Rena, Devon, and all their Pokemon are all Digital Skitty's… I am not stealing them, just using them. Ahem, you rule Skitty-san!
Lily-san! xD I'm glad you like it! Thanks for your review, and I do believe you're right… Maxie needs a Squee. It really goes with the picture of strict training too! x)
Skitty-san, I'm very happy that you think I did Pocky alright… I was having problems getting her in character. Well, thanks again, and enjoy!
Chapter 24
"Miss Rena, let us go home. I do not like this place." The ice fighter known as Shard, which resembled the Pokemon Machop. It was no wonder that Shard, the Sukain, didn't like it here though. Mount Chimney was a hot place to be at, and normally ice types didn't like heat. But he was remaining faithful and staying out with his trainer, Rena, and her Combusken named Amber.
"Hold on Shard, we'll be gone in a little while." She responded quietly, "Hey is that Pocky!" Rena pointed wildly to the group of people that had exited the helicopter. Part of the reason they were there was because normally helicopters didn't dare get close to a volcano such as Mount Chimney.
"That is!" Her companion and stalker Devon exclaimed, "That is Pocky!"
The strange purple and silver haired girl was being escorted along beside two Team Magma leaders, who were in the lead. Her Wooper, Woop, was in the arms of a teen, which had blue hair. From their point on a ridge overlooking the scene, they couldn't see much of what was happening.
"You know what I'm going to say." Rena said with a grin, showing slightly pointed fangs, "We're going to follow them."
Mount Chimney was very, very hot inside. But that was not a coincidence, since there was lava flowing nearly everywhere. It was a perfect place for people like Maxie, who suffered from chills.
"So, where do you think Groudon is in this big volcano?" Rio finally asked when they had gone into the third hallway that led to the very center of the volcano.
Elvina was having a very hard time holding onto Woop. The Wooper was very slippery, even if he was drying out from the heat. Pocky, on the other hand, wasn't giving them any trouble at all… it seemed she knew what was going to happen before it did. And something did happen; someone did come to her rescue. Two people, actually.
"Stop! Let Pocky go!" A girl cried from behind them. Whirling around, Sara saw that there was a girl, her hair past her shoulder and light blonde, and her eyes gray. She was wearing a regular, long sleeved white shirt, dark blue vest, blue jeans, and black boots. Standing next to her was a Combusken that didn't look happy.
On the other side of the blonde girl stood a boy that was wearing glasses and didn't look all too happy either. He wore a short-sleeved, black t-shirt and khaki cargo pants, and his hair was a spiky blonde with tips dyed violet-red.
"You're going to have to fight us for her." Sara said matter-of-factly, "We can't just let her go."
"Then we'll fight you!" The blonde girl pointed to Sara and beckoned her forward, "Come on, I can take you!"
Sara raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure you could pound me into the ground. I was talking about a Pokemon battle."
"That's what I meant." The girl sighed and shook her head, "Go, Amber!" The Combusken at her side jumped forward and struck a pose.
Thinking fast, Sara called out Star, who looked very miffed at being disturbed from her nap before she saw that it was a Pokemon battle that she was in. "Wing Attack!" She exclaimed, a normal starting move.
Amber was told to do an Ember attack on Star. As the Swellow struck her across the head with one wing, Star got a blast of fire that singed her chest feathers. She squawked in fury and began to peck at the Combusken, not even listening when Sara ordered her to stop.
Amber and Star fell over in a heap of feathers and beaks as they exchanged blow after blow, not even listening to their trainers. Finally, Star took flight again and prepared for the final attack, both she and Amber were breathing very heavily. Another Wing Attack, this time aimed to strike the Combusken's chest, was delivered, just as Amber blasted her with another Ember.
Both trainers watched in shock as both Star fell to the ground in a heap of feathers, and Amber rocked back and landed hard on her back. They had both fainted at the same time. It was a tie. "Let's try another Pokemon?" Sara suggested as she recalled Star, biting her lip in thought.
"Sure?" The blonde girl shrugged. Sara, after a moment's thought, tossed Meep's Pokeball. The kitten appeared and looked straight at Sara's opponent with wide, cute eyes.
"Awww…" She heard her opponent murmur as she pulled another Pokeball off her belt, "This will be easy experience for Squee…" She tossed the ball, and most everyone was surprised when nothing came out of it. The Pokeball just sat there, open.
