Seeking Answers
#8 of Bridging Dimensions
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 8: Seeking Answers
At first, I noticed a few tiny pinpricks of light in the darkness, twinkling through my blurry vision. I cracked my eyes open further before I realized that I was laying on my back and staring up at the night sky. A small window of serene sky was visible, framed by the towering shadows of the surrounding trees. It took me a few moments to remember what had happened before I blacked out, and to appreciate that since I was thinking, I must still be alive. I didn't sense any pain or numbness anywhere, but I still felt extremely tired as if I had just finished a marathon.
To my right I heard the soft crackling of a blazing campfire. Glancing over, I could make out another person sitting next to it, preoccupied with the delicious-smelling pot over the campfire. As I groaned and slowly sat up, she noticed and stepped over to give me a hand.
"Good to see you're back with us," she said softly, "You gave all of us quite a scare."
I rubbed my eyes and examined my surroundings more closely. It appeared we were still in the forest, in a tiny clearing just big enough for us two to lay down around the fire. The bright orange light washed over us but quickly faded to an inky darkness by the time it reached the enclosing trees. At the foot of the sleeping bag I had been resting on lay Mira and Pyro, sound asleep curled up next to each other. I gave a small sigh of relief Thank god she's alright. I then took a good look at my rescuer, and it took me a few moments to figure out why she looked familiar.
"You're... Ashley, right? From the tournament...?" I spoke hoarsely.
She handed me a bottle of water and a bowl of savory stew and nodded. "Yeah. After stumbling across your eevee all by herself, I figured we would run into each other."
"Thanks so much for helping Mira, and me as well." I gave the stew a few sips, letting the warmth flow through me. The night air was chilly, barely held at bay by the crackling fire. After I felt a bit stronger, I moved to get up and check on Mira and Pyro. Gently, I shook the duo awake. "Hey, wake up."
Pyro opened an eye first and noticing it was me, nudged Mira as well. The eevee stirred and flicked her tail a couple more times, then grudgingly sat up and yawned. The moment she opened her eyes though, Mira immediately sprang to life. Crying out a joyous, "Vee!", she jumped on me to lick my face vigorously.
I gave her a hearty pat her on the head, "I'm so glad to see you all safe and sound!" As she continued her joyous barrage, I noticed Pyro merely smiling off to the side. He only uttered a single, "Quil..," clearly glad that I was alright, but giving Mira and me some space.
All of a sudden, Mira jumped back and stood in front of us, her eyes wide with shock. Gradually, her body began to glow with an inner white light that rapidly blanketed her entire body.
"Mira, you're evolving!" I exclaimed, jumping up to watch. I was thrilled; first Pyro, now Mira evolving just a few days apart. For Pyro, I knew judging by his battle experience it was only a matter of time, but Mira... here she was, full of surprises. However, the evolutionary luminescence around her wasn't glowing as brightly as Pyro's did when he evolved. In fact, it even seemed to have stopped intensifying. Mira gave a shrill, almost frightened yelp as she lay down on all fours and wrapped her tail tight around her body. She seemed to be focusing inwards as she closed her eyes and hummed a low, "Veeeee..." The light shining from her body was definitely darkening, and after several long seconds Mira's eevee form returned in the dim firelight. She remained sitting there, out of breath and panting slightly.
She... stopped evolving?
"You know, choosing to evolve is a huge leap for a pokémon. Eevee usually find it a tougher choice than most others. She's probably just not ready for that kind of commitment," Ashley chimed in.
I almost jumped at her comment, forgetting that she was watching from the sidelines. However, this entire situation was puzzling for me. From the games I'd played as a kid and what the pokédex mentioned before, obviously the evolution process could be stopped. But what pokémon wouldn't want to get stronger? Especially one as timid as Mira? I carefully got up and picked up her trembling form. Some form of comfort was in order, but I hardly knew what to say.
"Shh, it's okay, it's over. You don't have to evolve if you don't want to," I gently reminded her.
