Chapter 16: Rock & Roll Disaster

My eyes skimmed over the file.

Marcus Ingblot

Age: 19

Join Date: 1/7/12

Pokemon: Gloom, Pelipper, Hippowdon

Characteristics: Not Recorded

Successes: Stolen Pikachu from Orquid City, Orquid City kidnapping/hostage squad

Failures: Smith hostage incident

I sighed and pushed the file aside. Just another inferior Glop'emm grunt. Scratch that—another corruptible, inferior Glop'emm grunt.

The thought brought a smile to my lips.

If only the Master knew… I would love to see the look of fury upon his face, his cool calculating eyes finally out of control, filled with anger.

My smile widened as I recalled the Master's little tantrum yesterday. It was the first time in over two years I had witnessed the boy lose his temper.

It was wonderful. Not only had I obtained information about Pokemon X the Master wished to keep hidden from me, but I had caused an unexpected outburst.

His anger sang of sweet victory.

My victory.

And if he knew of my little scheme…

His helpless anger would be enough to make my eyes prick with tears of joy.

But alas, he could not know of my ploy yet. For at this moment, his anger would not be so helpless.

And that is what I planned to change.

I pressed the buzzer. "Marcus Ingblot, please enter."

I folded my hands atop my desk and silently went over the planned bribe as I waited. Marcus was number seventeen.

Seventeenth of over one thousand Team Glop'emm members.

Seventeenth in my plan to take over Team Glop'emm.

o o o o o o o o o o o o o

"But Carly, I don't want to go shopping," Reece whined playfully.

Idiot.

"Ugh, I don't want to go shopping with you either. But we have to find something to wear that will proficiently hide these cameras," I retorted. Shopping with Reece was like shopping with a rock. He was unresponsive to every outfit I tried on, usually muttering how "it would look better off on my bedroom floor," and he had to be practically dragged by the ear from shop to shop. In fact, shopping with a rock would be easier because at least rocks didn't argue.

"Yeah, yeah. The cameras he sent to us with our new Pokemon. I don't get why he wants us to wear them when we meet Anita. Is he checking her out or something?"

I rolled my eyes as I pulled him into a scarf shop.

"Seriously, why does he want us to wear the cameras?"

"I don't know," I answered coldly as I tried on a vermillion scarf. Maybe if I folded the scarf like this, the camera could rest hidden just beneath my shoulder… "How's this look?" I asked. I found a mirror and examined my beauty, highlighted by the scarf.

Reece shrugged.

I frowned at him and stomped off to the register.

Walking outside again, Reece said, "We need a plan or something. You know, to make it not obvious that we were supposed to find and talk to Anita and her friends."

"Alright then, do something useful and come up with an idea while I find you something to wear," I snapped. I peered into a store window and examined the different collar styles for men. I wished we were in Zahavah or even Azul City, where there were thousands of stylish shops. Here in Nelcorn City, my choices were pretty limited. A tawny shirt with a flared collar would emphasize Reece's eyes, I mused silently. Not that I could probably find that around here…

Reece was silent for a minute and followed me into the store.

"How about a party?"

I had been eyeing a navy zip-up jacket. I turned to Reece. "What?"

"A party?" Reece asked again. His voice went a bit high, like he was scared of me or something. Whatever.

I smiled. "I do love parties."

o o o o o o o o o o o o o

I took a step. "Ouch," I complained.

I took another step. "Ouch," I complained again.

Unfortunately, my complaints were ignored. All two hundred and thirteen of them, thus far.

We were currently walking on a rocky hill next to Mint Mountain, or so Liam told me. After I had led the group in a wide circle earlier this morning, nobody would let me hold the map. In fact, since I had led the group astray, nobody had spoken more than two words to me.

And those two words had been uttered by Fiery an hour ago after my forty-third complaint.

