FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hello again! Another chapter of this series is ready to be read. I actually finished this passed weekend, but I wanted to get both my stories out at the same time. I'll felt bad letting it sit on my desktop all week, so I was like 'Forget it... I'll just post it." Oh, another thing! I reached my goal of 8K words in this one. Yay! d(^.^)b So, enough about me. I'll let you get to reading. Remember, Comments and Votes are welcome and appreciated.

**********8**********

Chris awoke the next morning feeling a slight weight on his chest. Looking down, he saw that it was Lani, or at least just her head. The rest of her was snuggled up against his side. He looked over to his left and saw that Tora and Aaron were still sleeping. He smiled at them since they were sleeping so close together. "As much as I would love to stay, I have to get ready to meet Alice so that we can head to work," he thought. As stealthily as he could, he got out of the bed without waking anyone. He got changed into some clothes and brushed his teeth. He realized that his pile of dirty clothes were getting pretty high and made a note to wash them before they leave for the next town. Once he was finished getting ready, he stepped out of the bathroom to see everyone waking up. "Morning everyone," he said.

"Morning Chris," they all said in almost complete unison.

"Heading off to work already?" Tora asked.

"Pretty much, but I'm gonna meet Alice for breakfast so we can head out together. We still got an hour or so before we're needed."

"So, we're on our own for today?"

"Yep, so take this day to relax a little. I'm sure you two will find something to do, right?" he asked looking at Tora and Aaron. The psychic shrugged.

"Yeah, we'll be okay," he said a bit monotonously, not fully awake just yet.

"Can I go to work with you?" Lani asked.

"Err... I guess it's alright. I'll have to ask the manager if it's okay for you to hang around the store."

"Okay." Chris was a little curious as to why she wanted to go with him. It wasn't really all that exciting and he was sure that he wouldn't need help with anything. The truth was; she didn't know what she could possibly do by herself today. She didn't want to go with Tora and Aaron because she feels like she'll just be a third wheel and she didn't want to stay in her ball all either. There wasn't anything in the city or around its borders that sparked her interests. That left spending time with Chris, not like it already wasn't one of the things she enjoyed anyway.

After that, all of them went downstairs to the cafeteria for breakfast. Alice arrived shortly after everyone got their food. They took their time eating since they had time to spare. Chris and Alice, along with Lani in her ball, left the pokémon center around 10:20 to make sure they got to the store at least twenty minutes early while Tora left with Aaron to go back to his island. They got to the store at 10:41 am. There was just enough time to be given a brief rundown on everything they needed to know to survive their shift. The store wasn't terribly busy yet, which was a good thing for them since they wanted to start slow.

They walked up to a guy who was working the register. His name was Kevin. He was an average guy with a slim build and dirty blond hair. He was a nice guy that stood taller than both of them at 5'11". "Hey, is the manager in?" Alice asked him. "We're working the next shift."

"Oh, right, you two came by yesterday. He should be in the back right now," he said.

"Thanks Kev."

"You still don't know me well enough to call me that," he joked as they headed toward the back of the store. Once back there, they immediately saw the manager. His name was Jim Daniels. He was a tall man, standing at 6'3" with short, curly black hair and a descend build about him. He looked like he worked out from time to time.

Jim looked up from his desk as soon as they walked in. "Nice to see you two come in early," he said grinning slightly. He got up and walked over to them. "What you're going to be doing today won't be all that hard, even for a couple kids. You'll work a normal shift and you'll get an hour break for lunch. Alice, Kevin will show you how to work the register so go get learning before you clock in." Alice left with a slight nod. "As for you," he said facing Chris. "All you have to do is refill our shelves. If any customers ask you for help, be sure to guide them wherever they need to go. In order to do that you need to know the area of this place, so get try to get familiar with the layout. The products will be in either open or closed marked boxes in the storage room. Once you finish restocking, come back here and I'll show you how to work the register so you can help your friend out there. Any questions before you get started?"

"Just one question," Chris said a bit unsurely. "My dratini wanted to spend the day with me and I was wondering if it was okay for her to stay out of her ball." Jim thought about it for a minute.

"Let me see her for a sec."

"Sure thing." Chris grabbed Lani's ball and released her. Jim looked her over and took note of her size.

"She's kind of small. Did she just hatch or something?"

"No sir, she's just young," Chris replied.

"Can you guarantee that she won't cause any trouble? The last thing I need right now is a torn up store and scared customers."

"She's really well behaved, so she won't cause you or anyone any trouble."

