FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Alright, the next chapter is here. Had a bit of writer's block, but I'm over it now. It's getting cold outside and I'll need to get some winter clothes before it starts snowing or something. Anyway, I won't keep boring you with my nonsense, get to reading. Remember, Comments and Votes are welcome and appreciated.

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

Eevee awoke sometime later in a dark room. His head was slightly pounding and was aching around his sides. The only light source was moonlight coming in through the window. From what he could see, he was on a bed inside a decent sized room. There were two doors, one leading to the hallway and the other, he assumed, to the bathroom. Thoughts of what happened before he blacked out were slowly coming back to him. Each part made him feel worse about the outcome, maybe even more so because he lost in a one-on-one fight trying to protect a girl.

"I'm such a loser," he thought. "I bet everyone here thinks so too after seeing my butt get kicked. I couldn't even protect a girl..." He felt an urge to leave, feeling that it would be best to not show his face around here anymore after his public defeat. Before he even tried to attempt to stand, he saw the door on his left start to open slightly. He quickly closed his eyes and curled into a ball to feign sleep until whoever came in left. A few moments passed and he couldn't hear anything, but he felt a sudden shift on the bed. It was too small for it to be human, so it naturally had to be another pokémon, a small one. Whoever it was stopped next to him. A few moments later, he heard sniffling.

"I'm... so sorry," a familiar voice said. Eevee opened his eyes and looked up.

"Fay?" The female fox jumped and squeaked in surprise.

"Y-You're awake?"

"Yeah, what's wrong? Why are you crying?"

"Y-You got hurt because of me," she whimpered. Eevee shook his head.

"It's not your fault, Fay. That guy's just a jerk and his cronies are idiots. I'm the one who challenged them and lost, so why keep on blaming yourself? If anything, I'm the one who should be apologizing for making things hard on you. You're really nice and you don't deserve all this trouble I'm causing you."

As he was saying this, he noticed that his female counterpart go through several emotions, but she went back to being somber. "No, it is my fault. If I had just... mated with him like he wanted me to... then he wouldn't be... as aggressive as he is now," she said with fresh tears he could barely make out running down her cheeks. Eevee slowly sat up, ignoring the slight pain in his legs.

"That doesn't make sense," he said, confused at her statement. "Did he tell you that?" Fay nodded.

"After you passed out, he said that... if I didn't meet him by the river where we take our walks... then he was going to finish you off...the next time he sees me even looking at you..." Eevee couldn't believe what he was hearing. "W-When I got there, he tried to jump me from behind and take me right there, but I managed to get away from him. He yelled that if I ever told anybody about it, then he would kill them. I don't know what to do and I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me."

Eevee grew angry at this and wanted to ask her of other times he threatened her or anyone else, but he didn't want to upset her anymore than she already was. "This is going too far," he thought. "She- no, no one deserves to be treated like this." He had a mind to track Berret and his followers down and kill them in their sleep, but his rational side told him that nothing good will come from that. Not only that, but he felt the need to comfort her until she calmed down. He approached Fay and nuzzled her wet cheek, licking some of her tears away. A few moments of this led to them lying down next to each other. Fay had fallen asleep snuggled against him after a few minutes. Eevee was about to follow her example, but he saw something out the corner of his eye by the window. When he looked up to check, he didn't see anything. He shrugged it off as just his imagination and laid his head on top of Fay's, eventually falling asleep.

*****8*****

The next morning, Eevee awoke from his slumber with a big yawn. The morning light shone brightly through the window, making him squint until his eyes adjusted. He felt a mass of warmth underneath him and remembered that Fay had slept with him last night. He looked at her sleeping form, thinking of how peaceful she looked. Their conversation from last night suddenly popped into his head, making him angry, but he quickly calmed himself down when he felt Fay shift in her sleep. She rolled onto her side away from Eevee. He found himself staring at her. From her head and the furry collar of fur around her neck to her slim body and fluffy tail, he couldn't take his eyes off her.

"No, stop it!" he mentally yelled as he forced himself to stop starring. "You just heard about what happened to her yesterday. I'm sure the last thing she needs is to catch me staring at her because she's... pretty..." He slowly got up, still feeling sore. "I should go before I start... thinking things..."

