I came back from the Department Store later that day. I was ready to show everyone home that I came back from my journey unharmed, even though it was a blatant lie. After an hour of just sitting around on the rooftop, I decided to come down and face my family. I had Jiggly hugged closely.
I knew what they were going to ask.
"Hey, where's your Eevee?" My imagination asked. I didn't want to answer it.
It was gonna happen one way or another. So I had to get my excuse together. I had Jiggly, Toby, Bella, and Lola to show them. I can distract them with Lola, since they haven't met her yet… but still. I didn't want to think about Apollo. Everything that reminds me of him makes me sad, uncontrollably so.
An idea then hit me. What if I can try to erase his painful existence from my family? Would that work? I've heard that if enough people believe in a lie, it becomes the truth. Yes. This is how I can start dealing with losing Apollo. Now what should I use as my excuse? Having him run away would make me look horrible. Having him get sick and die would be worse.
"What if I had to give him away?" I asked Jiggly, who had no idea what was going in my head. We were walking back home, and I saw that she was getting excited to see everyone after this long break. Last time we saw them was when I was going to challenge Whitney. But I've gone to Ecruteak, Mahogany, back to Ecruteak, to Olivine then crossing the sea to Cianwood. And only Ecruteak didn't fill me with crushing sadness. "Jig?" I heard Jiggly whisper to me, confused. I smiled, and dropped the subject.
But I continued thinking. If Apollo was given away, there would have to be a good reason for it. The first thought was that he could have been stolen by a poacher. But then they'd be getting into a whole mess over what they looked like, and I'd have to get the police involved. I didn't want that. But what about losing him in a bet to someone? I'd get scolded for treating my Pokémon poorly, but it'd be short. Right, short. Nothing like what I've gone through.
Jiggly was humming all the way home.
I took out the keys from underneath the doormat, just like I did before. Those set of keys I had when I left Goldenrod for the second time were lost on the way to Cianwood, along with my other personal belongings. I still had some of Kurt's custom Pokéballs though, which was good, I guessed. I didn't know how to feel about it. The whole journey was a depressing waste of time. A Lure and Heavy ball didn't exactly make up for it.
I felt slightly stupid when I walked in. First I sighed, then took out my three other Pokémon. Bella the Bellosom and Toby the Togetic recognized this place from before, but Lola the Corsola needed to be introduced. The pink coral Pokémon looked around curiously.
"This is my house, Lola. This is where we'll be staying from now on." I paused looking around. "My parents are out working, I guess, and my brother Sebastian's somewhere around." I continued. Sebastian's whereabouts weren't concerning right now. After all, he and his Tyrogue were always hanging out near National Park, so he'd come back. It was getting pretty late though. Lola looked around some more, eventually heading over to the sofa, and resting. Her pink horns were nice stubs now. I'm glad she didn't have any scars.
Toby and Bella followed her and they all quickly fell asleep. Only Jiggly stayed by my side, which was understandable. Everyone must have been tired. It's one thing to wait on the Department Store rooftop for hours, and actually being home and resting after a long journey.
That's right. It was a long, draining journey. I'm glad it's over. I looked over to my sleeping Pokémon. I rested my head on the table while Jiggly took out a snack from my bag.
"You know Jiggly, I was wrong. You guys were the best part of my journey, not some stupid Pokéballs." Jiggly gave me a smile, and I smiled back. After giving a yawn and getting up, I walked towards my room. I hadn't seen it in months, so I wanted to see if everything was the same, just like I told everyone I wanted it. I had my filled up journal from Violet City to here in my drawers somewhere. I wrote up a whole notebook in two months, which was slightly crazy other Trainers told me. I slowed things down and made the second one last much more, but I lost it along with my other things on the way to Cianwood. I thought a little on it.
"It's better that no one found it." I declared to no one. No one else was here other than me and my Pokémon. But I was wrong.
I heard someone move inside Sebastian's room, quickly and rushed. I walked over to greet him. I hadn't seen my little brother in months. I guess he didn't hear us come in.
