Chapter 6: Going, Going, Gone(?)

Sparks' heart sank faster than the yellow key did when it went into the water. Sparks couldn't believe it, all of the work, all of his planning, and getting so close to success, and then this happen?!

Sparks felt like crying, it was happening, he was going to fail, Gator was going to find out about him, his parents were going to find out about him, he was never going to go anywhere, or even be trusted with the simplest thing ever again, he was forever going to be known as that crazy Pichu who wanted Wild Pokemon to be friends, and the Lapras...

Sparks looked at her, he could tell that she may have heard and even understood what happened. "Key." She said.

Now Sparks couldn't hold it in. "I-I dropped it in the water!" He said with tears going down his chest. "I'm sorry, it's my fault. I got hurt and-"

"Key." She said again.

Sparks' ears went up. Wait, why would she keep saying that? She- did she?

The Lapras turned her head a little and did her best to move her fins with the chains still holding them. But Sparks noticed something shining on her fin.

The key.

Sparks' eyes were filled with joy the moment he saw it. Turns out his crying was for nothing! What a relief!

Sparks slid down her shell, but he did it a little slower due to his bruised chest, and he didn't want to mess up again. He carefully bent down to grab the key with his paws this time, which only hurt him a little more, then he started moving back up to her chains.

Sparks got up to the keyhole, and he then spoke to the Lapras. "Okay, listen closely. I'm going to free you from your chains, but there are some Pokemon who are awake, so we need to be very fast, understand?"

She nodded. "Do you know where your home is?" Sparks asked. The Lapras thought for a moment, then shook her head. Which made Sparks worry just a bit.

"Okay, then..." He then thought for a moment. "There's a small current down towards the moon. I can take you there. But we need to make sure no one follows us. Do you want me to guide you?"

"Yes, guide." She replied, which kind of weirded out Sparks.

"Um-Okay. Ready?" Sparks asked.

"Yes." She responded as Sparks then the key into the hole, and turned the key.

*Click*

He then quietly went to the other side to get the last chain off. He placed the key into that hole. He couldn't believe this was happening.

"When I say go, we leave okay?" Sparks instructed. The Lapras nodded. Sparks took a deep breath, it felt like the whole world stopped, this was happening, he was indeed breaking out a Wild Pokemon from Gator.

He closed his eyes. Things are never going to be the same again.

*Click*

"Let's go!" Sparks said. The Turtle Pokemon then started to shake off the chains, which then made a bunch of noise when they fell into the water. Sparks even almost flew off her shell if he didn't just start holding onto it.

The Ice-Type then turned her head to the Pichu. "On shell okay?" She asked.

Sparks gave her a thumbs up, only for her to tilt her head in confusion. Oh, right.

"That means yes. Now go-"

"WHAT IN THE WHALELORD IS GOING ON NOW!?" Sparks heard a crewmate scream, probably Gary. Sparks grabbed his face to make sure his mask was still on.

Yep, and thank goodness.

Sparks then saw a sailor pop up from the deck. And before Sparks could think anything the sailor cried out. "WHAT THE-"

Sparks covered his ears and cried out, "LET'S GO NOW! HURRY!"

The Lapras then started to shake the chains away from her, but then she made a confusing turn toward the ship. What was she-

"Hold on." She said. And after that, it only took a moment for Sparks to put two and two together. Wait, she wasn't-

The Blue turtle then dove herself straight into the side of the ship, causing the entire ship to rock back and forth. Yep, she did it alright.

Sparks held on for as long as he could, as she kept slamming into the ship. But it was getting harder to hold on, as every slam into the ship seemed to be harder than the last, especially with his wound.

"S-stop!" Sparks cried out to the rampaging Lapras. "What are you doing?"

"No ship, good. Won't come to me and you." She answers without looking back at the Pichu. And while Sparks did understand what she meant, as he could already see some water go into the ship, he couldn't help but want to get out of the dock ASAP.

He also didn't think he could hold on to her much longer and didn't want to fall into the water.

