When the webbing covered my chest, I began to panic. Maybe I hadn't quite thought this through. If the cocoon was strong enough that I couldn't set myself free, strong enough to withstand a ton of rocks crashing down on it, then would Emberwilde still have enough strength to set me free? Panicking, my eyes darted around wildly until they met Emberwilde's. Despite the obvious strain on his face, the determination in his eyes quelled my fears. He was a Lord and I was his vassal, he was duty-bound to protect me.
Once I felt the webbing on my neck, I said, "Give it a minute to harden before you move." Then I took a deep breath and my world plunged into further darkness. Isolated, I did the only thing I could - I counted.
A minute passed, then a minute and a half. The panic again began to rise in me multiplied by this new darkness and claustrophobia. Before I could really start to struggle, the ground shook and a great cacophony echoed as my world plunged into another, deeper layer of darkness. Then came an all too familiar roar, one that rose above even the avalanche of boulders finally falling to the ground. A roar that froze the battle between Emberwilde's underlings and the Rocket grunt, one that even quelled my fears as my cocoon was buried deeper under rocks and darkness.
In the darkness I felt the cocoon lift safely through the debris before being set down. Scrape, scrape, scrape a sound like a knife on a ceramic plate that made my ears feel like they were going to start bleeding. The noise stopped suddenly and I was left alone again in the void. A single claw cracked cracked through the cocoon, ending just inches from my face, then ripping down the rest of the cocoon.
Finally pulled from the safety of the cocoon into the dimly lit tunnels of Mt Moon, I quickly took in the situation around me. Next to me stood Emberwilde and Metapod, both exhausted - Emberwilde from the last several minutes of the Atlas feat of holding up a ton of rock, and Metapod being called to battle after just coming off a previously intense one. Ahead waited Spearow and Rattata having done their parts distracting the Rocket grunt. Finally, on a ledge above us a man dressed in all white except for a large red "R" on his shirt and a Graveler looking slightly beaten, several pieces noticeably missing from its rocky skin.
Though exhausted, a rage still consumed Emberwilde's face, smoke pouring from his nose and his tail fire burning large and bright. I lifted three pokeballs, returning the other three to protect them from what was about to come.
The man I assumed must be Patty the Rocket laughed. "Seriously kid. I don't care that you've got a fully-evolved Charizard. Scary tattoos aren't going to help it against my rock pokemon."
I simply turned to Emberwilde and nodded. The Charizard flapped its wings once, twice, then lifted itself off the ground and above his opponents in one more final flap.
Instead of ordering his Graveler to attack, Patty pulled a small chrome device from his pocket. "I guess you're not familiar with Team Rocket, kid. And this time, the boss gave orders not to steal your pokemon but to make sure you and it are never seen again."
Before he could press the button on the device, Emberwilde let loose a powerful gust with its wings. The ensuing sandstorm froze both the man and pokemon for a brief second, long enough for Emberwilde to make his move. He swooped down and landed hard directly in front of the Graveler, towering over it, his feet crushing into the rocky floor. The Rocket looked on with shock while Emberwilde took a deep breath and unleashed a torrent of fire on the rock pokemon. In just a couple seconds, the Charizard engulfed the other pokemon with its flames. In a minute, bits of molten rock began to melt off the Graveler onto the already vitrified cave floor. The heat, from where I stood, brought back memories of the Choosing Ceremony and the flames set upon my custom pokeball. Before the flames dissipated, Emberwilde delivered a kick that launched what was left of the still smouldering Graveler into the stone wall. Then he turned to the man.
Hand shaking, Patty raised the device. "I can still press the button and send another ton of rock crashing down on your trainer."
"I'm not his trainer," I replied, finally pulling myself up onto the ledge.
"How did you get here so quickly?" the Rocket stammered.
I simply shrugged my shoulders trying to hide my exhaustion. "Last one to the prey doesn't eat. That's just one of the rules in the Tartarus Isles."
"Tartarus Isles?" Patty repeated, eyes widening, "No, that's where -"
We didn't get the chance to hear the rest of his realization as Emberwilde chose that moment to bite down on the man's hand, jaws clamping down hard. I watched with dulled horror as the Charizard jerked his head left, the sound of tearing flesh and snapping bones almost as loud as Patty's screams. Then he swung his head right and rendered the man harmless by severing his arm just above the elbow. The Rocket grunt collapsed to his knees holding a bleeding stump of an arm while Emberwilde greedily gulped down his prize.
While the man was still in shock, I turned to the Charizard. "Lord Emberwilde, if you would be so merciful, a message can only be delivered to his boss if this man survives."
Emberwilde stared at me for an uncomfortable second as if contemplating taking a bite from me too. In the end, he simply grunted in acknowledgment and swung his tail around to cauterize the wound. Satisfied, he returned himself to his pokeball at my hip.
Pulling a flashlight from my bag, I looked Patty over, eyes wide and gripping his arm. "Surviving is a choice. If you do choose to live, let your boss know that what happened to his gym was for the insult dealt to my Lord. A champion should always be available to a challenger. Oh, and there are two more Tartarus Isle natives in the region at the moment, so he may want to reconsider attacking those 'trainers' as you call them, because they could be one of us."
Before I could turn to continue my trek through the caves of Mt Moon, the Rocket appeared to recover enough from his injury. "Four. Four of you. And the boss will be sending his own against you and your champions," he said before again falling unconscious.
I smiled what I hoped appeared wolfish. "Let them come."
For those of you with nothing better to do than follow this blog, I'm sure you're surprised to see another "Emberwilde Comes" story. Don't worry, I am too. If you're new here, run, everything here is horrible and a waste of your time. If for some reason you stuck around (you made it through three parts of this so you've no one to blame but yourself), "Emberwilde Comes" is my Pokemon fanfic about an island where Pokemon are the dominant predators and every year each clan sends a champion to traverse the Kanto region before returning to the island to challenge the other champions in battle. So, I finally got around to writing the next part after Emberwilde's battle with Brock in Pewter City. I can tell you that if you're hoping for more regular updates (to either this story or even this blog) I can tell you your hopes are sorely misplaced. This series would honestly be the easiest thing to research for (just look for a Red/Blue version playthough) and I still haven't done that yet. Just to show how little I've actually done, I still haven't even decided what Pokemon the Bearer has canonically caught yet. So far, we know about the Metapod (evolved from the Caterpie caught when Emberwilde burned down part of the Viridian forest), and the Ratata (because everyone has one) and a Spearow (because I always chose Spearow over Pidgey). I know there's several other pokemon we could've encountered since then, but I also still haven't figured out how the capture system should work (there's no Pokebox for the Tartarus Isle Bearers, after all). Anyways, I fell off last year after that big "Healer's Gambit" story (one that I'd actually been sitting on for years). Plus I got overly ambitious on some other projects that hopefully I'll get around to starting up again too. As always, it's my yearly resolution (yeah, I know it is already February) to bother you with at least one of these posts per week so let's see how this goes.
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