Forgiveness and a Battle

[emsiecat]

"So basically it was a waste of time." Lucinda grumbled as they began to trek back the way they had come.

"I don't think so. Mew answered us when she shouldn't have. She also agreed to keep an eye on things their end. I think she wants to help but the thought of the pact is preventing her from doing so fully." Liana spoke in Mew's defense.

"At least now the Gods can keep an eye on the creatures in their realm." Rhys muttered thoughtfully.

They stayed quiet for quite a while. Deep down each of them had been hoping that the legendaries would arrive, smite Thanatos, send the creatures back and everything would be semi-normal again.

Liana sighed and nudged Artemis to go faster so she could catch up to Mewtwo. He'd probably be angry at her asking but she did need to know their situation.

"Mewtwo?"

A grunt, well at least he was acknowledging her again.

"Um, are you allowing my friends and me to go back to New Island with you? We'd just like to know before we get too close to our village. We don't want to be picked up by Thanatos if you won't allow us to return with you."

~What will you do if I don't?~

Liana blinked and then shrugged. "I guess we'll have to live out in the wilds or try and find another village. I feel so guilty for getting them into this though. Their families are back there."

~You have a lot to feel guilty about it seems.~

Liana cringed; did he have to remind her? Her own flesh and blood was the cause of monsters arriving. She was responsible for Lucinda and Rhys being so far from home. If Thanatos remained in the village he may use their family and friends to get to them, and just to top things off her own curiosity had upset Mewtwo. Yes she did have a lot feel guilty about.

Liana lowered her head. "I'm sorry for what I did. I shouldn't have pried. I was just curious about your creation, I meant no offense."

Mewtwo turned his head to look at Liana. She really did look sorry. Mewtwo supposed he had gone slightly overboard with his reaction. He was just disappointed to learn that even humans that seemed sincere could betray trust.

~I forgive you.~ He muttered grudgingly. ~You and the others may stay until it is safe again. I don't want those wolves staying as well though, they smell.~

Liana looked shocked and then strangely elated. She gave a happy squeal and literally threw herself off Artemis' back to wrap her arms around Mewtwo's torso. He almost fell from his telekinetic flight due to the impact.

~W-what are you doing?~

Liana chuckled ruefully and let the bewildered clone go, landing unsteadily from the small height she fell from. "Just showing my gratitude."

Mewtwo looked only slightly less confused and flew ahead shaking his head.

Lucinda and Rhys had witnessed the whole thing. Lucinda opened her mouth a few times before managing to speak. "Did she just glomp him!?"

"Looks like it, probably best not to ask questions."

The wolves and clones beside them snickered amongst themselves at the spectacle.

***

It was a day later when they ran into trouble. There was a general atmosphere of companionship in the air as they traveled on. Rhys was busy trying to tell Mewtwo how a Pikachu was like a banana (much to Pikachu's annoyance). Lucinda was taking in the scenery. On more than one occasion she would stop to look at something that interested her and would occasionally be joined by Liana or one of the clones.

Around noon Lucinda paused yet again to chuckle over something. Rhys was by her side in an instant.

"What is it this time?"

"Check it out. It's the old Cerulean City signpost. We must be near the old place. Someone's carved something into it though."

"We're near Cerulean? I didn't think we'd gone so far north." Liana mused.

"Kinda hard to tell isn't it. I mean it's been years since anyone dared go into the cities." Rhys shrugged.

It was true. After Mewtwo had begun his reign the safest option was to leave all densely inhabited areas, Mewtwo had attacked them first after all. As it was people usually avoided cities like the plague nowadays. It was as if they suspected that Mewtwo had set up base camp in their old homes and would attack anyone who tried to visit.

Liana felt rather odd discussing such matters when the cause of the cities being abandoned was traveling with them! It seemed harder to view him as a simple-minded monster lusting for revenge now that they had actually met him and talked to him. Liana had found that she had to check herself often so that she didn't reveal the humans secret hideaways when she conversed with Mewtwo. It was surprisingly easy to forget who he was, and not to think of him as a friend.

Lucinda had now crouched to read the scrawl on the broken and very weather beaten sign.

"Gary was here Ash is a loser!" Lucinda chuckled. "Bet whoever Ash is was pissed to read that."

"Luce, can we please-"

Liana's words died in her throat as that familiar feeling of wrongness surged to her left where the forest was.

"Everyone take cover!"

Every sound of nature died as it had a few nights ago at camp. Before any of them could properly conceal themselves several creatures emerged from the forest, flying above the tree line.

With shrieks that sounded like tearing metal, ten beings soared over the travelers. They appeared to be bats from a distance, but they were massive. Their smell reached the group; it was so foul that it made Liana retch. A smell of death and decay practically oozed off the creatures.

As they came closer they could finally see them clearly. The Rapidash screamed in panic and tried to bolt. Mewtwo held them firm with a psychic command.

These were monsters. No natural creature from their realm resembled anything close. The head and torso as well as the arms were human. However their teeth resembled fangs made of steel and their hands ended in wicked claws. Holding them aloft were massive bat wings, dark and skeletal in appearance. The appearance of humanity ended at the waist as the rest of the body and legs resembled a bird of prey. Lastly there was a tail, a metallic looking scorpion tail that thrashed about heedlessly as the monsters circled above the group.

Rhys gagged and covered his mouth as the creatures came closer, their stench was awful. He noted an equal number of males and females in the flock.

"What are they!?" Meowth gasped.

