Erin made her way down yet another hallway of the Agency with the fear that at any moment a guard would pop out and shoot them to the ground. Chasm ran alongside her and a bit ahead to her left, Nero flew by her head on her right, and Khyt brought up the rear and ran behind.
Their path didn't twist and turn as much in this area. Most of the time they ran strait, with only the occasional detour to either side.
Erin was used to working hard because over the past three months she had been pushed beyond her natural limits in Turner's mad drive to make her the "ultimate agent." Even so, her strength was waning. Her breath came hard, despite conscious control to keep it steady, and her feet had begun to hurt. She could only imagine what it must be like for Chasm and Khyt, who hadn't run at all in a long while.
That was when Chasm warned her of the guards.
"They are coming. Many of them. And they don't sound too pleased, that they don't."
"Thanks Chasm. We know they're coming now, so-" Erin's sentence was cut short and ended in a grunt as she hit the wall on her left, her side burning in pain. She looked up to see Chasm and Khyt on either side of a nidorino. No wonder she hurt. That was a large pokemon and it had hit her dead on.
Erin spotted her Bo staff a few feet ahead of her and dashed for it at the same time that Chasm threw a shadow ball at the nidorino. He dodged but it still clipped him in the shoulder, causing him extreme pain as the antimatter ate into his skin.
He began howling, but Erin had already heard the rumble of other pursuers and didn't bother to turn back, knowing her pokemon would follow as she ran. Even Chasm, who would have once stayed until her opponent was unconscious, halted the fight to flee.
A bullet whizzed right by her head and she tripped in surprise, almost falling over herself in the process, and she ran faster. Another bullet harbored itself in the wall as the group turned a corner and a shout of, "Nidorino! Return!" could be heard over the shouts of, "Fire at will!" and "Turner wants the girl alive!" That didn't ease Erin's fear. If anything, it made the sick feeling in her stomach worse.
"There!" Erin cried urgently, pointing to a door on her right that read 'CLASSIFIED: authorized personal only.' That was the place on the map that held the other black area. It was in here that she might find Abadon!
Khyt sliced through the metal door as if it were no more than air and the group ran through.
"Oh…gods…" whispered Erin under her breath. "Oh gods oh gods oh gods," she continued, beginning to cry again. This time the tears flowed heavily to the point where she could no longer see her hand in front of her eyes.
"I assume that is the one you call Abadon?" asked Khyt.
Erin and her pokemon had entered a room close to the same size as the one that led to Nero's prison, but was obviously used for vastly different purposes. Whereas the other had a giant computer and equipment for research of technology, this one was pure white, like all those damn hallways, and like Chronal's lab, Erin remembered.
She would never have a day where the only thing she had to worry about was staying under the radar of condescending teachers again, Erin realized.
This room was used for pokemon research and experiments, and at the far end, behind a large pane of glass, was perhaps the saddest sight Erin had ever seen.
"Abadon… oh gods, what have they done to you?"
Erin had last seen him on the television screen when she first arrived at the Agency, after her first fight with Turner. The horror of that didn't even begin to compare to what now lay before her.
There was a small explosion in the doorway behind her and Erin turned.
"Erin!" cried Chasm. "You go rescue the Char, and we'll hold them off for you!" Without waiting for a reply the umbreon turned to the battle at hand. Erin took her cue and ran toward Abadon.
"Nero," continued Chasm behind her. "I am aware you cannot join the battle with offensive attacks like psychic and mind sweep, but can you create force fields?"
"Yes," the mew answered.
"Then please protect us as much as possible from those humans and their pokemon who wish to see us fail!" She was able congratulate Nero soon when one of their pursuers seemingly ran into nothing and fell backward as the mew giggled to himself. They might just be able to hold them off.
Lightening crackled around Erin as she slammed her Bo staff into the glass like a spear. The glass was obviously rigged to ward off escape, but Erin's weapon didn't conduct electricity. It cracked on the second thrust, and by the fifth, she had fully broken through!
"Abadon!" she screamed, climbing through the hole the jagged hole in the glass and scraping her arms and legs in the process. Erin didn't even flinch; all her thoughts now rested on the charizard before her.
