Talk is for the Pidgey. As much as Yumin wanted to know what Hawk had to say about his road to success and slew of perversions and betrayals, he had to excuse himself of what he guaranteed himself would be an otherwise good time. Pokémon that can't be healed? Stiff coated men and nurses with fake lips and eyebrows? Silence so sickening you can hear it break your spine if you breathe the wrong way? No way, man.
Yumin remembered what the Viterals had done to him, and staying any longer meant there was a chance it could happen again. He clenched his fists, the scars reviving on his skin from the window he punched to escape. They left the Center without another word, through the same way Farore had come, and in much the same fashion.
"Where's Bambi?" It was the first question out of Yumin's mouth once he and Farore were safely on his Braviary, flapping into the sky and high enough away that the Pikachu's strikes of lightning could not reach them. Lyres and Makua flew atop Skarmory behind them.
"We're staying in a warehouse. It's heavily guarded. I slipped away to see what was happening at the Zone."
"How did you find us?"
"Pure chance," Farore said, lifting her hand to swipe the hair out of her face. "I saw the three of you walking together after I slipped out this morning. You're pretty different from the rest of the guys around here."
"Is she okay?"
"She's fine. What happened to you guys?"
Between powerful gusts of wind and under barely audible conditions, Yumin told her. He could trust her. If she had been protecting Bambi this whole time, she was trustworthy.
"That's terrible!" She said. "What are they playing at?"
It was the question of the year. Everyone had his or her guess. Between Yumin and Uncle Durin, the Viterals wanted to monopolize Pokémon, but in a very different way than the Rockets. During their quick and decisive ascent to power, the Viterals had taken drastic measures in order to ensure what they wanted. The biggest and most devastating blow was controlling all the Pokémon Centers. How they had done it, Yumin didn't know.
Braviary slowed. A few hours in the Pokeball here and there barely did anything for it. That became clear. Yumin ran low on berries, potions and medicines. If Pokémon Centers were commandeered did that mean the Marts were too?
"I don't know what they're playing at but with the rate they are going, only two things can happen. They're' either going to burn out and explode or change this world into something we no longer recognize."
They neared the warehouse and as they did, Yumin considered his cousin. "Zakana, is he with you too?"
"Yes."
"Is he okay?"
She said nothing for a few moments and then, "I'll let you see for yourself."
It sounded about right. If it wasn't one thing with that crybaby, it was always another. At least he and Bambi were together.
Closer they came to the square building.
"Oh no!" Farore said.
"What? What's wrong?"
"Get down there, now!"
There was panic in Farore's voice, and Yumin found it contagious.
"Braviary can't go any faster."
Not just faster, but not at all. Suddenly and without warning, Braviary's wings failed. Like it had fallen asleep, the bird plummeted with the weight of a thousand Porygon.
Air rushed up and they rushed down. If they crashed like this, they would die.
Two things came from Farore's Pokeballs, one red and one blue—Scizor and Heracross. They could fly but not support the weight of a grown man or woman.
"Scizor, Heracross! Try to keep us up!"
They disappeared underneath Braviary and although gravity changed its mind somewhat about how hard it wanted to pull them, it still pulled.
"Braviary! I need you! Just a few good flaps to slow us down!"
Yumin had pushed it too hard. But what choice did he have? It was keep going or surrender.
"They've broken through!"
That is the way that Farore's mind worked. Even though they plummeted to their death, Farore had already forgotten about it because something else was happening. Yumin couldn't see this break through but he believed it.
100 feet. Scizor and Heracross threw their weight upward, flapped furiously.
"Return your Braviary, Yumin! It's too heavy! We'll have to rely on the strength of my bugs!"
So Yumin did. The bird disappeared from underneath them and they sunk down to the next level, onto a combined platform of flapping wings, beating against Yumin. He felt he was being beat to death with sandals.
50 feet. "Almost there!"
20 feet. "GET READY!"
They jumped. Pain shot through Yumin's ankles as he landed outside the warehouse.
Farore scooped him up underneath the arms and ran him forward. Makua and Lyres were nowhere in sight.
"This isn't good," Farore said. "She opened the door and burst onto the scene, much like she had done at the Safari Zone not an hour before.
Yumin scanned the place for Bambi. Everyone in there—people and Pokémon—they fought against one another with desperate ferocity. Even the boxes and machines chose sides. It was difficult to see who was who or what was what. Rotom scurried across cold, metal sheets. Snakes were loose—Ekans and Arbok and Seviper, though one of them seemed to be fighting for them. Immediately Yumin knew he'd need as many Pokémon as could fight. Braviary was done. Tygo could still fight but just barely.
"Bambi!" he cried.
Why was it that she always seemed to slip away from him?
