ATTENTION: OC submission is over come next chapter. This is your last chance to submit your OCs into this story! For those of you who have submitted OCs but haven't seen them in this story yet – be patient, I want to make sure of our current characters' fates before I introduce any new significant plotlines.
-.-.-.-.-.
The daylight hit them like a fist. Alphonse shaded his eyes with a tentacle as the group stepped into the light of the fading day. Moisture was steadily dripping from the mouth of the cave, many puddles on the ground reflected the orange sun, and the air smelled warm and damp.
The storm was over, and everything was peaceful once more. Adrianna sighed to herself as the sudden exposure to the sun caused Topaz to yawn and wake up again. They were safe, and that was what mattered most to her.
"What a productive day," Alphonse said, cheerful for once. "We caught a criminal and got some treasure out of it too!" Evelyn nodded, in good spirits as well, not to mention happy that her friend was too.
Barn and Elf were happy as well. This was what rescue teams did – brought evil Pokemon to justice and discovered unknown treasures. I guess we're one more step on the way to becoming Guardians, Barn thought. It wasn't enough anymore just to find these legendary warriors – now Barn thought it was necessary to actually join them and help them fight against the growing tides of chaos.
"What are we going to do now?" asked Elf. "We've got a criminal to deliver and piles of treasure in our hands, with nothing to store it all in." Adrianna raised a hand and said, "I can help take care of the treasure – I can head back to the village and buy treasure bags for each of us."
Alphonse nodded and picked up the still-unconscious Honchkrow. "And that leaves her," he said, disdain tainting his voice. "Either we can find a rescue team to take her to some prison, or we can go to VulcanaCity and deliver her ourselves."
Adrianna frowned. "A rescue team in Seaside Village will be hard to find," she pointed out. "It's normally pretty peaceful around here." Evelyn got her attention with a wave of her tail and replied, "Maybe, but that storm was pretty fierce. A rescue team might actually be on their way here to assess the damage done and to make sure no one had been hurt. Then we can simply hand over the wad of feathers over there."
Elf spoke up again. "So do we wait, or do we take action and go to the city?"
No one had the chance to answer, as Mara's eyes suddenly snapped open.
"Dark Pulse!" she shrieked, causing everyone to jump. She blasted Alphonse with a shadowy pulse of energy, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground with a pained grunt. Treasure scattered everywhere as he dropped what he had been carrying. Instantly, the Honchkrow soared high into the air and flew out of sight.
"Ow…" muttered Alphonse, rubbing his head. Evelyn helped him up, earning a thankful nod from the Tentacruel.
"And there she goes," Barn sighed. Elf groaned and said, "I thought we had her!"
Evelyn looked up toward the orange sky, where Mara was little more than a black speck. "Well," she said conclusively, "now we know where we're going."
Everyone looked at the Dragonair, who didn't avert her gaze from the fleeing bird. Finally, she turned her attention to them and said seriously, "We're going to find the Guardians."
Although Adrianna felt that such a journey would be even longer and more dangerous than today's expedition, and that she and Topaz had had enough adventures for one day and that they needed a rest, she found herself agreeing with Evelyn. Things have been getting out of hand recently, she thought privately. First those bullies the other day, then that storm… it's a mess.
"You're right," the Gardevoir said, startling everyone. "We need to tell them about everything that's happened. That there's an escaped criminal on the loose, for one."
Barn nodded his head furiously. "And about the Darkfeather gang's plans, which Elf and I uncovered," he added. All the while, his heart was pounding. We're going to find the Guardians at last! he thought excitedly.
"And about the fate of Diamond Island," finished Alphonse, voice soft.
Everything instantly went silent.
"…Wh-what did you say?" Adrianna asked in a fearful tone. Alphonse glanced around, unsure of what he had said wrong. "Um… I said that we should tell the Guardians about the fate of Diamond Island…" he repeated uncertainly.
Adrianna's naturally white face turned paler. "What happened to Diamond Island?" she asked, a note of desperation entering her voice. Barn and Elf looked from one to the other in confusion – they knew nothing of the world outside of their valley, and thus had no idea as to what this "Diamond Island" was.
"There was a terrible earthquake there only a few days ago," Evelyn said sadly. "The island is sinking, or perhaps it has already sunken. Me, Alphonse, and our friend Terra were the only survivors."
A terrible feeling took hold of Adrianna. "My… my daughter…" she said, tears coming to her eyes. Topaz looked up at her, sensing his mother's intense sadness almost instantly. He, too, began to tear up.
"My d-daughter went to Diamond Island only yesterday," the Gardevoir said quietly, voice breaking. "We didn't know anything about the earthquake, and she just s-sailed off… and then that s-storm hit… she c-could be anywhere! She could b-be in d-danger!" She broke down crying, and Topaz instinctively joined in, tiny body wracked with equally tiny sobs.