[emsiecat]

"I have no idea." Liana answered him, her bow was at the ready but her hands shook.

Finally the monsters acknowledged the group fully. One of the males flew in front of the rest of the flock and began to speak. He looked directly as Liana.

"Darling," he cooed mockingly, "your uncle wants you to come home. He wishes to speak with you."

"Not on your life!"

"Come, come. If you return home now we'll consider letting your friends here go. We've eaten recently you see. Human does take a while to digest you know."

When he laughed with his brethren at the shock on the humans faces, they could see blood and flesh caked between their teeth. He didn't appear to be lying.

"Don't do a thing he says Liana. These beasts don't deserve to live." It was Bloodclaw. He approached Liana's side, his hackles raised as he snarled fiercely.

"But the pups-"

"This is our territory we will fight these intruders off."

"We're running low on patience, sweetheart. What's your answer?" The male was fluttering closer to them.

"Not a chance you scum!"

Just as the creatures swooped to attack, Liana bought her bow up quick as a flash and loosed an arrow that buried itself into one of the female's throats. She screamed the sound garbled by blood, and fell to the ground dead.

The wolves howled a challenge and threw themselves at the monsters that were low enough to the ground to be pounced. Once grounded the wolves tore at them with their teeth, the Rapidash trampled them with their hooves, each creature deftly avoiding the lashing scorpion tail.

One female nearly grabbed Lucinda before Pikachu shocked her with a thunderbolt. The tail was indeed metallic and conducted the lightning right into the female monsters body. She writhed and dropped to be stabbed in the chest by Lucinda who had managed to retrieve her glaive.

Meowth used Rhys' shoulder as a springboard of sorts and catapulted himself into the face of another monster and clawed mercilessly at its eyes.

Liana fired arrows steadily at the creatures. She glanced to her side to find Mewtwo helping them, she was pleasantly surprised. He fired a shadowball at the male who had spoken to them, but the attack dissipated in a crackle of energy before it struck him.

"Such paltry magic doesn't work on us." He taunted.

Mewtwo gave up his psychic attacks for brute force. He flung himself at the male only to get knocked back by his scorpion tail. The male creature chuckled and soared higher out of reach. Mewtwo growled at him before turning his attention on another monster which he dispatched of in a similar way as Meowth had. Only his scratches were a lot bigger.

Finally only two creatures remained the male who had taunted Mewtwo and one malevolent looking female. They soared just out of reach of any attacks. The male had one of Liana's arrows lodged deep in his shoulder, the female sported scratches from Meowth and a deep gash from Lucinda's glaive.

"You murdered our flock you ground crawling filth!" The female shrieked in outrage.

"Filth? You call us filth but I've seen Muk with better hygiene than you!" Liana taunted, keeping her bow raised in hopes that one would swoop low enough for a clear shot.

The female screeched in rage and went to drop into a dive at the girl but the male placed a restraining hand on her shoulder. He turned icy blue eyes on the group before smirking.

"We'll hunt you down eventually and devour each and every one of you. We stake claim to your deaths in revenge for our comrades."

With that said the pair wheeled in the air and flew back the way they had come.

Lucinda fell to her knees shakily. Rhys petted the Rapidash in thanks for their help. The wolves were busy inspecting one of the creature's bodies, whining at the smell.

Liana stood stock still staring at the place where the last two had hovered. "Thanatos sent them." She croaked. She could no longer force herself to call the man 'uncle'.

The sky had begun to darken with clouds. The group finally pulled themselves together and started off again. This time in a direction that would lead them towards the ocean but away from the village.

"So why can't you just teleport us back to New Island, Mewtwo?" Lucinda sighed an hour or so later, rubbing her back as she spoke.

~Even my power has limitations, girl. There are too many of you to teleport over such a distance. The closer we are to the ocean the less likely I am to leave one of you, or rather part of you behind.~ He glanced at Lucinda to see her reaction. The shock and partial disgust on her face was amusing.

"And we can't fly there because it would be more likely that we would be spotted." Rhys said in anticipation to Lucinda's next question.

"Fine so we're gonna walk it then." The girl pouted.

"What does she mean we're walking it? It's us Rapidash doing all the walking she's just perched on top!" Blaze muttered in outrage.

Liana looked behind her to see that the wolves had stopped. She excused herself from the group and turned back to them.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. However we are at the edge of our territory. We would not want to cause anarchy with another pack by invading theirs. This is where we will leave you." Bloodclaw stepped forward as Liana hopped off Artemis to say goodbye to the pack.

"Thanks for everything, Bloodclaw. I'll make sure to visit you again. Are you sure you'll be safe? Those things might come back."

Liana crouched and pulled the large alpha into a hug. Bloodclaw wasn't fond of human affection such as this but he allowed it with just a slight rumble in his chest. He licked her ear and stepped back to look at her, panting dog-breath into her face.

"We'll be fine. This pack has survived more misfortune than the threat of revenge from a flock of oversized bats." Seeing that Liana remained unconvinced he added. "If trouble arises that we can't handle, we'll contact you."

Satisfied with his answer Liana stood up and let the rest of the pack surround she and the others that had walked back to say goodbye too. Meowth pawed at a few of the pups playfully and Pikachu touched noses with Whisper. Lucinda, Rhys and Mewtwo ran their hands over the wolves' pelts in gratitude and the Rapidash lowered their heads to be sniffed at by the wolves.

Liana climbed back onto Artemis and followed the group further away from the wolves. She turned around a few times to wave as the pack barked happily and retreated back into the forest.