"The combination of Chirpie and metang was divine! The sight of them-Chirpie and metang selflessly supported each other in the thick of battle!...It was a marvelous sight to behold! Ember was the move the trainer used last in battle. The move 'ember' is Chirpie's and metang's sign of friendship!" said Gabby as she reported to the camera while I was in the background with my battle partners. I was petting the two of them as my sign of gratefulness for participating in their role for combat. Metang nuzzled my stomach and Chirpie squawked frustratingly because his friend was hogging me.
"So May..." said Gabby as they turned to me and trusted the microphone in my face. "If you were to describe this battle in one word, what would it be?"
"Uhhh, bitchin'!"
"There you have it! May Chirpie , metang and 'bitchin'! Mmmm...that's deep! There's a deep significance behind that quote! It's no surprise; a good trainer has good things to say. That's all for today! See you all again on our next broadcast!"
When the interview was finished, Ty turned off the camera and Gabby massaged her shoulder. Their defeated whismur and magnemite were spread in their pokeballs. The two looked more than satisfied with their results. "Good job kid! I mean it was expected that you would kick our butts, but you did it with style! Ty and I are heading back to Mauville so we can rest up. Let's meet up again for another interview, okay? Be seein' ya!" She said before giving me a wave and leaving.
...
After that epic reunion, I marched ahead towards my next destination. There was a desert-like area that I wanted to explore, but every time that I got close, blasts of sand and wind would force me back from the area. Ugh! It looked so cool too! Through the kicked up grains of sand, I made out silhouettes of large rock outcroppings that looked interesting to explore.
Fortunately the tunnel known as the Fiery Path was clear of any obstacles and had plenty of Pokémon to catch. Almost like it was making up for my misfortune with the other two tunnels.
When I finally came out of the tunnel, the first thing I saw was a large tree with a thick grey colored trunk. It had many large outstretching branches that held countless of vibrant green leaves. The green vegetation seemed to be all concentrated where the branches clustered in the centered. Another thing that caught my attention was a man who surveyed the area around it. He wore a red hat and sported a small ponytail so his blond hair would get in the way of his line of sight. Although, he looked like he didn't get much sleep, the glint of excitement in his eyes suggested otherwise. He wore a tight-fitting t-shirt with red and blue triangles decorating the brown collar. His red shorts for some reason looked like they used to be pants and the leather holster around his waist had a bunch of flags stuffed in them. His thick, brown boots were dirty and I found myself wondering why he was holding onto a tattered, red jacket.
Now curious, I stole closer to the scene. "Scuse' me, are you looking for something?" I asked with an interested look. The man suddenly stopped what he was doing to looked over his shoulder and observe my presence. "Not really miss, just looking for anything unusual around this empty base,"
"Base? What are talking about? There's nothing here but an empty tree,"
At my response, he turned around to face me with mild surprise. "You mean...you don't know about secret bases?"
"Not really,"
The answer seemed to feel like that I walked up to the man and punched him in the stomach because he looked surprised and in disbelief.
"Wow! That is really sad! I mean REALLY sad considering how many trainers use them...you're a trainer right?" I nodded my head; though it did nothing to change his shock. He had to wait for it to go properly out of his system to continue. "Not to worry though, for I am the secret base expert, Aarune and I'll be more than happy to educate you about the wonderful world of secret bases!"
Oh boy. This sounded pretty pointless. I better go before I got sucked into another session of wasted hours of my life.
"Look, I'm in a hurry so-"
"Oh come on now! Don't be shy! This'll only take a minute!"
He came behind me and gently pushed me towards the trunk of the tree. At first, I had no idea what to expect - nor did I have the capacity to care. Aarune then dug inside a rucksack he produced and pulled out a disc case. It was a common sight considering that I had many in my pack as well; whether it was given to me or found on my travels. He handed it to me, but said not to put it away just yet.
"That disc I gave you holds the technical move: Secret Power. It's a move that changes its make of attack depending on the environment, buuut..." he paused to make some sort of dramatic effect. I should have said that it was stupid and didn't work.
"...it could be used for other things too! Try teaching it to one of your Pokémon right now!"
I stood there for a moment to figure out which one I should use it on (because I had the feeling that he wouldn't leave me alone if I refused). All of them were pretty good candidates for the move, but in the end, I decided that skitty would be the one to get it. The more the idea came into my head, the more hilarious that it seemed for a small, pink cat to launch some strange variety of attacks and taking her opponents by surprise. I grabbed skitty's pokeball and let her come out. When she did appear, the little animal looked around cautiously around itself for a minute out of fear that it would be subjected to a sea of people again. When she realized that it wasn't the case, she wagged her tail and meowed.
