Pokemon Adventures: Where Legends Cross
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon Adventures/Special.
My main goal is to upload at least one chapter per week. So far this isn't so bad... hopefully, we'll be able to see some more characters by the end of this months. Let's move!
Began writing April 16th, 2011. Currently drafting Chapter 19.
Chapter 3. Vs. Tentacruel: Kyogre's Locker
- Ferry en route to Castelia City -
Pearl was in a good mood.
Besides the fact that their journey was going smoothly with the waters fairly calm - relatively speaking, of course -, there were plenty of Trainers lounging around, hungry for battle. Pearl, wishing to sharpen his skills for their upcoming adventure, had challenged a good number of them.
He hadn't lost so far.
"That one went great, Pikahiko!" He exclaimed to his newly-caught Rotom as it floated alongside him, making their way to lunch. "We gave a nasty shock to that guy with a Claydol, right? Yeah, you should've seen his face when you amphed a Shadow Ball in its face!" Pikahiko chittered gleefully beside him, as if enjoying his excitement.
"Heayphearl commovearan eaddeserf - "
"Coming, coming," chuckled Pearl as he walked over to one of the tables where Diamond was waiting. As usual in every mealtime, his mouth was completely stuffed with food (not unlike Lax, who was still munching away beside his Trainer) as he held out an ice cream cone out at Pearl. Receiving it with a thankful nod, Pearl quickly devoured it - not forgetting to give Pikahiko some - as he walked on again to seek more Trainers to battle.
"I say," he said suddenly, stopping in the middle of a corridor to look at the little Rotom behind him. "How about challenging the ship's captain? It's possible that he's not a Trainer, but it's worth a shot, right?"
An excited chitter. That meant yes.
"All right, here we go!" Pearl half-shouted enthusiastically, returning Pikahiko to its Poke Ball (which was a Timer Ball, by the way) before racing headlong down the corridor that led to the captain's cabin - or at least, he thought it would.
Thankfully there were next to no people in the hall itself to slow him down, so he ran on unheeding, weaving around corners and seldom-found obstacles like a hunting Seviper - getting several annoyed looks and stepped-on feet in the process. Those Pearl could live with (and apologize later), but as he skidded into the seventh corner he saw too late a short figure about three inches in front of his nose -
SLAM!
"Oof!" Pearl and whoever he had smacked into cried out and fell backward from the impact, hitting the floor almost simultaneously.
"Ow! Can't people watch where they're going these days?" Pearl muttered as he sat up dazed, realizing half a second late that it was the wrong thing to say; such response was almost automatic for the impatient fourteen-year-old.
"Well, THANKS for pointing that out for me!" Snapped the other person, immediately leaping to his feet in undisguised anger. "What, first you smash into me like a blind Rhyhorn and now you're blaming me?"
"Hey! What's with that attitude?" Pearl retorted sharply, getting to his feet as well to study his angry opponent more clearly. What came into his eyes was the strangest person that he had ever seen; a very short boy with clear green eyes and a very irritated scowl on his face. That fact that he was short was further emphasized by his way-oversized clothes, with the sleeves billowing out from his arms like that of a robe. His shoes were absolutely HUGE, clearly part of an effort to make up for his height. He also had the weirdest hairdo that Pearl had ever seen, done up in a crescent shape with a large, green jewel embedded above his forehead.
"Oh, now you have a problem with my ATTITUDE?" The kid fired up at once, bringing his finger (hidden under that ridicuously long sleeve) right below Pearl's nose. "Well too bad, sunny boy! Maybe you should look ahead before you crash into someting harder!"
THAT got Pearl annoyed.
"Okay, now look here Shorty," he snapped back, pushing the kid's hand away as he glared down at him. "I'm sorry for bumping into you, but that's not a reason for you to behave like a spoiled ten-year-old you're acting like - "
Whatever he was trying to say next was drowned out by an outraged screech from the kid, who took a short leap back from Pearl with pure wrath in his eyes.
"OH, THAT'S IT!" He spat. "First you slam into me and blame me for it, then you have a problem with my attitude, and then with my height? Now you listen to me, KID - "
"YOU're calling me a kid?" Pearl roared, meeing the kid's furious eyes evenly. "Propostrous! I am SO fining you a million!"
