Pokemon Heart Soul Adventures
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Welcome back! Always good to meet you guys again!
After following Ash, Brock and Gary in the previous chapter, and having finally witnessed Bayleef's long-awaited evolution to Meganium, we now get back to Boon Island, where Misty and Dawn have hit an unexpected snag during their training. A Mantyke in distress has reached the island's coastline in search of help, and Misty and Dawn happened to be the first human beings she ran into. Of course, our friends are not going to just ignore a Pokemon needing help, but what will they be getting into by accepting to help Mantyke? This chapter will be dedicated to finding out just that, and to allow the girls a chapter for themselves to shine in!
No, I haven't forgotten about the other characters, of course! It's just that, for the moment, I'm mainly focusing on Ash and his team... but the Hoenn's team time to shine will come soon enough, I can assure you of that!
With that out of the way, let's begin the new chapter and see what new challenges await Misty and Dawn! Happy reading!
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Chapter 24 - A Mantyke In Need
"Don't be afraid, Mantyke... Dawn and I are here to lend you a hand!" Misty said soothingly as she approached the manta ray cub. "Now, tell us... what's the matter? How can we help you?"
Mantyke moved one of her wing-like fins to point towards the open sea she had just come from. She seemed to want to tell the two girls to follow her there...
"Wait, Mantyke, you're too tired to go on..." Dawn told her. "You... want us to follow you? Then... well, just guide us, and don't push yourself too hard. It was already very tiring for you to come here..."
"Mantyke?" the Water / Flying Pokemon seemed to ask... then, after a brief moment of wonder, she shook her head cheerfully. "Mantyke, man! Tyke!" she exclaimed, as she started to guide Misty, Dawn, Starmie, Psyduck and Buneary towards the open sea, never straying too far from the coastline until the moment came to follow Mantyke towards a group of higher reefs. The two girls proceeded, despite having a feeling that things would have soon gotten a lot more complicated, and held their Pokemon tightly as the water got deeper.
"There is sure not one boring day when we're travelling together, huh, Misty?" Dawn commented cheerily. "I thought this would be a simple day of training... and instead, we get to help a Mantyke who's in trouble!"
"You can say that again!" Misty answered with a jovial laugh. "In fact, back when I travelled with Ash and Brock, such things happened pretty much every day! Hehehee..."
Dawn giggled herself as she, her new friend from Kanto and the Pokemon started to swim towards their goal. "I'd love to hear more of that, one of these days!" she affirmed. "But for now, we need to keep up with our new friend... wait, Mantyke! Don't swim that fast! You're still tired, and we can't keep up with you anyway!"
Starmie stopped for a moment and, without saying a word, it motioned for Misty and Dawn to grab one of its robust pseudopods each, so that it could bring them along as it swam. Mantyke took advantage of the break to catch her breath, while the two girls did as Starmie told them. "Phew... thanks, Starmie! Much appreciated!" Misty thanked her trademark Pokemon. "We'd have been in a pinch without you!"
The giant starfish shook its shining body from one side to the other, as if saying that it was no big deal, then started to follow Mantyke once again, with Misty and Dawn both holding onto it with one arm, and carrying respectively Psyduck and Buneary with the other.
"You'd better not get too winded, Buneary!" Dawn told her rabbit-like Pokemon. "We can never be too careful when we're going into the open sea, can we?"
"Buneary?" the bunny seemed to ask, only to smile and nod in gratitude a moment later. She considered herself lucky to have such a caring trainer.
"You too, Psyduck..." Misty told the clumsy duck-like Pokemon, with a small sigh. "I know you're not exactly the most graceful swimmer in the world of Pokemon, so... don't push yourself, okay? I wouldn't want you to be on my conscience if you drowned out here..."
"Psy-ay!" the duck-like Pokemon quacked in joy as he held tight to Misty, who sighed again as if wondering about what she had to do for that idiot... then, she took a deep breath and mentally prepared herself for what they were about to do to help Mantyke...
