Hello! I hope you enjoy this chapter! ^.^
Amy47101 does not own pokémon.
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The Adventure Saga
Enlightening the Soul
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Awkward.
That was the first word Silver could think to describe the situation as all eyes were on him. He felt his ears heat up as Lyra tilted her head quizzically as she questioned his name. He scowled, shoving his hands in his pockets.
"What?" he asked, letting out a chuckle, laughing at Krystal's and Ethan's pathetic behavior. "You didn't expect me to give you my real name, did you?"
"Well, yeah we did!" Ethan exclaimed angrily.
"We gave you our real names." Krystal said in a cold manner. Silver shrugged.
"Your mistake. I believe I called both of you by the wrong name, right?" he asked. "Your choice to correct me. It's not like I forced your names out of you."
"Wait a second, whoa, whoa, whoa." Lyra said, waving her hands back and forth in front of her. "What the heck is going on here?!"
"When you got kidnapped by those masked people," Krystal spoke up. "This young man," she nodded towards Silver. "Asked us for help finding you."
"Aw, that's nice Silver!" Lyra exclaimed. Silver flinched, slowly turning to look at her.
"You..." Silver turned, just in time to see a fist aiming for his face. "JERK!" yelled Ethan as Silver caught the punch easily, and out of instinct, kneed the other male in the stomach. Ethan fell back flopping around from getting wind suddenly knocked out of him.
"Ethan!" exclaimed Krystal as she kneeled beside him. "Exhale, then inhale, okay? Good..." After a few deep breaths, Ethan sat up.
"Thanks Krys." he finally said, standing up. Suddenly, something hit Ethan in the back of the head, causing him to lurch forwards.
"Ethan Gold Hibiki!" exclaimed an elderly woman wielding a ladle. "How rude of you to try to punch this young man!" she exclaimed, then turned to Silver. "I apologize for my grandsons behavior. As an apology, you shall stay for dinner!"
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What was once awkward has now become even more awkward.
Silver sat at the dinner table with Lyra at his left, and Ethans grandfather at his right. While the teenage girl and the elderly couple was as accepting of him, Ethan and Krystal weren't as kind. Ethan shot a glare at him every time his grandmother wasn't looking, and Krystal kept casting him weary glances, as if she expected him to suddenly jump up and stab them all.
Ridiculous.
"Oh! I wanted to ask you guys something!" Lyra said, bringing out a pokéball. "I have a Snorunt that hatched recently. I trained her up to level twelve, but I want her up to at least twenty-five by the time I get out of Goldenrod City."
"How long to you plan to stay in Goldenrod?" Ethans grandfather asked. Lyra tapped her chin thoughtfully.
"Maybe one or two days? I'm not quite sure." Lyra responded.
"It's possible, of course." Ethans grandmother said thoughtfully. "May we see this pokémon?" Lyra grinned, and stood up.
"Sure! Come on out, Snorunt!" she exclaimed, tossing a pokéball in the air. The small pokémon came out, exclaiming her name happily.
"Oh, wow!" exclaimed Ethan as he studied the ice-type. "I've never seen that pokémon before." he pulled out his pokédex to study it while Krystal copied his action. Silver felt the itch to figure out information on the pokémon as well, but knew if he pulled out the pokédex that he stole from Prof. Oak, he would immediately get ratted out on by Ethan and Krystal.
"Here, Silver!" Lyra exclaimed, handing him her pokédex. He glanced at it, then back at her. She was beaming, Snorunt comfortable in her arms. "You can read about her, if you want." He wordlessly took the pokédex from her, wondering if she suspected his curiosity.
"Snorunt, the Snow Hat Pokémon. Snorunt primarily inhabits very snowy regions. It has long been said that any town visited by a Snorunt will be blessed with good fortune. Anyone who owns a Snorunt is said to be blessed with great wealth." the dex said. Silver glanced up at the pokémon, and nodded, passing the dex back to her.
"Those originate from Hoenn, right?" Silver asked.
"Yes, I guess so!" Lyra said, taking the dex and tucking the device away in her yellow bag. She was beaming at the small pokémon in her arms, turning back to the elderly man beside her. "So what do you think?"
"Hm..." Ethans grandfather mused, studying the pokémon. "Yes, I suppose we could do that easily."
"Alright! Thank you!" exclaimed Lyra, grinning like an idiot. Silver felt his eye twitch with irritation.
So giddy...
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Silver sat awake that night, waiting for the best possible moment to sneak out.
He was relatively surprised when the elderly couple not only offered him a meal, but also a place to stay. He was led to a room with two bunk beds on either side of the room, each with different colored sheets and blankets. The two on the right had pink and light blue, while the two on the left had bright red and dark green.
"Hope you don't mind the color," Ethans grandmother said somewhat sheepishly as she showed him the bottom bunk. "We didn't have anything else."
"It's fine." he responded. It wasn't like he planned on staying the night, after all.
So here he laid, staring at the top bunk then slowly turning on his side. Easing himself up, he quickly changed out of the embarrassing, oversized pajamas that was leant to him by Ethans grandfather, and back into his casual clothes. He glanced up at Ethan above him, who was snoring loudly. He glanced at Krystal, who was fast asleep, as was Lyra. He wondered for a moment how those two could possibly sleep with Ethans snoring, when he remembered one of Lyra's stories about how the trio always had sleepovers together when they were little. She explained that, even back then, Ethan snored.
He scowled, shaking his head as he zipped up his jacket.
He checked to make sure he had his three pokémon on his belt, and then quietly crept out of the room. He crept to the living room, and jumped as he noticed Ethans grandfather sitting in a chair with the lamp on and his eyes wide open. Silver jumped back into the darkness of the hallway, heart pounding and praying that he didn't see him. Silver was a good liar. No one could deny that. But Silver also knew that it would be incredibly hard to explain why he was up and creeping around, fully dressed.
