Chapter Four-Moonlit Battle
Kojau's breath rasped harshly in her chest as her paws came down lightly on the sidewalk and flew up again as she bounded forward. It felt like something was scratching painfully about inside her chest every time she took a breath. It smarted, but she couldn't let up, not now. If she was ever going to catch up to the flareon and the rest, she was going to have to hurry up.
The weird chase still went on ahead of her. The immaculate lawns flashing by on either side of her…the moonlight sparkling off the green grass and the almost identical white houses…it seemed so surreal, especially when there seemed to be no one about except for herself and the ones ahead of her.
Kojau's paws drummed a tireless rhythm on the cement as she pushed herself to run faster and faster. The night wind caressed the black fur of the mane on her back, and she realized that the shadows didn't seem so bad when she was running. The wolf like pokemon felt oddly strong as she blitzed along, and she reflected that this sort of exhilaration wasn't so uncommon, though she didn't know why.
The flareon was still ahead of her, and the glow coming from the fire fox lit up the night around her. She was like a blast of live fire flying over the sidewalk, and her paws seemed to barely contact the sidewalk beneath her. Kojau could almost smell the angry determination radiating off her.
The mightyena was coming up on the flareon, and she slowed down a bit before she overtook the other pokemon, thinking she had caught up in very short time. She didn't think she had been running too fast, but then, she hadn't really been paying any attention.
The flareon still hadn't noticed her follower. Her eyes were fixed on the scene ahead. The umbreon was probably tiring by now, and she had to reach him before he gave out…
"Hey." Kojau felt uncomfortable not being noticed; nevertheless, she winced a bit as she spoke. She hadn't met a pokemon she could actually be on friendly terms with yet, for the girafarig and the arcanine hardly fit the word, 'friendly.' She wondered if the swift little pokemon in front of her would realize she was not normal and detest her for it. It was a bad thought, and Kojau almost wished she hadn't spoken at all.
The flareon, however, barely paused, though she did seem to start a bit. With what seemed to be no small difficulty, she tore her eyes away from the hunt ahead and fixed them penetratingly on Kojau, who winced and slowed down a bit.
"Who are you?" The flareon snapped out the word in a somewhat harsh voice, turning and trying to run faster before the words were even completely out of her mouth. "Friend or foe?" She seemed to have a bit of an accent, though it was hard to place.
Kojau paused a bit before she spoke, wondering if perhaps she should just get herself out of this. She could always run off in the other direction. Besides, how did she know if she was friend or foe? She could very well be an enemy of the flareon's without even knowing it. Paranoid thoughts chased themselves around in her head, and when she spoke once more it sounded strained. "…friend…"
"You look it." The flareon's reply was barely audible above her rasping breaths, though Kojau felt relieved beyond measure that some of the ice had gone out of her voice. "Bag of bones…ketting humans feed their pokemon…bloat their pokemon…"
Kojau wasn't really sure on how to reply to this. It registered in her mind that the fox ahead of her had just said some foreign word, a word that she knew nothing about. Nevertheless, she felt it was safe to come up beside the flareon now, and she finally phrased the question that had been pulling at her mind. "What is…what is happening here?" The wind roared in her ears, and she was rather afraid it might had somehow snatched her words away and sent them twisting back behind her. She didn't think she had ever run so quickly, but then, she couldn't know.
"Roghat!" The flareon practically spat the word, as if it was a particularly volatile curse. Her accent seemed to shine through the most when she spoke those odd words, and Kojau thought she seemed foreign indeed. "Humans are what is happening," she continued. "Messing with our lives…label us dangerous and to be destroyed if we don't cower like their dumb beasts. Now they're after my brother, Azour."
She certainly seemed fiery, and Kojau was glad her anger wasn't directed toward herself. She peered ahead as she and the flareon bolted on side by side, and saw they were drawing ever nearer to the scene ahead of them.
The humans hadn't yet noticed their pursuers, it seemed, and Kojau wondered how their senses could be so dull and yet they had survived for as long as they had. The scent of excitement and bloodlust radiated off them, for the umbreon seemed unable to run as quickly as he should and was slowing down drastically.
