Pretty Petal Hostage Situation

Tyson whooped excitedly when he realised that they'd made it to the edge of the Petalburg Woods. The sun was sinking and the sky was saturated with the harsh light of a late afternoon sun. After finding their way to the elusive garden of evolution Flora had had almost no trouble at all navigating them back to the road and made the trip much shorter by being able to trek directly to the edge, bypassing all of the beaten trails. Such a walk, however, hadn't been easy on the others. Tyson and Hilary collapsed on the ground once they realised they had finally hit grass, instead of damp, rotting leaf litter. Ray and Kai seemed to come out in the best shape. Ray in particular looked like he still had plenty of energy to burn, being used to the rough trails around his home village. However, their clothes weren't in nearly as good shape as their energy levels. Between the mud and the grabbing branches and, at some point, thorns, not to mention the random Pokémon encounters, their clothes had been left in tatters. They all had cuts from squeezing through bushes, bruises and scrapes from slipping on uneven surfaces, and splinters from trees and logs.

The only thing between them and the rest of the route was a short, white fence, possibly erected just to encourage people towards the beaten path. Flora hopped onto it, looking as light as a dandelion spore as she did. Despite her energy her clothes were also in poor shape, especially her skirt, the lower edge of which had literally been torn to ribbons.

"We made it," Tyson sighed, enjoying the fresher, open air of the plains before them. "We're alive."

"Thanks for leading us here," Hilary said to Flora exhaustedly. "I can't imagine how long it would have taken us without you."

"Happy to help," Flora replied with a smile. "Where will you go now? Moving on to Rustboro would be unwise, since it's late."

"Then where would you suggest?" Ray asked.

Flora pointed to the left. "Keep going west and it's not far to the Pretty Petal Flower Shop. Got lodgings there too, since people usually come out of the woods exhausted or when it's late."

"Or both in our case," Hilary added.

"It might be a really good idea, considering that our friends have already made it there," Ray thought aloud, "they might still be there. Or if they've already moved on then we can ask about them."

"Finally!" Tyson suddenly cried, getting to his feet and jumping the fence in a surprising burst of vigour. "C'mon, guys! Let's go meet up with everyone." He turned and started jogging down the direction that Flora was pointing.

"I guess he was missing everyone," Ray chuckled, clearing the fence as well. He and Kai helped Hilary over and they all made their way down the road, anticipating the moment they'd come across the flower shop.

Evening shadows can cast a foreboding aura onto anything but there was something more that was a little bit off about the quaint little one storey building surrounded by its plant nursery. The little shop was usually open well into the dark hours of the night, welcoming trainers as they scrambled out of the woods. Tonight the building looked dark. The curtains were firmly closed and the lights in most of the rooms were out. The only occupied room was the shopfront. It was a nice shop, filled with decorative pot plants, bunches of flowers and a wide variety of berries and seeds for sale. The air inside smelled fresh and sweet but it was all undermined by the current situation.

Mari, Max, Daichi and Lyle had been tied up with rope and propped up against a wall, still unable to move. There were more hostages nearby – three women who were handcuffed to their chairs and gagged. The apparent youngest was a bronze-skinned redhead with thick, shoulder length hair. The fairer middle sister had long blue hair while the eldest had green hair cropped very short and wore blue work overalls.

The agents had gone back out to keep guard after bringing the trainers in and hadn't been back since. There were two other grunts who wandered in and out during the day, reporting to their senior officer, who mostly just leafed through the shop's financial records behind the counter uninterestedly. Jono and Julie had had their posts reassigned after the previous day's mishap and to the trainers' chagrin, it was prisoner guarding.

"Then he said he was going to water the plants and I said good luck with that, water-type moves aren't very effective against grass-types!"

The duo laughed uproariously at Julie's story. The only upside to being paralysed in this situation was that they didn't have to pretend to laugh. In any case, other things were becoming far more prominent. Daichi was starting to realise that once the need to pee arose he probably wouldn't be able to stop it.

"Hey!" the superior officer barked from behind the desk. "Shut your traps and focus on your job!"

