Sorry for taking so long to update. Here's an action-packed, romantic chapter full of bows, stars, and sludge.
Oshawott & Eevee: Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 7: Sky Peak
Oshawott was thrilled to be leading Team Poké Friends again. He looked around to see what teams his fellow apprentices formed. His beloved Eevee teamed up with her roommates. And apparently Excadrill, Marill, Azurill, and Spoink were going as one team. Then, there was Team Poké Pals. Piplup spoke up to his apprentices, "I just want to say one thing before climbing. I know that this isn't like a real expedition, and I'm sorry for that. The lack of uncharted territory is making setting up a real expedition difficult. I just think that apprentices of the Poké Pals Guild deserve the best preparation for becoming world-class explorers. Right now, a climb up the mountain is the best we can give you."
"Although, we also ask you to keep in mind that this is one of the tallest mountains—if not the tallest—in Mystery Dungeon," Chimchar added.
"Now, here is a little heads-up: this mountain is divided into ten parts. At the end of each part is a resting station. Sky Peak as a whole gets gradually more difficult as you go up," Thomas summed up what the apprentices needed to know.
"Now let's go!" Piplup yelled ecstatically.
"HOORAY!" the apprentices cheered. The Poké Pals Guild started up the mountain, becoming more separated into their teams over time. It did not take long for any of them to make it through the first part of Sky Peak.
"Are we there yet?" Pidove asked just before they entered the second part.
"…No," Snivy simply answered. "We still have a long way to go."
"But I think we're a little bit ahead of everyone else," Oshawott pointed out.
"It's kind of like a race! We're going to win!" Tepig claimed cheerily. They continued onward. They fought Pokémon after Pokémon together. Then, they got to the snowy part of the mountain.
"It's so c-c-cold!" Snivy shivered. She was a Grass-type. They weren't fond of snow or blizzards.
"Freezing!" Pidove added. Flying-types didn't like the cold either.
"We're almost there! Just hang on!" Oshawott encouraged them. As he trudged through the snow, he tripped over something and fell face first into the snow. His teammates let out a few laughs. Then, when Oshawott got up, he dug through the snow where he tripped and found what had tripped him. It was a small, blue box. However, it wasn't an ordinary box. It was a Sky Gift. Finally! He had a Sky Gift! He had always wanted to give one to Eevee.
"Are you going to give that to your girl?" Snivy asked him. She had read him like her Wonder Map. This caused his white face to turn scarlet.
"Y-yeah," he nodded to her.
"That's sweet of you! I'm sure she'll love it," Snivy giggled.
"L-let's get going," Oshawott suggested, his face only getting redder. They reached Ampharos' cave.
"Hello, young explorers. This is the medical station. Why not take a few minutes to recuperate before finishing your climb?" Ampharos offered. Team Poké Friends unanimously agreed to stay for a few minutes. Oshawott sat down and stared at the Sky Gift. Ampharos walked up to him, looked at the blue box, and asked, "Do you have anyone in mind that you want to give that to?"
"Well, there is this girl…" Oshawott began and blushed. His cheeks were rosy, but not the burning scarlet they were in the snow.
"Ah, a girl. I see," Ampharos winked. He chuckled and walked away. Oshawott stared at the box and thought of Eevee, wondering how far behind or ahead she was.
Meanwhile, Eevee, Minccino, and Pachirisu were actually ahead of everyone else. Eevee was getting worried. Oshawott—her dreamy Oshawott—was a great leader of an impressively ranked Exploration Team. How had he and his friends fallen behind? They were at the ninth station. Pachirisu, with determination in her squirrely eyes, said, "Just one more, girls! Then, we're at the summit!"
"Yeah," Eevee nodded and looked back. Oshawott…
"Something isn't right. I don't like the looks of this place. It's so grimy and filthy," Minccino pointed out in disgust. Like many Minccino, she was a bit of a neat freak.
"I guess the Shaymin are still working on it. Even they can't purify everything in one shot," Eevee pointed out.
"Yeah, but still…" Minccino said softly.
"INTRUDERS!" loud, thick voices bellowed out. Three Muk came at them, all of them using Giga Impact. Within seconds, Eevee, Minccino, and Pachirisu each had their own Muk on top of them.
"Oh, they're heavyweight sludge boys," Pachirisu groaned as she tried to move. She just couldn't crawl out. None of them could. For one thing, the Muk were too heavy for them. And for another thing, the Muk were grimy and sticky. So sticky, in fact, that the girls' fur was a liability.
"You won't WRECK our MOUNTAIN anymore!" a Muk bellowed.
"What are you talking about?" Eevee strained. "We would never hurt this mountain."
"Lies!" another Muk protested.
"We can't escape," Minccino struggled and then announced. Eevee's heart sank. She and her roommates were about to get a beat down for something they did not even do.
