Chapter 31: Escape
(If you haven't already seen my last post, you may be interested in the
extra scene relating to Chapter 30 that I wrote.)
Whoo, it's Chapter 31 at last! Apologies for the long wait, but distractions are distracting.
Chapter 31: Escape
A loud, excited squeaking filled the wooden cabin. Vanessa grumbled something untoward, turning over on the mattress and burying her head in the borrowed pillow, hoping to fall straight back to sleep.
Joy was having none of it. The Togetic zipped across the bed and began poking her trainer energetically, punctuating each poke with a sharp “Tic!”. Vanessa opened her eyes and waved the fairy Pokémon crossly out of her face. “What is it, Joy?” she mumbled, glancing at the window, the sky outside visibly dark through the branches. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“Tokii!” Joy told her proudly, pointing with a flourish towards the laptop that lay on the floor in the middle of the room, the light of its screen illuminating the wall in front of it.
Vanessa snapped from groggy to alert in an instant. She’d left the program that tracked her Master Ball running overnight, even though she hadn’t expected anything to happen – the orange dot indicating the two trainers’ location hadn’t moved since the early evening, and she’d assumed it wouldn’t do so again until morning. But apparently, she had been mistaken.
She scrambled out of the bed and reached for the laptop, turning it towards her while Joy flitted about excitedly in the edges of her vision. A smile made its way onto her face. There it was: the Master Ball’s dot, flashing white, showing that it was now occupied.
Archopy had been caught.
Vanessa peered closer at the screen as she zoomed into the program’s map of Hoenn, eager to know exactly where her Archopy had been found. Still on Steel Hill, apparently, less than a mile away from where the trainers had stopped that evening. But it didn’t look to be staying that way for long. The dot was moving.
* * *
Theo emerged from the Secret Base, his mind racing. Part of him could scarcely believe that he’d managed to go through with what he’d just done, what he’d always meant to do but never known if he’d have the guts to. But now the ball containing Archopy –
his Archopy – was safe inside his pocket; he could feel it lying just above the rapid pounding of his heart.
And yet, it had all gone wrong. Carrie hadn’t understood. Of course she hadn’t; Theo had always known she wouldn’t. Yet something had possessed him to try and explain it to her, even though he knew she’d never listen to him. He should have just left straight away, then his Pokémon wouldn’t still be inside the base, fighting to stop her just so that he could get away. But if he wanted any chance of enough time with Archopy, Theo
had to leave them. His own Pokémon. He was leaving his own Pokémon to fight alone. This had turned into a nightmare.
He looked frantically, hopelessly, around the near-pitch black forest he found himself in. What with the time he’d spent inside the Secret Base listening to Archopy, he’d practically forgotten that outside was a menacing, unfamiliar woodland in the middle of the night. The place creeped Theo out enough without him having to make some kind of desperate escape through one to find a hiding place. He didn’t even have any idea where to go about hiding in a forest. That was Carrie’s area, not his.
This had all been such a stupid idea. Carrie was going to burst out of the base and catch him any second. He shouldn’t have left his Pokémon in there on their own. What sort of trainer would do that? Archopy would never trust him.
Theo took deep breaths and forced himself not to panic. However much part of him desperately wished he could rewind time and never have caught Archopy in the first place, there was no going back now. He’d done this so that he could care for her and make her better – he
had to make her better. Even if Carrie was right that Archopy would never trust him, he simply had to try. It wasn’t even as if he had any other option any more.
Feeling his pocket for Archopy’s Master Ball to reassure himself it was still there, Theo steeled himself, picked a random direction and ran off through the dark.
* * *
“Damn it,” Carrie was muttering to herself above Foliano’s head. “Damn it, damn it, damn it.” She paced across the width of the Secret Base, glaring at the line of Theo’s Pokémon blocking the way out. “Why did he have to go and do that? That
idiot.”
Foliano could see where she was coming from. Even though he supposed Archopy was basically a wild Pokémon and so Theo was basically within his rights to capture her, it just seemed
wrong somehow. Archopy hadn’t had a choice in the matter. Didn’t wild Pokémon usually decide whether they wanted to approach a trainer and risk capture? Didn’t Archopy, of all Pokémon, deserve that choice?
