Chapter 4: Complications, Confrontations, and Confusion

Grovyle, despite being a little out of practice, was a very good fighter. The only pokémon he'd ever met that could beat him was Dusknoir, but that usually had to do with Big D playing dirty.

Grovyle also tended to shy away from fights with humans, because those usually tended to involve guns, and contrary to what action movies may tell you, it is very difficult to dodge bullets, and you definitely have to.

But right now, the only thing on our grassy hero's mind was what he would do if he found Dusknoir. He didn't know what Dusknoir was doing or where he was, but he was soon to find out.

After running through the trees a la parkour, Grovyle was beginning to get complacent, and started looking for the Time Gear. Suddenly, he stopped.

So did Dusknoir.

When two individuals have extreme emotions towards each other, they tend to know when they are close to each other. This is true of both lovers and arch enemies.

Grovyle could see him, and that was very worrying, because after years on the road, he knew all the tricks and rules of the trade of being a fugitive. There was one very basic rule that was easy to find out, but easier to forget:

If you can see them, then they can see you.

Grovyle made to move, but then Dusknoir turned and looked directly at him.

Grovyle didn't stop to make sure if Dusknoir had seen him; he knew that always made it worse.

Dusknoir didn't give him a head start; the time for games was over.

Grovyle was running through the trees as if he had been doing it all his life, despite never having stepped in a forest for two years.

Dusknoir cared little for the environment and plowed his way through everything that could be demolished.

"Damn it, Grovyle! Stop running!" called Dusknoir.

"Screw you!" yelled Grovyle.

Suddenly, Dusknoir fired a Shadow Ball at the sound of Grovyle's voice.

When Grovyle could hear it whiz past his head, he decided it best to stay quiet.

They continued like this until their adrenaline wore out, and the chase began to wind down.

Grovyle managed to narrowly get away when Dusknoir lost sight of him as he jumped his way through an especially thick birch.

The two pokémon ran off in separate directions. Now the race was on:

Who would find the Time Gear first?

Meanwhile, beneath the sands of the Northern Desert, Carol had been turned around by tunnel collapses more times than she could take. She was beginning to develop a slight fear of underground spaces.

And just to add insult to injury, she managed to find her way into a monster house.

A crowd of pokémon fell down from the ceiling.

"Ha!" yelled the leader, a Sandslash, before asking, "What the hell are you?"

"A human."

"Ooh," said a Hippowdon behind her, "I've always wanted to beat up a myth."

Carol knew that all she had going for her right now was her wits. She tried to keep them talking.

"What do you mean, 'myth?'"

"Nobody's ever seen a human before," said Hippowdon before being slapped by a Pupitar.

"We're not here to talk! Get her!" he said.

A Mawile interrupted, "Are you sure it's a her?"

Carol stared her down, "Did you just call me a boy?"

"Uh, n-no?" stammered the Mawile.

"No, you didn't," said Carol before realizing something: many of these pokémon were afraid of her. She decided to capitalize on that fact.

"I wonder how Sandslash tastes," she said, while thinking that it would probably taste pretty crummy.

Sandslash got worried. "Ack!" At the sight of their leader getting scared, some of the horde got a little worried. A few even considered retreat.

"Maybe I just might be able to end this, and then have some lunch," she said, borrowing one of her ex-boyfriend's crazier, creepier grins.

"Urk." The crowd of pokémon began to thin.

"H-hold your ground!" said Sandslash, "She's just one human!"

Then she said, "And you're just a few pokémon."

They all turned tail and ran.

Wow, she thought to herself, I can't believe that actually worked.

She walked onwards through the sand cave.

"So," said Chris, "Why are you heading to Fogbound Lake?"

"We want to prove it exists," said Val.

"The entire Guild is heading there, yup, yup!" said Bidoof.

Chris said, "Guild. What do you mean by that? Like, an exploration guild?"

"Yeah," said Peak, "Wigglytuff's Guild!"

"Oh," said Chris, "Never heard of it."

All of the pokémon were in disbelief:

"What?!"

"How can you not have heard of it?!" asked Peak, "It's world-famous!"

"I guess I'm just not with the times," said Chris, carefully evading the subject. He remembered being told something by Carol:

"Don't even think about spilling the secret about what we're doing. You know they're looking for us, and we can't afford to give them any clues."

Peak shook his head.

Eventually, they came across a crowd of Krabby that quickly circled around them.

"Quick Attack!" yelled Peak as he jumped at one.

Val used Ember.

Bidoof used Tackle.

Chris... was standing around.

"Hey!" yelled Peak at the human, "Help us attack!"

"Hmm?" asked Chris with a start. "Oh, right!"

Chris pulled out his baseball bat. "Come on, Krabby."

He waited for one to come at him, and then he swung.

It flew, hit the wall and scurried away in fear.

The remaining Krabby attacked.

Peak, Val, and Bidoof all managed to dodge.

Chris got one clamped on his pant leg.

"Hey! Get off!"

He swished his bat at it but it refused to let go.

