Shadow's POV
We jumped. It was such an insane idea yet we jumped.
All four of us were hurtling through the air, the waves below growing ever so closer as the wind whirled past us. I bit my tongue hard to resist an urge to scream. Rachel was screaming like crazy within the grasp of my vine, indicating she immediately regretted this idea. Zeke and Illusion were surprisingly calm however. Zeke was holding his stone close to his purple chest. The reason he was still holding onto that rock was puzzling but I wouldn't ponder the idea at a time like that.
The ship was quickly growing in size as we got closer, the wind around me blocking off any other noises. It had only been a few seconds and we already passed the halfway point of reaching the machine. Every part of my body was shaking with fear but still I quickly tensed up my free vine. I reeled both of the vines closer to me though, pulling Rachel till she was about a foot away from me. I found out that it was ridiculously hard to swallow and I couldn't stop my tail from twitching nervously.
The rails surrounding the top deck were meters away. I shot my free vine forward and wrapped the appendage around the metal firmly. I tightened my grip on Rachel's waist and prayed to Arceus I would survive. I continued to fall down a few feet pass the rail till my vine was fully stretched out. At that moment an immense pain shot through my shoulder. It was as if my shoulder blades were about to snap as a burning sensation spread through that area. My breath was cut off, seeing that the sudden stop after the long fall caused me to choke. Less than a second later an equally burning pain struck my other shoulder. The vine that held Rachel nearly let go of the lillipup, but I quickly maintained self-control. When the first choking was over I attempted to take a deep breath but the pain from the other vine cut me off. My lungs were searing with the need of oxygen after the first moments, instincts begging me to release my grips, and let my vines and shoulders relax.
The weariness from earlier seemed to return. I bit harder on my tongue to help endure the flaming pain shooting up my vines and around my shoulders. The grip I had on the rails loosened slightly but I quickly forced myself to tighten them. A quick thought slipped my mind about what trouble Zeke would be going through but it disappeared seconds later, having more important matters. The choking stopped fortunately and I took in a deep breath to replenish my weak lungs. A small amount of relief coursed through me, but the pain remaining in my shoulders quickly stopped the feeling.
I was only dangling from my vines at the moment. Swaying slightly, I let the moment sink in and my thoughts return to me. My heart was pounding against my chest, my whole body was shaking, and my blue eyes were wide with disbelief and fear. My mind felt as if it was all jumbled up in my head and everything spun around. Slowly my vision had returned to normal, but I was still really lightheaded. It actually took me a moment to realize I wasn't dead.
"Hey buddy, reel us up all ready!" Rachel yelled, helping me snap back to reality. It was weird how she went from a screaming panic to a surprising calm. I gulped, still seeing it was a bit difficult to swallow, and slowly pulled Rachel and I towards the railing. A few thoughts were shaking me and made me more fearful, and most of them were questions. Did anyone see us? Most likely a bunch had. I may have survived, but would I have to run from a bunch of humans? Possibly, and would probably get caught.
Soon I made it to the railing and took in the scene of the deck. A bunch of the two-legged creatures were staring at the railing. Most of them had shock on their face. A few seemed fear-stricken and a couple appeared curious. Most of the people looked snobby, having very expensive looking clothes, really pale skin, and seemingly really weak. A few others looked like the normal people I had seen on my adventure and they were mostly the curious ones. All the gentlemen-and-woman was the panicked ones. Those weak humans seemed as if they were paralyzed from the incident. Well it was a definite fact that we were all spotted falling from the bridge. I knew our luck had to be running out at some time.
Finally the thoughts of Illusion and Zeke came to mind. Glancing to my right, I could see the zoroark with white glowing claws. They were dug deep into the ships exterior and had created huge holes within the metal. Illusion gave a light squeal of pain as she looked at her exposed bloody arms and gritted her teeth together from the torture. I winced at the thought of how painful that must have been for her. I moved my gaze over to my left to see the other black-and-purple snivy. He had both of his vines around the metal bars of the railing and had already pulled himself up to them, his stone somehow still in his arms. It was probably harder for him to hold on since he wasn't as experienced and chose to hold his stone, yet easier with both of the vines. Luckily all four of us had made it.
More problems were ahead of us, so there was no time for any congratulations. I pulled the rest of Rachel up, climbed over the railing, and glared at the humans. The royal-looking people were still basically stunned with fear, only a few of them looking as if they snapped out of it. The normal ones were eying me, Zeke, and Illusion with interest, none of them seeming to be looking at Rachel. A thought slipped my mind about the fact that Rachel was only a use to us by her smarts. She wasn't rare, unique, or anything special in any sort of way, but only her knowledge on humans was useful. I didn't even need the know anything about humans. Even though I knew some were good and bad, I still didn't like being around them as much. Why was humankind the dominant one in that world? It was as if they plagued the earth. I groaned in frustration but shoved the thoughts of Rachel and humankind away for the moment.
I scanned the group of humans, waiting for something to happen. "Is that a zoroark?" One of the humans had decided to speak up, seeing it was a rich-like person. He readjusted a piece of circular glass around his eye as if to get a better look.
"Are those snivy's?" two little girls said in unison, changing glances between me and Zeke. After a moment, one of the girls tugged on a snobby girl's leg. "What's wrong with it?"
