Chapter 2
That evening, Alice was in a spare apartment of the pokemon center that her group was staying for some time. The room had two beds, a desk with a mirror on top of it, and a small bathroom. Originally, the two beds were for Alice and her uncle Black Jack, but since Jerry joined the group Black Jack gave his bed up to him since he doesn't sleep.
She sat at the desk and was looking at the mirror while brushing her shoulder length hair wearing her usual attire and noticed Jerry walking in with a tired look on his face. Exhausted, he fell on top of his bed with his face on the pillow.
"Hey, Jerry," Alice said with a smile on her face.
"Hey," Jerry muffled in a tired voice. "What'cha doin'?"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you. I have to go soon."
Jerry slowly turned his head towards Alice. "Oh? Meeting someone?" he asked as Alice tied her hair into a ponytail.
"Yeah, Keith Marsden."
"What?" Jerry yelled in an alarmed way as he quickly sat up on his bed. "That guy's a jerk!"
"Hey?" Alice responded in a confused tone.
"I battled him the other night, before the boss took me in," Jerry said while moving his hands, expressing his feelings towards that past battle. "He told me he was Keith himself!"
Alice began questioning Jerry about Keith's appearance such as the clothes he wore and what colour and style his hair had. And each question Jerry answered matched the young teen that Alice had been hanging around with.
"Jerry, Keith was probably putting his game face on when he was battling with you," Alice said theoretically. "My uncle's always like that."
"Alice, as your best friend, I'm begging you, don't…"
Jerry suddenly fell asleep and collapsed on his bed due to the exhaustion from the long and tiring training that Black Jack gave him all day. "Poor Jerry," Alice thought to herself in concern as she covered the blanket over her friend. "Training all day and night."
As she got to the door, she looked back at Jerry. "Goodnight, Jerry," she whispered to herself. "I'll keep everything in mind."
Downstairs in the main hall of the Pokemon Center, Black Jack was sitting on one of the benches reading a newspaper. As he read, he heard sliding doors opening and some footsteps coming towards him but he didn't look up from his paper. "Hey, Keith," he said, sounding as though he was expecting him.
"How did you know it was me?" Keith asked sounding quite surprised.
"Well, you did say that you'd meet Alice here," Black Jack replied as he placed the newspaper aside. "Y'know, it's kinda weird when you save a man's niece and then ask her out on a date."
"Er… it's not a date," Keith replied in defence. "It's just two friends going to a non-fancy restaurant to have dinner, have a nice little chat and not kissing."
"Uh-huh, sure," Black Jack replied in an unconvinced tone while nodding his head.
They noticed someone coming their way and turned their attention to that person. It was Alice, who was wearing her everyday clothing. "Hi, Keith," she said smiling.
"Hi," Keith replied back, blushing slightly. "You look… nice."
"Thanks," Alice replied back, now also blushing a tinted pink. "Ready?"
"Yep, ready."
As they walked away they said and waved Black Jack their goodbyes. "Be careful out there," Black Jack replied. As Alice and Keith walked out of the center, Black Jack had a small smile on his face noticing how grown up his niece had become. "My brother's daughter…" he said softly to himself.
Alice and Keith walked down the streets of Lilycove City. There was an awkward quietness between for a few minutes them but Alice spoke. "So, Keith," she said. "Where are we going?"
"Nothing special," Keith replied. "It's just a fast food restaurant."
"That's okay. As long as there's no trouble going around, that's fine."
But as they walked down the road, they were unaware that they were being spied upon as a shadowy figure, wearing a black cloak that covered all over his body, was staring down on them from the top of a nearby building. "That Keith…" he grumbled. "Why is he with that girl?"
After some time walking, Alice and Keith got to their destination but discovered that it was almost completely packed. "A lot of people here," Keith said noticeably. "At least there's no queue."
"I got an idea," Alice said. "How about we take the food as a takeaway and eat in the park?"
"Yeah, good idea," Keith replied as he placed his hand on his stomach. "I'm getting pretty hungry anyway."
Somewhere, in a dark room with various controllers, a number of people in blue pirate clothing were looking through different monitors. In the center of the room stood a six-foot five, medium built man wearing blue jeans, black jacket with a stripy blue and white t-shirt underneath, and a blue bandanna on his head. He had a scar shaped like a cross on his right cheek and an eye patch on his left eye. He looked down on a cloaked figure with anger in his eyes.
"You're sure?" he snarled.
"Positive," the cloaked man replied. "I saw it with my own eyes."
"That brat cannot betray us!" the man snarled.
Meanwhile, Black Jack was resting on the roof with a bottle of beer next to him. He was thinking some random thoughts. His pokemon were resting in the pokemon center.
"Hey, Black Jack," sent a girly voice. Black Jack sat up in surprise and looked around and saw two Gardevoirs standing next to each other, holding paws. One of them had a scar in the middle of her face. Black Jack became slightly surprised when he saw them.
"Hey, Sonya, Orion," Black Jack said, recognising them. "I guess that means that Cassandra and Wally must've brought you guys here."
Five years ago, Black Jack and a young girl named Cassandra had a short rivalry because of their attitudes between each other. But after they defeated a street gang called the Rocket Revengers, they began to respect for each other.
