Chapter #14

Days passed and each one seemed to drag along as slow as a Slowpoke. Even though we were being fed, we always felt hungry, even our pokemon did. I kept myself going by keeping faith in the words my mother gave me when I received my pendent. Carol liked to just look at it—I guess the small feather inside the blue stone was what caught her attention the most. My mother told me the stone was the home of all the souls of our ancestors, and that they would all be behind me when I needed them. Knowing this, I felt more comfortable and I felt that our escape would be a success.

The fake doctors stopped giving us our shots, which was a relief to us all. Andy's arm had several red spots on her bicept where her shots were given. Carol still would have visions of Victoria, and they always shook her up badly. Because of this, Andy and I made sure to stay close to her at all times so if she did get into another trance, she wouldn't hurt herself when trashing around. Also, by holding her in Andy's arms, Carol was able to feel more comfortable when she snapped out of her visions.

My wound was healing a little each day, but it still hurt like hell. The poor stitches did little to help and I felt sick whenever I looked at it. One doctor decided to take off the bandage too early, so now my wound was more vulnerable to disease. Fortunately, the doctors would clean it daily just in case, but they would normally rub it a bit too rough so some stitches would come off, causing me to bleed. It soon came to the point when the stitching was all gone and I was bleeding constantly. Fortunately, it wasn't too bad and Andy was able to rip a piece of cloth from my blanket to use as a bandage to cover it up. She would even use her own drinking water to clean it each day very carefully since the doctors stopped coming by. If it weren't for Andy, I knew I would probably die. Andy had soon officially took Victoria's place as our leader and took the responsibility to take care of and watch out for us.

One day, as I sat down on my bed with Raichu cuddled up close to me, I heard the unmistakable sound of footsteps approaching our cell. I looked over to Carol, whom was in Andy's lap as usual with her Ninetales close by. Carol, like always, held her Lapras' pokeball in her hands. Andy seemed to be really tired, but I could tell she heard the footsteps as well. Every time this occurred, we had to ready ourselves incase this would be our escape day.

Finally, a large man wearing a semi-formal business suit and gray hair came into view along with two men behind him. From the way he walked and looked at us, it was clear he had a high status among the Kilinda Clan. I wondered if he was the Roloc guy who half-owned the Kilinda Clan with my father.

"Well," He started with a deep voice; "you are the three girls with the pokemon-powers" He smiled at us. Andy growled at him while Carol looked away. "Now I don't want to waste any time, I have a meeting in fifteen minutes. Tell me, how did you get your powers?" He asked. The way he spoke and looked at us was like how a King would to a servant. I was enraged.

Andy shrugged, "I don't know, how did we get our powers?" She grinned. It was clear she wasn't telling him anything. I decided to play along and gave him the same grin she was. Now, the tables were turned. Andy wasn't going to give in like this; she wasn't going down without a fight.

One of the men that stood behind the large male spoke up, "Want us to take them to the basement, Mr. Roloc?" He asked. He seemed young—about 21 or so. I wondered why someone so young was working for this guy, or having anything to do with the Kilinda clan.

Mr. Roloc shook his head, "No. Leave the girls alone. They'll have the night to remember how they got their powers Until then, they shall receive no food, nor water, understand?"

Hesitantly, the young male nodded, "Yes, sir."

With that, Mr. Roloc and the two men walked away, leaving us in the cell. I sighed and looked over to Andy. She had a worried look on her face—one which showed much more worry than usual. I knew why—we weren't going to eat or drink anything that night, and we were all already hungry and thirsty. Of course, we always were anyways. Andy sighed and buried her face in her hands. I could barely hear her making small whimpering and sniffling sounds.

"Andy?" I started as I got off my bed and approached her. I hardly ever got up, since my wound would normally start to bleed whenever I did. But now, it didn't matter. I knew Andy was crying. We were trying so hard to keep each other alive and Andy had so much pressure on her. She was aware she was the one Carol and I were following now that Victoria was gone. It put a lot of stress on her.

Andy looked up at me—her usually strong eyes were filled with tears. She wiped them away with her gloves and tried to make it look like she wasn't crying by forcing a smile. "Look at me," she laughed slightly, "I've got something in my eye" She lied as she continued to wipe the tears away.

I frowned and knelt down infront of her, looking into her eyes, "You did the right thing, Andy." I said, "I'm proud you didn't tell them Who cares if we don't get anything to eat for one night? We've been through worse." I smiled reassuringly.

Carol looked up to Andy and nodded, "Seadra's right. Don't worry, things will be okay once we get out." She said in a tone of hope and strength. Our words soothed Andy and her tears stopped flowing. Smiling happily, she nodded.

