Chapter 5

The First Mission

Dash, Sparks, Cyndaquil, and Scouter sit around in a circle in their meeting.

"As you all know, except for Dash, I was ordered to watch this house that we believed Sparky was and still is working with," said Scouter, "and now I'm here to give you my report. This house has four humans living inside it. This building has many other humans going to it on the weekends. They are older than the ones we attacked last time. Sparky does go into this house and she does make contact with the humans inside. Now, I wasn't able to figure out why she goes in there but she gets must get something, otherwise she wouldn't go back to the house. She must be getting food, or water, or a safe place to stay there or something that she hides from my view, either way, they're helping her in some way. They all are healthy so if we decide to attack them than we should do it swiftly and quietly otherwise, we're going to have big problems in defeating them. Now their lights are turned off about an hour past sundown. They can be an easy target if we time it right. I was able to get in the house when the humans were away. There are two beds on the first floor and one on ground level. I can assume that two of them sleep together. They have a tree in the yard that we can hide in but Dash is an oshawott and oshawotts can't climb trees so we either have to have someone carry him up the tree or he'll have to wait in the forest. With my evaluation I believe their threat level is a four."

Sparks said, "That was a very good evaluation Scouter. So level four eh?"

"Yes level four."

"Level four?" Dash asked.

"We rank our enemies with a ranking system one through five. Five being the worse." Sparks answered. Sparks turns to scouter, "What do you think we should do?"

"Now, I don't think that they are giving her useful items like the last group, but they must be punished still."

"So, Massacre?" Sparks asked.

"Not that hard."

"Killing one?"

"Lighter."

"Burning?"

"Bingo."

"Alright, so our mission is going to be burning the house. Don't help any that gets lit. Report here before sundown and we'll make our way."

Scouter, Cyndaquil, and Dash reply with, "Let's go!"

"Meeting over." Sparks said.

Every one leaves the meeting hole. Sparks and Cyndaquil go on their separate paths. Dash and Scouter look at each other.

"First mission, are you excited?" asked Scouter.

"Yep." Dash said happily.

"Now for the mission you're going to foreshadow me."

"Oh. Okay." Dash said in a disappointing voice.

"Don't worry you'll be part of the fun too."

"Ah."

"You don't seem too excited anymore."

"No. It'll still be fun."

"Only while you're doing the deed."

"Hm? What do you mean?"

"You'll understand when the time comes."

"Um... okay."

"Ya... sorry it's something that can't be explained, only felt."

"Okay."

"So, Dash what do you want to do?"

"You want to fish?"

"Hmm... Is that what undeveloped oshawotts do?"

"Um... yes but please don't call me undeveloped."

"Okay Dash."

"Thanks, so fishing?"

"Okay."

Dash and Scouter leave the meeting area. All know that this mission could be their last. Everyone except Dash. He is inexperience. Dash teaches Scouter about fishing and Scouter tries fish for the first time. They enjoy the time of fishing but time always is moving and it was time for them to get back to the meeting. Sparks is the only one there when Scouter and Dash show up. They all remind silent waiting for Cyndaquil which he arrives minutes before the light hides.

Sparks speaks, "Okay we all remember what to do? We're going to burn down a house that has been working with Sparky. Scouter, you'll be keeping watch making sure that no one is coming. Cyndaquil, you're going to be the burner, since you're the only fire type. I'll be staying close to Cyndaquil in case someone tries to stop him. Dash, as Scouter has told you, you're going to foreshadow him and learn. Now if this works perfectly this shouldn't take very long. Ready?"

Everyone replies, "Yes."

"Okay. Let's go."

Sparks walks to the direction of the tall house. No one says a word during the whole walk there. The light of the day has faded and darkness has taken over. Dash would normally be in hiding but tonight, he is not afraid of the dark. He is not afraid of the unknown. He is part of this team and he knows it now. He is a part of something that he feels is right. The team is doing the right things in his eyes. They get to their positions and they see the house still has lights on. They only whisper from now on till the mission is over so they don't get caught and get blinded by the light.

"How long has it been passed sundown?" Dash asked Scouter.

"About thirty minutes."

"So, How long till we get to see fire?"

"About thirty minutes."

"Oh. That was stupid of me to ask."

"No it wasn't, with you always living in nature; you had no use of learning times. Do you even know what a minute is?"

"Well, actually that's one of the few things the oshawotts taught me before I was kicked out."

"Interesting."

"Ya."

