PMDE M6 Epilogue - Part 2

Techno was frowning in protest and sadness. "You can't leave just yet, Jake! We still have stuff to talk about… Things to do together…" He looked down forlornly at his feet and the dusty pine needles of the Creeping Forest beneath them.

"I'm sorry, Techno. I really am. But you know I can't stay in one place for too long; it's not in my nature," Jake said. Techno felt the archeops lay a claw on his shoulder. He looked up to see Jake staring down at him with a sad, apologetic look on his face. "I'll come and visit you whenever I can. I promise."

Techno sighed. "All right," he muttered, feeling sad but reassured, since he knew Jake always kept to his word. He gave a small smile and, overcome with emotion, suddenly reached up to hug the feathery Pokemon. "You're a great friend. I'll really miss you."

He felt Jake pause in surprise then reach down to hug him back. "I'll miss you too, Techno." The two stood there as dear friends, not strangers connected by one Pokemon they had both known as they were when they first met. Jake had become almost like an uncle, friend, and father all rolled into one to Techno. He was really going to miss the huge feathery goof.

They released each other from the hug and moved away to where Jake stood by Lily and Lance and Techno was next to Jazz. Techno noticed that they were all smiling sadly at each other as the three friends prepared to part with the two that were remaining in Tao. Good-byes are never easy, Techno thought.

"You make sure to take care of Lily and ensure she gets home safe, Jake," Jazz said, breaking the silence.

"I will, Jazz," Jake replied, smiling knowingly at his worry. "Don't worry." He turned to Techno before continuing, "And don't worry about Maria's scarf, Techno. I'll make sure it gets back safely to her grave."

Techno grinned, feeling reassured. "Thanks again, Jake."

The group then said their final good byes and gave their final hugs. Jazz and Lily held their last hug as if they were saying goodbye forever.

Lance finally broke the two apart by wriggling up to Lily and muttering sympathetically, "We should really be going, milady." Lily nodded, then gave Jazz one last look and a smile before walking over to Jake's side and heading off with him and Lance into the darkness of the Creeping Forest.

Techno gave a long sigh as he and his teammate watched the figures disappear into the depths of the forest. "I'm really going to miss them," he said sadly.

"Me too, Tech," Jazz agreed in a quiet voice. The two stood there, staring in the direction their three friends had gone. Techno wondered if they would ever see them again. Things like that were never certain. Promises to return were never concrete promises; he knew this from when he had followed Maria's orders and run while she held back the members of his gang that had attacked them both so long ago. He had thought that they would see each other again, but when he returned with Jazz to where Techno had left her, they found her nearly dead. She then passed away in Techno's arms, breaking her promise to always see him again. Now he could never even say goodbye to her.

Jazz's voice suddenly broke into his thoughts. "We'll see them again, Tech. Don't worry."

Techno turned to see Jazz staring at him with a worried look on his face. The scraggy then realized that he had tears lingering in the edges of his eyes. He wiped them away quickly with the back of his hand. "I wasn't worried," he muttered. He saw Jazz give him a knowing look. Jazz could see through anything Techno threw at him and Techno knew it.

Techno took a deep breath before turning on his heel and marching towards the direction from which they came into the forest. "Well," he said with as much leadership-ness as he could muster, "We should really get back to Tao. They probably need more help, like with repairs or… something." He looked back to see Jazz following him with an amused smile on his face.

"Yeah," the houndour agreed. "We probably should."

Techno stopped himself from rolling his eyes and suppressed an exasperated sigh. Typical Jazz, seeing right through him without letting on that he was as usual. Techno knew he was doing so because Jazz's small smile always gave him away. He could read Jazz like a book just as much as Jazz could read him. Techno guessed that it was just a side effect of being good friends.

The two rescuers were at the very edge of the forest where the dark green evergreens met the spring green of the rolling plains that made up the scenery between the Creeping Forest and Tao when they heard a familiar voice call out from somewhere towards the edge of the tree line farther north. They turned their heads towards the direction of the voice in surprise.

Techno stared towards the north before turning to look at Jazz. "Did you hear that?" he asked.

Jazz nodded.

"Is it who I think it is?" Techno asked the houndour, who had a much better sense of hearing than he did.

"I think it is…" Jazz replied in a worried, almost strained voice.

Techno turned back to where the voice had come from. He squinted, straining his eyes looking for the owner of the distant shout. Then he saw what he had almost feared to see in the distance: a small green and yellow shape that was rapidly getting closer.

"Techno… Jazz… hey…!" the figure called. As it got closer, its cries got clearer and clearer to Techno. "Nice to… see you guys… again!"

