30 The sound of laughter

The mysterious Pokemon had grabbed the Bellsprout on its head with its own silvery claws and stopped it from moving any further. The Bellsprout struggled to break out of this confinement and threw its leafy arms at its enemy - but to no avail.

The mysterious Pokemon strengthened its grip around the Bellsprout, shifted its hips and shoulders into a pitcher's stance and ... flung that yellowish Pokemon over everyone's heads into the far distance!!!

"Brrrrroooorrrrrr!!!!", an odd scream escaped the Bellsprout's mouth as its image became smaller and smaller in Arthur's eyes.

"Hooomeyyyyyy!!!", Chestnut shouted desperately as he witnessed his partner being handled like a baseball. His eyes burned wild, full of worry and rage. For a moment his frustration was set on Arthur but then quickly returned to the Bellsprout still in the air.

"Damned bitch, consider yourself lucky, tch!", he cursed at Arthur and decided to run after his Pokemon and try and save it.

Yet, before he could do that, before anyone even realized and processed what had occured seconds ago, the next shocking thing happened.

The mysterious Pokemon, seemingly dead set on finishing the Bellsprout, dashed suddenly towards a tree, climbed up the bark like a ninja and vanished from their vision inside the sea of green. While the people on the ground still wondered where it went to or wether it would come back, a shadowy figure was seen moving in between the tree's verdant curtains.

"It-it it's following the Bellsprout!", Hazel recovered his voice again and determined the destination of the mysterious Pokemon. The Pokemon jumped quickly from one tree to another as if it was the king of forest hiding in the shadows, reigning in the dark. Only the rustling of leaves and glimpses of of its shape proved its existence.

But when the Bellsprout apparently reached the highest height in its forced flight, the king of the shadows showed himself personaly!

The mysterious Pokemon jumped out of a tree and perfectly intercepted the Bellsprout in its trajectory! However, instead of a chaotic collision, the unknown figure pulled back its two extended claws to gather force and then ... started a wild swiping massacre!

The two claws scratched and swiped at the Bellsprout's body in an infinite loop, a never-ending bloody feast! The Bellsprout tried defending against this torrent of hits but his small resistance was broken through as soon as it was established!

"NOOOO! STOOOPPP!", Chestnut cried out in disbelieve at the horror his partner had to experience, at the same time a slight pain attacked his mind making his face slightly paler.

"Damn, do something you imbecile! Order your stupid Pokemon to attack back, idiot!", Hazel shouted at Chestnut, awakening him from this short trauma.

Shortly before the two fighters neared the ground again, the dark Pokemon used the Bellsprout as a springboard and narrowly escaped the impact neatly to a safe spot. The Bellsprout on the other hand didn't have so much luck and hit the earth with its heavy head first causing a small wave of dirt to be thrown into the surroundings.

Silence covered the battlefield for some moments before a heavy cry resounded in the forest:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!", Chestnut sprinted towards the small bowl that formed after the impact. He fell onto his knees and pulled the Bellsprout's body into his arms,

"NOOOOO, what have you mothafuckas done??!!!", Chestnut became his hysteric and his breathing turned heavier.

The Bellsprout was covered with tons of cuts, green liquids leaking out of those wounds and showing no reactions to its partner's shaking or shouting.

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On the other side of the battlefield, Arthur still questioned his sense of reality:

"What the heck did just happen?", he was almost standing before death's doors again and then an unknown saviour appeared out of the blue and defeated the Pokemon he struggled so hard with?

Speaking of unknown saviour, his head moved towards the place where the dark figure landed before. It was still vigilantly observing its target, the Bellsprout, making sure that it didn't make an unexpected comeback.

At first Arthur's eyes were quite hurt and covered with dirt and dust from the falling and fighting against his now defeated enemies. But now he had enough time to clean his face and recover a bit of his vision. His sight set on the mysterious figure, he recognized the body outline somehow but still couldn't make out the identity of his saviour. Then an image flickered in his mind. The image of a Pokemon he attempted to find and bring back home since the beginning. This image and picture in front of him overlapped and suddenly a light went on in his head:

"Sniebel *cough*!!!", Arthur gasped, his chest and lungs still hurting. But it was true! He finally discovered his first supposedly Pokemon Partner! Was it a coincidence? Fate? Whatever, he was happy he got rescued anyway.

"Shit, and here I thought you would be easy game. This Pokemon is yours? What a nice specimen of a Sniebel. It would be great to sell it for a high price, nobles and rich people love exotics like these. It's getting harder to smuggle their kinds because of increasing species protection laws nowadays. It must be my lucky day I presume kyakakaakaka!", a familiar mad laughter echoed in Arthur's ears.

