There was a flash of light, and the group found themselves next to a flower shop.
"Nice job. That saved me the trouble of taking out my Gardevoir" Ivory said and released her Mime Jr. out to hold. Then she, Erin, Seria, and Dahlia sat down on a nearby bench. Meanwhile, their pokemon walked behind their trainers, and leaned onto the bench from behind. Except for the Flarion, who made a place on Erin's lap.
"So we just wait here now?" Erin asked.
"Pretty much," Serra said before pulling out her cross-transceiver to make a call.
"Hold it." Ivory said without warning and grabbed Serra's arm, "I'm sorry, but what is in your hood? I noticed it a while ago." She said.
"Oh, you mean-"
"ME!" Serra was cut off by an over energetic Celebii that flew out of the hood on her jacket.
"GAHHHH! Celebi!" Seria screamed, killing her friends', and their pokemons', ears.
"Uh. Seria. I don't think..." Ivory was cut off when Seria ran up and shoved her out of the way, causing her to lose balance and fall into a wastebasket.
"Celebi! How are you doing? Did you finally ask Jirachi?" Seria immediatly asked the pokemon.
Celebii ducked back into Serra's hood. "Um, Serra," the grass type whispered into Serra's ear, "who is this girl, and why does she think I know Jirachi?"
"Please excuse her." Ivory said and pushed Seria away, "She mistook you for a friend of ours."
"Oh, okay!" Celebi said cheerfully and began buzzing around everybody's heads.
Serra tried her best to ignore the hyperactive grass type and went back to typing a number into her cross-transceiver.
"Hey! Who are you trying to reach? Your boyfriend?" Seria asked, getting way to close to Serra as she finished typing the number.
Serra ignored the comment and let the cross-transceiver ring. "He had better have a very good reason for being late."
"So it is your boyfriend?" Seria asked.
"Drop it sis. She's not going to answer." Dahlia said.
"Yay. If she doesn't answer that usually means yes." Seria said and clapped happily. Dahlia just gave a sign in response.
"Ring-ring-ring. Ring-ring-ring. Phone call. Phone call." Seika groaned as his cross-transceiver rang out with its annoying tone.
"Well, that certainly broke the tension..." said Cody.
"Oh, shut up!" Seika yelled before answering the call. "What?!"
"Something wrong?" Serra asked as she gave Seika a questioning look.
"Sorry, you will not believe the day I've had."
"Let me guess, you ran into a group from another dimension who have no clue where they are."
"How did you guess?" Now it was Seika's turn to question his friend.
"I can relate"
"Ooh! He's cute!" Seria exclaimed through the X-transceiver. Dahlia moaned and facepalmed.
"Something tells me that wasn't the best thing to say..." Sara said, while Miki peered at the screen on the X-transceiver.
"No, it wasn't," Serra said and pushed Seria away from the screen.
However, she was too late. Seria stool a look on the phone and saw Miki. She gasped.
"Omigosh I love your hair!" She yelled into the X-transceiver.
"Oh, thanks! I love yours, too! It looks amazing!" Miki yelled back.
"Oh great. They're multiplying." Erin mumbled as Seria continued to talk to her sudden best friend. The two went on about boys and clothes for a while.
"What kind of shampoo do you use? It is very effective." She asked excitedly.
"Can we have our conversation back now?" Seika practically yelled at the two girls.
"Oh. Sorry." Seria said and shrunk away.
Miki also backed away. "Yeah, sorry..."
"Who are you talking to?" N asked.
"Nobody," Seika said and pushed N further away from the camera.
"Who was that?" Serra asked. She recognized the voice, but couldn't quite place it.
"Don't worry about it," Seika told her. "Now, where exactly are you?"
"THE PRETTY PETAL FLOW-" Celebi never got to finish her song and dance because Serra slapped her hand over the grass type's mouth.
Erin immediately recognized the voice of N.
"What's he doing here?" She thought to herself. She then felt herself get pinched by Ivory. Don't say anything. She nodded to show that she got the message, and did the same to Seira and Dahlia. Afterwards, she turned back to her friend.
"Why?" She whispered.
"I don't think that boy wants her to know about N. Lets keep it to ourselves for now." Ivory said. Erin nodded. Ivory smiled and turned her attention to Serra, who had just put her hand on Celebi's mouth at this point.
"We're at the flower shop north of Rustboro City." Ivory said to answer the boy's question.
"Wait there," Seika told them and hung up before anyone had time to object.
"He's friendly." Erin mumbled and sat down. The group waited for about an hour, when suddenly, Ivory jumped up.
"What is it?" Erin asked her friend.
"Everyone! Hide! There is an angry Groudon approaching!" Ivory exclaimed.
"Uh.. I think we would be able to see...ack!" Erin was interrupted by Ivory pushing her to the ground.
