Chapter 12: Fear

I regained consciousness in the pokecenter. I was lying on a comfy bed. The room was the same as every other pokemon center room except for the equipment attached to my body. The heart beat monitor attached to my body repeatedly made a beeping noise which sounded really unsettling in my ears, but at least it meant I was still alive. It was now storming outside, and I could hear rain pounding against the window and ceiling of the room I was in.

In the corner of the room I could see Alex sitting with a nervous look on his face. I tried to reposition myself but my body ached pretty badly from the pain. Then the door opened up and Alex's dad walked in.

"Dad." Alex said in a gloomy voice.

"Is Kana okay?" He said as he walked over towards me. He then began observing my wounds and petted me gently to try to soothe my pain. It made me feel a lot better about the situation and I felt like I was safe from harm.

"I'm glad to see you're okay," he said gently as he stroked my fur.

He then turned around and faced Alex. "Alex, how did this happen?" His voice went from calm and gentle to hostile in just a few seconds. I was kind of shocked to see him take this tone of voice towards Alex.

"I don't know. Honestly." I could see Alex was now trying his hardest not to cry in front of his dad.

"You should have been watching her, not letting her roam around the streets alone!" He was extremely angry and I hated seeing him angry at Alex for something he couldn't help.

"I'm sorry." Alex said as a few tears came out his eyes.

"Don't be sorry to me, be sorry to her." There was now an awkward silence in the room. I hated seeing people argue, and I didn't want anyone to blame themselves for what happened. I just wanted everyone to move on.

Alex finally decided to break the silence, "Dad?" Alex said as if he wanted to ask a question.

Alex's dad then gave out an annoyed sigh. "What?"

"Black is missing, and no one knows where he is. Flare was the one who brought Kana in. I tried looking for him, but I couldn't find him, and no one said they've seen him." More tears were forming around Alex's face now.

"Well that's perfect." There was another awkward silence in the room now. Alex's dad then looked at his watch for a short moment and then sighed. "Well, I have to go back to work. I hope you find him." Alex's dad said as if he didn't really care.

Alex looked at his dad with tears going down his eyes. "Can't you help me look?"

"I have things to do at work. You caught him, and you lost him. That's your responsibility. Not mine." Alex's dad was now getting up to leave. I couldn't believe he choose to just neglect his son.

"Seriously, do you only care about your job?" Alex yelled across the room in anger.

"Well, I need to put a roof above our heads. Besides, Kana is my pokemon, not yours. Try responsibility out, Alex. It may come in handy later on. Now, I'll see you once I get back from work." His dad then walked out the room without even looking Alex in the eyes. Alex then sat there in a horrible mood. I hated seeing people fight, especially them. Alex's father could be hard on him sometimes but I knew he loved him deep down inside.

"Kana will you be okay if I leave to go look for Black?" I just gave a weak nod towards him. He then quickly grabbed his coat and bag and ran out the door. I really wish I could help them out but I would only get in the way in my current state.

I was now sitting in the room completely alone. I couldn't fall asleep due everything that was going on. Then out of nowhere the lights went out and the room was completely black. The lights in the hallway where also out so that meant the power went out. I was now beginning to get afraid since I really didn't like being in the dark, especially alone. Then the emergency power kicked in and some emergency lights lit the room up a little bit. I was now a little nervous since I had no idea what was going on. I sat in my room quietly all I could here was the rain from the storm hitting against the window of my room. A few minutes passed by and the door to my room opened. Then I froze in absolute terror. The quilava from earlier then walked into my room and shut the door behind him. The flames from his back lit the room up a little more and added to my fear.

"Hello kiddo. Did you miss me?" The quilava said with a demented voice. I tried to yell out for help but he quickly came up to me and held my mouth shut. I sat there and tried to resist but I failed since I was so weak.

"Shhhh, I'm going to let you go now, but if you do anything to attract attention I will kill you here. Are we clear?" I nodded in agreement and he released his hands off of me. I couldn't believe he was now coming after me.

"Why are you here?" I tried to sound strong but my voice was trembling from fear.

"I'm here to tie up some loose ends, but I figured we would have a little chat before I finished things up here." His words sent shivers down my spine. I knew he would do it, and the worst part is that I know he would probably even enjoy killing me.

"I don't care what you do to me, but please leave my friends alone." And I meant it. I didn't care what he did to me as long as my friends were safe, and that my death was as painless as possible.

"Sorry honey, but they're on my to-do list as well. I'm just starting with the weakest link. My question is how do you want to be found dead? Suicide, accident, or maybe a gruesome murder." I could tell he was getting sick joy from choosing how I was going to die.

"But before that, I have a few questions I always wanted to ask someone like you" The quilava asked. I could only imagine what horrible mind games he was going to play with me next.

"What do you want?" I said trembling in fear of how he planned on tormenting me.

