Chapter Sixteen:
Found

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon in any way, shape, or form. The only "ownership" I can claim are the personalities and my interpretation of how Pokémon look in a more realistic light, but other than that...yeah, I don't own anything on them. XD I do, however, own my original characters and writings, unless otherwise stated. In an exceptional case, a few special OCs belong to their respective owners, I'm merely borrowing them for the story that's to unfold. I'll point them out when their time to show up comes. :3

Note: This was a bit of a hard chapter to write, so um. Yeah. I ain't got much else to say.

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Don't grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
-Rumi

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"So, today, we will be putting our studies to the test, and demonstrate how to properly catch a pokémon! Today's assignment will require the capture the minimum of two pokémon, as opposed to the minimum of one for children and young teenagers, since this is an advanced class."

It was a balmy, warm day but the shade above from the trees helped shield most of the sun's rays from the gathered group below. It was earlier than usual that they had met up at the schoolhouse so that they could travel here in a timely fashion. The vans that had transported them sat now, quiet and waiting, at the end of a dirt road further behind them. The eighteen adults in the class were gathered in a school circle around Mr. Dervish as he motioned to the vast wilderness before them. The particular woods they had adjourned to was north of Violet City.

"We normally take our class to the east of the city, but due to the unrest at the Dark Cave, as well as the forest's semi-local spider populations, it should be relatively simple why we're avoiding those areas for now." He chuckled, wagging a finger in the air. The various pokémon partners of the students shuffled about near or on their trainers, glancing around their surroundings. They heard and smelled things their trainers could not, saw things that they were blind to, with the exception of one.

Lupin's ears careful shifted beneath her hat, picking on the whisperings, comings, and goings of the wild creatures around them. She could smell those that crossed paths with the downwind breezing past them, could see the faint, subtle shifts in the trees, the bushes that the others weren't paying particular attention to. She even noticed the tracks of several native pokémon along the grounds on occasion. Her own scent was still marked in the area, from her time hunting earlier last week. The blood from her kill hadn't quite faded, either.

Her mind drifted back to the lesson, as Mr. Dervish continued on his mundane lecture.

"What do you think we could get? A Stantler? Or maybe one of them big bears, what're they called? Ursaring?" Syd whispered, his feathers fluttering and fluffing every once in a while. He shivered with excitement.

"I doubt an Ursaring. Maybe a young Stantler if we're lucky. We're more likely to run into the more common pokémon. The usual rounds of bug, flying, and normal-types."

"Then I suppose one of the Legendaries is out of the line of possibilities too, then?" Syd goaded with a snicker. Riptide huffed indignantly and muttered under his breath, but managed to keep his nasty comments to himself. The Pidgey laughed a little more until Lupin shushed him. "What? You can hear him just fine, even above my yammering."

She shushed him again, even at the expense of a few stares thrown her way. Before long, a demonstration was shown after a Sentret scurried past them. Mr. Dervish fielded a few more questions that some of the others had before letting them turn to.

"Meet back here at sunset. If you get lost, please blow the whistles you were each given. I will send out my Pidgeotto to find and escort you back here. If I do not hear it, however, please set up a call line until it reaches here. Try to use your compasses as best you can, though, so we don't have to worry about you getting turned around. If your pokémon are too injured to continue in today's activity, blow your whistle so that my Pidgeotto can escort you all the same."

With that said, the others took off in their own directions, most in groups, others in pairs. Lupin watched as they all scurried off their way. She tucked the whistle into her pocket and pretended to consult her compass, disappearing into the underbrush, before pocketing that as well. Syd took to the air, occasionally flitting through tree branches, but staying within sight. Riptide settled more comfortably on Lupin's shoulders, clacking his jaws.

"Is there any particular pokémon you think we should put on the team? Or do you think we should just catch and go?"

"I'm not sure. North of Violet City is generally untouched wilderness between here and Mahogany Town's mountainous regions. There are the Rangers who often go through here, but other than that…it's new territory. Even the professor isn't sure if all the pokémon that live there have been catalogued and discovered. There could be new species living here."

"Ah, shows what you know, lab rat. Listen, there ain't no new species you haven't seen before living in here. It's the deeper wilds you should look to, but we ain't going that far. Sentret, Rattata, Pidgey, Stantler, Bellsprout, Nidoran, the whole platoon of bug-types…you ain't gonna find nothing unique about them. Speaking of, I think I see a Nidoran wandering up ahead, just a second, lemme check it out."

He took off in a flash, leaving the werewolf and Totodile behind. Lupin removed her hat. Riptide nipped at her fingers when he noticed.

