Chapter Nineteen
"Are you ever going to take off that cloak Josh? According to my MID it's ninety degrees..." Ellis told Josh as they walked.
He was right because as they approached Sanville and the trees started to clear it seemed to heat everything up like an oven. Colby had to take off her cloak since it was getting a bit toasty…but with black jeans and a dark blue t-shirt it wasn't exactly the coolest walk.
Josh though seemed perfectly content in his long, black and green trench coat which had to be frying him like a pancake. Even yet under his all black ensemble, he had on his black guns and roses t-shirt. Lovely desert clothing! Colby surely wished she had lighter colored t-shirts and jeans, but oh well.
Josh looked over at Ellis with a careless look and looked back at the dusty road which leads to Sanville in a mile or so.
"I don't care. You all are a bunch of wusses. I'm doing just fine," Josh replied.
Colby rolled her eyes and recalled Mara (who seemed to be getting to hot in her arms). Josh was just being difficult and everyone knew that. As the temperature would shoot up past Sanville he would eventually crack. Colby looked around, putting her hand over her eyes to shield them from the beating sun and saw pretty much nothing but a few shrubs along with some rather small trees.
One thing that never ceased to amaze her was the way the landscape could change so quickly in Aurora. One day you could be in a lush forest and the next onto barren plains. It got a bit confusing sometimes…but you had to be prepared for anything as a trainer. It truly was an unpredictable journey. "Yeah, you just wait. It will get hotter because after Sanville the desert gets worse," Ellis told him.
"You'll be sad you wore such dark clothing!" Amanda added, doing alright in her cargo pants and t-shirt (don't forget the Unknown cap).
"What about her? Why not harass Colby? I'm minding my own business for once!" Josh retorted, gesturing toward Colby on the other side of Ellis.
Colby shot him a glare and patted her brown knapsack that the cloak was stuffed in.
"She actually has some brains not to fry herself with heatstroke and take off the stupid coat!" Amanda told him looking amused.
Josh looked irritated, "I don't care! It's my choice and I'm just fine like this."
He just wanted to be difficult.
"Oh whatever, this is just useless bickering. On the bright side, we are almost to Sanville," Colby told them, gesturing ahead.
They had begun to pass a few out skirting houses and a farm or two as they entered the suburbs. Not many Pokémon roamed around here except for the occasional desert one. Amanda and Colby had logged a couple Cacturne that were roaming around but other than that not much was out in the heat of the desert day. Glancing down at Nicksy, who was walking beside her, he seemed content in the hot weather.
After all, he was part fire type and so he usually thrived in the hot air. Charlie was also looking content…hanging on Ellis's leg as he walked. That was particularly strange…but Colby just giggled and turned back to Nicksy.
"Hey Josh, why not get Subway out and we can just ride him into Sanville!" Amanda said, giggling.
Josh looked confused, "Subway? What the hell? You think I have a sandwich shop in my damn pockets?"
Ellis blinked and Colby was suppressing laughter.
"No, not that kind of Subway! I mean your Wailord, Subway," Amanda told him, petting Citrus who was napping in the sun on her backpack.
"You named his Wailord Subway?" Colby laughed.
Amanda nodded, "Yep! His name is Subway."
"Well that's completely random…but I like it!" Ellis agreed, giving Amanda a high five.
Josh seemed to be glaring at an unknown spot on the horizon and had his hands stuffed down in his pockets (probably looking for a sandwich). His frown didn't suggest he approved with this name.
"What do you think Josh?" Colby asked, prompting some kind of comment from him on the name suggestion.
Josh fixed his blank gaze on them, "No."
Amanda looked disappointed, "Why? It would be a neat name for a Wailord!" "You're going to keep bugging me aren't you if I don't say yes?" Josh sighed, putting an ear bud in his ear.
Amanda smiled, "Yes."
"Fine, name the beast Subway. I don't care. Just leave me the hell alone."
Amanda turned to Colby and grinned. Yay! Subway is the Wailord's name! Josh's music was blasting…so loud that everyone was able to hear it. He seemed to be mouthing the words and doing some sort of air guitar.
"I'll bet he couldn't hear us if screamed rude insults at him," Ellis smirked, getting ideas.
Amanda rolled her eyes, "Not a good idea Ellis. The heat seems to be getting to him though he isn't admitting it. We don't want you killed."
Colby nodded, "We don't need our little carrot friend left on the dusty road to Sanville and left for the Trapinch to munch on."
Ellis laughed, "That wouldn't be good…hey, what's that?"
Ellis pointed up ahead where some people seemed to be surrounding something. Squinting her eyes, Colby saw that the circle was wearing…blue and purple uniforms…she'd seen those somewhere before.
"Its Team Lunar grunts!" Amanda exclaimed.
