Nona gripped tightly to the purplish blue fur she rested on as the wind whipped her face and blew her fin around wildly on top of her head. Before being able to ride in Gengar's grasp, Nona hadn't realized just how fast the pokemon was, blistering through the snowy pine woods around them, with Shiftry and Crasher running ahead of the ghost pokemon and his passenger.
The team had left early that morning after Shiftry woke them all up, reporting that in the night, she had found the Abomasnow's tracks. The team burst into action, rocketing through the path of splintered trees and crushed underbrush in search of their abominable criminal.
"How close are we?" Crasher bellowed, turning momentarily away from the path ahead while he sprinted to talk to Shiftry.
The grass pokemon's eyes went wide as her gaze darted from tree to tree, from footstep to footstep, before finally returning to her leader.
"Not far. The tracks are getting fresher. The beast is not far away," she whispered in an ominous tone.
Nona gulped, and she could feel Gengar's fur begin to bristle as well. Though that could have been because of the cold- the object of their chase had struck up a snowstorm not too long ago, and the snow was still pelting down upon them.
After a few more minutes of chase, the group reached a large clearing where the blizzard was strongest and the tracks ended. It was a hilly area, with a heavy cover of snow that seems to not have been disturbed since it had fallen. What made this so strange was that the tracks ended here, but the Abomasnow was nowhere to be seen.
What? Did it vanish? Nona thought to herself, there aren't even any footprints leading outwards from the clearing. Did it climb up the trees? No, it's too big for that. . . and the snow on the trees is still thick. How could it just vanish twice in a row?-
Shiftry only hummed, her eyes scanning the blank snow for any sign of the beast, eventually falling on nothing as her head turned down to her feet. She let out a small "tsk" in frustration.
"Where did it go?" Nona whispered down to her ride pokemon.
Gengar breathed in sharply. "Well, uh, we don't- we aren't. . . sure."
The way that Gengar spoke was. . .suspicious, with sporratic inflection and a hushed tone. Nona tilted her head, trying to meet the eyes of the ghost, but her place in his hands didn't lend her very much room for turning, and she was only able to get a slight peek at his expression, which was blank, and his cheeks were pale as a ghost.
"Well, we must have lost it, right Crasher? We should go, try again another day. . ." The ghost chuckled. Wait a moment- was his grip growing. . . tighter? Nona could feel the squeeze on her underbelly. What- What is he doing?
Crasher, who up until this point had been staring out into the clearing as well, only smirked. "Yeah, guess we should, eh Gengar?"
The Blaziken strolled over close to Gengar, his eyes trained on the path they were coming from. We're leaving right? Nona thought, sighing in relief- the whole tension of the scenario was beginning to grow too much. Now that she was able to think clearly, what did become of the Abomasnow-
A sharp grip found its place on Nona's head fin, yanking her painfully out of the Gengar's arms. Nona shrieked, her voice cracking in shock and terror as she lost her hold on her own balance. She didn't know what was up and what was down. She felt the grip releasing, sending her up in a small arc. Her eyes squeezed shut.
Before she could understand what had happened to her, she felt a sharp pain in her side, a powerful strike to her body that send her careening higher into the air, her lungs begging for the air that was knocked out of her. The world around her was a white blur, occasionally broken by the bright colors of the rest of her group, neon colored blots on the cloudy canvas of snow. In her spiraling arc, she felt that she was flying- no- falling. She had been launched. As she regained some sort of balance, her eyes fell on Crasher, who looked at her, the familiar fire in his eyes that Nona had seen the day before when he viciously attacked the Abomasnow.
No- not launched- thrown.
The snow shocked her warm body as she landed a few inches deep into the icy blanket. Dazed, she lifted her head, meeting eyes with Gengar. The ghost pokemon could only stare, his eyes still blank, yet a few tears were threatening to break from them. His pupils hid in small stature in the center of his eyes. Shiftry hadn't moved, her vision still pointed at her feet.
Then she saw him, Crasher, bringing his foot down to the ground, sizzling with steam as it scraped across the fresh snow. His eyes were fiery, almost maddened, glinting with bloodlust. He wanted that kick to hurt. But why? Why did he hurt me? What did I do?
