Disclaimer: The author also wishes to wish everyone a happy Constitution day for those who live in China, a happy Malikh festival for the Nakh peoples of Chechenya and Ingushetia, a Quaid-e-Azam's Day for the Pakistanis and finally, a happy Ḥănukkāh for the Jews that celebrate it. This disclaimer is also here to, in advance, apologise for any holidays that the author has forgotten about because Wikipedia didn't mention them. :D
Rob had the advantage of expecting Kova to make a move, so he was the first to respond. He decided to cut wide, figuring that the children would be able to find Kova unless he tried to dart off into the forest, where he would be waiting.
Puffing slightly, Kova frantically looked left and right in an attempt to find a hiding spot where he could take cover for a few minutes to catch his breath and head off in the opposite direction. What he didn't want to see was Route 211.
'Damn. I thought I was running away from the main road. Still...'
Any further thought was interrupted by a red glow that came from his hand.
"What the..."
Kova could only goggle at what had happened as his brain took in what he was seeing. Before him lay a charmeleon.
Rayquaza knew he should have been actively looking for Mew, but he knew that mew was not one to hang around, and also, because of that, that she would eventually come across his resting spot, as it was a chokepoint. He closed his eyes and allowed an updraft to push him ever so higher...
'I wonder what your answer will be.'
Isrea had thought she had lost the 'injured' man until a red glow several metres to her left gave away his position. If that wasn't enough, then the next thing she heard was.
"What the..."
"Cmon! He's just there!" She beckoned Aron, who had overtaken Myu (who looked exhausted) and Morgan (who had stopped to release her chatot for scouting) over, and pointed to the source of the red light, over which a small column of smoke had started to form.
"Cmon! He's just there!" The muffled shout was all Rob needed. He headed for the source of the voice. Looking up, he saw a few wisps of smoke.
'Could that be Firael?'
'I guess I'll have to carry her, then." Kova thought as he bent down to pick up the comatose charmeleon, before stamping out the fire that her tail had started among the long grass and dried leaf litter that was strewn all across the ground.
'It's probably a good thing no fire types live here...this forest wouldn't last very long.'
"Cmon! He's just there!"
Kova glanced behind him, just in time to see one of the girls that that boy had been travelling with dodge around a tree and come running at him with the aforementioned boy right on her heels.
'Damn, I can't outrun them while carrying the charmeleon...I'll have to keep them away with weezing and crobat.'
He grimly sent out both of his pokemon as Morgan and Myu also barrelled into the clearing, the latter limping slightly.
Neither Aron nor Isrea knew what to do. Both of them knew that their pokemon were all in no shape to be spending time outside their respective balls, let alone battle, and seeing Firael slung haphazardly over the thief's shoulder only confirmed those thoughts. However, a ninetales and bellossom appeared to face the weezing and crobat, much to the thief's surprise.
"Whose pokemon are those? I thought that all your poke-" The thief started.
"They're mine. Why do you want the charmeleon anyway? They're only rare in Sinnoh, and really easy to get in Kanto and Johto." Morgan grimly said. She had her suspicions, but couldn't be too sure.
"You wouldn't understand. Weezing! Smog!"
Morgan reacted faster than even she expected. "Adele! Use Safeguard! Rynka, Magi-"
"Rai, Volt Switch!" Morgan never got to finish her orders as several things happened at once.
Adele opened her mouth, shooting a lime green beam which fanned out a couple of metres around the ninetales and the bellossom that stood beside her.
Weezing exhaled a purple gas, but it was nearly see-through (thanks to Adele's ability, Drought) and dissipated upon contact with the shield that Adele had formed.
Rynka figured out what her trainer wanted her to do, and fired a stream of magical leaves at the weezing and crobat.
Isrea, figuring that she might as well do something, picked up a stick and threw it at the crobat, which, while it didn't hurt him much, distracted him for long enough for-
Rai, from out of nowhere, to go careening into the crobat, the momentum sending the two pokemon into weezing, knocking them out of the path of Rynka's magical leaves and into Isrea ("Oof!".
