Chpt 6: The Run

We quickly traversed the city and got through without another strange event. We had arrived at the edge of town, which was at the peak of the small mountain. Clouds laid in front of the sun gloomily, and the forest down below seemed menacing and unforgiving. A river cut through the forest like a gray scar. I didn't like the vibe I was getting but something in the back of my mind told me to leave the town.

Perhaps it was just intuition but still I didn't want to stick around here long enough for the kidnapper to come back. I looked up at the roof of clouds, should we stay or should we go?

"Latias let's stop by at an inn or something," I said, finding the drop in heat comfortable. It was probably best for if there was to be a storm, in which I could see that it could rain at any moment, the best decision was to stick around at an inn. I turned around and saw Latias with her eyes open, like if she were surprised.

"Latias?" I called. She looked at the city with a pale face. I started to wave my hand in front of her eyes but she didn't react.

"Zorua?" called Zorua.

Eevee sat silently just as confused as we were.

"What's going on?" I asked, standing in front of her.

She started to run down the hill and away from the city. Then in a moment's notice, everybody chased after her before I could understand what was going on.

"Wait for me!" I called after her.

I started to run down the hill that was thankfully a simple very steep road. Even though it was a simple straight road, each step threatened to send me stumbling. The steps slowly pushed me into a run and the run became a run that I couldn't stop. If something was in my way I was going to have to try to avoid them by jumping to the side. Eventually I started to catch up to Zorua and Eevee. As we ran the forest vegetation became thicker, and eventually seemed to form a brown wall around the road.

They looked at me with surprised looks on their faces. Latias was about a yard in front of them. My stomach screamed for air as I held my breath. Eventually as the road started to become straight, I slowly slowed down, and came to a halt. Latias kept running forward.

"Hey, wait!" I shouted my hands on my knees as I gasped for breath.

Then a harsh wind forced me to stand up, carrying dust and leaves with it. I covered my face with both my arms, crossing them but leaving a small gap to see through. Then born from the cool winds was a relentless rain that doused the lingering summer heat.

"Eevee, Latias, Zorua, wait up," I shouted, keeping my eyes covered from the rain. Hold it I had goggles, I lightly smacked my forehead and put them on. Through the lens I could see everything but all of it was distorted from the rain that rushed down the lens. I looked around and decided that I couldn't see anything and pulled them off.

I looked forward and saw that everyone had already left.

"Sir, we can't find him in this kind of weather." Said a man's voice from up the hill behind me. I could barely here him over the crashing rain.

I turned around and saw four figures in the distance, some of them seemed to have the same type clothes on.

"Where Wizards we find them or else we won't get promoted." Said one of the people in the group.

"Sir can we please request for Armel to look in this kind of weather, he can surely find him," said the same voice that talked first.

I looked around and hid behind a tree.

"No is a no grunt, now let's get going!" He shouted, I looked from the side of the tree as he pulled out a pokeball.

"Go Mightyena," said the man, releasing his Mightyena. As he was released he howled and then rubbed his head against his owner. "Good boy!" He patted him and took out a Ziploc bag with a square shaped item inside.

I've got to get out of here, I thought to myself. I silently turned around and snuck away from them. Within minutes I was probably out of range of the Mightyena's sense of smell. Then again probably the rain covered my smell too which was great, however I still wished that something else would hide me by smell.

I still need to find Eevee, Zorua, and Latias. This was going to be very troublesome, I thought to myself. Hopefully the three of them were still together hiding somewhere.

"Arooow!" came the voice of multiple canine Pokemon.

Think fast, where would a Latias go if she were to suddenly run off…

"Go and hunt him down," said a man from behind me.

I started to run and then thought better. I jumped up and grabbed a branch of a tree to my right, I pulled myself up and carefully jumped onto another branch. I looked around and looked beneath me as I saw a man with a poochyena by his side. These grunts looked easy to take out, if I had Eevee with me, but I didn't.

The Poochyena sniffed the air and looked straight at me.

Crud, I jumped off and landed on the man's shoulders taking him down and quickly jumped off to continue running.

"Guys over here," shouted the man still dazed.

I jumped and climbed onto another tree, the poochyena still beneath me.

I climbed up higher and found that the weather was harsher the higher I went. I looked down and saw that the Poochyena and the person had left. They were probably waiting for me to come down, I thought to myself. I looked around and found another branch to climb too. Then a single thought came to mind, Latias and Latios could both sense feelings, or so it said in the legends. So what if Latias sensed the people and that's why she freaked out and ran.

