Shiloh stared down the forces brought against Aspen. She was completely surrounded, with a full six different Pokémon and armed soldiers. At least none of them were aiming their firearms in her direction. Of course they aren't, she's a rare Pokémon. She's too valuable to shoot.
With that realization, Shiloh felt something even more terrifying. I'm valuable. Anyone in the world would want to capture me. If they didn't win this fight, it wasn't just Aspen who would end up captured.
The soldiers of Team Plasma hadn't seen her yet. A few of their Pokémon glanced backward in her direction, but they were too well-trained to turn away from their target. Besides, Aspen radiated far more power than she could. That Pokémon was a proper legendary, not a baby stuck in the nursery for lack of development.
Aspen could've been out of here long ago, if she wanted.
"What do I do?" came the telepathic plea, desperate and frightened. As she asked, a charmeleon blasted another wave of flames in her direction, forcing her to dip into the pool to dodge. But she had to come up for air seconds later, and now she was dripping wet as well as disoriented.
"I've only sparred with Mom and Dad! I don't know how to fight!"
"Do you know any moves?" Shiloh floated, keeping close to the wall. There in the shade she would be harder to spot, though her bright red ears would give her away if anyone searched for long.
"Attack together this time. Everyone, focus on that shaymin. Bring it down!"
"Then use, uh..." Shiloh had never trained a shaymin before, but she had expected to fight a few of them in her ascension towards rank of World Champion. She knew everything they could do, every weakness, every move.
Her desperation and fear made her want to find a corner and never crawl out. But there was something else, the same determination Shiloh had carried with her since the beginning. She was going to win this—not because she knew how, or because she was the best trainer, but because she wanted it the most.
As the Pokémon prepared their attacks, as boots echoed in the building behind her, and an ornithopter's wings hummed overhead, Shiloh knew beyond a doubt that Aspen could. Not. Lose.
"Aspen, use Seed Flare!" This wasn't some subtle mental communication she had gained as a legendary—Shiloh shouted the way she would've to any Pokémon she was training. She screamed out-loud, enough that the soldiers all turned to stare in her direction.
She couldn't see if they understood her, because that was the moment Aspen obeyed.
Shiloh was suddenly not hidden anymore, her whole body glowing with brilliant white light. It should've blinded her, but somehow her vision remained completely in focus.
Aspen dodged around Pokémon attacks, lifting into the air over her attackers. That red flower around her neck lit up with exactly the same shade as Shiloh's own. She was probably imagining things, but in that second, Shiloh felt some of the strength leaving her.
She sagged in the air, her glow faded—and Aspen lashed out with an attack like nothing she had ever seen. A new jungle exploded onto the poolside, in a wave of violent growth. The Pokémon beside Aspen were utterly consumed, screaming as they were battered down and encircled by growing plants.
The humans behind them were only a few seconds behind. Guns discharged harmlessly, before they were knocked from their grips, and the Plasma soldiers joined their Pokémon entrapped.
The poolside itself fared little better, with the grills and furniture crushed beneath the explosion of growth. Deep red flowers sprang up from everywhere the growth reached. Yet none of them touched Shiloh.
A single clear corridor remained between them, giving her a clear view as the shaymin dropped to the ground. She melted back into her smaller forme, so that she touched down on four little paws, curling up in a weak ball.
Crap.
She had managed an attack like nothing Shiloh could imagine from most Pokémon, an incredible accomplishment. But she didn't have a lifetime of training and battle to prepare her for it. She'd used more strength than a little legendary had to give.
I think she got some of it from me.
"What's going on up there?" someone shouted, through the speaker of a nearby radio. Its owner was half buried in vines up to her neck, but she managed to press the button down. "There's something else here! Shaymin—teamed up with it! Everyone's down! Everyone's down!"
I can't stay here. A real victini should be strong enough to fight everyone in that nursery and free the others. But the trainers in there had beaten a trained gardevoir and two mew, and still won.
I hope you're hiding well, Briar. I can't come for you now.
Shiloh glided over to Aspen. She tugged on her with one paw, groaning. "Come on, Aspen! We need to fly out of here!"
The shaymin could barely even open her eyes. Her voice was confused, distant. "What about... kittens."
"Can't help them if they catch us too!" She tugged for a few more seconds, but Aspen remained stubbornly on the ground. She was too weak to fight Shiloh, but she wasn't actually helping either.
"Remember when you said you wouldn't fly me out of here?" Shiloh was no expert with this flying stuff, but she had great motivation. Flashing lights appeared as the Soldiers started hacking and tugging at the vines, forcing them apart.
"Backup!" someone yelled. "Command, our capture team is overwhelmed! There's a victini here! We need the Monarch contingency, now!"
Shiloh had no idea what that meant, and she had no intention of sticking around to find out. Without knowing exactly how she did it, she grabbed hold of Aspen, then forced her up into the air beside her. She flew straight up, along the canyon walls.
