Ask to Join Bonds Broken by the Shadows

[Ry_Burst]

Zak Warren, a young man at the age of 22, was risking his life like countless others. The Shadow Kingdom had taken power, by force, and creating the once peaceful region of prosperity and unity, to a dictatorship where everyone had to watch their own backs and it was all ruled by a single man. Zak may haven't spent forever, but he spent the first 11 years of his life in this nice kingdom. 11 years had passed since the Shadow Kingdom took control. Half of Zak's life.

Kai, his partner, leaned agaist the wall. "Gren," Kai said coolly. Zak turned around and walked away from the balcony towards the Greninja. "I know. I need to stop dwelling in the past. Well okay, let's get to work," he said, before lifting his mask over his face. The duo leapt off the balcony into the forest below. They were scouts, for the rebellion, two among the group of many who wanted to restore the kingdom to it's rightful place. There was talk of the Shadow Kingdom, having a camp set up in this forest. Zak and Kai, either had to wipe it out, or extinguish the rumor.

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante's boots thumped softly on the packed earth as he followed behind the dark form of his partner. Maia was pressed low to the ground, focused on each scent that had accumulated on the forest floor. Dante felt a pinch of nostalgia and jealousy as he remembered how that felt; the undertone of each scent, the braiding of the trails as their subjects traveled different paths. He let Maia take the lead, though. They needed to save their energy in case they found what they were looking for.

Lost in thought, he forgot his place for a moment and stepped on a particularly large branch, and the pair froze. Maia turned around slowly to scowl at him, and he smiled sheepishly mouthing a soundless 'sorry.' They both stood completely still and silent, holding their breaths and listening for any kind of movement.

 

[Nebula-Newt]

Knox and Sirius hadn't seen another face in weeks. For almost a month they had called this forest home, the branches were their roof, the grass their carpet and the bugs were pains in the ass. They had set up a shelter inside a huge hallowed out tree (Knox reckoned it had been struck with lightening) and tried their best to make it a little more homely. There was a sleeping bag atop a severed log for Knox and a huge pile of leaves for Sirius' large frame. In the centre of the clearing there was a smouldering fireplace. Home sweet tree.

They had ventured out into this deep part of the woods after they had received word of the shadow kingdom having set up some kind of camp deep inside. Anybody with a pair of eyes knew the shadow kingdom weren't exactly the good guys around here. Unpaid work like this wasn't ideal but recently all the bounties had been drying up. For the large part due to the fact anybody worth hunting had already joined the shadow kingdom and most people were too afraid to place a price on their heads.

Jake sighed. He remembered a time when people didn't have to live in fear like this. But there was no use in living in the past, it was up to those left to fix this mess of a world. His train of thought was derailed by the sound of a large crack. He jumped to his feet, Sirius already by his side, fuchsia eyes glowing menacingly. Who was out there?

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante watched as Maia inhaled deeply and her entire body went tense, and he cursed silently. He was guessing that she smelled something, and he wracked his brain on what it could be. She looked cautious but not quite afraid, so it was most likely not the scent of people or Pokémon in particular. It was probably smoke from a fire, he figured, but that didn't mean they were safe. A fire meant a camp, and whether or not this was a hostile camp, he couldn't be sure. He knew he should have brought some kind of backup, and now he was paying for it with uncertainty.

The woods seemed silent and dark with his own senses, so he ventured to whisper, "how close?" under his breath. Maia moved her head up and down in a singular motion, and Dante flinched at the silent meaning of the gesture. Close.

The way he saw it, he had two options: he could retrace his steps and see if he could find some kind of help, but if this turned out out to be nothing, this would be a waste of time and resources. On the other hand, he could try to stay out of sight and get a closer look, but this idea also had its obvious setbacks. His partner, knowing him better than he knew himself and already anticipating his decision, was sending him a stern look. Dante apologized with his eyes and the two picked around the underbrush and trees quietly. After a few minutes, he began to pick up the smell of smoke too.

 

[Le Marsouin]

Noah stood next to a tree in the forest with his Utosmaoid, as he had built a shelter that consisted of a hole within a partial cave within the hillside that was adjacent at his location. There was a bed of leaves inside the little cave, as there were also some rocks nearby that housed some other small wild Pokémon.

He also had ventured out into the woods when he got word that the Shadow Kingdom had a camp within the huge area. Even though there was no pay or bounty to be bestowed upon for taking a wanted's life, he knew that he still had to do his job as a Knight. He was oblivious to the others that were within the area, as he noticed the Utosmaoid picking off at the berries that were on the tree that he stood below.

