Shadow's POV
We continued to trudge along a small cement road out in the open, snow coating everything in Pinwheel forest. I had to admit that I was feeling nervous and shaky. We needed to be in the trees taking cover with all the foliage and extra snow. It would keep us from being seen from humans, and to prevent any confrontations with anything that could become a threat. Rachel was leading the way along the path, heading towards a sturdy bridge not that far out in front of us.
I frantically looked around in the trees while we walked. It would be reassuring if I knew where to go just in case a human did come out. After looking through the area, I saw there wasn't a small place that we could just jump in, like a hole in between trees. About a minute later, I couldn't take the tension anymore and knew I had to say something.
"Rachel, come on, let's continue traveling through in the trees!" I screamed, throwing my arms in the air overdramatically. Then I folded my arms, shivering a bit from the cold.
The lillipup didn't turn around to face me, but still talked. "Shadow, we're nearing a bridge. If there's a bridge, it means so we can cross over something like a fissure or a gorge," she explained. "We need to use the bridge instead of trying to jump the obstacle. And plus Shadow, I'm going to take charge around here until I'm gone, because obviously you can't be trusted to lead us. Right Zeke?" She moved her head, now facing Zeke, who was walking beside her.
"Yeah, it was a huge setback when we stayed in Nacrene City for about two weeks. We should be at White Forest by now," Zeke agreed with an irritated expression. I could feel my frustration start to rise. Rachel and Zeke became pretty good friends over the last few weeks.
"Oh come on, that was very personal! I wanted to know for a fact that I stayed there for at least one holiday, and technically I did! Most likely it'll never happen again! Can we at least go through the foliage once we cross the bridge?" I pleaded.
Rachel looked over her shoulder, still walking through this snow. "No, we'll get out of the forest faster if we just stay on this forest path," she answered sternly.
"Hey, what's foliage?" Zeke blurted out, changing the subject. I opened my mouth and was about to answer his question, but Rachel spoken up first.
"He means the trees and greenery," she replied with a warm smile. I chose to ignore them, since they were just toying with me at the moment. We all continued to trudge on through the snow, this cold nipping at the tips of my hands and feet. Soon we arrived at the bridge to see that it was mainly made out of cement. It was a light gray color, which was a different and lighter shade compared to the road's cement, which was a dark gray. I immediately looked over the railing to see about a twenty foot drop into a ravine below. However, because of the cold, the ravine was frozen solid. You didn't need to be down there to see that it was very thick and sturdy ice. If we somehow fell, I would've preferred for the river to be unfrozen so the impact could be lightened. It was better than the alternative; colliding with the ice and breaking something in your body.
"Shadow, hurry up!" I heard Zeke yell. Thinking it could be an emergency, I looked up instantly at the duo. Ended up nothing special was happening, and Rachel and Zeke were just far ahead, already across the bridge and a little ways down the road. I was looking at the frozen ravine too long. Zeke continued to shout. "This is why Rachel is leading the way! She doesn't get so distracted like you do!" I knew he was yelling because he was far away, but it sounded almost as if he was angry. The kid had been living a tough life, growing up strangely unlike all the other Pokémon in the world. We've been fighting to survive, and he's been counting on us to live. Who knows how he was going to end up like in the future, but I did know that it was going to end up badly.
We continued to walk on. I surveyed the area in the trees for any big enough spaces that you could jump through. Technically there were a lot of spaces we could've squeezed pass, but I was looking for a place that we could jump through immediately in case of emergency. After a while I had given up on looking for a spot, but I had this weird feeling that kept me looking at the trees. It was almost as if we were being watched which just kept me alert. I continued to search around for anything unusual. There were pine trees, of course, and branches all over the ground. Pine needles littered the area and everything was covered by shadows. There was a white picket fence that blocked off the pine trees and bordered the forest path.
Suddenly I saw something on the left side of the path. There was a dark figure ducking behind the fence. I saw bits of red in its fur but it mostly was a black colored pelt that stood on its hind legs. It was about three times as big as me, but that didn't intimidate me at all, but the fact that it was watching us sent shivers down my spine. Before I could even think of what to do next, it had disappeared. The figure seemed to melt away into the darkness. I cursed myself, my night vision unable to decipher the Pokémon's appearance in time.