With that thought in mind, he made his way off the bed and wondered briefly where the bathroom was. He wanted to soak in some warm water to relax his muscles and hopefully heal them faster. He went toward the second door he saw in the room and hoped that it led to a bathroom. Thankfully, it did and he went straight for the tub. He's long since learned how to work the knobs to give himself the perfect temperature for his baths. He filled the tub up just enough for it to reach just under his furry collar and hopped in. Eevee let out a sigh as he eased himself lower in the warm water. "That feels nice," he thought.

After about ten minutes of just soaking, he started cleaning himself and was out the tub in twenty minutes. He felt way better than he did when he got up. His entire body felt so relaxed and loose. Since he didn't see any towels anywhere, he just shook himself mostly dry. The drawback to this was that his collar of fur would still retain quite a bit of water and would end up almost comically spiky all the way around, but he'd long since gotten over it. He exited the bathroom, trailing a bit of water as he made his way to the window to look outside, noting that it was getting late in the morning. He noticed that Fay wasn't up yet, so he decided to wake her up. He jumped onto the bed near her and nudged the fox awake. Fay groaned slightly and slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey sleepyhead, have a nice sleep?" Eevee asked playfully.

"It was okay," she replied, obviously not feeling any better after her sleep. She noticed that his fur was unusually damp.

"Why are you wet? Did you just take a bath?"

"Yeah, I just got out. Why don't you take one? It'll help you feel better, or at least I hope it will." Fay let out a rather depressing sigh. Eevee didn't like seeing her like this and thought of something to make her feel better. He leaned in closer and gently blew into her ear. Fay snorted a laugh and jerked her head away.

"What are you doing?"

"Oh nothing," Eevee said casually before he blew in to her ear again. Fay laughed and got up to get away him by jumping off the bed. Eevee was quick to follow her and began playfully chasing her around the room. After a couple minutes of chasing, Fay accidently slipped on some water left behind from Eevee's bath. Eevee took advantage of her slip and tackled her to the floor. The two rolled for a bit, coming to a stop with Eevee pinning her down on her back. He began licking her face and ears furiously, which only made her laugh harder.

"Are you gonna take that bath now?" he asked once he ceased his licking. Fay took a moment to catch her breath before replying.

"Okay, okay, I'll take a bath. Just don't lick me anymore." Eevee smiled triumphantly before giving her one last lick before letting her up. "I'll be out in fifteen, think you can wait that that long?"

"I'll wait as long as it takes." Fay giggled at his answer and slipped inside the bathroom. Eevee couldn't get over how attractive she looked and couldn't believe he didn't notice it before, but that thought alone killed his happy mood.

"There's someone after her because how attractive she is. I don't care if I get beaten again, I can't rest knowing that she could be in danger when I leave her alone." Eevee began thinking about a plan of action to make sure that there was no way she could be hurt by Berret and his gang. It didn't take long to come up with. He figured that if a frontal attack wouldn't work on Berret, then a surprise attack would. He would have the element of surprise on his side and it would be a chance to score a lot of damage on the first hit. After all, the most powerful attack is the one they don't see coming. Nodding with the sound logic, the fox turned to leave the room. "I'm sorry if I make you cry again, Fay, but I can't call myself a man if I turn my back on this." He smiled to himself, liking how cool that would make him look if he said that to her.

As he stepped into the hallway, he saw the human girl he met yesterday coming out of another room across from him. "Hey, little guy, are you sure you want to be walking around so soon," Carmen asked. "You took quite a beating yesterday, so I need to have a look at you before you go anywhere. Go back and wait in the room until I come back from cleaning up the mess from breakfast." Eevee sighed in disappointment, but nodded and went back into the room. It was half an hour before he saw Carmen again. He would've liked for her to come sooner so that he could get on with his plan, but after experiencing what was in store for him, he wished that he had made a run for it when he had the chance. Carmen had given him a complete physical. He didn't think much of it at first, this being his first one. She checked his eyes, ears, reflexes, and even his teeth. It wasn't until she got to the lower regions did he start to panic. He tried to get away, but the girl was persistent, saying that she was making sure nothing was 'damaged'. And it didn't help that Fay was there watching the entire thing. His struggling forced her to stay longer in that area. This no doubt led to over-stimulation in his privates and... let's just say he'll never forget the look on Fay's face and the level of embarrassment he felt.