"Not much of a job," Jono muttered, "they're all pretty immobile."

"No thanks to you. That's the twelfth time I've caught you entertaining interlopers with your stupid rhyme instead of doing what you were ordered."

"It's not stupid!" Julie protested. "The motto is a representation of what we stand for as Team Magma. Figure if those lame-o putzes in Team Aqua can have one, we can too."

The superior just rolled his eyes and sighed exasperatedly. Two other grunts entered the room; one came from a back room and the other entered through the front door carrying a thick, dripping candle on his shoulder. The sight was a strange one to the bladers but as Max and Daichi continued to look at it they began to notice it moving.

"Checked their archives," the grunt from the back room reported. "They've got records of all sorts of things going back seven years but nothing of interest to us."

"Are you sure? Double check!" the senior officer ordered.

"Might not have to," the other grunt interjected. "Found something in the basement. Don't really have a good understanding of what it is but maybe if we sent some of it to the research team they could do something with it."

The women's eyes widened and the redhead started to squirm and pull at her restraints, screaming something that was muffled beyond recognition. The superior – who throughout the whole day had only sported grumpy expression – smirked. "Show me. You come too," he gestured to the first grunt.

He finally left the desk and had the candle-bearing grunt lead the way (there was no way it could be a candle, Max thought, it was moving and it appeared to have arms). The door snapped shut behind them, leaving their prisoners alone with Jono and Julie. Already impatient with the woman's protests, Jono kicked her hard in the shin and her cries turned into cries of pain.

"Shut up," he muttered. "Nothing you try is going to help so just shut up." Julie laughed loudly at her expense.

"Hey, want to hear a funny story I heard the other day?"

"Do tell," Jono said with amusement, pulling up the chair their boss had recently vacated.

Even with most of their major muscles completely paralysed the trainers still managed to let out a chorus of groans. The duo only seemed to find this funny.

With most of the lights out the Pretty Petal Flower Shop didn't look as inviting as Flora promised it would be. Curtains were drawn shut over the glass wall of the shop front. Hilary, Tyson and Ray couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed.

"It doesn't look like it's open," Ray said.

"Should be, though," Flora replied, staring worriedly at the building before them. Little slivers of warm light peaked through the gaps in the curtains and there was an unnerving silence about the place.

Tyson snorted and marched up the steps to the shop. "You said it should be open and I believe you. So let's just go in there and ask them what the deal is."

Hilary stormed after him, chastising him about being rude but before she even got to pull his ear he had already burst through the door. Their jaws dropped in the initial shock at the sight of the hostage situation. Julie and Jono were both on their feet immediately.

"Who the hell let you in here?" Jono demanded, calling out his Poochyena.

"Nobody! We got here on our own," Tyson replied. "The real question is: what do you think you're doing?"

"We know exactly what we're doing," Julie giggled. "Thought the agents were supposed to be on guard, so why have these meddling kids showed up?"

"Doesn't matter, they're leaving now," Jono said. "Poochyena, use Dark Pulse."

Poochyena's body glowed darkly and spewed orbs of malicious intent in all directions. Tyson and Hilary managed to dodge them by a hair. The rest of their group dashed into the shop.

"What happened?" Ray asked, leading the way. "We heard you—what?!"

"How did so many of you get here?!" Julie growled.

"Well, on the upside, this explains why the building looked closed," Flora said optimistically.

"Later I'm going to ask you how you interpret that as an upside," Kai deadpanned.

"Poochyena, Take Down!" Jono's Poochyena charged at them but missed its mark and crashed into a potted plant, shattering the pot.

"Jeez, man!" Tyson shouted. "What's your problem? Are you trying to kill us?" He released Torchic. "Use Ember!"

Poochyena was shaking the dizziness from its head and didn't notice the barrage of fireballs coming at it until it was too late. At Jono's command it charged again and sent the tiny chick careening across the whole room.

"Stop that at once!" Flora asserted, taking a Pokéball from her blouse. "This should sort you out: go, Vespiquen!"

