Hi people! Back again, SR is giving me trouble right now *sigh*. WB hits at the most annoying of times! Oh, and it's the end of school for me! No more school for seven weeks! This means I have three holidays I'm goin' on, and a few weeks of no updates. Which is the only annoying thing about this holidays for me... oh, and the fact one of my holidays overlaps with the holiday of my so called 'boyfriend', and he goes the same place every year. :( Crap.
And... yay for replacing boring old Waterfall Cave! XD I might put it back in later, but not now.
~X~X~X~
"Chatot is an idiot..." A Shinx groaned, the fur on his head that normally would be spiky is laid back and his eyes were green, he was also wearing a Pecha Scarf.
"We all know that, head of knowledge or not, he still can't organize a job on his own to save a life." A Quilava said. "Why are we even going to Treeshroud Forest? It's not as if it's exactly unexplored." Her eyes were blue and her fur spiky; she wore a blue bow on her head.
"I don't know." The Shinx replied. "Ah well, let's just hurry up, Katie, the journey here has taken a lot longer than I expected."
"We're almost there, Sparx." Katie replied, "I can see the trees up ahead!" Team Bolt nodded at each other and sped up. After a while they reached the entrance of the Dungeon.
"Oh. My. God." Sparx gasped when they saw what had happened there.
~X~X~X~
Two Days Later
"UP AND AT 'EM! IT'S MORNING!" Loudred yelled.
"Shuddup…" Gemma groaned, her ears once more crushed to her skull. She thought that it would get better with time, being woken up by Loudred's impossibly loud yell, but even after being in the guild for near a week now she wasn't used to it.
"He gets louder every day…" Blaze sighed as he sat up. "Especially during that sentry duty yesterday."
"Don't remind me! That was torture… how does looking at a footprint count as a decent judgement?" Gemma said, prying her ears up and rubbing her eye.
"Well, they can check if it's a Pokémon from the Outlaw Board, I guess." Blaze shrugged. "C'mon, I don't wanna be late."
"We always are." Gemma said, standing up and grabbing her power band with her teeth. Blaze tied it around her ear and they walked out. That is what you can probably class as 'getting dressed' for Pokémon.
"You're late again." Hero laughed. Gemma rolled her eye(s) at him and stood in line.
"Now, I have some news for you all, we'll just wait for Team ShockBurn and PokéFriend to arrive and I'll begin." Chatot said.
"Who?" Gemma muttered to Sunflora.
"Two other teams, they were on a joint mission, that's why they haven't been here all week." She replied. "Team ShockBurn are barely higher than you two and Bidoof, so they can't go on their own, since they're also youngest here."
"Sorry we're late! Long journey back." A Skitty said as she ran in. Her fur was a redder colour than pink, and her tail was longer than normal Skitty's and around her neck was a black Dodge Scarf.
"Sure was, why did we have to go so far, Chatot?" A Torchic said, hopping in behind her team leader. Her eyes were a bright blue, the 'hair' atop her head a lot shorter than normal, and a blue ribbon was around her neck.
"Stop moaning, Leni. An exploration is an exploration!" A young Chimchar sighed before giggling, her eyes were bright yellow and she wore a scarf of the same shade around her neck whilst the orange of her body was a lot lighter shade. Behind them was a Pikachu, same age as the Chimchar, his eyes were bright green and his tail seemed unusually short, and there was a green scarf tied around it.
"All of you get in line, there is some very important news to tell everyone." Chatot said. The two Teams stood on a fourth row together. "Far to the northeast and into its outermost reaches, there lies a place named Treeshroud Forest."
"That's where Team Bolt went, right?" The Chimchar said.
"Yes, Saffron, it is." Chatot said. "Anyway, from the report they sent us it seems that time in Treeshroud Forest... has stopped." Chatot continued.
"What?"
"Eek! What did you say?" Sunflora exclaimed.
"You're saying Time stopped? Hey, hey, hey!" Corphish said.
"Yes, nothing is moving there at all, time itself has stopped moving." Chatot said.
"Are Team Bolt alright?" Alex asked.
"Yes, Katie and Sparx are fine. They're heading back toward the guild now." The colourful bird assured. "They explored further into the forest, though, and have found out why time has stopped. The unthinkable has happened."
"Oh no... you're not saying what I think you are... are you...?" The Skitty said.
"I'm afraid so, Emma. Treeshroud Forest's Time Gear has been stolen." Chatot said.
"Huh!" Bidoof exclaimed.
"The Time Gear was s-stolen?" Dugtrio said.
"That's what made Time Stop, hey, hey, hey!" Corphish said.
"I'd heard it was possible, but now it's actually happened!" Chimecho said. Much to everyone's annoyance, Loudred was the next one to speak.
"I DON'T GET IT THOUGH! WHY WOULD ANYONE STEAL A TIME GEAR?"
