Story Notes:
This is the "other" Runaways story, the long one with more characters, plot, and some other stuff too.Okay, *clears throat* I do not own pokemon, or any of those characters. the events and characters of this story are all fictional and any resemblance to persons live or dead is purely coincidental, and not meant to be insulting.Also, the inclusion of Lucario and wave guidance is all Felix's fault. Go read "Luca"... it's good and it inspired some of this story.Also, categories will be updated as necessary. They will changeAlso, I will be changing the categories as they need to be changed. the main characters are all a bit young at this point for sex, but it will probably show up in some form or another later.Also, if you can guess what the title is talking about I'll give you a cookie! (And maybe a story request, if you want)
Ch 6: Reemergence
Ch6: Reemergence
"This way!" Gin shouts through the smoky haze to Rogue and I as we stumble through the smoke and
the flames following Gin away from the center of the forest fire. If it was just gin and me we could be
out of this situation by now, between the use of extreme speed and wave guidance we could have
slipped through the still blaze free sections unharmed, but Rogue can't keep up at that pace, so we need
to move slightly slower, with Gin moving ahead and leading us to the less fierce sections as we make our
way out of the forest.
I leap out of the way of a flaming limb as it falls out of a burning tree. Rogue however is not so lucky and
the limb strikes her between the shoulders and she stumbles to the ground, her mane full of burning
embers. I curse and stop to knock the burning bits out of her fur before she catches fire. I look up at a
loud snapping sound to see the tree rapidly falling straight for us. This is going to hurt like a bitch. I grab
Rogue up and hurl her out of the way. Then I find myself sliding in the dirt out of the way of the falling
tree trunk.
I instinctively roll onto all fours and look back to see a yellow and blue head sticking out from under the
trunk along with a spiked paw. My eyes go wide and I scramble to my feet, charging an aura sphere in
one hand as I go. I release the sphere and it impacts the trunk to the right of gin and the burning wood
explodes into a thousand tiny embers that rain down across my back. I grimace, wrapping my arms
around the smoldering trunk and lift it with a heavy grunt. "ROGUE! GET GIN!" I scream, my voice
ragged from the smoke and the feeling of my flesh beginning to burn.
I see Rogue dart in and drag Gin by the foot paw out from under the tree trunk and I drop it. stumbling
over to Gin and Rogue I begin muttering a million different curses. One look at Gin shows that he is out
cold, and the tree did far more damage to his back than to my chest, such is the price of being a steel
type. With a hiss of pain I throw gin across my shoulders, "Come on rogue!"
Rogue and I sprint through the inferno as quickly as we can, ducking under branches and over fallen
trees. My eyes burn from the smoke in the air and I shut them tight, relying on wave sight to guide my
way. The usual ghostly glowing of the world as seen through wave sight is made into a vision of hell by
the red flames blazing all around us.
I'm beginning to think that we may have just fallen into hell somehow and that this forest will never end
when I see it. The edge of the forest! Suddenly my legs buckle underneath me and I tumble to the
ground, and Gin's chest spike stabs into my shoulder. What's happening?
Rogue stops next to me, "What are you doing!? Get up!"
I struggle to stand up again, it hurts like hell to have a three inch spike stab into my back, but at least Gin
stays put on my back. I get half way up and stumble a couple steps before I fall on my face gasping. I'm
breathing in heaving gasps but it's as though I weren't breathing at all! Rogue gives me a strange look
then her own legs buckle and she falls over. Why are we so weak? Are we dying?
I smile at Rogue, my vision is going dark at the corners, "I think we may be dying."
I've given up on my breathing by this point, just taking shallow gasps, clutching at my chest, Is this really
the way we're going to go after all we've lived through? Suffocating just short of salvation? I shut my
eyes, I guess it's true, life's a bitch then you die.
-0-
I open my eyes, which is surprising in and of itself. What's even more surprising is that I seem to be in a
pokémon center with an oxygen mask on my face. I sit up slowly. It feels like my head is going to just fall
off at any given moment, so I leave the mask on. I look around me to see Rouge and Gin on either side of
me. Gin is lying face down, but seems fine, no scaring whatsoever from having a giant flaming log sit on
his back. Damn, it's amazing what the doctors can do these days. I glance down at myself, my mauling
scars are still there, and the much smaller scar on my side from the Mask, but no sign that I ever got
burnt. Wow. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and drop onto the cold tile floor. My pants are
sitting on a stand next to my bed, and my left wrist is chained to the hospital bed. "Well... shit."
Gin stirs next to me and sits up, and I finally see the collar around his neck that ties him to the bed. He
glances over at me and I hold up my left arm, jingling the chain while I shift the mask higher on my face
to talk. "We're all fixed up but I don't think we are going anywhere for a bit."
Gin grins, "I bet you could break that off if you really wanted to."
I chuckle, pulling on my pants with my free hand, "I probably could, but I don't feel that tearing up the
bed and then running around with handcuffs on is a good idea or a good way to show our thanks for
saving our lives."
Gin sighs, fiddling with his collar. I cross over the bed and each over to Rogue, and nudge her shoulder,
"Hey, you awake?"
Rogue rolls over and smirks, "It's about time you two idiots woke up. None of the humans can
understand me and they're all real nervous around us. The chansey are nice at least."
I grin, sitting back down on the bed. "Well let's see what we can do to hurry this whole process up."
I search the bed and quickly find the nurse call button and pound the little red sucker repeatedly.
Several chansey and a machoke, an orderly I guess, bust into the room moments later. I grin at them,
"Surprise!"
The machoke's face falls, "Darn, I was hoping it was the life signs alarm."
One of the chansey jabs him in the side, "That isn't very nice."
"Hey," the machoke replies indignantly, "I'm no nurse, I'm with law enforcement. His being dead means
my job here is done." Okay, so he's not an orderly.
I stick my tongue out at the machoke, "Well, that just makes you an asshole."
The machoke takes a step towards me with an angry expression, then he stops, "Wait what?"
Rouge sits up, "He can understand pokémon speech."
The machoke is about to say something when officer jenny herself steps into the room, "It's about time
you woke up."
I smile, shifting to sit crisscross, then hold up my left arm, "Is there a reason I am chained to my bed?"