"Hey Sebastian! I guess you didn't hear us come in-"
I stopped talking, and my eyes widened.
There was a small razor soaked in red on his counter. I saw Sebastian slowly sobbing. I looked over to his wrist, the place he was covering up hastily with a small handkerchief; it didn't work out as well as he had hoped. Anyone could see it red and gushing blood.
I screamed, while Sebastian's crying got worse.
"I don't get it. You send me to do a really vague errand, but you really didn't have a clue how I should do it?" I asked Isidora over Pokégear. I heard her sigh, then giggle.
"Sorry, but I knew that Julie needed money, so I sent her some magazine clipping about the Ruins of Alph treasure hunts lately to help her out. I kinda realized then that she couldn't go on her own, and since you were going to go travel, I think it'd be the best thing for you to learn to help others." She said. I sighed louder than she did.
"Right. I'm going to help her anyway, but… I wish you would have prepared me for what was coming up…" I suggested for next time. Would there be a next time? I kinda hoped there wouldn't be. "So I was going to go the Ruins of Alph after I get Mars and Ivan back from Nurse Joy. That battle surprisingly tuckered them out more than I thought." I continued. I reached into my pocket to look at the shiny new emblem I won an hour ago.
The Zephyr Badge.
"Sorry, Sebastian, I gotta go! Job interview time! If it goes well or not, I'll call back in an hour!" she said, hanging up. I sighed and put my Pokégear away.
"Couldn't even tell her the story." I told myself, shaking my head. Also, since when did Isidora actually apply for jobs?
I couldn't tell her how I went to the Gym last night and challenged Falkner. I couldn't tell her about when Mars was defeated by a Pidgey when it kicked an endless amount of battlefield sand until Mars couldn't see a darn thing. He just kept swinging randomly until he was tired out and defeated by a Tackle! Nor could I tell her how Ivan was sent out, and made sure to literally drown the bird in bubbles before knocking it down from above with a flawless Water Gun!
His Pidgeotto wasn't too much of an issue either. Ivan just put it to sleep with Hypnosis and began a flurry of Water Gun. It was fast, but I was surprised how fast my Poliwag was. My victorious shiny pin was placed with the other two badges. Of course the first Gym in the circuit was easy. Then I began thinking about the match coming up Azalea Gym. I almost started shaking until I saw someone walking towards me.
I saw Julie walking back, with a Pokéball and Lure Ball at hand. I didn't even ask her to bring them back. She was also handling a small booklet.
"Here you go! They're happy and healthy." She beamed. Was she being so nice because she wanted me to go out and help her faster? She took her bag that I was guarding for her, and she put the booklet away. I didn't really care what it was, anyway.
"Thanks." I said regardless. At that point I realized that I didn't feel comfortable with anyone handling my Pokémon without my consent. They were part of me, so I guess I'd feel possessive of them like I would another part of my body. I didn't tell Julie that though, I'd just keep a closer grip on them.
"So, why didn't your friends come into the Pokémon Center, was it because of me?" She asked, worried. I got a bit nervous. I didn't really handle questioning girls well. Other than Isidora, but I'm used to her and mom anyway.
"N-No, that's not it at all!" I had to think back why Arick and Harry decided to stay out and hang around the city. "Uh, I remember them saying that Nurse Joy has something against them. Something like that." I said. I did wonder what made them have tension with her, but I decided not to meddle.
"Well, unless you need anything else here, let's go meet up with them. Come on!" She said, before seeing someone in the corner of her eye.
I looked too. The difference was that I recognized that person's face, while Julie didn't.
It was the beaten girl from yesterday. She wasn't bleeding or covered in sweat or not even crying this time around. Some scabs and healing scratches though. She was in pajamas, covered in a blanket, at a table eating her breakfast, with a Chansey (most likely being one of the Pokémon Center's) sitting right beside her, keeping her company.
"Hey, isn't that the girl I've heard about? She was hurt by Poachers I heard. Because of her, they stopped people from going to Route 32 completely now." She said.
