Searching for Cynthia

Note: I kind of plan for this RP to be canon, two days after Tom gets lost in shadowhue. However, if it isn't allowed to be canon, I'd be perfectly happy knowing that this is a good piece of literature.
NOTE: THIS STORY IS VERY DARK AND NOT RECOMMENDED FOR ANYONE WHO CAN'T TAKE A LITTLE LOT OF GRAPHIC VIOLENCE.

Grassveil Town

Tom looked at his mailbox; it had a letter in it. Strange; he hadn’t had a letter in over two months. He shrugged and reached into it before grabbing his letter. The thing was in unown script (which was interesting; few people in Grassveil knew how to read that language), and what he read stopped him cold.

Come to the Black Spear Mountain Range. Follow the Red Path.
Cynthia

Tom knew that this was legitimate; this was definitely Cynthia’s signature. “The Black Spear Mountain Range…” He looked at the other side of the letter; on it was a map of the Black Spear Mountain Range; something nigh impossible to get if one isn’t a member of the guild. Tom smiled and returned to his house, grabbing his old adventuring pouch. He was going to need it.

Tom spent that day in the library, reading up on the Black Spear Mountain Range; there was nothing on it about a “Red Path,” but he still found much useful information there; apparently, many gangs often hid out there, and the Range was well known for its dangerous feral Pokemon such as Golem and Aerodactyl, and Mightyena were commonplace there. Tom shivered in the memory of his last encounter with a Mightyena; he and his friend had almost been killed by one.
Another thing of note was that the mountain range was very far northeast of Grassveil, and would probably take about three days of travelling to get to it's outskirts. Tom knew that he would have to pack heavily.
Still, he was surprisingly confident that he could handle the area. When he left the library, Tom felt ready for anything. The next stop for him was the marketplace.

“Thank you!” Tom smiled warmly at the shopkeeper who had sold him some supplies. He had gotten 4 Oran berries, 6 Apples and a reviver seed; it would be more than enough to get to get through to the Range, and Tom was sure that he could get any other supplies necessary in the forest on the way. He put all of the items into his pouch and left for the forest.

“Gah!” Tom yelled as the Seedot pelted him with seeds. “Get away from me!” Tom raised his fist and attacked it with an ice punch, making it fly into a nearby tree. He smiled at his handiwork before being pelted by another barrage of bullet seeds. “For Arceus’ sake, how many of you are there?!” Again, he sent the creature flying into a tree, and instead of sighing in relief, (It seemed to be a jinx of some sort) Tom sprinted as fast as he could deeper into the forest.

Tom was weakened from the encounter, and was in dire need of an Oran berry. He opened his pouch and looked into it, grabbing the blue berry and stuffing it into his mouth. “Oh, that feels good.” Tom was immediately reenergized by the Oran Berry, and while it didn’t remove any injuries, it certainly made him able to travel for longer. He sighed and looked through his belongings again; his supply of Oran berries had already dwindled down to one, 3 of the 6 apples he had taken with him on the journey, and his revival seed. How could he have known that the trek through the forest would be so difficult?!

Tom sighed and started shaking a tree in hopes of getting a berry or an apple; something to restock his supplies, but his efforts went unrewarded. “Damn it! What the hell?!” He kicked the tree in rage. “Stupid… Tree… I hate thi-OW!” Rolling off Tom’s head and onto the floor was an Oran berry, still (surprisingly) intact. “Yes, thank you Arceus! I owe you!” Tom grinned and placed the berry into his pouch, before removing his map of Shadowhue. “Let’s see… I should be somewhere around here… Ooh, I’m nearly at the pathway!” Tom grinned and walked in the direction of the dirt path which, according to the map, was the fastest way to the Black Spear Mountain Range.

And there, on the dirt path, laid a lone Riolu. Tom’s first thought was that it was AID, but he immediately shoved it away; this Riolu was yellow and didn’t have that cape. It (for Tom couldn’t tell what gender the Riolu was) seemed to be clutching it’s stomach. Tom walked up to the creature and shook it. “Hey, are you OK?” The Riolu’s only reaction was to clutch its stomach even harder. Tom’s curiosity got the better of him, and he pushed its hand away. What he saw made Tom cringe; there was a rip there, and a part of his intestines could be seen from above. There was blood seeping everywhere (how he hadn’t noticed it before, Tom would never know how), and with every breath blood pumped out of it's body. “Oh, Arceus…” Tom immediately got his pouch out, retrieved his revival seed and put it into the creature’s mouth. “Come on, wake up…”

Krystal awakened to a strange blue reptile shaking her. "Come on... Wake up..." What... What happened? She remembered a gang... They wore red scarfs... She was traveling with Julie and-

"Oh, shit, Julie!" The golden Riolu sat up, shaking. No, calm down girl, don't freak out just yet, stay calm... She looked around, assessing her surroundings; she was on one of Shadowhue's dirt paths, next to a smiling Totodile.

"You OK? Reviver seeds always disorient me, but are you fine with them? My name's Tom, by the way." What? Krystal had taken a Reviver seed? She looked down on the dirt floor to find it reddened by her blood. A large pool had formed around where her stomach had been. Oh, Mew, the Grovyle had slashed her stomach, hadn't he? She clutched her stomach, expecting it to be red with blood but... there was naught but a white scar.

"You gave me a reviver seed? Th... Thank you. I'm Krystal." She looked off into the distance, in the direction that the dirt path went. The Black Spear Mountain Range. "I have to go there... They have Julie..."

