Here it is guys, the new chapter! I kinda meant to submit this a few weeks earlier, but YouTube's whole fiasco with COPPA and the FTC (combined with work for the Christmas season) left me with somewhat lasting anxiety, coupled with rage, and I was working by butt off downloading all my favorite music and videos to my computer and setting my entire channel (including my videos and playlists) to private. I won't go into any detail about all these, but there's a YouTube series by Hoeg Law called "YouTube at Large" that I would recommend watching just so you guys can get caught up about what the hell went on between YouTube and the FTC along with COPPA. So, I guess that means my hopes of starting an alternate YouTube channel of making playlists for fanfiction is, sadly, fucking dashed.
But at least I have a backup plan, though, but I don't know if I can execute it or not. My backup plan is to make a website for my playlists of fanfiction I've written or read and liked. I won't go into details about my plan, but all I can tell you is that I won't be uploading music there, but rather provide various links to the music I've used (YouTube, RPG music sites, etc.). Sounds like I can pull this off in theory, right?
Also, I don't know if you've guys noticed this, but whenever I get PMs from someone, I don't get notified of them. Or rather, notifications of it don't arrive in my Gmail. Another person that I've posted a review of also said that they've encountered a similar problem. Is anybody else experiencing this or is it just the two of us?
Anyways, enjoy! Last chapter's gonna feature Wufei, Plumeria and Guzma in the Ultra Plant, where the Xurkitree roam. ;)
Chapter 16 - The Sandy Filter ~ Ultra Desert
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~?~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
*~Ultra Desert - Pokèmon Ultra Sun and Moon~*
Quatre shielded his one eye from the blinding sun as soon as he and Gladion stepped out of the Ultra Wormhole and onto some sand. Blinking a few times, he surveyed the area around. The landscape is a whole desert decorated with pale-colored rock formations, also decorated with gemstones in the same shade of blue as his eyes sparkling underneath the sunlight. Upon further examination, there are also some sparkling blue dust within the pale sand, presumably the same blue crystals that might be ground-up. Or, perhaps, the blue glittering dust might be some sand that might be super-heated? If this was the case, then why a shade of blue instead of a clear glass color? Quatre ultimately decided to not try to find the answer to those questions, brushing it off under the fact that this is a part of Ultra Space, so of course this desert-like world is going to be alien to him. The air feels a little dry, almost sterile, but he concluded that this atmosphere is safe enough for Earth-born living beings.
"This place is prettier than I thought," Quatre said his thoughts out loud.
"Yeah, but it's still Ultra Space," Gladion reminded him. "Ultra Beasts might jump us anytime, so I very strongly recommend to keep your guard up."
"True." Quatre wanted to politely remind him that he's trained for situations like this, but opted to keep his mouth shut, considering his previous scuffle with Phyco and Soliera's Poipole. He suddenly wondered if they might have followed them to the Ultra Wormhole on the Altar of Light on Poni, but he pushed those thoughts out of his head.
"So this Gundam of yours," Gladion continued the conversation. "How do you guys even locate them if you hide them?"
"We use our start keys," Quatre replied as he reached into his back pocket and produced a gray device that's the same shape as the other pilots. "Our Gundams are built with a tracking beacon inside of them and these start keys are designed to track them down on the off-chance they get stolen by the enemy."
He turned on his start key and a blip only went off once, which made Quatre's hopes skyrocket. "In this case, Sandrock is in this place somewhere, although it might take a while to find it."
Gladion raised a visible brow. "'Sandrock?'"
"Oh, that's my Gundam's name."
"So, it's a nickname you gave it?"
"Well, codename, really. All of our Gundams have their own unique name which fits their characteristics built into them."
"And your Gundam's name is Sandrock why?"
Quatre formed a smile that seemed to border on mischievous. "Well, why do you think?"
Gladion frowned for a couple of seconds before his eyes widened in realization. "Oh."
Quatre giggled a little. "Now you know."
The hoodie-wearing boy planted his hands on his hips and turned his head away as he let out a soft groan. He no longer feels inclined to ask what the other pilots' Gundam's named are.
He suddenly turned his head back up and said. "We should get going. We can't stay in this spot any longer."
"Agreed." The Sandrock pilot visored his sight with his arm. "It's going to be quite the trip, though. If only I'd brought along my desert cloak."
"I do have something that should help, though," Gladion said as he opened up his red rectangular fanny pack and took out a small lilac disk with a metallic blue piece clipped onto it.
"What's this?" Quatre asked.
"It's a memory disc," Gladion replied as he took out a Pokè Ball from his hoodie pocket. "It'll be useful during our search for your Gundam."
He released a chimeric Pokèmon, Silvally, from his ball, and inserted the memory disc within its drive where one of the corners of its mouth is. Quatre simply stared at the size of that creature. This thing's as tall as a horse!