"Uh, Rena, I'd try your head." The boy next to her whispered. So Sara's opponent was named Rena…
Rena looked up and plucked a ball of black fur off her head and watched as the sleeping kitten woke up and mewed sweetly. The kitten was a Naki, a very small Pokemon. It was no wonder that Rena didn't know that she was there, she was so small. She was almost pure black, with a large head, ears and eyes. Her eyes were pale yellow in color. Rena murmured, "Alright, Squee, all you need to do is attack this Pokemon, and you'll win!" She placed her down on the floor, where she pounced into a battle position.
"Meep, use Ember!" Sara cried, as her kitten flared up his collar of pink flame. It appeared he was going to attack, but that was before Squee cried something out and jumped on his back.
You could just see the wheels turning in Meep's eyes; one word rang ahead of all other thoughts. Friend! Letting his flame die again, Meep and Squee tumbled over each other, mewing and purring.
"I can't believe it." Rena groaned, "Shall we try yet another battle?"
"Rena, you don't need to battle for me." Pocky piped up, grinning mysteriously. "I like it here. Don't you see? This is like another adventure!" It appeared her friends didn't expect that.
"So… we came in here, followed you guys into a volcano, for nothing? What a rip-off!" Rena's friend exclaimed angrily, "At least Rena got to battle…"
"Cookie? Who's cookie?" Meep asked, he was in a deep conversation with Squee. For kittens, which normally have a two-second attention span, their conversation wasn't that deep. Squee mewed again, and he looked over to Rena, who had turned a shade of embarrassed red, and back to his new friend, "That's Sara! Hi Sara!"
She waved slightly to her Pokemon, who pounced over to her, followed closely by Squee, and they decided to chew on her shoelaces. "What are they saying?" Sara asked Elvina.
"Well, they've established the fact that Squee's trainer, Rena, has about three different names. But I dunno where cookie came from… anyways; the rest is random things, kinda hard to understand. Meep's already introduced us all to her, though." Elvina replied, chuckling slightly, "It seems that they're friends at first sight, doesn't it?"
"Well, sorry." Rena finally blurted, "We got carried away when we saw you with Pocky, that's all. So, we'll be leaving now…"
"Not so fast!" Maxie exclaimed, "You two are staying."
"Why?" The boy asked.
"Because now that you're here, we can't let you out again until our work is done. Just like your friend, we don't know what you heard from the people walking around, so we can't risk you going out and blabbing about this base. Besides, my little friend has a new buddy to play with." Maxie motioned to Meep and Squee, who were rolling around and chewing on Drake's shoelaces now.
They found a game to play finally, with Jacob actually. His shoelaces were thin, so they were easy to untie. They worked on one shoelace, untying it. And when Jacob bent to tie the first one, they untied the second. So it went on like that, tying, untying, tying, untying, while Drake, Sara, Elvina, Rena, and her friend were having a conversation.
"Well, I'm Devon." He said starting out, "And we are sorry about attacking you like that."
"Yeah…" Rena murmured under her breath.
"And this little ray of sunshine is Rena." Devon patted her shoulder, and was swatted away, "Anyways, what are you all doing in a volcano anyways?"
"Well… uh, doing something important." Drake stammered out, "Something very, very important."
Sara had used a Revive (from Elvina's backpack) on Star, and she was sitting, very ruffled, on her shoulder. "That Combusken was tough."
Amber had also been revived, and offered a hot retort at that. Sara, for once, was very happy she didn't understand Pokemon that weren't hers. But it seemed Rena did, because she lifted an eyebrow once when Star was about to say something that was of importance.
"Can you understand her?" Sara asked nervously, shushing her Swellow and staring at Rena, "Are you a HAP?"
She seemed to sweat, "Yeah… uh, you could say that! I'm a HAP…"
"More like a filthy in-breed if you ask me." Star grumbled. Sara asked what she meant, and the Swellow seemed to swell, "A half blood! Can't you smell it? She reeks of half-Pokemon!"
"A Pokemorph?" Elvina offered, "Is that what you mean?"
"Yeah, if that means what I'm implying." Star growled.
"Oh, fine, I'm a Pokemorph then." Rena admitted with an angry glare at Star, who glared right back. Sara was surprised, she thought Rena looked quite normal, yet on second look she saw that the Pokemorph had slight fangs and claws. So? A voice inside her head asked, she's just as normal as you are.
"Sara, there was something I've been meaning to ask you!" Tabitha interrupted the glaring session going on between Star and Rena. She was holding what looked like head-phones out to her, "Would you like to try our prototype Pokemon translator?"
