Chapter Nine - Fried Eggs
Fallarbor town Pokemon Center
"Mmkay, I'll wake her up. LEGGO MY EGGO!" James shouted to Daniel as he entered the room Serena was staying in. Lexi and Ashka shared this room with her, but both had reported earlier that Serena wasn't there. They assumed she went somewhere and came back after they left. When James looked around, he found her bed next to the window still empty. The sheets, stirred, so she must've slept there. He peered out the window that led to the fire escape.
Serena was sprawled across the asphalt in the alley three stories down.
"Danger! Danger!" James stammered like a fracasbot as he jumped onto the fire escape that lowered to the ground after sensing his weight. He hopped off the platform and rushed to her aid, but once he touched her skin, his fingers flinched away. Her skin was so icy cold that it burned. Ice crystals dotted her skin like goosebumps.
And under her, it seemed that an explosion went off and instead of black burns, there were ice burns.
But when he reached for her again, her baby blue eyes snapped open, and in an instant she was off the ground and glaring at him for interrupting her sleep. The panic in her eyes only flashed for a second when she saw all the ice around her. James was smart; would he figure everything out in one take?
"Are you cold?" Was all James asked with his same, ever optimistic face.
She kept her stone face all the while. "I'm fine, thank you. Are we leaving town already?"
"Yeah. Mr. Daniel's giving us ten minutes to eat, and then we go." He replied, leading the way back to the front of the center. As he walked away, back turned, Serena's fingers trailed along the old, dirty brick siding of the 'Center. All the ice that had been draped across the walls and floor melted.
Lucas Taylor Oh yeah! We gotta senior on our team now! Take that!
Jun Kirman Yay :3
Lexi Redstone Who?
Lucas Taylor His name is Zane. He says he's from Black City! And he's got A LOT of money...
Lexi Redstone OH, I see why you're friends with him now...
Jun Kirman I like people in general :3
3 people like this
Lucas Taylor So you guys at Lavaridge yet?
Lexi Redstone Nope, we're leaving Fallarbor now.
Serena Valliya Hey Lexi, I have a question for you. Why do you keep commenting on Lucas's status' if you don't like him?
Lucas Taylor Because she can't get enough of me ;D
Lexi Redstone That's it, I'm outta here
Jun Kirman I just added Ashka Storme and Gerard Eckhart to the group!
Lucas Taylor I'm gone ._.
Lexi Redstone likes this
This time, to rid of the whining from his campers, Daniel led them to the cable cars that conjoined Fallarbor and Lavaridge. The operator sat them in a gazebo-type car and locked the door so that no one coughJamescough would fall out. Lexi was rejoicing at the fact that they weren't going to trudge through another mountain. The height they were at made it seem like they would be pancakes if they dare jump out of the gazebo.
"This ride'll take thirty minutes to get across the mountain, and ten to lower to town. Enjoy your ride." The operator said. The gazebo sped off at a fair speed with just a push of a button, and thankfully the windows were rolled up so the wind wouldn't push their skin into their faces.
'Twas quiet for now, filled with awkward silence. Ashka and Gerard didn't sit that close, still a bit shaken up from their argument last night. Lexi sat next to Gerard, but at a respectable distance not to anger Ashka. After her sat Serena, Daniel, Pita, and then James in a circle-like position.
Before they hit the mountains and reception was lost, Lexi pulled up a conversation about something she saw on Twitter earlier this morning.
"Hey, have you guys seen the thing trending on twitter? Everyone in Fallarbor is hash tagging ice monster. Apparently during the eruption a pokémon saved the town by freezing the upcoming lava and settling the volcano." She said, pulling up Twitter just as wifi blew out.
"Saw it. It's media crap." Ashka stated. This caused Serena to be a bit uneasy at her cold words.
"Really? I didn't know you networked."
"I saw it too. I believe it." Gerard said. Lexi brightened at the fact that he was talking to her for once, much like James does when a human interacts with him. "They said it was a grey pokémon. I bet it was an Articuno."
"No, no, no. Incorrect region." James intervened. "We're in Hoenn! It's only natural to believe it was a Regice."
"They said it was grey, not ice." Gerard shot back.
"I don't think it was a pokémon at all." Daniel said, silencing everyone's side discussions. "My Dad is on the hunt for a half-breed—half pokémon, half human. I bet it was her."