I was waken up the next morning by a young male kicking at my side. Obviously, the first thing I did was Thunder Shock him since it was my wounded side, and it hurt a lot. He backed away and cursed at me and kicked me again. This time, I didn't strike back; I heard a few other males' voices from around me so I wasn't going to take the risk. I groaned and lifted myself up and looked to where Andy and Carol normally slept to find them being restrained by several of the males.

"Get up!" The young male ordered as I struggled up onto my feet. Like always, my side was hurting like you wouldn't believe and it was bleeding again. I finally got up only to be held by three men. One of them put what seemed to be a rubber bag around my hands to prevent me from shocking them while the other two made sure I couldn't move.

I looked to Andy and Carol, they had bruises on their faces, I figured the men had beaten them when they tried to fight back. I could hardly believe I had slept through it. Beside them, where our pokeballs. They were shaking a lot, I knew our pokemon were trying to break free, by braces attached onto them prevented this.

I didn't bother to fight as the men dragged us out of our cell for the first time in the longest time. It felt strange to be in such an open space compared to our cell; we were in there that long. My mind was filled with thoughts as I was dragged into an elevator that led up to the highest floor of the Kilinda Clan's headquarters. I could feel my clothes soaking up the blood my wound was releasing and I was worried I would pass out from blood loss again. Fortunately, the cloth Andy wrapped around it helped to prevent this from occurring.

When we finally got to the top floor, we found ourselves surrounded by men with formal business suits and serious looks on their cold faces. At the front of the room, was my father along with the Roloc guy. They stood behind a desk with grins on their faces.

The men released my Raichu, Victoria's Sunflora and Andy's Ninetales. I didn't know why they did this though. I noticed our pokemon seemed disorientated, probably because they had no idea where they were. One of the men tossed Carol her pokeball. She held onto it tightly, her Lapras was inside it. Raichu looked over to me and folded its ears back the moment it realized something was wrong. Our pokemon didn't do anything, they could tell we were in danger, but anything they would do could result in disaster.

I felt my empty stomach turn at the sight of my father. His expression was no different than it was when he first discovered I was a Rukonian. He looked at me with a gaze of hatred and disgust. "Well, hello, Seadra." He said to me as I looked down at my feet. I couldn't even look at his face. I could sense him just looking at me while I stood there. The men that had taken Andy, Carol and I there had let us go and we were left standing there infront of our greatest enemies besides Mason. They even removed the rubber bag around my gloved hands. "So," he started, "it seems you and your new friends have gotten lucky Those powers you possess, give them to me." He ordered in a harsh voice. I was shaking in fear.

"No," I heard Andy reply with a straight tone as she took a step towards my father and Mr. Roloc. I choked, knowing that if she tried anything, we would be in great danger. The men surrounding us could have guns with them, and we were all still weak from the big fight. I was in no condition to play out Andy's escape plan, and Carol's visions came to her too randomly and often. Though she would never admit it, Andy was also weak; her wings were badly damaged in the fight, like Carol and I's. But there was no way for us to tell how damaged they were. Escape was almost impossible for us then, but this may have been our only chance.

My father raised an eyebrow, "Oh? If you tell me the secret to your powers, I will let you three go" He smiled. I looked over to Andy, giving her a look that begged her not to tell, because I knew my father was lying. He wouldn't let us go, especially after everything that was happening. We would probably end up in our cell again, or maybe we would even get killed, since we were no longer any use to them. I didn't trust my father at all, and Andy knew it.

"No," Andy replied to my father's offer, "no," she repeated herself. I sighed in relief. Suddenly, I noticed something in Andy's palms which where behind her back. It appeared to be a tiny flame. Again, I choked, she was going to attack everyone with a fire attack and try to escape right there and then. I prayed to myself she wouldn't do it, but Carol was also getting ready to attack. She was getting ready for an Ice Beam attack from behind her back as well.

I had no choice; I had to attack when Andy and Carol did. I looked down at Raichu and it nodded, knowing exactly what to do. My heart was beating rapidly, I was scared, I was really scared.

"If you cooperate with me, young Andy, I will not be forced to hurt you," my father growled as he was becoming impatient with her. He was becoming tense, and I could see Andy was nervous as well.

"You have already hurt us." She said in a straight tone. And with that, she blasted giant flames of burning fire towards the men surrounding us. At the same moment, Carol began to freeze as many of the men as she could into solid ice. Her bright blue, glowing beams of ice struck them hard, knocking them down onto the carpeted floor and trapping them in huge blocks of solid ice.

