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Tyrs of Anguish
Topic Started: Jun 27 2012, 03:44 PM (3,027 Views)
shadowcat
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It took her a good few minutes to realise that she was shaking, but when she did, she forced herself to suck in a deep breath and hold it for a while before blowing it out. The strange rise and fall of her chest woke Tryce from his nap and he blinked up at her, amber eyes confused as they adjusted to the light.

"Hello again, little one," she said gently to her little Eevee. "I'm so sorry about all of that." He didn't seem to understand what she was talking about, but still the guilt flooded through her. He had been rejected by his mother and so hadn't had a real relationship with Sandie, but what about the other kits? What about Rocky? Had he loved her?

She swallowed the lump in her throat and slipped Tryce into her pocket again so that his head and forepaws rested on the hem, and she made her way over to the ledge to check on Rocky again.

Sandie had left just in time. The makeshift steps that the Eevee had been knocking into the rock with his Iron Tail had just about finished, and Kitty leaned over to help the kits up it one by one, and to take her pack from Rocky's mouth. They were all in the same place now and looking up to the next flat area on the mountain.

If only the kits had pokeballs...

Kitty took another deep breath to calm herself, and then nodded. She opened her mouth to tell the others what she was about to do, but then her heart nearly leapt out of her mouth instead when she noticed something.

All of the Eevees were sniffing hard at the ground, ears twitching, eyes set with confusion.

Rocky looked up at her, eyes wide, tail stiffened. The look in his eyes made her honestly sick to her stomach: pure betrayal, laced with anger, confusion. She swallowed again.

"I can explain," she said, which is always the worst thing to say in these situations. "Look, she turned up, she saved Tryce. But then, she left. She just left. I...couldn't stop her." She trailed off, hearing the words as they came out of her mouth and wondering if it was possible that he would believe them, ever.

His expression didn't falter, he stayed along the utterly appalled theme, mouth even falling open a little. It wasn't his intention, but he was revealing his layers of perfectly pointed white fangs to her. She started to shake again and Tryce mewled. Rocky barked at him, and, confused, the baby Eevee struggled out of her pocket, landing clumsily on the hard ground, and pottered back to his father. Rocky nudged him away from Kitty when he was close enough, and continued to look at her.

"We have to climb this mountain," Kitty said weakly. "For Tyr. Can we just talk about this later?"

Talk. Laughable. She would stammer her apologies to her oldest friend while he looked at her as though toxic sludge would be a more preferable companion.

She had upset her Eevee before, but never to this extent.

She had never banished the mother of his children before, and then hoped he simply wouldn't notice.

"She left, Rocky," she said, tears pricking the backs of her eyes again. "I'm telling you, she just walked away." It was true enough that she didn't feel as though she was lying, but she was certainly embellishing the truth to seem like the better person. "Please, I tried to stop her." Now came the lies. "I tried, but she left. I know I let her go, and I'm sorry. Please." Her eyes were actually shining. The closest she'd come to crying since the Incident. She'd thought that had made her dead inside.

She'd thought that was the worst thing anyone could ever have done, but could this be worse?

No, the Incident was still far, far worse than this could ever be. But it was still bad.

"I'm sorry, Rocky," she said again. "I have everyone's best interests at heart, please trust that." Now, there was a truth. She had just neglected to mention that in some cases her own best interests were just a hair more important.

The Eevee broke his gaze. Whether he was beginning to try to believe and forgive was to be seen later on. She'd have to wait.

She breathed again, and released Tyr on a whim along with Freya to make sure everyone stayed warm from her glow. The Torchic loved her. Clung to her like he needed her. That's what she wanted right now.

And so they made their way up the rock face, Kitty with an Eevee in each pocket, one on her shoulder, and Tyr holding another as he clung to her backpack. Rocky held another two, and the last had to ride clinging for dear life onto Kitty's head.

When they reached the next level of the outside of the mountain, she was panting a little. She set all of the babies down onto the ground again and returned Freya to re-release her on this level. There was a small cave opening in the rock face, one that she could clearly see the back of so there would be no more surprises, and so she set up temporary camp there for the night, rolling out her bedroll and using her bag as a pillow. The kits slept around Freya's flickering silver flames for warmth.

~Tier 1~

She woke up with a horrible pain in her neck. Sleeping fitfully on hard rock can do that to you.

