Ha ha ha! Sorry for the cliffhanger last time guys (not really but still...) Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Blue tossed and turned in his chair, trying to get comfortable on the hard wood but its solidity prevented sleep as much as coffee. Clair probably chose them for that reason exactly. Not that he slept on the job often. Blue took his job as a guard very seriously but he'd had the early morning shift that day and kept rubbing his drowsy eyes. Just because Clair didn't mind forfeiting sleep didn't mean that they all did.
The night shift was always bad no matter how late you stayed up usually but being in the most desolate area of the city didn't help and she was going to give this shift to Bruno!? Blue groaned aloud, cursing his decision but then again he couldn't make Bruno do it at his age. Blue was the youngest among the elite but he felt ancient when he compared his age to how old he'd been when he'd been the champion.
Clair was a devoted and determined leader, they couldn't have asked for anyone more fit for the job, but she often forgot that they didn't mind not sleeping for a few days.
He looked down the empty corridor and the empty staircase before throwing out his arcanine. The massive orange and black dog gave Blue a judgmental look as it realised why it had been called out.
Blue was patting down his ginger spikes like they were a cap he could put over his eyes when he caught Arcanine's gaze.
"Don't look at me like that," Blue grumbled, "You actually have the energy for the night shift." he shifted once more in his chair because closing his eyes sleepily, "Bark if anything interesting happens." he yawned and carefully placed the screen on his lap, making sure it wouldn't fall off and break.
Arcanine rolled its eyes but could understand how tired its trainer was. It sat down and perked up its ears, carefully watching the empty stone halls.
They were both still for a long while, when suddenly Aracanine's ear pricked up, hearing something muffled. Blue, who was sleeping very lightly, heard his Pokémon react.
"What is it boy?" he asked quietly but Arcanine was unsure, trying to listen more intently. It was definitely voices.
Arcanine barked to wake up Blue and he stirred. He stretched drowsily but then stopped suddenly. He heard the voices too.
"What should we do?" it was a young boy's voice.
"We could knock it down." suggested a feminine voice and Blue would have laughed had the moment not been so shocking. He grabbed for the screen and saw them there. A boy and a girl, probably fifteen years old, were there.
Blue shot off his seat and patted down his jacket, looking for the pad and pen he kept in one of the many pockets. He finally found it and scrawled a quick message before handing the scrap of paper to Arcanine.
"Tell Clair and any other members you find on your way there." Arcanine nodded quickly before Blue tucked the message into his collar and he bounded off.
Blue faced the large metal door and raised his hand to the key pad. He input the code and waited anxiously for the ancient machine to verify it. The door shuddered and the device glowed green, indicating it was unlocked. He threw the door open and came across the shocked faces of the teens, a hitmonlee which was rearing its legs, ready to knock down the door, and a ninetails behind them.
They all stopped and watched each other for a moment, assessing whether they were friend or foe but Blue decided to act to the protocol, which he hadn't revised in ages. To be honest, they'd given up all hope once it disappeared.
"Who are you and why are you here?" he asked, forgetting his own introduction. The girl's silver eyes were glaring at Blue with suspicion but the boy looked amazed. The feeling was mutual.
"My name is Steel."
"And I'm Copper." she returned Bruce and Jolie as a gesture of peace but kept her hands next to her belt just in case.
"And we're here because Professor and Oak said it would be a safe place."
Blue raised an eyebrow but didn't voice the problem with that. His eyes kept darting around, making it obvious to Copper and Steel that he was waiting for someone, "Do you have any Pokémon on you?" he asked but unlike the people at Azalea it wasn't suspicion, he genuinely sounded curious and then Steel remembered Morty's attitude. Here they were probably like him, regarding Pokémon battles as some kind of art.
"Yeah, I've got a feraligatr, a beedrill, a miltank, a gloom, a steelix and a pupitar."
Blue smiled, impressed, "That's a lot for someone so young." he turned to Copper, "And you?"
Copper nodded, "A meganium, a ninetails, a hitmonlee, a magneton and a dragonair." Copper felt no need to mention the sixth one that should have been there. She crossed her arms and met Blue's eyes, "What about you? We've told you our names and what we've got."
Blue nodded, he felt like he should have chuckled but it merely danced around his lips, "My name is Blue and I'm one of the elite here but I'm also a gym leader. I've got an arcanine, a machamp, a gyrados, an exeggutor, an alakazam and an aerodactyl."
Steel and Copper tried to repress the anger they felt at the mention of that Pokémon. An awkward silence fell over them. Blue's head kept twitching but no-one had come and he continued cursing Clair's lack of foresight at the creation of her tunnel.
"If you're a gym leader how come you don't specialise in a type?" Steel asked.
Blue shrugged, "The speciality thing is supposed to prove you've become a master of that type but I wanted to be able to beat any trainer." Copper nodded like she could appreciate that mindset.
