Chapter 3 - Escape! (Refurbished)
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Man, I have got to have the worst luck stat of all time. Like, being reborn into a new world sounds awesome, right? Well it does, besides for a couple of small, itsy-bitsy facts, like: having no clue as to why I was 'chosen,' if I was at all; no guide, allies or hell, even a clue as to where I am meant to be going. Then to top off my bad luck party, I am forced into a one sided fight, then sold off to some slavers!
But hey, at least I have my health right? This sucks.
I am currently watching as the free world passes me by while I am stuck in this prison wagon, and I have to say, I can see why movies skip a vast majority of the traveling scenes from the books they were based on because man am I bored out of my mind. My captors have been traveling all day with barely a stop for toilet and meal breaks. I wish they weren't so stringent about us prisoners talking. The rattling of the wooden spoked wheels gets annoying to listen to after a while.
I also get why they muzzled Sneasel. At first I thought it was for some weird flex to keep us in check, but when we stopped for an apple meal, Sneasel had some rather 'choice' words describing our traveling conditions. If a Christian mother heard the language Sneasel used, I guarantee she would have fainted.
Something I noticed after our journey to who knows where, was that at some point the forest seemed to be different, almost unnatural in formation. Where trees would be scattered about randomly, these seem almost like they are making a wall of sorts. They also followed a weird pattern of open areas, to clear paths through the trees, to more open areas.
My curiosity finally reached its breaking point, so, looking around for the leader, Machoke, I spied him at the far back of the formation. Nuzleaf was placed beside the cart for he had the most all rounder abilities for combat, and all the others were spread out in a kite formation.
"Psst, hey," I whispered to him. "Why is this forest different?"
"What? Why should I tell you? I would get in trouble if I did," Nuzleaf replied.
An idea formed in my mind about how to proceed with this conversation.
"But, I'm already trapped because of your awesome tactics. I'm pretty sure telling the stupid Bulbasaur why the trees are weird wouldn't even matter."
"No, I'm not allowed to talk to you."
"Oh, I guess you don't know then. And here I thought you were a smart fella. Oh well, if you don't know, then I guess it's not your fault then."
"What? Are you saying that I don't know that this is a Mystery Dungeon? Because of course I do! I even remember that it's called EverChange woods."
"EverChange woods and a Mystery Dungeon hey? Thanks for the info, idiot."
"Hey, you tricked me!"
"Yeah, well, sucks to suck."
Nuzleaf continued to winge at me while we traveled, but I just tuned him out. So, a Mystery Dungeon, guess it confirms that I'm in a Mystery Dungeon based world. Now that I know that this is no normal forest, I continued to watch my environment to gather any and all sorts of information about it. Nothing really stood out, but that did get me questioning where all the enemies were. Oh well, maybe the games are exaggerated.
And we continued onwards.
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So, enemies being exaggerated was a complete mistake for there were enemies, but they stood no match to Machoke's complete decimation tactics of obliterating Pokémon with a barrage of attacks until no others wanted to fight.
More wild Pokémon would attempt to fight our merry crew, but like the Zigzagoon, none stood a chance. Even a wild Staraptor got shot down by Ariados' webbing, then pile-drived to next Tuesday by Machoke. After that show they just stopped coming.
Eventually we arrived at the bottom of a cliff of sorts. The crew stopped their traveling and started to scan the rock formation over. At first I thought they were going to climb over it, but Machoke walked over towards a bunch of low hanging vines that covered the cliff. He pulled aside the veil of vines revealing a large cave tunnel.
Machoke gestured inside, and taking the hint, Tauros continued to drag the cart inside.
Inside the clearing was a long cave tunnel that was clearly designed for larger Pokémon to travel through. The tunnel was eerily silent, with only the clicker-clacking of the cart to accompany us.
At the other side of the tunnel showed another forest of sorts, only these trees are thicker and more densely packed, but nowhere as compact as the area before. So, I'm guessing we are out of the Dungeon then.
Off to the side of the entrance was a large dirt clearing. We were brought over to it, and after traveling the whole day, Machoke gave the order to make camp, as well as setting up a perimeter watch to Mightyena.
My mind was wondering about where the Mystery Dungeon started and ended, plus where it took us, but I had to focus. For you see, I had a plan to escape. While the other prisoners had faces heavy with despair, mine was lit with determination. I just had to spy the key to my escape.
