Episode 7

Annabelle ran up the slope, searching the sky for any sign of the man wearing the blue bandana. Blake and Brandon were right behind her, their pokemon running at their sides. As they began nearing Mt. Meteor, the trees began to thin, and the terrain became much more rocky. Annabelle jumped on a large flat rock, the sides chipped from sliding down the hill at high velocity. She searched the skyline, then dismally plopped down, exhausted.

"They're gone." she panted, trying to think of another way to find the man. "If we had a flying pokemon we could get it to search the area."

"Yeah," Blake replied, "And if we search on foot it could take hours or even a couple days to find them."

Brandon was grabbing his knees panting, sadly not in near as good condition as the other two. His input was postponed for when he could breathe.

They sat for a while, reflecting on the possibility that their "simple mission" was turning into a much bigger deal. Brandon had caught his breath by now and turned to Blake.

"Hey, do you have a capture styler?" he asked.

"No. I'm guessing you don't have one either." Blake replied morosely

"No." Brandon said.

"Wait a minute, I'm confused." Annabelle chimed in, "I thought all rangers got capture stylers."

"Well that's what they say." Brandon began, "But both Blake and I are interns, and you have to get a paying salary to get a styler. They special order them whenever someone new joins on. This is so if someone breaks in and tries to steal any it's impossible. They're just too expensive to risk that happening."

"And a lot of the time the interns quit. They just decide that it isn't the job they want." Blake said, helping to clarify Brandon's point.

"Oh. Well that makes sense but it still doesn't help us." Annabelle said.

"I know, but we need to think of a way to find that ominous dude." Blake said, "It's too bad we're not in a city; I'm sure we'd find people able to tell us where that dude went."

"Bagon, bagon bay." Akadra said sarcastically

"Yeah, I can talk with pokemon. Is there a point to that statement or are we just telling weird facts about each other?"

"I think," Annabelle said, "that Akadra is saying that you could use your ability to talk to pokemon so as to question them on where that goon ran off too."

"Oh." Blake said, now realizing his obliviousness. "That makes sense."

About fifteen minutes later, Blake informed the others of the information he had ascertained.

"Well," he said, "A lot of the Taillow are saying that there are group of bandana wearing people that are west of Meteor Falls. The Tentacools have also noticed a group of submarines near there, and some Wingulls have seen boats there too. All signs say that's where the goon went. Since we don't have enough water pokemon to get us there by water, I suggest we head toward the cave entrance, then use the scenic ocean overlook to get part of the way there."

Annabelle and Brandon voiced their agreement. Then the group set off, the sun's early evening rays shimmering off of the distant water.

They walked along the scenic trail, each person lost in thought. Brandon was looking out at across the ocean, watching the sea slowly envelop the sun. He imagined the sun was melting, turning the water orange as it did so. He enjoyed the view, the romantic feel, but it was mildly shattered by imagining the adverse effects of trying to hold Annabelle's hand, as she was the only romantic possibility at the moment.

Blake on the other hand was jumping off of rocks with Akadra, leading the group forward. He fell down several times but never took a tumble over the small cliff to their right. As he leaped back and forth, Blake thought of the people who had fallen off that cliff, breaking limbs from the landing. Then as they sat on the shore, watching the sun taunt them each day, hoping someone would find them. But it was all for naught, they died, starving and dehydrated, the tides sweeping their bones into the ocean, to be snapped even more by the endless tides. Of course, this had never happened, the cliff being too small to cause serious injury, but Blake imagined it many times over, finding sadistic pleasure in his dark fantasy.

Annabelle's mind was neither dark nor romantic; as the others' were at this time. She was thinking of the man. He seemed familiar. It seemed to her like she'd read some sort of history about him. She thought and thought, desperately trying to uncover the source of this ominous deja vu. Eventually, she gave up. The only word that came to mind was "aqua". However, she dismissed this, casting her eye to the ocean each time she did so.

Night began to fall as they neared the west of Meteor Falls. They began to round the corner, seeing a congregation of boats near the shoreline, which jutted out away from the shore,

"Well, that doesn't look suspicious at all." Blake remarked.

"Yeah yeah, let's go kick their asses." Annabelle said, then ran past everyone, jumping off of the ridge, sliding down the slope, gravel flying from beneath her feet.

"Damn, she looks totally badass." Blake said.

"Bagon, bagon bay."

"I'm not staring!" Blake yelled.

"Yeah you are." Brandon said, in favor of Akadra.

