Pokémon

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Chapter # 28 – To Canalave We Go

"Boss," a voice said. A door screeched open and clicked shut.

Alex looked around, trying to locate where the voices were coming from. 'Why can't I see anything?'

"Yes? What is it?" Another replied.

'Everything's black.' She whipped more urgently now, but it was if she were tuned into a radio station. She couldn't tell where she was, almost as if she was floating in space. She began to feel panicked.

"We've had word that operations on the island have been shut down. We don't think anyone was hurt."

"I see…" There were muffled sounds as the two stopped talking for several seconds, something that sounded like an announcer of a live battle. "And 'he'-"

"Unfortunately got away."

"Is everything set for the end of this week?"

"Yes, Boss. I have made sure that all the plans were made. Everything is according to plan."

'Who are these people? Their voices…they're too faint to recognize them. Why can I hear them? More importantly, what's happening at the end of this week?'

A chiming laugh echoed out. "Good-"

Alex, in her unseeing state, felt herself being ripped away from the scene, far away from the people, as though she was being warped through a black hole. Then she was freefalling, like the force keeping her up just vanished. She couldn't scream; it only came out in her head.

"Hmhm-hmhm. Well hello there. It's been a while."

This was a clear voice that Alex knew. The same, mocking tone of the same unidentifiable man from her nightmares rang out from all directions, and despite not being able to see, Alex whipped around trying to find the silhouette of him anyway.

"Don't bother. You can't see me. I wonder why that is?" His tone had taken an amused tone, even more so than her other dreams. He was laughing at her. "You've been through some danger lately. Maybe you should try to be more careful. We wouldn't want you to get hurt, or anybody you care about. Hm-hm-hmmm."

She no longer cared she wasn't on solid ground. She realized her eyes were shut, thus why she couldn't see, but try as she might she couldn't pry them open. Her lips felt like they were sewn together as she tried to gasp. All she could do was whimper.

"Perhaps…we'll meet up sometime soon, Alex."

His presence was gone. She continued to fall. She plummeted until she could tell that the ground was suddenly under her, and she tried to protect herself.

Bolting into a sitting position, Alex found herself wrapped tightly in her sleeping bag, everything where she had left it. Her pokemon were scattered around her, silent as the night shrouding them. As she grasped onto consciousness, touching and prodding her face, she noticed her bag giving off a buzz. She tiredly tugged on both zippers, rooting through the contents. She went past her pokenav, as it wasn't the object that was vibrating. It was way at the bottom, trying to be lost and forgotten. It was the black S.S. device she was given. "Hello?" she asked hoarsely as she hit the talk button. She sat up, using one arm to give her back support, holding the device up to her face with the other.

"Ah, Shadow, darling. I'm terribly sorry, did I wake you?" The leader of the House of Chaos said endearingly.

Eyes flickering to the dark sky, the clouded moon beginning to disappear with a dull light rising, and back to the screen, she responded gruffly, "Well, this is generally the time people are asleep."

Dimentio chuckled warningly. "Well, now that you're awake. We need you to be in Canalave City by tomorrow night at the latest. That's an order, understand?"

Frowning, Alex nodded gradually. "Uh, yeah. I was actually heading that way anyway."

A charming, bright smile flashed over the video screen. "Oh, how lucky. We'll meet you at the drawbridge at 12am tomorrow. Don't be late. Ciao."

"Wait! What is this abo-" The line went dead. "-ut?" Glaring at the stupid mechanism, she hissed, "Goddamn snake man!" and tossed it back into her mess of a bag as she settled down again.

'I don't think I have much of a choice. I wonder if there's something going on in Canalave that day…wait a minute!' Alex jumped up again in realization. 'The day after tomorrow is Friday, the end of the week.' She pondered over that thought for a second, shaking her head. 'No, what are the chances that my dream would be linked to that?' She gazed upward at the flashing stars. 'I wonder what could be happening...'

As Reggie wandered downstairs at his normal wake-up-time rubbing the sleep in his dark eyes away, he stopped to blink confusedly at the blaring TV screen set on a muted volume and the figure on the couch, hair plunging down the back as their head leaned against the top and arms stretched to either side. He chuckled. "Now why are you sleeping there?"

"I'm not," the person responded, giving the poor purplette a start. "Why must the news be so boring and depressing? I just wanted to know about any significant upcoming events. Seriously, is that too much to ask for?" Alex demanded, sleepy eyes slitting open to look at the startled Reggie as he patted down his apron.