That's where Colby had seen those unmistakable articles of clothing before! That one brown headed asshole was wearing it when he tried to steal their Pokémon. Josh seemed to notice it to and paused his music, glaring in that general direction. God forbid his enemy (the brown headed guy again) would be there…
Of course that's how it would happen. They were almost to Sanville and then these punks stall their progress. Colby sighed, that's always how it works. Getting closer, Colby noticed that they were surrounding a little boy and a little girl along with their Pokémon.
"We've got to help them! They are just kids," Amanda whispered, since they weren't but a hundred feet from the incident.
Amazingly they grunts in purple and blue uniform didn't notice them yet. Josh seemed to stiffen at the word kids, probably because of the kindergarteners that he hated so much. Noticing it, Amanda gave him a glare. "They are trying to take children's Pokémon. Are you just going to stand by and let them do that Josh? Even if you do hate kindergarteners…" Colby said, backing Amanda up.
Josh clenched his jaw…but shook his head. At least he was getting better with his heartlessness that he seemed to have before. Colby nudged Nicksy who seemed to understand and kept his gaze focused on the people that they were creeping up on.
"Give us your Pokémon, now. If you don't, bad things will happen to you and your little sister here," one blonde guy in a purple Team Lunar uniform growled to the little boy in the green t-shirt.
This little kid couldn't have been more than eleven and his little sister looked around six. The little boy looked angry and stood in front of his sister protectively.
"No! You can't have our Pokémon. Our big brother just gave Bellsprout and Tepig to us!" The boy protested, gesturing to the two small Pokémon that his sister was cradling with tears in her big eyes.
"We don't care about your silly family stories, nor are we afraid to take Pokémon from babies," a girl grunt in a blue uniform retorted.
"We aren't babies!" The little girl whimpered, clutching the Pokémon with all her might.
Cold laughter erupted from the four grunts surrounding them. "So is this what Team Lunar has come to? Stealing Pokémon from children? How cheap," Colby said loudly, grabbing the attention of the party of grunts.
They snapped their heads in her direction, looking surprised.
"Oh it's you four pests again. Coming back for more?" The brown headed guy stepped out from behind the blonde grunt and the black headed girl grunt.
The other grunt flanked the girl…with a creepy scar down the side of his face.
"If I do recall correctly, we kicked your ass last time," Josh growled.
The grunt smirked, "That was when I had weak Pokémon. I was just delivering a shipment back to HQ. Now, either you four pixies can move along nicely like good little boys and girls or we can cart you all back to HQ in body bags. This is an important mission and we can't have you idiots messing it up."
The scarred grunt stepped up beside him. He looked around twenty and had muscles bigger than anyone Colby had ever seen. Could you say body guard that could kill them all with a flick of his pinky?
"This should be some easy training, Ronan," the girl grunt smirked.
So that was his name! Needed a name to put on the headstone when Josh killed him… Ronan nodded, giving the four an irritated stare.
"We wouldn't even think of surrendering. Bring it on, because it's going to be an easy win like last time," Josh hissed, getting out a Poke Ball.
Emmera, Charlie, Zero and Nicksy were already ready, poised for attack in front of their trainers. Ronan laughed (somewhat evilly) and grabbed three Poke Balls from his back pocket. The three grunts did the same and Ronan whispered something to them before stepping back behind them. They chucked the three Poke Balls into the air and out popped (who would have guessed) three Lunatones.
These didn't seem to be too powerful…maybe level twenty, but there were three of them and five Pokémon of theirs (including Josh's Mr. Mime). But Colby was sure they had to have at least three each. Yay! They got to fight nine Lunatones!
"Lunatones, use tackle!" The scarred grunt called out to all three of them.
Each of the Lunatones responded and hit Nicksy, Emmera, and Charlie with a tackle. That's when everything broke loose, as in everyone was calling out so many attacks left and right it just became a huge jumble.
"Nicksy! Use shadow ball!"
"Emmera! Dodge!"
"Lunatone! Confusion"
"Mr. Mime, double slap!"
Dust was flying everywhere and attacks were being used all over the place. Amanda and Ellis were battling one Lunatone that belonged to scar face. Colby had the middle one, belonging to the girl grunt and Josh was fighting the blonde's.
"Nic! Tackle!" Colby called as he shook off confusion.
He easily got up and tackled the Lunatone. Spend from the heavy battle, it feinted and the girl recalled it. Throwing out another Poke Ball, she called out another Lunatone. Round two began and Nicksy was victorious again, downing this lower leveled one easily.
Josh seemed to be finishing off the blonde's Lunatone with confusion. Ellis and Amanda had the two of scar faces beaten and were glaring at Ronan. The last Lunatone feinted and everyone was just in a stare down. Ronan pushed his team mates aside and stood glaring at them.
