I had the weirdest dream last night. I had just slain the Great Red Dragon from the Bone series, when his skin split and out popped a fifty-foot tall red giant with neon green, polka-dotted boxers.
Then he donned headphones and sunglasses and hopped behind a DJ table. He was joined by my HTTYD OC, Batwings the Siren, who was singing into a microphone, and Rathalos from Monster Hunter, strumming an imaginary guitar.
Oh God, what did I eat that gave me such horrid indigestion?!
-.-.-.-.-.
Buizel and Floatzel simply stared at each other in complete and utter shock, a barred door separating them. The latter dropped the tray of food she had been carrying with a clang. Neither had expected to meet the other, or indeed to realize that the other still existed. Team Knights, the remnants of Team Eevui and Team Fossil, and the other miscellaneous Pokemon looked on in amazement – the wanderer, Cenric, and the Abyssal Raider, Vizeli, were mother and son?!
But this wasn't exactly the happiest of your typical long-lost-mother-and-son reunions. When the shock finally passed, Vizeli looked completely indifferent, and Cenric looked absolutely furious. "You!" he raged, pointing an accusing finger at the Floatzel.
His only reply was a casual nod as Vizeli drew herself up haughtily and stared down her snout at him. Lady Sapphire watched them on the sidelines, very intrigued. She could recognize a grudge when she saw it, and it piqued her curiosity – someone else hated Vizeli as much as she did? Interesting.
"How… I just…" Cenric's anger was so intense that he was rendered momentarily speechless. Finally, he spat, "Of course you'd join these aquatic maniacs! You have so much in common! Lack of a heart, for instance!"
While Vizeli only looked amused, Lady Sapphire looked offended. "Maniacs? Lack of heart?" she protested, eyes wide and innocent while she held a tentacle to her heart in mock shock. "Don't you think you're being a bit harsh, dearie?"
From the sidelines, Fireclaw muttered, "Not harsh enough."
Cenric ignored both of them, still pointing the shaking finger of accusation at his mother. "I cannot believe you," he raged. "First you leave me to die on the Glacier of Absence, then you go ahead and join the biggest and most powerful crime syndicate on the continent?!"
Several Pokemon gasped. "She left him ta die on the freakin' Glacier of Absence?" Pteryx demanded. "Just who does this dang woman think she is, leavin' her own child like that?" Vizeli spared the Archen a heated glare and replied, "I only did what was necessary, darlin'. This little runt warn't strong enough to live, so I left him be. Simple as that."
If Cenric had been a Fire-type, he would have erupted. His face got redder and redder until it was glowing like the sun. It looked like he would literally explode at any moment. Hastily, Luke got in between the two – after all, the cage door looked rather flimsy when compared to the Buizel's intense rage. "Can't we all just calm down and take deep breaths?" he pleaded. "It won't pay to start a fight right now, OK Cenric?"
Vizeli nodded in approval. "Now there's a smart child," she hinted with a haughty glance at the Buizel. Lady Sapphire, though, reached through the bars and picked the shocked Luke up.
"Aww, he's so cute!" she squealed. "It would almost be a shame to kill you, wouldn't it, you adorable little thing?" The Victini gulped and shuddered at the mad glint in the Frillish's eyes.
Thankfully, she put him down. Unthankfully, she picked up the fallen food tray and opened the cell door. Luke, Jowl, and Terra all scattered at her approach.
"She is such a pain," Sapphire muttered as she put the food back down. "Look at her – still completely dumbfounded. I wouldn't have left my child to die… I would have killed it myself. That way, no unpleasant surprises to worry about in the future, right?" She winked knowingly at Lancelot, who simply held a protective arm in front of Gaby.
The Frillish suddenly looked around at the prisoners, all unmoving and silent. "What, you're not going to eat?" she asked, gesturing at the food tray she had set down for them. "You all have to keep your strength up! El Nino's got something thrilling planned for all of you, and it would be a disappointment to have you all die right now!"