The magical leaves went flying into Kova instead, who instinctively put his arms (and dropping Firael in the process.) up to shield himself as-
Rob charged out from the side of the battle and crash tackled Kova to the ground, knocking Firael's Glass Ball out of his hand.
Myu, who had edged to the other side, saw an opportunity to help without using her psychic powers and dived for the ball, recalling Firael and throwing the ball at-
Aron, who wasn't watching, thus taking the ball directly in the head (it made a rather loud plonking noise).
"Ow."
Firael and Alexa found themselves inside their pokeballs again.
"We shouldn't be here! Stay out as long as possible!" Alexa yelled, as both of them headed for the door.
In the short span of a few seconds, what previously looked like a rather heated battle had degenerated into a farce. Isrea was groaning under the weight of three dazed pokemon (one of which wasn't doing her nose any favours), Morgan and her pokemon were staring confusedly at the battlefield, wondering why her opponents were suddenly several metres further away than they were supposed to be, Kova and Rob were rolling around on the ground, Myu was admiring her throwing skills while getting to her feet, and Aron was rubbing his head.
"RUN! I'll hold him off! Just get Firael away from him!" Rob yelled.
Aron was the first to respond (seeing as he was in the best position to), so he turned around, nearly tripped over Firael, who had released herself behind him, picked up her Glass Ball, recalled her, and headed back to the relative safety of route 211.
Myu saw Aron leave and ran over to Isrea, dragging her out from under the pile of pokemon she had found herself under, as Morgan hesitantly recalled her pokemon.
"What are you doing? Go!" Rob yelled again. It was enough to spur Morgan into action. She quickly sprinted off after the sound of Isrea and Myu's footsteps.
She forgot to call Sonata back, forgetting that the chatot was still scouting for Kova.
"Back in here again? Lets go out!" Alexa groaned. However, a shout from Warning stopped them.
"Just...stop for a second. You're with Aron, so calm down..."
Firael peered out of the ball. "Oh...yeah."
"Wh...who was that?" Aron asked.
"It was obviously a thief, silly." Isrea replied.
"No, not him! Who was the other person?"
"Probably some person who happened to be passing by...who felt like stealing your pokemon?" Myu said.
"Possibly...he did sound familar though." Morgan muttered, slightly doubtful.
"Then how did he know Firael's name?" Aron responded.
"...Good point."
Rob and Kova had grabbed hold of each other and were rolling around, Rob trying to stop Kova breaking his hold and pursuing Firael and Kova trying to do the exact opposite. Once Rob saw that the kids were out of sight, he kicked Kova in the stomach and rolled away, Zask's and Scythe's pokeballs in his hands. He let out the ninjask and scizor, who stood and faced Kova's weezing and golbat as Rai slowly picked himself up off the ground, shaking his head.
"Can't you just give up?" Kova asked.
"Why would I when I've just found her?" Rob shot back.
"True, but those kids are probably gone by now because of you. Neither of us are any nearer than we were this morning to finding that charmeleon."
"Do I care?" Rob asked. He was about to answer his own question in the negative, before hesitating. "Well...yes. But what matters more is that you don't find her again."
"Oh, spare me the sob stor-" Kova was cut short by a ringtone sounding out. He picked up. "Hello- Oh, for crying out loud! Use the GPS on my phone, or look for explosions or something!" He tucked the phone away. "Sorry about that. Where were we?"
Aron, Morgan, Isrea and Myu quickly hurried back to Eterna City, passing no one save a rather worried looking man on the way back. They had resolved to stay the night and meet the next morning at Morgan's hotel, where they would quickly head for Hearthome City to challenge Fantina. While Fantina was usually fifth in the Gym Order for most trainers, the gyms at Hearthome, Pastoria and Veilstone city were generally interchangeable, and it was the easiest route to take.
Rob and Kova found themselves on opposite sides of the clearing with their pokemon out before them.
"Zask, use substitute so we have something to hide behind if that weezing explodes again." Rob ordered. "Scythe, double team."
A stone statue of a larger-than-life ninjask appeared before said pokemon as Scythe's outline began to blur and split into several copies of itself.
