Day 3: What a Disadvantage
Bright and early the next morning, Alain was standing in front of the cafeteria doors, waiting for them to open. He had decided that if he got here early and got in and through the line quickly, Jacklyn would have no time to find him and drag him in like she had yesterday.
Unfortunately for him, she was the second one to arrive at the door.
"Hello, and good morning," she greeted, "I was hoping to introduce you to a few of my friends today."
Alain just grunted and turned away.
"And here they come."
Astrid, Brittney, Yvette and several other girls rounded the corner, all talking and laughing. Jacklyn waved to them. Just then, the cafeteria doors opened.
"Good, everything works out perfectly. Hello, everyone, I'm sure your ready for today's battles."
Several of them nodded in agreement.
"Well, let's go eat!" Brittney said, and pushed past some of the other girls, but not Jacklyn. Jacklyn stuck her arm out and stopped her with a glare, then waltzed into the cafeteria, pulling Alain with her. He tried to pull away, but she refused to let go, holding on with a Cloyster tight grip.
"So, you'll never guess what I overheard last night!" Brittney blurted as soon as she sat down. "There's a swimming pool here!" she squealed.
Alain fought the urge to cover his ears. She was loud.
"Really?" Jacklyn said. Then she gasped, "We should have a pool party!"
"Does it occur to you that the pool is probably for training purposes only?" Astrid asked sceptically.
"Does it occur to you," another girl named Tracy, who had dyed bleached blonde hair and violet eyes, and fought with a Mega Beedrill, said, "that we could just ask someone to let us use it?"
"You brought a bathing suit, didn't you all?" Britteny asked. Several of the girls nodded vigorously. "Well, let's have a pool party!"
Alain rolled his eyes inwardly. He would not be attending this party if he could help it, even if that meant locking himself in his room.
"May I have you're attention please!" It was Phoebe. "We are ready to begin today's battles. Can I have the two people who are first out on the battle field please!"
Alain breathed a sigh of relief. He was the first one to go this morning, so he could leave this table without having to fight Jacklyn to get her to release his arm. He shoveled a few more bites of pancakes into his mouth and hurried out to the field. Once out their, he saw his opponent was already standing in the red box, fingering her pokeball. She was rather short, had pink hair, baby blue eyes, and wore a blue dress with white tights. Her hair was done up in a bun, and had a long blue ribbon tied around it.
"Alright, you both heard the rules yesterday, but do you need me to repeat them?"
Alain shook his head, and so did his opponent.
"Then are you ready?"
"Yes," Alain said.
"I'm ready," the girl said, "and just so you know, my name is Abby. What's yours?"
"Alain."
"Then battle begin!" Pheobe said.
"Go Altaria!" Abby shouted and threw the pokeball she held high into the air. The Humming Pokemon burst out and soared up above her trainer.
"Charizard, let's go!" Alain shouted, and Charizard landed on the field before him. "Use Dragon Claw!" Charizard took off into the sky, zipping toward Altaria.
"Altaria, dodge it!" Altaria dodged and flew around Charizard in a couple of loops, then broke away, facing Charizard.
"Use Dragon breath!"
"Intercept with Flamethrower!" The attacks colided and exploded. "Now, fly into the smoke and use Dragon Claw!"
Charizard charged into the clearing smoke, and burst through the other side, landing a direct hit on Altaria with its Dragon Claw. Altaria swopped low, but avoided hitting the ground, coming back up to stop above its trainer.
"Altaria, let's show them what you can really do," and she touched the Key Stone in the ribbon that hung down her back, "Mega Evolve!" Her Key Stone reacted with Altaria's Mega Stone, and Altaria Mega Evolved.
"Key Stone, respond to my heart. Beyond evolution, Mega Evolve!" Charizard's Mega Stone reacted with Alain's Key Stone, and Charizard Mega Evolved.
"Now use Dragon Claw!" Charizard zoomed across the battle field, straight at Altaria's, it's claws glowing green.
"Altaria, don't move," Abby ordered. Alain straightened in surprise. Wouldn't that be just letting a super effective hit connect?