"But..." Sparks paused trying to come up with something to call the Lapras by, but couldn't think of anything. So he just continued: "But Gator can swim to us! And so can the other crewmates because they're Water-Types, a-and there's even some Wingulls too!"

The Lapras stopped, probably to think about what Sparks had just said. She then turned her head to Sparks.

"Okay." She said as she nodded, backing away from the ship.

Sparks then sighed. "Let's go through that water current now, okay?"

"Yes." She answered. "Where current?"

The Warturtle was running as fast as he could to the captain's room. Wave still couldn't believe this was happening! No mon he knew even liked a Wild Pokemon! But to break into a ship and to try and free it! That was unheard of!

Wave then reached the door. Who was this Pokemon anyways? Ah, he'd have to find that out later. What was important was getting-

The captain's door opened without Wave even touching it, revealing a fully awakened Ferailgator. Wave was at a loss of words seeing him up already. "C-Captain! I didn't-"

"THE SHIP IS BEING ATTACKED! WHY WOULDN'T I BE UP!" Gator yelled at the smaller Water-Type. Gator then walked past the smaller Pokemon, and toward the dock to see the Lapras swimming.

Wave started to feel a bit dumb for thinking that, but he somehow was able to speak up and catch up to the Captain. "I-I don't think it's a Pokemon attacking our- er! Your ship! It's more like a rescue mission to free our Lapras!" Wave reasoned with the Captain, as he also did his best to avoid the few crewmates who were running around the ship.

The Captain gave Wave a stare. "What? Then why didn't somemon from our crew stop this Pokemon?"

Wave didn't want to answer that question, but he needed to answer the Captain. He took a breath in. "W-we were all asleep Captain, I guess none of us ever thought that something like this would, or could even happen!"

"Well, how about now?" Gator said in a crossed tone. Wave felt his heart fall down, why did HE want to get the Captain up again? But before he could even respond to the Captain, a gust of water came out from where the Lapras once was.

Gator then turned to see the now freed Pokemon, with somemon else riding on its shell. Gator tried his best to see who was riding on the Lapras, but due to it still being dark out, and with the Pokemon wearing some sort of a disguise, he couldn't recognize who, or what the Pokemon even was!

"Captain! There's a leak down where the Lapras was!" A crewmate called out. Gator let out a loud groan.

"Out of all the days." He turned to some of the crew. "Well then go down to the leak, and get it fixed!" He ordered.

"Y-yes Captain!" All the crew said at once. They all then hurried over to the lower deck of the ship. Gator then turned toward the Wingull at the sails. "AND YOU DUSTY! WAKE UP AND GO AFTER THEM SO WE CAN FIND OUT WHO THAT POKEMON IS!"

"Y-Yes Captain!" The Flying-Type answered. The Seagull Pokemon then stretched his wings and jumped a little to wake himself up a bit more. He then turned toward his target, which was just making its way around the ship, and jumped off the sail to attack it.

This is insane! This is insane! This is insane! This is insane! This is insane!

Sparks couldn't believe this was really happening! "Go up toward the moon!" He told the Lapras. "If we continue up there, you'll come up to the-"

But then he was cut off by a beam of water before Sparks could finish.

Oh, no.

Sparks turned and saw a Wingull starting to circle around them. "Stop you Pokemon! Or else you'll be in huge trouble!"

He yelled, doing his best to sound strong.

"Well, at least it's not Gator." Sparks thought to himself. Sparks then turned to the Lapras. "J-Just keep on swimming. I'll think of something."

The Lapras turned her head to the slightly panicking Pichu. "I can Ice Beam it." She offered.

Sparks started to think about it, he didn't really want to hurt anymon, but...

Sparks turned to see the Wingull who WAS COMING STRAIGHT FOR THEM! Sparks only had a moment to move out of the way when the Flying-Type flew right past him.

Sparks then got back to his spot. "Yes! Use Ice Beam! Now please!" Sparks yelled.

The Lapras nodded and started to look for the attacking Pokemon. She turned her head both left and right, when she finally saw the Wingull. A bright light blue color appeared in her mouth, as she was charging up her Ice Beam.

And after holding the light for a few seconds she launched the light toward the seagull.