"Okay skitty, time to learn a new move!" I said while squatting down to see her better with the TM in hand. I opened the case and took out the disc to put it against her forehead. When I did this the first time with Chirpie (though it was the Hidden Move: Cut), I had no idea what to do with it. In fact, I tried to get him to eat it until Brendan showed me the right way to do it.
It took a moment for her mind to process the new move before meowing in confirmation that it was done. "Alright, what's next?" I asked the weird guy who was leaning against the trunk. "Okay, now tell skitty to use its secret power on that tree," he replied while stepping away from the large plant. My Pokémon and I turned to the thing with confidence gleaming in our eyes.
"Skitty, use Secret Power on that tree!"
A few seconds passed with nothing happening, but then an invisible force suddenly blasted out of the cat and sent waves of energy towards the tree. It shook the branches and a bright green vine came down. Aarune went over to it and began to climb. This new development now piqued my interest. I put skitty on my head before tensing my arm muscles to grab ahold of the vine and start to climb up myself. When I reached the top, I went through a strangely square-shaped opening through the leaves. "About time you got up here! I thought a year was gonna pass before you reached the top!" He taunted jokingly while I pulled myself on the wooden boards...wait a sec...why would this place nee-WOAH!
The three of us were now staring at an empty spacious room with the walls, ceiling and floor neatly made out of tan wood. There were two square openings cut in with mostly it's view of the outside being covered by leaves. However there was enough light filtering through to brighten up the room. In the corner was a small laptop, red flag and a round metal platform.
"Wow, this place is nice, what's that stuff over there in that corner?"
"Glad you asked! Come with me!"
...
Aarune explained to me all there was to know about secret bases. The laptop was mainly for storing furniture and decorative items. Of course, I could surf the net and watch movies on it too. The red flag sitting right next to it represented the banner for the trainer's base. Other trainers that were curious enough to visit could collect the flag to say that they visited there. The metal platform on the floor was a transfer pad for the items on the laptop to materialize onto. He demonstrated by going on the small computer and chose to materialize a bed. When he pressed the 'enter' key, a comfortable-looking bed appeared on the pad.
No sooner had it arrived did I hop up on the pad and tried to move it. The task of getting it off the pad was difficult, but fortunately not impossible. Once I finished excitedly pushing it around, I went to the laptop this time so I could bring out more stuff. When all was said and done, the base was recently furnished. Needless to say, I spent pretty much all day in here.
"Man you really got into this huh? You should keep this base; it'll do you some good,"
"Hm, I guess I should. It is pretty nice,"
"It's settled then! All you need to do is give it a name,"
I racked my brain once again to figure out what decent name to call this place, but nothing great came to mind. Eventually I settled on naming after my last name.
"Hmmm, I declare this base to be named the Team Maple Base!"
Behind me, Aarune tried to hold in a laugh from how enthusiastically I said it. He failed completely to contain it as my ears caught his restrained snickers. I turned on my heels to face the man who dared to mock my coolness (or something that vaguely resembled it). He put his arms up in defense while my glare threatened to burn a hole in him.
"My bad kid! It's just that you sounded so over-the-top. *ahem* Anyways, I gotta get goin'. I'm going ahead, but if you're ever in Fortree City, go find the Secret Base Guild over there. That's where I'm at most of the time,"
We waved each other good-bye before he walked towards the opening on the floor. He turned to give me one last wave. After that, he lowered himself through and disappeared from sight.
...
I spent my first night in the base with excited wonder. All of my Pokémon were out to look around our new hideout with excitement. Chirpie and metang were exchanging their opinions about the place as through gesturing to things, occasional squawks and metallic sounds. Of course I couldn't understand any of it, but they looked pleased. Casecoon stuck herself in one of the corners of the ceiling while wingull sat on a cushion. Skitty happily slept on the headboard of the bed and poochyena set aside her squeaking toy and started chewing on a wailmer doll. When it was time to go to sleep, we all piled on the bed. To say it was crowded was an understatement. Casecoon thankfully slept where she was, but the rest of us had to fit onto one mattress. It wouldn't have sounded so bad if my steel/esper-type didn't take up half of the space on the bed. It was also by some miracle that it didn't break under all of our combined weight. While nearly squished, we got some much needed rest.
