(No rush Dragon Shadow! Thanks a bunch Digital Skitty! And Cave Cat, I'm not going to do that.
Chapter nine.)
"Are you ready Sandsinger?" Asked Sara as they approached the large town square. Here, the steady hum of music blasted everywhere; people were crowded all around, some from Inferno Town but most were not. Sara's Vibrava was already walking in step with a rather quick beat, her wings buzzing softly.
Yesterday, following the riddle challenge that earned her the Inferno badge, Sara realized something very important. Sara's Vulpix doesn't like her. Not one bit. Now she's been going out of her way to make Vulpix happy, but it already wasn't working very well. She wanted to stay in her Pokeball for the Festival, as she is now.
Star, thinking this is just a boring thing humans like to do, was flying circles around the festivities, only landing if Sara flags her down.
"I'm ready!" Sandsinger cries enthusiastically as they entered the town square and fought through the mass of people. There were many brightly colored stands around the square, many people massed around them. Sara and Sandsinger approach the first stand in sight, a neon yellow one marked 'Signups'. The trainers here were all scrambling to get to the signup sheet and talk to the harassed-looking attendant.
The two of them watched as a squabble broke out between most of the trainers. As they were punching, kicking, and clawing at each other, Sara approached the stand and looked over the signup sheet. There were actually many contests to signup for, not just the dancing contest, but a tournament, a beauty contest, and a talent show. Many names were already scribbled on the sheet, and there was another one under it that was already filled with names.
Sara flagged Star down, who landed and perched on her forearm. "Yeah?" She asks in a puzzled tone.
"See this?" Sara starts, tapping the slot that read: 'tournament' and grinning. "One Pokemon allowed. Wanna join in?"
Star was overjoyed by the idea. She cheeped happily as Sara wrote on the paper, 'Sara Wellington. Pokemon: Star the Swellow.'
The trainers started to mutter angrily behind Sara after she'd signed Sandsinger up for the dancing contest and asked her Pokemon what they though Vulpix would like to be in. Beauty contest, two votes unanimously got her put down on that list. She then waltzed off to another stand and looked around.
"Hey Sara!" Drake called from another one of the stands, waving franticly at her. He and Elvina both had half-melted strawberry ice cream cones in their hands; Drake was holding a spare one. Sara fought her way over to them through the crowd and snatched up the ice cream.
"Manks." Sara spluttered through a mouthful of ice cream. Star, curious about this phenomenon called ice cream, snuck a beakful from her perch on Sara's shoulder. Sara didn't care though; worse things could happen to her ice cream. She even offered Sandsinger some. ("No thanks, I like to eat desert flies! You should try them sometime Sara, I'll share!" Sandsinger exclaims happily.)
Huan was sitting regally on Elvina's arm, licking on her ice cream when she seemed to look away. He looked very content. Dorovi sat across Drake's feet, yawning every once and a while. It appeared he didn't want Drake to move yet.
"So," Sara finally says between licks, "What have you two signed up for?"
"Tournament." Drake responds, also talking between mouthfuls of ice cream, "With Dorovi."
"Well, I'm in for the talent show! I have been preparing a little something to perform…" Elvina mutters, but wouldn't answer any questions about what her performance would be.
Sara finally got an evil grin after she finished her ice cream, "I'm going to beat you in the tournament, Drake!" She exclaims, "I'm going for it with Star, and she's not going to lose this time!" Star, who was relaxed on Sara's shoulder, puffed up proudly.
"Yeah right! You'll stand no chance, like you did last time!" Drake responds with a laugh. Dorovi growled his agreement, but before Sara could say anything back to that, Elvina let out a loud squeal.
"Are you okay?" Star asks, eyeing Elvina strangely as she began to jump up and down, screeching in a high voice.
"It's… it's…" Elvina finally splutters.
"It's what?" Star snaps, "Out with it, out with it!"
