Chapter 4 has been successfully rewritten.
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BFoS (8/20/2013)
Chapter 4: Alex and the Gang
The morning was alarming. Mt. Chimney was erupting, and no one knew why. It was devastating among the locals of Lavaridge Town. Few were beginning to toss the blame around, saying that they knew this would happen to a mountain town. The evacuation process was quick. The news pilots dispersed among covering the town and the volcano, grabbing as much footage as they could of the lava flowing down the mountain.
Trainers were hard at work sending out their best water types alongside the professional evacuation team.
Among the trainers, even fewer scattered the base of the mountains, either caring for the pokémon or seizing the opportunity to capture the rarer breeds as they fled.
Then there was Alex, a thirteen year old trainer who just narrowly escaped the mountain via cable car. He had been on the top to watch the view as the sun would rise, and then rode the cable car down. It was still early, 8:00 am when the eruptions began. Now two hours later, it was still going. And Alex found himself taking a path around the mountain, avoiding the bustling evacuation.
He ran through the base fast, knowing that he had a short time before lava could potentially hit the bottom. But he got tired. And the more he ran, the more he needed to take a breather.
He stopped. The air was not clean in the slightest. He wasn't getting anything out of the breather.
He released his mudkip from it's pokéball. The mudkip shook his head, becoming fully alert before triumphantly calling out to the world in it's native tongue.
"Oh Mudkip," Alex sighed. "We've gotta move fast, but I'm not sure how much longer I can go. Keep an eye out; I might get ambushed by fire!"
At the mention of that, a tree in the distance was lit aflame.
Mudkip nodded in a playful salute, and took a whiff around the area.
"Alright, let's get out of here!"
He continued down into the trees, alongside the mountain and heading north. His mudkip kept an eye and ear out for anything suspicious. The route was fine for awhile, and they managed to get away from the volcanic eruption slightly.
Up ahead, the section of the forest fell silent. And then, the mudkip heard it.
"Mudkip!" warned the pokémon.
"What's wrong?"
The mudkip pointed in the direction to their right. There were more trees. He took a whiff, and the mudkip was sure of it. There was something over there.
"What did you find, Mudkip?" Alex asked.
His pokémon scavenged through the bushes for a moment. He then plunged past them. Alex brushed them aside to try and get a better view.
On the other side, there was a small clearing. A little bit of light filtered through the trees. In the middle of it all, a wounded and defeated jolteon lay motionless.
"Oh wow," Alex exclaimed wide eyed. "Those are too rare to be wild..." Alex looked around while breaking through the bush, entering the clearing. He called out to no one in particular. "Hello? Is there anybody out there?"
Silence. Nothing but the wind. The mudkip came up to the pokémon, and nuzzled along it's neck. The jolteon didn't move.
Feeling worried, Alex released another of his pokémon, a sableye, who made a similar entrance to mudkip while letting out a fit of it's own laughter.
"Ghost," Alex said, trying to get the pokémon's attention.
Ghost, the sableye took a look at the direction Alex motioned. The jolteon remained.
He neared the pokémon, poking it. He was bruised. He was bleeding. His paw was mangled and his fur was matted with its own blood. The sableye cocked its head to the side before looking at Mudkip, who shrugged to the best of its abilities. He then proceeded to laugh.
"What's the matter Ghost? Is he dead?"
Ghost shook his head furiously, rubbing his paws alongside the jolteon's belly and slapping it. There was a breathing motion that followed, but the jolteon appeared to remain out cold.
Alex stepped up close and petted the pokémon, brushing through the fur. He looked at his mudkip and sableye; both of them had markings near their back, a digital code with his trainer ID. Brushing through the jolteon again, he found none.
"This is impossible..." Alex murmured. "This one is wild..."
He removed his backpack and started rummaging through it. He found what he was looking for; a single pokéball. It was the last empty one he had before he needed to restock. It felt wrong somehow that he was contemplating capturing this rare creature. He wasn't the one who defeated it.
Upon returning his gaze to the jolteon, he was stunned for just a moment. The creature had awoken and was staring back at him. There were mixed emotions upon the jolteon's muzzle; Alex could see it. But one he understood clearly was fear.
"Don't you worry little jolteon," Alex reassured. "I'll help you get back on your feet."
He pressed the capture button while dropping the ball. It bounced above the jolteon, engulfing him in red energy before being converted into the new essence and sucked into the ball.
