Pokémon
Hey there everybody. I meant to update this all week but I had no time whatsoever so here I am right now. Thanks to all that reviewed/favorited. I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one who likes big, pushable buttons XP Anyway, here is the chapter so enjoy.
Chapter # 23 – Eruption
Alex sighed, watching her little stepbrother from the kitchen window. The sky was turning a dingy gray but he didn't seem to take notice. His back was to her, sitting silent and still like a statue in on the side of the road, watching the patj down to where it disappeared within the underbrush. She set down her stirring spoon and turned the soup on the stove down to low so it wouldn't burn in her absence and went out the door.
Ryan was so absorbed in his thoughts, he didn't hear his sister walk up and sit next to him. He only became aware of her arrival when she put an arm awkwardly around his shoulder, somewhat hugging him from the side. "They'll be here soon. I know they will." His voice came out weak, breaking like an out of tune violin.
"Ry, I know you want to believe that," Alex breathed, closing her eyes, "But think about it. They're-"
"Don't," he cut her off before she said the word. "We don't know that."
"Look, the police are looking for clues – that's what Delia and Professor Oak said when they were talking - but there isn't a single sign of them. Come on inside. Supper's ready."
"No, we have to wait for Mom and Dad!" Ryan cried, a few stray tears trickling down his rosy, cold cheeks.
"Look Ryan, listen to me. I'm your big sister and I'm not gonna let anything happen to you, but you've been doing this all week. It needs to stop now; you have to accept it. You're being childish."
"How can you say that? Don't you care that they're gone?" Ryan threw her arm off of his shoulder, standing. He looked so vulnerable. "You think that 'cause you're older you know everything, but I'll show you it's not true. Just leave me alone. I'm going to go find them right now!" He shot out of the girl's reach and darted blindly into the forest.
Alex stalled after a few steps toward him, thinking rationally it would be impossible to catch up her faster brother and recklessly dangerous to go in the forest. So she ran in the other direction.
"Professor! Professor! Open the door. Quick!" Alex shouted, pounding on the door with urgency. She almost beat her fist against his stomach when he finally did open it.
He looked at her frantically, a chopstick sticking from his mouth. He pulled it out before trying to ask her calmly what was wrong. When the girl looked up at him in tears, it was hard to remain cool.
"Ry-Ryan. He ran into the f-forest! He-he hates me!" She screamed, through hysterical breaths that were trying to control themselves.
"Now, now, I'm sure that's not true. How about you go to Delia's and I'll get a search party out looking for him? We'll have him back in no time."
"Okay," Alex agreed softly, nodding and taking off to her friend's house.
She reached the two-story house with the light on and grabbed the lower edge of a railing after a jump and swung herself up. She knocked on the window, and couldn't even laugh when the raven-haired boy fell off his bed with a start with the mood she was in.
Ash's head peaked over the top of his bed, and with a grin slid across the furniture and pulled the brunette girl in. She muttered a thanks and situated herself in a sitting position on his bed with his pillow squished with her arms tightly as he went it sit in front of her. "What's up?" he asked.
"Ryan and I had a fight…" Alex trailed off staring at her feet.
"Oh, what happened?" Ash kept looking at her even when she gave him a meaningful glance. He kept her gaze, no longer smiling but looking concerned.
Alex shook her head incredulously. "Just, something stupid." Without her consent, salty streams surged from the corners of her eyes and stained the blue pillow with the pokeball on it.
Ash reared back in panic, wondering what to do. "Oh, I didn't mean to make you cry. Come on, I'm sorry." He stuttered like he was afraid of the droplets.
"I thought I heard voices up here. Alex, honey- oh my." Delia popped through the door, seeing the daughter-she-never-had with an upset expression and her clueless son not helping matters. "Come on, Alex, let's go make some hot chocolate and talk. Ash, you can watch TV for an hour but then it's time for bed."
Ash was about to protest, but seeing the gloomy girl free his pillow and shuffle her way to his mom, he shut him mouth and nodded.
