The Houndoom walk the forest with their heads bowed. We shuffle in far less practiced order behind them, pretending to look stoic or at least intimidating and failing on both accounts.

The forests are a lot more sparse than I remember them. The occasional Pidgey makes nests in the tall trees and calls into the empty day, only to be answered by the rustling leaves and the rare shuffling of bug types. We don't welcome trouble, either, though nothing in this forest is likely equipped to deal with the Houndooms, let alone our party.

Still, the silence is unsettling.

"Shouldn't we send someone back so we can tell them where we're going?" asks Ferro.

"You can return to them after we've seen an old friend of mine. I already told him you'd be coming, one way or the other." the lead Houndoom replies.

"Sounds like a trap to me." Millie says, with an emphasis on trap as she looks over her shoulder to me, the presumably capable leader.

"A trap?" laughs one of the side dogs, "How are we going to trap a Gyarados?"

"Fair point." Millie doesn't seem impressed and Rage, who is trying and failing not to slam against stray branches, gives no indication that he even noticed.

Ferro asks "What if they send someone after us... or after you? That's a rescue party for a rescue party. In my humble opinion, that sounds like the opposite of a party."

"Are your packmates always so insolent?" snaps the lead Houndoom.

"I don't know, Ferro, are you?" I retort, staring straight at Ferro, who looks thrilled with himself.

"I'm not going to lie. I feel personally attacked right now." Ferro says, putting a paw to his heart with his ears drawn back.

"Five seconds into a ceasefire an' he's already sidin' against us." Millie calls, and I feel my fur prickle. One of the Houndooms snicker and Toxis casts me an uneasy glance.

No, but if they do have a solution, I don't want to aggravate them. I say, though it would be nice to get some respect once in a blue moon. My fur ruffles on my back. This is looking more like some kind of trap by the second. I try to reach out using our golden bonds, but upon closing my eyes I find nothing at all. I guess we need Ashley there to tie us all together.

Since Shell's back at the camp, telepathy is out as well. Looks like we are just going with it.

The others don't have to turn around to know I've reached a decision or to voice their displeasure. I can sense their intent, their anxiety. I stare stiffly ahead, letting my fur settle and taking a long, deep breath. The others follow, and we are silent until we arrive into a wide area where almost no sunlight reaches the forest floor. Vines strangle the trees and fill in the spaces in the canopy, and the bark of the trees themselves are rotten. Paras scuttle around the roots. The grass has been replaced in patches by den material, a messy cluster of leaves and feathers, and in others it simply withers as it waits to die.

"Where are we?"

A white grin appears ahead, and a body slowly materializes around it. A Gengar stares back at us,
"Howdy." He puts his hand out. "These must be the newcomers you were talking about, Hux. Have to admit I'm impressed."

"Don't call me that." 'Hux', the lead Houndoom, snarls, and his packmates have their teeth bared as well.

"Whatever you say, buddy." His maniacal red eyes shift from one victim to the next, landing on me. I feel my fur stand up on end again and I calm myself with a steady breath, though the sensation never quite goes away.

Mean Look.

"I'm Grim. Founder of the Grim Road." the Gengar tells me.

"Sounds appealing," Ferro says. "Does the 'grim' refer to your name or our prospects of survival?"

"Looks like we have a smartass on our hands, ladies and gentlemen. While I'll admit the journey itself is less than pleasant, success rates are near 100%, even for such problem groups as yours. Fourteen rare Pokemon wouldn't stand much of a chance in Goldenrod on their own, I'll tell you that much." He cackles, an unearthly sound that's almost like the rotten wood crackling.

"What's the plan?" I ask, unfazed.
"Are you familiar with the Magnet Train?"

I shake my head.

"It's a train that runs from Goldenrod to a city in Kanto. However, Goldenrod was also going to have a series of metro lines that would take passengers around the city. Due to a lack of funding and several incidents, part of it was turned into the Goldenrod Tunnel and the rest of the half-built foundation was left to rot. Those passages are now a hot spot for Pokemon looking to get through the city or just to make a living. We'll be taking you through there tomorrow morning, bright and early."

"Back up. We haven't agreed to anything." Toxis insists.

Grim snaps a finger and several Gastly appear one by one, fangs first and then the eyes and dark bodies come into being. "You'd better."

"Are you trying to intimidate us? Going to take a little more than that." Surprisingly, Rage speaks before the rest of us. Grim's expression changes immediately, his wide grin inverting into a grimace of pure fear.

"With just good ole' Rick and his pals? Wouldn't dream of it. Now, why do you seem so hesitant? I'm just trying to solve all your problems, friend. Might as well look a little grateful." Rage's continued withering glare is so powerful that I can practically see Grim choke up at the end.

"That's just the problem. There's no way anyone would do this without a catch." I say, keeping "We get it. What's the price?"

Grim smirks. "Your souls."

When Rage doesn't find it funny, he waves this off as well. "Ha! Just... just joking! Please stop staring at me. I-in all honesty, Hux and his gang are willing to pay big time to get the lot of you off their turf. As for the rest of the payment, we might need you to snatch us a few potions or catch us some quick prey, but it won't be much. Hey, I'm sure we can work something out, right? We're all civil Pokemon here. You seem like a reasonable lot."
Rage's nostrils flare, and he casts me a stern look. I nod.

"You're in good hands." Grim says, bowing out. "Farewell." With a snap, he and all the Gastly are gone as simply as if he had flicked off a light switch.

"I know Grim may come off as abrasive," Hux tells us as we stand in the now vacant clearing, "but consider it." He doesn't even need a command. With a nod, his Houndoom flock to him and they, too, disappear into the depths of the clearing.

I look up to see that there's still a few stray rays of sunlight streaming into the clearing despite the vines' feeble attempts to darken the area. It must still be daytime, which disappoints me far more than I originally expected.

