Chapter Twenty-One
Reunions and Thrilling Races

Previously:
Tony chuckled as the automatic doors clicked open revealing to them the insides of the oversized Pokecenter.

The Pokecenter looked like a normal center for about half the room, but it quickly turned into what Tony could only describe as a madman's lair. Various gadgets litter the room and a gigantic machine sat, taking most of the room up, in the corner.

A man stood staring at the large computer screen that sat on the front of the machine, examining the monitor he shrugged. Bill was next to the man and waved them over.

"Guys, this is my friend, Celio." Bill introduced, and they each shook hands with the man, who had light brown hair, "Celio, these are the guys, Tony, Johnny, and Lloyd."

"SO good to meet you!" Celio smiled, "I've heard a lot about you from Bill."

"Celio here is incredibly smart, he's trying to make a huge machine that will be able to communicate and trade with other countries." Bill explained, and Celio shook his head, "Yeah, trying, but so far I have yet to find a power source that would supply it with enough juice to maintain communications."

"Can't you just use pokemon?" Lloyd asked, and Celio shook his head, "No, For starters, only an incredibly powerful pokemon could power it, and it would have to spend," Celio replied as he pulled out a small pocket calculator, "Approximately the rest of it's life doing so. Secondly, the Central quad fluxer is only able to charge if the energy is from a non-organic force. Unless I was to switch the Quatromagnetic Alto Convulser, but that would only be a waste of money, am I right?"

"Um…sure…" Lloyd said, as he shrugged, and took a step back.

"I see what you mean." Johnny said, as he leaned to inspect some of the wires on the bottom of the machine.

Lloyd grabbed Johnny and pulled him back up, "Stop talking like you know about Quad Majiggie thingers."

"Geeze, it's a Central Quad Fluxer Lloyd, get it right." Johnny sneered as he shook from Lloyd's hold and fixed his collar.

"Anyway, guys, I wanted to know if you could deliver this Meteorite to a friend of mine, who lives on Boon Island." Bill interrupted, handing Tony a large pale gray rock.

"What? That's all? Ugh, that will be a piece of cake." Johnny said, and our heroes left the center.

"Boon Island?" Lloyd said as they walked across the dock towards the boat, "Why don't we explore here a bit more first?"

"Lloyds right for once, we should explore this island first, and it's not like Bill's friends is going anywhere!" Johnny yelled, pumping his fist in the air and running away from the boat, "Come on!"

They walked across the sand and found water in their way. They released their individual pokemon, Tony's Gyarados, Johnny's Snorlax, And Lloyd's Seel, and sailed down the water. They landed on land and got off their pokemon.

"Look at that!" Lloyd cried as he pointed upwards, towards the huge smoking mountain ahead of them.

"Mt. Ember." Tony responded as he recalled his dragon, and Lloyd looked at him in surprise, "How did you know that?"

"The sign right here." Tony smirked, pointing at the small sign that read, "Welcome to Mt. Ember."

Johnny and his Snorlax finally landed on the beach and Johnny recalled his giant, joining them.

"Onwards!" Johnny called, pointing to the mountain and Lloyd groaned, "Do we have to climb that?"

"Of course, who knows what could be there. Lots of fun stuff, no doubt." Johnny said confidently and Tony shook his head.

They walked for a while, battling the occasional trainer, until they spotted a small cave entrance, with and old man standing next to it.

"Welcome to Ember Spa, take a break and enjoy your stay trainers." The man greeted and Johnny gave him a nod and a wave.

The cave was dank, and very steamy, and Johnny refused to go near the pool, because of what he explained to be vicious cave Caterpie's that would attack underwater. Lloyd also didn't want to rest in the spa, instead finding a spot to sit and rest. Tony didn't mind the pool, and felt he needed a break. Undressing in a private place he entered the spa with his towel on.

He settled down on a small bump and scanned his surroundings. An old man was sitting, staring blankly, and a black haired boy was apparently snoozing, a magazine on his face. Suddenly the old man gasped and walked away, and Tony spotted the source of surprise. In the center of the heated pool floated a purplish goo, which moved slowly towards Tony. The goo's eye appeared and Tony sighed, "Grimer, what are you doing out of your pokeball?"

The Grimer made a gurgling sound, and closed its eyes, settling in the warmth of the cave spa. Tony sighed again and was about to stand up when the black haired boy suddenly woke up with a loud snore and splash. His magazine slipped into the water, and the boy cursed, looking for it. Tony ignored the boy, concentrating on his relaxation.

"Oh, well thanks mysterious Grimer." The boy said and Tony popped an eye open to see his Grimer hand the boy his magazine.

