EPISODE I - RISING STARS

CHAPTER VI - GETTING THE BEARINGS

The sun was now high in the sky after the several hours spent on the run, as Rex and Alain escorted the three smaller Pokémon away from the slaver camp, working to put as much distance as possible from said camp before someone decided to follow them.

It eventually became apparent that the slavers weren't on their tails, and Rex called the group to a halt at a small rocky creek within the forest.

A small waterfall tumbled down a short drop at one end of the creek, before the water carried on into the trees. There were plenty of small boulders to rest on and a handful of isolated trees to provide shelter from the sun.

Rex sat on one of those boulders, carefully sorting through his possessions. He may have recovered his satchel, and knew that a lot of his possessions were there at a glance, but he still wanted to be sure he had everything. Even if he did, he had no idea if the slavers had thrown anything extra in, or reshuffled it all.

Luckily, everything was accounted for, save for one thing. His poke.

I suppose that was obvious for the slavers to take.

With a heavy sigh, he began to reload the satchel, casting a glance across the creek. The Bulbasaur and Charmander were tucked in under the rock formation by the waterfall, whilst the Squirtle was lazing in the stream itself on her back, all memory of the desperate escape shoved out of the way.

Finally, there was Alain. The Kirlia was sat on a boulder at the other side of the stream, running a sharpening stone along the length of his sword. He knew weapons like that were extremely rare, especially with all the moves being thrown around.

"Kinda strange to see stuff like around, huh?"

Rex jerked upright at the sudden voice, his head swivelling round to find the source.

"Oh for the love of- seriously Rex, you really need to stop reacting like that! They'll think you are losing your marbles!"

As the realisation settled in, Rex narrowed his eyes and clicked his beak hard in annoyance. Maybe be less… spontaneous?

That earned a chuckle from Samiel, "Well, how do you want me to do that? Tap the inside of your skull? Not exactly an easy place to work in. No offence."

The Combusken rolled his eyes, Point taken. It's just something I'm not used to.

"Alright, I'll give you that."

Rex directed his gaze back towards the other mercenary again, inspecting his weapon before returning to the sharpening. It's not a common thing to see anyway, even with mercenaries.

"Ah. The blade itself seems… vaguely familiar, but then again, that could be the case with any sword."

Huh…

"So, what's the plan? You are short on money. At least, I think that's money anyway. We're gonna have to make more if we are going to get the gear we need to take on Night Aura right?"

Rex scratched his beak with a single claw. He did want to take on Night Aura, but he knew money alone would not be enough to help him in the fight with them. He needed to become stronger, faster and more able to take them on head on. Maybe even other mercenaries to back him up.

Still though… money would be a good start.

If only he had a better idea on where they were.

"Well, if you are unsure on where to start, why not ask some of the others? Maybe they are local to here. That sword guy might have passed through here before."

Rex huffed to himself, I suppose you are right.

Slinging the satchel over his shoulder, Rex stood up and hopped across the small stream, walking towards Alain. Even if Alain wasn't familiar with the terrain, the two of them might have been able to work something out.

"Alain." Rex said as he walked towards him, "You doing alright?"

The Kirlia didn't look up, his eyes still focused on the blade, "I'm fine. Yourself?"

Used to talking to quiet and withdrawn Pokémon from time to time, Rex nodded back, "Yeah. Thanks again for the help in getting out."

"Of course." Alain replied. His sharpening stone ceased moving, hovering in place. "What did you do?"

Rex's next question quickly died in his beak to be changed at the last moment, "I'm sorry?" he managed to choke out.

Alain's eyes narrowed, "The slavers only kept the strongest fighters away from the camp. That was what I managed to sense. I was wondering what you did to warrant that."

Rex directed his gaze towards the treetops, thinking back to the ruins, trying to think about what kind of state the place was in when he passed out. Lots of bodies for one.

"A job I was on went wrong." Rex said after a moment, "A lot of people got killed. They must have found me unconscious and figured I was a threat."

The Combusken thought he had caught the faintest glimmer of blue flash across the Kirlia's eyes. He knew he wouldn't be able to stop a psychic-type from getting into his head, but he knew that psychic powers were something that had to be learned and trained with as well.