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Starmie slowed down as it got closer to the rocky coastline, near a reef not too far away from the beach where Mantyke had met with Misty and Dawn. Carefully floating to a point where the sea currents weren't too harsh, the gigantic starfish let the two girls get off, along with Psyduck and Buneary, in the shallow water. Both Misty and Dawn sighed in relief as they set their feet on land and rested a little. Swimming all the way up there to follow Mantyke, even with a Pokemon to hold on to, was not exactly the most relaxing thing they had ever done.
"Phew... we're here, finally! Thanks for getting us here, Starmie!" Misty said as he stroked her favourite Pokemon, who seemed to bow as if in appreciation. Then, theredhead reached to Mantyke, who had lain low and was catching her breath after the long and tiring swim. "Mantyke, you okay? I told you it would have been exhausting to swim all the way up here, right?"
"Man... tyke!" the manta ray Pokemon answered after recovering a little, and offered a smile to her new friend.
Both Misty and Dawn nodded, then decided it was time to get a move on. "Fine, then... Mantyke, tell us, what's the problem, and how can we help you?" the blue-haired pre-teen asked after reordering her ponytail. Buneary climbed on her trainer's shoulder and listened carefully to what Mantyke had to say...
"Tyke!" the manta ray cub answered in a shrill, yet more serious, voice. "Mantyke man man, mantyke, tyke man mantyke! Mantyke!"
"Buneary?" the bunny Pokemon asked as if in confirmation, alarmed by what she had heard... then, she turned to her trainer and Misty to relate what she had learned. "Bun bun, buneary! Buneary bun... Buneary, buneeear!" she squeaked, using pantomime to better convey what she was saying.
"Hmmm... I think I get the gist of it, more or less..." Dawn said, deep in thought. "In a nutshell, Mantyke is saying that her group of Mantines and Mantykes has been attacked by predators, and now they're locked up in a cave somewhere nearby. They can't get out, or they will be caught and eaten... Mantyke barely managed to get away by a stroke of luck, and came here to ask for someone's help... and I'm afraid we're the only ones who can help her now! The other Mantines won't be able to handle the problem..."
"Yeah, I understand..." Misty answered, thinking that things were already getting more complicated than she had predicted. "And I would like to help her save her comrades as well... but I'm not sure if my team can handle all of them. Sure, my Gyarados could probably face them all... but I have no idea which kind of Pokemon we're dealing with, and how many of them there are. We need to be wary and see what we're up against by ourselves."
"Okay, we'll be able to think up a better strategy that way." Dawn said as she held her Buneary in her arms. "Mantyke, where do we go to find the place your friends are trapped in? Can you tell us?"
The manta ray cub nodded and pointed to another part of the reef, where razor-sharp rocks were jutting out of the waters. After looking at each other and nodding in assent, Misty and Dawn slowly began walking towards the wave-struck rocks, with their Pokemon following them and Mantyke keeping close to the coast and guiding them to their destination. A few metres away from the sharper rocks, Mantyke stopped and pointed to a place where the emerging stones were separated by a small gulf, her wing-like flipper shaking in fear. Then, she got closer to the reef and blended with the bottom of the sea, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.
"I guess we're getting closer..." Misty affirmed. "If Mantyke refuses to get closer, it probably means those predators she spoke of are close... okay, Dawn, guess we'll be doing this on our own."
"No problem!" the blue-haired girl answered. "Mantyke, we'll go take a look and see what we can do about this. You stay here, and don't do anything rash."
"Man!" Mantyke answered, before throwing some sand on its own back in order to hide the smile-like pattern etched upon it. Misty, Dawn and their Pokemon, on the other hand, began walking along the coastline, until they reached the reef, and then reached a narrow path going around the rocks, eventually getting to a large opening in the rocky cliffs in front of them, like some sort of open maw drinking the sea. Right in front of it, several crescent moon-shaped dorsal fins were going back and forth, a dead giveaway at the Pokemon swimming in front of the cave... several Sharpedos, shark-like Water / Dark Pokemon with razor-sharp teeth and a skin to match, who were swimming with alarming agility around the improvised shelter, tracing a few figure-eights in front of it. From time to time, the girls were able to catch a glimpse of an elongated, torpedo-shaped body jutting out of the waves, complete with dark, beady eyes and a terrifying, tooth-filled maw!
