Chapter Two: Storm Surge
"Mommy, look!" A little girl cried, prodding her dozing mother's shoulder insistently. Shifting in annoyance, the young, red-haired woman sat up on her large towel, rubbing her eyes against the bright sunlight.
"What is it, honey?" She asked in a sleepy voice. She'd been enjoying that nap so much…
"Look at the lightning!" The little red-haired girl jumped up and down in place, fueled by the many Snow Cones she'd devoured while her mother was out. Her pudgy little hand pointed out towards the seas, the vast blue expanse that had been so blissful only a few moments earlier. Now, great clouds covered the entire horizon, pitch black and looming ominously in the distance. Every few seconds, a great bolt of lightning would fling itself from the murky skies, crashing into the troubled sea below.
"Oh, my goodness," the woman said in alarm. "What on earth brought that on?"
Her sentiment was shared by all of the beach-goers, most notably the vendors. It had been a magnificent day for sales, but now, every single patron was hastily throwing their enormous towels and worn-out, deflated beach balls into bags, gathering their children, and heading back for the city. In a few moments, there would be no one left but the aggravated vendors themselves.
One creature noticed this fact in a particularly grim fashion as he nosed his way out of the Pokémon Center's back entrance – the stray's entrance. The silver-furred Espeon could smell the incoming storm the moment his paws met the grass. Gone was that warming sent of the balmy ocean breeze, replaced by a sharper tinge that stung the nostrils of such a delicate Pokémon as himself. His large cat-like ears stood up high as he quickly scanned the horizon, looking for any signs of otherworldly trouble that would hint at his brother's location.
Just as a particularly close bolt of lightning clove the darkening sky, the top of the Olivine Lighthouse exploded with golden light. The Ampharos had been set to work early; it wasn't yet dinner time in this part of the world, but it was beginning to look like the Ampharos's glow would be needed. Rather than a solid glow of light, however, the blindingly bright flashes came in a peculiar fashion, most likely some kind of nautical warning. Though Mentali knew nothing of the human's brand of warnings, he could sense the urgency of the situation through the Pokémon's haphazard technique. All was certainly not well for anyone at sea this evening…
Mentali trotted around the corner of the Pokémon center, heading for the street. However, he caught himself short as an enormous crowd of rugged-looking men, all dressed in crisp white uniforms went rushing by, headed for the harbor. One of them lost their funny sailor's caps, which was carried upwards on the breeze, before it plummeted for the earth. He didn't even glance back for it, apparently too set on his current mission to worry about it. Even the humans were getting antsy about the strange change of weather.
Mentali shuddered as he trotted out into the street, the ends of his tail writhing in worry. Even beyond the fact that the weather wasn't supposed to change so abruptly, something simply didn't seem right to him. His bones ached dully, as though some great, unseen force was squeezing every osteon within him. All of his acute instincts were screaming at him to find shelter, but he had a more important goal at paw – to find his brother.
« I swear I should flay that perfidious encumbrance of my life open right where he stands, » Mentali muttered to himself darkly as he headed towards the beach. He knew that Noctali loved the sun, the sand, and the prospect of causing trouble where people were around, so the beach seemed like the most likely place to find him. However, as his dainty little paws carried him past the end of the pavement and onto the small ridge that spanned the beach, he was presented with an alarming sight. The beach was completely and utterly void of Pokémon, as far as he could see. In fact, the only signs of life at all were in the forms of disgruntled human merchants packing up their wares.
As he stared in disbelief across the stretch of sand, he realized that the storm was approaching with sickening haste. The clouds were no longer 'in the distance;' they were not even a mile off shore. The winds had strengthened, and the delicate, family-friendly breakers that the Olivine Beach was renowned for had transformed themselves into broiling whitecaps of startling power. With every wave that crashed upon the sandy shore, the tide seemed to roll in higher and higher. For some reason, Mentali was oddly surprised when a large Kingler was thrown upon the sands by one particularly fierce wave. It raised its larger claw in a humorous display of anger and scuttled back into the waves, clicking and clacking boisterously at such dishonorable treatment. Mentali was momentarily glad he didn't understand the Click language; surely there were some hair-raising words in that last statement.
Mentali felt momentarily confused; why on earth would Noctali have left the beach without first trying to find him? Then it occurred to him, albeit belatedly – the rogue must have been out looking for him at that very moment. He craned his neck around towards the closer end of the beach, where the sands ended in the rough, rocky field that lead to the Lighthouse. He had no idea where Noctali would have gone; had the off-colored Umbreon possessed any brains, he would have known to come and find him in the quietest, most reclusive place possible, the Pokémon Center. Where had he actually gone to search?
