-Chapter II: The Songs of Team Siren-

-Connor-

After the three Golem exploded, he didn't even have time to throw up a protect barrier. They had all been blasted off the cliff, and there was a quiet ringing in his ears. He hit the water with sickening force, and something told him that he only survived because of his water typing. He saw Vulcan try to extend his wings before he slammed into the water, but some of the stone fragments had torn holes in the skin that kept him in the air. He spiraled downwards into the ocean somewhere in the distance. Boulders started to rain from above, and he stopped them with Ancient Power. He held the boulders in midair and threw them back into the cliffside, then looked around frantically. "Vulcan! Vulcan, where are you?!"

One head broke the surface, and Connor swam over to it. It was Basileus. He swam frantically and coughed up water, clawing for any handhold. Connor grabbed hold of the Sceptile and looked around further, but Basileus kept clawing frantically for a few seconds before he calmed down, scratching him pretty badly. Alice's head popped up shortly after, but she seemed to be swimming alright. Then Grovyle. After a while, no other motion appeared. Connor said, "I have to go look for him."

Basileus slowly nodded, "A-Alright…"

Connor dove, and Basileus held on for dear life. At first, Connor was caught off guard. He had expected the Sceptile to let go and tread water. He grunted and dove down further. He saw a flash of white, and Jade's unconscious form floated beneath him, the sunlight trickling down from above making her seem like a ghost. Well, technically she was, but this was different. She actually looked like a spirit, which was creepy. He grabbed her with one hand and Basileus tapped his shoulder, then pointed upwards. He blasted to the surface and held Jade above the water while Basileus caught his breath. He stared at her while he floated on a boulder with Ancient Power, then listened for a pulse. It was faint, barely audible, but it was there. Connor teared up with joy. "Jade… Don't die now." He looked at Basileus, "Make sure she lives. I have to find Vulcan." Basileus nodded and Connor dove back into the ocean.

He raised another boulder for Grovyle and Alice, but his strength was fading the further he swam. He began losing connection with the boulders up above. He gritted his teeth and narrowed his eyes, but saw nothing else. He screamed with such force the water in front of him split and curled to his voice, the shockwaves bouncing off of the ocean floor and back. He swam back to the surface and rode a boulder back to where the others had been kept. He saw Basileus and Jade on one, and Alice and Grovyle on another. He looked around frantically, hoping to catch a glimpse of Vulcan or any other team members. Grovyle saw him and waved him over. Connor began flying towards them, but all at once the sun grew dark, and an ominous shadow cast itself over him. He turned around and all he could think was oh, no…

A tsunami almost as tall as the bluff had come up right behind him, silently and out of nowhere. He shot a hydro pump at it, hoping to split the wave around them, but it simply absorbed the water and crashed into him. He was thrown around like a rag doll, and even for as strong of a swimmer as he was, he didn't stand a chance. He was stung by several Tentacool and Tentacruel that floated in the wave, then he was slammed into the cliffside and he was knocked out cold.

When he came to, he was in a gorgeous room with a faint light trickling through the windows. He didn't register where the rest of the light around him emanated from once he heard groaning to his right. Alice and Jade, as well as Basileus and Grovyle, were all asleep on makeshift beds. He saw Caroline and Vulcan passed out too, which made him relax a little bit. But what happened? He asked himself. Three Golem dropped out of the sky… Then blew up. That doesn't just happen. ...Dusknoir! I knew we shouldn't have let our guard down! This is all his fault! When I get my hands on him...

He looked around further, pressing the thought to the back of his head. He was in a fairly large room, with glowing crystals floating in the middle of the air, illuminating what otherwise would have been a dark, lifeless place. The walls seemed to be made of multicolored coral, with several openings in the walls that seemed to be overlooking the ocean floor. The ground around them seemed to be etched with seashell patterns and fossils of sea-dwelling pokémon.

"The ocean…?" Connor extended his arm and nudged Vulcan. "Hey, wake up."

"No… Don't… him..." Vulcan mumbled.

"Vulcan, get up!" he said a little bit more forcefully.

"Huh…? Connor?" His eyes shot open and tears began streaming down his face. "Gah! Connor! At the bluff! Our home! It's-!"

"We don't know for sure what happened. What did you tell Manaphy? Where is he?"

Vulcan's eyes widened. "I told him to hide in the ocean, and don't come looking for us until this whole thing dies down. And don't come back to the bluff, no matter what."

