Author's note: this chapter has a Matt section at the end. It's short, but don't get confused--it's separated with a transition as always. Enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 27--Reunited
Benjamin, Yuugi, and Mike thanked Val as she let them down on the city limits. "Good luck at the Gym, everyone! I'm sure you'll do just fine!"
On the way into the city limits, they obtained yet another group of weird objects: a bunch of oddly carved pieces of wood. Putting away their most recent Apocalypse junk, they reached Mossdeep City by nightfall. They stopped to rest at the Pokemon Center, and this night, even Mike and Benjamin slept. Yuugi, however, stayed awake for a long time, training the Dratini he had christened Aero. The next morning, Benjamin woke up at five o'clock, considerately let the others sleep for another hour, then woke them up too and dragged them off to the Pokemon Gym, where they would battle for their fifth badge. On the way, however, they ran into trouble.
"Hey--that looks like a new kind of Sentinel!" Mike shouted, alarmed.
It was indeed. This one, like the others, had a Sentinel's metal headgear, but it was smaller. It was also shape-shifting, although the effect was subtle. As they watched it, nonplussed, it wandered up to Yuugi, grabbed his Deck, and swallowed it.
On the plus side, your cards are laminated, Yami said; the situation was just too weird for him to be concerned yet.
"Hey--give that back! Cough it up!" Yuugi demanded, feeling annoying and confused at the same time.
While Yuugi was trying to make the Sentinal regurgitate his Deck, it sniffed the Millenium Puzzle and ate that too. This did not go over well with Yuugi, who was very tired and not thinking clearly. He grabbed the creature and started shaking it, shouting, "GIVE THAT BACK!!!!"
The creature, evidently finding nothing else to eat, knocked him off, wandered over to Benjamin, and ate his backpack. Before Benjamin could explode and start cutting it to pieces, however, it stopped, doubled up in pain. It heaved several times as though it had eaten something that disagreed with it, then dissolved into nothing.
They all stared for a moment, uncomprehending. Then, Benjamin picked up the Apocalypse objects. Oddly enough, they had linked together. When he touched them, however, the fell apart into their original components again.
Mike was still staring; his brain seemed to be having trouble processing what they had just seen. Yuugi, meanwhile, dug his Deck and the Millenium Puzzle out of the Apocalypse pile.
"Well, at least nothing was damaged," he said in relief--he had been worried that his deck might have been disolved by stomache acid or something. He had been worried about Yami too, of course, but he figured that not much could hurt the Millennium Puzzle, although he was glad to have it back.
Easy for you to say; you didn't get eaten, the spirit muttered grumpily; being devoured bothered the spirit, who hated being helpless or less powerful than someone else.
"That must be what the weird objects are for--fighting the Sentinels," Yuugi said thoughtfully. "Of course, it would be useful if we could figure out how to use them when we need to; not every Sentinel will eat them."
What's so bad about that? Yami said, still annoyed about having been temporarily eaten.
Benjamin cleared his throat. "I think we should go to the gym now...we've lost time already."
Yawning tiredly, Yuugi followed Benjamin and Mike to the Gym.
-o-o-o-o-o-
The Gym had a beautifully designed interior which mimicked a forest glade. Benjamin battled the Leader, Grace, first; using Kura's terrain advantage, he won easily and collected his badge, shaped like a curled fern. Then it was Yuugi's turn.
Grace smiled. "One Pokemon each, okay? Go--Tangela!" An creature so thickly wrapped in purple vines that it looked like a bush appeared.
Yuugi, to the other's surprise, took out a card. "Aero!"
It was Dratini! Grace looked mildly impressed. "Wow--Dratini are supposed to be really hard to catch! All right, Tangela--use your Vine Whip!"
To Benjamin and Mike's surprise, Yuugi actually knew his Pokemon's moves for once. "Aero, use Ice Beam! Okay, now use...um...Flamethrower!" It worked. Tangela under the assaults of two moves it had a major disadvantage against, went down.
"Tangela, return! Well, here's your Fern Badge--you certainly deserve it!"
Mike was puzzled as they left the Gym. "Yuugi, how did you know what moves to use? You don't know anything about Pokemon!"
Yuugi smiled triumphantly. "I stayed up all night practicing."
Yes, and getting only three hours of sleep did nothing to impair your battling ability, Yami said, sounding amused. He was actually very proud of his partner. You may want to try resting next time.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Walking through the city, Benjamin suddenly looked up. "Sentinels!" There were indeed two large Sentinels, of the floating, one-armed type. The two Sentinels were baring down on them when...
