Untitled13ish They'd walked right into the ambush, not even suspecting it. The first they knew of the pokemon was when something flew at them from the bushes.
THWACK!
There had been no time to shout a warning, or even register exactly what the missile was, before Liam twirled around and dealt it a crushing backhand slap. They identified it as a half-crushed Weedle as it flew away, before it slammed into one of the multitudinous trees in the forest that was the Safari Zone, where it exploded in a mass of innards.
"Watch out, there's a-" Keira flicked it away with a vine. "-nother."
Two more Weedles flew at them, stinger first. One was fried in midair by a short shock by Rob, the other hit James's Barrier. But that wasn't the last of them.
"They're everywhere!" Patrick twirled nervously, seeing pokemon arise from bushes, drop from trees, wing their way in...
"We're surrounded!"
"An ambush!" Liam and Rob called out at the same time. The five fighters quickly formed a ring, facing outwards with Pat in the middle. More bugs came in, and still more, until they were surrounded by what appeared to be a solid wall of bug pokemon. Caught completely off guard, they readied themselves for battle.
"I think we may have strolled through the wrong part of the Safari Zone..." James mumbled.
"I think they're not too happy about Fuschia..." Muttered Jess. "This looks like fun."
"They can't do that much damage..." Keira whispered. "Just watch for the powders, the occasional psychic attack, and keep back from the poison stingers..."
They attacked!
Swarms of Beedrills led the charge, closely followed by a flying wall of Caterpies and Weedles, followed again by Pinsirs and Venonats. Luckily there weren't any Scythers in the area, and the Butterfrees and Venomoths couldn't use their powerful powder attacks since they would be absorbed by the other bugs before they ever hit the humans...
The melee was ferocious, and Patrick was having to frantically keep swapping between the others for healing. Liam was faring best, being virtually immune to the physical and poison barrage, especially with the heavy earthern blocks that formed on his arms. James was shredding anything that came at him, at home most fighting the beedrills in blade-to-stinger combat.
Keira was doing her best to protect herself, and was trying to avoid the Beedrills while employing a pair of dis-connected Beedrill stingers to attack the non-poison types, since her Grass-element did little or no damage to the hording bugs. Jess was quickly hidden behind a barrier of frozen bug-types, which grew much faster than it could be knocked aside by the other bugs.
Meowth was darting in and out of the pokemon's ranks, slashing wildly at anything that came in range. Many an enemy pokemon fell victim to the flying whirlwind of claws that was the cat.
They seemed to be winning (or at least surviving) so far, but the battle had lasted less than a minute, though as furious as it was it felt like half an hour. The bug bodies were piled up, but they didn't even seem to have made a dent in the enemy horde. Sheer force of numbers seemed to be the game...
Then, as quickly as the melee had begun, it stopped. The bugs unexpectedly drew back on some unspoken signal and formed a ring of angry glares. The humans, confused, lowered their guard for a second...
Pshhhhhhht! A hissing sound filled the area as practically every bug in the place unleashed a string-shot. They cried out in alarm as a wave of it hit them, but luckily the majority was pushed back by James's quick thinking and barrier. Soon they were in complete darkness as the string covered the barrier and hardened into a solid wall.
Keira illuminated the place with a variation on the Solarbeam - using previously stored solar energy to create light. The ball of light hovered above her outstretched hand, and showed James struggling to keep the failing barrier holding up the rapidly sagging ceiling.
She made a hand motion, and suddenly four small, thick and unnatural-looking trees shot up around them to take the weight. James gratefully let go of the forcefield, and the heavy barrier collapsed onto the trees.
"Well... this can't be good."
By the light of Keira's energy ball, they tested the string-shot dome, which sagged rather dangerously in the middle, between the trees. Not even Liam could even begin to shift the bulging centre of the prison. There was little space for the six of them to move around in - just next to the trees, it was still too low for Liam or Jess, the tallest, to stand; in the centre all of them had to duck. And it was only about fifteen feet across.