Nona heard the sound of cascading snow behind her, and she turned to see that one of the many hills inside of the clearing was moving, shifting, rising. It grew taller and taller, soaring what felt like thousands of feet above Nona's cowering figure. Its head glinted against the faint sunlight of the noon as it shook vigorously, pounds of snow falling off in a similar snowfall down to paint the blank floor of white. Standing above her, in all its terrifying glory, was Abomasnow. Its eyes still glazed and red, its mouth dripping with saliva.
Helpless, Nona turned back to the others, who hadn't stirred. Shiftry had brought up her gaze. Was that sadness in her eyes? Had she known this whole time? Gengar's hands were over his mouth, tears streaming down his cheeks while Crasher was lowering himself into a crouch. He had gotten comfortable. He was waiting for a show.
Her stomach lurched, her voice fleeing entirely as the horrifying realization hit her.
The memory echoed in her mind, Shiftry spoke earlier of the beast's vulnerable state, only truly letting its guard down when it. . . when. . .
When it was devouring its prey.
Adrenaline took over, bidding her legs to kick wildly against the snow, her feet shocked with cold as her feet pounded into the frozen quicksand beneath her. It was trying to devour her, swallow her into is deep blanket, sealing her in a grave of snowflakes.
Her body could only take her so far. Her warmth was stolen, her lungs imprisoned by the frozen air, her eyes cloudy with liquid fear and melted snow. All she could do was beg for her legs to keep running, her heart to keep beating, but the blizzard around her raged in its indifference, sealing her fate as she slowly lost vision of the others, the only visible being in the clearing being the Abomasnow, pushing its legs with little effort through the sea of white, its eyes blazing crimson as it laid its eyes on its soon to be meal.
Nona tried all she could to close her eyes, to beg for this to just be a dream, but she couldn't. She looked on in horror as the beast's face grew clearer, breaking free of the blizzard's haze as the Abomasnow's gaping maw loomed above her.
She wanted to to go away, to all be just a bad dream.
She had just become a pokemon the day before with no memories and no choice. How could she already be dying? This wasn't fair. She couldn't even breathe, the last thing she wanted to do was to breathe in the clear air one last time, and now it was bitter, cold, and stunk of smoke.
Wait- smoke? Nona's eyes darted around the clearing. Sure enough, the haze of the blizzard was being overtaken by a cloud of ash and blackened smoke.
She looked up once more. The Abomasnow was reeling back, pulling its head far away from Nona and up into the air to try to find a place to breathe.
Next thing she knew, Nona felt two hands grip around her shoulders, pulling her out of the snow. She turned back and saw the Cubone from before grinning down at her.
"Thought you needed some help!" Ronan laughed, rubbing his open palms over Nona's shoulders to warm them up. "You staying cozy?"
The Mudkip was too dazed to answer, only staring at the Cubone with teary eyes.
"Hey, put your front leg up on my shoulder. I can carry ya outta here."
She wrapped her arm around the Cubone's shoulder, the way of standing upright awkward for her Mudkip body, but it was mobile with his support, and that was all that mattered.
A horrible roar could be heard behind the two, and they turned to see Abomasnow's blazing eyes glowing through the ash, turned to look directly at them. It started to stomp forward once more, this time faster and more urgent.
As it did, another familiar pokemon came running out of the cloudy air behind the Abomasnow, sprinting in front of the beast and waving her hands frantically to get its attention. The Cyndaquil's exhaust were full of smoke, pouring out of its back and slowly slithering its way into the air, filling the clearing with even more soot.
Ronan turned immediately and picked up his pace, dragging Nona along with him through the snow as it sunk under both of their weights. Despite the powerful snowfall, Ronan had an easier time running than Nona had, and the edge of the woods were soon in sight.
Just as Nona's teary eyes fell upon the pine trees, a rain of ice chunks the size of dragonites fell between the two fleeing pokemon and the woods, blocking their path. The Abomasnow had used avalanche to bar their escape, stopping them in their tracks. It was clear that the Abomasnow wasn't going to let its prey go that easily.
Cinder threw herself into a tackle, striking the Abomasnow in the leg and causing it to stumble. Abomasnow turned to Cinder and tried to kick her away, only spraying her with powder snow as it did.
During the distraction, Ronan attempted to run once more towards the woods, maneuvering around the colossal wall of ice to escape the falling avalanche.
It continued for what felt like hours, Ronan dragging Nona further and further through the snow, each time almost reaching the woods during Cinder's distraction, only for another avalanche to be dropped, sealing them in once more.
