Serious: Flames of Darkness

[A'bom]

A clap of thunder was the first thing he heard.

His eyes snapped open as the earth around him trembled from the ear-splitting crash. He cringed and covered his ears in pain, waiting for the deafening roar to subside. When it did, he slowly removed his paws from his ears and looked at his surroundings: Directly in front of him was the blurry image of a tree--a splintered, scorched tree--and all around him was tall grass, like that found in an uncultivated field. Above him were dark clouds, flashing with lightning, pouring down rain. As his vision came more into focus, he found himself to be all alone--soaked to the bone by the torrential rain. He sat up and looked down at his drenched, mud-covered body, which no doubt would be solely drenched if the rain continued at its current pace. Though sore all over, he got to his feet and began limping away from what remained of the destroyed tree. It began to dawn on him that he was alone in a strange place, totally unaware of where he was, how he got there, or what he was even doing there in the first place. Panic began to set in as the rain began pouring even harder, reducing his already-blurry vision to only a few dozen yards. Despite the pain, he moved as quickly as he could. He didn't know where he was going, but he figured if he kept moving he would eventually end up somewhere better than where he was.

The next thing he knew, he was back in a puddle of mud--it wasn't the same puddle he had awakened in, but it was mud nonetheless. As if that wasn't bad enough, he'd fallen in face-first. He spat out a glob of the earthen slurry and tried to rinse his mouth out with the copious amount of rain that was readily available to him. Even so, it wasn't enough. The taste of mud in his mouth he could handle--the problem now was that he couldn't see at all; opening his eyes could mean permanent damage if there was something in the mud that would scratch them. He sat up and felt the ground in front of him. It didn't come to much of a surprise that what he felt was mud. He sighed and slowly began crawling forward, occasionally having to stop to deal with a stick that ended up jabbing itself into his paw. After what seemed like an eternity, the ground suddenly went from wet and squishy to wet and solid.

"A road!" he said to himself with relief. "Where there's a road, there's people around to use it."

Already agonizingly fatigued from running, falling, and being stabbed by various sharp objects hidden in the mud, he collapsed by the edge of the road in hopes that someone—anyone—would pass by.

[Shade]

[Hello, I am Shade, co-author of Flames of Darkness. I hope you enjoy A'bom's and my story ^~^]

Corona spat the wet fur out of her eyes. "Shade, is it really necessary to be doing this right now?"

Shade glanced over, scoffing at her complaint. "You’re the one that wanted to help."

"Yeah, but did it have to be in a storm like this?"

Placing his paw on her head, Shade sat down in on the wet ground. “Corona, a lot of pokemon get hurt in storms as severe as this one.” He then repositioned her small body so they were looking eye to eye. “It’s our job to make sure they don’t die from their injuries. If we wait for the storm to pass, any injured pokemon might not survive. If you want to help them, you have to get to them before it’s too late. Do you understand?”

Corona lowered her head, disgusted with her own selfishness. “… You’re right. I’m sorry.”

“It’s understandable why you’re upset, though.” Shade said as he shook the water off of his body. “It’s raining skitty and poochyena!”

Corona giggled quietly to herself and ran forward with renewed enthusiasm. “Then let’s fine someone and get out of this rain already!”

Shade got to his feet as the nimble little eevee ran ahead. “Hey, slow down! You’ll miss the smaller ones!”

He shook his head and sighed. She was already too far ahead for him to catch up. He decided it was best to let her learn the hard way what happens when you get separated; this was a training exercise, after all. He closed his eyes and let the cascading rain re-soak his fur, enjoying the firm strike of each large drop. As he did so, he reminisced about everything he had been through in the past few months. He and his family had come to this land from another where pokemon lived a life safely away from humans. They had intended to go back, but upon seeing how many pokemon were suffering in this land, they decided to stay. They formed a rescue squad in Verdesque Forest and rescued as many pokemon as they could, recruiting as many of them as were willing. Corona was one such individual. She was being attacked by a pokemon trainer and his swampert, and they obviously intended to capture her. Shade intercepted the pokeball as it was being thrown, being drawn into it himself. Being at full power, however, he easily broke out and chased off the trainer. Corona, admiring his bravery and selflessness, decided to join his cause. Shade opened his eyes as a roar of thunder split the air. He began walking forward to catch up with Corona, but still kept his slow pace so he wouldn’t pass up any smaller pokemon on accident.

* * *

Corona ran hastily down the path, turning her head back and forth in search of any casualties. It wasn’t long, however, before her little eevee lungs couldn’t keep up with the pace. She came to a stop, panting rapidly to regain her breath. With a heavy sigh she looked up, surveying the landscape ahead. Her eyes stopped on a distant object further down the path: it was small, but obviously out of place. Still a bit tired from her brisk run, she trotted closer. About twenty yards away, it occurred to her that the object could be a disease-ridden body or a predator waiting to ambush its prey. There was a chance that it was a hurt individual, however, so she crept forward slowly, careful not to make too much noise. When she was a mere five yards from the body, she readied a Shadow Ball, just in case it suddenly attacked. As she drew closer, however, she noticed a stream of blood being washed away by the rain. The Shadow Ball dissipated instantly as she dashed forward.

* * *

“Shade!”

His ears perked up at the sound of Corona calling his name. “Corona?” He cried, fearing something had happened to her. “Corona! Keep calling my name!”

Shade sprinted ahead, following the sound of her voice, deftly avoiding obstacles and debris flying around in the wind. When he spotted her, she was sitting at the side of the path, hunched over.

“Corona!”

She looked up from whatever she was looking at and called out to him. “Shade? Shade! Come over here! I found a pokemon, and he’s hurt really badly! Hurry!”

“What is it?” he asked as he rushed up to her.

“I found this quilava lying here. He’s bleeding and seems to be alive, though he doesn’t appear to be conscious.” She said as she grabbed under his forearms, trying to pull him out of the mud.

Shade quickly grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and pulled her back. “What do you think you’re doing!? What if his neck is broken or something? You could have killed him! Remember your basics, Corona!”

Corona’s ears drooped as she watched him survey the quilava. “I’m… I’m sorry. I just wanted—“

“It’s alright.” Shade said, interrupting her. “It looks like he doesn’t have any life-threatening injuries. Clean him off and check for open wounds, bruises, inflammations… stuff like that.”

Corona nodded and approached the quilava, wiping the mud off his body. Shade’s eyes narrowed as the fire-type’s spots came into view. On his head was an extra spot, for a total of three in a triangular pattern. He shook his head, reasoning that it was probably just a slight mutation; but as Corona continued to remove the mud from the victim’s back, his eyes snapped wide open. This quilava had not three, not four, but FIVE spots at the base of his back. He knew right away that this was no ordinary quilava; this quilava had power far beyond that of even the strongest typhlosion—perhaps he could even rival entei, if not the raw power of ho-oh.

“He has a large bruise on his right shoulder and minor abrasions all over the rest of his body.” She reported. “His paws have several deep puncture wounds, apparently from stumbling around and stepping on sharp objects. There’s a scar on the bottom of his left forepaw, but that had to have happened prior to whatever got him in this condition.”

The prodding and repositioning caused the quilava to slowly open his eyes. He began struggling and pushed Corona aside, obviously scared and confused.

“Wh-who are you?” he whimpered as he tried, but failed to get to his feet. “What are you doing?”

Corona hushed him and reached her paw out in a comforting manner. “Don’t worry. We’re not going to hurt you.”

The quilava’s legs trembled and gave out beneath him. “P-please… help me…”

The wind suddenly began to pick up as a clap of thunder shook the very ground they were standing on. The rain went from a steady downpour to torrential blankets, pelting the three of them like small, sharp rocks. Shade shielded his face briefly before jumping over to the injured quilava.

“Corona, get him on my back! We need to get him somewhere safe immediately!”

Without hesitating, Corona stumbled against the wind and got to the other side of the quilava, summoning every last bit of strength her little eevee body could muster to lift him onto Shade’s back.

“Hold on as tight as you can!” Corona ordered once he was up.

The quilava did as he was told, wrapping his arms around Shade’s neck. Shade gasped at the sudden sensation that followed: It was a warm, soothing sensation, the likes of which he had never felt before. So relaxing, so calming was it that he forgot about the savage storm raging around him. He sighed deeply—for the first time in his life, his own spirit was silenced and at ease. He was now completely oblivious to what was happening around him, and he was fine with that. He was lost in the warmth of this quilava’s embrace.

“SHADE!”

His eyes snapped open with a start to see Corona waving her paw in his face.
“Shade, snap out of it!” she shouted over the roar of the falling rain. “What’s wrong?”

Shade shook his head and blinked a few times. “N-nothing. Come on, let’s go.”

As they ran, questions arose throughout Shade’s mind. Who was this Quilava? What happened to get him into such a condition? Why had he experienced such a wonderful feeling? All of those questions would have to wait. Their headquarters, a massive, hollowed-out tree hidden deep in Verdesque Forest, was coming into view. They would nurse this quilava back to health. Then he might be able to get some of those questions answered.

[A'bom]

Shade and Corona dashed into headquarters carrying the injured quilava. While climbing a flight of stairs, Shade began to slow down a bit due to the extra weight.

“Run up ahead and clear the halls.” Shade ordered.

Corona nodded and charged up the stairs into the hallway. “Outta’ the way! Outta’ the way! We’ve got a potentially critical case coming though!”

Anyone in the hallway at the moment pressed up against the wall to make room—all but a slakoth who had apparently decided the middle of the hallway was a good place to take a nap at that given moment. Corona looked back to see how much times she had to get the obstruction out of the way. Shade was pretty much right behind her, so She jumped behind the slakoth and kicked it as hard as she could, giving Shade just enough room to pass by without any trouble. She struggled to catch up, but was eventually able to due to Shade being weighed down. They turned the corner and ran into the intensive care unit. Corona ran up to Shade and helped him get the quilava into a bed. As they did so, he cried out in pain as his shoulder hit the surface underneath. Corona winced at the blood-curdling scream, but knew she had to be strong to help this quilava out.

Shade rushed to the doorway and looked around. “Mary, are you busy right now?”

“No. Need my help?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a trainee in here that needs a spotter while she checks for injuries.” Shade said as he led the lopunny into the room. “He appears to be in worse shape than we first thought. Corona, what are you doing just sitting there with your mouth agape? Start giving him a thorough examination!”

Corona jumped, startled at the sudden scolding, and began to have a closer look at the Quilava’s wounds. Shade started turned to leave and report how the mission went to Espeon, but the sensation he’d felt when the quilava first held on to him intrigued him so much that he was compelled to stay. He watched as Corona fumbled around the room, retrieving various ointments and remedies to apply to the quilava’s wounds. Mary, though appearing to be relaxed, was actually ready to jump in at any time if something started to go wrong. Corona stopped from time to time, taking note of an unusual injury before proceeding to stumble around frantically, murmuring to herself so that she’d remember what she’d discovered.

“There you are, Shade. Why didn't you report to me once you got back?”

Shade turned around with a start to see Espeon leaning against the doorway, her brow raised slightly.

“Sorry... I was just making sure this one's okay. He's beaten up pretty badly.” He said as he walked past her and into the hallway, beckoning for her to follow. She followed along behind him to another room. He ushered her in and closed the door behind them making sure no one was listening.

“What’s up?” Espeon asked as she sat down and rested her chin on her tail.

“I think we’ve found another one.” Shade whispered.

“What, you mean the quilava?” she asked as her eyes narrowed a bit.

He nodded. “I think he’s one of us.”

She rubbed her chin, contemplating. “Are you sure? What makes you think that?”

“It’s his back and his head. He’s got an extra spot on his head and two extras on his back.” He explained, poking at the air to illustrate the spots’ pattern.

Her eyes narrowed even more as she furrowed her brow. “… And?”

“Well, something weird happened when I picked him up. Something came over me… I don’t know what it was, but I think it needs to be looked into more.” He replied.

She eyed him suspiciously, then nodded. “Alright; keep an eye on him. If you learn anything new about this ‘power’, tell me immediately.”

Shade nodded in agreement. “Corona should be done looking him over. I’ll go get the report and then get right back to you.”

* * *

“It looks like everything’s under control here.” Mary said as she patted Corona on the head. “I don’t think you’ll have any more problems. That heal bell should help cure the paralysis before too long.”

“Thanks, Mary.” Corona said as the lopunny waved and left the room.

Once Mary was gone, Corona walked over to the bedside and put her paw on top the quilava’s. His eyes fluttered a bit before slowly opening up slightly. He looked right up into her eyes with a look of disorientation and confusion.

“Hey.” Corona said gently as she rubbed his paw. “How ya feelin’?”

The quilava looked down at their paws briefly before turning his attention back to her. “I-I… I don’t know.” He grunted quietly. “Where am I? Who are you?”

“I’m Corona. I found you along a path in Verdesque Forest.” She replied. “Right now you’re in an intensive care unit at the Verdesque Forest Rescue Squad Headquarters.”

“Intensive care?” the quilava echoed in a hushed voice.

Corona nodded. “You’ve apparently taken quite a beating. What happened to you?”

The quilava closed his eyes and shook his head. “I… I can’t remember.”

“Where are you from? Do you have any family around we can contact to tell them you’re here?”

Once again, the quilava shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Corona’s ears drooped in confusion and concern. “What’s your name?”

The quilava opened his mouth, but didn’t say anything at first. There was an obvious look of fear on his face. “I… I-I can’t remember.” He said almost silently. “I can’t remember my own name.”

Corona’s eyes widened for a moment. “Do you remember anything?”

The quilava closed his eyes and concentrated. “I’m a quilava. I’m 21, I’m a little short for my species, and I woke up in a field near a tree that had been struck by lightning… that… that’s all I remember.”

“You poor, poor thing.” Corona said sympathetically. “Well, you need a name; even if you can’t remember what it is. Can I call you Quil?”

“Quil.” He muttered before nodding. “Yes. You may call me Quil.”

Corona smiled and stoked his forehead with her paw. “Well, Quil. You look like you’re going to be okay. Well, as far as your body is concerned. I’ll try to find out if there’s a way to help you with your memory problem.”

“And I’ll help.”

Corona stood up quickly and looked at the voice’s source: Shade.

“How do his diagnostics look?”

Corona glanced at Quil before walking to Shade. “He’s suffered numerous superficial abrasions and puncture wounds to the paws from sharp objects; mostly sticks. I removed ten splinters and treated the wounds with sitrus extract. He appears to have sustained a hairline fracture on his right shoulder blade due to a blunt impact of some sort. The entire right side of his body is bruised, and he appears to have suffered a severe electric shock, probably from a lightning strike based on what he’s told me. As you heard, he also appears to have amnesia. His amnesia leads me to believe that he’s had some head trauma and probably has a concussion. Right now his vitals appear to be stable. He’s breathing normally and has a regular pulse.”

Shade patted her on the head and leaned closer. “Good work, Corona. I knew you could do it.”

Corona smiled, her eyes twinkling with a sense of accomplishment. “Thank you.”

Shade turned his attention to Quil. “How are you feeling? Better?”

“I guess you could call it that.” Quil replied.

“Due to his amnesia, he can’t remember his name. So, we’re calling him Quil for now.”

Shade’s eyes widened at the announcement. Two years ago, he was in a situation that was nearly identical to that of Quil’s; Espeon found him washed up on a beach, unconscious and hurt, and took it upon herself to bring him back to health. At the time, he couldn’t remember his name, where he came from, or anything else about himself but a few things. When Espeon learned of this, she gave him the name ‘Shade’ in the same manner Corona had named Quil. Seeing so many parallels between his life and Quil’s, Shade feel it was his duty to help this quilava get through his time of need in any way he could.

[Shade]

Shaded paced the halls of the Verdesque Forest Rescue Squad Headquarters, the rings on his body casting a gentle glow all around him. As he passed by each room, he glanced in briefly to make sure everything was in order. He was careful not to stay too long though, otherwise the nightmares of the people he was checking on would worsen due to his ‘bad dreams’ ability. When he got to Quil’s room, however, he paused. Just like everyone else, Quil was having a nightmare. Shade looked around to make sure no one was nearby and entered the room, locking the door behind him. As he drew closer, Quil began to stir.

Shade reached out to gently nudge Quil awake. “Quil, wake up. I need to talk to-“

As soon as his paw touched Quil’s shoulder, the quilava’s eyes snapped open, glowing brightly like an intense fire. Shade raised a barrier of darkness all around himself, knowing that whatever was about to happen wouldn’t be good for an unprotected body. Clenching his paw and cloaking it with white flames, Quil thrust it at Shade. The next thing he knew, Shade and the entire barrier around him were slammed hard against the adjacent wall, surrounded by brilliantly white torrents of flame that lit the entire room as though it was in broad daylight. The assault continued for about ten seconds before slowly dying down, the flames gradually fading to blue, then orange, then at last sputtering out. He looked up and saw Quil standing on his bed, the glow in his eyes fading until he faltered and collapsed to the floor in a heap, crying out in pain as he landed on his shoulder. Shade quickly kicked a flurry of sand attacks around the room to put out anything that had caught fire before running to his aid. Before he could get there though, Quil got to his knees and stood up. After such a large release of energy, however, his balance was off and he began to stumble backwards. Shade jumped forward and let the quilava fall into his arms so as to not risk completely breaking his shoulder. Quil reached around with his good arm and turned to face the one that caught him, carefully standing up by himself.

“Are you alright?” Shade asked.

Quil wobbled from side to side for a few moments before passing out, falling forward onto Shade. Shade reached forward and caught him under the arms, hoisting him up. Suddenly the warm, pleasant sensation flooded over him, stronger than it had the first time. He began to purr quietly, lost in the feeling as it swept over his entire body. Quil suddenly began to squirm. Now aware of what was going on, Shade dropped him and jumped back several feet, clearly embarrassed at what had just transpired.

Quil opened his eyes again and rubbed his shoulder. “What’s happening? Where am I?”

“You’re in the ICU of our rescue base.” Shade replied as he cautiously began approaching Quil. “My name is Shade. I helped create this place.”

“Oh, that’s right.” Quil said as he grabbed the edge of his bed and pulled himself up. “I never got to thank you for saving my life.”

Shade desperately wanted to help Quil get up, but couldn’t out of the fear that the strange sensation would return if he did. “There’s no need to thank me. Rescuing others is what I do.”

Quil leaned against his bed and cradled his hurt arm in his good one. “Still, thank you… I would be dead right now if you hadn’t come along.”

Shade smiled and carefully moved over next to Quil, uncertain if he still had the capacity for another attack if he was frightened. “You know… You and I are alike in quite a few ways.” He said as he sat down next to Quil on the bed.

“W…what do you mean?” Quil asked with a puzzled look on his face.

“I was in a situation like yours once.” Shade said quietly as he downcast his eyes. “Not that long ago, I was found washed up on a beach, half dead. And, just like you, I had no recollection of any past events in my life.”

“You don’t remember your past, either?” Quil asked with evident disbelief on his face.

Shade smiled a little. “Well, I remember it now… but it took time for it to come back to me.”

Quil smiled. He clearly was feeling a sense of hope due to what he’d just heard. “Do you think I’ll ever remember my past?”

“It’s definitely possible.” Shade replied. “And, if there’s a way, I will help you find it.”

“Really?”

Shade nodded and patted the excited quilava on the head, bracing himself in the event the sensation manifested itself again. When it didn’t, he relaxed—so much so that it was obvious.

Quil raised his brow. “Are you okay?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s nothing.” Shade replied, a hint of shock in his voice. He quickly regained his composure and stood up. “Get some rest, alright? You’re still beat up pretty badly.”

Quil nodded and climbed back into the bed, quickly falling back asleep. Shade made his way over to the door and stopped before exiting. He looked back and smiled at the peacefully sleeping quilava, who was either not dreaming yet or wasn’t really asleep. With that he left the room, leaving the door open slightly. He began walking down the hall toward the main office, his expression quickly becoming very serious. He quickened his pace while still maintaining the utmost level of stealth until he reached his destination. He walked in and shut the door behind him, then walked over to the darkest corner of the room and vanished into the shadows, reappearing on the other side of a hidden door under a thatch rug. He walked down the stairwell and into small room with little more than a bed and a desk. On the bed lay espeon, fast asleep. He walked up to her and gently nudged her awake.

“Espeon. Wake up.”

Espeon opened her eyes groggily and sighed. “Shade, it’s the middle of the night… I hope this is important.”

“It’s about Quil. He is definitely one of us.” Shade said with a nod.

“I take it you’ve got more proof now other than marking irregularities?” She asked as she rubbed her eyes.

Shade nodded again.

“Alright, tell me what’s special about him.”

“He was having a nightmare and I went in to check on him. When I woke him up, he attacked me: it was like some sort of supercharged blowtorch. The fire was unbelievably hot—it was white. As it cooled, it eventually turned back to orange.”

Espeon’s eyes opened quickly. “He attacked you?”
“I’m pretty sure it was an accident.” Shade replied before she could get too riled up. “He collapsed and didn’t recall attacking. His eyes were glowing while he attacked. When they stopped glowing he was about the same as we left him this afternoon.”

“Well, it’s too late to deal with it right now.” She said quietly as she laid her head back down. “Let’s just get some sleep and discuss it in the morning.”

Shade crawled in bed next to her and planted a gentle kiss on her cheek. “Okay. Goodnight.”

Espeon smiled and cuddled up next to him. The two of them quickly fell asleep, each enjoying the warmth and softness the other provided.

[A'bom]

Corona stood in the field, watching the sun rise. It was another day of training, but at least it wasn’t raining. The ground was still a little bit soggy, but it wasn’t too bad. At least most of her body was dry. She took a deep breath of the clean morning air and closed her eyes, letting the sun warm her small body. After yesterday, today was going to be a walk in the park. Her ears perked up as the soft sound of rustling grass reached her ears. She turned around and stood up straight, ready to greet her mentor.

“Good morning, Shade!” She said cheerfully. “I’m ready to—“

To her surprise, Shade was being followed by Quil. “Uh… Shade? What’s Quil doing here?”

“Quil needs a little training to keep his powers under control.”

“Huh?” Quil and Corona said simultaneously. The two looked at each other for a moment before Quil spoke up. “What are you talking about?”

“Yeah, Shade. We don’t even know if he HAS any powers yet.” Corona added.

“What better reason than to train him to control them, then?” Shade replied.

Corona nodded in understanding. “Alright, but… his shoulder has a hairline fracture. Is it really a good idea to be training him with a broken shoulder?”

“As long as he’s careful, there shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Well, if you really think it’s best…” Corona said as she looked around. “Where’s his mentor?”

Shade smiled a little. “Don’t you get it, Corona?” he chuckled. “Meet your new classmate.”

Corona’s eyes widened. “Shade, isn’t that kind of against regulations?”

“Ordinarily it is.” Shade replied. “However, Espeon granted special permissions for it.”

Quil blushed. He was glad Shade saw potential in him, but that wasn’t what was causing the capillaries in his face to swell—it was the surprised eevee that had his attention. He recognized her from the day before; she was the one who had found him and taken care of him. He hadn’t noticed before due to his circumstances, but now that he wasn’t about to die he could take notice of how attractive she was. Her fur was flawless; there wasn’t a single stray color or mark, though her fur was more of a sand color than it was brown. Nevertheless, it was very well groomed and had a glossy sheen. Her eyes, though black at first glance, were actually sea green upon closer inspection.

“Quil!”

The quilava shook his head and blinked a few times, turning toward Shade’s voice.

“Pay attention. Corona, I’m going to go get everything arranged. You explain to him what’s going on.”

Shade turned and ran off. Corona turned and looked up at Quil, who got down on all fours to look her eye-to-eye.

“Alright, here’s the deal: it’s gonna be a two-on-two battle—you and me versus two other pokemon.”

Quil’s eyes lit up. He couldn’t remember ever having been in a battle, but he knew he liked them. The adrenaline rush was almost instant. “Really? Sounds fun!”

Corona smiled at his enthusiasm. “Just be careful out there, alright?”

Quil nodded. “I’m so excited! I don’t know how to fight, but I’m just itching to get in there!”

Shade ran up to them and gestured to the open area behind him. “Alright, get on out there!”

“Who are we up against?” Corona asked.

“See for yourself!” Shade said as he took a few steps back and then stepped out of the way; behind him stood a banette and a chikorita.

“Going a little easy on us this morning?” Corona asked.

Shade grinned. “Yes. Well, for Quil anyway. Corona, today you’re going to work on covering an injured teammate. Don’t let ‘em get him!” Corona’s jaw dropped as Shade chuckled to himself. “Ready? Go!”

Corona jumped in front of Quil as the Banette jumpstarted the fight with a shadow sneak. Being a normal type, Corona absorbed the attack and fired a shadow ball of her own—but it was met by an energy ball from the chikorita.

“Quil, just stay behind me and everything should work out.” Corona said as she readied another shadow ball.

Quil did as she said and turned his attention toward himself. “Okay… how do I make this thing work?” he said to himself as he tried clenching various muscle groups.

Corona warded off several energy balls. A will-o-wisp from banette caught her off guard and narrowly missed her. Quil watched the little eevee struggle against the onslaught, feeling useless and powerless to do anything.

“Come on, come on!” he growled as he clenched his teeth.

Then, out of nowhere, his spots sputtered and ignited. The sensation felt so natural to him, like he’d done it thousands of times before. Now he just needed to figure out he did it; or, for that matter, how to turn them off. After a few dozen tries, he finally got the hang of it. His sense of accomplishment quickly disappeared as Corona suddenly cried out.

“Quil! Help!”

Quil looked up with a start, but Corona wasn’t there. He tilted his gaze up a little more, though, and saw her dangling upside-down, a vine wrapped around her leg. The next thing he knew, he was hit by a shadow sneak and sent flying back several feet. He shook it off and got up, jerking his body back and forth in an attempt to avoid getting hit again.

“Quil!” Shade called out. “Stop messing around and do something to help Corona!”

“I’m TRYING!” Quil shouted as he flailed his good arm around. “I just figured out how to turn on my back!”

“You can do it, Quil” Shade said encouragingly.

Quil turned around, took a deep breath, and tensed his back as much as he could. Fire started spewing randomly, doing little more than deflecting attacks that were headed in his direction. He continued to move around his arm, though he wasn’t quite sure why. The banette suddenly appeared right in front of him. Quil shouted as his entire body tensed up and made his back create a sudden violent blast, causing him to rocket straight into his opponent. He toppled end over end after ramming into the marionette pokemon and crash-landed on his rear. As he got up on his hind legs and rubbed the sore spot, the banette was getting ready to lay a curse. Quil clenched his teeth and waited, but only hear a loud rushing noise. When he looked up he saw that Corona had chewed her way through the chikorita’s vines and was attacking the banette with a flurry of shadow balls. It turned around and levitated over to her, will-o-wisps ablaze, and the chikorita began pelting her with razor leaves. Corona shielded herself with her tail, though it was a futile effort. Quil’s eyes widened as she cried out in pain as a will-o-wisp made direct contact, followed by razor leaf after razor leaf. He lunged forward, but instantly collapsed to the ground as his shoulder gave out from pain. He looked up and punched his arm forward, hoping that by some miracle it would trigger an attack of some sort. It didn’t. Even so, he felt something—something outside of himself. He stood up on his hind legs, pulled his arm back, and thrust it upward. To his astonishment, a pillar of molten lava erupted between Corona and her attackers.

Shade gasped, unsure of whether he was amazed or horrified. If this is what Quil was capable of when he was fumbling around like an idiot, there was no telling what he could do if he knew what he was doing. He shook the thought aside as it dawned on him that he was now, in a sense, dealing with a live volcano and ran toward the eruption site.

“Everyone head back to headquarters! Go!”

Corona sighed with relief as wish activated, healing some of her injuries. She got up and ran to Shade, who handed her a lum berry to remedy the burn.

“Quil! I told you to get out of there!” Shade repeated over the sound of lava splattering all over.

Quil stood in front of the geyser of molten stone and earth, laughing in a way that made it difficult to distinguish whether he sounded more like a child who had just received a new toy or a crazed psychopath wielding a chainsaw. “Shade! Corona! Did you see THAT!?” he cried out ecstatically. “I just made a lava fountain! A freaking LAVA FOUNTAIN!”

“Quil, hurry up and come over here!” Shade yelled over the roaring of the lava.

Quil raised his paw and thrust it forward a bit, causing the fountain to spread and become more of a wall. The resulting tremor snapped him out of his power lust; he looked around and was taken aback at the resulting panic.

“QUIL! I ORDER you to get over here NOW!” Shade screamed at the top of his lungs.

Quil instead ran in the opposite direction. He got as close to the plume as he could and reached up. After a few moments of concentration, he thrust his paw downwards, causing the lava to sink back into the earth. The ground began to quake as fissures began so split open from the building subterranean pressure. Lava began to seep, then flow, then gush from the crack until he couldn’t hold it off anymore. Just as he was about to release his hold, he was yanked back with so much force that he rolled all the way to Shade’s feet. Shade merely looked down at the quilava, a look of disappointment on his face. Quil looked down at his body and saw a lasso of darkness wrapped around it. He traced it with his eyes until they came to rest on Shade’s tail. Quil looked back into his supervisor’s gaze, which had remained unchanged. Realizing just how much trouble this could be, Quil began to apologize.

“I-“

“I’m disappointed in you, Quil.” Shade said as he looked away and walked toward the growing lava sheet.

He sat down and lifted his arms, enveloping the entire eruption site in a shroud of darkness. After a few minutes he dropped the veil, revealing a scorched, barren landscape. Nevertheless, the out of control lava plumes were gone.

“Shade, that was INCREDIBLE!” Quil shouted as he ran up behind him. “I can’t believe you were able to—“

Quil lurched backward as a sharp, stinging pain shot across his face. He opened his eyes and looked up just in time to see Shade whip his tail. Once again, pain surged through his face—this time from the other side. Before he could react he was lifted into the air and tossed back, landing at Corona’s feet with a resounding thud. He started to get up but was whipped once again, this time on the back. He lay there, waiting for the next strike, but it never came.

“Look at me.”

Quil hesitantly looked up, tears in his eyes. Shade was glaring down at him, and Corona was just behind him, mouth agape, in complete shock and disbelief.

“That is what happens when you disobey orders.” Shade said sternly, though his expression slowly softened to one of concern. “I never want to have to do that again, Quil. Please do as you are told next time.”

Shade turned around and looked at the smoldering aftermath and signaled that it was safe to resume training exercises.

“Espeon is NOT going to be happy when she hears about this.” He said quietly.

“Who is Espeon?” Quil asked, bracing himself in case another whip was in store for him.

Shade turned around, his eyes closed. “Someone you don’t want to give a reason to be on her bad side.” He said as he helped Quil get up.

Quil gasped as the world around him suddenly disappeared, replaced by an image of a ringless, completely black umbreon hovering over the unmoving body of an espeon. As quickly as the image had appeared, it vanished and was replaced with another: one of an umbreon—who strongly resembled Shade—being beaten by an espeon. Then there was darkness. The world quickly faded back into view.

“Quil, snap out of it.” Shade said as he hoisted the quilava to his feet. “Are you alright?”

Quil rubbed his eyes, which were still wet with tears. “I… yes.” He said, deciding it might be better not to reveal what had just happened right now. “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. I was just so excited about the lava plume.”

“Don’t worry about that. We accomplished what we came out here to do—even if there were a few significant mishaps...” Shade said, his expression now becoming one of satisfaction. “We got a glimpse of what you’re capable of, Quil. Corona still needs a little bit of work on her one-on-many combat skills, though.”

Corona slouched and breathed out a quick puff of air like she was trying to blow something out of her face. And mumbled, “Give me a break” under her breath.

“You both did well, so I’m going to show you somewhere special.”

[Shade]

Quil and Corona both perked up at the announcement. Shade turned and walked toward the tree line, gesturing with his tail to have them follow. Quil carefully took a step forward, but was surprised to find his shoulder had gone through the training and the punishment without becoming any worse for the wear.

“It’s a miracle I’m not hurt more.” He said as he followed along behind them, still walking gingerly.

“Espeon would have torn your arm clean off.” Shade said as he pushed aside a tree limb. “Quil, it would be a good idea to put out the fire on your back and head. Trees and plants are more flammable than rocks and flesh.”

“Alright, give me a few minutes.” Quil replied as he closed one of his eyes and looked up with the other while he wiggled body around. “Yeah, just… almost… there!”

Smoke rose from the eight spots that decorated his head and rear like a campfire that had just been extinguished with a bucket of water. Corona, who was standing right next to him, coughed and waved her tail in front of her face.

“Augh, yuck!” she said as she turned away and began spitting. “Quil, not everyone can breathe ash and brimstone like you can!”

“I’m sure that side effect will stop once he’s had time to learn how to use his spots.” Shade said as he urged them to pick up the pace. “The place I’m taking you to is a pretty good distance away. It’ll take time for us to get there.”

Quil winced with each step he took. After about half an hour of walking on all fours, he stood up on two legs.

“What are you doing?” Corona asked as she stopped and turned around.

“My shoulder hurts. It’s probably just faster for me to walk on two legs instead.” He replied as he began walking forward. “It’s a bit… clumsy, but it’s faster than having to stop and wait for my arm to feel better.”

“Or maybe Shade can just carry you like before.” Corona suggested as she looked to Shade for approval.

However, he shook his head, doing his best to hide his aversion. “No, no… You saw how he battled earlier. He prefers to fight standing on his hind legs. Maybe learning to walk on them will help him out in combat.” He lied; what he really wanted to avoid was the feeling that happened last time he carried the quilava—it was pleasing, but rather crippling.

Corona furrowed her brow for a moment before nodding. “Alright, I guess that makes sense.”

For the better part of the next hour, Quil alternated between walking on two legs and walking on four legs; as his body got sore from standing on two legs, he would switch to four until his shoulder began to hurt.

“What’s that noise?” Corona asked, suddenly breaking the silence.

Shade chuckled and looked back at Quil, who had fallen behind a little. “First, you’re not afraid of water are you, Quil?”

The quilava shook his head. “No, not in and of itself—only when it’s trying to kill me. Why?”

“Well, I’m taking you to Aquinira falls.” Shade replied with a grin. “It’s a huge waterfall. There’s a vast cave system behind them, but it’s really dangerous to try to get there without proper help.”

“Why would you want to go to the caves if it’s so dangerous?” Quil asked.

Shade smiled and pushed aside a dense bush with tail, revealing a massive waterfall that was easily an eighth of a mile wide. “You’ll find out.”

Shade led them to the edge of the cascade and thrust forward his arms, creating two beams of dark energy: the top one was steeply slanted to divert the falling water just enough to make walking along the flat bottom beam safe. About 100 feet out was a large cave entrance, which Shade led them into before dropping the dark fields.

“I can’t see anything; it’s too dark.” Corona said as she narrowed her eyes.

Shade stepped in front of her and used flash, filling the area with light for a brief moment. When the spots cleared from their eyes, they beheld a vast cavern of giant, blue crystals.

“These crystals are made from a substance that fluoresces when exposed to light.” Shade explained. “Basically, they glow in the dark; you just need to charge them up first.”

Corona and Quil were completely awestruck at the magnificence of the natural wonder. Shade took several steps back and watched them gawk over the view.

“How did you find this place, Shade?” Corona asked, still fixated on the subterranean beauty. “…Shade?”

When she turned around, though, Shade was gone.

“Shade?” Corona repeated as she ran to the mouth of the cave. “Shade! Where are you!?”

Quil turned around with a start. “Wait, what? Shade’s gone? He wouldn’t have just stranded us out here! ... Would he?”

“Now that you mention it, I wouldn’t put it past him.” Corona said with a sigh. “I had no idea what I was in for when I this rescue squad. Don’t get me wrong—I’m glad I did. It’s just that… well, it’s tough. That training battle hardly lasted twenty minutes; this is probably just some kind of survival exercise. I knew getting the day off was too good to be true.”

Quil walked up to her and sat down at her side, checking to make sure she wasn’t upset. To his surpise, she actually laughed to herself.

“Well, at least he picked a locale with good scenery.” She said as she got up and began walking into deeper into the cave.

Quil smiled and followed along. If he had a tail, it would’ve been wagging happily.

* * *

Shade sighed and looked back at Aquinira falls.

“Sorry, Corona… but I can’t leave him in there alone; but I also can’t leave him out here at all.” He said to himself as he began to head back to headquarters. “His physical well-being is at stake… not to mention that of the entire forest. I am NOT looking forward to reporting to Espeon today.”

[A'bom]

Corona and Quil looked out over the vast cavern of glowing crystals, wondering what exactly it was that Shade intended for them to get out of being stranded in a beautiful underground paradise. The two small pokemon had climbed to the top of an outcropping after he had disappeared and were now sitting side by side. Quil would frequently glance at Corona as inconspicuously as he could; silently debating which he enjoyed more: the wondrous scenery or being alone with this adorable eevee who had saved his life.

Quil’s eyes suddenly widened. He turned to Corona and cleared his throat a little. “Corona…”

She turned in his direction, her sea-green eyes glistening in the light of the crystals, a big smile on her face. “Yeah?”

“I never thanked you for saving my life.” He said quietly. “I just wanted to let you know how lucky I feel to have been found by you.”

“Oh, that’s so sweet!” she said as she clasped her paws together. “You’re welcome, Quil!”

He blushed and looked back out at the view. “So… how old are you, Corona?”

“Nineteen. Why?” she replied, a hint of shock in her voice.

“Well, you’re still an eevee, but you don’t sound like a cub.” Quil explained. “Can you just not decide on what to become?”

Corona chuckled quietly.

“If you ask me, I think you’d make a pretty espeon or vaporeon.”

She smiled at his suggestion. “Well, being a vaporeon right now would be advantageous. That waterfall wouldn’t be a problem.”

Quil laughed quietly. “I don’t know why, but I really like eeveelutions. They’re all so cute—but there’s something about espeon that makes me melt with joy.”

Corona shook her mane and sighed quietly. “I’m not going to evolve.”
Quil was taken aback. “… Y-you’re not?”

She shook her head. “Everyone always evolves to get more powerful. It’s always about being faster, stronger, and tougher.” She explained. “But if I had evolved, I never would have learned how to do this…”

He watched as she closed her eyes for a moment and then extended her paw to him. He looked at her paw, then into her eyes.

“Go ahead—hit it.” She said with a giggle.

He lifted his paw above hers and brought it down, causing a clap noise. “… Okay… now what?”

She smiled and placed her paws in her lap. “Wait for it…”
After several minutes had passed, Quil suddenly felt a surge of energy rush through his body, like he had just eaten a whole basket of sitrus berries.

“W-what was that?” he asked.

“Just a little something called a baton pass.” She said proudly. “If I use wish before using baton pass, the person I baton pass to recovers. Try moving your broken shoulder.”

Quil carefully lifted his arm, then swung it around, then flailed it. “That’s amazing!” he cried. “Why didn’t you do that to me earlier?”

“Well, I never tried it before. I wanted to surprise Shade by teaching myself how to do that secretly.” She explained with a big grin on her face. “It does wonders to minor injuries, but isn’t much help if you’re in critical condition… Anyway, yeah. I’m going to stay an eevee.”

Quil couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. He loved espeon—he thought they were the cutest things in the world—and he had taken quite a liking to Corona. He shook his head. What was he thinking? He’d barely known Corona for a day and he was thinking about her as though the two of them were meant to be together. He sat up straight and took a quick look around.

“Well, if this is some sort of training exercise, we should probably try to find a way out.”

“What do you mean ‘we’?” Corona asked. “This is my training mission. You’re not part of the rescue squad. Shade probably made you come along to make it a little more difficult for me. You know, like a surrogate victim.”

Quil looked down and sighed.

“What’s wrong?” Corona asked as she scooted closer to him. “Are you okay?”

“Nothing. You suddenly became kind of aggressive.” He replied.

Corona smiled and rubbed his arm with her paw. “Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. I’m just in the zone right now is all. I get kind of excited in situations like this. Survival mode. You know what I’m talking about?” When Quil cheered up, she got to her feet and looked around. “Alright, let’s see. We’ll have to check these tunnels for exits. We should probably only take the ones going up, since the surface is in that direction.”

“Or you could just ask for directions.”

Quil and Corona spun around to see a weavile leaning against the wall, a smirk on her face.

“I can get you kids out of here.” She said quietly, in a tone that was almost seductive. “Follow me. There’s an exit in a tunnel not that far from here.”

“Really?” Corona asked. “Thanks!”

“No problem.” The weavile said with a sly grin.

Corona and Quil watched as she jumped nimbly from giant crystal to giant crystal. In no time she was standing at the entrance to the tunnel she was talking about. The two of them began carefully climbing down; a miss-step would mean a nasty fall.

“It might just be faster if you jumped.” The weavile called. “You look like a talented quilava. You could probably fly down here using your back as a rocket.”

Quil looked at Corona, who shook her head. “We want to get out of here alive, Quil. Don’t take an unnecessary risk.”

After what seemed like hours, the two of them finally reached the weavile, who had begun carving a small rock with her claws.

“It’s about time you got here.” She said pompously. “Oh well. I guess it’s not your fault you aren’t weavile like me.”

Corona frowned. “Excuse me?”

The weavile smiled and patted her on the head. “Just giving you a hard time; now come on. It’s not much farther.”

They followed her down into the tunnel. After only a minute or two, the weavile stopped and turned around. “Oh, I left what I was working on up there. You know the little rock thing? The two of you keep going. I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can. Oh, by the way… what are your names?”

“I’m Corona.” Corona replied. After a few moments of silence she nudged Quil.

“Oh, right. I’m Quil.”

“I see.” The weavile said in a cunning tone. “You can just call me Bonnie. That’s what everyone else calls me. Anyway, I’ll be right back.”

With that, Bonnie ran off so quickly that she was a blur.

“Corona?” Quil said quietly.

“Yeah?” she replied, looking up at him.

Quil moved closer to her and lit up his spots. “Something’s not right. You said we should be going up. We’re going down.”

“Oh no.” Corona’s eyes widened as her ears shot straight up. “Quil, get down!”

Corona pulled his head to the ground just as a sharpened rock ripped through the air above them. The two startled pokemon looked back to see Bonnie with dozens of small, sharpened rocks in her claws.

“I seem to be a little out of practice.” She said matter-of-factly. “Don’t worry. I’ll hit my mark sooner or later.”

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Corona cried in panic.

“Nothing personal fur-ball, but I’m going to kill you. I can’t have any witnesses.” Bonnie said casually. “Your quilava buddy there’s got quite a bounty on his head.”

Quil jumped in front of Corona. “Leave her alone! Why are you trying to kill us in the first place?”

“What, you don’t remember me, Quilava?” Bonnie asked as she played around with one of her stone darts. “Do you not remember our little outing about six months ago?”

Quil pulled Corona to the right, dodging a small flurry of darts. “What are you talking about? We just met!”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Quilava.” Bonnie said as she hurled the rest of the darts at him. “You were able to hide from me this long; but now that I’ve found you, you’re mine!”

Corona jumped out from behind Quil and shot a charged-up shadow ball, deflecting the projectiles. Right before it made contact, Bonnie merely swatted it away with a flick of her claw and charged forward. Quil stood up, widened his stance, and threw an uppercut. Magma spewed out of the ground in front of them, blocking Bonnie off.

“I’m glad I disobeyed orders, even if I did get punished!” Quil said to Corona as he held his paws straight out, preventing the magma from flowing toward them.

“Me too!” Corona said as she gave him a hug. “I guess we’re even now, huh?”

“Not exactly.” Quil said as he pushed back a leaking section of the magma wall.

“What do you mean?” Corona asked.

Quil looked down at her with a mix of bravery and panic.

“What happens when the rescuer needs to be rescued?”

* * *

Shade ran through the forest, darting through the gaps of light between the tree’s shadows. It wouldn’t take anywhere near as long to get back to headquarters if he teleported through the abundant shadows. He reached the training field, which was still radiating heat from the hardened lava, and headed straight in the direction of the hollowed-out tree. Once he reached the entrance, he teleported through the shadows straight to the entrance to the main office. He took a few seconds to catch his breath and prepare himself for what was about to take place as he reached out and knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Shade pushed open the door and walked in. Espeon looked up from what she was doing and smiled.

“Oh, Shade! Back so soon?” she asked. When she saw his somber expression, her eyes narrowed. “… What is it?”

“We’ve got trouble.”

Espeon flicked her tail, signaling for him to get out of her way. She took a few steps forward toward the center of the room and sat down, rubbing the area between her eyes with her paw.

“… It’s about Quil, isn’t it?” She asked as she turned and looked him in the eye.

He nodded solemnly. “There was a bit of an… incident… at the training grounds.”

She shot him a cross look. “Don’t tell me… He didn’t…”

He closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again, but said nothing.

