"Oh yeah, real funny author!" Riolu screamed at the roof of the cave "What a fucking plot twist! Incredible cliffhanger! You got us all!"
"What are you babbling about?"
"The author is being a dumbass again." Riolu huffed and sat down in front of the cage's bars.
Joey rolled his eyes and studied the walls of the cave.
"Hey, Riolu," the pokémon turned his head when Joey called "Do you think you could blast through this cage?"
Riolu felt the bars. Solid, but breakable.
"Sure I could. It won't be quiet though"
"We could just fight them off if they come"
Riolu nodded once and took a step back, bringing his right hand back, palm facing the bars. His hand glowed blue with power. In a second, he thrust his palm forward. A blast of bright blue energy surged out of his palm, ripping the bars off of the floor and down the narrow tunnel with a satisfying cracking sound.
A scream reached the now escapee's ears. Both human and pokémon leaped out of the cell and started sprinting down the tunnel. Only eight meters in, Joey suddenly tripped over a figure. In the low light, Riolu struggled to see what the cause was. Riolu ran to Joey's side and nicked a torch from his adventurers' pouch. Riolu flashed the torch at the ground. Trapped under the recently blasted steel bars, a Mawile was lying down, unconscious. She was wearing a tight-fitting maid outfit, and a tray of honey pots was spilt in front of her. Riolu lifted the bars off her and picked her up, putting her on his shoulder. At this point Joey had picked himself up.
"Come on!" Riolu hissed as he started going down the corridor. Joey ran after him, panting.
Fortunately, it appeared that no alarm had been raised, as they made it to the mouth of the cave undetected. It appeared that the gang members had dragged them to the edge of Mt. Moudur, in a cave that was just on the base of the mountain.
"So, are you going to tell me why you brought one of them with us?" Joey huffed.
"Interrogation." Riolu put the Mawile up against a tree and then aimed his palm at the mouth of the cave. He let out a force palm, almost taking Joey's head off. The blast hit the roof of the cave and it began to collapse.
"Watch it!" exclaimed Joey. Riolu just shrugged and used a finger to poke the Mawile in the cheek, waking her up. Her eyes fluttered open and immediately widened as she saw the Riolu towering over her. Riolu aimed his fist at her.
"Not a move, or I'll punch your spine out of your body" he said menacingly. Mawile jumped up, grabbing Riolu's fist and turning it away from her faster than Riolu could react.
"Hey! What are y-" Riolu was cut off as Mawile wrapped him in a tight hug, her second mouth covering his own.
"Mawi-ma-ma! Mawile! Mawi…Mawile!" she said rapidly.
"What the hell is she saying?" Joey leaned over to the pair. Mawile was still chattering away.
"In a nutshell, those Beedrill had her prisoner, workign as their maid. We pretty much just rescued her."
"You're kidding," Joey said.
"No, I'm not." Riolu pried himself apart from the grip of the Mawile, still in tears, who was now just lying on the grass, happy to feel the warmth of the sun again.
Joey sat down on the grass, feeling nausea come over him.
"So, you're telling me… Beedrill are forming organised street gangs and kidnapping both humans and pokémon?" Joey asked, rubbing his head.
"Not just Beedrill, rival gangs like the Mongrel Mob, consisting of mostly Poochyena. The Crips, who are blue-exclusive. Gamers Against Weed, don't even ask. Westside, consisting of Unova Pokémon… you get the general idea," Riolu explained, taking a seat next to Joey.
"What I don't get," Joey huffed, "is why? Why would you just start forming gangs?"
"Drugs, mostly." Riolu picked at his teeth with a paw, poking out chunks of oran berries.
"Drugs? You guys have drugs?"
"Of course we have drugs! Currently, the Mongrel Mob hold a monopoly over pecha roots, and I tell you, they're bloody expensive to get a hold of." Joey was now more confused than before. The revelation that pokémon formed gangs and had a drug trade was a little much for him.
While the boys talked, Mawile had gotten over herself and was now curious about what was going on. She went poking about in Joey's trainer pack, curious about what she would find. She happened upon the pokéball pouch first, finding a bunch of empty balls, and then one which was full. Yanking it out, she examined the ball closely. It was grey and had a bunch of warning signs on the back which she couldn't read, being illiterate. She bumped it with her nose and out sprung Zoey, stretching and yawning.
"Free at last!" she said, chirpily. Mawile squeaked and tried to hide behind the trainer's pack, but her giant second mouth was giving her away. Zoey crouched down and inspected her closely.
"Hey little guy, what's up?" Zoey asked sweetly. Mawile peeked out.
"That's a Mawile we found," explained Riolu, walking towards them. Joey followed behind.
"Sweet," Zoey grinned, "have we caught her yet?" Joey shook his head. Zoey responded by bending over and picking out a fresh pokéball and booping Mawile with it on the nose. The timid Mawile didn't make any attempt to escape the ball, and Zoey picked up the now full ball triumphantly.
"I shall name you Gemma!" she exclaimed cheerily.
"Gemma?" Joey asked.
"After my grandmother. Mawile's mouth reminded me of her," Zoey explained. Joey looked a bit shocked, though he shouldn't have been surprised at Zoey's eccentricity.
"Anyways, where are we? This looks nothing like Pram City does in brochures."
"We got kidnapped by a gang and only just escaped," Joey sighed in response.
"You say that as if it's not a normal occurrence," Zoey said. "Gang-related crime has gone up by 20% in the past decade. Don't you watch documentaries?"
"Why does everybody keep bringing those up?"
"Because you should watch them," Riolu said snarkily.
"Fine, I give up. Why don't we just get out of here before we're forced to sleep out here. Unlike you guys, I don't have a comfy, warm pokéball to retreat into."
"Fine by me. Only one hitch," Riolu said, "Pram City is through this forest, and this forest is wildlands. It's like waltzing through no man's land naked with both forces firing at you."
"Then we should get going quickly before night makes it harder," Zoey said, pushing her way past the boys and heading east. The boys picked up the trainer's pack and followed when a scythe dropped from the sky in front of them, stopping Zoey dead in her tracks.
A human, dressed in all black with a white porcelain mask, came down from the heavens, followed by a Scizor and two Scythers.
"Halt, unless ye wish to be chopped," the person said, pulling the scythe from the ground and brandishing it menacingly.
A/N I hate ANs so I'll keep it brief but I'm no longer focusing on fanfiction that much. I have a lot of things to do these days so don't expect many updates. I just do this for practice now.