Sunbeam called over her shoulder. "I say we copy Uncle Bolt! Go treetop and see what's going on!"
"Fine by me!" That was another thing Moonlight was good at, and Sunbeam wasn't so bad herself. Her older sister fell back to let Moonlight take the lead, since she knew from experience what trees where perfect for getting a good view. Normally, she'd be looking at the sky, but it was the same principle.
Finding a suitably tall oak, Moonlight charged, then bounded high, catching three out of four paws on the bark, but quickly and easily pushing herself the rest of the way up and stepping aside to give her sister room. Sunbeam wasn't as accurate, also getting three paws on the branch, but overshooting her mark. Moonlight lunged forward and grabbed her scruff to pull her back up before she fell. "Thanks, sis..." she panted.
"Sure... Come on. We can't waste time," Moonlight said curtly, leaping up into the higher branches. With easier jumps, Sunbeam kept up easily until they reached the top.
Unfortunately, the view wasn't as perfect as Moonlight had hoped. They could only see about half of the fight, a massive pack of maybe 20 Mightyenas trying to attack something underneath more trees. "Sis, what's going on?" she barked.
"Hang on..." Her Psychic sister already had her eyes closed, probably casting her senses to find the target of the pack's rallying attack. Finally, her eyes snapped open again. "There's just one other Pokemon down there!"
"One!?" Against an entire Mightyena pack!? How had they survived this long!? Moonlight made a split-second decision. "I'm going in! Something's going on here..."
"Me, too! Mightyenas don't usually have packs this big!"
"Humans..." Moonlight snarled, already bounding down towards the ground. It had to be humans. She was a little worried for her sister with that many Dark Types around, but hopefully, she could hit and fade. Her telekinesis was getting better, maybe she could find a weapon... But if worst came to worst, Moonlight would protect her. The shiny Umbreon's paws hit the dirt below just as Sunbeam mustered enough focus to teleport to the ground, the two taking off again in perfect sync. Just like their parents, her uncle had once said. He wasn't wrong.
They finally slowed down at the edge of a small clearing, where the battle was taking place. True to Sunbeam's word, the entire Mightyena pack was rallying around a single opponent, but somehow, the pack was losing. The number of Mightyenas already lying unconscious scattered around the clearing put the original pack size at at least 30, but was now down to only half that number in the few seconds that Moonlight wasn't watching. Even as they arrived, two more Mightyenas went flying, smashing into trees and knocking them out cold, if they weren't already from the force of the attack. Moonlight narrowed her eyes, trying to see what could possibly be winning in these impossible odds, but only caught a few glimpses of silver in between the mass of black and gray fur.
Sunbeam voiced Moonlight's thoughts as three more Mightyenas got knocked out. "What... in Arceus's name...?"
Finally, the impossible battler leaped above the pack, beating a pair of draconic wings to stay aloft. It was bigger than she and Sunbeam were by a definite margin, but still smaller than the Mightyenas it was fighting. The bright sliver scales that Moonlight saw were complimented by electric blue wing canvas, spikes ridged down its back, and a pair of tiny horns in front of large ears. Intense blue eyes glared at its opponents, and a small purple orb hung on a string around its neck, glowing faintly. It hovered in mid-air, flaring its wings wide and throwing its head back, aiming a surprisingly loud roar at the sky, using Draco Meteor, Moonlight discovered as she and Sunbeam had to step back to avoid being hit. The miracle battler let itself fall back to the ground, charging at what few Mightyenas were left without mercy. There was still barely a scratch on its scales.
Moonlight watched with wide eyes, speaking quietly without averting her gaze. "...Sis? What is that?"
"I..." She tilted her head. It had to be a Dragon Type, that was for sure, but Moonlight had never seen anything like this before. Then again, she wasn't a walking Pokedex like her sister was.
Then, however, Sunbeam said the three words that Moonlight thought she would never hear from her Psychic sister. "...I... Don't know."
Moonlight finally looked away from the fight to stare at her sister. "...You don't know? I thought you practically swallowed a Pokedex!"
"I did! I memorized the whole thing! I've never seen anything like this before!"
Just then, the mystery Dragon Type smashed the last Mightyena away with a crushing Iron Head, then looked straight at Sunbeam and Moonlight. It narrowed its eyes and squared its stance. It thought they were waiting to attack. Sunbeam backed up a step. "...Uh-oh." Moonlight was inclined to agree. This beast showed no sign at all of just having defeated 30 Pokemon. A single bite to the shoulder and a scratch on its opposite flank were the only indicators that it had even been in a fight at all. She was tough, but she wasn't sure she wanted to tangle with this thing even if it had been seriously injured. Sunbeam tried to avoid confrontation. "We're not here to fight... We were just worried..."