Espeon closed her eyes and bared her teeth, then walked over to a shelf and shoved all of its decorations to the floor with a sweep of her tail. A potted plant on the other side of the room toppled over as she made her way over to a bowl of fruit, scooped it up with her tail, and threw it against the wall.

“I just KNEW this would happen!” She hissed. “I knew it the second I first saw him!”

Shade put his paw on her shoulder. “Now Espeon, calm down. It was an accident; no one knew exactly what was going to happen, not even Quil himself.”

“You’re right, you’re right.” She took several deep breaths and relaxed a little. “How bad is the damage?”

He shook his head slowly. “… Maybe it’s best if you saw it yourself.”

As he led her out of the office, she began to grow worried. Shade had never asked her to see the damage in person before. The two of them ran through the hall, down a flight of stairs, and out the headquarters’ entrance. Breaking out into a full print, they wove through the trees on their way to the other side of the forest. Once they reached the clearing, they began climbing the face of the hill, the top of which would give them a full view of the entire training ground. Shade reached the top first and turned back, waiting for her to catch up. She never could have imagined what she was about to see.

“It… it’s gone!” she gasped in horror as she beheld the ravaged landscape.

What she saw was a black, steaming mess of irregularly shaped mounds of cooled lava. Any plant life that had been there before was gone; burned to the ground in the intense heat. The air above the landscape rippled back and forth as the lava field’s radiant heat was dispersed.

“You can’t be serious.” She said in disbelief. “He did this? ALL of this?!”

After several more minutes of surveying the ravaged landscape she sat down and hung her head, taking a few moments to gather her thoughts. “Where is he now?”

“At Aquinira falls” Shade replied, “With Corona. I knew that if I’d brought him back here—“

Something inside him suddenly disrupted his sentence. Something was wrong. Someone was in trouble. He looked around frantically, trying to pinpoint where exactly the feeling was coming from. As he looked in the direction of Aquinira falls, he almost could have sworn he felt panic set in.

“… Corona?”

The sensation began getting stronger.

“Oh no… Espeon, something’s wrong with Corona!” He said urgently. “I’m going to go check on her. I’ll be back as soon as I can!”

Shade ran off as fast as he could to Aquinira falls, but Espeon hadn’t even noticed he’d left. Her attention was fixated on the charred, ash-covered scene that stretched out in front of her. Shade dashed through the shadows of the forest once more, sprinting toward the falls. If there was any doubt in his mind that he was imagining this, it was gone now. The closer he got to Aquinira falls, the stronger the feeling got. Corona was in trouble…

[Shade]

Shade ran into the cave and nearly crashed into a weavile, who was leisurely strolling in the opposite direction. He skidded to a halt just inches away from her body, looking right into her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Shade said as he backed up a few paces. “Have you seen a quilava and an eevee around here? I left them here a little while ago and now I think they’re in trouble.”

The weavile gasped and put her claw over her mouth. “Oh my, that’s terrible! I haven’t seen either of those pokemon here, sorry. I hope you find them!”

“Thanks anyway.” Shade said as he walked past her and deeper into the cave.

Bonnie smirked as she waited for the umbreon to come to a stop; this was going to be an easy kill. She ran forward as fast as she could, claws drawn, and thrust them as hard as she could at his back. Before she made contact, she found herself dangling over the edge of the chasm, something holding her by the waist.

Using his power over darkness, Shade had extended his tail like a lasso made of darkness. He lifted her back up to look her in the eyes, just out of her slashing range.

“Where are they?” he growled. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO THEM!?”

Bonnie laughed quietly to herself. “I didn’t do a thing to your little friends. It was that sorry excuse for a quilava: he did all the work FOR me!”

Shade spun around and threw her past a stalactite which she dug her claws into, carving a spiral pattern around the surface of it as she grinded to a stop. Clinging to it, she let loose a blizzard for cover and dropped to the ground below, flash-freezing dozens of small ice shards. Upon landing, she hurled them in the direction of her target. She clapped her claws together as the blizzard subsided, confident in her victory. Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened when she saw the outcome: Shade wasn’t there. She clenched her teeth and chuckled as she got into a defensive position.

“I see I’m up against someone with half a brain.” She said mockingly as she looked around, waiting for an attack.

Shade lunged out of Bonnie’s shadow and rammed her backwards. After crashing against the wall, she pushed off of it with her feet and propelled forward, her claws glowing green as she readied an x-scissor. At the last instant, Shade jumped backwards and used flash, blinding his attacker. Bonnie staggered back and shouted as she rubbed her eyes. Being only a distraction to her now, she closed them and assumed a defensive position once again. Shade took the opportunity and smashed his tail against her. Though the initial strike hit, he was caught off-guard when she grabbed his tail and jerked him in her direction, nailing him with a counter-revenge combo. Shade flew back and landed on his side. He looked up and summoned all his strength to fire a signal beam in her direction. She bent over backwards, narrowly dodging the attack, which continued on and exited through the cave’s entrance.

“Well, at least you put up a fight.” Bonnie said as she stood back up and sharpened her claws against a rock for a brief moment. “It gets so old killing my victims with the first strike every time.”

Shade watched as the weavile cast aside the clawed rock and began walking toward him. Seeing no other option, he began charging up his most powerful attack: Final Void. Bonnie stumbled back and fell over, shocked at the display of raw power. Though she hated fleeing a fight, she knew when she was outmatched. She got to her feet and ran. After nimbly scaling the rocky shelf she dashed toward the exit and leapt, her body spinning rapidly as she pierced through the waterfall and froze a path to land on the lake below. As she finished skiing across the frozen bridge and made landfall, she was hit hard by a signal beam that came out of nowhere. She forced herself to get up, holding her claw against her head to stabilize herself. Standing directly in front of her was Espeon, whose jewel was still glowing from the attack.

If she was surprised, she hid it well. “Well, I never thought I’d see YOU again.”

Espeon’s eyes narrowed in confusion. She didn’t know any weavile… did she? As she struggled to remember, Bonnie turned and fled into the forest. Espeon frowned and levitated over to the waterfall, surrounding herself in a psychic barrier as she passed through.

Shade stopped charging his attack and lay down on the ground. The combination of two fighting type attacks was devastating, and it didn’t help that he was a dark type. Whatever was happening to Quil and Corona, they would have to hang in there until help arrived.

“Shade?”

His eyes opened to the sound of Espeon’s voice and looked up to see her approach a ledge from the cave’s entrance. “Espeon! I’m down here!”

Espeon jumped off of the ledge and eased her landing with levitation. “I saw your signal beam. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be alright.” Shade said as he managed to get to his feet. “Corona and Quil are in trouble.”

“Are you sure Quil’s in trouble?” Espeon asked. “We never did a linking ceremony.”

Shade nodded. “I don’t know how, but I know he’s in trouble, too.”

He began walking in the direction he was sensing them, but realized he really didn’t need to be using a mental link to find where they were. A fiery orange glow was being emitted from a nearby tunnel. There was little doubt in his mind as to what kind of trouble they were in now. Espeon walked up behind him as he looked down into the boiling magma.

“Are you sure you punished him enough?”

“I’m sure there was a good reason for him to do it.” Shade replied. “More likely than not he did it to ward off that weavile. I’m going to go through to the other side and try to bring them back.”

“Be careful.” Espeon said as she anxiously sat down at the mouth of the tunnel, looking into the glowing orange mass steadily filling it from within.

Quil’s arms quivered as steam rose from his body. “Corona, I’m sorry! This was probably the dumbest thing I could have done!”

“She would have killed us if you hadn’t.” Corona said as she looked at the glowing wall.

“Well, short of a miracle, we’re going to die anyway!” he said, straining to prevent any magma from leaking than there was already. “I can’t hold this much longer!”

Shade suddenly jumped out of Corona’s shadow and turned around to face her. “Are you two okay?”

Corona’s eyes widened as she ran to him and hugged him. “Shade! I’ve never been so happy to see you in my life!”

The magma surged forward a little as Quil momentarily lost his focus. “Shade? How did you get in here?” He said with effort as he regained control of the molten earth.

“I can travel through shadows. Listen up: I can take one of you through at a—“

“Take Corona!” Quil said through his teeth. “I’m about to lose control!”

“No! I’m not leaving without you, Quil!” Corona said as she stepped away from Shade.

“Go!”

“No!”

“GO!”

“Quil, I won’t—“

Quil closed his eyes. “Shade! Get her out of here whether she likes it or not! NOW!”

Shade grabbed Corona by the tail, eliciting a pain-filled squeal from her, and dragged her into the darkness. Corona gasped as mind-numbing cold enveloped her little body. Once in the shadow, she lost her senses as the bitter cold drained her body of heat. Shade pulled her through the darkness as fast as he could and emerged with her on the other side of the magma wall.

“I’m going back for Quil.” Shade said as he set the now-unconscious eevee in front of Espeon. “She’s probably got frostbite and hypothermia after that.”

Espeon nodded and began treating her for cold-related health problems as Shade turned and prepared to jump into a shadow; but the magma was receding down into the tunnel. When he didn’t enter the darkness, Espeon looked up.

“What’s wrong?”

Shade should have been scared. He should have been upset. But he wasn’t; something was telling him that Quil was just fine.

“He doesn’t need me.” Shade said softly. “He’s got this under control.”

After a few tense moments, a figure crawled out of the lava and shook itself until it no longer was covered in the molten substance. Shade ran down into the tunnel and pulled Quil up and out of it, laying him next to Corona.

“Is Corona okay?” he asked as he sat up and looked to his right.

Corona was lying there, motionless. Her fur almost had a bluish hue to it and her breathing was slow and labored.

“We need to get her back to an ICU.” Espeon said as she lifted Corona on to her back telekinetically.

Quil got up to follow but fell on his face as soon as he tried to walk. He looked up at Shade and sighed. “My arms are so worn out.”

Shade knelt down and let Quil climb on. Quil wrapped his arms around Shade’s neck; and as soon as he did, the feeling once again swept over his body. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, then followed Espeon. As they approached the exit, Espeon enveloped everyone in a psychic field, levitated them safely through the waterfall and gently set them on the water’s edge. Shade’s legs began to buckle under the combined influence of multiple factors: Quil’s weight, the battle with the weavile, and the unusual feeling of warmth and inner peace—the last of which was the hardest to withstand; but, he had been under worse mental pressure before. He would be able to withstand the foreign sensation… for now.

[A'bom]

“Neither of you need to worry about a thing.” Mary said to Espeon and Shade as she covered Corona in a thick-woven blanket. “I’ll do whatever it takes to make sure she pulls through. I’ll use healing wish if the situation demands it.”

“Good.” Espeon said with a straight face. “That’s why we made you head therapist.”

Mary bowed respectfully. “Thank you, ma’am.”

Espeon and Shade turned to leave Mary to her work; but as they did, Shade staggered and lost his balance, thoroughly worn out from the battle and carrying Quil while under the influence of the mysterious feeling. Espeon quickly swept her tail underneath him and kept him from falling over.

“I’ll take care of him. You focus on Corona and Quil.”

Not one to disobey orders, Mary watched helplessly as Espeon carried off the semi-conscious umbreon. She sighed and gingerly walked over to Corona’s bedside to check her vital signs. As she did so, she would occasionally glance over at Quil to make sure he was resting comfortably.

“Heart rate is slow, breathing is irregular, and has mild frostbite in the extremities.” She murmured to herself as she examined one of the eevee’s front paws. “A little spelon berry juice should keep her core body temperature warm.”

Mary sighed and walked over to one of the many shelves that lined the room, tracing a path with her finger as she looked for the spelon berries.

“Mary?”

The sudden voice startled her so much that she almost hit her head on the ceiling. She spun around, her paw clenched against her chest. “What? Who—Oh, Quil… you’re awake. How are you feeling?”

“Kinda sore.” Quil said with a faint smile. “That was quite a jump you did.”

Mary giggled to herself and grabbed a spelon berry from the shelf. “Do these long ears and this fluffy tail mean nothing to you?” she asked as she wiggled the little ball of fluff on her backside.

She walked over to the counter and began straining some juice from the oddly-shaped berry. When she turned around, Quil was at Corona’s bedside leaning over her with his paw on her forehead.

“I’m sorry I got you into this mess, Corona.” He said quietly before leaning over and giving her a hug. “I hope I never have to do anything like that and put you in danger again.”

Mary put her paw on Quil’s shoulder. “I don’t know exactly what happened, but you don’t seem like the kind of guy that would risk another pokemon’s life unless it was absolutely necessary.” She said as she turned him around and urged him back to his bed. “Now get some rest. I need to give Corona some medicine to help her stabilize.”

Mary lifted Corona’s head upwards and prepared to carefully pour in the juice when she noticed something: Corona’s heartbeat was stable and strong, and her skin was warm to the touch—not cold as it had been just a minute earlier. Mary’s eyes widened as she set aside the bowl of spelon juice and did another check to make sure she wasn’t imagining it. Sure enough, all of Corona’s vitals were strong.

“Quil, I just realized there’s something I need to take care of. I’ll be right back, okay?”

After he nodded, Mary walked calmly out of the room. Her paws were clasped one on top of the other in front of her as she strolled daintily toward the main office. She would give a friendly smile to anyone passing by along with an occasional wave of the paw. Once she reached the final stretch of hallway and turned the corner, however, she broke into a sprint that few would have thought her capable of. Within a few seconds she was standing at the entrance to the office, looking at Espeon and Shade.

“I apologize for not announcing my arrival ma’am, but something very unusual just happened.”

Both Espeon and Shade knew instantly something had to be out of the ordinary—Mary had never under any circumstances interrupted them for any reason before. “Go on.” Espeon said as she pulled her jewel away from Shade’s forehead and the both of them stood up.

“I was preparing some spelon juice to try and raise Corona’s core body temperature when Quil got up and gave her a hug, he apparently thinks it’s his fault that she’s in the condition she is in… or, rather… was in.” she said as she caught her breath, leaning against the doorway with her paw. “I don’t know how, but I think Quil healed her. Her body temperature was normal, her heart rate was normal, her breathing was strong… even the frostbite was gone!”

“Thank you, Mary.” Espeon said as she nodded her head. “You may go.”

As per usual, Mary bowed courteously and walked off in a calm and dignified manner.

Espeon turned to face Shade. “You heard what he can do. We have no choice now.”

Shade sighed quietly. “I know. It’s for his own good.”

“I’ll handle this.” She said as she walked toward the door. “He has some sort of power over you. I don’t think you can handle it.”

“Just go easy on him.” He replied with a nod. “You know how innocent those with memory loss seem to become.”

Espeon stopped for a brief moment and then continued out the door and toward the infirmary without looking back. After a short walk, she came upon the room Quil was resting and walked in. Mary looked up and, upon seeing it was Espeon, became surprised.

“Espeon!.. Is there something I can do for you? Did I forget something?”

“I’m just here to check on him.” Espeon said as she walked straight past her.

Mary reached out her arm, fearing Espeon’s harsh nature would show itself, but decided she would rather not be on the business end of it and put her paw back on top of the other. There was only one thing that could change whatever Espeon had in mind… and he wasn’t there right now. Espeon walked over to Quil and saw him crying. He looked up and wiped the tears from his eyes.

“Hello, Espeon. What are you doing here?”

“I just need to discuss something with you.” She said as she took a seat at his bedside.

“Alright.” Quil said as he tilted his head to the side. “What about?”
Espeon looked into his eyes. “It’s something we ask all new pokemon who come here.”

Quil blushed and looked down for a moment. Espeon, for just a fraction of a second, have a sinister grin. She then grabbed his paw and smiled, her expression now one of care and concern.

“Will you join our rescue squad?” She asked. “You would make a wonderful addition.”

He was taken aback at the sudden physical contact and blushed deeper. “D-d-do you really think I would, even after I destroyed the training grounds?”

“Definitely.” She replied with a smile. “Shade told me how well you handled the situation at Aquinira falls. It was so noble and selfless of you to risk your own life by letting Corona go first—even though you knew you couldn’t hold off the magma any longer!” she said as she rubbed her tail against his chin. “With a little training, you would be a top-notch rescuer!”

“Well… if you really think I can…” he purred as he thoroughly enjoyed the soft tail caressing his chin. “I’ll do it!”

“Oh, thank you Quil!” she said as she leaned forward and planted a kiss on his cheek.

A brief burst of fire shot out from underneath Quil, though it was too short to actually ignite anything. He gasped and put his paw on the spot where she had kissed as his blush intensified. She giggled at his reaction and looked into his eyes as she turned his head to face her. His heart skipped a beat she slowly began to lean in, and he closed his eyes, waiting for what was coming.

“What are you doing?”

They looked up with a start to see Shade standing just a few feet way. Espeon was speechless and merely stared back at him. Quil sat up and hopped out of his bed, ecstatic about what had just happened.

“Shade! Espeon just asked me to join the rescue squad!” he said as he gave the umbreon a big hug. “Isn’t that great?!”

Shade blushed as the feeling returned more powerfully than ever before. All his inhibitions were snuffed out, the warmth was driving him to so much bliss that he couldn’t contain it. He had to share it with someone, and who better than share it with than his mate? After adjusting himself in Quil’s embrace, he leaned forward and gave Espeon a deep, passionate kiss. Quil, still caught up in the moment, didn’t notice—not until Espeon pushed Shade away. Confused, he looked back and forth between the two eeveelutions.

“What are you doing?!” Espeon asked, her voice a mixture of shock and anger.

Shade chuckled. “What does it look like I’m doing? I wanted to give my mate a kiss, so I did!”

Quil let go of Shade and stumbled back, bumping against his bed, then stepping aside and backing up until he was in the middle of the room. The feeling of warmth and security instantly left Shade, leaving him dazed and confused. When he saw Espeon’s furious glare, he realized just how much trouble he was in. Mary had picked up Corona and was quietly and carefully making her way to the door. As she left the room, Quil began shaking his head.

“She’s your MATE? Shade! I’m so sorry! I didn’t know she was your mate! If I had known, I wouldn’t have done what I did!” Quil said before turning his attention to Espeon as his head and back lit up. “A-a-and you! Why… HOW can you do something like that? How could you do that to Shade?! What possible reason could you possibly have to justify kissing me when you have Shade?!” he took a few steps closer and pointed at her, obviously becoming angrier and angrier with each word he said. “Why did you do that? Tell me!”

Instead of answering, she scowled and walked right past him and out the door. Her anger seethed and boiled inside—she was going to give Shade the punishment of a lifetime later. Then something happened that she wasn’t used to.

“Espeon, I DEMAND you get back here and explain yourself!”

Espeon turned to face the subordinator, her anger at its peak, but that quickly changed. She didn’t show it, but she was frightened to the core by what she saw. Blue jets of fire were pouring from his body, threatening to consume anything within reach. His expression matched the intensity of the fire behind him; his teeth were bared, his eyes were filled with rage, and his body itself looked like it was ready to combust.

“You are coming right back in here, Espeon, and you are not leaving until you give me and Shade a good reason for what you did!” Quil shouted as he glared into her eyes. “In the room, NOW!”

Shade walked through the flames, coated in a barrier of darkness, insulating him from the intense heat, and put his paw on Quil’s shoulder.

“Quil… Calm down.” He shouted over the roar of the flames. “Let her go.”

“Why should I?” Quil screamed. “You saw what she did! No respectable pokemon would do that to someone she cared about!”

Shade shook his head. “You don’t understand, Quil. She had a reason.”

The deafening roar slowly faded until it was little more than a crackle, the blue fading to orange. Shade looked at Espeon and motioned for her to go along her way. She turned around and walked off as though the whole think had never even happened. Shade looked around at the burning walls and ceiling, then at all of the looks of disbelief from all the pokemon that lined the halls.

“Don’t just stand there! Put out the fire and start repairing the damage!” Shade barked as he led Quil to the far end of the hall.

As the pokemon began to mobilize and throw sand, dirt, and water at the flames, Shade took Quil into a secluded room and locked the door behind him.

“Shade, how can you just let her walk away like that?” Quil asked. “She practically cheated on you!”

Shade shook his head. “No, Quil. She was doing whatever she had to do to get you to join the rescue squad.”

“Well, it sure backfired. I have half a mind to just walk out of here right now!” Quil said as he crossed his arms. “I don’t think I could work with an organization that uses such underhanded methods to get what they want!”

“Quil, you don’t understand. There’s more to this than you could ever imagine.”

“Yeah? Like what?” Quil snapped.

Shaded closed his eyes for a moment, then sighed and looked into Quil’s eyes. “Quil, you’re not like all the other pokemon here. You’re not like Mary, or Corona, or anyone else in these halls. You’re different; stronger than they could ever hope to be. Your powers dwarf those of even the most experienced typhlosion. Entei would envy the kind of raw power you possess. Even ho-oh itself would have to struggle to overpower you!”

“WHAT are you talking about?!” Quil asked, exasperated. “I still can’t even figure out how to breathe fire! All I know how to do is punch a hole in the earth and make lava spill out; and I can barely even control that!”

“We can’t let you fall into the hands of someone that would take advantage of your power, Quil!” Shade said, his voice raised slightly.

Quil’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, I see what this is. I’m just a weapon to you! I trusted you, Shade, and you went behind my back and wanted to use these “abilities” you think I posses for your own interest!”

“Quil, please! Listen to me!” Shade pleaded. “Yes, we want to keep you out of the hands of those that would abuse your power—you are a powerful asset to have. But we don’t want to use your power to hurt others. I can tell you’re not the kind of guy that would hurt someone unless there was no other option—but think about it, Quil. Think about what you and Corona just went through! You have this amazing power, but you don’t know how to use it! You were trying to protect Corona, but still ended up putting her life at risk because you don’t have anyone to teach you how to control it! We want to train you so that you CAN use your powers to protect others, without nearly killing them in the process!”

Quil’s jaw dropped. Shade was right: without knowing how to use his abilities, he was a ticking bomb that could cause a lot of damage. He didn’t know if Shade was right about this whole ‘amazing power’ business, but after what he had done to the training grounds that morning, it was obvious that he needed to get this under control before it got out of hand.

“…Okay.” Quil whispered. “I’m in.”

[Shade]

Espeon sat at the desk and sifted through the piles of records that she had pulled out pertaining to the food supply and who got how much. It had been a while since a berry harvest had been made, and odds were that the food supply was running a little low. When she found the file, she looked it over and sighed. Sure enough, there were only a few days left of food if the rations set in place had been followed. Evan walked into the room, a look of extreme boredom on his face.

“Mom, we’ve got about six hundred berries left. About half of them are rawst berries, a fourth are pecha berries, and the other fourth are oran berries.” He said with a groan. “Why do I have to do this kind of grunt work? I could be doing more important things with my time! We’ve got a bunch of other pokemon that could do it!”

Espeon levitated over a brush and dipped it in some octillery ink, then wrote down the figures on the food supply file. “… Thank you for the report, Evan.”

Evan plopped himself down on the thatch rug and pouted quietly, preferring to take being ignored rather than speaking up and risk being punished by his mother. He looked up and watched her do her work, still dying to voice how he felt. Just as he couldn’t stand it anymore, Shade and Quil walked into the room.

“Hello, Evan.” Shade said as he glanced at his son and walked toward Espeon.

“Hi Dad.” Evan replied quietly with evident boredom in his voice.

He glanced at Quil, who had stopped dead in his tracks and was looking down at him with a look of disbelief on his face.

“What are YOU looking at?” Evan muttered as he frowned and averted his eyes.

A bit surprised at the blunt reaction, Quil took a few steps back and turned his attention back to Shade.

“You called?” Shade asked as he approached Espeon.

“We’re low on food. I need you to round everyone up and have them start harvesting berries from around the forest.” She instructed. “Break them up into pairs based on who can carry the largest quantity of berries and who can gather them the fastest.”

Shade nodded and accepted the task, walking past Quil and patting Evan on the head with his tail. Quil turned to follow but looked back at Evan, who was returning his look with a glare. Shade called out to Quil, who quickly scampered after him. Once the two of them were gone, Evan took a deep breath and took a risk.

“Mom, why is Dad acting so clingy to that quilava?” he asked, showing as little hesitation as he could. “He looks like a pathetic loser, if you ask me.”

Evan felt his body rise off the ground and braced himself, knowing exactly what was coming.

“Evan, never judge someone based on their appearance alone.” Espeon said she levitated him over and gave him a tail smack to the face. “Don’t underestimate anyone—especially Quil; you could end up getting seriously hurt that way.”

“Yes, Mom…”

Evan grunted as a second smack lashed across his face.

“What was that for?!” he growled, briefly rubbing the stinging area before regaining his tough composure.

“I can hear what you’re thinking, Evan.” Espeon scolded as she looked into his eyes. “I don’t want to hear you think like that EVER again! Have I made myself clear?”

This time, he looked away and kept his mouth shut. He fell to the ground with a thud as she dropped him and walked off. Evan clenched his teeth. What was so special about this quilava that even his MOM thought he was something to be respected? He had to find out. When the coast was clear, he snuck out of the room.

* * *

“You did a really good job of getting everyone all organized so quickly!” Quil said as he trailed closely behind his teacher. “I thought that slakoth was gonna pee himself when you told him to hurry up!”

Shade smiled a little, slightly amused by Quil’s child-like attitude. “You just need to know to give orders in a way that others will listen. We should get going now, too; but first, let’s go check on Corona.”

Quil nodded and followed him down the hall to the infirmary where Corona was. Shade walked into the room first and greeted Mary.

“Hello, Mary. How is Corona doing?” He asked. “Any news?”

As Mary gave Shade a brief report, Quil walked over to Corona’s bedside and placed his paw on hers, still feeling guilty that she was in the condition she was in.

“Still comatose,” Mary replied. “She’ll shift around a little from time to time and make quiet noises, but that’s the extent of it.”

“Thank you, Mary.” Shade said as he turned and beckoned Quil to follow. “Keep up the good work.”

Once outside, Shade led Quil to an area with plenty of berry trees. “Alright, just pick berries and throw all of them in the shadows; then we can go in and take them back to base.”

Quil nodded and started picking berries, sneaking one from time to time if it was too small or squished. His thoughts returned to the office and what had transpired in it. He looked at Shade, then swallowed the berry he was chewing on and resumed picking.

“Shade… you never told me you had a son.”

Shade’s ears and tail stiffened at the sudden comment. He stopped picking berries for a moment and lowered his head.

“Y…yes…” He said with a soft voice. “Evan is my son.”

Sensing he’d hit a sensitive topic, Quil walked over and gave him a brief hug. “I’m sorry if it’s something you don’t want to talk about.”

During the short embrace, Shade felt a surge of calmness and trust rush over him. “… No, it’s alright, Quil… I feel… I feel I can trust you with the information.”

Quil backed up and sat down like a child awaiting a story. Shade took a deep breath and closed his eyes as he recalled the past.

“I’m sorry my son is a bit… insensitive and blunt. He takes a lot after his mother… and, believe it or not, she used to be much more aggressive and cold-hearted than she is now.” He explained as though in a trance. “… Two years ago—not long after Espeon and I met—she… she…”

“She what?” Quil urged, his eyes wide with anticipation.

“… let’s just say I didn’t exactly plan on being a parent.”

If it hadn’t been attached to his body, Quil’s jaw would have fallen off.

Shade sighed and continued. “She knew I wouldn’t leave her if I had a child I would be leaving behind… it was an extra measure to make me stay, since the thought of her hunting me down and beating me wasn’t enough.”

Shade turned to Quil and opened his eyes. “She raised him to be manipulative and underhanded, just like she was. At the time, I only stayed because I would be shunned for being a bad father, not because I wanted what was best for Evan. That’s why he’s got such a bad attitude.”

“Why are you still with her?!” Quil asked. “Evan’s old enough to take care of himself now! You can leave her if you wanted!”

It was then that Quil thought he heard a rustling from the thick overgrowth behind him, but dismissed it as a large fruit or branch falling to the ground since they had traveled deeper into the forest than any other group. Besides, he was more interested in what Shade was telling him than anything that could have fallen out of a tree.

“I don’t want to leave her.” Shade explained as he resumed plucking berries and throwing them into the shadow pit. “You see, Quil… as time went on… we actually did fall in love. I love Espeon, and I wouldn’t leave her for any reason.”

“I don’t understand. She’s manipulative, she forced you to stay with her, and she raised your son to be insensitive…”

Shade raised his paw in Quil’s direction. “I know it doesn’t make sense now, but it will eventually. I can’t reveal any more to you without first talking to her about it. You won’t understand until you know more about her… but right now, we need to finish picking these berries.”

“Awwwww…” Quil moaned. “Come on! Please?”

“The sooner we finish picking the berries, the sooner we can go back and I can discuss it with Espeon…” Shade said as he throw paw full after paw full of berries into the shadows.

That was more than enough to convince Quil to pick up the pace. It was hard work, especially when he had to climb into the trees to get berries that were out of reach, but he liked secrets and would pace holes in the ground if he knew there was a secret he didn’t know about. After several hours of swatting branches and picking up the fallen berries and then climbing into the tree to get the ones that were missed, the shadows began to fade as the sun got ever closer to the horizon.

“Well, that ought to be enough.” Shade said as he stepped into the shadows and checked their harvest. “Let’s head on back, Quil.”

When Quil didn’t respond, Shade turned around and saw him lying with his back against the tree and his feet sticking up in the air. “Quil, what are you doing?”

Quil craned his neck back and looked at him. “Lying down; my feet hurt from standing on branches and picking berries while trying not to fall and break my body.”

“The past few days have been pretty rough on you.” Shade said as she lay down next to Quil. “Here; I’ll carry you back.”

Quil smiled and climbed onto Shade’s back, thanking him while doing so. Shade began heading back toward base. About a fourth of the way back, he could hear Quil start breathing slowly and rhythmically.

“Are you okay back there, Quil?”

When he didn’t answer, Shade smiled and shook his head. The poor Quilava was thoroughly worn out—not just from picking berries, but from fighting for his life the previous day, among other things. Shade looked west at the orange sky and smiled to himself. Soon it would be dark and the moon would be up; and he’d be in his element. It was a shame he normally slept during that time. By the time he reached the perimeter of the training grounds, though, he was starting to become a little annoyed by Quil’s knee jabbing into his back. His bed would certainly be a sight for sore eyes—or, in this case, a sore back.

* * *

Evan sat in his bed, fighting back tears of anger and rage.

“So, I’m just a tool, huh? Some meaningless offspring that no one wanted?” he growled quietly as his claws dug into his face. “I’ll… I’ll show them! I’ll show them I’m better than that quilava. I’m going to do whatever it takes to beat him… I will humiliate him so badly that he won’t dare show his face around here ever again.”

“I will make him suffer!”

[A'bom]

Quil sat by Corona’s bedside gently stroking her paw. It had been nearly two days since the fight at Aquinira falls and she still hadn’t woken up. Everything else about her seemed fine: she had a normal body temperature, a regular heartbeat, and didn’t seem to be having any trouble breathing… she just wouldn’t wake up.

“Do you think she’s having any dreams?” Quil asked.

Mary shook her head. “I don’t know, Quil. I think she might be able to hear us, though.”

Quil leaned down and gave her a hug. “Corona, if you can hear me, I am SO sorry I got you into this mess.” He whispered. “I hope you can forgive me.”

“Oh, Quil. It wasn’t your fault.” Mary said as she lifted his chin. “You saved her life.”

Quil sat up and sighed, then looked out the door just in time to see Espeon walk by and look around the room; obviously irritated.

“I’ll see you later, Mary.” Quil said as he got up. “Have someone get me if she wakes up!”

Quil walked out of the room and looked down the hallway. Espeon was glancing into each room and moving on to the next one, looking for something.

“Espeon, do you need help looking for something?”

Espeon motioned for him to come to her, which he did. “Have you seen Evan anywhere?”

“No. Why? Is he missing?”

Espeon glanced at Quil, his questioning clearly not helping her with the irritation. “He was supposed to count the harvest but never reported to me.”

“He’s not in the storeroom?”

“No, Quil. I checked there first.” Espeon said with a sigh. “I’m searching in here and Shade’s searching the training grounds and other common places he would be. I doubt it, but he may be a little farther away than that. Go check the perimeter of the headquarters.”

“Okay.” Quil said as he turned and made his way down the stairs and to the exit. Since the training ground was on this side of the tree and Shade was there, he walked to the other side and started heading out in that direction. He hadn’t been in this direction before, so he made sure to take careful note of his surrounding so he didn’t get lost.

“Evan?” he called out as he approached a small stream. “Evan? Are you here?”

Quil continued to walk along the edge of the stream, calling out his name from time to time, looking back and forth for any sign of a small, brown-and-white pokemon. What seemed like hours passed as he moved along the banks of the gently flowing water. It was a very peaceful setting—peaceful until he was suddenly attacked from the side. He tumbled into the water from the blow, holding his breath as his body submerged in the shallow stream. He got up and gasped for air as he waded to the shore, then looked up to see Evan glaring at him.

“Evan?” He asked in disbelief. “Why did you just attack me?”

Evan took a deep breath and began charging a shadow ball. “To prove you’re not as great as everyone thinks you are.”

Quil tried to jump out of the way but more or less just fell over, being chest-deep in water. The shadow ball whizzed past his head and impacted the water just behind him, causing a small explosion. He looked back at the spot that had been hit and then looked at Evan, who was already preparing another shadow ball. Quil turn away from him and exhaled a blast of fire, propelling himself onto the shore as the third shadow ball dealt a glancing blow to his ear. Quil grimaced at the pain and got to his feet, trying to light his spots; but to no avail.

“Not so tough now that you’re all wet, huh?” Evan asked as he ran forward to tackle him.

Quil reached out his arm and held the little eevee back with a single paw. “Evan, if you’re worried that your mom is going to punish you for not counting the harvest, I’ll stand up for you.”

Evan growled and bared his teeth as he pushed against the quilava’s paw. “Why should I count the stupid berries? My abilities are WASTED on busy work!” he barked as he pulled away, causing Quil to stumble and fall over. “I don’t know what they see in you. Then again, they wouldn’t know something important if it was looking them right in the eyes!”

He sank his teeth into Quil’s neck, eliciting a painful cry. Quil stood up and grabbed the young pokemon, trying to pull him off without losing a chunk of flesh in the process. He pried his jaw open just enough to pull him off and throw him into the stream. Evan quickly got up and charged yet another shadow ball, more powerful than any of the previous ones. Quil watched in awe; he didn’t know an eevee was capable of that kind of power—large waves of water were rolling way from him as the energy swirled together into a sphere. When he launched the attack, the water all around him parted, leaving a small, but noticeable trench of visible ground before the water flowed back into place. Quil lifted his arms up to cover his face, hoping to at least dissipate a little bit of the impact’s energy. Instead, what he heard was a rumbling noise and something that sounded like a clap. He opened his eyes and saw a substantial pillar of rock in front of him, which had apparently blocked the attack judging by the radial crack pattern in the center. Quil stumbled back and fell to the ground before quickly getting up and running toward headquarters, hoping to lure Evan there.

“Get back here, you coward!” Evan wailed as he used a quick attack to catch up to his target.

The two of them tumbled head over heels until they came to a stop, Evan on top. He had a sinister grin on his face that Quil could have sworn he’d seen somewhere before.

“Evan, I’m not going to hurt you!” Quil shouted as he grabbed his attacker’s raised paw.

Evan continued to smile and laughed. “Fine; makes it that much easier for me to prove how pathetic you are!”

His grin quickly changed to shock as he floated up into the air. Quil looked up and saw Espeon, eyes blazing with rage. Shade wasn’t far behind her with a similar expression on his face.

“EVAN!” Espeon hissed. “First you shirk your chores and now you ATTACK another squad member? What has gotten into you? Young eon, you are in for the punishment of a LIFETIME!”

Evan closed his eyes as his mother drew him closer and readied her tail to smack him as hard as she could. Right before she let loose the beating, Evan’s eyes snapped open and he fired a shadow ball, narrowly missing her head and nailing the tree behind her. She tensed up and dropped her son to the ground, looking back at him with utter disbelief.

“NO! I’m not letting you boss me around anymore, Espeon!” He yelled, his voice filled with disgust as he called his mother by name.

“How DARE you talk to your mother like that?” Shade barked furiously. “Evan, ever since we got here, you’ve been—“

“Shut up! I know what you think of me! I’m just a harness to you; a burden that was forced on you by HER!” he screamed as he turned to face Espeon. “And YOU! I’m just a tool to you! An extra measure of assurance to make sure HE doesn’t leave you! You don’t care about me! Neither of you do, and neither of you ever did!”

Espeon and Shade looked at each other, astonished at what had just come out of their son’s mouth.

“What are you TALKING about, Evan?” Quil asked. “They’re your parents!”

“STAY OUT OF THIS, QUILAVA!” Evan spat. “You just show up out of nowhere and you’re suddenly the most important thing in their lives! I heard you talking to my dad! I know what he thinks of me!” He said as he turned around and looked at Espeon. “I don’t mean anything to you! All I am is a leash to keep HIM from leaving you! I heard him tell Quil! Well, guess what. You just lost the only thing keeping him tethered to you!”

Espeon turned to Shade, her eyes filled with anger. “You told him WHAT?!”

“Well, well, well. I hate to interrupt matters of the family sort, but… Oh, I just can’t seem to put my claw on the word I’m looking for…”

Everyone look upwards to see Bonnie standing calmly among the branches of a nearby tree. After waiting for a moment, she jumped from the branches and landed in a kneeling position. She stood up and sighed loudly as she took a few steps toward them, tapping her claw against her chin.

“Oh, I remember the word I was thinking of to describe your family: dysfunctional.”

“Back for another beating?” Espeon asked as she turned toward the weavile.

“Oh, Arceus! No!” Bonnie said as she held her claws up submissively. “I just wanted to make an offer is all.”

“What makes you think we’ll even listen to an offer from the likes of YOU?” Quil barked.

“No, not for you, hot-head… for him!” Everyone fell silent as Bonnie pointed one of her razor-sharp fingers at Evan. “You seem like a pokemon that knows what he wants and won’t let others boss him around… so why are you taking orders from these pathetic excuses for evolved pokemon? You can have all the power and freedom you want! You can do whatever you want, whenever you want! All you have to do is join me. I can train you to your fullest potential. I can help you become stronger—stronger than any quilava!”

Espeon and Shade looked at each other and began laughing. After several seconds, Shade looked back at Bonnie and shook his head. “Do you really think—“

“Deal!”

Everyone gasped in disbelief as Evan walked over to Bonnie and turned to face them.

“Evan… !” Espeon squeaked, her voice hollow and muted. “What… what are you doing?!”

“Weren’t you listening? This weavile is giving me something you never did! She’s going to teach me how to become stronger! She can see all the potential I have and won’t make me waste it on busy-work jobs like counting berries or running messages back and forth!” Evan said as Bonnie scooped him up into her arms. “Why would I stay here, anyway? I’m punished whenever I ask a simple question and voice my opinion on it! I can’t do anything I want without being beaten by my own mother, my father is a spineless weakling that will let himself get bossed around, and neither of them will teach me what I’m truly capable of! I wish this lady would have shown up a long time ago!”

“Call me Bonnie, kid.” She said as she looked at Espeon with a satisfied grin. “Well, Espeon… I must say that I’m impressed. I never thought you would be capable of bearing such talented and intelligent offspring. Don’t worry about little Evan, though… he’s going to be so much more than you ever imagined… or, as the case may be… planned.”

In the blink of an eye, Bonnie was gone; it was as though she had vanished into thin air. Espeon dashed forward to the spot she had been standing and looked around frantically, trying to seek out what direction she had gone, but there was no trail to be followed. Bonnie had literally disappeared right before their eyes.

“Evan!” Espeon cried tears welled up in her eyes. “EVAN!”

She fell to the ground and buried her face in her paws as she wept; no one other than Shade had ever seen her cry—until now. Shade walked over to her with an unsteady stride. It was obvious it took every ounce of his inner strength to not succumb to the intense emotional pain. He’d never seen her in an emotional state like this; he’d seen her cry with anger and, more recently, fear, but this was the first time he had ever seen her crying in despair. As he sat down next to her and put his arms around her, tears of his own began to trickle down his face.

“My Evan… my little boy!” Espeon muttered as she looked at her paws through tear-soaked eyes. “What have I done? I raised him to think only about himself and to do whatever it takes to get what he wants! This is all my fault! What kind of mother am I?!”

Quil slowly and carefully walked closer to the two crying eeveelutions. “Shade… Espeon… I’m so sorry.”

“It’s not your fault, Quil.” Shade said as he looked up. “This… we had this coming. We were practically asking for it.”

Quil knelt down and looked at Espeon from the side. “Espeon…”

Espeon turned her head in the other direction, refusing to let him see her in the state she was in. “Leave me alone! Go back to the base and start your regular routine!”

Quil reluctantly turned away to do as he was told.

“No.” Shade said as he got up. “Espeon, I know this isn’t the best time, but you need to start relying on others for support… not just me.” Shade motioned for Quil to join them. “I’ve spent a lot of time with Quil the past few days, and I can tell you with the utmost confidence that if there is one pokemon in the world you should trust beside me, it’s him.”

Quil put his paw on her shoulder. “Espeon, I promise I will do whatever I can to help you get through this.”

Quil looked at Shade, who nodded. Then he leaned forward and embraced Espeon, gently patting her on the back. “It’ll be okay. You’ll get through this. It’s hard, but we all need to move on.”

The first thing she tried to do was push him away, but something stopped her. She suddenly felt a warm, calm feeling rush over herself, pulling her out of the depths of sorrow and despair. She had the strongest urge to hug him back, but resisted it.

“Thank you, Quil.” She said with effort as she stepped away from him and wiped the tears from her eyes. “You’re right… what’s done is done. All we can do now is move forward.”

Quil did his best not to show how amazed he was. He hadn’t known Espeon very long, but he knew her well enough to know it shouldn’t have been so easy to gain her trust. He shook his head and brushed the thought aside as Espeon began speaking again.

“Let’s head back to base.” She said with a sigh. “We have work to do.”

* * *

“Espeon, wake up!” Shade said as he nudged her shoulder.

Her eyes napped open and she sat upright, wiping her face as she did so to find it covered with tears.

“You were having another nightmare.” Shade whispered as he held her close and nuzzled her. “This is the fifth time I’ve woken you up tonight.”
Espeon buried her face in his chest and began crying harder than she ever had before. “How could I have neglected my own flesh and blood so badly? How could I have been so cruel and abusive to my own son?! I’m a monster—a cold, heartless monster! I treated him like garbage, and now he’s gone! Our little Evan… Gone!”

Shade turned Espeon’s head and gave her a kiss. “Espeon, you’re not a monster… you’re my mate, and I love you.” He whispered into her ear as he held her close. “It hurts, I know it does… but we need to move on.”
She licked Shade’s chin and nodded. “Yes… we do. I don’t understand though… You and I have been together so long—but Quil just met me and learned of all the things I’ve done… and he STILL trusts me!”

“Yes, Quil is very trustworthy.” He said as he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back a little ways to look her in the eyes. “Espeon… he needs to know our past. He needs to know everything. He needs to know who we are and how we got here. He needs to know that he could be one of us.”

[Shade]

“Quil, get up.”

Quil rubbed his eyes and sat up, groaning in the process.

“Hurry it up, Quil. I talked to Espeon. She should be waiting for us right now.” Shade said. “You don’t want to keep her waiting!”

Quil’s eyes opened wide as he jumped out of bed and began curling into a ball. “Stand back.” He said as fire burst from his head and back.

Shade jumped back a few feet as Quil performed what appeared to be a stationary flame-wheel attack. When it was finished, Quil stood up and shook off what appeared to be a fine, powdery ash from his body.

“Okay, ready!”

He smiled at the quilava’s resourcefulness; after all, bathing is usually something that is done with water. He led him up the stairs into the main office, where Espeon was giving out orders to five other pokemon: a zoroark, a bayleef, a shinx, an espeon, and a grovyle.

“So, to wrap it up, Evan was taken by a weavile. Search for him, and bring him back if you find him. He probably won’t come willingly, but do what you must to get him back here alive.” She said as she looked at each of them in turn. “Take your teams and fan out to the north. That’s where he was last seen. Dismissed!”

Shade pulled Quil out of the doorway as the five team leaders walked past. As the Zoroark passed by, he patted Quil on the head and smiled. Quil giggled and looked up at the fluffy head of hair and thought about how fun it would be to ride around in for a while, but he snapped out of it when the door shut in front of him. Shade walked across the room and took a seat next to Espeon, put his tail around her back, and signaled for Quil to come closer. He slowly made his way to the center of the room and sat down, slightly nervous in the awkward silence.

“First of all, let me thank you for helping me calm down yesterday, Quil.” Espeon said as she averted her eyes downward. “I’m impressed that you were able to find it in your heart to do so, even after knowing all the things I’ve done.”