Charizard closed in and swiped at Altaria's with its Claw, but it couldn't seem to make contact. Every swipe just seemed to glance off Altaria's as if an invisible shield was protecting it.
"What? How is that happening?" Alain wondered aloud. Abby wasn't saying; she just stood their with a pleased look on her face.
"Use Dragon Breath!" she ordered. Charizard had no chance to dodge, and took the attack full in the chest.
Why won't Charizard's Dragon Claw attack work? Does Mega Altaria's ability prevent it from connecting? Alain thought frantically.
"Alain!"
Alain tore his eyes away from the battle and looked around the courtyard. Zara stood at the edge of the yard, waving her hands wildly. "When Altaria Mega Evolves, it becomes a Fairy type!"
"You didn't know that?" Abby asked. "Well, too bad, I thought everyone knew that. Altaria, use Moonblast!"
"Dodge Charizard!" But Charizard couldn't dodge fast enough, and took the Moonblast attack, the blast pushing it back across the field to Alain.
"Charizard, no!" Well, now that he knew Dragon Claw wouldn't work, he'd have to use a different move. "Charizard," he cried, and the Flame Pokemon stood up with effort, "Flamethrower, go!"
"Intercept with Dragon breath!" The attacks met in the middle of the field, but Charizard's Flamethrower won out and Altaria was knocked backward from the force of the blast.
"Use Sing," Abby commanded.
An all too familiar tune floated across the battle field, and Charizard wobbled before sinking down to the field and falling asleep.
"Charizard, wake up!" Alain shouted at his Pokemon, but Charizard only snored in response.
"Now use Moonblast!"
Alain watched helplessly as the attack hit Charizard full on. "Charizard, you have to get up!"
"Use Dragon breath!"
Again, there was nothing Alain could no to stop the attack from connecting. "Charizard!" he cried loudly.
Suddenly, Charizard stirred and then its head came up. "Charizard!" Alain shouted, seeing hope for a victory again. "Get Altaria, Thunder punch!"
Charizard roared, then shot into the air, its claw now crackling with electricity.
"Altaria, use Mirror move!" Abby shouted, and her Pokemon also shot into the air, its wing crackling with electricity as well. The two Pokemon met in the sky, but as Altaria lunged to hit Charizard, Charizard dodged to the left, and struck Altaria with its Thunder punch. The Humming Pokemon let out a loud cry and fell, narrowly missing the ground.
"Sing!" Abby called to her Pokemon.
"Don't give them a chance! Blast burn!" Alain shouted.
Altaria's song began to drift across the field, but Charizard wasn't hearing it. It went into a dive, then called the energy to use the move, and landed with its fist hitting the ground. The Blast burn attack closed in on Altaria, and then exploded underneath it, leaving a huge cloud of smoke hanging over the field. Alain couldn't see anything.
After a tense moment or two, the smoke cleared. Altaria's was laying on the ground, knocked out, and had reverted back to its normal state.
"Altaria is unable to battle," Phoebe announced, "so Charizard wins! Therefore the victory goes to Alain!"
Abby stood stock still, a look of pure shock on her face, and her mouth hanging open. When she recovered her voice, she stuttered, "H-how, how did you-"
Alain walked onto the field and stood next to Charizard. "Just because we couldn't land a Dragon type move, doesn't mean we couldn't do damage."
"Well if you can win at that disadvantage, I'd hate to face you in the competition!" Abby said with an expression of respect on her face.
"Thanks," he said, then turned to Charizard, rubbed its head and neck, then returned it to its pokeball.
"No I mean it! You're really strong!"
"Like I said, thanks."
Abby just shrugged, recalled Altaria, and walked out of the courtyard toward the Pokemon Center at the back of the school. Alain just stood their for a moment lost in thoughts of Lysander, and his promise to win every battle.
"Hello?"
Phoebe's voice snapped him from his thoughts. Looking up, he heard her continue, "You'll have to leave, we've got more battles to get to."