"Hey!"

"What do you think you're doing? Put that back on before someone sees you."

"Excuse you, you rude blue lizard," she chided, withdrawing her fingers to suck at them. She tasted no blood, even when she thought she felt him break skin. She inspected her fingers, found no cuts or punctures.

Werewolves have advanced healing, she remembered her book saying. Just how advanced was it, though, she wondered.

Riptide smacked her cheek with a paw. "Put it back!"

"I'll hear someone if they come. Just let me have this one day with my ears out. I can move a lot quieter than those people can."

She watched him from the corner of her eye, and when he hissed, her ears gave a twitch. Lupin waited until the hiss petered out and Riptide grumbled, "Fine. Don't come running to me when you get caught, though."

She reached up and patted his head and he grumbled some more. Syd came sailing back in, fluttering in front of them.

"False alarm. They ran off. Nidoran are easily spooked sometimes, especially the female ones. The males are littler feistier, but not always. I think I saw some Caterpie and Weedle over in the trees, though. Want me to knock one down so you can nab it?"

"What do you think?"

"A bug?" Riptide shifted on her shoulder, sighing. "It's a good start. The requirements didn't necessarily have a limit on the kind of pokémon we're catching. We're not being rated, either, except with the minimum requirement. Plus, we have antidote in case of poisoning from the Weedle or any other number of poisonous insects out here."

"Then I'm going for it. Let's catch a bug!"

"Can I have one of the others as a snack? I'm starving!"

"Ewww. Gross, Syd."

"What? They got lots of protein! You should try one!"

"Syd, I will recall you if you make me toss my cookies. Just sayin'."

"Shutting up now."

"Good boy."

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The arid and dusty air of the canyon filled his nose, and the searing heat was not a comfort either. There wasn't a cloud in the wide blue sky, and the browns, tans, grays, and sandy tones of the canyon below swam before him. Hidden niches and crevices were in abundance. It was deathly quiet, but his sensitive ears picked up on the occasional skitter and rustling of stones loosening in the canyon below from the local creatures that inhabited it. He could also hear, on occasion when the wind carried it, the sounds of voices and battles.

He scanned the skies again, finally picking up on a familiar shape riding the high sky breezes.

A dark form stirred beside him, distracting him momentarily. He sighed, reaching out toward the dark canine that plopped down and yawned.

"Ares," he greeted. The Houndoom beside him sighed, leaning into the hand reaching out to him.

"I doubt she'd be down there. Doesn't seem the place she'd go skulking about."

"No, but I also doubt she'd think inside the box, either. She'd probably like it if people thought that. She seems to have a knack for getting into trouble about as often as she is to getting right out of it."

The Houndoom snorted, but a canine grin decorated his black lips. "True. But then again, she isn't my mate, so I don't have as many tabs to keep on her as you do."

Alastor took Ares' lead in sighing, looking back up to the sky, seeing the avian form he'd spotted earlier making a nose dive right for them.

"Incoming," Ares muttered, getting back this feet. Alastor did the same, just as the giant bird came screeching in for a landing, wide wings opening suddenly to slow her descent. He lifted an arm, letting the red and gray feathered bird to land on his arm.

"Feng, good to see you again."

"Alastor," the bird dipped her head to him and fluttered her wings. "I saw some trainers marching through the canyon on foot, but none that looked like the woman you're looking for. And there's a facility further in. Looks like a training center of some sort. Lots of people were wearing these suits and gliding around the canyon further in, too. Sky battlers."

"Well, then that means we're not alone, like I suspected." He turned his gaze back to the canyon. "That also means we can find some more information down at that center."

The large bird tilted her head at him and chirped. "But…she isn't there."

"It doesn't mean she might not have passed through here. Training facilities usually have regular staff. If she passed through, they might know about it."

"Right, that would make sense." She fluttered her wings again and ruffled her tail feathers. "I can keep an eye from up high again, if you'd like."

He nodded and the Talonflame took off at the inclination, rising up higher and higher until she was a mere pinprick in the sky. Ares watched her go with another snort, then turned his snout downward to the bottom of the chasm below. "I see a footpath we can take. Shouldn't take too long to get through this place to that training center."

He hopped down from his flat perch, large paws practicing rather dainty movements to traverse over the loose stones and shifty earth he'd chosen to travel down with barely a disturbance. But Alastor could see just below them both the footpath he'd spied earlier. He followed the Houndoom, moving with just as much grace, adjusting accordingly to the place he'd put his feet. Ares scrambled across the surface of a craggy boulder, only a few steps ahead of Alastor before he landed on the footpath. Alastor heard the movement beneath him only a split second after he'd landed where the dark pokémon had been moments before. Then he felt the boulder shifting around beneath him.

