Pokémon
Well, I'm back! And apparently getting a cold means I get rid of writers block, though I can't spell while I'm a school =.=" How does that make sense? Seriously, I crossed an 'S'. Oh well, at least you can't easily do that on a computer.
The whole Shadow ordeal has been very obscure until now, which was pretty much intended, but I'm hoping to clear it up for the most part in the next few future chapters. So, sit back, relax, and hope you enjoy he chapter.
Chapter # 35 - Aftermath and Anger
"Hmmmm," Alex groaned, sitting up slowly in a zombie-like fashion. Glazed eyes did a full glance of the room. They fell on the ocean of light blue material swimming around her as the sheet bunched at her waist.
"Finally woke up?"
Frowning at the voice from the bathroom door, then at the clock, she shrugged. "It's not that late," she croaked. She immediately reached for a stashed water bottle in her backpack, glowering at the smirking purplette. "Shut up."
"Whatever," Paul shrugged with a small grin remaining, turning and shutting the bathroom door behind him.
Alex shook her head, her arms feeling somewhat stiff and sore. As she moved to replace her water bottle, she noticed a bizarre white paper protruding from her unzipped backpack. She plucked it out in curiosity, reading the typed scrawl reading SHADOW on the back of what turned out to be an envelope.
"How strange…" Alex frowned, flipping the letter around in her hands, her fingers tracing the name and the small SS stamped in the top right hand corner. The more she thought about it, the more she could have sworn there had been two voices in the early morning telling her to wake up, shaking her roughly. It must have been people from the Soul Salvation that snuck in while Paul was doing some early morning training, meaning they left the note when she didn't wake up.
Click! The bathroom door's lock alarmed the brunette. She gazed at it quickly while shoving the letter back into the darkness of her bag before Paul could question her on it. With both hands, she ripped the zippers up to conceal the letter just as he reentered the room.
Paul heard the hurried zip and slightly restless expression on the girl's face as she whipped her head to face him. He quirked a brow at her. "What?"
"W-what? Nothing! Just waiting for you, nothing else," Alex yelped, grabbing the strap of her bag and rushing into the bathroom and slammed the door, securely locking it. She breathed, thinking it was best to wait and read the letter later when Paul wouldn't be so suspicious.
After deeming herself presentable in a lazy, thrown-on outfit and a messy bun pinning the sagged curls up on her head, the brunette dragged her sore feet out of the room and down the hallway until she met the disturbingly joyful Joy, who she recalled had told her the evening prior that the dragon received minimal injuries by somehow decelerating in his downfall. Alex frowned at the thought, thinking the man and his skarmory had planned this to taunt them. They wanted a rematch, after all.
"Ah, Alex. Would you mind helping us with your charizard? He won't let anybody get near him," stated the pink-haired woman with worry.
"Yeah," Alex sighed. "He has always hated Pokemon Centers."
She followed the jovial nurse around back and down a long hallway with big glass windows overlooking the patient rooms. Paul fell into step with her, likely coming out of curiosity. The door was open by Nurse Joy, showing a startled chansey huddled in the corner with a bubbling liquid mixture oozing on the tiles, black smoke rising steadily.
"Hotshot!" the brunette scolded, placing her hands on her hips. "How do you expect to get better if you don't let Nurse Joy take care of you? You don't want be forcibly knocked out again like last time, do you?"
A low roar, like a whine from a puppy, rumbled from the large beast. He was spread on his belly on a metal slab, one wing tucked in close to his spine while the other drooped by his side. His ruby eyes shone pathetically at his trainer.
"Don't you give me that look, mister! Now lay still like a good little dragon," she demanded, patting his head while glaring at Paul who snorted at the comment. The brunette looked over her shoulder at Joy as if to say 'now what?'
Observing the clipboard that had been clutched to her chest, the nurse said, "I noticed that the wing that had previously been broken has gotten dislocated, so that will have to be set. I would also like to do some blood tests, just to be sure everything's fine."
