The Path of Destiny Part 14

The Path of Destiny

Chapter Fourteen - Disaster Strikes


Snowcrystal knew that the others were exhausted. Even though it was still morning, the growlithe could tell that it was going to be a long, hot day. And while Wildflame and Rosie wouldn’t mind all that much, it was certainly bad news for Stormblade.

Beside Snowcrystal, Rosie yawned. “Snowcrystal…how long are we gonna keep walking?” the vulpix asked tiredly.

“For a little while,” Wildflame told Rosie, answering for Snowcrystal herself. The houndoom seemed worried and impatient, as if she wanted to get as far away from the site of the Shadowflare attack as possible. Turning her head, she motioned with it toward the others up ahead. “Stormblade, come on,” she urged the pokémon beside her. She was still supporting the scyther’s weight, only able to move as fast as he could. Stormblade’s pace was painfully slow. He was forced to hobble along after the group, unable to put any weight on his injured leg.

“It would help if you could slow down,” Stormblade muttered to himself, panting with the effort of keeping up with her. “Do you think we can take a break now?” he asked as Snowcrystal stopped and walked over to him. He was looking at the white growlithe with an almost pleading expression.

“I second that!” Rosie called from up ahead before Snowcrystal could answer.

Wildflame paused, and an annoyed look appeared in her eyes as she glanced at the vulpix. “We’re never going to get anywhere at this rate…” she sighed.

“I don’t care,” Rosie retorted, lying down on her back. “If you want me to keep going, try and make me! I’m taking a break whether you like it or not!”

“Fine,” Wildflame mumbled, defeated. “Let’s make it a quick break then.” She glanced to Snowcrystal, who was talking to Stormblade while the scyther limped over to a patch of grass to lie down. Turning away from them, she found a small spot to herself and sat with her tail curled around her paws, alert and waiting.

The others soon found their own places to rest. Though she was impatient with the rest of the group, Wildflame had to admit to herself that the journey was starting to take its toll on her as well. A rest didn’t sound so bad after all.

“You know, Wildflame,” Spark called to the houndoom. “I think we should be taking more breaks…we can’t keep going like this forever.”

“Besides,” Rosie agreed, “I bet Blazefang’s just as tired as we are!”

                                                                                          -ooo-

In the shelter of a group of trees in a small park, a young blonde-haired girl of about fourteen sat on a small bench, holding her shinx, as she watched her other pokémon play. Sitting next to her was a boy her age. As the girl’s shinx jumped out of her hands and onto the bench, the boy reached out and petted the little pokémon, who curled up beside him.

“If you loved your pokémon so much, Justin, what on earth made you give up pokémon training?” the girl, Katie asked, giving Justin yet another confused look. She had never understood why he didn’t train pokémon anymore, and he had never told her anything about the matter except to say, ‘I gave it up.’

“I don’t know…” Justin mumbled, avoiding her gaze. “I guess…I guess it just…wasn’t working for me…”

The young girl turned away, aware, as always, that there was more to it that he just wasn’t telling her. Glancing toward a small piece of paper on her right, she was reminded of the news that had been broadcast everywhere that day. Poachers and their vehicles had been spotted near the city, and all trainers had been advised not to leave the city alone, at least until the perpetrators were caught. “Poachers…” she muttered through clenched teeth. “I sure hope the police catch them soon. I can’t stand to think about what they do to pokémon.”

A movement from the bushes nearby distracted her, and she looked in the direction of the noise just as her aipom bounded up onto the bench. “Aipom?” she questioned, surprised. “Where have you been? We just heard there are poachers around.”

Aipom pointed excitedly in the direction of the plains near the outskirts of the city and ran off, before stopping and waiting for the humans to follow. He turned around, holding up a small book with a picture of a growlithe in it. “Where did you get that?” Katie demanded. “You didn’t steal it, right?” As Aipom smirked and ran off, Katie sighed and turned to Justin. “He’s done it again… Well, we better follow him, and make sure he gives that book back to whoever he took it from…”

“Ever think you should try to control that pokémon better?” Justin muttered as he stood up, picking up Katie’s shinx while his friend returned her other pokémon to their pokéballs. “All right, though…” he agreed reluctantly with a sigh. “Let’s go.”

                                                                                          -ooo-

As Blazefang’s pack moved on, some of its members were noticeably missing. The houndour leader had finally realized that the injured pack members were only slowing them down, and eventually, he had decided to leave them behind to wander back to the mountain. It hadn’t been a pleasant decision, but it had been for the good of the rest of the pack.