Abadon didn't appear to have heard her call, as his head hung on his chest and he didn't bother to glance up. Numerous wires and tubes were attached to his body which was slumped on the floor, unmoving. Erin knew that those tubes were filled with a liquid that was formed from water stones. But that alone would not harm Abadon enough to leave him in this condition. Turner had said that his scientists had added something to the formula to counteract the added type value that the Char possessed.
His spirit was broken. After hours, then days, then weeks of struggling for freedom, his battered body could no longer take the stress and he finally collapsed on the floor. He was not defeated, for he would never give up, but he was now without the strength and the ability to escape. Abadon was weak, both in body and in mind.
"Abadon," Erin whispered and she gently held his head in her cut, bleeding hands. "Abadon," she said again, crying, "Abadon, please wake up. I'm here now. Everything will be okay. We can leave."
Then slowly, so very slowly, Abadon opened his clear blue eyes and looked into Erin's dull brown ones. She smiled in relief.
"Erin?" he coughed. "I thought I'd never see you again."
"I didn't think I'd ever see you again either," she cried, wrapping her arms around his neck. "I thought for sure I'd die trying to get here, but I didn't care; I couldn't bare the thought of you suffering because of me and I couldn't go through another injection of Iso and keep my sanity. Abadon, we have to get out of here now."
"I've tried," Abadon answered. "I can't break free."
Erin stood up and examined the tubes. "But I wasn't here to help you then, and I'm here now." Erin touched one of the wires. It felt almost as cold as ice.
An explosion in the direction of the doorway drew Erin's attention. The resistance of her friends had not been enough, and the guards and their pokemon had broken through the barrier!
"Chasm!" cried Erin.
"They were too much!" answered the umbreon, continuing to fight despite the disadvantage. "They brought reinforcements!"
"And not just any reinforcements."
That voice! It couldn't be! Erin's blood chilled as she saw none other than Charles Turner emerge from the surrounding dust.
"I must say, Miss Erin, I never expected something this rash from you." He looked anything but pleased, his usual smug grin replaced with a frown. "You have made a grave mistake today that you will not have the chance to repeat. Once I have you back under my control and your pitiful pokemon back in their respective cages you will spend so much time under the influence of Iso that you will wish you were dead. I will not tolerate your impudence. You will obey my every word from now until your grave. It is up to you to decide how long that will be."
Erin was shaking with rage. She now stood as a barrier between Turner and Abadon, since the Char was in no condition to battle. He had brought pokemon with him, and they warded off any attacks from Chasm and Khyt. Nero, still so young and not yet trained for endurance, had already reached his limit in creating protective force fields.
"I will not allow you hurt my pokemon any longer!" she cried in frustration. Her Bo staff reached maximum length in her hand. "I won't let you!"
"Miss Erin, I highly doubt that will be an effective weapon against this." Turner withdrew a gun, pointing it directly at Erin's forehead. "Even if we were to battle, I have rested for a few hours, whereas you have been awake for almost a full twenty-four day, pushing your limit the entire time. There is no doubt that I would be victorious."
Erin realized the truth in Turner's words. She could not win this battle. Even before she retracted her staff and dropped her arms to her side, Turner could see her courage wane in her eyes. He smiled to himself once more. "Come," he said as he lowered his gun.
"Erin," whispered the exhausted Char. "Don't give up."
"I have to," she said in reply. "There's no way I can win."
Erin began to walk toward Turner so he could escort her to the Iso chamber. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad. She had survived Iso before; a dose that lasted longer shouldn't matter much. She couldn't tell how much time had passed while she was under its influence anyway.
Then she though of Abadon, who had suffered so much already and yet still told her not to give up. Then there was Chasm and Khyt, who were still fighting, even though their strength was about spent. Even Nero continued to shout encouragement at them. Abadon had said not to give up. She could not win against Turner on her own, Erin knew this, but she would die trying, she decided.
At this point Erin had made it to where Turner was waiting for her, and the two began to walk side by side to the door, which was now more of a giant hole in the wall rather than an actual door.
"You'll see, Miss Erin, this life isn't so bad once you get used to it."