Meanwhile, Kova had ordered a confuse ray on Rob's scizor and told his weezing to start spewing smog everywhere so as to start wearing down Zask's substitute.
A yellow beam struck Scythe, the scizor stopping his double team abruptly and staring around confusedly as Rob's ninjask launched himself at Kova's golbat with a series of Fury Cutter attacks.
"Zask! Don't bother! Your attacks won't do much against either of them! Baton pass to Rai and Rai, use thunderbolt." Inwardly, Rob cursed. 'Damn. I'd promised myself not to use that strategy any more.'
'Smog is inflammable.' Kova realised what would happen just before it did. "Wait! No!"
'Smog is flammable? Oh shit.' Rob was a quick thinker, but Rai had already launched his thunderbolt attack at Crobat, who was hovering next to weezing, smack bang in the middle of Weezing's cloud of smog.
Rob and Kova both hit the deck as a huge 'Wuumph' sounded out and the entire cloud of gas went up in flames.
Rynade was a worried man. After being yelled at by Kova because while they were supposed to meet outside Eterna City and he couldn't see Kova, it was his fault, and being told to use the GPS locator, Rynade had tried to do so, only to find that his phone ran Dandroid whie Kova probably ran on one of those newfangled diOS systems.
Then he heard (or rather saw) an explosion.
'Ah, much better!'
Now, navigation was easy,
Sonata saw an explosion and duly headed towards it, expecting to find his trainer and the children she had attatched herself to at the site of the explosion. He was disappointed, but realised that he had seen these two trainers before. He perched, unseen, on a high branch, and started listening as they picked themselves off the ground.
A soft blue glow started to radiate from his head.
Rob and Kova both stood up at the same time to survey the damage. Scythe was out, his typing having been no match for such a large fireball at such a close range. Kova's crobat had also been knocked out, mostly due to the thunderbolt attack that Rai had fired at him.
His mind was slightly frazzled, but Rob knew that, with a two to one advantage, he had the upper hand. "Rai, thunderbolt again, this time on the weezing, BEFORE he gets too much smog out... Zask, substitute again...there isn't much you can do, really." As he gave his orders, he quickly recalled his scizor.
Rai shot a thunderbolt attack at the weezing—who had just levitated himself off the ground—knocking him back down, just as a black blur dived out of the air and knocked out Rob's ninjask before he could set up a substitute.
"What?"
"About time you arrived...you may want to use something other than your murkrow for this battle." Kova grimly said, walking towards the stranger.
"Some gratitude would be nice, seeing as you told me to go to two places, both of which had a conspicious lack of you," Rynade got off his murkrow and pointed an accusatory finger at Kova. Rob used this distraction to recall Zask, now extremely worried as Kova started whispering something to Rynade, who looked hesitant.
'I don't think Rai's in a very good state after that explosion...I have to take out that murkrow out before he starts throwing some dark attacks at Rai...' Rob thought, cradling Zask and Scythe's pokeballs in his hand as he thought.
"Murkrow, use protect!"
"Weezing, explosion!"
'Oh crap, not again.' Rob thought. He had just enough time to drop the two pokeballs he was holding, pull out Rai's ball and recall Rai before the shockwave hit him.
"Well...what are we going to do with him?" Rynade said as he stepped out from behind the shimmering shield that his murkrow had put out.
Kova nudged Rob's prone form with his foot. "Eh...I don't know. I'll call Giovanni."
"Why not call Saturn? He's probably more likely to handle it better."
With an exasperated sigh, Kova threw his hands up in the air. "You're probably right."
Saturn picked up.
"Hello?"
"Sir, it's Rynade."
"Yes, you're meeting that Rocket member, aren't you?"
"I'm with him, but we currently have a slight problem. I'll give the phone to him, he can explain."
"And whom do I have the pleasure of meeting?"
"Just call me Kova. We've knocked out a trainer who also has been searching for the charmeleon that the two of us are looking for. I know him to be her previous owner, and personally, I think that he needs to be removed somehow. I had found her, but due to his meddling, she has gotten away again."
Saturn frowned. "How is he, currently?"