Wow, what an ego booster. I thought sarcastically and shook my thoughts away. I felt my instincts begging me to run, that there was danger. It was telling me to survive, and I couldn't agree more. I prepared myself to run, tensing my muscles to do so already and surveyed the place. There was an exit to the left of the boat, more stairs heading down deeper into the boat. If I got there, I would just be hiding somewhere till this ship docked and we'd hopefully be at Castelia city.
Illusion had started running towards the staircase. She must have come up with the same plan. A boy with orange shorts had somehow gotten in front of the crowd and stared at Illusion with a smirk. He reached into his pocket and pulled out an all so familiar item. The red and white ball was clenched in his hand and he muttered something to himself, and dashed after the zoroark. I bit harder on my tongue, seeing Illusion could've been caught. I figured that if those normal people have gotten aboard that luxury ship, then they would have to be strong to earn a lot of earnings in order to afford it. The zoroark fell onto all fours and leaped down the stairs, not using the steps but leapt over all of them. The guy still ran after him.
Zeke was the next to do a move, surprisingly. He had retracted his vines back into his purple shoulders and started to dash towards the stairway. I watched the little snivy, knowing that he was doing the same thing Illusion was. This time one of the rich-like humans had stepped forward, some guy with a luxury ball in his palm. "That thing is a scientific discovery!" he exclaimed in triumph, as if he had already caught him. He gained a smirk just like that other kid from earlier.
I wasn't going to wait around till Zeke was fully gone till I ran off. Most of the humans' attention would be stuck on Zeke for a while and I'd have a bigger chance of getting away. I leaned towards Rachel and whispered in her ear. "On the count of three, we run." I didn't bother looking at her expression and kept my concentration on Zeke. He had noticed the snobby dude was starting to chase him and picked up the pace.
"One…" Zeke was nearing the stairs. The man stuffed one of his hands into a pocket.
"Two…" The man pulled out a regular Poke ball from the pocket. Most likely one of his Pokémon was in it. Zeke gave a surprised squeal, got a firmer grip on his stone, and sped up. I tensed up my muscles and got in a running position.
"Three!" I sprang forward with my eyes locked on the stairs. Hopefully Rachel was wise and would follow me. It was easy to see that I was faster than Zeke, most likely because I was more used to it and was bigger. Within seconds I had used my speed and caught up with the gentleman. My tail glimmered with a silver light, metal covering the exterior of the leaf-shaped appendage. Swiftly I moved my metal tail and slid it under where he was about to step next. His foot came down on my Iron Tail, and I did a complete spin and forced the human to lose balance. The iron that engulfed my tail had numbed any pain I would've had from the man's shoe. With a small smirk, I watched the man fall backwards and land with a thud on the wooden floor. My smirk disappeared when my current task came to mind and continued my mad dash towards the staircase. When I had tripped the man, I took a glance at Rachel to see her following. My tail had given off a last silver shine before it returned to the usual black and purple.
Luckily that trick I used would buy us enough time to get out of the man's sight, and he wouldn't see wherever we would've went. Zeke had reached the stairs and peered down. Rachel and I neared the stairs and then heavy thumping noises came from behind. Vibrations were sent across the deck and I bounced a bit from them, realizing that the humans were basically in a stampede towards us.
When I reached the staircase Zeke was halfway down and Illusion was out of sight. I stole a glance of the people over my shoulder. I noticed one of the guys in the front looked different from all the others. He had a hat in the shape of police officers, except it was white. He wore a pure white jacket, white jeans, white shoes, everything he had was white. There was a pocket on his shirt though and it had something in the shape of a star pinned to it, and it was the only thing that wasn't white, but it was painted gold. There was something engraved in the star, but I had no idea how to read human gibberish. All I knew was this man seemed important to some kind of level.
I turned around to notice Rachel and Zeke were at the bottom of the staircase and had run through the place slightly, out of sight. Quickly I leapt down, skipping several steps to get down faster. When I reached the bottom, I noticed we were in some hallway, and no one was in sight. Several maple doors were lining the walls, and I noted this ship had several rooms. Everything in the hallway was different shades of light brown, on rugs, wallpaper, patterns on the wallpaper, and other things. A few small tables in the corridor were a dark brown however, but they seemed to match. Everything seemed extremely expensive. I followed Rachel and Zeke a few yards down the hall till we stopped to regroup.
Dozens of mangled and muffled voices shouted from upstairs. The crowd was nearing the stairs already. I bit harder on my tongue but then gave a silent cry. I was biting my tongue so hard I just pierced it. The taste of fresh blood started to faintly fill my mouth. I wiped some of the warm liquid onto my hand, seeing a small amount of the gooey substance, a very dark red. Rachel and Zeke stared at my hand, but were more focused on the humans.
Zeke opened his mouth to speak. At that moment he was harshly interrupted when one of the doors in the corridor flung open. I jumped back to avoid myself getting smacked, but Zeke wasn't so lucky. He squealed in pain and flung back on the other side of the door. I noticed Rachel barely had dodged getting hit by the door and was right next to me. I observed that the door was so wide and the corridor was so small that the door basically blocked off me and Zeke.