Liam experimented with digging out, but the soil was loose and root-infested - it'd be almost impossible to make any leeway. He began to dig anyway. There was too many bugs out there to fight head-on, so getting out through the top was probably not a good idea.
The air soon became stuffy, but Liam dug on. He'd gotten through quite a few roots, but it was pretty solid. He was caught quite by suprise, however, when something picked him up out of his hole and threw him against the roof, then let him fall back.
"What di-" Keira was caught off guard as well, and was thrown into a tree by some invisible force. James suffered the same fate soon after, then Pat was thrown into him.
"It's the pokem-ummph!" Keira was tossed again, into a wall. "The psychics! Butterfree and that! They're using their attacks through the wall!"
"We've got to get out of here..." Jess said quickly. "We're gonna get beaten to death down here. We've gotta take our chances on the surface!"
A couple of them looked dubious, but they quickly decided otherwise when another bout of psychic blasts hit.
"Right, that's it." Liam said, holding his head as he got up. A rather dangerous-looking stone knife appeared in his hand, and he set to the wall. James and Jess called forth etheral and ice weapons to assist, and they joined him.
There was more string shot than they'd expected. They hacked and swung at the thick layers, tearing chunks away to form a tunnel, with Keira lighting from behind and catching any who were thrown with her vines before they hurt anyone.
It seemed like a long time before Liam's knife broke a hole to the outside world. The bright sunlight blinded them, but they kept slashing away until they had a good view of the outside world.
Unfortunately, their view contained about thirty or more Butterfree. All of which had an unparalleled view of them.
Every one of them flapped their wings hard, and a cloud of sparkling blue powder threw itself into their faces, and past them into the dome. All of them coughed and spluttered, then slowly felt the energy drain from their bodies as the sleep powder took effect. Before long, they were all sleeping, without hope of waking up...
~-~-~-~
Jess slowly opened her eyes and stared unseeingly at the roof. Something was wrong. Very wrong. She didn't know quite what it was, but something was missing...
Her mind slowly sifted through memories, unwisely starting at the start and moving forward. She unconsciously winced as she came to the pokemon-running-away bit, but moved on. The amulets... something to do with the amulets... She'd just woken up from...
It hit her. No Dreamscape! She'd been sleeping without visiting that place. Her hand snapped to her neck where the amulet hung. Nothing! She frantically started searching her pockets, where she sometimes kept it.
"Don't bother. They've taken the amulets." She looked to the voice. Liam and Keira were sitting there, looking rather down. Finally the memory of what had happened hit her, and she stared around the room.
They were in a jail. The walls were thick, the windows and doors were barred, and a whole lot of other sad-looking people were sitting around. Jittery pokemon laughter echoed from outside the door.
She looked around some more. The other three guys were still out of it; there was no sign of Meowth.
"We woke up about ten minutes ago." Liam explained. "There's nothing we can really do here, except wait for a miracle..."
But they tried anyway.
They tried to get the pokemon's attention, what they were hoping to achieve was unsure. The other prisoners soon dragged them away from the doors, however - they'd tried that before, and the net result was a Butterfree coming in and blasting the lot of them with Stun Spore to shut them up.
They searched for structural faults or escape routes in the walls, but a tall, blue-haired woman advised against it.
"This is a top-security prison. It's kept in top condition, and even if you escaped the pokemon would get you." It was only then they realised it was an Officer Jenny - without her outfit and with a rather messy hairstyle, she looked like a completely different person.
There were about fifty people in the jail, but one stood out from the rest. This one sat in a different room, much smaller, against a wall. The area seemed to have a rather white tinge to it, but the person was black.
Whoever it was did not have an inch of skin showing, but was completely wrapped in a black cloak, from the hood covering the head to the material running over the floor past the feet. They inquired to their cellmates about him, but they just shook their heads and told them not to go near him. The last person who had insulted him, just through sheer boredom and something to do, had regretted it. When asked what had happened, they refused to say any more. They kept glancing at him though - You could tell he was watching everything closely.