I remembered when she stumbled in, causing a scene when she collapsed yesterday. I think everyone in the Center at that time came to same conclusion I did over the Poachers, but it wasn't me who spread word of it. I guess that by what Julie said, after word of her went around, the police force stepped up in security over there. I hoped that wouldn't stop us from getting to Union Cave and Azalea Town later. I don't want to go through the Ilex Forest to be accompanied by bugs en masse.
But things looked kinda grim on that part. Would they let a kid with only three badges pass?
"Let's go outside now. It's only a little past noon. Mars and Ivan are feeling better, so let's go to the ruins." I said. Julie nodded, and took the lead when walking outside. Today felt like a good day so far. The win against Falkner gave me a good sign.
We met up with Arick and Harry outside. Douglass was playing with Harry while Arick was sitting on a bench.
"Those two really get along, don't they?" Julie asked. Arick nodded and smiled.
"Of course. Harry's always wanted to train Pokémon. Or just be around them. And Douglass likes playing with him too." Arick responded. I hadn't seen him be this happy on our trek over to Violet City. I guessed that he really did care about his brother. Arick looked back at us after calling both his Pokémon and brother back to us.
"Are we all set?"
"Blockhead."
"Psychic freak."
"Blockhead!"
"Psychic freak!"
"Blockhead!"
"Will you two just shut up already? You're too loud!" Arick's shouting surprised everyone. This was the second time he saw us fighting, last time being in the Goldenrod Pokémon Center.
Mark the Psychic was standing in our path to the ruins, frowning. Of course, he senses my presence quickly and starts something up. And I'm not going to take his insults in front of my party of three without retaliation. I heard Arick explaining our "relationship" to Julie and Harry in the background.
"Geez, couldn't you just ignore me when you find sense me nearby, Psychic?" I decided I wasn't going to call him Mark until he called me by my real name. And by the looks of it, it wasn't going to happen any time soon.
"I normally avoid the people I don't like. But today I was feeling my best after I caught a new Pokémon, so I could use someone to test him out. But what are you doing here, Blockhead? I thought you'd be the last person to go through a Psychic type area like these ruins." He told me.
"I'm helping someone find something here. Is that so much of a crime?" I barked back. I think after my win at the Gym, I became a little more aggressive than usual. But that's how egos work, right?
"Well, if your friends don't mind, I'd like to have a battle." He grinned. It was a malicious grin. Almost like he was using the audience as a reason I'd have to comply. That was the same logic as using hostages to get what you want, in my mind.
"Yeah Sebastian, go! You were great against Falkner, you can beat him!" Harry shouted encouragingly. Julie grinned along, and Arick looked impatient.
"Julie, you sure you want to go after this? We could do the battle after…" I suggested. I was honestly hoping she'd want to go into the ruins as fast as possible.
"Nah. Actually I have a favor to ask you, Mr. Psychic." Everyone turned to her. Well almost everyone. Mark looked towards her direction, nothing more nothing less. I wondered what she wanted from him. "If Sebastian wins, could you help us find the treasure of the Ruins of Alph? You have Psychic types and know the area, right?" She asked him. And he nodded. I gasped slightly. I didn't want to face him right now.
"Sure, I'll agree to those terms, but I doubt that's going to happen. My Pokémon are in top form today, I'll have you know." He sneered at my way. "I'll make sure to beat all of your Fighting types this time, Blackbelt." I sharpened my gaze at him. It was pointless though. He couldn't see my expression anyway. But hey, he still called me Blackbelt over Blockhead this time, though. It was a start.
We all walked to a clear field of dirt by the entrance of one of the caves. The whole atmosphere felt ominous. The Psychic was in his home field, and I wasn't. It was starting to get cloudy above in the sky. If those weren't negative signs of the battle, I didn't know what were. Arick decided to judge for reasons unknown while Julie and Harry went to sit on some smooth rocks. Knowing that I had three Pokémon, Arick asked Mark if he was alright with a three-on-three match. Mark agreed.