Some fancy old lady was the cause of the door opening. "What is with all this noise!" she yelled in outrage, stomping a fancy shoe down on the light brown rug. When she moved her foot there wasn't even a small trace of dirt. "I came on this cruise ship for relaxation! I demand some peace and… quiet…" Her voice had trailed off, her gaze locked on me and Rachel. The once furious eyes she had were replaced with fear and distraught. She screamed and flailed her hands in the air, forcing Rachel's ears to press against her head. I took a step back, knowing something was going to happen.
The clattering of footsteps was faint in the distance. The crowd was dashing downstairs. I felt panic starting to course through me with all these thoughts. Zeke was stuck on the other side of the door, and I didn't have enough time to fetch him. Zeke was trapped between the crowd and the door, and unless he ran past the crowd down the other part of the corridor, he would be a goner.
"Zeke!" I called out, hoping he could hear me. "Run down the hallway, you don't have much time! We'll meet up later, but just go!" I didn't wait for a response, there was no time. I grabbed Rachel's attention by pinching one of her flattened ears. Her ears went from flat against her head to up and alert. She glared at me and was acting as if she totally forgot about the current predicament. "No time for that Rachel, we need to run!" Her anger transformed into determination and she nodded in understanding. With one last look at the screaming irritating lady I dashed down the corridor, the brown dog right by my side.
Slowly the screaming lowered in volume as she got a hold of herself, and as we gained a better distance. Soon the screaming completely stopped and it was a disturbing silence. About a minute of running later, there seemed to be no one around and we slowed to a walk. I thought that it was possible most of the people aboard had gone to the top deck, to see the gap in the bridge. That was probably why there was a lack of people inside the boat. The whole time I looked around the scene had never changed. It was all the same brown, brown doors, rugs, wallpaper, nightstands, and even Rachel was brown. I was completely out of contrast in the hallways and would've easily been spotted. Since the environment had been the same for a while, there wasn't any place to hide. I slowed to a stop and leaned against a wall to catch my breath.
Rachel sat down and stared at her front paws. "I hope Illusion and Zeke are okay," she muttered, a bit of guilt noticeable in her voice. "Who knows where they are and if they're safe? Do you think Zeke got away from the crowd or Illusion from that kid?" She had turned to face me, her eyes watery. The once calm lillipup I knew was starting to lose it.
I decided that I should've helped her calm down, and it'd be easier to get around and stay hidden. "I think Illusion was able to get away from the kid, she is a trickster Pokémon and can easily lose his trail," I reassured. I faked a smile to help her calm down.
"And Zeke?"
Honestly I thought he had a low chance of getting away from the crowd. He was half my speed, not even at my height yet, and was stumbling around with a stupid stone cradled in his arms. He wasn't that smart either, and he was still developing. He basically was still a kid. "He'll be alright, he's a smart kid," I lied.
Rachel formed a small smile on her face. The tears in her eyes seemed to melt away but the sadness was still planted on her face. Suddenly her small grin had transformed into a smirk. "Now come on, Shasta," she snickered, emphasizing the word Shasta.
I quickly went from pity to anger. "Why do you keep calling me that? What does Shasta even mean?" I scowled. Her smirk got bigger.
"You wish you knew," she replied mysteriously with a sly grin. "Now come on Shasta." She started to pad down the hallway. I hated not knowing something; it was very irritating for me. When I wanted to know something, I did my best to find out right away, so I would do whatever it took to know what Shasta meant. If only Zeke was here, he turned out very social and friendly. It was one of his few skills.
We trudged down the corridors, the scene never changing. If I couldn't find out what Rachel meant by Shasta, I thought maybe she'd know some other things. "Rachel, did you see that one guy in the crowd? He was in all white and had a gold star pinned to a jacket pocket. Do you have an idea who it is?" I asked.
Luckily her sly attitude was gone. "Yeah, I saw the badge and saw it said captain. He must be the captain of the ship," she replied.
"Wait, shouldn't a captain drive the ship? What was he doing on the deck?!" I asked, starting to get slightly worried.
"He probably stopped the boat," she replied. "To check out the gap in the bridge."
I raised an eyebrow. "Wait a second, you could read those scribbles humans write?" I questioned, arms folded. She was able to read those weird lines that were on the gold star, how could she do that?
"Yeah, I've been around humans enough and it's actually pretty simple. It took me a year at most to read it," she explained, looking at the ceiling with a small smile as if she was reminiscing the old days.
There were so many things I didn't know about Rachel. She wouldn't even reveal why she wanted to go to Nimbasa city. I kind of wanted to know a bit about her history, since she already knew a bit about mine. "Rachel, how long have you been with humans?"
Rachel snapped out of her transfixed state about the past and stared at the ground. "Um, I guess all my life," she revealed. "I mean I started with my own trainer, and then went with Cilan at the Striaton gym. I've grown used to people ever since birth."
"What about your family?"
"Well it's been a while. I was born from two herdiers at my old trainer's house, and had a whole litter of brothers and sisters. I think both of my parents are still with my trainer, and I'm not sure if they evolved or not into a stoutland. If they had, it would be hard for them to live in the apartments we lived at… so I bet the trainer forced them to carry everstones or something." She didn't seem at all fazed about talking about her family, unlike me.
