Second chapter today!
Nova looked around. A stand-off. Her and Nidoran at one tunnel, Luna and her tribe poised near the explosive and Gold and Missile directly behind them.
Luna was no fool. She knew if she so much as breathed closer to the button, Gold would be beating down clefairy, making it impossible for them to enter the moonstone in time. She did not look willing to sacrifice her own. For a few moments, it was dead silent.
"Okay, where is the logic in all of us retreating only to meet up again in the same place we ran away from fifteen minutes later?" Gold asked. Nova had been wondering the same exact thing. But as he said those words, she realized that there was an advantage.
"There is one thing. With the little extra time we had, I figured out a few things we should know about clefairy. Some of it, in hindsight, I should have known but..." Nova continued in a strong, confident voice.
"First, clefairy aren't psychic, they're normal types. That's why my shadow balls didn't work and that's why Gold had an advantage. Second, They get power from the moon. That's why they fought as close as they could to the hole in the ceiling. They were reviving themselves with moonlight."
By now, the clefairy looked nervous and even Luna was grimacing slightly. Nova continued on as part of her incomplete plan was simply to distract them.
"And finally, clefairy may be powerful but they are slow. I figured that one out while they were chasing me and when I saw Missile fighting them with rapid attacks they couldn't keep up with. If I were to use a couple Quick Attacks right now, I could probably knock anyone of you out right now." Nova said, hoping they wouldn't call her slight bluff. It would take more than a few hits for one of them to go down.
There were a few seconds of silence before Gold spoke up. "Heh. Guess she gotcha there. Give it up."
Nidoran stepped out next to Nova, to her surprise. "Yeah she's pretty tough and I'm not bad either so don't try us."
"...Shrimpy! Watch out...there is a Pokemon behind you..." Missile the Beedrill called out to Nova, his cry at the loudness of a normal conversational tone.
Shrimpy..?
"Huh?"
Gold started laughing so hard he was practically bawling. And then she remembered. When she had first introduced herself to Missile back when he was a weedle, Gold had interrupted and said her name was Shrimpy.
He'd spent the last two weeks thinking that was my name? Is he that out of it?
"MY NAME'S NOVA!" She screeched.
Gold frowned, wiping tears from his eyes and recovering from his hysteria and turning to Nidoran. "Who're you?"
Nova interrupted, calming down slightly, now that Missile had keeled over from the stress of being yelled at. She only felt a little guilty. She knew Gold well enough to realize this was going nowhere good. "This is Nidoran. He helped me out."
"You'll need all the help you can get," Luna growled. "You are, and always will be, severely outnumbered."
Nova was going to reply when she saw something that absolutely made her heart soar. "...Maybe not."
Out of the next tunnel came just who she desperately needed to see through this nightmare.
Sam.
Sam with Rae, Kurt, and Abra.
Nova and Sam made eye-contact and he ran to her, scooped her up and hugged her to his chest in a moment of pure euphoria.
"Vee-ee!" Nova practically sang.
"I was so worried about you guys!" Sam told her.
"Hey guys, cut out the mush-fest. We're kind of in a situation if ya can't tell." Gold said pointedly, but even his words couldn't negate the grin of relief on his face.
Sam, though he didn't understand Gold's words, seemed to read the room's tension and set Nova down, examining the situation.
"Is that a bomb?" Rae asked, wide-eyed.
"Ee," Nova nodded somberly.
The humans chorused a sharp intake of breath.
"You can't blow this place up! You'll kill people!" Rae protested, in complete shock.
Gold huffed and rolled his eyes at her weak protest.
Luna actually sneered. "Of course the humans are worried about their own kind. Typical."
"That isn't true! They care about all of us!" Nova argued, frustrated that the Clefairy was seeing things in such a skewed manner. "These humans are good!"
"Stop this! Please, Clefairy!" Sam said trying to take a step toward. Instantly, Luna's small hand whipped over the button and her eyes narrowed. Sam froze and stepped back again, raising his hands slightly in defeat.
"Clllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeefffffffffaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" The missing Pokemon's high-pitched voice rang clear in the moon cave. Everyone's heads whipped around to the noise.
"A child?" Luna wondered sharply.
There, in the entrance to the third tunnel stood Cleffa, Azurill, and Igglybuff.