Charizard snarled at the woman, causing the woman to shrink back behind Paul, who remained in the doorway up to that point. He wasn't stupid enough to anger the pokemon that showed obvious dislike for him. The dragon got a light tap on the snout by his trainer. The fangs were temporarily re-sheathed.
"Okay everyone, I need your help!" Alex called, releasing the pokeballs clipped to her belt. She noticed her dragon giving her a sulky, traitorous look and returned it with a pointed glare. "You know we have to do this, buddy. Alright everyone, positions!"
Eevee to one of charizard's curled front claws and stood on it using her forepaws, wagging her bushy tail cutely while beckoning totodile, marowak and riolu to do the same. The small Aura mimicked the fox after prancing over the dragon's skull to her side. Luckily, he managed to avoid the snap of the creature's jaws with a push from marowak. The hyperactive crocodile jumped and sat upon the other front claw, stopping the squirming appendage. Dragonair and houndoom both covered all of the dragon's hindquarters, dragonair strapping his torso just under the wings and houndoom on the strong, fire-wielding tail and legs. Alex held the snout, standing slightly off to the side for her own protection.
"Okay, we're ready," the brunette informed the nurse and her assistant.
The pink duo scurried over, chansey holding the uninjured wing while Nurse Joy gently took hold of the other and braced her hand on charizard's spine where the back of the wing attached. A growl of protest vibrated through the table. With a loud, abrupt crack, smoke billowed through the room as the dragon roared. Its mouth entrapped the flames of wrath, but he was still able to snort out his rage with a blackened haze. After a few seconds with everyone coughing the fumes, the room cleared to a watery eyed red dragon.
"Don't you feel better now?" Alex cooed, patting the rough scales on top of charizard's head. The creature gave her a low moan, nuzzling her hand.
"Lovely, now all we need is the blood test-"
The ruby orbs flared open and the struggling commenced with more vigor. "Oh, come on, Hotshot! It's just a tiny needle! Don't be a baby!" Alex pleaded with him.
Charizard wouldn't listen, just continued to free himself, show everyone that he was absolutely fine and that no needles were necessary. But as he was about to break loose of the many constraints, a tiny paw touched his nose. He watched Aura, somehow feeling calmer while looking in the big, innocent eyes.
"Relax, charizard. It's just a small little needle, see?" Nurse Joy stated, turning away from the table to produce a regular looking needle, but it must have looked murderous to the dragon.
Charizard's calming body tensed up all over again. His narrow eyes dilated and widened at the gleaming sharp end of the instrument. He whipped his head quickly from left to right, throwing Alex onto her behind with a startled yelp. The groups on his hands toppled off next from the flailing, but dragonair and houndoom efficiently pinned the dragon's hind end from squirming away. This only led to a red blaze to light up in the dragon's wide-open mouth. With a shriek of "Fire in the hole!" Alex scrambled to another part of the room that wasn't about to be scorched. But the flame went dead. With drooping eyes, the red beast slouched over on the spot and went limp.
"Chansey!" huffed the pink ball in satisfaction, an anesthetic poised in hand. With an annoyed look at the group, the normally cheerful pokemon pointed to the door as a sign to get out, more needles gathered in the other hand.
"Everybody return," squeaked Alex, pulling Paul out of the room before they found themselves knocked out beside the latrophobic dragon.
Nurse Joy was right behind the two, leaving the rest of charizard's treatment to her assistant. She gave the brunette a weak smile as they reached her desk. "I'm terribly sorry. Unfortunately, that was a very strong anesthetic and it will take a while for your charizard to reawaken. You could check out Iron Island in the meantime. There are a lot of interesting pokemon there."
At the sound of 'interesting pokemon', Paul turned the tables and dragged Alex out of the center with her heaving a sigh and replying, "Will do. Thanks, Nurse Joy. Sorry for the trouble."
After they were out of the doors Alex was allowed to walk of her own free will once again. She sighed, glancing back at the pink-roofed building and couldn't help but think about what the hooded figure from the night before had said.