Kojau flinched as there was a cry from up ahead, and a growl. The umbreon had been overtake by the granbull, it seemed, as the humans had stopped and were shouting gleefully in their excitement. They were fiddling with the pokeballs on their belts as the two canine type pokemon fought and snarled and traded blows in front of them.
Kojau found herself stopping, staggering to a halt on the sidewalk. She didn't want to be in the humans' sight, because she just didn't and she really had no idea why. There was a dread in the pit pf her stomach, a sickening, nauseating sort of dread, and it was centered on the humans in front of her. She didn't want anything to do with them, and she remained where she was even as she saw how the umbreon was tiring quickly and one of the humans was brandishing a ball with a maniacal glint in his eye.
However, before the mightyena had time to feel guilt over this, the flareon barreled past her and flared up in a fiery show of anger, seeming to light up the whole night. Her fur ignited and blazed in the darkness, giving an effect not unlike a miniature explosion. Her eyes glowed a deep red with barely contained anger, chilling even Kojau to the bone.
As the humans turned about in shock, flames reared up from the sidewalk and danced about the little flareon, seeming almost as if they were alive and demons rising to do their master's bidding.
Kojau winced and backed up as she realized the sidewalk was turning hot under her paws. Her ears drew back at the sides of her head, and she almost wished she hadn't come. There were too many emotions here…anger, hate, fear, desperation, even a wild sort of lust. And the barely contained violence in the air was making her sick.
Then, the violence erupted. One of the humans broke from his trance like state and shouted angrily, plucking a ball from his belt and throwing it. It hit the cement hard and popped open, revealing a typhlosion. The sleek pokemon's fur seemed to shine in the firelight, and the flames on its back, almost needle-like in their appearance, flared up brightly.
The flareon didn't even wince, though Kojau did and backed up even more as the two pokemon faced off. She thought the beast was one of the fiercest looking pokemon she had ever seen. Its eyes were afire with an odd sort of light, almost as if it had been bred only for fighting and nothing else. The senseless feeling about it disturbed the sensitive mightyena, and she found herself moving backward a few steps more, heart pounding in her chest.
The flareon, however, showed no fear. She leaped aside to avoid the typhlosion's initial lunge toward her, escaping the great fangs and clawed paws by inches. The pokemon turned and shot a blinding flamethrower at her, but she dodged in a graceful spectacle of agility, dancing in the night air and coming down a good way away from the typhlosion, shooting a flamethrower of her own.
The stream of fire collided with the typhlosion's head as it came around to face her once more, stopping it in its tracks from sheer force. It roared angrily, trying to force its way through the line of flame, but the flareon only intensified it. Soon, the fire started to turn bluish, then pure white in color, and Kojau caught the scent of burning fur and flesh.
The typhlosion staggered back with a cry of pain, ducking beneath the flames and shooting toward the flareon from below. Forever nimble, she leaped into the air above it at the last minute (a maneuver that Kojau would have thought impossible) and came down on its shoulders, the flames there roaring up around her. This time, she did wince, but grimly kept on with her task, digging her sharp fangs into the typhlosion's ears as it cried out in pain and tried to dislodge her.
Kojau simply stood there, staring at the whole spectacle. It dawned on her that the humans must have noticed her now, as they were facing in her general direction. But they were so utterly focused on the battle between flareon and typhlosion that they didn't even give her a second glance. That was good, because the poor, frazzled pokemon rather wished she was invisible at the moment.
"Damn wild pokemon…" Kojau jumped a bit as the human who had spoken took another ball from his belt, enlarging it from the size of a walnut. "Always interfering. And we weren't supposed to cause much of a stir, especially in a public place such as this. Ah, well, I suppose three pokemon out couldn't hurt, even though we weren't really supposed to send out two in the first place." He made as if to throw the ball.
"Can't we just gun down the both of 'em and be done with it?" One of the scrawnier humans spoke up, coming up beside the other human.
"Nah, where's the fun in that?" Kojau shuddered as the taller human spoke, finally tossing the ball. There was real bloodlust in his eyes, and it was something she was all too familiar with. She didn't want to see that.