My plan for escaping was simple and I went over it in my head while searching for the key. If I was able to remove the binding off from all the captors, then for sure they would help me escape. Why do I need their help? Well, I really doubt I had the knowledge and skills needed to pick the lock to this cage door so I needed them. Why not just get the actual key then? Well, that is because it was hanging from Machoke the whole time, and from how he acted, if that thing was even nudged slightly, I reckon he would notice. So, the actual key to my escape was Sneasel's claws.
I just had to locate something, like let's say the knife I saw yesterday- and release Sneasel who should, in theory, be able to cut the lock off. What to do after, though, well that's what freeing the others should help with. They would help me find a way to escape. I thought for a second about the possibility of using them as bait, but that idea was thrown out the door. A man needs integrity, afterall.
It was definitely a long shot plan, but hey, better then nothing.
A tent was thrown up for Machoke, beds were set up around a campfire in the middle of the area as were a set of crates, a couple sacks of what seems to be apples and other food related items, and even a small table. Machoke had set out a large piece of parchment on it that he was scanning over.
Our wagon was parked up against the rocky wall that housed the secret entrance, cutting off one side that needed guarding. If only I had my human body, I could have easily climbed this jagged cliff.
I was able to spy Ariados setting up a wide range of spider webs for an early warning system from tree to tree, then laid down on her large web bed that she had made like a traditional, giant spider. My guess is she's doing that sense thing since her feet are all set on a different thread that expanded outwards. I still cringe every time I see her skitter about. So she was bust for what I needed, but good to know about the alarm system.
Machoke had been scanning the parchment the whole time, so he didn't have it, and when he pulled over Mightyena I could hear something heading towards some mine, but I couldn't care less.
Tauros might be a problem, since the big monster had been lugging around everything all day, he sat down in front of me and went for a snooze. His large body did make it hard to see, but it wasn't that bad. I just had to move around slightly since his large back hump was closer to the door of the wagon.
Eventually, I found it: the McGuffin for our escape, the knife. Nuzleaf had it the whole time and had been using it to pick his teeth. Machoke scolded him for being an idiot and yoinked the knife from him and placed it down on the table he had been using. So, all I had to do was to keep track of the knife and to make sure I didn't make it obvious as to what I'm staring at. I would hate for the captors to be overly cautious and move the knife.
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Time passed slowly as I kept watch of where the knife was. It was used a couple of times, like for dinner for the captors, but it was always placed back at the same place, mainly because Machoke demanded it be placed where he could easily find it.
We were fed our dinner being a measly apple, besides for Sneasel for having a foul mouth. She did not look pleased at all. I would've offered her some in an attempt to barter a favor, but her mouth was bounded so, I just ate mine.
With the orange glow of a sunset dimming, the night time watch shifts were delegated amongst the captors. Machoke made sure to repeat his order of not falling asleep during watch, to which everyone looked towards the Nuzleaf who looked down to the ground shamefully.
Mightyena was the first to be on watch, and I have to say, trying to stay awake without coffee was a nightmare. She would just walk around, keeping an eye out for intruders. The other prisoners eventually started to snooze off, albeit not before silently crying- all for Sneasel that is. She had been watching me carefully for a while now. Methinks she knows I'm up to something.
The second guard was Machoke himself, who had spent his time looking over the parchment and writing something in a book of his. Maybe a diary? I wonder what it would say if it was? I felt myself starting to doze off, but a swift bite to my tongue quickly woke me up. This was a mission and a half and I haven't even gotten to the hard part!
Machoke was a bust as was Mightyena for what I needed, they both were too alert and professional.
Eventually it was Nuzleaf's turn to keep watch. If you think it would've been hard for him to wake up dead at night, well, a swift kick to his stomach from Machoke got him to wake him up instantly. He squirmed around in pain from the kick. Machoke got right down to his face and muttered in an opposing way, "If I catch you sleeping again, it will be the last time you close your eyes." and walked off to his tent.
Nuzleaf was very shaken up from this encounter, he mumbled to himself about it not being his fault. Clearly shaken up, Nuzleaf went on to make a couple of rounds to clear his head or something. I'm not a mind reader, but I could still hear him mumbling about 'it' not being his fault, so I guess his walk didn't help.
Nuzleaf eventually sat down on the chair that Machoke was using at the table. He started to play with the knife, by finishing up cleaning his teeth while leaning back on the chair.
