Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or associated characters, only characters of my own invention.
Chapter 8 – Standing Out
Tirrielle yawned as she followed Kieran along the path taken by the gang they had fought with yesterday. She still wasn't sure exactly who they were, or why they were following them, but at least her chat with Alexa the night before had cleared some things up. Other the other hand, it had also asked some more questions, such as why the champion was missing. This worried Tirrielle more than anything else she had heard in the past few days. What sort of thing would cause the strongest trainer alive to disappear, and how powerful would such a force have to be? The thought made Tirrielle uneasy, and she unconsciously moved closer to Kieran. She yawned again, lamenting her lack of sleep. Although this morning had gone much more smoothly than the previous two, with Alexa waking her, Tirrielle still didn't feel all that much better, and yawned loudly all through the morning. Understandably, this irritated Kieran.
'Can you stop yawning?' he muttered.
'I'm tired though,' said Tirrielle.
'Well walk further behind so I don't have to hear it then,' Kieran suggested coldly.
'It's not my fault you keep getting me up so early,' Tirrielle shot back.
'I'm not making you come,' said Kieran, and an irritable silence fell between them that lasted for most of the day. Tirrielle spent the morning forcing her legs to keep walking, after the previous two days her muscles were aching and every step was an effort. Alexa had warned her about this in the morning, the first and third days were always the hardest, she had said. Although Tirrielle had trusted her on this, she had never expected it to be quite this hard. Although far from unfit, Tirrielle had never walked anywhere near this far in her life, and her legs were struggling to adapt to the new workload they were expected to cope with. Kieran either failed to notice how much she was struggling, or decided to test her, as he increased the walking pace as if trying to leave Tirrielle behind. Somehow she managed to stay with him as the sun crossed the sky and began to fall towards the horizon and they emerged from the forest onto a long, flat plain covered in long brown grass that was looking rather desperate for water. It was only a week or two until the rainy season, and Tirrielle could imagine how pretty it would look when it was all green.
As evening approached, Tirrielle saw what looked like houses on the horizon.
'A town?' she asked. Kieran nodded.
'It's the main base of this region for them.'
'When you say them...?'
'The people we fought yesterday.'
'I realized that,' said Tirrielle. 'Who exactly are they.'
'The Darkness League.'
'The Darkness League? Not a very original bad guy title.'
'Even less original when you consider that the name is based off The Light League.'
'The Light League?' queried Tirrielle.
'Those committed to keeping the darkness at bay. Most gym leaders and powerful trainers are members.'
'Are you a member?' asked Tirrielle, and Kieran nodded.
'My mission is to drive The Darkness League out of this area.'
'Well that makes a bit more sense now then,' said Tirrielle. 'How are you going to drive them out though?'
'By battling,' said Kieran simply.
As they neared closer to the town, Kieran considered his options. He needed to drive The Darkness League out of town, which was guaranteed to involve battling at some point, however depending on how well he managed to plan it the amount and difficulty of the battles would vary. No matter which way he looked at it however, this was likely to be extremely difficult, one person against probably half a town. Then there was the problem of keeping them out. Part of Kieran's mission here would be to ensure that The Darkness Organisation didn't return almost as soon as they had been driven away. But that would come later. Right now he needed to come up with a plan to drive them out in the first place.
Kieran wondered what he should do with Tirrielle. From all evidence he had concluded that she would of no assistance in the battle, and would only need saving if he allowed her to try. He thought briefly about leaving her behind on the outskirts of the town, but she was the sort of girl to ignore warnings and orders and follow him from a distance, which would lead to all sorts of problems. And even if she did wait, Kieran couldn't guarantee that the enemy wouldn't discover her as they fled the town. In the end, Kieran knew that his only option was to make sure that she stayed as close behind him as possible so that he could prevent her from being caught and used as a hostage.