"Not this time." Dusty told himself. Dusty then dodged the beam by doing a barrel roll around it.

Sparks was ready for the Pokemon to attack the Lapras, however, the seagull, once again, came flying straight at Sparks instead! Sparks was just able to move out of the way, with some help from the Wild Pokemon of course, but barely.

Sparks had lost most of his balance, but he was just able to grab onto one of the shell's spikes with his small left paw.

"Okay?" The turtle asked Sparks.

"Y-ya, I'm okay." Sparks said as struggled to get back onto his preferred spot. He then let out a sigh when he was able to get back to the top of the shell. He almost fell off!

Wait...that's what he was doing! If Sparks fell down into the water, that would slow down both of them! Sparks needed to figure out a way to protect himself.

He could fight the bird back, but... Sparks looked down at his paws. He wasn't the best (or even that good) at fighting. But he needed to try. Sparks looked around for the Wingull, which wasn't too hard because the Lapras was doing the same, and the two of them saw the Wingull coming right toward them.

"I try to hit it now!" The Lapras cried out, as she once again charged up a familiar cyan color. She then fired again, but much to Sparks' dismay, it missed again. Now it really was up to Sparks to fight it off, and knowing that the Wingulls are Flying and Water-types meant that Sparks should use Thunderbolt, as that would deal four times the damage.

"I'll try now!" Sparks told the Wild Pokemon. Sparks then tried to charge up his electricity by rubbing his paws on his checks and moving his arms and feet to make more friction. But the more yellow bolts of lighting that flew from his body, the more he was reminded how much he hated using Thunderbolt.

"This might hurt you!" Sparks warned the Lapras. The Wingull then started to notice the thunder, but still continued toward the Pichu. And then, right when it felt like the Wingull couldn't get any closer. Sparks launched his Thunderbolt.

It then fired toward the Wingull, and it was either because the Flying-type was so close to Sparks already, or he thought he could get to Sparks before he used his Thunderbolt, but the Wingull was critically hit when the yellow light seemed to completely swallow up the Pokemon.

The Wingull then smacked into the shell, and went into the water. Sparks looked down in a mix between relief and horror. On one hand, he seemed to have gotten the Wingull out of the way, but on the other hand, he seemed to have hurt him pretty badly. He hoped that he was-

"I'll take this." Sparks heard somemon say. Sparks turned around, and to his horror, saw another Wingull who was taking away his bag!

"Hey, no! Don't take that!" Sparks said in terror. That bag had everything he needed for this trip, food, Poke, and the map! Sparks ran right toward the Pokemon and grabbed his bag with his right paw to get it back from the Flying-Type, and then used his left paw to grab onto one of the shell's spikes.

Sparks did his best to try to pull the bag back to him, he didn't want to use any attack on the Wingull as that could also destroy the bag, and Sparks wasn't even sure he could use another Thunderbolt, as he tried himself out from his last attack.

So it all came down to body strength, which, Sparks didn't want to say it, but that was a losing battle. But Sparks needed it so badly! He couldn't lose it! But just as it seemed it couldn't get worse Sparks' left paw slipped off of the shell, and he started to fell himself being lifted into the air.

And before Sparks could say anything, he saw a wide grin on the Wingull's face. "Got ya!" He said as he started to swing around in a circle trying to throw off the Pichu.

Sparks did his best to hang onto his bag, but then, the bag slipped from the Wingull's webbed feet, throwing both Sparks and his bag into the water only a few seconds later.

Sparks made a small splash once he fell into the water, and only moments later he popped out of the water in a panic. Sparks had only been in the water for a moment, and already hated it.

Not that he hated swimming, but the water was FREEZING! Sparks arms felt like needles were hitting all over them, and he cried out in discomfort, while hugging his bag.

A few waves then came straight toward him, but fortunately he was able to float over them, and after that he saw what was making those waves: The Lapras.

Sparks was happy to see somemon coming to help him, but he knew that the Wingull threw him into the water to slow the both of them down, and she was falling into their trap.

