A link to their traitorous friend potentially lies within the confines of a coastal fortification. But with the Taka forces stationed their prepared an out and out battle would be suicide.

More fighting and stuffs, so read and enjoy and tell me what ya think. Got a lot on my mind right now so sorry about this quick description.

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Characters & Story (C) Me
Pokemon (C) Nintendo

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Retribution
Chapter 4
By Mecha-MightyenaDOR



The sound of the ocean waves crashing against the shore filled the air, like thunder it drowned everything out. The winds were heavy, the sky black with storm clouds. The weather had changed abruptly, a massive surge having come from the ocean and it look poised to turn into a thunder storm any minute. There was no telling if some of the thunderous booms were just the smashing of waves against the cliff face or bolts of lightning off in the distance. An ominous aura lingered in the air, even the shadows seemed to shiver in terror as the winds howled in savage fury.

Derra shivered, looking around as the group hid behind some construction equipment near a large fortress, the battlements patrolled by Taka soldiers. Taze scanned over the area, head barely peaking past their cover, “Hmmm, they aren’t going light on their patrols…they definitely are expecting us.” A direct fight would be dangerous, if they were ready then they probably had plenty of troops waiting for a fight.

“Great…so what’s the plan?” Make cracked his neck.

“Hmmm…maybe we could use the weather?” Cryst looked up, “If Rein could use a thunder to start a fire we might be able to get an opening.”

“Hey yeah…they’ve got a nice wooden shack over there.” Rein looked off to a spot near the walls, “I could lite that up and get to cover before anyone was the wiser.”

“Sounds like a plan to me. The rain should give us a bit of cover as well…” Taze looked up, wishing it would hurry up and start. Every minute wasted waiting was another minute that bastard got farther away, and every inch Leonel got from them ate at the quilava’s soul. His paws clenched into fists as his jaw tensed up, his teeth grinding together before a drop of water smacked his nose. Than another.

Rain began to fall freely, a cascade of the cold wet droplets pelting over the ground and growing fiercer with every passing moment. The wind kicked up even further, a scream and a howl all in one that sent a chill through the skin straight into the marrow of one’s bones. It was time, Taze looking to Rein who nodded and dashed off, zipping to every bit of cover he could find. The mud that formed did little to slow down the chu as he moved closer and closer to the shed. When he got up right to it he made a quick check that no one was watching before taking a breath.

A massive bolt of lightning tore down from the black clouds above, striking near the side of the stone walls. Immediately afterward an orange light poured up from the spot, a shout coming from the walls as men rushed to the side, seeing a blaze already raging. “Damn it! Put it out now! All the tools are in there! Lord Sima will have our heads if we fall behind schedule!”

Rein skid to a stop back where he started, smirking, “Easy as pie.” He chuckled, crossing his arms as he held his head high with a puffed out chest, “Not surprising in the least though right.”

“Yeah yeah, come on they’re clearing out! Now’s our chance.” Seizing on the distraction the group skulked around the preoccupied soldiers, getting to an open gate and slipping inside the walls. However, they still needed to reach the inner structure proper, and there were still a few soldiers standing guard. And that didn’t even address the potential for troops within. Taze got down, crawling along the ground as he made for a dark corner with a few crates to help limit view.

“So now what?” Azur carefully looked around, “We’ve got most of them out, but they’ll come running if anyone raises the alarm.”

Seconds passed by at an agonizingly slow pace, before Mako tapped everyone, motioning to a grate nearby. “Think that would lead inside?”

“Maybe…if not at least it would keep us out of sight.” Taze’s eyes glowed, the grate lifting up as they slipped down. The place was actually spacious, the quilava figured it was probably used for storage to keep things out of the way of the garrison. Given that it was empty…the construction work just outside the fort was probably meant to provide a better storage site. The group quietly walked through the underground area, the pitch blackness only illuminated by light drizzling through various grates down corridors. “This must run all around the place…”

“They probably put crates through the grate we came through then move them to where they need to be. It would allow them to transport their things without removing them from the crates to carry through the doors.” Cryst looked up through a grate, seeing a couple pokemon walk past. “This looks…like it’s just a hall?”

“Might be outside a room…doesn’t look like a good idea to pop in here.” Taze motioned to another vein of light. The snuck forward, hearing talking as they got to the grate, “They should have been here by now.”

Getting underneath, they peered into a room, it looked like a planning room of some kind. Inside was a man leaning over a table, clad in more important looking armor than the other grunts as well as a strange black furred pokemon. “Maybe deh hiding from da rain? Ever tink o dat?” The pokemon chuckled lightly, “De just a bunch o kids.”

“Do not underestimate them Jarlnel, they managed to escape our lord’s trap.” The man slammed a knife into the table to emphasize his point.

“But da armor makes sure they can’t do it again.” The zoroark chuckled, tapping a claw against the man’s armor. “You overestimate…they won’t live through Jarlnel’s claws. You’ll see.”

