My right hand drifted to where my knife was clipped to my belt, but I resisted grabbing it. The last thing I needed was to kill someone else, even if it was Scourge.
"SCOURGE!" I shouted, stalking over to him, my friends unsure if they should follow or not. By the sound of their footsteps, they were following, but keeping a safe distance.
Scourge turned to face me, and after a moment of confusion, he grinned widely, his scars stretching on his face.
"Well well well," he boomed, giving a toothy grin. "If it isn't Zeno, son of Giovanni! I'd thought I'd never get to the chance to see you again you son of a-"
"Save it," I snapped. "You're going to pay for what you did to Charizard and Arcanine!"
He boomed with laughter as I stood a few feet from him. I was a foot shorter than him, but to me size didn't matter. You just needed to know how to fight.
"You mean that Charizard that was with you?" He asked, his voice having a thick Kantonian accent. "I only meant to clip him, but you know what they say when you start getting old eh?"
Most of his buddies laughed, but a few of them narrowed their eyes, most likely filling the "old" part away.
I whipped out my knife, rage starting to overrule my common sense. "You will pay for what you did Scourge!"
He gave a cocky smile. "Will I now?"
Before I could do anything, Alex and Robert tried to drag me away while Hau faced Scourge.
"Hi, uh, Scourge," Hau said. "It's nice to meet you and all, but, uh, we need to go. Don't mind Zeno here, he has an anger problem. Anger management, am I right?"
Hau laughed nervously and Scourge didn't look amused.
"Anyway," Hau said. "We'll leave you fine gentlemen be. We need to go."
Hau joined us as Robert and Alex dragged me around a street corner.
"What were you thinking!" Alex hissed. "Put that knife away."
"Watcha five doing?" A voice asked from behind us.
We spun around as I tucked my knife away to see a girl leaning against a wilting tree. She looked to be 16, 17, and wore a purple, black stitched dress. Her eyes looked grey and her purple hair only went to her shoulders.
"Hi," she said, smiling at us. "I'm Acerola."
When we didn't say anything, she sighed. "You're supposed to introduce yourselves you know."
"Sorry," Alex said. "I'm Alex."
"Zeno," I said warily.
"Robert."
"Hau."
"Lillie."
Acerola smiled. "There you go. Now we know each other. And back to my original question. What are you five doing?"
"Nothing," I answered.
She gave me a doubtful look. "Annoying the Night Hunters?"
"You know them!?" Hau asked, surprised.
She frowned. "Unfortunately. They arrived here a week ago. My uncle recently came out of retirement and is now trying to find a reason to arrest them. Though that isn't the reason Nanu came out of retirement."
She smiled at our shocked expressions. "Yeah, I know who you are, especially you Zeno."
Then she shrugged. "But I couldn't care less about what you did. If my uncle let you go, then you're an okay person in my book."
"So you know who we are," Robert said. "But who are you?"
Acerola laughed. "As I said, I'm Acerola, but whatever what I am will be revealed in time."
She got up from the tree and walked past us. "I must be going. It was nice to meet you all. Toodles."
"Why do we keep meeting strange people?" Robert asked.
"I personally blame Zeno," Hau said, pointing a finger at me. "But who knows. Anyway, I saw a Malasada restaurant down the road. Wanna go?"
"Why not," Alex said. "But after that, we head to the PMC. I need my beauty sleep."
"What beauty?" Hau whispered to me, snickering. "Am I right?"
I stepped away from him as Alex rounded on him. "What did you say!?"
He laughed nervously. "Heh heh. Nothing?"
Let's just say we had to half carry him all the way to the Malasada restaurant.
...
We sat in a booth with Hau stuffing his face, obviously recovered from Alex's attack.
"Sooooooooooooo goooooooooooood," Hau said dreamily, his mouth full.
A waitress brought another malasada over and set it in front of Hau.
When she left, Hau asked, "Who ordered this one?"
"I did," I said, remembering the race Hau and I did back in Verdant Cavern. "I owed you."
Hau's face lit up with realization. "Oh yeah! Fantastic!"
Then he began stuffing his face again.
...
