o
Chapter 70
Part 1
"Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh, OTTO! You look AWESOME!"
The Raichu ran circles around the exasperated Pidgeotto. He lifted up one of the bird's wings, marveling at the perfect patchwork of feathers on the underside.
"Wow! Congratulations! You're huge! I think you're actually bigger than you're supposed to be! Have you been measured? Have you tried using powers yet?"
"I think Otto would appreciate it if you would give him some space," Eva said flatly. "It's just a hunch I'm getting from his thoughts."
Ray was the only one who seemed excited. Char felt more surprised than anything to see what had become of his missing teammate, and Tallie looked skittish, as though she wanted to fly miles away.
"Otto, how do you feel?" Ray begged, ignoring Eva. "What's it like?"
"Sore. Stiff. Hurts to open wings," he replied.
Ray immediately let go of his wing. "Oh! …Sorry. But… you're alright? You're not hurt, are you?"
"I will save the – details for – the report," Otto said, forcing the words out. "I – my new voice is – unusual."
"Naah, your voice is fine! You'll be fine! Just get some rest," Ray said. "Evolution is just weird like that. Sometimes you adjust fast, sometimes you don't! Usually if you spend a lot of time in your old body it's harder to get adjusted to the new one. Like when I became a Pikachu it was really weird, but getting to be a Raichu was easy, because I didn't spend a lot of time as a Pikachu… But oh my gosh this is so exciting! How did you get a feral-shard anyway? Or did you just spontaneously evolve like wild Pokémon do? I hear that happens sometimes with civilized ferals who haven't spent enough time in civilizaion— hey, wait…!"
With a bit of effort, Eva telekinetically picked up the Raichu and set him farther away from Otto. Ray shut his mouth and looked sad. Char approached the bird slowly, making an effort not to act as overbearing.
"Hey… Honestly, I don't care what you look like, I'm just happy to see you alive," Char said warmly, no longer having to bend down to meet the bird at eye-level. "I thought you were…" He whispered under his breath. "I thought you were dead."
Otto only stared blankly at him. Char felt bad; usually he could at least pick up on Otto's sense of excitement or interest in some topic, but now he wasn't sensing anything. The Pidgeotto looked lost, and possibly a bit afraid. He almost looked as if he didn't want the new body that fate had so kindly given to him. Char could not help but to feel pity.
"Tell you what, Otto," Char said, crossing his arms, "Eva says you have some important news for us. If you let us know what happened, I'll let you sit the rest of the mission out, alright? You can get some rest. Maybe pay a visit to Syr and ask him what you should do now that you're… not a Pidgey anymore."
"I accept," Otto said wearily. "But perhaps I will need some help extracting my thoughts. From. My mind."
"We'll get Eva to help you express yourself," Char said. "Alright. Go on in. If you'll excuse me, though, I need a private word with my second officer."
Eva and Ray ushered the wobbling bird into the planning room, leaving Char alone with the Talonflame.
A burning moment passed between the two. Tallie twitched, averting her gaze every so often, and Char only glared sternly at her.
"You said he was eaten," Char grunted.
"Okay, look, look, I know, I know what I said!" she shouted, flaring her wings. "Honestly, that's what it looked like to me, alright?"
Char just continued to glare at her.
"What else would you have assumed, huh? I saw this overgrown Pidgeotto, noticed the blood and the… the feathers and bones everywhere, so I thought, 'Oh, this guy must have caught a rat for dinner.' Then I noticed it all smelled like Otto, and the feathers were Otto's size and colors, and then I saw part of Otto's wing just laying there on the ground, and – well, what else was I supposed to assume?! I'm sorry, alright? It looked like a carcass situation to me."
She folded her wings obstinately, scoffing up a puff of smoke.
Char exhaled one of his own.
"I was going to fire you," Char admitted with a scowl. "I was just waiting until I got the others out of the room."