Mira gave a small smile as she fell back asleep, exhausted. As I returned to my bedroll and lay Mira down next to Pyro, I decided to have a short chat with Ashley before we got some rest for the remainder of the night. It had gotten slightly darker while I was awake, so it couldn't be too late in the evening yet. Plus, I was merely drained, not sleepy. I could plainly tell Ashley was a well-traveled trainer, at least compared to myself. She had already helped more than I could ever thank her for, both with me and for finding Mira; perhaps she could share some experienced advice. Besides, I was also dying to know her and Mira's side of the story. I ladled myself another helping of stew, then laid back in a comfortable position.
"So, Ashley, do you mind filling me in on what happened while I was out?" I spoke softly as I watched Pyro curl up around Mira to keep her warm in the evening air.
"Mira stumbled across our camp last night. Since trained eevee are quite uncommon, I figured she must've belonged to you. We set out to look for you this morning, and if it hadn't been for those markers you left we probably wouldn't have found you in time." She paused for a moment, then, "How did you three get separated anyways?"
I recounted our two confrontations with Grovyle and company during the past few days, our search for Mira, then Pyro, and finally the battle with what the Pokedex said was a Seviper. In the meantime, I noticed that Flaaffy was nowhere to be seen. She must have run off before Ashley reached us. "The next thing I knew, I found myself lying here."
She eyed me sternly, before replying, "You know you're an idiot for trying to cross Plumera forest alone, especially without a single badge, right?" I winced, hurt by her rebuke. I certainly am not! Although the recent consequences of my actions clearly indicated otherwise. She pulled out a metallic case and revealed two colorful badges that gleamed in the firelight. "I have two badges and have been through here many times before, and even I still have to be extremely cautious. One rule you should remember is this: don't interfere with wild pokémon matters unless you know for sure you can handle the situation."
I sat silenced for a bit, enjoying what was left of the meal before speaking up again. "Yeah, I didn't expect Pyro to just jump into the battle without warning, or for us to get lost so easily in here. Can we follow you guys out of here in the morning?"
"Of course, there's pretty much only two ways in or out, you might as well as we're heading in the same direction." She began cleaning up her cooking supplies as I finished the rest of my bowl. "We should get some rest, it's already really late." I agreed, and we settled in around the glowing campfire for the night.
I woke again around sunrise, at least as best I could tell with all the trees around us. The tiny patch of sky overhead glowed a warm orange, the light barely breaking through the treetops. Around our campsite the morning mist still hung thick, giving the forest a calm but sort of eerie atmosphere. A slight rustle in the nearby bushes caught my attention as I sat up and stretched, so I got up and crept closer to have a look. I brushed apart the low hanging branches to reveal a pink and white ball of fluff scrambling to hide behind an overturned log. A few seconds later, Flaaffy meeped timidly as she poked her head over the rotting bark to peer back at me.
I reached out a hand, "Come on out, it's alright."
Flaaffy eyed me for almost a minute before she slowly abandoned her cover and stepped out into the clearing, keeping her eyes on me all the while. I found my pack neatly sitting up against a nearby rock and pulled out the last of the berries, throwing it over to her. With a small cry of delight, she dove on the morsel and greedily gobbled it up.
"So you ended up sticking around, huh?" I said as I gingerly pet her on the head. Flaaffy jumped slightly at the touch, but with her mind on food she decided to just tolerate me for now. I sat back down and leaned against a tree and took a breath of fresh forest air. Just by looking around, these woods definitely didn't appear as dangerous as our previous encounters had painfully demonstrated.
It wasn't very long before the rest of the camp arose from their slumber. As soon as Mira woke Pyro up, the two energetically dashed back and forth around the clearing, poking Flaaffy every now and then to try and get her to join them. Flaaffy however seemed to keep a more serious demeanor; she merely sat on the sidelines with Kai and smiled at their antics as Ashley and I packed and cleaned up our campsite. I was feeling well enough that we could head out immediately, but before we started off I knelt down beside Flaaffy.
"You've been tagging along with me for a while now, I was wondering if you wanted to join me, Mira and Pyro on our travels?" She pondered the request for a bit, neither giving a clear yes or no. Eventually, I rummaged through my pack for a spare pokéball. But as soon as Flaaffy spied the red and white orb she panicked and fled to hide behind Kai, who gave her an amused look.