"Do you really think we'd let a legendary criminal like yourself just up and leave?" Officer Jenny retorts
"Legendary?" Gin laughs, "You hear that? We've been elevated to legendary status! We're up there with
Mew and Darkrai!"
"Alright!" I laugh, reaching over to bump my fist against Gin's paw.
Rogue shakes her head with a sigh, "You two are idiots. She said we are legendary criminals, not
legendary pokémon. We're going to jail."
Gin and I look at each other for a moment and I chuckle, "Right, that's a bad thing, and wrong."
Officer Jenny pulls out a pad, "Wrong huh? You've been charged with over four hundred counts of petty
theft and nearly two hundred pokémon kidnappings in the past eight years. And you are suspected for
twelve counts of murder."
Gin growls, "We never kidnapped anybody! In fact, we un-kidnapped them! And we only killed one
human."
"In self defense, too." I add, "Although technically I killed him not Gin."
Jenny looks at us and puts her hands on her hips, "And the petty thefts?"
Gin and I look at each other before replying in unison, "No comment."
"Most of that stuff is probably still intact back in the cave." Rogue points out, "We could probably bring
what we have back to their owners and get a lessening of our sentence."
I nod, "Good thinking Rogue. Hey Officer, how about we cut a deal?"
Officer Jenny opens her mouth to reply, but is interrupted by a loud explosion outside. "What was
that!?" Officer Jenny exclaims before running out of the room along with all the chansey and the
machoke.
After a moment there are a couple more explosions and a loud wailing. I roll my eyes, "You know, this
sounds suspiciously like a job for us."
Three tiny aura spheres later we are all free from the beds and rushing out of the pokémon center to
find people running and screaming in fear past us. There is that same loud wailing, and another
explosion that throws up a cloud of dust. When the dust clears we just stare. Finally Gin speaks, "Well
damn. A crying gyrados."
"What?! How did you three escape!?" Officer Jenny exclaims from across the street.
"We broke the beds." I shout over the noise of the gyrados and panicking people, I think I can almost
make out what the gyrados is crying. Melissa? Who the hell is Melissa?
The gyrados slams into another building and cries out again. Suddenly I get a new idea. "Hey officer! I'd
like to cut a deal!"
"Now is not the time for making deals! Beside's that is the job of attorneys!" Officer Jenny exclaims,
"Machoke! See if you can get that gyrados to stop thrashing like that! It'll bring the entire town down at
this rate!"
Machoke looks at the gyrados and swallows hard and seems to hesitate. Gin laughs, "Hey gutless! If
you're to scared to do your job we'll do it for you!"
"Shut up!" the Machoke fires back, "I'm just making a plan!"
I roll my eyes, "Officer I have a plan for dealing with this gyrados, and past experience says it will work! I
just need my weapon back!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" officer Jenny replies incredulously, "You've already admitted to being guilty of at
least one count of murder! It would be grossly irresponsible for me to give a murderer his weapon of
choice back to him!"
Machoke finally moves into action. He charges forward and grabs a length of rubble and lets out a shout
before throwing the rubble at the gyrados. I'm thinking it was supposed to be an improvised rock throw.
Whether by sheer chance or some sort of skill the gyrados' writhing tail impacts the rubble and sends it
rocketing back at Machoke. Gin and I wince as the big guy is thrown off his feet and skids backwards
several yards across the concrete unconscious. I turn back to Officer Jenny, "How about now? Ready to
cut a deal?"
"You really think you can stop that Gyrados?" Jenny asks, "If you can, then your petty thefts may be
wiped off. But I am not giving you your weapon."
Rogue rolls her eyes and I cross my arms over my chest, "No blade. No deal. Also, we need our cuffs off."
"You'd let an entire town be destroyed over a petty knife!?!" Officer Jenny exclaims angrily.
"Maybe!" I shout back as the gyrados starts getting closer, "Would you?! Cuffs off and the blade
returned or I do nothing!"
Officer Jenny sighs, "Your blade is behind the counter in the pokémon center."
She runs across the street and unlocks Gin's collar while Rogue runs inside to retrieve the blade. Rogue
returns just as Jenny finishes removing my cuff. I nod and take the blade, looping the belt around my
waist once more then turn to Gin, "I need to get her to stop squirming. So get above her and do that
trick you like to do."
"With pleasure." Gin grins, charging two aura spheres before he vanishes using extreme speed.
Officer Jenny finishes removing Rogue's collar in time to see the gyrados disappear under a storm of
aura spheres before it is driven to the ground with an earthshaking boom. Her jaw drops, "What in the
name of all things holy was that?"
I laugh, "That was the Gin Hammer."
I hurry over to where Gin is standing on the Gyrados's head. As I get closer I notice a bloody spot on the
gyrados's side where one of its scales has been shattered by something. I point to the wound, "Did you
do that Gin?"
Gin looks over his shoulder and shakes his head, "No, that's not from me."
The gyrados stirs and I crouch down next to her head. "Good morning sunshine! What seems to be the
problem that has your scalies in a bunch today?"
"They took her." the gyrados sniffles. "They took her away and they hurt me."
"Who?" I ask, hiding my relief that my theory was right, that if you smack a rampaging gyrados around
enough they'll calm down. "Who took who away?"
"The men with the white coats and rhyperior sticks. They took my savior away." The gyrados says, her
tail starting to writhe just a little. My mind starts running at a million miles an hour, Rhyperior sticks?
White coats?
"Did these coats have anything on them?" I ask, hoping I can get things figured out before the gyrados
starts rampaging again.
"They had little red ladders on them. Little red twisting ladders!" she wails, "And they took her! Now
somebody is going to come and eat me!"
"Hey! Hey! HEY!" I shout at the gyrados as she starts to rise up in her distress, she pauses and looks
down at me, "We can help you get your savior back!"
"But they have rhyperior sticks!"
I glance at Gin who is now clinging to the gyrados's head with a worried look. On a rampaging gyrados is
a bad place to be. "We've dealt with these people before! I promise if you just take us to where they
took her we'll get her back!"
The gyrados smiles, Arceus that is a lot of really big, pointy teeth. "Thank you."
