Kai

I took in a large breath as I was sitting in my usual training field. I didn't have anyone to train at the moment, apparently Kuro was abducted by Void members, along with two other Ravens. More to my surprise, the Umbreon managed to take out about ten members of the Void.

When I heard this, I was baffled. Yes, I knew Kuro was a strong pokemon, and I knew that I had been further helping him by training him, but I didn't think he was at the level to contend with members of the Void. Well, maybe some newer Void members who don't know what they're doing, but no the ones he actually took out. I wasn't complaining, but it was certainly unexpected. He wasn't even the only one, a Glaceon by the name of Naru had also taken down a few Void members, as well as mouth off to one of the admins of the Void, but I wasn't sure as to who. I knew this Glaceon was friends with Kuro, as whenever I see one of them outside of training, the other is always there. Lastly, there is a Zoroark named Vero who also knocked out a Void member, and apparently she also saved herself, Naru, and a group a children by using her illusion abilities. Not only that, but Kuro used his dark tendrils to save himself along with five other children.

I wasn't given explicit details yet, but I assume they were saved from falling out of the Void's airship. If they were taken by the Void, then it was probable that they were all taken onto that thing. After all, it's bigger than the entirety of the Nest, so it's not like they needed to bring them somewhere else. I wondered if any of them encountered Aven or Luna. Both of them went back to the Void, and Luna may not come back to the Nest. I think the leader of the Nest was starting to suspect Luna. She had mentioned to Aven that the Greninja was starting to ask her weird questions, as well as closely monitor her. For these reasons, she left to the Void, and I don't know if she had plans to come back. In order to not kick up any more suspicion, Aven is definitely going to come back. He said he had a reason he wanted to stay for longer, but I was ignorant to it. The point was, Aven and I were staying at the Nest, and Luna was staying at the and Void.

Because today was supposed to be a training day, and since Kuro was resting off injuries, I had pretty much nothing to do. I was waiting for nothing in particular in the training field I would meet with Kuro, and nothing happened.

Until Aven came into my view.

I tensed slightly, hoping that Aven wasn't about to ask me to do something for the Void, as I was never pleased with doing so. Regardless of me wanting to converse with him or not, he flew over and landed in front of me.

"Kai," Him speaking to me always raised my nerves. "I have to relay orders from Luna to you. Your trainee, Kuro, you need to stop training him. You can make it seem like you're helping, but don't actually make him any stronger, don't teach him new techniques, don't do anything for him."

This intrigued me. What happened that prompted Luna to not want Kuro to get stronger? I know him just taking out Void members isn't enough to cause that.

"What happened that warranted that?" I asked him.

"It was something that Luna sensed. The Umbreon acted defiant. Luna was caught off-guard by his attitude, and his attitude could lead to him being a threat." Aven told me. "In the end, her reasoning doesn't matter. You need to obey. If you don't, you know what happens."

I nodded my head and shuddered. I watched as Aven flew away, and I sighed.

However, I knew what I was going to do.

I knew from experience that disobeying orders from Luna meant torture. When I say torture, I mean literal torture. I would be put into painful positions and get cut, bruised, and broken, healed, and then the cycle would restart. I knew how much it made me suffer, and after I disobeyed Luna for the second time, I hadn't done it again. I knew what I was getting myself into, and I knew the consequences for my actions.

But I was still going to disobey.

I knew that I didn't stand a chance against Luna or Aven, and I knew no amount of training was going to do that. I could get stronger, but not nearly fast enough to stop Aven and Luna from doing something. If I got too strong, they would just kill me.

But if I could improve Kuro's strength…

It was no secret that there was something about Kuro that Luna feared. There was something I saw in Kuro from the first time I saw him battle in the applicant's tournament. That something, was how quickly he improves. This was further proved by my first training session with him. After we had been sparring for a bit, I noticed him getting better. I noticed his hits starting to hurt me more, and I noticed him getting faster, and getting less tired after breaks. It was like he was improving his abilities at an unnatural rate. For this reason, I could see him getting stronger, and I could tell that Luna noticed this as well. I don't know how, but she knew.

It's almost like she knew Kuro before their recent meeting…

Regardless of the punishment I receive, I wasn't going to stop training Kuro until he was stronger than me. For all I know, he could be the last chance we have to stop the Void from doing anything drastic.