They were: {Shut up!}

Erin and Liam had been arguing for the past half an hour. Something about whether albino Sneasel actually existed… In the meantime, most of my and Erin's Pokemon had been let out of their Pokeballs for exercise (and because it would be hard to cause excessive trouble on a rocky hill in the middle of nowhere). Erin's Taillow, Tweal, was happily doing air tricks above us. Allo, Sunflower, and Vanilla were taking turns riding on Griffy's back. Vanilla kept trying to take longer turns so her fur wouldn't get covered in the dusty dirt that covered the hill. Apple and Splash were attempting to jump from boulder to boulder without touching the ground. They were taking the game very seriously; once, Apple had jumped onto Liam's head to avoid making contact with the ground. Liam had thrown me several dirty looks while I snickered at his well-ruffled hair after the episode. Fiery, of course, was muttering to himself and keeping a watchful eye on his younger siblings. Erin kept Wella in her Pokeball because there was no water and Wella would not be able to keep up waddling.

Thus, I was left to complain about my aching body while nobody listened.

Early this morning, Liam had woken me up to practice fighting. When I laughed at him, he aimed a kick at my stomach. That got me moving. Now, not only did one leg hurt from the Flareon bite, but both legs (and actually, my whole body) hurt from this morning's practice.

Remind me why I was traveling with these wackos?

I couldn't even make the time go faster by riding my bike. This area was way too rocky.

Bored, I watched Apple jump on top of a particularly large boulder. A slightly evil idea flickered across my mind… so I immediately implemented it.

I took a small breath and then rapidly shoved my mind in front of Apple just as she was about to jump to another rock. Apple ran into my barrier and fell back onto the boulder.

I chuckled.

Apple glared at me, and suddenly something caught my foot.

I didn't have to look down to know Apple had tripped me using her psychic powers. Reaching out with my mind again, I felt something strange. There were multiple minds near Apple, though I could see no other people or Pokemon near the Eevee besides Splash.

Curious, I entered one of the unexplained minds. Immediately I was bombarded with anger. The mind opened its eyes and spotted Apple jumping onto another rock. It was watching Apple with fury from a low angle, as if it was a boulder…

I snapped back to my body and peered behind Apple.

The large boulder had eyes. Angry eyes. In fact, the large boulder and several smaller rocks had angry eyes.

Geodudes and a Graveler.

"Uh… guys?"

Nobody even bothered to glance at me.

{Guys!} I yelled in everyone's (except Liam's) minds. Everyone turned to me. Oh, now they pay attention.

I nodded to the angry rocks with eyes behind me.

{Cool!} Splash yelped as he started leaping towards the large Graveler. I immediately returned him to his Pokeball, and then as a second thought returned the other three younger Eevees. Erin also returned Tweal.

The rock Pokemon stared at us and grunted angrily.

"Let's try to back away slowly," I muttered. "I'm going to see if I can figure out why they're upset." I entered the large Graveler's mind and tentatively asked, {Hello?}

Anger was slowly flooding the Pokemon's mind. Images flashed through his head—of us entering his territory, waking him from his nap, and someone currently invading his mind…

Hehe, my bad.

I was about to try explaining how we didn't know, when the world started spinning.

Literally.

Ground-sky-ground-

Aw, crap.

The Graveler was rolling towards us. Quickly returning to my own body, I ordered, "Fiery, iron tail!"

Fiery leapt into action and twirled his bright tail at the Graveler.

Unfortunately, because the Graveler was spinning, the attack did barely any damage…

….and the Graveler kept rolling towards us…

…and Fiery had been flattened like a pancake….

…and the Geodudes and Graveler became even more upset because we attacked…

…and this was generally a really bad situation, thus deserving a run-on sentence.

"Anita, that was very stupid," Liam commented dryly.

"Ya think?" I growled. I mustered as much of my psychic energy as I could and thrust it in front of the Graveler. I felt Griffy add some of his power as well.

The Graveler hit the psychic barrier with a large crash. The barrier shuddered but held against the rock Pokemon.

Quickly, I returned the knocked-out Fiery to his Pokeball.