Serena was fidgeting some more and playing with the red belt of her pants.
"Those don't exist! Scientists attempted the study centuries ago and the gene splicing never engineered correctly!" James protested. Inside, he was curiously suspicious of the events he witness earlier today.
"Remember, we're in the 31st century!" Daniel reminded. "Anything is possible!"
"Then I think we should leave it alone." Lexi said triumphantly. "Let nature take its course. If it is to be found, it will be found."
The gazebo fell to a hush again with everyone contemplating on what's been said. Half breeds, existing? James wasn't at all skeptical about this. From what he's seen, someone in this very car could be harboring an exciting, incredibly cool secret. Why she's keeping it such a secret, though, is a mystery to him.
Lavaridge town was in view, and anyone who was awake woke up the person beside them. The town had silver buildings that reflected off each other, neon lights that emitted eco-friendly Pokémon-repellent, and had many rivers running through it like Venice. The coasts were filled with sand that had tiny bulges most likely being people buried under there. The gazebo was descending to the cable car station near the mountain behind them.
"Wow! I call sand castle building first!" Lexi said as she rolled down her window to get a better look of the city. James had an itching feeling to play through her hair as the breeze did.
"I heard the rivers are like hot tubs here." Gerard said, sharing Lexi's window to see past. She was delighted that he was comfortable enough to be this close while Ashka was visibly sulking.
"Does anyone get to challenge the gym leader here?" Ashka inquired as she boredly stared out her window, where the only view was greasy building tops. The trainers of the gazebo (Ashka and Lexi) were keeping their ears peeled to hear his response.
"Sure, if any of you are interested." Daniel said. Pita cried out in joy at the thought of a battle and began hopping around the footrest area. The cable car came to a clean, smooth stop and the one door between James and Daniel slid open.
"Welcome to Lavaridge!" Said the conductor as they readied their bags and stepped off.
"So where to first? Gym or Sauna?" Daniel asked as everyone assembled around him. The choice was pretty much clear when you counted the eyes pointing at the steaming water nearby.
"I'm going to give you advice. With girls, in a hot spring, there are rules you must follow. Are you willing to listen to my wisdom?"
James nodded eagerly to Gerard's advice. Gerard seemed like such a cool guy, nothing must go wrong with him.
"Alright, rule number one," Gerard started, "Is not to stare at whatever swimwear they're wearing. Okay, maybe for a few seconds, but any longer and they'll think you're staring at their racks."
"But—But—" James cried, hands dramatically slapped on his cheeks, "I'm so aloof!"
"...No, no you're not." Gerard chuckled. "Also, don't try and touch them in inappropriate places when they're in the water. You're going to get kicked in unmentionable places."
"Understandable."
"Let's see...Oh yeah, lastly, no "surprise bubbles" in the water. I'm pretty sure they don't take kindly to that." Gerard teased as he pushed open the door to the outside. James stood nervously in the boy's locker room with his Kadabra carrying a towel behind him. Daniel was in the exclusive 'adults only' spring where they could run around buck naked. James closed his rented locker and highly anticipated what awaited him on the other side of the door.
...Oh boo. The girls aren't even out here yet. James gave a defeated smile as he took in the area of the sauna. Steam clouded most of the area, making it hard to see the lawn chairs off to the side and the random palm trees implanted into the tile. Brown fence bordered off the area from the rest of the town and wildlife. The pool stretched out in a figure-eight shape, one end shallow to two foot and the other deeper, around four or five foot. Cube 'bots with metal trays attached to their fronts hovered around with glass cups of lemonade and soda or whatever was ordered from patrons. The pool was a little empty with maybe a few other people near the shallow end and Gerard at the deep end with an inner tube and his goggles.
"CANNON BAAAALL!" James shouted, running towards the deeper end,
A whistle went off from the lifeguardbot. It's emote screen was an angry face. "NO DIVING. NO DIVING."
"...Aww..." He muttered, skidding to a stop. His Kadabra settled on a lawn chair. James took a seat at the edge and stuck his toe in the water to test out the temperature. It was pretty warm, maybe even a relaxing hot feel if someone had just returned from the A/C of the building. It was probably 100, 105 degrees tops. He had to gasp at how much it burned when his whole body was immersed.
