Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
Hey everybody, guess what? The hiatus is over! Whoo!
This chapter isn't as long as I would usually do it but it is eventful. We were kind of left at a cliffhanger. XP
Anyways, enjoy!
Chapter 12:
Ring Town…
Murph was standing guard while he watched Solana fast asleep in the bed at Ring Town Ranger Base. Well, even though he was standing guard, Murph was actually sitting in a small wooden chair and his Slowpoke was next to him.
Solana was in a pretty bad condition. She was heavily bandaged and had been given some pain killers to ease the discomfort. She finally slept after being told constantly that there it was suicide if she tried to go back to help Spenser and Rui and that rest was the number one priority. Murph sighed in worrisome thoughts, hoping Spenser and that red-haired Rui girl came back soon with good news. When Solana woke up, Murph didn't want to be the one to mention Solana that the reason Spenser and Rui were still at the sight was because they were searching for Wes and Lunick. Whether or not they made it… It was times like these that Murph wished he was strong. He couldn't believe how pathetically weak he was compared to everybody else. Even Lunick was a better ranger even though the guy came to their base only a while back. Murph was supposed to be Lunick's senior but it seemed to be more like Lunick was his.
Murph hoped that things were all right. For Solana's sakes and for everybody else's.
…
Somewhere in Lyra Forest…
Celebi was buzzing through the forest as it flew in a zigzag manner past the trees. It giggled a bit, clearly knowing that it was winning in the race. Turning its head slightly back, it suddenly realized a problem and stopped – the people who were racing with Celebi disappeared. Did they give up and left Celebi by itself? Celebi immediately pouted and frowned in frustration.
"Biii!" The little grass Pokémon fluttered around in a circle, making some sort of pixie dust halo trailing after it. Despite its irritation, the Pokémon sourly waiting for the two boys, hoping they would show up again so it could teach them a lesson or two, but after a while the two still didn't show up. The forest was dead silence despite the occasional buzzing of Pokémon. Then curiously, and slightly worried, the Pokémon quickly flew back on the path it came. What happened? Surely they didn't just decide to give up on playing the game?
…
"I see you managed to find your Pokemon," Gonzap said, inclining his head to Espeon. "I'm relieved to see that." Espeon responded with angry glare for it could still remember the pain. The red jewel on its forehead was glowing brightly; it was ready and eager to strike.
"I understand using them as bait, but this is a new low, even for you to use a ranger as a hostage against me?" Wes asked coldly. "Do you think that will actually work against me?" Lunick hoped Wes was bluffing when he said this. The ranger could almost feel his neck snapping in half. It was times like these that he wished he had Minun or at least owned a Pokémon liked Wes did to help out.
"Please," Gonzap snapped back at Wes, "You two were working together. You were in Team Snagem long enough for me to know that you value your teammates' lives. I don't need to be a genius to know what's going on in your head." Espeon growled angrily in response, but Wes looked down and waved his hand slightly to let Espeon know to stop and hold back… at least for now.
"Like the time you knew I was going to blow up the base," Wes said in a steely voice looking back at Gonzap. "I must say, you must have had pretty nasty shocked look on your face when I took this prototype device." Wes pointed at the armor shaped machine on his left arm.
"You shouldn't have done that," Gonzap said quietly. He gazed at the machine with scorching intensity. Lunick felt like he was in the midst of an intense father and son argument. He had been in a few with his own father and felt like this was something personal and shouldn't be eavesdropped into but when taken hostage, Lunick didn't really have much choice in the matter.
"But I did," Wes fired back and crossed his arms across his chest as though he was tired of this useless chitchat, "So what's with this reunion? You look pretty desperate to sit down and have a small talk."
"Don't act like an idiot," Gonzap snapped, "I know you just as well as you know me to know what I want." There was a deaden silence the filled the forest area. Wes looked at the slightly blue Lunick and thought carefully of his options. Saying the wrong thing and Gonzap might break the poor guy's neck. As much as he didn't care about Lunick's health at the moment, Wes couldn't just let it slide if the poor ranger got killed because of him.