The Geodudes' grunts turned into a sort of chant, and the large Graveler that had hit the barrier pulled his fist back. It began to glow.

I scrambled backward to where Erin, Liam, and Erin's Pokemon were attempting to back away slowly. When Erin spotted the Graveler's glowing fist, she blanched.

"He's using brick breaker," Liam said nonchalantly.

"What does—" I started.

The Graveler threw his fist into the psychic wall. It shattered.

"Oh…" I trailed. Internally, I yelled to Apple, {Do something!}

{Ixney on the owerspey! Griffy would be able to sense it was me using psychic powers if I used them to build a barrier or psychic…}

{Okay, okay! Hey, how did you not know you were jumping on Geodudes, not rocks? I sensed it.}

{Oh, I knew. That's what made the game so fun!}

{Apple, your stupid game might get us killed!}

{Hey, you're the one who created the barrier that disrupted the Graveler's sleep. I fail to see how any of that is my fault—}

"Um, now would be a good time to run," Erin pointed out, interrupting our argument. Right. There were angry Geodudes in a semi-circle around us. Just in front of the Geodudes, a Graveler grunted loudly and stomped his arms against the ground.

We took Erin's suggestion.

Several seconds later, I heard what sounded like an avalanche of rock Pokemon tumbling after us.

I gasped as a sharp pain shot up my wrapped foot, causing me to stumble. I tried to continue forward with a one-legged skip; my wrapped foot just wouldn't move fast enough.

Erin noticed. "Griffy, pick up Anita!"

Something knocked under my legs, and suddenly I was on Griffy's back.

{Thanks,} I told the Girafarig.

{It is no problem, Miss,} Griffy replied while his tail declared, {The cloud of doom will not rain on your feet.}

I glanced back and saw the Geodudes and Graveler were still in hot pursuit. We were going downhill and despite our small head start, they were gaining on us.

Erin yelled something to me, but I couldn't hear her over the rumble of rolling rock Pokemon.

{Erin,} I said to Erin and Griffy. For once, the girl did not start freaking out because I was speaking telepathically. {Can Griffy carry all three of us and Apple?}

I felt Erin bite her lip. {It's pushing it, but I suppose it's worth a shot.}

{How about it, Griffy?}

{I can handle it, Miss.}

Apple, who had been running beside Griffy, jumped into my lap.

Griffy cantered over to Liam.

After taking a quick look behind us, Liam hopped onto Griffy in one swift motion.

He scooted closer to me to make room for Erin, who was soon also on Griffy's rump attempting to prevent Griffy's tail from biting her.

There was so little room that Liam had to wrap his arms around my waist and Erin had to wrap her arms around his waist to keep from falling off. Awkward much?

Now that we were all aboard, Griffy broke into a gallop. "Alright, Griffy, use agility!" Erin called over the loud rumble of the rocks.

Griffy put his head down and prepared to surge forward…

But he never did.

"Griffy, I said use agility!" Erin yelled in a panic. Griffy looked like he was struggling and failing to use the attack.

I tried to contact Griffy telepathically, but found that I could not.

Two and two clicked. Aw, shit, I knew what was happening.

I turned to Liam. "You suck, you know that?"

Liam gave me his distinct, all-too-familiar frown.

"Anita, this is not the time to be insulting—" Erin scolded.

"Liam's dark gift is preventing our psychic powers from working. Griffy can't use agility because Liam is touching him," I explained.

"Liam, you do suck," Erin agreed.

We all looked behind us. The Geodudes were only about ten yards from Griffy's tail. They were still gaining because we couldn't pick up speed. From Griffy's heavy breathing I could tell he was already getting tired.

"Now what?" Erin asked helplessly.

"I vote we chuck Liam off."

Erin kicked me.

"Fine. You could pull out Wella and spray water at them," I suggested.

"Right. Because one Wooper would hold off all thirty or so rock Pokemon trying to squash us," Erin replied sarcastically.