Blazefang turned as Boneclaw approached. “What do you want us to do now?” the other houndour asked his leader.

“Stick with the same plan…follow the growlithe, but not too closely,” Blazefang replied. “Wildflame reported back to me while the growlithe thought she was hunting. She hasn’t heard anything about Articuno yet, and she told me the scyther I fought survived the attack, but is badly injured. If we find him alone, I give you permission to kill him. We want the growlithe to lead us to Articuno as soon as possible, and an injured pokémon will only slow them down.”

Boneclaw nodded slowly, remembering the several houndour who had been injured and fallen behind after Blazefang had ordered the rest of the pack not to slow their pace for them. He was sure they would eventually find their way back to the mountain, as none of them had been near death, but the thought of the wounded group staggering back to the tribe alone still bothered him.

Boneclaw shivered, wondering if, had circumstances been different, he would have been in their place. He began to worry that Blazefang cared about nothing but pleasing Firedash…and that not even his own pack mates mattered to him.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Wildflame quickly grew impatient with waiting again. She knew that Stormblade’s injuries were the main problem; as Rosie really could keep going, despite her stubbornness on the matter. The houndoom had wanted to continue the journey as soon as possible, so they could actually get closer to wherever Articuno was, but at the moment, she mainly wanted to leave because she had a bad feeling about the area. However, she couldn’t explain why, and she wasn’t about to try and make the others understand.

Feeling restless despite her tiredness, she decided to look for a stream and maybe find some prey she could hunt. Padding away from the others, she glanced back at Rosie and Stormblade for a moment before moving on. Once on her own, Wildflame trotted easily over a large group of rocks and into an area where more trees grew. Prey was far more likely to be found among the trees than in the rocky areas, even if Wildflame was used to hunting in more open spaces.

Suddenly a strange sound caused her to glance to her left, and she crept closer, until she heard voices nearby. Two of the voices belonged to humans, and another to a pokémon. Wildflame crouched down in a clump of bushes as an aipom ran by, followed by two trainers.

“What about the poacher warning?” the boy called as he ran after the female trainer.

“We’ll be fine!” she called back to him, though the boy didn’t look very convinced.

Once the humans and their pokémon had passed, Wildflame raised her head, realizing that they were headed straight for the group. Looking closely at the ground where the humans had passed by, she could see many footprints in the mud; her own footprints from before as well as those of the others she had been travelling with. And that was what the aipom and the humans seemed to be following. Knowing she could outrun them easily, Wildflame turned and headed back toward Snowcrystal and the others by a different way, so as not to run into the humans.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Snowcrystal glanced up as Wildflame suddenly appeared, looking worried and out of breath. “What’s wrong?” the growlithe asked.

“Humans,” Wildflame growled. “We gotta move, now!”

“Humans!” Rosie cried, leaping up, “All right, let’s get out of here!”

“Stormblade will never outrun them!” Thunder snapped. “I say we fight them off before they even make it here.”

Snowcrystal glanced at Wildflame, who nodded slowly. “I suppose that’s the best we can do,” The houndoom said quietly. “Snowcrystal, you and the others should try and go ahead with Stormblade. I’ll distract them.” Wildflame then took a deep breath, regretting what she had just said instantly. However, there was no changing her mind now, and she was the only one who stood a real chance; the others were either hopeless in battle or they were injured. ‘Remember…’ she thought to herself silently, ‘you’re a houndoom now…you can fight!' Feeling slightly less worried as she recalled herself taking down a stantler in the forest, Wildflame turned and bounded away. “This’ll be easy!” she called to the others, hoping she sounded convincing.

Not stopping to see if the pokémon were going yet, Wildflame headed straight for the humans, hoping a warning flamethrower would be enough to send them on their way. She knew they had been following the group, but she wasn’t sure why. The last thing she wanted was to be captured, especially considering she was on an important mission for her tribe back at the mountain.

Wildflame heard the sound of the humans’ footsteps close by, and paused, waiting. Once they came into view, she leaped from the bushes and in landed in front of them, snarling as she turned to block their path. The humans both stopped and took a step back, and the aipom skidded to a halt right in front of Wildflame.

Katie stepped back, surprised at the sudden appearance of the dark type. “Aipom, iron tail!” she called as she watched her pokémon dart out of the way of the wild houndoom’s snapping jaws. Aipom dashed back toward Wildflame and swung around, whipping his now glowing tail across the houndoom’s side. Wildflame rolled with the impact and kicked out with her back paws, catching Aipom across the chest and knocking him to the ground. Staggering upright, Wildflame fired a flamethrower at the dazed pokémon, who barely managed to roll away in time to avoid serious injury.