"Okay, we need to be quiet now"

Dash and Scouter keep watch. Neither scouter nor Dash sees anything when the final light goes out. Sparks and Cyndaquil go towards the house. The front door opens. Sparks and Cyndaquil freeze in place. It was so silent that you couldn't even hear the breathing of any of the team members. The door then closes. After a few seconds, Sparks and Cyndaquil move towards the house again. Scouter spots some movement coming from the front door. He sends a message to Sparks warning him about the movement. Sparks gets his knifes out ready for the worse. Scouter trying to figure what thing that is moving is. Cyndaquil and Sparks make it to the house but before he could start burning the house, the thing moves around the house. Scouter tells Sparks about the movement of the thing going around the corner.

"Hey you! What are you doing?" said the thing.

"Why do you care?" answered Sparks.

"Because it's my master's home and I live here."

Scouter and Dash looking from the tree watching what is happening. Dash finally says, "Is that a Zorua?"

Scouter looking at it closer whispers, "Ya, it is." He then sends the message to Sparks.

Zorua's ear twitches from the voices in the trees. He looks at Sparks and says, "I will protect my master's home! You won't get any fire on the house."

Sparks and Cyndaquil look at each other both not taking the Zorua seriously. "You may haven't notice," Sparks said, "But there's two of us and only one of you."

"Who said I'm alone?"

Neither Sparks nor Cyndaquil said anything.

Zorua finally said, "Plus, we know it's not just you two."

Both Scouter and Dash get pushed out of the trees. Scouter gets right up while Dash remains on the ground a little confused. Scouter picks Dash up on his feet, while looking for what pushed them out of the trees. He sees them run to the Zoura's side.

"How did you know?" Sparks asked.

"It must have been Sparky." Scouter messaged.

The two finally make it to Zorua's side.

"Eevees!" Sparks said, "This isn't going the way it was suppose to. Burn it now Cyndaquil!'

"No!" said Zoura.

The eevees and Zoura charge at them. Scouter and Dash run in to intercept them with Sparks. The eevees were the fastest ones there and they passed the unready Dash and Scouter. Sparks see the coming eevees but the smart eevees spread around Sparks so he would have to choice one target. He tackles the left one and throws a knife at the right one but eevee dodges the knife and charges at Cyndaquil. Scouter and Dash both dealing with the Zoura fails to see that the eevee is going to attack their flame maker. Cyndaquil gets one puff of fire at the house when eevee tackles him. The grass around the house lights on fire but quickly goes out due to the grass being cared for and watered well. The house remains untouched by the fire. Zoura tackles Dash and transform into an exact replica of Dash. Both Dash's roll around fighting each other and Scouter can't tell which is the real Dash and which is the impostor. Sparks holds down an eevee with the tip of his knife and the eevee fearful for her life stays still. Scouter and Sparks look at each other as the two Dashes fight. Sparks then tells Scouter, "Go help Cyndaquil, let them two fight." Scouter nods and runs to help Cyndaquil, who is being clawed by the eevee. Scouter tackles the eevee off Cyndaquil. Cyndaquil, still remembering Sparks's earlier order, gets up takes another breath and spits out another fire ball at the house. This time the house goes up in flames. Everyone stops fighting and watch the fire spread. The Zoura goes back into his normal form. The Zoura and the eevees watch helplessly as the tower of flame expand, engulfing the house. Dash, Scouter, Sparks, and Cyndaquil walk to the tree line to watch. Sparks counts out as the people run out of the house. "One, two, three." When no one else came out they all exchanged looks at each other. They watched the people crying their tears of pain and suffering but behind those walls of tears, Sparks's team knows that they helped the enemy. Sparks, Scouter, Cyndaquil, and Dash again look at each other but longer. Long enough to tell that no one was proud for what they did. Every one of them regretted it. The house, with their dreams, falls down in a fiery mess. The tears of the hopeless broken people are burning Sparks's team. Sparks, Scouter, Dash slowly turn away with their heads down. There is no celebrating for completing this mission. They turn around for one last time, to see the damage they had done, and then they finally walked off with their back turned from the damaged.

"See what I mean. They are evil. They burned down the house and killed a person in the process all because they know I went there." Sparky said in the tree watching the burning with Penny.

"I see that. Now I believe you."

"I'm glad we're on the same page now."

"Why didn't we help them?"

"If we stopped them, then there would be doubt. This way, there is no doubt. Now you see that they're serious and they'll do destruction and they will kill to complete their mission."

"True." Penny pauses for a few seconds, "I know that oshawott."

Sparky somewhat surprised asked, "You do?"

"Ya. His name is Dash. He was the one to have a crush on me but I shooed him away, remember?"

"Ya. I do remember. Interesting to know. Good to know too."

Penny doesn't answer. She sits staring into the forever changing bright red flames.

Sparky then said, "Let's go. We can't do anything now. Let's go home and get an apple and get some rest before they burn that down."

"Alright."

They leave the area to go back home.