But then again, he’d listened to Kabutops talk about the kind of trainer Theo was. Foliano could think of far worse humans that Archopy could have ended up with.
“
Master is not,” he heard Cradily hiss under her breath, quietly but fervently, returning Carrie’s glare. “
Master is not an idiot.” The sea lily’s tentacles writhed slowly, sinisterly.
Still pacing, Carrie ignored her gaze, or at least pretended to. “And now we have to battle our way out of here,” she muttered more to herself than anyone else. “Just bloody great. This is going to be such a mess.”
“
Damn right it is,” Aerodactyl rasped, grinning a rather too tooth-filled grin. Foliano noticed Kabutops eye the pterosaur warily, almost as if he were about to speak up, but he said nothing.
Heaving a frustrated breath, Carrie briefly inspected the walls of the base, lined with firmly woven vegetation. “And Secret Base walls can only be broken down from the outside, apparently.” She smacked the wall in question. “Damn it! There has to be an easier way out of this!”
She spun around and looked down at each of her Pokémon in turn. Her gaze came to a halt on Crescent. A grin spread across her face.
“Crescent,” she said, her eyes glinting. “You used Perish Song before, didn’t you? I need you to use it again. I know it’ll hurt, but it’s the quickest way out of here.”
The Absol was shaking his head before she’d even finished, shrinking back as he looked up at her. “
I… I can’t,” he mumbled, letting out a soft whine. “
I don’t remember how to…”
“
We cannot let him use that move,” Foliano heard Kabutops warn the other fossil Pokémon behind him. “
They’ll get away.”
“Please, Crescent!” Carrie urged. “I can recall you once you’ve sung it; it won’t hurt for long. Just…” She made a frustrated gesture at the Pokémon blocking the way. “I need to get past them!”
Crescent stared at the ground, clawing at it anxiously. “
I… I suppose I’ll try…”
“
No, you won’t!” came a high-pitched voice; a second later a spinning beige thing cannoned through the air towards the Absol and clonked him in the face. It took Foliano a moment to register that it had been Omanyte, of all Pokémon – she’d always been so shy before. Crescent snarled in indignation and slashed at her shell as it spun around for a return strike, but judging from the squeal of glee from Omanyte as she smashed into her target again, it had barely hurt at all.
Velotus took the sudden action as his cue and leapt at Aerodactyl, grinning wildly, his blades blazing with green-white light.
“Oh, fine!” Carrie yelled as Aerodactyl countered a strike from the Grovyle’s leaves with a swipe of his wing. “Attack them! Go, go, go! There’s more of us, anyway!”
The room promptly became a whole lot noisier. Most of it was down to Cradily, who dropped the threatening glare in an instant in favour of screeching wordlessly at the top of her voice as she flailed wildly in preparation for an attack. Empathy duly jumped forward and wrapped a psychic glow around the sea lily, halting her in her tracks. From the other side of the base, Foliano heard Aerodactyl snarl furiously at Velotus; Omanyte was still squeaking in delight as she ran rings around Crescent.
That left Kabutops. He hesitated before moving towards Foliano, raising his scythes unsurely, clearly torn. Foliano knew that neither he nor his friend could pretend this was going to be just another of their friendly battles. He grimaced as he lit his blades.
“
I’ll take this one,” Ivyx said, stepping in front of him, her own leaves glowing. She spared a meaningful glance back at him; she knew how much this would have hurt Foliano to do. He gave her a smile of wordless thanks.
With a grin, she flew at Kabutops, but her scythe was swiftly parried by his. Foliano couldn’t help but worry as he watched them trade blows. Kabutops had clearly become better at fighting a Grovyle over the course of their friendly matches.
“Foli, don’t just stand there – we outnumber them, make use of that!” Carrie called as she watched the melee anxiously, her teeth clenched. “Crescent, Detect that Rollout already! Velotus, what happened to Thunderpunch?”
Foliano jumped at Cradily, who was still held in place by Psychic, scything at her lower body with a Leaf Blade. The strike was punctuated by a yellow flash from the other side of the room as he heard the crackling of electricity mix in with a primeval screech of pain. Beside him, Ivyx was still going for it against Kabutops; Foliano winced as she was hit with a nasty-looking slash. A burning liquid splashed over him as he was distracted, and he leapt back in surprise away from Cradily, who’d managed to pull off the attack even while immobilised.