The next day broke into a beautiful dawn and I decided for it to be an easy day. I surfed the net with all of my Pokémon crowding around the screen with me. It turns out that the Lilycove City Department Store had a website for purchasing secret base items. Each of my battle partners pointed at (or gestured to) an item that appealed to them. When it came time for my turn to choose, I mindlessly scrolled down a list of random items. I was gonna settle with another doll when my eyes suddenly caught something with a name that I unfortunately recognized. On the screen was a complete model of Lumiose City. The home to the Kalos region's own Professor Augustine Sycamore.
Flashbacks of the time spent with him in Mauville involuntarily flooded my thoughts. I remembered his charming smile being directed towards me while I was innocently resting on his shoulder while we sat on the bench near Square Tower and talked. Then I remembered the hate he purposely channeled at Wally and how he tricked me into going in his room and taking advantage of me! What a jerk! I shouldn't be giving him or his city another thought!
Despite what I felt, the virtual cart had a single order of a Lumiose City model added to it with the rest of a few things to be bought. I still hardly believed that I was actually getting the thing. Once everything was bought and paid for, they were sent to the laptop. I materialized the purchases on the pad and my Pokémon went nuts. All six immediately snatched up their playthings; leaving me there with a beautiful, detailed model of Lumiose City.
I pushed the new item to the center of the base and inspected it. The city was shaped like a pokeball with a large tower in the center. I recalled what Sycamore said and assumed that it was the Prism Tower. In some aspects, I could see the similarities it shared with its smaller counterpart in Mauville.
I then started looking at other parts of the model and found what was unmistakably the professor's lab. How could I possibly know that it was possibly his? Why because of the large pillars with pokeballs on them, fancy gates and a sycamore tree by it of course! Who else would be so conceited as to have those things decorating the front of their building? Unless the rest of Lumiose City was like him.
More hours passed with it spent on observing every other part of the faux city. I found a ton of cafés, shops and different gates that marked the end of Lumiose's territory. They must have been routes that led to other towns and cities. For some reason, looking at this model made me want to visit Kalos even more.
Eventually, it got late and it was time to go to bed again. My Pokémon were disappointed to be inconvienced by such a time, but I couldn't be so lenient about letting them stay up for too long; I wanted them to be in good shape. We all got into bed again (except casecoon) and went to sleep.
The next day, got early and put everyone back in their ball except skitty so we could practice for the next Contest Spectacular in Fallarbor Town. I certainly didn't want a repeat of last time or worse. To keep her focused, I used that stupid ball of thread as an incentive. The approach seemed to work as we successfully rehearsed moves and cues. After we got enough practice in, I let skitty play while I did something entirely different.
"Maple style! Flaming Bird Counter! No, that doesn't sound right,"
In the event that I would face Team Magma again, I wanted to improve my skills and think up some names for them. When I was at Wanda's house, I talked with Timmy and he recommended that I should take up something called 'Wing Chun'. It was...sorta going ok. "Maple style! Burning Jab of Fury! Ugh, that was bad," I said to myself with sweat rolling down my face as I pushed on.
"Going over violent mangling tactics are we?"
Every muscle in my body froze upon what I thought I heard was a terribly familiar voice. That couldn't be right! As far as I knew, he was still in Verdanturf Town or at least Mauville City! Some parts of my body managed to recover from the shock and my neck turned to see...huh?
I looked to where I thought I heard the source of the disturbance but there was nothing to be seen. Hm, maybe I was just hallu-GOOD ARCEUS!
Just as I was fooled into believing that it was all a figment of a convoluted imagination, my head turned to see a tall, calm Sycamore practically towering over me with his impossibly overwhelming smile on his handsome features. I automatically jumped back with the fright of the sudden invasion of space, but then changed my expression into an angry scowl. My guard quickly came up as I now began to interrogate the professor.
"How did you get up here?! How did you even find me?!...WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"
My questions seemed to amuse him, for a light chuckle escaped his lips while scanning me from head to toe. His smugness really started to bug me. "It really wasn't difficult to put together what your destinations are as a trainer and not notice all the shouting and noises that were coming from an otherwise silent tree. However, I believe it is me who should be asking all the questions since it was you who abandoned me to the wilderness and wasted time with a boy that your father happens to despise," he replied in a surprisingly playful tone. From how I saw him talk to Wally, I thought it would be the same way with me.
"My dad hates all boys and I ran away from a hotel room that you locked me into! And speaking of boys: What did you do to Wally?! You better not have hurt him!"
My arguments and accusations reached his ears, but all it did make him more excited; especially the part about locking me in his room. "You sound as though I butchered the boy alive or fed him to savage beasts! I assure you that he's quite whole and well...physically anyway,"
I was about to think of ways to inflict pain on him when skitty heard all the commotion and lit up when seeing the professor. Before I could stop her, she was already by Sycamore's leg; burying her head into his pant leg and mewling for his attention. Of course the handsome jerk couldn't resist giving proof of trumping my superiority by picking her up and petting her head. My scowl hardened, but he pretended to ignore my reaction and talk to my Pokémon.
