After the Storm - Part 35 [A Glimmer of Hope]

Story by umbratenebris on SoFurry

, , , , , , , , ,

#37 of After the Storm

What? I'm still alive? ...Looks like I am.

I can't believe it took me this long to get back into writing. I've had this chapter sitting in my phone for who knows how long and I only started working on it again two weeks ago. I choose to put the blame of the incredibly slow progress on this series on my academics and video games, because they take up too much time. Anyway, enough about me, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I don't feel creative enough to add a neato description... just know that it moves the story forward and it's not just character development.NOTE: I meant to upload this chapter last week, but the storms that were going through my area kept messing up my internet connection so I waited for the weather to lighten up. I could've uploaded this earlier this week, but I had school.NOTENOTE: This chapter is somewhat proofread. There may still be minimal spelling errors here, and most of them may be at the spelling of the pokemons' names. Also, given that it's been so long, there may be continuity errors.


Charlie had almost forgotten that he decided to spend the night at Jason's house and had decided to sleep with him in the same room. He awoke confused because of the unfamiliar ceiling above his head, the alien furniture and overall appearance of the room, and the pained yell of the Riolu that he accidentally stepped on upon getting up and out of bed.

"Guh..." the annoyed Riolu gasped and groaned in pain. "You could've at least watched where you were stepping..."

"You're the one who decided to sleep on the floor." the Charmeleon closed his eyes and yawned, stretching his arms upward then rubbing his eyes to dispel his drowsiness.

"Yeah, sleep on the floor, not get stepped on." the Riolu groaned.

"And how was sleeping on the floor for you?" the Charmeleon taunted sarcastically. "Sleep well?" The Charmeleon vaguely remembered the Riolu saying that he'd prepare his room so that the two of them can sleep there. He assumed that the Riolu would whip out a second bed or at least a cushion for whoever it was that was going to sleep on the floor, but all the Riolu really did was drop thick blankets on the ground and a pillow for his head.

"I was sleeping fantastically up until you stepped on me." the Riolu sat up and yawned. "What time is it anyway?"

"Two."

"In the afternoon!?" the Riolu exclaimed in surprise.

"Yep." the Charmeleon chuckled. "You were asleep for about twenty hours. A part of me was afraid that you wouldn't be waking up any time soon."

"Well you were probably asleep just as long as I was considering you just woke up as well."

"Nope." the Charmeleon shook his head. "I woke up earlier, at around six in the morning. I had breakfast, showered, then called my dad over the phone to ask if we had anything special to do. He asked me if you were awake, I said that you were still asleep, then he told me that we had nothing to do for today so I went back to sleep."

"I see..." the Riolu spaced out for a moment, but then a thought hit him. "Wait a minute, you woke up earlier and you still managed to step on me right now?"

"So," the Charmeleon stood up and did some stretching. "lunch?" he asked, completely ignoring the Riolu's question.

The Riolu groaned, eyeing the Charmeleon as menacingly as he could manage, but he gave up on it quickly and got up and did the same. "Breakfast." he said with a chuckle.

"Great." the Charmeleon smiled and opened the door. "I hope you can cook 'cause you're running out of sandwich materials."


"Oh, good afternoon you two." the Kirlia sitting by the dining table cheerfully greeted the two newly-awakened Pokemon.

"Sarah?" the Riolu asked. "What are you doing here?"

"And how did you get in without tripping the alarm?" the Charmeleon asked.

The Riolu looked at the Charmeleon in confusion. "What ala--" Jason's peripherals caught a glimpse of Charlie's 'security system'. "Really? String tired to the door holding up a bunch of cans and glass bottles?"

"I'm not rich, Jason." the Charmeleon said, rolling his eyes. "I had to make use of things that you had that probably wouldn't need."

"I bought you guys lunch." the Kirlia interrupted the arguing makes and gestured towards the MicRonald's that were prepared on the table. "Oh, and you forgot to lock the windows. That's how I got in without triggering your 'alarms'."

"Breakfast." corrected the Riolu.

"Trespassing." said the Charmeleon.