It didn't help, either, to wake up to the sight of at least five Lairon staring angrily at her.

"Oh, crap," she muttered, pushing herself painfully to her feet. "Are we in your territory? I'm really sorry. We'll be leaving right now."

They either didn't understand, or they didn't care, because one of them bonked her on the shin with its hard metallic head and she, still drowsy and uncoordinated, fell back onto her behind. "Ow!"

There was a flash of beige, and before she could say anything, a tiny Eevee had bounced off the Lairon's iron hide and was out cold on the floor. "Tryce!" Kitty screamed, but Rocky was on it, rummaging through her bag for the right potions and berries. Kitty stood up again and wagged her finger at the now rather confused Lairon.

"That was not nice!" she said. "He's only a baby. What do you say?"

The Lairon looked at her, then the KO'd Eevee, then back to his friends, then back to her.

"Lair?"

Kitty sighed. "If I defeat one of you in a battle, can we pass?" That was how aggressive pokemon normally were. If you gained their respect you could do what you wanted, as long as you left their territory pretty quickly afterwards. She'd done her fair share of trespassing along the way.

"Lair."

His answer was unhelpful, but he wasn't attacking her, so she shrugged. She opened her mouth to call out Freya, perhaps the most obvious answer, but if she was incapacitated the kits would get cold. She rubbed her face as she realised the next best thing in this situation.

"Alright, Tyr, you're up."

She regretted it as soon as she'd said it. The Torchic could barely beat up a Hoppip, much less this stocky and annoyed-looking Lairon. He tried to hide his trembling as he stepped up to face his opponent, but the movement had to go somewhere, and soon the Lairon all around were scuffling their laughter at the nervously dancing Torchic their friend would soon pulverise.

"Don't listen to them, Tyr," Kitty said pointlessly, because she knew that he would. "Fire Spin, go."

The Lairon turned around in response and began to kick gloopy wet mud from nowhere, aiming right for Tyr's eyes.

"No!" Kitty yelled. If that worked, the chick pokemon would totally give up as soon as he realised he couldn't see properly. And, of course, it would really hurt. "Dodge it!" she just about screamed, and to her utter surprise, Tyr unglued himself from the spot and fluttered rapidly to the right, escaping the stream of goop.

"Yes," she breathed. "Go for the Fire Spin now." The Torchic unleashed an uncertain torrent of fire that danced around the Lairon, impeding his movement by a long way, making him not want to break through the wall of fire, however weedy it was.

"Now that you're safer, go for Sand Attack."

Tyr hopped up close to the Lairon, peering through the flames to see him gnashing his jaw at him. He squeaked and fluttered away again, then seemed to remember his command and quickly scrabbled dirt and dust into the Lairon's face, making it sneeze. It kicked mud onto the flames but to no real avail, and so just burst through them with a noticeable wince. Tyr panicked again and ran away. The Lairon and his buddies snickered, and he flashed in the light as he began to lumber after the Torchic.

"Oh, Tyr," Kitty mumbled, knowing that if the Lairon built up enough speed he would be like the Juggernaut, and any impact following that would just knock Tyr out cold. She had to slow him down or bring him to a complete halt.

"Fire Spin again," she called. The Torchic turned around and launched another, slightly more competent, Fire Spin at the Lairon, but the beast just burst through it again, flinching even more this time, though. "Ok, Focus Energy and then meet him with a Slash."

This was definitely a gamble for a pokemon like Tyr, but he obeyed her, glinting briefly as he focused, and then turning, eyes closed and claws glowing, to meet the Lairon's Take Down attack.

"Eyes open, Tyr!"

His eyes snapped open, just in time, because he thrust his claws outwards and the impact mixed with the momentum flipped the Lairon onto his back. Kitty and Tyr both stood there blinking in surprise as the Lairon struggled fruitlessly to flip back over again.

"Um," she said. Did she help it, or finish it off?

Before she could decide, though, another Lairon ran forwards, clearly thinking that this wasn't a satisfactory end to a battle. Tyr, before receiving any guidance, blasted an enormous torrent of fire right into its face, and the Steel type immediately keeled over. When he was done, the Torchic blinked a little, looking to Kitty in confusion.