I guess she doesn't want to be caught just yet, although I could tell she had at least considered the possibility briefly. "If you don't want me to catch you, that's fine with me." At my acknowledgement she relaxed visibly, her timidness all but gone. We finished packing and set off, returning Pyro and Kai to their pokéballs and the five of us headed out into the forest.
With Chikorita leading the way, Ashley claimed we'd be out of here in only a few hours. From further inquiry, I learned that she had caught Chikorita the first time she ventured through here with Kai. Also, the forest was located nearby her hometown so that's why the three of them traveled through here often. In fact, she was from Kupera town, the same town that the regional pokémon lab was in so we were actually headed to the same place.
It was just about lunchtime when we finally reached the exit of this godforsaken forest. Lost, chased, separated, poisoned, our time here wasn't exactly a model example on how to survive in the wilderness. However, as the trees thinned and transitioned into sparsely forested meadows, I could feel Mira noticeably relax atop my head. I guess she had decided that was her favorite perch to sit an enjoy the ride. With her being so light, it wasn't a problem if she was lazy and didn't want to walk. Pyro on the other hand was glad to get out and stretch in the wide-open swaths of grass, running around in zig-zag patterns while being chased by a much slower Flaaffy. Yep, he was back to his energetic self.
Ashley broke the silence, and asked where I was headed after we reached Kupera town. I explained to her that we were headed to the lab near town.
"Any reason you want to go there? You already have two pokémon, so you don't need a starter. You might even have a third already," she inquired, glancing at Flaaffy who was taking a break walking next to me. She didn't seem to notice herself implicated in the conversation, instead watching Pyro amble all over the path.
"I have some specific questions that I need to find answers for. I figured there might be my best bet."
"Maybe I could answer some of them? I have traveled around longer than you have," she responded.
Although the technology of this world was far more advanced than on Earth, having pokéballs and healing machines and such, I still hadn't seen anyone else with an ODT device. In fact, most of the equipment I'd seen was, in my opinion, far less advanced. I didn't know who it belonged to, or if it was public knowledge if such a device existed, one that could travel between worlds. It'd probably be for the best if I kept it secret between as few people as possible, at least until I understood what I was dealing with.
However, I did have something I could ask her. "Okay, have you ever heard a group of people who call themselves 'Team Origin'?"
She furrowed her brow in thought, before finally reaching a conclusion. "Nothing concrete, although there have been rumors about such a group. Petty criminals mostly, sort of like that old Team Rocket in Kanto." So the regions in the games exist, just in a different part of the world. "Although the rumors of their activity_have_ been more frequent as of the past month or so. Nothing too serious. Why do you ask?"
"No reason. I heard someone mention it in the pokémon center and was wondering what they were talking about." She just gave me a skeptical look as we continued to walk. "Oh, all right. We had a run-in with one of their team members, and they almost stole Mira. We barely managed to get away." I gave Mira a pat on the head as we continued.
"Oh, no! That's horrible, you should definitely let the police know when we get to town."
"Sure thing." I replied, halfheartedly. As much as I wanted criminals like that behind bars, I didn't want to draw attention to myself. If I just walked into a police station as I was, there was no way my made-up trainer registration information would stand up to careful scrutiny.
It took us a few days to read Kupera town as expected; the first day I was still tired overall so we slowed down and took lots of breaks. Even as the first night closed in on us, I was surprised that Flaaffy elected to stay with us despite her obvious distrust of humans. I could tell that she had gotten comfortable being around me, Mira and Pyro, but still she steered clear whenever Ashley tried to interact with her. I guess it would just take some time being around all of us.
Not much happened during our trip. Mira would always sit atop my hair, and I periodically let Pyro out of his ball to stretch his legs. Every time, Flaaffy would perk up at his flash of light and the two would run around in circles, calling out to each other and having a grand old time. Mira, being too lazy to get up and play with the two just sat around and watched with me as we walked. Kai and Chikorita for the most part rested in their pokéballs. Being older, they probably didn't have as much pent-up energy as my duo, although Ashley did ask to stop several times to battle with some wild pokémon.
