High Flying Havoc
The skeletal Pokemon stood before us. Maki peered at it over the rope barrier.
"Makimurr," he muttered, in a fascinated fashion. You could almost see the mischief gleeming in his eyes.
"Stay behind the rope, Maki," I cautioned, wondering about the sanity of taking him into a museum, but I thought the cultural experience would be good for him. Perhaps he'd see a relative. Ozmos watched carefully from behind the rope. She was probably wondering if the skeleton were edible. I had Spike with me too, we always kept him out of his Pokeball in the hope that he would calm down somewhat if exposed to the outside world. He was definitely getting better, although it was a very short rope. I had received some sour comments from the man at the door, who had taken our fares. He thought it was cruel to keep a Nidoran on a piece of string. He would have understood better if he had knew what Spike was capable of doing.
"Maki!" Maki shrieked joyously, leaping over the barrier. I reached out to grab him, but he was too fast. He scampered up the skeleton's leg and across its spine, to perch on its head. "Maki Maki murr!" He shouted, which probably meant "I can see my house from here.
"Get down this moment," I scolded him, aware of how fragile the skeleton might be. The last thing I needed was my Lemur Pokemon breaking something.
"Vapor!" Ozmos shouted. I'm sure she was trying to help, but unfortunately, the act of her leaping under the railing and up the creature's spine was too great. She was rather plump, I must admit, and a lot larger than Maki, also her feet were not made for climbing. She slipped, grappling for balance and tumbled to the floor, bringing with her several rather valuable pieces of bone.
Kameron hit himself on the forehead with one hand. "You should have put her on a lead too," he muttered.
The crash also brought the Bone Keeper running. Maki leapt agily down from the skull and onto my shoulder. He did not look embarrassed in the least. Ozmos had fled into the shadows at the crashing sound. The only Pokemon that was behaving appeared to be the one I had least expected too.
The Bone Keeper muttered angrily when he saw what had happened. "The damage is just terrible," he muttered, "that skeleton was priceless, priceless, it will take hours to fix."
"I'm terribly sorry," I muttered.
"Sorry, sorry ain't good enough, kid. You can't even control your own Pokemon, look at that poor fellow on the piece of string. There's hours of repairs in that, you'll just lucky it wasn't worse."
"I would offer you money," I replied, "but I haven't much."
"I could get some," Kameron interjected and I kicked him in the ankle. I knew where he intended to get it from, and it wasn't entirely legal.
"Perhaps we could help you repair it." I added, hoping to placate him.
He pondered for a moment. "I don't want you kids running around in here, making trouble," he replied. "But I do have something you could do. We had a site out by Lake Eerie, very promising site, but our money ran out and we had to abandon it. Now, recently, a child found what appeared to be a Pokemon trapped in amber – beautifully preserved. I would dearly love to get my hands on it, but I haven't the staff I used to."
"We'll get it!" I interjected excitedly. "Lake Eerie was where I found Vaporeon. I know exactly where it is!"
"You do, do you? Well, the archaelogical dig was on the northern shore – the farthest away from the village. I suppose it can't do any harm to send you out to collect the fossil. At least there's not much you can do to damage it."
Kameron grinned at me. "Do I get to come along too?"
I was somewhat surprised, I had thought after our embarrassing performance Kameron would not be too keen on tagging around with us anymore. His two Pokemon were perfectly behaved. Cubone was busily comparing his throwing bone with one from something much, much larger and Dancer was perched on the railing, looking vaguely interested in the topic of conversation. "Sure," I replied. "It's a long walk, and I don't have enough money for a bus."
"No worries," Kameron replied. "I have the perfect way to travel." He looked up at the Bone Keeper. "We'll go off and get you your fossil, never you fear."
"Then come with me to my office and I'll give you some details," he replied, sounding almost excited.
After he had handed us a sheaf of papers and given us precise instructions (most of which we forgot five minutes later), we headed out, anxious for adventure.
