Chapter 10 – a new ally
"All right, he's coming round."
James opened his eyes, which were heavy, and waited for his vision to clear.
"James, can you hear me?" Someone, a nurse, was standing over him. James blinked. He hadn't a clue how he had gotten to wherever he was. Searching his mind, he recalled running after a Seviper, trying to stop it from cutting its venomous tail into Latios. Suddenly everything came flooding back, and James sat up.
"Whoa, James, take it easy." The nurse was saying, "You had a large amount of Seviper venom in your system, and we had to give you quite a bit of antivenin and a transfusion."
Looking around, James saw that, in the hospital room with him, were his nurse and two Pokemon. One, an young Eevee, was fast asleep on the end of his bed, while the other, a great blue Latios, was crouching by the window.
"Brought you here, he did. What a marvel." The nurse said, following James' eyes.
"How long ago?" James asked.
"You've been here about a week." That wasn't something James needed to hear. When he had been hit by the Seviper, his friends Wally, Lyra and Joel had been fighting off two members of Team Aqua. God knows what had happened since. James threw back the blankets. "Wait!" The nurse cried, "You can't just leave! You're not rested enough."
"I'm fine; where are my clothes?" James asked, realizing that he was, of course, wearing hospital robes. "And my Pokemon?"
"If you must," The nurse signed, before turning to leave the room, "But you had better be prepared to pay up, you can't stay a week without paying a cent."
Within an hour James had changed back into his clothes, attached his belt – containing the pokeballs of Eevee, Grovyle, Duskull, Kirlia and Carvanha – to his waist, paid the hospital using his credit card, and gone outside. Latios was with him too. He needed to get to wherever the others were, as he couldn't escape the feeling that they were in trouble – and anything could have happened in a week. Outside in the sun, on the edge of Mauville City, James suddenly realized that he not only had no idea where to look for his friends, but no way to get to them. However, as if it knew what James had been thinking – which it probably did – the Latios flew forward and landed in front of him, its wings spread out. The meaning couldn't have been clearer.
"Let's go." James said, climbing onto the Pokemons back.
It took them a matter of minutes to reach the site of the battle, in which James had been hurt. However there was no signs of activity. The water was calm and clear, the grasses were still, the trees – though damaged – were calm. The two of them had just touched down however when Latios' head snapped toward the direction of the trees.
"What is it?" James asked, and the Pokemon, as if following orders, let out a psychic attack to retrieve whatever was in hiding. Perhaps the Pokemon was grateful for what James had done, which would have explained why it had taken him to the hospital in the first place, and why it had remained until James had woken. As the attack moved through the brush, it snagged hold of a man and brought him out. At first James thought – or assumed – it was Wally, however the man was a complete stranger. White hair sticking out from under a green bandana, a red jacket, long black pants and runners, the teenager, no older then James, was pulled from the bush. He was hanging upside down from the attack, suspended in the air by an ankle, and so his green pack slipped off and landed on the ground.
"Oi, put me down." He yelled.
"Who are you, what're you doing here?" James asked.
"This is where I train," The stranger said, "Names Brendan, what are you doing here?"
"Looking for my friends," James said, "You haven't seen them have you? They were here battling some Aqua people a few days ago."
"Let me down and I'll tell you." Brendan told him. James sighed and nodded to Latios, who lowered the teen to the ground. He jumped to his feet. "Have you seen them?" James asked again.
"Nope," Brendan said, "But, god forbid, if they've been taken, I know where they'll be."
"How?"
"The team Aqua secret base isn't as secret as they think it is. I've been there hundreds of times. I used to train there." James stared at him.
"You trained in the base of a criminal gang?"
"You want me to take you or not?" Brendan asked, unzipping his pack and withdrawing a pokeball. James nodded. "Thought so." Brendan said, throwing his pokeball into the air "Go Pidgeot!"
Although not as fast as Latios, Pidgeot was speedy, and the pair of flyers reached Lilycove City in good time. They quickly flew over, and landed on the coast, at the base of the lighthouse. After the flight, Pidgeot was exhausted, though Latios on the other hand was perfectly unruffled.
"That's one awesome Pokemon you have," Brendan said, "It must win you every battle."
"It's not mine, its wild." James told him.
"Shame." Brendan muttered, eyeing the Pokemon with sudden and intense interest. "Anyway, you see that rock out there?" He pointed, "That's the Aqua base."
"How do we get inside?" James asked.
"There's a release cable on the inside. And there are a bunch of underwater vents, though none big enough for a person." James smiled at this, and pulled a pokeball from his belt.
Carvanha swam through the vents, with room to spare, and up to the surface on the other side. What, from the outside, looked like a huge rock protruding from the ocean; looked on the inside very much like a loading bay. There was a few metres of deep water, surrounding a metal platform, in the centre of which was a staircase which led down into a tunnel extending many metres below the surface. Carvanha looked around and spotted what it was searching for. Latios had scanned Brendan's mind for a picture of the cable for operating the door, and sent the memory to Carvanha. Now the little fish swam toward the metal rope and started to Crunch down upon it, to no avail. After a few seconds in which the Pokemon lost all of its patience, its teeth froze and it began to use Ice Fang. Within a moment the cord had frozen, then shattered, and the previously invisible door fell forward.
"Let's go." James said, seeing the door fall away from the rock.
"Wait," Brendan started to say, before Latios picked them both up with a Psychic and flew with them toward the base. Inside, they were dropped on the metal platform before they noticed that there was already someone on it. The grunt took a startled step backward, completely bewildered by the door suddenly breaking and, a second later, the arrival of the two teens and Latios. However, before the grunt could react, Latios had knocked him out cold with a Psychic attack, and Carvanha had leapt from the water to attack the grunt's Mightyena. It only took a second before the tiny fish had knocked out the dog.
"You're getting strong." James noted, withdrawing Carvanha to its ball, before hurrying down the steps with Brendan. The hallway was easily large enough for Latios to fly, and it did so, directing them through the metal halls as if it somehow knew where it was going. It apparently did, however, because without running into a single dead end, they suddenly found themselves facing a metal door which, when Latios blasted it away, revealed Wally, Joel and Lyra. All three were filthy and bruised, however they seemed altogether alright.
"James!" They all cried, jumping to their feet.
"Hey, you guys okay?" James asked.
"We're fine," Lyra quickly said, "We have our Pokemon, they're balls are sealed shut so we can't open them, but we can fix that later – Teleport us out, quickly!"
"Too late." Someone said from behind them. James whirled around to see a very formidable man standing there. "Archie, head of Team Aqua." He told him.
"Hi," James said, pulling out Kirlia's ball, "Now if you'll excuse us."
"You know," Archie said, quickly, "That you'll never escape us. As long as Latios is out there, we'll be hunting him, until we finally get him into this." Archie pulled out the Master ball. "The rest of you can go, all I want is Latios, in this ball." James glanced at the Eon Pokemon. It looked back, and James felt something in his mind, as though the Pokemon were speaking to him.
Let's give him what he wants.
James nodded, and suddenly the Master ball flew from Archie's grip with a blast of psychic energy, and straight into James'. From there, it bounced to Latios' back, capturing the Eon Pokemon in a burst of purple light.
"NO!" Archie yelled. James laughed, as Kirlia was released from its own ball and twirled around once, sending the five teenagers hundreds of metres away in a flash of white light. James grinned. He had rescued his friends, captured a legendary Pokemon, outsmarted the head of Team Aqua; and without even a single badge. Not bad for a beginner.