"Figured you'd be on time," Surf said from behind me. I jumped. "And on edge as well," he said with a smile. "Now, that's the Vaporeon I know and love."
I shook out my fins. "I've been on edge ever since I set paw in this human town!" I said defensively. Surf just looked at me with a knowing expression. I sat down and curled my tail around my paws in mock annoyance. I could never be mad at Surf. Instead, I changed the subject. "Did you see any of the others on the way back?"
Surf shook his head. "No. Though, I did see Clover running around between houses. She's pretty anxious to find this kit's mother."
"That's Clover," I shrugged. "Always trying to make lives better."
Just then, the call of a Leafeon broke over the town. "HELP!"
Surf and I looked each other for half a second. Then, without a word, we dashed off at top speed.
Clover looked back and forth between the Arcanine and the Houndooms. "HELP!" she called again. She couldn't stay up here forever! Sooner or later, one of then would think to use fire. The fence was wood. It would burn easily. The Arcanine breathed flames at her. Though that would work, too! she thought as she desperately leaped away. The Houndooms caught on, also shooting fire up at her. Clover called out again as she dove away from the heat. One of the two Houndooms singed her tail. She yelped and drew away. At this point, even a trainer had to be better than this!
While she was off balance from the burn, the Arcanine jumped up at her. Clover panicked, throwing herself the other way. Which was off the fence. And into the Houndooms' territory. Clover braced herself for burning fire or sharp fangs. This was it.
SLAP!
A smooth, wet missile slammed into her at the last possible second, shoving her out of harm's way. She landed hard, rolling on the grass before regaining her bearings and leaping to her feet. "SPLASH!" she yelled.
I knew it was dangerous. But I had no choice. Jumping off of another side of the Houndooms' fence-territory, I knocked Clover out of the Fire-Type's reach. I, however, was not quite as lucky. One of the two grabbed my fluked tail and shook. Hard.
Just before it got too bad, Surf appeared, blasting the Houndoom with a well-aimed Hydro Pump. It yelped and let go of my tail (much to my relief). Surf raced along the fence, jumped down, and landed next to me. We stood shoulder to shoulder, fins bristled and tails held up slightly. I glanced back at Clover, who was licking a burn on her tail. Turning back to Surf, I gave a tiny nod.
Then, we swamped the whole territory with two simultaneous Surfs.
The Houndooms retreated fairly quickly, as did the Arcanine once Surf used Hydro Pump again. He missed, but the Arcanine got the message. Meanwhile, I ran over to Clover.
"Are you ok? Did they hurt you?"
She smiled at me gratefully. "Just singed my tail. It'll heal. They hurt my nerves more than my body. What about you?" she asked, suddenly concerned. "Are you ok?"
I gently slapped my tail against the ground. "Fine, actually. Nothing that Recover and a long soak in the pond won't fix."
Clover rose to her paws. "We should get back. Umbreon's probably worried sick."
I agreed. We hopped the fence again and trotted back towards the meeting spot. "I hope he found the kit's mother. Neither Surf or I found any sign of her."
"Me either," Clover mumbled. "I was so hyped up about returning the kit, that I wasn't careful at all. That's how I got into that mess." She looked down at her paws as she finished.
I nudged her shoulder. "Hey, it's fine. None of us expected any different of you. Well, maybe not that you would get into a situation like that, but..."
"Yeah," Clover finished for me.
"There's Umbreon," Surf said. The Dark Type sat up as we approached.
"Where were you guys!?" I found the kit's mother ages ago! Took a bit to sneak away from an overly curious Delcatty, but I got here only ten minutes after the said time!"
"Sorry about that," I said. "Clover got herself into a tight spot."
Umbreon nodded slowly. "So that's what those battle sounds were..."
Clover looked down again. "Yeah..."
I looked at Umbreon excitedly. "But you found the mother!"
"Yeah! She's in that den back there!" he said, pointing with his nose.
"Great!" I smiled. "Let's get back to the Clan and decide our next move."
