Alex had written down the route he had taken last year. He suspected that he was pretty close to finding a clue to one of the ancient Pokémon. That was why he had run into the girl who was a member of The Righteous. Of course he had not even known about the legendary trio until that girl had told him about it last year. He had to be close to finding a clue last year. So the best action was to follow the same path that he had last year. Morrissey, Crystal, Kat, and the Glasolemos all followed behind. "Alex, can we take a break? I mean I have shorter legs than you. I'm not a tall freak like JJ, I have short stubby legs.", Kat was only 5'2 so she did not have those long legs. Yes, Kat was in great shape, she worked out several times a week, but she wasn't an athlete. So of course she was exhausted. They had trekked over some rocky terrain which had taken a lot out of Kat. Luckily they had reached a clearing where they could rest. It was only 1 pm and Kat already wanted a break. Alex looked at Kat and shook his head, "you need to do more cardio, Kat." She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. This was her pouting which Alex already knew all too well.
Alex sighed, "sure. Let's just settle down over-." He was cut off as both Alex and Kat felt something buzz over head. "Mandibuzz!", a flock of Mandizbuzz flew over head. The vulture like Pokémon noticed Alex and Kat, they started firing off attacks at the two. Kat and Alex decided to go look for some cover. Alex looked over at Kat, "great job. Let's go rest. I need rest. Very smart of you Kat." His tone mocked Kat who snarled at Alex. This was his fault for bringing them to this place. She wouldn't be in this situation if it wasn't for him. The flock of Mandibuzz circled around again firing off a few dark attacks at the students. Crystal, Kat's Glaceon, stood impassively front of Kat as did Morrissey. This would out well for Kat and a Alex as they had the type advantage. The flying types would not stand against the ice types. The Glasolemos, though, jumped in front of the two students as well. This brought a smile to Kat's face, "I think she likes us, Alex." There was no answer from Alex, no chuckle no nothing. She couldn't even get a snarky comment from her travel companion. She lied over at Alex and gasped at what she saw.
Alex's eyes glowed as did the Glasolemos' eyes. 'Holy shit he has battle bond!', if she wasn't scared Kat would have loved the irony. Alex Knight had developed a connection so strong to the Glasolemos that they were connected. He hadn't even caught the Pokémon. It was weird to the twenty year old. "Kat, you ok?", she shook her head and looked. That glowing in his eyes was gone and he was back to normal. It had been a flash, but Kat swore she saw it. She shook what she thought she saw out of her mind, "yeah. Ok Crystal, when those Mandibuzz comes around again hit them with a shadow ball then ic fang." Kat knew that they had to ground the creatures. The dark attack would be effective that was until she felt the temperature drop suddenly. She shivered as the temperature kept dropping. Alex too was shivering and he looked around for the cause and he saw it. White ice had formed around the Glasolemos as it targeted 3 of the 7 Mandibuzz. "It's Sheer Cold, Kat!", the powerful ice attack struck the three targeted Mandibuzz as they fell from the air.
The other four Mandibuzz stopped arched.in mid air as they watched their fellow dark and flying types drop from the sky. The creatures did not see the shadow ball and weather ball coming straight towards them. The two powerful attacks landed flush. The Mandibuzz decided to scatter away as their comrades remained fainted. Alex looked at the Glasolemos who just blinked, "you're so amazing, Glasolemos. That was amazing what you did back then. You are so cool." It took a lot for Alex to be amazed by a Pokémon, but this semi legendary had done it. The ice and grass type jumped up and down with excitement. "Glas!", the Pokémon said. Kat had to admit that she was impressed by the Pokémon, but not because of what it had done to the Mandibuzz. Instead she was impressed by the fact that this Pokémon had connected with Alex so much that it was clear that Alex had battle bond. Kat was confused by this because she thought that someone could not have battle bond with a Pokémon they hadn't caught. So this was really odd from a research perspective for Kat.
