Crystal Forest: Manifest Destiny.

Nadia looked back at Flare. "I hate to ask this of you," she sighed. "Please follow after Copper. He's skilled, but he'll get hurt."

Flare's eyes met Nadia's. "If it will help you and Voltico, then I'll do it." His tone was strong and confident. "Besides, you were right earlier. Asking a young one such as himself to go kill others because of a personal vendetta, especially asking him to kill such a violent-sounding gang, is unthinkable."

He stopped speaking for a moment, feeling that his words might not have been very reassuring for the vaporeon. His tone became soft again. "Don't worry Nadia. I'll go find Copper and talk to him."

"Thank you, Flare." Nadia made her way to the back of the den and sat down to rest and think.

Tired from flying circles for the last few hours, Lavender's wingbeats slowly deteriorated from the great sweeps that were the main pattern to her flight earlier, into rapid shorter ones that ironically took more energy to maintain. Still she circles not far from Voltico's den, awaiting some sign that she is needed.
She finds herself flying lower and lower in the sky, until she's nearly skimming the treetops with her paws. "I might as well land, now." She mumbles, allowing herself to go into a short dive, pulling out of it at the last second to land on the forest floor. Though her wings are not flesh and blood and will not tire, the muscles they are attached to are unsuited to such work during prolonged peroids of time. She folded them up on her back and lay down, still half alert.

As Flare turned to leave, he looked back at Nadia one more time, and spoke in a gentle voice. "You're welcome." Exiting the den, Flare began surveying the area, trying to figure out which way Copper had gone. Flare had never left the forest before, so he knew very little about human civilizations, much less what he would do if he found his way to one. Would he be recognized on sight as an "enemy" of the humans? And how would he be able to find Copper in the city?

With all these things on his mind, Flare hardly noticed Lavender as she landed nearby. "Oh, there you are," he said with a friendly tone. "I was wondering, Lavender, if you wouldn't mind helping me out. You remember the jolteon and vaporeon we met with earlier, right? Well, one of their friends has gone on a dangerous mission to the human lands, and the vaporeon wants me to find him and bring him back. I was about to head out and look for Voltico so we can go together, but he seems to have wandered off. Could you help me look for him?"

Lavender blinked and looked up at Flare, not entirely sure she understood correcly. "So one of their friends is probably in trouble, and we're going to look for the Jolteon?" She asked, standing back up. If someone were in trouble, shouldn't they go directly to them? Was the Jolteon required, if only as reinforcements, or as someone who knew the way? The Jolteon had not made a very good impression on her, and she wasn't sure that if she would be traveling with him, that she wanted to go. She looked down at the ground, nudging a pebble with her paw.
"Of course I'll come with you." She nodded, lifting her head back up.

"Thanks," Flare responded, looking in the direction of a cleared path in the forest, and starting down it. Realizing he may have confused Lavender earlier, he tried explaining the situation again. "Yes, we're looking for the Jolteon, because he would probably know the way best. If we can't find him, then we might be able to make due without, but it's also his friend, and his wife is concerned for the both of them."

Copper crept silently behind the human's back, claws extended. He would only need to reach a pressure point to knock him out. Then the cat could go through the archives, then he could know the truth. This however, was not to be. Just as the cat prepared to strike, a strong hand grasped him back the shoulder and forced him into a body lock.
"Learn t' watch yer back, Phillip.", Copper's heavily muscled captor quipped, lifting the small cat up into the air.
"Eh? Wher'd that bugger come from?" The seated man replied.
"Dunno, but 'e made our jobs a lot easier." Chuckled the other as his accomplice fetched a capture ball from the shelf.
"Get in 'ere. We'll sell you off to a goooood home, little thing." He grinned, pressing the lock button as a beam of light connected with the meowth's body. To his surprise, nothing occured. "Eh? Looks like the tramp's already got a owner." He said, getting in closer, noticing the leaden collar around the cat's neck. "Ey, i'nt this a royal model? For holdin' traitors to the kingdom and whatnot?"
The man's question was suddenly answered as a sudden blast shook the small shanty. Fire lit the walls and corridor in a radiant blaze as the cat struggled out of his bewildered captor's grasp, bounding into the flame.

Volt looked in shocked horror at the scene around him. After leaving his den, he had been overtaken by pure animal rage, and, intending to vent his anger, had lashed out at the surrounding plant life. To his immense surprise, the same tarry, black spikes from before had erupted out of the ground around him. The trees were tattered and twisted, and the forest around him had become a nightmarish hell-scape. His pulse began to quicken, his eyes widened, his breath shortened. His brain refused to work, lest it stumble upon things better left in the dark recesses of the unconscious, and Volt shortly fainted.

Copper fell to the stone floor, grasping his back paw, now afflicted with a minor burn.
"Gah, crap!"
He limped to the window from which he entered, climbing onto the sill. To his chagrin however, he rose face to face with an angry looking blaziken in human clothing.
"Hmph. The little cat survived the firebomb." He took Copper by the scruff. "Then I guess I have no choice than to take you in alive."
Copper kicked at the blaziken only to be slammed into the ground with a mighty Brick Break.
"GRAH!" He yelped.
"The prisoner is resisting! I need backup!" The blaziken shouted with an evil grin on his face, preparing a blast burn.

After a few minutes of walking, Flare spotted the jolteon, seemingly passed out on the floor of the forest. He rushed up to him and poked his side. "Voltico? Are you alright?" he asked, attempting to get a response, but somehow doubting he would. Looking around, he saw the deformed trees and black spikes sticking out of the ground. The scene raised many questions in Flare's mind, but those would have to wait. The main priority was helping Volt and his friend.

Lavender flitted after Flare absentmindedly, landing heavily on the ground once again as the Flareon she was following stopped. She looking up. Her eyes widened at the scene, the forest around them was utterly ruined! Destroyed! Lavender felt a sort of rage and sadness for the loss of any part of the forest, and looked down at the Jolteon with a leaden gaze, completely apathetic to the other eeveelution's condition. Not out of spite, but out of compassion. For if she were to show emotion, it would be entirely limited to negative ones. She carefully kept in mind the possibility that the Jolteon hadn't been the cause of this terrible mess...
"What happened here?" She questioned lowly, nevertheless it almost came out as a growl.