[X] My Assistant

[Master Houndoom]

The park was tranquil and quiet, until the two humans came. They weren't panting, but they were flushed, and antsy, and one of them, the taller young man, had slightly queasy drilbur on his head and a riolu following him that looked for all the world as if she had no idea what to think of something she had just seen.

The other human, a much smaller young woman being followed by a growlithe, had a similar look to the riolu, but that was neither here nor there.

"OK, little fella, do you know where the rest of your people are?"

The drilbur answered with a wheeze and a lurch, but Cammy had sensed them out, it had seemed, for she was now making a beeline toward a copse of trees and motioning the others forward.

The humans, riolu, and growlithe jogged toward it. There, huddled together, was a large group of the most ragged pokémon they had ever seen. Jay noticed that there were two small mounds nearby, and he felt his heart drop. They had brought their dead with them, to bury them away from the place of their captivity. He felt his jaw clench. Magma had to be stopped.

He knelt down, watching the drilbur as they cowered in fear. The one on his back wheezed and lurched again. Then, it happened. Jay heard the pokémon begin to choke, but before he could reach up and pull him down to see what was wrong, a wet, heavy ooze plopped on his head. "Oh, that's just... awesome..."

Again, before Jay could try to lift the pokemon and find a handkerchief with which to clean off his hair, he felt a heat on his back, and saw the light flashing in the trees. Suddenly, the pokemon on his back was five times heavier, and he was driven to one knee.

The excadrill dropped off his back and took in his new form: large steel claws and a crest on his head in a simlar shape and consistency, larger body, and different colored markings. The other drilbur looked at him in wonder, pressing closer and looking up to him, waiting for instruction. The clan had found a new leader.

The pair bid them farewell, leaving the excadrill to lead his clan on. Jay felt there was a hint of gratitude from them, and hoped beyond hope he and Ivy had repaired some of the damage Magma had done to the pokémon's trust in humans. He found a handkerchief and got the worst of the drilbur's puke off of his head, grimacing, before they finally started toward the Maw, to give warning.

-----

Ivy dashed ahead as soon as the trio of Magma moved to block the bridge. Jay's first instinct was to call her back. She was, however, correct. Magma had found the Maw, and was threatening it. They had foiled the drilbur plan, true, but there were other methods, including a full frontal attack.

They had to get that information to the maw, and then back to their own headquarters.

Ivy charged, with Omicron dead on her heels, and Jay saw her leap, not in a straight on fashion, but twisting so that her body struck crossways on the chest of the middle agent, her feet flailing out to strike the person to the right. Jay and Cammy charged the left.

Jay leapt up to the guard rail of the bridge, a flat, stone area with a metal pole hand rail bolted to the top. Just before he drew even with the right hand Magma, he stepped off of the rail to the water side, catching it with his hand and using the momentum to flip up and around, kicking the agent in the back, as he, or she, was distracted by the spectacle of a flying dog and her growlithe. The figure stumbled forward, and was bowled over by Cammy, who, twisting, had rolled under their feet at almost the same time as Jay performed his acrobatic kick.

It would have made more sense to also attack the left, clear the way through the escape route Ivy had made, but for some reason any thought of moving that way felt wrong, badly wrong, that cold, trembling gut feeling that one gets when they first learn to steal after a life of moral teachings...

"Ivy, let's go! We can out run them!" And we need to lead them away from the Maw and Headquarters... he thought, snarling. The time may come that they need to separate. Now, however, wasn't that time. Not yet.

Ivy yanked the leftmost Magma's shirt, pulling them into the pile while extracting herself, and the four, humans and pokémon, beat a retreat down the street,

It wasn't long until Jay started to slow, but the sounds reaching him were odd, off. There was at least one more pair of feet than there should have been.

"Dammit. Left, go left," Jay hissed, turning and trusting Ivy to follow. He scanned ahead, but his usual path finding abilities seemed to falter, lighting one path, then another, then a third, sometimes going two directions at once. He'd have to trust his instincts.

They had to lose whoever was behind them and fast.

