Chapter 6
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Once at the banks of where Misty said the power plant was, she called out her pokemon. The Seaking looked like a giant Coy fish with larger more wavy fins and a horn atop it's head. Kaiba readied himself to mount it, sure he wouldn't be sharing with anyone when a noise caught his attention.
"That's it, No, This isn't happening." Serenity's frazzled voice called as Misty and Kaiba turned to see what was wrong. "I'm waiting here. You guys go." She said, hands behind her back and blush across her face.
"What's wrong?" Misty asked, curious as to why now she didn't want to go.
"It was an accident! I didn't mean it." Tristan pleaded, but Serenity was having none of it.
"No, the first time you touched my butt was the accident, not the fourth." She glared at him, remaining about twenty feet away on the shore. All of the arguing was giving Kaiba a headache. They were moving nowhere and fast. He sighed and stepped away from the large fish and approached Tristan.
"Get on it." He said as he grabbed the boy's arm and pulled him over to it.
"What? You're not riding with Serenity!" He shouted, now upset himself. Kaiba fixed him with a glare.
"I just want to get to my little brother and you're in the way of that. Move." He said, not giving the boy enough time to retort. He walked towards the large star and turned to Serenity. "Get on." She hesitated for a moment, but after another glare from him, she moved to the water. Once atop the Starmie, he climbed over her, securing himself by holding onto one of the star's limbs and his other arm wrapped around her waist. It wasn't completely uncomfortable so he wasn't too hung up about it.
Actually, she was quite soft under him, even though her body tensed wherever he happened to bump her. When they were finally moving, he had to shift to avoid her hair whipping him in the face.
"Be careful, the water gets rough around here. It doesn't last long though." Misty warned from ahead. They made it smoothly through most of the so called rough waters until finally they did hit a bad patch. Tristan almost flew off Seaking as Misty expertly surfed with perfect balance on her Staryu. Kaiba, not in a very natural pose ended up crashing down on Serenity, flattening her between him and the pokemon. She turned to look up at him over her shoulder and he could feel his face get hot.
"Uh... Sorry." Why the hell did he apologize? He couldn't be held accountable for the currents of the ocean or the abilities of the pokemon they were riding. He shook his head, sighing deeply and picking up on a sweet scent. It was like... a sweet citrus melon or something of the like. He looked at the girl below him, who had already turned back to stare at the ocean and breathed deeply. It was her alright. It wasn't like the torrential amounts of vile strong perfumes the girls chasing him apparently bathed in.
She felt soft, smelled sweet, and wasn't too bad on the eyes either. Wait. What the hell was he thinking? He needed to find Mokuba. He didn't have time to focus on girls. Especially those related to a certain blonde he hated. A large building came into sight, silencing his mind. They approached the shore as Misty confirmed what they had already found.
"We're here. The place should be open." She said, hopping off of her Staryu. Tristan climbed off Seaking gently, only landing in a few inches of water while the Starmie brought Kaiba and Serenity completely onto the shore. Kaiba leaped off gracefully and offered a hand to Serenity to let her down. It was her turn to blush, but he turned away, ashamed that he could harbor those feelings for someone like her. "Normally there wouldn't be any pokemon inside a building like this, but since this one has been abandoned, electric pokemon have gathered in here. They're extremely dangerous and because they're so close to a power supplier they're supercharged and probably very aggressive. I... wont be much help in here... my pokemon are all weak to them." Misty added, recalling the water type pokemon to the safety of their balls.
Serenity, Tristan, and Kaiba all called out their pokemon, but both Kaiba and Serenity received frowns from Misty.
"Electricity types are also really effective against flying type pokemon. So your Pidgy and Spearow wouldn't last long." Kaiba and Serenity glanced at each other and recalled their feathered friends. They were left with their Charmanders, Pinsir and Mankey. They moved cautiously into the building and began their search for their friends.
"Where... are all the pokemon?" Tristan asked after about fifteen minutes of searching the area. They hadn't encountered a single one.
"Oh... No..." Misty exclaimed and everyone turned to her. "This place... if Team Rocket came through here, they could have taken all the poor wild pokemon in here. Who knows what they're doing to them." She said, worrying about the native creatures.
"Then we'll just have to find them quickly." Kaiba said, picking up his pace. They rounded a corner and he froze, causing Tristan to almost bump into him. Voices danced into the hall as they became quiet.
"You brats aren't going to interfere with our plans anymore." They heard a gruff voice call.