The man, after regaining his calm, was pensive for a split second before continuing his way to the kitchen as he had been doing in the first place, leaving her with, "The only thing I can think of is the gala their having down in Canalave City Friday evening. Maybe if you and Paul run into the right people you'll get a chance to go."

Eyes shooting open, Alex thought, 'If that stupid, conniving bastard is dragging me down there for some stupid party then I'm not to beat that stupid smirk off his face with a hammer.' Slinking up to an upright position, she followed the man. "A gala for what?" 'There must be something important for Dimentio to be so solemn.'

Reggie set the teakettle on the stove, turning up the heat before starting on breakfast. "I'm not sure. I think there's been lots of talk about a new machine to help in the medical industry that they're celebrating, built by some big corporation. Sorry, that's all I know. Why do you ask, anyway?" he finally asked with a suspicion, eyes turning to watch how the girl would answer.

Worry filled, coffee-brown orbs avoided his, gazing distantly out the window. "Just wondering if anything exciting is happening while we're in the area is all. We should probably be leaving soon. It will be hard to fly through that fog."

The hot sunny weather of the day before along with the cool night air brought a heavy mist to blanket the city. It was still early, so some would lift as the sun came up, but anything outside the yard was obscured by dark mist.

Alex sat at the table, listening to the sounds of breakfast being made as Reggie puttered around the kitchen. Her ears picked up someone padding down the stairs, and Paul pushed through the door of the kitchen, raking a hand through his bangs and zipping up his sweater. She watched him, sipping her tea. The chair beside her screeched as it was pulled out and he sat beside her. "I'm ready to leave when you are," she stated, continuously checking the weather behind her. "When fog rolls in this early we usually get hit by rain so we should leave earlier than later or we'll have to stop midway."

Of course, she was thinking about the threatening tone that Dimentio had taken with her and whatever he wanted her to do, along with the fact that charizard absolutely refused to be out flying in the rain. The mist they could manage, but an uncooperative, nonnegotiable dragon they could not.

"Right," Paul nodded.

Xavier was next to thud down the stairs, giving each of the three a chipper good morning, along with a kiss on the cheek for Alex. Paul's brow tweaked. The cheery boy was splashed by a wave of hot tea.

"Paul, I just poured you that!"

"Perv," Paul growled at his cousin.

Alex hadn't noticed a thing that took place, as she frowned out at the unwavering mist.

Xena weakly made her way down the stairs not long after her brother. Her shoulders were slouched and sorrow was rolling off her. She flopped down in the closest seat, which happened to be where Paul was sitting, so she pushed him clattering to the floor and took his spot. She sniffled and muttered, "I'm all out of peanut butter."

"The hell?" Paul scowled, standing up to tower over her sitting frame.

She grabbed him by the collar and pulled him down to her face level, pouting. "Pauly~ go get me some peanut butter right now!"

Paul ripped his cousin's grasp off of his now wrinkled sweater. "You idiot." He glowered, forming a fist and bonking the older female on the crown of her head. "Grow up!"

'What a violent family.' Alex watched the two bicker and brawl equably, as though she were still staring out into the cloudy terrain outside the door instead of two people head butting each other and snarling like vicious dogs.

"No fighting at the breakfast table!" Reggie chimed in as if he were scolding two five year-olds, waving his plastic spatula at them.

"Fret not, my darling baby sister!" Xavier burst back up from the floor, a red stain on the upper half of his face from where scalding liquid had burned him. He pranced over and shoved a metal spoon with a slather of peanut butter into Xena's open-to-protest mouth. The unlidded jar landed on the table in front of her.

Alex stood brusquely, focusing all attention on her as the chair made a horrible scrape against the tiled floor. "I think we should go now." Her eyes could now see the glows of the lampposts slightly out of the way of the yard. Not the post entirely, but it was better than nothing.

"But you haven't even had breakfast yet," Reggie stated blankly, holding up a plastic bowl full of batter and a wooden spoon.

"And we haven't hardly gotten to spend any time together. I want to spend time with Paul's girlfriend." She managed to dodge the blow of the infuriated boy's fist, only just, as she beamed at him innocently.

Shaking her head uncaringly, the brunette raked her hands through her hair. "I really don't like the look of this fog."

