Crystal Forest: Manifest Destiny.

"The humans... Don't know a thing about what they're going to unleash on themselves by hurting the forest like this." She barked suddenly, jumping to her feet. "It's rage is silent, but growing, in the form of the pokemon that inhabit it, and the trees themselves. They stand for hundreds of years and are suddenly cut down without warning or reason... If the humans don't stop... Then I will take action... For the forest, for the world." She hissed, before settling back down into a sitting position.
"I'm fed up with the humans interfering with ways of life that haven't changed since the forest was new." She sighed. "We should stop them, but how? they have superior weapons, superior everything... Her rings flashed brightly. "I should take action anyway, and pray to Arceus to grant me strength, for he surely doesn't want the soul of the forest to die. That would be disasterous... The lake has already lost it's power, how long until it dries up as well?" She lay down on the ground, head on her paws.

"Do they really have superior weapons?" Will cackled as the eight spindly legs extended from his sides and his arms unfolded from his back.

"Everyone, listen up!" Flare called out to his troops. "I'm going to make this brief, because we don't have a lot of time." The two remaining ursaring had begun using rest to restore come of their lost energy. This would make matters even more difficult when they woke up. Flare knew that a decisive strike had to be made by the time they woke up, or else it would likely be over for the group.

"Stanley," Flare addressed the staravia, "I want you to swoop in and use wing attack against the one on the left. Neil, you charge up a razor wind, and unleash it on the same target as soon as Stanley is clear." The nuzleaf nodded and began to whip up a fierce wind.

"Nathan, rick, that leaves you two. I want you both to run up to the ursaring on the right and surround it. Then use double kick from both sides. Give it all you've got, because that move has an advantage over the enemy. I'll assist all of you with a helping hand, and give them both a smog attack when they comes to. Everyone understand?" The group all shouted in agreement. "Good," said Flare. "Now, attack!"

Flare began cheering on his comrades using helping hand while Stanley and the nidorino brothers went in for their attacks. Stanley struck with incredible force, causing the slumbering foe, who was in a sitting position, to fall on its back. Meanwhile, Nathan and Rick unleashed a flurry of double kicks against the other enemy, who had no way of avoiding the barrage of boosted attacks. Finally, after making sure Stanley was clear, Neil let loose an extremely forceful blade of wind. The attack left a big cut on the ursaring's leg, yet the pokemon hardly reacted.

Finally, the two ursaring came to, looking more energetic than before, but also covered in bruises. The attacks had succeeded, and Flare could tell that the enemy was feeling the pain from them in addition to the extra energy boost from resting. "Join us..." said one of the ursaring said in a dark tone. "Yes...if you know what's good for you, you will allow yourself to be captured..." the other beckoned.

"Never!" shouted Flare. "We would never agree to help anyone who wants to destroy this forest. You don't get it do you? These humans want nothing more than to conquer this territory for their own selfish use. But this forest is no ordinary forest. There are great powers at work here, and if anyone disturbs them, there will be grave consequences."

"SILENCE!" The two ursaring shouted in unison. They then began charging up hyper beam attacks. Flare let out a poisonous purple haze. Its purpose in this case was twofold: to further damage the ursaring, and also, to provide cover for Flare's next tactic. He began to burrow underground with impressive speed. In a matter of seconds, Flare had dug a hole deep enough to escape the imminent attacks.

The other pokemon jumped down in the hole. Once he was sure that everyone was safe, Flare continued digging, feeling for the vibrations of his targets. He located them, and surfaced, popping up right underneath one very startled ursaring, causing it to fire off its chagring attack at its partner. The partner was sent flying, and his attack disappeared, having been interrupted. Flare took this opportunity to dash up to the fallen foe with quick attack and then switch to fire fang. This was too much for the pokemon. The ursaring lay face down, motionless.

A beam of light shot out from a ball held by the human who was its master. Flare shook his head. This was no way for pokemon to be treated. He really did regret the fact that he had to harm other pokemon. But it was too late to turn back now. The forest needed protection, and all Flare could do to keep it and all of its inhabitants safe was battle the invaders. He desperately wished that they would give up soon, for everyone's sake.

The remaining ursaring regained its footing and shirted its gaze to Flare. "How dare you defy us!" it yelled with a very obvious rage in its tone. "You shall all pay!" A focus blast began forming between its paws. Flare was exhausted. He didn't know what he could possibly do to avoid this attack. It seemed the only way to stop it was to eliminate its source. With every last ounce of energy he could muster, Flare unleashed a last resort attack. This meant that there was nothing Flare could do afterwards. He would barely even be able to move. Everything was riding on this one move.