"Yaaaah!"
Someone had leapt forward and whacked one with a long, stout staff. It was Miaka and Rana! Benjamin grinned, turning to his aquatic friend.
"Ready?"
"Ready!"
The two of them jumped on one Sentinel, which was trying to strike Rana with its sword. Rana stuck her tongue out at it as the sword passed through her, doing no damage at all. The Sentinel shifted slightly, and Rana, realizing that it had caused her to become solid, hid behind Mike.
While those four were occupied with one Sentinel, the other turned to the final target--Yuugi. Charging its laser cannons, it prepared to fire.
"Mirror Force!"
The Sentinel's attack bounced back at it. It looked mildly surprised for a moment, than attacked again. This time a hole was blasted through it. The Sentinel looked at the wound in annoyance. It healed itself, then attacked again.
This continued on for some time, but Yuugi knew his good fortune in not being blasted to bits wouldn't last forever; he was already running out of energy from maintaining Mirror Force against such powerful attacks.
Finally, the Sentinel charged up for one final, ultimate attack. Blasting Mirror Force, it actually managed to maintain the beam for almost a minute. The attack hovered for a second as Yuugi's Mirror Force flickered. "I'm running out of energy!" he cried, alarmed.
Here--I'll do it, Yami said at once; he could easily give some of his energy to Yuugi.
The Sentinel, sensing Yuugi's failing power, moved in for the kill. At that moment, a new source of energy rebounded its attack, vaporizing it.
"Thanks!" Yuugi said cheerfully, not bothered by the close call.
Benjamin and Miaka, with a little help from Mike and Rana, defeated the other Sentinel. Mike surveyed the area where Yuugi's Sentinel had formerly stood. "Whoa. How did you do that?"
Yuugi held up his Mirror Force card, feeling very worn out-- channeling all of one's energy into something is very draining.
Surveying the scene, Benjamin smiled. "I wonder what they'll say at the Pokemon Center?"
-o-o-o-o-o-
Several minutes later, the whole group trooped into the aforementioned Center, causing poor Nurse Joy to gasp, "Oh, my!" and Mike, annoyed by the shock of everyone in the Pokemon Center, to mutter loudly, "The next person to say 'oh, my' is getting their head chopped off."
When several city guards came in with the dead Sentinel, Nurse Joy, supporting herself with the counter, said, "Oh, m--" and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Benjamin and Miaka teased Mike about this, collapsing into laughter, which caused Mike to do a double-take--Benjamin laughing!? He had certainly changed a lot since his days as a Digidestined.
In the end, however, they assembled more or less peacefully around the counter, discussing their journeys so far. Miaka and Rana were shocked that Benjamin and Yuugi had only five badges each; Rana in particular felt that it proved her earlier statements right--a human like Yuugi would never defeat the Champion. They did, however, donate most of their badges to Yuugi and Benjamin so that they would each have all ten.
By this time it was very late; Benjamin said that they should get some sleep ("That means you too, Mike.") and head to the Cloud Citadel tomorrow. Looking in on them later, Nurse Joy was forced to laugh at the odd scene they made; Miaka curled up on a table, Benjamin sleeping on the floor, Yuugi on the counter, Rana a hovering cloud of blackish mist, and Mike inexplicably floating. She shook her head, then went to bed herself before anything else happened. The six questors were resting while they could; who knew what tomorrow would bring?
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Matt had returned to Loamhenge City. He had then found the secret path to the underground Artifact Gym, where only the most daring and powerful trainers entered. He had won his sixth badge. Sighing deeply, he stood outside the Gym. How would he ever get enough badges to compete in the League in time to win the Key? He put away his badges, then prepared to leave. To his surprise, however, someone collided with him. It was Julie, the girl he had met when he first set out on his quest. She seemed to be in a hurry.
"Matt! I didn't recognize you when we first met, but then I remembered you from Kanto's League competition opening--I saw it on TV one year, remember? Matt--I know that you're hunting the child-stealers. They took Sam, and if anyone can rescue him, it's you. If you need my badges, you can have them. Here--good luck!"
Blushing slightly, she shoved eight badges into Matt's hand and ran off again. Matt stared after her in shock for a second, then looked down. He sorted through the jumble of badges he had been given, removing the ones he would need to enter the Cloud Citadel. Matt smiled grimly. He would be able to help Yuugi and Benjamin after all....