He turned away and closed his eyes. "Right, I'm going." He glanced over at the sidelines as he left, but the person he was looking for, Zara, wasn't there.
"Well, looks like it's my turn. Who's going to fall in defeat this time?" A confident Jacklyn strode out into the courtyard, and took her place in the blue box. The boy who owned the Salamance from yesterday came out a different door and stood in the red box.
"Do you both remember the rules?" Phoebe asked.
"Of course!" Jacklyn said.
The other boy nodded.
"Then battle begin!"
"I case you don't remember me, I'm Jacklyn, and I'm going to win, so you may as well give up now." Jacklyn said with a dramatic bow. "Go Blaziken!"
"I'm Dave, and I won't let you win that easily. Go Salamance!" Dave shouted.
The battle raged for several minutes. Jacklyn held her own for a long time, but in the end, Dave won out by commanding his Mega Salamance to use Hyper beam. Jacklyn threw a fit after she lost, and Alain left as soon as this started. Having nothing better to do, he wandered around the halls for a few minutes. Then, as he rounded a corner, Wally ran into him.
"O-oh! S-sorry, I d-didn't see you." Wally stuttered.
"It's fine," Alain said.
"I've g-got to get to the battle field. I'm l-late for m-my battle!" he exclaimed, then ran off down the hall as fast as he could.
"Do you know where Zara is?" Alain called after him. He figured seeing what she was up to would be better than wandering the halls. He might learn something about her battle strategies.
"Outside! U-unloading boxes!" Wally shouted back.
Unloading boxes? Alain wondered. He turned around and headed to the front door, but Zara wasn't there. Thinking Wally must have know where Zara was if he knew she was unloading boxes, whatever that meant, he kept going, looking for another door she could have gone out.
He found said door in the back of the school. Outside was a large delivery truck, and Zara was standing behind it, hefting a crate off the back.
"Hey!" she said when she turned around and saw him, "What are you doing out here?"
"Wally said you were out here," he answered.
"So you came to find me?"
"No. I just had nothing better to do. What are you doing?"
"An extremely annoying job."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," Zara began, "the Champion asked me to move all the boxes in this truck into the storage room just through that door," and she pointed to the door Alain had just come through, "and so I agreed, started moving crates. But when I asked what was in them, the Champion just said they were for tomorrow's classes, and since I'm a student, I can't know since it would give me an unfair advantage in the classes." She took the box inside, then came back out. "If your not busy, I could use some help with these."
Alain said nothing but grabbed a crate and followed Zara inside. The storage room she was stacking these crates in was about the size of two bedrooms from upstairs, and was already half full of crates, cardboard boxes, trash bags, and other things that he couldn't identify. Zara set her crate down in a corner and Alain set his on top of hers. When he went back out, Zara was shaking a small crate. "I need to know what's in these," she muttered to herself. She shook the crate harder, but it didn't make a sound. "Oh well, I guess I'll find our tomorrow." She turned and took the crate inside. Alain grabbed another crate. It felt fairly light. He knocked on the side. It didn't sound hollow at all.
Zara came back out and jumped into the truck. She went to the back and started pushing crates to the back of the truck. Alain took his crate into the storage room, and took a moment to look around. What was in these boxes? Even he was at least a little curious.
When he went back outside, he heard her before he saw her. She was inside the truck, at the very back, pushing a large crate toward the back of the truck. It must have been heavy, because she was struggling to move it.
Zara jumped down from the truck, having succeeded at her task, and asked Alain, "I'm pretty sure this one is too heavy for me. Could you grab the other side?"
"Sure." Alain grabbed one side of the box, and he and Zara slid it off the end of the truck...and dropped it.
"OK," Zara said after a moment, "that one may be too heavy for both of us."
"No, it isn't." Alain said, then reached down to pick up his side of the box again. Zara reached down to pick up her side as well. "OK, on the count of three. One, two, three!" Zara counted.
They lifted, and the crate came up. Zara turned to go inside backward, and they, after a lot of effort, managed to get the crate in and settled in a corner of the storage room.