It was a battle to stay awake, but my patience was rewarded when I spied Nuzleaf's head dropping down. At some point he had placed the knife back on the table. His soft snores were The soft snoring of Nuzleaf was lost amongst the other slumbering breaths. So it seems even a threat of death from Machoke couldn't keep that idiot awake.
I confirmed that everyone else here was asleep. Sneasel was still awake, barely. When she saw that I was looking at her, her slit brows furrowed slightly. I gave her a devilish smile and freed my vine from its sheath. It was harder than normal since the knot for my vines was still somewhat tied together, but after some wriggling my vine was free and was now waving towards a wide- awake Sneasel.
With my target in sight, I stretched my vine over towards the knife. The issue with this plan, however, was my inexperience with my vines. You see, keeping it out and waving it around was no problem, but I was not accustomed to having it elongated. So against my will, my vine started to dip, making it nearly impossible to keep on going straight since I had to focus on more than I was used to.
So I had an idea, besides for the bit hovering about Taurus, I dropped my vine to the floor and basically moved it around like a snake. This was working much better since I only had to focus on two parts: keeping the tether closest to me arched up, and basically just keeping the tip straight on target.
Heh, tip straight. Argh, focus!
My vine finally reached the table and I raised it up onto the tabletop, albeit with much effort since the tip kept flopping around. Avoiding a tempting crude joke, I continued to raise it up, but the vine was difficult to control now since I had three points of focus. I managed to get the vine over the table top, but not without losing focus and having my vine flop to the table top, making a small amount of noise. Luckily Nuzleaf didn't even budge.
Like the predator my snaky vine was, it slithered silently over towards its prey- the knife- that unfortunately had a sleeping Nuzleaf's hand resting on it.
Thinking on the spot, I raised the tip of the vine and gently placed it on the exposed blade the best I could. Putting some pressure on the steel, I slowly dragged it away from Nuzleaf. The slick metal was hard for my vine to grip on, so it would slip away. Inch by inch I made progress.
With the knife so close to being free, I gave it a good pull, only the knife dragged against a dent from the table, making a very small, but noticeable thunk noise, rousing the sleeping Nuzleaf.
"Huhwah?" Nuzleaf murmured and slightly raised his head. He blinked once and lowered his head and went back to sleep.
I have never in my life had my heart so close to leaping out of my throat then from just right now. I had to take deep breaths to calm my adrenaline-filled body. I took a quick look around to make sure no one had awoken, but besides for Sneasel who looked like she was about to explode from the pressure, no one else was awake.
Another deep breath for good measure and I re-focused on the task at hand. Since Nuzleaf had shifted around ever-so-slightly, the knife was free from the grasps of the evil slaver.
After a great amount of time and patience from my end, I was able to get a good grip around the bladed side of the knife and raised it up so that the handle was able to slide away from Nuzleaf's hand. Once free from his hand, I regripped the knife and thus, I was now the wielder of my tool to escape.
With my focus at maximum, I ignored the shuffling from Sneasel's direction and started to retract my vine.
The vine reached the point where I had to get it over Tauros, but hey, that's not a real issue as long as nothing distracts me.
"Huh, what are you?-" a voice from the side of me asked, making me lose focus from the startle and fumble the knife. The knife that was already close enough to Tauros' head slipped slightly from my grip making the bladed part dangle just a mere inch from Tauros' head.
I held my breath, thanking that small amount of vine that was still holding onto the handle of the knife and quickly, but carefully inside the cage.
I let out a sigh of relief, before glaring angrily towards Mankey who was now wide awake with Sneasel's foot in its mouth. Once Mankey realized what was happening he finally started to calm down, albeit somewhat grumpily from having a foot shoved in his mouth.
In a dead whisper I started to explain to Mankey. "We are going to escape. I need you to cut the Sneasel there free, okay?"
"Why should I?" he replied grumpily. Guess the games were right about Mankeys being a total grumpy gus.
"Just do it. I can't since I have no hands, and we are going to need her claws. You are willing to help, right?" I asked Sneasel, who nodded affirmatively. Mankey grumbled to himself and did as I asked.
With Mankey working on freeing Sneasel, I went to wake the others up. Zigzagoon was the first, who was just as noisy as Mankey, but a well placed vine to the mouth got him quiet. I gestured over to Sneasel and Mankey, and he seemed to get what was going on.
The others were basically the same process, wake them up quietly and if they made noise, muzzle them until they understood the situation. Wynaut legit almost screamed out loud 'yay.' Glad I thought ahead and had my vine ready. The only one I didn't have to gag was Poliwag.