Nothing.
Silver felt his heart rate slow as he peeked into the living room. Had the old man not seen him? Slowly, Silver eased his way in, walking quietly until he was directly in front of the elderly man. No movement. At all.
Silver honestly thought the old man croaked when a loud snore suddenly echoed from his lips. Silver blinked as he snored again. Asleep? He waved his hand in front of the old mans face to check. Silver got no response but another snore. Again, he blinked his silver-colored eyes. Weird...
He turned and eased himself out of the room as the elderly man began to mumble something about waffles. And here he thought that Ethan was a weirdo. At least now Silver knows where he gets it from.
He decided to creep into the room that contained the pokémon that these people were asked to raise. His eyes widened at the walls upon walls of pokémon in pokéballs, sleeping peacefully, ready for a new day of training and waiting for their trainers. Only one word rang in his mind: jackpot.
Of course, Silver was smart enough to check for cameras, which there wasn't any. Silver shook his head. Of course there wasn't any. The elderly couple had trouble operating a pokégear for Arceus' sake! The fifteen-year-old eyed the pokéballs carefully. It would be smart to choose a powerful pokémon, but also a rare pokémon. Something not from around Johto. Something that will take his opponent off-guard for a moment or two, giving him the perfect chance to attack and win.
Immediately, he thought of that Snorunt of Lyra's.
He quickly found the little thing in her pokéball, resting peacefully under the shelf marked 'ice types'. He noticed Lyra's name posted over the pokéball, indicating that it was, indeed, hers. Silver scowled at the thought of her. She didn't deserve such a rare thing. She'd baby her, make her weaker than ever. He could make the ice-type strong, strong enough to crush any dragon-type.
As he was about to snatch the pokéball, something stopped him. A strange feeling made a pang through his heart, freezing his hand up. He swallowed, wondering what the hell was wrong. He remembered Lyra's beaming face as she held the pokémon, and suddenly, he put a name to the feeling resonating through his body.
Guilt.
He shook his head, scowling. Ridiculous. Why would he even want that pokémon, anyways? The word 'runt' was in its name. Why would he want to raise a runt?
He turned to study other pokémon, finally coming across a small shelf marked 'abandoned'. He glanced at the single pokéball, seeing a small purple pokémon. Nidoran. He scowled, moving on. It had to be weak. It was abandoned for a reason, right?
He was surprised, though, when the pokéball twitched, and the male Nidoran popped out, running up to him like a child to its parents. He scowled as it began clawing at his leg, begging for him to take the poison type with him.
"No." he whispered harshly, grabbing the pokéball, returning him, putting the pokéball back, then preparing to walk away again. Again, the pokémon popped out, running up to him. Silver repeated the process, hoping the thing finally understood. Unluckily for him, he did not. Silver stared at the small pokémon for a moment.
Suddenly, there was a crash in the distance. Silver whirled around as he heard Ethans grandmother screaming at her husband.
"Harold, I swear, one of these days you're going to wake up the children!"
"I'm not the one yelling." Silver barely heard the older man respond. Silver didn't have time to think. He returned the Nidoran and shoved the pokéball in his pocket, then scrambled out a window.
Maybe he could make some use of the thing.
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Vale sat on the building overlooking the radio tower, legs crossed, studying the rocket grunts as the lingered around the city. She chuckled to herself, tossing her dark hair over her shoulder as some of them stumbled, yelling and laughing.
Drunkards.
A small beeping rang out from her belt, and she sighed. Back to the mission. She got up, grabbing a pokéball from her belt and letting out a blue pokémon with white, puffy wings. It uncurled itself, stretching its wings. Vale smiled softly, scratching its head.
"Hey, Altaria," she said. "Fly me down, boy?" the bird-dragon shot her a look asking how she got up, and she simply shrugged in response. "Please?" With a huff and a ruffle of his feathers, Altaria allowed his trainer to climb onto his back, and slowly lowered them to the ground. As she landed, the device on her belt beeped again.
"Yes?" she asked as she answered it. She flinched as she recognized the masked disguise of the man whom 'raised' her. No one knew who he was or what he looked like. All anyone knew was that he went by Mask. Nothing else. Like the half-mask she wore on her face, he wore a full mask, hiding all his features.
"Report." he said.
"Grunts are three sheets to the wind." Vale responded simply. "Just another day in Goldenrod, I suppose."
"Any traces on Silver?" Vale blinked, remembering the redhaired boy in Ilex forest. She could mention him...
"It's been years, Mask. I think you should give up. I mean, even if he is alive, and we do recapture him, what's the chance he's going to actually listen to you?"
"May I remind you that if you haven't helped him escape all those years ago, he'd still be with you as your partner." Vale felt her skin bristle in anger.
"I work solo." she responded, walking on the outskirts of Goldenrod.
"Are you back talking me, young lady?" again, Vale flinched, knowing the tone he was using. The kind before he was about to give out punishment. "I thought so." he continued. "Remember why you're wearing that half mask, Vale." then he hung up. Vale smirked, clipping the device back to her belt, and curling up under a tree. Altaria curled under her head as a pillow, and she released her other pokémon from their pokéballs.
Her Ninetails curled up near her feet, her tails covering her like a warm blanket while Umbreon crawled onto her lap. Scizor and Gallade immediately stood alert for guard duty, while Frosslass neatly folded herself against a tree to sleep. Altaria began to hum to lull his trainer to sleep, and Vale smirked.
Mask didn't need to know about the red-headed boy.
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I feel like this chapter is really short, so sorry if it is!
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^