"Phew! Thanks for the help with that one. Not sure how the Champion expected me to get this thing in here by myself."
"Not a problem," Alain leaned forward to look at something beside him, just as Zara tried to push past him.
"Oh, sorry," she apologized, looking up at him, her cheeks havin turned a pale pink. Alain suddenly realized how close they were, and he quickly backed up, his face flushing slightly.
"Zara, Zara!" Thankfully, at that moment, Wally burst into the room. "Guess what!"
Zara quickly stepped around Alain and faced the young, green-haired trainer. "The moon really is made of cheese?" she guessed.
Wally gave her a quizzical look, then burst out laughing. "No, better than that. I won my battle!"
"You did! That's great! Who did you face?"
"A Mega Lucario. I guess Gallade is stronger than I thought after all!"
"You bet! See, I told you you'd win today." Zara said, coming up to Wally and bending down to give him a hug.
"Thanks for the support," Wally said gratefully.
"That's what friends are for. Well now that your here, think you can spare a minute to help us?'
"OK. What can I do?"
"You can grab some of those smaller bags from the bag of the truck, if you don't mind."
They worked for about two hours before the truck was finally empty. Alain was really tired by the time he jumped into the back of the truck for his last load, a couple of black trash bags, which felt like they were full of warm water. He lifted them and headed into the storage room, but as he went in, he couldn't see where he was going and ran straight into Zara, who was coming out for another load. Alain, in his surprise, dropped the bags, and they burst open, sending a cloud of fine white powder into the air.
Zara waved her hand in front of her face and coughed loudly, "What is this stuff?"
Alain just coughed and backed out into the hall to get away from the growing cloud. Zara followed quickly with Wally in tow. Wally was still coughing badly, even though he was out of the powder filled room.
"Wally," Zara asked bending down to his eye level, "where is your backpack?"
Wally's breathing had become more labored, and Alain looked at him in alarm. What was wrong with him? Was he alregic to that stuff?
"Courtyard," Wally wheezed, "Red box."
Zara took of running and was back in a few moments with said backpack. She was already fishing around in it for something. When her hand came out, it was holding an inhaler. She quickly handed it to Wally, who tore off the cap and took a long breath from it.
"Thanks," he said quietly.
"Are you going to be OK?" Zara asked. Alain heard concern in her voice. "I can go get Nurse Joy, or someone else."
"No, I'll be OK," Wally said. "Better get away from that stuff." He walked quickly away from the open storage room door, then jogged down he hall. "Can we do something later?" he called as he left.
"I'll see you in the dining room after my battle!"
"OK, see you later!"
Zara watched Wally go untill he was out of sight. Then she sighed and turned back to the storage room. "So, back to my question. What is this stuff?"
"What happened to him?" Alain asked as passively as he could.
"Oh, Wally suffers from bad asthma. Breathing this stuff must have triggered it, and every reaction he has is a bad one. So maybe dust?"
"What?"
"Just thinking out loud. Is this stuff dust?"
"It felt heavier than that."
"Sand then? Or maybe-"
"Zara! What are you doing?!"
Alain jumped involuntarily. Looking up, he saw the tall salior from yesterday approaching the them, a scowl on his face. "Didn't Steven tell you not to open anything? You will be disqualified from these classes if I find anything open!"
"Hello Drake," Zara said calmly.
Drake reached them and looked down at the mess of powder on the floor. "What is this?" he asked with raised eyebrows.
"Just an accident. They were dropped, and broke open."
"And you couldn't be careful enough to prevent that?"
"Like I said, it was an accident. It's not like it's my fault the bags are so weak they break open when dropped."
Drake glarred at Zara for several minutes, and she starred back at him evenly. Finnaly he said, "Your battle is up next. Go get ready!"
"Yes sir!" Zara said and marched of toward the field, shooting a glance back at Alain, supposedly to see if he would follow. Then she rounded the corner and was gone.
With Zara gone, Drake glared down at Alain. "How did this happen?" he barked.
