Chapter Fifty Seven: Washed Up

It had never occurred to Sandy just how necessary oxygen was to her existence, but now that it was running out, she knew that if she survived, she would treasure every breathe.

She was being pushed uncontrollably by the powerful Surf, trapped beneath gallons of water and flying forwards faster than she knew possible. Her body was getting abused, the water slamming her into the concrete path and against the rocks, making it feel like all her bones had broken. Sandy was trying her best to hold her breathe, but she would not be able too for much longer; her throat was closing up and her head was throbbing from the lack of oxygen and the effect of being spun around.

I have to protect Weepinbell, I must! Sandy told herself, and she kept her arms firmly wrapped around her Grass type despite all that was happening; there was a chance they would both drown in this monstrous Surf, but Sandy would not let her weakened Weepinbell get injured any further and lessen her chances of getting away.

However, with every second that passed, it seemed less and less likely they would get out of this. Sandy's eyes were tightly shut against the water, but a different sort of darkness was settling in on her, like a blanket wrapping around her brain. The lack of oxygen was killing her, but if she opened her mouth Sandy would only swallow water and drown sooner. She wanted to try and break free, but the Surf was too strong, and Sandy was getting weaker and weaker as the Surf carried her out to sea. When she had been shot, Sandy's body had simply gone into shock and she had only felt numb. Now, she had gained multiple injuries within seconds and was running out of oxygen, so Sandy could feel the pain as her life began to slip away.

She had always heard that your live flashed before your eyes when you died, but having already nearly died once, Sandy now knew that in your last moments you could not help but think back on the people and events that had shaped your world. As the water crushed her the life out of her, Sandy let her mind drift off so she would not have to think of this suffocating pain; she thought of her childhood, care-free and full of joy, she thought of her parents when they had both been happy and smiled willingly. Sandy remembered the day she had last seen her mother, then the day she had last seen her father smile. She managed a grin as she reflected on the day a Caterpie had appeared on her window sill, and then the morning she took it as a Butterfree away on a grand adventure. She remembered meeting Alaska, battling the robots, her mind switch with Butterfree, the attack on Vermilion, getting drunk, getting shot, watching Alaska burn down the Celadon gym… as her brain screamed for the oxygen it desperately needed, one final thought crossed Sandy's mind; after wanting it for so long, had her journey been worth it?

Suddenly, Sandy came to a stop, and for a moment she wondered if she had died, her mind and soul leaving the force of the Surf. She began to rise, feeling the water pushing her upwards, and Sandy opened her eyes to see a harsh light above her. Is this it… after everything I have been through, am I going to die thanks to a sadistic fisherman?

However, Sandy gathered speed, and she finally broke through the ocean surface into glorious sunlight. Blind and gagging for breathe, Sandy screamed as she flew forwards and slammed onto something solid, more grazes to join the rest of her wounds, and she coughed uncontrollably as a freezing cold engulfed her body. She vomited up more water than she had expected, and Sandy placed Weepinbell aside as she struggled to catch her breath. Other people were gagging on either side of her, and Sandy was reassured to know that Alaska and Mitchell had made it out alive.

"Of all… the bastards… we're fought… that guy… is completely… utterly… crazy!" Alaska yelled in between deep breathes. "Who… sends people… to drown… in the middle of the ocean!"

"He has lived… in that house… for years… it would make sense… if he was… a bit lonely… and… a bit… mad," Sandy suggested breathlessly as she looked towards Alaska. She was relieved that they had both survived, but Sandy was taken aback by the glare Alaska was shooting her, and it only made her remember the realisations she had come to during her battle.

"That guy is crazy, there is no excuse for that," Alaska replied angrily, and she stumbled to her feet, water dripping endlessly from her sodden clothes. "At least we have covered a lot of ground," she snarled sarcastically, and Sandy glanced up to see the little island with the ruined shack was far off in the distance, probably an hour's plus walk away. She had barely registered that they had been pushed so far or so fast, and it was a miracle they had managed to survive hitting the rocks or being underwater for so long. However, Sandy was not unscathed, and she began to examine her wounds; her dress was ruined, torn in a dozen places, her arms and legs had shallow but long cuts from the rocks and her chest felt so bruised that it was hurting to breathe. For the moment, she was not in too much pain, but Sandy was certain that would come later. But at least I am alive!

"H-h-how did we even s-survive?" A quiet voice mumbled to her left, and Sandy turned to find Mitchell huddled on the ground, shivering furiously, his eyes wide with fear.

Of course, he was not as use to life threatening experiences as we are, Sandy thought pitifully, and she looked around for their bags, spotting them a metre away. Sandy quickly opened them, but was dismayed to find they had all soaked through, everything inside completely saturated.

"Sorry Mitchell, but there is nothing dry for us to change into," Sandy said apologetically.

"Oh great, I g-g-get to freeze to death rather than dr-dr-drown!" Mitchell whined, and he threw his sodden shirt off without any shame or embarrassment around two older girls and lay on the path, letting the sun dry his pasty body.

