The Campagna Adventures

Chapter 23-Ambush

Phil woke slowly.  He felt an urgent need wake up, but found it difficult.  The young Aura Guardian struggled mentally, he wanted to wake up.  However, even though he was half-aware of being asleep and wanting to wake up, he could not.  Soon though, he regained enough control over his body to send a small pulse of Aura throughout his being.  Phil opened his eyes very suddenly, snapping awake.

The teenager went to stretch but noticed two things, one it was dark, two he could not stretch.  The Aura Guardian looked down to see that he was sitting next to the remains of the campfire, and that he was wrapped in a strangely strong rope.  Phil jerked, trying to snap the rope, but it was to strong, even when he summoned his Aura.  The way his arms were pinned to his side prevented the teen from getting much leverage.

"You're awake already!  I thought you said that tranq' would last for three hours, not ten minutes!" a large man with a very deep and gravely voice exclaimed.

"Baka, what are you talking about, there is no way could a teenager shake off that tranquilizer so quickly," a more normal voice replied.

"Well, Timens, you must be mistaken, come see for yourself."

A very tall and scrawny man, Timens apparently, came up next to the larger man, apparently named Baka.

"My lands, what have we here?  How did you wake up so quickly?"

Phil was about to make a sarcastic response, when he froze.  The Aura Guardian had spotted a massive Ariados waiting behind Baka.  The Pokemon clicked its pincers in a erie and disturbing way.

"Not much of a talker?  Eh, we'll deal with you soon enough," Baka snarkily remarked.  "Timens, keep looking for anything valuable."

Phil came back to his senses, and began to struggle again.  However, what he now presumed to be the Ariados' silk, was much too strong.  At about an inch thick, he assumed it could take up to 520,000 pounds, or so, of force.  He could only produce about 40,000 in his current position.  The large Pokemon scuttled forward and clicked its pincers again, as if to say not to even try.  Phil froze when the large arachnid crawled closer.  That is, until an Aura Sphere sent the Pokemon flying.

"Phil!  Call on Blazer's power to burn through the web," Denny shouted as he ran in front of Phil.

The Aura Guardian followed his companion's instructions.  Phil found Blazer's Luxury Ball using his Aura and drew on the Arcanine's Aura just a bit, and lit himself on fire.  The fire weakened the Ariados' silk quickly, allowing Phil to break free.  He turned to help fight their ambushers, but Baka was already unconcious, and Timens was cowering beneath Denny's gaze.

"Please do not hurt me!" he squealed with more than a hint of fear in his voice.

"What a coward," Denny spat.

The more experienced of the two boys then set about tying the two criminals to a tree.  Phil looked around for Racheal.  He found that the Ariados had webbed her up in her tent.  The teen frowned, why was he by the fire if the others were in their tents.  However, his question was answered when his short term amnesia suddenly lifted.

--Flashback--

Phil was keeping watch by the fire.  He watched the road carefully for any midnight bandits.  The Aura Guardian's attention was drawn by a clicking sound.  Phil turned to see a large Ariados crawling his way.  As he reached for Blazer's Luxury Ball, Phil felt a needle sink into his neck.

--End Flashback--

The teen pulled out his pocket knife and quickly cut the cords holding Racheal's arms and back down.  He then handed her the knife.