9. Rainy days on the road to Ruins and Woopers.
They went out for a celebratory dinner and Penelope entertained them all with tales of her friends, who were supposed to be meeting her the next day so they could travel west to the National Park.
"My friend likes bug Pokémon," she explained. "A lot." She wrinkled her nose. "I think it is kind of weird."
Penelope then had to face the wrath of John and his million points about how bugs were fascinating and quite powerful. Needless to say, Kaida and Nila had zoned out John's voice at that point and started a mini food fight across the table. Kaida had won after finding a piece of tomato, one of Nila's most hated food, and flicking that across the table so it hit her cheek, much to her horror, and caused her to stay in the bathroom for half an hour scrubbing her face to get rid of the tomato germs.
She left them in the evening and they returned to Flo's house. She still wasn't speaking to any of them – and had locked herself in her room – so they went to sleep him her spare room, after telling her parents that they were grateful for being allowed to stay, and that they were leaving the next morning.
The next day John refused to leave for Azalea Town until he had thoroughly investigated the Ruins of Alph. Since Flo was, again, refusing to leave the house, and was moaning with misery about her Bellsprout evolving into a Weepinbell, they said goodbye through the door and left without her. They walked south and west towards the ruins and John began to pull out various tools, including a magnifying glass, an array of picks, a strange radar, and a microscope. Nila and Kaida watched him in some confusion.
John met with some of the other archaeologists and then they went into one of the ruins. Kaida and Nila traipsed behind him. There were strange symbols carved all over the ruins and a tablet ahead. The tablet had several empty squares on it where tiles apparently had to be pushed into place. Some of the tiles were in there but many were missing.
"We're not sure what it is," one of the archaeologists said to John. "There are several of these in other ruins and we've been trying to put the pieces together. It is difficult to tell what belongs in each tablet because we found them all in a different building."
"How did you figure those ones out?" John asked.
The archaeologist explained that someone had removed the tiles and, on occasion, bits of the tiles had been left behind on the tablet. They had therefore been able to slot those back in to place. It was difficult to tell with some of the other pieces and they were making slow process.
"It's a picture of something," the archaeologist said, "but we aren't sure what."
"A Pokémon of some kind?" John guessed.
It was impossible to tell what kind of Pokémon it was. It was impossible to tell if it even was a Pokémon at all. It all seemed pretty hopeless to Kaida. She sat down on the floor and played with Cyndaquil while John continued his talk with the archaeologists. After a point, Nila joined in, which meant that they probably wouldn't be leaving for a while.
Nila and John eventually returned to tell Kaida she could go and wait outside if she wanted to.
"Fine," Kaida said. She groaned. "My neck hurts."
"Why is that?" John asked.
Kaida shrugged. "I dunno, it's holding up my head?"
"It is a large head," Nila said. "Your poor, poor neck."
Kaida glared.
She went outside with Cyndaquil and began to look around. Eventually she stumbled across an excavation site. As she arrived the men left to go and eat lunch and Kaida surveyed the site. She didn't mind historical stuff – she quite liked it – but nothing interesting was happening at all. What could a few tiles in a tablet possibly show anyway?
At that moment, Cyndaquil leapt down into the ditch and began to nose about the floor.
"Cyndaquil," Kaida called. "I don't think that you are supposed to be down there. Come back up."
Cyndaquil continued snuffling the ground. Kaida looked around warily and – when she saw no one who could help her or would stop her – she jumped in after Cyndaquil. She scooped Cyndaquil up but the Pokémon stained itself so it was facing the floor again. Kaida frowned. She picked up a nearby trowel and scraped at the dirt. She hit something hard. She went over to a box of equipment and found a hard brush. She then began to move the dirt with that in case the trowel damaged anything. A few minutes later and she had uncovered a strange box. It was covered with the same strange symbols that had lined the building they had been in before. Kaida inspected the box and clicked open the lid. Inside were several tiles with the strange imprints on them.