"Ah, hell," he growled. Ares barked, his lips peeled back menacingly to show off his glinting white fangs. Alastor jumped out of reach just as the boulder-sans-pokémon swiped at him with its longer pair of arms. He was already well out of reach by the time the Graveler registered him completely. He landed on the footpath beside Ares, suddenly brimming with coiled energy.

"It's a Graveler!"

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Might wanna step back, then, it's about to get hotter in here!"

Ares threw back his head and breathed deep, the spark in his chest growing hot, his body doubly so as flames spit out between the crevices of his ribs and from his gaping maw. Embers flew freely and Alastor took a step back from the inflamed pokémon. Ares snarled and flames gushed from his jaws and hit the rock pokémon point blank, super heating its stony hide. The Graveler batted at the flames until the fiery attack subsided, confused at first. It shifted to and fro on its stumpy limbs as it crushed pebbles into dust beneath its heavy weight. It continued grumbling in annoyance as its rocky hide slowly cooled while the wind blew against it.

The two intruders were gone. There was no man, there was no fire dog. Only the canyon, the sky, and the hill it was currently on.

Finally the Graveler let off a bellow and burrowed back down into its spot, intent on finishing its nap.

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It was nearly dusk when they came across the Bellsprout within the final quarter mile before the checkpoint. It's bulbous, comical head was stock still, while its reedy little body of vines and roots and leaves weaved back and forth in the soft wind. It was a surprisingly graceful little plant creature. It hadn't seemed to notice her presence yet, and she would have preferred it that way. Syd shifted on her shoulder, mirroring her quiet excitement by dancing along her shoulder. Riptide hissed quietly against her cheek, his jaws gaping open.

"Syd, use gust," she finally whispered. The Pidgey leapt into the air and flapped his little wings, hard and fast, aiming the attack at the Bellsprout. It shrieked in protest and surprise, taken aback as its peaceful lull was shattered so abruptly.

Despite its earlier grace at bending and bobbing with the breeze, like a leaf caught in a wind current, it was now tumbling over itself over the grassy knoll it had settled into for the evening. The Bellsprout was upright in no time, however, and extended vines from its leafy upper limbs, willing them to grow like whips. It lashed out when it saw Syd hovering in the air, but the Pidgey dove, gracefully weaving between the vine whip attacks aimed for him. Lupin pushed forward, ducking under a branch to step into the clearing. The Bellsprout did a double take, momentarily stunned at her presence. Syd used the distraction to hit it with another well aimed gust and followed up with a hard tackle. The Bellsprout let off another indignant shriek and unleashed another barrage of vine whips from beneath its leaves.

"That's it, Syd, you got him on the ropes!"

"Nothin' to it! A little smack here, a hit there, then bada-bing, bada-boom, you bagged yourself a Bellsprout! Maybe they'll even let ya into the Sprout Tower after this! Those monks love these little weeds."

He deftly avoided another vine ripping through the air. The aerial display continued on, with the occasional pause for attack, but from the way he kept slowing down, Syd was finally peaking with exhaustion. She was reluctant to send out Riptide, however. He had type disadvantage, and he was just as tired, from the way he slumped on her shoulders, watching with half-lidded eyes. And the other pokémon were exhausted from their own battling endeavors with her two main teammates.

Maybe I could step in. A small ember should be enough to corral it in, keep it from attacking.

She opened her mouth, ready to recall the Pidgey, when a paw on her cheek stopped her.

"You have that 'I'm going to do something stupid' look on your face again. Don't. Whatever it is, don't. Just send me in."

"But you—"

"Have type disadvantage, yes. I'm sure you came to the same conclusion. But I have more energy than him. Send me out before he gets too hurt."

She turned back to the battle. The Bellsprout was tiring just as much as Syd was. He caught her eye after executing a series of loop-de-loops, and hovered high above the ground, his wings beating slower than usual.

"You callin' it, Lady?"

"I don't think you need to go out there, Rip. It might be ready to catch." Turning back to Syd, she nodded. That was enough for him. She produced one of the empty pokéballs in her coat pocket, clicking the button in its center to enlarge it. The Bellsprout was moving at a rickety, pained pace. It paused in its vine whip attacks to rest, although it looked severely wilted. Riptide eyed it carefully, his jaws clacking together a few times.

"Perhaps," he finally conceded. "Do it quickly before it gets its second wind, though. They really are like weeds. They come back stronger than the last time you uproot them if you let them."