The energy from the attack struck the ursaring square in the chest. It toppled over from the force of the blow, and like its counterpart, also fainted. Flare was relieved. He had won this fight at the last opportunity. The human grunted, recalling his final pokemon, and ran off towards the town. Flare knew he would be back though, and most likely with more powerful pokemon than before. How would he and his troops be able to deal with that? They were all still so young, so easily targeted.

Oh well, he would worry more about that when the time came. Now, Flare needed to rest and regain his strength. Slowly, the defeated members of Flare's army emerged, surrounding their leader. "Is he going to be alright?" One of the nidoran asked.

"Yes," responed Stanley, who was Flare's appointed second-in-command. "He just bravely defeated the remaining two members of the invasion. He needs to rest. For that matter," he added, "you all should rest too. This victory was a product of everyone's cooperation and efforts. You should all be very proud of yourselves."

The weary army let out a tired celebratory cheer and plopped down next to their leader. For now, they were all safe. There would be no more danger for a while, they hoped. If only the humans would learn that the pokemon of the forest are simply trying to protect their home from not only invasion, but also the powers that resided there with them. The humans were causing a disturbance, and the pokemon were taking notice. If nothing was done to correct the flux of power soon, the results could be...catastrophic.

Lavender's eyes widened. "Um... Okay." She said, chuckling nervously.
"Well, they do have those capture devices, I can deflect them, but I think that if someone threw something stronger than a basic one at me, my tricks wouldn't work. They also have some pretty nasty pokemon... But they'd probably be no match." She looked contemplative. "...Should I count you in, if I were to go and make some trouble for them?"

Lavender chuckled again. "Perhaps that old legend is true, I believe we may have two of the elements." She murmured. There was hardly another explanation for the odd differences from the rest of the species in herself and the Glaceon, save a terrible mutation of some sort, or experimentation, but she knew that she hadn't been experimented on, and though something could have happened in her evoloution, how would it possibly have created something so specific as functional wings? She unfurled one and watched it glint black in the light. She had gone down this exact same mental path before, but never had she pursued it so intently.
There had to be something more to this.

He chuckled before snapping off one of the fingers on his 'hands' with the other one and opening his journal.
"Fighting humans and their little slaves? No problem, in fact, I was going to ask to come along if that's what you were intending to do." He cackled as he started writing with the black blood dripping from the finger.

The Leafeon stood up hung his head and headed toward the dark trees. "Hopefully I can find something to eat..." He sighed and sat against a tree looking up into the sky. Something moved. He looked around, behind him was a Typhlosion. "Hello little Leafeon, I've heard of you, Synth, the red Leafeon." The Typhlosion said as Synth backed up slowly. The Typhlosion followed him on it's hind legs towering over him.

Lavender watched the Glaceon with a slightly accusing expression. "Are you still trying to scare me?" She asked. "Because it's working." She shuddered and turned to look east, in the direction of the part of the forest that the humans were cutting down.
"...Thing is, I don't feel like we should just send them packing, I feel like we should get rid of them once and for all." She sighed. "I don't like the idea of killing anything, but maybe I'll make an exception in the humans' case."

"Scare you? Oh, sorry. No, I was just getting something to write with." He said as another finger sprouted from the stump where the other had been.

"Destroy all humans, eh? I like that idea." He chuckled.

Lavender giggled nervously. "...Uh, alright then." She said.
"Well if that's the plan, why don't we find a couple others to accompany us? Two abnormal Eeveelutions may be intimidating, but more pokemon might stand a better chance." She turned back to look at the Leafeon, and jumped when she saw a Typhlosion towering over it.
"Well that looks bad." She commented. "Think we should help him?"

"Sure, why not?" Will said as he stored his journal in his scarf.

"So, what's the plan? I jump out and try to scare it or something?" He said, sticking his tongue out at Lavender.

Lavender looked at the Glaceon and shook her head, before mentally reaching out to the Leafeon. <Need some help there, friend?> She asked, staying where she was for now.

Volt sighed. "Why is everyone so worried about this scratch?" he asked quietly to himself. "Nadia and I were out walking earlier," he said to Copper. "An Absol came out of nowhere, lunged at me. I managed to get out of the way quick enough, but it's claw caught my eye. Then it just ran off, with a wild look in it's eyes."

"Mister Voltico... It isn't the scratch I'm worried about... it's the condition of it... Tell me, have you tried to treat this wound at the lake yet?", Copper was more afraid to hear the answer than he was of the situation with the war.