“About that…” Quil muttered as steam began to rise from his eyes. “I can’t see how anyone could do these sorts of things to anyone. How can you do those things and still be able to look your victims in the eye? You used Evan as a tool to force Shade to stay with you against his will—what could he have possibly done to deserve that? How could you even consider having his son for the sole reason of manipulating him to do whatever you want?!” his fire died down slightly before re-igniting as a brilliant blue. “You intentionally raised an innocent little cub to be selfish and underhanded! What kind of mother actually TRIES to corrupt her child like that!?”

"Quil... you don't know Shade like I do. When I met him, he was selfish, sneaky, and arrogant. He wouldn't listen to anyone but himself. To me, this was the only way to keep him from hurting himself... and others."

Shade nudged gently and gave her a serious look. She looked at him and then closed her eyes as they began to tear up.

“And… and so I could get revenge against the humans for what they put me through.” She said quietly through clenched teeth. “They took my friends… they took my parents… they took my brother away from me!” she shouted as small objects around the room began to levitate. “THEY ALL HAD TO PAY!”

“How could doing this to Shade POSSIBLY help you achieve that goal?!” Quil growled as his fire intensified. “I can’ think of single possible way that abusing anyone like… like… THAT… could help do anything other than ruin lives!”

“I did it to give Shade a family!” Espeon replied.

Quil’s fire continued to grow. “You’re still not telling me everything! You’re hiding something, Espeon! How can Shade having a family help you get revenge?”

“Simple. It was the perfect cage. He would have nowhere to flee to; if he tried to abandon his son, he would be hounded for the rest of his life, never knowing peace.” She said as she tried to keep herself calm in the blue light of Quil’s flames. “At least… that was one reason.”

“AND?” Quil barked through is teeth.

A tear rolled down her cheek “… a-and… I could feel the deep loneliness in his heart. A loneliness even deeper than mine.”

Shade blushed as his eyes widened with shock. “Wha-… is… is that true? You never told me that!”

“I can read your mind; why wouldn’t I be able to read your heart as well?” she asked as her chin began to quiver. “You had never known the comfort and love of a family… Even knowing what you used to be… I knew I wanted to be with you… so I could show you the joy of having a family.”

The blue glow slowly faded to orange when Quil saw that she had just revealed something not even Shade knew. “Okay… but that still doesn’t answer my question. HOW does that help you get revenge on humans?”

“Isn't it obvious?” She asked as she looked at Shade, who nodded in response. “He was the key to everything. Surely you've noticed how powerful he is by now.”

Espeon sat straight up and took a deep breath. “Quil, both Shade and I are the results of experimentation on pokemon. My father was a human that had been turned into a pokemon. He had great healing powers, which were passed to me.”

“You’re… what?” Quil asked as he looked to Shade, waiting for him to make her tell the truth. What happened next astonished him beyond all reason.

“And I am the result of a merger between two pokemon: an umbreon and a darkrai” Shade said, with his expression as serious as it could possibly be. “I was turned into a human for a while as a test to see if pokemon could be changed into humans as humans could be changed into pokemon, like Espeon’s father.”

His eyes wide, Quil took a few steps away from them. “That… that can’t possibly be true! Shade, I thought I was going to get answers, not get lied to!”

Shade and Espeon looked at each other and nodded. Espeon levitated Quil over, restraining him with her telekinetic abilities. “Quil, brace yourself for what you are about to see.”

Quil strained to pull his head away as Espeon closed her eyes and touched her tail to his forehead. His jaw dropped as his mind’s eye was filled with visions of the past—visions of horrifying displays of power, tragic loss, brutal punishment, and deep confessions. Espeon pulled her tail away and opened her eyes, but was a bit unprepared to see that Quil had continued to look off into space like he was seeing visions.

“... Is he alright?” Shade asked as he patted Quil’s cheek with the side of his paw.

“I don’t know.” Espeon replied. “He should have snapped out of it as soon as I did.”

Quil couldn’t believe what he was seeing—it was all true. Espeon and Shade were experiments to make pokemon stronger. Espeon had lost her parents while at a testing facility of some sort. Espeon used Evan as a way to keep Shade with her as his darkrai half began taking over. He saw just enough to know they weren’t making it up. He felt Espeon’s tail leave his forehead. As it did, he was suddenly bombarded with hundreds of visions, each passing by in rapid succession and totally unrelated to each other. Some of them were happy, some of them were terrifying; but all of them were overwhelming him. Just as he thought he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore, it all stopped. Espeon and Shade were looking at him with concern, and everything was silent.

“Quil? Are you okay?” Shade asked.

“Y-yeah. I just saw some strange things is all.” Quil replied as Espeon set him down gently. “… I can’t believe it. I can’t believe all of that’s true!”

"Now you know why I hate humans so much.” Espeon said as she dried her eyes with her tail. “They're not content until they ruin everybody's lives.”

Quil sat down and put his paw on his forehead as his flames went out. “This… this is insane. I’ve only been awake for a week! I know I asked to learn this, but… what does it all mean for me? Why are you giving me special treatment?”

“Quil, we weren’t the only ones created through experimentation. Many others had to suffer just like we did. We’ve encountered a few of them in our own travels, and so far they all have one thing in common: some sort of strange power that only they can use.” Shade said as he walked over to Quil’s side. “Quil… you’ve demonstrated a unique power. You’ve displayed powers beyond what any normal quilava could use.”

Quil’s eyes widened more than they ever had before. “… You don’t mean...”

Shade nodded and put his paw on Quil’s shoulder. “Quil… we aren’t completely sure, but we think you could be an experiment… just like us.”

Quil cradled his head in his paws and shook it from side to side. He tried to say something, but all that came out was senseless babbling.

“Are you going to be okay?” Shade asked.

Quil nodded in response.

“This was hard on all of us.” Espeon said quietly, sensing that Quil wouldn’t be able to take much more in his current mental state. “There’s some time before the search mission is started. We should use it to collect our thoughts.”

“That… that sounds good.” Quil said as he walked toward the door and opened it. “I’ll be with Corona. Let me know when it’s time to head out.”

He pulled the door shut behind him and walked down the stairs, then down the hall and into Corona’s room. He walked the length of the room and sat down at Corona’s bedside and sighed. Mary gasped and turned around with her paw on her chest.

“Oh, Quil! What are you doing back—are you okay? You’re pale!”

“Yeah, just a little overwhelmed right now.” Quil whispered. “Mary, can I have some time alone with Corona, please?”

“Well… I suppose if it will make you feel better.” She said as she stepped outside and closed the door behind her.

Quil closed his eyes and sighed. Time seemed to pass by so slowly. It felt like hours, but couldn’t have been more than a minute or two. He opened his eyes and looked at Corona, who was sleeping peacefully.

“Corona… I don’t know what’s going on. I mean, so much has happened to me since I woke up. There’s this Bonnie trying to kill me, Evan betrays his family because of me, and now I find out I’m out THIS?! I’ve only been awake for a week, so I’m not entirely sure, but this sort of thing doesn’t happen to everyone.” He put his paw on hers and gently began rubbing it. “I wish you were awake… I know we haven’t known each other long, but I feel so close to you.”

Quil jumped with a start as a knocking came from the door. It opened and Shade stepped inside.

“It’s time to go, Quil. Let’s go.”
He sighed and got up, stroking Corona’s forehead. “I’ll be back later, Corona. See you then.” He whispered as he turned and made his way to the door.

“Alright, Quil. But… where are you going?”

[A'bom]

Quil’s eyes filled with tears as he turned around to find Corona sitting up in her bed, her large green eyes looking right into his. He ran to her picked her up, hugging her tightly in the process.

“Corona! You’re finally awake!” he cried while cuddling her against his chest. “I was so worried about you! I thought you were never going to wake up!”

Every muscle in Corona’s body relaxed as he picked her up, eliciting a soft purr from her throat. “H-hi Quil…” she murmured. “What’s going on?”

Quil gently set her back down on the bed and put his paw on her cheek. “You almost froze to death after Shade took you out of the tunnel. I don’t know how you pulled through, but I’m so relieved that you did!”

Her eyes widened as her memory rushed back to her. “How…How are you alive?” she gasped. “I saw you get… I saw… the lava got you!”

“It was magma, actually; that’s beside the point, though.” He said in reply. “It turns out I’m magma-proof.”

“How did you wouldn’t get hurt if the lav… magma covered you?”

Quil smiled and closed his eyes. “I… I wasn’t sure, myself… I just knew you weren’t. Since I’m a fire type, I figured I’d be more likely to survive.”

Shade smiled to himself as he watched the two smaller pokemon. He could almost see the bond between them growing stronger. He began wondering what the future had in store for the two of them, but was interrupted by a tug on the tail.

“What’s taking so long?”

Shade turned and looked Espeon in the eyes. “Corona just woke up.”

“Good—another set of eyes is always useful on a search mission.” She responded as she turned to Mary, who was still standing in the hallway minding her own business. “Mary, go to the storage cellar and count the harvest.”

Mary nodded her head and walked off down the hall.

“Alright, let’s get going.” Espeon said impatiently.

“She just woke up from a three-day coma! She’s my pupil—I think it’s in her best interest to delay our departure one day to run some tests on her to make sure she’s capable of going on a mission.”

Espeon pulled Shade into the hallway. “Bonnie has our son and you’re more worried about that eevee you recruited a month ago?” she hissed. “Shade, the longer she has Evan, the harder it’s going to be to bring him back!”

“I know, I know; I’m worried about him, too… but we can’t let our emotions interfere with our mission.” Shade said as he put his paw on her cheek. “If we’re going to get him back, we can’t be hasty and rush things. If we ran into them and Corona wasn’t at her best, she’d end up being dead weight. We need to find out if she’s up to the task first.”

“…Fine. Alright…” Espeon muttered. “But ONLY today. If she’s not ready tomorrow, we’re leaving her here.”

Shade gave her a kiss on the nose. “Thank you, Espeon.”

She nodded her head in the direction of the exit. “Alright, get her up and let’s get out there. Everyone’s waiting for orders. I want you to start testing her immediately.”

He nodded and leaned back into the room. “Quil. Corona. Let’s go. There’s been a slight change in plans. Espeon will explain it when we get outside.”

Quil helped Corona out of bed and the two of them scampered after Shade. All the way there, Quil was right at Corona’s side, making sure she was stable and steady. When they got there, all of the other squad members were relaxing and doing various things; the zoroark and the shinx appeared to be the center of attention.

“Listen up!”

Everyone jumped and looked up at Espeon and then scrambled to their feet, organized themselves into their separate teams, and stood at attention—everyone, that is, except a wobbuffet who had been standing at attention before Espeon had even arrived.

“There’s been a change in plans.” Espeon said loudly and authoritatively. “Your teams will depart now in the directions I assigned earlier. As you can see, Corona has awakened from her coma. My team will stay here until she has been adequately tested for mission suitability and then will depart as well. Do you all understand?”

“We return here if something goes wrong, right?” a riolu asked.

“Correct.” Espeon said before waiting a moment. “If there are no more questions, then go!”

Quil had never seen the entire squad mobilize at once before. It was quite a sight: the faster members would carry the slower members if it was at all possible, and the larger, stronger ones would carry all the supplies to preserve the energy of the others. Most impressive, though, was the Zoroark, who was not only carrying the supplies, but also BOTH of his team members. Two of the teams had stalled near the edge of the now-destroyed training grounds. Quil squinted his eyes and saw that the espeon and the shinx were cuddling up to each other—he could have sworn he saw the shinx give the startled eeveelution a kiss on the cheek.

“Don’t just stand there.” Espeon snapped as she turned and walked back into the tree base. “Get that testing done and out of the way so we can find my—so we can find my rescue operative.”

“Is that what this is all about?” Corona whispered to Quil.

He nodded. “A very important member of the rescue squad defected to the weavile that attacked us.”

“Bonnie?”

“Yeah, her. It’s a top-priority mission to get him back however we can.”

Shade, Quil, and Corona headed to the back-up training grounds to put her through some paces. First was a speed run to see how fast she could run the perimeter of the training area. As per usual, she did exceptionally well for an eevee. Some rock-pushing exercises confirmed that she was a bit lacking in physical strength, but this was not too unusual for her. Her coordination skills were on-par, though her balance was off just slightly. Some simple tests were run on her reaction times, which were surprisingly faster than they normally were. Even after all of the testing, she didn’t appear to be very tired. Almost as if on cue, Espeon came walking down the hill toward them.

“Espeon! Great timing!” Shade called to her from afar. “Corona’s no worse for the wear. We can leave whenever you’re ready.”

She quickly and briefly tilted her head backward, signaling for him to come to her. As he approached he tilted his head slightly.

“Is something wrong?”

Espeon looked at Quil, who was preoccupied talking to Corona. “Shade, I think I know who that weavile is.”

“You mean Bonnie?” Shade asked. “You know why she’s here?”

“… No… I don’t know why she’s here, and I don’t recall ever knowing her by that name. It’s all such a blur.” She began to explain as she looked away from Quil and back to Shade. “It’s a vague memory and a loose resemblance, but there was a sneasel I grew up with at the labs. She was cold, heartless, and wouldn’t hesitate to exploit her opponent’s weaknesses. I faintly remember watching her knock out her partner before proceeding to maul her opponents. I think she and Bonnie are the same pokemon. I don’t know why she’d target us after all these years, but if she really is out to get us, she might be planning to lure all of our defenses away while she destroys our home.”

“Are you sure?” Shade asked.

Espeon shook her head. “No… but it’s like you said: we can’t let the fact that he’s our son cloud our judgment. If there is a possibility that she might attack our home, we need to guard it.”

Shade nodded in agreement. “What do you propose?”

“Mary’s in the storage room counting the harvest. The four of us can patrol the perimeter of the immediate area.” She said as she walked past him. “Quil. Corona. There’s been a change in plans.”

The two of them looked up and stood at attention.

“It’s occurred to me that Bonnie may be trying to lure our defenses away from the base. There’s a possibility that she may attack the base. I want you two to patrol the south eastern part of the premises. Shade and I will guard the northwest.” She said as she waved her tail in the general direction of where Quil and Corona were to patrol. “In other words, over there. Quil, if you see anything, use flamethrower toward the sky in place of a signal beam. If anything happens on our side, I’ll use signal beam. Understand?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Quil and Corona turned and began trotting off to their assignment. Fortunately for them, they were pretty much already there.

“So… should we split up?” Corona asked. “You go one way and I go the other?”

“Why don’t we stay together?” Quil asked as a slight blush grew on his face. “I mean, you did just wake up from a coma.”

“But… you just helped me get tested to see if I’m alright.”

Quil’s blush intensified. “Uh… well, what if Bonnie does show up? We were closed in cave before. We could probably take her out here in the open.”

“Well, I suppose that’s true.” She said. “Just pace back and forth around the perimeter?”

Quil shook his head. “It’d probably be best if we stayed partway between the perimeter and the base. There’s that hill. We could go up it with each pass and get a panoramic look around. If Bonnie’s sneaking around, we’ll see her from there.”

“Good thinking.” Corona said as her tail started wagging. “I just hope Espeon thinks it is, too.”

They made their way toward the hill and climbed it, then began their marching; first to the northeast, then turning around and making an arc down toward the southwest, climbing the hill and descending it each time. After about the ninth or tenth pass, Corona began falling behind. Quil slowed down to match her pace rest of the way up the hill and then stopped.

“Let’s take a break.” He said as he sat down and patted the ground next to him with his paw.

Corona panted and smiled. “I could use a rest. These stubby little legs can’t keep up with long ones like yours.”

Quil blushed as she took a seat next to him. They took turns sneaking glances at each other for what must have been half an hour before Corona spoke up.

“… Quil?” She muttered before clearing her throat. “I… I just want to let you know how touched I am.”

He looked down at her and head-tilted. “By what?”

Corona blushed and closed her eyes as she looked downward. “That… That you would put your own life on the line, even though you didn’t know you would survive… just to save me.”

“It really wasn’t that hard of a decision to make.” Quil said as he inched a bit closer to her. “You’re too valuable to be lost. I guess we’re even now, though.”

Corona gasped as she felt Quil’s warm paw gently laid on top of hers. She looked up unto his eyes, startled at first, but then smiled and leaned against his body as she wrapped her fluffy tail around his back. He took a deep breath and surveyed the area in front of him in the light of the late afternoon sun. Suddenly, he saw something moving at the far end of the training grounds.

“What is that?” he asked as his eyes narrowed.

“What is what?” Corona replied as she opened her eyes.

Quil pointed in the direction of the motion. “There… those. Is that… is that the espeon and shinx’s teams?”

“What are they doing back so early?” Corona asked as she got up and walked down the hill a little ways. “What are they doing together, for that matter? They went off in different directions.”

As they neared the group, it was clear why they had returned. All six of them were injured—some worse than others. Their injuries ranged from scratches and bruises to large, bleeding wounds; specifically the shinx, who had a particularly nasty-looking gash on her paw. There were two members of their teams that had to be carried back. One was covered in blood; the other simply looked as though his limbs were broken.

“What happened?” Corona asked as she ran up to the teams’ leaders.

The shinx licked the blood from her paw and gave her a slightly annoyed look.

“We found who we were looking for.”

* * *

“All the injured pokemon have been treated and are resting comfortably. The two critical cases appear to be stabilizing. Corona is keeping a close eye on them.” Mary reported as she stood in the center of the office next to Quil. “The party that went to Aquinira Falls was ambushed by a weavile. They report that they did see an eevee while trying to flee. However, they were pursued by the weavile, so the team leader sent out a distress signal beam.”

“The espeon responded, correct?” Espeon asked.

Mary nodded. “Yes. The team you sent eastward to Aquinira River—but by the time they arrived, two of the distressed party’s members were… well, you saw what happened to them. The responding team with the one remaining member of the other team barely escaped. They don’t know why she didn’t pursue them. According to the leaders, they could have easily been killed. They say it felt like the weavile was just playing with them; she didn’t even break a sweat.”

“I see…” Espeon said quietly. “Thank you, Mary. You are dismissed.”

Mary bowed respectfully. “Thank you, Ma’am. Have a pleasant evening… if at all possible.”

Mary swung the door shut as she left to return to the injured. Espeon closed her eyes and hung her head. Shade stepped closer and nuzzled her cheek in an attempt to calm her.

“She has no intention of attacking our base.”

Quil’s eyes narrowed. “What makes you think that?”

“She didn’t kill them. She’s sending us a message… She wants us to stay out of her way, and she knows she can take us.” Espeon said as she opened her eyes and looked into Shades. “She’s the sneasel, Shade. She’s the sneasel I grew up with; I know she is! It could only be her. She ambushed them; she knew they were coming. She was a step ahead of us the whole time.”

“You knew Bonnie as a cub?!” Quil cried loudly.

Espeon shushed him. “Yes. Now that I know what we’re up against, there’s only one thing we can do…” she said as she looked straight into Quil’s eyes. “Quil, we need to train you to your full power as fast as possible.”

[Shade]

“Faster, Quil!”

“I’m doing the best I can, Shade!” Quil moaned as he struggled to carry around the large rock that had been strapped to his back.

“You can do it!” Shade cheered. “Let’s try to finish just a little faster than last time! Just one more lap across the training grounds and back! Then you can take a quick break before we move on to evasion practice!”

Quil collapsed as he reached the end of the field Shade and Espeon were on. Espeon looked down at him with dissatisfaction and shook her head. “This will never do, Quil. You should be able to run down there and back in only a few minutes, even while bearing a load! There are bound to be pokemon you’ll have to carry one day that are heavier than that little rock!”

“Little rock?!” Quil shouted, clearly irritated and tired. “This rock is as big as my butt, and THAT is saying something! I’m just a little quilava; how can I carry something much larger than myself, anyway?” he rolled the rock off his back and stood up on his hind legs. “I can barely even look you eye-to-eye! How can I carry a pokemon that has legs that are as long as I am? Besides, I haven’t had more than four or five hours of sleep each night for the past week! On top of that, I have to train ALL day! I only get to stop to eat and use the tree! I’ve hardly talked to Corona at all for the past four days! Even if I am some freakish, genetically-superior quilava, I can only handle so much!” he cried as he threw his paws up in the air. “I’m exhausted, for Arceus’s sake! Cut me a little slack!”

Espeon’s face contorted with rage for a moment, then calmed down. “You’re right, Quil. You’ve worked very hard over the past week. Take the rest of the day off and get a good night’s sleep once you go to bed.”

Shade and Quil looked at each other in disbelief.

“Are you serious, Espeon?” Shade asked.

“Wow! Thanks Espeon!” Quil exclaimed as he ran off to the base. “I’ll be with Corona!”

“Hold it!” Espeon shouted. Once Quil stopped and turned to face her, she gave him one of her signature menacing grins. “Have a double portion of berries today, as well. You’ll need the energy tomorrow when you battle Shade!”

* * *

Quil sat at the end of the barren, black wasteland that used to be a training ground for the rescue squad. He looked down at his feet, dreading the coming battle. It wasn’t long before a familiar voice reaches his ears.

"Let's get this over with." Espeon said as she approached him.

Quil looked up with a start as his eyes began to fill with tears. "Espeon, I don't want to fight Shade! He's my friend!" he cried as he looked past her to see Shade, who was standing at the other end of the field.

Espeon tapped the tips of her tail against the ground, quite clearly irritated. "You WILL battle Shade to prove how much you've learned!"

Quil closed his eyes and hung his head from the inner conflict. "... I... don’t want to!"

Shade walked over to Espeon and whispered something into her ear, after which she nodded and turned to face Quil. "Well, if you can't find the courage to fight Shade... then you will have to fight ME instead!"

Quil's eyes snapped open as he looked up in horror. "WHAT?!"

Espeon’s tail swished from side to side as she stared down at him. "... Well, which is it? Do you want to fight Shade... or me?"

He looked back and forth between Espeon and Shade, his vision blurred by tears. Once he made his decision, his eyes narrowed and he stood up on his hind legs to look her right in the eye. "You."

Shocked by his answer, she turned around and looked at Shade, who was exhibiting a similar expression. "W... why?" She asked as she turned back to face him.

"Shade is my best friend. I can't hurt him." Quil said as the tears began to evaporate and rise from his face in the form of steam. "You, though... I've seen two different sides of you over the past week and a half: a loving, caring side and a ruthless, unforgiving side. Right now, what I'm seeing is the ruthless, unforgiving side. You are trying to make me hurt one of the most important pokemon in my life… and I won’t do it!"

She stood there for a moment, awestruck, before quickly regaining her composure and assuming an attack position. "Very well; You will face me then. And be warned...I hold nothing back."

Quil shifted his weight forward and dug his hind leg into the ground to prevent the force of his flamethrower from shoving him back. Thinking quickly, Espeon dodged to the left; the flamethrower barely missed her. She smirked and began running around him quickly, activating her double team and creating illusory copies of herself. Quil ended his flamethrower and looked around at the multiple images of her, a look of scorn on his face. Suddenly, he dropped onto his side and curled up into a ball, and released fire from his backside, which caused him to spin into a flame wheel and spew out flames in all directions. The attack hit Espeon, pushing her back and singeing some of her fur. She scowled and started running around him again, this time too far away for his flames to reach. Quil looked around, not sure of what to do. Then, remembering what had happened while fighting Evan, he threw his arms up in front of his face in an attempt to create a barrier out of the ground, but nothing happened. Espeon chuckled at his fruitless attempts as her eyes started to glow bright white, which each of her copies also did.

"Why isn't it working!?" Quil growled under his breath as he repeated the maneuver several times unsuccessfully. "Do what happened before! Stupid ground!"

Espeon’s eyes flashed, letting forth a powerful Psychic blast on Quil, her mental influence enforcing itself on his. He clenched his head in agony as the mental energy assaulted his mind and fell to the ground, writhing in pain. His vision began blurring in and out of focus as he got up and helplessly tried the motion one last time; but still to no avail. Realizing it wasn't going to work, he instead resorted to what he had learned first. Lava spewed out of the ground in front of him and he put his paw into it and caused it to spray out over a wide area.

Espeon teleported behind him and chuckled to herself. "You'll have to do better than that."

Quil shoved his paw into the geyser, sealing it and blocking the flow completely as the clones vanished from his sight. Espeon grinned and smashed her tail against the back of his head, sending him rolling and tumbling along the ground until he finally grinded to a halt.

“Hmph. If that rock was really so heavy and you could handle it, why can’t you handle something as light as me?”

As Quil jumped to his feet and inhaled deeply, his ears and mouth started to glow like hot coals being fanned. With a savage cry of anger, fire billowed out on a massive scale. Espeon chuckled and teleported, reappearing just to the left of him. He swiftly turned his head, anticipating the maneuver, took her by surprise. She jumped high into the air—but not high enough. Her tail was bathed in the blistering heat of the flamethrower, singeing the fur right off of it. She landed on the other side of him and looked at her tail, which was now covered in a fine gray ash that used to be her fur.

“How DARE you scorch my beautiful tail?!” Espeon screamed as her face contorted with blind rage.

Quil stopped the flamethrower and pivoted on his heel, picking up his other foot and slamming it into the ground to brace himself for whatever attack was coming his way. There was a loud crack and, to his surprise, a slab of stone thrust out of the ground directly beneath Espeon, jabbing her in the stomach and hurling her high into the air. She clenched her tummy as she fell to the grounded and landed on her side, clearly in a significant amount of pain. Quil couldn’t believe what had just happened—he didn’t know whether to be excited about his newfound ability or afraid that he’d critically injured her. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t injured her critically enough; he suddenly felt something come over him, like a superior will. Espeon slowly got up and looked at him with eyes shining bright as the sun, her jewel radiating psychic energy. All of Quil’s muscles tightened up painfully, cramping under the strain of their own contraction. He cried loudly as his limbs were tugged, thrashed, and whipped around, forcing the joints to bend in ways they were never intended to bend. Espeon laughed sadistically as she swung her tail around, controlling Quil’s body like a crazed puppet master.

“Nobody hurts ME and gets away with it!” she screamed maniacally, almost as though enjoying his pain.

Quil clenched his teeth and flexed his muscles in an attempt to resist the attack, but it made little difference. His mind began to fall apart little by little, piece by piece, in the unshakable grip of Espeon’s attack. Then it occurred to him: he was fighting with his body when he should be fighting with his mind. As hard as it was to do, he closed his eyes and took a deep, deep breath. Espeon fought to keep her reign on his body, but after a long struggle Quil stood up straight and opened his glowing blue eyes. He was suddenly fully aware of all the objects around him; all the life in his surroundings was obvious to him. Shards of rock levitated into the air around him as he lifted his arms up laterally from his sides. With a painful grunt, he pulled in his arms and thrust them forward. Sharp stone fragments assailed Espeon as she ran straight for him, deflecting as many as she could with her tail and ignoring the pain of the ones that got through. With a blank look on his face, Quil swung back his arms and then pulled them up in front of his face once more. This time, there was a great rumble followed by a large wall of rock emerging out of the ground.

"Espeon, stop! That's enough!" Shade shouted as he ran toward her, knowing just how powerful she could be when as enraged as she was.

She slid to a halt and turned around, glaring at him. “BACK OFF, SHADE!”

The glow in Quil’s eyes dissipated as his newfound extrasensory detected that a signal beam had hit Shade nearly point-blank. Quil pulled back his arm and punched the wall with a guttural yell, causing a chunk of it rocket forward at Espeon. It found its target and sent her flying back. Suppressing the pain with sheer willpower, Espeon used her telekinesis to swing it around and redirect it back to its sender. With his extrasensory no longer in effect, Quil stomped his foot at the base of the wall and shattered it to rubble. He never saw the incoming projectile as it nailed him right in the chest, sending him sliding along the ground, rolling repeatedly until finally coming to a motionless, unmoving stop. Espeon walked up to him menacingly, though exhausted, and ensnared him with grass knot, tying him down.

“See how pathetic you are?” She asked mockingly as she looked down at him. “If you can’t handle me, what makes you think you can handle Bonnie?”

Quil began to struggle as his eyes began to twitch with rage. The verdant bonds holding him down began to smolder and blacken as his red spots began to spark and sputter, trying to erupt with flames. Espeon stood over him and raised her tail, a wicked smile on her face.

“… sleep tight, Quil!”

Jets of blue suddenly spewed from Quil’s back, vaporizing his bonds. He got to his feet and grabbed Espeon by the tail, squeezing it with a death grip. He tugged it toward himself, bringing her close, and then threw her back with a punch. The intense heat from the blazing fire forced Espeon to back up, her eyes wide with fear.

“How can you do that to your own mate?” Quil wailed. “He loves you, and you turn on him and attack him with an attack he’s weak against!”

Quil twisted his body and then spun around, causing himself to fly into the air with a brilliant blue column of swirling flame. Espeon held her paws in front of her body, trying to hold back the immense heat radiating from the blaze-charged quilava.

"You're so full of yourself! You think you're so powerful! You think you can boss around whoever you want and do whatever you feel like on a whim!" Quil screamed at the top of his lungs as he punched downward, cloaked in a jet of intense flame, rocketing toward Espeon. "Guess what! Not anymore!"
Her survival instincts surpassing her fear, Espeon quickly teleported to safety, her fur barely getting singed from the heat as Quil slammed into the ground where she once stood, sending out cracks in all directions. She turned to face him, her eyes glowing white.

“This ends NOW!” She cried as she readied another psychic blast.

"End THIS!"

Quil raised both of his arms into the air and slammed them into the ground. The sound that followed was an ominous, loud rumble immediately followed by a crack so loud it could be heard from miles around. Magma gushed out of the earth as a massive fissure split open like the surface of a punctured balloon, threatening to swallow anything on top of it. Using every remaining ounce of power left in her body, she levitated upward and pulled the earth shut below her. As she fell to the ground, Quil launched forward with is paws cloaked in long, precise cones of fire like those of a welding torch, a trail of fire in his wake. Espeon hit the ground with a grunt and looked up—it would all be over in seconds. She braced herself, waiting for the impact that would surely leave her with a burn that would never heal. A mere fraction of a second before contact, Quil flew off to the side in a pulse of dark energy, rolling and tumbling head over heels until he slammed into a distant tree before falling to the ground in a lifeless heap. The blue inferno all around Espeon quickly dispersed into an orange glow and then disappeared altogether. She whipped her head around and saw Shade standing there, his face showing nothing but pain.

“I’m sorry, Quil...” He muttered to himself. “But… Espeon comes before you.”

[A'bom]

Quil skidded to a halt and shot the rock off of his back in a blast of fire, then turned around. “Come on, Corona! Just a little faster! You’re going to make it this time!”

Corona clenched her teeth as she ran up to Quil and fell on her side, panting and gasping for breath. Quil leaned over her and gently laid his paw on her shoulder.

“How’d we do, Shade?”

Shade smiled and nodded. “You’ve both improved significantly in the past week. I see that you’ve been working on your pressure blasts. I think that’s enough for today; let’s go report to Espeon.”

Quil lay down next to Corona and gestured for her to climb on. She smiled and did so; her little legs were so tired from struggling to keep up with Quil. Needless to say, it was a rather relaxing ride back to base on her squishy escort. While heading through the halls toward the main office, they heard a bit of commotion coming from the dining hall.

“What do you think’s going on?” Quil asked. “I know we’re supposed to report to Espeon, but can we check it out, Shade”

“Please?” Corona chimed in.

Shade chuckled and nodded as they redirected themselves to the dining hall. Upon entering they found that the team that had gone to search to the west had returned. It was a party of sorts; all nine of the returned rescuers were huddled around in a group, talking about various things. Corona slid off of Quil’s back and walked toward the group, eventually taking a spot between the shinx and a riolu. Quil looked at Shade nervously before taking a few awkward steps closer. The zoroark saw him out of the corner of his eye and got up.

“Hey, come on over. You don’t need to be shy.” He said as he walked over and picked Quil up, setting him on top of his head.

Quil blushed and smiled as he settled into the big, soft, fluffy head of hair. Shade smiled as he watched him walk back over to the group and sit back down. Shade himself, however, still had a job to do. He walked down the hall and up the stairs, then knocked on the door.

“Come in.”

Espeon looked up as Shade walked in. “Oh, good; you’re here. How did it go?”

“Both Quil and Corona are improving rapidly.” Shade began. “They-“

“Stick to Quil right now. What’s his progress?”

Shade cleared his throat and continued. “Well, Quil’s performance has nearly doubled in all areas. He has no trouble running the perimeter while bearing a load and still has energy to burn afterward. Even so, he doesn’t appear to like running around a lot. When it comes to evasion practice, he’d rather just fling himself around by bucking the earth like a catapult—either that or destroying whatever the projectile I’m throwing at him is with lava plumes. As for Corona—“

Espeon tapped her tail impatiently. “Shade, hurry it up.”

Shade frowned a little bit before resuming his report. “She’s halved her lap time since we first recruited her. She hasn’t gotten any stronger, nor has her resistance to damage increased at all; her endurance has increased a little.”

“Okay, good.” Espeon said as she hastily scribbled down the information, then cast aside the brush like a piece of trash. “The search west search party returned earlier today.”

“I saw that.” Shade said as he smiled. “Quil and Corona are in the dining hall with them. They’re all having a good—“

He was interrupted by her noisily shifting through stacks of papers before returning with Quil’s file and a map. “That can wait, Shade. Come here.”

Shade walked to her side and looked at the documents she was holding. “What’s going on?”

Espeon levitated over the brush and marked an ‘X’ near a diverging branch of Aquinira River to the northwest on the map. “They found something unusual while searching.” She began. “When they first left Verdesque Forest and entered Zephim Fields, nothing seemed too unusual. After about a week of searching for Evan, they came across a huge circular area where there was nothing—literally. No plants, no life, and no geographic features besides that branch of Aquinira River; Just a flat, barren mass of land.”

“Okay… so?” Shade asked.

Espeon pointed to a small, red dot in Verdesque Forest. “You found Quil here.” She said as she set the brush down on the map and lined it up with the center of the ‘X’ she had made. “It’s a little off-center, but that’s the same direction we found Quil in.”

Shade took the brush from her and set it down, lining it up with Aquinira Falls to the Southeast. “Are you sure he didn’t come from this direction?”

Espeon snatched the brush away from him and frowned. “Either way, I think we need to give this site a visit.” She said she rolled up the map and put it and the file back on the top of the pile. “It’s a two or three day trip if we go there by foot. I can’t afford to be gone for a week to visit a spot for one day; the other groups might return. I want you to take the shadows when the sun rises tomorrow morning while the mountains are still blocking the light.”

Shade nodded. “Okay. I’ll head over there for the day and see what I can find.”

“Take Quil with you. He should be able to take the darkness much better than Corona did.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.” Shade said as he left the office and made his way back toward the dining hall.

As he approached it, everyone began walking out. Mary greeted him as she escorted the rescuer whose limbs were broken back to his room. He nodded in response and looked down the hall to see Quil and Corona heading outside.

“Quil!”

“Huh?”

“Espeon’s sending us on a special mission tomorrow at the crack of dawn. You should probably go to bed early.”

Quil gave a look of disappointment. “… Can I wait just a few more hours? Corona and I were going to go for a walk before it started getting too dark.”

“I thought you were too tired to do any more walking.” Shade said as he refrained from grinning.

“Well… Quil said he’d carry me if I got tired.” Corona replied as she looked at Quil, who nodded.

“Well, okay. Don’t stay up too late, Quil. We’re going to be shadowporting tomorrow.” Shade explained. “You’re going to need plenty of energy to keep yourself warm in there.”

Quil nodded. “Thank you, Shade.”

He walked over to Corona and nudged her shoulder before the two of them walked off together. As they left the base, Shade smiled to himself and walked back up to the office.

“Wow. You get to go on a special mission!” Corona giggled as she nudged Quil’s shoulder. “Aren’t you the special one!”

“Heh heh… yeah…” Quil muttered. “Special.”

Corona’s ears tilted back. “Are you okay, Quil?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You sounded upset.”

Quil shook his head and smiled. “No. Just thinking… so, is there anywhere special you’d like to go?”

Corona nodded. “The old training grounds.”

Quil looked at her, baffled. “Why would you want to go there?”
Corona smiled as she walked forward. “No one ever goes there, so it’s nice and quiet. It’ll be just you and me.”

A blush began to glow across Quil’s face. Corona wanted to be alone with him—was it just an innocent request… or was she hinting to him? He shook his head; that couldn’t be right. It wasn’t long before they reached the cold, black mass of hardened lava, which now had some noticeable cracks and craters from a certain battle that had occurred the prior week.

“I can’t believe you were able to hold your own against Espeon.” Corona said quietly as she walked along a fissure. “I never would have thought you would be able to do something like this when I found you three weeks ago.”

“Yeah… I can’t believe it, myself.” Quil muttered in response.

Corona walked over and cuddled up to him. “Quil, what’s wrong?”

Quil’s eyes widened as his blush returned with a vengeance. “It… it’s just that… I’ve only been awake for three weeks, and so much has happened—enough for a lifetime, even, but... I know I’ve been alive longer than that. I don’t know what happened before then, though! I try not to show it, but it bothers me. What if I have a bunch of friends or a family looking for me? What if there’s someone out there I’m supposed to be taking care of? I couldn’t have been alone my whole life.”

Corona laid her head on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Quil. Everything will be okay. If you do have family and friends out there, we’ll find them someday.”

Quil looked up at the orange sky and sighed. It wasn’t a lie, but it also wasn’t the whole truth; what was really bothering him was that Corona didn’t know what he really was. She was bound to find out some day; but for now, he had to be strong and deal with it. She couldn’t know what he was yet… at least, not until he knew exactly what he was, himself.

[Shade]

“Wake up, Kid; Time to get up and train for some butt-kicking.”

Evan rubbed his eyes as he was suddenly lifted off of his bed and carried by the scruff of the neck to the cave entrance. The next thing he knew, he was being bathed in a cascade of falling water. Bonnie pulled him out and set him on the ground, a smirk on her face.

“Didn’t your parents ever bathe you?” she laughed. “Contrary to skuntank philosophy, smelling bad isn’t going to KO your enemy.”

Evan struggled to stand under the added weight of the water in his fur. “Well, it’s a bit difficult to stand with this much weight and it takes forever to dry.”

“I didn’t even HAVE parents and they treated me better than yours did!” Bonnie said as she rolled her eyes. “Use your powers for reasons they weren’t intended to be used.” She said as she put her claw on his back and froze every bit of water in his fur, then proceeded to kick him, shattering it to pieces and leaving him dry. “Not only will it make your life easier, but you can use it to get the upper hand in battle. I’ve used that trick to get out of string shot many times.”

Evan shivered violently as he puffed up his mane and tried to stuff his body into it. “Y-y-y-you’re an i-ice type th-th-th-th-th-th-though.”

Bonnie picked him up by the back of the neck again and froze the waterfall in front of her, jumping out of the cave and onto a patch of ice below. She reached her claw into the water and froze a large sphere of clear ice, then held it over the shivering body dangling from her grip. The sunlight focused and warmed him up rapidly. Within minutes, he was warm. She smashed the frozen orb with her claw and skied over to the banks of the river and dropped him on the ground. Evan turned around, his tail wagging with anticipation.

“Wow! That was cool! So, what are you going to teach me today? Where a quilava’s weak points are? Are we going to practice more how to sneak up on him without making a noise? Work on running up the side of a tree and doing a backflip? Oh! What about a new move altogether!?”

Bonnie folded her arms across her chest. “Two weeks of practice isn’t enough to fully develop your agility and stealth, but it does get boring doing the same thing over and over. Hit me with your best shadow ball.”

Evan charged up a shadow ball and launched it at her face. She lifted up her arm and swatted the attack away.

“Come on, kid. I’m not some whelp that can’t take a hit. Try to hurt me!”

Evan charged another one and fired it only to see her swat it away, just like before. He panted and stood up straight.

“Pathetic. I can’t believe your mother would settle for such an inadequate performance. She’s gone soft.” Bonnie said with a scoff. “I suppose time does that to some pokemon, though; they can’t all be perfect like me.”

“You knew my mom?” Evan asked.

“Yes, a long time ago. That’s ancient history, though; you don’t need any of that. Now, use shadow ball on that tree. We’re not leaving this spot until it falls over. Once it does, we’ll move on to the next tree, and the next tree, and the next tree, until I see them falling down with no more than three or four blasts.”

“What?” Evan whined. “That’s going to take forever! It’ll be hard enough knocking down one tree! I’m going to be tired before I even get this first one down!”

Bonnie walked over to a nearby tree and punched it, letting the berries rain down into her paw. “Leppa berries. Instant energy. Once that tree comes down, I’ll give you one of these.”

Evan began repeatedly blasting the tree and, after nearly ten minutes of abuse, it finally fell over. Bonnie tossed the leppa berry she had been fiddling with over to him, which he ate.

“Wow, that really is instant energy!”

“Next tree, squirt; make it fall.”

Two hours passed as tree after tree fell to the ground. Evan stood in front of yet another one as he chewed on the berry in his mouth. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, then decided to try something different. Instead of charging up the attack, he thrust all his energy into it at once. The resulting attack cut not only through the tree he was aiming at, but also left a crater in the tree behind it. Bonnie’s eyes opened wide for a brief instant before she walked over to Evan and patted him on the head.

“Now THAT is what I’m talking about.” She said in a satisfied tone. “You’re done with this exercise, but why don’t you topple a few more?”

Evan chuckled to himself and repeated the attack in the exact same manner, taking another dozen trees before sitting down and panting. Bonnie set a paw-full of leppa berries in front of him and walked off toward the edge of the waterfall.

“To think I came here intending to kill Quilava swiftly and quietly…” She said with a chuckle “This is just too perfect to pass up. He may have lost his memory after becoming a traitor, but he still appears to have that love for evolutionary forms of eevee. This kid is the key to making that pathetic quilava’s life miserable!” she muttered under her breath as she clenched her claw and grinned deviously. “As a bonus, I get to ruin Espeon’s life even more! Getting rid of her parents and watching her wallow in despair wondering how they died was one thing, but turning her own son—her own flesh and blood—against her?” she scratched her claws against each other, sharpening them until she was sure they’d slash through solid metal, and inspected them to make sure they were as lethal as ever. “I can’t pass that up, now, can I? A family torn apart, a traitor killed… let’s see here… I wonder what other lives I can destroy while I’m at it.” She looked back at Evan and grinned even more. “Espeon is going to regret ever having her little Evan… He’s going to help me destroy everything she holds dear.”

[A'bom]

“Quil, get up. It’s time to go.” Shade said as he nudged his shoulder. “I hope you got enough sleep.”

Quil nodded as he sat up and hopped out of bed. “Yup. How ‘bout you?”

“I didn’t get any sleep last night. I was… thinking about something Espeon said.”

Quil’s eyes narrowed. “Shade, we can’t go on a mission if you haven’t had any sleep. It’s not healthy to stay up like that! We’re going to tell Espeon to postpone the mission right now!”

Shade shook his head. “No. I’m fine, Quil; I’ve pulled all-nighters before. I am an umbreon, after all.”

“… Just don’t do it again.” Quil said angrily. “You be careful today, okay? If you get tired, let me know.”

Shade nodded and led Quil out into the dark. It wasn’t quite dawn, but they need to at least get to the edge of Verdesque Forest before they could make good use of the mountains’ shadows. Once they found a nice dark spot in a dense area of the forest, Shade wrapped his tail around Quil and looked at him.

“Are you ready? It’s cold in there… if you have to, start up your spots. Do whatever it takes to keep yourself warm.”

Quil nodded, and Shade pulled them both into the darkness below. He gasped as they entered; it was like being dipped into a pool of water in the middle of winter. He tucked in his limbs and curled up, breathing out hot air onto his body as Shade dragged him through the darkness. After about half a minute of the intense cold, they emerged at the edge of Zephim Fields. Quil walked away from Shade, shivering, and curled into a flame wheel. Even though it was a bit weak, it was enough to warm him back up.

“That was just a short trip. In about ten minutes, we’ll be going for a long one—may as well try to make yourself as hot as possible so you’ll last longer.” Shade said as he looked at the mountains to the east.

When the time was up, Quil walked over to him, ready to go. Shade wrapped his tail around him, only to recoil back. Quil’s body literally burned to touch. Shade cloaked his tail in a dark barrier and took hold of him again, then sunk back into the shadows. Quil held his breath as they submerged as though trying to hold the heat in; it wasn’t quite enough, though, and he gasped just as he had before. Time passed and Quil’s heat supply quickly diminished. Nine minutes into it he could feel his toes starting to go numb again. Fortunately for him, the trip was over. The two of them re-emerged on a hill overlooking a vast, barren landscape in one direction and a lush, beautiful grassland on the other.

“Dear Arceus!” Quil gasped. “What the distortion world happened to this place?!”

“That’s what we’re here to find out.” Shade said as he began walking towards the dead zone. “Let’s just have a walk through and see if we can find anything.”

