Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Arceus's Wish | (Rebooted on Youtube!)

T W E L V E

'I must be dead,', Kyle thought. He felt the point of a cacturne's spine against his neck. 'That's strange, I didn't even feel anythi--'

"Traitor!" someone cried out.

Kyle opened his eyes to see he wasn't the one who had been killed, but a cacturne on the ground, its purple aura fading away. Kezo was standing behind it, a stained green spine extending from his hand.

Kyle gasped. "You saved me--"

"No time!" He turned as the swarm of other cacturne simultaneously extended sharp spines from their bodies, ready to attack. "Run, Kyle, run!"

But the umbreon couldn't move. "I... we need to fight!"

"What?!" Kezo turned back and scooped  him up over his shoulder. "You will not fight anyone! I'm getting you out of here!"

"You saved my life-- look, they're getting closer!"

"Let us help!" It was Fiona who spoke.

"Yeah, we can do this!" Josh chimed in. Dewey stepped up beside him, brandishing his shells.

There was  a brief pause, and then Kezo breathed out a long sigh. He put Kyle down and said "Fine. I suppose I cannot stop you. But Kyle must stay out of it. Go, go now, in that direction until you see trees. We will meet you there!"

Kyle looked to Nila, who nodded confidently. Without asking again, he took off in the opposite direction, running as fast as he could.

The other cacturne were upon them now, and Nila cast Protect to momentarily keep them back. Kezo jumped over her shield and began to slice and stab at the enemies, taking several of them down before they began to overpower him.

This time, Fiona jumped in with Flamethrower. She managed to narrowly avoid hitting Kezo himself, and sent the dark Pokemon away from him. Josh and Dewey threw their shells, and they flew through the crowd cutting numerous cacturne as they went, before landing back in their paws.

"There's too many of them!" Nila blasted a few of the dark Pokemon away with Psychic. "What do we do?"

"We have to give Kyle as much time as possible to get away!" Kezo called while slashing cacturne, "he is far too important!" Barely dodging a spine, he kept battling fiercely.

Buzz and Belle locked hands. "Ready?" He said. "Of course!" She pulled her dress up with her other hand. The two charged their cheeks and sent out a doubled Thunderbolt, crashing through the dark cacturne and knocking several of them to the ground.

Slowly, the fierce crowd began to decrease in number.

"We're doing it!" Dewey called, and blasted out Water Gun. He extended glowing blades from his shells to slice at the enemies with.

"This is not the worst we will face." Kezo finished off another. "These creatures are children of darkness, called 'assimilated Pokemon'. They are not truly living. There is another force keeping them going, their only purpose is to serve this entity's will."

"That doesn't sound good!" Fiona tried to defend from a particularly large assimilated cacturne, and Dewey jumped in to her rescue. "Thanks!" She giggled at him and turned back to Kezo. "But what are we supposed to do? Where was Kyle supposed to go?"

"Just away from here for now! The desert ends not very far." Kezo kept fighting.

Only a dozen more assimilated Pokemon remained. The fight was nearly over, and they had the upper hand.

* * *

What if they need me? Kyle thought. What if they're losing, what if they won and it's safe? What if something happened? I can't just leave them alone...