"This is great." Jess complained, aiming a kick at the wall.
"That was a short career. Looks like we don't get to save the world after all."
Keira began to put a response in, but was cut off by her own yawn. Although they hadn't been here long, they were running out of energy - Sleep Powder-induced sleep does not restore energy like normal sleep, and they'd all grown used to getting power from the amulets.
"Well, it looks like we'll be here for a while. We may as well get some sleep..."
They looked back on events as they settled down on the hard floor. Although many of them seemed to take forever at the time, they seemed to have reached here in a flash in hindsight. What a way to end a rebellion - rotting in some prison in the middle of the Safari Zone...
~-~-~-~
Jess stirred.
It sounded like something was calling her name. She sighed. It must be her imagination - who would call her? The place was incredibly dark, starlight shone through the high windows...
It called again, more urgently. She moved to put her pillow over her head, then remembered she didn't have a pillow, yawned and sighed again.
However, she jumped to attention pretty quickly when a small ball of fire hit the ground next to her, somehow blowing up quietly. She looked around for the source, and saw the black-swathed being in the next room beckoning to her with one hand, and holding the other up, surrounded by soft flames.
"When I call you in future, be a little more prompt." He said as she approached, in a low, gravelly voice. As she entered the room, she gasped - the temperature drop was like a physical wall, hitting her as she walked in. She soon realised the whiteness on the walls was ice.
"Get your friends." He continued.
"Huh?"
"Do you want to get out of here or not?"
"Uh, sure..." She moved away, to shake her friends awake...
Soon all six of them were facing him, and he spoke again.
"I take it the six of you were captured the same way as me - mass sleep powder. But when they got me, they couldn't find my amulet. This thing's got more secret pockets than even I know about."
"Huh?"
"They made this room to hold me. The cold keeps me weak. And if I stand up, the entire room will fill with water instantly. Pressure plate." He explained.
"And how are we supposed to help you?"
"When you were thrown in, one of the Pinsir that brought you was holding your amulets. He came to wave them in my face, just out of reach, just to annoy me, show me that more of my kind have been captured. Of course, I blew fire in his face. He ran around screaming and yelling a while, then finally managed to put it out by pressing his face against the wall.
"He left, threatening dire curses and such. But what he didn't notice as he left was that one of the amulets was missing."
"What?"
"It took me a while to find it. He'd accidently flung it away, into one corner of the room. I hid it under the ice."
"Huh? How'd you do that, if you can't stand up?"
"Melt the ice, then let it refreeze."
"Oh."
"It's right over there." He pointed, and a stream of fire leapt from his finger and hit the ice. It melted away rapidly. Liam ran over and scooped up the amulet, a glowing Sapphire.
"It's Suikun." He said, handing it to Jess. She gratefully slipped it over her neck once again.
"Right, here's the deal. The entire chamber behind me..." He pointed at the wall. "Is full of water. I get up, it comes down on our heads. The doors will close, we'll drown. But you," The hood moved to face Jess, "You can freeze it. You can freeze the water, then I can get up and get you all out of here. What do you say?"
It didn't seem to be much of a choice. Jess shrugged and moved up to the wall, and put her hands against it, concentrating. The cloaked one winced as the waves of cold energy radiated off Jess, but soon she took her hands off.
"There's nothing but a big iceblock back there now." She assured him.
"Yes!" He exalted. He threw himself forward off the seat, and gave a huge stretch. They backed off slightly - he was rather large, much taller than even Liam, who was well over six foot himself.
Once he'd stretched, he slumped slightly, and he seemed to shrink. The hood nodded slowly. "I'll take care of the bugs. Just run when I call you to. Okay?"
"Err... okay."
"Right."
"Sure you don't want us to help?" Suggested Jess.
He didn't even respond. With a grunt, he shot a small fireball at the wall.