If she lost concentration now, if gravity reasserted itself—she would fall to her death. She banished the thought, the same way she had rejected the possibility of splashing down into an uncomfortably wet pool during the last few days.
"We're leaving them behind!" Aspen whimpered. She didn't seem able to fly at all in that forme. All she could do was kick and struggle with her stubby legs, as though that would somehow keep her from flying through the air. It did not.
"I know," Shiloh said. "Briar was in there too. But we can't win this fight. I've seen Pokémon get like you before, you're drained. And I'm not a Pokémon, I don't even know how to fight. We have to go for help."
Aspen whimpered, but her struggling slowed. Whether she was convinced or just too weak to keep fighting, Shiloh didn't know.
Or particularly care, as she emerged at ground level. This was all new to her, since she had never actually managed to execute an escape plan.
It was even worse than she expected—dense jungle so thick with trees and dangerous plants that it would likely discourage even the bravest of hikers. High overhead, she saw the glitter of metal and glass, accompanied by the constant whine of rapidly-vibrating wings.
The ornithopter had to hover above the trees, since the nursery's protected location gave it nowhere to land. Two ladders hung down from overhead, trailing all the way into the canyon.
As she watched, another few soldiers descended those lines, wearing black armor and heavy weapons on their back. A few seconds later, and a spotlight began to scan the jungle, shining down from below into the trees.
Shit.
It aimed near where they emerged, then started scanning over the forest floor in their direction. They don't want to let us get away. Even two legendries captured wasn't enough for Team Plasma, not now that they'd seen Shiloh and Aspen.
But it was the middle of the night, and the two of them were barely a foot long. Actually seeing them from up there through all this life wouldn't be easy.
Any second now Shiloh's focus would falter and she'd probably drop them—but she hadn't yet. She hesitated just long enough for one last glance into the Nursery, then flew forward as fast as she could. She kept at just above human head level, where most of the bushes and thorny plants wouldn't reach them.
Even the ones that could did far less damage than she would've expected. More of an annoyance than a real danger for a fire type.
"Aspen, do you know anywhere we can hide?" she asked. "Somewhere safe, that humans won't know to check? Those people knew where to find the Nursery, so it has to be somewhere harder."
She turned the shaymin in the air so she could meet her eyes, watching expectantly. After a few seconds, Aspen nodded. "The river running past the nursery, if we follow it north—leads to a waterfall up a cliff. There's a little cave about halfway up my father likes to rest in. He hates being inside human buildings."
If Shiloh knew where they were, she would use her own memory as a guide to guess if Team Plasma would know about the cave. As it was, she didn't even have a pokédex to check.
All my human possessions are in the nursery. Her plan of escaping with her ID and a few pictures of herself to get her Pokémon team out of the storage system would be pretty tough when all the proof of her humanity was stuck inside.
More human voices in the jungle behind them, but they faded rapidly. Team Plasma could try to set up an exhaustive search, but Lane's choice of location would slow them to a crawl. Within minutes, she couldn't even hear the ornithopter blades anymore.
Shiloh felt the exhaustion of flying not in any muscles, but in the slow throbbing in her head. This was a mental power, the same as a psychic Pokémon used to bend spoons or throw objects around. The headache continued to build—how much worse could it get?
Bad enough that by the time she reached the cliff, the thought of lifting them vertically was almost overwhelming. It wasn't just a dozen meters through a narrow canyon, the waterfall stretched hundreds, a spectacular display of cascading water that showered them with icy residue even from beneath.
It was exactly the kind of place she would've expected to find a legendary, practically inaccessible to any humans. And it would be to her too, if she stopped to rest even for a second.
"Trainer Shiloh, I am pleased to see I have not missed your battle with Mew. I must assume you have not captured her recently, since I detect no poké balls on your person."
She was less than five meters up the cliff when she heard the voice from beside her. The faint red of its infrared cameras came on, a pair of glowing eyes. "Is this part of your training regimen? Please explain for your fans back home."
Shiloh sniffed, then started crying. She couldn't say exactly what had broken her—losing her body, her connections to humanity, her best friend? Maybe it was those helpful kittens, beaten into submission by an evil team with unknown motivations. Maybe it was just the exhaustion of her powers and the late hour.
She couldn't even muster an insult for the drone, or some misdirecting command to send it away again. She just didn't have the strength.
She dragged one paw against the damp rock, a shower of moisture falling all around her. Even well out of the waterfall's flow, she was getting plenty of rain. Not nearly enough to knock the ghost-controlled drone out of the air, unfortunately.
"You appear to be in distress," said the voice. The mechanical camera arm retracted, and something else emerged—a net arm, used in bug catching. Shiloh had never even used that attachment before. "Climb in."
She didn't have the strength to resist. Shiloh lifted Aspen in first, then collapsed into the soft fabric a second later. "Th-there's a cave... up the cliff," she stammered, gesturing vaguely. "Somewhere."
"Understood. We can film your training after you have recovered." The quadcopter rotors surged, straining audibly to lift so much weight.
They ascended up the cliff.