She lowers her head and Rogue hops on just before me. I wrap an arm around her and grab onto the
gyrados with the other. "Alright, lets go!"
The gyrados rises up and smoothly makes a beeline for the ocean. I grin, the sight of the ocean has
always had that effect on me, guess I'm too much an island boy. I take a deep breath of the salty air,
"Arceus, it's almost feels like coming home."
"What was that?" Gin asks glancing back at me as the gyrados glides over the town and touches down
gently in the ocean.
"I used to live by the ocean." I reply, "But I haven't seen the ocean in what feels like forever."
Gin nods, "I've never seen the ocean before, and I will admit it really is something. I've never seen so
much water."
"It's beautiful." Rogue agrees.
"Yeah, but it's full of people that want to eat you." the gyrados adds nervously. "Some of them are really
scary. I don't like swimming in it without Melissa to protect me."
Gin and I look at each other, a gutless gyrados? What the hell?
"What does Melissa do to protect you?" Rogue asks out of curiosity.
"She tells me not to be afraid, and then tells me just what I need to do to make them stop trying to get
me." the gyrados replies.
I glance at Gin and he shrugs, he doesn't really know what to think about this gyrados either. I smile,
"Well, just get us to where you lost her and we'll get her back for you.
-0-
We step off of the gyrados's back onto the sand of the beach. I look around at the crushed trees from
the incident. I turn to the gyrados, "Wait here, out of sight if possible. We'll come back here when we
have rescued your savior."
I gesture to gin and Rogue, "Alright, let's do this." After we are out of earshot of the gyrados, I sigh,
"Okay, this is going to be tougher than our usual job."
"And why exactly is that?" Gin asks with a small aura sphere already charged in his paw.
"They have armor over their bodies, and those 'rhyperior sticks'." I say closing my eyes, and the world
opens up in wave sight. "The only vulnerable spot is their heads, and if we get spotted we'll need to put
on the gas to avoid being hit by their weapons. In other words, we need to go full throttle from first
impact to the point where we escape with the gyrados and her trainer."
We continue walking as Gin and I scan the area for other people. Then rogue asks, "What if the trainer is
already dead?"
That thought stops me cold. If the trainer is dead, the gyrados will lose its nerve completely and we'll be
stuck out here on the island with what is likely an entire base full of those DNA guys with their guns and
their pokémon. We'd be completely screwed. I open my eyes and look at Rogue, "I-"
I am interrupted by a loud explosion on the other side of the island that throws up smoke and dust high
into the sky. I stare slack jawed at the column of debris that is thrown skyward. If that is some new
weapon that the DNA guys have come up with we are so fucking dead. Then I see a pink blur shoot out
of the column and arc through the air towards us and lands somewhere in the tropical forest ahead of
us. "It's Mew! Come on!"
I sprint forward with Gin and Rogue following close behind. Before long I spot a pink tail curling out of a
bush. I make a beeline for the bush and bend down over the pink body and wrap my arms around her to
pick her up. Something isn't quite right. I grunt, "Geez, you've put on some weight."
"Danny? That's not Mew." Gin says with a cough, "And you might want to stop groping her."
"What?" I look back down at the pink furred body in my arms. It is a whole hell of a lot bigger than
Mew's and it has boobs. One of which is being tightly squeezed by my right hand, and she looks damn
pissed about it. I quickly release her and step back, "Uhhh, sorry about that, uh, Miss, uh, Mew."
"I'M NOT A POKÉMON!" she screams, and I go flying backwards, thrown into the air by a wall of psychic
energy. My back slams into a tree trunk and I fall to the ground winded and wincing from the less than
graceful landing.
"And I refuse to be one of your experiments!" She continues glaring at me.
Gin leaps forward between her and me, "Hold up lady! We have nothing to do with these DNA people!"
I cough as I climb back to my feet and adjust my blade belt a bit, "Yeah, we came here trying to find the
trainer of a gyrados that ended up rampaging through some coast town." I pause, "Gin do you
remember what the gyrados said her trainer's name was? Started with an M I think."
Gin scratches his head frowning, "Melody?"
"It's Melissa." The mew girl says quietly her entire demeanor changing. "My name is Melissa."
Gin and I exchange looks as Rogue's jaw hangs open. I'm completely lost for words, what the hell was
going on? Then I hear the sound of metal sliding over metal and a quiet click. "HIT THE DECK!" I shout
lunging forward and knocking Melissa to the ground as there is a loud bang and a small hole is blown out
of the side of the palm tree Melissa had been standing next to.
I look up to see one of those white coated men that the gyrados mentioned. He pulls back a bolt on the
rhyperior stick and a hollow cylinder pops out of it before and I can see another cylinder already in the
chamber as the bolt slides forward again. The man raises the gun again but before he can fire, Gin has
loosed two aura spheres and the man flies backwards as they impact his face and chest. The man hits a
tree then falls limp to the ground his nose, mouth, and eyes all bleeding. He probably isn't getting back
up for a while.
I scramble off of Melissa and draw my blade, then pause to help Melissa up. "I think it is time we left,
don't you?"
"You have a way off the island?" Melissa asks us as she stumbles along with us, tripping over her own
feet and tail as she attempts to keep up. "And how are you running with your eyes closed?"
Rogue chuckles, "Of course we have a way off! How do you think we got here in the first place?"
Melissa gasps and turns to stare at Rogue, "You can talk?!"
I stop and turn to catch Melissa as she trips over her own feet and falls. "Why don't you just fly with
us!?" I hiss impatiently, "It has to be easier than running with feet you aren't used to!"
"Your mightyena can talk!" Melissa says turning to look me in the eye, "That's-"
"Not important!" Gin barks back at us, "They're closing in on our escape route. We aren't going to make
it to the beach before they cut us off at this rate."
I set Melissa back on her feet, "We can't afford to meet a bunch of them at once. Gin, we need to make
a diversion, any ideas?"
"Big explosions." Gin says with a wicked grin.
I nod with a grin of my own, "Sounds like fun." I turn to Melissa, "Go with Rogue to where your gyrados
is waiting, then meet us over that way." I point to the right, "Hurry and don't get yourself or Rogue
killed."
