Chapter 12: Rescued!
"Halt!" a voice shouted before I could finish telling Joltik my plan.
"Ah!" I jumped out of my skin as I quickly whirled around to see who had said that. "What'd you do that f-"
I quickly stopped what I was saying when I saw
her. She was beautiful... an Absol like I was, but she had gorgeous wings that were covered in fluffy feathers. The fur on her head fell over her face in a graceful curl, and as she looked at me, she was actually smiling.
"Don't worry, I am here to... help you out." She said, but it seemed as if something else was on her mind as she was talking.
"You are beautiful..." I said while I swooned, but as soon as I realized what I had said my cheeks blushed a bright red (well, I don't know if you could see it through all of my thick fur, but still). "I mean, er, uh... how do you have wings?" Wow, way to be lame Sky.
"I used this thing called... no, I will tell you later. For now we need to qet out of here, before Dark-Mist catches us." She then turned around and started running away from us.
"Hey, I thought you were going to help us! We don't even know your name yet!" Swoobat yelled a bit angrily, as she used her wings to beat against the bars of the cell.
"Swoobat, calm down, she is just getting the key to get us out of here." Joltik said in his calm sort of way.
"Oh... right." Swoobat said a bit embarrassed. "My bad..."
"You will learn all about me in due time. But for now, we need to escape." She then picked up the key with her mouth and used it to unlock the cages door.
"Thank you..." I said, trying to think of something better to say. But man, was she pretty...
"Your welcome. Now, follow me!" She said, swiftly making her way to... the wall.
"Um... why did you stop at the wall?" Swoobat said exasperatedly.
"Watch and you'll see." She said back simply, as she took her claws and started punching holes in the wall in a star pattern. As soon as she had done this, a small passageway quickly appeared, showing a long set of stairs that went up.
"How'd you do that?!" I said, amazed as we began to climb up through the passage.
"Again, you will learn in due time." She sure was mysterious, I thought to myself.
The walk up the stairs was very quiet, and when we reached the top I couldn't help but wonder why there were no guards around. I shrugged it off, and followed the Absol over to the woods, where we ran until we reached a small den built into a hollow log.
"Here is my home." She said, offering us some small berries. "Would you like some of these?"
My stomach growled a
huge growl in response, which again embarrassed me really badly. Swoobat and Joltik just snickered, but quickly stopped when their own stomachs growled.
"Here, have some of these. They will make you feel better in no time." She laughed, after giving us some sort of berries. I tried some, and they tasted very sweet. They were even better since I was already so hungry! But that was when I realized that Tropius hadn't said anything this whole time. I had almost forgotten that she was even here!
"Tropius, are you feeling OK?" I said to my friend, as she sat in silence.
"Oh yes, I am fine, just a bit... shocked at all of this, that's all." She said, with a slight look of sadness in her eyes. "But... aren't we going to rescue Junior?"
"Of course we are. Don't worry Tropius!" Swoobat said, flying over to Tropius and landing on her head, with a mouthful of berries.
"I think I am going to go get us something more... substantial to eat." And like that she was off, and I
still didn't know her name.
We sat there in silence, finishing the few berries we had, when I decided to get up and go drink some water from the small river that was flowing right outside of the den. When I had finished and came back, I was shocked at what I saw.
"A Fletchling?!" I said, as I saw the
dead Pokémon the Absol had brought back.
"Why of course. Fletchling is my favorite, and I thought that you would agree. Plus, they are easy to hunt for..." She then started ripping apart the raw meat, and dumped a clump of it in front of each of us.
"We aren't even going to... cook it?" I said, getting more grossed out by the minute. "Isn't this cannibalism?!" I stared at the meat that was in front of my paws, feeling sorry for the poor bird.
"Yeah, maybe, but I always eat this... it's not that big a deal. There are millions of Fletchling..." She then took a bite of her Fletchling, daintily eating it. She even looked pretty while she was eating a raw meat!
"Um... OK if you say so..." I was trying to be tough so I could look... well, maybe a bit attractive to her. I then slowly stooped down and took a bite of the Fletchling's wing, and slowly chewed it as I tried not to vomit at how disgusting it was.
"Do you like it?" She called, after finishing her meal.
"Um... yeah, it's... unique!" I said, trying not to lie, per-say. I looked at my friends, who looked as sickened as I was.
"Great! This will be our dinner staple from now on!" She happily called. Great, now I was stuck eating this every night... wait, what did she mean by that? We were going to stay with her?!