She was also kind enough to have a couple of sparring matches with me. Obviously I had no hope of beating her but that didn't mean that they couldn't help Mira with the basics of battling and give Pyro a hefty workout. I was relieved that Mira agreed to practice with us; after her first battle, I was afraid she might give up the sport altogether. But this time, with encouragement from everyone and a variety of practice partners, she was becoming more comfortable and coordinated on the battlefield. With time and experience, Ashley commented, she would be just as proficient as Kai.
Even Flaaffy joined in when Ashley asked if I wanted a short double-battle, immediately running over and teaming up with Pyro. She didn't always listen to what I commanded, but she knew her way around a battle just like Pyro. Even though we had the type advantage against Chikorita and Kai, Kai was no slouch and was able to nimbly dodge each and every one of Flaaffy's electric attacks.
Since the first night I woke up, Mira hadn't shown any other sign of evolving. According to Ashley and what I remembered, Eevee would only evolve when exposed to an evolution stone, or from an intensely emotional event. Finding me almost dead and being overjoyed when I finally awoke probably tipped her over the edge, but since then everything had gone smoothly. There was no telling when she would be ready or get the chance again, but whenever that was, I would be there to support her decision.
In the chilly evenings we would sit around the campfire and just talk, getting to know each other a little better. Well, mostly me asking Ashley about her travels. Whenever the conversation drifted towards my past, I tried to answer what I could without revealing where I was from. No doubt she wouldn't believe a word I said.
Soon, we finally glimpsed the sparkling lights of Kupera town. It was almost the third evening since we left Plumera forest, with the setting sun grazing the mountaintops behind us in the distance. From what I remembered from the games I'd played, the town with the professor's laboratory was usually quite small; not so for Kupera town, as a rather wide area of sprawling suburbs surrounded the small town's center.
"Come on, we're almost there," Ashley called out, and we all continued down the path in earnest.
As we entered the town limits, I noticed that Flaaffy was looking around nervously at the increase in human habitation. I almost wanted to reach out and comfort her, to say that she had nothing to worry about, but she was still wild after all. If she didn't want to become accustomed to having lots of humans around, I wasn't going to force it upon her. Besides, she already made it clear she didn't want me to catch her at the moment, even if she still wanted to hang around.
Sure enough, as we neared one of the pokémon centers on the outskirts of town, she spotted all the trainers inside as Ashley entered the building. With a sharp cry she fled into the nearby bushes, but not before stopping to look back at us. Pyro gave out a call, as if to ask her to come with us inside. With a forced turn she sped off into the darkness before she could change her mind, leaving the three of us us standing by ourselves in the brisk night air. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted, I lamented and with a sigh we all headed into the center for the night.
Ashley said her goodbyes and departed shortly after getting everyone checked out healthy to head home on the other side of town, but not before exchanging contact details with me. Maybe next time we ran into each other, we could have another rematch.
We settled in for the night, Mira and I glad that we had a nice comfortable bed to sleep. Pyro, however, elected to curl up on the window sill, gazing out at the surrounding town buildings. Of the three of us, he had gotten to know Flaaffy the most, so I guess he just missed her being around. Still, there was nothing I could do but stroke him gently on the back and reassure him, "Come here and get some sleep, I'm sure you'll feel better in the morning." After a minute or two he reluctantly joined us, but as I shut the lights I could tell his mind was still elsewhere.
The laboratory was easily the largest building in and around town, a rectangular concrete structure that rose a good four or five floors up. It sat atop a wide cliff face on the edge of town, with several side greenhouse-like wings and a wide expanse of forested woodland behind it. If I remembered correctly, the outdoors area would be where local trainers could leave their extra pokémon instead of the PC box if they wanted to. I quickly approached the sliding glass doors to find a crowd of people standing around in the main lobby. A few trainers here and there had their smaller pokémon out with them, but the vast majority just stood around chatting excitedly with one another. Mira was a bit intimidated by all the commotion and simultaneous conversations around us and clung to my head tightly on her usual perch.
An automated announcement blared over the speakers, "The next tour will begin in a just few minutes! New trainers, make sure to sign up at the front desk beforehand. Professor Hawthorne will be around for Q&A, after which new trainers can receive their starter pokémon."
Ah, so they give tours of the lab, and some of the trainers are here for their starters. I figured I might as well go on the tour; I was here to ask questions after all, and perhaps I would learn something new.