Liam sighed and pulled out a Pokeball.

A giant Pokemon appeared in a red beam. Sand began to whip around the area, limiting my sight, but not before I got a good look at the Pokemon that Liam had released.

It made my jaw drop.

Liam rolled his eyes. "Tyranitar, keep up that sandstorm and follow with an iron tail."

Sand now flooded the air. I couldn't see more than two feet ahead of me. Then again, neither could the Geodudes and Graveler.

While Fiery's iron tail did very little damage, the Tyranitar's tail was big and strong enough to send several Geodudes and the Graveler flying.

Or at least that's what it sounded like from the loud CRACK followed by several thumps.

Less than a minute later, Liam returned his Tyranitar. The sandstorm, however, remained for several minutes as Griffy galloped forward.

"How—you—Pokemon—" I stuttered.

Liam snickered, "Told you you'd lose if you battled me."

I angrily elbowed him in the stomach, causing him to be shoved backwards into Erin. Erin yelped in response and was pushed towards Griffy's tail. Consequently, Griffy's tail took the opportunity to bite into Erin's shirt and tug her off of Griffy. Of course, chaos ensued, not helped by the dying sandstorm.

"What was that about?" Erin demanded of Liam once we all dismounted to find where she had fallen.

Apple, who had been unusually quiet the whole ride, mumbled {Excuse me} before wandering a few yards away to puke.

Liam scowled and jerked his thumb at me. "She started it."

"You're the one who pulled a really strong Pokemon out of your butt! You could have saved us long before we were chased for a couple of miles by rampant rocks!" I yelled at him.

Apple paused from her puking for a moment. {Out of his butt? Really now?}

{Shut it.}

{Better out than in, I always say. Speaking of which—} Apple returned to… well, you know.

Liam folded his arms and snidely remarked, "Shouldn't you be thanking me?"

I marched up to the irritating jerk and poked my finger at his chest. "Shouldn't you be explaining yourself! What's your problem?"

Liam opened his mouth and said, "None—"

I threw my arms up in frustration. "—of my business," I finished for him. "I know. I've heard. But you know what? IT IS MY BUSINESS! WE'RE ALL FREAKIN TRAVELING TOGETHER!"

"Anita," Erin said softly.

I whirled around. "And don't you start siding with him! You—"

"I wasn't going to!" Erin hollered crossly. "Will both of you just quit it?" She jabbed her finger in my direction. "You need to control your temper, and you—" Erin's finger swiveled to Liam. "Anita's right. We do deserve some answers!"

Liam looked from me to Erin, and then turned around on the spot. He started to stalk away from us…

…only to run into something?

Or someone. The dust storm was finally settling so we could see again. Liam had walked directly into a tall figure. Behind the figure was a large building surrounded by a tall stone wall.

"I thought I heard voices over here," the tall figure said. I could see now that the figure was a man with short black hair and a mustache. "How did you kids get out here? You very well know the campus rules!" The man grabbed Liam by the arm. "Now come along."

Erin and I exchanged looks of confusion. She returned Griffy to his Pokeball while Apple trotted to my side.

Liam, meanwhile, yanked his arm out of the man's grasp. He looked like he was about to pull one of his fighting moves on the man so I sternly said, "Liam, don't." Strangely enough, he actually listened. A puzzled look crossed his face, though.

"Excuse me," I said politely. "Where exactly are you trying to take us?"

"Now don't play dumb with me, girl. You know you're outside the Standard Trainer Academy Boarding School boundaries." The man took Liam's arm and pulled him towards the stone wall. I realized that there was an open doorway in part of the wall.

I looked at Erin and she shrugged. We followed the man.

Apple sighed. {He thinks you guys are students.}

Well that certainly explained things! "Sir, we're not students; we're trainers."

The man snorted. He shoved Liam through the open doorway, and before Erin, Apple, and I could react, he had pulled us through as well. A door slammed behind us.

"Like I haven't heard that one before."