The Pokemon translator was, of course, in red with black horns. It appeared that Team Magma people couldn't resist putting red and black on everything. Yet Sara couldn't put the translator on fast enough, and was amazed at how confusing the mass of Pokemon voices could be.
First, there was Star. "Get away from me!" She squawked as Squee and Meep looked over at her from Sara's other shoulder.
"She's fun to play with, and she makes funny noises too!" Meep was telling Squee as he attempted to get over to Star, without luck.
Squee managed to jump over Sara's head and onto Star's back. "Like that?" She asked, her voice sweet.
Star took flight and dumped Squee on the spot she'd left, "Terrorists, both of you!" She went over to Drake and began to pluck hairs out of his head again, and he made a big mistake of thinking she wanted Mellow.
Mellow's voice was deep and very beautiful, to Sara at least. He did use corny pick-up lines on Star after all… For now, those were the only Pokemon they all had out, except for Solorite and the Houndoom Fiendre, who made a sassy comment every once and a while. There was also Alkie, but she kept her silence very well.
"How can you stand it?" Sara asked Pocky, Elvina, and Rena, knowing she looked weird with black horns on, "It's so confusing!"
"You get used to it, when you're born with it." Rena replied with a shrug.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Star screamed when Mellow kept trying to get close to her, "You're a terrorist too, happy?"
"You love me," Mellow replied stubbornly, and Sara flinched as she knew her Swellow didn't at all. "You just don't know it yet!"
"Yeah, right." Star growled, settling on Sara's head again.
"Does she always sit on your head like that?" Devon asked, motioning to Star.
"Normally, yes." Sara replied, brushing one of Star's tail feathers out of her range of sight just as Mellow landed on her arm and began to sing.
"My love for you is like a blooming flower." He began in his beautiful voice. Sara couldn't believe her ears, but the song got better… "We could make beautiful music together. Come with me, my wonderful cherry-blossom, let us fly!"
Star groaned as he tried to groom her feathers some more. "So, how do you like it?" Maxie asked, he looked like he'd been laughing as he was wearing the same device over his ears, "Wonderful, contraption, don't you think?"
Sara nodded, "If it didn't look so strange on us, I'd wear it all the time." She took it off, and immediately Squee's giggles turned into mews and Mellow's beautiful voice became deep chirps.
"Come on now!" Maxie exclaimed, "We'd better be going!" He led the way again, followed by Tabitha and Pocky, then everyone else finally. Sara caught up with Drake and flagged him down. They were bringing up the rear, to make sure their 'prisoners' Rena and Devon didn't escape.
"You know, I didn't think my Pokemon were serious when they told me that Mellow flirts with Star." She started, to the angry squawk of her Swellow, who was still on her head, and the chirping reply from Drake's shoulder.
Drake sighed, "Mellow gave up for now." He replied, stroking the yellow Swellow.
"Thank the heavens!" Star cried.
"He has a very nice voice though." She continued, to the happy reply from Mellow and annoyed one from her own Swellow.
"You know, we're talking about our Pokemon right in front of them?" Drake said, whipping out a Pokeball and returning Mellow. Sara got the hint and returned her own Pokemon.
"He's really very sad, actually." Drake murmured, "Star is really mean to him, he tells me."
"Star tells me he's a terrorist, just like Meep." Sara sighed, "I wonder… do you think that Mellow is quite older than Star? Because I don't think she's acting like an adult around him."
"Mellow's older than she is, I know that. He's kinda interested in 'taking it up a notch' with Star. He's very lonely; none of my Pokemon can fly…"
"What does that have to do with anything? Sandsinger can fly, but she leaves Star alone." Sara nearly stepped on Meep and Squee as they raced and played tag between everyone.
"I remember you telling me that Star didn't like Sandsinger much." Drake replied, raising an eyebrow.
"She still doesn't." Sara replied, just as they entered a very wide cavern, a pool of magma at its side, like many of the other places they had passed, the Magma people didn't know how to get rid of the magma, so it just stayed there. But at the side of this pool stood a massive stone statue of a very ancient Pokemon. They had found Groudon, asleep and stone-colored from his ancient rest. Now all they had to do was wake him up.
Sara and Drake released their two birds again, and watched as Star was repelled quickly by the large male. They finally settled on both of Sara's shoulders as she approached the statue-Pokemon cautiously with Maxie by her side. Everyone else stayed back and waited as Maxie tapped the old creature with a metal rod, and watched it go up in flames and melt into the magma below.
Finally, Maxie turned back to the waiting humans and Pokemon, "Well," He started, looking around, tight-faced. "We've got a lot of work to do."