Glowing lilac wings suddenly sprouted from Silvally's back, and Silvally lowered itself down to the sandy ground so that its Trainer can get up to his back. Gladion looked at Quatre-who's still staring in greater awe-as if to beckon him along.
Gladion noticed the vacant stare on him. "Are you coming?"
His words snapped the bandaged pilot out of his confounded stupor. "O-oh yes, yes! Sorry about that."
Quatre climbed up on the great beast's back and positioned his hand on the other boy's hip, his fingers scrunching up the hem of his black hoodie, his other hand still holding his start key.
Gladion commanded Silvally to take flight and the latter obeyed, flapping its new wings thrice, creating a small sparkling dust storm to propel itself in the air and reaching the bright blue sky.
Quatre looked at the small monitor on his start key, the blips still going at a steady speed. At the same time, he would flick his eye in all directions to look for any possible signs of his Sandrock Gundam. Unfortunately, the only drawback he has with him is the fact that everything looks a little blurry, no thanks to his eye being covered up by bandages. He could hardly wait until he gets home to rest; and maybe take those bandages off, probably check with one of his older sisters (who is a doctor) to see if his eye and hand would heal completely.
"So would you mind telling me a little bit about Silvally, Gladion?" Quatre decided to ask.
There was a moment of hesitation from Gladion before he answered. "Silvally is not a natural Pokèmon."
Quatre tilted his head slightly. "I'm sorry?"
"Silvally and his brothers were originally created to be Anti-UB fighting life forms by the Aether Foundation," Gladion explained further without a hint of emotion in his voice. "It was created with the cells of all known Pokèmon types, including the Flying-type you're seeing right now. This was done with the purpose of shifting between types, depending on the memory disc inserted into its drive. As far as I know, only three were created, but they were cryogenically frozen permanently due to their rejection of the RKS System. I was only able to rescue Silvally just to run away from Aether Paradise."
The Sandrock pilot listened intently, swallowing before asking again, "Why did you run away from Aether Paradise? As far as I know, you have a home there, right?"
"To get stronger," Gladion replied bitterly, no longer comfortable talking about the subject of Silvally.
To his relief, Quatre sensed his uneasiness and decided not to ask any further. Meanwhile, the blips on his start key started to become progressively faster.
"We're getting close to Sandrock," he said.
"In which direction?" Gladion turned his neck to ask.
"Right in front of us, actually," answered Quatre. "Just under fifteen miles yet. Can you see even a speck of it?"
Gladion craned his neck up slightly and knitted his blonde brows together. He does see a small albeit blurry speck in the distance, but he's not entirely sure if it's Sandrock Gundam or just another rock formation. Then again, Quatre did say that it might be in front of them, and with that great a distance, it's probably blended against some rock/gemstone formation.
"I think I see a blue color that very starkly contrasts against the rock formations," he said.
"That's got to be Sandrock," Quatre confirmed as the blips on his start key started going faster by the distance closing between them and Sandrock Gundam.
Just as Sandrock Gundam was coming into full view, something suddenly attacked Silvally, almost causing it to lose its altitude. Quatre shrieked as soon as the impact hit.
"What was that?!" he yelled.
*~Ambush ~ Seized Battle - Unknown~*
Gladion looked down at the perpetrator that did this, but all he saw as a white blur before Silvally got attacked again, very nearly causing him to lose his grip on the latter's white mane. Rather than answer Quatre's question or figure out what their attacker might be, he quickly reached into his hoodie pocket and took out an Ultra Ball. He and Quatre scooched back (to the point where Quatre is barely an inch towards Silvally's blue tail-fin) as the former released a red skinny werewolf-like creature with white wild fur with the front spike that appears to be dipped in dried mud (at least that's what Quatre thinks is dried mud). Even its body is covered in strange rock-like coverings!
"Lycanroc, use Stone Edge!" Gladion commanded the red werewolf creature.
The Lycanroc howls sharply as jagged stones suddenly sprung up from the ground, managing to hit a few of the white blurs but also missing Silvally. To Quatre's surprise-as they fell to the ground-the white blurs are cockroaches! Creamy white, tall, lanky and feminine-looking cockroaches, which look like they have wings for hair. At least, that's what Quatre thinks that those are wings.
The white femenine-looking cockroaches got back up on their spindly feet, shaking their ellipsed spherical heads and charged up to attack again. Whenever they do, Gladion's Lycanroc would use Stone Edge yet again to repel them away from Silvally.
"This is getting tedious!" the hoodie-wearing boy shouted in irritance. "Quatre, you'll have to make it to your Sandrock Gundam on your own!"
"But what about the cockroach creatures?" Quatre asked him as he dodges from one of the creatures' physical attacks.
