FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

--Annabelle--

It wasn't like me. I knew that. This kind of thing was more Helena's speed. But the growlithe was right. The trainer was right. If we didn't deal with it while we could, we would lose the chance to have a say in the outcome.

It wasn't like me, and I knew I shouldn't have liked it, but every step we took through the woods was, at least in my mind, the right one. Despite our purpose in doing so, I had to admit, it was honestly nice to see. Helena stayed close to his side, and even Morrigan, as distant as she usually was, was amicably chatting away with her daughter.

For whatever we had lost, whatever we might still, some good had come of it, and I knew Gwen would focus on that.

The truth was, though… I was out for blood. Maybe we all were. This wasn't about setting something right. It was about making a statement. Nobody had any illusion about that. It wasn't defending her home, our home. No. It was about making sure anyone else who had similar ideas was well informed as to the welcome they would receive.

For once, I shared Helena's sentiments exactly. These fuckers need to pay.

I was surprised at the ease in which the trainer took to the task. His posture had struck me as well informed, but his eyes were sharp, and he moved with a swiftness that surprised me. His pokemon, too, were not in any fashion unready for what we were planning to do. I felt as if I had suddenly found myself on my back foot, and could only follow the momentum of the fight.

But what threw me off completely was Morrigan. It was as if she were a completely different person. I could feel it in her aura. So much had changed in the past few days I could scarcely believe it was still my home.

I felt as though I had fallen behind. As though I had missed something very important.

I hated that feeling.

--Morrigan--

Oh, but he was a hoot. He didn't hesitate at all to let me in, and nothing I asked was too far. All of his memories, all of his stories! It was as though I had found myself in a treasure trove of fun and humor, and even the suspense was delicious!

He had just finished regaling me with what I had honestly believed was completely made up nonsense about a charizard on a mountainside, when he revealed the truth of it, safely tucked away in the backpack he left in the tent. Not only was that story entirely true, but he fully intended to show me the proof of it!

And his story about Cocoa was adorable. It was hard to believe, as confident as she seemed now, that she had ever struggled at all. But I could see it in her eyes, the way she looked at him when he spoke to her, that there was something there that existed only for him. That the two of them had found in each other in a way nobody else could lay claim to.

It made the hours pass easily, as we tracked the progress of several men through the woods. They had quite the head start, and were clearly moving to be away as quickly as possible, but it was obvious they had trouble, here and there.

It wasn't, I didn't imagine, going to be much of a fight when we found them. My daughter and I alone would be more trouble than I believed a bunch of tired, injured idiots would be prepared for. But her lover, the Lycanroc, Tempest? That girl was a weapon. She moved with a kind of purpose that took me aback. I could almost see the malice at the end of her claws. Her anger at having missed the first fight had been palpable. But she seemed almost eager for what we were doing now.

Mira filled me in as I observed, demonstrating a sharp psychic ability that I hadn't anticipated in her. She even picked up on my surprise, giggling in my thoughts at having managed to catch me off guard. It wasn't the first time the group had tangled with them. Tempest couldn't deliver anyone's head the first time, so she felt obligated to make up for that today.

I had to admit, I was a little relieved I didn't find out what it was like to fight her, before. That things had happened so quickly it didn't become a real fight. I felt less and less confident in my chances with each moment.

The truth was, the further we went, the more I realized; any one of them could have tested me. And every one of them would have, if I had harmed a single hair on his head. It was a sobering realization. He had been fortunate, yet, so too had I.

He was admittedly quite fascinating, for a human. Not enough, I didn't imagine, that I would ever go back to a pokeball. But if I could convince them to stay, for a while, that might not be so bad. I wanted to hear their stories, too. Not just his.

And besides… I had missed my daughter's laughter.

--Trainer--

Morrigan peppered me with questions for most of the morning, and I obliged as best as I could. Nothing was sacred to Morrigan, but that suited me fine. Better she were completely aware of what I got up to than to find out third party and have a chance to be angry about it. I'd have to apologize to Claire later, I knew. I couldn't help but feel the last thing she wanted her mother to know about her was how much she got off on degradation.

On the other hand, I realized with no small sense of irony that there could be little as degrading as that.

It was Helena who stopped us short, circling ahead of me quickly, and blocking me with her body. The others fell quiet as she looked around. Morrigan pulled the branch from her tail, whip-like, the flame dancing at the tip burning hotter and hotter as she focused on it.

Then she laughed, gesturing with it through the brush to our right. I heard a man cuss, but as he surged forth, his progress was checked by Tempest's claws and fury. His hand snapped to the pokeball on his hip and the machoke that had bloodied me the night before was called forth.

This time, however, I was already in motion before the light had even faded away, my body coiled and sprang, and without a second thought, I launched a kick my teachers would have been proud of. The feeling of it connecting, catching the machoke flat footed, was strangely satisfying.

