Notice: Note the lack of a disclaimer, which you must notice has been replaced by a notice, which, as noted, is here to notify you of the lack of a disclaimer, which has been replaced by a notice, the purpose of which is to make you notice the lack of a disclaimer as it has been replaced by a notice as this notice is here to make you...
Pluto had been a prisoner for longer than she cared to count. She had been kept in a cell of sorts, but she wasn't being treated badly. Quite the contrary. Her room, while sparse, contained some gym equipment and a television, which included cable and a large catalogue of DVD's, some of which she was certain hadn't been released yet. Giovanni had explained to her that she was a bargaining chip, which was why they had kept her under lock. When she had refuted that suggestion, saying that Saturn didn't even really want her back, she swore she saw Giovanni's eyebrow twitch. She felt like she wanted to scream. She barely got to talk to anybody, and she was not one for idle chatter anyway.
But she wouldn't scream. 'I won't let them win. I'm better than these people. I won't.'
'I won't.'
"You know...you've only just earned yourself this badge. It was very close." Gardenia said as she handed over a green badge, which consisted of an emerald-coloured square with two smaller squares, attached to two adjacent sides. "Whilst you acquitted yourself well, more so with your charmeleon as cherrim is my second strongest pokemon, you did possess super effective moves against both my pokemon, so that wasn't much of a surprise. However, you nearly didn't do enough simply because you need a bigger team. Most trainers already have three to five pokemon by the time they reach my gym, and you only have two. I believe that Maylene, on principle, doesn't give out a badge to any trainer with less than four pokemon in their team unless she loses six pokemon in a one-on-one battle against a trainer, which hasn't happened before."
Aron gladly accepted the badge, saying, "I guess...also, do you know where to get Cut? I heard you used to hand that HM out, but that it got too expensive to continue doing so."
"Ah, they're in the souvenir shop with all the other HM's. However, you're only qualified to own Cut and Rock Smash." She snorted.
"What?"
"Well...it's just...Rock Smash...It sucks."
"Oh. Well, thanks anyway! Good luck, Isrea! I'll watch your match after I grab a HM. We'll just share it." Aron yelled out to Isrea, who was making her way to the battlefield.
As they headed towards the Landing Bay in Hearthome City, Palkia looked worriedly at Celebi. The axew hadn't spoken to anybody for several days and he seemed extremely downcast as he wearily shuffled along, with Lael walking beside him.
"You all right, Palk- Sharon? You seem...I dunno, down." Sean and Palkia had spent the last night debating the difference between 'Sharon' and 'Palkia'. Eventually, they had just decided, for simplicity's sake, to only use 'Sharon'.
Palkia shook her head, waving a hand in Celebi's direction. "Nah, I'm fine. It's Celebi I'm worried about. He hasn't said anything for days."
Isrea decided to get the worst part of the battle over with first. There wasn't much point in prolonging the inevitable, so she sent Vendel out first.
"Come on Vendel, every second you stay up is an extra point for us, figuratively speaking, of course. The points are a lie." She said as Vendel cautiously walked out to face a bellossom.
"A prinplup? I don't really see any strategy that would result in you leading with a prinpulp, but whatever." Gardenia remarked as Vendel ran at her bellossom. "Halua, you know what to do."
Lucas hugged his mother.
"Yeah, I've been up to quite a bit." He sighed.
His mother noticed the action and with a concerned face, she beckoned for the dinner table, "Is everything alright? Don't worry, you can tell me everything."
'Can I?'
Vendel closed the distance between him and his opponent in a reasonably short time, and was surprised that he hadn't been knocked out yet. He knew that the only attacks he could feasibly use were Metal Claw (he didn't know why it was named as such — he didn't have claw) and maybe Peck, and as such, he promptly started throwing punches willy-nilly, his flippers leaving short dancing white trails of light behind them as Halua evaded every single wild swing.
'Dammit! Why. Won't. You. Stay. Still!' Vendel thought as he continued throwing punches, all of which were avoided with ease.
'Okay then, time to mix it up.' Vendel bought his head back for a peck, and managed to score a hit, knocking the bellossom backwards slightly.
"Hmph. You took your time." She said as she closed her eyes and quickly spun around, sending several leaves whizzing towards Vendel, which he only just avoided.
