The Charizard crouched down and jumped. The ground cracked and the trees of the forest behind the pokemon swayed violently as the dragon reached the sky.
"Run!" I screamed.
We ran across the dirt and rocks, leading the group were the Anderson, Rebecca and Magnemite, with the twins' age and fitness, it wasn't hard for them to take the lead over Jess, who dropped to the second place. Behind her was Valley, the Minccino was running forward and clearing the way by pulling branches or pushing big rocks out of the way. Guarding the rear was Aiden, Mesa, and I.
Speaking of Mesa, the Baltoy suddenly turned and pointed in a direction.
"To the right!"
Magnemite was the first to understand the instruction, the steel type passed the twins and turned to the right, the twins followed, and then the rest of the group. Meanwhile, the sound of flapping wings had finally come closer. I looked over the shoulder to see the Charizard's chest expanding like a balloon.
"Rock Tomb!"
The brown of rocks filled my vision just before the red of the flames could reach me. Mesa had raised a half dome behind and over us to halt the Flamethrower. The flames still flew over the wall and above us, hiding the blue sky and heating the air.
Sweat began to form on my skin.
Anderson and Rebecca screamed while Aiden looked at the flames with a tight face. The sound of a pokeball opening made me look forward in time to see a Hippopotas firming his legs on the ground.
"Mud Shot!" Jess screamed while pointing at the Charizard, and a ball of mud exploded forward like the shot of a canon.
The flying pokemon's wings pressed to the right, and the pokemon avoided the attack by going to the left.
The ground type move still messed the wind and made the Charizard momentarily lose control of his flight. In a split second, I noted that the dragon had little experience flying. The Charizard of the Conference could easily dance between attacking moves while flying. Comparing them, this one might as well have never been in the air before.
Damn it, brain. Not the time.
We ran for ten more seconds with the time Quake bought us.
"A cave!" Rebecca screamed in the front—Mesa had found the entrance of a cave. She and Anderson were the first to enter, followed by Jess. Quake and Valley stopped at the entrance. The Hippopotas settled down and again began to shoot shower balls of hardened mud that forced the Charizard to move.
I could be there already but Aiden was exhausted, he was already tired from the walk and now was slowing down. Fuck it. I grabbed a pokeball and clicked the button while pointing it near the cave, then I grabbed Aiden's arm, put it over my shoulder, and pulled him while Mountain manifested. The ice type's glowing eyes widened at the sight of a Charizard falling towards us.
"Ice Shard!" The Cryogonal opened his mouth and spikes made of ice formed in front of the pokemon's body and then were shot above us. The Charizard's hands glowed with a silver light, and the second the claws touched the shards, they were shredded.
"Icy Wind." A cone of rapidly flowing snow with ice fragments flew forward and engulfed the dragon. That was a bad call as the dragon just ignored it and continued to dive towards us, fire concentrating on his mouth.
The dragon was above us when Jess screamed. "Now!"
Valley's Echoed Volley was the first to hit, the tunnel of wind barely did anything against the dragon, but just to the side, a Psybeam hit the Charizard, it still didn't move the pokemon, but stopped his momentum.
Cryogonal then took the opening and used his best move, the move that he perfected as an untrained pokemon, Slash. A grey line rushed forward and tried to cut the Charizard in half. The dragon staggered and looked down to where Slash had made a slighter red line on his belly. The dragon looked up, uncaring, and his wings flapped harder as he dived again.
I glanced at Aiden, who had a pokeball on his hands, and then I grimaced at the dragon above, who was ready to burn us to a crisp.
Thunder rumbled, and a yellow line bolted from inside the cave and struck the Charizard, stopping his dive while also washing over him. I blinked rapidly as white blinded me. I was able to see though bright spots the dragon's muscles seize and its face went from rage to pain in a second. The pokemon veered off course and hit the ground, causing the ground to shake.
I pulled Aiden and five seconds later; we were inside the cave, Mesa and Quake collapsed the entrance of the cave, and Flaaffy, who I noticed was breathless, raised a fist and fire erupted from it, illuminating the cave.
"Thank you Scott."