"You can go ahead and try!"
"You got a problem with THAT, shorty?"
"THERE YOU GO AGAIN - "
"Pearl!"
The familiar third voice make Pearl swing round in time to see Diamond running toward him, his innocent eyes round with worry and questioning. "What's going on? I heard you yelling..."
"Er," Pearl hesitated, unsure of how to word the situation. Dia's eyes brought him back from his momentary blowoff, and he wasn't sure that he could explain without making a total idiot or a bastard out of himself.
His opponent had apparantly realized this as well, as he abruptly straightened himself and looked self-consciously at Diamond, though that angry look hadn't gone anywhere.
"Watch where you're going next time!" He snapped and quickly stomped away, though it looked as if he was eager to just screw the fight and leave the scene.
"It wasn't... anything serious," Pearl explained t Diamond as the ked left them, despite feeling a little guilty while looking at his friend's doubtful expression. Maybve he'll apologize a bit more properly later, if given the chance.
"If you say so," Dia relented, smiling that trademark goofy smile. "Let's go up to the deck. Some fresh air after a good meal always helps."
"Sounds good," Pearl agreed quickly, at once leading the way with Diamond trudging behind.
"Say, Pearl," the easygoing boy spoke up shortly afterwards, prompting Pearl to glance back. "About that dream..."
Pearl stopped, the unpleasant memory shooting down his spine into his limbs.
"Pearl?" Asked Dia, noticing his sudden tension tension before stopping as well. "Sorry. Shouldn't have brought it up..."
"No, it's fine," Pearl assured his friend. "It wouldn't do us good to avoid the subject."
Diamond nodded in agreement before continuing: "Are you sure it's Azelf you saw in your dreams? Not Mesprit like me?"
"It was definitely Azelf," Pearl confirmed, his expression going grim as he remembered. "She told me - yes, told me, like through telepathy - that this Unova region was in danger, and the I have to go there. And what else? Oh right, she also said something about meeting company on the way. Mesprit told you the same thing, right?"
"Yes," said Diamond, looking uncomfortable. "I asked her how she knew all this, and she said that Uxie told her. That's what got me thinking."
"Okay, what?" Pearled asked, blinking curiously as they resumed walking slowly.
"If Azelf came to you," Dia almost whispered. "And Mesprit came to me... don't you think Uxie might have..."
Pearl's eyes grew round as he guessed where this was going. "You think Platina saw Uxie in her dreams?"
Diamond nodded seriously. "If she did, then Uxie must have told her the same things... she might even be on her way to Unova herself!"
"I never thought about that," Pearl admitted as the duo finally made it up to the deck. "I hope we'll meet her again in Unova, if that's the case. Another adventure together would certainly be appreciated."
"A dangerous one," Diamond put in, his voice thick with worry. His usually easygoing partner's gloomy mood got to Pearl, luring his eyes up to the sky. At the moment the wave was pretty smooth and the ship riding it only slightly, but the greying sky conquered by clouds seemed to be promising a tougher weather within moments.
"Wow, the sky looks foul," he muttered, shaking his head in no particular reason. "Not the best condition to stay out. We'd better go back in."
"Right - wait, Pearl, look over there," said Diamond as he abruptly pointed toward the head of the ship. Following his fingertip Pearl noticed several black objects in the sky, apparantly approaching in their direction while making noises like Dia shooting out watermelon seeds whle eating one.
"Huh, helicopters in a weather like this?" Pearl said disbelivingly, narrowing his eyes at the aircrafts. As they got closer, he notinced something strange: for one thing, choppers hardly ever flew in groups of five or six, nor were they usually colored pure black. Upon more squinting Pearl realized with an inexplicable chill that each helicopter had a large red R printed on them on both sides.
"Pearl - "
"I know, this doesn't look good," said Pearl, glancing over at Diamond's anxious expression. Picking up a Poke Ball from his belt he told his friend: "Don't send out yours, they won't be able to maneuver properly on this small ship. Let me try to scout first with Perahiko and - "
"No, Pearl, the sea!" Diamond cried, abruptly throwing himself over Pearl. Moments before they hit the floor, a blast of something crimson struck the glass window above them, shattering it and the surrounding wall in a terrific explosion.
