It must have been ten minutes since we began looking for Noibat's sister. Sabrina and I throughly checked the forest floor, leaving no stone unturned and no tree unchecked. Sabrina asked the various pokemon we met along the way, but none of them had seen her OR Vixen's Master Ball. We started to get discouraged and decided to make our way back to that clearing when we heard some shouting.
"Gotcha, you little thief! Give that back!" Echoed a voice through the forest.
"That was Celeste, she found her! Sabrina, do you know what direction that was?" I asked my Fennekin. Her ears twitched a couple of times before she let them droop, shaking her head sadly.
"Fennekin…" She said. I smiled and reached down to pet her when a flash of purple caught my eye. The other Noibat was hovering in front of me, smiling, and he turned around.
"You know where they are? Take us to them!" I said. Noibat immediately flew off, and I scooped up Sabrina and took off after him. We rushed through the forest as the sounds of an intense battle got louder and louder, and soon I was joined by Vixen and Shauna, carrying their smaller pokemon in their arms while Lola and Romeo followed close behind.
When we came up to another clearing, I saw Angora and Noibat's sister in the thick of battle. Noibat proved to be a challenging opponent for the slow Mareep, darting around her constantly and biting at her wool. What Angora lacked in speed though, she made up for in defense and patience. She didn't seem fazed at all by Noibat's constant Leech Life attacks, and only moved to keep her in her sights.
"That's it Angie! Just a little more!" Celeste called. While Noibat was distracted, Vixen let Pepper down and I watched the Vullaby wander off, presumably to look for the Master Ball.
"Maaa!" Angie cried, drawing my attention back to the battle. Noibat was hovering in front of her with her mouth hanging open, a small, ringing squealing sound emerging from it. Angora tried her best, but she couldn't drown out the Supersonic. She reeled in confusion, trying to snap herself out of it while Celeste gritted her teeth.
"Angie, use Thunder Wave!" Celeste cried. Sparks of electricity crackled along Angora's wool, reaching out around her. Noibat squeaked and flapped away, narrowly dodging the attack. Celeste growled low in her throat, looking at her pokemon and becoming sad.
"You can't do anything like this, can you? Sorry Angie, come on back." She said, holding out a pokeball to recall her. As soon as the Mareep was in, Noibat darted in and snatched it out of her hands.
"Noibat!" She sang, sticking her tongue out and pulling her eyelid down at Celeste.
"Hey! You rotten little-get back here!" Celeste cried. Noibat laughed at her, keeping the pokeball firmly clasped in her feet.
"Vulla!" Pepper cried, popping out from a bush. She had her wings outstretched and to our collective relief, the Master Ball was clutched between them. Noibat squeaked in surprise, chattering angrily and charging towards Pepper. The Vullaby squawked and froze in place.
"Pepper, use Dark Pulse!" Vixen cried. Pepper's beak opened and she shot out a small beam of black and purple rings at Noibat, but she quickly dodged and slammed into her. Pepper's grip loosened on the Master Ball and it went rolling off, making Noibat ignore Pepper and chase after it's prize. A large, blue orb came flying out from next to me, breaking over Noibat to stun her. Her brother slammed into her then, making her drop Angora's pokeball next to the Master Ball, and we watched the two Noibat duke it out in the air, squeaking angrily at each other.
"Sabrina, go get them." I whispered to my Fennekin. She nodded and leapt out of my arms to run at the pokeballs, and when the female Noibat saw this she broke away from her brother, speeding to intercept Sabrina. Sabrina growled and spat out an Ember attack at Noibat, but she just batted the flames away with her wings. Her brother tackled into her again, sending them tumbling to the ground. Sabrina joined the fray then and the three pokemon wrestled around on the ground, inching closer and closer to the pokeballs. One of the Noibat came flying out of the brawl and landed right on top of the Master Ball, pressing the button and causing it to open.
