Chapter 6
"I Do"
Alfa stood in front of Almia Castle. The crew hired to renovate, clean up and melt the ice cover on the place was really working hard. The ice cover on the outside of the castle walls had been removed and Magmortars' embers, which never burned out, had been placed in various locations inside every wall of the place to keep it warm and prevent a snow cover from settling on it. The main pathway had been cleared and the torch posts on its sides were lit. The snow in what was the palace garden had been removed and Magmortars' embers had been buried in the ground so people could take walks there, and Sicilia could play there if she wanted to.
He was visiting for two purposes. The first was to check on the progress of the crew, and the second was to collect any shards of the blue gem they had found to make Sicilia a jewelry set from them for her fourteenth birthday. He had already spoken to his foster parents, telling them that he had found out the truth and his brother, and thanking them for taking such good care of him and Sicilia for all those years. He had also told them what he had planned to do. Tell Sicilia the truth on her fourteenth birthday and offer for her to move in with the twins in Almia castle after her birthday.
He walked through the main hall. It had also been cleaned up. The Pokémon were still there but it wasn't frozen anymore. The embers were slowly doing their work. Alfa walked a little further and found the head of the crew supervising the reconstruction of the floor in one area.
"Hello Mr. Snowbelle. How are you? The work is progressing rapidly as is this floor." He greeted Alfa.
"I'm fine Mr. Stevenson and I'm glad to hear about the progress. Have you done what I said?" inquired Alfa.
"Yes we have sir. Here are the shards we've found so far and here's the list." Replied Stevenson as he handed Alfa a brown bag and a clipboard with a list and a pen on it. "Just check off the ones you want gone." He said. Alfa had requested that they make a list of all the Pokémon except lucario found in the castle so he could have the ones that Sicilia would be scared off or the ones she didn't like sent to their natural habitats.
"Leave the vulpixes, the Ninetailses and the riolus." Said Alfa.
"Yes sir." Replied Stevenson.
"Will the castle be habitable before the nineteenth of July?" asked Alfa.
"Yes sir, it will, we will make sure of that. Good day sir." Answered Stevenson
"Thank you, and keep up the good work. I might give you a raise." Said Alfa as he turned around to leave. He opened the bag and looked inside. There was around fifty thousand Almian dollars in there in worth. Alfa checked his styler's voicemail inbox. There was one message from Kellyn; Hi Alfa. Was at Hippowdon Temple for mission. Picked up some yellow shards for you. Guess what. I'm Sven's best man! The bachelor party's at our place. The girls will be out for the night.
Alfa smiled as he read the message. Perfect. Now he could get Sicilia something that wasn't blue. He met Latios who was waiting outside the castle with his bag.
'Found any good shards?' Latios asked.
'Take a look for yourself.' Replied Alfa as he tossed the bag to Latios.
'Good haul, let's get going, we should drop these off at Mrs. Winter's house before we go.' Suggested Latios. So the two of them stopped by old Mrs. Winter's house, whom Alfa was paying a great deal to make a load of jewelry for Sicilia. He asked her to make one necklace in a different size as his wedding gift to Wendy and Sven, and he also asked her to keep some frames ready for other gems and one ready to hold all three colored gems.
After stopping there, the two of them flew straight to Boyle Volcano. Alfa expected that they would find shards of the red gem there, so they went inside the volcano from the right side entrance. He looked around as he entered. Nothing much had changed here. He forge forward following the directions Kellyn had given him from when Kellyn himself had come to get the red gem. He soon arrived at the chamber where the red gem had used to be. Heatran was there but it was just lounging about aimlessly since there was no red gem to guard. Alfa started looking around the floor and soon had quite a few red shards as well.
He set off in the direction of the exit to find himself face to face with an Aggron.
"AGGGRONNNNNNN!" roared the aggron, splattering Alfa's face with saliva.
"BE QUIET!" Alfa yelled back.
"AGGGGROONNNNNNN!" it roared again. In reply to this Latios roared at aggron. Alfa sighed and launched his capture disk, deciding to capture the freakin thing and just get it over with. While Aggron and Latios were locked in a yelling contest, Alfa was capturing the aggron. Latios saw the capture disc return to its place in the styler and decided not to yell again.
The aggron had stopped yelling and was looking at Alfa with its head tilted to one side.
'What does it want?' Alfa asked Latios.
'Gimme a second.' Replied Latios as he shifted his focus to Aggron.
'He wants to know now if he can join as a partner.'
