Chapter 10: It was never over
SOME POV SWITCHING IN THIS ONE
Seven years later…
The King's eyes narrowed as he spoke to the anonymous caller over the phone.
"She was spotted in Johto seven years ago? Is she still there?" He asked, nodding as he listened to the response.
"I see. Thank you for informing Unova of this. Goodbye, sir." He concluded, immediately dialing another number: Storm's.
He'd left two years prior on his quest to bring the escaped citizens of Crown City back to Unova. So far, he'd recaptured four. They were executed of course, as they had violated the rule of never leaving city boundaries.
He grumbled in frustration when he didn't answer. Storm only ever answered the phone at night when there would be no one eavesdropping on their conversations.
"Looks like I'll have to try later."
XXX
Storm's POV
"Dragonair, no!" A younger trainer shouted as his dragon fell to the ground, moaning in agony.
Storm faintly smiled at his Zoroark, well at the moment Houndoom. He never liked or got the just of battling. Two years of it, and he felt no appreciation nor passion for the pain that it caused.
"Well done, Moku." He praised, gesturing for him to return to his side.
Of course.
"I'm glad that I've pleased you once more, Storm." Moku barked sitting by Storm's feet.
"Y-your Houndoom is very strong, you know that, right? I bet you'd hold your own against Clair and her trainers up ahead at Blackthorn." He commented, returning Dragonair to its poke ball.
Storm nodded. "That is my intention. I have already seven badges, Blackthorn's gym is our last stop before we move onto the league."
He nodded. "That's cool-"
BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP, BLEEP!The boy stopped mid sentence and looked at his watch. "Oh yes! It's time! Clair's about to battle her top trainer! See ya!" He grinned, sprinting towards Blackthorn in all his excitement.
Storm stared blankly at where the trainer had just been.
"Should we go watch, boss?" Moku asked.
Storm blinked. "Yeah sure… why not."
XXX
"And the winner is Hailey!" Clair declared, ending the mini battle tournament between Hailey and Brendan.
"Nice try, Dragonite." He sighed, returning the large yellow Pokémon to its respectful ball.
Hailey grinned like an idiot, running onto the battle field and hugging Goblet's enormous neck.
"Arc! Arcanine!" He howled, pleased to see Hailey happy.
"That's my boy, that's my boy!" She smiled, squeezing his neck a bit tighter before letting go.
"Hey, Hailey, you know what this means right? You have to battle Clair now." Brendan smirked.
Anxiety replaced Hailey's happiness. "Oh Arceus why me?" She murmured nervously, returning Goblet to his poke ball.
"Yep, and it looks like we have a bit of an audience." Clair said coolly, looking at the small crowd gathering around the battle field, some with cameras and some without.
Hailey gulped, feeling the pressure. "Feel free to use Lilly. I won't care, it'll just make me look better when I win." She said cockily, her eyes challenging.
Hailey and Lilly exchanged glances and nodded. "Ok, since you insist."
"Brilliant," she said, turning to the referee. "Hey ref, get us started."
The referee nodded, pulling his red flag back out. "Trainers, take your sides." He commanded.
Clair and Hailey nodded, each taking a different side.
"Let the battle… begin!" The ref declared, swiping the battle flag through the air.
"Go, Gyarados!" Clair shouted, grinning when she saw Hailey's moment of panic.
So that's how she wants to play it… not using a dragon type after inviting me to use Lilly… Hailey thought, gritting her teeth.
"Let's show 'em what we've got, let's go Lilly!" Hailey yelled. "Ceon!" Lilly cried, eagerly leaping onto the battle field.
Let's see how you deal with this strategy. She smirked, waiting for Clair to make the first move.
"Gyarados, twister attack!"
"Use blizzard to counter!" Hailey commanded, not about to let Clair upstage her in front of the townsfolk, even if she was the gym leader.
The two attacks stayed evenly matched, it was now a mere waiting game: which Pokémon would run out of steam first?
"Alright, we aren't playing this game, Gyarados, water it down with hydro pump!"
Before Hailey could react, blizzard was quickly overpowered, the sudden blast of water knocking Lilly aside.