"Hard to hit, eh? Let's see your happy feet after you get a whiff of this!" This time, the bellossom squirted a liquid from the flower on her head, which dissipated into the air.
"Vendel! Move away from that stuff! Whatever it is, it can't be good!" Vendel heard his trainer's frantic call, and began to run away from Halua, but just before he could, he caught a whiff of something sweet...
'Woah...that smells really nice...' Vendel stopped to get a handle on the intriguing smell, as several leaves slashed at his body.
"Arhg!" He yelled as he stumbled backwards. However, his movements seemed a little slow, and everything in front of him was tinged a funny shade of yellow which wavered slowly, as though he were underwater. Try as he might, his reactions seemed to have slowed down, and he only managed to dodge another salvo of leaves before copping an entire bunch of leaves to the head.
As his vision began to darken around the edges, and he felt Isrea call him back to his pokeball, he wondered aloud.
"What was that smell?"
Firael and Alexa, both groggy, both came to in their Glass Ball.
"Ugh..." Firael mumbled...
"That was not our finest moment." Alexa agreed.
"I have to admit though, that lazor thing was unexpected..."
The next pokemon Isrea decided to send out was Rush. As she did so, Gardenia withdrew her bellossom and sent out a green humanoid pokemon with flowers for hands, one of which was blue and other a lilac colour.
"Rose! Use sword dance! Let's end this quickly." Gardenia shouted. Rush rolled his eyes.
"Really? Rose? What kind of name is that? Couldn't your trainer have been a little more creative? I mean...that's like giving me a name like 'Star' or...I dunno." Rush asked the roserade, who looked a little put out.
"I like my name." She said as she started dancing, wildly waving her arms around as a red glow began to emanate from her body.
"Hit her while you can!" Isrea yelled.
'Huh, bit of a no-brainer, that call.' Rush thought as he dived in for his strongest attack. His Wing Attack collided, and it was with some pleasure that he heard Rose grunt in pain.
"You're lucky I'm not going to take you down right away, but you're not going to stay out here for long...not after what you said about my name! And you mussed up my left bouquet of flowers...I never liked you flying types." Small thorns were tossed out onto the field as she engaged in banter with Rush.
'I guess it's time for another Wing Attack...'
Again, Rush slammed into the roserade, who stumbled backwards from the blow, but recovered quickly, wincing as she touched her shoulder. She angrily glared at the staraptor who had now retreated to a safe distance above her.
Then she started spinning.
'¿?¿?¿?'
The roserade's spinning soon got so fast that she looked like a spinning top, before a veritable storm of pink petals flew out from her body. Try as he could, Rush couldn't help but get slashed by several of the petals as they flew past. To his surprise, they did a huge amount of damage, and he immediately sagged in the air as he tried to right himself once again. It was then he realised that the roserade was going to use the same attack again, which he knew would knock him out.
'Oh well, might as well go down fighting, huh.'
He went in for another wing attack. It connected. Then he got connected with and everything went pink.
Then black.
Rynade sighed as he landed in Eterna City.
'Well, I'm here. Now, where was this Kovic guy again? At least, I think it was Kuvoc...ah whatever...' He checked a slip of paper. 'Ah, Eterna Gym. Makes sense, I guess.'
He recalled his murkrow and began making his way to the gym on foot.
'Why is it on the other side of the city! This sucks.'
Once Lucas and his mother were seated, she repeated her previous question.
"Well son, what have you been up to? You seem worried."
Lucas let out a sigh. "A lot. Mum, there's something I have to tell you."
His mother looked thoughtfully at him for a moment, and Lucas wondered what she was trying to discern before she suddenly shouted out, "Oh, that's wonderful, Lucas!"
'Huh?'
"So who's the lucky girlfriend? Is it D-"
"No! It's got nothing to do with that! Just...Look, I can't tell you how it...it happened, but I'm...different now...part psychic...and because of all that, things have been pretty busy. I may have to be away for a lot longer next time." Lucas interrupted.
"Oh, that's wonderful, Lucas! You don't seem that happy about it. I mean, you can read minds and do things with your mind. You know, like..." Lucas' mother vaguely twirled a finger in the air.