After the check-up, he was cleared to do anything he wanted, but was warned not to get into anymore fights. He wasn't really listening though. He felt so violated and was too embarrassed to even look at Fay. The two foxes left the room together on their way downstairs. "You have nothing to be embarrassed about," Fay said trying to cheer Eevee up.

"I didn't want you to see it," he replied with his head hung low. "I haven't shown it to anyone before."

"Oh, well, you should be proud of yourself. It looked very impressive." Eevee's ears perked up.

"R-Really?" Fay nodded. "Um... thanks." Eevee couldn't help feeling a bit of pride swell in him hearing that and tried to stop himself from smiling. Fay saw him trying to suppress his smile and giggled at how cute he was being.

"Boys..." When they got downstairs, Eevee was met with a few stares from some of the pokémon. He expected something like this, but that didn't make him feel any better. Seeing this reaction to him made him remember what he intended to do today. He shrugged off the stares and focused on looking out for Berret or any of his associates.

The two foxes settled themselves on the couch and watched whatever the younger pokémon were watching on the television. There time was short-lived however, when Berret came in the room. He didn't notice them, but Eevee saw him. He kept his cool and didn't let Fay know who just came in. "Hey, do you wanna go on that walk now?" he asked. "I feel a little stiff again and I think some walking will do me some good."

"Sure!" Fay said excitedly.

"Cool, wait outside for me. I wanna grab a little snack before we go."

"Okay, see you outside." Fay jumped off the couch and made her way outside through the small pet door at the front door. Luckily, she wasn't spotted by Berret.

"Good, now I can take care of this guy," Eevee thought.

"Leave him alone!" someone shouted. Eevee peeked over the couch to see Berret grinning at a young shinx standing up for a little starly. Eevee assumed the zangoose was picking on the little bird.

"What are you going to do if I don't?" Berret asked, clearly amused.

"We're going to make you leave him alone!" a second shinx said, coming up next to the first.

"Aww, that's real cute. What's with the sudden backbone? You two wanna get hurt too?" The zangoose laughed as he kicked the small bird to the side, which quickly got up and hid behind the second shinx cub.

"No, we're tired of you bullying us and we want you to stop!" Eevee and the other pokémon were surprised at the sudden show of courage. He couldn't help wonder if he had somehow given them the push they needed to stand up to the large cat.

"Well, look who suddenly grew some balls," Berret said as he approached the cubs. "I was wondering if those things were for show, but I guess you do use 'em. Let me tell you something as a reward. Only the strong deserve to live and multiply. The weak are better off dead so they don't infest our world with their pathetic struggling."

"You weren't always as strong as you are now!" the second shinx shouted.

"Shows how much you know. I was born a champion."

"You liar! It wasn't that long ago that you were a helpless little zangoose that needed his mommy and daddy to protect him! I bet the only reason you want to be strong is because someone kicked your sorry butt all over the place!" Everyone was taken aback by the cubs' outburst. The zangoose' expression turned from amused to furious in an instant.

"You little bitch!" he yelled as he struck the cub across the floor. "No one talks to me like that!"

"Sis!" the first shinx exclaimed worriedly before he growled at Berret. "You're going to pay for that!" As the shinx lunged forward, Berret sent him flying to where his sister was with a Crush claw. Seeing this as the best chance he was going to get, Eevee leapt from the couch into the large cats' blind side and hit him as hard as he could with his Iron tail attack. The attack sent Berret flying through the sliding glass door they were in front of. Shards of glass were scattered everywhere, but some bits managed to find a place in the cats' fur and skin.

The sound of breaking glass alerted Carmen, Fay, and Cari to trouble. Carmen was the first to show up, taking note of the injured shinx and starly surrounded by a few pokémon. She also noticed that there was more glass outside than inside, indicating that someone broke out instead of in, and that Eevee and Berret were fighting again. Her first thought was the safety of the young pokémon, so she gathered them all up to move upstairs. Cari and Fay arrived at the same time, finding Eevee and Berret savagely clawing at each other on the grass.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?! Break it up now!" Cari shouted as she broke the two up. Eevee and Berret glared at each other.

