Pokémon
Hey! Ok, so I was feeling lazy yet again, so I decided to slack off on checking my work again. Sorry. I just hope I don't make too many mistakes. Anyway, I'd like to thank RikkaMira for informing me that it was the story's anniversary! I honestly had no idea until I read your review. And thanks for the compliments too. :) And in celebration of the one year anniversary, I give you an update!
Chapter # 19 – "...something against the male species?"
Like always, the girl going by the alias 'Roxy' woke with a start. She had to wrestle to get out of her tangled sleeping bag. Slow breathing came from her right, startling her a bit before grasping her present predicament; she was stranded on an island. "Xena? It's time to wake up." She said, moving to shake the girl.
The big, black canine curled up by its trainer's head snarled at Roxy. "No." Groaned the purplenette, sinking her body deeper into her blankets.
"Come on, I thought you wanted to get started ASAP." She replied, throwing her makeshift bed in her backpack and throwing it over her shoulders.
"It's too early!"
"Are you kidding? The sun is already up; it's like noon!"
Xena sighed. Her canine had decided it was time to get up too and nudged his trainer to do the same. "Feugo!" She whined. Finally she sat up. "Alright, I'm up! Don't get your panties in a bunch." It took about 10 minutes and they were out investigating the island.
The sun was a scorcher, burning down on the beach at a temperature only a fire pokemon like houndoom could enjoy. The females felt themselves turning red after only a few minutes. Even the ocean looked more like a hot tub.
"I can't take this much longer. I'm going to die in this heat" Xena was bent at the waist with her arms drooping lifelessly over her head. She dragged her bare feet through the sand, making a long trench. "If I knew it was going to be this horrible, I would've walked all last night to get off this stupid beach."
Roxy wasn't taking the heat so well either. It was too hot to even think. So when she had a sudden brain wave, she started feeling really dim-witted. "Xena? Why haven't called out some of our pokemon to help us out?" Xena fell to the ground.
"Wow, we really didn't think of that before?" Xena puffed, taking a break on the ground. "Well, Feugo doesn't mind the heat, but he's not that fast. I have a flygon that wouldn't be bothered either, but he's pretty slow too."
Roxy pondered over her team. "Oh, I know! Rapidash, come on out!" The fiery horse neighed at the two, stomping its hooves. It raised its head appreciatively towards the sun.
"Yippy, a horsy!" Xena cheered, jumping on its back and returning her houndoom at the same time. "Come on, let's go, let's go, we're losing daylight here! Get on, Roxy."
'Wow, these insane people everywhere these days.'
Now set with a speedy ride, Xena and Roxy crossed the sandy terrain double time. The momentum allowed a cool wind to spread over the girls' baking skin. Their surroundings changed a bit; rapidash's hooves clapped against hard ground; boulders and rubble stuck out everywhere, and the water was now about a 50feet drop from the cliffs overhanging. They also passed a dozen or so caves.
"Stop now, rapidash." Roxy said. She dropped in front of a sign.
The area beyond it was a monstrous mountain that went beyond the clouds with a narrow winding trail to the top. The summit looked snowy and cold, and it blew a frigid gust over the girls, making a shiver travel up their spine. A snover – a white, green and brown tree-looking pokemon – was at the base to greet them. It stamped their next place, and over it, Roxy wrote Frostbite Mountain.
Xena was in awe. "Wow, this is so cool. It's like the island is a natural biodome; it has a sunny beach, a cold mountain, I wonder if they have like a rainforest."
And as though she were psychic, the area beyond the grassy field they crossed was a tropical rainforest, named Symme-tree (Symmetry) forest. There was a semi-beaten path into the forest, but without wandering inside the view was limited. The trees towered above their heads and the air was refreshingly cool and moist. Heavy, dark rain clouds hung over the entire woodland area as far as they could see. And another thing: everything looked exactly the same.