Yumin palms went clammy. If the Viterals knew about Bambi's identity then they would capture her just as fiercely as they captured him. He called for her again, as he turned a corner and saw something else.
Zakana was battling. He did not notice Yumin but simply commanded his Slowpoke to keep using water gun against a Bellsprout rooted to the ground.
"Zakana! Where's Bambi?"
"I don't know," Zakana still did not turn. Did he think his match was more important?
Yumin ran through aisles, peeled around another corner, continued to call. He released Tygo from its ball. "Tygo! Find my sister!"
Lyres and Makua entered the warehouse, slammed the door behind them.
How many men were here? Why did Farore keep them here? Yumin wanted to know what this group had been doing since they split up. Why this warehouse? He released Lucario from its ball when Pokémon blocked his path. A man appeared. Thin lines pulled his entire face into a frown. "Get out of here!" Yumin said.
"This is our warehouse, you idiot! You get out of here!"
"Lucario, aura sphere!" A ball of deep black and blue materialized at Lucario's hands and shot toward the man. Yumin wasn't in favor of attacking unarmed humans but he didn't care right now. He wanted them out. The aura sphere wouldn't hurt that much anyway. It nailed him in the stomach and sent him through a pile of boxes.
"BAMBI!"
This time, to Yumin's surprise, Bambi called back. She hurtled around a corner, her auburn ponytail flying behind her. A smile spread across her face and she jumped into Yumin's arms. "Are you okay?"
Yumin squeezed her, felt her little bones in his embrace. "I'm fine," he said. "Are you okay?"
Makua walked up to them. "They've been chased out."
Yumin set Bambi down and kneeled. Her pulled her necklace from his pocket and placed it around her neck. Before it could be used for ransom again or Bambi was off on her own again, Yumin would get it back to her. "We found this outside the Academy."
Bambi beamed. "Oh thank you! Yumin, I have so much to tell you."
"I think we all have a lot to talk about."
Slowly, the group cleaned out the intruders. They came to circle the reunion between Bambi and Yumin. Lyres and Isaque had rejoined each other. Makua stared at Bambi with a helpless wonder. His studious mind needed her brash, battling one. Lastly, Zakana and Farore joined them. He looked as though he had just been released from a mental institution. His eyes, sunken in, with dark circles around them, stared blankly back at Yumin. After a few moments, a half smile appeared. He walked toward Yumin and hugged him.
Yumin hugged back. They stood in an embrace, each happy to see the other while the others fell about their business and back into long awaited conversations. Farore moved back to the windows and doors and began another lockdown.
"Are you all right, Zakana?"
He took a deep breath through his nose. He didn't answer this question but instead said: "we're being hunted like Tauros in here. I don't like this place."
"Okay. We're gonna figure out how to get out of here. Just try to stay positive."
Yumin went to the people who would have answers. Farore, and Isaque, and Bambi, even.
To Farore, he wanted to know why they were here.
"Zakana came here after an incident on Cycling Road." The name Zach was no longer being used. Lyres knew of Zakana's true identity because somehow Isaque had known. It seemed to make little difference. "When we got here, they trapped us. We decided to hold it out until we could find Glaukus, or Makua's brother, or you guys."
To Bambi, he wanted to know what had happened at the Academy. That was a family meeting, plus Makua because he was there too. They spilled everything. It was true that they knew who Bambi was and that they wanted her alive. It didn't do much to calm Yumin's nerves.
Isaque, who also worked with Team Rocket, Yumin had come to find out, was an expert in security. Everything from the pipes to the electrical lines had been secured. While Farore was away they had gotten in through a passageway under one of the boxes. The snakes had invaded the way that snakes do—sneakily and through tiny openings. From there, the trainers were able to enter as well. It was bad timing that Farore had left but it worked out. It worked out because Isaque still had a fighting team.
They took inventory again. Before Yumin, Lyres and Makua showed up they had 19 Pokémon in the warehouse. Now there were 35. Though only about 18 of them were fit to fight.
"We need to heal them," Lyres said desperately that night. His team had dwindled to 2 Pokémon. Isaque, who seemed to be on the better side of things, had at least 4 who were still in good shape. Yumin hated to admit it, but without the Team Rocket members, they'd have been captured and sent to the Headquarters by now. Presently, he'd have to put aside his differences.
Yumin went around the warehouse before sleeping in order to make sure the Viterals couldn't get in again. They'd patched up the hole in the earth, doubled back on everything one time, two times, three times.
"I'll get a message to Glaukus and the other leaders," Farore said.
"How long are we gonna stay here?"
"We're not going to be able to escape anytime soon." They stood together in a far corner of the warehouse. "If I can get a message to Glaukus or the others we can request aid."
"What makes you so sure they'll come, or that they aren't in a world of hell themselves?"
