Taken Alive

Chapter 69

Taken Alive

The warning came from Absol.

Gray noticed because Absol had been restless all morning, though not in the way Gray had learned to associate with Bloodmoon. The difference was subtle enough that he had spent the first hour convincing himself he was imagining it.

They were positioned farther north than the previous observation site, on a low ridge where the old wetland narrowed between two wooded rises. The morning was gray and windless, the sky low enough that it seemed to press down on the trees. Snow had stopped sometime before dawn, leaving the forest under a clean layer that muted everything except the occasional crack of overloaded branches. Bloodmoon and the three Teddiursa had appeared almost forty minutes earlier, moving through the surviving peatland at an unhurried pace. Nothing about their behavior had suggested agitation.

Absol disagreed.

He stood several meters behind Gray and Lyra, facing east rather than toward the Ursaluna below. His body remained still, but the fur along his shoulders had lifted. Every few seconds he shifted his weight as though some direction in the forest had become uncomfortable.

Gray lowered his binoculars.

“What is it?”

Absol did not look at him.

Lyra followed Gray’s gaze. “Bloodmoon?”

“No.”

She glanced toward the basin. Bloodmoon was half visible between alder trunks, one of the Teddiursa digging near him while the other two worked farther downslope. “You sure?”

Gray had spent enough years with Absol to know when he was sensing a disaster and when he simply disliked something. Unfortunately, Absol had never developed a method for translating the difference into human language.

“No,” Gray admitted.

He stood slowly.

Bastiodon, who had been resting behind the fallen trunk they were using as cover, lifted his head at once. Gray had brought both of them today because Absol’s behavior had been strange before they even left the station. He had almost sent Lyra back twice and had given up both times after realizing she would only follow at a more irritating distance.

Absol’s head snapped left, and before Gray could follow the motion, the forest flashed white.

The sound arrived half a second later.

Something struck Bloodmoon from the side with enough force to lift him completely off his feet. Gray saw the entire impact through the gap between two trees: Bloodmoon’s body twisting in the air, one forelimb thrown outward as the blow carried him sideways through a stand of alder. Branches snapped beneath his weight before he hit the frozen ground shoulder-first hard enough to burst snow upward around him in a broad white plume.

Lyra made a strangled sound beside Gray. “What the hell was that?”

Gray was already moving.

The Teddiursa scattered in three different directions the instant Bloodmoon went down. One vanished beneath a spruce, another ran uphill without looking back, and the notched-ear cub froze for one terrible second in the open before bolting after the others.

Bloodmoon tried to rise.

A second pulse struck the ground beside him before he could get his weight underneath himself. This one carried a web of bright conductive lines that unfolded in midair as it traveled. The net spread across his shoulders and forelimbs, tightened, and slammed him back into the snow. Red-white light flickered along the restraint cables, and Bloodmoon’s entire body seized hard enough that Gray could see the tension even at this distance.

Gray stopped only long enough to understand what he was looking at.

This was not a weapon meant to kill him. It was a capture system.

Something large began moving through the eastern trees. Branches broke first, then the machine itself pushed into view.

It was too heavy and too deliberate to be Ranger equipment. The main chassis rode low over articulated treads, armored panels curving around a central restraint rig mounted on top. As it entered the basin, a pair of stabilizing arms unfolded from the sides and drove themselves into the frozen ground. Gray could see cable housings, targeting sensors, and a broad emitter array already angled toward Bloodmoon.

The entire design was specialized. This was not improvised poaching equipment and not something somebody had purchased cheaply and assembled in a garage. Whoever had brought it here had expected the target to fight back and had spent serious money making sure that would not matter.

Lyra had caught up behind him. “Gray.”

“I see it.”

Another sound rolled overhead before either of them could say more.

Gray looked up.

Salamence dropped through the low cloud cover almost vertically, wings spreading only at the last moment. The downdraft struck the trees hard enough to strip snow from the branches in sheets. Absol lowered his body immediately, every line of him tightening. Bastiodon stepped in front of Gray and Lyra without being told.

A woman stood on the machine.

Long gray coat. Dark visor. Gloves. No visible hurry.

She had one hand braced against the railing while the other rested near a control panel mounted beside her. Her posture was so calm that for a moment Gray hated her more for that than for the machine pinning Bloodmoon to the ground.

Salamence landed beside the platform.

Bloodmoon roared.

