Aleissa
((((Keep in mind this mission was meant to take place just after Tails and Will died and before they returned))))
Fortree. A city where humans lived in trees alongside wild pokemon, as well as their own. A city where a bug pokemon might, randomly, fly through an open window, or a wild Kecleon might block a your way. A city where the Eleon, Nal, currently resided and had been for the past week.
What was it, that brought her here away from her home? Away from Snagem? Aside from running away from the one thing that had turned her void of emotion.
The answer is quite simple.
A couple days prior to her leaving for Fortree, Nal had received word from an old friend, who lived in that area, that the eevee population was drastically decreasing. At the rate it was going, the eevees would be greatly outnumbered by the neighboring Absol, and would, likely, soon be wiped out of the area completely. Nal just wouldn't have this. The area surrounding Fortree had once been her home, before her evolution which forced her to leave her home and move to the volcano. Not because of the other eevees, mind you. They never showed much of a problem for her strange evolution. No, it was because of the neighboring pokemon, and even some of the trainers. All they saw of her was something different. Didn't bother to try and figure out what she was, whether she was dangerous or not, or anything. All they did was try to destroy her. So, she fled.
Now, here she was. Returning to the very place where she'd nearly been killed. Of course, she'd made sure it would be a little safer for her than last time. For one, she wasn't going to stay in the wild. She was staying with a human. A trainer who had lost one of her pokemon, which both she and Nal believed to be connected with the decreasing in wild eevees. The pokemon that had gone missing was, in fact, a hybrid. Umbreon and Espeon. Created when he evolved right at dusk. Neither daytime nor night. Right in between, resulting in an evolution that was right in between two different pokemon.
She sighed softly and glanced up at Eri, the "Esbreeon's" trainer, who was currently asleep. which is was Nal should have been doing. It was very late in the night, and the Eleon would need to get up around dawn in order to get everything she needed done.
She'd only been in town a day, and already she'd gotten a good lead. She'd heard earlier that day, from a rattata, that there was a small camp, a fair distance away from the town, where he'd said he heard a bunch of eevees. It was a long-shot, sure. For all she knew, the rattata could have been lying, or whoever was camping could have already packed everything up by the time she got there; but she really didn't have anything else to go on. So, this would have to be it.
Small movement from the corner of her eye brought Nal out of her musings. Eri had awoken.
"Nal?", she climbed out of bed and placed her hand on the small hybrid's head, rubbing gently, "You're still up? You should be sleeping."
Nal immediately responded to Eri's petting. Her head would shift slightly, pressing against her hand. "Can't sleep."
"Nervous about tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. This'll be the first time I've been away from here for an extended period of time. A little worried about what might happen."
Eri smiles as her hand moves to scratch Nal just behind her ear, "I'm sure you'll be fine."
Nal smiled back and slowly drifted to sleep while Eri continued petting her.
After she was certain Nal had fallen asleep, Eri climbed back in bed and went to sleep herself, "Good luck tomorrow, Nal."
The next morning, Nal woke up, surprisingly early. It was hard to tell where the sun was, exactly; but judging from the amount of light in the sky, the Eleon knew it was early. She stood and, giving Eri one last look, ran. Putting the girl, the room, the home, and the town behind her as she continued on her journey to discover the reason behind all the disappearances and, hopefully, recover the missing espreon.
She soon met with the rattata that had told her of the encampment, he would be the one to lead her there.
"You ready?" Rattata said when he saw her approach.
"Yeah, and thanks again for helping out with this."
"No trouble, we're all worried over the eevee population. If the eevees are being poached, then who's to stop them from poaching other pokemon."
Nal nodded, she could understand the rattata's concern. Not only that, but what would happen to them once the absol started moving in? It wasn't just the eevees that were in danger, but every other small breed as well.
They walked in silence, the Eleon and the Rattata, for a majority of the day. Occasionally, the silence would be broken by one of the two asking a question. Whether it was Rattata asking Nal questions about what she was/capable of doing, or it was Nal asking Rattata questions concerning the mission she was on. She'd need all the information she could get if she had any hopes of getting through this alive.
"See that smoke?" Rattata pointed out, "They're just behind those trees."
Looking up, Nal noticed the pillar of smoke. "So, that's where I have to go, then." A small smile was sent in Rattata's direction,
"Sure you don't wanna come with?"
Rattata laughed nervously, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Nal sighed and forced herself forward, "Well, thank for bringing me here at least. I'll see you around." Rattata turned and ran in the opposite direction as the eleon ran forward, towards the camp.
Hiding in a bush nearby, Nal looked onto the scene before her.
A smoldering pile of ash, where a fire had just been put out by the looks of it, its smoke had been what led Nal to this very spot. Four fairly small tents, which were being packed up by two humans. Meanwhile the other two were busy packing up three large cages into a truck with a cloth covering and no door in the back, each carrying four-to-five eevees apiece. She'd wait until the four men climbed into the truck before she made her move.
Swiftly, the Eleon ran to the back of the truck, hoping the men in front didn't see her, and jumped in. The eevees in the cages all moved to get a better look at her when she landed.
"Shh, I'm going to get you out of here. Does anyone know what these people want with all of you?"
A rather aged looking eevee stepped to the edge of the cage he was in and stared intently at Nal, "We're not entirely sure, young one, but I over heard one of the humans saying something about experimentations."
The strain and worry in the old one's voice only pushed Nal harder to find a way to free all the eevees. Not just the ones in these cages, but the ones who had long-since been captured.