Katie, realizing that Aipom was most likely going to get hurt, became nervous. “Aipom get back here!” she cried, wishing yet again that she still had Aipom’s poké ball. He hated being inside one, and would always manage to ‘lose’ his whenever Katie got a new one. However, this time Aipom could see that the battle wasn’t going in his favor. He scampered back over to Katie, before climbing up on her shoulder.

As Wildflame took a step closer, Katie grabbed a pokéball and released one of her other pokémon. The pokémon appeared with a willing cry, standing right in front of Wildflame. The houndoom didn’t need to recognize the pokémon to know it was a water type. Short light blue and white fur covered its body, and it stood on its hind paws. It had two long ears and a long jagged black tail with a large blue orb at the tip.

“Azumarill!” Katie cried. “Water gun!”

Wildflame was forcefully hit by a blast of water that sent her flying into a nearby tree. Coughing and sputtering, she stood back up and launched a blast of flame at the water pokémon. “Out of the way, Azumarill!” Katie cried just as Wildflame fired the attack. The water type heeded the warning and dodged the blast of flame. Katie reached into her pocket and took out a pokéball, pressing the small white button in its center to expand it. “I’m going to try and catch this one!” she excitedly told Justin, who stood a little ways behind her, watching the battle.

Wildflame took a moment to listen to Katie’s words. “Not on your life, human,” she spat as she ran toward Azumarill. Knowing that fire attacks wouldn’t work well against her opponent, she decided to use a different strategy. Running behind Azumarill, Wildflame leaped toward her, and though Azumarill dodged, the houndoom still managed to get a grip around the water pokémon’s thin black tail with her teeth. Azumarill screeched in pain and whirled around, just as her trainer gave another command.

“Water pulse!” Katie shouted, and once again Wildflame was forcefully knocked back, but this time she recovered quicker. Not having much time for a close ranged attack, seeing as Azumarill was still nearly unscathed, Wildflame launched another flamethrower, which hit its mark.

Wildflame stepped back, watching Azumarill as she stood up and faced her. The attack hadn’t seemed to do much damage to the water pokémon, and apart from being singed, Azumarill seemed to be fine. Trying to gather up her strength, Wildflame prepared for her enemy’s next move.

An angry battle cry suddenly caused both pokémon to glance to the left, a moment before Thunder darted from the bushes to stand beside Wildflame. “A scyther?” Katie mused, reaching for her pokédex as she stared closely at Thunder’s broken chain and collar.

“Katie!” Justin cried, suddenly panicking, as he grabbed his friend’s arm. “Get away from there!”

Katie, who had been reaching for her pokédex, glanced around at him in surprise, before hearing Azumarill’s cries of pain, which caused her to glance back. The scyther had given her pokémon two long cuts across her back, and Katie quickly returned the water type.

“Let’s get out of here!” Justin cried, terror filling his voice as he pulled his friend further away from the two wild pokémon. Finally deciding to listen, she followed Justin, running back through the mud and grass and towards the city. Sighing in relief as the humans left, Wildflame followed Thunder as they headed back to the others.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Snowcrystal looked up as she heard Wildflame and Thunder approach. “The humans have left,” Wildflame assured the growlithe calmly.

“Good,” Snowcrystal replied, and thought for a moment. “Wildflame, do you think you and Thunder could scout ahead and just check to make sure it’s safe? You’re strong enough to fight if you run into danger, and I think it would be a lot better for us to know what’s up ahead.” She looked at the two of them; Thunder showed no reaction whatsoever, but Wildflame didn’t seem very pleased with the idea.

“What about me?” Rosie cried suddenly. “I’m not injured! I’ll go!”

“But I don’t think…” Snowcrystal began, before Wildflame interrupted her.

“Let her go,” the houndoom muttered. “I had to fight a pokémon already…I’m tired. I’ll stay back here with the rest of you.”

Rosie smirked and walked alongside Thunder as the two slipped into the bushes ahead. Snowcrystal stayed at the back beside Stormblade, and Spark and Wildflame loped a little ways ahead.

                                                                                          -ooo-

“How far ahead are we supposed to go?” Thunder asked Rosie as the two of them stepped over rocks and small bushes. Though Thunder wouldn’t show it, her wounds were paining her, yet she had no problem keeping up with the energetic little vulpix.