"Well, that was pretty cool," Alex grinned. "We've got a new team member!"
His sableye and mudkip cheered in unison. Alex bent over to pick up his new companion, but his excitement was short-lived.
The pokéball shook. It shook once. It shook twice. It shook a third time.
Alex raised an eyebrow. His pokémon watched in wonder, unsure what to make of the situation.
"No way..." he murmured. He kept watching, waiting for the capture click. But the ball wobbled and shook.
All three surrounded the ball in wide-eyed wonder. It kept on shaking, and became faster the longer they watched.
But then it clicked, and the ball ended it's movement.
"This one's a fighter. That's for sure," Alex nodded. He turned to his two companions. "We've gotta treat him differently. He might hate us, and I don't want him to not like us...let's try our best to make him our friends. Got it?"
The mudkip nodded in agreement while the sableye blew a puff of air out and laughed maniacally.
"I'm serious Ghost," Alex warned. "this is a really cool pokémon, and I'd really hate to see him try to bolt every second he got."
He placed the ball on one of the last two free slots on his belt.
"Lavaridge is a mess. We've gotta get to Fallarbor. Come on guys, let's go."
Alex made his way out of the clearing. Ghost followed right behind him. Mudkip was going to, but stopped. He stood still for a moment, taking another whiff at the air and turning around. Below a low brush behind him, he could see something hidden; a flareon. It's eyes were upon him. But just as he noticed it, the pokémon fled.
"Come on Mudkip, we gotta get out of here!" Alex called behind.
Mudkip waited for a moment, wondering if the eon pokémon would return. but it did not.
He turned and followed his trainer.
"I'll find him, Mom," Darry said. "I promise."
"I don't even know why he left without saying goodbye!" his mother exclaimed. "That is unacceptable! You have got to bring him back here and make him apologize!" she used her phone again. "I don't understand why he isn't answering!"
Darry was just as worried as his mother. They were in the living room, where his mother had just spent her second half of the morning after discovering her son missing.
"I want to find him too, Mom," Darry nodded. "Believe me, more than anything else I want to talk to him!"
His statement was true. If this thing was still after him, then Charley wasn't safe anymore. What terrified him even more was the thought of it having already gotten to him, some time that night, but he had to believe that his brother simply made a decision to leave. And if that were the case, he understood why his brother left, but he didn't agree with him going alone.
"I'll find him. He'll be alright."
He picked up his bag from the couch. He had prepared himself for the journey the moment he realized Charley was gone. His belt was ready with his best team; Mede the medicham. Aqua, the azumarill. Erupt, the camerupt. Feather, the swellow. And Noon, the linoone.
He was fully alert when he left home and wandered the familiar streets. His eyes were searching to no avail. The city was too big, the populace, too many. And of the numerous directions his brother could possibly go to, he had no leads.
He released his Swellow, whom cawed and flapped it's wings upon touching solid ground.
"Feather," Darry called, "I need you to find Charley. He's gone missing. Can you do this?"
Feather nodded, and needed no other commands. She took to the skies.
Darry pulled out his PokéNav and examined the map of Hoenn. The cities he'd visited were highlighted a green hue, while the sparse and few towns he'd skipped were a dull grey. It was a big region. Looking at the task ahead became daunting. There were hundreds of places Charley could have run to.
He flipped through the menu's, looking for anything that he could find of use for his journey.
And then he did find something.
Alex sneaked behind a log, Ghost and Mudkip following his moves. Behind the log on a long dirt road in the middle of nowhere was a jeep, emblazoned with red and black streaks representing fire. It was stalled, awaiting a stationary trailer. Behind the trailer, its doors were open, but he couldn't catch a glimpse at what it could be doing.
The most certain thing however, was that this wasn't a good thing. This was Team Magma. Alex had somehow stumbled into criminal activity playing out.
He put a finger to his lips, informing his two friends to be quiet. Keeping low, he slowly made his way towards the edge of the log and took a peak over to the trailer.
A group of five Magma guards were looking at the contents of the trailer, but Alex still didn't have a good view of what was inside it. He had a small camera. He turned off the flash, and took some quick snapshots of the group, the truck, and the jeep, able to catch the license plate on the last one.
He stayed hidden for awhile, listening in on everything. For the most part, it was jargon he didn't understand, and useless information such as talking about their families.
It got boring.
He turned to his pokémon again, about to signal them to start moving out, but something was missing. The sableye wasn't there.