"I think we may have been saved by that thing," Alaska said suddenly, and Sandy turned back to the ocean, the never ending canvas of blue suddenly calm as if three people nearly drowning had worn out the water. She was surprised to see something large and purple bobbing on the ocean's surface before them, and Sandy would have thought it a large, crusty rock if it wasn't for the smooth spike formations on the top and a sharper, grey one poking through the centre.

"Cloy," the rock thing mumbled, and it split open down the middle, revealing a perfectly round, purple-black head in amongst an inner grey shell, wearing an almost sinister smile across its nearly featureless face.

"It's a Cloyster!" Sandy exclaimed, and the Water type nodded in agreement. "It must have seen us in trouble and decided to save us! It could have used its own Surf to counter-act Gyarados'! Thank you Cloyster!" She cried, and extended a hand to shake before registering that Cloyster was still in the water and had no hands to shake either. Sandy caught Alaska rolling her eyes as she walked forwards and leaned over the edge.

"Thanks for, y'know, saving us all… that was pretty cool of you," she said, and the Cloyster nodded. "Is there any way we can repay you? We don't have much food, unless you want some brownies… or you could eat these lovely ruined clothes, they are nice and… fabricy…"

"CLOY!" Cloyster yelled while still looking at Alaska and smiling maliciously and Sandy thought it was going to attack. However, the water next it to rippled, and something shell shaped bobbed up to the surface. It was tiny and a richer shade of purple, with similar yet smaller spike-like mark on its back. This Pokemon opened down the middle as well but its shell lifted upwards, revealing a black face that stared out at them with wide, worried white eyes, with a long pink tongue that seemed almost as big as the rest of its body.

"That's a Shellder, yes?" Alaska asked, and a received a confirming nod from Sandy. "Did Shellder help us as well or something?"

"Cloyster! Cloy Cloy Cloy, Cloyster Cloy, Ster Ster Cloyster Cloy Cloy," Cloyster explained, and it then nudged Shellder forwards. Shellder appeared terrified, and it glanced frightfully back at Cloyster, whose smile softened as it nodded at the Pokemon, and Sandy gasped as she noticed the connection.

"I think Cloyster must be Shellder's parent, and it wants one of us to take Shellder with us," she explained. "I have heard of this happening before; while some Pokemon despise humans, others see their friends being captured and strive to follow after them. Cloyster must want a better life for its child," she explained, and smiled as Cloyster nodded once again, her frozen body feeling warm by the real life case of parental emotions in the Pokemon world. Shellder looked very nervous and uncertain, but Alaska bent down and leaned towards the ocean and scooped the Bivalve Pokemon up.

"Don't worry, I will give you a good home," she whispered, pulling Shellder in close and smiling affectionately. Sandy could see Shellder looked more relaxed now, but it still tried to turn back towards its parent. Alaska noticed and held Shellder out, and Cloyster moved closer. The Water-Ice type was no longer smiling, instead looking close to tears, and it nuzzled against the outstretched Shellder and whispered something.

"Shellder Shell Shell!" Shellder replied in a high pitch squeak, and Cloyster nodded one final time before turning emotionally away and beginning to descend beneath the waves.

I wonder what it would have been like if I had had a proper goodbye with either of my parents, Sandy thought as the tip of Cloyster's grey spikes disappeared forever. It had been so long since she had seen her father and even longer since seeing her mother and Sandy had no idea when she would see either again. She felt a tear forming, but she refused to cry over either of them, and she reached out and grabbed onto Weepinbell for comfort; the Flycatcher Pokemon looked deflated, undamaged by the Surf but still weary and beaten from her battle, and she would not last much longer.

"I am so proud of you! You deserve a nice, long rest!" Sandy said, and Weepinbell gave a weary nod before she dispersed into red energy and was sucked inside her Great Ball. Sandy hoped they still had some Potions left to get her back up to strength, but as she looked up to ask Alaska, she was surprised to see she now had a Great Ball in one hand whilst still holding onto the Shellder in the other.

"Why do you get to keep it?" Mitchell said indignantly from behind Sandy, his shiver beginning to disappear as he warmed up.

"Why not? Finder's keepers and I need a new Pokemon to replace Darwin," Alaska replied as if it was obvious. Sandy had been thinking along the same lines, as Alaska needed more than three Pokemon should she hope to win her remaining gym battles, but it was still irritating that she was acting without asking them first…

"That's rude Alaska! What if I wanted the Shellder or Sandy wanted it?" Mitchell snapped. "Don't be a bully!"

"Oh grow up Mitchell, this isn't the playground anymore!" Alaska growled back. "This is the real world, where you just have to accept the shit that comes your way rather than whinging about it! Be glad that missing out on a Pokemon is the worst thing to happen to you, rather than being shot at or nearly killed in tunnel collapses! Besides, based on what happened back there, you need to focus on training your own Pokemon rather than adding more sub-standard ones to your team!"

"Alaska!" Sandy gasped, looking back at a stunned Mitchell before turning back to her, shocked by her harsh words.

"What?" Alaska groaned. "He is being annoying! And he should not have battled Barney if he wasn't ready, and then we wouldn't have had to fight him!"

"Actually, I was the one that fought him, not you!" Sandy retorted.

