Becoming The Best

Chapter 37

"Are you kidding me?" Sarah said as Kaleb walked in with a Luxio strutting behind him.

"Nope, how cute is she?" he said, picking it up and cuddling her,

"You nincompoop," Hayley sighed, shaking her head at Kaleb, who was looking around in bewilderment, wondering why everyone was staring at him funnily,

"What?" he asked,

"I need to take my pokemon to the centre," Sarah sighed, walking off. As she and Blue passed Kaleb and his new pokemon, Blue spurted a jet of water at the Luxio. She growled and jumped down, ready to pounce,

"Woah, Sphynx calm down," Kaleb tried to soothe his pokemon, but it didn't work. She charged up her fur then leapt at Blue, who was quickly picked up (with difficulty; he was pretty big) by Sarah.

"Pokecentre. Now," she told Blue sternly, then carried him roughly out.

"Well at least it's not just Churro who starts fights," Hayley shrugged.

"I want a ground type now," Sarah said stubbornly,

"That's a little harsh!" Kaleb argued,

"No it's not. I want a ground type so that when 'Sphynx' attacks my pokemon it can just use magnitude or something on her," she stated, inserting finger quotation marks as she said the word 'Sphynx'.

"But... That's not fair! Look they'll learn to deal with eachother,"

"Blue's family was murdered by a group of those things," Sarah spat, pointing at a random spot in her frustration. Unfortunately, she happened to point at a trainer, who took the gesture as a challenge.

"Yes I'll battle you," the kid said cockily, tossing a pokeball up and down in his hand.

"Look kid I'm not in the mood," Sarah spat,

"I don't care, rules are rules and you have to battle me," he persisted. Sarah spun around and towered over the small kid,

"Fine, you want a fight? Send out your damn pokemon then!" the kid looked a bit taken aback, but sent out his pokemon nonetheless. A Butterfree appeared before her, so she took out Air's pokeball.

"Air, use gust and get rid of that annoying trainer" Sarah yelled, her face screwing up in anger as she said it, causing Kaleb to start laughing. The gust knocked out the Butterfree with one hit and the boy shuffled off in embarrassment, then Sarah turned on Kaleb.

"What the heck are you laughing at?"

"You," he sniggered,
"Fine, you laugh all you like but it won't be that when my new pokemon totally pounds you into the ground!" she snapped, before storming off in search of a ground pokemon.

"Sheesh, who pissed in her cornflakes?" Kaleb muttered before turning to walk back into Lenka town.

Out in the woods, Sarah was walking along with Arcane and Blue by her side. Blue was sticking to Arcane's side like glue, which annoyed the Growlithe, but he decided it was better than having a Squirtle sitting on his back.

"Look, if you see any sort of ground type, tell me," Sarah told them carefully, looking around as she spoke. As she said it though, she realised that she was in the middle of a bunch of trees. Ground pokemon probably wouldn't be in a bunch of trees.

"Well, I officially have no idea where the heck to look next," she sighed, sitting down on the ground.

"Well no one ever got anywhere sitting around doing nothing," a voice behind her said. Turning around, Sarah saw her sister walking towards her,

"What do you want?" Sarah groaned,

"You just walked off on me in the cafe, what was up with that?" she asked,
"I didn't want to talk to you," Sarah muttered,

"Well I just thought I'd find you to tell you I'm going back to Quena Town today," she mumbled, scuffing her feet along the ground, getting her shoes muddy. A frown crossed Sarah's face-her sister hated dirt,

"Daisy, are you okay?" she asked hesitantly,

"Yeah. It's just. You're my little sister," she mumbled,

"And...," Sarah half laughed,
"You're growing up," her voice was barely above a whisper and she pulled her sister into a hug,

"Don't worry about me Daisy," Sarah told her gently, hugging her back.
"Well, I best get going. Make sure you come see me when you pass through Quena right?" Daisy told her, standing up.

"... Okay," Sarah smiled. She then watched her sister walk away and her thoughts turned to her family. Her parents. She had left Greensand without her parents even knowing.

I wonder if they're okay...

"Daisy wait up!" she yelled, stumbling in the direction her sister had set off.

"Yeah," a voice called back,

"Can you ring mam and dad and tell them I'm okay please? And... can you tell them I love them?"

"Will do little sis," her voice floated back. Sarah smiled into the trees and lay back on the grass. She realised that it had been a long day; she had woken up at 5:00am to cram in some more training before she faced the gym, and it was now about 7:00pm. As she lay, the sun shone through the trees and warmed her face. Arcane lay across her stomach and Blue lay back, basking in the warm sunlight. Pretty soon, they had all fallen asleep.

Night fell like a curtain; blanketing the town in its smothering darkness, clouds shrouded the sky, obscuring the view of the stars.
"Where's Sarah?" Hayley asked, looking around the crowded lobby,

"Yeah, I haven't seen her for a while," Seth added,
"Well... She went out to look for a pokemon," Kaleb mumbled,

"Ohmygosh! What if she's dead?" Hayley exclaimed, a note of panic in her voice,

"Don't be stupid, she won't be dead," Seth frowned at her,

"But what if something's wrong?" Hayley said quietly, still panicking silently,

"She's right man, why else would she be gone this long?" Kaleb said,
"Okay, you two go look for her, I'll wait here incase she arrives when you're gone," Seth said, lying back on the couch he was sitting on,

"Seriously though Seth, what if she's dead?" Hayley whimpered,

"Look, just let him do what he wants. Jerk," Kaleb retorted, then walked out of the centre into the night, followed by Hayley.

"She'll be fine," Seth muttered to himself, then closed his eyes.

"Eurgh this bed is so uncomfortable," Sarah groaned as she rolled over onto her side. She reached out to grab her pillow, but her hands fell on the spiky grass. She jumped up with a shock, looking around at the woods. Arcane fell off her stomach as she got up and landed on top of Blue with a bump,

"What? A wood? How did I manage that?" she complained to herself. Blue then started to laugh incessantly while Arcane grumbled, annoyed at having started off the Wartortles laughing.

"Great. I don't even remember which way to go," she grumbled, dusting stray grass from her clothes.

"Blue, I'm going to have to return you, I don't want you getting lost," she mumbled, bringing out his pokeball. Just as she was about to return Blue, the pokeball was flung from her hand as she was tackled to the ground, a crushing weight pressing down on her back. In an instant, Arcane tackled the attacker, knocking it from Sarah's back, but something else then jumped on Arcane. Blue let out a roar and rushed forward to help Arcane. Sarah closed her eyes and crawled through the undergrowth, trying to get a safe distance away from the scuffle, when she felt something unnatural. She looked up and saw a person standing before her.

"Crap," she muttered. Her heart dropped as she was dragged to her feet to stand before the person in front of her.

"Where's the boy?" the rasping voice sounded, Sarah tried to look into the face of the person, but it was shielded by a long, hooded cloak.

"Who are you?" Sarah asked, her voice small and wavering. A hand shot out and closed around Sarah's throat, pinning her to a tree,

"Tell me where he is!"
"I don't know who you're talking about!" Sarah gasped, scrabbling at the hand around her throat,

"Yes you do, the one with the dark and the psychic," the voice was weak and raspy, but harsh at the same time. Sarah felt her stomach churn as she realised who this person was talking about.

Seth.