The sound rolled through the basin and shook snow loose from the trees around them. He heaved upward against the restraint cables, and one of the anchors tore several centimeters through frozen earth before catching again. The machine compensated almost instantly, its stabilizers grinding deeper while the cables tightened across his body.

The woman did not flinch.

“Stay out of this, Professor.”

Gray stopped.

Not because he intended to obey.

Because she knew who he was.

Lyra heard it too. “You know her?”

“No.”

The woman turned her head slightly toward them. “You should.”

Gray looked from her to the machine, then to Salamence and the deliberate path the equipment had cut through the trees. Whoever she was, she had entered a League-restricted area with industrial capture technology and enough confidence to attack a Pokémon capable of overpowering experienced trainers.

Absol growled.

Gray did not need the name yet. He knew enough.

“Bastiodon,” he said.

Bastiodon stepped forward.

“Absol.”

Absol moved to Gray’s left, head low and eyes fixed on Salamence.

The woman’s mouth tightened almost imperceptibly beneath the visor. “Last warning.”

Gray looked past her at Bloodmoon.

The Ursaluna had stopped trying to tear free.

That worried him more than the struggle had.

His body trembled beneath the restraint field, muscles locking and releasing in uneven pulses while he remained conscious on the ground. The machine was not simply holding him in place. It was interfering with movement somehow, overwhelming voluntary control without knocking him out.

Gray felt something cold settle behind his ribs.

“It isn’t yours.”

The woman turned fully toward him. “What?”

Gray did not raise his voice. “The Pokémon.”

For a moment, nothing changed in her expression.

Then she smiled.

It was not pleasant.

“I know.”

That answer told him everything.

Salamence moved first.

It launched from the ground with a single violent wingbeat, snow exploding beneath it. Gray had just enough time to read the angle of the climb before understanding where it intended to go.

“Bastiodon, left. Stone Edge.”

Bastiodon slammed one forefoot into the frozen ground.

The earth between them erupted. Jagged pillars of stone punched upward through snow and soil in a rising line, but Gray had not placed them directly beneath Salamence. They tore through the airspace the Dragon-type was climbing toward instead, forcing it to react. Salamence twisted around the first spike, folded one wing to slip past the second, then climbed harder to clear the rest.

Exactly where Gray wanted it.

“Absol. Dark Pulse.”

Black-violet energy gathered around Absol’s mouth and burst outward in a concentrated beam. Salamence saw it late and banked hard, but not quickly enough to avoid the edge of the attack clipping one wing.

It was not enough to bring Salamence down, but Gray had not expected it to be. The hit forced the Dragon-type higher and widened the distance between it and the machine.

Then the machine fired again.

Gray heard the charge building before he saw the emitter rotate.

“Down!”

Lyra hit the ground beside him.

Bastiodon turned broadside just as the pulse struck his armor with a violent crack of light. Gray felt the concussion through his chest. Bastiodon slid backward nearly half a meter, claws gouging trenches through the frozen surface before he caught himself and stayed upright.

Gray’s stomach dropped anyway.

The machine had hit Bloodmoon hard enough to throw him. Bastiodon had just taken the same system across armor and still moved, but Gray had no intention of finding out how many times he could do that.

“Keep moving.”

Bastiodon shifted left immediately. Absol broke right.

Salamence descended from above, mouth opening as flame gathered behind its teeth.

“Not the Pokémon,” the woman said sharply. “The people.”

Gray heard Lyra swear behind him.

“Bastiodon, Rock Slide. High.”

Bastiodon drove both forefeet down.

Stone tore upward from the slope rather than the basin. The attack struck beneath a loaded shelf of snow and fractured frozen soil along the ridge edge, bringing down a curtain of rock, ice, and white powder directly into Salamence’s approach.

The Fire-type attack detonated through it.

Steam and pulverized snow filled the air so completely that Gray lost sight of Salamence.

“Absol, move.”

Absol was already gone.

Gray saw him again only when a crescent of pale energy sliced through the cloud.

Psycho Cut.

The blade struck one of the machine’s forward sensor clusters. Glass and metal burst outward in a spray of fragments, and the woman’s head snapped toward the damage.

“Again.”

A second crescent followed immediately.

This time the machine reacted. An armored panel rotated into the attack’s path, and Psycho Cut struck with a metallic shriek before carving a shallow line across the plating.

Salamence exploded out of the steam cloud before Gray could reassess.

Too fast.

He saw the tail swing and had barely enough time to shout.

