FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 19

I started to panic, bashing on the door with both of my paws as hard as could, the sound echoing throughout the house, but the door wouldn't even shake or wiggle. I even attempted to use a force palm on the door, but even the blast from my palm did nothing to make the door open.

"Calm down Ruli." Raze said in my head, "Getting worked up will not find you a way out. Stay calm."

"Okay, okay..." I took a deep breath, settling down immensely as I breathed out, "Okay..."

"Let's take a look around..." Raze suggested lightly, and I nodded, turning towards the nearest hallway and I started to walk down it.

My steps made the floorboards creak, which sounded through the silent hallway as I kept my eyes focused through the dark on the the other end of the hallway. There was a stand in the middle of the hall, a broken looking picture standing on it. I stopped to look at it a moment, taking it into my paw. I brought it up to my face, blowing off the layer of the dust lightly.

There were three humans in the picture, a man, a women, and a little girl. The previous owners of this place maybe? When I removed the picture from in front of my face and looked back to the end of the hall, a blast of wind hit my face and I covered my face to shield against it.

"PUT THAT BACK!!!" A loud voice screeched at me, and the blowing wind faded. I opened my eyes, only to yell out as a specter of some kind was standing in the doorway, then flew at me, black smoke filling the air behind it.

I brought up my paws again, and the ghost flew through my body and vanished into the air behind me, leaving me gasping and I fell to my knees, the picture slipping from my paws and it crashed to the ground, the glass breaking.

Silence fell, besides my heavy breathing as I slowly lifted myself back up onto my feet using the stand. I looked down at the broken picture, another gust of wind blowing through the house, which actually carried away the picture, but it only flew down the hall a few feet before coming to another rest.

"What...the hell was that...?" I panted, still rather shook and I started to make way down the hall again, slowly.

"It seems this house really is haunted..." Raze said, "Be careful. Who knows what it wants."

"I just want out of here. Where the heck is Fredrick..." I said and I entered the next room, a dining room it seemed. There was a very long table placed here, with a dozen chairs, and plates. Two plates were on the ends of the table, and five on each side, with a chair to match them.

I stepped along the table, looking at the plates. Each seemed so new and shiny, but the rest of the table seemed so old and dusty. I looked up then to the large picture hanging over the table on the wall, it was frayed in places, but I could clearly see the man from the previous picture. He was holding something in his lap it seemed, but the picture was ripped and torn there, so I couldn't tell what.

"He must have been the lord of this mansion." Raze determined, and then I heard a clanking noise come from a door to my left. I turned toward it, and walked up to it slowly.

Placing my paw against it, I started to push it gently open. A light was flickering on and off. This place had power? I pushed the door open fully, and gasped, pulling it back shut quickly.

"N-no...I didn't just see that did I? It can't..."

"Saw what?" Raze asked.

"You didn't see that? Fredrick...he's..."

"What are you talking about?"

I blinked, turned and opened the door again, and indeed what I had seen earlier was no longer there. The light was no longer flickering, and there was no dead body impaled on the many sharp knives sticking up on a rack on the kitchen counter.

"W-what?" I shuddered and I slowly stepped into the room, keeping my eyes fixed on the rack of knives. "What's going on here...?"

"It was an illusion." Raze determined, "This is all an illusion it seems."

"An illusion?" I stared around at the room. "It all seems pretty real to me."

"Yes...most of it might be real. But for instance, perhaps...there's someone watching you...controlling what you see and what you feel."

"Where are they?"

"They could be anywhere."

I turned away from the kitchen and quickly made my way back to the main foyer, and I glanced up the stairs. Everything was an illusion right? Than I could get wherever I needed without fear now. I started up the stairs, and was about to reach the second floor when the stairs suddenly became smooth and I gasped, falling backwards.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" I slid back down the flattened staircase, sliding along the floor and hitting the wall roughly. I groaned, rubbing my arm which had impacted the wall, and looked at the stairs. They were back to normal all of a sudden.

"That's not possible..." Raze stuttered, "You can't get hurt from illusions...this must be a form of hypnosis..."

"Hypnosis?"

