Thomas Buizel Poochyena: Ch.45

"W-What?" Naruto asked, as all were stunned by what I said, "T-Thomas, you can't go back alone! It's too dangerous for you!"

"I don't care! My safety isn't the concern here. You just said it yourself, Naruto," I said, "Zev won't last a single attack or more. We can't risk his safety like that."

"Um… I'm not sure if you're brain-dead or you just turned off your thinking," King said, raising an eyebrow, "But you don't know how to fight at all. How would you be able to even save Zev?"

"I'll find a way," I fired right back at the surprised bully, "I'm not listening to you if you're gonna try to change my mind."

"Thomas, enough," I heard a serious voice from Batsu say, "I may not be the leader on this mission, but your brother is. And he just gave us an order and we must follow it."

"I love my brother, and I mean him no disrespect, but you can follow it if you want," I said, "But I'm going back."

I didn't see at the time, but my brothers couldn't stop smirking. They were proud of me and what I was doing, but I bet they didn't want Batsu or King to see them smirking. However, the Riolu wasn't going to let me go easy.

"Sasuke gave you an order," he said seriously and directly, "You are to follow it. Understand?"

"Shut up."

Batsu blinked in surprise as everybody gasped. I'm guessing that was something I wasn't supposed to do… but at that time, I could've cared less. I had a stare off with the Riolu who was glaring at me dead in the eyes after that.

"Thomas, are you insane?" King asked with a grin, expecting me to back off once he said his piece, "You're arguing with the strongest Pokémon rookie and the son of the Legendary Lucario. Are you trying to get into a fight with him?"

"King…" I said, causing him to lose his grin and just stare at me, "I don't care who he is, who his father is, or how strong he is. And you're not gonna help him intimidate me."

As he growled, I surprisingly growled back enough that even Batsu himself sort of backed off. I looked at King dead in the eyes, and he slowly backed off. I then calmed down.

"I don't care what bad deeds he's done," I said, "You're honestly telling me to leave somebody behind, when they're in danger and they could get hurt? No way! I don't care if you try to talk to me or try to beat me up in order to stop me, but you won't! I made a promise to Zev as a Pokémon, and I'll be scum if I betray him! I don't care what you try to do! You're not gonna stop me from helping him!"

With that, I ran past my brothers and back to where the dome-area was. At the time, I didn't know that the following conversation happened. All of them seemed to be silent as then Naruto growled and slammed his front paws down.

"HE'S RIGHT!" he yelled, "What kind of a Rescue Team are we if we rescue one person but forsake another one? We're supposed to help anybody in need, no matter what!"

"I agree," all heard a voice from Sasuke say.

Caterpie's eyes sparkled as he got happy and said, "Really?"

"Ah, come on, you guys can't be serious!" King said, unbelieving this change.

"Very well. What are your orders, Sasuke?" Batsu said, ridding himself of any emotions.

"We're turning around and saving both Caterpie AND ZEV," Sasuke said as he and Naruto smiled.

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I could feel my feet barely touched the ground as I ran forward like crazy to the area from where we rescued Caterpie. My stomach no longer had "butterflies" in it; I was determined to get Zev out of there and help him. A part of me got surprisingly amazed at what I did. I just rebuked an order… from my leader… from MY BROTHER! And then before anyone could speak, I took off like a bullet and ran back. When did I get so noble?

It's gotta be because I'm a Pokémon now. There's no way that I would've done that in the human world. I sorta got a tiny bit nervous as to if my brothers would be a bit peeved at me for disobeying. Oh well. I was doing it for a good cause. I was gonna save that Grovyle if it was the last thing I did…. Gulp….

I soon got to the area where we had rescued Caterpie. However, I heard grunts of a struggle. I knew that Zev was here, but it sounded like he was in trouble. I didn't bother going into cover or hiding; I just quickly ran over to see what was happening.

It was then I saw the humungous web on the wall of the right side. Dang, IT WAS HUGE!! I can't believe I was so focused on saving Caterpie, I didn't even notice it. I slowly had my eyes lay on the sight that I was afraid of.

Zev was on the ground on his back, with spider webs pinning his arms down and behind his back. He was struggling as Ariados was right on top of him. The enemy laughed… I was caught off guard by this. Not only a few minutes ago, he was roaring like a monster. Maybe it was his anger that caused him the unability to speak when angry. Whatever it was, not my problem right now.

"Ngh.. ugh… get off me…" Zev groaned, trying to get away.

The way Zev said it made me believe he was hurt and tired… Oh no! Don't tell me he was poisoned! I didn't see any injuries… but still, I couldn't see all of his body. Did Ariados get him in some way that now he's poisoned?