With everyone awake and up to date on what I had cooked up, Mankey finished freeing Sneasel from her binding.
"Hey, Sneasel, could you cut the lock open?" I asked. She used her free claws to free her covered mouth.
"Fine since I don't have any other choice," she replied.
"Oh, and be quiet while you do it."
"Shut up, I got this."
Sneasel snuck up to the door, reached around and stuck a claw inside the lock. She twisted and turned it around and with a click, the door was now unlocked.
"Quiet enough for you, your majesty?" Sneasel said.
"Yes, but I did ask you to cut the lock off, so minus points to you," I replied. Sneasel just rolled her eyes.
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Sneasel slowly opened the door making the hitches groan slightly from the lack of maintenance. Once it was clear enough, she jumped down to the grass with barely a sound. Mankey was next, but he wasn't nearly as quiet. For the rest of the less nimble Pokémon here, I used my vine to help lower them down towards Mankey who would grab them and quietly place them on the grass.
With all the other side characters out of the way, now was time for yours truly. Since I had no nimbleness at all, I had to completely rely on Mankey who agreed to catch me. I was a bit skeptical, but with some small reassurance about how strong Mankeys was, I relented and lowered myself the best I could into Mankey's outstretched arms. He struggled for a bit, guessing due to balancing more than weight, and then he lowered me to the ground.
I see why some small animals hate getting picked up for I'm not a fan.
"Now what?" Zigzagoon asked. Everyone looked over towards me.
"Okay, truth be told, I was hoping one of you might have an idea on what to do," I replied.
"Hmm, we could go back through the EverChange woods. Mummy tells me not to since that place changes all the time and that I could get lost," Poliwag suggested.
"That's… a good idea. Hey Sneasel, could you lead the way for us? Out of everyone here, you seem the most, I don't know, sneaky?" I asked.
"Hmph, even though that is true, why should I?" Sneasel asked.
"One, because you owe me for getting you out, and two, wouldn't you hate it for us to give away that you were escaping? I doubt we could get far with all the Ariados traps around," I smiled.
"Argh, fine, but only because I want to actually get away and not be recaptured."
"Works for me. Okay, listen up kiddies," I whispered, looking towards the younger of the Pokémon here who looked like they were about to have a panic attack. "Think of this as a game."
"A game?" the Wynaut asked.
"Yep, we are playing follow the ninja. To win, we simply have to be as quiet as possible and follow the ninja in the front. You win an extra special prize if you don't make any noise. Sounds fun right? Remember though: the game has already started, so nod if you understand."
The two younger Pokémon both nodded their heads in agreement, then walked up to Sneasel who slightly twitched from them getting closer.
"Alright, we are good to go, right?" I asked Mankey and Zigzagoon. They both nodded.
With graceful movements of one used to acting stealthily, Sneasel led us through the camp by passing the Tauros, going around the table where Nuzleaf was sleeping, then to the edge of the camp. Trusting Sneasel's judgment and experience seemed to be paying off for she quickly found a small gap in Arisodos's webbing security measures.
The security traps aren't a wall of webbing per say, but more of a wide amount of small webbing threads spread all around the camp. It was only a small arch, but I'm surprised Sneasel was able to spot this small gap at all.
One by one we passed through the very small gap that was just off the floor, taking extra caution to make sure we didn't trigger the webbing trap. Once we were all cleared from the barely visible spider's webbing, we continued to make our way towards the Mystery Dungeon.
"Alright, let's speed this up," I ordered once we were a safe distance from the camp. We all sped up, taking care to not leave behind the slower Pokémon.
We got closer to the entrance of the secret entrance cave and of course once we arrived something just had to happen, for Wynaut tripped and fell over.
We all stopped just shy of the cave's entrance. Since I was closer at the time, I checked in on her. "Hey are you okay? Come on, get up, we can't stay here." Wynaut tried to get up, but fell back down.
"Owie! My leg hurts. It hurts!" Wynaut cried out loud. Taking a quick look at Wynaut's leg revealed it to be all scraped up.
"Come on, what's the hold up?" Sneasel asked impatiently.
"It's Wynaut, she fell and hurt her leg," I replied.
"Well, just leave her then."
"What?! No, please don't leave me behind!" Wynaut cried out.
"Geez, have a heart will ya? She's just a kid. Hey, Mankey, can you carry little Wynaut here?"