Quil suddenly screamed from behind him. Shade spun around and saw him laying on the ground, gripping his chest, as Espeon stood over him. He closed his eyes and opened them again, making sure he was seeing what he was seeing.

“Espeon!? What… how are you here?”

“I can’t explain it. I knew exactly where Quil was, and I knew the exact location to teleport to.” She said quietly. “I wanted to see this for myself.”

“What if you can’t teleport back?” Quil asked.

“Well, if you and Shade can go back to base later and I’ll still be able to teleport back due to knowing your exact location… then perhaps we need to look into it more. Right now, though, let’s do what we came here for.”

Espeon walked past Shade and approached the rim of the barren landscape, stopping at one of the wooden posts that were evenly placed in intervals along the edge. Shade and Quil walked up to her side and looked at the piece of metal that was attached to it.

“What is it?” Quil asked.

“It’s a notice of some sort.” Espeon replied. “Humans must have been here. I’m still trying to figure out what it says”

“Allow me. It’s been a while, but I think I can figure it out.” Shade said as he studied the writing. “I don’t remember exactly what the first word means at the top… I think it means something like “Forsaken” or “Dangerous”… after that it says, “Biohazard… site of some sort… do not enter”.”

“It doesn’t say what kind of site it is?” Espeon asked.

“Well, it does… I just don’t know what that word is.” Shade replied.

Espeon ducked under the barbed-wire fence. As she took a step forward, Quil grabbed her tail, eliciting a yelp from her as the sensitive appendage was stretched. She instinctively lashed her tail around; consequently, Quil was thrown around with it. Fortunately for him, though, he was small enough that he easily slipped right under the sharp wires and landed several feet in front of her.

“What did you do that for?” She hissed. “Don’t you EVER pull my tail again!”

Quil scrambled to his feet and ran back under the fence to the other side with Shade. “Didn’t you hear what the sign said? It’s dangerous in there!”

“Yeah, to humans.” Espeon laughed. “In case you hadn’t noticed, humans are defenseless, powerless creatures. They need the help of pokemon for just about everything. Whatever pokemon can’t do, they make machines to do it for them.”

“I hadn’t noticed, actually.” Quil said as he folded his arms. “To my knowledge, I’ve never even SEEN a human before; let alone know how they act. I’ve only been awake for a little less than a month, in case you’ve forgotten.”

“Watch your tone, quilava.” Espeon barked as she continued walking deeper into the wasteland.

Shade ducked under the fence and urged Quil to follow. “It’ll be alright, Quil. If things go wrong… well, Espeon and I will take care of it. Don’t worry.”

Quil nodded and crawled back under the fence. “Why do you think they don’t want anyone here?”

“Well, we’re here to find out.”

The two of them caught up with Espeon as she surveyed the landscape. “Speak up if something seems out of place.”

“Something’s out of place.” Shade said the instant Espeon had finished her sentence. “My skin feels weird… like it’s burning or something.”

“Don’t look at me. My spots are turned off.” Quil said casually.

Espeon looked at Shade with a confused expression. “I feel fine; great, actually. I feel better than when I got here.”

“Weird.” Quil said as he squinted to see off into the distance. “I don’t feel anything different at all. I think I see something over there; looks kinda tan… no, it’s not dirt.”

They didn’t see anything anywhere else, so they started off in that direction. About half way there, Espeon was standing tall and even smiling to herself. Shade, on the other hand, was obviously in a great deal of discomfort.

“That’s it, I need my shield!” he said as darkness cloaked over his body. “Ah… that’s better.”

Quil stopped and looked around as he heard a faint noise. “Do you hear some—Shade! Your shield!”

Espeon looked over at Shade, whose dark covering was hissing and bubbling. “Shade?! Shade! What’s wrong? What’s happening!?”

“I don’t know! This has never happened before!” he replied, doing his best to remain calm. “I don’t feel anything, though; I feel fine. It’s what the shield is for, though. It takes damage so I don’t.”

“We should turn back.” Quil said fearfully.

“No, we’re almost to whatever that thing is.” Shade said as he began to take a step forward, only to be stopped by Espeon.

“No, Shade. Go back to where we first got here.” Espeon said as she put her paw on his back. “Go farther if you have to. Just get somewhere you’re safe. Quil and I don’t seem to be affected by whatever it is that’s causing this. We’ll check it out and get back to you.”

Shade tensed up as a small hole burned open in his barrier. “Just be careful.”
With that, he turned and made a mad dash back from where they came. Espeon turned to Quil and then gestured to keep going.

“You know, you seem to be acting a bit differently too, Espeon.” Quil said quietly.

“How so?”

“Well, for one thing, you didn’t go ballistic at me when I was sarcastic about never having seen a human.” He explained. “Usually you would get angry and try to harm me bodily.”

Espeon didn’t say anything at first. “I can’t explain it. I didn’t feel like this until we got here.” She said as they approached the object. “We can think about that later. Let’s figure out what this thing is. Try to shift away the ground it’s buried in and I’ll pull it out.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Quil said with hesitation. “Yeah, I can split big cracks in the ground, but that might destroy this… thing.”

“Then help me dig it out with extrasensory.”

The two of them stood on either side of the object and, with their combined power, pulled it out of the ground and flipped it over. Espeon started brushing the caked-on dirt from it.

“It appears to be a carapace of some sort.” She said as she brushed more and more of it clean. “That’s strange… half of it is clean, and the other half still has—“

“I think I’m going to be sick.” Quil said as he backed away and fell over. “How can you stand over something’s corpse and not vomit?!”

Espeon levitated the remains into the air. “Quil, this is a defense form deoxys; something insanely powerful happened here if this is all that remains of a defense deoxys! What I want to know is: why is there so little decay?” She asked.

“Stop talking about it!” Quil muttered as he curled up.

“Quil, you need to learn to deal with this stuff. It’s part of the job.” She said, not bothering to turn around. “We would have seen something this powerful happen from Verdesque Forest. It couldn’t have happened in the last four months. Quil, what do you make of all of this? … Quil?”

[Shade]

Espeon turned around to see Quil doubled over on the ground, digging into it with his paws as though in pain. She dropped the corpse and ran over to him, trying to help him up.

“GET OFF!” Quil screamed as he flung her away with his arm.

Espeon hovered across the ground until she was able to correct herself and land safely on her feet. She watched as blinding white fire erupted from Quil’s back as he stood up on his hind legs and looked at the remains of the deoxys, his eyes filled with fear and rage. The next thing she knew, there was fire blasting from Quil’s mouth onto the body and fanning out in every direction as far as she could see—which wasn’t very far due to the sheer magnitude of the light emitted by the all-consuming fire.

“Quil! WHAT are you DOING!?” she screamed over the roar of the attack as she raised a psychic barrier to shield herself from the heat.

He didn’t seem to take notice of her at all. Instead, he smashed his foot into the ground and sent the corpse rocketing into the air with a catapult of earth. Espeon’s eyes widened as he suddenly blasted skyward after the corpse, followed by a trail of fire. She was impressed, but what happened next took her completely off-guard: lightning. As Quil caught up with the lifeless carapace, bolts of electricity arced into the air before shooting straight down, generating a mighty clap of thunder. Whatever was left of his target fragmented and was scattered across the landscape. Quil rocketed to the ground, causing large fissures to crack open from the impact site, leaving a crater in the center.

Espeon could feel the pain Quil was in, though it was unclear why he was having the reaction. “Quil! Calm down! There’s nothing to be scared of or angry at!” she called as he emerged from the crater with intense white flames spewing from his body.

He wasn’t calming down anytime soon—she could tell. She sensed he was in an altered mental state of some sort; he literally wasn’t thinking clearly. In fact, he didn’t appear to be thinking at all—his thoughts felt more like those of a dream than those of conscious decision. She closed her eyes and reached into his mind to try and force him back to reality, but what she found was an impenetrable wall of not only emotion, but instinct. Quil was fighting for his life—whatever was going through his mind was trying to kill him, and he thought it was real. Espeon took a meditative breath and forced her mind through the blockade of fear and anger and found… chaos. There were fleeting images of every possible imaginable thing, and all of them were happening at the same time. She now understood what was happening—Quil’s memories were manifesting themselves, piercing his amnesia, all at the same moment. His mind couldn’t take the strain of it all at once. She tried to catch glimpses of what they were, but they were all going by too quickly to decipher—all except for two or three that seemed familiar to her personally, but it there were bound to be some things in Quil’s memory that would be similar to her own. She extended her psychic influence over his mind, steadily quelling the surge of visions until they suddenly began vanishing on their own. The remaining thoughts and memories began organizing themselves from the present to the day Corona and Shade had found him nearly dead. However, there was now a short memory placed just before his earliest memory, followed by a gap and another memory, which appeared to be a single, flashbulb image.

“Quil!” Espeon cried as she opened her eyes and ran over to his collapsed body. “Quil, can you hear me?”

His eyes slowly opened as he rolled onto his belly and stood up, holding his head in his paws.

“What was that?” Espeon asked as she looked into his eyes.

Quil shook his head. “I… I’m not sure.”

“Think, Quil. Think back as far as you can!” Espeon urged. “I saw something in there. You’re remembering something from before your amnesia.”

He closed his eyes. “I… I see myself being chased by a skarmory, then get knocked out of the sky and get chased by a garchomp. I’m running for my life… or… flying?” he opened his eyes. “That can’t be right. I can’t fly!”

“Yes you can. I just saw you do it.” Espeon said bluntly. “What else? Keep going.”

“That’s all I remember.”

“Think back farther.” She ordered. “I saw another memory forming.”

Quil’s eyes widened, then he cradled his face in his paws. “It’s… it’s too horrible!”

Realizing this might throw him into another fit, Espeon did something she didn’t usually do: she tried to comfort him using a quiet, gentle voice. “Quil, I know it hurts, but you need to tell me what you’re remembering. It could be a huge clue about what specifically happened to you before we found you.”

“… I see a human and an espeon.” He began. “Both are dead, and both are burning in a fire. The building they are in is destroyed and burning, as well.”

Espeon put her tail to his forehead and drew the memory into her mind. What she saw truly was a horrific site: two bodies engulfed in fire, burning to ash. One belonged to a human, who appeared to be fully grown, if not slightly aged. This didn’t bother her at all. The horrific part was the espeon. She pulled her tail away from Quil’s forehead and turned away from him as tears welled up in her eyes.

“Espeon, what’s the matter?” Quil asked. “What did you find out? Do you know what happened to me?”

When he heard her start to sniffle, he walked over and gave her a hug.

“That espeon in your vision looked so much like my father.” She whimpered. “It wasn’t him, but the thought of my father… I… I don’t know how he died! What if he died in a similar manner? That would be such a terrible way to die!”

Quil thought back to when Espeon had shown him visions of her past and recalled that she did, indeed lose her entire family: her parents died in what she was told was a lab accident, but later realized that an accident couldn’t have been possible with the kind of cutting-edge technology that was being used. She also had a sibling, but withheld memories pertaining to him.

“You think you were lied to about your parents’ deaths?” he asked as his headache subsided.

Espeon nodded as Quil let go of her. “I’ll probably never know what happened to them… but I need to move on. That’s all in the past.”

“What happened to your brother?”

Her eyes widened. “How did you know I had a brother?!”

“You showed me a memory of your family: Two adult espeon, you, and an umbreon. I assumed he was your brother.”

Espeon gritted her teeth. “Quil, it is not your place to know. I don’t want you to speak to me of it ever again.” She hissed. “Let’s get back to Shade. We’ve learned more than we came here for.”

Quil looked back at the destruction then realized Espeon had already begun running in the direction Shade had gone. He wasn’t fast enough to catch up to her… but maybe he could fly faster than he could run. After all, she did say he could fly. He could launch himself around like a catapult, but how would he fly? After considering for a moment that he could cushion falls with a blast of fire, he realized it might be possible to fly using a similar technique. He braced himself, focused and unleashed an explosive blast from the spots on his rear, sending him soaring high into the air; if only he knew how to keep himself from tumbling and spiraling as he did so. Espeon watched, the sight of Quil flailing through the air amusing her so much as to draw her thoughts away from the mental image of a burning espeon. He landed with a solid thud, not that far away from where the wasteland and the grassland met.

“Trying to figure it out?” she asked as she approached and then passed him. “Good luck with that. Come on; Shade’s waiting for us.”

Espeon tore a gap in the barbed-wire fence instead of crawling under it. Quil scampered to his feet and followed along behind her until they got to the top of the hill where they had first appeared. Shade was lying on the ground about a quarter of a mile away, covered in a blanket of darkness.

“Do you think he’s okay?” Quil asked.

Espeon nodded. “Yes. That shield of his is indestructible… or… at least we thought. I don’t know why it would have failed for no apparent reason back there.”

“I just want to go home and forget this whole thing happened for a little while.” Quil said as he took the lead for once. “I wonder what I’ll tell Corona. She’s never going to believe that I can FLY!”

Espeon couldn’t help but smile to herself. Despite his recent emotional and mental meltdown, the little quilava was in high spirits. There were so many questions on her mind, but didn’t want to worry him with them. Why did Quil react the way he did? Why did Shade’s shield fail? How did she know exactly where to teleport to? All of these were running though her mind, but one question stood out above the others: Why did she care about whether or not Quil would be distressed by all of the unanswered questions?

[A'bom]

WARNING: This chapter contains moderate violence, including blood.

Evan jumped into the water as shards of ice sped over the top of his head. He closed his eyes and spun around in the river, drawing himself to the surface as two large pillars rose on either side of him. As he shifted his weight from one side to the other, the pillar on the right rose into the air and attached its middle to the top of the other. Two more ice shards sped toward him as his eyes narrowed, waiting for the right moment. Twisting his body in a swift manner, he swung the aqua hammer at the incoming projectiles, reflecting them back at Bonnie, who caught them in her claw and threw them back. The process repeated itself as Evan inched closer until he finally was able to return the attack at such a close range that she was unable to return it.

Bonnie stumbled back and wiped the blood dripping from the gashes on her cheek, then smiled. “You got lucky that time, Kid!” She covered her face as Evan brought down the hammer on her.

To her surprise, she wasn’t crushed; instead, the inside of the hammer’s head was hollowed out, trapping her.

“Are you kidding me?” Evan said confidently as he panted heavily. “That was one-hundred percent skill, Bonnie!”

He raised the hammer to find nothing but a hole in the ground. His eyes widened as he jumped high into the air, drawing all the water underneath him to form a cushion. Bonnie shot out of the ground and into the cube, the resistance slowing her to a halt before she reached her target. Evan peered down into the liquid barrier and smiled as if to say, “I told you so!” The water suddenly went limp and spread over the ground as Evan fell and landed in front of Bonnie as she coughed and gasped for air.

“How ya’ like them leppas?” he gloated as he walked circles around her.

“Very impressive.” She replied. “Your taunting needs more work. We’ll work on that some other time; mind games are a little too complicated and for a pup your age.”

Bonnie got to her feet and dabbed the bleeding spot on her face, then grinned as she looked at the pink streak that was running down her claw. “Perpare yourself, Evan. Tomorrow, you will be getting revenge.”

* * *

“I HATE patrol!” Corona growled under her breath. “It’s so boring! Nothing ever happens!”

She turned around and began walking in the other direction, not bothering to look up. She rolled an acorn along with her paw as she trudged along, muttering comments of boredom all the way.

“UGHH! I can’t take this anymore!” she cried. “So BORING!”

She yelped in pain as he was suddenly hoisted into the air by her tail. As her vision adjusted to being upside down, she found herself face to face with Bonnie.

“YOU!”

Bonnie chuckled and cradled Corona’s head in her free claw. “I couldn’t help but overhear how dull and uneventful your job was. I figured I’d cheer you up with some company.”

Corona swung her limbs around in an effort to struggle free. “You’d better get out of here, or you’ll regret it!”

“The only thing I’m here to do is observe.” Bonnie replied with a grin. “I just need you to do me a little favor.”

“I thought you were out of your mind before, but you’d have to be completely insane to think I’d do ANYTHING fo—“

Corona screamed as Bonnie carved a huge gash across her forehead, then threw her on the ground and pushed her head against it with one of her feet as she held her claws up to her neck. “Quilava. Bring him here, or you will die right here, right now!”

Corona struggled until she felt the razor-sharp blades press against her neck. “Please! Don’t hurt me! I’ll do it!”

Bonnie stood up, using her head as a footstool, then kicked her along the ground. “Don’t keep me waiting!”

Corona got to her feet and ran until the blood dripping from her forehead got in her eyes. She hissed through her teeth as she stopped and tried to wipe it away. Fearing that she was being pursued, though, she forced through the pain and ran all the way to the base.

* * *

“We’ve received word from a group of bibarel from the south that there have been some strange currents coming from Aquinira falls. Some of their dams have sustained damage and need help repairing.”

Shade nodded at Espeon. “I think it might be a good idea to send Grovyle and Bayleef down there to help speed up the woodwork. Bibarel are strong enough to deal with the heavy lifting.”

“Agreed; it seems unnecessary to—… Shade, are you okay?”

Shade shook his head. “Corona’s in trouble.”

Espeon rolled her eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “AGAIN? That vixen is more trouble than she’s worth!”

Quil looked up from fiddling with a stick and frowned. “HEY! If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t even BE here! Don’t you dare say that about Corona!”

“For Arceus sake, drop it!” Shade said as he ran to the door. “It has something to do with Bonnie. It’s only other time I’ve felt this strongly that Corona was in danger.”

The three down the stairs and through the halls, reaching the entrance just in time to meet up with a bloody, panicked Corona.

“I’ll get Mary.” Espeon said as she turned and ran back up the stairs.

“What happened?” Shade asked. “What did she do to you?”
Corona collapsed into Shade’s arms and began crying. “She attacked me and threatened to kill me if I didn’t send Quil to her!”

Heat suddenly swept over them as Quil’s head and back burst into flame. “I’m going to enjoy this.” He said through his teeth as his eyes burned with rage.

Shade reached out to him. “Quil, wait!”

But it was too late; Quil launched out of the base like a missile locked on its target. He stopped at the top of the hill and looked around until he saw Bonnie lying down at the other end of the old training grounds. As he sped toward her with a firey wake, she continued to do nothing but examine her claws. Just as he was about to ram her head-on, he himself was struck by what felt like a steel club. He tumbled back and then stood up with his eye covered by his paw. A gasp involuntarily escaped him as he beheld Evan standing before him arrogantly with an expression that radiated a desire for revenge.

“Remember me?”

“Evan! What… how… was that you!?” Quil sputtered in disbelief.

“You’d better believe it, lava-brain!” Evan laughed. “I’m going to tear you apart!”

Quil backed up as Evan charged him with surprising speed. “Evan, wait! I’m not going to fight you!”

He fell over backwards and blasted himself into the air in an effort to dodge the attack, but Evan jumped into the air and tackled him before he could react. Quil grunted as he landed on his back and served as a cushion for the deranged eevee that was assaulting him. He curled his hind legs up and buried them in Evan’s mane, then chucked him backward as he got to his feet. Evan, however landed perfectly on his feet and shot off an incredibly powerful shadow ball, which hit him hard right in the chest. The resulting impact was so great that it threw Quil to the other side of the field, reeling in pain. He staggered to his feet and looked up to see Evan twirl his tail around in a circle. A ring of water seemed to form out of thin air as he did so, growing with each successive motion.

“When I’m through with you, not even MARY will be able to put you back together!” Evan said as the ring split and formed a whip that attached one end to his tail.

Quil’s eyes flashed blue as a stone wall jutted up in front of him, blocking the incoming attack. He tried to stand up, but the pain in his side was too great at the moment. Instead, he raised up three more walls to box himself in, then rolled onto his back and let the fire blaze at full-throttle, hoping to protect him from above.

“Come out and fight!” Evan shouted as he approached the stone box. “What do my loser parents see in you?! You’re pathetic! You won’t even fight a little eevee!”

Evan launched a full-power shadow ball at the stone wall and created a crack all the way down the middle. Another Shadow ball caused it to spit into pieces and collapse. Quil put out the flames and re-shaped the remaining barriers into a triangle formation. He watched as the two walls in front of him began cracking. He then turned around and closed his eyes as he propelled himself skyward with an explosive blast of fire, knocking over the remaining wall and sending fragments of the collapsed ones flying. Evan narrowly dodged a piece of a wall before drawing more moisture from the air around him. High up in the air, Quil repositioned himself so that another blast would send him back to base. The next thing he knew, it felt like he was being stabbed in the backside. Evan grinned; his water bullet’s aim was right on target.

“Hidden power ROCKS!” Evan cheered as he waited for Quil to crash into the ground.

To his displeasure, Quil’s descent was slowed and redirected. He watched as the injured quilava floated over to Espeon and Shade.

“I’ve got Quil. You take care of Evan.” Espeon said as she looked over Quil’s injuries.

Shade nodded and reluctantly approached his son with his rings glowing brightly. “Evan, stop this right now, and you can come back without any consequences. We love you and want you to come home!”

Evan frowned. “What, did mom threaten to abuse you if you didn’t say that?” he scoffed. “Get out of the way so I can finish what I came here to do!”

Evan gathered moisture from the surrounding air until it was bone dry and shaped it into a blade before swinging it at his father. Shade raised a wall of darkness and easily blocked the attack as he ran forward to peg Evan to the ground. At the last possible instant, Evan sidestepped and tackled Shade with last resort. He flew back and carved a ditch in the ground as his momentum was absorbed by the ground. He staggered to his feet, awestruck at how much raw power Evan possessed. Evan prepared for another last resort, but was stopped mid-attack as he floated into the air. He looked over as Espeon ran up to him, her eyes glowing white. Right as she was upon him he launched a full-fledged shadow ball, hitting her point-blank in the face. He fell to the ground and smiled as he watched his mother roll along the ground several times before coming to a stop.

“I wouldn’t get up if I were you!” he called before turning and looking at Shade, who was frozen in disbelief at what he was seeing. “And I would just stay where I was if I were you—unless, of course, you’d be okay with her taking another shadow ball to the face!

He walked past his mother and over to Quil, then climbed onto his belly and looked down into his eyes. “The world would be better off without a wimp like you!”

“Evan, if you want to fight me so badly, then fine! I’ll show you what you’re up against!”

Quil took a deep breath and bathed Evan in a furnace of blue-hot fire that was so powerful that it carried a concussive force. Evan cried in pain as he was sent airborne across the field and landed at Bonnie’s feet, his fur blackened from the unforgiving flames. She glared at him with disgust before scooping him up and fleeing into the forest. Quil clenched his side as he got up and made his way over to Espeon. Shade was already there, standing over her, nuzzling the top of her head. Quil looked at Espeon and heard her weeping unrestrained as tears ran down her cheeks like little waterfalls.

“I… I thought he would come back… I had hoped that he would forgive me…” She whimpered. “But that hope is shattered in pieces! My own son wants me dead!”

“… Shade?” Quil muttered as he looked up.

“So… it’s come to this.” Shade said as he looked up at the horizon, the light from the sun causing a lone tear to glisten as it rolled down his face.

“Our own son is now our enemy.”

[Shade]

“Does this hurt?”

“No.”

“And how about… here?”

“Just a little; It’s not too bad.”

Mary put her hands on her hips. “Well, I think the bandages can come off now. Your hairline fracture appears to be healed, but the cuts still appear to be sore.”

“Do you think they’re infected?” Shade asked.

“If they are, a little spelon juice will kill the infection… but the cure is worse than the disease in this case. It’s very painful.”

“My Arceus, I hope they’re not infected…” Corona muttered. “Alright, let’s get these things off. I haven’t been able to see or breathe through my nose for a week!”

Mary grabbed a sharpened rock and cut the knot holding the bandages together, then slowly began peeling away the layers. “Tell me if anything starts to hurt. I don’t want to re-open the wounds.”

As the tension loosened, the bandages went limp and fell off, revealing a very unpleasant sight: Corona had a dark bruise across her entire head and her fur was matted down with dried blood. She tried to open her eyes, but found that they had been sealed shut from the build-up of not being able to wash her face for a week.

“I… I can’t open my eyes!” she said as she rubbed them and sat up, coaxing out a gasp of pain. “Oh, my head!”

“Careful, honey; you’ve been lying in bed for a week. You need to get up slowly otherwise the blood will rush from your head.” Mary explained as she helped lower her head back down slowly. “Quil, go boil some water, please; let’s get her face all cleaned up.”

Quil shuffled over to the water pump and pushed a bucket under the spout before reaching up and grabbing the handle, which slowly lowered. He repeated the process until a small trickle of water began dripping into the bucket.

“Shade, can you help me?” Quil asked. “I’m not heavy enough.”

Shade nodded and walked over, then reached up his tail and tugged down quickly on the handle. Water poured from the spout and into the bucket, filling it almost instantly. Quil dangled from the handle bar, a look of annoyance on his face.

“Yeah, I could have done that.” He said as he dropped to the ground and pushed the heavy bucket toward Corona’s bedside.

He stuck his paw in the water and clenched it, causing it to rapidly heat until bubbles started to form.

“That’s good.” Mary said as she grabbed a clean cloth and dipped it in. “Tell me if I need to be more gentle, Corona.”

“Okay.”

Quil watched as Mary carefully wiped the filth off of Corona’s face and wrung out the cloth into another bucket. Quil watched as each pinkish-red stream filled the container just a little more each time. After about an hour, about a fourth of the water in the first bucket was now in the other.

“There… that looks much better.” Mary announced as she dipped her hands in the clean water.

“Can I open my eyes now?” Corona asked.

“Of course.”

Corona opened her eyes and looked around. She turned her head to the right and gasped to see two big, blue eyes staring at her intently from over the edge of the bed.

“Oh, Quil! You scared me!”

“Sorry.” Quil said quietly; his head not moving at all as he spoke. “How do you feel?”

“Kind of dizzy; a bit light-headed.” She replied.

“Do you need a hug?” Quil asked as he dipped a little bit below the bed’s edge to hide a blush.

Corona giggled through her headache. “Okay!”

Quil’s ears perked up as he dipped all the way below the edge before springing up to her side and giving her a big hug. Corona’s eyes fluttered a bit as a wave of warmth swept over her, clearing the fog that was hanging over her from being in bed for so long with no activity.

“A… a-ahhhhh…” she sighed as Quil sat up and looked at her quizzically.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She sat up and nodded. “I… I feel great!”

Mary’s eyes widened as she poured the bucket of dirty water into a larger trough. She spun around and saw Corona smiling and sitting up in bed with Quil like she’d never sustained any sort of attack—energy seemed to be radiating from her body itself.

“Shade, can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked as she grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and tugged him into the hall.

“Mary, what do you think you’re doing dragging me around like that?” he asked in an irritated manner. “I would have followed you.”

Mary knelt down next to him. “I’m sorry, Shade; I’m just so surprised I didn’t see it before—Quil somehow induces an anesthetic effect on whoever he gives a hug to!”

“I was there; I saw it.” He replied. “He can stabilize—or at least stimulate—irregular vital signs and relieve pain, among… other things. This is unusual.”

“It sounds like some sort of adrenaline rush.” Mary whispered as she tilted her head in thought.

“Excuse me.”

Mary turned around as Shade looked past her.

“Hi… I hope I’m not interrupting anything…” The riolu said quietly as he leaned against the wall with his left leg slightly elevated. “I sensed someone’s aura change. It was a pretty big disruption; I just wanted to know if everything is alright.”

“Everything is fine; you can go back to what you were doing.”

The riolu nodded and walked back down the hall and into his room. Mary and Shade looked at each other.

“The hug.” They said simultaneously.

“Well… okay. That makes sense except for one thing. Quilava can’t control aura.” Mary commented. “Quil’s not your run-of-the-mill quilava, though… I’ve heard that typhlosion can learn focus blast. Do you think Quil is doing something similar?”

Shade looked down the hall at the riolu’s room. “There’s only one way to find out. Mary, do you think you can get Quil to hug Corona again?”

Mary looked at him quizzically and then nodded. “It won’t be that hard. Trust me.”

Shade nodded back and ran down the hall into the riolu’s room. The little pokemon jumped with a start at his appearance.

“… Can I help you?”

“We’re doing an experiment. Tell me if you feel what you did a few minutes ago.” Shade said as he sat at the doorway and looked down the hall.

Not even a minute passed before the riolu shuddered as though he had suddenly been hit by a sudden burst of cold air. “Yup—that’s it.”

Shade nodded appreciatively and walked back down the hall. Mary was already standing right outside the infirmary, looking for some sort of signal. Shade nodded twice.

“Well, we know what’s happening now.” Shade whispered as he approached her. “Now we just need to figure out why it’s happening and what exactly it’s doing.”

“But how? Only humans have the kind of technology we’d need to run tests like that.” Mary said as she peeked back into the infirmary. “They both seem to enjoy it, though.”

Shade knew of the pleasant sensation Corona was surely feeling at the moment, but he couldn’t let her know that even he was subject to this strange influence that Quil had. “I’m going to ask him some questions.” Shade said as he began walking back toward the riolu’s room.

When he walked into the room, though, the riolu was gone.

“I take it you need to run more tests?”

Shade turned his head to the left and found himself eye-to-eye with the little pokemon. If he was startled, he didn’t show it.

“I need you to tell me what you know about the disruption.”

“Okay, like what?”

“I’m not sure… anything. What caused it? What did it do?”

The riolu walked over to his bed and sat down, holding his paws out just a little bit in front of his body. “I… I’m not sure exactly what it is. Someone’s really happy; that’s all I can tell.”

“Are you sure you can’t tell what’s causing it?”

The riolu looked up and shook his head. “If I were a lucario I might be able to tell you what is causing it, but I wouldn’t be able to tell you what it was doing. Aura is more for seeing emotion or for detecting things you can’t see. You know something’s there and you know what it’s feeling, but you don’t know what it is.”

“So you can’t help is what you’re saying.” Shade said flatly

“Well, not with my own skills… but I have heard stories of a lucario that might be skilled enough to help! They’re just stories I’ve heard from other riolu and lucario from before you recruited me, but maybe there’s some truth to them.”

“Go on.”

He cleared his throat. “Well, a few years back, one of my friends told me that a nearby group of lucario came across another lucario that didn’t belong to a group. He was all by himself. They took him in, but as time went on his powers became so great that he wasn’t able to contain them. The irony of my evolved form is that they specialize in aura, but are themselves weak to it. The lucario, determined not to hurt those that helped him, fled to the mountains to hone his skills and meditate until he was no longer a threat to those he cared for. They waited for him to come back, but he never did.” The riolu sighed. “They don’t know if he’s still training or if he died somehow. That’s how the story goes. I, personally, think it’s true. I get a strange vibe from the mountains to the southeast. Something there is emitting an aura SO powerful that I can sense it from here. It’s faint, but I know something is there.”

Shade’s eyes narrowed. “I see.” He said as he turned around. “Thank you for the information.”

“Did you find out anything?” Mary asked as Shade sped by.

“I sure did.” Shade said without turning back. “I’ll be in the office. Only get me if there’s an emergency.”

[A'bom]

“Throw in some leppa berries.” Espeon ordered as she looked over her list. “Look around for some aspear berries, too. Frostbite isn’t the easiest thing to deal with.”

Quil dug around the storage cellar frantically as he tossed items to Shade, who then shoved them into Espeon’s shadow.

“Blankets, rope and anchor spikes; hurry up, Quil!”

“I’m looking as fast as I can, Espeon!” he cried as he stood on his toes to check a higher shelf. “Besides, we don’t even know if that lucario is still there, or if he’s even real!”

“One of our recruits is feeling SOMETHING from Mount Altifrost, and he’s a riolu nonetheless! I can’t sense aura, but I know that the only way to sense something that far away is from an incredible source of power.” Espeon said as she pushed Quil aside with telekinesis and got the blankets herself. “Even if it’s not the lucario from the story, we need to secure that power source so that it doesn’t get into the wrong paws.”

Quil rolled over and frowned. “Don’t try anything underhanded to get him to come with us—if he’s real, that is. Don’t you dare go cheating on Shade again; if you aren’t going honest with him, I will be.”

“Underhanded? Me?” Espeon asked with a sinister grin. “Certainly not!”

“Okay, it looks like we’ve got plenty of provisions to last us a week or so.” Shade said as he closed the portal to the shadows. “And don’t worry about that, Quil. She doesn’t like spikes.”

Shade flinched as Espeon’s tail lashed across his face.

“I heard that.” She said with an annoyed look on her face. “Let’s get going. We only have about an hour before the sun rises over the mountains.”

Quil and Shade watched as she quickly marched up the stairs and out the door.

“How do you live with her attitude, Shade?” Quil asked rhetorically. “Have you ever even heard her laugh?”

“Yeah, I’ve heard her laugh before.” Shade said as he turned to Quil and smiled. “If you ever hear her laugh, you should run.”

Quil chuckled as he followed his friend up the stairs and down the hall toward the entrance.

“Please let me come with you! I’m fine! Mary wouldn’t have let me out of her sight if she didn’t think I was okay!”

“No.”

“Come on, Espeon! Please? I always have to do the boring jobs! I want to do something exciting for once!”

Espeon’s tail flicked erratically. “You can’t even handle watch duty without almost getting your head cut off!”

“That wasn’t my fault! I was up against someone even YOU can’t handle!”

Espeon glared down at the little eevee and hissed. “Corona, if you don’t want to end up back in the infirmary, I strongly suggest you listen carefully to this one little word: NO!”

Corona glared back with contempt, her teeth bared, and then hung her head helplessly. “Yes, ma’am…”

Espeon lifted her head back up, barely able to hide the satisfaction of enforcing her power over a lesser pokemon, and continued on her way.

Shade walked over to the sullen eevee, followed closely by Quil. He looked down at her and smiled to himself.

“Get up, Corona. I have an important mission for you to go on with Quil and me.”

She looked up at him, confused. “But… the three of you are about to leave…”

“No, the four of us are about to leave.” He said as he walked out the door and motioned for her to follow. “Espeon may be in charge of most of the stuff around here, but she’s not your teacher—that’s my job.”

Corona jumped up, her tail wagging wildly, and ran up to his side with a big smile on her face. “Oh thank you, Shade! I won’t let you down—I promise!”

Quil stared after them, his mouth slightly ajar, and frowned as he slowly followed along behind while dragging his feet.

“Go ahead and take him to Mary.” Espeon said as she looked over a bibarel that had apparently just been recruited.

“You’d better take care of this.” The bayleef said as he looked over at the grovyle. “I’d probably just mess it up somehow.”

“Ah, don’t be so hard on yourself; you’re just as capable as anyone else!” the grovyle replied as he put his arm around him.

“Nope; lies.”

“Why are you so hard on yourself, anyway?”

Espeon’s nose twitched as her patience wore thin. “You grass reptiles can talk about your problems later. Just do what I asked! This new recruit could probably get the job done faster and more efficiently!”

The bayleef and grovyle led the bibarel toward the tree. As they walked past Quil, he overheard the bayleef say, “See? I told you I’d mess it up”.

Espeon slapped her forehead with her tail and let out an exasperated sigh. She turned to face Shade and saw Corona standing next to him, then began lifting her into the air with her telekinesis, intent on throwing her back to the tree.

“I told you that you are not coming!”

Shade put his tail on Corona’s back and shoved her back to the ground. “And I told her she IS.” He said seriously. “Corona is my student—that means I am the one that decides what her missions and responsibilities are. She’s coming along.”

Espeon shot him a cross look, and he returned it with one of his own. Her tail made sudden, spastic jerk to the left as she turned her head away.

“Fine; the dead-weight can come along.”

“… Dead… weight?” Corona whimpered as tears welled up in her eyes.

Quil walked up beside the little crying pokemon and nuzzled her cheek. “Don’t listen to her, Corona…” he said, suddenly raising his voice. “She’s just jealous her fur isn’t as fluffy as yours!”

It wasn’t even a fraction of a second before Quil’s face was stinging from the lash of a forked-tail. Espeon glared at him and gave a dissatisfied grunt before turning and walking away in a dignified manner.

Corona turned to Quil and put her paw over his face. “Why did you say that?”

He forced a smile, though he was unable to open his left eye. “Hey, if she can’t handle the truth, it’s not my problem.”

Corona pulled her paw away from his cheek and covered her own as she blushed. “Oh, Quil…”

He grinned and got down on all-fours. “Let’s get going. Espeon moves fast when she’s angry.”

They followed Espeon and Shade to the top of the hill and came to a stop behind them.

“Alright, just like last time.” Shade began. “Quil and I are going to shadow-hop to the base of the mountain—then you teleport yourself and Corona to Quil.”

Espeon gave Corona a quick, scornful glare before nodding.

Shade wrapped his tail around Quil, who had braced himself and curled into a ball, and the two of them vanished into the shadows below.

A little bit of time passed as the two females as together in silence—awkward, awkward silence. Corona sighed, unable to bear it anymore.

“Listen, Espeon, I… I’m sorry about earlier. I… I just want prove to everyone that I can be strong, brave, and helpful… even though I’m just an eevee.” She said quietly. “I never meant to hurt anyone’s feelings.”

The silence continued until Espeon gestured for her to come closer. “If you want to convince someone you’re a threat, you’re going to need to stop being so gentle and timid. Earlier, you bared your teeth; that was good, but you can’t just be bluffing.” She said as she glanced down at her coldly. “You need to follow through with your threat. Trying to look dangerous isn’t enough. You need to BE dangerous.”

Espeon got to her feet and reluctantly used her tail to hold Corona close to her body. “Come on; Shade and Quil are there… and if you EVER tell them I showed mercy, you will be in ICU for a WEEK! Is that clear?”

“Y-yes!” Corona squeaked as she held on to Espeon’s leg.

A wave of dizziness swept over her. She staggered and lost her balance, held up only by Espeon’s tail for a moment.

“C-corona? Are you ok-k-kay?”

Her eyes fluttered open and her vision came back into focus to find Quil standing over her, shivering rapidly. She reached out and touched his cheek and, to her surprise, it was icy and cold to the touch.

“Quil! Are you okay?”

“He will be. This is what happens to fire types in the shadows.” Shade explained before turning to Espeon, who was looking toward the distant mountain.

“Why are we not at the base of the mountain?” She asked, clearly irritated.

Shade shook his head. “This is as far as I could go. The shadows just… stopped. There’s something blocking me from going any farther. Whatever it is, it knows we are here.”

Espeon closed her eyes. “… This thing… whatever it is… it needs to be harnessed and kept from getting into the wrong hands… No matter what the cost.”

[Shade]

“Well, here we are: Mt. Altifrost.” Espeon said as the small group reached the base of the huge geographical feature.

It had been a little more than a day since they first set out from somewhere in the middle of the vast Eurim Plains after failing to shadow hop all the way to the mountains. They now stood at their destination—or at least the area they intended to search. They began ascending the base, which wasn’t really all that difficult; however, not long into the hike, Quil spotted something out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey, guys… is that… is that what I think it is?”

A small black-and-red figure was perched in a tree, clawing at the bark while occasionally looking down at an egg that was sitting at its feet.

Quil looked at Espeon and Shade. “Do you think...?”

“There’s only one way to find out.” Shade muttered quietly.

“Isn’t it a bit reckless to just sneak up on them?” Corona asked. “What if it is her and we get attacked?”

“Restrain it.” Espeon replied. “Quil, on the count of three, you and I will use pin her to the ground using whatever we can.”

“What if it’s not her?” Quil asked.

Espeon’s eyes narrowed as she eyed the unsuspecting weavile. “Better safe than sorry.”

Quil nodded as Espeon began the count.

“One, two, THREE!”

Before there was any time for a reaction, Espeon snapped a limb off of the tree and slammed it into the weavile’s back, pinning it to the tree. Quil used extrasensory to peg its arms and legs to the trunk with “V”-shaped stone shards. The group ran over to the disabled pokemon cautiously; Bonnie had plenty of tricks at her disposal and surely wouldn’t be this easy to take down.

“What is the MEANING of this!?” The weavile cried as she struggled against her bonds.

“What are you doing here?” Espeon hissed. “Why did you follow us?”

“I haven’t done anything wrong! I’m sorry if fearow has one less egg in her nest, but I have a mob to feed too, you know!”

“It’s not her. Let her go.” Quil said as he began pulling the stones out of the tree trunk. “I’m sorry. We thought you were someone else that had tried to kill us.”

The weavile plopped onto the ground and scooped up the egg into her claws before turning to face her attackers. “You’re lucky I’m alone, otherwise my mob would have torn you to pieces on the spot! I have enough to put up with trying to feed my family by taking eggs from nests. I don’t need trespassers attacking me in my own territory!”

“We’re sorry for attacking you. We’re in unfamiliar territory and we thought you were someone else.” Shade explained calmly.

The weavile brushed herself off with her free claw and looked them over. “Well, I remember getting lost and stumbling into some Aggron territory as a sneasel… very well; I won’t hold this against you.” As her eyes fell on Corona, she made a hissing noise as she grimaced. “I don’t know what you’re doing here, but you should turn back right now—no eevee has ever come to this mountain and left.”

Quil gasped as he glanced at Corona. “What do you mean? What happens to them?”

“No one knows; they just disappear.” The weavile replied with a shrug of the shoulders. “If you do decide to go on, keep an eye on that one.” She said as she gestured to Corona. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a pup back at my nest waiting for a meal.”

As the weavile ran off at high-speed, everyone looked at Corona.

“I said she shouldn’t come along, but did anyone listen to me?” Espeon asked in a rhetorical and sassy fashion. “Espeon clearly has no idea what she’s talking about. Let’s go against her sage advice and bring the eevee along!”

Corona’s ears fell flat as she closed her eyes. Quil nuzzled her ruff and glared at Espeon, but didn’t bother voicing his discontent. Espeon pressed the sides of her head with the tips of her tail and shook her head slowly from side to side.

“Alright; the eevee that came through here before weren’t trained rescuers, more likely than not. We can search the mountain faster if we split up.” She said with a hint of frustration. “Since I can teleport anywhere on the mountain, I’ll head to the left. Shade, you go on straight ahead. Quil, you and Corona head to the right. If there’s any truth to what that weavile said, I’m sure the two of you can handle anything that gets thrown at you. If something goes wrong, give us a signal flare, Quil. I’ll teleport to you and Shade will make it there as fast as he can.”

“We’ll meet back along my route once the sun starts setting. We can’t afford to try and weather the night separated.” Shade added. “We’ll all need each other’s protection and warmth.”

After the exchanging of “be careful”, they went their separate ways.

* * *

“Do you see anything up there, Corona?” Quil called as he strained to keep the stone platform levitating in the air.

“Well, there’s a tree running around over—… oh, wait. That’s an abomasnow. Uhm… There appears to be a tunnel carved out by an onix on the ledge above us, and I see a bunch of geodude on the ledge below us; Nothing unusual.”

“I’m bringing you down now!” Quil shouted as he lowered the platform to the ground to rest.

Corona jumped off and trod over to him, shivering a little. “I’m glad I have the luxury of traveling with a fire-type. I don’t know how Espeon and Shade are dealing with these frigid winds!” she said over the howling wind as she cuddled up against him for warmth.

As she did so, Quil looked in the other direction so as to hide the obvious blush that was spreading across his face. After a few moments, he took a quiet, meditative breath and put his arm around her, pulling her closer. He looked down at her, and she looked up at him; their eyes meeting each other in a mutual moment of serenity. She smiled timidly and closed her eyes as she buried her face in his warm chest, enjoying how easily his radiant heat overpowered the chilling cold that surrounded them. He hesitantly and carefully put his other paw on the back of her head and gently held it there, blocking more of the wind from reaching her body. After remaining that way for what seemed like a perfect eternity, he gently tilted her head back so that they were looking into each other’s eyes once more.

“Corona…”

“… Quil…”

A sudden violent rumbling caused him to hold her tight; not out of joy, but out of fear. They looked up to the ledge above them and saw a tyranitar glaring down at them, eyes blazing with anger. Quil backed up, still holding on to Corona as he did so.

“That tunnel wasn’t dug by an onix, Corona!” Quil cried. “It was dug out by a tyranitar!”

The giant pokemon jumped from the ledge and landed directly in front of the two frightened rescuers-in-training, creating a tremor so violent that it caused the ledge it had be previously standing on to cave in.

“Quil, tyranitar are brutally territorial. This thing is going to KILL us!” Corona cried as tears began to roll down her cheeks.

Quil moved her aside as fire burst from his spots, catching their disgruntled attacker by surprise. “Not if I have anything to say about it.”

He took a deep breath and exhaled a continuous stream of fire into the tyranitar’s face, which caused it to stumble back briefly before putting its claw out to shield the attack. Taking the opening, Quil spun around and blasted a column of brilliant flames into the sky before spinning back and resuming his defensive assault.

“Dear Arceus, please let them have seen that!” he thought as closed his eyes, straining to maintain the constant flamethrower.