If she freaked out like this that had to mean more people were headed towards us, another words I better hurry. Latias most likely ran straight rather than turning around and leading a complex path. This also meant that the people dressed in wizard robes were most likely going to follow her footsteps.

Without worrying about making noise, I took a path of branches towards the road. Once I found the road, I jumped off the tree branch and found the footprints that I guessed would've been there. However there were more than one or two set of footrpints. There were at least 5, three of them seemed like the footprints of pokemon, one of them were a good size larger than the other two. The smaller set of footprints probably belonged to Eevee and Zorua. Two sets of shoeprints were here, so one of them most likely belonged to Latias, the other one to an enemy, which would easily explain the fact that rather than two pokemon footprints, there were three. As I looked further down the road I could see that only two sets of footprints left. One belonging to a human and another to a pokemon.

I started to walk towards the woods when I saw the Poochyena that had been chasing me from earlier. However his trainer wasn't behind him so that meant they probably split up to find me.

I started to back up towards a tree behind me, then looked down at my footsteps that looked like they were going towards Latias' footsteps. I quickly turned around and ran towards the tree with the Poochyena racing towards me.

I threw myself towards a branch and quickly pulled myself up before the Poochyena could bite me.

Why was the strangely dressed men after us, I pondered. It was easy to understand having interest in a Latias, but why me? Unless, they thought I was a Latios in disguise… No way, maybe it was my mom who sent them towards me so they can bring me to them. But I couldn't trust them after what they did to Latias.

I looked back down at the foot prints, now with my foot prints added to the mess it looked like I ran with her.

I shook my head and brought myself back to the task at hand, find Latias. I followed the road to an almost overflowing river. A sturdy wooden bridge, made in the shape of a small arc, spanned over it. It seemed to be relatively new, but moss had already started to grow into its small crevices. I jumped off the tree and slowly walked towards the bridge.

I could hear something splash in the mud behind me. The poochyena?

I turned around and had my question quickly answered when I saw the poochyena growling at me. I slowly backed away towards the bridge, the poochyena quickly started to gain on me. I put my arms up to block myself if the poochyena decided to attack.

"Grrr…." He growled at me.

"Eev!" shouted a familiar voice from nearby.

I looked around in complete confusion, but suddenly Eevee jumped out from beneath the bridge. The poochyena jumped back as Eevee started to run towards it.

"Eev!" said Eevee, practically towering over the small Poochyena. (not that big)

The Poochyena quickly turned tail and ran back down the road.

"Thanks Eevee," I managed to finally say.

"Eev!" she said, walking towards me.

I patted her head, and she walked away to the underside of the bridge. I frowned and chased after her. The small hill that lead to the underside of the bridge had two long track as if someone pulled something across the mud. Behind the tracks were a set of footsteps that lead to it.

As I started to walk down I nearly slipped in the mud but quickly regained balance. As I reached the bottom of the hill I found Latias sitting there, her back against a support column of the bridge, but Zorua was nowhere to be found. We never really got along, I thought to myself remembering how he was reacting to me.

"Latias," I quietly called.

She looked up at me and smiled, but pain was written across her face.

"Are you okay?" I asked getting closer. As I got closer I could see that her left foot was turned in a strange way. Did she twist her ankle, I wondered. Which would also explain why it looked like someone slipped, or something, on the mud.

"Alright Latias, I'm going to wrap my shirt around your foot and I'll help you to the next town. But, what happened to Zorua?" I asked pulling off my shirt to tie around her ankle.

"Eevee!" explained Eevee.

"Umm…" I said, confused. That wasn't helping at all.

Above me the patter of rain started to quiet down.

Latias closed her eyes and opened them again. This time they were shinning and a blue ball appeared around us.

The scene shifted back to the area where I found the mess of footsteps. Latias, Zorua, and Eevee were facing a Golem and a man wearing wizard robes.

"Hello Latias," said the man putting his hands together and cracking his knuckles. "As you probably know, I'm here to capture you."

"Gol!" said the golem, his muscles tensing.

Latias squinted her eyes, knowing that this was going to be a rough fight.

"Zorua!" said Zorua, running infront of Latias.

Latias bit her bottom lip, and Eevee yelled,"Eevee!"

I could see Zorua look back and lightly smile. Latias turned her back and started to run. Eevee started to run the other way, but constantly turned her head back, watching Zorua.