"Yes, sir," she replied. Then, without warning, her staff extended at the exact angle needed to knock the gun from Turner's hand. At his cry of surprise she spun away, expecting an attack, but instead Turner ran for his gun. "Chasm!" Erin cried, pointing toward the weapon on the ground.
In understanding, Chasm performed the same action to the firearm that she had to the pile of trash in Mr. Kline's closet: she sent it to another dimension. Once he realized what was happening, Turner gave up attempting to retrieve the gun and directed his attack once again on Erin, his "ultimate agent." But she was ready.
Erin spun the staff in front of her to get the feel for it and then swung at Turner's head. He expected the attack, however, and dodged to the left, then sprung backward off his hands to land on his feet, just missing another blow from the staff. He kicked at Erin, but she, too, jumped out of the way, only she used the staff as leverage on her landing and raised it at the last second to block another attack.
"You are a fool if you believe you can defeat me," said Turner, attempting to distract her by the sound of his voice.
"Then I'm a fool," Erin replied, unfazed.
She kicked while in a crouch, attempting to knock Turner's legs out from under him, but he dodged the other way, just as Erin thought he would. She had the Bo staff ready and slammed it into his side. Turner was surprised at being caught off guard, but he did not loose his footing.
In a rush of energy the two of them came together, fists, feet, and weapon flying, each attempting to get the upper hand. Erin was slightly more confident since she made the first hit, but that didn't mean she was in the clear. The opponents fought so swiftly that most humans wouldn't be able to keep up with the speed of their attacks. Everything was on the line here; they both knew that.
A foot caught Erin in her left side and her ribs screamed in protest. Was one of them broken? Too bad; she'd have to fight through the pain. She swung back with her Bo staff and aimed the swift blow straight for Turner's right temple.
But he deflected the blow mere centimeters away from his scull and twisted the staff right out of Erin's deft fingers! In an attack even quicker than the one Erin just initiated, Turner brought the weapon over his head and swung downward. With no time to dodge, the best Erin could do was bring both arms above her head to block the blow, and a sickening crack was heard as she cried out from the pain in her left arm, which took the brunt of the assault.
Erin rolled to her right before the next attack could come and was on her feet a few yards away in mere seconds. A dark bruise was already forming under the skin where the staff had made contact with her arm. Definitely cracked, she decided; if not broken, than her bone was definitely cracked. She clenched and unclenched her fingers on that arm and ground her teeth at the pain it caused to do so. Definitely cracked.
All this time, Abadon was looking on in frustration. He was stuck where he was. If he even tried to stand up, the movement it caused would trigger the suction in the tubes and the liquid would pour into his bloodstream. He was helpless to defend himself, but worse, he was unable to help his friends. And by the looks of it, Erin was loosing.
Not wanting to give his foolish agent-in-training any time to rest, Turner raced after her, staff in hand and ready to strike. To his complete surprise, Erin ran away! She wasn't even running for the opening in the wall, but was headed for a different wall entirely. He didn't let up on the chase, but if Erin kept running, she would slam into the wall and knock herself out. He thought her foolish, but not that foolish.
Abadon watched as Erin made her way toward the wall, and seemingly toward her doom. In the short time they had known each other, Erin and Abadon had formed a tight bond, and, though Erin's actions at the moment might seem the actions of a fool, the Char had a pretty good idea of what he thought Erin was up to.
Abadon was right: Erin was no fool; she knew exactly what she was doing. She would not stop or slow down as she approached the wall. When she reached it, she would scale it. At her current speed, Erin would be able to take a few steps upward before she would be forced to leap off, but once she did, she would end up behind a startled Turner and would be able to catch him off guard, perhaps long enough to retrieve her Bo staff. Even though the weapon was given to her by Turner to further her training, Erin still thought of it as hers, and she would not allow it to stay in the hands of this psychopath.
Abadon knew what Erin was planning, and from his point of view on the ground, he knew she would succeed, but he could also see what she was not expecting. Abadon was far back enough to notice when the confused look on Turner's face became one of understanding. Turner now knew the attack Erin would make, and he would be ready for her upon her landing. He would not be taken by surprise, and that would be the end of the fight.
Erin would scale the wall, take a mighty leap backward, land directly behind Turner, and then fall prey to his attack. She might even die.