After completing the necessary arrangements, Roxy hesitated, holding back her oblivious partner. "Uh, Xena? I know that the path to the next destination is through the forest, but not only does that sound dangerous, but it also looks even worse to navigate through. We could very well end up getting lost in there for days. Not only could a rainfall wash our path away, but even your houndoom wouldn't be able to pick up our scent. There has to be another way."
Xena seemed to consider what the bluette was saying. It was like a light bulb went off in her head. "I've got it!" She snapped her fingers ingeniously. She motioned her partner closer and started not-so-quietly whispering in her ear…
"I can't believe how easy that was, man!" An irking loudmouth bellowed as he guffawed. "Getting this map was like taking candy from a baby!"
"Yeah, those losers actually thought he could beat us in a battle? We're the most powerful team here!" Another voice joined. "Hey look, we finally found the exit, dude! And with this loser's map we're gonna finish this thing before everybody else."
The cacophonous pair came into view, both with similar leather outfits and bulging muscles. One wore a backwards cap over his cropped hair, clothes that looked two sizes too big and a pair of shades. The other looked like a biker with his ragged, leather vest, ripped jeans, steel-toed boots and shaved head. They were a bit older than the girls and a foot taller with frivolous looks.
"Ready?" Xena whispered. They were perched in a particularly strong branch on one of the easily climbable trees, Xena with a huge boulder tucked into her lap. With an approving nod from her partner, she silently counted '3…2…1...' and let the mass crash to the ground. The whole tree shook while there were a couple startled shouts from below.
"You didn't hurt them, did you?" Roxy questioned lackadaisically as she peered down around the curtains of leaves.
"I hope so! Those guys sound like a bunch of mean jerks!" Xena leapt the whole way down, landing on all fours like a feline.
"Says the one who just threw a boulder where two boys were walking!" Her partner shouted after her as she took a much more cautious route down. She went beside her partner to see the two men strung from a net in mid-air, the boulder being used as a counterweight.
"Look what we have here, two fatheads hanging around in a tree. And they dropped something for us." Xena sauntered over and plucked the paper off the ground and scanned it. "Oh, and they only need one more!"
"Hey, get you're mitts off our map. It's not yours!"
"Evidently by the way you were talking earlier it's not yours either." Roxy countered earnestly, her map being replaced with the stolen one.
"And I don't remember there being any specific rules against this." Xena finished, throwing the useless one over her shoulder. It got caught on the wind and whisked away. "Thanks for all your help!" She cheerily added, skipping outside of the woods and leaving the indignant boys behind.
"Well that worked out better than I originally thought. I think we have just enough time for this last one and to get back just around dark." Roxy announced, raising herself up on the steed where her partner eagerly waited.
"Great! Giddy up!" Xena clicked her tongue and the horse shot off.
Their last stop was a highly active volcano way down at the Southern part of the island. It wasn't as tall as the other mountain on the island, but sinister soot billowed from the summit of the volcano, blackening the atmosphere and you could practically hear the boiling lava threatening to erupt. Needless to say Roxy and Xena didn't stay any longer than need be.
They made it back to the main house just about six o-clock. Other trainers were just arriving at the same time too, checking in with the Joy's. Xena and Roxy joined them. It was around the same time the next night before all of the competitors returned.
"Would everybody please make their way to the Courtyard for an announcement? Thank you."
The trainers piled out of the main building and created a semicircle around a newly placed podium. Standing on it was a man in his early thirties in a casual, yet expensive tweed suit and a pair of sophisticated, dark-rimmed glasses. He tapped on the microphone to gather the attention of chattering people, and then lent forward. "Good evening, ladies and gentleman. I am Gregory Schermann, the owner of Middle-of-Nowhere Island. It is a great honor to have so many guests for this year's competition. Now, this year we have decided to mix things up a bit and make this a battle of the genders. You have each been paired with a partner of the same sex, and you will be working with this person throughout most of the competition. For each event you complete, you will be awarded points, determined by how well you did. On the last day, your points will be added with the other teams of your same gender to decide a winning team. Yes, you have a question?" He pointed to a boy with a raised hand.