Nadia winced at the memory. "Yes, he tried healing it in the lake, but nothing happened," she replied.

Volt's expression changed to curiosity. "What exactly do you know about this... pus, Mutt?" he pressed.

Copper jumped back more at the news he had so dreaded. banging his head on the wall behind him, "N-no... Mister Voltico... That.. That isn't pus... it looks like... the Greed!"

Nadia was near paralyzed with fear by this point. Volt took on an air of restrained panic. "Copper, you will tell me everything you know about the Greed right now." His voice was almost pleading.

Copper looked back down toward the ground pessimistically, "The Greed is still is a new discovery, not much has been proven definite... So far the medical staff have concluded only a few things... The greed is a communicable disease, or perhaps a parasite. It's spread through an open wound by an infected organism. Saliva, blood and other bodily fluids are almost sure to carry it. Each infected wound excretes a black ooze that scientists have been so far been unable to identify... So far, there's been no word on a cure, but the disease hasn't been indicated as fatal either. So far, the older victims have been exhibiting behavioral changes, but exactly what's been going on has been painfully vague..." Copper thought for a moment, "The medics at the manor surely must have some of the more recent reports on the Greed. Upon my return I'll fetch whatever I can find and bring it back here..." He paused a moment. "You're going to be alright, Mr. Voltico..."

Nadia didn't look at all relieved. She was about to say something when Volt gave her a look that made her think twice. "If you say so," he told Copper. "Now you need to get going, you never know when something might happen and you're needed." He walked over next to Nadia and turned to face Copper again. "We'll be leaving soon to try and quell the rebellious pokemon."

Copper stood alone for a moment, cursing himself for ever having mentioned the disease, especially in front of poor Nadia. Since he was a kit, Voltico and Nadia had been there teaching and protecting him when he walked the forest path. He was there at every one of Uriel's birthdays, and even after the child's death, Voltico nor Nadia had ever turned their backs on him. And now he had them worried for Voltico's life. Copper felt lower than he ever had before. He turned back to the passage and crawled back out, calling behind him, "I'll be here when you get back!" As he emerged from the burrow, the meowth dashed through the forest back to the manor, he now had 2 important tasks to complete and he wouldn't let anything interfere.

Scarcely 20 minutes later, Copper had returned to the manor to find it in a state of frenzy. Screaming filled the air with the familiar scent of smoke. Copper's heart began to pound as he ran for the door only to find it shut and locked, barricaded from the inside. Copper rused along the side of the wall, finding the gutterpipe and scaling it back to the roof, hopping down onto the stone arch surrounding the courtyard. Down below, poochyena and growlithe lay injured and frightened. Copper leaped to the ground, surveying the damage. wooden training dummies and racks of weapons had been burnt to ashes, almost the entire guard had been injured, the few who weren't lay in shock by the door where medics were examining them. Copper rushed to the medic station, where Cyrus sat on a bench, being bandaged by a nurse chansey. "Cyrus, what the hell happened here?!" Copper nearly shouted in alarm. "What happened was we were attacked!" The scizor screamed back at him. "A group of about 20 nuzleaf and monferno came in and attacked us right in the middle of our cooldown exercise! And where the hell were you in all this?!", He shouted, "Clearly you weren't at your post, because they made it in through YOUR tower!"

Copper could say nothing. Suddenly he grasped the severity of his action. "I... Went to confer with a resident of the forest... To try to discourage any rash action..."

"Well a whole lot of good that did us!", The Scizor shouted again, wincing in pain from his sudden movement.

"...Is everyone accounted for?" Copper asked, not sure what else to say.

"All of our troops, yes.", Cyrus said, looking away.

Copper looked at him for a moment. "And those not associated with the guard?"

Cyrus looked at him sadly. "We... have one missing..."

Copper stared into the Scizor's eyes, as if able to see the horrible truth within them. He then turned and dashed for the tower, his heart pounding in fear and anticipation. As he reached the top, he fell to his knees at what he saw.

Elian lay on the cold stone, Copper's spare rapier in her paw. She was covered in blood and several open wounds dressed her small body. Breathless she lay, eyes closed, unmoving, empty of all spirit or soul.

Copper's eyes welled up again with tears as he slumped to the ground, sobbing for the poor creature. She had taken his post for him... So he wouldn't get in trouble... And her benevolence was rewarded with death.

Volt and Nadia left almost immediately after Copper set out for the human settlement. The pair started their search by visiting some of the more popular gathering places. They asked what remaining pokemon there were for any information regarding the rebellious Flareon, and were eventually able to work out enough information to find out that he had last been seen about to engage in battle with a group of humans.