A loud explosion and a lot of flying fire, ice and masonry later, a large hole was apparent in the wall. He confidently stepped out. There were some quick sounds of a scuffle, another smaller explosion, and two charred bug pokemon were thrown into the cell.
It was all they could do to wait, getting tenser and tenser by the second. Cries of fury and pain sounded now and again. The crackling of raging fires soon became permanent. More explosions sounded.
The other prisoners had been awoken by the noise, and were now crowding around the hole trying to escape. Liam held them back.
"If you go out there, you'll get killed."
They managed to hold back the excited crowds, but then a yell from outside sounded. "Now!"
They ran out, giving half-hearted yells to to the others to stay put. They, of course, were having none of that, and charged out afterwards. Denizens of other large cells cried out for help, and some of the more charitable escapees set to finding a way to free them too.
But all the runaways came to a halt when they saw the battle. The entire place was littered with fires, be they burning bug bodies or structure. The few remaining pokemon were backing off from the deadly enemy. But someone else was coming in.
It was a Scyther.
Over a foot taller than a normal Scyther, the bug stood regally. Scars covered its exoskeleton. The blades were longer than usual, reaching out much further than the black-cloaked one could hope to reach. Its eyes blazed with fury. This was no mere veteran blade-fighter - this was a champion among Scythers.
"You foolsss... you will never essscape here..." It hissed.
It lowered itself into a crouch, ready to attack. Its opponent did the same.
With a blinding flash of speed, it flew at the fire amulet-holder. Blades drew back, ready to slash to bits the creature who had destroyed so many of its subordinates.
It never even got close.
A blast of fire impacted it in mid-flight. The strong exoskeleton armour protected it from serious damage, but it was blown backwards, and soon found itself enveloped in smoke and unable to see.
It wasn't expecting its enemy to come right up to it, inside slashing range, and so was quite suprised to see the black hood right in front of its face. It attempted to jump back and let loose with both blades, but soon found that this was impossible.
As the smoke cleared, the problem became apparent. It's opponent had grabbed its arms, just below the blades, in a strong grip. And he didn't want to let go.
The Scyther shrieked and cursed, threatened and struggled, but the other stood fast. The blades came near him once or twice, but never touched...
The Scyther maneuvered the blades up, and then began to try to bring them down on the other's head. Putting all it's power into bringing those blades down, it even began to fly up to push down harder, putting incredible stress on the blades until...
SNAP! SNAP!
The Scyther's arms snapped like tree branches. It unbalanced, but managed to land upright, looking in shock at the stumps where its blades had been before.
The cloaked figure laughed. Both of them knew he had won. After all, what good was a Scyther without his blades?
He brought the two blades up. "I'm told it's considered honourable among your kind to die by your own blades..." He said. The Scyther nodded, and spread his stumps wide, leaving his body unguarded, prepared to die having lost against a greater adversary...
The other continued. "...So, here's what you get!" He rammed the blades into the ground on either side, and unleashed an incredible punch.
There was a sharp cracking sound as it encountered the exoskeleton, a dying gasp of pain and suprise from the pokemon... and another sharp cracking sound. The others, seeing it side-on, had a perfect view of his fist emerging from the creature's back.
Blood dripped from the gaping hole, and the creature's mouth, as he slowly drew his fist out. The Scyther, frozen in position, toppled over. Not wasting time on the corpse, he moved over to a box that lay nearby and tossed it to the others. It contained the other five amulets. He then spun around and slammed a fireball into a Beedrill sneaking up behind him, and it flew into the others, making them jump out of the way. When they turned back to him, he had moved towards the door.
"That should take care of them." He nodded, satisfied. "But they'll have reinforcements soon. Let's leave."
The six of them gratefully accepted this offer, and they ran from the jail. In the past, it was regarded as somewhat impossible to escape that jail, because of the surrounding Safari Zone pokemon which had been trained to guard the area - but now, the Safari Zone was practically deserted, and the thick jungle offered them some protection as they ran like hell.