Evelyn's face softened and she moved to comfort the distraught Psychic-types. "It'll be fine," she soothed. "You have to trust – you have to hope – that your daughter will be alright. Who knows, maybe she's perfectly fine and is trying to make her way back to SeasideVillage. This is something we can ask the Guardians about, maybe they can help us look for her."
Adrianna solemnly nodded. As a mother, she would never stop worrying, but as the Dragonair said, she would have to tell herself that Gaby would be all right without her. She hugged Topaz tightly, and the Ralts sensed that his mother was feeling a little better. He stopped sniffling and hugged her back, unwilling to let go.
"Well then," Barn said, "let's go to the city and find the Guardians. Things are going more and more out of control, and only they can set everything right again."
-.-.-.-.-.
Speaking of setting things right – across the ocean on Deepdark Island, Wyvern and his new friends were having trouble doing that.
They deduced that the only way to safely escape the barren island was to fix the Tranquility and sail away to some place more hospitable. The only thing was, the main damage was to the hull, and Deepdark Island had precious few trees.
The reason for that lay in the island's affiliation with the Ocean Faction. Ever since the massive battle between Groudon and Kyogre a few hundred years ago, the Continent Pokemon had dried up Deepdark Island in an attempt to slay Kyogre's people. It had nearly worked, and resulted in the remaining people fleeing to points all over the mainland. The drought had wreaked severe havoc on Deepdark Island, and to make matters worse, the Ocean Faction was now only an old tale. They were thought to be extinct, and because of this, Kyogre felt no need to repair the damage Groudon had caused. Nowadays, this island was more or less a death sentence for shipwrecked sailors.
Wyvern told Cenric and Terra all this as they traveled far inland in their search for suitable wood – on second thought, their search for any kind of wood, suitable or not. They had actually found a tiny grove of stunted trees some hours ago, and had made another trip back to the Tranquility to dump their not-so-heavy load on the beach for later use. Now, they had trekked to the near center of the island, a journey that had taken them many more hours.
As the sun vanished behind the horizon and darkness claimed the sky, Terra used her tail flame to light the way in their search for trees. "I wouldn't be surprised if we ended all life on this island in our search for wood," Cenric muttered. Wyvern replied, "Wow, I never thought of that. How ironic – an extinct Pokemon dooming an ecosystem to extinction."
He chuckled nervously, but he indeed felt just a little bit guilty. Just a little bit. They were only trees, after all.
"What ecosystem?" asked Terra without even a bit of sarcasm. "I haven't even seen any Bug-types!" She held her tail in front of her and squinted, trying to see farther.
Suddenly, Cenric stretched and yawned loudly. "Why don't we call it a night?" the Buizel asked. "It's going to take us a while to get back to the boat from this distance, and anyway, there might not even be any more trees on this island."
Wyvern shook his head. "We don't have a lot left of this island to search," he responded. "I predict that it'll take us only until midnight to make our way around the island and head back to the wreck. Then we can sleep in and get started on the boat when we wake up."
Terra nodded and continued walking, blue bandana standing out against her orange skin in the light of the flame. Cenric grumbled and fingered his locket, something he usually did when he was bored, lonely, or nervous. Wyvern brought up the rear, keen eyes relatively unaffected by the gathering darkness.
They soon found themselves in a strange quarry of oddly shaped, cream-colored boulders. But they didn't really notice the strange rocks – for standing tall amongst them were tall trees, barren of leaves but pleasing to the eye nonetheless. There was also the occasional shrub, like the kind one would find in a desert.
"Look at the size of these!" Terra exclaimed, trying to use her flame to see the tops. But her tail was too small to light up the tree all the way to their peaks. "We'll have no trouble patching the Tranquility up with these," Wyvern commented, running his claws along the rough bark.
Cenric just yawned and plopped down against a tree. "I'm getting some sleep," he said with finality. "If we're going to be lugging these monsters all the way back down to the beach, I want to be rested." He curled up and almost immediately started snoring.
The Archeops nodded, too tired himself to argue. He effortlessly climbed up the tree and perched himself on a sturdy limb. Within minutes, he was sleeping as well.
Terra took a while longer to fall asleep. She couldn't help thinking about her friend Cobalt for some reason, and how she wished the Riolu was here with her. But he was dead – she knew that if he had survived the earthquake then he would have joined her, Alphonse, and Evelyn. She sniffed loudly and tried to get some sleep.
The Charmander indeed fell asleep after a minute or so. Her last sight before she drifted off was one of the odd-looking boulders surrounding them. If she felt that unmistakable feeling that it was watching her, she was too tired to acknowledge it.
-.-.-.-.-.
