"How in the hell do I keep finding myself in these situations?" I mutter as I jerk Andrew back by his collar, a yellow blur whips by, the noise of its wings just one of many that make a constant drone in the background. He yelps as I throw him into a dilapidated Ponyta stall and step through another Beedrill, blade flashing in a shallow arc having the halves of yet another mindless drone falling in a messy heap behind me. Somewhere in the distance I can just hear Bic roar over the drone of wings, he and Lu were separated from us when this had all started and I hadn't seen them in an hour at least.

Worry gnaws at my gut but I force myself to focus as a pair of Beedrill burst through the roof of the barn, their stingers already thrusting towards me, but a now familiar pulling at the nape of my neck has me stepping out of the way almost before they appear, my blade sweeping up and then down removing the firsts head and then the second's, instinct has me shuffling backward to avoid the viscera, the pain of my abused muscles now an all too familiar sting.

"What are we going to do!?" Andrew yells from behind me, panic creeping into his voice. I don't answer. I'm too busy slamming whatever I can over the doors and any other entrances trying to buy myself some time to breathe.

"Quiet, watch the roof!" I bark and gesture with my sword as Andrew yells something both nonsensical and unhelpful. Long strides take me to a narrow opening in the barn door and I stare out unblinking into an angry wall of yellow and black. The scent of smoke is heavy in the air, and beyond the droning cloud of death I can just make out a solitary farm house.

My Pokemon are scattered somewhere outside, I have a sword, some sort of power I can barely comprehend and a panicked bit of deadweight masquerading as a fisherman, I spit and pace back into the barn proper, stepping gingerly around the various bits and pieces of Beedrill scattered across the debris strewn floor and will my exhausted brain to come up with a solution.

The Beedrill hadn't made a push in what felt like ages, but was probably at most ten minutes and it was beginning to make me edgy, I could think of only one possibility and it makes me grimace and glance in Andrew's direction to where he is cowering within a stack of loose straw, his face just poking out letting me see the abject terror with which he stares through a crack in the wall. I can practically smell it, a heady, cloying mustard yellow that makes me simultaneously gag and pull in.

"It's time to move," I yell, my voice just barely carrying over the drone of so many wings. Andrew looks at me askance, a look that is clearly asking: Are you in your right mind?

I scowl when he doesn't come out of his hiding place, idly flicking my wrist without looking as a nagging ache in the back of my neck alerts me to an attack, the Beedrill falls to the floor sans its wings in a twitching heap.

"If you don't get a move on, I'll leave you behind." My tone brooks no argument, my piece said I stride towards the barn doors, Andrew sputtering behind me.

"You! You can't just leave me to die!" I snarl at his tone, the surety of it and something I can't quite place setting me on edge and stalk towards him, slapping my blade into my offhand i thrust into the straw with the other, snatching the other man by his belt and bodily drag him towards the door, his paltry struggles serving only to irritate me more, how dare he! I'm trying to save this fool.

Rearing back I change holds on Andrew and kick the barn door open, taking the already damaged door off its hinges with the force and sending the heavy oaken door to smash a pair of Beedrill slower to react than the rest, I note this peripherally however as I drag Andrew behind me out into the stockyard and onward, practically dragging him off his feet as I go. The collar of his shirt in one hand I shove him forward and yell,

"If you don't want to die;then run!" I keep pace with the older man, my sword never stopping as I clip the wings of a bug type and am forced to practically teleport to Andrew's other side to stop another's tail stinger from going into his side, I parry the blow and spin bisecting the Beedrill and another that was hidden in it's shadow with the same swing, but without any time to acknowledge that I'm forced to roll forward into a crouch, stab, twist and leap!

My sword moves in a full circle through the air as I kill one then use its body as a stepping stone and block a rapid series of fury attacks from another enemy, all of this happening in a matter of fractions of seconds, my legs and back scream in agony from the strain but I block it out and focus only on moving forward, Andrew stumbles and falls, I grunt snatching him up by his belt and jerk him none too gently to his feet and then in a circle to dodge the droning hoard, his breath is ragged but I don't let us slow down anymore than we already are. My blade flashing in constricting arcs around us, every arc heralding the death of one or more Pokemon, the swarm so thick they can barely get at us more than a few at a time without hitting each other, something I take full advantage of as we push forward, I juke left then go right as a pair charge forward causing them to collide and impale one another, another strikes with it's bottom stinger and I leap rolling over it and taking its wings off as I shove it into one that had been trying to get at Andrew sending them both to the ground in a convulsing pile impaled on each others stinger.

