Note: YEAH! EXAMS ARE FINALLY DONE TODAY! No... My school year's over... Oh wait... There's still clearance? ACK! Either way, I'm sorry this took quite a while though, as my exams were pretty hard. Ah well, at least I managed to bring in some old faces here... I hope you enjoy this chapter then!
Rose's POV:
"Okay... So you're telling us that your plan will either go without a hitch or get us noticed immediately?" Blade asked.
"Well, what do you suggest? Go out there and tell them that this Gardevoir we're carrying was not our doing after we had just chased her inside this room and spent some quality time alone here?" I sarcastically questioned.
"Uhh... Rose? I thought you were a master thief... I don't think what you suggested would be what a master thief would... uh... plan," Blaze scratched the back of his head,
A short silence fell over the three of us at Blaze's answer. I couldn't help but wonder how he had exceeded Master Rank with that kind of stupidity.
"Blaze... I was being sarcastic," I rolled my eyes.
"So, would you mind giving us a rundown of the plan again?" Blaze questioned.
"Okay, now... Here's the plan... I'll go and... uh... cause a diversion," I spat out the word diversion in disgust, "While you guys get out! Simple enough?"
"Yeah... What kind of distraction do you mean?" Blaze seemed to catch on, somehow finding the way I worded "distraction" odd...
"No questions asked!" I bitterly responded, keeping my thoughts to myself, "Once this is over, you guys are so gonna owe me for this one, just stand back and wait for my signal."
I then exited the room, leaving a small gap open for the two to see my hand signal later. The central chamber of the hideout was circular and we needed to get to the other side from that room to get out. I looked to my side and saw the Gengar that Ruse was talking to awhile ago. I gulped as I began to approach him.
The Gengar's eyes widened and his mouth curled upwards in a devious grin when he turned around to see me approaching him.
"Eheh! Rose! Changed your mind?" he rasped, his coarse voice reminding me of scraping metal.
"Changed my mind about what?" I gulped, trying to ignore the fact that those red eyes of his were examining me curiously as if I was some sort of specimen.
"You forgot? Hmm... That's not like you at all... You've been turning me down even before I get to complete my sentence and now you say you don't know what I'm talking about?" he coughed.
"Umm... No!" I retaliated back, feeling doomed that my guess of how he he would react to what I said was true.
"Hmm... That's odd... You don't seem like Rose... Come to think of it, you seem to be more fatter than her average size," he narrowed his eyes, inspecting me.
Fat? Did you just say fat? No wonder Ruse turned you down, you slimy pathetic- I cut my conscience off.
"Wait! What I'm here to say is... Err... I need your help," I gritted my teeth, trying to stop the urge of strangling him and causing a scene.
"Eh? What makes you think I'd help you?" the Gengar snorted.
"Well..." I began, gulping that I really had to use what I had planned in mind.
Don't say it, Rose! He called you fat! Don't you dare- my conscience rang.
"What was it that you wanted from me?" I choked out.
The Gengar apparently seemed pleased.
"Ehehe! Here's my proposal..." the Gengar's eyes twinkled with mischief, "See, you seem to be just my type... So how 'bout we go on a date sometime tomorrow night? Say yes to that, and I will help you whichever way I can."
The way he chuckled and the way his eyes watched me made me feel like helpless prey to some hungry predator.
I began my request, "Um... I need to-"
A resounding explosion cut me in mid-sentence as the wall behind the Gengar suddenly blew up, blasting him away to the far side of the room. Everyone else in the room began to stare at me.
I just stared, speechless, at the hole in the wall as the dust from the explosion covered its other side from view.
"Heck, you couldn't find a better way to pull it off, could you?" a familiar voice coughed from inside the dust cloud.
"Hey, not like you could've done better, Celsus... Admit it!" another voice teased.
"Hey, I'm supposed to be the guy protecting you... And I'm supposed to be the one doing all this physical stuff... Can't let anything hurt you, can I, dear?" the first voice flirtatiously returned.
