Pokémon XYZ: Life, Death, Order, and Chaos (book 2 of the HBoD series)

Chapter 22: The Missing Stones

She hid in the bushes, wary of the people skulking around the graves. They were silent as the night, attaching small devices to several graves. Finally, one spoke, who was messing with a machine of sorts.

"Begin the testing," a female voice said. "We only take the ones with the highest readings. You also have permission from our leader to capture any strong Pokemon that could be useful for our cause. You all know your assignments. Get to work."

Several people shuffled away from the main group and into the night, walking amongst the gravestones. She felt uneasy, then heard a cry. Her head jerked to the left, eyes narrowing. She ran through the bushes and out onto the grass. Several of the people were herding up several Eevees, who were frightened and obviously didn't want to be captured.

"Damn humans!" she thought, launching herself into the air, sending a wave of energy slamming into the humans. They were slammed forwards and fell onto the ground.

She landed back on the ground, and urged the Eevees to get out of the area. They fled and she turned her eyes back to the machine and the person operating it. Her body glowing, she charged. 

...

Alex let the badge glint in the sunlight, smiling. "Finally got my second badge. It's been a while since the first."

I nodded in agreement. "I wonder if all the gyms will be this spaced out."

"Does it really matter?" Robert asked as we crossed the bridge out of Cyllage City. "If this journey took a whole year to complete, I wouldn't complain."

I laughed. "You're right there, friend."

I took a more solemn voice. "But, it's better that it doesn't. Not with Team Flare and the Cult running around."

Alex grimaced. "I hate to say it, but you're right. They need to be stopped."

As we stepped onto the grass, I looked down the route. In the distance, I could see stones jutting out of the ground, all five different sizes.

"Route 10," I said. "That's right. This is where some of the stones were stolen."

"Should we look around?" asked Alex.

"It'll take us about a day or less to get from here to Geosenge Town," Robert said, looking at a map. "That's in one go."

"We'll set up camp when it get's dark," I said. "It might be wise to look around. We need to look for any signs of Team Flare or the Chaos Cult."

"No splitting up then?" Robert asked, looking up from the map.

"Definitely no splitting up," I confirmed, grabbing my three pokeballs. "Come on out, Arcanine, Frogadier, Riolu."

They appeared in front of me, Frogadier, and Riolu looking better after a night with Nurse Joy.

Alex let out Ninetales and Absol. Absol, once healed, seemed to want to stay with Alex, even though she pretended like she hated us all.

Robert let out Chespin, which had me ask, "What about Snorlax?"

He shook his head. "Snorlax is good when we're battling or just going for a nice stroll, but since we're going to be looking around, a huge giant isn't going to help."

I nodded, but before I could say anything else, someone shouted, "TRAINERS!"

We all turned to see a woman with long blonde hair in shorts and a red jacket run over, a symbol on her red and black hat that I didn't recognize. A female Pyroar was at her side, who wore a black vest with the same symbol imprinted upon it. Alex's Absol seemed to regard the woman curiously, then narrowed her eyes at the Pyroar.