The ball broke and the trance ended with Latias' closing her eyes.

I tightly tied my shirt around Latias' ankle, while trying to make a plan in my head. However there was no reason to do that, as there was only one thing I can do.

"Latias, take Eevee with you and follow the path once you're able to walk. I'm going to go get Zorua and meet up with you." I said, standing up after making sure the shirt would stay in place.

Latias looked at me with shock written across her face.

"Eev!" rejected Eevee.

"I'll be back so don't worry," I said, patting Eevee. "You should be able to recover quickly, right?"

Latias nodded, she was a pokemon after all, so she had to be able to recover quickly. For all I knew she could recover within an hour.

"Don't forget this," I said digging the bag of medicine out of my bag and giving it to her. "Take Eevee too and fly to your brother, do not come back for me, understand?"

Latias nodded sadly.

"I'll be back and you know it!" I said giving her my beat smile. You are a fool, however it's all for the right reasons, said my voice in the back of my mind.

I tramped through the mud and walked back up the hill. Then I ran down the road and kept running without stopping to breathe.

*About thirty minutes later*

I took a breather when I found the small encampment where a group of wizard's sat on plastic seats, around a table in soaking wet robes. There were 4 in total. They all sat around underneath a small camouflage colored fabric roof. In the corner of the tent was a cage with Zorua in it. He laid inside looking bored.

Behind one man was a large Golem.

How was I supposed to avert their attention, I wondered. I would just wait till night, but I get the feeling that if I did more people will appear. If I run in and take it I would have a small chance that I would be able to escape unscathed. If I tried to surprise them by just jumping into the table suddenly, I don't think anyone's going to stay surprised. I was too weak to take someone by surprise and hold them hostage for a trade.

That golem is pretty troublesome too, if I ran in he just might catch me. I didn't have anything that was in my bag that would be useful in this kind of situation.

Then a very strange thought came into mind.

What if I pushed the Golem from behind and he was suddenly to roll away. That should buy me enough time to get Zorua.

I quickly walked away and made a trip to the back of the golem.

Here we go, do or die, I ran in. Everybody looked back at me. I jumped and tackled the Golem and he tilted forward.

"Gooool!" He said trying to regain balance.

I gave him a final push and he fell into a small roll.

"Aah!" People screamed jumping out of the way of the rolling boulder.

I quickly grabbed Zorua's cage and disappeared into the forest.

"Curse that stupid kid!" shouted one man, giving up the pursuit to find me. "However I won't catch him, my mightyena will!"

"He's good!" said the man that owned the Golem, behind me. "I hope I get to fight him. Captain let the kid go, as a gym leader I take pride in a kid that robs his pokemon back. Besides it's safer!"

*About 5 minutes later.*

"Zor…" moaned Zorua. Probably sick from the way I was swinging him around. I carefully looked at him, spying for any injuries, just in case. He had a couple scratches and a few bruises, but nothing that was major.

I finally stopped and put down my backpack and Zorua. I started to catch my breath as my head felt slightly dizzy.

I looked down and completely forgot that he was in a cage I didn't have the keys to. I definitely didn't want to go back and get it.

I picked up a white rock the size of my hand from the ground and knelt down to Zorua's cage.

"Hup!" I shouted nailing the lock on the cage door.

The stone dug into my hand and bled a little.

"Zor…" moaned Zorua, most likely saying that I was bleeding.

I rammed the stone back onto the top of the lock. The rock cracked in half in my hands, the wound in my hand becoming worse. It didn't help that my arms still haven't recovered from saving Latias.

I looked into my bag for the swizz army life. I pulled it out and looked at the silver tools. All of the tools were too big to open the lock with. I put the swiss army knife back into my bag and picked up the same broken rock and slammed it into Zorua's lock.

A large scratch appeared on the lock.

Pain ran up my hand, and the rock opened my wound.

I held my wounded hands together and looked at the lock. There had to be a better way of doing this.

I grabbed the cage with my bloody hand and pushed it onto the top of a branch. The rain started to come down harder.

I grabbed a branch and pulled myself carefully pulled myself up to Zorua. I looked at Zorua as I grabbed the cage, who looked back at me in fear. He was probably scared that I wouldn't be able to get him out.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out," I said sticking my hand into the cage and rubbing Zorua's head. His dark fur was soft to the touch. "Well actually Latias and Eevee are stronger than me so they'll open it, I'm sure. But if things get bad I'll open it myself, one way or the other.