"It's, Dominus Flagun!" Cries Elvina as she races over to another stand labeled 'talents'. She rushed over to a man who was lecturing a group of very young girls and boys, who looked very interested in what he had to say. Sara and Drake exchanged wary glances and, shrugging, followed her with Dorovi and Sandsinger on their heels.
"…An Exeggcute can take a lot of damage without breaking its shell. See how our Rhyhorn friend is having troubles?" Dominus was saying as Elvina rushed forward towards him. A pack of Exeggcute were lying in front of the group, a Rhyhorn balanced on the tip of his horn on top of the single unbroken Exeggcute. His voice was surprisingly cold, sending icy daggers of doubt about him through Sara's body. He seems okay though…
Elvina finally reaches him, and exclaims quickly, "Oh Dominus! I'm-your-biggest-fan-may-I-have-your-autograph?" She was standing behind him, and he whirled around quickly to look at her. The look of his eyes sent another chilling wave through Sara, those icy blue depths just didn't seem right, they weren't natural. His hair was long, strait, and very black, framing his otherwise pale face.
"What would you like me to sign?" He asks, his icy drawl making Sara shudder. Surely she wasn't the only one who didn't feel right about this guy? "Certainly not your Eevee?" It was then that Sara noticed Huan was bristling angrily. He must not trust this guy either…
"No, no…" Elvina replies, oblivious to the smirk on Dominus's pale face. She dug into her backpack and whipped out a leaf of paper. "Here, this is it!"
Sara nervously approached Elvina, her stomach turned over as she did. "Elvina." She whispers behind her friend. Elvina ignores her, "Elvina. Elvina!" Finally, she whirls around.
"Wha?" She snaps irritably as Dominus hands the paper back, his long, curly signature in its middle.
"Come on!" Sara growls as she drags Elvina away by her arm, Drake following her.
When they were fully out of hearing range, Sara stopped hauling Elvina and glares at her. "Who is that?" Sara demands, pointing to Dominus.
"Dominus Flagun." Elvina responds simply, looking surprised that someone dare ask a question such as that, but continues after seeing the look on Sara's face. "He's famous around here, you know. A walking Pokedex, a Pokemon Master, you name it, he's it."
"What's wrong with you?" Drake asks, catching the nervous look in Sara's eyes.
"He isn't right." Star cheeps, and Huan barks his agreement, surprising Elvina.
"That man isn't." Sara says firmly, her face set in a stubborn look. She explained the feelings he made her have to them, and was really surprised when she looked down at Sandsinger. Standing on her back was, yet again, the miniature Sundav.
"You look surprised lady." Sundav comments smoothly, "You've experienced quite the sensations back there."
"Tell me about it..." Sara mumbles.
"Okay. Lady, he's-he's-" Sundav suddenly went into a fit of coughing squawks. All eyes were on her as she fell off Sandsinger's back and coughed louder.
"Are you alright?" Sara finally asks, bewildered, as Sundav righted herself and looked quite miffed for some reason.
"I'm fine." Sundav snaps irritably, "Just go to- aw, see you later!" With that, she fades away, leaving them to stare at each other blankly.
"She was trying to tell us something about Dominus." Drake muses. Elvina, who had turned a deep shade of scarlet by now, stormed off without a word.
"What's wrong with her?" Star asks, watching Elvina on her perch.
"The same thing that's wrong with Sundav and Vulpix." Drake offers, causing Sara to shrug. Dorovi offered a solution, which Star translated.
"Presents?" Sara repeats, puzzled, "Where are we going to get Elvina a present?"
"Over there." Star pointed her left wing at yet another stand, with many iron cages behind it. On closer inspection, they realized that it a Pokemon selling stand, with over a hundred Pokemon to choose from; at least, if you have the money.
"What do you think she'd like?" Sara asks as she peered into cage after cage of different Pokemon. Sandsinger had returned to her Pokeball to get ready for her dancing contest, Sara could feel her Pokeball vibrating just slightly.
"What about this?" Star asks, hovering overtop of Sara's head, looking into the tenth cage stacked in one row.