"I'm not the one who started it!" the zangoose growled angrily. "This little asshole blindsided me through a door!"

"You deserve it after what you tried to do to Fay!" Eevee shouted. This seemed to get Cari's attention.

"What did he try to do?"

"He tried to rape her." Cari's expression went from shock to anger.

"Why didn't you say anything?!" she asked looking over at Fay.

"Because I told her I'd kill anyone she told," Berret said darkly. "It looks like I'll have to get rid of you two now." Before anyone could react, Berret quickly brought up a glowing claw and struck Cari in her temple. The mightyena was knocked out instantly. "No need to get my claws dirty with her. Now, I can completely end your existence without interference." Eevee's mind drew a blank as what to do next. Fay was just as frozen in fear as he was. He kept telling his legs to move but they didn't listen to him, even as Berret lifted one of his claws and grinned maliciously at him.

"It's over," he thought. He knew it, Fay knew it, Berret knew it, if Cari were still up, then she'd know it too. The fox could only brace himself for what was to come. Out of nowhere, a blue blur flew into Berret and knocked him back several feet. Eevee blinked a couple times to make sure his eyes weren't playing tricks on him. It was Kai.

"Eevee!" a familiar called out to him. Eevee turned around to see Mia and everyone else running toward him. They started hugging and asking him a lot of questions at once, except for Westen.

"Whoa, guys, I'm fine," Eevee said.

"What happened to you? Why didn't you come back like you said instead of coming here?" Mia asked with both worry and slight irritation in her voice.

"See, what had happened was-"

"Eevee!" Fay exclaimed as she nearly tackled him. She worriedly looked him over and licked at the tiny cuts he didn't know he had. This little act of concern surprised everyone, mainly because they didn't notice her before.

"It's cool, it's cool. I'm fine!" Eevee said breaking away from her with a slight blush.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Who's this?" Mia asked.

"Oh, um, everyone, this is Fay. Fay, these are my friends." At this time, the zangoose was getting back up. Kai felt a chill run down his spine and shuddered.

"You're dead," Berret said. Eevee and the other turned to the zangoose, seeing the murderous intent in his eyes. You all... are so dead! You two get your asses over here!" Everyone except for Eevee and Fay were oblivious to whom he was calling out to. A few moments later, a skarmory with a lombre on its back flew from the other side of the house and landed next to Berret.

"You want us to take care of these pests?" Skarmory asked.

"I want you to kill these vermin. Leave the fox and blue mutt to me," he replied, not taking his eyes off Eevee and Kai.

"What do you all think you're doing?!" A voice cried out. It was Carmen. She had just finished moving all the other pokémon upstairs and wasn't happy with all the destruction done to the house. "Get inside right now, all of you!" she yelled, not caring about bringing in the additional pokémon that showed up.

"Tsk, take care of her," Berret said to the lombre. Lombre was confused and a little shocked at the request.

"You want me to kill her?" he asked.

"Just get her out of the way!" Lombre jumped at the shouting before complying. He took a deep breath and blasted Carmen with a huge torrent of water. Everyone watched as the surprised Carmen was blown back inside, a loud crash being made a moment later.

"Fay, make sure she's okay!" Eevee exclaimed urgently. Fay made a dash inside the house without a moment's hesitation.

"Now that she's out of the way, there'll be no holding back," Berret said grinning. Eevee turned to the zangoose, feeling his anger on the rise again.

"Wouldn't have it any other way," he growled. "You kids go inside too."

"But we want to help," Cammy protested.

"Yeah, we can totally kick their butts," Kato added.

"No, they're too strong for you to handle. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to either of you, so just get inside and don't come out." Reluctantly, all the kids, except for Kai, went into the house. The two groups stood facing each other. On his right were Kai and Mia, ready to back him up. Westen came up on his left.

"You sure know how to pick your fights," he said. "For a fee, I could lend you some assistance. It looks like you'll need it." Eevee found himself smiling at the lizards' proposal.

"Again with the fee? Let's talk about it if you manage to survive this fight. They're playing for keeps you know." Westen turned his attention to the trio in front of him.

