Summary: Human turned Pokémon have suddenly started disappearing without explanation. Their teammates and loved ones are left to scramble about in worry and wonder as to where their missing friends may be. However, the arrival of Celine, a newly human turned Pokémon, suggests that the Pokémon world is in danger once again. As she sets out on her journey, she is blissfully unaware of the darkness that follows her and her team…
-x-x-x-x-
Chapter 14: The Kidnapping
The mission Lizette picked out was an easy one, or so that's what Celine believed. The mission was to go to Greenfall Forest and retrieve a lost item. Not too hard, right?
The only difficulty the braixen had was keeping her focus. She'd lost it on numerous occasions and was now paying the price for it. Cuts and bruises were all over her body, and they weren't even halfway done with their mission!
"Are you sure you don't want to go back?" Lizette asked her for the fifth time during their trip. She was staring at her friend in worry.
Celine took her head, determined to finish the mission. "I'm fine."
"Celine…" Lizette groaned, but she ignored her and went ahead.
Lizette sighed and ran after her. When this was over, she planned to have a stern talking to with Aiden. Because of his little temperamental attitude, Celine wasn't doing as well as she normally did.
After another half hour, the duo found the item that was requested. Lizette stared at the Heal Ribbon in her hands. "Don't they sell these in one of stores?"
"They do," Lizette answered, frowning at the ribbon. It was faded and old. Lizette could only wonder if it was a family treasure or something.
"Then let's get out of-" Celine was cut off by something jumping on her and biting her. She immediately felt dizzy and wobbled around. Whatever had jumped on her was now off.
In the distance she could hear screaming and laughing. "L-liz?" she murmured, finally falling to the ground. Her vision cleared up enough to see Gothitelle and her gang surrounding the small feline. "L-liz!"
Lizette backed away from the familiar trio, her eyes wide and terrified. A little ways off she could see Celine collapsed on the ground. She glared up at the trio. "What've you done to Celine?!"
"Oh, just fed her some of my poison~" Seviper snickered, lifting his tail towards his face in mock innocence. "I had to make sure she didn't try anything."
"What do you want?" Lizette hissed, backed up all the way against a tree.
Gothitelle smirked and bent down to the psychic feline's eye level. "We want to know the location to the stones."
"Stones?" she asked, feigning innocence. "We don't know where they are!"
"Oh really now?" she asked with a smirk. She looked to Seviper and gave him a nod. With a brightened expression he slithered over to Celine and wrapped himself around her. She let out a sharp cry of pain.
"Celine!" Lizette cried out, about to run to her friend's aid. Banette appeared in front of her, effectively blocking her path. She looked at him then back to Gothitelle. "I don't know anything!"
Gothitelle rolled her eyes and waved her hand. Banette took this as his signal and blasted the feline into a nearby tree. She cried out and slid to the floor. She winced in her attempt to get to her feet.
"I'm telling the truth!" she said.
"Tick, tock~" Seviper sang. Lizette watched with growing horror as beads of sweat rolled down the braixen's face, wetting her fur. She was half conscious. "I swear!"
She'd been so focused on her friend that she hadn't seen the shadow ball heading right towards her. It slammed itself against her and sent her flying into another tree. She slid to the ground, unconscious.
Gothitelle tapped her foot impatiently as she glared at Banette who winced under her harsh gaze. "Whoops."
"Hmph," she snorted. "Leave her. Let's get going. We've got the human."
"Wait!" Seviper said, slithering over to her. "Why not bring her to another disclosed location and make her team search for her? We'll leave her out in the open and use her as bait, and then, when they rush towards her, we ambush them!"
"And then what?" Gothitelle asked.
"We could trap her and another one of them and force them to tell us! And if they don't… well…" he grinned evilly, leaving the rest unsaid.
The gothitelle herself smirked, seeing exactly where her teammate was going. "That sounds like a good idea. Then we can bring her back to Icy and also tell her that we know where to look for the stones!"
The trio snickered in evil delight. "Take the poison out of her and leave behind a note," Gothitelle ordered.
Seviper immediately approached the braixen while Banette had plucked out a letter from nowhere. Gothitelle stared at him with an eyebrow raised. "You two were planning this, weren't you?"
He grinned weakly and nodded. "We thought you'd like the idea, so we did it anyway."
"Smart," she chuckled, using her telekinesis to lift up the unconscious braixen. "The poison is removed?"
"Yep!" Seviper chortled, absolutely excited that their plan was a go.
"Then let's get going," Gothitelle said, moving into the shadows of the trees. "I hope the rest of them enjoy our present!"
