Well, let's get this chapter started. As usual, I'd like to thank Blaze-Lover, HeroGuardian, Sin of Dragons, eli W., WildCroconaw, Creation of Pokerus, and Southern Jaguar94 for their reviews. Also, I would like to thank WildCroconaw again for his review of chapter 19. That's about it, so…on with the chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
Blayze walked down one of the side streets of Goldenrod City, admiring a pink, diamond shaped badge in his hand. As he walked down the street, people stopped what they were doing and stared at the odd boy, who currently had a Hoothoot on perched on his head, flapping his tiny wings happily.
"Sandshrew and Beedrill did a great job in that Gym Battle, don't you think Hoothoot?" Blayze asked as he slipped his new badge into his pocket. Hoothoot chirped a happy tune, but whether it was in response to Blayze or just a random chirp Blayze didn't know. He really didn't care either.
"I hope you got a good feel from that Gym Battle Hoothoot, since we need to kick up our training so I can use you in my next Gym Battle. Between you, Houndoor, and Beedrill, we shouldn't have too much trouble at the Gym in Ecruteak City."
The only response from Hoothoot was the happy flapping of his tiny wings.
Blayze sighed. "You know, it might be a good idea to pay attention. One day it just might help you out."
As soon as those words left his mouth, Blayze ran into a traffic light pole. Groaning, he stepped back, clutching his face in pain. Hoothoot, oblivious to all this, continued flapping his wings.
"I hope you're happy," Blayze groaned, still clutching his face in pain. Just then, two police motorcycles flew down the road, their sirens wailing, going straight through a red light and turning left at down another side road.
"Wonder what's going on…" Blayze mumbled to himself, looking in the direction the motorcycles had went. Hoothoot's black crest on his head suddenly perked up, and he flew into the air, his eyes shooting a red beam in the direction the police had went. After a few seconds of staring, Hoothoot blinked, the beam winking out, and gave a worried hoot. He quickly set off in pursuit of the police, leaving Blayze behind.
"Hey, Hoothoot! Where are you going?" Blayze shouted as he watched his Pokémon fly away. Grumbling, he readjusted his backpack, and set off after the Owl Pokémon.
"You guys see anything?" Derek asked, looking up and down another street.
"Nothing on my end," Hunter said, looking in a store window and not seeing anything weird.
"Nothing here," Lilly said, sounding extremely bored.
"I think I might have found something," Brayden shouted, motioning to a nearby electronics store that had multiple televisions showing the same channel in the display window. It appeared to be showing an aerial shot of another office building. From the shot, the group could barely make out various objects being thrown or moved all throughout the building along with a crowd of people quickly running away from the seemingly "haunted" skyscraper.
"Think that's Rotom?" Hunter asked. He almost immediately received a slap to the back of his head from Lilly, smacking his face against the glass of the display window in the process.
"Of course that's Rotom. How many other electronically psycho ghosts do you see wandering this city destroying stuff?"
"I see what you mean," Hunter mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.
"Where is that building anyway?" Derek asked, trying to find a clue as to where it could be.
"No idea," Brayden replied. "Guess that means we're back to running up and down the streets looking for a big skyscraper that's destroying itself from the inside out. Shouldn't be too hard, right?"
Tyler quietly peeked around the corner of the wall, looking down a long, abandoned hallway. Not seeing anything, he stepped out from behind the protection of the wall, barely making a sound on the padded carpet.
"Anything?" Sara whispered, looking around the corner herself.
Tyler shook his head in reply and carefully continued forward, wary for any traps that might be waiting for him. Sara slowly followed after him, a hand resting on the Poké Balls on her belt. Nothing happened however, as the two managed to cross the entire length of the hallway to the stairwell without incident.
"This is so creepy," Sara mumbled. "Where is everyone? Shouldn't there at least be one person in this building?"
"Rotom most likely scared them away," Tyler replied, looking around. "But I wonder what kinds of things they do in this building."
"Probably something electronic related, considering Rotom chose it out of all the other skyscrapers in the city. After all, look at everything he's attacked. The water fountain was the closest electrical device in the park, the giant TV obviously had a lot of power running to it, and the Department Store was practically filled to the roof with electronic gizmos that Rotom could use."
"Well, there's one way to find out," Tyler said, walking over to one of the doorways.
"What are you doing?" Sara asked. Tyler ignored her, and instead kicked the door, the blow making a loud cracking sound. It almost immediately swung open, revealing a fairly spacious room inside.
"I've always wanted to do that," Tyler grinned happily as he stepped into the room, Sara following him while rolling her eyes.
"You know, there's this amazing new invention out there that lets you open a door without practically breaking it. It's called a doorknob. You know, it's that round thing that you twist and the big rectangle in your way magically swings open."
"Yeah, but what's the fun in that?" Tyler asked as he rummaged around in a desk, looking for, well, something Sara didn't want to even guess at what it was he was looking so diligently for.
While she was waiting for Tyler, Sara let her eyes wander the room. It seemed to be filled with various desks, each equipped with a computer. A giant bulletin board dominated a large portion of the far wall, and had various pieces of paper and reminders pinned to it. Next to the board stood a clear water tank with some cups stacked on top of it. However, the thing that captured Sara's attention though was a small, orange orb that seemed to be floating inside the tank.