"I don't plan on dying here, so I'll be looking forward to that talk after this," he said with a confident grin.

*****8*****

Mia

The skarmory took to the skies in order to prepare her attack. The lombre launched his Razor leaf at Mia, who countered with her Ice beam, freezing all the leaves. "Hey, let me handle this guy. You take on the bird," Westen said as he stepped in front of her. Mia growled at him.

"Why should I do that?"

"In case you haven't noticed, that bird is made of metal and none of my attacks will work on it. I'll have an easier time with this guy." Though she didn't like to admit it, he had a point. She did stand a better chance than he did fighting the bird, but the buizel did want to do it because he told her to. So, swallowing her pride she backed off.

"Fine; just don't let me catch you losing from taking on an easier opponent," she said as she took off toward the iron bird in the air.

"Same goes to you."

"Tsk, look at them having all the fun," Skarmory said as she watched the others' battles get started. She spotted an orange mass following here and grinned. "Well, I guess there's someone for me to play with after all." Her wings started to glow as she turned and dove toward the buizel. Mia saw the diving toward her and charged a Water pulse in her paws. She threw it at the iron bird, but it was dodged with little effort. "You'll have to do better than that," Skarmory mocked. Mia dove out the way of the attack and threw another ball of water at her. The attack hit, but it only made the bird falter a bit as it flew back into the sky.

"Well that didn't do much," she mumbled. She watched the skarmory come back for another round at her with a second Steel wing. She tried to dodge again, but the bird changed its course slightly and cut her near her feet with the tips of her wings. Mia flinched and rolled back onto her feet and checked her wound. It was a shallow cut, barely even bleeding. Still, she growled at having been injured already. Admittedly, she doesn't think any of her attacks will do that much damage, but it won't matter as long as they hit. She knew she couldn't keep dodging forever and decided to take the fight to the skarmory instead. Using her Aqua jet, she launched herself into the air and chased after her opponent.

Skarmory turned around to see the sea weasel flying toward her in a veil of water. "You think you can take on up here?!" she laughed. "You're a bigger idiot than I thought." She flapped her wings and sent multiple crescent-shaped blades of wind at the buizel. Mia was able to avoid them, just barely. In her paws, she had two water pulses half powered-up. She couldn't handle using two at once, so she had to cut the power in both to half. She could tell that the skarmory was getting slightly irritated at having not made a direct hit on her yet. Just when she had closed the distance between them enough, she canceled out her aqua jet and used the momentum she gained to continue flying upwards. Skarmory was surprised when she reached the peak of her skyward journey and managed to be at eye level with her. Mia brought her miniature water pulses up and smashed them together on both sides of the skarmory's head, resulting in a watery explosion.

Both of them were blown back from the force. Being several feet in the air, Mia didn't have time to about how much damage she caused. She saved herself from a nasty fall by using her aqua jet to level off and change the course of her rapid decent. Rolling to a stop for a little ways on the ground, she stood up and was thankful she hadn't hurt herself. Looking to the sky, she saw her opponent staying in the spot she had recovered in looking around for her. Mia thought that it was strange since the bird should be able to easily spot her, but grinned when the skarmory seemed to attack at nothing with her Air cutter.

"She's confused," she thought. "Perfect." She charged an Ice beam to its full power and fired it. The jagged rays of frozen fury hit the skarmory dead on. Skarmory screeched as layers of ice began to rapidly form on her body. She flew out of the way of the blast before her wings could be frozen. Angrily, she turned to the buizel several feet below her.

"You're going to pay for that!" she screeched. The metal bird dove straight for Mia, opening her mouth and launching a Swift attack. Mia used her water gun and managed to blow away most of the yellow stars, but the skarmory shot out more to replace them. She growled and braced herself as best as she could as the stars assaulted her. Once that ended, she rolled out the way of another close call with the sharp tips of the birds' wings.

