Right now I was feeling pretty stupid. If anyone were to ask me why, I would say it was because I had put my trust into a thug leader who took charge of other thugs. Especially one that booted me out of a moving cable car that was very high up in the air. Every second of my young life flashed before my eyes as I free fell to certain death. This was it! If I knew that this would happen, I would have eaten more croquettes! It was only moments now before I splattered all ove-"OOF!"
My body landed, but instead of feeling hard rock, there was a thick, blubbery texture against my skin. I was still rattled by the fall but when my senses eventually calmed down, I that this thing I landed on was none other than another wailord. So Archie wasn't out to kill us? He still seemed shady, but I guess he wouldn't resort to homicide so quickly.
I looked around and saw Wally not too far from me. He was wide-eyed and trembling with absolute shock; yeah, that seemed about right. Suddenly, another person dropped down on the wailord, but landed (stumbled while doing so) on his feet. Of course, there wasn't much speculation to guess who it was considering that they also occupied the car with Wally and I.
"Dam that was fun! We should do it again for kicks!"
"You're such a dumbass! How come you didn't tell us what you were doing?! We could have DIED!"
"I did tell you didn't I? And you're still breathin', so quit your bitchin' and put this on,"
Archie dug into the compartment of his belt again and pulled out another blue bandanna. "There's gonna be alot of shit going down and wearin' my team colors will make sure my boys don't attack ya by mistake," he said with a wild grin. I looked at the thing, then turned my gaze back on him. I was too annoyed by him to accept any gesture. "No thanks! And if they try to get in my way, they'll have their asses handed to them!"
Though I said those offensive words with my face fixed into a scowl, Archie's expression didn't budge; if anything, he looked more amused. The irritable moment was ruined when we heard the sound of running boots coming towards us. We both turned our heads to see a small group of Team Magma grunts coming towards us. The few Team Aqua grunts who were on the ground had quickly stepped forward to meet against them. It only took seconds before all of their Pokémon were already out and having at each other. Okay, time to get into action! I grabbed my own pokeball from my belt and threw it. "Come out dustox!"
The purple bug-type came out with a cry and fluttered overhead. "Alright girl, time to light this candle!"
...
Mt Chimney lived up to its name with its thick, billowing smoke coming from the volcano's molten center. Ash and embers swirled around in the hot air that ventilated the area; making it intolerable for the faint of...I mean reeeeeally faint of heart. My feet pattered against the brownish red rock that mainly colored the desolate environment. The sky above was a deep and smoky blue. As powerful as the scenery was, I had no time to pay attention to it because Wally, Archie and I were plowing our way through Team Magma members. That stupid lady at the counter miscounted! There were way more people here than what she said! Despite the mistake, it wasn't too much of a hardship.
"Maple/Pokémon team-up style! Dustox cover-up PUUUUUNCH!"
The giant moth that was under my command immediately sped forward and latched itself to an unsuspecting grunt's face; making him panic and try to tear it off his features. "AGH! Not again-OOF!" Before he could finish, my fist buried itself into the man's torso and sent him to the ground with a thud. Oh yeah, we were on fire! "Dustox! Stop eating his shirt and regroup!" I commanded while checking my surroundings for any more hostiles. My Pokémon was starting to chew on his top when it heard my voice and flew back to me.
"Um, sempai?! I don't know what we're supposed to be doing!" Wally said with alarm while his swablu pecked furiously at an enemy numel. It looked very eager to take out the foe and even tried to carry it off. With its current size, the flying-type was unable to do so. Unlike me or Archie, the rookie trainer didn't engage in any physical violence himself. "Isn't it obvious besides the several counts of assault, battery and desecration of a regional landmark against us?!"
"WHAT?!"
"Uh, do I hafta spell it out for ya kid?! With this many Magma pukes around, that smart-ass Maxie is bound to be around here somewhere! Now less talky and more violence!" He said while kicking a grunt in the face with his boot as his poochyena howled with victory. To this day, Wally still had a guilty conscious of all the 'crimes' he committed on Mt. Chimney.
We continued to fight onwards as our party advanced around the volcano when three Magma grunts jumped in our way. Wally and I were able to move out of the way, but the Aqua leader wasn't so lucky. He was smack dab in the middle of them. Without any ceremony, the grunts summoned three battle-ready poochyena. "Oh, so its a dog fight ya want, eh?! I'll show you just how much of a dog I am!"
I didn't bother to look back as I raced on with my hand fastened around my friend's as I dragged him forward. He was barely able to keep up with my pace, but didn't stop running to the best of his ability despite his heavy breathing. No offense to Archie, but I his didn't like him much; after I beat Maxie, I'll rub the stolen victory into that scuba thug's face!
Speaking of Maxie, after twenty more minutes of battling and dodging our enemy, we were now allowed to behold the sight of a long, large plexiglass platform. I squinted my eyes to see a gray, bulky machine with a lone figure having his front facing the boiling lake of lava. There was no doubt that the person who was bold enough to have his back turned on his advancing foes would be Maxie. This was gonna be the last time he pulled a cocky stunt like that! "Come on Wally! Time to give that nerd a swirly of a lifetime!"