'Is he right? Am I out of touch with my pokemon? I mean, sure charizard wasn't with me most of the time in Hoenn, and I haven't spent as much time with them since I started traveling with Paul because he doesn't let his pokemon out, but does that really mean that I've lost the bond I've had with him? Should I have worked on Hotshot's flying more? That bastard might have actually been-'
"What do you mean the ferry has left?"
Alex blinked back to focus to a rather irritated Paul up in some poor fisherman's startled face.
"I-it left early this morning since there were so many people waiting. That's what I heard," the fisherman hurriedly explained to the angered boy, eyes flickering back at Alex as if seeing if she would stop him.
Frowning, Alex said, "Paul, the ferry's gone. There's nothing we can do about that now so let's see what's going on around town." She noticed Paul hesitate, but back away from the man and off the docks. She smiled weakly at the fisherman and quickly apologized before running after Paul.
Alex had to try hard to keep her mind from wandering off of charizard and the man, and let eevee out onto her shoulder and riolu into her crossed arm to keep her company. Taking a good look around since last night, it was quite a difference from the previous day. "It's weird how barren the streets are now, isn't it?"
"Hn, less people to get in the way," Paul scoffed, closing his eyes since there was nothing to run into. He could feel the coffee-brown gaze settle on him and, being still rather peeved about the ferry, snapped, "What?"
"You didn't sleep well last night?" The brunette had been staring at the light purplish bruise under the boy's coal eyes, but averted her gaze after being caught. She knew she probably looked worse.
With a shrug, he replied, "How could I, you wouldn't lie still at all for half the night when you actually did get back."
Biting her lip and clutching her arms closer to her, Alex remembered her long night running in a loop in her dreams; a constant gunshot crying out, complemented by the grinning lower half of the cloaked man and his incessant laughter harmonizing with it. Eevee jumped up on her shoulder and drew her back out of the loop, earning a smile.
With an inaudible sigh that followed the girl's silence and darkened aura, Paul knew he said the wrong thing. He crossed his arms uncomfortably. "You haven't eaten since early last night." It wasn't a question. Too much had happened last night for a proper meal and she had slept through breakfast. So Paul silently led the wallowing brunette to a nearby fast-food place, and Alex followed with no complaints.
Alex was somewhat touched that the seemingly careless purplette showed some concern and felt slightly better when the lovely aroma of food wafted in the cozy, old-fashioned building. Even eevee and riolu sniffed at the air. She slid in opposite to where Paul had plopped himself in a booth, smiling at him.
"Hello, I'm Judy and I'll be your waitress today!" a plump, redheaded lady said with a crooked smile on her ruby lips. She looked back and forth between the two, her smile widening by the second. "Well, aren't you two are just most adorable couple I've seen in the longest time!" she gushed, pushing menus towards them both. "But honey, we got to fatten you up just a li'l bit," she winked to Alex.
Alex choked, reddening slightly with a glance over to Paul, who was hidden by the menu but appeared impervious. "W-well, thank you, but we're not…dating," she told the lady, scratching her cheek. 'Why am I getting so worked up?' she thought, looking at the calm purplette.
"Oh," Judy looked flabbergasted, once again glancing between the two. Her slanted, beaming smile returned a second later with a wave of her hand. "Pish-posh, whatever you say, honey," her heavily mascara-ed eye winked at the brunette again as she pranced away. "I'll be back in a few minutes to take your order~!" she sang.
"Eh," Alex shook her head at the retreating woman. With another glance at the expressionless Paul out of the corner of her eye, she turned to her small pokemon on the table and watched them talk as they observed things beyond the clear pane of glass. Such as a large wagon containing caged pokemon, including what looked to be big red dragon, zipping past.
…Wait a minute…
Alex, eevee and riolu simultaneously let their heads cock to the right. "Okay, someone other then me just saw that, right? It wasn't just some hallucination my brain conjured up?"
Paul finally lifted his gaze from the menu, giving the brunette a questioning frown, looking out the window at the nothingness the trio was starting at.
"Eii!" the fox nodded in confirmation, scampering across the table and jumping off with her trainer hot on her tail and riolu in her arms.