"I really wish you'd just go down," Mia muttered. The sea weasel felt herself somehow becoming stronger as the skarmory made for a return trip with the same attack plan. She wasn't exactly sure how to explain such a feeling, but it felt like she could do almost anything now. Just like before, she launched a stream of water at the array of stars, but the watery blast erupted from her near equal to that of a hydro pump. It was bigger, faster, and more powerful than anything she's done before. It blasted away all the stars and hit the iron bird hard enough to knock her down. The next thing Mia sees is a stream of fire coming from her right and going toward the skarmory. It soon erupted into a tall column of swirling fire and she heard screaming coming from inside. Not that she minded the assist, but she had to know who helped her out in case she had another fight on her hands. She turned to see Nina standing close behind her and Cammy dancing around with red, electrical pom-poms on her paws.

"Hey, you two are supposed to be inside!" she exclaimed.

"We wanted to help," the plusle said cheerfully, still dancing around. "It wasn't fair that Kai gets to fight when we don't."

"That's not the point! None of you should be out here, so go back inside!" Mia only yelled at them because she was just concerned for their safety. She had watched over them since she was captured by those thugs and treated them like they were close family. The last thing she wanted was for them to die because she allowed them to fight alongside her against a strong opponent.

"No," Nina said defiantly.

"What?" Mia looked at her with a mixture of shock and a bit of anger.

"I said we're not going inside. If they're as strong as you say, then it doesn't make sense for you guys to fight them by yourself. We're not babies and, I'm not sure about the others, but I want to go back home to my mom stronger than when I was taken. You're getting our help whether you like it or not."

Mia was at a loss for words. She thought that the fox put a little more thought into her actions better than the others, or at least more than the twins and Perry. She was probably on par with Kai when it came to maturity, but they were both still so young. Still, it didn't mean that the fox didn't have a point; she could use the help. Just then, the wind violently picked up and threatened to blow them all away. All three witnessed the column of fire get snuffed out by the wind. The skarmory that was trapped inside the inferno had burn marks all over her body, some considerably blackened. Not only that, but she looked as if she was trying to kill them by her deathly glare alone.

"That... was the last mistake... you'll ever make," The bird hissed angrily. Mia, sensing the extreme danger, stood ready and fully alert. From what she could tell, the bird sounded winded and looked to be in quite a bit of pain.

"If you two are going to fight, then stay far enough away so you don't get hit. I can't protect you and fight her off at the same time if you get hurt," she said.

"We'll be safe as long as you're with us," Nina said, crouching low with her tails flared out.

"Yeah, we're awesome!" Cammy chimed in excitedly. "Let's kick some butt!" Mia felt her power growing again, just in time because the skarmory flapped her wings and used Air cutter. She used water gun and Nina shot a stream of fire. The two attacks overpowered Skarmory's and hit her hard. Skarmory hissed in pain and flew into the air once more. She then used Swift and Air cutter at the same time. Nina managed to use her Fire-spin to block the attacks in time before they got too close.

The column of fire prevented them from seeing the iron bird. Mia formed a Water pulse in her paws, waiting for the bird to reveal herself so that she could have a clear shot at her. Nina was on full alert, fur bristling and tails flaring out. Cammy had stopped her dancing and had... disappeared? Mia grew worried at glanced around for any sign of the young pokémon, but not for too long. The skarmory surprised both her and Nina when she flew through the wall of fire, coming at them her wings glowing. The vixen flinched when she saw the murderous look in the birds' eyes, but Mia attacked. She hit the bird square in the chest, but it kept on going. She barely had enough time to shove Nina out the way before she was slashed across her back with the tips of the metal birds' wings. She cried out in pain, which frightened the young fox she saved.

The skarmory made a u-turn and landed in front of them with a sadistic smirk, breathing heavily. "Now I can end your life without too much difficulty," she said as she walked towards the injured weasel and downed fox. "Once you're out the way, I can take care of those runts." Nina watched the sea weasel struggle to stand back up and face their opponent. When she did, the vixen gasped at the deep, bleeding cuts across her back. She growled and moved in front of her guardian to protect her from further harm.

"You're not going anywhere near her!" she shouted before she blew a small stream of fire at the bird. Skarmory screeched and was about to use swift, but was suddenly zapped with a bolt of electricity and immediately fell to the ground. This surprised both of Nina and Mia, until they saw Cammy come from behind the downed bird with a big smile.

"Alright, we did it!" she cheered.

"Where did you go?" Mia asked.

