Chapter 4: Mystery of the falling eevee

'Well', Maria told herself 'so much for a happy ending.' She thought as she and her friend, Haxew the axew stood in the cooking pot; being roasted alive literally by a group of ghost pokemon. Her feelers were useless as she and Haxew were tied up; the haunter were even crueler to her by tying her feelers together therefore she was in too much pain to even conjure up a moonblast.

The setting couldn't get any scarier; dark cave with little light aside from the cooking pot, dense fog where it was impossible to see anything, not to mention getting roasted alive by ghost pokemon whom Maria doubted needed the meat anyway.

She thought back all those hours before she and Haxew got captured; it had been just five hours since Black and Victini had left for Liberty garden. She was currently on a hard earned vacation, after saving Black, Haxew (and Silver) from Kyurem's wrath shortly after evolution was just one of the things that earned her the vacation as well as a few rescue missions, and even helping out Black in the other pokemon world. (Although she still refuses to listen to commands, she trusts him just as much as his partner, Bo the emboar.)

Maria watched as the other rescue team members started going toward job boards (which were enchanted by none other than her own fairy magic) to take job requests while she sat there and tinkered with the pile of metal she had with her, which was ironically one of her few weaknesses. It wasn't an urge she could control easily, it was nervous energy more than anything; sometimes her feelers just get a mind of their own, and start tinkering without her consistent. Of all the irony though, this has led to some interesting inventions, such as egg-machine gun (real eggs, not pokemon eggs) a particular portal gun, (that she pranks Haxew with from time to time) and perhaps her most famous: the rescue team communication device, which is now vastly used across all the continents.

The mechanic Syllveon sat there tinkering with the metal using her feelers when she heard a familiar, annoying voice "there you are, Maria!" she turned and saw the dragon type approach her. "So," he began "no rescue mission today?"

"I'm on vacation, Haxew" Maria replied.

"Really?" He asked but then glanced downwards "ok, what's on your mind?"

"Umm.. Nothing?" Maria lied

"You sure, because if so, then why the heck did you make a heart out of metal?" Haxew said causing Maria to glance down at her feelers's creation.

"Damn these feelers to Hades!" she cursed as she saw the heart made of metal. "I swear there's nothing on my mind Haxew!"

"Hmm" the dragon began "still bummed that Black didn't take you along to Liberty garden?"

"A little."

"Miss being an eevee?"

"..no?" she replied.

"Wish you were a dragon instead?"

Maria just glared "ok, you're going too far now."

"Disappointed that you haven't found a mate yet?"

Maria decided to go sarcastic "hmm let's see; well jolteons are too energetic, vaporeons are too wet, flareons are, um, too hot, glaceons are too cold, and I despise leafeons."

"pfft" Haxew said "classic; eeveelutions only dating eeveelutions." He said "You know, there's a certain dragon type in town who's also looking."

"You sure?" Maria began sarcastically "I thought Hydeigon said he wanted to remain single."

"No; just a dragon type."

"But I thought that Druddigon got one last week." Maria joked as Haxew facepalmed.

"I'm talking about the macho dragon type standing in front of you!" Haxew exclaimed. "Come on, Maria; me and you grew up with same dream; we created Team Green together; (under Black's shadow however) don't you think it'd work out fine?"

"In this life at least" Maria said.

"What do you mean?" Haxew said then gasped "you're thinking about Shadow again aren't you?"

"When aren't I?" Maria asked.

"Well," he began "I'd prefer you not to do so during the day; your nightmares are bad enough at night, I'm surprised people get sleep around here."

"Well, something that has stayed for almost fifty years, isn't going away anytime soon."

Haxew held a shocked expression "yesh, I had no clue you were that old! You sure you've been counting correctly?"

"Well, my paws don't exactly count up to a multiple of ten; unless I use my pads." She shrugged "maybe I missed a few years; maybe I'm actually seventy or a hundred."