-x-x-x-x-
Aiden sat beneath his favorite tree. He hadn't bothered to return to the base. He wasn't in the mood to be playing 21 questions with that chatterbox of a legendary pokémon. In his opinion she was annoying. He would never be able to figure out how Grovyle could stand her – especially when she rubbed up against him, or spoke to him lovingly.
The memory of last night was replaying itself in his minds eye. He couldn't wipe away the serious look that had been on Celine's face when she drew her weapon and pointed it towards him. He'd been surprised, having never expected that she would draw her weapon and point it towards him.
He knew that she wasn't joking either. She had that look that told him that she didn't want to fight him, but wouldn't stand down if he attacked either. She almost looked relieved when he stood down the first time too.
Part of him had felt betrayed that she would point her weapon at him, but the other half knew that she was doing it in her attempt to stop a fight from breaking out. But the part of him feeling betrayed won out, and it only seemed to grow when he would look down at the scratch she had unknowingly gave him.
Psychically it barely hurt, but it had caused a lot of pain inside. It was the very reason why he avoided her and snapped at her earlier that day.
He immediately felt guilt grab him when he pictured her pained look. It melted away his anger, but in turn, replaced it with guilt. But since he was a proud type, it was hard to walk up to her and apologize.
With a sigh, he closed his eyes.
"Aiden!" Annoyed, Aiden opened his eyes and looked over to see that Silver and Grovyle were running towards him. Both of them looked extremely anxious. He briefly wondered how in the world they even knew that he was here.
He got to his feet. "What?"
"Liz…" Silver began, attempting to gather his breath.
Grovyle finished it for him. "…Lizette and Celine were attacked!"
He could feel his heart and the world around him stop. His annoyed expression turned to disbelief.
"It's true!" Silver said. "Lizette came back to the base covered in bruises and cuts. She's unconscious now, but before she fainted she told us that she and Celine were attacked while they were on their mission!"
He didn't need to hear anything else. He dashed past them and ran as fast as his legs could carry him back to his base. Celine! Lizette!
A million thoughts were rushing through his head. What happened? Who ambushed them? Where was Celine?
He could feel his heart shatter when he thought of Celine being kidnapped.
When he reached the base, he zoomed right inside and into the living room. Team Invincible, Jaxon, and Celebi were all there. Celebi was helping Jaxon treat Lizette's wounds. He watched as Aldous held tightly onto Lizette's paw. He looked absolutely grief-stricken.
Celebi was the first to notice Aiden. "Aiden! There you are!"
Aldous snapped his head up and glared with pure hatred in the direction of Aiden. "Why weren't you THERE?!" he shrieked.
"Aldous!" Fiona said.
He hissed at her warningly. "No! Stay out of this, Fiona! I want to know why he wasn't there!" He stormed over towards Aiden. "Wasn't it you who yelled at everyone about getting stronger? Why the heck weren't you with your team?"
Aiden could only frown and look away from him shamefully. Aldous couldn't contain his anger any longer. Using his strong telekinesis power, he lifted Aiden off the ground and threw him through the window, barreling past Silver and Grovyle and right into a tree.
Before either Drexel or Fiona could stop him, Aldous launched himself out the window and summoned an odd wave of pure psychic energy and shot it towards Aiden. Aiden had no time to react and endured the hit.
As he got to his feet he watched Aldous stalk towards him, his psychic power making him look even more ferocious than usual.
Aiden didn't want to fight him, but it didn't look like Aldous planned to let up any time soon. Deciding that he would stand his ground, he summoned forth two bones and held them in front of him.
Aldous watched him through narrowed eyes. With a rise of Aldous' hands, Aiden felt an unseenable force tighten itself around him, causing him to choke. In an attempt to distract the psychic feline's attack, he tossed one of the bones in his direction.
It hit the cat-like pokémon, causing him to take a few steps back. Aiden used this opportune moment to dash towards him with another pair of bones. He managed to score one hit on the meowstic, but before the other attack could land, the meowstic vanished.
He looked around for any sign of the meowstic. Suddenly he felt the air pick up intensity and looked up at the sky to see a pair of dark clouds rolling over him. He jumped out of the way just in time from a thunder shock attack.
There was still no sign of the psychic-type pokémon much to Aiden's dismay. He felt the ground beneath him crumble a bit. He didn't have enough time to dodge the psychic blast from Aldous as he shot out of the ground.
Aiden stumbled a bit back, but immediately recoiled with an aura sphere. The attack hit Aldous, but didn't do much damage. But it provided Aiden with all the time he needed to use his extreme speed to run into the small feline and send him barreling into a nearby tree.