“Humph, I hope you’re right.” He looked away, glaring, “Damn storm. Damn fools can’t put out a simple fire. Why weren’t we given any water types? Hell they have 2 fire types in their group.” He grumbled as he stomped out of the room.

The dark mon just chuckled, “Hope dey get here soon…Jarlnel is getting bored…might have to cut up some locals.”

As the room above grew quiet Taze sighed, “Great…more crazy.” He looked around as best he could, “This might be the room we want.” His eye glowed as the grate was lifted up, the group leaping up and looking around.

“Well if any room would have information on Leonel, it would be this one.” Rein looked through a couple of papers, “There’s a few maps here…Arceus.” The chu’s eyes were wide

“What?” Cryst looked to her brother, “What’s wrong?”

He showed it to the others, draping the parchment off the side of the table. It was a map of the continent, and it was marked all over, several of them being indicators for bases and area of operations. The empire had marked pretty much the entire continent, short of an area near the south western edge, the place where their parents were.

“…they really are everywhere.” Derra gulped, “How are we supposed to deal with all of that?”

“Well they can only do this now because they have a clear command structure…if we can remove enough of their leadership, it might cause the empire to collapse under its own weight.” Cryst scanned other papers, trying to find something of use. “But to do that we’d need to find out where they all are.”

Taze grumbled, growling low as he flung documents left and right, desperately searching for Leonel’s whereabouts. But no matter where he looked, there was nothing of value, no clue that led him closer to dealing with the filthy backstabber. “Damn it where did he go!?” The quilava hissed low, “Where are you, you sniveling coward?”

Suddenly the door to the room opened, a soldier taking a step in before stopping dead. A moment of silenced passed before Mako grabbed the knife and threw it at the soldier’s face. The butt of the knife smacked into his eye, the soldier reeling back as he started shouting, “They’re in the base! Alarm! Sound the Arceus damned alarm!”

“Occupado.” Blair slammed the door shut, Taze immediately smashed everything he could to keep the thing from opening. Blair ran to the grate and pulled it up, “Run now?”

“Yes!” They dived into the underground tunnels, immediately running for their initial entry point, the sound of the soldiers smashing into the door in an attempt to get inside the room. “What you fools doing!? Dey in the ground storage!” One of the grates was torn off, “GET IN DERE AND GET DEM!”

Several Taka troops dropped in and immediately chased after the group, Taze moving back, eyes a glow as a wave of psychic energy tore down the tunnel…and did nothing to them. “What…” Azur rushed back, letting out a torrent of fire straight into their faces, the others throwing off the grate and bursting out. The group bolted through the gate before it could close, Taze turning and shattering the stones to bring the gate down. “Move move move!”

“No duh!” Rein shouted behind him, Blair snatching her pack from a sizable hole in a tree, holding it over her head as they ran into the forest. The sound of pursuit close on their heels, a figure quickly caught up, the Zoroark slashing at trees as he closed in. Mako growled, blasting a water gun backwards to try and get rid of their tail, the dark type dodging, “The hell kind of pokemon is that!?”

“No idea, but he doesn’t look like the sort to reason.” Rein took a pot shot himself, “He’s also real annoying.”

The dark type leapt over and in front of them, “Ah ah ah…Jarlnel been waiting to see what all da fuss was about…you ain’t disappointing me.” He launched at the group, slashing at Rein, the chu leaping away. Behind them a group of soldiers caught up, panting heavily as they took battle stances.

Taze again attempted to throw to extra soldiers back with a psychic blast, the bark of the surrounding trees shattering from the force as purple flame licked at the edges of the affected wounds, but again the soldiers were unaffected. “Heh, dat trick not gonna work anymore little man. Dark plates in da armor, everyone gets to ignore your little psychic tricks.” Jarlnel cackled. “Get dem!”

The Taka forces charge in, the group immediately put on the defensive. And with more troops on the chase, they had to break free from this skirmish group immediately. Mako dodged a thunderbolt, a jolteon snarling as it rushed forward and followed up with a thunder fang. The winged buizel ducked down under the bite, striking with his twin tentacles to send the electric type flying back. An aqua jet followed up immediately, Mako closing the distance before turning into a double tentacle slam, smashing his opponent into a tree. Before the jolteon could recover Mako ripped a branch off and brought it down on the electric types skull, repeating the motion several times.

Taze growled, dodging a spear thrust and the kick that followed it up. The human backed up a bit, polearm back up as he eyed down the quilava, the fire type snarling in response. Again Taze’s eye glowed, fire on his back erupting out as the human chuckled, “Weren’t you listening…that isn’t gonna…” A stone tore through the air, the man barely managing to block the strike with his spear. Just because it wouldn’t work on the soldiers didn’t mean it couldn’t be used on the surroundings. The fire type launched a barrage of stones, the soldier managing to block a few but several slammed into his armor, a few puncturing it and making him hiss in pain. The armor also didn’t protect him from the torrent of flame that Taze unleashed, the man screaming as he was lite up.