"Where are you going?" Paul demanded. He nearly collided with Alex as she had stalled in the doorway, staring at the black haze surrounding the Pokemon Center, the fluorescent pink cross blipping spasmodically. The wailing of a siren hurried to the building.
Now with a definite reason to panic, Alex exclaimed, "Oh no. No, no, no, no, somebody has Hotshot!" She cursed, raking a hand through her hair. Her frantic stare surveyed the direction the wagon had been heading.
The forest.
"Okay, Doom, I need your help!" The black and red canine appeared amidst the glare, sitting lazily in front of her. "Listen Doom, Hotshot and a bunch of pokemon have been kidnapped and were headed that way. Do you think you can track them?"
Rising to all fours, houndoom sniffed at the breeze and then pressed his snout to the ground. "Grrruf!" he barked, taking off on a run.
"Let's go!" Alex yelled in a battle cry, sprinting to catch up with her pup.
Paul wondered how he managed to get dragged into these situations, but went after the fiery girl and her group.
The limits of Canalave City were bordered by thick greenery, drooping and crooked from the storms brought in by the sea surrounding them. There was a slightly beaten path padded down in the rough terrain, which is where houndoom jogged along with his nose gliding over large burrowing roots and under downward-swooping branches.
"These people were smart, hitting a Pokemon Center from a city that had just witnessed a disaster and had lost of injured pokemon," the brunette grumbled. Glad she had worn something comfortable, Alex was relatively able to keep pace beside houndoom, catching small fragments of skid marks from the large automobile swerving to avoid hitting thick bushes and branches or other obstacles. "They must have some sort of alternate transportation hidden near the cliffs. We must be pretty close now," she stated with deep breaths as she trekked up yet another hill.
She was right. They were deep in the forest by this time, pushed by adrenalin and the fear of losing her precious dragon, she pushed through the thickets to confront the retched dragon-nappers. She could hear them pretty clearly even before she saw them, having a good idea of who these culprits were.
"Gaaahaha! We sure got a load of strong pokemon here!"
"You betcha! Now we'll definitely be the strongest trainers around! Nobody will be able to stop us! Hah! Stupid Pokemon Center doesn't know what hit 'em!"
Gritting her teeth, Alex pulled up beside houndoom and swatted through the last patch of branches and leaves to an area overlooking a high cliff. She knew the voices had sounded rather familiar. It turned out to be the punks from the island, Chris and Chad, the ones Xena and herself had swiped a map off of and wiped out in the first battle round on the island.
"Stop it right there!" "Eiiie!" "Riooo!" "Grr-uph!" Alex and her sidekicks demanded fiercely, the girl flourishing her finger at the duo. Her eye twitched.
Alex. Was…Confused. Rather pissed off, but extremely and ultimately confused.
Paul growled, swatting greenery away from him as he finally caught up with the ambitious brunette and her brigade. He raised an 'are-you-an-idiot' brow at the large caravan and wagon with a few pokemon in cages and a brimming bag of pokeballs parked sloppily along the cliff side, an inert and snoring charizard among them. Well, he supposed that meant the girl wasn't totally crazy. Though, he noticed something odd, and so did she judging by her expression. "How the hell were you planning on getting all of these pokemon off the island?"
Coming off of their 'oh-shit' expressions, the haughty gangster and biker laughed. "We got wheels man, whatcha talking 'bout?" "Yeah, and there's nothing you can do to stop us. Unless ya wanna get run over." The two high-fived, smirking as though they were geniuses.
"…there are no words to describe such stupidity," Alex stated blankly, still not believing her eyes.
"Hey there, little girl. This is big man stuff we're talking here," the lanky gangster drawled belittlingly. "This plan can't fail. We already got the pokemon. Sure we didn't expect the police to come so fast and had to drive this way, but we can still drive around the border. So how's a little girl and her little boyfriend gonna stop us with all these strong pokemon we got here?"
Paul was not amused. "If you think you're so strong, let's have a battle," he suggested coldly, already set with an enlarged pokeball in hand.
"Hah, we'll show you your place little man," the gruff biker called giddily. Both he and his partner sent out a pokeball; a huge steelix and a buff machamp.
