Alone in the Dark 3

Dark Knight

Nido and I lived day to day, scavenging for food and relying upon each other, for two weeks. These two weeks were uneventful, except for the nagging feeling that Pokemon weren't meant to live like this, but I put that down to my dwindling feeling of rejection.

Then something happened that would change my outlook on Pokemon forever.

Nido and I were walking along the main Celadon high street, when I spotted a giant restaurant. It was one of those posh ones, with specially formulated Pokemon chow and everything, and it looked like the garbage had just been put out. 'Great!' I shouted to Nido 'Lets go!'. Nido gave me a funny look, like I had just suggested we take on an angry Charizard. 'We can't go down there' he said nervously 'that's the Knight's territory'. 'The Knights? What are they?' I asked. 'Oh yeah, I keep forgetting that your not used to this' he said, pointing with one front paw to the street in general. 'The Dark Knights are a gang of abandoned Pokemon, like us, but instead of getting on with life, they are bent on revenge. They say they are gonna find a way to make their previous trainers feel just like they do - all alone, by any means necessary' Nido had a look on his face that I had never seen before - fear. 'Its said that if you get in their way, or try to reason with them, you become their next target. Their reason is supposed to be that if you are not with them, you are against them, but I think it is just an excuse for them to do more killing'. 'What Pokemon are in this group' I asked, just so I would know if I saw them to steer clear. Nido looked at me with apprehension written all over his face. 'This is gonna be bad for you' he said sadly 'but they are all dark types'.

Immediately anger flooded me. This was the reason dark types had such a bad reputation - the Knights. Then I was overcome by a profound sadness for the Knights. What was wrong with trying to justify what happened to you? No - us, I amended myself. I was going to seek out these Knights and see if I could join them and put my mind to rest. A shadow of doubt passed over me about Nido, but then I thought 'Well maybe only dark types have tried to join, I'm sure they'll help him out too'. Nido could obviously see these thoughts and emotions pass over my face, as he said worriedly 'What are you going to do?' It was plain that he thought I was going to do something violent so I put his mind to rest. 'We're gonna join the Knights'. He didn't look as pleased as I thought he would. In fact he looked devastated. 'We can't do that - for one I'm not a dark type'. 'Well have you ever heard of a non-dark type trying to join the Knights?' I asked. 'Well...no.' Nido said, with a look of extreme apprehension on his face 'but that's only because other types are too scared to try. I've heard rumours about other Pokemon who tried, but none that I know have actually succeeded. Or come out alive.' 'That's nonsense!' I exclaimed 'its just another typical reaction to dark types. You'll be fine with me, and we'll be fine with them'. And so we set off into the Knight's 'barracks'.

'This isn't so bad' I said to Nido at the top of my voice to prove how un-fazed I was by the actual dinginess of the place. 'Yeah, but it looked a lot better from afar' whispered Nido stating the obvious. 'Well, it would look a lot better if Pokemon were just brave enough to come here' I said boldly 'and it could even eventually be sort of a safe haven for abandoned Pokemon - like a shelter'. 'As if that would ever happen' Nido mumbled, just loud enough for me to hear. I decided to ignore him - I could see that I'd never be able to convince him the Knights were good guys, at least not until I'd found them.

Just then, as if intentionally interrupting my line of thought, an almost inaudible sound made a 'thunk' behind me. I whipped round as quickly as I could, and there before me, was a Houndoom.

I'd never seen a Houndour before, much less a Houndoom. I'd heard of them, back in the days when I was an Eevee, but, like always, they had a bad reputation. I could sort of see why now. This one was huge, almost twice my size, and even I was intimidated by it. I decided it was up to me to do something.

'Uh...hello' I said, and for some reason I couldn't keep a quaver out of my voice. 'We're here to join the Knights'. This was more in a definite tone. The Houndoom looked surprised for a moment, and the look was alien on its face, as if it had never been surprised before. Then, its teeth slowly started coming into view, until its giant fangs were completely shown. My years as a battling Pokemon started to kick in, and I started analysing types and levels - Nido was a low level, and bound to be weak against the Houndoom, so he wouldn't count for much...this whole train of thought was shattered as a sort of half wheezing, half sniggering noise, and I realised h was laughing!

'Well, well' said the Houndoom, in a voice that was so low it seemed to echo in my chest 'you're the first I have seen who wanted to seek me out...very interesting. 'I might have a place for you here, if you have guts!' On the word guts, which he spat in a way that reminded me a lot of a Persian, he leapt towards me. Now, my instincts are quick, but my mind is even quicker and I stood my ground. Houndoom landed about an inch in front of my face. 'Very good' he said in that low voice 'I do believe you have what it takes. Now the only thing to do is deal with your friend...' He left this sentence trailed off ominously. His great horned head turned to Nido, who had been cowering in the shadows, hoping to go unnoticed.

'With this Umbreon, I bet you wish to join the Knights too' Houndoom rumbled. 'Umm...yes?' Nido said nervously. Houndoom let out another 'laugh'. After a pause he said 'Very well - our first non-dark type member is a Nidoran. I thought I could detect a sneer when Houndoom said 'Nidoran', but I put it down to my imagination.

'You may call me Knight' the Houndoom said 'follow me, and you will meet the rest of our brethren'.

So we stepped further into the darkness, Nido and I, of the alleyway, and of our lives.



Okay *wipes brow* that's the third instalment done. Now for my apologies

First apology goes out to EVERYONE!!!! For taking about 3 months of more to get this chapter out. I have had severe writers block, then a lot of college work, then a lot of working, then I have been working on a new fic in between working. I'm a bit stuck on my new fic so I sorta lost my will to write, but thanks to Firehybrid (unwittingly) and Chaos (aka uo killer) I got my incentive to write again, so I hope to get a lot more updates in now.

Second apology goes out to all who wanted to see my pix - the person I wanted to scan them hasn't sent them to me or they have gotten lost in cyberspace (Andrew if you read this pleeeaaasseee mail them to me!!!!) I will get em out to you eventually, and once again I'm reaaaalll sorry.

Now I gotta ask all you readers and reviewers for help. The new fic I am writing is gonna be a massive project - I've just started it and already I've run into difficulty. Here's my prob - I'm not too good with names (as you can probably tell) and I need a name for my main character and also some (very) minor characters - so here's what I'll do - send to me (either by emailing me at pern26@yahoo.co.uk mailto:pern26@yahoo.co.uk or by review) a name for my char, and also a profile of a char you want to be in my fic (if you want to be) and also choose a world you want them to be in (my fics gonna be in a lot of different worlds) the worlds I'm gonna do so far for definite are Pokemon, Dragonball Z, Harry Potter, and Ultima Online (!!!) and I may do Escaflowne and Gundam Wing as well (and maaaaaaaaaaybe Guyver). To give you a low-down of my main char..........

She is 5ft 8 and has black hair just longer than her shoulders, and deep green eyes. If you can - I'd love her name to be a type of green, but all names are great!!!

So, the person(s) who sends in the name I use will have a big part at least in the world that they choose (if it is one of the main ones) and in lots if they reeeaalllly want ;0) everyone else who helps will have at least a tiny part in the world they want (if it is a main one)

Phew that was a mouthful - I'm just an author in need!!!

Anyhoooo thanx again to Firehybrid and UO Killer, and to everyone who has r&r ed, who replies to this and all who know me

Ok, now that the afterword is bigger than the fic I'm gonna go ^_^''

Chibi Stacey (running away before people start pelting her with rotten fruit and eggs)