"Physic type ability, it puts the target to sleep, and the user can then control them with suggestions, or make them live through something. They'll awake after it, and any of the damage that they take inside this "dream" will also transfer to real life. This is one of the most destructive of moves...You could die in here, but not in real life, and when you go back, you'll pass out from all the massive damage. You'll wake up, thinking you've been brought back to live or something."

"But then how are you in this with me?"

"My mind is connected to yours now, I'm not aware of the hypnosis anymore than you are, but I believe this is what is going on now."

"How do I break out of it?"

"You don't."

"What?"

"There's no way to break out of a hypnosis, the user has to cancel the affect for you to get free. I do know that it takes a massive amount of energy to maintain. In the past Physic types were one of the strongest because of this, but if you could survive long enough if this false world until they ran out of energy to keep going, you could defeat them easily. They are weak physically."

"Then they can hear me at least right?" I yelled into the house then, "Hey! Please! Just let me go! I just want my friends! Please! Let me go and we'll leave you alone! I'm sorry we entered the house!"

A low growl entered the room then, and I perked my ears then and looked towards the noise. A dark looking animal stood in the doorway, its tail lashing at me. Was this a pokemon? Black smoke rose from its body, and its eyes glowed a bright red among the dark shadows of its body.

"It's nothing like I've ever seen." Raze said, "But then again, this is still mostly an illusion, whoever is doing this, that is probably not their real body."

"Why should I let you free?" The dark figure growled at us then, its voice echoing demonically and I found myself shivering as a very cold breeze blew around me.

"Please, I'm sorry we entered your territory, we didn't mean to, just let me get my friend and we'll leave you alone, I promise."

"LIES!!" The bright red eyes glowed even more brightly at me and I had to shut mine against the light. Wind exploded all around us, the house shuddering from the strength. I could hear glass and other things breaking in other parts of the house.

"YOU LIE!" The voice shouted at me and I suddenly felt the wind vanish, and I opened my eyes again.

The house was back to normal, nothing was broken now. I heard the voice whisper in the air as I looked around, "You will never escape..."

I turned towards the stairs again, "We'll see..."

"Your actions are not your own Ruli." Raze told me then, "He's controlling your body, you might think you're the one in control but you're not."

I growled, baring my teeth and I jumped up the stair well nimbly, catching the railing to it to land. It broke as I caught it and put my weight on it, and I yelped out as I crashed down. I felt searing pain in my chest as I landed.

"Ruli!"

With my eyes closed tight in pain, I slowly tried to lift myself up to my knees, staring down at the large spike of wood that was sticking into my chest. My fur was red with blood, leaking down along my legs to the ground in a heavy flow.

"Oh shit..." I gasped out in pain. It hurt to breath. I took in ragged breaths.

"Be careful..." Raze cautioned me as I gripped the plank of wood in my chest and ripped it out.

I yelled as I threw the wood aside, putting my paw on my chest to try and stop the bleeding while using my other paw to hold myself up against the wall, and started to make my way to the next room.

As I opened the next door, the sound of my lullaby being played sounded through the room. I perked my ears, my pain momentarily forgotten.

"Hello?" I called out lightly, and looked into the room.

"Hi Ruli!" The sweet voice of Meloetta sounded to me, and I saw here floating about in a rather empty room, the few furniture in the room was covered in white sheets.

"Meloetta?" I breathed out tiredly and she flew closer to me, looking worried.

"Oh look at that wound!" She tsked like she was scolding me and moved my paw away from it, then brought her hand close to it and it started glowing green. I felt the soothing energy of healing pulse flood my body. While she healed me, I looked into her eyes.

"Why, why are you here?"

"I felt your distress again!" She giggled and smiled, "I found you in the mansion, just kind of standing there with a picture in your paws."

"That must have been the moment when you became locked into the hypnosis." Raze said knowingly.

"But...the fog outside, and the door wouldn't budge?" I asked.

"Those were an actual illusion. In reality, there was no fog, and you busted a hole through the door with your force palm. Unfortunately it didn't seem to wake up anyone at the camp." Meloetta told me, "But when I figured out you were stuck inside a hypnosis, I used my own on you, and here you are!"

"But...we're still inside the mansion illusion?" I looked around tiredly then, and she turned off the healing pulse. The pain was gone, the wound sealed and I gently brushed the fur of my chest with my paw.