The two travel companions would settle down in the middle of the clearing. Alex had settle up next to the Glasolemos who rubbed against him. Alex just pet the creature on its head as Kat watched on. Kat had known Alex to love and care for his Pokémon. He treated them very well, but the connection with this Pokémon was different. He seemed really connected with this Pokémon. Kat remembered what Dr. Walkmen had said when talking about the relationships between Pokémon and trainers. "Sometimes, pokemon and trainers are destined to come together. It does not matter the circumstance, if a Pokémon and trainer are destined to come together then they will find each other.", Kat had felt that about her Pokémon when she caught them. But this was different with Alex and this Pokémon. They were connected together. Ava had said something similar when she told Kat about how she caught Grace. Now she was seeing it for herself.
"Alex, I need to talk to you about something. And no it's not about you and me.", this intrigued Alex. He looked at Kat and nodded. If she wanted to talk, Alex would listen because she had come all this way to save him. He figured it was related to the legendary trio. Afterall he had memorized the clue related to Ptica. So he was interested on what his best friend wanted to discuss. Kat sighed, "Alex, I think you have battlebond. I saw it when you were looking at the Mandibuzz. You and the Glasolemos are connected." Alex looked at Kat as if she was crazy or was pulling a practical joke on him. Alex looked at the Glasolemos with awe. The semi legendary just stared back at him with love. Just pure unbridled love that none of his Pokémon looked at him with. Still Alex shook his head, "you're crazy, Kat. What is this your way of trying to pay me back for going here without you? Cause this is a sick joke." No, he didn't have it. He wasn't like Bunny or Ava. Plus he hated the idea of it. He hadn't even caught the Pokémon yet.
Kat rolled her eyes. She slapped Alex in the back of his head, "stop being a dick and just listen. I saw your eyes turn just as it did for her. You were connected. It's ok, Alex. You aren't a freak. It means that you're a special trainer." Alex turned pale. He did not understand how this was possible. He was still in complete denial about it. He tried to scoot away from the Glasolemos, but the semi legendary just followed him. Kat again smacked him in the back of the head, "stop being a dick for two seconds and listen. You and this creature were bound to find one another. That's why it stumbled upon us. It was destined to find you. Just look at the way it looks at you. Maybe if you had ever noticed that I look at you the same way then you wouldn't have not noticed how in love with you I am. She looks at you the same way. So don't go off hurting her like you did to me." There was a stunned silence from both Alex and Kat. Alex knew she was right, she was always right, but still he was concerned. He didn't know what this meant. There were so many questions.
"Alex, you have this terrible habit where you just wing things. That's why you decided to come here. But for some reason when it comes to females and Pokémon you are too cautious. You need to take a chance. Here is this Glasolemos offering you this chance. It's special the bound you two have. You need to get over how it could look and perceptions. You always wanted to be a special trainer well here is your chance.", Kat huffed. She had wanted to say this to him since their talk. Alex could be a pussy sometimes and she wanted him to see that he needed to stop. Yes, he may be reckless at times, but she preferred that Alex to the overly cautious that sat before her now. Alex just absorbed everything in. He did have a tendency to overthink things when it came to catching Pokémon. He had developed a list of Pokémon to catch to take out Ava for example. It had been so long since he had just caught a Pokémon for fun instead of just going by a calculated list of which Pokémon he needed to catch. Alex looked at the Glasolemos who smiled back at him.
Alex unclipped a pokeball from his belt and looked at the Glasolemos, who lovingly looked back at him. "Hey Glasolemos, do you want to come along with me? Want to be apart of my team?", the ice and grass pseudo legendary eeveelution stared at Alex then at Kat. Kat was just watching to see what the creature would do. She felt a cold breeze brush through the camp as the pseudo legendary jumped up and down. "Glas, Glas!", she walked over to Alex's hand and pressed her head against the pokeball. It was an instant catch as the Glasolemos did not put up a resistance. Alex picked up the ball as the Glasolemos popped out again and rested at the feet of her new trainer. "What are you going to name her?", Kat asked. She had taught Alex that it was important to give a nickname to the newly caught Pokémon. Alex pondered the question as he looked at the ice and grass type. He shrugged, "it hadn't hit me yet. I am just taking all this information in. I don't know if I have battlebond or not. So I just have to process everything. Oh and there is something else that has been bugging me." Alex pulled Kat closer as she blinked confused. He gave her a passionate kiss which caught the black haired twenty year old off guard. She pulled back and huffed. He just smirked, "well you said to take a chance. So I did."