"That was one of the rare displays of your genetic power," she explained to him. "That's the reason we're climbing this mountain, didn't I tell you? To find your tribe and try to make it so that you're always that strong." Tyr blinked some more, and looked around at the other Lairon. They didn't want to come near to him at all now, and that suited him just fine.

"Great job," Kitty said warmly, picking him up and giving him a small hug. The Torchic chirruped in delight at the compliment, and Kitty, with a nod of thank to the Lairon, continued her journey upwards.

"It looks like the easiest way would be in here for the moment," she said, referring to a small cave opening she hadn't noticed earlier that looked like it led inside the mountain, possibly to a more manmade path towards the top. "So everyone got all their limbs? Great, let's go."
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Keith nearly lost his balance as the trainer burst out in front of them. He stumbled, regained his balance, and was about to ask what he was doing here when the trainer released his Loudred.

Kitty fought well. She clearly had a great understanding of battles, and great confidence in her Pokemon. Her style was slightly erratic to Keith's mind, but effective, and he was impressed with the speed at which her Eevee took down the trainers Pokemon.

At the warning to move, Keith began to move forward, but glanced round and spotted the Azurill, this time trying to hide in a small pile of sand with it's tail sticking out. He bent down, scooped it up and ran up the walkway. He heard the rocks crashing to the ground behind him, but he reached safety relatively easily.

As Keith turned round to survey the wreckage, the Azurill began to squirm in his hand. It bit his index finger, and he dropped it on the ground, where it scurried off to peek out from behind one of the fallen boulders.

"No, we're not Umbra." echoed Keith, turning to face the trainer. "But you're a pillock. What are you doing up here? Why did you assume we were Umbra?"
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"I'm so sorry," the man said, paling rapidly as he noticed the damage he and his pokemon had inadvertently caused. To Kitty's alarm, she noticed his eyes begin to well up with tears that he blinked away.

"What...what is going on here?" she asked him.

He shook his head sorrowfully. "They took her. My daughter. They tricked her into coming here and then they stole her from me and knocked me out. I just came to now."

Kitty tilted her head. "Why would anybody want to steal your daughter?" she asked, eyebrows twitching.

"I don't know. They said she would do. I don't know. I'm sorry I attacked you, I just assumed that anyone around here would be them, which I'm sure you understand." He trailed off as his face suddenly rearranged itself into suspicion. "Actually...why are you here? Can you prove you're nothing to do with Umbra when you're so close to their base?"

"Their base?" Kitty repeated quietly, looking around. "There's no Umbran base here...is there?"
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Keith was offended and sympathetic at the same time. Did he really look like part of an organisation like Umbra? Maybe it was time for a haircut. But this man needed help, time to worry about his hair later.

"Look, we're not part of Umbra. My name's Keith." Keith tried to keep his voice level and calming, the last thing they needed was this guy going mad at them again. Calm him down, then ask the distressing questions.

"When did you come up here? How long ago?"

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"Just a little while ago. A few hours? I don't know. I've been out cold for half of it." His eyes welled up once again. "They took her. They took my little girl." A tiny tear slid down his cheek and he angrily wiped it away and shook his head. "I'm going after them. Maybe I'll see you again, maybe not."

He turned and disappeared down the tunnels and into the shadows. Kitty stepped closer and called after him, "Wait! We can help-" but he was gone without a trace.

She turned back to Keith with bemusement and shrugged. "I feel bad for the guy," she said.Before she could make some sort of a decision as to what to do. Tryce, the smallest Eevee kit, had picked up the whiff of danger and was tearing off after the man, tiny tail bobbing up and down as he disappeared into the tunnels as well.

"Tryce!" Kitty nearly screeched, clamping her hands over her mouth to stop herself, just in case some of the rocks hadn't fallen yet. She and Rocky bolted off behind him, into the shadows, and the other kits trailed along behind.
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Keith felt bad for having called the guy a pillock, but he wasn't helping himself. Keith would have helped had the guy asked, and he was pretty sure that Kitty would have too.

As the man disappeared down the tunnel, Keith had already being contemplating following him. When Kitty had bolted after the disappearing Eevee kit, Keith followed as quickly as he could.

As they traveled further into the tunnel, it began to change. It had seemed completely natural, but the walls were becoming more regular, as though they were man made.