After my audience was out, I decided to send the first Pokémon out.
"Mars, let's go!"
"Kinet!"
His Kadabra took the ready position stance while Mars was readying up for his second match of the day. This one would be tougher strength wise compared to Falkner's Sand-Attack abusing Pidgey.
"The battle between Kadabra and Hitmonchan may now commence." Arick said in a low voice.
His Kadabra started shooting different rays of Psybeam at Mars, catching both of us off guard. It even hit Mars a few times before the barrage ended. He didn't even tell his Pokémon to attack! It came to me quickly, and I had to make sure that Mars knew what was going on.
"Wait, he's a Psychic! Keep your guard Mars, they can communicate without talking!" I shouted, advising him. He grunted a "Mon!" before getting back to the battle. I saw Harry on the sidelines cheering on for us, while Julie was keeping a close eye on the battle. She looked really happy seeing us fight.
I told Mars to use Bullet Punch. After all, no matter how fast the Kadabra may be, Bullet Punch was guaranteed to be faster. And it hit the Kadabra right in the face.
"Good job, now don't let it get back up with another Bullet Punch!" I ordered. I'm glad that Mars managed to learn Bullet Punch. He would have had such a hard time with just Mach Punch. Mars went back to the Kadabra and began to pummel it into the ground. I looked at Mark and he looked frustrated.
He looked at me and spat on the ground. His Kadabra was left unmoving on the ground, and Mars decided to back away. Everyone thought that the round was over.
"Um, Kadabra's unable to ba-"Arick began to say, but Mark stopped him.
"Kinet, now!" He yelled. His yell was the first words he's used during the match, and it shook Arick off and made him unable to finish his judgment. The Psi Pokémon vanished into thin air, appeared behind Mars, teleported again when it was spotted, and the cycle started. It was using Teleport to confuse everyone. Even I was getting dizzy.
Mars started to flail around throwing wild punches everywhere in an attempt to hit his target, but it didn't work.
And I knew it wouldn't work. Not because the Kadabra was impossible to hit, but Mars wasn't going to concentrate right. This is how we lost to a Pidgey at the Violet City Gym. Losing twice in one day because of the same principle was not going to slide right past me this time. Mars was better than that. I wasn't going to let him lose again.
"Mars, settle down and concentrate!" I yelled. Mars was still punching the air as the Kadabra moved, moved, and moved some more. It was a tricky situation. I decided to yell even harder to get his attention. I saw Harry's face look strained, and Julie had a stern gaze. Arick was trying to keep an eye on the matter at hand, but he was having trouble seeing the Kadabra even more so than Mars.
"Chan!" Mars responded back. My shouting was a success. The Kadabra continued to use Teleport, and Mars was pretty tired from his punching by now.
"Mars, concentrate!" I tried to tell him. He closed his eyes, unsure. "Mars, I know you can get a hit, remember when you woke up when you needed to beat his Drowzee just when we needed to? I know you do! Now come on and show everyone that you're strong!" My campaign to winning continued. Mark stopped grinning. He looked like he was telling his Kadabra to close in.
The Kadabra stopped right in front of Mars this time, and quickly began to Teleport again. Mars didn't move. I wondered why he didn't strike. I saw the opponent blur out of sight again.
The Psychic type reappeared behind Mars now, only this time it was met with a strong Bullet Punch at point blank range in the face. Everyone looked onward to see the Kadabra go down without getting up. Harry started cheering, and I grinned. Mars turned around to smile.
"Just like that, Mars."
"Chan." He nodded.
"Kadabra's unable to battle!" Arick announced after checking that the Psi Pokémon wouldn't get up this time for sure. Mark stayed quiet and sent out his next Pokémon after returning his Kadabra back into its ball.
"Jumanji, you're up!" He said, as he threw his next Pokéball. I expected another Pokémon like his Kadabra or his Drowzee, but I was surprised. And Mars started laughing on top of that.
