Chapter 10
Maria looked around, frowning. "Okay, where was the exit...aha!" She dashed up a flight of stairs and emerged from the cave, grinning. "I'm back!"
"You finally caught that Unown?" Scarlet asked. She had stayed outside of the ruins, just in case anyone wanted to come by and seal the cave. At least, that was her excuse. Maria really thought that the Ranger-turned-Mobian/PokeMorph was claustrophobic, or maybe just didn't like dark places.
Maria held up the Dusk Ball, grinning. "Yup. I got a good look at the markings on the walls, too." Her grin faded a little. "There wasn't really anything on the PokeMorphs, but there was an incantation carved on one of the walls that I've seen a couple times before."
"An incantation?" one of Scarlet's ears twitched as a curious expression appeared on her face.
"Yeah. 'The servers are the seven Chaos. Chaos is power, enriched by the heart. The controller exists to unify the chaos'." Maria frowned. "I haven't seen it named, but this place actually did give it a title - Tikal's Prayer. I have no idea what it means, though."
"Maybe you can think about it while we're heading to Veilstone," Scarlet responded impatiently.
Maria gained an amused expression at Scarlet's statement, then gave a nod. "All right. Give me fifteen minutes, and I'll meet you on the other side of town."
Scarlet gave a short nod, then disappeared in a blur of red.
After Scarlet disappeared, Maria remained where she was standing for a moment before she shook her head and chuckled, "I don't know how, but I can't help but get the feeling that she's becoming more like the Blue Blur with that personality of hers." She turned and looked back at Solaceon, a small smile appearing on her face as she started back to the Pokemon Center. "I wonder...those PokeMorphs that Rick mentioned back in Eternia...are they really here? Or are they something else?"
It didn't take Maria very long to get her Pokemon healed or her medicines restocked, and she soon joined up with Scarlet at the other side of town.
"You ready?" Scarlet asked, tapping one foot against the dirt path.
Maria shifted a little on her bike's seat and nodded. "Let's go. I want to get to Veilstone before nightfall."
Unfortunately, the Trainers who were on the route made it a little difficult for Maria and Scarlet to make it very far very quickly. The only good thing that resulted from the challenges was that Maria's Pokemon quickly grew stronger, with Rose finally evolving into a Roselia, and a Chingling she had come across earlier gaining strength as well.
"Scarlet!" Maria hit the brakes on the bike, coming to a stop in front of a small building on the route. "Hang on a second!"
The Ranger zoomed over to her side. "What is it?"
Maria pointed to the building she had stopped in front of. "This place has Moomoo Milk. It's been years since I've last had a proper taste of the stuff!"
Scarlet's face contorted into an expression of impatience. "Maria."
"I know, I know." Maria was tempted to roll her eyes at Scarlet, but decided against it. "I'll be quick. It's probably just a place where Trainers can have their Pokemon recover their strength." She stepped off her bike and folded it up, placing it back inside her backpack before heading inside...
...only to be greeted by a maid with a Clefairy.
"Hi!" the maid said cheerily. "You're a Trainer, right?"
Maria's eyes narrowed. "Yes."
"Then how about having a battle with us? If you can beat all of us, I'll let you walk away with half a dozen bottles of Moomoo Milk!"
Maria's eyebrows shot up, and she gained a wide grin. "Sure."
A few minutes later, she walked out of the hut with a slightly heavier backpack - and not just because she had the Moomoo Milk.
"Here!" Maria tossed Scarlet a bottle, the Ranger catching it easily.
"There's rain coming," Scarlet warned as she put the bottle in a pocket inside her jacket. "We're going to have to move if we're going to get to Veilstone."
Maria looked up at the sky, frowning when she noticed that there were storm clouds coming in. "That's the direction we're going to have to go if we're going to head to Veilstone, so we're going to get wet anyway." She pulled out her bike and got on. "Come on! We're going to get soaked anyway."
With that, she took off towards the rain storm, leaving Scarlet behind with a shocked expression. The Ranger shook off her shock pretty quickly, however, and she followed after Maria...
...and right into a curtain of rain that soaked Scarlet through in seconds, causing her entire body to grow heavy because of all her fur. She quickly found a bridge to hide under and waited for Maria to catch up to her.
Maria eventually did catch up to Scarlet, but much to the Ranger's astonishment, Maria was grinning, despite the fact that she was soaked through and probably cold.
"How is it that you are actually enjoying this weather?" Scarlet asked Maria. "I can't stand it!"
"Well, that's because I've spent so much time out of a building on my travels," Maria explained. "You'd be happy to feel the rain, too, if you hadn't had a shower for a few days."
Scarlet blinked at that, then frowned. "Well...I guess, when you put it that way."
"Come on; I'm getting the feeling that we're close to Veilstone." Maria motioned for Scarlet to follow her, and biked out into the rain again, grinning widely.
Scarlet made it a point to hide in the trees as Maria continued to battle Trainers left and right, working her way through the route with relative ease. Despite the occasional detours she took in order to reach items or other Trainers, she and Scarlet were able to reach Veilstone rather quickly.
As they stepped into town, the rain lessened, causing Scarlet to let out a sigh of relief and shake herself.
Maria laughed and jumped back, avoiding the cascade of water as best she could. "We're definitely going to have to dry off before we go anywhere!"
"Easy for you to say!" Scarlet responded. "I'm going to smell like a wet Ursaring for days!"
"Then take a shower!"
As Maria laughed at Scarlet's predicament, she noticed that the Ranger's gaze had moved away from her and towards something nearby. Blinking in confusion, she followed Scarlet's eyes and paused, frowning.
