Chapter 4 - Dragon

My eyes self-wandered to the piece of the thicket that was now smoking. Small embers could still be seen on the sides of some twigs and a smell of burnt overwhelmed any other fragrances. The loud sound of a heckling person brought my attention to Marco and Doug. Marco was the one having a blast while Doug, with a confident look on his face, kept the breloom in check with the hairdryer-from-hell locked in between his hands. 

- Whoo-hoo! That is some sweet destruction!

- You said it Marco, Doug added. The boss was right, we need this. Even a grunt like me with no pokemon can do this much damage.

- What's crazy is that pokemons can do this much damage to begin with. But nevertheless, you're lucky you managed to grab that TM. Now you can finish that sucker.

- You bet!

Without much of a warning, he aimed his device at the breloom and hit the trigger again. Just like before, there was a spark and next thing I know, there's a giant blaze of fire torching its way through the air, headed straight to the breloom. The problem is, while falling back, the breloom lined up with me and I was now in the literal line of fire. The breloom jumped aside to avoid being hit, leaving me face to face with the wall of fire. I quickly grabbed the poochyena and ran to the left as fast as I could to escape. I was able to jump out of the lane and fell on my side to shield the poochyena in my fall. A searing pain tore through my back and made me scream. My top was smoking as if it caught on fire – which it didn't – because while the flames missed me, the heat was enough to bake most of my upper body. Laying down in the moist ground, I curled up on myself, frenetically trying to extinguish non-existent flames for several seconds. It took me a minute to realize I was safe. The whole of my back was stinging painfully. This was going to need a lot of ointment to heal. As I was contemplating standing back up, words of a gloomy discussion echoed:

- You nearly incinerated the pipsqueak, Marco said.

- Yeah, well tough luck! he replied. If he didn't lead these crazy pokemons to us, we would be back on the ship by now.

There was a silence during which I painfully came back up on my feet. I looked over to Doug and Marco to which Doug responded with a fiery glare.

- Marco, do you remember what "He" said about this operation?

Marco went quiet. He looked towards me, but then looked down. I could swear I saw his whole face go dark, like you often see in animated shows, when a character has a dark emotion moment. Doug continued:

- He's seen us and he's seen the prototype in action.

As he said that, he pointed the weapon – not in my general direction because the Breloom was still over here but – straight at me this time and with a look that sent shivers down my spine. In that instant I understood two things. First, these guys weren't random trainers who happened to be in the forest today of all days. Second, I needed to escape from them even more than I had to escape the brelooms. But before Doug could put his threat into action, an angry growl reminded him of the wild breloom. After being shot twice, the breloom was now charging angrily towards Doug and Marco. But Doug took aim and shot with the weapon towards the breloom again. A third ball of fire spawned midair and flew towards the breloom. While it was still very impressive and dangerous, it looked smaller than the two previous shots. The breloom rolled out of the way to the right, avoiding the fire, before resuming its run. But because the wall of fire hid Doug and Marco while it was dodging it, the breloom didn't notice the second shot that Doug fired towards it as soon as it emerged from the other side. Taken aback, the breloom just kinda froze in place this time. The flames rammed into it in a noisy "whoosh" sound and engulfed it in a blaze. It caught on fire, and I heard it squeal while flailing around, trying to extinguish itself. It fell frontwards and started frantically rolling around on the soil. It took a whole minute of rolling and plenty of painful screams for the flames consuming its body to finally go out. After that it stood back up. It looked pitiful, charred and covered in dirt. Its cap and tails were still heavily smoking, and you could read the pain on its face. This pokemon severely threatened my life earlier today, but I was starting to feel sorry for it, seeing the state it was in. The breloom looked pained, but now that it was standing, its attention went immediately back to Doug. The pain on its face was replaced by pained anger and once again, it started waddling towards them. Each step caused it to grunt in pain, but it didn't stop. Doug and Marco, still looking super gloomy, were only a dozen meters away from it now. I saw Doug raise the weapon again and aim it towards the breloom.

- Stop! I screamed out while reaching my hand out to them.

