Last time on Explorers of Prehistory...
After being knocked out by Kelgo during the Trial at the Gardevoir Guild, Bessie the Buneary had a horrifying vision, in which Tyberius the Gallade warned her off a great evil coming, and that he knew what this evil was. Before he could tell Bessie they were ambushed by the Shadowed One, who had invaded Bessie's dream in an attempt to murder Tyberius. After a horrible battle, Tyberius and Bessie escaped from the vision, and Bessie woke up with no memory of the dream, and learned that she had passed the Gardevoir Guild's Trial, and she and Bonehead were now an Exploration Team!
What will happen next? Find out now!
They say that only about one in five thousand Pokemon is a shiny Pokemon. As such, they're naturally hard to find. However, the Shadowed One was not someone who liked to be denied, statistics or not. She always got what she wanted.
So, naturally, she found Tyberius.
It took her quite a good deal of time to do so, but she found the Shiny Gallade who had eluded her grasp. Her Psychic powers, far greater than those of the everyday Pokemon, made it an easy task to track the Gallade floating on the ocean, which normally would be the equivalent of searching for a single pin in a several thousand mile haystack. Normally, that would be impossible, of course - but the Shadowed One was the one who decided what was impossible and what wasn't.
In the middle of the ocean there was a small, uncharted island. Calling it an island was a compliment, really - it was merely the peak of a mountain that just barely managed to poke itself out of the ocean. It was more a rock, really, ugly and without a single plant on the island, save for a single dead kelp that had washed onto the slippery shore.
Amongst the soaked, briney rocks, was Tyberius, legs folded, arms crossed, and eyes closed. His body was completely motionless. He wasn't even breathing.
The Shadowed One smirked as she landed behind the blue and white Psychic-type. "Well, well, well..." she sneered with malicious joy as she slid towards Tyberius. "So this is where you've been hiding! I must admit, I expected a much better hiding place from such a well-known explorer. Of course, I'd find you just as easily..."
Tyberius didn't answer.
"Well, then," the Shadowed One continued, as if he had answered. "As fun as it's been - it hasn't, really - I'm afraid our little game of hide-and-seek is over." She raised her gloved hand and pointed it at Tyberius, a blackish ball of energy forming in her palm. "Any last words? How about... 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!'?"
Tyberius remained motionless.
The Shadowed One leaned over to her foe, so close that if he had been awake, he'd actually have seen the face that was hidden behind that hood. "Tyberius? Hello~?"
"..."
The Shadow Ball vanished from the Shadowed One's hand. Sighing with frustration, she poked him on the head. "Wake up!" she ordered. Still no reaction. With an angry shout, the Shadowed One struck Tyberius across the face and knocked him over. He fell over without a sound, still in his meditative pose.
"You didn't..." snarled the Shadowed One. Activating her Psychic powers, she scanned Tyberius's mind. There was nothing there.
His mind and spirit were both gone.
The Shadowed One screamed as she blasted Tyberius's lifeless body with a Shadow Ball. Blood splattered against the rocky shore as the Gallade hit the ground, badly wounded. "You... You!" the Shadowed One spat, twitching and snarling, practically frothing at the mouth as she stood over her foe. "You think that you can escape me?! ME?! Well you can't!" She blasted him again, shattering every bone in his body. "You may have hidden your true self somewhere... But I'll find whoever you're hiding inside - and I'll you and whoever that is. And I'm going to do it slowly..."
She took a deep breath, and let it out. "Okay, okay... I have things to be doing right now, so I've got to go. We'll meet again, Tyberius - and then..." She smirked to herself. "I'm going to have all sort of fun with you..."
Chuckling darkly to herself, she faded from view, leaving the shattered, crippled body of Tyberius behind, still motionless as ever.
For the fifteenth time that day, Venom the Arbok swore. "I really, really hate you."
None of the other Pokemon paid him any mind - it wasn't clear who he was declaring his everlasting animosity to, and he wouldn't stop saying it. It stopped being annoying about three or four days ago to most of them, with an exception of Aero. The Mawile thought that Venom was being insanely ungrateful - at least he could swim.
It had been their tenth day at sea... or was it the eleventh? Maybe the twentieth? None of them knew - keeping track of time had not been a primary objective of this little outing; survival was. They had escaped the Darkclaw Pirates, only to end up floating at sea with extremely limited supplies; a regular case of out of the frying pan and into the fire. All that they knew was that they were still lost at sea - and it was getting cold. Very, very cold.
Officer Ace tried to keep them all upbeat, but even he felt the utter hopelessness of the situation sinking in. He also felt a growing weariness, as did Venom. Both Arboks and Sceptiles were reptiles, and therefore cold-blooded. Their bodies didn't have the ability to shiver or to sweat, or do anything to alter their own body heat like mammalian Pokemon had. It didn't help that Venom and Ace, being physically the strongest ones present, were in charge of rowing the boat, adding to their fatigue. So, naturally, they had to keep warm.
So, Ace had an idea. An idea that Venom really hated. To be fair, everyone hated the idea, even Ace, and it had been his idea in the first place.
"Cotton, get your foot off my ear!" Kiara complained.
Cotton made a barely audible sound as she adjusted her position. The Ratatta slid down onto Kiara's back, and nuzzled closer to Aero, the much friendlier Mawile accepting her company and warmth.