"That was the point, wasn't it." Ferro says, awe and terror in his voice. "They don't have hands."

"What?"

"Never mind. We should get home." He tilts his head and gestures towards the way we came.

There's a rumble of consensual mumbling, so we take him up on it. The group is even more disheveled on the way home, and the air smells of embers. It's as if the air itself is pausing on the moment, awed by the order of the Houndoom and possibly pitying their predicament. I can't imagine the price to get fourteen Pokemon through Goldenrod is small.

Why would they be so afraid of us? Large Pokemon or not, given the right numbers, they would be able to take us down.

A brief image of us returning in a beam of triumphant green fills my mind, and the fear seems at least a little more justified. No matter how we look right now, we've come a long way. Spacetime itself wasn't enough to stand in our way, nor death, nor an entire league of trainers. How could a city be any kind of obstacle after all that?

"Are you all alright?" I ask the group, sensing their uneasy silence.

"That was... really shifty." Toxis shrugs, an odd, unnatural movement that jostles his plates against each other. "Sounds like an ambush to me, but this is your call, not mine." His amber eyes are squinted in concentration, but I can't shake the feeling he's testing me.

"It's aaaaalways my call, isn't it?" I say, feeling smoke and bile rise in my throat.

Toxis gives me an affirmative pat on the shoulder. "Would you prefer it wasn't?"

I open my mouth to reply and end up going with a well-orchestrated, "Well, I suppose not." Toxis nods, but we're already home. The others are back to sitting in the somewhat amorphous circles and gossiping about who knows what while playing makeshift games with sticks and leaves, betting on berries. I'm hungry myself, but I'm more interested in taking a power nap and trying to formulate a plan. "Tell everyone what just went down. If they've got questions, they can report to me."

Millie pouts as she sees me running off, but she, Chompers, and Ferro rejoin the others without much of a complaint.

Relieved, I get onto all fours, which seems far more natural, and dash over to Lilly, who's sitting alone back at our willow, drawing something in the ground. She doesn't even look up as she says, "Nice to have you back. How'd the rescue mission go?"

"There were some... distractions, but we gathered everyone up. I've got a plan too. Just wake me up in a few hours and we can discuss everything." I say, kicking back against the tree.

Lilly glares back, unusually cold. "Sleeping already? It's like three in the afternoon."
"Naptime," I correct myself. "I'd also like to conserve my energy. We don't have much food and I'd prefer not to have to kill anything cute." My gums slide back, brandishing rows of knife sharp teeth. I'll do what I want.

"You don't think you'd actually kill anything, would you?" She's quieter this time.
I realize I've said a little too much. Fear settles in between us again, but I can't tell if it's from her past misgivings or my own physical strength. "I don't know what I'm capable of." I admit, my smile fading.

Predator teeth tearing into still-warm flesh. A flood of relief. Claws made for more than polite disputes.

Oh, you threw your humanity aside in an instant. Don't pretend you didn't know what the consequences would be.
"-and training went well," Lilly says, splaying out half a cloven hoof as if to count something off on the fingers she doesn't have anymore. "Since you asked."

I look up. "Come again?"
"You didn't get any of that." Lilly half-laughs, but neither of us found it funny.

Shika pauses as she passes by her tree, and I'm immensely thankful for the distraction. "So, Bronze... what's the attack plan? I'm not saying it's going to be an ambush, but in case it is an ambush, we don't want to run in blind. Right?"

Nevermind.

Lilly looks to me with half an incredulous smile on her face. "Ambush? Alright, you said you have a plan. What is it?"

"Okay, I might have made a deal with some Gengar to get us through Goldenrod. They said they'd be willing to help us through for next to no price..."

"You said yes?!" Lilly asks, exasperated. "That's the oldest trick in the book."

I round my shoulders and try to look confident, but I now have the two strongest females in the group staring me down and I don't like my odds. "Of course I did. We don't have much of a choice, Lilly. They're terrified of us anyways." I turn to Shika. "The plan is that we come in there together and Rage fries their asses if they so much as blink. Kapeesh?"
"Oh right, Rage. Ferro says he came in handy today. Funny, seeing as I was under the impression he was a pacifist."

"I thought he was bluffing." I sigh. "Point taken. The main team will handle the ass blasting."

"You two don't know much about Rage, do you?" Shika asks. "I hope you don't just plan to avoid him until we get back to Ashley. He could be a more valuable ally than you realize, and he lost just as much if not more than any of us by coming back."

Lilly's stick cracks against the ground, and she grits her teeth as she says, "I'll have to talk to him."

"Thanks. You two enjoy your... enjoy yourselves. We'll be planning over by the tree." Shika says, and she darts back to meet the others.

"I'll probably have to bail you out tomorrow." Lilly looks my way, scuffing up her drawing.

"I wouldn't mind that." I admit, then my ears perk up at her confused expression and realize my mistake. "I didn't mean running into trouble- I just- argh. Never mind."

"You're ridiculous." she smiles.

"You like it."

"I do." she admits, shuffling a little as she says it. She stares off towards the others and I stare after, feeling every painful millisecond.

 I sigh. "Look, whatever happened in Kalos, it probably hurt you a lot more than it hurt me."

"Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah." She stares off into the distance for a long time, but eventually just shakes her head. "We should go plan for that 'potential ambush'."

"Guess we should."

"We'll be fine," she promises. "We have to be. I refuse to lose you ever again."

"Me too."

She tries to grip my hand in hers, but the difference between our claws and hooves is ridiculous. She eventually manages to catch one claw between two halves of a hoof like one might grab an oversized morsel with chopsticks. It's ridiculous, and we almost break each other's arms each time we move, but the gesture is enough.

We walk to the others and become a team again.

(A/N: Sorry.)