The Path of Destiny Part 17

The Path of Destiny

Chapter Seventeen - A New Owner


Rosie wasn’t sure how long she had been left in the dark room, but after a while, a human opened the door and walked inside, followed by another. Rosie tensed, baring her fangs as the humans walked right up to her cage.

“A vulpix…well, it’s not often you manage to catch one of those…”

Rosie growled at the speaker, who reached his hand toward the cage. Leaping forward, Rosie sank her small teeth into his hand as it strayed too close to the bars. The man pulled his hand back, but to her surprise, he smiled. “A feisty one…this pokémon has potential…I can see her becoming a skillful fighter.”

“So this is the one you want?” asked the other man.

“Yes,” he agreed, “as well as that teddiursa and the espeon you showed me earlier.”

‘Teddiursa…’ Rosie thought. She hadn’t noticed an espeon being brought here, but there were many other pokémon already in the building. She wondered what the human wanted with them…to train them to fight? She shuddered. She didn’t want to be trained, especially not now. She was too inexperienced for battles…she would get ripped to pieces!

“Well, then she’s all yours!” one of the humans was saying, making Rosie glance in his direction. The man opened the cage, but before she even had the chance to move, she felt something small and pointy prick her in the shoulder, and before she could take a single step further, her senses faded to black…

                                                                                          -ooo-

…It was night…she could tell…there was moonlight coming through the windows…windows? Rosie opened her eyes more fully, trying to make sense of what had happened. Sitting up, she looked around, feeling dizzy and only half-awake. She realized she was in another cage in a human building…it looked like a gym. However, this gym was much newer and more nicely kept than the one she had seen in the abandoned town hidden in the dark forest. Something itched at her neck. She tried to scratch it with her hind paw, when she realized that there was something in the way. Reaching her forepaw up, she felt a thick leather collar around her neck.

Gasping in surprise, she tried to tear it off, but it was too tight, and her claws did no damage to it. Finally giving up, she looked around and noticed that there were other pokémon in the gym building, all with collars like her…and all either chained up or in cages. Looking at them more closely, she noticed that they all looked thin, but none of them had any serious wounds.

“The vulpix is awake now,” a human voice sounded through the darkness, causing Rosie to jump. The vulpix stepped back as the human walked closer. The tall man was followed by another with an espeon beside him. The psychic eevee evolution also wore a collar similar to Rosie’s, and Rosie realized that must be the espeon the other man had taken. Like Rosie, the espeon looked scared, crouching low with her forked tail tucked between her legs.

Neither the espeon nor any of the other pokémon made a move to try to attack the humans, and as much as Rosie hated to admit it, she figured there must be a good reason for that. Maybe they knew they would starve to death in the cages if they made any move to harm their captors.

“You really think this one could be a fighter?” the second man asked. “It’s…rather small…”

“Not for long,” the first smirked, leaning closer to Rosie’s cage. “But our job is to make pokémon strong. People pay a lot of money for a good fighting pokémon these days, especially a rare one.” He eyed Rosie carefully, and then opened the cage.

Rosie raced out the cage door, firing an ember at the humans, who backed away. She noticed the young espeon flinch at the heat from her attack. Rosie was just about to run towards the men again, when suddenly she felt a horribly painful and sudden jolt of electricity rippling through her small body.

Giving a cry of pain and surprise, Rosie collapsed to the ground, lying on her side. Her paws thrashed as the violent energy surged through her. She tried to make sense of what had happened, but at the same time, she was silently begging…wishing for it to stop…

And all at once, it did. Rosie lay gasping against the cold floor, her eyes darting to the human, who held a strange device at her. She realized that if she made another attempt to attack him, she would feel that terrible pain all over again.

Seeing that Rosie had abandoned her attempt at fighting, the man smirked. “Looks like it gets the picture. Let’s see how it does in a real fight…how about against Espeon? Neither of them have had any experience.”

Before Rosie had completely recovered from the shock, she was roughly dragged by her collar to the center of the room, which was marked like a normal gym battle room, only it was much smaller. She figured this must be a practice or training area.

The small espeon was made to stand at the other end, looking more frightened than Rosie had ever felt. Standing shakily to her feet, the vulpix glanced at her new ‘trainer,’ and noticed him holding that same device. She knew she didn’t have a choice. She would have to fight. “If only I wasn’t so small and didn’t only know such pathetic attacks…” she muttered under her breath, shaking as she faced the espeon.

“All right, Espeon,” one of the ‘trainers’ shouted clearly, though sounding less than enthused, “try a psybeam!”

The espeon, who couldn’t have been any older than Rosie herself, visibly flinched, and didn’t move. The man repeated the command, and when she didn’t comply, he gave the small pokémon a kick. Espeon cried out, landing on the ground and refusing to get up again. “Pathetic…” the man whispered.

