We Are The Pokemon, & We Don't Need You Anymore

Chapter 15

The city was awful.

The tall brick and concrete walls made me feel like I was in a cage. The lights that had once looked beautiful now seemed like blinding searchlights, watching my every move. My group and I stumbled through the streets, Zoura feeling like a sack of oran berries on my back. The poor guy was semi-conscious and barely able to walk, even while leaning on my side. That part felt good. Like he was saying, 'I forgive you and trust you enough to make sure I stay alive.'

Or he was just tired.

Probably the second one.

Pidgey had woken up and was shakily gliding above us, his injured wing making flying hard. Cars zoomed in the streets, almost turning us into roadkill on several occasions. We needed a place to rest, preferably somewhere where I could dig myself a hole and bury my head in the dirt until everything felt okay again.

We passed a building that might've been a Pokemon Center and Kip stopped dead in his tracks, gaping at the wall where people hung lost item posters, and flyers for poffin eating contests.

"Come on Kip, let's-" The words died on my lips as I saw what was wrong. My need to curl up into a ball and die multiplied by six.

They were wanted posters.

Of us.

Zoura opened his eyes, saw what we were staring at, then let out a groan. "Tell me about it." I grumbled, then raced after my comrades. Kip hesitated, grabbed the picture of me in his mouth (Seriously, those artists needed their eyes checked. I was much tougher looking than that) and followed us.

"We need," Snivy stopped to gasp and clutch the bruise on her side, "a safe house." We all pressed our sides against a brick wall, and Pidgey came in for a crash landing next to us.

"What's that?" He asked, gesturing at the poster in Kip's mouth.

"Trust me, you don't want to know." I told him. My brain felt a little deep fried after that fight. I quietly wrapped my tail around Zoura's and he smiled weakly. I never wanted to lose him, or any of my other  friends ever again.

"What about there?" Kip asked, gesturing to a large rectangular building, with glamorous paint and wealthy looking people and Pokemon going inside huge doors. We all looked at Kip.

"You're kidding right?" Snivy asked.

"We hide in plain sight, they'll never see it coming." He said. We all looked at each other. That was actually a good plan. We dashed to the back of the building, and a sign above a door blurred and read, FIRE ESCAPE. I walked up to it and gestured to Snivy. She smiled and slipped her vines under the door. There was a moment of silence then the door fell open, the lock picked by Snivy's vines.

We quietly scampered in and the door shut with an ominous clang behind us. "Gah! Where's a light switch!" Kip cried, stumbling around in the dark.

"I see a light!" Pidgey pointed with his damaged wing to the ceiling, where a circle of light wobbled. I felt with my paws in the dark and they touched something smooth and metal. I realized it was a huge structure; tall enough to reach the ceiling maybe.

"Everyone up." I ordered. They all started to climb, and me and Charmander managed to hoist Zoura up along with us. We reached the top; a huge wooden loft stuffed full of costumes and crates of junk overlooking the auditorium. Yes, the building we'd entered was a theater.

Tons of the people we had seen outside were stuffed into the seats and the glowing orb of light was a spotlight, now fixed on center stage. A Roserrade dressed in a ridiculous outfit appeared in a puff of smoke and everyone applauded.