"Uh, Tyler?" Sara said, taking a step back as the orange ball suddenly moved through the water by itself.
Tyler looked up from the desk, confused. "What is it Sara?"
"I think I just might have found our little friend," Sara replied, her eyes not leaving the tank. Following Sara's gaze, Tyler's eyes lit up as he saw what she had spied.
"There he is alright," Tyler said, nodding.
"What do you think he's doing?"
Tyler raised an eyebrow, a huge grin spreading across his face. "Why, isn't it obvious?" he asked. "That little rascal is getting a drink."
"What?" Sara asked a little too loudly as her focus turned away from Rotom to Tyler.
"Well, it's either that, or he's taking a swim, and I'm not entirely sure if Rotom can swim or not, so…"
"So in other words, you're just blindly guessing." Rolling her eyes, Sara returned her attention back to Rotom, only to find the little orange Pokémon was staring back at the two of them, a smirk plastered on his face.
"Uh oh," Tyler managed to say before the tap below the water barrel exploded, releasing a blast of pressurized water at Sara and Tyler. The torrent slammed into the two of them with a surprising force, knocking them both onto their backs, coughing and sputtering. Inside the rapidly emptying tank, Rotom laughed hysterically, tears practically coming to his eyes.
"Alright, I've had enough of these games," Sara grumbled, grabbing two of her Poké Balls and tossing them at the water machine. Mareep and Eevee both appeared in a flash of light, ready to battle. "Eevee, Helping Hand, Mareep, blast that machine with Thunder Shock."
Jumping straight into action, both Eevee and Mareep bounded forward, preparing their respective attacks. While Mareep gathered electricity from her wool, Eevee's tail had begun to glow with a golden light. With a cry, the energy from her tail shot out into five orbs and zoomed at her teammate, who absorbed the energy from the Helping Hand attack. Smirking, Mareep unleashed a blast of electricity from her wool at the water tank, the blast about twice as large as it usually would be.
Rotom, however, seemed completely undisturbed by the attack. In fact, he looked almost…amused. With a chuckle, the water spout below the tank suddenly exploded again, and the remaining water squirted out of the newly enlarged hole and collided with the Thundershock. Surprisingly, the water actually cut through the electricity with ease and promptly slammed into Mareep, soaking her fur and sending her sliding back behind Sara and Tyler into the wall.
"Mareep!" Sara cried, watching her Pokémon struggle to her feet. Meanwhile, Rotom was laughing hysterically inside the practically empty water tank. With one last grin, he shot down through the tank into the machine below, and promptly disappeared.
"Dang it, he's escaping through the electrical system," Tyler muttered as the water from the tank slowed down to a few drips, leaving a fairly soaked floor, two dripping Trainers, and one very wet Mareep behind. Sara began to run over to her fallen Pokémon, but was stopped when Tyler's arm shot out and grabbed her wrist.
"What do you think you're doing?" Sara asked, trying to pull away from him.
Tyler shook his head. "It's probably not the best idea to go over and try to touch Mareep right now. After all, her fur is the main storage place for her electricity, and now that it's all wet, you can get a pretty large shock if you try to go anywhere near her. In fact, I wouldn't doubt that she's shocking herself right now."
"Well then what am I supposed to do?" Sara grumbled, still trying to break free.
"Just return her to her Poké Ball until we can get to a Pokémon Center and have her all checked out. She should be nice and safe in there, right?"
Sara sighed, but still grabbed Mareep's Poké Ball from her belt with her free hand, aiming the dot in the center directly at the Wool Pokémon. "Take a rest Mareep," she mumbled, a red beam of light shooting out from the ball and engulfing her. Mareep gave one last bleat before she was sucked back inside of the sphere.
Sara returned the Poké Ball to her belt, before turning back to Tyler, who had finally released her from his grasp. "So, what now?"
Tyler grinned, showing a slightly subtle resemblance to his Rotom in the way he did so. "Why, we track him down again of course!"
Lilly sighed as she sat down on a miraculously free bench along the side of the street. Today was definitely not going how she had planned it. She had expected to do a bit of shopping, followed by relaxing in a park somewhere in the city with her Pokémon so they could be well rested for their Contest training tomorrow. Instead, she had been attacked and almost killed by a little orange thing, bribed into helping to look for it, and then walking pointlessly around the city for miles and not accomplishing anything whatsoever.
"I should have never agreed to this," she grumbled. "That guy better have something good to show me after this, or else he is seriously going to regret getting me caught up in this pointless search."
"Um, escuse me," a quiet, high-pitched voice suddenly said close to Lilly. Jerking her head to the right, Lilly saw a small child, probably only three or four years old, staring at her with wide eyes. He was dressed simply in a light blue shirt and a pair of white shorts, and one of his small hands clutched that of an older woman, most likely the boy's mother. "Who are you talking to lady?"
Lilly rolled her eyes. "Leave me alone kid, it's been a long day."
