Author's Note: Haha, if anyone noticed, it HAS been quite a wait for this chapter. But I never really got a reviewer who I didn't ask to read the story. xD Is the summary that bad? Anyways, this chap took a while because I really wanted to upgrade the original, and ended up starting from scratch xD It was also....like.....1000 words, I'm guessing, and this upgraded one is over 3000. I hope to get out more lengthy chapters at a faster rate from now :P
Lastly, this is the last chapter I've actually written before I started posting, so all chapters from now on are from scratch. Just wanted to say. xD
Shield's POV
"Die."
The black penguin pounced at my captor, hurtling extreme speed no Piplup would ever be possible of achieving, and I was barely able see even the blur of my friend. Just by moving, he was creating many gusts of wind that constantly buffeted both me and the Vespiquen, never letting up on the pressure.
A blast of wind on my right side made me close my eyes. Less than a split second later, a cold frontal gust slammed into me, making me fall to my knees. I gasped for air, and then tried to shake my head to focus. 'Damn! I need to clear my head!' Unfortunately, another split second had my left side slashed with an icy air current, breaking my concentration. It was utterly hopeless to try to focus, much less negate the attacks. I painfully looked up at the scarf-wearing queen bee, trying to see the condition of my enemy, hoping to escape.
Her face was warped into a pained scowl, eyes shut tight, but still holding onto yours truly, and the Vespiquen was struggling against all the cold winds, which were oddly mainly focused on the bug. Thousands of swirling currents were slamming into her back, and many other currents hitting her on places where it couldn't touch me. 'Now's my chance! I can get out while she's distracted!' A flicker of hope ran through me.
But looking at her fearful opening eyes, I realized she understood my sudden movement. But it was her mouth that did the action, and it had turned into a triumphant sneer. Shock coursed threw me. 'She's gonna hit me with that power gem glow now!'
She thrust the glow to my neck.
Then nothing.
…
"Huh?" I woke up, scratching my head, feeling irritable. "What happened?" Opening my eyes, I saw Spirit and the Vespiquen laying on the ground.
"SPIRIT!" I hastily pulled out a reviver seed as I ran towards my penguin friend. I don't know what happened that could've kept me alive, but it wasn't the time to ponder on that. 'Come on! Please be alive!' Without further thought, as delicately as I could, I pressed the seed into Spirit's fin, hoping the effects would activate. A burst of yellow light suddenly enveloped us, showing that the reviver seed was beginning to do it's work. "Whew." I breathed a sigh of relief.
Spirit is still alive.
Spirit's POV
"5.…more…..minutes….."
…
"SHIELD!" I pushed myself awake, remembering the predicament at hand. Looking up, I saw my Charmander friend staring at me with relieved dark eyes. "Shield! What happened? I thought-"
"Yeah, I thought I was gonna die too." He stared at me hard, calm voice unfaltering.
Silence.
Then he spoke up again. "Hey, are you okay?"
"Huh? What? I thought you were the one that was going to die……I should be asking you that…..not you!" Thinking about the situation though, it seemed blurry. Maybe something had happened during the time I was unconscious?
"Spirit, you don't remember?" The fire Pokemon tilted his head anxiously. "There was this…..THING that looked like it was overtaking you…..it changed your plumage and eye colour from blue to black!" He stressed THING, hoping to make me remember. (A/N: In case you guys are wondering, plumage is like the feathers on a bird overall)
'Wait…there WAS this thumping sound…and a voice…but the rest is hard to remember.' "You know, we can't do anything about it right now." I stood up. "I'm okay now, but if it happens again, we'll worry. How are you doing? It looks like some of your scales have been broken." I gestured to his neck scales.
Shield pointed to his neck. "These will heal by themselves. I'm okay now too. We just gotta focus on finding Celebi for now."
"Then let's go. The stairs are still just ahead."
Shield's POV
Treeshroud Forest 20F, or the last floor. The previous 5 floors were somewhat easy, considering how Treeshroud Forest had a fast delivery of information, with the abundance of speedy physic-types. The hostile Pokemon knew to stay away from us, knowing of our reputation of defeating a monster house.
