8. Questioning and reckoning

John woke up early, this morning. Since he had become a ranger, a few years ago, and even before that, he had taken the habit of starting the day very early, always before sunrise. Each day was limited, and in turn, his time on terrain was limited, he thought. If he wanted to accomplish his job, he needed every bit of daytime he could get. Besides, he had grown to really appreciate the first hours of the day, when the peacefulness of the night is gradually replaced by the quick tempo of the day. He liked to be out there to experience that.

Getting out of his tent, he immediately went to the center of the campsite, were only ashes and partially burnt logs remained of the last evening's fire. Putting some new sticks on top, he was without too much effort able to revive a small flame, which quickly grew when he added more dry wood. He then placed a small tin water container beside the pit. John wasn't one to treasure the comforts of civilized, urban life. Once thing he needed though, every morning, was his coffee.

Not wasting time waiting for his water to boil, he went back to his tent instead, to get his toothbrush and toothpaste. He had always made a point of keeping perfect hygiene, even during his longest missions in the wilderness. Staying healthy was a priority, as you didn't want to get sick around here, far from civilization. It had already happened to him, and it wasn't something he was eager to try out again.

As he passed beside his Pokemon, most of them still asleep, he took an appreciative look. More than his Pokemon, he considered them as his teammates, his colleagues. They contributed as much as him, if not more, to the success of his ranger missions, and he wouldn't be able to do his job without them. Each was helping their own way, lending their skills for battle, sure, but also much more, like tracking, sighting, carrying heavy equipment, and a multitude of other tasks. Truly, he considered himself lucky to have so useful and helpful teammates, and the bond he had formed with them over the years was nigh indestructible. A bond forged in hardships, successes and fails.

It was then that his glance stopped at the immobile form, in the back of the group, of his new Pokemon. The Umbreon was still soundly asleep, his chest rising back and forth slowly in rhythm with each breath, and a dim blue hue originating from his rings. John had found Lapis only a couple weeks ago. He was, without a doubt, the strangest Pokemon he had ever met, and he had met a lot of those.

There was how he had first stumbled across him. Eevolutions were notably rare, even more so in the wild. These breeds were almost exclusively found in urban areas, in proximity with humans. So when John saved Lapis – a full grown Umbreon, shiny, even – he had first thought he was a runaway or lost Pokemon whose owner would be very happy to have back. Shiny Pokemon, especially Eevolutions, were so sought for that he had been surprised one would even let such a rare specimen get away.

But as it turned out, this hadn't been the case. Because Lapis was not a previously owned Pokemon. At the medical center, after having treated the injuries he had gotten from the pack of Houndooms, they had checked registers for his origin, and had searched for a tattoo or a microchip on him. They had found nothing.

Then, there was the way he behaved. John had lived long enough with his other Pokemon to know their behavior. He was rarely surprised by them, even the wild ones whose comportment was harder to predict. But Lapis had shattered all of that. John had never seen a Pokemon like him before. In the first days he had been with him, Lapis had seemed like he was inept at the most trivial things. He seemed to be completely novice in fighting, which was surprising as even the youngest Pokemon usually displayed at least some fighting instinct. He constantly needed the help of his teammates for the most menial tasks, and they had to be watching over him constantly. For an adult Pokemon, this was highly unusual, and at first John had thought he was maybe suffering from developmental issues. But he had been quick to dismiss this hypothesis. Because in parallel, Lapis was showing signs of advanced cognition and intelligence. Most Pokemon, at least those living with humans, show an intelligence akin to humankind for certain aspects. But they still keep some behavioral remnants of their wild cousins, which differentiate them from humans. Not Lapis. The Umbreon showed intellectual prowess far above the average. He was extremely quick to understand human concepts that usually were out of grasp for most Pokemon. In fact, every time John had explained him something complex related to human society, just like he did for the other members of his team, Lapis had looked like he somehow already knew.

