Broken Souls

Savior

The wind is howling outside the windows with unusual fury. It feels like it's been years since last night (if the sleep in my eyes is any evidence) yet the sky outside reveals little more than dawn. The people about town are sparse, holding onto their coats and hats with bright red fingers. The wind begins hissing from under the window pane, where the old-fashioned locks rattle and the wooden boards creak.

"We need to get going." I say.

Usually this is met with reluctant groaning or outright denial but Minerva shoots to her paws and everyone else follows, fixing me with intent gazes.

"Okay then," I continue, swinging my bag over my head. I feel a little gross stepping out of bed in the same clothes I fell asleep in but hey, I feel grosser knowing that the end of the world as I know it is at hand because of my mistakes.

Admittedly it's been that way since before we started but moving the deadline up has a way of bringing it to the forefront of my mind. I have pancakes for breakfast, ordering as many as I damn well please and passing them around the table. There's no one else in the hotel buffet- not a good sign, ever- but the food is passable if not downright good. They have an excessive amount of maple syrup at each table and I empty the whole thing. Minerva in particular likes smothering it on the poor, overladen griddle cakes.

When we're done, we head out and I pull out the Pokegear, leading the team south out of the town. Fuschia City is too small to have real suburbs, and once you get out of the claustrophobic main city blocks there's long driveways and houses wedged into the woods before there's nothing at all. The lack of people is made uncannier by the lack of Pokemon. Occasionally a Spearow chirps in the trees, proudly proclaiming this patch of territory for their own, but nothing comes down to aggress us.

The team takes up a brisk pace and I find I'm almost running even though we're not going anywhere in a hurry. The amount of time we'll save by rushing everywhere is unfortunately minimal, but... every second counts.

"Get on my back," offers Minerva.

"You couldn't hold her." Reginae snaps. "You're still injured."

Minerva grimaces. "Yeah? Well her two puny human legs are slowing us up. What do you suggest we do?"

"I could hold her. If we're trying to negate travel time, someone's going to need to hold Hycanith, too. Since she's lighter, you can take her." Reginae suggests.

The idea of doing less work brings another round of furious offense to Minerva's face, but though her hackles are raised she just mutters, "Bright idea, pansy."

We pass through an unmanned gate (also not a good sign- what's with everyone today? Is this Red's doing?) and onto the route following, which looks to be in even less favorable condition. There's no one there and the trees overhead loom over us judgmentally, as if asking: What are you even standing around for? Get out of here.

Worse still, it's a complete and utter dead end. The trees are thick and the cavalcade of rock at the end is thicker. I have no clue what happened here, but there's safety tape everywhere.

"There's nothing here." I say, getting up from Reginae. I double-check my Pokegear to make sure I wasn't hallucinating the whole thing, but there's our destination. I explain, "According to the map, there's supposed to be a water route through here to Cinnabar." I swear.

There was, once... and I wouldn't say there's nothing here. From atop the rocks leaps Suicune, the lithe Legendary watching us all with poise. Its purple mane blows out like the Aurora Borealis behind it, flickering with color, and its crest is sharp and gleaming. The legendary beast's muzzle draws back into a snarl more terrifying snarl than anything Minerva or Fang could master.