The two males spoke in unison that it appeared rather amusing, and somewhat hilarious, to the Kirlia. And, even with the Charmeleon's previous complaints, the two of them sat down together and ate. Neither of the males expected the Kirlia's visit, but, even with the Charmeleon's 'trespassing' comment, she wasn't unwelcome. Mainly for the reason that she is still a high priority individual to the Charmeleon and that Jason has made a promise to her just the day before.

"So," the Charmeleon cleared his throat. "what brings you here?"

The Kirlia took a sip of her drink before answering the question. "Is there something wrong with visiting the person assigned to protect me for the duration of my stay?" she asked.

The Charmeleon leaned in closer and looked at the Kirlia in the eye. "One: under current circumstances, your 'bodyguard' is in no condition or position to be protecting you. Two: you and your family are under the guard of more competent agents, you wouldn't even need Jason to protect you. Three: I doubt that this visit is merely for pleasantries so I ask again, why are you here?"

Jason eyed the Charmeleon, annoyed by his 'interrogation' but he knew Charlie had his reasons. He remained quiet though, too busy eating to even argue or add anything. The Kirlia, on the other hand, chuckled at the Charmeleon's inquiries considering that they were spot on. Perhaps he wasn't as dull as she had previously expected. "Alright, I came here because I know you guys won't return me to my apartment. If I approached the other agents, they would have escorted me away and handled it themselves, probably with little 'finesse'."

"What's 'it'?" asked the Charmeleon.

"I have important information regarding the attack yesterday."

The two males stared at her, wide-eyed in surprise, upon hearing what she said. Even Jason, who wasn't really paying attention to the previous sentences, was rather surprised.

"Why didn't you approach our superiors then?" asked the Charmeleon. "They should be notified about this as soon as--"

"Like I said," the Kirlia interrupted the Charmeleon mid-sentence. "what they'll do is escort me back to my apartment and handle it themselves. But I'd rather I have control over how the situation is handled considering how... 'delicate' it is."

"Define 'delicate'." The Riolu finally spoke after swallowing what he was chewing. "And what makes us more qualified for handling delicate situations?"

"Because you're the person in Avalon right now that I trust the most." The Kirlia said referring to the Riolu before standing up. "Besides, seeing as you're done eating, we have to hurry. I don't know how long they'll be staying where I last saw them."

"Saw who?" the Charmeleon asked as he stood up as well and pulled the Riolu off of his seat.

"The people who have the information." the Kirlia said as she disarmed the Charmeleon 'alarm' with her psychic powers and opened the front door. "I'm sure you're familiar with them. Now, we must hurry."

Neither the Riolu nor the Charmeleon knew who she was talking about but neither of them had the time to complain given the urgency that the Kirlia was giving off. The three of them quickly left the house with the Kirlia in the lead and quickly made their way through the city.


"How much longer are we supposed to stay in this godforsaken district anyway?" the Weavile mumbled as he peered through the corner of the alley and watched the streets outside. "The whole district's on damn high alert and we're supposed to be waiting here?"

"Breaking out of prison isn't exactly something the military'll take lightly either." a Scraggy sitting on top of a dumpster added. "What are we waiting for exactly?"

"Some girl said she can help us get out of here." the Scrafty said. "She said she just has to go get a few friends to help her."

"And you're sure we can trust her?" asked the Scraggy.

"Yeah, what if she comes back with a squad of those Avalon freaks?" the Weavile asked. "We're done for if they catch us again."

"What other choice do we have?" asked the Scrafty. "The whole district's in lockdown anyway, we can't just sneak out through the checkpoints."

"And how will this girl of yours get us out then, huh?" the Weavile asked. "What is she anyway? Some sort of rich person?"

"She sounded like it." The Scrafty answered. "She had a weird accent that's for sure."

"Well she's taking too long." The Scraggy pointed out. "We're gonna have to move soon or the next patrol will spot us for sure."

"But she said to stay here."

"She'll understand." The Weavile said, looking around and getting ready to leave as soon as they Scraggy does.

"Well... how will she find us?"

"We leave a note for her in the trash." the Scraggy said as he picked up a discarded piece of crumpled paper and began writing on using some charcoal he picked up. "If that girl's got half a mind, she'll notice this and look for us. We'll just move a few blocks down the street, hopefully the patrol's done scouting that area."