"FIRE ME?! For WHAT?!" Tallie squawked loudly, her voice ringing clear into the next room. "Is that how you thank me for getting my skull bashed with a rock four hundred times and finding the thief hideout like you asked?!"
"You Lost Otto!" Char roared back. "You lost him! You were supposed to watch him! You're lucky he came back."
Tallie's face turned to a harsh sneer.
"He told me to relay the message to you. He told me to tell you that he would be late," Tallie said. "Alright. Look, maybe I was wrong for trusting him. I don't deny that. I know that I was the one in command, but I'd like to think that when your chief tactical advisor makes a call, we're better off listening to him. Alright? But see, from my vantage, that's not the real issue here."
"Alright, what's the real issue, then?" Char said challengingly.
"That you really don't know how to see the value in your teammates,"Tallie said darkly, standing upright. "For instance, any bird could have made up some story on the fly. Told you I didn't see him anywhere. Told you that he flew off. Told you that we should have started some search party. I could have said anything to cover up my guilt. I could have even flown off and you'd have never seen me again. But what did I do? I had the cinders it took to come back, report what I saw, when I saw it. Because that's how teams operate. And by the blazes of this hallowed earth, I'm helping to lead this team, and that's how my team's going to operate if I have any say in the matter. I value this team enough not to abandon it the moment some tragedy happens. I wanted you to know the truth. And you want to know the punchline?"
She bent close to him and said in a low tone, "You couldn't even tell them the truth. You were stalling. How long until you think you would have spat it out?"
Char felt his arms and legs suddenly turn cold. He staggered back.
"I was… I was just… waiting for the right moment…" Char tried to say, looking sideways.
"Yeah, well, let's set the record straight, here," Tallie hissed, breathing smoke at Char's face. "Did I make a bad call? Possibly. Can you fire me for that? If you want, that's your right. But tell me again who is the lucky one that Otto came back? Hmm?"
Char clenched his claws and frowned up at the Talonflame. A small stature certainly had its disadvantages when trying to speak with authority.
He sighed deeply, calling upon his fire to give him the strength to speak.
"Thank you," Char replied, "for coming back. And for being honest about what you saw. And… for finding the hideout. You did good work yesterday. I appreciate it. And maybe we're all lucky he came back."
"And I apologize for not watching Otto closely enough," Tallie said with a subtle bow of her head. "So… am I fired or not?"
Char sighed, but the frown left his face.
"You can stay," he said. "Since Otto came back, I… I guess there was no harm done. And we need you to help us finish the job since Otto's going to be resting. So… yeah. Don't worry about it."
Tallie looked him in the eye. "Thank you. I appreciate your giving me a second chance. But having said that… If I may be so blunt, you don't have to try so hard to act all tough all the time. I can tell you're trying not to show me that you're a weakling."
Char held his breath, letting his fire flare. He stood up as tall as he could before the Talonflame, scowling at her.
"Well… I'm trying my best here, alright?!" he hissed, his tail flame licking the back of his head. "This… team leader stuff is new to me. I'm still learning."
Tallie looked smug. "Ah, see? That's what I mean! The way you stand up and puff up your plumage like that. So defensive! It's like… when fire-types are first learning to battle, we teach them the 'ego-stroke' technique to help them control the ember. That's lesson one. You're coming off to me as someone who hasn't ever moved past that stage. You're still on lesson one."
Char shut his mouth, unable to think of what to say.
"There's much more to being a fire-type than acting tough," Tallie said wryly. "Look, I've been on a lot of teams and I've left them all for a lot of different reasons. Something I've learned is that there's no one right way to lead a team. There's no simple trick. There's a hundred things that need to come together for a team to work out. But having said that, all the successful teams… do have a few things in common that I've noticed."
She leaned in close. "Take it from someone who's been fighting with her ember for twenty years: sometimes showing off your strength makes you look weak… and sometimes letting your weakness show is what takes the most strength. Think about that for a bit, why don't you?"