"I've found something!" Drake exclaims, poking his head overtop of a small stack of cages with a wide grin on his face. The stand-keeper, a wizened man that seemed to be missing several front teeth, was standing next to him. There was the click of a cage being opened, and Drake showed Sara a Pokemon that made her exclaim with delight.
"Awww!" Sara cries as she rushes over to hold the Pokemon, Star reluctantly following. Drake had found an adorable little puffball, a fine-haired Skitty. She mewed friendly in Sara's tight grip, purring slightly.
"I would say that if your upset friend wouldn't want her, she probably will." The stand-keeper remarks, showing a toothless smile at Sara.
"She's perfect." Drake and Sara remarked at the same time.
"Great, that will be two thousand Pokedollars please." Came the reply as the stand-keeper held out his hand expectantly. Drake made a choking sound, and dug out a handful of Pokedollars from his pocket.
"Uh, one thousand good?" He asks, unwrinkling the bills. The stand-keeper shakes his head, and Drake shot a begging gaze at Sara.
"Oh, alright!" She growls, pulling out her own money and counting out the majority of it, and gave the stand-keeper exactly the amount needed.
"You owe me." Sara tells Drake as the stand-keeper when to retrieve the Skitty's Pokeball. "One thousand Pokedollars to be exact."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Drake mumbles dismissively, his eyes focused on anything but Sara, "I'll pay you back later."
"Sara." Star says, looking quite ignored as she finally settles on her trainer's forearm with ruffled feathers. "Saaarrrraaaa!" When Sara finally turned her attention from the Skitty to Star, she continued. "You might like that Pokemon." Star nods in the direction of the tenth cage up there.
"But… but… I can't even see it from here." Sara mumbles, squinting up at the designated cage.
"I'll get it down. Stay here." Star then flitted away as the stand-keeper showed up again with a normal white and red Pokeball. He presented it to Drake, thanked them for their business, and promptly left to speak to another trainer.
The Skitty entered her Pokeball without complaint, Drake held it while Star arrived again with the iron cage clutched tightly in her talons. It, unlike most of the cages there, was small, for a small Pokemon.
At first, Sara didn't see anything in the cage, so she propped it up and gazed inside. Wide Eevee eyes gazed back, and a gentle mew of a hello came from the cage. "An Eevee." Sara mumbles, scratching the little Pokemon's cheek with one finger through the cage bars.
"Sir! How much is the Eevee!" Sara shouts at the stand-keeper, who had just finished with the other trainer. He rushed over and blinked.
"Er… that one's not for sale really but…"
"But… you'll sell it to me right?"
"Uh, five thousand Pokedollars, no less!" He finally says firmly, causing Sara to blink at him.
"I don't have that much…" She mutters to herself, shooting Drake a glare as he began to whistle innocently. "Can I at least let it out of the cage? See what it looks like?"
It took a while, but Sara and Drake finally got the stand-keeper to open the cage and let the Eevee out of it. "Adorable." Sara says after watching the Eevee stumble out and promptly fall over sideways. The Eevee was a little different then Huan, Elvina's Eevee, the fur that is normally a cream color on most Eevee was a grayish color on this one. She seemed normal though.
"Eev!" She exclaims in a startled tone as Sara gently picked her up and looked her over. "Eveee."
"'Ello, my name is Karen." Star translates, rolling her eyes. Sara grins and chuckles.
"I'm Sara. Don't mind her; she's never happy unless she says something cheeky ten times a day."
"You know." It was Sundav, she was perched on one of the lower cages, "Pokemon can have the Touch too!" She began to cough as she disappeared again.
"I think Sundav's lost it." Star cheeps, looking were the light bird had been.
"If you're not going to buy her, then put her back into her cage." The stand-keeper growls as he snatched Karen away from Sara and shoved her back into her small iron cage.
Ten minutes later, Sara found herself pacing around the stands, wondering what to do next. All the contests were traditionally going to take place in the afternoon, and she had time to prepare. Drake and Dorovi had gone off to practice a bit before the tournament, and Elvina still hadn't shown up.