"Well, I can only project myself into the hypnosis, and even then my control on it is minimal, I won't be able to get outside of this room with you. Right now, I'm in control of you, but I can't hold onto you forever, eventually he'll take back control and make you leave this room."

"Meloetta." Raze said, "You're a physic type, so you should know. Is there any way for a victim to break free of a hypnosis."

"Yes there is. I imagine that back in your time, the physic types never told anyone of the weakness." She waved about in the air a moment, "There's two weaknesses, the first is willpower."

"Will power?"

"Hmmhmm" She nodded lightly, "The simple matter is, you need to keep control of yourself. As long as your actions are you own, you can get out of this without any damage at all. Believe your actions are you own, and make them happen. Don't do something you don't want to. This would be easier for someone like mister mega, who has a stronger mindset and would be harder for a physic type to control."

Meloetta twisted about in the air, smiling and striking a pose, "The second weakness is that there's always something in the world that acts as a focus for the hypnosis. If you can find that object and touch it, you'll be able to see the controller of the illusion and can beat him up!" She giggled.

"Yes...I remember." Raze whispered, "I did that once, it surprised me. I touched a bright orange stone, and suddenly, I was able to see him standing next to me. I punched him in the face, and snapped out of the illusion."

"That's right! Attack the master of the world and it'll break apart." She nodded, and her body began to fade, "Uh oh, seems my time is up."

I got up onto my feet, turning towards the doorway, "Thanks Meloetta, I'll keep an eye out for whatever the focus is."

"Wait!" Raze yelled at me, and I stopped in place, but my body shook and trembled as I stood there.

"Just as I thought, your actions aren't your own. Fight it Ruli!"

"I..." I growled out, trying to grit my teeth, but my body was refusing. Meloetta had already vanished from sight, and the voice in the house growled at me.

"Rrrrr don't fight it! Submit!"

"N-no..." I growled back, making sure to stand as still as possible, even tough every part of my body ached to move. I knew it wasn't real though, it was whoever was controlling this world.

"I won't...Raze...merge with me."

"Right!" Raze agreed and his streams of red and black energy flowed over me, and I transformed into my mega form.

"NOOOOOOO!" The voice yelled, and the house began to shake. With Raze's power, my connection the the aura improved, and I no longer felt him controlling my actions. I opened the door to the room. The mansion was shaking, the walls waving like they were made of ooze.

"Die!!" A stand flew through the air at me, but I deflected it.

"Let me out!" I howled at him and I was answered with another stand flying at me.

"Ra-ha!" I shouted and used a force palm on the furniture piece. It broke into four pieces and crashed into a wall on the other side. I jumped from the second floor back down to the first, and dashed down the opposite hall from the dining room. I had to find that focus!

"NO!" The shade appeared in front of me, "Leave it alone! Don't you touch it!"

"Then you better let me out!" I howled in challenge and I charged forward, pulling back my fist, I tried to use force palm, but instead I felt a new sensation, it almost felt like my bones were grinding against each other, as the claw on the back of my paw lengthened out like a long blade.

I yelled as I slashed at the shade, but my new sword claw sliced through him like he was air, and he yelled back. A small ball of purple energy formed in his maw as he yelled and he shot it at me.

I jumped back, bending backwards and the ball flew over me and blasted into the wall of the mansion, breaking down the wall into a pile of rubble.

I grimaced as I kneeled slightly, ready for more as we stared each other down in the middle of the shaking hallway.

This was difficult, I had control of myself, but little control of the world or any of the illusions being played on me.

"Please!" I tried again to plead reason with him. "Just let us go!"

"No!! You came here for the treasure!" He bared black teeth at me as he growled.

"We didn't come here for any treasure, we didn't know of any treasure! The only thing we knew about was a pokemon!"

"Then..." The shade paused, "You came here for me?"

I nodded, "Yes!"

_____________________

I gasped out, suddenly in the middle of the hallway, holding the picture frame in my paws. I blinked. I wasn't in my mega form anymore.

"What happened?" Raze asked, "He suddenly let you go."

"Yeah..." I looked at the picture in my paws, and put it back down onto the stand.

