Well, I've now realized that Tabitha is indeed a girl's name… but we shall not go into that. So I'm going to change 'he' into a 'she' throughout all the chapters Tabitha shows up. Hehe, sorry about that!
I understand that this update is quite late, by my standards at least. But I can't help it, I'm very busy with the end of school exams coming. (They're worth 25 percent of my second semester grade, I should be worried!) So, please, no comments on the lateness of this.
W.I.T.C.H Shaman Lee Code Red, my names are a bit strange, but they all have some sort of normal-ness to them. …So don't think I'm strange, please…
Skitty! I was wondering what happened to you… you know how to make page breaks too! Will someone please tell me how to make them so I can take out all the '(Meanwhile…)'s out?
Chapter 20
Tabitha jumped, something in her pocket vibrating like mad. "What's happening?" Drake asked, dazed, as he hadn't woken up fully yet at eight in the morning.
She pulled a red and black pager out of her pocket; it was indeed shaped like the Team Magma insignia. "What's the problem?" Tabitha asked promptly, just to jump back in shock when a face appeared on the screen. "M-mister Maxie!"
His face was pale, for he normally suffered from chills. That was part of the reason Maxie started Team Magma… "I need you back here now Tabitha!" He roared, in a voice that seemed to know that it would always be followed without question. The stress lines on Maxie's face were showing, from all the years of yelling at green recruits, a sign that he was truly worried about something.
"Yes sir!" Tabitha exclaimed, making a big deal out of saluting so he'd see it. The screen then went blank again. To the others, who were staring by now, she explained, "I need to get back to my team's base. You guys can come, I guess, and maybe talk to Maxie."
"But we need to get to the Pokemon Center! My Espeon is hurt!" Sara exclaimed.
"We can heal your Espeon there, now we need to move out!" Tabitha responded bluntly, then turned away to show that the conversation was over.
Behind her back, she heard Sara murmur, "Well, I'm going back to Cobalt Strip…" and the ruckus it caused.
"You cannot be left alone!" Both Rio and Solorite exclaimed at the same time without realizing it, and began talking at the same time about what a horrible idea it was. Together, with them saying completely different things, none of them could make out a word.
"Enough!" Elvina finally exclaimed, "Sara, Solorite, and Rio can go to Cobalt Strip if they have to! Foam will be fine; he can wait to be healed…"
"Are you all done bickering?" Tabitha asked venomously, "If you are, whoever is coming with me, let's go!"
It turned out that everyone but Sara, Solorite, and Rio were coming with her. The Team Magma base in Elemental Ridge would be in the opposite direction as Cobalt Strip, so they all split and went in their separate directions.
(Meanwhile…)
"Did you hear that?" Sara whimpered, doing a full turn. Rio was taking her on a 'short cut' to Cobalt Strip, one that was foggy at the moment. She didn't appreciate that the wildlife found it amusing to make extra loud noises when something was passing by.
"Quit being so nervy!" Star growled from her normal perch on Sara's shoulder, "There is nothing here to be scared of!"
"I'm not so sure about that." Solorite pitched in, his head cocked forward and twitching slightly, "My danger sense is tingling."
"And I'm not surprised." Rio said with a scowl, "Dominus has been having… fun around here. It's hardly safe anymore."
There was a pause, in which Sara stopped moving completely and fixed both Rio and Solorite with a fierce glare, "You're saying that it's not safe here?" She asked quietly, not hinting at the outburst that was about to come out.
"Exactly."
"That's IT! We're going back and finding the rest of our friends before something scary comes out and bites us!"
"No we're not." Rio put a hand on her shoulder to stop her, and Star decided to have some fun with him. Taking flight, Star zoomed around his head in a way that could make anyone dizzy. Getting tired of that in a second or two, she brushed one of his Pokeballs out and released his Geodude.
"Ahahaha!" Star crooned when Rio swatted at her and tried to restrain his Geodude at the same time, "Keep it up river boy!"
"River?" Solorite repeated, sitting to show his neutral-ness in this fight.
"Rio means river! River boy, river boy!" Star began to sing, "Can't catch me, because you're a river boy!"