Kuro

After getting back to the Nest from being abducted by the Void, I figured out how much damage I really took. Once I felt myself absorb the moonlight, I thought my injuries were somewhat minor, but when I actually got back to the Nest and Naru and I returned to our room, I basically collapsed. Naru ended up getting worried and making an Audino come to our room to heal me. Although, I feel like it was raw exhaustion that was having an effect on me, rather than the injuries themselves.

The next day, Naru, Vero and I were praised by member and leader alike. We had taken out members of the Void, and also managed to save all of the camp's children and adults while being behind enemy lines. This warranted a lot of attention from a lot of pokemon we didn't know. It was all very flustering, and most of it was appreciative, but it still created a great amount of discomfort to me.

Regardless, I was happy with the outcome of what happened that day. It made for one hell of a first mission, that's for sure. None of our missions since then have had any unexpected twists. I welcomed this, and I'm sure everyone else who went on missions with us agreed.

It's been about a month since that day, and I've absolutely adored our life at the Nest. We were in a schedule of alternating training days and going on missions, and neither have been boring. I feel myself getting stronger with every training session, and each one of our missions have gone off easily.

Most of the missions that I go on are just with Naru, but we occasionally get Vero and Kage to come with us. Our training days and mission days don't always match up, and sometimes Naru and I had a desync with our schedules, and one of us needs to go on a mission alone. Since nothing unpredictable has happened since our first mission, it hasn't been a problem to go alone, it just makes it feel like it takes longer.

Kage and Vero are also partners now, due to our boss thinking it was a good idea to pair up Lucas and Blitz. I'm not sure why exactly, but that's the way it is now. Vero and Kage seem to work well together, and I don't know how well Blitz and Lucas work, but I hope it wasn't a mistake to change partnerships like that.

Also, everyday since I found that Vulpix in the shack a mile away from the Nest, I had brought her more food, and washed the bowl that she uses. She doesn't tremble or whimper as much as she did when I first started bringing food there, but if I try to get too close, she still gets very frightened. For this reason, I still haven't told anyone about her.

I was on my way to feed her again, and I realized that the mile-long path I take to get there every time was beginning to become muscle memory. It wasn't a very long path to begin with, but I knew it by heart because of the past month.

I had just finished training with Kai, and I found myself still full of energy. For a while after I trained, I was always tired and sore, but as of late, I really haven't been feeling bad afterward. I took it as a sign that I was improving, but according to Naru, her training still exhausts her, and I apparently have unnatural levels of stamina. She's not the only one who commented on my stamina, Vero and Kage both did as well, and I even got a comment about it from Xen, Kage's mentor, as well as Kai.

Is my stamina really so much higher than it should be..?

I disregarded other pokemon's comments most of the time, but when I started getting them from leaders, I began to get intrigued. However, since I don't like thinking about strange things that make my head hurt, I just accepted the fact that I could run for miles without getting tired and moved on with my day.

I began to see the shack in the distance, and I kept going towards it at a steady pace. Every time I come here, I hoped that the Vulpix will be in a better mental state, and that she'll stop being terrified of me, but I can't really blame her. I wouldn't be the most comfortable with a random pokemon I don't know coming into where I live every day.

I got closer to the shack, and I was expecting for this to go just as it did any other day, but things couldn't be that simple.

While looking at the shack, I saw a rather old-looking Mr. Mime, going into the shack. Ordinarily, I wouldn't be too intrigued by this, but after looking at on of its hands, I sprinted towards the shack at full speed.

It had the symbol of the Void.

I made it to the door of the shack, only to see nobody there. I then heard a loud scream coming from the top floor, which made me practically jump up the stairs.

I looked across the top floor, and I saw the Void member standing inches away from the Vulpix, holding a very disturbing smile, all while she was whimpering with her head down.

I immediately ran behind the Mr. Mime, and sank my fangs into its shoulder. I heard a loud grunt of pain in response. I then tightened the grip of my jaw, and threw the Void member behind me, knocking him into the wall. I tasted the iron of crimson liquid in my mouth, but I tried my best to ignore it. The mime got up right after he made contact with the wooden floor behind me. He looked into my eyes and put a gloved hand to his chin before giving me an eerie smile.