Alain turned toward the mess. "Just a bag we dropped. I'm not going to be disqualified, am I?"
"What is this that you scattered all over our clean floors, hm?" Drake asked.
A pause. "Not sure. Sand?" Alain guessed.
Drake glared at Alain for a moment before jerking his head back over his shoulder, a motion for Alain to leave.
Alain walked past Drake, but even as he left he felt Drake's eyes boreing into him as he walked down the hallway. All the way out to the courtyard he couldn't help but think about Lysander's face if he heard Alain had been disqualified. The thought was almost enough to scare him.
Out on the battlefield, Zara was standing in the blue box and a boy with spiky green hair, who had introduced himself yesterday as Eric, in the red one. Alain stepped to the side of the courtyard to watch, keeping his eyes intently on Zara. He was anxious to see if she would win her disadvantage battle since she had shown she was strong yesterday against Mega Swampert.
"Then battle begin!" It was Sidney acting as referee this time.
"Go Abamasnow!" Eric shouted, flinging a pokeball into the air. The Frost Tree Pokemon landed wih a thud on the battle field.
"C-can I stand here?"
Alain glanced down to find Wally looking shyly down at the ground. He shrugged and went back to watching the battle.
"Sceptile, at the ready!" Zara shouted. Her Pokemon landed on the field and growled at the opposing Abamosnow.
"She really thought she was going to face that Mega Glalie," Wally commented, more to himself than Alain, "but this is still an ice type."
"Abamosnow, use Razor leaf!"
"Dodge Sceptile!" Sceptile dodged easily
"Now Ice beam!"
"Dodge!" Sceptile dodged again.
"U-um," Wally looked up at Alain, curiosity on his face, "any idea w-why they would put her u-up against this Abamasnow and n-not Glalie?"
Alain gazed out at the battle for a while before answering, "Perhaps because Abamasnow resists grass type moves."
"Oh! Why didn't I th-think of that?"
"Abamosnow, Mega evolve!" The Frost Tree Pokemon roared and it's mega stone reacted with Eric's keystone.
"Sceptile, Dragon pulse!" The Dragon pulse collided with Abamasnow only seconds after it had finished Mega evolving. It had no chance to dodge. Not that an Abamasnow really is fast enough to dodge anyway, Alain thought.
"Use Ice beam," the trainer commanded.
"Use Detect!" Zara cried. Sceptile's eyes glowed pale blue, and it smoothly dodged the Ice beam attack. After the haze in the air cleared, Zara touched her keystone. "From the depths of my heart, keystone respond! Sceptile, Mega evolve!" Her keystone and Sceptile's mega stone reacted.
As the glow of the Mega Evolution faded, Eric decided to make his move. "Abomasnow, use Blizzard!"
"Dodge it, Sceptile!" Zara cried, but it was to late. The powerful ice type attack struck Sceptile head on, and Sceptile buckled under the damage.
"Now Ice beam!"
"Not this time. Dragon pulse!" Zara commanded. Alain thought he heard anger in her voice as she gave the command, but she was far enough away it could have been just his imagination.
The attacks colided mid-field, struggling for dominance, but Dragon pulse won out, knocking Abomasnow back from its former position.
"Abomasnow, are you OK?" Eric called out. When said Pokemon shouted its name in responce, he commanded, "Use Razor leaf!"
"Leaf Blade, and cut through them!" Zara commanded.
Sceptile charged the oncoming Razor leaves, slicing a few of them out of its way, and crossing the field at top speed. When it reached Abomasnow, Zara cried, "Use Dragon pulse!"
The Dragon pulse knocked Abomasnow back even further, nearly causing it to hit the back wall. However, Abomasnow held on to the ground, and left long skid marks where it slid back.
"Now Blizzard!" Eric shouted, throwing his arm forward for emphasis.
"Detect Sceptile," Zara shouted.
Once again, Sceptile's eyes glowed pale blue and it fluently avoided the Blizzard attack.
"You can't keep dodging forever!" Eric shouted across the field. "We are going to beat you, just give up already! You're avoiding the inevitable!"