“Bastiodon!”

Bastiodon turned.

Salamence hit him.

The impact sounded like two vehicles colliding.

One side of Bastiodon’s body lifted clear of the ground as the blow twisted him. Armor scraped across frozen soil while Salamence’s momentum drove him backward through a young spruce.

Gray’s vision narrowed.

“Bastiodon!”

Bastiodon planted one foreleg, then the other. The spruce snapped beneath his weight, but he stopped moving.

He was still standing.

Gray exhaled once.

Salamence climbed again.

The woman on the platform gave another command. Gray did not catch the words over the noise, but the capture machine’s emitter tracked back toward Bloodmoon.

“No.”

He pointed.

“Absol. Sensor mast. Dark Pulse.”

Absol fired.

The attack crossed the basin at an angle and struck the upper targeting array just as it began to glow. The machine discharged anyway, but the pulse went wild. Instead of hitting Bloodmoon, it carved through a stand of alder nearly thirty meters away. Trees vanished in a burst of snow and splintered wood.

The woman turned toward Gray again.

There was no amusement in her face now.

“Salamence.”

This time the Dragon-type came straight at Absol, and Gray understood the intention immediately. Salamence had stopped trying to control the space around them and was committing to the collision, using speed and mass to remove Absol from the fight before he could keep cutting apart the machine’s support systems. Absol was fast enough to evade plenty of attacks, but not if Salamence got close enough to turn the exchange into simple momentum.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Right!”

Absol sprang sideways, claws tearing through the top layer of snow as he pushed off. Salamence adjusted in midair almost instantly, folding one wing and dropping its shoulder to follow the movement. Gray saw the escape angle disappearing before Absol did and snapped out the next command.

“Snarl!”

Absol twisted while still moving and released a violent wave of dark sound. The attack struck Salamence almost head-on, distorting the air between them and disrupting the charge just enough to make the Dragon-type’s flight line wobble. Absol hit the ground hard, rolled through the snow, and slipped beneath one wing as Salamence tore through the place he had occupied a heartbeat earlier. A tree behind him shattered under the missed charge, its upper half disappearing into the brush in a shower of bark and snow.

Lyra had taken cover behind a fallen trunk and was staring at Gray with an expression he did not have time to interpret. “Gray!”

“I know.”

“That thing is shooting at us!”

“I noticed.”

The woman raised one hand toward the machine, and a rear compartment opened beneath the armored housing. Another set of restraint cables fed outward from inside, bright contacts unfolding at the ends as the targeting assembly rotated. Gray followed the movement and realized, with an immediate surge of anger, that the machine was no longer aiming at Bloodmoon.

It was aiming at Bastiodon.

“Absolutely not.”

He moved before thinking and nearly lost his footing in the churned snow. “Stone Edge! Under the left stabilizer!”

Bastiodon struck the ground. Rock punched upward through frozen soil directly beneath one of the machine’s deployed support arms, hitting it from below with enough force to wrench the joint out of alignment. The stabilizer twisted upward, metal buckling around the mounting point, and the entire chassis lurched several degrees to one side. The woman grabbed the railing with one hand to keep from being thrown off.

Gray saw the machine’s reaction and understood the weakness at once. The stabilizers were doing more than keeping the chassis level. They were compensating for the recoil and shifting load created by the capture rig every time it discharged. The machine was broad, heavy, and low to the ground, but the restraint system on top changed the balance enough that those supports mattered.

He looked across the chassis to the opposite side and started working through the geometry. Two primary stabilizers. Wide base. Low center of gravity, certainly, but not low enough.

“Absol!”

Absol turned toward him while Salamence climbed through the trees to regain altitude.

“Psycho Cut. Right-side joint.”

The pale crescent left Absol almost immediately and crossed the basin at an angle. It struck the exposed articulation point of the rear stabilizer assembly and split the metal around the joint. The leg folded inward beneath the chassis, and the machine lurched again, harder this time.

The woman swore and caught herself against the railing with both hands.

Now she understood what Gray was doing.

Salamence dropped toward Bastiodon before Gray could exploit the opening any further. He barely had time to shout, “Intercept him!” before the Dragon-type slammed into Bastiodon’s flank with enough force to spin him nearly halfway around. Bastiodon roared as his feet tore furrows through snow and frozen peat, but Salamence did not disengage. Its jaws clamped around the edge of his armor and held.