“Empathy, quit trying to lift her or whatever you’re doing and just use Psybeam,” came Carrie’s frustrated command. “Ivyx! Stop duelling – he’s better at it than you. Energy Ball!”
Foliano felt kind of bad as Empathy began dealing blasts of rainbow light to Cradily while he filled in the gaps with Leaf Blade strikes, not giving the sea lily a moment to stop reeling and fight back. Battles weren’t supposed to be one-sided like this. “
You don’t have to fight us, you know,” he said to her, almost apologetically. “
We just want to leave.”
“
No!” Cradily’s voice was vehement despite her pain from the attacks. “
Master needs us to do this. Master trusts us.” Another Psybeam shook her, but one yellow eye remained piercing into him from the black cavity on her face. “
Master will come back for us, but until then, you will not leave!” At these words, she lurched forwards, spraying more acid right into Foliano’s face.
He yelped and shook himself wildly, trying to stop the burning, part of him wanting to deliver a counter-strike out of principle – she’d only been able to do that because he’d stopped attacking. But something made him leap away from the sea lily entirely, heading towards another part of the battle. Carrie hadn’t been specific on where she wanted him to make use of their superior numbers, after all.
He skirted past Ivyx and Kabutops, narrowly leaping over a sparkling green Energy Ball that Kabutops had smoothly ducked underneath moments earlier. Carrie yelled something about Shadow Ball from behind him, and he saw Crescent, his usually silky white fur grey and sodden with water, charge a sphere of dark matter in his mouth and fire it at Omanyte, who swiftly disappeared inside her shell. Black tendrils of energy skittered around the shell as the ball disintegrated on impact, eliciting a squeal of discomfort from the Pokémon inside.
She promptly reappeared, waving her tiny tentacles vigorously as she sprayed a jet of water at the Absol’s face. “
Won’t let you!” she squeaked as Crescent snarled in annoyance, raking his claws at her but missing due to the water in his eyes. “
Won’t let you hurt Father!”
Did she mean Theo? Foliano’s first thought was that the human really hadn’t been exaggerating when he said he was like a father to his Pokémon; his second thought was that she kind of reminded him of Raptola. Omanyte seemed to be about as young as Foliano’s son, after all. And he felt sure that his son would fight with all he had if he knew his dad was in danger.
He watched as Omanyte vanished inside her shell again and launched herself, spinning, at her foe. He didn’t have the heart to start attacking her, even if Crescent looked like he might have needed the help, only dodging by the narrowest of margins as the spiral shell whizzed past his nose. Omanyte’s typing was doubly weak to Grass, anyway. It didn’t seem right, battling her two-on-one with such a large type advantage to boot.
His head snapped around as he heard a screech of pain from Velotus; Aerodactyl had clamped the Grovyle’s body in his long jaws, crystals of ice glittering around his teeth and sending a wave of cold air washing over Foliano. The pterodactyl flung his foe harshly into the wall of the Secret Base, Velotus unable to cushion the impact as his arms were trapped under a layer of ice.
Aerodactyl advanced on the wildly struggling Grovyle, more ice forming around his fangs. Carrie yelled at Foliano to get in there and help him, but he hardly needed the order. Ducking momentarily as a wayward Shadow Ball zoomed past, he leapt towards the pterosaur and slammed a Leaf Blade upwards into his chin. Aerodactyl’s jaws snapped shut on thin air with a clack, spraying tiny ice fragments everywhere.
“Velotus, where’s your fire?” Carrie called. Out of the corner of his eye, Foliano saw the other Grovyle shake his head as he strained to break free of the ice encasing him. A leathery grey wing smashed into Foliano, catching him off guard and sending him sprawling onto his back. “And Foli, didn’t you know Thunderpunch too?” his trainer added as the pterosaur loomed over him, wings spread wide, eyes glaring down at him from above and grinning that wicked, fanged grin.
Thunderpunch? Foliano vaguely recalled having learnt it from Velotus, but it’d been a while and he couldn’t quite remember how it was done. He peered at his arm, trying to concentrate; a tiny crackle of electricity flickered across it and was gone just as quickly. The next moment, his head was slammed against the ground, stars speckling his vision as Aerodactyl’s wings swiped viciously at him, the ancient Pokémon screeching in triumph. Foliano instinctively lashed out in retaliation, but his bare claws did little against the Rock-type’s thick hide.