"I see…" Alain mused, his mouth twitching, "Curious."

Rex narrowed his eyes, feeling the feathers at the back of his neck stiffen, "Did you read my mind?"

Unexpectedly, the psychic-type let out a faint chuckle, "No. I did not. Psychic powers are not my speciality. But I do tend to sense stray thoughts. I didn't pick anything from you though."

"Okay, that might be me." Samiel chimed in, "Our thoughts might be overlapping enough that he can't get in your head."

This time containing his reaction to the Scorbunny's words, Rex tilted his head as he relaxed again, "More of a swordsmon then?"

Alain lifted the sword up into the light. It was silver, with a gently curved blade with a single edge. It almost seemed more like an art piece than a weapon. "You could say that. Don't worry. I don't have intention of reading any minds, even on the job."

As the Kirlia lowered the weapon, Rex found his opportunity, "Speaking of jobs. Any idea on where we are? We need to try and work our way back to civilisation of some kind."

Alain cast his gaze around the creek, as if looking for some landmark. "I… do not."

Rex did his own scan, even though he knew there was nothing around that he would immediately recognise either. "We need to try and get above the canopy." He said, "Try and spot one of the mountains."

"And use that as a landmark." Alain finished for him, "A sound plan."

With a shrug, Rex continued, "After we get these guys somewhere safe, we can worry about the P-"

"You know we are on the western side of the Central Mountains, right?" said a rough, but feminine voice.

Standing off to one side of the two mercenaries was the Bulbasaur, the grass-type looking between the pair. "I mean, you could have just asked me. I live around here."

Rex glanced over to Alain, who seemed only slightly stunned as he swept a bang of hair back.

"Yeah. Told you one of these guys would know something." Samiel chimed in.

I noticed. Rex grunted mentally back, before turning his attention back towards the Bulbasaur, "Sorry, what was your name again?"

A giant grin spread across the face of the grass-type. "Betty."

Rex nodded back in greeting, "Rex. So… are we near any big towns or something like that?"

The Bulbasaur cracked up laughing, "Big towns? If you count that little hamlet Riverwood and my family's homestead."

Rex leaned back slightly at the words, "Your family has their own land?"

"Hell yeah!" she exclaimed, a vine reaching to her side and pulling out a scrap of paper. "Got the whole family here!" She held up the paper, revealing a sketch of dozens of Bulbasaurs, several Ivysaurs and a handful of Venusaurs all posing next to each other. Rex's eyes drifted towards the top of the image, where wrapped in a pair of vines was a single egg.

That's… new…

"You… put an egg in your family portrait?" Alain weakly muttered.

"Hey!" Betty snapped, "That's gonna be my little cousin! Bruce!"

Rex felt his spine crack as he stiffened, "How do you know they're – you know what, nevermind.". Rubbing his forehead, Rex decided to change tac. "I think I went through Riverwood once before. Any idea on how to get there?"

Betty's features hardened, "You won't get to the main road from here. Your best bet would be to follow the stream north, it leads to the old iron mine." She jabbed a vine in the direction of the small waterfall, heading up hill.

Alain frowned, "Why cut through a mine? There would have to be a better way round."

Biting her lip, Betty shook her head, "Not really, unless you want to go the wrong way to get to our homestead, and that's even more out of the way. You'd be looking at days to get to the road from there. The mine you could clear in a day. We couldn't really offer anything other than a place to rest anyway."

There was something that bugged Rex, and it wasn't to do with the long trek via the homestead. "I've got a feeling that the mine is abandoned, right?"

"Only for about a year." Betty confirmed, "The vein ran out last I heard."

Rex grinded his beak gently as he processed this, abandoned mines never just ran out of stuff unless the tapped vein was tiny. "If we did go that way… there would have to be something else up with that mine."

Betty shrugged, "I heard some stuff about the mine starting to get low on oxygen, but that's right at the very bottom of the mine. A friend of mine said that you can just cut across the top levels and be fine."

Scratching his beak, Rex looked back towards the treetops. It would make sense to take the long route round, maybe even restock there. But a part of him really needed to get to the town as quickly as possible, not only to replenish his supplies, but also immediately look for any news coming from the direction of Blackridge. If he had been lugged by the slavers all the way across the Central Mountains, then word of the ruins job would have surely spread to Riverwood, maybe even further. Even if the outcome wasn't being shouted out, he could still potentially get an idea on what had happened since just from the jobs on offer.

