I do not own Pokémon or any of the companies affiliated with it.
Sorry it took so long, but here's chapter 10. Enjoy!
The chopper gently sat down on a small clearing over Mt. Pyre. Ash, Josh, Jeremy, and Alexa disembarked from the chopper and walked down to a small bridge. From here, they walked to the city of Lilycove.
"I still don't understand why we have to walk," said Ash.
"Well, we don't want to look suspicious," replied Josh.
"So, what are we gonna do?"
"We can basically relax, except for the fact that we have to keep the crown safe. You can do whatever you want."
After an hour, they finally entered the main part of town and Josh, Jeremy, and Ash checked into the motel, while Alexa went to her parents home. Ash could still hear the roar of the ocean as it crashed against the cliffs. Ash realized that this city may be the largest in Hoenn, but it was much quieter than Dewford was.
"You guys picked a bad week to stay in Lilycove," said the manager. "There's a hurricane heading right for us. Not many people at all have been in town at all. That's why it's so quiet."
"A storm, huh?" said Josh. "I guess will just have to ride it out."
"I don't know if you'd want to do that. They say this is gonna be the big one. If I were you, I'd leave town."
"We may not have an option."
"Well, I'll only be in town for three more days, then I'm getting out of here. If you need a place to stay, I'll be glad to let you stay here during the storm. I'll even take some of the price off, but that's assuming you decide to stay."
"Thank you for your courtesy. I'll let you know before you leave."
The man started to reply, but was interrupted by a phone ringing. He answered the phone, only to hand it to Josh.
"It's for you," he said.
"Hello?" Josh answered. He and the caller then had a long conversation that Ash and Jeremy could not hear. When Josh finished, he hung up and asked the manager for another room.
"What's going on?" asked Jeremy.
"Alexa's parents have left town. She doesn't have a key. Looks like she'll be staying here with us."
Ash and Jeremy nodded and let Josh conduct his business.
"I've never had to ride out a hurricane before," said Jeremy, "should be fun.
Ash could only nod. He didn't much care for Jeremy's idea of fun.
"We need to go and pick up some stuff. If we plan on riding out a hurricane, we might want some food and water. Jeremy, you and Ash take care of the supplies. Don't forget to get some new clothes for Ash. I'll wait here for Alexa."
"Sure you will," Jeremy laughed. Josh blushed slightly but didn't reply.
After they had left, Ash seized the opportunity and asked what Jeremy had meant. He had not noticed anything between Josh and Alexa and was not sure if Jeremy was serious or joking.
"You mean you haven't noticed?" Jeremy asked, completely shocked.
"I haven't seen anything," replied Ash.
"Oh, well, now that you mention it, I guess you wouldn't have noticed the way he looks at her. He tries to hide it, but it doesn't work on me."
"So do they like each other?"
"They try to fight it, because it could cause trouble, but it's there."
"What kind of trouble?"
"If anyone found out about them, they could be used against each other. Someone could kidnap Alexa and use her against Josh."
"I see."
"Whatever you do, Ash, do not bring this up in front of them. They try not to talk about it when they're together. Especially since they had that one mission."
"What mission?"
"I'll tell you later. Right now, we need to focus on which supplies to get."
They walked through Lilycove Department Store picking out different kinds of Pokémon food and some fresh food for themselves. After that, they went to the clothing store to pick up some new, less conspicuous clothing for Ash. Satisfied with their decisions, they headed back to the motel.
"So what did you mean earlier when you said 'that mission?'"
"Josh and Alexa had a mission a while back that took them to Fiore to work with the Pokémon Rangers. While they were there, Alexa got kidnapped by the enemy and Josh nearly destroyed his career to save her."
"What did he do?"