I turned around and walked back into the foyer, and looked out the window. The fog was gone, I could see the smoldering remains of the campfire from here. A felt a breeze and thought for a moment that I was still stuck in the illusion, before I saw the gaping hole in the middle of the door.

"Hehe! See?" I heard the familiar sweet voice of Meloetta again and she appeared in the hallway ahead where I had just been fighting. "It was all illusion, if you had kept that wound you had gotten in there though, you would feel the same as you did in there."

I nodded, "I see...thanks for you help Meloetta."

She floated in front of me and waved her hand "Follow me!"

I followed her up onto the top floor of the mansion, and she led me to a large bedroom. She flew into it ahead of me, and waved around a human standing still in the middle of the room, facing the bed.

"Fredrick!" I shouted out, but he didn't respond.

"He's still trapped inside the hypnosis." Raze said.

"We need to find the pokemon that did this to you." Meloetta said.

"No you don't...I'm right here..." A small voice whimpred out to us and I turned towards the doorway.

A very small canine pokemon stood in the doorway, black furred with some red tipped feet and hair on the top of his head. The mane around his neck was a much darker black than the rest of his fur.

"You?" I tilted my head, "You did all that?"

"Y-yeah..." He nodded slowly.

"Why?" Meloetta asked lightly.

"To protect...the treasure, of my family."

"Your family?"

"Y-yeah, they'll...they'll be back someday...for it...they said so..." He stared at me, eyes wide. Was he scared of me?

"He's a dark type...he can use a physic type move but he's a dark type." Meloetta told me as she felt my thought, "He's scared of you because you're a fighting type, your moves are really harmful to him."

"Oh!" I said in realization and shook my head at him, "Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you."

"You said you came here for me...aren't you here to hurt me?"

"Well no, I didn't, I came here for Fredrick, he came in here for you."

"Oh..." He said he stared at Fredrick a moment, and suddenly the human gasped out as he was released from the hypnosis. He clutched his chest and screamed out in pain.

"AHHHH!!!" He collapsed to the ground then, and Meloetta was instantly there trying to use healing pulse on him as I kneeled down beside him.

There was no visible injury, but whatever it was that was inflicted to him in the hypnosis transferred to him here mentally. He was feeling pain even though there was no injury.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The pokemon shouted out as Fredrick was screaming, but Fredrick seemed to hear him and his eyes opened up.

"Zo-Zorua! I...I came!" He gasped out, but the pain he was feeling was making his speech come out in fragments.

"I know! I know!" The pokemon responded again, "But I can't go! I can't!"

"Zorua! They-they aren't coming! Th-they told me about you!" Zorua watched him, eyes going wider as Fredrick spoke after taking another deep breath. "I came to catch you and free you of the responsibility they placed on you! They aren't...coming back!" He breathed again and the dark pokemon turned and ran away.

"Hey! Wait!" I called out and after making sure that Fredrick would be fine with Meloetta, I dashed after him.

He entered the room across the hall of the second floor, and I burst through it after him. There was a bright yellow gem up on the wall of the room here.

"A mega gem!" Raze shouted.

I moved to take it, but a ball of energy blasted close to my paw "No! Don't touch it!" I looked to see Zorua standing there, fur fluffed and a snarl on his muzzle. His eyes started to glow blue.

"Zorua! Don't!" Fredrick shouted, stumbling into the room, Meloetta floating close after him, trying to help him. He leaned against the wall, taking out a pokeball from his belt. "They're not coming back! You don't have to defend it anymore!"

"No! They will come back! They told me they would! Why would they lie to me!?" He cried out, his eyes still glowing blue as I stared into them. I could see them start to water, and tears began to slide from them as he breathed heavily. "They...they wouldn't...they wouldn't do that to me!"

"You've been her alone for three years!" Fredrick shouted, "They're not going to come back!"

"No!" He opened his jaw, a ball of purple energy forming.

"Go! Hitmonlee!" Fredrick shouted, and he threw the ball in his hand. The flash of white quickly formed into a humanoid pokemon beside me, tall and lanky with long, spongy looking legs. A single pair of eyes connected close to the middle of his body and short arms held in front of himself in a fighting stance. He didn't seem to have a mouth at all.

