CH.2
TAKEN.
It was the next day now, and it was very cloudy, no sign of sunshine in sight. Solana and Lunick were side by side towards the base, purposely walking next to each other, but trying not to make it obvious. Solana had yet to report in due to exhaustion and… certain… incidents, and wasn't looking forward to Spenser's lecturing. As the sky grew darker and darker, the wind began to pick up as well. A slight chill brushed Solana, making her shiver. Lunick brought her in closer to him, hoping to keep her warmer. She blushed being so close to him like this, especially out in public. He was blind to this embarrassment though, not really thinking about it. Suddenly, it began to rain, and they dashed into the Ranger base.
"Solana, Lunick…" He then gave an evil eye to Lunick. "Its about time you got here… what took you so long." Lunick and Solana blushed. How would he possibly know anything? Was it really that obvious?
Suddenly, Spenser wasn't looking at them anymore. Curious, they both turned around.
It was snowing.
"What the!"
"Someone is using Blizzard on the entire town, there must be at least three ice pokemon doing it… Lunick, we need to see whats up!" Spenser runs past them both.
"Im coming too!" Solana cried, ready to run.
"No!" Spenser demanded, fiercely, stopping Solana in her tracks.
"But-!"
"Solana, stay here!" Spenser commanded; he seemed to be quite irritated. "Lunick, NOW!" He ordered, dashing out the glass doors.
"Im sorry Solana…" With that, Lunick rushed out of the building. Solana watched as the two of them scrambled out into the icy storm, while everyone else was clambering into their homes. Who would set an Ice storm off for no reason?
"Spenser, whats going on!"
"It looks like Articuno…" Spenser said, staring up at the large blue bird that was controlling the whirlwind storm.
"Just articuno? But how?" Lunick asked, bewildered. Hed never seen a pokemon do this to an entire town before.
"Don't underestimate Articuno. It one of the stronges Ice pokemon."
"But why is it attacking Ringtown?"
"That's what were trying to find out. Theres no reason a pokemon would just attack. Either someone hurt it from here, or someone behind the scenes is controlling it."
"I don't see any pokemon trainers nearby…"
"Cmon! Use your stylus and see if you can capture it!"
"From all the way down here!"
"No. Im going to lift you up onto the roof. Youll be about 20 feet up when you climb up. You should be able to reach it from there!"
Spenser began running towards the nearest house, with Lunick following closely behind.
Solana stared out into the snow storm, looking for any signs of Lunick. She went to the back of the base to see if she could get a better look, and then she saw them. She was in the hallway with the back entrance on her left, and was staring out the large one window in the middle of the hallway. No one was currently inside the base but her. She watched nervously as Spenser lifted Lunick on one leg up, allowing him to just reach the roof. From there he pulled himself up, straining to grab on to the now Ice covered roof. Lunick doing that reminded her of his muscles she saw yesterday. He was so strong, it was no wonder he was better at missions than her.
(Please be careful Lunick…) She thought to herself. She wanted to be out there with him, helping to stop, but Spenser had said no. Why had he said no? Suddenly she cringed when she saw a nearby tree break from the weight of the snow, crashing into one of the houses.
"LUNICK! You have to stop it!" Spenser yelled, running towards the frightened people and pokemon coming from the broken house.
"Alright, Stylus on! Capture, go!"
Solana watched as a streak of blue light streamed into the sky, ready to calm down Articuno.
"Pluuu! Pluuu!" Plusle began calling, tugging at her shoe lace.
"What is it Plusle?"
Solana looked to see where Plusle was pointing too. Solana froze her body, terrified. What... why was he here... She tried to back away, but his eyes... its eyes had her locked where she was. In the shadows of the entrance stood a pair of glowing blue eyes, a streak of white hair and a body of all black.
"D-darkrai…" Darkrai rushed at Solana, who could only stutter backwards, trying to turn around. Darkrai used nightmare, sending Solana to collapse to the ground in sleep. Plusle began to charge, getting ready to shock it, but Darkrai quickly used quick attack, sending back plusle in pain. A honchkrow flies in behind it, grabbing the sleeping Solana by her shoulders.
"Pluu…sle…" Using the last of its strength, Plusle runs out of the base, trying to find Minun. Minun, of course, with Lunick, was on the roof about 30 m away. Plusle scampered s fast as its legs could carry it, disappearing in and out of the snow; it was so thick now. It was horribly cold, but it had to tell minun and Lunick, Solana was being taken! Plusle got to the house, shivering, and looked for any means to get up it. It tried climbing up its drain pipe, but quickly slid down to no avail; it was covered in ice. That was when it saw the pile of wood against the side of the house. Hopping up and slipping a few times, plusle tried to grab onto the roof.
