Chapter five: B.A.F

    “We think it might have been deployed by a criminal gang by the name of emerald… You’ve got to be careful.”
“Just don’t overwork that arm, it looks healed but it won’t be if you do anything too stressful.”
Was it just me, or was everyone thinking that the world wanted my head on a platter?

    I was walking down the dusty path of Route 38, my stomach happily full of lovely warm waffle. My nasty experience with Mechyena still hung heavy in my mind, but the sun was high in the sky leaving nothing to imagination. There was nothing for me to be afraid of really, despite Jenny’s numerous warnings about the possibility of a Team Rocket wanna be gang out to get me. Like I said earlier, nothing to lose, no fear.
    But now I did have something to lose. My trainership, Polienix, the new-found freedom that now filled out my life. I guess my mind was just still coming to terms with it all; then I’d be scared. Like Polienix.

    She was sat on my shoulder, her dark eyes flashing to the undergrowth on either side of the path. I guess being other Pokèmon’s dinner in the wild really doesn’t help your nerves.
“Raven?” She whined for what seemed like the seven-millionth time, “Are we almost out of here? I don’t like this place…”
“We’re already away from ‘that place’.” I replied patiently, “This is the next route on.”
“But it feels the same…”

    I sighed and was about to continue onto step 5 of ‘Comfort Polienix’ when I caught sight of a flash of red and green through the corner of my eye. I stopped and turned in that direction, searching the dark leaved bushes for any sign of life.
“What is i-” Polienix was cut off by a loud ZING! as a huge dragonfly shot past her head and turned in the air for a good look.
    It hovered a good eight feet from the ground, its filmy wings little more than a blur through the air as they beat to keep their owner up. The body of the insect was long and coloured a deep crimson, as was the large head that cocked to the side as bulbous green eyes studied me intently.
    The crackling noise as I undid the velcro of one of my pockets only made bug-thing move a little closer in interest, the movement of my hand as it groped for my Pokèdex and flicked it open having the same effect. “YANMA, THE DRAGONFLY POKÈMON.” The machine told me, “FFFO9HHHJSEYTTBASDF JFGITNSAKJVVVMWWER OGHJMFTY.” I blinked, ‘What..?’

    “Um, Raven? That didn’t sound like Pokèdex data to me.” Polienix commented.
“No kidding.” I muttered, “But if it’s a Yanma…”
I had to admit that seeing a wild Yanma all the way out here was far from normal, but hey, what trainer passes up the chance to capture a new Pokèmon?
    It had buzzed a bit closer, now maybe 8 feet away, by the time I loosened one of the Pokèballs Professor Darkwood had given me from the clip on my hip and ordered Polienix into the air. The ice/psychic bird looked nervous (even more so than before) since this was her first battle but I was sure she could win. In a catching sense, that is.

    “Right.”
I hit the ‘battle’ button on my malfunctioning Pokèdex and crossed my fingers. To an advanced trainer it wouldn’t have mattered that much, but I hadn’t a clue what Polienix new for moves which would equal total disaster. The screen fizzed and rippled the image before settling with a soft clunk. I let out a sigh of relief. It looked like I was running out of bad luck, something I sure wasn’t complaining about.

    POLIENIX

SCRATCH
NORMAL - POWER: 40 - ACCURACY: 100 - PP: 35/35

PECK
FLYING -- POWER: 35 - ACCURACY: 100 - PP: 35/35

    I smiled, not too hard, and was about to order a quick Scratch before Yanma could react when another thought hit me. Type advantage perhaps? Bugs --- Flying. Right. Okay.
“Polienix, Peck attack!” I ordered.
“Right on it!” She replied, beating her wings hard to gain the momentum needed to carry out my order.
    “Riiimyaaa!” Yanma buzzed as my Pokèmon rammed its side with her sharp beak. She pulled back, riding the wind high into the sky before hurtling down at neck-breaking speed and raping her sharp talons across the dragonfly’s soft body. Our opponent let out a screech of pain and terror and suddenly I felt guilty about injuring it. It had never occurred to me before, that Pokèmon battling meant wounding you opponent as badly as any martial arts tournament. It was almost… cruelty.

“Catch it, Raven!” Polienix called from the branch of a tree she had landed on.
I smirked and the Pokèball grew in my hand, ready to catch this misplaced creature.

    With a flick of my wrist I sent the Pokèball hurtling into the air where it flicked open, ready to suck Yanma inside…
“Dour!”
“Yaaamaaa!”
    The would-have-been-mine red dragonfly dove to avoid the streak of black and red shooting toward it. The tip of its tail brushed the path, the high speed of its beating wings sending up huge clouds of dust into the air as it curved off and disappeared into the woods. By the time the smoke cleared the Pokèball had hit the ground, rocked back and forth a few times and stopped with a CLUNK!
    “Umm, Raven?” Polienix left the tree branch and hovered over my shoulder, “What did you just catch?”
“Don’t ask me!” I cried, picking up my new creature.
For all I knew it could be a gosh darn doughnut, I’d seen it happen before. Silently wishing that my bad luck really had run out I held up the Pokèball.
“Pokèball go!”

    Bright red light shot from the front of the capturing tool, pooling on the ground and forming the shape of a…
“Dour!” The black puppy exclaimed, “Houooodour!”
He stood almost to my knee, his muzzle and underbelly coloured with dark orange/red fur. The rest of his body was black apart from the silver of two broad raised stripes across his back, the skull-like shape on his forehead and the rings around his heavy-built legs. From his short tail to blunt nose, what stood before me was definitely Houndour.

