Stopping a Trainwreck

When Thunderpaw awoke the next morning, she looked around. No one near her seemed to be awake, and the Electrike smiled to herself. She lightly moved away from Darkcloud, stiffening when he stirred. Thunderpaw breathed a sigh of relief when the Manectric rolled over. She crept away, keeping low in the tall grass. She wasn’t about to take the chance of anyone in the pack being awake and seeing her leaving. She successfully travelled to the where the Growlithe and Arcanine pack was. The Electrike didn’t have long to wait before her Growlithe companion snuck up to her. Wordlessly, the two friends headed for the mountain that the Manectric pack had gotten kicked off of. Secretly, Thunderpaw was anxious about the Marowaks. If the ground types caught the two dog pokemon right now, there’d be no one nearby to help them. The two of them both being weak against ground types didn’t make Thunderpaw feel any better either.
The two moved up the mountain slowly. The Electrike just wished they could run up; her nerves were trying to get the best of her. However, they continued at their slow quiet pace, and soon they made it up near the Mightyena pack’s cave. Nightblitz was waiting for them, and she quietly hopped off the rock she had been sitting on. The three still moved quietly, slinking up the mountain. Though they were unaware of the dark eyes watching them from the Houndoom pack’s cave. The Houndour snickered lightly to himself; those stupid dogs didn’t know what they were about to get themselves into.
Meanwhile, Darkcloud had just woken up. He yawned and rolled to look at his sister. His eyes widened in surprise and alarm when he saw that Thunderpaw wasn’t beside him like she had been when he fell asleep. The Shiny Manectric leapt to his feet in a panic. Darkcloud looked around.
“Thunderpaw? Thunderpaw! Where are you?” he shouted. Several Manectric and Electrike woke up as Darkcloud ran around yelling.
“What’s wrong, Darkcloud?” Sparkfang asked, groggily rising to his feet.
“Thunderpaw is gone!” he exclaimed. Sparkfang shook the lingering sleep off. As the pack began to look for Thunderpaw, Darkcloud looked back where he’d been sleeping. He sniffed the ground nearby, and caught his sister’s scent. He followed it to the Arcanine pack’s area and then noticed it turned back as the same way he’d come, except...
“The mountain!” he exclaimed, panicked. He raced towards the mountain as fast as he could. He had to find his sister before something bad happened to her. Soon the mountain was in his view. Darkcloud pushed himself to run faster. He rocketed up the mountain, pausing to catch his breath outside the Houndoom pack cave. Blackblaze trotted out.
“Hello Darkcloud. What’re you doing all the way up here?” the houndour asked.
“I’m looking for my sister. I’ve followed her scent here. You haven’t seen her, have you?” Darkcloud responded. Blackblaze looked thoughtful.
“I saw her going higher up the mountain with her two friends,” he answered. The shiny Manectric nodded.
“Thanks,” he said simply, rising to his paws. The Houndour nodded and watched Darkcloud head up the mountain. When the bigger dog pokemon was out of sight, Blackblaze grinned to himself.
“You have no idea what’s up there, and you’re not going to like it one bit...” he muttered under his breath before turning back into the Houndoom cave.
Thunderpaw, Nightblitz and Firefur were still climbing the mountain. They hadn’t found any reasonable sized caves yet, but they weren’t about to give up. They soon found a path after jumping up a couple of ledges. As they travelled down it, they failed to notice it was a fairly clear path, no rocks in the way. The path shortly expanded out into a clear space. It had high ledges surrounding it, with rocks leading up to those ledges. It was also fairly clear, only a few rocks stood in the middle of the space. On the opposite side of the path, there was a cliff. The dog pokemon, however, were more taken with the large cave set in the side of the ledge on their left. They padded over to it, and peered inside. For what they could see it seemed pretty roomy.
“Hey, this looks good,” Thunderpaw said.
“Yeah, there’s tons of space,” Nightblitz agreed. “It’s a little higher up than we were looking for, but this seems like it’ll do,” the Poochyena voiced. Firefur and Thunderpaw nodded. Just then, the three dog pokemon felt the ground beneath them rumble. Alarmed, they looked behind them at the way they’d come.
A massive Tyranitar stood in the only exit. A scowl set firmly on his face and a dead Ninetales in his claws, he was a frightening figure. With a growl, the Tyranitar threw his meal to the side. He enjoyed the wet squelch the body made as it hit the rocky ground.
“What’re you doing up here?” he roared angrily. The three dog pokemon were terrified; their only response to the question was to back away. “Answer me!” the Tyranitar demanded.
“W-W-We were l-looking for a p-place for m-my p-p-p-pack to l-live,” Thunderpaw explained, trembling.
