Okay, before I say anything else I just have to say, sorry! I'm so sorry that this didn't get up until now. Simply put, first day of school, I got back and didn't want to do anything that involved thinking, then yesterday I had a football game to go to with the pep bad to see the opposing team's marching bad aznd watch my school's team lose, like always. At one point we had to get onto the bus during the 3rd quarter, we had no clue what was going on so we started joking around saying that we couldn't have surrendered already, and that we needed a white flag to twirl. It was a fun night to say the least, even though I don't like football. Just saying now, this is one of those chapters that I'm not really that proud of, so, ya.

A Random Human: thanks :)

Ranger Belle: maybe that's another way of telling if it's going to rain or not, I don't know. As for how Summer thought of the shard... I just felt like it was something I needed to add in for the plots sake, you'll understand why later on. *continues to read comment* Does this mean you don't like ILA as well? Simply put I hate ILA, my teacher was so boring; I swear at least one person fell asleep in her class. And thanks for the good luck wish, I'll need it.

Amazing Person: *Shrugs* Don't worry about it, it was an honest mistake that anyone could make. And, ya, going for all the pokemon in the game can get tedious after a while, but that isn't stopping me from doing it in Shadows of Almia.

Disclaimer: I do not own nintendo, though I hope to work there someday if I don't get a job for NASA.

Word count: 2,103 words

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Chapter 9

Encounter

The trip was fun, to say the very least. It was probably the most fun I'd had in a while, and I had a pretty good feeling it would be the only fun I would get for a long time. When the island had gotten closer I could feel the drop in air pressure, Latias had slowed down and stopped doing her tricks as well, and I could see the gray towering cloud and Ben on his starraptor only a few feet away from me. But I was more focused on the cumulonimbus cloud up ahead. I could hear the thunder and see the flashes of lightning from the ever present thunder storm that surrounded the island, never liked thunderstorms, especially after that tornado in Sinnoh only a month after I'd been transferred.

I wasn't there, but I'd been sent to see the damage and see if I could help out in any way. It was horrible. Houses were torn down, debris was tossed on the ground making it impossible to take a single step with stepping on what used to be someone's home. And in the place where the tornado had actually touched you could see the trail in the form of a small crevice that was about three feet deep and four feet wide.

Just from being there and seeing what happened I was lugubrious, so much destruction… I had thought only legendary Pokémon could do something like that. And when I had found out that it had just started out as a thunderstorm, my whole view on them changed. Before then I had actually loved them, seeing the lightning flash a vivid blue in the dark sky, hearing the rain poor, and the booming thunder that would always come soon after a spark of lightning, I loved it. But after seeing the wreckage of that tornado, well, now they scare me. I keep thinking that there's going to be a tornado; I never let my fear show, but that doesn't mean that I don't have it.

As the cloud drew nearer I tried to calm the nerves that were slowly triggering my fear. "It's not a thunderstorm, it's just a cloud of lightning created by Zapdos." I kept repeating that one phrase in my mind, over, and over, and over again. There was a job to be done; I couldn't let some stupid fear get the better of me. Lightning flashed, I flinched and scolded myself mentally for it. We weren't even on the island yet and I flinched at the lightning. "Come on, Summer, you're better than that." It was a lie, I wasn't better than that; fear isn't something you can just overcome on your first try. Sometimes it takes ten tries to get over it, but you have to look beyond your fear to see the gold; and I knew that, but that doesn't make it any easier.

Within minutes the dark cloud loomed over Ben and I and we began to descend to the ground; in my case trying not to let my nerves get the best of me. The familiar gray rocky walls surrounded us and I knew there wasn't any turning back. Then again, there never was. Besides, I just want to get this over with. As soon as my feet touch the ground there was a flash of lightning, and a resounding clap of thunder. I think I jumped, whether from surprise or fear, I don't know, but I mentally scolded myself for it anyway.

"You ready?" Ben asked from my right side. I just nodded, not trusting my voice. He let his Starraptor fly away and I let Latias go as well. Telling her that next time will probably be the same as this one, but that I couldn't guarantee it. Watching her fly away, flipping as she goes, made me realize just how free she was. It was like she didn't have a single worry, and to be honest, I was jealous. I can't believe I'm saying this but, I am, I really am. She has no one to hold her back from doing what she wants. And, even though I know she wants to, I feel like I'm weighing her down without trying to. The legend has nothing to hold her back, she can go wherever she chooses as long as I don't need her, and just thinking about that made me feel guilty. Latias could be wherever she wants, whenever she wants, gravity must be a joke to her. Sometimes I find myself wishing I could just fly away on my own, without a Pokémon under me, ha, like that'll ever happen.

We walked together in silence, going through two of cave like room before coming into a room that was open to the air, water on most of the ground. It was this room, great. The room that only enhanced my fear of thunder storms. After we walked a few steps in we could hear a young girl's voice "Now what's a nice couple of kids doing in a place like this?" Ben turned his head all over the place trying to find the voice's source. Me on the other hand had a good feeling that she was right above us, only just behind us.