Circling the old one's cage a few times, Nal tried to find an easy, and quiet, way to free them before the truck arrived at its destination. The door to the thing was easy enough to find, only problem was the lock. She scratched at it for a bit before the old one suggested a new tactic.
"Why not try heating it, then rapidly cooling it? You seem capable of both fire and water abilities. After that, you could probably smash it apart with your tail."
Nodding, Nal backed away and warned all the eevees in the cage to stand as far back as possible. Sure, she had thought of doing this before, but truth be told she didn't want to use this technique. Mostly, because it caused her pain to do so. True, Nal was capable of using both fire and water attacks. However, the latter hurt her to use. She was part fire, after all.
Concentrating on hitting the lock, and not the other eevees, Nal sent a small burst of flames, hitting the lock square on. She kept the flames going until the lock was bright red, then she immediately followed with a spray of cool water, flinching slightly when she did. Once the lock was cooled, Nal hit it as hard as she could with her tail, smashing it to pieces. Eleon truly hoped the sound of the truck's deafening engine had drowned out the sound of the metal crunching.
With its lock in pieces, the door to the cage opened easily and the eevees all rushed out. All except the old one. He stayed behind and waited until all the others had gotten out of the cage.
"Nicely done, young one. I thank you for your kindness in helping us."
"Don't mention it."
She quickly did away with the other two locks, while all the eevees waited at the back of the truck for it to stop so they could jump out. However, when she got to the last lock, the truck's engine had been cut just as she smashed it, the resulting sound to be easily heard by the four men in front.
"What was that?"
"No clue, why don't you go check it out."
"Quick, everyone go!"
Just as the man made it to the back of the truck, a swarm of eevees burst through the cloth flaps, Nal stayed on to make sure they all got off.
"Hey! The eevees, they're escaping!"
Nal urged the eevees to hurry off the truck and, once the last one had jumped out, she followed. That, though, was when everything went black.
"How long has she been out?"
"Not sure, an hour maybe. She got hit in the head pretty hard when we were trying to escape. The rest were able to escape, but I fell behind when I saw her go down."
"Hey, are you ok?"
Nal could hear voices, as well as feel a light nudge, but she couldn't bring herself to answer, or even move for that matter.
"Think she'll be alright?"
"I couldn't say for sure. I doubt they'd do anything lasting damage, you and her would, likely, be very important to their research."
"I hope you're right. About her being ok, I mean."
A small, almost inaudible, noise came from Nal as she'd tried to speak. To reassure whoever was worrying over her wellbeing. She'd recognized the second voice almost immediately as belonging to the older eevee from the truck. So, he'd been captured, too.
"Hey, I think she's waking up!" Nal felt another small nudge as she finally convinced her eyes to open.
The sight that met her wasn't entirely surprising. She was laying against the side of a cage. First person she saw was the old eevee, in a cage across from her.
"You're awake. That's good. We were getting a little worried."
"We?"
"Yes. Mort told me a little about you."
Nal jumped away from the edge, as the second voice was right next to her. An odd-looking pokemon stood just on the other side of the cage. And coming from something that looks like Nal...this is saying something. The pokemon in question looked like an Espeon, but Nal was certain they didn't have those rings. Those belonged to Umbreon, and weren't black. At least her color was right, though.
"Sorry I startled you. My name is Espreon. I believe you already know Mort. What's your name?"
Giving the strange pokemon a look-over, Eleon replied softly, "Nala. Are you.....is Eri your trainer?"
Espreon's eyes widened at the mention of her trainer's name, "How do you know Eri?"
Nal simply shakes her head, "I'll explain that when we get out of here." She turned toward her lock, and attempted to use the same maneuver she'd used before. However, she soon noticed that the lock did not glow red as the others had.
"That won't work. They saw what you did to the last cages. These are all fire-proof."
"Just mine, or yours, too?"
"I...I don't know. I would think all of them."
"No, I think just Nal's cage was fire-proof. Well, hers and every Flareon they force to evolve"
"Force? You mean that's the experiments they're doing? Forcing eevees to evolve?"
Mort nodded solemnly, "Yes, they are forcing eevees to evolve in order to better understand our genetic make-up, I believe"
A small growl rumbled deep in Nal's chest, "Espreon, back away from the cage's door. I'm going to try your lock. If it works, you try and break the others cages open and get out of here." Nal took a deep breath and sent a line of flames straight towards Espreon's lock. After being engulfed in flames for a few short moments, the lock began glowing bright red. Seeing this, the Eleon sent a stream of water, flinching slightly, to quickly cool it.
"Hit it as hard as you can, Espreon!"
Espreon, having back up to the farthest end of her cage, ran as fast as she could towards the door, head butting and smashing the lock. Nal gave her a smile before doing the same with Mort's lock.
"Wait, what about you?"
"I'll figure something out, just go."
"No, I won't leave you behind." Espreon backed away from Nal's cage and tried head butting it, but was unsuccessful.
"Espreon, let's go. We'll come back for her. Nal, try wetting the lock some. By time we get back it should be rusted enough for us to break it."
Nal sighed, "I'll try, but Mort...I can't use my water attacks too much. It weakens me. Same goes with my electric attacks."
"Oh, I didn't realize. There's not much we can do, though. You'll have to try."
Nal whined softly, but nodded.