Andy's Ninetales mimicked Andy's attacks, blasting out fire onto the panicking men and setting the entire room on fire. I had to fight too, so whoever tried to escape, I was forced to use my thunderbolt on them, which knocked most of them out unconscious. Meanwhile, Victoria's Sunflora tried its best to help with its razor leaf, but because the room was filled with so many flames, Carol called it into its pokeball to keep it safe. The entire room was on fire and I was sweating bullets from the intense heat.

My Raichu attacked all the men furiously as they scrambled to pull out their guns, but Carol would freeze them, causing them to fall to the ground and shatter before they had the chance to fire at us. We were winning, and I was amazed. The fight didn't last long and soon the only people left standing for Andy, Carol, my father, Mr. Roloc, our pokemon and me.

We stood there for several tense seconds. My father and Mr. Roloc were shaking in fear. Their men were lying dead on the floor and the room was filling with choking smoke. I wasn't sure what to do—should I attack them for what they had done to us, or should I leave? I looked over to Andy and asked her this with one quick glance.

"Let's go." Andy said as she turned away and headed for the door. The entire room was in flames and we all knew we would have to get out before the smoke got to us. Carol, our pokemon and I followed her closely, leaving my father and Mr. Roloc in the room to get out on their own. I didn't care at that moment if they managed to get out or not.

Right before I ran through the doorway, I heard a loud gunshot. I spun around in a split second only to see my Raichu lying on the floor with a bullet shot in its side. I cursed loudly at my father, who was holding a pistol in his hand. He was laughing—he knew he couldn't get out of the building, but he figured since he was going to die, he might as well get us too. I quickly reached for my Raichu and held it tightly in my arms, it was still conscious, but it was weak. It wailed out in pain.

Andy and Carol were at the doorway, shouting at me, "Come on!" I scampered to follow them as I heard gunshots being fired behind me. A few were really close, so close I would feel the wind pass by my face more than once. My father was a lunatic, firing at us, showing no sign of stopping until we were out of view. Fortunately, the smoke soon made it impossible for him to even aim. But he got lucky—on his last shot, he got my arm.

I skidded against my skin, removing a large amount of flesh and causing it to bleed heavily. The bullet hit a wall after getting my arm. I didn't say anything at all when it hit me; I was too concerned with getting out of the burning building. My arm would have to wait until we found a way out.

Andy's fire attacks really got the building; the whole thing was in flames. The halls were empty for all the Kilindas had ran out for their lives. The intense heat caused me to sweat bullets and the heavy smoke was entering our lungs, causing us to start coughing. My side and arm were bleeding more and more every minute we ran through the burning halls. The smoke was getting thicker each moment, so Andy, Carol and I had to crawl to get out. I had to be extra carefully, since I had to help Raichu through. I spent almost every minute praying to myself that Raichu would be okay. I had already lost Eevee, and I wasn't going to lose Raichu. Unfortunately, it soon became clear there was no way for us to get out of the building. We were forced to jump through a window and attempt to fly.

"We have no choice" Andy sighed as we crawled towards the nearest window. I was coughing uncontrollably as my lungs filled with the dark smoke caused by Andy's own fire attacks.

Carol and I didn't object to Andy's command. She jumped up and using her elbow, smashed open the window and jumped through. Carol and I didn't even stop to even look out the window before we both jumped straight through. I felt the cold outside air hit my skin, a big temperature change compared to what it as like in the Kilinda Clan's headquarters.

I could see Andy below me. She was able to spread her wings and with some struggle over control caused by the raging wind below her, was able to fly. The bone that had once punctured her wing was no longer there, obviously they had healed during the time they were hidden in her back. Carol was the lucky one of us; she never damaged her wings so she was able to fly easily. Of course, Andy flew upwards and helped her a bit. With Raichu in my arms tightly, I pushed out from my back and felt that familiar ripping and tearing pain. My wings spread out, but I couldn't move them!

"Seadra!" I heard Carol call out to me. I didn't have much time—I had to gain control over my wings or I would end up on the concrete below me. I began to panic, trashing back and forth, trying to get my wings to move. There was no explanation for what was happening. Never before had my wings not worked. "Seadra!" Carol screamed again. Suddenly, a strong wing blew her and Andy almost out of control. Our wings were weak so they had to land before anything would happen. Below me, was a huge crowd of people watching the building burn. Most of the people there were Kilindas. The moment Carol and Andy landed, they were attacked by the Kilindas. Fortunately, they did not beat on them badly, they mainly restrained them. They were too focused on watching me than the girls. They watched me in shock as the wind trashed me around like a cat with a mouse.

I looked below me, I made a guess that I had to regain control in less than 5 seconds or else no matter what, I'd be doomed. I finally gave up and decided to just let myself fall.

The Kilindas had won after all.