"Of course I will," Mankey agreed. He walked past Sneasel with a look of pure disgust directed at her. Of course Sneasel just crossed her arms and turned her chin up to the side. I helped Wynaut up onto Mankey's back by using my head as support.
"Are we done yet? Let's get moving before some Pokémon shows up," Sneasel asked.
"Yes, miss patience, we are good to go," I snarked.
Before we even had a chance to move, Sneasel was suddenly slammed onto her back by a grey balled figure. The brown ball rolled over towards the entrance of the cave and unraveled itself to Nuzleaf in battle position. His arms were low, legs a good distance apart and his eyes just screamed 'fight'.
"Where do you think you all are going, huh? Thought you could pull a fast one over Nuzleaf here, did ya? Well think again, you idiots!" Nuzleaf exclaimed while pointing a thumb to his chest.
"Alright," I whispered to my fellow escapees, "I'll run straight for Nuzleaf and try to distract him, when I do you all run past me."
"Wouldn't it be better to deal with him now? We have the number advantage!" Zigzagoon suggested.
"No, we need to get the young out of here and Mankey will need all the help he can get to ensure he gets out with them."
"Team whispering are we? Forming plans? Nah, I ain't havin' that!" Nuzleaf shouted. He quickly curled up into a ball mid air then began to roll straight towards us.
I gritted my teeth and ran towards Nuzleaf. Once we got close to each other, I leaned my shoulder out for a shoulder tackle. Nuzleaf's rollout collided with my shoulder, making him bounce up and over all of the other Pokémon who were watching in amazement of the flying-grass type.
"Go!" I shouted.
As if dunked by cold water, they all woke up and started to run towards the exit. Turning back towards Nuzleaf, he was turning back around for another go at his attack. I tried to diverge his rollout with my vines, but since I was just getting used to handing my vines, they missed their mark. Nuzleaf whizzed past me and went straight for Mankey.
"Mankey! Dodge!" I shouted.
Mankey unfortunately was not able to hear me and continued his attempt to escape into the Mystery Dungeon. I ran in an attempt to catch up, but I was nowhere near fast enough.
Right when Nuzleaf was about to collide with Mankey, a blurry figure struck Nuzleaf's side, slamming him way off course and crashing into a nearby tree.
Sneasel stood valiantly with her arms crossed and spat to the ground. "Softer than I expected," she remarked.
"Good one!" I said with a small smile after coming closer, "Alright, let's get going." I started to make my way towards the other captives who were getting smaller and smaller in the distance before Sneasel stopped me.
"Wait," she said, "you want to help them? Then it would be best to deal with Nuzleaf here and now."
"What? But he slammed into that tree. I would really doubt anything could-" A groan rose from where Nuzleaf smashed into the tree. "...Survive that…"
Nuzleaf suddenly jumped onto his feet and quickly spied us.
"Right, and he would just hinder the others while escaping, gotcha. Why are you here? I thought you were the loner type to not help others?"
"I refuse to be indebted to you or any Pokémon, so think of this my thanks for freeing me."
"Heh, good enough for me," I say as I turn to face Nuzleaf, "let's ice this fool."
"You know an ice type move? I thought you were a grass type."
"It's just an expression." My eyes widened as I saw a blur accelerate towards us. "Look out!"
Sneasel and I both dodged to the side to avoid a hasty ball of pain. Nuzleaf quickly spun out of his ball form and with his singular leaf on his head glowing bright green, he swished it around and shot out a large green wave.
Sneasel quickly leapt over the attack, but I was not so lucky for myself being really stubby and unused to my body. The wave of green hit me dead in my chest area and clipped both forelegs. I expected a huge wave of pain, but there was nothing. Well, besides for a very small cut in the center of the attack's path.
"Oh right, I'm a grass type." Guess even a blade of grass means nothing if you are resistant to it. Like not even a drop of blood came from that very slim cut.
I looked to see Nuzleaf who was locked in combat with Sneasel. They were both exchanging swipes at each other with neither landing any damaging blows. After a couple of quick swipes, Nuzleaf was able to actually catch Sneasel's claw between the palms of his hands.
Sneasel was confused at first, but she must have realized something and started to try to free herself as Nuzleaf's hands began to start to glow. The small glowing started to turn green with it quickly intensifying.
"This is gonna suck, for you at least," Nuzleaf quipped with a malicious smile. White balls of light began to be absorbed from Sneasel's hand, being drawn into Nuzleaf as Sneasel winced in pain.