Espreon and Mort turned and ran down the hall to free all the other captives while Nal paced around her cage, spraying the occasional burst of water at the lock. A good hour had passed when she began hearing footsteps coming down the hall.
Someone was coming.
"So, tell me more about the new specimen that was brought in."
Nal looked, frantically, in Espreon's and Mort's empty cages. Surely, the humans would see them missing and raise an alarm.
"We don't know much about it. The men that brought it in had knocked it unconscious. All we know is its a hybrid of the stone evolutions of eevee."
Nal backed up to the farthest end of her cage and prepared herself to charge, headfirst, into the cage door.
"You mean Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon? How was it created? How can it survive? So many questions, I must get a DNA sample."
Pushing herself as hard as she could, Nal ran straight at the cage door. She slammed into it, causing a loud, ringing, crash to be heard all around. Including in Nal's ears. However, the door did not budge.
"What was that?"
"Not sure."
The footsteps quickened as the two men hurried to discover the source of the crash they'd heard. Two men came around the corner, one carrying a gun, ready to shoot anything he deemed dangerous; the other holding a clipboard and wearing a white coat. Scientist obviously.
"Dammit, the other one escaped." The man carrying the gun pulled out a small phone and spoke quickly and quietly.
"My, my. You are an interesting specimen."
Teeth bared, Nal backed away from the edge. Sparks of electricity surrounding her. This was merely a bluff. She hoped the man in the white coat would fall for it. All those water attacks she'd been using on the locks were really starting to take its toll on her. She needed rest. Nal had almost no energy left. Not enough for an actual attack, anyway. Not water-based, electric, or fire. Normal type, maybe. Just maybe a well aimed tackle would help her out. This particular man didn't look very strong. It was the other one she'd have to worry about.
"No need to be afraid, little one. I only want a sample of your DNA. A few small strands of hair would do just fine."
Small hybrid continued to back away until she hit the end of her cage, it was then that she noticed the scientist holding a long device. It looked oddly like a stick with split ends. She wasn't entirely sure what this 'stick' was, but she did notice the small sparks of electricity coming from the split end. So, the device was meant to shock her. Not good, especially in her weakened state.
She tensed, waiting for just the right moment for the scientist to be distracted enough for her to make her escape. The man with the weapon was still on the phone, no doubt informing whoever was on the other end of that line that Espreon had escaped. She hadn't heard the alarm, yet. So, maybe that was a good sign.
Of course, they probably wouldn't sound an alarm she'd be able to hear. Wouldn't be very smart on their part to let Espreon know they knew she'd escaped.
And now, her moment had come. Nal watched as the scientist reached into his pocket and pulled out a key and inserted it into the keyhole, but did not turn it. Instead, he pushed the electric stick further in the cage.
"Careful, now, Doctor. It is part water. Don't wanna kill it before you can start the experiment."
"Yes, of course. I have the setting on just high enough to render it too weak to fight back."
Eyes narrowed, Nal waited for the stick to be pushed in a little further. Just enough to where the scientist had to push his hand in the cage in order for the tip to reach her. That's when she made her move. Swiftly dodging around the tip of the stick, Nal moved towards the doctor and sunk her teeth into his hand, tearing a large chunk from it.
Screaming, he jerked his hand from the cage, the cattle prod forgotten. The weaponed man rushed forward, a large piece of cloth in his hand, and pressed it firmly against the wound.
"Dammit. Come on, let's get you to the infirmary." He sent a fierce glare in Nal's direction, "I'll take care of you later."
The two rushed down the hall, leaving Nal alone once more. Now to figure out how to get out of her cage before either of them come back. She walked to the door of the cage and found that luck was with her today. The doctor had left the key in the keyhole! Now to figure out how to turn it so she could unlock the door and get out of here.
She turned around to pick up the 'electric stick', thinking it might be of some use in getting out of her cage, when she heard the quiet 'click' of the lock unlocking. Eyes wide in shock and fear, Nal turned around quickly to defend herself against whoever had come for her.
She stopped mid-tackle, though, when she realized just who had opened the door.
"Eri?! What are you doing here?"
"Did you honestly think I'd let you do something this dangerous on your own? So, any sign of Espreon?"
Nal nodded as she stepped out of the cage and the two began running in the direction Espreon and Mort had gone "Yeah, she ran down this way to try and free up some of the other eevees."
"Eri!"
A purple and black blur shot past Nal and straight into Eri's chest. Her arms circled around a soaked Espreon.
"Nice to see you managed to escape your cage, Nal. Who's this?"
"Espreon's trainer, Eri. She's the one who helped me out of my cage.
The four continued down the hall, all the cages they passed had been emptied by Espreon and Mort. Now they just had to escape before they were caught.
"Stop right there."
Well, there goes that idea. Nal tensed and, seeing Espreon and Mort doing the same beside her, whispered to the old eevee,
They turned to see a man, flanked by two others armed with guns, dressed in a white lab coat. Though, somehow, this one seemed different from the ones they'd seen others wearing. He must have been in charge of the operation. The bandages on his hand, however, was enough to cause Nal to back away in slight fear. That was the very same wound she had inflicted upon this man some time some time before.
"Well, well, well. What have we here? Test subjects escaping? Naughty naughty."
He held up his uninjured hand and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the two men flanking him reacted by holding up their pistols and aiming at Eri and the pokemon. Nal reacted by moving in front of Espreon and Mort. She'd do what she could to protect them.