Gin and I both leap into the air as high as we can, over charging aura spheres as we do. At the peak of
out jump we both release the massive balls of energy and watch them rocket back to earth off to the left
towards where several of the DNA folk are heading towards Rogue and Melissa. We land and start
running the other way making as much chaos as we can firing off aura spheres left and right. I hear a
shout to our left and I abruptly change directions using a tree like a spring board. I find myself face to
face with another man, but only for a moment before my knee connects with his jaw and he sails
backwards. I snatch the rhyperior stick out of the air and quickly sheath my blade. Gin appears next to
me, "What are you doing?! We should be heading to the pick up!"
I hold up the weapon and pull back the bolt like I had seen the others do and a cylinder with a small
metal piece in it pops out onto the ground. I slam the bolt back in and point the stick skyward while
pulling on the trigger mechanism on the bottom. The stick kicks backwards with a bang and I nearly drop
the weapon. Gin winces, his ears flat against his head. "Ow."
"YOU!" Gin and I turn to see a man about ten yards away dressed in the same white coat and black
pants as all the others, but somehow he seems familiar. The man points a finger at us, "You little rats!
Do you know how much grief you have caused me?!"
I keep an eye on the man's weapon as I slowly reply, "Have we... met?"
"I think he was that guy whose houndoom we killed." Gin says shutting his eyes, presumably to make
sure we weren't about to be surrounded.
The man's eyes go wide, "He can talk!" A grin spreads across the man's face as he takes aim with the
weapon, "You will be valuable as specimens."
Gin vanishes using extreme speed and I lunge at the man, covering the distance in a mere two steps. I
swing the weapon like a club, and it slams into the man's arm, throwing off his aim and I think fracturing
his arm. He drops the weapon he was holding and falls clutching at his arm with a high pitched scream. I
search for Gin using Wave sight and find him right behind me, he nods and we sprint for the pickup
point, dodging weapon fire and weaving between trees as we pass by several of the DNA goons. Then
suddenly we are out in the open and standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.
I glance down at the waves crashing over the rocks at the foot of the cliff. There is no gyrados. Gin and I
turn to see several of the goons step into the clear already aiming their rhyperior sticks at us. "End of
the line punk." One of them says loudly, "Come peacefully and we'll take you alive. resist and we'll be
doing experiments on your cold body."
Gin glances over his shoulder and looks at me, "I'd rather take my chances with the gyrados. How bout
you?"
I shrug, "I'm game."
We turn and leap as far out over the water as we can as the men behind us start firing their weapons I
feel a bullet yank on my scalp as it blasts through the end of my braid, and then we are falling out of the
men's field of fire. Gin's voice suddenly resounds in my head, "I just remembered, I don't know how to
swim!" For some reason this strikes me as comical and I hit the water laughing like an idiot.
Water shoots up my nose and I flail my arms to try and reach the surface. My head clears the surface
and I look around for Gin to be splashing up next to me. after a couple moments he doesn't appear, then
I remember, He has a steel skeleton! He sank like a rock!
I take a deep breath and dive back under the water, zeroing in on Gin's aura nearly twenty feet down
beneath me. By the time I reach him my lungs are already starting to burn. I look him in the eyes, , he nods, hearing my message, and then I clamp my mouth over his nose and blow in.
my air rushes into his lungs and I kick off the bottom for the surface to grab another breath before
diving back down and giving him another breath of air. On my third time down I see the gyrados finally
arriving.
She rushes past me and I grab onto her side as she grabs Gin in her mouth and rises back to the surface
and makes a bee line away from the island. I focus on Gin and call, "You alive little brother?"
Gin replies using his aura to telepathically communicate,
I chuckle as I pull myself up the gyrados back to where Melissa and Rogue are perched. "So, what exactly
happened?"
Melissa glances back at me and continues forcing water from her fur, "I don't want to talk about it right
now."
"Okay." I say slowly, "What do you want to talk about right now?"
"I don't." she says with a glare.
"Okay okay!" I say quickly putting my hands up defensively, then yelp as I start to fall backwards off the
gyrados. Melissa's tail whips out and wraps tightly around my neck and pulls me back to proper balance.
I wait for her tail to release my neck as she turns to face forward again, but it doesn't. Can't! Breathe!
I gently yank on her tail and get one hell psychic migraine for my troubles, then she sees my reason for
tugging and her tail quickly releases me. Oxygen floods my lungs and I rest my face on the gyrados's cool
scales. "Thank you." I wheeze, "If you don't mind my asking, where are we going?"
"Home." Melissa says quietly. "I'm already going to be late by more than an hour and a half now, so, my
parents are going to be really worried about me."
"That must be nice." I nod as I sit up again, my voice a bit stronger now, "Having someone at home that
would worry about you when you don't come back."
Melissa looks back at me, "What?"
I force a smile on my face as I ask, "Can we stay with you? Our home got burned down." And the cops
are probably looking for us by now but I'd rather you didn't know that.
"Sure, I guess." Melissa says with a shrug. "Just don't try anything."
"Promise." I breathe a sigh of relief, thank goodness she hasn't figured out how to read minds yet.
"What was that about reading minds?" she asks looking back at me curiously.
I let my forehead drop onto the gyrados's back, Where is Mew when you need her?
"You've met Mew?"
I groan, "Melissa, please, for your own good, figure out how to stop listening to my thoughts. You really
don't want to be listening in when I have one of my nightmares."
"I don't know what his nightmares are about, but he wakes up like once a week reeking of fear and
sweat." Rogue adds with a nod.
"But that's not the real reason he doesn't want you listening in on his thoughts!" Gin pipes up from the
gyrados's mouth. "Can someone help me out of here? Please?"
"Sorry Gin, you're stuck there until we get to shore." I call back to him, ignoring Melissa's curious look,
"Wouldn't want you sinking to the bottom of the ocean."
I meet Melissa's gaze calmly and raise a brow. "You do realize you are naked right?"
Melissa's face flushes deep red under her pink fur and she whirls around so that I can't see her chest.
"Shut up!"
I smile, why do I feel like I just went from the frying pan and into the fire?
Suddenly Gin yelps, "NO! NO! BAD GYRADOS! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH THAT! NO! STOP
LICKING ME!"