Gray recognized the tactic immediately. Salamence was using Bastiodon’s armor as leverage, getting purchase on the heaviest part of the body so it could drag the slower Pokémon off balance. Bastiodon seemed to understand at the same moment. He dropped his weight and planted himself.

“Now.”

Bastiodon drove his head forward. The shield-like faceplate smashed into Salamence’s chest at close range with a deep, ugly impact that broke the Dragon-type’s grip and sent it staggering sideways.

“Ancient Power!”

Rock and frozen earth ripped free around Bastiodon and launched upward in a burst. Salamence took two impacts before it managed to get airborne again. One struck the underside of a wing and knocked it into a rough roll. It recovered before hitting the trees, but the maneuver cost altitude and forced it farther from the machine.

Gray did not watch it climb. His attention stayed on the chassis.

It was still tilted, still compensating, and still pinning Bloodmoon.

Bloodmoon was moving again.

One foreleg shifted beneath him, slowly at first, then the other. For a moment it looked as though he might actually force himself upright despite the restraint system. The field pulsed before he could complete the motion, and his entire body locked hard enough that he struck the ground on one knee, claws tearing through the snow as he fought against whatever the machine was doing to his muscles.

Movement at the edge of the basin caught Gray’s eye.

The notched-ear Teddiursa had come back.

His blood went cold. “Lyra!”

She saw it at the same moment. “I’ve got them.”

“No, don’t approach.”

“I know.”

She moved laterally instead, placing herself where the cub could see her without closing the distance or cutting off its escape. The Teddiursa froze between the trees and looked toward Bloodmoon, then toward Lyra. Gray had just enough time to imagine it running directly into the fight before it backed away and vanished into the forest again.

He returned his attention to the machine.

The woman had changed something on the control panel. The restraint field around Bloodmoon brightened, the cables pulling tighter as power surged through them. Bloodmoon roared again, and the sound had changed. There was pain in it now.

Gray felt something in himself shift.

He did not stop to decide whether it was anger, fear, or simple refusal. The distinction did not matter.

“Bastiodon.”

Bastiodon turned toward him.

Gray pointed at the machine. “Bring it down.”

There was no hesitation.

Bastiodon charged.

The machine fired almost immediately, its emitter flashing as the pulse crossed the basin. Gray saw it coming and shouted, “Guard!”

Bastiodon lowered his head and kept moving. The pulse struck squarely across the front armor, light wrapping around the shield plates in a violent burst bright enough to throw hard shadows across the snow. For one terrible second Bastiodon slowed so sharply that Gray thought his legs were going to give out beneath him.

Then he kept moving.

The machine tried to rotate away, but the damaged stabilizer dragged through the ground and pulled the chassis off line. Bastiodon hit the side before it could recover. Metal screamed under the impact, and the entire platform shifted nearly a meter through the basin. One tread ground sideways through snow and peat while the broken support folded farther underneath it. The woman was thrown hard against the railing and barely kept her footing.

Salamence turned in the air.

“Absol, keep Salamence off him!”

Absol fired Dark Pulse after Dark Pulse across the open space between them. He was not trying to knock Salamence out anymore. He did not need to. Each attack forced the Dragon-type to twist, climb, or break its approach before it could line up cleanly on Bastiodon. Salamence slipped between two trees to avoid one beam, took another across the tail, and caught the edge of a third along the ribs while trying to circle back.

Gray moved closer to Bastiodon, not because it was sensible, but because the noise had become too great for anything else.

“Again!”

Bastiodon backed half a step, braced, and drove forward.

This time his armored head slid beneath the damaged lower edge of the chassis. Gray saw the machine lift slightly, enough to expose more of the undercarriage but not enough to break its balance completely.

“Lower!”

Bastiodon dropped his front end and forced his center of mass beneath the platform while his hind legs dug deep into the peat. The frozen surface broke under the pressure, and dark soil showed around his feet as he pushed. The machine tilted farther. The restraint rig flickered, and Bloodmoon managed to move one shoulder before the field surged again.

The woman reached inside her coat.

Gray saw the shape in her hand and recognized it as a compact weapon before she had fully drawn it.

“Absol!”

Absol turned.

She fired.

The shot was meant for Gray.

Absol intercepted.

The energy bolt struck him across the side and threw him several meters through the snow. Gray’s breath stopped as Absol hit the ground hard and lay still.

“Absol!”

Gray took one step toward him.

Salamence descended between them.