The clearing looked the same as last time, besides the fact that the forest was not held at a standstill. A wide, open patch of light green grass covered the field, with rough, thick trees surrounding to prevent easy exit, unless through the main entrance. The whole dungeon floor was THE ideal grass-type battlefield.
I pointed at the big tree shadowing the time gear that stood out the most through the dungeon floor. "Hey, Spirit! I'll go search there. How about you look around the rest of the clearing?"
Spirit nodded, and started running over to the smaller trees. I turned my head back to look at the big tree. Dark brown and green dominated the colours of the tree, and numerous scratches displayed the tree's spirited fight against nature and Pokemon. I ran over and started climbing, careful the tree didn't catch fire from my tail. Sinking my claws into the bark, I made my way up, hoping for some sign of the legendary pink time traveler.
We had recently discovered the Dusk forest in the alternate future was actually Treeshroud Forest in this dimension. Since Dusk forest was home to Celebi's Passage of Time, we were hoping to find another time-related object aiding Celebi here, and hopefully, find the pink Pokemon.
"Uh." I made an attempt to reach for the branch next to me. After careful inspection, I couldn't find anything related to Celebi around the lower part of the tree. Grabbing the branch with my right paw, then tugging to check it's firmness, I held on tight and jumped off the trunk, making a vertical swing with the weight on my right paw. The force of the swing was great enough, so I let go and soared upwards to the top of the tree, paws flailing wildly in excitement, hoping the crown of the tree would display something interesting.
I was not expecting to see Grovyle when I got there.
"What the…..what are you doing here?" Light yellow eyes. A look displaying self-confidence. Claws flexed, moving anxiously up and down, a long-time habit of his. It was him.
Then he slashed me with those anxious claws.
Anxious claws………
I fell of the tree.
Anxious claws………
It was a long drop down.
Anxious claws………
Anxious claws………
…
…
…
'Wake up! Dammit! I gotta figure out what happened! Why'd he slash me…blood?'
What the..? I saw a rush of wavering liquid seemingly flowing upward, fluctuating in the air as I was falling, and instinctively looked at my chest where the gecko struck. Blood was flowing uncontrollably out of the diagonal wound, and the gash itself was too big to cover with my paw.
It was a race to the ground, where I would hopefully survive and have a chance of living with Spirit's aqua ring, or die in the air by blood loss.
Either way, I was going to hit the ground.
…
THUD.
Spirit's POV
"Idiot." I looked at Shield, eyes narrowed and beak into a frown. My expression betrayed my emotions, as I was still relieving myself from the shock of my partner's near-death.
"Good thing I made it there in time."
I placed him on the ground gently. "What could have happened that caused all this blood?"
He said nothing.
As calmly as I could, I spun my fins around, activating a light blue glow, and pressed it into Shield's wound.
Aqua Ring.
Shield's POV
"Uh….wha?" I opened my eyes open, and sunlight washed in. I shielded my eyes from the burst of light, squinting when the rays caught into my view.
Spirit's voice made me jump. "Don't get up now. Wait a while till you recover." He lightly pushed me back down, insisting I should rest.
I sighed from my now restricted periphery; I saw green scenery, and blue sky.
'Oh yeah! We're in Treeshroud forest, and looking for Celebi. Wait. I went into the tree, and then…..GROVYLE!'
My sudden return of memory shocked me. Springing up suddenly, I spoke. "I saw Grovyle!"
Spirit's eyes widened. "Wha! Where? Up in the tree? How? What happened?" Somehow, through his bombardment of questions, he remembered my injury, and refrained from shaking me for answers.
I had no need to think; the whole situation played out in my head as I spoke.
"Well, I got up to the top of the big tree, and when I landed, I saw a Grovyle." I tried to make a paw gesture, and winced when that hurt; the wound had affected me in other areas as well.