Ace tried to remain optimistic, despite the seriousness of the situation. He didn't complain, he didn't shirk work, he was always first to volunteer for whatever task needed to be done, and he actually had to be ordered to stop working at night. However, even the kindly Sceptile's patience was tried by the long days that had spent at sea.
How they had survived that long, I'll never really know. Sheer willpower kept them motivated to keep going on, to reach the mainland, to move on with their lives if they could... and to find the answer of why Tiny Island had sunk beneath the sea. So, they kept rowing.
Survival at the sea with almost no water or food was actually an easier task than expected. Venom and Ace were both excellent swimmers, and they could easily find sea weed and other aquatic plants at the bottom of the sea that could be eaten. As for water, Aero simply had to scoop up a large mouthful with her second pair of jaws, while the others made a fire with sun-dried driftwood that they had found. Using Aero's jaws as a pot, they could boil the water and get rid of the salt, making it safer to drink. (Author's Note: I'm pretty sure that's how it works, but feel free to prove me wrong if I am. I won't mind.) It was very uncomfortable for Aero, being weak to Fire-type attacks, but she held out for all of their sakes. As such, they had water and food.
They did not, however, have any idea where they were.
Ace, being a cop who often went on long, undercover missions, had to have many skills in order to stay alive, including the ability to navigate by the stars. However, the last few nights had been foggy and frigid, with dark clouds and fog hiding the stars to even Kiara's keen eyes. What's worse was the cold air that was blowing from the north. While Kiara, Aero and Cotton were mammals, Venom and Ace were reptiles, with cold blood. Without enough warmth, they'd slow down until eventually turning to a comatose state, immobile and useless.
So, it came to plan B: huddle together and share body heat.
"I really, really hate you."
Aero rolled her eyes. "We heard you the first time, Gramps."
"Well... I meant it."
Ace sighed. Venom's temper was beginning to rub off on all of them. "Everyone calm down," he half-ordered/half-begged. "Fighting won't solve anything."
Everyone sighed or grumbled and nodded, knowing that it was pretty pointless to actually start fighting. Besides, the chill had taken the fight out of them. They had recently drifted into a frigid mist, a veil of frosty air that veiled both the sun and the stars from them, rendering them blind and unable to navigate anywhere on purpose. This is what really killed their moves. Not only where they lost, they couldn't use the stars, the only things that could help them find their way to the mainland were now completely invisible.
So, they were blind, lost, and cold. How else could things go wrong?
"We're out of food..." Kiara muttered.
Ace sighed. "I know."
"C-can't you go and get us some food?" Cotton asked, her fangs chattering.
Ace shook his head. "No, we can't. It's too cold for us reptiles. We'd freeze in an instant."
"We're freezing now," Venom snapped irately.
Ace ignored him. "We need to get out of this fog," he said.
"How?" Aero asked, shivering next to Cotton. "We can't see anything. How on earth can we find our way out?"
Ace groaned. "I'm sorry," he said, simply.
"...What?" Aero asked.
"I'm sorry I dragged you all into this," Ace explained. "This is my fault."
Venom scowled. "You idiot..." he grunted, his body almost completely immobile as he coiled up on the edge of the raft.
"What Gramps means is," Aero explained, too cold to shoot a glare, "we'd be slaves right now if you hadn't saved us on that ship. Freezing to death out here is better than that." She shivered again, more out of memory of that perverted male Mawile on the ship rather than the frigid air. "We'd rather be out here than back there any day of the week."
Kiara nodded. "The squirt's right," she conceded. "This is far better than sitting in that piece of garbage ship."
"T-that's r-right," Cotton agreed.
Ace looked from Arbok, to Rattata, to Persian, to Mawile. A slow smile scrawled over his tired face. "Good to... hear..."
Ace closed his eyes and his body slumped forward. At the same time, Venom's eyes shut and slowly slumped back and down to the deck. The cold had finally had its effect on them.
A somber mood set within the group as their only guide and close friend's body went still, locked in a frozen coma... Oh, and they felt bad for Venom, too. But, mostly about Ace.
Now, they were lost in the ocean with no food, no guide, and no water. Their fates seemed pretty bleak.
They did, that is, until they hit land.
Author's Note:
Once again I'd like to stress how sorry I am for being so late. I am not planning on cancelling this fic so long as people are reading it, so please keep reading it. I'll try to keep updating as I can by doing this thing Tony's Journey style, updating constantly over the weak, though the chapters will be a bit shorter. Please forgive my laziness, but my schedule is pretty insane at times, and as I've said before, it's easier to work with a pre-made world (like in Tony's Journey) than it is to make up a world all of my own.
In other words, be sure to poke at me until I update next time I pull this!
Anyways, why did I return to this? I was reading my own story again, and when I noticed that it is (not to toot my own horn...) really pretty good and interesting. So, with that and with regular reviewer Bloodwolf432 chewing my ear off about how I should review (I'm grateful to him/her), I decided to pull up my frilly skirt, tighten my bonnet, and stop being a little, non-updating girl.
So, forgive my laziness/crazy schedule, and please keep reading and reviewing! Oh, and if you like Pokemon stories, check out Toxic Love by moi!