"Grimer! Get back over here." Tony called, and the Grimer nodded, wafting towards Tony.

"Tony?" The boy asked and Tony opened one eye again, "huh?"

"Aw, you don't remember me?" The boy said again, and Tony opened his other eye and sat up straight, "Um…wait a minute…Alan? Um…Alan Cosby?"

"Err…no, Corwell, but close enough, what are you doing here?" Alan responded, as he shook Tony's hand, "You still traveling with those two other guys, Johnny and Lloyd?"

"Yeah, well, we came 'cause our friend, Bill, wanted help, what about you?" Tony asked, but Alan shook his head, "Let's keep talking outside, I've been in here for a while."

Tony nodded and watched Alan leave, before following shortly after. When Alan was done reuniting with Johnny and Lloyd, they all four left the cave and sat outside on the sand.

"So, what brings you to a dank old island like this?" Johnny asked, and Alan leaned in, "I heard a huge legendary pokemon lives atop Mt. Ember, I'm here to get it." Alan said proudly.

"What about your job at Celadon?" Lloyd asked, and Alan Shrugged, "Guess you could say I'm on permanent Leave, I saw you guys on your adventure, I wanted that too."

"Nice." Johnny said, but he quickly smirked, "But coming here was a waste, cause if there really is a legendary pokemon up top there, it's mine!"

Alan returned the smirk right back, "Really? You wanna bet on that?"

Lloyd jumped up and smiled happily, "A bet! I'm in! I put mine on Alan, he's definitely gonna beat Johnny!"

"Hey!" Johnny said angrily, and Alan turned towards Tony, "You want some of this?"

Tony shrugged, "Not really, but…but $50.00 on…" Tony looked at Alan, then Johnny, then Alan again, "Johnny. Sorry Alan, but he's been adventuring more then you have, and if I'm gonna bet, I'm gonna win."

"So how we gonna do this?" Johnny asked, "A race for whoever catches the legendary first?"

"No, what if there's no Legendary?" Lloyd responded, "It should just be a race to the top, then if there is a legendary, the winner can try to catch it first!"

"Hey, nice thinking Lloyd!" Johnny complimented, "So…when do we start?"

"Right…Now!" Alan suddenly yelled, and a pokeball dropped from his sleeve to reveal an Electabuzz.

"See ya later Johnny!" Alan called as his Electabuzz picked him up and they started trotting off, Alan laughing they ran.

"Hey! Bastard!" Johnny growled and Suddenly Tony's Pidgeot was in front of him, Johnny looked up in surprise at Tony, "what?"

"I said it earlier, I'm not gonna lose this bet, now he got a head start, do what you can!" Tony cried, and Johnny nodded, the large bird taking off, Johnny in tow.

"Hey! You can't do that! Go Raichu!" Lloyd called, and the electric mouse came out, "Now! Shockwave the Pidgeot!" Lloyd called and Tony jumped, "What are you doing!"

The Raichu sparked and an electric bolt sped towards the Pidgeot, which was already a speck in the sky. Tony watched as the bolt hit, causing an explosion, and the bird suddenly fell towards the ground.

Tony set off at a run, speeding towards his bird, and he looked back to see Lloyd hot on his trail.

Johnny released his Snorlax seconds before impact, and him and the Pidgeot bounced to the ground.

"Ow…" Johnny grimaced, rubbing his butt as he recalled Snorlax, "Pidgeot, can you still walk?"

The large bird stood up shakily, and it tried to spread it's wing, but it was paralyzed and couldn't. The bird still nodded, and Johnny carefully mounted it, and they began to walk. A noise behind him made him turn, just in time to see Alan and his Electabuzz zoom past.

"Damn!" Johnny cried, and the Pidgeot sped up. Johnny pulled his pokeball off his belt and released it, ushering his pokemon a few words before continuing on.

Alan stood in front of a large cave entrance, and smirked, "This will be easy, right Electabuzz?" The Electabuzz nodded in agreement, and sniffed the air.

"Let's go!" Alan said triumphantly, but the Electabuzz wouldn't budge. "What's wrong?"

The Electabuzz sniffed again and just shook its head, forcing Alan to recall him. Alan sighed, and walked into the dark cave himself. The cave lead up and up, and Alan followed the path slowly, being careful of unsteady rocks.

"Ha, this path is so narrow Johnny wouldn't even be able to pass me." Alan whispered, looking behind him. Johnny wasn't in sight, but Alan stopped dead when he noticed his shadow was in a different position as him. He did a double take, and the shadow was back to normal, and he just shrugged it off. Turning to look in front of him he came face to face with a grinning smile.