"Hey, m-mukbrain!" Cinder called out, her voice cracking with fear as the Abomasnow turned to face her, "l-leave them alone!" She threw herself once more at the Abomasnow, landing pathetically against its pillar of a leg.
It was then that the Abomasnow spotted it, the stream of smoke leaking from her exhausts. With a dumb look on its features, it turned to look at the rest of the clearing, seeing the smoke that clouded its vision was coming from the small fire type.
As per Cinder's request, the Abomasnow left Nona and Ronan alone, but its attention was now drawn to something that it deemed more important, the Cyndaquil.
"We're almost there, Mudkip. Keep your chin up, ok?" Ronan tried to reassure his rescue.
Nona saw the trees growing closer. She turned back to see if Abomasnow was going to be dropping an avalanche- It was, but not on them. Cinder danced in front of the giant's view, dodging falling ice as walls of snow and frost built up around her, trapping her in the path of the Abomasnow, helpless to its approaching attack.
The Mudkip tried to speak up, to tell the Cubone that his friend was in trouble, but the words were trapped in her throat by the soot and cold air.
Nona's adrenaline once more took hold, bidding her numbed legs to pound through the snow, sending up a cloud of powder snow of her own as she flew off of Ronan's shoulder. Before either she or Ronan could even tell what had happened, Nona heard one word echo through her mind: "Bite"
Her teeth dug with powerful force into the hardened flesh of the Abomasnow's heel. The beast reared its head up and roared in agony, finally being enough for it to lose its balance as it crashed to the ground, shaking the earth and sending pounds of snow flying through the air, soaking both Nona and Cinder as it immediately melted on their skins now hot with panic.
The rescuer and rescued locked eyes in disbelief. Did I really just take down a fucking Abomasnow? Is- Is it dead? Did I kill it?
The clearing went silent once more, with the three little pokemon staring in fear at the body of the Abomasnow, which they were still unsure of whether or not it was conscious. It stirred for a moment, raising its arm to try to swing once more at the two pokemon closest in blind fury, but its attack was brutally silenced when a familiar ball of flame struck it fatally in the skull, causing the beast's entire body to fall limp.
Crasher jumped down from the Abomasnow's lifeless body. Its head was cracked open, dripping with boiling green blood. The Blaziken watched the evergreen ichor stream out into the snow. His bloodlust was satiated- for now.
"I can't believe you would leave her alone like that! Do you know what this thing could have done to her?" Cinder shouted, her tiny eyes glaring daggers at the larger fire pokemon.
The Blaziken walked up slowly to Cinder, who backed away defensively as the larger pokemon approached. Before she could begin to run, though, his claws gripped around her puny throat, lifting her high above Crasher's head and squeezing mercilessly as
Cinder's paws fell upon his knuckles with pathetic weight.
"W-Wait! Please don't hurt her!" Ronan begged, sprinting to rescue his sister as his eyes filled with tears.
"No-" Nona squeaked. She wanted to try to fight to free the Cyndaquil, but whatever instinct that had allowed her to use bite earlier refused to return to her.
Crasher raised his hand, ready to land it directly on Cinder's skull, but before he could deliver what would be a fatal attack, a familiar hand gently grabbed his fist.
The Blaziken turned to see Gengar, his eyes reddened with tears as his breaths were uneven and wheezing. For a moment, Crasher forgot all about his violent tendencies. He almost forgot about the squealing life he held hostage in his hands.
"Please, Crasher- hic" The Gengar sobbed, "it's dead. . . isn't that enough?"
"Yeah, and she knows it's dead now! You really want to just let her go?"
"She's just a kid. . . Isn't one death enough? Please."
"Fucking-. . . fine."
With another glare at the Cyndaquil, Crasher released his grip, allowing the small fire pokemon to fall pathetically into the snow, where she gasped for air. Ronan immediately ran to her side, scooping her body into his arms.
"You." The Blaziken pointed a burnt claw to Nona. "We're going to be bringing our client out to confirm my kill in an hour. You fuckers have five minutes to clear out, and if I see you anywhere near here when we come back, I won't hesitate to pound that little shit friend of yours' head into a pulp, got that?"
The Mudkip could only nod, walking up to the other two pokemon. Cinder stood up with the help of Ronan and Nona led the group slowly out of the clearing. As they were just about to leave and enter the pine woods before them, Nona spared a look back, seeing Crasher and Shiftry inspecting the kill solemnly, with Gengar being the only one to give the trio a quick look.