A dark-haired female assistant emerged from the back doors and greeted all of us before leading everyone around the first floor of the building. Most of the projects down here were low-level, and the researcher gave us an introduction to the kinds of research that were performed here and on the upper floors. From what I could tell, Hawthorne studied pokémon energy and evolution: how pokémon were able to use attacks, what made them evolve, why certain kinds of energy can heal or hurt different types of pokémon, etc. All quite fascinating stuff, but of course I didn't have enough background knowledge to make much sense of all of it beyond what I already knew.
I did learn that they had discovered three distinct types of evolution in terms of what kinds of energy were involved: when a pokémon grew older and naturally evolved by age, when a pokémon grew stronger in battle, and when triggered by something, such as being exposed to evolution stones. However, these three kinds of energy proved elusive to control except by pokémon themselves, hence the need for more research in that area.
The tour ended in a large room that appeared to be the lab's main communal work area. In fact, the professor was waiting for the group as we entered. With a small cough he cleared his throat.
"Thank you all for taking the time to learn all about the research we do around here. It's always nice to see people taking an interest in learning about pokémon. This is the end of the tour, so if you have any remaining questions feel free stick around and ask. For the rest of you who I'm sure are anxious to begin your pokémon journey, please follow my assistant here to meet your starter pokémon." The crowd split up either to follow the lab tech or mill around the room before making their way to the exit. After just about everyone had left, I walked up to the professor and timidly asked if we could speak in private. He gave me a funny look but seeing how fidgety I was and how no one had any real questions he agreed and we entered his personal lab and closed the door.
"Alright son, what's your name and what can I do for you?" he asked. I wasn't exactly sure how to broach the topic, but I figured I should just dive right in. Perhaps he'd help me make heads or tails of my predicament.
"I'm Mark, and I wanted to ask if you knew anything about other dimensions."
I explained what had happened to me over the past several days, about the world I came from, how I had arrived here. He studied me throughout my explanation with a level gaze, showing neither excitement nor doubt in my very unusual account. As we talked, Mira jumped off of my head and carefully wandered around on one of the desks strewn with papers before curling up in a small ball to watch us. Aside from saying my world was somewhat different from this one, I left out many of the details; hopefully the fact that I knew quite a bit about pokémon would deter any further questions. Finally I finished my story and looked back at the professor expectedly.
After a long pause he gave a small chuckle, which expanded into a large, hearty laugh as he answered, "I've never heard of such a ridiculous story before. Are you sure you're feeling all right?"
"Aw, Come on! I trudged through the forest to find your lab, almost getting killed along the way, and all you can do is make fun of my story!?" I turned to leave, Mira getting up with surprise and scurrying to my side. "I guess you don't want to take a look at this, then," I replied, twirling the ODT between my fingers.
"Oh, I'm just joking with you. Although there isn't any proof of parallel worlds existing, and I haven't heard of anyone else experiencing this 'dimensional travel' before, I suppose it's possible that what you say is true. Let me take a look at that device."
I handed over the ODT and he booted it up and started browsing through the system like I had before, muttering to himself under his breath. After some time examining the software he placed it under a scanner on the desk, which swept a plane of blue light across the device. Hawthorne shifted to analyze a newly rendering schematic on his computer screen.
"Anything yet?" I asked, peering over his shoulder as the program digitally broke apart the components inside.
"Amazing! I'm not sure how they did it, but all the components inside here point directly towards the function you described. I had no idea Origin Labs did product research in this area."
I recognized the name from the ODT's summary page earlier, but didn't take notice of it before. "Origin Labs? What's that?" I asked, genuinely curious. It sounded like Hawthorne knew of them, and if they made the ODT, it'd help to know more about them too.
"They're the biggest tech producer in the region, making all of our scientific equipment here. But you might be more familiar with their pokéball products and the healing machines that pokémon centers use. All of it designed and produced by Origin Labs." Hawthorne explained. He examined the ODT under the lamp again, flipping it back and forth in the bright light. "This seems polished like one of their products, but there hasn't been any announcement for it yet, not even rumors."
"Anything you can tell me about the device itself, that I don't already know?"