'Ok. We'll go back home via pueltown's ferry.' Answered Alfa. Latios relayed the message to Aggron and established a mental link between Alfa and Aggron as he had done with Alfa's other three partners. It wasn't as strong as the link between Alfa and Latios themselves, but then again, they had known each other longer than they could remember, literally, and Latios was also a psychic type.
"What in the name of hell!" exclaimed Captain Puel as he saw Alfa and Latios approaching with Aggron.
"We need a ride back to pueltown captain. All three of us." Requested Alfa.
"Well alright then, but you're going to have to be careful not to upset the balance of the boat." Answered the captain.
"Then let's get going." Said Alfa. Around an hour later, they were standing in the Pueltown harbor thanking the captain as they departed. They set off through Pueltown and crossed the Norward Bridge where they separated.
'Aggron, follow Latios to the union, where you'll be staying. Latios, you heard that, meet me back here as soon as you're done.' Said Alfa as they parted at Altru Park. He climbed the stairs to their floor and opened the apartment door to find Keith unconscious on the couch with an ice bag on his head and Wendy standing over him.
"He tried to change a light bulb." Wendy informed him.
"Real amusing. If it hasn't been done yet, I'll do it." Said Alfa with a chuckle.
"Go ahead." She replied. So Alfa climbed the ladder in the middle of the room and changed the light bulb. He wondered how this could have knocked Keith out. He guessed that he had slipped. Once he was back on the ground and had stowed the ladder away in the storage compartment Wendy started speaking.
"Your little sister's birthday is in two days, the twelfth of July right?"
"Yes." Replied Alfa.
"So you'll tell her the truth then and she'll be able to be around Ice. So I was wondering, once you've told her the truth, could you ask her to be my one of my two maids of honor. You know, the ones who carry the train from behind me. I've met her once when I was stopping a fire at her school. She knows who I am. The problem is, I only have one sister and the train is kind of long." Wendy requested
"No problem. My guess is that she'd love to." answered Alfa. A few minutes later, Kellyn walked in tailed by Latios and tossed Alfa a bag full of yellow shards.
"Thanks man. Said Alfa.
"No problem." Replied Kellyn. "But what happened to him?" and so Wendy related to Kellyn the whole incident again.
"You know something. That happened to him when we moved into the first apartment. He looked just like that." Kellyn remarked as Keith woke up, groaning.
"You'd better get going if you want to reach Hia Valley and back before sunset." Remarked Wendy. "Dinner's at eight so don't be late." Alfa grabbed the bags of red and yellow shards and set of for Hia Valley on Latios's back. He reached Mrs. Winter's house in no time at all and dropped off the bags of red and yellow shards before setting off for home. He landed through the window to find everybody at the table waiting for him. He stepped off Latios and walked to the counter-table and sat on one of the chairs when the bell rang.
"Pizza delivery for Mr. Keith can't change a light bulb." Came a voice through the intercom.
"Is this some kind of a joke?" asked Alfa as he sat down.
"Nope. I just gave that name when I ordered the pizza." Chuckled Kellyn as he walked to the door.
"Which one of you is Mr. Keith can't change a light bulb?" asked the pizza guy.
"The red head." Answered Kellyn as he relieved the pizza guy of three large pizzas and two bottle of cola.
"Sign here please Mr. Bulb." Said the pizza guy.
Keith got up with a frustrated expression on his face and signed the clipboard before the pizza guy left. Ice, Sven, Wendy and Alfa were laughing their heads of as Keith came back to the table.
"Smooth move Kellyn." Snapped Keith. But even he couldn't stay mad for long and soon saw the funny side of it. The six of them had a good time, sitting down at the table as friends and not as co-workers for once. The pizzas were delicious, as expected of Marnier, the head chef at Marnier's Pizza. Jokes were told, comment made on their work and the professor was given a very interesting nickname; 'The Professore.' Before everybody went to bed, a toast was made to Wendy and Sven.
The next day, Alfa woke up and went downstairs to get some breakfast and he saw a notice lying on the floor in front of the door. He picked it up and read it; THERE'S A GIGANTIC PARCEL OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR, TOO BIG TO GET INSIDE THE APARTMENT THROUGH THE MAIL FLAP. IT'S LIKE, HALF A FOOT SMALLER THAN YOUR DOOR! FROM, SUPERINTENDENT JAMES HOWSLEY.
