Nick heard rustling from the branches - it wasn't in his mind this time; it was real, less real than it had seemed in his mind, but real. He squeezed little Robbie tightly and ran as hard as he could to escape the forest. Keith, hearing the sound, shot a glance upward, and his face grew pale. He looked quickly back at the three kids and Nick, who ran on foot, and shouted,

"Come on, guys! This is bad!" Having outpaced the rest, he momentarily broke his sprint to let them reach him, then dashed forward again. Nick's mind's eye sensed a terror lurking in the sky. Robbie squeeled, being jolted by Nick's rapid motion,

"What's happening?!"

"I - I don't know!" Nick answered loudly, though Robbie was scarcely a foot from his mouth. Nick couldn't think. He just ran. The other three kids, Casey in behind, struggled to stay with Nick and Keith, starting to wail, crying from fear.

"Slow down!"one pleaded. Nick knew not which.

"NO!" Keith answered furiously. "We have to get out of the forest! You can't stop!"

Nick heard a crackelling, followed by a voice breaking through the wails of the children.

"Josh?! Sam?! What's happening? ...Answer me! This is Mr. Beddingfield! Come in, kids!" What?, wondered Nick, glancing frantically about for the speaker. Keith ground to a halt, whirled around, and ordered to no one in particular,

"Give me your radio now!"

Nick jerked a small black object from Robbie's waste and tossed it to Keith.

"Keep running!" Keith commanded the rest of the group, who had also stopped. Obeying without any question, four of the children, including Jenna, sprinted on. Nick froze, paralyzed by a keen sense of sheer terror.

"Get down!!" he cried as he dropped Robbie and lunged at Keith. Colliding, he knocked Keith to the ground just as something swooped at his head from the trees. The radio flew from Keith's hand, hit the forest floor, and skidded off the trail into an area of dense undergrowth.

Keith jumped up, saw the swooping creature retreating into the trees above, and stared at Nick, pale.

"You just saved me!" he stammered.

"Not now!" cried Nick. "The radio!" Keith returned to the present, saw Robbie lying crying on the ground, and hurriedly explained,

"No time. It's a Spearow attack! We have to stop the leader!"

"What?!" Nick asked, as the canopy overhead exploded with a mass off birds, swooping at the boys., like the downpour of rain that follows the first lone drop. The deafening sound made by their screeches and the rushing of their wings made communication almost impossible, nearly drowning out all thought. Without answering Nick, Keith instinctively launched himself at Robbie, scooping him from the ground, from beneath the onslaught of Spearows. Nick was for an instant paralyzed, then vainly shouted to run, flailing his arms wildly at hundreds of swooping Spearow while stumbling after Keith and Robbie.

A Spearow clawed Nick and Nick suddenly shouted out in pain as he felt a light flow of blood emerge from his arm. Nick wanted to stop and hold his wound, but enough sense was left in him to keep running through the cloud of screeching birds. Run, run, run! he told himself, following the receding figures of Keith and Robbie ahead of him.

Keith felt claws and beaks drumming at his back, seering him with pain. But he kept running, knowing survival depended on swift feet and a cool head. It was hard to think and run while holding the terrified Robbie, with hundreds of angry pokémon attacking, but Keith knew what to do, and all the stifling chaos created by the birds' cries couldn't drive it out of his head.

Head down, he told himself. Wait for the leader to emerge. Keep running! Keith looked about in all directions, peering through the fog of birds. Nick was still behind him running. He sighed with relief, but was cut short as his head was struck by a Spearow. He tensed his body and and reinforced his speed.

Shield Robbie, he told himself, following his instinct to protect a helpless child. Robbie was terrified into dead silence, with his eyes wide open. Nick and Keith ran on.

The airborn eye watched the flock of the creature's smaller brethren attack the scurrying forms on the ground. The forms were not falling. They were escaping. They were getting away. This angered the creature of the eye. Spiralling widely with mighty flaps of his wings, he circled around the trees below, easily outpacing his targets, then let out a tremendous cry that could be heard distinctly through the chaos far, far below, and dived.

Keith heard the cry and stopped, jerking his head about to see where it came from. The Spearow had suddenly stopped screeming out at sound of the screech and made no more noise but the beating of their wings. Their attacks instantly ceased. Instead they formed a thick living wall around the clearing in which Keith stood. He saw that he was trapped, and looked back. He saw Nick behind him and gasped. Blood was dripping down Nick's face, his clothes torn, and he had wounds across his body. Keith was shocked and became as still as a statue for a moment as all sound in his mind was drowned out by silence. The face of Nick also contorted with sudden terror, and he shouted something out. Keith was forcefully hurled to the ground and his world became black.

"Keith!" Nick screamed as the tremendous bird swooped back up. Robbie too had fallen to the ground and clung to the immobile body of Keith. The circling Spearows provided the only sound by the ominous beating of their wings as the Fearow who had attacked Keith rose up in the sky and glared down at Nick.

Keith said to stop the leader, Nick thought, understanding. With a sudden presence of mind, Nick wrenched his three pokéballs from his belt and ordered Staryu, Eevee, and Mankey out. The Fearow dove.

wait... Wait... WAIT... WAIT... Now!

"Light Screen!" Nick commanded, an instant before the terrible bird reached him, it's sharp beak and claws exposed. Nick's Staryu suddenly shot out a metal plate from its gem that spun upwards to shield Nick. The Fearow crashed into the Screen, shattering it into hundreds of pieces that immediately disappeared, and dropped to the ground, momentarily stunned.

"Water Gun, Staryu! Thrash, Mankey! Tackled it, Evee!" Nick commanded. The bird on the ground opened its eye, shook its head, and started to rise in a fury. As two of Nick's pokémon charged at the bird, a blast of water collided with the Fearow, knocking it farther into the air. The Fearow regained its flight and screeched.

"FEEAARRROOWW!!!" it screamed as it started its second dive. At the very last instant, it swerved to the side to avoid a second metal disc. The Spearow in the circling wall started to become uneasy, restively chattering. Keith groaned from the ground as he slowly regained consciousness.

"That's it, Staryu! Swift! Keep this up and we can beat it!" The Fearow didn't know what to do, unable to attack and bombarded with tiny stars as it tried to retreat.

Nick's unaccountable feeling of terror began to return. What? Nick asked of himself. What was wrong? The battle against the Fearow would surely be won. Nick looked at Keith. He was shaking on the ground.

Alive, Nick thought, relieved - but he wasn't relieved. Again something wasn't right.

Another dive by the Fearow, stopped by a third Light Screen.

The bird of prey rose again, flying at a rapid pace in circles, confused, trying to think with its little mind. Those stars... Something was stopping him from attacking the boy below and his three pokémon, and the Fearow didn't understand. Those pesky stars! They were hurting. The boy he had already struck was lying on the ground, trying to rouse. A star struck the bird in the eye, momentarily blinding him. He veered about in sudden darkness, both eyes tightly shut. Opening them both, he pulled upwards to avoid a tree into which he had been about to fly and angrily turned back to the clearing below. His eye rested on a third boy, a smaller boy, a younger boy.

"FEEEEEAAARROW!" he cried and dove. Nick froze. His head throbbed with pain, sudden pain that arose from within, not caused by his stinging wounds. His vision went blank as his hand shot to his head, and he stumbled, losing his balance. Then in the darkness, he saw two lone forms. Friend and menace. The throbbing and the pain rose to an absolute pitch as Nick screamed something that he couldn't hear and dashed toward Robbie as all thoughts were pushed out of Nick's mind by billowing darkness.

Nick felt anger. Heat. Burning. Pain.