"Cleffa!" Rae cried, completely relieved. The tiny star Pokemon gave her a large grin and started making her way over to her trainer before she noticed the tension in the room. About halfway across, right in front of Luna and the explosive, she swiveled on her feet and faced Luna as if on instinct.
"What...is this child doing here?" Luna spoke softly, but with some anger in her voice.
"She's with us." Nova put in, watching Luna carefully.
Luna removed her hand from the button again and hesitantly, crouched down and gently lay her hand atop Cleffa's head as if she might get burned.
"Child, why are you here. It is dangerous. Enter the crystal with us and you will be protected," Luna told Cleffa softly.
Upset, Cleffa shook her head and argued back, her words where so soft-spoken, Nova couldn't pick out most of them.
"...You do not know what you mean by that," Luna replied.
Cleffa started making wide gestures, first at a worried Rae, then at Nova and the other Police Pokemon.
Luna looked pensive. "You are quite inquisitive, small Cleffa. Though you are young, your brilliance is quite astounding. However, I still see no other way to..." Luna trailed off as Cleffa spoke again, this time even faster. Luna's eyes dawned in realization.
"Child, you are absolutely right." She stayed at Cleffa's eye level for a few more moments as if she could delve into Cleffa's mind through her eyes before returning to address the Pokemon in the large cavern.
"Your friend here has pleaded your case and suggested an alternate option for our escape. We will fulfill this one instead of our original plan." Luna declared, then closing her eyes, she glowed blue and slowly and systematically, the machine was dismantled. Within thirty seconds, the machine that would have been the death of them all was nothing more than a pile of scrap metal on the cave floor.
Nova sighed. It seemed this nightmare had finally come to the end. She shuddered to think what could have happened had Cleffa not arrived.
Luna turned to Nova with what might be a humbled expression. "On behalf of the Clefairy Tribe of Mount Moon-"
She was cut off suddenly by the two grunts from before that had caused the cave-in.
No. No. No! Nova thought. Everything was going so well! Why can't we have a break?!
"Heh heh. I think we found 'em." One sneered.
"After all that trouble we went ta take a couple'a 'fairies, we better'a er else I'd hafta make 'nother cave in," The second laughed.
Nova wrinkled her nose. Those two were disgusting. Nidoran narrowed his eyes.
"I've seen these shmucks before, they're bad news," he warned.
"Yeah, these guys are the ones who gave us trouble in the first place," Nova explained, not taking her eyes off the offenders.
The first turned to the trainers and sneers. "Hey, thanks for helping us find these clefairy you guys," She taunted.
"Heh. Yeah, we're real glad fer yer directions," the second put in. "May the sun 'n the sky always fear the ground 'n its Magnitude! Let's show 'em the power a' Team Magna!"
Sam looked angry now. "You know perfectly well we never would help the likes of you. Back off."
Luna looked torn for a second before she slowly approached the two grunts. "I believe...that they are telling the truth. And you are not." She gestured to the trainers first and then at Team Magna. Though they could not understand her words, her sentiment was obvious. At her words, Luna's clefairy tribe formed a semi-circle around the two offenders, battle-ready.
One of the grunts sneered. "You should have just given up. Now we'll have to do this the hard way," she said, tossing her Pokeballs.
Out came Ekans, Paras, and Geodude.
Nova was floored. Where they really so cocky that they believed that they could win with three Pokemon? Regardless, Nova and the other Pokemon joined them in their wall of adversity.
"Go!" Luna shouted, and at her signal all the Pokemon attacked. When the dust finally cleared, the three smoking Pokemon lay on the ground, fainted while the two grunts where unconscious.
Luna made her way around the downed snake Pokemon and approached the humans. She lay a hand on their foreheads, focused her energy and looked up. Then she touched every one of their Pokeballs.
"I have wiped the human's memory. In addition, the next time their Pokemon are released, they will no longer be bound to their masters and may go if they so desire." Luna explained. She stared at each and every one of the other Pokemon and humans before finally speaking again. "Cleffa...Shrimp-I mean, Nova, pardon, humans and friends...thank you. For showing us another way. We now will not have any deaths on our hands."
Luna accepted a silver disc that Cleffa had pulled out of Rae's bag and the clefairy all surrounded it, touching it with their hands. After a full minute they released it and it was released back into Cleffa's grasp, as she carried it over her head, toddling back to Rae.