"This isn't over yet. Go Sneasel!" Ronan chucked his Poke Ball and out popped a nasty looking Sneasel.
He had a huge scar down his face, across one his missing eye, and had his lip curled in a sneer. That Pokémon looked like he had been through some bad stuff. The wounds looked fairly fresh and the Pokémon seemed to be fighting off pain from his missing eye and deeply scratched face.
"That Pokémon needs to go to the doctor! Immediately," Amanda yelled, horrified by the sight.
Ronan laughed (evilly this time) and kicked the Sneasel in the ribs which caused it to yelp in pain. A flare of anger sparked inside Colby. How could he do that? That poor Pokémon!
"Stop it! Stop it! Can't you see he's hurt badly?" Amanda cried, looking close to tears.
The grunts looked to be enjoying this and Ronan ignored her pleas.
"He needs to learn to get stronger. Weak Pokémon are useless," Ronan snapped, narrowing his eyes.
Amanda looked furious, "The way to toughen them up is not by harming them! That will only impede the process! You have to care for them and train them in a humane manner if you want the best results!"
Ronan snorted, "Look at you. Thinking you're so smart. Well that always doesn't work because there are some special cases of weakness that have to be dealt with accordingly."
He gave the Sneasel a harsh look which caused it to shrink back. Josh looked murderous and Ellis was grinding his teeth together.
"You really are an asshole, you know that?" Josh growled, twitching with anger. Ronan gave him a smile, "Just doing my job gym leader. I've noticed you're excelling at yours to."
Josh looked close to punching him but restrained for once, taking notice of his back up. By no means was he chicken…but he wanted one on one with Ronan Colby guessed.
"Let's get on with this. Enough time is wasted already. Sneasel, quick attack," Ronan said, kicking the Pokémon onto the battle field.
Hesitantly Colby ordered Nicksy to use ember…best to put the little Pokémon out of its misery for now. Ellis added Charlie's ember and they had a huge wall of fire headed straight for the Sneasel. It looked scared but faced the flame easily and exploded through the middle, tackling Charlie. Amanda had refused to battle and was now comforting the brother and sister who had escaped the battle to hide in a nearby bush.
"Mr. Mime, confusion!" Josh shouted.
It obeyed and the confusion hit the Sneasel right off Charlie who got up easily. The Sneasel was walking around in a daze and Ronan was yelling some foul things at it.
"Finish it with tackle Nic!" Colby told him.
Nicksy hit it full on and it looked like it was seeing stars. Falling over, twitching, the Sneasel feinted.
"No! Sneasel! Get up you worthless Pokémon!" Ronan howled.
Seeing that it wasn't in fact going to get up, he kicked it so hard that Colby could hear the clear snap of one of Sneasel's ribs. It was unconscious but its body gave a shudder.
"Alright you asshole! You're done mistreating that Pokémon," Josh roared, advancing on Ronan with his fist poised.
Colby's eyes went wide and knowing this was going to turn out bad, ran out to drag him back. She was barely able to restrain him but smacked him to get him out of it.
"Josh! He's got body guards that will kill you! Stop," Colby hissed.
Josh looked extremely angry but seemed to cool down a bit. Facing Ronan, anger flooded his eyes as he looked back down at the crumpled Sneasel. "I'll make you a deal Ronan. I challenge you to a battle and if I win, Sneasel is mine," Josh snapped trying to keep his voice (and temper) level.
Ronan looked as if he was considering it and returned the hard glare. "And if I win?"
Josh sighed, looking at the ground before glancing back up solemnly.
"You get Mr. Mime."
Colby gasped and gawked at Josh who looked perfectly serious.
"Josh are you crazy? Putting one of your best Pokémon on the line for that abuser?" Amanda exclaimed, now back over here after checking on the kids that refused to come out of the bushes with their Pokémon.
"No, I'm not crazy. I'm going to end his Pokémon abusing on Sneasel and we're going to walk out of here. He isn't going to win," Josh replied calmly, standing next to Mr. Mime.
Ellis looked surprised but didn't say anything knowing that if he did it would probably result in some sort of yelling match aimed toward him.
"Well I guess we can't stop you if you're sure…" Colby said returning Amanda's nervous look.
"Ready for defeat gym leader?" Ronan called, stepping out from his group of grunts who also looked overly confident.
Josh sighed deeply and nodded, getting Mr. Mime ready for the fight. Amanda had moved the injured Sneasel off the battle field and was trying to revive him with some Pokémon food that she had in her bag. Colby stepped aside after muttering good luck to Josh and went to stand by Ellis who was hopefully out of the line of fire.
"Be ready to meet your match Ronan," Josh yelled, looking ready.