"Hahaha… it seems your little friends have abandoned you… isn't that too bad?" Ariados mocked him, "I guess that leaves you to be my dinner instead of Caterpie."

EAT HIM!? You mean, Ariados had held Caterpie prisoner to eat him!? Why, that overgrown…

"I said… agh…. get off me… you… overgrown pathetic… mmmf… excuse for a spider…!" Zev yelled as he was able to push Ariados off the ground a tiny bit with both of his feet.

"Hehehe… I love prey that fights for his life," Ariados taunted him.

He suddenly jumped, causing Zev's legs to fall to the ground. Once they hit, Ariados got on top of Zev, pinning him down before he could move again. The thief struggled, but to no avail or success. He looked back into his predator's smirking eyes as the spider got closer to his neck.

"I'm going to enjoy eating you; get ready to die!" Ariados yelled.

Zev kept struggling as his enemy get closer to his neck. There was no way I could wait anymore to save him. I needed to act now! However, there was a huge problem… literally. There was a huge gap in between me and Zev. I wouldn't be able to make it in time. But I had to try.

"NOW!! IT IS TIME FOR ME TO FEAST!!" Ariados screamed, as his fangs near his mouth lunged for Zev's throat, who had gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

I don't know how to explain it like I said earlier, but it was then my body reacted again. I felt my whole torso take a bit of a swing back, and then I was flying like a bullet at who knows how many miles per hour. I don't know what happened, but suddenly I was being surrounded by lightning!

I was able to use lightning! I couldn't believe it! I didn't know how I did it though… I think maybe it was that I was concentrating on an attack that my body was able to generate electricity. I was doing Volt Tackle, which I didn't know at the time. I also didn't know that the others had gotten right there to see me do that attack, with my brothers being the most surprised.

I suddenly found myself right in front of Ariados, shocking him from my ability to close the distance. I then rammed my whole body into him. It sent the voltage of electricity I was generating out of my body and thus sent him flying backwards. Zev immediately opened his eyes when he saw the flash through his eyelids, and was stunned that I was next to him.

"Thomas?" he asked, "What are you doing?"

I lowered my head to him and said, "Zev… forgive me; if I had known you had been captured sooner, I would've been here faster. I'm sorry we left you behind."

"So you mean… the whole time you could've left… you chose to come back?" he said, amazed that he was being saved.

"Yeah. I made you a promise, but more than that… I'm not letting someone die on my hands, not while I'm here!" I said, pulling on the webs that bound him, "Now hurry up and do one of those cutting attacks to get out of this!"

With that, Zev and I struggled to the best of our combined ability to get him unbound. But with my new body not blessed with physical strength, and Zev basically having his arms pinned behind his back, it was excruciatingly hard to even make one of the lines cut.

"Thomas!! Duck!!" I heard Caterpie's voice sound out to me.

Now, call me a weirdo, but when somebody yells 'Duck!', the natural response isn't to duck down; it's to turn around to see whatever it is you need to look out for. Unfortunately, I had fallen victim to this. I turned around just in time to see several Poison Needles shoot right at my face and body. I was able to block my eyes, but at the cost of my arms and stomach receiving sharp pointed needles into them.

Oh my gosh! That hurt like heck! I was forced away from Zev and remembered rolling hard on the ground. I struggled to get up at least into a sitting position. Augh… was this what Pokémon battles were like? I never knew it hurt so much… and to think Zev would feel more pain because of his type…

"THOMAS!!" I heard Naruto yell as he suddenly appeared by my side with Sasuke, "Answer me! Are you okay?"

I huffed and nodded in pain as Sasuke gently placed me against him and said, "Thomas, hold still. This will only hurt for a second."

With that, he quickly took a hold of all the needles and pulled them out in a heartbeat. It hurt at first, but at least I wasn't bleeding. I looked down though to see my fur around those areas were ruffled and red from impact, but not from blood. I then saw Caterpie was hidden behind that slab with the berry bag and that Batsu and King had entered too.

"Is Thomas alright?" Batsu asked.

Naruto quickly sniffed me and replied, "Yep, there's no scent of poison. Just a couple hits; Thomas is fine."

I then looked to see that Zev was gone. But upon hearing his grunts, I was able to see that Ariados had dragged him up onto his web and stuck him there. The Grovyle's legs kicked around as he struggled to get free. The Ariados glared at us, especially at me.

"So, you think you're tough, you little brat?" he said, "Fine, I'll kill you all first and save this Grovyle for the main course!!"

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