Some time later after that, Cassandra discovered that her Gardevoir, Sonya, fell in love with Wally's Gardevoir, Orion. After some convincing, Sonya had the courage to confess her feelings towards Orion, which he admitted that he fell for her too and they had been dating ever since.
"(We're on holiday as you can tell, Black Jack)," Orion sent. "They're on a date tonight, though they don't like to admit it."
"You guys trained hard to speak into people's minds," Black Jack said. "Can we have a little chat or are you guys on a date as well?"
"(We're just floating about)," Sonya sent. "(Sure we can stay and chat…)"
Meanwhile, Alice and Keith were eating their takeaway dinner as they looked up to the dark skies, watching the stars.
"Hey, look," Alice said pointing to a bunch. "That looks like a baby Pichu. See that small zigzag tail and the medium sized ears?
"Yeah," Keith said noticeably and then spotted another bunch that displayed another shaped. "Hey! Those shapes look like two Arcanines killing each other just for a scrap of meat."
Keith let out a small laugh while Alice looked awkwardly at him. "I never done this before," Keith said.
"My folks and I do this a lot," Alice said. "My uncle once told me that stars like those tell stories. Like those two Arcanines you spotted, they're not fighting over a scrap of meat. If I remember correctly that's the story about an Arcanine called Ranger, who wanted to leave his group of his own kind to be with his mate Katrina, who came from another group of Arcanines and Growlithes.
"But the bad leader of that group, called Wildfire, wouldn't have that because she came from another group and they got into a fight, which was a long and bad one. Katrina didn't want to see her mate get hurt anymore and got in Wildfire's way.
"Wildfire was about kill her instead but another Arcanine from Katrina's group and saved her and Ranger from them in a nick of time. They welcomed him into the group and accepted him as one of their own. It's kinda romantic and heart warming if you think about it, right, Keith?"
"Yeah," Keith replied uneasily. "Nice story."
"Something wrong, Keith?" Alice asked, sensing some negatives feelings from him.
"I've been wondering…" Keith started, and then he let out a small sigh as he turned his head away from her, sounding like he had given up like something wasn't worth it. "No, it's nothing."
"Keith," Alice said as she placed her hand on his shoulder, unaware that that made him blush a small tinted pink colour on his face. "What's wrong? You can tell me."
"It's just that for the past few years, I…" Keith started again but then stopped. He let out another sigh. "It's nothing…" he said as he moved her hand away from him. "I gotta go."
Keith got up to his feet and started walking away but Alice couldn't let her friend go feeling saddened with an unknown reason. "Keith, wait," Alice called loudly yet softly.
Keith stopped and looked back towards Alice, looking at her sad face. He slowly turned away from her and was about to walk away again but he spotted a few suspicious shadowy figures coming towards him. "What the…" he thought.
He quickly turned round and saw Alice looking the other way, spotting a few more shadowy figures coming towards them. Soon, they discovered that they were being surrounded. As the figures came closer and closer, the colours of their clothing became more visible. They were wearing pirate-like clothing such as blue bandannas and blue and white stripy t-shirts.
"Well, well… at last, we meet Lisa Hummingburg," said one the pirates as she stepped forward, much to Lisa's surprise. She was standing at least six-foot tall and had long red hair, wore long blue trousers, black high heeled boots, blue and white stripy t-shirt with a blue vest over it, and a blue bandanna on her head.
"How did she know my name?" Alice asked herself in thought as she and Keith stood back to back.
"What are you doing out here? And so alone?" the woman asked in an evil tone. She then looked at Keith. "Well, Keith," she said. "Been looking for more grunts to do the dirty work for you or are you planning on leaving us?"
"What? Keith, is she saying…" Alice asked, noticing something suspicious is going on.
Keith was about to explain but the woman yelled everyone that sided with her to attack Alice. Everyone lobbed out their pokeballs and released their pokemon, which turned out that they were all water types such as Walerins, Cloysters and Golducks.
Alice took out two pokeballs off her belt. "Big Brother! Glacia!" she yelled as she tossed them out. "Let's go!"
Her two pokeballs released a huge brown bear with a ring on his midsection and a small yet fierce black weasel with claw-like paws.
Keith also took out two pokeballs of his own. "Umbreon! Alakazam! Go!" Keith yelled as he tossed them out, releasing a small black dog with ring patterns on different parts of his body and a mystical creature holding a spoon on each paw. "Unless you and your lackeys want to avoid pain, Ruth, I suggest you leave us alone for good!" Keith yelled towards the opposition. "I'm not part of you anymore!"
"Keith?" Alice thought in shock and concern. "Was he a part of this team?"
"You dare betray us?" Ruth yelled. "Very well, we have showed you what it's like to betray the team that you belong to… Team Ocean!"
"Team Ocean…" Alice thought as she listened intently. "I gotta warn my uncle about them… if I can get out of this alive."
"I belong to nobody!" Keith yelled.
"I knew you'd be stupid enough to fight against us, you fool," Ruth said. "Attack!"
Everyone yelled out their attack commands to
their respective pokemon, engaging in a hectic battle. For Keith,
Alice and their pokemon, they were in for a fight of their lives.
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