The Path of Destiny Part 24

The Path of Destiny

Chapter 24 - Battle at the Rocket’s Base


Justin backed away, terror marked on his face as he watched the scyther leap forward. With a cry of shock he ducked as the outstretched blade moved toward him, coming dangerously close to impaling him. Justin knew he had only managed to dodge fast enough because the scyther was slowed down by its injuries. As Justin had ducked, the pokémon’s blade had become partially embedded in the crumbling wall of the building he’d been standing against, giving him the time to scramble to his feet and run.

Yanking her arm free, Thunder watched Justin through narrowed eyes before giving chase, ignoring any and all pain from her wounds.

Justin bolted out of the alleyway and back towards the ruined pokémon center, where he was sure Katie had gone to ask for help from the nurses who were probably still there. Not for the first time, he wished he had a pokémon – any pokémon – with him. Fear coursed through him as he heard the scyther run up behind him, and though he tried to dodge, he felt one of its razor-sharp blades slice across his back. The cut wasn't deep enough to cause any real serious damage, but it felt as painful as if he had been lashed by a whip.

Justin cried out, collapsing on his hands and knees, feeling blood trickling down his back and wondering why someone hadn’t come to help him. At about that time, the scyther’s other blade struck him, creating a long cut very similar to the first and knocking him over on his side. Panicked, Justin tried to stand up and run away, all the while calling for help as the scyther lifted its blade above him.

To his surprise, his cry was answered almost immediately. He heard a man shout something, and the scyther scream and back away. Looking up, he saw a manectric dart between him and the scyther, sparks flying from its wiry fur. Glaring at the electric pokémon, the scyther looked ready to fight, but as the manectric’s trainer came into view and got ready to release another pokémon, it turned and limped off, vanishing into the dark alley again.

“Manectric,” the trainer told his pokémon, “make sure that scyther doesn’t attack anyone else.” The electric pokémon nodded in reply and darted after the bug type.

Meanwhile, Justin had gotten to his feet and turned to the man whose pokémon had saved him. “Th-thank you…” he mumbled shakily.

“That wasn’t…your scyther, was it?” the trainer asked, giving Justin a strange look.

“No,” Justin replied shakily. “It was just lying in the streets…until it woke up and attacked me!”

The trainer looked confused. “You didn't provoke it in any way, did you?”

“No…” Justin whispered, shaking his head. The man continued to look at him oddly, and without another word, Justin turned and ran, hoping to find Katie. The trainer shouted something after him, but he ignored it.

Trying to forget the wounds in his back, Justin kept running, as if afraid the trainer had actually seen him harm the scyther.

He just wanted to get as far away from the area as possible…

                                                                                          -ooo-

Thunder was relieved when she at last made it away from the city and her claws finally touched soil. She had just undergone a frantic dash through the city, and had just managed to get away from the trained manectric. Shakily she walked forward, feeling worn out after running and in pain from her wounds. Blood was oozing from several of them, but she paid it no notice. Being free was all that mattered.

Picking up her pace, she broke into a run again, heading further away from the humans and their city. She was once again free, and now she was on her own. No longer would she be able to travel with the group, but she figured that was for the best; relying on others for help or safety was never a good idea.

                                                                                          -ooo-

After a long while of traveling through the darkness of the night, Thunder stopped to rest in a large grassy field, unsure of which direction she would take next. She knew she could not head back to where they had found – and disturbed – the combee hive, and putrid, blue tinged smoke rising in the distance in another direction was proof that some fire had started, convincing her not to head that way either.

Lying down, she decided to rest as she forced thoughts of pain from her mind, focusing on more important tasks. If she was to survive, she would have to learn how to hunt on her own.