He stopped.

The Dragon-type landed hard enough to shake the ground, wings half spread and mouth open, teeth bared as it placed itself directly between Gray and Absol. The woman’s voice carried across the basin behind it.

“You should have walked away.”

Gray looked past Salamence.

For a second he saw nothing.

Then Absol’s chest moved.

Once.

He was alive.

Gray forced himself to think.

Bastiodon still had the machine partially lifted and was fighting to keep it there. Bloodmoon was pulling against the weakened field. Salamence stood between Gray and Absol. Lyra remained behind cover, with the Teddiursa somewhere beyond the tree line. The woman still had a weapon, and every direction he looked offered a different way for the situation to get worse.

The field was bad.

That was all right.

Bad fields were familiar.

“Bastiodon,” Gray said.

Bastiodon answered with a strained grunt from beneath the machine’s weight. His front end was wedged under the damaged chassis, armor scraping against twisted metal as the platform leaned farther off balance.

“Hold.”

Gray turned his attention back to Salamence.

The Dragon-type had stopped advancing. It stood between Gray and Absol, wings half spread, watching for the first sign that Gray would move toward his Pokémon. Gray stayed where he was and let the silence stretch for half a second, long enough to make Salamence commit to waiting.

“Stone Edge. Behind.”

Bastiodon slammed one hind foot into the ground.

Salamence reacted to the sound and looked toward him.

The stone did not erupt beneath the Dragon-type. It burst from the frozen earth several meters behind it instead, rising in a jagged wall that cut off the easiest retreat. Salamence recoiled from the sudden obstruction and shifted forward, exactly as Gray had intended, toward the narrow gap between two trees.

Toward Absol.

Gray saw one red eye open against the snow.

“Now.”

Absol moved from the ground.

Psycho Cut flashed upward at point-blank range before Salamence could turn. The pale blade struck across the underside of its jaw and snapped its head back hard enough to expose the throat for an instant. Absol rolled away immediately, putting distance between himself and the heavier Pokémon.

The relief that hit Gray was sharp enough to hurt.

“Dark Pulse!”

Absol fired from the ground.

The attack struck Salamence squarely in the chest and drove it backward into the newly raised stone. The Dragon-type hit with enough force to fracture the outer edge of the formation and roared as loose rock showered down around it.

Gray did not give it time to recover. He pointed toward Bastiodon.

“Push.”

Bastiodon heaved.

The machine tipped farther.

The woman screamed something that Gray could not make out over the sound of metal grinding against stone. The remaining stabilizer tore free of the ground, ripping a trench through the frozen soil as it came loose.

For one impossible moment the entire capture platform balanced on a single tread and the edge of Bastiodon’s armor.

Then gravity took it.

The machine crashed onto its side with enough force to send the sound rolling through the basin like thunder. Armored panels tore loose on impact, one of the restraint emitters shattered against the ground, and sparks burst from the exposed housing.

The cables around Bloodmoon went dark.

The Ursaluna collapsed fully into the snow.

Gray’s eyes went to him immediately. Bloodmoon was still breathing. His head moved slightly, and the red eye remained open, but he did not try to rise.

The woman had been thrown clear when the platform overturned. She hit the snow beside the wreck, rolled once, and came up on one knee. Salamence broke away from Absol the moment it saw her fall and flew toward her.

Gray should have stopped there.

He knew that later.

In the moment, he saw the woman reaching for the compact weapon again. He saw Bloodmoon lying on the ground behind her, Absol struggling to get his feet beneath him, and Bastiodon breathing hard beneath armor scored by repeated impacts.

Then he looked at the machine.

Several tons of overturned metal sat loose in the snow, half supported by broken roots and the wreckage of its own stabilizers.

“Bastiodon.”

Bastiodon looked toward him.

Gray pointed at the chassis.

“Throw it.”

Lyra’s head snapped toward him. “Gray—”

Bastiodon was already moving.

He drove the front of his armor beneath the overturned chassis and forced his head deeper into the gap. The machine shifted several centimeters with a grinding shriek.

The woman looked up.

For the first time since she had arrived, Gray saw surprise break through her composure.

Bastiodon lifted.

It was not clean. The wreck was too large and badly balanced for that. It dragged through the snow as Bastiodon forced it upward, gouging trenches through roots and broken stone while twisted metal screamed against his armor. His hind legs sank into the softer peat almost to the ankle, and Gray could see the strain running through his entire body as he fought to keep the wreck moving.

