Uploaded December 29th, 2012
Behold, chapter 44! Observe, my people, and like it!
Bane: …Really, dude?
…Shouldn't you be invading Switzerland or something?
Bane: No. I've already looked there. READ MY STORY, PEOPLE!
We departed the center upon receiving our pokemon, with Hitmonlee once again walking beside us, good-as-new. He was currently throwing punches into the wind to practice. "You know some punching moves?" I asked it out of curiosity. It nodded and went back to punching. "Cool."
"So, what do you guys wanna do?" Alysson asked us.
"Well-" Bane's reply was cut short, however, by a scream from two blocks away. "Find out what the Hilbert that was!" he said, running toward the sound of the shrieking.
"Hilbert?" I asked as we ran.
"The name of the AI of the main character of Pokemon Black and White 1!" he replied, nearing the source of the sound. "Oh, not you again!" Bane shouted upon seeing Donny Dumplin, a member of the 'New Varangians'.
The scene was an odd one, though not quite as odd as Donny's name. Donny stood before a young woman who was screaming, with a Golbat on his shoulder and a great ball in his hand. "Oh no!" he shouted as he spotted us. "You three? What are you doing here?"
"Being meddling kids," Bane answered with a smirk. It turned to a frown. "Now, what are you doing here?"
Donny stuttered, but the young lady answered. "He took my Mareep!" she shouted.
"Shut it!" Donny yelled, his Golbat adding a threatening look. "It's now the property of the New Varangians!"
"Hitmonlee," I whispered. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Hitmonlee answered by leaping up and launching his leg at Donny, smacking his face. "GAH!" Donny began flailing around in pain and dropped the great ball. Donny reached to pick it up, but a hole opened beneath the pokeball. "…What the Durant!?" Donny shouted, looking down the hole. A water gun splashed him in the face.
Nearby, Bane reached down a similar hole and pulled out Anorith, along with the great ball. "Nicely done, buddy," he congratulated the shrimpy-thing. "Now let's get him!" Anorith leapt to the ground. "Anorith, use water gun on Golbat!" Anorith began to shoot a stream of water that Golbat dodged.
"You…" Donny growled. "You meddling brats!"
"Meddling kids," Bane corrected.
"Grrahh! Golbat, use poison fang!" Golbat flew at Anorith, picked it up with purple teeth, and bit down.
"Anorith!" Bane shouted.
"Hitmonlee, help Anorith!" I said. Hitmonlee ran over and gave Golbat a blaze kick, freeing Anorith and throwing the bat-pokemon through the air. "Nice hit!" Hitmonlee nodded and I could've sworn it said something akin to 'thanks'.
"No!" Donny shouted. "No, no, no! Why did you have to come in and mess everything up?" He ran away again, quickly recalling Golbat. "We'll meet again!"
"…Wasn't he just complaining about the fact that we did meet again?" Bane asked. Alysson and I laughed as he returned the great ball to the young lady.
"Oh, thank you all!" the young lady shouted, holding the pokeball close. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"You're welcome," Bane told her, turning to leave.
"Wait!" the young lady stopped us. "How can I repay you?"
Bane thought for a moment then smirked and turned to her. "Just be a bit more careful and train some of your pokemon for battle, kay?" he said.
She nodded. "I will! Thank you again!"
We separated and headed for the center…I guessed…honestly, I had no idea. We were really just walking around the city. "Wow," Alysson commented to Bane. "I didn't expect you to do that."
"Do what?" Bane asked.
"To give her advice," she replied. "I thought you'd ask for money or food or something."
"Speaking of which," Bane said, pointing one finger dramatically ahead. "There's a Burger Slowking straight ahead with my name on it! Burger, HO!" He ran very, very fast. So fast, in fact, that he ran into the automatic doors before they opened and fell onto the floor. As we approached, the doors slowly slid open.
I chuckled as we walked over Bane, into the restaurant. The doors slid closed as Bane sat up. "OPEN!" he shouted at the doors. Surprisingly, they did. "…HAH!" He walked in as Porygon, who had used his techno-abilities to open said doors, floated through behind him.
We were looking through the menu when Bane and Porygon approached. The guy at the register looked at Porygon and Hitmonlee. "Umm, excuse me?" he asked. "You'll have to put them in your pokeballs." He was gesturing to Porygon and Hitmonlee.
The pokemon seemed slightly annoyed, but remained quiet. "Well, Hitmonlee doesn't really go in his pokeball," I told the middle-aged man.
"And why should I put Porygon in his pokeball?" Bane challenged. "Give me one good reason!"
The man pointed to a small sign on the wall which read, 'No Pokemon Allowed! No Exceptions!' "What!?" Bane shouted enraged. The pokemon added angry shouts to the chorus.
"Okay, everyone just calm down!" I ordered. They withheld themselves. I turned to the register guy. "Why aren't pokemon allowed?"
"Manager's rules," the man replied with a shrug. "Sorry, I don't mind, but the boss is the boss."
At that precise moment, a man in a dress shirt walked out from the back of the kitchen. "What going on, Bill?" he asked the man. Upon seeing the pokemon he reeled back. "Get those disgusting things out of my establishment!" he roared.
Oh, that did it. I quickly restrained Hitmonlee, who was trying to fire kick after kick at the manager as Bane quickly returned Porygon, who was beginning to charge a flash barrage. "Hey, there's no need to say things like that!" I said with some difficulty. "Hitmonlee, chill out!"
"Bach!" the man scoffed. "To those germ-ridden creatures? Why on Pokearth not?" Now Hitmonlee was thrashing.