Haxew stiffed a laugh "so, now you're trying to outage me; trying to scare me away? Not happin'!"

"Eh?" Maria suddenly asked, eyeing the sky.

"I said, not happin'." Haxew said almost confused.

"No," Maria said pointing to the sky with one of her feelers "look." She said pointing at some brown object falling at a high velocity.

"Meteorite maybe?" Haxew suggested, and then started panicking. "Ah! A meteorite's falling from the sky! Please don't make this the extinction of Pokémon; because i-if Pokémon became extinct, I don't know what'd I'd do!"

Maria just sighed "for the record, you'd be dead."

"Oh."

"But let's see if we can get a closer look at it." She said as her feelers subconsciously pressed a button on the metal heart as it morphed into a pair of binoculars.

"Your feelers make some weird inventions." Haxew said as Maria looked through the binoculars.

"You can calm down now." Maria told him.

"Why?"

"Because it seems our 'meteorite' is no more but a helpless, falling eevee."

"At that velocity?" Haxew asked "seems almost as if he fell from space, or came out of one of Hoopa's rings."

"Regardless, we have to save him…..or her." Maria insisted.

"Save 'it', ok?" Haxew said trying to generalize it.

"Whatever; come on." Maria said as she ran where she thought where it'd/he'd/she'd land.

"Wait a millisecond; Maria!" Haxew yelled as Maria continued to run, ignoring Haxew's call. He sighed, seeing there was no way to change her mind, and ran after her; along the way, he couldn't help but mutter "that eevee better not be male…."

(Line break)

The dragon-fairy duo ran down the mountain attempting to meet the crash course; one more determined than the other.

"Maria;" Haxew called once more "no matter how fast we run, we're not going to make it; unless you know someone with super speed?!"

Maria's only answer was a simple sigh as she said to herself "Shadow…..if only you were here. " Maria sighed but quickly brought herself back to the present "wake up, Maria!" She scolded herself "even if he was here, it still doesn't excuse that you're not that helpless little girl anymore! I will save that eevee, without his help (or without Haxew's for that matter, he's moving like a snail compared to me) even if I have to break the fourth wall fifty times along the way!"

"Love the determination, keep it up." Haxew said as Maria was mindlessly confused.

"Eh?" She asked the dragon as she turned around and started running backwards to look at him. (Which was talented for a four legged animal/Pokemon) "What are you talking about?"

"Your determination to save the eevee with or without my help; and to break the fourth wall a few times."

Maria was almost speechless "how did you see inside my mind?" She asked.

"I didn't, I just looked above." He replied.

"Above?" Maria was really confused now as she looked up and saw nothing but clouds "what are you talking about?"

"Above; your thoughts are recorded there." Haxew said.

Maria just turned around and ignored him, insisting he was just messing with her head, trying to make her lose focus.

"That may or may not be true." He joked.

She sighed and looked up and nearly gasped; the falling eevee was now out of sight but she didn't lose hope that he survived; after all, Black survived when Haxew found him.

"Correction: he fell on me, there's a difference!" He yelled.

(Line break)

Eventually Haxew and Maria ended up in a huge forest clearing which was left in a mess; there was clothing everywhere. From footwear, to a hat, pants, ect.

"The Arceus happened here?" Haxew asked.

"To Hades if I know." Maria said before examining the area.

Haxew did the same before saying "don't want to jump to conclusions, (it was a lie) but could all this belong to that eevee that was falling?"

"Probably," Maria answered "we finding this while chasing a falling eevee, can't be a coincidence."

"Pfft" Haxew said "apparently a human then?" He then went out of his way to mock how a human would act (which was horribly done) "Oh, look; I just got turned into a Pokemon, looks like I'll just have leave my filth right here and just leave." Haxew said ended his mock before saying "humans, just leaving their filth everywhere; just sickening."

Maria just glared at the axew "guess I'll just have to tell Black what you think of his race." She said with a slight smirk.

