“Aubrey, Tommy, wake up.” Tommy heard someone calling softly from outside his and Aubrey’s tent. He slowly opened his bleary eyes and struggled to keep them that way as he faded in and out. Aubrey was sound asleep, snoring softly into his chest and he wondered what in the world was going on. His brain had no idea where it was at first, but then he remembered camping last night with Spencer and Max. Was it three o’clock and time for his watch duty already?

“Wake up! Aubrey! Tommy!” Spencer screamed from outside their tent.

Tommy’s eyes burst open and he felt Aubrey immediately stir in their sleeping bag. He felt her heart hammering away, beating in rhythm against his chest, and Tommy could see the adrenaline start to kick in as her eyes slammed open. She unzipped the sleeping bag and then the tent and stumbled out into the grove, shivering against the cold in her sports bra and leggings. Searing orange flames engulfed the trees that marked the only exit from the refuge out into the forest and Tommy’s heart rate increased its already frantic drumming when he realized they were trapped.

“Get up!” Spencer yelled frantically. “Get dressed! We have to get out of here!”

Tommy scrambled out of the tent into the clearing, throwing on whatever clothes he could find and trying to lace up his hiking boots with his stiff and clumsy fingers. His PokéNav said 1:30 am and told him that the temperature was below freezing. He wondered how in the world the trees had caught on fire when they had been covered in so much snow.

“Spencer what’s happening?” Tommy shouted over the crackling flames. The boy was tearing down the tents and shoving everything into his and Max’s backpacks. Tommy followed suit and broke down Aubrey’s tent immediately.

“We’re being attacked, what do you think?” Spencer yelled back. “How else could the forest be on fire with all of this snow!”

“Is this a trick!” Aubrey screamed at him. She was throwing on her heavy clothes and jacket and apparently still didn’t trust anything that Spencer said. “Are you trying to lure us out?”

“Yes, Aubrey, you caught me,” Spencer snarled sarcastically. “My brilliant plan was to light everything on fire and burn to death alongside the two of you. Your trophy is still in your bag Aubrey, you can check! We’re in a lot of danger here and you need to trust me!”

“Where is Max?” Tommy yelled. A cursory scan of the alcove revealed that the other boy was nowhere to be seen.

Spencer slung both his and Max’s heavy backpacks over his shoulders and then ran over to help Tommy and Aubrey finish gathering their stuff. “He’s outside the grove, holding everyone off. We would have been overrun by now otherwise!”

“Who is he holding off?” Aubrey asked. “Some of the students?”

“No, I don’t know who they are!” Spencer said. “Some fucking weirdos who I found wandering around the forest! There must have been at least five or six of them! They found me and I barely made it back to camp. Max was still awake when I got back and he rushed out to go fight them while we made our escape!”

“Max is holding off five trainers by himself?” Tommy asked. “There’s no way that’s possible!”

“Well you can see it for yourself once we get out of here!” Spencer told them as he rose to his feet. “Come on! We can’t stay here any longer or we’ll fry!”

Tommy shouldered his backpack and Aubrey grabbed hers and they took off towards the entrance where they saw Spencer’s Phanpy throwing mud and dirt into the path of the flames, trying to keep them from spreading any closer.

“Good job bud!” Spencer yelled to his Pokémon as he returned it to the safety of its ball. “Now come on! We have to go!”

The three of them burst out of the alcove into a clearing where Tommy stared in disbelief at the sight before his eyes. All of the snow in the surrounding area had melted away and blinding orange flames engulfed everything. Max stood in the middle of the flaming clearing with his back to the alcove, ringed in a semicircle by six other trainers and their Pokémon. He was issuing commands to his three Pokémon, Cyndaquil, Nidorino and Shinx, all at the same time and each of them was successfully holding back two trainers and all of their Pokémon. Tommy wouldn’t have believed it was possible except for the fact he was watching Max while it happened.

“Who the fuck is this little shit!” Tommy heard one of the men snarl in frustration. “Kill him already! Now that these kids have seen us they can’t get away!”