She began to walk away, going to join the others in the planning room.
"Tallie… wait," Char called, swallowing his fire and regaining his composure. "If you think I'm such a weak leader, why do you even stay on the team? Why don't you quit?"
Tallie turned her head, giving him a smirk. "Because you need me. And I like to be needed."
With a jump and a flutter, she turned the corner into the planning room, leaving Char with many thoughts to digest and few ideas about where to start.
Looking at the door to the next room, he decided that catching the thief was as good of a place as any.
"So the thief was a Furret," Ray said, leaning back on his seat. "Wow… It makes sense with everything we learned… Furry, no wings, no element. Yeah! And it's the right size and all. But I just really wasn't expecting that! They're a really common Pokémon. I was thinking that a master thief would be something rarer, y'know, with more powers?"
"You're a common Pokémon, you realize that?" Tallie laughed. "And your brother was a world-famous mercenary. Don't judge a Pokémon's potential by their species. I once knew a Wurmple who would give you nightmares. Granted, I ended up eating it, but if you knew the kind of infamy it had, you'd be glad I did!"
There was a brief uncomfortable silence at the table.
"Yes, well regardless, this thief's powers seem to come from her equipment," Eva said, ignoring Tallie. "What she lacks in aura, she compensates for with enchantments. We can now verify that she's indeed using the penumbra cape and the appraisal specs, which Kecleon previously described, and she has many more items in her arsenal. We know her motive, which is something I began to suspect after the results of our last experiment: she steals for sport, with little regard for monetary value. But perhaps most importantly, she's revealed something very personal about herself, and this is what is going to be her downfall…"
Eva grinned evilly, casting a glance at the exhausted Pidgeotto beside her. "The gift of the feral-shard demonstrated that she is empathic, even for her foes. Such a grave mistake to show to your opponents! This… we can use to our advantage."
"You mean we should try to take advantage of her kindness?" Char said, scratching his chin. "Have anything in mind?"
"Why yessss, I do," Eva said, sliding up onto the tabletop as her slithering tail followed her. "This is precisely the type of information I needed in the first place. Now that I have a perfect psychological profile of our target, I know just what to do from here. We're going to be needing Kecleon's cooperation just one more time. He isn't getting tired of us yet, I hope?"
"Naah! If he is, he hasn't said anything," Ray said. "He seems to think we're doing a good job. He keeps asking me if there's anything more he can do to help."
"Wonderful. Ray, call a meeting with Kecleon – with both of brothers if they happen to be around. I just have one question: is everyone ready for your first star on your record?"
"Excuse me, but some of us already have a few hundred stars on our record…" Tallie sneered.
Eva rolled her eyes and ignored her again. "Anyway. As I was saying, I have a grand plan to catch the thief… tonight."
Iron Town – Industrial District
"Whoa whoa hey. Where do you think you're going?!"
The Marowak and the Umbreon froze in their tracks, standing directly in front of the hangar door to one of the warehouses. They were fast approached by a Drapion holding a tatter of paper in one claw and a chunk of writing-coal in the other, who looked particularly suspicious. Marrow hid his surprise behind his mask; he thought there'd been nobody around, but the scorpion had appeared from one of the alleyways with no warning.
"Hey, I just counted that warehouse. If you need bricks, take them from twenty-three instead," the snippy Pokémon said. He looked down at his paper, then cast another wary glance at the awkward newcomers. "Hey, I don't recognize you two. You newbies?"
"Ehh, not so much," Marrow said, stretching his bone across his shoulders. "We're inspectors from the city. Boss sent for us. Important business."
"I am the boss, nimwits, and I ain't sent for nobody!" the Drapion hissed, waving his tail. "This whole row of storehouses is mine. Mind telling me who you are, exactly?"