I leaned against a wall and panted hard, between the breaths of air, I could see that all of Anderson's pokemon were out, Flaaffy, Chinchou, Electrike and Tynamo. They all looked exhausted.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Anderson's pokemon charged Flaaffy up and she launched a Thunderbolt." Rebecca responded.
"Great job, Andi," Jess said. "That was fucking amazing."
The boy smiled back at Jess. "Don't thank me, thank my team."
Jess grabbed Chinchou while rubbing Flaaffy's head, who leaned in to enjoy.
"What we do now?" Rebecca asked.
"We wait here until the Charizard goes away and then we leave." Anderson shrugged.
"No." Aiden said between deep breaths. "We have to move."
Anderson rolled his eyes. "Why would we need to move Blackthorn?"
"That Charizard was a horrible flier… And was redder than normal… Which means that it is a cave dweller."
That doesn't sound good.
"What does that mean?" Jess asked.
"It means that as soon as it stops spasming it will be digging, hunting for us," he said.
Fucking hell.
"All right." I stood up. "let's move."
---
Jess suddenly asked. "What would make a Charizard attack us?"
That cave was, interestingly enough, connected to a lengthy system of tunnels, and we were walking through them, trying to find another place where we can leave here. The only light illuminating the way were our lanterns and Flaaffy's Fire Punch.
Thank the Legends for Silph. Co bags.
I took a swig of water from my canteen and thanked the Legends for Silph. Co bags. These tunnels were also hot, and until now, the only pokemon we found here for now was some Diglett that escaped as soon as they saw us. Mesa was trying to guide us out of these tunnels. Quake would have been here too if he wasn't too tired because of the Mud Shot.
"It's normal for Charizard to have bouts of anger." I said.
Rebecca nodded. "After a Charmander evolves into a Charmeleon they do become more aggressive."
"They don't become more aggressive, they become more competitive." Aiden glared at them, still huffing. "The aggression is a side effect of a bad trainer not knowing how to provide what they need."
"Ok, great dragon master."
I ignored Anderson. "Can you elaborate on that?"
"Some pokemon lines, particularly dragon type lines, become more competitive as they evolve… A trainer who knows what they are doing will provide suitable challenges for these pokemon and they will not be as aggressive anymore."
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
The silence returned, and continued through the rest of the walk, only broken by the echoes of our steps on the ground, the sound of crackling flames on Flaaffy's fist and the occasional banter between the twins.
Mesa was twirling in the air, and I noticed he was content with our time here, he was a ground type after all. Meanwhile, Valley was scowling at the walls and ceiling.
"Why do they fight so much?" Jess suddenly whispered beside me; we were on the back together with Mesa.
I glanced towards the group, and then whispered back. "Anderson thinks that Aiden is spoiled."
"What?" She twisted her head to look at me with narrowed her eyes. "I didn't mean them; I was talking about the twins. They are just fighting all the time. They're brothers right? Shouldn't they be… Closer?"
I almost chuckled. Sometimes Jess really reminds me she's a kid.
"They're bantering. Its normal between siblings… They are almost supposed to do that."
She still seemed at a loss.
"Do you have brothers or sisters?" I was almost sure she didn't since she would have brought them up the last month we have been travelling together, but it didn't hurt to ask.
"No, in fact, I'm the only one in my generation, my uncles didn't have kids."
That made sense. I also didn't have sibling, but there were kids on the orphanage that sometimes formed a very strong connection, almost as if they were really brothers and sisters so it was easy to see how siblings were supposed to work.
"Look… They are family, which means that they have to stay together even though they have different personalities that clash with each other, so instead of separating or fighting for real, they settle for banter. They are fighting, but deep down they are treating it like a joke, and so it's just a joke"
She remained sceptical.
"If you pay attention, they never fight about truly important things."
"Whatever." She then smiled. "By the way, I think I understand the emergency alert better now."
I raised an eyebrow at that. Jess and I hadn't talked about the Azalea Forest incident since that day.
"Don't give me that look, it's just… I told you that I didn't fight and that was true, but it was also because I froze up. A fight happened near me, but I just didn't move to help even though Quake wanted to… I think that I would have sat still in front of that Charizard if that was my first incident."