“Doesn’t seem like much of a fighter to me,” the other agreed. “But of course, if it doesn’t get better at battling, it could still be sold as a pet, or if not…then its pelt could be valuable…”

Rosie shuddered, watching the espeon being taken out of the room, crying out as the man held her collar a bit too tightly. “As for you…” the human continued, startling Rosie, “I’m still curious as to how you fight a battle…” He threw a pokéball, and Rosie stepped back as the form materialized.

The human’s pokémon reminded the young vulpix somewhat of Wildflame, only it had no horns, and its fur was a light gray color, with two thick black stripes leading from its head to its back. The pokémon’s legs were also covered in black fur, and its feet were clawed. A long, bushy black tail lashed from side to side as the pokémon’s yellow and red eyes stared straight into Rosie’s amber ones. Rosie flinched away from the wolf-like pokémon, knowing that it was a fully grown adult, while she was still a young adolescent. She didn’t think she could fight this enemy; her most powerful attack was ember.

“Mightyena,” the human said calmly with a smile, “do what you wish.”

At once, Mightyena leaped towards Rosie, pinning her to the ground with her claws. Rosie tried to break free, only causing the dark pokémon’s claws to twist deeper into her fur. Turning her head, she blew a small stream of flame at the mightyena’s paw. Mightyena leaped back with a small snarl, but before Rosie could even stand, the larger pokémon had rushed towards her again, her black tail glowing silver.

Rosie cried out as the tail slammed into her side, sending her skidding across the rough floor. As the mightyena came closer, Rosie rolled over onto her paws, feeling some of her strength miraculously returning as she leaped at the dark type, trying to get close enough to use ember again.

Effortlessly the black and gray pokémon dodged, before spinning around and launching a shadow ball. Rosie ducked a split second before the glowing black orb zoomed over her head and slammed into the wall, vanishing in a cloud of thin blackish smoke. As Rosie looked up, Mightyena had leaped toward her again, trying to tear at her with her fangs. Rosie darted frantically to the side, and Mightyena turned around with only a mouthful of tail fur. Rosie stopped, exhausted, and then suddenly recalled one technique she hadn’t tried yet…confuse ray. Her eyes began to glow, and at the same time, Mightyena become disoriented.

Shaking her head from side to side, the canine pokémon failed to react in time as Rosie ran forward and used ember again, this time creating a burn on the mightyena’s foreleg. Mightyena growled in pain and attempted another iron tail, which missed. Rosie sped toward her opponent with a quick attack, but realized too late that Mightyena seemed to have gotten over her confusion, or at least for the most part. Even quicker than she could run, the mightyena turned and lashed at her with iron tail again, but this time across her face. Rosie fell to the ground again, and found she couldn’t get up. The last words that echoed in her ears as her senses faded once again were the mightyena’s…

“….I’m sorry…”

                                                                                          -ooo-

Thunder sat alone beside a small pond, away from the others. Crouched down by the pond’s edge, she spat a small black object into the water, the bullet from the human’s gun. She had finally managed to remove it, though she’d had to cut open her shoulder and pull it out with her teeth to do so. It had been painful, but necessary. Thunder wasn’t going to risk a greater chance of infection. The bullet wound in her side, however, was a different story. There was nothing she could do about that.

Glancing at her shoulder, which was now bleeding again, Thunder attempted to stop herself from shaking. She tried to force all thoughts of pain to the back of her mind, get her thoughts back under control, like she always did…

She lifted her head at the sound of a snapping twig somewhere behind her. A moment later, Spark appeared.

“Thunder…” he gasped, sounding relieved that she hadn’t tried to follow the poachers. “Why did you wander off like that? And…what happened to your shoulder?” he added, noticing that it looked a lot worse.

“Nothing…” Thunder replied angrily. “Now leave me alone!”

Spark sighed, shaking his spiky head. “You have to come back! Don’t you know that there are poachers around?”

“I know that,” she replied, her tone low and barely above a whisper as she crouched beside the pond. “I’m not afraid of them…”

“Oh come on!” Spark cried, sounding impatient. “Just come back to where Snowcrystal and Wildflame were going to meet us!”

“Don’t want to…” Thunder muttered. She sounded annoyed this time.

“But we really need to stick together you know,” Spark told her, “just in case-”

“I’ll come when I feel like it!” Thunder snapped. “Now GO AWAY!”

Startled by her sudden shout, Spark turned and scampered back the way he had come, not wanting her to get any angrier at him. She had been rather unpredictable lately, and the last thing he wanted was to be attacked. He briefly cast a glance back, seeing Thunder once again staring into the pond. He then started to head back toward Stormblade, but feeling thirsty, he turned off course to find a stream, while making sure not to stray too far from his friends.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Snowcrystal and Wildflame skidded to a halt once they realized that they were in the safety of the hills. Wildflame shook droplets of rain from her coat. “Great…” the houndoom muttered, “I can’t tell where the others are from here…the rain’s disguising their scent!”