"What the - ?" Pearl yelled, rolling away with Diamond to avoid the falling glass before leaping to his feet in search of the assailant. His eyes grew round as he saw that the the part of the sea at the side if the ship was churning violently, as if hundreds of Gyarados were thrashing right beneath.
"Don, use Protect!" Diamond suddenly shouted, releasing the huge Bastiodon from his Poke Ball. As if on cue hundreds of crimson light came shooting out of the swirling maelstrom, headed straight toward the ship. Don succeeded in blocking most of the beams that came for the deck, but plenty more struck further below, wreaking havoc to the not-so-big ship.
"Diamond, don't! You'll unbalance the ship!" Pearl cried as another barrage of laser struck again, this time throwing the ship back and causing Don to stumble and crash into the wall, nearly pulverizing it.
"But - " Dia protested, even as he hurriedly returned the struggling Bastiodon to the ball.
"I'll take care of this. Go, Pikaihko, Torahiko!" Pearl shouted, throwing two balls in the air to unleash his Luxray and Rotom. "Pikahiko, use Thunderbolt!"
The little Pokemon complied instantly, firing a powerful bolt of lightning into the midst of the churning water. It struck the surface with an incredible sizzling noise, revealing several gelatinous bodies burned black by the super-effective attack floating up to the surface where the waves quickly claimed them.
"Tentacruel!" Pearl bellowed, as a thunder rumbled from a distance as if emphasizing his cry. Now the horde of Jellyfish Pokemon openly revealed themselves from the waves, snaking and swarming their way over to the ship - still being bombarded by their jewel beams - like an alien horror movie.
"Torahiko, Thunder Fang!" Pearl yelled in succession, as one tentacled beast made its way up to the ravaged deck, only to be thrown back off fried by the Luxray's crackling bite.
"There's too many of them!" Diamond wailed as he dodged more laserbeams, unable to retaliate for the fear of damaging the ship further. "Pearl, maybe Zeruhiko can stop the from climbing up the ship and - "
"Diamond, behind you!" Pearl cried out in alarm, looking away from his fighting Pokemon to see the enormous beast flopping onto the deck just behind Diamond, its tentacles reaching out to squeeze and constrict -
"Sceptile, Leaf Blade!"
There was a sudden loud slashing noise, and the next moment a green lizardlike Pokemon popped out of nowhere, pushing an alarmed Diamond away from the tattered Tentacruel falling into the raging waves.
"That's it, Sceptile, now protect the deck!" Checking on his dazed friend, Pearl briefly looked up to see none other than the kid whom he had ran into earlier, expertly commanding the Forest Pokemon as it rushed up and down the narrow deck, cutting down Tentacruel after Tentacruel as they began clambering all over the wall.
Looking back at his two electric Pokemon, Pearl quickly ordered: "Torahiko, help that Sceptile and stop the Tentacruel from reaching the deck. Pikahiko, take out the ones in the water. Just don't damage the ship, okay?"
Nodding furiously, the two Pokemon quickly rushed off to do as told. Soon the sound of slashing blades were joined by ferocious roars, crackling noises of electricity, and the splashes of defeated Tentacruel sinking into the blue.
Pearl took the chance to slip a look at the kid. The anger was still evident in his expression, even though it wasn't directed at him. But this time there was a new air of seriousness in his deep green eyes that sent a shiver down Pearl's spine; whoever had upset these Tentacruel were unwise to have turned him an enemy.
Suddenly, the kid snapped his gaze away from the battlefield to the sky (Pearl only then noticed that the wind was beginning to pick up), an expression of utmost rage on his face.
"Oh, no you don't, TEAM ROCKET!" He shouted, flinging a Poke Ball straight up in the air. With a brilliant flash out popped a Dusknoir, who immediately crossed its thick arms to use Protect, just in time to deflect a barrage of gunfire fron the choppers up above. (A/N: Can a Dusknoir use Protect? Forgot to check.)