"Oh no." Vixen and I said in sync. Sabrina and the female Noibat continued to fight as the male Noibat watched a flash of light stretch out over him. A cold wind blew around us, and we saw slivers of ice gather around the light. When the light faded, a large, grey pokemon stood in the clearing. His iced-over wings sparkled in the light as he watched the pokemon squabble with cold, yet patient, yellow eyes.
'ENOUGH!' Yuyu's voice boomed, making us all clutch our heads. Sabrina and Noibat ceased their fighting instantly, my Fennekin yelping at the sight of Kyurem and running back to me. She stood protectively in front of me, though I could tell she was scared out of her mind by the way her legs shook, while Yuyu glared at the female Noibat. The male Noibat was still trembling at his feet, unable to move as Yuyu glared at his sister. Yuyu began growling at the small pokemon, making her shrink down and whimper. Upon hearing this, her brother snapped out of it and rushed to his sister, standing between her and Yuyu with his wings outstretched.
"Noibat bat noibat!" He chattered defiantly, though his legs shook from fear. Yuyu stopped growling and tilted his head, blinking at the Noibat.
'If I want her I'll have to get through you first? That can be arranged.' Yuyu said, making Celeste and Shauna gasp. The male Noibat growled and opened his mouth, forming a huge Dragon Pulse orb. He fired it at Yuyu, but it disintegrated before it could reach him.
'That the best you can do? This will be easier than I thought.' Yuyu chided. Vixen sighed in exasperation and walked towards the icy dragon.
"Yuyu, knock it off. You're scaring everybody. Pepper! Are you okay!?" She said, yelling out for her pokemon. Pepper chirped weakly from the bushes, and Yuyu moved his head to the sound. He reached into the bush with his head and rasped at Pepper, emerging moments later with her halfway into his mouth.
"Oh no!" Shauna yelped.
"Hey you big bully! Put her down and pick on someone your own size!" Celeste called out, running towards the Kyurem.
'Like you?' Yuyu asked. Celeste yelped and stopped abruptly, falling flat on her face in the grass while Vixen and I laughed.
"I said stop it, come on Yuyu, you're above this." Vixen said, reaching up to his head.
'No I'm not. Sarcasm is one of the highest forms of humor in my opinion. And you love my sarcastic quips.' He replied, lowering his head carefully. He opened his mouth wider, allowing Vixen to pluck Pepper out. She cradled the little bird in her arms and cooed comfortingly at her, reaching down with one arm to grab Pepper's pokeball.
"Thanks for finding him Pepper, you get a good rest." She said, recalling the bird. Once Pepper was safely inside, Vixen ducked under Yuyu's head and crawled under his body, grabbing her Master Ball and Celeste's pokeball that held her dear Mareep. Having retrieved the items, Vixen crawled back out and brushed herself off, pulling Celeste's pokeball out of her pocket and walking to where Celeste was hunched on the ground. I glanced at the still scared, and at the same time confused, Noibat, who hadn't moved an inch in all this time.
"Hey guys, it's okay, he's not going to hurt you. Yuyu is actually a big softy once you get to know him. Like a giant stuffed animal with none of the fluff." I said, earning a spike of laughter from both him and Vixen.
'My sister might have all of the fluff, but I got the wit, and I think that is far more valuable.' Yuyu panned.
"What did Zekrom get?" Vixen asked as she held out Angora's pokeball to Celeste, who took it gratefully.
'Charm. He could have anything he wants and he knows it, all he has to do is say something and everyone melts at his feet.' Yuyu said, making me and Vixen laugh.
"So….what kind of pokemon is this?" Shauna asked tentatively. Vixen and I smiled at her as Yuyu rumbled in response.
'I am what humans call a Legendary pokemon. My name is Kyurem, and it is my duty to maintain balance wherever I go. My trainer, Vixen, is my chosen Hero who will help me maintain balance in her lifetime.' He told her.
"We call him Yuyu though so that people aren't intimidated by him. Of course, he does have a bit of trouble controlling his temper when someone or something steals him away." Vixen said, casting a glare at the Noibat. The female Noibat squeaked and started flailing her wings.
