Pokèmar Episode III: Thunder's Past

Enemy Among Us

I don't like this place. At all. It feels... hateful. Violent. I know this is a war, but everyone I've met here has a burning hatred for the enemy. It feels less like people fighting to end a threat and more like them trying to eradicate them completely. Talking around, I got a few more relevant tidbits of information.
It appears that during the Great War the Zoroark and Raichu were bitter enemies. They fought on opposite ends of the war and clashed numerous times. My guess is that those anti-Zoroark ideals are what I'm seeing here. Just what we needed to get tangled up in. A race war.
I am woken up the next morning by pained cries and urgent chatter.
"What on earth is going on out there..." I muse to myself.
"Whatever it is, it sounds bad." Thunder adds. I jump slightly. I had thought he was still asleep.
"Did it wake you up too?"
"More or less. Should we look?"

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It appears that the infirmary tent is flooded with wounded Raichu. Possibly back from a deadly skirmish.
"We don't have enough supplies for this! If this keeps up the death toll is going to skyrocket!" I overhear a paramedic yell in frustration. What does he mean by "if this keeps up?"
"We should ask around. See what we can learn." I say. Thunder nods in agreement and pulls aside a Raichu looking on as well.
"Excuse me, what exactly is going on here?"
"Another ambush." He replies. "We've been dealing with it for weeks now. Every time we move our people somewhere, those blackfurs are there waiting for us!" Hm... Suspicious...
"Sounds like there may be a spy..." I add, drawing the Raichu's attention. And goodness, he can pull off quite the stink eye.
"Don't worry. He's with me." Thunder reassures. This seems to calm him a little. Though he still is looking at me warily.
"Well, that's what many people are thinking. A Zoroark spy. But that illusion power of theirs makes it near impossible to spot them without doing a systematic sweep. And if people start getting accused of being a spy, there will likely be trouble." Well... that's not the only option... Recently, I learned of a new ability that I have. Being snakelike in my biological structure, I possess many things they do. One of those being the forked tongue. On earth snakes use this to catch scent particles to track their prey. And considering that I've seen other snake Pokemon flickering their tongues before, I had decided to test it. I gathered Thunder's scent and had him hid from me. And it worked beautifully. I was consistently able to track him down. I decided to give this ability the name of "Snivy Sense." I guess I was in a bit of a silly mood.
So if I knew what scent was like, I could search the camp and perhaps find our spy. But... do I want to? Sure, it would prevent these ambushes, but considering what I've seen from these Pokemon, revealing him could be a bit of a bloodbath. But between the greater casualties that this informant causes and his or her own life, I feel that I should search for them.
"I may be able to help." I announce.
"How?" The Raichu asks skeptically.
"I can track things by scent. If I knew what they smelled like, I could seek them out."
"And how do I know you're not one of them?" Yeesh. Paranoid one. Though considering their enemy, it's kind of justified.
"Go get a squad of trained soldiers. Have them escort me. If I start acting out, they'll be there to take care of it." A second or two passes as he considers my suggestion.
"Alright. Come with me. I'm not letting you out of my sight."
"Fair enough. Lead on."

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After checking the scent of a tuft of Zoroark fur that a Raichu managed to tear off during a fight, I began my search. The first thing I noticed was that I detected trace amounts in the military sections of the compound. Makes sense. The fighters would likely be in physical contact with them. But the target will most definitely have more than a trace of it. Time wears on and I begin to narrow down the search area. That's when I detect a very strong Zoroark scent.
"They're close..." I tell my escort and Thunder. "Be ready." The squad leader nods in response, telling his men to be on alert. The search turns into a high stakes game of hot-and-cold as I continue to search the area. Little by little I close in on the location. And sure enough, we reach someone. It was a Pikachu... From the outside at least. The undeniably potent Zoroark smell says otherwise. "There. That's him."
I brace myself for what comes next. My escort breaks away and surrounds the target. The squad leader smacks him with his tail and with a puff of smoke, the spy is revealed. A small Zorua. His expression of pure terror is definitely going to haunt me for a long, long time. And then they begin to beat him. No restraint. No care for his well being. They were going to beat him to death. No... I can't let this happen...
"Wait!" I yell. "Stop!" And to my surprise they do. And the Zorua looks at me with pleading eyes, begging me to get them to leave him alone. "Don't you think he's more useful alive? I mean, he has to report to someone. And that could trail back to their base. He may have information we can use." I watch as the squad leader ponders my proposal. Until finally he responds.
"Very well. We'll take him to the holding cells. Let's see what information we can squeeze out of him." With that, they grab the Tricky Fox Pokemon and make their way to the aforementioned holding cells. And I'm left questioning my actions.
"Alex?" Thunder inquires, concerned. "Are you feeling alright?"
"I'm just wondering if I did the right thing... I may have sentenced him to death. But had he been left alone, many more Raichu would probably fall victim. I never wanted to be involved in this."
"I understand... But you did the best you could."
"This was supposed to be a happy trip. We meet your father, chat, and have fun. But... this is not what I wanted.
"Me either... But we just have to work with what we have. Not what we wish we had."
"I suppose... Let's head back. There's nothing else for us to do here.