"This is why I hate trees!"
"Gee. That's a very threatening Groudon it sounds like." Dahlia said sarcastically. Erin's Flarion lifted his head and narrowed his eyes.
"That's not a Groudon," Serra said and added under her breath, "at least not entirely."
"What was that?" Ivory asked, barely catching what Serra said.
"I said that's not a Groudon" Serra told her quickly.
Ivory gave a suspicious look, but said nothing else. She turned back to the forest in time to see five people emerging from it.
Serra couldn't help but laugh at the sight of Seika fighting his way through the undergrowth. The smile disappeared from her face and was replaced with a scowl when she saw N.
Seika noticed the change in Serra's expression and rushed to intercept her before she attacked N.
"Why didn't you warn me about him?" Serra demanded. Her tone was harsh but she managed to keep her voice quiet enough that only Seika could hear her.
"Would you have reacted any differently if I had?"
"Probably not."
"Well, there you go. That' sway I didn't tell you."
"I wonder what they are talking about." Erin said to Ivory regarding the two. Ivory didn't seem to hear her though, "Uh. Ivory. The world says hello."
"Huh! Oh sorry." Ivory said and grabbed Lucario by the arm.
"What?" He asked.
"What is that boy?" Ivory asked.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean he feels human, but he's not. He also feels like a pokekmon. What is he?"
"Gee I don't know. Why do you care?"
"It's bugging me."
"Well let it unbug you then." Ivory signed. If it wasn't buisness, Lucario didn't care.
"Is this the person you were talking to earlier?" Sara asked Seika. She was about to ask who the other people were, when she heard a growling noise by their feet. She looked and saw a shiny Umbreon glaring at N.
"Hello person on the x- transciever. Hi girl with the pretty hair. Hi N. Hi other people I don't know." Seria said. Ivory's Mime Jr. mimicked her.
"So, what are we going to do with this lot?" Seika asked, trying to change the subject as quickly as possible.
"I was going to take them to Sootopolis," Serra told him, her voice still with some malice in it, "but that idea got thrown out the window when you brought him into the picture." Serra gestured accusingly toward N.
"Em, excuse me! Does this Umbreon belong to anyone in particular? I don't really appreciate the way it's looking at my boyfriend!" Sara called out.
"Oh don't worry. I can fix that problem real quick." Ivory said while giving the Umbreon a mischievous glare. Lucario chuckled. Normally he would stop Ivory, but he made this time an exception.
"Serra, you may want to recall Eon before he causes even more problems," Seika stated when he saw Ivory's glare.
"He's not the one causing problems, Seika!"
"Then what IS the problem then!?" Sara cried out. Meanwhile, Miki was getting acquainted with the other girl with blonde hair.
"I'll explain it to you later," Seika said as Serra stalked away angrily.
"W-where's she going?" Sara asked.
"Right now, it would be in everybody's best interest if we just let Serra cool down," Seika told Sara as Absol came bounding back up to his side. Seika kneeled down so that he was eye level with the dark type.
We need to go now! Absol told him in her own tongue. She knew Seika would have no trouble understanding her. There are more grunts on their way with a couple of the Sages as well.
Ivory and Lucario's heads both suddenly perked up. Erin, automatically knowing what it meant, walked over to Ivory.
"How many?" She asked.
"Ten of them. Each with two pokemon. Four of them really strong, and I mean really." Ivory said. Erin thought quickly. She assumed that most of the people were grunts, but the last ones were probably sages.
"What do we do?"
"Well, since the absol over there is saying basically the same thing I am, I say what we usually do."
"Run away?"
"Run away." Just as Ivory said that, the group heard someone yell stop. They turn to see six sages and two grunts. All with either Haxorus or Electross. Erin gave Ivory a look. Ivory scratched her head.
"My bad. It was a bit far away." She said.
N suddenly got a panicked look on his face. "w-what is it!?" asked Sara, then she looked over and saw the grunts. She heard the others talking about running away. That seemed like a good idea to her.
"Do all of you have a Pokémon that can fly?" Serra asked as she rejoined the group and pulled a quick ball
off her belt.
Sara gave a panicked look to N. "Don't worry." He simply said and took out his Braviary. Cody took out Pidgeot, and Miki took out Honchkrow.
"yes, we do!" Sara called.
"We do too." Erin said and threw out her Salamance, Platnium. The others followed with Ivory's Dragonite, Emerald, Seria's Flygon, Ruby, and Dahlia's Heidregion, Diamond.
"Great, that means we don't have to give you rides," Seika said as he released his Salamence and Serra released her Flygon, Vib.
"T-they're getting closer!" Miki cried out. A Haxorus used hyper beam, which luckily missed and hit far to their right.