"Look at our transport!" Kameron stated, gesticulating at a large hot air balloon. The balloon part was in the shape of a Magikarp.
"Where did you get that?" I asked, somewhat nervously.
"Oh," he replied with a shrug, "I have my sources. I'm didn't learn nothing in Team Rocket, after all!"
I was momentarily confused by his use of double negatives. "You learnt something?"
"Yep, how to fly a balloon."
"And how to obtain them too, obviously," I muttered to myself.
Kameron flashed a card at me. It had a photo of him on it and the "Team Rocket" logo across the top. "They forgot to take this back when they fired me," he replied. "This gives me access to almost anything I want."
"Handy," I muttered. "Just keep your hands off my Maki!"
"I'm not after your Pokemon," he replied. "But if I find something new of my own, or someone else has one…"
I punched him in the arm in a friendly fashion. "I hope you're kidding…"
"Of course," he replied, in a voice that suggested he wasn't. "Come on, let's go!"
We all clambered aboard. Maki perched on the edge, clinging to one of the guide ropes and I returned Spike and Ozmos to their Pokeballs. It seemed safer that way. It would have been nice to put Maki safely in a Pokeball too, but I knew he wouldn't stand for it.
And then we were off.
Kameron did seem to know what he was doing and the Magikarp air balloon rose gracefully into the sky. He fiddled with a compass for a bit, and shortly we were drifting off across the beautiful, sunlit skies.
We had not been airborne long before we came into a cloud bank. Kameron assured me that everything was fine, that he knew exactly what he was doing, and it was all too beautiful for me to be really frightened. It was almost like flying – the ground stretched out below us all hills and lakes and villages, people moving across it like tiny ants. And then there was nothing but cloud. After two minutes of travelling through clouds, Maki grew bored and curled up in the bottom of the basket. We still seemed to be making good time and in the right direction, so I leaned on the side, and stared through the white clouds.
There was not a lot to see.
Suddenly we were out of the clouds and before us was another balloon! The balloon itself was in the shape of Kadabra's head and my heart pulsed a moment. It couldn't be, it shouldn't be!
It was…
"Prepare for chaos
it never fails
to protect the people…
ah, let's cut this rubbish. Go Kadabra, grab that Makimur!"
Team Rocket.
Kadabra appeared from its Pokeball and waved its hand around. A beam of purplish light shot out, surrounding Maki who was standing on the side of the basket, wondering what the Hades was going on.
It all happened so fast.
"Go Butterfree!" Kameron shouted and Dancer sprang into the air. I glanced at my Pokeballs, nothing was really useful.
"Go Flareon, go Ozmos," at least we could make an effort.
"Go Fearow!" Shouted Loki and the large bird sprang into the air, meeting Dancer in mid flight.
"Toxic dust attack Dancer!" Kameron shouted, the wind tearing hi voice away from him.
"Makii!" Maki cried, hovering in the air half-way between the two balloons.
Dancer flapped her wings furiously, sending the Fearow tumbling back but not stunning it.
"Fearow, beak drill!" Loki shrieked.
The large bird started pecking furiously at Dancer, who tried to flap back but was having great difficulty.
Freyja reached over and scooped Maki from the air.
"Now get the vaporeon!" She shouted at it.
"Ozmos, water gun!" I suggested, now that Maki was safely out of hovering in mid air.
The high-pressured water met the psychic beam from the kadabra's hands. The two pushed against each other. The water shattered apart, spraying earthwards like a brief flurry of rain.
"Flareon, flame throw it!" I shouted.
"Butterfree, you can do it!" Kameron shrieked. "Dive beneath it."
At that point, two things happened, Dancer managed to dive under the Fearow, which overshot and ran beak first into the magikarp balloon and flareon's flamethrower met kadabra's psychic beam and suddenly pushed us backwards with great force into the clouds. Flareon and Ozmos fell on top of us as we all tumbled backwards. The basket started sinking in a rather disturbing fashion.