His light with regret "ok, I'm sorry, sorry, sorrrrrrryyyyyy!" He apologized, Maria loving every second of it."

"I was just kidding." Maria said "besides, whoever this stuff belongs to, has reason to come back; look." She said as she pointed her right feeler toward the belt hanging loosely to the pants.

Haxew saw nothing but nightmares as he studded "p-p-p-poke balls?!" He said, clearly petrified.

"Don't worry," Maria said completely sure of herself "those aren't the pokeballs we need to worry about. (Or at least that you need to worry about.)"

"What do you mean?" Haxew asked, still fearful.

"If I recall correctly," Maria began "then trainers only kept their partner's pokeballs on their belts, not empty ones." This seemed to calm Haxew down a bit, and even giving him an idea.

"Oh, phew" he began "then it's jailbreak time!"

"Hold on just a minute Haxew," Maria began "the pokemon inside are still loyal to their trainers, pokemorphed or not."

"Yeah, with that hypnotism the pokeballs infect them with. I just can't stand the thought of humans pitting Pokémon against each other; so sickening! I couldn't stand a friendship with such a person!"

"Guess I'll have to tell Black that you're canceling your friendship." Maria smirked again.

Haxew froze "N-n-no; I-I take baaaccckk-!" he stopped as he found a particular syllveon almost dying of laughter.

"Oh, Haxew," she said through tears "you're so gullible!"

He just gave her his usual 'I'm not amused' look. "Black's an exception in my book at least, because he's the White hero."

"And what if the person all this stuff belongs to is the Black hero?" Maria asked.

"I dunno, give him some sort of apology that he wouldn't understand?"

Maria just sighed "besides, even if freeing the pokemon from their pokeball prison was ok, we don't even know what happens when we break the pokeball when their inside…or outside for that matter. For all we know we could accidently send them to a different dimension!"

Haxew got cocky "and what; Missingno eats them? Don't be ridiculous."

She paused "anyway, I'm going up the path to find our eevee friend," she said while removing her satchel and placed it before Haxew "think you could strip that belt from the pants? And careful not to open the pokeballs."

"Wha-?" Haxew was at a loss of words at the strange demand "why not you? You know more about humans than I do!" he paused "perhaps the better question is; why?"

"Yeah, normally I would but, it probably wouldn't look good as a syllveon, and as too why," Maria said addressing his other question "just know it's for research."

"Uh," Haxew groaned "I hate you..."

"Love you too." Maria joked as she kissed him on the cheek playfully and was off.

(Line break)

Maria searched high and low for anywhere the eevee might've fallen, forest ground, branches, even tree tops, but no sign of him.

"Where could he be?" Maria asked herself as she continued looking "he should be nearby, assuming he's connected to the pokeballs." She wondered as she kept searching the forest ground finding no luck; she even tried asking some of the forest pokemon whom reported not a sign of him.

She sighed as she was starting to lose hope "is this my first ever mission failure? Could I have been too late? *sigh* I'm not as fast as Shadow, so why did I even attempt to save a falling eevee and think that I'd make it in time?!" suddenly an idea struck her "wait a minute; falling eevee…from the sky…. That's it!" she exclaimed "I just need to ask one of the flying type pokemon if they saw anything! The only problem is," Maria said as she looked up towards the vast sky "how do I get up there long enough to ask?"

Maria sighed and put a paw on her head "come on, Maria think! Propeller maybe? Jetpack? Party-cannon? Wait, no need to be original here. Wait, I got it!" she said as she prepared everything: log, two heavy rocks, and make-shift helmet.

She placed the log on one of the heavy rocks, sat on one side, and levitated the other above the opposite side. She wore the helmet on her head for protection; despite it being made out of rock. "Not my most clever invention," Maria said "though this actually isn't an invention, seeing how it's been used before. Anyway, here goes nothing." She said as she lifted the rock higher in the air before she stopped levitating it as gravity took over slamming the rock on the log, flinging her into the air.