"Double kick!" Fredrick shouted again, and the brown pokemon moved just as Zorua fired his ball.

Hitmonlee kicked once, kicking away the ball, and it smashed into the wall and knocked the gem loose.

It tumbled to the floor, and Zorua jumped down from the bed as he saw it. "No!"

But this was a mistake, as it brought him close enough for Hitmonlee's second kick of his move to reach him. His foot smashed into Zorua's backside.

"ACK!" He gasped out as he was smashed down into the floor, the floorboards breaking apart a bit. Hitmonlee kept his foot on him as he groaned, his eyes watching the gem continue to roll across the floor until it came to a rest against the other wall, and he closed his eyes slowly as he blacked out.

When Fredrick recovered enough, he recalled Hitmonlee and took Zorua into his arms. The small pokemon was out cold, his back twisted from the kick. I was frightened that his spine had been snapped, but I knew better. All pokemon were resislent, it took more to kill than just that.

"Poor little guy..." Fredrick murmered, "Stuck here for years believing his family would come back for him..."

I walked over to the mega gem then, picking it up.

"I wonder who this one is..." I said out loud and I wrapped my paw around it. I'd have to give it to Zane.

"I suppose you asked how I knew about him?" Fredrick said and I turned toward him, not remembering that Fredrick couldn't understand me, but I nodded. It wasn't what I asked, but I was curious.

"Someone told me about this place. The family moved away and they left their pet pokemon behind for some reason. While I was in that illusion he cast on me, he kept saying they were going to come back for him, that they told him they would come back. But they won't...it's a shame..."

"What are you going to do with him?" I asked and pointed at him to show what I meant.

"What?" Fredrick looked at me, confused.

I shook my head, frustrated and wishing Zane was here. I pointed at the pokeballs on his waist belt then at Zorua.

"Catch him?" Fredrick nodded, "That's what I came here to do yes, but I already have six pokemon...I can't legally carry a seventh around. Six is the most that trainer rules allow me to keep. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's just six is the most that can be used in a battle. I might give him to Zane..."

Fredrick nodded again as he looked at me, "Yeah, here, you give him to Zane."

I blinked as he put the small canine in my arms, not really able to refuse it. I suppose all I could do now was to tell Zane what had happened, and that we probably had a forth team member now.

"Let's go before he wakes up." Fredrick said, and he limped slowly towards the door and down the stairs, Meloetta continuing to help him.

"Thanks...Meloetta..." He smiled, "Not sure where you came from or why, but thanks..."

I followed him with Zorua in my arms, as the dark pokemon groaned in his sleep.

___________________________

"That was a lot of craziness to go through Ruli." Zane told me when I woke him up and used out mental link to quickly show him everything that had happened.

Zane looked at the small pokemon that was now laying beside him in the tent. He stroked his back with his hand, and he whimpered in his sleep now.

"This poor little guys been through a lot, we need to make sure he doesn't freak out when he wakes up and he's not in the house."

"He was protecting this." I said and handed Zane the mega gem.

"So as long as he has this you think he'll be all right eh?" Zane nodded and he held the gem in his hand.

"Which one does Raze think this is?"

"I have no clue." Raze told me, "I've never felt the energy from this one before..." I repeated what he said to Zane, who thought again.

"It must be one that didn't mess with him often in the past then." Zane put the gem into his backpack. "We'll have to keep watch to see who it might react to."

I nodded, looking at Zorua again. "What about him?"

"He'll stay in here with me tonight, if he wakes up in the middle of the night, he'll end up waking me up too before he gets out."

"All right Zane." I nodded again, "I'll be fine outside with Blaze and Silver outside, Blaze is always warm to sleep with." I chuckled lightly.

He smiled "Hehe, all right Ruli. You get as much sleep as you can, all right?" He yawned, "I'm heading back to sleep."

"Okay." I left the tent and settled in with the other two pokemon laying close to the now dead fireplace. Silver was pressed up close to Blaze, using his warm body to sleep, Blaze hugging him with his arms close as well. I laid down with my back up against his, and the warmth seeped into me quickly and eased the stress of the night. Even though I had to sleep with the mansion in front of me, it was now peaceful and restful unlike before, and I lost myself in dreams quickly.