"What's this? Protecting your friends, huh?" A nod was given to the man on his right, who, without lowering his gun, tossed a pokeball in front of the group.
A red light erupted from the ball, coming to form in the shape of a Machamp. Nal's eyes widened. She knew she'd be no match for a fighting type. Even if she was at full strength.
Speaking of which, the Machamp's trainer had just ordered a Karate Chop attack be used upon the small hybrid. Nal jumped to the side quickly, just barely avoiding getting hit.
Unfortunately for the Eleon, the next Karate Chop did connect with her. Rear left foot to be exact. The bone shattering under the pressure caused her to cry out in pain. <Please>
The Machamp sighed and moved as if to attack again,
Nal resisted nodding, knowing it'd only look suspicious to the watching humans,
Nal stood, panting and shaking, and faced the three men once more as the Machamp was called back into his pokeball. She idly wondered how she was able to summon the strength to use a watergun attack, but dismissed it quickly and refocused her attention on the Machamp's trainer.
The other man stared at the Eleon in disbelief. How could such a tiny thing defeat his partner's Machamp? He held his gun steady, ready to fire should she turn on any of them.
A low growl vibrated within Nal's chest, aimed solely at the doctor, ”Your choice. Cease these 'experimentations' and I'll let you walk out of here with your life.”
”I'm afraid I can't do that. See, in order for us to better understand Eevees, we need to experiment on a few of you.”
”A few? You call capturing every Eevee near Fortree only a few?”
”All for science, my dear. However, now that you know of what we're doing here, I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave.”
A slight nod of his head, and the Machamp's trainer shifted his gun's aim towards Eri, rather than the three pokemon. Nal could see that Espreon did not like this, at all.
Espreon nodded and stood her ground.
”Do forgive me, my dear. Believe me, this is the last thing I want to do, but I'm afraid you know way too much about what's going on here.”
Nal heard the gun make a clicking sound, she knew enough to know that this meant he was ready to shoot at his boss' command. Just then, Mort stepped forward.
”I'm afraid that won't be necessary. You see, despite what she knows, it won't matter. As of right now, your lab, along with all the information about these experiments, is being destroyed by the very eevees you forced to evolve.”
”What?!”
”It's quite simple, really. While you've been preoccupied with us. All the Flareons, Vaporeons, and Jolteons you created have been in your lab, office, and anywhere else they can get to. Burning papers, destroying electronic equipment, and overall removing all evidence of these experimentations. Your research is destroyed. Your lab is destroyed. Everything is destroyed.”
Snarling in rage, the scientist lunged for the gun fixed on Eri and aimed it directly at Mort. ”You damn eevee. You die first.”
About five things happened at once. The gun went off, causing Eri to scream. Mort stared at the man in shock while Espreon, in a fit of rage, snarled and attacked the scientist. Finally, Nal fell to the ground, blood gushing from the gunshot wound on the side of her face.
Eri knelt next to Nal's still form while both Espreon and Mort took care of the scientist and the two men. The scientist in question was currently out cold, having been hit with a combination Psychic and Shadow Ball from Espreon, as well as a Skull Bash from Mort. The other two would soon follow.
Nal awoke alone in a very familiar room. It was dark out and she was in Eri's house, heavily bandaged.
”Eri, I'm getting worried, it's been two days.”
”Just give her time. She expended all of her energy back at that lab long before her battle with Machamp.”
Being mindful of her injuries, Nal stood and slowly made her way to the other room, where Espreon's and Mort's voices were coming from.
”Esp, Mort?
The two pokemon, as well as Eri, were sitting around the living room. The girl holding a steaming mug in her hands and the two pokemon with dishes of food in front of them.
”Oh, Nal. You're awake. How are you feeling?”
”Kind of crappy. How bad is it?”
Eri stood and fixed some food for Nal, knowing she'd be hungry, ”Not too bad. The bullet just barely missed your eye, so you should have your sight when the bandages are removed. Unfortunately, the bones in your foot were shattered by that Machamp, so there's really not much help for that.”
Nal muttered a small thank you to Eri before slowly eating the food placed in front of her. Once finished, she sat back and looked at Eri meaningfully, ”Eri, can you remove the bandages on my face. I'd like to leave soon.”
The three others in the room all stared at the Eleon with matching looks of confusion. Mort was the first to speak, ”Nal, I don't think that's such a good idea. You need more time to heal.”
”Mort's right, Nala. Stay here a bit longer.”
”Espreon, Mort. I think if Nal wants to leave, we shouldn't try and stop her. While I agree that she needs to stick around here a bit longer, if she does not wish to stay then we shouldn't force her too.”
Nal smiled, gratefully, at Eri, ”I'll be leaving first thing in the morning. Thanks for letting me stay here and all.”
Eri smiled back and scratched Nal behind the ear, ”No problem.”
Nal leaned into the touch, ”You're more than welcome to come visit me at Snagem. You remember where I told you it was, right?”
Eri picked Nal up, while still scratching her, and carried her off to where she slept and removed the bandages over her eye, ”Yeah. Me and Esp will come visit sometime.”
Nal smiled and soon went back to sleep. She'd leave first thing in the morning, long before any of the house's inhabitants awoke. She always hated goodbyes, thus her reasoning for leaving without giving one. She'd soon find herself back at Stark Mountain, the place she first met Will and Tails, to pay them a quick visit before continuing her roaming.
