...um, hi.
I'm in trouble, aren't I?
Umbreon: Yep.
(bonks Umbreon on the head) Yeah...really sorry about the wait, guys (blame Guitar Hero III). I've probably said this about a million times now, but I'm really sorry it took so long. But here it is, the next chapter (finally). Have fun with it.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Pokemon, darn it!
Voila!
Flareon ran, tears flowing from her eyes. She didn't stop to look back; she kept on running. Suddenly, the fire fox tripped on a small stone and lost her balance. She fell forward face first and landed in the dirt. Flareon pulled herself up and wiped the dirt off. It, mixed with the hot tears, simply spread across her face. She sighed and looked up at the sky. The sun had started to set. "It's gonna get dark soon," Flareon mumbled to herself. "Where should I go?" Home came to mind, but she shook the thought out of her head. Going home meant going back to her friends, and that meant another round of "Flareon! Flareon! FLAREON!" No, she wasn't going home. But then, where was she going to go? The fire fox trudged on, trying not to think about that. A cold wind past by her, and she shivered.
"Dang it!"
Flareon looked up. Who said that? She turned her head to the right to see a large dome-shaped building. "When did that get there?" she asked herself. Then the fire fox noticed a purple figure flitting around the back of the building.
"Dang, dang, DANG!" the figure cursed. Curious, Flareon walked up to her.
"Um, what's wrong?" she asked. The figure, an Espeon, turned around with a jump.
"Holy crap!" she exclaimed. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Sorry," the fire fox muttered. The Espeon smiled.
"Hey, it's nothing!" Then a loud spluttering noise from behind her cut her off. "If this stupid engine doesn't get fixed soon, that bird-brained doofus is going to have my head!" She started mumbling to herself. Flareon cocked her head to see what the problem was.
"It doesn't look so hot," she said.
"I can see that," the Espeon replied, tapping the motionless engine with a wrench.
"No," Flareon told her, "I mean, it looks too cold." The psychic fox glanced at the engine and put her paw on it.
"You're right!" she exclaimed with sudden realization.
"Watch out," said the fire fox. The Espeon stepped back as Flareon blew embers over it. It started to hum and vibrate.
"Amazing!" muttered the Espeon. "Thanks, you just saved my neck." Flareon smiled. "My name is Espeon," the psychic fox said, holding out her paw.
"I'm Flareon," she replied, shaking it. The two Eeveelutions eyes met, and out of the corner of her eye Flareon saw a faint glow. She glanced downward.
It was another heart!
Espeon's heart was like the color of Mewtwo's, besides it being a little pinker and sparkly. So I wasn't seeing things! Flareon thought, smiling. Espeon noticed the fire fox's sudden grin.
There's something about her..., she thought to herself. Maybe I'm just getting a bit overexcited, but still... The psychic fox closed her eyes just to be sure.
Lo and behold, there was the red dot right next to the purple one!
Now, while these two were making their discoveries, neither of them noticed the vibrating of a voice box that hung on the outside wall...that is, until the vibrating grew so powerful that it started to bang against the wall. Espeon glanced backward, annoyed.
"Crap," she muttered. "Excuse me for a second." She regretfully pushed the button that said "Vibrate Off."
The psychic fox was met by an explosive "ANSWER ME, FLEA BAG!"
Sighing, Espeon said, "I'm sorry, sir, what did you say?"
There was a growl of impatience from the other side of the box. "Are you finished yet?" asked the voice. Flareon's ears perked up. Didn't she know that voice from somewhere?
"Yes, sir," answered Espeon monotonously. "It's fixed, sir."
"Good. Get up here NOW, you lousy slacker!" There was a click, and then it was quiet.
Espeon broke the silence. "He's got to run out of names to call me eventually." Flareon giggled, and then they both started laughing. Finally, the laughter died down, and Espeon said, "Well, I should probably get up there before he starts screaming again." She started to walk away before stopping and asking, "Hey, where are you headed?" Flareon hesitated.
"Um...," she said, "I'm going somewhere. I just...don't exactly know where." Espeon looked at her.
"You don't have a place to stay?" she asked with concern. The fire fox shook her head. "Well..." The psychic fox glanced at the building. "You can stay here, but you're going to have to trust me, okay?" she told her. Flareon knew from past experiences that those words usually meant something bad was going to happen, but she remembered Espeon's heart and how it seemed like a good heart.
"Alright then," she said. "What do I need to do?"
Anisa tapped the side of the huge metallic...um...thing. "What do you think it is?" she asked her sister.
"I don't know," Rin answered, "but I'd suggest not touching it until we found out." The Leafeon drew her paw back quickly. She checked it to make sure that it was still in one piece.
"It looks like some kind of house," she said. "Do you think we should go in?"
"No," said the Glaceon flatly.
"Please!" pleaded Anisa.
"No," Rin said again.
"Pretty please!"
"No."
"You're no fun," the Leafeon pouted. Rin tried to hold back a laugh at her kid sister's face.
"Breaking and entering is not fun, it's against the law," she told her. Anisa stuck her tongue out at her. She walked over to the metal house and tapped on it three times.
"It's not breaking and entering if we knock," she said smartly. Rin sighed.
"Two minutes inside, okay? Then will you stop bothering me?"
