ToT: Missing in Action: Part 3

David sniffed at what was left of the scarf. "Smells like burning wood."

"You say it was delivered by a ninja?" said Aveline.

"It was drawn to our attention by a kunai" said Lin Lin. "That is how they communicate."

"I swear I've smelled this before" said David.

"Why would a ninja have anything to do with this?" asked Aveline.

Lin Lin shrugged. "I have no-"

"Help me out here, Lin Lin" said David. "Why do Penny's things smell like this?"

"I don't know that, either. Penny is the one with a good nose."

"If she was here, we wouldn't be having this conversation" said David.

Birch looked closely at the burnt items. He went white... metaphorically speaking. "Th-this looks just like what happens when you use a Forest Curse potion."

The room went quiet. "Are you sure?" asked David.

Birch shuddered. "Y-yes. I've seen it a lot..."

"Morgan" spat David. "Lin Lin, how soon can you and Birch run home and fetch your stuff?"

"Thirty seconds" said Lin Lin grimly.

"Let's hope we have that long" said Aveline as she and David belted on their gear. "Grab what you need. We'll go book transport."

                                                   

Morgan's hut looked as dreary as the last time they'd seen it. David, Lin Lin, and Aveline all hid in the bushes, out of sight.

Birch crept towards them. "They're tied up in the hut" he whispered. "There's a big cauldron boiling in the middle."

David snorted. "Does Morgan think this is some kind of storybook or something?"

"David, this really isn't the time" hissed Aveline.

"Also, Samara evolved" said Birch.

"She always did like to do things at the worst possible time" said David.

"Could we not just go in there?" said Lin Lin. "She would never use fire in such close quarters. It would hurt her too."

"No, it wouldn't" said David. "She's a Vulpix. Fire only makes them stronger."

"Oh...!" said Birch. "I can do something about that!" They huddled around him, and he started explaining his plan.

Inside the hut, Penelope was furiously chewing at her bonds. After a couple of minutes, she gave up. "They're magically reinforced, or something" she sighed. "Every time I damage them, they regenerate."

Samara, whose crest had fully grown out, was struggling furiously. "If I can just reach the knot..."

Suddenly, Morgan strode into the room, carrying a large bag, wearing the same sadistic grin that had been on her face for the past month. "Don't bother. The knots retie themselves too." She plopped the bag down on the floor. "Guess what day it is?"

"Your birthday?" said Samara. "Let us go and I'll bake you a cake."

"Today's the day we finish the potion" said Morgan, ignoring her. She unrolled the bag to reveal a large assortment of knives. "Your colleague Prier was kind enough to provide many of the ingredients."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa" said Samara. "Can't we talk about this?"

"We did" said Morgan, selecting a particularly nasty-looking serrated blade. "I said I was going to do it, and then you asked me not to, and now I'm doing it."

"I say we put it to a vote" said Samara. "All in favor of letting us go and not doing the potion, say 'aye'. Aye!"

"Aye" said Penelope, sarcastically.

"This isn't a democracy" snapped Morgan. "Besides, you've got a noble duty ahead." She approached Penelope with the knife raised. She grinned again. "You're going to help a man fall in love."

Suddenly, Birch materialized out of nowhere behind Morgan. "Leave her alone!" He spat a seed that hit Morgan squarely in the back. The witch glowed green for about a second.

Morgan whirled around and looked incredulously at the little Phantump. "You're here to save them?" She cackled. "That's a laugh." She waved her hand at Prier; a bolt of fire flitted towards him.

"Oh gosh!" Birch said, narrowly dodging the attack. Morgan cackled... and then grunted in shock when Penelope blasted her with a jet of fire. Morgan looked at her in disbelief at having actually been harmed by a fire attack. Penelope and Samara both grinned at her. Then, she looked back at Birch. A look of pure hatred crossed her face as she realized what exactly had happened.

"You..." Morgan fired a much larger fire bolt at Birch. It seemed to hit home, enveloping him in a massive fireball. And then it cleared, revealing Birch, alive and completely unharmed. Next to him stood Aveline, arms stretched out. They were surrounded by a shimmering, iridescent energy bubble. Suddenly, Morgan was hit in the shoulder by a red kunai. She yelped and dropped the serrated knife. Samara dove for it and started sawing away at her bonds. The fact that the ropes kept regenerating meant that it was slow going, but Morgan was too preoccupied to notice.

David stood in the front doorway, smirking. "This sort of thing always seems to happen in the nick of time."

"You don't know the half of it, David" said Samara.