The little boy continued to stare at Lilly, as if fascinated by her. Taking a cautious step forward, he tentatively raised his tiny arm and poked her leg. Not seeing her react, he poked her leg again, receiving the same reaction. A small smile beginning to form on his face, the boy continued to poke Lilly. Soon, he was giggling uncontrollably, while Lilly was getting more and more annoyed with each successive poke.
Finally, she snapped.
"Cut it out you little brat!" she shouted, glaring at the annoying little pest. The boy was so startled at the sudden outburst that he stumbled backwards, tripping on his own two feet, and landed on the cold, hard concrete of the sidewalk. "Oh crap," she mumbled, seeing the boy's eyes start to water. "Sorry, didn't mean to startle you. Please don't cry."
Sniffling, the boy looked up at Lilly, and immediately screamed. He quickly scrambled to his feet and began tugging desperately at his mother's arm, trying to run away from a very confused Lilly. Meanwhile, the rest of the people in the crowd all turned to look at what the screaming was about, and after a few seconds most of them were staring in Lilly's direction with various expressions on their faces.
Lilly was about to ask them what in the world they were looking at when a loud, booming "Meta!" sounded directly behind her. Whirling around in surprise, Lilly came face to face with a large, silver UFO with two big red eyes. Unfortunately for her, the spinning around caused her balance to shift, and she began to fall backwards. Unable to straighten herself, she ended up falling down onto the concrete herself, landing awkwardly on her back with her legs still resting on the bench.
"Hey, you alright?" a slightly familiar voice asked. A few seconds later, Derek came into Lilly's line of sight, standing over her fallen form.
Rolling her eyes, Lilly swung her legs off of the bench and quickly stood up. "Give a girl a warning next time you sneak up on her, would ya?" she asked, brushing some of the dirt off of her clothes.
"Yeah… Sorry about that. Tyler's Metang is just a bit eager to get going. And truthfully, I'm surprised he waited long enough to find us so we could go along."
Lilly gave him a blank stare, not really getting what Derek was trying to say. "What in the world are you talking about?"
"Metang picked up on Rotom's electric wave things. I don't really understand what they are, but apparently, Rotom gives off some sort of signal that Metang can pick up on and then follow it. Brayden does a better job of explaining it than I do."
"So wait, you're telling me that you guys found Rotom?" Lilly asked, eyeing him suspiciously.
"Well, yeah, pretty much. Brayden and Hunter are waiting for us a few blocks away, so we need to get going. Are you ready?"
"I've been ready to find that dang Rotom for hours now. The sooner we get this done, the sooner I can go back to my room and get some rest."
"Tell me again why we're still in this building," Sara said as both she and Tyler ran up another flight of stairs, both of them taking two at a time. "I thought we needed to find Rotom. Why would he still be in the building if people know he's there?"
"Because I don't think Rotom has messed with the thing he came here to mess with," Tyler replied. "You can find water machines everywhere, so there must be something else in this building that made him want to come here. And whatever that thing is, I doubt he would leave this place without first toying with it."
"Are you sure? I mean, there are plenty of other electric things all over this city. I don't think Rotom would stick around in a place he knows is possibly dangerous to his running around when there are other nice targets probably just down the street. I mean, we haven't even seen anything worth his while here. Who's to say that-"
Sara's speech was abruptly caught off by a loud, ear-splitting scream from above them. Judging by the pitch from the shriek, Sara guessed that it most likely came from a young girl, as it was a fairly high frequency.
Still climbing the stairs, Tyler looked back and grinned at Sara. "What were you saying again?"
Rolling her eyes, Sara said, "Fine, you win. Happy now? Either way, it sounds like Rotom might be terrorizing someone, so we might want to hurry up before Rotom does something that could possibly hurt that poor little girl."
"Already on it," Tyler said, pulling out a Poké Ball from his coat pocket. "Quilava, help us out would ya?" Not breaking stride, Tyler tossed his red and white sphere up through a gap in the middle of the switchback staircase, sending his Poké Ball all the way up to the top floor, where it released its contents in a flash of white light. "Scout that floor out for us and see if you can find Rotom!"
"Quil!" was the response from Tyler's Pokémon up above, followed by the quick pitter-patter sound of his feet as he ran off to go search the upper-most floor.
"So now what? Do we wait for Quilava to find Rotom or do we follow him?" Sara asked, trying to keep up with Tyler's fast pace up the stairwell.
"What? No way! It will be quicker if we search the top floors as well. 'Sides, that scream could have come from either of the upper two floors, and Quilava's only searching the very top one. So we should handle the one directly below it."
"Well then," Sara said, grabbing two Poké Balls from her belt and enlarging them in her hand, "let's make sure we can finish our floor quickly so we can help out Quilava or vice-versa. Eevee, Butterfree, help us search."
With a toss, Sara threw the two Poké Balls ahead of her, releasing both Eevee and Butterfree on one of the landings where the staircase switched back on itself. As Tyler and Sara reached the landing and turned to climb the next set of stairs, they followed, Eevee hoping up the large steps as fast as she could and Butterfree simply flying ahead of the pack to scan the way ahead.
