Chapter 4

Abyss

--- XXX --- XXX ---

"So, what's the plan?"

That was a very good question, thought Proteus. When he was on the outside, waiting for a chance to slip in, an in-and-out plan was hardly what passed through his mind. He suddenly felt very stupid, and could almost hear Shade's reproachful speech on the back of his head. And, as both Hera and Rocker looked at him, he knew that they knew.

"You do have an escape plan, don't you?" Hera asked him testily.

"Umm... I..." Proteus stammered.

The sandslash threw his claws on the air. "Great! The freak can get his butt in, but can't get out! Ain't that just terrific?"

At the sound of the word 'freak', Proteus felt his heart twinge, and almost cringed. It hurt to be called like that. It definitely hurt. But, wasn't he a freak? He was a mistake, something that wasn't even supposed to have existed, just part of some old and almost forgotten legend. Something hated, that people would fear and shun. He was an outcast.

"Rocker, you say one more word, and I'll rip your fucking mouth off, you hear me?" Hera growled menacingly to the porcupine, who found himself stepping back. Proteus looked at her in awe, both because she stood up for him, and because he had never thought a female could be that scary.

"Hey, hey, watch that temper, gal," Rocker said. "I didn't mean anything bad, honest. Plus, what could you do against me with that leg of yours?"

Proteus looked at her leg. Her left hind-paw was wrapped in something white and hard, though it didn't seem to be especially strong. He found himself staring intently at the odd thing, his head tipped to the side in curiosity.

Hera seemed to notice his stare. "You've never seen one of these before?"

He looked at her and, then, as his eyes grew more used to the darkness, he saw that her own were blue; a deep, sparkling blue, the color of a clear lake in the middle of spring, like the one Proteus had usually been with his old friends, back at his home. He had never thought anyone could have eyes like that.

"No," he answered, feeling more comfortable with her for some reason. "What is it?"

"It's a cask," she told him. "It keeps my leg from moving so that the broken bone can heal correctly."

"Broken bone?" he inquired as he looked at it again. "You broke your leg?"

"It wasn't actually her," Rocker piped in, causing a frown of irritation to appear in Hera's face. "A really big houndoom used a crunch attack on her. Nasty stuff."

Proteus eyes widened. That must have hurt. That must have really hurt. And, as he eyed the thing once more, he felt a strange rage bubbling within him, and a great desire to give the houndoom some of his own medicine, if they were ever to meet.

"Spike-head, can't you dig a way out of here?" Hera asked the hedgehog.

"Well, maybe," he said, scratching his chin. "Its better an idea than nothing." He quickly went to the nearest wall and, after a quick study, put his large appendages to use.

Proteus watched interestedly as Rocker clawed through the concrete wall, each blow and carve strong enough to take whole chunks out of it. The eevee was amazed by the pokemon's strength.

"I'm sorry about him," Hera said as she limped to his side, making Proteus turn to her. "About that whole freak thing. He doesn't watch his own mouth, and can be a real asshole sometimes."

"It's okay," he reassured her. He then looked down, feeling ashamed. "It's what I am, anyway." Saying it like that, bluntly and in the air, seemed to hurt even more.

"No, you're not!" she told him sharply. He looked back at her, at her aqua-blue eyes, for a moment unable to look away from them. They burned with a fire that seemed strong enough to burst him into flames with a stare, but that also held something else. A lingering, deep pain, almost unnoticeable. The fur surrounding them seemed stained, like she had been crying for a long time.

Then, he knew it.

"You..." he whispered, almost unable to believe it.

She looked puzzled. "Huh?"

"It was you," he said. "You. The one that I..." He stopped, unknowing if he should go on. "Something happened to you. Something bad."

Her eyes seemed to lose all the glow they had not a moment ago, and Proteus felt terribly guilty. She looked away. "I don't know what you're talking about." Her tone was slightly bitter, with a forced assurance, but something in it gave it away, and Proteus knew, but wasn't sure if he should poke in further.

He shook his head. "I-I'm sorry, I must have been mistaken."

She looked at him and, at that moment, seemed to be about to speak something, when...

"Holy shit," came Rocker's voice from the wall, where there was already a three feet wide hole.

Hera's demeanor changed unbelievably fast. "What is it now, Rocker?" she asked him, limping her way to the wall. Proteus reluctantly followed her, silently cursing the brown ground type for the interruption.

When he reached it, Proteus looked at the hole. Apparently, whoever built that place had thought of everything, including the construction of walls that had an inner metal layer in them. He really didn't like the fellow.

"Fuckin' assholes! Fucking shitty assholes! They just had to think of everything, didn't they?" Rocker cried out, voicing Proteus' thoughts.

Hera looked at the scratched metallic surface curiously. "How thick do you think it is?"