I chuckle, at least I'm not the one being molested by a gyrados though.Chapter End Notes:Okay, tell me if you agree with me, I feel like this one came out a little clunky and not nearly as smooth in the flow as the previous chapters.
The next chapters will take a little longer because the next chapters are going to be more complex character wise. Just a heads up.
Again, SaladBomb, go to his furaffinity page and buy some commission slots from him
"This way!" Gin shouts through the smoky haze to Rogue and I as we stumble through the smoke and
the flames following Gin away from the center of the forest fire. If it was just gin and me we could be
out of this situation by now, between the use of extreme speed and wave guidance we could have
slipped through the still blaze free sections unharmed, but Rogue can't keep up at that pace, so we need
to move slightly slower, with Gin moving ahead and leading us to the less fierce sections as we make our
way out of the forest.
I leap out of the way of a flaming limb as it falls out of a burning tree. Rogue however is not so lucky and
the limb strikes her between the shoulders and she stumbles to the ground, her mane full of burning
embers. I curse and stop to knock the burning bits out of her fur before she catches fire. I look up at a
loud snapping sound to see the tree rapidly falling straight for us. This is going to hurt like a bitch. I grab
Rogue up and hurl her out of the way. Then I find myself sliding in the dirt out of the way of the falling
tree trunk.
I instinctively roll onto all fours and look back to see a yellow and blue head sticking out from under the
trunk along with a spiked paw. My eyes go wide and I scramble to my feet, charging an aura sphere in
one hand as I go. I release the sphere and it impacts the trunk to the right of gin and the burning wood
explodes into a thousand tiny embers that rain down across my back. I grimace, wrapping my arms
around the smoldering trunk and lift it with a heavy grunt. "ROGUE! GET GIN!" I scream, my voice
ragged from the smoke and the feeling of my flesh beginning to burn.
I see Rogue dart in and drag Gin by the foot paw out from under the tree trunk and I drop it. stumbling
over to Gin and Rogue I begin muttering a million different curses. One look at Gin shows that he is out
cold, and the tree did far more damage to his back than to my chest, such is the price of being a steel
type. With a hiss of pain I throw gin across my shoulders, "Come on rogue!"
Rogue and I sprint through the inferno as quickly as we can, ducking under branches and over fallen
trees. My eyes burn from the smoke in the air and I shut them tight, relying on wave sight to guide my
way. The usual ghostly glowing of the world as seen through wave sight is made into a vision of hell by
the red flames blazing all around us.
I'm beginning to think that we may have just fallen into hell somehow and that this forest will never end
when I see it. The edge of the forest! Suddenly my legs buckle underneath me and I tumble to the
ground, and Gin's chest spike stabs into my shoulder. What's happening?
Rogue stops next to me, "What are you doing!? Get up!"
I struggle to stand up again, it hurts like hell to have a three inch spike stab into my back, but at least Gin
stays put on my back. I get half way up and stumble a couple steps before I fall on my face gasping. I'm
breathing in heaving gasps but it's as though I weren't breathing at all! Rogue gives me a strange look
then her own legs buckle and she falls over. Why are we so weak? Are we dying?
I smile at Rogue, my vision is going dark at the corners, "I think we may be dying."
I've given up on my breathing by this point, just taking shallow gasps, clutching at my chest, Is this really
the way we're going to go after all we've lived through? Suffocating just short of salvation? I shut my
eyes, I guess it's true, life's a bitch then you die.
-0-
I open my eyes, which is surprising in and of itself. What's even more surprising is that I seem to be in a
pokémon center with an oxygen mask on my face. I sit up slowly. It feels like my head is going to just fall
off at any given moment, so I leave the mask on. I look around me to see Rouge and Gin on either side of
me. Gin is lying face down, but seems fine, no scaring whatsoever from having a giant flaming log sit on
his back. Damn, it's amazing what the doctors can do these days. I glance down at myself, my mauling
scars are still there, and the much smaller scar on my side from the Mask, but no sign that I ever got
burnt. Wow. I swing my legs over the side of the bed and drop onto the cold tile floor. My pants are
sitting on a stand next to my bed, and my left wrist is chained to the hospital bed. "Well... shit."
Gin stirs next to me and sits up, and I finally see the collar around his neck that ties him to the bed. He
glances over at me and I hold up my left arm, jingling the chain while I shift the mask higher on my face
to talk. "We're all fixed up but I don't think we are going anywhere for a bit."
Gin grins, "I bet you could break that off if you really wanted to."
I chuckle, pulling on my pants with my free hand, "I probably could, but I don't feel that tearing up the
bed and then running around with handcuffs on is a good idea or a good way to show our thanks for
saving our lives."
Gin sighs, fiddling with his collar. I cross over the bed and each over to Rogue, and nudge her shoulder,
"Hey, you awake?"
Rogue rolls over and smirks, "It's about time you two idiots woke up. None of the humans can
understand me and they're all real nervous around us. The chansey are nice at least."
I grin, sitting back down on the bed. "Well let's see what we can do to hurry this whole process up."
I search the bed and quickly find the nurse call button and pound the little red sucker repeatedly.
Several chansey and a machoke, an orderly I guess, bust into the room moments later. I grin at them,
"Surprise!"
The machoke's face falls, "Darn, I was hoping it was the life signs alarm."
One of the chansey jabs him in the side, "That isn't very nice."
"Hey," the machoke replies indignantly, "I'm no nurse, I'm with law enforcement. His being dead means
my job here is done." Okay, so he's not an orderly.
I stick my tongue out at the machoke, "Well, that just makes you an asshole."
The machoke takes a step towards me with an angry expression, then he stops, "Wait what?"
Rouge sits up, "He can understand pokémon speech."
The machoke is about to say something when officer jenny herself steps into the room, "It's about time
you woke up."
I smile, shifting to sit crisscross, then hold up my left arm, "Is there a reason I am chained to my bed?"
"Do you really think we'd let a legendary criminal like yourself just up and leave?" Officer Jenny retorts
"Legendary?" Gin laughs, "You hear that? We've been elevated to legendary status! We're up there with
Mew and Darkrai!"
"Alright!" I laugh, reaching over to bump my fist against Gin's paw.
