I finally awoke, slowly opening my eyes. I felt extremely cold all of a sudden, I looked out of the shack's entrance and saw that it was snowing outside, "Wow, snowing in Slateport city? Unbelievable" I whispered to myself, Cindy was still resting in my lap. I stretched my arms out and yawned loudly. It finally dawned on me that I must have passed out while trying to keep watch of the entrance. I must be really lucky because any kind of predator could have just walked through those doors and murder both of us. I quickly got up, not forgetting to keep Cindy safe in my arms as I rose and headed straight for the door.

Even though it was really cold, it was quite beautiful outside, it was like a white blanket was thrown over Slateport city over night, you would've never guessed that a storm passed by here not too long ago. I took one step on the snowy grass and half of my foot sunk inside of the mud, the ground resembled a mixture of grass, mud, and snow. I groaned and attempted to lift my leg, "You... have got to be kidding..." I muttered, realizing my foot was stuck. I set Cindy down inside of the shack, but I accidentally dropped her and slipped over face first in the muddy snow. Cindy yelped, rolling over against the wooden floor. She shook her head and looked at me with those big, black, beady Eevee eyes and began to laugh when she saw all the mud turning my white and orange fur brown, "Yeah, yeah, funny ain't it?" I joked, trying to brush some of the mud off my fur.

"We have confirmed a report, there have been Pokemon sightings in the area around Slateport city, all PEF Air Force is required to track down a hostile Zangoose accompanied by an infant Eevee. Repeat, Pokemon sighting confirmed, Pokemon sighting confirmed"

It was a female's voice recording, it must have been the Pokemon Elimination Force Alarm, also known as the PEF Alarm, it was so loud I could hear it even though I was really far away from Slateport, "Crap, that must be us!" I yelled as I grabbed my right foot and pulled it out of the mud, it was much easier to pull out the other one then.

I grabbed Cindy and rushed forward, only to slip again in the mud, Cindy rolling across the muddy floor. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she likes sliding in the mud, she really looked like she was enjoying that. I pushed myself off the floor, I was glad I didn't get stuck in the mud like a few seconds ago. I looked observed the skies, I knew that there were going to be PEF helicopters coming any minute.

Again I picked Cindy up and tried to move somewhere without falling in the mud. I felt my heart race as I frantically searched for somewhere to hide, I knew I couldn't go back inside of the shack, it was way too obvious that I would be hiding in there, and the cave I was just in already had PEF soldiers going there anyways, but I wondered if they already came and went. As I retreated near a large tree that was covered in snow, I heard the propellers of an approaching helicopter. The only thing that came to my mind was "It found me" but I chose not to believe that, there is no way they could have detected me so quickly, yet I seemed I was horribly wrong, the helicopter was approaching me dead-on, it knew of my exact location. I ran to the other side of the tree in a panicked attempt to hide myself at the last minute. But once I did, the helicopter began to fire off rounds at me, I yelled in fear as I hoped the tree would protect Cindy and me from the bullets.

The helicopter reached the other side of the tree where I hid, I was lucky the gunner was still reloading when I sprinted off in pure reflexes. I heard a charge in the gunner seat so I quickly decided to hide behind a boulder that I came across, my idea was to conceal myself at the beach of Slateport, which was probably not a good idea considering it was snowing, but I couldn't think of anything smarter at the moment. The gunner just began to fire his entire round, the bullets colliding with the boulder as the gunner blankly fired off random rounds hoping he would hit me. I just waited for the gunfire to stop, holding Cindy tight and covering her ears so she wouldn't have to bear listening to the horrid sound of a gun going off.
The helicopter's gunner started to reload once more as I dashed towards the beach as fast as I could, the helicopter hovering directly above me. I would have stood and fought, but with an infant in my hands it wouldn't be very smart.

My legs became sore as I sprinted towards the water, I was incredibly lucky to actually have dove inside before the helicopter's gun began to go off again. I screamed in agony when I felt the piercing cold water, Cindy curled up into a fetal position between my arms and whimpered as the cold water rushed over her.

