Chapter 12: A Situation Occurs

Morning rose as the group I was with came into view. The light coming from the sun burned my eyes, the one thing Umbreon like me didn't really like. Which is why we find a cave or something to sleep in until we're good and ready for the sun. I felt tired after the long night, bypassing all the pokemon scurrying back to their home. The need for appetite was long lost. My stomach growled, demanding food, but I only winded up ignoring it.

As it were, I was just dragging my feet ever so slowly back to the campsite. My eyes were trying to force themselves shut. I blinked them rapidly and yawned. I'd catch up on sleep tonight. I wouldn't want to cause my master to lose precious time wherever it was we were going. Due to last night's fight, I forgot where we were going completely. All I knew was that it was a city. Of course, was it really night when I was fighting? Or was it morning? Exactly what time of day does the new day begin? Why am I always randomally going off onto another subject?

"Rawr!" someone suddenly said. I felt someone land on my back. "Hand over what items you got on you. Stick 'em up!" There was a slight pause. "I will eat you alive!" I turned my head, trying to see who it was that was on my back, even though I knew who it was.

"Hello, Skitty."

"Oh!" she said, surprised to see me. "It's you! I thought you might have been a predator."

"Obviously I'm not," I said. "You haven't been up the entire night, have you?"

"Meh," Skitty said, hopping down off my back and walked off back over to the tents, me following behind her.

"Had some late night scrapings?" I heard Charcoal ask me. I looked over towards a tree where he was apparently leaning on.

"I guess you could say that," I said nonchantly. What was that word I just spoke? I'd have to ask about it later.

"Another predator run in?" he questioned.

"I really don't feel like talking about it," I said, plopping myself down next to the tent.

"Fair enough, I suppose," Charcoal said, shoving himself off the tree and walking himself over to where I lied. Cue one stomach growl right there and then, causing a blush to form over my face. Charcoal raised what I think would be called an eyescale at me. I knew what was going through his mind. Curse that Sneasel and his stupidity for dying for losing against me.

It bugged me though, that Charcoal hadn't said a single thing relating to my stomach. I knew he knew that something was up, but I wasn't really going to tell him that I stumbled upon some clan wanting to steal the power of every legendary pokemon to possibly take over the world. Would I though? I wasn't sure. A part of me wanted to tell him, but there might be a possibility that he wouldn't believe me.

"I WILL NOT BE BROKEN!" I cried out, startling Charcoal. He stared at me, arms folded across his chest with wide eyes. O.K. So I happened to have freaked him out. What was going through my mind at the current moment, I couldn't be sure. Before I could recover from my sudden outburst, my attention was held upon the sound of what sounded like a zipper being unzipped, after a groan and yawn were heard.

"What's all the racket out here?" I heard my master ask as he stepped out of the tent, rubbing his eyes sleepily. It was then he spotted me. "Oh Zack! You're back. Had a good night out?" Obviously this guy had no clu e what I had been through. I mean hello! I happen to have battle wounds on me. Did he not care? "What happened to you? Did you get into a fight?" Ah! There was the note of concern in his voice. So he did care.

"Well, I guess you could say that," I said, even though I knew he wouldn't understand. His face lit up, taking my words as a sign of me being O.K.

"That's good," he said with a smile. "Well, we have a long trip ahead of us, so I'm going to go wake up Laura." He walked off, leaving Charcoal and I alone again.

"So where's Ted?" I asked.

"Pokeball," Charcoal replied. "I'm glad you're back. That Skitty must have woken me up half a dozen times during the night with her constant howling at the moon." I blinked, confused at what Charcoal was saying. "She believed she was a coyote and had to howl."

"Don't wolf type pokemon howl?" I asked.

"They do," Charcoal said. "But so do coyotes."

"O.K. then," I said, my stomach growling again. I got up and walked around to find something to eat. My master fell out of Laura's tent, screaming on about something. I wasn't sure what it was, but I wasn't all too interested. I eventually gave up searching after failing to find something to eat and returned to where the others were in time to see them packing up the last bit of thier items.

"Well you guys," my master said. "We all ready to go?"

"If it gets us out of this forest I am," Laura said.

"All right then!" my master said, pumping a fist into the air. "On to Pewter City!"