"I guess you understand our culture better now." I chuckled.
"Ass."
I felt a chill run down my spine, before I could question Jess we were interrupted by the group stopping. Mesa, who was in the front with the twins, was pointing forward with an arm.
"There's something in front of us." Anderson said, looking at where the tunnel turned right.
Flaaffy, the two Electrike, and Magnemite, who were leading the group, buzzed, preparing themselves to release attacks. The sound of steps echoed through the tunnel as we stared the passage. We tensed as light began to illuminate from that passage, and the steps slowed down as whatever it was coming also noticed that we too had light.
"Hi?" A small voice came, it wasn't an adult's.
The group exchanged glances.
"Hi!" I said.
"Hey!" Another voice—older than the first I noticed—said, and the steps accelerated until, around the corner, a group of three people appeared.
The one who was leading the group was a teenager a little smaller than me, he was wearing standard travelling clothes, ones that you could buy in any store, and his hair was short and black. He was probably the one who spoke last.
After him came two brown-haired kids, a girl and a boy, the girl seemed older; she was taller and was holding the boy behind her back—siblings maybe. They had normal clothes, as if they had just left home or school, grabbed a bag and decided to travel. The boy was also holding a Budew in his arms.
The clothes of the three were also dirt and ragged, as if they also had just ran away from a Charizard.
Just like us.
"Fucking finally, it feels like we have been walking for hours." The boy said as he approached. "Do you guys have signal?"
He held up his Pokedex.
"No, we also don't have."
"Shit… look, we have to get out of here, a Charizard attacked us."
"We found him already." Anderson quipped.
"We also have been attacked by that Charizard."
"You too?! What are the rangers doing?"
I thought about telling him that we were outside their jurisdiction. We could call for help, and they would respond, but if they got here too late to help us—and something happened—we couldn't sue them as we could have if we were on the main routes.
"Were we go now?" The girl said.
I glanced back at the tunnel we entered from, and then ahead at the tunnel they came from.
"No idea." I looked down at Mesa and Quake. "Suggestions?"
Mesa and Quake exchanged a look and then the Baltoy floated forward, passing through the two groups and pointing to the tunnel where the new group had come from.
"Is there an exit there?"
The Baltoy nodded.
"Let's go."
There was a little protest by the new guys since they just had come from there, but soon enough we wall were walking the tunnel where they just had come from, and that also gave us the opportunity to learn more about them.
The sixteen-year-old name was Alex, and he was a rich kid. He didn't say that but it was obvious. Alice taught me how to spot rich people's clothes, and as we walked, I noticed that his clothes were even better than the ones Blackthorn. The posh way he spoke also didn't help.
The brother and sister duo, Elen and George, didn't talk much, but it was clear what they were, they were those kids that went on a journey just for the tradition of it. Gone were the days where every single kid went on a journey, but there were parents who let their kids travel, hoping that they would travel one or two routes, get tired and come back, so they didn't buy travelling clothes or gear.
Alex explained that he found the kids around the mountain just before they were attacked. I asked how they escaped it and they said they just ran from it. Jess tried to ask them about what pokemon they had. Alex didn't want to say his. Elen had a Caterpie, and George had a Budew and a Zubat.
"Are you feeling a little cold?" I asked Jess and she looked at me strange.
Soon enough, the walk came to a stop as Mesa raised his rocky stumps towards a wall. The dirt and ground washed away like water and sunlight entered. We all left the cave and looked around; they were somewhere around the mountain. I couldn't see the road so this seemed like another side of one of the mountains, which was bad, roads were a lot safer than the open wild.
I released Mountain. The Cryogonal glared around, daring a fire breathing lizard to come and get him. The pokemon seemed disappointed when he didn't find any.
"We need to move away from the mountain." Aiden said.
I nodded. "Keep your eyes on the sky."
The entrance that Mesa made was not at ground level so we had to slide to the bottom to begin to walk out of the mountain landscape, and into the forest where we would be able to hopefully get signal or use our maps.
The walk was quiet since nobody wanted to make a sound. A glint of something made me close my eyes for a moment but then it just vanished. We were already quite far from the mountain, and some people were already silently commemorating when Mesa spun around to look back just as a rumbling sound came from the mountain.
