Chapter 14

It was a lot warmer than I remembered. Usually when I went to sleep in my grandparents house, it was a lot colder at night. There'd be times as a kid they would come upstairs with heated blankets to keep me from shivering. But that night, I managed to stay warm. It was a mystery why, until I opened my eyes.

Wes was holding onto me. Hugging me. Like it was no big deal. He'd probably been there snuggling me all night? Why was I doing the same? Did I somehow sleep hug him? Did he sleep hug me? Oh my god, I was beginning to freak out. There had to be a way out of this without waking him. Maybe if I slowly wriggled my way out of it…

"Oh, you're awake, too." I froze. Now he was looking at me with his golden eyes. He had sensed the awkwardness of the situation but refused to acknowledge it. "Good morning." My face burst out dark red.

"Are you two awake?" Grandpa asked from outside, slowly opening the door. I full-on freaked out at the thought of him seeing me in bed with Wes. So I took the covered and rolled off the bed, painfully landing on the floor. That's when Eagun opened the door.

He wasn't quite sure of what to make of Wes, who sat on the bed with no covers, and me, who lie on the ground with all of them, pretending vainly the be asleep. Then, "You may be the light but you sure as hell are an idiot."

"I know…" I muttered, pulling myself to a sitting position. Great, I hadn't bothered to change. Now these clothes were all wrinkled and messy. I didn't want to change tho, not yet. These were the clothes that made Wes open up to me the first time, there was no way this was going anywhere any time soon.

"Quit messing around, grab some breakfast, and be on your way, the sun is just about to rise." He shut the door on the way out. Just about to rise? Jeez, my grandparents always got up way too early.

I stood up and Espeon jumped onto my shoulder, the skarmory feather in her mouth. When I took it from her it automatically filled the room with golden light before switching off into the shimmering blade. Umbreon was poking it with his paw now. Even though he tried poking the blade and running his arm down it, he sustained no injury. Only a trail of light that eventually faded was left behind.

"Not very helpful if you're going up against people, then?" Wes guessed. Wow, he was fast. I didn't even see him go into the restroom and come out changed. Umbreon took his rightful place on his shoulder.

"Not really, no." I slid it into my sheath. Even though it was encased in hard leather, the golden blade still shone brightly. "I can throw it at them maybe."

"You'll find a way," he said, opening the door. "Ready?"

Grandma had prepared us a filling meal that came first in comparison to the meal Wes had made me back in Phenac. Unlike Wes, she made all hers from her own ingredients. It tasted even better knowing that the entire meal was healthy for us. The berries were even picked out of one of Agate's farms. I was almost full when Grandma switched on the TV.

"Breaking news here from Mt. Battle!" the loud announcer spoke, slightly startling us. "It appears an elite team of trainers with unusual pokemon have infiltrated the inside, tossing aside and refusing to battle many well-known trainers in hopes of scaling all one-hundred steps by themselves. They are on the lookout for the Time Flute, a rare prize offered near the end of the road. Though they are not far in, they becoming hard to contain."

"Time Flute?" Grandpa rumbled. "That can't be good."

"Time Flute?" I asked quietly.

"It summons Celebi, even if she doesn't want to be summoned," Wes explained. "If we want Celebi safe, we're going to need to take that from Cipher before they can do anything with it." He stood. "Ready?"

"Ready."

"Wait, wait! Give your grandparents a hug before you go this time." Grandma started forward. I gave her a hug. A genuine hug. Not the kind of hug where you're like 'Ugh just let me leave already,' but a hug that meant I'd be back for more. Grandpa didn't seem so keen on hugs. He just clapped Wes on the back and glared at me under his thick white eyebrows.

"If you make another bolt for it," he whispered, "you won't be let off so easy." Then he clapped me on the back and shoved us out the door. "Treat her well now, Wes my boy! If you hurt her, I might just have to kill you!" Then he slammed the door on us, laughter sounding from inside.

Well, that's one way to say goodbye.

"You have a fine set of grandparents," Wes said. "You should've told me they were looking for you. Even I know how worried they get about people close to them." We started walking down the paths. I didn't say anything and looked the other way. He acknowledged my silence by not asking any more.

Now I felt bad. I thought Wes was going to do something like try and pry me open and ask more about why I ran away. Oh, wait. He probably already knew from Grandpa. That's fine with me. I had a feeling hanging around that pink-haired friend of mine would turn out for the worst.