“Max, let’s go!” Spencer yelled as he, Tommy, and Aubrey pulled up alongside the boy. “We need to get out of here before this blaze gets any worse!”

“No! I’ll hold them back for as long as I can so you three can get away!” Max yelled over his shoulder. “Otherwise they’ll chase us down! I can escape once you guys are clear of this place! I’ll meet up with you later!”

Shinx took a hit from one of the trainer’s Vulpix and he roared out in pain.

“Go! You guys are distracting me from the fight!” He shoved Spencer away and then shouted for Shinx to use Thunder Shock. Small arcs of electricity bolted out of Shinx’s body and missed the Vulpix, sailing clear over her and slamming into the body of the fox’s trainer. He convulsed as electricity coursed through his body and then crumpled lifeless to the forest floor. “And don’t follow the path! There could be more of them!”

“Fuck! Let’s go!” Spencer yelled. He grabbed Tommy and Aubrey by the arms and dragged them away. “We need to get back to Mahogany Town and Professor Hemlock!”

“Did Max just kill someone?!” Aubrey shrieked as they ran from the clearing. “That man got hit directly in the chest!”

“Who cares!” Spencer said, “It was him or us!”

They aimlessly tore through the forest trying only to create more distance between themselves and the clearing. They eventually slowed once they didn’t hear any pursuers behind them though; somehow Max had been able to keep the assailants back long enough for the three of them to make their escape. After taking a few minutes to catch their breath they started forward, picking their way slowly through the trees. The full moon was out and barely gave them enough light to see by. Still, with the dense snow they tripped and stumbled over every other hidden rock and root.

“How far do you think Mahogany is?” Aubrey posed. “Can we make it?”

“What about the flare?” Tommy asked. “Should we use it? Do you think this is part of the test?”

“I don’t know,” Spencer shook his head. “I don’t want to fail, this seems pretty extreme to be part of the expedition test though. I mean we could have honestly died in that fire!”

“Should we wait for Max?” Tommy asked Spencer. “You know him better than we do. Do you really think he can handle all six of those guys by himself? Should we go back?”

Spencer bit his lip, “I don’t know…”

The boy held up one hand for silence though. Tommy heard voices carry over the wind and the three of them widened their eyes in terror.

“...follow the tracks,” A faraway voice could be heard. “They can’t have gotten far.”

The three of them took off again, Tommy calling Yanma out of his Ultra Ball. “Scout ahead for us Yanma, we need to get back to Mahogany Town!”

Yanma buzzed in understanding and changed his eyes from blue to red. He wove his way through the forest and Spencer, Tommy, and Aubrey scrambled after him, trying to keep up with the quick dragonfly. They ran on through the night but the voices continued to chase them, getting louder as time went on. After an hour of non-stop running they came to a copse of trees and collapsed, trying to catch their breath. Wheezing, Spencer pulled his backpack off of his back and started rummaging inside. He pulled his tactical bow out with shaking hands and looked up at Aubrey and Tommy, a determined look on his face.

“Spencer, what are you doing?” Aubrey looked horrified.

“I’ll hold them off,” he whispered aloud. He was staring down at his hands, clenching and unclenching them, trying to steady them. “You two go on ahead, we have to be close to Mahogany now.”

“No, we aren’t leaving you!” Tommy growled. “We’ll fight together, maybe there’s a way we can restrain them.”

Spencer exhaled, calmed his breath and started to string his bow. “You’re right. There’s no snow on the ground here, so it’s a good place to hide. Here’s what we do, all three of us need to run in separate directions for thirty seconds. Then as best you can run back on your tracks to this spot. Hopefully that will confuse them for a little bit and buy us some time. We meet back here and climb a tree. Okay? 30 seconds out, 30 seconds back, go go hurry!”

The three of them split up in three random directions and Tommy counted to thirty while running for his life. He stopped at the base of a tree and then as quickly and as carefully as possible he ran back on top of his own tracks to the clearing he had just left. He saw Spencer trying to haul himself into a tree so he ran over and boosted his new friend up into the low hanging branches. Spencer reached down and grabbed Tommy’s hand, pulling with all of his might and dragging him up beside him.

