Chapter 3
TheUmbreon
The sun beat down hard on my black fur, making me feel limp and lazy.
Oh, right, that wasn't a feeling. I literallywas limp. So, when a shadow fell over me, I was scared.
I shut my eyes tight and tensed my body, preparing for an attack. Instead, a light gush of water came over my body. I was pretty much soaking wet now... but I tried and then accomplished opening my eyes and moving onto my stomach.
Have you ever heard those stories where a still-borne baby wakes up when it's warmed? Maybe I woke up because I was chilled. I don't really have a clue... and my brain was too fried to think now, anyway.
"Are you okay?" I could see that the shadow belonged to a purple vaporeon with yellow eyes. Her right ear was torn. I wondered where and who and why.
"More or less," I mumbled.
"I'm Heather. What's your name?" she asks me sweetly.
"Um..." I thought a moment before remembering. "Dark."
"Where are you from?" she asks next.
"...I- I don't remember..." I stammer.
"You don't?" Heather asks uncertainly.
"I don't remember anything except my name," I realize.
"Not your parents? Your homeland?" Heather wondered.
I shook my head. "I don't know."
"Can you use any moves?" Heather wondered next.
I thought hard. Moves? I remembered two words, but neither really made sense. "Like shadow claw?"
"Yeah! Use it on that rock!" Heather instructed, pointing to a nearby stone.
I raced up to it and yelled out the move. Purple claws sprouted from my toes and I smashed them onto the rock, shattering it.
"Great!" Heather called. "Anything else?"
It's then that I remember my pokemon games. All the knowledge of them flooded back into my mind, along with a different thought.
Youwerehuman. Howelsewouldyouhavegottenthosegames? I frowned to myself, trying to remember something more. Nothing came. I decided not to tell Heather I was human. She'd probably just freak out. I showed her more of the moves I remembered an umbreon to have.
"You can defend yourself, great! You're really strong, too! But what will you do now?" she asks. I can tell there's something she wants to say here.
"I have no idea," I admit.
"Well... I... I have always wanted to form a rescue team. But that means I'd need a partner. A stronger one than me." She meets my confused gaze. "They go on missions to help pokemon! It's really exciting!"
I thought for a moment. Something inside me urged me to trust her and dive head-first into this. Another, stronger part wanted more information. I forced myself to think.
"Don't want to sound greedy or anything, but how are we going to get food?" I wondered.
"The guild pays for us," she explained. "Plus we get money for rescuing people."
"Okay," I said. "Do we sleep there, too?"
"Yes," Heather said with a nod.
"What if we get hurt?" I wondered next.
"There's people at the guild who help heal us," Heather said. "And other people who train us to be better fighters."
It all sounded pretty good. Too good? "How do they get all this money?"
"Donations," she answered. "And they take some of the money we earn."
"Mm, but it goes to get us food and such?" I wondered.
"Yup!" Heather said, nodding.
"Okay, then," I said. A grin lights her face... but not for long. With a flash of light, we're blinded. I hear Heather scream.
"NO! Not the cleanse tag!" she yells. When the smoke clears, we're just in time to see a zubat and a koffing escape into a nearby cave. "It keeps the spirits away..."
Before I ask what was with the spirits, I suggest we go after them.
"Really?" Heather asks. "You'd help me?"
"Of course!" I say, determined now. It feels so natural to help.
We head into the depths of the cave...
TheUmbreon, AnHourLater
"Wait!" I hissed silently, stopping Heather. Before us was a small dome in the cave, what Heather said was the end of it. The exit was just through here. She thought the burglars had escaped. Heather was wrong, though. The two bandits lay before us.
"Let's go," Heather said, suddenly ticked. I agreed and we slowly advanced.
"Hey! They've found us, Koffing!" Zubat said with an annoying voice.
"Well, good. I wanted some action," the bulky purple pokemon responded. They fall into battle stances. Heather and I follow suit.
Koffing starts by throwing himself at Heather, who uses water pulse to knock him away. Zubat comes at with fangs bared; I use shadow claw as he gets up close. Koffing rams into me, hard, just as Zubat's knocked away. He uses smog directly in my face, making me choke. Heather hits the pokemon on the side with an ice fang, causing him to fly sideways.