"Josh and Alexa were to be the Rangers' backup. Their mission was only to help, not to lead. When Alexa was kidnapped, Josh tried to take over and lead the mission. When the Rangers refused to acknowledge his leadership, Josh went rogue. He broke into three privately owned buildings to find Alexa, only to realize that she wasn't there. When the Rangers saw what he had done, they called Alastair and demanded that Josh be extracted immediately. Alastair called Josh and told him to leave immediately, but Josh didn't listen. He continued searching for Alexa. Sebastian, a man who used to be Alastair's number two, called me in and sent me to arrest Josh."
"Did you go?"
"I had to. You don't mess around with Sebastian. Although Alastair would have never allowed me to go on such a mission, I had to listen to Sebastian. Had I gone refused to go on the mission, he would have fired me. Sebastian never did like me or Josh. He regarded us as a couple of upstarts who had no idea what we were doing."
"Whatever happened to Sebastian?"
"He was fired soon after."
"So did you arrest Josh?"
"I tried. We battled one-on-one. I lost, but Infernape was seriously injured. There were Fiore operatives at every Pokémon hospital in the region. He couldn't heal Infernape without being arrested."
"I know Josh better than that. He wouldn't give up."
"No, he didn't. He went to the Pokémon hospital, and somehow healed Infernape and escaped from the Rangers. Josh then went and tried to save Alexa. He succeeded, but he was arrested immediately after for being a menace to the Fiore region. He was allowed to go free, but he was banned from the Fiore region."
"Banned? Seriously?"
"Yep. Josh was never allowed to return to Fiore. Josh agreed. He returned to Hoenn only to be severely reprimanded by Sebastian. He would have fired Josh, had Alastair not intervened."
"Alastair seems like a nice man."
"He is. He found me and Josh when we were on our journey through Hoenn. He asked us to join the Corps, and we've been friends ever since."
Suddenly, Ash noticed a column of smoke rising from a few blocks ahead. He pointed it out to Jeremy.
"Oh no!" Jeremy said as he suddenly broke into a run. Ash followed, but struggled to keep up with Jeremy's swift pace. When they were able to see the source of the smoke, they were both shocked to see the motel at which they were staying being consumed in the fire.
"What's going on?" cried Ash.
"I'm not sure, but look in the sky."
Ash looked up to see two Pokémon flying around, each with a trainer on its back. Ash recognized Alexa on the back of her Tropius, but he did not recognize the other cyan-haired woman riding on a Dragonair.
When Ash's attention returned to the ground, he noticed Josh battling with a rather large, red-headed man. Josh was using Infernape, and the other man had a Rhydon.
"Go, Empoleon!" cried Jeremy as he threw his poke ball. In a brilliant flash of light, the ball exploded and the powerful water-steel type appeared before them. "Use Hydro Pump to put out the flames!"
Empoleon immediately sprayed its powerful jet of water on the flames, putting them out.
The red-headed man turned to regard Jeremy and Empoleon. "Now there's another one? Oh boy!"
"Pikachu, you ready?" asked Ash.
"Pika!" Pikachu responded.
"Nel! There are too many now. We're not here to fight a full-scale war. We need to leave now!"
In response, Dragonair landed next to him, and the girl named Nel cried, "Hop on, Shark!"
The man named Shark recalled Rhydon and hopped on the back of Dragonair. With that, Dragonair took off like a rocket, leaving Ash and the others looking like specks of dust to Shark and Nel.
"Who were those guys?" asked Jeremy.
"I have no idea," said Alexa as Tropius landed and she dismounted. She rubbed its long neck and then returned it to its poke ball.
"Me neither, but we need to be more careful. We may have to all go together or not at all from now on. I'll get a message to Alastair to let him know what's going on, then we'll help rebuild."
The team nodded and they got to work composing a message to send to Alastair. Ash looked out over the ocean, watching the clouds as they steadily rolled toward Lilycove. For some reason, the sight of it made him very uneasy.
I hope you enjoyed it. Please review. Next chapter, the storm arrives, along with a huge battle. And for those of you who are wondering what happened to Misty, she'll be back in chapter 12. I'll try to have 11 up by next Friday. Thanks for reading!