The Sniebel either felt the hostility Hazel sent in his directions or knew he was talking about him. No matter what, the prey had changed in the Sniebel's eyes and he sent glares back at Hazel.

"Kriiiiiier!", it tried making a threatening sound.

"What, you want to attack me? Kyakakaak, know your place you vile beast!", Hazel provoked the Sniebel, pulling its attention all on himself.

Arthur felt something was wrong. Hazel suddenly got an air of confidence, but where did that come from? His partner's Pokemon was unconscious so what could he ...

"No, *cough cough*, Sniebel you have to ...", but before Arthur could give voice to his doubts the unpredictable took place.

"Super Sonic!", Hazel barked out an order, but who was the receiver?

The Sniebel was confused but his attention was still fixed at the human in front of him. Then all of a sudden, he heard a scream from an unknown direction:

"Triiiieeeerrrhhhh!", his visions began turning blurry and the images doubled and superimposed with each other repeatedly! A weird laughter came out of that human's mouth:

"Kyakakakaka!", but this time it resounded from all directions and clashed inside Sniebel's head! His senses were in complete chaos and it was difficult for the Sniebel to gain even balance on the ground!

Arthur could only see Sniebel tumbleing on its two feet but when he remembered Hazel's command he would be an idiot if he didn't understand what had happened. As if to confirm his thoughts, a small blue-ish flying creature appeared, leaving its secret hideout within the shades of the trees to fly circles above their heads.

"Kyakakakaka! What's with that stupid face, little boy? Did it dawn upon you? Did you finally realize your own stupidity? Kyakakaka, you never had chance here boy! Let me tell you an advice, always keep a trump card and never reveal it too early, kyakakakaka! This Zubat here is my precious companion! Did you think I wouldn't have one as well? Too late now, but like I said you never stood a chance, even if you escaped that dumb Bellsprout. You were like a Pokemon playing on a plate we had on our hands all the time, kyakakaaka!"

"And now, let me surprise you once more, kihihihihakakaka!", an omnious feeling swept over Arthur as he heard Hazel's hideous cackling laughter.

"Houndour, reveal your majesty! Grace these primitives with a Fire Spin!", and in response a wild roar filled Arthur's ears and his world suddenly took on a red colour.

"GRRROOOOUUUURR!!!"

A Houndour appeared from the side stepping out from the shadows of the trees and announced its presence loudly.

It was a Pokemon walking on four paws with short, black fur and a red underbelly and muzzle.

Its ears and tail were both short and pointed. Two fangs protruded from its upper jaw, and there were white bands on its ankles, and rib-like ridges on its back. Its forehead appeared to have a sort of skull with the eye orbits creating eyebrow patterns above its actual eyes.

(A/N: Description from Bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net)

It opened its mouth wide, but instead of a cry, a fiery red energy gathered and shot forth in Arthur's direction!

Arthur's heart stood frozen still and his eyes trembled seeing the fire cover his entire point of view.

"F-f-fire, i-it's everywhere ...", he mumbled weakly under his breath.

The fire wasn't aimed at his body but it engulfed his green surroundings in a circle including the Snibel.

The heat on his skin and the temperature rose sharply all of a sudden, inside the ring of fire it felt like a sunny day had turned into a hot desert climate in matter of seconds. And it was still increasing!

"Kyakakaka, that's what you brought upon yourself young one! You dared going against your elders, even though we offered you survival!

Now, even that has become questionable kuhuhu ...hahaha ...kyakaka!"

"You!!! You deserve hell for hurting my homey!!!", Chestnut returned to Hazel's side with bloodshot eyes. After his Bellsprout was back inside the Pokeball, he wanted to trash the guys responsible for its current sorry state.

"Hunter, grab this chance and finish the Sniebel, then have some fun with our young friend ok?"

The houndour confronted the Sniebel, while entering the battle inside the ring.

"Groooouurrr!", it bellowed out monstroulsy, happy to unleash carnage on the enemies by its master's orders.

"Sonic, keep Sniebel in check! We don't want any unexpected situations to arise, you hear me?", Hazel asked his Zubat above them.

"Triiiiiieeer!", it confirmed with a scream.

The situation was getting depressing, after defeating one enemy, two more cropped up out of nowhere!

Sniebel was still dizzy from the sonic attack earlier on and was constantly wary of the Houndour in in the front. The fire additionally weakened its physical and mental state and put a lot of stress making a counter-attack even harder.

The Houndour used this opportunity and attacked aggressively with Bites or fiery Ember-shots from a mid-distance range.

And everytime the Sniebel got too close or was about to do critical damage it got interrupted by the Zubat with long-distance attacks like Super sonic or Poison Sting.