Keith was losing sight of Kitty now, so he redoubled his efforts. He was determined not to be left behind, although he wasn't sure whether it was fear of being on his own here or, as he hoped, something more gallant pushing him on.
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Kitty slowed when she, like Keith, began to notice the change in the tunnels. She traced her fingertips across the smooth walls as she walked with a small frown, and almost didn't notice when she nearly slammed headfirst into an iron door.

"...oh," was all she had to say. Where had the man gone? She could tell how Tryce had slipped through: there was a tiny hole in the wall just beside the hinges of the door, possibly pokemon-made judging by the rubble piled underneath it.

Her first thought was to send her Fire types out and have them decimate the metal of the door's hinges, but the rational part of her brain told her to keep calm, breathe, know that Tryce was probably clever enough to stay out of trouble. The last thing anyone needed was for her to destroy everything in their path without thinking first. If Umbra were really beyond this door, they didn't need a ten minute warning that intruders would soon appear.

She looked to Keith, trying not to let her overwhelming panic show, but probably failing. "What do we do?" she asked him, suddenly feeling very small.
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Alright, think, thought Keith to himself. He could do this. Puzzles were his thing, he should be able to work this out. He thought about the Pokemon they had between them, how they could make them work together.....

Ah, or that could work, thought Keith, as the quite simple result hit him. He strode to the door, pushing Kitty aside softly. He wasn't surprised she hadn't seen it, she was probably worried sick about the little kit, and Keith had nearly missed it.

With a small smile to himself at how long it had taken him, Keith turned the handle Kitty had been stood in front of and pushed. It swung open easily, the hinges clearly in regular usage, and they seemed to step into a different world.

Inside, the walls were no longer cave like. They were painted a light grey, although still carved from the rock of the mountain. The floor was a bright laminate, not the sand of outside.

They had emerged into a long corridor, with doors leading off to either side and one double width door at the other end. Keith was shocked that there was such a place within what had seemed like such a tranquil cave system. He held the door for Kitty to enter.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before? Where should we go?"
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Kitty stared into the manmade corridor for a moment. No sign of her Eevee. She didn't care about the man much at this point; he would come later. Tryce would stand no chance in the hands of Umbrans. The chance to experiment on such a rare pokemon? They would not let it slip away.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?"

The question jerked her back to the real world, away from visions of her baby Eevee desperately trying to escape the grubby grasping hands of hungry-looking men. She wrapped her arms over her stomach, suddenly feeling very hot in her jacket despite the cool, damp atmosphere of the caves.

"No," she said. "Not really." But she had no time to be amazed or surprised, not any more. Rocky already had his bearings and was tearing off into the distance. Absently, Kitty picked up one of the mewling kits to hold and marched off down the corridor, expecting their large party to follow.

The first thing that caught her eye was a tripwire, at ankle height, that had already been tripped. The wire was now cut in half; curled and useless. Kitty stepped past it with a deep breath, wondering whether it had been tripped by the man, or a long time ago. In the silence of the hallway she became very aware of her breathing, and the clicking of dozens of paws on the hard floor.

The end of the corridor came up quickly. There was a door to the right, and then a little further on was a door straight ahead. Both had been hand-marked at some point, but the damp in the air had caused the ink to run and now the doors were labelled with illegible dribbles instead. "Which one?" Kitty whispered, wide-eyed and wondering how on Earth Tryce would have made his way through one unaided. Was he captured?
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"We'll take the right one," said Keith. He was slightly worried about Kitty. She didn't seem to be the confident young woman of 10 minuets ago. She was distracted and indecisive, and Keith knew that he was going to have to calm her down. She knew what she was doing, she just needed to calm down, or they might not find the man and his daughter before it was too late.

"Kitty," said Keith, spinning her round to look her in the face, "you need to stop panicing. We will find them, this complex can't go on forever, and no-ones going to get passed you and your fearsome Torchic."

Ah, resorting to humor, I really am worried, thought Keith.

He released George, he wasn't sure why, but his presence calmed Keith down.

"And I'll offer any help I can."

Keith pushed open the door, with George following him closely. As the door swung to it's widest, Keith ran through, with the assumption that a large form running into the room might delay any impending attack through the sheer shock value.

Well, that was pointless, thought Keith, looking around at the empty room.