But that did little. In the next instant, a fireball of about a meter in diameter came out of the cannon of the weapon and hit the breloom full force. The flames violently lit up its body and knocked it back a few steps. But as soon as it regained its balance, it paid no mind to the flames silently crisping away at it and it kept moving towards them. Marco, now terrified by this vision straight out of a horror story, was staring at it from behind Doug.

- This thing is a monster. How can a plant pokemon resist to fire this much?

- I don't know, Doug replied. But look at it. It's barely alive now. This next one will do the trick.

I saw him press the trigger and closed my eyes and looked away. But instead of the sound of blazing flames, the mechanical clicking noise was followed by the three consecutive "beeps" again. I looked at them again and saw Doug panicking.

- What's going on? Marco said, in a breaking voice.

- The TM's out of gas.

- What? Already? What did you load?

- Overheat, Doug replied while still holding the weapon in front of himself.

- Shit! That only has five PPs.

The breloom, still covered in flames and fumes, covered the last five meters that separated it from the two men, who seemingly frozen in fear were just standing there, unmoving. The breloom let out much quieter but just as angry growl and suddenly slapped the device out of Doug's hand. I saw the device fly towards the right before separating into three or four pieces that fell scarcely over a bush. Doug grunted in pain and fell to the ground, taking Marco down with him. They both stared at the breloom, as it raised its arm once more. But then suddenly let out a quiet squeal, fell on its knees, and collapsed forward, barely missing the two men. Still burning up, the breloom stopped moving.

- Finally! Doug said as he stood up after a stressed laugh. The beast is down.

Marco stood up as well and stared a while at the pokemon that was now laying at their feet.

- Tenacious bastard!

- You said it. Now all we need to do is…

I saw him turning towards me, but suddenly freeze and go white as if he'd seen a ghost. That's when I noticed that there was a lot of smoke around me. The heat I was feeling in my back wasn't just from my recent burn. I heard a new whooshing sound and multiple cracking branches and twigs behind me. I turned around and looked left and right. The forest was on fire – which wasn't so surprising since someone just sent fireballs flying all around the woods this close to the summer. While the vegetation was lush and humid, it still caught on fire after so many blazes. The fire was moving quickly, and I realized that it was already well advanced in pretty much every direction and only the path towards the bluffs was not covered by a potentially deadly cloud of white smoke. And as if to confirm my assumption, I heard multiple distressed growls and squeals down the path going towards the forest and a cloud of dust was coming towards us. Once it got closer, I realized that it was a group of pokemons running from the fire. There were multiple kinds on the ground, but primarily wurmples, slakoths and shroomish. There was also some sort of bug with claws at the ends of both front appendages, antennas and small wings that weren't strong enough to allow it to fly just yet: nincadas. I grabbed the poochyena and raised it off the ground, towards my chest. The group of fleeing pokemons ran past us all in a noisy brouhaha of pokemon cries, crackling flames, and stomping noise. Since they were all too small for us to consider a threat, they mostly avoided us and kept going in the direction of the cliff. Once the noise of the stampede started fading, I dropped the poochyena again. The two men in front of me were done figuring out their move as well.

- We need to go now, Doug said.

- What about the kid? Marco asked.

- He's the fire's problem now. Let's bounce!

The next second, they started running towards that opening on the bluffs that I noticed earlier on, Marco limping somewhat. Probably the pain from his maimed arm. I saw them disappear outside the woods before the noise of a small tree being crisped behind me and crashing to the ground awoke me to my own predicament. I needed to find a way out. I considered my options for what felt like the thousandth time that day. I would definitely choke to the death if I went any other way than the bluffs' path. If I had a choice, I would much rather not go the same way as the two men who implied that I was a problematic witness. But it seemed the choice was already made for me. I was never a lucky guy, but my misfortune was working overtime today. I decided, reluctantly, to run up to the bluffs and see what possibilities might be given to me:

- Poochyena let's go!

We both started running down the path towards the opening. The heat was rising, and the smoke was now everywhere and was irritating my eyes. I started coughing dangerously, which was one more sign that I really needed to get out of there. The poochyena was running ahead of me, barking occasionally, which helped me know where it was because my eyes were starting to fail me. But suddenly it stopped and started looking to our left.

- Why are you stopping? We need to get out of here.