The air pressure was hitting her face so hard that she could barely see, but regardless she looked for a flying type to ask; it was then she realized the flaw in her invention. "Crap; all I accomplished was making myself a falling sylveon." She said before she started to worry about impact. She saw just below her, a small bird nest that she was going to crash into.

"Look out!" Maria yelled at the birds inhabiting the nest as she flailed uselessly, trying to move out of the way. Panicking, the birds fled from the nest as Maria crashed. Dazed, Maria said, "why do I feel like the helmet only increased the impact?"

"You okay, miss?" A pelipper asked in front of her apparently one of bird pokemon from the nest.

"Y-yeah," Maria said, shaking off the pain "sorry about crashing into your nest."

"It's no biggy, I've got a ton more scattered in the forest."

"Wha-?" Maria was shocked "why would you need so many?"

"Tough neighborhood" he explain, as he sat down on the same branch as Maria, "and well, scenarios such as this." The pelipper sighed and shook his head "first flying Eevees coming out of golden rings, now flying what-cha-ma-call-its targeting bird nests; the world must be ending."

"Again, really sorry," Maria said "wait did you say 'flying eevees'?"

"Yes, that mean something to you, Miss?" he asked.

"Actually, yes; you see, I was following this eevee falling from the sky, hoping to save it from gravity; in other words, I trying to save his life." Maria explained.

"That eevee then was a few steps ahead of you then."

"Eh?" Maria asked.

The pelipper shared the story of what happened to him earlier in the day; which was just an hour ago. "I was just flying around, free as a bird, when suddenly I had felt something try to pull me down from my talon. At first I thought it was another flyer doing the usual push down prank, so I was unprepared to what I saw next." He said, building up suspense in his tale "an eevee, yes an eevee had grabbed onto my right foot. It would seem that he either fell from the sky or learned to fly, he clarified the first one saying that he fell out 'golden rings' and whatnot. I agreed to take him down to safety, and he introduced himself as Natural Gropus, but preferred N. Strange eevee I say."

Where is he now?" Maria asked who was relieved at the good news.

The pelipper shrugged which made Maria's heart skip a beat "beats me," he paused "I let him off just outside the forest, and near a town."

"Post town?" Maria asked.

"Might've been" he said "you from there, Miss?"

"Yes." She confirmed. "Thanks for the information, Mr. pelipper!"

"Please, just call me Pelps," he said "and I'm glad to help." He justered a wing toward the ground and said "need a lift down?"

"Yes please." Maria said before allowing him to transport her downward.

(line break)

Maria was overjoyed that the eevee was still alive; in fact she ran at her top speed back to where she left Haxew and the pokeball belt. However things were not as they seemed. When she got there, there was no sign of Haxew and her satchel was left where she had left it with Haxew.

"Haxew?" She asked out loud but no answer "Haxew, come on, this isn't funny."

She noticed the pokeball belt sticking out of the bag and walked over to it "you know," she said as she secured it inside "if your going to go missing, at least put things away properly?"

Maria suddenly noticed a glance of purple behind her and turned around quickly in an attack pose. What stood there; or levitated there rather, was a small spike like Pokemon with two small claws that mysteriously were not attached. Its cuteness (if you can call it that) made Maria stop the pose.

"Sorry," Maria apologized "you just scared me, that's all. Are you lost?" She asked.

Before Maria had time to react, its eyes changed to little swirls that soon knocked her out.

The long-awaited chapter 4 is finally here! Its official, I'm lazy at writing & updating…

Now let's head back to the anime universe and check up on Snivs shall we? (Hopefully he didn't die from suspense whenever he's going to live or not; I'm sorry Snivs!)

Modern out!

(note to thy Snivy-fish, Maria mentioning the first part of your name was not an Author easter-egg, I've got other things planned for that ~huehuehuehue~)

Also small, little changes were made to chapters 1 & 3, be it small spelling errors, or dialogue changes; you probably won't notice anything major though.