Sorry about the lack of updates, school has taken up the majority of my time but hopefully now that I'm out for winter break, the following chapter will be released much more quickly. But for now, enjoy.
The next morning, the four trainers rode back down Cycling Road and to Fuchsia City to take the next boat to Cinnabar Island. However they hit a bit of a roadblock...
"Three days?!" Diego asked in shock. He was talking to a sailor who worked with the ferries.
"That's the schedule. Next boat doesnt come in three days. Only boat we have left is reswrves for some scientists heading to the Colored Isles." The sailor responded.
"Aww man, now what?!" Diego whined.
"Well I'm sure we could find something to do." Jack said, trying to reassure his friend.
Three older teens headed towards the port, two girls and one boy. The first girl had brown skin and dark brown hair that reached her shoulders. She wore an open white jacked with a red shirt that depicted the legendary bird Moltres on it underneath, black leggings and red sneakers. The second was the shortest amongst the group, howeber she was still as tall as Diego. She had light brown skin and white hair that reached her back. She had a blue jacket with a blue shirt depicting Articuno and blue leggings. The boy had olive skin and he had platinum blonde hair. He wore a black jacket and yellow shirt with Zapdos on it, black jeans and yellow sneakers.
"We're here for the boat." The girl in red said.
"Right, you're Professor Willie's group, right?"
"Professor Willow, and yes." The girl in blue replied.
"Well you're all set." The sailor said, the boy in yellow noticed the main group.
"Hey, do you four need a ride?" He asked.
"Yeah, but were headed to Cinnabar Island." Reneé answered.
"Spark, we can't bring any extra guests." The girl in blue said.
"Besides Willow is waiting for us." The other girl added.
"Oh, come on girls, it couldn't hurt, besides Professor Willow is on Cinnabar anyway. If these trainers are headed there, whats the harm in bring them with us?" The boy, Spark pleaded with his conpanions.
"There's no sense in arguing with him Candela, you know how Spark can be. Besides, the Professor will be waiting for us."
"Youre right Blanche... I just don't get that guy." Candela replied. "Fine, they can come too..."
"Awesome, come on!" Spark said eagerly as he invited the trainers onto the boat.
The ship had set sail with the seven heading over to the Colored Isles, which were previously known as the Seafoam Islands, however, underwater volcanic eruptions caused newer islands to appear extremely close to the Seafom Islands, these islands had extremely different climates, which seemed to be popular locations for certain pokemon to be drawn to.
"So you guys are field researches?" Julia asked.
"Yup, were also trainers from the Hoenn region. We were asked by our boss, Professor Willow, to go to these islands and look for proof of three distinct pokemon that have been appearing there." Spark explained.
"Get ready to dock." Blanche called out.
The group landed on what use to be Seafoam Island, bridges of land formed from the volcanic eruptions.
"Ok, there are three islands and seven of us. Spark, you head to Flash Island. Candela, you head to Flare Island, and I'll stay here on Seafoam Island." Blanche explained.
"What about us?" Diego asked.
"Stay here and don't touch anything. We'll be back in an hour at most."
"Hey, you gave us a ride, so the least we can do is do something to help your research." Jack responded.
"Very well then." Blanche groaned bitterly. "You can go with Spark. Your friend can go with Candela and the twins are with me." She ordered, telling Jack to go with Spark and Diego to go with Candela. The three groups split up to examine their respective island.
Blanche and the twins were exploring the caves within Seafoam Islands. The frozen cave was once nearly flooded with oceanic currents that had affected the water currents within the caves. However the floods were stopped nearly thirty years ago when Red had explored the area.
"So what exactly are we looking for?" Reneé asked.
"And where is it?" Julia added.
"We're looking for something at the peak of the mountain. There is an extremely rare Pokemon there that must be studied." Blanche explained. "Wait, what is that in the water over there?" The three stopped right in their tracks when they noted a sort of iceberg that was poking out of the water.
"That?" Reneé asked. "Its just an iceberg. Come on, we should keep moving."
"I dont know sis, it looks like theres no ither way across." Julia said as she looked around and failed to see another way across.
"Then we have no choice." Blanche said, stepping on the iceberg, however she stepped back when the iceberg was revealed to be a pokemon. A long neck and tail rose out of the water and turned to face the girls. Reneé scanned the pokemon with her pokedex.
'Lapras, the Transport pokemon; Its high intelligence enables it to comprehend human speech. When it's in a good mood, it sings in ita beautiful voice.'
"Aww! Lapras are super nice arent they?" Julia said as she approached the wild Lapras.
"Wait! You cant just appraoch a wild pokemon! It could attack!" Blanche warned. Suprisingly though, the Lapras accepted Julia's hug and seemed to offer them a ride.
"Well... I suppose that works..." Blanche sighed as she hopped on the Lapras.
Meanwhile, Diego and Candela were passing through Flare Island with minimum difficulty. The island itself seemed to be similar to a volcano in terms of landscape. The two had water on hand to keep themselves hydrated. Diego seemed to be telling Candela a story.
"So Jack beats the Mega Tyranitar, but then the guy busts out a Metagross and uses his gauntlet to mega evolve it too!" Diego explained.
"But I thought you could only use one mega evolved pokemon in a battle?" Candela asked.
'That's how its supposed to be, but this guy had more than one key stone and apparently he used it to use another mega."
"I call hax on that."