"G-Guys..." I stuttered, stopping in place. "Someone is following us." Zeke and Rachel turned around to face me. Zeke looked as if he one hundred percent believed me. Rachel raised an eyebrow.
"Are you sure?" Rachel asked. "You better not be lying to us."
"Shadow wouldn't lie about something like this," Zeke supported, staring at Rachel. At least I knew that Zeke trusted me a little. He was after all my brother. "He must be telling the truth." Rachel gave a questionable glare at Zeke, but then she finally gave in.
"Where did you see it?" Rachel questioned, surveying the area.
"In the trees," I answered; pointing right where the dark figure disappeared. After the lillipup walked over towards the fence, she lifted her nose into the air and started to sniff around. Zeke walked over to me and we waited together.
Rachel padded all the way to where I saw that mysterious figure. Since I saw black fur, there was no doubt it was some sort of Pokémon. She placed her forepaws on the top of the white fence, and then slowly got into a position to jump over. She tensed her hind legs, and then used them like coils. While jumping over, she leveraged herself on the fence with her forepaws, and then used those same ones to pull her up as well. On the other side, she lowered her snout to the ground and sniffed around once more.
Only about half a minute passed till she stopped inspecting the area. Still on the other side of the fence, she reported what she had discovered. "Some sort of Pokémon was definitely here. The scent seems familiar somehow, yet it's foreign at the same time." From the last statement, I gave Rachel a non-believing look. How could it be something we know yet we don't know?
"How's that possible?" Zeke asked, as if he read my mind.
Rachel sighed. "I'm not sure. It's probably that the Pokémon is someone we know, yet it tried to disguise its scent but wasn't able to completely cover it."
There was rustling in some nearby vegetation. It came from somewhere a few meters on my right, on Rachel's side of the fence. All three of us turned immediately towards the noise with wide eyes. A dark furry head popped out of the bush startlingly. Light blue river-like eyes stared back at us which definitely stood out within the darkness. It was easy to identify that it was the same Pokémon as before. A look of astonishment was planted on its face, barely visible. I had a better look of the creature, and I was able to notice it had a really puffy red mane. A short gasp came from the Pokémon once it realized it was spotted.
"That's the Pokémon!" I yelled, pointing my hand at the mysterious figure. It had that dark pelt… and the bits of red fur. I got into a running stance, ready to chase the Pokémon till it was pinned down in my grip. It started to struggle in the shrubbery, trying to get free of the twigs, which made me smirk slightly. Rachel charged toward the bush with a tackle attack. Zeke ran over, half Rachel's speed with his vines extended. I dashed over as well, my tail shining bright silver with a rock-hard exterior. I prepared my iron tail to slice a major wound in this Pokémon's stomach. No stalker was going to follow us around. It could possibly be a Pokémon from Team Plasma!
The creature managed to get free and it dashed off into the woods. No, this Pokémon wasn't going to get away. Not until I found out who and what it was, and why it was stalking us! "Hurry, before he gets away!" I shouted, and canceled my iron tail move. Rachel halted her tackle before she crashed into the shrubbery and Zeke put his vines away. Quickly Rachel thought up a plan.
"Zeke, Shadow, you chase after it in the trees. I'll follow it on paw!" Both of us nodded in understanding. Quickly I extended some dark black vines, curtsey of those evil scientists who made me this way, and wrapped them around Zeke. I lifted the small snivy onto a tree branch as fast as I could, than let go of Zeke and put my vines around the same branch. Retracting the vines, it pulled me up right next to the snivy.
Rachel was already dashing after the creature, following some heavy paw prints left in the ground. "Zeke," I called, redirecting his attention. "Use your vines to swing around from branch to branch. We'll catch up to the Pokémon faster." I released my grip from the branch and extended my vines to make them slightly longer. Aiming for the closest tree along the trail to the Pokémon, I fired two shady black vines at a branch and lightly held onto it. Zeke released two similar dark black vines and wrapped them around the same branch, mimicking my moves. I leapt from the branch we stood on and fell down, Zeke quickly following me.