"You people wont get away with this. This is cruel and evil!" They heard Yugi and all of them immediately got excited. Kaiba slowly approached the door the voices came from, signaling the rest of them not to move. He slowly slid the door open and peered in. His eyes widened as he saw the entire group, Mokuba included, tied together in a large net next to two large sacks. They were under what looked like a large basket. There were three men around them, one facing them, one doing something on a panel in the wall, and one reaching up to some ropes attached to the basket.
Suddenly the roof began to shift and move, a function usually used to position the large lightening rods that were kept in this room. The third man disappeared behind the group and a slight noise rang out under the sound of the roof pulling back. Kaiba turned to the rest of them and waved them up so they could see what was going on.
"That's... That's a hot air balloon!" Serenity quietly exclaimed and Kaiba's eyes shot back to the basket. Of course. How had he not seen that? But if that was a hot air balloon... The large canvas began to fill as hot air blew into it, lifting it high above the basket. The ropes grew taught as the basket pulled on them. The three men began to move towards it when Kaiba slammed the door open.
"Big brother!" Mokuba cried, relieved and excited.
"Hah, they found us." One of them said, smirking as he leaped into the hot air balloon.
"But too late." The other two jumped in and they cut some of the ropes, letting the balloon lift into the air. Kaiba ran as fast as he could, grabbing onto the net before it could completely lift off the ground. Serenity and Tristan ran towards it, calling back their pokemon. Before jumping onto it, Serenity grabbed Kaiba's Charmander, but all she could grab was a loose rope that had been cut, giving her already weak grip more strain.
"Kaiba! Call back your Charmander!" She cried, unable to hold both the rope and the pokemon. He glanced down at her and lifted the pokeball, fixing her issue and turned back to Mokuba. Misty was already starting to cut through the ropes that bound them, but her small pocket knife was barely making progress against the thick ropes.
"Kaiba!" Joey called. "Get the small sack right next to you!" Kaiba glared at him, but did as he said. It had about seven or eight pokeballs in it. "Give it here!" Kaiba squeezed the sack through the net and Joey turned his back on it, having little reach with his arms secured behind his back. He fumbled with the sack, finally removing a hand full of pokeballs. "Scyther! If you're in there, come on out!" One of the pokeballs in his hand lit up, releasing the bug pokemon with scythes for hands. "Cut us out!"
"Wait! Joey! We're over the water now. If you cut us out, we'll all fall in!" Serenity cried, but it was too late. The Scyther cut and hacked at the net, causing Serenity's warning to come true. As they all plummeted into the waters below Misty called out for her water pokemon to aid.
Kaiba dove forward, swimming as hard and strong as he could to reach his little brother. He barely got withing ten feet of him before he watched as the ocean pulled him under. He took in a deep breath and dove under the surface, reaching and straining for Mokuba, but a swift current dragged him to the side. The brothers were caught in different currents, being pulled in opposite directions. Kaiba tried to reach the surface, but found no matter how he swam, he was sinking deeper and deeper. It didn't take much more before he completely blacked out.
"Kaiba?" A voice called out to him, but his eyes didn't want to open. He groaned as his head reeled and suddenly he felt nauseous. His body sat upright quickly and he turned to the side, retching up a salty liquid. He finally pried his eyes open, finding that they were held closed with a dry crusty salt. He felt awful in every way and place. When he turned back he saw Serenity sitting there. Her clothes and hair were dry, but stiff and she looked saddened.
"Where are we?" He asked, finding his throat was as dry as the rest of him.
"I don't know. You're the only one I could find. I didn't want to travel too far on my own... but..." She glanced behind her, looking as if she wasn't quite herself. He scanned his surroundings, taking in the area for the first time. The each wasn't a very large one and there was an almost jungle like forest just as the sand ended. In the distance they could see a large mountain behind the trees.
"We still have our pokemon right?" He looked down at his belt and found all pokeballs in place. He glanced back up at her and found she had all of hers as well. Then there was only one thing they could do now. Find the rest of them.
He rose, dusting himself off. His clothes felt ten pounds heavier and were uncomfortable to move in. Serenity called out her Charmander and he did the same. The two small lizards shook themselves a bit and glanced around. Suddenly they both squealed out and rushed into the forest.