I was safely far away from the city so these guys probably wouldn't be getting any reinforcements. I decided to strike back before they hit me, I had no more protection and I underestimated the water's temperature, there was no way I was going to conceal my entire body under something that cold. I felt heat grow in my mouth as I prepared to fire at the helicopter with a Flamethrower, if I missed there was a great chance they would unleash a full clip unto my body, so I had to make this shot count.

The fire escaped my mouth, I felt the hot fire heat up my face, it felt pretty good for the moment but I then realized it wasn't getting very close to the helicopter. They began to take evasive action when they witnessed the flames rushing towards them. I turned my head to follow their movement and began to yell, making the flames fly farther. The helicopter began to randomly fire as it tried to evade me, it flipped around horizontally, the bullets flying everywhere. I heard the pilot yell "Take him out, take him out now!" as they moved and flipped around.

I couldn't hold the Flamethrower anymore, it evaporated into the air as I closed my mouth and tried to catch my breath, I kept Cindy above the water making it much harder for me to float. The helicopter finally regained its control and pointed its gun at me and Cindy. "I guess I have to do it..." I regrettably said as I forced my head forwards and began to paddle downwards. I felt the air bubbles stick against my face and pop as I swam down. I carried Cindy in my left arm and covered her mouth with my right, I wasn't sure if she was intelligent enough to know that you can't breathe underwater.

I paddled all the way to the ocean floor and positioned myself in a stomach-down position, waiting for the helicopter to begin firing randomly again. I silently thanked God that the gunner was so horrible at aiming as I waited and there it came, a barrage of bullets slicing through the water and disappearing into the sand. All of the air bubbles followed the bullets, it gave me a good idea on where the gunner was aiming and I attempted moving away from it as it got near to me, but one damn bullet somehow found its way right to my right arm. I yelled in extreme pain as I grabbed my right arm with my left, then I realized that I almost drained all the air from my lungs so I ceased the yelling, the pain was so intense that I almost forgot about Cindy and right then I realized she wasn't smart enough to realize she couldn't breathe underwater. She began to cough and gag as air bubbles rushed out of her mouth, "Damn it to hell!" I yelled as I grabbed her and speeded upwards, the blood from my right arm leaving a trail behind me.

I took a long and sustained breath when I reached the water's surface, the helicopter was hovering near me of course when I looked up. I looked straight at Cindy, she looked like a gigantic brown and white ball of fluff, I knew if I were to keep her in this cold water she would catch some sort of disease. The excruciating pain originating from my right arm was almost too much to bear, I've never been injured by a bullet before and when I saw those poor Pokemon being dragged away to the infirmary in Miir Cyraa, I would always think "I'm sure bullets don't hurt that bad you wimps" I guess I was too full of myself back then.
I stared up at the helicopter and it stared back at me with that awful propeller overhead, the water below began to stir around as the propellers rotated. I heard the helicopter's gun began to charge again and I knew it had a clear shot on me. There was nowhere else I could go. If I went back under I would be taking a huge risk with my injury. I shut my eyes and surrendered, I knew I couldn't get out of this without help and I was sure no Pokemon would really think of helping me against a PEF helicopter. I waited for the bullets to slice through my body, but to my surprise I heard nothing, not even the helicopter propellers. I looked up at the helicopter, I was surprised to see a type of purple outline around it, it seemed to have been stuck in place, "Yurrei, take it down! Use Thunderbolt" I heard a male voice yell.

I then saw an Alakazam and a Jolteon on the shoreline. The Jolteon lifted its head and electricity fired out from all around its body. I finally realized how the helicopter stopped, the Alakazam must have been using Psychic, they saved my life at the last minute, "What are the odds of this happening...?" I muttered to myself as the Thunderbolt struck the helicopter and the Alakazam let the helicopter go free from his Psychic, "Calling reinforcements! The hostile Zangoose has retrieved assistance!" I heard the pilot yell over the microphone as his helicopter began to twirl around in an unpredictable order, the electricity from the Jolteon's Thunderbolt surging through the helicopter's controls. I saw the gunner attempt to jump out before it was too late, but the controls began to fry up and finally explode, sending the jumper flying into the water at full speed.