…

Well, it wasn't a total bust. I can help a lot of pokemon now, especially the ones who have been tortured and harmed by Cipher and Snagem. And I got to meet Wes. Maybe the best move here was to come right out and tell him everything that happened. No, he already knew it. What was the point? What was there to say? Ugh, I shouldn't have ignored him.

We stepped up to the bike. Umbreon and Espeon were just climbing into the seat when I started up to my own. I felt Wes put his hands on my waist like he was going to lift me up, but he paused right there. I waited for him patiently. What was he doing? Was he going to say something?

He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around me from the back. His chin now resting on my shoulder, he hugged me softly. I froze where I stood as his two pokemon looked on, blinking in surprise. What was he doing? I was so confused as to white he was doing it.

"I don't know what it's like to run away from family." His voice was soft. I took my hands off the bike and looked down towards the ground as he continued. "I don't know what it's like to be treated as a different, either." He tightened his grip around me gently. "But if you're ever willing to talk about it, even a little bit, I'm always here to listen. To try and understand."

I couldn't help it. I leaned back into him and placed my hands on top of his.

"It's a long story…" I muttered.

"It's a long ride." Without waiting for a confirmation, he lifted me up onto the bike and hopped on in front of me. Now it was my turn to wrap my arms around him and hold on tight. He looked back at me, smiled, and then started up the engine. The village of Agate was left in our dust to the sound of the roaring machine.

I didn't know what he was thinking. When Wes told me I could explain everything on the way to Mt. Battle it must've been for dramatic effect because it was, and always has been, too loud to talk while riding the bike. Not only that, but only a few minutes after we left I could already see the towering mountain ahead of us. It wasn't so much a mountain as much as it was a volcano that was still jet black. It was pretty magnificent. The truly notable feature of it was that only one stream of lava came from it. A single, nearly thread-thin stream of lava that fell off the western side. I wondered why so little, but as my eyes followed it upwards the dark, almost ashy clouds masked it. Whatever was at the top was a mystery.

The road to Agate had been rolling with hills. The road to Mt. Battle was jagged rocks and sharp outcroppings. When Wes wasn't maneuvering left and right around the more dangerous stones, he was propelling the bike straight forward to quickly close the gap between him and the nearest straightaway. It was chaos. There wasn't one moment that I could hope to catch a break from hugging him.

The pokemon we crossed were a mix of fire and rock types. Slugma were definitely the most common. They weren't the type of pokemon who started quibbles whenever they came across different types. One that I saw openly crossed paths with a rhyhorn and, before the rock pokemon thought to attack him, the slugma just reduced himself to a lazy puddle of lava. Other times this happened to roggenrola, geodude, and aron, they simply continued on their way. The only pokemon that seemed iffed by it was a sassy larvitar who started punching the puddle before realizing her mistake and rolling around in the dirt.

The sun wasn't even it's highest in the sky when Wes started slowing down. Wow, from the base of the mountain, you could only see less of the top. The gates were placed between the sides of the start of a canyon I could only guess lead to the hollow inside. As soon as we got off the bike, Umbreon and Espeon were on our shoulders.

"You two!" a kid with ruffled hair approached us. "Trainers, right? They need your help! The first ten didn't stand a chance against the guy up there!"

"We're on it," I said pushing past him. Wes paused, surprised. I guess it wasn't like me to jump right into the fight with the sword in my hands. The sword had given me new hope. There was no way to hurt innocent people with this, so there wasn't much need to be careful. Either way, he was had to follow before I disappeared inside. He was just catching the lip of the door before I was at the front desk.

Wow, this place looked pretty fancy for being in the middle of a dusty, dangerous volcano. White walls, marble counters, and a janitor that must've worked endlessly to keep the pearl white floors clean. Besides him, the only other person in the room was the lady at the front desk, who paled at my sight. The golden sword, right. It must've given me the look of a serial killer.

"I'm here to help with whoever is causing trouble," I said quickly. The last thing I wanted was to have the cops called on me as well. She made an O shape with her mouth. Her fingers clicked at some panel she had against the counter and the door behind her opened. As soon as she opened the little slab that let us through Wes and I were outside. "Oh, shit."

Ok, so the ground floor outside the gates wasn't the ground floor on the inside. No, that floor was down, down, down so far below us that it was nearly enveloped by darkness. It was lighten up soon, the sun had yet to be directly above the volcano. Speaking of which, how was there supposed to be lava in here if the bottom is as dry and dusty as the Outskirt Sand? But then again, this volcano was huge. The stairs went further and forward up and into the giant crevices of the formation, anything was possible here.