"Why should I be happy abou-" Lucas started, before realising that, six months ago, he wouldn't have minded possessing psychic abilities, let alone secretly masquerading as a legendary pokemon. "No...it's not exactly like that, but I can't say more. I'm so sorry."
His mother reached out and clasped his hands, staring into his eyes. "I...I wish you would tell me, but in the end, it's your decision, and you're old enough to make them yourself. You mentioned that you might be visiting less often? You only come about twice a year, as it is! If things...don't work out, when do you think you'll be able to visit next?"
'A few centuries?' "I...I don't know. In a few years?"
It broke his heart, seeing his mother's eyes soften around the edges. It betrayed the sadness that she felt, and he could tell that doubt was settling in, that maybe, maybe, her son didn't want to be with her anymore. That was hard for Lucas to deal with, but what was even harder was the knowledge that he had probably shot too low.
'But I should be able to take a day off, can't I? But I can't, because Lucas the human will have to disappear. To her, this will be the last time she sees me if the whole mew thing falls through.' Lucas thought with a heavy heart.
"I u-understand. But you'll stay the night? It's getting late." Her voice was almost pleading.
"Of course!" Lucas was only too happy to oblige.
"Oh, and one more thing. Don't start getting any ideas and look into my head, or I'll know!" She tried a smile, but Lucas could tell that the joke was forced.
What made it worse was the fact that Lucas knew that she wouldn't.
Isrea, down to her last pokemon, sent Makybe out, the ponyta taking a brief look at her surroundings before locking eyes with her opponent.
"What is it with you two and super-effective pokemon? Do you have a grudge against my gym or something?" Gardenia frowned.
Isrea chuckled. "Nah, you just got unlucky...or maybe we just do hate you! Nah...'hate' is a strong word. I just really really really don't like you."
"Very funny. I've dealt with fire types before, like you saw with your friend's charmeleon. Rose, Rain Dance, please. Then you can do what you like."
"Makybe, hit that roserade with your strongest attack while she isn't moving! I guess we'll have to play it by ear after that."
Rush woke in his pokeball, staring straight up at the artifical sky that stretched across the 'top' of the ball. Sitting up, he saw that he was in the grassy section of his pokeball, and he could make out his obstacle course to his left. He got up and turned right, heading for the garden with the stone door embedded in the ground.
Vaiel and Drats were amicably discussing the intricacies of Aqua Tail, the vaporeon and dragonair slowly heading north-west when a glint in the sky caught Drats' eye.
"Woah, w- what was that?" Drats stammered.
Vaiel craned her neck upwards to see what Drats had been talking about, and was just quick enough to glimpse a flash of green among the clouds.
Or had she?
"I don't know...I might have seen something green, but I don't know..."
"Ok-kay then..."
As Alexa sat herself down near the edge of their ball to watch Makybe battle, Firael decided to try and snatch a bit of sleep, seeing as she couldn't have nightmares if Alexa stayed awake.
However, a blue charmander appeared next to her. "You know, that's only delaying the inevitable. Anyway, the dreams aren't so bad now, are they?"
"Go away."
"I would, but there's just this shiny door here, and I really think you should walk through it. Call it a hunch."
"Go away. How can you have a hunch? You're our subconscious!" Firael yelled in exasperation.
"No. This is your hunch. I'm just a...a proxy here to deliver it. How do you think you have hunches anyway?"
"Err...they just come?"
"Exactly! Now go through the door already." Warning folded his arms.
'Makybe started sprinting at Rose before diving forwards into a forward roll as the flames on her back erupted into flames, which wrapped around her. As her entire body blazed, she began to gallop, before tipping over forwards into a forwards roll, heading straight for the roserade.
Rose was still concentrating on her Rain Dance, and as such was unprepared for the mass that rammed into her side. However, she had, by then, already managed to coax some rain from the clouds that had formed under the roof (no one questioned what the clouds were doing there — apart from raining, of course) which managed to dampen the ferocity of Makybe's flames. Not really having any other option, apart from Tackle and Ember, Makybe went for another Flame Wheel, which the roserade deftly sidestepped. This process repeated itself several times before something occurred to Makybe.