"Oh, you..." the second one replied in an embarrassed tone.
"Uh... guys? I think that we were supposed to... um... be more... stealthy?" a third voice softly asked as the dust from the explosion subsided, revealing Claire, Celsus, and Sandra through the hole in the wall.
You could guess my facial reaction then. It was a mix of anger, annoyance, and the plain facial reaction one would make when someone had slapped a "kick me" sign at your back... but mostly, I was quite happy to see them... even if I was convinced that the three of them would be the cause of my death.
"Rose!" Claire cried out as she rushed to me, "I was worried about you! Cresselia appeared to me in a dream and told me you were in trouble! So I immediately went over to the hidden location she revealed to me in that dream! I'm so happy that you're-"
Crash! A Shadow Ball was hurled towards us as our reunion was interrupted.
I turned around to see the Gengar behind us, his face glowing with anger as Sandra and Celsus fought off the other outlaws behind him.
"Ngh... You... aren't Rose... Are you?" the Gengar growled.
"Nope... I am the TRUE Rose... Your Rose was a phony, her thorns just weren't sharp enough," I smirked, seeing that I might just have an upper hand that time.
I began to attack as I snapped my fingers and used Psychic at him.
"Well, too bad for you, that's not going to work, fool!" he crossly returned, snapping his fingers and calling two Sableye to jump before him to take the attack which, of course, had no effect on them.
"Now, I will get what I want! I don't care about your help anymore! Whether you like it or not, YOU'RE MINE!" the Gengar blared as he raised his right hand, allowing a whole group of Sableye to emerge from the corners of the room to surround my small group.
"Ugh, how could this be turned around so quickly? We haven't even started yet!" Sandra moaned.
"Don't worry... I promise I won't let anything happen to you Sandra! As long as I'm around," Celsus nervously replied, letting out a nervous laugh.
"Now, Rose... They say that before you get to catch a fish, you first have to throw out that darn spiked net! Here, Rose! Accept this brutal net as I catch you, my dear fiend!" the Gengar growled with a lustful twinkle in his eyes as he launched a Shadow Ball my direction.
"That's called illegal fishing, mind you!" Blade replied as he jumped out of nowhere to slash the attack in half.
"Ehehe, I hope you don't mind if we changed your plan a bit... Do you, Rose?" Blaze grinned.
I smiled, "No, not at all! Let's get them!"
"That was a rhetorical question, Rose..." he taunted.
Well, there was only one way out from there on... A fight to the finish!
"Claire," I smiled back at her, "Thanks for coming back for me! Now... Are you ready? Let's take them down and get out of here now!"
Claire responded with a shy nod, but she got into her fighting stance. The whole group, although surrounded, seemed determined enough to push through.
We began to try pushing our formation outward, forcing the Sableye to pull back.
"What are you fools doing? Press further at them and tear them down!" the Gengar scowled at the Sableye.
"Bot so fast, fattie!" Sandra smirked as she flapped her wings to cause a huge Sandstorm.
The rest of the group, aside from Sandra, began to take damage from the Sandstorm, but thanks to that, we knew that the Sableye were having much more of a hard time due to their gemstone eyes.
The sudden blast of the Sandstorm scrambled the Sableye's formation, allowing us to take advantage of their plight.
"Now!" Sandra called, "Surround them, hurry!"
We did as she told and reversed the positions.
"Urgh! Not on my watch!" the Gengar growled as her launched a Shadow Ball towards Sandra.
Sandra ignored the attack and just took her place in the formation, however, the threat that the Shadow Ball posed increased when all the other Sableye joined in and each launched a Shadow Ball at her direction.
"Samdra! Watch out!" Claire screamed through the Sandstorm.
But Sandra just smiled as her emerald figure dissolved into sand and reappear after the Shadow Balls had passed.