“Where’s Aubrey?” Tommy hissed, his heart hammered a million miles an hour in his chest.

“Guys, where are you?” They heard her whisper loudly.

“Over here, come on!” Tommy said. She ran up to the base of the tree and Tommy and Spencer pulled her up, her feet clearing the branches just as Tommy saw 4 people burst into the clearing. She tumbled on top of him, almost knocking him out of the tree but he dared not move a muscle for fear of giving his position away. He saw Spencer slowly nock an arrow on his strung bow, but when it didn’t look like he was going to fire Tommy turned to watch the people below.

“Dammit! Their tracks split in three different directions!” One of the men snarled. “Which way did they fucking go? Did they split up?”

“Should we split up too?” A woman’s voice spoke next. “I don’t like the idea of facing them one on one though. They might be able to take us.”

The first man spoke again, “We have to take the risk! We need to grab that brown-haired kid with the freckles for the boss. Mahogany is only a couple kilometers away, we can’t let him get back to town!”

Tommy’s blood froze, they were clearly talking about him! They were trying to kidnap him! Who the hell were these people and why were they after him? He looked over at Spencer who raised an eyebrow in his direction. He shook his head unknowingly.

“Shut up!” A different man spoke this time. “I hear voices coming this way. Get behind some trees!”

Tommy held his breath, willing the men not to look up, as two of the thugs raced behind the tree that he and his friends were hiding in; the other two hid on the far side of the clearing. After a few seconds Tommy heard the voices and a moment later two students from his class walked into the clearing talking with one another.

“Look the tracks lead here, maybe someone is taking a break,” One of the students said. “Do you think they have a trophy that we can nab?”

“I don’t know. The tracks split in different directions,” the other student said to the first. “Which path do you want to follow?”

The two thugs on the far side of the clearing stepped out from behind their trees. The woman spoke up, “How about none of them?”

“You aren’t students,” the first student said. His hand was reaching down to his belt for the Pokéball that was clipped there. “Who are you? What are you doing out here?”

“Fair questions,” The man laughed a high-pitch laugh. “Sadly for you, you’ll never find out.”

“What do you---” One of the students said. A knife stabbed into his neck before he could finish his sentence and blood erupted from his mouth. He fell forward onto the ground and lay there unmoving. The second student screamed in terror and turned to run, only to come face-to-face with the fourth thug. He stabbed the student in the heart and lowered him slowly down to the ground, closing the boy’s eyes and then moving to the other to do the same.

“Why do you always do that shit?” The first thug laughed. “They’re dead, what does it matter if their eyes are open or closed?”

“They’re with the Mother now,” the kneeling thug said. He didn’t elaborate any further.

“Did we have to kill them?” The woman sighed. “I mean they were only kids.”

“Our instructions were clear; stop questioning the boss’ orders,” the first thug said seriously. He leaned up against the tree that everyone was hiding in. “Now enough wasting time, you three split up and check each path, 5 minutes each. Go carefully and look out for any funny business, then we meet back here.”

The other three goons nodded and each slowly picked their way along a different set of tracks. Tommy let out the breath that he didn’t know he had been holding in. He looked over at Spencer and saw the boy’s trembling hands that clenched his bow as tightly as they could. Aubrey was crying, and she had a look in her eyes that Tommy had never seen before. She reached down towards his belt, wrapping her hands around the hilt of his knife and rolled off of him before he realized what she was doing. He panicked and tried to grab her before she could escape but she jumped out of the tree and landed on top of the goon who was minding his own business while waiting for his comrades.

“Aubrey!” Spencer and Tommy hissed. They leapt from the tree after her trying not to make too much noise. They froze when they saw her; she was straddling the goon, trembling, and looking down at her hands that were covered in blood. Tommy’s knife was buried hilt deep in the man’s neck and his eyes stared up into the sky lifelessly. Tommy widened his eyes as Aubrey turned to look at him, her eyes trembling in shock and horror. She started hyperventilating and Tommy ran forward wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into a tight embrace.

“Tommy…” she whispered into his ear. “I… what have I done?”