"Who are your brother and sisters?" I continued to ask. I wanted to get as much out of her as I could.
"Well you probably remember Sonny from Striaton city. He came with me when we left our old trainer. Altogether, I had one sister and three brothers. My sister was Luna, and my other two brothers were Rokko and Lebye. Luna was really nice, shy, and loyal, basically a best friend. Rokko was very alert, proud, and lively, acted like the protectors of the family. Lebye was extremely athletic and loved competition, but he was very gentle when competition wasn't involved and not to mention really playful." So Sonny was her brother, which was interesting. She was lucky to have such a good healthy family, and she most likely knew where they were and other things like that. I wasn't sure where my family was, except for Zeke.
"Wow, that's nice. Where are they?" I questioned.
That smirk came back to her face, after all that explaining she went back to the old attitude. "You wish you knew Shasta," she mocked. I felt anger starting to flood through me. Not knowing on what Shasta meant was frustrating! I wouldn't let her get what she wanted though. I tried my best to store that anger and probably use it against a human. If she saw me anger she'd continue to infuriate me. I forced a fake smile, even though it did hurt.
At that moment I finally saw a change in scenery. It wasn't much, but a door was wide open. We could've hid in that room. Plus the door was blocking the rest of the corridor, so it was either that or to head back. "Come on, we should hide in there," I suggested.
Rachel's smirk disappeared and then suddenly her face was written with sadness. What was with all those mood changes? "Shouldn't we head back and look for Illusion or Zeke?" she asked, eyes pleading for me to say yes.
What was with her? All the smirking, nicknames, snide comments, mystery, and all these mood changes! She wasn't as bland as I thought she was. "They'll be fine, they're not babies." Well technically they weren't, but both acted a lot like them, I added silently. "Let's head in." Before she could protest I got behind her and started to shove her into the room.
The place was smaller than I expected. It was almost too cramped for me, and I was basically a fourth of a human's size. I saw several buckets and bottles on rickety looking shelves. There wasn't even a bed or anything like that. I didn't think that a person could even stand in there. "Rachel, what is with this place? We can barely fit in here!" I exclaimed. It was only us in the room, but I didn't even have a foot radius of space.
"That's because we're in a supply closet," she muttered. "Shasta."
I gave her a death glare, but didn't say anything about it. "Then I guess we have to head back," I pointed out and padded out of the supply closet. I wasn't even sure what a supply closet was, but it seemed to be some sort of storage unit. Even though that was a hiding place, I wasn't going to stay in there all cramped for an hour.
Suddenly the ground shifted around. I lost my balance and stumbled forward while I flailed my arms in the air. I fell backwards and landed, on my back, and banged my head hard against the wall. I winced in pain, accidently biting my tongue again. I did a silent cry once again from that move and the taste of blood filled my mouth once more. I swallowed the liquid in disgust, not wanting to talk about it with Rachel. I really had to break that habit.
A bell noise rang through the hallway. The sound of static echoed through the corridor before a humans voice rang out. "Sorry for the temporary delay passengers." The voice seemed distorted from wherever it came from. I scanned the ceiling, detecting it came from somewhere above. Finally I saw a circle-like device and found that was the source of the human voice. "We had started up the ship again but be cautioned. There are four rogues Pokémon wandering the ship," it announced. Both Rachel and I gasped, instantly realizing who they were talking about. "We identified one of them as a lillipup and the other one an injured zoroark. The other two are small black and purple creatures that we're not sure what they are, but from their form they appear to be snivy. While walking around, stay alert, and we're almost at the dock. Thank you for your patience." That's when the voice fuzzed out, hearing a sort of clicking noise before it went dead silence.
At least I knew Zeke and Illusion were safe. They had said all four were roaming, so that means none of them got caught. The major news though was the fact that the whole ship knew about our presence and it was going to be more of a challenge not to stay unnoticed. The sudden shifting of the ground must have been the ship starting up again. My thoughts trailing elsewhere, I pointed at the circular device that had made the human sound and got read to ask Rachel what it was.
She beat me to it, as if she read my mind. "That's a speaker. It helps humans for certain purposes, mostly to inform others about pieces of information. For example the captain used them to tell every human onboard about us and now we're going to be tracked down," she explained, her voice sounding annoyed for the last sentence. "Now we have less time to find a place to hide. I bet all the people from the top deck had already run down here in search for us."
"Oh really, I totally didn't know that last part," I snapped, trying to make it obvious that I used sarcasm.
"Come on Shasta," she growled, leading the way back down the corridor where we came. I mumbled a few curse words to myself about her before following that know-it-all. I knew that forced to be with her the rest of the ride was going to be painful.
Less than a minute later I could hear the voices of people. I slowed down my pace to make less noise, Rachel copying my actions. As we sneaked towards a corner I shoved Rachel behind me and peered around it, not to mention hiding a smile from seeing Rachel's irritated face. There were a group of normal trainers and I recognized one of them as the boy in orange shorts that chased Illusion. There appeared to be four guys, all of them about the age of the boy. The three others had a mixture of cruelness and pleasure.
