Chapter Three
Ambush!
Phoebe reached the city in no time. It was large and predominantly white, though brown was a major theme as well.
"Hello! You've been here before, haven't you? I never forget a face! Now, which face are you? Oh, I know...you're Phoebe!"
Phoebe rolled her eyes. One of the few bad things about Soyokaze was this character. He was everywhere, it seemed, and he knew EVERYBODY. His name was Jonas, and he was the most annoying pest on the planet.
"Hello, Jonas." she said politely, restraining her urge to dress him down. "Goodbye, Jonas."
"Now, hold on. I don't give up that easily; I still don't know your last name! Well, I KNOW it, of course..."
"Jonas. It's- "
"No! Don't tell me! I'll remember it...soon!" Jonas exclaimed.
"Jonas. Goodbye."
"No! I haven't recalled your last name...um...Talia?"
"If I say yes, will you leave?"
"No! Because it's Takia!"
"That's right. Shoo!"
"But your Pokémon!"
"GO AWAY!"
"All right...but I'll be back!" he vowed.
"Good! Come back sometime next millennium."
Jonas sighed, and walked away. Phoebe strode toward the massive, white and brown Pokémon Center. She entered, and suddenly felt a sense of unease, like something in here could hurt her, badly.
She shook her head. "Just an idle fancy," she muttered. She walked to the counter. "Hey, Nurse Joy! Here's my Pokémon." The ever-friendly Nurse Joy smiled, and took the Pokémon to be healed.
The sense of unease grew as she started for the door. What IS that? she wondered.
Her question was answered as she walked out the door. A large Golem burst out of the ground in front of her, knocking her back, and showering her with rocks.
"Well..." a sinister voice from behind her said. "What have we here?"
She got to her feet, and-Leap!!-Huh?!
-Leap! Your physical abilities are enhanced because of your powers!-
-Celebi?- She leapt anyway. She sailed over the Golem and landed in a crouch. Whoa.
-Yes, I'm Celebi. I can't maintain contact long-just remember, your elemental abilities aren't your only strength!- She felt Celebi's presence leave her mind.
"Hah...looks like you are who I'm looking for." A man dressed in drab shades of brown jumped from the Center's roof. The unease seemed to radiate from him. "You must be Phoebe."
Phoebe tried to hide her nervousness. "Yeah, I am. So?"
"So...I'm here to take you in."
"Take me in where?" She strengthened her resolve, and tried to call up some energy to attack the Golem with.
"To my master. He wants to see you...badly."
"Well. Too bad, 'cuz I'm not going."
The man shrugged. "Suit yourself. Golem, Rock Throw attack!"
"Gooooo!" the Pokémon cried. He lifted his arms, and a massive rock appeared in each hand. "LEM!" He flung them forward.
Phoebe smiled, and leapt toward them. Please, PLEASE let Celebi be right...She kicked both of them, hard. They shattered into dust, but her feet REALLY hurt. Ow!!
"Well...impressive. Too bad it isn't enough. Golem, Earthquake!"
"GOM!" the Pokémon roared. He slammed his fists into the ground, making the earth tremble.
Phoebe normally wouldn't be affected, but...pain lanced through her, knocking her to the ground. Added contact with the shaking increased the pain.
Her vision flashed, and strange lights danced in front of her eyes, distracting her. The pain grew, until she couldn't stand it. She was about to black out, when...
"Vaporeon! Water Gun attack!"
"Vapo!"
A stream of water blasted the Golem, stopping his Earthquake attack. Phoebe got up slowly, still hurting.
"Who do you think you are?!" the man snarled, directing his attention to a girl with shoulder length blue hair. "You don't interfere with this!"
The girl was tall, taller than Phoebe, with shoulder length blue hair. Her sea blue eyes were flashing.
"Why not? You're hurting her!" the girl snapped. She was wearing a blue tank top and thigh length blue jeans. Your typical, modern tomboy.
"Because this is NONE of your concern!" he yelled.
