FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 25

Going down the pathway, I kept my eyes alert for anything that might have looked like a pathway or some kind of hint as to where this entrance to the underground tunnels might be. Raze kept directing me farther and farther, my connection to Zane and the others snapped apart at some point without my notice, and when I did realize it I began to become worried.

"Are you sure there's something way out here?" I asked Raze, "This is way to far out for it to just be underground tunnels."

"No, the ones back in town, those were a tunnel system between the buildings...but there's a much larger part of it that's going down this way..."

"What's in there?"

"I sense...a few dozen humans...maybe a few pokemon. If there's a mega in there, I can't feel it. These tunnels are definitely not an original part of the town." Raze hummed to himself at first, "Turn here, to your left."

I turned, staring at a wall of branches.

"There's an entrance through the bush." He told me, and I nodded, stepping off the path and starting to push my way through the bush.

After a few scrapes and a minute of stepping carefully through the brush, I came to a clearing faced up against a rock cliff. A high-tech looking door was situated just in front of me, carved into the rock. There was a keypad on the door, and I growled as I instantly recognized the flame symbol that was on it.

"Team Flare..." I grimaced, and then started as I heard a voice in the distance, on the pathway just behind me. I dived for cover in the bush, hoping the noise that the person was making would mask my own, and it seemed to work as I laid still in the grass and they kept approaching. A large human walked into the clearing. He was wearing the iconic uniform, a few pokeballs strapped along his waist as he walked up to the door, mumbling.

"Stupid Admins..." He grumbled as he walked up to the door, and he began to punch in numbers on the keypad. I watched, narrowing my eyes as I memorized the numbers.

"254682..." I whispered to myself, the door sliding open for the man with a slight hissing noise and he stepped in, the door sliding back shut after a few seconds.

As the door slid shut, I made my way free of my hiding place and approached the door. I waited a few moments to make sure no one else was going to be coming soon and then entered in the combination. The door slid open for me quickly, and I slipped inside and hugged the far wall, out of sight from the corner which led to a long hallway that passed through the mountain, and probably made its way back to town and the passage ways that connected it there.

I could hear the voice of the human who had entered before me, his voice ringing loudly from an open room filled with lockers.

"Your attitude is not appropriate for this job, if you are not willing to do what is needed, than you do not belong in this organization." He said this with mocking tones, a distinct shuffling as he pulled his uniform off and he kept on going, now in his own tone of voice, "I can do whatever needs to be done bitch, I'll go wherever you want, fight whoever you want, but when you ask me to hand over my own pokemon to you for your wild ass experiments, I draw the line."

I peered over the edge of the doorframe, watching the human as he was dressing back into a set of normal looking civilian clothing, leaving his Team Flare uniform crumpled on the tiled floor of the locker room.

"He appears to have been removed from the team." Raze chuckled lightly in my head.

"Good, perhaps he'll be able to tell us if a Mega is here freely then." I mumbled lightly back and I stepped into the room, my footpaws making a slight tacking noise on the floor of the locker room.

"Whoa! Hey!" The human shouted as he heard my footstep and then saw me standing in the doorway.

"You're not supposed to be here..." He said calmly, holding his hands in front of himself, "You're that Lucario they've been watching...Ever since that thing appeared from that island."

"What...watching me?" I said in my head, and Raze hummed back.

"It wouldn't be a surprise if someone's been keeping an eye on you somehow since the island and Calamity burst from it. It probably made quite a commotion all over the region."

I took hold of Raze in my paw, holding his gem up from my chest and I pointed at it repeatedly while asking the human where one of these gems were. Of course he didn't understand me, I knew that, but the motioning I made seemed to get him to understand.

"Where are the gems?"

"Yes!" I nodded, shouting at him, and he fumbled a moment.

"Well..." He stayed silent a moment then, before he shrugged and said, "You know what, fuck em, they fired me so what good would be keeping their secrets now. Yeah, one of those gems are here. It's deeper in the facility though."