I woke up in the PMC, morning light filtering in through the window. I got up and stretched.
Robert was sitting up in his bed. "Where's Hau?"
I looked at Hau's bed to find it empty. "Maybe he got up before us?"
"I don't think so," Robert said, pointing to a backpack on the floor. "That's his stuff."
I was getting worried now. "Grab his stuff. I'm going to check on the girls."
I hurriedly put on my clothes and went out of our room. I went to the next door over which was Alex and Lillie's room. I started to knock, but discovered the door handle was broken and the door creaked open slightly when I touched it.
"Alex," I called into the room. "Lillie?"
No answer. Robert joined me as I entered the room. The place was trashed and not only were Alex and Lillie not there, but their Pokémon and stuff were going as well.
"This is not good," Robert breathed. "What do you think happened?"
I clenched both fists. "Scourge happened. That's what."
We rushed out of the room and into the PMC's lobby. When I burst through the main doors, I ran into Gladion.
He raised an eyebrow. "Just my luck I run into you."
"No time for that now Gladion," I said, grabbing his shoulders. "They have your sister."
He slammed me into the outside wall of the PMC. "WHAT HAPPENED ZENO!?"
"What's going on here?" Acerola asked, walking up to us, looking between Gladion and I.
I pushed Gladion off of me. "They have our friends Acerola. Where is the Night Hunters' hideout? I know that have to have one."
She bit her lip. "I promised Nanu I wouldn't tell so no one could mess with them."
"Scourge might kill them!" I shouted.
She sighed in defeat. "Alright then. They have a small base of operations in a place called The Oasis. It's located somewhere in the middle of Haina Desert."
She stayed back as Gladion, Robert, and I ran towards where the entrance to Haina Desert was located.
"You're coming?" I asked Gladion, not actually surprised.
He scowled at me. "You bet I am. Apparently I'm the only one able to keep her safe."
I grimaced. And we were doing so well a couple days ago.
Once we were at Haina Desert, I could already feel the heat. I shielded my eyes to avoid getting sand in them as I headed into the Desert. Gladion stalked angrily after me and Robert followed, carrying both his and Hau's backpack.
...
Haina Desert was worse than Wela Volcano Park. Not because of the heat, but because of the sand. At first we ran around for ten minutes, but after finding ourselves back at the entrance for the fifth time in a row, we began walking. It was a painful process.
"So you don't know where the Oasis is?" I asked Gladion for the fifth time.
He sighed. "I'm not even going to answer you."
"Technically you just did," Robert put in.
"So Gladion," I said, trying to make the best of things, which was not going well. "What's so bad about your mother? Other than the Ultra Beast things that is."
"Who is your mother?" Robert asked curiously.
Gladion sighed. "Lusamine used to be a good, loving mother to Lillie and I. But when our father disappeared into an Ultra Wormhole when I was nine, she changed."
His expression turned dark. "Lillie was only seven, so her experience was worse than mine. Lusamine became obsessed with finding my father. She also tried to "perfect" Lillie and I. She even made Lillie wear clothes that made her look like a Nihilego, the Ultra Beast that took our father."
"Now she's succeeded in bringing Ultra Beasts into Alola," he continued. "Who knows what she'll be able to do if she gets a hold of Cosmog."
"Nebby?" I asked, confused. "What does Nebby have to do with any of this?"
Gladion looked at me. "Cosmog, or Nebby as you call her, is an Ultra Beast. She has the potential to open Ultra Wormholes, but not all the time. Lusamine only had Cosmog for two months before Lillie freed her and ended up on Melemele. That was five months ago."
I nodded. "It's all starting to make sense. But where were you?"
He laughed darkly. "When Lillie was eleven, I finally found a day where I could escape my mother's hold on me. I figured Lillie would be safer at Aether Paradise than where I was going."
"Where were you going?" Robert asked.
"Po Town," he said. "Headquarters for Team Skull. It seemed like the perfect place to be since it went against everything my mother wanted for me. But when she allied herself with Guzma, I left. And that was only a month ago."
"So Aether is secretly evil," Robert said. "And Team Skull is working with them to what end?"