"One, two, three... four Sharpedos!" Dawn counted them, keeping her voice low as if she feared the shark-like Pokemon would hear her from under the tides. "And that's obviously the cave where Mantyke's companions are... Well, that's four of them. Not too many, but we're kindashort of Pokemon ourselves! What can we do, Misty? Think your Gyarados might be enough against them... ever considering their Rough Skin ability?"
Misty blinked in puzzlement. "Their what?" she asked.
"Er, sorry... right, I should have explained." Dawn excused herself. "Sharpedos are quite frail, but they possess this unique ability, Rough Skin... in other words, whenever they're attacked directly, their abrasive skin does damage in return. That's why I'm not sure Gyarados could hold his own against four of them..."
Misty nodded. "Yeah, I see your point... that means we'll have to think of a way to fight them without our Pokemon getting too close..." she said out loud as she tried to think of an alternate plan. "Hmm... let's see, what could we do to drive away those big oafs?"
As Misty thought out loud, she was jolted out of her reverie by a sudden plunge, and she saw one of the Sharpedos jumping out of the water, holding a still-struggling fish in his crushing jaws before swallowing it like candy! The shark-like Pokemon licked his lips, as if appreciating the appetizer while he waited for the Mantyke and Mantine based main course, and the redhead shuddered in fear, dreading that such a fate could soon befall Mantyke's companions as well! Not long after, her eyes crossed with Psyduck's, and the strange psychic duck looked vacantly at her... almost as if he was asking what Misty was planning to do now.
"Hmm... hold on a sec..." Misty said, her eyes still affixed onto Psyduck's. The clumsy duckling seemed to have given her an idea, but Misty wasn't sure whether it would work. "Maybe, if we were to... sure! Of course! It just has to work!"
"What? What is it that has to work, Misty?" Dawn asked in surprise as her friend from Kanto snapped her fingers.
"Psyduck?" Psyduck asked.
"Alright, listen up... it's an idea I got right now, and I'm not sure whether it will work or not... but if it does work, we'll get to distract the Sharpedos enough for the Mantines and Mantykes to escape!" Misty said. "But we'll need everyone's help to do so..."
"Buneary!" Dawn's Buneary exclaimed, her long ears wagging from side to side. Starmie jumped out of the water, spinning on itself like a wheel, and Psyduck nodded his head, though he didn't seem to be too sure of what was really going on...
"Alright, then!" Misty continued, motioning for her friends to get closer. "Now, listen up, here's what we're gonna do..."
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A couple minutes later...
"Alright... you ready, Buneary? The Sharpedos still don't seem to pay any attention to us... so we can catch them off guard!" Dawn said to her bunny Pokemon. Among the waves, the shark Pokemon were getting closer and closer to the cave where the Mantine and Mantyke group had taken shelter, just waiting for the moment when one of them would have put a fin out to grab it with their teeth... they had to act quickly if they wanted to save Mantyke's friends!
"Bun!" Buneary squeaked, standing on top of a rock near the shaking sea. Without the need for Dawnto give any sort of order, the graceful bunny Pokemon took a deep breath and opened her mouth, where a whitish-azure sphere of light began glowing for a short while... then, she breathed out a powerful Ice Beam that struck the water right in the middle of the Sharpedos, immediately freezing it! The Sharpedos scattered in surprise and panic as a smalliceberg began forming in the midst of their group, breaking their formation... and allowing Misty and her Pokemon to make their move while the Water / Dark Pokemon were still confused!
"Now, Gyarados!" the redhead exclaimed, opening her Pokeball and letting the huge sea serpent out. "Get underwater and use a Body Slam attack... on that block of ice!"
Gyarados roared in assent and got underwater with incredible swiftness for such a huge creature. The shark-like Pokemon quickly turned in his direction, and two of them tried to get underwater and intercept him... but Gyarados was faster than they were, and resurfaced just in time, hitting the ice block Buneary had created with all of his immense strength! The iceberg shattered with a deafening shattering sound, turning into a hail of razor-sharp pieces of ice that rose up in the air and then plummeted down, causing the Sharpedos to frantically scatter in order to avoid the falling blades of ice!