"Eh... I guess it's alright then. She can be an extra pair of eyes around here. Just make sure to keep an eye on her." With that being said, Chris and Lani left the office and started on their shift.

Things were going smoothly in the first couple hours. Things started picking up in the afternoon. People on their lunch break were coming in for some snacks and sandwiches. It turned out a lot busier than any of them anticipated, but it stayed at a manageable level. Chris was finding it more difficult to fill the shelves with the increase in customers. He would glance over at Alice to see how she was doing and it seemed that she didn't have a problem with kicking it up a notch. Lani was busying herself by wondering around and looking at the customers. They were all nice to her. Some of them came in with kids and she let them pet her. Even then, she made sure to be completely aware of her surroundings to fulfill her role as the extra pair of eyes around the place.

The time came when she saw a woman stuff a few items into her purse. The dragon immediately went over to Chris, who was in the snack aisle. "Hey, Chris," she said.

"What's up, Lani?" he asked.

"I just saw a lady stuffing her bag with a bunch of medicine stuff."

"Are you serious? Okay, keep an eye on her while I go get the manager." He dropped what he was doing and rushed to get Jim. Lani went back to the isle she saw the woman. The small dragon kept out of sight and watched her put a couple more things in her purse before finally going up to the checkout counter.

By then, Chris and Jim were coming out of the office in the back. "Ma'am, I just got word from one of my employees that you're shoplifting and I'm going to have to ask you to empty the contents of your purse," Jim said. The woman looked surprised.

"Shoplifting?" she asked in a shocked tone. "I wouldn't even dream of it. Who said that I was doing such a thing?" Jim sighed, obviously having gone through this scenario dozens of times.

"That doesn't matter. Would you please empty your purse or I will call the police and have them to convince you to cooperate." The woman looked at both Jim and Chris slightly nervously. Alice, who was watching this development, had one hand on Fang's ball in case the woman attempted to bolt. The woman met Alice's expectations and bolted for the exit. Alice unclipped the held ball and was about to throw it, but stopped when she saw Lani suddenly tackle the woman from one of the aisle. They both fell. When the woman tried to fight back against Lani's hold on her legs, the dragon zapped her with a Thunder-wave to paralyze her.

"Good work Lani," Chris said as he ran up to her. Lani released the paralyzed woman.

"It was nothing," she replied with a satisfied smile. "Only idiots run when they know they've been caught." Chris smiled and rubbed her head.

"Well, the police will be here shortly to take our shoplifter out of here," Jim said. "Great work on catching her before she got away."

"It was really Lani's doing, sir. All I did was tell you about it."

"Regardless, you brought her here which resulted in the capturing of a criminal. For that, I thank you. You can look forward to something extra in your pay." Jim turned to go wait at the entrance to the store until the police came. The people who saw the whole thing applauded both Chris and Lani for their efforts. Alice even gave them a thumbs-up. Lani was extremely proud of herself and felt even happier knowing that everyone appreciated her effort as well.

"I feel so awesome right now," she thought.

*****8*****

"Try it," Aaron said.

"Mmm, I don't know..." Tora said unsurely. "What does it taste like?"

"It's super sweet with a slightly bitter aftertaste. You'll get used to it. How can you resist something like this?"

"You're kidding, right? That thing's huge... and it looks weird!"

"All the more reason you should try it. Come on, would I ever have you try something you wouldn't like?"

"...Isn't that what you're doing now?"

"... Okay, point taken, but this is something I know you'll like. I'll try it with you so you don't feel like you're being tricked or something. What do you say?" Tora thought about his suggestion while looking at the object in question. Aaron was giving her a tour around his island, showing her all the best places to sunbathe and relax. When she asked about what kind of food grows the island, the psychic disappeared and came back with a giant pink and green-stripped berry. He was back in his mew form, so it was close to twice his size and almost as tall as Tora was. She was surprised that berries could even get that big. Aaron asked her to taste it, which led to him trying to coax her into taking one bite out of the abnormally large berry.

"I... guess I'll try it," she said finally. Aaron giggled and rolled the large berry closer to them.

"We'll take a bite on three, okay?" Tora nodded. "One... two... three!" Both of them grabbed hold and took a small bite. Tora's eyes lit up at how unimaginably sweet the berry was, which was countered by the bitter aftertaste. Even then, it was absolutely delicious. She immediately took a bigger bite after swallowing the first one.

