Chapter Three

Beheeyem

Joe felt the prodding against his chest. He stirred, opening his eyes. Heracross was standing in front of him. He was so close to Joe's face that Joe recoiled a little, stirring Kyla, who was still sleeping on his shoulder.

"What is it, Howard?" Joe asked Heracross.

The beetle pointed behind him. For the first time, Joe noticed the glow of multi-coloured beams of light coming from the cliff below.

"Kyla, look!" Joe said in a loud whisper. Her eyes glanced over to the lights and a big smile crept along her face.

"Come on… and be quiet," Kyla warned, taking the lead towards the cliff edge. Kyla opened two of her pokeballs and Tyranitar and Crobat returned into them. Joe recalled Blitzle and Heracross decided to come along with him. Joe didn't mind as Heracross was exceptionally good at being quiet.

As they reached the cliff edge and peered over to the cliff below, the sources of the lights became apparent. Grey, bulbous floating creatures, Beheeyem had green eyes that glowed like lights and fingers that did the same. Joe realised he had seen them before, but never this close. He put his Pokedex on mute and opened it up. It scanned Beheeyem silently.

Joe closed the Pokedex. He'd read the entry later. Kyla probably knew all about Beheeyem already anyway.

The Beheeyem floated around, seemingly in a loosely set pattern. While they did they occasionally spun in place as lights glowed from their eyes and hands.

"It's almost like their dancing," Joe said.

"I think that's what they are doing. They always do it. It's like their way of socialising or something," Kyla explained.

"Fascinating," Joe said, without a hint of sarcasm.

They watched as the Beheeyem continued their dance. Then one of them turned, blue eyes glowing. Joe gasped out loud.

"Shhh!" Kyla hissed, "What are you acting shocked for? I told you it was there!"

"I know, but to actually see it," Joe whispered back.

Kyla re-positioned herself, pulling free a couple of pokeballs.

"You ready?"

"Give me a sec," Joe replied. He pulled out Blitzle's pokeball.

"Alright, I'll take the lead. I'll head down and send Blitzle out. When you see us, zap him."

Kyla nodded, "Let's do it."

Joe headed away from the head of the cliff, moving away from but lowering down to the level where the Beheeyem were.

Joe looked across the plateau at them. They were still dancing nonchalantly; they had not noticed him yet. Joe opened his pokeball and Blitzle burst out.

"Alright Buster, this is what I want you to do," Joe said in a hushed tone, "I want you to run out there as fast as you can towards the Beheeyem. In particular, I want you to get close to the one with blue eyes. Tyranitar is going to throw some Thunder down. Bring the Thunder to the blue eyes… then get out of dodge, alright?"

Buster neighed in understanding. Joe smoothed him.

"Atta boy," Joe said, "Off you go, then!"

Blitzle broke into a sprint. It always surprised Joe how exceptionally fast Blitzle was.

Soon, Blitzle was already fifty feet ahead of him. Joe broke into a sprint to catch up. He looked up at the clifftop, and saw Tyranitar standing there next to Kyla. Joe didn't hear Kyla give the order but he saw the dark clouds forming in the sky almost instantly.

CRACK!

An explosion of bright white light blinded Joe. As his eyes adjusted, he saw the silhouette of Blitzle, pulsing in blue electricity as he sprinted. Some of the Beheeyem had started teleporting but Blitzle covered the distance in less than a few seconds and the blue-eyed Beheeyem was blasted as Blitzle unleashed all the electricity on the creature.

Having done his job, Blitzle turned back and ran towards Joe.

Jack looked up and saw, with a whoosh in his chest, Kyla dive from the clifftop, land on Crobat and zoom down towards her target. Beheeyem hadn't yet recovered from the attack when Kyla gave the order.

"Crobat, use Mean Look!"

Crobat's eyes widened as it glared directly into Beheeyem's blue eyes. The air seemed to wave, as if looking through a chute of stream. That was how Joe knew Beheeyem was definitely going nowhere. It rolled around on the floor, unable to escape, and having been blasted out of its telekinetic floating.

Kyla threw a yellow-and-black ball at the Pokemon. In moments, it had consumed it and landed on the cliff. Only two Beheeyem remained from the group, watching in the distance. The pokeball shook once and then clicked as it locked, signalling a successful capture.

"Woooo!" Joe screamed towards Kyla.

Kyla looked at him with an incredulous gasp on her face. Then she ran over and picked up the pokeball.

"I did it! I actually did it!"

"Yeah, you did!"

Kyla beamed; Joe could swear she was glowing.

"How long did you say you've been after that one?" Joe asked, as he approached her.

"A couple of years," Kyla said, the smile plastered on her face, "I can't believe it."

"Congratulations," Joe grinned.

Kyla looked up at him.

"Thank you," she said earnestly.

Joe shrugged, "For what?"

"For being my lucky charm," Kyla replied and Joe realised how close she was when she kissed him. And suddenly, he was sixteen again. Suddenly, the ten years apart were like a dream. She pulled away.

"OK," Joe sighed, with a chuckle.

"OK?" Kyla asked, "That's your response to the kiss you've been waiting a decade for?"

"You're right," Joe grinned, "It was very OK."

Kyla punched him playfully in the arm.

"I was afraid to bring it up, to be honest…" Joe said.

"Oh, I know you were," Kyla said, "You haven't changed much in a decade."

"Thankfully, neither have you," Joe replied, "But enough about me. You just caught your first ever shiny Pokemon. We need to go celebrate."

"Celebrate? It's like midnight. Where are we going to celebrate?"

Joe shrugged, "I guess you're right. I did book a hotel room, too. Suppose I should actually use it, instead of a tree in the Wild Area."

Kyle grinned, "It was fun though."

"Yeah, it was," Joe agreed.

There was a moment of silence.

"What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Are you busy tomorrow?"

They had spoken at the same time. They shared another grin.

"I was just going to say, I'm not meeting up with my friend about that work opportunity until the day after tomorrow," Joe said, "So, if you want we could hang out."

"Sounds good to me," Kyla nodded, "Come on. We've got about a half-hour flight back to Hammerlocke and I'm exhausted."

They headed back to gather their things, then headed back towards Hammerlocke using Crobat and Pidgeot. Joe was glad they were flying, because he wasn't sure if his legs would be able to be used right now, given they seem to have become jelly ever since Kyla had kissed him.

Yes, right now was definitely the time to be flying.