"Now! Starmie, Psyduck... use Psychic and Confusion on those ice shards!" Misty exclaimed. Both Pokemon concentrated and usedtheir mind powers to lift the shards of ice straight from the water, in order to rain them upon the ferocoius shark Pokemon, hitting them multiple times! Roaring in surprise and anger, the Sharpedos tried to get away... but one of them, a particularly grizzled and aggressive specimen who looked like the leader of the small gang, got close to Misty's Gyarados and struvk back with a vicious Crunch attack, his serrated jaws clamping shut on the sea serpent's scaly hide! Gyarados roared in pain and thrashed about to shake the monstrous shaek Pokemon off, sending his attacker airborne for a brief moment, and finally dropping him into the stormy waters with a mighty plunge!
"Gyarados!" Misty exclaimed, breathing a sigh of relief when she saw that her Pokemon was stillable to fight. But things would go south really fast if they didn't get rid of that Sharpedo as quickly as possible...
The Sharpedo leader opened his mouth and let out a piercing Screech sound, which penetrated Gyarados' ears and caused him to roar in rage and pain, not tomention to drop his guard... and that was when the mighty shark used an Agility attack and sped towards Gyarados at blinding speed, his head surrounded in a glowing aura that Dawn recognized all too well...
"It can use Zen Headbutt?" the blue-haired pre-teen exclaimed. "This thing is harder to beat then we thought!"
Gyarados tried to get out of the way, but the earlier hits had weakened him, and the Sharpedo leader was able to slam into the sea serpent's body with all of his immense strength, not only doing damage directly, but also scratching Gyarados with his abrasive skin. Again, the monstrous serpent wobbled dangerously as the Sharpedo boss speedily got away from him... then, it turned around, its dorsal fin slicing the waves as he did so, and got ready for another attack! Misty knew she could not afford to let Gyarados get hit again, but the opponent was too fast for her Gyarados to aim correctly. If only she had a way of detaining that thing...
"Buneary, use Ice Beam once again!" Dawn's voice called out. The bunny-like Pokemon obeyed and, after taking careful aim, shot a powerful Ice Beam that struck the water right in front of the speeding Sharpedo, who was too fast to do anything to avoid the massive block of ice that formed right in front of him! The shark Pokemon only had time to widen his eyes before slamming face first into the miniature iceberg, breaking it apart but remaining stunned and losing a lot of speed in the process! Misty and Gyarados quickly turned to Dawn and her Buneary in surprise... but the blue-haired girl pointed to the still-reeling Sharpedo, advising Misty to take advantage of his distraction now!
"Quick, Misty! Gyarados! Take him down!" Dawn exclaimed. "I don't know how long he'll be dazed..."
Misty quickly steeled herself. "Right! Gyarados, let's wrap this up with Dragon Rage!"
Gyarados' maw opened wide, and a multicolored flame danced between his jaws for a split second before shooting towards the still-stunned Sharpedo, who could do nothing but grit his teeth as he was struck head-on and overwhelmed by the Dragon Rage! A huge, deafening blast shook the water all around the place, causing the waves to rise higher for a second, while the Sharpedo leader was catapulted out of the water and thrown back for a long distance, before plunging back into the sea, exhausted and stunned. He quickly floated to the surface once again, his eyes spinning and his mouth semi-opened in a goofy expression... but he regained his bearing and shook his head while recalling his companions.
"Sharp! Shaaaarp!" he roared, and the other shark Pokemon, having seen that battle from the very beginning and not interested in being mauled by Gyarados and his companions, wisely decided to follow their leader's advice and make a run for it.
"Sharpedo!" they all exclaimed together, before plunging underwater and making a swim for it, escaping to the open sea in search of easier prey. The battle had ended almost as quivkly as it had begun, and as Dawn ran to Misty, the two girls exchanged an high-five, congratulating each other over the victory!
"Bravo, Misty! Your Gyarados was splendid!" Dawn exclaimed, giving the huge serpent a congratulating smile as he reached his trainer. Misty caressed her largest Pokemon on the side, which Gyarados seemed to appreciate.
"Well done, Gyarados... Starmie... Psyduck... and well done to you and your Buneary as well, Dawn!" Misty complimented her friend from Sinnoh, just as Buneary jumped into the young coordinator's awaiting arms. "It was a team effort, let's face it! If it wasn't for Psyduck and Starmie distracting those Sharpedo with their psychic powers, and your Buneary running interference, we'd be in hot water, don't you think so?"
