CHAPTER TWO

Charlotte awoke in her burrow with a start. It was still dark out, and she figured she hadn't slept for more than a couple hours. She could still hear her father asleep across the den. It didn't take her long to decide what had woken her up. She couldn't identify the knotted feeling in her stomach, but she knew that she wanted to go back to the old building in the city.

No, that's crazy, you can't go back there, she argued against herself, but she seemed to have no power over her legs, which brought her to a stand. She fought helplessly against the impulsion to leave her burrow, but finally gave in to herself as she ducked through her burrows entrance and took off at a run through the stretch of trees. In her rush she didn't bother keeping out of any predators' sights, and raced into the slumbering city.

Charlotte weaved in and out of houses, winding through streets and alleyways until she saw the shabby building ahead of her. She slowed her pace as she emerged from the thick darkness of an alleyway. She noticed a thin line of light on the horizon, signalling that dawn was nearly upon her. She walked as lightly as she could around the building until she came to the lumber pile, and quietly climbed up the strips of wood. She raised her eyes just above the window sill to look inside the building. It was dark, save for a few lit candlesticks. The old man was on the floor leaning against wall, asleep.

Charlotte strained her eyes, trying to see into the bars of a tiny cage, but could only make out a faint shape in the shadows. She jumped as she heard a ragged breath from within the cage. She bit her lip, knowing the creature was awake, but trapped within the cage's confines. Suddenly she felt a wave of pity for whatever was locked up inside the building, and yearned for a closer look.

"What do you want?"

Charlotte couldn't contain a small startled yip, and threw herself flat against the lumber. Her heart raced. Who said that?

The growl came again. "I know you're there, you were here earlier too." Charlotte's blood turned to ice, knowing the only one who could have spoken was the caged creature.

Charlotte slowly rose back up to look through the paneless window, trying to steady her violently shaking paws. "I-I saw, saw you in h-h-here….." she replied shakily, her voice barely audible to even herself. "You, you w-were hurt, I ju-just wanted to s-s-see that yo-you were alright."

Charlotte flinched as the creature let a short, humourless laugh. "Alright? I wouldn't know the meaning of the word!" the male voice spat bitterly.

Charlotte heard him growling under his breath for long moments before she was able to make herself move. She looked over the edge of the window, noticing a small table just under her, with a crooked chair pushed up to it. She bit her lip hard, and dared to lower herself from the window onto the table's surface. She willed her rapidly beating heart to slow down, afraid the old man could somehow hear it hammering against her ribs. Her efforts to steady her violently trembling legs were futile, and she proceeded to crawl down onto the chair, and then the floor. The concrete ground was freezing on her feet.

She stared into the cage from a distance. The candlelight showed a shape inside, and a flashing of eyes, but she couldn't identify the creature. Charlotte could feel his eyes burning into her as she gulped and began approaching the cage.

"Come to see me too?" Charlotte froze as the creature spoke again, but willed herself to continue toward him. "It seems that's all anyone wants to do."

Charlotte forced her numb tongue to speak for her. "I-I just want to he-help. You, you do nee-need help, d-d-don't yo-ou?"

Another short, barking laugh from the creature. "Help? Since when do you rats care about me?"

Charlotte could finally see the creature clearly, and was barely able to hold a scream in her throat. The creature's filthy lavender coat was draped over ten clearly distinguishable ribs. His stomach was sunken in horribly deep, and he hips jutted out under his incredibly thin fur. A wiry tail was wrapped protectively around his tiny paws from which crooked claws protruded. But Charlotte couldn't pull her terrified gaze from the creature's face. His eyes were sunken deep into his skull, and she could only see them when they flashed in the candlelight. He had no nose, only a gaping black hole where a nose should have been. His cheeks were completely hollow, causing his cheekbones to jut sharply out of his face. A round crimson jewel rested on his forehead, flashing like blood when it caught the light of a candle. A thick black collar was bound around his horribly thin neck, and seemed to have sharp nubs buried into the hideous creature's skin on the inside.

The creature met Charlotte's petrified face with a glare, his lips drawing back to reveal sharp, jagged teeth. "Like what you see?" he growled, glowering at her. Charlotte tried to speak, but couldn't force words past her suddenly useless tongue. The creature growled with contempt. "Just couldn't believe I was so repulsive until you saw, could you?"

