Fifteen Feet Under
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Unfortunately, it didn’t take long for someone to take up pursuit. The chase lead away from the Pokécenter, away from the delivery truck where Darren’s supposed trainer was probably still waiting, and towards the eastern road out of the city. Having offended the city’s police force, making himself scarce seemed like the best thing he could do.
He hadn’t realized, entering the route, that he would have to pass a guard checkpoint to get anywhere on it. Behind him, he could hear shouting voices and the rumbling engine of Officer Jenny’s motorbike — she must have left her Growlithe in the care of the Pokémon center in order to pursue him. She’d catch up with him before long if he didn’t think of anything. Following the road was out of the question, considering if her motorbike didn’t catch up with him before he reached the checkpoint, the guards would detain him until it could.
It was a motorbike, though, and to his left the grass and weeds stood knee-high at the least. A narrow path ran through the grass, little more than a game track, but it would be little good for the clumsy vehicle. Without thinking further, and certainly without taking the time to read the sign pointing towards that narrow path, he turned down it, heading for the narrow gap in the dense line of trees up ahead that it seemed many people had passed through before.
Someone probably had cautioned him about tall grass at some point, but it seemed like the racket he was making as he dashed through was enough to scare any of the wild Pokémon that might be there into hiding. And either way, whatever might be lurking in the grass at least wasn’t a police officer whose Pokémon had just been treated to a hospital stay courtesy of Darren’s own Pokémon.
Past the treeline the tall grass ended, giving way to piles of dirt, a khaki-colored canvas tent, and holes surrounded by low fences. People were scattered here and there around the fences, looking at whatever was in the holes. What the small open area beyond the trees didn’t have, however, was a second way out. It was just his luck, really.
“Stop! Police!” Officer Jenny sounded fresh, while he was starting to feel both the stress of the situation and the exertion it had brought with it.
He turned his head, still running, to see how far she was. The thought passed through his head that she wasn’t far enough away, then something knocked the breath out of him. Momentum brought him forward, forced the object he’d crashed into to move with him. Then that ridiculous, low fence tripped them both up, and they went tumbling down a hole.
For a few moments, they were barely below the ground surface. Roots and packed dirt cradled him and the stranger he’d bumped into — he could see now that it was another person — holding them only a feet below the ground. High up enough just standing up should let him reach the edge…
Concentrating his weight on a smaller surface like that was more than the natural weave of roots could bear. Some bent, some snapped, and then he was crashing through that layer, a shower of fine dirt following in his wake. He didn’t even have time to rise before more dirt fell, and a girl about his age fell on top of him. Pain shot through his back, focused on one of his wings — it was bad enough to convince him it was probably lucky for that girl he’d cushioned her fall.
She seemed slightly dazed as she rose and brushed some of the dirt off her clothes, not really looking at him before she started to give him a piece of her mind. “What do you think you’re doing!? You could have killed us both!”
He groaned, forcing his body to move until he was sitting up, peering at her with eyes that had turned from violet to brown not all that long ago. “I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”
“You didn’t see—” She trailed off when she properly looked at him for the first time. “Oh, that’s just great. I’m stuck down here with some guy from Team Rocket! Tiger!”
“Pika!” a Pokémon called from the mouth of the hole they’d fallen down.
Darren flinched. “You’re not going to make the poor thing jump all the way down here, are you? It must be five yards, at least — he could get hurt.”
“What do you care?” the girl snarled at him. “But for your information, I was going to send him to fetch Officer Jenny. Unlike you Team Rocket scum, I care about my Pokémon.”
“I’m not one of them!” Darren threw his wings open to emphasize his protest, and pain shot through him once again; one of them merely twitched and hung limp. When he caught his breath and continued, he sounded bitter, sullen. “I if anyone would know how they treat their Pokémon.”
The girl jumped back at his display. “What are you?”
“Depends on who you ask. To them, a freak, and mostly useless.” He looked upwards, couldn’t see the Pikachu the girl had called for. “Look, please don’t have him fetch the police. I’m in enough trouble already.”
“As you should be.” But she didn’t call to the Pikachu. Maybe it was still there, just staying away from the hole to not fall in, itself.
For the moment, he chose to take no particular notice of her. It was straining to move into a crouch on the uneven floor, and the pain when he pulled on his injured wing with his hand to mirror the way his good one was mantling his body chased all the color from his face. Then, he closed his eyes, and with a moment of concentration, got down-shaped light to twirl around him, sinking into his skin where there was a bruise to heal or a bone to knit. It made him feel curiously heavy, and he would really have preferred some other method of obtaining the same results, but this would have to do. The injured wing pulled against his grip, and he released it to let it set properly. When all the light was gone, and he opened his eyes, the feeling of being heavier than he ought to be lingered, but he knew from experience that it would pass. Most importantly, the pain was gone.