Fortree. A city where humans lived in trees alongside wild pokemon, as well as their own. A city where a bug pokemon might, randomly, fly through an open window, or a wild Kecleon might block a your way. A city where the Eleon, Nal, currently resided and had been for the past week.
What was it, that brought her here away from her home? Away from Snagem? Aside from running away from the one thing that had turned her void of emotion.
The answer is quite simple.
A couple days prior to her leaving for Fortree, Nal had received word from an old friend, who lived in that area, that the eevee population was drastically decreasing. At the rate it was going, the eevees would be greatly outnumbered by the neighboring Absol, and would, likely, soon be wiped out of the area completely. Nal just wouldn't have this. The area surrounding Fortree had once been her home, before her evolution which forced her to leave her home and move to the volcano. Not because of the other eevees, mind you. They never showed much of a problem for her strange evolution. No, it was because of the neighboring pokemon, and even some of the trainers. All they saw of her was something different. Didn't bother to try and figure out what she was, whether she was dangerous or not, or anything. All they did was try to destroy her. So, she fled.
Now, here she was. Returning to the very place where she'd nearly been killed. Of course, she'd made sure it would be a little safer for her than last time. For one, she wasn't going to stay in the wild. She was staying with a human. A trainer who had lost one of her pokemon, which both she and Nal believed to be connected with the decreasing in wild eevees. The pokemon that had gone missing was, in fact, a hybrid. Umbreon and Espeon. Created when he evolved right at dusk. Neither daytime nor night. Right in between, resulting in an evolution that was right in between two different pokemon.
She sighed softly and glanced up at Eri, the "Esbreeon's" trainer, who was currently asleep. which is was Nal should have been doing. It was very late in the night, and the Eleon would need to get up around dawn in order to get everything she needed done.
She'd only been in town a day, and already she'd gotten a good lead. She'd heard earlier that day, from a rattata, that there was a small camp, a fair distance away from the town, where he'd said he heard a bunch of eevees. It was a long-shot, sure. For all she knew, the rattata could have been lying, or whoever was camping could have already packed everything up by the time she got there; but she really didn't have anything else to go on. So, this would have to be it.
Small movement from the corner of her eye brought Nal out of her musings. Eri had awoken.
"Nal?", she climbed out of bed and placed her hand on the small hybrid's head, rubbing gently, "You're still up? You should be sleeping."
Nal immediately responded to Eri's petting. Her head would shift slightly, pressing against her hand. "Can't sleep."
"Nervous about tomorrow?"
"Yeah, I guess you could say that. This'll be the first time I've been away from here for an extended period of time. A little worried about what might happen."
Eri smiles as her hand moves to scratch Nal just behind her ear, "I'm sure you'll be fine."
Nal smiled back and slowly drifted to sleep while Eri continued petting her.
After she was certain Nal had fallen asleep, Eri climbed back in bed and went to sleep herself, "Good luck tomorrow, Nal."
The next morning, Nal woke up, surprisingly early. It was hard to tell where the sun was, exactly; but judging from the amount of light in the sky, the Eleon knew it was early. She stood and, giving Eri one last look, ran. Putting the girl, the room, the home, and the town behind her as she continued on her journey to discover the reason behind all the disappearances and, hopefully, recover the missing espreon.
She soon met with the rattata that had told her of the encampment, he would be the one to lead her there.
"You ready?" Rattata said when he saw her approach.
"Yeah, and thanks again for helping out with this."
"No trouble, we're all worried over the eevee population. If the eevees are being poached, then who's to stop them from poaching other pokemon."
Nal nodded, she could understand the rattata's concern. Not only that, but what would happen to them once the absol started moving in? It wasn't just the eevees that were in danger, but every other small breed as well.
They walked in silence, the Eleon and the Rattata, for a majority of the day. Occasionally, the silence would be broken by one of the two asking a question. Whether it was Rattata asking Nal questions about what she was/capable of doing, or it was Nal asking Rattata questions concerning the mission she was on. She'd need all the information she could get if she had any hopes of getting through this alive.
"See that smoke?" Rattata pointed out, "They're just behind those trees."
Looking up, Nal noticed the pillar of smoke. "So, that's where I have to go, then." A small smile was sent in Rattata's direction,
"Sure you don't wanna come with?"
Rattata laughed nervously, "Thanks, but no thanks."
Nal sighed and forced herself forward, "Well, thank for bringing me here at least. I'll see you around." Rattata turned and ran in the opposite direction as the eleon ran forward, towards the camp.
Hiding in a bush nearby, Nal looked onto the scene before her.
A smoldering pile of ash, where a fire had just been put out by the looks of it, its smoke had been what led Nal to this very spot. Four fairly small tents, which were being packed up by two humans. Meanwhile the other two were busy packing up three large cages into a truck with a cloth covering and no door in the back, each carrying four-to-five eevees apiece. She'd wait until the four men climbed into the truck before she made her move.
Swiftly, the Eleon ran to the back of the truck, hoping the men in front didn't see her, and jumped in. The eevees in the cages all moved to get a better look at her when she landed.
"Shh, I'm going to get you out of here. Does anyone know what these people want with all of you?"
A rather aged looking eevee stepped to the edge of the cage he was in and stared intently at Nal, "We're not entirely sure, young one, but I over heard one of the humans saying something about experimentations."
The strain and worry in the old one's voice only pushed Nal harder to find a way to free all the eevees. Not just the ones in these cages, but the ones who had long-since been captured.