I swung up onto the second branch, Zeke on it soon enough with me. Again I let go of the branch and found another target, swinging down again to a different tree. Soon it got easier to spot a branch along the path, until it soon was as easy as it was to breathe. After a bit, I grabbed onto a branch with one vine, and once I was under it, quickly located another branch nearby and used my second vine to grab it. Zeke clumsily did it with me, and soon got the hang of it. We soon caught up with Rachel and I noticed that the footprints were gone, but she was going at a full sprint however. I narrowed my eyes and scanned through the darkness in hopes of seeing the figure we were dashing after. With my unnatural sight, it was easy to see a running figure in the distance; however it was too far to see what kind of Pokémon it was. Quickly I sped up the swinging rate, going slightly faster through the trees. I couldn't tell how fast Zeke was going, but it didn't matter. Once I was hovering above this stalker from the trees, I was going to wrap it up with my vines, tackle it down, and get it in a death grip. This guy wasn't going to get away.
Zeke's POV
I frantically tried to keep up with Shadow. He continued to go from vine to vine, branch to branch, his pace increasing with every second passing by. He had already passed over Rachel and was just going towards the creature without us. Luckily my night vision improved slightly so I was able to locate a good branch to grasp on when I needed to, but I didn't know if we were getting closer or if the Pokémon was gaining a bigger distance between us. I had no idea if Rachel could see in this darkness either. The lillipup could be totally blind under all these shadows. In Pinwheel forest, you could never tell if daylight was casted over the region, or if stars were scattered around in the sky.
"Rachel!" I called out, my eyes locked on her running figure below. I was able to notice her ears twitch from when I spoke, indicating she could hear me. "Can you see in all of this? The darkness I mean," I asked, continuing to swing around. While looking down, I noticed there was no snow. The trees were so thick in that part of the forest; it shielded the ground from most of it. Occasionally there was a tiny pile of snow, but nothing more.
"It's a bit hard but I can see that Pokémon, and still avoid the trees and obstacles while staying on the trail. However the Pokémon only looks like an altered shadow to me." When I was staring down at Rachel, I nearly swung into a tree, so I quickly directed my attention to where I was going. I peered into the distance, also able to see a shadowy figure running around. I thought I was probably able to see more detail then Rachel, since my night vision was starting to develop. There were locks of red and black hair on the Pokémon's back, but that was all I could tell.
A few minutes passed and I felt majorly fatigued. My vines felt weak and I almost swung into several trees. I nearly missed some of the branches, and any second I was going to mess up and hurtle onto the ground, I thought. Rachel slowed her pace down slightly and Shadow had slowed down enough so I could see him again, which means we were all running out of energy. If we didn't catch up to the Pokémon soon, our luck would run out and it would just disappear.
The trees were decreasing in numbers. I thought we were either coming to the end of the forest or that we were almost at a clearing. Soon enough though, we'd find out who or what it was we were chasing.
Suddenly the trees stopped. I let go of my vine and extended my other one to grab onto another branch which wasn't there, but I was too late to stop. I fell to the ground with my panicked breathing. I retracted my weak and limp vines quickly, knowing that they wouldn't be useful for a while. Rachel slowly walked next to me, panting, and collapsed to the dark moist grass. I could barely spot Shadow a few feet ahead of me while I struggled with my breathing. Using the last of the strength I had left, I forced myself to stand up and view the scene.
Behind us was Pinwheel forest. As I saw, Shadow was in front of me by only a few feet. Surprisingly, I noticed we were near the edge of a cliff and the sound of water was crashing around somewhere nearby. Curiously I took a few steps forward, and then stopped. I was too exhausted and had to wait a while till I got my energy back. Shadow's eyes were locked on a figure standing a bit at the edge of the ridge. The Pokémon we were chasing was cornered. Suddenly I felt a burst of strength from the sight. "Rachel, the Pokémon's trapped!" I exclaimed to the weak lillipup. She slowly stood up, that red scarf around her neck slipping off, but she didn't attempt to put it back on just yet. She slowly padded over to Shadow's side, looking slightly less tired then I was. It was odd to see her without that scarf on.
Shadow gasped. It was lighter out in that clearing since we weren't in the forest anymore, but I still couldn't identify the Pokémon. I stared at the dark sky, unable to see any stars, but heavy dark clouds and a half-moon. The scent of rain was lingering in the air. I squinted at the Pokémon we had cornered, but still couldn't tell what it was. Shadow must have definitely known however with that night vision of his.
"You, why are you here?!" Shadow screamed at the Pokémon with a surprisingly loud voice. The red mane of the Pokémon was flowing around wildly, the coming storm creating some rapid winds.
"Who is it?" Rachel asked with a serious tone, staring straight at Shadow. She also couldn't see the figure.