"The guy was flexing his claws up and down just like Grovyle did! It HAS to be him!" I finished, excited with energy.
"Whoa, get back down. You need to rest." Spirit gently pushed me down, and I reluctantly agreed. Once again, I let the soft grass meet my back.
"Then where'd you get that wound?" His question made me stiffen.
"…Grovyle did it." Simple answer. No need to fudge the truth. I looked down, but the curiosity of Spirit's reaction was too great, and I peeked up again.
If Spirit's eyes could grow more shocked and huge, now would be the time. "BUT-"
"I think I dropped in on the right time."
I didn't need to crane my neck; I knew it was Grovyle's voice.
Spirit's POV
I whirled around, seeing Shield's other-dimensional partner in my face. His calm yellow eyes and flexing claws proved that it was him.
I sneered. "Why'd you do that to Shield?" Now wasn't the time to be amazed at him. Eyes narrowed, and fins iced, I prepared to attack. I wasn't going to get tricked like Shield. Even if the Pokemon standing in front of me IS Grovyle, there isn't any reason he could give me to prove what he did was justified.
The gecko jumped back, separating some distance between us. "Why?" He sneered back at me.
"Why?" His body was turning purple.
"What the…" I breathed.
"WHY?" A familiar stench was unfolding out of the grass-type.
"WHY?"
A Pokemon suddenly leaped out of the big tree, floating up and down beside the twisted Grovyle.
Shit. This wasn't Grovyle.
Purple and white laced one Pokemon, while blue trailed the other. A horrible stench drifted from the former, while the latter had sharp fangs proving of it's power.
"STOP MESSING WITH US!" I was infuriated. This was the infamous Team Skull, at least infamous to us; they stole the relic fragment, then, the Groudon incident, and even bothering to show a good side at the Temporal Tower battle, this particular incident just knocked them back.
Waving the ice covered fins, I charged, eyes full of malice. The desire to get revenge fueled me. Through my thoughts of hatred, I still managed to wonder how Skuntank was able to transform, let alone know about Grovyle's behaviour.
The Golbat decided to attack, and Skuntank backed off. "You'll now get to see my real power! After evolution, no one can possibly beat me!" He lunged at me, fangs baring, but I was anticipating this straightforward move.
"Shut up." I spoke quietly, and dodged to the side, quickly slicing one wing, covering it with frost.
"AAUGH!" Out of flight control, the Golbat crashed clumsily to the ground.
"I don't think you've gotten any better." I sneered, and put my ice fins away. "I remember you being around twice the skill level of this winged idiot." I looked to the skunk Pokemon. "I won't need to overexert myself."
The Skuntank suddenly did something unexpected. He started laughing.
My face twisted into a confused scowl. "What's so funny?"
"You have no idea what you're about to face." The skunk looked up to the sky. Then he once again transformed into Grovyle.
"WILL YOU STOP USING GROVYLE?" He was really irritating me. "I know it's you Skuntank. I won't hesitate to attack you, since I won't be hurting the real Grovyle." Was he really that stupid to think I wouldn't attack?
"Oh. So you won't mind if I act like him a little?" Laughing maniacally, he started flexing his claws. "Anxious claws, Spirit, anxious claws."
"STOP DOING THAT!" Damnit! Only me and Shield know about his action! He's only done it in front of us! …How?
"What's the matter? Annoyed at this little action?" He continued his stupid laughing and flexing.
I turned my head away, hoping to temporarily not see those claws flexing. "How do you know about this anyways?" No matter how great a Pokemon was, they would have never been at Sharpedo Bluff on the day Grovyle explained to me his reason for his anxious claws.
Flashback
Nighttime.
I stared at the roof of the cave the three of us, Shield, Grovyle, and I were situated at temporarily. My good old home in Sharpedo Bluff. It was where I lived before meeting Shield, and meeting all the guild members, and creating an exploration team.
I shuffled around quietly, getting up in the darkness of the cave. The only illumination was Shield's tail, kept lit at all times; it was the symbol of his life. I looked towards the said lizard. He was sleeping peacefully, eyes shut and smiling. I silently thanked the illumination he gave off, and went to get myself a midnight gummy snack.