"No!" Diamond yelled as several shots missed and hit the hull of the ship instead, blasting huge holes in it for the water to gush through. "The ship will sink at this rate!"
Cursing under his breath, Pearl looked around to see that although their Pokemon were holding the Tentacruel back successfully, the helicopters were now opening fire in earnest, with virtually no way for them to retaliate. Yes, Diamond wasn't exaggerating when he said they'd sink.
"You're right, Dia. We might have to leave the ship," he informed his friend grimly, assessing the waves beneath him. He himself could get Zeruhiko to help him through the waves, and Diamond was born a swimmer, but the other passengers -
BOOM!
The loudest thunder Pearl had ever heard in his life had him jumping in surprise before snapping his head up at the sky. Although it wasn't raining yet, the wind was picking up violently enough to send the black clouds whirling above. and among those fissures in the darkening sky was an enormous shadow of something, its sillouette illuminated by hundreds of lightning bolts that began weaving themselves across the heavens.
"What IS that?" Diamond whispered, momentarily unaware of all the attacks the ship was facing. "Is that... a Pokemon?"
"It's not Zapdos," Pearl heard the kid mutter beside him. "The shape is wrong." Pearl had only heard about Zapdos as the great bird of legend that commands lightning, but indeed the shadow in the sky was anything but birdlike. Rather it reminded him of a genie or an ogre, but with thick edges that promised a more hideous image.
"Oh, no!" Diamond suddenly cried, and Pearl tore his eyes away from the mysterious figure to finally notice that the sky was now completely abalze with electricity, raining lightning in every direction. Diamond, who never worked well with lightning, was nearly cowering in fear as several landed near the battered ship, each impact releasing such energy that even Pearl, who was never afraid of lightning, had to shield his eyes.
"Look out above!" the kid's yell brought his gaze back to the sky. Pearl saw that the helicopters - what did the kid call them, Team Rocket? - had quit trying to attack the ship, now focusing on escaping the sudden catasptophe. Unable to look away, Pearl could only watch on in horror as one of the fleeing vehicles was eventually struck down by a thunderbolt, resulting in a devastating chain-lightning that destroyed all of them instantly.
"Pearl, the Tentacruel!" Even before the shock of seeing someone being killed right in front of his eyes (though it wasn't exactly undeserving) for the first time could settle in, Diamond's wail had Pearl take notice of their marine assailants again.
He instantly wished he hadn't.
Apparantly their attackers had failed to escape the wrath of the crazystorm, and again Pearl could only watch in utmost horror as one by one (or group by group) the lightning claimed them, some of them vaporizing instantly while others were incinerated into ask, and the unluckier ones... it was sick enough watching.
"If you've got time to go sightseeing - " The kid's annoyed yell jerked Pearl's dazed mind back to reality, as Diamond shook his head violently beside him to get the puke-inducing images out of his head. " - do someting to get us outta this mess! Dusknoir, protect the ship!"
Sweeping his gaze around to confirm that their surroundings were at least enemy-ridden for now, Pearl looked up in despair to see that the mysterious entity wasn't about to spare the near-wrecked ship from its wrath. It continued to hide itself among the clouds, overlooking the lighning bolts showering down to the churning ocean and its lone voyager with its arms crossed. More than several had already been thrown at the ship, but the kid's Dusknoir took their blow, again and again until its sturdy body was nearly in shambles.
"We're not finished yet," the kid snarled, gritting his teeth as he glared out beyond the horizon, where their destination lay. As Dusknoir slowly descended battered next to him, he touched his Pokemon's wounds mournfully before ordering: "Dusknoir, this is an order. Use Pain Split on me."
Pearl looked at the shorter boy in shock. "If you share that much damage you'll kill yourself!" He exclaimed without thinking.
The kid glared at him with fire in his eyes.
"I. Will. Live." He hissed, turning back to the Grip Pokemon and firmly looking into its single eyes. "Do it, Dusknoir. Please."