But most of all, what had been the most unnerving was his brief disappearance. At first John had thought Lapis might have had enough and had just left them. But when they found him again, he was injured, and had seemingly been fleeing something or someone. From what he had gathered from the team, John knew that the Pokemon who had attacked Lapis was not wild, which meant it was almost guaranteed that a third party was involved. Pokemon, at least the non-feral ones, don't usually attack each other. They did so only when asked by their trainer. So whoever possessed this Pokemon was probably the origin of Lapis kidnapping too. The ranger wasn't sure why someone would want to take Lapis. Sure, he was a shiny Umbreon, and kidnappings of rare Pokemon were not unheard of. But this was not the usual way such thieves usually proceeded. And they had seemed to be nicely informed, to be able to locate their camp in the middle of the forest like this. No, something was amiss. John didn't like it a bit.

All of this made him wish he had a mean of communicating more easily with the Umbreon. He could go back to a city and pay for the service of a Psychic Pokemon, but this sounded like a very bad move if they indeed were targeted by someone. Their best bet for now, he had decided, was to go deeper in the wilderness, to try and lose their potential pursuers. Then, when sure they were safe, he would find a way to communicate with Lapis and ask him directly for answers.

I woke up at the same time as my teammates. The more time passed, the more I was getting used to the schedules of John and his Pokemon. It had been hard at first to have the motivation to begin each day that early every morning – I had never been an early bird. But it had slowly become a habit now.

A quick glance to the side confirmed me John was already awake and up, getting his coffee going, as usual. I stood up and stretched a bit. Sleeping on the bare ground every night wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be at first, but a good stretch couldn't hurt. I would need it for the day to come. John had apparently decided to continue walking towards a random destination in the wild, but according to Amethyst, it was more of a pretext to put some distance between us and those who had tried to capture me. Either way, we had a long day of walk ahead of us.

We did walk for a long time, and by noon, I was exhausted. The rest of the team had to encourage me for the last remaining kilometers before our midday pause. They were, without a doubt, more fit than me, and I hoped I would eventually catch up to them physically speaking. Sure, John had proposed to carry me in my Pokeball, but I had instantly refused. I did not like being in there one bit, and preferred staying outside, even if it meant continuing to walk. I appreciated that John respected this. For all I knew, he could have just forcefully recalled me in the Pokeball, but he did not.

Fortunately, we had reached our target. In front of us, the entrance of a large cave could be seen on the flank of a rocky hill. We had left the protective forest a few hours ago, and the sun had been pounding on us mercilessly. The vegetation was scarcer now, mostly a mix of heather and fern. Because I had a very dark fur color, the heat was even harder for me to endure. So at this moment, the darkness inside the cave was very appealing to me.

John released Cobalt from his Pokeball and stood between us and the cave. He liked to brief us before beginning each mission, as I had quickly learned. This was for him the occasion to review the strategies we would use against the Pokemon we were likely to face, and to point out things to look for and help him with whatever was his mission.

"Alright, guys. We are here." He was looking at a worn-out book I suspected was a sort of guide for rangers, and he was most likely referring to the entry corresponding to this place. "This is Hillfoot cave. We are here to investigate high energy readings that have been detected in this location by sensors earlier this month. We are the first to set foot here since then".

What did he mean by "High energy readings?" I sensed that Kyan, on my right, had become quite tense just as John said those words, and I gave him an interrogative look.

"High energy here could mean that there was a powerful Pokemon in there. It is probable it left a while ago but you can never be sure" he said to me in a hushed voice. Uh uh. That was concerning indeed. Until now, with the exception of the Liepard, I had seen the team battle only relatively weak Pokemon. I had no idea what a fight against a more powerful one would look like.

The other members of the team did not seem to acknowledge this eventuality with concern, or if they did, they did not show it. John was continuing his speech.

"We can expect a lot of ground and rock types in there. Cobalt will be our main battler and the rest of you will support him. Do not take unnecessary risk. We don't know what we are going to find inside, so let's play it safe guys." I was fine with that plan if it meant I would not have to expose myself too much. I wasn't confident enough to take on more potent Pokemon yet.

The complete lack of light, a few meters past the entrance, meant that I could not see much inside, despite the nocturnal nature of my species. I imagined this was even worse for the others. But John had also thought about that and took a bulky looking flashlight out of his backpack. Besides, Topaz was here, and she could illuminate the whole area at will for a few seconds with her flamethrower attacks.