"And if she decides not to go looking for us?" the Scrafty asked.

"Then we'll try our luck with Plan A, the underground tunnels across Avalon." The Scraggy answered. "With luck, they're all sealed off and nobody's patrolling them. We can break into one, walk around, and come out the other side outside Avalon."

The Weavile made a gagged coughing sound. "THAT'S Plan A?"

The Scraggy didn't seem to understand why the Weavile had to ask that. "Yeah. What's so wrong about that?"

The Weavile rubbed his claws (their claws act as fingers and sharpen only when in combat) against his temple and wondered how dense their leader really is. "I thought when you said that the tunnels are abandoned you meant that they would be OPEN."

"Of course they won't be open you thickhead." the Scraggy retorted. "Especially now that the city's on high alert, of course they'll have all exits sealed!"

"And how exactly are we supposed to get into those tunnels then?" the Weavile asked.

"We open them obviously!" the Scraggy exclaimed.

"How do you suggest we do that?" the Weavile pressed further.

"We'll figure it out when we get there!"

The Scrafty sighed as his brothers argued on whether the tunnels plan was going to work. As much as he wanted to point out that the girl was still an option, he knew that they would just yell at him again and the fact that he himself had his doubts whether the girl would actually help them or not. She seemed like just some random kid walking down the street at the time. The Scrafty tried his best to stay hidden in the alley and it just came to him as a great surprise when the Kirlia walked into the alley, intent on looking for him.

At first, the Scrafty was terrified. He thought that the Kirlia was a recruit from Avalon that would take them back to prison. But by the accent of her voice, the Scrafty could tell that she wasn't from here. She was nice too, giving him a bag of the takeout food that she had with her. The Scrafty almost cried tears of joy actually. The biggest surprise about that girl was how she offered to help them escape Avalon. The Scrafty didn't know how she was going to do it, but she promised to return with friends that would be able to help them.

Now, however, it's been more or less thirty minutes since she left. The Scrafty was starting to question whether that girl was true to her word or not.

"Psst."

The Scrafty's head perked up at the sound and looked around. From the corner of the alley, the Scrafty saw that same Kirlia peeking in, gesturing for him to come closer.

"Kid!" the Scrafty couldn't help but exclaim in joy as he rushed over to the Kirlia. His brothers seemed to hear him and see the Kirlia as well as they stopped yelling at each other.

"Yeah, keep your voice down." The Kirlia said as she walked into the alley.

"This is the Kirlia you were talking about?" the Scraggy asked.

"Yeah." the Scrafty jovially exclaimed. "I told you she'd be back."

"You said she'd bring friends though." The Weavile said. "Where are they?"

"Yes, I brought my friends with me." The Kirlia said, keeping her composure amidst the fact that three fugitives wanted for armed robbery were in front of her. "But you three have to promise not to freak out."

The three of them were confused as to why she had requested that.

"I swear to god, kid, if this is a trap..." the Weavile threated as his claws glowed slightly and sharpened, poised to strike.

"Promise?" the Kirlia repeated in a stern voice.

The three of them looked at each other and silently considered their options. Coming to the conclusion that they had little to no alternatives to go to, they all faced the Kirlia and nodded.

The Kirlia smiled, almost chuckling in fact, as things were starting to go her way. She turned around and faced the entrance of the alley. "Alright guys, you two can come on in."

"Welp, Sarah, who are these informants you were talking..." the Riolu was speaking as he and the Charmeleon turned the corner and into the alley. "...about..?"

Both parties stared at the other in surprise, the Riolu and the Charmeleon recognizing their first mission together and the three brothers recognizing the Riolu's face and the Charmeleon's armband.

"Hey, it's you three." the Riolu said almost childishly, although a bit inappropriate given the situation.

The Weavyle was the first to react. "I knew it--" he exclaimed but was cut off as the Kirlia used her psychic powers to move the trash bins and the dumpster around to block the possible exits and to shield herself from the Weavyle. As much as the Charmeleon and the Riolu would've been fast enough to jump to the Kirlia's aid, her psychic powers acted much faster than either parties could imagine, almost immediately shifting objects as heavy as filled dumpsters into positions even a few meters away. In fact, everyone was so in awe of the Kirlia's powers that she didn't really need to position a trash bin between her and the Weavyle to protect her, the Weavyle was too stunned by her psychic feat.