“So you were thinking your pack could live up here or something?” the Tyranitar asked, seemingly calm. The Electrike nodded slowly. The Tyranitar let out a sharp, loud laugh. The dog pokemon jumped back, startled.
“I would never let your pack live up here! I’m Trainwreck and this is my territory! In fact...” the Tyranitar trailed off. “This whole mountain will be my territory!” he shouted.
“But...But you can’t do that...My pack lives on this mountain...” Nightblitz whimpered. Trainwreck looked thoughtful.
“I guess I’ll just have to kill them all then...Starting with you!” the Tyranitar charged straight for the dog pokemon. The three leapt out of the way. Thunderpaw fell, her shaking legs unable to hold her up. As Trainwreck was about to attack the fallen Electrike, Firefur shot small flames from his mouth. The Tyranitar growled; the fire had barely even stung, but it was annoying. He switched targets and rushed at the Growlithe. The orange puppy pokemon leapt out of the way, barely avoiding the much larger pokemon’s claws. Thunderpaw was back up on her feet; she could see Firefur running from the Tyranitar, though he was barely avoiding getting killed. Nightblitz was trying to stay away from Trainwreck as well. However, the smaller dog pokemon’s tail got underfoot and she tripped.
The Tyranitar noticed and changed direction. As the dark dog pokemon was rising to her paws, Trainwreck was closing the distance. Thunderpaw could see that even if Nightblitz ran as fast as she could right this instant, she still wouldn’t make it. The Electrike charged up electricity in her green fur. It crackled, and then she blasted it at Trainwreck in a Thundershock attack. The monstrous pokemon growled as the electric attack hit. He growled, picking up a large piece of rock that was lying around. He hurled it at Thunderpaw as hard as he could. The Electrike jumped out of the way. Trainwreck had started charging in her direction after he’d thrown the rock. Thunderpaw’s eyes widened when she realized he’d close the distance before she get out of the way. Her eyes squeezed shut as she waited for her skeleton to break with a crunch under Trainwreck’s immense weight.
However, all she felt was a rough furry body colliding with hers, knocking her over. Thunderpaw fell to the ground, and opened her eyes. She was shocked to see Darkcloud standing beside her, panting.
“Darkcloud...” she said in awe. The Shiny Manectric just turned back to the angry Tyranitar. His fur stood on end.
“Get out of here,” he whispered to his sister. Thunderpaw shook her head.
“I’m not leaving you here, big brother,” she insisted. Electricity crackled from Darkcloud’s fur.
“You’ll just get yourself killed! You and your friends better get out of here...I don’t want you to get hurt,” he growled back at her. Thunderpaw looked at her brother sadly.
“But you...Big brother, promise me you won’t die!” she exclaimed. The bigger dog looked at her, upset.
“I can’t promise that...” he trailed off. A sharp, cold look took over his sister’s face.
“You will! Promise me, big brother! Promise you won’t die...I’ll save you! At some point...I’ll save you,” she growled determinedly. Darkcloud stared at his sister, a little surprised.
“Alright...I promise. I promise I won’t die. Don’t try to save me though...Now go!” he exclaimed. Thunderpaw nodded, rising to her paws.
“Is that little yap fest over? Because I want to see crimson blood pour over the ground!” Trainwreck roared, charging towards Darkcloud and Thunderpaw. Thunderpaw leapt to one side while Darkcloud leapt to the other, releasing the stored electricity he’d been charging. Trainwreck got knocked back from the blow, and turned to go after the shiny Manectric. The Electrike darted around to Firefur and Nightblitz.
“Come on guys, we have to get out of here,” she muttered. Nightblitz looked towards where Darkcloud and Trainwreck were fighting.
“What about Darkcloud?” she wondered. Thunderpaw blinked back several tears.
“We have to leave him...Let’s go!” she exclaimed, turning and running down the path. The Growlithe and Poochyena were right behind her, although Nightblitz was a little reluctant at leaving Darkcloud. Thunderpaw felt her throat tighten as they raced down the mountain. As she ran, she remembered the last time she’d seen her parents.
Thunderpaw had been younger, and Darkcloud had been just an Electrike. Their parents were both Manectrics, and they loved their two offspring very much. One day, Thunderpaw and Darkcloud were playing in the field. They raced, they rolled, and they just had fun.
“I love you, little sister,” Darkcloud told her. Thunderpaw giggled.
“I wuv you too, big brother,” the young female replied cutely. Darkcloud smiled and nuzzled her gently. Just then, the bright warm sunlight got blocked out. Two human trainers towered over the two Electrikes.