"It's even better the second time," she thought. She heard Aaron giggle and stopped her chewing to look at him. The psychic sported a huge grin in an 'I told you so' way. He didn't need to say it for her to get it. She swallowed what she had. "Okay, you were right. I really like it."

"I knew you would," he said happily. "You have a little juice around your mouth." Tora licked around her mouth a couple times.

"Did I get it all?"

"Nope, I'll get it for you." Before she could protest, the psychic had closed the distance between them and licked the bit of berry juice trailing under her chin. She gasped and blushed. Aaron opted to take his time, slowly licking his way up to her bottom lip, stealing a quick kiss from her before moving away. "All gone," he said rather playfully. Tora had seen a slight glint in his eye when he said that, that same sparkle she saw the night he first brought her here. It made her slightly nervous that he looks at her that way, but she was very much flattered by his attention. Still, the chu didn't want them to get too physical yet, but was having a hard time keeping a straight face. She looked away shyly because she didn't want him to see how much she actually enjoyed his little stunt.

"Th-thanks..." she said trying not to make eye contact with him. The psychic knew that he probably pushed it a bit, but he thought that it was worth it. He really enjoyed doing that to her and almost couldn't contain himself from doing even more, but he'll have to wait until she was ready to go further. Though, he could've sworn he'd saw her trying to hold back a smile.

"So, do you wanna try to finish the rest of this or are you ready to see what else grows around here?" he asked. The chu looked at the berry one last time, knowing that there was no way they could finish it.

"We can go see what else is around here, but what are we gonna do with this?"

"I'll just throw it in ocean," he stated simply.

"Isn't that wasting?"

"Nah, my friend will get to it before it becomes uneatable. They're like snacks to him." Tora took another look at the berry, wondering what pokémon could possibly think of something this big as a snack. "You wanna see him?" Aaron asked, seeing that she was trying to figure the identity of this pokémon. She nodded and the psychic teleported them onto a large pier.

Tora was confused for a moment, wondering what a pier was doing here of all places. That wasn't the only question she had about this place either. She had been taken to all kinds of places on the island for a couple hours now and she was sure they hadn't even made it to the other side yet. "How big is this island?"

"Roughly the size of Viridian Forest," He answered as he threw the giant berry into the water with his psychic powers. "You've only seen the south side of it so far, which, as you can tell, is nothing but forest. There's a mountain on the north side with natural hot springs, a couple waterfalls and rivers are on the east side, and the west is pretty much a mixture of all three, only with more open areas and no mountains." Tora was amazed that such an island could even exist. It was just too unbelievable.

"How is it that no one found this place? It's too big for it not to be noticed." Aaron smirked at her question.

"That, my lovely chu, is a secret. Now, watch close or you're going to miss it." Tora sighed at not having her question answered, but watched the large berry be carried off farther away from shore. It wasn't until it got nearly impossible to see did something happen that made her jaw drop. A saw a large white bird leapt out of the water in a spinning motion, devouring the berry in the process, and made a big splash as it dove back in the ocean.

"Is that him?" she asked, completely amazed by the sight.

"Yeah, he just likes to showoff a little. He already knows I'm here. Oh, just so you know, he might be a little grumpy cuz I haven't seen him in a while, so don't take it personally if he picks on you. He's really a nice guy." A few moments later, the same giant shot out of the water in front of them. It was a lugia. It hovered in the air looking between them before finally settling on Aaron. It slowly came down and settled itself in front of them with a small sigh.

"So, what, you thought that little berry was gonna make up for all the time you left me alone?" he asked with a slightly annoyed look.

"It hasn't been that long," Aaron replied.

"Yeah, you're right. Almost a year without as much as a 'hey, how you doing?' is no time at all. No, no, I'm completely exaggerating and not feeling like you've neglected our friendship at all. No sir; that is not the case here." The level of sarcasm he said it in almost made Tora laugh, but she held it in. Aaron however, didn't bother holding in his laughter.

"Someone sounds bitter. Sorry, it's just that I've just been preoccupied with other matters. We have pretty much the whole day to have fun and catch up before we have to leave, but I can come back to see you more since my schedule is free."

"Yeah, that's cool and all, but... who's she?" he asked gesturing to Tora. "Is she your mate?" Tora felt her face heat up a little when he asked that.

"Almost," Aaron replied. "She just wants to take things slow for now."

"What?!" he shouted in disbelief while looking at Tora. "Nononono. What is wrong with you? How can you resist not having him as a mate yet? Just look at him! He's... freaking adorable!"