Techno then took one step back as he realized that the figure was running straight towards them with shocking speed and didn't look like it planned to stop any time soon. He quickly put two and two together and raised his arms in front of his face, preparing to get barreled over by the green and yellow blur. He shouted hurriedly at the top of his lungs, "Stop, Schlager, you idiot, STOP!"

Techno was sprayed with dirt mixed with clumps of grass and leaves as the electrike skidded to a stop in front of him. He spit out the bits of soil that managed to avoid his arm-barrier and got into his mouth. Techno lowered his arms and brushed the dirt and bits of grass off of his body furiously. He then glared at the joyful electrike that now sat panting in front of him.

Schlager shot a goofy looking grin up at the angry scraggy. "Hey… guys," he said between breaths, "I looked… everywhere… for you…"

Techno felt like he would pull his hair out if he had any he was so pissed. "Schlager, what in the world are you f-"

Before Techno could continue yelling at the now confused looking electrike, Jazz suddenly placed a paw over his mouth, silencing him. "Calm down and let me handle this," the houndour whispered. "He's just a kid."

Techno shoved his teammate's paw off of his mouth angrily but reluctantly gave in to Jazz's plan. He huffed before moving out of Jazz's way so the houndour could take over Techno's job of speaking to the little electrike.

"So," Jazz asked Schlager, "What Techno was trying to say is: why are you here? I thought you left with your mom and your sister."

Schlager gave a small sigh before answering, "I did, but then my mom said we were going far, far away from Tao and the area around it because," he sat up on his hind legs and placed his two front paws comically on his waist before continuing in a girly voice, "it is just too dangerous around here." The electrike lowered his front paws back onto the ground in front of him before looking down at them sheepishly. "Sorry. That was a bit mean. But it just made me so mad because then I told her I wanted to be a rescuer and she said no!"

Jazz and Techno looked at the electrike in shock. "Wait," Jazz said, holding up one paw to stop Schlager from continuing, "You want to be a rescuer?"

"Yeah! Ever since you guys and Mr. Jake and Miss Lily rescued me and Rose, I wanted to become a rescuer and do the same for other Pokemon!" His tail began to wag back and forth furiously, smoothing out the grass behind him. "I want to help others like you guys helped me!"

The two friends' eyes softened. They remembered telling each other the same thing when they first decided to become rescuers. Techno looked over at Jazz, who met the scraggy's gaze, and they both gave each other knowing smiles.

Then Schlager continued, "So that's why I ran away."

Techno and Jazz's smiles turned into expressions of horror. They whipped their heads around to look at the happy electrike and shouted, "WHAT?!"

Schlager nearly fell over in surprise from their outburst.

Techno stomped up next to where Jazz was standing and then shouted furiously, "Schlager, you just can't do that!"

Schlager gazed back at them with a look of confusion and astonishment written all over his face. "But I just did," he said simply.

"Wha- no! That's not what I mean!" Techno threw his arms up in the air in protest. "You can't run away from your mom like that! She'll get worried! I mean, does she even know where you are right now?"

"She should," Schalger said matter-of-factly. "I told Rose where I was going and why. I couldn't tell my mom directly because she was asleep, but Rose will tell her where I've gone."

Techno lowered his arms to pull up his pant-like shed skin with one hand and smack his palm against is face in frustration with the other.

Much to Techno's relief, Jazz stepped forward to try and council the naïve electrike further. "You shouldn't have disobeyed your mother, Schlager," he said gently. "She's probably worried about your safety. You and your sister got into a really dangerous situation yesterday, and I'm sure it scared your mother. That's why she wants to move away and doesn't want you to become a rescuer. She just doesn't want you to get hurt."

Schlager listened to Jazz's words then paused, placing one paw under his chin thoughtfully. He then slowly nodded in understanding. "Yeah, I guess you're right…"

Jazz smiled down at the electrike. "Good."

"But I still want to become a rescuer!" Schlager cried, jumping to his feet with a stubborn look on his face.

Jazz sighed and Techno gave a frustrated groan. This… kid is getting harder and harder to deal with… he thought. He finally just gave up. The scraggy had a feeling they couldn't convince the kid to change his mind and go back home no matter how much they tried. "Alright, fine. You can join our team as a rescuer," Techno said with a twinge of annoyance in his voice.

The electrike didn't seem to notice the two's waning patience as he burst into a delighted grin. "Thank you! Thanks so much!" His tail wagged furiously, displaying his overflowing joy. His tail must have not been moving fast enough to burn off the happiness Schlager felt because he suddenly bounded away, running through the grass and yelling joyfully a short distance away from the two.