Derra twisted around as she dodged a flying pokemon, different from anything she had seen before. The talonflame turned, an ember attack arcing for the buizel who took into sky. “Hey, what kinda pokemon are you? You look funny.” Blair giggled.

“I could say the same for you freak!” The bird wreathed itself in flames as it charged for the mutated water mon. Blair folded her wings and dropped down beneath the attack, going back up with a smile, “Hey, you’re like a charizard! Only a bird instead of a dragon.” The talonflame screamed, charging again only for Blair to fly over him, blasting him full in the back with a water gun, sending the bird into the mud. As the feathered creature attempted to get up, Blair came down with a body slam…or butt slam to be exact, smashing the thing deep into the mud.

Cryst and Rein leapt back and forth, the chu deflecting an axe with an iron tail, his sister sidestepping a sword slash. As the swordsman reared back for another strike the electric mon sent a bolt flying in his direction, forcing him to back off. Cryst used the mud’s slickness to slide between the axeman’s legs, teeth snapping around his leg as she yanked him onto his face. He growled, kicked the dark type off his foot, getting back up, “Damn mutt! Damn rat!”

Rein’s ear twitched, turning on the axe wielding troop and immediately zipping along the ground around him before leaping over and unleashing a devastating thunder strike. “I’m…not…a…rat!” He spat before ducking under a sword strike, Cryst knocking the swordsman off his feet with a shadow ball. While he was still falling Rein slammed the soldier straight in the gut with an iron tail, sending him into fallen log with a resounding smash.

Derra dodged away from an encroaching weavile, the dark/ice type’s claws sweeping left and right as she advanced. As the attacks grew closer Derra grabbed an old branch, using it to stop the claw swipe, before slamming the dead wood into her face. The weavile backed up, cursing as she rubbed at her face before glaring and unleashing and icy wind. Derra took to the sky, avoiding the freezing gust, blasting at the dark type with a barrage of shadow balls. The weavile slashed a few of the strikes away before leaping straight at the poochyena, snarling as she prepared a pair of metal claw strikes. Before she could connect though, Mako slammed in from behind with an aqua jet, slamming her into a tree. Before he could follow up though Derra grabbed him, shaking her head, the buizel reluctantly letting the dark/ice mon fall to the ground unconscious.

Azur let loose a stream of fire, trying to keep the zoroark away as he dashed left and right, slashing whenever he got close to her. He was fast, Azur’s flames barely giving her enough room to dodge, and even than she was getting nicked every now and again. Jarlnel was laughing all the while, leaping to and fro, skidding along the ground while using his claws to dig into the ground and use the momentum to turn. As he ran in for another strike, he dragged his claw along the ground, spraying the mud as he rushed forward. As he neared though a massive tree trunk slammed into the ground, the impact knocking the zoroark back, Derra flying in and blasting him full in the face with a shadow ball. The dark type was completely caught off guard, hitting the mud with a wet plop. Jarlnel let out a snarl, slashing wildly as he got back up, wiping the mud of his face only to see the group gone.

“Damn it!” He looked around, but they were gone, the rain’s constant downpour ruined any tracks. The dark type slashed a tree, sending it toppling to the ground, “Damn you! You won’t escape next time! Jarlnel won’t forget dis! I’ll rip off dem wings! I’ll cut out dem eyes! No matter where you run…no matter where you hide…Jarlnel will make you suffer!”

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The pitter patter of rain sounded dully outside of the cave, the worst of the storm had passed or at the very least had missed this place. The clouds were parting, revealing a moonlight sky behind the curtains of inky blackness. A small fire burned inside the cavern, the group gathered around it, letting the fire dry them off and warm them up, short of the two water types who lounged near the entrance, Mako keeping watch as his iPod played.

“So…they can put element plates into their armor now…” Cryst shook her head, “That means they could nullify any of our attacks.”

“They can still affect the things around us though.” Taze craned his neck, “And not every type is canceled out…we just need to fight smarter.”

Azur grumbled, “Well we’ve got nothing, so much for that lead.”

Taze sighed, nodding, “Yeah…bastard must have made sure they didn’t have any info saying where he went!”

“So now what do we do?” Rein stretched, smoothing out his fur as it dried out, “We can’t go back there…it’d be suicide.”

“Hey hey hey! How about that city over there?” Blair waved, pointing to a collection of lights on the horizon. “We might get info there? Plus, we can restock our supplies.”

“Sounds good…we’ll head out in the morning.” Azur stretched, “Till then we should get some sleep”

Taze thought about objecting, but there really wasn’t much of an option…Rein was right, if they tried for the coastal fort again it would be a disaster. The enemy would be even more alert for them to try again…and as it stood they might think they had already learned something and were moving for a specific target. At the very least the empire might be in a bit of a panic, at least for a little while. “Mako, you good for first watch?”

The buizel nodded, motioning for his sister to go inside and rest. The quilava curled up and sighed, growling lightly as his back flames lite up. No information, no closer to Leonel…and now another enemy that the fire type could just tell would be a pain in the ass for awhile yet.