Gladion shrugged. "At first it was to get Mohn back, but now I don't know. What I do know is that we cannot let her get a hold of Cosmog. That much is clear to me."
We walked in silence for a couple minutes, giving me time to process these newest revelations.
Finally, I said, "When we were at Aether Paradise, a jellyfish like Ultra Beast appeared. I think it did something to Lusamine."
Gladion looked shocked, but then nodded thoughtfully. "That was a Nihilego. They do have a weird form of poison. Even Lusamine doesn't really know what it does. But-"
Robert held up a hand. "Stop!"
We halted at the edge of a cliff. We stood at the edge of a large crater and covering most of it was a jungle forest complete with a river.
"The Oasis," Robert breathed.
Ignoring the fact that it was beautiful, I went straight to the point. "The Night Hunters must have set up a base camp somewhere in the middle. Probably by a pool of water. I'll go and scout it out."
"Why not go and rescue them now!?" Gladion hissed. "They have my sister!"
"I know," I said calmly. "But we don't know what their setup is like. I'll go on recon and see what the situation is. When I get back, we'll come up with a plan. Got it?"
Gladion mumbled something under his breath.
I looked at Robert. "Restrain him if he tries to do something stupid."
He flexed his muscles. "You can count on me Z."
I nodded. "Good."
I jumped and slid down the side of the crater, coming to a rest at the bottom. I ran into the jungle and quickly climbed a tree. Just in time too as I spotted two Night Hunters on patrol, Dusk Balls clipped to their belts.
Luckily, the branches of the trees were close together and thick, so I could cross them with ease.
After about a minute or two, I found their camp. As expected, they were situated by a large pool of water. Several large tents were set up in a clearing and smaller tents were scattered around them. I counted eighteen Night Hunters and I figured more would be on patrol. Scourge was nowhere to be seen, but I had a feeling he was around here somewhere.
As I scanned the area, I spotted a large cage. The outline was metal while red lasers crisscrossed the sides and top of it. Upon further inspection, I could see Pokémon inside as well as Hau, Alex, and Lillie.
"Jackpot," I murmured and made my way to the tree overlooking the cage.
Aside from my friends, I could see a Metang, Gabite, Golett, and an Alolan Ninetales. Out of all the Pokémon, Ninetales was suffering the most. Being in hot weather as an Ice type couldn't be good. She lay, weak, as Alex stroked her fur.
I dropped a pokeball and a note into the cage, hoping one of them would see it.
...
No one's POV
Lillie saw something drop next to her. She picked it up, realizing it was a pokeball, and read the piece of paper attached to it.
"Only put Ninetales in here when I come back here so you don't arouse suspicion."
Lillie looked up, trying to see someone and spotted Zeno, who gave a nod.
"I'll be back," he mouthed and jumped into another tree.
...
Zeno's POV
I was now above the main tent and I could see Scourge inspecting Nebby.
"Look at it," he said. "It's incredible! An undiscovered Pokémon and to think it was just wasting away in that girl's bag."
A Night Hunter ran up to his leader. "Scourge. We found the escaped Pokémon. They're hiding in a cave due West from the crater. Shall we retrieve them?"
Scourge shook his head. "This "Nebby" will fetch a much bigger price. Leave them."
My head buzzed with this new information. There were too many Night Hunters for Gladion, Robert, and I including our Pokémon to take on. We needed reinforcements. And I just heard there might be a cave full.
...
"What'd you find out?" Robert asked as he helped pull out of the crater.
"They're unharmed," I said. "But there are weak Pokémon with them."
"What should we do then almighty leader?" Gladion asked sarcastically.
I pointed West. "From what I heard, several Pokémon escaped from the Night Hunters. If we get their help, we can take down the Night Hunters and rescue our friends."
Robert nodded. "Sounds like a plan."
Gladion jabbed a finger into my chest. "If this all goes wrong, you're dead Zeno."
On that happy note, I set off West, hearing Robert and Gladion follow.
...
It took about ten minutes before I spotted the cave. Nestled in a rock face was an opening into darkness. I stepped inside cautiously, listening for sounds of Pokémon.
"Hello!" I called. "I'm here to-!"