We entered the cave, Cobalt leading the way with John just behind him. Then there was me, Kyan and Amethyst, closely together in the middle of the group. Topaz was in the back. The atmosphere had become a bit more tense; I could feel it. No one was talking, choosing instead to focus on the area in front and on the sides, and trying to see past the darkness. It was the second time I was seeing the team this concentrated on a task. It would have been a bit intimidating if I had not been myself at this level of alertness too. My rings were, beside the flashlight beam, the only thing that would be seen of our group by an external observer. They were pulsating slowly with their usual blueish hue, but it was not nearly strong enough to provide light to more than their immediate surrounding. All of this made for a very strange atmosphere.

Yet, despite my initial fears, we did not encounter any aggressive Pokemon for the first 30 minutes of our exploration of the cave. We merely saw a few small but scary looking bats – Zubat, I was told - that immediately took off and fled further into the cave. Not quite the nightmarish scenario I was dreading. Still, we didn't stop focusing on the potential danger. Even though the Pokemon we had seen until now in this cave had been quite harmless, or straight up did not want to fight, we were all aware that this could change without notice.

I was carefully staying between Kyan and Amethyst, not really helping except for the occasional warning for a Pokemon ahead, as I had the best vision of the team in this darkness. I could spot potential foes before they did. The temperature had drastically dropped. I was not really inconvenienced, but John had to stop and put on something warmer.

This was a very large cave, I thought. From the outside, no one could guess how big it was. It must have spanned for kilometers underground. It had all the bells and whistles of a great cave: stalactites and stalagmites – those made our path quite tricky at some places –, bodies of water that must have remained stagnating for hundreds of years, as well as some beautiful and colorful crystals I didn't recognize. If there had been more light, enough to appreciate the entirety of what surrounded us, I was sure it would have been breathtaking. We were, however, to focused on the mission to truly appreciate the beauty of this place.

Soon, we were proved right to be wary. I was the first to spot something. We had reached a much larger part of the cave, where we could not see the far walls, let alone the ceiling. There was, however, a faint light far in the back. Something was glowing in the darkness. No. Not glowing. It was blinking regularly, in manner that reminded me of electronic devices. But what had got my attention was a dark and slowly moving form close to it. I could not quite make up what it was, but it looked definitely alive.

"Stop" I said, quietly but loud enough so that they all heard me. They turned to look at me interrogatively. "I see something, maybe a Pokemon, close to this light source here". I was desperately trying to recognize what it was, squinting my eyes, but it was just too dark in there. It was moving around the small light source, and at times, when it passed in front of it, the blinking stopped for an instant. The other seemed to finally see that, too, and tensed up at once, Topaz stopping John from advancing further with a tap from her snout.

Amethyst was soon explaining a plan. "Topaz will start by using flamethrower to illuminate this Pokemon. Not directly at it, we just want to know what it is and if it is a threat to us." Topaz nodded in understanding. "If it appears to be aggressive, we will engage it. Kyan and I will deal most of the damage, while Topaz will continue to illuminate the scene with her flamethrowers. Cobalt will remain with John to protect him while we fight." She then turned to me. My rings were now glowing with trepidation, brighter than ever. I was maybe finally about to witness a serious fight. "Lapis, you'll stay behind us and provide support if we need it. Do you think you can manage that?"

"Yeah, understood." I was a bit disappointed to not be able to partake this battle directly, but at least I was useful for something. I was now an asset rather than a liability to them. I moved back behind them, and tried to concentrate while they advanced slowly towards the unidentified Pokemon.

We moved quietly until we were only a dozen meter or so from the form. I could see it a bit more clearly now. I looked a bit like an oversized bipedal bat, with huge ears and a quite prominent spiky tail. What was perhaps the most striking about its appearance was its glowing yellow eyes. They were the only part of its body that was easy to make out in this darkness. Suddenly, it seemed to stop its erratic movement, and began approaching us. It must have had spotted us.

Topaz didn't wait too long and released a large flamethrower to the side, which illuminated the whole scene. For a brief moment, we were able to see how huge this cave really was. We could also easily observe the Pokemon. It was a Noivern. Judging from the reaction of my teammate, it must have been a big one, as they all tensed a bit at this sight. And it clearly was a feral one, because it immediately ran towards us with bloodlust in its eyes.