Maybe he might even find Night Aura there. Or a clue leading their way.

There's still one thing to check.

He turned back to Betty. "Don't you guys need help getting to your homestead?" he asked, "If you get in trouble again-"

"Ah, don't worry about us!" Betty cheered, a big, toothless smile forming, "Most of the Ferals round here are right wimps! We'll be fine."

Well, I guess I have to take her at her word. She does know the area.

With that, he looked back towards Alain, who had now sheathed his sword. "What do you think Alain?"

The Krilia stuck up his chin, "If she is confident that they will be safe, I'd be more interested in reaching the town. I could do with the work."

Nodding at that, Rex crossed his arms, "You don't mind if I come with then?"

Rex and Alain bid farewell to Betty and her travelling companions an hour later, with the former taking the time to double check if the others were okay with carrying on to the homestead on their own. The Bulbasaur would only cheerfully confirm they'd be fine, before the trio thanked the pair for their help in freeing them from the slavers.

Relieved that their spirits were high, the two mercenaries stepped up the waterfall and began to follow the stream towards the mine.

The stream was easy enough to follow under the tree cover as they walked alongside each other, only moving ahead of the other as they stepped over a boulder or log. Alain moved in silence, taking care not to catch his sword on anything. Rex meanwhile felt his mind turn inward.

Samiel? You still in here?

Rex felt a pressure run through his forehead just before Samiel spoke again, "Aye! Not exactly anywhere else to go. What's up?"

Just thinking about Alain's psychic power. You said he might not be able read my… our minds?

The Combusken swore he could sense the rabbit nodding, "Yyeah… I kinda had the idea that our two minds would cancel each other out. Not like we become vegetables, but more like two waves hitting each other and disappearing. The water is still there, but you can't see how it's moving."

So, in other words, psychic types can't read my mind. He rubbed the back of his head as he walked onwards, That's pretty handy then.

"Well, don't think you are immune here." Samiel warned in a firm tone, "A more powerful psychic type like a Gardevoir or an Alakazam will probably still be able to get in your head. And a psychic attack is still going to hurt like a B-I-TCH."

I'll keep that in mind. Rex replied as he shifted his attention to Alain, the Kirlia pausing for a moment to inspect the path ahead. "You been a mercenary for long?" the fire type asked, pulling in next to him.

"Five years." Alain replied, "Just making ends meet."

Rex raised a brow at that. He knew some Pokémon who did the mercenary work just for the money, but for most, it was a lifestyle choice. "Pretty difficult way of making Poke." He noted.

"It is something I'm good at."

This time, the avian frowned as a new thought formed, "I'm guessing that reason is why the slavers put you up there too."

The Kirlia merely shrugged, "You could say that. A caravan I was camping with got attacked by the slavers. I was the only one who managed to take out a few of them when they killed one of their hostages."

Bloody slavers. Rex growled mentally, Always finding some way to ruin lives.

His anger must have been obvious to the Kirlia, "At least we disrupted their operation." He said.

"Agreed." Rex replied, looking briefly towards the narrowing path ahead. A little spark went off in his head as he realised something. If Rex and Alain both needed money, then depending on the jobs available, it put Rex and by extension Alain into a difficult position. Who would take what job? Would they have to scabble over one job?

There was only one easy solution.

"Speaking of operations." Rex started with a shallow breath, "When we get to Riverwood, how about we partner up?"

This time, there was a faint hiss as Alain's head twitched, "I work alone."

Not letting himself flinch, Rex continued, "And that's fair enough. I'm only thinking until we both get some Poke in our pockets. After that, then we can go our separate ways." He hesitated for a moment before speaking again, "It saves us scabbling over one job."

With a grunt, the fairy-type's eyes narrowed as he mused the proposal. After a couple of seconds, he crossed his arms and turned back to the avian. "50-50 split. No more, no less." He stressed. "But only until we have enough to get ourselves reestablished."

Feeling himself get a bit lighter as he realised that was about the best outcome he could have hoped for, Rex extended a paw out, "You've got yourself a deal."