"I'll hold them off! You just worry about getting into your Gundam!"
"Hold them off?" Quatre thought frantically. But we're so high up!
Before he could think any further, he heard Gladion shout at his Lycanroc to use Stealth Rock. Pointed, jagged stones suddenly emerged from the sprinkled sand and turned almost parallel from the ground.
"There!" Gladion shouted at him. "You can use these to hop to your Gundam! I'll cover for you so just go!"
*~The Youkai Mountain ~ Mysterious Mountain - DRUGON~*
Despite the lingering doubts within him, Quatre nodded and brought his leg over to the left side of Silvally's bottom and jumped from it to the floating Stealth Rock. Relieved that he was able to make a smooth landing, he ran to the nearest Stealth Rock and jumped onto it, nearly losing his footing in the process. He jumped to one of the rounded platforms of Gladion's Lycanroc's Stone Edge to see how much farther Sandrock is from him. It's a little closer than it was in his previous position.
Quatre swallowed. He's not particularly sure if he can make the distance. He's not as athletic and agile as the rest of his fellow Gundam pilots, but both Duo and Lunala are in grave danger; he needs Sandrock Gundam in order to assist the others in saving them both.
Swinging his arms forward and back twice, Quatre jumped onto another Stealth Rock, trying his best to dodge the feminine cockroach creatures zipping and blurring by him in an attempt to attack him, Gladion and Silvally. This process repeated itself until finally, he landed on the sandy ground. Quatre looked at his start key. The quickened blips changed into a high-pitched drone. He's closer to Sandrock than he was. He quickly entered the passcode on the keypad and ran to the gray metal tether and inserted his foot into the triangular handle. The tether lifted him up to Sandrock's cockpit (disregarding the fact that Sandrocks anti-beam cloak is missing) and the light blue hatch opened for him.
Quatre wasted no time getting into Sanrock's cockpit and used the activation codes for it to start it up. Sandrock's eyes glowed green upon activation and slowly stood itself up, startling the cockroach creatures in the process, and closing its giant navy-and-white hands into fists.
"Come on, Sandrock," Quatre said to his comrade in his cockpit. "Let's go get Gladion and his Pokèmon and get out of this place."
To speak of the devil, Gladion, Silvally and Lycanroc came into Sandrock's range and Sandrock opened its fist and turned it upward so that Silvally can land on it. Gladion immediately got of the chimera Pokèmon and returned it and Lycanroc back into their balls. Sandrock moved its lower arm toward its cockpit hatch and Quatre opened it for him.
"Hop in!" Quatre cried out to him.
"Is there really no way for me to get myself settled in other than to sit in your lap?" Gladion asked sarcastically.
"There's no other choice, unfortunately!"
Gladion decided that Quatre has a valid point and hopped into Sandrock's cockpit, quickly nestling himself onto Quatre's lap the best he could, given both of their heights (and as much as Sandrock's cockpit is roomy).
The blonde bandaged pilot immediately closed the cockpit hatch and activated Sandrock's back thrusters to move towards the Ultra Wormhole. In comparison to Silvally's speed, Sandrock can go back to the Ultra Wormhole in approximately half the time it took to find, locate and retrieve Sandrock in this desert alien world.
"These cockroach creatures are still after us," said Quatre as he looked at the sensor monitors, a little dismayed.
"I did say that Ultra Beasts would attack us as soon as we've invaded their territory, did I not," replied Gladion as-matter-of-factly.
"I know that, and I'd rather not complain about it."
"Those Pheromosa, though, they're a pretty persistent bunch when it comes to their territory."
Quatre looked at him with a wide visible eye. "Those cockroach creatures are Pheromosa?"
"Yeah, but we don't have time for a biology lecture about those right now. We've still got your friend to save, also Lunala."
Quatre smiled, which radiated both hope and confidence. "You're right we do."
Sooner than later, Sandrock arrived at the Ultra Wormhole with these Pheromosa hot on their trail. Using its thumbs and index fingers, Sandrock expands the wormhole in order to make it big enough for it to fit through. The Ultra Wormhole let out black and blue lightning streaks as it was physically expanded and started to suck the sand and ground crystals in. Regardless, Sandrock entered the white-blue vortex and disappeared into it, the Ultra Wormhole closing shortly after.
I was originally going to have Gladion mention Wing Gundam Zero being a "preteen girl's wet dream," but I decided not to. Not because of the implications, but it wouldn't fit in with the story, and I know how Gladion can be when it comes to patience. I also cut out Gladion's notion of Sandrock's color scheme in Endless Waltz (yes, I'm using the Endless Waltz versions of their Gundams, in case you haven't noticed) to mirror that of my opinion of its color scheme like I did with Heavyarms in the last chapter, but again, it wouldn't even fit.
Please read and review~!