Alex stared into the steaming cup of sweet, brown liquid with fluffy white mini-marshmallows floating on top. She threw a longing glance at the door; a worried look out the inky, starless sky, then curtained her small face with her long hair. Delia waited soundlessly for the girl to speak when she was ready. "Ryan's being childish," she muttered, only loud enough that Delia had to strain her ears to hear. "He keeps waiting out there, like that's going to bring them back."
"Well, he is a child; you both are. It's only natural to miss them. They were your parents."
"Well, one of them was." Delia didn't hear that, or pretended not to. "He said I don't care that they're gone. He says it every night." The tears cascaded down harder, and her voice quivered. "He doesn't realize that I don't care because I can't care. We would be broken if I decided to do the same as he does. He doesn't know how much I miss them. He doesn't remember that I've gone through this before." She sobbed, watching the night draw in.
"Hm," Delia hummed, reaching over and settling her hand on hers. "I was good friends with Suzanne and Victor," she began softly, looking at their hands. "Victor and I grew up together and did basically everything together. It reminds me of you and Gary. Even when he was away we would keep it touch. He may have seemed hardheaded to most people, but he could always make us laugh," she giggled as if an old memory popped into mind.
Alex finally looked up and realized that just because her and Ryan were the only family they really had, didn't mean they were the only one's that missed them. The whole, teensy town knew everybody. And she also realized that she had never even seen Ash's father. She had run out of tears and frowned at her mug. "I just want to take care of him. He's the only family I have left and-"
"Now you just sop right there," Delia cut her off. Alex had to sigh, because she was always told it was rude to interrupt people in the middle of a sentence. Grownups didn't seem to follow that rule very often. "Just because we're not your parents doesn't mean we're not family. You and Ryan are my two other children. I'm sure Professor Oak feels the same. And what about Gary and Ash?"
Blinking to process the information, Alex squirmed and looked away with embarrassment. "I'll need to know how to take care of myself sometime," she mumbled. Then she smirked, her dark eyes glowing with something that startled Delia. "I'm not going to let anybody get away with messing with my family or friends anymore. When I grow up, I'm going to be strong."
Something flashed in Shadow's eyes. As the button ricocheted off the ground, the volcano on the island groaned and ash flew out with a whistle like a cork had popped off and a heat wave dried everything up. The crack of thunder mingled with the howling of the red-hot volcano and reflected of Shadow's eyes, making the purplenette Amethyst stumble back.
The screams of another purplenette were the center of attention and the girl with her cape moved like a flash toward Xena. "Arbok, come on. Use poison tail!" she called out with rage, and the snake launched itself ahead and matched the slash of the fire type typhlosion with its radioactive tail. Shadow stood defensively in front of her crazy friend.
"Xena, are you okay?" Shadow asked through her teeth, only receiving a pained whine as a reply.
"Oh, this is interesting," Gregory Schurmann acclaimed. "A member of the Soul Salvation actually caring about another person, how sweet! I comment you, Snake, for finally finding me. And you've got such a bold little tiger right here. I wish I could stay to see how this intriguing spectacle would end, but I regret to say that there is not an opening in my schedule. Alias, I bid the adieu." He bowed at Shadow.
"What a pity," Dimentio said smoothly, though his eyes wanted to strangle the man. He returned his charcoaled-feathered owl back to the protection of its pokeball.
With a crocked smirk, Gregory turned. "Girls, let's get out of here."
"Just let them go. We have bigger problems," said Dimentio to Shadow, who was about to hijack the aircraft as it was rising to beat the crap out of the aggravating team of criminals. "Look, this island is about to be overcome with lava. We must be hasty. Get those trainers out of the cage."
"Wait! I just remembered something," Shadow shouted at the man, making him stop and whip around. Smiling reassuringly, she turned and yelled, "I'll be back!" over her shoulder, feeling the cape kick up behind her. She swept into the huge cement Grand Hall without fear of being caught and passed through the secret passage behind Gregory's big head. Her feet clopped down the dark, vacant passage once again.