Charlotte stammered a few feeble noises before she managed to form words. "W-w-w-what are…?"

"A monster," he hissed nastily, "I was born a monster."

Seeing the miserable creature enclosed inside the tiny cage, his protruding hips forcibly pressed against the iron bars, Charlotte felt a pang a pity along with her fear. She forced herself to move even closer to the bars so she was only inches away from the creature's horribly deformed face.

"I-I-I'm sorry," she whispered, and the creature narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "I d-didn't mean t-t-to upset you. I ju-just think you ne-need help…"

The creature stared at her through his sunken eyes, seemingly at a loss for words. "...No one's ever said such words before." His breath was cold against Charlotte's face. "What makes you care?"

Charlotte gulped. "I just, I heard you screaming and you were hurt, and I just…" her words trailed away from her, but still rendered the creature quiet for a moment.

"What's your name, kid?" he finally asked in a low voice.

"..Charlotte…" she murmured, lowering her gaze away from the ugly face before her.

"Well, little Lotte, you shouldn't stay here long. If he wakes up and finds you here I won't be able to help you." he said quietly, casting a glance at the dozing old man.

Charlotte's stomach gave a rough churn at the idea of the ruthless old man discovering her. "But what about you?"

"What about me?" he growled. "Now go, leave before he gets up. It shouldn't be long now."

Charlotte reluctantly backed away from him. "I'll come back," she promised as she climbed back up the chair and onto the table. Charlotte paused before exited through the window. "Wait, what's your name?"

The creature was silent for a long moment before he quietly replied, "Ali."

Charlotte gripped onto the edge of the window and pulled herself back through it. The sun was just peaking over the village, turning the black sky into a soft grey. She crawled back down the lumber pile and left the building behind as she turned into the alleyway from which she came.

Charlotte didn't end up seeing Pollux again, much to her disappointment, and spent the day quietly with Ali on her mind. The more she thought about the deformed creature confined in the building, the more pity she felt; the terrible face was still clear in her mind, but the more she pictured it the less the repulsive image bothered her. She was confident that when she returned to see him she wouldn't freeze up at his hideous appearance. By the time the sun began it's descent, she could only think of Ali as a poor, starving creature locked away against his will, an idea which lit a spark of fierceness inside her that she'd never felt before.

She returned to her burrow before the sun went down, and was met by a furious father who demanded that she stay in the burrow until he said otherwise. Charlotte glumly tried to get a little sleep before her designated time to sneak out. She managed to slumber a few hours before she pulled herself up in the inky darkness, slipping past her resting father and finding her way into the city.

She passed a tipped over tin trash can, with a few small scraps of unfinished human food spilled onto the asphalt. Charlotte's stomach rumbled with hunger and she nearly proceeded to scarf down what was there, but the image of Ali's terribly thin body flashed across her mind and she stopped. She decided to take what was there to the starving creature in the building, figuring he probably hadn't eaten for days.

Charlotte made her way to the building, climbing up to the window as she'd done before. The old man was asleep against the wall again, snoring with his lips slightly ajar. Careful not the make a sound, Charlotte once again climbed down onto the table, then the chair, and then the icy cold concrete floor, a meaty bone clenched in her jaws. Ali seemed to be asleep in the candlelight, his body stretched out as much as the cage allowed, his chin resting on the floor and a small clawed foot stretched out from between the iron bars.

"Ali," she whispered through the bone in her teeth. The creature did not stir. Charlotte approached the cage and dropped the bone at her feet. "Wake up, it's me," she said softly, leaning in closer to him. When he still did not move, Charlotte tentatively reached out to touch his paw. As soon as she touched his icy cold skin his hollow eyes snapped over and Charlotte was blown back by a sudden burst of energy. She squealed, startled by the assault, and fled from the cage. Ali staggered hurriedly to his feet, his lips drawn to reveal a snarl. His frightening expression fell away when he saw Charlotte.

"Lotte!" he hissed, his eyes widening. "What are you doing here? I said you shouldn't be here!"

Charlotte, trembling, shrank even further away from the cage. "I-I-I brought f-food!" she whimpered softly, motioning to the bone at Ali's feet.

His face softened as he saw the food she brought. "Are you okay?"

Charlotte nodded shakily. "H-How did you do that?"