“
Tie him down!” Velotus hissed from beside him as Foliano tried in vain to channel some energy into his leaves so he could give Aerodactyl a proper strike. “
I just need some time!” The ice around the other Grovyle’s body seemed to be cracking – he’d be free in a few moments.
Foliano forced his head to stop spinning and scrambled out from underneath Aerodactyl, narrowly missing being caught by another Wing Attack as he backed away to give himself space to concentrate. Inside the vegetation-rich Secret Base, it wasn’t hard to coax a twisting, snaking vine to erupt beneath the pterosaur’s feet, tripping him as he lunged towards his target and sending him crashing to the ground.
Aerodactyl roared in frustration, flailing around on the floor, his efforts hampered by another two grassy ropes that Foliano had managed to call up and entwine around his wings as best he could. He caught Velotus’ eye; the other Grovyle grinned back at him, his ice entrapment now covered in a web of cracks.
“
Look at you two,” Aerodactyl hissed, giving up his struggles against the vines in favour of glaring murderously – or was it enviously? – at the two Grovyle. “
You have no idea what it’s like. Being the only one. Our leader is the only thing that makes it bearable for us. For me.” He paused to growl softly, and Foliano could see real loneliness behind his savage stare. “
Now he wants to do the same for Archopy, and you seek to stop
him?”
“
Damn right we do,” Velotus growled. The ice around him shattered, and he leapt straight at Aerodactyl, his eyes blazing with fire and his arm crackling with sparks. The fist connected and the Flying-type screeched in agony, writhing around in his grassy bonds as electricity coursed through him. The moment it was over, he hissed defiantly back at Velotus, snapping wildly with his jaws even as his body shook from the strain, but the Grovyle just dodged backwards out of reach with a sly grin.
Foliano backed away from the fight, leaving his Grass Knot loose and easy to tear through. Aerodactyl was weakened enough now that Velotus could doubtless end things on his own – and Foliano couldn’t help but feel sorry for the pterosaur. He
didn’t know what it was like to be the only one of his species, after all. Not like Theo’s Pokémon. Not like Archopy.
But wouldn’t bringing back her species as a whole help Archopy more than one human trainer could?
Foliano was snapped out of his confusing thoughts by his own trainer. “Foli, please!” Carrie said, sounding almost like she was begging. “We’re still nowhere near through – please, you
have to help out somehow.” The anger from earlier had left her voice, leaving only desperation. Foliano couldn’t bring himself to ignore her wishes, despite his sympathy with the fossil Pokémon – she was his trainer, after all, and he cared about her just as much as Theo’s Pokémon cared about him.
There was an explosion of green sparkles to his left as Kabutops deftly slashed at one of Ivyx’s Energy Balls, disintegrating it. Drawing in a breath, Foliano readied his blades and made himself approach his friend. He managed to put on a spurt of speed and slammed a Leaf Blade into Kabutops’ chest, catching him off guard while he was still focused on Ivyx. The shellfish caught his eye, looking almost amused as he raised his scythe to parry Foliano’s next blow.
“
Two on one?” he chuckled, a playful edge to his voice. “
Surely this isn’t fair?”
No, it isn’t, Foliano silently agreed as Ivyx fired off another Energy Ball from the sidelines which grazed the top of Kabutops’ head as he only just managed to duck it. “
You could always just surrender, you know,” he said out loud, keeping up the pretence of friendly banter. “
I’m sure our trainer would love you for that.”
Kabutops’ eyes lost their twinkle and became pained as he blocked the next few blows with more force than normal, driving Foliano back. “
You know I can’t,” he said quietly. “
Just as much as you can’t. Our trainers mean too much to us.”
The two of them stood there, each of their scythes blocked by the other’s, locked in a stalemate. Foliano almost wished his trainer wanted something else of him, just so that he wouldn’t have to fight his friend like this.
Another Energy Ball flew in from the corner of his vision and struck Kabutops square in the chest. The shellfish gasped in pain and staggered backwards as the green sparkles fizzed over his whole body, their Grass type power seeping into his rocky hide. Foliano shot a glance at Ivyx, not sure if he was angry at her or complimenting her for the nice hit; she returned it with a look of wordless apology.