I cut off as something growled in front of me. I stopped and tried to see into the darkness. Then something heavy jumped on me and I fell backwards. I looked up to see a row of fangs.
I could see the Pokémon clearly now and my heart stopped as I recognized it. Not the species, but who the Pokémon was.
"Arcanine," I gasped.
Arcanine stopped growling, sniffed me, then got off my chest. I stood to face her.
"It's you," I whispered. "I thought you were dead."
I hugged Arcanine's neck and she licked my hair. I could see Robert and Gladion out of the corner of my eye, looking at the scene in front of them.
I stood back from Arcanine and unclipped a pokeball. "I would like you to meet someone Arcanine."
I let out Growlithe who stared uncertainly at Arcanine. I could tell he didn't fully remember his mother, but I could hope.
Arcanine stood over her son and lowered her head. Growlithe breathed in her scent and touched his nose against hers.
I smiled as I saw Growlithe recognize his mother. "Looks like blood trumps the mind."
"So that's the Arcanine that died?" Robert asked, clearly confused.
I nodded. "I thought she died, but I guess Scourge kept her. I think she's only here now because he was letting her heal before he sold her."
I looked around the cave more and saw several Pokémon. A weakened Garchomp, a Mimikyu, two Goletts, and an Electabuzz.
I looked at Arcanine. "Sorry to interrupt the reunion, but we have a situation. Our friends are prisoners of the Night Hunters. We need all the help we can get."
Arcanine growled and Rotom appeared to translate. "She sayzzz she's the only fit one. The rest one injured in some way or form."
Robert ripped a piece of duct tape. "Tell me and needs treating."
...
Apparently the duct tape was just for show. Robert used Hyper Potions and berries that healed the injured Pokémon. Now the Garchomp actually looked threatening.
Arcanine barked, Garchomp roared, Electabuzz sparked with electricity, the two Goletts slammed their fists together, and the Mimikyu climbed onto my shoulder.
"Mimi!" She cried, scooting closer to my head.
Rotom's screen lit up. "Mimikyu, the Disguise Pokémon. A lonely Pokémon, it conceals its terrifying appearance beneath an old rag so it can get closer to people and other Pokémon."
I tickled her where her actual body would be. "Terrifying? Nah, you're cute. Don't let what others think of you define who you are."
"Mimi!"
Rotom gave me a digital smile. "She likes you partner."
"Really," I said, looking into the tiny holes near the middle of the Pikachu costume. "Maybe after all this is over you could join me."
"Mimi!" She cried happily.
Letting her stay on my shoulder, I looked around at the assembled group. "Who's ready to get our friends back!?"
They cheered and I looked to the desert outside of the cave. "Then let's get going. We don't have time to waste."
...
Alex's POV
Ninetales was getting weaker by the minute. Soon she would have to use the pokeball Lillie gave her from Zeno no matter what the Night Hunters saw.
Hau and Lillie sat next to her.
"How long do you think till Zeno gets back?" Hau asked.
I shrugged. "Whenever he gets back here, it better be soon."
Then they heard an explosion that rocked the earth.
...
Zeno's POV
I patted Gyarados on his side. "Good job. That should get them riled up."
I looked East. "Now let's hope Gladion gets his part done."
...
No one's POV
Two Night Hunters with a Rhydon and Nidoking found a boy in tattered clothes and an emo haircut leaning against a tree in the Eastern quadrant. He smiled when he saw them, twirling a blue disk in his right hand.
The boy grinned. "Lovely day isn't it gentlemen."
"Nidoking," One of The two men barked. "Thrash the kid!"
The boy flung the disk behind the men and one of them sneered, "You missed."
"Did I now?"
He said it so calmly, they had to look. They turned around just in time to see the disk fully insert itself into a strange creature's head.
It gave a low, almost mechanical growl, as the fins on its head glowed blue.
The emo kid smirked. "Alright Silvally. Let's show these fools who they're messing with."
...
Night Hunters' camp- No ones POV
Scourge rushed out of his tent to see chaos. Tents were ablaze and a huge Gyarados blasted Hydro Pumps and Hyper Beams at enemy Pokémon.
