~Author's Note~
Hello people of the internet! I am not dead! Sorry for taking so long to update. School's been really difficult, and I've been swamped with projects. Plus, I was kind of not in a writing mood. However, I have decided that this story will be finished! Now, I'll stop rambling and let you read the chapter. Enjoy!
~Chapter Ten~
Arthur shot up at the realization that his charges were missing. He called a tired Arceus back into her pokeball for rest.
He ran to the cable car and the woman running it allowed him aboard, and sent the car up the mountain. While Arthur was pacing the car, he saw that ashes had started to fall like snow outside of the car.
When he reached the top of the mountain, he looked around frantically for the kids, but all he saw were many people in a mad free-for-all. Some of the people were in red, the others in blue. Soon, he saw three smaller figures, surrounded by multiple Mightyena. He let out a deep sigh of relief. At least they were still alive.
Arthur looked at the people around them. He saw an authorative-looking figure fighting with the man from the Oceanic Museum. 'Maxie,' Arthur thought.
Arthur snuck toward them, with no one noticing him. When he got near Maxie and the other man, he heard their argument.
"We are using the volcano to spread the land! You have no business here!" Maxie yelled over the chaos.
"We want to spread the sea! You can't spread the land! I won't let you!"
"That's just stupid!"
"Well, your face is stupid!"
"No, you're stupid!"
Arthur decided it was time to butt in. "Oi! You both sound like children! Speaking of children, let them go this instant! What were your motives for taking them anyway?"
The two men turned to him. Maxie said, "Why are you here? I thought I told you not to impede us again!"
"I wouldn't have if you hadn't abducted my little brother and his friends!" Arthur yelled angrily.
Maxie whirled on the other man. "Archie! You lured this one here with those three?"
"I didn't mean to. I only figured that I would ransom them later." To this, Arthur heard Lilli giggle.
Maxie grabbed a pokeball. "At any rate, I can't allow you to interfere anymore!" Maxie released a Mightyena.
Arthur sent out Mudkip. Mudkip was just as angry as Arthur; he had befriended Peter's Torchic. He couldn't allow his friend to answer to anyone but Peter. He attacked with Mud Shot. Arthur had not realized that Mudkip had learned this, but assumed that it replaced Mud-Slap. There was enough power behind the attack to KO Mightyena in one hit.
Maxie sent out a Camerupt next, and Mudkip used the same move to knock out that pokemon as well.
Maxie was outraged at his loss. However, because he had no more pokemon, he backed down. But Archie stepped forward.
"Maxie may have been defeated, but I won't be," Archie said. He pulled out a pokeball with a similar Mightyena.
Arthur switched pokemon, sending out Gyarados. A couple Dragon Rages were enough to KO the large dog pokemon.
Archie sent out a pelliper. Another few Dragon Rages and Archie was also defeated.
Arceus emerged from her pokeball, and went over to the Mightyena surrounding the three teens. 'Move,' she commanded.
'Master told us not to,' one of them told her.
Arceus had left her plate with Arthur, and was her normal white and yellow colors. She started to get angry. Her eyes glowed with an inner fire, as did her crosswheel. 'Move,' she commanded more forcefully.
The three Mightyena whimpered pitifully and moved out of the way. The glow died down. 'That's what I thought,' she said.
Archie and Maxie were in awe at the sight of Arceus, and were stunned momentarily.
In that time, Arthur had snatched the power source from the machine that was being used to stimulate the volcano into activity. Then he shouted, "Run!" to Peter, Lilli, and Raivis.
They ran down a path where all of the trees, grass, and rocks were covered in a thick layer of soot. Archie, Maxie, and both of their teams were trailing behind them.
Very quickly, they reached the bottom of the hill. They emerged from the trees to find a clearing. There were houses, a pokecenter, a pokemart, and a gym.
Lilli shouted, "Big bruder!" at the top of her lungs. The door to the gym almost flew off of its hinges. It was a sliding, electric door too. A tall man with hair similar to Lilli's came out and ran toward his little sister.
When he saw their pursuers, he got out a pokeball of his own. It was brown and had a red flame design on it.
An Entei came out. It summoned a large wall of fire around the entire town, but allowed nothing inside the town to burn. It was simply a barrier.
Archie and Maxie knew that they would not be able to catch them, so they returned to their respective bases.
Lilli ran toward her brother and gave him a big hug. Vash looked a bit startled, but hugged her back.
The adrenaline that Arthur had felt was fading. He gave Peter a hug because he was so glad that he was safe.
Raivis watched the whole family thing happen; happy for his friends, but felt kind of sad because the only people that he could consider family were either back in Rustboro, or in another city. He was just happy to be away from that mountain.
While Lilli was hugging Vash, he noticed a small scratch on Lilli's knee. "Entei," he called. The pokemon understood his friend's intentions, and bounded toward Arthur. Arthur managed to push Peter out of the way before being tackled by the large pokemon.
"What did you do to my little sister?" Vash demanded.
"I didn't do anything! They all got abducted by the people who were chasing us! I went up the mountain to go find them!" Arthur groaned from beneath Entei.
Vash said, "A likely story."
"It's true, big bruder! He came up and beat the two guys in blue and red!" Lilli said in Arthur's defense.