The Pokémon started to talk. Its voice was raspy, and seemed familiar, but the only thing that I could tell was that it was a female's voice. "Please… have mercy!" she growled, the wind starting up again barely after she finished.
"Who is it?" Rachel repeated. Her voice was barely audible with the screeching frigid winds.
A flash of lightning came from the storm clouds. A bright light illuminated the area, and it helped me see the rest of the scene. A wide mass of water was at the bottom of the cliff and it stretched over for miles. It seemed to disappear on the horizon, but on the very right side of my field of vision, some land was noticeable. Then suddenly my eyes grew wide, my gaze stuck on the shadowy figure that we've cornered.
The lightning lasted for only a few seconds then disappeared, a loud thundering boom following directly after it. However I was able to see the entire Pokémon with the small amount of light that was provided, and every single detail. The Pokémon had that red mane, leading from her forehead down her back and it was tied into a ponytail. It had lots of extra dark black fur on the chest with the rest of her body a light black. It had three sharp red claws on each paw as a final detail. Immediately I identified it as a zoroark. When did we encounter a zoroark on this journey? It was supposed to be a familiar Pokémon, yet I never saw one in real life before.
"It's a zoroark?" Rachel asked with her voice layered in confusion.
"Don't you remember Rachel?" Shadow suddenly blurted out. "That voice… do you recognize the voice or even the scent of this Pokémon?" Shadow looked as if he was astonished that Rachel had no clue, and that he was on the verge of freaking out. Rachel rolled her eyes at him, but then she sniffed the air several times to see if she could figure out what Shadow was talking about. Then her eyes grew wide. The zoroark didn't move an inch, staying in the spot as she let everyone else figure it out.
"It… it can't be!" Rachel screamed.
I couldn't take that tension anymore. I had to say something. "Who?! Who are you guys talking about?! Who is this Pokémon?!" I shouted, demanding for an answer.
Rachel turned to face me, a look of shock still on her face. "It's Illusion! That zorua that we saw a few weeks ago back at Striaton city!" she revealed. "Illusion had evolved!" My mouth was agape at what they'd figured out. Maybe Team Plasma figured out that I had the Stone of Darkness, and they were here to take it. I remembered Braviary's warning, pulling the black stone closer to my chest. Well that situation inclined fast.
"That's right," Illusion interrupted, forcing all of us to stare at the foxlike Pokémon. I expected her voice to be full of hate, but it wasn't. It sounded more of… misery. "Yes, I'm Illusion. The zorua who was working with Team Plasma," she admitted to confirm our beliefs. Suddenly my eyes grew just a bit wider. I noticed that past tense word in the statement, 'was'.
"But you guys have nothing to worry about. I'm off the team." She had confirmed my suspicions. She wasn't a part of Team Plasma anymore.
Shadow didn't seem to believe her just yet, and neither did I. I squeezed my arms tighter around my chest, still worried the stone would be stolen. "You're now an ex-plasma Pokémon? Why, did you leave it after you realized how evil they are?" Shadow scoffed.
Illusion sneered. "What do you think snake breathe? Of course I didn't quit the team, didn't you see how devoted I was? I was fired!"
Shadow stopped speaking. Rachel padded back towards her red scarf and quickly wrapped it around her neck while Illusion continued to talk. I listened intently on what she had to say. "After failing the last mission, Ghetsis looked at me as useless. I have failed several other missions… and even though I'm more like a ditto then a zorua, he thought I have done as much as I would ever do. He released me."
Suddenly I had a thought. "Speaking of which, how do you have those weird powers?" I asked, curious. How could've a zorua used moves of a certain Pokémon it transformed into?! It was almost like a monster straight out of a storybook.
"It's Team Plasma's doing. In this high-tech lab of theirs at a base, they used all these dangerous substances. I was injected with needles, forced to swallow things, and had to run through certain tests and ended up like I am today."
"So basically you were an experiment, just like what happened to me?" Shadow asked. Could she have really gone through what Shadow and I did?
"Exactly," she replied. "However, I might be able to use moves of the Pokémon I turn into, some things are restricted, a flaw of the power. I can only transform into certain Pokémon. The Pokémon are-"
Shadow decided to interrupt. "Like we want to hear your life story," Shadow hissed. "I can easily remember some of those transformations. I can easily recall you being a purrloin, arbok, haunter, lillipup, salamence, and… me." Suddenly he went into deep thought. I guess he was surprised on the fact that she turned into, well, Shadow. I was also surprised by this. If Illusion was experimented on, how could she somehow turn into Shadow? If she was restricted by a few things, transforming into a mutant snivy should've been a limited thing.