Rocker humphed. "Judging by the way these Rockets are, we could be talking 'bout some fuckin' dozen inches." He slumped on the floor. "Fuck. I'm starved, I'm parched, and not at all happy. Can't things go a little easy on me?"

Proteus wondered if he could melt his way through the metal, but immediately thought otherwise. Even if he could, the melted hole would probably burn them into three big fireballs as they tried to pass it. And plus, he didn't know if he could maintain himself as a flareon for that long.

"Well," Hera began, "if that's not gonna work, then we'll have to go through the inside of the base."

"Great," came the sarcastic reply.

"This floor and the one above this shouldn't be that hard to slip through," Proteus told them, talking for the first time in quite a while. "There are hardly any humans around. The problem will probably be when we get to the one above that, which is where the exit is. It's filled with people."

"And none of us are in any shape for an all-out battle against Rocket pokemon," Hera said. It wasn't only the cask, Proteus realized. She also seemed weak, like she hadn't had a good meal in quite a while. The sandslash wasn't any better.

"We'll try to slip through," Proteus told them. "It's the best we can do, given the circumstances."

"Y'know, I'm more than sure that door was pretty damn locked. How did you get in here anyway?" Rocker asked him.

Proteus hesitated. Then, he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself. "The same way we're getting out, I guess."

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Hera was flushed as Rocker hauled her to the back of the umbreon named Proteus, as they stood before the locked door. She felt a mix of discomfort and comfort with the proximity of their bodies. It wasn't that much bad a feeling, actually.

"Now, you both hold on tight," Proteus told them. Rocker griped the fox' long ebony tail with his claws, and Hera made sure she didn't fall from his back. She could feel his now stronger muscles through the slick fur, and she blushed redder.

One thing that Hera noticed about the unusual eevee was that, when he was in his average form, he seemed unsure of himself most of the time. But, when he changed, even his voice was different, more confident, as well as deeper, like he grew older and younger as well.

"Are you two ready?" he asked. Hera and Rocker nodded, the last one more hesitantly.

"This is not gonna hurt, is it?" the sandslash asked.

"No, I don't think so," he answered, though Hera could tell that he seemed to be hiding something.

"Let's go," she said, anyway. He nodded.

And reality shifted.

It was like seeing a very creepy version of the world, like something that would come out of a Tim Burton stile horror flic. Everything seemed twisted and bizarre, colored in shades of black and white and gray. Hera saw things that weren't there before, and things that used to be there weren't anymore. The shadows moved like they were alive. She shivered.

Don't be scared, she heard a voice in her mind, and she somehow knew it was Proteus'. It was even deeper than before. They won't do anything to you. He seemed to treat those shadows like they were alive, and Hera honestly didn't want to know why. But the assurance of his voice made her relax anyhow.

Then, they walked, slowly, through the door.

It was like passing through a sort of tension; a slight push, and you were in. For a moment the shadows engulfed them with cold claws, and Hera felt the air being sucked out of her, as the darkness became absolute, like a thick and murky liquid. She started to despair. She needed to get out of there. She needed to breathe. She needed air.

Don't worry, Proteus spoke in her mind once more. Just relax. Nothing is going to happen. The words echoed and rippled through her, like she herself was a poll of water. Just relax and breathe normally. Don't worry. It will be over soon.

She followed his advice, the sound and the feeling of his words soothing her and helping her relax. She found that she just had to breath shallowly and slowly, like she was in a steamed room. She wondered if Rocker was having the same trouble.

They swam through the pure darkness, like it was an actual substance of some sort. They could have been there for a fraction of a second, or for a thousand years, and Hera didn't know if she'd be able to tell the difference. But, sooner than she expected, it was over, and she found herself on the other side, feeling like she had just gone to the darkest depths and back.

"Holy fuckin' Christ on a bicycle!" Rocker gasped behind her. "That was too much! It was like fuckin' Twilight Zone kinda shit, man!"

Hera looked around. It was still dark, but she could see it was a long, winding corridor, stretching its way through the non-lit base like an intricate maze, illuminated faintly by a red neon sign on top of the door they had just come through.

She felt a warmth and a misty glow from beneath her and, with another voicing of pain, Proteus resumed his eevee self. With her still on top of him. She could feel the slight shaking of his body.

"Hera?" he croaked. "Could you... please... get of my back?"

"Oh, sorry!" she apologized, climbing out hurriedly, with some difficulty and a small blush, which she thanked God no one could see in that darkness. She looked at him as he got to his feet, trembling. He seemed to be even weaker now than when he had turned from a flareon, and she found herself worrying about that.

"Now," he said, as he eventually straightened himself. "We try not to get attention, and we get out, silently."

Rocker saluted. "Yes, oh captain, my captain!"

Proteus looked at him oddly, and Hera just groaned.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

They walked through the pitch-black hallways slowly, careful not to make any sound loud enough to denounce them. Away from the red neon, Proteus couldn't see anything anymore, so his nose had to be his guide again.