After about a half hour of walking, Volt was able to distinguish the sounds of battle. The last confirmation of the whereabouts of the Flareon's army was a rather gleeful cheer. The last few minutes it took them to reach the group were silent.

Volt stepped into the battlefield and swept his gaze across the gathered pokemon. Many of them were young, most not even evolved. Volt grunted his disapproval.

"They're so young," Nadia whispered. "They shouldn't be fighting in wars, they should be playing in the woods, or falling in love..."

"This is what happens when we fight," Volt replied. "I just hope we can stop this before it gets out of hand."

He spotted the Flareon he was looking for laying in the middle of the group, exhausted. A Staravia had apparently taken the reigns while their leader was out of commission. Approaching might cause alarm, but if that provoked them to attack, then maybe knocking a few of them around a little would dissuade them from the suicidal path they had chosen. He decided it would be best to come off as someone powerful, rather than stand his ground and call to them.

"Nadia, stay here," Volt instructed as he began approaching the band of rebels.

Stanley was the only member of the group fully awake when the jolteon approached. It had a scar on the left side of its face that seemed to be covered in a black ooze. However, Stanley didn't think that this mysterous pokemon's intentions were hostile. Stanley flew up from the center of the group and landed a few feet in front of the jolteon. "May I help you?" he asked in a friendly tone.

Volt didn't stop walking, and didn't shift his gaze. "I need to speak to your 'esteemed' leader," Volt told the Staravia as he walked towards the group. Volt didn't have to act anymore, his anger was keeping up his stride for him. Not only did they just let a potential enemy approach their group unimpeded, but they welcomed him.

Stanley was suddenly upset. The jolteon had completely ignored him, and also was starting to look angry for some reason. What was this about? And why was he so intent on talking to Flare only?

Stanley flew up and landed in front of the sleeping army. "I'm sorry," he said, "but Flare is resting right now. You see, we just had a tough battle against a group of invaders, and he managed to finish the whole ordeal by himself. What is it you wish to speak with him about?"

Copper staggered to his feet, confused, distraught and worried. Knees shaking beneath him, he shambled down the stairs toward the courtyard, reaching only halfway down before his legs gave out beneath him and he tumbled down the hard stone stairway. The meowth landed with a thud at the courtyard steps. A chansey rushed over to his side. "Are you alright Mister Copper?!" Copper pushed her away and got up to his feet. "Never mind me! There's a child up in that tower and she isn't breathing!" The chansey immediately moved past him, rushing up the stairs, clearing the path for the meowth to limp back toward the main building of the manor. The infirmary wouldn't be far from the entrance. As Copper approached the door, he was intercepted and seized by the scizor.

"Hold it right there. You're wanted to questioning about the incident that just unfolded!"

Copper jerked out from the pokemons grip, "You can ask all the questions you want after I take care of this."

The scizor drew a pair of shackles and lunged at the meowth, "I'm not authorized to let you out of my sight."

Copper bounded out of the way, striking the scizor in the back of the head with the butt of his rapier, rendering the creature unconscious. "You always had to do it the hard way, Cyrus..."

The meowth slipped through the door again, sliding his rapier back into its scabbard as he did so. Directly to the east, there laid the manor infirmary. Copper sneaked to the door, and picked the lock using his claw, an innate talent to any meowth. Within the room were a half dozens beds, cabinets, anatomical posters and other paraphernalia expected to be within an infirmary. More to Copper's interest were several filing cabinets stuffed to the brims with medical records, pharmaceutical files and information of all sorts. Hopping onto a wheeled stool, Copper rolled up to the "Medical Conditions" Box and scrolled down to the G's.

"Greed, there we are.", Copper said, grabbing the whole stack of folders and stuffing them into a nearby messenger bag. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, Copper burst out the door back into the courtyard, again scaling the side and rushing off into the forest. Within 30 minutes, he had found his way back into the den of his mentors. Frightened and exhausted, Copper set the bag on the ground beside him and laid down to rest, waiting for his friends' return.

A voice sounded all around him...no, not around him, in his head. "Help? I need more than help right now." He said cowering away from the giant Typhlosion, which was probably the biggest one he had ever seen, and ironically he saw a lot near the Steam Cave. "Who are you talking to little Synth? Your imaginary friends? During times like this kill or be killed, and I have heard roasted Leafeon is a great delecacy." Synth shuddered at the idea and turned back around and ran. The Typhlosion got on all fours and started to chase after him.