Ali pawed the meaty bone into his cage and began to tear at it roughy. He chewed it scrapless, leaving a completely clean bone in just a few seconds. "I don't really look it, but I'm an Espeon." he said, his voice a bit muffled from the clean bone he continued to gnaw on. "I've been honing my psychic abilities for a while now."

Charlotte gradually inched back to the cage. "You don't look like an Espeon."

The bone snapped between Ali's teeth, and he tossed to two halves away. "I was born this way, mind you." he said bitterly.

Charlotte gulped, imagining an Eevee born with such deformities. "Sorry…"

Ali shook his head softly and wrapped his wiry forked tail over his paws. "Why do you come here, Lotte?" he said, squinting his eyes suspiciously. "You have no reason to be here."

Charlotte stared at her shuffling feet. "I'm just worried is all...I've never seen a Pokemon locked up in a cage like you..I think it's sad."

Ali sighed under his breath. "You shouldn't come here." he repeated firmly.

"Why don't you use your powers to unlock the cage?" she continued, ignoring Ali's remark.

"I've tried. I can't concentrate hard enough on it. It's not like picking a lock with on wire, it takes more than I'm capable of." he replied, his ears flicking with annoyance at Charlotte's ignorance.

"What's the collar?"

"Nemphis' remote makes it shock. My psychic power scares him."

"Nemphis?"

Ali motioned to the old man with his head.

Charlotte stood on her hind legs with her front paws pressed against the cage bars to examine the thick lock. It was a steel cube on the door with a small keyhole in the middle. Where are they keys…?

Suddenly there was a sharp grunt from Nemphis across the room. Charlotte and Ali both froze and stared at the elder, who was beginning to stir.

"Get out of here," Ali hissed. "Go!"

Charlotte snatched the two bone halves in her teeth and scrambled up the chair and table, jumping through the window and sliding down the lumber pile. She heard Nemphis noisily waking up inside, and fled into the dark alley. She dropped the bones on the concrete and sprinted back through the streets and out of the city, not stopping until she reached her burrow. She let her labored breathing slow before she entered the den.

Thankfully her father was still asleep, and she hurried into her nest, her heart still thumping painfully against her chest.

She awoke late, after the sun was well up into the sky. Her father was pacing back and forth just outside the den. Charlotte rose to her feet and padded out of the den, stretching in the bright sunlight. Her father was quick to counter her.

"I thought I made it clear you were to stay inside." he growled gruffly.

Charlotte's heart sank. "You meant it?" she said, disappointed. The Jolteon responded with an annoyed flick of his ear, and Charlotte turned around and dragged her feet as she re-entered the burrow.

Staying in the burrow all day felt like a prison, but she did her best to swallow down her complaints, especially when she thought of Ali trapped within steel bars. So she sat around the den glumly, eating the meal she was brought and waiting impatiently for the sun to go down again.

For the next four days Charlotte followed the same routine; lounging lazily around the burrow until her father fell asleep, then sneaking out to give Ali whatever food she could find in the streets. She very quickly found herself getting incredibly attached to the kind deformed Espeon within the building. He never made the mistake of attacking her again, and stopped chastising her for visiting him. He was good to her, and clearly enjoyed her company.

It was just like any other night. Charlotte carefully slipped past her sleeping father and hurried through the darkness into the city, where for nearly a half hour she searched human trash cans for leftover food. She took what she found the shabby building, but quickly doubled back when she saw two figures in the alleyway which led to it.

Charlotte crouched behind a dumpster, and identified Nemphis as one of the humans. The other was another teen boy, not any of the three which had payed to see Ali before; this boy was wearing a heavy hood over his head. She waited until they both disappeared into the building before climbing up to the window.

Nemphis' nephew was there this time, leaning against a wall with his arms folded over his chest. His eyes narrowed when he saw his uncle's new accompaniment.

"Another kid." he said in his steely voice. "You shouldn't bring kids here, I say."

Nemphis ignored him. "Behold to you, my boy, the monster, as promised!" he cackled, rubbing his hands together. He glanced at his nephew. "This one pays good, I tell you!"

Charlotte couldn't make out the teen's face under the hood of his sweater, but her thick fur bristled as he approached Ali's cage. She heard Ali's low growl and nearly jumped. With how friendly he'd acted to her, she'd forgotten how frightening he could really be.

The teen finally spoke: "I'm unimpressed." Nemphis scowled at this, and Ali's growl only grew more vicious. The boy payed no mind. "I expected a monster, not just an imprisoned Pokemon."