More importantly, in Wes' opinion, Gonzap's Granbull was still holding down that Dodrio. The bird was giving up right now and wasn't struggling as much as Lunick still was. Wes was going to need Dodrio if they were going to continue to chase Celebi. Now that Wes thought about it, where was that Pokémon? Gonzap didn't mention anything about the Pokémon so it was safe to say that he didn't see it, probably because it blended so well with the forest.
Wes contemplated about the situation before him. Celebi was gone and hopefully realized the situation and disappeared for good for its sake. However, Wes still needed to figure out a way to get out of this tiresome situation. Gonzap didn't say anything about hurting Lunick if Wes had refused Gonzap's proposal... Might as well take advantage of the situation and try to get information out of the man.
"The answer is no," Wes said smoothly though his tone was laced with just enough anger to suggest hostility. "I'm flying solo now and I don't need your group of thieves to bring me down." Lunick wondered if Wes realized he was being hypocritical for saying that. Apparently, Gonzap thought so too.
"Flying solo?" Gonzap snapped. "Don't make me laugh. You've been hanging out with that Rui girl of yours. And don't say she's not your partner. You two have been thwarting Cipher's ever since you guys decided to team up. Not to mention you also partnering up these pathetic rangers who are tagging along with you like useless baggage. You don't need to work with losers like them."
"HEY!" Lunick choked out, trying to hurt his perpetrator in any means possible. "Don't you dare... say that!" Gonzap looked at Wes with a 'See?' look on his face. Wes shrugged as though he couldn't really argue with Gonzap's logic. "WES!" Lunick gasped out, furious that Wes wasn't defending him. "Don't just… ignore me!" Wes glared at him with a sharp penetrating glace as though trying to convey a message to the ranger.
"Quiet you!" Gonzap growled and tightened his hold on Lunick to shut him up. Lunick gagged in response.
"What's your point?" Wes continued, looking back at Gonzap. "I'll admit I have teamed up, but as you know me, I prefer to work with people who were actually good at their jobs." Lunick stared in puzzled amazement at Wes. Did the guy… just praised Lunick?
"Team Snagem is not like before," Gonzap said harshly, "We're better now! We have gone far and are becoming notorious for our crimes."
"What does that mean? You can't expect me to believe Fiore region has anything great to offer. If anything, Orre would've been a better choice or has Cipher gone desperate enough to attack other regions?"
"Don't underestimate Cipher," Gonzap said, "This is just the beginning of the whole grand scheme. What you saw was just the surface of what we can do." After a slight pause, Gonzap continued, "Wes, you can be a part of it as well. Join us. With you, we can achieve what we always dreamed of sooner than you can imagine."
"By becoming the grunt work of others? Please," Wes scoffed though his mind was already spinning with what he was hearing.
Wes knew that Gonzap still cared about him as a family member but with that matter aside, Wes knew that the man hadanother reason for calling this meeting. He is desperate, Wes thought. He could recognize the faint hint in the man's tone of voice.
The master plan, whatever it was, was either taking too long or was going very bad. However, Gonzap obviously didn't know what it was or didn't know much to help Wes which was such a pity since it would have made things so much easier. Team Snagem was only probably told to do the grunt work but was getting chewed out since they were doing a bad job (courtesy of Wes and Lunick). But he wasn't surpised; Wes knew how Cipher worked – there was no such thing as partnership when making an alliance. Back when he was still a member of Team Snagem, Wes knew that they were merely used as pawns when Gonzap announced that they were joining forces with Cipher. Of course, the old coot was too stubborn to believe it. However, there was a missing piece to the puzzle and Wes knew that Gonzap was hiding it on purpose.
"This isn't an alliance between just two groups," Wes said. "There's a third part in play." Lunick gaped. What? There were more than one group involved? Since when? Of course, since Lunick wasn't from the Orre region, he was pretty much confused at all these new characters jumping into the story.
"You're sharp Wes as always," Gonzap chuckled for the first time. Lunick was surprised at this man. He sounded… proud.