Gerard floated over. "Hey, did you know they have hot sand beds here too? My Ralts is telling me it's even hotter than the water." He said, pointing past the deep end where a little corridor led to an area of sand pits and robots programmed to bury you alive.
"WHAT! You've crossed the language barrier that our ancestors have been attempting to surpass without a translator!" James shouted, spazzing out so violently that he almost drank some of the water. He can't believe that someone else had cracked the equation before he had! And he's the genius!
"...Umm...Yes...?" Gerard answered awkwardly.
"How?"
"I listened to him say his name twenty times till I started asking how hot the sand was...?"
James pulled himself underwater. Simple communication with nods and head shakes were good, yes, but he wanted REAL words! English! He was actually hoping for pokémon speech interpretation instead of this kindergarten stuff. He pulled his head out of the hot water, feeling as though some of his brain cells were fried. Brain damage from being completely enveloped in hot water was an old wives tale.
The girls all came out of their respective locker room at once, a Prinplup and Lotad tailing them. The Lotad of course belonged to Serena, while Prinplup was Ashka's. Ashka emerged first from the locker room, being the tallest and blocking out everyone. Her bathing suit consisted of a navy blue, one piece swimsuit, although her modesty greatly showed as a green nylon shirt and black spandex shorts were piled onto her. Her usually ponytailed hair was now freely swaying about in the cool summer breeze.
Behind her came Serena with her camera around her neck. Her swimwear consisted of a maroon tankini top and dark grey shorts, but by the way she disdainfully looked at the pool, it didn't seem like she was getting wet anytime soon.
Lexi came last, squealing at how beautiful and mostly tech-free the pool was. She was wearing pink-to-purple tie-dye halter bikini with the halter string being wooden African beads. Her bikini made it so easy for James to break rule numero uno, which he did shamelessly, hiding behind the one palm tree hanging over the deeper end.
"Cannon ball!" Lexi shouted, running for the water. Before the lifeguardbot could stop her she plunged into the pool, spraying hot water in every direction. She popped back up hissing with her normally cream face embarrassingly peach. "Yow! Why's this water so hot?"
"Just another reason for me not to go in." Serena muttered, wiping off her lens after that splash. Meanwhile Ashka was using the ladder to get into the pool. Gerard awkwardly floated off to the side from the wave Lexi had made, breaking rule numero uno by staring at Ashka as she waded through the water. He couldn't help it; right now, in the pool, he couldn't help but compare the two beauties before him. There was Lexi, naturally beautiful, and then there was Ashka, sophisticated beauty. He dipped his face into the water to stop the images.
"Oh, before I forget," Lexi said, hopping to the side of the pool, "James, didn't you say that studies proved that warm nesting areas speed up egg hatching?"
James nodded feverishly, still blushing that she was talking to him.
"Good! I'm going to go bury my egg into the sand then." She said, climbing out of the side of the pool. James couldn't take his eyes away from her legs.
"Ashka, you should do that too. You've had that egg for months." Gerard said, speaking as if he was forced to. He hated that she was so prying last night, but he cared about that egg just as much as she did. He was even concerned that it had a disease. The old woman at the daycare in White Forest had a poor estimate. Maybe Ashka shouldn't have picked up the egg from the shoreline during that random outing.
Ashka agreed to the decision just because she was tired of carrying the huge egg case around. She followed Lexi into the locker room, and together they took their eggs and took them to the sand area. Ashka's egg was blue with a black stripe in the middle, and Lexi's was blue with black spikes patterned at the top and red speckled.
They both buried the eggs and left their respective pokémon, Charizard and Scrafty, with them just in case someone came over and stepped on them.
The blue eggs flashed.
Daniel was not the type to run around naked.
So being that this was what a few drunkards were doing currently, he found his relaxing hot spring session very awkward. They're flabby bared bodies just raced across the sand, everything bouncing. Why they thought the women across the fence thought this was attractive was beyond him.
Just one break, He moaned when his styler nearby began beeping. He took his towel, climbed out of the water, and wrapped it around his midsection.
"JAMES!" He heard Serena yell all the way over on the other end of the spa. By the judging of her tone, James must've screwed something up.