Although Tora was taken aback by the large birds' sudden outburst, but she did admit that he had point; Aaron was adorable. She even thought so the first time she saw him. "I'll give you that," she said. "But that doesn't mean I'm gonna jump him just because he's cute."

"I never said 'cute', though they pretty much mean the same thing, but I take it that you're at least physically attracted to him?" Both Aaron and the lugia looked expectantly at her for her answer while she blushed at having been put on the spot.

"Well... yeah, but-"

"Do you like his personality? Can you brush off his little imperfections, like, for example, reading your mind, playing mind games with you, or disguising himself as the opposite gender of your species just to get some laughs from you coming onto him?!" Tora was about to answer before realizing that the last part of his question didn't make much sense and wasn't actually directed at her. She saw that the bird was glaring at Aaron, who was laughing at his little jab at him.

"Are you still sore about that?" Aaron asked. "That was forever-and-a-day ago and I didn't think you'd go so far."

"What happened?" Tora asked.

"Nothing really. I transformed into a female of his species to see what he'd do if he saw one. It was okay at first, until he started hitting on me. So I let him know that it was me and he got mad. Keep in mind that he started hitting on me just two hours from meeting me."

"That's... awful," she said, failing horribly at containing her laughter. The lugia didn't look too happy with them laughing at him. Aaron noticed and calmed himself down before he actually did upset him.

"Look, I'm sorry for that. How about we go for a swim like we used to? It'll be fun and we can bring her along." The bird thought about it for a moment, looking between the two smaller pokémon before finally making his decision.

"Alright, I guess we can go." Although he said it casually, he really was excited about it and Aaron could tell. "But before we do, I'd like to know the name of the female you brought with you."

"My name is Tora," the chu said.

"And I go by Rae," the lugia replied as he lowered his head. "Now, climb on up so we can get this show on the road."

With a slight nod, Tora climbed up on the large neck of Rae. When she made it to the back of his head, she was surprised that his feathers were so smooth and soft. Aaron flew up and sat in front of her, erecting a slightly visible psychic barrier around the two. "So, you can change to a girl?" Tora asked. Aaron turned back to her with a raised brow.

"Err... yeah, I can," he answered with a bit hesitation. "Before you say anything, despite me having a vagina and everything else that comes with being a female, nothing actually 'works' down there."

"Why's that?"

"It's a real simple explanation. The reason nothing 'works' the same way is because I'm a male. My body will function the same way a females' would, but you could say that everything is just for show. Unlike ditto, who are born genderless and can go either way, my primary gender, which is male, still determines how my body should function, even through a little shifting in gender. I can't be impregnated because I can't produce the eggs necessary for it, even though I have all the equipment. I suspect that the same would be true for a female of my species. If she were to transform into a male, her testicles shouldn't be able to produce actual sperm, but probably a fluid that's similar in texture an-"

"A-Aaron..."

"Yeah?"

"Don't say anymore. I don't need a picture of a girl having tes... tes... boy parts in my head," she said, blushing heavily."

"Yeah, man, that shit's weird," Rae added. "It's bad enough that I know you can turn into a girl. I don't need chicks switching on me." Aaron giggled at the both of them; Tora for not bringing herself to say testicles, and Rae for just being weirded out by it all.

"Fine, I'll stop. It's just your loss that you'll never get to know the mystery that is me," he said.

"I think I can live without knowing everything about you," Tora said

"If you say so, my lovely chu. You might want to grab onto him. It's a bumpy ride at first." She took his advice and grabbed hold of some feathers, silently hoping that she wasn't hurting Rae. The lugia stood up fully and turned to face the sea. After some final preparations, he dove headfirst into the water.

*****8*****

Back in Pewter city, Chris and Alice had finished working their shifts. Things slowed down around the store later on in the day, much to their relief. The two were coming out of the store, holding their checks in front of them. Lani was recalled into her ball for now. Evening had pretty set in throughout the city, as there was much less people crowding the streets. The sun hadn't completely set, but it was just dark enough for some of the street lights to come on. "Another day, another buck made," Alice said smiling to herself. "I can't wait to deposit this."

"I've been meaning to ask you about that," Chris said. "How am I supposed to do that?" Alice raised an eyebrow at him.

"You don't know how to deposit checks in your account?" Chris shook his head. "Oh, well, it's real easy. I'll show you once we get back to the pokémon center."

