Chapter 14: Decisions

Point of View Charmander

Rain poured down from the sky as I nervously kept my eyes deadpanned on the one eyed houndour that was glaring at me. The two of us were in a spot that was a bit secluded, cargo crates surrounded us from every angle and hid us. My feet squished around as I stood on the muddy ground, while my tail flame constantly hissed from the pouring rain that was drenching it. Being out in this weather made me feel weak, it's too bad we couldn't have kept this inside.

"So… I don't suppose we can't just both walk away and call it a night?" I nervously asked as I kept a safe distance from the houndour. I would have run away by now if it was an option, but outrunning a four legged canine sounded impossible.

"I'm afraid not, charmander. Vincent has other plans for you, and I'm here to make sure you understand it," the houndour told me as he kept his one good eye deadpanned on me.

"Me?" I said in surprise, "Listen, I guarantee there is better pokemon out there for this stuff than me," I said in a shaky voice.

"Let me rephrase that, you're our plan B if things don't go Vincent's way in there. Think of it as a way to convince us to keep your trainer alive," He bluntly told me as if this wasn't a terrible thing to put me through. To this point my trainer was kinda forgotten about, I was more worried about my life, but I swear I'll kill them all if they so much as touch him.

"What do you want from me?" I asked sternly as I tried to seem strong.

The houndour remained silent for a moment before he spoke, "We want you to spy on that umbreon, Ryder. We want you to learn everything about him, how he thinks, how he fights, what he loves and hates, and lastly, you will assist us in capturing him," the houndour said, "If you do this, you and your trainer can leave unharmed, under oath that you won't speak a word of this to anyone."

I remained silent as I tried to take in that request. I didn't want to be involved in any of this, yet I am whether I like it or not. My trainer meant a lot to me, I couldn't let him die, even if it means that the umbreon will get hurt.

"Fine," I bitterly spat out, "But if you do anything to harm my trainer, I'll be sure you'll all regret it."

"Don't worry, Crimson Dawn always keeps its word," the houndour stated.

"So, how exactly am I supposed to report this info if I can't even find you guy's?" I questioned.

"Heh, don't worry about that, all of my colleagues are experts in hunting down pokemon, finding you shouldn't be too daunting."

Point of View Gray

Through all the chaos, the quilava and I both ended up on a one on one battle atop of the rows of cargo crates. The fire type stood on the row of cargo crates in front of the one I was on.

The quilava sneered at me before he inhaled a deep breath. My eyes widened as I realized what was going on. Without hesitation, I quickly dove off the cargo crate as a wave flames incinerated everything atop of the cargo crates. Once on the ground, I looked up to see the hellstorm finally dying down. At the top of the cargo crate I could see the steel starting to melt a bit. I sighed a breath of relief, if I was a moment slower, I'd be dead.

I heard a snicker from above me, I looked up again to see the quilava with a big grin on his face. The quilava inhaled a breath as he readied a flamethrower. I frantically looked left and right, but it was impossible for me to make it out of this row before he incinerated me beyond recognition. Right as the quilava opened his mouth, Flare came out of nowhere and tackled the quilava off the cargo crate. Seeing my opening, I opened my mouth and show out a hail attack. A storm of needles impaled the quilava, and knocked him in the opposite direction. The quilba skidded along the ground until he came to a dead stop.

"Ow that hurt, asshole" I heard him groan as he forced himself back up. "Oh, you think you're all badass now, huh. Well guess what? I'm going to incinerate you," the quilava spoke with fury as the flames on his back intensified to the point that they were blue. I backed away from the quilava as I felt an intense heat wave. All the ice needles that stuck out of his body melted in an instant.

The quilava began charging up an attack as the flames on his back lowered a bit, due to him using his flame abilities. The quilava shot out a fireball towards me. My reflex kicked in, and I quickly ducked below the fireball. The fireball missed, and flew until it exploded against the wall of this facility, and left a gigantic hole.

Flare quickly took his chance, the fennekin shot out a torrent of flames towards the quilava. The quilava just smirked as he stood in place, and the flames engulfed him. After a moment, Flare let up on his attack. Smoke filled the area that the quilava stood in.