Dash, Sparks, Cyndaquil, and Scouter, got back to base from their speechless walk. Dash sits hanging his head low. Scouter, Sparks, and Cyndaquil look at each other in silence. Scouter sits next to Dash to comfort him. Dash breaks the silence, "Why did we have to do this?"

Scouter answers, "We can't let Sparky gain any inch."

"Why did we have to do this?" Dash looks at Sparks.

Sparks answers, "We had to."

Dash stands up in Sparks face yelling, "We didn't have to! She wasn't there controlling you! We didn't have to. You've given me no reason to fight against her! Nothing! All I've heard was that she is the bad one! No prove! Nothing! We didn't have to! Dash quiets down, "We didn't have to."

Sparks exchanges looks with Scouter. He looks back at Dash, "I assume I can't hide this information any longer. I couldn't show back when we met because, I wasn't sure if you would join the team or not and you would have resisted."

"Resisted?" Dash asked.

"Yes. You would have. In order for you to see the truth I will need to use dark magic and you were still iffy with dark magic and since you've never been around it, you would have been taken over. But now, you've been around it by hanging out with Scouter and by receiving messages from Scouter and I. You may not realize it but we emanate dark magic. Some, like you, don't get affected at all by this. However, many are greatly affected by it. They get angry enough to attack us. They could also be very sad, sometimes sad enough to be suicidal or be in a deep depression for a while. When I saw that you were still being yourself when you were around both me and Scouter I sent a message to see how your soul will take the dark magic. As we can see, your soul has not been affected."

"What does it mean when my soul isn't affected by dark magic?"

"It usually means that you haven't been blinded by the light. Blinded from the fake truth. If you had stayed with the oshawott group, then you probably would be effected by the dark magic because, they would have taught you what they believe was true instead of teaching what is true. You being kicked out of the group could have been the best thing to happen to you, but with some consequences and hardships. You would have been blinded by the light like almost the entire world but you're not. No one taught you how to think or what to believe. You had to learn that on your own and very quickly, I may add, and at a very young age. Most learn at a later age because they are safe and even when they do it is extremely altered."

"Ah, I see."

"I'll show you the truth in the morning."

"I want to know now!"

"But it's very late."

"So? We can sleep a little bit later"

Sparks looks at Scouter. Scouter gives Sparks the "go ahead" nod. Sparks looks at Dash and said, "Okay, let's go."

"Yay! Now, how am I going to see this truth?"

"We're going to warp us to my memories."

"You can do that?"

"Yes. Now grab my hand and close your eyes."

"Why do I need to close my eyes?" Dash said while grabbing Sparks' hand.

"Because you may be used to very low exposer to dark magic, but this trick we're about to do is definitely more than a low exposer."

"And closing my eyes will help?"

"Yes. It doesn't give a way to enter. Because you won't see the darkness and if you can't it your imagination can go wild."

"Um... okay" Dash closes his eyes.

Sparks looks at Scouter, "Coming?"

Scouter nods. Sparks and Scouter then start to glow but not a light glow. A dark glow. Dash keeps his eyes close and the dark glow engulfs his body, but not his soul. Slowly Dash's, Sparks's, and Scouter's body start to disappear in the darkness. Finally, what seemed like an eternity for Dash, he hears Sparks' voice say, "Okay open your eyes." Dash does what he is told. He looks around and sees that he's in very dark place, but for some reason he can see far in the darkness. There is nothing around. It seems like if you were to walk only in one direction you wouldn't see anything nor move anywhere.

Dash finally asks, "How is this showing me the truth?"

Scouter looks at Dash and says, "You think it's easy using that advance of dark magic?"

Dash hesitates to answer so Sparks answers for him, "It isn't. We need to recharge a little. We can't just use magic all over the place."

"Oh." Dash said.

No one said a word for the next few minutes. They all look at each other acting like something should be said, but none of them could break the deep silence. Finally Sparks gets up and with one movement of his arm he changes the dark landscape into a healthy forest and Sparky is seen talking to herself. Everyone stays silent when Sparky starts talking.

"Okay. So we all know what the goal is? We need to take control of everyone. We got to have control and keep it. We're not going to lose it again. As long as Sparks and his stupid team are alive we'll never get any ground. So we need to take him out first. He'll be our focus before we can start our true goal on controlling the land. To-," The image fuzzes away and disappeared.

"Sorry Dash," Sparks said, "That's all I can do for the night."

Dash looks at Sparks, "It's okay, it did answer some of my questions. So that's Sparky?"

Scouter answers, "Yes." Scouter looks at Dash, "Let's go back." Dash nods. Scouter looks at Sparks next and says, "We'll use my magic to get back." He turns where both Dash and Sparks were in front of him, "Okay now hold my hand both of you and Dash close your eyes,"

Sparks and Dash grab Scouter's hand and Dash closes his eyes to go back to the lightened world.