"Thanks!" I said and started to leave quickly but he stopped me with a quick "Wait!"

I looked back and he said, "It's dangerous if you go alone, let's play a rouse." He picked his discarded uniform up from the ground, "I'll wear this, and we'll pretend I've captured you. If you give me your gem until we reach the other one-"

I growled lowly and he put his hands up, "Please, I know that's going far but this place is crawling with those people. As soon as we enter the room with it, I'll give you back your gem, and you can do whatever it is you do with it and steal the other one, and we'll make our escape together. I've pretty much already made enemies of these people."

"He's telling the truth." Raze determined in my head and my expression softened considerably, "He has no hint of malice in his emotions, he means to help you."

I considered it a moment longer, before I reached up around my neck and undid the latch to the chain necklace. I held Raze in my paw as I held it out to the human, who smiled and he gently took him from me.

"Lucarios are good at trusting humans." He stated, before he began to change back into his uniform. I waited patiently, and then he lightly took hold of my paws.

"Gotta make it look a little reasonable." He said, and his hands held my paws behind my back, but then I felt Raze's gem get pressed against my palm and I grinned.

"Let's go." He said, and began to march me out down the hallways of the facility.

We passed several other Team Flare members, but with the human guiding me and the illusion of him having captured me set well in place, they didn't hinder us as we made our way deeper and deeper.

"We're under the town now." Raze told me, "These tunnels were definitely not an original part of the town."

This was when we turned another corner, and we were exposed to the sight of a large room with many computers around it, and in the center, was a glass dome with many robotic appendages working on something inside, shooting tiny lasers and scanning the object.

"A mega!" Raze shouted, "It's mega Absol! I recognize the energy!"

So Team Flare really had stolen Rook's Mega, I grimaced slightly, then grimaced even more as I noticed the pudgy man holding a clipboard in his hands close by the glass dome.

"Steve..." I growled out loudly and the human guiding me stopped.

"Something wrong?" He whispered in my ear, and I shook my head no. He continued to guide me closer to the gem, and closer to Steve.

"Sir..." The human said as Steve saw me and him.

"What do you have here?" Steve asked while he stared at me, "A Lucario?"

"Yes sir...I found him snooping about outside and figured since we were so interested in that one from the island, another might help in our experiments." It didn't seem like the news of the human's termination from the team had reached Steve's ears yet. I felt the human press Raze into my paw more pointedly, hidden from view, reminding me that he was there when I needed him.

"That would be more helpful if it was the Lucario we are watching." Steve said and he stepped closer, peering at me. I said nothing for the fear that somehow, he might recognize my voice since he was able to understand me.

"He doesn't have the mega gem that Zane's does though...this isn't him." He said and he looked away a moment. "Perhaps he might be of use in testing our pseudo gems though."

"Pseudo gems...?" Raze hissed lightly in my head and I stared at Steve.

Were they really creating fake mega gems from the real ones? Trying to make an army of their own Mega pokemon?

"We recently discovered a connection between Xerneas and the great tree not far from here. If we can harness that power, we can create stones that act the same as the Mega Stones. With those, and enough of the pokemon that react to them, we can have a vastly powerful army!"

I growled lowly, and Steve now stared at me closer, then human behind pressed Raze even more firmly into my paw as he leaned in to be face to face with me.

"It's all in the hope of making pokemon more powerful." He told me with a grin, and now I couldn't help but to grin back as I opened my mouth to speak.

"Like you did to yours?"

Steve's eyes went wide as he recognized my voice, "You-!"

I roared, and Raze unleashed himself onto me, the humans both backing off as the energies from his gem exploded around me. My paw held the gem tightly, the energy enveloping me and started to change me, as Steve was already running to an alarm. The rest of the scientists in the room were scattering, and the human behind me was throwing a pokeball.

"Tyranitar!" He shouted, and the ball opened, the flash of white light forming into a huge scaly beast. He appeared between Steve and the alarm, the large human stopping.