"Noibat bat bat noibat noi!" She screeched, sitting down and staring at the ground with wide eyes while she continued to squeak rapidly. Yuyu turned and blinked at her, unfazed when her brother covered her protectively with his wings.
'Oh dear, I might have gone a little too far in frightening her. I just wanted to teach her a lesson.' Yuyu said, backing up to sit down. His huge, icy tail nestled between two trees that frosted over from the touch.
"Good job Yuyu." Vixen said dryly. I rolled my eyes and bent down to scoop up Sabrina, and I looked up to see the male Noibat standing in front of me, looking nervous.
"What's the matter little guy? Yuyu's not going to hurt you, I promise." I assured him. He smiled and shook his head, turning to Yuyu. He swallowed audibly and carefully walked over to him.
"Noibat?" He asked. Yuyu nodded and leaned his massive head down to Noibat's level, and stayed still as the little pokemon chattered something at him. Yuyu nodded every now and again as Noibat talked to him, and pulling away to look at us.
'He is very sorry about all the trouble that his sister has caused. That wild behavior is what got her thrown out of Terminus Cave in the East. When she was exiled from the clan he went with her to keep her safe, but he can't control her, and everywhere they go she wreaks havoc. He has it in his head that since humans have tamed me, maybe they could help his sister. Do any of you want a Noibat?' Yuyu asked. We blinked at each other as our attention turned to the female Noibat who was still petrified by Yuyu's presence, and before any of us could react, Celeste bolted forward and snatched her off the ground, holding her in front of her face.
"I'll gladly take you, you little brat. That will give me plenty of chances to pay you back for trying to steal my Mareep. Your name is Sasha and you are mine forever now. Got that?" Celeste asked. The Noibat blinked at first as she processed Celeste's words, and she glared and hissed at the girl. An angry chirp from her brother silenced her, and she seemed to realize she had no choice. The little bat snorted and turned her nose up, chattering something that made Yuyu chuckle.
'She agrees, but only because that means she can create all the trouble she wants and not get blamed for it. If you want her so badly, then you can have all the blame when she wreaks havoc.' Yuyu translated. Celeste grinned at her as she held her closer, making Sasha glare suspiciously at her.
"Honey, you don't even know the meaning of the word 'havoc', not until you've seen the damage I can do." Celeste said. Sasha grinned at her, maybe thinking that being captured wouldn't be so bad after all, and when Celeste released her she just hovered in front of her. Celeste reached into her bag and pulled out a pokeball, expanding it and holding it out to Sasha. Though she hesitated at first, Sasha smacked the pokeball with her wing, and the capsule pulled her inside. It shook rather violently three times before it pinged, marking the successful capture of the Noibat. Once she was successfully captured, the pokeball burst open again, and Sasha fluttered over to perch on Celeste's head.
"Noibat." She chirped happily, making herself at home in Celeste's hair.
"Hey! My hair takes forever to make up! Dang it Sasha!" She complained. I blinked slowly at Celeste as Sasha snickered, wiggling in her hair some more.
"But….it's just a ponytail…there is no way it takes that long. I could probably pull mine back in a second." I said, touching one of my curls. Celeste glared at me and crossed her arms.
"It takes a lot of work to make a PERFECT ponytail! If you don't do it right then some hair bunches up on top of your head or under the ponytail, and if you try to fix it after that it makes your hair stick out and look stringy! Sasha you get out of there right now!" She snapped, glaring upwards. Sasha made no attempts to move, finding herself perfectly comfortable in the nest she had made on Celeste. She grinned in smug satisfaction and folded her wings, opting to take a nap. Celeste's eye twitched in annoyance, but she gave up quietly, and it was all we could do not to laugh at her.
We heard a small squeak, and turned to see Sasha's brother looking at Celeste sadly. He nodded approvingly at them and began to flap his wings, fluttering up into the air. He chattered at his sister and started for a random direction, and Sabrina turned to me with a sad look. I nodded at her and walked into the clearing.
"Hey wait buddy!" I called. Noibat stopped and turned around, tilting his head curiously at me.
