Chapter 21: Hunting

It was early the next morning; Ronjad had been working on his little traps for the monster all through the night. He was pretty tired when Lovrina and Sakura came into the garage; in fact, he had passed out in the back of the pickup truck.

"Ronjad?" Lovrina said jumping up onto the pickup, "Wake up. It's time to get a move on. We got some breakfast to go. Please wake up. I'm not mad at you anymore."

Ronjad just snored in reply. Lovrina huffed and sat at the hedge of the vehicle annoyed. "He was never an easy person to wake up," Sakura said, "The time he spent with me and my friends, he never woke up when everyone wanted him to. He woke up on his own term."

"There has got to be an easy way to wake him up," Lovrina sighed and then she thought of something, "Hey! Sakura! You seem to know him longer than me, do you know any special things that could wake him up. I'm not in the mood to use his Magenton to zap him awake."

"Well," Sakura thought out loud, "There was a time when Dot tried to wake him up. She began to rub his side he wasn't sleeping on…" Immediately, Lovrina began to rub his side. In response, Ronjad grabbed her and slammed her to the ground in front of him and pulled her close to him.

"… and that happen!" Sakura said pointing at them, "Dot never did that again!"

Lovrina pulled herself out of his grasp and pushed him off the truck and onto the hard ground. "OW!" he said once he woke up after hitting the hard floor, "I'm awake now! No need to do whatever it is what you just did to me!"

"Sorry," Lovrina said, "You just 'slipped' off." Ronjad didn't buy that, but he wasn't in the mood to fight with his girlfriend.

"Ok," Sakura said spotting a tarp over a bunch of the things in the far end of the truck, "That most of been what you been working on all night long. Mind if I see it?"

"Yeah," Ronjad yawned, "You'll get a chance to see it in full action when I take it for a test spin out there grabbing our first catch. Ok, let's load in and move on out!" Both girls nodded and dumped their bags in the bed of the pickup before entering it through the passenger side.

Ronjad started the ignition and the truck roared to life. They pulled out of the garage and into the grass land base. As they were almost out of the base area, Sakura saw someone in the rearview mirror. "Hold it!" she tapping Ronjad on the shoulder while leaning over Lovrina, "Someone is running up to us!"

"Who?" he said looking over his shoulder. As the dust settled from when the truck picked up dirt, he saw a figure running up to his side of the truck. It was Michelle.

She reached his side of the door and tapped on it. He rolled down the window and leaned out to her. She smiled and said in her light accent, "Just wanted to say goodbye to you and your friends."

He only looked at her and said in a low voice, "That's not all you wanted to say is it? The devil can't be done talking already."

"You flatter me," she said, "But I do have one last thing to say. Just don't die out there. I'm not through with you yet." She smirked and walked off back towards the main lab. He watched her in the rear window until she reached the door of the building. She glanced back and walked in.

"Mr. Dark," shouted the professor, "I would like to remain you to not to day dream in this class. I do not care if you are child prodigy. There shall be no dreaming."

The kid only rolled his eyes in reply as he looked back at his biology book. College was a royal pain in his ass. Most of the college students were so thrilled to have a smart ass eleven year in their class. He never figured college would be this hard, but then again, he probably wouldn't have to deal with it long. He was pretty sure he would graduate quickly like he did with all the other schools before him.

The bell rung and the professor said, "Alright, I like to remind all of you that the semester exams are coming up. I will not anyone being lazy and not studying for my test. If you so much as get a C+ or B- even, you will fail this class."

Everyone in the room groaned and proceeded outside. The boy walked outside the building, it was lunch time and he was going to meet with his friend at a restaurant near by. He walked down the sidewalk and came up to the corner. A vicious Houndoom jumped at him and knocked him to the ground.

"Damn," he mumbled as he hit the ground and face down the jaws of the dangerous Pokemon, "I don't have time for this." The Houndoom had around this town for years from what he had heard. He heard about rumors that this Pokemon was abused and used to guard drug dealers during their sales to make sure there wouldn't be any trouble. A one point, the Pokemon simply escaped and had been terrorizing the town. Not even Pokemon Control could contain this beast.

The Pokemon growled and pounced at the boy. He closed his eyes and knew the end would come soon. But the area slowly began to vanish all around him just then as he opened his eyes once more.

"Ronjad?" Lovrina asked him, "Ronjad!"

