{"sf1_id":672277,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Defenders of Evodusai Part 11","author":"Mizucharoshi","words":1895,"posted_at":"2014-02-25T11:09:00.000Z","tags":["Porygon","charmander","pokemon","totodile"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/672277-defenders-of-evodusai-part-11","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/672277","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=672277\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":" Pressure. The feeling of it\nbearing down on me was overwhelming. It focused around my chest, the\nforce of it all made it hard to breath. The silhouette of a figure\nwas seen for a second before I shut my eyes in pain. Instincts that I\nhad just accepted were now being overrun by new found fears. \"Stop.\nPlease...\" I barely managed to wheeze out. Struggling for air, I\nsunk into submission once I realized how helpless the situation had\nbecome... ...I awoke, sitting up and\ngasping for oxygen. The fire on my tail flickered sporadically in the\ndark room, which was spinning as I clutched my aching head. Chilled\nsweat rubbed off into my paws and I shuddered after finding that I\nwas drenched in it. Doing my best to clean the stuff off my scales,\nmy thoughts drifted back to my strange nightmare. For a dream, it\nfelt eerily real. Like something was actually pushing into my chest\nwith the intent of doing permanent damage. As I was thinking through\nall of the possibilities that could have caused that pressure,\neventually the events from yesterday came back to mind and it\nimmediately made my heart beat faster. \"You want me to do what?\" I\nyelled out of surprise. Around me, the various chiefs and captains of\nSofeda were murmuring to each other about the dragonite's proposal.\nLandus the salamance roared with anger and shut everybody up in an\ninstant. Rubbing the veins that popped up on her forehead, she closed\nher eyes and took deep breaths in order to calm down. \"Give me a\nmoment so that I can try to understand this absurd scheme of yours,\"\nshe finally said after a long silence. \"You want to create a group\nthat consists of members from each of our divisions. I was against\nthat idea at first, but it makes sense to combine forces in order to\nbecome stronger. However, what I don't understand is why you plan on\nletting that whelp over there take charge of the team.\" Haless\nmerely sighed and shook his head. \"You were right Ulfor,\" he said\nto the slaking, \"maybe we should have talked about this privately.\" \"Don't you ignore me!\"\nLandus growled. Stomping her way up to meet Haless face to face, she\nstood like a wall built out of irritation. \"Didn't we already\nestablish how amazing that so called whelp is?\" Haless stated\nboldly. \"Strong and capable, she's a natural born leader who is new\nand untainted by our rules and regulations. This purity will be the\nmost crucial part of this operation and it will absolutely guarantee\nsuccess.\" The room fell quiet again and the two dragons stared off\nat one another. Landus searched within the dragonite's eyes for any\nsign of deception and scoffed after finding none. \"Tch, have it\nyour way. This meeting is over.\" Pushing past the others, she left\nthe area in a hurry with a strange bounce in her steps. With Landus gone, the meeting\ncame to a close and I was left speechless. The responsibility of a\nteam now rested on my shoulders and the pressure of success had\nalready started to wear me down. A pat on my back knocked my thoughts\naway and I turned to see Truce and Haless smiling at me. \"Jeez,\nit's been about a week and you already get assigned something as huge\nas this,\" Truce chuckled merrily. \"And you were knocked out for\nalmost half of it,\" Haless said with a giant grin. \"I look\nforward to the results of this little experiment! Get some rest\ntonight and report to my office in the morning so that we can get the\nteam up and running. Oh, and if you have any pokemon in mind that\nyou'd like to recruit, I'm open to your suggestions.\" Breaking out of the flashback, I\nyawned and laid back down on the stiff mattress. I was happy that\nthey moved me into Liru's room. It was a large area made for holding\nat least three inhabitants. Once you got used to the beds, the place\nhad a homey feel to it. Looking over to my friend's sleeping form,\nher calm and relaxed breathing reminded me of my own tiredness. Even\nthough daylight would come in a few short hours, I wanted to sleep\noff the grogginess still lingering in my head. A bit wary at first, I\nshut my eyes and hoped that the pressure didn't come back. I came to feeling refreshed in\nboth mind and body. The sun shone brightly, invigorating my mood and\nerasing away the uneasiness caused by last night's episode.\nStretching my limbs, the excitement of what today had in store\nbubbled through my veins and my tail wagged around in joy. \"Whoa,\nyou're in a great mood today,\" Liru yawned from across the room. I\nfroze in embarrassment, not expecting her to still be in bed. \"Just\ngetting up sleepyhead?\" I giggled, bending down to touch my toes. A\ndangerous aura was sensed from behind but before I could react to it,\nthe totodile sped forward and playfully tackled me. We tumbled around\non the ground together for about five seconds until she grabbed me by\nthe shoulders and pinned me down. \"Who are you calling a\nsleepyhead?\" she laughed. \"You just got up a couple of minutes\nearlier then me.\" Caught red handed, I blushed and started to\nsquirm underneath her. After rolling off me and brushing away the\ndust from her scales, she offered a paw which I gratefully accepted.