One of the boys, some dude with brown spikey hair, shoved the orange shorts boy. "You let it get away you wimp," he mocked.
Another one of the guys, a guy that seemed identical to the brown spikey haired one, stepped forward with a menacing glare. "Dude, who could lose sight of such a big Pokémon, because I mean it totally stood out in these hallways!" he teased.
The orange shorts guy glared at the two brown haired dudes but didn't say anything. Lastly, a guy with blue hair stepped forward with a smirk. "Wimp," he muttered, copying what one of the other guys was doing.
"It's not like you guys did anything, at least I tried unlike you three," he retorted.
That was just cruel. Pokémon didn't do what humans like these did. The fancy-looking humans even though were weak and pale seemed superior to these bunch of bullies. What probably made humans so populated in that world was the fact that they always resorted to violence. Pokémon did some things like that, but never fell to mindless bullying. Maybe the result of humans' violent minds is how they came up with Pokémon battles. Wild Pokémon battle for something or someone important, and a few for fun but those battles aren't taken too far. Humans downright send Pokémon thoughtlessly into battle, letting them fight their hearts out for cash and fame, the trainer getting all the praise and the Pokémon getting tortured.
"Come on," I whispered to Rachel. They were all paying attention to the boy, which was luckily making the three brats look in the opposite direction. Taking a last glance I scurried across with Rachel to the other side of the hallway. Peering around the corner, I noticed nothing altered except the blue haired dude curled his hand up into a fist. Soon there was going to be a fight, and even though I thought it was sickening for that mindless violence, it would help distract others.
When I saw no humans were around, I started to chat with Rachel. "That was awful, you really lived with people like that all your life?!" I questioned. I frankly wouldn't be able to live with people that long.
She scowled at me. "Of course not, there are some good and bad Pokémon trainers. The people I lived with were good, and those trainers back there were just… cruel. Shadow, I thought you learned how to get along with humans already."
That was the first time she had called me Shadow for hours. "I did learn that, but I still don't like to do it, especially cruel ones even though I never stayed with those kinds of humans before. I like to stay free and wild when no one can tell me what I can and can't do. Why do you like being with humans so much?"
She stopped talking, staring straight ahead. She sped up her pace till she was right in front of me. I furrowed my eyes at the stubborn lillipup even though she wouldn't even see it. I just couldn't figure her out.
I saw a door opened slightly by a crack. I slowed down my pace more so I was barely walking and sneaked towards the opening. Rachel slowed down slightly too but I could catch several flaws in her sneaking around. I hardly managed to keep myself from groaning in frustration from her inexperience, and soon made it to the crack. When I peered inside, the crack was too small to actually see anything. I used my leafy hands and moved the door open a little more. A weak creaking came from the door, indicating that the metal things that kept the door against the wall, which I learned were called bolts, were rusty.
"Keep it down!" Rachel shouted under her breath. "You're going to blow our cover!"
I glared at Rachel for one of the numberless times that night. "I'm going to blow our cover?!" I whisper-shouted. "Look who's talking, you've been making all sorts of noise all night that could have us spotted! Plus, the door bolts are rusty!" I punched her on the arm, barely letting up some of my frustration but I was still seething with rage. I ruffled the red scarf around her neck slightly. She opened he muzzle to most-likely say some sort of insult.
A sharp pain suddenly struck through my skull. I winced from the pain and kneeled down, the searing feeling coursing through me. My vision swirled around slightly till it all went black. A familiar light blasted through the darkness like lightning and an eerie high-pitched ring blasted my ears.
I didn't see any images, but a voice sounded out. It was very foreign and I didn't recognize it. "Rachel, you came home!" The voice sounded high-pitched and friendly, and I deciphered it as a female human. I heard the same girl giggling a bit before it went all mute. The lightning coursed through my vision then suddenly I came back to reality. It took me a moment to recollect my thoughts, then I realized those weird visions were back. It had been weeks and I thought they were gone for good.
"T-The visions… they're back," I thought.
"What visions?" Rachel asked. I realized that I had said that out loud, so I cursed myself under my breath. I then noticed I was kneeling down on the floor. Rachel was staring at me with a look of concern but some anger was still noticeable. I forced myself to stand up.
There was no way I was letting this bratty Pokémon know about the mysterious visions I have been having. For a moment I felt like I should've told her, since that vision was about her slightly, but she was still being a real bi-
My thoughts trailed off when I realized Rachel was staring at me with an obnoxious expression. "It's nothing," I hissed and remembered the current task. I walked back towards the door I had opened slightly, and now the opening was big enough for me to step through. I moved to the side and squeezed through the small gap. I took in the image of the room, but lost concentration when a creaking sound came from behind me.
I swerved around to see Rachel moving the door a little more, the sound screeching in my ears. "Can you stop it?!" I shouted in a hushed whisper.
"The door bolts are rusty," she mimicked, her voice altered to sound like a toddlers. She really knew how to push my buttons. She moved the door a bit more, my leaf hands against my head in agony, till she made a big enough space for her. She padded in with a look of satisfaction.