Tempest sprang over me as I landed, and surged in, taking the initiative and forcing the machoke on the defensive. Before I could even recover my posture, both Claire and Morrigan had turned their eyes to the trainer, who visibly blanched, and tried to run away before the force of their assault dropped him to his knees, hands clutching his head as he tried to force a scream past paralyzed vocal cords in mute, open-mouthed horror.

We quickly found ourselves with more than adequate company, the others had apparently been nearby. The sound of Tempest's scuffle was more than enough to alert them to our presence and they charged towards us from the trees.

Helena laughed and shot me a glance as she swept to my right side, driving her horn into a noibat and taking it to the ground with a slash of her heavy claws that I almost wanted to call foul at. The pitiful creature squeaked twice and laid still as she moved on, leaping into the fray, distracting men and pokemon with cruel bites, and slashes of both claws and horn.

Mira followed after her, Cocoa in tow, and between the three of them, they opened up several feet of clear space, which Morrigan and Claire quickly occupied, trapping targets with psychic assaults and gouts of fire, leaving them easy prey for Tempest and Annabelle.

I felt, for a moment, that I might not have been necessary at all.

But the man who strode forth next freed me from that illusion.

His presence towered over the others, though he himself was no greater in stature than I. His dark eyes appraised the scene, and wordlessly, he tapped three of the five pokeballs on his hip.

They moved with a kind of precision and elegance I hadn't seen before. A surly looking kadabra swiftly checking both Morrigan and Claire's psychic abilities with a light screen that seemed to react to their motions. A hitmonchan that battered Tempest and blocked everything Annabelle threw at it, until they were pressed back into the space the others had opened up, and a marowak that charged at me, every strike of its bone club leaving fresh bruises against my arms and legs as I swept between it and Penance.

For his part, the man watched, and waited until the melee had stilled, then, when we had been forced at the least to a stalemate, he spoke up.

“It was a nice try." He said, in a surprisingly pleasant baritone voice. “I commend you on your courage and decisiveness. It's how a good trainer should be. The ease in which they fight for you tells me my assessment of you is correct."

“However," He said, as he surveyed the scene. “We both know you've walked into a fight you're going to lose. That much is obvious. The situation has changed, and your posture betrays your awareness of that."

“So I'd rather not destroy a promising trainer. I'm not here for you. Or them. Frankly, I'm not here for these fools, either. They served their purpose poorly, and regardless of the outcome of the day, our organization will not tolerate their numerous failures." He said, sweeping a hand imperiously towards the poachers who begged for mercy, for another chance, and were swiftly silenced with a booming command.

“I'm here for the absol." He said, as she left the circle to stand at my side, looking up at me in uncertainty. “We can be cordial about this, I am sure. You wouldn't want me to hurt your friends, you were more than willing to die for them before."

Helena looked up at me, and smiled, weakly. “We had a good run." She whispered gently, before looking back to the man. “But that's not a fight you want to pick. You told me to tell you when it mattered. Trust me, don't fight him." She said, brushing her cheek against my thigh.

My hand came to rest on her head, and I laughed as the man stared at me.

“They do say laughter is the best medicine." He said, glancing at Helena. “But I wonder what she said that is just so funny."

“Oh, it's quite simple. She saw your future. I'm afraid it doesn't end well for you." I replied, as I glanced down at the marowak. “Or you, little one. I'm sorry." I said, with a gentle smile. “I'll ask you, friend. Do you know what it's like, to know the future?"

“I will, by the end of today." He replied, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “You won't win this. I'll ask you once more, call your team back, and just walk away."

“Oh, but I already have won. You don't understand. What we set in motion was more than just coming here to beat up some pitiful pawns. That you did, in fact, walk right into this is all the more satisfying. Her prophecies are far more than anyone could comprehend without hearing them for themselves."

What are you doing? What's the plan? Morrigan's voice, so narrow, so small it might not have existed at all.

“They can't help you now." I said, with a smile. “Why would they? Your pawns already know their lives are forfeit. Tempest, Claire, let them go. They have served our purposes admirably. They can leave." I said with a smile.

The man scoffed at that, and snapped his finger, pointing at the kadabra. “Don't you dare. Put them all under, now. They must face their appointed fate!"

As the kadabra moved to comply, I tapped the back of Helena's head, and nudged her towards the marowak. I felt the tension coil in her shoulders before she sprang, lashing out in two hard strokes as I leapt over their fight and rushed towards the man, one hand reaching up to feint, a strike at his face, the other pulling the hatchet I had borrowed from Gwen from the back of my belt.

The look on his face was priceless as Clare and Morrigan took the advantage, the distraction of the kadabra creating the fault in his barrier. Their attack on him was swift, and brutal, and as he shrieked, their flames met him in tandem. Cocoa charging in to headbutt him was more a mercy stroke than an attack.

