real transformation began.
About a third of the Dragonair's tail, the very end section, remained unchanged; save for the removal of the ruby-red and glowing baubles that had adorned the very end. The rest of his body, however, was shifted totally. It bunched up, becoming a wiry and muscular form, fit to power the huge wings that now extended from his shoulder blades, which were also new. He sported arms, and legs, now, adorned with sharp claws. The rather feathery ear-flaps shifted into smooth, antennae like appendages, and his rather sharpish horn smoothed out into a blunter one.
When the mists and the glow cleared, a Dragonite stood before Lyra. His huge seven foot and three inch frame dwarfed her own five feet and seven inches, by comparison; his very nature bespoke of a large agility that she'd never seen before. His dark, crimson stained skin was unlike that of a normal Dragonite's honeyed tan color, looking almost like he'd been washed through with a dark blood color. His other accents were black; his wing membranes, the antennae-like appendages, his sharp and deadly claws, his underbelly. His dark, mysterious, almond-shaped eyes glinted strangely...mysteriously. Lyra finally discovered her voice.
"You...you DID evolve!" she exulted.
"And we...are leaving." he stated, simply. It was a fact.
She gaped. "What, when?" she stuttered, amazed, and torn between a strange yearning feeling and the fear of leaving everything she'd ever known.
"Now, while the time is right." he said quietly. "The longer we wait, the harder it will be. Outside, we will find a way to survive and live, I am sure."
She swallowed. "A-are you sure?"
"Absolutely positive."
"Well, okay...here, Rex." she said. Rex ran up to her and hopped onto her lap as she climbed onto the gleaming crimson back of the Dragonite.
"Call me Blood." he said. She shuddered at the horrific name.
"Why...Blood?" she inquired.
"It all has to do with my past. It's a horrible past, but it is...my past." With that, he said no more.
She hung on for dear life as the great Pokémon pumped his powerful wings, taking flight. She hung on, along with Rex, as he lifted up. They passed through the tree line, and higher, and she saw the whole inside of the valley. It wasn't until the valley grew miniscule and they passed through the first layer of clouds that she realized how high they were already. A few more layers of clouds passed, and the air began to get thin. She took a shuddering gasp, her lungs locking from shock, and Blood quietly spoke.
"Don't worry about the air. Simply breathe, I will take care of you."
She discovered it was true. She breathed in, and it was as if she was in the oxygen-rich forest again. They went higher, and higher, and higher still, breaking through more and more layers of clouds. At last, they broke through the last one, and Lyra gasped, beset by glory. A white, untainted landscape was spread before her, and sunbeams danced down onto the tops, turning some of the clouds a rich golden color. She looked around, whispering to herself quietly, and Rex barked softly.
"Now, we are free. The escape is over, and our life has begun." Blood said, and flapped his wings once, then lowered his angle slightly, flying out over the ocean and towards the mainland.
---
Three Team Rocket secret agents were nearby, in a helicopter. Merlin Darkmoon, a strange guy with a hidden past; Maria Juarez, a girl of hispanic descent raised on the coastline, and their Pokémon helper, smarter than most humans, and with the ability to talk; Shadow, a Persian. Maria was sitting at one of the open sides, for it was a combat-type helicopter, with open sides so that soldiers could pile out quickly. It seated about ten, all told, so they had plenty of room, and it was a nondescript green military color. She was secured in place by a harness, but still, she didn't worry about falling. She'd never been scared of heights.
Merlin was manning a radar and bioheat scanning unit, which they were using to search for rare Pokémon near the Legendary Ring. It was called the Legendary Ring because sonar and so on reports recorded that though it looked an impossibly high mountain, it was hollow inside. Which, in itself, was strange, for not even the strongest rock-melting acids could eat through the thing. However, some rare Pokémon had been spotted near the thing in the past--namely, the ultimately rare Houou. (AN: I will NOT use the English spelling, sorry.)
"Getting anything?" Shadow asked. Her voice was hoarse and deep, but strangely commanding. If she was a human, she definately would have been a leader of some sort. Taking a glance at their Pokémon partner, Maria reflected, the leader of a crime group of some sort, no doubt about that...
Shadow was a rough old campaigner. She'd been through it all. She was covered with scars, not making her the most attractive Pokémon ever, but she wasn't in the line of work to win beauty shows. Her huge claws and fangs, accompanied by her strange and uncanny ability to seem to melt into the nearest shadow and then attack, running, made a perfect pair for HER work: hit and run.
"Nope, not a single blip." Merlin said. He pushed a shock of unruly black bangs out of his crystalline blue eyes and punched in a few coordinates and fired up the scanners again, then turned to look at his companions again. "How are you two holding up?"
"Fine." Shadow said. Preferring action over words, she released her vocal ability only when it was needed, in HER opinion.
"Oh, I'm okay." Maria said. For hispanic heritage, she didn't look it...her beautiful, shiny blue hair was accented by her pale skin and almost-violet eyes. Merlin suspected if maybe she'd been adopted, or abandoned and found by the Juarez family. However, it wasn't his place to ask such things, so he turned back around to the console.
"Hey, I've got something on the radar!" he said suddenly. "Bioheat says three forms. The largest one...it looks like a Dragonite!"
"A Dragonite?" Shadow said, immediately interested. "Set a course."
"Right away." Merlin said, taking the control stick in one hand and punching buttons with the other.
---
"Wow, this is beautiful!" Lyra said, looking over the rippling waves. "I've never seen this much water, ever!"
"It's called the ocean." Blood explained. Rex barked agreement, then sat up straighter. He barked three times.
"Rex hears something..." Lyra said, eyebrows knitting together. "What is it, Rex?" Just then she heard it. A hollow thwap-thwap-thwap sound.
"What's that?" she asked, confused. She'd never heard a sound like that. Even Blood, with his considerable knowledge, didn't know. Then, they saw the helicopter. They were dumbfounded at first...it was huge! It had people inside! And how was it hanging in the air, unsuspended? Suddenly, the helicopter shot at them, and Blood got hit in the wing. As he started to drop and Lyra and Rex screamed, and howled, respectively, Merlin pulled the Helicopter at the perfect angle and they dropped inside. Straightening it out instantly, they dropped to the floor. Maria and Shadow tied down Blood and Lyra, plus Rex, pulled away to the side. Lyra immediately fell over, where a struggling Blood was, well, bleeding.
"Merlin, it's...it's...RED!" Maria shouted. Lyra looked at Maria in astonishment. The girl wasn't wearing a dress, but pants! The cat Pokémon beside her was just as alien. Also, she was far too worried about Blood to take a different action.
"Blood, are you okay?" she asked. Shadow paced up to her.
"Who are you?" Shadow snarled. Lyra jerked back, but kept a hand on Blood's forearm.
"My name is Lyra. Lyra's all you need to know." she said, a bit more gruffly than she'd intended.
Shadow wasn't impressed. "Drug her and the Growlithe." she told Maria, then stepped back as Maria jammed something into Lyra's arm and the Growlithe's leg.
"Huh...what..." Lyra said, dozing off. She had a last impression of being strapped into something before passing out completely.
---
When the Rockets arrived back at their base some time later, they were warmly recepted when they said they'd brought in a Pokémon. After approval and payment by the boss, the Pokémon was shipped to the labs, and the girl and the Growlithe to a brig cell...who knows what will become of them...
To be continued...