Inferno, Chapter 13
Hey everybody, sorry about the delay. I've had a bad case of writer's block and that prevented me from updating any of my stories. Be that as it may, I'm here and ready to take this story to the next phase. However, keep in mind that the end is coming, and probably faster than what you would expect. It all depends how much more I can milk out of this without it becoming another story entirely. At any rate, let's start things off; Story Spotlight; Snowflakes, by BoomShroom. Ratings; 1st) United States 2nd) Canada 3rd) Australia. At this moment in time, 4th and 5th place do not exist.
Safety At Last?
Blaze woke up groggily after Loki prodded him a couple of times. He yawned and blearily asked
"What's going on?" Loki sported a wide grin and told him
"We're here. We've got about five minutes until we land, so you need to fasten your seat belt." Exhilarated, Blaze fumbled with the straps before finally clicking them into place, then trying to see outside the window, which was hard since Loki had that seat. Loki chuckled and told him
"Relax, we'll be there shortly, and you'll be able to see everything your heart desires." Blaze nodded, a grin spreading which he could not conceal, not that he wanted to. He drew out Lora's pokeball and spoke to it, regardless of whether or not she could hear him.
"We're almost there, Lora." He replaced it in his pocket and braced himself for the landing, which was a new experience for him altogether. Once the light had dimmed and Loki said he could, Blaze undid the seat belt and jumped up, banging his head against the ceiling of the plane.
"Ow!" he shouted, coupled with muttered curses, clasping his hands on top of his head. Many of the passengers eyed him suspiciously, but Loki came to his aid.
"Sorry everybody, he's just excited. Never saw much out of his house, and now he's in a region that's new to him." The rest of the passengers then turned back to their business, and Loki looked at Blaze with something in his eye that said he was going to be giving Blaze quite a lecture. Blaze rolled his eyes and grabbed the pack he had brought with him, which only contained the clothes that Loki had bought for his benefit and the few reusable supplies Lora had "purchased".
After five minutes of waddling around, Blaze finally got out of the airplane and took a deep breath of the region's air. It smelled like hope to him, with no hint whatsoever of Team Rocket. He inhaled it deeply, appreciating his analogy, until Loki grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to the side of a building, then whispering loudly
"What are you thinking?! If you give us away, all that work means nothing! Don't you understand that?" Blaze rolled his eyes again and replied
"I don't know what you're getting so worked up about. It was one little thing that didn't point fingers in any direction. Besides, even if Team Rocket had been informed, we'd be battling them already. We're in the clear." Loki inhaled and exhaled deeply, then looked Blaze in the eye and said
"Be that as it may, you shouldn't take extraneous risks." Blaze scoffed and moved past him, telling him
"I already know that. Now let's get a move on. I want to see more of this region and all it has to offer. Which direction are we heading? And come to think of it, where are we?" Loki shook his head slowly, then led Blaze to the Pokemon Center. There he pointed at a map and said
"Alright, we're here in Mistralton City, the only city in Unova with a general airport. My friend lives here," he pointed his finger to a new location, almost completely on the other side of the map and south a- ways "in Straiton City." Blaze looked over the total distance and whistled, saying
"Wow, that's going to take a while to walk, isn't it?" Loki smiled and told him
"All the better for sight-seeing. And the best part is, here in Unova, keeping your pokemon out with you is sort of a fad." Blaze's eyes lit up and he rushed outside, closely followed by Loki. Once out, Blaze quickly took out Lora's pokeball and held it up, saying
"Come on out!" The ball opened up with a resounding popping noise and the bright, silvery energy burst out, settled on the ground, and resolved into the form of Lora. She looked around her, then stretched. Finally she asked Blaze
"Did we do it?" He grinned and replied happily
"Yup! We're finally out of Kanto!" Lora merely sighed in relief.
"At long last, our suffering comes to an end, or so I hope." Both Loki and Blaze nodded in agreement, and Lora looked around the currently verdant lands.
