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Breath of Life

A car horn sounds from the front of the gym; the taxi is waiting impatiently for its guest. 
“I’m coming, I’m coming,” Misty murmurs to herself as she finishes turning the lights in the gym’s reception area off. She feels like she should be excited, but she can hardly muster a smile.
 “I will be happy today,” she says resolutely.
It’s been a month since Misty convinced herself that Ash was coming home. The first week she’d spent in delirious happiness. She cleaned the entire gym, won every gym battle, and even went fishing off Cerulean Cape – something she hadn’t done since Ash disappeared. When two weeks passed and there were no new sightings of Ash, something clicked. It was becoming too painful again to believe she’d ever see him again. During the last two weeks her depression grew deeper than it ever had been – she’d thought it was impossible.
Today, however, she was determined to turn her mood around. Today is the day she would meet her Eevee.
Before she heads out of the gym to the cab, she grabs an empty Pokeball.
***
“Raichu, can you hear anything?” Ash and his Pokemon wander the forest without a sign of human activity. The area is completely unfamiliar and wild. 
Raichu’s ears flick to the east. “Rai rai chu.”
“They’ve been on our tail since we left.” Ash pulls at his hair in frustration. “We can’t fly because Charizard can’t carry all of us. How can we get them off our scent?” 
The group continues along and comes to a river running through the woods. Nothing seems to come to mind until Charizard mumbles something nearly incoherent.
“The river?” Ash freezes with the idea. Two of three of his Pokemon are fire types and the other is not a water type. “How do you suppose we use the river?”
Charizard motions with his claws and mumbles.
Ash’s jaw drops. “Jump in?”
The fur on Typhlosion’s back ruffles at the idea. He pokes one paw into the water to feel the current but quickly retracts it in disgust. 
“Charizard, you and Typhlosion are fire types. You would take on a lot of damage.”
Charizard stands resolutely and yammers in confidence. Typhlosion, on the other hand, appears unsure. 
Ash stops to think for a moment. “It would completely cover our scent though.”
He turns back towards the river and paces alongside it. 
“Do you think you could handle it?”
When the plan was agreed upon (after a lot of convincing Typhlosion), the group decided they would walk a half mile west and then return to the river on the same path to really throw them off. They would follow the trail and then it would cut short.
Ash stands at the river edge and watches the water gush over rocks, carrying away sand and silt from miles upstream. “Are you ready? Stay calm, stay above the water. Charizard, keep your tail up.”
He glances at each of his friends and they jump into the rapids together.
***
As Misty walks up the steps to Brock and Suzie’s breeding center, she suddenly begins to feel nervous. What if I lost my touch with baby Pokemon? 
“Misty, you’re here!” Suzie swings the door open wide to let Misty in. 
“Hi Suzie,” Misty smiles warmly at her friend.
“Brock is in the pen with the Eevees and Beauty.” Suzie leads the way to a section of the center that is specific for young pokemon. 
In the center of the room there’s a small doghouse with a ten foot pen and Brock is sitting in it playing with five Eevee kits. The Eevees are tugging on his clothing and headbutting him. They are only the size of his forearms but they’re still able to push him over. At the sight of a new person in the room, the five Eevees run towards her and stand on their back legs propping themselves up against the pen. 
“Oh! They’re all so adorable!” she steps in the pen and kneels next to them. Immediately they all tackle her and knock her to the ground. “How am I going to choose?”
Brock and Suzie share a smile. Brock stands up. “I think we know which one. Come over here.”
Misty looks questionably at him and follows him to the doghouse. Brock unlatches the roof and pulls it off. Misty looks into the house and spots Flareon staring up at her. Next to her there’s a water dish and in the water dish lays a sixth Eevee; a soaking wet runt with ruffled fur on its head.
“She is momma’s girl,” Brock reasons, “and she always sleeps in the water dish. She looks calm right now, but she’s very excitable. She seems to run on a different schedule than her littermates.”
Misty doesn’t say anything immediately so Suzie joins the conversation, “Of course, if you want a different one, that’s fine also! We just thought that she would be perfect for you and she could visit Flareon.”