Ronan smirked, "We'll see."
Getting out a Poke Ball, he tossed it into the air. It clicked open to reveal a Duskull that looked pretty strong. Colby got out her Poke Log and quickly logged the Pokémon. Why not?
"Duskull, confuse ray," Ronan called.
The Pokémon obeyed, conjuring a ray of multicolored light and sending it straight toward Mr. Mime. Josh made no attempt for Mr. Mime to dodge it and let it head straight on toward the psychic Pokémon.
"Dodge," Josh ordered simply.
Just before the beam hit, Mr. Mime dodge it expertly, looking strong. Ronan's lip twitched in annoyance but he quickly called out a counter attack of pursuit.
"Mime, confusion."
Mr. Mime executed the confusion but in the process getting hit by the pursuit which he shook off.
This continued for a few more moves before both of the Pokémon looked to be getting winded.
"Shadow sneak!" Ronan told Duskull.
It executed the move, hitting Mr. Mime again. He looked a bit dazed and concern flashed in Josh's eyes. Was he going to lose? Colby's breath caught in her throat…he couldn't lose! Mr. Mime couldn't go to Ronan! That would be horrible for the Pokémon.
"Mr. Mime! Snap out of it and use confusion!" Josh prompted, looking a bit flustered as Ronan prepared for another lashing out of Duskull.
Mr. Mime looked a bit confused as he tried to shake off the attack but it wasn't working to well. Ronan's smile was so huge and full of malice that Colby almost wanted to hide behind Ellis. Biting her lip, she prayed that Mr. Mime would snap out of it…quick!
"Duskull, let's finish this with confuse ray," Ronan growled.
Josh looked absolutely desperate now and fear actually was present on his face. This was extremely rare…and almost frightening. Duskull prepared the confusion ray with extreme power as the white sphere conjured and he aimed. Colby's eyes went wide as Duskull shot the sphere directly at Mr. Mime, almost as if everything had gone in slow motion.
"Mime! No!" Josh yelled.
From beside Josh something cracked open and he noticed a Poke Ball had flown out of his pocket.
"Maaa!"
Something shouted as it appeared from the Poke Ball. Subway popped out at just the right time and seemed to instantly dislike the Team Lunar grunts. With almost perfect timing, Mime was able to just barely dodge the confusion. Josh looked up at his savior, the forty feet tall Subway with surprise.
"Maaaa!" It fog horn wailed, almost glaring down at Ronan.
Colby's eyes almost popped out of her head at what happened next… Subway's body shuddered as it prepared for an attack. Then all at once Subway let loose a giant stream of water from its mouth. He was using a full blast water gun…right on the Team Lunar grunts.
Just before the blast of water hit him, Ronan let out a little squeak and then was immersed by water. Quite finished, Subway sort of hiccupped and flapped its flippers around happily as it had defeated its predators (mostly threats to Josh). The four grunts were standing there looking shocked, extremely stiff, and dripping wet.
Ronan looked like he was about to lose his temper and spat some water out of his mouth, coughing violently. Colby didn't even see the Duskull anymore…who knew where it went.
"Did that thing just, spit on us?" The girl grunt squeaked.
Ronan paid her no attention but just glared furiously up at the huge Pokémon. It seemed to glare right back as it let out a sprinkler like water spout from its blow hole at the top of its head. Josh looked smug and gave Ellis and Colby a real smile…that was unexpected.
Rain seemed to come down like a sprinkler and Ellis didn't seem to be able to resist the temptation to jump around in the rain. Ronan looked like he was about to boil over and proceeded to take off his soaking Team Lunar shirt to wring it out. Just as he got it over his head their peace (if you could call it that…) was interrupted by a whoop.
Through the sprinkler someone with stark white skin ran through the middle of them all swinging his black t-shirt over his head like a lasso. Colby recognized the flaming red hair instantly and groaned at the sight. Riley was running around, weaving through everyone with his t-shirt flapping around in the wetness.
His stark white skin looked almost whiter than paper…and looked sort of an unhealthy color. Amanda looked mortified at watched him with a dumbfounded expression. Josh was looking at him with a blank expression and Ellis seemed as green as his hair.
Riley stopped and took notice of Ronan who was looking at him weirdly, holding his half wrung out shirt.
Riley grinned devilishly, seeming to get a light bulb over his head, "Did someone say naked sprinkler party?"
A/N: Oh my god XD this is so fun to write you guys and I hope you're enjoying this as much as I am. I have a poll set up on my profile that is for your favorite Pokémon Eternal Darkness character, so go take that if you'd like! Well anyways hope you liked as usual and I would love to hear from you! Just click the review button and let me know what you thought! See you next chapter!
By the way, if you were wondering. Ronan is pronounced: Row-nan.