"Then stay until tomorrow!" Xena chirped unnecessarily, tying her hair in its regular low ponytail. She was oblivious to the pointed look Alex was giving her. It took her a full minute to actually notice, but clued in immediately and a smirk slowly increased on her lips. She saluted to the girl. "Well then, have a nice flight. I know! Call me when you get there and we can talk! Xavier and I are staying here for another day or two!"

"Lucky me," Reggie droned, his back turned to the group as he vigorously whipped at the batter.

The girl stood by the window for a second longer before making up her mind. "Sorry guys, but we have to go. Ready, Paul?" she asked, shouldering her already packed and organized bag from under the table and unclipping five pokeballs for retrieving her sleeping pokemon from the fog.

Nodding silently, Paul had to wander back to his room for his bag, but came back quickly.

Everyone followed them outside, Xena pulling her pokemon back as well, and stood in front of the red beast, who was slightly moody about the dampness in the air and being awakened so early. His trainer, who stepped ahead of the hesitant others and stroked his rough snout soothingly, managed to calm him. The dragon's attitude changed however, as Paul stepped forward. He bared his pearly whites and snapped at the purplette trainer.

Alex darted in front of her pokemon. "Hotshot, be nice." She scolded, tapping his nose firmly like training a puppy, a big, red, fire-breathing puppy. "I told you that you would be flying both Paul and I to Canalave, remember?" Alex said firmly, moving aside when the dragon snorted tersely in acknowledgment.

Begrudgingly, charizard inched towards the boy and bowed his head down in front of him. He leaned down to Paul's jacket a bit and stayed in that position.

Paul stood stiff as a board as the fire beast came close enough to take another snap at him without a chance of being stopped by its trainer this time. His onyx orbs widened as he realized that it was actually sniffing him. It didn't back down either, making him glace to the smiling brunette. Why was she smiling? He read her lips as they moved. Pat him. Paul glanced down at the beast, his hand twitching involuntarily. His hand was brought up in slow motion, as if the dragon would attack with any sudden movement, and was brought down on the red nose softly.

After feeling the contact, red eyes opened again and stood up to full height, and a large breath was released like everybody exhaled at once.

"Aw, I wanna pat the pretty dragon too!" Xena screeched gleefully, running full force at the temperamental dragon, who flicked its tail and kept the girl at bay, huffing smoke at her. Xena hollered as the flame lightly blistered her skin, and settled down glumly to poke at the red mark.

Charizard stretched to full height, and then came down once again, bringing its spine parallel with the ground. It still glared at the boy and his cousin, but it didn't make any more sudden assault attempts as Paul swung his leg onto its back.

"Good boy," Alex cooed, kissing the muzzle of the creature before waving to the tense group and the admiring golden eyes of Xena on the winged creature. "We'll see you around!" She called, throwing herself on in front of Paul to control her dragon and keep watch of the sightless surroundings.

"Bye, be careful!" Reggie waved somewhat disappointedly as his cousins stood in front of his vision. He sighed, walking back in the house for a few minutes of quiet before the duo decided they were hungry.

"Bye-bye! Call me, Alex! Have fun with Paul~y, but not too much fun!" Xena giggled, waving both hands in the air like a crazy woman.

"Alex, I didn't get a goodbye kiss!" Xavier wailed as the flame on the dragons tail was eaten by the endless white void.

The brunette sighed as the voices dissolved into whispers on the wind. Her hands held onto each side of charizard's long neck. "I advise you to hold on," she told her traveling companion as the dragon sharply escalated in elevation to scale up the side of the rocky mountainside. The jolt caused the purplette's arms to wrap around her middle to avoid tumbling off. She blushed lightly, thinking of Xena's words, but shook it off.

It was going to be a very long flight for all of them.

Alex landed her pokemon in Jubilife City, about halfway through their trip, an hour later. The fog was denser than ever, since they were now closer to the ocean, to put something in their empty stomachs, give charizard a chance to rest and dry off, and to grab their jackets as the temperature had also dropped as they flew west.

Alex spun in a circle to look for a sign of where they were and tried to picture where the Pokemon Center would be. She came up blank, and turned to see Paul walking away. "Eh? Wait up! Geeze," the brunette muttered, jogging after the boy, resentful that he actually led them directly to the Center so she couldn't pop his inflated pride bubble.

Ordering a small plate of breakfast, Alex excused herself to the video phones to call her brother. He answered on the second ring.

"Good morning. Oh, hey there, Lex. What's up?" Ryan asked brightly, standing up so he was no longer leaning over the counter. "I just heard from Ash. He's back in Hearthome City to challenge the gym that reopened."