Topaz immediately followed her first flamethrower with another, this time aiming directly at the fast-approaching Pokemon. It connected, but the Noivern was barely slowed down by the deluge of scorching flames. Soon, Kyan was adding a large bolt of electricity, which seemed to have a bit more effect, but did not prevent the bat from plummeting into Topaz who was not able to dodge fast enough. I carefully took a step back. My course of action was clear: avoid taking any hit and provide assistance. It seemed like perhaps my help would be needed sooner than expected.

Topaz recoiled from the pain of the hit. The Noivern initiated another attack, but was stopped by another electric arc from Kyan. The bat was using his wing like arms in a fury of slashes against the Arcanine, jumping and flying on occasion to add strength to its blows.

"We need to stop it from getting this close! It will slaughter us!" Kyan shouted, between two attacks. The Noivern seemed to have its entire focus on Topaz. While she dodged most of its attacks, she was obviously struggling and some managed to land on her. Each time, she voiced a sharp cry of pain.

It seemed to me we alone would not come up on top of this fight. I looked back behind me, hoping to get Cobalt or Amethyst to help us. But I was horrified to see they were in a fight of their own, as they and John were under an attack from a dozen of the smaller bats we had seen earlier in the cave. The Rhynorn was desperately trying to protect John from the smaller Noibats, while the white Ninetales was shooting what looked like Ice Beams after Ice Beams at the flying Pokemon. Shit. They would not be able to help us.

"Lapis, we need your help here! Use moonlight, now!". Kyan yelled at me, and my attention was immediately back at my two teammates. Trying to emulate what I had already done a few times now, I briefly closed my eyes and willed it to happen again. It did work without any issue, and after a few seconds – which was still too long for my likings – the usual ball of light of my healing move was floating a few inches above my forehead. Its invisible rays instantly connected with Topaz, who suddenly seemed to gain most of her vitality back. However, this time my move was actually healing some serious damage, and as such, the stamina drain on me was much more pronounced than the other times I had used it. I quickly began to try and modulate the amount of healing given and, well, the potency of my move so I could keep it going longer. But even though it made it more manageable, I still would not be able to use it for much longer. Another positive effect, though, was that it helped to alleviate one of the Noivern's initial advantage: its ability to deal with darkness Beside the occasional flamethrower and other fire-based attacks, Topaz and Kyan were basically blind in this fight, while the Noivern had perfect night vision. But with moonlight going, not anymore. It radiated all over the cave, to the point that I could distinguish the situation with ease.

Now back into the fight, Topaz had regrouped close to Kyan, and together they were successfully fending all of the Noivern's attacks, even succeeding at striking back a few times. I understood that more than the healing capacity of this move, it was moonlight's ability to illuminate the area that was important now. I therefore needed to make it last as long as possible. To further increase the amount of time I would be able to continue using the move, I tried to further lower its healing output. It was becoming nothing more than a glorified lightbulb floating on top of me, barely able to heal maybe even a scratch. But it did the job, providing ample light to the scene and allowing the Arcanine and the Jolteon to fight on equal terms with the Noivern. It would last a long time, and if they needed more heal, I could always increase the healing effect at the cost of more stamina.

However, seeing that his close-range attacks had become much less successful, the Noivern suddenly changed tactics, opting to stay further away from us. It began preparing something I did not recognize, and its maw was suddenly surrounded by a purple hue with increasing brightness.

"Shit, it is going to use Dragon Pulse!". Kyan panicked shout frightened me and I braced myself for what was to come. Whatever it was, getting hit by hit would be bad news, I was sure. I kept moonlight going for as long as I could. I would have to stop it to see the attack coming.

When our foe released its attack, I was horrified to see that it was actually aiming at me. I threw myself on the side and somehow managed to barely avoid it without an inch to spare. I felt a strange and unnatural heat when it passed close. And briefly, the cave had been illuminated not by me, but by the freakish purple light of the Noivern's attack.

I had no time to really recover from this as the Noivern already launched a same attack at my new position. This time, I wasn't fast enough and got hit on my back leg by a part of the purple ray. It felt like I had been drained of most of my energy. It didn't hurt physically at all, but it felt like I had taken a hit inside, a hit to my core. I wasn't sure I would be able to continue using moonlight now.