The poochyena paid no mind to my words. Instead, it barked again and ran a dozen meters to the left of something that was lying on the ground. It started barking frenetically at it. I went closer to it to grab it and keep running, but then I realized what it was doing. What it was barking at was the second breloom that collapsed earlier. The fire went out, but its burnt body was still fuming here and there. I assumed it had fainted and so did the two men it was fighting, but I could see its face. Its eyes were wide open: the anger was gone. Its breathing was chaotic, but that was probably the consequence of the rapidly dropping air quality. The poochyena's barks continued as it jumped around it, trying to incite it to move. The breloom groaned and I saw it painfully attempt to raise its body with its arms. But it didn't have the strength to do that anymore. There was no way I could move something nearly as big as me. I had no way to help it. But the poochyena didn't show any sign of leaving the breloom behind. It went around it and started pushing it from the back, but that did little. The smoke and flames were coming, and we needed to move. I was about to grab the poochyena and gun for it when the glare of something shiny interrupted me. At the foot of the bush in front of me, there was a round object with a glassy textured top of blue and red colors, a clear bottom and with a circular button in the middle. I was so surprised I couldn't stop myself from saying out loud:

- What are the odds?

Someone must have lost it here. Judging by the fact that it was a great ball, whatever they wanted to catch was powerful and they couldn't get this back. In any case, the timing was perfect. I ran to the bush and grabbed the ball before the bush lit up like a candle. It was super warm from the heat and slightly burned my hand, so I dropped it at first; but I picked it up again and returned to the pokemons. I kneeled by the breloom with the ball in my hand. It looked at me for a minute, and I could swear I saw it nod, then close its eyes. I clicked the ball's button and tossed it on the breloom. It opened and in a flash of light, it swooped the breloom inside it, closed and fell back to the ground. I saw it roll left, roll right, and roll left again, before the light of the ball's button flashed golden. That was my first time catching a pokemon which was somewhat an emotional moment. But I had no time to celebrate. I grabbed the ball and put it in my pocket, next to the poochyena's ball and I stood up. I turned around and looked many steps behind me where, next to another bush, the other breloom was still lying unmoving. The flames had now passed us and were burning on both sides of the path. The only reason why we weren't engulfed was because we were on a damp soil path mostly devoid of combustible vegetation. But the smoke cloud had only gotten thicker. I turned my attention back to the path, bit my lip hard, did a small prayer in my head for its good fortune, rolled up my top to cover part of my face and then, along with the poochyena I restarted running towards the opening in the thicket.