The Sniebel was seemingly intent on protecting Arthur for unknown reasons, but staying inside the fire ring any longer posed a much greater danger!

...

Arthur all the while stared frightened at the fires surrounding them from all sides. The roars earlier put him in an anxious and traumatised state of consciousness.

Deep seated memories from his time in the Viridian Forest resurfaced, and the Houndour reminded him of the beasts that hunted him down till the last of his breaths. The pain and the terror caused by the struggle for his life nearly overwhelmed him and robbed him of his sanity. He was after all just a 12 year old child ...

But the worst of his fears and memories that slowly flashed by his eyes wasn't triggered by them.

No, it wasn't. It was the red orange flames that embraced his body with a welcoming warmth, seducing his senses, numbing the pain and inviting his mind to fall into a peaceful yet deadly sleep.

In this moment of savage terror and calming heat, pictures and sounds crawled out from his deep sea of consciousness. Images he had buried for years out of sorrow and regret which made his whole mind and body shiver at the same time.

He knelt on the ground with one hand half-covering his face:

"Dad ... I-I am sorry ...", Arthur's eyes got cloudy and tears dripped down the corners of his eyes as he whispered with his weakened voice,

"I-I can't do this dad. I am *hurgh* ... not strong enough. I promised ... but I am not strong *sob sob*.

The scenery changed in front of his eyes and he found himself back in the hospital. The room was dim-lit and before him lied a man in a grave condition on the bed. Tubes and needles were bound to his arms and torso. The machines made regular high-pitched sounds in the background.

His body downwards his head was covered in bandages yet his head and face were damaged as well. Burns and scars covered his facial features and it might have been impossible for a stranger to recognize this man as a living human being.

"D-ad, I-I can't ...", Arthur instantly recognized the looks of his father.

The man suddenly raised his head up and looked straight into Arthur's eyes:

"My son, you have to do this ... YOU HAVE TO PROMISE ME!", the last words blasted into Arthur and threw him throughout the room. He crashed into a white wall, yet it crumbled away without any resistance and left nothing but dust behind!

Arthur felt how he was falling down a deep abyss, the darkness grabbing at his arms and ankles, head and legs, however, he was too weak and couldn't break free from the grips that pulled him down into the gates of Tartarus.

The last thought that passed through his mind before it faded into nothingness was a heart-wrenching plea, a plea for help:

"Please ..., god ..., someone ..., whoever there is ..., please ..., save me!!!"

....

The situation on the field didn't improve at all, on the contrary, it got even worse. Sniebel's senses grew dull because of the growing heat and his reaction couldn't keep up with Houndour's attacks. Sniebel was in a harsh position where it received more damage than he dealt back and the continuing Fire Spin as well as the annoying Zubat prevented any sort of progress. If it went on like this ...

"Hahahaha, you dumbasses pissed off the wrong people here! There are just some things in this motherfu?!ing world that you need to respect! Myself included, you ass-lickers!", Chestnut kept spouting foul-mouthed nonsense to vent his frustration, and bathed in the misery that the stupid boy and his Pokemon currently experienced.

His life hadn't been better, growing up as an orphan, getting kicked out from family to family and finally learning the ways of the streets. But it was in that last section of his life where he also learned the most valuable lessons: ONLY THE STRONGEST SURVIVE!

The one and only rule that ever mattered and that he stuck to. That kid, it was his own fault for being weak and getting beaten around by them. Even if they hadn't been sent out, somebody else would have done the job and the results would have been the same.

"Maybe he will learn his lessons in his next life ...", Chestnut didn't feel sorry for killing a helpless child and was ready to get out from this shithole to eat a big fat Umami Burger with tripple cheese and extra onions in the next best store asap ...

Hazel similarly reveled in triumph and victory. This small mission turned out to be more burdensome than initially expected. Partially due to false missing information. Definitely a reason to demand extra money from his employer. When he thought about all the cash they got by getting rid of these small fries his mind was floating on clouds towards heaven!

Just as both of the criminals thought the job was done and finished a weird sound awoke them from their sweet dreams. In the beginning it was only Hazel who thought he heard wrong, but then Chestnut also noticed something strange. A weird strange sound, that couldn't possible exist yet still echoed into their ears. Something that came from the same direction where their enemies should be pleading for their lives, begging for mercy or even a quick death.

What they heard was so strange and unfitting to this situation that goosebumps started rising on both of their bodies and their happy smiles turned into questioning looks with tiny hints of fear sprinkled all over.

What they heard was happiness. It was delight. Elation. Anticipation. Optimism. Ecstasy ... Exhilaration ... EUPHORIA!