Pokemon: Fate's Path

Chapter 26

Freya Stark

I wasn't sure how long I had been captured and bound in this room but there was occasional hints that it had been about a week just based on the daily routine of Valhalla grunts coming in to check the wires and status of the legendary pokémon, Zekrom. Occasionally Alice would show her face as well, mainly to torture me though she never broke the skin or bones. I had managed to learn things from her during those sessions however: I knew Jay and Soren were here as well being experimented on in a similar fashion and an important visitor, their leader, was awaiting the results of the experiments. Who that leader was had been a surprise when I had seen him. Tarot, the beloved champion, had tricked the entire Drucan region into believing he was helping destroy Valhalla when all he was really doing was helping them, leading them.

The draining of my energy was weakening me at this point and I knew I had to escape before it killed me or the others. In the beginning I had started to loosen my restrains every time I was left alone with Zekrom, who continuously watched me with interest during these attempts. Alice had noticed though and had amplified the power, weakening me faster. I wasn't sure what this was meant to do to me or Zekrom but I could guess it was something to do with powering up the legendary.

"Energy levels are still stable, everything looks good... as usual." The grunt muttered as he turned away from the controls.

His partner scowled as they walked towards the door. "How did we manage to get stuck with this job?"

They completely ignored me as they continued complaining, their voices disappearing as the door shut behind them. I glanced at the screen they had been at, if I was right then this process would be done soon, which meant I would die soon. I went to work on the bindings again, twisting one hand free before moving to the other hand and unlocking the metal binding, doing the same to my ankles as well before staggering to the ground. Zekrom opened his red eyes to watch me, lifting up his head as he saw I was free. I paused a few seconds to catch my breath before standing back up.

"I'll get you out too, don't worry." I promised, slowly making my way over to him.

"Rom..." The legendary's cry was a low grumble, as he shifted to stand up.

I wasn't completely sure how to work the controls on his cage but I doubted it would take me long to figure out. Plus once the energy shield was down I bet Zekrom would cause Valhalla some real problems to worry about. I messed with the touch screen, swiping and pressing random sections as I tried to find a way to deactivate it, until I paused as I came across something interesting: Valhalla was trying to force evolve these legendaries through the power of life force energy. For what I wasn't sure, perhaps there was another location where it said how they planned to control the pokémon but I didn't take the time to search for it. As long as they didn't have the legendaries and this didn't succeed then the rest wouldn't matter, not to mention I didn't know how much time I had before Alice or another member showed up again and caught me.

I finally found the right button and pressed it, sending off alarms as the the energy shattered away and dissipated into nothing. Zekrom gave a roar as he rose to his full height, the sound ringing in my ears as the pokémon walked off the platform he'd been trapped on for so long. I backed away, grabbing my pokéballs off the nearby table, as the legendary stepped towards me and crouched down to look at me.
"Ze...Krom!"

I tensed for a moment before jumping in surprise as the legendary licked me, probably in thanks though I could've done without the slobber. I wiped it off and looked at Zekrom for a moment before laughing slightly. "Your welcome... Mind if I call you Slurpy for that?"

"Ze..." Zekrom continued to look down at me and I took it as an okay.

"Great, then care to help me get the others out and get rid of Valhalla?" I asked.

Slurpy crouched again and gave a motion for me to get on. I wasn't sure if I was more excited or frightened, I had never expected to be thing close to a legendary pokémon let alone get to ride one and work together with it like this. I settled down and held on as Slurpy rose back up, his body glowing blue in places as he let out a burst of energy using fusion bolt, frying the equipment beyond repair.

"Great, now, let's get the others!" I urged, the longer we delayed the closer they were to death.

Slurpy used zen headbutt to break a hole through the wall and flew outside, going higher into the air until we were above the building. From what I could see I would guess we were somewhere on Obsidian Wrath. The building was tall but being built into the side of the volcano and painted to look like the surrounding mountain... no wonder no one knew it was there. Slurpy gave another roar and I glance up as movement caught my eye; something else was up there in the clouds. I gave a shout of alarm as Slurpy flew away, jerking to the side, and away from the building. What was he doing?

"Hey, wait! We need to go back!" I shouted over the wind, risking letting go with one of my hands to point back to the building. "Come on, my friends need us!"

"Kroooommm!" Slurpy gave another cry but didn't change directions despite my protests to go back.

I fell silent once the building was out of sight I wasn't sure where Slurpy was taking me other than East. For all I knew he could be flying back to his home in Unova and taking me with it in an attempt to keep me safe away from Valhalla. Guess I would have to find out... but I would go back to Obsidian Wrath I had to, either to save my friends or uncover their untimely fate of death, I would go back as soon as I could.

I wasn't sure how far or how long we had been flying, the storm clouds Slurpy created blocked any daylight and the ground was hidden by the clouds we flew in. However, I could tell we were slowing down and the legendary tilted slightly as he flew down as if to land somewhere. I started making out faint buildings below as the layer of clouds below us thinned out, the closer we got the more details I could make out and it didn't take me long to realize the dark green and grey-black buildings were the the pokémon Rescue Members' buildings... Slurpy had taken me to Nolk for help! I didn't know how he knew where to take me -well it could've been the fact I had shouted they would send people to find me when I first saw Alice- but I was glad I could get help.

I slid off Slurpy's back as we landed and barely took more than two steps when three adults ran out, their forest green cloaks immediately identifying them as a squad of the pokémon Rescue Members. They put their pokéballs away as they saw they weren't under attack but the girl still seemed suspicious.

"Who are you and how did you get that legendary?" She questioned sharply.

I stood my ground, I wasn't going to show how nervous I was. "I'm Freya Stark, I was going to be an apprentice Rescue Member."

"Really? We just thought you weren't showing up." The brown haired male smirked. "Not many people show up, they chicken out."

"Shut up Seth, let her finish answering." The black haired male responded.

"Valhalla captured me and my friends... I escaped and helped Sl- uh, Zekrom here and he brought me here." I gave Slurpy a pet on his side as I spoke. "We need to go back and get my friends out though... they'll die if we don't."

"Diane?" The black haired male tilted his head slightly. "What do you think?"

"We should wait for the other teams." Diane seemed hesitant, as if she didn't fully believe in what she was saying.

"Come on... We might never get a chance to ride a legendary again... besides, Freya is going to be one of us and her friends are in danger. I get the feeling she'll go without us if necessary."

Well he was right about that. I wasn't leaving my friends behind.

Diane sighed. "You're right, Ethain, "Freya, we will help you save your friends and let you into our training program once we save them."

"Come on then!" I climbed back onto Slurpy, who waited for the other three to join me, before flying off again back into the storm clouds and towards Obsidian Wrath... I would save my friends...