Chapter 9

'...' for thoughts

"..." for speech

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After admiring the scenery for a while, Skyla snapped them out. "I know it's very nice here, but that's not why we came, we can always come back later. Now let's go, the sounds are coming from that direction." She pointed towards the fog behind the flower field.

"You're right!" Cynthia reached for Gible's Pokeball in her jacket pocket and squeezed it tightly in her hand. "Let's hurry and see if there is anyone who can help us and if not we should directly go to the Pokémon Center." Then she marched off.

The others rushed to catch up.

They only took a few moment to cross the field of flowers. When they reached its end the fog before them was even thicker then they thought but the sounds did indeed come from it and they were louder then ever, this was definetly the right place.

Now that they were standing in front of the fog it seemed a lot scarier than before and the total silence of the grove, apart from the sounds of training, didn't help calm their nerves either.

Jasper adjusted his red and white cap and then clenched his sweaty hands. "We don't know what's waiting for us on the other side, so get ready for anything!" And with that, he led the way and entered the mist as the first of the teenagers. Magby trailed right behind him, always on alert so he could defend his trainer at the first sign of danger.

The girls exchanged nervous looks, but then gathered their courage and strode into the fog, too, as a group, along with their Pokémon.

Everything was milky white in the mist, Jasper even had trouble seeing his hand as he stretched it away from his body, and although it was only a short while since he entered the fog, he already couldn't tell where he came from, he had turned in cicles a few times to look around him and even his compass and VisoCaster stopped working. Now his only way was the way forward, towards where the sound is coming from. Due to the silence and the fact that Jasper was drawing near its source, the sounds appeard louder and louder.

"It's weird, I'm not cold at all and I'm not wet either." Jasper mumbled puzzled and a bit scared and stopped, unsure if he shouldn't turn around after all. "Is that really fog, or rather, is this fog real or another illusion? What do you think, Magby?"

Magby touched his arm thoughtfully, he saw that it wasn't wet either and shrugged. He then clenched his hand into a fist, held it out to Jasper and spat out a bunch of flames. "Ma-Magby-by, Magby-by."

Jasper scratched his chin thoughtfully, then started to grin and gave Maby a fist bump. "You're right, whether this is an illusion or real mist, it blocks our view the same way and there is nothing we can do about it. We have no idea where the way back is, so let's stop worrying so much and find out which Pokémon is training here.

Still, I have to say that this fog and the wall before this really showed me how strong illusions can be, if this fog is an illusion you probably can't even blow it away. I used to think that illusions were just weak deceptions, but these ones can be really dangerous if used correctly."

Some tens of meters later the fog began to thin out and after a few more steps it was completely gone.

As Jasper walked those meters, he could finally hear something other than the sounds of the attacks, he could now hear the Pokémon's calls as well. It was just a short "Zo," but it was repeated over and over, just like the move the Pokémon was using. Jasper thought hard but couldn't figure out which Pokemon could be making those sounds.

After Jasper had left the fog completely, he could finally see where and more importantly who the noises were coming from.

Before him was an open space, and like the previous one, it was surrounded by huge old trees. There were also large and small boulders scattered around, with one particularly large boulder having deep scratches and craters that could only have come from Pokémon attacks.

The noises had stopped now, but when Magby and Jasper let their eyes wander, they saw the suspected source of the noises, a small dark gray fur covered Pokémon, right next to that very large rock.

It had already noticed the two when they left the mist and had stopped its training, and although it kept its distance, it now watched them with curiosity that shone in its large, red-lidded blue eyes.

'It's just watching us, no, it's just watching me, as if it has never seen a human before.' Jasper mused as he and Magby drew nearer to the unknown Pokémon.

When Jasper got within range of the Pokémon and saw that it was still doing nothing but watching, he hesitantly held out his hand.

"Zo-Zorua," the Pokémon exclaimed as it sniffed his hand cutely, questioningly, and a little suspiciously.

'So that's a Zorua, wow, it's been ages since it was last seen. This is a monumental discovery, I'm so excited!'