Gyarados softly growled in assent, and Starmie did a spin on itself as some comical sparks lighted up all around its body! "I guess you're right!" Dawn answered with a smile, before turning to the reefs among which Mantyke had hidden herself. "Hey, Mantyke! You can come out now, those sHarpedos are gone... and they won't be coming back anytime soon!"
"Tyke?" the manta ray cub said as she emerged from her hiding place just half a minute later, looking at the two girls in admiration. "Tyke, tyke! Mantyke!"
Her enthusiasm rising, Mantyke began springing out of the water, frantically moving her wings as a sign of thanks towards Misty, Dawn and their Pokemon! After celebrating for a little while, the small manta ray waved her wing at the girls and swam at top speed towards the cave her friends were in... and only a few minutes later, a small group of Mantykes, joined by three Mantines, happily swam out of the cave, warmly thanking their companion and her friends for having saved them!
"MANTYKE! MANTYKE!"
"MANTIIIIINE!"
The manta ray Pokemon began swarming around Gyrados, Starmie, Psyduck, Buneary and their trainers, and the redhead almost felt embarassed by their rescuees' enthusiasm! "Hehehee... hey, chill out, everybody, it's okay! Be calm! We... we just did what anyone with a heart would have done in such a situation!"
"There were Pokemon in trouble... and we helped them! That's all there is to it!" Dawn continued.
Gyarados grunted in assent, moving his head up and down... but that did not stop the overly-happy Mantykes, who grabbed the hapless Psyduck in their fins as he walked into the water to speak with the manta ray Pokemon... and promptly began throwing him up in the air!
"Psy-ay-ay! Psy-ay-ay!"
"Hey, hold on a sec!" Misty exclaimed. "Don't go shaking Psyduck more than he needs! You don't wanna worsen his headache!"
Misty tried, rather unsuccessfully, to "save" her clumsy psychic duck from the Mantykes' excessive attention, while Dawn, her Buneary and Misty's Gyarados watched with a bewildered expression and huge sweatdrops coming down their heads... and Starmie's gem flickered on and off, as if saying that it didn't know what to do...
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As the sun began setting, bathing Boon Island's skies in orange and red hues, Ash and his male companions were walking back downtown after Ash and Gary's successful training session. Sadly, even Boon Island's Move Tutor knew nothing of Brock's Gible's new attack, as she seemed to never have seen it before...
"So, Brock... even the Move Tutor couldn't help you with that, huh?" Ash asked, as his group entered the small seaside town and walked towards the harbor, where the appontment with Misty and Dawn was.
"Sadly, she couldn't... she said she had never seen a Gible use that move... and any other Pokemon, for that matter! It must be a really rare move for people to know so little about it..." the dark-skinned boy replied, a little dubious. "Well, no matter... I'll look for someone else who knows. On the other hand, I'm glad your Pokemon were able to get stronger..."
"Although, after what that Move Tutor showed us, we'll have to take extra care to only use them when necessary..." Ash answered as he stratched Pikachu behind his ears. "By the way, what time is our appointment with the girls?"
"Right about now..." Gary answered, takking a look at his wristwatch, which showed the time to be about half past seven in the evening. "And, if my eyes aren't deceiving me, they're right there in front of the Pokemarket!"
"Ash, Pikachu, Gary, Brock!" Misty greeted, waving to the boys. Dawn and her, back in their everyday clothing, were walking to their companions, and they too seemed to be quite satisfied with how the day had been. "Bang on time! So, how was your little excursion?"
"Hey, girls!" Ash answered just as Misty and Dawn rejoined the group. "Well, it was better than I thought, actually! Not only Bayleef managed to evolve to a Meganium... but the Move Tutor was so impressed with my Pokemon that she agreed to teach all four of my starters her secret moves! Now, my only started that still hasn't gotten a signature move is Torterra... but I'll make sure he gets to learn it as well!"
"The only thing that kinda disappoints me is the fact that I couldn't get to know more about Gible... I ended up just taking him allong for a snack! What about you, on the other hand? How was your special training session?" Brock asked as the team began walking towards the beach.