Rogue shakes her head with a sigh, "You two are idiots. She said we are legendary criminals, not
legendary pokémon. We're going to jail."
Gin and I look at each other for a moment and I chuckle, "Right, that's a bad thing, and wrong."
Officer Jenny pulls out a pad, "Wrong huh? You've been charged with over four hundred counts of petty
theft and nearly two hundred pokémon kidnappings in the past eight years. And you are suspected for
twelve counts of murder."
Gin growls, "We never kidnapped anybody! In fact, we un-kidnapped them! And we only killed one
human."
"In self defense, too." I add, "Although technically I killed him not Gin."
Jenny looks at us and puts her hands on her hips, "And the petty thefts?"
Gin and I look at each other before replying in unison, "No comment."
"Most of that stuff is probably still intact back in the cave." Rogue points out, "We could probably bring
what we have back to their owners and get a lessening of our sentence."
I nod, "Good thinking Rogue. Hey Officer, how about we cut a deal?"
Officer Jenny opens her mouth to reply, but is interrupted by a loud explosion outside. "What was
that!?" Officer Jenny exclaims before running out of the room along with all the chansey and the
machoke.
After a moment there are a couple more explosions and a loud wailing. I roll my eyes, "You know, this
sounds suspiciously like a job for us."
Three tiny aura spheres later we are all free from the beds and rushing out of the pokémon center to
find people running and screaming in fear past us. There is that same loud wailing, and another
explosion that throws up a cloud of dust. When the dust clears we just stare. Finally Gin speaks, "Well
damn. A crying gyrados."
"What?! How did you three escape!?" Officer Jenny exclaims from across the street.
"We broke the beds." I shout over the noise of the gyrados and panicking people, I think I can almost
make out what the gyrados is crying. Melissa? Who the hell is Melissa?
The gyrados slams into another building and cries out again. Suddenly I get a new idea. "Hey officer! I'd
like to cut a deal!"
"Now is not the time for making deals! Beside's that is the job of attorneys!" Officer Jenny exclaims,
"Machoke! See if you can get that gyrados to stop thrashing like that! It'll bring the entire town down at
this rate!"
Machoke looks at the gyrados and swallows hard and seems to hesitate. Gin laughs, "Hey gutless! If
you're to scared to do your job we'll do it for you!"
"Shut up!" the Machoke fires back, "I'm just making a plan!"
I roll my eyes, "Officer I have a plan for dealing with this gyrados, and past experience says it will work! I
just need my weapon back!"
"Don't be ridiculous!" officer Jenny replies incredulously, "You've already admitted to being guilty of at
least one count of murder! It would be grossly irresponsible for me to give a murderer his weapon of
choice back to him!"
Machoke finally moves into action. He charges forward and grabs a length of rubble and lets out a shout
before throwing the rubble at the gyrados. I'm thinking it was supposed to be an improvised rock throw.
Whether by sheer chance or some sort of skill the gyrados' writhing tail impacts the rubble and sends it
rocketing back at Machoke. Gin and I wince as the big guy is thrown off his feet and skids backwards
several yards across the concrete unconscious. I turn back to Officer Jenny, "How about now? Ready to
cut a deal?"
"You really think you can stop that Gyrados?" Jenny asks, "If you can, then your petty thefts may be
wiped off. But I am not giving you your weapon."
Rogue rolls her eyes and I cross my arms over my chest, "No blade. No deal. Also, we need our cuffs off."
"You'd let an entire town be destroyed over a petty knife!?!" Officer Jenny exclaims angrily.
"Maybe!" I shout back as the gyrados starts getting closer, "Would you?! Cuffs off and the blade
returned or I do nothing!"
Officer Jenny sighs, "Your blade is behind the counter in the pokémon center."
She runs across the street and unlocks Gin's collar while Rogue runs inside to retrieve the blade. Rogue
returns just as Jenny finishes removing my cuff. I nod and take the blade, looping the belt around my
waist once more then turn to Gin, "I need to get her to stop squirming. So get above her and do that
trick you like to do."
"With pleasure." Gin grins, charging two aura spheres before he vanishes using extreme speed.
Officer Jenny finishes removing Rogue's collar in time to see the gyrados disappear under a storm of
aura spheres before it is driven to the ground with an earthshaking boom. Her jaw drops, "What in the
name of all things holy was that?"
I laugh, "That was the Gin Hammer."
I hurry over to where Gin is standing on the Gyrados's head. As I get closer I notice a bloody spot on the
gyrados's side where one of its scales has been shattered by something. I point to the wound, "Did you
do that Gin?"
Gin looks over his shoulder and shakes his head, "No, that's not from me."
The gyrados stirs and I crouch down next to her head. "Good morning sunshine! What seems to be the
problem that has your scalies in a bunch today?"
"They took her." the gyrados sniffles. "They took her away and they hurt me."
"Who?" I ask, hiding my relief that my theory was right, that if you smack a rampaging gyrados around
enough they'll calm down. "Who took who away?"
"The men with the white coats and rhyperior sticks. They took my savior away." The gyrados says, her
tail starting to writhe just a little. My mind starts running at a million miles an hour, Rhyperior sticks?
White coats?
"Did these coats have anything on them?" I ask, hoping I can get things figured out before the gyrados
starts rampaging again.
"They had little red ladders on them. Little red twisting ladders!" she wails, "And they took her! Now
somebody is going to come and eat me!"
"Hey! Hey! HEY!" I shout at the gyrados as she starts to rise up in her distress, she pauses and looks
down at me, "We can help you get your savior back!"
"But they have rhyperior sticks!"
I glance at Gin who is now clinging to the gyrados's head with a worried look. On a rampaging gyrados is
a bad place to be. "We've dealt with these people before! I promise if you just take us to where they
took her we'll get her back!"
The gyrados smiles, Arceus that is a lot of really big, pointy teeth. "Thank you."
She lowers her head and Rogue hops on just before me. I wrap an arm around her and grab onto the
gyrados with the other. "Alright, lets go!"
The gyrados rises up and smoothly makes a beeline for the ocean. I grin, the sight of the ocean has
always had that effect on me, guess I'm too much an island boy. I take a deep breath of the salty air,
"Arceus, it's almost feels like coming home."