In the chaos, Annabelle had managed to position herself between the group and the hitmonchan, doing everything she could to weather the storm of blows he rained down on her. She was outclassed, but defended herself with a tenacious spirit, even as her body buckled against the force of the impacts.

The man managed to tap the other two pokeballs as I chopped into his arm with the hatchet. He screamed, and countered with a kick that knocked me flat on my back, as his last two pokemon materialized. His right hand clutched the bloody gash I left in his left arm, and he began to back up as I rolled to my feet, trying to pretend he hadn't just knocked the wind out of me as a blaziken sized me up, with a menacing glare.

I heard Helena whimper in pain from behind me, but before I could react to it, Penance's bark sounded her moving to cover the absol. The muffled sounds of impact, snarls and growls betrayed the savagery of their fight as the blaziken launched the first attack against me, talons raking across my defending arm, tearing me open. My blood welling up and dripping down to the thirsty ground beneath us.

I countered with the metal, but found no purchase as the blaziken leapt back, and circled. His other pokemon completely destroyed the unity my friends had found in their defensive circle. The salamence he had called forth rampaged freely, swiping with tail and claw, and forcing Claire and Morrigan apart with a cruel spray of fire, singeing the ground they had once stood until it was nothing but a charred black waste.

The blaziken and I traded blows, the two of us launching into a flurry of punches and kicks, neither willing to give ground. The second time we parted, we were both panting and bloody, but neither of us could claim victory.

It seemed everywhere I looked, it was the same sight. A war of attrition. The salamence had backed my team into a corner. I watched Tempest shoulder check Claire out of the way, taking the broad, sweeping blow of his tail, in her place. She was quick to get up, but I knew next time it might not be so.

I needed something to change the situation. I knew I was grasping at straws now. Helena had been right. She had warned me. And yet, she fought with as much heart as the rest of us when it came down to it.

At least this time... Whatever happened, we all faced it together.

I knew in my heart it was how it should have been.

--Penance--

I knew that look. I knew his eyes. In the middle of all of this, I saw the gentleness, the softness behind it all. I saw the man I fell in love with. The man we fell in love with. I saw the blood dripping down his arms, the hatchet bloodied from his assaults. I saw how removed he was, for just a moment, from all of it.

I saw the acceptance, and it was more than I could bear.

“Helena!" I called, as I evaded the next strike from the marowak, the bone club bouncing off of the ground with a dull sound. She had taken more than a few hard shots, but moved in quickly, between the marowak and I, as I got distance.

It was going to hurt, wasn't it? In the end… it was going to hurt. I wasn't strong enough to change much, but maybe I could change enough. Maybe this time I could be good enough to help.

This time… I had to be good enough to help.

I wasn't going to let him just accept this. I couldn't accept it. Not here. Not to these people.

As I rushed past to tackle the blaziken, I felt a surge of strength in my paws. I didn't just push away from the ground, I shredded it beneath me as I accelerated into the takedown. If I was only going to get one chance at it… if this was going to cost me everything, then damn it, I was going to make sure that son of a muk never forgot it.

I expected there to be more resistance. I expected to bounce off. I expected retaliation. Something. Anything.

But as I tackled that blaziken, I felt it give way, completely. Squawking in surprise, pain, and fear as I held it to the soil, my teeth at its throat.

That look, that acceptance in his eyes changed in an instant, and he spared me no second glance as he ran past me, back into the fray. Charging the man with bloody hatchet in hand.

He wasn't the only one who had a very different view of the situation now.

The man backed away, tripped, and rolled free, scrambled for distance and shouting at the salamence, who roared in dissatisfaction but moved with surprising swiftness to defend his master. I felt the heat of the blaziken disappear as it was called back into the pokeball, and as I looked around, found the others in the same position, suddenly free from having to defend themselves against his team.

And it seemed as suddenly as he had arrived, he was gone, borne on the back of the salamence, aloft and fleeing into the bright blue sky.

Master… and he was, I realized. As much as I loved Wendy, I was his, now… stood for several moments, weapon still in hand, before he staggered, and dropped the hatchet.

I was there, for him to fall back on. To catch him as the exhaustion overtook him. As it should have been. Helena limped to his side, and nuzzled against me, a grateful, exhausted gesture before she fell over, as well, her head coming to rest on his lap.

It was Morrigan who called the shots, briefly, though she left Helena, I, and him alone. She rounded up the poachers who hadn't managed to escape in the midst of all of it, and with Annabelle's help, began to force them all back to the cabin.

We rested there for quite some time, each of us holding him, his family. His girls. Shielding him the same as he shielded us. We were there, when he finally came to his senses, and he met my eyes with gratitude, and no small sense of wonder. His hand against my cheek, he didn't need to say a word. I would have done it again in a heartbeat.