They ran... and ran... and ran... and ran until they felt they could run no more, trying as they did to put the liberated amulets somewhere for safekeeping, slowing a little as they increased the gap between the center and themselves... then speeding up once more as the alarm finally set off, and even from here a faint buzzing of wings could be heard.
The running seemed to last an eternity... Seeing nothing but flashing greenery, hearing nothing but the leaves and branches rustling and everyone's ragged pants, thinking of nothing but the hordes of pokemon that was probably already on their tail...
Nobody was sure when it was that their cloaked saviour ground to a stop. "We should be fine here for a while. Take a rest."
No-one argued with this. They either collapsed or doubled over, trying to catch their breath. The black-cloaked one didn't show any sign of being tired, but simply watched them and spared the occasional glance in the direction of the prison.
They recovered remarkably quickly as the amulets fed power into their bodies. Jess was the first to fully recover, and she picked herself up - slowly, for fear of her limbs falling off. She might have more energy, but she still felt rather shaky.
"Thanks," She said, approaching the newbie. "I don't know how we would have gotten out of there without you. I don't think we were ever introduced... I'm Jess..." She trailed off, suddenly feeling her words weren't getting through.
He was laughing. Softly, and in his very low voice... it was on the very edge of hearing, but she could tell.
Everyone looked, wondering what he was finding so funny. The laugh seemed to intensify for a moment, then he looked to the girl in front of him.
He held out both his gloved hands, and whispered, "Heatwave."
To all the others watching, the change was quite tangible - the air went from a cool tropical night to a midsummer scorcher in a second. One could almost see the steam explode off the ground and trees.
Jess, however, was hit by the full force of the attack. The blast of hot air carried her off her feet to slide a short way across the ground. The attacker covered the distance in two easy steps, and the hooded, hidden head looked down at her. All that could be seen were two faintly glowing red eyes.
She suddenly pulled out from her instinctive fear, and unleashed a watergun at him. He was a fire-type, he should be weak to it... but he held up an arm and the water splashed harmlessly off it. She used Icebeam, and he pulled around the cloak... it hit, and a thin coat of ice formed on it... he flapped the thing once, and the ice cracked and fell off to quickly melt in the boiling air.
He laughed again, louder this time, but it was cut short as a blast of electricity hit him from behind. He didn't seem badly hurt, but swung around angrily.
"What do you think you're doing?" Rob yelled, as he unleashed another electric blast. He leapt to the side to avoid it, and it skimmed only inches above Jess. Keira was hiding behind a tree - she was in no position to fight a powerful fire guardian.
James shot a physical bolt at him, somewhat like a rock throw... it hit him right in the stomach, causing him to double over, almost stagger. James looked elated.
But Liam took the opportunity to attack the treacherous amulet-holder, and let rip with an uppercut to the doubled-up figure. He managed to dodge it, however, and Liam was left slightly unbalanced. He gave a slight shove, and he toppled.
He gave another quick laugh, the tiny blazes that were his eyes burning brightly. Rob let loose another electric blast, but it was countered in midair by a flash of fire.
Liam suddenly shot up from the ground with another powerful punch, being the only one who could match him in size. The other ducked, but the attack caught the hood, throwing it back...
Revealing something none of them had expected.
The head was coloured a dark red, almost marone. But that wasn't as alarming as the shape - it was long and reptilian, resembling something halfway between Charmeleon and Charizard; Twin horns protruded from the back of the skull, half-hidden in a thick mane of red-brown hair. The eyes still glowed, but it wasn't as noticable outside the dark hood.
Liam simply stood there in shock, giving the creature a chance to topple him once more... but this time somewhat more powerfully, causing him to fly back and tumble. The rest looked on in disbelief - What sort of pokemon was this?
It grinned, revealing a long snout full of sharp, yellowed fangs. "So... these are the humans Ash ordered me to kill. I must say I'm disappointed..."