For a moment, she felt a pang of regret as she thought of the other pokémon she had traveled with, who had wanted to help her, but she forcefully pushed the thoughts away. She could not accept help from them. She had never even needed help. There had been no point in traveling with them. She was far better off on her own, and she always had been.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Justin had reached Katie before she and the nurse had gotten to the area where they had found the injured scyther. After the wounds the scyther gave him had been treated, the two watched in silence as the police, as well as many skilled trainers who had volunteered to help, prepared to seek out the thieves who had killed and stolen so many pokémon.

They had gone back to the area near the pokémon center, where most of the nurses were still trying to help any surviving pokémon from the outside enclosures that had been injured from the blast.

It wasn’t long before the trainers and police had all assembled in front of the pokémon center. Wasting no time, they left quickly, either in vehicles or riding on the backs of pokémon.

After they had left, Katie smiled and turned to Justin. “I’m going to follow them,” she stated firmly, walking in the direction they had gone as she had reached for one of her poké balls.

“What?” Justin replied. “I thought you’d have to be a skilled trainer to-”

“Nobody’s going to stop me,” Katie replied. “They’ll be far too busy trying to catch those people. They won’t care that I’m following.”

Justin watched as Katie walked out of sight of anyone by the pokémon center, and sent out her pidgeot. The large brown and tan eagle-like pokémon immediately soared into the air, circling some of the buildings before coming to land beside his trainer.

Climbing onto the bird pokémon’s back, Katie turned toward Justin. “Are you coming?” she asked.

“But…but I don’t have any pokémon!” Justin stammered angrily. “And in case you haven’t noticed…I’ve just been attacked by that ‘poor hurt, innocent’ scyther!”

“If you want to stay behind, you can,” Katie replied, sounding disappointed. “But if you come, you can use one of my pokémon.”

For a moment, Justin hesitated, but to Katie’s surprise, he mumbled, “Fine…” and hesitantly climbed onto Pidgeot’s back behind Katie.

“Hold on!” Katie warned as Pidgeot spread his wings and took off, soaring into the air high above the city at frightening speeds.

Shocked, Justin gripped Katie’s waist tighter, averting his eyes from the sight of the streets now far below him. ‘What was I thinking…’ he thought to himself as he closed his eyes tightly, wondering if being able to battle with a pokémon again would be worth all this, and wondering if either of them really knew what they could be getting into.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Wildflame, Snowcrystal, and Spark had only rested a short while before moving on, leaving the burning forest behind them. The smoke hadn’t traveled far, and the three walked at a leisurely pace through a wide grassy field, knowing that they were now well away from the danger.

Her mind still in turmoil about why Blazefang had used the Forbidden Attack, Wildflame quietly followed the playful growlithe and jolteon. ‘Why did he use that attack?’ she thought. ‘I thought he’d know better than that after what I told him about Shadowflare…is he really that power-hungry?’

Every once in a while, Snowcrystal, who led the way with Spark, would spot a small prey pokémon up ahead and run toward it, hoping to catch it. She didn’t have any success. While stalking yet another pidgey, the growlithe heard a cry of pain which sent the small pokémon flying off. Turning to find the source of the cry, she noticed that Spark had collapsed on the grass a little ways behind her.

Painfully, Spark stood up. “Ow…my leg…” he moaned. “Do you think we could rest for a little while?”

Giving Spark a concerned look, Snowcrystal turned her questioning gaze toward Wildflame. The houndoom jerked herself away from her thoughts as she realized that Snowcrystal had asked her a question, and replied, “Okay,” regardless of the fact that she had hardly heard what the growlithe had said.

“Wildflame…” Snowcrystal asked, noticing the houndoom’s strange behavior, “are you all right?”

“Huh? Oh…yeah, I’m fine,” Wildflame replied quickly. “I was just…thinking.”

Suddenly Snowcrystal’s ears pricked up. She sniffed at the air curiously. The growlithe padded through the grass as she scanned the area ahead of her. Wildflame noticed the odd behavior and trotted over to her.

“What is it?” the houndoom asked.

“It’s this scent…” Snowcrystal whispered. “It smells really familiar, though still sort of different…”

Wildflame lifted her head and sniffed the air, soon catching the scent of a pokémon on the breeze. The more experienced pokémon’s eyes widened. “Rosie…” she whispered.