"We don't have much of a choice. You saw what happened when we were outside. It was everything I could do not to get caught every second out there."
Yumin sighed. "Fine."
He thought of his Braviary. It had never just lost its ability to fly like that. It completely hit a wall out of nowhere. Had Yumin pushed too hard? He used a Super Potion on Braviary but it hadn't done much. And that was troubling.
"I should have left him on the Island with Kirish," Yumin said finally.
"He's certainly not willing to approach the learning curve quickly."
"Bambi told me how he screamed and shouted all the way here and locked himself up here."
If they had just made it to Fuchsia City without such an entrance, they might be fine now.
"Bambi told me about Zakana's brother. I'm so sorry." Farore's face was cast in shadow. She looked down. "I lost my parents when I was very young. It's never easy, but it gets a little better with time. Once we know how to deal with it."
She lost both her parents due to mental illness. It was one thing to lose one of your parents to it, but to lose both was an anomaly. Yumin offered his condolences and they stood there in an awkward silence that stretched from space to eternity.
Finally, Farore said. "You should cut him some slack. I don't know him that well, but in my humble opinion, it seems like he's trying."
Yumin laughed. "You have no idea."
Her eyes softened. Something about her did know. "Do you know why I like bugs?"
"Not a clue."
"They're the ultimate underdogs. They're so weak and brittle sometimes and have a plethora of weaknesses. And that's exactly why I like them. It's really easy to see the bad, but it takes effort to see the good."
Yumin failed to see the good in Zakana at this very moment. He nodded, but had the strange feeling Farore was trying to teach him a lesson. What did she know about what happened? About Zakana's strengths and weaknesses?
Nothing, that's what. And when Yumin fell asleep, he regretted ever going easy on him.
He awoke to shouting. Farore's voice and Zakana's shouting back. He could never just take his licks like a normal guy who'd screwed up. He always had to push back with all his might. What was it this time?
Bambi stirred next to Yumin. "What's wrong?"
"Zakana. What else?"
Bambi scurried out of her blankets and moved toward the noise. Yumin wondered if the screams had awoken the others. Makua sat up, squinting eyes sat on a face without glasses. He rubbed them unbothered, like he already knew what it was about. Had it woken Lyres and Isaque?
"Zakana! This isn't some game, you know!"
Yumin found the scene near the warehouse entrance. He expected to see everyone but he didn't. That worried him and he wondered . . . no, I hope that's not what she's screaming about.
But Farore had never screamed in the short amount of time Yumin knew her. She was surely capable but her disposition boasted only smiles and carefree flicks of her hair. Not this high-pitched voice that scolded Zakana like he was some dejected Lillipup.
Yumin stepped up to interfere. "What is it?"
In the darkness, both faces turned. Zakana's barely visible but angry, his chest heaving. Farore's face round yet pointed, beads of sweat forming at her hairline.
"They're gone, Yumin."
"It wasn't my fault!"
"You fell asleep while you were supposed to be keeping watch. How is that not your fault?"
Yumin's fears came true. Isaque and Lyres were surely gone and of course why wouldn't they be? Now that they were together they had nothing to gain from this arrangement.
"They were just going to leave anyway!" Zakana fumed. "We can't keep them like prisoners."
"Calm down," Yumin heard himself say, but it felt like he was talking to himself. His heart raced.
Zakana was incapable of taking advice or instruction. Even if he was wrong he didn't want to hear it. Had he really fallen asleep or did he let them go? Yumin knew he couldn't stand them. He wanted them gone. Did it even matter now?
"This place is a prison! I didn't care if they left!"
That mystery was solved.
Farore was inconsolable. "This isn't just about you. Do you know that? We needed their help, for just a little longer. You have no idea what is even going on, do you?"
Yumin saw Zakana's rage erupt. True and unrelenting rage that steamed inside, boiled up and had nowhere to go. Physically, he was twisted up inside, and Yumin knew where it came from. His anger went inward just as much as it went outward. Anything that was Zakana's fault was pushed back out because acknowledging it was too painful. It would only bring him back to that day that he did nothing.
This selfishness would cost them. It could easily destroy them all and Zakana wouldn't be any wiser for it. Words didn't work with him. Nothing his parents could say would ever snap him out of it. Yumin grew furious as he looked on at his cousin, who felt more like brother than anything and saw only one solution. In order for Zakana to release some of his rage, he needed to be angry at someone else. He needed to physically purge it by beating a pillow full of bricks into a wall and shattering it into a million pieces.
Finally, Yumin saw his place in it. He would kill two Spearow with one stone.
Physical action called to him as loudly as the screams engulfing his ear space. Zakana needed to be punched, square across the face, quickly and with force. Kindly, Yumin would oblige. Other than Kirish, he couldn't think of anyone better than himself to deliver the blow.