"Ursauring, take care of this," ordered the purplette, calling on the terrifying brown grizzly.
Alex patted her canine on the head, saying, "Doom, we need your help too."
To sum it up, the battle didn't last long. If you blinked you would have missed it. Paul sneered at the double one hit KO victims and the trainers that called them 'strong'. Not a single scratch lay upon the hide on the victorious ursauring and houndoom, though the canine hadn't had to move a muscle. Only a deep hole gaping in the ground in which the steel snake was coiled with the muscular pokemon passed out on top was left to prove there was a battle.
That ursauring had some real rage problems…
"H-how?" Chad mumbled, returning his machamp.
"Doesn't matter. We've got tons of strong pokemon here. Like…this here charizard," the biker smirked, opening the mouth of the cage where the dragon was sleeping.
Alex gritted her teeth, brown eyes hardening in a livid glare at the man who was going to try to use her charizard against her. With a bandage wrapped around its recovering wing and back, no less. Man these two were stupid.
"You're going to try to use an unconscious pokemon, one that probably won't listen to you anyway, and battle with it," the purplette stated for conformation. He crossed his arms over his chest. This almost wasn't worth the effort. Almost…except his female companion looked on the verge of blowing up at the dim-witted duo.
"Huh?" The brawny man peered into the cage. "Unconscious? Not fer long. Hey Chad, get a stick."
"Are you serious?" Alex demanded incredulously, watching the lean gangster swagger over with a long, spindly broken twig. She threw her hands up as they did, in fact, prod the rough scales of on the dragon's nose. "Whatever, it's your funeral."
"Hey, Chris, why won't the beastie wake up?"
"You ain't doin' it right! He can't feel it if you poke it, you gotta swat it!" The biker swiped the twig away, flicking it vertically down the middle of the fire-dragon's head. Fortunately for them, the red orbs didn't open for them.
"Oh, for goodness sakes!" Alex huffed, marching up to dumb and dumber, as she had now officially named them. "Give me that!" she roared, grabbing the stick from dumber's meaty hand and turning it against the both of them.
"Hey now girly!" Chris yelled as he caught her offending hands, making her drop her weapon. "That ain't very nice." He stepped forward, making her step back. "Don't get in our way. Or else."
"Yeah, or else," Chad snickered.
Paul growled, taking his fists out of his pockets only to notice he wasn't the only one to growl. He gave a surprised look behind the group to a very wide eyed, very fiery, and very angered dragon steping out of the opened cage with a loud THUMP!
The two males spun around at the sound. They laughed, still holding on to Alex. "Hey, lookie who finally decided to join us. I told you swatting it would help."
"Whatever, just go get that stupid teddy bear and the pooch!" Chad barked, pointing at ursauring and houndoom.
Charizard didn't hear a word either of the two said, but he did see his trainer struggling against them. They had their hands on his trainer? Two strange looking people who she didn't seem to like had the nerve to order him to attack her pokemon. Well, he may want to incinerate that ursauring whose trainer seemed to always be around, but they weren't the ones imposing on his trainer at the moment. And they would be taught a lesson.
With four shaking stomps, a shadow fell over dumb and dumber as they both smirked at the brunette, who was trying to free herself from the painful grip of the strong biker. She opened her eyes to meet the cream chest of the dragon, who took his clawed arms and lifted dumb and dumber by the backs of their trousers. Oh yes, he did remember the annoying prodding of the stick and the voices of the two.
"Guys," Alex gritted out, scowling at the two traumatized, dangling boys while rubbing the red handprints on her wrists, "I'd like you to meet Hotshot. Say hello to the beastie."
"B-but our plan can't fail!" Chad flailed midair, ripping his pants and falling to the ground. The gangster was quick to recover from the fall, hopping to his feet and taking off towards the truck. The engine purred to life.
So intent on the one that had gotten away, charizard lowered his claws to the ground and snarled at the man. He didn't notice he gave the biker a chance to run and he took it. The second door slammed at the engine revved with the vehicle and wagon spurting forward.