The scent of pollen is strong in the air, and the beat of so many wings causes a pleasant breeze. If it weren't for the imminent threat of death it could almost be considered a pleasant day. The sun is high in the sky and it's thanks to this that I can make out the farmhouse coming into view. The ground behind us is littered with the carcass of Beedrill, and it's all I can do to keep running, let alone swinging my blade but I do, Andrew is in little better shape despite having only been running this entire time. I have just enough time to spit before I stomp hard and simply MOVE, appearing on Andrew's right side, blade twisting in an arc I can just catch sight of a Beedrill's stinger piercing a rapidly fading after image of myself.

I'm not sure if I can keep this up. It's a corrosive thought, bleeding into my consciousness making me feel every ounce of exhaustion, pain, warriness so acutely that, for a moment all I want to do is stop moving. It's been what? A minute since we started running? I could have cleared the distance in seconds if not for Andrew, the only thing keeping the other man moving the knowledge that if he stops he dies. Then, seconds later we're bursting through the front door of the farmhouse our mad rush knocking a table over, scattering random knick knacks hither and thither. Beedrill slam against the walls unable to slow down and I, as quickly as I can dispatch those that burst through the windows, yelling all the time for Andrew to get up, get up and find somewhere, anywhere for us to go.

"Where though!" He yells back, slamming his shoulder against the front door, the force clipping off a Beedrill's stinger as it tries to punch through. I can hear the exhaustion in his voice, practically smell it but I don't have the patience for it.

"Anywhere but here!" I scream, bisecting another of the bugs. I'd lost count of how many I killed when the number was approaching three digits and we'd whipped them into a frenzy with the short run across the yard and they poured through the windows as fast as their size would allow it's a perfect bottleneck if I wasn't so exhausted I'd make a stand here.

"This way!" He yells from further in the house, "There's stairs!" It's a struggle to not slip in the viscera as I run, the carpet ruined with Beedrill innards, I sprint around a corner coming into a kitchen area seeing Andrew standing with a door open that leads into darkness.

"Good," I breath, my sword arm aches and hangs limp at my side the tip of my blade almost scraping against the white tile floor, blood dripping into a puddle as it runs off the blade, my legs feel like lead, blood trickles in a thin line from my left nostril, and there is a sharp stinging in my left eye.

"You look awful," Andrew says hesitantly. I bark a harsh burst of laughter fixing to respond when a sharp pain in the back of my head makes my eyes widen and rush forward, bodily lifting the much larger man before me off his feet and jump down the stairs landing hard and dropping the older man, not a second later there's a crash as the house collapses above us and everything goes black, I trip on the stairs not quit catching myself as the muscles in my legs finally decide enough is enough and I find myself lying on my side, every fiber of my being protesting any movement.

I don't know how long we laid there, all I could hear was Andrew and my own labored breathing, I double tap the screen of my pokegear. Hoping for something, anything as battle continued to rage above us only to be met with the same screen as usual.

"Actuating Systems 50%..." Halfway there, I think. Unsure of what would happen when it was done but anticipating it nonetheless.

"Don't waste your batteries," I grunt a few minutes later, when golden light shines into the room, not bothering to even look up until I hear Andrew's sharp intake of breath, and his heart rate pickup. What now, I think exhaustedly. Forcing myself to stand tall, sword still grasped firmly in hand.

Shedding pale light from the rings on its body is an Umbreon crouched before the ruined bodies of a trainer and what was once a Weedle. The bug type having been utterly destroyed, only identifiable by the stinger left embedded in the floor. The moonlight pokemon staggers to its feet as I look at it.

"What -" Andrew starts, his voice quivering making the Umbreon jump and hiss the hairs all along its, no, her back standing on end poison beginning to glisten on her fur.

"Don't move," I tell him sternly, my voice brooking no argument. Taking slow, deliberate steps until I'm between him and the dark type; I try to calm her down.