He handed it back to me, replying, "You have it mostly figured out, although the fusion battery tech it a little bit outdated compared to others on the market already, which would explain why it takes a while to recharge. Luckily, the power core's output is sustainable, so don't worry about running out of juice." He leaned back in his chair, thinking. "No one does research about this whole 'fabric of space' stuff, so I'm not exactly sure how it actually opens a bridge between dimensions. It's possible that there may be side-effects that aren't immediately noticeable, either to you or to the surrounding environment. Clearly it was created for this purpose, and you've already used it three times without any ill effects so I think it's safe, but all the same be careful."
He got up to show me and Mira out, adding, "I know this is your only way home, so I'm not going to ask you to leave the device here. I have enough data to work with," he motioned to his console, "and I'm sure you don't want to be held up exploring our fine region."
I thanked him several times before asking, "Oh professor? If you don't mind, I'd like to keep this between us. I don't want others to know about where I'm from, not to mention losing my new trainer's license."
Hawthorne chuckled and winked, "I won't say anything if you don't." Waving, I stepped back out into the lobby.
"Well, it looks like I got my answers," I said, scratching Mira behind her ear as we made our way out. Although I was dejected to find that Hawthorne didn't know anything about the device, at least I knew that whoever likely made it was a well-known company and that it wouldn't run out of power. I could keep using it travel back and forth between this world and home.
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I spied a duo of dark-blue clad trainers walk confidently up through the front glass doors ahead of us. Seeing their identical uniforms, I quickly ducked behind a nearby pillar. Shit, not more of those guys! They approached the front desk and the receptionist seemed somewhat intimidated by their demeanor. My mind flashed back to our last encounter with Team Origin, with the same uniform and probably same nefarious motives. I plucked Mira off my head and held her close, motioning to be silent.
At this point, there was no doubt in my mind that they were here for me; arriving barely an hour just after I had gotten here couldn't be a coincidence, and there was no way in hell I'd let them capture Mira. But how'd they find me so quickly? I ducked back into the main laboratory. "Uh, professor, do you think you could show me some of the outdoor areas of the lab? I'm curious as to what kinds of pokémon you take care of here," I made up on the spot. Hopefully there would be a second exit, and I could jump a fence or something once we got outside.
Hawthorne paused for a moment, then replied, "I was just about to go outside and feed some of the pokémon anyways. If you want to watch, I'd be glad to introduce you." I didn't have the heart to tell him all I wanted was a backdoor exit, but at the same time meeting more of the pokémon around the lab seemed like a pretty good bonus.
As we walked out through the enclosure, Hawthorne kept droning on and on about the various pokémon that he took care of here. I kept an eye behind me, in case the Origin grunts managed to make their way outdoors to follow me. After we lost sight of the main building behind the trees, I breathed a sigh of relief. No sign of anyone tailing us.
Mira was enjoying the return to green scenery, after being around the urban streets for a while. That is, until a huge Ursaring jumped out of the bushes next to us with a thunderous roar. I reflexively jerked back in surprise, ready to run until I realized that the Ursaring was sporting a wide grin and began to chuckle. Poor Mira was scared out of her mind, she almost fell off her perch as she scrambled to find somewhere to hide. Hawthorne gave a smile and pat the now-tame Ursaring on the head.
"Don't worry, none of the pokémon in here are wild, so you're perfectly safe. Ursaring just likes to mess with visitors," Hawthorne explained. Mira gave a timid peek back at the Ursaring and yipped an angry retort. Obviously, she was not happy with his tomfoolery.
Ursaring joined us as we kept following the trail through the enclosure. We stumbled across several more pokémon during our walk through the various habitats, Hawthorne pulling out a bag of food and introducing me and Mira to the lab's inhabitants. A group of wooper cheerfully greeted us at the nearby pond, and we encountered a lovely zigzagoon couple lounging in the open meadow. The pokédex was quite handy at filling in my gaps in knowledge and I promised myself that I would set aside some time later to familiarize myself with all the new pokémon I might encounter.