Realizing what was going on, I sprinted to stop Nuzleaf from using absorb. I charged into Nuzleaf, knocking him over as well as Sneasel, but freeing her in the action. I used my vines and clumsily helped Sneasel back up to her feet while Nuzleaf got back up with sneer planted on his face directed towards myself.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Yeah, I'll live. Yuck, that felt wrong, just wrong." She shook her claws.
"Argh, here comes another rollout!"
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The fight turned into a one sided slog of Nuzleaf spamming us with rollouts like a spammer nerd who only knew one move. He hit us over and over and we were starting to bruise up pretty badly with Sneasel bleeding from her nose when she got hit in the face.
I tried to trip Nuzleaf up with my vines, but it was in vain and I got hit by rollout again.
"We have to do something!" Sneasel shouted. "I have no clue where the other slavers are, but we can't let this go on for much longer."
"I'm with you there, but I have no clue as to what to do." We dodged another rollout. "Oh, what attacks do you have?"
"What?"
"What attacks or moves do you know?"
"Uh, I know four moves: scratch, taunt, quick attack and metal claw." She went for a metal claw to defend herself from yet another rollout attack, successfully blocking it. "You have a plan?"
"Yeah, but you won't like it."
"It if helps us win then just do it!"
"Alright," I said the next part just loud enough for Sneasel and only Sneasel to hear, "use taunt then stand perfectly still, I'll handle the rest."
"That's your master plan?"
"You got a better one, or even a plan at all?"
Sneasel glared to the side in a huff. "Fine! You better know what you are doing."
As do I, I thought to myself.
Sneasel locked eyes with Nuzleaf who seemed to be deciding on who his next target of rollout was when her eyes glowing a slight red tinge. The same red tinge then became to mirror the effect on Nuzleaf's eyes.
"Tch, look at you, such a pathetic loser. You have to rely on cheap tactics just to fight with us, and even then it's not even working. I would hate to be associated with you, honestly I would." Sneasel taunted.
Nuzleaf's eyes borrowed, and with a scornful look, he shouted. "What?! I'll show you who is a loser!" Taking the bait, he turned back into his ball form and charged towards Sneasel.
"Uhhh, Bulbasaur, he's getting close," Sneasel said. Nuzleaf was a few feet away, and quickly closing in as I moved into where I was planning my attack and waited a bit more. Nuzleaf got closer and closer until he was basically upon Sneasel. "Bulbasaur! Ace!"
Right before Nuzleaf could collide with Sneasel, I shot out my vines towards Nuzleaf. My vines wrapped around Nuzleaf, yanking him out of his ball form with all his limbs stretched out from the sudden yanking. As fast as I could muster, I continued to wrap up Nuzleaf, locking him in place.
"That was too close for comfort." Sneasel said with a scornful look towards myself.
"What are you complaining about? Get him!" I replied. Now, while I had Nuzleaf immobilized, he wasn't just complying. No, he was tossing around, trying desperately to free himself. In short, it was taking all my effort to keep him bound in place and to keep my vines nice and tight around him.
Sneasel gave me a quick glare that turned into a malicious smile. She locked eyes with Nuzleaf and brandished her claws. Nuzleaf audibly gulped before he was barraged by a torrent of a claw storm.
Swipe after swipe Sneasel connected with Nuzleaf, making him scream out from every hit. I wanted to help Sneasel out, and mainly to get some good hits in myself, but it was taking all my effort just to keep Nuzleaf locked in place. It didn't help that I think Sneasel was tearing apart some of my vines for I could feel my connection to them getting weak after each hit.
"Ouch, ouch, argh, stop it!" Nuzleaf screamed.
Not liking getting all cut up, his leaf started to glow green again. Instead of attacking either of us, Nuzleaf instead chose to shoot out a razor leaf straight towards my vines, severing one of them. With only one vine holding him, Nuzleaf was able to wriggle his way out and free himself.
Free from his trapped state, Nuzleaf tried to take a step back, but was collided with a blinding white figure knocking him to the ground. And once again, Nuzleaf and Sneasel locked on in hand to hand combat with more attacks landing on Nuzleaf.
A strange feeling began to surge in my bulb that seemed to travel to my vines and to my head. A new surge of energy began to fill my being and all the pain I had accumulated from the battle had seemed to be soothing a little bit. I had no clue what was going on, but I was glad to have whatever it was, nonetheless.