I stand up, and am instantly knocked down again by Zubat. I bite him. He shrieks, but uses a confuse ray on me. I loose control over myself.
What'sgoingon? Whyiseverythingspinning? What'sinmyjaws? I unknowingly release Zubat. Whydorockshurt? I bump into several. WhatamItryingtodo? WhyisHeatherpurple? What'swiththepurplefloatingrock? I bite it, wondering how it tastes. Ew! Itspitsgas! Finally, the terrible taste in my mouth brings me out of confusion. It was a little late, though. Heather was not doing so well on her own. It was clear the others were cheating, as they threw rocks at her and attacked all at once. I wasn't doing too well, either. I had been tired from the start, and ramming into rocks wasn't exactly helpful.
I yelped as Koffing smashed me against the wall yet again. I heard a gasp of surprise, then felt Koffing's weight being removed from me.
"Bastard!" I got up and turned to see an Espeon. She smacked the Zubat down with a psychic attack. She turned to each of us, ignoring the fainted pokemon. "You two alright?"
"Yeah," we both responded. Heather very cautiously walked over and took her cleanse tag from Zubat. I didn't even realize he had it.
"Got your stuff back?" the espeon asks. Heather nods. "Then let's get the hell out of here."
TheVaporeon
"Thanks for helping us," I tell the espeon.
"You're welcome. My name's Carry, by the way," the espeon replied.
"So, who are you?" Dark asked.
"Me? Well, I was a human. Fell through the ground and turned into an espeon," she said, totally serious. I was beyond confused, but Dark- he looked like this was a huge revelation to him. "I was told you needed a protector because people after you in the human world followed you into this world."
"I need a protector?" Dark asked, clarifying.
"Yes," Carry told him. "Do you get it?"
"Yeah. I do," Dark said. Carry notices how confused I am.
"So. We used to be humans. People were trying to kill Dark for some reason. They almost did, but Celebi saved him for said reason by throwing him through time and space. He lost his memories because of it," Carry explained. "I was dying, too. Celebi came into my dreams and taught me how to fight so I would know how to defend Dark, but she didn't tell me that at first. The day I died as a human she asked me to protect Dark. I said I would and she teleported me here as an espeon."
"Okay," I said. If Dark said it was correct, maybe it was. I just went with it.
"So, where are you guys going?" Carry asked. I explained to her what a rescue team was. She looks interested. "Mind if I join?" Carry wondered.
"Of course not!" I said with a smile. We headed to the Guild.
TheVaporeon
Now came the trying part. I step onto the grate that leads into the guild.
"Who's footprint? Who's footprint?" the voice came. I wanted to yell at him so badly... "It's vaporeon's! It's vaporeon's! You may enter." I step off the grate, and Dark steps on.
"Who's footprint? Who's footprint?" the voice wondered aloud. "It's umbreon's! It's umbreon's! You may... enter." Dark steps off and joins me at the entrance, which is still blocked. Once they find out who Carry is, they'll let us in.
"Who's footprint? Who's footprint?" the voice came.
"Mine! I'm an espeon!" Carry yelled down, clearly annoyed.
"It's espeon's...? It's espeon's. You can come in," it said, and the entrance unblocked itself. The three of us entered.
As we climbed down the final rungs of the ladder, I noticed pokemon's conversations drifting up here. We stepped off the ladder and saw that they were all rescue teams gathering around, talking about adventures and treasure and danger! I could can't wait!
TheUmbreon
"What's with all the pokemon?" I asked Heather, whose eyes are gleaming with excitement.
"They're all other rescue teams," she explains. I notice that Carry is nodding her head in understanding. She catches my eye.
"I've been here for a day or two," she explained.
"Oh," I said. "I didn't know."
"Well, apparently not," Carry said as she walked into the big room.
I scanned the pokemon around me. There was poochyena in the corner, a group of starly in another. There was a Quilava and a dark-colored buizel in deep discussion near a wall. A starly and an arcanine conversed to our far right while a crogunk sat at a booth, a cauldron with glowing blueish liquid behind him. A lucario was speaking with a wigglytuff and a chatot to our left.