"Will you calm down first?" the Kirlia asked as she pressed the trash bin against the Weavyle. "I said I'd help you guys escape with the help of my friends and here they are."

"We're helping them escape?" the Charmeleon asked.

The Kirlia sternly eyed the Charmeleon. "Do you want that information or not?"

"Information about what?" the Scrafty asked.

"I sensed that the three of you heard a conversation between the Sableye while you were in the prison." The Kirlia said as she lowered the garbage bin. "And personally, I believe that information from a calm, untouched mind is the ones closest to the truth so torturing and interrogating the truth out of the three of you wouldn't be very helpful."

"So you plan on making a trade?" the Scraggy asked. "What we know for our freedom?"

"Exactly." The Kirlia answered.

The Charmeleon sighed. "Look, I understand that you Arkhans know more about the mind than we do, and I'm in no position to argue how much 'better' the information would be depending on the method... but it's not your call. Amnesty for CRIMINALS..." he growled at the three fugitives. "Amnesty can only be granted by the head of the Military District, my father. If you want this 'trade' plan of yours to work, you still have to bring this up to him."

"Which is why I asked you guys to come with me." said the Kirlia. "The two of you can work your charms, ask your dad to agree to it, the three of them can tells us what we need and hopefully it's enough, then we can all go about our lives."

The Charmeleon rubbed his fingers against the bridge of his nose. "Need I remind you that these are criminals, convicted for robbing a bank... with illegal firearms..."

"Guns blazing..." the Riolu added with a slight chuckle. "Bang bang..." it seems that Jason's wasn't entirely focused or taking the situation seriously still.

The three brothers were nervous. Not even they can imagine someone like Ignatius giving a criminal amnesty for any form of exchange. They're only hope now is if the Kirlia can convince these two, and that this Charmeleon can convince his father... but they understand that that is just a slim chance.

"But what the heck, let's do it?" the Riolu said.

"What?" both the Charmeleon and the Kirlia said in unison.

"Jason, this isn't our call." The Charmeleon argued.

"I know." The Riolu replied. "But what's the harm in bringing them to your dad's office and bringing it up? If your dad agrees, then yay. If he doesn't, well, getting sent back to jail would be a better fate than getting caught trying to escape."

The Charmeleon considered this for a moment and saw no fault in the idea anyway. The decision wasn't for them to decide but his father's. And knowing his old man, the best these criminals are going to get is a trip back to jail unharmed. "Alright..." the Charmeleon sighed and turned his attention back to the three fugitives. "c'mon, you three, let's go see my old man."


The three brothers have never felt fear as intense as standing in a locked room with the head of the Military District sitting in front of them, eyeing them with his cold green eyes. Behind them stood the Riolu and the Charmeleon, making sure that they don't make any attempts of escape. In front of them stood the Kirlia, the only thing in the room that could possibly provide them comfort. The other Pokemon in the room was a Sceptile. They've never seen the Sceptile before, nor does he radiate the same sort of aura that an Avalonian would, but there is this coldness about the Sceptile that was very unnerving.

Their walk towards the Academy wasn't any better either. Every soldier they came across turned their attention towards them, each murmuring something that neither of them could quite catch even when they attempted to read their lips. Walking into the Academy was even worse than outside given the number of soldiers and agents roaming the halls. And given that they were criminals, freely walking INTO the Academy was the exact opposite of what they should be doing. Still, given that this is probably their best bet of getting away safely... they still hated a huge portion of this idea.

"So... you want me to absolve these three of past crimes in exchange for whatever information they may have regarding that attack yesterday." Ignatius repeated the Kirlia's request for clarification.

"Yes, sir." The Kirlia said calmly, even to the Charmeleon's surprise.

The Sceptile in the back chuckled a bit. "This is rather interesting." He mumbled aloud.