It only took them about thirty seconds to climb all of the stairs and for Tyler to kick open the door to the floor directly below the top level, even though it was already ajar. As Sara rolled her eyes once again, Tyler rolled into the hallway headfirst and landed in a crouch, holding his right hand out with his pointer and middle fingers pointing outward in a bad imitation of a gun.
"What do you think you're doing now?" Sara asked as she and her Pokémon entered the hallway behind him, all of them staring at Tyler.
Tyler turned his head and smiled at Sara. "Well, don't people always roll into a hallway in movies and stuff? Especially when they're on secret missions or are trying to be sneaky."
"But we're not in a movie," Sara pointed out, shaking her head. "Also, aren't we supposed to be looking for that screaming girl? There's no time to be fooling around trying to be like an action hero."
"Geeze, you're no fun at all." Still smiling, Tyler stood up and walked over to the first doorway, throwing it open so he could look inside. Sara followed his lead and quickly looked in another room, scanning for anything out of order.
Following the same procedure, each Trainer would open a door in the hall and look into the room inside for Rotom or the screaming girl. Halfway down the hall, however, there was a loud bang from above them, followed by a second scream and a cry of "Quuuuuuiiiiii!"
"Quilava!" Tyler shouted, adding to the noise in the building. Not even bothering to glance at Sara, he ran back down the hallway to the stairwell and began climbing, taking three stairs at a time.
"Hey, wait up Tyler!" Sara called after him, but to no avail. Sighing, she looked over at Eevee and Butterfree, who were gazing at her with expressions of confusion and worry etched on their faces. "Come on you guys, let's go after him. After all, I think he could use our help."
Her Pokémon both gave a nod of approval, and the three of them raced down the hallway, trying to catch up with their fleeing friend.
Tyler burst onto the top floor hallway, not even caring at this point at trying to be sneaky. Taking a quick scan of his surroundings he saw that the upper floor was much fancier than the floors below it. In fact, it didn't even have a hallway. The door from the stairs led straight into a giant open room that functioned as a waiting area in the front complete with padded leather sofas and a working area with multiple desks stationed behind a large counter. Besides the doors to the bathroom and for a couple of elevators, the only other doors on this florr were three large, red wooden rectangles in the very back of the room. As he got closer to them, Tyler saw that these three doors were actually decorated fairly lavishly, complete with a golden plaque stating the name of a person and a fancy looking doorknob.
The main difference between the three doors, however, was that the one in the center had been blown off of its hinges, and lay smoldering in two pieces on a nearby office desk. Not only that, but the empty doorway and the area around it was covered in soot, most likely due to a fire from his Quilava.
Concern for his Pokémon flooded through his body, blocking out all other thoughts. Charging straight ahead, Tyler leaped over the counter and ran straight for the open doorway, not even bothering to hide his presence. In fact, he literally barreled his way into the open room, knocking over a small bookshelf in his haste.
Inside, the office was a wreck. Papers and glass were scattered all over the floor, and multiple burn and scorch marks decorated the walls and ceiling. All of the furniture was also badly damage and some were even overturned, as in the case of two other larger bookshelves. Tyler barely noticed any of this, however, as his eyes went straight towards the fried form of his Quilava, who was lying on the cranberry red carpet, unconscious.
"Quilava!" Tyler shouted again, bounding over to his fallen Pokémon and scooping him up in his arms. The long, weasel like creature hung limply in his arms, barely breathing. The blue fur that covered the top part of his body was singed while the cream colored fur that covered his belly, arms, legs, and face was matted and dirty.
A quiet chuckle suddenly echoed throughout the room, causing Tyler to spin around and almost loose his hold on Quilava. Gazing around the room, Tyler's eye caught a small, blue device sitting on a large wooden desk that took up a large majority of the office. Going over to investigate it, his foot accidentally bumped into the base of a lamp that was missing its shade and was sitting on the floor, causing it to fall over and shatter the light bulb.
As he quickly stepped over the mess he had made on the floor, Tyler's ears suddenly caught what sounded like a quiet whining noise coming from the desk. His curiosity piqued, he walked around to the back of the wooden stand, only to jump back in surprise when he almost stepped on a short, very fat middle-aged man. His brown suit was torn and wrinkled, and he looked absolutely terrified about something as he huddled partially in the rectangular space in the desk that usually was home to a person's feet.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?" Tyler asked, nudging the man with his foot. In response, the man slowly raised one large, pudgy finger towards the ceiling, his eyes wide with terror. Carefully, Tyler lifted his head to gaze at what the shaking man was trying to show him. There, hovering right below the ceiling was his small, orange Rotom, who was smirking down at the two humans below. Tyler's eyes locked with Rotom's with just a brief second, his filled with frustration and anger and Rotom's filled with mischief and happiness.
A moment later, Rotom sprang at his head.
"Eevee, Helping Hand, Butterfree, let loose a Confusion!" a familiar voice cried from the doorway. A split second later a look of pain crossed Rotom's face as he was blasted into the wall by a powerful psychic energy. Turning his head, Tyler saw Sara standing in the doorway with her arms crossed across her chest, Eevee and Butterfree in fighting stances next to her. "You alright over there Tyler?" she asked.
"Uh…yeah," Tyler said, giving her a small smile, "but Quilava's been hurt pretty badly. I think Rotom snuck up on him and did a good deal of damage to him that way."