"We have just learned the move Yawn. We will walk to the cave entrance after you are all a safe distance away and perform it together. All the human scientists will be asleep and we will be able to leave. And without any energy output coming from our cave the humans will have no reason to stay. That is what Cleffa told me and my calculations and data I have collected from them confirms this theory with a 99.8% success rate. Now only one thing remains."
Sam walked over to her slowly, making sure Luna was aware of him, which she was, of course.
He crouched down in the same way Luna had done to be at the eye-level of Cleffa. "Thank you for trusting us. We won't tell anyone where you are. Your secret is safe with us." He assured her, holding out a hand.
Luna hesitated, cheeks blushing, she slowly raised her arm and finally placed it within his larger one. Sam gently but firmly shook it. "It's a promise." He said seriously. Clefairy nodded and as Sam returned to the side, Clefairy diverted her eyes, still blushing slightly more than usual. Then she beckoned Cleffa over to her and reached inside her chest. A pale glow emitted from her hand as she removed three soft blue shards.
"These are moonstones. You can store them inside of you. Keep them with you and someday, when you are strong enough, you will be able to grow into a powerful new form with their assistance. Until then, they will help to strengthen your spirit. They are precious treasures. Keep them safe." Clefairy told her, placing them into Cleffa's arms. Taking a deep breath, Cleffa emitted a blue glow and the rocks disappeared easily into her chest as if they were simply illusions.
The clefairy cheered for them as they were left to travel the last thirty feet to the tunnel entrance. Sam smiled brightly as he saw the sunlight and Nova couldn't resist the hop in her step caused by overwhelming glee.
We helped save lives.
Kurt pulled out the map he had made.
"Well we definitely can't give them this," He said, holding it out, examining it, and replacing it in his bag. "The good news is that I wrote it entirely in my personal form of short-hand. It's positively illegible to anyone besides me and Abra."
Sam laughed, "Makes me wonder why you wrote it in shorthand in the first place though."
Any response Kurt might have had to that was cut off by a familiar brownish purple, spiny figure blocking their path.
Nova gasped in surprise. "Nidoran! What are you doing?"
Nidoran looked over at her for a second, then back to Sam. "I want to be part of your team. Your trainer is incredible. It would be an honor if I could serve him. If that is alright with both of you, of course," He said.
"Of course it's fine with me!" Nova assured him.
Sam was starting to figure it out now. "Do you want to come with me, Nova, Gold, and Missile, big guy?" Sam gently placed a hand on the back of Nidoran's tough skin and rubbed between his spikes carefully, looking to see how the large rodent Pokemon would react.
"Raaaaaaa," Nidoran answered cheerfully, leaning into Sam's hand.
I never realized this, but he must have been really lonely... Nova thought to herself.
"Alright, new teammate," Sam said, reaching an arm back and pulling out a new Pokeball. "Welcome to the team." He held the Pokeball a foot in front of Nidoran and excited, Nidoran charged at it with a grin. As his horn hit it, he was sucked in and the Pokeball instantly caught him. A critical capture.
Sam, smiled widely. "A Nidoran! I've always loved Nidoran! Awesome! A new member of the team!" He cheered, scooping up Nova briefly and releasing Nidoran.
"Nido!" Nidoran cheered as he materialized.
Gold, scoffed, probably upset that he didn't get to battle him before he became a member.
"Hey Nidoran? Is it alright if I name you? I thought of a pretty cool name just now." Sam told him.
'Ra!' Nidoran responded.
"Alright! Here it is-Poison!" He said, picking up the twenty-pound poison-type and holding him out in front of him.
Rae tsk-ed "Such a guy name."
Poison's face grinned even larger than before. "Poison. It fits. Thank you."
Shout out to Kalareon, who suggested Nidoran as a teammate!
Also to explain something, Luna was blushing partially because she was embarrassed and shy from the promise because she didn't need to ask for it and also, she had previously thought of humans as bad, but now Sam showed her that they aren't. It's generally accepted for Pokemon to hold humans in a high regard, so Sam treating her like an equal and offering a gesture of friendship like he did left her somewhat starstruck.
Basically, it's like a lighter version of what Bayleef has for Ash.
Please review :)