Chapter 27--Reunited
Benjamin, Yuugi, and Mike thanked Val as she let them down on the city limits. "Good luck at the Gym, everyone! I'm sure you'll do just fine!"
On the way into the city limits, they obtained yet another group of weird objects: a bunch of oddly carved pieces of wood. Putting away their most recent Apocalypse junk, they reached Mossdeep City by nightfall. They stopped to rest at the Pokemon Center, and this night, even Mike and Benjamin slept. Yuugi, however, stayed awake for a long time, training the Dratini he had christened Aero. The next morning, Benjamin woke up at five o'clock, considerately let the others sleep for another hour, then woke them up too and dragged them off to the Pokemon Gym, where they would battle for their fifth badge. On the way, however, they ran into trouble.
"Hey--that looks like a new kind of Sentinel!" Mike shouted, alarmed.
It was indeed. This one, like the others, had a Sentinel's metal headgear, but it was smaller. It was also shape-shifting, although the effect was subtle. As they watched it, nonplussed, it wandered up to Yuugi, grabbed his Deck, and swallowed it.
On the plus side, your cards are laminated, Yami said; the situation was just too weird for him to be concerned yet.
"Hey--give that back! Cough it up!" Yuugi demanded, feeling annoying and confused at the same time.
While Yuugi was trying to make the Sentinal regurgitate his Deck, it sniffed the Millenium Puzzle and ate that too. This did not go over well with Yuugi, who was very tired and not thinking clearly. He grabbed the creature and started shaking it, shouting, "GIVE THAT BACK!!!!"
The creature, evidently finding nothing else to eat, knocked him off, wandered over to Benjamin, and ate his backpack. Before Benjamin could explode and start cutting it to pieces, however, it stopped, doubled up in pain. It heaved several times as though it had eaten something that disagreed with it, then dissolved into nothing.
They all stared for a moment, uncomprehending. Then, Benjamin picked up the Apocalypse objects. Oddly enough, they had linked together. When he touched them, however, the fell apart into their original components again.
Mike was still staring; his brain seemed to be having trouble processing what they had just seen. Yuugi, meanwhile, dug his Deck and the Millenium Puzzle out of the Apocalypse pile.
"Well, at least nothing was damaged," he said in relief--he had been worried that his deck might have been disolved by stomache acid or something. He had been worried about Yami too, of course, but he figured that not much could hurt the Millennium Puzzle, although he was glad to have it back.
Easy for you to say; you didn't get eaten, the spirit muttered grumpily; being devoured bothered the spirit, who hated being helpless or less powerful than someone else.
"That must be what the weird objects are for--fighting the Sentinels," Yuugi said thoughtfully. "Of course, it would be useful if we could figure out how to use them when we need to; not every Sentinel will eat them."
What's so bad about that? Yami said, still annoyed about having been temporarily eaten.
Benjamin cleared his throat. "I think we should go to the gym now...we've lost time already."
Yawning tiredly, Yuugi followed Benjamin and Mike to the Gym.
-o-o-o-o-o-
The Gym had a beautifully designed interior which mimicked a forest glade. Benjamin battled the Leader, Grace, first; using Kura's terrain advantage, he won easily and collected his badge, shaped like a curled fern. Then it was Yuugi's turn.
Grace smiled. "One Pokemon each, okay? Go--Tangela!" An creature so thickly wrapped in purple vines that it looked like a bush appeared.
Yuugi, to the other's surprise, took out a card. "Aero!"
It was Dratini! Grace looked mildly impressed. "Wow--Dratini are supposed to be really hard to catch! All right, Tangela--use your Vine Whip!"
To Benjamin and Mike's surprise, Yuugi actually knew his Pokemon's moves for once. "Aero, use Ice Beam! Okay, now use...um...Flamethrower!" It worked. Tangela under the assaults of two moves it had a major disadvantage against, went down.
"Tangela, return! Well, here's your Fern Badge--you certainly deserve it!"
Mike was puzzled as they left the Gym. "Yuugi, how did you know what moves to use? You don't know anything about Pokemon!"
Yuugi smiled triumphantly. "I stayed up all night practicing."
Yes, and getting only three hours of sleep did nothing to impair your battling ability, Yami said, sounding amused. He was actually very proud of his partner. You may want to try resting next time.
-o-o-o-o-o-
Walking through the city, Benjamin suddenly looked up. "Sentinels!" There were indeed two large Sentinels, of the floating, one-armed type. The two Sentinels were baring down on them when...