"No! Get out of here!" Sparks cried out. "They'll catch up to you! I'll be fine!" Sparks, however, knew he was lying at the last part.

And it looked like the Lapras knew it. "You help me, I help you!" She told Sparks.

Sparks was caught off guard by her reasoning, and tried to push away his joy, but deep down he didn't want her to leave him cold and alone either. Sparks was about to swim towards her when something flew down and caught onto Sparks' shoulders.

It was another Wingull, and from his body's black look, Sparks could tell he was the one he Thunderbolted. Sparks once again felt himself being lifted into air, but now he was headed toward the ship.

Sparks tried to wiggle out from the bird's grip, by trying to hit him with the now wet bag, but the Water-Type was surprisingly strong, he must be really mad from Sparks' attack. He even saw the Lapras chasing them from behind!

Sparks was getting closer to the ship, the Lapras was following them while also yelling 'Help!' At the same time.

This just went from worse to worst. Sparks started to have tears go down his face, this was it, he failed.

...

But just as he started to break out in tears, something popped up from the corner of his eye. Stars!? Sparks looked at the small yellow five-pointed stars in total confusion, but then realized that the stars were coming right toward the Wingull!

And the Wingull didn't even see it as the stars coming, and it hit him right in the head.

The Flying-Type then immediately dropped the Pichu, and as the Baby Pokemon fell, he realized that those weren't just stars, they were stars from the move Swift!

Sparks then splashed into the water, but he didn't mind it this time, as he was too busy thinking about what just happened. Where did that Swift come from?! Is somemon else here!? Are they helping me?!

Sparks popped his head from the freezing water once more and saw that the Wingull had also fell into the water next to him.

He then looked around to find the Pokemon who saved him, and as he turned around he felt something go under him. Sparks started to panic, but them stopped himself when he found out that he was headed back towards the Lapras! Thank goodness!

...

What was he riding on? Sparks decided to see once he got to the Lapras.

"What the!?" Gator cried out. He was just about to walk down to the dock so that when the Wingull came with this robber so he could find out who he was. But now he just saw the Pokemon get shot down!

"Where did that come from?!" He yelled at Wave. Wave was once again at a loss of words and stumbled a few times. "I a- I'm just as c-confused as you are Captain!" He panicked.

"Let's just go into the water to grab them both, NOW!" Gator yelled with a cold blue stare at the Pokemon.

"But what about the ship!?" Wave asked. "We're Water-Types! We're fine! We've been swimming for hundreds of years before somemon decided to slap two pieces of wood together." Gator said as he started to get ready to jump into the water.

Wave was about to question Gator's answer, but before he could jump in, a gust of wind blew Gator backwards into the deck.

Gator opened his eyes and saw a purple Butterfly appear right in front of him. A Butterfree.

Wave finds himself in total confusion. But is then stopped in his thoughts when he hears some of the crew yell in pain.

Wave turned to run toward them. "Captain!" A Marshtomp cries out. "We're being attacked by Wild Pokemon, they're stopping us from-"

But before he can finish, a patch of stars immediately slam at the Water-Type.

Wave stared at the whole deck realizing that it looked like more and more Wild Pokemon were appearing. From Water-Types like a Poliwhirl, to Normal-Types like a Zigzagoon.

Wave looked in horror as their crew was being attacked by the Wild Pokemon. He just couldn't believe this was happening! This was just a nightmare, right? The small turtle looked down at his arm's skin and briefly thought about pinching himself, but then shook the idea away once he heard a gust of water coming from the captain.

Wave turned around to see the Feraligatr furiously using Hydro Pump on the Butterfly Pokemon, who was doing its best to dodge every drop of water coming from the Captain.

"Don't just stand there! Help us get rid of these Pokemon!" Gator ordered Wave.

"Y-yes sir!" He answered, he then started to charge up his own Hydro Pump and fired it. But this time the Butterfree flew over it, and then flew over both of them.

And before Wave could ask what it was doing, he started to notice a mist come from the Flying-Type. It was so...relaxing.

Wave immediately fell asleep from the Sleep Powder. And Gator did his best to stay awake, but either it was because it was still very early, or the powder was that strong, he started to close his eyes.