Rachel tilted her head to the side. "How could you transform into Shadow? You should really explain about it more," she pointed out.
The zoroark growled lightly. "I would've, but Shadow had to interrupt me." Staring at Shadow, I saw him fold his arms and roll his eyes, acting like Rachel slightly. "Let me start at the beginning. I need someone's DNA inside me in order to do this transformation with moves. For example, I could use one of Shadow's scales, and if I swallow it, my mutant DNA would transform it into something that could flow through my blood stream, which adds to my DNA and again, gives me this freaky power. Now basically I can't get too much of this DNA in my system… well technically I could do if I wanted to, but I'd have to suffer some consequences."
I could only imagine the horror. A normal zoruark just makes itself look different when it spins in that pink circle, but Illusion had a different story. While spinning in the air, her bones would shift, her skin would change, her pelt could shed and turn into feathers, and certain senses could appear and disappear. Eye sight could change, ears could completely disappear, and tails could turn into something completely different.
"W-What would happen if you got too much DNA?" I asked, unable to avoid the slip of the tongue.
"My normal appearance would shift around. Instead of transforming back into my usual zoroark form, I could have something else that no other zoroark would ever have. My fur could instead be feathers, and my eyesight could look different. Also whenever I add new DNA, the process is remarkably fast," she explained. Another flash of lightning happened in the distance, followed by the deafening thunder, and the dark clouds above seemed to come closer to us. The weather wasn't scaring me, but the current conversation did. I was unable to stop my thoughts from trailing off toward what it would be like if too much DNA came into Illusion's bloodstream. Feathers and scales would appear in certain places, she could have a normal zoroark body but with unusually huge deadly talons, vision and hearing would alter and bones would shift around, and might end up with a long purrloin tail permanently. Suddenly a chilly feeling spread from the back of my neck all the way down to the tip of my tail. It was impossible to determine the limits when it came to mutation.
"I can also only use a certain amount of transformations. I had already reached my limit on who to turn into, because of how much DNA there is inside me, and since I did that, if I ever take more DNA from anyone, the consequences would start. I've already reached the maximum ability of my special mutant blood, so now I just feel like a freak." Illusion stared down at the ground, reminding me of what it was like to be an outcast to everyone.
Illusion continued. "I might as well conclude on what Rachel had asked. When I had knocked Shadow out back at the restaurant, I ripped off one of his scales and quickly swallowed it." Shadow made a disgusted face. "It quickly morphed with my DNA. I was able to add his DNA in my bloodstream, transform, and hide Shadow in about ten seconds." Looking over at Rachel, I saw her giving a non-believing glare. Rachel was more of the scientist type, believing in science-like stuff instead of myths like ghost. The fact that Illusion could do all that stuff that fast probably was too unrealistic for her. However, she didn't speak up.
I decided to say something again, another question stuck in my brain that I just didn't understand. The talk with the DNA seemed to calm everyone down if that wasn't strange enough, but I felt as if I was a bit more alert then the others since I remembered a certain question. "So anyways Illusion, why are you here?" I asked with a stern voice. Shadow and Rachel glared at Illusion, everything going back to the hatred we had when we didn't know who Illusion was. I felt all those bad memories of her cloud my memory, prepared for what we've all been waiting for.
"Fine, but I think I made it obvious by now." Illusion seemed as if she was sick of talking. She took a few steps towards us, away from the enormous drop off the cliff behind her, but Illusion backed up when Rachel released a growl from her throat. "I want to help you, which is why I'm here. To get revenge on those traitors, Team Plasma, after what they did to me. I have a plan that if we use, we can take them down for good. As a zorua, I was allowed to learn practically every single thing about them. I'm tired of them using Pokémon like tools! I actually thought I was a part of something, after my life was going over the edge, but they deceived me. If we work together, I know we can finally take down Team Plasma! I want to travel with you to Castelia City, which literally is just over the bridge, and that's when we'll take them down!"