It was difficult to keep myself from insulting the crabby lillipup. I forced myself to look around the room. It was luckily empty, so the noise that Rachel made didn't affect anything. That room was actually a bedroom, with a nicely made bed, an expensive looking nightstand, and some potted plants. Some reason the walls were still the same light brown, but the rug was now a nice shade of red. Finally there was some color added. There was another door in the room and it was wide open. Inside the other room it was small, just like the supply closet. Except instead of bottles and buckets being in it, there were several kinds of clothes, hats, and shoes. I recalled that those were just called closets.
"We could hide in here," Rachel suggested. That must have been the best thing I've heard her say all day. I moved the door behind us so it was back to a small crack, and then finally felt my nerves relax.
"Finally I can have a break from huma-" I started, but was harshly interrupted from a voice outside. Oh great…
It was a male voice, and it had a sort of royal accent added to it. "Oh, did my bedroom door just move?" it questioned. Hearing his ask a question implied he was with someone. Right when I thought I had a break!
Then I realized the dude was talking to himself, since I heard no response. Light footsteps pounded against the floor, slowly getting louder as he grew closer.
"Hide!" Rachel growled; already back to her despicable self. "In the closet, hurry!" Without question I followed the canine into the small room. Before I ran in I grabbed the edge of the door and slowly pulled it shut while I entered. I couldn't pull it all the way close so there was a small crack we could see through, which was a good thing. I was scrunched up against a pair of boots and a black sleeve of some suit was draped over one of my eyes. I pushed the sleeve away and tried to push the boot back into a corner.
"Looks like you've done something right for once Shasta, leaving the door open a slice," Rachel teased. I felt my anger flood back into my system but barely managed to keep my mouth shut. I leaned in close to the door crack to see the front door creak open. A man stepped in, and I realized it was the snobby dude that had chased Zeke on the deck earlier. He had the circular glass around his eye and very formal expensive clothes. He did come in alone, proving he had talked to himself in the empty corridor. He fully shut the door behind him and turned something on the knob which I noticed was a lock.
"Great, now we're trapped in here," I muttered, my tail drooping into a sandal.
The obnoxious lillipup shoved me away from the small source of light, throwing me into the shadows and was shoved into a boot. "Let me see," she demanded, now peering out of the crack. I gritted my teeth together, biting my tongue in annoyance. A sharp pain shot through my tongue but I used my rage to numb the pain. I gulped down the blood I forced out with my attention still stuck on Rachel.
In return I pushed her out of the way by shoving her with my tail into the wall. A light thud came from her hitting the wall but I didn't care. I saw the man was sitting down on the bed still mumbling things to himself. "Stop being a hog you flea-bag," I insulted.
"Well stop making noise you before-image of a reptilian purse, or we'll be spotted," she retorted, even though I wasn't really sure what a purse was. She tackled into me and sent me sprawled head-first into one of the boots. My head had somehow gotten stuck in the feet protection for humans, and when I used my arms to push me out I realized I was stuck. The air was stiff and humid inside the boot, and some sort of rancid odor wafted into my nose. I silently cried out for fresh air, my attempts of getting myself out of the boot growing with each killer breath I took in.
Finally I was able to squeeze out of the footwear. I took in a deep breath of fresh air, relief flooding my veins. Being trapped in that boot with that horrifying stench was a very cruel and unusual punishment! I shot a death glare at the lillipup peering out of the door crack. I got into attack stance and ran forward, full-out tackling Rachel in her side. Since I had tackled her at the same angle I sent her flying into the wall, a louder thud came from when she smacked against the wall, and she fell limp to the floor. Unfortunately the stupid fur ball stood up shakily after that, throwing a disgusted look at me.
"Shasta, come on now, don't get so feisty," she growled, a small smirk showing up when she said Shasta but it had vanished quickly. I felt my rage start to boil up from the name.
"Shut up!" I yelled, but wasn't worried about making noise anymore. "Stop calling me that, what does that even mean?!"
"You wish you knew," she taunted with a sly brow. I wanted to bite my tongue to help control my fury, but didn't want force any more blood out of me. She had started to run forward to tackle me. When she got near I jumped over her swiftly, landing behind the charging lillipup. I used my tail to hit Rachel before she went too far and slapped her against some clothes, accidently getting her tangled in a suit. I pointed a finger and laughed at the frustrated Pokémon.
She somehow quickly gotten free from the clothing, but before I could react she pounced down from the suit and pinned me to the carpet. I struggled to get free, but she had me in a tight grip. I hissed at the girl with anger clouding my eyes. I could easily think of a dozen names for her, but all of them were inappropriate. I then realized my tail wasn't pinned, and Rachel couldn't pin it if she wanted to. I tensed the leaf shaped appendage and slapped the Pokémon off of me, sending her lopsided on the carpet. The hit wasn't enough to send her into a wall.
Now when I glanced at the lillipup, I felt anger shoot through every molecule in my body. Several times I felt as if we were the only ones in the world, but in a frustrating way. I let out all the frustration and anger I kept in, I released all of it. I would use my anger to strengthen my attacks and to numb the pain. I had taken her with us on our journey, and she barely had done anything in return. I could've easily refused her offer way back when, but I was starting to be nice around that time. Now I was going to rip her into shreds, limb from limb.