* * *

Shade gasped as an orange glow bathed the landscape. Knowing exactly what it was that caused the glow, he turned to the right and ran as fast as he could. He could sense Corona was in danger; he didn’t need to see the pillar of fire to know that. He smoothed the rugged, uneven landscape over with a blanket of darkness, creating a level surface upon which he could easily run. As he got closer to the source of the signal fire, he could see the embers flying into the air. Suddenly, a bright light flashed near the edge of the ridge he was heading for. Espeon squatted down as though preparing to jump, but froze in place.

“Espeon, what are you waiting for!?” Shade shouted as he ran up to her side. “Quil and Corona—“

He fell silent as he beheld the sight of Quil standing his ground against a tyranitar, determined to keep Corona safe.

“Shade, are you seeing this too, or am I going crazy from the cold?” Espeon asked. “It’s like our history is repeating itself… through them!”

“Something tells me Corona isn’t going to do horrible things to Quil once this is over, though.” Shade muttered as he closed his eyes. “Come on. We need to do something before—“

The tyranitar raised its tail and swept it across the ground. Quil blasted himself into the air with a burst of fire, but Corona wasn’t so lucky; the tail hit her like a truck, sending her flying over the cliff side. Quil watched in horror as the pokemon that had saved his life fell out of sight, vanishing into the cold, icy mist below. Blazing white fire poured from his body, lighting the evening sky as he let out a loud, primal howl. He landed behind the green reptile; his face filled with so much rage as to make him unrecognizable, and unleashed what could only be described as an explosion. The beast tumbled forward and over the edge of the cliff, sending it falling down the mountain, smashing craters in the side as it fell. The light slowly faded as Quil staggered over to the ledge, his eyes raining down tears of pain.

“… Corona… Corona!”

Shade and Espeon slowly approached him, being careful not to take him by surprise.

“Quil… I… I’m so sorry…” Shade said quietly as he put his tail on Quil’s shoulder.

Quil began breathing quickly, a puff of fire escaping with each breath. Suddenly, he screamed toward the sky, blasting out jet after jet of blue fire as he thrashed around until the streams faded to little more than an orange tongue of flame.

“Corona… why?!” Quil whimpered as he dug his paws into the ground. “Why didn’t I take the hit instead? Why did I have to get out of the way?!”

He fell to the ground, sobbing and crying; his pain-filled moans echoing throughout the mountainside as he mourned over the loss of the one he loved.

[A'bom]

Corona slowly regained consciousness. She was lying on her head, her back resting against a huge pile of snow, the world upside-down from her eyes. She rolled her sore body upright and got to her feet, looking back at the long skid mark that she had apparently left in the snow. All of her limbs seemed to be intact, despite her body being sore in general from the blunt impact of the tyranitar’s tail and the sudden jarring from the crash-landing. She ran her paw along her forehead; there was no blood, so it appeared her wounds from the previous week had not been re-opened. She surveyed her surroundings: nothing but a moderately-steep incline for as far as she could see—which wasn’t all that far, considering it was now night time.

“Quil?”

“…Shade?”

“…Espeon?”

Each calling of a name failed to receive a response.

“I… I’m alone…” She whimpered to herself. “I’m alone on a mountain side, and I don’t know where I am. I’m going to end up like all the other eevee that weavile talked about!” she turned around and backed up against the face of the mountain to try and minimize the amount of bitterly cold wind that made contact with her body. She crawled along, feeling the rocks for any sort of crack or opening she could duck into for shelter. As fate would have it, she found a shallow indention in the edifice—just deep enough for her to fit in with a little extra room. As she pulled her tail into the pit, she felt it brush past something soft dangling from a small outcropping. It was a pink cloth of sorts—the kind used as a scarf or handkerchief.

“Arceus be praised…” she muttered to herself as she spread the sheet over her body. “I just hope Quil is okay.”

She curled up into her ruff and closed her eyes, slowly drifting into a frozen slumber.

* * *

She awoke to the sound of her own teeth clattering together. The sun was up—she’d survived the night. The question now was whether she would survive the rest of the day. She wrapped the scarf around her head, laying her ears back to get them into it and keep them warm, and emerged from the cold depression and into the colder wind. The sight was breathtaking—a vast, snow-covered vista greeted her; the sun shimmered off the fresh snow brilliantly as the wind blew white tendrils of it along the ground.

“Too bad it’s going to kill me.” She said under her breath as she began treading snow.

Fortunately for her, she could still see the skid mark she had left the night before. The bad news was that she had apparently been hurled across a ridge; she would never be able to get back from where she came… not by herself, anyway.

“Looks like I’m going up.” She said as she turned toward the wind and trudged onward in hopes of finding a relatively safe-looking incline to climb.

Her paws quickly started to go numb in the snow. She knew it wouldn’t be long before her entire body was frozen over. She needed help—any help whatsoever. Maybe there was a good-willed pokemon nearby that could help her. If she called for help, maybe she would get some—then again, she may also draw the attention of predators.

“Hello? Someone—Anyone!” She cried at the top of her lungs. “Please, help me!”

She figured that if she drew the attention of predators, she was going to die. She also figured that if she did nothing, she was going to die. She had a better chance of surviving if she got help. Hours passed as she forced herself to go on, calling for help as she did.

“You sure are a loud one, aren’t you?”

Corona looked around frantically. “Who’s there?”

“Up here, smart one.”

She looked up at the source of the voice: a murkrow.

“What brings you to this side of the mountain, sweet-cheeks?”

“My friend and I got attacked by a tyranitar and got separated.” She replied. “Is there some way you can help me find them? Or at least some way to help me survive?”

“What’s in it for me?”

She looked at him, a scared look on her face. “I’m freezing to death and you want me to pay you?!”

“Yeah, I don’t work for free.”

The murkrow flew off, laughing as though satisfied with having smashed her hopes. Corona hung her head and continued on her way as the clouds above began closing in around the sun, blocking out its warming light. In time, she came upon a slope that looked scalable, even for someone that couldn’t feel her feet. The exposed rocks were even colder than the snow she had been crawling through since she woke up. About halfway up the rocky surface, snow began falling from the sky and into her eyes as she climbed higher and higher. Each step became harder and harder for her to make as the numbness in her paws turned to pain. She lowered her head, gasping for breath, with each heavy pant shrouding her face in a cloud of vapor—but she wasn’t going to give up. Not without a fight. Slowly and painfully, she continued her ascent, glancing down at her blue paws from time to time to make sure they were still there. At long last, she finally reached the top of ledge and collapsed in the fresh snow. To her despair, all she found was a long stone ridge that spanned between the mountain she was on and the mountain she was trying to get to. There was no shelter; she had nowhere to hide from the bone-chilling winds and the increasingly heavy snow. She got to her feet, her entire body trembling violently in a futile effort to stay warm, and began running as fast as she could—if she didn’t get across before the weather became too strong or before nightfall, it was over. As she ran clumsily across the ridge, the wind began to pick up and the snow began to fall harder. Eventually, her vision was reduced to only a few feet from the blizzard. She stumbled and fell to the ground as a strong gust of wind rushed past her. She tried to get up. She tried with all her might, but couldn’t. She looked at her paw, then at the gently falling snow, and closed her eyes. As she began to drift off to sleep, it dawned on her: there couldn’t be a blizzard if the snow was falling gently. She forced her eyes open and looked at her paw again, but saw nothing. As she moved it closer to her face, a hazy, tan blur came into view. With an extreme act of will, she got up and carefully scooted forward. If she didn’t keep moving… well, she didn’t want to think about that. The progress was slow and nerve-wracking; she could neither see nor feel where she was going. All of a sudden, everything started going white.

“… what… what’s happening?” she whimpered as an unusual sensation swept over her body. “No… no! This can’t be happening!”

She began running blindly in panic, which was obviously the worst possible thing to do. She stumbled over the edge of the ravine and fell, tumbling head over tail, until she landed at the bottom with a thud. The sudden rush of adrenaline had brought her senses back for the time being, but she was in no physical condition to keep moving.

“So this is it…” she said quietly as she continued to resist the process of evolution. “This is how I die… all alone; frozen to death on the side of a mountain.”

Her vision quickly faded back into a blur until she could no longer see. She had no feeling in any part of her body, and her mind began slowly drifting away. Voices echoed in her head as the life drained away from her.

“Why isn’t she evolving? If she doesn’t, she’ll die.”

“She must not want to evolve.”

“That’s hard to believe. Who would want to remain a powerless eevee?”

“It doesn’t matter. If we leave her here, she will die—plain and simple.”
These were not just voices in the mind of an eevee on her deathbed—this was a conversation. With her last bit of energy, she muttered two little words.

“Help… me…”

[Shade]

Quil darted back and forth across the campsite frantically, climbing to the top of trees and stone outcroppings randomly and peering out over the starlit mountainside before suddenly climbing back down and scampering to another vantage point.

“Quil, stop wasting your energy; we’ll never find her in the middle of the night.” Shade called as the panicked quilava rushed past him. “You didn’t sleep last night! You need a rest! Remember how upset you got when I didn’t get enough sleep?”

Quil didn’t appear to take notice of the suggestion. Instead, he continued to run circles around them with no signs of stopping.

“I’ll handle this.” Espeon sighed as she pointed her tail at him, causing a blue glow to form around him as his body froze in place.

She levitated him over and sat him on the other side of the fire, keeping her telekinetic influence over his body so he couldn’t get away.

“I know you’re worried about Corona, but there’s no way you can pull another all-nighter.” Shade argued as he looked at the quilava through the flames. “You have to sleep. It will help you think more clearly and help you figure out better ways to search for her instead of running around without any plan.”

Quil’s struggled against Espeon’s mind, trying to flail his limbs free, but in vain. He attempted to counter it with extrasensory, but he was in no mental state to activate it. His head darted around spastically as his eyes twitched and his breath sped up.

“Shade, Corona’s been out there ALONE for the past thirty-six hours! You have me to keep you warm, but she’s all on her own! Think of how many things could go wrong!” he said, speaking at such a rapid pace that it was difficult to understand what he was saying. “She’s cold and hungry! What if she has frostbite? What if she can’t find shelter? What if she fell off a cliff?”

“Quil, I don’t think—“

“What if she got attacked by an ursaring? What if she got caught in an avalanche? What if she has to cut off her own legs to keep the frostbite from causing an infection? What if she has to eat them to survive?! Oh, Arceus! What if—“

“Quil, that’s enough!” Shade yelled over the gusting wind. “I told you: she’s not in good shape, but she’s alive. Espeon gave Corona and me a mental link when I first recruited her. I can sense that she’s still alive. She’s had some close calls so far, but she’s alive.”

“What if you’re wrong?” Quil blurted as flames sputtered and blasted erratically from his back and head. “How do you know that link still works, anyway?! Have you checked the warranty on it?”

“Of course the link still works.” Espeon snapped as she turned to Shade. “He’s losing his mind. I don’t need to do probe his subconscious to figure that out.”

“Then we’ll need to make an appeal to his heart.” Shade said as he stood up and moved a little closer to Quil. “Quil, calm down. She’s still out there, so you can still find her… but how can you help her if you’re too tired to help yourself?”

Quil stopped struggling and hung his head. “I know Shade, but I CAN’T sleep! I’m so worried about her! What if time runs out while we’re sitting on our tails and she’s out there fighting for her life?”

“And risk killing all of us in the process?” Espeon asked. “In this line of duty, you can’t let emotional attachments for one individual put the rest of the group in danger. We don’t leave one of our own behind, but we have to be reasonable in how we go about rescuing them.”

“You wouldn’t be so calm if you lost Shade.” Quil mumbled as he averted his eyes.

Espeon’s eye twitched a bit before she got up and walked over to him. “Quil, I know you’re worried, but you really need to rest.”

Quil was yanked suddenly from the air by Espeon’s tail and held up against her body, nose to nose with her. His eyes widened as he blushed; Espeon was Shade’s mate, and Quil himself was already interested in Corona, but that didn’t change the fact that he found espeon in general to be extremely attractive.

“W-w-what are you—“

“Look into my eyes, Quil.” Espeon whispered softly as her jewel began to shimmer. “You’ve worked very hard and done your best to find her, but sleep is very important. Corona would understand if you took a rest.”

His eyes became heavy as she continued to speak quietly and rhythmically. “Close your eyes, Quil. Let yourself drift off into a care-free dream, where nothing is wrong and your greatest desires are realized…”

Espeon hurled Quil into the air like she was discarding a piece of garbage as his body went limp. Shade gasped and ran forward to catch the airborne fire-type, only to end up lying on top of espeon as the unconscious pokemon landed on his back.

Shade looked down at her with an un-amused expression on his face. “Overboard, as usual.”

Espeon chuckled quietly and gave him a grin as she crawled out from under him. Shade gently lay Quil down on the ground and followed Espeon to the other side of the fire, laying down next to her and cuddling to her side as the two of them fell asleep.

* * *

“Quil, come look at this one!”

He ran across the meadow and stopped next to the eevee that had summoned him, looking over her shoulder to see what she was looking at.

“Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked. “I’ve never seen a flower as perfect as this one before.”

“It IS rather picturesque, isn’t it?” he replied as he set his chin on her shoulder.

She giggled and gently brushed the back of her paw across the color-swirled petals, the reds, oranges, and yellows gliding gently under her fur. “It’s my favorite kind of flower… because it reminds me of you.” She said as she turned and licked his cheek.

He chuckled and pressed their noses together, nuzzling them gently and fondly, before moving closer to her and wrapping his arms around her body. “But its beauty doesn’t even begin to compare to yours.” He whispered into her ear as he sighed.

She turned her attention away from the flower and stood on her hind legs, placing her paws on his shoulders and pulling herself up against his chest. “And you’re worth so much more to me than a mere flower.”

He cradled her in his arms, the two of them cuddling and nuzzling happily in the warmth of the spring-time sun, with the gentle, fresh breeze blowing through their fur. She reached up and put her paw to his cheek, causing him to open his eyes and look directly into hers as they glistened with tears of bliss.

“Quil, never leave me…” She whispered as her voice squeaked a little. “I don’t want to live life without someone like you; I want to be with you… forever.”

“I won’t.” he replied as he moved her closer, their faces mere inches apart. “I will always be here for you… I will protect you with my life for as long as I live; I will never leave your side.”

She closed her eyes, and then he closed his as the two of them leaned in closer, pressing their lips together and kissing passionately in the warmth and safety of their little meadow in the middle of nowhere.

[A'bom]

Her vision blurred in and out of focus as Corona opened her eyes and squinted from the bright light all around her. As her eyes adjusted, she realized she was inside of some sort of dome. It was very warm and very bright, like she was in a sauna of some sort. She walked up to the wall and put her paw on it briefly, only to pull away from the sudden cold that shot through her paw. She knocked on it and looked around. There was a hole in the top, but it was much too high for her to reach.

“Hello?” she called as she walked in circles. “Where am I? What am I doing in here?”

She thought she heard talking, but it could have just been the wind blowing over the structure’s vent. For a moment, she could have sworn she saw something moving on the other side of the barrier, but the glare was too great for her to make out any distinct shapes. It didn’t appear that the structure encasing her was made to hold her indefinitely; what kind of cage has a hole in the top and no floor? She moved closer to the wall and began digging. The ground was soft and wet, but not muddy; apparently, the icy container was melting, but something was restoring it from the outside. She pushed the thought aside and continued digging until the ground underneath the wall caved in toward her, creating a small ramp of soil for her to climb up. She poked her head out of the ground carefully and looked around. She was near a cave; there were branches fashioned in the shape of tents inside of it, and the cave itself had what appeared to be a pine-branch curtain hanging in front of it. She turned her head in the other
direction and ducked back into the hole upon seeing a glaceon standing by a fire, holding something over it with a long stick as though he wanted to avoid the heat. Thinking he may have been the one that saved her from freezing to death, she climbed out of the hole and carefully made her way closer to him.

“… Are you the one that saved my life?” she asked quietly so as to not startle him.

The glaceon turned around with a start, dropping the stick and whatever was on it into the fire in the process. He grumbled something of a rather obscene nature under his breath and pulled it out of the fire, blowing a small ice beam on it to put it out before it was burned beyond edibility.

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting you to recover so soon.” He said as he set the stick and its contents aside. “My name is Garith; and yes, I was one of your rescuers. I’m astonished to see you’re up and about like last night never even happened! When we found you, your entire body was blue and you’d just fallen off a cliff!”

“Wait… I thought eevee that came to this mountain never left. That’s what a weavile told me when my friends and I first got here. How are you here?” Corona asked.

“Well, for one thing, I’m not an eevee. I’m a glaceon.” He laughed. “For another, I’m still here; I haven’t left.”

Corona frowned. “She lied. I should have expected that from a weavile.”

“Hold on, now.” Garith said as though he took offense to her statement. “Weavile are pokemon too, you know. They’re a little sneaky and underhanded when they have to be, but I’ve got several friends who are weavile. In fact, I think I know the one you’re talking about. She lives near the base of the mountain… had a pup just a week ago—handsome little fella’, I might add.”

“She did say something about having a pup waiting for a meal.”

Garith smiled and nodded. “Yup, that’s her. She didn’t lie to you… though she didn’t tell you everything. The reason eevee never leave this mountain is because they all evolve into glaceon!”

“All? You mean there are more?” Corona asked in shock.

“Yes, six; we almost had seven, but you wouldn’t evolve for some reason. Maybe your genetic structure is more stable than other eevee or something.”

She shook her head. “I don’t want to evolve. I think power is overrated.”

“I would have evolved if I was in your situation—I’d rather be alive, thanks.” He said as he moved the stick back over the fire. “Anyway, four of us are here in the first place because our home was destroyed in a fire; the other two showed up later. We fled from there to here, but ended up evolving just as we were all about to freeze to death here in this spot.”

“My home was destroyed in a fire, too. I ended up in Verdesque forest, though.”

Garith looked at her with wide eyes. “Was it a human settlement?”

“Yeah—they were raising eevee in an attempt to raise their numbers in the wild. I guess they sort of accomplished what they were going for, even if the place did get destroyed.”

“I don’t believe it!” Garith said as a huge grin spread across his face. “That happened to me, too! That means we’re like family! What is your name?”

“Corona.”

Garith frowned as he searched his memory. “Doesn’t ring a bell, unfortunately. You must be hungry—would you like something to eat?”

She nodded. “Please. May I sit by the fire?”

He looked at her strangely before nodding. “Yeah, that’s fine. I forgot that eevee aren’t bothered by fire the way glaceon are.”

He turned his head and shouted toward the cave. “Elysia! The eevee woke up! Bring her some food!”

“Okay!” came the reply from inside the cave.

Garith turned back to Corona and watched her huddle near the fire. “You’re awfully far away from Verdesque forest. What brings you here?”

“I’m part of a rescue squad.” Corona replied as she held her paws over the flames. “I was part of a group searching for some kind of really strong source of power. We got attacked by a tyranitar and I ended up getting separated from them.”

“Oh my.” He said with a hint of concern. “How many?”

“Three, not including myself.”

“I hope it’s not too late. If they were in the same kind of condition you were in when we found you, they might not be alive when we find them.”

“Oh, you don’t need to worry about that.” Corona said as she looked into the fire, a smile growing on her face. “One of them is a quilava—and a very talented quilava at that.”

Garith frowned. “I see. He must have been the one spewing all that fire over there on that other mountain two nights ago. You couldn’t miss that much orange if you tried; and what was with the blue fire?”

“Like I said,” she giggled, “He’s very talented.”

“Interesting. Is he dangerous at all?” he asked with a hint of aggression in his voice.

“No, not at all.” She responded quietly. “He’s the nicest guy I’ve ever met. He has a bit of a short temper, but I’m pretty sure that’s fairly characteristic of most fire types.”

Garith appeared to consider it for a while and nodded. “Alright. As you can tell, glaceon aren’t particularly fond of fire. If you think he’s trustworthy, I’ll take your word for it.”

“He’s incredibly fond of eeveelutions. I don’t think he’d ever harm one on purpose.” Corona replied confidently. “In fact, he should be with two right now: an umbreon and an espeon.”

“A quilava, an espeon, and an umbreon, huh?” he asked. “What are their names?”

“Quil, Shade, and Espeon.”

“… and the espeon’s name is…?”

“That’s her name: Espeon.” Corona replied with a shrug. “I think it’s strange, too—but don’t you DARE say that to her face. She’ll tear you limb from limb. If any of them are dangerous, it’s her!”

Garith looked up as Elysia came running out of the cave with some aspear berries and an egg cradled in the appendages that dangled from her forehead. “It should be easier to find them now that we know their names. Did you catch that, Elysia?”

“Yes, dear; I’ll stay here with the eevee while you guys go look for them.” She said as she walked over and dropped the berries in front of Corona. “Here you go, sweetheart—these should help thaw you out even more. You gave us quite a scare, and I’m sure your friends are worried sick. You can stay here with Glacia and me while the males go looking for your friends.”

Garith stood up and gave Elysia a kiss on the cheek as he ran toward the cave. She giggled and sat down next to Corona, though slightly farther away from the fire.

“He your boyfriend?” Corona asked.

Elysia smiled and blushed as she put her paw on the brown and white egg hanging against her tummy. “He was until recently… he’s my mate now… and he’ll be a father soon.”

“Congratulations.” Corona replied with a smile. “Aren’t you worried that the cub will have a hard time with the harsh climate?”

Elysia smiled. “No, actually. That dome you were in… we’ve been working on its design for a while now. Sorry, but we kind of used you as a test subject. It was the perfect opportunity.”

“That’s fine.” Corona said with a chuckle. “I’m just glad to be alive.”

Garith returned from the cave with three more glaceon following him. “We’re heading out, Elysia.”

“Okay, dear. Be careful.”

The two of them watched as the four males started off in the direction the flames had come from two nights earlier. Once they disappeared into the mist below, Elysia turned back to Corona.

“I heard the way you were talking about that quilava.” She said with a giggle. “Is he your special someone?”

Corona blushed nervously as she looked at her feet. “I… I don’t know. I found him almost dead just a little over a month ago, and since then… He’s grown on me. I’m afraid to get too attached to him, though; he doesn’t remember anything, you see, so he might have a mate already and not know about her. I don’t want to get in the middle of that… I’ve already been in a similar mess with someone else before. Right after I was recruited, I got a crush on the pokemon that rescued me… but he already had a mate. I was so hurt when I found out—I never want to hurt like that again.”

“Oh… you poor little thing.” Elysia sighed. “Just hang in there until his memory returns. Then you’ll know.”

“Yeah… but until then, I have to see him as just a friend…” Corona said quietly as she looked into the fire. “… whether I want him to be more or not.”

[Shade]

Garith pushed aside a snow-covered tree branch and let the other glaceon walk past. "We should probably split up. It's a big mountain, and we're looking for three less-than-obvious pokemon. We'll find them faster this way.” Garith said as he looked around. “Greyor, you go east. Zyreth, you go northeast. Cyrus, you go northwest. I'll go west."

Gryor and Zyreth nodded and began running off in their assigned directions, not looking back as they went. Garith watched until they disappeared in the blowing snowdrifts and then turned to Cyrus, who was the youngest of the group and had never traveled the mountainside by himself.

"Be careful out there, Cyrus. If anything goes wrong... well... just be careful."

"Understood, Garith… But before I head off, shouldn't there be a meeting point? Since we are splitting up, we need a location to meet back up after a while."

"Meet back at the cave." Garith replied with a smile. "You're very smart for your age, Cyrus; that's a good quality to have." he continued as he turned and began walking south. "I don't think you'll find yourself in any trouble, though. You’ve been around the mountains dozens of times now and know your way around."

* * *

Cyrus crossed an open plateau of snow-covered grass and hedges, ignoring the howling wind being blown directly into his face. He looked down, scanning for footprints or scents—anything that might indicate other pokemon nearby.

"I hope Garith and the others are having better luck than I am." he muttered under his breath.

He perked his ears upward, hoping to detect any noise that would suggest another pokemon was nearby. Unfortunately, the only thing his sensitive ears picked up is the harshly blowing wind; not a single pokemon was around.

"This is getting frustrating... it’s been hours and I haven’t found any sign of Corona’s pack anywhere." he said to himself as he came to a raised ledge and peered out over the mountain vista. “What are the odds that I’ll find them, even if they ARE around here? I’d need some sort of obvious sign, and I don’t even know if that—“

A sound like an explosion pierced through the howling wind along with a bright light. Cyrus turned to his left and looked up a nearby cliff to see a large column of fire extend up and over the edge of the chasm before going out, leaving a thick trail of smoke in its wake.

"Holy Arceus! What was that!?" Cyrus yelled as he gazed at the dissipating column of exhaust.

He ran as fast as his legs were able to carry him through the thick snow until he got to the base of the cliff the blast had come from. "That fits the description of a fire-type pokemon pretty well. I think it’s safe to guess that was the quilava Garith was talking about."

Cyrus unleashed a powerful tract of Ice Beam at an angle on the cliff. Freezing the cliff at a slant, he then climbed the ramp he had formed. About half-way up, he distinguished three faint figures in the distance. He continued climbing as fast as he could, trying to see what exactly these pokemon were. As he drew closer, he was able to identify two of them: an espeon and an umbreon. They were standing over another pokemon, but it didn’t appear to have any fire on it as he imagined a quilava would.

"Be careful next time, Quil! Your carelessness could have gotten you killed!" Shade yelled as he stood over Quil. "I know you want to find her quickly, but how will you find her if you’re dead?"

Quil lay in the snow, trembling violently as a result of his fall. "What if she herself is dead, Shade!? It won't matter, then!"

Shade grumbled at the quilava for a moment and sighed, turning away. "Just be more careful next time, okay? You can't rely on your powers all the—“

"Shade..." Espeon said urgently as she nudged his shoulder with her tail. “Someone's coming, approaching fast. I can sense him."

Quil got to his feet, shaking off the adrenaline rush of his near-death experience and letting his body erupt with fire. "What kind of threat are we talking about here? Tyranitar? Weavile? Ursaring?"

Espeon shook her head. "No, it doesn't seem to be a threat; but it whatever it is, it’s moving up this cliff at a blinding speed."

Shade nodded before turning back to face the cliff. "Let me handle this.”

“He’s very close… we should be able to see him by now, even with this snow storm.” Espeon said matter-of-factly.

"HEY!!! Over here!"

Quil flared up his back to create a small bubble of locally-calm weather by pushing the blowing wind away with the heat. “Who are you and what do you want?”

As the airborne snow in front of them settled in the pocket of calm conditions, a glaceon became clearly visible. The ice-type eeveelution skidded to a sudden stop as though startled by the sudden eruption of glowing orange in the sea of white; however, he was not so taken aback that he fled.

“Are you guys looking for an eevee?” he called out as he held his left tassel in his mouth, biting down on it gently as he squinted his eyes in an attempt to protect them from the heat.

Shade's eyes open wide. "Could he be talking about Corona?"

Quil’s eyes widen as well as he heared the word ‘eevee’. He dashed forward in a cloud of glowing vapor as the snow beneath him vaporized. He collided with the approaching glaceon, pinning him to the ground.

"Corona! Where is she!?" he screamed as he held the startled ice-type by the neck. “Tell me! Tell me NOW!”

Cyrus clawed and scratched at his attacker, even going so far as to attack point-blank with an ice beam. All that resulted from it was a giant cloud of steam as the wind began to pick back up now that it was no longer being countered by the wall of heat.

"Chill out! I’m trying to tell you! Get off of me!"

Quil suddenly flew off of him and landed face-first in a large snowdrift.

"I told you I would handle it, Quil!" Shade growled in annoyance as he helped Cyrus to his feet. "Please forgive the quilava’s reckless and irrational behavior. He’s lost someone very important to him.”

"Thank you, uh... do you have a name?" he asked.

Shade glanced back at Quil, making sure he wasn’t about to overreact again, and then faced the newcomer with a smile. "I’m Shade, that is Espeon and THAT..." he said as he glared and pointed at the quilava’s twitching lower half with his tail, "...is Quil."

Cyrus shook his head, trying to recover from the pounce that the quilava had given him. "Well anyways, glad to meet you all. My name is Cyrus. I can see you are looking for someone named Corona. It just so happens that my pack ran into a lost eevee the other day. You wouldn’t happen to be her pack, would you?" he asked. "I've been searching these fields all day trying to find anyone who might know about her.”

Quil pulled his head out of the snow and quickly melted it with a quick burst of fire. "How is she? Is she okay? Is she hurt?"

Cyrus gave Quil a look of frustration, annoyed by his many questions. "Look, we found this eevee the other day. She was near shook up at first, but she is fine now. If you want to see her, just follow me. My pack will meet up at the cave soon, so just follow my lead."

Quil lunged forward and hugged Cyrus as tight as he could, tears in his eyes. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

All of his anger and frustration toward the emotionally-unstable quilava quickly melted away in the embrace as he pet Quil on the back, trying to calm him down a little. "It's nothing, honestly." He said as he turned around and cracked a small grin as he turned and lead them to the ice ramp. "This ramp of ice I made will allow us to slide back down to the base of this cliff in no time. Follow me!" Cyrus exclaimed as he dove belly-first down the slope.

"That actually looks like fun! Come on, Quil; your beloved awaits!" Shade chuckled as he ducked under a tail-slap from Espeon and jumped forward onto the ramp. Espeon grumbled quietly and jumped down after him.

Quil blushed as his jaw hung slightly ajar, surprised that Shade would make a comment like that. He shook his head from side to side as he looked over the edge of the cliff that had just about killed him. Then, ever so carefully, he began walking down the ramp as he melted footholds in the ice as he continued his descent. Cyrus looked back to see the umbreon, espeon, and quilava make their way down. As he approached the last stretch of the ramp, he jumped into the air and landed gracefully in a patch of snow. Shaking the frost from his belly, he urged the others to hurry up. "It's a long walk, so we need to make the most of our time."

Shade skidded to a halt at the base of the ramp, with Espeon colliding with him and coming to a quick halt on top of his back, pinning him to the ground. She leaned forward and nipped at his ear with an uncharacteristic giggle.

"Now… what was that about his beloved?" She asked playfully.

Shade bucked his back, tossing her into a nearby snow embankment. "Save it for another time, Espeon. Right now we have to find Corona."

Espeon got up and shook the snow off of her body, pouting all the while, and then walked over to Shade’s side as he followed close behind Cyrus. Realizing he was falling behind, Quil hastened his pace until he was on solid ground once more. His backside lit up as he rocketed forward in a blast of flame, easily eliminating the distance between him and the other three pokemon.

Cyrus turned around to face them. "Be sure to stay together; it's easy to get lost around here during these blizzards—especially when you’re not a glaceon." He said before pointing in the general direction of his pack’s cave. "It's a several-hour walk from here to the cave. Before you know it, you will be reunited with Corona, Quil." He continued as he gave Quil a wink.

Quil blushed once again as he averted his eyes, realizing that it wouldn’t be long before his deep attachment to Corona would become common knowledge. Shade chuckled, sensing his friend’s embarrassment.

“Maybe she’ll reward you for trying so hard to find her, Quil!”

His head lurched forward as Espeon’s tail lashed across the back of it. He then used his own tail to rub the stinging area as he looked at the smirk on her face. Cyrus chuckled at Shade and Espeon’s behavior, rolling his eyes lightly.

“We’ve got a pretty good distance to go, still.” He said with another small laugh. “We’d better pick up the pace.”

[A'bom]

“I’m back, and look who I brought with me! “

Garith’s head poked out of the cave. “Cyrus? Where have you been?” He called as he ran towards him, followed by five other glaceon. “We were supposed to meet back here before dusk!”

"I found Corona’s pack, Garith! We had to stop for a night; that's why we never met back up together, I was busy tending to my new friends here."

As Cyrus was showered with praise from his fellow glaceon, Quil stood on his toes and looked over them to see Corona walk out of a large dome that appeared to be made of ice. Steam began to rise from his eyes as he barged through the crowd of ice-type eeveelutions and took off in a streak of fire. Corona only had seconds to brace herself for the impact that would send them tumbling through the snow several yards before finally coming to a stop.

“Corona! You’re okay!” Quil cried as he squeezed her in a tight embrace. “I’m so sorry I let that tyranitar separate us… I should have been the one to take that hit! I will never make that mistake again! I promise!”

Corona blushed as a warm tongue moved up her cheek. “Quil! I-I missed you, too!” she stammered in surprise, unprepared for the public display of affection. “It’s a relief to see you’re okay, too!”

Espeon rolled her eyes as she caught sight of Quil and Corona. “Save your outbursts of affection for some other time, you two. We’ve got work to do.”

Quil looked at Espeon and snarled quietly as a bright red blush became visible through his fur.

“Outburst of w-what?” Corona asked in a hushed voice as she looked at Quil’s face.

“… Don’t pay attention to her. She’s not thinking clearly.” Quil muttered with obvious irritation.

Elysia pushed through the crowd and began ushering Shade and Espeon over to Quil and Corona.

“Why don’t you all come with me back inside the cave? You must be hungry and tired.”

“We would be honored.” Shade said with a smile.

“Splendid. I’ll get some bayleef tea going for you. Please follow me.”

“Bayleef… tea?” Quil asked as he helped Corona up. “You don’t, like, cook the bayleef or anything, right?”

Elysia chuckled quietly and shook her head. “No. Bayleef come through here every once in a while. Their leaves can’t handle the climate and fall off like they do in the winter. We collect the leaves and store them to make tea with.”

“Does it taste any good?” Quil asked with a slight look of revulsion.

“It tastes bland like any other herbal tea. Well, unless Cyrus makes it. I don’t know how he does it, but he makes the best tea you’ll ever taste.” She replied as the four of them entered the cave. “Give me a few minutes to refract some light in here to start a fire.”

Quil smiled and put his paw on the pile of branches. “Allow me.”

Elysia stumbled back and nearly fell over as a large fireball rose to the roof of the cavern. “Dear Arceus! Be careful or you’ll make everything go up in flames!”

“Quil, they don’t like fire.” Corona whispered. “They lost their home in a fire and that’s how they got here in the first place.”

Quil pulled his paw away from the stack of branches and grimaced. “Sorry…”

The startled mother-to-be took a deep breath, checked to make sure her egg was okay, and pulled a stone bowl from one of the shelves, followed by a leaf the size of Quil. “Just don’t do it again!” she stammered after filling the bowl with an ice beam and setting the leaf on top of it. “You must be Quil… you seem much more dangerous than Corona said you were.”

Quil’s spots went out as his ears went flat. “… I… I didn’t mean to scare anyone.”

“Yes, well, it’s better if you keep the fire to a minimum, then.” Elysia said as she put the bowl on the fire and sat down. “You’re lucky Garith didn’t see that or he’d barge in here and freeze you solid!”

A slight smirk grew on Quil’s face. “Something tells me he wouldn’t be able to even if he—“

“Corona, did you talk to these kind glaceon about what we’re looking for yet?” Shade interrupted, sensing tensions would escalate if Quil finished his sentence.

“No, I haven’t… I forgot about that.” She replied. “It’s hard to remember stuff when you just got out of a near-death situation.”

Shade turned to Elysia, pushing Espeon away from his body as she snuggled up to him relentlessly in one of her rare, but regular fits of affection. “Have any of you noticed a power of some sort in the time you’ve lived here?”

Elysia eyed Quil one more time before giving Shade her full attention. “What do you mean?”

“We come from Verdesque Forest. There is a riolu back there that told us a myth about a lucario that was incredibly powerful. We aren’t sure if it’s true or not, but what we do know is that there is something here on this mountain that he is able to sense from all the way over there. Do you have any idea what it is?”

Elysia’s eyes widened a bit. “All the way from Verdesque?”

Shade nodded.

“… I… I guess he wasn’t kidding.”

“Who wasn’t kidding?” Shade asked with a sense of urgency.

“The lucario you’re talking about... well, he’s no myth: he’s real.” She replied. “We run into him from time to time when he comes down to get food. We tried to talk to him once, but he told us he was dangerous and we should stay away from him. If you could feel him all the way from there, it must be true.”

“Where exactly does he live?” Espeon asked.

“Why do you need to know? If he thinks he’s so dangerous that he won’t let anyone near him, I don’t think it’s a good idea to try and talk to him.”

“I assure you, we can handle him just fine.” Espeon scoffed as she took a step forward. “Where is he?”

“What my mate means to say is: we’re part of a rescue squad.” Shade began as he pulled Espeon back. “This lucario would be a powerful addition to the team if we could convince him to join our cause.”

“That’s going to be easier said than done.”

Everyone turned around to find Garith standing at the entrance of the cave.

“I once managed to hold a small conversation with him. He thinks he’s some sort of monster; an abomination that isn’t fit to exist.” Garith continued as he walked over to Elysia and sat down next to her, putting his paw on the egg she was holding. “He’s very strong and very agile… almost supernaturally so. He seems very calm and level-headed otherwise. I can’t imagine why he would think he’s a menace that deserves a life of solitude away from any other living things.”

“I will ask one last time before I search your minds for the information myself.” Espeon said as she tapped her tail against the ground impatiently. “Where is he?”

“He lives in a cave near the top of the mountain, but he spends most of the day perched at the peak, just standing there—at least, that’s all I’ve ever seen him do.” Garith replied.

“Let’s go.” She said as she turned and began to walk toward the mouth of the cave.

Shade grabbed her tail and pulled her back. “We’ve come a long way and been through a lot in the past week. If he’s as powerful as he appears to be, we need to be fully rested when we confront him.” He said as he looked into her eyes. “We should use the rest of today and tonight to rest.”

“Yes. That would be wise.” Garith said as he glanced at Elysia. “I’ll have the rest of the pack prepare an extra space for you. If you really intend to meet face to face with him, you will need all of your strength.”

* * *

“Thank you for letting us rest here in comfort last night, Garith.” Shade said as he stood with Espeon, Quil, and Corona. “If there’s ever anything we can do to repay you, don’t hesitate to ask.”

“And if you guys ever come back, just come to us; we’ll be happy to give you a place to stay while you’re here.” Cyrus answered.

“Likewise, if you should ever decide to visit Verdesque Forest, just look for us.” Shade replied as he looked toward the mountain peak. “Well, we have a mission to complete. Maybe we’ll run into each other again someday. Until then, goodbye!”

Cyrus watched as his four new friends turned and continued their ascent up the side of the mountain and then whispered quietly to himself.

“Goodbye … and good luck.”

[Shade]

Quil narrowed his eyes in the glare of the sunlight to discern a small figure at the mountain’s peak. “I… I think I see him.” He said as he turned to Espeon. “Can you get a read on him?”

“He knows we’re here—no use sneaking up on him.” She replied.

“We just want to talk to him. It’s not like we’re planning a sneak attack.” Shade said as he climbed up another outcropping. “Besides, he sounds pacifistic in nature. We shouldn’t need to attack him at all.”

“I say we stop tip-pawing around and just get up there as soon as we can.” Quil said as he lit the spots on his head and rear. “If he knows we’re here, then he should be able to tell we don’t want to attack him.”

“Put your butt out, Quil.” Espeon said as she resisted smacking him in the back of the head. “We still want to go about this as calmly as possible. I’ll just levitate us up there on a rock platform. I’m sure that would appear much less threatening than a flaming ball of stupidit—I mean... you.”

Quil cracked a smile and leaned over to Corona. “She’s scared of me.”

Espeon’s nose crinkled a little in frustration. “I said it would APPEAR less threatening; I didn’t say it WAS.” She said in a half-hiss, half-growl. “Everyone get closer so I don’t have as much to lift at once.”

“But Espeon, you may need to carry pokemon much bigger than yourself on a mission someday. You have to be prepared to work under a heavy load!” Quil gasped as he nudged a giggling Corona with his arm. “It’s just a little rock, after all!”

“This IS a mission, you twit!” she hissed as she smacked him with her tail. “I was right the first time—you ARE a flaming ball of stupidity.”

Quil grinned as everyone crowded around Espeon, despite the stinging pain on the back of his head. There was a loud crack, followed by the sensation of being lifted upward. They would be there in no time at this rate. As they drew closer to the peak, it became clear that the being standing on top was, indeed, a lucario.

“Espeon, drop us off on the rim.” Shade said as they approached the end of the vertical face of the mountain.

As she did so, they all jumped onto the rocky landscape. Quil looked especially happy to be on solid ground again.

“I thought there’d be more snow up here.” Corona whispered. “It sure feels like there should be.”

“There’s plenty of ice, though.” Shade said as he inspected a nearby boulder. “Everything is encrusted with it… but we’re not here to admire the scenery.”

He led the group up the gentle slope until they were nearly at the very top. “Remember, no sudden movements.”

Once everyone had nodded in acknowledgement, they carefully took the last few steps to reach the highest point in the mountain range.

Shade took a meditative breath and took a step forward. “Excuse me, lucario?”

The aura pokemon made no response whatsoever. Shade looked at Espeon as though awaiting an explanation.

“He knows we’re here.” She repeated before taking a few steps forward. “We didn’t climb the tallest mountain for hundreds of miles around just to be ignored.”

“Go away.”

Quil and Corona flinched at the sound of the deep, booming voice. Espeon and Shade, however, held their ground.

“We travelled all the way across the Eurim Plains and climbed all the way up Mt. Altifrost to talk with you.” Shade said as he pulled Espeon back a little. “Can you really expect us to just turn around, empty-pawed?”

“Go away.” the lucario repeated exactly as he had before.

“One of us almost died on the way up here!” Quil added. “You want her to have risked her life for NOTHING?”

“You are risking your lives every second you remain here.” He replied. “Leave.”

“We just want to talk.” Shade said calmly. “We know how powerful you are, and we know why you’re up here. A riolu told us the story of how you came up here to contain your power so you wouldn’t hurt anyone.” He waited for a response, but got none. “… we’re part of a re-“

“I know who you are and why you are here.” The lucario interrupted. “All of you are here to try and get me to leave this place—but for different reasons: One of you sees me as a mere object of power to obtain and secure before others possess it; this is the embodiment of selfishness. One of you has not the faintest idea of what is going on… living in a façade of blissful unawareness; this is not the fault of the individual, but the fault of those the individual hold near. One of you wants to help me harness my uncontrollable power and use it to help those in need; this is a noble endeavor. One of you is merely following along; a lost, frightened, unstable individual that desperately clings to new friends in hopes they lead to what has been lost and hopes it does not destroy what he has come to love; this is understandable given the circumstances.”

They all looked at each other as he spoke of each of them.

“Whatever your reason for being here, I will not leave. I came up here to live in solitude to protect the world from having to deal with me… a being that was never supposed to exist. My power is comparable to that of legends; I can level landscapes and end lives without even trying. I belong in the farthest reaches of the wilderness where my unbound power cannot hurt the innocent. I belong here.”

Espeon opened her mouth, only to be interrupted like Shade had.

“Spare us your belligerent self-glorification, evolus helios. I am exactly what you suspect; unlike yourselves, however, I am keenly aware of my true destructive power. I am what you would be if your true potential were to be fully actualized.”

He turned and faced them for the first time. His calm eyes burned with unspeakable power and untold wisdom; his body itself radiated energy. The spike on his chest was like that on any other lucario, but the spikes on the back his paws were different: They were thinner an narrower, almost more like the heads of spears, and looked like they could easily pierce clean through anyone that got in his way. They also had a somewhat gold hue to them, so slight as to hardly be noticeable.

“Your arrogance and blatant lack of self-control are appalling. Before you can even hope to convince me to leave this mountain, you must first prove to be able to contain yourselves; a skill only two of you can even hope to have within reach. The only thing blocking you from realizing your inner strength is fear of the past and the uncertainty of the future.”

“Perhaps you should take your own advice.”

All eyes turned to Corona as she stepped up front.

“I don’t know your past, and I apparently have no clue about what’s really going on… but you are afraid of what you might do in the future if you left this place.” She said softly. “Could someone that is willing to strand himself on the edges of the planet to protect those he doesn’t even know truly be the monster he thinks he is?”

The lucario looked down at her, his eyes still and unreadable. “Just because one does not understand the advice that has been received, that does not prevent the advice from being given.” He turned and looked out over the vast, mountainous landscape before sighing. “Even after training my body and mind, I was unable to figure this out. I have contained my power, but I still fear it will go out of control. If I am ever to be at peace with myself and leave this mountain, I must know that I am not undefeatable.”

He took a step back and looked each of them over. “If you wish for me to join your cause, you must prove to me that you will be able to stop me if I ever lose control of myself. I will hold back nothing: you will see what those like us are capable of at full capacity. I will warn you, though… you are not ready.”

“You’re going to regret ever insulting ME!” Espeon howled as she prepared to attack.

“ESPEON!” Shade yelled as he held her back. “Please calm down! If he really is as powerful as he says, do you really want to risk our lives and theirs?” he asked as he gestured to Quil and Corona.

