A/N -insert witty comment here-
Enjoy the chapter.
Character List:
Cynthia - 21 years old
Steven - 22 years old
Lance - 22 years old
Of a Darkness Fortold
Chapter 2: Disappearing Acuity
"You're too late! All you've done was waste your time!"
"If I had known you were going to space out like that, I wouldn't have come you know."
"Huh?" Cynthia had snapped out of her daze and found herself to be talking to Lance. The red haired dragon trainer looked impatient as he tapped his foot repeatedly on the glossy wooden floors. "I'm sorry, what-"
"I said, which lake should I check first?" Lance asked. He watched as the blond haired Champion fumbled slightly with the rolled up map of Sinnoh. Her hands shook slightly as she unrolled the map on top of the wooden table. Lance noticed this, but decided not to say anything to her for he wanted to leave the house as soon as possible.
Cynthia placed her index finger on the map. "Celestic Town is here. The closest lake is Acuity." She traced an upward diagonal path from the town, towards the north. "The Lake Guardian there is called Uxie. Make sure there's no sign of anything abnormal there. After that, visit the other two lakes and make sure nothing has happened there as well."
"Got it." Lance replied as he stood up. Just as he left the house, a loud beeping sound went off. Cynthia reached into her pocket and pulled out her pokegear. On the small screen, she saw the name 'Steven', flashing.
"Yes?" She answered as she set the small gadget down on top of the map of Sinnoh.
"Just calling to tell you that I'll be there in about an hour."
"Okay."
"You did take it easy right?" he asked.
Cynthia didn't answer, instead she threatened to hang up if all he was going to engage in was small talk.
"Sorry, sorry." Steven apologized, laughing. "I just don't want this whole issue to be getting to your head."
"I'm not blowing it out of proportion if that's what you mean," she said in a defensive tone.
"Of course not. You have a perfectly logical reason as to why you're worried"
"Glad you understand," Cynthia muttered, glancing back and forth from the map to her pokegear. "So you'll be here in an hour then?"
"That's the pla-" He suddenly went silent.
"What happened? Steven?"
"I might get there a little bit later than that," he whispered.
"Why?"
"...I think I'm about to meet some very interesting people." The line went dead before the blonde could ask him what he meant.
Steven put away his pokegear and shot a glance back. Indeed it was them. There was no mistaking the huge, silver dirigible with a 'G' painted on the sides. The steel type trainer flashed a smirk. "Could they be anymore obvious?"
As if they had heard him, a flock of fearow flew out from the bottom compartment of the dirigible. Immediately they began making a beeline towards him. He told his Metagross to go faster and so the steel pokemon quickened its pace through the air. Steven looked back and saw that they were gaining distance away from the fearow and aircraft.
"They must be after the location of the Adamant Orb," he thought to himself. "But...how could they have known I know where it is?"
He snapped back to reality when he heard the loud flapping sounds of fearow flying around him. They flew in front of him and Metagross, preventing them from flying any further. "Damn it," he cursed under his breath as the dirigible closed in behind him. The huge aircraft slowly blocked out the sun and put him in the shadows of the huge envelope. The passenger cabin hovered near him and inside he saw members of Team Galactic.
"What's with this all of a sudden?" he asked. "I don't think I've done anything wrong."
"Cut the crap. You know exactly why we're here," snapped a man with blue hair. Steven assumed he was the leader in this operation for he wore a different attire and hairstyle from the others inside the cabin. The silver haired Champion narrowed his eyes. They were trying to intimidate him.
"If you're talking about the Adamant Orb, I don't know where it is."
"Really now?" said the man with blue hair. He grinned rather evilly. "Are you sure? Perhaps we should pay a visit to your old man and see if that will refresh your memory. You see, we have a small team stationed in Rustboro near your father's corporation. At my word, they could storm the office and take your father into our custody. We wouldn't want that, would we?"
Steven kept his hardened gaze on them. He had no way of warning his father at this moment without Team Galactic making their move first. If only he were anywhere near Hoenn...
"They couldn't have possibly known I would be in Sinnoh unless..." A realization struck him. "Don't tell me...they've been listening in on our calls."
"Oh? What's with that look, Mr. Champion?" the blue haired man said in a mocking tone. He laughed when Steven glared at him. "Have you finally realized how we knew you'd be here? Judging by that look, you've clearly underestimated our capabilities!"
Steven kept a straight face until he finally smirked, letting out a wry chuckle. "And it seems that you've underestimated me." He unclipped the pokeball holding his skarmory from the belt line of his dress pants. "Aerial Ace, Skarmory!" He called out as he threw the red and white pokeball. The steel bird screeched loudly as it appeared in a flash of light. Immediately it swooped around the dirigible and flew straight through the envelope. Two identical holes were made and instantly the loud sound of helium rushing out filled the surroundings. The large aircraft began to slowly sink down to earth.