"That's Ash for you, always lagging behind. No wonder I haven't seen him much," she responded thoughtfully. Shaking her head back and forth to banish the thoughts, she continued, "Anyway, Paul and I are in Jubilife City, heading for Canalave and the fog out here is unimaginable." She could see the golden rays shining through the glass behind her brother, making her instantly jealous of the little town.

"Really? Wow, the weather's beautiful here."

"I can see," the girl all but growled with a frown. "But what I wanted to know was if you found anything else in our parents' stuff. Have you still been looking through it?"

The boy got a guilty expression as he nodded. "I have been looking a bit, but I've been busy so I haven't gotten much. There are a few scraps that were folded within the pages of dad's old notebook, but they, it seems, came from a few different things. One looks like the schematics of a machine, and there are a few that are like layouts of a building. I'm looking through the boxes for more pieces, but let's just say we could probably find the actual thing before all the bits and pieces turn up."

"Hmm," Alex bit her lip in thought. "Alright, thanks Ry."

"There's more," the usually cheery boy turned grim, "There is a mention of another team in Father's journal, not the Soul Salvation. It wasn't named anywhere. …be careful, Lexi."

Taking a sharp inhale, the girl nodded. "Lovely. 'Course I will. Is that it then?"

Ryan shook his head 'no'. "One last thing. The Professor and Delia are worried about you. Gary and I, we've been keeping them off but they know something's up. But Gary's gone off on a mission for Professor Oak and Delia's been over here nearly every day. Just, really Lexi, give them a call, especially Mrs. Ketchum. It's the least you could do after all she's done for us."

An aggravated breath left Alex's lips and she nodded again. "When I get to Canalave. I'll talk to you soon, no doubt." She hung up the phone on him, feeling even more disheartened about meeting up with Dimentio.

They made their pit stop very short and were off again over the water. On top of the beating of the dragon's wings, Alex could swear she could detect a receding buzzing sound she had caught all the way back in Jubilife City. Now, she wasn't sure if it was just ringing in her ears, or they were following or in front of whatever was emitting the noise.

Paul frowned at the hunched girl, wondering what she was looking for and why she was looking for it. She had been in the same position for an hour and a half, when they left their break stop. His onyx orbs wandered briefly the few feet around them that he could actually see before leaning over her back and staring in the same direction as she was.

Charizard felt the boy shift on his back, and jerked in its flying pattern in another attempt to get him off. Even if his trainer told him to be nice, an accident like him falling off wouldn't be his problem. Smoke snorted from his nostrils as the boy clung to his trainer.

"What is wrong with your pokemon? Can't you control it?" Paul snarled loud enough for the agitated fire-type to hear. He was jerked the opposite way with a swish of the dragon's rear.

Alex's nose crinkled. "Both of you just settle down! Honestly," she shook her head, leaning back, her back cracking and burning with a dull ache. "Hotshot, we should probably get lower. I think we're pretty close now."

The dragon rumbled in response and none-too-gracefully started its decent. Crimson eyes saw the brunette was right as a shadow of a dock over black water solidified into their view. His wings disturbed the surface of the water with the currents they created, and swept over the wooden landing. The claws on its hind legs barely cleared the cap of a fisherman hiding in the vapor, nearly sending him and his reel into the pool.

"Sorry!" Alex shouted back, bracing herself as her pokemon stomped to the ground with its wings folding back. She clambered off, hugging her sweater around her arms as she teeth chattered. Paul was off before her standing away from the glaring dragon. "Thanks, Hotshot. Rest up for the gym battle," she told the satisfied creature, pulling it back to warm confines.

"The fog isn't as bad here," the purplette stated, walking along the path to the city.

"Hopefully it will let up soon. I c-can't go sight-seeing like t-this." She shivered, relieved to see the sign of Canalave as they passed it.

The city, despite being even closer to the water than Veilstone and Jubilife, had already started to clear up with gray clouds creating wind to squander it. They hung heavy with weight of water, just waiting to lean over and pour earthward. The air was chilly and damp, and the sun was out of sight.

Luckily, the Pokemon Center was near the entrance of the city to greet them and welcome them. There were a lot of trainers loitering around the lobby, not liking the weather either, and complaining about how the blimp wasn't operating in the conditions. Even the reporter on the television in the upper corner of the sitting area was talking about the less-than-desired forecast for the following day's celebrations.