“Rosie?” Snowcrystal repeated, perplexed. “Are you sure? How can you tell?”

“Follow me,” Wildflame said in answer and bounded ahead with Snowcrystal and Spark following.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Rosie had been limping through the grassy field solemnly, not even stopping to enjoy the fresh scent of the many flowers dotting the field. Her head hung low and her nine tails dragged behind her as she stumbled along.

“Rosie!” a distant voice shouted, causing the ninetales to lift her head in surprise.

Leaning back on her hind legs and trying to peer around, she noticed that three distant figures were running towards her.

At first, she thought of running away, but as the shapes got closer she could see them a bit more clearly, and Snowcrystal’s white fur stood out starkly against the flowery background.

Relief and excitement filled her mind as she recognized them, and she ran toward them on three legs, shouting, “Snowcrystal, Wildflame, Spark! It’s me!”

Hearing that shout, the three travelers increased their pace, now definitely knowing that the scent they had found actually did belong to their lost friend. The four pokémon met in the center of the field, all shouting joyfully to one another in relief and forgetting their exhaustion.

“Rosie!” Snowcrystal cried. “You evolved! You’re a ninetales now! And…and what happened to your leg?” the growlithe asked, looking startled as she noticed the injury.

“It’s broken,” Rosie replied, her gaze darkening. “It happened while I was escaping…”

A pause fell over them; all four knew that the past few days had been harsh, starting from when Blazefang’s pack had attacked them. After they had sat down and Rosie had related her story to them – from the capture to the battles and how Eve the mightyena had helped her – she asked the others a few questions herself.

“Where are Thunder and Stormblade? Are they all right? And…and what happened to your leg, Spark?”

Rosie soon found her answers in the form of her friends’ stories. After each had explained what they needed to, another stunned silence fell over the group as they each contemplated the situation, though none voiced their thoughts.

Snowcrystal thought back to the two scyther. Were they all right? What was happening to them now? Snowcrystal knew that worrying would only cause more problems at the moment, so she forced the thoughts from her mind.

‘When we find Articuno,’ she reassured herself, ‘he could find them…If any of them could rescue them…Articuno could…’

For a while they all rested, and Rosie made sure to keep her leg as still as possible, hoping it would heal well. Wildflame and Spark managed to hunt, and for once in what seemed like a long time, despite the pain and turmoil they had undergone and the worry about their friends, the four pokémon could have a moment of peace.

                                                                                          -ooo-

The police and trainers who had been hunting down the pokémon thieves were lucky. Thanks to the meowth’s tracking collar, they had found the location of the pokémon and the Rocket members who had taken them. Now, they stood in view of a massive building, partially hidden beside towering columns of dusty colored stone forming a ridge around the structure on all sides but one. Several more of these tall stone cliffs were scattered over the area, and even in the afternoon sun, the place still seemed eerie.

The location had not been as far from Stonedust as many of the trainers had thought; it hadn’t taken nearly as long to reach it as they had suspected and many of the trainers recognized the towering stone formations from pictures. It was an area that was in some places inhabited by hostile wild pokémon, and the steep rocks themselves posed a threat to travelers. If it hadn’t been for the meowth’s tracking collar, it wouldn’t have been the first place anyone would have thought to look. It seemed far too hostile a territory to bring stolen pokémon to train.

“Who do you think built this place?” one of the trainers asked.

“Not sure,” replied a police officer, “but if we’re going to find the pokémon, we have to get inside quickly. Follow me.”

Without another word, the trainers and their pokémon headed along the base of the towering rock cliffs and closer to the building.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Redclaw was not sure how much longer he could take it. One by one the pokémon had been brought up to the machine and tested. Some survived the electric shock and were returned to their poké balls or put back in cages; others fell still and never got up. Horrified, Redclaw had tried not to watch, though even when he looked away their screams still echoed in his ears.