"It's safe," he called out to Kitty. The room was clearly a lab of some kind, with multiple work benches, and lab coats hung up on the back of the door. But Keith didn't recognize any of the equipment on the benches.
Edited by Hodor, Jul 9 2012, 04:17 PM.
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Kitty knew that what he was saying was the truth, and she nodded, though somewhere in the back of her mind it irritated her that she wasn't being the outwardly rational one in the situation. She had never willingly shown such vulnerability or character flaws in front of...well, anyone outside her circle of friends before.

"Let's go, then," she said softly, just as the door swung open and her companion ran into the room. The sight of this actually made the girl crack a smile, and press a hand against her mouth to stifle it.

Empty. The room was devoid of all life. She looked around, running her fingers through her hair to get it out of her face. No signs of life in here; no signs of anything. She wandered around, inspecting things with her sharp, precise features. The equipment that remained in the room seemed useless and empty, and the lab coats were old and expelled dust when she flicked them.

A loud bang made her whip around, coat flying around her waist, but it was just the door swinging shut again from its own weight. She was not suspicious. She shook her head again, hard. Tryce was not here. Nothing was here. Keith had chosen a useless-

Egg.

How had she missed that before?

Bright pink and with a layer of dust so thick that it was actually forgiveable that she hadn't noticed the life pulsing desperately from it. She blew the dust off, and then turned to sneeze into her sleeve before turning back to take the egg. It was hers now. She wrapped it carefully in the blanket the kits slept on, and tucked it into the remaining space in her pack. It would be safe for now.

"Ok, there's nothing here, it's been completely ransacked," she told Keith, "I think. Shall we-"

But her voice was cut short by another clipped, unamused female voice. She had been so engrossed in finding an egg that she hadn't even noticed the rusty hinges of the door opening to allow in an Umbran.

She was tall and slender, one hand placed on jutting hip and another thoughtfully pressed against her cheek. She was dressed in the usual Umbra uniform: black with a curling silver 'U' printed onto the back, though Kitty couldn't see it.

"So, like..." the Umbran started, looking at the ceiling and then down to them, "you're intruders and I'm probably going to have to kill you?"
Edited by shadowcat, Jul 9 2012, 04:27 PM.
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Keith had been examining the cupboards at the back of the Lab, and had only become aware of the new entrant when she had spoken. George, who'd been tapping the smooth wall in a confused manner, flew to Keith's side.

Kill us? thought Keith. He really hadn't been expecting anything like this.

"Why did you snatch the girl?" said Keith, his voice low, and as menacing as he could make it. He didn't need to try that hard.

Threatening to kill us to scare us. Well I can be scary too.

Keith drew himself up to his full height. He knew that if she was a serious attacker she would just get her Pokemon to attack no matter what. But psychology counted for something, and if they could make it seem like they had the upper hand, she might think twice about attacking them. George seemed to pick up on the general idea, making himself looks as big and menacing as possible.
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The girl laughed a little; a merry, tinkling little laugh, and lazily dropped a pokeball to the ground with the flick of a wrist. It rolled a little before an Electrode burst out in a flash of light. Kitty's brow twitched. She'd been in enough life-threatening situations to know just where this was going.

Sure enough, as soon as she lurched towards the door, the woman had already disappeared through it, and it was locked.

The Electrode grinned at her. She scowled back.

"I can't convince you not to do this, can I?" she asked it. It didn't even bother to respond. Kitty looked at Keith, desperation in her eyes. "We're going to die," she told him. They didn't have time to attack the Electrode, they didn't have time to break out of this room. The pokemon was going to self destruct, and they were going to die.

But, wait. Come on. They were in an experimentation lab. Surely there were explosions, reactions, dangerous pokemon, perhaps, that needed to be contained? Her eyes flicked left and right until she found it: a glass box, just smaller than the average elevator, barely covered by some sort of tarpaulin. She ripped it off and hustled her pokemon in, returning Freya to conserve space, and then looked to Keith.

"This is the only space we'll be safe in," she told him - though in reality it was just a guess. "So get in, ok?" Her eyes were glittering with fear, but her voice was steely and emotionless.
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It took a moment for Keith to work out what was going on. Why would the woman leave her Pokemon on it's own?