Kabutops was still standing. He seemed to have determinedly shaken off the attack even though it must taken a lot out of him. Raising his scythes again, he began to stalk forwards, albeit with more difficulty than before.
“Grass Knot, Foli!” Carrie called frantically from somewhere behind Foliano. “You know it works on him!”
Gritting his teeth and feeling horrible for doing so, Foliano called up a pair of twisted vines around his friend’s clawed feet. Kabutops caught his eye in the moment before the knots tightened, his gaze unreadable – and then he suddenly shot vertically upwards faster than Foliano had ever thought he could move. He snapped his gaze up to the ceiling, but Kabutops had already leapt off it, too fast to follow. The next thing he knew, a scything strike slammed into his back, sending him sprawling forwards, almost crashing into Cradily’s bottom half.
Foliano lay there, dazed, not really taking in the sea lily’s wild threats towards Empathy above him. That attack had hurt a lot more than a normal hit from one of Kabutops’ scythes should have. The pain was reminiscent of Aerodactyl swiping him with his wings; the move must have been Flying type.
He still couldn’t quite heave himself up off the ground – the attack just now coupled with the lingering aches from Aerodactyl’s Wing Attacks and Cradily’s acidic assaults had taken a lot out of him – but he managed to look over his shoulder back at Kabutops. “
You know Aerial Ace?”
The shellfish nodded, not catching his eye. “
My trainer taught it to me a long time ago,” he said.
Foliano frowned, thinking of their friendly battles. “
Then why did you never…”
“
I didn’t want to hurt you that badly,” Kabutops mumbled, his voice plagued with guilt. Turning away from Foliano, he dodged to the side of another Energy Ball that Ivyx sent his way – she seemed to be really straining herself to pull them off now – and then leapt straight upwards. Foliano could only watch helplessly as the same move was used on her: rebounding off the ceiling and then the base’s left and right walls in quick succession, Kabutops caught her from behind with an impossibly fast strike that she could never have avoided. Ivyx screamed as she tumbled forwards, sprawling onto the grassy floor much like Foliano had. Unlike him, she didn’t move again.
The horror in his trainer’s eyes as she pulled out a Poké Ball matched his own. Carrie gave Foliano an intense look as she recalled Ivyx, and he knew exactly what she wanted him to do. He wanted to do it, too. Kabutops had just taken out his mate. His
mate. Some primal urge within Foliano wanted nothing more than to fly at his friend in a rage, to hurt him just as badly – no,
twice as badly – as he’d just hurt Ivyx. Suddenly able to ignore the pain of his injuries, he pushed himself up off the ground and rounded on Kabutops.
And it wouldn’t even be unfair any more. Carrie’s Pokémon no longer outnumbered Theo’s, after all.
Kabutops backed away from his glare, raising his scythes in what would have been a placating gesture had they not been the same scythes that had just struck Ivyx down. “
I’m sorry,” he said desperately.
Foliano tried to force himself to calm down as he stared into Kabutops’ eyes. Ivyx was only unconscious, after all; she’d be fine. And Kabutops was his
friend. The same Pokémon he’d shared playful banter with in the midst of friendly battles. He’d only done this because his loyalty to his trainer was more important to him, and Foliano could understand that.
But Foliano’s loyalty to his own trainer was just as important. And although it had been subdued somewhat, the instinctive fury within him hadn’t gone away.
“
I’m sorry!” Kabutops said again, clearly seeing that he wasn’t about to back down. Foliano took a deep breath to keep a hold of himself as he prepared to take down his friend.
“
So am I.”
* * *
Theo’s feet pounded heavily against the ground as he ran through the darkened forest with only his rapid breathing and Archopy’s Master Ball for company. He tried to focus on the thought of Archopy, to tell himself that everything would be all right once he had time to talk to her and make her trust him, but why on earth would she want to trust someone who’d just grabbed her and run away with her like this?
Theo was beginning to wish on top of everything else that he hadn’t started running. He could hardly see where he was going in the dark – the tall silhouettes of trees kept looming into his vision so fast that he was barely avoiding smacking headlong into them. And even if he had the first clue what made a good hiding place in a forest, he still wouldn’t be able to see any in this all-consuming blackness. This was getting him nowhere. All he was doing was leaving his Pokémon – the ones that
actually trusted him – further and further behind.