With an urgent yank, I pulled him, but instead of coming closer, we were both repelled and pulled upwards by the front of our shirts. What both of our visions now saw in their line of sight was the Magma admin Tabitha. Now I understood why Maxie was so cocky as he was; I should have seen this coming. "Well, well...the stressful child tries to destroy what Team Magma works so hard to achieve! A mere child who only tries to inhibit what the true supporters of humanity like you can't be called a servant of the people! In fact, you're really,really,really,really,really,really,really..." Ugh, this guy! Out of all the people to get caught by, it had to be him! It was supposed to be the other way around!...hm...how long was he gonna talk like this? He sounded so corny. "...really,really,really,really,really annoying!" He declared before abruptly dropping Wally so he could use that hand to get a better grip on my shirt.
In that second, the intense heat of the volcanic atmosphere suddenly felt cool. That was because in comparison, I had come face-to-face with the Magma admin's ferocious red eyes. All that hatred and intimidation weighed on me like a cement blocks.
While this heavy concentration of anger was new to me; there were two instances where I endured small samples of it: My dad and Sycamore. Of course both times were indirect, but I picked up on the strong signals of negative feelings when within the vicinity.
"Little girl or not, you've made it clear of how much of a threat you are. This time, I'm going to CRUSH YOU! AHAHAH-AGH! MY EYE!"
In the middle of Tabitha's evil laugh, I appropriately defended myself from his promised threat by cocking my fist back and slammed it into his right eye. The shocked admin let let go of me to nurse the slowly bruising orbital. I dropped to my feet and quickly grabbed Wally's arm to make our escape. When we thought we were in the clear, the man's arm suddenly lashed out and latched onto my friend's limb to stop us.
"You little shit! You're not getting away from me so easily!"
My dustox and Wally's swablu tried hard to irritate the man by chewing on his shirt and pecking at his head, but Tabitha's rage made him ignore the small distractions. I tried so hard to pull, but my feet was slowly sliding back towards the enemy.
"Sempai, its no use! Leave me before you get caught!"
"But that guy's...there's no way I'm letting you stay with him by yourself!"
Despite the frightening situation, Wally's face looked surprisingly calm. "Don't worry sempai, it's just like you said: I've got my friends with me to help fight the battles I can't win alone," he said with most of his tone being shaky, but clear enough to get his point across. I looked at him in a bewildered expression, but found myself letting go and turning on my heels to go for the main boss. Dustox noticed my leave and left Tabitha alone to catch up with me. It was hard to his abandon him like that, but he was counting on me to press forward.
...
No sooner had I left the formerly ultra-sickly boy to battle the dangerous admin, my feet found themselves clunking against the thick Plexiglas of the platform. Admittingly, it was a very hair raising experience to look down and see lava sloshing about. My pace slowed due to the noticeable change of scenery, but I didn't stop. After all, Maxie was only within long spitting distance now. Dustox stood on alert on top of my head. Her antennas moving about to sense the situation.
"Ah good, the entertainment's here. I was beginning to think that you wouldn't show up,"
I promptly stopped the second he identified my presence and clenched both of my fists at my side. There was a feeling I had that he wasn't going to just talk this time. Maxie turned around with a neutral look on his face and adjusted his glasses as he cleared his throat. "Most would say that our meeting is merely coincidence or in Tabitha's case, simply 'leaked information' from what that imbecile, Archie told you. I however, believe it is fate; a destiny that of two members from a supreme race of life meeting to decide its fate. That being said, you seem to have a very misguided view of what I'm striving to do,"
"Actually, I don't have a dam clue what you're doing! All I know is that your flunkie stole something that didn't belong to him and beat up my friend! Honestly, I could care less what you and scuba thug do, but you can be sure that I'll Maple your asses the second you two losers involve someone else!"
"...interesting, now would you like to know what I'm doing here?"
"I don't-"
"Good. This machine here is based off my original designs that I finally perfected after years..." Maxie started to reply after he ignored my lack of care and traditionally went on to monologue his plans. Ugh, should I hit him or use my Pokémon to interrupt? " ...by using the geothermal power of this volcano, it can power the machine and shape the meteorite from Meteor Falls into a keystone or a megastone ,"
"I'm still not caring-wait, what did you say?"
"Oh? Interested are we? Well, I could tell you...but I think I would be spoiling you too much. Why don't we have a battle instead? It was a but of a disappointment that I wasn't able to test you with our previous encounter, but there is more than enough time now to spare,"
WHAT?! WHAT?! It's just like that prick to get to something worth hearing and switch the subject to tease my interest. The moment I heard 'megastone', I immediately thought of what Professor Sycamore said about his research. He was talking about the theories of mega evolutions and such. One of the ways to achieve it, was through using a megastone.
"You bastard! You better talk more about that! I'm not done listening!"