"Noi?" He squeaked. I smiled and pulled my backpack around, digging through it until I found a pokeball, and held it out to him.
"Why don't you come with me? I'm gonna be traveling around with your sister's trainer, and I don't see why I should separate you two. Plus, you look like you could use some help with that Dragon Pulse. What do you say?" I asked. Noibat blinked rapidly at me, as though he couldn't believe his luck. He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me, like he thought I might have been lying, but his eyes softened up when he saw I didn't pull it away.
"Noibat bat noi, noi noibat noibat." He said, making Yuyu chuckle.
'He says he will happily accept your offer, both to keep his sister safe and to work on Dragon Pulse.' Yuyu translated. Noibat fluttered over and perched on my outstretched arm, grabbing the pokeball from my hand and turning it over in his wings.
"Noi noibat noi, bat noibat noi noi. Noibat noi." He said, poking the pokeball button. It pulled him inside, rolling back into my hand. Yuyu rumbled as the ball shook ever so slightly in my grip before pinging a successful capture.
'He said that an Altaria tried to teach him Dragon Pulse to deal with his sister when they were exiled. He hopes you can help him master it.' Yuyu translated. I smiled as I tossed the pokeball up, letting my new pokemon out. Unlike Sasha, he waited for me to hold my arms out before he landed on me, letting me cuddle him.
"I'll be happy to help you work on it. You've got a lot of power in that Dragon Pulse from what I saw when you hit Sasha with it. How do you like the name Boomer?" I asked. He looked up at me and smiled warmly, nodding in agreement as he settled in my arms, and when I looked up to see Sasha's reaction, she had a pleased, tranquil look on her face, and her eyes remained closed.
"Congrats on the new pokemon Aldith! Boomer is such a cutie too." Vixen said, walking up to me. She reached out to gently stroke Boomer's head, turning around to face Yuyu.
'Yes?' He asked.
"So, ready to go back in your pokeball? Or would you like something to eat first? It's been about a week since you ate last…" She said, feeling guilty. Yuyu rumbled and smiled at her.
'More like two weeks, and it's fine. I do not require more than the occasional morsel every now and then, but it does get a bit uncomfortable to be hungry. A little food will do me good, and the rest of you as well.' Yuyu said. Vixen smiled and nodded at him, walking over to sit in front of him.
"Alright, now is a good time for lunch anyway. Come on guys, I've got plenty for all of us." Vixen said, pulling some containers out of her bag.
Celeste called Angora back out while Vixen brought out the rest of her pokemon, and we all gathered around as she reheated some sort of pasta dish on Sorrel's neck flames. The smell of the cooking food made hungry eyes peer out around us, which made Shauna feel nervous. A quick growl from Yuyu sent them all scattering, and enamored Shauna to him.
After our food finished cooking, we all sat down to eat, and Vixen pulled out a large roast from her bag, tossing the slab of meat up for Yuyu to snap out of the air. Now that she was less scared of him, Shauna decided she wanted to help feed Yuyu, and Vixen gave her another raw roast. The meat was heavy in her hands, but she managed to haul it up and offer it to Yuyu, who took it gently and gratefully from her. Vixen smiled and gave her a wet cloth to wipe the blood off her hands so that she could eat, and her Zoroark, Zachary, continued to feed Yuyu while we all settled down to enjoy our lunch and listen to some of Vixen's stories.
When we finished our lunches, we cleaned up and started to recall our pokemon. Much to Celeste's annoyance, Sasha refused to stay in her pokeball and kept popping out of it to land in her hair every single time Celeste recalled her.
"Dangit Sasha, stop it! Stay in your ball you irritating little-" Celeste said, recalling her for the millionth time. Sasha popped right back out and settled on her head again, humming a mocking tone at her. It was pretty funny to watch, but Boomer got tired of watching her be difficult, and he squeaked in annoyance at her. Sasha pouted and stuck her tongue out at Boomer, but when Celeste recalled her she didn't pop out again.