Connor sighed with relief. "Good thing you told him to go right before that whole thing happened. You're like the master of convenient timing." He rubbed his head and looked around. "But… How did it-"

"Good to see you're awake."

Connor quickly whipped his head around to see an Empoleon walking in calmly from a separate hallway. She had a voice that sounded... powerful, in a way that gave him chills and made his skin crawl. But it wasn't creepy. It was kind of pleasant to listen to. He raised an eyebrow and looked around, then looked back at Vulcan momentarily, his expression saying let me handle this. "Ah… Who are you? And where are we?"

She smiled charmingly, and she seemed sincere enough. "You're in our home. My name is Galatia. I'm second in command of Team Siren."

He warily sat up, but grunted as his arm buckled beneath him. He winced as Galatia drew closer. "It's alright. Now tell me, who are you? And the Charizard?"

He tilted his head, still wary of this pokemon. "Connor and Vulcan… Leaders of Team Firestorm."

She seemed to ponder that name for a moment. "Firestorm…" Then she looked at the others. Grovyle, Jade, Alice, Basileus, Caroline. Then she nodded, as if she just figured it out. "You're from the mainland."

He was kind of surprised that she said it like it was uncommon. He looked around some more and asked, "We're underwater, aren't we?"

The Empoleon sat down next to him. "Yes."

He was caught off guard at her simple response. "Wow… Okay, um… Then why aren't my friends suffocating?"

"Narobi was kind enough to place a veil of air over your team. There's no need for concern."

Then, without preamble, the most beautiful pokemon Connor had ever seen in his life swam through the nearest window. A Milotic, about twenty feet long, and absolutely stunning. And that was the only way he could describe her. Not hot, or cute, or anything like that. just... beautiful. Like a timeless kind of beauty. Her scales reflected the somewhat bright light, seeming to shimmer different colors with every inch she moved. She had pink hair-like extensions that flowed in the water behind her, like ribbons. She smiled and coiled up in the room. "Welcome… I am Cassandra."

Her voice wanted to make him smile uncontrollably. It didn't seem forced or anything. She just… had an aura about her that made him want to grin. He had to remind himself not to stare, and the Milotic laughed softly. "My partner did not recognize you nor the others with you. And for that reason, she decided to let you and your friends heal here. We do not know your intentions, Connor. But you claim that you're part of an exploration team on the mainland?"

He nodded stupidly and mumbled, "Mhmm, yeah…" he blinked heavily and shook off his infatuation. "I mean, yes, ma'am."

She uncoiled and smiled slightly, her eyes reflecting the light from the glowing crystals. "There's no need for formalities here. Just tell me... what you were doing in the ocean without shore nearby?"

Connor rubbed his head, "I think… We were blown up… By three Golem."

"'Blown up'? Hm, that might explain the tidal wave that hit the bluff…"

Connor's interest spiked. "You knew about that?"

Cassandra nodded, "Some powerful force summoned that wave. At first we figured it was just a strange occurrence. An abnormality, if you will. But now I'm not so sure…"

"Did you find anyone else?" He blurt out.

Galatia shook her head, "No one else that I saw. Shouldn't seven pokemon be more than enough for any exploration team? After all, only four can enter any mystery dungeon at any given time on the mainland, right?"

He tried to make sense of what was going on. "You guys found us out in the middle of the ocean…" He narrowed his eyes, his mind going into overdrive. "But you saw the wave hit the bluff…" He spoke with a faint whisper, but the Milotic had the ears of a Braviary. "Not exactly. We felt it in the currents, and another team informed us of what had happened."

He gritted his teeth again, and Galatia tilted her head. "Were there others with you?"

He nodded, and apparently in that time, Grovyle, Alice and Jade had woken up, because Alice's voice came from behind him, "Wha...? Where are we?"

Connor turned around and smiled even wider, "You're alive!"

He swam forward, ignoring the pain in his arms and tackled her with a hug, and she pushed him off with a slight smile. "Of course I'm alive… But who are they?"

Connor smiled and gestured to the Milotic and Empoleon behind him. "They're team Siren. They found us passed out in the water and took us in."

She looked around and suddenly realized that she was underwater. Her breathing shortened, and as if on cue, a huntail swam through the nearest hole in the wall, then swiftly out the other side at one glance of Galatia's arm blades. Alice's eyes widened and she stepped back. "Wh-what? What's going on?! Why am I not suffocating? Where's Atlas?!"

"I… I don't know." He couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes. "Where's Atlas?!" She demanded. Cassandra laughed gently. "My, my… You're high-strung, aren't you?" She leveled her head down to Alice. "It is likely that he is still on land. Galatia did not find him, nor any others."