« Thinking like him is impossible, » he muttered forlornly. Just as he was about to simply head into the city and start searching every vacant niche he could find, a warbling cry, stricken with some strange blend of inflections that made little sense together, came to him.
« MENNNNTALLLLIIIIII!!! »
Startled by the sudden scream, the silver-furred Espeon winced before turning to look in the direction of his hailer. Much to his relief, a frightened-looking Umbreon, whose rings shone a dusky blue, was galloping towards him on the path from the Lighthouse. As he neared, Mentali became aware of several things at once: one, his twin looked more frightened than he'd ever been in his life; two, tears were plastering the fur around his eyes as he ran at breakneck speed towards him; and three, he wasn't stopping.
Mentali barely had time to utter a curse as the ebony-furred beast of burden leapt the last few meters through the air, tumbling into his brother and sending them both over the small ridge towards the sand. Mentali really did loose a filthy curse, and the two went tumbling down the steep embankment, a furry blur of silver and black, as the entire world seemed to implode upon itself in fiery wrath. They landed in a heap upon the sand, a wave of flames leaping off the edge of the ridge from which they'd just fallen. All of creation seemed to shudder with some deafening impact of unknown origins, which tapered away gradually, fading like the overtones from some poorly tuned timpani.
« What in the name of all things Johto did you DO, you worthless ingrate?! » Mentali cried in shock, shoving his brother off of him and standing slowly, his knees and elbows shaking in a fit of terror. He gazed upon the singed grass at the top of the ridge, wondering what in the world had happened; his ears still rang painfully from the explosion. « Did you blow up all of Olivine?! » The gravity of his fears seeped into his voice, and Mentali realized that he sounded even nastier than usual.
While his brother blundered through a mouthful of incoherent gibberish, Mentali scaled the incline in a flash, reaching the top in a few strides. It had felt so much longer when they were rolling down in the first place. As he came upon the singed grass at the top, his watery black eyes widened in disbelief. There had been an old shack of some sort a few meters away from the ridge; now, all that was left of said shack was its singed, burning framework. A gaping hole had appeared in the roof, the windows were lying upon the ground in a million glistening pieces, and the door was simply gone.
It had been struck by lightning.
Mentali cast a terrified glance to the sky above; the storm was on them already! But there was no way it could have moved a mile in such short time – and then he realized, it wasn't the same bank of endless blackness hanging over his head. Another front had been moving in from the north the entire time; the two storms would meet not even a mile off shore at this rate.
« Noctali, I don't care what your problem is or where in all hell you've been, we MUST find shelter immediately! » Mentali screamed, peering over the edge at his brother. To his utter horror, the psychotic Umbreon had gotten to his feet and started marching resolutely towards the sea, his ears and tail drooping as though he were grieving – or in a trance. Growling to himself, Mentali leapt gracefully down to the sands below and caught up with the bothersome idiot in a few quick trots. For a moment, he simply trod beside him in a mock display of resolution, as though it were another day at the beach. However, when huge drops of rain began to pelt upon them, flung from the heavens like vicious stones, he cried out in rage.
« NOCTALI, WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?! » he screamed, stopping in his tracks. The ruby upon his forehead glistened as his frustration began to surface. Mentali turned to glance at him as though he was being bothered, and stared for a moment, his eyes blank and somehow lusterless. A moment later, with a furious shake of his head, he seemed to snap out of the trance-like state and return to himself.
« HOLY CRAP, MENTALI! » he shouted, leaping around to fully face his twin brother, setting his paws in some strange, braced position as though he was about to be slapped. « I just saw some kind of ghost or something I'm still not sure what the hell it was but it was freaky and it talked and it said something was happening and we have to go to Johto's end and - »
Noctali's rapid-fire speech halted as Mentali spun on the spot, whipping his twin tail-tips across his erratic brother's face with a loud slap. In that moment, the world was rendered white by another blinding flash of lightning, this from the still advancing storm front at sea. Noctali stared in shock, his eyes wide and his mouth agape – after all, he'd just been slapped.
« Whatever poisonous human food you've eaten to cause such delirium, I'm not in the mood at the moment! COME ON, YOU BRAINLESS IMBECILE! » With that, Mentali turned and bounded back towards the city, the rainfall thickening with every loping stride he took. After a few moments, Noctali caught up, his breath coming in ragged gasps as he strained to keep up with his faster brother. He'd been doing too much running lately… or rather, not enough, by one perspective.