He let out a half-curse as he slammed into the deck.

Sparks got onto the Lapras, and then looked at the Pokemon who brought him to her. Sparks saw the Pokemon pop its head from the water, and saw its wide blue body, along with two long wings for swimming.

"Hey, you're a Mantine! The Kite Pokemon!'' The Pichu said in amazement.

The Water-Type then started to talk, but it seemed to be in a wild language. He then started to hear the Lapras talk in her own wild language. And while Sparks felt a little left out, he was more distracted by the multiple Wild Pokemon attacking the ship.

He then felt the Lapras turn around and headed away from the ship. "H-hey wait! Where are we going!" Sparks asked the Lapas.

"To currents." She says. Sparks, while glad he was finally getting out of the ship's sight, still had some questions. "But...where did those Pokemon come from?!" Sparks asked again.

The Ice-Type took a while to answer, but after a few seconds, she answered. "From water, forests, came to help me, you."

"Wait, they were helping us? How?"

"Stop crew and sleep powder them."

"...Why?"

"Zigzagoon told them. I said 'help' too."

Zigzagoon? That...that couldn't be...could it? I mean, the Lapras could understand Sparks, so why not him. Sparks suddenly got a new burst of joy, and he headed toward the edge of the shell to face the ship.

"Thank you!" He yelled out as loud as he could. He didn't care if they couldn't hear him, all that mattered was the fact that Wild Pokemon not only understood him, but helped him free the Lapras.

"Where current?" The Lapras asked. Sparks blinked a few times. Right!

"Ummm..." Sparks was reaching to grab his bag.

...

HIS BAG!

"No! MY BAG!" Sparks cried out as he finally looked into his bag. He saw that he still had his Poke, seeds and a few berries left...but. Sparks pulled out his now soggy map, which was now unrecognizable thanks to it being ripped and mushed up!

Sparks took a breath in, he can still do this. He remembered where the currents were. "Just go forward toward the moon and take the first current toward where the sun comes from."

"Thank you." She said.

Sparks smiled at her response, but then let out a big yawn.

"Tried?" The Lapras asked.

"Huh, ya I guess I could sleep for a little bit. I haven't really had any sleep because I was planning to break you out. Heh, heh." Sparks said.

And before he could say anything else, he heard the Lapras singing. Sparks ears went up.

He had never heard or even seen somemon sing before, it was so beautiful, amazing, so...relaxing. And before he knew it, Sparks fell asleep.

"Thank you, Pichu." The Turtle said to the sleeping Pokemon.

She then made her way toward the current. Hopefully, she knew the one.

The sun peeked over the hills and soon, it's yellow light entered into the lion's room.

Shining right into the Luxio's eyes, Bolt groaned as he slowly opened his left eye, followed by his right one. He then rubbed both of his eyes and looked at the sun's position.

"How late is it?" He started to wonder. He looked at the sun closer, AH! Not that close!

Bolt rubbed his eyes again. Okay, so the sun looked like it was almost in the middle of the sky, so a little before noon? Ya, he's slept longer than that so that would make sense.

Bolt got onto all of his fours, and then bent forward and backward to take a nice long stretch for his body. He then followed that up with one last loud yawn.

He then turned toward the door. "Ahh, today's the day." He thought with a smirk.

He couldn't stop smiling from it. But after finding out Sparks' secret of feeding Wild Pokemon, he just couldn't wait for Mom and Dad to come back home so he could tell them all about it!

He opened his door and walked past Sparks' room. "He's going to be so worried today!" Bolt thought.

Should he? Bolt reached for the door knob of his brother's room. It was locked however.

Hah! Bolt smirked. Sparks can't even have his door unlocked! He really must be in a sad mood today! Bolt then turned away, and headed toward the kitchen.

However, he started to think about his last thought. "He REALLY must be in a sad mood."

He took one more look at the door, did he go a little-

What was he thinking! This is what he had always wanted! Sparks had been nothing but an annoying brother for years! And now after he tells Mom and Dad they'll be so mad at Sparks! And Sparks will have to be punished! And that'll stop him from acting all smart! Asking questions! Feeding Wild Pokemon! And getting better grades than him!