After a vicious cycle of attack, swing, dodge, the Krabby were all either down or out.

"Heh, that was fun," said Chris.

"How was that fun?" asked Val, "You had a Krabby clinging to you half the time!"

"Yeah," said Peak, "How come you're not injured?"

Chris gestured to his jeans. "These are denim jeans. The Krabby never even reached my skin."

"Denim?" asked Bidoof.

"It's a kind of fabric," explained Chris.

"Wait, you're wearing fabric? Why?" asked Val.

"Well, I don't have fur, so it helps cover me up, and, as you saw, it does have slight usefulness as armor," said Chris.

"Humans are weird," said Peak.

"Yeah," said Chris, "It's almost a mystery how we took over the damn planet."

"What?!" asked Peak in shock, "You took over the world!?"

"Oh, shit. Well, uh, not really..."

"But, you said you did," said Val.

Chris stuttered, "Um, well, it's a very long story..."

Peak looked him over suspiciously. "What are you holding?"

"A baseball bat. Glendale Sluggers." The words were indeed printed on the wooden club.

"What do you use it for?" asked Val.

"It's clearly a weapon!" said Peak.

"It's used for sport," said Chris.

"What do you do? Beat things senseless?"

"Actually, it's used to hit baseballs."

"That's terrible," said Val.

"Oh, no, it's quite fun actually. Look." Chris pulled out a baseball.

"Is that a baseball?" asked Val.

"What you're supposed to do when playing baseball is try to hit this thing as far as possible, so that you can run around the bases before anyone can tag you with it."

"Bases?" asked Peak.

"I'll tell you later."

The travelling party continued onwards.

After hours of wandering, it started to rain.

Grovyle quickly jumped down from the trees. He didn't trust his skills to carry him through wet branches. He instead elected to run on the ground.

He eventually came across a path and began to follow it. He started running.

A few minutes later, he reached his goal.

It was floating about a foot above a pedestal, surrounded by a glowing aura. The object itself was only about three inches across. It had six teeth circling around its edge and there was a hole in the center. It really is funny how such small things can be so important.

"That's it," said Grovyle in awe, "The Time Gear."

He ran up to it. He reached out for it.

Finally, he grabbed the blue gear, turned tail, and ran.

In his wake, time seemed to come to a standstill because that's exactly what was happening.

The raindrops stopped in mid-air, and with a very unique sound, time ceased to flow.

Carol was running, too, but for different reasons from Grovyle.

She was running because the tunnel she was travelling through was caving in.

Her chest felt as if it was on fire, but she kept running until she made it into a chamber that was structurally sound.

When she made it into the chamber, she instantly fell down. She was exhausted from the run, and she was still trying to get her breathing down.

"Fuck-" she gasped, "-I-" gasp, "-am never-" gasp, "-going underground-" gasp, "again."

She didn't notice the lake, and didn't care that her promise to herself was going to be impossible to keep.

Eventually, she sat up and looked around her.

"Where am I?"

She stood up and walked to the lake's edge.

"This lake's pretty cool."

She saw the glow at its center. As she looked closer, she realized:

"That's the Time Gear! I made it!"

Suddenly, everything went dark.

Another voice called out, "W-Who's there?"

Carol yelled, "Who are you?"

The lights came back on, and a small pokémon was hovering at the lake's edge. It had what appeared to be a pink headdress upon its head.

"I-I'm Mesprit, the Guardian of this Time Gear!" she said.

"What?! The Time Gears are guarded?" asked Carol. Suddenly, she realized that their mission wasn't going to be anywhere near as easy as they thought it would be.

"Of course they are," said Mesprit.

"Damn. How are we going to get them all?"

"WHAT?! You won't! I'll stop you if you try to steal it!"

Carol sighed. "I was afraid you'd say that."

Mesprit dived at her, and Carol dodged.

How am I going to win a pokémon battle without any pokémon?!

Carol thought quickly and tried to tackle Mesprit on her next fly-by, but that only managed to hurt them both.

Something very odd happened then, you see.

When Carol jumped at Mesprit, she missed completely, but something else didn't.

A shocking amount of electricity jumped between them, dazing (and confusing) Carol, and paralyzing Mesprit.

Mesprit flew into the ground as she twitched. The electricity was really getting to the water pokémon.

Carol was dazed, and at the same time, she and Mesprit asked,

"What the hell just happened?"

Carol walked forward, seeing double

She tripped over Mesprit, shocking them both a second time.

"Wah!" they both instinctually screamed.

The shock cleared Carol's mind somewhat, and also made sure that Mesprit would not be able to get up in time.

Carol started to run uneasily, but then, she jumped into the lake, and swam for the Time Gear.

There was a terribly ghastly silence.

There was a terribly ghastly noise.

There was a terribly ghastly silence.

A/N: I've been waiting for a chance to use those lines. Oh, I've been waiting.

Name its first famous occurrence for brownie points.

Anyway, tell me what you think of my story in a review, and don't panic.

I know exactly where my towel is.