FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Welcome to chapter eight! I personaly like this chapter and I hope you do to!

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Chapter 8: Rule This!

Zack woke up early in the morning. The ground hadn't been very comfortable and his back hurt a little. The sun hadn't come up yet. He laid there for a minute, pondering everything that was happening. After gathering his thoughts on the day's plans he slowly sat up. Well, nothing to do but make our way to the cave. I guess we should avoid Rustboro, so we'll just head straight to the coast from here. He looked around all his pokémon were still asleep to his right. He yawned, I need to start getting more sleep. Looking to his left he remembered that Koto had fallen asleep next to him but was nowhere to be found.

He stood up slowly. It was hard considering his legs were sore after all the running he did yesterday. Grabbing his jacket off of a nearby tree branch he began searching for Koto. It wasn't long before Zack found the jolteon by the river. Koto laid there staring into the water. Zack started walked toward him when he stepped on a twig. Before the sound of the snap even finished, Koto was turned towards Zack in an attack position.

Koto sighed, "Don't sneak up on me like that."

Zack chuckled, "Well you're certainly a jumpy one aren't you."

Koto turned back around and stared at his reflection in the slow flowing water. "Well, better safe than sorry."

Zack sat down next him and looked over the horizon. The sun was just starting to rise up. The smell of morning dew was strong and the air was cool.

"How much sleep did you get? You went to sleep later than me and got up earlier."

"I don't know," the jolteon replied candidly. "All I know is sleep doesn't really seem to like me," he answered thinking of the recent influx of nightmares that he's had.

"Dangit, I still can't really understand you," Zack said feeling stupid for asking questions. "And I don't want to wake Nick. It's actually quite rare that he ever gets to sleep for more than a few hours." Zack stared at his own reflection for a while before glancing over at Koto. The way his war torn face stared back at itself reminded Zack of a lost child, hopeless, and about to give up, on everything. He sat there another minute or so before standing up to leave, "Well, we'll probably leave in about an hour, so come join us when you're ready."

~

Jeckelyn sat in the bright white room, she was tan and had dark hair, and she was also wearing nothing but her underwear and a robe. She had joined team Theta about a year and a half ago. She had always wanted power. She was tired of being weaker than everyone else at everything. When Theta and Gamma joined forces for a common goal, Jeckelyn became lost in the ranks more than ever. However that won't be for long. When Matthias and Kuzu began announcing human experimentation, she jumped at the chance for something to change. Now she was the most interesting person on the whole team.

Suddenly Kuzu's voice filled the room from the intercom, "Jeckelyn, please report to testing room number one."

Jeckelyn stood up and walked to the testing room door. She then became nervous. What if something goes wrong. I'm the first test! They've never even attempted this before! She walked into the room. There were two guards on the inside a one way window on the other side of the room. In the middle of the room was a large chair like you would see at a dentistry. On a table next to the chair sat a metal tray with an assortment of needles and liquids she couldn't even began to identify. There were what seemed to be power lines connected directly to small metal points arranged around the head of the chair.

Kuzu spoke again, "Jeckelyn, I'm going to have to ask that you remove the robe."

Jeckelyn blushed, "Umm... but... I"

"Jeckelyn, we're all strictly professional here, there is absolutely nothing to be worried about." Kuzu explained.

Jeckelyn didn't detect anything in his voice to indicate that he was lying and decided to trust him. She took off her robe and handed it to one of the guards who set it on the table.

"Please have a seat," The guard said.

She sat in the chair and it began to lean back. The other guard began belting her ankles and wrists to the chair. "This is for your own protection," He said quickly before backing away.

The guard that had taken her robe now had a needle in his hand. "Diamorphine, to help with the pain," he said rubbing an alcohol swab over her arm and injecting the liquid into her veins. That painkiller must have been strong. She could almost feel her body getting more numb already. Then he grabbed another needle with a blue substance in it. "This one is a simple mix including some biocides to make you a little less... conductive," he explained injecting into the same spot.

Jeckelyn didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but she didn't like the sound of it. The guard wrapped a tight black band around her wrist. Then a machine behind her started beeping. She guessed it was a heart rate monitor. From the way she felt, she was surprised it wasn't beeping like crazy.

"Begin test in t-minus ten seconds," Kuzu exclaimed. The guards exited the room and Jeckelyn felt the chair power on. It was sort of a dull vibration. Kuzu spoke again, "Jeckelyn, this probably going to hurt... a lot. You need to try to stay still as possible or you run the risk of blood loss."

Jeckelyn wasn't ready for four needles to enter her arms at the same time out of nowhere. Instantly the hurting started. Then two more pierced her ankles and she could feel the immense pain coursing through her body. She tried as hard as she could not to convulse and recoil in the hellish agony that ran through every cell in her body. Her heart burned and an earth shattering headache felt as if it was destroying her brain. Then yet another needle went into her back. Sparks flew and it felt like she would fall apart at any moment. It may have only been a minute, but to Jeckelyn it felt like an eternity.