"HEY!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. "Is anybody down here?" As the girl had hoped, a handful of men in black suits with wires coiling out of their ears and dark shades jumped into the hallway.
"How'd she get down here?"
"Probably because you weren't at your post at the door."
"Chill down guys. You work for Gregory Schurmann, correct?" Shadow said in a commanding tone over the bickering group of hedge men.
"Yeah, his best men," replied one of the larger, bigmouthed ones, his buddies nodding furiously to reinforce his statement. "And what exactly would you be? A gothic Easter egg?" He laughed, his colleagues mimicking.
Frowning and self-consciously touching her bright blue hair, Shadow snapped. "Oh yeah, well I really doubt you're his best men. I mean, leaving you down here while taking the Joys with him." She scoffed, turning her back to them. "So I guess you also wouldn't know where the control to the volcano is either. Too bad." She peeked out of one eye and knew she had made the effect she wanted. She began to walk away, roped hair swishing along her back.
One shot, "She's bluffing!"
"How did ya know the volcano was machine operated?" One blurted.
"At least she doesn't know about the panel in the golden tree in the forest right by the quick sand." It was silent for the next few second as everybody gaped at the man with the incredibly big mouth. "O-oh wait," he stuttered, scratching his cheek sheepishly, "Did I say gold tree in the forest? I meant the er… purple tree by the… oh, who am I kidding?"
"Nobody," Shadow smiled sweetly, and then glared. "So shut up." She moved outside the portrait, calling back in, "Oh, by the way, I should have mentioned this sooner but your boss deserted you on this island several minutes ago that the volcano's about to blow up."
It was silent for a few seconds more. "Get to the boat!" the men yelled, charging outside with more speed than imaginable for men in such fine suits.
The freed group of people from the cage stood aside, watching the strange group flee, bellowing out cries about the volcano, a boat, and their mommas…The blond Nicky stared after them, raising a finger at them, "Follow the momma's boys, charge!"
"Ahhhhhhh!" Everybody screamed as they stampeded right after the wailing men.
Dark and Shadow arrived at the scene where an injured and bleeding Xena lay, moaning and groaning and withering on the ground with Paul growling at her with his normal scowl, but still worrying, and Dimentio on his SS device telling their ride to pick them up.
Dark sauntered up to the small group not long after, keeping his head down with his weavile curled over his shoulder. "There's a boat docked at the far end of the beach. There was a medical crew onboard and a sailor that were locked up in the brig of the ship. The doctors were rushing straight here immediately and the sailor is making preparations to set sail as soon as they get back," he explained dryly.
"Paul!" Xena groaned, clasping onto her cousin's - who of which was standing near her - jacket, and pulled him down close to her. "This may be where it ends for me. There's only one hope now. Go in my backpack and find the emergency kit.
The bag, which was still where Shadow put it after retrieving it, was dumped out and a medium sized bag with "In Case Of Emergency" written on it tumbled out. Paul grabbed it and tore the brown paper bag away. He stopped, however, and got an extremely agitated look on his face. "Xena, you idiot! All that's in here is a jar of peanut butter!" Everybody sweat dropped.
"But Paul!" She whined. "I… You…uh…"
"You idiot! You're supposed to stay awake!" Her cousin shouted at her, just at the moment nurses pushed him out of the way as they hoisted the limp and bloodied body onto a gurney and shuffled their way back to the ship.
"Come on, dear Shadow. It is time to make our leave as well."
"No!" she refused. "There are wild pokemon on this island. I know where the panel is I just have to go find it and shut it down."
"There is no time!" Dimentio yelled in her face, giving Shadow the urge to backhand his perfect pale face, but stopped her twitching hand. He turned the girl's face using his white-gloved hand, pinching her cheeks between his thumb and index finger and guiding her sight to the volcano.
The large, brown, quaking mount spewed out more jet-black smoke that began to flutter down in thick layers like a black snowstorm. Molten red and black liquid seethed over the narrow opening edges of the volcano and over the rim like water a wave breeching a levee. It rolled down, slow as molasses with its orange glow.