    I knelt in the dust and held out a hand for my new Pokèmon to inspect - hey, it‘s what my mother taught me to do when I met strange dogs. He shifted onto the front half of his paws, hackles rising as he bared sharp teeth at me. I didn’t draw back, heck, if I can out-move the best fighter’s in my father’s gym one little untrained Houndour didn’t stand a chance in OW!
    “Yow! Get off me, you little blighter!” I exclaimed, trying to pull my hand out of his mouth. Without much effect.
“Daur!” Houndour growled through his teeth and gave a harsh tug.
“Hey! OW!”
Since I was crouching on the balls of my feet, Houndour’s tug got me straight off balance and face first into the dirt, spluttering and coughing out the numerous new names I had just come up with for him. Completely ignorant of what I was saying, Houndour (now also called Nasty Little Bugger, Christ That Hurts and Bloody Awful Fiend) lay down and start chewing contently on my stricken hand.

    “Ahhhh! Damnit, get him off me Pol!” I cried, getting my knees underneath me and trying to lever my hand out of Nasty Little Bugger’s mouth.
“Shouldn’t you take his jaw in the other hand and pull down?” Polienix suggested, watching nervously from a nearby tree.
    Um, yes, actually. When I’d helped out with my friend Nikki’s Growlithe she’d bitten a lot in the first few months and if you tugged she just held harder because she thought you were making a game of it. I know that was practically eons ago but it was perfectly rational knowledge.
“Alright, B.A.F, time. To. Let. GO!”
    He looked up at me as I shouted, losing concentration just long enough for me to pull his jaw open and free its prisoner. I stood up quickly to avoid a repeat of the same episode and held both hands out of sight behind my back.
“Now, that’s not something you do, okay?” I informed him, gently massaging my injured hand with the other and trying not to wince.
“Dour, hou dour dour.” He tilted his head to one side and looked up at me.
    “Oookay. What’s he saying?” I asked Polienix.
“Umm…” She thought for a second and then shook her head, “Most dog Pokèmon communicate through scent and body language… So I don’t know.”
I slapped my forehead, “So that’s why it took so long to get Lucy the Growlithe under control!” I looked down at my new Houndour, who rolled onto his back and waved his legs in the air, “You better not be as bad as her, doggy.”
“Rawf!” He barked in reply, getting back up.

    “Let’s go now, I still don’t like it around here.” Polienix whined, taking off from her tree and flying circles around me.
But I had other things in mind, which she had just reminded me of with that lecture about dog Pokèmon’s communication.
“Polienix, where’d you find that berry you ate?” I inquired as sweetly as I could.
    She landed on my shoulder and hunched her own, “In the forest. Quite near here but a little to the left.”
It was obvious she didn’t want to say. But it had probably also occurred to her that if my other Pokèmon couldn’t speak, she’d be doing the translating.
“I-I’ll take you there. But we’ve got to go as quick as possible!” She took off my shoulder and sped toward the edge of the forest, Houndour yipping and snapping at the end of her tail as she flew over him.
    “Oi, you!” I started to jog after my first Pokèmon, sweeping Houndour off the ground on the way past.
He snuggled comfortably in my arms with his head hanging over the right so he could watch the passing scenery.
“What’re we gonna call you, hey?” I asked him as I ran.
He just looked up and me with his big, dark eyes before snapping at a passing twig.

    “Raven, hurry up! I can smell a predator!” Polienix cried back to me, her voice full of anxiety.
“That’s because I’m carrying one!” I yelled after her.
“No, something BIG!”

    I can’t deny the tingle at the base of my spine when she said that. Memory flashed across the back of my mind, a crazy spew of pain and adrenaline and… Fear. In my mind’s eye I saw sharp teeth and steel rods, huge paws and rancid breath that hung shimmering silver in the cold night air. I must have been afraid all along, just not have realised. Well, I knew it now. And I wish I didn’t.
    Mr. Puppy let out a whine of protest as I started to actually run after Pol. I pushed myself to run faster and faster, my practice dodging vines and roots leaping into use as I dodged everything aiming to slow me down. The thought that all I ever seemed to do was run through forest flicked through my mind, but the gnashing teeth of Mechyena ripped it apart.
    Right behind me, I swear, it was right behind me! I could practically feel the hot breath on my neck, hear the snap of twigs beneath its feet and see its shadow in front of me. It was going to catch me! Catch me and kill me and eat me and…

    Polienix had stopped right in front of me and if it hadn’t been for my quick reactions I would have smashed straight into her. Instead I threw myself sideways, ending up crashed against a tree with puppy dog licking my face while not-so-secretly trying to eat my hair. I glanced back the way I had come but, obviously, there was nothing there. So much for being fearless.
    I let out a sigh of relief and hauled myself up before going over to Pol. What was she… I glanced into the clearing in front of me.

And there it was.

Red eyes staring just as bloodthirstily as before.

And once again I screamed.

   I have to say, there are far too many cliffhangers in the first part of this fic. I'll try to avoid that in future: I swear it's loosing its edge.
   Anyway, I've nothing much to say this chapter... except that I need to give credit to someone... That someone is actually my lurcher puppy, Blaze, who inspired this chapter. ^_^ Yes, my dog is as badly behaved as good ol' Houndour there. Poor me, I know.
      Oh well, I hope this chapter was good enough for ya... and if not the next one makes up for it! Over and out,