Amy: Ugh, I'm sorry! So, so sorry! I got so caught up that I abandoned my collaboration partner…
Mal: Nah, that's fine! I understand how busy we girls can be. I would probably do that same… -_- Hahaha…
Disclaimer: We both don't own Pokemon.
Chapter 10: Trouble in Nacrene City
Dawn's POV
"You say," Paul said while turning towards the Plasma grunts. "That you were 'liberating' those Pokémon. Correct?"
"Yes! That is the sole goal of our glorious team!" cried the guy.
"Besides, these Pokémon don't mind," said the girl.
"Really?" Black asked sarcastically. "If they truly wanted to go with you, then would they be running behind us for protection?" The grunts blinked, and looked at their sacks, which where sliced open, and, empty.
"Wha...? God damnit!"
"Good job, Snivy!" I cried as the grass-snake came back to me, her little arms crossed and smirking. Paul, likewise, sent out his Torterra, its huge legs crushing some equipment. The grunts stared, wide-eyed at the foreign, and might I add huge, Pokémon.
"RETREAT!" cried the grunts as the turned and bolted into the Pinwheel Forest.
"Hey-!" Black cried, before he was cut off by an explosion.
"Hit the deck!" someone cried in panic, and I dived for the floor, arms over my head, my eyes squeezed shut while the ground rumbled with an after shock.
"Where the hell did that come from?" Black exclaimed loudly, helping White up. I noticed a trail of smoke coming from the museum. My eyes widened.
"This wasn't the target at all!" I cried. "They where aiming for the museum!"
"Museum... The Gym?" Paul asked as he raised an eyebrow. "But why?" He looked at Black and White, and they both shrugged.
"This was the first time they tried something so big," White said, her blue eyes glancing nervously from the smoke. "All we know is that they want to liberate Pokémon."
"Then why are we standing here?!" demanded Black. "We've gotta move!"
"I can't," White said. "I've got to stay here, with the director and the rest of the crew. I know that this is a drastic situation, but... I just can't. I'll make sure these Pokémon make it back to their trainers, and the injured get proper care."
"I understand." I said as I placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Black nodded, and Paul let out a grunt.
"We'll have to split up," Paul said. "Someone needs to go into the Pinwheel Forest, while the others head to the museum. We'll see if we can cut them off from their destination."
"I'll go through Pinwheel," Black volunteered. "I'll make them pay for messing with Prez!"
"Then we'll hurry to the gym." I nodded, and we split off.
Paul and I sprinted to the gym, and halted to a stop when we saw smoke filtering out. A smoke bomb?
"We need backup in Nacrene City!" a police guard ordered into his walkie-talkie. He turned to the other cops. "We have a hostage situation! I repeat, a hostage situation! Do not proceed without orders, and when told, proceed with upmost caution, I repeat, with upmost caution!" Regardless, we charged our way through police and found way into the museum. Hiding behind display cases, we watched as Plasma grunts walk around patrolling the area. My eyes glanced to and fro, recognizing a head of black hair and a somewhat silly green hat being dragged by.
"Paul," I whispered urgently as the passed by us. "The hostages are Cheren and Bianca!" Paul grunted a response. I noticed Cheren's arms were crossed, and he had a black eye. His red-rimmed glasses were missing. Bianca was trembling with fear. Two grunts were guarding them, with a scary looking feline-Pokémon following them. Wanting to know what it was, I pulled out the Pokèdex, but Paul stopped me. I glared at him. "What?"
"It speaks when you activate it," he informed. "Do you want us to get caught?" I let out a huff; put away the dex, knowing that Paul was right. "Judging by its looks, I'm guessing that it's the evolved form of Purrlion," he muttered, before pulling out a poké ball. With a small, unnoticed pop, he let out the Munna from the Dreamyard.
"So you did catch it!" I exclaimed in a whisper. "I thought you said it was to 'girly'."
"It knew Hypnosis. And it refused to leave me alone until I caught it."
"So it followed you? That's so sweet!" Paul responded by placing a hand over my mouth, and barely breathing. I felt my face heat up, and knew that Paul could feel it too. Arceus only knows what he's thinking. Munna floated close to its trainer, and I hoped that it wasn't see-able. A few grunts stomped past.
"I could've sworn I heard voices," a male grunt muttered.
"Probably the voices in you head," a female snickered.
"Are you suggesting I'm crazy?!"
"Not suggesting~." thee female sang. "I already knew you had a few screws loose."
"Why you-!" the male and female began arguing, and Paul let his hand drop. He put his index finger to his lips, signalling me to be quiet. He glanced at Munna, and nodded. The Pokémon turned, and made its presence known.
"What the...? How'd this get here?"
"Probably snuck in from outside." Purple rings emitted from the red gemstone on Munna's head, and slowly, the grunts fell into a deep sleep. Paul got up, looked around, and dragged one grunt into a corner. Following his lead, I dragged the female and laid her next to the male.
"What now?" I whispered as I turned back to Paul. He nodded towards the direction that the grunts dragged Cheren and Bianca, and I nodded. We quietly moved through the sections, Paul using Munna to put grunts to sleep before they noticed us. It wasn't until we hit the geology section that we ran into problems.
For reasons unknown, a pretty white stone caught my eye. I actually stopped to stare at it.
"The truth..." a voice echoed from the rock, or at least, that's what I thought."Follow the path of truth..."
"What...?" I mumbled, leaning down to get a closer look.
"Hero of Truth... Follow the path of-"
"Troublesome!"
"What?!" I snapped at Paul, angered, for some odd reason, that he interrupted the voice coming from the strange white stone. He looked at me, slightly surprised that I spoke that way to him.