"Pluuu!"
Hearing its cries, Minun came over to help pull plusle up on the roof. They fell over each other, and plusle began talking to minun right away. Lunick was struggling, Articuno wasn't very easy to capture. He had gone around it 3 times, and failed twice now, he had to get it under control! Three more swipes and suddenly Articuno stopped. It stopped snowing and the clouds slowly were beginning to whither away. Lunick finally dropped his arm, sore from being up so long. Suddenly minun and plusle were yanking at his shorts, pointing and jabbering about something.
"Lunick!"
"Hold on, theyre trying to tell me-."
KAW!
Looking up at the sound, Lunick realized the problem.
"Solana!" He shouted, searching for the nearest way to get off of the roof. Spenser, confused at his outburst, also turned towards them.
"What the!" Solana was being carried by her shoulders by a fully developed honchkrow, with darkrai following it close behind, staring for any sign of attack.
Seeing no other way, Lunick tried to slide down off the roof, landing on his feet. It hurt his legs, but that didn't matter right now. Minun and Plusle raced after Lunick, who was running for Solana.
"Solana!" But she couldn't hear him of course. He noticed how she wasn't moving. That meant she must have been knocked out somehow...and wouldn't be able to get free on her own.
"Minun, use thunderbolt, but don't hurt Solana!"
Minun began to charge, still on Lunicks back, aiming right for Honchkrow. Seeing this, Darkrai used Hypnosis, confusing Minun, who fell to the ground, waltzing around dizzly. Plusle on the other hand was already ready.
"Go plusle!" Plusle was about to strike, when articuno came right down infront of them, whacking Plusle off of Lunick.
"Plusle!" The injured pokemon tried to get up, but had cuts from Articunos claws when hit. Articuno, seeing a window, used fog to hide their escape. Lunick picked up Plusle, then ran over to Minun who was still currently dancing in circles. When Lunick touched it, it broke from its hypnosis, and climbed up onto Lunick, who was staring into the fog. Solana was gone…
Lunick immediately began to run into the fog, but was stopped.
"LUNICK!"
"I have to go find Solana!"
"You cant yet!"
"What!"
"These people need help! Minun and Plusle are injured, and you need to heal that enormous cut on your leg!"
Cut? What cut? Lunick looked down, realizing his entire leg was soaked with red, the snow included. How long had it been that way? Was it from when he jumped off the roof? No wonder it hurt… He must have scraped himself when he fell off.
"Lunick, im sorry. But as your duty as a Pokemon Ranger, you must help the people of ringtown first."
Lunick refused to answer back.
"Look, youre going to have to trust that Solana is okay. Youre anger now isn't going to help her. Shes a strong girl, she can take care of herself until we get there. Shell be alright Lunick."
Lunick knew this was true, but refused to admit it. Instead, he turned around, and began limping back towards the ranger base, now realizing how much his leg really did hurt. He was so distracted about trying to get to Solana he had completely ignored the pain… it hurt more than he thought.
Wincing, Lunick finally reached the door, where Nurse Joy had already been called and was waiting for his arrival. He fell to the ground, and she went over to him, immediately beginning to clean him up. His leg stung with pain as she put on the antibacterial, but she continued nonetheless, ignoring him. He knew this had to be done, and waiting around because it hurt would only prolong the pain.
Honestly though, his leg wasn't really bothering him as much as she was. He still couldn't get over the fact three pokemon had just teamed up and practically stole Solana from a ranger base. Where could they have possibly taken her? Who would have had pokemon to come and kidnap a ranger instead of just asking for help? What if it was someone… who wanted to hurt her? Lunick quickly tried to get this thought out of his mind. He couldn't think like that, it would only make things worse. Solana was a Pokemon ranger! If she was in danger, of course she could escape. They had taken on Go Rock, entei and charizard, they could do anything.
"Youll need to keep your leg unused for a little while, to let it heal. It should only last about one or two days, so you will be back on your feet in no time."
"Thank you Nurse Joy." Spenser said, and she bowed lightly in welcome. "Im sorry Lunick, but youre going to have to rest for a few days."
"What? But Solana!"
"You cant help Solana if youre injured Lunick!"
Lunick wouldn't make eye contact, a sign he was once again angry.
"Well try to contact her through the stylus. If we find out anything, ill call you, understand?"
"Yes Sir."
"Murphy, would you please help him home."
"Okaaay…" He sighed. Murphy lifted up Lunick's arm over his back as he began to help lunick limp walk back to his house.
"That child I tell you…" Spenser said to himself.