The styler screen opened and a hologram of the town came up. The spa lit up in red, signaling an angry pokémon. Arrows were pointing to the other end of the spa. He sped walked and sped walked, fearing what might await at the other end of the door. He was now back at the pool area where his troopers might be, and that just made him jerk open the door with more force.
False alarm. No pokémon out here, just regular people.
The half breed. He remembered.
"I said I was sorry!" James cried in a high-pitched voice, wincing as Serena pulled his ear up.
"You damaged my camera! You're sorries won't fix it!" She yelled. Lexi, Gerard, and Ashka were far away watching the scene with amusement. It isn't everyday that the quiet background chick blows her top.
"I only got the lens wet!"
"You say you're so smart! You'd know to be careful around big cameras!" She finally let go of his ear.
"Anyone else notice that the water is getting chilly?" Gerard said, rubbing his goosebumpy arm.
Serena climbed out of the pool to nurse her camera with a towel. Daniel studied the projection on his styler, wondering who to accuse as the half-breed. It didn't look like anyone but Serena was furious. Could it be...
"ATTENTION!" All cube-robots (lifeguardbots, waiterbots) suddenly froze with their face screen blinking. Everyone was aware that this meant a public announcement was about to be broadcasted. The screens all flashed to a news channel, the lead reporter being a man in black. "ATTENTION! WE ARE SCREENING A WARNING ADVISORY. THERE IS A DANGEROUS POKÉMON EXPERIMENTED BY THE GOVERNMENT ON THE LOOSE. IF YOU SEE THIS CREATURE, REPORT IT IMMEDIATELY." A picture from Twitpic blew up on the screen, hash tagged "ice monster". It was grey with weird, spiked out wings and a wore a face plate. From the shot you could only make out the figure of it.
All robots returned to their previous installments once the broadcast was over. Daniel turned off his styler and retreated back into the locker rooms, ignoring how calm Serena had become and how the radar wasn't going off anymore. The message was pretty clear.
His father had called in the government because obviously, a rank D ranger just wasn't enough for him.
Lucas Taylor A servantbot dropped my lemonade on my pants when that stupid PA went off!
4 people like this
Lexi Redstone lol karma
Lucas Taylor Oh yea? From what.
Lexi Redstone Obviously...from all the short period girlfriends you've had.
Lucas Taylor Alright now hold it! Don't dis my girlfriends.
Jun Kirman No fighting :3 Fighting is wrong!
2 people like this
Lexi Redstone Yeah. I thought this post was about the ice monster?
Lucas Taylor That thing isn't real. Totally media propaganda.
Ashka Storme likes this
Lexi Redstone Well I was in Fallarbor when it happened. I think I might've seen it.
Sherry Brogan Hey! Mind if I cut in? This thing is crap. Thread closed.
Lucas Taylor Heyyy! I see you changed your profile pic again ;D
Sherry Brogan I did ;P
Lexi Redstone ...-.-'
"Scraft! Scraf-teee!" A wail rings throughout the pool area. Lexi looks up from sunbathing, and James turns his head away from her sneakily. Even from here they could make out a light shining in the sand area.
"My egg is hatching!" Lexi shrieked as she ran to the back. Ashka and Gerard swapped glances, silently agreeing to go watch just because. Serena came as well just to watch the miracle of life. Scrafty had unburied Lexi's blue egg and now all of its lines and patterns were glowing wildly, flashing off and on, and the egg itself was jerking side to side.
"Whatshouldwedowhatshouldwedo!" James panicked. Did one really know the medical procedures for correct pokémon birth? "Umm...PUSH POKÉMON, PUSH!" The only pokémon he's ever hatched was his Luxray when he was six, but his father had been in the room when it happened. It was just the teens now.
Serena brought over a servantbot and Lexi ordered pokémon food shortly after punching in her trainer's license code. As the servantbot left to process their order, the egg began morphing. Ashka and Serena covered their eyes so not to be blind while James was calling out pokémon names in hopes that he would be right. Gerard on the other hand was just leaning on the fence and watching it like a TV show.
The first thing to emerge from the egg were two front stumps for legs. Still glowing, the hind legs emerged and a tail propped up. Lastly, a head curled out, revealing a long furry neck. The light faded away...and a Deino stood in its place.
"Deino!" The pokémon barked. Lexi squealed and attacked her new pokémon into a hug, loving how soft its fur felt and how soft its baby skin was.