"He's knocked out."
Suddenly, Saturn had a flash of inspiration. "I'll tell you what. I'll send Titan over to pick him up. I assume she is with a trainer?"
"Yes. How do you know that?"
'Lucky guess.' "I just do. Well, do you know his or her name?"
"No. I know what he looks like, but not his name, or that of his companions."
"Hmm...I'll get Titan onto that. Has your trainer been through the Eterna Gym?"
"Yes. Wait, I do know his name! It's Aron Silpha."
"Silpha? I've heard of that name. Well. Just stay in Eterna until Titan takes this trainer off your hands. This Aron won't really be able to go far without us being able to track him, now that we have his name."
"Sir."
"Good."
Saturn hung up and dialed another number.
"Titan?"
"Sir."
"I assume you have been working on a list of potential abductees for me?"
"Sir!"
"They are no longer needed."
"Sir?"
"I have one. Meet up with Rynade in Eterna City. I've sent his number over to you."
"Sir."
After Rynade had left on his murkrow to rent a car (so that transporting Rob back into Eterna city would be an innocous activity), Kova dragged Rob's body further from the road, just in case a travelling person might want to wander off the path for some reason.
'That, and it'd be a little tricky to explain the reason why this place looks like it's been bombed.'
As he left, a chatot fluttered down and landed on the ground, searching for two objects.
After landing at a petrol station to get some lunch and use the toilets, Palkia took Celebi outside and around the back.
She sat Celebi down in front of her as she herself dropped into a cross-legged position on the ground.
"Ok. What's the matter with you?"
As Kova left with Rob in the Golkswagen Volf that Rynade had driven up in, neither of them noticed a chatot leave with two pokeballs clenched tightly in his talons.
Celebi shuffled his paws awkwardly. "It's just that...sometimes I wonder if we did the right thing with regards to Steven..."
"What do you mean? We needed him! We still do. You of all people should know that."
"No...I mean... what am I saying? Of course! We still effectively killed him!"
"And? He was going to die anyway."
"Oh, that's just callous."
"It's true."
"But-" Celebi started, but Palkia inturrupted.
"Whether you like it or not, we both know it. It may have been morally wrong to tell him what would happen, but at least he's not dead. You have to accept that." Palkia put her hands on the axew's shoulders. "Okay?"
"Yeah...ok."
"Good. Now, we don't need to keep dwelling on this, right?"
Sonata couldn't find Morgan anywhere nearby, so he decided to cut his losses and head for where his trainer was staying.
'Things are going to get interesting...'
"Sonata!" Morgan yelled upon seeing her chatot touch down again. "I wondered where you had gone...what's this?"
Sonata had dropped two pokeballs into Morgan's hand.
"Lets go see Isrea and the others."
Myu had just left the motel to pick their pokeballs up from the pokemon centre when she saw Morgan briskly walking over towards her.
"Hi! Why so eager to come back?" She winked.
"I think my chatot has something you might like to hear."
"...She escaped! Why do you ... eurgh! Why do you...anyway?...You LIE! If you were searching for a charmander in Sinnoh, what's taking you so long? How many charmanders do you even think actually live in Sinnoh? If you're going to lie, at least think of something convicing!...Oh, the irony...I have to thank you for helping me find her again, but I must bid you farewell! Adieu! Weezing, Explode. Golbat, Protect." Silence reigned after Sonata finished his chatter recording, before he launched into another one.
"This was recorded in Eterna Forest and why I got laid out...it was lucky that Sonata had thought to use his Chatter attack then." Morgan said.
"..."Murkrow, use protect! Weezing, explosion!" Sonata did his best to replicate the sound of an explosion. "...Well...what are we going to do with him?...Eh...I don't know. I'll call Giovanni...Why not call Saturn? He's probably more likely to handle it better...You're probably right...Sir, it's Rynade...I'm with him, but we currently have a slight problem. I'll give the phone to him, he can explain...Just call me Kova. We've knocked out a trainer who also has been searching for the charmeleon that the two of us are looking for. I know him to be her previous owner, and personally, I think that he needs to be removed somehow. I had found her, but due to his meddling, she has gotten away again...He's knocked out...Yes. How do you know that?...No. I know what he looks like, but not his name, or that of his companion..." Aron breathed a sigh of relief, which promptly vanished when...