And it would be his turn soon. Despite trying to fight it, Redclaw was afraid. If the test had been something other than an electric shock, he knew he wouldn’t be so scared. But the memory of the collar Master had given him was far too strong, and Redclaw was terrified.

Ardunia glanced toward him, sharing his fear. Most of the pokémon the new recruit had brought in had not survived, and several others who were injured or sick had perished as well. How Stormblade lived through it, she would never know.

A sound alerted both Redclaw and Ardunia as the bayleef in the cage on the other side of Redclaw’s was returned to its poké ball and brought over to the machine. Fearfully, Redclaw rubbed his head against the bars of his cage, in a hopeless and futile attempt to get his muzzle off.

However, just as the bayleef was released and shackled to the machine, all activity stopped as another Team Rocket trainer ran into the room, looking startled. “Intruders!” he shouted. “And they brought the police!”

“What?” replied the trainer who owned Solus in an outraged tone. “How did they-”

He didn’t get to finish, for at that moment, a large section of the far wall was blown apart, sending debris flying in all directions. Through the new opening in the wall, several trainers and police officers stood, as well as several pokémon. At the front of the group was a trainer standing next to a tyranitar, who had obviously used hyper beam.

Enraged, Solus’s trainer lifted his gun, but as he fired, a large translucent barrier from a trainer’s psychic pokémon materialized in front of the humans and their pokémon, blocking the bullet. Lowering the gun, he glanced toward Solus. “Espeon, attack!” he shouted, pointing toward the trainers.

Solus leaped up and ran toward the trainers and police, followed by several other Team Rocket pokémon. Redclaw pressed his paws and muzzle against the bars of his cage, watching the battle beginning to take place.

Pokémon of all types filled the room, some fighting, others protecting the trainers and police or the Rockets. Near the back of the group of trainers, Justin and Katie, who had snuck in after the others, yelled commands to some of Katie’s pokémon, Katie commanding Azumarill and Justin commanding her persian.

For reasons he could not explain, Justin did not feel afraid. Watching Persian fight was an amazing feeling. It seemed like such a long time since he had watched a pokémon battle for him. “Persian, thunderbolt!” he shouted, watching the tawny cat-like pokémon’s fur stiffen before she fired several jagged bolts of electricity at the Rocket’s pokémon. Nearby, Azumarill was battling head-to-head with a croconaw.

The trainers and police who had come to the rescue had quickly realized that they far outnumbered the Rockets, and their pokémon had soon disarmed most of the grunts. The sheer amount of pokémon fighting and protecting the trainers, as well as the suddenness of their attack, gave the Rocket members little chance of fighting back.

As Redclaw was watching, he noticed several other trainers moving away from the battling pokémon and finding poké balls. He watched some of them release captured pokémon and others find empty poké balls, returning the pokémon trapped in cages and letting them out in the room. One of the trainers had managed to steal keys from the Rockets, and she ran up to Ardunia’s cage, unlocking it and letting the girafarig run free. Next, she opened Redclaw’s, and after carefully examining his muzzle, found a way to open that too and took it off.

Leaping to the smooth floor outside the cage, Redclaw heard a police growlithe shout, “Pokémon, follow me! The way out is this way, hurry!”

Redclaw, along with Ardunia and several other freed pokémon, started to follow while the Rocket pokémon were distracted. Then Redclaw suddenly stopped. “Stormblade…” he whispered.

“What?” Ardunia called from up ahead.

“Keep following them!” Redclaw shouted, turning around. “There’s someone I need to find!”

Watching the arcanine turn and run toward an open doorway, Ardunia sighed worriedly before turning and following the other escapers.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Katie’s pokémon were soon tired and wounded, and having no choice, she and Justin had had been forced to follow some of the other trainers out of the building. The ones that remained were still fighting, but the Team Rocket agents were quickly being driven back. Already, several of the Rocket’s fighting pokémon had been taken by the trainers and brought outside as the trainers’ pokémon protected them from attack.