"Shut up, let's go." Brandon said, running off, taking a less dangerous route down the slope. Blake took off after him, passing the more cautious Brandon. Akadra slid down, clambering recklessly after Blake,

When they reached the bottom, they saw Annabelle heading towards the boats. Running after her, Blake and Brandon saw two shady characters ducking into a cave.

"We should check that out." Brandon said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, but we need to get Annabelle first. If we do any ass-kicking without her, she'll kick our asses." Blake replied, equally matter-of-factly.

"Oh yeah." Brandon said. Then they both ran after Annabelle, refraining from yelling so as not to draw attention to themselves.

They ran up to Annabelle, who was very busy sabotaging as many boats as possible, pulling out wires from everywhere and kicking apart the throttle and steering.

"You know it would just be easier to break the motors." Brandon said to Annabelle as he arrived.

"How do you do that?" she asked, mildly preoccupied by a steering wheel giving her a particularly hard time.

"Well, Torch and Akadra could use flamethrower on them. I'm pretty sure that'd work out pretty well."

Akadra smiled evilly.

"Alright," Annabelle said, throwing her pokeball, "Go, Torch."

Torch sprang out of it's ball.

"Alright, use flamethrower on the boat motors." Annabelled said.

"You too Akadra." Blake said, "After you finish that, you guys meet up with us at the cave we saw earlier. Akadra knows where it is, so follow her Torch."

"Bagon gon"

"Combusken, busken"

Blake and Brandon ran towards the cave, Annabelle running after them after telling Torch to be careful. They reached the caves, which were guarded by two men in bandanas.

"Ready guys." Blake said expectantly."

"Yeah, let's whoop their butts." Brandon said.

"I'd prefer to kick ass." Annabelle retorted sarcastically.

The group ran toward the cave, the boys reaching for their pokeballs, and Annabelle taking a wooden practice knife from her pack. The guards saw them coming, and reached for a pokeball each, throwing them at the group.

"You guys battle the pokemon, I'm heading straight for those goons," Annabelle yelled running past Blake and Brandon. Blake and Brandon stopped quickly, each throwing a pokeball into the air.

"Go, Magik" Blake said.

"Go, Mimi" Brandon said simultaneously.

On the battle ground in front of them was Blake's Magikarp, Brandon's Poochyena, and the two goons' pokemon: Skitty and Jigglypuff.

As the battle began, both Skitty and Jigglypuff charged forward, both attacking Magik with doubleslap. Magik jumped up using splash to dodge, getting grazed, but avoiding most of the attack. It bounced off the ground, charging into Skitty with tackle, while Mimi bit down on Jigglypuff's bulbous form. Jigglypuff cried out in pain, trying to shake off the attacker. Then, it sucked in a bunch of air, throwing off the Poochyena. Jigglypuff floated into the air, then charged down with a body slam crushing Mimi. Meanwhile, Skitty landed a powerful doubleslap against Magik, who countered with flail, landing a massive hit on skitty, taking enough HP to knock it out. Skitty returned to its pokeball, its trainer being knocked to the ground by Annabelle, who'd already taken care of his partner. As Annabelle knocked out the trainer, Mimi was dodging another Jigglypuff doubleslap. She jumped to the side, then jumped forward, backing it into Magik's flail attack. In a flash of light, Jigglypuff returned to its ball.

"I wasn't expecting you to have a Magikarp." Brandon said, winded from the tension of the battle.

"Yeah," Blake said, panting, "It was the first pokemon I caught, I'm trying hard to get Magik to evolve. It told me that when it evolves it's going to help protect all of the Magikarp in the world."

"That's noble." Brandon said, as Torch and Akadra showed up, having finished their sabotage mission.

Blake called back Magik, and Brandon did the same with Mimi. Torch ran up to Annabelle, she asked it about its escapades, then called it into its pokeball.

"Alright," she said, "Now that everyone is here, we can check out this cave, and what it has to do with these suspicious people.

"I'm fine with that, but I have to gather some berries before we head in. It's good to be prepared. Ya know." said Blake, rather childishly.

"Fine, but make it quick," Brandon said, "we need to figure out what's going on as soon as possible."

As Blake dashed into the woods, searching for berries, the rest of the group set up a barricade at the entrance of the cave, making sure they'd get the drop on anyone coming in or out. The moon was rising over the peak of Meteor Falls, showering the landscape in a pale, silver glow. The mountain stood out ominously; dark against the endless night sky.