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Chp 18: Solaceon

"We're taking the long way back." Seth said. "Solaceon, to Celestic, across the mountains, Eterna, Floaroma, Jubilife, and then finally Canalave."

"Uhh why?" Soul asked.

"Sightseeing I guess. And it'll give us a break from gyms."

"I don't need a break."

"I think we do. Sky's out and needs practice with her new move. And the next gym is gonna suck. It's steel type, which means both of you have a disadvantage."

"Fine, if that's what you think boss." She joked.

+++

They got on the road, leaving to the east before the path curved upwards. They didn't encounter anybody looking for a fight, especially with his recent appearance on trainer spotlight. There were only two points of interest on the route, a tower that was a combination pokemon sanctuary and graveyard, and the old ruins of the previous tower. Both places were hotspots for ghost pokemon and thus Seth had little interest in exploring them.

"Why are you so scared of ghost types?" Soul asked. "They're just pokemon, like any other."

"I wouldn't call it fear. Call it healthy suspicion." Seth said. "Ghost types do some wierd shit."

"Unhealthy suspicion is more like it."

They soon arrived in the small town of Solaceon. The place was mostly a rancher town, and the biggest ranch was the pokemon daycare. The place was huge, serving tons of purposes. It was primarily a place for trainers to leave their pokemon, where they would be trained and potentially bred. They also trained and raised their own pokemon, for many purposes. They were one of the biggest suppliers of moomoo milk and regular animal products in Sinnoh.

"Oh hey~" Soul called when she saw the sign. "I remember the fun times I had at my old daycare."

"I'll bet you do." Sky snickered.

"You know, I was expecting a lot more. There's a difference between a small town and a nothing town." Seth said.

"HELP!" A cry echoed through the town.

"You asked for it." Soul said.

"Where did it come from?" Seth asked.

"What was that howl?" Somebody nearby asked to the person next to them.

"You hear them? It must have been a pokemon." Sky said.

"Come on." Seth said, heading for the woods east of town. The western area of town was comprised purely of ranches and farmland, and thus poor for hiding. They snuck away into the cover of the trees, allowing Seth to turn into a lucario. The two aura sensors on his left side rose up. He sampled the aura of the surrounding environment, as far out as he could. There was a massive amount of living things nearby, but he was looking for the stressed ones. There were too many to be absolutely sure, but he decided to go for the most pain, further away from town. While this method was excellent for range, it had several downsides. Aura sensing could only sense life energy, thus he could only sense the direction and distance. To get an accurate reading and focus in on that one life form, he had to close his eyes, making him likely to trip over rocks or fallen trees. While aura could be used to feel emotions, they were dull and muted. The life force he was tuned in on was strong, but fading. It was very angry, enough that he could sense it. While plant life appeared to him, humans, animals and pokemon were much brighter, with stronger life force. The target was out of the forest, as only a small cluster of other lives were around it. It was also elevated, higher up than they were.

At their sprinting pace, they closed in quickly, but reached a rock wall. "Shit. Sky? Can you do anything? I don't want to cause a cave in breaking through."

She closed her eyes, her face scrunching up in effort. "Think I found an entrance. This way!" She yelled, charging to the right. They were right behind her. After a bit, they found a old stairwell leading up into a cave. The cave was filled with ancient ruins, set in a maze like pattern. With a combination of Sky's precognition and Seth's aura sensing, they bolted through the ruins, soon coming across a strange sight. There was a typhlosion, lying in a pool of blood, and a circle of letter shaped pokemon floating around it.

Seth ran forward, kneeling down in front of the injured pokemon. "Are you okay?!"

"Do I look okay?" She growled.

"Hold on, I'll-"

"NO! Leave me behind! Go after them!" She demanded.

"Who?"

"GO!" She roared.

"Fine. We'll figure it out." He muttered. "Sky?"

"I'm on it." She said without him even having to give an order.

He turned human again and set his pack down before turning lucario again. "There should be medicine in there. Soul, with me."

"Right."