It was a small, green bird, no bigger than Mars' boxing glove. It had small wings, small talons, and a creepy stare.
"That's my new Pokémon, Jumanji. He's a Natu. If you thought that a Psychic type was trouble, you'll love that he's not just that, but a Flying type too." Mark smirked. I could sense that the small bird Pokémon, Natu, was sneering too. Except that I couldn't confirm it because of its unchanging staring expression.
"We can beat it!" I challenged. Only I wasn't too sure. After all, it was two types that Fighting types dreaded. I wondered if there was a Psychic, Flying, Ghost Pokémon out there somewhere. I'd rather not think about it though.
"Uh, the battle between Hitmonchan and Natu may begin!" Arick declared.
"Jumanji, use Night Shade!" Mark commanded. I didn't know what to expect. It was a Ghost type move. The third type that our little team would always dread. The small bird started hoping over to Mars. He was cautious, but he wouldn't do anything. It was like the small thing was scaring us or something. I had to break us both out of that trance.
"Mars, hit it with Bullet Punch!" I shouted. It wasn't frantic just yet. We just needed to let it know that it didn't scare us.
It was creepy to us, sure. But it didn't scare us. No way.
The Natu Teleported out of the way before Mars could aim properly. Then it reappeared right below him. And it struck with some sort of image that I couldn't comprehend. The important part was that Mars was in so much pain from it that he was down despite our whole encouraging speech we had a few minutes ago.
I returned him as Arick announced the Natu as the winner. I was still happy he managed to stop panicking when he couldn't touch the opponent now.
"Sand-Attack, Teleport, try coming at us now!" I thought to myself.
I sent out Adonis next. He wasn't as fast as Mars, or even Ivan, but I knew he was easily a sturdy Pokémon that could take a Night Shade.
"Adonis, I'm counting on you!" I told him. Fighting types needed to get pumped up before battles with their Trainer's support. I learned that at Ecruteak. Or rather, I was taught that at Ecruteak.
"Chop!" he reassured me. We weren't going to lose to the same little bird twice! Arick called out the score and let the match between Marks's Natu and Adonis commence.
"Adonis, wait for it get to you!" I yelled out. If it was coming to us anyway, there was no point of charging. Reckless attacking wasn't going to be our strong point this match, by the looks of it. And I was right. Adonis stayed still while the Natu hopped, teleported, and reappeared behind Adonis.
"Use Peck!" I realized that Mark was commanding his Pokémon out loud this time around. I guessed it was because his Natu was a fresh catch. Either way, it should have been easier to deal with than his Kadabra. The Peck attack still hit, and Adonis winced in pain. But that was supposed to happen.
"Turn around and use Payback, Adonis!"
The Tiny Bird Pokémon was hit in the face with a super effective move and was knocked back far. I saw Mark look surprised.
"It's not like we're completely helpless against types we're at a disadvantage at, Psychic." I grinned. I saw Mark grin even wider though.
"I thought that might have been a reason you told your Machop to stay behind. Don't worry though; Jumanji was the Natu I picked from his flock because of one reason." He looked at his Natu who started to hop back into the field. It was hurt, but still standing. "Jumanji, get far away from it and use Roost!" he shouted. I rarely got to see him get all hyped for a battle, but still.
The Natu hopped off to an area that Adonis was too slow to reach quickly enough. They must have realized that Adonis wasn't the fastest on the team. It began to glow while closing its small wings tightly around its small body.
I wondered what it was doing until Mark got me and Arick up to speed while Julie was telling Harry.
"That's Roost. Bird Pokémon can get tired flying all the time, so they land to rest. That's what Roost is. Jumanji is healing himself." He said. It was a clever and simple way to explain it. It was still horrifying though. That meant that if I was going to beat that psychic bird, Adonis would have to hit hard, fast, and not let it recover.
It hopped over again towards Adonis; then began teleporting. At this point I felt like all Pokémon that teleported to get around were as annoying as flies. It was just so hard to catch them off guard.