"It really is unbelievable!" Karina said.
"And horrible." Eva's voice said quietly.
"Quiet, everyone!" Chatot ordered. Everyone was suddenly silent, all turning back to look at him. "Officer Magnezone has already started an investigation. It's hard to believe that anyone would ever steal a Time Gear, but if one can be stolen others are in danger. The officer asked to be notified immediately if we saw any shady characters. So, keep that in mind and let us know if you notice anything. That is all... alright everyone, to another busy day of work!"
Everyone cheered and went off to do their own jobs. Blaze and Gemma ran off quickly enough so that Chatot didn't instruct them what to do like normal, this making Gemma bump head first into someone, looking up she saw the Pikachu from earlier.
"Oops, sorry." Gemma said.
"Yeah, excuse her she's a little clumsy." Blaze laughed, Gemma flicked him with her tail playfully. "We're the new recruits, as you probably guessed."
"Um, hi. I'm Max, from Team ShockBurn." The Pikachu greeted. "Nice to meet you."
"Hey Max, c'mon!" Saffron called over, before seeing who he was talking to. She raced over and stuck her hand out, shaking Blaze's and then Gemma's – making the latter fall over – hand/paw quickly.
"She's in one of her hyper moods again it seems." Leni said, giggling to herself as she too came over. "Ignore Saffron, she's normally relaxed but you give her a gummi... she'll go hyper."
"We didn't even give her one this time!" Emma called over. Leni just giggled again.
"Anyway, welcome to the guild! We would have said that when you joined, but of course we weren't here." The friendly Torchic smiled. "I'm from Team PokéFriend." She held out her wing and Blaze shook it, Gemma of course was still flat on her face, so wasn't able to. "Um, are you alright down there?"
"Perfectly fine." Gemma said, words muffled by the floor. Blaze sweatdropped and helped her back to her feet. Gemma looked to Leni and managed a smile, not bothering to try and shake her wing for fear of falling again.
"What're your names?" Max asked, sounding a little shy still.
"I'm Blaze." The Chimp said.
"And I'm Gemma." Gemma said. Leni seemed to be giving Gemma a strange look, as if there was something familiar about her. Of course, the two don't know each other though, Gemma could tell this, so she was confused.
In the end Saffron snapped Leni out of it by beginning to blab on about something or other, that was until two more Pokémon could be seen clambering down the ladders.
"HEY! TEAM BOLT'S BACK!" Loudred yelled, and everyone in the guild was almost immediately gathered around the Shinx and the Quilava. Gemma and Blaze weren't as quick over as the others, but were too standing around the Team.
"Are you alright?"
"What happened?"
"What was it like?"
"Did you see anything?"
"Oh my gosh are you okay?"
"Guys, calm down!" Katie laughed. "We're both fine."
"Everyone, back to work!" Chatot ordered, and the rabble dispersed immediately. "Ah, Team Star! You stay." Gemma groaned, making Blaze laughed. "This is Team Bolt, now, after your impressive defeat of Drowzee the other day we have decided to let you go on a mission worthy of a proper Exploration Team. The Guildmaster and I had planned to send you to Waterfall Cave, but since there are now more pressing matters we have to think about, we have decided to send you to Treeshroud Forest in search of clues."
"Of course, we'll end up accompanying them, right Chatot?" Katie said. "They're new recruits, right? They can't be that high of a level, they'll need help getting through Treeshroud."
"Yes, you're right Katie." Chatot said before turning back to Team Star. "It may seem like this won't be a proper mission since you aren't going alone, but it is. And you will have more opportunities in the future to do missions like this by yourselves."
"I don't mind, at least it's a proper exploration!" Blaze said. Gemma just nodded.
"Alrighty then! We'll show you the way, but you'll probably want to get some supplies first." Katie said. "C'mon Sparx, let's go before the rest of the guild bombard us with questions again." Sparx nodded and they two climbed back up the ladder. "We'll wait at the crossroads!"
"You heard Katie, supplies!" Chatot said before hopping off. Gemma rolled her eye(s) at him and then turned to Blaze.
"Let's go then." She said, "If Treeshroud Forest has higher levelled Pokémon like they are suggesting, we'll need supplies."
"Right." Blaze said, clambering up the ladder quickly.
"Seriously, you people love leaving me to climb these things on my own!" Gemma called up at him, only getting a laugh in response. Gemma rolled her eye(s) again and began the task of climbing the ladder.
~X~X~X~
"Alright... do you think that this is enough?" Blaze said, looking through the treasure bag. "Three Oran berries and one escape orb just in case?"
"It should be." Katie said. "Sparx?"
"Yeah." Was all the Shinx replied with. Katie gave him a look but then turned back to Team Star.
"Alright then, let's go!" She said. "Follow us, the journey shouldn't take as long this time."
"How long was it the first time?" Gemma asked.