As the two humans talked, Rotom struggled against the psychic bonds that had been placed on him, trying to get free. After a few more seconds of struggling, an idea suddenly popped into his little head. Smirking, he quickly let his body become intangible, letting him slide through the wall and out of Butterfree's mental grasp. With a chuckle he emerged from the ceiling a few seconds later, his body sparking with electricity as he shot a Thundershock at Butterfree. Not seeing Rotom emerge, Butterfree was hit by the electric bolt, making him cry out in pain as he almost lost control of his flying.
"We'll talk later," Sara said, turning her attention back to Rotom. "Eevee, distract that Rotom with a Growl."
Leaping forward immediately, Eevee lowered herself in a deep crouch and growled about as menacingly as she could manage, all the while glaring at Rotom. In response, Rotom blinked once, twice, not really seeming to understand what he was seeing. Finally, after a few seconds of silence, he burst out in hysterical laughter, tears even coming to his eyes. Annoyed, Eevee Growled again, which only caused Rotom to laugh even harder, the structure of his body actually beginning to shift as the plasma was disrupted by the vibrations.
"Now use Confusion while he's distracted Butterfree!"
"Free!" Butterfree shouted as he let loose his revenge. Rotom was so busy laughing at Eevee that he didn't even notice the psychic bonds wrap around him until it was too late. Gasping in shock as the mental attack began to compress his body, Rotom began struggling in midair against the attack, trying to break free somehow like before.
"Great job Butterfree. Tyler, I think now might be a good time to end this, don't you agree?" Sara asked, glancing over at Rotom's Trainer.
"Oh, yeah…uh, right!" Tyler said as he began rummaging around his belt and his pockets for Rotom's Poké Ball. After a few seconds of frantic searching, he sighed with relief when he pulled the tiny red and white sphere out of his pocket. "Alrighty then, get back in here Rotom."
Lifting the orb into the air, Tyler carefully took a few seconds to aim at the Plasma Pokémon, making sure that his recall wouldn't miss the target.
As the red beam of light began to traverse its way across the room, the wall facing the outside buckled and exploded, knocking everyone in the room back showering the room with dust and debris.
A happy cry of "Meta!" suddenly filled the room, and a few seconds later, Tyler found himself being lifted out from underneath a pile of rubble. Blinking a few times to get the grime out of his eyes, Tyler smiled when he recognized his starter Pokémon happily staring at him while holding him in the air with one of his giant metallic claws.
"I don't know about you guys, but I've had enough bursting through walls hundreds of feet in the air today to last me a lifetime," a new voice groaned from somewhere within the dust cloud.
"Ugh, is that you Derek?" Sara's voice asked from somewhere to Tyler's left. "Because if it is you, then I am going to kill you."
"Someone's in a bad mood," a feminine voice taunted through a groan. "Oh god, it's going to take forever to get this dirt out of my clothes."
"What the…? Lilly? What in the world are you doing here?" Sara asked, both shocked and annoyed at the same time.
"Rota!" Rotom cried, followed by the same shriek that had led Sara and Tyler to the room in the first place.
"Get it away! Get it away!"
"I'm so confused," Tyler mumbled, shaking his head. "Metang, blow this dust away with a Confusion attack, would ya?"
"Tang!" Metang cried as he blasted the obscuring particles away with a burst of energy from his mind. It was a bit strong, however, as one of the bookcases directly opposite him crumbled into a pile of splintered wood and glass, among other unidentifiable things.
His vision now free from the obscuring dust, Tyler glanced quickly around the room to take in his surroundings. He and Metang were near the center of the wreckage, hovering in the air. Sara was on his left, along with her two Pokémon. Eevee's tail had been caught under a rock, and she was trying with all her might to free herself, while Butterfree was trapped underneath a pile of rocks, the edge of his wing barely sticking out of the bottom of the pile to show he was there. Meanwhile, four new people had entered through Metang's hole in the wall, which gave an excellent view of the city. Derek and Hunter were among these people, as were a girl with blond hair and an older teenager who looked like he worked out a lot.
And there, in the left-hand corner of the room, sat the fat guy with the remains of his desk that he had been trying to hide under before. Rotom was flying and zooming around him, smirking to himself as he terrified the poor man, who was screaming and shouting, "Get it away!" over and over again.
Even with the seriousness of the situation, Tyler couldn't stop a small smile tug at the corners of his mouth at the scene in front of him. "Guess we better help him, eh Metang? Try another Confusion."
With a grunt, Metang launched another mental assault, this time aiming for his own rouge teammate. However, Rotom wasn't going to fall for the same trick yet again, and he defiantly zipped his way into one of the walls of the building. The Confusion attack slammed into the corner instead, carving another large hole into the office and making the man below shriek in a very high-pitched voice.
"Whoops," Tyler mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Idiot," Lilly grumbled. "If you keep on attacking like that, you're going to bring the roof down, with us still under it."
Giggling, Rotom reappeared from the safety of the wall, and made a b-line towards Metang.
"Take it out with Metal Claw! And, uh, try not to destroy anything you shouldn't!"