Alice tried to speak, but Cassandra cut her off. "Don't speak without thought. We do not know where he is, or even who he is. That is all we can presume. Please realize our limitations."

Grovyle sat up and looked around. "So this is what an ocean exploration team's base looks like…" Then he observed a swarm of Luvdisc swimming through the water, swirling in a miniature tornado of heart-shaped pokémon and crossed his arms. "Impressive."

Caroline woke up and had a similar reaction to Alice, although she seemed much calmer about it. "Are those…? Are we underwater?"

Grovyle nodded. "Yes." He looked at the rest of the pokémon that were down here with him. "Like the Milotic said, the others are probably still on the bluff. I doubt it blew all of us over the cliff."

Connor spoke up again. "Excuse me, Cassandra…"

"Yes?" He shuddered from the strength behind her voice. It was different. Not powerful in an intimidating way, like Galatia's, but it was filled with power, as if every word were amplified, but without being louder, if that made sense. "Um… Earlier, Galatia mentioned another one that wrapped the oxygen layer thing around us. Is he a member of your team too?"

"Yes, he is." She looked at Jade and shifted slightly, her smile lessening for a moment before looking back at him. "We should introduce your group!"

He sat up and floated off of the bed. Grovyle woke his dad up, and Basileus flipped out. That was the only way he could put it. Basileus went ballistic, sprouting thorns all over his body and at one point he even tried to use solarbeam, but Cassandra shouted, "Stop!"

We all froze in our tracks. Basileus cancelled his move and looked around, the fear in his one eye slowly fading, but still there. Strange… Connor thought. What is he so scared of?

Basileus took deep breaths while Grovyle filled him in, and Alice tried to swim forward. It didn't go too well. First she flipped upside down and hung in mid-air (Or water). She righted herself and tried to walk normally, but it was like a jump with every step, where gravity was super weak. It took a full four minutes for her to make it across the room. Galatia snickered under her breath, and Cassandra simply smiled. She turned to face Jade and asked, "You… Would you like to join us?"

Jade nodded silently and floated forward. He tried to stop her as she floated past. "Jade-"

His hand phased through her like she wasn't there, and when she looked at him, the pain in her eyes made his smile vanish. She teared up and floated after Galatia without a sound, who had begun swimming down a corridor lined with blue burning torches. Vulcan swung his tail back and forth to propel him while using his wings to stay upright. His tail flame burned just as bright as normal, which made Connor raise an eyebrow. Probably just the Oxygen veil keeping it lit...

Cassandra offered to let Alice hold on to her back, which she of course accepted. Connor helped Basileus and Grovyle up and let them hold onto his back while he swam after the two water-types. When they reached the next part of the hallway, he heard a loud *crash* followed by an explosion. Galatia nodded, "They're training. I'd hate to interrupt, but this is fairly urgent."

When she opened the big stone double doors, the other room they were in seemed tiny by comparison. This room was easily as spacious as Wigglytuff's Guild. He looked up and saw two pokemon, one seeming to shoot glowing energy beams at rays of light, the other one destroying floating targets with physical force. Cassandra called out to them and they floated down to them. One was a Slowking, the other a Poliwrath.

The Poliwrath raised an eyebrow at Alice, Grovyle, Vulcan, Caroline and Basileus. "Land dwellers? Cassandra, didn't we-"

"We have deemed them to be no threat," Cassandra said. "They would have died without us."

The Poliwrath grunted once and crossed his arms. "Well, what's their names, then?"

Connor swam forward first, "I'm Connor, leader of Team Firestorm."

Vulcan nodded and glided forward, weakly muttering, "I'm Vulcan. Co-leader."

The Poliwrath grunted, his gruff voice echoing in the now silent room. "What's the matter boy? Can't speak?"

Vulcan gritted his teeth and began tearing up, so Connor intervened. "What's your name?"

"The name's Hydro."

The Slowking observed them all with little regard and seemed to look at them like they were interrupting, which made Connor a little mad. "Cassandra," He said. His voice was a lot deeper than he had pictured. It was kind of husky, which caught him by surprise. "I do not find it wise to have more land-dwellers roam freely amongst us. Do you so quickly forget-"

"I have not forgotten. Remember your place, Narobi."

The Slowking nodded slowly, then knelt on one knee for a moment. "Very well. You are the leader."

He floated through the doors and they slammed shut behind him.

Connor arched an eyebrow at the Slowking's behavior. Not realizing he was thinking aloud, he said, "What's his problem?"