"You call yourself a fire type? That was pathetic, and you should never use fire attacks again," the quilava said as he began to let out a fake yawn.

"Yeah, well at least I'm not a psychotic freak!" Flare retorted with anger.

The quilava looked up at Flare with an unsettling smile that would scare monsters, "Thank you, I'll take that as a compliment," the quilava said.

"You're crazy," Flare spoke as he stared at the quilava with disbelief in what he was witnessing.

"Crazy… Crazy doesn't even fucking describe it!" The quilava yelled at the top of his lungs, before he sprayed an ember attack at Flare. The fennekin quickly evaded the attack, and the ember attack collided with the lights about us and took a few of them out.

I saw that the quilava was distracted, and I took this chance to attack. I charged towards the quilava and swiped my claws at him. The quilava ducked below my swipe and tackled me to the ground. The quilava pinned me down with his right paw as he began charging up an attack. Flare suddenly jumped off the cargo crate, and landed directly on top of the quilava. The two tousled to the ground. Flare and I both clawed and bit the quilava in an attempt to be the first one back up. After a bit of fighting, the quilava managed to break free from us and he tried standing back up, before I bit down on his hind leg and caused him to fall back down. As the quilava tried recovering from his injury, I began charging a ice beam. The quilava got up just in time to block the attack with his forepaw. The quilava looked at his frozen paw in surprise as he held it out.

"Give it up, no one else needs to get hurt," Flare pleaded as the quilava shot us both a death glare.

"Merrick, I captured Ryder!" Flare and I both froze up for a moment, before we glanced at each other. My gaze returned back to the quilava just in time to see him shoot a smoke screen at us. The entire area quickly became masked in a thick smoke as I began to cough. Through the smoke, I managed to see the quilava running away

"Flare, after him," I managed to speak as I had a cough fit.

Flare and I both dashed in the direction of the quilava, until we came into an opening in the middle of the warehouse. Flare's face showed his fear as he saw that albino espeon standing over Black's unconscious body. Flare tried running towards Black, but I quickly stuck my arm in front of him to prevent him from doing something stupid. Honestly, I expected this to happen to the umbreon, but in no way did I feel responsible, this was all his damn fault.

"Leave him alone!" Flare yelled at them.

The albino espeon and the quilava both swapped glances before their gaze focused on Flare, "I'm afraid we can't do that," the espeon spoke, "Ryder means a lot to us."

"Listen, I got a proposal," The espeon said, and managed to get my interest.

"And what would that be?" I spoke in a dull voice that masked all my emotions.

"Just walk away and we'll leave you alone, no one will have to get hurt anymore," The espeon offered. I looked at the umbreon for a moment before I looked back up at our enemy. Truthfully, this was probably our only chance at winning, these two were out of our league, and I couldn't risk letting either of us dying here today.

"I'm not letting you take Black away!" Flare protested in anger.

The espeon flinched at what Flare said, "Is that what Ryder goes by now?" the espeon questioned. Flare nodded in response. "Why do you care about him so much? You know nothing of him. Who he is, what he's done and you don't even know his real name either, do you?" the espeon said..

"His real name is Kaz" Flare responded

"No" The espeon quickly replied. "That is not his real name. That is a name he stole from someone we both cherished. His real name is Ryder, not Kaz, and not Black. You know nothing of him and I implore you to just accept my one and only offer." I grinded my teeth together from hearing what the espeon had to say. Not only was that umbreon putting us in danger, he was also lying to us, how could Flare even begin to trust this person?

"I'm not backstabbing a friend like this," Flare snapped at the espeon.

"Flare," I said to get the fennekin's attention, " I'm not throwing away my life for that umbreon," I said with a stern voice. Flare's gaze snapped towards me as he looked at me in total shock.

"Flare, this umbreon is a liar, we are not risking our lives to just end up dead. We are not going to win this battle, I told you from the start that that umbreon would be nothing but a problem," I spoke harshly. It didn't feel right to let Flare down like this, but as I said, I'm not dying for that umbreon. The only reason I even came this far was because of Flare.

"Gray! How could you say that! Black is one of us, we can't just let these psychopaths abduct him!" Flare opposed.