"We're going down!" Kameron shouted. "Dancer, grab the balloon!"
"Freeee," warbled Dancer, flapping in to seize the ropes in her hands. She was in quite a bad state. The balloon stayed level for a moment and then lurched downwards.
I grabbed on to Kameron. "What do we do?"
Kameron stared at me, his eyes filled with fear. "Crash to the ground, would be a good bet," he replied grimly. "I just hope we land on something soft."
And suddenly we did, the balloon bounced upwards as though it had landed on the soft clouds, but that was impossible, clouds weren't solid.
Having a spot of trouble? came a strange, mental voice.
"What? Who is it?" We glanced furiously around. Suddenly something seemed to spring out of the clouds and sat on a cloud opposite our balloon. It was a large dog Pokemon, looking something like an Arcanine but pure white and with a fuller, more cloud-like mane. Its eyes were as blue as the sky.
It is I. The voice continued.
"You can talk!" Kameron exclaimed, somewhat unnecessarily.
In a manner of speaking. It continued. I am Cumulupus, the cloud wolf. Some would say I do not exist, but here I am. You seem to be in rather a spot of trouble, so I thought I'd catch you. Did I do right?
"Oh yes, very right," I replied. "Team Rocket stole my friend," I blurted out. "We must save him. Can you help us?"
Why not? The Cloud Wolf replied. It is rather dull up here, after all. Some excitement might be good, for a change. Just connect me up to these ropes, and I'll carry you after them. We'll have your friend back in no time.
"Oh thank you so much, beautiful wolf Pokemon," I replied. Kameron rolled his eyes.
We connected Cumulupus up to the ropes and it sprang through the clouds. As it leapt, it left little puffs of cloud behind and everywhere it put its feet, small cloudlets formed beneath then. Like stepping stones. It was the most beautiful Pokemon I had ever seen.
I'm not too fond of Team Rocket myself, it sent to us. Sometimes they come up here and try to capture my kin. Foolish, don't they know you can't trap cloud. Anyway, I see them, up ahead. I'll take care of their psychic Pokemon, you handle the others.
"Right," I agreed. "Go Flareon, Ozmos, Spike!"
"Hey, don't forget mine! Go Cubone, Butterfree!"
Loki glanced back and did a double take. "I can't believe it!" He shouted to Freyja, "the little squirts survived." Then he saw Cumulupus. "Holy Cow!"
Freyja glanced up. "Oh, Kadabra and Fearow can handle that. Let's catch it, I'll bet it's worth a fortune."
Cumulupus threw back its head and howled. The echoes rolled out across the sky. Small clouds started forming around the Kadabra balloon. Fearow came soaring out into the air, and flew straight into a cloud. Just before it passed through it, the cloud became solid and it squawked in pain, tumbling earthwards, to recover many feet below.
Spike jumped onto the cloud and ran across its solid surface, making a mighty leap into Team Rocket's balloon. I heard a scream as he charged into Loki's leg. The silver-haired man almost fell over the edge of the balloon.
"Toxic dust them!" Kameron shouted to Dancer, who flapped over to the balloon. Kadabra once again tried to aim a beam of psychic energy at the Cumulupus, but it hit a cloud that formed almost instantaneously and reflected back. The Psychic Pokemon bellowed in pain as his beam radiated back on him.
The Wolf Pokemon threw back its head again and howled. Cloud formed between our Balloon and Team Rocket's. It seemed to harden, forming a bridge.
"Go Flareon, go Vaporeon, tackle them."
"Go Nidorina!" Shouted Freyja, obviously gaining control. The larger Poison Pin Pokemon leapt out onto the bridge. "Charge!"
"Flareon, Vaporeon, leap out of her way!" I shouted.
Flareon leapt nimbly aside, but Ozmos was slower, probably because she was fatter. The nidorina picked her up on her broad head and pushed her over the side.