I turned just in time to see the landslide happen.
Rocks, dirt, and smoke washed down the low side of the mountain to reveal a Charizard. The pokemon blinked many times as the sunlight entered his eyes—which I found strange since he had a flame on his tail—But as it raised its head, its eyes locked on us, and it screeched before the pokemon jumped from the slope and began to run after us.
"Run."
"No signal yet!"
"Mountain, Mesa!"
"Mud Shot!"
"Thunder Shock."
"Thunder Wave."
Everything happened at once, the pokemon unleashed their attacks and then we turned to finish our run over to the forest. We were just halfway there, though. Glancing back, I saw the Charizard dodge the attacks with easy by twisting his body, and now I was certain that this was another Charizard. The other one was not good at dodging and this one made the attacks seem slow motion. There was also no mark of Cryogonal's Slash.
A scream from the people in front of me made me stop.
I looked forward to see a familiar Charizard, this was the one with the belly wound, even the angry eyes were the same. The pokemon jumped forward, having learned his lesson about flying.
My pokemon were in the back, even Valley had run to the back. I grabbed Cape's pokeball; he was still injured but he would have to do, the only other option was Jungle but that was even worse.
Just as the pokemon was picking up speed a silver object flew from above us and hit him in the chest, bouncing from him and stopping at our foot. The Charizard was pushed back but it wasn't hurt. Still, the enraged look gave way to confusion just in time for the silver ball to release unto him a Thunder Wave way stronger than Flaaffy empowered Thunderbolt.
The Charizard's muscles locked up again, and his enraged look came back even stronger, but I relaxed. Thunder Bolt naturally locked up muscles, but Thunder Wave was crafted specifically to immobilise pokemon and prevent them from moving.
I glanced down at the ball of silver to see green tips all over its body. The ball rolled to the side to reveal two distressed eyes looking back at me. It was a Ferroseed. A pokemon that was very much on my list. The sound of crackling made me look up at a formation of huge rocks besides the mountain where a small pokemon was, and by its colours—yellow and black—it seemed like a Mawile. She appeared to be… laughing.
Remembering the other Charizard, I looked to the mountain, only to see it standing still while glaring up at something with a grimace. Following its eyes, I saw a pokemon floating above us. A pokemon I've thought about yesterday, Magnezone. It was easy to see why people were so interested in them.
The size by itself was already intimidating, but there was also visible electricity sparkling around it as if it was about to release a Thunder unto them.
"Someone better explain to me what is happening here." A Skarmory was landing between us and the Charizard near the mountain.
"The Charizard attacked us." Someone spoke, but I was too shocked to notice who it was. It was the blond girl that helped me back in Azalea when that kid challenged me to a battle.
I focused on what they are saying.
"Oh, really?"
"That's right. Of course we didn't do anything to them. They just attacked us." It was the rich kid, Alex.
She stared at each other of us and then at the two Charizard, who were still—one involuntarily so.
"What do you think Blackthorn? You too think a couple of Charizard would attack humans for no reason."
The Charizard near the cave growled at the phrase but a loud spark from above shut it down.
Aiden froze and then stared between the two-fire breathing pokemon, examining them. His tight face began to relax, eyebrows rising as he seemed to understand something.
Finally, he sighed. "Who stole their egg?"
She gave a small smiled and walked up to us and then closed in on the sibling, the non-twins ones.
"What!" Elen screamed. "We didn't take any egg from anybody."
The blonde girl waited half a second and then nodded. Then she extended her hand towards the boy holding the , and now I was able to notice that he looked miserable, and it was not because of all the running. I recognised that misery, the same one I had when I stole that book from my orphanage's library.
Guilty.
He the grasp of his sister and pulled from his pocket a hibernating pokeball. The blonde girl took the pokeball off his hands and, with her Pokedex open, disabled the owner's security that pokeballs had. She then clicked on the pokeball's button and seconds later there was a Charmander on the ground, looking around confusedly.
A very subdue spark later, and the Charizard near the mountain rushed forward and grabbed the Charmander with one arm before retreating inside the cave.