Paralell Hearts Chapter 20

After their experience with the sawk at the end of the cave, they continue their journey to the next part of their destination... the research facility. Mega decides to walk next to the sawk this time, which everyone decides to name him 'Striker'.

"How did you end up in a situation like that anyways?" Mega asks with a concern look.

"When I heard there was a new cave behind the waterfalls I decided to train in there," Striker answers, "then I got lost and lost how many days I've been in there... then I found you guys and followed you in hope to finally get out for good." He then bows his head slightly, "I truly am graceful for saving my life."

The pikachu couldn't help but feel embarrassment for the high-class appreciation, "don't sweat it and if I knew you were following us I would've given you food a lot sooner," Mega states, "and Zero can give you great training methods... aren't you glad you met us?"

The Fighting Type pokemon gives it a good thinking and looks back at Mega, "if the training is as great as you say it is, then yes." He then looks at the zubat on the pikachu's head, but decides not to say anything about it. He just glad he can see natural light again and smile as he looks forward.

Breaker looks at Luna that's still riding on Mega's head, still freaking out about it, "Breaker, calm down already."

He looks up to Zero riding on his back, "easy of you to say, you're not afraid of blood-sucking zubats."

The treecko sighs at the tauros cowarding over a little bat pokemon, "you have to conquer your fears too if you want to become stronger," he explains to Breaker, "and I find that Luna to be very useful."

"How so?" Breaker asks like as though he's interrogating Zero, "she can fly, which means she can look around the facility and give us vital information before we sneak in for what we're looking for. If we use Knolla for this, she'll be caught right off the spot."

Breaker hates to admit it, but Zero's right. He has to learn to deal with Luna or he'll become a big nuisance to the new friends he made.

Midori decides to walk next to Knolla this time, "how did you learn to do all of this?" Midori asks the togetic.

"I learn all of this through books," Knolla replies while looking through the map and the directing compass.

Midori looks at Mega, with Luna on his head, while talking to Striker, "I can't believe he made friends with a zubat and a sawk."

Knolla just looks back at Midori, "well he did make friends with a tauros during a Tauros Stampede Migration and a buizel that literally tried to kill him... I'm not surprised at this point." Knolla looks back at the map, "he really is an interesting friend to make, isn't he?"

Midori justs smiles at the question, "yeah... I wonder how he does it."

Knolla just gives one explanation, "it's probably natural for him to make friends, haven't you notice that he gives off such a heart-warming glow?"

This makes the snivy to wonder about the warming things that he's done for everyone... he does give off such a warm, welcoming glow and it makes her smile to know that he'll be her brother. She smiles to see the glow around him, it must also be what drives him to become stronger. The glow to protect everyone precious to him.

Beauty decides to walk next to Diggy this time, "what kind of training did you go through?" Beauty asks, curious because the other two went through hell to train.

"I've been through digging training," Diggy explains. It would be obvious that he would say that, since it's in his name.

"Like what?"

Diggy looks at her, "I'm the one who dug all those tunnels... and I did it for six months," the eevee has a shocking look on her face. Diggy sighs as he had the softest training compare to the other two, he worked his little paws to exhaustion, but Mega and Zero has to push their entire bodies far beyond pass their limits if they wanted to survive.

He sighs at the thought of those two... they were always doing this to get stronger, and yet he does his training because he's only good at digging and doesn't want to fall behind.

"You're amazing, Diggy," he turns back to Beauty as though reading his mind, "even though you think you're not strong because of those two, you're still strong in your own way... don't ever think that you slow them down, because you guided us through those tunnels and got us out of there, thank you."

Diggy smiles at the compliment, she's right, even though he's not as strong as Mega or Zero, he's still strong in his own way. The swinub looks forward with a smile on his face, he knows he's strong.

Fast Star looks ahead and sees what Zero has described as the facility, "hey guys! I can see the research facility," he yells at them.

They rush towards the destination they had long journeyed for to see the fence-guarded, giant building that Zero has described during the story of when he was trapped in there.

"Wait guy, we still need to make a plan to get in there without getting caught," the others realizes this and jumps in a bush big enough for all of them.

Zero and Midori shakes their heads from the team's stupidity and walks over to the bush, "we need to get FURTHER away from the facility," he states with annoyance in his voice.

The others realizes this and runs away from the giant bush to a fair distance away from what Midori described as a hellhole. The two grass-type pokemon just simply walks towards where the others are at with headaches as they question themselves of how they got themsleves such a rag-tag team to rescue the other pokemon from there.

It was then night time, the fire dances on the wood below it as Zero comes up to them, "we're not going to do training today," he confesses to them.

"Why not?" Mega asks as he eats his last remaining food.

"I don't want any of us to strain our bodies in the middle of their part of the mission," Zero explains, "I only have enough leppa berries for each of us and I don't want to waste it on training."