"Who has what?" Tom raised his eyebrow at this comment before looking towards the Range as well. "So, you're going there? I'm off to go there as well; someone I know told me to come here. Follow the Red Path or something, whatever that means."

"The Red Path?!" Krystal paled at the thought of it; a new gang notorious for stealing and doing other criminal acts often ambushed it. "I don't think that the Red Path is safe..." Tom's ears perked up at this; Krystal knew of the path? He had lost his map a while ago, so he wouldn't be able to find it on his own.

"You know about it? Could you take me there, at least to the beginning of it? I lost my map a while back to a Mightyena, and I just know that I need to take the red path." Tom smiled at the Riolu, praying to Arceus that she'd say yes.

"But... That place is insane! There's a new gang, the Shadows, they're called, that robs people, kills them even! They're the ones that did this to me... And you want to go to them? You're weak, I bet you aren't even level 10 yet-"
"I'm Level Six."
"All the more reason why you shouldn't go! I'm level 25, and they completely destroyed me!" Tom gulped with this revelation; these people did this to a level 25? Tom gulped in fear, but did not falter; he was desperate to see Cynthia.

"Hell, I'm going anyway. Besides, you said earlier that someone was taken, right? You said yourself that you needed to go there, right? Can't you take me along for the ride?" Krystal weighed up the pros and cons; it wasn't like he was much of a problem anyway... and she did owe him her life. Not to mention, he was right; she was planning to go there anyway...
"Wait, how did you know I was going there?"
"You said that you were attacked by them, so naturally, the Shadows probably took whoever that was. Come on, please help me!" Tom tried to give his best puppy dog face; it wasn't very good, but Krystal relented anyway.
"Fine... Come on, follow me. Pick up any Oran berries you see; you'll need them."

The rest of the day, as well as the next, went without anything of note. On the first day, they had slept atop a tree on the way to the Mountain Range, and on the second they rested in a cave. Tom's supply of apples had dwindled down to one, but his Oran berries had surprisingly not been touched.

Throughout his adventure, Tom didn’t learn much about his mysterious companion; she had said little about her past, and she was clearly attempting to hide all of her emotions. In turn, Tom refused to give his escort any information about his past, or anything more about his reasons for being there.
One thing he had learnt about Krystal, however, was that she was skilled in combat; while he couldn’t even take down one Mightyena, this girl could emerge nearly unscathed from a battle with two. Tom was glad about this; she was definitely someone who he could depend on.

It was on the third day of traveling that everything went wrong. “Wow, you’re strong Krystal!” Tom smiled as a Larvitar escaped the fearsome Riolu. Krystal made no reply, only motioning Tom to follow him. He figured that it was because she was afraid she’d let something slip, but Tom didn’t mind. He understood that many people preferred to keep to themselves. So, he just kept on following his escort. There was no further incident; it appeared the feral Pokemon of the area feared them. How did the Riolu get so strong, anyway? Was she the member of a guild in another town? He opened his mouth to ask when Krystal’s hand moved in front of his face.

“We’re here.” And indeed, they were. True to its namesake, the Red Path was, indeed, red. “The Red path eventually leads to the sacred lands, but, again, the path is known for its ambushes. “There’s another route you can take that isn’t quite as well known, through a cave system. I can lead you there, if you’re so desperate to get there.” Tom shook his head; the letter had told him specifically to take the Red Path. “Alright; let’s go. Stick right behind me, Tom.”

However, before they could even take two steps onto the path, multiple Pokemon emerged from behind rocks nearby, all of whom wore scarlet scarves. There were Mightyena, Graveler, there was one Grovyle and…
“C…Cynthia…” Tom looked at the Typhlosion, who had folded her arms across her chest and was now smirking.

“Damn you Grovyle…” Tom’s attention shifted to Krystal, who was speaking angrily to the Grovyle of the group. “Where did you take Julie?!” The green monster’s only response was to laugh. “Answer me, damn it!”

“Her skull was a wonderful addition to my collection.” The Grovyle smirked before readying his leaf blade. “As will yours, dearie.” Tom paled at this; this Grovyle… Killed?! He slowly started backing away, but was pushed back forwards by a nearby Mightyena.

“Damn you, Grovyle!” The Riolu rushed towards him with a fire punch ready.
The fist never reached it’s target.

Tom blanched at what he saw; again, her stomach had been ripped open, and her colon was coming out. Krystal was desperately trying to hold it inside, not noticing the Grovyle ready his leaf blade a second time. “Julie…” Tom could have sworn that he heard the Riolu utter those words before the blade impacted with her neck. The head rolled over to him as the decapitated body fell to the floor.

She… was killed? Just like that?! Tom dropped his pouch and backed away, ignoring the questions of the other Pokemon (“What should we do with this one?” “Should we kill him, boss?”)

“Leave him; we have something to discuss. If he feels ready for it, that is.” The Typhlosion before him smirked and started walking slowly over to Tom. He took a step back, and this time he was not pushed to the leader. “If you are truly scared, run Tom.”

And so Tom did ran. He ran as fast as he could, and didn't stop; he ran from morning till midnight, ignoring all Pokemon that he had seen and the gnawing hunger in his belly, fueled only by fear.

That is the story! Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated people. This is a part of Tom's canon, so I'll be continuing this story in multi RPs.
EDIT: I noticed that the time range was completely wrong before; previously the trek only took one day, so this time I edited it; made it take approximately 2-3 days.