Bolt blinked again. His last thought was weird again. He really should just eat breakfast now.

Bolt continued into the kitchen and opened his fridge. And right in front of him was a plate of pancakes with berry-bash sauce to go with it.

Bolt looked at the meals and was relieved when he didn't see any note from his Mom saying the same kind of 'heartwarming' thing she wrote on his dinner last night.

He took his plate with his mouth and headed toward the kitchen table. And he was about to come back to close the fridge door, when Bolt then realized that there was another plate in the fridge, which would mean Sparks never even had his own breakfast!

Great. Now Bolt really started to feel bad. Sparks regularly got up earlier than him, but he got up pretty late. So to see that the Pichu never touched his food was not right.

He looked at the plate longer.

*Sigh*

The least he could do was give Sparks his breakfast. Bolt groaned and then grabbed the other plate with his mouth and walked all the way back to Sparks' room.

Bolt came up to the door, but when he did, something hit him. Sparks knows that Bolt hates him. And now with what Bolt was doing today...how would Sparks act?

Bolt decided not to think about it, and just knocked on the door. He just wanted this over with.

*knock* *knock*

...

Nothing.

Bolt started to sweat and tried again.

*knock* *knock*

"Sparks, come on, I'm not here to hurt you or do anything bad, Mom just left breakfast for you and you haven't eaten it yet."

...

"If this is about yesterday, I'm...sort of sorry, but what you were doing was just flat out wrong, and you know it." Bolt scuffed.

...

He sighed. He did not like the game his little brother was playing with him. "You know, maybe, if you were sorry for doing that, then I'd THINK about telling on you." Bolt laughed, probably not even meaning that.

...

"Ok. This is getting old." Bolt thought as he started to get suspicious of his brother.

Sparks would have at least spoken back to Bolt by now, especially for that last sentence, or, you know, make some king of noise.

*knock* *knock* "Sparks. Open up!" Bolt called out.

... Now Bolt was really confused. He wasn't still asleep, was he. No, that's ridiculous. Sparks never sleeps in.

He placed Sparks' food off to the side, and took a few steps back.

He really didn't want to do this, but something was up, and as much as he wanted to forget about Sparks until both Mom and Dad came back home, he needed to know why Sparks wasn't answering...even if it meant breaking down his door.

Wait!

"Sparks, if you don't answer! I'll break down your door! You hear me?" Bolt called out.

...

Alright, now there were no excuses. Bolt took one last step back to ready his charge, and then in just a moment, he threw himself at Sparks door. And after a loud 'Crash!' Bolt opened his eyes to see that he had broken into Sparks' room, by destroying only the door knob in the process.

"Told you I'd..." Bolt starts to say only to see that Sparks was nowhere to be found. "Sparks?"

Bolt started to walk around the empty room. Bolt started to walk a little faster looking around the room.

"Sparks!?" Bolt said as he started to sweat. He started looking around the entire room.

"Sparks, c-come out! This isn't funny!"

No answer, the only sound the room had, was one heartbeat that was continuing to get louder.

Bolt got angry and yelled, "SPARKS! GET OUT HERE, OR I'LL..." Bolt stopped to think, but he couldn't think of what to say through his fear.

"Sparks, just come out okay?" He started to breathe faster as he looked under a few things. Under Sparks' rug, his one table. But then he looked under his nest and saw an open book. And it only took one moment for Bolt to dig his head into the book to see what it was.

As he read through the book he started to recognize the book. It was that same book Sparks was bragging about because it was a map about the whole island and Treasure Town.

Bolt froze, why would Sparks have that book under his bed of all places? The only reason he would that if it was because...

Bolt dashed to where Sparks had showed him where Sparks' savings were. In the second lowest left drawer and under his 'really cool hidden spot,' and saw that his savings were gone.

Bolt's eye's shrank, and he started to turn white. As he knew that Sparks had ran away, and from the book, Bolt could tell that he was running away to Treasure Town.

But the worst part was it was all Bolt's fault.