Behind him, even though he was only sure of that due to the very faint footsteps, was Rocker, who carried the broken-legged Hera in his back. She was probably passing her time avoiding his sharp spikes, which Proteus didn't think would be an easy or entertaining job, even though the ground type had brought them closer to his body prior so they wouldn't simply impale her.

Proteus remembered how he felt when Hera climbed on his back. He felt hot as her slender body brushed against his, some primal feeling within him rising at the moment. He was almost ashamed to admit that he had liked it. A lot, actually.

The eevee could remember the time when he started to feel attracted to females, especially other eevees and eevee-lutions, though he'd sometimes find himself staring at one of another specie. The first time was when he was two-and-a-half. He had been jogging around the underbrush near his home, pretty much inspecting curiously everything around him, when he spotted a vaporeon swimming at the nearby lake. He had carefully made his way through the bushes and grass, and he spied on her.

Her body was slim and curved, waving gracefully as she swam next to the lake's surface, her blue fur shining brightly in the afternoon sun. She'd often jump out of the water, her finned tail crashing against it as she dived back, sending splashing tiny crystals glistening with light everywhere. She laughed as she played alone in the crystal clear waters. She seemed young, though definitely older then Proteus. Maybe she had just evolved. At the time, Proteus couldn't keep his eyes from her, and he thought, with a childish hope, of meeting her sometime.

The next day, he went back to the lake. She wasn't there, and he had never seen her ever since.

They were careful when climbing the stairs, though the faint light that came from the upper level helped immensely. The first sub-terrain floor was still like Proteus had left it. Almost empty, except for some lone humans in small lone rooms.

"Looks like you were right, kiddo," Rocker whispered behind him, and Hera told him to shush, though not without a bump on the back of his head. Proteus could see now that she wasn't at all comfortable, and he mused offering himself to carry her again. His good sense dismissed it almost immediately.

Proteus was pleased that they hadn't found any 'Rockets', like Hera and Rocker called those humans, on their way. These definitely weren't nice people, for the way they treated the pokemon, not to mention the weapons they carried. He would have to ask his new companions more about them later.

When they were at the bottom of the stairs to the main level, a loud sound pierced Proteus' sensitive ears, and he lowered them so he wouldn't go deaf. It was a constant, irritating wail that traveled throughout the corridors of the base.

"Oh, shit!" Hera exclaimed, raising her voice so they could hear. "Someone hit the alarm!"

"Fuckin' crap!" the sandslash added.

Proteus looked around frantically, and spotted a slightly ajar door at the left side from where they came. "There, quick!" he called, running to it, hoping that Rocker was following him with Hera.

The room was a closet of some kind, shells with many human stile objects towering over Proteus, though he couldn't really tell what they were for. He was relieved when Rocker and Hera entered in it with him.

They remained silent in the dark room, watching as the Rockets ran frantically from side to side, and Proteus wondered if they had been the ones who really set the alarm off. He could hear some conversations between the hurried humans, and one of these caught the eevee's attention.

"...coming at us with everything they got, damnit! We have to get out of here!"

"We'd better find Reden! He might know..." And then they were too far away for him to hear them above the sirens.

At one moment, Proteus thought he saw Hera stiffen and growl during the time they had spoken. But, right then, he couldn't really determine why.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

The afternoon sun blazed over the Team Rocket base, the bright light reflected by its many windows. The sky was a crystal-clear blue, without a single spot of white in the horizon. It was decidedly hot, and humid, but that wasn't in the minds of the building's occupants.

The whole perimeter was surrounded by a great number of unknown trainers, each with their strongest pokemon called out to the fields. All kinds of flying and terrain pokemon blocked all means of escape, restraining the Rockets to their hideout.

All grunts had been hurriedly called into the structure, either by fear or as a means to gather and strategize a battle plan. Some had been willing to try the secret tunnel that went from the underground to an exit almost a mile north of there, hidden in the deep jungle. They only didn't go along with it because the mysterious trainers had discovered and secured that spot far before they had begun their siege.

The grunts couched beneath the windows in the inner corridors, clutching their sub-machineguns and their pokeballs like their lives depended on them. And they most probably did.

They still didn't know who those trainers where. It couldn't be the police, for these people used different strategies than the officers to secure Rocket hideouts. Plus, none of the grunts had ever seen police members with nidokings or charizards or even aggrons. These weren't average police trainers. These were powerful battlers.

The alarm sirens had stopped blaring minutes ago, and the silence was almost tangible, like a film that could be felt in the air. The golden beams of the sun streaked down into the walls opposite to the soldiers. They felt tense.

Then, it began. The attack was swift and subtle, coordinated so that there was no means of escape for the Rockets. That was another thing that made it clear that those weren't police members. Whoever they were, they weren't there to arrest or deliver them to the authorities. They were there to kill.