“No no! She’s perfect.” Misty kneels next to the doghouse and reaches in to stroke the small Eevee. Flareon watches wearily at the new hands. “Don’t worry, Beauty, I’ll take good care of her.”
Flareon seems to understand and licks her sleeping kit on the forehead.

The current is stronger than Ash had anticipated. After a few minutes of floating fairly gently down the stream together the rapids begin splashing and sloshing in Ash’s face and suddenly he can’t find his friends. He flails upwards as hard as he can trying to keep above the surface. He knew this was a possibility. As he’s about to fall deeper under the waves he feels a tugging on the back of his shirt. Whatever has a grip on him isn’t strong enough to pull him out of the water, but he can feel himself being pulled to one side of the river. And then he’s pressed up against a rock wall being hammered into it by the raging water. There’s something sharp poking into his back, however, with the continued lack of oxygen, he can’t tell what it is. Suddenly, he’s reintroduced with the air.
When he’s finally thrown onto the green next to the river, he begins to register shapes around him. He’s relieved to see Raichu standing over him and a large rocky Rhyhorn on his other side. That must have been the rock wall.  
He sits up quickly and searches the bank for Charizard and Typhlosion. When he doesn’t see either of them, his worried gaze shifts to the river. He spots what dragged him out of the river – a powerful Talonflame. Its eyes are too busy searching the river to notice Ash’s gaze. 
In a fraction of a second the Talonflame swoops down and drags an eerily limp navy and tan body out from the current. It’s strong enough to pull it from the water onto the shore by itself. Immediately Ash identifies it as his Typhlosion. He rolls the sopping Pokemon over and shakes him frantically. When he doesn’t respond, Ash fearlessly begins CPR to the best of his ability. After a minute of heart compressions and a breath of life, Typhlosion splutters and coughs up water. Relieved and exhausted, Ash falls onto his side and scratches Typhlosion’s chin softly. 
His relief is brief. He sits up quickly when he hears a roar and splashing from the river. Charizard is trying to gain leverage from the water but his wings can’t flap high enough to pull him out. Ash watches helplessly as Rhyhorn charges into the river and stops Charizard from drifting away. Rhyhorn’s large body sticks out enough to allow Charizard to lift himself out of the water and fly to shore. Ash immediately runs to Charizard and check him over. The flame on his tail is weak but still burning after that traumatizing ordeal. Ryhorn emerges from the water and is joined by Talonflame landing on its back. 
Ash kneels in front of the pair and thanks them, “We owe you our lives.”
Talonflame flaps its wing and squawks. 
“Raichu rai rai aichu.” Raichu briefly explains why they were in the river – simply saying they were running from Team Rocket.
Rhyhorn nods and motions to Typhlosion who is still lying limply in the grass.
Ash gasps when he remembers his waterlogged friend and moves to pick him up quickly, “Can you help us?”
Ryhorn begins walking into the forest and Talonflame squawks for them to follow.
With Typhlosion cradled in his arms, Ash follows as quickly as possible. Raichu and Charizard bring up the rear.
It’s dark. The wind whispers sharing the secret whereabouts of every creature upwind of.
“I know you’re here! I’ve been searching for you for weeks.” Ash shouts into the darkness. “Please, hear me out!”
He approaches a lake as clear as air. The wind continues to howl as he kneels next to the water. He spreads his fingers apart and places his hands on the surface. “Please,” he begs. 
Suddenly, the water begins to glow from the palms of his hands and extends across the lake. 
“I knew you were here!” Ash leans back on his knees and stares across the water.
A four-legged, soft blue figure pads across the surface of the water slowly. Its cloudy mane flows behind it like liquid. 
It grunts and howls its name. 
“Do you remember Team Rocket? The group that kidnapped Celebii and created the shadow ball?”
Ash rocks back onto his feet and stands slowly. The Pokemon stares back in silence; waiting for an explanation.
“Suicune… I need your help taking them out.” His jaw locks in anticipation. “For good.”