"What?" he said snapping back into reality, "Something happen just now?" He saw that the vehicle was now heading towards a boulder and he swerved to miss it.

"Thank God," she said, "You spaced out there for a second. You alright?"

"Yeah," he said taking a breath, "Just thinkin'." What just happened to him? Did he just remember just from his past that he couldn't up until now? He can't remember ever being attacked by a Houndoom before in his life.

"You know," Sakura said looking at the map of the surrounding areas, "This ride is pretty boring. Can we turn on the radio or something?"

Lovrina turn the knob on the radio control in the truck, but all there was static. "There mustn't be any signal out here," Lovrina said as she turned the dial around and around.

All of a sudden, they are heard some music began to come on. Both girls' faces lit up and said to each other, "I love this song! Hey! Hey! I don't want to be you're girlfriend! No way no way! I think you need a new one!"

Ronjad turned the radio off quickly and the girls yelled at him, "Hey! I like that song! We were listening and singing to that!"

"I know," Ronjad mumbled, "That song wasn't good two years ago and it is not good now!" Both girls moaned and everyone continued to move on through into deep part of the grassy valley.

As they drove along, Sakura said, "Hey! I was just thinking. Why is this place grassy while the rest of the surrounding area is a desert? I find that strange and hard to believe that we are in an oasis of some sort. It rains here and not out there. It's so strange."

"Well," Ronjad said, "There are some places in the world where the geography of the area is messed up. Kind of like the fact there is a desert in the mountain region of Lake Rage in Jotho. There are some things that cannot be explained."

"Yeah," Lovrina said, "Can we stop for a sec? I want to get some air a bit alright?"

"Fine," Ronjad said, "Just be careful. You never know when one of those monster things is going to show up."

"Relax," Sakura said looking over the map, "We aren't near any of those monster sighting areas. See here? We're here next to the old warehouse and the monsters' area is a few miles away from here." When she mentioned the warehouse, she pointed out the window to the old worn out building to the right of the vehicle where they stopped next to.

"Yeah," Lovrina said moving over Ronjad to step onto the ground, "I'll be fine." She stepped onto the ground and began to pace around the sides of the vehicle.

Inside the truck, Ronjad kept his eye on the monitor that was hooked up into the dashboard. If any of the monsters would show up, he would be the first to know. Sakura sighed and gazed out into the fields. She thought of the research she did that led up to this part.

After the incident with Joe Soul and reaching the mainland, she began to do some research on him. His name had come up in a few different areas such as him working in the relief effort to build Raccoon City up from the ashes and he worked in the Sevii Islands. But when she was combing his old apartment in the Saffron City, she came across an old phone number.

Tracing the number led to a place in the middle of the desert out in the Orre Region. She followed the GPS trace into the deep desert where her vehicle got stuck. She had ditch the vehicle and wander the desert until she had arrived in the valley and at the base. She sighed and looked at the building near the truck, "So old. Such a fragile thing falling to pieces. I wonder what it was for?"

Lovrina got back into the truck and Ronjad drove on off. Sakura continued to watch the building as it slowly sank away in the distance. Then she thought she saw a sign on one side of the building that caught her attention. She thought she saw the letters, U… m… b… r…

The truck continued on its way through the valley moving along. Ronjad stopped the truck a second and turned to the girls, "Alright! We should be in the exact location of where the monsters are supposed to be. Let's go fishing for them!"

"Ok," Lovrina said as she watched him get out of the vehicle and move towards the bed of the pickup, "But how are we supposed to get their attention? I'm not sure that this truck along could get their attention all by its self."

"That's why I have these," Ronjad called back as he pulled something from the back. The girls heard a loud rattling sound from the back and looked that way. They saw him hooking up a ton of metal chains to the end of the truck.

Sakura nodded and said to him as he got back into the truck, "I get it! The variations from those chains as they rattle as we drive along should be loud enough to catch any monster's attention out there so that'll come towards us."

"Right," Ronjad said putting the gear back into 4-wheel drive, "We should be able to get one's attention pretty soon as I start driving around."

He started once again down the grassy plains. Lovrina kept an eye on the monitor in sign of any underground activity in the area while Sakura daze off. All of a sudden, Lovrina saw something on the screen heading towards them. It was an orange blob of static heading their way.

"Wow," she said, "That was quick."