“Do you really think that I—” she began before halting in mid-sentence. “… you’re right. Still, we need to at least try. Think of how beneficial he would be to the rescue squad!”

“She’s right, Shade.” Quil said quietly. “Besides, we need all the help we can get with Bonnie on our backs all the time.”

The three of them looked at Corona.

“What are you looking at me for?” she asked.

“No offense, Corona, but you’re just an eevee.” Quil said as he closed his eyes. “This… this…”

“I have no name.” The aura pokemon said matter-of-factly. “I was never given one. You may refer to me by my species name.”

“This Lucario guy would smear that tyranitar that nearly killed us! I will never put you in that kind of danger again.”

“But it’s four-on-one!” Corona whimpered, her feelings clearly hurt. “I can help!”

“She’s right, Quil.” Shade added. “We need a healer for this fight… and Corona’s the only one we have. As long as she’s still up, we have a chance. Guard her and attack whenever you have a clear shot.”

“If we were going to fight him all along, why did you stop me?” Espeon asked while hiding her irritation.

“We needed a plan. Now that we have one, we stand a chance.” He explained. “Get ready, everyone. This is going to be one of the toughest fights we ever have.”

[A'bom]

Shade, Espeon, Quil, and Corona stood on one end of Mt. Altifrost’s peak, looking across the gently curved summit at Lucario.

“Everyone ready?” Shade asked as his rings began to light up.

Quil took a deep breath before igniting his spots. “As I’ll ever be.”

“I’m going to enjoy this.” Espeon muttered quietly as the jewel on her forehead started glowing.

Corona nodded and took her place behind the other three. “I’ll do my very best.”

Lucario slid his left foot forward, pulled back his right arm a little, and held his other arm out in front of his body, getting into a common fighting stance. “I will not think poorly of you if you turn away now.”

“We are ready!” Shade yelled. “Fight us with everything you have!”

“Very well.” He replied as he got out of his fighting stance and put his paws together. “See the power that resides within us and those like us, unbound and at its full fury!”

A sudden violent blast of wind rushed away from his body and nearly pushed the others off of the mountaintop in one fell swoop. The spikes on his chest and arms began shining like the sun, funneling pure life energy and radiating it in the form of golden fire. Lucario now stood before them, his arms flexed at his sides, the appendages behind his ears undulating with the rolling waves of energy, and opened his eyes.

“This is what you have to defeat!” he bellowed loudly as he pulled back his arm, charging it with pure power. “You were warned; now face my wrath!”

Quil launched forward, leaving fire in his tracks as his blurred figure came within inches of its target. Lucario’s paw shot out and grabbed him by the head, then slung him around and slammed him into the ground at his feet, followed by a point-blank flash cannon. Within a fraction of a second after the blast, Lucario had slammed his foot into the ground and caused a stone edge to thrust upward, sending Quil flying helplessly into the air to be hit by a beam of aura. As Quil’s body fell over the edge of the cliff, Espeon reeled it back in and set him next to Corona.

“You’d better be as good at healing as Shade thinks you are.” Espeon growled. “As much as I hate to say it, it looks like you really are the only think keeping us in this fight.”

Corona gave a serious frown and nodded as she got to work wishpassing. Espeon looked at Shade before running forward, tearing massive slabs of stone out of the side of the mountain and hurling them at Lucario. As they approached, he widened his stance, tucked in his arms, then thrust them outward, crushing the projectiles to dust in the sheer force of the resulting blast. His aura suddenly turned black as he twirled his arms and unleased an incredible dark pulse that knocked Espeon right off her feet. Despite the numbing pain, she managed to land on her feet just in time to see Shade jump in front of her and absorb the brunt of a second wave of darkness-imbued energy.

“I’ll hold him off for a bit. Get back to Corona!” Shade ordered. “There’s no way you can take another hit like that!”

Lucario watched Espeon scamper over to Corona and wait for a wishpass before looking at Shade as his aura once again became a brilliant gold. “Even your enhanced defense is not enough to withstand the power of my aura, evolus luna! Darkness cannot stand against pure light!”

Shade raised up a series of dark shields as Lucario fired a beam of energy. The attack easily shattered through the first few barriers before slowly cracking through the second-to-last wall. The unused barrier faded as Shade walked through it and fired a dark-pulse of his own.

“The brighter the light, the deeper the darkness!” he shouted as he poured more and more energy into the attack.

To his surprise, Lucario let the attack hit him with no resistance. The aura pokemon tumbled back a short distance before getting to his feet, his paws clasped on his head as he shook it for a moment, then returned to his fighting stance. Now his aura burned even stronger, as though he fed off of the dark energy.

“A heart that beats for justice will never succumb to darkness in any form!”

Shade was suddenly pummeled with blow after blow of a bullet punch-close combat combo attack before being slugged in the jaw with a focus punch. He flew through the air and waited for the undoubtedly painful impact with the ground that was sure to follow, only to be greeted by a soft, squishy, warm landing. Quil set Shade in line for a wishpass as he stepped up for round two.

“Don’t think for an instant that I will make the same mistake twice!” Quil yelled as he let out a forceful fire attack that was more like a miniature explosion than a flame.

A shockwave tore through the space between them, carrying a concussive force strong enough to cause structural damage to a small building, and made Lucario stagger back and reel from the pain of the sudden sharp change in pressure on his eardrums. He clenched his teeth and looked up just in time to see himself get swallowed in a bath of fire. He summoned the energy deep inside himself and let out a dragon pulse, pushing the fire away and hitting Quil in a similar fashion that he had previously attacked. He struggled to his feet as the fire on his body sputtered and popped before re-igniting in its brilliant blue, blaze-charged form. Lucario took a step back as his eyes narrowed.

“Perhaps a third among you is closer to his full potential than a first glance would reveal.” He muttered to himself as he charged an aura sphere.

Quil kicked the ground and sent a fissure splitting open through it. Lucario stomped the ground and cut the attack short with a stone edge to disrupt the seismic forces before dashing forward, smashing the rock as he did so, and prepared a focus punch. Quil turned to face away from the incoming attack and revved his flames, creating a brilliant firestorm of blue and orange. Lucario leaned back and dug his feet and one of his spikes into the ground, grinding to a halt on the fringes of the attack before launching his charged aura sphere, penetrating through the heat and causing Quil to crumple over to the ground. He suddenly found himself being tugged toward Corona by Espeon.

“Stop, I’m fine.” He said as he got up and turned to face Lucario, who was in the process of charging another aura sphere.

“Just hold him off until Shade’s back up.” Espeon ordered as she ran to his side. “We should have attacked together from the start… but you just HAD to try to show off to your little girlfriend.”

“Not now, Espeon!” Quil groaned as he stamped the ground with his paws. “There’s a subterranean conduit below the mountain, but it’s too far down for me to tap it.

“Then improvise!” she replied as she raised a reflect and a light screen.

Quil decided to go with his standard rock-wall approach to defense. “That’s about all I can do!” He said anxiously as he watched the stone barrier break into rubble from a flash cannon.

“Have you forgotten your most basic of moves already?” Espeon hissed. “Smokescreen him for Arceus’s sake!”

“Oh, right.” Quil said as turned away and blasted out a cloud of ash and soot. “Hold your breath!”

Unfortunately for them, the mountain winds quickly rendered the technique worthless as the dark cloud dissipated. Quil looked at Espeon and frowned.

“You were saying?”

Espeon flinched as the first psychic barrier shattered to a brick break, and the second soon followed. She closed her eyes and pushed Lucario back with psychic, only to be pulled forward by a psychic of Lucario’s own. Quil grabbed her tail and began pulling her back, eliciting a cry of pain.

“Just let go! I’m a psychic type; I can deal with this myself!” She growled as she refocused the psychic on herself to balance out the attack.

Quil decided his best defense was offense and belched out a blue fireblast, which Lucario easily deflected with a localized aura blast. Shade and Corona ran up behind Espeon and watched as Lucario stood his ground will only minimal effort.

“Alright, let’s give him everything we have!” Espeon said as she lowered the barriers and snared the aura pokemon’s ankles and elbows with grass knot.

Lucario, taken off-guard, tried to resist his bonds, but they forced him to his knees and pinned his arms behind him as they receded into the ground. He had no means of defending himself against the combined force of psychic, dark pulse, fire blast, and shadow ball. Though badly injured, he was strengthened by the dark-type attack, allowing him to snap his arms free and cut his feet loose with his paw-spikes.

“I’m impressed.” Lucario muttered as his aura grew even more powerful with his declining stamina. “… but not impressive enough.”

He vanished in the blink of an eye and punched Quil upside the head with extreme speed, then grabbed Corona by the tail and used her as a living sledgehammer to knock both of the rescuers-in-training unconscious. He shoved their limp bodies aside with psychic as his paw became cloaked in a dark purple veil. Espeon narrowly avoided a critical hit as she teleported out of the way of the shadow claw attack and used psychic in an attempt to knock him off balance. Before the attack landed, Lucario fired off a vacuum wave and pulled Shade in to receive a flurry of punches from close combat. His paws suddenly froze in place as Espeon focused her energy on them, giving Shade the time to regain his composure and hit Lucario point-blank with confuse ray. With his faculties no longer about him, Espeon took the opportunity to flip him over backwards and slam him into the ground face-first. The two eeveelutions then attacked him with a twin shadow ball before backing up and letting the dust settle a bit. When Lucario came back into view, he was on his knees pushing himself up. He looked up, his eyes brighter than ever, and got into a kneeling stance before lunging at Espeon.

“This ends now—behold the power of aura!”

Espeon fell to the ground as she received a force palm to the chakra, KO’ing her on the spot. Shade gasped as he watched his mate crumple over in a heap as Lucario whirled his arms around to deal the final blow.

“This is aura storm, evolus luna! THIS is what power looks like in its purest form!”

With a savage howl, Lucario fired a beam so powerful that it blasted a crater in the side of a nearby mountain. He once again fell to his knees, tired and exhausted. Shade was nowhere to be seen.

“And that…” Lucario muttered quietly under his breath. “… is why I can never leave this mountain.”

He stood up and resumed his spot at the highest point on the summit, taking a deep, relaxing breath. His adrenaline rush finally subsided as he closed his eyes to meditate.

“Now to continue my miserable exist—GRAH!”

Pain tore through the base of his back as a sudden, violent jerk gave him whiplash equivalent to that of a train-wreck. The next thing he saw were two blood-red eyes emerging from a patch of darkness directly in front of him, making a spine-chilling noise that could only be described as the sound of a boiling cauldron.

“Do you realize what you just did?!” Shade snarled, his body solid black, his rings no longer visible. “An espeon’s jewel is directly wired to its brain! Some even consider it to be part of the brain itself! You could have completely wiped her memory! You could have paralyzed her for life! You could have KILLED her!”

Tendrils of darkness wrapped themselves around Lucario’s limbs and neck as they began dragging him down into the shadows ever so slowly. An unbearable, numbing, horrible feeling overwhelmed his sense of pride as he cried out in pain. It was a chill unlike any other he had ever felt—it was a chill so cold that it burned.

“Stop! Please!” he wailed as he was reduced to a panicking mess. “The evolus helios is fine; all I did was disrupt her crown chakra! She’ll wake up in an hour!” he said through his teeth. “I beg of you: let me go! The pain is too much!”

The dark tentacles quickly pulled him from the shadows and cast him aside, sending him tumbling all the way to the very edge of the cliff before he rolled to a stop. Shade walked over to him and pushed his opponent’s head into the rocky ground with his paw.

“Concede defeat.” Shade said as he applied a little bit of pressure. “This battle is over.”

[Shade]

Lucario looked up at the stars as he sat on the fringes of the firelight, wondering what was in store for him. For so long, all he had known was the frozen solitude of being alone at the top of Mt. Altifrost; but now he was sitting at its base with four other pokemon, gazing up at the peak he had called his prison the past several years. Ironically enough, he felt it was more spacious up there where he could see for miles upon miles in any direction than where he currently was, where visibility only extended for only a few miles. He reached down and plucked some grass from the ground, looking at it like it was some strange, alien life form. It may as well have been: he felt like he was on another planet entirely.

“I am fine.” Lucario said as he sensed Shade’s aura approaching behind him. “There is no need to worry about me, evolus luna.”

“I have a name, Lucario.” Shade said quietly. “Call me Shade.”

“That seems rather informal.” Lucario replied. “It seems too soon to call you by a shortened name. I find it strange that I requested you to call me by my species name, but you continue to call me by my common name.”

“I understand what it’s like to have been alone so long, Lucario; I was in that situation myself a few years ago.” Shade said as he sat down next to him. “But you’re not alone anymore—you’re part of a team. A team works best when its members get along like family. Ours is a bit dysfunctional at the moment, but in time it will get better.”

“You know very well that I’ve never had a family.”

“How would I know that?” Shade asked. “You never told me until now.”

Lucario turned and looked at him warily. “You speak like you are patronizing me, but your aura says otherwise. You and the rest of your group—minus the evolus multipotens, of course—are the results of human experimentation, are you not?”

“You can tell who is and who isn’t?”

“Yes—it is in the aura. The abilities of those like us are increased manifold; any natural pokemon has limits… but ours have been tampered with—the boundaries have been distorted and twisted to the point of unraveling completely, and this is reflected in our auras.” He explained before breathing out through his nose. “You, the evolus helios, and the mustela vulcans all possess such auras.”

“Are you sure Quil does?” Shade asked.

Lucario nodded. “The aura does not lie.”

“Espeon and I were pretty sure that was the case.” Shade muttered. “That’s the proof we needed.”

“So, what is it you came over here for in the first place?” Lucario asked. “It was not to speak of your auras.”

“Well, you should come over and sit with us. Like I said, you are part of a team now, and that means you need to get to know your teammates.” Shade replied as he gestured over to the fire. “Come sit with us around Quil.”

Lucario hesitantly got to his feet and looked over at the small group. All eyes were on him as he slowly followed behind Shade until they reached the others, at which point he took a seat on the opposite side of Quil, as far away from them as possible.

“Why not get a little closer? They won't bite.” Shade said with an inviting smile.

“... This is new to me. Give me time to get used to it.” Lucario replied quietly as he hung his head.

Shade looked at Lucario for a moment before moving over to sit by his side. “It used to be new to me at one point as well. Maybe it would help to get to know us one-on-one first.”

Lucario repositioned how he was sitting. “Very well... but it cannot be for long. The four of you already have a method for traveling long distances together.” He said as he looked over his shoulder in the direction of Verdesque Forest. “I will travel through the night and meet you there at dawn. For now, though, I will do as you have suggested.”

Quil frowned and turned his head to face Lucario and Shade. “You're planning on running the whole night without rest?” he asked.

Lucario nodded. “I sense your concern, but I have done this before—and many nights in a row at that. I have stayed up nearly a week with no sleep; I am more than capable of skipping one night.”

“That's horrible for your health, you know.” Quil said with a great deal of concern clearly evident in his voice.

“And so is living at the top of a mountain with thin air, chilling winds, little shelter, and next to no food... but I am still here today.” Lucario replied as he folded his arms across his chest.

Shade glanced at Lucario and shook his head gently. “Just be careful around Quil.” he whispered under his breath “He’s a bit overprotective of others.”

“His aura shows it clearly.” Lucario said as his eyes narrowed. “... Among other things.”

Quil looked at Shade as though asking if he knew what Lucario was talking about, but only received a subtle shrug in response.

“Don't worry about it Quil—just give him words of encouragement.” he said after a few moments, chuckling a little.

Quil tilted his head to the side slightly. “Well... I would if I knew what to say.”

“Our current focus is to get me acquainted with the four of you.” Lucario said matter-of-factly.

“My name is Espeon.” That’s all you really need to know about me the moment. Quil, you may go on.”

“Well, um... there's not really a lot to me. I woke up about a month and a half ago, and I've been training under Shade.” he began. “Corona found me half dead in the forest… I owe my life to her. I can't remember anything from before that moment. Some things happened after that I wish I could forget, though.” He said as he gave Espeon a somewhat bitter look. “Unnecessary things that compromise basic ethical standards… but other than that, I’m just a normal quilava.”

Espeon shot a glare at him. “Just move on to the furball.” She spat as she looked at Corona.

“I'm Corona. My home got destroyed, and I wandered around for several weeks before being attacked by a human near Verdesque Forest. Shade came out of nowhere right as the human threw a pokeball at me and took the hit himself.” she answered. “He smashed out of the pokeball almost instantly and scared of the human and his pokemon off. I joined the rescue squad to show my gratitude.”

“I’m Shade, Espeon’s mate.” Shade began. “A few months ago, Espeon and I came here from… somewhere else. We saw how many pokemon were suffering and in need of assistance. We intended to return from where we came, but we couldn’t just leave those that needed us.

Lucario quickly stood up and turned away as fast as he could. “Well, if that's all, I will see the four of you near the outskirts of the forest in about seven hours.” he said as he took off like a blur, not giving anyone time to persuade him to stay.

Quil looked at Shade and Espeon, a look of slight confusion on his face. “Why’d he just leave like that?”

“Only Arceus knows how long Lucario has lived all by himself on top of that mountain.” Shade replied as he lay down in the grass. “Being around so many others is very unusual for him.”

Espeon followed Shade’s lead and lay down next to him, cuddling up to his body. “Just get some rest. You’ll need your energy to keep yourself warm when Shade takes you back to Verdesque Forest tomorrow.”

Corona got up as Quil snuffed out the fire on his back, then timidly walked over to him. “Um… Quil?”

“Yeah?” he asked as he looked up.

“It’s still a bit chilly, even at the base of the mountain. Is it okay if I sleep next to you tonight?” she asked.

A faint orange began to glow as the spots on Quil’s head began to heat up. Fortunately, the glow wasn’t so bright that Corona would be able to see him blushing. “I… suppose that would be alright.”

She cuddled up next to him and closed her eyes. “Thank you, Quil. Goodnight.”

“G-goodnight.” He stammered as he rested his chin on the ground and closed his eyes as a huge smile spread across his face. “Sleep tight, Corona.”

[A'bom]

Quil was feeling a rather unusual sensation at the moment—he was cold. His body shivered and trembled as he lay on the ground, struggling to spark some fire from his body. The numbness, however, was making it difficult to get the necessary muscle movements going; it was like trying to walk after sitting on your legs for too long.

“He’s going to be okay, right?” Corona asked as she put her paw on one of his cold, brown-tinted spots.

“We shadow-hopped twice the distance we did last time.” She explained as he reached into Espeon’s shadow and pulled out an aspear berry. “He won’t be as bad off as you were, especially after eating one of these, but it could take a while for him to warm up enough to get some fire going.”

“I am still not used to this warm air.” Lucario said as he picked up the frostbitten quilava and draped him over his shoulder. “I believe it will be mutually beneficial if I carry him the rest of the way.”

Espeon grinned as she watched Lucario spin around and casually walk into the orange-and-red colored foliage of the mid-autumn Verdesque Forest. “Perhaps it won’t be so bad having this one around.” She said as she walked alongside Shade and Corona. “He doesn’t have a problem carrying dead weight.”

Shade chuckled at the comment, but Corona wasn’t amused.

“Just remember how helpful ‘dead weight’ can be, Espeon.” Corona said irritably. “This dead weight gave you guys a fighting chance back at Mt. Altifrost.”

“There’s dead weight, and there’s useless slabs of meat. Guess which one he is.” Espeon replied in a snobbish manner. “Besides, I was just joking; don’t get your tail all tied up in a knot. You don’t need to be so defensive about your boyfriend.”

Corona’s eyes narrowed as she looked up at her. “Quil is NOT my boyfriend! He’s my best friend! He cares about my well-being and supports me, unlike YOU.”

“Call him what you want.” She scoffed in reply. “I have no interest in dead weight.”

Corona looked away and muttered something very offensive under her breath before picking up her pace a little bit to keep up with Lucario. “How do you know where you’re going? You’ve never been here before, I thought.”

“Shade told me about how you all found me. There is a riolu at your headquarters, is there not?” he asked. “I am following his aura.”

“How do you know it’s the right one?”

“Simply because he is the only riolu in the forest.” He replied before slowing down and stopping. “Wait…”

“That was short-lived.” Espeon sighed. “My dead-weight lifter needs a rest already.”

Lucario gently set Quil on the ground behind him and tilted his neck from side to side, creating several small pops in the process. “There is a malevolent aura nearby.”

“Oh, that’s just Espeon.” Corona said as she shrugged her shoulders.

Moving only his arm, Lucario pointed into a tree to the right. “Someone appears to be very happy you’ve returned... despite the fact it seems to want you dead.”

Some leaves fell to the ground as the dark figured dropped from the tree, her cover blown. She put her claws on her hips and frowned, clearly upset.

“Now where’s the fun in that?” she asked as she leaned back against the tree and folded her arms across her chest while crossing one leg over the other. “I see how it is. You’re so pathetic you can’t handle me yourself, so you go out and find a living radar in a feeble attempt to give yourselves a chance.”

“Your boastful disposition does not support the body it comes from.” Lucario said nonchalantly as he looked at her, unimpressed. “I strongly suggest you leave us alone and go back about your business. You are out of your league, mustela acunychus; arrogance will not help you.”

“You should look at your reflection in a puddle before you go accusing ME of being arrogant.” She replied as she stood up straight. “Did your hosts not bother to tell you my name? That’s very unbecoming of them. Call me Bonnie—it’s much easier to say than my species name.”

“It is inconsequential as to whether I know your name or not. If you have any intelligence whatsoever, you will never cross paths with any of us again.”

“I can understand that. It would be horribly embarrassing to suffer a humiliating defeat at my claws more than once.” Bonnie grinned and walked closer disarmingly. “You would be wise to see me as a threat… but you would be even wiser to see me as an ally. Those parasites can barely stand up to my apprentice, and he hasn’t even evolved yet!”

She extended her claw to Shade and Espeon, clearly anticipating crushing their spirits. “Their own SON thinks they are worthless!” she said before shifting the focus toward Quil. “He’s just a failure; a miserable waste of time and effort!” Her gaze finally came to rest on Corona. “She is just a run-of-the-mill eevee. There is nothing special about her... not like you and me.”

Lucario continued to look at her blankly. “Flattery is for the weak-minded. I suppose it’s fitting for filth like you to resort to it. There is no honor in deception.”

“I see.” Bonnie said as she came to a stop just a few feet in front of him and smiled. “And what of your deception? You appear confident and proud on the outside, but on the inside, you are afraid… not of me, but of yourself.”

“It is not deception if I make no effort to hide it.” Lucario replied. “Unlike you, who suppresses all emotion in pursuit of controlling others and exerting your power over them.”

The edge of Bonnie’s mouth turned upward as her eyes narrowed. “But that is what I was made for.”

She thrust her claw at Lucario’s neck, but was completely unprepared for what happened: her arm stopped moving. Lucario had grabbed her wrist with his paw and was pressing the base of it, triggering a painful pressure point. She hissed and punched with her other claw, only to have it blocked with the one Lucario had restrained.

“Take the mustela vulcans to your headquarters. I will deal with this.” He said to the others as his cold, unfeeling gaze continued to pierce right through her. “I will be there shortly.”

Espeon levitated Quil onto Shade’s back before reluctantly putting Corona on her own, knowing the little eevee wouldn’t be able to keep up with them. Corona held on tight as they accelerated in the direction of the base. She looked over her shoulder just in time to catch a glimpse of a flash cannon plowing down everything in its path before the battle was obscured by the thickening forest.

* * *

“It’s good to have the four of you back, even though Quil’s not really in the best shape.” Mary said as she crushed an aspear berry into a bowl. “This will fix him right up, though.”

“Thanks, Mary.” Quil said as he huddled in a blanket. “I guess the first one wasn’t enough.You must get tired of me constantly showing up here.”

“Of course not, Quil.” She said as she walked over to a carved out section of the wall and scooped some water from it.

“What is that?” Espeon asked. “Who authorized a new water trough to be made?”

“It’s not a trough—it’s an aqueduct.” Mary explained as she walked back over to the crushed berry. “That bibarel that we recruited before you left is the greatest thing to ever happen to us. He installed this system that constantly carries water to the top of the tree and lets it flow down. Whenever you need water, it’s right there—and it’s fresh. Water that reaches the bottom of the tree goes right back to the top. It’s amazing! He’s actually working on making doors that open BY THEMSELVES when you step on a little trigger!”

“Let him know that all future construction projects must be run past ME first.” Espeon said as she rubbed her chin with her tail. “Shade, deliver the message.”

He nodded and got up, but stopped briefly when he saw Lucario standing across the hall. “Lucario! How long have you been there?”

Mary picked up the juice before turning around. “Is this the new recruit you told me abou—“

As soon as she saw him, the cup fell and clattered on the ground, spilling its contents on the floor. She gasped and grabbed a cloth, blushing as she cleaned up the mess. “I-I’m sorry! It was an accident!”

“Do you need help?” Corona asked as she grabbed another towel.

“No, no… I got it.” Mary mumbled. “There’s another aspear berry on the counter… try eating it raw, Quil. That will still help.” She sighed as she wrung out the cloth in a bucket. “I am SUCH a klutz!”

Espeon rolled her eyes and shook her head. “How did it go, Lucario? Did Bonnie get away?”

“I wouldn’t say that.” Lucario said as he took something out from under his arm and dropped it onto the ground in front of Shade. “In fact, you won’t have to worry about her for quite some time.”

Shade watched Lucario step back out into the hallway and walk toward the exit before picking up the discarded object.

“What is it?” Espeon asked as she strolled over to his side.

Shade shook his head in disbelief. “Well… let’s just say Bonnie isn’t a threat anymore.”

Quil sat up in bed and breathed out a little fire. “What do you mean? What did he do to her?”

Shade looked over his shoulder at Quil, then back at the bloody object he was holding. “Let’s just say… there’s a weavile out there in need of a SERIOUS manicure.”

[Shade]

Espeon levitated the stack of papers in front of herself, shifting through the pages and making sure all of Lucario’s information was correct. She had already checked nearly a dozen times, but it was better to have accurate information than erroneous information. Upon deciding it was up to her standards, she began looking through it again, but this time to actually get a coherent feel for it as opposed to looking to see if it was correct. She scanned his enormous move pool, taking note that his most powerful attacks landed in the steel-type category—the one that stuck out the most was doom desire. It made sense, though; doom desire was basically a time-delayed, super-charged flash cannon. The one other attack that stood out was hidden power grass. She rubbed her chin with her tail and tilted her head in thought as she thought back to what had happened at the barren wasteland in the middle of Zephim fields. Quil had displayed the ability to use electricity-based attacks, but did not seem to be aware that he had the capacity to do so. Hidden power was a tricky move—she herself knew it, but rarely used it due to the unusual sensation that came with its use. She could try to teach it to Quil by herself, but she was by no means a master of the move—and it would mean she would have to be around that flaming ball of stupidity more than she would want to be. Perhaps the new recruit would be able to do so.

“My assistance is needed?”

Espeon looked up with a start. “Lucario! How dare you come in here unannounced!?”

“You wanted to speak with me. I do not show up without need.” He replied. “You have a task to ask of me, do you not?”

“You will knock next time. Do you understand?” Espeon growled.

“It will be as you have said.” He replied calmly, clearly unintimidated.

She eyed him warily before continuing. “You know hidden power. Teach it to Quil.”

Lucario turned around and began walking out of the room. Espeon slammed the door shut with telekinesis and glared at him. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“To teach Mustela Vulcans hidden power, as you requested.” He said as he looked over his shoulder.

Espeon’s eyes narrowed as she opened the door again. “You work for me now, Lucario. I suggest you quickly learn proper respect.”

“I have done nothing to disrespect you.” He replied as he continued on his way.

Espeon shut the door behind him and pressed her tail against her forehead, groaning with frustration. “Why do I bother putting up with this?”

* * *

“The secret to finding your inner power is to forget about your natural tendencies.” Lucario said calmly as he and Quil stood atop a tree, balancing on one of its highest branches.

That is, Lucario was balancing—Quil was clinging to the thin branch for dear life. “Is it really necessary to be up here to learn it?” he asked as he dug his claws into the bark. “It would be much safer.”

“Your hidden power will reveal itself more readily if you are balanced in both body and mind.” Lucario replied. “Either that or when the imbalance is so great that it will no longer contain itself. Peace of mind is the only true way to control it.”

He grabbed Quil by the scruff of the neck and hoisted him to his feet. “Your hidden power will not feel like your other abilities… it is foreign; it will feel unnatural.”

“You mean like this?”

Lucario opened his eyes and glanced over at the little quilava, who had his paws close together with small, rippling bands of electricity climbing up from the base to the top before vanishing and repeating.

“… it took months before I could do anything with mine.” Lucario stammered. “You’ve discovered it in minutes!”

Quil raised his paws over his head and separated them, creating a wide arc of electricity. “Wow! This is so cool!” He chuckled gleefully as though he had received a new toy. “I wonder what other kinds of stuff I can do with this.”

“When you master this ability, you will have full control over electricity: lightning, static electricity, and even some basic magnetic powers will be at your disposal.” Lucario answered as he grabbed Quil by the neck as the quilava lost his balance.

“Come on. Let’s get down, Lucario. I wanna play with this in a place that I’m not at risk of falling.”

Lucario began to retaliate, but then reconsidered. Quil’s mind was nowhere near balanced—it almost seemed like chaos in there—yet he was still able to use his hidden power. What he had thought was correct appeared to not always be the case; after all, the only experience he’d had teaching anyone the technique was himself.

“Very well; just as hidden power is unique to the individual, so also must its method of use be.” He said as he jumped out of the tree and landed gracefully on the ground dozens of feet below. He took a few steps back and held his arms out in front of him, catching Quil as he tumbled out of the treetop. “You really should be more careful.”

Quil jumped out of his arms and thanked him for catching him, then put his paws back together to re-initiate the sparks before twirling his arms around, causing the air to crackle with electric energy. “This is so awesome!” he chuckled. “I wonder if I can shoot a lightning bolt with this…”

He thrust his paw outward, generating a localized blast of electricity that scorched the nearby tree trunks and left blackened streaks of charred soil along ground. “It’s not all that different from fire!” he exclaimed as he began generating more. “So wild and uncontrollable… destructive and captivating… dangerous and lethal!”

Lucario’s eyes narrowed. “Do not abuse the power, Mustela Vulcans.” He said over the buzzing of the dancing arcs of electricity. “That open field we passed that looks like a volcano erupted—that was no doubt caused by you.”

“Yeah, well, that was just, like, a few days after I woke up.” Quil said as he stopped the charging. “I can’t wait to show Corona!”

“You appear to have a fairly strong attraction to her.” Lucario said as he began walking alongside Quil, who blushed a little and looked at the ground.

“Yes… She rescued me; I owe my life to her. How can I not be drawn to her?” he replied. “I was starting to think she felt the same way… but apparently not. Others have been teasing us about being a couple, and she continues to deny that we are, saying we’re just friends.”

“I see.” Lucario muttered. “Unfortunately, I have no reliable advice to offer in matters such as this. The ways of social interaction are new concepts for me—or at least concepts unused for so long that they seem foreign.”

“I understand.” Quil sighed. “She just wants to be friends right now, so I’m not entitled to trying to go any farther.”

“It is very respectful of you to regard her that way.” Lucario said as glanced downward. “I was alone on that mountain for many years, but I remember how other males treated females in the lab I was born in… they saw them as objects of pleasure more than companions to be loved and cherished. It disgusted me.”

“I apparently came from a lab, but I can’t remember anything about it. The only memory I have from before waking up is being chased by some pokemon… that’s all. I don’t know where I come from, why I am here, how I got here… or who I left behind.” Quil said as he hung his head. “What if I have friends out there that are worried about me? What if they are looking for me? What if there is some sort of job I am in charge of?”

“Sometimes the best thing you can do is stop worrying about the past. The past is gone—almost in a literal sense for you—you cannot worry about it. You have a new life now; new allies and a fresh start.” Lucario said as he looked away. “… a luxury many of us only wish we could have.”

“I suppose, but I can’t help but wonder. Two decades of experience have been taken from me… and now I have to start from scratch.”

“Perhaps not.” Lucario said as he glanced down at Quil. “You know how old you are, and you clearly know how to walk and speak.” He explained. “Perhaps your past is not as far gone as you think it is. You were able to access your hidden power almost immediately—that leads me to believe that you may have already known how to use it at some point.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Quil said, looking up as they approached the base. “Well, let’s go show Espeon what I’ve learned.”

* * *

Evan slowly opened his eyes at the sound of footsteps. “Bonnie? Bonnie, are you back?”

“Yeah, kid; I’m back.”

“My skin is dry again.” He whined. “Put me in some water!”

“Get in the water yourself.” She barked. “Life isn’t exactly easy for me after having my claws snapped off by that Arceus-forsaken lucario, but you don’t hear me complaining!”

“But my burns—“

“Are scabs now! If you’re careful, they won’t break open when you move.” She hissed before putting her soft, unintimidating paw on her chin. “Then again… perhaps it would be best that I carry you. After all, the faster you heal and can travel again, the sooner you can become Quilava’s worst nightmare.”

Evan’s eyes squinted open as he felt himself be picked up by her deceptively comfortable and squishy paws. “What do you mean?”

Bonnie chuckled quietly to herself before gently stroking Evan’s fire-damaged body. “Let’s just say Quilava has learned a new trick… a trick you can easily use to your advantage. A trick you can use against him so effectively that it will make him unable to stand in your way. You will be able to destroy him, Evan! You will be rid of him once and for all!”

[A'bom]

“Wake up, Mustela Vulcans.”

Quil swung his arms about briefly before they were pinned to his bed. Once he came to his senses, he saw Lucario standing over him, looking at him with an emotionless expression—as per usual.

“You were having a nightmare.” He said quietly. “What you saw horrified you.”

“I know that; I was the one having the dream.” Quil said as he sat up in bed and realized his fur was thoroughly soaked with sweat. “Oh, great! I hate being sweaty!”

“You are concerned.”

Quil squeezed some of the sweat from his fur and looked back. “What makes you say that? It was just a bad dream—it wasn’t real.”

“You cannot deceive me. Your aura does not lie.”

“Lucario, I’m fine. It was just a bad dream. I’m a bit shaken up, but I’m fine.”

Quil could feel the aura pokemon’s piercing eyes stare at him coldly and without feeling. He lowered his head and sighed before dunking his face in the aquifer and letting the water wash off his body. “Fine, I am worried about the nightmares. I have them periodically. I’ve been having them ever since I woke up, though they are slightly less frequent now. At first I didn’t remember what happened in them, but over time I eventually began remember fragments of what I had dreamed. Usually it involves things burning—usually large boxes. Sometimes there are living things in the boxes—usually humans, but sometimes there are pokemon, too. I’m usually just standing there, watching it happen from a distance. I try to turn away, but I can’t. I hate seeing all those people in my dreams get hurt. I know it’s not real, but it’s wearing me down. It’s like my brain is performing psychological warfare on itself, trying to make me go insane!”

“Perhaps your past is trying to make itself known to you.” Lucario said in response. “You desire to remember what happened prior to your current memory.”

Quil nodded as he plopped down on the ground. “Yeah, but I don’t think my nightmares are because of that. I had one where Espeon and I were playing together and having a good time when all of a sudden I was pulled from her and started playing with Bonnie instead. Oh, it looked like Shade was playing with me and Espeon, too, but he was much smaller than normal. Anyway, Espeon would never have fun doing ANYTHING with me, and Bonnie wants me dead.”

“You say you don’t think they are related, but part of you thinks they are. You are not sure what to think, but these nightmares cause you to instinctively wonder about your past.”

Quil’s ears lay flat as he nodded. “Yes… I wonder if these things I’m dreaming about are things I was supposed to prevent, but failed. That makes me wonder who I left behind: Did I have friends or a family? Was I an important individual? Is anyone looking for me? How long have I been gone?”

Lucario put his paw on Quil’s shoulder and squeezed it gently. “There is a possibility that I can provide you with access to the information you seek.” He said as he lifted Quil to his feet. “You are an experimental pokemon; therefore, you originate from a laboratory. Humans keep extensive records of their experiments and findings in a way very similar to how Evolus Helios does. I came from a laboratory, but it is very far away from here. There is a chance that there would be records about you there if you came from another branch of the same institution. I am willing to take you there, but we must be very careful.”

Quil suddenly jumped up and hugged Lucaro. “You mean it!? THANK YOU, THANK YOU!”

Within a fraction of a second, Lucario had reached around and grabbed him by the back of the neck, ripping him away from his body and throwing him into the wall on the opposite end of the room.

“What did you just do to me!?” he cried as he showed a rare moment of emotion. “What did you do to my aura!?”

Quil slid down the wall and slumped onto the ground head-first. “Urg… what are you talking about? All I did was hug you!”

“No! You did something to me! You took away some of my aura!” Lucario said in a panic.

Quil rolled onto his side and got up. “I may be an experiment, but I don’t know anything about aura. I can’t see it, touch it, or whatever it is you use to detect it.”

Upon realizing that Quil was being honest, Lucario calmed down and narrowed his eyes. “Wait… I see it now… your aura is contaminated with the others!”

“You can’t be serious.” Quil grumbled.

“I am always serious.” Lucario replied. “You possess not only my aura and your own, but also fragments from Evolis Luna, Evolis Helios, Evolus Multipotens, and the aura of another that I am not familiar with.”

“That must be why everyone always acts so weird when I hug them. But… why does that happen?”

“I am not sure.” Lucario replied as he left his defensive stance. “Perhaps there are answers at the laboratory. We will discuss this with Evolus Luna and Evolus Helios at sunrise.”

Quil yawned. “How long until then?”

“Approximately three hours.” Lucario replied. “You best get some more sleep.”

“And what about you?”

“I have already slept for three hours, which is more than enough.” Lucario said as he walked out the door and shut it behind himself.

Quil slapped his paw on his forehead, causing an involuntary puff of fire to shoot out of the nearest spot. “They never listen.” He mumbled as he crawled back into bed and closed his eyes. “Hopefully when I wake up I won’t be covered with sweat again…”

* * *

“Just be careful out there.” Corona said as she gave Quil a goodbye hug. “Are you sure you can’t tell me where you’re going?”

Quil nodded and closed his eyes briefly. “It’s for the best. Trust me on this one.”

Corona walked over to Lucario and gave him a hug, though he just stood there and looked at her as she did so. She then went to Shade and gave him a hug as well. “You guys make sure you all get back in one piece.” she turned to Espeon and looked up at her then averted her eyes. “You be careful too, Espeon. We don’t get along sometimes, but I still don’t want you to get hurt.”

“You should be more worried about yourself, furball.” she scoffed as she rolled her eyes.

Corona turned back and walked over to Quil, stopping and looking up into his eyes before nodding and walking back to the entrance of the base to stand amidst a small group consisting of an espeon, shinx, zoroark, bayleef, riolu, sceptile, and lopunny. As Quil, Espeon, Shade, and Lucario departed, Mary knelt down next to Corona and gently rubbed the top of her head.

“You know, all you’d have to do is tell him how you feel.” She whispered.

Corona used her tail to push the lopunny’s hand away from her. “When I said I liked him, that’s not what I meant.” She said with a calm sigh. “Don’t get me wrong; Quil’s one of the best friends I’ve ever had. It’s just that the more I’m with him, the more I wonder if he’s actually who he is. Once he remembers what happened before I found him—if he ever remembers, that is—he could completely change. For all we know, he could already have a family and a position of power in a community. On top of that, I feel like he’s hiding something from me—why didn’t he tell me where he was going or why he was going there?”

Mary looked up at the glow of the quilava’s flames as they continued to shrink into the distance. “I wish we knew.” She muttered, knowing full well why he wouldn’t say—that was the burden of being next in line for command. “Maybe it’s just better to not know… come on. Let’s go finish cleaning out the base. Then I can teach you a few healing moves I picked up over the years.”

[Shade]

Leafeon fell to the ground, crying in agonizing pain as Typhlosion attacked her with a full-fledged fireblast. She coated her body with a thick layer of bark in an attempt to shield herself from the brutal assault, but in vain.

“There’s grass all around you! Why aren’t you doing anything with it?”

Her leaves caught fire as the moisture was drained from them by the scorching heat. She dug her paws into the ground and tried to drain the moisture from it, but to no avail.

“You’d better do something or you’re going to burn to death!”

She eyed the human through the fire, hating him and wishing there was something she could do to get revenge for the inhumane training methods he was using. It was beyond her why Typhlosion would listen to that savage—let alone LIKE him.

“That’s enough.” The human shouted, signaling the end of the otherwise lethal attack. “You deserved to die in that fire, but I’m under orders to bring you back alive.” He said as he walked up to her and lifted back his leg before swinging it back down to deliver a brutal kick to her ribcage, forcing an involuntary yelp to escape her mouth, along with a small amount of a viscous red substance. “Keep quiet!”

Leafeon closed her eyes and clenched her teeth as she awaited a second kick, which would surely cause severe internal bleeding if it hit in the same spot as before—while her thick, sap-like blood would easily mend a small hemorrhage, a larger one could still be fatal. To her great surprise and relief, it never came; instead, she heard the human screaming from above her. She opened her eyes, wiped the blood from her chin, and looked up to see him dangling ten feet off the ground as though an invisible hand was lifting him by his left leg. Ignoring his profane crying and yelling, she got to her feet and looked around to try to figure out what was going on. Typhlosion was clearly just as confused as she was.

“Over there, you idiots!” the human yelled as he pointed behind them to an espeon. “Typhlosion, use fireblast! Leafeon, use leaf blade!”

Typhlosion obeyed immediately, but Leafeon hesitated.

“Why do I bother with you?” the human muttered as he took out a pokeball and aimed it at her. “Get in the ball!”

She lowered her head, knowing that the next time she was out of that thing would be very unpleasant. She stumbled back in shock as an inky black wall shot out of the ground and arced over her body, preventing the beam from forcing her back into confinement. Then she found herself suddenly yanked off her feet and carried over behind the espeon, who was clearly enjoying herself quite a bit as she dangled the human off the ground, threatening to drop him at any instant.

“Are you critically injured, evolus folis?” a deep, wise voice asked.

Leafeon turned her head and found a lucario standing over her, patting her leaves with his paws to put out the smoldering embers. She lay on the ground, mouth hanging open, wondering if she dared to speak. The human couldn’t do anything to her now, but she was so used to being punished for any sort of noise whatsoever that she found it difficult to say anything.

“Humans are a lot lankier than I thought they would be,” said a much higher-pitched, almost playful-sounding voice which belonged to a quilava. “I mean, I knew they looked kinda like that, but still…”

“Just take care of the typhlosion, Quil!” the espeon shouted as she continued to torment her victim.

“No, don’t fight him! He’s more powerful than you could ever imagine!” Leafeon shouted urgently.

The quilava looked at her and grinned like he was anticipating the satisfaction of correcting a mistake. “I’m no pushover, myself.”

“Don’t let all that hot air get to your head, ember-butt!” the espeon growled as she pointed at the fireblast she had been holding off with a psychic barrier.

“Yeah, I’m on it.” Quil said as he rocketed forward and swept his arm through the air, throwing a massive prominence of fire outward and pushing the fireblast aside.

Shade rose out of Espeon’s shadow as she raised and dropped the human in the air, each time stopping his fall just a little bit closer to the ground. “Espeon, be careful! You’re going to hurt him!”

“It’s what the fool deserves!” she laughed as she stopped his fall about five feet from the ground. “See for yourself!”

A small part of the human’s clothing tore off and flew over to levitate in front of Shade’s face. Embroidered on the sleeve was a symbol that looked like an ‘X’ with a line across the top. His eyes widened as he put his paw oh her shoulder.

“Espeon, that’s in the past! Get a hold of yourself!”

Just as her victim was mere inches from the ground, she halted his decent and instead hurled him a great distance. He got to his knees and glared up at them.

“Typhlosion, use fire blast! Make it stronger this time!”

Typhlosion did as he was told, but Quil stood his ground and pulled back his arm. As the attack neared him, he threw a punch that generated something reminiscent of an explosion, causing fire to fan out in all directions like it had come in contact with a wall.

“That’s no normal quilava.” The human said as he stood up. “Use earthquake! Do it now!”

Quil cracked a smile as the ground began to tremble. A quick sweep of his foot sent a compression wave rippling through the earth, sweeping Typhlosion’s feet right out from underneath him and making him face-plant hard.

“I wonder if I can use that to get around faster.” Quil wondered as he dashed forward using nitro charge, gaining speed with each stride.

“Thunder punch!”

He gasped and struggled to stop before making contact with Typhlosion’s electrified fist. Unfortunately, he winded up being jabbed right in the chest with several hundred volts of electricity. His body shook spastically as he got up and narrowed his eyes. He clasped his paws together and pulled them apart, generating wide arcs of static that built in strength as he whirled his arms around like generators in a turbine.

“Stone edge!”