"Why do you have to ruin my fun?" He asked with a sadistic tone. "That girl is mine you know." As soon as he finished that sentence, I heard the whimpering from the Vulpix behind me increase.

I gave him a glare and growled. Sadly, I wasn't a very intimidating pokemon, especially when considering my size, but I tried my best to sound threatening.

"You know, you shouldn't interrupt my work, it makes me very irritated." He rose his hands.

His hands started to glow and he formed a bright pink light within his hands. This took the form of a moonblast, which he shot off in my general direction. However, the blast wasn't directly aimed at me.

It was aimed at the Vulpix.

I jumped in front of the Vulpix, taking the moonblast head-on. The pink light made contact with the front of my head, but I stood my ground and didn't budge an inch. It was painful, I didn't take too kindly to fairy moves, but I managed to stand strongly in front of the Vulpix. After he realized that I tanked his attack, he gave me another smile.

"So you have some pain tolerance, huh?" The Mr. Mime spoke, before bringing his eyes to the side of my body. "Ah, you're a Raven. I hate all of you. You all ruin our fun." He cracked his knuckles. "Well, I just need to kill you, then I can have my fun with the girl. Just so you know, She won't be the first one today." He licked his lips, and I was instantly disgusted. I felt anger begin to cloud my thoughts, but I tried my best to not let it show.

"What is wrong with you!?" I spat. "Why do you Void members get such enjoyment out of this!? This is an innocent girl who has been living here for at least a month, maybe longer! She didn't do anything wrong, why do you feel the need to make things worse for everyone!?" I was starting to lose my control as my volume kept increasing.

"What can I say? It's just the way we are." He responded, making his face turn more serious. "Now, it's time for me to kill you."

He rose his hands again, this time, he looked like he was about to launch of a larger scale attack. Before he could do anything, I launched a dark pulse at his chest, knocking him into a wall and canceling his attack. He crashed through some of the wood that the wall was made of, but didn't quite break it. I immediately used the opportunity to turn around and run towards the Vulpix. Once I got close to her, I stopped running, and I crouched down to her eye-level.

I gave her a calm smile.

"I know you're scared," I said softly. "I'm sorry, but in order to keep you safe, I need to do this."

I extended two tendrils from my back, and I used one of them to pick up the Vulpix, and put her on my back. She was still whimpering and heavily shaking, but she held onto my back.

At least it looks like she's less scared of me than him...

I then noticed the Mr. Mime begin to recover, so I quickly used my tendrils to break the wall of the shack and jump out of it. I kept one tendril on the Vulpix, making sure she didn't fall when I jumped. Once we hit the ground, I retracted my tendrils. I made care to not step on any of the sharper parts of the wooden wall I had just broken, as an injury to my legs or paws would prove to be quite the problem.

I can't lead a Void member to the Nest, so I need to shake him somewhere else…

I began to sprint in the opposite direction of the Nest, and I felt the Vulpix's grip tighten. I was happy about this, because I did not want her to fly off of my back while running away from this creep.

I was running when I felt the pain from using my tendrils kick in. I let out a small grunt, hoping it was inaudible for the Vulpix on my back. I had gotten used to the pain over the past month, even if it never seemed to lessen, I've felt it enough times to not react to it as much. I was able to power through it now, and not have to grit my teeth and dig my claws into the ground in order to resist the pain.

I felt the air behind me change and then I changed my course of running, watching another moonblast slide past us.

All that's out here is endless green… I can't lose him here…

I decided that I needed to run until I found somewhere that had something that wasn't endless plains. I turned my body around to scout out our pursuer, and I saw that he was on his way towards us, albeit slowly. I took another gander at my surroundings, still seeing nothing but a plain of grass that went on for miles. Because of this, I knew what I needed to do.

It's times like this i'm thankful for my unnatural stamina.

I began to sprint down the endless wave of green, taking care to not lose my bearings. After sprinting for another two miles, I saw a small collection of trees in the distance. I immediately changed my course to run towards them, entering the small forest. The trees weren't very large, and had rather thin trunks, so I wasn't able to use much cover, but it was much better than the plains of grass I've been running though. Once inside, I strafed through many trees, getting deeper into the forest. Once we were far enough into it, I stopped running, and stood behind one of the trees to catch my breath. I took in a few gulps of air, and while I could run more if I needed to, I finally felt some tiredness creeping into my muscles. Because of this, I stood still, waiting in the forest, waiting to see if my evasion worked.

