Chapter Three | I Will Protect You

The fire continued to burn, this time the flames growing so intense and fiery standing even six feet away from them scorched your skin dark enough to leave it blood red after the smoke had cleared. By now, nearly all the trees were burned, left flaming on the ground to eventually die down into dust, disappearing without a trace; never seen again to the world. The dirt in which they lay, once thick, rich grass, was misshapen from the "waves" that had wrecked the land to leave it almost completely vacant. The only thing stopping the flames and the horrible bipedal creatures who had set them was a family of nine, traumatized, confused, oblivious to the extent of danger the sparks had caused.

Smoke filled the sky, darkening it so inky it should've been considered black. The air was so toxic just three sniffs could fatally end your life. It was almost impossible to see through the pollution that floated in the air, the harmful particles that flowed in massive amounts, knocking you unconscious if you were too late to escape the forest. It was too late for the nine remaining beings in this forest to escape completely safe and without no harm, too late for them all to survive. They were heedless of what was going on; the only thing the knew was that the forest, their home, was burning to the ground, and one of their own kind was unresponsive on their home ground. They hadn't experienced much of the situation, but they were already living a hell, stuck in the tornado of chaos.

The flames continued to scorch everything in sight, burning the desolate forest to the ground, viciously stripping it of life. No Pokemon remained except the family of nine in the forest, and on the outside, the humans who had burned it.

~

"Is it finished off yet? I've been dying to build the new facility, for your information. What's taking so long?" A annoyed sigh echoed throughout the outskirts of the forest, holding a dangerous tint of murderous intention in its wake. The voice belonged to none other than the Blue-Haired Destroyer, a nickname given to the head of Intention Inc., a company set on "making the world a better place, one Pokemon at a time." The group was set on building a large, successful factory that made products out of whatever part of a Pokemon was useable, and the Pokemon, obviously, varied on what could be caught.

Another irritated sigh escaped from another living human being, but this time, the groan wasn't heard; it mentally sounded out through the mind of B. H. D.'s right hand man, Greyson Halvewell, second in command at Intention Inc. His stone eyes, usually stoic, burned with fiery hatred and jealousy before finally calming down; stopped by their owner at realization of what might happen if B. H. D. was looking at him. He contained himself and withheld all his emotions as he quickly thought of what to say.

"There's one bastardly family left in the forest, and if the flames don't take care of them, I've sent an armed and protected soldier out through this mess to go murder them." Greyson replied sternly, then decided he had better add to his sentence before he received harsh words of scolding. "I would estimate at this rate, with the flames as harsh as they can be, another thirty minutes or so before everything is all gone." He made sure to smile sadistically, which would bring him praise from his master.

"Very well. Just make sure it's only thirty minutes," Answered the "king". And with that, he walked off, head held high, nose pointed sharply upward.

Dear God, I hope I'm right. Greyson prayed he hadn't made a mistake, his tone bitter. He knew very well who's head would be cut off if he had made an incorrect estimate. Oh God, oh dear God.

~

"We have to go! Now!" Jolteon frantically gathered his pack, which consisted of seven other Eeveelutions and one prevolution of them, myself, Eva the Eevee. Hearing his desperate tone of voice, and the ounce of worry that broke through his tough exterior made my heart jump and skip a beat, my legs scurry closer to his side to seek shelter and maybe possibly feel safe in this hell of a world.

"Jolteon...what's going to happen to us?" I asked quietly, not for the sake of knowing the answer, but instead just because I wanted to ease some of the tension that so heavily lingered around us. I feared the answer more than anything else at the moment, but I needed to say something. I wanted to hear our Alpha's voice in a tone that wasn't terrified, but instead comforting.

I waited anxiously for his answer, but to my dismay and surprise, I heard none; my open ears were left with sickening silence. I thought quickly of repeating his name once more, but something stopped me. Instead, I was left to push my tears back inside my eyes and avoid crying, because that would help none of us. It would only make things worse, and I would never find out why I was left with no answer.

"Let's go!" Jolteon screamed, fear overtaking his body as he tried to command my brothers and sisters to the door. I looked up from the ground I had been staring at, waiting for my siblings to come back out of the room in which we all slept in. When he assumed that they were panicking and getting ready to flee from the loud ruckus coming from the room next to the one he and I currently stood in, he angrily rushed into the room, his feet in a frenzy as he made his way to the door. He barked and repeated his call for them to hurry, and when he returned, he brought the eight of them out behind him, with Espeon being held by the soft part of her neck by her sister, Leafeon. Just by his presence, we immediately gathered ourselves in a circle to listen to what he had to tell us. As I waited, my fur was practically frozen cold, despite the raging heat that radiated from the chaos outside.