At last, outnumbered and unprepared, the Rockets turned and fled, with the police soon following. One of the trainers led some others into other rooms, searching for more pokémon who still remained trapped in the building.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Redclaw hadn’t gone far down one of the dimly lit hallways when a voice from behind stopped him. A male houndoom was running toward him, calling for him to wait. Redclaw watched as the sleek dark type came to a halt beside him, looking out of breath.

“The way out is back that way,” the dark type told Redclaw, obviously assuming that the arcanine had gotten lost.

“I know,” Redclaw replied, “but my friend…that scyther they took away, is in another room somewhere, and I have to…”

“Stop!” a harsh voice called from behind. The two dog-like pokémon turned around to see the espeon, Solus, walking toward them from the end of the hallway they had come from.

Without a word the houndoom leaped forward with a speed that surprised the espeon. Knocking the injured psychic type to the ground, he pressed his paw against Solus’s throat, leaning his head closer to him. “All right, you obviously know your way around here,” the houndoom growled. “Where did your trainers take the scyther?”

Solus’s eyes widened in shock as he realized how much he was at a disadvantage. The houndoom was a large and powerful dark type, while he was injured and would be weak to the dog-like pokémon’s attacks. Gritting his teeth, he hissed back, “The Medical Ward…what do you think…genius?”

“Where…is…that?” the houndoom muttered in a low growl, pressing his foot down harder.

Solus gasped as he struggled, kicking his back legs frantically at the houndoom. “It’s on one of the lower floors!” he spat. “Below the first floor…underground…” By now he was struggling to breathe.

“How do we get there?” Redclaw asked.

The houndoom was about to ask a similar question when shouts reached their ears. Letting go of Solus, he pounded through the halls beside Redclaw as several Rocket grunts appeared around the doorway.

“Guess we find it ourselves…” the dark type muttered grimly.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Stormblade had also heard commotion. Next to the room he was currently resting in was the largest experimentation room in the Rocket’s base. Though he did not know what the room actually was, he could hear shouts coming from within it.

“What’s that?” a young linoone asked, sounding frightened.

“Something’s going on in one of the experiment rooms…” a rapidash replied.

“Experiment rooms?” a beedrill repeated, confused.

Before anyone could answer, a door to the room opened, and a young female trainer, obviously not belonging to Team Rocket, stepped inside.

“Who is she?” Stormblade heard the linoone ask, but his question was quickly answered.

Finding keys and moving as fast as she could, the trainer began unlocking the cages, letting every pokémon run free. Stormblade saw the door to his cage swing open, but he did not think he could stand. He watched as the last of the pokémon were freed and they, along with the trainer who was showing them the way, left the room.

“Wait!” Stormblade called out weakly, trying to crawl toward the open doorway. He didn’t make it far, and collapsed, pain overwhelming him and preventing him from moving as the others made their escape, leaving him behind.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Meanwhile, other pokémon were being released from cages and poké balls within a large experimentation room, the room right next to the Medical Ward. The room was massive and contained several huge, strange looking machines as well as rows of tables to which pokémon were meant to be strapped to. The shouting had stopped; the Rockets there had fled. The pokémon were told to follow a trainer pokémon up flights of stairs to the first floor at ground level.

Freeing a small mareep from a cage, one of the trainers began carrying it toward the other freed pokémon when something made her stop in her tracks.

Over twenty Team Rocket trainers surrounded by several large pokémon were entering the room. The trainers helping the pokémon started to back away, knowing that their own pokémon were outnumbered, and the strongest trainers were elsewhere, as the Rockets gave their pokémon the order to attack.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Redclaw and the houndoom darted through another hallway, looking for a way to the floors below ground level. Redclaw stopped, hearing several pokémon coming their way. “That way!” he cried, heading in their direction, soon finding a large flight of stairs leading down to the next floor. Many pokémon were running up them.