"Gla!" Lilly cried, shaking the water from her fur as she got back up.
She didn't look happy, as she'd never been a huge fan of water.
"Don't let it get away! Toxic let's go!" Gyarados roared in response, a toxic gas leaking from its mouth.
"Repel it with blizzard!" Hailey yelled, desperate for Lilly to evade poisoning.
"Ceon." Lilly nodded hastily, blowing another blizzard in the Gyarados's face, causing the toxic gas to disappear.
Clair gritted her teeth when the move failed.
"Lilly, use ice beam to freeze Gyarados to the ground!"
Lilly grinned, firing an ice beam at Gyarados's underside.
"Use crunch to get free, then thunder bolt!"
"Use dig then trap yourself underground with ice beam!"
Lilly nodded, quickly digging a short tunnel before freezing the entrance solid. Gyarados easily broke free, shocking the ice covering the hole, not realizing what Lilly had just done until it was too late.
"Lilly, now!"
"Ceon!" Lilly cried, resurfacing just beneath Gyarados, knocking it a few paces back.
"Don't let it off the hook that easily, icy wind!" Hailey shouted.
"Fire blast!"
"Gla!" Lilly cried out in alarm, her icy wind melting before the flames even came in contact with it.
"Outa the way!" Hailey cried, watching anxiously as Lilly barely dodged the attack, a light but painful burn mark on her right shoulder.
Lilly winced, but shook it off.
"Try fire blast again! This battles dragged on long enough!"
"Use dig to escape!" Hailey stuttered, struggling to think of an idea.
"Resurface behind Gyarados and use iron tail!"
In a split second, Lilly burst from the ground, her tail a shiny metallic gray. Gyarados was completely ill prepared and didn't dodge, getting hit square in the back of the head. Gyarados roared in pain and frustration, using thrash without Clair's command.
"Gyarados! What are you doing? Stop that!" Clair pleaded, already knowing that it was too late.
Gyarados just confused itself.
"Use quick attack to get in close then use ice fang!" Lilly nodded, gaining a quick burst of speed.
She narrowly dodged the thrashing Gyarados, digging her claws into the crazed Gyarados's tail, climbing the Pokémon's body until she reached the head, where she promptly clamped her icy jaws.
"Excellent!"
"No, no! Quickly, use thunder!"
"Mirror coat!"
Clair's eyes widened as Lilly coated herself in a transparent veil, the thunder attack bouncing right off her and hitting her Gyarados. Gyarados screeched in pain, the electricity coursing through its body. It gave a final roar before falling to the ground, spirals dancing in its eyes.
"You did it!" Hailey beamed, kneeling down and hugging the ice type, who lapped up the attention.
"Gla!" She cried, wagging her tail for a moment before turning her attention to Hailey's neck.
Lilly pawed at her gold locket that Hailey had taken off her before the tournament had started.
"Oh, right. Here you go." She smiled, unhooking the necklace from her own neck and snapping it onto Lilly's neck once more.
Hailey looked across the field to Clair, who looked like she wanted to kill something. It wasn't typical for her to lose at all, not to a challenger, and certainly not to one of her trainers. Hailey knew that she would've lost if Gyarados hadn't used thrash and screwed itself. Clair mumbled something before walking with a forced humility on her face towards Hailey.
"Good battle." She said stiffly, shaking Hailey's hand.
"Yeah, good battle. Gyarados did well." Hailey said shakily, wincing as Clair's grip around her hand tightened, cracking her hand.
She gave a sigh of relief when she let go, walking angrily back into the gym, ignoring the cheering of their small Blackthorn audience. Hailey shook off Clair's attitude, now used to it after training with her for nearly seven whole years. She came to Blackthorn on her tenth birthday; and today would mark her seventh year in Johto. Hailey had requested that nothing special be done for her birthday, as she didn't want anything else. Yes, she still had her dreams of performing at a Pokémon contest, but that wasn't something anyone could or would buy her.
