Disclaimer: If I owned Pokémon, which I don't, then Hoopa would be distributed at gamestop in America.
"Speech"
'Thought'
The reunion between the heroes was truly something heartwarming. Their separation was temporary, but it was perceived as eternity.
While he was more happy to be reunited with Erica, Brendan couldn't overlook his curiosity at the moment. Erica just somehow got him to come to her when neither of them knew where he was. After managing to pull himself away from his girlfriend, he decided
to bring the topic up.
"How did you get us to come to you?" Asked the brunette.
"Latias just told me to play the Eon Flute." Answered Erica as she pulled out the instrument.
Looking at the instrument only managed to raise more questions in Brendan's head and for good reason. Who could possibly craft something that could just summon legendary pokemon like that?
"Looks like Steven helped us out again." Said Brendan as he ignored the questions.
"We'll have to pay him back one of these days." Noted Erica. She proceeded to return the Eon Flute to her bag.
And while she was grateful to be reunited with Brendan, she had a few questions of her own.
"Who was that girl that kidnapped you?" Asked the blonde after donning a face demanding revenge. "Did she give you her name?"
That expression wasn't meant to be taken lightly, but Brendan also knew not to fuel the fire too much.
"She said her name was Zinnia. For some reason, she thinks that I'm part of Team Magma." Explained the boy calmly.
"What? Why would she possibly think that?" Erica's angered eyes where now filled with question and disbelief.
"She saw me back in the Magma base when I went undercover. I told her that I wasn't and that my pokemon and I were the ones who defeated Groudon."
While this case of mistaken identity explained the events of the night prior, it also raised another point about this girl. Judging by her choice of target it became obvious that she was targeting Team Magma. By extension, she might've been targeting
Team Aqua as well.
Presumably, Zinnia might be acting as a vigilante to punish them for awakening Groudon and Kyogre.
"You think that it is likely that she is trying to get them for nearly destroying the world?" Questioned Erica. She valued the opinion of her companion.
"Well, she said that they were causing trouble again. So that is probably why." Answered Brendan.
Erica groaned in response to learning that; it felt like trouble kept finding her and her friends. Not even a week after and there were new problems to fix concerning radical groups.
"Why do we keep running into trouble?" Asked the blonde as she rubbed her head in exhaustion.
Brendan couldn't help but chuckle a little bit after that. He ignored the obvious issue to deal with.
"It looks more like we keep trying to find trouble." Noted the brunette.
The irritation on the girl's face had relaxed into happiness. Being around her boyfriend truly did make her feel better.
Latias and Latios were also happy to be back together evident by them nuzzling each other (in a family fashion). Not that he wasn't glad to be reunited with his only family, but the blue dragon had some issues on his mind (seemed to be a running theme
with this group).
'Nii-san, what's wrong?' Asked the red dragon with her innocent eyes.
'The girl that kidnapped us, I think I've seen her somewhere before. But I can't remember from where.' Explained Latios.
His explanation was met with some laughter and a light punch to the side from Latias. An action that broke her character, but not the fourth wall.
'Come on Nii-san. How could you have met her? We rarely ever leave our island.'
'I know. But something about her appearance seems familiar. I didn't get a good look at her face, but it was enough.'
Latias's sense of humor was evaporated by hints of fear and curiosity. She knew that her brother wasn't one to lie or pull pranks leaving much to be wondered.
But before the red dragon could speculate any further, she could hear her trainer calling to her.
"Latias, why don't you get some rest?" Insisted Erica. "You must be tired after flying all day."
While she wanted to pry into the question of Zinnia's identity further, Latias couldn't deny that she was tired. Besides, being with her brother again allowed her to talk to him again anytime.
'Ok, thanks Erica.' Said the dragon before being returned to the pokeball.
"You should get some rest as well Latios." Noted Brendan as he pulled out a pokeball.
'Alright Brendan, but keep your head up.' Joked the dragon as he referenced the events of the night prior.
The brunette had to laugh after that comment before retrieving his partner.
Almost on the cue of the dragons' dismissal, a weak light started to emanate from Erica's bag. Obviously, this didn't go unnoticed by the blonde as she opened her bag to find the meteorite to be weakly glowing.
"Isn't that the meteorite from Mt. Chimney?" Asked Brendan.
"Yeah, but why is it glowing here?" Pondered Erica outloud.