Jumping away he charged up a shadow ball and sent it flying towards Aldous. Aldous saw this and barely managed to pull up a protective screen to defend him from the attack. Aiden broke through the shield with a hard punch and slammed his other fist into Aldous' face.
"STOP!" Fiona screamed, fearful of her friend's life. Drexel prepared himself to jump into the fray, but another small form flew past him and into the direct path of Aiden's bone rush.
Aiden felt his bones slam against another shield. His eyes opened wide in shock when he saw Lizette on one foot with both hands outstretched to create her protective shield.
"Liz!" Aldous cried out.
"S-stop fighting!" she panted. Aiden withdrew the two bones and stared down at her worriedly.
She smiled up at him gratefully before falling back into Aldous' arms. "What are you doing out of bed?" he asked.
"I heard the commotion," she mumbled. "Celebi told me that you suddenly went stark raving mad and attacked Aiden. And since I know Aiden so well, he'd never back down from a battle."
Aiden looked away, shame written all over his face. Lizette chuckled and shook her head. "Will you two please stop fighting now?"
"Are you okay?" Aiden whispered, his voice barely high enough for her to hear.
"I am now," she said with a grateful smile. "Aldous," She looked at him, "mind helping me back into the house? Oh, and Aiden, you need to come inside. I… have bad news and you need to hear it."
Aldous wasted no time in helping his fellow feline back into the base. Aiden followed, but kept his gaze away from that of everyone else's.
When they were in the base, and when Lizette was back on her makeshift bed, she told Aiden of the events that followed after he returned back to the base. When she was finished with her story, she looked around to see everyone's reactions. She even asked Aldous to reach into her bag to retrieve the note that Team Poisonix had left behind as proof of what they wanted.
Jaxon looked conflicted, as did the majority of everyone else. Aldous was more focused on her and aiding her whenever she needed it. Aiden, on the other hand, had his eyes closed. His expression was unreadable.
"We can't tell them the location!" Celebi said.
"But if we don't, then who knows what will happen to Celine?" Fiona said, her face twisted in a mixture of grief and worry.
"It's most likely a trap," Aiden said, finally open his eyes.
Drexel nodded, agreeing with him. "They want us to bring them the map and tell them, but once they have what they want, they'd knock us out and make off with Celine and the map detailing where the stones are."
Lizette closed her eyes sorrowfully. She felt horrible. She blamed herself for not being able to help Celine. She opened her eyes when she felt Aldous tighten his grip on her hand. She smiled softly.
"What should we do?" Celebi floated around.
"Where did they ask for us to meet up again?"
"Rocky Hills," Lizette murmured. "It's very dangerous during this time of year."
"I'm going," he said, going into the kitchen to grab the map. Celebi and Fiona followed after him. Both were trying to sway his opinion, but he remained unmoved.
Just as he was leaving the base, he heard Drexel call out after him. "We're going too."
Aiden looked at him from over his shoulder. "She's my teammate."
"And she's our friend," Drexel folded his arms. "You seriously believe you can take on all three of their members? You'd be wiped out before you got a chance to do anything."
"We're coming too," Silver said as both he and Grovyle followed them outside. "We want pay back."
"Then who is staying here to keep watch over Kalista and Lizette?"
"Aldous wants to stay behind. Jaxon will obviously be out searching for the other team, and Celebi will be with Aldous. The rest of us are coming. There's no way you're changing that. So stop trying to be so head strong." Drexel folded his arms and smirked at Aiden.
His posture didn't change as he said, "Also, I want to apologize to you and to her."
Aiden was a little bit shocked, but found that he was finding his respect grow for the water-type pokémon. He smiled at the others who stood behind him.
Taking a deep breath, Aiden turned towards the path that would lead them to Rocky Hills. "Let's go."
-x-x-x-x-
Aiden and the others went in with a plan. Aiden would carry on further past everyone else with an empty bag to stall Team Poisonix. While they scrambled over the bag and took their time looking in, Aiden would zip past them and grab Celine.
He assumed that by then they would realize that the bag was merely empty and turn to attack him. They'd be so focused on him that they wouldn't know about the others until it was too late.
From there on out, Aiden would take the chance to escape. Shortly after, the others would follow.
But before they entered Rocky Hills, Aiden made sure to brief everyone about Team Poisonix and that they were mostly going to attempt to ambush him. He knew that telling them might not be beneficial, but it was something just in case things didn't go according to plan. And it's not like he'd be going there blinded. He planned to use his aura abilities to scan the area and adjust himself accordingly.