"Alright Adonis, don't lose track of it! Hit it with another Payback!" I advised him.
The Natu was prepared this time, unfortunately. The Tiny Bird teleported right past Adonis' swinging arm, and got to his blind spots.
"Use Peck, and don't let it lay a finger on you!" Mark demanded. And his Pokémon went through with the action. Strike after strike and Adonis was down. I thought that I was able to take down both Psychic and Flying type Pokémon by now, but it looked like we still had a long way to go.
"Machop is unable to-"Arick began saying before being interrupted. For the second time in the match, mind you.
Adonis started to move though. I screamed like a little girl to myself. He looked back at me with sure grin.
"That's right Adonis, there's no way you could lose! Go and hit it with another Pa-"
The Natu used Teleport again instead. This time it reappeared right above Adonis and quickly used Night Shade. Adonis went down a second time, only this time he wouldn't get back up. I sighed and returned Adonis back into his ball.. And it was his first battle of the day, too. Arick announced the current score while I picked my only Pokémon left.
"Ivan, don't let me down!" I called. The small bird came into view of my equally small tadpole. Both of them looked at each, unflinchingly staring into each other's souls. Or something like that. Both had quite the stares in my opinion.
"A Poliwag? Aren't you supposed to be a Fighting type Trainer?" Mark barked at us. Ivan blew some bubbles around, and I just giggled.
"Oh come on now, don't tell me you're scared of my sweet little Ivan now right?" I taunted. Seeing Ivan and Jumanji having a stare down at equal level heightened my confidence in him.
"Natu and Poliwag's battle may now commence!"
"Ivan, Water Gun!" Taking the offensive was going to be our key. Ivan was way faster than Adonis. He shot a stream of water at the Natu, hitting straight across. And so, I was right. Ivan was too fast for it to Teleport out of the way.
"Even if it's not a Fighting type, we'll take it down. But first, use Roost, Jumanji!" Mark shouted. The Natu hopped out of the way to teleport towards the outskirts of the battleground getting ready to rest.
But weren't going to let it do that the second time. I ordered another Water Gun from Ivan, which swept the Natu off the ground and into a rock.
"Now finish it off with a Doubleslap!"
After a few hits, the Psychic Flying type went down.
"Natu is unable to battle!" Arick announced. I saw him smile a bit. Harry continued cheering while Julie looked relieved. It's like they were expecting Ivan to lose or something.
"Good going Ivan!" Harry shouted. Ivan jumped around happily blowing bubbles.
"And no words for Ivan's Trainer, huh? That figures…" I thought to myself. Whatever.
"I won already. We can stop now." Mark said, nonchalantly. Everyone fixed their gaze at him as he returned his Natu. He looked towards Arick, then to Julie and Harry, and finally towards me. "My conditions were defeating your Fighting type Pokémon with my Psychic types. I don't have any interest in beating a Water type that wasn't part of the program. I'll be going now." He finished. Me and Ivan started to walk up towards him.
Julie was the one that stopped him though.
"Hey! Psychic, Sebastian hasn't lost the match yet! Don't just throw the battle before it ends!" she yelled at him. Mark turned around to meet her face. "And plus, you're going to help us find some treasure when Sebastian beats you." She smirked. I laughed inside. She was taunting him. I heard Mark groan right after.
"Fine. Let's get back to doing this, Blockhead. I won't go easy on you though." He declared, annoyed. Julie jumped with joy before walking back to where Harry was, while Arick went back to resume the battle. Ivan and I walked back to our spots.
"Remy, don't lose!" Mark said, calling out his Drowzee. It was the same Drowzee that Mars and I went up against during our first outing to Route 37. It felt like such a long time ago since I last saw it. It didn't matter though. We were going to beat it. After all, it would make Mark help us find the treasure. And making a long outing like that be shorter would really help us out.
"Just like before, Ivan. We can take them!" I encouraged him.
"The battle between Poliwag and Drowzee, begin!" Arick called out.
"Ivan, Hypnosis!"
"What?"