"Blast it!" Steve shouted and he reached for his own pokeballs, before realizing, he had none.

"Realizing all your pokemon abandoned you?" I asked him, as the sphere of energy surrounding me burst open with a small shockwave, and I stood in Raze's form before him. I brought Raze's necklace up, and tied the chain around my neck carefully, glaring at Steve the whole while.

Steve stared at the changes, a grin slowly forming on his face. "Abandoned?" He asked, "No, they feared me, left because they couldn't handle the power."

"You tortured and harmed them! Even the one whom you didn't negatively impact knew you had to be stopped!" I shouted back, remembering Clora and her words.

The alarm started blaring, red lights flashing in the room. Someone had set a different alarm off in the facility. I turned to the glass casing holding Mega Absol, and smashed it open with a Metal Claw.

As I turned to leave, taking the Mega in hand, the human recalled his Tyranitar and moved to join me, and Steve shouted after me.

"You don't know what power you're dealing with! Tame Flare will hunt you down!"

I turned back, glaring at him through one eye. "No Steve, you don't. Yveltal will destroy the world unless the Mega can be restored. You should learn what side you're really on!" I finished and I turned back again, storming away with the human running beside me.

As I left, I didn't hear Steve mumbling to himself.

"I could've captured you...but..." He sighed, looking down, "Zane..."

________________________

The Facility was still in such chaos that me and my human companion managed to escape without much incident. Only one member tried to stop us, but a quick and weak Force Palm pushed him aside.

I used Raze's power to keep my stamina as I ran, but I had to slow down for the human as he was getting tired from sprinting. We stopped in the middle of Lodron town, the human panting as he kneeled over with his hands on his knees. I contacted Zane with my mind as I stayed with him, and my trainer and the rest of the team soon came running from the pokemon center.

Humans were already staring at me, my Mega form throwing quite a few of them for a loop. My ears twitched, and I looked down the pathway I had just ran back down. Team Flare members were chasing us! Their pokemon were already running at their side, dozens of them racing towards us. The citizens of the town were running away as they too saw them, entering the buildings.

I turned toward them, the ex member groaning as he saw the rushing mob. "Well, that might be difficult..."

"Ruli!" Zane shouted as he came to stand by me, grimacing as he too saw the rushing group of Team Flare, "Geez, what have you been up to."

"Stirring up the hornets nest." I answered and turned towards the Absol Rook. I opened my paw to him, the gem in my paw glowing a bright white.

"Our gem!" Veren shouted next to Rook.

"Quick!" I growled, "I need your help to fight them all off!"

Rook stared up at me calmly, "No you don't, I'll take care of this, just cover your ears..."

"What?" But I didn't get an explanation before Rook reached out and he touched his Mega gem with his nose, and streams with white light exploded from it like Raze's red, covering his body.

I backed off, dropping the gem to the ground, the streams of energy still pouring from it until it stopped, and the sphere surrounding Rook exploded, revealing his Mega form. Nothing much seemed to have changed about his body overall, except for a larger stature, spikier hair, and now, he had a pair of large, white, fluffy wings sprouting from his shoulders.

He stepped in front of us, and shouted again, "Cover your ears!" He repeated, and I did as he said, putting my paws on my ears, Zane and everyone else quickly were doing the same as they saw me.

Rook took a deep breath, before shouting out, "Perish Song!"

He began to sing, a dreadful, eerie noise that vibrated through the air like jack hammers on the ground. The rushing mob of trainers and pokemon stopped, their hands covering their ears, but it was too late it seemed. The song had penetrated already, and one by one, they all fainted, hitting the ground with small thuds.

Rook's song continued until the very last pokemon hit the ground, out cold, before he closed his muzzle and the Perish Song ended quickly.

"Well done Rook." Veren said as he patted the Absol's head, and slowly the people of the town were coming back from their hiding places, cheering us.