"Sure you were..." growled the Dragon Type, rough voice dripping with hostility. He didn't believe them.
Moonlight only saw one possible course of action. She didn't like it, but if it kept her sister safe... "Sis. Run."
"What?"
"Go. Warn the clan. I'll hold him off."
"Moonlight...!"
"GO!" Moonlight shouted as she drew energy from the shadow dimension, her reactions and senses getting a million times sharper and raw power coursing through her veins. The hostile Dragon Type growled threateningly as Moonlight's eyes turned deep purple and dark energy leaked in wisps off of her fur. Moonlight had taken on the toughest that the Clan of Darkness had to offer in this state with no idea what she was doing. Hopefully, she could at least keep this beast from hurting her sister.
Sunbeam took a few steps back, the dark energy from Moonlight affecting her merely through proximity, then dashed away as fast as she could. Moonlight ignored her, not taking her eyes off of her opponent. This was going to be one heck of a fight. Hopefully, the forest would still be standing after it was over.
Sunbeam raced into camp, severely out of breath, but in a state of panic. "Splash!? Mother!?"
Neither answered her, one passed out and the other not present. Bolt and Inferno, however, rushed over as fast as they could. Inferno was the first to speak. "Sunbeam? What's wrong?"
"Where's Moonlight?" her uncle asked, looking closer to Radioactivity's fur color than his normal yellow, but ignoring his nausea to worry about his nieces.
"Fighting... Something."
"Something?" asked Inferno with a tilt of his head.
Sunbeam spilled her story as she struggled to catch her breath. "I don't know what it is... We were looking along the river just like Splash told us to when Moonlight smelled a Mightyena and we got ready to fight but it didn't attack us but then another one from farther away howled to signal something Mightyenas don't howl like that we think humans might be part of this-"
"Slow down, down," Inferno cut her off, giving her time to breathe again. Bolt looked like he might explode, his worried thoughts travelling a mile per minute. "Mightyenas?"
"Yes... A lot of them, we found out..."
This time, it was Bolt who spoke. "How far upriver did you go?" Sunbeam didn't understand why he was so worried about the location... Until she read his mind about it. The place where Clover got her wings and her nightmares, humans poisoning an innocent Leafeon when he wasn't useful anymore, where Espeon, and then Four, got radioactively charged, and the prison of the Legendary Trio... She shuddered before she could stop herself. No wonder they were warned to stay away from there...
Bolt took a step closer. "Careful... Are you okay?"
"Yes... Just tired..."
Inferno glanced at his best friend, then looked back at Sunbeam. "Go slow... But keep going."
She took another breath, trying to follow his advice. "We heard a battle... A BIG battle... We went to investigate, we saw an entire pack of Mightyenas, maybe 20 or 30 of them, attacking one Pokemon..."
"What!?" both shouted at the same time.
"That's what we thought, so we went to help..."
"You went to take on 30 aggressive pack Pokemon? That are Dark Types?" Bolt asked as if she was crazy.
"Yes! We couldn't just do nothing!" She kept talking to stop Bolt from doing the same. She needed to get Moonlight help. "But we didn't have to! It beat the whole pack on its own! Easily! It was barely hurt at all..." Her audience only stared, so she continued. "I don't know what it was, just that it's a Dragon Type... It saw us and thought we were going to attack, too..."
"Huh..." Inferno muttered. "You'd think that any Pokemon that doesn't actively attack you and isn't a Mightyena is a friend... At least not an enemy... Moonlight didn't actively attack it, did she?"
"No," Sunbeam said with a shake of her head, not even questioning Inferno's assumption that it would only be Moonlight. He was probably right to. "Not until it tried to attack us... She told me to run and turned on her shadow powers..."
The two older Eevees looked at each other. "...You're going to go help, aren't you."
"Of course I am, she's my niece."
"You almost got sick again a few minutes ago."
"So?"
"So, you shouldn't go fighting Dragon Types capable of taking down two packs' worth of Mightyenas single-pawed!"
"Moonlight'll be there. She's tough without the extra power. And I was hoping I could count on my battle partner, too."
Inferno sighed, torn between wanting to help Bolt fight and being responsible like Splash asked him to. Sunbeam took a step towards them. "Please, Inferno? I'm really worried about her, and I can take care of everyone here!"
That was all the Flareon needed. "...Fine."
"Ha," Bolt said, tiredly nudging his best friend's shoulder, but trying to look energetic. "Come on. Let's go fight stuff."
This might be a very bad idea... Inferno thought as he helped the trying-to-be-hyper Jolteon out of camp.
Sunbeam tried not to worry that he was right. Three of the strongest battlers in the Eevee Clan. They could do it. They could.
...Right?
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