\nOnce up, the room was filled with the sound of rumbling and Liru's\nface heated up. Before I could laugh, my own stomach growled. \"That's\nright, we kinda missed dinner last night since the meeting was so\nlong,\" Liru chuckled while rubbing the back of her neck. \"Let's\ngo get some breakfast before we do anything else.\" Grinning\nmischievously, I took off and yelled, \"Bet I can get there first!\"\nRacing down to the mess hall should have been a simple contest.\nHowever, in my haste I quickly realized that I had no idea where to\ngo. Couple this with the fact that Liru was extremely fast on her\nfeet and all you have left is one slow charmander who's lost and\nhungry. Wandering the halls in my\npitiful state, a low buzzing echoed from somewhere close by.\nCuriosity pulled me towards the source of the sound, leading me to\nthe end of the hallway. A strange scent lingered in the air as I got\ncloser to the door. It had a pleasant fruitiness to it, yet at the\nsame time irritated my senses. Without a second thought, I threw the\ndoor open and felt my nostrils become overwhelmed by the stench.\nBlinded and choking on the fumes, I managed to find the wall and\nfollowed it to an area clear from the gas. Wiping my watering eyes, I\ncould barely see someone slowly approaching. \"Salutations, friend,\"\nthey said in a semi-robotic voice. I recognized it to be Cykoria, a\nporygon who happens to be the chief of research. Still feeling a\ntickling in my throat, I waved at it(?) and smiled. \"Hey Cyko! How\nare you today?\" I asked. \"Doing fine, but please refer to me by\nmy full name\" it replied. I shrugged. \"Okay Cykoria. By the way,\neven though we've met only yesterday, I've been wondering if you're a\nboy or a girl.\" Staring at me with unblinking\neyes, they just floated there in silence. \"Uh, hello?\" I\nquestioned, waving a paw back and forth in front of his face. \"Are\nyou alright? You don't have to answer if you don't want to.\" \"No,\nit's fine,\"they suddenly said. \"Being curious builds\nintelligence. Sorry for being inactive for the past couple of minutes\nbut I needed to download the data of my latest experiment. To answer\nyour question, I don't associate myself to either gender. Rather, I\nam genderless and have no need to trouble myself with something that\nis not important to me. Getting back on topic, I would like to know\nabout why you tried to enter my lab.\" I told them about how I got\nlost and saw something weird in the porygon's eyes. \"Strange.\nSomething within my databanks appears to be corrupted. I must return\nto my lab at once.\" Giving me directions to the mess hall, he sped\nback to his room and somehow slammed the door. Another growl from my\nstomach was all I needed to get moving.Chattering and laughter appeared\nto get louder with every step that I took. The aroma of soup and the\nsound of frying only added to my hunger and I broke out into a\nsprint. Turning the corner, this tunnel vision of mine made me run\ninto the cream colored belly that belonged to Haless. \"Whoa! What\nthe- Hey, there you are!\" he said as I bounced off his pudgy tummy.\nLanding on my rump with a soft thump, I stared up with an apologetic\nlook in my eyes. He held in a chuckle and waved his paw to signal\nforgiveness. \"I was just looking for you, Winta. Come on, lets go\ntalk about recruiting some members for our team.\" Forced to go\nalong with him, I whimpered, glanced back at the mess hall, and\nclutched my stomach. Entering the dragonite's\nchambers, I noticed it was pretty spacious. It makes sense since he\nis a huge pokemon compared to most of the others. The walls were\nplain gray, to symbolize his connection as the captain of the\nintelligence branch of Sofeda. Unknown lettering covered the floor\nand roof, giving it a creepy sense of being watched. His desk was\nstuck in a corner and on it were several stacks of folders. He\nmotioned for me to sit down and I obeyed out of politeness. Tossing a\nsmall stack of papers to me, Haless looked at me and his demeanor\nchanged drastically.  \"Okay, serious time. Souna\ngave me his files on all current members of this organization and\nI've already gone through them. From this stack of over two hundred,\nI've narrowed it down to about twenty-five potential recruits to\nstart off with. I give you the power to choose up to five. You must\ntry to get at least one from each of the three branches, otherwise\nthere wouldn't be a point in calling this the unity project. Now\nwe're gonna tackle small operations at first to test the waters. When\nthe team starts to build up more and more recognition through\nsuccess, we'll be able to add on more members and take on riskier\nmissions. Got all that?\" I didn't know if it was the\nhunger or the uneasiness of his persona, but somehow I was simply\nstuck in a daze. I managed to make out the important parts of his\nspeech and looked at the files in my paws. Out of these twenty-five\nprofiles, five of them will get the honor of becoming a founding\nmember of a team that I get to lead. I smiled seeing Liru's file\nbeing included and knew that she would be a major asset. With me and\nLiru representing Intelligence Central, I decided that the remaining\nfour should come from the other branches. No matter who I pick, I\njust hope that we could all get along.","previous":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/659578-defenders-of-evodusai-part-10.json","next":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/699993-defenders-of-evodusai-part-12.json"}