Marrow shrugged. "Right, right. Look. We'll be straight with 'ya," he said, stepping forward and paying no mind to the coiled tail on the scorpion. "Truth is, our boss sent for us. We're from the rescue guild down in central town. Y'know, you mail us your help requests with lost Pokémon and outlaws and stuff."
"I'm familiar with them," the Drapion said, passing the chunk of coal to the claw on his tail. "You brought back one of my workers trapped in the old quarry back in the day. What's your business?"
Marrow relaxed a bit. "Right, well, today we're hunting an outlaw with quite the bounty," he said smoothly. "Nidoking. Very powerful. We've received a tip saying that he, uh, may have caused an accident in one of the warehouses last night after sundown."
The Drapion jumped in surprise. "An accident?! In my storehouses?" he shouted, snapping his free claw. "Can't be. I've been taking inventory all morning and I've seen nothing out of place. Save for a few bowls of cement and foundation rods gone missing. But that's not something we'd call an 'accident'. Which storehouse, exactly?"
Marrow knocked on the long, metallic hangar door with his bone, causing a booming sound. "Twenty-five, right here," he said. "We're wondering if we could just have a look-see."
"Yeah, just want to sniff around a little," said Raon. "We're hoping the Nidoking left some kind of trace that could help us find him."
"Well, folks, I got no problem with letting you in to look around, long as you don't knock over anything," the scorpion said. "But I'm tellin' you right now, I was just in there, and there wasn't anything wrong with it. Not even a single clutch of gravel missing, either. Double-checked."
The Drapion dug his legs into the dusty ground, hooked two of his claws beneath the door, then threw the door above his head, sending it reeling on its tracks and flooding the warehouse with sunlight.
There were stacks of shelves, at least thirty of them, standing at the far sides of the huge room. Each held an assortment of gears or chains, presumably for the brick-making machines. In the center was a wide, flat expanse of floor with at least forty different stacked piles of bricks, all arranged by size. Raon and Marrow cast confused glances at one another as they stepped beneath the roof. Everything looked fine.
"See? Nothing out of the ordinary, everything in order," the Drapion said. "Go ahead and look around, though, maybe find something I'd miss. I hope you catch your outlaw. Just close the door once you're done and leave out the back, I'd appreciate it. Oh, and don't try to steal anything… We keep perfect inventory, and we'd know. Good day."
Marrow and Raon gave the Drapion nods of gratitude, then plunged into the daunting expanse of space within.
The scale of the facility was intimidating, with so many shelves towering high overhead, each holding loads of heavy equipment. Marrow felt glad that he'd brought his steel-reinforced Aggron skull.
"Pardon me for asking a dumb question, but… this is the right warehouse, I hope…?" Marrow muttered as he peered upward at the shadowy shelves and the meticulously perfect arrangement of their contents.
"Seems in line with what Otto tells us," the Umbreon hissed back. "Warehouse twenty-five. It all checks out. He says he spent the night in the next one over, twenty-seven," he said, nodding in the direction of the wall.
Marrow knelt down and touched the floor, feeling the thin layer of grit on his fingers. "Suppose that our biggest evidence Cepheus was here is the lack of evidence," he grunted. "Incredible. No footprints. No lost merchandise. Nothing out of place. How does he do this? Otto told us that he banged up the place bad last night. If his goal was to make it seem like he was never here, he's succeeded. I have half a mind to call Otto delusional."
"That's what you can do when you've got access to all the records," Raon said, scanning the shadows in the corners. "Cepheus probably has top-level access to all the blueprints and the inventory reports of this whole district. Wouldn't be surprised if he paid off some of the workers here, even. Wouldn't be surprised if that Drapion was told not to say anything –"
The Umbreon's nose twitched. His pupils grew in size.
"Huh? Pick something up?" Marrow said.
"Yeah, sure did," Raon replied, showing an evil grin to his companion. "Smell a rat."