Meanwhile, inside an unknown area near an abandoned campground, there was an older man that sat down next to the wooden table in a wooden chair that gave off its strong integrity. The tablecloth gave off its distinct reddish colors from the bright lighting that emitted from the elderly lantern that burned off its propane gasses. On the table was a small, lizard-like Pokémon that appeared rather colorful to even the untrained eye. The Man glanced over at the Pokémon that drank a cup of water, as he said to him while taking a sip of water from his cup, "So Jigsaw... what shall we do now, should we perhaps meet our new person in that room and play a little game with him? You did do a nice job on that little device of your's there."

Jigsaw replied to the Man, "Jigacho, Jigacho. Jigacho Jig?"

The Man replied back while taking another sip of water, "Well, let's go in a few minutes then. I still need to drink more since I haven't been drinking lately." Jigsaw nodded at the Man and attempted to finish his cup of water, as his tail wagged from the muffled screams that came from the room whose door was concealed by a simple bookshelf. He continued to drink the water with a modest pace, while he glanced around the grayish walls and the stove that was nearby. He thought to himself while smiling, "Hmm, so my old man has now gotten a man for our own justice... now I finally get to test out my nice device that I made over the last three days!"

 

[Kiteruguma]

Somewhere deeper in the forest, barely outside of the camp of the Shadow Kingdom, was a tall man dressed in a tank top continuously bashing a tree with his right fist in sheer frustration. "Rrrggghhh..." His growls sounded barely human. One could even mistake the noises for a caged animal's- a beast that wants to hunt, but is restrained from doing so.

The last bit of bark dropped off the tree. Jarvis, his fury partly cooled, sat down next to the tree he just skinned. He looked at his hands, which were bruised from hitting the rough bark. He had hoped that reason for coming here was to exterminate the mice of the Resistance like the vermin they were, not some stupid power training that he could undertake any day if he wanted. Jarvis clenched his fists. The motives of His Majesty for the construction of this camp were unknown to him. Of course, he didn't doubt his King, but when he was temporarily stationed at the camp, he had hoped to receive orders to crush the weaklings of Resistance. It had been nearly a week now since he was assigned here, and still no new orders. It was getting discouraging, to say in the least.

"Rowwrrr!" Jarvis' head rapidly spun to the direction the grunt came from, only to notice his partner, Maior the Ursaring. He had apparently cooled down his anger on a nearby tree as well- a nearby oak was scarred for life, with huge claw marks running through it. "Raawrrr!"

Jarvis briefly closed his eyes, and then got up. "I know ya want action, buddy." He dusted his trousers off. "I feel the same. But we're loyal knights, and ya know what that means." The Ursaring growled, not too happy with the otherwise reasonable answer. Jarvis turned to the direction the camp was in. "Better head back. Maybe a new order came in, ya never know."

 

[Nebula-Newt]

Knox peered out into the gloomy forest, looking for a shadow flickering across the moonlight dabbled leaves. Perhaps those he had come looking for had actually found him instead? To be fair that saved him a lot of work, means he wouldn't have to keep prowling these woods every day in the hope of stumbling across that damn camp. All the same Sirius would have picked up their scent by now if it was a group.

It could just be a wild Pokémon of course...With a sigh the bounty hunter turned back into his temporary "home" and sat back down beside the dying ashes of his fire. Sirius remained by the door, all six of his eyes glowing menacingly as he glared out at the unknown creatures wandering around in the dark.

 

[maxoutdragon]

At the Shadow Kingdom's encampment in the forest, Axel had just finished polishing his lance and stood infront of Surge the Electivire. "Finished, has a good shine wouldn't you say Surge?" Surge ignored him, staying focused on the surrounding forest waiting for the slightest sound or movement that seemed out of place. "I know, I've been itching for a fight too. Knowing our luck it one will find us soon," Axel said as he turned to where the roaring had stopped, "And it sounds like Jarvis has gotten the blood-lust out of his system." Axel had thought about sparing with him more than once, but knew this wasn't the place for it.
His mind started to cloud with thoughts of the kingdom he swore to serve and its current state, the rebellion that threatened his king and himself by association. He relished in the thoughts of future battle and conflict. He raised his lance to the sky, renewing his pledge to this king.

 

[Ry_Burst]

"God damn it," Zak exclaimed, dodging a Electro Ball, which slammed into a nearby three instead of Zak. "Okay Kai, let's rock," Zak said. Kai nodded and both he Greninja and Human charged at each other, both being surronded by a light blue color. The two slammed into one another, and instead of an impact, they merged, creating their fusion form.