Lara was out of town visiting her family in Sinnoh, so she didn't really have anything else to do for the day. Perhaps Eric would call her today. Nah, that's unlikely. He and Julie were most likely going for his first gym badge in the Hoenn region. He had collected all eight gym badges rather quickly in the Sinnoh region, and had taken a two day flight to Hoenn sometime last week. He's looking at houses now.
Hailey wondered what kinds of Pokémon he had at this point in time. Last time he'd shown her his Pokémon was a few months ago, and he'd had too many for her to remember. Hailey did however remember her favorite one that he'd shown her. It hadn't been his, but it just charmed the pants off Hailey. Her favorite was Julie's Delcatty. It's personality was serene and she just looked incredibly graceful - Hailey hadn't given up on the whole Coordinator idea quite yet - and intelligent. She was tempted to go to Hoenn just to get a Delcatty. Too bad she had the responsibility of a gym trainer. Oh, but her favorite Pokémon of her brother's had to be his Pikachu. It was small, cute, and powerful. Just the way she liked them, besides, it was an electric type and she didn't have one yet.
Hailey looked down at Lilly, observing the slight sear mark on her shoulder.
"Here, let's go to the pokemart and buy a burn heal for you." Hailey decided, not wanting to have to deal with the Nurse Joys and Chansey fussing over Lilly's slight burn.
She'd made that mistake when a trainer challenged her in the gym with a Magmar; Lilly had been burnt on her flank, just a little though like this one. Then she'd taken her into the Pokecenter to get healed only for the Joys wanting to keep her for many, many hours even after the burn was healed. The point is, unless the damage done to one of her Pokémon couldn't be fixed with a hyper potion or any of the other healing sprays sold at the pokemart, Hailey didn't use to Pokémon center.
"Alright, let's go buy that burn heal." Hailey smiled, waiting for Lilly to follow her.
"Ceon." Lilly shrugged, acting as though the burn wasn't a big deal.
She was tough like Hailey.
XXX
(Storm's POV)
"Master! Master we're missing the battle!" Moku whined, willing for his trainer to hurry up.
Storm nodded. "Yes. I wish only to see the end of the battle, Moku. You know how I feel about watching to Pokémon practically rip each other apart, don't you? I'd prefer to only see the end."
"That doesn't mean that I don't like watching! I'm the one who does all the heavy lifting in this partnership you know." Moku grumbled.
Storm sighed. "You can go ahead and watch it then. I'll catch up." He assured, giving the Zoroark his approval.
Moku flashed him a grin before dashing away, running faster than Storm could ever hope to run himself.
XXX
Storm had purposely waited until the battle had ended, bracing himself for the aftermath. It was just easier that way. He knew the battle had ended when he heard Gyarados's scream and seen a sudden burst of electricity from above the rolling hills that led up to Blackthorn City.
Storm broke out into a jog, suddenly curious to see what had destroyed Gyarados. He reached the end of the route and the entrance to Blackthorn with ease. His journey had made things like running much easier and less time consuming. In the town's center, a large electrically-charged dust cloud was gradually sinking back to the earth, but the defeated Gyarados was easily seen through the dust. It was the winning Pokémon that he couldn't see.
Perhaps a Pikachu or Raichu defeated Gyarados, it would explain why I can't see it and the large electric burst. But it could always be a normal type… or perhaps… no. It couldn't be. I doubt, no. I KNOW that I will never see that girl or that Eevee ever again.
Storm wove his way through the crowd, scanning the area for not only the winning Pokémon, but for Moku as well. He may look like a Houndoom for the moment, but one screw up and his illusion would ware off; they'd be discovered. Moku wasn't exactly one to start fights, but he still worried about him.
The dust finally cleared. A girl around his age, maybe sixteen or seventeen years old with chocolate brown hair strung into near-perfect circular hoops on either side of her head wearing a light blue and gray jacket and jeans stood on the winning side. A Glaceon - her Glaceon - ran up to the girl, who embraced her into a hug and showered her with praises.
Storm couldn't stop staring when he saw a gold light flash from her neck. She unhooked something from her neck and put it around the ice type's neck. The girl murmured something to the Glaceon, running her fingers over her scorched shoulder. Storm was stiffer than a board, his suspicions high.