After sniffing around for a while, Zorua's caution seemed to be eased and it snapped Jasper out of his thoughts by presenting its back for Jasper to pet and he gladly accepted the invitation.

Jasper reached out and stroked Zorua's fur. 'This fur is so soft, Zorua is such a cute little Po...'

Jasper couldn't finish his thoughts as he was shocked when Zorua let out a sad cry, as if hit by an attack and fell onto his side. After that, it quickly climbed back up and hid behind its training rock, whimpering a few times and watching the two from behind its supposed shelter with a mischievous light in its eyes.

Jasper and Magby just froze, Jasper's hand still outstretched and their thoughts just drew blank.

Just then, Jasper felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up and a chill ran down his spine. The shadows around him deepened, he heard soft breathing behind him and he literally felt two eyes piercing him with their angry gaze.

Both Jasper and Magby reacted quickly when they felt dark-type energy gathering at their back, Jasper, still squatting, jumped to the front, did a roll and then hid behind the nearest boulder while Magby turned around and launched a burning Mach Punch.

The creature attacking them, which Jasper quickly identified as the super rare Pokémon Zoroark, didn't expect such a fast reaction from its victims-to-be and got hit by Magbys blazingly fast attack, launching it away.

'How could I underestimate wild Pokémon again after Cynthia nearly died in an ambush just half an hour ago and the legends even talk about Zoruas love for tricks and how fierce Zoroark defend their pups, I had to expect a Zoroark to be here! I was just so happy to see such an exceedingly rare Pokémon, I need to be better than this!' Jasper berated himseld while peeking from behind the rock.

What he saw didn't help his self-blame either as Zoroark, with nary a scratch on it, caught its fall, launched itself at Magby and attacked him with a Night Slash.

Zoroark was so fast that Magby had no time to react and he got ragdolled over the earthen ground. Upon seeing that attack, Jasper realised how lucky they were that Zoroark didn't expect that Mach Punch just now or it would have easily dodged the attack.

Maby stood back up, but he had problems staying on his feet, he swayed back and forth, that attack clearly did a number on him. He wouldn't be able to hold on for much longer.

'Damn it, damn, damn it, how can you help Magby, Jasper, think man, THINK!' Jasper turned his gaze away and sat down, trying to calm his mind.

'Zoroark is attacking Magby right now and if I try to shout a command he will focus on me. Magby will try to aid me, but Zoroark is much faster than Magby and even if I shout to buy time, it won't work since I will die to just one attack. The others are still inside the mist and I have no clue when they will exit it or if they will even exit it, for all I know they could have met another Zoroark, so I can't count on them. And even if they came, I don't think we could defeat this Zoroark even if we fight together.

But there must be something I can do!'

Jasper looked around desperately, trying to find a way out of this hopeless situation and suddenly stopped.

Diagonally to his right he saw Zorua looking excitedly at the battlefield from behind his rock, occasionally giggling when there was an explosion or a scream from Magby.

'That's it!' Jasper mentally yelled as he shifted from sitting to crouching and crept to the nearest rock to hide behind it, careful that neither Zorua nor Zoruark spotted him. "Wait a bit Magby, I'll get us out of here, I promise."

Jasper kept sneaking from rock to rock until he finally reached the one just behind Zorua. He then reached into his backpack and pulled out a black-top Pokeball with a yellow pattern, an Ultraball.

'You're about to stop laughing, as*hole!' Jasper thought and despite the situation a malicious grin crept on his face and he threw the Ultraball.

The Ultraball hit Zorua on the back and before he could even make a surprised sound, a red light sucked him into the Ultraball, which then snapped shut and fell to the ground.

'Please stay in the ball!' Jasper pleaded, fists clenched as the Ultraball trembled.

A shake. Jasper stared at the ball.

Second shake. Jasper's sweat trickled down his face, but he didn't dare blink.

Third shake. Jasper closed his eyes and didn't dare look anymore. He had the feeling that time was running in slow motion.

After what seemed like an eternity, a pleasant tone that signalised a successful catch sounded. "Ding" And Jasper slumped in relief.

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1715 words