Circling the old one's cage a few times, Nal tried to find an easy, and quiet, way to free them before the truck arrived at its destination. The door to the thing was easy enough to find, only problem was the lock. She scratched at it for a bit before the old one suggested a new tactic.
"Why not try heating it, then rapidly cooling it? You seem capable of both fire and water abilities. After that, you could probably smash it apart with your tail."
Nodding, Nal backed away and warned all the eevees in the cage to stand as far back as possible. Sure, she had thought of doing this before, but truth be told she didn't want to use this technique. Mostly, because it caused her pain to do so. True, Nal was capable of using both fire and water attacks. However, the latter hurt her to use. She was part fire, after all.
Concentrating on hitting the lock, and not the other eevees, Nal sent a small burst of flames, hitting the lock square on. She kept the flames going until the lock was bright red, then she immediately followed with a spray of cool water, flinching slightly when she did. Once the lock was cooled, Nal hit it as hard as she could with her tail, smashing it to pieces. Eleon truly hoped the sound of the truck's deafening engine had drowned out the sound of the metal crunching.
With its lock in pieces, the door to the cage opened easily and the eevees all rushed out. All except the old one. He stayed behind and waited until all the others had gotten out of the cage.
"Nicely done, young one. I thank you for your kindness in helping us."
"Don't mention it."
She quickly did away with the other two locks, while all the eevees waited at the back of the truck for it to stop so they could jump out. However, when she got to the last lock, the truck's engine had been cut just as she smashed it, the resulting sound to be easily heard by the four men in front.
"What was that?"
"No clue, why don't you go check it out."
"Quick, everyone go!"
Just as the man made it to the back of the truck, a swarm of eevees burst through the cloth flaps, Nal stayed on to make sure they all got off.
"Hey! The eevees, they're escaping!"
Nal urged the eevees to hurry off the truck and, once the last one had jumped out, she followed. That, though, was when everything went black.
"How long has she been out?"
"Not sure, an hour maybe. She got hit in the head pretty hard when we were trying to escape. The rest were able to escape, but I fell behind when I saw her go down."
"Hey, are you ok?"
Nal could hear voices, as well as feel a light nudge, but she couldn't bring herself to answer, or even move for that matter.
"Think she'll be alright?"
"I couldn't say for sure. I doubt they'd do anything lasting damage, you and her would, likely, be very important to their research."
"I hope you're right. About her being ok, I mean."
A small, almost inaudible, noise came from Nal as she'd tried to speak. To reassure whoever was worrying over her wellbeing. She'd recognized the second voice almost immediately as belonging to the older eevee from the truck. So, he'd been captured, too.
"Hey, I think she's waking up!" Nal felt another small nudge as she finally convinced her eyes to open.
The sight that met her wasn't entirely surprising. She was laying against the side of a cage. First person she saw was the old eevee, in a cage across from her.
"You're awake. That's good. We were getting a little worried."
"We?"
"Yes. Mort told me a little about you."
Nal jumped away from the edge, as the second voice was right next to her. An odd-looking pokemon stood just on the other side of the cage. And coming from something that looks like Nal...this is saying something. The pokemon in question looked like an Espeon, but Nal was certain they didn't have those rings. Those belonged to Umbreon, and weren't black. At least her color was right, though.
"Sorry I startled you. My name is Espreon. I believe you already know Mort. What's your name?"
Giving the strange pokemon a look-over, Eleon replied softly, "Nala. Are you.....is Eri your trainer?"
Espreon's eyes widened at the mention of her trainer's name, "How do you know Eri?"
Nal simply shakes her head, "I'll explain that when we get out of here." She turned toward her lock, and attempted to use the same maneuver she'd used before. However, she soon noticed that the lock did not glow red as the others had.
"That won't work. They saw what you did to the last cages. These are all fire-proof."
"Just mine, or yours, too?"
"I...I don't know. I would think all of them."
"No, I think just Nal's cage was fire-proof. Well, hers and every Flareon they force to evolve"
"Force? You mean that's the experiments they're doing? Forcing eevees to evolve?"
Mort nodded solemnly, "Yes, they are forcing eevees to evolve in order to better understand our genetic make-up, I believe"
A small growl rumbled deep in Nal's chest, "Espreon, back away from the cage's door. I'm going to try your lock. If it works, you try and break the others cages open and get out of here." Nal took a deep breath and sent a line of flames straight towards Espreon's lock. After being engulfed in flames for a few short moments, the lock began glowing bright red. Seeing this, the Eleon sent a stream of water, flinching slightly, to quickly cool it.
"Hit it as hard as you can, Espreon!"
Espreon, having back up to the farthest end of her cage, ran as fast as she could towards the door, head butting and smashing the lock. Nal gave her a smile before doing the same with Mort's lock.
"Wait, what about you?"
"I'll figure something out, just go."
"No, I won't leave you behind." Espreon backed away from Nal's cage and tried head butting it, but was unsuccessful.
"Espreon, let's go. We'll come back for her. Nal, try wetting the lock some. By time we get back it should be rusted enough for us to break it."
Nal sighed, "I'll try, but Mort...I can't use my water attacks too much. It weakens me. Same goes with my electric attacks."
"Oh, I didn't realize. There's not much we can do, though. You'll have to try."
Nal whined softly, but nodded.
Espreon and Mort turned and ran down the hall to free all the other captives while Nal paced around her cage, spraying the occasional burst of water at the lock. A good hour had passed when she began hearing footsteps coming down the hall.
