I am so sorry! It has been so long since I last updated this story. I've lost my outline of all my upcoming chapters, so I've been in a rut, trying to remember everything that I wanted to write.
I'm going to try hard to get the next chapter coming up and hopefully, continue to keep a more consistent update on this story.
Enjoy!
Chapter 17:
"No one…" Wes cursed angrily as he came into the empty Fall City's Ranger headquarters. The only person remaining in the building was the receptionist who had explained that Joel had left with majority of the Fall rangers. They were in charge of transporting the residents of Summerland to Fall City's port, so they were all occupied at the moment. They all left about thirty minutes ago and no, she did not know when they'll be back.
"It can't be helped. They need to take care of the people there… I hope they're okay." Although Solana had insisted to join Wes instead of dealing with the volcano, he could tell that the ranger looked extremely worried. That was not good.
"Focus," Wes said, sounding harsher than he intended. "If you can't do that, then you should have not come."
"Hey," Solana frowned at Wes, "No need to be so snappish. I know that. But it doesn't mean I can't help but be concern. I mean, aren't you worry about Rui?"
"She is probably with Professor Hastings at Ringtown. I highly doubt your leader would actually take her to an active volcano. Why would I need to worry about her?"
Solana rolled her eyes but decided not to continue with this conversation.
"Aria is definitely going to be really mad when she realized we cleared up the tunnel and left without her."
"Who?"
"Uhh, the girl who was with us for the past hour in that tunnel." Solana's capture ability helped clear the tunnel in record time. Unfortunately, Aria was nowhere to be found, and Wes didn't have the patience to go looking for her.
"Oh, the annoying blonde." Wes shrugged his shoulders.
"Do you usually forget people's names so quickly?"
"Only people I have no interest in." He left it at that and headed outside.
Well, he is a bucket full of sunshine, Solana thought before asking, "Where are you going?"
"To the factory. Where else?"
"Wait, shouldn't we wait for backup? We need to inform Joel."
"There is an active volcano. I highly doubt infiltrating an abandoned factory is going to be on the top of anybody's list for the next week. Besides, I need to confirm that this is the right place before we start calling the cavalry."
"That's it?" Solana asked suspiciously.
"Yeah," Wes said, his face remaining stoic. "You coming?"
"Of course. I'm your partner in this mission. The factory Professor Hastings was talking about should be in this direction." Solana quickly led Wes to the east side of town. After passing through some houses, she stopped in front of a chained-linked fence. There was a sign that read 'Dusk Factory' in faded red paint.
"Okay," Solana said as she gave a quick look of the place. "Looks deserted." The factory was the embodiment of what an abandoned warehouse should look like. The gray building had chipped painting, and some of the roof tiles were missing. The ground was filled with overgrown weeds and trash. There were no security cameras in the area. At least none that were functioning.
"Looks can be deceiving. We need to take a closer look to be sure. " And Wes, lithe and graceful, climbed up the chained fence before jumping off on the other side. Solana followed as well though it was a bit more difficult for her. By the time, she managed to jump down to the other side, she was breathing rather heavily. Wes could tell that Solana hadn't completely recovered from her injuries.
"Maybe you should stay guard or something…"
"Please," Solana said, clutching her ribs. "I'm completely fine." It was obvious that she was lying, but Wes could tell that Solana wasn't going to agree to sit on the sideline and decided to leave it at that.
For now.
"Anyways, I still don't see anybody here," Solana said, remaining on guard, "Are you confident about this place? Everything looks old and thrown away."
"Professor Hastings is the one who located this place. How much do you trust his judgment?" Turning his attention to the area, Wes strolled to the black box hung on the wall. His sharp eyes noticed that this was the one thing that was seemingly out of place. Without hesitation, he ripped it off to reveal a shiny new keypad. "Now that's new," Wes said calmly.
"Wow, nice." Before Solana could stop him, Wes immediately started to press a couple of buttons.
Bttzzz! Access denied.
"Eek!" Solana flinched at the sudden sharp sound. "Did not expect that."
"So it is operational. Guess Professor Hastings' theory is right. This factory is not abandoned."
"So… how do we get in?"
"Two ways. First is to type in the password."
"Which we don't know."
"Yeah," Wes said softly. His eyes darted around at his surroundings. "Second option is to hack into the system."
"Do you know how to disable a security lock?" Solana asked tentatively.
"Yes, but this version is too complicated and I don't have the right equipment. I could hack with my PDA but that would take time which we do not have enough of..." Wes took another glance at the key pad and sighed. "Well, we should at least be grateful this isn't a fingerprint or retinal scanner or else we might need to do something rather extreme to get in."