Rolling his eyes, Metang immediately swung one giant, metallic arm in front of him, the three claws attached on the end glowing silver. It wasn't the best move, however, as Rotom easily zipped upwards, dodging the attack with ease. Grunting, Metang swung his other arm around, only meeting with similar results as Rotom ducked, allowing the arm to pass over him. As the arm finally cleared his head, Rotom stuck his tongue out at Metang, clearly trying to anger him.
His tactic clearly worked, as Metang narrowed his two red eyes and began swinging his arms wildly, just trying to hit the annoying little pest. Rotom proved to be too fast though, as he dodged every single swing with ease, laughing all the way. Eventually, after dodging a double arm thrust from Metang, Rotom unexpectedly zoomed forward and landed on Metang's pointy nose.
"Rota," he said happily, waving one of his little lightning bolt arms at the Iron Claw Pokémon. Metang glared back at the Plasma Pokémon, slowly raising one of his arms in preparation to strike.
With a booming cry of "Meta!" Metang brought his steel arm down in an attempt to crush the annoying Electric and Ghost-type on his nose.
But Rotom was no longer there. A few moments before the plated arm came down, Rotom zipped to the side, completely dodging the attack. Seeing this too late, Metang barely had a half a second to comprehend what he saw before his arm came crashing down on his own face, sending a shutter of pain rippling though his body as the thick arm dented his armor.
"Metang!" Tyler cried as he saw his Pokémon collapse in a big heap on the floor. Rotom, meanwhile, was laughing as hard as ever, apparently finding the whole situation highly amusing. The laughing was abruptly cut off, however, when a stream of blue and orange flames and a blot of electricity came out of nowhere and struck his side, sending him flying.
"Good job Elekid, Dratini."
Looking over to his right where the two attacks had come from, Tyler saw the muscular teen that had come with his Metang stood with two Pokémon, who were both glaring at the stunned Rotom currently lying on the floor.
"You know," the Brayden said, glancing over at Tyler, "you may want to recall that thing while it's stunned. There's no need for this battle to go on any longer than it needs to."
"It would have been over by now if you guys hadn't come flying through that wall," Sara grumbled quietly while she worked to free her Eevee from the wreckage.
"Uh, yeah, right," Tyler mumbled, reaching for Rotom's Poké Ball at his belt. To his surprise, he couldn't find the little sphere, and suddenly remembered that he had the ball before the wall had caved in, but he didn't recall having it in his hand when Metang picked him up.
"That's not good," he said, falling to the floor and beginning to look among the wreckage for the container.
"What are you doing?" the Brayden shouted. "Hurry up and recall that thing while you can!"
"I would if I could! I lost Rotom's Poké Ball somewhere when Metang and you guys came crashing in!"
"Oh, well that's just great," Lilly grumbled, rolling her eyes. "You couldn't hold on to the one thing that has a chance of stopping that Rotom without having to knock it out?"
Meanwhile, Rotom stirred on the ground and groaned quietly to himself. Summoning his strength, he sat up and shook his head, trying to get his vision to focus.
"Bi bi," Braydon's Elekid growled, getting the attention of the squabbling humans.
"Just hurry up and find that Poké Ball," Braydon said. "We'll hold Rotom off. Right guys?"
"Sure," Derek said, grabbing a ball from his belt. "Cyndaquil, help us out!"
Lilly sighed. "I just want to get this over with so I can take a nice, long nap. Chikorita, Pichu, get out here and kick that stupid Rotom's butt."
The three Pokémon were released in a flash of light, and with the help of Elekid and Dratini, surrounded the recovering Plasma Pokémon. Rotom, meanwhile, merely smirked at the display, not fazed in the slightest.
Giving a sideways glance at his companions, Brayden asked, "You going to help us out Hunter?"
Hunter gave an apologetic smile and shook his head. "Mankey's the only Pokémon I've got that's still fit for battle, and sending him out would be suicide." Looking around, he noticed Sara was still busy trying to get the giant chunk of plaster off of Eevee's tail. "I'll go help Sara," he said, and before anyone could say anything against him, he ran off to assist her.
"Now then, use Thundershock and Dragon Rage!" Braydon shouted, pointing one large finger at the now hovering Rotom.
"Pichu, use your own Thundershock, and go ahead and hit him with a Razor Leaf Chikorita," Lily said, crossing her arms.
"Cyndaquil! Use…" Derek began before pausing, remembering that it took a little while for Cyndaquil to warm up. "Uh…just run around in circles to try to get your fire going!"
Cyndaquil looked back at Derek, raising a single eyebrow, but still did what he said, and began running around and around, trying to get warmed up so he could activate his flame. Meanwhile, the other four Pokémon set about on readying their respective attack, all of their eyes trained on Rotom. About a second later, each of them gave a loud shout, and unleashed a barrage of attacks.
Both Elekid and Pichu both unleashed a bolt of yellow electricity, each of them arcing through the air in a direct line towards Rotom. Next to Elekid, Dratini let loose a spray of blue and orange flames from his maw, and finally, Chikorita swung the top leaf on her head in a circle, and unleashed a flurry of surprisingly sharp leaves at her opponent.