"What was that?" Gin asks glancing back at me as the gyrados glides over the town and touches down
gently in the ocean.
"I used to live by the ocean." I reply, "But I haven't seen the ocean in what feels like forever."
Gin nods, "I've never seen the ocean before, and I will admit it really is something. I've never seen so
much water."
"It's beautiful." Rogue agrees.
"Yeah, but it's full of people that want to eat you." the gyrados adds nervously. "Some of them are really
scary. I don't like swimming in it without Melissa to protect me."
Gin and I look at each other, a gutless gyrados? What the hell?
"What does Melissa do to protect you?" Rogue asks out of curiosity.
"She tells me not to be afraid, and then tells me just what I need to do to make them stop trying to get
me." the gyrados replies.
I glance at Gin and he shrugs, he doesn't really know what to think about this gyrados either. I smile,
"Well, just get us to where you lost her and we'll get her back for you.
-0-
We step off of the gyrados's back onto the sand of the beach. I look around at the crushed trees from
the incident. I turn to the gyrados, "Wait here, out of sight if possible. We'll come back here when we
have rescued your savior."
I gesture to gin and Rogue, "Alright, let's do this." After we are out of earshot of the gyrados, I sigh,
"Okay, this is going to be tougher than our usual job."
"And why exactly is that?" Gin asks with a small aura sphere already charged in his paw.
"They have armor over their bodies, and those 'rhyperior sticks'." I say closing my eyes, and the world
opens up in wave sight. "The only vulnerable spot is their heads, and if we get spotted we'll need to put
on the gas to avoid being hit by their weapons. In other words, we need to go full throttle from first
impact to the point where we escape with the gyrados and her trainer."
We continue walking as Gin and I scan the area for other people. Then rogue asks, "What if the trainer is
already dead?"
That thought stops me cold. If the trainer is dead, the gyrados will lose its nerve completely and we'll be
stuck out here on the island with what is likely an entire base full of those DNA guys with their guns and
their pokémon. We'd be completely screwed. I open my eyes and look at Rogue, "I-"
I am interrupted by a loud explosion on the other side of the island that throws up smoke and dust high
into the sky. I stare slack jawed at the column of debris that is thrown skyward. If that is some new
weapon that the DNA guys have come up with we are so fucking dead. Then I see a pink blur shoot out
of the column and arc through the air towards us and lands somewhere in the tropical forest ahead of
us. "It's Mew! Come on!"
I sprint forward with Gin and Rogue following close behind. Before long I spot a pink tail curling out of a
bush. I make a beeline for the bush and bend down over the pink body and wrap my arms around her to
pick her up. Something isn't quite right. I grunt, "Geez, you've put on some weight."
"Danny? That's not Mew." Gin says with a cough, "And you might want to stop groping her."
"What?" I look back down at the pink furred body in my arms. It is a whole hell of a lot bigger than
Mew's and it has boobs. One of which is being tightly squeezed by my right hand, and she looks damn
pissed about it. I quickly release her and step back, "Uhhh, sorry about that, uh, Miss, uh, Mew."
"I'M NOT A POKÉMON!" she screams, and I go flying backwards, thrown into the air by a wall of psychic
energy. My back slams into a tree trunk and I fall to the ground winded and wincing from the less than
graceful landing.
"And I refuse to be one of your experiments!" She continues glaring at me.
Gin leaps forward between her and me, "Hold up lady! We have nothing to do with these DNA people!"
I cough as I climb back to my feet and adjust my blade belt a bit, "Yeah, we came here trying to find the
trainer of a gyrados that ended up rampaging through some coast town." I pause, "Gin do you
remember what the gyrados said her trainer's name was? Started with an M I think."
Gin scratches his head frowning, "Melody?"
"It's Melissa." The mew girl says quietly her entire demeanor changing. "My name is Melissa."
Gin and I exchange looks as Rogue's jaw hangs open. I'm completely lost for words, what the hell was
going on? Then I hear the sound of metal sliding over metal and a quiet click. "HIT THE DECK!" I shout
lunging forward and knocking Melissa to the ground as there is a loud bang and a small hole is blown out
of the side of the palm tree Melissa had been standing next to.
I look up to see one of those white coated men that the gyrados mentioned. He pulls back a bolt on the
rhyperior stick and a hollow cylinder pops out of it before and I can see another cylinder already in the
chamber as the bolt slides forward again. The man raises the gun again but before he can fire, Gin has
loosed two aura spheres and the man flies backwards as they impact his face and chest. The man hits a
tree then falls limp to the ground his nose, mouth, and eyes all bleeding. He probably isn't getting back
up for a while.
I scramble off of Melissa and draw my blade, then pause to help Melissa up. "I think it is time we left,
don't you?"
"You have a way off the island?" Melissa asks us as she stumbles along with us, tripping over her own
feet and tail as she attempts to keep up. "And how are you running with your eyes closed?"
Rogue chuckles, "Of course we have a way off! How do you think we got here in the first place?"
Melissa gasps and turns to stare at Rogue, "You can talk?!"
I stop and turn to catch Melissa as she trips over her own feet and falls. "Why don't you just fly with
us!?" I hiss impatiently, "It has to be easier than running with feet you aren't used to!"
"Your mightyena can talk!" Melissa says turning to look me in the eye, "That's-"
"Not important!" Gin barks back at us, "They're closing in on our escape route. We aren't going to make
it to the beach before they cut us off at this rate."
I set Melissa back on her feet, "We can't afford to meet a bunch of them at once. Gin, we need to make
a diversion, any ideas?"
"Big explosions." Gin says with a wicked grin.
I nod with a grin of my own, "Sounds like fun." I turn to Melissa, "Go with Rogue to where your gyrados
is waiting, then meet us over that way." I point to the right, "Hurry and don't get yourself or Rogue
killed."
Gin and I both leap into the air as high as we can, over charging aura spheres as we do. At the peak of
out jump we both release the massive balls of energy and watch them rocket back to earth off to the left
towards where several of the DNA folk are heading towards Rogue and Melissa. We land and start
running the other way making as much chaos as we can firing off aura spheres left and right. I hear a
shout to our left and I abruptly change directions using a tree like a spring board. I find myself face to
face with another man, but only for a moment before my knee connects with his jaw and he sails
backwards. I snatch the rhyperior stick out of the air and quickly sheath my blade. Gin appears next to
me, "What are you doing?! We should be heading to the pick up!"