The lucario and absol bolted off, leaving the espeon with the bleeding typhlosion.

"So what's going on?" Sky asked.

"I finally caught those motherfuckers in the act, but one pulled a gun. Fucker." The typhlosion growled.

"Okay, let's start from the top. Keep talking." Sky said, unzipping the pack and digging around for potions.

"Names Tiff. You hear about the daycare center being robbed?"

"I believe so." Sky said. She found a standard potion, and pulled it out to apply before looking for something stronger. She pushed it in front of Tiff. "Where are you hurt?"

Tiff rolled over onto her back and pointed a paw at the center of her blood stained chest. "Got shot right here."

Sky bit her lip. The potion would stop the bleeding, but pokemon medicine only did so much. With that much blood loss, she needed to go to the hospital. A blue field covered the potion, the plunger being pushed down as the healing spray shot out prematurely. Sky quickly manuvered it into place to spray on her wound. Moving things with psychic was difficult, as it created a lot of pressure. She couldn't pick up anything without it being crushed. Things like glass and living things were out of the question, but the plastic bottle was okay. She could hold back the pressure, but that took a lot more energy to do.

Tiff grit her teeth until the potion ran out and Sky went back to find another. "Damn those things burn. Well those assholes have been robbing the daycare center. They got caught a while ago, but they got away and keep coming back. I've been chasing them around for a while now. They're using this cave to get to Veilstone and I set up an ambush, but this."

"You know a lot of human stuff. Are you a trainer pokemon?"

"Kinda. We can talk about that one later. Let's just say I work with the daycare."

+++

Seth and Soul were sprinting down the path, trying to catch up with whoever. Seth could feel two lives up ahead. They came around a corner and spotted two men, both wearing ski masks, going down a set of stairs.

Seth and Soul exchanged a look, before sneakily moving in. Seth kept his aura on, focusing on them. If he still had the full power of aura, he could have encased them in a dome or something, but the most he could do was an aura sphere. Maybe if he-

His foot hit a rock, sending it flying and causing a noise to echo through the hall.

"Who's there?!" One of the men demanded. They both turned around, guns raised. One had a shotgun and the other a hunting rifle. Seth prayed that he was far enough away, but again, "Hey, get outta here 'cario." He threatened.

Seth started to take a step back, but the other one said, "Are you stupid? No witnesses." They were in a narrow corridor. Even with extremespeed, he wasn't invulnerable. Before Seth could react, a deafening boom shattered the air. Seth was suddenly thrown back, falling back onto the ground. There were three more shots. "No time to confirm, we have to keep moving."

Seth blinked a few times. He didn't feel hurt. Must have been his steel type skin. But there was a heavy weight on his chest. He looked down and froze. "S-S-Soul?" He asked. She was lying sideways across him, and there was a lot of red staining her fur. Without so much as a second thought, he mega evolved, picked up Soul, and began to run back with all his might, using extremespeed constantly, despite the considerable strain it but on his body.

+++

"Okay, I think that's the best I can do here." Sky said. "You need to go to... What's that noise?"

"Pokemon center." Was all she heard as a blue blur shot by. Tiff vanished, leaving her all alone.

+++

The automatic glass doors shattered as a mega lucario burst through them. He took the brunt of the broken glass, most of it bouncing off his skin. He was carrying two pokemon on his back, a bleeding absol and a typhlosion. He made it a few steps in, before collapsing.

+++

Seth's eyes opened and he bolted up, his body screaming at him. He had used extremespeed for around twenty seconds straight. But that was the least of his concerns. He looked around to find himself in a pokemon hospital bed. He got up, turned human and walked out. He ached, but he wasn't in any real danger. He went to the nurse's station. "Absol?" He asked.

"Oh... You must be her trainer. Room 4. I'll send the doctor along."

He didn't like the sound of that. He went over to the room, opened the door, and stepped inside. "Soul?" He asked.

"She's still unconscious." Sky said. "It's only been about an hour. What happened?"