He didn't seem too fast, but he must have some way to chase us if he's keeping up. The question is, how exactly is he moving?

After about thirty minutes of waiting, I decided that trying to change locations would be a good idea. If we sat in one place too long, then, assuming we were still being chased, we would just get hunted down.

I felt the Vulpix shaking on my back, and she has been since I got to the shack, however, I did notice that it was less intense than when we first started running, so she was calming down a little bit. I was about to sigh in slight relief, but I heard the snapping of many branches of the trees to my west side, and I had to jump out of the way, nearly launching he Vulpix off of my back.

I looked to my left, and I saw what I thought I was done with.

"You really are starting to piss me off you know," The Mr. Mime said. "Tell you what, it's been awhile since someone actually managed to leave my line of sight without being killed or captured." He cracked his knuckles, and cleared his throat. "Because you managed to do this, let me introduce myself. My name is Rage, and I'm an admin at the Void, which means I have quite a bit of authority there. Just so you know, admins are quite a bit better in battle than most standard members, I would say it equates to one of your Nest leaders." After he finished, I felt my own fear start to creep in.

He's an admin!? We need to get out of here, I don't know if I can contend with an admin of the Void…

"I know you want to escape me in order to not endanger the life of that Vulpix on your back, but I'm afraid that's not going to happen." He rose his hands. "I'm killing you, and I'm taking my prize!"

He shot two energy balls out of his hands, each one hitting trees on either side of me. The trees began to fall, and I ran in the opposite direction of Rage. I realized that we were going deeper into the forest, and I didn't want to get myself lost. I had nowhere to run to if I wanted to get this Vulpix out of here.

Guess I don't really have a choice…

I turned around, ready to face Rage. As soon as he entered my line of sight, I extended tendrils out of the side of my body instead of my back, and I used one to cover the Vulpix on my back. I used the other one to deflect a moonblast that was heading towards us. Instead of running away, I sprinted at Rage. I seemed to catch him off guard by doing this, and I hit him with a shadow ball. He got sent back slightly, but he quickly retaliated by launching a thunderbolt at us. I managed to dodge it, and the tendril I had covering the Vulpix stopped her from getting shocked at all. Rage was now right in front of me, and his hands began to glow again, and I braced myself. He hit me with a moonblast point-blank. This time, I flew back a few feet, but I made sure to not land on my back and risk squashing the Vulpix. This attack hurt a lot more than the previous one, and I had to focus more on guarding the Vulpix then blocking out the pain. Before Rage could hit me with yet another attack, I closed the distance between us and plunged one of my claws into the same shoulder I bit earlier. I heard a much louder grunt than last time, and more crimson liquid began to seep out of the wound that I made. Rage tried to hit me with an energy ball, but I jumped back and hit the ground in front of him with a dark pulse, creating a large dirt cloud. I tightened my grip on the Vulpix with my tendril, and I rushed Rage, hitting him in the stomach with an iron tail. Rage flew back quite a distance, knocking into a few trees on the way back before slamming into the ground.

I looked at how far back I sent him, and I saw an opportunity.

I completely turned my body around, and sprinted in the other direction as fast as I could. I kept my hold on the Vulpix, not wanting to risk her falling off. As soon as we got out of the forest, an idea popped into my head in order to finally get away from Rage.

I extended the second tendril I had out from my body, and decided to put something I've been practicing with Kai to good use.

I rose the tendril in the air, and with as much force as I could, I slammed the tendril into the ground behind me, propelling me forward at a very fast speed. As soon as my paws began to touch the ground, I smashed my tendril on the ground once more, sending me further. To be honest, it began to hurt a bit the more I did this, thanks to the nerves in my tendrils, but that wasn't important right now. I repeated this over and over again, traveling a very large distance in a very short amount of time.

After a few minutes, we passed the shack we started at, but I kept going further, not wanting Rage to get any wind of our location. I felt the ache from my tendrils enter the center of my body, and I bit my lip.