"Hey, let's not forget Sand Veil," Sandra teased, "However, as much as I'd enjoy keeping up this sandy mirage in this Sandstorm, my turn's up. Celsus! The tables have been switched, we no longer need this Sandstorm! It's your turn then!"
"With pleasure, my dear!" Celsus playfully added that last but ad he got rid of the Sandstorm by using Rain Dance.
With the Sandstorm gone, we could apparently see that we had managed to surround the Sableye, now huddled at the center with the Gengar.
"Hmm? That's how you want to play, you hard-to-get dame? Fine then, let's take it up a notch!" the Gengar scowled as he began to charge up a huge Shadow Ball.
"I'll take care of this!" Claire replied as she tried to fire a Shadow Ball to his direction, but the huddled Sableye around him all began to whirl around him and launch Shadow Balls spinning towards us.
"Urk!" Claire screamed in agony as she was knocked back.
The Sableye stopped their whirling formation and grinned as they saw Claire knocked back.
"Wheh-he! An opening," they joyously screamed as they rushed towards her open position.
"No!" Claire screamed as she tried to push forward to block them, "I... can't... let-"
The Sableye were blasted away by a Thunderbolt from me.
"Stand back! How rude of you to hurt a lady," I taunted as Blade saw the opening the Sableye gave to their Gengar boss. He immediately launched a Psycho Cut at the Gengar, making him lose concentration on charging up the huge Shadow Ball.
"Gurg..." he growled, then grinned, "Attacking me like that... You insects are pathetic, especially you, Prince Swordsman! No matter... See that "rose" over there? Well, she's about to be pruned by me!"
I realized that this was a taunt to get Blade to attack him.
"S-shut up!" Blade flared, launching a barrage of Psycho Cuts.
"T-thought so!" the Gengar grinned as he got hit by one of the Psycho Cuts, the rest began to disintegrate though, "How'd you like my Spite?"
Blade tried to slash up some more Psycho Cuts but nothing happened, much to his confusion. He was then knocked out by a Shadow Ball.
The Gengar then rounded up his Sableye and ordered them to focus their attacks on Blade.
Sandra and Celsus tried to interfere, but they were immediately knocked away by a strong Hyper Beam from the Gengar.
I decided to stand up for the group as I noticed that nearly everyone was about to be taken out, that was when I saw Blaze in the corner. Then, it struck me that he had never participated in the battle. His eyes were closed and he was glowing red as if he was charging up power. He then opened one eye and raised up his hand to point towards Blade.
Blade seemed to understand though. He made a final push of Leaf Blade that sent all the Sableye tumbling back towards the Gengar.
"NOW!" Blade yelled before fainting.
The whole room was soon bathed in an incredible bright light. When the light had faded, the Gengar and the Sableye were on the ground, fainted.
"Phew, that was spicy... Best Blast Burn I've cooked up in years!" Blaze grinned.
I just stood there all pale. My jaw hung down for some time until Blaze slapped my back.
"You better go tend to your "Prince" now," he chuckled.
"W-what... just happened?" I stumbled forward, tripping on Blade.
Blade soon got up.
"Eheh, much like our old days, eh... Blaze?" Blade chuckled.
"Yeah, but I think you've grown weaker..." the playful Typhlosion responded, with a small twinkle in his eyes, "Seriously, letting rage take control of you, "Prince Swordsman... of the Garden" I might add..."
Blade turned red.
"S-shut it, we should leave now, we have what we need already," Blade changed the topic.
"Fine, just allow me to get Ruse and-" Blaze stopped speaking.
"Blaze?" Blade and I asked in unison.
He turned around, pale-faced.
The normally shy Typhlosion opened his mouth to deliver his message, "Guys... She's... gone!"
Note: Phew! Looks like things are getting a bit more hotter between Blade and Rose eh? Oh well, I hope you guys found this chapter nice. I don't know when can I update again but I have to get my clearance done, which is due before March 31... So I hape I can meet you guys again in another chappie... As usual, please do leave a review! It really does lift my spirits! Oh well, thanks and good night guys! ~