"Shit..." the blue haired man cursed.
"Commander Saturn, we're losing altitude fast." One of the grunts informed.
"I can see that!" he yelled, irritated. Quickly he pushed the button down for the communications. "Alpha team, storm the corporation and take the chairman hos-" Before he could finish his sentence, the machines inside the gondola began to explode one by one. Saturn backed away from the communications machine just as it too exploded. He looked up through the windows and saw that the metagross was glowing a dark blue. "That son of a bitch used Psychic."
Steven watched as the dirigible hit the ground with a thundering crash. He turned around and saw the flock of fearow charging at him, aiming to use Drill Peck. "Skarmory! Steel Wing!" he yelled. In the nick of time, the steel bird swooped down and hit the fearows head on with its hardened wings. The flock fell to the ground, completely knocked out by the one, powerful attack.
"Good job," said Steven to his skarmory. The steel bird cooed softly before the silvery haired man zapped it back into its pokeball. He clipped the pokeball back around his waist and looked over the huge mess the dirigible made. Down below he saw the commander, crawling out from underneath the debris. "Let's go Metagross," Steven whispered. The steel pokemon groaned lowly as it turned and flew away from the site.
Knock. Knock.
Cynthia rushed over to the door and opened it. "What took you so lo-?"
"I'm sorry to return for lunch so late," her grandmother replied curtly as she walked past Cynthia.
"Ah...sorry grandma. I thought you were Steven," said the blonde in an apologetic tone as she walked back to the table with the map unrolled on top.
"He still hasn't arrived yet?"
"No. He had contacted me earlier, but he hung up abruptly."
"How rude of him," her grandmother said as she walked over to the table Cynthia was sitting at. The old woman sat down on the chair and set down her small lunch on top of the map. "Your worries won't just disappear by staring at this map the whole day Cynthia."
"Grandma...I fear something happened to Steven," said Cynthia suddenly. "He may be a bit carefree, but he's not irresponsible. I think he might have run into Team Galactic on his way here."
"But what for? The only reason would be so that they could get information on the whereabouts of the Adamant Orb and they have no way of knowing that he knows the new location."
Before Cynthia could respond, someone knocked on the front door. She got up from her seat quickly and strode over to open the door. When she did so, she saw no one else other than Steven standing there, clean cut as always. "What took you so long?"
"What? Not even a "hello"?" Steven asked, smiling when he saw Cynthia glare at him. "I'll explain if you let me inside."
She stepped aside and let the silvery haired young man past. Once she closed the door behind him, she immediately asked him, "Why did you hang up so suddenly?" Impatiently she waited for his answer as he seemed to completely ignore her question.
"Hello Professor," he greeted.
Cynthia's grandmother simply let out a small 'hmph' and sipped her cup of coffee. "Have a seat," she said, pointing to the chair that was adjacent to to her. He thanked her as he sat down. All the while, Cynthia hovered around him anxiously.
"Answer me," she finally demanded in a stern tone.
Steven crossed his arms over his chest and muttered, "I had a little run-in with Team Galactic near Twinleaf."
"What!?" Cynthia exclaimed as she took a seat in her own seat.
"They wanted information on the whereabouts of the Adamant Orb from me."
"But how could they have possibly-?"
"They were listening in to our calls."
"Impossible..."
"It seems that we've been underestimating their capabilities. They're not your ordinary thieves. They were lying in wait near Twinleaf knowing I had to pass by there to get here. When I refused to tell them the location, they told me they had a small team stationed in Rustboro back in Hoenn that could take my father as a hostage. Perhaps they were bluffing, but considering on how they had nearly forced me into a corner there's no telling what else they're capable of." Steven sighed tiredly.
Cynthia clenched her fists. "We were too careless to talk over our pokegears. Because of that...they're going to be one step ahead of us." Suddenly, Cynthia's face contorted into that of frightened realization. "I had told Lance over our pokegears that he should check all of the lakes in Sinnoh for the Lake Guardians."
"But that shouldn't be too much of a problem, right? There's three lakes in Sinnoh and they're all pretty far from each other. You didn't tell him over the pokegears to check a specific lake right?" Steven asked.
"No, I told that to him in person. He left a while ago to check Lake Acuity for Uxie. He should be there by now."
Right on cue, Cynthia's pokegear beeped loudly. She saw that it was Lance and immediately picked up. "Is everything alright?"
"Far from it..."
"What?"
"...That lake..."
"What about the lake?"
Lance held his dark red pokegear in his hands tightly. His expression read that of shock. "The lake," he answered again, "it's gone..."
A/N Ick. Sorry it's a short chapter. I would have made it longer, but I figured that I should leave off from there. Cliffhangers are awesome, are they not?
Reviews are always welcome.