"Sit." Star orders as she leads Sara over to a small bench and pecks her gently until she sits down on it, "What now?"
"We… wait?"
"Think Sara. Who have you not talked to this whole time here? Who has a contest coming up and doesn't even know about it yet?"
"Oh. You do have a point." Sara mumbles as she fishes Vulpix's Pokeball out and releases her in the empty spot on the bench.
"I don't want to be here." Vulpix states bluntly, glaring at Sara.
"Well you're going to have to be anyway, so why not start early?" Star snaps, getting Vulpix's glare turned on her.
"What are you talking about?"
"You're got a beauty contest to go to." Sara says for Star, who shot her a slightly relieved look. It appeared she didn't want to be the one to spill the beans.
Vulpix just sat there, staring from Sara to Star, then back again. "Fine." She finally says, "What will I have to do?"
"Look pretty?" Star suggests. Sara looked Vulpix over then, her fur wasn't in very good shape… it had many leaves and twigs sticking out at different angles. Specks of dirt covered her back, the only place Vulpix can't reach when she washes herself.
"Be groomed." Sara says firmly as she starts to search her backpack for the right tools for the job. TM five, no… potion, no… Pokeball, no… brush, n-yes! Sara whipped out the brush and grins at the queer look on Vulpix's face.
"Uh…no." Vulpix growls, standing and beginning to edge off the bench.
"Come back here." Sara orders, placing a hand on Vulpix's back and pushing her closer. She then took the brush and ran its long bristles through her twiggy, knotted fur, causing Vulpix to howl loudly and get Sara dirty looks from other Pokemon trainers.
It took a long while for Sara to get her groomed, Star was no help since she was more interested in seeing what Sara had packed in her backpack. Boasting a slightly scorched hand, Sara was finally finished with Vulpix. "We really have to do that more often." Sara states, her Pokemon's fur was a mess.
"Found it." Came Star's muffled voice from Sara's backpack. Star couldn't quite fit in her backpack though; her two long tail feathers were jutting out from the backpack's mouth.
Star flapped out of the backpack with a small aerosol can in her left talon. She offered it to Sara and puffed up proudly. "Didn't know I had this." Sara mumbles to herself as she reads the label, Bonnie Barton's Quick Luster Pokemon Fur Shine.
"'Course you didn't." Star responds smugly. Sara was staring at her, "Because I kinda… well, borrowed it."
"That doesn't sound good." Vulpix states, looking at the can with wide eyes. "Doesn't mean we can't use it, right? Other trainers are spraying that stuff all over their Pokemon! Look over at him!" She waves one of her tails at another trainer, who was madly spraying his Persian with the stuff.
"Were did you get this?" Sara asks heatedly, "I could really get in trouble… aw well, come over here Vulpix, let's shine you up. Then Star can give it back." She shot Star a glare as Vulpix settled herself down on her lap.
Sara gave her Pokemon, both Star and Vulpix, a coating of the fur shine before giving it back to Star for her to offer it back to its original owner. It had worked wonders on Vulpix; her fur was silky smooth, and as shiny as a new penny. Star, on the other hand, didn't have fur; her feathers were covered with a goopy white gunk. Sara would really have to clean her up later.
Sara recalled her now pretty Vulpix and followed Star as she went to return the fur shine can. To her surprise, Star led her back to the talents stand and over to were Dominus was teaching yet another class about 'how to treat a Beedrill sting'. Knowing her luck with Beedrill, Sara listened to the lesson as Star put the aerosol can back in a backpack that looked quite familiar; Elvina's backpack.
"I saw Elvina using it once on Huan." Star explains as she landed on Sara's forearm, just when Dominus was getting to the 'bandage' stage. "I need a bath." She states, ruffling her feathers in an attempt to remove the gunk, with no success.
Sara sighs, "Sorry about that. I thought you could look better then you already did." She says as she walks over to another stand and pays for two bottles of water. They were much more expensive then they should have been, probably because water was already scarce in Inferno Town.