"Um... hey, you still haven't told us your name or who you are!" I said, trying to change the subject, as I tried to force myself to finish the rest of the meat. I was too hungry to let the rest go to waste, and I didn't want her to notice that I hadn't eaten all of it.
"Alright, I will tell you. My name is Aura. I work for Dark-Mist", she then leaned in close to us, and started whispering, "but at the same time I don't. I am secretly going behind his back and getting all the information I can so I can stop this evil plan he is doing... which involves you." She then pointed at me, specifically.
"Why me?!" I said kind of alarmed.
"Because he wants your DNA. He is still perfecting the last bits of his machine, but he needs your DNA to finish the device that will be able to teleport to your world." She said this in a quiet voice.
"What?! But... why?!" I said, not knowing what else to say.
"Yes, why? And why does he have all of these other Pokémon? Like my Junior?!" Tropius said, a bit bewildered. Joltik and Swoobat just looked at each other with sad faces.
"Because ever since he himself heard that Pokémon are kept to fight and work for humans, he thought that was unfair. He wants to get to your world, Sky, so he can take over humans and make
you work for Pokémon! Do you see what I am saying here?" She looked directly at me, and it felt as if she was peering into my soul.
I didn't know what to say. This was crazy, terrible, and a bit ridiculous all at the same time.
"Yes, I see what you are saying, but how is he going to carry out this plan?" I said, my voice wavering.
"Because once he has your DNA, he is going to use it to make some kind of terrible formula. One that causes humans to make themselves to act like Pokémon... and can be commanded to do whatever Pokémon tell them, and all kinds of terrible things!" She looked away from me, as I looked away from her.
"This is bad..." I said. I was astonished at all of this information. "But how are we going to stop this?"
"I honestly don't know... I am still working on a plan. But what I think the best thing to do right now is to get you out of this world, before he can extract your DNA. As you are the only human that I know of in this world, if you are gone, he won't be able to carry out his plan and all will be saved. But I don't know how we are going to do that exactly... so far I think the only thing that would work would be to somehow sneak into his fortress and figure out a way to get the machine to work without your DNA." She was looking into space, and I could tell she was thinking very hard as to what needed to be done.
"But how do we do that? I don't have a clue about how machines work and all of that stuff..." I said, letting my head hang low.
"Neither do I, and I doubt Swoobat and Joltik know anything either. No offense, guys..." Tropius said glumly.
"Well, I have a very good friend of mine who might. She is probably the smartest Pokémon I know, and should be able to help us out. Tomorrow, I will take you to her. But for now, I think it is a good idea if we all get some sleep... as it is getting late." Aura looked up at the sky, as if her soul was being taken by the moon somehow.
"Aura..." I began, having to find out the answer to my question before bed. "How do you look like that? I mean, I like it! But... I don't look like that. And I've never seen another Absol who did..."
"Oh, this was caused by a Mega Stone. Have you ever heard of them?" We all shook our heads. "Well, they are special stones that only work when used on certain Pokémon. You hold them up to you, or "activate" them for a loss of words, and then you get transformed for a limited amount of time. Usually for about the length of one battle I would say..." She folded her wings as she slowly turned around in circles before plopping down on the soft moss that lined that bottom of her den.
"But... it looks like you have the effect permanently somehow. I mean, it has been a lot longer then the average battle takes by now since I first met you..." I sure had a lot of questions tonight.
"It is because the friend I told you about made some modifications to my stone, causing me to look like this forever. Cool, right? If you want, I can ask her and she could do the same thing for you..." She then yawned cutely.
"Yes, please! Thank you!" Finally, she had asked me the question I had been hoping for. I had always dreamed of flying, and what better way would it be like then with her...
"I think Sky is in love..." Swoobat giggled.
"Wait, what?! Hey! You don't know that! Knock it off Swoobat!" I said, feeling my cheeks starting to blush again.
"You are..." She continued, bursting out laughing.
"Um... how about we go to bed now. Alright?" Aura said, trying to change the subject. But I couldn't help but notice that she was blushing as well.
"Good idea... good night everyone!" Joltik said, as he curled up with Swoobat and fell asleep.
"Good night... Tropius, Joltik, Swoobat... and to you as well, Aura..." I said, as I felt my eyes gradually begin to close on their own.
"Good night, Sky..." Were the last words I heard Aura say before I was out cold.