"Figures she'd be in here," Marrow said under his breath. "This was one of the last buildings we had to check. She probably came to check out the damage, just like us. Well, Char'll be happy we found her." He pat the Umbreon on the back. "Hey. I'm gonna check the top shelves. Hoping they didn't pay much attention to detail up there," he said. "You go do what you were paid to do."
The Marowak crossed to the other side of the warehouse, and the Umbreon crept into the shadows between the shelves, following his nose.
"Psst. Hey," he finally said, staring up at a shelf stacked with crates. "Hey. I know you're there. Don't worry, I'm not here to catch you. Just to tell you something."
There was no answer. Of course there wasn't. Not even a sound. But the scent didn't lie. Raon knew that his words were being heard.
"We've got a note for you. It's from the Kecleon twins," he said. "We're going to leave it in the middle of the room under the black bricks. You can read it as soon as we're gone. I suggest you do; seems like it's something that pertains to your interests."
Still, not a single hint of motion coming from the crates. The Umbreon turned tail and walked away. "Good luck," he called back. "I think you'll need it."
Raon and Marrow spent half an hour scouring the warehouse for evidence of the Starborn's meddling before giving up. As they left, Raon grinned once more at the far shelf, and thought for sure he'd seen something shift uncomfortably in the darkness.
When the door was locked and they were gone, the Furret burst out of hiding and found the small scroll wedged between the planks of the platform which supported one of the brick piles. She unrolled it with shaking claws, and read it:
To the notorious Iron Town Shadow Bandit:
We begrudgingly congratulate you on your successful campaign to undermine our business in this region.
Where our competitors have failed, you have taken a notable cut of our most valued merchandise from right under our very claws.
Your skill is to be respected and feared.
Unfortunately, your persistence has led to a decline in profitability, and a decrease in the goodwill of our clients. Since all efforts to capture you have ended in futility, we are on the brink of shutting down our operations in Midwest Ambera and moving elsewhere.
However, we will not go down without a fight. Thus, we cordially invite you, our esteemed and venerable rival, to what shall be our last stand.
Tonight, at 6 o'clock by human timekeeping, we will remove our most priceless and cherished item from our vault: an imbuing canister, a utility which allows non-magicians like yourself to infuse their own accessories with enchantments. There are only four such canisters known to exist in all of Ambera, and each is worth more than the value of Iron Town's treasury, as the spell required to enchant the canister has been lost to time.
We will teleport this item into the old Watchers' shelter beside Route 418. We will keep guard over it for exactly three hours.
We invite you to attempt to steal it.
Should you succeed, you may consider it a gift and a trophy representing a great accomplishment, an acknowledgement by the world-renowned Kecleon brothers that you are the greatest thief we have ever encountered. Having given you this gift, we shall take our leave of the region, and wish that you will find great fortune in your future conquests. You would become a hero and an idol to us; we would never forget you.
But Should we succeed in capturing you, we will have earned the opportunity to continue operations in Iron Town, one of our most profitable cities. We will then hold you accountable for all the grievance you have brought upon us, and you will not be released from our captivity until we are satisfied that you have paid the price in full – that is, of course, given that you are able to physically survive the entire duration of the punishment.
We hope to see you this evening. Bring your best; we most certainly will.
-Kabb and Kebb Kecleon
The Furret's hands were shaking as she re-read the note, images of the deadly Kecleon brothers gloating over their evil plans flashed in her mind.
"Oh, Pidgeotto…" she whispered fearfully, crumpling up the paper in her trembling claws. "You really went and did it to me, didn't you? Oh dear, oh gods, oh dear… I wasn't… I wasn't ready for this…!"
She scurried on the floor, chasing her tail as her mind spun with all the dreadful possibilities.
"No, Fern. Think. You're the Shadow Bandit of Iron Town. You can do this. You can… you can outsmart them just like always! This can be your first big challenge… you should be up to it! Right? You have enough stuff! You've got what it takes! You'll show them! If you can do this… you'll be a master thief!"