Someone was coming.
"So, tell me more about the new specimen that was brought in."
Nal looked, frantically, in Espreon's and Mort's empty cages. Surely, the humans would see them missing and raise an alarm.
"We don't know much about it. The men that brought it in had knocked it unconscious. All we know is its a hybrid of the stone evolutions of eevee."
Nal backed up to the farthest end of her cage and prepared herself to charge, headfirst, into the cage door.
"You mean Flareon, Jolteon, and Vaporeon? How was it created? How can it survive? So many questions, I must get a DNA sample."
Pushing herself as hard as she could, Nal ran straight at the cage door. She slammed into it, causing a loud, ringing, crash to be heard all around. Including in Nal's ears. However, the door did not budge.
"What was that?"
"Not sure."
The footsteps quickened as the two men hurried to discover the source of the crash they'd heard. Two men came around the corner, one carrying a gun, ready to shoot anything he deemed dangerous; the other holding a clipboard and wearing a white coat. Scientist obviously.
"Dammit, the other one escaped." The man carrying the gun pulled out a small phone and spoke quickly and quietly.
"My, my. You are an interesting specimen."
Teeth bared, Nal backed away from the edge. Sparks of electricity surrounding her. This was merely a bluff. She hoped the man in the white coat would fall for it. All those water attacks she'd been using on the locks were really starting to take its toll on her. She needed rest. Nal had almost no energy left. Not enough for an actual attack, anyway. Not water-based, electric, or fire. Normal type, maybe. Just maybe a well aimed tackle would help her out. This particular man didn't look very strong. It was the other one she'd have to worry about.
"No need to be afraid, little one. I only want a sample of your DNA. A few small strands of hair would do just fine."
Small hybrid continued to back away until she hit the end of her cage, it was then that she noticed the scientist holding a long device. It looked oddly like a stick with split ends. She wasn't entirely sure what this 'stick' was, but she did notice the small sparks of electricity coming from the split end. So, the device was meant to shock her. Not good, especially in her weakened state.
She tensed, waiting for just the right moment for the scientist to be distracted enough for her to make her escape. The man with the weapon was still on the phone, no doubt informing whoever was on the other end of that line that Espreon had escaped. She hadn't heard the alarm, yet. So, maybe that was a good sign.
Of course, they probably wouldn't sound an alarm she'd be able to hear. Wouldn't be very smart on their part to let Espreon know they knew she'd escaped.
And now, her moment had come. Nal watched as the scientist reached into his pocket and pulled out a key and inserted it into the keyhole, but did not turn it. Instead, he pushed the electric stick further in the cage.
"Careful, now, Doctor. It is part water. Don't wanna kill it before you can start the experiment."
"Yes, of course. I have the setting on just high enough to render it too weak to fight back."
Eyes narrowed, Nal waited for the stick to be pushed in a little further. Just enough to where the scientist had to push his hand in the cage in order for the tip to reach her. That's when she made her move. Swiftly dodging around the tip of the stick, Nal moved towards the doctor and sunk her teeth into his hand, tearing a large chunk from it.
Screaming, he jerked his hand from the cage, the cattle prod forgotten. The weaponed man rushed forward, a large piece of cloth in his hand, and pressed it firmly against the wound.
"Dammit. Come on, let's get you to the infirmary." He sent a fierce glare in Nal's direction, "I'll take care of you later."
The two rushed down the hall, leaving Nal alone once more. Now to figure out how to get out of her cage before either of them come back. She walked to the door of the cage and found that luck was with her today. The doctor had left the key in the keyhole! Now to figure out how to turn it so she could unlock the door and get out of here.
She turned around to pick up the 'electric stick', thinking it might be of some use in getting out of her cage, when she heard the quiet 'click' of the lock unlocking. Eyes wide in shock and fear, Nal turned around quickly to defend herself against whoever had come for her.
She stopped mid-tackle, though, when she realized just who had opened the door.
"Eri?! What are you doing here?"
"Did you honestly think I'd let you do something this dangerous on your own? So, any sign of Espreon?"
Nal nodded as she stepped out of the cage and the two began running in the direction Espreon and Mort had gone "Yeah, she ran down this way to try and free up some of the other eevees."
"Eri!"
A purple and black blur shot past Nal and straight into Eri's chest. Her arms circled around a soaked Espreon.
"Nice to see you managed to escape your cage, Nal. Who's this?"
"Espreon's trainer, Eri. She's the one who helped me out of my cage.
The four continued down the hall, all the cages they passed had been emptied by Espreon and Mort. Now they just had to escape before they were caught.
"Stop right there."
Well, there goes that idea. Nal tensed and, seeing Espreon and Mort doing the same beside her, whispered to the old eevee,
They turned to see a man, flanked by two others armed with guns, dressed in a white lab coat. Though, somehow, this one seemed different from the ones they'd seen others wearing. He must have been in charge of the operation. The bandages on his hand, however, was enough to cause Nal to back away in slight fear. That was the very same wound she had inflicted upon this man some time some time before.
"Well, well, well. What have we here? Test subjects escaping? Naughty naughty."
He held up his uninjured hand and snapped his fingers. Immediately, the two men flanking him reacted by holding up their pistols and aiming at Eri and the pokemon. Nal reacted by moving in front of Espreon and Mort. She'd do what she could to protect them.