Then, at Kitty's instruction, realization dawned. He guessed some people where more heartless than he could ever imagine, and some Pokemon more stupid. He was impressed by Kitty's quick thinking though. The toughened glass box looked like the safest option; he'd seen a bigger one in his school lab, although he'd never had to hide in one. It was a tank for keeping Pokemon which liked living in water in. It should work though, he reasoned. The one in school had put up with an angered Gyarados bashing at the walls with all it's might, and had taken a Hyper Beam blast. He just had to hope that this one was made of the same stuff.

There was still a problem with this plan though. Keith was on the other side of the room. He wouldn't make it, he knew he wouldn't. The Electrode was already being to shake.

Come on, think

An idea struck Keith, and he knew that he'd only get one chance to get it right. He began to run for the tank, and as he did so he reached for his belt, pulling out a Pokeball and hurling it at the Electrode. He didn't expect to capture it, just slow it down.

The ball hit the Electrode, and sucked the Pokemon inside.

One shake Keith propelled himself past the first bench, and began to jump over the second, yelling at George to get to the box.

Two shakes George, able to fly straight over the benches, got to the tank easily, and squeezed in with the others. Keith cleared the second and third benches, landed heavily, and stumbled.

A flash of light Keith regained his balance, flung himself forward into the tank.

The Electrode was free, and moments away from explosion. As Keith grabbed the top of the tank and slammed it shut, there was another burst of light. Except this time it was no Pokeball. The Electrode exploded into a wave of light, sound and pressure. Everything was swept away before it, and anything within 10 feet disintegrated instantly.

Things flew towards and bounced off the tank. The surface began to crack, and for a horrifying moment Keith though that it wasn't going to hold. But then the light began to fade, the immense noise of the explosion began to die down, and the flying pieces of table came to rest against the walls. The worst was over. They'd made it.
Edited by Hodor, Jul 9 2012, 05:35 PM.
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When the dust settled, Kitty was absolutely horrified to realise that her eyes were damp. Not at the thought of what would have happened had Keith not been so quick-thinking, but when she thought of what would have happened if she had not found and taken the egg. The thought of the little life humming in her backpack shattered to oblivion like the tables and the glass had actually made her want to physically vomit.

But she shook herself out of it and sniffed sharply before turning her face towards Keith again. Hopefully he hadn't noticed; she hadn't allowed anyone to see her cry in years. Since the Incident.

Oh, no. That thought was too much. Her shoulders were trembling now with the restraint it took not to cry, but she smiled. "That was genius," she told her new friend, and that was what she had just decided that he was, now. A friend. The thought meant far too much to her than it really should have, but the smile she had stuck to her face was now bordering on genuine.

"How does it feel to know you saved our lives?" she asked lightly as she opened the door and stepped out into the utter destruction. The only objects still intact were the glass box they had squeezed into, and the slowly recovering Electrode.

They had minutes to figure a way out of this room before the pokemon felt well enough to explode again. A sweat broke out on her forehead and she wiped her face with her sleeve. Why was it so hot in here? Oh yeah. The huge explosion. She released Freya and Rocky again, told the former to start melting the hinges away and the latter to ensure the Electrode stayed good and unconscious.
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Keith got out of the tank and crouched down with his back to it, breathing hard. He was on a massive adrenaline high.

Whilst he was recovering, Kitty was already organising her Pokemon to get them out.

That was genius

He smiled at the compliment,

"It was certainly cosy" he said, cracking a smile. His heart rate was returning to normal, but despite the smile the anger in his chest was bubbling away. The next time he had to talk to an Umbran, he wouldn't need to pretend about wanting to hurt them. But until it was useful he'd control it. He fought back the anger, trying to keep his head clear. It was getting harder.

When the Rapidash had burnt through the hinges, they all trekked out into the corridor, only realizing once outside how acrid the air had been in the lab.

"You should probably get them to weld the door back in place," Keith suggested to Kitty, "to keep that Electrode in."

"Lets try this door next," he said, gesturing to the door at the end of the corridor.

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She was vaguely aware that she was still shaking slightly, but it seemed that Keith hadn't noticed, so she allowed herself to continue. There was something comforting about allowing your feelings to show, even if it was just the bare minimum.

At the sound of his suggestion, she nodded, pulling her arms from the hug she was giving herself and pushing the heavy door back into its frame so that her Rapidash could melt the metal back into place.

The thought crossed her mind that they should really just leave: the homicidal woman was clearly through that other door somewhere, and there were more, equally sadistic, Umbrans there too. But Tryce. In her fear she had forgotten the runt of her litter; the tiny, near-defenceless kit.