Not only might he have found an escaped citizen, but he may have found her.
XXX
Hailey's POV
The pokemart was unusually empty. It was never really crowded, but it always had some happy-go-lucky or nosy wanna-be trainers blowing all their cash on dozens of pokeballs and potions in hopes of achieving the impossible: collecting Clair's badge and qualifying for and beating the Pokémon league. But now, there was only two locals in the store reading Pokémon magazines, acting like the pokemart was some sort of salon.
"Hi, Hailey. How goes it?" One of the clerks asked, her usual smile making Hailey forget the store's emptiness.
"I just need a burn heal." Hailey said, gesturing to Lilly's burnt shoulder.
"Gotcha. Here you are." She grinned, placing one of the rather small sprays on the desk. Hailey nodded, forking over 200 poke.
"Thank you, Hailey! Have a nice day." The clerk said, waving goodbye.
"Congrats on beating Clair!" The other clerk chimed in, also waving goodbye.
Hailey nodded, waving goodbye to the clerks. "Alright, Lilly. Let's go back to the gym- oh wait. Clair's still probably in her 'mood'. We should go sit in the shade then." Hailey decided, walking to one of the few large trees in Blackthorn, as it was especially hot today and she didn't want Lilly to be uncomfortable.
The two sat on the cold boulders that the tree's shade protected as Hailey quickly sprayed the burn with the burn heal, knowing from experience that it was better to do this quickly than gradually. Lilly stiffened as the spray made contact with her skin, but sighed in relief as the medicine quickly dealt with the burn.
"Feel better?" Hailey asked.
"Gla." Lilly nodded, giving a content sigh and curling up against Hailey's knee cap.
Hailey slowly closed her eyes as she rubbed behind Lilly's ears.
"Excuse me?" A frighteningly familiar voice asked.
Hailey's eyes shot open, as did Lilly's. Hailey looked at the boy talking to her. He looked around her age with short black hair and darker green eyes. A Houndoom stood by his side.
"I saw you battle and I just wanted to know your name-"
Hailey's eyes widened.
"My name is Billy Jean, I don't live here and this is NOT I repeat NOT my Glaceon. I'm just holding it for my cousin's neighbor's sister's aunt's niece's long lost relative!" Hailey said quickly, beads of sweat forming on her forehead; her blue eyes wild with fear.
Normally, she didn't act this way to strangers, but there was something about him that was familiar, and his face seemed to reopen the scars on her back. Lilly looked at Hailey as though she was crazy. He opened his mouth to speak again, but Hailey spoke first.
"You know, as much as I'd love, love, love, LOVE to stay and talk, I should really be getting L- erm Glaceon back to that long last relative… bye!" Hailey said, her mouth dry as she got to her feet, practically falling down the slope that the tree sat upon. Hailey held back a scream when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"P-please let me go! I-I need to-"
"You are truly the worst liar in all of Johto." He said. Hailey gulped, not knowing what to do.
"Now please, your name."
"Hailey, your name. Don't forget your name, ok?" Ms. Reggie's voice… she hadn't remembered her in years. His tone sounded much like hers.
Hailey forced herself to be calm.
She cleared her voice, "sorry. I just get a little erm… nervous is all. My name's Jane, and this is my Glaceon. We're from Goldenrod City." Hailey said coolly, hoping that she fooled him.
"What's your name?"
He released her shoulder, but he still looked wary. Ignoring her question, he countered.
"Prove it. Show me Glaceon's poke ball." He challenged.
Hailey bit her lip until she tasted copper.
"I left Glaceon's in my room at the gym. If you insist on seeing it then I'll go get it."
He nodded. "Please." Hailey forced a loose shrug.
"C'mon, Glaceon," she said, turning back to the boy.
"I'll be back in a few."
XXX
Hailey was panicking. "WhatdoIdowhatdoIdoWHATDOIDO?!" Hailey shouted, pacing back and forth in her room.
Lilly sat on Hailey's bed, not looking too sure of what to do either. "Who is that guy? Do you know him?"