She was shaking violently despite Tommy squeezing her with all of his strength. In the distance, he heard the voices of one of the thugs hollering that his path led to a dead end.

“We have to move!” Spencer hissed. “Let’s backtrack, come on!”

Aubrey tried to stand but failed, her legs refused to work from the shock over what she had just done. Tommy heaved with all of his might, trying to lift her to a standing position, but she crumpled in a heap and began to sob into her hands.

“Give me your bag!” Spencer said. “You’re going to have to carry her on your back!”

Tommy tossed his backpack over to Spencer who strapped it to the front of his torso. He was just about to lift Aubrey onto his back when he saw something loose hanging from the dead guard’s jacket. He ripped off the bit of fabric and stuffed it into his parka’s front pocket.

Spencer grabbed his shoulder, “What are you doing? Come on!”

Aubrey had fainted but together they lifted her onto Tommy’s back and started backtracking along the path that they had come from. Less than a minute passed before they heard surprised shouting from behind them, it sounded as if one of the thugs had found the dead body and was trying to call the other two back to the clearing. Tommy and Spencer had been doing their best to walk backwards on their footprints again but they started to take off when they heard the shouting. If it had fooled the thugs once then maybe they would be fooled again, at least long enough that the two boys could have a good enough head start.

Yanma was leading the way again, and within minutes Tommy was exhausted. Carrying Aubrey’s limp body was extremely difficult and he tried his best to focus simply on moving forward. Tommy kept his eyes focused on Spencer’s feet, the steady march and rhythm giving him something tangible to focus on. He didn’t know how long they walked, but Spencer eventually stopped and Tommy almost ran into the boy, so exhausted was he. He looked up and saw that Yanma had led them to the path. The lights of Mahogany shone less than a kilometer ahead in the distance; they were so close now.

Spencer shoved him behind a tree as a patrol of guards walked past along the path. They had swords and knives belted to their waists and one of them had a wicked looking crossbow. They were patrolling back and forth, shining their flashlights and looking around the forest.

“What do we do?” Spencer whispered. “The entrance to the village is guarded by those guys. How are we going to get in?”

Now that they were no longer moving, Tommy couldn’t hold Aubrey up anymore. He dropped her off of his back to the snow and plopped down beside her, gasping for breath. Before he could answer his friend, he heard a voice calling out softly across the still night.

“Psst!” The voice called. Spencer whirled around and drew his bow taut, aiming a barbed arrow at the tree to their immediate right. “Lower your bow! It’s me!”

“Max?” Spencer asked in relief. Max stuck his head around the tree and crept over to the two boys when the coast was clear. “How did you get out of that fight?”

Max just shook his head silently refusing to answer. He nodded at Aubrey, unmoving in the snow, “What happened to her? Is she okay?”

“Fainted,” Tommy gasped. “She attacked one of the thugs who was separated, fainted from the shock.”

Max nodded, “Who are they? Why are they out here?”

“No clue who they are but…” Spencer looked over at Tommy. “As for why they’re out here, they’re looking for him.”

“What do they want with you?” Max asked, to which Tommy just shrugged in response. “Never mind, I know the answer to that. They want whatever your weird power over Pokémon is, I'm sure.”

Tommy opened his mouth to refute that but closed it before saying anything. That would be the most logical explanation wouldn’t it? For what other reason would a group of kidnappers be after some farm boy? Maybe his father? Mom had said that Dad was a good trainer at one point so were these people trying to ransom Tommy? Too many questions and not enough answers, best to focus on the task at hand.

“Maybe,” Tommy said. He looked up at Spencer and Max. “But that would mean that someone betrayed me, wouldn’t it?”

Spencer nodded his head up and down. “That’s exactly what that means. And you assume it was one of us? You’ve known us for the least amount of time right?”

Tommy looked up at the two boys who were towering over him now that he had collapsed into the snow. He was all alone guarding the unconscious body of his friend, weaponless, since his knife lay buried in the neck of a thug five kilometers from where he was. Spencer’s hands tightened on his nocked bow.