Then she remembered the room in Granite Cave that had the mural depictions of Groudon and Kyogre. It didn't seem like much of a coincidence to her that the rock would react oddly near that room.
"Come on Brendan-kun, I think that I know why this is glowing." Instructed the blonde.
Brendan just shrugged his shoulders, and followed after his girlfriend into the nearby cave.
Shortly after entering, Erica took the route that towards the room that she had met Steven in before. Just like last time, in the room were the murals of the ancient battle plastered upon the wall.
But, unexpected to both the protagonists, Zinnia was also there. She was accompanied by the same little Whismur, and both were looking at the wall.
"You!" Yelled Erica furiously garnering the attention of the red-eyed girl. As she turned around, revealing a book that she held, a shock of surprise came.
"What? How'd you get off of Mirage Island?" Asked Zinnia towards Brendan.
"You can't break the bond between us that easily." Answered the brunette calmly.
While the answer was to Erica's liking, she was more concerned with killing Zinnia at the moment.
"Why don't you just stand still so I can beat the ever living crap out of you?" Threatened the blonde. "It's the least that I could do to repay you for kidnapping my boyfriend."
"Sorry for separating you two, but I had to imprison him somehow. That's what you deserve for your past crimes."
Brendan became irritated after being told that. This was the second time that she had made that mistake, and it was getting to him. This emotional response was evident by him grabbing the sides of his head.
"Oh come on, I'm not with Team Magma! And, I never was!" Proclaimed the frustrated teen.
"Denial is a good way to cope with your trauma of damning the world." Retorted Zinnia.
This argument didn't seem to make any progress for the protagonists. But Erica managed to follow her former teacher's analytic style.
Reaching behind Brendan, she pulled off one of his pokeballs and released Aqua.
"See this? His name is Aqua, and he is a water type." Said the blonde. "And he is Brendan-kun's starter pokemon."
Retaining her close-minded and patronizing beliefs, Zinnia took a closer look at the Swampert. Erica's claim suddenly gained some validity as both Aqua and Brendan did share some features in their expressions.
That seemed to confirm that the two had known each other for a while. If Brendan did indeed have a water-type pokemon, then he couldn't have been a part of Team Magma.
Her face started to show fear and she started to shrink away. This action came much to the surprise of Brendan and Erica.
"You mean...you were trying to stop them?" Asked Zinnia with a shiver of fear in her voice.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Answered Brendan who was still somewhat frustrated.
The brunette girl then bowed down, an action that continued the string of surprises. Aster added humor to the surprise by bowing down as well.
"I'm sorry. I was mistaken." Apologized the girl.
Even though this act of repentance was certainly unexpected and delightful, Erica still wanted to release her frustration in the form of physical violence against this girl.
Dismissing her logical and calm behavior, she quickly approached Zinnia and prepared to hit her. But a Noivern swooped down in front of her defensively.
"Noivern, you don't need to protect me." Said the Zinnia depressingly.
But the wyvern didn't show any signs of leaving its defensive position. Erica was surprised by the unusual size of the Noivern, and that there was even one in Hoenn.
After all, Noivern were Kalos pokemon. Even in their home region, they were scarce.
Something else that caught Erica's attention was how quickly Zinnia pokemon came to defend her. It was something that she could only describe as an affectionate action.
"Your pokemon care a lot about you, don't they?" Asked Erica. She began to relent from her previous state of anger.
The initial reaction from Zinnia was a small amount of surprise, but she cast a smile and nodded.
"Yes, and I really love them too." Answered the girl happily. She reached over and petted her Noivern who responded happily.
That relationship didn't go unnoticed by Brendan either. He too understood how important his pokemon were to him. He then approached his girlfriend and placed his hand on her shoulder.
"I think we can safely say that she isn't a bad person." Said the brunette.
A sigh escaped from Erica's lips and she calmed down after getting another's opinion. But all that pent up anger had to go somewhere.
"I can see that you're still angry. Do you wanna battle?" Asked Zinnia.
Denial was Erica's first choice as she didn't want to simply use her pokemon to release her frustration. Considering that they hadn't had a good battle since Kyogre, the exercise might be appreciated.
"Alright then, I think my pokemon would like some more time outside of the pokeballs." Admitted the blonde before releasing Tetsa.
"Yes! Are you ready Noivern?" Asked Zinnia. Her wyvern crouched down as a sign that it was ready to fight. "Then attack with shadow ball."