The two shook hands, their pact made.

"Smart move. Maybe we could learn some tricks along the way." Samiel suggested.

Maybe. Rex responded, before turning his attention back to the stream. "Come on, let's get to that mine."

The pair continued onwards, following the stream further uphill until finally, they reached the lower slopes of a wooded hill. Built into its base, a dark tunnel propped up with wooden support beams, gaped open in the side of the hill. The stream flowed slowly out of it, emerging out of the darkness.

Alain's eyes flashed blue briefly as he peered into the tunnel, one hand placed on his sword, "It's not going to be easy to find our way around."

Eying a rusty lantern by the entrance, Rex scooped it up to find a candle still inside. "I can help with light."

As Rex spat a little Ember onto the candle to light it, Alain cast a wary eye, "Let's be careful with that." He warned, "We don't know what we could set off in there."

The Combusken sealed the lantern, making sure the candle flame didn't start dimming. "Any dust in there should have settled down by now. We'll just go slow and make sure we avoid going deeper into the mine then we need to."

Regardless, as a precaution, Rex gathered a handful of thick sticks and some abandoned rags near the entrance to wrap around them. He passed one over to the fairy-type, who cast a curious eye over the assembled touches. "You seem to know a fair bit on the topic."

"A few Pokémon from our village worked in a mine." Rex explained, feeling a faint flicker in his heart as he was reminded of home. "They had to take precautions with firedamp."

"Firedamp?"

"Flammable gases. Methane mainly. My dad couldn't work in the mines, but he knew enough to teach me how to stay safe in case I ever got stuck in one."

With the torches ready and the lantern lit, Rex hefted his metal light source and looked towards the cave entrance. "Ready?"

"Ready." Alain confirmed, and together, they walked into the tunnel. The darkness soon became all encompassing, with only the light of the lantern to guide their way and the sound of the water trickling down the stream in the centre. It was an outflow tunnel for any water that entered the surface levels of the mine, hopefully to divert it away from the deeper sections. There were none of those strange lights that were in the ruins. Would have been-

The Combusken's chest clenched tight as red claws flashed across his eyes. He stumbled forward, a hand instinctively snapping out to hold himself up, taking care not to let the lantern slip out of his grasp. Rex hissed, feeling his chest relax. "Shit! Easy Rex! Try not to think about it."

Alain's eyes flashed blue again as he spun round towards him. "What's wrong?"

Grinding his beak as he pushed the memory aside, he shoved himself off the wall. "I'm alright." Rex said, not quite believing his own words. "Come on."

With a narrowed eye from Alain, they carried on. But Rex still felt a shiver run down his spine as he moved, trying to keep the memory of the fight resurfacing. What the hell did happen to him? He clenched his free fist tight.

"Might be a side effect of the Obelisk." Samiel said, "There's probably all sorts of stuff about that thing we don't know about."

I'm just hoping it doesn't happen for a while…

The journey through the tunnel was straight forward, with few bends and corners to come across. Even the few junctions they found had all but one path boarded up with planks.

That was when they heard the fluttering over the sound of the increasingly louder water.

Alain stopped first; a hand raised to stop Rex. "Do you hear that?"

"Yeah." Rex replied, eyes narrowed as he raised the lantern, trying to pick out something in the darkness. But there was nothing. "Can you sense anything?"

Alain closed his eyes, taking in a breath as he seemed to focus inward. There was a brief shimmer of a blue aura around the Krilia, before it just as quickly faded away. "There are Pokémon ahead, but that is as much as I can glean. Ferals perhaps?"

The Combusken's claws clicked together, all too aware he couldn't just start spitting out fireballs to deal with any sheltering feral Pokémon in case he set something ablaze. "Not even an idea on how many or how far?"

A quiet tut came by, "Like I said, not really my speciality."

I wonder why he hasn't trained his psychic powers…

They pressed on, the fluttering getting louder as they moved, now accompanied by something squeaking. Zubat most likely, Rex reckoned. But they still had no definite idea.

Regardless, no Pokémon appeared before the pair finally emerged inside a larger chamber. It was about ten square metres across, with three separate tunnels leading out apart from the one they had just exited. The water flowed in from a thin beam of light in the ceiling, before flowing along a channel leading to the outflow tunnel.