Nuzleaf at first seemed to be losing to Sneasel before he landed a solid right hook against Sneasel's cheek knocking her back a few feet. Nuzleaf then went for another rollout attack and not liking the idea of this, I shot out my vines in an attempt to halt this. My vines before were sort of quick, but now they unexpectedly rocked out towards Nuzleaf hitting him in the shoulder like a punch in a blink of an eye.
Needless to say I was a bit shocked by this attack.
Nuzleaf growled, and shot out a counter attack of two sets of razor leaves at me. I dodged them because they were quite easy at this distance, but I forgot to take account of what Nuzleaf was doing as he was now going for another rollout.
I wanted to dodge out of the way, but I was way too slow to react, so I tensed up, ready to take on the attack. Right before Nuzleaf was able to collide with me, Sneasel in a blinding white light of quick attack, quickly smashed right into Nuzleaf, forcing him away from me.
Not expecting such an attack, Nuzleaf was knocked out of his rollout form. I shot out my vines again, this time ready for the speed, I wrapped up Nuzleaf, then I tried to lift him. To my surprise, I was able to lift the little guy much easier than I thought. Then an idea on how to finish this popped into my mind.
Like swinging a hammer to a nail, I swung Nuzleal straight into the ground headfirst, making the dirt explode outwards, creating a small smoke screen of debris around him. Nuzleaf's body stayed with his rear to the sky, fell downwards to the ground revealing his eyes were now giant 'Xs', Something I have yet to get used to actually seeing.
"You're grounded, mister." I snipped.
Sneasel limped up to me. "That was terrible," Sneasel complained.
"Nothing like a good old one liner to end a boss fight." I took a deep breath. "Good work with that quick attack of yours, by the way."
"Yeah, I'm still not liking the idea of you using me as bait, but seeing as we won the fight because of it, I'm going to let it slide for now. Anyway, let's get moving."
"Yeah. Sounds good."
With us both in great pain, we were only able to hobble towards the cave entrance, when something like white blobs began to rain down in front of us. Sneasel and I both looked over our shoulders towards where the blobs were coming from. The mortar bomber was none other than Ariados who was very quickly running over towards us.
"Ariados! Oh crap, look out for its webs!" I shouted. We continued our sprint towards the cave when Sneasel suddenly collapsed. I quickly skidded to a stop and ran back towards Sneasel. She was frantically pulling on her leg since her left foot was stuck to a large puddle of webbing.
"No, no, no!" Sneasel panicked. I tried to get my vines around her arms to pull her out, but since she was so sporadic with how she was moving, they kept getting knocked out of the way.
"Stop panicking! I can't get my vines under your arms!" I yelled.
She seemed to take my advice and calmed down just a little for me to get my vines successfully around her arms. I pulled and pulled and pulled but she was stuck. I contemplated if I should just abandon her, but that would be spitting in the image of my late Grandpa.
'Help those who are in trouble,' he would always say. 'Good fortune will come to those who help others.'
So with my benevolence renewed, I tried to tap into that energy surge I had experienced earlier, and to my amazement, I was able to. Like a wave of adrenaline getting pumped into my system, I was able to pull Sneasel out of her sticky situation.
"There! You're free!" I looked back behind me to Ariados. She was almost upon us.
Sneasel placed her claw on my head to help balance and reorientated herself from the yanking. She looked over her shoulder and quickly clenched her claws, digging them into my head.
"Ouch! Sneasel stop!"
"No, no, no, I can't go back to that awful place!" Sneasel wailed. She released her grip on my head, but instead running she reached to my side, dug her claws into my skin and lifted me up like an oversized ball. I started to kick around, not liking being suddenly lifted in the air.
"What are you-?!" I shouted, but before I could even finish my sentence I was thrown towards Ariados. I collided with her, making us both skid to the ground.
I opened my eyes to the world spinning around me. I spied the cave with Sneasel running towards it. I tried to get up, albeit very wobbly when something cold hit my back legs. That sensation I was familiar with hit me again, and again until I was pinned to the ground, no longer able to move.
I tried and tried to move and break free. Even tapping into that energy thing was no help. I was completely and utterly stuck.
Panic began to fill my being. Ariados made an attempt to catch Sneasel, but she was unsuccessful. She quickly gave up when Sneasel entered the cave making her mortar attacks useless now. All I could do was stare in complete disbelief over what just happened.