The cool and salty marine breeze welcomed me as I stumbled upon the bluff. Sadly, there was only about twenty square meters of bluffs available to me and it didn't extend to any viable escape route. The woods behind me were on fire and in front of me, there was a forty-meter dive into a rocky and surly ocean. One thing was off thought: there was no trace of the two men. I saw them coming this way so they should have ended up on this isolated bluff too. I walked slowly to the edge of the precipice. Here, land abruptly came to an end and, as a chaotic rocky wall, dropped to the sea. Down there, the waters were waging war against the littoral, frequently slamming harshly against the cliff. It was maybe thirty or forty meters drop but I had serious doubts one would survive it unscathed. How were they able to escape? I got my answer soon enough. I heard a loud boat horn northward in the sea from my location, so I turned my attention to the horizon. A speedboat was sailing furtively through the rocky extensions of the seaboard and towards a large blackish cargo ship. I couldn't see very well, but the speedboat had three passengers, and they all looked like they wore similar garments as the two men I met earlier. Seeing that there wasn't really anyone else around, it must have been them. They must have had a way to lower themselves to the sea and there was another accomplice with a boat waiting to ferry them. They were a lot more resourceful than I thought. Then again, they mentioned a "boss" so they must be part of some syndicate that I don't know. A group with decent manpower, technology and certainly the funding to maintain all that. The names Team Aqua and Team Magma popped in my mind, but they were disbanded many years ago. Nevertheless, that was not my biggest concern. I looked around to see if I could find the climbing gear they used to get off the bluffs, but whatever it was, it was long gone. It was probably for the best anyways. I would have been even more stranded trying to stay afloat in the water than up here. On the bright side, while the forest was now a wildfire, the wind and humidity on the bluff kept me safe from flames and fumes. People should have noticed this fire and I assume they were already looking for me. I decided I should just bid my time on this cliff, while waiting for rescue. I just sat down next to the poochyena, facing the burning forest, and exhaled loudly. I thought about how I was going to sleep like a corpse after this. Surely, they would cancel school for a few days to let us rest, right? Fitz was never gonna believe me when I tell him about all that I witnessed today. I mean an hour ago, our collective biggest concern was lunch. Fitz… I hope they all made it out of the forest safely after I ran away. I was entertained by such thoughts when suddenly I heard a loud roar coming from the seaside. I immediately rose to my feet and turned around to face the sea once more. I saw something big soaring rapidly above the cargo ship. A dragon! It was a huge dragon-like pokemon; clearly quadrupedal with a light blue hide, a pair of red wings that beat harshly in the air, a big mean head sitting on an elongated neck and a two meter long, large blue tail at the other end of its body. The beast was flying slowly but surely towards this bluff I was on. Once it got close enough, I saw that there was someone on its back. We have planes now and ferries have routes all around the region, so it wasn't so common these days to see someone riding a pokemon outside of shows and movies. Personally, that was my first time witnessing this in real life and my first thought was "cool!". The pokemon and his rider made their way closer and closer until they got right about above the cliff, then they started hovering up there. They were towering about thirty meters above me so I couldn't really see the person in detail. A minute went by but nothing more happened. I started questioning their intentions. Were they attempting to help me? That would be weird since people from that same boat were dead set on doing something about me – the eyewitness. Plus, if they were trying to help, they would be closer to me; or they would reach out and talk? For now, they were still sitting up there and I remember passing my right hand up my neck to massage it a few times. Staring up at that angle for so long was starting to hurt. But then the dragon roared, opened its mouth wide and I saw an orb of blue light forming in front of it. Poochyena took a defensive stance, barked a few times but then started wailing. And thus, it dawned on me: I wasn't being rescued!

Fitz and I were fans of a game called Mystery Dungeon. In the game, humans don't exist and pokemon have developed their own civilization, but mysterious phenomenon and disasters are striking the land. You play as a pokemon that joins a guild to help save other pokemons from disasters and investigate their cause. It's an amazing game because of how realistic it is. All the pokemons and pokemon moves in the games are real and are animated to match reality. And, spoiler alert, one of our Hoenn celebrity is in the game as well. Rayquaza, the legendary green dragon, savior of Hoenn, was the game's final boss. As you fight it, you find out that the cause of the disasters is an asteroid about to collide with the planet. So, to save the world, Rayquaza destroys it in only one attack. This is one of the reasons why this game is so popular with Hoenn youth because it matches the reputation that Rayquaza has in Hoenn: a super strong savior. You must be wondering where I was going with this random video game rant. Well, that one attack that Rayquaza uses to destroy the asteroid is a move called hyper beam and it is one of the strongest pokemon move known to man. The animation for it in the game looked just like what was happening in front of the dragon in the sky. It looked a lot bigger in the game, but the target was a giant asteroid, not little old me. Undisturbed, the dragon finished preparing the hyper beam, while I, in a mental haze, just looked at it. I don't know how many minutes it took, but soon enough, I saw the orb flash and in a blinding light, a beam of pure energy was sent down in my direction. Frozen in contemplation of it, I didn't attempt to evade it. I was stranded on a bluff with flames on one end, and perilous sea on the other and now a destructive ray of energy coming from the skies: checkmate. I silently watched the beam fall to the bluff and closed my eyes. But just as I started feeling the pressure of the beam on my skin and clothes, I heard a bark. I opened my eyes just to see the poochyena running straight at me from the direction of the forest. It looked like it was going to tackle me? And it tackled me right in the belly, so hard I lost my breath. Worse, because I was so close to the edge of the bluff, I lost my balance into a free fall. The next instant, the beam shredded the bluff like it was a ball of hay and piles of rocks and shards started falling into the sea at the same time as me. Miraculously, none of them hit me and I was able to fall all the way to the water. But the impact when I hit the surface, combined with the fact that I just got tackled by a pokemon knocked me out cold and I lost consciousness.