Cautiously, Terra approached the food tray. The look in her eyes told everyone that she hadn't had anything to eat in some time. But as she reached out to grab a small Pecha Berry, Sapphire blasted the ground in front of her with a Shadow Ball. The Water-and-Ghost-type giggled hysterically as the sound of the resulting explosion frightened Terra into diving behind Wyvern with a shriek. Arthur and Lancelot both eyed her with distaste.
By now, at the entrance, Cenric and Vizeli were glaring defiantly at each other, fire fizzling in their eyes. Lady Sapphire sighed wearily and began to float out of the cell. "I'd better get her out of here before someone dies in a very, very gruesome way," she hinted, throwing a murderous stare at the Floatzel, who didn't even notice.
Closing the door behind her, the Frillish wrapped a tentacle around Vizeli's arm and began to drag her away. "I can't wait to see you all later!" she sang, waving daintily. "Especially you, handsome," she added to Lancelot with a giggle and flutter of her eyelashes. In a second, the two Water-types were gone.
The atmosphere they had left behind them was tense. "Alright, she creeps me out," Jowl said abruptly, breaking the silence. Luke shuddered and replied, "Yeah, did you see the way she looked at me?" He shuddered again and hugged his little legs up to his chest.
Okami got up to pace the cell, walking in tight, urgent circles. "We need to get out of here," the Sylveon muttered to no one in particular. "The Raiders apparently have something planned for us, according to that frilly nutcase, and chances are it isn't good. We need to escape – oh, and get Cliff's Shard back," she added, glancing at the Growlithe. He had told them all earlier about his former possession of the Shard.
Wyvern and Lancelot got up as well, and each gave the others a confident smile. "Leave it to us," the Gallade said with a nod. Wyvern piled on, "Just wait, the two of us are gonna think up an escape plan. And before ya know it, we'll be outta here!"
The two Pokemon snatched a few morsels from the food tray, retreated to the back of the cell, and, for the rest of the day, talked quietly amongst themselves. The others looked on hopefully, knowing that their lives depended on them and their plan.
-.-.-.-.-.
As it turned out, Wyvern and Lancelot didn't have all that much time to plan together. Two Crawdaunt appeared that evening and took Team Knights out of their admittedly crowded old cell, transferring them to the empty one across from it. So although the two cells were close, the two schemers were effectively cut off from one another.
Lancelot decided that him and his team would come up with an escape plan while Wyvern, Okami, and Pteryx came up with a separate one. When the time finally came to escape, they would quickly explain their plans to the separate group and decide which one was better. But right now, they had yet to come up with an effective one.
Meanwhile, Cenric was also taken to a separate cell, this one much farther down the tunnel from his friends'. As he was led down the dank tunnel by the two Crawdaunt guards, he occupied himself with examining the other cells on the way.
The one beside his old cell was empty. The next one held a quartet of Doduo (eight heads in all), and the next was occupied by a Jigglypuff and a Numel. The two after that were empty, and then they passed one with a distraught-looking Pikachu cooped up inside.
Finally, they reached a bend in the tunnel. But before they would have rounded it, the Crawdaunt stopped and opened one of the empty cells right here. The other guard shoved Cenric into it before slamming the door shut again.
Their footsteps faded as they walked back down the tunnel. As soon as they were completely gone, the Buizel heard something shift at the back of the cell. He jumped to his feet, tail raised and prepared to fire off a Razor Wind if things turned ugly.
But nothing jumped out at him from the shadows – instead, a Ninetales and Absol appeared from out of the shadows. Both looked inquisitive at the new arrival, but not hostile. Cenric lowered his tail and looked curiously at the duo. Indeed, something about them seemed familiar.
Finally, the Ninetails spoke. "I can't believe it," he said. "It's Cenric! We thought we'd never see you again!" The Absol nodded and said softly, "Indeed. I thought I had seen the last of you ever since you went off in search of our daughter."
Cenric's heart leapt. He knew these two – they were his parents' best friends from the Yin-Yang Islands! "Sam? Blanca? Is it really you?" he asked incredulously, and they both nodded.