"Are you sure about this?" Jazz whispered to Techno, worry dancing in his emerald green eyes.

"Of course I'm sure," Techno muttered back. "We just won't let him go on any dangerous missions with us and his mom will probably be back for him soon anyways. And besides," he paused to shoot a knowing smile at Jazz before continuing, "Weren't we a lot like him when we first became rescuers?"

Jazz smiled back, gazing off towards the leaping Schlager, a distant, thoughtful look in his eyes. "Yeah," he murmured. "I guess we were."

Techno stared at the energetic electrike, hearing him give an occasional whoop as he jumped about ecstatically. "…We sure weren't as naïve as he is, though."

"Or as full of energy," Jazz added.

The two reluctantly walked over to where Schlager leaped about. "C'mon, Schlager. We'd better head back to Tao and get your new membership confirmed," Techno called.

Schlager stopped his joyful romping through the grass and galloped up to his new teammates (or temporary teammates, in Techno's mind). He slowed to a trot beside them, and the three Pokemon headed off towards Tao.

"By the way, I never did ask what your team name actually was," Schlager said, looking up expectantly at Techno.

"Well," Techno explained, "We'll probably have to change it now that you're a member anyways, since you're not very bad a-"

His sentence was once again cut short by Jazz moving his paw over Techno's mouth. Techno's angry shouts of protest turned into muffled mumbles as Jazz once again continued his sentence for him. "Don't look so down. We need a new team name anyways," he told the now frowning Schlager sympathetically.

Techno shoved Jazz's paw off of his face, spitting fur out of his mouth with disgust. "Pwah! Ptwoo! …You have got to stop doing that, Jazz!"

"Sorry, Tech," Jazz muttered, looking a bit sheepish, "But I had to. Schlager's younger than we are, and well…" He trailed off and Techno gave a huff. He knew what Jazz was going to say. They both knew that Techno had the tendency to spout some colorful language when he was mad. They also knew that their team name had been decided upon by Techno and stood for something too harsh for Schlager's innocent little ears. Techno gave Jazz a look. He'd hold off on the language for now, but one day the kid will have to grow up and learn to get used to hearing curse words. But for now he'll refrain from cussing around the young electrike, for Jazz's sake.

"All right, all right," Techno grumbled. "We'll come up with a new, decent team name."

Schlager brightened instantly at the thought. "Does that mean I can help you guys come up with a new team name?"

Jazz smiled at the energetic electrike. "Well Tech did say 'we', didn't he?"

Schlager grinned while Techno gave Jazz a look that said, 'oh great now we'll never get him to shut up'.

Schlager's grin disappeared as he submerged deep into his thoughts. "Hmm," he pondered, "What about… no…" His eyes suddenly lit up and he looked up at Techno and Jazz. "How about Team Energy?"

Techno almost chuckled. "Not all of us have the amount of energy that you do, Schlager."

Schlager looked down as his paws dejectedly. "Oh. Okay."

Jazz nudged Techno roughly. Techno looked up at him and opened his mouth to protest, but he stopped when he saw Jazz giving him a stern look. Techno instantly felt guilty, then he shut his mouth and moved back to give Jazz some room to speak directly to Schlager.

"It's okay, Schlager," Jazz said encouragingly to the little electrike. "Try to think of another team name."

Schlager smiled up at Jazz and, feeling encouraged, dove back down into the world of thought again.

Techno watched the two as Jazz looked warmly down at the thinking Schlager. He knew that he had taken his anger with Schlager's childish antics too far. He couldn't help it, though. The pure naïve nature of Schlager just pissed him off. Techno knew that the electrike wasn't that much younger than Lily, who was only a little younger than he and Jazz. He had just expected Schlager to act more mature, like the kid had in front of his mother and sister when they first met the three electric types.

Techno remembered being more mature than Schlager when he was the same age as the little electrike, and he definitely wasn't as naïve. I mean, what kind of moron expects two complete strangers to take him in after he's run away from home? Techno thought. Then he remembered something. He had done the same thing when he was around Schlager's age. He had run away from his father to go ask Maria to be his mentor. Then he escaped the city, his very home, with Jazz the day after they had met. Techno reflected on these facts with a revelation rising among his thoughts. Maybe he and Schlager and even Jazz weren't that different after all.

Then he was struck by inspiration like a lightning bolt strikes a charged manectric. "That's it!" he cried.

His two companions turned around to stare at him in surprise.

"I know what our team name's going to be," Techno announced. "It's perfect for all of us." He looked at Schlager, shooting a small smile at the young electrike.

"Well?" Jazz asked. "What is it?"

"The Runaways!"