She didn't need anything else to goad her into throwing the red and white orb in her hand. It smacked the Bellsprout right in its bulbous head, the ball splitting open upon contact. Energy and light sucked the creature inside, and the pokéball dropped onto the grassy ground. It wiggled and the white strip along its circumference glowed as it did. Lupin sighed, taking her eyes off it briefly to motion to Syd to come back down. He fluttered closer, thankful for the reprieve.

A vine snaked its way upwards and yanked the little bird out of the air seconds before he landed on Lupin's outreached hand. He let out a surprised squawk as he was pulled forcefully to the ground with a hard slam. Riptide let out a stunned growl. Lupin stiffened, momentarily taken aback. Her eyes flew to the pokéball first, believing the Bellsprout must have sprung loose, but it lay still and quiet, untouched. A pair of Bellsprout were slinking into view, ripe and ready for a fight. Another pair came crawling over a log, their reedy bodies swaying to and fro in a nonexistent breeze. Some were hanging from the trees, slithering down the trunks and branches. One went by the pokéball sitting in the knoll and rolled it with one of its reedy appendages. It remained as still and quiet as before, largely undisturbed.

The little horde turned their attention to the struggling Pidgey flopping on the ground, squeaking and chirping in pain and shock. Lupin's heart hammered away in her ribcage and slowly rose to her throat when she saw the awkward way Syd's wing was bent.

Indignation arose and she stalked forward with a snarl building in her throat. Fury bubbled in her stomach and rose up to drive itself into her limbs, white-hot adrenaline demanding to be released. She felt that fire building up again, like the night the Onix had attacked. She was tired of hordes of spiders, rock snakes, and now little vined weeds, attacking her. Riptide let out a snarl, momentarily diverting the Bellsprouts' attention to them. One of them bobbed back and forth, but before it could deliver an attack, a torrent of water blew it away. The Bellsprout shrieked as it flew. The others whipped their tendrils out at the werewolf and Totodile in response, forgetting about the Pidgey in their distraction.

A sheet of flames sprung up before the vines reached her and too late, they hit the fiery barrier. Screeches arose in a unified chorus behind the wall. In between the flickering tongues, she and Riptide spied the Bellsprout fleeing as fast as they could, trailing smoke in their wake. Riptide panted beside her, and she could feel his heart speeding up as it pounded against her shoulder. Nervousness and fear eked out from the reptile and in that instant, she reached out to will the flames to die. They fled as quickly as they had come, leaving the grass singed at their feet and the knoll completely and eerily empty.

There was no Syd, only the pokéball.

Icy dread began to form in the center of her gut, hard and tight like a knot. It kept twisting over itself, harder and harder until it made her feel sick.

"Syd?"

Her ears flicked at the noise of desperate struggle and cries, not far from her and Riptide. Her body was moving before her thoughts could catch up, instinct driving her towards the sounds. A hand dove to swipe up the prone pokéball as she went.

"Hang on, we're coming, Syd!"

"Stupid birdbrain, why wasn't he watching his back—"

"Not now, Rip, just—there he is!"

A Bellsprout was tugging along the injured Pidgey with it, its skinny appendages coiled around the little bird. His injured wing was pinned to his side, awkward angle and all, and no amount of snipping his sharp beak at his captor was doing enough damage to make it release him. His energy was waning, even with adrenaline pumping itself into his tiny body.

When it noticed her crashing along after them, the Bellsprout sprung into action, twisting its thin body around to lash out at her. Riptide leapt from her shoulder, gashing his jaws around the vines, yanking them down Lupin before they could hit her. The flower pokémon howled, trying to tug back its appendage without using its other one and relinquishing its prize. That was, until Riptide snapped off its limb with a vicious tug and twist of his jaws. Juice dripped from the torn vine limb and the Bellsprout screeched in agony, whipping the other limb holding Syd.

The vine released him and he squawked as his body was launched into the air. He tried to straighten himself out using his good wing, but smashed into a tree trunk before he could and crumpled to the forest ground. The Bellsprout lashed out at Riptide with its newly freed limb, but the Totodile unleashed a flood of water spewed from his open jaws. Just like his previous opponents, he blew away the Bellsprout and it went sailing away with final shriek, disappearing into the darkening forest.

As he attended to the flower pokémon, Lupin crashed through the underbrush to where Syd landed. Riptide followed after her when he was finished, ducking through fallen branches and underbrush. He found her kneeling on the ground, holding the little bird close to her, her ears drooping.