But at the centre of the chamber was a gaping hole, where a ramp slowly circled the wall deeper into the depths.

"I've tried to sense them again." Alain whispered, one hand now gripping the hilt of his sword as he scanned their surroundings. "I can't work out much else, apart from they are down one of these tunnels."

Rex kept his claws ready, using the lantern's light to check the remaining parts of the ceiling. There was still no sign of the feral Pokémon acting without any sentience, but Rex could still hear the flutter of wings down below. Down in that deeper shaft.

We might have some luck then.

Feeling some of his concern fading, Rex directed his gaze towards the far tunnel, gently sloping upwards. "Come on, if we keep quiet, we won't attract what's down-"

"Err… hello?"

Rex stiffened as he spun towards the source… that shaft leading deeper into the ground. Alain was also looking in that direction, evidently not needing psychic abilities to hear that.

"You know, you can be as quiet as you like." Came the voice, quiet but still clearly trying to project. "Just, well, not too loud. Like, try not to laugh, okay?"

"Maybe… we should just move on." Alain whispered, a befuddled look on his face.

Frowning, Rex kept his eyes on the hole, "Probably would be best to check."

"Guys! Come on…" the voice growled, "I'm not exactly in a position to do anything here."

With an uncomfortable itch growing in the back of his mind, and with no idea if it was just his conscience or Samiel prodding him, Rex approached and peered over the edge and down into the shaft.

A couple of metres down, hanging just above part of the ramp by his legs and a trapped bag strap, was a Zangoose, slimmer and smaller than most. But otherwise he still fairly stocky and had a tuft of hair on top of his head. A pair of pink eyes looked up towards him with a sheepish look. "Yep… I can explain this!"

Samiel whistled inside Rex's skull, "Okay, I can't wait to hear this."

Rex leaned back for a second, taking a moment to process the sight below before looking back down, "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah!" replied the normal-type, "Apart from the sudden headaches and coughing fits." He mustered another grin, a bit more… cheesy than before.

"He's delusional." Alain stated, joining Rex in looking down at him.

"Whoa… when did Gardenvoir get really big ponytails?" asked the Zangoose, his vision looking a little cloudy.

Grinding his beak, Rex moved for the ramp, "It's because he's upside down!" he hissed, "His lungs are getting crushed. Hang on, I think I can pull you down!"

He placed the lantern at the very top of the ramp before descending one half turn to get underneath the Zangoose. He noticed that the strap belonged to a satchel on the Zangoose's person, and that had not just wrapped up around both his legs, but around another piece of rope that had been left hooked on the wall by the miners. "How did you even get stuck here?"

"A big bat flew into me." The Zangoose replied.

At first, Rex scoffed to himself. Alain may have been partly right, being hung upside for so long was going to cause problems.

But when he looked up again, he found the mammal glaring at him with narrow eyes. "It's down at the bottom. And if we aren't careful, it's going to come flying right back up after us."

The cool, quiet tone of his voice caused Rex to freeze. This was not a lack of oxygen. This time, he meant it.

"Alain." Rex started, "Keep watch on the shaft. I'm cutting him loose."

Rex willed some of his strength into his claws to use Slash, already causing them to glow softly white. He couldn't risk using fire in here, so his claws were the next best thing. But he would still have to jump and hit the rope. Take that out, and the Zangoose should land on the ramp.

"I won't be able to levitate you." Alain warned, crouched on the edge. "Are you sure about this?"

"It's the best bet we've got." Rex replied.

"Ugh… hold on." groaned the Zangoose as he started shuffling in place, "I'll try shifting my bag, should make it easier to-"

That was when the glass ball fell free from the satchel and bounced off the floor. Rex spun, his eyes immediately locking onto the blue sphere, and instinctively reached for it, but it was too late.

It rolled over the edge and into the abyss. Rex could only watch as the object disappeared into the darkness.

A sharp crack rang out from below, and with that, the fluttering went silent.

When it returned, it was louder, much more rapid and was accompanied by a very clear sound.

The sound of gnashing teeth and painful shrieks.

Samiel's voice went very quiet.

"Oh fuck…"