"Hahaha, maybe next time, losers! I told you this plan couldn't fail!" Chad shrieked with howling laughter out the open window, the truck speeding and bumping along the cliff side and out of sight.
Alex stopped houdoom, who had started to his feet to take off after it. "Don't bother, they'll run into Officer Jenny before they get far. How long do you think it will take them to realize they can't drive off an island?"
Shaking his head, Paul returned the bored grizzly back to his pokeball. "Probably when they do a nose-dive off a dock and into water."
The girl had to nod with agreement, idly petting her protector's neck while he glowered at the spot where he could last see the truck, the dragon wishing he wasn't so weak from the drug surging though his bloodstream to produce a fire attack. "I suppose we should start heading back now. It's starting to get dark out."
"Whatever," Paul shoved his hands in his pockets, allowing the black canine and his trainer to take the lead so they didn't wander over a cliff or anything. Charizard was recalled back to his pokeball because of his injury, so he didn't have to watch his back. But there was something odd about the path that had guided them there. The purplette couldn't tell what it was. "Must be tired," he muttered without meaning to.
"You okay, Paul?"
He turned his head to see the brunette halted in her tracks and frowning with concern. She was worried about him? "Hn," he twisted his head away, continuing onward, "It's nothing."
"Are you sure?" Alex persisted, catching up to walk at his side.
Why was she so concerned with him? He watched her journey half dead on her feet after not getting enough sleep. She disappeared for nearly a month. She traipses off after robbers twice her size. Then she is the only one to ask if he is okay?
Strange girl…
"Paul, what is- huh?"
Opening his eyes, the purplette was rather surprised to see they were back at the cliff were they had cornered the two idiots. The dog that had led them there had led them there again.
Alex kneeled down in front of her canine. "Uh, Doom? I said to take us back to the city."
"Ruff, grrr-uff uff!"
"…This doesn't look like the city to me." She received a blank glare from the black dog. "Alright, alright, let's try this again. Try to back-track the scent from here back to the city."
With a shrug, houndoom led them out of down the slightly beaten path with his snout perfectly glued to the ground this time.
And the next time.
Even closed his eyes the third.
Then Alex marked trees as they passed.
It still yeilded the same result.
"Not again!" Alex groaned, taking in the black skids on the cliff where the automobile had sped off, the large, round crater, and the salty breeze from the ocean. "What's going on? I was sure we didn't turn around this time!"
The boy glanced back at the opening in the brush. It seemed…blurry. Yes, definitely blurry. Maybe it wasn't just his fatigue? "Hey, does the road look…weird?" he asked gruffly, not daring to look to see if the brunette would give him a crazy look.
"…Sort of." Alex squinted at the forest. "It kind of looks…watery. Like it's not supposed to be there. …Is that what was bothering you earlier?"
"I guess you could say that. Ow, hey!" He leered at the girl, protecting his shoulder. "What was that for?"
"You should have said something!" Alex frowned at the stubborn boy, crossing her arms. "Maybe we wouldn't have ended up in the same spot five times." She sighed heavily, swinging her legs under her to sit on the smooth rocky landscape. Palms pressing to her eyes to quell an incoming headache, the girl vacantly declared, "I'm tired." Her stomach rumbled reminding her she still hadn't eaten since the previous night. "And hungry."
"Hn, well if we can't get back then we'll have to camp here for the night," the purplette stated rather grumpily, slinging his the strap of his backpack over his head and dropping it beside her.
Nodding mutely, the rest of her seven pokemon were released from their pokeballs. She arose to her feet unsteadily, looking at the questioning Paul. "Hey, if there is something out there keeping us here, I think I stand a better chance with all of my pokemon thank you very much. Doom, Isis, come on, we're looking for firewood. Skull, Chomp and Aura, you go try to find some food. Hotshot…just, stay here and rest, all right, Buddy? Tempest, make sure he doesn't go anywhere."
Everybody nodded at his or her tasks, except for a brooding red dragon, who was being babysat by the elegant, snake-like, blue and white dragon. The groups split off, leaving an apathetic Paul blinking at the moody fire-dragon. With a sigh, he sat down and began to unpack his sleeping bag.