They did a summersault, and fired mulitple Water Shurikens at the group of Electic Types, in which the Shadow Kingdom Soldiers here using to currently try to kill him. They exploded, wiping out his opponents. "This is getting too easy," Zak mumbed as him and Kai's form broke apart.

 

[DragonFlye]

Meanwhile, Dante and Maia had walked a half circle around whatever area the Houndoom had been cautious of, and she seemed to relax for a moment. Peering through the trees, however, he spotted inhuman eyes from afar. Counting silently, he found that there were at least three pairs of crimson irises combing the area, which were disturbing in and of themselves.

All of a sudden, however, explosions of commotion disturbed the tentative silence. Maia, startled, began to growl menacingly, and Dante himself fell backwards with wide eyes. He couldn't see very far, but he could hear a roar, cracking trees, and miscellaneous battle noises. Was he surrounded? He pointed in the general direction that he'd seen the glowing eyes, and Maia breathed a steady stream of focused flames at the perceived threat.

 

[Nebula-Newt]

The crimson streak of the Houndoom's flamethrower would have been hard enough to miss if it were day time but in this dark soup Sirius spotted it rocketing from the treeline the moment it was fired. The Hydreigon screeched defiantly and countered the attack with one of its own, a powerful tri attack that collided with the flamethrower, resulting in a sizeable explosion which briefly lit the forest and threw long shadows dancing across the ground.

Knox had appeared at his partners side the moment he had screeched and was waiting for the moment the two attacks would collide in the hopes it may reveal their attacker. In the moment of illumination he spotted them, a duo standing there in the brush. One of them was clearly human whilst the other was either very short or some sort of quadruped Pokémon. Knox rested a hand on Sirius' back and gave him a look the Pokémon understood as "Cease fire". The young man knew he now had a choice. He could wildly begin attacking this pair but then ran the risk of hurting (Or worse) innocent but confused people or he could try ask them who they were and just hope they weren't actually members of the shadow kingdom looking for a fight.

"Hold your fire! We are not part of the Shadow kingdom or the rebellion! Just a pair of bounty hunters shackled up for the night. We dont want any trouble if we can help it." He called out into the gloom in the direction if where he fleetingly saw the figures, staying close to Sirius in case things turned nasty.

 

[Kiteruguma]

As Jarvis and Maior reached camp again, he noticed a familiar rather tall, blonde young man point a spear upwards, guarded by his trusty Electivire. Jarvis grinned. Axel was a man after his heart- fiercely loyal and a fighter, just like he was. Though Axel fought more by the book, which Jarvis shrugged off as not having enough experience on the battlefield yet.

"Oi!" he called out to the younger man, leaning against a thick oak, "Got any news from His Majesty while I was out there? New orders?"

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante ducked behind a tree a moment after the attacks met and threw up his arms to shield his face from the blast, which blew a shockwave of heat and debris past them. When the flames extinguished, leaving only dark scars in the ground and trees, Dante listened to the stranger's words and paled slightly. He touched one of Maia's horns to get her attention, but her eyes never left the pair of... bounty hunters? Hell, they'd really screwed up. They needed to diffuse this situation before it could get out of control again.

"I apologize," he called from behind the tree. He put up his hands, palms up, in front of him in a peaceful gesture and peeked out from behind the tree. "We were just startled. There's only two of us, and we don't mean any harm." The nearby sounds had quieted, and he felt his face flush slightly.

 

[maxoutdragon]

"I've not heard anything as of yet but listen," Axel said as Surge turned his head quickly toward the sound of explosions, "The forest is starting to liven up. If we're lucky it's some rebels and we will get the combat we have been craving. The only thing to decide now is do we investigate or hold our position and let them come to us." Axel smiled as he joined in the direction of with Surge was looking, able to feel his partners longing for battle. "What do you think?"

 

[Nebula-Newt]

A sense of relief washed over Knox. Truth be told another flamethrower could have set the whole tree on fire and then regardless of if they won the fight or not their base camp would be destroyed and they would be forced to find another. And funnily enough trees of this size that had been hallowed out by lightening aren't all that common. The strangers hadn't mentioned their affiliation but from their response he imagined they weren't with the Shadow kingdom, that lot didn't normally take all that well to bounty hunters due to the way they operate just around the law.

Seeing the man perform his gesture of peace Knox mimicked him, stepping out into the clearing with his hands up. Speaking in a reassuring tone he began to walk towards the two figures in the dark after telling Sirius to stay put. "Easy enough to make a mistake in these woods at night. The shadows play tricks on your mind. Why dont the pair of you come inside for a little while? It's not safe out there, tonight of all nights."