The thought of never being able to find his way back and losing his Pokémon forever crossed Theo’s mind, almost making him stop and turn back then and there.
But he had to keep running. He’d captured Archopy. He couldn’t go back, not while Carrie was still there. She might even have defeated his Pokémon and be coming after him by now – she could track his footprints, couldn’t she? Theo ran faster; he had to find a safe place where he could send out Archopy, somewhere that Carrie would never find him.
He was running so fast that he’d barely registered the dark shape in front of him before he crashed into it. The shape in question was knocked backwards, letting out a cry of alarm – and Theo’s heart dropped into his stomach as he realised that he’d just literally run into a member of Bad Light.
He wheeled around frantically, taking off in the direction he’d been coming from, hoping desperately that the thug hadn’t noticed who he was in the darkness. His hopes were dashed as a flash of light from behind him lit up the forest and the sound of the trainer ordering a Thunder Wave reached his ears. Theo would have sped up even more if he hadn’t already been running at full pelt. He didn’t have any Pokémon to defend himself with any more; he could hardly send out Archopy, and the rest of his Pokémon were…
No, not all of them, Theo realised, digging into his pocket as he saw a Magneton float up beside him in the corner of his eye, blue sparks crackling around its magnets and reflecting off its steel bodies. He flung out his last occupied Poké Ball at the same moment the Magneton sent a wave of paralysing electricity surging through him. For the second time in two days, Theo felt his limbs seize up painfully, and he slammed into the ground, hard. His head spinning as he stared straight ahead, he saw his Poké Ball bounce and pop open with a flash of light, releasing his last hope of getting out of this situation.
But Theo knew how ridiculous it was to think he could count on Armaldo. In the intermittent light from the Magneton’s sparks, the fossil Pokémon’s blank gaze passed straight over him. Armaldo wasn’t even looking at the Pokémon that had taken his trainer down.
Theo could hear footsteps that must have belonged to the Magneton’s trainer approaching through the dark. His mind threw up scenarios of Armaldo helplessly getting fried by electricity, unable to do anything to fight back. Theo’s arms refused to listen to him as he struggled to push himself up; talking was also difficult, but with effort he managed to form recognisable sounds. “Armaldo,” he gasped, “Ancientpow – ow – agh…” He coughed and wheezed desperately as his throat seized up mid-word and he found himself barely able to breathe, let alone speak.
Without being given the exact name of the attack, Armaldo might as well have heard nothing at all. Still gasping for breath, Theo felt his insides fill with dread for his Pokémon as the crackling of sparks continued, but the Magneton’s trainer didn’t order anything. Instead, the man walked right past the fossil Pokémon into Theo’s field of vision – and bent down to pick up Armaldo’s Poké Ball, which had rolled away in the moment Theo had been struck by the Thunder Wave.
Theo could only watch helplessly as the thug recalled Armaldo and pocketed the ball as if the Pokémon belonged to him. It hardly bore thinking about what might be done to him now that he was in the Bad Light member’s hands.
“You two have the Director’s permission to capture Archopy, so long as you give it to one of us straight away,” the man said, a note of annoyance in his voice as he advanced on Theo. “That’s what I remember having to tell every single member of our team on the hill.” With a rough shove from the man’s boot, Theo was rolled over and found himself lying on his back, staring up at a face that seemed vaguely familiar. “So why were you running away with it, hm?”
Panic hit Theo in a sudden surge as he realised that there was nothing he could do to stop this man taking Archopy. His body still wasn’t listening to his mind’s frantic attempts to get it to move. “No,” he managed to gasp, finding his voice again. “You – can’t –” With a huge effort, he jerked an arm up to try and cover the pocket with Archopy’s Master Ball in a desperate attempt to hold onto her, realising too late that all he’d done was show the thug exactly which pocket he’d find her in.
Archopy. Theo had dug her up. He had to help her. He couldn’t let them take her back to MemorCorp and make her life hell.
But his body refused to move. There was nothing he could do but let out an anguished cry of despair as the man working for the Director reached into his pocket and tore his Pokémon away from him.
* * *
Carrie ground her teeth in frustration as she stared at the entrance of the Secret Base, still hopelessly out of reach on the other side of the battlers. Theo’s Pokémon were simply refusing to back down.