Hate had glazed her eyes. She had no right to be angry with me, I had done nothing! She ran forward with her teeth sharpened, a dark mist emitting from it for a Crunch. To counter the dark type attack, I pulled my arm back as the same kind of mysterious mist engulfed it. My fingers stretched out into deadly claws and I braced the limb to send forward. A thought came to mind of sending my Shadow Claw straight pass her scarf and into her neck. I wanted to see her sprawled out on the ground in a limp state, in a pool of thick dark red blood and her eyes rolled in the back of her head.
When I realized what I was thinking, I shook those murderous intentions away. That wasn't who I was anymore, I wasn't that dark snivy that was hated and despised, but a better Pokémon. Although I still was going to show that flea bag to stop messing with me, and I didn't give the image of a dead lillipup one last thought.
I sprang forward and tried to dig my claws deep into her side. That would surely end the fight. Rachel had her eyes fixed on my tail, most likely aiming for that area. When I had moved to the side, about to send my needle-like claws into her flank, a bright light intruded my vision. It took a moment for my night eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness, but I decided to cancel my attack and felt my claws turn back into my normal fingers. Something rough gripped onto my neck, something huge and it was able to grip half of my body. The ground disappeared from under my feet as I cringed in whatever had grabbed me.
My eyes finally adjusted to the light. The snobby man had swung open the closet door and grabbed me by the neck, and lifted me into the air. His other hand held a squirming ball of brown fur, Rachel. I forced myself out of my cringed state and tried to squeeze out of the man's grip. Surprisingly he had a strong hold on me, even though he seemed like a weakling. "Looks like I've caught two of those rogues Pokémon that fell from the bridge," the man announced proudly to himself. He peered closer at me, making me struggle more in his hand. "This doesn't look like that other mutated Pokémon I had chased, but it's that other one that tripped me." His grip hardened on my neck, now having trouble breathing.
I knew he was going to take me to the captain, and there was no way to escape. The man had his hand covering my shoulders so I couldn't use my vines. My tail was clenched in his hand as well so I couldn't use that either. I wasn't strong enough to break free of his grip, my arms were trapped in his palm, I couldn't bend my head down to bite him, and it was a struggle to even breathe. I opened my mouth to talk, and when I squealed slightly it came out hoarse and raspy.
"Shadow?" I heard Rachel's voice question. I tried to turn and see her, but the man was holding me so I was looking away from the lillipup. "Shadow?!" Her voice didn't sound as bad as mine, but she did sound worried. The cruel man was purposely trying to choke me, I thought. I gave up on trying getting out of the man's hand so I could gasp for air. Luckily since I stopped struggling, the man loosened his grip, allowing me to breathe normally. I took the opportunity to talk to the worried lillipup.
"I'm fine, Rachel," I reassured. I felt guilt weighing on my shoulders from that brawl in the closet. I even had that sick murderous thought, and I couldn't even forgive myself for that. I had turned so… dark back there. It was like I was my old self, the hated despised one back in Eterna forest. I sighed, and knew a step to staying away from my terrible past was apologizing. "Rachel…" I hoped I had her attention. I never really apologized for anything before, so it was a new experience. "I'm… sorry for how I acted. I just lost my mind back there, and was slightly frustrated. Can you forgive me?"
I waited for a response. When she didn't speak up, disappointment started to set in. "Of course, now stop with apologizes, we need to get out of here!" she suddenly blurted out. She had also snapped me back to the current situation, but there was no use for me. Everything was cleverly covered so that I couldn't break free. It was possible the same thing was happening to Rachel, if she hadn't gotten out yet.
"It's no use Rachel; we're not going to get out of here!" I screamed, panic starting to cloud my mind. The calm self I just was had quickly disappeared and I had barely kept myself from hyperventilating. I knew if I started to try and squeeze my way out of the man's hand again, I would start to be choked again. The only things I could do were basically breathe, speak, and wiggle my feet.
"Don't say that, don't lose hope!" she demanded. I wished I could see what she looked like. I couldn't tell if she was determined or worried, or if she was anything else.
"We're going to get caught, face the facts! It's best if we stop struggling and just wait for our fates!" I exclaimed. The man had already opened his door with his knuckles and kicked it close behind him, now walking down the bland hallways.
I heard her give a low growl. "Don't just give up! What happened to that old determined snivy I used to know?! It's never over till it's over, never give up, and it might just turn out into a better scenario! Now stop lying limp in this man's palm and try to get free!" she yapped, sounding pretty determined. The way she said that speech was surprisingly inspirational. She was right, I couldn't give up, and I had to keep going. Just because I was trying to go nice, didn't mean I had to go soft.
Soon I was struggling in the snobby dude's hand. He clenched slightly harder, but I wouldn't give up. I shoved against the man's fingers with all I had. I flailed my tail around as much as I could in his grip, not letting hit get a firmer grip on me. Fortunately I was able to keep him from squeezing any tighter, and I was still able talk. Then while I was struggling, there was one plagued thought stuck on my mind, and I just had to find an answer.
"Rachel, just in case we don't get out of this, I need to know one thing! What does Shasta mean?" I questioned.
"Is this really the best time to ask Shadow?!" she growled, panic-stricken.
"Answer me!" I ordered, still trying to get free.