Nemphis clenched his fists. "That's not a Pokemon, boy! It is a savage beast pulled out of some nightmare, a monster!"

The boy shook his head. "Monsters don't exist." he said coolly. He turned to face Nemphis. "This is just abuse."

The nephew finally interrupted. "Who are you, and what do you want." His voice was hard as stone, but the teen didn't waver. Instead, he reached into his pocket and revealed a small red-and-white orb which Charlotte had seen but never learned the name of.

The nephew revealed his own small ball, and clicked the button in its center, which caused it to double in size. The ball emitted a flash of red light, which faded to reveal a large, menacing Golbat. Charlotte stared with astonishment as the teen's ball let out a Pidgeotto.

The Pidgeotto was moving instantly, flying at the Golbat with incredibly speed. It struck the Golbat with its wing, knocking it into a wall, but the bat immediately retaliated by clamping its terrible fangs down on its attacker's wing. The Pidgeotto screeched fury and grabbed the Golbat's wing in its talons and repeatedly bashed its sharp beak into its face. The Golbat let go of its wing and struggled to free itself, spitting a glob of deep purple sludge into the Pidgeotto's breast. The acid sizzled as it burned through the bird's golden feathers, and it released the large bat to attempt to get the sludge off of its skin.

Charlotte leaped through the window as she saw the Golbat rush forward to continue its assault on the bird, who had, in its struggle, crashed into a wall. She startled the Golbat, and its flight was unbalanced just long enough for her to spring into the air and crunch down on its wing. The Golbat, however, seemed hardly phased by her attack, and with a powerful beat of its wing threw her off so she slammed into the bars of Ali's cage. With the Pidgeotto preoccupied, the Golbat turned to her and flew at her with its jaws wide, clearly preparing to turn Charlotte into a meal. Charlotte cried out in terror and shut her eyes tight, waiting for the toxic fangs to crush her, but she heard the snapping of bone instead. Opening her eyes with terror she saw the Golbat's wing twisted violently behind its body, held by what she knew what Ali's psychic, throwing it off course so it slammed into a tin wall.

It wasn't a second after the Golbat's wing was brutally mangled that Ali screamed in agony, falling to the floor of his cage and convulsing. Charlotte scrambled to her paws, tears stinging her eyes from the exhilaration and looked around wildly to find Nemphis, and located him in the corner of the building, staying clear of the fighting. She swerved around the flailing Golbat and charged the old man, leaping up to latch onto his wrist with her teeth and scratching at his hand and arm. With a shout of fury he dropped the remote, and Charlotte dropped to the ground to pick it up in her teeth. She fled away from Nemphis and began repeated smashing the remote into the ground until it gave off a few crackling sparks and broke.

Nemphis was on her again in an instance, and she screeched in pain as the toe of his leather shoe collided with her side. She flew across the room, skidding across the concrete floor from the impact of the man's blow. She struggled to get to her feet, her struck ribs screaming for her to stop, but she felt a hang clench roughly around the back over her neck. Nemphis' fingers hooked cruelly into her thick-furred collar, and she cried out as she tried uselessly to claw at his arm. She prepared herself to fatally be smashed into the ground again, but suddenly the hand let go of her neck and she dropped to the ground in a painful heap.

She saw, to her amazement, Ali latched onto Nemphis' shoulder, kicking off of him when the man reached around to grab him. Positioning himself over Charlotte, he snarled viciously at Nemphis, who was suddenly frozen and rigid. With an agonizing wail his hands went to his face, and he clutched the sides of his head, eyes bulging. Ali didn't let Nemphis go even when he fell to the ground, blood dripping from his nose, ears, and eyes, continuing to tear him apart from the inside, until the old man's kicking and screaming ceased and he lay lifelessly on the floor.

Charlotte saw the Pidgeotto, now free from the Golbat's acid, charge the Golbat to deal a finishing blow. The Golbat, unable to fly away, parted its jaws and spat another load of steaming acidic sludge at the bird. It hit the Pidgeotto square again, but to Charlotte's astonishment the golden bird suddenly vanished as it was struck. The Golbat was just as bewildered, looking around wildly for its opponent. The Pidgeotto was perched in the rafters of the roof, and immediately dived down with its wings folded to its chest. It's wings let out as it neared the floor and its talons hooked into the back of the Golbat's head, slamming it's face brutally into the concrete floor. The large bat did not rise again, and the Pidgeotto pulled its claws out of its flesh.