"None, eh? Well, then, explain this!" She made a grasping motion, and water came out of the ground. It wasn't regular water, though. It was thick and nearly solid. It formed hands that flew through the air and grasped his neck.
"Arrgh...let...me...go..." he choked. The girl opened her hand, and the water did the same. Then, it flew over to the Golem, and changed to normal, splashing all over it.
"GOOO!" he shouted. He slowly fell over, fainted.
"Golem!" the man shouted. "Now you pay! Golem, come back! Marowak, Bonemerang!"
"Maro!" the Pokémon shouted. She threw her bone. It began to spin, and shot straight for Phoebe.
"Uh oh." she gulped. She sent an Ember flying into it, but it was smashed. "A little help, Water Girl?"
The girl was already concentrating. More of those odd water hands flew forward, but were destroyed by the whirling bone.
"Uhh..." Phoebe said, eyes wide. She threw a stronger Ember at the spinning bone, but it dissolved on contact.
"Vaporeon! Water Gun!" the girl shouted, while throwing watery blasts herself. "By the way, my name's Kendra!"
Phoebe tried to run, but was too weak from the Earthquake attack. She fell, though, and the bone flew over her. "Yeah!" she shouted. Then, the bone came back, hitting her legs. Pain shot through her. "Ahh!"
Kendra growled. Her eyes began to flash again, and a cool blue radiated off her. "Vape, a little help?" she asked.
The Vaporeon growled musically, and began to glow as well. The two auras merged, and intensified.
"Surf!" Kendra shouted. Water came from nowhere and poured onto the Marowak and the man.
"Aargh!" he screamed. The water cut off abruptly, leaving the Marowak unconscious.
"Chikaku!" a contempt-filled female voice called out. "You can't even handle an untrained girl without her Pokémon that you have an advantage against? And I thought well of you."
A girl, probably ten years younger than Phoebe (who was 25) leapt from the top of another building. She was in a robe of a somehow sinister gray.
"You're welcome to her, Shinrei. The other one is the Water girl."
"Ah. So we found two of them?" she laughed. "Well...I think I can handle them. Haunter, attack!"
Phoebe smiled. Finally, something she could fight!
"Kendra! Distract them!" she yelled, gathering her strength. She jumped as high as she thought she could.
She soared through the air, and landed behind Chikaku. Dashing into the Center, she ran to the counter. She had seconds, if that, before Chikaku came after her.
"Nurse Joy! I need my Pokémon!" she gasped. "Phoebe Takia!"
The nurse, sensing her hurry, quickly retrieved one Pokéball. "Only your Bayleef is fully recovered." she said.
"That's enough!" Phoebe snapped, grabbing it. "Hurry with the other two, though!"
Nurse Joy put on a stern face, but Phoebe had already called out Bayleef. Chikaku charged through the double doors. "Bayleef, Razor Leaf!"
"Baay!" he shouted, flinging spinning, really sharp leaves at him.
"Ragh!" he cried, flinging his arms up. Two pillars of rock shot through the floor. With an almost supernatural speed, he wove his arms in a complicated pattern, and a thin "membrane" of rock grew between the pillars.. It thickened enough to repel the leaves, which fell to the floor, harmless.
The wall then shattered, and the fragments flew forward, almost a Razor Wind attack. Phoebe created a curtain of really hot fire, but the rocks shot through, gaining heat.
A bad thing. Bayleef was pummeled by blazing rocks. "Leeeef!" he shrieked.
"Bayleef! Come back!" Phoebe cried, recalling her Pokémon.
"Phoebe!" Joy shouted. "Catch!" A Pokéball soared through the air, and hit the ground, due to Phoebe's less than acute athletic skills. It popped open, and red energy spilled out.
Please be Starmie, please be Starmie...
The energy shot around the room, not taking a definite form until it gathered in the air. It solidified slowly, not gaining a definite form, almost as if someone were preventing its materialization. "DUDE!" Phoebe shouted. "Enough with the suspense!"