"Uh." A sudden noise made me jump.
I turned around. "Huh." I whispered to myself, looking over at Grovyle's moss bed. The gecko had gotten up, and was nowhere to be seen. I'd better see where he's going. I don't want him going into treasure town; the Duskull at the bank is always awake and more cautious at this time, and he might get caught. We don't want that.
Of course, that didn't mean Grovyle wasn't agile and quiet. I just didn't want him risking our cover.
A sudden moan made me stop to look at Shield. Don't wanna wake him up. I grimaced as he started moving, and the frown went back to a smile as my partner fell back down on the moss.
Now time to stop Grovyle! I hurried as quietly and swiftly as I could up the steps of the cave.
Plopping my head up through the opening, I looked down towards the ground as I pushed myself out of the tunnel, and looked up to meet Grovyle's unemotional face staring at the night sky.
I tried casually getting out of the Sharpedo Bluff tunnel. "Hi Grovyle." I wasn't sure why I was whispering. Maybe it was so Shield wouldn't wake up, or maybe it was to preserve the calming quietness at the moment.
"Spirit." He turned his head and greeted me with a subtle smile. "Why are you up so late?"
"Ugh. I couldn't sleep." It was partially true; I was worried about Dusknoir. He could use Dialga's time-traveling powers and catch up to us at any time.
"Ah, I see."
"So why are you up so late anyways, Grovyle?"
The gecko's head stayed glued to the night sky. I walked up to him. "Well, me and Shield used to stay up late and watch the stars. I haven't done this ever since he went missing."
I nodded my head in understanding.
There was silence.
"Hey, lets sit down. Wanna watch them with me?" His offering made me jump.
"Y-You mean that?" His explanation made me think that only a really close friend of his would be asked something like that.
His warm eyes reassured me. "Yeah. Sit." He patted the ground beside him; he was already down, legs stretched in front.
I took a seat beside him, still wondering why he would ask me something like that. This wasn't the Grovyle that I knew before; he was seemingly cold and independent, but he seemed to show a nicer side now.
After another few minutes of silence, I decided to break it. "Hey Grovyle?" I looked up at the said Pokemon with a curious face.
"What is it Spirit?" He asked back casually, face once again devoid of emotion.
I didn't want to ask him about his offering to watch the night sky; that would ruin the fun of discovering. I had something else to be curious about.
Little did I know it would change me forever.
"Grovyle," I think my serious tone made him sit up a little straighter.
"Can you tell me about your adventures with Shield?"
End flashback
"I. Won't. Tell. You." Skuntank spat each word out slowly at me, hatred and mockery clear in the tone.
"Fine." I closed my eyes. It didn't matter how he knew. I'll beat him now, and get the answers out of him later. Shaking my head, I prepared for a fight.
Narrator POV
A few seconds after Spirit uttered a "fine," ice covered his fins in a split second.
"Die."
The Skunk looked at him in disgust. "You actually think you can-"
He was interrupted as huge ice pillars quickly spiked out from the ground, rising rapidly and shooting out with intense force. If one would get caught even indirectly, it would leave a fatal injury or freeze the entire body within seconds.
"Whoa." Skuntank breathed out a few yelps of shock, fear evident on his face. An ice pillar shot up on his right, and quickly moved himself to avoid it. One then burst from underneath him. Hearing the noise, he swiftly jumped forward in an attempt to dodge the dangerous object, and made it in a VERY close gap of time from being impaled.
The skunk muttered to himself. "Gotta be more careful." He looked at his partner Golbat, lying there with one wing frozen. He IS really useless! Not even able to withstand one attack from a lowly penguin! Skuntank was getting angrier by the moment. Ugh! I should really get rid of him! Find someone more useful! Yeah! That's what I'll-huh? A look of horror flashed across his face. Shit, not now.
And he was skewered with an ice pillar.
___
Too lazy to say anything. xD