"Nowhere special; I just snuck around trying to zap the stupid bird for the longest time, but I couldn't it until it stopped moving. And it worked! We totally kicked some butt!" Rather than cheering and dancing around at their success, Nina and Mia sighed and sat down in relief, thankful that the fight was over.

*****8*****

Westen

"Fine; just don't let me catch you losing from taking on an easier opponent," Mia said as she took off toward the iron bird in the air.

"Same goes to you." Westen turned his attention back to his opponent, who seemed pretty relaxed. He sighed as he sized him up, not particularly impressed. "Look guy, what say we not fight and just sit around until this whole thing blows over?" The lombre lifted a brow.

"Are you serious?" he asked. "You just told your friend that you'll fight me in her place."

"No, I said that I'll have an easier time dealing with you. I never said I would fight you. Also, we're not on the best of terms and I barely know her. She's not exactly what I'd call a friend."

"So, why are you even here if you're not going to fight?"

"I've got my own reasons for being here and none of them are to tell you what they are," he said as he crossed his arms. "So, how about we sit down, chat, and not get involved in a senseless fight?" The lombre stared at him for the longest time, not really believing the treecko is willing to just stand there while the other member in group fought.

"Yeah right; as if we'd do that. Even if I were to believe you, I've got orders to take you down. I mean, I really don't feel like fighting anyone, but I will if I have to." Westen let out a heavy sigh.

"See, this is why I hate dealing with underlings," he muttered to himself. "Okay, I'll make a deal with you. How about we hit each other with our strongest attack and whoever falls first loses? Sound good to you?" The lombre smirked at his proposal.

"Yeah, sure, that's fine. Since we're on my home turf, I'll let you get the first shot. I wouldn't want to be rude to a guest."

"That's alright; I'm not much of a guest anyway."

"No, I insist. The sooner you go, the sooner we can get this over with." Westen grinned, mostly because he knew what his opponent was trying to do. He wanted to him to go first so he could see his attack and develop a strategy on how to avoid it later on... which was what he himself was trying to do. Admittedly, it wasn't the best plan, and it was pretty much obvious what he was trying to do, but that didn't mean he underestimated the lombre. It only meant that he needed to improvise a little, even if it meant walking into a trap.

"At least I'm not working with a total idiot," he thought. "Have it your way then. Just know that you asked for it." Westen took a deep breath and used his Bullet seed. The lombre stood there and took the attack, not even bothering to defend himself. He flinched slightly as the little bullets pelted his torso. Once the attack was over, he looked at the treecko with disappointment.

"Eh, was that it? If so, then there's no way you can beat me in a fight."

"Crap. Any way you could reconsider our arrangement?"

"As much as want to... I don't think that's going to happen." The lombre shot a large stream of water from his mouth. Westen rolled out the way of the attack. "Hey, why'd you dodge it?"

"What, I never said I was going to stand here and let you hit me. That's just stupid. And by the way, that wasn't my strongest attack."

"You little twerp!" the lombre shouted as he shot another burst of water at Westen. The treecko dodged every single shot with little to no effort, all the while scoring hits with his bullet seed whenever he got a chance. He even showed off a little by doing flips and waiting until the last second to avoid the blasts.

"Jeez, you're not very good at this are you? I bet the reason you got a hit on that human was because she was standing still," he taunted. The lombre growled slightly and whipped his head around, using his Razor leaf. Westen's eyes wide in alarm and managed to avoid nearly all the sharp leaves. Three managed to cut him; one on his right leg and both his arms. He didn't have time to check how bad they were because more leaves were sent his way. The treecko was only cut twice on his right arm this time.

"Not so cocky now, are ya?" Lombre said.

"Me cocky? Never. If anything, I'm just overly confident in my skills, but never cocky."

"That's what cocky means dumbass!" He shot another burst of water at the treecko, who dodged it again.