"Look what you found, Cyndaquil," Kaida said. "Come on. We have to give this to those archaelogists."
They used the dirty wooden steps to get out of the hole and then they rushed back to the building. Kaida clutched the box tightly to her chest. She entered the building and everyone looked up at her.
"Cyndaquil found this in one of the holes," she announced. "It has more tiles in."
"You went in the holes?!" one of archaeologists said crossly.
Another ignored this. He went forwards and took the box from Kaida. He looked amazed.
"We have to process this," he said happily. "Use all the scans." He looked back up at Kaida. "Where did you find this? You have to show us the exact location."
"Um, OK," Kaida said.
She left the building to show one of the other archaeologists the spot that she had dug it out from.
"Don't handle them," another archaeologist said. "We could damage them."
The box was opened anyway – they were all so curious – and they all looked at the new stack of tiles that had been found.
"This could be all the missing ones," the tall man next to John said fervently.
John peered over at the top tiles. Things clicked in his head. Without waiting for approval, he grabbed the two top tiles from the box, despite the protests this raised. He pushed them into the tablet and then grabbed some more tiles from the table. Yes. He could see what this was now. It was a Pokémon.
"Look," he said, as he pushed the last tile in. "It's a Kabutops."
The archaeologists crowded around and stared in amazement. It was. The missing tiles had completed the picture that they hadn't been able to see before. No doubt they could do the same for the other tablets now.
Then there was a loud, grinding sound and, suddenly, the floor underneath John rolled back and he fell through. There was a shocked gasp and everyone rushed towards the hole.
"Are you OK?" they called.
John groaned from below. "I'm fine. I'm just bruised. Ow. Wait… What's that?"
There was silence.
"John?"
There was no reply. Nila caught a glimpse of John below. He was staring at something to the side of him.
"That's the chamber below ground," one of the archaeologists said. "We have ladders going down into that room. Come on, we can go get him out."
Nila went with them. The ladders were placed all over the site and led into a grand chamber with strange walls that jutted out half way across the width of the room at alternating points. Eventually they came across John, who was shouting back up that he was fine. He still looked shocked.
"What happened?" Nila asked.
"I saw a Pokémon. More than one," John replied. "It was… They looked like those strange symbols on the wall."
"You mean to say that you saw the Unown?!" one of women babbled excitedly. "This is unheard of! No one has ever seen one here before. At other sites like it, yes, but that has almost been dismissed as rumour…"
"I definitely saw them," John said.
He stood up. He went to the wall and walked along, pointing at several different symbols.
"It was these," he declared.
Everyone looked stunned.
Hours later and the archaeologists were using their expensive equipment to analyse the tiles that John had slotted into the tablet and those that still remained in the box. The tiles in the tablet were now refusing to come out and the archaeologists did not want to apply more force in case they broke.
"This stuff is amazing," John said, as he flipped through pages of their research. "I definitely want to become a Pokémon Researcher."
"You're a bit too young at the moment," one of the men said. "In a few years time you should come back and we'll definitely take you on."
"But I'll have missed all of the good stuff by then," John complained.
The man shook his head. "Definitely not. There will always be new stuff to discover. You'll see. If you like, we'll send you the work we do here though. After all, you helped us discover it. You have a quick mind. You managed to put those tiles together very quickly."
John beamed with pride. In a few years time he was almost certainly going to return to join their research team. Until then he had a lot more discovering to do in other areas of Pokémon. It was probably time to go. It was getting late and they had not got far from Violet City.
"Should we go back and stay at Flo's?" he asked Kaida and Nila as they left the Ruins of Alph.
"Uh," Kaida said reluctantly. "I did throw a bin at her. I don't think she likes me very much."
"Camping it is then," Nila said decisively.
They were about to set up their tents when a short person burst out from some trees with a furious look on her face.
"Are you leaving without me?!" Flo demanded.
"Um, you were coming with us?" Kaida said, surprised.
Flo glared at Kaida. "It is your fault my Bellsprout evolved!"
