FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

[13:40 - 30 July - Tamorna]

Smoke filled the battlefield as a cacophony of sounds, lighting, fire and raw primal energy shot in flashes across the sky, reflecting off the bare metalwork of the building that Crash had sort shelter in. The super structure was still just about supporting its own weight as the ground rumbled with the thunder of heavy engines and shudder of supernatural aftershocks.

He pressed his shell covered back up against the brick wall and checked over his gear. His light grey clothes and straps for his armour were torn, many of his tools had been lost or smashed beyond repair. But despite this damage, he still had his radio, and it's reassuring small red light signalling a working battery that gave him some hope.

Only once he had come to a stop did he notice the feeling of liquid on the inside of his left palm and turning his paw over he felt a stab of pain; the entire underside was coated in a layer of red blood that contrasted horribly against the blue scales from which it leaked. The wartortle morph spat out a glob of pure fresh water which cleared away the excess, letting him see the wound. It was a thin sliver of sharp metal pressed in to his flesh, a splinter from the destroyed building perhaps or shrapnel that had managed to nick him.

Gritting his teeth and hissing sharply he grasped the emerged tip with his claws and pulled it back; the sensation of metal sliding through flesh wholly unpleasant. A fresh stream of blood poured from the wound as he finally yanked it free. He tossed it away in to a pile of debris and scattered his blood across the ground in a crimson arc.

He took a moment to catch his breath after that as the pain faded a little with his mind getting a rush of endorphins. For a few seconds the noises seemed to lessen as he replayed the last few minutes in his head. What had happened?

Star went down first, he remembered that, looking the wrong way when an ice beam sliced across the field and struck her square in the back of the neck. He hadn't time to watch her fall as he was already shouting for everyone to get down. Sal had gone over to try and help Star, disobeying directly but understandably, and it had been the second volley of frigid cold that meant Crash was certain those two were at least together again now.

Snap and their trainer, Phil had tried to circle around as Crash tried to keep their pursuers distracted, but he heard their cries over the radio. After that he'd run, several aurora beams had barely missed him before he'd made his way to here, catching himself on every jutted out piece of pipework and exposed rebar along the way it appeared.

Now with just the cut to deal with, he rummaged in his pockets but found his potions and first aid pack gone, a hole ripped right through the pocket that should have held them.

Unable to hold it in any longer he screamed out, "Oh well that's just f..."

Then he paused, and smiled.

"Oh Joyce, you're too kind to all of us," he sighed and reached in to his shirt pocket with his right hand, taking out a small berry with a smile.

Gritting his teeth together again, he squished the fruit before rubbing it in to his damaged palm, hissing at first at the citric acid before he felt a tingle as its little reserve of natural energy flowed in to him and with a fizzing and bubbling sensation in his hand the scales and flesh knitted back together. Shaking the blood and juices away he examined the fresh but clean and sealed scar across his palm and tested his fingers, each of them flexing without even a further whisper of pain. He was maybe luckier than he'd thought.

With that out of the way, he carefully stuck his head out from behind the brick wall and checked his surroundings, no one had followed him out this far and they'd obviously given up their chase of one lone pokémorph. Focusing their attention instead on the other more threatening complete teams and slowly breaking each of them one by one.

He glanced about and spied a fire escape ladder still intact and mounted it quickly, his fluffy tails bouncing behind him as he got himself up to the second level and scanned the field.

He could see now even the cavalry, Battle Group Dragon, was under heavy assault, multiple waves of smaller shield emitting pokémon up front protecting their attack pokémorphs behind, assaulting them with shot after shot of jagged ice, sizzling acidic poisons and sparkling swift stars. None of these should have normally phased Dragon, but they were surrounded and outnumbered 20 to one.

Where had these forces come from? he had to wonder. It was like they were waiting for them to attack with the numbers they had.

Crash pulled out his radio and clicked it on, no confirmation chirp. He almost panicked again, turning it over this way and that to find the display.

No carrier line.

This was open radio, how could he not be getting the home base signal? He looked up around the field again, towards where the enemy had come from. There was a glowing blue light in the darkness; something coming off one of their parked up troop vehicles in the smoke. They'd heard tales about this, whole missions going wrong because of communication losses, leaving troops unable to call in their weapons of last resort.

He had to take down that device, he was sure it the cause of the signal loss. Hopping back down the ladder he began to quick foot-it across the churned up mud and broken brickwork. His ears perked up as he tried to listen but it was clear they had taken him for a coward maybe and a runner.