"I believe I talked quite enough, child. If you manage to beat me, maybe I will indulge you some more, but for now, golbat will start us off,"
I was a little confused by what he meant by that until my vision was suddenly filled with a cyan blue and purple creature that manifested in front of my view. Needless to say, I practically jumped out of my skin from the sudden fright and was startled back, but only by a few steps. The sky would fall before I let him best me! "Go dustox! Use your big buzz!"
The bug-type rapidly heated her wings and took off from my head to meet her foe in battle. Once she was close, dustox's antennas vibrated at a high frequency that echoed painfully in the bat's ears. The foe's Pokémon thrashed around in almost near insanity, but then regained it's composure and charged towards dustox to sink its fangs in her torso. There was no mercy to be given as it started to suck the life out of her. She tried her best to struggle out of the grip, but eventually succumbed to fainting. "Come back dustox!" I declared while taking out her pokeball and withdrawing her.
I think took the risk of stealing a glance at Maxie. A fatal mistake as I saw his lips upturned in a small smirk. It was worse than any insult he could attack me with. Okay, now what was effective against poison-types? Poochyena was out and skitty would have to do alot of maneuvering to compensate for her lack of aerial abilities...wait a minute! DUH! I could use metang!
Without another thought on the decision, I pulled out my second-in-command and unleashed it. "Come on metang! I know you can do it!"
Unfortunately, I forgot that metang entered its disobedient level of growth and came out sleeping. Oi! I could feel my dignity as a trainer slowly start to break apart! The golbat who wanted his next opponent, immediately swooped down with bared fangs and attacked the sentient metal. The result to that however, was a tooth being chipped from trying to fasten them on its metallic hide. The golbat screeched horribly from the new source of pain and wildly flapped about. From the cause of the commotion, the steel/esper-type raised its arm and unintentionally smacked the Pokémon into the ground; though the original purpose of the gesture was to shoo the noisy thing away. HAH! Take that!
I looked boldly back at the nerdy scientist with a taunting smirk; fully expecting him to fume with anger. What I got in return was nothing. Not even so much as a glance! Maxie simply took out his pokeball and withdrew golbat before selecting another Pokémon. Tch! Even when I gained the upper hand, it felt like my anger burned more than it should with this guy!
This time, Maxie sent out a ferocious mightyena with its eyes ablaze with bloodlust. "Mightyena, use assurance," the Team Magma leader commanded while holding a stern gaze at the target. Oh shit, that wasn't good. The large dog ram ahead to metang and slammed his paws into the unsuspecting opponent. Now that it received a harmful, super-effective dark-type attack, metang woke up without a hitch. "Metang, use confusion!" I shouted to try and defeat the beast as quickly as possible.
Once again however, it refused to listen and instead tried to ram into its target with its head. Metang may have been strong, but he was very slow. The mightyena dodged the attack with little effort and seized my Pokémon's arm in it's jaws. Before it could react, the dark-type repeatedly slapped its paw against metang's metal surface. This was getting too hard to watch! Right now, there was nothing more I could want than to jump into the fray and shield it from any more harm. Unfortunately, all I could do was watch it take hit after hit with painful, distorted sounds that accompanied it.
By the time it was over, my metang had been reduced to a heavy, pitiful mess that looked like it was about to cry. I was pretty much in the same boat with a hard lump in my throat and eyes full of salty tears. To make matters worse, I began to hiccup. This was his like that grunt all over again!
"Oh dear, I've seemed to have made the little girl cry,"
Arceus! Was he really gonna do this too?!
"It's not so easy is it? Playing the romanticized heroine I mean? I can only wonder how your recklessness and delusions brought you this far. This battle is proving to be how flimsy your ideals are; your own Pokémon won't even listen to you. Overall, your presence here is a mere waste of my time that isn't even entertaining...go home and cry to daddy child, because you won't get any sympathy from me,"
With that, he ran a hand through his fiery red hair and turned around to resume his original distraction that was deemed more worthy of his attention. His mightyena was left to shoo me away as if I already lost! How mortifying this felt! I was never bullied as a kid (because I unknowingly took the role of the bully) so the suffering of defeat with added insults felt all the more humiliating! All I wanted to do now...was just leave.
I started to walk forward with timid steps and took out metang's pokeball out when my eyes stole a glance at the large, menacing dog. Suddenly, I remembered my last conversation with Brendan. Right now, he was probably with Professor Cozmo expecting a triumphant victory on his behalf. Then the thought of Archie crossed my mind. He was probably still battling his way through all those grunts. Even now, Wally was still engaged in battle with the second strongest person in Team Magma! If I gave up now, then it would have all been for nothing.
Maxie was lost in his thoughts as he watched the boiling mass of lava move about below him. He was beginning to wonder when his loyal dog would return to his side when he heard a rough metallic thud. The Magma leader quickly turned around to see a fainted mightyena laying against the machine and me with a renewed determined look on my face while Chirpie stood by me.
"Pick up your mutt so we can settle this! Team Maple ain't through yet!"
*continued in chapter 20*