Half an hour later they began to pass houses, and slowly Kieran and Tirrielle worked their way towards the centre of the town, trying to blend in as much as possible and not arouse suspicion; although Kieran scowled as he looked over Tirrielle's outfit, which was guaranteed to attract attention from a mile away. Sure enough as they walked down the main street they were followed by a steadily increasing group of men, all of which luckily had eyes for nobody but Tirrielle and didn't even bother to look at Kieran, who was sure to be recognised by anyone who had been at the campsite the previous day.
Looking around at the town, Kieran could clearly see the impact that The Darkness League had had upon it. The buildings were noticeably shabbier with broken windows dotted around the place and the majority of people they passed in the street appeared thin and also seemed to lack spirit, as if the fun had disappeared from their lives.
Kieran had decided to go straight to the Gym. Once a fully functioning Gym that like the others served to protect the town, it had been overcome and transformed into a base for all the roadblocks that had been set up in the region. Kieran knew that all the stolen goods collected were brought here before being distributed across the regions and sold on the blackmarket. The funds would then be used to continue the slow creep of darkness into the streets of towns.
They rounded a corner, and glimpsed the Gym at a distance. As Kieran had expected, it was heavily guarded. Looking back at the steadily increasing group of men, some of which had started whistling, Kieran had a stroke of inspiration.
'Want to help?' he asked Tirrielle.
'Sure,' she replied, sounding surprised. 'But how can I help?'
Smiling slightly to himself, Kieran lowered his voice and began to explain.
'Are you sure this is going to work?' asked Tirrielle, sounding nervous and a little sceptical.
'Oh it'll work,' said Kieran, glancing at her outfit again and thinking to himself that every cloud really did have a silver lining.
'Hello?' Tirrielle said to the nearest guard as she reached a short set of stairs that led to the slightly raised Gym.
'Hi,' greeted the guard, who Kieran could tell was holding back his enthusiasm so as not to put Tirrielle off.
'Hello, um, do you think you can let us in...? All these people are intimidating me...'
The guard looked to the other side of the door at his fellow, who was barely concealing his grin.
'Who's he?' the first guard asked, pointing suspiciously at Kieran, who was doing his best at looking rather nervously to the side and feigning obliviousness to the conversation.
'Just a servant,' said Tirrielle without a glance in Kieran's direction.
'He can stay here then,' said the guard. Tirrielle shook her head.
'I'd rather he came inside, where I can keep an eye on him. Do not worry; you won't even notice his presence.'
Reluctantly the guards agreed, opening the doors and following Tirrielle and Kieran inside, to a chorus of insults and yells from the men outside.
Once inside, Kieran quickly scanned the room. They appeared to be in the main battle area of the Gym. Steps in front of where they were standing led down to a field which was surrounded by stadium like seating. The room appeared deserted and empty, but Kieran could see several doors leading off to the side.
'So what's your name?' asked the guard, stepping closer to Tirrielle and taking her hand.
'Oh, um,' said Tirrielle, backing away and clearly unsure of if she should answer, but a second later the guard crashed to the ground unconscious, solving her dilemma.
'Hey you!' started the other guard, but before he could anything more an orange blur had thrown him down on top of his comrade.
'You're so impatient,' muttered Tirrielle, looking slightly sick as she glanced down at the two guards lying at her feet.
Kieran ignored her, and began walking towards one of the doors on the left, followed by his Dragonite.
'Don't I at least get a "well done", or even a "thanks"? asked Tirrielle as she hurried to catch up.
'I don't know. Do you?' replied Kieran as he opened the first door he reached and stopped as he saw what was inside.
'What is it?' Tirrielle asked, standing on the tips of her toes to see over his shoulder.
Inside the room were at least fifty men, all sitting around tables and eating their evening meal. Tirrielle recognised several of them from the other day, and realised that they had stumbled inadvertently into the main dining hall. Many of the men had looked up as they had heard the door open, and a cry went up across the room as they recognised Kieran, soon alerting the whole room to their presence. As the first few started towards them, Kieran calmly closed the door.
'Let's try a different room.'
Author Note: Oops, added without putting a note. .-. Um, yeah, writing still not really flowing. ._. Will update when I actually manage to finish the chapters. I work on it like every day, but distractions are everywhere so it's slow progress.