The Charizard was silent for a moment, eyeing the three fugitives before him, then pulled out one of the drawers of his desk, produced a piece of paper, and started writing on it. After he was done writing, it seems that he affixed his signature on the bottom of the paper, that appears to be a document, and stamped it. "Done. This documents states that you are absolved of all past crimes committed in the city of Avalon. You will be treated as a neutral citizen so long as you follow the rule of law, blah blah blah, neither of us could care less about what else is written in this document and I'm having a horrible day."

Everyone in the room, except for the Charizard and the Sceptile, couldn't help but stare at the Charizard in surprise. Charlie in particular was taken aback by his father's decision. Sarah was rather excited that things truly went her way and the three brothers were more than happy about how things went.

"Thank you, sir." The Scraggy was about to reach for the document but the Charizard pulled back before he could.

"I will give you this document if I find that the information you have is actually important." The Charizard added. "If the information you have is of little or some importance, I will have you escorted by to your cells with a reduced sentence. If the information you have is of no importance, I will have you escorted back to your cells with the additional sentence of attempting to escape. Do I have myself clear?"

"We don't even know what information this Kirlia wants from us!" the Weavile exclaimed, but immediately shut his mouth and stepped back when the Charizard shifted his gaze towards him.

"Just tell us what you know then we'll decide how important that information is." The Sceptile said with a slight chuckle as he leaned against a wall.

The three of them looked at each other, and occasionally towards the Kirlia for support, and they started pointing at each other to decide who gets to tell the Charizard what they heard. In the end, they grabbed the Scrafty and pulled him forward.

The Scrafty was trembling in the presence of the Charizard, but considering that he was probably the one that paid the most attention to the conversation between those Sableye, he was their best bet of making any logical sense.

"Th... they didn't really say much." the Scrafty said nervously. "They were gloating about how easy it was... then they mentioned something about a safe house and how they have allies there that gave them intel."

The mention of the word 'safe house' caught the attention of the Charizard and the Sceptile, and the three brothers were a bit glad that they at least have something important to show for. "Did they happen to mention where this safe house is?" the Charizard asked.

The Scrafty's heart sank when the Charizard asked that question. "Uh... no... no they didn't."

The Charizard and the Sceptile sighed and lowered their heads in disappointment. "This isn't really much to work with... and I'm not really in the mood to be charitable." The Charizard said. "Unless you have anything else--"

"Sir, if I may," the Kirlia said abruptly. "I was able to catch a clear image of his memory given that he was trying hard to remember all the details. The Sabeleye didn't say 'safe house'... they said 'Haven', they received information from an 'agent from Haven'..."

The room fell silent for a few moments after that as neither parties knew what to make of the information that the Kirlia was able to dig out. The thieves stood their silently because they had run out of things to say that could possibly help them at this point, and they didn't dare say anything at all as it might threaten to make their situation worse. Jason knew what the Sabeleye could've possibly meant by "agent from Haven", but he kept his mouth shut because he wanted to believe that he was wrong. Their superiors sitting in front of them managed to keep a straight face after hearing the news, but even Jason, with his defective aura, can tell that both of them were nervous.

After the moments of silence has passed, the Charizard picked up the document and started writing on it again. "Here, the three of you are absolved of your past crimes. Charlie, grab someone outside and get them out of here. Jason, you'll take Miss Pearce back to her quarters. Now go."

The brothers were so overwhelmed with joy that they were almost about to start crying and thanking the Charizard, but a quick, cold glance from the Charizard was enough to instill fear into them once more and quickly hurried outside the room with the young Charmeleon in the lead. They didn't need to know the Charizard for long to know that he was pissed.

Jason knew that the Charizard and the Sceptile would end up arguing, and he also knew that he knew too little about anything still so it wouldn't be the wisest choice to butt in and try to mediate things. He could tell that the Kirlia wanted to stay as well seeing as the two adults might end up killing each other later, perhaps his aura was slowly coming back under control considering he's starting to feel emotions again. Jason approached the Kirlia and held her at her forearm. The two looked at each other for a moment before agreeing that disobeying the Charizard's orders would only worsen his mood and the situation. The two of them left, leaving the Charizard and the Sceptile on their own.