"Is it safe for me to be out right now?" Blaze nodded and Loki told her
"Yeah, you're good. Right now there's a sort of fad goin' on about having your pokemon out with you, so that works in our favor." Lora nodded and asked
"Where do we travel now?" Loki pulled out his map and showed her exactly what he had shown Blaze, and when he finished she looked up and asked
"Are we going to teleport there and save time?" Blaze scoffed and retaliated
"And miss out on the gorgeous scenery? I don't think so. We're walkin'." Lora grinned and shook her head, then asked jovially
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go!" The two began to walk off, visibly more relaxed than they could ever have been in Kanto. Loki chuckled and called out
"Hey, do you two even know where you're going?" They both stopped and looked at each other, then burst out laughing. Of course they didn't. Loki shook his head and walked up them, saying
"Well, first off, you're going the wrong way. We need to go through there first." He was pointing to the entrance of a cave where a soft blue light was emanating. Blaze eyed it warily and said
"Are you sure that's the only way?" Loki smirked and whipped out his map, tracing the region in the other direction and saying
"Of course not, but unless you'd rather spend the next three or four months traversing the region, as opposed to a couple of weeks, then by all means keep going in your current direction. Otherwise," he said, rolling up the map and using it as a pointer "that cave is our route to go."
Blaze and Lora looked at each other again and shrugged, then they turned to him and said simultaneously
"Lead the way." Loki chuckled and began to walk toward the cave, Blaze and Lora following behind him. Inside, the cave was lit up with strangely glowing, electric blue crystals. Lora walked up to one and laid a hand against it, slightly shocked by the electricity coursing through it. She automatically pulled her hand away from it and waved it around to rid it of the numbness that had followed. She massaged the hand as she asked
"What is this place?" Loki responded
"This is called Chargestone Cave, aptly named for the crystals that course with electric power. No one's sure why it happens, though research is under way, but we do know this much; the charges the crystals give off give other, smaller crystals the ability to float in mid-air." Blaze's and Lora's eyes widened in shock and disbelief. Loki laughed and said
"Yeah, I know, but you'll believe it once you see it. Anyway, the floating stones can sometimes cause a block in the road, so to speak. However, if you push it in the direction of a larger crystal boulder, it will zoom toward it and stick to it like a magnet." Blaze shook his head, eyes still wide, and said
"That sounds impossible." Loki chuckled and replied
"Well then, why don't we venture on and test your claim?" They began to walk forward again, but after a short while, Blaze paused and said
"Hold on." Lora and Loki stopped and watched as he removed the first layer of clothing he wore, revealing the fire-retardant clothes Lora had made for him which made him look the part of a Blaziken. Loki shuffled nervously, asking Blaze
"Are you sure you want to do that? You're still conspicuous, you know." Blaze shrugged and replied
"We can just say I'm a Pokefan. I happen to like Blaziken. End of story." Lora shook her head sadly while Loki pinched his nose. Then he sighed and said
"Alright, your choice. Let's keep moving." They did so, eventually coming across a large, bright blue floating crystal that blocked their path. Loki grinned smugly at Blaze and said
"Told ya." Blaze moved forward and inspected the crystal for a moment. Then he backed up a couple of steps, took a running start, and jump-kicked the crystal. He slammed against it with all his momentum and promptly crashed back to the floor. He grumbled as he stood back up, brushing himself off.
"Are you alright?" He grumbled again and said
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why didn't that work?" Loki grinned again and replied
"You were trying to act against the pulling force of the original boulder. Try again in another direction." Blaze grunted and moved to another side of the crystal and repeated his maneuver. This time, the crystal flew away, revealing the rest of the path, crashing into the boulder with a resounding bang, followed by electrical crackling. Blaze shook his head and said
"That's just weird." Loki nodded, then continued down the path.
Several hours later, the trio walked out the other end of Chargestone Cave, though the light outside was very dim, as it was now sunset. Blaze looked at this phenomenon and said
"What the hell? How is it sunset already?" Loki chuckled and told him
"I guess you're not familiar with the time-difference factor." Blaze and Lora frowned, and Lora asked
"Time-difference factor?" Loki nodded and began to explain.
"Yes, you see, the various regions are in different areas of the world, which means that the sun hits it during different time periods. To amend for this, time zones were created so that the position of the sun is reflected in each region. Unova is about three to four hours ahead of Kanto, so while it's still bright and sunny there, it's darkening over here." Blaze and Lora took several minutes to try and process this information. Blaze pretty much gave up, but in time Lora said
"Okay, I think I have it. So, where do we go from here?" Loki pulled out the map again and showed it to her. Then he said
"It's fairly straightforward; the path pretty much does the work for us. All we have to do is follow it." Lora nodded, Loki put the map away, and Blaze said
"But for now we should probably make camp." Loki looked around and agreed.