Alex tramped through the woods for the umpteenth time, though wandering slightly off track to gather chunks of dry wood for creating a campfire. She strapped some to the back of her strong houndoom as eevee bounded towards the next piece to pick up. They weren't too worried about getting lost, since everywhere they went it didn't seem to hard to find that single spot on the cliff.
"Eeeie!" the little fox chirped, head inclined to the high branches of a large tree that contained an abundance of wild apples.
"Wow, nice find, Isis," Alex praised, dropping her armful of wood to her feet. Her empty belly took top priority at the moment. "Can you use swift to get them down?"
Eevee happily flicked her fluffy brown tail, creating a flurry of golden stars that sliced the apples from the tree and made them rain to the ground. She helped gather them into a manageable pile by nudging them with her nose, being awarded by being treated to one of the sour-ish fruit.
"Let's take a rest, you guys. You must be as hungry as I am," Alex laughed, rolling her small fox one and her large dog three. Grabbing one for herself, she placed her butt on a sturdy remaining tree stump and shrugged off her bag. The zipper had come slightly undone, showing a corner of white.
'The letter,' she thought, using her teeth to hold her precious food to pluck out the paper. She munched on the apple, turning the envelope to the front. "I can't believe I almost forgot about this," she muttered tensely, looking conspicuously around to see if any unwanted eyes were around. Of course there weren't, she was in the middle of nowhere. She placed a finger under the seal and tore it off, slipping the letter out of its confines. Her hand grabbed for a flashlight, as darkness was settling in, and flicked it on.
Dear Shadow,
You have been left in the dark so far, being a new member of the Soul Salvation, but I believe you deserve to know the truth about what has been going on. Please understand that everything you read here is strictly confidential and put in your trust. Not many people in our organization have been briefed in this much detail.
This is for your eyes and ears only.
Five years ago, there was a major attack on the Kendrick Corp. Many did not know what might have been a target as it could have been any number of things, but was known by a few individuals. Most think that the perpetrators died that night, but that is also untrue. They struck again just last night, as you have seen, and they will strike again.
I do not wish to disclose whom or what at this present time, however the people that work under him are known as The Avengers. You will find out what disasters will happen in the future if they are not stopped. As of now, we are under the impression they are in possession of the Adaptability Nucleofuser, a major part of their plan. Now, they will be in search of the keys to unlock the machine that was their target five years ago, after of which had been scattered. Our new mission will be to find these before they do.
The House of Chaos has begun searching for clues as to the whereabouts of these keys, and the House of Phantoms have been asked to search the areas of interest. We believe one of these keys is in or close to Canalave City.
I assure you that this is of utmost importance. A lot will be put in danger should The Avengers get everything they need to succeed in their plan. I hope you will continue to your cooperation with us in the search of these keys.
We have our faith in you, Shadow, just like we did in your parents.
Soul Salvation Boss
Alex read the letter twice, the last sentence dozens of times. Just like we did in your parents. The words didn't want to sink into her brain. Nothing was making sense anymore. Her stomach churned and threatened to eject what little food she had that day. "W-what?" she whispered, holding the letter with shaking hands.
Snap!
Whipping her head in all directions at the ear-splitting noise within the silence, Alex stuffed the letter halfway down her bag and placed it safely on her back. Wide eyed, she and her pokemon were all at the ready. She placed a finger on her lips, telling them not to utter a sound as she quietly picked up a particularly hefty log from the woodpile. Several more snaps echoed, each one closer than the previous. Alex leaned up against the tree in which the figure should pass, readying her weapon. And as a twig snapped on the other side, she swung and landed a devastating hit.
The only question was, who was it?
Mwahaha, another cliff-hanger :3 My bad. I feel evil.
Uhm, I can't think of anything to say. Sorry about any spelling errors, I try my best I really do. But my head feels like it's inflating like a balloon so I might go take a nap and hope I feel better but keep the ideas coming. Wish me luck.
Review! Press the button, you know you wanna. Ciao!