Yeah, I was going to give back the move that gave Mars and I trouble during out first battle. Ivan managed to easily run up to the opponent and lulled it in for a deep sleep. Catching Mark off guard was pretty worthwhile it too.
The Drowzee was fast asleep, so I ordered a barrage of Water Gun to pin it down. Ivan was having a field day today. From beating both of Falkner's Pokémon, to beating a Natu that defeated both Mars and Adonis, to giving a licking to Mark's Drowzee… I was really glad to add Ivan to the team. Mark's face looked like he was trying to communicate with his Drowzee via telepathy, but it wasn't working.
In the end we won when I told Ivan to use Doubleslap one last time. It fell down, and Arick declared us the winner.
Mark came up to us.
"I still won that. I made sure to beat your Fighting types like I wanted to. Your Poliwag beating Jumanji and Remy doesn't mean anything." He said. I was thinking to myself about calling him out as a sore loser, but I decided that I was going to bear with it for Julie's sake.
"Alright sure. Great. So shall we go to the ruins now, Mr. Psychic?" Julie appeared out of nowhere to coerce Mark into coming along with us.
"You were great, Sebastian! When I become a Trainer, can you teach me all of your strategies?" Harry said, while putting me on a pedestal. I remembered about what Arick said, so I didn't want to say yes, but...
The praise made me feel great.
Arick came by and told us the time. It wasn't too late, but we needed to start moving soon if we wanted to get the treasure by today. Luckily with Mark joining us, we should be good.
We reached one of the caves soon enough. The evening sun was slowly starting to set.
"Go, Houdini." Mark said, releasing a Pokéball. I guess he had more than three Pokémon like I did. Doesn't matter though, I already won.
"Houdini" was a clown like Pokémon that looked creepy in its own way. Mark's Kadabra and Drowzee were pretty emotionless like their Trainer, and his Natu was just creepy embodied. But this one had such a friendly smile on its face that still unnerved me. Mark looked at me, and smiled a bit. "Houdini's a Mr. Mime. Don't worry though, we're done battling today. Now, please use Flash." Mark asked his Pokémon. It created some orbs of light that soon lit up the cave and the ruins in general. He explained to us that he just sent out Houdini to light the ruins up for us. I was going to ask why not him, before I remembered he was blind.
"Hey Arick, why haven't we ever come in here with the Sages?" Harry asked his older brother.
"We didn't have any Pokémon on us. And plus, haven't they taught you anything in there, Harry? Self-discipline and whatnot. You can't always go around doing what you want!" Arick scolded him. Julie giggled, and so did I. Mark kept walking ahead. Harry moaned a little and complained he sounded just like an Elder Lee.
"You sure you know where we're going, Mr. Psychic?" Julie asked him. I guess I'd be a little cautious too. But I had Ivan in my arms. When we got back, I'd have to heal up Mars and Adonis.
"There's a room nearby that I felt something. Psychic type presence. I guessed that if there were a lot of Psychic types somewhere, there must be something they're guarding or something." He reasoned. And it did make sense, so we didn't ask further.
"Here it is. Now be careful just in ca-" Mark said before falling down. We rushed to help him up, but he did himself with the help of Houdini while telling everyone to back off.
"What happened?" I asked. After all, he just hit something and fell down.
"The presence was beyond that… wall." He said, rubbing his face.
Oh right, he was blind.
We looked further and Arick spotted something.
"Hey is that supposed to say something? Over there." He pointed. Houdini shone some light towards the wall while it said something. It was a bunch of weird symbols that I couldn't understand.
"That's Unown writing. These ruins are pretty famous because of them. I was prepared for this." she said, taking out a small booklet from her bag. It was the same booklet she left the Pokémon Center with. She opened up the book to a page, and inspected the writing. She looked back and forth from the booklet to the wall many times before telling us what she discovered.