[Living Arrow]

Running from the Magma targets wasn’t Ivy’s idea but the voice in her head that lingered after her brainwashing told her it was the right thing to do. Impulse said fight, conscience said flight. It was a situation that would not have had options in her past but now she had a larger team to think about rather than just herself and Alpha. Fighting was riskier, especially in their tired state, but running gave them a better chance of warning the rest of Aqua.

As they ran, anger and frustration bubbling under Ivy’s skin, the young Elite caught the soft footfalls of pursuit thrumming behind them and the increase in number from what it had been before. Could it be that they had Pokemon pursuing them, too? Her ears strained. Certainly no quadruped was behind them – that only left the option of bipedal Pokemon or, worse for them, re-inforcements. Ivy flicked her eyes to the side. Jay had noticed, too.

“Left, go left!”

Ivy almost skidded past the turn that Jay had indicated but came up fast and threw her smaller legs faster to catch up – it wasn’t hard. It seemed that although Jay was clearly a faster sprinter than Ivy (long legs had to count for something!), her years of endless running with Alpha and Beta had given her endurance that no many of her fellow Aqua recruits could match. Using the opportunity to glance back during the turn, Ivy could indeed see that another dark shape had joined the Magmas racing to catch them but it was impossible to say anything more than that.

“There’s four.” Ivy breathed as she ran back alongside Jay. “And one is faster than the others.”

Jay nodded his acknowledgement rather than speak back – his own sprint had slowed to a basic run but his gait was still strong. Ivy grit her teeth. They needed more time and distance.

“Omi, Bursting Flame!” Ivy commanded.

The Growlithe alongside the Aqua Elite continued to run but spat a ball of fire into the air ahead of them. The humans and Pokemon dashed under it, leaving an exploding balls of flames to shower the Magmas that were hot on their tails.

“And another – don’t let them have it easy!” Ivy urged, knowing that her Fire-type would only be able to manage a few while running at this speed without having to take a break.

*We’re running out of options… Maybe we should stop and fight… I hope Jay has a plan…*

[Master Houndoom]

Jay had no plans coming to mind. Something about the newcomer, who he'd have sworn was also on the bridge, was muddling his mind, causing panic to bloom where before he would have never allowed more than the first instant shock. Where had this one come from, and how could there be a new yet a familiar presence?

He heard Ivy give the command, and approved. Pulling a ball from his belt, he pointed it at a nearby wall and called out Stringer, just as they ducked into an alley between two warehouses. "Slow 'em down, Stringer! Anyway you can!"

Stringer's mandibles clacked twice, and while Jay kept running, he could hear the wet hiss-splat sound of webbing leaving his spinnerets. If Jay knew his pokémon, there were now webs waiting beyond the fires that Ivy's growlithe had set.

A sharp cry sounded, followed by the skittering of three sets of hard tipped feet, catching up with the fleeing humans and pokémon along the wall to their right. Jay risked a glance behind them.

It was almost their undoing. Two figures watched a third cut through the sticky ropes that Stringer had laced between the walls with a scyther, but Jay's attention was caught when Ivy cried out. A massive form blocked the exit of the alley from the other side.

There was no time to give orders, and no time to take them into account if they had been given. Instead, Jay's hand flashed to Stringer's pokéball, pulling him back into the device in a beam of red light. Cammy leapt to the left, and Jay to the right, both of them using their speed to gain temporary traction on the wall, using that traction to propel themselves higher as well as forward, pushing up and off the wall the moment they were able to leap over the large Magma's head. Jay landed and turned, ready to order Cammy to attack the man and allow Ivy the opening she would need to escape.

Except that Ivy herself had, largely unknown to Jay, lived her own life where quick escapes and tight squeezes were a commonplace, and he watched her slip low and between the legs of their assailant, throwing an elbow up for good measure as she passed.

Jay winced in sympathy. Magma or not, enemy or not, watching a man take one to the future offspring was not a pleasant experience, especially by the experienced. And being a stuntman, as well as something of a heartbreaker, had given him enough experience for a lifetime.