"Yaaaah!"
Someone had leapt forward and whacked one with a long, stout staff. It was Miaka and Rana! Benjamin grinned, turning to his aquatic friend.
"Ready?"
"Ready!"
The two of them jumped on one Sentinel, which was trying to strike Rana with its sword. Rana stuck her tongue out at it as the sword passed through her, doing no damage at all. The Sentinel shifted slightly, and Rana, realizing that it had caused her to become solid, hid behind Mike.
While those four were occupied with one Sentinel, the other turned to the final target--Yuugi. Charging its laser cannons, it prepared to fire.
"Mirror Force!"
The Sentinel's attack bounced back at it. It looked mildly surprised for a moment, than attacked again. This time a hole was blasted through it. The Sentinel looked at the wound in annoyance. It healed itself, then attacked again.
This continued on for some time, but Yuugi knew his good fortune in not being blasted to bits wouldn't last forever; he was already running out of energy from maintaining Mirror Force against such powerful attacks.
Finally, the Sentinel charged up for one final, ultimate attack. Blasting Mirror Force, it actually managed to maintain the beam for almost a minute. The attack hovered for a second as Yuugi's Mirror Force flickered. "I'm running out of energy!" he cried, alarmed.
Here--I'll do it, Yami said at once; he could easily give some of his energy to Yuugi.
The Sentinel, sensing Yuugi's failing power, moved in for the kill. At that moment, a new source of energy rebounded its attack, vaporizing it.
"Thanks!" Yuugi said cheerfully, not bothered by the close call.
Benjamin and Miaka, with a little help from Mike and Rana, defeated the other Sentinel. Mike surveyed the area where Yuugi's Sentinel had formerly stood. "Whoa. How did you do that?"
Yuugi held up his Mirror Force card, feeling very worn out-- channeling all of one's energy into something is very draining.
Surveying the scene, Benjamin smiled. "I wonder what they'll say at the Pokemon Center?"
-o-o-o-o-o-
Several minutes later, the whole group trooped into the aforementioned Center, causing poor Nurse Joy to gasp, "Oh, my!" and Mike, annoyed by the shock of everyone in the Pokemon Center, to mutter loudly, "The next person to say 'oh, my' is getting their head chopped off."
When several city guards came in with the dead Sentinel, Nurse Joy, supporting herself with the counter, said, "Oh, m--" and clapped a hand over her mouth.
Benjamin and Miaka teased Mike about this, collapsing into laughter, which caused Mike to do a double-take--Benjamin laughing!? He had certainly changed a lot since his days as a Digidestined.
In the end, however, they assembled more or less peacefully around the counter, discussing their journeys so far. Miaka and Rana were shocked that Benjamin and Yuugi had only five badges each; Rana in particular felt that it proved her earlier statements right--a human like Yuugi would never defeat the Champion. They did, however, donate most of their badges to Yuugi and Benjamin so that they would each have all ten.
By this time it was very late; Benjamin said that they should get some sleep ("That means you too, Mike.") and head to the Cloud Citadel tomorrow. Looking in on them later, Nurse Joy was forced to laugh at the odd scene they made; Miaka curled up on a table, Benjamin sleeping on the floor, Yuugi on the counter, Rana a hovering cloud of blackish mist, and Mike inexplicably floating. She shook her head, then went to bed herself before anything else happened. The six questors were resting while they could; who knew what tomorrow would bring?
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Matt had returned to Loamhenge City. He had then found the secret path to the underground Artifact Gym, where only the most daring and powerful trainers entered. He had won his sixth badge. Sighing deeply, he stood outside the Gym. How would he ever get enough badges to compete in the League in time to win the Key? He put away his badges, then prepared to leave. To his surprise, however, someone collided with him. It was Julie, the girl he had met when he first set out on his quest. She seemed to be in a hurry.
"Matt! I didn't recognize you when we first met, but then I remembered you from Kanto's League competition opening--I saw it on TV one year, remember? Matt--I know that you're hunting the child-stealers. They took Sam, and if anyone can rescue him, it's you. If you need my badges, you can have them. Here--good luck!"
Blushing slightly, she shoved eight badges into Matt's hand and ran off again. Matt stared after her in shock for a second, then looked down. He sorted through the jumble of badges he had been given, removing the ones he would need to enter the Cloud Citadel. Matt smiled grimly. He would be able to help Yuugi and Benjamin after all....
