Chapter 016

"Everyone go back to your rooms now. Stay in there for now. Remember to close the windows. This is going to be dangerous. So I want everyone to take maximum precautions. Leave the lights in your room on" said Jasmine as she addressed all the children who came down after hearing the alarm.

Alex and Joseph started walking towards their rooms. Joseph stood in front of their door, looked back, and seeing that there was no one behind him, bolted towards the top floor. Alex knew exactly where he was going, so he ran after him.

"Dammit! What is with you and that Crobat? It is going to be really dangerous out and you want to go there?" growled Alex as he saw Joseph crawling out of the opening in the safety bars of the window.

"I just want to see it. No reason. You don't have to come with me!" he yelled clambering down the tree.

Alex cursed, and squeezed through the safety bars himself. He then also clambered down the tree, and followed Joseph, who was running towards the park.

"Why did you come?" asked Joseph.

"Do drag your corpse back after you die you idiot" cursed Alex.

Joseph looked away embarrassed and kept running towards the park. There were a few tall trees that were easily climbable in the park, providing a good vantage point. Plus, it was a wide-open area receiving plenty of sunlight. Both Alex and Joseph thought that this would be a good place to be when watching for the flock.

Both of them ran into the park. They went towards the middle of the park, and climbed on a tall tree. They both adjusted the branches and leaves to get a good view of the sky.

Alex saw two sturdy broken braches nearby and took one and handed the other to Joseph.

"Last line of defence. If everything fails whack the Zubat with this" explained Alex in response to Joseph's questioning eyes.

Joseph looked at Alex strangely, but accepted the branches and clutched it in his hands.

"Roger told us about the Zubat coming back 10 minutes ago. Considering the 15 minutes journey from the Bloodsap trees till here, the Zubat flock should be here in 5 minutes or so. I hope we actually see Crobat after all this risk, and it doesn't end up being taken down by the rangers before that. That would be a whole lot of effort for nothing" mumbled Alex.

"Don't jinx it. We are going to see Crobat. I can feel it. In fact, I think we can have a good close look at it" said Joseph.

"Good close look? I don't like the sound of that" replied Alex, but he stayed silent afterwards. Whatever he said only served to make him more nervous. Since he couldn't go back, he might as well hope he scans the Crobat.

After a few minutes of silence, we could vaguely hear chattering noise in the distance. This noise was quite familiar to us. We heard it twice a day most of our lives. This was the sound made by the flock when they were moving en masse.

"Keep your eyes peeled for the Crobat among all these Zubat" said Joseph excitedly.

"Believe me, my eyes are peeled," said Alex. "For more reasons than one" he muttered under his breath.

As the chattering sounds grew closer, he could imagine the collasol number of Zubat that were going to be in sight soon. Alex wanted to scan as many Zubat as he could, and any Golbat which were in the flock were a priority target. The lone Crobat was also on the list of must scan. He composed himself, took a deep breath, and was ready to focus.

The chattering sound grew really close, and now they could spot the Zubat. At first, it was a few, then a few hundred, then a few thousand, and then more and more. They couldn't really appreciate the 'huge' number that was frequently mentioned by the residents until now. When they saw it against the dark evening or morning sky, they didn't look like much. But now, they could see that the residents never exaggerated. The number of Zubat was literally uncountable.

Alex scanned a few Zubat as they flew over him.

Zubat

Gender - Female

Lvl - 14

Type - Poison/Flying

Held item - None

Ability - Inner Focus

Moves - Absorb, Supersonic, Mean Look, Astonish

Nature - Rash

Training - None

Potential - Red

Most Zubat had pretty much identical stats to the first one he scanned. Except for level, which was as low as 6 and as high as 16, and different natures, the remaining stats were the same. The vast majority had red potential, other than one or two among the hundred he scanned.

He looked around trying to spot an Golbat or the Crobat, but wasn't having any luck. He looked to the side, and Joseph did not seem to see the Crobat either.

As he was looking around, he seemed to hear extremely vague sounds of fighting and collision somewhere to his left. He looked over and started in the general direction. He then saw what was the cause of the sounds.

"Hey Joseph?" he called.

"Yes?" came the response.

"Remember how we thought the park was a great place to spot the Crobat due to the open spaces with plenty of sunlight and tall trees?" asked Alex.

"Yeah?" said Joseph.

"Well guess who else had that idea?" asked Alex, chuckling nervously.

Joseph looked up to the left only to see a Pidgeot and Fearow battling Crobat mid-air. The battle seemed to be slowly shifting towards the park, as the Crobat seemed to be lured here by the two Pokemon. A quick look around showed a bunch of people also starting at the battle with a Pokeball ready in their hand.