Chapter 4:
Snaggle-Toothed Raiders
The electric Blastoise looked at the water apprehensively.
"'Course I know how to! It's just' that I don't want to!" I sighed, exasperatedly.
"Look, it's fine to be afraid! It's just that my starting plan won't work if you don't swim me over to the Lucario Tent! We need to strike fear, become more than scum! We can be poisonous scum, and that would be fine! If you don't do it, I'll just get that fighting type Skarmory to do it!" I grinned inwardly, knowing of the informal rivalry between the two pokémon. I saw the Blastoise clench his- albeit tiny- fists, and then jump headfirst into the water. I almost laughed at his predictability, and jumped onto his back. He began swimming towards the distant blotch on the horizon that was the town. Blastoise looked back over his shoulder at me, and I looked at him.
"So, Mythril, was it?" I nodded, intrigued by his slow, deliberate speaking, as if he was contemplating his next words. I shuffled the pack slung over my shoulder, filled with small paper balls, filled with what looked like black sand. He saw my nod, and continued on slowly. "What do you plan to do once the Deltas are free, and you can go back to the mainland?" I thought, response, for once, nowhere to be seen.
"Well... I prefer to think in the present. Keeps me from narrowing my thinking too much." The Blastoise nodded, seeming to accept my answer. But something was still bothering him. "What else do you want to say?" He stuttered something. I leaned forward. "What was that?" He turned his head again.
"What about Emmy?" I looked at him incredulously.
"What about who?" He looked incredulous this time.
"Y'know! Emmy! The other Nuzleaf? Ghost type?" I raised both eyebrows.
"What about her?" Blastoise stopped dead in the water, the raid site looming up darkly against the now-night sky.
"Well, I just thought, um..." He didn't even have to finish his thought. I quieted him with a look, as the tide going in pulling us in to the shore. He drifted into a sheltered cove, and waited. I climbed the cliff-face, and stopped at the first window. I lit my fist aflame gently, and burnt the wicker covering. I stepped in, among a heap of sleeping rescue teams. I stepped gently over all of them, not wanting to wake them yet. I spotted my destination, the Master's Quarters. I swung the huge Oak doors open, and stepped in, feet padding silently on the stone floor. I looked at the large straw bed that belonged to Lucario, and spotted him and... Honō! She was breathing evenly, in his arms. Even though I hated both of them with a burning passion, I restrained myself from burning them both to a cinder. Metagross was levitating near the ceiling, so I skirted around the edge of the room, to the wooden chest. It was locked, but made of wood. Serious design flaw. I charred through the cheap Elm wood, and grabbed the items inside. There was a decorative sword, an empty sign-up sheet, and a sac of jewels. I grabbed it all, then placed the small gunpowder spheres in a line away from the chest, all the way back out from the quarters, lacing them through key structural elements, while making sure no one got hurt by the blast, or the ultimate collapse. As my sack was empty of explosive spheres, I climbed out the window, and felt the burning pressure build in my throat. An Ember would suffice, but a Flamethrower would be more fun. I settled with an Ember, and heard a series of explosions as I jumped down onto Blastoise's back. We rode away, towards Snaggle-Tooth Island, a pillar of flame erupting from the Lucario shape on the horizon.
~|noOon|~
"Okay everybody!" I yelled over the noise. All the other Deltas stopped their sparring, sweat pouring off them, or panting loudly. They gathered in a circle, and I smiled at all of them in order. I spotted another Nuzleaf in the crowd. Was that Blastoise right. What about her? Indeed, there was quite a bit about her. She was dark grey and dark purple, with a smokey miasma instead of a leaf. It drifted over one eye, and at her side was the Pichu with the metallic sheen in his coat.
"Okay, anyone wanna keep going with sparing?" There were no objections, save a light green Golem.
"I have an opponent in mind!" He said. I raised an eyebrow.
"Shoot, buddy!" He pointed at me.
"I challenge you for control of the Snaggle-Toothed Raiders!" He shouted. All the others gasped. I simply smiled. It was really just a matter of time before one of them challenged my leadership. I hopped off the pedestal and landed, the Deltas moving away from me. The Golem gulped, and my careless smile told him that this was going to hurt.
~noOon~
"Trick number 14!" I called out, landing lightly on my feet at one end of the arena. The Golem was bruised, battered, and one eye was swollen. He spat blood on the ground, and looked at me defiantly. I chuckled. Everyone around me was entranced as to how I was able to fight so well. "Always know when you are outmatched and just give up!" The Golem rolled up in a ball and came shooting towards me like a giant, sluggish cannon ball. I yawned, and prepared another Fire Punch. But, to my pleasant surprise, the Golem leapt up in the air at the last second, leaving me punching at air... And him sailing through the air. I prepared a Fire Blast, using the unused power of the Fire Punch, and held the Blast in my hand. The Golem landed, and whirled around, smiling and apparently proud of himself. I launched the kanji shaped vortex of flaming doom. The blast slammed into the Golem, and he was sent back, knocked back. I chuckled. Then, the Psychic type Luxray, who served as Sentry, called out with a roar. We all whirled, save Golem, towards the horizon. Across the water, where the sun usually set, a large strip of grey shot across the water. Anything it touched froze, and most of the pokémon were fleeing before it. The small Steel Pichu walked up to me, terror evident in his eyes.
"Mythril," he said in his cute, high-pitched voice. I kneeled down, worry probably evident on my face. "What's that?" I stood back up, picking the little mouse up on my shoulders.
"I have no idea..."