"Ah, Deino, the Irate pokémon." James said, studying the newborn. "Deino's tend to bite everything and can be very dangerous. KEEP IT AWAY FROM ME!" He ran away with his arms flailing up, nearly knocking into the servantbot that was returning with a bowl of pokémon pellets.
"Aww, you're not dangerous, are you honey?" Lexi cooed, threading her fingers through Deino's fur. Deino's head started dipping around and sniffing the sand.
"Wow, you've got a rare hatch." Serena said, sitting next to Deino. When she moved to pet Deino's head, its clamped it's mouth over her hand. Everyone froze and waited for her to explode. But she merrily smiled and used her other hand to pat the dragon's head. Lexi rose her eyebrow.
"Doesn't that hurt?" She inquired.
Serena shook her head. "Deino doesn't have its teeth yet."
"It's really cool." Gerard said, bringing over the food that the servantbot brought. "Can I feed it? I've never hatched a pokémon before."
"Of course you can." Lexi said, smiling sweetly. She was just happy that Ashka wasn't glaring at her for communicating back! Gerard grinned small and started tossing pellets at Deino, who caught them in its mouth much like venus fly trap.
Ashka scoffed at how much attention Lexi was getting just for hatching a rare pokémon like Deino. Maybe she was jealous. Just a tiny bit. Maybe there were more factors to this jealousy, like how nice she was and how pretty she was without even trying. And then add the fact that she had future powerful pokémon in her mitts. Lexi was the complete package, and it looked like Gerard was buying it.
"Charii..." Ashka's Charizard lowly sang a few yards away, sitting near a glowing spot in the sand. Ashka's eyes widened in surprise. Her egg was hatching too? Wow, this sand must be magic! She looked back at the others, still clustered around Deino like it was the newest generation tablet. She dug out her egg, stuffed it in her shirt, and ran out into the pool area through the locker room and lobby and out to the front of the building at the parking lot. Her Charizard swooped down from the air, having followed her through flight.
Ashka accidentally dropped the egg just as it bounced out of her hands. She held in her gasp, hoping she hadn't damaged the pokémon within. The egg was morphing through its shine, and the first to happen is the shell shrinking to a tiny body. Legs, arms, and ears were visible. When the light faded away, there was a Riolu standing instead of an egg.
She wanted to be happy, but there was the shadow of rarity. Everyone else has a Riolu. Serena has one. Lucas has one. No one is going to care for another one to add to copycats. Deino still triumphed over Riolu, and she didn't want a pokémon that everyone else had.
She turned her head away from the hug Riolu wanted.
"Go." She said forcefully. Riolu stood there, not comprehending. "I said GO." She said louder. "I don't want you. You'd be better off on your own. GO!" Her angry face scared Riolu. It got on its feet, dashed away, but looked back.
And when it looked back, Ashka was heading back into the building.
Tears evaporated into the air as Riolu raced away, into the wild, for a new home that would accept it.
It was about dinner time now and James had strayed from the group when they were heading for the pokémon center. He saw something in the sky. Sometimes he wondered, was he the only one tuned into the world? Everyone else was either worried about friends or Facebook, or maybe twitter or flickr. He was more concerned to global warming, half breeds, the end of the world, and aliens.
That flash in the sky was not a star, not a pokémon, not anything of this world. It was a spacecraft. He ran after the black figure in the night, still just a dot in the sky. He was now in the forest, sweat trickling down his forehead. The dot in the sky was expanding, bigger and bigger. Or as he now realized—it was getting closer and closer.
And then something opened in the middle of the black spacecraft. The lights at the bottom flickered around much like a theater marquee. A blue light was now in the middle of the bottom of the spacecraft. A beam shot through, right in his eyes. But it was not blinding. His feet were lifting off the ground. He was being abducted.
Yes! Yes! He opened his arms towards the light, wanting it more than anything.
But then the opening of the beam closed, the lights flickered off, and he was falling back to Earth. He landed on the ground painfully. The spaceship was taking off again.
"NOOO! WAIIT! Take me with you!" He cried.
Serena Valliya posted picture "It hatched!". Tagged: Lexi Redstone, Gerard Eckhart
3 people like this
Lucas Taylor Dang...nice bikini Lexi ;P
Lexi Redstone I believe Deino is the star of this picture, Lucas.