Flapping its wings, the dragon-flying type got off of the ground and launched the ghostly attack that exploded upon Tetsa. But the dense hide of the Aggron took the blow without any signs of damage.
"Tetsa, use rock slide!" Said Erica.
The iron dinosaur slammed its fist down and caused a few stalagmites to fall down and hit Noivern. Matching a flying type to a rock type proved to be a bad choice for Zinnia as her Noivern took massive damage.
"Oh no, use air slash!" Ordered the brunette girl in a panic.
"Take down!" Ordered Erica as Noivern attacked.
Just as the previous attack had failed, air slash practically bounced right off of Tetsa before she rammed right into Noivern. The dragon type didn't stay conscious after that blow.
"Oops, sorry Noivern." Apologized Zinnia as she retrieved her partner.
"She may be a good martial artist, but she doesn't look so hot when it comes to pokemon battles." Noted Brendan to which Aqua nodded.
Erica chose to retrieve Tetsa as well. It was probably appropriate to give her opponent a chance against a less dense pokemon.
"Come on out, Raishin!" Said the girl as she released her Manetric. In turn, Zinnia released a Tyrantrum to the battle.
'Again with a pokemon that is native to Kalos.' Thought the foreign champion when she saw this fossil pokemon. 'Even if it is a fossil pokemon, that is still from Kalos.'
"Attack with crunch!"
"Dodge!"
Tyrantrum charged in quickly and reared down to chomp on its enemy. But Raishin was far too agile as he jumped out of the way and onto the dragon-rock type.
"Now use discharge." Ordered Erica calmly. Her electric hound released the static wave, but he didn't succeed in dealing too much damage.
After taking that unsuccessful attack, Tyrantrum instinctively attempted attack the Manetric on its back through bites.
"Quick Tyrantrum, use dragon claw!" Said Zinnia.
The dinosaur swerved its back around and brought its small arms close enough to swipe Raishin successively.
Even though it was a same type attack that was able to land a direct hit, Raishin managed to shake it off and get back up immediately. Though the obvious durability of the opponent was practically unnoticed by Zinnia. She didn't show much intimidation
towards it.
"Now Tyrantrum, use crunch again!" Cheered the red-eyed girl.
'Again? Why?' Thought Erica. It was obvious that the attack didn't work the first time.
"Dodge." Raishin anticipated the oncoming attack and jumped out the way.
But he didn't anticipate that Tyrantrum would follow and slam the jaws shut mid-air. Naturally, it was unexpected and certainly met with panic.
"Don't panic Raishin, just use discharge." Said Erica calmly.
While being violently thrashed in the maw of Tyrantrum, the electric hound dispersed the powerful electric attack. It was greatly damaging because Tyrantrum's armor didn't protect it's insides.
The hefty fossil pokemon collapsed while still twitching. Erica nonchalantly retrieved her loyal partner and sent out Aquarius in his stead.
"Sorry about that Tyrantrum. Please get some rest." Urged Zinnia as she retrieved her pokemon and sent out a Goodra.
'Has she been to Kalos before?' Questioned Erica in her thoughts. "Aquarius, use ice beam!"
"Goodra, use dragon pulse!"
The two beams collided into each other, but the latter collapsed because of its dragon aspects against an ice attack. Goodra took the attack square in the face and stumbled backwards a little.
"Don't give up Goodra, use muddy water!" Cheered the red-eyed girl.
Her dragon straightened its vision and summoned a wave of water that became muddy due to the cave's ground. Aquarius took the attack and got in the way to protect Erica.
The attack comically continued and slammed Brendan into the wall. Spirals were in his eyes as a result of the impact.
"Aquarius, use coil." The water serpent proceeded to boost all of her stats by coiling up.
"Before she stops, use dragon pulse again!" Said Zinnia with vigor.
The draconic beam soared in the blink of an eye and hit Aquarius hard. But the tender pokemon's skin retained its beauty.
"Attack with disarming voice." Aquarius then proceeded to finish the match with a loud screech that caused Goodra to fall over.
"Aww man. I was hoping that we could win." Pouted Zinnia as she retrieved her pokemon. "Oh well, you win some you lose some."
While the behavior of her opponent was still inconspicuous, Erica's attention was more focused on her boyfriend who was still imprinted in the wall. She promptly proceeded to help him out of there.
"Sorry about that Brendan-kun. I guess we were immersed in the battle." Apologized the blonde as she an Aqua attempted to pull him out.