"We're sorry," I start, getting the furious dark type's attention. "We had no idea you were down here," I Try and step closer and she hisses, eyes fixated on my sword. I stare at it too, for a second having forgotten I was still holding it, sliding it into its sheath and letting go of the handle is difficult, my hand having locked into an almost death grip, fingers cracking and popping as I open my hand.

"What are you doing, you - " Andrew hisses in a furious whisper from behind me, I hear him take a step forward, only for Umbreon to growl and hiss at him, sending the man scurrying backwards.

"Quiet, go to the stairs!" I bark at him over my shoulder, raising my hands and showing my palms towards Umbreon.

"See." I say softly. "We mean no harm, we're just hiding from the Beedrill." Mentioning the bug types may have been the wrong choice, I reflect as Umbreon yowls in fury and blast the weedle horn again, turning it to powder before rounding on me and taking a threatening step forward.

Resisting the urge to reach for my blade, and ignoring the ache from holding my arms up I speak quickly and softly, "Okay, it's okay. What about your trainer?" I ask, grasping at straws. I don't want to have to kill the poor thing.

At the mention of her trainer it's like I cut her strings as she stumbles like I physically struck her, yowling and slamming her forehead against the floor shaking dust from the rafters, she turns and stumbles collapsing across her trainers dessicated legs choking and sobbing, the noise altogether pitiful and morose.

I can practically feel her pain, the feeling like an ache in my chest and a twist in my stomach, "I," I start the words dying in my mouth, there was nothing to say, nothing that could be said to somehow fix any of this. So, for a moment I just stand there in indecision, emotions roiling in my gut, and try to think of something, anything to do.

In the next moment I'm hesitantly laying a hand on the Eeveelutions back. She jumps muscles going taught but makes no other motion as I gently stroke her back and hum a song my mother sang to me when I was a child and had nightmares.

"I'm sorry this happened," I say, not expecting a response but feeling like I should speak all the same. "I've lost people important to me since this," I search for a word that encompasses everything that has happened and come up short. My vocabulary unable to provide a word good enough, so I speak of what has happened so far, whispering of our losses and my fear for what feels like forever, emptying myself of everything that had happened I lapse into silence. I can hear Andrew snoring a ways away, the adrenaline must have left him, I think distractedly. My own eyelids like lead as I idly pet the Pokemon before me.

I wake with a start as something wet touches my hand. With a start I realise I must have fallen asleep. How much time had passed? Where were Bic and Lu'? Anxiety gnaws at my gut and I almost think i can see shadows dancing at the edge of my vision. Then Umbreon licks my hand again, nudging at my palm with her nose. I can't help but laugh, the sound almost foreign to me.

"Someone's friendly all of a sudden," I say softly, laughing and petting her head. I can no longer hear battle from up above, only a rhythmic thumping that I can't begin to guess the origin of. Umbreon nudges me again as I get distracted, mewling at me.

"What is it?" unable to grasp the situation I can only ask questions, but I at least don't have to wait long for an answer as Umbreon walks to her trainer, the task seeming to take everything she has, she paws at their belt, nudging something that finally comes loose and is picked up in her mouth, before I can see what it is she snatches it up and brings it over, nudging me until I open my hand she drops a pokeball in my hand and then nudges my hand closed with her nose.

"I, you want to come with me?" I ask stunned, what even was happening? I'd heard of this happening to other trainers, but it had never happened to me.

She nods, and I'm speechless. Unable to understand but I'm not given much time to think about it as the thumping I'd been hearing grows steadily louder, Andrew starting awake panic setting in as he hears the noise.

"Oh god, oh no," He says, scrambling to his hands and knees to hide under the stairs as I can begin to pick up a faint murmur akin to talking, I look down to Umbreon next to me, the poor girl thin from malnourishment but still standing strong, she looks to me and nods, taking a shaky step in front of me looking at a spot in the roof that the noise is originating from.

"Right," I grunt, standing on shaky legs and groaning as they ache with every movement, it's all I can do to draw my blade, the motion sending lances of pain through my back and shoulder.

Then dirt falls to the floor and sunlight streams in, a wordless snarl escapes my lips and Umbreon yowls next to me, but then I hesitate and laugh. Staring down at me is the familiar face of Bic. A tired smile on his face, and I note a new scar above his left eye as he speaks. His voice tired, but jovial.

"Miss me?"