"I knew this would work!" Ronjad said excitedly as he parked the truck, "Now it's time to real in the big one for us to get! Let's get on out there!"

"Ok," Sakura said as she proceeded to get out of the truck as well, "But how are we supposed to 'catch' this beast anyhow?"

"That's where Phase Two comes in to play!" Ronjad said jumping into the back of the bed of the truck, "Watch and learn!"

There was no sound. Nothing can be seen for miles all around except for the three young adults in the pickup truck gazing over the right side of it. Then there is a low buzzing sound and a remote control toy car begins to move along the grassy hills. The toy buzzes along a few hundred feet away from the main truck.

From the bed of the truck, Ronjad controls the remote control car with his own personalize remote. "Easy now," Ronjad said, "The monster still out there Lovrina?"

She gazes through the back mirror and back into the truck. The orange static is still on the screen. She turns back to her boyfriend and nods, "Yep, that worm is still out there."

"Perfect," he mumbled, "Come on. Take the bait. Take the bait!" The toy buzzes along for a few more feet and then a monster's mouth pops out of the ground and swallows the car whole.

"Now for the fun part!" Ronjad said putting on a baseball cap and he began to flip a few switches on the remote, "You may want to cover your ears."

Both girls did that and plugged up their ears. Ronjad flipped one last switch and pressed a red button. All of a sudden, a huge explosion and a monstrous cry erupted from the ground. A huge blast of dust and dirt shot out of the ground and into the air. The monster was now dead.

"Alright!" both girls cheered and jumped up hugging each other, "It worked! It worked!" Ronjad kept low and opened up an umbrella. All of a sudden, debris and monster chunks came falling out of the sky and pelted the three of them, getting the girls the worse since they didn't cover themselves up.

Ronjad stood up and closed the umbrella. He turned to the girls were cover in gunk and had horrified looks on their faces. "And that's just the beginning!" he said handing both the girls towels, "Wipe yourselves off and wipe down the car with me! It's going to be a long day and it's not even 1 yet!"

It is now 6 o'clock and the team of hunters has returned back to the main base after a long day of hunting. So far they have killed at least 6 and they are still sure that there are more out there. Everyone is in the dinning hall and Luigi is serving them dinner.

"Sounds like you three did a number out," Jupiter said to the three as she bit into her food, "Soon this place will be up and running. Cipher once again return to its former glory with an official lab once again."

Ronjad winced at that comment and stood up. He then walked outside of the place. Greg asked Lovrina, "What's his problem?"

Ronjad stood alone outside the building and sighed. "I forgot why I was doing this in the first place," he thought to himself, "For Cipher? Why must I do this again? Oh yeah, I'm being blackmailed."

"You alright?" Dr. Carl asked him as he walked outside, "You seem a bit… on edge."

"Nothing important," Ronjad huffed in reply.

"Well," Dr. Carl said, "I like to say something. It's good that you are guys are destroying those beasts out there. But I'm a bit interested in those monsters and I want to study them. Is it possible for you to capture one alive?"

Ronjad didn't face him or response. He didn't like the sound of this. "As a biologist and stuff, I'm fascinated with the discovery of a new type of species for the animal or Pokemon kingdom. Like for you to bring one in so I can study it closely so science can understand these creatures better. What do you say about helping out the scientific world?"

Author Notice: Another chapter for the story and I think this one was good. I'm now finally going to dive into Ronjad's past a little bit more so you get a better understanding of him as he tries to remember.

May is over and school's out for most of us by now. It's time to look at the Top 5 Stories of the Month! The Top 5 of May are:

1. Haunted Memories By: HeroOfDarkness2005

2. Calvin At Camp By: Blue Paratroopa

3. Kingdom Hearts III: Trials of the Keyblade By: Darius Almighty

4. Pokemon Hearts: Daughter of a Hero By: Nothing Blade

5. Green With Envy By: NeDeN-CaNdY

I don't have much to say this month so I'll move onto the preview of the next chapter then. Next up, the team takes on an underground monster that'll lead them on a wild ride and need for backup out there in the desert. But who can they call to help them? Meanwhile, Ronjad will dive back into his memories to try to remember what he forgotten.

Next to Come: Chapter 22: Wild Ride

Date: 6/5/07

Reviewers: Colt-Man

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Shadow Guardian of the Gate

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