It wasn't as though there hadn't been plenty of them, and with good reason. This was hell, and only the brave or the insane were here. He wasn't sure which he was yet.

The armoured vehicle began to resolve through the smoke and there was a yell from on board. He'd been spotted. He barely had time to lay down a cover of bubbles to deflect some of the incoming fire before he dived behind a long abandoned car and with a gasp came face to face with Phil.

The human's face was a mix of colours, black and burned in some places, pale and wet with sweat in others. The lights on his armour fizzling and helmet cast aside, visor shattered on the floor beside the body of Snap. The sandile morph's chest was not moving.

"Crash? You..." Phil whispered as he sat upon the ground, before coughing. The exchange of fire and water had filled the area with a dense cloud of steam and there was shouting on the other side of it as Crash put his paw to his trainer's chest.

"Shh, don't, they'll hear us. Listen, they have blocked communications, we need to destroy that truck," Crash whispered urgently. "I'm going to run for it, flood and short it out."

The wartortle went to stand but he felt the human grip the hem of his jacket and tug him back down.

"Always... focused on your, element," whispered Phil. "There's a reason, we work together..." he gasped. Crash studied him trying to understand, Phil always had a plan, but he didn't always understand it till it was executed. But right now, his trainer looked weak, he could barely stand to see him like this. "You've got to, come from the unexpected," he rasped. "Attack, from above."

"Above? Above?! How the fuck do I attack from above?" hissed Crash, but instantly regretted it, Phil coughing again and spluttering. His breath seemed to slow and the turtle pressed his fingers to the trainer's neck, he could barely feel a pulse.

The moment lasted forever and Phil gave his friend one last look. "Do, what I do. Use... your head..."

Another moment passed, and Crash was left alone.

A sudden sense of sick calm flowed through him. The wartortle wanted to throw up. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. But he could hear the voices getting closer, he had to think. What had Phil meant?

"Behind the car, surrender! In the name of the glorious Team Rocket!"

Crash suddenly cracked a smirk as one final bit of the puzzle clicked in his reptilian head and he called out in to the fog, "you guys like Rockets huh?"

Jumping backward he held out his hands and pointed his snout down, opening his maw as over a gallon of water suddenly erupted from inside his maw and the palms of his hands, glowing with primal water energy as he shot up in to the sky.

He steeled himself, literally. Eyes cast upward from the fog watched as the wartortle emerged and his body and shell glowed, metallic film forming over his scales and shell.

Flames shot up towards him but either missed or bounced off the steel hide as he began to slow down well over 200 feet in the air.

Crash tucked in his limbs, pulling them all the way into his shell along with his head. He then jetted water out behind him using the force to accelerated towards his glowing target.

Cyan energy formed around his shell cascading down over his body in waves and across his tails as he shot towards it like a missile. The shouts of those on the ground diving for cover he ignored as Crash shut his eyes as his shell impacted and well, he didn't recall what happened next.

When he awoke, he wasn't sure how long had passed but it hadn't been that long. Looking down over his body, the metallic coating was slowly flaking back off to the natural blue below it. He sat at the epicentre of what had been a massive explosion, not just the jamming device but the entire troop carrier had gone up, flames licking the ground still as the fuel burned.

His trainer's last command followed, the wartortle remembered why and checked his radio, like the rest of him, it appeared no more scratched up than it was before and the red light was still lit. He checked the display.

Channel Open.

"Come in! Come in! Emergency! Anyone there!?" he babbled loudly in to its mic.

There was a click and then a reply.

"Sender, please lower level, identify yourself and state the nature of your emergency. Over."

He gasped and inhaled a deep breath, there was still a chance. He took a few seconds and pictured his river, smooth, bubbling over rocks, hundreds of miles away now but still a source of calm as he pictured it in his mind. Phil had been right, he was always focused on his element, but when he was, it brought him a peace at times like this.

He drew breath and clicked the radio. "This is Crash of B.G. Storm. My whole team is down; entire mission is a rout. Heavy losses in all groups. We need recall."

There was a pause and then a reply, the operator sounded shocked and hurried. "Understood Crash, we are preparing 151 and recall team. Hold for further instructions."

The wartortle collapsed back on to his tails as he clasped the radio in his paws and more water formed, welled and fell from his eyes.