An obnoxious voice spoke from within the clump of people. "You mean there won't be one person named the best? It will be the whole team, even if some don't really deserve it?"
"I was getting to that. There will also be one challenge that only one will be named the winner. That individual will be named King or Queen of the Island, and we'll throw a huge party for them that night. There is another event that will be a tag-team contest, judged by our three lovely Joys. I'm telling you this in advance because it will require a great deal of time to synchronize a performance with your partner. Those of you that have never participated in a contest before better hope their partner has, or know somebody that has." He smirked wickedly. "Until this time you will have daily events that you will be notified of the morning of by myself. There are dorms behind the Grand Hall, one building for boys and the other for girls." He gestured behind the building where they had checked in where two slightly smaller buildings sat. "We have already assigned two pairs to a room. You will find the arrangements written on each door. Breakfast will be served at 7 sharp, lunch, if you're here, at noon and dinner also at 7, all in the Grand Hall. Oh, and one more thing before you leave. No communication devices work on this island. Now, girls please proceed to the dorm rooms to the right, boys to your left and meet in the Hall in one hour."
'That explains why Dimenio's thing won't work' Roxy thought as she followed the flow of females rushing through the double doors to check out the dormitory. There was a spacious room as you entered for sitting and talking, resembling the foyer in the Grand Hall except with lighter colors. A few girls had their noses glued to a windowpane looking into a massive indoor pool, hot tub, and gym. There were seven doors down an expansive hallway. Five had an erasable whiteboard posted to them with four names written across each, and a card slot. The other two rooms were luxurious bathrooms, each easily able to fit all 20 girls with enough space left over to breath freely.
Roxy found her name posted on room # 3, along with Xena Verboom, Holly Heartland, and Nicky Langille. She swiped the card she was given when she registered and opened the door as it approved her with a flashing green light.
The room was just as impressive as the rest of the buildings. It was a fair size for four girls. It had two bunk beds with purple and pink sheets, a television hooked up with a game system and a stack of games, a bookcase packed with books of various genres, a boom box for listening to music or the radio, and a window with a view of the berry orchard all around them.
"Hey Roxy. We're sharing a room together? That's great!" The cheerful redhead named Holly said as she set her shoulder bag down and gave her a strong hug. She stepped back to motion to a girl behind her. "This is my partner, Nicky."
The tall girl had her wide, bright blue eyes fixed appreciatively on the game system. Long, messy, dirty-blond hair cascaded down the back of her azure pullover hoodie and stopped just above the pant line of her gray cargo pants. A black and gray-rimmed ball cap with a blue skull sat sideways atop her head. She had a somewhat punk look to her. She gave a small smile. "Hi." Without another word she walked over and began flipping through game titles.
Xena popped her head through the door, exclaiming, "They even have a training arena! This place is amazing!" She realized there were two unknown people in the room and stepped in to introduce herself.
"It's almost time for dinner, should we head over now?" Holly asked, looking at a bedside clock. Everybody gladly agreed and began the short walk to the large building.
"Hey, is that…?" Xena stopped walking, sheltering her golden eyes with her hand as though the sun was glaring in them. "It is, it's… Paul!" She shrieked, shooting off like a bullet and wildly waving her arms in the air.
Yes…that Paul. He turned to look over his shoulder upon hearing his name. His eyes widened for a second like a deer caught in headlights as he spotted the girl. Quickly, he sidestepped the attack so Xena bowled right into his partner. Not that he cared.
Xena however, didn't notice the change at first and continued to hug the boy on the ground. It wasn't until she looked up to speak to him that she realized she tackled the wrong person. She smiled like a Cheshire cat seeing the boy under her with red cheeks. "Well hello there. How you doing?" When she didn't get up, the boy looked like his face caught fire. Xena found this highly amusing and giggled as she slowly stood up.
"Xena! What are you doing? You might have hurt that poor boy. Do you have something against the male species?" Roxy, who had rushed after the girl, demanded exasperatedly as she pulled the tomato-red boy to his feet. Once seeing Paul, she whipped around as if to hide.