Kaida opened her mouth to protest but Flo interrupted her.
"I'm going to come with you. I need to catch another Bellsprout and train it and you are going to help me." She scowled. "And you'll help me catch cute Pokémon since Weepinbell is now ugly."
Weepinbell bounced behind Flo. It looked extremely dejected. Apparently it had now realised that evolving had not been its best move.
"Again," Nila murmured to Kaida. "Since when was Bellsprout considered cute?"
"You owe me! You're helping me!" Flo said crossly. "Now let's get back to my house. We can leave tomorrow!"
-
The next day it was raining heavily but Kaida had a plan. She had purchased a special umbrella that she could strap to Cyndaquil's back. Admittedly, if he lit his flame then it would burn to a cinder, but she could always remove it when he needed to battle. This way Cyndaquil was protected from the rain and its back wouldn't be too wet if it needed to use fire moves in a battle. Also, the cold and wet tended to make it miserable. She didn't blame it.
When she had finished strapping the umbrella onto Cyndaquil's back she stood back to admire her handiwork. Then she squealed. Cyndaquil looked adorable. It also looked a little confused, but that just made it even sweeter. It was so cute…
Unfortunately it became extremely windy at around eleven o'clock and, after a particularly strong gust of wind, Cynadaquil went tumbling down a hill, blown away by the wind. Kaida shrieked and ran after it. She held it closely until the wind dropped and it was once again safe for Cyndaquil to walk with the umbrella on its back.
The next day the rain hadn't eased up at all. Now everyone was feeling grumpy. Even John was cross because he was having difficulties with the fire when he tried to make them all soup for breakfast. Finally he managed to make something and had them all test it.
"What do you think of it then?" he asked.
Flo tasted it. She smacked her lips together. "Not enough salt."
John added a sprinkling more to the soup and stirred it.
"How about now?"
She tried it again. "No, it still needs more."
He added more salt.
"OK," John said. "Taste it now."
Flo tried it again and thought about it deeply. Nila and Kaida raised their eyebrows at the expression of concentration on her face.
"No, sorry," she said. "You've still got to add more salt."
John sighed and put even more salt in the soup. "And now?"
"You're close," Flo agreed after trying it once more.
John added yet more salt. He sat back with a satisfied look on his face.
"All right, everyone, taste it now." He smiled. "I have to say," he said happily, "that I really think I've sealed the deal this time."
Flo licked a little more soup off the spoon. She paused. Then she shook her head.
"Nope," she said. "Now it's too salty."
John's expression dropped and for a moment he looked like he might murder her. He dished out soup for everyone and ate it mulishly. Nila and Kaida tried it. It was disgustingly salty.
"Hey," Kaida said, "Come here, Flo."
Flo looked at her warily. "No."
"I'm not going to hurt you," Kaida said impatiently.
"That's always what you say right before you hurt me," Flo insisted.
"When have I ever said that before?" Kaida asked. "Look, just come over. Now!"
Flo scurried over. Kaida smacked her around the head.
"Ow!" Flo cried.
"Serves you right," Kaida said crossly.
The soup was gross because of Flo and now Kaida had to eat it.
"Has anyone seen my guidebook?" John asked.
Nobody had. John eventually found it in Kaida's bag, which was a bit odd, because John didn't think he had put it in there by accident and Kaida hardly would have stolen it.
They walked on a bit before stopping again. They hadn't got very far when John decided to make dinner and they released all of their Pokémon. Dunsparce appeared to be the only one who liked the rain – the clouds blocked out the sun and he was from a dark, damp cave – and so he went and slobbered around in it.
"It's hideous!" Flo whimpered, scuttling away from John's Pokémon. "Why did you catch it?"
"It's cool," John said, laughing at the expression on Flo's face.
"And he likes to freak you out," Nila added.