"Yeah, and look how well that turned out!" Alaska said, and Sandy felt as if she had been slapped. She was not sure what to say to this, and it was clear Alaska was unware how hurtful her words were. Sandy was tempted to just sit down and ignore it and let Alaska win once more, but then all the angry thoughts she had had during her battle rushed back to her, and before Sandy knew it, she was turning back to face her friend.

"Well soooo-rry then Alaska! It seemed like a good idea at the time, but I apologise if my winning and nearly killing my Pokemon was not up to your usual standard! Would you have preferred if Barney's shack had exploded, or maybe I could have used Onix to make a sinkhole in the middle of the island? If I ever had the chance to train my Pokemon than I probably could have done a better job, and maybe cut off the water supply to rest of Kanto while I was at it; would that be a win in your books?!" Alaska and Shellder both looked stunned, Mitchell gasped and even Sandy was surprised she voiced her feelings in this way. She was breathing deeply, the icy chill of her damp clothes feeling worse from her guilt, but she could not back down; it was now or never, and she had only just begun.

"What has gotten into you?" Alaska said after a few moments of shocked silence. "Where is any of this coming from?"

"The sidelines, Alaska! That's where I have been stuck for so long, just a spectator in this mad little adventure of yours!" Sandy yelled. "I am not a key player in any of this; I am just your lackey that is there to help out whenever you need me! I am there so your Pokemon can train with mine, I am there to help you plan strategies, I am there to dissect the events of the day when you feel like it, but half the time I have no clue what you're thinking! Gideon and all your blog readers probably know more about your intimate thoughts than I do! And frankly Alaska, I am sick of it!"

"So what are you saying, you want to battle Gideon for me now, do you?" Alaska hissed. "Do you want us to wrap up nice and tight in our sleeping bags and discuss robots and terrorist attacks in between painting our nails and doing each other's hair? This isn't some fun, girly little adventure anymore Sandy; there are bigger things at stake!"

"And I want to help you!" Sandy yelled. "I am your friend, I have been since the day I caught Onix, and I will be as long as you actually let me get involved in this, like you promised me after DiglettCave!"

"You need to accept there are some things I can't tell you Sandy!" Alaska snapped. "Some things are just too big for you to understand! Half of what is going on I don't even understand!"

"Then you can tell me those things! Maybe I might understand them, I am not as big of an idiot as you seem to think I am!"

"Well, frankly Sandy, I only met you because you fell from a tree and landed on top of me, what am I suppose to think!" Alaska yelled, but then she paused, eyes bulging as she heard what she said. "Sandy, I didn't mean –" She began, but the damage was done, a verbal knife rammed right into Sandy's heart that brought back a million horrible memories from her childhood.

"Oh no Alaska, you've said what you really think, you can't take it back now!" Sandy shouted back, her voice shaking slightly as tears formed in her eyes; she could not believe Alaska had just said that… her only friend in the world thought she was an idiot…

"Sandy, I don't want to argue anymore! Can you just drop this and we can go back to the way things were?" Alaska said pleadingly, but that was the last thing Sandy wanted to hear, and she could not help but screech like some possessed beast.

"NO! I am not going back to just being your simple sidekick that's getting dragged alone on this crazy, messed up roller coaster of a life you have! I don't want to remain on the sidelines, keeping quiet as I watch you stuff our lives up, biting my tongue least I offend you and get abused like I am right now! You may think this is a friendship Alaska, but for weeks it has been more like boss and employee! I bet you don't even know the first thing about me!"

"Hey, you can be just as cagey as me when it comes to your life!" Alaska snapped. "You act like I have all the secrets, but I know that you have not told me why you are really on this journey in the first place!"

"That's because you never properly asked! You're my friend, you should made me feel more supported if you expected me to tell you about the fact I had to run a –" Sandy froze at that, as this was not something she wanted to reveal in the middle of a shouting match. Alaska was staring at her in complete shock, and Sandy wondered if she had gone too far. Her rage had been silently building up for a while now that it was bound to come out eventually, but Sandy was instantly regretting the way she had gone about this.

"Ummm… ladies… we have some guests," Mitchell mumbled, and Sandy and Alaska both turned towards him. Standing behind a shaking, awkward looking Mitchell was a small crowd of people, staring intently at the two girls. The majority of them were burly men carrying massive video cameras, oversized bags, fluffy microphones on sticks called booms and various other technological devices, their expressions ranging from stunned to uncertainty. However, standing amongst them were three teenagers that did not belong with them, two boys and a girl, and it took a second for an angry, confused Sandy to recognise these faces she had not seen for weeks.

"Oh hell no," Alaska hissed, and Chloe Carmichael tipped back her head and laughed.

"Oh hell yes!" She purred viciously. "Now, if you two have stopped your little screaming bitch fest, can we pick up were we left off last time?" And before Alaska or Sandy could react, Chloe sprinted forwards, a manic look on her face and PokeBalls clutched in her talon-like nails, screaming as she jumped towards Alaska…

They were always going to come back eventually! Only two chapters left for this arc before probably the biggest and one of the most important interludes yet!