"Yeah, this spot's as good as any. Then we can get up bright and early tomorrow and keep going." Blaze and Lora nodded in agreement. They removed the packs from their shoulders and started setting up their tent while Loki did his. After they finished, Lora gathered up firewood, which Blaze set ablaze. Loki began to prepare their dinner, and for the moment all was peaceful.
Soon enough, their dinner was ready, and as they ate, they listened to the various sounds of the night that permeated the region, mostly the Woobats and Swoobats. But there were also other nocturnal creatures, just not as prominent. Once they finished, they went straight to bed.
The Next Morning…
Blaze and Lora woke up, feeling slightly refreshed, if still a bit flustered by the time difference. Nevertheless, they exited the tent, greeted warmly by Loki, who already had breakfast ready for them. They ate merrily, reveling in the freedom they could now partake in.
Once their breakfast was eaten and the camp was broken, they continued on their journey. However, they were held up when they approached a building, as a line of caterpillar-like pokemon came crawling out of the forest, herded by a couple of large, mantis-like bugs. One of them saw the trio and began to greet them until she saw Blaze. She practically fainted upon seeing him and quickly rushed over to her friend, motioning at Blaze. When she looked, her reaction was nearly identical to the first's, and Blaze crossed his arms in irritation, asking
"Alright, what's your deal?" The two mantis-like pokemon didn't answer; instead, they darted to him and picked him up, asking Lora
"Could you watch over the children for us while we attend to this tragedy?" Struck dumb, Lora simply nodded, which made Blaze start yelling.
"Hey, what are you agreeing for?! Get me away from these loons! Help! Kidnap! Robbery! Something!" One of the Leavanny carrying him sighed in exasperation and set him down long enough to weave a gag, effectively shutting Blaze up.
"We aren't going to harm you; we're simply fixing the tragedy that is your garment." And with that, Blaze was carried off into the woods. Loki and Lora were just staring at the place where they had disappeared, at least until one of the Sewaddle latched itself to Lora's leg, causing her to shudder briefly. She gently detached it and set it with its brothers and sisters, not having a particular liking for bugs, given that she was a Psychic type. Thank Arceus they weren't Dark, though. Loki approached and said
"Well, I guess we have a task on our hands until those Leavanny bring Blaze back." Lora looked up at him with worry and asked
"What are they going to do to him?" Loki laughed loudly and said
"Knowing Leavanny, Blaze is going to get a new set of clothes." Lora's head tilted in confusion, which made Loki chuckle. Then he began to explain.
"You see, among very few other pokemon, Leavanny are natural mothers. Even if they aren't true mothers, they still have strong paternal instincts. That's probably where all these Sewaddle came from." Said insects were gazing up at them with avid interest at their new caretakers, and Lora couldn't help but feel some affection for them. Despite their strange appearance as insects, they were admittedly cute.
After about an hour and a half, during which Lora and Loki had their hands full trying to keep all the Sewaddle occupied, the Leavanny walked out of the forest with Blaze in tow. Lora could only stare, as the Leavanny had replaced his clothes with hand-spun versions, perfectly colored to match the look of a Blaziken. The only give-away now was his face and lack of a beak.
"Wow… those Leavanny did an excellent job, didn't they?" Lora simply nodded. The Leavanny looked over the Sewaddle, then looked at Lora and said
"Thank you for watching over our little ones. And we apologize for abducting your friend, but that was simply a tragedy we could not overlook. On the bright side, he now has several of those outfits. Once again, thank you." Then they left, making Lora more than a little confused. In due time, she just brushed it off, saying
"Fine, whatever. But You'll have to be careful from now on, as I doubt those clothes are fire-proofed." Blaze grinned and said
"Care to bet?" He lit his palm up and ran it over his arm, surprising Lora after he removed it without any evidence of burned cloth. Lora stared uncomprehendingly.
"How?" Blaze smiled and replied
"Apparently there are some sorts of chemicals in plants you can mix with silk to make it fire-retardant. So, shall we continue?" Loki nodded, and they moved past the building, met some pokemon along the way, and close to the end of the day they arrived in Driftveil City. They reserved a room in the local pokemon center after Blaze returned Lora to her pokeball. With the same arrangements as before, Loki and Blaze slept peacefully through the night.
Okay, things are rolling again. Hope you enjoyed this. Please review soon.