Another giant bug emerged on the scene. It looked like a bee with a humanoid figure resembling that of a lady in a ball gown. For a while nobody thought to even care about what it was because Jono was already ordering Poochyena to use a move called Incinerate. It blew a wide plume of fire from its mouth that threatened to singe everything in front of it.

"Defend Order!" Flora commanded.

Kai felt his skin crawl at the sight of several tiny, hexagonal bees swarming out from under Vespiquen's bell and swirling around her, blocking the attack. Most of them had sacrificed themselves in the move and dropped to the floor, burnt black.

"Attack Order!"

A few more of those tiny drones appeared to bolster numbers and they swarmed towards Poochyena. The little puppy couldn't escape the hive minded insects as they covered it, stinging relentlessly. It was already passed out by the time the swarm buzzed away and returned to Vespiquen's hive. Jono clenched his jaw as he returned Poochyena, wondering if type advantages alone would allow his still recovering Ponyta to take down Vespiquen. However, there were still all of the other trainers to take up the challenge. Julie was thinking about the same thing and they both briefly thought about how badly their boss was going to skin them for this.

His pondering was interrupted by a loud roar from outside. The trainers' stomachs dropped and Jono looked to the veiled windows in confusion. However, Julie looked excited, seeming to recognise the sound. She rushed past the trainers and onto the porch, looking out towards the forest. Most of the other trainers did too, with Jono coming up right by her side. A great, big gorilla-like beast lumbered out of the woods, roaring vengefully.

"Those dolls!" Julie tittered happily, clapping her hands like a child. "They must have restored Slaking!"

"Vespiquen, don't let it come near," Flora instructed. "Use Defend Order."

Vespiquen obliged and summoned her swarm again. Slaking caught sight of her and shot the great laser beam from its eyes. The swarm wasn't enough of a defence and Vespiquen was blasted into the ground. The Slaking plonked itself on the ground to take a break.

Inside, Tyson had gone to the other side of the room now that the shop was clear and retrieved Torchic. He was looking bad but at least he was still awake. Tyson looked towards the hostages worriedly. His friends had been uncannily still throughout the whole ordeal and hadn't said a word even though they weren't even gagged.

"We have to get everyone out of here," Tyson said to Torchic, who cheeped weakly in agreement. "How do we get these handcuffs loose?"

He crouched down to look at the handcuffs tying the three unknown women down. There were three pairs, each holding the wrists of two women. They were looped around the legs of the chairs, preventing them from escaping and keeping their hands apart so they couldn't attempt to pick the locks. Tyson tried to help them shimmy their wrists free but the cuffs were too tight. Torchic also tried to help, pulling at a chain with his beak. He quickly grew impatient with that and puffed himself up to shoot a fireball at links, causing them to glow. The eldest and middle sisters, who were connected by that chain, noticed the glow and took the opportunity to pull as hard as they could. The heat-weakened chain links snapped.

"That works too, I suppose," Tyson remarked. He grinned at Torchic. "Great job, little guy! You keep doing that and I'll work on getting these gags untied."

Meanwhile, outside, Kai had called out his Seedot, ordering him to use Nature Power. The bright green Energy Ball nailed Slaking in its big belly but barely seemed to make a dent. Slaking grumbled disgruntledly. Julie laughed raucously.

"Takes a million weak, little Seedots like yours to bring down my Slaking. Beat it down with Punishment!"

Slaking lumbered to its feet, raising a fist to hammer down on Seedot. Seedot gulped and scurried away but it didn't need to get far. Slaking was suddenly toppled by a crippling blow dealt by a Charizard.

"What?! Mari's…" Ray began.

"How could that possibly be Charmy?" Hilary exclaimed. "Mari's inside!"

"Then who does it belong to?"

Slaking picked itself up of the ground, infuriated by such an interruption. The Charizard flexed its muscles and snarled viciously. Two large Pokémon stared each other down, ready to fight.

A/N: Can somebody make me a remote control that forces me to do my homework instead of writing fanfiction? I've been sick and busy for the past few weeks (lol, late update excuses) so I really can't afford to be doing this (and yet I am).

Reviews, yes?