“Oh my god, look! A shiny Electrike! I’ve just got to capture this!” one of the two exclaimed excitedly, and pulled out a poke ball. “Go, Skarmory!” he shouted. A tough looking steel bird pokemon stood in front of the two Electrike. It glared at them menacingly.
“Skarmory!” it cawed. The two dog pokemon backed away from it fearfully. Meanwhile, a younger Sparkfang was on watch. He saw the two humans and the Skarmory.
“Help us!” Darkcloud called out. Sparkfang heard his voice clearly.
“Darkcloud and Thunderpaw are in trouble!” he barked loudly, before running towards the two young Electrike himself. The steel bird was about to hit them with a Peck attack, before Sparkfang nudged the two out of the path of the attack. However, he yelped as the sharp beak dug in. The air stung the bleeding wound as the bird pulled back. He growled at the bird. Skarmory glared at him; the battle was supposed to be between him and the two Electrikes, not this aggravating Manectric. He dove for the Electrikes again, only to have them pulled out of the way by the Manectric. The steel bird was getting angry. This stupid dog wasn’t even fighting him; he was just keeping the two Electrikes out of the way of his attacks. Suddenly, two slightly larger Manectrics leapt out of the grass. They landed in front of the two Electrikes and the other Manectric.
“Keep Darkcloud and Thunderpaw safe...and look after that wound of yours, Sparkfang,” the current Alpha of the pack, Darkcloud and Thunderpaw’s father, Lightningtail growled. Sparkfang nodded once and turned to the two Electrikes.
“Come on kids, let’s get back to the pack...Quickly now,” he said. As he took them back, Thunderpaw looked back with tears in her eyes.
“Mommy, Daddy, be careful!” she shouted, worried. The female Manectric glanced towards her daughter.
“Don’t worry sweetie, we’ll be home very soon,” Stormtrack reassured, “I promise.”
Several hours passed, and Sparkfang knew Lightningtail and Stormtrack weren’t going to come back. Their two children, however, still had some hope left. He said nothing about it to them, until Thunderpaw came up to him, her eyes watering.
“When’s Mommy coming back? She promised they’d be home very soon but they’re not back yet,” she whimpered. Sparkfang felt his throat tighten.
“I...I’m sure they’ll be home...” he whispered hoarsely, and he laid down in the grass. “But in the mean time, you two should come lay next to me,” he offered. Thunderpaw laid down beside the Manectric and cuddled into his fur warmly. Darkcloud made his way over, lying down beside Thunderpaw closely. As the two Electrikes drifted off to sleep, Sparkfang looked up to the night sky as tears dripped down his face.
They had never come home, and now she had to leave her brother to fight a Tyranitar. Tears slid down her cheeks and refused to stop. The three of them all ran until they got back to the Manectric pack, where Nightblitz and Firefur sank to the ground, exhausted. Thunderpaw however couldn’t stop. She only stopped once she barrelled straight into Sparkfang. He took one look at her tear stained face.
“What’s wrong Thunderpaw?” he asked, worried about her.
“Firefur and Nightblitz and I...W-We went up the mountain but there was this Tyranitar and he wanted to kill us but Darkcloud saved me and told me to go and leave him and I told him to promise me he wouldn’t but he said he couldn’t but I made him anyway and I told him I’d save him and we left but we have to go save him like right now!” the Electrike babbled as fast as she could.
“Whoa, slow down...” Sparkfang told her. Thunderpaw took a deep breath, and repeated herself slowly and more clearly. When she told Sparkfang about Trainwreck, his eyes shot open as wide as possible.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, sensing something was wrong. Sparkfang had stiffened when his eyes had shot open.
“L-Listen to me...L-Listen...T-There...T-There is...N-Nothing...W-We can do...D-Do for...F-for your brother,” Sparkfang spluttered.
“No! No, we have to go up there!” Thunderpaw shouted, panicked.
“It...It would do no good, Thunderpaw. Trainwreck used to be a trainer’s pokemon...However, he was released because he was too aggressive and violent and bloodthirsty. He’s an incredibly strong fighter, and...And we just...Can’t take him down,” Sparkfang explained. Tears poured down Thunderpaw’s face again.
“So my big brother is going to die. The last of my family is going to die and I can’t DO ANYTHING to save him, even though I said I would!” she exclaimed, collapsing on the ground sobbing. Sparkfang nuzzled her gently, tears coming to his own eyes. The female Electrike shoved him away roughly, rising and moving off to be by herself. The older Manectric sat and watched her sadly until the sun went down, and she laid down next to him. She did something she hadn’t done in a long while, and pressed herself into Sparkfang’s fur.