"I thought the same thing! But then it gets weirder, then he sends out two these two monsters. I'm not even sure if I could call them pokemon. They looked like things that came from your nightmares!"
Candela looked shocked at how Diego reacted when mentioning the artificial pokemon. But she also seemed to have a look of intruige...
"So why did you three come out here again?" Diego asked.
"Professor Willow asked us to study the migration pattern of three pokemon that are being drawn to this location. The pokemon were looking for are apparently extremely rare." Candela explained.
"Do you think I could catch it?" Diego asked eagerly.
"I honestly doubt it, these pokemon are extrenely hard to catch." Candela said as the two continued their conversation while they continued their trek through the island.
Just like Diego, Jack also spoke to Spark about the ordeal with Team Dark Star.
"Dang dude, I'm sorry you had to deal with all that..." Spark said, not sure of what to really make of the story.
"Its fine, I just need to focus on nringing them down!" Jack replied. "What pokemon were you supposed to find anyway?"
"Professor Willow said that the legendary bird pokemon make their nests here. Nobody has really had the chance to study them, so the professor had us come here to study them. But he also gave us these just in case we ever had the opportunity to catch them." Spark explained, showing Jack a Master Ball.
"You really think it'll be that easy to just use the Master Ball?" Jack asked curiously.
"Well battling it would definitely be more fun but I know how hard Zapdos and other legendary pokemon are to catch, so the Master Ball is the best thing to use in that case. It isnt impossible to catch it in something else but its just more convenient." Spark explained.
"I understand... Hey is that an exit?!" Jack exclaimed. The two raced to a light that they saw.
The two were at the peak of the mountain and what they saw was unbelievable. There were multiple Zapdos roosting on various parts of the mountain.
Spark took out his phone and took a picture of himself making a peace sign with the Zapdos in the background.
Suddenly the TDS zeppelin arrived in between the three islands, which all of them were able to see.
"Argh, of courae theyd come here!" Jack grimaced. Several TDS grunts used jetpacks to reach the mountainous peaks of the islands which spooked away all but one of each legendary bird as there seemed to be multiple of them on each island.
"Aww man, why'd they go and do that?!" Spark whined.
"The legendary birds belong to Team Dark Star, back off!" One of the grunts called out, the grunt then took a closer look at Jack. "H-hey! You're one of the kids that attacked our base! Time for some payback!"
The legendary birds flew into the air and sent out an attack of their elemental type at everyone.
"Zapdos! Please calm down! I know everything thats happening is really shocking, no pun intended, but please join us and we will help you!" Spark called out to the bird which seemed to understand Spark's plea and flew down to him. It allowed Spark to capture it in the Master Ball.
Candela and Blanche simply threw their Master Balls at the other birds and captured them, much to the surprise of the others.
"What?! You guys had Master Balls and didnt tell us?!" Reneé shouted.
"We thought that if we something were to happen that caused the birds to run away, we would have to catch them to get the sata we needed." Blanche explained.
"But we dont have any time to argue about it, its time to fight!" Candela exclaimed as she sent out her newly caught Moltres.
The other two researchers sent out their legendary birds while tje group sent out their own pokemon to battle.
The battle against the Dark Star grunts was fairly short as the legendary birds made quick work of them.
"We can't handle the heat down here! We have to fall back!" A grunt called to the zeppelin. All of the grunts retreated and the zeppelin flew off into the distance. The three seperate groups flew back down to the boat using the birds.
"Ok, you three habe some explaining to do. Why did you have Master Balls and why were the legendary birds here? Speaking of the birds, why were there so many of them?!"
"Alright, I'll explain. We received reports that the legendary bird pokemon had been appearing around these islands recently. Our boss, Professor Willow asked us, as his best assisstants to go to these islands and find them, giving us these Master Balls as a sure way to capture them if it was to try escaping or if it tried to attack us. However we never expected there to be more than one of them on the islands. We need to get this data and these pokemon to the Professor." Blanche explained.
"Sorry for not telling you guys, but we thought that if we kept the Master Balls a secret then you wouldn't try to get in the way of our research." Candela added.
"Honestly I wouldn't mind if you caught Zapdos, but I had to catch. It's my job." Spark chimed.
"Well you could have told us. If you really had to catch them then we would have helped you." Julia said.
"Well what's done is done. We've completed our task, now we need to head to Cinnabar Island. Thats your destination and where Willow is waiting for us there." Blanche said.
The group rode towards Cinnabar, everybody was silent and deep in thought. Diego was shining his badges, the twins watched the sky, and Jack watched for the coastline of the island.
'One more badge.' Diego thought. 'All I need now is the Viridian Gym badge and then I can finally get into the Pokemon League Tournament.'
'Team Dark Star just wont quit... They'll keep coming to get what they want. I guess its up to me and my friends to bring them crashing down!' Jack pondered.
"Hey look!" Julia called out, getting everyones attention. The Lapras that she encountered earlier swam alongside the boat.
"Hehehe, hey there!" Julia said sweetly as the Lapras allowed Julia to pet it.
"We're approaching Cinnabar Island. Get ready to dock." Candela announced. The group looked to the horizon, they could see the island from the now sunset horizon.
Sorry about the shorter chapter, consider this a bit of a break from the heavy plot points of the story in the previous chapter. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will eagerly await the next chapter, which will hopefully not take as long to release as this one.