Mara was at last given the chance to rest her weary wings when a comfortable-looking ledge made its presence known as she flew over the crests of the mountains surrounding the Darkfeathers' valley. She had been flying until the moon was fully above the horizon, and the aftereffects of that Shock Wave attack weren't helping. The Honchkrow cried in pain as a sudden jolt of electricity hit her, then vanished an instant later.
Inwardly, she was seething. How in the name of Giratina had that pathetic little Ralts, indeed too young to even talk, incapacitated her so easily? It made her feel like a puny little Pidgey, and of course, as a Honchkrow, she hated feeling weak. It would take a long time before her pride recovered from that attack.
She landed exhaustedly on the mountain ledge, breathing in great amounts of the chilly alpine air. The cold stung her lungs, but for now it didn't matter. Mara knew that she needed to get her strength back if she were to fly all the way back to the Darkfeathers' hideout, and what better substance to use to regain her energy than good old oxygen?
Mara lay there for a while, slowly strengthening as she breathed the crisp, clean mountain air. Since her hideout was in a series of caverns, it was very nice to get out once in a while, if only for the fresh air – after all, the air in the caves was pretty stale. But she wouldn't have to worry about hiding much longer, not when all five Shards were in her grasp.
But those Shards were proving very hard to find. It would make the Darkfeathers look very bad indeed when they were the only group to show up without a Shard. The way things were going, the Abyssal Raiders and Life Stealers would have their Shards and the Darkfeathers would be out of favor. Mara gritted her beak and tried not to think about it.
Then, the sound of flapping wings caught her attention. A smile came to Mara's face as she saw her Murkrow mob coming toward her, black specks against a slightly less black sky. At least my partners got out all right, she thought. Mara, for all her cruel ways, indeed cared at least a little about her ten Murkrow.
They all landed in front of her about a minute later, all clutching bits and pieces of gold and jewels in their talons and beaks. Mara's grin grew wider as she saw the sparkling trinkets.
"My lady," squawked the lead Murkrow, dropping a handsome-looking emerald bracelet from his beak. "We managed to salvage some of the treasure from the cave! We thought it would be better than coming back empty-clawed."
Mara smiled again and nodded. "Thank you," she said. "You always find a way to make me proud." The Murkrow all ducked their heads modestly and muttered that it was nothing.
"Now, at least, we don't need to keep looking for that Noctowl and Hoothoot," Mara mused further. "Pure luck that we found them going into the very same cave that Clawface wanted them to! Now we can trade him these trinkets for the Shard, when he finds it… if he finds it." All the Murkrow loyally agreed, clacking their beaks and nodding their heads.
The black bird Pokemon piled all of their collected treasure into a little heap at Mara's talons. She nodded approvingly as she sifted through it with her claws – there was indeed a grand sum of P to be gained even from this little pile.
But just then, something caught her eye. She curiously brushed away the gold covering it, allowing the light of the moon to shine on that particular item. It was a metallic blue stone, rectangular in shame and the size of one of her talons.
However, that wasn't what intrigued Mara – it was the fact that she recognized the stone. She recognized it from the carving that had been shown to her and the other gang leaders.
"Is this…?" she said aloud in pure awe. And then, joy welled up in her chest and forced itself out her beak. Mara laughed delightedly, long and loud, so great was her happiness. The Murkrow looked at each other quizzically until the gales died down.
"Do you… do you know what this is, little ones?" Mara wheezed, trying to catch her breath. She pointed down at the blue stone with a shaking primary feather – shaking with shocked exuberance.
Her talons clasped around the stone victoriously, but it protested, sensing the evil within the Honchkrow. The sentient stone sent out a cry for help to its Discoverer, telling them that someone other than its Discoverer had gotten a hold of it.
"And they call us Honchkrow and Murkrow unlucky!" Mara said proudly to her Murkrow gang. "This is… this is what we need! This is a Shard!"
-.-.-.-.-.
Oh no, Mara has a Shard! Is this the same one that Clawface was after? And indeed, what happened to the fearsome Fearow? Is he still alive after Tesla's Electroweb hit the conductive seawater?
And what of Wyvern and the junior half of Team Biosphere? What are those oddly colored boulders that Terra noticed? Will they escape Deepdark Island safely?
Too many questions, and not enough answers. Not to worry, those will be answered in the next few chapters!
Last chance for OCs, people! Any last ideas? Heroes, villains, petty thieves, wannabe do-gooders, neutral parties? Bring 'em to me!
Clawface: "Ugghh… review, or I'll muster up the strength to kill you… somehow… ugghh…"
Chapter Question #6: If you could be turned into one Pokemon permanently for the rest of your life, what would it be? Would you immerse yourself into this story, or would you just not care about the events conspiring?