I hold up the weapon and pull back the bolt like I had seen the others do and a cylinder with a small
metal piece in it pops out onto the ground. I slam the bolt back in and point the stick skyward while
pulling on the trigger mechanism on the bottom. The stick kicks backwards with a bang and I nearly drop
the weapon. Gin winces, his ears flat against his head. "Ow."
"YOU!" Gin and I turn to see a man about ten yards away dressed in the same white coat and black
pants as all the others, but somehow he seems familiar. The man points a finger at us, "You little rats!
Do you know how much grief you have caused me?!"
I keep an eye on the man's weapon as I slowly reply, "Have we... met?"
"I think he was that guy whose houndoom we killed." Gin says shutting his eyes, presumably to make
sure we weren't about to be surrounded.
The man's eyes go wide, "He can talk!" A grin spreads across the man's face as he takes aim with the
weapon, "You will be valuable as specimens."
Gin vanishes using extreme speed and I lunge at the man, covering the distance in a mere two steps. I
swing the weapon like a club, and it slams into the man's arm, throwing off his aim and I think fracturing
his arm. He drops the weapon he was holding and falls clutching at his arm with a high pitched scream. I
search for Gin using Wave sight and find him right behind me, he nods and we sprint for the pickup
point, dodging weapon fire and weaving between trees as we pass by several of the DNA goons. Then
suddenly we are out in the open and standing on the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean.
I glance down at the waves crashing over the rocks at the foot of the cliff. There is no gyrados. Gin and I
turn to see several of the goons step into the clear already aiming their rhyperior sticks at us. "End of
the line punk." One of them says loudly, "Come peacefully and we'll take you alive. resist and we'll be
doing experiments on your cold body."
Gin glances over his shoulder and looks at me, "I'd rather take my chances with the gyrados. How bout
you?"
I shrug, "I'm game."
We turn and leap as far out over the water as we can as the men behind us start firing their weapons I
feel a bullet yank on my scalp as it blasts through the end of my braid, and then we are falling out of the
men's field of fire. Gin's voice suddenly resounds in my head, "I just remembered, I don't know how to
swim!" For some reason this strikes me as comical and I hit the water laughing like an idiot.
Water shoots up my nose and I flail my arms to try and reach the surface. My head clears the surface
and I look around for Gin to be splashing up next to me. after a couple moments he doesn't appear, then
I remember, He has a steel skeleton! He sank like a rock!
I take a deep breath and dive back under the water, zeroing in on Gin's aura nearly twenty feet down
beneath me. By the time I reach him my lungs are already starting to burn. I look him in the eyes, , he nods, hearing my message, and then I clamp my mouth over his nose and blow in.
my air rushes into his lungs and I kick off the bottom for the surface to grab another breath before
diving back down and giving him another breath of air. On my third time down I see the gyrados finally
arriving.
She rushes past me and I grab onto her side as she grabs Gin in her mouth and rises back to the surface
and makes a bee line away from the island. I focus on Gin and call, "You alive little brother?"
Gin replies using his aura to telepathically communicate,
I chuckle as I pull myself up the gyrados back to where Melissa and Rogue are perched. "So, what exactly
happened?"
Melissa glances back at me and continues forcing water from her fur, "I don't want to talk about it right
now."
"Okay." I say slowly, "What do you want to talk about right now?"
"I don't." she says with a glare.
"Okay okay!" I say quickly putting my hands up defensively, then yelp as I start to fall backwards off the
gyrados. Melissa's tail whips out and wraps tightly around my neck and pulls me back to proper balance.
I wait for her tail to release my neck as she turns to face forward again, but it doesn't. Can't! Breathe!
I gently yank on her tail and get one hell psychic migraine for my troubles, then she sees my reason for
tugging and her tail quickly releases me. Oxygen floods my lungs and I rest my face on the gyrados's cool
scales. "Thank you." I wheeze, "If you don't mind my asking, where are we going?"
"Home." Melissa says quietly. "I'm already going to be late by more than an hour and a half now, so, my
parents are going to be really worried about me."
"That must be nice." I nod as I sit up again, my voice a bit stronger now, "Having someone at home that
would worry about you when you don't come back."
Melissa looks back at me, "What?"
I force a smile on my face as I ask, "Can we stay with you? Our home got burned down." And the cops
are probably looking for us by now but I'd rather you didn't know that.
"Sure, I guess." Melissa says with a shrug. "Just don't try anything."
"Promise." I breathe a sigh of relief, thank goodness she hasn't figured out how to read minds yet.
"What was that about reading minds?" she asks looking back at me curiously.
I let my forehead drop onto the gyrados's back, Where is Mew when you need her?
"You've met Mew?"
I groan, "Melissa, please, for your own good, figure out how to stop listening to my thoughts. You really
don't want to be listening in when I have one of my nightmares."
"I don't know what his nightmares are about, but he wakes up like once a week reeking of fear and
sweat." Rogue adds with a nod.
"But that's not the real reason he doesn't want you listening in on his thoughts!" Gin pipes up from the
gyrados's mouth. "Can someone help me out of here? Please?"
"Sorry Gin, you're stuck there until we get to shore." I call back to him, ignoring Melissa's curious look,
"Wouldn't want you sinking to the bottom of the ocean."
I meet Melissa's gaze calmly and raise a brow. "You do realize you are naked right?"
Melissa's face flushes deep red under her pink fur and she whirls around so that I can't see her chest.
"Shut up!"
I smile, why do I feel like I just went from the frying pan and into the fire?
Suddenly Gin yelps, "NO! NO! BAD GYRADOS! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TOUCH THAT! NO! STOP
LICKING ME!"
I chuckle, at least I'm not the one being molested by a gyrados though.Chapter End Notes:Okay, tell me if you agree with me, I feel like this one came out a little clunky and not nearly as smooth in the flow as the previous chapters.
The next chapters will take a little longer because the next chapters are going to be more complex character wise. Just a heads up.
Again, SaladBomb, go to his furaffinity page and buy some commission slots from him