All their heads turned to the staircase where loud footsteps and barking could be heard, Copper reached for her belt instinctively but Blue held out his hand to stop her.
"Wait," he ordered, "They're friendly. Relatively speaking." he added honestly. It was the attitudes of the league that got them here in the first place and though they had tried matters hadn't exactly helped.
Arcanine was the first to come into view and he bounded to his trainer, barking happily. Blue returned him to his pokéball and stepped to the side, presenting Copper and Steel to the six newcomers.
They were an odd bunch of people with at least two of them wearing pyjamas. The one at the front was obviously the leader who was very intimidating despite her bedraggled appearance.
She had shoulder length blue hair and wore an oversized black t-shirt along with tracksuit bottoms but the oddest part about her was the whip she carried in her right hand. She clenched it threateningly every so often as if she was daring people to make fun of her.
"My name is Clair, I'm the champion here. Who are you and why are you here?" she demanded, a much more serious echo of Blue.
"I'm Copper." her voice was bored from having to repeat herself.
"And I'm Steel. We're here because Professor Oak and Morty said it was safe here."
Clair gave a short, dry laugh. It sounded like a crack of a whip, "Those are the two people who couldn't have sent you."
Steel furrowed his eyebrows, "Why not?"
"Because they're both dead." Clair said bluntly.
"Morty's not dead!" Copper said and Clair narrowed her eyes.
"And how do you know that?"
"Because we met him in Cherrygrove and he told us to take your tunnel."
Clair turned to Steel, "What about Oak who I know for a fact is dead?"
Steel held up his wrist, "He didn't tell us in person!" something about Clair's gaze made him feel like he was at gun point, "It's just his message on the pokégear."
Clair opened her mouth to question them further but then she remembered the state of everyone there, "I'll need to hear your story in the meeting room. Blue, show them the way while Brock and I get some more appropriate clothes."
She cracked her whip to show the current conversation was over and she turned to go up the stairs along with a spiky haired man just in baggy olive trousers.
Blue turned to Copper and Steel and indicated with his arms to the corridor, "This way kids," Copper muttered something about detesting the words but they followed him anyway with the four others behind them.
The meeting room consisted of a massive table but that seemed to be just it. Blue and the others seemed to have specific chairs which they automatically made beelines for but Copper and Steel hovered until Blue asked them to sit opposite them.
Steel would have guessed the average age of them to be forty but one man looked older. His hair was almost completely grey and had a large bald patch. He and a woman with strawberry blonde hair acted friendly and introduced themselves as Bruno and Misty but the two other women were looking away and didn't introduce themselves. The younger of the two looked shy but the other acted like she just didn't want to be there.
They waited patiently for Brock and Clair to come in while Copper and Steel burned under the watchful eyes. Steel silently sighed in relief when the two finally entered, not really realising that they still had a story to tell. Clair sat at the head of the table while Brock sat next to Misty and Clair looked two the two trainers.
"Can you tell us your story from the start?" it was phrased like a question but felt like a command. Steel and Copper quickly exchanged glances, wondering who should start off.
Copper sighed and looked to the adults, "Well all you need to know about my background is that I had to live with the Zephyrs in Ecruteak City since I was about six until I knocked out Steel and he agreed to let me come with him."
"Did you say 'Zephyrs'? What do you mean by that?" Misty asked and Copper's eyes widened. How long had they been here?
"They're the group that pretty much runs Johto, but I don't know too much about Kanto, and they're run by Falkner." Clair nodded solemnly like Copper had confirmed her fears. She looked to Steel and indicated for him to speak.
"I've lived in Mount Mortar my entire life until I went outside to check I noise I heard. No-one was about but I found a pokégear and a totodile."
Steel continued his story with Copper cutting in every so often to tell her side of the story or correct him. The league listened intently and silently, only giving reactions to some of the more shocking facts but leaving their questions to the end. The attention was uncomfortable for Steel as was the realisation of how close he'd come to death. It felt so unreal despite the memories stuck in his mind that told him otherwise.
Once they finished with saying good-bye to Mike Steel perked up and looked Clair in the eyes, "Fran says that your altaria is fine..." Clair nodded with a far off look like she was remembering something, "but the earthquakes collapsed the den." it didn't feel right telling her this with so many others peering into the conversation but he didn't have to tell her explicitly. She understood by her face remained stoic.
They'd all experienced death. In a way it made Steel glad. He wanted to comfort Copper about Conrad but he just didn't understand she felt, at least the people here did.
Sorry for such a short chapter but I felt like I had to end it there. Welcome to the Indigo City where finally we'll get some answers! :D
Hope you enjoyed this chapter and please review if you have any questions about the story or want tp tell me how I can improve. :D