Wardens Eternal

Chapter Eighteen: Ambushed

With his stay at the medical clinic finally over, the luxio just had to finish talking with Deputy Monferno, the chief Sheriff's deputy in Treasure Town about the violence that had happened a hand full of days prior.

"You know that was First Degree Assault right?"

"So I've heard," Martian rolled his eyes, "Alright Deputy, What happens now?"

"Now? Heh, Normally it would just be a fine for first time offenders, but well. . ." The lawman laughed, rubbing the back of his neck, "A lot of pokemon already pitched in to pay it for you. Add in the fact that he was essentially asking for it, and as far as the Sheriff is concerned this never happened."

"Really? Other pokemon paid it?" The luxio asked, curiously surprised. "I thought they'd side with the guild considering how important it is to the town."

"Five years ago and you would have been right," The deputy explained, "It was under different management back then. It was the heart of Treasure Town from what I heard, brought in and then distributed coin into the community to help it grow and prosper, in turn attracting more business and more coin to go around."

"I don't know for certain how it happened, I think the last guildmaster died or went missing or something. It all happened before I was transferred here." The lawman continued, "But yeah, the guild fell under its new management. For a small while things seemed to be looking up again but pretty soon it all went to the void. They began charging a king's ransom for everything and ceased to invest in the town. Basically lots of coin went in, but next to none ever came back out."

"So the community hates the Guild because the guild is slowly killing the town?" The Warden summarized, "Glad to know I'm not the only one fed up with all of Chatot's taurosshit."

"You and me both." The lawman laughed. "Pokemon are starting to really like you; first you saved a little kid from one of our most wanted criminals, and now you gave Chatot what he deserved."

Martian chuckled at that as he returned to his feet.

"So, my record is clean?" The former human asked, stopping at the exit of the tent that served as the deputy's office.

"Cleaner than mine," Monferno laughed, "Still got that apple I stole when I was like five on mine. Besides, after bringing Drowzee in, we owe you a handful of favors. Now get going, I still got to get this paperwork done." The fire type sarcastically complained as he shooed the lion out of his office before looking at all of the parchment spread out on the desk in front of him.

The lawman sighed, times like this he wished he stayed as an explorer, spending his days catching criminals rather than writing about them. Well, as long as exploration teams bring in the bad guys and the Sheriff's department kept them off the streets, everyone was safer. Especially if pokemon like Martian are the ones hunting down outlaws. . .

Wardens Eternal

"Is something bugging you Scarlett?" Martian asked, noticing how unusually quiet and downcast the vulpix had been since they met up again in town.

"Scarlett."

"Wh-what?"

"Didn't you hear me? I asked if something was bugging you." Martian repeated.

"Sorry, I'm just," The kitsune muttered, looking down at her paws, "I'm just, just reconsidering all of this. I-I don't know if I want to keep doing this anymore."

A red flag went up in the luxio's mind the moment he heard that. Scarlett never mentioned any doubt or second thoughts any time she have visited him in town. If anything, she sarcastically complained that it was taking forever before they could get back to helping others. Nothing like the uncertain muttering he was hearing now.

"I thought it was your dream to help others, rescue them and fend off others who would do innocent pokemon harm?" Martian pressed, "What's going on?"

"I wanted to stop pokemon from harming others, but I never wanted to kill them!" The vulpix pointed out, "I don't want to hurt anyone, but I can't help but think that I've killed other pokemon. I can't be a killer like you can, it's just not in me."

"Scarlett, I never look forward to killing, if there was another option that would guarantee that whoever I'm fighting wouldn't be a threat to me or anyone else ever again I'd take it. But that's not realistic, If I tried to do that I'd be only putting myself and others at greater risk of harm on a later date." Martian explained, as the two began to leave town on their way back home.

"I- I just don't kn-" Scarlett muttered before gasping and running ahead of the luxio, drawing his attention to what looked like the site of some sort of fight.

"Wh-what happened here?" Scarlett stuttered looking at the damage, "None of this was here when I came into town today."

Martian was busy picking out clues as to what could of happened. There were several scorch marks and other signs that a fire type was involved, and several patches of grass had been washed away by extreme water pressure, implying the involvement of a strong water type. Blood had splattered in various places by different means and had long since dried into a crusty red film. Several trees had been destroyed, snapped in half by some force. The local ferals couldn't of done this severe of damage. This was a fight between powerful pokemon.