Mega understands what he meant as Zero looks at Luna, "I need you to look around the surroundings and give us information of how the facility is being guarded from the outside," Luna nods in understanding, "the fact that you're one of the two who can actually fly means you have big responsibilities for this task, can I count on you?" Luna nods again at the big burden she has to carry while in this mission.

Zero turns to Striker, Breaker, and Fast Star, "you guys are the power-house of the group... I need you guys to break down the front gates of the facility and cause a huge riot to catch everyone's attention, got that?" Fast Star and Striker just smiles at the idea, as Breaker has a determined look on his face.

Zero takes this as a yes and turns to the four girls, "I need you girls to be the rescuing group," the gecko pokemon explains, "you need to free the captured pokemon and tell them that I've sent you there, for the fact that Knolla is with you means you will more likely succeed."

Knolla just looks at Zero in confusion, "what do you mean?"

Zero just looks at her, "there's a book in the main office of that floor where the pokemon are kept captive, you're the only one who can read it fast enough to know all the codes," he turns to Midori, "and you're the only one who knows where the office is."

Then he turns to Rose and Beauty, "I need the rest of you to trust her for this mission as she's the leader of the group." Rose and Beauty nods in understanding of how important this mission is.

Finally, Zero looks at Diggy and Mega sitting next to each other, "I need you guys to come with me to obtain the item that we came here for," he smiles at his squad, "I can only trust you two with me for the most important task because what we're after is now operational."

He knows that the entire team are up to the task ahead, "I want to thank all of you for becoming members of Team MegaZero," making everyone else smile at the name of the team, "lets get some sleep, I don't want any of you snoozing on the job."

Everyone do what they were told and sleep on the ground around the slightly lit fire. As minutes become hours under the moonlit sky.

In the middle of the night though, Mega suddenly wakes up to someone gently petting his head. It feels soft and gentle, making him close his eyes to enjoy each stroke... only one pokemon knows that he loves stuff like this. He looks up to see Rose stroking her paw gently against his head that lays on her lap.

"Remember when I used to do this when you first moved in with me and my mother?"

Making the pikachu blush from the sudden memory of that time, "y-yeah... I remember," he looks deep into her shining, brown eyes, "it was around the time after my mom died from a horrible sickness and you let me stay when I had nowhere else to go..."

A small buneary skips down the halls of her dirt-home, she hears sobbing from the room where her dearest friend is sleeping at. After turning a corner and entering a nearby dirt hole, shes see the pichu sobbing with tears running down his face as he sleeps. The buneary couldn't help but feel sad for him, after losing possibly his only family member, he can't recover from the sadness in his heart yet. She does the only thing she could think of: she sits down, places his head onto her lap, and gently pets him for comfort.

He wakes up to the kind, gentle pleasure he's receiving and looks at her, "Blossom."

She shushes him as she continues to gently pet his head, "everything is going to be alright," she says, "will it be okay if I sleep here tonight?"

The pichu smiles and nods to the question, making her smile as well and placing his head back down to the grass nest. She quickly lays down to her left side then snuggles up to his fur as he shifts his body to the right and wrap his arms around her waist, "good night," he whispers to her.

"Good night." They both fell asleep in each other's arm, not once complaining about how close they are to the other.

"...your mom would always scowl at us whenever she finds us like that in the morning." Mega says as he looks back at Rose, "why is that anyway?"

The sudden question made her look away with a heavy blush on her face. She knows now that the way they used to cuddle in their sleep like that was usually a sign for mates, but they were too young to realize that at the time. "I-I have no idea either," she lies and looks the other way.

Mega just shrugs and look at the night sky, "it's beautiful tonight."

Rose look up as well, "yeah... the full moon is amazing," she turns back to him, "Mega, do you think I'll be useful tomorrow?"

He looks back at her when she asks that question, "do you think you're useful for this mission?"

Rose sighs as he answers the question with another question, "I just think that I'll be holding everyone back... I don't know if I can handle this kind of pressure, I mean I do want to help after a-" her train of thoughts were interrupted as Mega bolts up from her lap and presses his lips against her cheek. To her, the kiss itself feels like an eternity has passed as her train of thoughts turns to nothing but him kissing her.

After he pulls back, she couldn't stop blushing and REALLY wants to pull up her fluff to hide her face.

"I believe in you," he says as he lays back down, patting the ground next to him.

She knows what he's gesturing and smiles, she lays down next to him, snuggling into his fur with her paws against his chest, "I miss doing this," she says with passion in her voice.

"Yeah, same here," he replies, wrapping his arms around her waist and soon falling asleep.

Rose looks at the sky one more time to see a shooting star, making her close her eyes to make a wish then sleeps comfortably under her love's strong arms.