The boom of thunder caused Sara to jump as she settles down on the same bench with Star on her lap. Dark grey, menacing thunderclouds were moving their direction from the Black Ice Peaks at a quick rate. "I didn't think we'd see rain here." Sara mumbles thoughtfully as she soaked Star's feathers with water from the first bottle. The gunk seemed to come off easily in water.
"They're really dark." Star mumbles as she lifts her right wing for Sara to clean the feathers under it.
Sara finally shrugs, "I wonder what Elvina is doing…" She had moved on to the left wing by now.
"Don't ask me, because I don't know!"
When Star was finally clean again, the first contest was about to begin, the beauty contest. Then would be the talent show, the tournament, and finishing off would be the dancing contest. Sara let Vulpix out again and proceeded to the stand that had a large stage behind it, where all the contest would happen.
Sara suddenly noticed that there was no sign of Elvina yet. Not a glimpse of Dominus either, but she didn't care about that, Sara was actually happy to see no sign of him. Sandsinger came out after a while of waiting, she looked tired out. "Have a good practice?"
"Yup!" Sandsinger exclaims happily, "It was very good!"
"Sara!" It was Drake, he and Dorovi were racing towards her. Dorovi got there first and said something to Drake in a happy tone. "Right, right, you won the race." Drake mumbles as he rolls his eyes.
"Drake, have you seen Elvina?" Sara asks franticly, hoping that at least he would have seen her.
Her hopes were lost when Drake shook his head. "Nope. But she'll be here for the contests, right?"
"Uh…" Sara didn't have an answer to that. Yes, she hoped the answer would be yes.
"Oohhh! What's this?" Sara's musings were interrupted by Sandsinger, who had found a small candy in a blue wrapper. There were three others sitting around it.
"Candy." Star mumbles, looking disgruntled as Sandsinger opened the first one and devoured its contents. The candy was quite munchy, Sandsinger had to crunch on it a long while before swallowing.
"It's good…" Sandsinger mumbles as she starts opening the next one. But before she could, before anyone could react, the crowd around them became chaotic; screaming broke out as they tried to scatter.
The source of the chaos was soon identified by Sara though; a back of different red-eyed Pokemon was swarming the crowd and attacking anything within reach. Exchanging startled looks, Sara and Drake rushed over to work on the Pokemon. But it was no use; there were maybe thousands of the red-eyed Pokemon, and only one Sara. After getting her arm nearly slashed off by a rampaging red-eyed Vigoroth, Sara decided she needed help.
She blew on the whistle, which gave a horrible shriek before falling silent. It was enough for Sara to panic, her Pokemon were no use, Star was drawling all the red-eyed Pokemon that could fly away from her, and Sandsinger… was still eating. Vulpix? Where is Vulpix?
As she shattered the band around an angry Persian, Sara looked around for her Vulpix. The red-eyed Pokemon were everywhere, most of the crowd was still boxed in, but the trainers had begun to fight back against the crazed Pokemon. And then Sara saw her close by, Vulpix was looking remarkably like a shiny, round fur ball as she cowered away from an attacking Pokemon, a red-eyed Skarmory.
The Skarmory dove then, sharp talons aimed straight for Vulpix… "VULPIX!" Sara screeched as she unthinkingly placed herself as a barrier between the Skarmory and her Pokemon. Skarmory didn't stop though, the steel bird kept on going, his talons slashing deeply into Sara's backpack and scratching her back lightly.
"Come on Vulpix." Sara mumbles as she hears the sickening shredding sound that was her backpack and shirt being ripped. Vulpix's wide eyes were watering as she threw herself at Sara's chest and cried.
Sara quickly dumped her shredded backpack on the ground and turned to face the Skarmory, which was about to dive again. "Flamethrower." She orders, holding Vulpix at arm's length and pointing her head at the steel bird. Vulpix lets out a torrent of flames out and hits Skarmory directly on his chest.