"Criminy, thanks Boomer!" She chirped, sighing in relief. He nodded at her as I recalled him and picked up a very full and happy Sabrina, waiting for the others to be ready.
Finally, everything was packed up and all of the pokemon except for Sabrina, Angora, Lil' Ches and Romeo were back in their pokeballs, and we began to make our way through the rest of Santalune Forest. I myself was somewhat glad that Sasha's antics got us sidetracked, because we got to explore more of the forest thanks to our pursuit of her. The path to Santalune City was actually pretty straightforward, and if we hadn't spent so much time chasing after her, we wouldn't have spent so much time in the forest as we did. I didn't dare voice that out loud of course, because Vixen was still pretty irritated by the whole event. If there was one thing I knew about her, it was that she didn't take kindly to her pokemon being stolen. That was perfectly understandable though, given what happened the last time she had a pokemon stolen.
Soon, we had left Santalune Forest, and after a brisk walk through the short path known as Route 3, we came into the quiet town of Santalune City. Mercifully, the Pokemon Center was literally right in front of us, and I wanted to thank whoever it was that plotted out Santalune City for placing it right at the end of the route. Santalune Forest looked like it could get crazy for new trainers who didn't have an Elite Four Apprentice with a giant ice dragon with them, so it was nice to know that once they got through it, they could recover almost immediately.
"Alright guys, let's pop into the Center. While our pokemon are resting, we'll head into the store and I'll get you all settled for your journey." Vixen said happily, striding over to the building while Romeo walked beside her. He looked back at us briefly, as though hurrying us, and without hesitation I trotted after them, Shauna and Celeste behind me.
This was going to be fun!
TBC
First of all, a big thank you to LolaHydreigon for giving Lola: An Underdog Story its 450th review! And I am flattered that you compared me to Ysavvryl, in fact, she (I think she's a girl anyway) is a big inspiration to me in terms of fanfiction, and her Black and White and BW2 stories ClicheStorm and ClicheStorm 2 were a driving force to Lola. Her writing style in those fanfics contributed a lot to who Vixen is and how she ticked, and how the story flowed overall. I would LOVE to work with her sometime, if only on a single chapter of LDR or a oneshot or something like that, but I don't want to bother her by asking about a collab, and I don't know if she has even read Lola OR LDR and I feel like I'd just be another excited fan pestering her to read my story (not that the people who ask me to read their stories are pests, I very much enjoy them ^^).
Holy balls, I am on a roll. I actually finished this chapter YESTERDAY *it was originally part of chapter 5, but it got so long*. This is just like the early days of Lola, isn't it? Oh god, I hope this doesn't mean I'll fall into that pattern again. I refuse to! You guys get chapters by Sunday Night at the latest and that's final! You hear me, Muse?! *shakes fist*
Now that we got that out of the way, let's talk chapter highlights. I actually own both Sasha and Boomer in Y, and I caught them both separately in Terminus Cave so I dunno if they are related or not. Sasha is used for flying around if I don't have a flier already in my party, and Boomer is the Tailwinding Glass Cannon in my competitive team. After he sets up Tailwind, he blasts everything with Hurricane, Dragon Pulse, and Focus Blast until he goes down. Now, is Aldith gonna follow that path with him? I dunno yet. I know what she ultimately ends up doing, but I dunno if competitive battling is apart of that or not. We'll see.
I figured I could get away with having a Noibat obtained so early in the story because anyone who has tried to raise a Noibat from birth without stuffing it with rare candies or using a higher-leveled pokemon to power-level it knows that being a Noibat Trainer means SUFFERING. Go play Pokemon Reborn, catch a Noibat as soon as you can, see how many battles you win with it until it evolves into Noivern. Then you will know how painful raising a young one can be XD. No wonder they make you wait until late-game to catch one, being a Dragon type has nothing to do with it.
Anyway, now that we are officially in Santalune City, we're gonna watch four girls go on a massive shopping spree. As a girl who enjoys shopping myself, this is going to be fun. I can't promise I won't go overboard, but I will do my very best not to lol.
Into 7 we go!