"All the more reason to hurry." She pushed free of the man's harsh grasp and ran like the wind. She felt a presence behind her and discovered Dark and his pokemon at her side. They pushed through the over brush and stumbled over tree roots until Shadow found herself in familiar territory. At least, she was pretty sure it was.
A tug sent Shadow nearly flying into a tree. "Quicksand." A voice said, but it didn't sound like Dark's. But seeing as he was the only person within the vicinity, and the fact that she hadn't heard him speak all that much, Shadow just shrugged it off.
"Thanks," she muttered. She was in such a hurry that she had recklessly forgotten about the trapping ground. "Hey, there's a leaf." She pointed to the far side of the relatively smooth terrain, you know, besides the man-eating ground.
"Well that's reasonable. I mean, it is a forest; there are a lot of trees with leaves."
Shadow twitched. "I'm not stupid. I thought you were the one preaching the whole 'be observant' shit," she mocked. "I mean it's gold. And we're looking for a gold tree."
"Shut up," Dark snarled, noticing Shadow flinch. "And how do you propose we get over there when there's a death trap straight ahead. We have no idea where the dangerous patches are."
"Well we can call on," started Shadow as she reached for her belt, but caught a fist full of air. "Oh, right. I don't have my pokeballs." She sighed sadly.
"And this is exactly why I came with you," he snapped back as though he had to do everything himself and was the only reliable one. "Sparky, we need your assistance." The fierce feline appeared once again in the evil clutches of the forest and activated its X-ray vision. "Follow right behind us."
With careful steps guided by the large lion, Shadow and Dark slowly but surely made their way across the forest floor. At last they reached the other side to safety, but it was short lived. The stench of scorched grass and smoke was heavy and the faint sound of sizzling could be heard as the lava flowed over the land.
"We have to hurry!" Shadow exclaimed, lunging further towards the danger, following a string of sparkling yellow leaves until she nearly ran headfirst into what seemed to be the largest tree in the whole woodland.
The entirety of the formation was golden, glistening amber near the top as it reflected off the raging flashes of the volcano. The leaves hung delicately as though they could fall with the tiniest of whispers, yet the truck was thick and sturdy.
"So, how does this work?" Shadow wondered, investigating the structure with a close eye. She knocked on the base, causing a black grid screen to flip out of nowhere and stick an inch out of the trunk. A fluctuating green line bounced up like green hills as it demanded in a choppy, annoying, robotic voice, "Password."
"Ah, open sesame?" Shadow tried.
"Access. Denied."
"How about hocus-pocus?"
"How. About. No."
"Okay then. No."
"Still. No."
"How about open or else?"
"Or. Else. What."
"Arg, I said open!" Shadow yelled putting her face an inch away from it.
"Password."
Dark shook his head dismally as he watched the girl fight with a machine. She tried prying it out with her hands, beating it with a twig until it broke – not the machine, mind you – and kicking it with her boot, which resulted in her hopping around on one foot, clutching the appendage and cursing.
With a growl, Shadow pointed up at the dark heavens and bellowed in the loudest voice she could muster, "Curse you, Gregory Schurmann!"
"Gregory. Schurmann. Password. Accepted."
The girl fell to the ground and twitched. "He used his goddamn name?" she muttered lifelessly. "Stupid, strong little hunk of junk."
"I wouldn't lay there for very long unless you want to die," stated Dark, perfectly content leaning against a tree and watching the show from afar while staying out of it himself.
Shadow rolled up on her back with her legs curled up to her chest and leapt up to see two panels pop open from the monitor like doors to a series of gears turning and grinding around. A red light was flashing above the gears, as well as a lever to the right. She tried pulling on the lever, but it just wouldn't budge, even when she was practically hanging from it. It was times like those when she cursed her nearly non-existent weight.
"Move," said Dark, pushing the girl on her bottom and tugging on the handle with a strong hand and all the force he could muster to make it move. Oh, it moved all right. It snapped right in two.
"And you called me the idiot?" Shadow mocked.
