Chapter Eleven: A Friend in Need!
Haruba village was facing an awful sand storm. But I guess it was a normal occurance, it is in the desert. I squinted through the town, seeing people, pokemon, and a Gigaremo? It was a yellow one, and luckily I saw A Sudowoodo right outside of the village. So I ran for it, captured it, and destroyed the yellow nightmare.
The villagers were very happy. Since I had them all thanking me anyway, I thought I should ask if they had seen Keith. I asked if they saw an overconfident red haired ranger with a Buizel. All of them had, and they told me he headed up to the Hippodon Temple. So that's where I went.
The desert was harsh. Almost every pokemon started to whip up a sandstorm when I walked by. Then a Hippodon started to make the most trouble. I captured it and the desert stood still for a minute. The sand storms stopped. I walked to the entrance of the temple with the Hippodon following me and Psyduck clinging to my back. I didn't know what to do, so I looked over at the Hippodon.
"This is your temple. Can you help me? Do you know how I can get in?"
Hippodon just looked at me for a while.
"Please, my friend needs my help."
This made him walk forward to the giant hole. He took a breath and used Sand Fill. It made a path into the temple. Hippodown turned around, looked at me once again, and went back to the area I brought him from. I walked slowly into the temple.
There was rushing sand only one real path showed through. I decided there was nowhere to go but up. I climbed a million stairs, used a few Driftblims, and rode the sand through the temple. Finally, I got to a room with only a hole in the middle of the floor. I looked around, there were no doors, no windows, no path, just a hole. Psyduck was still clutching my back. I know he didn't want to jump down, but what choice did I have? I took the leap.
We fell about four floors straight down and landed hard in some very soft sand. I lay there for a minute, I wasn't expecting such a long fall. Psyduck wasn't happy at all. I looked around to see a bunch of ground type pokemon and some Driftblim. But one pokemon didn't fit in. It was Keith's Buizel! I didn't have time to waste, Keith was in the next room in trouble. I stumbled to my feet and ran forward.
The room was empty, except for the crescent moon shaped gem. I didn't know what pokemon could be gaurding it, I just couldn't predict it. But I didn't have to guess for long. Cresselia levitated down between me and the gem. She was actually pretty easy to catch, especially compared to the other guardians. I had her captured in about ten minutes. She then entrusted the gem with me and disappeared.
"But, where's Keith? I thought he was going to meet me here..." I held the gem in my hands and walked back out into the room with a hole in the roof. I was just about to capture the Driftblim when I heard a helicopter. Up above me, there was a black helicopter descending into the temple. It landed about twenty feet away from me. A man of Barlow's build ripped open the door, I immediately recognized his voice.
"Hello, Rae! I am Heath, not Keith. I came for Yellow Gem, but I hear of Ranger that could get it for me. So I pose as Keith and you come to call. I am surprised it worked so well. But now you must give to me the gem. I'll trade you. I'll give you Keith for gem."
My heart dropped. He had Keith! I would of given anything to make sure Keith was safe, but now I was forced to give up the fate of Almia. I was running this through my head when Heath held out a tied up Keith.
"Rae! Don't give it to him!"
But I didn't listen, I threw the gem at Heath. Who in turn threw Keith at me. His dead weight hit me and I flew backwards to the ground with Keith on top of me. Heath laughed and said "One more for you to catch!"
A Magnezone came down right next to us as the helicopter raised out of the temple. I couldn't lift Keith, so I awkwardly rolled over so I was on top of him and stood up with my styler out. The Magnezone was insane. It never stopped moving. I didn't want to look for Psyduck for help, he's weak against electric types. So I was in it by myself. My styler was taking major damage, and I was losing the battle. I took two seconds to charge it up a little and Keith screamed.
"Rae! Look out!"
I saw the Magnezone charging, I didn't have time to move. So I braced myself. But I didn't get hit... Psyduck did.
He jumped between me and the electrical charge. It hit him perfectly and he landed motionless on the ground. I saw red, my hands were shaking and my eyes were watering. Heath kidnapped my best friend, he tricked me into coming here just to give him the gem, and now his Magnezone hurt my Psyduck. I don't remember how exactly I captured him, but somehow I did.
I fell to my knees next to Keith and untied him. Then we both ran to Psyduck's side. He fainted when the charge hit him. I picked him up and held him in my arms. I knew he was going to be okay.
"Rae, I'm so sorry. I never meant for anything like this to happen. I failed to capture Cresseila and Heath was there to get me," he put his hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay Keith, I know you didn't mean to get kidnapped. Let's get back to the Union... Psyduck needs help."
Keith captured a Driftblim and we were raised out of the temple and back out to the desert. It was late, the desert was incredibly dark and cold. He kept his arm around me while he led me to the village. Staraptors weren't around, so I insisted that we take the boat to Pueltown. Keith agreed and we got on the boat in the harbor. We sat out on the deck and I held Psyduck on my lap.
Keith was really quiet. I knew he felt awful. It wasn't like him to fail at something. He still had his arm around my shoulders. I didn't know if he noticed, he was looking straight down.
I put my head gently on Keith's shoulder. I was exhausted, and he must have been too because he laid his head on top of mine. It was comforting, I still felt shaky and it didn't help that I was holding a motionless Psyduck in my arms.
I probably would have fallen asleep if we didn't reach Pueltown so fast. Since it was so dark, Keith insisted that he should capture a Staraptor. When he did, Buizel helped me hold Psyduck while I held onto Keith. The Union was still bright, they must be waiting up for us. We walked upstairs to find Erma in the operators room. She thanked us for a job well done and let us go to bed. I dropped off Psyduck in the pokemon clinic and we went back to our room.
Keith sat down on his bed. "Rae, I'm so sorry about Psyduck. It was all my fault."
"No it wasn't, I already told you. You didn't mean to get kidnapped."
"I know but it's still my fault. And it's my fault that we lost the Yellow Gem."
"Keith, stop. You know Psyduck will be okay, and you know that we will get that gem back. Stop feeling so down on yourself. What happened to my upbeat best friend?"
"You're right. Thank you, Rae." He stood up and hugged me. It was a longer hug than normal. Then he let go.
"By the way, I have the best story to tell you!" I said, I was feeling better now. So I told him all about my Wailord adventure, the oil rig, and the temple. The entire time I was talking, he smiled and was excited for more. When I was done, we said good night and fell asleep seconds later.