"You're ba-OW!!" Inferno yelled as we walked in.
I couldn't help snickering. "Kit still pulling your tail, Inferno?"
"Not funny," he responded grumpily. "I sure hope you found the mother. If I don't get away soon, I'll have no fur left!"
Umbreon rolled his eyes. "Don't worry... we found her," he said as he padded over Espeon and rubbed cheeks with her.
"Ok," I said, sitting in the middle of the clearing. The rest of the Clan sat around me as I got started. "Based on what Umbreon told me, the mother is pretty hysterical about losing her kit. We can't carry the kit to her, because it's the same size as us, and we might get spotted. And based on Clover's experience, that's not preferable." Clover nodded seriously. "What we need to do is figure out a way to get the two of them to find each other. Any ideas?"
Bolt stood up. "Inferno could walk away from the kit and lead it to its mother."
Inferno shook his head as much as he could with the kit pulling on his ear. "As much as I enjoy the thought of being able to walk on my own, we know from experience that the kit would much rather scream until I come back than follow me."
Espeon stood up. "Then why don't we come from the other angle? Get the mother to follow one of us to the kit?"
Snow didn't like the idea. "And endanger one of us? What if she's a trainer? Or has another Pokemon that might attack us?"
Clover wasn't so quick to dismiss it. "No, that might work. We'd just have to time it right. Even if she is a trainer, she'd be too distraught to try and catch us."
"Yeah," Bolt said. "Espeon, I thought you were the Psychic Type. Wouldn't you know how emotions work?"
Umbreon jumped to his feet while Espeon just looked angry and insulted. Before it could get into a fully fledged argument, I stood up. "EEVEES! Calm down! Bolt, that wasn't nice or appropriate. Keep your thoughts to yourself."
"I'd still hear them..." Espeon muttered. I silenced her with a look.
Clover paused for a moment before continuing. "...Anyway, we have one or two Eevees lead the mother back to the kit while the others hide."
Snow picked up where her friend left off as she, too, stood up. "But we couldn't lead her to the camp, so we'd move Inferno and the kit somewhere else. We could have a series of Eevees that will run back to the camp and warn the others when the mother is a certain distance away."
Bolt caught on. "Three messengers. One to tell the others to get ready to move, the next to tell them to move now, and the last one to tell Inferno to get away from the kit."
Espeon stood up again, her quarrel with Bolt forgotten. "When she sees the kit, she'll want to get to it as soon as possible. That'll give the Eevees who led her there time to hide. That way, everyone will be safe by the time she would be ready to catch one of us!"
I smiled proudly at my Clan. "I love it when we all work together like this."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ten minutes later, the Clan was ready to go. After holding a race to see who the top five fastest runners were, not counting Inferno, I delegated the roles out. "The top runner are, in order of place, Bolt, which we all knew and expected; Espeon, who is much faster than she looks; Clover, who was possibly still on adrenaline from her close scrape; myself, nearly tied with Surf, but winning by a nose; Surf, as I just said; Umbreon, who I know is extremely disappointed with himself; and, finally, Snow, who, to be fair, doesn't need to run that much."
Bolt zipped around in circles. "So what do I do? What do I do?" he asked excitedly.
I shook my head at his antics. "Bolt, Espeon, and Clover will be the messenger Eevees, since they can get back to the Clan the fastest. Bolt will take the position furthest from the Clan, Espeon, second, and Clover, the closest. Surf and I will lead the mother to the designated place. Any thoughts as to where that would be?"
Surf stood up again, still a bit winded. "What about that spot where we were originally going to put the camp? It has hiding spots. Not as many as here, but it'll work. Plus, it's not too far from the town."
I nodded enthusiastically. "That's perfect! Far enough away to give the others a chance to get settled, but close enough to be able to run all the way there from the town."
Inferno cocked his head. "You thought about putting the camp close to a town?"
"Why do you think we moved it here?" I asked.
"Oh."
Umbreon sat next to Espeon. "So Snow, Inferno, and I take care of the kit?"