It wasn’t for lack of her Pokémon trying, either. The fight just seemed to have set itself up to be as annoying for them as possible. Cradily must have been using Amnesia, because she’d taken countless Psybeams from Empathy and still had enough in her to retaliate with an Energy Ball or a spray of acid. With physical attacks barely able to scratch her shell, Omanyte was proving ridiculously hard for Crescent to hit with a Shadow Ball once she got rolling quickly. Aerodactyl, despite having taken at least two Thunderpunches, was somehow managing to repeatedly flit out of the way of what would likely have been a final one and still find the opportunity to zoom in with a Wing Attack every now and then, leaving Velotus almost as hurt as he was. And since when had Kabutops known Aerial Ace? At least he seemed too tired to use it any more, locked in a scythe-duel with Foliano, who’d given up on Grass Knot after the fossil Pokémon kept avoiding it. Both of them looked exhausted as they traded blows.
But despite clearly being on their last legs, Theo’s Pokémon were not giving up.
Carrie almost wanted to tear her hair out. She was sure there had to be some strategic way to go about this, some way to arrange the battle so that her Pokémon had the maximum advantage and could work together to be out in seconds. The Pokémon were all too caught up in their individual battles to be able to stop and think; this was the part she, as a trainer, was meant to be doing. But Carrie had never been too great at overly tactical battling. There was just too much going on at once for her to be able to focus on it, and the ever-present knowledge that Theo was getting further and further away by the second was rendering her unable to think straight.
Carrie had opened her mouth to call out some kind of order anyway but stopped as the faint smell of a campfire reached her. She frowned, glancing at Velotus, but he showed no signs of having used his Hidden Power; in fact, after their conversation last night and the way he’d shaken his head earlier when she’d ordered it, she wasn’t sure he even
could use his fire any more.
Which meant…
She looked frantically around the Secret Base, seeing wisps of smoke curling their way in through the weave of vegetation that made up the walls. And now that she thought about it, the room seemed a whole lot warmer than it had a few minutes ago.
“Stop!” she yelled desperately over the sounds of the battle in front of her. “Seriously, I mean it, stop! This place is on fire!”
The Pokémon seemed to have been vaguely aware something was wrong, but at this, they all broke off their fighting and began to properly take in their surroundings: the smoke that was already rising to form a layer of grey haze around the ceiling, the sound of crackling flames from outside, the steadily increasing heat. Carrie’s Pokémon backed towards their trainer; Theo’s simply stared around helplessly, at a loss for what to do.
“Yeah,” Carrie said, trying to keep her mounting panic out of her voice. “We need to get out of here. Um.” She fumbled in her pockets, pulling out Poké Balls rather clumsily thanks to her shaking fingers and recalling her Pokémon to the safety of their balls. Then she looked down at Theo’s Pokémon, all of them showing signs of exhaustion, all of them still guarding their positions in front of the entrance. “Um,” she said again. “You guys. You need to let me out.”
“Craaay, leee,” warbled Cradily, her bulbous head performing a twisting kind of dance that might have been a headshake. The other three Pokémon glanced at her. All three held their ground.
Carrie’s back was beginning to feel considerably hotter; she edged forward away from the back wall, in which flickers of orange were beginning to show through the vegetation. “Oh, right,” she said to the fossil Pokémon. “Yeah. You’re all Rock-types; you’ll probably be fine if this place burns down around us, won’t you?” Her usual sarcastic tone seemed to be coming out a lot higher-pitched than normal. “Has it occurred to you that I
won’t be?” She pointed wildly at herself. “Human being here. Flesh and blood. Burns easily. You’ve got to let me out.”
Cradily remained as steadfast as ever, vehemently repeating whatever it was she’d said before. The other three looked less sure; Kabutops in particular seemed to be struggling with himself as he propped his battered body up with one scythe. Around them, the flames grew closer. Parts of the inside walls were beginning to visibly blacken and become engulfed in a flickering orange as the fire made its way in. Carrie felt hotter still.
“Please!” she said desperately, dropping to her knees as the layer of smoke coating the ceiling descended to be uncomfortably close to her head. “You know Theo wouldn’t have included ‘let her burn to death’ in his orders! He’s not that kind of person – you can’t leave me in here!”