"Is it true you are Dr. Hayter's pokemon?" I was really confused on why he would care about something as dumb as that at a moment like this.

"Yeah, but how is that relevant?" I now began to fear that he would possibly make them victims along with me.

"How do you live with him knowing the things he does every day?" The quilava was really confusing me now on our conversation.

"I don't understand. What do you mean?"

He then burst out laughing uncontrollably. "Are you serious? That's gold." He managed to say while laughing.

"Are you completely oblivious to the work he does even though you live with him?"

"He works on the study of pokemon and helps to find a better understanding of them, he helps pokemon. What is so funny about that?" I was beginning to get annoyed by him laughing in my face repeatedly, especially since I was about to be killed, I didn't want to be humiliated before I was murdered.

"Oh, he works with pokemon alright but in no way does he help them." He then continued to laugh in my face.

"What do you mean? He is a good person, and I know it!" I snapped at him in an attempt to defend Mr. Hayter's honor.

"No, he isn't. I've seen him work before, and he is no saint, kid." He said in a taunting voice.

"What do you know of him? He is a good person, and does great things with his life." The quilava absolutely lost it in laughter. I just sat there taking it because I didn't want to speed up my soon to come death.

"You are so oblivious. You don't even know anything about him. Oh then we are about to have a good laugh here in a second as I tell you more about your little saint. He then began licking his claws as if he was licking blood off of them.

"Believe me kid, life isn't always what it seems. You have no idea." His voice went to a more serious tone.

Then someone began knocking on the door and the quilava then ran into the closet. He then held his claw over his lips in an attempt to keep me silent. He then simulated cutting his throat open to show that he would kill me if I talked.

The doctor finally walked into the room after she finally realized that I wasn't going to respond.

"Hello dearie. I'm going to relocate you to a room with other pokemon who aren't on life support so the pokemon who are in need of electrical equipment can have them. She then walked up to me and unplugged the heart monitor and then began pushing my bed out of the room and into the hallway.

"That was a close one," I whispered under my breath. What the quilava said was now stuck in my head. Mr. Hayter would never hurt anyone. He is a good person and I know it. Even though I believed it, the conversation was still stuck in my head. I just prayed that I was safe from the quilava until someone came back to keep an eye on me.

Point of View Black

"How long until we are there?" I asked the charmander impatiently as the rain from the storm drenched me in water.

"Just a few blocks and we will be there."

We then ran a few blocks and then we saw a giant abandoned storage facility with a barbed wire fence around it. The place obviously hadn't been used in years and it was in horrible shape. There were a few cargo crates outside along with a few forklift that looked run down.

"This is where Vincent is, no games this time?" I said making sure he wasn't going to screw me over again.

"I promise. We will need to be careful though he may not be the only one in there. Also there is pokemon being held hostage in there and we will be helping them."

"Yeah sure" I said not only caring about finding Vincent. Right now I just wanted to get in there and find Vincent.

"We need to stick together in there. I don't know Vincent well but he is smart and I'm sure he has a backup plan for something like this."

"Yeah I would expect nothing less from him." I said. I knew this was going to be dangerous and it would not be out of reality to assume someone may get injured if not worse.

We then began searching the perimeter for an entrance.

Point of View Flare

I ran into the condo complex and quickly ran towards Alex's condo. I was afraid that I was going to be too late and someone was going to die and I would be responsible. I finally located Alex's condo and ran up to it and jumped up and unlocked the door and pushed it open. The power was out in the condo so it was pitch black inside.

"Gray come quick it's an emergency!" I yelled across the dark house.

Gray literally came running from the front living room anxiously to see what was going on.

"What's wrong?" He said anxiously.

"A lot, but Blacks gone missing and we need to find him before he gets himself killed." Gray's face went from complete worry to dumbfound.

"You got me worried for that? Let him sit out in the rain he will learn his lesson for wandering off." Gray said with his usual snide voice.

"Shut up Gray! This is serious, someone tried to kill us today and now Black is out trying to find them for some reason and I don't want him to die!" I yelled, I was not in the mood for his crap tonight.

"Why should I help him? You already know I hate him and I would like nothing more than to see him gone for good." He said with a smug look on his face.

"Gray, seriously. Please help me find him. I'm afraid he will literally die tonight if we don't stop him and you are good at tracking people."

"What do I get if I help you?" At that point I completely snapped from his selfishness.

"Forget it. You are a selfish prick that is a piece of crap and you can't just be the better person for once and just do the right thing. This affects more people than just you!" I then began running outside in the cold rain. I couldn't believe how selfish he was even when I was begging him.

"Wait!" I heard Gray yell from the condo as I saw him running after me. I stopped and waited for him to catch up.

"Fine, I'll help but I can't track him properly in this rain so we will have to aimlessly look for him. But I will need you to tell me everything you know so I can get a good idea on where we should look for him.