"This is Reporter Jackie coming to you from live Jubilife City Blimp Airport. We have been delayed in our arrival in Canalave City due to the heavy fog that has settled nearly everywhere in the Sinnoh Region! All blimp schedules to and from Canalave City, as well as ship arrivals, have devastatingly been cancelled, and the day before the unveiling of Kendrick Corp's newest invention and celebration ball! Everybody not already in Canalave is in hysterics. With me here is Mrs. Hendrix, one of the invited guests to tomorrows events, all the way from Johto! What are your thoughts about this dilemma?"

Alex's eyes and ears had tuned in to the Sinnoh Now News, but being bumped out of the way several times, she grunted and searched for a spot to sit. "Come on," she urged Paul, walking around the lazing trainers to a table with only one other person at it. "Would you mind if we sat here?"

The seated girl turned to the pair and gave them a small smile. "Go ahead." She had long blond hair and popping blue eyes. Her back rested in the crook of the booth's seat and the window with her arm propped on the pane to cradle her cheek as she watched out the tear-stained window. A black hat lay in her lap. Sound familiar? Alex thought so as she did a double take, but hid it well.

"Thanks," Alex replied softly, trying to stay tuned to what the reporter was saying. She pushed Paul into the seat before her so she would have a better view of the television.

"…and it would be such a shame to have to put off the whole celebration, especially after all Mr. Kendrick has been through. I was so looking forward to seeing him again."

"It really is so unfortunate that this rain and wind storm has snuck up on us so suddenly."

"It is, but I suppose if everything is up and running for tomorrow morning then everybody should be able to arrive on time. And the Kendrick's were supposed to be flying to Canalave for this afternoon so I hope they arrive there safely, and I wish them the best that the celebration won't have to be put off."

The reporter nodded. "I'm sure we're all hoping that this will all clear up before tomorrow morning, so we can all be in attendance of what sounds like a spectacular day. Thanks for your time, Mrs. Hendrix. And to all of the viewers, we'll just have to wait and see what later today brings. This has been Jackie of Sinnoh Now!"

"Hm," Alex hummed, taking her focus away from the commercial that started for poketches. "I wonder what time the storm will start."

"That's the question that will determine whether the ball will still take place tomorrow night," the girl by the window said glumly. "So far, it's not looking so good. The Kendrick's arrived a short while ago, though."

"You seem to know a lot about this," Alex frowned suspiciously, leaning her forearms on the table and bending over them.

The girl smirked. "I'm Nicky Langille, my mom is Mr. Kendrick's secretary. I pretty much get debriefed on everything. We got here yesterday so we could get everything prepared for their arrival."

Alex laughed at herself for being so guarded. She had shared a room with the girl back on the island, but apparently she didn't know anything about her. "I'm sorry. I'm Alex Summers, and this is Paul," she stuck her thumb towards the moody, silent purplette leaning back against the seat with his eyes closed. She frowned though. 'The name Kendrick keeps coming up. It seems so familiar, but why?'

"That's weird," Nicky mumbled, pressing her forehead to the glass and gazing farther out with a crease in her brow.

"What is it?" Alex questioned, looking past the purplette's frame out the window. She was surprised to see that the fog was slowly letting up as rain pattered down, like the water pellets were stomping the imposing mist into the ground.

The blond shook her head, turning back into her seat. "Nothing, it was just a shadow. It must have been."

"What? What did you think you saw?" Alex prodded intriguingly, trying to catch a glimpse out the window."

Nicky sighed. "I could have sworn I saw something land over in the trees over there, but that's insane, nothing could fly in this weather. My mom tells me I have an overactive imagination, so it was probably nothing." She sounded like she was trying to persuade herself of that, not Alex.

Now quite intrigued, Alex bit her lip in thought. For a few minutes, she was content with just staring at the spot and thinking. After that, she had to know. "Well, now that I can actually see the city I'm not going to let a little rain stop my fun. Maybe I'll see you later! Tell Paul I went out for a while," Alex rapidly rambled out, giving one last look to her sleeping companion before jogging out the doors.

And to her DOOM!


Dun, dun, dunnnnn!

Something epic is to occur in the future. I know, I can see the future (0.0) Actually, I don't, becuase then I would know all the answers to my math test tomorrow and avoid the epic failure.

Oh yeah...

*beep!* (If you don't know what to do with it, I refer you to the top of the page...)