“I don’t know, Thunder…do you think we should go back now?” Rosie asked casually, stopping and tilting her head at the scyther.

“Yes,” Thunder agreed, starting to turn back.

“Wait a minute,” Rosie whispered, pricking her ears up. “I think I heard something…I want to go see what it is.” She glanced toward Thunder, who sighed and rolled her eyes, lying down in the mud and not seeming to care much that it got in her wounds.

“Go right on ahead,” the scyther muttered.

“Uh…okay then, I’ll be right back…” Rosie responded, confused at Thunder’s attitude, and wondering why she had agreed to go along in the first place. Heading away from the bug type, she followed the noise she had heard until she began to make out what it was. Someone was calling for help…

Rosie crept carefully through a group of bushes, away from Thunder. After a short time, the vulpix emerged into a very small clearing, and immediately saw what had been making the noise. A young teddiursa was caught in a net. Rosie stiffened, knowing what that meant, and started to back away. Suddenly she felt a human hand close roughly on her scruff and she was lifted bodily off her paws and into the air.

“Well would you look what I found?” came a man’s voice, and Rosie could hear another’s footsteps. She tried to twist free from the human’s grip, flailing her paws at him as she cried for help, although she didn’t know if Thunder was even close enough to hear her anymore. She tried to turn her head around to use an ember attack, but he was holding her neck fur too firmly for her to move her head much at all.

“A vulpix?” the other human called. “Well, lucky us. Toss it in a cage. I’ll get the teddiursa.”

Rosie found herself being carried away to a truck that was nearby and thrown forcefully into a hard metal cage. Unpleasant memories flooded the young vulpix’s mind from the last time she had been locked in a cage. But now, it was far more terrifying. There were other pokémon in cages in the back of the truck, and Rosie had no idea where the humans were bound to take them. At least before, she had been alone in a forest, and probably would have been able to free herself, but now, it was different. There were humans close by, watching, and they were going to take her away to some strange place. A cry of pain filled her ears as the teddiursa was thrown into another cage beside her. Rosie moved forward toward the bars of her cage, staring back out into the trees. “THUNDER!” she cried desperately. “Thunder…help!”

There was no answer. Rosie heard the humans get into the vehicle and start it. The floor of the cage lurched beneath her as the truck moved forward, causing her to lose her footing and fall. As the vehicle picked up speed, Rosie started to panic even more, crying out for help as loud as she could.

“Rosie!?” A voice called back at her this time, and Thunder stumbled out of the bushes and into the clearing that the truck had just left.

“Thunder!” Rosie cried. “Get me out!”

Without answering Rosie’s cry, Thunder darted after the human’s vehicle. Rosie peered through the cage bars as the truck drove on, noticing with relief that Thunder was catching up. Even injured, a scyther’s speed was unmatched. “Thunder, hurry!” Rosie called out, failing to notice one of the humans in the truck lean out the window as he saw that a pokémon was following them.

Thunder was far too focused on Rosie and the cage to notice that the human carried a gun until it was too late. The gun fired twice, and Thunder felt one bullet strike her in the side and the other tear into her shoulder. She collapsed painfully to the ground, blood seeping from the wounds, and the vehicle drove on. “Thunder!” Rosie cried, leaping up and placing her paws against the cage bars as she heard the gun fire and watched Thunder fall.

Crying out in rage, Thunder tried to get back up, but the weakness and shock were finally too much for her. She only collapsed again as the truck drove further away, moving far quicker than it had been and vanishing into a large grove of berry trees.

The moment she had seen Thunder collapse again, Rosie’s eyes had filled with tears that came unbidden. “Thunder, get up! Help me!” she cried, even though the scyther was now out of sight. “Don’t let them take me…do something!” She was now sobbing uncontrollably in her absolute terror, fearing the humans and everything they could do to her. Desperately she clawed at the cage bars, not stopping even when she tore a claw and stained the bars with blood.

Thunder could hear the cries growing fainter and fainter, but her strength was ebbing away. She tried to stand up, but failed, and gradually Rosie’s shouts faded into nothing…

Rosie gave a loud cry of fear as she realized that Thunder could not follow her. All around her, pokémon were crying or yelling for help or vainly trying to free themselves. The vulpix knew it was no use, and now Thunder, her only hope, couldn’t save her. Still, even though she knew that there were no rescuers to hear her shouts, she did not stop crying out.

“Help!” she yelled in terror. “Someone help me! Get me out! Heeeeeelllp!”

To be continued…