"Eh, Roxy is something wrong?" Xena asked her fleeing friend. Paul looked straight at her, waiting for her answer as well.
'…Why am I trying to hide, anyway?' "Oh, um, I was looking for Holly and Nicky. We kind of ditched them."
"Oh." Xena accepted this response and turned back to the boy. "Pauly, that wasn't very nice." The purplenette jutted out her bottom lip. "It's almost like you're not happy to see me."
Paul made a face as though to say "not happy doesn't even begin to express what I'm feeling right now". He wore a scowl on his face, completely opposite to Xena. Yet, they seemed to hold some sort of similarities. Maybe it was just the purple hair.
"What's going on? Who're they?" Holly and Nicky asked as they finally caught up.
Xena responded by slinging an arm over Paul's shoulders, and him glaring at her while trying to push her off. "I'd like everybody to meet my little cousin Paul and his partner… what was you're name?" She turned back to the boy she had jumped.
"J-Justin." He stuttered bashfully, nudging the ground with his foot.
"Well…" Roxy said, filling in the awkward silence. "I'm starving. Let's get something to eat." She prompted turned on her heel, not bothering to see if anybody was going to follow.
In the back of the Grand Hall's foyer was a door that led to a dining area. Trainers were lined up to help themselves to a buffet while others sat to eat at long wooden tables able to sit eight. Everybody had their plates piled full as they went to join tables.
Xena, once again, put it upon herself to drag her partner over to the table where her cousin was eating silently. To his right was his shy partner, Justin, and to his left sat a familiar brunette. Across from the brunette sat a raven-haired boy with golden ringed, amber eyes taking in the entire room as though he were analyzing every inch and every corner.
Xena, seeing a tint of pink still in Justin's face decided to tease him more by pointing to his lap while asking, "Hey, is that seat taken?" Like she had hoped, the boy burned a fiery red again, watching his food like it was the most captivating thing in the world. She just laughed as she pushed Roxy in across from Paul and plopped herself down next to her.
Roxy really wished she could disappear right then. The brunette was starting at her since they arrived at the table and she felt like he was gazing into her soul. She forced a smile and said, "Hi, I'm Roxy. It's nice to meet you all."
"Dark." The raven-haired boy muttered beside her.
"Paul." The scowling purplenette stated harshly as he stabbed his food and not-too subtly elbowed the brunette in the gut.
"Watch it, Paul." He taunted. "I'm Gary Oak. Sorry, you just remind me of somebody I know." Roxy shrugged at him.
It was a rather…awkward dinner. Roxy felt one person or another was watching her at every minute as she poked away at her meal. Xena didn't exactly feel all that awkward, since she talked persistently throughout the whole thing. Most of the other's remained quiet for the most part. Gary and Paul had fallen into a hushed conversation at their end of the table, and turned to the two girls.
"Hey, you two would have seen most of the girls here. Have you seen anybody by the name of Alex? Brunette, has an eevee…" Gary described.
"Hm, no I think I saw almost every girl here and goes by that name or looks like that. Why, is she your girlfriend?" Xena asked, leaning in attentively on the crook of her hand, a sly smirk plastered on her face.
Roxy laughed nervously. "Y-Yeah, I haven't seen anybody like that either." She quickly stood up. "Well, I'm heading back to the dorms now. Maybe take a nice, long walk. Night guys." She hurriedly rushed out of the building with a sigh.
Sticking her fingers in the pockets of her pants, she slowly scuffed her way back to her room. She set her bag on one of the lower beds and pulled out the top item. The black device for contacting the SS. She studied it for a long time. She supposed that the fact that her communications were cut off would be in the interest of the SS, but she had no other way of reaching them other than that small object. It was rather strange how there was no source of communication off the island. Maybe there was an intentional disturbance in the signals. But why would somebody block the communications. Dimentio had said that the owner knows something, could it have something to do with that? What if she could out of the islands range? Would it work then?