The ball hit the sidewalk near the two opponents, a flash of red igniting the darkness. A catlike pokemon appeared, sailing into the air and landing smoothly on the outskirts of the battle. The persian's fur gleamed in the moonlight, and, without waiting for orders, she began to stalk slowly toward the battle, eyes on the flareon.
Kojau was becoming more agitated by the moment. The persian's eyes showed the same blind purpose as the typhlosion's: Kill. Nothing else lurked in that gaze…no pleasure, no fear…just an insatiable desire for blood.
"Sian!" With a fierce cry, the cat leaped into battle, jumping up near the typhlosion and taking a swipe at the flareon on its (his, Kojau supposed, though she didn't really want to look at him too closely)'s head. Her long, pearly claws snagged the flareon's hind leg, and the fox like pokemon shouted in anger as she was dragged down toward the pavement. The two pokemon closed in on her as she disappeared from view between them, and Kojau stared, horrified, expecting any moment to hear a death cry from the eeveelution…
However, there was no cry of despair. Rather, there was a great explosion of light that erupted between the two pokemon as they closed around the flareon, blinding even Kojau.
"Eat fire!" Kojau blinked in amazement as the flareon went sailing smoothly up into the air, powerful leap taking her off to the side of the two disoriented pokemon. She paused to wink at the mightyena before powering up a fireblast and shooting it off at the Persian before the cat had time to get her bearings. The cat squealed in pain.
Kojau had been gradually backing away the whole time, and was now a considerable distance down the sidewalk and away from the battle. The violence was sickening her, and, though she sensed people who had awoken watching from their windows, no one made a move to help or hinder. Kojau got a sinking feeling in her stomach as she wondered if spectacles like this were common, or if, perhaps, the humans actually enjoyed watching them.
The battle on the sidewalk was raging much as before now, random blasts of fire sailing everywhere, though miraculously not burning the lawns near the houses. The flareon still seemed to have a lot of energy, though spots of red on the sidewalk and on her hind leg signified that the persian's claws had scored her deeply. Or perhaps the blood belonged to the great cat herself. She was still fighting, yes, but her attacks lacked vigor, and one of her eyes appeared to have been blinded briefly by the fire blast. Her creamy pelt was bloody and singed. The people watching, however, didn't seem too disturbed at this, as they were whooping and egging their battlers on.
"Errancho! Help Azour!" The flareon shouted out the words as she dodged an enthusiastic slash attack from the typhlosion. Her eyes flickered briefly in Kojau's direction, dispelling any hope that her words hadn't been meant for the mightyena, who really didn't want to get involved.
Kojau blinked as the contact between the flareon and herself was broken. She guiltily forced herself to stop retreating, peering off behind the battlers and humans. The granbull and umbreon there were still fighting, though the latter appeared exhausted and unsteady on his paws. There was blood on his coat from the granbulls' great jaws, and his breaths rattled brokenly in his body. It didn't look like he would last too much longer.
Kojau knew he needed help. It was obvious, even as he dodged the other pokemon's fangs, that he was going to go down very soon. But, looking at the battle that blocked her from him, Kojau decided she just didn't want to get any closer. The mindless pokemon terrified her. She had some deep, nauseating fear that she didn't want to end up like them, for they seemed too utterly familiar. And yet, there was that umbreon, that umbreon who would die if she didn't do something.
The street dividing the neighborhood came to mind, and she turned and stared at it. There didn't seem to be any cars going along it at this moment, for none had come during the whole battle, and the sidewalk on the other side of it looked to be a safe place for Kojau to pass the battlers and get to the umbreon. But the other sidewalk was shadowed…and the shadows seemed to beckon to Kojau, to pull at some part of herself, some forgotten part that she would rather not remember.
Sometimes, you had to make a decision, even if it felt wrong. Kojau didn't know what was really wrong or right at the moment. Her fear keeping her from the other sidewalk didn't seem exactly wrong, but staying here seemed wrong as well. The pokemon swayed on her paws, eyes clenched shut, stewing over her choices. She felt oddly transparent, as if she wasn't there.
However, a roaring noise in her ears and a heat jolted her out of her thoughts. She leaped reflexively off the sidewalk and to the road, just in time to avoid a stray flamethrower. The fear in her heart pushed her on, and she soon found herself standing and trembling sadly on the opposite sidewalk, immersed in the night's shadows.