"I must look pretty stupid while doing this attack. I mean, I'm a ponyta, and I'm doing forward rolls to move around? Why not just..."
Like before, she lined up a Flame Wheel and started rolling at the roserade, but when she was only a few metres away, she shot out her front two hooves, body still on fire, and abruptly changed pushed off to her left, unfolding her hind legs as she did so, hitting Rose with a flame-assisted tackle.
If she expected to hear a cry of pain, Makybe would have been disappointed. All Rose gave her was a short grunt as Makybe cannoned into her. However, she was more surprised when Rose swung herself onto Makybe's back so that she was now riding on top of Makybe...bareback.
"Ow. That has got to hurt." Aron muttered as both he and Isrea watched the still blazing roserade swing herself onto Makybe's back.
Isrea barely managed to reply. "Impossibru!"
Then, the roserade drew back her left arm and conjured a leaf shaped object which shimmered and glowed in an eerie way as all the colours of the spectrum danced across it, before slashing at Makybe's neck with it, instantly knocking the ponyta out. She then pushed herself off the tottering horse and lay flat on the ground, letting the light drizzle that still fell from the roof of the building put out the fires that were still smouldering on her body.
"Well, that was unorthodox!" Gardenia concluded brightly, clasping both hands together as she walked towards her roserade to help her get back up. Isrea recalled Makybe and walked over to where Gardenia stood, where Gardenia looked up and suddenly laughed.
"Ha! I guess you're here to see if you got the badge? Well, you did. While, like your friend, you had two super-effective pokemon, I was actually impressed by how your prinplup managed to fare against another grass-type. Anyway, here's your badge. Have a nice day!" She handed Isrea a replica of the badge that Aron had received.
"Come on, Alexa, let's go."
"Huh? Go where?"
"Through this door, silly. It looks like Rush's."
"Why not the other two?" Alexa pointed at two other doors that lay some distance away, which lead to Steven's and Vendel's pokeballs.
"Because this is closer. Let's go."
"Hello? Nikolai speaking."
"It's Giovanni. Assemble your team. You're going to Sinnoh to finish what Sonya started."
"But...Sonya was the brains of the operation! It was her brainchild. Without her, we actually can't do very much."
"Why do you think you are going to Sinnoh?"
"..."
"Very well. You have three days to pack and make your way to the Susashimi airport in Saffron City. Tickets arrive tomorrow."
"Sir."
*click*
Alexa and Firael found themselves staring at a stone door set in the ground.
It was ajar.
"Well, Rush isn't anywhere here...so he has to be in there, right?"
Kova followed Aron, Isrea and Morgan out of the gym. This was too good a lead to follow. He had almost been certain that he had heard 'Firael' mentioned, which was the name that that other trainer he had met in Eterna forest had mentioned. He cursed himself for his complacency, annoyed that he had failed to make the connection between a chameleon and a charmander.
'Never mind. It's probably better that I tackle them now, when they don't have any pokemon that are strong enough to fight.'
'But how? I can't confront them in the middle of the city...'
Rob folded up 'Ploy: The Development of Battle Strategy in the Past Decade, by Luu Sing Streak and Tun Szu', and frowned. He didn't really have any evidence to prove that Kova was not all he seemed to be.
He had to settle with following Kova, who was unwittingly stalking Aron, Isrea and Morgan. They turned off the main road.
What the hell are you doing here?
Alexa and Firael spun around, panicked. They had gone through the door, only to have it shut behind them and abruptly disappear before the 'room' around them, which previously had been black, began to light up in a whirling kaleidoscope of colours.
"What was that?" Alexa whispered. The...suggestion seemed to emanate from everything at once, and was not so much a thought or fragment of speech as it was a state of existence. To them, it seemed as though the suggestion was the room. As she spoke, wisps of red began to shoot towards her, which she tried to swat away as the colours in the room began to alternate between blue and red with varying amounts of frequency.
"I don't know...Warning, I'm going to kill you!" Firael growled. More wisps of colour began to float towards her.
"Why?" Said charmander appeared behind her. "Oh...erm...what is this place?"
"Why don't you tell us?" Firael shouted as she lunged at Warning, or rather, tried to. She realised that there was no ground to lunge off, so she ended up doing a sort of a swimming motion at the bemused blue charmander, who chuckled.