"Stop it!" Rio exclaimed, probably having the good sense to know that Star was making fun of him, by her jeering tone.
Sara glowered at her Pokemon, "Star." She growled, causing the Swellow to stop what she was doing and glance at her trainer, "Stop that now."
"No sense of humor…" Star mumbled as she dropped the Geodude's Pokeball on Rio's head. It bounced, and Geodude caught it again.
"Oh no you don't!" Rio said, diving for the ball. His Pokemon could be fast, as he avoided and began to bounce off. "No, no, no! No freedom for you, ever!" He snapped his fingers and suddenly the sky was pitch black with thunderclouds. Rain began to pelt the ground heavily, and the Geodude exclaimed before attempting to hide under his trainer's cape.
"How in the world did you do that?" Sara asked as he snapped his fingers, causing the sky to clear again.
A blush passed over Rio's cheeks, "That storm came from the Hoenn region. Dominus kinda gave me the ability to move certain things from one place to another. I can make it sunny, dark as night, rain, all that jazz." He paused, looking up at the sky, "And that's not me making it rain right now."
Sara looked up as well, "Then who is it?" She shivered, but not from the cold. A growing fear was welling up inside of her, one she'd only experienced when Dominus was close to her. "Did you see that?" She asked, panicked, as an icy wave when over her shoulder blades.
Rio nodded grimly, "I did. But you don't what to know…" He broke off and jumped to one side just in time to avoid a tall creature slamming his clawed hand down where Rio had been. Shaggy black fur covered his body, brown rags that could have once counted as clothes covering part of his chest and all of his middle. Red eyes, scarlet without seeable pupils, glared at his prey.
The monster raised his silver clawed paw and struck again at Rio, this time hitting his target and clawing across his chest. It didn't seem like a blow that could knock a person down, but Rio fell over, maybe to make the monster think he was dead. The wolf-like muzzle dropped to sniff Rio once before turning and disappearing. "He's fast." Rio croaked, getting up again.
A howl escaped into the now silent air, "We should have gone back!" Sara finally said, shaking from head to toe, "What was that thing?"
"A little mistake that turned out to be a good thing. Dominus accidentally added his DNA to that 'little' creature, and created him." Rio murmured without looking up, "I'll be fine, by the way. He only scratched me."
Sara's eyes grew wider, "So that thing is basically another Dominus?"
"Yup, didn't you notice the family resemblance?" Sara snorted with laughter at that, "Dominus could rip us to shreds, that thing's no different."
"But he's stupid. We have little to worry about if we tip-toe away." Solorite said.
"True, he's very stupid. But what do we call him?"
"Well…" Rio chuckled, "Dominus named him Catastrofate. He thought it was a good name!"
"Not good at names, I guess?"
"Not really." Another howl came from the woods as Catastrofate appeared again, just to dart away when Rio took off his backpack and shook it at him. "Fire would work better…"
Solorite seemed to get an interesting look on his face as he blew out a flame for Rio. "That work?" He asked cheekily.
He was on his way back again; Catastrofate looked agitated as he raised his claws to strike again. This time, the blow was aimed in a fatal way, without much time to avoid it. Sara realized that things like this really did seem to move in slow motion, as the claws were a foot from their target, three inches… bam!
Catastrofate roared in pain and shot backwards, grasping his now burnt paw and whimpering. "That'll teach 'em!" Exclaimed a familiar voice. Sara looked down at Solorite, to see that he was not the one who had attacked the creature.
The creature let out one last howl before turning tail and fleeing for his life. The clip-clop of hooves hitting ground when after him. "Alkie!" Sara finally exclaimed, to a groan from Star who had so far remained silent. The desert goddess turned her head and snorted hot breath in the girl's direction.
"Umm, no comment." Rio said with a friendly wave at Sara before falling silent.
"Sara! Good to see you again!" The voice, belonging to Jacob, came from atop the fire horse's back. He steered her over to Sara's side, where he grinned down at her, "We came when we saw Nekroquaza…"
"Did he hurt you?" Sara blurted, standing on her tip-toes to see Jacob. Surprising, he was laughing at her.
