Chapter Seven – On the road to Jubilife

Snivy and Squeak didn't sleep all night. It took them about half an hour to return to Sandgem town after being chased by a pack of troublesome, Woobat like Pokémon, which Squeak called Zubat halfway there and getting lost off the trail. They rested in Sandgem town but were too hyped up to sleep, setting off down a track after speaking to a couple of the grey birds who Snivy now knew as Starlys and Staravia for directions.

"How much further do you suppose?" Snivy asked his friend after Sandgem town drew out of sight behind them. The first light of dawn was now starting to show above the tops of the trees, casting long shadows over the ground. He was now starting to feel tired.

"Not far I don't think." Squeak too was showing the strain. He had been continuously glancing back over his shoulder for the last ten minutes.

"Where are we heading first?"

"Jubilife city." Squeak told him yawning, "It's the nearest big town, just down this route and we'll be there."

"How about after that?"

"I don't know. Let's get to the city first and have a…" he yawned again, "Have a rest."

"Right."

They continued to walk for about five minutes when Snivy heard something oddly familiar and stopped abruptly.

"Snivy?"

"Shh!" Snivy could have sworn he'd heard an odd clunking sound, not dissimilar to the one he'd heard in the forest on the night they'd run away.

"What is it?"

"I…I can hear voices…" Snivy peered around the trees into their depths, illuminated by the dusky light cast by the dawn. Squeak crossed the path to stand beside him looking suddenly more wide awake than he usually did.

"There was a blue one…just one of those wee blue ones and you know what I did…you know what I did…"

"What?"

"I hammer armed it; stupid wee pippy thing didn't stand a chance…"

"Pippy thing?" Squeak looked suspicious, "Let's go…"

They left the path and pushed into the trees, treading as quietly as they could over the twigs and the leaves until the voices became louder and they could see in a clearing ahead two shadowy looking Pokémon. They were very large with four legs.

"What are they?" Snivy breathed in bemusement, looking left at Squeak who instantly flipped open his sticker book and began ruffling through its pages eagerly.

"Did the chief find the Pokémon the lord was looking for?"

"I don't think so."

"All that for nothing?"

"She found something though didn't she?"

"That's right. Something very odd in one of the caves, bowls of grass Pokémon food in a Piplup cave? You know how desperate the lord is, she had us search everything. In the end she took the Empoleon from the cave prisoner, to find out more…"

There was a sudden crash from behind Snivy, making him jump out of his skin. Squeak had dropped his sticker book on the floor with a loud crunching noise his eyes wide.

"What was that?" said one of the voices sharply.

"We've got to get out of here!" hissed Snivy. Squeak nodded unable to speak. Snivy picked up the book as fast as he could and the two of them ran from the trees, crashing and clunking sounds echoing behind them.

Even after they reached the path they didn't stop. They hurried on, no longer feeling tired but just desperate. They only slowed upon entering another town, with violet paved streets and a Pokecenter. There were many small blue Pokémon pacing the town, none of which Snivy recognised.

"What do we do?" Snivy panted, glancing at his friend as they stopped gasping, many blue creatures looking around at them curiously.

"They've got…they've got mum!" Squeak was horrified and his voice shook slightly but he continued to hold eyes contact with Snivy, "And by the sound of it, it was you they were after! Oh mum…"

"What are we going to do?" Snivy asked slightly desperately, "Go find Azelf, tell him what we heard?"

"We can't do that!" Squeak exclaimed shaking his head, "Who knows where Azelf's gone, it would take us months to reach the lake Acuity if that's where he's gone and besides, legendries don't like to be disturbed, everybody knows that!"

"Then what do we do?" Snivy asked, "We have to tell somebody!"

"There's only one thing for it." Squeak took on a look of fierce determination, "We've got to go for the ghost forces."

"Whoa!" the images of posters taped up all over Unova suddenly flew back to Snivy in a rush, "No way. We can't go to the ghost forces; they're listed criminals in the future!"

"I…I just can't believe it though…" Squeak shook his head, looking nervously up at Snivy, "The ghost forces, our heroes…they wouldn't go after the legendary dragons I just know they wouldn't."

"Well I just happen to come from the future!"

"Well I just happen to want my mum back, and if you hadn't have shown up none of this would've happened!" Squeak exploded angrily then his eyes widened as though he were horrified at what he had just said and he sank to the ground. Snivy just stood staring into space at the place Squeak had been standing. He felt inside him partly a strange pulsing anger at how Squeak had just blamed everything on him, voiced the worry that he, Snivy had been thinking about ever since the attack but part of him knew that what Snivy had said was true and Snivy did look awfully sorry. And of course, he'd just lost his mum to unknown enemies, commanding vast armies of Metagross…

"Alright…" Snivy said quietly, "We'll go to the ghost forces…"

"I'm sorry Snivy…" Squeak spluttered, "I didn't mean…"

"Forget it." Snivy muttered through gritted teeth, "We're going. I want to help you."

"I'm sorry…"

"Forget it! Where are the ghost forces situated?"

"Veilstone city." Squeak told him, climbing back to his feet through avoiding making eye contact with Snivy, heartily ashamed of what he'd just said, "It's quite a long way from here though."

"But we've got to get Empoleon back." Snivy reminded him firmly

"One of the ghost forces bases is meant to be around Floaroma town…" Squeak said thoughtfully, "And that's not very far from here…but I really think we ought to have a rest now." The fact that he hadn't slept for nearly twenty four hours suddenly hit Snivy who usually slept a lot back in Unova.

"Good…good idea." He said yawning, "We can stop off at a Pokémon centre somewhere."

"Yeah, alright.. And Snivy…"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."