The weather cleared up by the next day. There were puddles on the ground, and there was the occasional drizzle, but on the whole it was nicer. At midday there was blue sky with white puffy clouds drifting lazily eastwards. They all sat out on the grass and Flo began to clean and talk to her egg.
"Hey, Kaida," Flo said thoughtfully after a while.
"What?" Kaida asked.
Her impatience came through in her tone. Flo didn't notice.
"Don't you think that cloud looks like a Buneary?"
Kaida looked briefly. "I don't see it."
"Look! It's right there! There is its ears and there is a little tail. Do you see it now?"
"No," Kaida said, bored. "This is boring."
"No it isn't! Looking at shapes in the clouds is cool. Hey, that one sort of looks like a Ponyta!"
"No, it looks like a deformed piece of space junk," Kaida said. "I'm gonna go help John with lunch."
A few moments later and Flo suddenly cried out, "Hey!"
"What now?" Kaida asked, irritably.
She wanted to kill Flo. Really.
"My necklace is gone!" Flo cried.
"Maybe you dropped it," Kaida suggested.
"Maybe you're wearing it," Nila said slowly, as if speaking to a stupid person.
Nila sniggered as Flo felt around her neck and pulled out a silver chain.
"No," Flo said. "Not this one. The other one was gold with a green flower. It was in here. I know it was."
Kaida sighed and they all began to hunt around for the necklace. They had no luck. It had probably fallen out of Flo's bag on the way and it was hopeless now. They would never find it.
It wasn't until Kaida pulled her Pokédex out of her bag that she spotted a glint of gold. She pulled it out and frowned. How on earth did that get in there?
"Flo, I've found your necklace," Kaida said.
She held out the necklace and Flo gratefully received it.
"Where was it?" Flo asked.
"In my bag."
If Flo said anything about Kaida stealing it then Kaida thought she might do something drastic. Luckily, Flo just frowned.
"That's weird," she said. "The guidebook and now this. How are they getting there? Why would anyone want to put them there?"
"Well I don't know, do I?" Kaida said.
She looked at Nila. Nila looked offended.
"It wasn't me!" Nila said.
Kaida looked at Weepinbell. Perhaps it was a Pokémon. Weepinbell has been very depressed recently – not that she blamed it with Flo's behaviour – and perhaps it had decided to cause some mischief in revenge?
Nila laughed. "I think we're forgetting the real thief here."
She gestured to John's Hoothoot.
"Or has everyone else forgotten how we first met it?"
Nila thought back to the apple juice on her head. It had been a traumatic experience. Her hair had been all sticky and gross…
"What incident?" Flo asked.
She was ignored as Kaida and Nila looked at Hoothoot suspiciously and John rushed to defend his Pokémon.
"Hey," he objected. "Hoothoot has been very well behaved since then!"
Hoothoot turned its beak up, mimicking its owner in looking offended.
"That's all a façade," Nila said. "Really, it's still a kleptomaniac. Only this time it doesn't have a nest so it is just putting it in Kaida's bag."
"If it was the thief why wouldn't he just put it all in my bag?" John asked.
"Because you already have enough in that bag," Kaida said.
They all turned to look at John's backpack. It was huge and looked like it was bursting at the seams, yes, but there was an extraordinary amount shoved into that bag.
"Look," John said firmly. "It isn't Hoothoot."
The next day it was raining heavily again and Kaida hunted around for Cyndaquil's umbrella. It had been a strange find but completely worth it. Cyndaquil was protected from the mean rain and it looked so good in the process. So cute!
As she daydreamed, she hunted around her bag. However, after a few minutes she still couldn't find the umbrella. She frowned. She looked under the bag. She looked by her sleeping bag. She looked in Nila's bag. It was gone!
"Cyndaquil's umbrella!" she cried, shaking Nila's shoulders desperately.
"Go away," Nila groaned, trying to swat Kaida away.
Kaida ducked a flying fist and shook Nila harder. She knew that Nila was crabby and needed her sleep but, seriously, this was important! The umbrella was gone! She couldn't believe her horrible luck. How could the thief have struck to take this of all things? It had been expensive and difficult to find! Now… gone! Cyndaquil needed it! Everything was ruined…
"Hey, what is this?" Flo said, confused.