Then he saw Zeno staring straight at him from a hundred feet away and Scourge clenched his fists. "Your dead kid."
...
Zeno's POV
I jumped off Gyarados' back and rolled to my feet, Mimikyu scuttling off me. I stared ahead and saw an angry looking Scourge. Images of my Charizard flashed through my head and I saw red.
"You're dead Scourge," I growled and ran to meet him.
I ducked, his fist swinging above me, and kicked him in the knee. His eyes blazed with fury as he grabbed my arm with a meaty hand and flung me against a tree.
I gasped as all the air left my lungs and saw Scourge swing a fist. It never made contact.
A wheel of fire slammed him to the ground and Growlithe snarled at him.
Scourge grinned as he got up. "Isn't this the runt you escaped with Zeno? I'll have pleasure killing him."
The first thing I did when I regained my breath was to laugh. "Don't you know not to mess with a mother's son Scourge?"
Scourge was already trying to grab Growlithe when he heard a growl. He glanced up and found himself facing a row of sharp teeth.
I saw fear on his face as Arcanine's body burst into flames. She slammed into Scourge, sending him thirty feet away.
I got up from the tree. "Now that's how you do it."
I heard screaming behind us and saw several Night Hunters running from a very pissed off Garchomp. And of course Robert was riding him.
"GO GET 'EM GARCHOMP! YEE-HAW!"
"GAAAAAAAR!"
A smile formed on my face, but it faded away when I noticed Scourge had disappeared. I clenched a fist, but unclenched it. Maybe it was for the best. Then I wouldn't have the chance to kill him and who knows if I would or not.
I rejoined with my friends by the pool of water. Gladion had freed Alex, Lillie, and Hau and the Pokémon. The Golett that had been trapped chest bumped the other two Goletts. Garchomp and Gabite were glaring at each other and I could tell they had beef between them.
"Where's Ninetales?" I asked Alex.
She held up the pokeball I had given Lillie. "In here. I'm going to bring her to Nurse Joy for extra care."
I nodded. "Good."
Hau was pouting. "Now you'll have a Fire type Vulpix and an Alolan Ninetales. Unfair."
Alex smiled deviously. "Maybe for you."
Hau tossed a pokeball behind him and it hit the Metang. It rolled three times and flashed green.
He smiled. "There. Just counteracted your Ninetales."
I sighed. Those two would never stop.
Hau held up another pokeball. "Now let's see if I can get another- AAAAAAHHH!"
The Gabite appeared in front of Hau and he instinctively flung the pokeball. Gabite disappeared inside it and was captured.
"Oops," Hau said.
"Good job," Alex said dryly. "Now you have a Dragon and Ground type to go against my Ice and Fairy type."
I ignored their bickering and asked Gladion, "So once we're out of Haina Desert, you going to join us?"
He shrugged. "I might have to since you can't keep my sister safe."
"Gladion," Lillie said, glaring at her brother. "It wasn't his fault."
He snorted. "Whatever you say."
I turned away and looked at Arcanine. I smiled at her. "You going to come with us?"
She looked back at the Pokémon that lived in the Oasis, then shook her head.
I hugged her neck, then stepped back. "I understand you see yourself as their guardian. I wish you luck. Till the next time we meet."
She growled affectionately and licked Growlithe's head. He whined and barked, but after a minute, he trotted up to me.
I smiled, rubbed his head, and looked at Arcanine one more time. "He's safe with me, don't worry."
She nodded as I returned Growlithe. Along with my friends and my Pokémon, I left the Oasis, with Arcanine watching us leave and a Mimikyu on my shoulder.
Sorry for the late update. This one was longer and I'll admit, I was a bit lazy. But then again, I do have school filling my head. Soon I'll be back in the classroom and updates for this story will slow down considerably, but I'll do my best. Anyway, let me know what you thought of this chapter (especially the part about Arcanine) and if you liked it, please vote. Oh and one more thing. I'll be going on a couple day vacation soon, but I hope I'll get at least one more chapter done before then and maybe one during the vacation. Who knows. Besides all that, I'll see you all whenever. Toodles