Chapter 26

Ubui and Lifyra walked through the green woods of the mountaintop, enjoying the freedom they had gotten since escaping from the Team Rocket laboratories. They had become quite good friends since escaping, and tended to keep to themselves and not meddle in the affairs of the three mewtwos. They just did as they were told when Mewtwo told them to do things, like fetching the other mewtwos for their training sessions.

Ever since coming to Mount Quena and seeing the other two mewtwos romancing, Ubui and Lifyra had begun to become attracted to each other themselves. The three mewtwos had not found this out yet as Ubui and Lifyra had not mentioned it to them yet. The sound of a snapping twig seemed loud to their ears in the quiet of the forest. Lifyra's ears pricked up and she turned to search for the source of the noise.

"What was that noise?" Ubui cautiously asked.

"I don't know, but I can't see any pokémon nearby that could have stepped on that twig," Lifyra replied, remaining alert as she looked at the snapped twig.

After a few more seconds of monitoring the forest behind them where the sound had come from, they continued on their way. It was not very long until a soft thud behind them alerted them once more. A man in black combat gear laid face down on the ground, a peculiar device strapped to his back. The man stood up, revealing a large red 'R' on his clothing.

Ubui and Lifyra gasped as they realised that the man was part of Team Rocket, the criminal organisation that had captured them and done those horrible experiments on them. They were the reason why Ubui and Lifyra had suffered in those labs. Team Rocket was responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent pokémon. This was what had fuelled their anger against humans.

The Team Rocket grunt pushed a button on the device that was strapped to his back, and he vanished from their sight, but they could still hear his retreating footsteps as he ran off.

"We'll get him!" Lifyra spat, voice dripping with venom.

Rage was clearly evident on her face as she ran after the sound of the invisible grunt's footsteps. Ubui curled up into a neat little ball and rolled after the grunt at high speed, passing Lifyra within seconds. By sheer luck Ubui collided with the grunt, causing the man to emit a loud groan and fall to the ground, clearly in pain from having the wind knocked out of him.

"What do we do with him now?" Ubui asked.

"Kill him, of course," Lifyra spat with rage.

The now visible man with the broken device lay on his back, eyes wide with fear. Lifyra began to approach the frightened man. The grunt shuffled backwards in panic until he bumped into a tree. The quilava continued toward the snivelling grunt. The quilava had almost reached the man when a loud bang made her halt. A spurt of dirt that had been ejected from the ground near her as a projectile hit the soil erupted to her right.

Lifyra examined the projectile and found that it was a bullet, fired from somewhere or someone she could not see. Another bang and an eruption of dirt right in front of her caused her to take a few paces backwards. A burst of rapid gunfire caused her and Ubui to turn tail and run completely. Tiny eruptions of dirt from all around them showered them as they ran.

A group of grunts suddenly came out from behind a tree in front of them and opened fire. A bullet buried itself in Lifyra's leg and she collapsed as she cried out in pain. Ubui noticed and he uncurled.

"Are you alright?" Ubui asked with concern as he rushed to Lifyra's side as bullets whizzed around them.

"My leg is injured, I can't walk," Lifyra replied as blood dripped from her wounded left rear leg.

The bullets stopped and the nearest grunts began running toward them with pokeballs. Ubui looked at the running grunts and then at Lifyra. Ubui thought for a moment and then decided on a course of action. He dug a hole into the ground rapid speed and then a horizontal tunnel after gaining depth. Ubui climbed back up to the surface and dragged Lifyra into the tunnel.

The confused grunts at the surface stopped running with their pokeballs out as they reached the hole, clearly puzzled as to what course of action they could take next.

"Let them go, we probably have no use for them anyway," a sergeant ordered his men with a sigh.

The excitement of the chase wore off for the grunts and they left the scene. Ubui and Lifyra remained in the tunnel for another few moments before Ubui poked his head out of the hole.

"I think it's safe now, they've gone," Ubui said as he crawled back down to Lifyra.

"Awesome," Lifyra said as she winced with pain, clearly due to the injury inflicted on her leg.

"Are you okay?" Ubui asked with a look of worry on his face as he realised how much blood was seeping from the wound.

"Yeah, let's just get home as quick as we can," Lifyra responded, defiant of her injured leg.

Ubui assisted Lifyra back up the tunnel and out into the serenity of the forest. Small red drops of blood dripped onto the soil from the quilava's leg, staining it where they landed and spattered. The wound was bleeding less than before, but was still enough of a concern to prevent Lifyra from walking in a proper manner. The duo walked slowly through the forest, towards where they had left the mewtwos.

They kept a very close eye on every single bit of movement they could sense. Every little noise made them jump like they'd heard a gunshot. They were now only a kilometre away from the cave, but all of a sudden, Lifyra collapsed on the ground. She looked quite pale and drained of energy.

"Lifyra, are you okay?" Ubui asked; his voice edged with concern.

"Yeah, but I don't think I can walk any further," Lifyra responded before going into a short coughing fit.

"I'll try and carry you then," Ubui responded, determined to get them both back to the safety of the cave.