The darkness claimed her then, seeming to wrap around her body like a fog. Images danced in the shadows, floating just out of her reach as they swept up on either side of her, coming down in a great wave to smother her and enfold her in a darkness that was anything but soothing. There was a brief moment of terror as the world around her faded away. Then, she felt herself falling, trapped in a void that sucked her from her conscious form and trapped her in a dark place utterly devoid of anything save her own tortured sense of self…
A faint cry from the other sidewalk snapped the wolf like pokemon out of her trance. She found herself slumped to the sidewalk, with no memory of actually falling. Her head was in a tizzy, and it took her a few seconds to remember where she was. Her vision blurred for a few seconds, then refocused once more.
The night around her was normal now, she found to her confusion. The shadows had stopped moving, and everything felt perfectly all right…well, not including the scene playing out on the other sidewalk.
The mightyena got to her paws with some difficulty, feeling unsteady and sluggish, as if she had slept for a month. Blinking dizzily, she turned in the direction of the cry. Her gaze came to rest on the umbreon and the granbull. They were further down the sidewalk opposite the one she stood on. The umbreon had given up on attacking, instead opting to stand at bay, back against a neat wooden fence. He winced painfully as the granbull tried to find some weakness in his defenses.
Kojau staggered off down the sidewalk, past the raging battle across the street. She focused on putting one paw in front of the other, tail drooping and dragging along behind her. She didn't even look up as light from the fire of the typhlosion and flareon's attacks randomly shone and dimmed again. Her mind and body felt broken, though not in a physical sense.
The battle was behind her now, and as she raised her head she saw she was at a good place to cross over to the scuffle going on between the umbreon and the granbull. The humans seemed to have forgotten all about their original prey, she noted with some relief. They were still focused intently on the battle before them. Kojau supposed it must be pretty exciting to them, though she didn't know why it seemed to give them so much pleasure. She thought she would probably never understand humans, not even in a million years.
Her paws came down on the street as she began to cross over to the opposite sidewalk. Her energy was returning somewhat, and there was an odd lightness in her head, though it did nothing to soothe the ever present dull ache there. The ache seemed to be part of her, she reflected, and she would probably feel as if she had lost something if it left. But that tingle going from between her ears to her backbone…that just didn't seem right.
She found herself on the opposite sidewalk now. The granbull hadn't noticed her, but the umbreon had, and his eyes flickered warily as he glanced at her. The granbull seemed to be toying with him, making lunges and retreating, occasionally scoring a hit on him, like a meowth playing with a pidgey.
But Kojau found this oddly welcoming. The granbull wasn't like the other pokemon, she thought. The others would probably have gone straight to the task of killing the umbreon, such was their empty bloodlust. The granbull was just a normal pokemon, and it did Kojau such good to see him that she just stared at him for a moment, as though trying to recover from the other two.
The granbull, however, had noticed her. He paused in his attacks on the umbreon and peered up at her. She saw a certain weakness in his eyes, something that told her he would not have attacked the umbreon had he been energetic and strong. The granbull was just as fearful as herself, Kojau thought, just as lost in the world. She smiled at him.
He was backing away from her, and she wondered why. She certainly didn't look like much…heck, she was even worse looking than the umbreon. She was certainly weaker looking than him.
The granbull whimpered a bit as she took a few confused steps toward him. He dropped to all fours from his previous cautious standing position, stubby tail seeming to try to tuck itself between his legs. In his vision, the pokemon standing before him seemed to shine with a faint white light in the night, and her eyes seemed to glow. She wasn't normal, and he was so used to normalcy that this was a severe shock to him. And, in addition to shining, the shadows of the night seemed to be swirling around her, menacing him, daring him to try to harm her…
With a terrified yelp, he turned tail and fled, racing along down the sidewalk and disappearing into the night. He left a very confused Kojau looking after him, and an equally exhausted umbreon.
Kojau stared after him for a few seconds longer, feeling awfully disturbed. She had seen fear in his eyes, naked fear, and it was of her. She hadn't wanted to be feared, and she was loath to look at the umbreon for fear that she would see the same look in his eyes.