Skarmory was instantly knocked out of the sky, where Sara shattered the band on his leg and retreated back to help with the other red-eyed Pokemon. The red-eyed Pokemon were defiantly winning right now, they outnumbered maybe four to one at the moment. Star was having a hard time staying aloft, she was having a whole flock of Pokemon attacking her, even if she could avoid them at first, she was weakening a lot now.
And Sandsinger was still chewing… Sara got thinking as she broke another couple of bands. Sundav couldn't help me… but what if she did? 'You know, Pokemon can have the Touch too.' …Could she have been hinting that Karen could help? That was it that had to be it! Sundav couldn't tell her outright, so she hinted about it!
"Star!" Sara yells up at the bird, who shakes off her pursuers, they began to follow another trainer's Pidgeotto, and flaps down to her.
"Yeah?" Star asks between short gasps of breath. She was panting badly, and drooping a bit on Sara's forearm.
Sara bit her lip. What she was about to ask of Star would take a lot of energy, a lot of energy that she didn't have anymore. But she was saved from saying anything for a little bit as another massive rumble from the thunderclouds got her attention. Sara was forced to recall Vulpix, as it started to rain hard. In the midst of all the fighting, Sara hadn't noticed that the thunderstorm had blocked out the sun, making it quite dark.
"Can you fly me to Karen?" Sara suddenly asks quickly.
Star gave a start, "W-what!"
At that very moment, a blinding flash can from behind Sara's back. Star had turned and was staring at a point behind her. That flash had to be evolutionary light, some Pokemon had evolved. But as Star muttered the name of who, Sara spun around. Sandsinger had finished eating her candies, and was standing in the same place, looking slightly dazed. She soon found that her wings were larger, that she could stand on two legs, and that she had claws. It was her that evolved, she was a Flygon.
"Whoa." Sara managed to say as Sandsinger spotted her and rushed over.
"What was that?" She asks, looking quite dazed. Her voice had deepened, and lost most of its shrill edge. Sandsinger gave a surprised cry as Sara climbed onto her back and recalled Star.
"Go." Sara orders, gently kicking her Pokemon's side. The dragon turned her head to look at her trainer, saw the determination burning in her eyes, and understood. In moments, they were aloft, Sandsinger's large Flygon wings propelling them upward effortlessly.
Sara guided her Pokemon to the caged Pokemon area with her legs; Sandsinger could turn at the slightest degree and already knew what pressure on her left and right flanks meant. They arrived there in time to see that most of the cages were opened, their occupants, gone. A twinge of doubt struck Sara as she walked by more and more empty cages, and saw that Karen's cage was also empty.
But unlike the rest of the formerly caged Pokemon, Karen was still there, whimpering slightly behind a nearby bench. She mews happily at sight of Sara and Sandsinger, and bounded over to them.
"She's happy to see us." Sandsinger murmurs, gazing curiously at Karen.
"Karen." Sara says, giving the Eevee a pleading look, "Karen, we really need your help. You see all those Pokemon with red eyes over there? All of them are wearing black bands. I really think that you're special, in that you can break those bands."
"Continue." Her Flygon translates when Karen gave a startled-sounding cry.
"All you need to do is touch them. Sandsinger," Sara turned to her, "Take Karen over there, fly as fast as you possibly can. I'm going to get back there too, soon. There's just one little think for me to take care of…" She trailed off into silence as Sandsinger crouched for Karen, who jumped onto her back. Sandsinger waves awkwardly before taking flight, heading back to the battlefield.
Sara found herself running, ignoring the hot pain in her back, towards the talents stand. There were voices coming from nearby, Sara crouched behind the stand and watched…
Elvina had her hands and feet bound in ropes, her eyes narrowed at a figure standing ten feet from her. A strange chill came over Sara as she watched an Eevee, red-eyed, approach Elvina. But that was no ordinary Eevee, that was… Huan.
"Huan! Stop this madness, don't listen to him!" Elvina cries, struggling with her ropes as Huan came ever closer to her.
"Don't be silly girl, he won't listen to you." Sara shudders violently. That was Dominus's voice!