With a sigh I turned around and stated "Look, I know you're up there, just come down and stop trying to play hide and seek." A young girl with long black hair jumped down behind us from above from above us, there was probably a ledge there or something up there, and landed on her feet with one hand on the ground, the other in the air. She stood up; eyes closed before opening them, showing deep blue purple eyes, and smiled lightly.

Crossing her arms over her black tank top of her uniform she huffed "I wasn't playing hide and seek, but, hey, whatever makes you happy." Her left arm reached down, and her hand reached into a leather pouch that was strapped to the belt of her black slacks. When it came out a pokeball was in her hand, she pressed the middle button and it expanded in her hand. "Let's do this, then. Shame I have you do this, but, I have to do what I was told." She nodded and whistled.

There was the sound of water splashing behind us. I turned on my heels, a boy with dirty blonde hair and green eyes wearing a black shirt that matched the girl's. In his hand was a pokeball as well. Both threw them at the same time reveling a Charizard from the boy, and a Lapras from the girl. "You want to take the Lapras?" I asked Ben turning my head to him. He nodded. "Alright, let's go."

"Capture on!" We yelled simultaneously, our styler releasing the small disk and having them swirl around our separate targets. Fire flashed onto the field and combined with the flash of lightning together they created a bright purple tinted light. In a mere minute the Charizard had been captured and the boy returned the Pokémon to its pokeball. He growled from frustration, but, somewhat managed to calm himself down. I turned back to Ben, who had only just finished capturing the Lapras, and the girl had it return to its pokeball.

I smiled, Ben had always been a little slower than me when it came to capturing Pokémon, but he looked good when he did it. "Looks like you got us beat." The girl said with a smirk, almost as though she was hiding something, she nodded to the boy who walked over and stood by her side. "Go on ahead. See if you can stop us." That's when she closed her eyes and jumped into the air, and, at the height of her jump, a Starraptor flew underneath her to land on. Then the boy repeated the action. She waved "Tata." And then the two flew off. To say I was impressed was an understatement. For the longest time I thought only rangers could do that.

A minute passed and we were still staring into the air, in a daze, lost in thoughts that didn't exist. Shaking my head I lowered it to the ground and said "Come on, we have to go." Thunder boomed and lightning flashed for the thousandth time, and I could still feel my nerves jump at the sound. Slowly I continued forward, to be honest, I didn't know if Ben was following me, I just wanted to get out of this place. It took a few minutes, running from dry land to dry land between strikes of lightning, but I got out of that room… only to be greeted with another one that was the same as the room I just got out of. More lightning, more thunder, I winced.

I just wanted to get out of here. "Stop it, Summer." My mind scolded me out of instinct "You have a job to do still." With that in mind I took a single step into the part of the floor that was flooded by an inch of water. "Summer!" Ben yelled behind me causing me to flinch. "Thanks for leaving me behind. You could have told me that you were going on."

Shaking my head I responded "I did. You just didn't listen." I looked into his hazel eyes and smiled lightly, a single smile that lasted all of a second. "You were still looking at the sky impressed by the way girl and boy mounted their Starraptors."

"You were too!" He yelled accusingly.

"Yes, but I stopped. Told you we had to continue. Assumed you heard me, and moved on. Not realizing that you were still staring at the gray sky as though you'll see it again!" Silence was the only response I got from him. "Got you there." A smirk came onto his face. I felt a push on my lower torso, around where my stomach was, and I fell into the water. He laughed and I glared at him. More lightning sparked in the sky, and thunder rumbled above us causing me to wince again from fear.

Ben held out his hand, offering me to take it, I reached out and grabbed his hand, even though I didn't need it. When I was back on my feet, by backside soaked from the pooled water, I pushed him to the solid ground "That was for pushing me." And I laughed, holding out my hand for him to grab. He took it and I pulled him up. "Now come on." I ran through the water, feeling the water that was already in my shoes slosh around, more water entering my shoes and soaking my feet. It took two minutes to get from one side of the room to the other.

The process repeated multiple times, going from room to room until finally the last room was in site. Zapdos' perch could be seen as well as a group of six grunts from Worlds End. It was just like what I saw at Faldera Volcano, they were digging, but they were joking, and having fun while doing it. If anything they seemed like some sort of family. The type of family mine never was… I sighed. I really have to stop thinking about them. The past is the past; I should be over it by now, so why do I keep thinking about it. I have a new family now; the rangers are my family, Ben in my family even though I'll never tell him that.

"So… what now?" Ben asked me. His question rang through the air. We could always confront them. But, we could also just wait until they find it and encounter then then. Or we could just let them have, no that's not an option. If we do confront them one of them could find it and get away. What to do, what to do? That's when the idea came to me.

I looked at Ben and replied "One of us confronts them and captures the Pokémon while the other looks for the shard while they're distracted."

"Alright and who's going to look for the shard." His voice sounded curious, almost hopeful for something that I'll never know.

"I'll look for the shard."

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lugubrious: looking and sounding sad and dismal (I do not own google). Well... not my best work, but it'll have to do. Sorry about the delay, but it's up.

Important: updates might go down from twice a week, to once a week, because of my work load from high school and everything else.

Later,

Ember