"Listen up," Jolteon informed us, not a tone of sympathy in his dour voice. "The forest is on fire, everything is destroyed, and with three breaths, you're knocked unconscious. What we have to do is-"

"Crack!"

"The bloody-!" Screamed Vaporeon, but his shriek was blocked out by a loud cracking noise that sounded unnerving, like the body parts being ripped from a Pokemon and the howling of pain that would come with it. His own hollering was followed by the same reaction of us all the cracking continued, horrible and ear-splitting. Something was happening, and what ever it was, I knew, was definitely not good.

We all, except Espeon of course, searched for the source of the cracking, and Glaceon found it first, her beautiful blue eyes widening in fear, so large the seemed to be watering at the effort. She screamed once more, and confused, I looked up to where her eyes were directed, and I see why she felt the need to act the way she was.

Our home was cracking.

Screw that, our home was crumbling into nothing.

I screeched.

The wood from the tree hollow split open in two, the sawdust already sprinkling on us like confetti, covering us fully so we had to spit and remove the foul substance from our mouths. Parts from all over the house were violently torn off and thrown away, sending our limbs in a frenzy to avoid falling objects and pieces of wood. I had no clue what to do, so just stayed stuck to the wall, unbelieving, horrified this could actually happen.

I could see the flames already licking the wood and making their way into our destroyed house, and at once I realized what was happening - the reason my sister had fainted, the reason our house was cracking, the reason our forest was burning. The reason why I was losing everything; why all my treasured moments and things were all falling through my paws like grains of sand.

"Here's what we're going to do! Grab the kerchiefs and block your noses and mouths, and make a run for the outside of the forest! Hurry or we'll all die!" Jolteon yelled, already dashing for the corner where we kept our kerchiefs and scarves.

I followed him as did the rest of us, and in a hectic frenzy, we grabbed the kerchief closest to us and tied it over our nose and mouth. I had tied my own red one so tightly I could hardly breath, but I ignored it and followed a sprinting Jolteon, or told us quickly to dash outside to safety.

~

I could see why we had to cover our nose and mouth; the haze outside was so thick it was hardly possible to see. Still, making sure my siblings were close to me, I scanned my surroundings and saw an opening, or at least what looked like an opening, and charged forward at full speed. Yet what I heard next made me stop cold, despite what our Alpha had said.

"Heeeeeeelp!" Screamed a voice, and immediately I recognized it as Flareon's. My first thought was to save him and continue on my way to safety, but my sister beat me to it.

I could hear fast, graceful footsteps run past me; Leafeon's lithe body. She was going back to wherever my brother was located to be his savior, ignoring our Alpha's commands. I thought of following her to help, but Jolteon must've been set on either escaping with those who could, or, what I hoped, saving him himself.

"Run! Run to safety! I'll take care of this all! You must listen to my command, Eeveelutions! Run; I will save our brother!" Jolteon called, screaming loudly.

My heart was torn into shreds and my eyes openly spilled their tears, but obeying his command, I ran as far as my little legs would carry me, trying to pray to God we would still be the same nine of us as we got out of this forest.

I didn't care where my legs took me as long as it was somewhere safe, or perhaps, somewhere away from all the mess our new home had caused us. As a result, I ended up bumping hard into a tree.

But it wasn't a tree.

It was a human.

I called for help desperately, my heart skipping what seemed like one hundred beats. Humans were to be avoided, Jolteon had told us. Humans were dangerous. Humans were terrible.

It turned out to be a man shielded by a billion coats of armor, pointing an object I recognized painfully as a bullet-weapon. He directed it to me, his face masked so as to not let me see what I was sure would be a malicious smirk.

I was frozen in place, having no idea what to do. And then, that's when I heard the screams of many of my siblings, and footsteps coming towards me. My siblings.

Right there, my heart and mind both seemed decided. These were my siblings, my family, my everything. I couldn't let anything happen to them. And maybe, if I protected them, there would still be a happy family of eight. And that was what I wanted.

I shoved my head forward, barking viciously and trying to get the man's attention. I attempted everything I could think of, my eyes determined little slits, raging with anger at these ignorant, horrible, malevolent humans. They deserved to go and burn in hell for everything they were doing to us. They deserved to die.

The man spoke, but it came out in a string of words I couldn't decipher. I continued my attacks, planning on succeeded with what I had so quickly mapped out. And soon, I got it.

There was a loud booming sound, and from then on, I completely blacked out.

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A/N:

Dedicated to: @RiverIvy 

The beautiful cover in the media is by Rem (AllHailRempire), the best cover maker in the entire flippin' world. <3 Thanks so much, Remimi! THE COVER IS BAE OH MY GOD <3.