From the corner of my eyes, I saw that both Kyan and Topaz had counterattacked the Pokemon with moves of their own. But the Noivern seemed to brush those off, and his furious gaze was still trained on me. It was focusing me! It had somehow understood that my ability to use moonlight was our main asset and it was now trying to put me out of the equation. If he succeeded, my teammates would have to fight in the dark again. Needless to say, we could not afford that.

Topaz seemed to have understood this change of tactics from our foe and was trying to distract or at least interrupt it every time it tried to prepare a Dragon Pulse. Kyan was assisting her, sending an electric arc every chance he got. I took advantage of this and stepped back a bit to put more distance between me and the Noivern. If it managed to send an attack towards me, I would have more time and space to dodge. While initially I had been quite frightened by this fight, I was starting to get engrossed by it, and all my thoughts were turned towards one goal: bringing down this opponent.

Suddenly, the Noivern changed tactics again. It flapped its wing-like arms very rapidly, to the point that I could only see a blur, and that created a sort of very strong circular wind, quite like a miniature hurricane. Kyan was fast enough to get out of the way in time, but Topaz, who was already weakened since the beginning of the fight despite my healing moves, took it directly. For a split second, there was silence in the cave, and we looked at her with concern. I began to think she would brush it off like the previous attacks she had endured, but it seemed this one was the one too far, and she collapsed heavily on the ground.

The big bat dragon didn't waste any second and, capitalizing on our surprise, immediately started to focus Kyan. Thankfully, the Jolteon was able to avoid another Dragon Pulse aimed at him. It seemed, however, that the Noivern was getting the upper hand. Kyan was constantly dodging and could not send any attack of his own. We wouldn't be able to keep that up for too long, I was sure. We had to, somehow, take back the initiative. How could we take it by surprise?

And just like that, I had an idea. I hadn't made any offensive move since the beginning of this fight. Maybe if I tried one now, it would be enough to take our enemy by surprise. Amethyst had told me to stay in the back, but as far as I was concerned, we needed a plan B. And with her out of this fight, we needed one right now. If Kyan were to be taken out too – and it could be just a matter of seconds now – the Noivern would immediately get rid of me. I just wasn't powerful enough to stand up to it head on.

What were my options? The only offensive move I knew was Tackle, but I had seen how fast the Noivern was earlier. It would have been pretty suicidal to get close enough to land a hit. I needed something else. Moonlight, unfortunately, was not very helpful in this situation either. Or could it? Topaz had said to me that the difference between a support move and an offensive move was essentially the intent… I now knew what I was going to try.

Kyan had been forced to back up under the constant and overwhelming pressure of the Noivern's attacks he was now alone to face. He was now finding himself trapped against a wall of the cave and unable to put more distance between him and his foe. I needed to act while the dragon was still focused on him. Now or never.

I closed my eyes again. I did essentially what I was trained to do when I learned moonlight. Felt the now familiar presence of this ball of unknown energy forming inside me. Only, this time, I did not want it to be help and relief for my teammates. I willed it to be pain, to hurt this monster of a bat who had knocked out Topaz and was about to do the same to Kyan. The energy resulted was not bright and warm like the usual. I was dark, cold, and though it did not really have mass, I could feel it was heavy. It did not materialize over my head, but rather in my closed maw, filling it with completely. I did not want to stop here. I had only one go at this, so I had to make it count. To hell with keeping my stamina! I forced even more energy from my core to build up. All of my senses were begging me to stop there, but I carried on. I put all my anger against the Noivern, my fears since I arrived in this world, to fuel this effort. I didn't stop until I felt like I would collapse from exhaustion.

The Noivern was still completely ignoring me, probably not considering me as a real threat, and was entirely focused on Kyan. With a final swing of its wing, it hit the Jolteon square in his midsection, and my teammate was violently projected to the side where he impacted a wall. Kyan did not get up.

Everything happened fast. The Noivern, probably satisfied that the Jolteon was out of the fight, turned back and looked for me. I was only a meter or so behind it.

We locked eyes.

For a split second, we looked at each other, and the time seemed to stop.

Point blank range. Now or never.

I opened my maw and released my attack.

Some notes from the author:

New chapter, and Lapis gets in his first big fight. I also tried something new at the beginning of this chapter, taking another point of view for a few lines. I tend to think it helps with the flow of the story. Again, thanks to all readers of this, and see you next month.