“H-how’d you do that?” the girl exclaimed, sounding even more startled than when she’d first noticed his wings.
Darren shrugged. “I just did. I’ve been able to do that since I last evolved.”
“E-evolved?”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t really think the wings, tail and antennae are a party costume, do you?”
“B-but… You don’t look like a Pokémon!”
“I’m not a Pokémon.” He might have been a little short; she was starting to annoy him. “I’m part Pokémon.”
“Part Pokémon?” The look on the girl’s face was all scepticism.
“Pika pika!”
Darren looked up, and saw an orange-furred Pikachu leaning against the edge of the hole, looking down. “Damn it.” He glanced around the hole, and saw a darker shadow on one side of it. “Look, it’s a long story. I’d gladly tell you, but… I gotta get out of here, and if your Pikachu is right, I don’t have much time.”
“If… my… Pikachu… is right?”
“Pokémon usually understand each other, even if they’re not the same species.” Darren was already moving toward the shadow on the wall, holding one hand out in front of him as he approached it and finding that it hit nothing but air. “He seems to reckon help is on the way. That can only be bad news for me.”
“If you were telling the truth about not being part of Team Rocket…”
“My Pokédex has been stolen so I can’t identify myself, I got startled and ran when the policewoman was questioning me, and my Eevee doused her Growlithe in a misdirected attempt to protect me. Whether I’m part of Team Rocket is probably not the first thing on her mind anymore.” He was several steps into the darkness, and it seemed to continue on in front of him.
“Your… Eevee… doused it?”
“Another long story, and I really don’t have the time.”
She was quiet for a few moments, hesitating. “Do you have a way to get Tiger down here?”
“What?”
“You don’t have time to answer any questions, I want to know, so I’ll come with you. Can you get Tiger down here?”
“Just recall him?”
“I can’t. He won’t go in his Pokéball.”
Darren sighed, returning to the part of the hole looking up at the sky. “It’s too narrow to fly, here. Fox probably could, but… Do you have a Potion on you?”
She gave him an incredulous look. “You’re not seriously suggesting I let him get hurt jumping down here, are you?”
“No.” He rolled his eyes, fingers playing across the Pokéballs on his belt. “I have a Pokémon that could fly here, if Tiger promises not to shock him. But I had my run-in with the police when trying to get him tended to at the Pokécenter. I don’t dare even call him out, much less ask him to do anything, without some healing.” When she didn’t immediately reach into her pockets, Darren started to walk back towards the tunnel he’d found. She owed him nothing, but he wasn’t going to end up in trouble he didn’t deserve to be in because she was indecisive.
“Wait! Here!”
A red and yellow spray bottle flew through the air towards Darren, and he snatched it in his right hand, awkwardly taking Fox’s Pokéball from his belt with his clumsier left. “C’mon, buddy,” he whispered, pressing the button on the ball and holding it up.
There was the beam of energy characteristic of any Pokéball in action, and then the light formed into an Eevee with a tiny white Ace-of-Diamonds-shaped patch of fur on its forehead, lying gasping on its side on the rocky floor. The girl who’d given — or loaned, he wasn’t sure, though he’d certainly try to pay her back for it somehow if he could — him the item seemed to start to say something in protest, but he ignored her as he knelt by the small form and sprayed the contents of the bottle over its wounds.
“We need to get that Pikachu down here. Could you do that for me?”
The Eevee lay still for a few more long moments, the bleeding from its wounds finally having stopped, then nodded and, with some effort, stood up. It glowed white, the light-shape growing and shifting, its ears and tail changing shape, wings sprouting from its shoulders, and a Swellow-like crest forming on its head. When the glow died down, it revealed pristine white fur and feathers on most of the evolved Eevee’s body, except for the crest, wings, and bird-like tail, which were all tipped with golden yellow.
Darren stood back to let his Pokémon have some space, and it took off, its wings carrying it gracefully up the hole. The spot with the tangled roots where Darren and the strange girl had fallen through did cause it some problems, and it had to pull itself through using its paws before it could continue by wing, but other than that there were no mishaps. On the return trip, the problem of the snagging roots was simply solved by Fox folding its wings and dive-bombing past the obstacle, Tiger safely clinging to its back, before it once again spread its wings and turned the fall into a controlled descent, carrying both Pokémon a short distance into the dark tunnel leading away from the hole.
“Now can we leave?” Darren asked, his antennae twitching as he heard voices and footsteps much closer to the hole than he was really comfortable with.
The girl responded by fishing a Pokéball out of her shoulder bag and starting down the tunnel. “Amber, please lead the way.”
Running into the unknown was much faster — and less unsettling — when their way was lit by a Charmander’s tail.
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