The walls around us were a light pink, but green vines occasionally stretched themselves across the bottom half of it. The floors were made of grass.
The lucario glances over at us. His eyes stick somewhere behind us, and suddenly he lashes out with a blue wave! (Like a sonic boom, except blue.) Heather flinches, but it wasn't meant to hit her. There are gasps.
"What the hell was that for?" she yelled. But I got it. The lucario wordlessly pointed behind us. Heather turns just in time to see the shadowed figure hiss as it dissipates, spiraling upwards into nothingness.
"What. The. Hell. Was. That?" Carry gawked.
"Um, an evil spirit, I believe. I think your cleanse tag has expired," the lucario said gently. "Would you like another one?"
"They can expire?" Heather asks curiously.
"Yeah. It takes years and years, though. How old were you when it was given to you?" He asks.
"I'm sixteen now, so it was given to me six years ago, when I was ten," Heather responds.
"Okay. I'll get another for you. Hold on a second," he padded past us and climbed quickly down the second ladder.
"That's Austin," the wigglytuff said, walking over. "I'm the guild master here, and this is Chatot, my right-paw man."
Chatot just nods.
"Well, a pleasure to meet you," Carry muttered under her breath. Only I hear her. The lucario, Austin, returns.
"Here you are," he said happily, handing the cleanse tag over to Heather.
"Thanks!" She said happily. Suddenly, a crash is heard. We all whip around to see a buizel land on the ground next to the ladder. He is bruised, and a few cuts make themselves known by dropping a few red blobs onto the floor.
"Wylie!" Austin rushes over and stands next to his friend. "What happened?"
"Austin, the mission was a trap." Wylie (why-ly, not willie) explains. "The kid was a hostage. He can fight, but he was already injured."
"Crap. Where is he now?" Austin asks, a quickness to his voice.
"They took him and fled deeper into the forest. I figured I was no good fainted," Wylie explains.
"Okay. Let's go." Austin said, and they rush back up. Carry turns to me.
"We have to help them. The runaway thing could be another trap!" Carry said.
"She's right," Heather agrees, "We have to help!"
"Of course! Let's go!" I say, and we rush back upstairs.
TheKid
"Get the hell OFF me!" I yell at the skuntanks. The leader skuntank, Craeg, holds me by my arms in his jaws. I kick, but it does no use.
"Shut up, Oshawott. If it weren't for you that damn buizel would've been dead." The follower skuntank, Skun, declares.
"I have a name!" I yell out. Someone has to hear me, don't they?
"So? We don't care. Whatever you do, you'll be dead in the end. Might as well accept it." Skun's leader decides. His voice is muffled by my fur.
"No! I won't surrender to bullies like you!" I screech directly into his ear, my eyes flashing a red color.
"WELL, YOU SHOULD!" They both scream back at me. Craeg bites me, hard. I yelp with pain.
"Baby." Skun mutters.
"Asshole." The skuntanks whip around to face the buizel once more. A lucario was with him. They'redistracted. Now'smychance! I realize. I use aqua jet, encasing myself in water that thuds against the pokemon's skull. He lets go of me, and I swerve to hit Skun, then flip and land back near the buizel and the lucario.
Skun starts with a smoke screen attack, filling the air with a dark, painful gas. I choke with a bought of coughing. I hear Buizel yelp, and then a thud. He screams, and I know one was using his claws to cut him apart... I try and help, but in the darkness I can't see a thing.
I hear another thud and know the lucario is now being forced against the wall, helpless to save his friend. I suddenly hear a hissing sound, and then there's a bright, bright blue flash of light. I feel myself being thrown. I land with a bump against the wall, and then the smoke clears.
Lucario is panting hard. The attack he just used was enough to faint Craeg. Skun is now only holding the fainted buizel, not cutting him anymore. I could not see his wounds and I didn't want to. He drops the bloody buizel and starts moving towards the lucario.
"HI-YA!" I hear a strange battle cry, and an Espeon comes out of nowhere. She bodyslams Skun into the wall, then nimbly jumps back to the cave entrance. An umbreon appears next, throwing a dark pulse. Last a vaporeon comes, and she emits a hydro pump. Skun falls to the floor, defeated.
"Thanks..." Lucario said, just before he faints.