"It's ok. At least your not angry anymore." Joked Brendan as he got out. His odd and weak humor managed to place a smile on Erica's face.
"You two really do make a cute couple." Noted Zinnia before walking closer to them. "And, again, I'm really sorry about mistaking you."
An act of innocence was hard for the two champions to show disapproval too. While Erica appeared more difficult to assuage, she seemed fairly calm and possibly trusting. Brendan wasn't hard to convince from the start.
"Well, you did apologize. So-"
"Great! But please take this as an apology anyway." Suggested Zinnia as she pulled out a thin rock from her pocket and handed it to Brendan.
Immediately after the rock was handed to him, the meteorite in Erica's bag started to glow again. Instinctive curiosity guided her to pull it out and inspect.
The light emanating from the meteorite was even brighter than before. This prompted some playful surprise in Zinnia.
"Wow, shiny. I guess that you guys should keep that with you then." Her suggestion wasn't met with any denial.
"I suppose that isn't a bad idea. Something important like this is probably best kept in the hands of the talented." Answered Erica with some pride.
Zinnia cracked a smile and laughed a little at that passive insult. Perhaps they weren't on good terms just yet.
"You're probably right, I'll be seeing you guys around. C'mon Aster." She then promptly left the cave with her Whismur following after her.
With her dismissal, the protagonists were just left to themselves. The absence of Zinnia made Brendan realize that he had almost completely forgotten about her previous actions.
Apparently, a good brawl can clear up bad relationships for everybody. Or at least by his logic it would appear that way.
"I guess she isn't that bad after all." Noted Brendan.
"Maybe, but let's be on our toes." Suggested Erica as she placed the meteorite back in her bag.
Immediately, Brendan showed some surprise; he and Aqua looked to each other with curious expressions.
"Why? She seems pretty nice."
"I know. But I get the feeling that she wasn't battling to her fullest." Explained the girl.
Ironically, despite history, that did make sense to Brendan. His girlfriend's pokemon were able to clear through all of Zinnia's with very little trouble.
Yet last night, she managed to kidnap him with minimal effort. Not to mention that Salamence wasn't in that battle. But there were too many possible unknown facts that could effect the scenario.
'Erica-chan has a point, Zinnia didn't seem like herself. She was a lot more-' Suddenly, his pokenav started to vibrate.
Pulling the device to his face, he opened it up to see that he got a message from Wally. Out of curiosity he opened the message, and he found that it was asking about the safety of Brendan's and Erica's keystones.
"Wally's asking me about our keystones." Stated Brendan.
Erica's attention to Zinnia's peculiar behavior was redirected to this odd question. "That's odd. You're sure he's not talking about the mega stones?"
"Pretty sure." Reassured the brunette as he skimmed the text again. "I think that we should head to him and ask directly."
"Because Team Magma and Team Aqua could be involved?" Inquired Erica.
"You know me so well."
The flight to Petalburg City was one that took a little longer than usual. Latios opted to carry both Brendan and Erica there because of his sister having to fly so much earlier.
"Wait, what makes you think that he is here?" Asked Erica with some level of disbelief.
"Well, he moved here when he first met." Explained Brendan before dismounting and retrieving Latios.
He swiftly surveyed the surrounding area for any signs of his kouhai. Not much time was used before he spotted Wally in front of a house with somebody wearing a Team Magma hood confronting him and his weakened Altaria.
Being quick to act, Brendan rushed over to protect his friend. If what Zinnia told wasn't a lie, that is.
"Wally!" Yelled the brunette as he rushed over.
Once he got close enough, Brendan immediately recognized this girl as the kuudere that worked for Team Magma.
"Brendan? What're you doing here?" Asked Wally in surprise.
"You...preparing...to delete..." Proclaimed Courtney despit hearing Brendan. "But...this can...be forgone...for the keystone..."
Narrowing his eyes in concentration, Brendan immediately understood why his friend had sent him that message.
"No way, you're not getting Wally's keystone!" Proclaimed the brunette before charging in to attack with force.
Casually, Courtney released a Camerupt that blitzed into Brendan. He normally could've brushed off the blow, but his previous injuries wouldn't allow him that freedom.
Seeing her boyfriend fall onto the ground and grip his stomach in agony, Erica rushed over. "Brendan-kun!"
"No Erica-chan, get out of here." Urged the brunette. "Go to Littleroot town, I'll be there soon."