"Stop staring into space, and get moving," he said, getting over his shock.
"But-" I started, although Paul decided he wasn't having any of it. He simply turned, completely ignoring me. Not wanting to get caught, I followed him through the museum.
We soon left the geology section, and came across a bunch of grunts. There seemed to be two groups: those who guarded the hostages, and those who were studying the huge skeleton in the middle of the room. It must've been the main exhibit or something, and from one glance, I knew it was a Dragonite fossil. The huge horn on its forehead gave it away.
Curiously, I watched as the grunts studied the fossil using high-tech machinery. Seems that they aren't just anti-trainer activists after all.
"Sir!" a grunt turned towards a man in purple robes. "Scientific evidence shows that this skeleton is not in anyway relevant to the legendary Pokémon and, therefore, our plans."
"Fine, then." answered the guy in robes. "Release the hostages and retreat." Suddenly, a smoke bomb went off, causing a loud boom to echo throughout the building. I let out a shriek, and Paul grunted, waiting for the rumbling to calm down. When the smoke cleared, Team Plasma was gone. There was silence for a moment, before Bianca began sniffling.
"Cheren! Bianca!" I yelled as I got up. "Are you alright? What happened?"
"I'm not quite sure myself," Cheren said as he got up, and then helped a bawling Bianca to her feet. Digging into his pocket, he pulled out a pair of glasses almost exactly the same as his original pair. "Bianca and I were just walking through the museum, both just fresh from our Gym battle. We were both victorious, by the way." Paul grunted, urging them on. Cheren coughed, trying to clear away the awkwardness. "Suddenly, there was an explosion, farther away."
"That was White's acting set!" I exclaimed. "Team Plasma attacked it, and tried to steal the Pokémon."
"It interrupted our own battle," Paul said, nodding. "I think it was just a distraction."
"Yes," Cheren said, pushing his glasses up with his index finger. "Neither of us were sure if it was safe, so we ducked and covered behind one of the display cases. Suddenly, there was another explosion, just to the right of our hiding spot, and a bunch of Plasma grunts stormed in. They grabbed us, and when I tried to speak, they hit me."
"That's why his glasses are gone," Bianca sniffled, wiping her nose. I looked at them, and noticed one thing missing.
"Guys... do you have all your Pokémon?" Cheren looked at his shoes, and Bianca burst into a new fit of tears. Cheren was the first to speak up.
"They took my Purrlion and Bianca's Minccino, so we would follow orders," Cheren explained slowly, almost shamefully. "They used our first Pokémon as hostages so that we'd be cooperative hostages."
"Oh...oh, Bianca..." I wasn't really sure what to say. I couldn't bare the thought of loosing any of my Pokémon, let alone Piplup, my very first. I looked down at the penguin Pokémon, and even he seemed forlorn.
"I just want Minnie back!" Bianca cried childishly, tears streaming down her face. "I want Minnie!"
"Bianca," Paul said, surprisingly somewhat gentle with his approach. If you turn your head to the side and squint, that is. "You and I both know that crying like a child isn't going to bring... 'Minnie' back." Paul said the nickname with some distaste. He wasn't one to give much love or compassion to Pokémon, let alone nickname them.
"That's right!" I exclaimed with determination. "If we want to get Minnie and Purrlion back, then we gotta track down Team Plasma!"
"I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!" White said as she bowed apologetically to the director. Paul and I had quickly earned our Basic Badge, and Black, although entirely enthusiastic about battling, decided to stay behind and help White clean up. Now, White is apologizing for the equipment that Paul and I had accidentally destroyed in our battle.
"You'd better be!" the director shouted. "Do you know how much this is going to cost?! And you're still paying off debt from when that ruckus," he pointed over at Black, "destroyed our first set! You better learn to choose better employees, Ms. White, or jobs from me and other companies might be few and far between!" and with that, he angrily stomped off, while White looked through her near empty wallet.
"White, I'm sorry..." I said slowly and tentatively. Black had informed us of White getting super strength from no where whenever she was really happy or mad, one time flinging him around like a rag doll.
"It's alright," White said, her smile strained. "Accidents happen, don't they?"
"I guess so," Paul muttered, looking away.
"It won't take to long for the debt to be paid off..." White continued. "With Sinnoh Pokémon in Unova? BW agency will be in high demand for a while, so long as you two don't mind bringing Pokémon from your PC."
"I'm sure our families will be happy to deliver them to us," I promised with a nod.
"Is there anything else?" Paul asked. "I don't want to be travelling through Pinwheel Forest at night."
"Yes, one smaller thing," White added, typing something into her Crosstranciever. A small ding came from my own device, and I looked at it. A tiny sprite of White appeared, along with her name and phone number. A few minutes later, the same thing with Black came. Judging by Paul, he also received the two messages. "Those are our numbers."
"If you spot Team Plasma, or need some Unova advice, just call one of us," Black suggested.
"Our next shoot is in Castelia, just past Pinwheel Forest," White continued, "your Pokémon, Dawn, were naturals, and I think that your reputation will also help us. Not only with Gigi and Tep staring in the shoot, but your Eevee will make a special appearance, along with Paul's Torterra." She bowed down to us gracefully. "Thank you, so much."
"Anytime!" I chirped. I jabbed Paul in the side, and he glared at me.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." he said.
"I'll call you soon! And we'll keep a sharp eye out for Team Plasma!" I called as I hurried to catch up with Paul, who was already entering Pinwheel Forest.
Amy: I still feel like a jerk to you all…
Mal: No, I swear, this was a great chapter, so the readers won't mind! You guy better review, since Amy is in a sad mood! I'll…shave Paul's eyebrows off if you don't!