I had to say, that speech was inspiring. Illusion looked as if she was ready to head onto the good side, and even take down the source of her old bad ways. I was convinced, and Shadow looked slightly okay with it as well, however Rachel was another story. "Yeah right!" Rachel growled. "Like you'd ever change your devious ways, because I know for a fact that as soon as our guard is down, you'd knock us out and take us to Team Plasma yourself, probably to make up for failing the last mission!"
Even though Rachel did make a good point, just by looking in Illusion's blue eyes, I could tell that she was sincere. I realized this would continue to go on unless I intervened. "Rachel, Shadow, just look at her face. Isn't looking at it enough to say that she's telling the truth?" I asked, pointing both of my arms at the zoroark. "She must be telling the truth, just look!"
Shadow and Rachel stared at the zoroark, never having her leave their gaze. After a bit of an awkward silence, Shadow slowly relaxed. "Yeah, I guess she's trustable," Shadow mumbled. "Especially since she's mutated from them, and since I understand hatred you can develop for something like that… I believe her." I could tell Shadow was referencing his hatred for humans, who he's despised until recently when he realized the niceness in others.
Eventually Rachel also looked away. "I guess Zeke's right," Rachel agreed, avoiding anyone's eye contact. "The only thing that I don't understand is what we're going to do. Did you say you wanted to come with us?" All of our stares returned to the feminine zoroark.
"Yep, I said I wanted to come with you," she admitted. "But just to help you. If we traveled separately, then who knows what could happen. I know it would probably kill us from the inside or something if we stay together in a group, but I need vengeance, and so do you two!" Illusion yelled, referencing Shadow and I. She was making a point actually. Both Shadow and I had a grudge against their team. There was a possibility that we would be normal snivy's without all this drama if Team Plasma didn't interfere. Team Plasma convinced a few scientists to set traps in Unova, which trapped Shadow and lead them to find my egg. Then they somehow were able to get everyone to experiment on several Pokémon that arrived at the lab. It was just sickening, and so this made me want Illusion to come with us even more. It was also possible Rachel had something against them too that no one knew about yet.
"Illusion," Shadow started, standing up tall with a very serious expression. "You have been manipulative, deceiving, and evil to us in the past ever since the beginning of our journey." I sighed. Shadow was most likely not going to let her come.
"…but although, what you just proved in front of us shown me that you aren't that Pokémon anymore. Plus, there isn't any such thing as evil Pokémon, but evil trainers. You may travel with us," Shadow approved. Rachel and I were genuinely surprised. The way Shadow worded that was just complicated, but finally this feud had ended.
The zoroark showed a faint smile, barely visible with the moonlight shining above. "Now let's go, so we can defeat Team…" Illusion was about to state with determination, but a light drizzle had started on the cliff area. The zoroark gave a light chuckle, shocking me. From everything we've seen Illusion do, the small bit of laughter was totally out of character. "We probably should head back into the forest. This part of it will protect us from the rain." Illusion headed towards the trees behind us, pretty calmly I might add. She didn't seem nervous anymore. Exchanging odd looks, Rachel and Shadow followed after the quirky zoroark.
I stayed in my spot. There was one thing that I forgot to ask Illusion. Why was she following us, and how long has it been since she started? A few more questions were whirling around in my mind. I stood there in the clearing as the frigid rain started to get heavier. The snow beneath my feet finally came to my attention, since I just realized there were small piles of the freezing slush in the area, and I was standing in one. I stepped out of it and returned to my thoughts about Illusion, a little irritated.
This was one weird zoroark. After all that happened, I forgot all the faults that could happen. Rachel could've been right about Illusion trying to trick us, but I just saw that zoroark face and just thought she could be trusted. Plus this Pokémon had such a strange personality. I couldn't get it out of my head about how casually Illusion walked away from us. Maybe I'd just ask her about those things on the way to Castelia City. I tightened my grip on the Stone of Darkness at each bad idea. Different thoughts started to come to mind.
Soon some sort of battle against the ones of blue and red was going to happen, and each second that passed was another second away from the doomsday. Hopefully I'd make it out of it alive, but I just couldn't tell. How could a weak young snivy like me defeat something that could kill Braviary like snapping a twig?! The pressure on my shoulders wanted to make me scream.
"Zeke, you coming?" I heard Shadow shout from the forest. I snapped out of my troublesome thoughts and directed my attention to my older brother.
"Coming!" I replied as I started to dash after the trio, back into the depths of Pinwheel forest.