"It hurts…" Pachirisu couldn't take it anymore. All the Electric Squirrel Pokémon could do was let the pain take over. The Muk was too much for her to bear.
"We can't give up, Pachirisu!" Eevee urged. She was mostly trying to convince herself not to give up hope.
"Razor Shell!" a Scalchop glowing with blue light flew by like a boomerang and knocked the Muk off of Eevee. Clean as a whistle, it flew back into the paw of none other than Oshawott. Oshawott trotted up to his girlfriend and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Mm-hmm. But Minccino and Pachirisu…" Eevee turned her head towards her struggling friends, only to find that Tepig had saved Minccino with Flame Charge and Snivy and Pidove had combined forces to rescue Pachirisu.
"Team Poké Friends, at your service," Oshawott bowed politely. Eevee's eyes sparkled with delight. She could always count on Oshawott. He saved her yet again.
"We must protect mountain!" one of the Muk bellowed.
"Have these guys lost their minds?!" Tepig asked rhetorically. He knew he was not going to get a verbal answer, but a battle instead.
"C-could we please get cleaned up first?" Minccino asked politely. Her gray fur was icky and slimy. So was Eevee's brown fur. As was Pachirisu's white fur. They looked quite uncomfortable with being covered in sludge.
"I'll take care of it," Oshawott patted his chest and gave them all a light Hydro Pump. After shaking the water out of their fur, the three ex-Muk victims were nice and fluffy and clean again.
"Thanks, Oshawott!" Eevee thanked her boyfriend and licked his nose, causing him to blush for the third time in less than a day.
"YEAH! Payback time!" Pachirisu crackled with electricity and unbridled determination. "Discharge!" The three Muk got hit with electrical discharges.
"My turn! Flamethrower!" Tepig shot a stream of fire at his opponents. Another hit! But the Muk would not give in.
"Sludge Wave!" one of them swamped the surrounding area with sludge, and Team Poké Friends, Eevee, Minccino, and Pachirisu all got hit. It got worse. They all became poisoned. The Muk that used the move chortled, "Take that, you outlaws!"
"Outlaws? What are you talking about?" Oshawott asked, gradually getting weaker.
Excadrill, Azurill, Marill, and Spoink all arrived just in time. When they saw the condition of their fellow apprentices, Excadrill let out a battle cry. "Let's help out our friends, boys! Poké Pals style!"
"YEAH!" Spoink, Azurill, and Marill agreed.
"Poké Pals?" the Muk became confused. "You mean you guys are not outlaws?"
So, after explaining who they were, the apprentices of the Poké Pals Guild were off the hook, but Eevee, Oshawott, Tepig, Minccino, Snivy, Pidove, and Pachirisu were all still poisoned. They all were feeling deteriorated. It was only a matter of time before each of them would pass out. Eevee weakly said, "Help…"
"WE'RE SO SORRY!" the three Muk sobbed.
"Hey, sis," a familiar voice greeted Eevee. At first, she thought she was hallucinating, but it really was her sisters. That voice had belonged to Vaporeon.
"How many of you need help?" Espeon asked. "We have five Heal Seeds and a special Pecha Berry for Eevee. We got it from Kecleon."
Glaceon went around and fed Minccino, Tepig, Pachirisu, Snivy, and Pidove each a Heal Seed. Eevee just dizzily stared at her Pecha Berry. She knew that Oshawott got nothing. Her voice, which was already soft and quiet under normal circumstances, hoarsely let out, "Can someone please cut it in half?"
"Huh?" Spoink asked, not hearing her.
"Please cut it in half," Eevee requested again, still soft spoken and hoarse. Excadrill, with his claws, cut the pink berry in half. Eevee tilted her head towards Oshawott, signifying to Excadrill that she wanted the Water-type to have the other half. Excadrill smiled and complied, feeding Oshawott the other half of the Pecha Berry. After watching the one she loved intake the Pecha half, she could eat her own Pecha half in comfort. After the poisoned Pokémon were cured and regained their strength, the apprentices of the Poké Pals Guild continued up the mountain. Eevee turned back to her sisters and asked, "You're not coming?"
"This is your adventure. Go," Flareon smiled and encouraged. Eevee smiled at her, nodded, and followed her friends.
Meanwhile, the battle of the century was taking place at the summit. Team Poké Pals versus Darkrai. Piplup, with immortal determination that would never wane, growled in assurance, "We'll bring you in this time!"
"Piplup, you never learn. I cannot be caught," Darkrai reminded him. He fired a Dark Void attack, but the Poké Pals dodged it effectively. In truth, this was not the beginning of the battle. Oh, no, the battle had been well underway at this point.
"Flame Wheel!" Chimchar was engulfed in spinning flames and rushed at Darkrai. Darkrai braced himself by taking on a defensive stance. He survived, but he had definitely take damage.