What happened? Did… did Sneasel betray me? Did she throw me back at Ariados to save her own skin?
What seemed to be an eternity passed until Sneasel looked back towards me. She was too far for me to see her expression, but it didn't matter what it was. What matters is that she betrayed me to save her own skin!
A buzzing noise began to fill my ears to the point of deafening with a rage building in my stomach matching the intensity. I was biting down so hard on my lips that I didn't even care that I was causing it to bleed. What matters is that I was betrayed, yet again!
After a decent time passed, all of the captors were present before me. I hadn't even noticed when they had all gathered.
"What happened?" Machoke asked in a very deep, cold tone.
Nuzleaf rubbed his arms meekly. "I… lost the prisoners…" Nuzleaf muttered.
"And why were the prisoners out of their cell?"
"...Because…"
"Because?"
"Because I fell asleep."
In an instant, Machoke appeared on top of Nuzleaf and with one of his fists raised, he delivered it straight into Nuzleaf's face, slamming him to the ground. Machoke delivered another punch, then another, with his bloodied fist that got more crimson with each punch delivered.
All of the other captors were cowering from the brutal carnage of their ally. Machoke took a couple of deep breaths then walked over towards me. He crouched down to meet my eyes.
"I'm sure this is your fault somehow, and because of this, I'm going to make your life a misery. So rest up tonight: you're going to be needing it."
I was so scared at the time, I didn't even notice Machoke reeling his fist before it was too late, and with a solid punch, I was out cold.
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Where am I? This doesn't feel right. I raised my hands and clenched and unclenched them, taking note that I had fingers again. Wait fingers? I gave myself a very quick one over and I was back in my human body. Wasn't I a Pokémon before?
Taking a look around me, I noticed that there are trees scattered around rolling, grey plain with small, dark grey slabs protruding from them. This place looked oddly familiar to a graveyard I used to visit frequently.
A soft collective of crying suddenly came from behind me. Turning around, I spied a large set of chairs in a neat set of rows with a walkway in the middle. Sitting in those chairs were grey figures that kinda resemble people, if not a bit more smooth and disorientated.
At the end of the walkway was a large portrait with what seemed to be a coffin and a tall womanly figure sobbing while facing towards it.
As I got closer, I tried my best to make out who was on that portrait, but for the love of me, I couldn't make out who it was. Reaching the isle, all the figures stopped their crying and in a very stiff way all looked towards me.
This whole event felt oddly familiar as I walked down the aisle, and towards the coffin.
Feeling like a puppet on strings, I lost control of myself and started to move towards the portrait. I examined it, and was unable to identify who was in that portrait. The figure's face was just too blurry, like a filter was placed over it.
I only took a small glimpse towards the tall woman before I was in front of the coffin. The casket slowly opened, revealing the face of a sleeping boy. Wait- not sleeping, deceased. The more I stared at this kid, the more my soul began to fill with dread when I realized who this was.
"I'm so, so sorry," I said as I lowered my head. "If it wasn't for me, then you would still be alive, Chriss. Please don't leave me, you are my only friend."
The sobbing of the crying woman halted. Fear filled my being as the sound of grass being crushed beneath heavy footsteps approached me. A cold hand grabbed my shoulder and in an instant, I was swung around to face the tall woman.
The tall woman had no face, but instead had black makeup dripping down her featureless face where her eyes should've been, and smudged lipstick where her lips were not.
"It's all your fault. It should've been you."
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Jerking my eyes open, I tried to catch my breath through a tied mouth, leaving me to breathe through my extremely agonized nose. I tried to move around but found out that I was stuck. What was weird though was that I was being dragged by something.
Turning forwards the best I could, I spied Machoke holding onto a large vine attached to my cocoon prison.
I tried my best to keep my mind off that nightmare, so I tried to recall the events leading to where I am and when I recalled Sneasel betraying me, making any fear I had turn to pure anger.
After a decent time being dragged to who-knows-where, came to a stop at the top of a small hill to where the tree line had stopped.
I was able to spy a large facility with a large gated fence that looked like it was designed to withstand a siege.
"Awake, are we?" Machoke mocked, noticing that I was conscious. He raised his hand towards the facility. "Welcome to your new home. You are going to be here for a looong time, and you and I are going to get well associated. Believe me."
My heart was beating so fast with fear, and all I wanted to do was to run away from Machoke's sadistic-looking glare. But with nothing I could do, I just returned a glare of my own.
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End chapter 3