Once they arrived at the center, Alice brought him to one of the videophones. Apparently, they could be used in other ways than making a phone call, which was news to him. They could act as a sort of ATM as well. By inserting a trainers' card into a slot under the screen, the trainers' account will show up with a few options as to what they could do. They could look at how much money was in their account, withdraw some or, in Chris' case, deposit some. Once he pulled up the screen, Alice guided him through all the steps. All he had to do was open his account, select deposit, and insert the check in another little slot. He was asked his trainer ID number for verification reasons and was now looking at his account with some well earned cash in it. He closed the menu and took his trainers' card back from the machine.

"I could get used to this," Chris said.

"I think we all can," Alice replied. "So, since we're leaving tomorrow, we have to get all our stuff packed and ready tonight so we can have an early start in the morning."

"Right, I got some clothes that need washing."

"Exactly; so I'm going to skip dinner for tonight and get my clothes washed before heading to bed. If I don't see you anytime later, goodnight and I'll see you tomorrow."

"Uh, yeah, same to you," Chris replied before she walked off. He followed behind her, deciding to go up to his room as well. He gathered all his dirty clothes and brought them down to the washroom next to the cafeteria. There were only a couple people there, so he didn't feel bad using two machines to get the task done a lot faster.

After doing that, he went back up to his room. He sighed, noting that Tora and Aaron hadn't come back yet. He wasn't particularly hungry, so eating to pass the time was out of the question. He thought back on his previous night with Lani and remembered that he wanted to ask about Chad. As he held Lani's ball in his hand, he hoped that this conversation won't end up in a repeat of last night. He pulled a chair from the desk in the room and released her on the bed this time. Lani materialized on the bed with a slight shake of her body. She took notice of Chris being the only one in the room again.

"We've got to stop meeting like this. Someone might get the wrong idea with all our private meetings," she joked. Chris chuckled at this.

"I doubt it. We're on the second floor and no one knows you're even out your ball. Besides, we haven't done anything yet that would raise anyone's slightest suspicions."

"You said 'yet', so that means that you're expecting a chance for something to happen. Are you at least going to take me out to dinner first?" Chris blushed and coughed nervously at how she managed to twist his words around. Lani laughed at him. "You're going to have to choose your words more carefully."

"Well, I'm not one for, uh... dirty talk," He replied, still feeling the heat of his face.

"I can see. So, what's up? Want to have another talk with me?"

"Yeah, I wanted to ask you about Chad. It's... not too personal is it?"

"Nope, not at all. What do you want to know?" Chris scratched his head at her question, never actually having thought of one specific question to ask.

"I don't know; how about who he is, what does he do for a living, or what it was like being trained by him? I guess some general stuff like that for now until I can think of something more specific." Lani nodded.

"Okay, sure. Let's see, his full name is Chad Summers and he lives in a mansion in the middle of the woods."

"Wait, he lives in a mansion?!" Chris asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, and the other pokémon live there do too. It's really cool and it has all sorts of places to hide."

"How can he afford to live in a mansion?"

"I dunno. My mom said that it was abandoned when she and he first saw it and his boss fixed it up for us to live there. She doesn't like to talk about his boss or what he does."

"Why's that?"

"She never told me, but I guess it has something to do with him leaving for sometimes days at a time. Usually someone comes over to the house or he gets a call and doesn't come back for a while."

"What's the training like?" Lani groaned loudly and rolled her eyes.

"I hated training when he was around. It was like he was trying to get us to kill each other. I only put up with it because I wanted to be stronger than I was, but it was torture."

"What happens during your training?"

"Well, he would usually make me fight either my brother or one of the other dragons there. Everyone trained together either around the house or in the woods. The only way any of us were excluded is if we were sick, injured, or had just come back from working at a club or something. I could never put up a halfway decent fight against any of them, even though they held back. I'm pretty sure I've tasted more dirt than a diglett." As much as they wanted to laugh at the shot of humor, it would've been an awkward laugh at best. Chris was hanging on every word she was saying, trying to picture how she lived her life so far. Given the things she said the previous night along with this new information, it was harder to picture than he thought. It just seemed... too unreal and the last part of her explanation caught his attention even more.

"What do the pokémon do at the clubs?" Lani gave him a funny look as she thought of an answer for him.

"Well, from what I've been told... they do the same things humans usually do at strip clubs, except they just dance instead of stripping anything." Since Chris was obviously unfamiliar with that sort of environment, he had a difficult time imagining it. He assumed that his lack of knowledge showed because Lani was laughing at him. "Don't hurt yourself trying to think about it," she said giggling, which made Chris blush. "Besides, it's not a place for little boys like you anyway."