"Let's go," she said quietly, and as soon as she opened the next door, Rocky burst through it, presumably having caught the scent of his youngest son, and his bobbing tail disappeared quickly from view until the door was pushed entirely open.

One of the kits - Archer, she quickly figured out due to the spikiness of his fur and the fan-like breadth of his ears (systematically differentiating between her kits was very calming) - attempted to dash after his father but she blocked him deftly with her foot and scooped him up into her arms, almost laughing at the pouting expression he was developing as he wriggled in her grasp.

She looked up. The room was...not really in view. It was linoleum, swimming pool blue, that covered the walls and floor and glittered in the horribly bright lights. All they could see from the doorway was the L-shaped bend that led, it seemed, into the main room, whatever that would be. Kitty could hear two men talking gruffly; they hadn't heard them come in.

"...just know that I'm not gonna be the one to clean the lab up. I've had enough of entrails for one day, thank you."

"You're telling m- Wait, weren't you working in the kitchen all day?"

"Don't tell me you actually ate those burgers?"

Laughter and retching. Kitty shuddered. Her limited experience with Umbra always made her want a hot shower. She turned to Keith, attempting to communicate her unwillingness to advance through her expression, but they had to. Now Rocky was gone, too. Judging by their choice of conversation, he hadn't been discovered, but what had become of the runaway Eevee kit?
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Had the situation been different, Keith might have laughed at the burgers gag. As it was he managed a smirk. He wasn't shocked they were so jovial about it, not anymore.

No entrails in that lab tonight.

Keith crept to the corner of the corridor, and peeked his head round. He could see two men, apparently on guard duty, standing with their backs to the tunnel. They clearly believed that Keith and Kitty were no longer a threat, and Keith preferred to leave it that way.

Keith glanced around the corridor, and was about to return to Kitty when he spotted a small hole in the wall. It looked as though it had been bashed out, though by what was hard to tell. Most interestingly from Keith's perspective, two decent sized rocks had been knocked from the wall in the process. He beckoned George over, and was about to command him to Rock Throw at the sentry's head's when their conversation turned back to intruders, but this time, not Kitty and Keith.

"I'm telling you, she went to town on him. The Loudred was out in two attacks and then she let that Mightyena of hers at him."

Loudred? That sounded like the man they'd followed in.

"So where's the body? I'm not moving it, I did the last one."

"Na, he's not dead, she called the Mightyena off at the end. Something about dominance she said. We left him in one of the holding cells. He'll be dead in a couple of hours, but who cares. No one uses the cells anymore."

"S'pose."

The reaction made Keith wretch. They were talking about a man's life! And it was worth a s'pose? They'd already moved on to complaining about guard duty. Keith beckoned George over, and gave the order in a hushed tone.

"George, knock those two guys out with a Rock Throw."

George nodded, swooped down to where the two rocks lay, and eyed up the back of the Umbrians' heads. The first rock hit the sentry on the right straight in the head, sending him flying forward. The other guard spun round and got as far as "What the hel...." before the second rock caught him on the forehead. He was out when he hit the ground.

Keith beckoned to Kitty and continued up the corridor. The second guard was in fact out, but the first guard had only be knocked down, and his eyes were swimming more into focus with every second. Without a conscious thought on the matter, Keith knelt down and punched him in the face. It was a hard punch, driven by pent up anger and large shoulder muscles. Keith punched him again, and the man slumped to the ground, very much out for the count this time. As he stood up he gave the man one last kick, just out of anger now, he realized, and fought it back.

He turned to Kitty.

"Help me drag them round the corner out of sight," he said, as he calmed down.

He'd need to keep a check on that. It worked when no Pokemon were involved, but he got angry at a Machop and he was dead.

But they deserved it. Keith shook his head to knock away the thought. He dragged the larger of the two men round the corner, and crouched down with his back to the wall. He put his head in his hands and rested there for a second or two.

Edited by Hodor, Jul 10 2012, 02:08 PM.
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To an outsider it may have appeared strange, the lack of visible horror on Kitty's face when Keith took down the two guards, and beat up one of them on his own. He was reminding her more and more of her old friends, and it simultaneously comforted her and freaked her out. She would have wrapped herself in a tight hug if she hadn't had Archer in her arms.