Xena arrived back shortly after her, sighing contentedly as she teetered over to her bed and collapsed. She rubbed her tummy while slightly groaning, "I think I might have ate too much."
Roxy giggled, then remembered something useful to her. "Hey Xena, could I ask a favor? You said you have a flygon, right? Could I borrow him for a little while?" Turning onto her side, Xena started at her with blank eyes. Roxy shifted nervously under the gaze, continuing, "You know, so I can get an aerial view of the island to get an upper edge."
Shaking her head, Xena smiled. "Sorry, I was thinking about something. That sounds like an awesome idea! You're thinking like a real winner now!" She tossed a pokeball over to Roxy's waiting hands. "Be careful though, Kite can get distracted very easily."
Roxy released the green, dragon-type pokemon from her partner's pokeball. It chirped happily at the bluette. It was a bit chubby, kind of reminding her of a hippo. A protective, transparent, red bubbles acting like goggles covered its sharp eyes on its proportionally smaller head. Like its pre-evolution, vibrava, it had rhombus shaped wings, green bordered in bold red, except unlike a vibrava's, its wings were larger and stronger. Its legs and arms were short and stubby each with three claws, and its tail fairly long with three tiny versions of its wings like feathers on the end of it.
"Hi, Kite. I'm Roxy, Xena's friend." She held out a hand for the dragon to sniff. It then rubbed its cheek fondly against her palm. "Do you think you could take me in the air?"
High in the atmosphere, the rather buggish-looking dragon spread its wings and did random spirals and zipped at different intervals. They were near the beach, so the wind was naturally gusty. It was also wonderfully clear, perfect for flying.
Roxy unclipped the black device from her belt and again tried to contact Dimentio. He answered almost immediately. "Why hello there, Shadow. What can I do for you?"
"We might have a slight problem." She soberly replied. "Something on or near this island is disrupting the signals of all communication devices. Contact is not going to be easy. And that guy, Schurmann, he's got guards lingering around."
"Sounds like Schurmann has got something to hide. As for the communication, how is it your able to contact me now?"
"It's…complicated."
"Alright, well the only thing you can do for now is find out what exactly he is hiding. And Shad-…do…" The line went dead. Roxy felt a lot more of a draft whipping past her now than a few minutes ago. At first she had thought nothing of it, that it was just a passing gust. It didn't pass. That's when she realized. She hadn't heeded to Xena's warning, and now the dragon was struggling to get out of a sharp nosedive, and then somersaulting onto its back. Roxy shrieked and screamed, clinging to the pokemon's long neck. Her hair whipped at her face. With a lot of squirming on both parts, the pokemon managed to roll onto its stomach again, enabling Roxy her vision back.
"Pull up! Pull up! Pull up!" She screamed repeatedly.
Flygon unfolded his tangled wings at the very last minute. It was too late. It belly-dived to the ground, throwing Roxy off on impact. They slid a good couple of meters before they completely stopped.
"Owww." Roxy moaned, getting up very slowly. "I really need to work on my landing. Are you okay, Kite?" It sang sorrowfully, shaking itself off. "It's okay, it was my fault really." She said, rubbing its small head. It twittered cutely and allowed her to return him to his pokeball.
Roxy had now landed in one of the worst possible places: beyond the borders of what she guessed was the forest that she had wanted to avoid. She had to crane her neck all the way back to see the tops of the too-similar-to tell-apart trees. Everything was green.
After fixing herself to be semi-presentable, besides some pesky dirt stains, she gave her best shot at trying to find a way out. It didn't lead her to an exit, but it was definitely better than nothing. "Hey, you're Dark, right? We met at dinner." She stated, sauntering into a clearing of sorts to find the raven-haired boy and two pokemon.
She could fully see him now. He wore a dark blue leather-like jacket, a white T-shirt with dark gray under armor, a pair of regular blue jeans and well-worn sneakers. Uncomfortably, he ran a hand through his short, spiky black hair, his amber eyes refusing to look at her, but at his pokemon.