Vash motioned for Entei to get off of Arthur. He got up and Vash said, "Sorry, it's just that I'm a little protective of Lilli." Arthur looked at him like he was crazy. Vash ignored this look, and motioned toward the pokecenter. "There's a hot spring behind the pokecenter. If you want, you can rest there for a while."
"Thank you," Arthur said, walking to the pokecenter. He went through the pokecenter to the hot spring, and released his pokemon so that they could enjoy the warm water. Arthur himself did not think it was proper to go in the water.
Mudkip and Gyarados were quite happy in the water. They splashed and swam in the water like children. Arceus on the other hand stood in the water, enjoying the warmth.
Peter and Raivis decided, what the hell, and let their pokemon enjoy the water too. However, unlike Arthur, they didn't mind wet clothes, and joined the pokemon in the water.
Soon, everyone was feeling much better after their rest. Arthur called his pokemon back into their pokeballs and walked to the gym. He was followed by Peter and Raivis.
Arthur said to Vash, "Vash, I want to challenge this gym!"
"Do you now? Well, you're in luck, I'm the gym leader. I accept your challenge," Vash said.
The kids moved off of the battling field, and sat to watch the battle. Arthur took Mudkip's pokeball and released him. Vash took out a pokeball of his own, and released his first pokemon, Torkoal.
Mudkip used Water Gun, which was very effective against the fire-type of Torkoal, and knocked out the pokemon instantly. Vash sent out another pokemon, Vulpix.
Before Mudkip could attack again, Vash said, "Vulpix, use Hypnosis!" The Vulpix used her move, and Mudkip fell asleep. Then, Vulpix used Confuse Ray for when Mudkip woke up, and proceeded to use Faint Attack until Mudkip awakened.
When he did, Arthur said, "Good! You're awake! Use Water Gun!" Mudkip looked dizzy, and ended up hurting itself from confusion. He was so confused that he fainted. "What? Alright, then. I'll use Gyarados." The large pokemon came out and looked at the Vulpix. Her eyes widened and seemed to lose a bit of her confidence when attacking. Gyarados used Dragon Rage and the Vulpix used a weak Faint Attack. Then another Dragon Rage finished it off. The next pokemon to be sent out by Vash was a Slugma.
Gyarados used Bite. This was a critical hit, but did not completely take down the pokemon. In fact, the Slugma's body burned Gyarados. The Slugma used Yawn, but the attack failed to impact Gyarados. Gyarados finished off the Slugma with a Dragon Rage, and then Vash sent out his last pokemon, his legendary, Entei.
Entei used Fire Blast, and knocked out Gyarados. Arthur sent out his own legendary, Arceus. 'Arthur, may I choose the move that I wish to use against Entei, due to the fact that I am not holding a plate, to change my type?' she asked.
"Sure, Arceus. What move do you want to use?"
'I wish to use the move Earth Power. It is a ground-type move, and will work very well on Entei's fire-type,' she said.
"Use it. We can do this," Arthur said.
'Indeed we can.' Arceus used the attack, which did a great deal of damage, however did not finish it off immediately. Entei used Fire Blast again, but also did not defeat Arceus. Arceus used Earth Power again, this time finishing Entei.
Vash gave Arthur the badge saying, "Good job. I should have known you would be a challenging trainer if you defeated Ludwig. Here is the Heat Badge."
"Thank you. We'll be off now. It was a pleasure meeting you," Arthur said.
"Wait, we?" Peter asked.
"Yes, we. Do you really think that I'm about to have a repeat of the volcano? You and Raivis, if he wants to, are coming with me." When Peter tried to protest, Arthur said, "If you don't, I will reveal your embarrassing baby moments. All of them."
Peter blushed furiously, and Lilli giggled. "What does he mean by that?" She asked curiously.
"He doesn't mean anything by that! We've got to go! Bye!" Peter shouted, thoroughly embarrassed. He pulled Arthur and Raivis out of the gym.
Outside of the gym, they saw Francis come out of the herb shop. "Nope, no I do not want to talk to that French frog. I'll be back in the gym if you need me," Arthur said. Peter grinned mischievously.
"Hey! Francis! Arthur is over here!"
"Don't call him over! What are you doing!" Arthur said.
"Revenge!" Peter yelled, escaping to the pokecenter with Raivis.
Francis went over to Arthur and said, "Bonjour, mon ami! How are you doing?"
"Well, I just defeated the gym leader of this town. I'm planning on heading to another town now, so if you don't mind, I'll take my leave." He turned to leave, but Francis stopped him.
"Wait, take these goggles. They will protect your eyes from the sandstorm on route 111." Francis handed Arthur three pairs of goggles.
"Thank you, Francis. I'm sure that they will be useful," Arthur said sincerely. He left to find Peter and Raivis.
Francis chuckled. "He didn't even ask why I had given him three pairs of goggles."
~Author's Note~
Yup, Francis is a stalker. Arthur never told him that Peter and Raivis were going to travel with him, he just knew. Anyway, did you all enjoy the gym battle? I was going to put it in Chapter eleven, but I decided to do it now. Next up is the normal-type gym and Fallarbor town! It'll probably be up faster than this one! Bye!