"What's this? Protecting your friends, huh?" A nod was given to the man on his right, who, without lowering his gun, tossed a pokeball in front of the group.
A red light erupted from the ball, coming to form in the shape of a Machamp. Nal's eyes widened. She knew she'd be no match for a fighting type. Even if she was at full strength.
Speaking of which, the Machamp's trainer had just ordered a Karate Chop attack be used upon the small hybrid. Nal jumped to the side quickly, just barely avoiding getting hit.
Unfortunately for the Eleon, the next Karate Chop did connect with her. Rear left foot to be exact. The bone shattering under the pressure caused her to cry out in pain. <Please>
The Machamp sighed and moved as if to attack again,
Nal resisted nodding, knowing it'd only look suspicious to the watching humans,
Nal stood, panting and shaking, and faced the three men once more as the Machamp was called back into his pokeball. She idly wondered how she was able to summon the strength to use a watergun attack, but dismissed it quickly and refocused her attention on the Machamp's trainer.
The other man stared at the Eleon in disbelief. How could such a tiny thing defeat his partner's Machamp? He held his gun steady, ready to fire should she turn on any of them.
A low growl vibrated within Nal's chest, aimed solely at the doctor, ”Your choice. Cease these 'experimentations' and I'll let you walk out of here with your life.”
”I'm afraid I can't do that. See, in order for us to better understand Eevees, we need to experiment on a few of you.”
”A few? You call capturing every Eevee near Fortree only a few?”
”All for science, my dear. However, now that you know of what we're doing here, I'm afraid I can't allow you to leave.”
A slight nod of his head, and the Machamp's trainer shifted his gun's aim towards Eri, rather than the three pokemon. Nal could see that Espreon did not like this, at all.
Espreon nodded and stood her ground.
”Do forgive me, my dear. Believe me, this is the last thing I want to do, but I'm afraid you know way too much about what's going on here.”
Nal heard the gun make a clicking sound, she knew enough to know that this meant he was ready to shoot at his boss' command. Just then, Mort stepped forward.
”I'm afraid that won't be necessary. You see, despite what she knows, it won't matter. As of right now, your lab, along with all the information about these experiments, is being destroyed by the very eevees you forced to evolve.”
”What?!”
”It's quite simple, really. While you've been preoccupied with us. All the Flareons, Vaporeons, and Jolteons you created have been in your lab, office, and anywhere else they can get to. Burning papers, destroying electronic equipment, and overall removing all evidence of these experimentations. Your research is destroyed. Your lab is destroyed. Everything is destroyed.”
Snarling in rage, the scientist lunged for the gun fixed on Eri and aimed it directly at Mort. ”You damn eevee. You die first.”
About five things happened at once. The gun went off, causing Eri to scream. Mort stared at the man in shock while Espreon, in a fit of rage, snarled and attacked the scientist. Finally, Nal fell to the ground, blood gushing from the gunshot wound on the side of her face.
Eri knelt next to Nal's still form while both Espreon and Mort took care of the scientist and the two men. The scientist in question was currently out cold, having been hit with a combination Psychic and Shadow Ball from Espreon, as well as a Skull Bash from Mort. The other two would soon follow.
*~*~*~*~*~Two Days Later~*~*~*~*~*
Nal awoke alone in a very familiar room. It was dark out and she was in Eri's house, heavily bandaged.
”Eri, I'm getting worried, it's been two days.”
”Just give her time. She expended all of her energy back at that lab long before her battle with Machamp.”
Being mindful of her injuries, Nal stood and slowly made her way to the other room, where Espreon's and Mort's voices were coming from.
”Esp, Mort?
The two pokemon, as well as Eri, were sitting around the living room. The girl holding a steaming mug in her hands and the two pokemon with dishes of food in front of them.
”Oh, Nal. You're awake. How are you feeling?”
”Kind of crappy. How bad is it?”
Eri stood and fixed some food for Nal, knowing she'd be hungry, ”Not too bad. The bullet just barely missed your eye, so you should have your sight when the bandages are removed. Unfortunately, the bones in your foot were shattered by that Machamp, so there's really not much help for that.”
Nal muttered a small thank you to Eri before slowly eating the food placed in front of her. Once finished, she sat back and looked at Eri meaningfully, ”Eri, can you remove the bandages on my face. I'd like to leave soon.”
The three others in the room all stared at the Eleon with matching looks of confusion. Mort was the first to speak, ”Nal, I don't think that's such a good idea. You need more time to heal.”
”Mort's right, Nala. Stay here a bit longer.”
”Espreon, Mort. I think if Nal wants to leave, we shouldn't try and stop her. While I agree that she needs to stick around here a bit longer, if she does not wish to stay then we shouldn't force her too.”
Nal smiled, gratefully, at Eri, ”I'll be leaving first thing in the morning. Thanks for letting me stay here and all.”
Eri smiled back and scratched Nal behind the ear, ”No problem.”
Nal leaned into the touch, ”You're more than welcome to come visit me at Snagem. You remember where I told you it was, right?”
Eri picked Nal up, while still scratching her, and carried her off to where she slept and removed the bandages over her eye, ”Yeah. Me and Esp will come visit sometime.”
Nal smiled and soon went back to sleep. She'd leave first thing in the morning, long before any of the house's inhabitants awoke. She always hated goodbyes, thus her reasoning for leaving without giving one. She'd soon find herself back at Stark Mountain, the place she first met Will and Tails, to pay them a quick visit before continuing her roaming.