"I just remembered how scared of heights I am," I said woefully. Saffron City wasn't on top of a mountain or anything. But as I grew up my class would take trips to the top of the Silph Co building. I vomited nearly every time I went there. Hopefully this wouldn't be the same.

"Are you two the police?" There was a single guy on the trembling platform we had stepped out onto. It had been crudely painted with a one in the center. Oh god, how many stairs were there? How far did we have to go to get this guy? I covered my mouth with my hand. "Uh, is she ok?"

"She'll be fine," Wes dismissed. "What's the problem? What's going on?"

"That huge guy." The man pointed upwards and to the right past several other platforms to where a man, a huge man even from this distance, was yelling freakishly loud at another smaller man. Oh god, even looking up was a terrible idea for me. My stomach twisted. "He's been pushing aside trainers, refusing to battle and demanding that he have the Time Flute. He nearly threw me off a while ago." I clenched my stomach. "Seriously, though. She alright?"

"Here." Wes took my hand in his. "I'm not letting you fall, alright?" He was looking at me with such intensity that I was sure it was true. He would protect me. That's all I needed for comfort. The sickening sense of Acrophobia was still running through my mind but it was much easier to ignore. All I had to do was keep holding his hand. There might be a major freakout when he lets go but, you know, there were more important matters.

We ran up to the next platform regardless of how slow I wanted to take it. The man there was trembling. When he saw us he simply pointed to the next set of stairs which we scaled. It took what seemed like forever but, finally, we were on the platform painted with a messy ten in the center.

Oh my. When the guy on the first platform said there was a huge guy, I thought he had meant huge in comparison to how good his pokemon was or maybe how tall he was. No, the guy we saw on the platform was two times the size of a gorilla. A bulky figure was hidden beneath impossibly strong under armor. The white cloth was so tight on him that his rippling muscles were shown through it like it was sewn on there. The thug was so large that I couldn't even see the building past platform ten.

"Fine. After all the persuading I did, you still won't hand it over?" The ape's voice boomed. He was not at all pleased. But who was he talking to? Now that I looked around him slightly, I noticed a man about Wes' size standing between him and the next building. "Hmph! This is what happens to stubborn oafs who don't do as I say!" The man pulled back his fist and hit the man dead in the chest, knocking him backwards and onto the next bridge. My heart caught in my throat as he skidded dangerously close to the edge.

"Y-you treacherous swine…. H-how could you refuse to battle? Urrrgh!" The innocent man whimpered. Just as the giant started towards him, Wes stepped forward.

"Stop where you're going." The man stopped. I doubt he could look over his shoulder just because of how much muscle was piled on top of it so he ended up turning all the way around just to check who it was that spoke.

Oh shit. This guy looked a hell of a lot more intimidating from the front. He had red paint on his face like he was a warrior ready to march off to battle. His blood red hair stood up on his head like he had been electrocuted before he had got here. But even as the wind blew past, it refused to budge. Had he just used a ton of gel to keep it that way? His under armor pants were obviously too tight before he had to drape a purple loincloth around his waist to cover his privates. He kept his pokeballs around his neck in a turquoise-beaded necklace, two of which I could barely see behind the thick smog of the Haze.

"He's got two," I whispered to Wes. The giant smiled at my words.

"Oh, so you two must be the troublemakers who messed with Skrub in Celebi's forest. I suppose you want to battle old Dakim now, don't you?" He pulled off two of the regular pokeballs. "The girl fought our star hitmontop, I hear. Why don't you and I have a battle of our own up here? You seem to like the idea of falling to your death."

"I'll take you on first," Wes said, noting my expression. Espeon jumped to his shoulder, fur standing on edge.

"Oh, that's no fun." Dakin reached up and added a third pokeball to his hand, one of the two that leaked thick tendrils of Haze. "Then I'll leave this one to your girlfriend. She likes Shadows, right? I'm sure she'll get a kick out of this!" He threw all three pokemon out at once. A pure metang and golem landed right in front Wes. Their ugly faces seemed to lock onto Umbreon and Espeon like hungry beasts. When the third pokemon emerged, the platform trembled slightly under his weight.

The legendary pokemon Entei stood before me, malicious red eyes widening at the sight of prey.

Rui Is Frightened!

Rui Is Paralyzed!

Shadow Entei Appeared!

Saving Game…

Game Saved!