Chapter 12:Attempted Heroism

(From the perspective of Lilac, the human)

"Ouch!"

Kitsune's yelp of pain woke me. But what had happened…

"Omega!" I yelled out, trying to leap to my feet though Kitsune was on top of me. I could feel the tears building up, as I could see he was no longer with us. It was my fault, "they took him, didn't they? We didn't even get the chance to fight back. He was only with us because he liked me. It was me who got us into the trouble with that lady in the first place."

"You're not thinking straight," Kitsune growled, struggling to get a foothold on the greased sides of the pit, "he was only going to be a hindrance anyway, and he was probably even trying to come up with a scheme of sorts. You shouldn't have liked him at all with the way he wanted you. A form of spite against me, you could say, he only wanted you so I couldn't have you. Trust me, we're better of without him… We should be more worried about the greased sides of the pit and how easy prey we'd be if someone decided to attack us, which is quite likely since he is here and woke us."

"I just love to watch unstoppable forces of nature," a cheerful voice called out, and it took a few moments for me to realize that it was from an absol, the absol named Katar, "and that is what your presence feels like to me… I just got bored from watching you sleep for hours on end after those two got the jump on you, so I flicked a stone in to make it more interesting. So are you going to kill the human or is there something else that your destructive energies are meant to do?"

"…I suppose not then," Katar muttered disappointedly when Kitsune didn't even bother responding. I certainly couldn't have said anything useful either, especially when he didn't even acknowledge that I could hear him. He wasn't to know I could understand, "it would have been a bit disappointing anyway, your energy should be for something much bigger and the human is somewhat amusing. I might as will help you out so we can get to that point sooner, as it'll be something to remember. Just trust me for a few moments…"

I couldn't see what was happening, but I could hear what sounded like the air somewhere above me was being shredded by something. Fur was shoved into my face. I couldn't breath. Kitsune had gotten into a defensive position over me to protect us both. The sound changed, or at least was added to it. It sounded like a full-blown landslide, though it was muffled by Kitsune's fur. I needed to breathe soon.

A moment longer and I would have passed out. Kitsune stood up off me and walked out of the pit. The pit had developed a much shallower slope at one side, and none of it was slippery anymore. As I got unsteadily to my feet, while taking some quite deep breaths, I caught a glance at Katar, his fur had gotten a few clumps of dirt in it. He must have used quite a powerful razor wind technique to cave the ground and blow away the grease. The wind was blowing quite strongly, and the sky was clouding over fast. The storm that was meant to hit was almost here.

"You have no concern for our safety and yet want us to trust you?" Kitsune's growl was deep with anger, "that technique would of ripped the flesh off mine and Lilac's bones if I didn't make a complete shield of Iron Tail to protect us. If it wasn't for the fact you aren't surprised about us surviving I would say you were trying to achieve just that."

"Thanks Katar," I had to try to be as polite as I could, partially to try and apologize for Kitsune's rudeness, but it was just too difficult not to sound distrustful. I had to have him help us find Omega, "can you please show us which wa—"

"Follow me," Katar interrupted as he made a sudden dash deeper into the forest, quite a logical direction, both away from the coming storm front and into a more sheltered area. A flash of lightning illuminated the forest for a moment. It was not going to be a nice storm to be caught in.

I quickly swung my backpack off, sliding my pocketknife out of it and slipping it into a concealed pocket on my dress. If I was to keep up with Katar, then I couldn't let myself be weighed down by my pack. It was reasonably easy to catch up with Katar, as he clearly didn't want to lose us. A quite glance behind me confirmed Kitsune was following, and that she was quiet just because she had grabbed my pack in her mouth.

The rumble of thunder reached us, followed by another flash, but this time the thunder only lagged behind a few moments.

"Mouthful, eh?" Katar was clearly talking to Kitsune again, but now wasn't the time to persuade him to acknowledge my existence. Not while Omega was probably in danger. It was about time I started to act like a proper Pokémon trainer. I had to, not just for Omega, but also if I wanted to stand a chance in a gym battle, "I know you would probably want to ask what happened after you left if it wasn't for that. Plain and simply, it was decided that I wasn't mentally damaged enough to make me dangerous to a trainer, though returning to the wild wasn't an option… Too bad I accidentally broke the Pokéball they put me in while trying to carry it and run. The Pokémon Centre did everything right to stop me escaping, but their responsibilities basically end as soon as they hand a Pokémon to a human. At least the human I was given to should recover, since he was already at the Pokémon Centre so treatment should have been administered quickly. I guess I might as well warn you that the police have sent a spy to keep your human from doing things they don't want her to do, possibly an elite assassin like my previous master but that may just be wishful thinking on my part."