In the midst of it all, with four attacks coming at him from all angles, Rotom just hovered there, smirking. Almost mockingly he simply floated higher in the air, allowing all four attacks to go under him and each hit one of their fellow Pokémon. Both Dratini and Chikorita cried out in discomfort as the electricity from the Thundershocks passed through their bodies, while Elekid had his skin sliced multiple times by sharp leaves from the Razor Leaf and Pichu was completely enveloped in flames.
"Don't let him do that to you guys! Dratini, snag him with a Twister."
"Dra," Dratini cried in response. Opening his maw once again, this time a swirling gale of wind came flying out, honing in on Rotom. With an annoyed "tch," Rotom countered the Twister by unleashing a blast of electricity, stopping the attack in its tracks.
"Hit him with a Razor Leaf while his back is turned Chikorita!"
"Chika!" Chikorita shouted as she whipped the leaf on her head in a circle, unleashing a flurry of leaves at the end of the arc. Rotom simply rolled his eyes and faded out, dodging the attacks easily. He then reappeared next to the startled Grass-type and sent a multicolored ball of energy at her. The orb simply popped in front of Chikorita's face, putting her in a daze.
"A Confuse Ray," Lily grumbled. "Pichu, Thunder Punch it."
Pichu immediately leaped forward, her tiny fist crackling with electricity. Swinging wildly at Rotom, she grinned when she felt her fist connect with soft flesh. The only problem was, the soft flesh that she hit that she thought belonged to Rotom actually belonged to Chikorita, who groaned and crumpled on the ground, sparks covering her body. Above them, Rotom began chuckling to himself, amused by the proceedings below him.
"No! Chikorita!"
"Nothing's working!" Brayden grumbled. "We need to find a way to slow it down… Elekid, try a Thundershock, and keep it up until you hit that darn thing."
Waving his arms in a windmill-like pattern, Elekid began generating electricity in his two plug-like extensions at the top of his head. With a cry, he launched his attack, which headed straight for the floating Rotom. Just like the attacks before, Rotom simply dodged it, this time by sidestepping to the right. Grunting, Elekid adjusted his aim, but Rotom proved to be elusive, zooming this way and that in order to dodge all of Elekid's attacks. Eventually he flew past Cyndaquil, who was still running around in circles, and the Electric attack struck him, taking the Fire-type by surprise.
Angry about being attacked, Cyndaquil's back immediately burst into flame, and he launched an Ember attack in the direction the Thundershock had come from. Elekid hissed as the tiny fireballs seared his skin, crossing his arms in front of his body to try to shield himself a bit.
"Cyndaquil, stop it!" Derek shouted.
Hearing his Trainer's command, Cyndaquil stopped his attack, and, seeing what he had accidentally done, shot an apologetic look over at Elekid. Rotom, however, found the whole ordeal amusing, and gave his trademark laugh. It was at that moment, however, when a bright beam of red light passed through him. Out of nowhere, a Hoothoot bravely flew forward and slammed into Rotom, knocking him out of the air.
"Hey, who said you guys could have a party without me?" a voice shouted from the doorway of the building. Everyone, Pokémon and human alike, all turned at once to the new arrival to the scene. There, in the doorway, stood Blayze with his arms crossed and a grin on his face.
"Blayze?" Sara, Derek, and Lily all shouted at once. Then, Sara asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I have absolutely no idea," Blayze replied. "All I know is that my Hoothoot suddenly flew off without me, and I just spent the last half hour or so running after him, and somehow we ended up here. Now the next question is, what are you guys doing here?"
While they were talking, Rotom grunted and picked himself off the ground, glaring at the Hoothoot. With a growl he blasted the annoying owl with his own bolt of electricity. Hoothoot cried out in pain as the currents pulsed through his body, and it took all that he had to just stay in the air.
Seeing what was happening, Blayze said, "Talk later, battle now. By the way, that Foresight Hoothoot used just now allows moves that don't normally affect Ghost-types to work, which means you can hit him with Normal and Fighting-type moves now. Anywho, Hoothoot, launch Confusion now!"
Diving towards his opponent, Hoothoot's eyes began to glow blue, and Rotom was slammed back into the ground by the power of the Owl Pokémon's mind.
"How about we help them out? Dratini, tie that Rotom up with a Bind," Brayden said, a smile on his face as the battle turned in their favor. His Dratini sprang forward and wrapped his long, serpentine body around Rotom's smaller body, crushing it. This didn't last long though, as Rotom used another Thundershock in retaliation, sending a blast of electricity pulsating through Dratini's body. The Dragon-type cried out in pain from the attack, and quickly let his pray go, who quickly zoomed up into the air.
Meanwhile, Sara, Hunter, and his Mankey had finally lifted the piece of plaster off of Eevee's tail, and the four of them began walking over to the rest of the group to see if they could help out with.
"Pichu, distract it with a Charm so Chikorita can hit him with a Poison Powder," Lilly cried. As an afterthought, she added, "And would someone find that damn Poké Ball already?"
"I'm doing my best!" Tyler shot back, still on his hands and knees looking everywhere for the tiny sphere.
"Someone help him already," Brayden grumbled.