Kat blushed and shook her head. Her tan skin was completely red, "NOT LIKE THAT, ASS!" Alex just laughed as Kat mumbled something. She didn't know what that meant because a guy had not kissed her like that since her last boytoy. So she didn't know what Alex was trying to do, but it confused her. Alex continued to laugh as he saw how his best friend had reacted. This would continue for a good fifteen minutes as the Glasolemos and Crystal looked on in utter confusion. Finally, after the laughing had calmed down, Alex pulled out his notebook that he had used to copy down the information from the books and documents that he had 'borrowed.' "Kat, you are kind of smart, can you come over here and look at this.", the black haired twenty year old rolled her eyes. This was a backhanded compliment if she ever heard of one. Kat was the queen of backhanded compliments, so she knew them. "Alex, my goal is higher than your iq. So I wouldn't be arguing about who is kind of smart.", she stuck her tongue out at Alex as she took the notebook into her hands.
"Follow the endless water where the ancient creature resides.", she raised her eyebrows and rubbed her chin. This was a riddle that she had to figure out. She looked at the map that Alex had been working on since they got here. She looked and studied the map when her eyes lit up as she saw one river that appeared to be listed as "beskrajna voda" on the map. "You didn't pay attention to your English to Avantura intro class did you? beskrajna voda means endless water in Avanturaian. That is where we need to go.", she looked so smug. She had just figured out what Alex had been studying in a few minutes. There was only one problem, she hadn't solved it as Alex was quick to point out. "Uhhhh then what's the ancient creature? Why would it reside there?", Kat just shrugged. She quickly forgot that she was exhausted and gathered her belongings to go see where they needed to go.
It took them an hour to reach beskrajna voda. They were less than impressed. It was just a small stream that flowed not North-South, but South-North. Kat titled her head, "this is it? This is the answer to the mystery? This little stream here?" It was unimpressive. Sure it was weird that the stream flowed a different way, but would it hold a mystery? Kat just shook her head as she walked away in a huff. If this was the answer then this was just a wild chase with no point to it. Well the good news was that it appeared that no Righteous members had found out what the clue was. The area was not disturbed or anything. So at least they had that going for them. "What should we do now Alex? Cause this is the endless water.", perhaps she was wrong, but she doubted it. She knew this had to be what the writings had been talking about on the map. This was the only place she could think of. Alex walked over to the stream and sighed. If this was it then it was for nothing. But then he saw a rather large shadow from a Pokémon in the stream. He knew by the shadow what kind of Pokémon that was in the stream. That confirmed what the writings had said. His eyes grew wide as he shook Kat.
"Relicanth, Kat! There's a Relicanth that here! The ancient Pokémon. We need to follow it.", Kat thought Alex was nuts. Then she looked at the stream again, there she discovered the same shadow in the water that Alex had seen. It was large and shaped like the Relicanth she had seen in books. Of course she had never seen one up close before, but she knew what it looked like from those photos. This was definitely a Relicanth. There was only one problem: where a Relicanth was that meant that more likely than not there would be a Regi temple. There was no way there was a Regi temple here, Dr. Walkmen would have mentioned it to her before or she would have found it in the research class. But this creature could lead mean they were closer to one of the legendary Pokémon. "Ok, Alex. But if it gets too dangerous we have to get out of here. So let's follow this Relicanth and see where it leads us.", of course she would keep an eye out for Righteous members. It would be just their luck to do all the work then get jumped by those terrorists.