The room became a darker shade of blue, which eventually faded into black. Suddenly, a small incandescent bulb flashed on, revealing a very surprised Alexa, Warning, Firael and an even more surprised Rush, who had been standing at the foot of a small gravestone. Squinting in the harsh light, he asked, "What the hell are you doing here?"
"..."
"Erm...well, we just decided to drop in, y'know, seeing as we didn't have anything else better to do..." Alexa trailed off.
Several minutes after Kova had left the Gym in (an albeit slow) pursuit of Aron, Isrea and Morgan, Rynade arrived on the doorstep of the Eterna Gym. After a few more minutes of fruitless searching inside the gym and its surroundings, he decided to just give Kova a call.
"Yes?"
"Kova? It's Rynade, from Team Galactic."
"Oh, you." The curt statement didn't really fill Rynade's mind with thoughts of a happy and peaceful working relationship together.
"Yes. Me. Where the hell are you?"
"Meet me outside Eterna near the eastern exit. That's where I'm heading. I'll be a while because I've...ugh...sprained something..."
'What?'
"Uh...okay."
Pluto had had enough. She had had enough of Team Galactic, of Team Rocket. She wanted to leave, and she wanted revenge.
On Saturn.
'How am I to escape?'
She glanced at the door.
'Hey, the door's unlocked, right?'
With purpose, she strode towards the door of her 'cell' and pulled on the handle.
It was locked.
'...pootis.'
Kova decided to stumble again, nearly dragging Aron, whose shoulder he was resting on, down with him. Kova had decided to fake a sprain of sorts while jogging past them, and asking them to help him back home. They had, of course, offered to take him to the pokemon centre for treatment, but he had responded by saying that it was a common occurrence (and that his weak ankle ran in the family) which would go away after a few hours of rest. Luckily, for him, they didn't question his somewhat shaky logic, and they were quickly approaching the exit of Eterna City.
When they were isolated enough, Kova planned to snatch the charmander's ball and make a run for it. He was currently trying to find out which one it was. He knew that it belonged to the boy, so it was really a 50/50 chance.
"Sorry...my foot just twinged a little." He mumbled behind clenched teeth.
"Nah, it's okay..." Aron replied.
Kova cocked his head, as if he had just noticed Aron's pokeballs (which were on his belt). "Hmm...I see you're a trainer...what pokemon do you have?"
'Hopefully he'll just point to them.'
Aron gestured at his belt. "I've got a taillow and a charmand- charmeleon, sorry. She evolved a few days ago."
'Damn. Why couldn't he have pointed?'
"A charmeleon? That's not a common pokemon in Sinnoh. I assume she was your starter?"
"Nah...I found her in the back of her", Aron pointed at Isrea, who was talking to Morgan, "parents' rented minivan."
'Okay, this has to be the charmander we're looking for. Except she's not a charmander anymore. Whatever.'
"Care to show me? I haven't seen one except for what I get on TV and off the internet."
Aron's hand strayed towards a ball, before he hesitated.
'Bingo.'
"Actually, she's out of action at the moment. The two of us only faced Gardenia a few minutes ago, so she's not exactly in shape."
"Oh." Kova tried to feign a tone of disappointment. "That's okay then. It was nice enough of you to help me back home."
Rob was extremely worried. He knew what Kova wanted , and so once Kova had abruptly started running at the three trainers he was stalking, he had told Rai to prepare himself, but couldn't do anything until Kova struck.
Kova, Aron, Isrea, Morgan and Myu had, after several minutes of walking, left the sprawling mass of Eterna City behind them and were now walking down a small park trail that had branched off Route 211.
"Where did you say you lived again? This is kinda far from Eterna city, you know..." Myu said.
Taking a quick glance around to make doubly sure that they were on their own, Kova led them to a small clearing, before snatching Firael's Glass Ball from Aron's belt and sprinting off.
"Hey! What?" Aron stood where he was, dumbstruck, as Isrea brushed past him in pursuit of the thief, closely followed by Myu and Morgan.
"He was faking, silly. Don't just stand there gawking! Help me get Firael back from that thief!"
"Oh." Aron set off after Kova.