« I didn't eat any human food at all today! » Noctali protested belatedly, throwing a sideways glare at his insulting brother. « I was gonna, but I lost it when I saw that ghost! » Seeing his brother's black eyes roll in consternation at this statement, he continued urgently. « I'm not kidding, Mentali! It was this big blue dog thingy at the Lighthouse! But it wasn't really there - »
« EXACTLY my point, » Noctali interrupted impatiently, scaling the ridge yet again.
« No, but it was! You don't get it! It was like, I dunno, foggy-sandy-shifty-drifty! » he argued, determined to get his point across as they rushed towards the Pokémon center. Luckily enough, it was one of the closest buildings to the beach, second only to the Lighthouse. As they neared, the storm above them unleashed another raging bolt of lightning, though this seemed even deadlier than the last. A strange, crackling finger of electrical energy, it seemed to move slower than lightning should, with some sick, controlled directive; the twins stopped and watched in awed horror as it raced through the air towards the Lighthouse. In the same instant, the Lighthouse stopped glowing. All of time seemed to slow to the Pokémon spectators as the Lighthouse's Ampharos hurried out onto a small platform, its entire body crackling with brilliant golden electricity. Not even a second before the bolt of white from the heavens would have reached the Lighthouse, the Ampharos unleashed a massive bolt of its own – surely the most powerful Thunder attack the twins had ever seen, second only to their older sister's – that connected with the attacking arc from the heavens.
As the two writhing serpents of electricity met, the thunder that had accompanied the original lightning was shamed into silence by the earth-shattering roar which grew from the resulting explosion. The point at which the countering charges collided erupted into an enormous orb of brilliant white energy before imploding upon itself with one final, resounding [icrack[/i. In the moments after this furious display, the energy from so many gigavolts of electricity seemed to weigh upon the air even more heavily than the storm itself. Upon the pinnacle of the Lighthouse, the Ampharos took a few deep gasps, electricity still crackling around the orbs upon its forehead and tail. It nodded to itself in resolute resolve, and dashed back within. A moment later, the strange, flashing nautical code started blinking again, as surely as if it had never stopped to begin with.
For a moment, the twins simply stared, not quite sure what to make of what they'd just seen. It didn't make sense in any way, shape, or form… but there was no denying it. They were snapped out of their stunned stupor when a piercing, high-pitched human voice cried out above the wind.
"You Pokémon!" The commanding, feminine voice cried. "Get in here, NOW!" Mentali and Noctali turned in the direction of the call, and found Nurse Joy standing with the door of the Pokémon Center ajar, rain soaking through her nurse's cap and matting her pink hair down. A Chansey and a Blissey stood on either side of her, the nursing Pokémon looking as worried as their bun-haired overseer. Mentali burst into a renewed run for the Pokémon Center, the roar of thunder overhead masking the sound of his brother falling to the ground. As Mentali neared the cement porch, one of the Blisseys shoved by, casting an ultimately scathing glance at the ignorant, sopping-wet Espeon.
The Blissey scampered out across the lawns as fast as her small, dancer-shoe feet would allow her, nearly slipping on the slick grass herself. She reached the Umbreon, who'd gotten his paw caught in a strange hole beneath the mud, without chagrin. With surprising strength for a Pokémon known only for healing, she seized Noctali by his ribs and yanked him free of the mud, throwing him over her shoulders like a sac of feathers. Without a word edgewise, she scampered back towards the Pokémon center.
« Um, thanks, » Noctali muttered, his words mangled by the bumpiness of the ride. Nurse Joy and the other Blissey stood aside as the valiant rescuer rushed in. Her large, egg-shaped form dripped what seemed like gallons of water all over the marble-floored entryway. She carefully deposited the slick Umbreon upon the floor, and headed off wordlessly with her partner. They had sick Pokémon to take care of, after all.
Mentali padded softly over to where his brother had been deposited, leaving his own trail of water. He had a monumental urge to shake himself like some lowly feline, but figured that such an act was best saved for a less public place. They had entered through the main entrance, hence there was an enormous audience, staring blankly at the two new arrivals. From blue-tinted wall to blue-tinted wall, people of all shapes and sizes had managed to pack themselves. What would have been a cozy, welcoming reception area had been transformed into a rather damp, stuffy holding cell of sorts. Even Pokémon were smashed into the mix – what on Earth had possessed their trainers to [inot[/i recall them was anyone's guess.