Cassandra's smile faded, and her whole composure seemed to change. She sighed and turned to them. "They are still hurt from past experiences."

His eyes widened in a silent message to continue, and she started. "Several years ago… We found another exploration team. They were starving out in the middle of an underwater mystery dungeon, and beaten down almost beyond recovery. We had the dungeon marked for exploration several weeks in advance, but we decided to help them both. They were lovely." She smiled wistfully, which made Connor kind of sad for her.

Then she said, "We took them in. Gave them food and water and healed them. But we had not ever experienced land-dwellers before. They were strange, had strange customs… The leader was a water-type, just like you. With a fire-type partner."

She teared up, but kept talking the same. "Eventually, their leader… He was beautiful… I fell in love, like a fool."

Jade exhaled just loud enough to where Connor turned around, but she narrowed her eyes and kept listening. "Well, not love, exactly… More like infatuation. I was intrigued with him, to say the least." The Milotic shook her head, her pink extensions flowing through the water like streamers. "Why am I saying this to complete strangers?" She uncurled and started swimming away, but Jade stopped her. "Wait."

The Milotic turned around. "So… You can talk." The way she said it made it sound like she wanted Jade to speak, but couldn't figure out when she was going to.
Jade nodded in response, and the Milotic arched an eyebrow. "Interesting… Why did you tell me to wait?"

"Because I want to hear the rest of your tale."

The Milotic took a deep breath, as if she were deciding if she wanted to continue or not. Then she nodded. "After the first two days, they insisted that they had to go. They said that they had a dangerous group after them, and they didn't want us to get hurt. I respected that, but I told them that whoever did this was going to pay. He told me that they were too powerful."

Connor narrowed his eyes, trying to piece together what she was saying. A group too powerful to beat... He looked at Vulcan, and he had a similar expression. The Mafia?

She began tearing up, making Connor's thoughts go haywire, losing all his focus. "We insisted that they stay with us. We were powerful enough. We could take anyone in the ocean…" She choked back a sob. "Then they came. A Gyarados, accompanied by many wicked pokémon... They broke down our base with no effort, crashing in while we all lied asleep."

She paused and stammered, "B-but… By the time we realized… We were too late. The Gyarados had already killed him, and the Jellicent and Tentacruel killed his partner… I tried to stop them, but the Gyarados almost killed me as well." She gestured to a large gash down the side of her neck that Connor hadn't noticed before. "Galatia was electrocuted by the Lanturn, and Hydro was incapacitated by the Carracosta. Narobi forced the Gyarados off of me with psychic, and I forced them to retreat with Dragon Pulse, but not a day goes by that I don't remember…"

She glanced at him again, but quickly turned back to the rest of the group. "So… I tried to avoid that ever happening again. You're the first team that we've rescued since then. We stick solely to exploration. No rescues. I don't know why we made an exception for you, but something about you… it's different."

Connor nodded slowly, still in awe that they were all breathing underwater, and she tilted her head. "...Were you being chased? Hunted down?"

He grimaced and looked away from her. "Y-yes… But not pokemon that can beat you guys. None of them, except maybe a couple, are water-types and almost none of them can swim well, from what we know."

She sighed and looked at him wistfully, and he couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "What kind of pokemon were on that team?"

He heard some surprised gasps behind him, but he didn't care. He wanted to know. "Who were they?"

She leveled her head down to his and stared into his eyes, making him shift nervously. Her head was massive, almost as big as his body. "His name was Pascal. A Swampert."

That caught Connor off guard slightly. Another Swampert? He hoped that his surprise didn't show through his face, but the Milotic let out a disheartened laugh, seeming to be a completely different pokemon from a few minutes ago. "I know… A Swampert, just like you. Not the first species you'd think of, is it?"

Everyone watched silently, and she sighed, "His partner was a Ninetales. She was beautiful as well... for a fire-type."

He nodded and said, "That's why you guys kept asking about us… Last time you helped someone-"

"They died, yes. And we could do nothing to save them. That is the worst feeling of all. Knowing you did everything you could, but live on knowing that it wasn't enough." She quickly put on a smile and adjusted her posture in the water. "Never mind my blabbering. I've had enough depressing thoughts for now. Since you're all alive and relatively well-rested, let's return you to land, shall we?"

Bam! Chapter 2 is up. Let me know what you think of these mysterious new rescuers in the review section! Even if you're a guest, you can leave your feedback! It's always appreciated! Much Love!

-PL