"Pikahiko, cover the ship!" Pearl yelled, reluctantly letting his Rotom be the lightningrod for awhile as the watched the Ducknoir slowly raise its hand and rest it on the kid's shoulder, both human's and Pokemon's eyes closed. A reddish aura rose to surround them, completely enveloping them as they both twitched in unison. Before Pearl's astonished eyes Ducknoir's wounds began to heal, as numerous burns and bruises began blossoming in its Trainer's face. Soon after both of them staggered slightly as the aura dissipated, leaving both with the same amount of wounds.
"Heh... that went well," the kid smiled weakly at his healed Pokemon, looking more dead than alive. "Sorry to ask so much of you, but could you at least take a few more hits?"
The Grip Pokemon, looking as if it wanted to kill itself for doing this to its Trainer, nodded grimly before taking to the sky again to join the already-battered Pikahiko.
"Pikahiko, come back and heal!" Pearl called out to his Pokemon, fishing a Hyper Potion out of his bag as the little Rotom came over with a weak cry of compliance. Torahiko - who was thankfully fresh - trotted over as well, his task done. As Pearl hurriedly applied the spray to Pikahiko, Diamond's urgent yell slapped his ears: "Pearl, the sky!"
"What about the sk - " Pearl almost snapped a reply before his eyes saw where his friend was looking at, and his breath got caught in his throat.
The storm was apparantly not willing to let them go so easily; while the boys were all busy blocking the individual thunderbolts, the entity itself had moved directly above the ship. Now Pearl cold see a web of crackling energy dancing across the sky, the core of the web in front of the creature's sillouette: in other words, right above their heads.
"No..." the kid whispered in horror, fear finally making itself known on his face. "That thing is using Thunder... we can't fight that."
"Pikahiko! Torahiko! Return!" Pearl cried quickly, returning his Pokemon to the ball. If they couldn't escape their doom, at least he could keep his Pokemon safe.
"Dusknoir, return!" The kid yelled, following suit. "Sceptile, you t - Hey!" Hearing his command suddenly cut off, Pearl whirled around to see that the kid's Sceptile had reappeared, abruptly catching his Trainer by the waist before launching themselves out into the waves.
"Hey, wait!" Pearl cried out, but the boy was already gone.
He didn't even learn his name.
"PEARL!" Diamond's shout was nearly drowned out by an enormous blast of thunder as a colossal pillar of lightning flashed into exsistence up above. "JUMP!"
He was right. It was too late.
Without even time to glance behind and check on Diamond, Pearl leaped up to the rails and kicked hmself forward into open water. As soon as his feet left the steel -
KA - BLAMN!
However Pearl had planned to land on the water, it wasn't by being blasted off by the explosion to land face-first on the surface. There wasn't even time to feel hurt - instictively he held his breath as the waves quickly swept him off, and was rewarded by keeping his life upon resurfacing.
Now came the real problem, though: Pearl wasn't bad when it came to swimming - though he didn't have a thing on Diamond -. he wasn't exactly inside the local swimming pool, either. The storm entity's rampage had kicked up a real storm, and the violent waves tossed him this way and that about every half a second, making staying on the surface a chore. Too often the salty water would smash him under, then the underwater current would sweep him around until he couldn't tell up from down.
In desperation his groping hand closed upon a Poke Ball in his belt. It popped open immediately with a flash, and Pearl felt a pair of strong arms grab him by the shoulders as he was suddenly propelled upward onto the surface again. After a little coughing and spluttering, he smiled weakly at his savior, murmuring: "Thanks, Zeruhiko."
The tough Floatzel gavce him determined yelp, pushing itself against the incoming waves with his powerful tail. Looking back as they braved wave after wave, Pearl could see the burning remains of the ship already vanishing into the black water.
All those people...
He couldn't even mourn for them.
"Pearl!" Diamond's cry sounded like a lifesaver to him. Looking sideways he saw his friend swimming over in his direction from far away as he cut through the waves with only a slight pant; he sure was one heck of a swimmer.
"Diamond!" Pearl shouted in relief, glad to see that he at least had survived. "You made it! But what do we do now?"
"We can't swim for long in these waves," Diamond called out, his voice getting intruded on by the crashing waves and the still-rumbling thunder. "Shouldn't we at least try and find somewhere to hold on to?"