At this, Kabutops hesitated for a brief moment and then spoke quietly to Omanyte, who was the other Pokémon most directly in front of the entrance alongside him. Carrie’s heart leapt – and then promptly stumbled mid-leap as all Omanyte did was start spewing jets of water at the walls in an attempt to quell the rising flames.
“Oh, great,” she said, watching the water hiss and turn to steam that rose to join the smoke above her head. “Keep me alive but keep me here, too. Yeah, thanks.” Kabutops ignored her as he joined in the efforts, firing off undulating pulses of water clearly meant to drench the flames, but its effect was somewhat lacklustre given how tired the shellfish was. “You know I’m just going to send out my Pokémon again and carry on beating you once you’ve put it out,” Carrie added huffily.
Her anxiety began to creep back into her as she crouched low in the very middle of the Secret Base, watching the two Water-types’ efforts to fight the fire. They didn’t seem to be winning. For every flame they doused, two more would spring up elsewhere along the walls, and the sprays of water aimed at them were getting weaker and weaker each time as Kabutops and Omanyte’s energy dwindled further. Carrie had to give them credit; they weren’t giving up, despite their exhaustion and the fact that they were fighting for someone they’d been fighting against only a few minutes ago. But it was looking pretty futile – she was just glad she’d been splashed with cold water several times by now, because the heat was getting intense.
Never mind the fire-fighting effort – she needed to get the hell out of there, way more urgently than she’d ever needed to earlier. Thinking furiously about her options, she was almost ready to start begging Theo’s Pokémon to just let her out again even though she could barely see them through the steam, but then something she’d said while thinking through this problem earlier came back to her. The walls of a Secret Base could only be broken down from the outside – and that was exactly what was happening.
Squinting through the haze at the walls around her, Carrie spotted a part off to her left where she could make out a decent-sized hole in the charred vegetation, the flames around which looked to be mostly out. Omanyte and Kabutops were furiously working on the opposite wall and didn’t seem to have noticed through the steam and the smoke and the confusion that they’d left their captive an escape route.
Trying desperately not to breathe too much in case she started choking, Carrie crawled hurriedly forward, heading for freedom.
Something snagged on her foot as she was almost through, something that grabbed tight and tugged furiously in an attempt to keep her there. Carrie could hear Cradily screeching indignantly somewhere behind her and lashed out blindly, feeling her foot connect with something round and heavy at the same time as the sea lily let out a yeep of pain. The tentacles around Carrie’s leg loosened for a moment, allowing her to yank herself free and scramble frantically forward, stumbling to her feet and running blindly as fire surrounded her on either side; she was only glad she was soaked through; that seemed to be keeping the flames off her…
She ran through a shimmering wall of light, and suddenly the world wasn’t on fire any more. Carrie skidded to a confused halt in front of a purple and black pig-like Pokémon that was spreading its arms, the pearls on its body somehow managing to glow with a black light. She stared from the Grumpig back to the Secret Base, seeing flames still gorging on the small mound of grass and the ground around it, but stopping as soon as they reached the wall of energy that the Psychic Pokémon was producing. It finally clicked in Carrie’s head that this was a Light Screen – looking around, she saw that the Grumpig was one of several Pokémon standing around the Secret Base, powering the screen in order to keep the fire contained inside a circle of light.
But as she looked around, she also realised that there was a further circle outside this one, one that she was still trapped by, and her hopes of freedom were promptly dashed.
It was a circle of Bad Light members.
“Hey there, Grovyle-girl,” came an irritatingly familiar voice from one side of the circle that sent the dashed pieces of Carrie’s hopes through the shredder. “Took you long enough. I was beginning to feel all insulted – it almost looked like you’d rather burn to death in there than come out and see us.”
Resisting the urge to smack her forehead in despairing frustration, Carrie looked towards the man who was standing as part of the circle, directly in front of the Secret Base’s entrance. Andrew was leaning against his Arcanine, completely at ease, looking straight back at her with a way-too-amused gleam in his eyes and the biggest of grins.
“I’m sure you’ll be glad to know that we’ve apprehended your evil, Archopy-thieving friend,” he went on. “But you’d better come along with us, too. The Director would hate for you to miss the fun.”
~~~
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