Instead she walked down to meet him, releasing the kit from her grasp but making sure that they were all crowded around her and Freya and nobody else felt like tearing away to chase after their brother or their father. As it was, though, they all seemed pretty frightened and were pressing up against the Rapidash's ebony hooves as their eyes darted about the room. Her face twisted into a smile when she noticed that the Azurill was doing the same thing, huddling up with the Eevees and sticking close to the huge, strong fire horse. She had barely even noticed it was still there.

The egg. Kitty hadn't forgotten it. She would find something to do with it when they had escaped the danger of the Umbra hideout. Dammit, Tryce, she thought to herself as she dragged the unconscious Umbran guard out of view, propping him up between two cabinets. She wasn't going to bother Keith with aiding her; the floor was smooth enough that it was an easy task and he looked as though he could use a moment of alone time. Secretly, though she cursed the tiny Eevee for forcing them further into the pits of the hideout, she was proud of him for having character enough to want to be in the centre of the fray, all the time. He was truly his father's son.

She swallowed the lump in her throat, and ignored the visions in her head of what could be happening to him right at that moment, and dragged the second guard out of view as well.

There was nothing of worth in this room, just chairs and cabinets. She shrugged. One door to go through, and it was already open, revealing a long and curving hallway. This one was better carpeted than the last, with less neon lighting. Perhaps the more important and in-use rooms were to come, but if all of these doors were shut, where on Earth were Rocky and Tryce?

"Where to now?" Kitty asked her companion, a little gruffly. For the first time, it occurred to her that she was dragging him needlessly into this, but she somehow knew that if she gave him the option of leaving, he wouldn't take it.
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Keith calmed himself, and raised his head. He got the impression Kitty was giving him a wide berth, and he appreciated it.

"I guess, down this corridor," said Keith, in answer to Kitty.

He led the way, with George following close behind him. The corridor curved round, and Keith was thankful for the carpeting muffling the sound of their footsteps.

Keith glanced back to Kitty, who seemed both determined and distracted all at the same time. She was a very confusing young woman, and now that Keith had stopped worrying about keeping his own emotions in check, he noticed the slightly irregular, distracted gait of her walk and the way she seemed to be holding herself.

The corridor began to straighten out, and led up to a double door size entrance, but without any doors in it. He could see a railing. A raised walkway maybe?

Keith turned to Kitty.

"I think there's a walkway up ahead. It could go over a lab, or a cavern, or even a carnival," Keith smiled, but then returned to seriousness, "but it will be exposed, and we're going to need to move fast if we want to stay undetected."

"Are you ok?" he asked. It was a simple question, but his eyes tried to search out the answer in her face. He needed to know that she could deal with this. If she couldn't, then his anger could get them both killed.

"We will find the girl, and her father, and your Eevees" he tried to reassure her.
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Kitty walked beside him, barely even aware of the way she was holding herself tightly; it was something she hadn't felt the need to do in a long time. She had always had someone there to protect her - not that she needed protecting. Not at all - but Rocky was not there, and that made her feel ill. She hadn't been without Rocky for longer than a couple of days, and that had only been once.

"Are you ok?"

She did a small double take as she looked at him, realising that now she needed to speak. She was only half aware of the fact that he'd been looking at her almost suspiciously for the last minute or so. Was she really acting so weird? She released herself from her own grip, her fingernails having left little half moon imprints on her arms, and she smiled.

"I'm fine," she said, "I'm just worried." Which was true, and she knew he would understand. When he mentioned finding 'the girl' she was confused for a moment. She had totally forgotten that they had gone in there for any reason other than her Eevees, but she pretended that she had known this all along, and nodded with perhaps a little too much conviction as she moved to peer over the walkway.

She immediately jumped back, flattening her back against the wall and paling with fright.

Dozens of Umbrans in white lab coats over their uniforms bustled around in the enormous room underneath the walkway ahead of them. Machinery beeped as it reversed, and there was the distinct shrieking of an Aipom echoing through the hall. Was it the sound of pain, or of anger? Either way, it was horrible, and she resisted the urge to clamp her hands over her ears. This was where they must have moved all of the lab equipment to. The main experimentation area.

"How are we going to get across?" she hissed to Keith, her feet moving to block the path of a few of the kits who were trying to get a look over the edge of the walkway.
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