Pokemon - Capture Quest

Chapter 18 - Burning Up

"I need you two to stay here and watch over our stuff while we go look for Alicia." I said to Taiga and Hawlucha. The two of them looked up at me and nodded, glancing back at the campsite. "Thanks. Hopefully we won't be gone too long."

With that, Nelly and I ran to the west, hoping to catch the Princess before she got too far.

As we disappeared amongst the trees, Taiga sighed and began pawing at the ground, digging slowly. In this spare time, he wanted to try to master the Fire Trap. Hawlucha once again became the focal point, standing in a central spot for Taiga to dig around.

*

"What was she thinking?" Nelly said worriedly as we searched through the greenery.

"I don't know..." I shook my head. "I hope I didn't give her the wrong idea – sue, I told her about us but I never even implied that we wanted her to leave."

"She's definitely not thinking rationally. She must know that she can't possibly make her way there on her own."

"Maybe that cold she caught is more serious than we thought." I suggested.

"That's no reason to run away... If anything, that's another reason she should stay with us!" She said.

"I know... Whatever the case, we have to find her quickly."

We searched through the outskirts of the forest for a good ten minutes, all the while becoming more doubtful that we would actually find Alicia. With no sign of her in sight, we were about to give up, until Minerva shot out of nowhere. The Princess's cat had a fearful look in her eyes, and she was meowing frantically.

"Minerva!" Nelly bent down and patted her head.

"Mrroww... Me-oww-oww...!" She whined, anxiously looking back behind her.

"Where's Alicia?"

"Meow!" Minerva pulled away and sprinted back in the direction she had appeared from.

"Quick, let's go!" I exclaimed, running after the royal pet.

We ran for a short while until Minerva took a hard right turn round a tree and whined again. Nelly and I came to the clearing and we saw her. Alicia was face-down on the grass, her face looking ill and her breathing heavy.

"Oh God...!" Nelly ran up to her and felt her forehead. "Toby, she's burning up!"

"Damn..." I knelt down beside her. Nelly carefully tried to move Alicia, and the Princess let out a quiet groan, her eyes shut in unconscious pain.

"What's this we've got here?" A voice came from up above. I looked up and immediately wished even more so that Alicia had stayed put.

Standing over us was Caleb, the boy who had helped a Team Rocket executive kidnap our Pokemon back at the start of all this. He was looking down at us, his eyes narrowed and his lips curled into a smirk. His ridiculous brown and white mohawk somehow oddly suited the Rocket uniform he was wearing.

"You..." I stood back up.

"Mmf..." Alicia moaned.

"Hold on, Alicia, it's ok..." Nelly told her.

"You're going to lie to her, really?" Caleb chuckled. "You lot are anything but 'ok' right now."

"Yes, I'd say so." Another voice chimed in. Proton, the green-haired executive who had stolen my friends, appeared from behind the tree that Caleb was leaning on. "Ah, so it is you two again." He put his hands on his hips and laughed. "I have to thank you for that pathetic performance you put on back then when we came to you."