Come on… Just a little more… Block out the pain!

After we traveled another half-mile, I retracted the tendril I was using to slam against the ground before walking towards a large rock that was close to us. I removed the tendril off of my back, prompting the Vulpix to jump off once she didn't see any danger around us. I sat down next to the rock, exhausted.

The Vulpix stood a few inches away from me. I wanted to say something to her, but the pain from using my tendrils kicked in, and it was a lot worse than usual.

I grunted in pain, and jammed one of my claws into the ground while gritting my teeth. The pain would have hit a plateau by now, but it just kept rising. My legs were twitching slightly, and it took everything I had not to let out a scream right in front of an already shaken Vulpix. The ache that I received from my method of travel didn't help with the pain either.

Using my tendrils for that long isn't a good idea…

After a minute or two, the pain calmed down, I took in a large breath, and my body stopped being tense. I leaned against the gray rock, and briefly shut my eyes. However, something I wasn't expecting happened right after I did.

"A-Are you o-okay?" I turned my head in the direction of the voice I just heard.

The Vulpix actually spoke. Even though she did, when I opened my eyes and looked at her, she still looked scared, but I didn't know if she was scared of me, or by the entire situation we just had ourselves in. Regardless, I tried my best to kick the exhausted look off of my face and gave a small smile.

"I'm okay." I told her. "Just a bit tired. What about you? How are you holding up?"

I-I'll be okay." She said. "I-Is that s-scary pokemon gone?"

I made my smile grow a bit, hoping to help the situation.

"Yes, we got away from him." I replied softly. "It took some running, but we got away. Thank you for being brave and cooperating with me, it would have been a lot harder if you didn't." In response, the Vulpix shook her head back and forth rapidly.

"N-No! I-I should be thanking you! Y-You saved me, a-and you've been bringing me f-food. A-All I did was follow your l-lead." She told me. "T-Thank you!" She bowed her head.

I just smiled again.

"It's not a problem. You needed help, so I helped you." I told her. "Speaking of which…" I swung my bag around in front of me with a turn of my head and I took out the usual bowl that I gave her, as well as poured in a bunch of berries. After dumping the berries into the bowl, I pushed it to her. "These are for you. I was supposed to give them to you earlier, but that pokemon had other plans."

"T-Thank you!" She nodded her head appreciatively, starting to eat the berries.

After that, we sat down next to the rock for quite a while. The Vulpix was eating, and I was just resting my muscles. I pushed myself farther than I have in a while, not through battling, but using my tendrils for so long. Not only did it physically exhaust me, but the aftermath was the worst pain I've felt in a very long time.

Well, I found out that the move I've been practicing for a long while works, but I shouldn't do that too often, the pain can really affect me if I do it too much…

I looked up at the sky, and realized that the sun had started setting. It didn't really surprise me, as I had finished my training a bit after noon, and who knows how long this has all taken…

The Vulpix had finished eating, and I put the bowl back into my bag. The Vulpix climbed onto my back again, and I started to walk to the Nest. I was ready to be back after these few hours of stress.

Once we arrived there, I noticed that she had actually fallen asleep on my back, as I could tell from the light breathing. I walked to Naru and I's room, ignoring the questioning stares I got from many Raven on the way there, and opened the door. When I entered, I gently put the Vulpix on my bed, and took my scarf off, draping it over her like a blanket.

Naru wasn't back yet, she went on a mission with Vero and Kage today, and I couldn't come because I had to train with Kai. I went over to the wall and sat down, leaning against it and letting out a large sigh. I glanced at the Vulpix sleeping in my bed, and then a thought occurred to me.

How am I going to explain all of this to Naru..?

Hello readers!

Another kind of short chapter because of the same reason as the last short chapter, if I continued, the thing will be like fifteen thousand words, and that's a bit too large for one chapter in my opinion.

Also… Is it bad if I haven't thought of a name for the Vulpix yet..? I've known that I was going to put this Vulpix in, and I knew exactly how, I just never thought up a name, other than one that I may or may not use next chapter. If you guys have any suggestions, let me know, it's probably better than what I have planned. :p

Finally, thank you for all of the reviews, PMs, etc. It helps me out and makes me very happy!

See you next chapter!