Going by the present threat of a keystone thief, it was obvious that May was a potential target as well. It would be more beneficial if Erica went there to protect May as well.
Besides, if Brendan ran out of energy and couldn't properly battle, Wally and his pokemon could take over.
"Alright, I trust you." Said the girl before leaving.
The assurance of his girlfriend managed to give Brendan a smile. He pulled out a pokeball and sent out Natsumi to the battle.
"Use eruption." Commanded Courtney. Her pokemon obediently followed the order and erupted.
"Natsumi, take the attack!" Said Brendan as he jumped around and tried to protect as much of the surround area as he could. Though Natsumi had to cover him due to his sore body. "Now use headbutt!"
After taking eruption, Natsumi charged in and slammed her head against Camerupt.
"Earthquake." Courtney's eyes started to become more irritated at how the battle was escalating.
"Jump with flamethrower."
The fire-ground type slammed its hooves into the ground to shake it violently, but the pure fire type managed to keep herself afloat with flamethrower (Godzilla style).
"And now use shadow ball!" As Natsumi descended, she launched the spectral attack towards Camerupt and landed a critical hit.
After being hit by that, Camerupt begun to lose its balance. Obviously, Brendan's quick thinking in battle along with his pokemon's experience had improved so much since last time that there really wasn't any competition in this match.
Courtney grinded her teeth in frustration as she came to that realization, and she promptly retrieved Camerupt.
"Mission...aborted..."
Without even using a flash grenade, she fled the scene. Brendan attempted to give chase, but he was stopped by Wally grabbing his arm.
"Wally, what're you doing?" Asked the brunette as he yanked his arm off.
"Just let her go Brendan, she didn't steal anything." Answered the meek boy.
Although the threat was cleared away, being told this prompted more curiosity in the mind of the champion.
Erica had sprinted as quickly as she could to get to Littleroot Town. While she wasn't out of shape, such a quick stretch wasn't easy to do.
'I need to exercise with Brendan-kun.'
She ran for a few more seconds before entering the tiny town. It didn't take too long before she could catch sight of May being confronted by Matt, which wasn't too hard given that his shirt was literally ripped off.
Although the scene wasn't completely discernable, she could make out the image of a Crawdaunt in front of Matt.
Without much more thought, Erica sent out Hanataro. In her eyes, abusing type advantage was the quickest and best way to end this.
"Hanatoro, use petal blizzard!" Commanded the blonde. Her masquerade pokemon unleashed the attack was able to single handedly take down Matt's Crawdaunt.
"What? It's you again!" Proclaimed the Aqua admin while stating the obvious.
"Listen. I don't know what you're up to here, but you won't be hurting anybody here today." Said Erica in a semi-deadly tone.
After Archie had made the decision to cease the criminal actions of Team Aqua, Erica subconsciously thought it would be better to give them the benefit of the doubt.
"Just shut up, I'm not leaving without that keystone! I gotta help out ma bro!" That subconscious decision of mercy was starting to get weaker for the blonde.
"Look, you and your pokemon only forced us into a corner last time because of your field advantage. But now you don't have that."
Erica's logic was simple enough that this stalwart was able to understand it. In a plain grassy field, he couldn't even bring out Sharpedo to battle. And his opponent's champion status would shine through clearly if he acted stubbornly.
"Damn you." Matt then fled from the scene.
Impulse would've forced Erica to give chase and get him to spill the information, but she was more concerned with May.
"You ok? He didn't steal anything?" Inquired the foreigner.
"No, he didn't. But somebody else already got my keystone." Answered May with a hint of reluctance. Which was met with Erica's eyes narrowing.
Back in Petalburg City, Brendan was trying to understand the facts that Wally was telling him.
"I don't understand Wally. If she didn't get your keystone, then who did?" Asked the confused boy.
"Some weird girl with a cape. She said her name was Zinnia." Answered Wally without the mention of her beating him afterwards.
A very mixed expression decorated Brendan's face after hearing that. He knew that something wasn't completely clear about Zinnia, but her actions from earlier didn't pain her up as a bad person in the slightest.
Knowing that she had stolen keystones from his friends only succeeded in adding more mystery to the mix.
'That girl...just who is she?'
18 hours and 29 seconds until impact...
Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you liked it. And yes, I know that you battle Team Magma/Aqua before you meet up with Zinnia at Granite Cave. I just wanted to change things a little bit; it is too boring to have everything be a retelling.
Anyway, favorite, follow, or review, or maybe do all three.