"I am very glad to see you too my dear! I apologize that your cold, heartless master keeps us apart! It is such a wonder that she continues her attempts to fly away from me; going as far as to nest in a tree!"
While he was continuing to ramble on about me 'cruel and terrible', I began to plot how to kick him out of my base. He was sort of close to the entrance. Maybe if I gave him a really good shove, then it would easily solve my problem. Sure a fall from that height could possibly break a limb or two, but it would be a worthy sacrifice (on his part). However, he still had skitty in his clutches. It would be a little tricky to grab her while pushing him back. Maybe if I-"Oh, what do we have here?"
Sycamore unexpectedly caught something with his gaze and walked away from the opening. My thoughts came back to reality and I cringed as he saw the model of Lumiose. His smile grew with newfound ammo to shoot me with. My face grew hot from the inevitable embarrassment that was doomed to follow. As expected, the professor laughed with the knowledge that I not only bought the thing, but made it the center of attention in my base.
"Miss May Maple! I am very surprised!" he declared with up most sarcasm while putting down skitty and studying the thing. "All those statements of hatred rolling off that sharp tongue of yours, but come to find a near perfect replica of my beautiful city in this adorable, little tree house of yours?! It is quite a shock!"
I immediately stormed over there to shove him away from the damming evidence. When I tried to though, he remained sturdy and unaffected by my attempts. Was he glued there or something?! "I don't hate Lumiose, I just hate YOU! Now go fuck off before I throw you out in the most painful way I can think of!" I threatened with my arms pushing his torso so he could move. I was feeling so angry and mortified at the same time; I didn't think that feeling such extreme emotions to the max simultaneously could happen.
"And yet another surprise to pique my interests,"
Sycamore suddenly caught my face in between his hands before leveling his own to my height. The action shocked me to freeze as I wondered what he meant by that. He then moved his thumbs to trace my ears down to their lobes; lightly brushing against the holes poked in them. I screwed my eyes shut to prevent myself from looking into his hypnotic gaze.
"I can only wonder what you have been doing that required you to pierce your ears. Won't you tell me my lovely birdie?"
His voice was almost in a hushed whisper and felt them pass through my hearing like it was soft silk. Although, I knew that if I told him, it wouldn't go well for me. My hands shot up to his shirt and seized them to pull him forward. The professor did not expect my rashness as his eyes widened with surprise. With growing tightness from clenching his silken top, it gave me the courage to speak up.
"Listen asshole, that's my business! I'll never give you the sadistic pleasure of telling every single detail of my life that doesn't need to involve you! You're just the idiot who decided to tag along and attempt to ruin my magical journey experience! So get the hell out no-"plink!
I was nearly done with my speech when I pulled too hard on his shirt and ripped off one of his unbuttoned buttons by accident. The two of us turned our heads and watched it bounce a few times, start rolling across the floorboards and finally stop. It was a very scary silence as I realized that I damaged his property and promptly released him to back away.
The professor remained where he was for a minute before standing tall again to close his eyes. That lasted for a second before he opened them with a malicious smile spreading across his lips. "Dear, look what you've done!" he said with growing excitement in his voice and started to move forward."You've ruined one of my favorite shirts! How can I possibly wear this now?"
"You never even button that one! I'll get you another shirt if you're complaining so much about it!" I said with a hint of anxiety in my tone. More than enough to have an even hungrier look in his eyes. My back touched the back of the wall of the base and I cursed myself for not minding my surroundings. Now assured that I couldn't run away, he took his time to close in.
"I don't think that's possible, darling. It's quite expensive and the only place to find them is in Lumiose. However, I believe I can settle with returning the favor,"
"Wait! I don't have any buttons!"
"I'll think of something ..."
The danger felt real now as he got close and his arm stretched out for my top. The wheels turned in my head to think of a plan and eyes quickly darted to the side of him and widened.
"DAD! What are you doing here?!"
A look of surprise suddenly crossed the professor's face as he turned his head to see...absolutely nothing. Of course when he looked back, he saw the same thing. That's because I quickly crouched down and went through his legs to grab skitty and dash for freedom. Hah! What a maroon! He totally fell for the oldest trick in the book!
Before I completely escaped, I couldn't help but let out a laugh, flip him the middle finger and say: "So long Sycamore!"
*Continued in chapter 16*