“Help them,” Redclaw told the houndoom. “I’m going down there to find Stormblade.” The houndoom nodded in reply as Redclaw addressed some of the fleeing pokémon. “Did any of you see a scyther? Or the Medical Ward?”

Quicker than he expected, he got an answer. A small linoone looked up at him with wide blue eyes and nodded. “There was a scyther in that room down there!” he told Redclaw.

“Where?” the arcanine asked.

“It’s a room with a lot of cages,” the linoone answered. “Down three flights of stairs and you’ll see a large door with a big window on it near the bottom of the third set of stairs. Go there!”

“Thanks,” Redclaw told the linoone as the smaller pokémon ran off. Bounding down the stairs, he quickly passed the first flight, and soon spotted the second. Following the linoone’s instructions, he raced down the narrow stairways until he reached the bottom of the third flight of stairs.

Looking around, Redclaw tried to spot a door like the one the linoone had described. Walking through the hallway a bit, he soon spotted a large open door, one with a window. Racing through the doorway, he found himself in a strange room. The room looked like it belonged in a very low-budget pokémon center, with several syringes and other instruments lying along a counter in disarray. Redclaw noticed stains of blood both on the floor and on the thin sheets covering the bed that stood in the center of the room.

Pushing past another slightly open door, he walked into a room with rows of cages and small cells. At first he thought it was empty, until he noticed the still form of a scyther lying near the other side of the room, still in the cell.

“Stormblade!” Redclaw shouted, running over to the injured pokémon’s side.

Stormblade looked up at Redclaw in disbelief, having thought for sure that he’d been completely abandoned. “Who are you…?” Stormblade whispered in a feeble voice. “How do you know my name?”

“Thunder told me,” Redclaw replied. “I was there at the pokémon center with her. My name is Redclaw. I’m your friend.”

“Thunder?” Stormblade replied, his voice sounding weaker. “Where’s…Thunder?”

“I believe she escaped back at the pokémon center,” Redclaw answered. “She wasn’t brought here.”

“Is she…okay?” Stormblade asked, clearly not comprehending that Redclaw couldn’t know much about Thunder at the moment.

“I think so,” Redclaw answered, though truthfully he was uncertain. “Now we need to get out of here…and quickly, before anyone sees us. Most of the pokémon have already escaped. We need to get out now and follow them.”

“I…I…can’t stand…” came Stormblade’s weak reply.

“You have to!” Redclaw cried worriedly. “We need to leave…I can help you! I’ll help you get up and you can lean against me…”

Stormblade made no reply and Redclaw began to fear that he was far too weak to move. The sounds of battle reached his ears and the floor suddenly shook beneath his paws. A huge battle was taking place in a room nearby…

                                                                                          -ooo-

The trainers who had freed pokémon from the experimentation room found themselves in what seemed like an impossible fight. The Rocket members attacking them had to have come from another part of the building, unaware of the defeat of their comrades, because they were not backing down. Humans and pokémon alike had already been injured, some seriously. Fearful, some of the trainers hid behind machines or tables as the remaining trainers and pokémon fought.

One of them, the trainer with the tyranitar, knew that if there were many Team Rocket grunts here, there must be several still trying to hold the police off somewhere else, unless they had used their pokémon to teleport away. If so, he wondered, had the others who’d come to stop these people already escaped the building and left them alone down there? He shook the thought from his mind, focusing on the battle they were now facing.

His tyranitar was weak; wounded in several places and nearly out of strength to fight. The trainer realized his pokémon could probably only manage one more attack. “Might as well make it a good one…” he muttered grimly to himself, and shouted to his pokémon, “Tyranitar, use-”

He paused for a second, his gaze moving toward the Rockets who were standing beside one of the large machines. In a sudden burst of fleeting hope, he finished, “Use hyper beam on that machine!”