Abadon's breathing had become increasingly faster over the course of the fight, and he was currently seething, wanting nothing more than to rise and defeat this enemy that was trying to destroy his friends, and knowing full well that doing so might kill him. But wasn't that what Erin was attempting? She was fighting an opponent that she knew full well would probably defeat her for no other reason than she would not allow herself to give up. He had told her that. He had told her not to give up, and here he was, lying on the ground like a pampered skitty.
"No. She will not have to fight alone." Abadon lifted his head and then moved his arms so as to support his weight once he began to rise. Even that small amount of movement sent small streams of the liquid into his veins and caused him discomfort. Abadon ignored it.
As Erin leapt backward, Abadon was just getting his footing. As she landed, he took a step forward, gritting his teeth at the flow of poison into his body. And then the Char cried out in desperation as the first human he ever trusted was smacked on the side of the head at close range with a strong metal staff, sending her across the room in his direction.
"NO!" he cried, though it sounded more like a guttural roar.
Erin moaned and tried, unsuccessfully, to rise. Turner was closing in. All other motion in the room had come to a stop; the other pokemon and guards either too tired to rise, unconscious, or dead. Abadon pulled against the cords and wires, no longer feeling the pain on a conscious level.
Right behind his eyes the charizard felt a growing pressure. It was in his lungs, too. He imagined to himself that what he was feeling must be what a human or non-fire type must feel when burned. Either that, or it was what someone experienced right before they died.
No, Abadon realized, it couldn't be that, because he had felt this burning before, twice in fact, though the second time was much stronger. Even that, though, was no comparison to what he felt now. It was the same fire that had consumed him, that consumes all fire pokemon, when they evolve. But Abadon can't evolve, because the charizard is the highest evolutionary stage of the Char.
Erin rolled over on her side and coughed up blood. What had she just been doing? She couldn't remember. Her side hurt, though she didn't know why. For that matter, her arm and head hurt as well, though the head was probably the worst. That must be why the room kept spinning. The words definitely cracked kept floating through her mind, but she couldn't remember what significance they held. Wait… Abadon!
Everything came rushing back to her. Erin glanced up to see Turner, an insane grimace on his face, running toward her at top speed holding her Bo staff like a baseball bat and ready to strike. But then he screeched to a sudden halt, his expression moving to surprise and then to fear as he lowered the weapon.
Erin dared to look behind her and realized where the thunderous noise in the room was coming from. Abadon, eyes glowing white, was breaking free of his bonds.
Abadon remembered one of the first non-lethal conversations he had held with Chasm. She had begun the exchange by stating that the stripes on his back had saved his life. Now, while it was not the stripes directly, what had aided him in the battle and given him the upper hand was the fact that he had an added type factored into his system, a type not usually given to fire pokemon.
As a child, this type advantage had made him stronger, quicker, and an all around better fighter than the other children his age. But children never see the good in a situation such as this. All they saw was the stripes, and how it made him different from them, so they excluded him and eventually drove him into exile. Shortly after, he met Erin, and then Chasm.
While Chasm insisted his stripes were a good thing, Abadon hadn't wanted to hear anything about it, still convinced that they only made him different, which caused him to be an outcast. He didn't want to be special; he only wanted to be accepted.
He had been accepted in this group, Abadon realized, and this group had become his family, strange though that family might be. This man was trying to tear that family apart, and Abadon could not let that happen.
As he looked inside himself for the strength to rise to his feet, Abadon found something else that he had not expected. He had found understanding with what he was and what he was capable of.
Fire by itself was a strong force indeed, and Darkness alone had great power, but within this certain charizard, for whatever reason, these two energies had become one. It wasn't merely that he was a fire and dark type; Abadon had the ability to combine the two to create something greater.
It was from this understanding that he was able to repel the affect of the liquid pouring into his veins and move forward, thrashing and biting at his confines. Through his seemingly bestial behavior, Erin saw the most beautiful creature she had ever laid eyes on. He would be her savior.