"If it's inevitable, then how am I avoiding it?" Zara countered with a chalenging smile. "This isn't over till it's over!"
Eric scowled. "Blizzard!"
"Dodge!" Zara commanded, but the Blizzard attack was simply to big to dodge, and Sceptile was pushed back across the field. It fell to its knees in pain.
That's not all that surrprising. Alain thought, Even if it is a really strong Pokemon, taking two attacks that are super effective would take a toll on any Pokemon.
"Abomasnow, let's give them the inevitable! Ice beam!" Eric shouted.
Zara gazed at her Pokemon's struggling form before speaking to it. "Sceptile, if you can hear me, then please get up."
Sceptile raised its head and feebly said its name.
"I want to hear it on the moon!" Zara shouted. There was no mistaking the passion in her voice, no matter where in the courtyard you were.
Sceptile stood suddenly, threw its head back, and roared loud enough to make Alain want to cover his ears again. Glancing down, he saw Wally had covered his ears.
"Now use Frenzy Plant!" Zara practically screamed.
Sceptile turned its tail to the oncoming Ice beam attack, and planted it in the ground. Large roots began to grow from around Sceptile. They meet the Ice beam, plunged right through it, and gathered around Abomasnow. Then they all crashed down on the ice type. The force of the blow visibly shook the trees in the courtyard. Not suprisingly, after the smoke cleared, Abomasnow was lying face down on the battle field. In a flash it reverted to it normal form.
"Abomasnow is unable to battle, so Sceptile is the winner! Therefore the victory goes to Zara!" Sidney announced.
"Sceptile, you did it!" Zara cried, racing onto the field and grabbing her Pokemon around the shoulders. It said its name tiredly, thumping her on the head to show it was happy. Zara winced slightly from the thump, then Alain saw her gaze travel up to one wall of the building. Following her gaze, he spotted Steven leaning out of one of the windows, nodding his head and smilling a proud smile.
Just then, a whistle sounded.
"Oh!" Wally jumped beside Alain and ran onto the field. "Zara, we've got to hurry! Supper's almost over!"
Alain looked around the courtyard. To his surrprise, Eric had left, along with everyone else. The yard was deserted except for him and Zara and Wally, who were leaving.
As they reached the doorway, Zara turned and called out, "You coming?"
Supper went fairly well that night. Alain sat with Zara and Wally, and he didn't see Jacklyn at all the whole time. After her loss, he noted, she had sort of disapeared for the rest of the day. Well good ridiance, he thought.
Later, he climbed the stairs to his room and went in. Gordon was already there, reading a piece of paper aloud to himself. He stopped abruptly and looked up when Alain came in.
"Hey," he spluttered, trying to hide the paper behind his back, "what are doing here?"
"This is my room too," Alain answered flatly. Ignoring the rest of Gordon's comments about knocking, he went to take a shower. When he got out, Gordon was gone. Maybe I can go to sleep before he gets back, he thought hopefully.
Tap, tap, tap.
A soft noise from outside the window. Zara! Alain thought, Wait, why do I care? Oh well, just go see if it is her.
He opened the window and looked up. Sure enough, Zara was looking back down at him from the rooftop. "Did you want to come up tonight, or not? I thought I'd ask, since you didn't just come up on your own." she asked.
Alain nodded and in a few minutes, had clamored up the fire escape onto the roof, and was taking in the beautiful view of Hoenn once again. "So why did you want me up here?" he asked her.
"Didn't particularly want you up here, just wanted to see if you would come up again," she replied. "Not many people come up the first time. Even less come up the second." After a pause, she tossed a pokeball into the air, and Sceptile burst out. The grass type rubbed its head against its trainer before lying down on the roof contentedly. Alain followed suit, releasing Charizard next to Sceptile. Sceptile growled angrily at his Pokemon, untill Zara swatted it lightly on the head. Charizard lay down opposite Sceptile and glared at it.
Wonder what's up with them... Alain thought.