I pulled my hand out and grabbed the cage, I put my foot on the branch and hoisted myself up. Then my hand slid back and I hung on by one hand.

"Zorua!" shouted Zorua, not trusting me to hold him.

I put my other hand back onto the branch and pulled myself up and grabbed Zorua's cage. I pushed myself off of one foot and moved forward to the next branch.

*About 10 minutes later.*

I slowly climbed down the tree with the handle of Zorua's cage in my mouth.

My jaw became tired as I landed and grabbed the handle with my right hand. My body was tired from having to climb with my backpack on and I wished nothing more but to rest.

The bridge was only a couple yards away as I walked out of the forest, but where was Latias, she should of sensed me by now. Maybe she was still in too much pain to come greet me. But then what about Eevee, why wasn't she here?

Did something happen? My worry consumed my thoughts and I ran to the hill that lead to the underside of the bridge. As I ran I nearly slipped, but I regained balance just in time as I got to the bottom. I looked to my right but no one was there.

My heart sunk a little, maybe they moved on without me. But what if they were captured, and if so by whom?

I climbed back up the hill and looked down the bridge to the other side. A couple miles away was a highly populated town, but before that was the area that I worried about. There was a forest that you weren't supposed to tread through at night, people call it 'The Path of the Ghosts' for a reason, or at least so it says in one of my books that I read a couple years ago. Then again it was it possible that the group of people dressed in wizard robes sent another squad of people to capture Latias, and Eevee, from the large city.

I turned my left hand into a fist and cracked my index finger with my thumb. Things just got real grim, I thought to myself.

On the other hand maybe if she was nearly found out and she just ran away. All thoughts in mind, I still had to go forward down this road. Here I come 'Path of Ghosts' I thought to myself.

But should I open Zorua's cage first. Dark types were the bane of ghost types, so I suppose I should free him. I walked back into the forest and picked up the nearest rock and started to hack at the lock.

It had to have been ten minutes from the time that I started to the time that I finished.

"Finally," I muttered, the lock flying off the door of the cage. Around me were many cracked pieces of rocks. My hand was once again bruise and cutup, not as badly as before but I still put some bandages on it. I looked at my arms, still rapped in bandages. For the first time in my life I was actually going this far outside my home. But then why do I feel that his isn't the first time I've been this far away from home.

"Zorua," said Zorua jumping out.

I lightly chuckled, finding myself pleased by the result of the labor. Now that I think about it the whole journey's been a lot of work, but it's actually been fun. Something about just leaving and exploring, seeing everything from not from the illustrations on paper, it was as if a new sense had been awakened. I suppose that's what life is like.

I patted Zorua's head and stood up.

"Let's go, Eevee and Latias are waiting for us." I said, with hope.

Zorua nodded and we ran off down the road. However there was one thing that worried me, was it possible that we were running into a trap. After all the other squad of men, didn't come after me. The only thing that could explain this was that there was another group of people at the other town ready to sandwich us. Whatever the case, we had no choice but to head into the mouth of an Agron.

I looked at my watch, we were safe until 8:00 P.M, once it's 8:00 P.M. I shuddered and got goose bumps, I remember seeing things that I didn't want to see in the books.

Damius Note:

I'm sorry, I took so long to post a new chapter, but being in Japan with a laptop that only holds a charge of a maximum of 2 hours, not easy. Even here, I'm practically out for the whole day so I cannot write for a long time. Finally it's rare that I get an internet connection and also when I do it's slower than an Escavalier, no matter how much the commercials say the internet is fast like the pokedex does about Escavalier.

Pokemon tips:

I personally love spamming Froslass. With Focus sash she will stop a ragging berserk Dragon type pokemon and defeat it with Ice beam. Then a lot of the time I take down another pokemon with Destiny bond. Those two moves are not the only moves in her arsenal, she has lightning bolt to deal heavy damage to water types, and a choice of any other move you can use. Generally I give her Shadow ball just to remove psychics too, but for those of you who are annoyed by people that spam sword's dance and stuff, she can stop it with her taunt. On the other hand, she can use spikes, (I know I'm quite perplexed myself) which can set up probably two layers with focus sash. Did I forget to mention she's immune to fighting type moves but not Normal type moves (Once again the world will never know). As a side note she can learn Psychic that allows you to just jump her into a fighting type pokemon and run them down with the move.

Source: Personal experience and Smogon