"Yes," I responded. "Is everyone clear on what, where, and when they're doing?
The response was in unison. "Yes!"
"Then, let's do this!" I called.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Surf crept up next to me, pulling the kit's cloth-fur behind him. The kit had taken it off a while ago, and Inferno thought it might tell the mother that we knew where the kit was. And, since I outranked him (and he lost the deciding game of Tailslap), Surf was the one dragging it instead of me. I kept a lookout and guided the way.
"Tish ish ridiculoush," he said around the cloth-fur.
I shushed him. "This way. We're at the town. The den is this way." He simply rolled his eyes and followed. As we approached the den, however, there was a bit of a commotion.
The mother human was yelling at what looked like the kit's father. "I told you to look after her! How could you let her out of your sight!?" she shouted. Surf and I flinched.
The father shrunk back as well. "I-I don't know what happened! She was in the yard one minute, then gone the next! I swear I was gone for only a minute!"
Before things got any worse, I jumped out of the bush and let out a loud call. "Splash..." Surf warned quietly. Both humans looked at me in surprise. I felt a slight sense of danger.
The mother seemed to forget about me and rounded on the father again. "Surf! Now!" Ever loyal, Surf dragged himself out as well, still carrying the cloth-fur. Both of us called to the mother, trying to get her attention.
Luckily for us, and him, the father noticed us. "Lily, look!"
The mother didn't even look at him. "You and your Pokemon! Do you ever think about anything else!?"
"No, there are two Vaporeons! One has her shirt!" That got her attention.
We didn't need any more encouragement. On a silent signal, we turned and bolted at the same time. The mother's voice sounded behind us as she ran after us. "They know where Isabella is! Stay there!" She ran with everything she had. So did we.
Upon getting a short distance into the woods, I caught a glimpse of Bolt before he blasted off like a bolt of lightning.
Bolt tore into camp before stopping short and falling over. "Rats... Shouldn't have gone that fast..." he muttered as he stood up. "Guys! The mother's coming! Get a move on!"
"Then you help!" Snow yelled back. Bolt rolled his eyes. Then went over to Inferno and the kit.
Espeon sat patiently in a small tree. Umbreon needed her back safe. She went over her escape strategy. She was to teleport herself and Snow into a tree outside the almost-camp. Close enough to see, but far enough away to be safe. Pawsteps and heavy footsteps got her attention. The second she saw the pair of Vaporeons, she dashed away.
I was getting a bit tired as we passed Clover. I could tell Surf was, too. But the human mother was the exact same distance away as when we started! How was she not tired? Humans tired much more easily than Pokemon!
"There it is!" Surf called to me. I looked ahead! Yes! There is was, indeed! And there was the kit! ... And Inferno! He was trying to get away, but the kit had a death grip on his tail!
"Lead her away!" I yelled to Surf. We had to give Inferno more time! Unfortunately, the mother had other ideas.
"ISABELLA!" she yelled, running past us as we curved away. Without hesitation, I turned back and raced after her. Surf stopped for a second, but then turned as well and ran after me.
The mother got there first. The kit let go of Inferno, reaching up towards its mother instead. The Flareon tumbled away, too late to escape notice. Sure enough, as I skidded to a halt, she held the kit and stared at Inferno. He froze under her gaze.
For a while, no one moved. Eventually, I found the courage to step out and stand next to Inferno. If he was in danger, I would protect him.
Surf walked up next to me. Then Snow. Then Clover. Then Espeon and Umbreon. And finally, Bolt. All of us stood as one.
The mother looked at all of us as she stood up with her kit. She pulled out the rectangular device that humans use to talk to each other. "...Jake? Jake! You're not going to believe this! There's..." she paused. We all looked at her, silently begging.
The kit waved a tiny paw at Inferno. The father's voice came out of the box. "What? There's a what?" I held my breath.
The mother still didn't answer for a moment. Then she stammered "...Isabella. There's Isabella! I found her!"
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