All of a sudden everything stopped and bright flash of light filled the room. Then the light faded and she could see again. Her insides were in terrible pain and it felt like she was about to throw up her intestines. The needles retracted from her body and the guards from before burst into the room and speedily began untying her appendages. Jeckelyn rolled over to the floor in a huge coughing fit, blood going everywhere. One of the guards gave her a bucket to puke in. No matter how hard she heaved her throat muscles wouldn't bring up anything but torturous agony. She felt something building up in her stomach and shoved her face in the bucket. Then all at once, the pain went away and she began vomit. Only it wasn't vomit that came out. It was fire.

~

Zack walked along the foggy beach with Sam and Koto at his sides and Nick on his backpack as usual. Kara still very tired and rested in her pokéball. Koto looked up at his new trainer, "So Rustboro has been entirely taken over by some random group of people?"

Nick translated and Zack stared at ahead, seemingly at nothing through the thick fog, "Yup. Lots of guys stormed the city and took almost everyone hostage." Zack was starting to get the hang of the jolteon's speech, but he still needed Nick for the longer sentences.

Koto looked into the ripples of the sand as he walked, "It almost seems unreal."

Sam stared at Koto. Something about him was different and she knew the others felt it to. She hadn't known him long but even she could see that he was being more open. It showed in his posture that he was more at ease, but what had caused him so much trouble in the first place. Sam took a second look at him and noticed something she hadn't before, he actually looks kinda... nice. She felt her cheeks getting hot at the thought of this. Turning her head away quickly, she thought, ugh, I barely know the guy. How could I like him like that? She turned to look at him once more. She couldn't help but stare at his red eye. Something about the various markings all over his body gave him character that Sam kind of liked.

Koto noticed Samantha's erratic head movements. "Uhh... samantha?" Her heart felt as if it skipped a beat. "Is something wrong?" He continued.

Sam felt like melting away, "umm... no... I was just thinking about how, you... your umm, demeanor has changed... since just last night."

Koto stared at her in confusion before looking back at the ground, "Yeah, I guess it has."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. Nick to tired to pay attention to any conversations anyway. According to the map, they were nearing the cave. The party walked were walking through a rocky area when Koto stopped. The others took a few more steps before stopping as well.

"What's up," Zack asked.

Koto sniffed the air, "Someone's nearby," he replied. "Two, one is human."

Zack whispered, "can tell how far away they are."

Koto sniffed again, "umm, about twenty feet."

They waited silently for something to happen. The white wisps of vapor around them made it impossible to see anything farther than five feet. Koto and Sam both assumed attack positions and Nick readied his scald attack. A human silhouette appeared and was walking towards them.

Koto heard a noise behind him and turned quickly. Another silhouette was there. Some sort of four legged pokémon, also walking towards them.

"I'm surprised you were able to notice Dusk's movements," the human silhouette said suddenly coming into view. He seemed to be a young man somewhere in his twenties. He was wearing a semi-long dark open coat with a black shirt under it, dark jeans and a pair of black glasses. "Those are some keen senses you have there jolteon."

Zack looked stared at him, "Who... You were the one on the building!"

"Yes, that I was," he replied. "I was the one that lead you here. Dusk. Come over here." The pokémon that was behind them seemed to almost teleport to the young man's side, and they could now see it was an umbreon. "I'm Seth Harcon, Pokémon League Special Forces," he held up a badge and quickly put it back in his pocket, "and I would like to show you why you're here." He turned and began walking back into the fog with Dusk closely behind.

Zack and Sam started to follow, but Koto was reluctant. Something about the umbreon set him on edge. Maybe it was how easily it had managed to get behind him. I'll have to fix that, he thought as he began to follow them.

They arrived at the cave entrance shortly. Seth stopped for a second, "Hope you're ready for this." He with a half smile on his face and walked into the cave. The others followed him in. It was filled with many passages full of all kinds of twists and turns, and was fraught with paths leading nowhere. The path seemed to be at constant downward slope, and the air tasted stale. Koto was focused intensely on remembering the way back while the others were more worried about the actions of the mysterious man and his umbreon, though he seemed official enough.

They walked through a doorway into a large cavern that was much bigger than any cave they had ever seen or even heard of. However the most spectacular part about the cave was not its size, its what was in it. Throughout the enormous cavern were hundreds upon hundreds of pokémon of all types. A few other trainers were standing off to the side handing out pokémon food.

Zack, Sam, and Nick stared in awe of the most marvelous spectacle before them. Koto was filled with nothing but questions. "Seth, what is this place," The jolteon asked looking around.

The trainer looked at the yellow canine, "well, you should know well and good by now that team Epsilon's goal is total domination of this region."

The other three looked at Seth. "Team Epsilon?" They asked in unison.

Seth rolled his eyes, "So I suppose you don't know. Team Epsilon is a recently formed band of marauders whose goal is complete and total control over the region. However, their leaders are very smart. As you can see from Rustboro, they're already beginning their take over."

"So what are we doing here," Zack asked him.

"Well, we are preparing," he said almost happily. He gestured to pokémon behind him, "This is our army!"

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Thank you for reading! Just viewing this helps me stay motivated an hopefully I will get better. I would love any writing advice that can be given to me. As always have a great day!