"Where's Ghost?" Alex whispered
Mudkip tried to look over the log, using it's forelegs to point.
Atop the trailer was Ghost, lying down belly first, legs behind him up in the air as he looked down directly above from the chattering guards.
Alex moved back tripping over himself, astonished at what he saw. He broke a branch while shuffling about.
"What was that?" a grunt called out.
Alex motioned for Mudkip to start moving back. One of the men were coming.
"I heard something, hold on."
"It was nothing. The volcano is falling apart out here, sooner or later the entire area is gonna get covered in soot and ash. What's taking the others so long?"
The man came to the log. Turning around the corner, a lone Zubat flew out from the end of the log, screeching as it flew into the sky.
"Just some pokémon," he said aloud.
"Oh yeah? Is it a good one?" the other grunt chuckled.
"Nah," the man responded, ignoring the grunt's sarcastic tone. He turned back and re-entered with the group.
Alex and Mudkip were in front of the trailer, hiding in front of the grill.
He gave a thumbs up to his mudkip.
"Let's get out of here," he heard a Magma grunt say. "They just called it in. Lavaridge is lost. We'll meet the others at Mauville."
He heard footsteps moving again. They were coming to the front.
Quickly, Alex got on the ground and looked under the truck. He could see the footsteps coming from both sides.
Though he could barely fit, he crawled under the truck, his mudkip following with every step of the way. It was a tight squeeze. He kept shuffling about, moving to the more spacious portions. The trailer turned on, and a short few seconds later, started driving off. Alex stayed still, only moving his arm as the tires nearly ran over them. The trailer passed, and Ghost jumped to the ground gracefully in front of Alex, immediately entering a fit a laughter.
"Ghost!" Alex shouted. The vehicles turned a corner in the trees and were gone. "That wasn't funny! You should NEVER mess with those guys. They are dangerous people!"
The zubat from before came back and perched on Alex's shoulder as he was standing up.
"Thank you, Fang," Alex sighed, returning the bat to it's pokéball.
Ghost pouted, a dignified stance.
"Seriously Ghost, you have to know better. You can't just put us in danger just because you want a closer look at something you don't know about!"
No matter what Alex said though, it appeared Ghost didn't want to hear it. He was a stubborn jokester.
"We're going to work on this," Alex sighed. He returned Ghost to his pokéball.
Mudkip looked up and cocked his head to the side.
"Come on Mudkip, you know he was wrong."
The mountain roared. It was loud. There was an explosion at its peak, and soot and ash spewed from it's top. The rumble was thunderous. Alex stepped back.
"We gotta get out of here." He started running. "Come on Mudkip, let's go!"
He tried running, his mudkip following fast, but the mountain behind him just got louder. It was going to blow up; he could feel it.
He caught good ground, but the atmosphere was quickly changing. The skies were darkening, the air becoming hot. Fallarbor was a long trek through the trees. He wouldn't make it to Fallarbor if he tried to run it. He would get tired, and the growing heat would get to him.
It was already beginning its work against him.
He jumped behind a tree, his mudkip jumping into his lap.
"We can't outrun this," he said.
He returned his mudkip to his pokéball and took a breather for a second. He breathed heavily. Then, he released his psychic from her pokéball.
A kirlia formed in front of him, surveyed the area and bowed before her trainer.
"We've gotta get out of here fast, Psy," Alex said, worry upon his face. "This was a bad idea coming through here; you remember our last city visit, do you?"
The pokémon nodded.
"We've got to get to Mauville. Please, take us there."
The kirlia knew what to do. She held her trainer's hands. Alex closed his eyes, the heat beginning to sting.
There was a flash of light, and the ground and trees began to get sucked away, into a void beneath him. They turned small and thin, and with each passing segment, left the two in completely white universe.
In an instant, life returned, buildings popping up all around him, people materializing from the ground and going about their daily activities. And then they were there; the city of Mauville.
Alex opened his eyes and looked around. The scenery was vastly different, brighter. They were in front of the Pokémon Center.
"Good job Psy," Alex complemented, kneeling down and hugging the kirlia.
He lost a lot of ground. But he made it out of the eruption.
He returned Psy to her pokéball.
Alex knew what he had to do. While the first order of business was to heal his team, there was something else important that he caught off from the Magma grunts; they were heading to Mauville. He needed to tip off the law enforcement.