"It's not a place for little girls like you either," he countered, which made the dragon go silent.

"Got that right," she sighed. "Still, it's way too late to try forgetting what I already know. The sad part is that I'm so used to that life that it's completely second nature to me. I can never be like other pokémon my age and it's... completely his fault." Lani's mood seemed to worsen as she thought about her life thus far. Though Chris saw it as plain as day, he had just one last thing to ask before thing go too bad.

"Do you know what he did to put you guys in this situation?" The dragon immediately shook her head.

"No; my mom would never tell me and every time I'd ask someone who does, they'd never say. It always irks me when they never tell me what's going on." Chris mulled over her answer, thinking it strange that even her mother would conceal such life-changing information from her. Then again, he guessed that she probably did to protect her.

"But from what?" he thought. Seeing that it would get him nowhere to continue asking her, he opted to stop the questions for tonight. "How about a bath, Lani? You must be feeling kind of dirty being on the floor all day."

"Ugh, you are so right," she said with a slight grunt as she looked herself over. "It doesn't matter how much you sweep in that place; people just keep coming in with crap on their shoes. They should just take them off before they go into any place." Lani continued her rant as she followed Chris into the bathroom for their bath.

During their bath time, Tora and Aaron had returned from their day off together and joined them. Afterwards, Chris went downstairs to finish his laundry and when he came back, he joined them in a 'what did you do today' conversation. Tora and Aaron were impressed to hear that Lani had stopped an attempted robbery and congratulated her on it. When it got to their turn, they told them where they went and about Rae. The story was smooth at first, until Aaron wanted to add more detail to Tora's summed up version. He had no problems telling them about when he licked some berry juice off of her. Tora thought she'd die of embarrassment from the amount of teasing that followed. The rest of the night went rather smoothly with thoughts of tomorrow's journey on their minds.

The next morning, Chris and Alice got an early start on their trip to Cerulean City, the closest city with a gym badge. They had everything ready within an hour of waking up and met in the cafeteria for breakfast. The plan was to take a little known secret path that lead straight through Mt. Moon. It was supposedly the fastest way to get to Cerulean than trying to go around the mountain, which would've added three days to their already four-day trip. Alice had apparently discovered it and planned on taking it again. Chris was unsure about taking a route that was only recently discovered and taken by his friend... once. But she assured him that it was safe enough and they'll be on the other side in no time. The unsure looks from Tora and Aaron didn't comfort him at all.

By the time they checked out of the pokémon center, it was a little after nine o'clock. Once they had reached Pewter's city border, Alice let Fang out of his ball for some fresh air. "Are you sure the route we're taking is safe?" Chris asked one last time. "For the last time, it's safe," Alice said. "If it wasn't, then we would be taking the normal route. What; you think that just because we're taking a different way than everyone else that something bad is going to happen like on some b-rated movie?" "Well... yeah, pretty much." "You watch too much television. Nothing like that ever happens in real life."

*****8*****

"Not much... farther now," she thought wearily as she continued to soar through the morning air as fast as she could. The mighty dragon known as Miu had flown almost nonstop for nearly three days straight, only stopping for food, and to rest her wings. The only thing on her mind that kept her going was getting her daughter back. The recent kidnapping of her son was the last straw for her. As soon as her friend Cosmo had told her what happened that night, she snapped and went out on her own mission to retrieve her children. At this point, the dragon couldn't care less about what Chad thought of her actions, for she lost what little trust and faith she had in him to care for her family.

The cool morning air made her shiver; not like she wasn't already due to flying all night long. Not even the warmth of the sun made the cold she felt all over her body any better. Not only that, but she was growing hungry as well. She could see the tall buildings of Viridian in the distance, probably only a thirty minute flight away. Despite not wanting to stop, she knew she had to. The dragon slowly descended in a large spiral path until she could touch the tops of the trees and landed on the ground. Her breathing was fairly heavy and she could barely stand on her own without having to lean on a tree for support. Luckily for her, she was standing under a sitrus berry tree.