Then the Warden found the body off the side of the road. Some sort of normal-type weasel he had never seen before armed with a large array of teeth and a yellow stripe down it's back. Whoever, or whatever it was, it had been dead for at least 3 days give or take a few hours. Bugs had began to accumulate around the corpse, but the body had yet to bloat or decay. The Pokemon's cause of death was obvious upon looking, a hostile combatant had managed to pierce the weasel's throat, causing him to bleed out and die in a matter of seconds.

The exact same way Martian had been trained, and in turn, Scarlett.

Everything about this was making Martian's fur stand on end. Scarlett was acting different, like she was a different pokemon. The Scarlett he knew would be disturbed by seeing this, but not dismayed into trying to keep her distance. Something was wrong.

Then it happened again, one moment Martian felt his paw touch something on the ground, the next a huge migraine assaulted his head as the world blurred for a few seconds.

When his vision returned to, well close to normal, the former human immediately identified three pokemon's transparent forms in the middle of the road, one Rattata, a quadruped canine pokemon he didn't recognize, and the unidentified weasel pokemon that was now dead.

The three appeared to be bickering, with the weasel snapping at the Rattata with his teeth, possibly threatening to eat the rat until another voice got all three of their attention, and they off the road, hiding in the nearby shrubbery.

There were more pokemon lying in wait, bringing the total number to 7, The wolf, two of those weasels, two Rattatas, a Poliwrath, and a Magmortar. They seemed to be lying in wait to jump someone.

Martian clenched his teeth at the sight of their victim approaching unaware: Scarlett, on her way back home from town.

The kitsune didn't stay unaware for very long, maybe it was her hearing or they were upwind of her or something else, whatever it was it was enough to alert her of the ambush ahead. One that she decided to flank before engaging, getting off the road and sneaking her way behind one side of the trap.

Scarlett must have known them, because as soon as she saw who they were, she pounced. Her first attack landed on the Magmortar back, sending the much larger pokemon stumbling onto the road. As soon as her would be attackers realized that they had been ambushed, they came out of cover and tried to surround the vixen.

Scarlett's Smokescreen smartly bought her some cover as she sidestepped one of the rattata's attacks, lashing out with a flamethrower aimed at the wolf who jumped clear. The surprised expression on his face made it clear that he never expected Scarlett to be capable of such a powerful attack.

One of the weasels managed to figure out where she was in the smoke, and attempted to charge the lone warden, only to have the vulpix roll onto her side and use their combined momentum to throw the rodent away. Turns out, the nasty little biter collided into the poliwrath, causing it to stagger back.

Martian smiled, that technique looked awfully familiar. . .

The fiery vixen continued to harass her opponents, dodging or countering every attack they threw at her. The hostiles were beginning to lose their cohesion, losing their cool and growing more frustrated by the second.

Pretty soon, they ended up landing hits on each other rather than the lone kitsune. The Magmortar in particular was guilty of friendly fire, first accidently slugging one of the rattata in the head with a Thunder Punch that Scarlett had evaded, the second time it may have been on purpose when his Fire Blast hit the other rattata that jumped into his line of fire.

Two hostiles down, five more to go.

A white hot flamethrower was enough to put some distance between Scarlett and her remaining foes, and a follow up smokescreen allowed her to disappear unseen. That really angered her attackers, as they aggressively split up and fanned out to try and find their common enemy.

The vulpix managed to quickly climb a tree and into the branches, it was an awkward fit since vulpix don't normally climb trees. But that was exactly what she was counting on, and it paid off. All of her opponents were busy looking on the ground for her, none bothered to look up.

"Clever girl," Martian chuckled, "She's learning fast."

One of the weasels unknowingly walked underneath Scarlett's hiding spot allowing the kitsune to get the jump on the hostile. The fox pounced with all of her body weight focused onto the small surface area of the enemy's neck, easily shattering his spine.

Unfortunately, the sound of a snapping neck also gave away her position to the last four hostiles. The Poliwrath in particular was furious, unleashing a Hydro Pump attack that while it missed the fox, snapped the full grown tree behind her like a twig.

Scarlett was able to avoid the severed tree's canopy from falling on top of her as she zigzagged between shrubs and cover. The magmortar and poliwrath were quickly destroying any cover the fox could find with intense flames and extreme pressure, attempting to drive her into the open. The two heavies were quickly chastised by the wolf, but they ignored the canine's words whatever they were.