Seria yelped at the sudden attack. Mienshoa quickly grabbed her and sat her on top of Flygon. Ivory returned her Mime Jr. and got on top of her Dragonite along with Lucario. Dahlia and Mismagious also got on top of Heidregion. Meanwhile, Erin told Gliscor to take to the air while she tried to stand on top of her Salamance. When she finally got her balance, she turned to Serra.
"Where to?"
"Sootopolis," Serra said and took off to the east before anybody could comment or complain.
Trenton walked around the deserted streets of Fallarbour town with his collar pulled up around his face. It wasn't so much to hide his identity, the silver hair pretty much ruined that idea, but to keep him from breathing in the volcanic ash that drifted down from Mt. Chimney and covered the town.
Trenton stopped when he saw a young girl standing in front of the closed battle facility.
"What a beautiful mess." Amber mumbled to herself. The Zorua had already been yelled at for making mischief, now she was stuck by herself. She checked her jacket on her waist to make sure it was still covering her tail. All was good. As for her ears, most people only needed to be told that she wears them for fun to be fooled into thinking that they were fake. Even if her tail did show, she could convince them that she wore it for fun as well. She straightened out her brown hair and signed.
"Where are you Dahlia?"
"You won't find anyone in there," Trenton told her as he took down his collar so that he didn't seem as creepy. He noticed the black ears on the girl's head but decided not to say anything about them. "Nobody's been allowed in there since it was shut down and boarded up."
"(Uh oh. Human. Better put your illusion skills to good use Amber)." Amber thought to herself. she gave a quick smile and put her hands on her hips.
"Fine by me. I wasn't planning to go into that dreary place to begin with." She said via telepathy, but made it seem like she was actually saying it out of her mouth.
"Really now?" Trenton have her a skeptical look. "Then why have you been staring at it for the last ten minutes?"
"Oh. I tend to zone out. I was actually trying to figure out how to find my sister. Maybe you can help. Have you seen a 19 year old girl with a hard stare, who wears a black gothic dress?" Amber asked.
"Can't say I have," Trenton told her. "Not many people come to this town anymore since Team Plasma closed the battle facility."
"They're back!?" Amber couldn't keep her cool this time. She thought Ivory had taken care of all the sages, "When did this happen?!" She demanded, grabbing Trenton by the shirt and shaking him.
"About six months ago," Trenton said. "And what do you mean 'back'? They never left to begin with."
Amber let go of the man and regained herself.
"What do you mean they never left? Of course they left. Auntie made sure that they were all arrested. In fact, she capture Gorm last week." Amber said, wondering were this guy had been.
"You must have one incredibly over active imagination,' Trenton sighed. He figured this girl wouldn't listen to anything he told her, so instead he took out his pokegear and turned on the radio. All the stations were playing the same pre-recorded messages reminding people that 'it was strictly forbidden for anyone to be caught associating themselves with a pokemon in any way' and that 'Pokemon were superior creatures who deserved to be freed from their slavery to humans.' Trenton hadn't turned on this radio in months and was honestly surprised it still worked.
"So they took over the radio this time as well? Great." Amber signed, then suddenly perked up, "Aw well. Red and her friends will stop them again." She said with confidence.
"First off, I'm pretty sure Red is not a girl, and if he his, he has a heck of a lot of explaining to do," Trenton said. "Second, we're currently working on that."
"(Oops. Keep forgetting that I should only use nicknames when the girls are around)." Amber thought, "Sorry. Not Red the Pokemon Master. I'm talking about a friend of mine who is related to Red. I just call her that as a nickname. Anyhoo, we can assist you if you need help Mr. Scary Man."
"I somehow don't think you'd be able to do much," Trenton stated and started walking back the way he had come.
"You'd be surprised." Amber mumbled. This wasn't helping her situation at all. She was thinking of going with Mr Scary Guy, but was wondering if it would do her any good.
"(Well. I guess I don't have any other options.)" She thought, the yelled, "So you're going to leave a poor and defenseless little girl to try and find her sister alone?" She said, sounding upset.
Trenton stopped in his tracks and sighed. "Fine, you can come along so long as you don't slow me down and only until we find your sister."
"(I hope it will be soon)." Amber thought, then said, "Okay then. I want to try that direction. I feel really good about it." She pointed to a direction.
"But where I'm going is that way," Trenton said and headed in the opposite direction.
Amber, not one who likes being wrong, started to walk in the direction she pointed.
Trenton rolled his eyes, grabbed the girl around the waist, and began walking in the direction he had pointed.
"Well you're no fun Mr. Scary Man." Amber said out loud and crossed her arms.
"I'm not supposed to be," Trenton told her, "and my name is not Mr. Scary Man."
"Whatever Mr. Scary Man." Amber answered, not bothering to ask what his actual name was.
Trenton rolled his eyes and continued walking. This was going to be long day.