Due to his earlier battle with Aldous, however, he was sore. So, he would avoid fighting as much as possible. That's where Drexel would come in. Since the frogadier was stealthy and good at hiding, he would stick closer to Aiden and strike Team Poisonix if Aiden was distracted by something else.
All in all, the plan seemed flawless. But Aiden knew that it bound to change.
After ten or fifteen minutes, Aiden was nearly at the requested meeting place: the peak of Rocky Hills. He was trying not to think about the horrible conditions he'd be facing.
Lizette told everyone that the conditions were not all that great. Boulders constantly fell down the slopes of the mountains, and the sides of cliffs could collapse at any given moment.
He prayed that he and the others would be long gone before any of that happened.
Finally at the peak of the mountain, he immediately noticed Celine sprawled out near the edge of the cliff. He wanted to run over to her and grab her before she fell, but he knew from the back of his mind that it was a trap.
He closed his eyes and scanned the area. From a little ways off to his right he could see Seviper slowly inching towards him from behind a rock. Just as the poison-type was about to strike, Aiden leaped out of the way.
He got into a fighting stance and glared at the snake-like pokémon. A second later Gothitelle and Banette appeared in front of Celine, both smirking at him.
"My," Gothitelle said, not all that surprised, "I guess you saw us coming?"
"Here's a tip for the future," Aiden said, "never try sneaking up on a pokémon with the ability to see other pokémons auras as well as manipulate them."
She raised an eyebrow amusedly. "You might've avoided Seviper's poison, but I'm afraid that your friend here is still infected."
"She can be saved, however," she reached out towards him with her hand open, "you have to give us the map."
"You would kill her?" he asked, surprised. "Wouldn't that upset your superiors?"
"They've got enough human turned pokémon," Banette sneered. "One less won't hurt them. Now hand over the info!"
Aiden scowled, but complied. He tossed the bag to his right, hoping to steer them away from Celine.
All three Team Poisonix members scrambled towards the bag and grabbed it. Gothitelle was the first to discover that there was nothing inside of the bag and snarled at Aiden. He had already picked up Celine bridal style and was about to run off when Team Poisonix got in his way.
He backed away towards the edge of the cliff. "Where's the information?!"
"Sorry," he grinned, "but I never planned to give you the information! Now!"
Banette and Seviper had no time to react to the ambush. Gothitelle, having previously thought that Aiden brought back up, teleported away. She reappeared closer to Aiden and was about to strike when they heard something cracking. They both looked down simultaneously just in time to see a crack appear and slowly grow bigger between their feet.
Neither had the time to escape as the cliff broke off seconds later.
"Aiden! Celine!" Fiona cried out and flew towards them with the full intention to help. What she didn't expect was Gothitelle grabbing her and dragging her down along with the three other falling pokémon. She screamed out for Drexel.
"Fiona!" Drexel launched himself over the cliff and after the four falling pokémon.
Silver and Grovyle were unable to help, but made sure that Banette and Seviper didn't get a chance to follow after them. They were startled momentarily by a large black blur flying past them and after the other pokémon.
While Drexel went after Gothitelle and his partner, the black blur went after Aiden and Celine. He grabbed the two roughly and used his body to shelter the two pokémon.
They crashed through several branches until they finally hit the ground with a hard THUMP. The impact hadn't injured either Celine or Aiden, the latter moving away to see his savior. Zoroark was on the ground, barely conscious.
"Fancy meetin' you here," he groaned.
"What the heck? Zoroark? Where the heck did you come from? And why did you just do that?! Are you crazy?!" Aiden asked, looking over the dark-type fox for any cuts.
Zoroark just smirked and closed his eyes. "Perhaps I am."
Aiden stared at him. "I wasn't complimenting you."
"You're such a bore." He sat up slowly, grabbing the bag hanging around his shoulder. Taking out a Pecha Berry, he pulled Celine closer. With a groan she slowly opened her eyes and stared at him.
"Z-zoro…" she tried saying his name, her voice hoarse and barely audible.
"Don't try talking. Here, eat this," he said, handing her the Pecha Berry.
The vixen slowly ate the berry, making a disgusted face as she ate. "Was that a Pecha Berry?" she asked once she finished.
Zoroark smiled and nodded. "You were badly poisoned. Are you feeling better now?"
"Yes, much better, thank you." She looked over and noticed Aiden for the first time. "Aiden…?"