"Flare, this is life or death right now! You've known this umbreon for a few days, how is he worth dying for?!" I yelled so loud that the room fell silent and echoes could be heard from my fury, even the rain seemed to stop for a brief moment.

"Fine," Flare said with an attitude, " I'll save him myself," Flare stated. Flare's vision directed back towards the espeon and quilava. Feeling that I only had one way to stop Flare from doing something stupid, I stood behind the fennekin and I slammed my paw into the back of his skull. Flare stood silent for a brief moment, before he collapsed onto the ground, not even knowing what hit him.

"Sorry" I whispered to him. My gaze looked towards the quilava and espeon to see that they both looked shocked from my actions.

"Sorry about that, he doesn't know better. We will be accepting your offer and we will be leaving peacefully and we will keep quiet about all of this in exchange for our lives and that includes everyone who was involved in this today, excluding the umbreon of course." I said in an attempt to make the agreement as clear as possible.

"I'm glad we could resolve our conflict," the espeon responded with a small smile forming on his face.

"Just one question though," I spoke up toward the two. The espeon looked at me as he waited for my question. "Why is this umbreon so important?, I don't get it."

"I'm afraid I can't say too much on that, but just know that Ryder will be the the key to changing this world," the espeon responded.

"I see," I responded with a bit of disappointment. I was kind of sad that these pokemon were a bunch of psychopaths, as Flare warned me. Regardless, this is that umbreon's problem now.

Point of View Black

I stretched out my body as I sunk into the cozy grass that felt like a welcoming mattress for me. The sun was at its peak and the rays were warming up my body. A soft summer breeze blew through the air as well, and prevented me from getting uncomfortably hot. Everything here was so cozy, even if it was the middle of day.

"Ryder, do you plan on sleeping all day again?" a familiar voice questioned me from behind. My ears perked up from the sound of that voice, it didn't take more than a split second for me to turn towards the voice and sit up.

"Kaz," I said with nostalgia. The older jolteon smiled towards as the wind blew through his spunky fur.

"How-"

"How's everything going, it's been a while?" Kaz said in his usual cheery voice.

"Bad," I grumbled.

"Why's that, because you're always in a grouchy mood?, Oor because Vincent is giving you some trouble right now?" I felt a vein bulge on my head from the insult as I contemplated on hitting him, but with some honesty, I missed him to much to argue with him.

"Yeah," I bluntly answered.

"And why else is everything going bad?" Kaz asked me with a smile.

Memories of everything bad that happened to me flooded into my mind. Everything just felt like too much, I had no idea what I was supposed to do in this situation. "Because, everyone around me is getting hurt and it's my fault. I got them into this mess and now they're all going to die because of me and I couldn't even stay conscious to help fight!" I yelled out as tears escaped my eyes.

The jolteon then sat next to me and patted my back,"Everything is going to be okay, Ryder" he said in a comforting voice. "Why not just wake up and fight them, I mean things can only get better if you keep going."

"Yeah well, even if I was awake, I'd still get my ass kicked. I'm not strong enough to beat him and I never will be," I spoke with what I thought was the truth.

"Stop fighting for your personal vendetta, fight for what you have left, fight for your friends," Kaz told me. I wasn't sure if I'd go as far as to call Flare a friend, but there was no doubt that he was the closest thing I had to a real friend.

"You're right," I responded to Kaz.

"Now is that all that's on your mind?" kaz asked me. I responded with a nod. Truthfully, this talk helped my mental state a lot, I could feel it. I was never really any good at sharing feelings, but I did need someone to talk to. After my little talk with him, I felt a lot more composed, and I could feel myself going back to reality.

I could feel the cold floor against my skin as I lied on the ground. My ears slightly perked up as I heard a heated conversation going on beside me, but I kept my eyes closed so I could appear unconscious.

"Gray! How could you say that! Black is one of us, we can't just let these psychopaths abduct him!" I heard Flare snap at Gray with fury. I was kinda lost on what they were talking about, but from the little that was said, I didn't like it one bit.

"Flare, this is life or death right now! You've known this umbreon for a few days, how is he worth dying for?!" I heard Gray yell back at Flare with just as much anger. Afterwards the room fell silent for a moment, and all that could be heard was the rain beating against the ceiling.