As if to emphasise his point the din of more fighting rung out across the hearing for a moment before the infinite silence swallowed them up again.

 

[Kiteruguma]

Jarvis looked at his partner, Maior. The tall Pokémon licked his lips, lusting for battle. "I dunno, man. Technically we haven't been given any orders yet." He grinned slyly. "But if there's fightin' out there, that probably means that one of our squads ran into trouble. And I'm sure His Majesty would forgive us if we left on a rescue mission, aye?" He cracked his knuckles. This was the kind of thinking he liked. On the edge, but technically not going against his ideals.

Of course, there was the risk of them being severely outnumbered, but Jarvis was sure that it couldn't be that bad. The possibility of asking more of the camp's guards to come with them lingered in his mind for a second, until he realized there would be less fighting for him that way. "Sure hope that spear of ya ain't just for show, 'cuz we're goin' on a rebel hunt."

 

[DragonFlye]

Maia began growling deep in her throat as the stranger approached them, and Dante touched one of her horns again, lightly, to quiet her. Instinctively, he did want to get inside, if only for a bit. The silence was even worse than the sounds of battle, because they knew there was something unknown and dangerous anywhere in that darkness. In all of that nothingness, there could be anything. This person didn't seem to mean any harm, yet, but Dante knew he still had reason to be cautious. Bounty Hunters tended to be on their own side, and there was no telling where their own interests would lead them, so he decided to keep quiet about his Rebellion affiliations for now.

This was, after all, quite an impressive base. The tree would block most of any light that threatened to expose its inhabitants, and if it were covered in just the right way, any people or Pokemon without an incredibly sensitive nose would think that it was just another huge tree.

"Alright," he said with a light smile, trying to diffuse what tension was left in the atmosphere. "We'd appreciate it."

 

[Nebula-Newt]

Knox gave a single nod before turning on his heel and strolling back towards the tree and his partner who was anxiously prowling back and forth at the entrance. Once back inside he sat down on his excuse for a bed and rested his head in his hands, secretly quite glad to be able to hear a human voice again. The only ones he had heard for the last three weeks had been either distant shouts or the single scream that had pierced the night about four days ago. Still no idea what that had been about.

Sirius had settled down now that Knox was back inside and had drifted over to him and now floated there beside the man, heads examining the newcomers as they twitched back and forth. The room lit up with a renewed light as the Hydreigon used his flamethrower to relight the pit of ashes. The man and his dragon were silhouetted well against the hollow wood walls, their shadows shifting in the flickering glow cause by the campfire. Their stance was not quite as innocent as it may first seem, the reason Sirius loomed over his partner the way he did was a precautionary measure, if their guests weren't as friendly as they first seemed the two could quickly fuse and defend themselves. After all you dont get far as a bounty hunter by being trustful.

In an effort to break the silence Knox reached behind his bed and pulled out five parcels of leaves, holding two of them out in front of him. "You two hungry? It's just fish inside, nothing to worry about." he said in his deep voice, the faintest ghost of a friendly smile on his lips. Hopefully once these two were fed he could find out a little bit more about they were here, he had no reason to suspect them of anything malicious but you couldn't be too careful in these uncertain times.

 

[Le Marsouin]

The Man finished his cup of water after a brief moment, as he saw Jigsaw jumping down from the table towards the chair, and then down onto the tiled flooring. He saw Jigsaw walking towards the bookshelf, as he gave off a brief smile when he saw the little lizard attempting to reach for the correct book which was high off from his short height. He quietly walked towards the bookshelf and pulled a book that was as black as the shadow that the bookshelf casted upon its linear spacing, as the bookshelf started to slowly slide over; revealing the door that housed the next room.

He quietly picked up the startled Jigacho, as he kept a tight grip on him. He quietly twisted the two knobs as the rusted steel door slowly opened and creaked about with its elderly age. There was a small television on a desk that showed a man shrieking about in a secluded room. The man was bounded to a wooden chair with some metal-like protrusions that were almost invisible at the angle that the angle that Jigsaw glanced at. He saw some liquid that poured out of the man's arms, as he gave off a slight giggle to the man continuing to wail and squirm about in his seat. He stared at the man in the television screening; wondering if the man would be able to get out of his trap. Jigsaw heard the elderly man say to him before he gave off a brief yawn, "Now, if you want to meet the man inside the trap that needs to learn his lesson, then let's go."