"T.V. is such a wonderful thing, don't you think? Nooo, we saw Solorite hanging on for his life and decided to check to see if he was alright. None of us thought you would be here… except maybe her." Jacob pointed to Alkie's neck, which Sara had been ignoring until then. Perching there, looking quite content, was Sundav.
"Sundav!" Sara exclaimed, "You finally show up again!" She snatched the light bird from Alkie's neck, she felt surprisingly solid, and perched her on her unoccupied shoulder. Star let out a feeble squawk of complaint at that, but did no more.
"Transportation problems." Sundav replied, "Sorry 'bout that." She nuzzled Sara's cheek, causing a surge of happy feelings, before flapping down to be beside Solorite. They began murmuring together, nodding every once and a while at Sara before talking even faster.
"Huh, I though you were traveling with friends?" Jacob said, getting her attention again, "What happened to them?"
"We split up, because I want to get to Cobalt Strip to heal my Pokemon, and because they want to go to… somewhere else." Sara replied.
"Will there be more of them?" Sundav's tone was serious. "Dominus could do great damage with creatures like that."
"Soon there will be… once Dominus gets his cloning machine, that is. He's getting it off the Black Market by the way, from some rich guy…" Rio responded with a sigh, "And then Dominus will create an army of them."
"Well, we just have to stop him from getting it, correct? Just give us the information, and we might be able to stop the machine before it reaches Dominus."
"That's the hard part, it's being shipped up here at an irregular pattern, and Dominus gave instructions that he didn't care how long it took, as long as the person got it to him sooner or later. He didn't care then, because there was no threat on his power."
"So there is now?" Sara asked obliviously.
"Didn't you listen? Yes, the threat is here, now. Sara, there is something you need to see." Sundav beckoned to her with one wing, "Touch my forehead." She ordered.
Sara, looking as confused as she felt, did as she was told and felt a rush of warmth, like a wave of temperate water rushing past and through her. She wasn't in Dark End Path anymore, nor touching Sundav. The surrounding area had no features, it was blank and empty. Yet, the rushing of warm, kind feelings continued to flow, and the white blankness soon turned to full color once again.
She was overlooking a plain with shrubs and undergrowth the colors of fire itself. The Fire Plains never looked so different though, it was covered with tiny dots that were Pokemon. "They look to you… Lady Sara…" Sundav's voice was oddly far away, and echoed over the overall emptiness of the sky in which Sara seemed to be suspended in.
The view of the Fire Plains got better as Sara lightly fell, as if a feather instead of a human, down to Earth. Thousands, millions, of Pokemon stood or sat there, all looking either content or anxious. None of them noticed her standing three feet from them, and didn't even flinch when she touched them. It was like she was a ghost, her body feeling and looking real to her, yet it not being the same way for living things.
"Why?" Sara yelled up at the sky, seeking an answer. "Why me? Why now?"
"The Pokemon know. I know. You are the one to provide the turn we need to balance the forces of darkness and light. You, Lady Sara, are our only true hope in these times. As is written in stone… not every human is as good as her offspring…"
With a jolt, Sara returned to Dark End Path, to curious eyes from all but Sundav. The light bird coughed hard and for a long while, in which Sara turned stunned eyes to Jacob and Rio. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Rio murmured, "Care to talk?"
"I saw Pokemon…" Sara said, in a voice that she soon realized sounded nothing like her own, "Pokemon, all wanting to follow. I could sense the feelings coming from them… they wanted to be free…"
"You're speaking nonsense." Jacob interrupted with a grin, "Pokemon are free, at least ones that are still wild. It does not matter now, besides, we need to get going again!"
"And where exactly are we going?" Solorite asked quietly.
"We're going to find Sara's friends! After we get her Pokemon healed…" Jacob jumped back onto Alkie's back and beckoned to Sara. After a pause, she touched Alkie's fiery back and realized that it wasn't hot. "She doesn't bite Sara." He continued teasingly.
Carefully, Sara clambered ungracefully onto Alkie, and they were ready to go. "We shall just stay here." Sundav said when Alkie started off at a walk, "There are some things that I would like to talk to Rio about…"