Shining Shadows
Will the Charizard
Chapter 3: Demons and Innocents
This chapter will be a bit dark and violent, but please don't abandon my story because of that. Pokémon isn't mine, it's Nintendo's, but I created Sam and Minney. Just thought I should add that.
"Well, you ready?" I asked Minney as we were standing at the edge of the dark, inhospitable-looking forest.
"You bet!" answered Minney with a cheer. "I was about to say the same thing!" We shared a laugh, than entered the dark woods. The ground quickly was covered in needles, the dirt no longer visible only twenty or so yards in. The darkness swallowed us up soon after.
We saw very few Pokémon inside, and the few we did, Pidgey, Starly, Rattata, Minney defeated with ease. She did need a potion after one particularly feisty Shinx, but it was never much challenge. The Beedrill that appeared soon after, though, was a different story.
We had been walking about half an hour, following what appeared to be a path. We weren't really sure, but we weren't too worried. I had my map in case we got lost. I had been throwing rocks randomly, just to prevent boredom, but wasn't really careful about what I threw at.
If I had been careful, the Beedrill never would've attacked. There was a thud noise, much duller than the cracks and thumps of previous throws. Very soon after, a rising buzz, accompanied by a colorful collection of swears, indicated my mistake. The bug type Pokémon flew out of the tree at an almost comically fast speed, spotted us, and charged.
"Minney, take it out quickly, use a water gun!" She nodded, and shot a clear stream of water at it, looking like it was going to be an easy takedown. The Beedrill saw the attack
coming, however, and flew to the side and buzzed in anger.
"Minney, use Bubblebeam!" it was her most accurate attack, and was spot on. It just seemed to enrage the Beedrill, though, which dove at Minney with its sharp dual stingers, shouting insults at us. "That the best you got? My grandma could do better, and she's 80, man!"
This isn't working. We need to be smart. This Beedrill was obviously smart, but it was also cocky. We need to use that against it.
"See if you can trap it in a bubble, Minney." Fortunately, Minney understood what I wanted much faster than the Beedrill, and trapped the Beedrill in an enormous bubblebeam. The Beedrill laughed. "Really? What do you think these are for, knitting?" He was indicating his long, sharp stingers when he said this. He jabbed the bubble, bursting it open, then fell, trying to flap his now soaked wings, and failing, as he fell to the ground. He crashed into the hard earth, swearing, trying to get back up.
"Now, Minney, finish it off with water gun!" Minney hosed down the Beedrill with a blast of water, which was knocked unconscious. "You did it Minney! You're doing a great job!" Minney gave a joyous cry, a huge smile on her face. "It was you too, Sam. You told me what to do, and when."
"We did it as a team, then, Minney. An amazing team!" We were jumping around, just excited to be working as well together now as we have in the past.
Through our celebration, I almost missed it. I thought I saw something, or someone, much larger than the Beedrill moving through the trees. I stopped myself, and looked closer, trying to catch the mysterious shape again.
"Minney! Did you see that?" She had stopped as well now, and was peering around my leg into the woods.
"Yeah, I did Sam." Minney said nervously. "On second thought, don't you think maybe we could go around the dark scary forest?"
"What? Nonsense. We can take them, whatever they are!" I sprayed Minney with a potion just in case, and then got a pokéball out, to be ready.
There was a rustling behind us, and we spun around just in time to see a Cacturne come out of the trees.
"Wow! I didn't know Cacturne lived in the woods! Minney, we have to catch this one! Use your aqua tail!" A Cacturne? Having one this soon would be amazing!
Minney seemed a little more reluctant than I, though. "I don't know Sam, I'm pretty scared. It's a grass type, and that thing's almost as tall as you are!"
I was about to tell Minney to use bubblebeam instead, to stay away, when the Cacturne smiled. "So you, a boy and your little mouse, are going to beat me?" the Cacturne laughed, showing the stitching where its mouth was poorly sewn shut, a recognizable trait of its kind, but fairly disturbing nonetheless. (This is going to be more of me being dramatic than a necessary description, sorry if this gets disgusting) "How exactly are you going to do that? Stay as far away as possible? That won't do, not at all! No, no fun in that at all!"
It seems a lot stronger than we are… "On second thought, maybe we should avoid it!" I said nervously, backing away from the grass and dark nightmare.
The Cacturne smiled, and began stepping forward, at a slow, leisurely pace. "No." It started to laugh, and pointed its arm at Minney, the spikes on its arms glowing white. Taking careful aim, it shot a pin missile at her that ripped right through the ball on her tail. She cried out in agony as large chunk of her tail was shredded apart by the deadly attack. Bloody pieces ripped right off of her tail and stuck into the ground, like gruesome flags. The whole time the Cacturne was laughing maniacally, the cruel, unforgiving noise sending shivers down my spine. The Cacturne next aimed at the lower part of Minney's tail, fired, and ripped the rest of the tail right off, the wound oozing blood in spouts, the ground quickly being covered with a dark red tint.
"Minney!" I screamed as I scooped her off the ground and into my arms. I could hear the Cacturne muttering behind me, heard a dull phit phit noise, and was sent sprawling forward, crying out in pain when the missiles struck my legs and lower back.
Minney flew from my arms, and landed against a tree, unable to stop herself or get up. The Cacturne, approaching my friend, looked back and said, "Would you like to say goodbye, boy?" This sent him into another fit of insane laughter, and, without warning, pulled his leg back and slammed his foot into my friend, smashing her into the tree and breaking her bones, with a distinct crunch. Again and again he smashed her now-barely recognizable body into the trunk of the tree. A small part of me realized that I never got to say goodbye. The rest was staring on in horror.
The Cacturne stopped and stood up, an insane grin on his face, with blood splattered on his body. I looked down in horror and despair at Minney's shredded and crushed body. Oh god. What did Minney do to deserve this? She never did anything to anyone. I was angry now. My best friend was just killed, and there had been nothing I could do about it. I had been useless.
I pulled my father's hunting knife out of my pack, tears running down my face. I hadn't realized I'd been crying. "I swear to Arceus, I'm going to kill you" I managed to choke out. "You're going to pay for her!" I ran at him, screaming, blind with rage. "I'M going to make you pay!"
The Cacturne laughed even harder. "Am I? I don't think I am." He charged up a pin missile, aimed at me, and fired. I stumbled to the right, just avoiding the attack, and kept running at him, fueled with my rage that my best friend had just been killed. He fired again, this time anticipating my movement, and shooting me in the right shoulder. The needles tore into my arm, and threw me into a tree, where I lay, dazed and moaning. The pain was unbearable. It felt like someone had taken hot knives and stabbed them into my shoulder. I felt my father's knife slip out of my hand, but I could barely feel anything else but pain. I opened my eyes to see the Cacturne walking towards me slowly, smiling to himself. I watched as he stopped, feet away. I could feel myself slipping into unconsciousness, and the last thing I saw before I blacked out was a blue and black shape slam into the Cacturne at full force.
I feel evil. I just killed a character and left you with a cliffhanger. Please tell me if you loved it, if you didn't please tell me why. PMs, comments, everything's appreciated. I'll try to get the next chapter out ASAP. Thanks for reading guys.