"I overestimated you. I thought you were smart enough to catch the sarcasm, but I guess not," he laughed. The lombre was growing furious with Westen's constant mocking of his strength and intelligence. In his fit of rage, he shot multiple streams of water at Westen, only to have them miss each time. Each time he missed, he was verbally taunted by the treecko, which resulted in more wild attacks. Westen was grinning as he avoided each attack, but he needed a chance to end this battle. Out his peripheral, he could see a couple of the kids heading his way. He saw that it was the sandshrew and minun and wondered briefly about what they were doing, but got an idea that was worth his time. In order for it to work he needed the sandshrew to go unnoticed by the lombre and knew just how to do it. He stood directly in their path and, more or less, braced himself. "Maybe you'd have better luck hitting me if I just went to sleep right here," he said. The reaction was almost immediate. The treecko was blasted with water and was sent soaring over the heads of the two smaller pokémon he needed for his plan. He managed to land on his feet, but the hit he took still shook him a bit.

"As refreshing as that was, I'm never doing that again," he mumbled. He was greeted a couple moments later by the sandshrew and minun.

"Whoa, you got hit hard!" Kato exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look you two; I need your help for a second. I'm tired of fighting that guy over there and not really motivated enough to do much else than I've already done."

"So, you really need our help?" Perry asked.

"Yeah, especially you, uh... Larry."

"His name's Perry," the minun corrected.

"Oh, right. Thanks Taco."

"It's Kato!"

"Whatever! Look, Gary, I need you to..." he whispered the rest in Peery's ear. "You think you can do that for me?" The sandshrew looked unsure about his idea.

"I don't know. Are you sure it's gonna work?" he asked.

"I wouldn't suggest it if I wasn't ninety-nine percent sure it would. Now get going before he sees you." Perry slightly nodded and quickly dug a hole into the ground. Kato was impressed by his digging speed, having never seen him dig before. Once the desert mouse was out of sight, the minun looked at Westen.

"So, what do I do?" he asked.

"You come with me, but first..." He picked up the electric mouse for a couple seconds and put him back down. "Right, I think this can work."

"What can work? Why'd you pick me up?"

"Hush, Taco. All will be explained shortly."

"It's KATO!!!"

"Right, I need you to zap that lombre when you get close to him." Kato turned around to see the supposed target closing in on them, looking highly agitated.

"How am I supposed to do that?"

"I'll get you there." Without a moments notice, Westen picked up the minun and held him by his side.

"What are you doing?!" Rather than answer him, he started walking toward the lombre.

"Did you get any better at your aim while I left you alone?" he asked the lombre.

"Shut up! I hit you last time and I can do it again!" He whipped his head around and used his razor leaf again. Westen expertly dodged his attack again, even with the additional weight of his panicking companion. A couple of them passed by a little too closely for Kato's comfort. Westen kept it up for a little longer, waiting for the perfect chance. He finally got when the lombre used his Hydro pump. He dodged the torrent and held Kato above his head.

"Remember to shock him," he said, right before throwing the minun with all his might.

"You idiot!" Kato yelled as he soared in the air. The lombre didn't notice him until it was too late. The minun crashed on top of the large lily pad and sent both of them rolling on the ground. Almost instantly, Kato let out a burst of electricity into his target. The lombre cried out at the unexpected attack.

Kato stopped his attack he stood up to look at the damage he caused. The lombre was twitching on the ground, little sparks of electricity dancing along his slightly slimy body. The minun felt a little overjoyed at having been able to take him down, but was still mad at Westen for throwing him. Suddenly, the ground collapsed around the lombre, leaving only the massive lily pad sticking out of the ground. Perry popped out the ground next to Kato a few moments later, looking a bit proud of himself. "Awesome, did you do that?" Kato asked.

"Yeah; Westen told me to make a hole big enough for just his body to fall in and make sure he couldn't claw his way back out. I didn't think it would work out this well though."

"You guys did an excellent job," Westen said as he approached the pair. "That couldn't have gone better if we rehearsed it." Kato looked angrily at the treecko.

"You didn't have to throw me at him, ya know!"

"It's not like you would've gotten close to him if I hadn't thrown you. He was looking for blood and you would've died in a heartbeat if I let you go on your own."

"Couldn't you have at least told what planned on doing?" Westen thought about his suggestion for a moment before shrugging.

"Sure, I guess," he said nonchalantly. "Point is, we took him down with my plan and that's all that matters. If that buizal finished up her fight, then we can chill until everyone comes back."

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