Lilly shook her head.
Hailey sighed.
"Man I probably just made myself look like an idiot out here, and he was kinda cute too… I guess I overreacted, it's just his face… and how he spoke… It reminded me of Unova." Hailey murmured, stroking Lilly's head.
"Alright, I think I'm going to try to apologize. But, just to make sure you don't I'm going to leave you and the others back here so I can say that I had to deal with an emergency here in the gym and forgot my Pokémon. So just stay here and make sure NO ONE touches the pokeballs or let's themselves out. But, I'm keeping Goblet with me so if this thing goes south I have a way of escaping. You look after everyone while I'm gone. Okay?" Hailey said, pulling off her poke ball belt.
She then found Goblet and slid his poke ball into her pocket. Lilly nodded, dragging the belt under the bed.
"Good girl. I'll be back soon." Hailey promised, patting Lilly on the head before leaving.
XXX
Storm's POV
"Is it just me, or did that girl go mentally insane over the past seven years?" Storm muttered, staring intently at the gym doors.
"Maybe she recognized you." Moku shrugged.
"Perhaps," Storm said thoughtfully. "I doubt it though. I put on a different wig every time I catch someone that belongs to Crown City."
"Watch your actual hair though. On the way here, I saw a few green hairs poking out." Moku barked, looking at his trainer's head.
Suddenly alarmed, Storm quickly swiped his hand over his forehead where his hair line would be, shoving a few stray discolored hairs back under his wig.
"Thanks for that."
"Don't mention it-" Moku's head jerked back in the gym's direction.
"There she is, boss!" He yipped excitedly.
XXX
Hailey's POV
Hailey ran out, forcing herself to look more flustered than she already was.
"Sorry! I got caught up with something in the gym. What was I supposed to show you now?" She asked.
"That you were Glaceon's trainer."
"Oh! About that… All my Pokémon were needed for the big emergency inside the gym. There's a problem regarding the lava pit. Someone told me it was leaking or something, so I leant the gym my Pokémon to help with that." She lied, catching her breath.
"Oh. Well while we wait for that leak to be fixed, why don't we hang out." He suggested.
Hailey narrowed her eyes. "I don't even know your name. Tell me your name and maybe I'll hang out."
He seemed to freeze for a moment, slowly making eye contact with Houndoom who nodded. "My name is Sam." Sam replied curtly, not giving up anything more.
"Pleased to meet you, Sam." Hailey said, shaking is hand. Whew, so he doesn't think I'm some creepy psycho girl. Hailey thought, relaxing a little.
"So, where are you from?" Hailey asked.
"I'm from New Bark Town. Professor Elm let me have one of his Pokémon. I've been traveling for years now, just me and my Pokémon." He said.
Hailey smiled. "My brother got his first Pokémon from Professor Elm too. A Cyndaquil."
"That's cool. Oh and you're from Goldenrod, right?" He responded, not taking his eyes off her for a single second, almost as though he was afraid something would take her away.
His Houndoom was staring at his face, quietly growling.
"Is Houndoom okay? He seems upset." Hailey observed, eyeing the dark and fire type.
"Oh him? He's just upset because I promised him that once we got here we'd grab a bite to eat. Would you like to join us?" Sam offered.
Hailey's stomach growled almost on queue. "Yeah, sure thanks. It's lunch time anyway."
"Know any good places to eat around here?" Sam asked.
Hailey nodded. "The Dragon Café has nice sandwiches and they allow Pokémon to be out of their balls as long as they behave."
"Sounds good, lead the way." He grinned, gesturing for her to start moving.
Hailey giggled a little, feeling more comfortable already as she took the lead.
XXX
"Here you go, one tamato berry soups and sandwiches. Houndoom's food is nearly ready, one of the chefs dropped the food on the floor so we had to start over. My sincere apologies." The waiter said, placing the two soups and sandwich platter on the table.
"You two have a nice evening together."
Hailey turned redder than her soup.
"No, no it's not like that, we're just acquaintances. We just met literality forty minutes ago." But the waiter was already gone.