"Yes. Wait, I do know his name! It's Aron Silpha...Sir."
"So...Team Rocket...and Galactic? How come they want Firael again? I mean, she was a successful experiment, but can't they just make more? And Isrea, I think you're going to have to do the checking in from now on." Aron breathed out.
"That's not all. These are two of his pokemon." Morgan showed them the two pokeballs her chatot had found.
"I'll take them to the center and wait for them to get healed there, I guess. I'm already going to pick up Aron and Isrea's pokemon for them." Myu sighed.
"Nah, my pokemon need to go there anyway. They won't take as long, and I'll just let them out with yours while I get these two healed up."
While Morgan napped in the pokemon centre as Rob's scizor and ninjask were healed, her pokemon were talking with Aron and Isrea's.
"...It's Aron Silpha...Sir." Chatot once again played the words that he had recorded, before a blanket of silence descended upon the group as they tried to process the implications of that information.
Ashen-faced, Firael (Alexa had tactfully allowed her to take control at this moment in time) rubbed her head. "That was my trainer...my original one. To think that he'd followed me this far, for this long...what of his pokemon?"
Sonata cocked his head sideways, trying to fully recall the events of several hours ago. "Hmm...I picked up two pokeballs and I think there was a scizor and a ninjask inside those. I saw him recall a raichu, but it was in his hand, so they took his pokeball with him."
"You didn't see another pokeball?" Firael asked, puzzled despite herself.
"No...why?"
"Nothing...I...I just need to have some time by myself. Yeah."
The other pokemon watched solemnly as the charmeleon trudged off.
It wasn't the first time Steven wished he could better communicate with Aron, Isrea and the people they travelled with. Upon trying to write something to show Aron he was the Steven that had apparently 'died', he realised that he just...couldn't. Puzzled, he had gone to Firael and asked how she was able to write her name, before she revealed that her trainer had written her name out on a slip of paper and shown it to her, and she had memorised the markings. It was with a slight shock that Steven realised that to them, their names were actually just complex pictures.
While that fustrated Steven to no end, it also brought up another conundrum. Rush had never had a trainer before, so how could he write his name?
Sonya had begun typing up a thesis document (one of several she was planning upon writing; the more time she spent typing up stuff, the longer she'd be able to stave off having to build the actuall technology) when the man she now knew to be Titan unlocked the door to her lab to leave her some disturbing news.
'Crap. With Nikolai and his other assisstants around, it's going to be hard for me to work slowly...and they've already found a guiena pig? I hope I don't have to meet him or her. It'll just make everything so much harder...'
"Ugh...how long will we be stuck here?" Kova grunted as he slumped onto his bed in the room he and Rynade had booked.
Rynade shrugged. "Dunno. Titan will come as quickly as he wants to. What I want to know is why we aren't chasing the bloody mew I saw around a week or so ago. I mean we're just looking for a charme-"
Kova's eyes, unnoticed by Rynade, shot open. "Wait...you've seen a mew?"'
"Yeah...I was flying to Veilstone and my murkrow went crazy, chasing after something, which turned out to be mew. I reported it and everything, but Saturn doesn't seem to care."
"Hmm...I think I've gotta go for a walk...give me a buzz when that crappy antiques show is finished." Kova vaguely gestured at the TV which was currently running an ad for a fur dye, an azure blue espeon strutting across the screen and pouting at the camera."
Once downstairs, Kova pulled out his phone.
"Giovanni? I have some news for you."
After he had finished his phone call with Kova, Giovanni leant back, thinking things over. Then he picked up the phone again and dialed for Saturn.
"Saturn? I believe that a trade might be in order."
"...mmglsf...a rather nice Szenist sculpture, around 450 years old. It does look like a Dicaperian piece. This could be worth quite a bit, if not only for the small thatching on the bottom here...yes...that might drop the..."