"Err," Solana didn't know if she should be worried or relived at what Wes had just said so nonchalantly.
"Either way, we're going to have to get in," Wes said slowly as he inspected the door. "So we'll use the third option."
"I thought you said there were only two."
"There are only two methods if you want to do it quietly. The third… is a bit louder."
…
Summerland…
"Murph, how is it going?"
"All the women and children are on the ferries and heading to Fall City. We have calmed down most of the Pokémon on the west side," Murph reported.
"Good," Lunick sighed in relief. "That means we can start getting out of here." He turned to his own squad of rangers that he was assigned to. Each one had a different uniform, indicating what city they are assigned to. Red for Ring Town, purple for Fall City, and green and white tank tops for Summerland. Yet, here they all were, uniformly working together as a team.
"All rangers! Double check to make sure no one got left behind. Then, get yourself a water Pokémon! Your safety is just as important. Do not straggle behind."
"Roger!" Immediately all the rangers scrambled to do their duties. When he arrived, Lunick was assigned squad leader for making sure evacuation was going smoothly. At first, he was unsure of being able to handle such a daunting task, but everybody was giving their full cooperation. So far, all the residents were very compliant once they were calmed down. Minun sighed in relief as it rested on Lunick's shoulder. It had been working twice as hard after one of the ship's batteries ran dry and needed a jump start. The amount of electricity needed for the operation had been rather consuming and the poor Pokémon was exhausted.
"Sorry buddy," Lunick mumbled, scratching his Pokémon's head. "Once this is over, we're going to take a nice nap."
"Hey Lunick, thanks for the help," one of the Summerland rangers called out. His Wingull partner was perched on his shoulder.
"No problem. Good job in putting out that fire," Lunick said and looked around the area. It looked exactly like a typical tropical resort. The over-water bungalows were perched on top of stilts above a turquoise blue lagoon with the majestic view of Olive Jungle in the background. Summerland was the perfect get-away vacation if it wasn't for the dormant volcano becoming active again.
"Where is Spenser and everybody else?"
"Cameron is making sure Joel isn't overstraining himself. I think they're both on the east side of town. Spenser is in the forest. I think he wants to double check to make sure there are no rampaging Pokémon accidently coming into town again."
"Okay…" Lunick turned to the vast green jungle before him. Despite the greenery, he could see the gray smoke spewing out from the tree tops. The volcano hasn't spewed out hot lava yet which was considered a blessing, but for some reason, Lunick still had a gut-sinking feeling about the whole thing.
"MIII!"
"Huh? Minun? What's wrong?" His mouse Pokémon partner was pointing to the outskirts of the forest. Lunick glanced at the sandy beaches and noticed a figure running into the jungle.
There was still a resident on the island? And more importantly, why was he running to the volcano?
"Hey!" Lunick immediately yelled, running to the person. "The jungle is dangerous! Stop!" Once he got closer, Lunick noticed that it was a she, not a he.
That girl… she looked a lot like…
"Rui?!"
But Rui seemed to not have heard Lunick, and the jungle swallowed her up.
"Rui! Get back here!" Without hesitating, Lunick immediately raced in after her. The green vegetation impeded Lunick's ability to run at his top speed. The ground trembled from the rumblings of the volcano. However, he continued to desperately hear for the running footsteps in front of him.
How in the world did Rui get on this island? Wasn't Professor Hastings supposed to keep an eye on her?!
Finally, after jumping over a large rotten log, Lunick spotted the familiar red pigtails in the distance.
"RUI!"
Rui flinched at the sound of her name and when she glanced back to see who called out to her, she tripped over a large root. "Owww… Lunick." Rui winced as she got up.
"Rui! STOP!" Lunick grabbed Rui before she could take off again. "Where are you going?"
"The volcano!" Rui said, desperately trying to break from Lunick's grasp. "Don't you see what it is coming out of it?!"
"Yeah, smoke. Which is why we should run in the OPPOSITE direction."
"NO! It's the dark aura!" The blazing hot jungle suddenly became chilly. Lunick stared at Rui whose eyes were filled with horror. "There is a shadow Pokémon in the volcano!"
Author's Notes
Oooo, looks like we got ourselves another evil cliffhanger. XP
What is going on in the jungle? How did Rui get there? And more importantly, what is option 3?!
Okay, in other news, I have removed my forum from the site and any news/updates I will report will be on my profile page. Also, I have uploaded a story in a new genre (RWBY) called the Bowler Hat and Fedora. If you like the series, please take a look at my story. I do need to warn you that it is a bit darker than the other things I have written.
Thanks for reading; I'll see you in the next chapter.
-JapanDreamer