Hailey gave a sigh of relief, turning her attention back to her soup.
"So, you're top trainer at Clair's gym?" Sam asked, unaffected by the waiter's comment. Hailey nodded, swallowing a spoonful of the soup.
"In a way, yes."
He rose an eyebrow. "In a way how? Either you are or you're not."
"I guess I am, I just don't like bragging. Besides, I'm probably not going to stay a gym trainer forever, you know. Pokémon Contests amaze me, and I really want to try my luck in that business." Hailey said, staring emptily at her soup.
"How'd you get here?" Sam asked.
He was probing into her personal life, making Hailey stiffen a little.
"My father wanted to move the family to Azalea Town, and I didn't want to go because bug Pokémon freak me out; so my mother called her friend up here in Blackthorn to see if I could live with her instead. Then she bought me a plane ticket and here I am now." Hailey lied, hoping what she said sounded legit.
Their waiter came back, Houndoom's food dish in his hand.
"Sorry for the wait, enjoy." The waiter said, putting Houndoom's food on the ground.
Hailey and Sam nodded at the waiter, watching as he left.
"How many Pokémon do you have?" He asked, probing deeper.
"Well, I have Glaceon of course, a Dragonair, an Arcanine, and a…" Hailey's voice trailed off at the mention of her Stoutland, Hart.
"And…" He prompted.
"Oh, nothing. I forgot what I was talking about. I only have three."
"But you said that you left Glaceon's poke ball back in your room, when you had three pokeballs on your belt. What's the last one?"
Hailey choked, her heart beating faster than she thought was humanly possible.
He grinned, knowing he had gotten her.
XXX
Storm's POV
He felt satisfaction bubble inside him as he finally struck gold.
"Well? You going to answer?" Storm asked, playing with her at this point.
"She's choking boss! You got her! Keep pressuring her." Moku yipped, licking a chunk of kibble off his muzzle.
Storm flashed him a look of acknowledgement.
"Why don't you go get your Pokémon? Surely that magma leak has been taken care of by now."
"Uh… uh..." Jane stuttered.
"Something wrong, Jane?" He pressed.
Jane had visible beads of sweat on her forehead. He almost felt badly for freaking her out this much.
Almost.
XXX
Hailey's POV
Hailey stood frozen, her heart pounding. She felt Goblet's ball shaking angrily in her pocket. This gave her little reassurance. She drew in a deep breath.
"N-no, S-S-Sam, nothing's wrong." Hailey stuttered.
He spoke again, "how about we go outside, you're looking a little… flushed."
"Yeah… the soup's just really s-spicy, that's all really. I'll be back in a few-"
"Shouldn't Houndoom and I go with you?"
"No, no, I'm honestly just fine. Really. I do best when I'm alone." Hailey said nervously, getting out of her chair.
Much to Hailey's surprise, Sam just shrugged. "Alright, just come back when you're ready."
"O-okay… thanks." Hailey said, stunned that after playing with her mentally like that, he just let her go.
This dude's crackers. She thought, walking stiffly out the door.
XXX
Storm's POV
"What was that? You had her, boss you had her!" Moku growled.
Storm chuckled.
"Oh, don't you worry, Moku. I've got her right where I want her." He grinned, pulling his X-Transceiver from his pocket.
"Trust me."
XXX
Hailey's POV
Her heart began to slow as she left the café. It was reviving. "Okay, Hailey, just go back to the-" Hailey's voice trailed off when she saw Lilly sitting by the gym doors, scanning the area for her.
"Lilly!" Hailey scolded, angry that she'd disobeyed her and left the room.
Lilly's head snapped to Hailey, her tail instantly beginning to wag when she saw Hailey.
"What are you doing out of the gym?" She demanded.
"Gla!" Lilly cried, ignoring her anger.
Hailey sighed, "you're hopeless."
Lilly grinned, gesturing to her poke ball belt that laid on the ground beside her.
"You brought everyone? Why?"
Lilly shrugged, nosing the belt towards her.
Hailey picked it up, slowly reattaching it to her waist.