The Relicanth would continue to swim up stream. This was weird for the Pokémon as all the fish type Pokémon were known to swim down stream. Yet here was this one Relicanth swimming up stream. It was quite weird to say the least. Kat couldn't help, but imagine that Dr. Walkmen would have been over the moon with their discovery. The fact that there was actually a Relicanth here was a massive discovery on its own. Still Kat could not help, but feel that there was something odd about this situation. The fact that this stream had t frozen over like the others and now a Relicanth. Yes, it was cool to see with the added worry that this was all weird. "Uhhh Kat", Alex's voice snapped Kat out of her worry for a second. She looked at him and could see the concern on his face as well. "Does this seem a bit odd to you? I mean the fact that it's a Relicanth that we are following. If things get too dangerous maybe we should turn back?", Kat mockingly cleaned out her ears. He was scared, if only he had acted on this instinct in the first place. She just gave him a glare as she gritted her teeth, "maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to come here in the first place. Now it's too late to turn back." Kat grabbed Alex's arm as she dragged him to continue to follow the Relicanth.
The pair plus the Glasolemos and Crystal would continue to follow the Relicanth up stream for 10 miles. Sure, it was getting late and the sun was setting, but that was ok. They had to finish what they had started. The Relicanth would lead them through a rocky terrain where luckily they had not encountered any dangerous wild Pokémon. In fact they hadn't seen any wild Pokémon as they followed the creature which was odd. Finally the Relicanth would continue to swim into what appeared to be a large cave. Kat, Alex and their pokemon all looked at each other. It was clear that there was apprehension amongst all of them. "Kat, uhhhh, did I ever tell you that I am scared of dark places before? Maybe we shouldn't be going in here.", Kat wanted to murder him. It was Alex afterall that had caused her to come here in the first place. He had wanted to be so noble and so stupid to try to stop the Righteous and now he was telling her he was scared of a cave. She was going to beat his ass if she got the chance to after this. "Stop being a pussy, Alex. You've been in Ava's room before. This can't be any darker than that. Plus you wanted to go on a suicide mission so man the hell up.", her hand grabbed his wrist as she dragged him into the cave.
The inside of the cave was not what any of them expected. There were jewels everywhere that shined brightly. In fact inside of the water itself seemed to reflect the shiny jewels that inhabited the cave. It should have been the home of a Diancie, but Alex doubted that a mythical and legendary would be housed in the same place. Inside the cave there was a pool of water where the stream had led into. A wall of stone blocked their way of continuing. There was no sign of the legendary Pokémon and as he peered into the pool, Alex couldn't see the shadow of the Relicanth anymore. It had disappeared completely. Alex was disappointed, he thought for sure that the Relicanth would have led them to the legendary Pokémon. Kat walked next to him as she peered into the pool, Alex hung his head in shame. "Kat I am sorry. I thought-", Alex was cut off mid sentence. Kat had started to take off her shirt showing an athletic top and then she pulled down her shorts showing athletic shorts underneath. "Uhhhh Catherine, if you want to hook up I don't think this is the best place to do it...", she slapped him again. The black haired female held her fingers to the bridge of her nose to take a few deep breaths. She then put her hair into a ponytail with her hair ties she always carried. "There's an opening in the pool. It's small, you are too big to fit in it. I'm going to go check it out." She put her poke belt on as she began to stretch. Alex's eyes widened at what Kat was saying she was going to do.
"Kat, you can't. It's too dangerous. What if you drown? What if there's something down there way too dangerous? What if you get caught up in something.", no Alex wouldn't let his best friend do it. He began to take off his shirt, "I'll go. I'll be fine." He couldn't let Kat get hurt. Couldn't risk his best friend drowning or worse because of him. No, he would do it. He had to protect Kat. He had to protect the woman that had always been there for him. He couldn't live with himself if something happened to her. She just shook her head and walked up to Alex, "no. You're too big. You'll drown, it's small and compact like me. I'm going Alex. I'll be fine." She gave him a reassuring smile though there was some doubt behind it. She walked up to Alex and gave him a kiss and smiled a bright smile that she hadn't shown since they had their talk weeks prior. "If I die then at least I got to kiss the man I love one last time.", she kissed Alex as she stuck her tongue in his mouth then pulled back. She gave a laugh and dived into the pool of water.
