And we begin a new Arc. This one is going to make the last one look nice, just a warning for you. This is actually a toned down version of the original version I had wrote up, mainly because reading the descriptive part near the end made me sick so I removed most of it and gave Flame a valid reason for ommiting them too.

Comments are still wanted, if you can stop crying enough to write one.

Arc Nine: Hunted

Episode 1O1: Fear

A few days later, we found ourselves saying our goodbyes to Alpha's group. The visiting Gym leaders had left the previous day so we had decided to follow suit. Even Raichu had came out to say farewell. He had recovered from his head injuries pretty quickly and had taken to training at every chance he got. I think I may have damaged his pride a little.

"You better come back one day, I'll kick your head in," he laughed as we shook paws.

"You are not making a convincing argument," I replied with a smirk, "but I'll come back anyway."

"I'm looking forward to it."

"So am I. It was fun beating the crap out of you."

Raichu turned to Blacky and patted him on the head, "you better come back too. After all, Flame is going to need someone to save his backside."

"I'm coming back, when you get this place cleaned up somemore," Blacky replied, scratching his ears.

Squirt got a hug, followed by a quick zap. Pika reached out her paw, causing Raichu to jump back.

"It isn't going to bite," she sighed as Raichu stepped forwards and gave it a quick shake before backing off again.

"It's not the paw I'm worried about biting me," he replied before legging it sharpish.

I turned my gaze onto Alpha, who seemed a little sad at seeing us go.

"You sticking around for long then?" I asked him, trying to relieve the tension in the air.

"Yeah, we're going to fix the rest of the place up then hit the beach. We're still owed about a week's worth of vacation," he chuckled, "but after that it is back to work."

"Then we'll probably meet again. You know me, always attracting trouble."

"That explains Pika," Squirt interrupted before getting another bolt, this one from said Pikachu.

We finally turned away and headed off back into the wild, heading back towards Cerulean City. I was looking forward to seeing a city that hadn't been blown to pieces and seeing Spiral again. Blacky was getting more and more hyper as we went, bounding off ahead and running back again. It was making me dizzy.

It did feel good to be out of civilisation again, the wide open spaces meaning no feeling of being crowded in anymore. That and there were not people staring all the time anymore. It was just Moron's party heading on their way. Before we had left, Joanne had revealed a Pokémon that I hadn't seen in a while. The mute Bellsprout had rejoined our team, apparently it had been sent to some Professor so it could regrow a missing limb or something. I wasn't really paying attention. (There was no need, I was fairly sure that I was one of many Pokémon that doesn't have the ability to regrow limbs so it didn't affect me.)

"Are we there yet?" Blacky asked for the umpteenth time. Squirt took it upon himself to answer.

"Where exactly is there?"

"Cerulean City."

"In that case," Squirt paused for 'dramatic effect' (in other words he stopped to make himself look dumber), "no."

"We're not even a quarter of the way there," I added, using my excellent internal body clock to time how long we had been walking.

Blacky was getting more and more restless as time wore on and there was no sign of reaching the half way point. Just as I was about to reach snapping point, Moron withdrew the Umbreon into his Pokéball.

"Thank Mew," Squirt sighed, "any longer then I'd have knocked the fuzzball out."

"Same here," Pika piped up from her spot on Joanne's backpack. Lazy bastard.

"Well it's a good he was returned anyway," I added, "we're at that subway thing again."

While I was forced to endure my Pokéball, I thought about things. There really wasn't much else to do. I wondered how Spiral was doing, untill I remembered that demon Persion.

"Shit, I can't believe I forgot about that," I muttered, "and Mew is a little busy with his own problems to worry about Spiral. Maybe I can get Moron to stick around Cerulean a little while so I can find out if that thing is still around. But how?"

My planning was interrupted by me getting removed from the Pokéball and back into the open world, which I sure as well was not going to complain about. Squirt wasn't sent out though, which was slightly odd, so I was stuck with Pika.

"So," Pika said as she plodded alongside me, "where do you think that Cresent is?"

"Eh?" I stammered, "what? Why would I know?"

"Just curious," came the reply, through half closed eyes, "you seemed to be pretty interested in talking to her."

"What does that have to do with anything?" I said loudly, the questioning was making me nervous and I'm not the best at handling nerves.

"You know what I meant," Pika said, glaring strait at me and making me even more nervous.

"Do I look as though I know what you fuckin meant?" I yelled as loud as I could, starting to have a complete breakdown.

"Flame, calm down," Pika muttered, I noticed that Moron and Joanne were staring at me in confusion.

Then I noticed something else. The wind had stopped, the background noise of creatures moving and chatting had faded. Silence. And I didn't like it. My nerves were still up but now it was because of a different reason. Nobody else seemed to have noticed except me, not a good omen.

"Pika," I muttered, barely audible.

"Yeah?" She asked, "what?"

"Start running."

"Are you threatening me?" She growled as sparks began to fly from her cheeks.

"No, I'm saying that we should get the hell out of here. I have a very bad feeling about this place."

"Oh, trying to turn the conversation away from the Cresent girl so you can get away with it. I see."

"What? No! If we don't get away from here then we are going to end up in a lot of trouble."

"You are going to end up in a lot of trouble right now, for pissing me off."

Pika was about to release a nasty electic shock in my direction when her eyes widened and she stopped dead in her tracks.

"It's right behind me, isn't it?" I asked, not daring to move.

"Uh huh," she muttered, barely moving.

I slowly turned to move my head and saw the Persian standing out in the open, staring strait at me.

"You are the one who guards the Umbreon," it said with a snarl, stepping forwards.

"I am," I replied, swallowing back my fear and facing the Persian head on, "if you want him, then you're going to have a fight on your paws."

As much as I triedto look intimidating, I knew that it must know how scared I really was of it. The Persian looked nastier and the claws were definatly bigger. And I was standing right in front of it, hiding behind a wall of bravado. I failed, miserably, as the Persian pounced and I couldn't get out of the way.

I paid the price for my cowardice. Pika knocked me out of the Persian's path and took the attack instead. I lost sight of her underneath the bulky cat Pokémon.

"Shit!" I yelled as I got to my feet, managing to let loose a fireball and cause the Persian to back off.

"You cannot protect that creature forever, Charmander," it snarled before vanishing back into the undergrowth. I stared after it for several seconds untill Joanne's yells caused me to turn around.

I cannot describe how much damage had been done in detail, as even my stomach couldn't handle it and I'm not squeemish. So you get the toned down version. There was blood everywhere as Pika lay on the floor, three massive gashes in her side. I couldn't bare the sight and lost my lunch, Moron and Joanne barely managing not to do the same.