The energy quickly formed into a double star shape. Phoebe clapped her hands. "Starmie, Bubblebeam attack!"
"Hyuh!" A stream of bubbles shot from Starmie's core, slamming Chikaku into the wall.
"Argh!"
Phoebe quickly handed Joy Bayleef's Pokéball, and jumped onto Starmie. "Let's go!" The starshape Pokémon flew through the doors, into a scene of madness.
The area was clear of people, and Kendra was not in good shape. She was on the ground, nastily pale. Her Vaporeon was unconscious.
"Starmie, Bubblebeam again!" Phoebe shouted, hurling a Flamethrower attack as she spoke at the gray-cloaked figure standing over Kendra.
She laughed, and held up a hand. A bubble of black and white mist covered her, repelling the attacks.
Phoebe leaped off her Starmie and directed it to keep on using Bubblebeam. She ran to Kendra, and pulled out a bottle of Potion. She hoped it would work on her as well as it did on Pokémon. It worked on normal humans, but at maybe half its potential. Maybe her powers would make it more effective.
Spraying it on her face, Phoebe looked over at the battle. Starmie was not doing well. The girl-Shin something-was flinging what looked like Shadow Balls and Night Shades, which were effective against Starmie's part Psychic type.
She looked back at Kendra. The Potion had been emptied, and her color was already improving. But the Vaporeon needed attention, fast.
"Kendra, c'mon, wake up..." she whispered. She turned, and yelled, "Starmie! Try your Thunder Wave technique!"
Starmie Teleported behind the girl, and launched a paralyzing electrical attack that connected. "Argh!" she groaned. Phoebe grinned, and pumped her fist.
"Starmie, Recover." Phoebe ordered.
"Hyuh!" It glowed with rainbow light, and sparkled, then floated over to Phoebe.
"Okay...can you use Recover on this Vaporeon?" she asked. It lost altitude, and tried to beam a rainbow of health over Vaporeon. But nothing happened.
"Okay...we'll have to carry her into the Center." Phoebe said. "Starmie, can you handle it?"
"Hyuh!" it sighed, floating up and down.
"All right. I'll deal with Kendra." Phoebe smiled. "You go, Starmie." She turned to her nearly nameless rescuer.
"Kendra...wake up, Kendra! That girl won't be Paralyzed for long." She shot a furtive glance at her. Yellow energy crackled around her, immobilizing her, but it wouldn't last much longer. Already she was beginning to fight it.
"Kendra!" Phoebe hissed. "Get! Up! Now!"
"Ohh..." she moaned. "Ow...I hurt..."
"Kendra! No time. Starmie's in the Center, but we have to move NOW!" She hauled Kendra to her feet, and ran in, half-dragging her.
Bayleef, Butterfree, and Starmie awaited her, and Vaporeon was being speed-treated. "It'll be just a second!" Nurse Joy told her. "Do you need anything else?"
"A bottle of Revive would be nice." Phoebe said. "Quickly!" She glanced at Chikaku, who was still unconscious.
Joy nodded, and passed her a pink bottle. "Here is the Vaporeon," she said, pointing at the now-conscious, frisky, doglike Pokémon. "Do you have a Pokéball for it?"
"Kendra?" she asked, turning. Kendra slowly got a Pokéball off her belt, and gave it to her.
"Vaporeon, return!" Phoebe said, recalling her. "Alright, Kendra, let's get going. You can ride on Bayleef. Is that okay, Bayleef?"
Bayleef nodded, smiling. "Bay! Leaf!"
"Good." She dumped Kendra on his back, and leaped on Starmie. "Butterfree, since we're all out, you can stay out too."
Butterfree shrilled happily, and did a little spin. "Oh, and...Nurse Joy?"
"Yes, Phoebe?" Nurse Joy asked wearily.
"When he wakes up, have him Sleep Powdered and arrested."
"I will."
"Thank you." With that, the two humans and three Pokémon headed toward the camp in the mountains.