We stumbled across a tan-colored leafy pokémon that I didn't recognize, but at the sighting Mira's ears perked up and jumped down to sniff the four-legged creature. When I asked Hawthorne, he explained that this was one of the more recently discovered evolutions of Eevee, a pokémon named Leafeon. In addition to evolution stones and emotions, he explained, Eevee could also evolve when they lived in an environment long enough; so far, forested and icy areas had confirmed effects, in which an Eevee might evolve into a Leafeon or Glaceon. Mira didn't seem to be taking any note of this, as she froliced around with Leafeon as we continued our walk.
After about half an hour, I spotted a service entrance in the enclosing fence. "Professor, this has been a great walk, but if you don't mind, Mira and I'd like to explore the forest around here for a while before heading back to town. Can I get out through that way?" I asked, pointing to the fence gate.
Hawthorne smiled, "Of course. To make your way back to town, just follow the slope downhill for a couple of miles to the base of the cliff." I thanked him again for all of his help and petting Mira on the head to make sure she was okay, we set off.
About five minutes after we left the lab's enclosure, we were starting to make our way back. The forest was quiet aside from the ambient noise of the wind and the occasional chirp from a pidgey. With the sun casting glorious beam of light and vivid shadow from the upper canopy, it was so calming that I almost forgot why we were taking this detour in the first place.
Suddenly, I heard voices off the the side of the natural trail we were following. Cautiously, I picked up Mira, ducked down behind some bushes and froze, trying to pinpoint where the voices were coming from and what they were saying.
"... called all of us... track down one measly trainer."
"... under no circumstances ... get away."
A few yards to my left I heard a pair of footsteps slowly trudge through the underbrush, the owners of the voices. From what I could see through the leaves, it was two trainers with the same blue uniform; possibly the same two from the lab, but given an organization as organized as Team Origin, there was no telling how many of them were out here searching for me. The two grunts began walking away and Mira and I gave a sigh of relief and quietly crept out of the bush.
And just at the worst possible time, stepped on a branch with a startlingly loud CRACK.
The voices sounded again, "What was that? I thought I heard something."
The grunts turned around and spotted the two of us standing there, frozen in terror. They yelled out, "Stop right there!" and immediately started running over and throwing out their pokéballs. "Bravo team to HQ, we found him, about a click south of the lab." With a dual flash of white light, a Heracross and a Poliwhirl emerged. The blue bug-type buzzed back and forth in the air, ready to prevent my escape. Mira let out a pitiful wine and dug deeper into my hair as I turned to release Pyro. Obviously she didn't want to fight at all, so Pyro would have to face this by himself. A horrible type and number disadvantage, but if I could get out of this without resorting to using the ODT right in front of these crooks again, I'd try. No telling what they would do once they knew I had such a device.
"Come on, Pyro, you can do this!"
Pyro flared his crest flames and let out his battle cry, but blinked once in the brightly lit forest before it died in his throat. He stared at his opponents and then looked back at me incredulously. Two-on-one odds against a water type?
I tried to suppress the pang of guilt building in my stomach. "Sorry, but we don't have much choice." He nodded grimly and prepared for the tough battle ahead, a dribble of smoke trailing out of his growling maw.
The battle began in earnest. Heracross kept flying around the clearing and poking in towards Pyro with fighting-type jabs and thrusts, but Pyro was barely able to keep the bug at bay with huge swirls of flames. However, he wasn't able to get in any direct attacks as Poliwhirl kept harassing him with spout after spout of icy water. Luckily he was nimble enough to weave all around the clearing and after a short bout, all three pokémon regrouped on our respective sides of the battlefield.
Heracross had flown into a few streams of fire and was slightly singed. But that Poliwhirl was relentless. Pyro hadn't been directly hit yet, but he was tiring fast and it was only a matter of time before he ran out of steam.
I whispered to Pyro, "We need to be more offensive, otherwise this won't last much longer. See if you can take out the Heracross first, and we can make a break for it with smokescreen." He nodded his agreement, panting for breath.
"Quick Attack into Flame Wheel!" I called out. Pyro rocketed towards the recovering Heracross, closing the gap in a mere second. With a flaming crunch, Pyro slammed into the bug's chitinous armor and sent him flying into a tree where he slumped to the ground. The bug was still conscious but in no condition to fly, so Pyro would have the huge upper hand in agility and range.