“Again!”

Bastiodon drove forward.

The machine rolled.

It did not sail through the air like a thrown object. The result was uglier than that. One shattered tread struck the ground first and turned the entire chassis into a violent, uncontrolled arc, the remaining weight coming over behind it with terrifying momentum.

The woman tried to move.

Salamence lunged toward her.

The wreck clipped the ground beside them and exploded into debris. Snow, broken branches, metal plating, and shattered support pieces burst outward across the basin.

A heavy support beam struck the woman across the side.

She disappeared beneath the spray.

Salamence roared.

Gray’s stomach dropped.

For half a second, he thought he had killed her.

Then something moved beneath the debris.

Barely.

Salamence reached her first. The Dragon-type shoved aside a broken panel with one forelimb and uncovered the woman beneath it. She rolled onto her back, one arm held tightly against her body. Blood ran from beneath the edge of her visor and down one side of her face.

She tried to stand and failed the first time.

Salamence lowered itself beside her.

Using the Dragon-type for support, she tried again and managed to get upright.

Gray did not feel relief exactly, but something in his chest unclenched.

Lyra came up beside him, staring first at the wreck, then at Gray. “What the hell?”

He did not answer.

His attention had shifted past her.

Bloodmoon was standing.

Slowly.

The Ursaluna rose one limb at a time, every movement stiff from whatever the restraint field had done to him. Snow clung to his fur, and lengths of dead cable still hung across one shoulder and dragged behind him as he moved.

His red eye fixed first on the ruined machine.

Then on the woman.

Salamence saw him too.

Its posture changed immediately. The wings spread wider, body shifting between Bloodmoon and its trainer while the head dropped into a defensive angle.

The woman turned.

For the first time, her calm cracked completely.

She looked at Bloodmoon, then at Gray, then at Bastiodon and Absol. The calculation took less than a second. Whatever she had expected when she entered the basin, this was no longer a fight she could finish.

She climbed onto Salamence with difficulty.

Lyra had her tablet out now.

“Gray.”

He did not look away from the woman. “What?”

“I have the League alert.”

“Later.”

“No. You need to know this now.”

The woman settled into place behind Salamence’s neck, one arm held uselessly against her side.

Lyra lowered her voice. “That’s Hunter J.”

Gray knew the name.

He did not know her personally, but professionally was more than enough.

International Pokémon hunter. Rare-species trafficking. High-risk captures. Multiple regional investigations. Reports of protected Pokémon disappearing from reserves and technology designed to neutralize targets normal poachers would never attempt to approach.

Gray looked at the wrecked capture machine.

Of course.

Of course she had come prepared for Bloodmoon.

J heard Lyra say the name, and her mouth tightened beneath the visor.

Gray stepped forward.

“Don’t come back.”

J laughed once, but the movement hurt her badly enough that Gray saw the pain cut through her expression.

“You think this was about you?”

“No.”

Gray looked toward Bloodmoon.

“That’s why you lost.”

Her expression changed.

Only slightly.

It was enough.

Salamence launched before she answered. The first beat of its wings tore snow from the ground and broke branches overhead as it forced its way upward through the trees.

Absol gathered another Dark Pulse.

Gray raised a hand.

“No.”

Absol let the energy die.

Salamence climbed through the canopy with J held low against its neck. Within seconds they disappeared into the low cloud cover, leaving only falling snow and the fading sound of wings behind them.

The forest went quiet slowly rather than all at once. The sound of Salamence’s wings faded first, retreating into the cloud cover until Gray could no longer tell whether he was still hearing them or only remembering the noise. The ruined machine continued sparking for several seconds after that, brief blue-white flashes jumping from exposed wiring before even those stopped. Snow drifted through the torn canopy and settled across broken branches, churned peat, and twisted metal.

Only then did Gray become aware of his own breathing, then Lyra’s beside him, and finally the heavier rhythm of Bastiodon drawing air through his nose after the fight.

Absol was limping toward him.

Gray crossed the distance immediately and dropped beside him, both hands going carefully to the scorched side where the shot had landed. “Show me.”

Absol tried to straighten.

“Don’t.”

The fur along one flank had been singed nearly flat. Gray worked his fingers beneath it as gently as he could, checking the ribs one by one, then the surrounding muscle for swelling or anything that shifted where it should not. He found no obvious instability, which was enough to keep the worst possibilities out of his head for the moment. Absol growled when Gray pressed near one point along the side.