There was no time to sympathize with the man, however. The three figures were advancing through the alley much more quickly than the fire or webs should have allowed. Jay's jaw clenched as the newest reinforcement, the fourth that must have joined them at the bridge, jumped over the downed man, making a beeline for the two, her face hidden in shadow. He watched just long enough to see her discard two halves of a pokéball, and his jaw clenched: She had used one of those pokémon that had been made into tools.

Jay reached out and pushed Ivy's shoulder, lightly, indicating the direction to go, and started his own run in that direction. Daily, long runs had given him stamina, but sprinting was a different matter, and he was beginning to tire. They may have to make a stand soon. Or Ivy may have to go ahead. There was no time to make a plan or explain the situation, though...

Ivy ducked down an alley to the right, and Jay followed. His senses were still messed up. For every possible path, there was a possible block making the path flicker away like a mirage. Jay shook his head slightly, gritting his teeth. He wished he could make whatever it was that usually helped him as he ran stop, if only for now-

And as if he had said it allowed and someone had listened, the flickering brightnesses stopped, and there was only the real, natural light to guide him. It was far more disconcerting than it had a right to be.

The alleyway began to darken, but their pursuers were doing nothing to make their presence hidden, their feet, the clop, clop, clop of two people running with no regard for either stealth or safety, and the soft whispering footsteps of someone both running and searching, reached their ears. Jay saw a brick wall coming up and feared the worst: They had run into a dead end.

But no, there was passage, although it was blocked by a chain link gate, which was hanging across the wall as if it had been left there rather than that it was meant to block the way. One bent hinge kept it against the wall, attached by one thick, rusted bolt.

Ivy once again dashed through a lower gap, one barely wide enough to admit her, though she passed it without snagging her clothing or hair. She turned, a Jay could see the shadow of a stricken look on her face just before he leapt up, pushing off against the wall, then the fence, then the wall, and then forward to jump over, hitting the ground with both feet and making a controlled fall to the left to allow the impact to across his body as he rolled. He was on his feet in seconds, but Ivy pulled him behind some crates and pallets that were being stored in the narrow place.

The two larger pursuers stopped, looking in their direction, then to the opposite, deciding that the gate there, open and still attached, was more likely a way for them to have gone. How they had not seen the pair duck into the other space, Jay didn't know.

The third, smaller, slighter, and, when Jay was able to concentrate on the silhouette the person made in the dimmer light reaching the ally, definitely more feminine, stopped, also looking both ways. She nearly pushed the way her comrades had gone, but stopped and peered at the gate Ivy had slipped under.

Jay's jaw clenched, and he tried to relax it, in case she'd be able to hear his teeth grinding. She stepped toward the gate, pulling it with a loud screech of metal on brick, giving herself enough space to pass through.

Ivy yanked on his hand. Jay looked at her, briefly, and she pointed. There was a path, and possibly another exit.

Jay bit his lip, then nodded. They'd have to be stealthy. Quiet. Like a cat.

Like Sagira.

Jay let Ivy lead, his own ability to pick out a path untrusted. It was slow work to move and stay quiet in what looked like a small, personal junkyard, but they were almost to the end, with a street lamp illuminating the opposite wall and gate, which, unlike its counterpart, was missing completely, but they made it. Ivy ducked through the gap and to the side, getting out of the pool of light.

Jay stepped toward the gateway, moving quickly. That was when the impact hit him.

A heavy weight slammed into his knees, and he fell forward, half through the gate, and half in the junkyard. Jay rolled as he fell, landing on his back in an arc and kicking up and back, trying to pull the attacker into the street, where he and Ivy could move unhindered. She, the pursuer, rolled into the light, her long dark hair coming loose from whatever hair style she'd put it in to keep it out of the way. Jay's hand went to Cammy's pokéball, and froze.

The face snarling back at him, her own hand on a pokeball on her belt, was familiar. Too familiar. Intimately familiar.

Jay's heart slammed into his throat, but he swallowed and rasped out, hearing the desperation in his own voice like a tear in fabric.

"Sagira..?"