"Cumulupus!" I shouted. "Ozmos has fallen!"
The wolf Pokemon looked down, concentrated a moment and a cloud materialised beneath the tumbling Ozmos. She bounced harmlessly, then stood there looking puzzled. Cumulupus began howling again, forming a staircase to the bridge.
"Flareon, tackle it!" I shouted and the fire Pokemon sprang on the Nidorina just before she reached our basket.
"Nidorina, kick and bite!" Freyja shouted. "Abra, psyshock that vaporeon, quick before it gets back to the ladder!"
The Abra hovered just above the edge of the basket. "Aabrraa," it muttered sleepily and pointed.
"Vaporeon, dodge!" I shouted. But I was too slow, Spike had bet me to it. The Nidoran leapt on the back of the Abra, which was too distracted by Ozmos to teleport away.
"NiDO!" He bellowed, as he tumbled over the edge, taking Abra with him. Abra teleported back up to the basket an instant later. By now, Ozmos had reached the bridge again. It was starting to dissipiate somewhat, small clumps of it blowing away.
"Dancer, catch Spike!" Kameron shouted, realising that against the wind the toxic dust attack was having little effect.
"Freeee!" Dancer fell into a dive.
"Flareon, Ozmos, get back in the basket!" I cried as the bridge began to fall apart. Nidorina panicked for a moment than fell off the cloud, plummetting earthwards. I felt sorry for it, it would probably not survive.
Suddenly Maki leapt up on the side of the Team Rocket basket. "Maki!" He shouted.
"Cumulupus, can you make stepping stones for Maki?" I shouted.
I can try, but I am tired, this Kadabra is very strong.
"Thank you Cumulupus, I will be most grateful! Maki, jump on the clumps of cloud, but be careful!"
"Abra, catch that Makimur!" Freyja shouted. Abra suddenly materialised beside him, almost making Maki miss his next jump.
The Fearow flapped back up, clinging desperately to the Nidorina which it deposited in the basket before perching on the side. Its wings drooped, it was obviously bet.
"MakI!" Maki shrieked in fear as Abra tried to grab it.
"Freeee!" Came the familiar trill.
"NidoRAN!"
The Nidoran carried in Butterfree's hands slashed against the Abra, which was knocked into the air to teleport back to the basket. It knew when it was beaten.
Maki leapt into the basket and into my arms. "Maki maki makimurr!" He sounded happy to be back with us. Dancer deposited Spike in the basket and collapsed exhausted beside him. "Freeee," she whispered painfully.
And now to get them out of the way, the Cloud Wolf sent. It took a deep breath, so that its sides swelled up to immense proportions and exhaled sharply at the balloon. It hit the Kadabra head full on and sent the balloon spinning away into the distance. And that's that, it replied. I think I have enough energy left to get you back to the ground, but beyond that, you'll walking.
"Thank you so much for your help, Cumulupus," I replied, reaching up to stroke its silver-white, fluffy chest. "We could not have done it without you."
Thank me when you'll back on solid ground, it replied, humour glinting in its thoughts.
And then the beautiful white wolf Pokemon sprang down the clouds, coming to rest in a patch of long grass. We clambered out and untied the ropes. I gave it a hug.
"Thank you, Cumulupus, I will always remember your assistance and if you ever need any help of your own…"
I'll howl for you, it replied. Good hunting.
"And good cloud dancing to you, my friend," Kameron interjected.
Farewell.
And then the legendary Pokemon leapt upwards and back into the clouds.
"Oh darn," Kameron cursed as soon as it was out of earshot. "I should have caught it. It must be worth a fortune." He chuckled.
I kicked him in the ankle.
"Oww!" He rubbed it.
"Oops, I guess my foot slipped. Come on, let's get to a Pokecentre now. I think we're near a town, I can see a road just over there."
Kameron shook his head. "Girls," he muttered to himself.
And up in the skies, one cloud separated itself from the others and sprang out, twisting and turning in the sunlight.