"It doesn't take a genius to realize it when they see some other group walking around with his stolen Pokemon." This time Wes wasn't even trying to hide his anger. His calm amber eyes blazed with incredibly fury. "For that, you're going to pay."
The next thing Gonzap knew was that his Granabull screamed in pain as an invisible attacked hit it. Dodrio used this chance to escape, slightly hitting Gonzap in the process. The muscled man was so surprised at the situation that he loosened his grip just enough for Lunick to escape as well.
"Give me a warning next time!" Lunick said as he rubbed his neck. Dodrio gave Wes a grateful nudge for the trainer's help before turning to face Gonzap. Its three heads squawked in anger and it clawed the ground with its legs as though ready to charge. It looked rather frightening but Gonzap didn't even flinch at the sight. Luckily, Lunick managed to calm the Dodrio down a bit.
"Well, I figured the glare I gave you earlier was enough. Still you were sharp enough to understand what I was going to do," Wes replied calmingly. Espeon's red jewel had stopped glowing. Wes turned back to Gonzap who was just recovering from his shock. "I may have misjudged you earlier with your ambush but it doesn't mean I can't figure out a good counterattack. And just so you know, Espeon's Future Sight attack has gotten better in accuracy." With that, to Lunick's surprise, Wes returned his Espeon back into its Pokeball, turned his back to Gonzap, and got on Dodrio before turning to Lunick. "Let's go."
"Hey! Wait!" Lunick said, shocked at Wes' lack of intention to fight. "This guy works for those people. Don't you want to… I dunno take revenge on him or something?"
"No. But if you want to do that be my guest," Wes said shrugging his shoulders, "Just don't expect me to save you again from your stupidity."
"HEY!" Wes was going back to insulting Lunick again.
"Besides he only wanted to talk," Wes said, looking back at Gonzap, "As much as I wish to punch him, I do owe him a favor."
"Huh?" Lunick looked confused now at the two. "What do you mean?" But Gonzap merely stood there. He knew what Wes meant. Wes knew what length Gonzap had done to protect Espeon and Umbreon from shadowificiation.
"Fine, I get it," Lunick finally said though he didn't 'get it' yet he knew that he wasn't going to get a clear cut explanation. However, there was one thing for sure. Something bad was going to happen and this Gonzap was going make sure it happens. Lunick turned to Gonzap, pointed threateningly at the man, and said,
"Hey! I got a message for your secret boss!" Gonzap and Wes looked surprise at Lunick's demand as he continued, "Even though I have no idea what is going on, tell him… or her since I'm not going to discriminate against genders… that I have no intent in letting you guys do as you please. None of the rangers are going to back down and Fiore is ready to retaliate so be prepared!" With that Lunick jumped on Dodrio's back and puffed his chest in anger. "There, I said it."
"Pah! Wes, don't you see who you're siding with? I'm only giving you this one chance to come back," Gonzap said. "You can't stop us. No one can." Wes didn't look at Gonzap. Instead, the young trainer put on his metal platted goggles.
"Really? Well, tell your new boss that ditto what Lunick said." With that Dodrio sped off with Wes and Lunick on its back and they soon disappeared in the clearing of the forest, leaving Gonzap alone in the cool forest.
There was a beeping noise that came from Gonzap's pocket. The man took out his phone which had a secure line. There was only one person who had a number; he picked it up immediately. "Yes?"
"Phase two is about to begin shortly," the voice said on the other line. "Make your way to the Jungle Relic." With that the phone line went dead and Gonzap slowly put it back into his pocket. He turned to stare at the spot where Wes and his ranger friend had just stood moments ago.
"Fool," Gonzap muttered, "fool."
Author Notes
Looks like Wes is now officially the cool main character. Lol.
Well now, next chapter, everything will come together and we'll finally get to the main conflict of the story…
Anyways, nothing much to say except to thank our reviewers before I go…
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That's it from me. Thanks for reading and I'll see you in the next chapter.
-JapanDreamer