"We're very grateful to you, my friend," the Absol, Blanca, said. "When you went to search for Madeleine, just like that… you have no idea how thankful we were that the poor girl had such a good friend. Not everyone would have gone after her." She bent down to lick the Buizel's fur clean in gratitude.
Whenever Blanca did that, it always made Cenric feel good. Blanca always treated him like a mother would, and he could never really express how thankful he was for that. The Absol understood that instinctively.
But now Sam, the Ninetales, spoke up. "When you ran off after Madeleine, we thought it wasn't any big deal," he said. "She was just mad, and had ran off into the forest to cool down. But then you came back, and… you know the rest."
Cenric nodded. Sam was absolutely right – he had come back to them and reported that there wasn't any sign of her. Then the next day, he had informed Sam, Blanca, and his parents that he was going off into the world to search for her. First he had traveled all over the Yin-YangIslands, and when that ended up fruitless, he went off to the continent. That had been years ago, and he still hadn't found Madeleine.
"What happened to you?" he asked now. "How come you're here with me in the Abyssal Raiders' dungeons?" At this, Sam and Blanca exchanged glances, and both sighed wearily.
"Well, son," Sam replied at last. "We were kind of hoping you wouldn't ask. You see, after about a year, we ourselves got worried about you and how you hadn't come back with our daughter. One thing led to another, and we decided to go off in search ourselves.
"We took our boat, the Freedom, across the eastern and southern oceans, stopping at ports all over and asking around. Every single time, the answer we got was, "No, we haven't seen her around here," or something of that sort. Blanca and I were beginning to lose hope.
"Finally, we docked in Seaside Village and asked around as usual. Once again, no one had seen Madeleine. I was beginning to wonder whether or not she was still alive, and Blanca was losing hope as well. But we couldn't give up. We swore that we would search and search the rest of our lives if we had to.
"We left Seaside Village and sailed north. There was one town we hadn't yet checked – and you can probably guess which one. There was no other choice, and Blanca was very reluctant, but we had to. We steered the Freedom on a straight course for Murk, that smuggler's cove up near the peninsula.
"But we never got there. Halfway to that dirty smear of a town, we were ambushed by the Abyssal Raiders and imprisoned here. And soon enough, we found out why."
Cenric was hanging on Sam's every word, almost desperate to hear what he had to say next. The Ninetales looked grim as he hung his head and continued, "It was Madeleine. She was being forced to work for the Abyssal Raiders, and we were hostages."
It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. "No," Cenric breathed. "No, that can't be right."
Blanca lay down beside him and nuzzled him affectionately. "I'm sorry," she said quietly, "but it is. At long last, we found our daughter – only to find out that she's part of an evil society of criminals, whether she likes it or not. It's hard to realize, I know. Even now, I have trouble believing it…"
Sam sat down on the other side of Cenric and patted his head with a sad smile. "Madeleine's a smart kid, but the Raiders are smarter. I don't know what they're using our daughter for – she isn't a Water-type, after all – but they're not going to take any chances with her. If she wanted to free us, it's impossible for her to now."
Cenric was speechless by now. The Absol he had risked his life hundreds of times for, in order to bring her back to the Yin-YangIslands, was here in this very same fortress. It was mind-blowing that she was so close, yet so far.
The Buizel began to think deeply about this turn of events. Can we help her in some way? he wondered. Can we convince her to return to our side and fight back against the Raiders, once Wyvern and Team Knights have come up with an escape plan?
It was an idea worth thinking about, he decided.
-.-.-.-.-.
Only just before I finished this chapter, I remembered that Sam's species wasn't spelled "Ninetails". I cannot believe I forgot that.
Speaking of which, Sam and Blanca belong to FinalPower as part of Madeleine's backstory.
And now we find out who Cenric was wandering around and searching for! None other than the honorary Abyssal Raider herself. Will Sam and Blanca find a way to free themselves and get their daughter back? And what exactly do the Raiders have planned for the prisoners?
Review please, and see you soon for another chapter of "Destined Explorers of Legend"!
Chapter Question #13: What is your favorite generation of Pokemon? Mine are Gen. 3 and Gen. 5.