Scarlett managed to get the jump on the magmortar next, pouncing onto his face and swiping with her claws to inflict whatever damage she could. The scratches didn't do much, but it did enough to convince the larger pokemon to use Lava Plume to force the fox off. The concussive force was enough to repel the vulpix, but she absorbed the heat from the magma midair powering up her own fire based abilities in the process.

Then he got hit with the poliwrath's rushed Hydro Pump. The water/fighting type saw something red and immediately attacked, forgetting to make sure he was aiming at the right fire type. The water hit hard, blasting the large fire type off his feet and into a tree with enough force to easily knock him out cold.

Three left,

The last of the weasels managed to tackle Scarlett from the side, causing both to roll onto the ground until the varmint landed on top of the fire-type. That weasel must not have been the smartest because he paused for a moment and grinned mischievously before he said something rather unpleasant to her.

The vixen responded by piercing his throat with a Metal Claw, forcing him to lose consciousness in moments before rolling over and letting his body slowly slid off of her paw and onto the ground. Blood didn't come blasting out of the open wound but instead drained into his windpipe and lungs, resulting in an actually pretty clean kill. Brutal, but quick and efficient: The way Martian had trained her to fight.

Unfortunately, that's when Scarlett made the mistake that lead to her defeat: A momentary pause to steady herself before jumping back into the fray.

A moment was all that the remaining two hostiles needed.

The wolf collided with the vixen with a Double Edge attack to force her out of cover and into the poliwrath's line of sight. The fire type was still skidding across the ground when she took a direct hit from the water-type's Hydro Pump, launching her off her feet again and into a tree.

Scarlett was able to recover and get back on her feet, tired, drenched, and clearly hurt, but not about to surrender the fight.

Martian smirked with pride, the fox wasn't a petete, fragile, helpless girl anymore. Now she could take damage as much as she could give it out. He'd like to believe that he had a role in that.

The fire-type vixen was ready for when the wolf charged again with Double Edge, leaping over the canine pokemon mid attack. That's when she did something Martian didn't expect to counter the poliwrath's next Hydro Pump:

She froze the water coming from his chest with Ice Beam. Scarlett, a red vulpix, knew Ice Beam.

The frozen obstacle acted like a cork in a bottle, holding back the awful pressure of the water-fighting type's Hydro Pump until it built up to the point it shattered, the recoil sending the poliwrath stumbling backwards.

Sadly, Scarlett left herself open to another Double Edge from the wolf, followed by a barrage of large stones summoned from underground. Each stony projectile smashing the final slivers of strength from the fire type, she had given them a hard fight, but the fight was over.

Scarlett collapsed, leaving the two remaining attackers victorious. Her life at their mercy, or lack of it.

That's when three more pokemon became visible, a Pichu, some sort of water type spider, and a. . .

A ditto, now it all made sense.

Martian paused, taking a moment to close his eyes and take a breath before speaking.

"Scarlett."

"Y-yes?" The vulpix accompanying him meekly replied.

"Where is she?" The former human growled, adrenaline beginning to flow through his veins.

"I-I'm right here," The fox stuttered, "What do you mean where am I?"

"The real Scarlett." Martian growled before spinning about and knocking the imposter's "head" clean off with Iron Tail, letting it spatter against a tree into purple slime. The beheaded "fox" stumbled around before melting into more of the purple slime, leaving Scarlett's vest, relic fragment, and beloved scarf on the ground as it rejoined with the mass from the tree.

The blob reformed it's true form, turning it's expressionless face in the best impression of shock it could muster at the luxio.

"Tell me where your acquaintances took her. Now." Martian growled as he bared his teeth and extended his claws, letting electricity run throughout his entire body. "Do it while you still can. Or I'll fry you until you're a brain-dead smear, nice, slow, and painful."

"It will cost you." The ditto's natural voice smugly warned. "I can't just give away who hired me, that's bad for business."

"Getting yourself killed is also pretty bad for business." Martian growled, "That vulpix that managed to kill at least three of your buddies the other day? I taught her everything. You saw what she could do, do you really want to find out what I can do as well?"

"Alright! Alright! I'll talk! I'll talk!" The spineless pokemon panicked, "It was her mother! Lady Winter! She ordered this!"

"Tell me Everything."