With a strength borne of desperation, the tyranitar fired the attack straight at the machine the Rockets were standing by. Another trainer, looking on, noticed that it was only one of many machines in the room, and a look of fear crossed her face. “Wait!” she shouted, far too late, as the blast of energy struck the machinery.

The tyranitar and his trainer ducked behind a row of cages as the machine exploded, hearing several of the Rockets scream in anguish. Another explosion followed almost immediately after, engulfing several other machines and sending them and most of the room up in flames.

Weakened by the explosion, a part of the ceiling collapsed, damaging several nearby rooms and part of the floor above, while fire spread quickly toward the other machines.

Not wasting any time, the trainers stood up and fled through the doorway on the mostly undamaged side of the room, knowing that they needed to get out of the building…and fast.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Redclaw heard the blasts from nearby and felt the walls and floor shake. Looking toward Stormblade, he tried to help the scyther stand, letting him lean against his shoulder. Stormblade’s eyes were glazed over with pain and the effort to stand seemed almost too much for him. Redclaw tried to help him walk slowly, making his way carefully toward the door leading into the hallway while Stormblade limped beside him.

When Redclaw peered out of the open doorway, what he saw made him gasp. A large part of the hallway to his left was destroyed; the walls in one part of it had been broken down and a section of the ceiling had collapsed.

In his shock, he did not realize the danger he and Stormblade were in until it was too late.

The flames from the ruined machines in the experimentation room had triggered another, much bigger explosion as they consumed an even larger machine. Without warning, a huge section of the wall near Redclaw was blasted away, sending him and Stormblade flying backward toward the opposite end of the hallway.

Redclaw felt his leg strike something sharp – Stormblade’s scythe – as he landed against the scyther, causing Stormblade to cry out in pain a moment before his head slammed against the wall, silencing him. Dazed, Redclaw looked up as a large section of the ceiling above them came crashing down. Unable to move away in time, Redclaw didn’t even have the chance to scream before something crashed into his head and everything faded into blackness.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Outside, the last of the trainers had finally made it out of the building, helping the injured. Several pokémon had not made it out, but the humans knew there was nothing they could do now.

The building was unsafe; part of the first few floors had collapsed in some places, damaged by the explosion caused by the tyranitar’s hyper beam. Since the remaining Rockets had probably managed to use their abra to teleport away by then, the police had decided that it was best to get back to Stonedust City as soon as possible. The trainers and pokémon who were injured needed help.

Knowing the Rockets who hadn’t been caught would be distracted by the damage to their building, the trainers and police, along with the pokémon who were rescued, headed quickly back to the city, leaving the damaged building behind.

                                                                                          -ooo-

Justin and Katie, however, were not with them. Riding on the back of Katie’s pidgeot, they had decided not to return to Stonedust City. Justin had wanted to look for the white growlithe one more time, and Katie, who was also fascinated with rare and unusual pokémon, had eventually agreed.

It wasn’t long before the pidgeot landed, near the group of rocks where the two had come across Stormblade before. Now that it wasn’t raining, Katie was sure that her poochyena, whom she had exchanged for one of her other pokémon back at the pokémon center before it had been destroyed, could follow the growlithe’s scent now that the air was clearer.

Justin watched as the form of the black and gray pup-like pokémon materialized in front of him. After Katie told her what to do, she ran off, happily searching for the scent of growlithe.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Justin asked skeptically. “The growlithe’s scent probably washed away by now…”

“Well, it ran somewhere in these rocky fields when it left the city,” Katie replied. “It’s probably nearby…which means there’s definitely a scent to find. It couldn’t have been captured yet, or else everyone would know about it by now.”

Up ahead, the poochyena began yipping excitedly. Katie and Justin ran to catch up, noticing the large footprint of a houndoom imprinted in the drying mud.

“There…there was a houndoom with the growlithe, remember?” Justin whispered.

Katie nodded. “Poochyena can follow their scent now,” she replied. “I’m sure we can catch up to it.” Without another word they headed through the field of pebbly mud, the little poochyena happily leading the way.

To be continued…