"Calm down!" I tried to control him, but it was getting hard. "If you don't want your rear served to you on a silver platter, you ought to apologize to Hitmonlee!"
"Hah!" the man laughed. "Not a chance! Get out of my establishment or else!"
"Dude!" Bane shouted, having trouble even holding Porygon's pokeball shut. "You're a fat, old guy and these are super powerful, extremely ticked off pokemon! Who do you think is in a better position here?"
The man snapped his fingers and a Cinccino walked out from his office, behind the kitchen. I couldn't hold him any longer and Hitmonlee leaped from my arms. "Cinccino, use bullet seed!" the manager commanded. Cinccino used a bullet seed that threw Hitmonlee to the opposite wall.
"Hey!" Bane shouted as I checked Hitmonlee. "What the Heracross is that about!? You can have pokemon, but no one else can?"
The man smiled smugly. "Actually, Cinccino is a very clean pokemon," he said with pride. The Cinccino stood tall with pride. "Heck, the health department gave me bonus points for having one! See?" He pointed to the certificate on the wall which had '110%' written in large, red letters.
"…What the heck?" Bane asked the air.
"Now," the manager slammed his hands on the counter. "Get outta my restaurant!" We gave him angry glares and left.
As Bane exited, though, he peaked his head back in and said, "I thought it was an establishment?" He quickly ducked out as a bullet seed hit the wall behind him.
"The nerve of that guy!" Alysson said as we walked back to the center. "No pokemon? That's like saying 'don't bring your best friend!' Or your spleen!"
"Or your gallbladder," Bane added. "That's important, too."
Hitmonlee remained silent. "Hey, Hitmonlee?" I asked. No reply. "You okay?"
"…MON!" he suddenly shouted. He ran over to a nearby tree and gave it a powerful mega kick, pulling the roots from the ground and knocking the tree over.
We stood in shock for a moment as Hitmonlee walked back. "…Feel better?" I asked him. He nodded. "Good." People started gathering around the tree and asking what happened. "Now let's go!"
We ran to the center and got our food. I'd give specifics or a list, but there are too many mouths to feed and list. "I still don't like it," Alysson muttered once we were seated. "What gives him the right to reject pokemon like that?"
I sighed and began to eat. "Well, it stinks horrifically," I agreed. "But, what are ya' gonna do?"
"Oh, believe me," Alysson said. "I'll be having my dad's lawyers contact him very soon." And with a devious chuckle and smirk, she ate her sandwich.
After a moment, I started up a new conversation. "So, Bane?" I asked my friend. "Anymore news about the town Gym Leader?"
He shrugged, swallowing a burrito whole. "Nothin'," he said with a groan. "And why don't they have antacids here?" He burped a loudly burped burp. "…'Scuse me," he said quietly.
Alysson sighed. "Why do we have to put up with you?" she asked aloud.
"You don't," Bane reminded her. "What's with you? You act like we still travel together." Alysson twiddled her fingers. "Alysson?" he asked with suspicion.
"I want us to travel together again!" she blurted out.
It took us a moment to process (and understand) her words. "What?" I asked, not sure I had heard her right.
"I want us to travel together," she said at a more even speed. "I missed you guys like five minutes after I left… Even you, Bane."
Bane's head snapped up in shock. "Seriously?" he asked in amazement. "You missed me?"
Alysson shuddered. "I know, right?" Bane wasn't entirely sure how to take that. "So, what do you think?"
I smiled. "We'd be thrilled to have you back," I said happily.
She smiled. "Really?" she asked, then turned to Bane. "You too, Bane?"
Bane opened his mouth with a dull look. "Well, actually-" Then I stomped on his foot. "YOW!" he exclaimed, glaring at me. I, meanwhile, had not changed my expression since I had answered Alysson. "…Yeah," he admitted begrudgingly. "Besides, I can't read your stupid book, anyway." He pulled her book out of his pack and threw it to Alysson, who caught it with joy.
"Awesome!" she shouted. "Team Storm is back together!" Bane and I gave her odd looks. "What?" she asked, looking between us. "It just kinda… fits."
Bane contemplated this, then nodded. "Yeah, it does," he agreed. "Can I make one little change, though?"
"What?" Alysson asked.
Bane then did something that, for some reason, I didn't see coming. He jumped onto the table and struck a pose. "Team Banestorm of Alyssonocity!" he decreed with pride. He turned to see our reactions, but was met with solitude. Alysson and I had gathered our things and began walking out of the center. "Hey!" Bane started running after us, shaking a food wrapper off of his foot. "Wait for me!"
Well, here you go, people.
Bane: Yup. Aly's back!
Alysson: It's Alysson, not Aly.
Storm: Personally, you always struck me as more of an Alysson than an Aly.
Bane: Really? It's kind of the opposite for me.
Alysson: Why?
Bane: Cause you look Aly-ish-like.
Alysson: …Well, I'm starting to get used to you, so that actually isn't all that bad.
Bane: It was a compliment.
Storm: Really?
Bane: Did you just say that so that you'd have another line?
Storm: No. I said it because I'm trying to learn to speak 'Bane.'
Bane: …Meh. I'm cool with that… Hey, Halestorming! I just looked in your computer and noticed something! You don't have the next chapter written yet!
Storm & Alysson: *GASP*
Oh, chill out, people. I'm getting to it. That's why it took me so long to post this one.
Bane: …So you are still writing it?
It is in constant brainstorm and progress. I actually have several ideas I'm working with in my head. But, we should probably finish this now.
Bane, Storm, and Alysson: Read and review, fanfictioners!