Dark glared. "You think sarcasm's going to help you know? If you haven't noticed we just ran all this way for nothing because we still can't stop this stupid thing." He shot his attention to luxray. "Sparky, use thunderbolt on it." Luxray powered up and blasted the tree with a blue electric current. The thing fizzed, but the gears kept turning. If anything, it made the ground tremble even worse, cracks appearing in the dirt. "It's useless." He saw the smirk she held as she stood up.
"No way am I letting this get the better of me." Shadow marched straight up to the box sticking out of the tree. She raised her big, black boot and slammed it down once again. The gears and screws and everything fell out on impact into one messy pile.
Dark watched futilely with an expression between exasperation and anger, a huge step forward since he had only been seen with a poker face. "You really are the idiot; that'll probably make it worse!" But to both their surprise, the rumbling stopped and the malevolent cloud in the sky ceased to keep increasing in size.
With a few more unnecessary stomps of her foot connecting with the mechanisms, Shadow spat, "Nothing messes with Alex Roxanne Summers and gets away with it!"
"Hn," Dark pointed to the incoming red liquid crawling for them. "What about that, genious?" His emotionless was façade back in control.
"Oh dears! Up here!" sang a masculine voice, and looking skyward, the two saw the dangling white rope ladder and…
"Hohoho," the man drabbed in red called down. No, not Mario, get your head out of the video games. It was SANTA CLAUSE! With his big sleigh and team of stantler hovering in place. His big, smiling face peered over at them with a cherry red hat on top. "Are you alright, little girl?"
"Hey, snap out of it!" snapped Dark, leaning over Shadow.
"What happened?" Shadow groaned, slowly sitting up.
"Sorry about that," called Dimentio.
The Night Rider hovered above them, the white ladder that had knocked the girl out for a few minutes dangling just at their reach. The two made quick work up climbing up, and peered out the window as the orange-red monster ate their previous standing spots.
"What about all the wild pokemon?" Shadow whispered sadly, still wincing at the sting in her head and the worry in the pit of her stomach.
Dimentio placed a hand on her shoulder. "They can take care of themselves. Once everything cools down they'll be fine."
The girl nodded, feeling like a child again; being reassured and comforted by an adult. "Okay."
Dimentio led her away from the sight as they left the blazing island behind them and flew close over the ocean to avoid the colossalclouds that created a low ceiling. "Now come along. Some introductions are in order, I do believe. Shadow this is Chaos, a member of our house. It was lovely for you to join us, by the way. Chaos, this is our newest member, Shadow."
"Nice to meet you." Shadow greeted the boy though gritted teeth after he snubbed her off with a disdainful once over and a scoff. She crossed her arms across her chest, taking long soothing breaths.
"Oh my, things certainly turned chilly in here fast." Dimentio shot them a joking, toothy smile. "Maybe you two didn't meet on the most pleasurable circumstances, but you will greet each other in a civilized and polite manner. Understand, Chaos?"
Dark looked back from the wall apathetically. Meeting the girl's own glare, he strode over. "It's a pleasure, Shadow," he stated blandly.
"Are you a robot or were you just born a stiff?"
"Shadow!" Dimentio chided the girl in a raised voice.
Plastering the fakest smile possible on her lips and the peppiest tone she could manage, she said, "I apologize for my behavior. Please, the pleasure is all mine. I'm just sure we'll be the best of friends!" then putting a dramatic bounce in her step, she beamed, rolled her shady eyes at the snake-man and skipped away to find her pokemon.
Dark let out a sound like a strangled cough and walked to a seat where he could watch the sea and sky blur together, a product of the speed at which they were going, and zone everything else out. A faint smile graced his lips.
With a sigh, Dimentio rubbed his face. "Why must they all tease their leader so? All the best pawns are so difficult to work with." He talked to himself and mentally braced himself while he looked for his dear Shadow to tell her the new he knew she was not going to enjoy.
Hahaha, what isn't she going to like, I wonder? Hmmm, any idea? Is Xena going to be okay? And is Dark really a robot? I sure hope not, that would be damn creepy. Well, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays and Happy New Year! Happy everything!
Peace out!