"Ugh! Why do they have to be up there," she groaned in irritation. Summoning what little strength she had, Miu flew up just enough to break off a branch with several berries on it. As soon she got comfortable enough, she devoured each of the berries as fast as she could, feeling her strength slowly returning to her. "These wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't in a hurry." Once she had finished, she slowly got up, still feeling tired, but as much as before. "Okay, break's over." Miu flapped her wings and got ready to leap into the air once more. "I'm coming to get yo-fuck!" she screamed. Just as she jumped, she felt her wings suddenly lock up and took a hard fall to the ground. Miu growled to herself and slowly stood back up, leaning on a tree and praying that what was happening wasn't actually happening. She tested her theory by trying to move her wings, only to stop when severe pain flared up all over her backside. "No! No! No!" she cried in frustration. "This can't be happening now!" She knew that she was pushing it with her constant flying and small breaks, but having strained her wings when her goal was so close only frustrated her more. She was far too weak to walk that far. "I have to get my daughter back from that kid."

It was then that she realized that she had no idea what the kid she was looking for looked like. All she knew was that some kid with a raichu in Viridian City had her child. With only that information, she had a low chance of finding the kid. Adding the massive size of the city alone and the thousands who inhabited it not only complicated her search, but made it near impossible to complete without attracting massive attention to herself. Thinking more on the matter, since who she was looking for had a raichu, there was very little doubt he or she was a trainer and could've left the city for all she knew. Everything seemed to be crashing down the more she realized that her mission could very well be pointless. As if that wasn't enough, she would have to go back to the trainer she left and ask for help in identifying the supposed kid.

"Three days," she mumbled. "Three... fucking days!" Miu slashed the tree she was leaning on with anger. "Why does this shit keep happening to me?! I just want my children back! Is it so hard to just let me have that?! And these... useless fucking wings... It's not fair!" She continued to unleash years of her frustration, anger, and pain on the helpless tree with slashes of unrivaled fury, taking out chunks of wood with each punch. The tree eventually gave way to her overwhelming power and was sent toppling over with a loud crash. "I hate my fucking life!!!" Miu gripped the splintered remains of the tree as tears made their way down her face. She felt completely helpless, among other things, and was terrified beyond anything that she would never see her children again.

"Does your kind have some sort of personal grudge against this forest?" someone asked behind her. Miu wiped her tears away.

"This is the last and only warning you're going to get: Leave me alone," she growled.

"As much as I would like to grant your request, I cannot do that. You're disturbing the denizens of this area and I must ask that you calm down and not harm any more of the forest than you already have." Miu growled even louder.

"This guy..." she thought as she turned to face the one who couldn't take a hint. "Who the hell are you to tell me to calm down?!" There was a scizor standing about twenty feet from her, seemingly unfazed by her anger.

"I'm simply one of many that maintain the peace to make living here comfortable. If there's a disturbance in my territory, I'll make sure that disturbance is put to an end. So I ask you again; calm yourself and stop taking your anger out on the trees."

Miu wasn't really listening to what the scizor was saying, only wondering why he was still standing there talking to her as if she didn't tell him to back off. In her current state of mind, that was the one and only reason to add him to her 'shit list' and put him at number four. Miu growled louder and she vanished from the metal bugs' sight with no noticeable movements from her body. The scizor was surprised and barely managed to put his guard up before the dragon hit him hard on his left side. He was sent crashing into a tree with a very audible thud. "I gave you a fair warning and you completely ignored it. Your chances of coming out of this alive just dropped to five percent," Miu said. Even though she was beyond exhausted at this point, she figured that she had enough energy to quickly deal with the metal bug so that she could be alone. The scizor, seeing no way out of this without having to fight, stood up and held one of his large pincers out.

"And I told you that I'd put an end to any disturbances in my territory," he said. "If you insist on fighting than settling this peacefully, then I have no choice but to force you to submit." The metal bug dashed at Miu with his pincers glowing white. Miu didn't move and simply blocked his Metal claw attack by grabbing one of his pincers. She swung him counterclockwise over her shoulder and slammed him onto the ground. The dragon was about to step on the bug, but he rolled out the way. She didn't let up and shot a stream of fire from her mouth.

The scizor quickly got up and jumped out the way of her flamethrower. The flames lit up the grass in front him instantly. He grew concerned with how he was to put the flames out, but dismissed the thoughts as he had to concentrate on subduing the cause. He dashed at the mighty dragon once again, much faster this time, and hit her square in the face with a bullet punch. Miu flinched at the hit, but made no other indication of feeling pain. The scizor continued to assault her with lefts and rights. Miu surprised him again by grabbing both his pincers this time and blasted him point-blank with her flamethrower.

He screamed in pain as the flames seemed to cook his entire body. The scizor grunted as he brought his legs up and kicked her throat after nearly ten seconds of burning torture. Though doing that was against his code of honor, he didn't care if it meant staying alive to possibly feel bad about doing it later. Miu immediately let the metal bug go and clutched her throat. She fell to one knee, coughing and wheezing as she tried to get her breathing back to normal. Meanwhile, the scizor furiously flapped his wings to rapidly cool himself down before his armored body literally cooks his internal organs.