The water was perfect and crystal clear. Kat had expected it to be cool, but it wasn't. The water was just the right temperature, but she knew that she had more important things to get to. Kat could see the hole that the Relicanth had swam into. It was small, but she thought that she could get through it. Of course her time was limited since she didn't have gills and given she was under water she had to hurry up. Kat dived down deep deeper to where the Relicanth had been. The hole seemed to be the perfect size for the 5'2 black haired senior as she tried to squeeze through. Kat seemed to clear the hole and got through except her left foot was tied up by some sea grass. At first she didn't panic instead she was irritated. She pulled at the kelp/grass to no avail. This time she started to panic a bit. She pulled and tugged with more furrier, but to no avail. She could feel herself start to really become worried. She reached for her belt, but could feel her consciousness start to fade as she started swallowing water. 'Sorry, Alex. I tried. At least we got to spend time some time together. Glad you aren't a dick anymore. Tell Ava I am sorry that I didn't listen to her.', with that Kat Kiner faded to black.
She took a huge gasp of fresh air. Kat was extremely thankful, but disoriented. She dug her fingers into the ground as she spewed out some water. She took several deep breaths as she panted heavily. "I'm alive?", she whispered as she looked around. Her vision was blurry, but she was indeed alive. She looked around and saw the Relicanth's head popped out of the water to check on the twenty year old. "Relicanth", the ancient pokemon made sure that Kat was ok. She gave the Pokémon a thumbs up as a way of saying thank you. "Canth!", the ancient fish nodded as it swam away. Kat shook her head as a way to get her bearings. She didn't know what had happened or if she had gotten through the little hole to the other side of the wall. "Kat! Kat, you ok?", she could hear Alex's voice, but it was muffled. She looked around and saw no trace of him. She narrowed her eyes as she struggled to get to her feet she saw that she had indeed gotten to the other side of the wall. "Yeah, i'm fine. Guess zi made it to the other side. Gonna go take a look around."
It was dark on her side of the cave. Kat pulled out her Pokédex and shined a light from the dex onto the cave. "Alex, going to look around. There are some weird drawings here. I want to see what they mean.", Kat called. The drawings were quite primitive in their designs. Just what appeared to be humans and some Pokémon. Then Kat saw something that made her eyes widen in shock. It appeared to be a group of Glasolemos surrounding a Ptica. The majestic white and gold bird legendary and the ice and grass pseudo legendary were depicted as living in peace with the humans. Kat continued to follow the drawings as she went deeper and deeper into the cave. She continued to follow the story from the drawings as she mindlessly walked through the cave. Suddenly a dark creature appeared in the drawings and the Glasolemos disappeared as the drawings showed a fight between Ptica, a dog like creature, and the dark creature. "The endless war!", Kat gasped as she continued on. She didn't know how long she continued on as she followed the story from the drawings. The drawings finally depicted Ptica being caught in a pokeball then being put into what appeared to be a cave. Kat somehow ended up in a part of the cave with a opening in the roof. "What the fuck is this?", she asked as she gasped. As Kat looked up she saw a drawing of the majestic Ptica. In the center of its body was the hole in the roof. "I wonder.", Kat reached to her pokebelt for a certain pokeball.
Melody Monet knew that she didn't have long. She had to get far into the forest as possible. The grunts of The Righteous would be calling backup as soon as possible. Then they would know that she had finally broken free. Her only way was to get deep into the forest. So she ran as fast as possible. The sixteen year old had been trained in the arts of avoiding being tracked so she knew what to do. She made sure to cover her tracks by having Twilight get rid of her tracks. Melody finally reached a clearing that she could rest at. That was when she saw the fallen Mandibuzz. "That's weird. We didn't encounter any Mandibuzz.", she looked at the creatures. Upon closer inspection, she discovered tracks of Pokémon and trainers. "Hmmmmmmm, perhaps they can help me get out of here. Or at least provide cover.", whatever had taken out the Mandibuzz would have to be some powerful trainers and Pokémon. They could help her fight off what she knew was coming.
So Melody followed the tracks. She walked and walked as the tracks led her to a weird stream. She followed the tracks up the stream to a cave. Melody Monet sighed as she held Twilight's pokeball in her right hand just in case.
Ooc: Back from vacation! It was great. I wanted to come back with a really exciting/banger of a chapter. A lot happened here. So I wonder what Kat is going to do. Also how will Alex react to Melody?