 

[DragonFlye]

"Sure," Dante said with a grin from his place across from the pair, accepting two of the parcels and giving one to his partner. Maia herself was fixing the Hydreigon with a mistrustful scowl, but Dante knew that they needed to prove themselves relatively harmless if they were going to stay here for any amount of time, especially after they'd almost torched their hosts' shelter.

They had camped overnight further east, away from most of the nearby fish-bearing water sources, so they'd been living on what edible plants they could identify for the two days since they'd left. In short, he was grateful for some actual protein.

"Thanks," he said, picking at the soft meat and placing a bite in his mouth. "I'm Dante, by the way. This is Maia... I really don't know how we can repay you for this."

 

[Nebula-Newt]

Knox unwrapped the remaining three parcels of fish and gave them to Sirius who quickly devoured them with all three of his heads. The fish vanished in the blink of an eye those jaws moved so fast. The young man didn't need any food for himself, he often went weeks without food due to the fact that Hydreigons had to eat so much and there often wasn't enough for both of them. Sirius got cranky without his snacks.

"Dante. The names Knox and this is Sirius." Knox said slowly, gesturing in a vague manner towards his Pokémon when he mentioned him. After a further moment of silence broken only by the sound of chewing and the crackle of the fire he added in a stern tone "As for paying us back, you could start by telling me what it is you two are doing out here so late."

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante winced at the question and looked back down at his meal. He'd walked right into that one, and he knew it. The man didn't seem to be sympathetic with the Shadow Kingdom, but then again, it was difficult to read his motivations at all. For all Dante knew, he could be worried that they'd bring trouble, simply by being on a side. But there was no way he could dodge this for long.

"Er, you see..." he paused, looking for the right words. "A couple of days ago, we'd been told that there was a camp of soldiers out in these parts; not quite sure why, but that's what we came to figure out. We were tracking them when we came across... all this."

 

[Nebula-Newt]

Knox considered his guests words. They seemed innocent enough if not deliberately vague, but he could hardly blame the young man for being careful considering his current situation. Should he crack and tell these guys what he was here to do and run the risk of them being the people he was actually here to hunt just pulling off some kind of bluff? Well even if that were the case at least he could finally get to some action.

"So your out here hunting some very unique prey as well huh? Figures I wouldn't be the one out here looking for them. They're members of the Shadow kingdom, they have a nice sum of money on their collective heads that I'm here to collect." He explained casually as he poked at the fire with a stick which caused the fire to rear up for a moment before settling once more. A shadow crossed Knox's face as a thought occurred to him. Almost in unison both the bounty hunters own fuchsia eyes and all six of Sirius' eyes found Dante's. "Your part of the rebellion."

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante looked up, meeting those fuchsia eyes with his own gray ones, one pair at a time. He stroked Maia's neck self-consciously, and figured that he was in this deep, he might as well see how far this rabbit hole goes. Not to mention, it was only fair to make an equal exchange of information in return. "I'm one of their scouts. Totally information-gathering mission. At least, it was supposed to be," he explained sheepishly. He paused for a moment, however, as something that Knox had said stuck with him. "What do you mean by 'unique'?" And, he wondered to himself, what would anybody want with people of the Shadow Kingdom?

 

[Nebula-Newt]

One of Knox's dark eyebrows arched as he listened to what Dante was saying. So his suspicions were confirmed, he had just invited a rebel into his base. Well it could be worse, the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that. And a scout no less, not just some run of the mill numb nuts who had just picked up a shovel and decided he could start a rebellion.

"Huh." he grunted, tossing his stick into the fire where it was quickly devoured by hungry flames. "I doubt you would get much info out of those thugs. The reason their so unique is that there are some very rich people willing to pay me rather a lot of money to kill each and every one of them. Which obviously makes them rather interesting to me." Knox explained with a glint in his eye. Thinking about it he might as well be a rebel who got paid at this point, most of his clients wanted him to go after Shadow kingdom members anyway.

 

[DragonFlye]

Dante stared at the flames thoughtfully, mulling over Knox's words in his head. His mission had only been to confirm the existence of a Shadow soldier base, but it seemed that not only was the rumor true, the Rebellion wasn't the only party searching. Depending on the number of enemy knights, it could be a waste of energy to travel all the way back to base to warn his collegues.

"Well, it seems like we're on the same side, yeah?" He said. "At the moment. As far as I know, I'm the only Rebellion member in the area. I'm not too partial about whether they live or not, so if we can find their base camp, how about I help you out?"

 

[Fraseandchico]

Mana Awoke, He Was On The Ground, As Well As His Chesnaught, He Got Up In synchronisation with Riaan, They Stood Up, And walked Around, Hoping To Find The Rebellion Base.