Seth came over and sat in a chair. Soul was lying on her belly, covered in bandages and hooked up to an IV of blood. "We got caught. It's my own fault... I wasn't paying attention."

There was a knock on the door, and a pink haired nurse in a white lab coat stepped in. "You must be her trainer." She said. Seth nodded. "I won't ask what happened." She looked away and bit her lip. "We... I'm so sorry, but we don't have enough donor blood. She's okay for now, but we need to get the bullets out of her. If we operate, she will bleed to death. But if we leave the bullets inside her, she may never be able to battle again."

"Dammit..." Seth muttered, putting his head in his hands. "Can't you get some from the daycare?"

"Not exactly. Pokemon blood types are very different from humans. They are based on species. We already checked for any other absol, and there are none. She's currently on ditto blood, the universal pokemon donor, but we don't have enough for the operation."

"Alright then. Use me." Seth stood and turned into an absol.

The nurse's eyes went wide and her mouth gaped. "I... okay. We'll start prep immediately."

"Doctor! The lucario in 23 is gone!" A nurse ran in yelling.

"It's alright. Prep for surgery."

+++

Sky looked around until she found the typhlosion, Tiff. "You doing okay?" She asked as she came in.

"Huh? Oh, it's you. Yeah. I feel a lot better. The bullet went right through, but didn't hit anything important. Just a few stitches. What happened with your trainer?"

"He and Soul are in the emergency room right now."

"So uh, sorry for getting your friend shot."

"It's alright. We help people out for a living." Sky said with a smile.

+++

They took three full bags of blood from Seth before sending him to the waiting room. Sky was already there, and he, still in his absol form, went over and sat next to her.

"So?" She asked.

"They won't take anymore of my blood." He muttered. "But they did say it was a perfect match."

"Relax. They're professionals."

"If anything goes wrong..." Seth clenched his paws, scratching the linoleum and making a god awful noise. "It all just happened so fast. She took the bullet, bullets, for me."

"Of course she did. I would have done it too."

"But I don't want either of you getting hurt."

Sky giggled. "And you think it doesn't work the other way around? You don't always have to be the big strong man."

"You seem awfully calm."

"Soul is the toughest thing I know. It'll take more than that to slow her down."

"I know... but..."

They sat in the waiting room for well over an hour. Seth started out pacing, but his body was too tired, so he laid down on a bench, tapping his paws in impatience. After what felt like an eternity, a nurse came out, motioning for him to come over. He and Sky did, and she showed them back, into privacy.

"She's doing just fine. She had tons of bullet wounds, but we took care of it. We're gonna keep her here tonight, and see how she's doing in the morning."

"Is there anything else you can do?" Seth asked.

She shook her head. "Sorry, I can't understand you. You can see her if you want." Seth nodded enthusiastically. They were led back into a room, where Soul lay on a bed. She was hooked up to numerous devices and had a lot of bandages wrapped around her midsection. The nurse closed the door after they were in.

Seth turned human again and walked over to her. He put his hand on her paw. "You awake?"

"Yeah." She muttered, opening her eyes. "I feel high as a kite. Those painkillers are some good shit."

He smiled. "That was my next question. Sorry for-"

"Shut it." She ordered. "Did we save the typhlosion?"

"Yeah. Her name is Tiff." Sky said.

"That's good."

"Oh yeah. So those guys stole a bunch of pokemon from the daycare, and that's why Tiff was chasing them."

"Well, I know where we're off to next."

"What?! No. No more crazy stunts. My heart can't handle another scare like that." Seth said.

"First of all, you," She pointed a paw at him. "Were the problem. I can dodge a bullet. Second, we both know we can't just live a peaceful life. Danger is in our blood. Helping people too."

"Bu-"

"And another thing. You're fine with getting the shit beaten out of you, but what about us? We feel the exact same way as you do right now."

"I-"

"So here's what's going to happen. We're gonna go rescue those pokemon, and we're gonna come back unharmed. Now stop talking, I'm going to bed." She lowered her head and closed her eyes.