"It says 'Light'" She said. It took her a while before taking a guess. "Hey Mr. Psychic, mind telling your Mr. Mime to shine some light directly at the wall?" she asked him. He nodded to his Pokémon and light was directly struck at the wall. Everyone heard something move. But the wall didn't break open or anything. In fact, it just stayed shut. Julie sighed loudly.
"Guess that didn't work…"
"Where did Harry go?" Arick questioned. Everyone's attention was beamed at the fact that Arick's little brother wasn't with us.
"Harry, where are you?" We all began to question. Arick must have been scared out of his mind.
"I'm right here, geez!" We heard a high pitched voice call out. We all walked out to find Harry near a stone tablet. It had a few panels lying around.
"It's a puzzle!" Harry exclaimed, excitedly. I looked further, and say that he was right. It was a large panel of parts that needed to be fitted together. But each part had some sort of deisgn on them. Some lines, wavy lines, something that would make an image together if placed correctly.
"So I guess we need to figure this thing out before getting anywhere, right?" Arick asked. Julie nodded slowly.
"Well, you guys wanted to find treasure or something, so let's get this over with fast." Mark responded. He looked at Houdini and pointed at the stone pieces.
And through a Psychic's manipulation the stone pieces were being shifted, rotated and placed until a correct image was seen.
"That's a… What is that thing called again?" Harry asked. It was kinda cute. I wish I had a little brother.
But no, I was stuck with Isidora.
"That's a Kabu-" Julie was cut off by Mark.
"Kabuto. An ancient Pokémon that currently only has fossil remains. Any ones people see now are living fossils that were resurrected from rock. There were some traces of energy coming from it, so I could figure out what it was trying to be a puzzle of." He explained. Ivan blew some bubbles and started vibrating in my arms. I thought he fell asleep by now or something.
"Yeah, that." Julie said, annoyed. I would be too if someone took my explanation.
Suddenly there was a loud shaking in the ground, and I saw something collapse under our feet. Arick quickly pushed Harry and Julie out of the way while Mark, Houdini, Ivan, and I fell into a deep hole under us.
The last thing I heard was Arick screaming our names before everything went dark.
"Blockhead. Get up already!" Mark said, waking me up. I was still feeling groggy. Then I felt something slapping me across the face multiple times in a rude wake up call.
It was Ivan's Doubleslap leaving my face red and puffy.
"He-Hey!" I yelled.
"It's about time, Blockhead." Mark said, annoyed at me. Ivan looked worried, and Houdini was still emitting light from its gloves.
"What's going on, where is everyone else?" I asked. We were underground, separated from the others. I just remembered.
"The floor collapsed and we fell in. We gotta leave somehow." He explained the situation to me pretty briefly. I guessed that he would have preferred falling down with anyone but me.
"Can't you just use one of your Psychics to Teleport us out?" I asked him. It was at least a shot at getting out of here.
He shook his head.
"Only Kinet and Jumanji know Teleport. And both of them are still too weak to Teleport all of us out." Suddenly, the situation looked pretty grim.
It only got worse though.
"We're not alone, Blockhead." Mark said. My blood chilled at his words. We were separated from everyone else at vacant ruins. Things didn't look good. "There are three of them." Mark furthermore said.
I saw our obstacles at the corner of the wide room we were in. Three large, green Pokémon materialized out of nowhere.
I screamed like a little girl this time around. Ivan suddenly jumped out of my arms and ran in front of me. Houdini did the same for Mark.
"What? What are they, I can't identify them!" Mark shouted at me. I guess he couldn't recognize who our three enemies were here.
But I did. Only my cries would be loud enough for the large green bugs with big scythes.
Scyther.
And we're back to another installment of A Belt That Fits! After a long two month hiatus, I'm happy to say that I now will be getting back to regular updates! Thanks to everyone who haven't lost interest in the story. Things are getting sort of close quartered now for Sebastian. Of course being with Mark isn't going to get any better. And Scyther in the Ruins of Alph? All of the situations will be done and over with next chapter, as well as the last part of Flashbacks. Please look forward to it! R/C being one of the favorite parts of the story still hasn't changed, so please do!