Once Kova had gone downstairs, Rynade slumped onto the other single bed and turned the volume up.
'I like the antique shows...I reckon this sculpture's worth around two thousand bucks."
"...In summary...this could be worth around four hundred and fifty dollars, but if you find the right buyer, that could be doubled, even tripled."
'Damn. I always overprice.'
Antiques Roadshow is legit, guys. Lol. It always seems to be on when I can be bothered to turn on the TV, and I just find myself guessing prices. I always guess too high. Little plot hole I fixed at the end, kinda. I had planned it out, but when I was supposed to include a scene for it, I forgot, so this is my patch-up effort. Time skips will start next chapter, although it's only a small one. I wonder if anyone noticed a similarity between Titan's conversation with Saturn in this chapter and the one he had in chapter 27.
ej92: We all know Google Translate is awesome. And yes, Quoteception.
[BLANK/anonymous]: Thanks! I didn't notice the notice myself, but I think you noticed.
thewookie1: No one saw it coming. Even I didn't until I had the idea.
Cenobia100: One of the greats? Naw. You haven't read Scytherider's 'Silver Resistance' or Buwaro's 'Tales of Flame', have you? Those are greats, but thanks for the compliment nonetheless.
[BLANK/anonymous v2]: Damn. You guys must be identical twins. loljks.
leygose: That is only possible if your teacher was using Google Translate for elementary spanish. I CALL HAX. (Also, sorry ej92, lol). Also, one month? Aww...damn. I'll just have to wait before posting this.
zerones: Thanks! Nobody likes Mary Sues, althought I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate them THAT much.
Ryu Dragonclaw: Dawn, but I guess it wasn't obvious enough. She will make a Cameo appearance though. WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT.
This skit was longer because it was published around Christmas, but it didn't really work out that well.
Steven: I'd wish you guys a Merry Christmas, but a) Firael didn't really have a good time in this chapter and b) It's not even Christmas.
Rush: Naw...She should still be jolly and happish.
Firael: Don't tempt me, Rush...
Alexa: Happish?
Vendel: Anyway, it should be Happy Holidays, seeing as that applies to all the holidays that fall on today, and seeing as Boxing day is also a public holiday in most countries, it means I can wish you guys a Happy holidays!
Makybe: Except your grammar just shot you in the foot...claw...talon...thing.
Alexa: Happish?
Rush: Does that mean I can wish Rob a Happy Holiday?
Firael: What?
Rush: Well, he's not going to be working or training, and he'll be going to new places, so why not?
Firael: That's it.
Rush: Oh. No...THIS IS VERY BA-
Alexa: Happish?
Steven: Jeez, Vendel, most people who aren't Christians still wish each other a Merry Christmas. Happy holidays uses so much political correctness it's not funny. Seriously. Only politicians speak like that.
Makybe: I've always wondered about that. I mean, they always toe the line, and they actually look lost when asked a 'Yes/No' question.
Alexa: Happish?
Warning: It's because they liek mudkipz.
Steven: Wait...what? Where did that come from?
Alexa: Happish?
Makybe: I don't even like mudkips. They're all so...wet, and watery.
Warning: It doesn't make sense. Politicians don't make sense. Therefore logic.
Steven: But...
Alexa: Happ-
Vendel: ARGH. STOP. WE KNOW HAPPISH IS NOT A WORD. I ACTUALLY WANT TO HIT YOU RIGHT NOW.
Steven: Jeez...keep it down. I can barely hear Rush's screams with you yelling so loudly.
Alexa: ...really? You would hit me?
Vendel: Woah...you believe me?
Firael: CLEAR!
Alexa: Oh...
Firael: I'm back!
Steven: Oh yay. Where's Rush?
Firael: Last I checked, six feet unde-
Makybe: You didn't!
Firael: Nah, just joking. I just used a defibrillator on him. He's...recovering.
Warning: Is that how it is.
Steven: Where the hell did you get a defibrillator from anyway?
Firael: I have connections.
Alexa: O rly?
Makybe: How did you pronounce that.
Alexa: I didn't. It was typed.
Makybe: Wha-