He wasn't in a rush to get up, and in the midst of it, all the warmth and affection, who could blame him? Master had done so much in the past few days, after all… he deserved that rest. So we waited, and talked. In his words, 'let the world spin on without us a little bit'.

“So what happens next?" I asked, after a while.

“Their apportioned fate." Helena said, looking up at me with a newfound appreciation. “I wonder which is worse, what their boss was going to do to them… or how long they're going to be under lock and key for what they did to us."

It wasn't what I'd meant. I was only looking for an idea of where we were going. Still, I had my own feelings about that. “Doesn't matter." I replied, as I laid my head down beside master's hand. “They aren't our problem anymore."

“You're right." She agreed, as she cast her gaze to the sky. “Our problem is out there, now. More convinced than ever that I'm worth chasing after."

While I wouldn't say it aloud, that didn't matter to me, either. If he came back, I'd tear him apart, myself. I'd never let him near master, or anyone important to him, ever again.

[EPILOGUE]

--Trainer--

The officers responding to the scene were an anticlimax. I had ridden up on Penance's shoulders, to fetch Gwen and Wendy from the lake. They were glad to see me safe, if a bit surprised by the newfound presence and confidence of Penance as an Arcanine.

When we arrived, Gwen took a moment in silence, as she looked through the windows of the cabin. We weren't allowed to enter, until the police had done their jobs, collecting what evidence they could. She sighed, heavily, and for a moment, I saw the wear of years, her shoulders loose and heavy, an expression of profound hurt, and disappointment in the world.

Annabelle pulled her in for a hug, but it was Helena that pulled her out of the sadness of the moment, nuzzling against her leg and sitting at her feet, one paw up on her leg.

“Gwen…" She said, her voice seemed almost small. Gentle. Child-like.

“We saved the only thing in that cabin that meant anything to us." Helena continued, having gotten the old ranger's attention. “We can mend what's broken. I'll go get everyone together, if that's what you want. I'm just relieved that tomorrow, you're still going to be there."

Gwen smiled at that, and slowly sat, leaning on both Annabelle and Helena, as she looked towards the cabin. “I know it's … there's nothing there more important than knowing everyone is alright. Everyone is alright, and they didn't get the records. I have those." She said, with a sad smile. “But it still hurts. I had a lot of memories in those things."

Annabelle nodded, as she sat beside Gwen, taking her hand. “You know what I remember?" She asked, leaning against Gwen's shoulder, a little. “I remember the first time you tried to teach me to bake those little tarts you make. The flour that got everywhere, how … even now if you knew where to look, you might find a little bit left in the small places."

Gwen laughed at that, and pulled Annabelle close, kissing the top of her head. “I remember trying to clean it all up." She said, teasingly.

“I remember you stopped everything you were doing when I was afraid you were going to be mad at me. I remember the most important thing in the world to you was making sure I knew better." Annabelle said, with a smile. “There's not a thing in there that could be added or removed from that cabin that would ever make that memory go away. It's one of the best of my life."

Helena spoke up next. “I remember when Annabelle blamed me for the broken window. We had been arguing and neither of us meant to, but she was already in your good graces. I remember you looked disappointed."

Annabelle laughed softly at that. “I can't believe you even still remember, it was so long ago."

Gwen smiled, ruffling Helena's fur. “You, on the other hand, were a troublemaker." She said with a genuinely mirthful smile. “Oh, I remember you were really angry that day but you never said about what. I understand now."

“I remember you made dinner special that night just for me. I was the one who was in trouble, but there you were, trying to make sure I understood that I still had a place with you." Helena smiled at that, before looking back to the cabin.

“Gwen…" Helena said, softly. “I didn't understand until today. I never thanked you for it."

“Oh hush." Gwen said, scratching behind Helena's ears. “Thank someone for doing what's right, and they'll get a big head about it."

“No… I need to say it. Thank you, for always being here for me. For all the times you took up for me even though I was causing problems. For never abandoning me." Helena paused at that, and turned to face me. “I'm going to be going with him. He reminds me of you. I know he'll look after me with the same care you did."

Gwen managed three breaths before she wrapped her arms around Helena, pulled her close and cried. Helena was taken aback, but after several moments, Gwen managed to compose herself enough to speak.

“It makes all of this worth it. To see… you happy. To see you being able to move forward. It makes all of this worth it." Gwen said, wiping away her tears. “I'm so happy for you!"

Helena seemed embarrassed by it, but after a while, and animated conversation about what would come next, came to my side. “I think we ended up making her day." She said, as she sat by me. “There might not be a lot to smile about today, but we have this, and I think it's a good start."

I had to agree. It was a very good place to start.