Abadon opened his mouth and released a blazing pillar of black fire. His tail flame was black as well. It wasn't so much that the fire was black; Erin would have been able to shrug that off no problem. Once, in a chemistry class at the Academy, her and her classmates had added different components to a contained flame to make it turn green or pink or shoot out small sparks. The fire that came from Abadon's mouth though, seemed to repel all light it came in contact with. No, it wasn't that either: reflected light always came back to the eyes. This fire was absorbing all light, as a black hole would in space, which was an oxymoron in and of itself. Dark fire; it didn't seem possible.
Of course, all this flew through Erin's brain in a split second, because in the meantime, Abadon was crashing through the remnants of the electric glass barrier that no longer did anyone any good.
He ran toward her just as Turner pivoted to run away, but was much faster than the human and caught up to him before he could take two steps. Abadon hit Turner with a backhand, causing him to crash into the wall that Erin had scaled mere moments earlier. He didn't rise, and Erin assumed me wouldn't anytime soon.
Still on an energy rush, Abadon picked up Erin in his arms and headed for the opening, Chasm, Khyt, and Nero following.
"Turn right!" called Erin, pointing in the direction that she remembered from the map as the way out.
The group ran though a number of labs and research facilities on their quest for the outdoors, and Abadon scorched every one, his dark flamethrower burning and then melting everything like acid. After a while, however, Abadon's eyes returned to their normal shade of blue and the flame on his tail turned back to orange.
"This turn here should be it!" said Erin happily, still in the Char's arms. "Then it's just strait on though."
But of course that would have been too easy, and a hero's escape was never easy, thought Erin, as a small group of koffing and weezing came around the corner.
"I'll take care of them," said Abadon, taking a deep breath, ready to blast their new opponents with a strong fire attack.
"Wait!" called Erin. The poison pokemon were currently pumping out noxious gasses from the pours in their bodies. In the last three months, Erin had been taught what those gases were, and knew that it was flammable. "Just perform an Ember attack!"
"What? Why so weak an attack?" he asked.
"Just do it! Then run for the exit as fast as possible! There's no time for explanations!"
Without another word Abadon blew out a few stray flickering embers toward the laughing pokemon across the hall. Then, without bothering to see what damage that simple attack could have done, he ran in a full sprint down the hallway toward their freedom.
Khyt went first and slashed open the door, and just when they had all gotten out, that whole portion of the Agency went up in smoke, the force of the explosion knocking them to the ground.
"Wow!" said Nero, wide-eyed. "What was that? I've never seen so much fire in one place at once."
Erin coughed and sat up, trying to hold her side, arm, and head all at once. "Fire and flammable gases don't mix well," she told the mew. "Big boom." She turned her attention toward Abadon. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine for now, but we won't be safe here for long. We should leave in case someone follows." He lowered his wing so that Erin could climb on his back for flight. When she consented he said, "Chasm, you too."
The last time they had flown, Chasm had said that she never wanted to do so again. She hadn't changed her mind on the subject, but there were times to do what you wanted to do, and times to do what you had to do. At this point, whether she wanted to fly again or not, she knew it was the only way to complete their escape. With only a moment's hesitation, the umbreon took her place in Erin's lap on the back of the Char.
A scyther's wings were made for short flights along the ground, with only the occasional journey above the trees. Regardless, Khyt would fly alongside the Char, with Nero zipping around his head.
It wasn't long after they took off they were forced to land. Sheer exhaustion had conquered. They had made headway, and traveling over the forest instead of through it was easier, but there was no way that Abadon and Khyt could expend any more energy in doing so.
The unlikely group wandered through the near-dead forest, occasionally finding nuts or a tree with a few pieces of fruit, though nothing to ease the hunger in their stomachs.
When night finally fell, all of them went strait to sleep. Even Chasm, the very embodiment of darkness and a creature of the night, wasted no time in catching up on her Z's.
The next day would be better. They might be hungry and tired, but they were free, and that's all that mattered to them at the moment.
Finally, they were free.
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A/N: Well guys, it might have taken a while, butI finally uploaded another chapter. Yay for Erin! They escaped! But is it over? Bum-bum-bummmm. I reaallly like this chapter. And, I wrote almost all of it in one day. Over half, at least. Please review, as your comments are much appreciated, and I'll try to have the next chapter up sooner, though don't hold your breath.