The fighting/steel-type canine looked away with a frown. He didn't know how he would speak to her after everything that had happened. He didn't have to worry for long, as she jumped to her feet in realization. "Wait, those three were plotting to hurt everyone! I have to help. I have to-"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, relax there," Zoroark said, lifting a hand. "You, along with Aiden, one of Team Poisonix's members, and two other pokémon just fell from a cliff. You have two-"
"Wait, what? We just fell off a cliff?!" she exclaimed, near hysteria. "We have to find them! We got-"
"Do you mind letting me finish?" Zoroark asked, slightly annoyed. When she fell silent he took that as his cue that he could carry on. "Two other of your friends are on the cliff fighting the other two members. But they should be fine since neither of them were anywhere near the edge."
From the corner of his eyes, Zoroark noticed a small flash of light. "And I don't think we have to worry about the others who fell along with you."
"But-"
He gave her a don't-you-dare-argue-with-me look. She didn't protest further, but it was evident on her face that she was still worried.
Getting to his feet, Zoroark stretched out his sore muscles to gauge how badly he was damaged. While he did this, Aiden stared at him with a simple thought in his mind.
"How did you know something was going down?" Aiden asked.
Zoroark looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before returning to his stretching. "I was traveling through the forest when I happened to notice Lizette unconscious. There was a note attached to her demanding for the information as well as where they wanted you to meet up with them. I decided that I would help. So, once delivering your feline friend to a closer location to your base, I went out and grabbed some items before I came here. But while we're on the subject, just how is Lizette doing?"
Celine stared at him in horror, then immediately casted her gaze over to Aiden. Aiden tightened his fists and looked away. "…She was injured pretty badly, but she made it back to the base. She'll be back to her old self in no time."
Zoroark noticed the small cuts and bruises covering the canine pokémon. He was sorely tempted to ask Aiden about it, but decided against it.
"We were ambushed," Celine said softly, staring directly at Aiden.
"I know." Aiden screwed his eyes shut. "…and I'm sorry."
"Why were you so angry?" she asked. "Why didn't you come with us? I thought you said you wanted to get stronger. Did I do something to upset you?"
Aiden didn't answer at first. He didn't know how to answer that. Should he tell her the truth? He probably shouldn't. He didn't want to upset her even further.
"I wasn't feeling well," he lied.
He immediately noticed her face fall. Did she know that he was lying?
"So you don't want to tell me," she said. "You were mad at me."
He could see the pain on her face when she came to that conclusion. She walked away from him without so much as another glance at him. He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what he could say. And even if he were to tell her the truth, there was no way he was going to do it in front of Zoroark. As far as he was concerned, it was none of the dark-type's business.
Celine looked up towards the cliff. There were no paths that led from the bottom to the cliff to the top. So, the safe route was out of the question. She did notice, however, that there were enough jagged rocks to use as steps to climb back up.
She was about to ask Zoroark about it when a greninja slid past her. He quickly summoned four water-formed shurikens and tossed them in the direction he had just come from. There was a mini explosion followed by a shadow ball being sent towards him.
Having noticed Celine from the corner of his eyes, he grabbed her and jumped into the air, effectively dodging the attack. She shrieked and clung to him tightly. He winced from the sheer power of her grip, but otherwise didn't pull her away.
The pair landed in one of the nearby trees where he released her.
"Who are you?" she asked in amazement.
He simply looked at her before leaping in the direction of his opponent. She stood there, clinging onto the tree, but otherwise fine. She was still confused about the new pokémon that she hadn't seen Aiden or Zoroark running towards her.
"Celine!" Aiden called, jumping onto the same branch as her. He gently grabbed her and jumped back down. "Are you alright?"
"I'm not a damsel in distress!" she huffed, folding her arms in front of her like a child once Aiden released her. "Of course I'm fine!"
She looked in the direction of where she'd last see the greninja. I just wish I knew who that was…
I'm terribly sorry for the delay, but I promise you that I wasn't goofing off! Okay, maybe I was a little, but most of my time was spent wisely! I've been working on wallpapers for the teams (though they're all crappy…). I gathered all the pictures and stuff, but the badges I had to make from scratch and that took up a lot of my time.
I don't expect anyone to use them, but I'm the type of person that likes to help people 'visualize' my team, hence the wallpapers. Plus, since my description of their team badges sucks, I decided it would probably be best to just draw them.
However, only a few of them are done and have yet to be uploaded on my deviantart account. Once they're done, however, I plan to provide the link and all of you can see the teams as I picture them!
Also, thank you to all the new followers! Despite not getting any reviews, it still means a lot to me because it tells me that my writing isn't nearly as crappy as I believe it to be!
Enjoy!~