Lightning blasted in all directions as Quil flew high into the air and landed next to Espeon with a thud. “When are you ever going to fight as hard as you did against me?” she grunted as she rolled her eyes.

“I will deal with the mustela tambora if necessary.” Lucario said as he stepped forward slowly. “Evolus folis, flee from here. Now is your chance for freedom.”

“But… where will I go?” She asked.

“Does it really matter?” Shade asked. “It can’t be any worse than being abused.”

Leafeon nodded, then slowly turned and began running.

“Turn and go back to where you came from, human.” Lucario shouted.

“Go back without one of the experiments I’m supposed to be training? The head of the department will fire me for sure!” he barked back. “Typhlosion, use eruption on the lucario!”

Lucario raised his paw and whipped it downward, causing a fast-moving crack to span the distance between him and his target before exploding in a radial blast of stone outcroppings right at Typhlosion’s feet. He dashed forward and jumped into the air, striking the fire-type repeatedly and brutally with a volley of solid bullet punches before dealing the final blow in the form of a hi jump kick.

“Typhlosion, return!” the human called as he withdrew the unconscious pokemon and ran as fast as he could, tripping several times before finally getting into a steady stride.

Espeon began to give chase, but Lucario grabbed her by the scruff of the neck. “Let him go. He is not worth our time. We must concentrate our efforts on finding the laboratory.” He said as he observed the sky-rise of the city. “Things have changed since I left.”

* * *

“You lost experiment 470-05?!”

“Yes sir, but please let me explain!”

“Then let’s hear your explanation… it had BETTER be a good one!”

“I was ambushed by four pokemon. They easily defeated Typhlosion… er… experiment 157-49. 470-05 fled in the confusion!”

“You cannot blame 157-49 for your incompetence! You are not qualified for your job if you can’t even handle four wild pokemon with one of our experimental pokemon!”

“But they were not wild pokemon, sir! At least two of them were other experiments!”

The division manager’s eyes widened with shock. “Details! Give me details now!”

“There were four: the espeon’s psychic prowess was incredible, even at a distance it was able to throw me around like a piece of cardboard! The umbreon could disappear in shadows and make dark barriers. The quilava, though… it was able to hold its own against 157-49 for a little while! It seemed incredibly intelligent and capable of learning new attacks very rapidly; it saw 157-49 use thunder punch and almost immediately was using the attack, itself! Then there was the lucario—“

“Lucario?”

“Yes sir, a lucario—and it could talk!”

“That’s all I need to know.” The division manager said as he turned around and folded his hands. “Years upon years of hunting and searching, and he comes right back to us… alert security and have the archivists ready to examine our catch. We are going to be cashing in big!”

[A'bom]

Espeon chucked a car at the flashing blue and red lights as she ripped up chunks of the sidewalk to shield against incoming ultra balls. “You had to stop me from killing him!” she hissed angrily. “If he were dead, we wouldn’t be in this mess now, would we?”

“We’re gonna die! We’re gonna die! Dear Arceus, we’re gonna DIE!!!” Quil wailed hysterically as he covered his head and ducked to the ground.

“They’re more afraid of you than you are of them, as hard as it is to believe.” Shade said as he blocked a swarm of pokeballs. “Well… maybe not YOU, but…”

“Be careful of the civilians, Evolus Helios!” Lucario shouted. “They are just innocent bystanders in all of this!”

“It’s either them or us, you two-legged freak!” she growled. “Besides, we help pokemon—not humans!”

Lucario watched in horror as one of the cars Espeon had thrown crashed into the side of a building and fell to the ground, nearly crushing half a dozen people in the process. Power lines fell to the ground, cornering a mother and her child in the middle of the street as she ran from a department store in a panic. Pushing Espeon aside, he jumped through the air landed next to the human, holding his arms out to her.

“Give me the child. I will get it someplace safe!”

The woman hesitated, confused and terrified at the same time as she watched him deflect an incoming automobile with flash cannon.

“Quickly! I will come back for you!”

Realizing she and her kid would probably die anyway if they just stood there, she reluctantly handed the infant over. “Please, don’t hurt my baby! Just take him where he won’t get hurt!”

Lucario nodded and did a back-flip over the power lines, hugging the little human close to his body as he landed. He turned around and narrowly evaded what appeared to be darts as he rushed to the sidewalk and looked over the traumatized people in front of him.

“You.” He said as he held the baby out to a young man. “Your aura is pure and trustworthy. Guard this child while I rescue its mother.”

After handing off the baby, Lucario rushed back to the woman and picked her up, throwing her high into the air and jumping to the other side of the power lines to catch her. He carried her over to the boy who was holding her baby and set her down, then ran back to regroup with a baby of another sort.

“They’re going to cut us open and take out our brains and put them in other pokemon!” Quil screamed as he rolled on the ground. “Then they’re gonna harvest the rest of our organs and use them as delicious appetizers at some sort of bizarre human ritual!”

Espeon gritted her teeth as she turned around and smacked him with her tail. “Get a grip, you fire-brained idiot!” she spat angrily. “How is rolling on the ground and crying like a bonsly going to—ouch!”

“What’s wrong, Espeon?” Shade asked.

She teetered around for a second before collapsing on the ground. Shade plucked a dart from her rear end dropped it in front of the others.

“Tranquilizers.” Lucario grunted as Shade raised up a black wall.

“LIES!” Quil screeched as he clawed at the top of his head. “This Quil is ANYTHING but tranquil!”

“Lucario, take Quil and get him out of here! I’ll hold them off as long as I can!”

“No! We can’t leave you behind, Shade!” Quil cried as he stood up.

“I must stand by Espeon’s side until the last breath!” Shade shouted. “Now RUN!”

“Shade, there has to be some way to—“

Lucario grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him into a nearby office building. “Mustela Vulcans, get to the roof as fast as you can. You will need to fly out that window and up to the top. I will find another way. Do not argue with me; now is not the time! Survival is more important right now!”

Quil lit up his hindspots and flew at the opening, only to smack right into an invisible wall. He fell off and flopped onto his back on the hard, unforgiving tiled floor before getting up and putting his paw against the invisible wall.

“What kind of place is this!?” he cried as he pounded his paws against the unseen surface, leaving smudge marks behind. “Whatever it is, I’m sure enough fire will get rid of it!”

He belched out a flamethrower, causing the sprinkler system to go off as nearby merchandise began to burn.

“Give me a break!” he shouted as the water put out his attack.

To his surprise, though, there was a glowing hole in the once-invisible surface. He climbed out and started up his rear again, flying higher and higher until he reached the top of the structure. He ran to the edge and peered over to see Shade fending off what seemed to be an endless supply of pokeballs and tranquilizers—until the barriers stopped appearing.

“No…” Quil whimpered as a tear fell from his cheek, leaving a trail of steam as it went.

He jumped up onto the rim and began charging up a lightning bolt, but found himself clinging to the edge as a sudden loud wind pushed him off his feet. The electricity dissipated as he struggled back up and squinted his eyes against the thundering gale of the object that was hovering a couple dozen feet above him. A rope fell from the side and two humans slid down onto the rooftop, reaching into their pockets and throwing out what looked like little, round rocks.

“Mustela Vulcans! Get away from those!”

Quil looked up and watched as Lucario pinched the shoulder of one of the humans, causing it to fall over into a heap. The other human, however, was much faster and stabbed a tranquilizer into Lucario’s arm before he was able to react. Quil began taking a deep breath to ready a flamethrower, but the small orbs suddenly began releasing a cloud of gas. He gasped and coughed as his eyes and throat began to sting.

“Run! While you… still can!” Lucario grunted with effort before collapsing.

In a tremendous display of willpower, Quil blew away the pepper gas with a heat wave. Unfortunately for him, the unbearable discomfort persisted as a dart jabbed into his shoulder. He fell to the ground and instantly he felt something smack into his forehead.

“Yeah, this is Officer Jenny from chopper two: I got the other two targets subdued. They appear to already have owners; pokeballs will not work. I have an officer down due to a shoulder nerve pinch, but other than that we’re all clear.”

“Ten-four. The espeon and umbreon were also unaffected by pokeballs.” Came the reply from the headset.

Quil looked up just in time to see the human take off her helmet before his vision faded out and his body went numb.

“Alright, let’s get you back to the lab that reported your escape.” Jenny said as she gently picked up the unconscious fire-type; a sudden noise behind her made her turn around with a start. “Who goes there?!”

“I’m from the lab that reported the missing pokemon. I was roaming the streets looking for them and saw the commotion.” The man, who was dressed in a white lab coat, said as he held out two collars to her. “Those pokemon were accidentally exposed to an experimental serum that promotes aggression. I’m not here to take them from you, since there’s still all that paperwork to be filled out, but these collars will interfere with their brainwaves to suppress the aggression until we can get them back and come up with an antidote.”

Jenny took the collar and clipped it around the quilava’s neck. “It’s a bit bulky—are you sure it’s necessary?”

“Trust me, officer; it’s for the safety of the pokemon.”

“Well, alright. Thank you for your cooperation.” She said as she put the other collar on the lucario. “I’m going to have to ask you to go back in the building now. The chopper needs to land so I can airlift these three to get some medical attention.”

“Thank you, officer.” The man said as he walked back into the building’s stairwell and took out his cell phone.

“The authorities bought it; the security collars are on all four of them. They will be at the lab by the end of the day.”

[Shade]

Quil slowly opened his eyes as the brightness of his surroundings blinded him. He backed up and rammed into a barred wall, causing a loud clanging noise as he flopped forward.

“Finally awake, I see.”

“Quil-LAVA!”

The scientist put his hand on the cage to hold it still. “Quiet, you! That collar you’re wearing will electrocute you if you even TRY to use any of your powers, so I would think twice about retaliating if I were you! Besides, that tranquilizer should give me a few hours to test you before your powers resurface.”

Quil growled as he looked up at the threatening-voiced man. Whatever he was saying to him, it wasn’t meant to be kind. It wasn’t like there was anything he was able to do, anyway. He was trapped in this metal cage, which was further trapped inside a white room—a cold white room with lots of humming machines. It all seemed very familiar, like he’d seen another place like it in the past. The steel cage didn’t ring any bells, though. He scratched at the bars, trying to find some weak point he could exploit for escape when the human suddenly grabbed his paw and shoved a needle into it, drawing out some blood. Quil yipped and pulled back, licking the tiny, bleeding wound.

“Shut up! Don’t be a baby.”

“Quil quilava-quil!”

The man put the blood in a test tube and added some chemicals to it before putting it in a centrifuge and sitting at a computer. “I don’t like your tone—you should be more respectful to the guy that’s determining whether you’re of any use or not.”

Quil growled and began scratching at the cage’s lock.

“You have no key, you have no powers, and you have no thumbs; you’re not getting out of that cage.” The scientist said as a second white-garbed human walked into the room.

“Johnson, we need your help down in room 3-A. That espeon won’t shut up.”

“You tried manually activating the collar on him?”

“Well, it’s a female, actually… but yeah. She’s cooperating now; she just won’t shut up, and it’s really getting on my nerves. Jenkins and Smith can’t get her to shut her trap, either. We thought maybe you could get the job done, since you’re a little more forceful than the rest of us.”

Quil watched as the one named ‘Johnson’ stood up and walked out the door, continuing to speak in that babble the humans called communication while the other human nodded and entered the room.

“Hey there.” He said as he sat down at the computer and began typing. “Tough luck getting Johnson as your inspector; if that espeon gives him as much trouble as she gave me, though, I might be able to finish your testing by the time he gets done with her.”

Quil eyed this new human warily. Its voice was much gentler and benevolent than that of Johnson’s. The young man got up and knelt down at eye level with him, then opened the cage and picked him up, scratching behind his ear.

“Don’t worry. I’m not gonna hurt you. I just need to have a look at you and make sure you’re really what we think you are.” He said as he put the quilava on the table. “There you go. Good boy. Or… girl. Whatever you are. We’ll find out in just a second.”

Quil involuntarily began to purr as the man turned him over on his back and rubbed his belly before picking up a clip board and checking something off. “Alright, little guy. It looks like Johnson already got a blood sample going. Let’s have a look at the rest of you… what do we have here?”

Quil sighed as each of his hotspots was gently tapped, each one generating a tingling feeling all over his body.

“Three in a triangle pattern on the head, five on the backside pattered like the five-side of some dice. Let’s see if that matches any descriptions in our database.”

Quil jumped off the table and followed the human to the computer, standing on his hind legs in an attempt to see what was on the screen. He stooped down and picked him up, holding him in one arm while clicking and typing with the other.

“Well, let’s try to narrow this down… No, these didn’t survive more than a few days. That one had to be put to sleep. Oh, here we go: M. Vulcans #156-47.”

Quil’s eyes widened as he heard the identification number. It still sounded like the garbled up human language, but he recognized the pattern and knew what it translated to.

“Let’s see what else it says about—“

“SPAULDING! Put that experiment back in the cage immediately!” Johnson yelled as he stomped into the room.

Quil growled as he jumped out of the kinder human’s arm and used flamethrower. The result was a lot of hot air, some smoke, and a quick beep noise from the collar around his neck. The next thing he knew, he was forcefully thrown back in the cage and locked back in it.

“I go do all the work for you on that yappity espeon and you play with my work? I’m going to write you up for this!”

“But I already identified him, Mr. Johnson.” Spaulding replied. “M. Vulcans #156-47. I’ve got the file right there on the Computer.”

Johnson slapped his hand on his forehead. “Fine, whatever. Just take it and the Espeon up to the store room and bring me the lucario! Ugh… interns.”

Quil widened his stance as the cage was picked up by Spaulding and carried out the room and down the hall to another room, where Espeon could be heard shouting threats and obscenities at the other two humans that were in the room.

“Did he identify her?”

“Yeah, but she’s still going on about whatever it is she’s going on about.” A feminine voice said as Espeon’s cage was handed to Spaulding.

“I wish they’d hurry up and invent those handheld translators so we could find out what’s wrong.” The other human laughed. “Maybe then we could get her to be quiet. Why don’t you just throw her in there with the quilava so you don’t have another hundred pounds to carry?”

“Sure.” Spaulding replied as he opened Quil’s cage and quickly transferred Espeon into it, getting a few scratches in the process. “She’s a feisty one! I hope she gets along with this quilava better than she does with us.”

Quil pushed himself up against the wall of the cage as Espeon slid into the cage and squished him. “If I weren’t wearing this collar, you would be DEAD!”

“Espeon? I never thought I’d say it, but am I ever happy to see you!” Quil whispered, relieved to see a familiar face again—even if it was the face of someone that saw him as inferior and mocked him on a regular basis.

“You don’t need to whisper, Tephra Breath. Humans are too stupid to understand what we’re saying.” She scoffed as she pushed away from his body.

“What did they do to you?”

“Not much until that Johnson one arrived. You have no interest in what he did.” She replied as she got squished by Quil as the cage shifted with Spaulding’s stride.

“Oof! Okay… where are we?”

“No doubt the lab Lucario was leading us to. That human he let get away informed them of us and got to us before we got to them, I bet.” Espeon said as she pulled at her collar with her tail.

“What are they going to do to us?”

She once again tried to put as much space between herself and Quil as possible, but without much success. “Shut up! I don’t have all the answers, so quit asking so many questions!”

A door opened in front of them and revealed a room drastically different from the labs: it was dark, muggy, and fairly foul-smelling.

“Sorry I have to put you guys in here, but it’s where all the pokemon that aren’t from this lab or don’t behave go.”

Espeon hissed as Spaulding shut the door behind him on his way out. “Get back here and let me out! Don’t you DARE leave me in here locked up with this flaming ball of stupidity!”

Quil frowned and sat on his side of the cage, flicking the steel bars with his paw. “You may as well just get used to it, Espeon. I don’t think there’s any way for us to get out of this one... not until one of us gets our powers back.”

“Even when we did, these collars will hurt us; even if I so much as lifted a piece of straw with telekinesis, I’d be on the ground in seconds.” She replied. “Did you think they just put them on to make us look pretty?”

“I never paid much attention to it. I’m just wondering what’s going to happen to us.”

“We’re going to rot. That’s what humans do to pokemon.”

“That human that brought us in here seemed like a decent being.” Quil muttered. “It treated me very kindly. Its voice was not threatening—it even sounded friendly. The way it held me was very gentle, too.”

“It was a male, you dolt.”

Quil frowned. “How was I supposed to know? All these humans look the same to me!”

Espeon put her tail to her forehead and grunted. “I don’t know what Shade sees in you. You’re just a stupid, dim-witted quilava with a few special tricks at your disposal.”

“Well, you’re just a stuck up, pompous espeon with a power lust!” Quil growled as he bared his teeth.

Espeon whipped her tail to smack him, but was unable to due to the bars being in the way. She looked over at him, their eyes now locked and filled with a mutual rage until Quil closed his eyes and turned his head away.

“Look, Espeon… I’m sorry. It’s just that you’re always calling me names and belittling me.” He said quietly. “It hurts my feelings.”

“Big deal.” Espeon scoffed as laid her head against the bars of the cage. “I don’t care about your delicate little feelings.”

Quil’s nose twitched as he grew angry once again. “What do I have to do to get you to treat me like a friend instead of garbage?!” He cried. “I forgive you for trying to get me to join your rescue squad by making me think you were interested in me, join it anyway, lend you my abilities, put up with your abuse, help you find your son when he runs away, stand there by your side to support you when he disowns you, nearly lose the most important person in my life while helping you recruit Lucario—who you see only as an object of power—and you STILL treat me like the scum of the earth!”

“Then I am treating you appropriately.” She replied indifferently.

Quil punched the cage and growled. “Well, like it or not, you’re stuck with me; so you’d better just suck it up and deal with it!”

Espeon scoffed again. “I do on a daily basis.”

He slammed his head on the bars and closed his eyes. “Whatever… I’m just going to sit here and wait until something happens to get us out of here.”

Espeon sighed and glanced over at him before turning away again. “There is no possible way he and I will ever be friends.”

[A'bom]

Espeon slowly opened her eyes from the worst night of sleep she’d ever had. Unfortunately for her, she would have rather remained asleep forever than wake up to what was on top of her right now.

“Get off!” She screamed as she sat up and kicked Quil in the face repeatedly.

“Ouch! Augh! What in Arceus’s name are you doing!?” Quil cried as he was rudely awaked from a rather pleasant dream. “Ow! My eye!”

Shade opened his eyes and peered across the dim light of the room to see his mate savagely beating the poor, confused quilava. “Espeon, get a hold of yourself!”

Quil twisted his body and curled his legs up, pressing his feet against Espeon’s belly and kicking with all the force he could muster, smashing her against the opposite side of the cage.

“That is ENOUGH!”

The sound of twisting, ripping metal filled the room as Lucario used pure brute strength to mangle the bars and tear a rent in the top of his cage, giving him plenty of space to step out and repeat the process on Shade’s cage.

“Your callow behavior is inadmissible and gives reason for one to question your suitability as a leader, Evolus Helios!” he scolded as he finished mutilating Shade’s prison. “You were trapped in a confined space with Mustela Vulcans for the night; he is a restless sleeper, and it is only reasonable to assume that he will have moved or rolled over while he was sleeping!”

He shoved a foot and a paw between the bars of their cage and straightened his body, causing a few of them to snap clean through and twisting others into unrecognizable shapes. Quil’s uninjured eye widened in amazement.

“How did you do that?! What about the collar? Didn’t it hurt you?”

“Physical strength is intrinsic to the body and cannot be contained without proper methods of restraint.” Lucario said as he grabbed Espeon’s swinging tail and whacked her in the head with it before casting it aside.

Espeon bared her teeth and hissed before regaining her composure. “Well, o great and wise aura-chucker, what should we do now that all the noise has more than likely attracted the humans’ attention?”

There was a sudden pounding on the door, followed by the voice of Johnson.

“Shut up in there! Some of us aren’t particularly happy to have to come into work at five a.m., and may be inclined to kick something they find annoying! So I’d be quiet if you don’t want me to come in there!”

After about a minute of silence, Lucario folded his arms and looked down at Espeon. His face was void of emotion, but his eyes screamed ‘you were saying?’

“Wipe that grin off your face.” She growled as she walked over to Shade.

“I’m not grinning.” Lucario said as he walked over to the door and pressed his ear against it. “It’s five a.m. right now, so the facility should be relatively empty.”

Quil stood up as the swelling around his eye and jaw began to subside. “What’s an a.m.?”

“It’s how the humans tell time, dunderhead.” Espeon spat. “The sun is just starting to rise.”

“Shut up!” Quil barked. “I wasn’t asking you, anyway!”

“I shouldn’t have to deal with stupid flameballs like you.” Espeon grumbled as she walked over to the door, facing it to hide her smile as she mouthed to herself. “But at least it looks like he’s growing a spine.”

“How are we supposed to open it?” Quil asked. “Why do humans have to make all their stuff thumb-operated?”

Espeon wrapped her tail around the knob and twisted it, opening the door wide open. “Tails tend to work just as well… but you wouldn’t know, would you?”

Quil craned his neck around and looked down at his butt, wiggling it a little as he did so. “Well, at least others can’t smack me in the head with it.”

“That’s enough out of both of you.” Shade said as he peered out the doorway. “The coast is clear. Let’s see if we can find an unlocked door. Lucario, you’re the fastest and stealthiest. Go check them out.”

Lucario shook his head. “There’s no point. We cannot get into the rooms unless by force. The only way to get in from the outside is to have the same pawprint as one of the lab’s employees. I can break off one of the door handles, but the damage will be obvious. We won’t have a lot of time.”

“Do it. They’ll know we’ve escaped anyway.” Shade said as he gestured over to the scrap metal remains of their cages.

Lucario nodded and walked over to the door across the hall. After carefully placing the tip of his spike near the base of the knob, he slammed one paw against the other like a hammer to create a ream in the surface. With a swift jerk of his arm, the entire locking mechanism ripped right out of the door.

“Quickly; I have little doubt the human heard that.” He said as he ushered the others into the room just as Johnson ran out into the hall, cursing as Lucario pushed the door shut. “I’ll hold him off as long as I can. You try to find the informa—AUGH!!!”

“Lucario?!” Quil gasped as he ran back to the door and pushed it back open to find the aura pokemon convulsing on the ground, a red light on the collar blinking rapidly as it emitted a constant, high-pitched buzz.

Johnson kicked Lucario’s limp body out of the way as he turned to face the other three.

Espeon’s eyes began to glow as beakers and test tubes began to rattle under the influence of her telekinesis until a second buzz sounded. She dropped to the ground and screamed in pain as electricity arced all over her body. Enraged by what had just happened to his mate, Shade began to enter a shadow, only to be electrocuted by his own collar.

“Looks like you aren’t as stupid as the others.” Johnson said as he kept his finger on the remote activation switch. “Just lay down and you won’t have to go through what they did.”

Panicked, Quil turned around and ran to the other side of the room, hiding behind a trashcan. He jumped in surprise as his collar began to buzz loudly, the blinking red light visible in the reflection of the tiled floor, and braced himself for pain that never came. The trashcan flew aside as Johnson grabbed it and hurled it across the room. Quil screamed and ran under his legs and out into the hall; he didn’t have any idea where he was going, and it didn’t matter—as long as Johnson wasn’t there.

“Get back here, you stupid pokemon!” Johnson yelled as he dragged Espeon and Shade out of the room and threw them on top of Lucario. “That collar it’s wearing must be busted!”

Quil rounded the corner and looked behind him to see if he was being followed, unaware of the closed hall door in front of him. He crashed into it and rolled on the ground for a moment before getting to his feet and looking back from the direction he’d come from to see Johnson.

“Now I’ve got you!” he grumbled as he approached the cornered quilava.

Suddenly, the door behind him pinged and opened. He turned away from the approaching scientist to find another.

“156-47? How’d you get out of your cage?” Spaulding asked as he scooped Quil up into his arms.

Johnson’s jaw dropped as he sputtered like an idiot. “What the… how did… you just… Why did it just let you pick it up when it was trying so hard to get away from me?”

Spaulding looked at the blinking collar and pressed the off button. “Well, for one thing, you tried to use the security band; the buzzing probably scared him. Luckily for this little guy, the collar he’s wearing is defective.” He said as he pressed a series of buttons and removed the item. “Maybe if you weren’t so mean to him in the first place, he’d be more obedient. Come on, buddy; let’s get you a new collar.”

Quil stuck out his tongue at Johnson as he was carried past him and into another room.

“Here we go.” Spaulding said as he reached into a drawer and pulled out a new collar, placing it snugly around Quil’s neck.

“That lucario destroyed the cages.” Johnson said as he walked into the room with some mangled steel bars in his hands. “I saw it rip out the lock on one of the lab doors. It’d be the only one of the four with enough physical strength to do that. We’ll need to split the four of them up and put each of them in separate rooms. I’m going to take the Lucario to a special containment unit. Just put the others in storage closets until we can figure out what to do with them.”

“Except the espeon.” Spaulding replied. “You got the memo, right? I’ll take her to the prep room instead.”

“I still need to check my inbox. I got distracted.” Johnson said as he gave Quil an angry look. “Just put that quilava in a cage and put it back in the room you put it in last night.”

Quil purred involuntarily as Spaulding scratched behind his ear, but closed his eyes in shame. He ran when his friends needed him—he could have fought back, but he ran like a coward. Now he was all alone in a world alien to him, surrounded by humans and man-made technology unlike anything he’d ever seen before; stranded and unsure of what would happen to his friends—of what would happen to himself. He was sure of one thing, though: he was trapped.

[Shade]

Quil wiped the tears from his eyes as he looked around in the darkness. He was alone in a small room, locked in a cage, wearing a collar that would electrocute him if he used any of his powers. It had to be the middle of the night. He couldn’t hear any humans outside the door, and it was silent in general. As he stuck his paw under his collar to adjust it, he was startled by the familiar loud buzzing noise from earlier. From what had happened to the others, buzzing meant being shocked—but he was clearly not in any pain. Intrigued, he breathed a small flame out of his mouth, triggering the collar’s buzzer, but still felt nothing.

“Wait just a minute…”

The collar began buzzing as Quil put his paws together and generated a few small arcs of static electricity, then stuck one of them near his neck. As he pulled it away, clear bands of fuzzy blue light extended from the collar to his paw, lighting his cage slightly. He twirled his arm a few times and grabbed hold of the collar, using hidden power to pump it full of electricity. After a brief hissing noise and a smell like that of molten metal, the collar’s lock came undone. Quil lit a small flame in his paw and looked at the compromised piece of equipment, smiled, and threw it across the room, knocking over several bottles of cleaning substances and a mop.

“There’s got to be a way for me to get out of this thing.” Quil said as he cupped his paws around a bar and began breathing fire on it.

The metal began to glow, but that was the extent of it. He need a way to cut the metal apart—the only way he could melt the metal was if he could heat his fire to the point of being blue—and even then it would be difficult to melt the bars clean through. The problem was that he didn’t know how. It happened when he was angry, but he wasn’t angry at the moment.

“There’s got to be another way.” He thought to himself as he began messing around with his fire powers. “Well, maybe a fire punch. I’ve never tried that before.”

He pulled his arm back and clenched his teeth before swinging his fist forward and slamming it right into a steel bar. After a cry of pain, he pulled his arm back again.

“Maybe…”

He took a deep breath and exhaled on his paw, bathing it in fire. To his delight, it remained lit with the glowing orange light. Unfortunately, it didn’t feel like it would punch clean through steel.

“I wonder if I can…”

Quil reached out his arm and focused. Almost instantaneously, a band of fire shot out of it and dissipated as he stumbled back in shock. He looked down at the soft, squishy, padded underside of his paw, which was glowing orange.

“My paw pads can shoot fire just like the spots on my head and butt!” he said to himself with a smile. Pleased with the discovery, he tried it a few more times before learning that he could create a whip out of the resulting band of flame.

“I can’t wait to try this stuff out when I’m not trapped in a cage.” He muttered to himself. “If I could make a whip out of fire, maybe I can make other things, too.”

Quil spat out a fireball and caught it between his paws, hovering it gently in place. It stretched and squished as he moved his paws around it, much like how a drifloon would if you did the same thing to it. After nearly half an hour of doing this, he got it to start spinning slowly. If he could get it to spin fast enough and add enough fire to it, maybe he would have a way to escape. Fire streamed from his mouth and paws and into the fireball, causing it to slowly grow. Upon offsetting the flamethrower to be glancing the edge of the ball, it began spinning. Quil pressed his paws together, flattening the orb into a glowing, spinning plate of fire.

“Alright, here goes.”

Sparks began to fly as he pushed the rim against one of the bars. The harder he pressed, the more sparks came out, until he suddenly stumbled forward. After the fire dissipated, he lit up a candle-sized flame in his paw and held it up to the bar.

“It worked!” Quil said excitedly. “Now let’s see if it can cut clean through a deadbolt!”

One flame saw later, and Quil was pushing open the cage, walking free for the first time in nearly twenty hours. After fumbling with the door knob for a while, he finally managed to get it to open—without thumbs, even! He carefully walked into the hall and looked around; it was dark except for one dim light near a corner. Curious, he padded over to it very slowly and looked up.

“How does that light get there?” he thought to himself as he stood on his hind legs in an attempt to get a closer look. “This place… is weird.”

Shrugging off his natural curiosity, Quil began to walk around, fumbling with doorknob after doorknob with every single one being locked. With the abundance of doors, it wasn’t long before his little thumb-less paws became proficient at turning them—or jiggling them around, at least.

“Maybe I’m not turning them hard enough.” Quil thought to himself as he jumped up on top of a doorknob.

Due to such a little surface to attempt to stand on, he slipped and fell to the ground, his paw brushing against a security panel and causing it to buzz and blink a red light. Quil then remembered seeing one just like it next to the door Lucario tore the lock off of—in fact, all of the doors had them. Figuring it was worth a shot, he jumped back up onto the doorknob and steadied himself as he pressed his paw against the panel. Once again, there was a buzz followed by a red light.

“The angry red light!” he gasped as his eyes widened. “Time to give it a time out!”

As Quil pushed an electric current through the device, the red light and a green light next to it lit up as sparks flew out of it, buzzing all the while. After just a few seconds, the buzz suddenly became a short ping as the lights went out and smoke rose from the compromised security measure. The knob beneath Quil suddenly twisted as the door opened. Unprepared for the sudden event, Quil fell flat on his back with a thud.

“Sweet.” He said smugly, pushing open the door and walking into the familiar room. “… it had to be Johnson’s room…”

Before he could turn around and leave, he noticed a dim light coming from one of the boxes he had watched Spaulding use.

“That thing told Spaulding stuff about me… maybe this is my chance.”

Quil fumbled around with the mouse until he was able to get the vertical blinking line in the box Spaulding had used prior to the magic box showing him the information.

“One, five, six… line… four, seven…”

Several minutes passed as Quil sat there and watched the computer, waiting.

“Come on, I gave you what you want!” he growled. “Oh wait… he pressed this big button.”

As he pressed the button, one of the boxes below the texted he had put in changed briefly before another square filled with information came up. All he could recognize of it was a ‘1’ at the beginning of the line and ‘156-47’, followed by two boxes similar to the one that had flashed when he pressed the big button. Taking a wild guess, he hit the big button again, and another box appeared with even more of the garbled mess humans called language. He saw the number code he’d put in twice in the short document along with another number code near the bottom, but the rest was impossible for him to understand.

“I need to find the others.” Quil said as he jumped down from the computer and ran back out into the hallway. “I guess I’d better get started.”

Rather than wasting his energy, he jumped up and looked through the windows of each door to make sure there were no humans there, then knocked on it before asking if anyone was there. Ten or twelve doors later, he found what he was looking for.

“Hey, is anyone in there?”

“Quil? Quil!? Is that you!?”

The little quilava’s eyes widened as he slammed his fist into the security scanner, frying its circuits with a thunder punch before falling flat on his back once again. He scrambled to his feet and ran into the room, looking around frantically until he spotted two red eyes looking down at him in shock.

“SHADE! Shade! I’m so glad to see you’re alright!” he cried as tears filled his eyes.

“Quil!? How… how did you... W-what are…?”

He jumped up onto the counter next to his friend and held his paws apart, breathing between them to make a flame saw. “Stand back, Shade—things are about to get hot.”

The umbreon squinted and shielded his eyes with his tail as sparks jumped around and light exploded as the edge of the whirling disk pressed against the padlock, slicing through it and sending it falling to the ground. Quil moved the glowing orange chunk of metal aside with his foot and tugged the cage door open. Shade was completely awe-struck; convinced he must be having some sort of bizarre dream.

“Come on, Shade. We need to find the others!” Quil urged as he grabbed his friend’s collar and began to force electricity into it.

“G-g-grra-a-ahh-ah! Q-q-q-q-q-q-u-il!” he cried as every muscle in his body painfully contracted. “St-t-t-t-op-p!”

Quil gasped and pulled his paw away as fast as he could. “I’m sorry, Shade! That’s how I got mine off—I didn’t know it would hurt you!”

“It’s going to take a little more than a brief shock to put me out.” Shade chuckled as he rubbed his neck and jumped off the counter. “I’ll search for Espeon. You go look for Lucario. I suspect they’d put him in a special area since he can tear himself out of steel cages.” He explained before his eyes narrowed a bit. “Wait… Quil, use extrasensory.”

The quilava looked at him with concern. “I… I don’t really have a whole lot of experience with that, Shade. It’s been a while since I’ve used it.”

“You have to try. We can find them much faster that way.” Shade responded as he put his paw on Quil’s shoulder. “You can do it—I know you can. You just busted me out of a steel cage and broke open a locked door with minimal damage to each. You can do this.”

Quil nodded and closed his eyes as a faint blue light emanated from them. “I… I think… Espeon is that way.” He said as he pointed to the right. “Lucario is in the other direction. Lucario is trapped and scared… I didn’t know it was possible for him to be scared. Espeon is… rather content. She’s not worried or angry or anything. She almost seems relaxed—and not just because she’s away from me.”

“See? I told you you could do it.”

Quil smiled as Shade turned and ran down the hall. “I’ll figure out a way to get Espeon out of there. You go find Lucario.”

“I’ll do my best, Shade.” He said as he looked down the dark corridor, lighting a small flame from the top of his head to light the way. “Well… here goes nothing.”

[A'bom]

“Anyone there?” Quil called as he lowered his face to the bottom of the door.

“Shut up! I’m trying to sleep!” came the reply from within.

He frowned and kicked the door before continuing on to the next one, and the next one, and the next one.

“What if my extrasensory was wrong?” he asked himself. “I haven’t used it a whole heck of a lot; there’s a pretty good chance I—what’s that noise?”

He closed his eyes and perked up his ears, listening carefully. There was a repetitive noise coming from the end of the hall. As he walked closer, the noise stopped briefly before starting back up, getting louder as he approached. It was low-pitched and flat sounding, but very rhythmic—almost mechanical—going on for thirty-second spurts before stopping for about ten. Then, at the third door from the end of the hall, he found the source. Once the clanging stopped at one of its regular intervals, Quil did his usual voice check—but there was no response until the clanging started back up.

“I guess there’s only one way to find out what that is.” He said as he jumped onto the doorknob and shorted out the lock.

After falling on his back, he jumped back up and pushed open the door, revealing a decent-sized box made of solid steel—with a slight bulge in it. He walked over to it and waited for the pounding within to stop, then knocked on it, eliciting a sudden cry from the prisoner inside.

“Who is there?” Lucario asked, his voice muffled by the thick layer of steel surrounding him.

“It’s me.”

“Mustela Vulcans? Is that you?”

“Don’t you get tired of calling me that?” Quil asked. “It’s so much easier to call me Quil!”

“How did you escape from your cage and find me?”

“I’ll explain later. Let’s just get you out of there for now.” Quil said as he revved up a flame saw and leaned against the metal box with all his might until the blade dissipated. “That only made a little cut… Lucario, I need to heat up this side of the box to the point of glowing red. Let me know if it gets too hot.”

“Do what you must.”

Rather than blasting it with a flamethrower, Quil instead used his newfound ability to use his paw pads as flame spots and focused the two resulting flames like torches, holding the tips to one point in the center. After painstaking minutes of the procedure, he created another flame saw and cut into the softened spot until the spinning blade went out.

“Oh no… this is going to take forever. I don’t know how many more of those I’ve got in me.”

“You cut clean through. That’s all I need.” Lucario said as his spike punched a ream through the thin opening. “Whatever you did to melt the surface, do it again near the edges of the plate.”

Quil began doing as he was told, watching Lucario widen the ream by punching a spike through on either side of it. Then, with a mighty roar, Lucario forced the gap apart. The spots Quil had been heating wrinkled and squished as the force pried open a hole just wide enough for him to crawl through—almost.

“It’s at times like this I wish my body was more streamlined like yours, Mustela Vulcans.” He grunted as he strained to force his wide hips through the opening. “Grab on to me and pull!”

After nearly ten minutes of pulling and straining, Lucario was finally out of the safe, rubbing his sore thighs. “Have you found the others?”

“Shade’s looking for Espeon.” Quil replied. “We should go find him so I can kill the angry light that keeps the door shut.”

“No need.” Espeon said as she walked into the room with Shade. “They open from the inside without a problem.”

Quil opened his mouth, but Espeon quickly spoke up again. “Before any more hot air comes out of you, I wasn’t put in a cage. I was apparently put up for auction—who can blame them, really; I AM worth a fortune, after all—and they always put the superior ones up for auction and treat them better than the rejects.”

“Then why didn’t you break us out?” Quil asked, ignoring the implied insult.

“You do have a brain, right?” Espeon asked. “I suppose you just prefer not to use it. Even though I could leave the room whenever I wanted, I can’t open any of the doors from the outside.”

“I’d watch your big mouth if I were you, Espeon.” Quil said as his paws burst in to flame. “The thing about flaming balls of stupidity is that sometimes they are too stupid to know how to restrain themselves from melting things they don’t like into piles of smoldering slag. Since you still have that collar on you and I don’t… you should think twice about what you say.”

“Oh, I’m terrified!” Espeon said with an obscene amount of sarcasm. “Let’s get out of here. I’m sick of this place.”

“No, we can’t leave yet.” Quil said as he followed Espeon out into the hall and grabbed her tail, pulling her in the direction of Johnson’s office. “I saw how one of the humans used the magic box thingies to bring up documents. I think I found mine, and I need you to try and read it.”

“It would take too long. We need to get out of here as fast as we can. As per usual, you didn’t think before you acted. Look at the locks!” Espeon shouted as she pointed to the smoking scanner panel with her tail. “Humans are ALMOST as stupid as you, but even they can tell when someone’s been breaking and entering!”

Quil’s eyes flashed blue, followed by a cry of pain from Espeon as a searing pain shot through her tail.

“But I’m smart enough to know when to keep my mouth shut and honest enough to let others know my faults!” Quil growled as he let go of her tail, letting the repugnant stench of burnt fur disperse through the air. “You’re lying. You can’t read human, but you’re too full of yourself to admit it!”

Espeon pulled her tail back to swat him with it. “How dare you read my—“

“I’d rethink slapping me with that burned tail. I’m sure a burn like that would be rather painful to apply a lot of force to.” Quil interrupted, unable to refrain from rubbing it in her face.

Espeon’s face distorted with anger as she lowered her head submissively. “Fine; I’ll read what I can, but then we bust out of this place… and once this collar comes off, you’d better be ready for a punishment unlike any other!”

Quil gestured for them to follow, smirking as he did so. “Then we’ll just have to leave the collar on, won’t we?”

Shade walked up beside Espeon as they followed the quilava, looking over at her with an expectant stare.

“What.”

“You don’t give the poor guy enough credit.” Shade said quietly. “He wants to get along with you; he really does—if he didn’t, you’d be a pile of ash right now.”

Espeon winced as she smacked him in the back of the head with her tail. “H-he’s spineless; let’s see him act so tough when I’m out of this infernal collar.”

Shade shook his head as they turned the corner into Johnson’s office and then hopped up onto the desk to look at the computer screen with Quil. “What makes you think this is your file?”

“I heard the human call me 156-47. I see that number right here and right here, and it looks similar to the thing I saw when it first called me that.” Quil replied. “What’s it say?”

Lucario stepped forward and gently pushed Espeon aside. “Evolus Helios is concerned for time’s sake. Allow me to read it. It says:

Mustela Vulcans #156-47:
Species: M.Vulcans
Lab ID: 52A-3C
Experiment ID: #156-47
Experiment Status: FAILURE
Conservation Status: Unknown In Captivity
Responds To: Quilava
Other Notes: Dangerous when emotionally unstable; Has three spots on the top of the head in a triangular pattern, and five spots on the rear and back in an ‘x’ pattern; gets along very well with experiment #196-02.

And that’s the end of the document.” Lucario finished as he clicked the print button and grabbed the printout.

“That can’t be the right one.” Espeon said as she grabbed the paper and looked it over.

“Why do you think that?” Quil asked. “It says number 156-47—that’s what the nice human called me. It has to be about me!”

“It says you got along very well with 196-02. There’s no possible way that’s right!” Espeon said as she shook her head frantically.

“I’m sick and tired of you making fun of me, Espeon!” Quil shouted as some steam rose out of his eyes. “Just because you hate me, that doesn’t mean everyone does! Is it so hard to imagine I had friends before I woke up?!”

“No, you don’t understand!” Espeon said with an unsteady voice as she covered her face with her tail. “I am 196-02!”

[Shade]

“Hold on, back up a second. You are 196-02 and I am 156-47, and we were friends!?” Quil cried in disbelief.

“No, we weren’t! The humans clearly put false information in this document!” Espeon replied as she slapped the piece of paper with her tail.

“It can’t be false.” Shade said as he snatched up the paper and looked it over, despite being unable to read it. “Humans are very meticulous and even more obsessive about having correct information than you are, Espeon.”

“LIES! LIES, I tell you!” Espeon screamed as she crumpled up the paper, causing Lucario to print out a new one and stash it under his arm. “Not only would I never befriend Vesuvius-skull, but I don’t remember him at all! I’ve never known any quilava before in my life until THAT came along!”

“You and I both know you can’t be sure of that.” Shade said as he turned his mate around and looked into her eyes. “There are still chunks of your memory that remain hidden, and you know it. There’s a chance he’s in those hidden memories.”

Espeon shook herself free of Shade’s grip and sighed. “We can’t talk about this right now. We found what we came here for; now we need to get out as fast as—“

“You again!?”

Everyone looked up to find Johnson standing in the doorway, the remote activation switch for the security collars in his hand.

“I don’t know how you got free, but you’ve been a nuisance for long enough!”

Just as he was about to press the button, his arm suddenly froze in place before yanking around and slamming into the wall. Quil put his paw on his forehead from the strain of using extrasensory in such a manner, but quickly regained his composure and fired a bolt of lightning at the remote, frying it and burning Johnson’s hand in the process.

“You little pest! I hated coming in to work in the morning before you arrived! Now that you’re here… I can’t work under these conditions!” Johnson said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a tazer gun, aiming it directly at the little quilava.

Quil’s heart stopped as the world around him was replaced with another. He was tied up with thick ropes, beaten and hurt, with several humans standing in front of him. The one in front had a gun drawn, aiming it directly at him, and then…

Shade and Lucario couldn’t believe what they saw: a beam of fire, white like the sun, enveloped Johnson as light fixtures and power outlets exploded and the facility itself began to tremble. The computer next to them sparked violently before crackling as the circuitry gave out. When the attack ended, Johnson was gone—there wasn’t a trace of him left. Cracks began to form in the walls as the foundation of the building began to shift and weaken and fire began to consume everything.

“We need to get out of here now!” Espeon cried as she pushed Shade and Lucario to the door. “He’s on a blind rampage! He can’t control himself!”

The next thing she knew, Quil was holding her down, lightning flying from his paw. Before she could even react, the collar was no longer around her neck; it was in Quil’s paw, being torn apart by the electromagnetic pulses surging through it.

“I’m not going to let them hurt you, Espeon, even if it’s the last thing I do!” Quil said as his voice was distorted from the intense heat inside his body. “Follow me!”

Shade and Lucario looked at Espeon as though demanding an explanation as Quil ran out of the room.

Espeon shook her head and followed after the seemingly possessed quilava. “I don’t know, either! Let’s just get out of here!”

* * *

Alta Siberius sat with one leg crossed over the other and rested his chin in his hand thoughtfully as he looked out the helicopter window at the faint blue glow of dawn on the eastern horizon.

“We will be arriving in Elzicron City in roughly thirty minutes, Mr. Siberius.” The pilot said as he caught sight of the city.

“Excellent; we’re right on schedule.” Alta replied as he turned to look out the front windshield.

“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, why are you picking up the experiments personally?” the pilot asked. “Normally you’d just send someone to pick them up for you.”

“That is my business; I suggest you keep to your own.” Alta replied coldly, not bothering to look at his inquisitor.