As the battle continued to rage, Pichu winked at Rotom and giggled. Rotom stared at the tiny mouse, confused at her sudden change in attitude. While he was distracted, Chikorita snuck up behind him and slapped his back with her leaf, releasing a cloud of poisonous spores. She smiled to herself as Rotom began coughing, before slamming her head against the ground, her confusion kicking in.
"Nice," Derek said. "Cyndaquil, Ember him!"
"Quil!" Cyndaquil shouted as he opened his mouth. A flurry of his tiny fireballs came rushing out, headed for the right target this time. Rotom, however, was ready for the attack, and blocked it with a blast of electricity.
Blayze rolled his eyes. "You've got to do better than that Derek. Hoothoot, swoop in for a Tackle while he has his back turned."
Hoothoot did exactly as his trainer ordered. While Rotom was busy dealing with Cyndaquil, he simply dove and crashed into the tiny orange being, breaking his concentration and sending him stumbling straight into the Ember attack.
"Uh, thanks," Derek mumbled, rubbing the back of his head.
Blayze simply shrugged. "No prob. Say, how did this Rotom get here anyway?"
"Long story," Tyler replied as he, Sara, Hunter, and their Pokémon continued to search for Rotom's Poké Ball.
"Swift Elekid, and Dragon Rage Dratini," Brayden grumbled.
The two Pokémon stood side by side, and quickly launched each of their attacks, Elekid with a flurry of stars and Dratini with a stream of flames. The two attacks met in midair and combined, creating a swirling blast of multicolored, flaming stars. Rotom grinned and zipped to the side, allowing the attack to pass him. Unfortunately for him, the Swift attack turned in midair and slammed into Rotom's back, bringing a gasp of surprise from the Plasma Pokémon. The stars pummeled his body, slamming him into the ground.
"Wow," Lily said, impressed, "you really are a skilled Coordinator."
"Was there really ever any doubt?" Brayden replied, a small smile on his face. The smile was quickly replaced, however, with a frown. "Could you find that freaking Poké Ball already?"
"I'm going as fast as I- Hey!" Tyler cried. Smiling, he stood up and triumphantly held the ball above his head.
"Great, now let's get this over with," Lilly grumbled. "Pichu, distract it with Charm again."
Pichu jumped forward once again smiling and waving happily at Rotom. Rotom, however, growled and exhaled a gale of foul-smelling, purple wind. Pichu cried out in disgust as she was blown away, tumbling head over heels until she was finally stopped by a large piece of plaster.
"Hoothoot, grab him with a Confusion!" Blayze shouted.
Once again, Hoothoot swooped down towards the Rotom below him, his eyes glowing blue. A blue outline appeared around the Plasma Pokémon, freezing him in place despite his struggles.
"Now Tyler!" Brayden shouted.
Tyler nodded, enlarging the Poké Ball in his hand. "Right! Rotom, return!" he shouted as a red beam of light shot out of the orb. Rotom, finally immobile, had no chance at all of dodging this one, and the red beam of light sucked him inside the sphere, sealing the trouble maker inside.
A few seconds of silence followed, everyone slightly on edge still from the battle. Finally, Sara asked, "Is it over?"
Looking down at the Poké Ball in his hand, Tyler whispered, "Yeah, we finally got him back."
"Great," Lilly said, sinking to her knees. "Can we go take a break now? My feet are killing me."
Everyone laughed Lily's remark, even Lily herself. The laughing lasted a few minutes in total, all of them just relieved that the whole ordeal was over.
"Come on," Tyler said, grinning. "Let's get out of here."
Oh man, thank goodness that's over. Another giant chapter that's over 8,000 words. That's more than last chapter, but ironically, it was about a page shorter. I really had to just bunker down and keep on slugging this one out until it finally was all done. But still, wow. Compared to the first couple of chapters, this one is 8 times as large word count wise. Kind of explains why updating has been really slow. And as always, I need to apologize for the delay on this one. It seems all I ever do is miss deadlines that I promise for when my chapters come out. So I'm sorry.
So, the Rotom was stopped. Took them long enough. This has to be the longest battle I've written where one Pokémon just refuses to faint or give up. Still, a lot of it was just the whole group running around looking for him, so…
And Blayze saves the day with his new Hoothoot! Where would we be without our spiky-haired friend? The world would be a sadder place, that's for sure. Or at least, Goldenrod City would have been terrorized by a Rotom for a longer period of time.
So, where do we go from here? Well truthfully, I really need to go back and start reediting some of the past chapters. They're…how should I say it…bad. Definitely not up to my standards nowadays. I think that's one of the big problems I have with this story at the present is the beginning. Every time I look at my less experienced writing I just shake my head and sigh, and it kind of stops me from wanting to continue on. Plus, there are a few problems I've discovered with some things that I need to fix for later chapters for various reasons. So you can see why I really need to go back and do some fixing. I can tell you though, that I'll keep on working on the next chapter, which will feature a Gym Battle. Oh, and the fat guy that screams like a girl will also be in the next chapter too.
Well, that's about it really. Expect some edited chapters to start going up soon, as well as the next chapter of TFP in a few weeks. And don't forget to review, yeah?