She scurried to the back and peered out the door. It was almost high noon. She knew she would only have six hours to pull off the biggest heist of her life yet.
"Whatever will I wear?" She whispered to herself.
Shelter
As evening fast approached, the old dilapidated Watcher shelter by Route 418 appeared empty to the unsuspecting eye. Having been decommissioned over fifty years prior, the underground burrow was dark, moldy, and half-collapsed. Only one of the original four entrances was still accessible, but it was strewn with mud, gravel, and large shards of cement, making it a daunting and unpleasant trek.
Within the heart of the shelter, the place where travelers once gathered to wait out the dangerous night, three invisified Pokémon laid in wait and prepared to spring their grand trap on the thief. A tiny campfire in the center of the room was the only evidence that the chamber was inhabited by anything but wild bugs and rodents.
Having been given an ample supply of the highly illegal "vanish seeds" by the shopkeeper, Char and Ray found themselves coping with invisibility for the first time. Char found it unnerving to lose the source of light which had always followed around behind him, and found that he was perhaps a bit afraid of the dark, not to mention afraid of tripping over a rowdy Raichu who seemed to enjoy dashing around the room and pretending to be a ghost.
"So, uh… Kecleon," Char said, hoping he was faced in the correct direction, "Eva never exactly told us how this is really supposed to work. What are we supposed to do?"
"Oh, it's very simple, you see!" the Kecleon replied, who was invisible simply by changing the color of his scales, "We've installed a blast door on the only entrance to this shelter, and my brother is stationed there. All we need to do is wait for the thief to come inside, then we drop the door, locking her in! If she wishes to get away with our canister, she must make it in and out of the shelter completely undetected!"
"Yeah, and there's more! They also have to make it past Tallie," Ray said from somewhere. "She's flying around outside keeping watch. If she spots the thief anywhere, she'll let the other Kecleon know… and they'll close the trap! Then we will have ourselves a prisoner!"
"Heh, wow…" Char said. "That's tough. So she's got to evade the eyesight of a Talonflame and get through all that junk by the entrance, without being spotted or making a sound? That sounds impossible! Wait… what if she had a mobile scarf? Couldn't she use that to get through the blast door?"
"Ah yes, a valid concern," Kecleon said, walking across the room with a subtle blur in the air. "If the thief knows of the existence of mobility scarves and has one and has the foresight to use it, which I add would be most wise of her in this situation, we've also added to the door an anti-ghost force field generator! Since mobility scarves are imbued with ghost-type magic, it should give the thief a giant debilitating shock if she even touches it while wearing the scarf!"
"Yeah, and if she tries to leave any other way, she'll probably get lost in the ground!" Ray said. "Mobile scarves are really dangerous when you're walking through solid walls because you're totally blind and if you don't find your way out you could die of starvation."
"Indeed, they have their risks," Kecleon said. "Even worse is the risk of falling! It is not commonly known, but when wearing a mobility scarf, your feet remain standing on the ground only because you will it. It is possible to willfully fall into the ground, but by doing so, you are most certainly doomed! Either you will fall into the center of the earth, or if you try to stop falling, you will instantly be petrified!"
"Yeah, and if you actually fall into a cave or something, you'll still hit the ground really hard and you might die from that!" Ray said. "We have to really be careful with those. I read a lot about them. They're expert-level items."
Char shrugged, even though nobody could see it. "Good to know," he said. "But wait, what if she doesn't even show up?"
"Oh, she will," Ray said with evil glee. "Eva knows she will. The Kecleons are her idols and she won't pass up the opportunity to impress them! Just like how I would have done anything to impress Scythe, you know?"
"I certainly hope," Kecleon said. "It would be most wonderful to finally put this thief in her place. You may look forward to a handsome payment if this works in our favor! Just reassure me, you have your Arcanine friend up to date with this plan?"
"Yes, we told her everything, and she knows how to teleport here without a compass," Char said. "She'll be here right on time."