"Well, I suppose I have to thank you." The umbreon's rich voice startled her, and she took a few wobbling steps back. "Though why he ran from you is a mystery to me. You don't look too threatening at the moment!" He laughed a bit, sounding relieved.
Kojau gave him a wan smile, hope lighting up her heart once more. He wasn't afraid of her. That was good. She had been so afraid he would fear her…she didn't think she could take that.
"I'm Azour." His voice came to her ears once again, and she decided immediately that she liked it. It had a soothing quality to it that made her feel nice and safe. His rings, pale yellow with exhaustion, shone a little more brightly as he spoke once more. "And yours?" He stared off down the sidewalk as he spoke, eyes narrowing at the sight of the battle.
"Umm…Kojau…" It dawned on her that that might not really be her name. If she couldn't remember anything else, how was it that she could remember her name? She felt a bit dismayed over this, and oddly cheated.
"Hey! I'm OK!" The umbreon's shout made her flatten her ears to the side of her head and snapped her out of her reverie as he stared down the sidewalk. "Firra! C'mon! We have to go! I'm safe now!"
Kojau stared in confusion as the flareon nimbly dodged an attack from the persian and ran up the typhlosion's back as he made to attack her, leaping off and racing toward them. She looked considerably more tired than she had been before, that was for sure, but she was fleet as ever as she raced toward them.
The umbreon, Azour, turned to Kojau. "You should come with us," he said quietly. "The humans might look for you. You helped us…but now we must run."
Kojau only nodded numbly, watching as the flareon came racing up to them. "You did it!" Her eyes lit up as she looked at Kojau. "I honestly didn't think you would be able to, you're so pathetic looking…" She seemed to glow with happiness and triumph.
Kojau blinked. She had been helpful? They were both treating her like a hero, but was she deserving of it? And they didn't seem to find anything abnormal about her. The feeling of finally being accepted made her want to faint with relief.
The humans were shouting, and Kojau could hear them making a great turmoil down the sidewalk. The two pokemon were coming toward them now, and the mightyena could practically feel their bloodlust and emptiness. She turned and watched them in a kind of morbid fascination, watched as the humans took their long sticks and fiddled with them, watched as the typhlosion powered up a flamethrower…
"Erranchos! We must go!" The flareon bumped Kojau with her shoulder, sending the mightyena staggering forward a few steps. "Can you run, Azour?"
The umbreon responded by leaping forward, rings gleaming powerfully once more, summoning up his last reserve of energy. Kojau found herself following him, though she didn't realize she was running until a few moments after her paws had started moving. The flareon bounded alongside her, and the three raced off down the moonlit sidewalk, outdistancing their pursuers, who weren't too fast.
Kojau's mind was in a fog once more. Everything was moving too swiftly for her. She was running now, but she was going too quickly. She wanted to slow down and enjoy life. She wanted to stop being in such a hurry. She wanted to learn…
"What's your name?" The words left her muzzle almost before she thought to utter them, directed at the flareon panting alongside her.
The little fire fox laughed aloud, and Kojau wondered how she could be so cheery after the whole ordeal. Her coat was spotted with blood, and she was burned in multiple places, though the wounds looked light. "Ah, how we forget the simplest things in our haste, though they can be the most important. I can tell you now that my name is Firra, though I know not your title…"
"Kojau." A small degree of satisfaction entered the mightyena's mind. Maybe everything would really be all right. Maybe she could stop worrying about things, clearing the clouds from her mind. And maybe, just maybe, she could finally find acceptance.
The wolf like pokemon smiled, her first true small since she could remember. Though she was running away from something, to her, it felt as if she was running toward something…a brighter future, and a newfound hope.
But the future is was certainly not anything to be trusted…and nothing should be believed at first glance…
(Whoo! This has to be the longest chapter I've ever written in my life! Thanks for reviewing, everyone! Negrek, I'm glad to hear you're interested in this. I do seem to add big city type things to my pokemon stories at times. I like that scene.Xanthic Growlithe Contract did inspire me to write something a little deeper, something a little more dark. And the whole experimental lab thing seems to be a common enough plot device in pokemon stories. Tiamat & Bahamut, if Deka feels like a dog to you, then I've achieved my goal!)