"Good job, Pyro!" I cheered, and he turned his attention to the still-strong Poliwhirl. However, the water pokémon took advantage of Pyro's lowered guard to fire a glimmering stream of bubbles, completely encircling the quilava. With no way to avoid the attack, I cringed as I watched the orbs close in all at once in a deafening impact. When the mist cleared Pyro was still standing, but only just; his fur was thoroughly soaked and it seemed like a single tackle would be enough to bring him down. To make matters worse, his combined attack had taken a lot of concentration and energy, I didn't know how many attacks he had left in him.
At the command of its trainer, Poliwhirl dashed in for a physical attack at close quarters. I yelled for Pyro to dodge to the side, but before he could react a bolt of lightning flew out of the nearby bushes to strike the charging Poliwhirl. Everyone turned to see what pokémon it was, but I was relieved to see a familiar looking Flaaffy stepping out into the fray. Thank god she really likes to stalk us.
Flaaffy appeared to be on our side, with an angry scowl on her face as she yelled at Poliwhirl. Sparks were jumping from her cottony wool and her tail was pulsating with a deep shade of blue. With her arrival, the odds were finally looking even; that is, until I heard another grunt running up from behind us. I twirled around just in time to see him release a third pokémon, the white light resolving into a dark gray elephant-like creature standing about a meter tall or so. It gave a low growl as it and its trainer closed in on us.
"Donphan, rollout!" the incoming grunt ordered, pointing at Flaaffy and Pyro. The Donphan gave a fearsome "Phaaaaan!" as he spun towards us at breakneck speed.
Pyro dove out of the way in time, but Flaaffy stood her ground a unleashed a huge arcing lightning attack at the spinning pokémon. The sizzling blue-white bolt made direct contact, but Donphan shook it off like it was nothing and plowed directly into Flaaffy, kicking up a small cloud of dust. Through the settling debris I saw the silhouette of Flaaffy slump to the ground and could still hear Donphan rolling around for another pass.
My mind was racing, trying to assess our options. With Donphan's arrival, it appeared we still were outmatched. Maybe we could run? It seemed to work pretty well against Grovyle, although these woods were nowhere near as dark or dense. After a smokescreen, we could run for it and hide in the forest. If it really came down to it, we could escape with the ODT, but I would rather not risk using it in front of the grunts.
"Don't fight them, Pyro use smokescreen and let's get out of here!" I yelled. As the black smoke billowed forth, Pyro joined up with me and we started running through the trees, myself holding Mira close to make sure she didn't fall again. We only got a few steps before we realized that Flaaffy was also trying to follow us, but was struggling to keep up; after taking that hit from Donphan, she was barely conscious. I didn't have time to decide if it was a good idea or not before picking her up and the four of us running through the trees and bushes. Good thing the local pokémon forged a dense network of trails, as we quickly fled down one of the well-worn paths with ease.
After about a few hundred meters and several different forks, I stopped to backtrack a bit and jump off to the side, hopefully to throw them off our tracks. We huddled underneath an overhang of tree roots, myself trying to keep everyone as quiet as possible. No more than a minute later I heard the sound of shuffling feet as Donphan lumbered past us, its elongated nose sniffing the ground. Following it were now four grunts, whispering frantically to themselves.
"Thanks for the brief, so that's why we're out here. You're sure he knows how to use it?"
"That's what Intel said. Luckily they gave us that disrupter relay. As long as we're close enough, he won't be getting away."
"Where the hell did he get his hands on a transporter anyways? I thought all devices were all tracked and accounted for."
"It must've been one of the earlier untraceable prototypes. Hurry up, he can't have gotten too far."
Their footsteps faded into the shrubbery, and my heart froze as I realized why they were here. They're not here for Mira, they know I have the ODT! I swiftly pulled it out to see the flashing light keep switching randomly between green and red. It wouldn't work as long as we were close to them, so we needed to put some distance in before we could really escape safely. With no better options, I decided we should get back to town before the grunts realized we had backtracked.
For peace of mind, I recalled Mira and Pyro to safety in their balls before picking up the semiconscious Flaaffy and fled as quickly as possible through the trees in the direction of town.