« Dude, you're friggin' wet, » Noctali jested, lifting a paw and tweaking his twin's large, drooping ear. Mentali uttered a low, warning growl, and skulked off towards the other side of the room. After a few paces, he realized that he wasn't being followed – and that people weren't staring at him, as he thought they were. Every eye in the humid room was trained on Noctali, scrutinizing the little Umbreon's every movement. This seemed a little strange to the silver-furred Espeon for a moment… but then he realized what they were so intrigued by.
One particularly intelligent Homo sapien chose to make it startlingly clear, just in case anyone missed the fact.
"Dude… it's a shiny Umbreon…"
A ripple of agreement flowed through the room like a grasshopper with a cold. Heads bobbed in agreement, eyes sparkled even more brightly in appreciation of the rare specimen before their eyes. Mentali nearly face-planted when he realized that these buffoons were putting his crazy twin on some kind of exalted pedestal. The strange thrum of energy in the air made him expect some kind of fan-girlish cheer to rise up spookily through the room.
It was Nurse Joy – obviously the only competent human in the room – who finally broke the strange silence.
"OKAY! Everyone! It's not like you've never seen a shiny Pokémon before, right?"
People shouted in disagreement, the younger trainers present making strange clenching motions, indicative of their desire to capture the creature. One pig-hailed girl even cried out that the Umbreon would be hers very soon.
"Oh, no, nonononooooooo," Nurse Joy stated flatly, producing a large, fluffy towel out of seemingly nowhere. "There will be no Pokémon capturing in [imy[/i waiting room, so you all can just forget it!" As she spoke, she stooped down, her stern expression softening, and wrapped the towel around the scruffy, wet Pokémon. Mentali's jaw dropped as he watched his brother [iallow himself[/i to be lifted into the air in such a demeaning manner. It was shocking!
To Noctali, however, it was a rather pleasing sensation. He allowed a contented expression to grace his visage as the warm, fluffy blue towel enveloped him. He reclined languidly in the Nurse's gentle, experienced arms, lifting a paw as cutely as a tiny kitten towards her calm, smiling face. He decided that he very much liked this human; she wasn't like those mean vendors who simply wanted to make sure he was far, far away from their food. She was nice, accepting, and everything else that a good Nurse was supposed to be. Considering the startling chain of events through which he'd just been dragged, this was a very, very comforting situation to be in. She carried him off towards a large, glass-paneled door that was emblazoned "EMERGENCY," pushing through with her shoulder. No one was likely to try and follow them into the Emergency Room; as genial and caring as Nurse Joy was known to be, she was equally well known for her unrelenting attitude on disallowing unnecessary parties to enter the recovery areas. In short, one didn't mess with her if one valued one's Trainer License, among other things.
Mentali realized belatedly that he wouldn't be able to get back there either, and burst into a determined run towards the other side of the room. However, the sea of people had washed over what little space was left between him and the doorway, many of them pressing their faces against the glass to stare after the rare Pokémon. As the forest of legs thickened into some mock Great Wall, he became aware of the fact that he wouldn't be getting back there easily.
Or at all for that matter.
« I should blast the lot of you into Kanto, » he muttered darkly, his eyes flashing a pale, misty blue for but a second.
The uneasy shifting of the voluminous bank of clouds reminded it of some pathetic swarm of sacrificial nothings, writhing in agony as the ritualistic flames of the Ancients reached higher and higher from the depths, inching ever closer to the wretched souls to be surrendered. A great, all-encompassing sigh, akin to the four winds themselves, escaped its paradoxically diminutive form as it peered down at the frothy sea of blackness beneath him.
« [iThe time is upon us…[/i » this strange being stated, gazing out across the storm beneath him. Its voice was both light upon the atmospheric winds, and as heavy as the mountain that stood beneath it; it carried endlessly across the plains of existence, while reverberating back upon the small creature as though it had cried into a cavernous crevasse. At once, it seemed to be speaking to itself, to no one, and to the other, equivalently curious Pokémon floating a few feet behind it.
« [iAre you sure this time?[/i » The innocent question carried a note of obvious disbelief. This Pokémon's voice was monumentally more confined, less flashy; it was as though it had so much less to prove through the way it spoke, of all things. It lashed its pink tail around nervously, edging closer to the other fairy-like creature. « After all, you remember what happened last time, right? » This time, its voice had lost the near sweetness that was present, reducing itself to an uncharacteristically icy hiss.
« [iYes… you needn't remind me, master,[/i » the first Pokémon replied, its thin, wispy antennae fidgeting. It spat the word "master" as though it was physically painful to say it. « [iWhere's that fool from Hoenn?[/i » It asked, its resonant voice betraying the speaker's wish to change the subject.