"Is that your reason?" Rush huffed. "Outside, you hit and chase me around like I'm some sort of plaything, and I don't really complain because sometimes I deserve it. But here? This is private! Did I invite you in? Alexa, you used to be human, so what would you have done if you had walked out of a shower to find someone waiting outside?
"I..." Alexa blushed (or tried to, it was hard to tell)." But that's different! That's because I wouldn't be wearing much, and it's..."
"Private? SO IS THIS! Get out of my ball!" Rush yelled.
Firael and Alexa both ran out of the crypt and into the door that led into their own pokeball just in time to hear Isrea shouting at Aron.
"...help me get Firael back from that thief!"
Stone-faced, Firael looked at Alexa. "It's Team Rocket. They're obviously still after us."
Alexa shrugged. "Yeah, but what can we do?"
"Really? You two don't know what to do? It's quite funny, really." Warning piped up, startling both Firael and Alexa, both of whom jumped onto him.
"About that incident in Rush's ball..." Alexa growled...taking the words out of Firael's mouth.
"Ehh...you don't suppose you'll let me off if I tell you how to slow the thief down?" Warning wheezed.
"I'll think about it." Firael said...surprising Alexa, who hadn't expected Firael to be so conciliatory.
"Well, this is a Glass Ball, right?"
"Yeah."
"Why don't you just exit it?"
Myu debated with herself, unsure of what she wanted to do. She could use her (albeit somewhat limited, as she wasn't technically a pokemon anymore, but a psychic human) abilities to help get Firael back, but it would blow her cover and possibly turn Aron and Isrea against her.
'I'll just wait and see...if no other opportunity presents itself, then I guess I'll have to use them...'
Pichufan: On Steam presumably. Can't quite afford myself a plane ticket.
leygose: Nope. You can't have too much asdf. Ugh...I tried to pronounce 'Fireael', and it's not pretty. I'll stick to the proper spelling.
thewookie1: Well, he would have, but he's outside the gym and lacks the All-Seeing Glasses of Awesome (+1 Str, +1 Wis, 9000 X-Ray). I never understood how clothes could give you wisdom or gloves dexterity (they usually make things harder)...score one for game logic!
Cyberfire22: Fixed the things you pointed out and tidied up that Lucas paragraph, and I have to be honest with everyone...I knew next to nothing about the Dream World, so, for all intents and purposes, the Dream World (as envisaged by Game Freak) does not exist! And of course shoop-da-woop cherrim was overdone. In what context can 'IMMA FIRIN MAH LAZOR' not be overdoing things? ;-)
ej92: Fixed everything, and hopefully only one gym battle left in this story. Oops, I shouldn't have said that. XD
Cenobia100: Thanks for the review, although it did seem like it was randomly cut off.
Tsaukpaetra: Proposal rejected on the grounds that the usage of 'theretofore' didn't actually tackle the logic inheritent in my disclaimer, which you have not read. Also, for a change, your guesses are a little off. (Except for the capture attempt, that was spot on, but everyone should have seen that coming).
Ryu Dragonclaw: Thanks, although battles are a little dull to write when only low-levelled pokemon are on one end.
ValeforXD: SPAM? EVERYONE LOVES SPAM. There's a daily routine, isn't there? I hoped you like how I did Lucas. It ended up pretty angsty, because making the conversation awkward didn't seem right.
Steven: You know what? I agree with ValeforXD. At the rate Tanon's going, this fic will be finished by 2015.
Rush: You really sure you want to say that? I'm sure Firael can vouch for what happened the last time she tried something like that.
Firael:...
Rush: See?
Steven: Tienes razón ... ¿qué diablos? ¿Qué pasó?
Makybe: Ooh, Spanish? At least he can still speak. From what you guys told me about what happened with Firael, this isn't so bad.
Steven: Estás bromeando? Esto es terrible!
Alexa: I don't think you understand. This isn't actually true Spanish.
Makybe: It isn't?
Vendel: No. It is the worst form of Spanish that ever existed.
Rush: Worse than the spanish accents that Hollywood tries to have their taxi drivers use.
Vendel: No. It's worse than that. What Steven is speaking in...is Google Translate Spanish.
Makybe: Oh...oh my.
Rush: Truly a terrible fate.
