Never Say Die
By Gospel
Prologue

The audience walks in and take their seats, you among them. An Umbreon strolls out from back stage. This one was different from the rest. The normally golden rings of an Umbreon pulsed with a dark purple and his eye shone a brilliant amethyst. There’s something ominous about him. He reached the center of the stage and stared out at the audience. His body started to shift and change. He took more of a human form. Soon the Umbreon lost all of his pokemon characteristics except the color of his hair and eyes. He is now a human. His hands slid into the pochets of his black denim jeans. He had a purple fire-like symbol printed on the chest of his black shirt.

“Hello and Welcome. My name is Gospel and as you just saw, I’m not normal. I can change into my Umbreon form as I please. I am the author and this is my Fic. Any questions?” The audience stir a little in their seats, a few raise their hand. “You! Yes, you. Stand up.” Gospel points to someone in your direction and then snaps his fingers abruptly. The person behind you explodes into a plum of Pichachu face confetti and glitter before you got the chance to see who he was. A red and black cap falls to the seat where the guy used to sit. “Anymore questions?” Gospel asks with a hint of challenge in his voice. Not one person replied. “No? Darn. On with the Fic then! Oh, and I don’t own Pokemon, the characters, blah blah blah. You know the deal.” He took a formal bow with his right arm across his abdomen. "Enjoy."

The curtain closes and then opens as the show begins.

“Can’t stop. They’ll catch me. Can't stop. They'll catch me.” I panted as the wind cut through my brown fur, “I need a place to hide.” Maybe over by the trees. I've been running for so long now, I've lost all feeling in my legs. “Stupid poochy, poochyanma, or whatever humans call them…” There's at least six of the grey, canine pokemon after me. They barked and yelped as they chased me through the woods, a grassy field and even a few small streams. It’s been some time since they started and there is no sign of them letting up. Wait, a tree. And it has a hollow in it! I managed to squeeze into the entrance and backed away from it as far as I could. “Why do they have to pick on me? Just because I’m smaller then them. If only I could…” I covered my mouth with my paws as the stalkers drew closer.

“Ruff, I saw it go this way,” one barked. “No, I think it went that way, bark,” another added in. “It would make a perfect chew toy, ruff.” “Grrr, just hurry up and find it, I’m hungry!” That last comment made an “eep” jump from my throat. I tightened the grip on my maw when I realized that they heard me. “In there,” one yelled. It stuck its head in through the hole and saw me. “I found it!” it shouted. The intruder tried to snap at me but I curled into a tight ball at the far side of the hollow tree. He tried to pull his head out but it took some extra effort to get free.

They started biting and scratching the edges of the hole to make it bigger. I… I'm to die here. No! I don't want to die, not now. I never even got the change to start my life. How could I have been thrown into this strange land where I’m probably the only one of my kind? How could something like this happen to anyone? It seems like only yesterday that I was enjoying the warmth of my mother.

“Flare! Flare? Where are you Flare?!” An older boy called out while carrying an empty pokeball. He peered through every bush and around every tree. The boy sighed, “Come on Flare, just answer me.”

“Flare, Flareon!” something finally called back. The boy pushed through some more bushes and found a Flareon lying on her side. She was his Flareon. “There you are.” The Flareon replied again by saying its name happily. “Is she ready? You know we can still wait if you think we should.” The Flareon nudged the Eevee that was resting next to her. It stood up, stretched its tiny legs and walked over to the boy. He smiled at the tiny Eevee and knelt down to it. With the pokeball in hand, he gently tapped the Eevee on the head.

“That’s right cousin, it can evolve into any of five different pokemon.” The same boy was talking into a phone at the PokeCenter. “I want that one pokemon you were talking about. The psychic one with a grey body and the green hair… Ok. Let’s do it then.” The boy started a machine next to phone. He dropped a pokeball into a socket. The machine rumbled as a tub above the pokeball sucked it right up. “Here she comes.” A new ball popped out of the tub. “Got it. Thank you and take care of Eevee… Bye”

“Ah man, this pokemon is useless.” a younger boy mumbled to himself while looking at the smiling Eevee by his feet. “Well I could just drop it in my box storage but I don’t want to keep the thing stuffed up for the rest of its life." He sighed out loud. "I guess I could release it… Let it be free. But diffidently not here. It would get eaten alive. Maybe I could let it go somewhere where the wild pokemon aren’t as aggressive.” The Eevee tilted its head as the boy talked to himself.

I traveled with him for a few weeks before he just threw me out here. There I was, alone. I was taken from my mother, and then pawned off to someone who didn't want me. My heart jumped into my throat as the wood started to give way with a loud crack. My attackers were getting closer and closer. Their breath flooded the small space. The putrid stench made me want to vomit. The closest one snapped at me and caught my paw as I cried out in pain.

“Fury, I don’t care how and I don’t want to know. Just make them gone!” someone yelled from outside. A large red and orange bird pokemon who stood like a human stared at the little dogs. They all started to look very nervous. The bird pokemon smiled a wicked smile as its wrists flared into a blaze. The dog pokemon’s eyes widened and their jaws dropped. The next thing I knew is that they were gone.

My paw was soaked and dripping with my own crimson liquid. Every heartbeat brought a wince of pain. I heard a rubbing sound as if someone was sitting down and leaning against the tree. “You can come out now.” whispered a human’s voice.

The curtain closes as the show ends and then opens again to Gospel at the center of the stage.

"Did you like it?" Gospel asked with a smile. "I know it was kind of short but what do you expect from a prologue? If you liked it, come back next time. But until then, good bye." He bowed again and left the stage as the audience started to leave the building. Soon Frank, the janitor, came out from back stage with a push broom and a wooden crate for props.

Gospel followed and sat on the wooden box with his back towards the seats. The strange thing is that he had a human shape and was still wearing cloths but was covered in black fur. He also had long ears and a tail with a purple ring on each. Like a human, Umbreon cross. Frank, was cleaning the stage with his push broom as Gospel talked on his cell phone. “What?! How is it my fault that someone spontaneously explodes into confetti?!” Gospel was ideally snapping his fingers as he talked. “I mean it’s not like I made it happened.” Every time he snapped his fingers, Frank would puff into a plume of confetti just as the person behind you did before the show started. But before the broom could even drop the slightest, Frank would reappear and continue cleaning as if nothing happened. “I did WHAT?! No, no, it was just some random slob that I explo, I mean, just puffed outta nowhere… Are you sure?” He levitated over to the seat with the hat in it and picked it up. “Ah crud. Yep, this is HIS hat alright.”

Gospel crossed his legs in a sitting style with his arms crossed over his chest and thought for a few seconds. “I’ve seen how many fics this guy is in with the red head and I don’t need THAT mob for an enemy. Alright!” He snapped his fingers again. The confetti around the chair was pulled together and with a puff, the boy was back. You actually get a change to see him this time. The boy was wearing jeans and a blue jacket with black hair. It was none other then Ash Katchum. Gospel shoved the hat into Ash’s arms. “Now get out of my Fic…,” Gospel growled before snapping his fingers again. Ash disappeared and was thrown back into his story line.

Gospel was back in his thinking posture floating over the audience seats before he noticed you. “Hey you, the READER,” he called out while quoting the word READER with his fur covered fingers. “Show’s over! Leave!” He snapped his fingers one final time.

End