"Syd? Syd, please, wake up—potion, you just need some potion and a splint—"

He ventured closer, saw the awkward wing sticking up long before he saw the rest of Syd. When he did, his stomach dropped away and his heart sank.

Lupin had dropped her pack, fumbling with one hand to yank the straps open. Riptide pushed himself up onto his hind legs and laid a paw on her arm. She stopped long enough to look at him. He saw the tears in her eyes, saw that she already knew, but wasn't quite ready to believe it.

"Lupin…"

She turned back to her pack, struggling to pull the straps open. He dug a claw into her arm, stilling her again. She looked at him again, her throat tightening.

"No, no—he was just here, he was alive, he was just…knocked out, he's fine, he's…he's…"

"I'm sorry. He's gone, Lupin…stop it. You can't do anything for him."

He turned his head away from her and got a nose full of feather dust, Riptide hissed quietly. Something hit his snout and he reeled back in shock, lifting it to look at Lupin. He stopped short when he saw the tears on her face and realizing he couldn't say or do anything to make her stop. Not unless he could suddenly turn into a fabled god and revive one measly Pidgey from the dead.

So he said nothing. He let her cry. He let her sit there and cry, even after it had gone dark, even after the whistles started going off. He let her sit there until the tears were gone and longer still, even when he saw Mr. Dervish's Pidgeotto flying overhead, circling back and forth until it spotted them through a gap in the tree branches. When the large bird landed, only then did he move to disturb her. She jumped, startled at his paw on her arm again.

She gave him a rather hollow stare, not really seeing him for the first few moments. The Pidgeotto landed in the tree above them, cocking her head at Riptide.

"Mademoiselle Ferus, I presume?" She looked to Riptide for confirmation, but before he could answer, Lupin did herself.

"Yeah. That's me. Just…give me a minute, would ya?"

The Pidgeotto puffed her feathers up in surprise, looking at Lupin. "You—I did not realize—you talk to pokémon? My, my, quelle étrange fille que vous êtes." She paused then hopped on a lower branch. "Be that as it may, Mademoiselle Ferus, we are still waiting for you. You…oh."

She finally seemed to notice the prone bird in her lap and fell silent for a moment.

"Mademoiselle Ferus…Monsieur Dervish is still waiting for you. It's grown dark and the larger predators will be prowling about soon, if they are not already. We must get moving."

Lupin didn't respond at first. Riptide waited, turning back to look at her again. He patted her arm when she wasn't moving. Her eyes flicked to him.

"It's time to go," he said gently.

She was as still as stone and just as silent as one as she stared at him. An eternity could have passed between them, or it could have only been a few seconds for all he knew. The truth of what had truly happened hours before was only just beginning to sink in. Syd was not going to come back to the center tonight. He wouldn't snooze on the stand. He wouldn't occupy Lupin's other shoulder. He wouldn't flutter about like the feathery puffball he was. He wasn't alive anymore.

He dug his paw into her arm again. She finally nodded and stumbled to her feet and dragging her pack up with her free hand. The Pidgeotto waited, allowing them to get going before taking to the sky.

"Keep to the south, Mademoiselle Ferus. You are less than a quarter of a mile away. I will tell Monsieur Dervish to blow his whistle and turn on the van lights. Suivez la lumière!"

They followed a faint path carved out through the woods, pushing through the occasional bush or low-hanging branch that came across their way. Riptide waddled beside her, exhaustion slowly worming its way into his limbs, but he didn't dare voice it. Now wasn't the time.

Before either of them knew it, the headlights from the rental van came shining through the night gloom and forest shadows. Everything else blurred in together from there on out. The other classmates had been driven back to Violet City. The van was empty and confining. The forest receded away and gave way to the city's outskirts as the drive continued. Mr. Dervish was not pleased, that much was evident, but neither the werewolf nor Totodile paid him much attention. There was some reprimands in there somewhere, but it went in one ear and out the other. When they was dropped off in front of the center, he held his tongue from further admonishments when he realized none of it was getting through to the woman. Instead, he fell into an awkward silence, standing on the curb beside the woman, still holding the little Pidgey in her hands.

They barely noticed when he left, offering his condolences as he did so and then they were alone again. Riptide waited, allowing the air to clear, the time to pass, before he stood on his hind legs and patted her leg. He waited until she looked down at him.

"We should bury him. It's only right. He doesn't deserve to be left here overnight. Birdbrain—Syd…he went out the way he wanted. He went out fighting. That's what he wanted if he ever…passed."

He tugged on her pant leg with a snip of his jaws, forcing her to step the way he moved. They had one last thing to do for the Pidgey and he wasn't going to let her fall into a rut and let it pass by.

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