"Ahhhh! Whoa!"

Johnny came to a cave entrance and told the Pidgeot to wait there for Tony, and Johnny sent out his Electrode, who rolled in front of Johnny. Entering the cave he found Alan sprawled on the bottom of the cave, rubbing his head.

"Hey!" He yelled, and Johnny only laughed, and began running, the Electrode ahead of him.

As he traveled up the path quickly, he stumbled here and there. He suddenly hit a loose rock and crashed to the ground with a loud, "Oof." Something was laughing in front of you, and Johnny looked up to see his Gengar sitting on a rock.

"Damn you, you are useless!" Johnny growled, recalling the Ghost and standing back up. Suddenly Johnny felt someone grab his collar and pull back, sending him sprawling backwards. He spotted Alan running ahead of Johnny, and Johnny swore as he fell. He suddenly hit something hard and moaned in pain. He looked over his shoulder to see his Electrode holding him up.

"Thanks buddy, come on lets go!" Johnny said and the Electrode grinned, moving ahead of Johnny.

Tony spotted the cave entrance with his Pidgeot in front of it before he actually reached the cave. He recalled the bird as he ran past, not stopping for a second. Suddenly Tony felt something rope around his leg and lift him up. He spotted Lloyd running under him and up the path, and struggled against the Dragonair that held him by its tail in the air. Tony released his Grimer, which slithered up the Dragonair's lithe body and swept over its face. The Dragonair screeched in pain as it dropped Tony, who landed with a thump on the ground.

Tony recalled his Grimer and the Dragonair flew past him, after it's trainer. Tony sent out his Blastoise and smirked, "Ok Blastoise, lets show that cheating rat what we can do."

The Blastoise roared and nodded, it's guns emerging with a loud clank, and Tony jumped on it's shell. It took a few lumbering steps as a head start and the water jets burst on, blasting them forwards. The Blastoise was running up the path and quickly caught up to Lloyd. Without stopping, the Blastoise grabbed Lloyd with its arm in a sort of full nelson and kept running Lloyd held captive.

Alan and Johnny both met in front of large boulders that needed moving. Johnny's Snorlax was at work, busy digging its hands into the rocks and pushing, as Alan would have his dark black Onix move the stones with its head. While they were working, Tony and his Blastoise, along with Lloyd emerged behind them. Tony quickly had Blastoise drop Lloyd, and start helping Snorlax move the boulders.

Lloyd stood up angrily and his Primape helped the Onix, beating on the stones to weaken them. At almost precisely the same time, Johnny and Alan created the path and started to run towards the peak. As they met, practically cheek-to-cheek, they ran. They were virtually tied and the came around a large rock, stopping mid-step at the sight they saw.

Tony and Lloyd bumped into them from behind and looked over their shoulders.

A large Flaming bird was cawing as an elderly man fell back. The Bird's Talons flashed dangerously, and Tony could see the bird was wounded. The man stood up quickly, right as one of the bird's claws raked towards him. The man quickly raised his cane, and deflected the claw in a quick flash of light. Immediately after, the man threw a pokeball into the bird and it opened up.

The man turned, and the flames from the bird swirled behind him, into the pokeball. He spread his arms out wide, laughing. The flames ripped across the ground as they were drawn, the light from the flames dancing on his coat and in his eyes. Tony noticed one eye had a large scar down it and could also see the man was not as elderly as he seemed, actually looking muscular.

"Straker Winfield." Was all he said, and fire consumed all, rushing across the ground as it whipped in front of the man, obscuring their view of him. When the flames finally were completely captured, the man was gone, along with the Pokeball.

"Who…who was that?" Lloyd asked breathlessly, and they all let out the breath they didn't realize they were holding.

"I think that was Straker Winfield." Johnny replied and Lloyd threw him a dirty look, scowling.

"What was that? That pokemon?" Alan asked and Tony shrugged, "It reminded me of my Articuno I caught."

"Articuno?" Alan asked, and Tony shook his head, "Forget it, we have to get this meteorite to that guy, come on guys."

"What about you Alan, what are you gonna do?" Lloyd asked and Alan shrugged.

As they left, Alan decided he was gonna stay behind and they exchanged goodbye's once again, as Tony's Pidgeot, who Tony healed up, flew all three of them slowly back to the monster Pokecenter.

END
That one was really short though. Probably cause I rushed a bit, I dunno why. Either way, it doesn't matter since I'm writing and your reading. yeah. suck on that. THANK YOU LOYAL READERS, you don't have to suck on anything unless you really want to.
AW SHUCKS.
PEACE.