The Pidgeotto then turned to face the remaining man, who had returned his Golbat to its ball. His face showed no resentment, however. "Shame we have to get out so early," he said coolly, "I told Uncle not to bring kids in here, it only brings trouble."

He let out another Pokemon, which Charlotte saw for only an instant. The Koffing immediately erupted into this smoke, which quickly filled the room. Charlotte buried her burning eyes into her paws, and felt Ali press against her protectively. He gave a short bark and with a swing of his head, a glowing lavender blade shot from his forehead, whirling to where the Koffing had been, cutting through the thick black smoke. The psycho cut ripped through the wall instead before dissipating.

"Get up Lotte," Ali said, pulling Charlotte up to her feet and guiding her swiftly to the doorway.

Her eyes burned from the smoke and her lungs screamed for breathable air. She stumbled through the doorway, collapsing on the pavement, coughing violently. Ali was panting noisily, and he seemed he could barely hold himself on his feet.

The teen was the next to escape the building, his Pidgeotto folding it's wings tightly to its body to fit through the doorway. He coughed furiously, using a baggy sleeve to wipe the inky smoke stains from his face. In the heat of the conflict her hood had blown off his head, revealing long locks of hair falling over hjs pale face. His bright blue eyes seemed to glow even in the darkness of the night.

"Thank you, Firion," he panted, and in a flash of light returned the tired bird back to its ball.

The boy turned to Ali, who immediate stiffened and showed his teeth threateningly, his exhaustion forgotten. Charlotte cowared timidly under the protection of his body, staring wide-eyed at the boy between Ali's shaking front legs. She admired the Espeon's will to fight, knowing he was starved and weak after having been locked in the tiny confines of the cage for what she assumed was weeks; the violent trembling of his boney frame and the heaving of his ribs showed his exhaustion.

The boy crouched down and held a hand out to Ali, who snapped his jaws in defiance, his short hair bristling fiercely. The teen retracted his hand, his face dark with pity.

"Ali let's go." Charlotte whimpered.

Ali slowly backed away from the boy, his faced twisted even more in his hostility. Charlotte fled behind the protection of his back, shrinking behind him at his heels. The boy didn't pursue them, but stayed where he was and watched them retreat the scene in silence.

Once a safe distance was put between them and the boy, Ali turned his back to him, his savage facade dropping into concern. "Come on," he said softly, giving Charlotte's ear a comforting lick and guiding her into the shadows of a dark alley. "Do you know your way?"

Charlotte nodded shakily and without a word took the lead, turning in and out of dark streets, careful to keep their route via tight alleyways. She took Ali a backway out of the city, bringing them to the pond on whose bank Charlotte and her father made their home. She stared over the silent, unmoving surface of the pond, knowing her burrow was near the opposite end.

She heard Ali almost immediately splash into the water, thrusting his face through the surface to drink desperately. She felt a hard pang in her heart as she knew it must have been ages since her friend had last been given a good meal. For several minutes Ali quenched himself before he backed back out of the water, his damp skin clinging the his deathly thin frame.

He turned to her, still breathing laboriously. "Are you okay, Lotte?"

Charlotte sucked in a shaky breath. "Y-yeah," she managed to say. Her heart thumped painfully against her still aching ribs, and she lowered herself into the grass. "How did you get out?"

"Hm?"

"Y-your cage...no, no one let you out, and yo-you said you couldn't. So h-how did you...?"

Ali lowered his eyes to the ground. "Nearly every day I tried to get out, but all I ever ended up achieving was wasting energy I needed." He paused. "But... Nemphis was going to kill you, Lotte. He's ruthless, you know. So I tried again to pick the lock telekineticly and I was able to turned to lock."

Charlotte let out a breath. All at once the adrenaline of the fight faded away, and her emotions came flooding back to her. She couldn't resist the tears which rolled down her face, the full exhilaration of the event hitting her like a hammer. Ali was immediately beside her, crouching down to wipe away her tears, murmuring words of comfort into her ears. For what seemed like forever she lay with her face buried into Ali's shoulder, for once wishing never to see the city or her aggressive father again, wishing she could stay in the warm comfort of Ali's arms for as long as possible.