Lucas Taylor Not according to my rack-spotting binoculars!
Gerard Eckhart I kind of look like a father in this picture with my arm around you Lexi...sorry
Lexi Redstone It's all cool Gerard. You can play as Deino's daddy if you want :3
Lucas Taylor ...No way, Gerard, are you making moves on Lexi? :[
2 people dislike this
Gerard Eckhart I'm not dude.
Lucas Taylor Uh huh. Like I believe that.
Lexi Redstone Why do you even care? It's not like you like me. Unless...
Lucas Taylor Don't go there city girl. I don't date for LTRs.
Serena Valliya Life time rules?
Lucas Taylor LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS.
Lexi Redstone As if you're capable of those.
Lucas Taylor :[
Gerard was now out near the battlefields of the pokémon center, alone of course. He jingled the pokéballs on his belt around as he walked. He took a look at the sky, wondering what his friends and family back home were doing. And then something flew by. He stood up straighter and searched the sky again.
He was familiar with Unovan and Hoennese spacecrafts flying about in the sky, but none of them were in the shape of the one that passed by. This one was the in the shape of a tortilla chip with fancy back blasters and a nose that lit up like Christmas tree lights. It's underside had marquee lights around the edge. So apparently, some nation had a pizza-shaped spacecraft.
There it was again. This time it was flying slower, circling around town. It was high up, so right now it was the size of a real chip at this distance. And then it started getting bigger...and bigger...
And then something opened in the middle of the bottom of the ship. There was a blue light. The spaceship was directly under him.
He fled. He was reaching the pokémon center doors, but then suddenly, he was engulfed in a blue light. Next thing he knew he was going up the shoot and was now inside a teleport pad. Around him was spectacular technology on the dashboard and windows that displayed the sky.
He was in the spacecraft.
Two blue-skinned aliens were seated nearby.
"Did you get the right guy this time Kai?"
"Yeah, I did."
Irene was one of them, in her alien form. Gerard couldn't move. He was paralyzed for some reason. The driver of the spacecraft, most likely named Kai, was the same skin tone of Irene, maybe darker. He wore a regular button up white shirt and jeans. It was strange to see aliens wear human clothes.
"Irene! What the hell is this!" Gerard said, unable to move anything but his eyes and mouth.
Kai turned in his swivel chair. "So the human knows your alien identity."
"There was a mishap." Irene said to Kai. "That's why we have him now."
Gerard feared what she'd do to him. Burn him? Dissect him? Clone him? Who knows what advanced technology this new race has.
"I'll get the scrambler." Kai got up from his chair and left to the back room.
Irene walked to Gerard, still shorter to him. "Enjoying the journey so far?" She asked him, eyes bright and happy. She was enjoying the awkward.
"Let me outta here before I tell everyone who you are." Gerard growled.
"You have no proof."
"Oh yeah? I got one of your alien guns in my backpack in the pokémon center." He shot back. "It's some pretty powerful stuff. Even set off a volcano."
Her expression changed to confusion. Ears, shaped like trumpets, began to move much like radars. Then they dropped. "...We're missing something. The terraformer ray."
"...The terra what?" Gerard said.
"It's not a gun, silly human. It's a ray that morphs landscapes into something life sustainable, like rivers and mountainsides. Even craters."
Everything made sense now. The rods on the gun, they moved and twisted. They changed color to change a specific element into something else. That kind of device was so revolutionary it could change everything, like lowering the sea level and cleansing the air of diesel and carbon dioxide.
Kai returned with another gun-like device. "Here is the scrambler." He said, handing it to Irene.
She smirked and closed an eye to get a perfect shot at Gerard's forehead.
"Just close your eyes Gerard, this won't hurt a bit. It'll only erase your entire life's memories."
And that marks the climax. IMPORTANT! Next chapter, there will be a gym battle, and I need people to vote on who will be battling. (Poll on profile) Deadline is Friday, and if there are no votes by then, I'll just choose at random. Also, I was planning on drawing that "It hatched!" picture, but right now I've got a project to do and I wanted to get this chapter updated. If you guys are willing to wait till next update, I might be able to draw it.
I'd like to personally thank that earthquake for a cool, thrilling, scary experience and for closing my school to do this update :D
Thanks for reading!