"Energy Ball!" Thomas fired an Energy Ball immediately after Chimchar's Flame Wheel. Two hits in a row!
"Dark Pulse!" Darkrai fired a Dark Pulse at Chimchar. Chimchar thought fast and used Flame Wheel to intercept the Dark Pulse.
"Guys, we have to finish this!" Piplup decided. "It's time for the combo! Whirlpool!"
"Fire Spin!" Chimchar used Fire Spin.
"Energy Ball!" Thomas let out another Energy Ball.
"Whirlwind!" Hannah whipped up a Whirlwind.
The Energy Ball entered the Whirlpool. Then, the Fire Spin bordered the Whirlpool, giving it a boost in firepower (no pun intended). Then, the Whirlwind sped up the rotation of the already combined moves. And thus, Team Poké Pals' famous combination technique was created. Darkrai tried to break it with Dark Pulse, but that did no good. He got engulfed by the attack, was thrown around, and got knocked out. The Exploration Team had claimed victory. Piplup waddled up to the fallen Darkrai and said, "You've been caught."
"Officer Magnezone should be here shortly," Thomas claimed. The Poké Pals suddenly heard applause from behind them. Their apprentices seemed to have seen the end of that battle and were overjoyed that Darkrai was caught, as well as honored and proud that they had such brilliant mentors.
"Alright! You caught Darkrai!" Oshawott cheered loudly. He had idolized Piplup as an explorer, and now that Piplup had caught Darkrai, Oshawott knew that he had been a fan of the right Pokémon.
"I guess this means that the ring of outlaws has been broken!" Marill pointed out. Without Darkrai, the ring of outlaws was without a ringmaster.
"Yippee!" Azurill cheered cutely.
"…Why don't you all take the time to enjoy the view? You all made it to the top. Now, there's an achievement," Piplup smiled. The apprentices started to look around and were utterly awestruck. They had been standing on a small Gracidea meadow. On the horizon was a bunch of smaller mountain peaks, as well as a white layer of clouds. Above them were the stars and galaxies of outer space.
Giving themselves slight distance from the group, Oshawott and Eevee went to sit among some of the Gracidea flowers and gaze at the constellations above. Then, Oshawott remembered something. He took out the Sky Gift he found earlier and gave it to the fox-like love of his life. Eevee asked, "Oh, what is this?"
"A, um, S-Sky Gift," he stammered.
"Oh, Oshawott…" Eevee was touched. She opened the sky blue box to find a brilliantly tied bow of an elegant violet color. "Oshawott, it's beautiful. Thank you." He smiled and placed the bow around one of her long ears. But something caught Eevee's chocolate brown eyes. The Violet Bow was not the only Bow in the box. The whole array of Bows was in that box. Meaning, there were Bows of the colors viridian, fuchsia, brown, cobalt, blue, red, pink, yellow, minty, green, lime, orange, purple, silver, and sky blue. Along with the Violet Bow, that was sixteen different colors. Oshawott and Eevee looked at each other, and then they started laughing. Eevee giggled, "I ought to share some of these with Pachirisu and Minccino!"
"Sky Gifts work in mysterious ways," Oshawott said with a shrug and suppressed chuckle, along with a cheery smile. "I'm glad that you're happy, Eevee."
"Thank you so much, Oshawott!" Eevee thanked him. Their faces got close to that of the other. They locked lips. It was another brilliant, radiant kiss that both of them wanted to last forever. At last, they broke the kiss and looked up just in time to see a shooting star.
"Did you make a wish?" Oshawott asked Eevee playfully.
"Nope. You're everything I want," Eevee shook her head and informed him.
"I-I am?" Oshawott asked and blushed. Eevee nodded and cuddled up against him lovingly. Still blushing, Oshawott smiled. He felt honored to be Eevee's only desire. It was an exhilarating feeling. It was like meditating for a long time and coming back to reality recharged and with new perception. It was an energetic feeling. If it were physically possible, he could run to the moon and back after hearing that. "I'm in love with you, Eevee. I'm so deeply in love with you."
"I feel the same way about you. At first, I only saw you as a friend. Then, you put everything, even your own life, on the line to save mine. That was when I realized that no one else had that kind of dedication. I felt so honored that I was your mantra. I knew that you were the one for me. You're like my brave knight," Eevee replied.
"Me? Brave?" Oshawott tilted his head.
"If you weren't brave, would you be risking your life time after time for me?" Eevee asked rhetorically.
"Maybe," Oshawott said playfully. Then, they both looked up and gazed at the stars.
I doubt this is the end. There is some left to be said. Like the fate of the Mightyena trio. I think I can pull out one or two more chapters. I'm thinking about putting in an epilogue. You can PM me or check out my profile if you want to know what I'm thinking for an epilogue (but I'm not entirely sure about the content of the epilogue just yet. That is, if I were to write one).