A couple minutes passed by and Miu recovered from the blow to her throat. However, she was pushing her body past her limits. Just those two attacks seemed to drain what little energy she had left to move. She knew that if had she been at full strength, or even half that, she could've easily ended the fight earlier. At best, she figured that she could continue for another minute if the pace of the fight slowed down a little. But, she wanted it end now with the bug dead and its carcass burning on the ground for not leaving after her warning. "You're dead," she whispered to herself.

The scizor felt massive killing intent behind him that sent chills throughout his body. He barely leaped out the way as the swiped at him from behind with her Dragon claw. His body hadn't cooled down enough yet, so he stayed on the defensive as he dodged swipe after swipe of her attacks while cooling his body at the same time. He noticed after the first few that she was breathing quite heavily and her movements have dulled. She was attacking with wide swings that were easy to dodge. It amazed him that each of her attacks still had so much killing intent in them. He grew accustomed to the pace of her swings and opted to pick his moment to strike. He found his chance after a particularly wide swing that left her completely open. He swung at her with his metal claw, but Miu had vanished just as his attack was about to connect. The dragon purposefully used wide swings to lure the bug into a false sense of security. She knew he would attack if she kept her attacks wide and predictable and would strike him down when his guard was lowered.

Miu reappeared at his right and struck his side with her Dragon claw. She managed to pierce his armored body, completely stopping the surprised scizors' movements. She quickly withdrew her claw and swung the metal bug against the tree. She examined her claws, seeing them slightly covered in the bugs' blood or whatever it was they had on the inside. She would've enjoyed it more if she weren't on the verge of collapsing herself. She only had enough energy left to finish him off. Panting heavily, she stood over the bug ready to roast him alive.

The scizor had already come to terms with his impending demise after he felt the dragons' claw pierce his body. Though he didn't like to admit it, there was nothing he could do that wouldn't seem like he was being cowardly in the face of certain doom. He looked up at Miu, who had her flames ready to incinerate him, ready to be united with his ancestors in the afterlife. Fate, however, seemed to have other plans for him. Another scizor appeared from behind the trees with lightning speed and struck the dragon with glowing pincers.

Miu was struck hard in the face and barely managed to keep from falling over from the unexpected hit. She growled once she regained her footing and stared daggers at the second scizor. "Master... Iori," the first scizor wheezed, barely above a whisper. "What are you doing here?" Iori glanced at the downed bug.

"Don't speak; save your energy. I'll take you to get healed after I deal with this," he said.

"It's... too late for me..."

"I said not to speak! I'll take care of this." Iori walked away and approached Miu.

"Get... away from me," she said nearly out of breath. "I warned your friend... and you see what happened to him." Iori was unfazed by her threat.

"You barely have a leg to stand on and you're threatening me? I have no quarrel with you, but before you do any more harm to him or yourself, eat this." He opened one of his pincers and tossed a sitrus berry on the ground on front of her. "It should recover enough of your strength to at least follow me where I'm taking him to be healed." Miu looked between Iori and the berry a few times.

"Why should I follow you? You stopped me from killing your friend over there and you're taking me to get healed? What kind of fool do you take me for?!" she yelled.

"I don't think you a fool, but I recommend you stop this nonsense before you get yourself hurt." Miu could've sworn that he threatened her just now, but she wasn't completely sure. She was hardly thinking straight anymore. The thought of recovering her strength seemed to be a good idea, even if it did come with swallowing her pride and accepting help from a stranger, one who she thinks has every right to kill her right now.

Cautiously, she bent down to grab the berry, keeping an eye on the metal bug for any deceit. Doing this, however, caused her to miss her intended target and she overextended her body. She flinched in pain, reflexively closing her eyes. That was the moment Iori was waiting for and he quickly closed the distance between them with a glowing claw raised. Miu saw him approach her, but was too slow, and exhausted, to do anything as Iori struck her with a hard, downward blow across her head. She fainted instantly. Iori let a heavy sigh as he turned back to his pupil, who seemed to be either unconscious or dead. A quick check confirmed that he had merely lost consciousness.

"For now, I think it's best to get you medical attention," he thought. Carefully, he lifted he pupil so that he was leaning on his shoulder. He then swiftly leaped into the trees and made a dash for a place of healing.

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