Ubui used all his strength to try and lift the quilava who was somewhat larger than him. The sandshrew was surprisingly strong and it was no major task. Ubui managed to drape the quilava across his back and began to crawl on all fours. Lifyra clung tightly to Ubui as he continued to walk the last kilometre through the forest to the cave. The going was quite slow due to the weight of Lifyra on Ubui's back.

"Thank you for saving me from being killed or captured back there, Ubui, it was quite heroic of you," Lifyra said to Ubui.

"Well it wouldn't be very good to have a friend die, especially not after all you and I have been through," Ubui responded quietly as he paused for a moment to catch his breath from all the hard work he was doing.

"I suppose we have been through quite a lot together," Lifyra chuckled before breaking into another short coughing fit.

"Just hold on, we're almost back at the cave and then I'll have Mewtwo assess your wound and condition," Ubui assured Lifyra.

"Thank you," Lifyra responded.

Ubui continued on toward the cave, which was now only a short distance away. The sandshrew had not taken any more than a few steps before a beedrill came out from behind a tree and stood right in Ubui's path. The beedrill gave Ubui a menacing stare with its large red eyes. Ubui took precautions and gently put Lifyra on the ground before stepping between her and the beedrill.

This only seemed to anger the beedrill more than it already was originally, and it charged at Ubui, stingers first. Ubui rushed at it and met it head on, rolling into a ball and slamming into the beedrill's thorax. The beedrill was tumbled over by the impact and looked to be unconscious, probably from being so severely winded. Ubui turned to go back to Lifyra but saw that two more beedrills were trying to carry her away.

"Help me! They're trying to take me away!" Lifyra yelled as the beedrills began to fly off with her.

Ubui thought on the spot, he couldn't catch up to them without rolling, and he couldn't jump that high without aid. What was he to do? Ubui spied a fallen tree that lay at such an angle as to look like a ramp. The beedrills were getting close to the elevated end of the tree now and Ubui acted, rolling into a tight ball and speeding up the fallen tree. Ubui got to the top of the elevated end of the tree and launched off.

The curled up sandshrew managed a good 3 seconds of air time before he uncurled and rammed one of the beedrills. The beedrill was swatted clean out of the sky and it fell to the ground. Ubui landed on the ground around the same time. The consequence of taking out that beedrill was that now Lifyra was too heavy for the other beedrill to hold on to, and Lifyra slipped from the remaining beedrill's grasp.

Lifyra plummeted towards the ground. Ubui audibly gasped at this and dived for her as she neared the ground. Lifyra was safely caught and prevented from being further injured. Ubui heaved a sigh of relief and placed Lifyra gently down on the grass.

"That was close," Lifyra cheerily said with a weak grin as she looked up at Ubui.

"A bit too close for my liking," Ubui stated whilst rolling his eyes at Lifyra's cheeriness over the whole situation.

Lifyra simply giggled at this.

"I honestly don't see what's so funny," Ubui said quite bluntly.

"Well, there's no use being too serious about it," the quilava teased as she poked out her tongue.

"You could have been killed, that's about as serious as it gets," Ubui replied.

"And I'm very thankful that you were there to save me," Lifyra said as she got up and kissed Ubui on the cheek.

Ubui blushed a crimson red and took a step back.

"W-w-we'd best get you back to the cave now so Mewtwo can assess your l-leg," Ubui stuttered.

"Alright then," Lifyra responded as she beamed.

Ubui managed once more to drape Lifyra over his back again and he continued on towards the cave, which funnily enough, was in almost the same direction as the beedrills were heading with Lifyra, so it had turned out that they were now much closer to their destination than beforehand. Within just five more minutes of walking, they reached the cave, safety at last, after all the excitement and dangers of the day.

Ubui entered the cave and placed Lifyra on the ground near the entrance. Not long after, Mewtwo, Joasia and Mateusz were all just returning from a training session and saw Lifyra on the way in.

"What happened to your leg?" Joasia asked with concern as she gasped.

"I got shot by a Team Rocket grunt," Lifyra responded.

"You guys ran into Team Rocket?" Mateusz queried in surprise.

"Yes, they had devices that made them invisible, and we only really noticed that we were being followed when one of them fell over and his device turned off. Lifyra approached the man but then the rest of the grunts who were invisible started shooting at us. We ran away, but then Lifyra got shot in the leg, and a group of grunts who weren't invisible were running towards us with pokeballs. I dug a tunnel through the ground and dragged Lifyra in just in time," Ubui explained to the curious mewtwos.

"And how did you get back if Lifyra's leg was injured?" Mewtwo asked.

"I carried her on my back all the way here," Ubui replied.

"Yeah, and on the way back, a beedrill blocked our path, so Ubui put me down on the ground so he could protect me. Then the beedrill attacked and Ubui knocked it out. But at the same time, two more beedrills came and they started to carry me away, and they almost escaped with me, but then Ubui heroically rolled up a fallen tree, launched himself into the air and knocked one of the beedrills right out of the sky, before landing in time to catch me," Lifyra said with a grin as Ubui winced due to her description of the events.

"Do you think you could examine her leg now, Mewtwo?" Ubui asked.

Mewtwo nodded and went to work assessing Lifyra's wound…


I apologise for how long it has taken me to upload this chapter, and that it may be lower quality than normal, but I had exams, induction week and then writer's block. So hopefully, you can still enjoy.