I then told Gray everything that happened from the attack to Kana getting injured.

Gray took a second to comprehend the situation. "These people sound pretty organized and they also seem like they know what they are doing. So obviously they are hiding out somewhere in some kind of base or something. They are probably in an abandoned building or some kind of scrap yard or something along those lines. We will have to search all of them. But if Black already knows where to go then we will most likely be too late." Gray said. He has a good background on tracking pokemon and it actually happens to be something he is talented at.

We then began running through the rain to where we believed some of the area's Black may be at.

Point of View Black

We decided to make the tactical decision on waiting for the rain to let up a little before we began our onslaught into Vincent's headquarters. I waited the longest thirty minutes of my life until I finally decided I wasn't waiting any longer. I then got up and began digging a hole right next to the barbed wire fence so I could just crawl below it.

"What are you doing? We agreed to let the rain ease up more" The charmander said worried about my actions.

"This storm is going nowhere. Vincent may not even still be here and we're just waiting for the weather to get better."

The mud I was digging through was a lot easier to dig through than your average dry dirt so the process went by a lot faster than I thought. Because of the cloudy weather I sadly lost my energy boost from the moon so I would have no advantage against Vincent or any friends he had with him.

The hole was finally deep enough for me to get through so I wiggled myself below the fence. It scratched my upper back a little as I went through so it was a tight fit. The charmander then tried squeezing through but he got stuck half way. It would of actually been funny if I wasn't in such a bad mood already.

He awkwardly stared at me for a second. "A little help please?" I awkwardly stared at him for a few seconds.

"Fatty" I said jokingly. "What do you want me to do? I have no thumbs so I can't pull you through."

He gave out a deep sigh and kept forcing his way through until he finally did manage to get through. He then got to his feet and began wiping the mud off himself.

"Why do you hate Vincent? I get it he is a bad pokemon but what do you personally have against him?" I paused for a second as I considered a decent response that I would trust him knowing.

"If we get through this alive I'll tell you."

"Wow, that is a cliché quote pal." He retorted to my answer. I paid little attention to it and I began searching for an entrance.

"Roll around in the mud charmander"

"Why the hell would I do that?" He said as if I was crazy.

"You are a flashy orange and I do not want to draw any unnecessary attention to us. Now do it."

He gave out a whiney sigh and then began rolling around like a complete moron in the mud.

"Good" I said pleased with him following my orders. We then began looking for an entrance. We stayed in the shadows and began moving slowly along the cargo crates. The rain was beginning to really make me cold and I wanted to hurry up and get this over with. We continued slowly moving along the side until we saw a big opening between us and the next section of cargo crates. I then got as low as I could on all four of my legs and slowly moved across the big opening. Once I got to the other side I then looked at the charmander and waited for him to cross. He just walked across and neglected the fact I was trying to stay hidden. I just stared at him with angry eyes. I couldn't believe how stupid he was for doing that.

"What did I do now?" He said as if he did nothing wrong.

"Stay low and do everything possible to not attract attention. Next you get your ass on the ground and crawl." I said in a very annoyed voice.

He just let out a whiney moan and we then kept going. Eventually after following the crates I noticed a door on the side of the building. I then slowly made my way their being careful not to draw attention to me. The charmander followed my lead hardly trying any harder to be stealthy.

"Wait a second. Why the hell was I leading the way? You know this place and I don't" I yelled in a loud whisper, he just sat there for a second realizing that I had a good point.

"Yeah umm whoops, I didn't think about that." I just rolled my eyes at him and walked up to the door. I then quickly realized the door knob was circular so I couldn't open the door with my paws.

"charmander can you open this door?" I asked.

"I think I can if I could reach it." I then looked around and noticed a small cardboard box. I then pushed it in front of the door for the charmander so he could open the door.

"There. Now would you kindly open it quietly if possible?" I said in a sarcastic voice.

He jumped on the box and began to try and open the door. He struggled for a good minute trying to actually open it. Probably wasn't easy since the knob was bigger than his hands and it was wet from the rain. He then finally got it opened and he slowly cracked the door open and moved the cardboard box.

"After you comrade" He said while bowing. I just rolled my eyes and cautiously entered the black abyss in the warehouse knowing that I may never come out alive.

Point of View Flare

Gray and I were now starting to get tired from running around so much. We have checked so many dumpy crap holes and all we found where drug dealers and hoboes.

"We are running out of time and places to check." I said to Gray. He sat there and thought for a few seconds on our next move.

"We should keep looking." I was actually surprised that he was dedicated to helping me so much. I guess this meant I owed him one. We continued our search for Black. The next spot we were checking was an old junk yard. I just hope we would find him before it was too late.

Chapter End

Author Note: Thanks to The pokemon Melody and genericgamer207 for editing.