"Fine!" she compromised with a bitter tone. "Back where my family was, there was a legend in the town. It was about a green electric type Pokémon named Shasta, and he was an electrike!" Rachel had paused before she continued, most likely having to take a breath. "Shasta wasn't the brightest Pokémon. He had done many stupid things, and couldn't even see the difference between a panpour and a pansear!"
"What does that have to do with anything?!"
"Well in my family, we used to call each other Shasta when we didn't think when doing things, mainly when we do something idiotic!" I still wasn't getting the point. I felt as if I was on the verge of getting it, but I didn't really have it quite yet.
"So?!" I continued to pester, feeling fatigue setting in but I wouldn't stop struggling.
She groaned in frustration. "Shasta means 'Moron'!" she stated dryly.
"Wait a minute, this whole time you've been calling me a moron, what the heck?!" I hissed, feeling that earlier rage come back. I heard her snicker slightly. She's doing that now?!
That was the last little push I needed. Anger flooded through my body as a new dangerous burst of energy blasted into me. I started to pry the man's fingers off, by pushing them with my elbows filled with rage. The rich man had gasped, but I paid him no attention. I took one last deep breathe and shot my arms out wide, knocking myself out of his sweaty grip.
I tumbled to the ground, realization striking me. I stared up at the human that towered over me, a large frown on his face. I could detect the worry and fear in his eyes however, causing me to smirk. When he reached down to grab me I jumped back a few feet, to stay out of reach long enough to scare him away. I held one of my arms close to my side and concentrated my dark mutated energy within me. Within the second a dark dust substance similar to coal powder cloaked my arm. My three fingers grew into the shape of thin daggers, twice as long as normal. I forced a fake evil smile on my face, hopefully intimidating the crazed human.
The frown he had grew deeper. He didn't seem frustrated any longer and his fear practically radiated off of the guy. His fingers went limp, and I watched with glee as Rachel pried herself out of the grubby hand. I took a step closer to the man, forcing him to take a step back. Rachel curled up her lips to reveal a deadly snarl, showing her sharp teeth and the crazed look she had faked in her eyes. Her snout wrinkled up to give her an even more evil composure. She had perfectly mirrored the look of a vile Pokémon.
He couldn't take it anymore. A few second later after looking at us, ready to rip his limbs off, he dashed down the hall in long strides. No sane human would stay around two crazy-looking Pokémon, without any of his own Pokémon present with him. He most likely had left his Poké balls back in the room, a big mistake.
I canceled my Shadow Claw for the second time that night. A weary feeling made its way to me when I gave out a long yawn. Too much action in one day for me, and I've been up all night. Soon the person had disappeared down the hall, leaving us alone along the brown scene. Before I had even thought about looking a Rachel, a bell ring came from the ceiling. I looked up to see another one of those speakers, and that bell ringing was signaling another announcement. I had a feeling that Zeke or Illusion was caught, and they were explaining how much Pokémon were left.
It came out as the static filled voice. "Attention passengers. We are minutes away from docking at Castelia City. Please gather up your personal belongings and wait at the exit to get off. More news, none of the rogue Pokémon were took in so stay on alert on your way out and be careful, there have been reports that some people almost caught a few of them but they have been noted that the zoroark has not been tamed. Thank you for cruising with us."
I felt so relieved, Illusion and Zeke haven't been caught, but it seemed that Illusion had it rough. I turned towards Rachel, seeing her soft brown eyes filled with relief. Before I spoke up she did it first. She moved a furry brown paw and pointed at a slice of wood hanging on the wall, cut in the shape of an arrow. "See that Shadow, it says exit, which means if we continue down this hall we'll reach the exit. Zeke and Illusion should meet us up there, if they're thinking correctly," she grinned. A tired smile was on her face, indicating she was just as exhausted as I was. "Come on, let's go." And with those words we ran down the hall towards the exit.
Author's Note: WOW that was way longer than I expected. 9000 words, that's a lot! Maybe I should've put a little bit more paragraphs in the previous chapter, but I just wanted to leave off with a cliffhanger. It's been a while since I've done that (If I had done that at all actually o.O). Oh well. And I put this up a little early. I said it'd be on the weekend, but I have to go somewhere this weekend, unfortunately, so it's on Friday! Going with my dad somewhere… family things! I might get to drive an ATV, awesome. In your faces, but at least you get an early chapter! I expect when I get back to see a review from StarryNight173, since she's so awesome. First one to review my story in a long time, so thanks for being a spectacular fan Starry!
Huh, I feel as if that's the first time I mentioned an author in a story or something. Oh well, whatever! Hope you liked the chapter, and I just loved how I made Shadow and Rachel bicker so much. Really got out of hand! I wanted to add some more fun to this story I guess, I don't know, that's just how my imagination works! For my chapters I start off with a general idea of what's going to happen, and when I get there I let my imagination take off for the scenes! I was going to add a little more stuff to the ending, but this chapter's already SO long. I think this is my longest chapter yet, broke the record for one of my BoltBlast chapters. Yep, longest chapter of mine so far right here people~! Ha, this author's note was a little silly, but who cares. Let's keep this up, so here's an awesome smiley face, just for you!
:D