“Bruising.”

Absol gave him a look.

“Yes, I know that hurts.”

Lyra crouched opposite him, close enough to help but careful not to crowd Absol. “Is he okay?”

“He needs imaging.”

“That wasn’t what I asked.”

“He’s standing.”

“Gray.”

He looked at her properly then.

She was pale, and not from the cold.

Gray glanced back down at Absol, who was irritated enough to resist being examined and alert enough to glare at him for touching the sore area. “He is probably okay.”

Lyra exhaled, some of the tension finally leaving her shoulders.

Then Bloodmoon growled.

Every muscle in Gray’s body tightened at once.

He turned slowly.

Bloodmoon stood roughly thirty meters away amid the wreckage of the capture system. Dead cables lay around him in coils, and one remained caught across his shoulder, dragging through the snow behind him. The Teddiursa were nowhere visible.

Gray rose carefully.

“Bastiodon.”

Bastiodon responded automatically and started toward him.

“No.”

Bastiodon stopped.

Gray pointed toward the ground. “Stay.”

Absol tried to step forward despite the limp.

“You too.”

Lyra rose beside Gray, and he could feel her watching him without needing to turn.

“Do not move quickly,” he said.

“Wasn’t planning to.”

Bloodmoon looked at Bastiodon first.

Gray understood why. Bastiodon had been the largest thing moving through the fight besides Salamence and the machine itself. His armor was scratched, blackened in places, and smeared with dark peat where he had driven himself under the capture platform.

Bloodmoon’s gaze shifted next to Absol.

Then to Gray.

Gray had no idea what Bloodmoon saw when he looked at him.

A participant in the fight, perhaps. Another threat. The human whose Pokémon had attacked the machine restraining him. The human whose Bastiodon had thrown several tons of wreckage at the person trying to capture him. Maybe none of those categories existed in any form Bloodmoon would recognize.

Bloodmoon took one step forward.

Bastiodon’s claws dug into the snow.

Gray heard it and kept his voice level. “Stay.”

Bastiodon obeyed.

Bloodmoon took another step.

Lyra’s voice dropped beside him. “Gray.”

“I know.”

The Ursaluna stopped.

His red eye remained fixed on Gray.

Gray resisted the urge to say anything. Thank you would have been absurd. You’re welcome would have been worse. He had no way to know whether Bloodmoon understood what they had done, whether he associated Gray with the destruction of the capture machine, or whether he only recognized the same human who had spent several days watching the edges of his territory.

So Gray let the moment remain what it was.

Bloodmoon looked away first.

A soft, high sound came from the trees.

Teddiursa.

The notched-ear cub appeared beneath a low spruce.

Bloodmoon turned immediately.

The cub ran to him and stopped against one foreleg. A second Teddiursa emerged farther back, followed by the third. Bloodmoon lowered his head and briefly nosed the first cub before lifting it again.

Gray felt the tension begin to leave his shoulders by degrees.

Bloodmoon did not gather them in any overt way. He simply started walking at a pace slow enough for all three to remain near him. The notched-ear cub stayed closest, moving almost directly alongside one foreleg while the others followed several steps behind.

Gray expected that to be the end of it.

Before the trees could take them, Bloodmoon stopped.

He turned his head and looked back.

Gray felt Lyra go completely still beside him.

The look lasted only a few seconds, and Gray refused to put anything into it that he could not justify. There was no gratitude he could prove, no recognition he could measure, and certainly no agreement that they had somehow become allies. There was only attention: Bloodmoon looking back at the humans and Pokémon who had just fought beside him before finally turning away.

Then he followed the Teddiursa deeper into the wetland.

Gray watched until the trees swallowed all four of them.

For a while, nobody spoke.

The ruined capture machine lay on its side behind them, half buried beneath snow and broken branches. One tread still turned slowly against nothing, clicking every few seconds until friction finally brought it to a stop.

Lyra looked at Gray.

“You threw a machine at her.”

Gray kept watching the place where Bloodmoon had disappeared. “Bastiodon did.”

“You told him to.”

“Yes.”

“That was several tons.”

“Yes.”

She stared at him until Gray finally turned.

“What?”

Lyra opened her mouth, reconsidered whatever she had been about to say, and shook her head instead.

Then she looked toward Absol.

“We need to get him checked.”

Gray nodded.

That, at least, was simple.