Dawn put an hand in front of her mouth and giggled gently. "Hehehee... well, we ended up doing less training than we expected to, but we did get to live an exciting adventure!" she told him. "You see, Misty and I had gone to the beach for our training, and..."
Dawn began narrating the adventure she and Misty had lived through as the team walked towards the Boon Island harbor, speaking of the Mantyke they had befriended, and of the Sharpedos they had chased away in order to save Mantyke's brethren... and at the end of the tale, all three boys were quite awed and impressed.
"Hm, it was quite the unusual adventure!" Gary said. "And I have to say, you really did a good job handling those Sharpedos!"
Misty winked in the boys' direction... especially Ash. "Well, modesty aside, there's a reason why I'm such an expert on Water-type Pokemon! And that Mantyke needed our help, we couldn't just let him go! I just hope he and his group are safe now..."
"Pika?" Pikachu squeaked, looking down to the shallow water on their side, just a second before something splashed out of the water, startling him!
"Mantyke!" an affirmtive chirping sound came from the water, just below the deck Ash and his friends were walking on, and everyone turned that way in surprise just to see the smiling face of the Mantyke Misty and Dawn had befriended and helped earlier on! The small manta ray was half-submerged, and was playfully waving her wing-fins in front of herself, almost like she was calling for the group of humans, in order to tell them something important.
"Mantyke! Why are you here?" Misty asked, getting to the edge of the deck. "I hope nothing else happened to your friends..."
The manta ray cub shook her head no, and when Misty and her friends were about to ask her what the problem was then, Mantyke raised her tail out of the water and pointed it to a far away point near the horizon... where the group of manta ray Pokemon Misty and Dawn had helped earlier was happily gliding out of the water, flying on the edge of the waves with their powerful wing-fins for a few seconds before diving again. They seemed to have put up a goodbye committee for the young female trainers, and Mantyke wanted to go greet them in person!
"Wow, that's amazing!" Ash exclaimed. "I've never seen that many Mantines and Mantykes all together. Just look at how they jump!"
"Well, that's a behaviour researchers still haven't fully explained." Gary commented as he watched the manta ray Pokemon's spectacular performance. "Sometimes, these Pokemon seem to simply jump out of the water for fun. Though it does give them better propulsion when they swim."
"Mantyke!" Mantyke chirped, as if to confirm the theory Prof. Oak's nephew had just come up with. "Man... mantyke man, mantyke tyke mantyke!"
"Pikachu..." the electric mouse said as he rubbed his chin in thought. He turned to Misty and pointed to Mantyke with one of his tiny paws. "Pikachu pi, pika pika pikachu, pika pi chu pikachu!"
"That Mantyke... would like to be in Misty's team?" Ash asked.
"Are you sure, Mantyke? Your... friends have given you permission?" the redhead asked. In fact, she had to admit she would have liked to have a Mantyke in her team, but she wanted to make sure that even Mantyke and her friends were okay with that. However, the problem seemed not to present itself, as Mantyke nodded perkily and repeated her name twice, inviting the red-haired girl to throw her Pokeball. "Alright, then! If that's what you want as well... I just happen to have a free space in my team! Pokeball, go!"
The red and white ball soared for a brief distance and touched Mantyke's back, absorbing the manta ray cub inside of itself and landing on the deck, right beside Misty. It shook for a few seconds, then stabilized and emitted the satisfying cliching sound that signalled a successful catch, and Misty picked up the Pokeball containing the newcomer in her team, and raised it up in the air in triumph! "Yay! I've got a Mantyke in my team now! Fantastic!" she yelled, before turning to the group of Mantines and Mantykes swimming in the distance. "Goodbye, you guys! Take care of yourselves... and don't worry, your friend is in good hands! I'll make sure she grows strong!"
"MAAAAN!" the kite-like Pokemon all waved goodbye with their fins, and the group of young trainers waved back at them and watched as the group swam away, until all that could be seen of them were a few splashes on an otherwise perfectly smooth ocean.