One pokemon was a weavile. Weavile's appearance looked like that of a bluish-black, bipedal feline, clad in a bright red crown, and collar. It had two tails, instead of three like its pre-evolved form, sneasel. Unlike its pre-evolved form, there was no gem on its chest, and it had three claws on each paw as opposed to just two. Its red eyes seemed to be boring into the girls head, not particularly fond of her for some reason.
The other was called a poochyena. It was a small puppy pokemon, commonly with ebony fur, but this one was a dark blue. They stood in front of a clump of trees with large gashes in them were attacks had hit.
"Yeah." Was his monotonous answer.
Roxy, a bit put off but not showing it by plastering a bright smile on her face, replied, "So, Dark, do you think you could help me get out of here? I'm sort of lost."
Dark sighed as though he wasn't very keen on the idea. "You should pay more attention to your surroundings." He recalled his poochyena and began walking away with his weavile seated on his shoulder, releasing another pokemon, a luxray. "You coming or not?"
Taking this as a sign to follow, Roxy took off to catch up with the boy. He didn't talk very much, creating a rather unpleasant silence. To her dismay, there were loads of bug pokemon crawling in the scarily large forest. The boy's luxray had its extremely helpful vision activated to guide them in the right direction. "So, you're partners with Gary?" She asked in a small attempt to coax the boy into conversation. Awkward silences just weren't fun at all.
"Yup." Failed attempt number one.
"That weavile of yours looks really strong, I hope I'll get to battle you sometime."
"Sounds good." No emotion change, just placid with slight irritation. Failed attempt number two.
His lack of response was starting to irk Roxy, so still with a smile pretty much cemented to her face, she snapped, "Are you always like his cold or are you treating me specially?"
"No." Even Paul would say more than that. Does that say something or what?
She didn't even try after that. He led her out safely muttering a "later" as he left. She noticed as he walked away a device glinting in the setting sun looking just…like…hers…
'…That might explain the attitude. But somebody has some explaining to do to me!' Roxy huffed, stomping all the way back to her room. Her roommates had somehow been dragged into playing truth or dare, which she assumed was Xena's idea, as she immediately attempted to convince Roxy to join in. She simply replied with a roll of her eyes and sat down in the mini circle. They turned out the lights around midnight.
Roxy was awake early, as per usual. To her surprise, Holly was already awake and reading a book with a small flashlight in her hand. They went to breakfast together as the Grand Hall opened, joined by the others as they rose. As everybody finished eating, Gregory, the islands owner, stood at the front of the room and cleared his throat to turn the attention to him.
"Good morning everybody. I trust you are all well rested for today's event. Now, this is not only were you'll be eating, but underneath your feet is a battling stadium. Today, you will be doing an elimination tag-team challenge. You must fight your way through the other pairs to become the champions. This will allow everybody to see your competitions pokemon and strategy without having practiced with your own partner. The winning team will receive the most points for their overall house, and they will also have an advantage in the next challenge. Are you ready? Then please follow me down one floor to begin."
He pressed a button and a wide staircase opened up in a far away wall. It was a giant stampede down the stairs and into the stands where everybody was seated along one wall once again to hear more directions.
The four-sided TV screen elevated in the middle of the room blared into action, showing the man. "Now, when you hear your names you will move to the corner you were called to and wait for the other team. When all participants are ready, you will each release one pokemon. The tag team with pokemon still standing will be declared the winners and will enter the next round. The matches will be randomly selected by our computers and judged by our lovely Nurse Joy! Alright, those are the rules so here we go!"
A drum role echoed through the arena and everybody had their fingers crossed to be the first chosen.
The pictures of four trainers appeared on screen…
Dark also doesn't belong to Piano-girl9989. Dark is the creation of KitsPokePeople.
See, I told you he'd be in this one. :) Anyway, thank you, readers. I have very big plans for later chapters, just saying. So stay tuned for more!
And reviews = happy Piano-girl, which is great for inspiration to write! Which means, please review! Good night, everybody!