"That's it," Scarlet said, glaring at the tall building towering over the rest of Veilstone. "That's the building where Charon's hiding out."
Maria nodded in response. "I see." She looked around at the city streets for a moment, then noticed something else. "Look over there. It looks like those two goons are guarding that warehouse for some reason." She walked over to them and made as though she was going to get past them, only for one of the grunts to push her back.
"This is Team Galactic's warehouse! This is not a playground for kids," one of the grunts stated, glaring at Maria.
Maria glared back at them for a moment, then turned and walked back over to Scarlet. "Looks like they're not the talking type, and I don't really have the time to try to persuade them. I need to restore my Pokemon to health, anyway." She walked away from the green-haired goons. Scarlet glared at the two grunts for a moment before following after the Trainer.
After the visit to the Pokemon Center - and a thorough drying-off - Maria and Scarlet started looking around for the Gym, rather than a way into the warehouse or the Galactic HQ building. If that wasn't annoying enough for Scarlet, the fact that they'd overheard a Galactic goon saying that the HM Fly was in the warehouse was more than enough to get Maria interested in going after the warehouse and staging a raid on it.
When they did find the Gym, a boy wearing a red hat, jeans, and a zipped up black jacket with a white zigzag pattern was standing near the entrance. He spotted them pretty quickly. "Hey, Maria!" he called.
"Hiya, Lucas!" Maria called back. "What are you doing around here?"
"I was just at the Game Corner," Lucas replied. "Played a few games in there." He looked over at Scarlet. "Oh, hey! Professor Rowan called me about an hour ago and told me you were gong around with Maria. Scarlet, right?"
"Yup," Scarlet confirmed. "You're Lucas, right?"
Lucas nodded. "How is it - being a PokeMorph, I mean."
"A lot like being a human, with a few exceptions." Scarlet pointed to myself for emphasis.
Lucas let out a laugh. "I'll say. You almost look like a Pokemon!"
"Well, this is what a lot of PokeMorphs looked like," Maria remarked. "It's just that they all act like super-powered humans - like in those comic books you like to read."
Lucas blushed a little. "Did you have to say that in front of Ranger Scarlet?"
Scarlet chuckled. "To be honest, my little sister's a bit of a fan of those kinds of things, too."
Lucas' eyes brightened, then he heard a beeping noise and checked the blue device he had in his left wrist. "Well, I'd better get going. See you guys later!" He ran off.
"See ya!" Maria called after him. She looked at Scarlet with a curious expression. "I didn't know you had a sister."
Scarlet paused at the statement, then sighed and gave a nod. "Yeah, I've got a little sister. She should be about...seven years old right about now."
"What's her name?"
"Magenta." Scarlet snorted when she saw the look Maria was giving her. "I know, kind of an unexpected name, right? Mom and Dad got it into their heads that we should be named after colors, y'know, like red, blue, so on and so forth. I guess it helps us stand out a little. I wonder how they're doing..." Scarlet trailed off, becoming lost in thought.
Maria's brow furrowed when she saw Scarlet's saddened expression. "Hey, don't be discouraged. You'll see them again; I just know it."
"It's not that," Scarlet replied. "It's this." She motioned to her form. "What is my family going to think of this when I find my way back to Almia? I bet that some of my old friends are going to think that I'm a freak of nature!"
"But you're not!" Maria pointed out. "Your DNA was just messed around with so that the PokeMorphs came back into existence! Maybe you were meant to become what you are now."
"If I was, then I've got a grudge against destiny," Scarlet growled. "You do want to fight the Gym Leader here, right?"
Maria nodded, a little nervous at Scarlet's bad mood. "Look, if I hit a nerve, I'm sorry."
"Forget it. We were going to end up talking about it, anyway. Let's go."
Maria hesitated at Scarlet's slightly snarling voice, then gave a nod and walked into the Gym. She paused a moment later and let out a whistle. "Wow. Now this looks like a Gym."
Scarlet's eyebrows rose as she stepped inside. "More like a dojo."
Maria chuckled. "Yeah." She looked around the large room for a moment, taking note of the boxing rings and the Black Belts who were standing in them, then the pink-haired girl sitting on a blue mat in the back of the Gym, mediating with a Meditite and a Lucario.
"Who are you going to use?" Scarlet asked, looking at Maria with a curious gruffness.
Maria frowned. "Probably Star, for the most part." She slipped off her jacket and tied it around her waist, above her belt of PokeBalls. "Are you going to watch again?"
"Nah; I'm going to head to bed. The sun's probably set by now."
"Okay then." Maria gave Scarlet a nod, then turned and launched herself at the nearest punching back, slamming into it with more than enough force to send it rocketing to the other side of the metal frame it was hooked to. "See you in the morning!"
After Scarlet left, it didn't take too long for Maria to battle through the boxing rings and the Black Belts, barely stopping between fights for a breather despite the fact that it was slowly getting later.
"I fought Brock and Blue late at night," Maria muttered to herself. "Morty, too. I can handle it."
It didn't take her too long to solve the puzzle and reach the Gym Leader, who stood up from her meditation position in order to introduce herself.
"My name is Maylene," she said. "I'm the Gym Leader."
"And I'm Maria," Maria replied. "I'm here to challenge you to a battle."
Maylene smirked. "I accept, but you and your Pokemon should rest first. You can sleep here, and in the morning we shall do battle."
Maria blinked at that statement, then smiled and nodded. "Sure. Thanks, Maylene."