My walking had slowed down to almost a drag sometime later as we all went deeper into the forest. I was hurt, tired, and hungry. And Laura was now yelling at my master for being an irresponsible trainer, letting me look like this.

"Well excuse me for not having a Super Potion!" my master yelled back. Curse these large and sensitive ears. "Maybe we should go back to Viridian City and restock on supplies just to lose a couple of days."

"Well maybe if you were more responsible, Zack wouldn't be looking like he is now!" Laura shouted.

"Oh brother!" Charcoal said, rubbing his head. "I'm going to definitely have a headache before we get to Pewter."

"I'll say," Ted said, who joined us a few minutes ago. "The way they fight, they might as well be a couple of married bickerers."

"That last word wasn't even a word," Charcoal said.

"Whatever man," Ted said. "Had to say something, you know?"

"I hear you," Charcoal said as my stomach growled for the umpteenth time.

"Hungry much?" Ted asked.

"I presume that Zack lost to a late night scraping," Charcoal said. Drat! He knew something was up.

"Presume?" Ted asked, taking note of the uncertainty in Charcoal's voice, even though he didn't sound like he was uncertain. Charcoal just shrugged off Ted's questioning by looking up into the trees. After some looking, he finally found what he was looking for.

"Ah!" he said. "There." He pointed up to a tree, turning both my attention and Ted's to what he was pointing at. Skitty, well, she was busy off elsewhere doing Mew knows what. But my train of thought was more on the apples hanging from the tree rather than her. I licked my lips, saliva drooling from my mouth. I was so hungry, it was the only thing I could think about.

Charcoal walked over to the tree and climbed it, using his claws to hug against the tree. "They might not be much of a meal," he said, climbing up towards the fruit. "But hopefully a few of these will last us until tomorrow."

"If we even survive that long," Ted said jokingly, a small smile forming on his face.

Charcoal chuckled as he reached the branch. "You're a riot, Ted," he said, beginning to pick an apple. He suddenly stopped, his head glancing off into the tree.

"Everything all right, Charcoal?" I asked as my ears picked up a rustling sound from right up in the tree.

"Oh crap!" Charcoal said. "Guys. I think we just entered-" He stopped suddenly as a white needle shot out, scraping Charcoal on his side. "AARRGGGGHHHHH!" he yelled, losing his footing as he fell off the branch.

"Charcoal!" I yelled, sprinting into a Quick Attack. Charcoal landed on my back, thankfully. Due to my yell, both Laura and my master ended their bickering and looked to see what was happening.

"Charcoal?" I heard my master say, concerned.

"Watch out!" Laura said. I looked up to see where she was pointing to see a Beedrill fly out from the tree. By the way its wings buzzed, I could tell it was mad. We all watched as the Beedrill turned and swooped down towards us, and by us, I mean me with Charcoal on my back.

"Zack!" my master yelled out. I stood there dumbfoundly as the Beedrill buzzed right up to me and swung one of its needles forward, the tip of it glowing purple. I would have been dead right there and then if that attack landed. Luckily, it didn't, for Ted suddenly did his speed trick and used a volley of Fury Swipes on the Beedrill, marking it up pretty badly.

"Thanks," I said as the Beedrill flew off.

"No problem," Ted said, giving me one of those thumb up things.

"Zack! Charcoal! Are you guys all right?" my master said as he rushed over to us, checking over me to make sure I was O.K. "You didn't get hurt, did you boy?"

"I'm fine," I said, trying to reassure him.

"Why'd that Beedrill attack them?" Laura asked. "They didn't do anything."

"We're in Beedrill territory," my master said. "I read about how a pokemon gets defensive if a trespasser enters their territory. Sometimes they'll fire off warning shots for them to back off. Other times they'll just attack because they're like that."

Laura stared at my master, dumbfounded as he checked on Charcoal. "How'd you know that?" she asked.

"I'll explain later," my master said. "Right now, we need to get to Pewter City as soon as possible. That Beedrill Ted let get away will be back. And with many others, I'm sure."

"But we're still a day away from Pewter City," Laura said. "I vote we just hide out until we're sure the Beedrill are gone."

"We don't have time for that!" my master said. "We need to get to Pewter City right away so we can get to the Pokemon Center. Charcoal's been poisoned!"