"Hey, wait!" Serenity called, running after it. Kaiba followed, curious as to why the pokemon would act like this. They followed the small lizards for over a half hour when finally they came to the foot of the mountain. They could see the Charmanders climbing and Serenity paused, looking up at him. He shrugged and started up after them. It took them half the day to catch up to them but when they finally reached the ledge the Charmanders were last seen climbing, both were stunned. There were dozens of them. Small fiery lizards everywhere, they couldn't discern their own from the flock.
Before Serenity could call out to her pokemon again, three giant orange dragons flew from the peak of the mountain, landing before them and roaring intimidatingly. Serenity jumped back, crashing into Kaiba who was too stunned to do anything. He was a sucker for dragons, but he had never seen a real one up close like this. And this dragon was angry.
The great beast snorted a hot puff of steam into his face and he could do little but step back. Serenity grabbed hold of his arm as the creature reeled forward, baring it's teeth at them and ready to bite when it stopped. The two off to the sides shifted as two Charmanders moved in front of them. The large one kept it's stare leveled on Kaiba as the two small ones approached. The larger of the Charmanders stopped in front of Kaiba while the small one ran up and hugged Serenity's leg.
She glanced down, knowing it was Ember, but when she moved to embrace her, the large dragon turned it's gaze on her.
"Don't move!" Kaiba said, swinging his arm out in front of her, and recapturing the dragons attention.
"Char!" His little one chirped at the dragon and it focused on him. Kaiba watched as the little lizard made noises In correspondence with it's own name and the dragon grunted and growled in return, as if they were speaking. Finally, the winged dragon sighed a fiery breath onto the little one, shot one last glare at Kaiba and began to move away.
"So... this is where you were taken from..." Serenity said, finally able to kneel next to Ember. The little lizard squeaked at her happily and hugged her. "Do you still have the map?" Serenity asked, looking up at Kaiba. She had wanted to ask earlier, but they were interrupted by the chase. He patted himself down and sighed.
"No." His eyes never wavered from the dragons and she could tell he wanted one. Those dragons... did they protect the small lizards? They seemed to live peacefully together. Even lovingly sometimes. He watched one of the dragons lay next to a Charmander and two larger lizards that differed a little in size and shape, but were practically the same thing. He glanced down at his Charmander, who was watching him, and sighed. What was the point in having a little pipsqueak like that when there were creatures like the dragon that could completely destroy it? Of course... it did talk... or whatever noises they made at each other, the dragon down.
He glanced over at Serenity, who was smiling and trying not to look scared, though she was failing. Why did he have to be stuck here alone with such a weak partner? He would almost prefer her brother. At least he could weigh his annoying attitude and voice against his physical abilities and eagerness. As she turned up to face him, he realized he was scowling. He fixed this, but too late. She sighed and looked away.
"Why do you hate me so much? What did I do to you?" He was getting sick of answering every little question.
"Why do you think? I'd say it's the same reason I hate most people, but there's something especially useless about you. You couldn't even find the rest of the group on your own could you?" He sneered. The creatures of the mountain all turned, captivated by the raised voices, but he didn't care. He was pissed. All he wanted was to find his brother. He almost got him too. He was so close. But now he was here, with her... "So why don't you shut up and listen to what I say from now on so you don't get in the way." He watched as tears lined her eyes and felt... guilty? This girl was poison to him, and he couldn't face her hurt.
"I... No." He had only just turned away but his eyes snapped back to her. "I'm not going to step on eggshells around you anymore. You're just a jerk who always thinks he's right and I don't need that to get me back to my brother. So I'll go be useless over here. " She started moving away, but his pride wouldn't let him follow. He could only look on as she slowly disappeared down the mountain side.
The night had fallen by the time Serenity had reached the shore again. She had a few run ins with some bug pokemon but they seemed rather disengaged with the notion of bothering her, so she was able to wander safely. Her Charmander had followed her down, but once the sky darkened, the Charmander started back up towards the mountain, pausing to see if Serenity would follow.
"You... you're going home aren't you? I guess... it's where you belong..." She knelt down next to the little one, hugging it. " I'm trying to go home too... But don't worry about me. You go right ahead. Go see your family. Just be safe, ok?" She said, determined not to go back to him. She kissed the lizard on the head and rose turning away from it. Ember moved a few feet into the forest, turned to face her one last time, then continued up, leaving the girl alone.
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So, I'm going to rapidly upload the next few chapters all in the next half hour. I've been writing fast... Dont expect this often, but here...
Read, Review, Enjoy~Love ya!