A few seconds passed by before someone finally spoke again responded, "Fine," Flare said bitterly with a pause,"I'll save him myself," Flare spoke. A moment after Flare's words, I heard a thump, and it sounded like something hit the ground. Silence filled the air, until I heard Gray whisper something.

"Sorry about that, he doesn't know better. We will be accepting your offer and we will be leaving peacefully and we will keep quiet about all of this in exchange for our lives and that includes everyone who was involved in this today, excluding the umbreon of course." Gray said to someone. I couldn't quite tell what was going on, but Gray was starting to really piss me off.

"I'm glad we could resolve our conflict," I heard Vincent reply with satisfaction. That's when my blood began to boil and connected the dots and understood what was going on. That bastard was selling me out.

"Just one question though," Gray asked my asshole brother, "Why is this umbreon so important? I don't get it." Gray questioned..

There was a few seconds of silence before Gray's question was answered. "I'm afraid I can't say too much on that, but just know that Ryder will be the the key to changing this world."

"I see." Gray said with a tone that made him sound disappointed.

Afterwards, I heard the sound of someone moving towards me. A tremble ran through my spine as I felt a paw or hand touch me. My eyes opened wide as I instinctively bit down on whoevers hand was touching me. The quilava that tried touching me let out a pained yell as he backed away. The taste of blood from his hand was stuck in my mouth and I quickly spit as much of it out of my mouth as I could.

"Gray," I spoke lowly as I got up and stared at my so called teammate, "You just tried to sell me out," I spoke with resentment towards that fucking traitor. I was already furious, but the moment I noticed Flare lying unconscious on the ground, I felt my rage grow.

"I didn't want neither of us to die here tonight, it was us or you, and I know where my priorities are," Gray replied back as he stared me in the eyes with a hateful look.

"And you worried about me backstabbing everyone" I told Gray.

"Either way, I'm not fighting on the losing side, " Gray responded. It took me a second, but I shudder ran down my spine as I realized he planned on going against me, if necessary.

"You're a fucking bastard, you know that?"

"It's three against one, you don't even stand a chance against one of us. So, for once in your life do something right, and get the Hell out of our lives," Gray spoke with spite.

All at once, they all closed in on me. Gray was right, I wouldn't win this fight. So I did the logical thing, I ran like Hell. Gray was the fastest of the three, and he was right on my tail. The quilava was next, but he was slowly losing us, while Vincent struggled to keep up with in injured forepaw.

As I ran for my life, I spun around and I shot a shadow ball towards Gray. Gray quickly dodged to the side, and then out of nowhere he sped up and slashed his claws at me. I evaded the attack, and responded with a headbutt. Gray jerked back as he let out a grunt as he gritted his teeth in an attempt to conceal his pain.

And just in time to make things worse, the quilava caught up, along with Vincent. The three glared at me as I growled at the three and showed my fangs in an intimidating manner. This was it for me, I was out of luck. I postponed this as much as I could, but I was at the end of my line, I wasn't going to escape this.

I continued to growl at the three as they all began to slowly move in towards me. Then out of nowhere, the sound of a police siren could be heard. Vincent and the quilava swapped a quick glance, before they directed their attention back at me.

"Well, it looks like you lucked out, Ryder," Vincent said as he shook his head in disappointment..

"Wait, what?!" Gray said in surprise.

Vincent let out a sigh, before he looked at Gray, "The police are coming, all of our efforts will mean nothing if we get caught. We're leaving, I suggest you do the same. But don't worry, we will be back sooner or later," Vincent said, before he gave a nod at the quilava and they both started making a break for it.

Despite Gray being an asshole, we both set aside the backstabbing thing and we focused on getting out of here. Gray didn't waste a second on grabbing Flare. Gray bit down on Flare's back fur, and flung the fennekin onto his back.

"Let's go," Gray ordered me.

Gray and I ran out the back entrance, until we made our way towards the fence. I blasted the wired fence with my shadow ball, and it tore the obstruction to pieces. We passed through the new opening, and made our way back into the city. Gray and I ran for a few minutes without a break, but after a bit we came to a stop. It looked like we were going to get away without getting arrested.

Chapter End

Author Note: Thanks to The Pokemon Melody for editing.