Alfa opened the door and indeed the parcel outside was nearly as big as the door itself. He heaved it inside, tired out by the time he reached the lounge. He wondered what the hell was inside that was so big and heavy. He saw a label on one side and checked it; FROM, MRS. WINTER, LOG CABIN, HIA VALLEY. TO, ALFA SNOWBELLE, 14 ALTRU HEIGHTS, ALTRU PARK.
Realizing what was inside, he woke Ice up, and together the two of them hefted it to Alfa's room. They opened the paper and found a box that was just as big inside. Alfa opened the box from the top, having to stand on his bed to look inside, and saw dozens of jewelry boxes, the topmost of which was conveniently labeled 'WEDDING GIFT'. He closed the lid and climbed down from his bed. Together, the twins made their way downstairs.
The particular day passed very quickly and soon it was Sicilia's birthday. Alfa and Ice had on the previous day, taken the car to Hia Valley the long way and had shipped the box across on a raft pulled by Swampert. Latios had fired at all the chunks of Ice and Sceptile would grow a barrier around each whirlpool which Blaziken later burned down. Once on the other side, Aggron had carried the box up to Sicilia's room, which had been completed and the boys had set it all up in the jewelry display case, save for the multi colored necklace, which they would give to her at the house.
Alfa and Ice had landed at the Hyrax house while Sicilia was playing with her friends at the park. They had told the hyrax's that they would go and get her since it was nearly lunch time. The two of them set of along the path from the house to the park. The weather in Oblivia was nice at that time of the year. The soon reached the park and Ice began to walk behind Alfa, and since they looked alike, nobody looking at Alfa from the front could tell that there was someone behind him. He saw Sicilia in the park playing catch and Ice came out from behind him and Sicilia turned and saw them.
"Alfa!" she exclaimed. But her joy was short lived as a fastball came and struck her on the head, knocking her out as she fell on the path.
"We'll take her back." Said Alfa to her friends.
Half an hour later, Sicilia woke up in the house. Sitting in front of her were two Alfas.
"Sicilia, happy birthday!" said the two boys in unison.
"Ice? Alfa?" she started to speak.
"Sicilia, before you say anything, did you have a dream that we were in a distant city with different parents, and you had two brothers instead of one, and you were around three." Asked Alfa.
"Yes, and there was an avalanche too." She replied.
"That was our past. Mr. and Mrs. Hyrax aren't our parents." And so Ice began to tell the tale of their past, and Sicilia took it well for one.
"So we want to ask you, if you want to, you can move in with us at Almia castle on the nineteenth. You'll go to the same boarding school though, we'll drop you off every term." Said Alfa.
"Yes, I'd like that. But for now, let's go down and have lunch." Answered Sicilia. At the table, the boys told the Hyrax's what had happened and that Sicilia wanted to move in with them.
"That's okay with us. But how about we give you our presents for now." Suggested Mr. Hyrax. Soon they were all sitting in the lounge with a plate of cookies and Sicilia was opening her last present, the necklace.
"It's beautiful! Thank you so much." She said as she got up and hugged the twins.
"Oh, I almost forgot! We have a present for you from Wendy, the top ranger who saved your school." Mentioned Alfa.
"Really! What is it?" asked Sicilia.
"Well, she's getting married to Sven in three days and she wants you to be one of her maids of honor." Said Ice.
"That's awesome." Exclaimed Sicilia.
"You can come with us tomorrow and stay until we move, so you'd better pack your things. We don't need to pack the big things like desks, chairs, or the bed, your room is already furnished, but we'll have to pack all the other things today." Said Alfa. "We'll come back in our car to pick you up tomorrow. Bye."
When the boys reached their apartment, they were surprised to find the others waiting in the apartment with a celebration dinner for them. Kellyn tossed the duo two pairs of car keys.
"Each of you gets a Mercedes-Benz SLK AMG convertible from us, and it really converts, you can also drive them underwater to cross Almia Lake." Said Kellyn as he tossed the keys over.
"Guys, this is amazing, thank you so much!" said Alfa. And so they had a very good time that night.
Three days later, at the wedding.
Sven was standing at the altar in Altru Park, and all the guests were seated. All of a sudden, music started playing as Wendy started to walk down the aisle, dressed in a pure white dress, wearing the necklace the twins had given her. Sicilia and Lily were behind her carrying the train. The moment she was on the altar, the ceremony began.
"Do you, Sven Serenston, vow to take this woman, who already changed her name to match yours out of true love, as your wife and care and provide for her for the rest of your natural life." Asked the minister.
"I do." Said Sven.
"And do you, Wendy Serenston, accept Sven's request for your hand in marriage." He asked Wendy.
"I do."