“Yes sir.” The pilot said as he nodded. “My apologies.”

Fifteen minutes later, they had flown close enough to the city that the lab had come into view; in a matter of only ten minutes, he would be retrieving three experiments that had escaped him long ago.

“Please fasten your seatbelts and put your tray in the upright position as we prepare for—oops.” The pilot said nervously. “I’m sorry; I used to be an airline pilot. We’ll be landing shortly, Mr. Siberius.”

Then, just as the sun began to peak over the eastern horizon, an entire section of the laboratory building exploded in a flash of lightning that sent debris flying in all directions as a loud crack of thunder shattered windows on adjacent buildings.

“What was that!?” cried the pilot as Alta leaned forward and put his hands on the dashboard, his eyes open wide.

“Land us as close as you possibly can.” He ordered as he reached into his pocket and took out his ringing cell phone. “What is it?”

“Mr. Siberius, there has been an incident at the Lab; we don’t know what happened yet, but we are investigating. It appears to have been an explosion of some sort.”

“I am aware of that.”

“We request that you stay away from the vicinity until we have secured the perimeter and put an end to the source of the problem.”

“Understood.” He said as he turned off the phone and stuck it in his pocket. “Land anyway.”

“Yes Sir.”

As the helicopter circled around the other side of the building, the downdraft swept away the dust and smoke, revealing four small figures running away from the facility.

“Give me the binoculars.” Alta demanded as he held out his hand to the pilot, who quickly reached into a supply compartment and provided him with the item.

He placed the lenses over his eyes and looked around until a quilava came into his line of sight. It stopped running and turned around before flying into the air—apparently by using stone edge as a catapult.

“What in the name of heck is THAT!?” the pilot cried as a wall of white-hot fire swept over the entire premises of the laboratory, causing whatever was left from the initial blast to collapse and lighting the rest of the area on fire.

“Get closer to it.” Alta commanded as he watched the quilava fall out of the sky, most likely drained from the attack, and was caught by a Lucario.

He followed the Lucario with his binoculars until it caught up to an umbreon and an espeon near the chain-mesh fence around the perimeter. Two security guards ran from the entry gate to try and subdue them, but one of them suddenly collided into the other as though he had been sent flying by a construction beam before both were tossed into the air like toys. The fence blocking the pokemons’ escape began to tear away from the ground until its components broke away from one another, causing metallic shrapnel to tumble to the ground below. The umbreon and the quilava-carrying lucario ran to the other side of the fence as the espeon turned around and smashed what was left of the destruction with a pulse of psychic energy. Apparently content with the damage caused, it turned and followed the others, throwing the levitating section of the fence into the smoldering remains of the lab.

Alta removed the binoculars from his eyes and folded his arms across his chest, a small smile cracking at the edge of his mouth as he continued to look in the direction the four pokemon had fled.

“Welcome back, Espeon.”

[A'bom]

Quil opened his eyes and groaned. “What happened?”

Lucario looked down at the stirring quilava in his arms. “It’s good to see you back among the living, Mustela Vulcans.”

Shade turned back. “Is he finally awake?”

“Took him long enough.” Espeon muttered. “Though it would be nice if he had stayed that way.”

“How’re you feeling, Quil?” Shade asked as he ignored Espeon.

“I… I feel fine. How’d we get out of the lab?” he asked as he sat up.

“You don’t remember?” Lucario asked as he set Quil down on the ground.

Espeon turned around and sat down. “Long story short, you went crazy and started spouting nonsense before completely destroying the lab.”

Quil nodded as his memory came back to him. “Oh, we’d just found out that you and I used to be friends, Espeon.” He said as he raised his eyebrow. “Then that’s when it goes blank.”

Espeon grimaced at the thought of ever being friends with the most annoying living thing on the planet. “I still think it’s some sort of trick. How could I ever forget your infernal blabbering?”

“Espeon, that’s enough.” Shade said sternly as he glared at her. “Quil doesn’t need the insults. You’ve been in his situation, so you should know how it feels to know little to nothing about your past!”

Espeon returned Shade’s glare and hit her tail against the ground. “Well, it’s not like I can just WISH his memory back, not that I’d waste my one wish on him, anyway.”

“But you are the means by which he can learn of it.” Shade said in a cold and serious tone. “Espeon, we never restored all your memories. Quil must be in those memories. We need to open them up and let him know.”

“There’s no way I’m letting him find out what goes on inside my head, Shade!” she barked loudly in protest. “I don’t want you telling him anything, do you understand?”

While Shade and Espeon argued, Lucario pulled Quil aside. “Mustela Vulcans, get this collar off of me. She will not have a choice in the matter. You deserve to know your past as much as anyone else.”

“But you’ll get electrocuted by my hidden power.” Quil said hesitantly.

“Then do it fast.”

Quil nodded and started up an electric charge, then grabbed the collar and fried it, causing Lucario’s entire body to tighten up briefly before the latch came apart. He rubbed his neck tenderly as he clenched his teeth together before nodding and walking up behind Espeon.

“You will help him discover his past, Evolus Helios.” He growled as he looked down at her. “… or else.”

She hissed as the fur on her back stood on end. “You can’t make me do anything!”

Streams of golden aura began to billow off of Lucario’s body as he grabbed her by the neck and lifted her off the ground. “Need I remind you that you are outmatched?”

Lucario tumbled across the ground as Espeon blasted him with a psychic energy pulse. “Get your paws off of me, cretin!”

“I should have known.” He sighed as he used extreme speed to approach Espeon before blasting her in the face with a shadow ball, KO’ing her instantly. “I apologize for using such drastic measures, but I have little patience for her belligerence anymore, Evolus Luna.”

“That was still a bit rough.” Shade said as he stroked his mate’s head gently. “Quil, come over here with me. Lucario, you watch over us. You will be the only one awake while Quil and I are doing this.”

“First you’ll need to take off this ugly thing.” Quil said, repeating as he had done for Lucario and destroyed the collar before too much pain could be felt.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite fast enough. Shade gasped as an ephemeral moment of incredible pain came and went. “You could have warned me.”

Quil smiled and shrugged as he threw the device over his shoulder. “You’re welcome.”

“I’m going to lay down with Espeon and fall asleep. Quil, focus your extrasensory on me and try to ‘ride the energy’, if that makes sense.”

“Doing it the other way around would work as well.” Lucario said as he folded his arms. “This technique has aura written all over it. Mustela Vulcans, use extrasensory to detect Evolus Helios’s feelings. Evolus Luna, concentrate your ability on Mustela Vulcans.”

Quil looked at Shade. “That’d be faster than waiting for you to fall asleep.”

“Agreed.” Shade replied. “Let’s give it a shot.”

Quil closed his eyes as Shade put his paw on the spot closest to his nose. Almost instantly, they found themselves in a beautiful, verdant meadow surrounded by a thriving forest on all sides. In the middle of the meadow was a large cheri tree that appeared to be in the peak of bloom.

“It… it’s beautiful!” Quil gasped as he looked around in disbelief. “THIS is what the inside of Espeon’s mind looks like?!”

“Counterintuitive, isn’t it?” Shade asked as he smiled and took a deep breath, a blush spreading across his face. “You were expecting a dark, desolate wasteland, weren’t you?”

“I saw more of a torture chamber in my mind.” Quil chuckled. “So… what now?”

“Quilava?! Quilava, is that you!?”

Quil turned to face what looked like Espeon, but sounded nothing like her; she was way to cheerful to be the Espeon he knew. “E… espeon?”

Shade nudged Quil forward. “Just go with it. It doesn’t make sense now, but it will.”

Quil nodded and approached Espeon warily; unable to resist the sensation that it was a trap. “I think Shade was right. Lucario did hit you a bit too hard.”

She smiled and giggled quietly before pulling him close and hugging him tight while nuzzling his cheek. “I’ve missed you so much, Quilava.” She whispered softly. “I can’t believe what a handsome pokemon you’ve become!”

Quil looked over his shoulder at his umbreon friend and gulped nervously. “Shade, I’m scared.”

“Quil, this is Espeon’s good side.” Shade explained as he walked over to them. “Believe it or not, she does have one. I’ll let the two of you talk for a little bit; get to know each other a little better. You haven’t exactly seen much of each other. I’ll be waiting at the door keeping an eye out for HER, Espeon.”

“Careful, Shade. She’s not happy you’re here—she’s never happy, but she’s even more disgruntled than usual.” Espeon replied.

“I expected as much.” He said as he walked around to the other side of the tree.

“Who is ‘she’?” Quil asked, still wary of the individual with whom he was conversing.

“My bad side.” Espeon replied. “You know—the one you are more familiar with.”

Quil scratched behind his ear and looked around at the scenery. “I… never expected your mind to be such a beautiful place, Espeon.”

“I apologize for the way I’ve been treating you, Quilava… I don’t get to see the light of day very much anymore, so to speak. When you helped me back when Evan betrayed us was the brief time I saw you.” She said quietly. “I just want you to know that no matter what my bad side says, you are very important to me.”

“So, is it true?” Quil asked, a bit weirded out by the compliments and apologies from someone he thought hated him. “Were you and I really friends?”

Espeon lowered her head and sighed. “I… I’m not entirely sure. When I told you I had never met a quilava until I met you, I was lying. I have one very old, very faint memory of a quilava when I was young. Part of me—the part of me you see standing before you—wants to believe that it is.”

“Is there any way for us to find out for sure?”

“Yes. We can enter the hall of memories and try to open up the blocked ones… but you’ll need to get past—“

A sudden explosion startled the two of them as Shade tumbled aside from behind the tree.

“I told you to stay OUT OF MY HEAD!”

Quil watched the beautiful field shrivel away into a dry, dark, barren wasteland as all of the trees withered and dropped their leaves. “See, THIS is what I was expecting to find in here.”

Shade scrambled to his feet and ran over to them, panting and gasping as a second Espeon rounded the corner of the tree, a deep black aura surrounding her body. “Quil, that is Espeon’s bad side. I believe the two of you have already met.”

“I told you to keep that idiot out of my head! I don’t want any of his stupidity spreading to me!” The more familiar version of Espeon barked as the landscape continued to crumble to dust. “You are going to regret even THINKING about—“

“That’s enough! I’m done sitting here and letting you make all of the decisions!” The more benevolent variation cried. “You know that deep down, you want this quilava to be the same one from that one faint memory!”

“Shut up, you spineless fool! I wish there was some way to get rid of you without losing my mind in the process!”

“He deserves to find out what his past was! Even after all the physical and psychological abuse, he’s been there to help us in our time of need! We WILL allow him to help us reawaken these memories, and you will not stop him!”

Quil took a few steps back and stood by Shade’s side. “Shade, what happens when someone’s mind tries to destroy itself?”

Shade shook his head. “I don’t know, but I have a feeling we’re about to find out.”

[Shade]

“We’re going to die! Espeon’s brain is trying to kill itself and we are going to DIE!” Quil wailed as he clung to Shade’s back in a frenzied panic while bolts of light and dark psychic energy devastated the landscape. “Our minds will be destroyed and we’ll all be vegetables the rest of our lives! Squishy, meaty vegetables!”

“Quil, calm down.” Shade said as he grabbed Quil’s head with this tail. “Just be glad YOU aren’t the one fighting! Besides, this proves that deep down, Espeon does care about you. She’s not the cold, heartless banshee you think she is. She’s capable of love and trust—just like anyone else.”

“Yeah, sure! Make sure to tell HER that before we die a horrible, psychotic death!” Quil shouted as he pointed to Espeon’s dark side.

Shade sighed and dragged Quil behind the tree to give them some cover from the raging battle. As the bolts of energy flew through the air, the scenery quickly shifted from a barren wasteland to a lush meadow and back in the blink of an eye.

“I’m ashamed to have such a weak, tender side like you!” the dark Espeon hissed as she blocked a bold of light with a wall of darkness.

“I’m ashamed to have such a spiteful, narcissistic side like YOU!” the light Espeon shouted as she charged her dark counterpart and pushed their forehead jewels together, causing waves of power to ripple out in all directions.

Espeon’s bad side charged her tail with dark energy and swung it at her doppelganger as she mirrored the attack with light. Then, just before impact, the two sides screamed at once.

“I’m sick and tired of you!”

Quil closed his eyes and clung to Shade as everything around them vanished into darkness. “What… where are we?” his voice echoed as a dim light slowly began to illuminate a featureless, blank landscape whose only structure was the outline of the cheri tree. “Are we… you know… dead?”

“I don’t think so.” Shade whispered as he walked over to the motionless espeons.

Quil put his paw on the plain white doorknob and tested it. “Shade, the door’s open.”

“I thought she blasted it off.” Shade muttered before shrugging. “It’s not my mind, though.”

“I’m going in.” Quil said as he turned the knob, causing the door to swing inward and begin drawing him in.

He grabbed the edge of the doorway as Shade and the two espeons tumbled in his direction. They crashed into him and the four mental manifestations of their beings found themselves floating in Memory Road. Quil levitated himself upright—or at least what he thought was upright—and looked around as Shade tended to the awakening espeons.

“Wow… I wonder what the inside of my head looks like.” Quil said as he approached a small bubble. “Oh, what’s this thing?” he asked as he got closer and looked into it.

Inside, he could see an espeon and an umbreon looking down at him, smiles on their faces as they discussed his name. At least, that’s what it looked like. Their voices were very muffled and quiet.

“It’s my earliest memory.” The good Espeon said as she came to her senses. “It’s from when I first hatched.”

“Why did they name you after your species name?” Quil asked as he held his ear closer to the bubble.

Espeon’s friendlier side chuckled slightly. “Well, they didn’t. ‘Espeon’ is a name I go by, but my actual name is—“

“None of your business!” the other Espeon interrupted. “The stupid one’s here to find memories that involve him. Let’s just get it over with so I can kick him out of my mind and be done with it.”

Quil looked back and forth as he was escorted down the hall, peering into as many of the little bubbles as he could. Many of them consisted of an espeon and two eevee, though there was usually either another espeon present or an umbreon. There was a memory of one of the eevee evolving into an umbreon, and another of Espeon herself evolving. Other memories revealed that she had been an excellent fighter, even from a very young age. There was one memory, however, of her being attacked by houndour, but she was rescued by an umbreon.

“I… I don’t get it. Your mother was an espeon, but sometimes I see a male espeon and sometimes I see a male umbreon. Which one is your father?”

“Both.” Good Espeon replied. “Not all experiments are lucky enough to maintain a steady form, Quilava.”

He still thought it strange to have Espeon so kindly giving him information, but accepted it and continued observing the memories. Suddenly, they came to a one that was more of a wall than a bubble.

“Make him close his eyes!” Espeon barked to Shade as she held her tail out in front of the group.

Quil looked up at the image of Espeon crying. “I’ve seen you cry before, Espeon.”

“Espeon, just let him see.” Shade sighed as he glanced at her. “It’ll help him understand why you are the way you are.”

“Fine.” She growled as she closed her eyes and stepped into the memory.

Quil’s eyes widened a bit as she vanished. “Is it safe to do that?” he asked as he watched the other Espeon walk into it.

Shade nudged Quil’s backside with his tail, urging him to go in. “Well, it depends on how you define ‘safe’.”

Quil closed his eyes as he was shoved forward and then opened them when he heard crying. He was in a huge graveyard lined with rows and rows of headstones.

“Arceus.” He muttered quietly as his paw passed right through the tombstone. “Oh, dear Arceus I knew it! We’re dead!” he cried as he grabbed Shade by the base of his neck. “You told me we were alive! You lied to me! We’re dead! WE’RE DEAD! I thought we survived but we’re DEAD!”

“Shut up, moron!” Espeon hissed, her voice unable to hide the enormous amount of pain she was feeling. “Just… just shut up!”

Quil looked at Shade as he poked him with his tail before pointing down to the end of the row of graves. “Quil, this is when Espeon’s parents died.”

The four of them walked over to the young Espeon and the young umbreon sitting next to her.

“Just keep going. There’s nothing to see here.” One of the Espeon muttered.

Despite the order, Quil stopped and got a good look at the umbreon, who didn’t take notice of him at all. “This umbreon is your brother isn’t he, Espeon?”

Both Espeons spun around in unison. The kind one was shocked, and the sadistic one was clearly furious.

“How did you know I had a brother?!” she screamed as Shade held her back.

“I didn’t.” Quil replied as he continued to look the umbreon over. “You just told me. Well, actually… I’m not sure, but I think I remember you telling me you had a brother in the past. Either way, you told me.”

“Yes, that’s her brother.” Shade said as the good Espeon helped restrain her doppelganger. “His name is Umbra, and he escaped from the lab they were born in.”

“SHUT UP! He has no right to know that!” Espeon cried as she struggled against Shade and herself. “I want him out of here, NOW! Get that idiot out of my head!”

“I have to agree with her for once, Shade.” Espeon whimpered. “I’ll let him know about Umbra, but not here…. It’s just… it’s just too painful.”

“Come on, Quil.” Shade said as he let go of his mate’s dark side. “Let’s get out of here before it’s too much for her.”

Quil nodded as he walked up to follow them. As they exited the memory bubble, he took one last look at young Espeon sobbing next to her brother as the two of them stood over their parents’ grave. Just as he was about to turn back around, though, he spotted a dim light in the distance—a small, dim, glowing light that danced around unlike any kind of fluorescing material. There was only one thing that generated light in such a way, and he was all too familiar with it—it was fire.

[A'bom]

“And I never saw him again after that moment…” Espeon sniffed as she turned away from a memory bubble containing the day her brother left her behind.

“There, are you happy?” the other hissed as she began walking farther down the hall. “All of my deepest, most personal memories have been revealed to that little flame-brain!”

“Count your blessings I haven’t seen any memories of some horrible, unspeakable things I’m sure you have done.” Quil barked as he turned to follow, ignoring the flurry of insults that followed. “Some of these bubbles are dark. They’re the ones you don’t remember, right?”

“Yes. After this point, all of my memories start becoming faint. I was hit with an amnesia-inducing device, and the closer we are to that point, the fewer clear memories we are going to see.” The kind one explained.

“Okay; so, how do we open them up?” Quil asked as he reached his paw out towards one of the darkened orbs.

When there was no response, he turned around and looked at the other three. The kind Espeon was fiddling with her tail, Shade was looking downward, and the more familiar-behaved Espeon had her tail pressed against her forehead.

“We don’t know. The only way we cleared any of them up in the first place was through a wish.”

Quil raised his eyebrow and scratched his ear. “Can’t you just make another wish?”

“He can figure out how to make me inadvertently reveal the identity of my brother, but can’t figure out that this wasn’t just any wish.” She muttered before taking a deep breath. “Listen carefully, because I’m only going to say this once: it was a special wish—a wish that you only get one of, and then it’s gone. No more.”

Quil paused as his paw came within inches of the bubble before continuing to put it in. The instant his paw made contact, he could feel himself being drawn into the darkness.

“It’s got me!” he cried as he struggled to pull himself out. “I’m gonna—“

Shade grabbed the panicked quilava’s arm and began pulling. “You’re not going to die.” He said as he grunted, fighting a losing battle until he, too, was drawn into the opaque memory.

“Oh no! What’s going to happen to them?” one of the Espeons said as she moved forward a bit. “We have to get them out!”

“Who cares?” the other scoffed. “I was enjoying watching the little brat freak out.”

“Quit talking about Quilava like that! He’s our friend, even if he doesn’t remember it, and even if we don’t remember it!”

“I still think that was a typo on the experiment file. There’s no solid proof that idiot ever had anything to do with me in the past.” She said indifferently before seeing a small spot of light coming out of the memory Shade and Quil had been drawn into. “What in Arceus’s name—?”

“What are they… how are they…?” Espeon gasped as she grabbed her sadistic counterpart and dragged her closer to the slowly returning memory of a moment in her past. “We have to find out what’s going on!”

Upon entering, the two manifestations of Espeon’s psyche found a rather predictable sight. Quil was clinging to Shade with a deathgrip, screaming bloody murder. However, Shade did not seem to mind at all—in fact, he was practically drooling in a state of euphoria. His rings were shining brightly, illuminating the darkness and burning it away to reveal the memory hidden within.

“Do you know what this means?!” Espeon said excitedly as she put her paw on her frowning alternate self’s shoulder.

“That the wish to restore my memory was completely worthless and could have been used for personal gain when we could have restored them by exploiting the nut-brained coward’s freakish powers?” She muttered as she walked over to Quil and slapped him with her tail. “Snap out of it, you twit!”

Quil lurched as pain swept across his face. He opened his mouth to say something, but she quickly slapped her tail over it. “Just shut up and let’s get out of here. It just looks like this is a memory of me walking down a hallway or something.”

“She’s right.” The other Espeon said as she helped her counterpart usher Shade and Quil to the end of the memory. “This is just an insignificant memory. It isn’t all that important.”

“Wait, so… Shade and I did that?” Quil asked as he was pushed out of the other side of the now-clear memory.

“No, it just magically decided to clear up on its own.” Espeon snapped as the other frowned at her.

“This means we can clear up my memories.” She said with a smile. “But… there are so many of them… we can’t just check them all! It will take way too long.”

“Hm…” Quil said as he looked down the dark tunnel. “Bigger memories mean more important events, right?”

Shade sighed as the pleasant sensation finally faded enough so that he could once again think clearly. “Yes. In that case, it would make the most sense if we scoped out just a few of the largest ones and cleared them up as opposed to going through each and every little memory.”

“Maybe we should start with that one, then.” Quil suggested as he pointed to a significantly-sized bubble in the distance. “It’s not as big as the one with the graveyard, but it’s the biggest I can see from here.”

“Fine, let’s get this over with.” Espeon grumbled as she made her way over to the far-off memory, followed closely by the other three.

Upon reaching the bubble she rolled her eyes and gestured with her tail. “Alright, jump on in and get all huggy; let me know when the coast is clear.”

Quil looked at Shade and put his arms around him. Before the effect became too much for him to bear, Shade lunged forward and dove head-first into the bubble. As the darkness began to clear away, it became all too clear why this memory was such an important one—sitting there, right in the center of the memory, was a young quilava bearing the exact same spot patterns as Quil.

“I… I can’t believe it.” Quil gasped as he stared at the image of his past self. “Espeon and I really did know each other!”

“Is this proof enough for you?” Espeon asked as she dragged the other Espeon into the memory. “Right there; Quilava. Same spot patterns, same blue eyes, and same diminutive stature as the one we know! There’s no way you can deny it now!”

“Fine, he and I originated from the same lab. That still doesn’t prove all of the information was correct.”

Fed up with her skeptical self, the good Espeon levitated over to Quil and put her tail on his shoulder as they looked at the vision of the past. “Look at you, Quilava! You were so cute with your big adorable eyes and giant scratchable ears! You must be only about eight years old at the time of this memory!”

Quil smiled and let go of Shade, allowing him to recover from the hug’s effects. “Shade, can we keep this Espeon? I like her more than the other one.”

Shade chuckled and shook his head. “That’s up to Espeon as a whole, Quil. I don’t have a say in it.”

The four observing entities fell silent as memory began to get set in motion. In just a few minutes, they were going to watch a vision of the past that would completely change their lives.

[Shade]

“You know what needs to be done, Espeon… now do it.”

She looked up at Persian, her eyes full of concern, then downcast her gaze. “But… what if it hurts him? I’ll practically be tearing his mind apart!”

“Look at him in there. That psyche entanglement power has gone out of control… he may not look like it Espeon, but he’s suffering.” Persian said as he continued to look into the empty room housing the young quilava. “It’s for his own good.”

“… I understand.” She replied as she lifted her head. “I’m ready.”

The door opened and she walked in. She closed it behind her as she entered the potentially dangerous situation. The quilava lying in the opposite corner of the room stared up at the ceiling with a placid look in his eyes as he hummed to himself quietly, apparently taking no notice of her presence. She looked through the Plexiglas window at Persian, who nodded for her to proceed. One false move could prove fatal—but then again, it could also prove to be no big deal. Taking a cautious step forward, she drew in a calming breath.

“I SWEAR I didn’t have anything to do the missing desserts at the company picnic!” the quilava wailed as he jumped to his feet and plastered himself up against the adjacent wall, his eyes suddenly filled with fear and panic. “It was the snorlax! He and the chansey were in cahoots! They framed me; it was all part of their plan! I’m innocent, I tell you!”

“Quilava, calm down! It’s me, Espeon! I’m your friend!” She said as calmly as she could. “We’ve known each other for years; you’ve known me since I was an eevee!”

Quilava eyed her cautiously before putting his paw to his chin. “You need to have your ears checked so you can see yourself in the mirror. You’re not an eevee. You’re an espeon.”

“No, I USED to be an eevee, but then I evolved into an Espeon. You were there, remember?”

“Nope.” He replied as he took a few steps forward to have a closer look at who he was talking to. “You do kind of look like a different espeon I know, though. She’s a real cutie, that one. Her name is Espeon. Do you know her?”

“I AM Espeon.” She replied, blushing slightly.

“Well, look who’s come to her senses! I knew you’d see you weren’t an eevee anymore. You just needed to accept who you are. Anyway, Espeon: She’s really cute. Don’t tell her I said this, but you’re almost as pretty as she is.” He whispered as he looked around the room to make sure no one else was around—even though it was empty. “Okay, you can tell her, but don’t let her know I said it. Wait, hold it. Don’t… move…”

Not wanting to risk upsetting him, Espeon stood up straight and froze in place.

“Do not panic, but there is something behind you.” Quilava whispered as his eyes narrowed. “It’s, like, this big, flat, white square thing. It’s just sitting there, but I don’t think it will attack you if you remain perfectly still.”

Espeon sighed and shook her head. “That’s the wall, Quilava. It won’t hurt anyone.”

His eyes widened as his jaw dropped. “How did you do that without looking?!” he gasped in amazement. “You must be psychic or something! I have a cute friend that’s an espeon. She really is a psychic—maybe you could evolve into an espeon someday when you’re done being an eevee.” He said as his head tilted to the side. “Hey, what’s that thing attached to your butt?”

“Huh? What are you talking about?” Espeon asked as she looked at her backside.

“That long ropey thing that moves back and forth.” Quilava replied as he stared at it, mesmerized by its movements.

Espeon giggled and wiggled her tail around playfully. “Oh, that’s my tail!”

He frowned and turned his body to look at his rear, wiggling it slightly before facing her again. “What are you doing with my tail?”

“It’s not your tail; it’s my tail.”

“That’s what I mean.” He replied. “It’s not your tail; it’s mine! I don’t have a tail, and you just said it was my tail, so you CLEARLY took it while I wasn’t looking!”

Espeon put her paw to her mouth and giggled as she shook her head. “But Quilava, you never had a tail in the first place!”

He folded his arms and tapped his foot as he rolled his eyes. “Well maybe if you hadn’t taken my tail, I would have one, now, wouldn’t I?” he said as he chuckled and waved one of his paws in the air.

A quiet tap at the window caused the quilava to look around with a start. “Did you hear that, pokemon who looks familiar to me? I think the window is trying to communicate with us! What do you think it wants?”

Espeon closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m sorry, Quilava. This is going to hurt me more than it’s going to hurt you!”

Tears filled her eyes as Quilava’s shrieks of pain and agony echoed throughout the penitentiary. She forced her way into his mind, cutting link after link that had been created by the unusual entanglement power he had been endowed with. He gripped his head between his paws as fire spat out of his combustion glands erratically.

“Make it stop! Make it stop!” he cried as he fell to the floor and writhed around in unparalleled suffering. “Please, please stop!”

“I’m sorry, Quilava!” she cried as she ran over to him, pinning him to the ground with her paws to prevent him from hurting himself on accident. “I wish there was some other way, but if I don’t do this, they’ll kill you!”

“Why, Espeon?! Why are you hurting me?!” he screamed as he fought against her grip. “I thought we were friends!”

She bit her lower lip and looked away as she tore apart another set of entanglement links, making Quilava’s body tense up.

“Espeon, please stop!” he cried again. “I thought you cared about me! Why are you hurting me!?”

“Quilava, please don’t say things like that!” she shouted as her tears fell to his chest below. “I would never do anything to hurt you unless I had no other choice!”

After ten hellish minutes of torture, Espeon was down to the last link—the one connecting the two of them. She pulled out of his mind and watched him go limp, then looked out the window at Persian, who nodded with approval.

“Oh… oh Espeon… what happened..?” Quilava moaned as his blue eyes slowly opened back up.

“Your mind is free of all the others that were bogging it down.” Espeon whimpered as she nuzzled his cheek. “All the entanglements were too much for you to handle, and you went insane.”

He closed his eyes and rested his head on the ground. “My head… it… it hurts.”

“I’m sorry, Quilava. I never want to have to do that again.” She said as she wiped the tears from her eyes with her tail. “Are you going to be okay?”

With a quiet grunt, Quilava sat up and looked her in the eyes, smiling as the pain slowly began to subside. “It feels like I just woke up from a horrible nightmare.”

She propped him up with her tail and smiled back. “Well… you’re finally awake.”

“Thanks to you.” He said quietly as he blushed. “… Espeon… I… I have to tell you something.”

“Go ahead, Quilava. Tell me anything you want.” She said softly.

He took a deep breath and looked away. “For the past few years, we’ve spent so much of our time around each other, even though I’m just a run-of-the-mill experiment and you’re… you know, practically royalty. Master hardly notices someone like me, and he’s so protective of you. I’m just so thankful he lets you spend as much time with me as you do.”

“I’m glad too, Quilava. Ever since the accident with my parents and Umbra running away… you’ve be here to hold me up when I thought everything was lost.” Espeon replied. “Restoring your sanity is the least I can do for you after all you’ve done for me.”

“But Espeon, it’s more than that…” he said as he looked back into her eyes. “You see me as a friend, but I see you as more! I love you! Everyone else sees me as some unnatural freak that has all these strange abilities that make him dangerous or unstable, but you don’t! You like me despite all those things, and that’s more than what anyone else has done for me, EVER! I love you, Espeon!”

To his astonishment, Espeon leaned forward and pressed her lips firmly against his. Once the initial shock began to subside, Quilava reached his arms around her neck and pulled himself closer into the kiss as all of the pain he had been put through melted away.


* * *

Espeon rolled her eyes as she stood next to her dark counterpart, who was heaving and gagging as though violently ill.

“That was the most disgusting, putrid, vile, OBSCENE thing I have ever watched in my life!” she groaned. “Kill me. Someone PLEASE kill me!”

“There’s no way you can be SO hateful that you would commit suicide over being reunited with your first boyfriend!” The other Espeon said sternly. I can tell you’re just being melodramatic, so just drop the façade and admit that Quilava is important to you!”

“Shade, I am SO sorry!” Quil lamented as he clung to his friend’s collar. “If I had known that she would be your mate someday, I NEVER would have done that! I-I-I—“

“Quil, it’s okay.” Shade said as he put his paw over the quilava’s mouth. “It’s a little awkward, but it’s okay.” He chuckled as he looked off at the next large bubble. “Let’s keep moving. I can see two more huge memories down the road that need to be opened. Let’s go clear them up and see what else they can tell us.”

[A'bom]

Espeon sat side by side with her boyfriend as the two humans in front of them began finishing up the paperwork. She leaned her head against his, her eyes closed as tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. Her tail was wrapped around the body of the quilava, who gently cuddled with the two diverging tips.

“Quilava… please… don’t let them take you away from me.” She whimpered as her chin trembled. “You’re the last important thing that I have left… I lost my mother, my father, and my brother… I can’t bear to lose you, too!”

He turned his head and nuzzled their noses together before planting a little kiss on her cheek. “I wish I could, Espeon… I wish there was some way. But… I’m just a failed experiment to them. I go insane if I gather too many bonds with others. They have no reason to keep me around.”

“It’s no wonder you’re being sold off as an impulse buy.” Weavile laughed as she folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t see why they don’t see you off too, Espeon. You’re just a pathetic excuse for a super-pokemon that gets all upset if she loses someone she ‘cares about’, whatever that means.”

Quilava growled and turned to Weavile, his teeth bared. “You’re just a heartless drone that’s jealous of the love Espeon and I share! Besides, how do you explain the fact YOU are being sold, too?”

The humans looked over at the growling volcano pokemon.

“Is that one going to be a problem?” one of them asked as he tapped a pen against his chin.

Quilava yipped and grabbed at his neck as the collar he was wearing gave him a brief zap. “No. He shouldn’t be too much trouble. He has a bit of a temper, but he’s pretty harmless.”

“I am being sold because I am valuable and worth and enormous amount of money.” Weavile said smugly. “If it wasn’t for the fact that I am netting the humans a fortune, I wouldn’t be going anywhere. I’m just upset that I have to be sold to the same organization you are being sold to.”

“Just… just shut up.” Quilava muttered as he turned back to Espeon and hugged her tightly. “Espeon… I’m going to miss you. I’m going to miss you so much.”

She bit her lower lip and leaned in, giving him a kiss. “I love you, Quilava. Wherever you go—whatever happens to you… just remember that I love you.”

Quilava returned the kiss and nuzzled into her neck. “I will, Espeon. I promise, I will never forget that. I will always—always remember you. No one will ever mean as much to me as you.”

“Oh please, give it a rest already!” Weavile groaned as rolled her eyes. “I’m going to puke if you keep this up!”

“Well, everything appears to be in order.” The employee said as he shoved a stack of papers into a manila folder. “Here are their pokeballs, and here is a copy of their records that lists their special needs and things you need to be aware of including stuff like special abilities, regular abilities, diet, and other basic information. Thank you very much for working with us.”

Weavile chuckled and shot Quilava a sadistic smirk before vanishing in a bright red flash of light. He turned to Espeon and gave her one last kiss before looking her in the eyes, holding her by the shoulders at arm’s length.

“Espeon, I will return. I don’t know how, and I don’t know when, but I WILL come back for you. Somehow, some way, we will be together again—I swear.”

Espeon hugged the quilava as tight as she could before a red beam shot out of the pokeball and enveloped him. “I love you, Quilava!”

He hugged her back and gave her a quick lick on the cheek. “I love you too, Espeon. Goodbye.”

Her arms suddenly caved in as the body they embraced vanished into thin air. “No… No! I won’t let you take him! I won’t let the last person I care about be taken away from me!” she screamed as she ran up to the man that had purchased Quilava and Weavile, then bit his leg.

“OUCH! Get this espeon off of me!” he shouted as he kicked his leg around in an effort to shake her off.

The employee grabbed her by the scruff of the neck and yanked her back, holding her thrashing body as far away as possible. “I’m so sorry. She’s usually so well behaved!”

“Yeah, that’s what they all say.” The other man said as he looked at the bite wound. “I’ve had worse, though, so don’t worry about it. Have a nice evening.”

“Quilava!” Espeon screamed one last time before going limp. “No… my parents… my brother… my boyfriend… they’re all gone! I… I’m all alone.” She whimpered to herself as tears welled up in her eyes. “But… now that there’s nothing else to take comfort in and help me when I need it… I’m just going to have to start caring for the only thing left in my life—myself.”

* * *

Quil cradled his face in his paws and shook his head. “This… this has to be a dream. This can’t be. It… it just isn’t possible!”

Both Espeons looked at each other, speechless.

“All we can really do is move on.” Shade said as he looked even deeper into the hall of memories. “I can see the last big memory before all her memories clear back up.” He said as he signaled for them to follow with a wave of his tail. “I have a feeling this one is going to be big.”

“Wait… Shade...” both Espeons said at once—one of them exasperated and the other depressed. “I… I don’t know if I can handle another memory like those. It’s… it’s so much to take in at once.”

“I have to agree with them, Shade.” Quil said through his paws. “I just… I’ve learned more than enough about my past. Maybe someday we can come back and look at the last one, but it won’t be any time soon.”

Quil took his paw off of Shade’s forehead and opened his eyes. It was dark—Lucario was standing about three feet away, staring off to the east.

“Welcome back, Mustela Vulcans.” He said without moving. “I sense you all learned a little more than you intended.”

Shade and Espeon groaned as they got to their feet and pulled their tails apart.

“What time is it?” Shade murmured.

“It’s roughly one hour before sunrise.” Lucario replied.

“SHADE!” Espeon suddenly barked. “I told you to keep him out of my mind!”

“Espeon, after all we just went through, are you seriously going to do this?” Quil asked as he looked into her eyes. “I know we aren’t what we apparently used to be… but now that I know what was, I want to try to repair it. I want us to be friends again.”

For a split second, he thought he saw her expression soften. “If any of you speak a word of this to anyone, you will regret ever having been born.” She said as she turned away. “Let’s go. We’ve been away from home long enough.”

[Shade]

“What in Arceus’s name happened!?” Espeon shouted as she ran up to the tree base. “YOU! Report what happened! NOW!”

The wobbuffet, who was already standing at attention, did as he was told without hesitation.

“SIR! YES SIR! APPROXIMATELY THREE AND A HALF WEEKS AFTER YOUR UNIT DEPARTED ON A CLASSIFIED MISSION, WE WERE ATTACKED BY A PAIR OF HOSTILE ENEMY OPERATIVES! NO RECRUITS WERE LOST IN THE RAID, BUT THE BASE TOOK CONSIDERABLE DAMAGE, SIR!”

“Shut up! I’m standing right here! Arceus! You don’t have to scream your lungs out!” Espeon spat as she swatted the unusual pokemon with her tail, causing it to wobble back and forth.

Quil ran past Espeon and bolted up the stairs. Anyone in his way was forcefully pushed out of the way. Smaller victims were thrown against the wall until he finally reached his destination: Corona’s room.

“CORONA!”

“EYAH!” Corona shrieked as she dropped the pink cloth she was holding. “What the—Quil! You’re ba—OOF!”

Quil practically tackled the little eevee to the ground as he held her tight in his arms. “Corona! I was so scared when I saw all the damage!”

She grunted as she tried to wiggle free of the death grip her friend had on her tiny body. “I-I missed you too, Quil! Now let me breathe!”

“Sorry.” Quil said, letting go of the purring little ball of fur as she picked up the pink cloth and wrapped it around her neck. “Where’d you get that?”

“Oh, this?” she asked. “I found it on Mt. Altifrost while I was separated from you guys. It saved my life, but it also makes a cute scarf, I think. So, how’d the mission go? Was it a success, whatever it was you did?”

He winced slightly as he rubbed the back of his neck. “Well… you could say that. Yes.”

“That’s good. What exactly WAS the mission, anyway?” When he didn’t respond right away, she tilted her head slightly and looked at him with concern. “Quil, what’s wrong?”

He glanced back over at her and sighed before looking away again. “Well… I learned a few things about my past.”

Corona’s ears perked straight up. “Really? That’s great! Anything interesting, did any of those things you were worried about get answered? Y’know, if you were leaving anyone behind or anything like that?”

“Well… I did leave someone behind… but they’ve moved on, though. It’s nothing to really be concerned about now.” He replied as he wrung his paws together. “Turns out I didn’t have a family.”

“Not even parents?”

“Well, I had to have had parents. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. I guess I just never knew them.” He said with a little bit of a smile.

“Were you an orphan?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t remember everything. Just a few things here and there.” He replied.

“How did you learn this, anyway?” She asked.

“Espeon, Shade, and I did some brain probing and were able to pull up some forgotten memories.” He replied.

Corona leaned forward a little bit, her big, green eyes wide. “Wow, you can do that? I bet that’ll be on the high-priority list until you remember everything, huh?”

“I doubt it.” He sighed. “It was a pretty traumatic thing for me and Espeon. Shade didn’t seem to be too shaken up from it. Espeon did most of the work, but seeing things from my past was like seeing them from another body. It’s kind of creepy watching a younger version of yourself go about various times in his life.”

Corona nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I can see how that would mess with your mind.” She said as she walked toward the doorway. “Quil, I need to speak with Espeon and Shade. I have… a really important message for them.”

“From whom?” Quil asked, scurrying up to walk alongside her.

“Who do you think?” she asked as she approached the stairwell to the lobby.

“Bonnie.” Quil growled. “I should have known that’s what wobbuffet was screaming about.”

Once on the ground floor, Corona shook her head as she began making her way outside toward Espeon and Shade. “Not exactly.”

“I figure we should make repairs to this structure rather than hollowing out another tree, Ma’am; the aqueduct system previously installed is still intact, my buddies further down Aquinira are already preparing a batch of lumber boards to patch up any holes with, and we can buff out the claw marks and blood stains.” Bibarel said with his rather nasal voice.

“Blood stains?” Quil muttered to himself as he looked around the lobby, noticing the dark brown blotches painting the walls and floor. He cringed and carefully made his way outside. “That’s a lot of blood…”

“It’s really not quite as much as it looks.” Bibarel assured him. “I saw the fight. The high velocities of the attacks involved resulted in the blood-spatter trajectories fanning out and covering a larger area than if they were simply bleeding.” He explained. “I don’t think I’ll ever understand that Absol. She almost seemed to get a thrill out of it. Dark types—go figure.”

Espeon sighed as she looked over her ransacked headquarters. “Well, it’s not like there’s another tree as large as this one around, anyway. Proceed with your repair plans.”

“Right away, Ma’am.” Bibarel said as he waddled over to a couple of grass-type pokemon who appeared to be making an attempt at regenerating small sections of the tree that had sustained damage.

“I was skeptical about that one at first, but he’s much more useful than he looks.” Espeon said to Shade before looking down at Corona. “I see you somehow got through the raid unscathed, Furball.” Her eyes narrowed as she spotted the pink bandana drapped around the eevee’s ruff. “Where did you get that?”

“My pink scarf?” Corona asked, tightening the knot with her paws. “I found it on Mt. Altifrost.”

Espeon and Shade looked at each other for a moment, almost as though communicating through their eyes, before she turned back to the scarf-wearing rescuer. “This is a rescue team, not a beauty parlor. Nevertheless, you may continue to wear it. Now, did you come here just to show us the results of you playing dress-up, or do you actually have something important to say?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.” Corona said with a slight bit of contempt. “While Bonnie was fighting Absol in the lobby, that traitor of an eevee somehow got past everyone. I don’t know why he singled me out, but he told me to tell you that he’s about to gain so much power that you won’t even be able to recognize him. Then he said by the time you reached Fulgora Plateau, it would be too late.”

“Shade, we’re leaving for Fulgora Plateau.” Espeon said as she turned and walked past him.

He grabbed her with his tail and pulled her back. “Espeon, we’ve been through so much in the past month. We NEED a break. Besides, it sounds like Bonnie’s claws have grown back. We can’t go up against her all tired and worn out like this.”

“Fine. We’ll rest one day. ONE DAY.” She asserted as she turned back toward the tree base. “No more. Then we have to go after them.”

“Very well.” He replied before turning to Quil. “Quil, it’s best if you stay here. You need the rest more than any of us.”

After taking a moment to consider protesting, Quil nodded in agreement. “You’re right… I’m tired. I’m going to go rest.”

* * *

Espeon tore through a stack of papers as Shade relaxed behind her.

“Espeon, please rest. We’re going to need our full faculties about us when we confront Evan tomorrow.”

“What’s at Fulgora Plateau, Shade? What’s she taking Evan there for? It’s just a big, flat rock in the middle of the Eurim Plains! What is she going to do to our little boy?!”

“We’ll find out tomorrow.” He said as he got up and walked over to her, turning her face toward his with his tail. “I love him as much as you do, but whatever Bonnie has in store for him, he’s going to live through it. If she wanted him dead, he wouldn’t still be alive. Besides, it’s probably a trap. If she was really going to do something to him, why would she let him tell us where she was going to do it?”

Espeon set down the papers she was looking through. “You’re right. If anything, she’s planning on doing away with him in front of us out where no one can help us crush her skull.” She said as she clenched her paw. “That sounds like something she’d do.”

There was a knock at the door, followed by the voice of Mary.

“Ma’am, you have a visitor.”

“Tell them to wait.”

There was a short moment of silence before Mary spoke back up. “She says it’s important.”

“Take them to the cafeteria and feed them until I summon them.” Espeon shouted in frustration. “It’s the least they can do for showing up unannounced.”

The door shook as the visitor pounded against it. “The least I can do?! Speaking to me when I ask is the least YOU can do, considering I let you go after you pegged me to a tree in my OWN TERRITORY!”

Shade stood up with a start. “Let her in, Espeon.”

Espeon telekinetically pulled the door open to reveal Mary and a weavile—the weavile they had encountered at the base of Mt. Altifrost, specifically.

“Please forgive us, weavile. We JUST returned from a long, long mission, and we are very tired.” Shade explained.

“My name is Nyla.” She replied. “I can understand. I myself just ran here from Mt. Altifrost. I got chosen to come here because I was the fastest of my pack. Listen, we need your help. The entire mountain needs your help.”

“What’s the problem?” Espeon asked.

Nyla sighed and put her claws over her face. “Mt. Altifrost is getting ready to erupt.”