She lifted something from beside her sleeping bag. It was the umbrella. Kaida gave a relieved sigh and lunged for it. However, when she got her hands on it, she realised that something was very, very wrong.
It had holes in it.
Holes that were definitely caused by a set of sharp talons.
"John!" Kaida roared.
"Huh?!" John's voice sounded from the other tent. "What?"
"Your Hoothoot is dead!"
-
Kaida was forced to tuck Cyndaquil in her coat so that it would not get soaked as they continued their journey, walking along the muddy banks of a river. There were several fisherman perched miserably under mini marquees. It didn't look like they were having much success.
It was a different story for them. Pokémon seemed to be everywhere: a Caterpie flopped out of a tree in front of them, a Pidgey flapped noisily from a bush, a Sentret rushed by their feet. Then they saw something that made Flo squeal.
"It's cute!" she cried. "I want one."
Kaida raised her Pokédex. Apparently this was a Wooper. It was small and blue and had two strange things protruding from its head that sort of looked like television antennae.
"Well, go catch it then," Nila said, jerking her head towards it.
"But… I… I don't know how," Flo hesitated.
"You caught a Hoppip," John said.
"Uh," Flo said.
She looked at Kaida. Yes, that hadn't been a conventional catch. It hadn't taken much to acquire that particular Pokémon.
"Go, Hoppip!" Flo cried.
Hoppip burst from its Pokéball.
"Use… What does it know?"
"Splash," Kaida said quickly.
"Splash!"
Hoppip jerked up and down in the air. The Wooper looked bemused.
"Oh," Flo said. She looked at Kaida. "Is that the attack that is useless?"
"Yes," Kaida said. She muttered beneath her breath, "Idiot. I told you this."
Nila frowned. "Is that really the only attack it knows?"
"It is the only attack it ever learns," Kaida said, giving Nila a significant look.
Nila raised her eyebrows but quieted.
"No it–" John began.
Kaida dug her heel into John's foot. He yelled out with pain.
"I guess I'll have to use Weepinbell," Flo said slowly. "Go Weepinbell."
Weepinbell didn't look particularly enthused as it went forwards towards the Wooper, which freaked out at the sight of it and dived in the river.
"What?!" Flo objected. "No fair!"
Nila rolled her eyes. Pokémon wasn't about fairness.
"Use Vine Whip," Kaida suggested. "You can use Weepinbell to pull Wooper out if you are quick."
"Yeah, do that," Flo said enthusiastically.
Weepinbell obeyed, dipping its vines into the water. It managed to find Wooper and dragged it to land. It then hit it with the Vine Whip attack, which was extra effective as Wooper, as a dual type, was extremely weak against grass. However, Wooper was quite tough. It quickly shot back a Water Gun, which blasted into Weepinbell.
"Vine Whip again," Flo ordered.
Wooper dodged the vines and used Mud Shot. It hit Weepinbell in the eyes and it blinked. Weepinbell moves forward sluggishly for another Vine Whip. Wooper managed to dodge the first vine but the second took out its feet.
"Now use Sleep Powder," Flo ordered.
Weepinbell sent the dust fly at Wooper. Wooper was hit and struggled on, staggering from side to side, before it collapsed. Flo whooped.
"Now the Pokéball," Kaida whispered.
"Oh, yeah," Flo said, grabbing a Pokéball.
She threw the Pokéball at the Wooper. It was sucked into the Pokéball, which flashed several times before stopping. Flo had caught the Wooper.
"Well done, Weepinbell," Flo praised. She cocked her head to one side and said thoughtfully, "I guess that you are stronger now…"
Weepinbell preened happily as she petted it. Then her mood swung.
"I still miss my little Bellsprout though," Flo whimpered.
She looked like she might cry. Weepinbell deflated.