The helicopter began to twirl around, completely out of control. Parts began to explode randomly throughout the helicopter as it began to twist and twirl, flying overhead until it finally hit the shore. I covered Cindy's ears as I felt the shockwaves push me over and making waves in the opposite direction. The bright light from the explosion turned everything white for me, the glass from the helicopter's window flew past me, shining in my face as they dropped into the water. Afterwards I felt another sudden vibration but I didn't hear the explosion, the previous one must have temporarily cause me to lose my hearing. I felt my heart race as I felt my wound fill up with more blood and gushed out once more. I turned to see that the helicopter crash landed on the shore, fire raging from the inside, I knew there was no way the pilot could have survived that.

The Alakazam lifted me out of the water with his Psychic and lay me gently on the shore, I began to shiver, trying hard to breathe, I realized I was in shock but I couldn't do anything about it, "Ouch, this guy's been shot" the Jolteon said, now I knew the Jolteon was a female by the sound of her voice and the fact that the Alakazam called her Yurrei proves that's her name, I thought it was kind of a strange name for a girl when I first heard it so I wasn't really sure, "Ah, the Zangoose I am not really worried about, the Eevee might have caught a disease in that cold water, I must say that was not a smart move, Zangoose" the Alakazam harshly said. I stared at him angrily, not a good first impression I must say.

"PEF Task Force has been attacked, hostile Pokemon are running lose around the Slateport shorelines, Resistance Confirmed, Resistance Confirmed, Resistance Confirmed" the same voice recording from earlier explained over the alarm, the same monotone-voice female, "Damn, we need to get out of here quickly" Yurrei said, helping me up and brushing the dirt off of me, "Tell me, what's your name?" she asked, it seemed like knowing my name was more important than getting out of there, "My... my name is Jherek" I stuttered, trying to shake off the cold water from my soaked fur.

We quickly moved out of the Slateport city area to a cave, a bit near Mauville city but still at a safe distance away from it. The cave had some decorations in it, kind of like a little club house. Yurrei helped me sit down on a small wooden bench they had set up next to the fireplace, "That would looks bad, let's patch him up" Yurrei ordered, "In a minute, I'm observing the Eevee I'll be right there in a minute" the Alakazam said, staring at every part of Cindy's body, trying to find anything wrong, "Never mind, I'll do it" Yurrei muttered, "Sorry about Belisivious, he tends to only care for the younger and the weaker, he believes that older Pokemon are a second priority or something like that" Yurrei whispered as she took a pair of tweezers from a small medical kit she had next to her and dug it inside of my wound. I tried not to yelp in pain, it would make me look like a wimp, I just shut my eyes in pain, awaiting the bullet to be pulled out of my body, "...almost got it..." Yurrei said, squinting at the tweezers. She finally grabbed something and pulled it out slowly, "Here's the bullet" she said, waving it in my face, I stared at it, thinking to myself "Holy crap... that was inside of me?" those gunner bullets were huge in my opinion.

Yurrei finally took a long, white, piece of cloth and began to wrap it around my wound, carefully overlapping one over the other until she finally ripped the other half of the cloth with her teeth and tying the cloth over my wound into a tight knot, "This should hold out for a while" she said, patting my head, "Great... now she's treating me like a child" I muttered as I watched her go over to Belisivious.

After a little while, I began to have trouble breathing, but I ignored it at first, "Ah, the little one is healthy, now let's check up on you" Belisivious said walking towards me, "Your body is bigger so it will be easier to look through" he said blankly, not giving me any idea on what he was talking about. His eyes turned a bioluminescent color as he put both of his Alakazam spoons together to focus his energy. There was a moment of silence from him after he was done, he looked up at with a grave look on his face that got me really worried, "What's wrong, Belisivious?" Yurrei asked, staring at me, "The Zangoose has contracted pneumonia" he said, walking away from me. My eyes widened when I heard this, "Pneumonia...?" I whispered to myself.Chapter End Notes:February 28, 2098: Pneumonia? That's impossible, where did I contract it from...? Unless it was from that wound, the water must have infected it... this means I'll be out of commission for a month at the most... I wonder what will happen in that amount of time..