"Okay… Anyways, how 'bout we go hang around route 45 for a while."
Lilly tilted her head. Hailey gritted her teeth.
"Just do it, it'll count as my birthday present from you." She insisted, gesturing for the ice type to follow her.
Lilly shrugged and complied, obediently following Hailey to route 45. Hailey ignored the townsfolk as they told her things like, "happy birthday, Hailey!" and "congrats on beating Clair, Hailey." She cared only about getting away from Blackthorn at this point.
Lilly looked up from Hailey's side, looking concerned.
"I'll explain later," Hailey assured. "Right now we just need to… step out for a while. We'll be back by supper time."
Lilly seemed to relax with this.
At least I hope we only stay out 'till supper time. Hailey thought to herself as she crossed the bridge that led out of Blackthorn.
"Once we find a good spot to sit down I'll tell you what happened at the café." She said, walking faster.
Lilly sped up as well, not wanting to fall behind. Lilly's ears pricked and she seemed to tense up as they walked.
"What's wrong?" She asked.
Lilly didn't respond, she just held a worried expression and began to move quicker. Hailey began to sweat again, starting to jog to keep up with the ice type.
Lilly's eyes widened and she began to sprint; Hailey did the same, barely keeping up with her.
"L-Lilly! Slow down!" Hailey spluttered as she nearly tripped over her own two feet.
"Gla!" She protested, a wild look in her typically serene eyes.
Now Hailey was getting scared.
SNAP.
Hailey stiffened; she now heard it too.
Lilly swerved into a corner, panting as she skidded to a halt, a guarded expression on her face; similar to the expression that she'd had when Hailey first found her in the Champions' Forest. Hailey did the same, knowing that Lilly knew more than she did.
A cold silence reigned over the area, only the occasional clinks of Lilly's locket thumping against her chest reminded Hailey that she wasn't having a nightmare.
FLASH! Hailey opened her mouth to scream, but a gun pointed to her head silenced it. Three white haired men wearing ninja-like clothing surrounded Lilly and Hailey, each with a gun and six loaded pokeballs displayed on their belts. Hailey was too stunned to speak, as was Lilly. Hailey did not need them to introduce themselves.
Back in Crown City, these men were the executers.
They killed the unruly citizens.
They were the ones that should've killed Hailey seven years ago.
They were the Shadow Triad.
None of them ever spoke, (or at least that's what she heard) and they could blend easily into their surroundings.
She blinked hard to stop the tunnel vision that was coming on. She could not afford to blank out in this situation.
A low growl eventually sounded from Lilly. She was braver than Hailey, not afraid to die if she died honorably. Typically, Hailey never let other people or Pokémon intimidate her like this. All the time she spent with Clair and the other gym trainers had made her virtually fearless.
It's almost as if the Shadow Triad's presence retriggered her old silence and obedience that had been whipped, tasered, and yelled at her for the first ten years of her life.
At last, the person that she thought would never appear in her life ever again came into the tiny bubble that the Shadow Triad had created. The cropped green hair; the forest green eyes; the Zoroark: it was Storm. He wore a smirk and held a black wig in his left hand.
Her reoccurring nightmares of the contest massacre came to mind.
"I… I got out of Unova fair and square, Sam. Leave. It's over. It's been over for seven years." Hailey said quietly.
"Ceon!" Lilly snarled in agreement, her icy fur sticking up aggressively.
Zoroark yipped in amusement at Lilly's chiming, causing a vein to bulge on her forehead. She barely restrained herself from going after the arrogant Zoroark.
Storm looked first at Lilly. "Even after all these years… she hasn't changed a bit," He observed, turning to Hailey. "But you, Jane, you have developed some… disciplinary issues… and quite frankly, I find it amusing and even a little bit cute that you thought this was over." He said, taking a pace forwards.
Hailey backed up until her back was hugging the rock wall behind her.
"But, it was never really over, Hailey."
SOOOOOOO sorry that this one's so late! I've been swamped lately… -_- But I hope that this one turned out okay… REVIEW! Ps, this story is exactly 31,654 words and is 83 pages long on WORD!