« [iNeed I remind you that this 'fool' of which you speak is your endless superior, you sickly green excuse for an Ancient?[/i » Came a new voice, this one stranger than even the first's. It seemed to assail their minds as though from afar, the tune of some neglected ocarina carried to them upon the River of Time itself. The insulting Pokémon winced in shame, turning its slanted gaze upon this final arrival. It offered no apologies for its slanderous statement, merely darting its gaze between each of the three ribbons hung around this final fairy's golden visage.
« [iYou be late Jiri,[/i » the magenta-hued Pokémon spoke, nodding indicatively to the newest arrival.
« [iI beg of your forgiveness, master,[/i » this Pokémon said reverently, bowings its squat form even lower towards the spot upon which it floated. « [iThere were problematic circumstances in Hoenn, milord.[/i »
The pink Pokémon twitched, almost imperceptibly, at this newest title.
« [iYou crazies insist on calling me master… fine. But none o' that 'milord' crap, mmkay? Mmkay. On to business, then.[/i » It suddenly vanished with a small puff of pink smoke and curious "poof" sound, reappearing several meters away from the pinnacle of the mountain, hanging upside in the air as though it was a commonplace thing to do so. « [iAs the two of you should be able to see, unless you're blind, that is… Celi, you can open your eyes, I know you have all your shiny VISION BEYOND SIGHT powers and such, no need to brag. Seriously, to think I named you protector of Johto. What mushrooms DID you give me that day…? ANYWAYS. So chyeah. The storm's started. It's raining and lightning…ing… everywhere in Johto by now, I'm sure. In fact, the Olivine Lighthouse was nearly taken down by an Unholy Bolt –[/i »
« [iBut the Ampharos that I appointed managed to fend it off,[/i » the Pokémon with antennae said boastfully. Their master simply stared blankly for a moment, before continuing with an edge of impatience to his playful tones.
« [iBut, Celi's precious little naked sheep managed to save everything. Woot. Whatever WOULD we do withoutcha, Celi? Anywho. At the Lighthouse, Suici-darling managed to contact one of the Twelve Adamants all spirity-ful-like, which, I do believe, is why the Unholy Bolt was launched at the Lighthouse. Zappy and Rai-rai are getting a little antsy, if I do say so myself.[/i » Here, the speaker stopped, righting himself with another melodramatic puff of pink smoke. When he reappeared this time, though, he was reclining on a peculiar, squeaky pink ball. With twin pops, a green and blue ball of similar energy appeared beneath the other two Pokémon, respectively, startling them only momentarily as they were forced into the strange seats. They were used to their master's antics; who wouldn't be after millennia of unending sameness? After a few comfort-attaining squeaks, their master spoke again.
« [iI also managed to do some… um. Scouting? Yeah, scouting. I managed to do some scouting on the Adamant's family, and I'm thinking that there's another Adamant amongst them. After all, there are eight of 'em for Arcy's sake. YO ARCY YOU LISTENIN?!?!?![/i » The pink-bodied creature's sudden, spastic ejaculation caused the other two fairies to jump in alarm; their master had projected its voice rather ominously through what felt like all creation. Each of them felt the cry reverberate through their very souls, as when their master would call to them for meetings such as this. The echoes of the cry faded, and the Pokémon spoke again.
« [iI sure wish that fool'd wake up from his Godly rest, jeez. At any rate. I'm not sure if it's the Adamant's twin or not, but that's the most obvious choice. I'll have to look into him s'more. Yo, Jiri, how's things on the Über Wish front?[/i » The Pokémon who reclined upon the squeaky blue orb seemed to cringe mentally, taking a moment to think upon his response.
« [iMy… granting… powers… won't be restored for… um. Another six months, master…[/i »
At this, their master looked up, enormous blue eyes widened in alarm. The air of lackadaisical leisure left the small Pokémon's features in a rush. The enormous blue eyes narrowed, brows furrowed in worry as its gaze was cast back out upon the sea of wrathful clouds.
« [iThen I'm sorry as hell for the Adamants…[/i »
Chapitre 2 – Fin; Pour être continué.
Des mots de l'auteur:
Alright then, Chapter 2! I'm somewhat ashamed of this one, but I'm not going to say anything; let me know what you all think, okay?
From Chapitre 3:
"…Mentali ground his fangs together in aggravated consternation, struggling against the flames of endless pain in his side. The gem upon his forehead began to glow, more fiercely than ever before, as he prepared himself for what had to be done…"