"Most excellent," Kecleon said, slithering around the room invisibly. "Now we watch and wait. I will guard the treasure when it arrives. It would be most helpful if you two would guard the door. Tonight will be the night you make my dreams come true… I can taste it!"
CRUNCH.
"Sorry! …Sorry, that was me," Ray called from near the entrance. "I was just… seeing how far I could go and I kicked some rocks. Sorry. I'll stand still now."
Char sat down and peered into the darkness of the tunnel which led back to the surface. Though it was still far from dusk, the tunnel filtered out every ray of light, leaving Char with the unsettling feeling of losing sense of the passage of time. At least in the Gold Division, he realized, the color-changing torches almost functioned as windows, letting the inhabitants know the time of day.
I would have hated to stay here for the night, even back when it was used, Char realized. It's just too creepy. Or maybe the darkness is just getting to me. I never realized how much I liked my tail fire until now.
He peered up at the domelike ceiling, wondering about its stability. The chamber was supposedly nearing a century of age, having been built around the time of the very first Watcher sightings in response to the new threat, and it had mostly held up over the decades. One of the pillars had fallen and was nothing but pebbles. One of the entrances had caved in so badly that it took almost a third of the chamber with it. But overall, the place had held up. Char wondered how many of these shelters still existed around Ambera, and wondered how many others were regularly put to use…
He wondered how many dangerous Pokémon knew about these chambers, and used them to hide away right under the noses of the Master… or, for that matter, the resistance. Did the Master's generals use these places to plot and scheme and gather forces while evading the detection of their enemies?
"How much longer?" Ray wined. "Sorry, I'm just excited is all. I want some action! Can't wait to spring this trap! This is going to be so awesome!"
"I can't see the sun, but it's probably going to be another hour…" Char grumbled. "At least that's what it feels like. I can't wait to be able to see my body again…"
"What? You don't like being invisible? It's really fun," Ray said annoyingly. "It's like you're the wind! When I run around it feels like I'm flying!"
The sounds of loud crashing erupted from the entrance tunnel.
Startled, Ray and Char snapped to attention. Something had certainly collapsed.
"SSH! She's coming!" Ray hissed. "That could be the thief! We knew she might have come early!"
But the thief is not what came flying from the darkness.
It was a flaming phoenix, its wings spread wide and its body aflame to light the way. It was coming fast, and shouting a feral, desperate cry.
"Keeeeeyy-yeeeeer!"
Char ducked out of the way just in time to feel a wave of heated air blow over his back.
Smoke exploded into the air as Tallie snuffed out the fire from her feathers. "CALL IT OFF!" she shouted in a hoarse voice. "CALL OFF THE MISSION!"
"Miss Tallie! What seems to be the matter?" Kecleon replied politely, removing his camouflage.
"SHUT UP AND GET OUT!" She shrieked, flapping her wings. "YOU HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE! THERE'S… IT'S…"
"…too late?"
A deep and booming voice had sounded from down the tunnel, giving even Kecleon a start.
Thump. Thump. Thump. The reverberation of heavy footsteps shook the entire shelter. Debris crashed around in the blackness. Something big was coming.
"Oh god, how… how did this… how did this happen…" Tallie muttered incessantly, her eyes dilated with fear. "This of all things…"
She backed away from the door.
Char squinted in the direction of the footsteps, taking refuge in his invisibility and standing his ground. But his courage faltered as he saw two huge, glowing red eyes staring back at him.
Thump. Thump. CRASH!
A giant claw punched a shard of cement out of its path, turning it to dust.
As the figure entered the light, Char saw that the piercing red eyes belonged to a Nidoking — A particularly large, fearsome Nidoking wearing several pieces of silvery armor and a cape.
"I see that someone has found my old hideout," the royal Nidoking boomed. "How intriguing. It looks as though I will have some unexpected entertainment this evening."
The Nidoking stepped into the torchlight, and the whole room went silent.