"So, I wanted to ask you something," Zara said, drawing Alain's attention from the the Pokemon to her.
"Alright."
"Why did you come here?"
"What do you mean?" he asked, settling down with his back against Charizard.
"I mean, what's your goal? To master Mega Evolution? To discover more Pokemon that can Mega Evolve?"
"Charizard and I plan to defeat every Mega Evolved Pokemon we can find, and stand at the summit."
"So your goal here is to win the competition."
"Yes."
"That's your only goal?"
"Yes, why, what's your goal?"
Zara sighed thoughtfully. "Well, I do want to win, but I also want to help Wally get as far as he can in the competition, and I want to please the Champion above all else. He did give me my keystone and mega stone after all, and he's taken a lot of time to help me train."
"How can you do that?"
"What? Oh, you mean please him? In my mind, by winning, but somehow I think the Champion would be happy with me even if I didn't win. He always tells me just to do the best I can." She paused again. "I challenged him to a battle once. And I lost. From that point on, I've been trying to become strong enough to beat him." She turned back toward Alain. "I guess that's my goal, becoming stronger with my friends. Beating my friends and them beating me, in turn."
Alain just stared at her. How could losing please anyone, especially yourself?
"Scep?" Sceptile raised it's head again and brushed Zara's shoulder.
"What do you want Sceptile? I already gave you some pokeblocks," Zara questioned.
Sceptile stuck it's nose into her pocket, and came out with something small and metallic in its mouth. It dropped the object into Zara's hand and gazed at her expectantly.
"But Sceptile, we have guests!" Zara quietly protested.
"Tile?" Sceptile countered.
"OK, fine, just this once," Zara gave in. Turning to Alain, she asked, "Got any songs you like?"
Alain just shrugged, trying to figure out what she held. When she noticed him glancing at her hand, she held up the object Sceptile had dropped there. "Pitchpipe. Was my Dad's." Her face turned sad at these words. " Mine now," she added, sorrow evident in her eyes. She quickly wipped it away, however, and blew a note on the pitchpipe. the sound echoed out into the forest. Zara turned her face out toward the vastness of Hoenn.
And then she began to sing.
Softly at first, but steadily gainning confidence, the sound of her voice washed over Alain. It left him with a feeling of happiness and sorrow at the same time, or at least that was the best way he could descibe it. He felt...content.
The song she chose was a slow, gentle one. After a few moments of her singing, Sceptile joined in. Its voice was not nearly as melodius as Zara's, but she hardly seemed to notice, just kept singing. If he'd known the words, Alain thought he might would have joined in.
Even Charizard seemed to enjoy the sound of her voice, though it scowled as soon as Sceptile began its accompanyment.
When she finished, Zara kept staring off into the distance, clearly lost in though. Alain wasn't sure if he should interrupt, or just keep quiet. After a moment of silence, Zara blinked as though coming out of a daze, and stood up quickly.
"I don't mean to be rude, but I think I should probably go." And with that, she took off down the roof and jumped over the edge. Alain heard her feet hit the fire escape below.
He sat there on the roof with Charizard for some time, thinking of Marian and wondering how she was doing. He stroked Charizard's head absentmindedly. His thoughts driffted to Zara. She was a bit like Marian, now that he thought about it, especially when she was with Wally. Always asking questions.
Suddenly his holowatch went off. It was Lysandre, asking for a status report. Alain responded, saying he was fine, he had won two preliminary battles, and that there was no trouble to be reported.
There was no response for several minutes. Alain finnaly decided Lysandre had been occupied by something else more pressing when he recieved one more message. It read:
Keep your guard up. There are people there who will try to harm you if you are not careful.
Alain started to repond to the message, but was cut off when the device rang and told him Lysandre had hung up. He recalled Charizard and climbed down to his room. Then, climbing into bed, he couldn't help but wonder, Who would want to harm me? He fell asleep with this thought alone in his mind.
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So guys, for the sake of this story, please go to my profile page. There is a poll there asking how old you think Alain is. Please answer the poll, cause it makes my job a whole lot easier!