"She's right you know. We're a lot tougher than you give us credit for." Sky said.

"I know you're tough... it's just... My desire to keep you both safe is a lot stronger than helping others. If that means abandoning people in need..."

"Don't say that. We're here for a reason. You've got the powers you do for a reason. I didn't wish to be stronger so we could hide from evil! Remember why we came here? We've got to live our lives." She said, emotion sparkling in her eyes.

"Deep down, I know you're right. But that doesn't make it any easier."

"Shut the hell up." Soul groaned quietly.

Seth suppressed a laugh and sat down. His face turned grim quickly, as he began to think. These thoughts haunted him until he eventually fell asleep.

+++

"So we leavin'?" Soul asked.

"You're not going anywhere until the doctor says so." Seth said.

"Says mr train through the pain."

"So sayeth he does. We're gonna go talk to Tiff. You just behave while we're gone."

"I feel fine." She complained, but he just waved as he and Sky left.

They crossed the area, going past the nurses' station and into Tiff's room.

"Hi Tiff. Now that we finally have a chance to talk, I'm Seth." He said, coming in. The typhlosion was out of bed, standing by the window and looking out.

"Well thanks for saving me. I already got the go ahead to leave. My wounds weren't too bad. I might have even survived if you hadn't of shown up." She said with a bit of venom in her voice.

"That's good." He said, deciding to ignore it. "Sky told me about your story. I was hoping to hear more."

"No need. I'm going to take care of things today."

"Huh?"

"You heard me. I'm going to Veilstone to save the kidnapped pokemon."

"You've got to be kidding. You can't go alone!"

"And who's gonna go with me? You?"

"Well that was the plan, if you can wait another day."

"Now who's the crazy one? Helping a girl you just met? You just trying to get lucky?"

"What?! No!" Seth spouted nervously. "Helping people's just what we do."

"Yeah, I'll bet. It's a lot harder than that to get with me. Even if you're a pokemon that can pretend to be human."

"Yeah, you got me on that last part. Just give us a day, then we'll come with."

"I'll meet you in the ruins tunnel tomorrow morning. Be late and I'll leave you behind."

"Alright." He and Sky left and went back to Soul's room, to find the doctor in there with her.

"Oh, it's good that you're here. I just changed out her bandages. She's healing well, and you all can leave any time. But keep her out of battle. No strenuous activity until she's fully healed."

"Okay." Seth nodded.

"And your secret is safe with me."

+++

"Alright, so we're going with Tiff back to Veilstone. It would seem there's a shortcut in the ruins. Somebody, or even group, has been kidnapping pokemon, stealthily, from the daycare center, and Tiff caught on. So she's going to attack them. If we let her go alone, she'll just get killed. As much as I don't want to get into another shit show with an evil group, we can't just ignore it. So we're gonna take a trick from their book and keep this quiet."

"That's really all we have to go on?" Soul complained. "Seems like we're rushing into this."

"Yeah, I know." He sighed. "But it's been an ongoing problem and we just stumbled into it."

"I would guess it's small scale too. The daycare would notice something if a bunch of pokemon kept going missing." Sky mused.

"Or they're trying to hide it." Soul said.

"Doesn't matter. One pokemon getting stolen is enough. I just worry about why it's happening. What are they doing with the pokemon?" Seth said, getting a bit angry.

"Can't be good." Soul said.

"One way or the other, they do not have a problem killing. Careful takes priority." Seth said.

"Great, so when are we going?" Soul asked.

"Well... That's just it. You, are not going."

"AWW C'MON!" She groaned. "I feel fine already."

"No. Doctor's orders."

"You're just worried cause I saved your life."

"That too. You aren't exactly suited for sneaking. Between my aura and Sky's psychic, we can avoid a lot. And the smaller the group, the better."

She groaned even louder. "But I..." But the look in his eyes told her everything. He would never agree to let her come along. "Fine." She humphed and laid down. She tapped her paw on the bed. "Remote please."