Injured a trainer, possibly fatally, just to escape? I thought all that the mental tests would have been accurate enough to predict that would happen, and at least take longer. What reasons could Katar have to do such a thing, especially tricking Nurse Joy about his stability? This was not the time to question the only chance of rescue Omega has. It was quite possible that he was telling the truth about the police spy, though an assassin was impossible, right?

"It's nice to have your company, I'd hate to have to run backwards and forwards between disasters," Katar's words suddenly struck me, he wasn't going after Omega after all, "I had a vision of someone important dying an unusually impressive death considering the circumstances and I want to see it, I'm sure there will be a free meal opportunity there too. We're almost there and on time too. Quite lucky, but I can't tell you what's going to happen as that'll give you a chance of interfering and ruining the whole thing."

Rain started to hail down, with a few more flashes of lightning and rolls of thunder.

I could faintly hear Kitsune's muffled growl, "Dark types can't see the future, so stop pretending, or announcing your delusions as it's wasting our time," judging by the lack of reaction from Katar, he mustn't have heard her. It was then she dropped my pack.

"Look!" she barked. Up on the hill, some distance away, was a boy in a yellow vest, standing looking around as if searching for something. His glance came my way and he started running our way, "he looks suspicious enough to be the spy Katar mentioned. What human would be out here in this storm by themselves… Look at it this way, he might be working with whoever took Omega, so for you, Lilac, it's a win-win situation no matter who he works for."

Kitsune burst into a quick attack, dashing round into the bushes so he would not see her, I could see exactly what was going to happen but I ran after her anyway. She was going to lung at him, knocking him to the ground, before sinking her fangs into his throat. Shouting would not stop her; nothing would save the potentially innocent boy. But that was not how it happened.

She lunged all right, knocking him to the ground. Although the flash of lightning hitting a nearby tree was unexpected, the tree burst into flames in the deafening thunder and toppled over towards where human would have been if Kitsune hadn't attacked him. The wet grass helped them both slide completely out of the way. I continued to run, he was still in danger, and the thunder may not of given Kitsune enough of a fright to make her leg him free.

"Interfering Vixen!" Katar howled out, "his death would have been more impressive than just being crushed by that tree, it would have been much more mess than that as there were some rather unique unknown variables involved, but you had to go and ruin it all!"

"Um..thanks, Ninetales. Now would you please get off of me?" I heard him say, and I could imagine him having a slight smile while he spoke, probably in shock from how close he came to death and the fact Kitsune was pinning him to the ground.

"Kitsune, get off him," a firm voice always gets obedience right after a big shock, and such a voice came easily to me this time. The fact this was unusual also may have helped get Kitsune to obey and she let him up right away, "now sit."

As the boy stood up I managed to get a look at all of his features. He looked about 5 and a half-foot tall, probably weighting in the range of 100 pounds, and looking about 14 years old. Details that I'd normally miss flowed easily into my mind, unrestricted by emotions that normally took control. Blue-gray eyes with flecks of yellow, combined with brown hair that seemed to naturally spike out at odd angles, and his lightly tanned skin made him look a bit like my dream impression of a handsome prince. His clothes didn't match that, as he was dressed in a light-weight yellow vest over a white t-shirt and dark-blue jeans.

"Oh, hi! Is this your ninetales that saved me? Well, thanks to both of you," the boy said, recovering far too quickly from the shock to be human. Still he had to be human, as no one had made robots advanced enough to look perfectly human, "so, what's your name? Mine is Ryan, glad to meet 'cha. Not really time to talk, is it, for now we have to get out of this storm. I think I've got this mightyena that is looking for his trainer at a nearby cave. I told him to wait there, so he probably did. Is his trainer, by any chance, you? I found him with Teams Magma and Aqua."

With a wave of his hand, gesturing for me to follow him, we ran through the forest. Hopefully it was Omega he had stashed away, I would never forgive myself if it wasn't.

"I don't like him, he could still be a spy," Kitsune stated, her voice showed she was still a bit shaken by the lightning, as she followed, barely in earshot. It felt wrong to listen to her talk to Katar, but I couldn't resist. She had underestimated how good my hearing was, though this was probably influence by the fact she was probably temporarily deafened by the thunder, "but if Lilac likes him I suppose I can just watch him cautiously, only dealing with him when he makes a mistake. I'm sure you can't wait to see that… Till then I might learn a bit about human mating rituals, but there will certainly more fun things to spend the night doing."

"Sounds better than staying out in a storm, though it wouldn't really appeal to me in any other circumstances. I can foresee that nothing especially fun to watch happening tonight."

Lucky I have a perfectly good education in pokemon breeding, I know how to pick up on and manipulate love in eevees and adapting that knowledge should allow me to avoid any stupid romance. I have to stay focused on being a good trainer, and not get as emotional as I usually do.