Welcome Home

The humanoid creature heaved and panted as it looked down at the slain pokemon. It watched the other's run and sighed with what sounded like relief. Suddenly his head whipped around to face the forest and his green eyes narrowed on Randy. "Hey, kid, get out here!" He commanded. Charmander pulled on his leg, almost begging him not to go near the man. "That's not asking, if you couldn't tell." He huffed impatiently and walked into the forest, "I know you've gotta be scared, you came through the gateway right? The dusclops?" He held up his hands to the height of his shoulders. "I'm not gonna hurt you, but that thing was going to and it won't be long before something smells that nasty cut of yours." Randy looked at the man confused. He reached up to his forehead and felt a warm liquid on his face. His head was bleeding. "Oh, I guess that too." The humanoid stated, looking down at Randy's leg. When he was being chased, he must have been gauged. He looked up helplessly as the man held his hand out, "here, we'll get you home, but first we need to get you away from any pokemon." Randy stepped back and stepped protectively in front of his charmander. "Why? What was wrong with that one?" He asked frantically. "Shh! You have to be quiet." He looked up, worried. "My name is Jericho, come with me and I'll explain everything, I promise." I held out his hand, still glancing at the forest behind Randy every few seconds. Randy looked down at his charmander and nodded, "Okay, fine." He took the stranger's hand and held charmander with his arm. They bounded into the plains, Jericho was so fast that Randy had to sprint to keep up, and even then Jericho was mostly pulling him. They passed hills and forests in a blur, approaching a large, cold looking mountain. They ran up a hill and when they reached the peak, Randy looked down at a city, which was, at first, normal looking. It was settled between two large cliffs and there were land walls on all sides, the only entrance seemed to be stairs or falling.  When he stared longer, he noticed burnt patches on the sides of homes, red stains on the grass and on the insides of windows. One house was mostly broken apart and there were bloody shards of glass everywhere. Then, out of one of the shadows, a pokemon shuffled out of the shadow of cliff on the opposite side of the town. Jericho grabbed him again, but Randy brushed his hand off, pulling out is pokedex and examining the pokemon. "Banette, the marionette pokemon. Banette is a doll that became a pokemon from it's grudge of being junked. It seeks the child that disowned it." Randy looked out at the raggedy pokemon and shivered. It looked like it was a pokemon in a bag, it's movements made it looked like it's skin was detached. "Creepy." He muttered. "Hey, very, not let's go before it spots us and calls the Beta." Jericho didn't seem to be fazed that Randy didn't know what this meant, because he dragged him on around the city. The pokemon was now looking up at the hill they had just been on, and in the blink of an eye it scuttled over to it and examined the spot, looking around for them. They had managed to make it into the protection of the second hill before the Banette looked their way. Behind this hill was a heavily locked trapdoor that lead into the ground. Jericho led them to it and knocked on the window that was closed from the other side. Randy pulled his hand away and looked at his charmander with concern. It shared the expression. The window opened and a pair of glowing yellow eyes looked on. Then it shut and the trapdoor creaked open. Randy was amazed to see another humanoid/pokemon. This time it was a female with many of the aspects of a Luxray, the eyes, the tail and fur on the shoulders. Her expression did match the usual aggressive, unhappy eyes of a Luxray too. "No luck?" She asked. Jericho sighed, "No, someone already got spit through on the other side." Randy was interested in the conversation, but the world around him was just as fascinating. He looked up to the hill above then and saw a familiar pair of glowing purple eyes and a shining golden zipper. "Jericho!" He grabbed the wing of the man and he looked up, "Wha-" He saw the Banette and growled, "Get it, but quick, the second one of us moves he'll know where we are." He shoved Randy into the bunker and attempted to follow, but the creature was already clawing at his back. Jericho pushed it off and a blast of thunder came from the door, throwing the monster away. The door slammed shut and a horrible screeching erupted from the puppet that was now attacking the window. They shut the window and Randy stared at the female who had shot the blast, "How did you-" She snickered and looked at Jericho, "Welcome home." She joked.