"Yesyesyesyesyes!" screamed Anisa. She hugged her older sister. "I love you!" The Glaceon rolled her eyes.
"You're very easily pleased," she muttered. Rin focused on the image of a ghostly figure in her head. After a few seconds she had transformed into a Haunter. "Come on!" she said, grabbing Anisa with her ghostly hands and turning them both transparent. She floated through the wall and transformed back. Glancing at the Leafeon she asked, "What's wrong?"
Anisa was shaking all over. "Hands...cold...," she managed to say. Rin slapped her head.
"Sheesh, Anisa, for a second there you had me thinking that something was really wrong," she said.
"Well, sorry, but they were!" her sister exclaimed. She glanced around. "What kind of house is this?" she asked. The walls were grey and there was a stone floor. Boxes littered the floor.
"The storeroom of one," said Rin matter-of-factly.
"Oh," Anisa said, poking on the boxes. It fell over to reveal about five dozen bouncy balls. "Fun!" she screamed, chasing the balls as they bounced around the room.
"I can see that you're amused easily, too," Rin said, sighing. Suddenly, the room jerked, throwing the two Eeveelutions against the wall. "What was that?" asked the Glaceon. Anisa shrugged. The room jerked again. This time it sent a few boxes careening toward them.
"Watch out!" the Leafeon called, ducking to narrowly avoid a box full of lifting weights. Then Rin realized something.
"I think we're moving!" she cried. "We've got to get out of here!" But before she could transform, an avalanche of boxes toppled toward her. The Glaceon screamed as the boxes fell on top of her.
"Rin!" Anisa cried. There was no noise from the mountain of boxes. She screamed again. "No! Rin!"
Mewtwo sat on his bed, looking out the window. He sighed. Maybe something was wrong with him. He wasn't usually this sulky. "I need chocolate," the psychic cat muttered to himself. Mewtwo tried to remember where he had put the chocolate bar he was eating last night, but his mind started to wander away from that subject and towards a more delicate topic.
Flareon.
Why did he keep thinking about her? Ever since their battle, she had kept crawling back into her mind, and he couldn't figure out why.
That time when she tackled me, he thought, it hurt, but her fur was so...soft. And her eyes... Mewtwo stopped mid-thought. "No," he told himself. "Bad thoughts." The psychic Pokémon sighed. What would happen if they battled again? Would he freeze up like that? He probably would have been dead by now if she hadn't frozen, too.
Wait, she froze, too?
"Why would she...?" Mewtwo started to say, but then he stopped. He should just stop thinking about Flareon in general. "I just admire her strength, that's all," he said, as if to satisfy himself. He let his eyes wander to the window. Then he gasped.
She was outside. Right now. With Espeon. And they were heading towards the door.
Mewtwo sighed. Maybe not thinking about Flareon was going to be harder than he thought.
The sun was nearly down as the six silhouettes wandered through the darkened valley.
"Flareon!" called Umbreon. "Flareon, we're sorry!"
"You'd better be," muttered Mew. "I mean, I fall asleep for five minutes and..."
"Mew," interrupted Mesprit, "you were in a coma for five hours."
"Oh," the cat-like Pokémon said. "But that doesn't make it any better!" Mesprit looked down.
"I know..."
"We all were a little hard on Flareon," said Lucario. Mew almost laughed.
"A little?"
"You aren't helping, Mew!" the dark fox shouted. "Flareon!" she called again. "Where are you?"
"I can't believe that we did that," said Kiki regretfully. She had lost her usual carefree attitude and instead kept her eyes to the ground the entire time. Umbreon walked up to her and rubbed against her leg.
"Stop being so hard on yourself, Kiki," she said. "It was all of our faults, not just yours."
"Yeah," agreed Jolteon, who was still kicking himself for bringing this up in the first place.
"But it's not mine!"
"MEW, SHUT UP!" they all shouted at her.
"Sorry," she muttered.
"It's getting cold out," said Mesprit with a shiver. "Do you think Flareon went back to the house?" Kiki shook her head.
"I wouldn't have," she said. "She probably thinks we're going to yell at her some more."
"At that time, we probably would have," Lucario sighed.
"Guys, less moping, more calling," said Umbreon. "Flareon!"
"We're going to find her, Kiki," Jolteon told the brunette reassuringly. Kiki looked up at the sky and sighed.
"I hope so."
Flareon still wasn't sure about this big master plan of Espeon's, but she was starting to wish that she hadn't agreed to do this. The two of them were approaching the office door, and now that this contraption was moving again, there was no turning back. Espeon must have noticed the fire fox's anxiety because she told her, "Don't worry. It'll be fine, I promise." Not believing her, Flareon nodded anyway, if only to prove that she wasn't just a bundle of nerves. The two of them stopped in front of a mahogany door, and the psychic Pokémon raised her paw to knock.
"Enter," came a malignant voice. Espeon pushed the door open and led Flareon inside. Sitting in a large chair was none other than Ciar. "Flea bag," he said impatiently, "what took you so long?" Flareon gulped as Espeon said the words that she had been dreading, right on cue.
"I found another Elementalist, sir."
Ooo...DRAMA!!
There you go folks. Hopefully the next one won't be a month long wait...
Umbreon: Bet'cha five bucks it will be.
(bonks Umbreon on the head again) Well, until next time, ciao!
-Umbreon Mastah