Morgan spat, yanked the kunai out, and threw it back at him. He casually caught it, stuck it back in its sheath, and drew his combat knife. Morgan rose her arm to fire a bolt at him, and then staggered suddenly. Her eyes went wide as dinner plates. "Poison..." She bolted for the back door, grabbing and downing a vial labeled All-Purpose Antidote along the way.

She yanked open the door, only to run face-first into a mass of black and white fur. Wearing a sweater.

“Nĭ hăo.”

Lin Lin's fist caught Morgan squarely in the chest. The witch went flying and crashed into the wall right next to her front door.

"Fore!" shouted Samara, still sawing away at her bonds.

Morgan glanced at them. "Divide and conquer" she snarled, launching a large fire bolt at Samara and Penelope. Both were blasted back several feet, and were dazed and burnt when they came down. Morgan took the opportunity to run out the door.

"Not again..." groaned Penelope, passing out.

Lin Lin ran over. "Penny!... Samara!"

"Birch and I can handle them" said Aveline, rushing over, opening up her first aid kit, and applying an aqua ring to Penelope. "You two go after Morgan."

David and Lin Lin nodded and ran out the front door. They made it about five feet before a flame burst came at them from a nearby bush. David swung his arm into it, and it sputtered out. Frost rolled off of David's knuckles. David aimed an aura sphere at the offending bush. Another flame burst shot out to meet it. The two attacks met at the center, and the aura sphere powered through it and kept going. Morgan was blasted out into the open. The Lucario bore down mercilessly on the witch, alternating between punching her and slashing and stabbing at her with his knife. She managed to block most of the knife blows with her arms, but when she finally managed to blast him off with a fire bolt, she still had several nasty cuts on her, and one of her eyes was black.

David landed perfectly on his feet. Morgan fired several more fire bolts at him. He dodged them all easily. Then, Lin Lin brought both of her fists down on Morgan, hard. Morgan was dazed for a second, and then dug away.

David ran over to the hole, and waited until the ground next to Lin Lin started to break. He fired an aura sphere into the hole. Morgan was blasted upwards next to Lin Lin. Lin Lin swung her arm one last time, and Morgan went sailing over the treetops.

"Nice arm" said David. He made as if to set off after Morgan, when suddenly there was a crackling sound behind them. Morgan's stray bolts had set several trees on fire, and it was spreading quickly.

"Forget her, David" said Lin Lin. "We need to get out of here."

David looked at where Morgan had sailed off. "Yeah. You're right."

They ran back to the hut. The fire had gotten uncomfortably close.

"How are they?" said Lin Lin.

"They'll live" said Aveline, putting her first aid tools away. Both Samara and Penelope were still unconscious. "But they'll need proper treatment. You know, the kind you only get from an actual doctor."

"If we get out of here" said a panicky Birch, looking worriedly at the flames.

Lin Lin picked up Samara and Penelope and draped them over her shoulders. "Don't worry, Birch. We'll make it. NOW RUN!"

The flames had spread quickly; the path out was completely ablaze. Aveline growled, stuck out her hand, and fired an ice beam at the path. The jet of supercooled water molecules cut a swathe through the flames, leaving a clear path. "Go!" she yelled.

They went as fast as they could, but the fire kept overtaking them. Aveline and David kept having to clear the way with ice beam and aura sphere. All six of them had bashes and burns when they made it out of the forest, but they were alive.

"You guys look like you've been through hell" said the Zebstrika pulling their cart.

"Not far from the truth" said David. "Get us to Tabira."

                                                     

"How are Samara and Penelope doing?" asked Sela.

"Still burnt" said David. "Constantly mouthing off about it, in Samara's case."

"They're doing pretty well, then" said Resin. "A month in the captivity of a witch, followed by being carried through a forest fire, isn't an easy thing to endure." He sighed. "I don't know what to think about what Prier's done."

"What's to think about?" said David. "The brat needs to be sat down hard. So what else is new?"

"It's more than that" said Sela. "According to Samara and Penelope, his stated reason for doing this seems to have been that he wanted to learn more about magic."

"You'll forgive me if I find that justification unbelievably weak, ma'am" said David.

"And whatever his motivations may have been, he helped a witch and nearly got Penny and Samara killed" said Lin Lin.

"As I understand it, tailing him was entirely Samara's idea" said Resin. "In fact, he specifically asked you to stay out of it."

"He's got a point..." said Aveline.

"Are you making excuses for him?" said David.

"No, of course not" said Sela. "But we shouldn't write off Prier entirely for this. It's very probable that he did not quite understand what he was doing."

"Then what are we going to do?" asked Birch.

"You are going to go check up on your teammates again" said Sela, "and not worry about this for the next while. Resin and I will consider what to do about this whole mess."

"And when you've decided?" asked David.

"You'll find out at the conference" said Sela.