Uncountable bullets zipped invisibly through the air, like clouds of lightning-fast locusts swarming towards victims from both sides. Elemental projectiles and energy blasts streaked and streamed through the battlefield, as the pokemon took to the fight themselves. Explosions and gunfire deafened the parties and the thick dust and smoke clogged their throats. Flesh and skin and bone was pierced and severed by either offensive fire or the shrapnel that flew around. It was complete chaos, a full-out war.

One of the Rockets' pokemon, a large charmelion, battled a manectric in the open field, trying to duck from thunderbolts and blinking-fast melee attacks, while delivering a fiery inferno to his opponent. He was so engrossed in his personal battle that he didn't notice the fearow eyeing him from above, and he didn't see the bird charging an overly powerful hyper-beam attack.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Hera hid with Proteus and Rocker in the tiny room's shadows, hearing with keen ears the blasts, the guns, the screaming and the roaring. She was now certain that they weren't the ones who had set off the alarm. In fact, they were probably the last thing in the Rockets' minds at the moment.

All of a sudden, a beam of white-hot energy ripped through the ceiling, severing half of the tiny room in its wake. The force of the blast was enough to knock back the three pokemon to the wall, while the opposite one simply disappeared, melted down by the searing heat.

Hera tried to focus. Her vision was spinning, her ears had gone deaf, and her head pounded like a sledgehammer was being constantly used on it. Not to mention her leg, which had ended up knocking hardly on the wall. The pain was intense, but she struggled to get up anyway.

She looked at her companions. Rocker was out cold, while Proteus was still barely conscious. His side was badly burnt; much of the fur gone and the rest charred, half of his cream mane now a coal gray, sizzling in places. Rocker seemed less injured, though he could have hit his head severely.

Proteus looked at her, and said something. She didn't hear it, her ears still unable to work, but she guessed that he must have said her name in the middle of the sentence by the way his muzzle moved. She noticed the blood that started trickling from his side. He seemed in pain.

She couldn't hear the blasts, but she could feel the floor vibrating beneath her soft paws.

She looked to the makeshift abyss, and paled. A large fearow was in the space created by the blast, constantly leveled in the air, his wings beating in rhythm. The flapping caused the smoke and the dust to fly around, and Hera could feel the wisps of wind created by it. The bird's eyes looked at her menacingly.

The bird then looked to Hera's side, and she saw he was staring at Proteus and Rocker with a look of the kind you had when you were about to kill someone. Proteus desperately staggered up, while Rocker was oblivious to what happened around him.

The fearow opened his beak, the gold-white energy already seeping through it.

At that moment, Hera did not think, did not reason. She only saw Joshua collapsing in front of her, and them she saw Proteus being vaporized by a gigantic energy ray. That all passed her mind in a moment, and then she knew what she had to do.

She used her good paws and, with a rather large impulse for someone on her condition, threw herself on the bird, his energy orb almost ready to fire.

She grabbed hold of his long neck with her teeth. She did not use great strength, which she probably wouldn't be able to anyway, but her sharp fangs still dug slightly in the flesh. She could taste and smell the warm copper seeping slowly into her mouth.

The bird flayed and trashed in the air, and Hera saw the flash and felt the heat of the attack being released. She wasn't sure of what had happened, but the fearow was whirling in the air trying to get her of his neck, when she felt something hard hitting both of them. She fell, chunks of rock and melted metal circling around her vision.

She didn't know if Proteus had called out for her, or even if he had escaped the attack. Either way, she hoped he was okay.

And, as she fell towards the silent darkness, Hera was surprised.

She wasn't scared.

--- XXX --- XXX ---

Author's Notes

Whoa, a cliffy! I know, I'm cruel. But, hey, that's the kind of stuff that makes people come back!

Oh, and sorry about the slight delay. I had a writer's block problem while writing this, and, well, you know how it goes.

Review answering...

grrr

I try to write and update as fast as possible but, like I always say, it'll come out when it comes out, and not a moment sooner. Better to take longer and have quality than to take less time and have crap, ne? ;)

And thanks for the compliment on the characterization. It's a real pain in the ass to get it right, and even then I'm sometimes not happy with it. :P

Phoenix Rising

It's one word. ^^

Silver Wing

If I didn't make them say any more swear words all of a sudden, they'd be out of character, now, wouldn't they? Still, I hope you keep reading and reviewing. Nobody wants to lose a reader.

Q5

What do you mean? There are lots of things to say! Like, why not talk about how unbelievably well I write? No, better not. The review would be something worth of a chapter this size. XD

Three A's, a C, and PDBF:

Yes, I know. Hehehe. ;)

And I'm not really thinking about making Proteus turn into other elements besides the five ones we all know. It could happen, but it's not likely.

And you're welcome! ^-^