Snowcrystal lifted her head up and sniffed the air a few times, confirming Wildflame’s statement. “Guess we’ll just have to look for them,” she muttered.

“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Wildflame replied, shivering from the cold. “Let’s just go…I don’t like this place…”

Snowcrystal nodded and the two headed off.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Stormblade wasn’t sure what had awoken him, but he figured it must have been the pain. What surprised him, however, was that Spark had gone. He knew Thunder had been resting nearby, so that didn’t worry him. He sat up, shivering, and glanced around to see if the jolteon was anywhere nearby. The rain was falling much harder now, feeling painful every time it struck his wounds. He thought it was strange that Spark would just wander off like that.

However, something else was on his mind. He needed a drink of water, badly, and the rain wasn’t enough. He knew it had been a while since he had found water, and he could not remember being so thirsty. Looking around, he could see that the rain was simply turning the ground to mud. Stormblade didn’t think he could make it all the way to a stream by himself, so, noticing a group of large rocks somewhat nearby, he decided to head in that direction, as water had probably collected there. Slowly he staggered upright, making sure he didn’t put any weight at all on his injured leg. Using his blades to help support himself, he headed in the direction of the rocks, using the trees to keep himself from falling as he hobbled along. He found it was much harder to walk now, and he doubted he’d make it much further if the others decided to travel again soon. Plus, his wounds looked infected, so his future in general seemed anything but bright.

When he made it to the rocks, he was relieved to see that some water had collected in a large crevice in one of the stones. He was just starting to lap at the water when he heard splashing. Stormblade turned around, having heard the sound coming from beyond a large group of bushes near the rocks. He stayed completely still…and listened.

The splashing sounds grew louder…closer, and Stormblade abandoned the water and crawled into a space between two large rocks, which together formed a sort of small cave. Peering out carefully, he could see the bushes rustling, and an aipom stepped out, followed by a human girl. Stormblade felt his blood run cold…the aipom was Sid. Why was he leading a human here?

“It’s no use,” the girl mumbled, stopping to stand near the rocks. “We won’t be able to find the white growlithe in this weather. We should wait until it’s lighter…”

Stormblade narrowed his eyes.

The human turned and shouted back to someone apparently looking elsewhere in the direction she had come from. “I’m over here! I think we should stop and rest for a while!” Turning to Sid, she returned the aipom into yet another new pokéball before looking around for some sort of shelter from the rain.

Stormblade watched the human, not daring to make any sound or sudden movement. He was thoroughly confused…why was that human looking for Snowcrystal? And what did Sid have to do with it?

Stormblade suddenly became alarmed as the human started to walk right towards his hiding place. He tried to crawl further back into the narrow space, hoping the human would look elsewhere for shelter. But it was too late…the trainer had already started to peer inside. Any second, and she would notice him. Stormblade could think of nothing to do but shout at her to go away and hope it would startle her enough that she’d run.

Katie had just begun to feel as if something was watching her when she heard some pokémon…a pokémon within the cave itself, yell at her angrily, though she couldn’t understand its words.

“Sssscccyyyyyttthhheeeeeeeeeeerr!”

Katie jumped back, shocked, and stumbled away from the small cave, looking visibly startled at hearing the pokémon’s cry so suddenly. Yet at the same time, she couldn’t help but think that there was something strange about a pokémon…a scyther…hiding in a small cave alone in the middle of a rainstorm.

Stormblade could see the human hesitate; see the shock and fear on her face. He expected her to run away, to not want to come anywhere near the cave.

Yet she didn’t run. She walked right up to the cave again. Stormblade prepared himself for a battle he knew he couldn’t win; a battle against fully trained pokémon which would be at full health…

But the human didn’t send out any pokémon. She peered through the darkness until her eyes adjusted to the gloom and she could see him somewhat clearer. A look of surprise and shock crossed her face and she stepped back, calling out over the sound of the rain, “Justin! Come here!”

                                                                                          -ooo-

It had been a rather…strange day. More reports of poacher traps, and just now, he’d heard a few people talking about a white growlithe that had been running around one of the city buildings. That was even stranger…

The man shielded his eyes with his hand as he peered out over the trees and hills. He’d arrived after hearing about the first poacher traps. Those poachers were fools, trapping pokémon so near to one of the cities. Yet for him, it was good fortune. He could easily turn some of the poachers in to the police for a sum of money, and he could take a few of the pokémon they’d caught for himself if he saw any with potential.

But the white growlithe…it was here? Sitting down for a moment, the man gently stroked the head of the pokémon sitting next to him, pondering. “If that growlithe is around here,” he muttered, “it’s worth looking for it…who knows, maybe the poachers will do the job for us, eh?” He smirked.

His quilava smirked back.

To be continued…