“We aren’t the betrayers Tommy,” Spencer said, releasing the tension in his bow. “I swear to you, we have kept your secret and will continue to keep your secret. Without us, you would have already been kidnapped.”

Tommy nodded his head in agreement. “I agree, I don’t believe that it’s either of you two.”

Max peered around the tree at the guard patrol that was making its way back now. He held out his hand towards Tommy, “Give me your flare, I’ll draw them away. We didn’t take one since we would never have needed to use it in the first place.”

“You’re really going to test your luck again?” Spencer asked incredulously. “There are definitely more than six of these goons patrolling this area, I guarantee you that.”

Max stared flatly at his friend, hand still extended. “You have a better idea then?”

Spencer sighed and opened Tommy’s bag digging around and trying to find the flare.

“Grab the Potion that’s in there too,” Tommy told Spencer. “Max, your Pokémon have to be exhausted. I hope it doesn’t come to another fight but if it does, use the rest of that Potion to heal your Pokémon.”

Max nodded, accepting the flare and the potion and taking his traveling gear from Spencer. “Wait until all of the guards converge on me, then make your move. If the guards at the gate don’t follow, you’re on your own sorry. I’ll see you back at the Pokémon Center, tomorrow most likely.”

He smiled resolutely at them both and headed off away from town, back into the deeper parts of the forest. Spencer grabbed his backpack and Tommy’s then grabbed Aubrey’s from off her back to help lighten the load Tommy had been carrying. Tommy got to his feet and together he and Spencer hoisted Aubrey back onto his back. They stood in silence waiting for their chance.

A flare shot across the sky and Tommy heard a bunch of the thugs shout. At least 15 of them ran past the trees that Tommy and Spencer were hiding behind towards the direction of the arcing flare. He hoped that Max would be able to get away. He peeked his head around the tree and swore when he saw that the three people standing in front of the gate hadn’t moved. That would have been too easy.

“We can’t call out our Pokémon here or the guards will spot us,” Tommy told Spencer. “We need to get closer.”

Spencer nodded and he and Tommy moved out from around the tree, creeping as close as they dared over the next few minutes until they were close enough to hear the guards talking with one another.

“Killing or maiming?” Spencer whispered, voice trembling.

“Maiming,” Tommy swallowed and Spencer nodded in agreement.

Tommy threw his Pokéball calling out Houndour while Spencer called Phanpy and Growlithe. The thugs were caught completely unaware as the three Pokémon each jumped on someone. Tommy sprinted by as quickly as he could and winced in pain at the sounds of bones being shattered by the Pokémon. When they were on the other side of the gate, he and Spencer recalled their Pokémon to their side and told them to be on the lookout as their group made its way towards the Pokémon Center.

Tommy and Spencer rounded the final corner and saw the red-tiled roof come into view. Tommy put on a final burst of speed, rushing the last few hundred meters, trying to get inside the door. He screamed in agony as he felt a piercing pain in his right calf muscle. He tumbled to the ground dropping Aubrey who rolled in the dirt beside him. Spencer ran back to grab him but Tommy pointed at Aubrey.

“Get her inside!” He yelled and Spencer nodded. Wrapping his arms under her armpits he heaved with all of his might and dragged her the last few meters inside of the building.

Tommy exhaled in relief and looked down at his calf wondering what had happened. An barbed metal arrow had pierced all the way through his calf and was sticking out the front of his leg. The pain seared up his leg and he bit his lip so hard he tasted blood. He looked up to see a person jump off the roof on the other end of the street and make their way towards the spot where he was laying helplessly.

“Tommy!” He heard the Pokémon Center door open behind him but the archer drew their bow and fired at the door, forcing Spencer back into the lobby. The archer nocked another arrow, aiming it at the door in case Spencer tried to come out again.

“They’re all so fucking useless,” he heard a female voice coming from the person walking towards him. “I should have just gone and hunted you down myself.”

Tommy’s vision began to blacken as the woman drew nearer to him. He had been so close; at least he had managed to get his friends to safety though.

The last thing he saw before he blacked out completely was an impenetrable wall of thick ice erect itself in between him and the woman.