"Hmm... well, it took us about six days... but we took a few wrong turns and besides, after the first time you go to a dungeon it takes absolutely no time the next time you go. This world is strange like that." Katie said with a shrug. "Now, c'mon."
~X~X~X~
"You were right... it doesn't make sense that it takes so little time to reach all these places..." Gemma said as they arrived at the entrance to Treeshroud forest.
"It's better than travelling for days every time we go to one though." Blaze said with a shrug.
"Yeah, and it saves me tripping up and losing half my health before we get here." Gemma giggled. Blaze smiled at her.
"Alright, so, this is Treeshroud. We didn't go in further than the second floor last time, and we were just double checking our suspicions. So, we better be careful, we don't know everything this place has to throw at us." Katie said. "Luckily, we have a few reviver seeds too."
"That's good... we didn't have enough money for any." Gemma said. "Stupid Chatot..." Katie giggled.
"Come on, let's go. Remember, you see anything suspicious and you tell one of us." She said. "Right, Sparx?"
"Yeah." Sparx said. Gemma got the impression straight away he didn't open up to people easily.
5F
"It's a miracle! We cleared a quarter of the floors using no Reviver Seeds!" Gemma said. Blaze laughed. "I'm serious, people. I didn't expect to make it this far."
"Well, we did." Sparx said, continuing to walk on.
"Oh come on Sparx, lighten up." Katie said, though she knew he wouldn't.
8F
"Uff..." Gemma groaned as she tripped over a Geo Pebble. Blaze turned to look at her, ready to help her back up when he saw a Houndoom behind her, about to attack.
"Look out!" He said, jumping over her and taking the Flamethrower. Not very effective or not, the level difference made the Chimchar take a chunk of damage.
"Blaze!" Gemma exclaimed. Grateful she had her Power Band runs at the Houndoom and uses Tackle. It didn't knock Houndoom out, but before Gemma knew it the Dark Type in front of her was hit by an electric attack. She turned and saw Sparx. "Thanks Sparx." The Shinx just nodded and ran ahead. Blaze pulled himself up and rooted through the Treasure Bag and pulls out an Oran Berry, eating it and then offering one to Gemma. "Nah, I'll manage for a while yet. Now hurry, Katie and Sparx have gone ahead!"
"Betcha can't keep up!" Blaze laughed, running off. Gemma giggled and followed.
15F
"Now this is beginning to get creepy..." Katie said, looking around at all the frozen trees, leaves, dewdrops. "Who would curse a place to this?"
"They must be a pretty horrible Pokémon..." Blaze said. Gemma didn't know why, but a small part of her wanted to disagree with her partner, but she held it back and nodded.
Blaze then spotted a Vespiquen and both he and Katie aimed at it, Katie using Flame Wheel and Blaze Ember. Once the Bug type was down they began to move on.
End of Treeshroud
"Here we are... oh my god..." Katie said, looking around. This place had suffered the worst from the Time Stop, the few Pokémon who had been there at the time had frozen, unable to run. "This is horrid..."
"Yeah, it is." Sparx said. Team Bolt walked further in, Team Star not that far behind them. Gemma was furthest back, shocked completely by what she was seeing, but not feeling as horrified as the others for some reason.
"Look, there's a clear part here! This must be where the Time Gear was!" Blaze said, running ahead of the others and pointing. Gemma moved a little faster now, her heart was pounding and she didn't know why. But as she walked she once again tripped, over her own feet, but this time she steadied herself, paw landing on a tree trunk.
Then, out of nowhere, she began to feel dizzy again. It was just like the incident with Azurill and Drowzee, after a moment she saw a bright light flash in her eyes.
"I've finally found it! A Time Gear! But... this is only the first of many." A voice said from the darkness, Gemma's eyesight wasn't doing this vision justice, the dark shadow she could see had no clear shape, she couldn't identify the Pokémon. And then, she heard the voice mutter something else she couldn't hear properly before the shadow made a sudden movement, grabbed a Snowflake shaped, greeny/bluey coloured item and running as fast as it could out of there.
The light flashed again and Gemma could see the others looking around the area the Snowflake had been in her daydream, looking for clues. She decided against telling them all about this, whilst Blaze would believe her from past experience she couldn't guarantee that Team Bolt would. She decided to wait until that night.
"I think we've learnt all we can from here... we better go back." Sparx said.
"Yeah, Chatot will be expecting a full report though." Katie said. "Luckily, or unluckily, there isn't much to report on. No clues at all."
"You find anything Gemma?" Blaze asked. Gemma shook her head. "Alright then, let's go back."
"Yeah..." Gemma said, Blaze looked at her. He was pretty sure she was lying, though he could see she hadn't found anything. He decided to ask her later.
~X~X~X~
Hehe... I am supposed to be asleep now, lol. But I finished it and wanted to upload it! So, Whaddya think? Good replacement?