"Come over here first!" Pearl yelled in reply. "The waves might separate us again."
Diamond immediately complied, climbing over the incoming waves toward Pearl and Zeruhiko; the hyperactive boy could already feel the Floatzel tiring under carring both their weight on this rough water.
When Diamond came to around ten feet apaer from him, Pearl suddenly heard a loud rumbling noise behind him. Looking back, his eyes went wide in shock to see a massive wave, easily over nine feet in height, ready to smash down on him and Zeruhiko in full force.
"DIA, LOOK OUT!" He quickly bellowed out with the last breath he could muster, then held it quickly before his facial holes got submerged. The next moment the impact came down on his head with a deafening smack, and the next thing he knew (after the stars in his head went away) he and Zeruhiko were underwater again.
Instictively looking up, Pearl saw that Diamond had also dived in to reach them from above, but he barely had time to acknowledge that before a strong current struck them head-on, sweeping Pearl and Zeruhiko further down while carrying a startled Diamond away from them.
NO! Pearl almost screamed in horror to see his friend being swept off, and most certainly would have if he hadn't been tossed out by the next current as well.
The next several minutes (or was it even minutes? Time ceased to have any meaning) was total chaos for Pearl; the currents literally threw Pearl and Zeruhiko around so much that within seconds Pearl lost all sense of directions, and some time later whether he was alive at all.
Just when Pearl though he couldn't hold his breath any longer, he heard a despersate roar from Zeruhiko. The next moment Pearl found himself shot out of the current, still holding onto the Floatzel as they hung suspended several feet below the surface.
As soon as he realized that he was alive, Pearl's thoughts at once went to Diamond. Looking back at Zeruhiko to motion him to surface again, he saw with a sinking heart that the Sea Weasel Pokemon had already exhausted himself with the Aqua Jet technique used to propell themselves out of the current.
Zeruhiko...
No longer able to support both their weights, the Floatzel slowly began sinking deeper into the depth below. In desperation Pearl tried carrying Zeruhiko up himself, but his aching muscles made the task impossible despite his Heracrossian effort. Then he tried to get Zeruhiko to let go of him and save himself, but the Sea Weasel Pokemon stubbornly held on.
No... we can't die here! Pearl screamed inwardly, as flashes of his dream went across his head. Azelf had put her faith in him. He wasn't about to prove her wrong.
As he continued to struggle against gravity mercilessly pulling them down, Pearl could slowly feel his strength and consciousness deseting him, but he didn't give up. He was Willpower, and fate wouldn't get him so easily.
Suddenly Zeruhiko, who was still clinging onto him (or was it the other way around? Pearl couldn't tell anymore), gave out a weak cry of alarm. Looking back instictively, Pearl resisted the urge to scream in shock; the most enormous THING he had ever seen in his life was approaching them from far behind, its colossal mouth opening slowly as it began to inhale.
WAILORD! Pearl shouted inwardly as he tried desperately to push forward, but his muscles just wouldn't cooperate. Still he flailed as hard as he could, for he wasn't the type to give up and wait for death as it headed toward him with jaws open to swallow him whole.
Move, god damn it! Was Pearl's final thought before the lack of oxygen finally overtook his brain, and darkness spilled over his vision as the Wailord's mouth closed over him and Zeruhiko.
OMG, longest chapter I've ever written. *dies* Yay for Dia and Pearl, and also for our dear wicked imp, Em! Surely you would've recognized him? And for Thundurus. Yep, that was the entity in the clouds. Just wanted to give him a chance to show up. Screw you Tornadus :)
Checkup time. I forgot to mention this at the first chapter, but I gave each Dex Holder at least one new Pokemon, like Black's Bisharp and Pearl's Rotom. The reason? It'll be explained MUCH later. Although I can say that the reason is rather central to the story plot... at least in the third arc.
What the hell was Emerald doing in Sinnoh? That'll be explained later too, but I'll just tell you here that he had been challenging the Sinnoh Battle Frontier.
Hm, I think I got through everything. The next chapter we return to N and Zekrom. Until then!
Writing completed in April 20th, 2011. This is Yowl of Time, out.