Ash sighed and gave a smile. Well, it hadn't gone exactly as he thought, but it had still been a good day. On the next sunrise, they would have boarded the boat to Kin Island, the third island of the Sevii archipelago... and they would have taken quite a few fond memories of Boon Island with them!
"Well, guess we can call it a day." Brock commented. "It was a fruitful day, in any event... and right now, we'd better get our Pokemon some rest, and then go grab something to eat."
"You're right, my stomach is kinda protesting..." Ash said as he rubbed his belly. "And... well, tomorrow we'll be on our way to the next stop, Kin Island! I'm psyched up for this!"
"Pikachu!" the electric mouse answered, as he stared at the setting sun...
oooooooooo
"That will be all, my lord..."
In Team Vicious' secret HQ, Cezar ended his report without losing his affable, almost cheerful facade... despite the fact that he was facing his boss, a creepy-looking man wearing a stuffy black uniform, with golden boots and a red padded jacket, short spikes jutting out of the chest and shoulders. His face was half-hidden by an helmet, a tuft of spiky black hair jutting out of its top, and his eyes were covered with red-tinted lenses that only made the man look more threatening. A rather unkempt goatee hanged from his chin, and an elegant purple cape was skillfully worn around his shoulders.
There was no mistaking him - that was the Iron-Masked Marauder, a former Team Rocket executive whom Ash, Misty and Brock had thwarted as he tried to capture Celebi, about three years before!
"I see... then Paul, the runner-up of this year's Sinnoh Tournament, has refused to join us. More's the pity... someone like him would have been very useful to us, but in any event, we have no need for a Growlithe that won't be tamed." he answered, just as J came in from a side entrance. "Oh, and what a coincidence... the famed Hunter J is back from her mission, though she doesn't look too enthusiastic about it. What's the trouble?"
"I would have caught Moltres and gotten away with it, if it wasn't for those meddling kids... and there was an Hoenn Elite Four among them..." J explained. As a professional, she hated to report of a failed mission. "And we had to leave some of our men there, as picking them up would expose us to undue risk. Still, we did manage to take the... consolation prize, so to speak. Even though we had to teleport away using the emergency measures... our vehicle was too damaged, thanks to that girl's Rotom..."
The Marauder shrugged, uninterested in details. "Still, our minimum objective was achieved, which is more than I can say for that fool Jakov... he was beaten by the Sinnoh Grand Festval runner-up before he could even get close to Regice, and he hadn't even used the Pokemon we had given him. No matter, we have other things to think of. How are our troops in Hoenn? Have they found their target already?"
"Yes, my lord." the other Team Vicious commander answered. "Three targets, in fact... two of them have just won their first Badge, and the other one... well, I'll leave that to your imagination! Hehehee..."
The masked villain chuckled. "Huhuhuu... very well, I'll send word to ou Hoenn troops to keep an eye out on them. And I'd better warn our own Elites, just in case. As for the rest... J, you did use the emergency teleport, didn't you?"
"I did, my lord..." the Pokemon poacher said. "Which means I have a need for substitutes now..."
Again, the Marauder didn't seem to think much of that. "Already provided for. Of course, the damage to your engines won't be repaired so quickly."
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"Man, what a drag..." a Team Vicious female grunt whined as she carried a dome-like cage, with a sleeping Abra trapped within, in her arms. She and one of her companions were in charge of the repairs to J's flying battleship, and were now entering a large control room, filled with machineries and strange contraptions. "Whenever Miss J uses that emergency teleport, we always end up having to substitute the batteries!"
"It's not like we can do much about it..." her companion, a male grunt carrying an imprisoned Ralts, answered. "You know how the backlash ends up exhausting the batteries. We need to change them whenever that happpens..."
The woman sighed in resignation and walked to a capsule on the chamber's wall, opening it to reveal the lifeless body of an Abra, hooked up to the machineries with strange-looking cables! With dispassionate indifference, the Team Vicious grunts began opening the other capsules, revealing other lifeless Abras and Ralts, and removing them from their place...
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TO BE CONTINUED...
Author's Note: Well, that was quite an example of mood whiplash! After all the fun and games at Boon Island, we get a dark scene at Team Vicious' HQ... and just to be sure, next chapter will be when things really begin to go south! What will happen? I can onl say four words for now...
See you next time!