Hailey's Golbat

Chapter Two: Helicopter Drop-Off

Hailey and Kristine were a bit spooked by the pink creature with the long tongue, but now they were ushered into a helicopter by someone who seemed convinced that they were going to go exploring in the mountains.

He couldn't hear them over the sound of the machine and now they were airborne. The ride to the mountains took twenty-five minutes, Kristine pointed out some odd birds out there, like a bird with brown plumage and some red around its head, then a purple one that she snapped a picture of with her phone, and then the BUGS! They were huge. A butterfly as tall as a Doberman, pink but not really that cute. There was a different kind of butterfly that was bluish purple, that one was cool. The pink one also had pink wings, but the blue one white with black markings.

"But Kristine, if those bugs are that big, what about scorpions/bumblebees/hornets?"

"Oh, you worry too much Hailey," Kristine said, waving her hand and snapping a picture of a swan.

Hailey tried to focus on the curious flying animals outside, she had never seen birds like that, well some of them were similarish, so maybe it wasn't that strange, but still, the butterflies were, and most definitely that pink creature with the long tongue had been.

The helicopter descended in the mountains and the first thing Hailey spotted when she hopped out of it was a green goat. It skittered away out of sight though and Kristine deswcendd as well.

"Have fun," the helicopter pilot called, then waved off at them, making the vehicle go airborne again.

"Oh look, a cute little pink doggie!" Kristine said, indicating a bush where a head of a creature was seen, and yes it was a canine, its ears black, but it was more in the bulldog territory which Hailey couldn't exactly declare to be cute, but then again, she had a flamingo for a pet, so who was she t say?

But the pink bulldog retreated int the hedge.

"Hmmm, this place does have wondrous cvreatures, doesnt it? I mean the only pink dog I heard of before is…well, one without fur. But that one definitely had fur."

"Yeah, it was cool," Hailey said. "But I still don't get how we got here."

She shoved down the worries that were beneath the surface, ready to strike, about how she couldn't cmplete list items if she were here and that was necessary to saving the world, but maybe she'd just find her way back home, it was the only thing that made sense considering all the help she had in this mission and anything that interfered with that could not be god for her world's future.

Best not to fret about that now, else she'd be driven bonkers, and honestly even though she was baffled by it, the creatures were still pretty cool t see.

She still was apprehensive about giant bugs though. So far they had only seen the butterflies, but there had t be others , which would be freaky. But for now, she needed to put that out of her mind as well at how frantic Beta must be at this very moment.

Kristen and Hailey went on, going along the path on the mountain, Kristine did express some concerns about not having the appropriate mountain-climbing gear. But for now, they seemed to be on a section of the mountain where that wasn't something they needed, but that might not remain the case unless they discovered a cave to enter.

But before that could occur, they ran into a boy with a purple sweatband, yellow shirt, orange belt in beige pants, and blue gloves with purple-seeming stripes on them, who when he saw Hailey, charged at her and thugh he was around nine years old, he jabbed upward at her ear and it was impactful enough to knock her out, and he dodged Kristine charging at him and disappeared when she couldn't chase him, because she had to watch over Hailey.

She dreamt that she fell into a tub of whipped cream and the pink creature was licking it off when she stepped out,Then Beta was there, only ten feet tall and yelling at her about neglecting her duties. Then she saw that kid with blue gloves on sitting at a campfire, the pink dog resting on the log as well, while the two butterflies beat their wings blowing out the light from the fire, then Hailey found she was wearing a skater girl outfit, blue and white being the colors, and then she was sinking in quicksand and the guy with blue gloves on his hands was punching her in the arms while Beta had shrunk down to the size of a muse and was flying around her head, bugging her about completing list items.

Kristine was spooked at Hailey being knocked out, but in order to get help, she had to conceal her someplace safe, so she pulled her into a hefty bush, not seeing a cave entrance. She hoped Hailey wouldn't wake up and think that Kristine abandoned her. And then head in a direction that wuld make finding her impossible.

But maybe being on a mountain would prevent that. Either way, she had to find someone who might know what to do. Hailey shouldn't 'be seriously hurt anyway, Kristine felt, otherwise she'd be outright panicking right about now.

She went walking and saw some blue creature on two little legs with tall leaves sticking out of its head. It waddled over to her, looking up, but then ran off as some purple pig thing that was bioedal and had a pink tail chased it.

So many awesome creatures, Kristine was smiling, excited to explore this new world that she had somehow winded up in with her best friend.

She nearly tripped over a blue backpack with a yellow stripe down the frnt. She was going to move on, leave it for its owner to find again, only, there was a hat on top and Kristine couldn't resist hats.

She p9t it atop her head underneath the big one with a brim she preferred, and then it seemed wrong to leave that pack there when it could be taken, if she ran into the owner, she could return it.

She opened the pack to inspect its contents and found quite a few red and white spheres, then some of different colors, yellow and black, blue and red, black and pink.

She zipped it back up, not knowing what any of those spheres were for.

Around eight minutes later, she ran into another boy, this one wearing a blue shirt with purple spots, and cargo shorts, having black hair and a sage green bandana around his neck.

"Say, do yuo know who owns this backpack?" she asked.

"Where'd yout find it?" the boy asked.

"Jiust around somewhere, on the mountain."

"Okay,. And was it opened when yu discovered it?"

"Nope."

"Well, it was probably abandoned by its owner. Either that or got chased by a Pokemon, and dropped it.

"If the person was chased, shouldn't the pack have been opened?"

"Maybe, but that's the only reason I can see why it would be left behind. Like, if they were int the middle of taking something out of it and then a big Pokemon came along and they darted away for dear life."

"Again, it would've needed to be open for that."

"Well, then," the boy said, "I guess the owner doesn't want it anymore."

"Sweet, clear's that off my conscience," Kristine said, pulling the straps away and slamming them against her shoulders. "So, the creatures around here are called Pokemon?"

The boy had a startled expression on his face. "Where could you be frm and not know that? They're like, everywhere."

"Um, that's tough to explain."

"I did hear that the Aether Foundation was supporting a community without Pokemon there, maybe you come frm there?"

"Perhaps not there specifically," Kristine said, shifting her foot. "But something to that effect."

"Neat. Well, in that case, yes, those creatures are Pokemon, and my goodness, if you've never seen one before, you've got a lot to discover

"Yeah probably," Kristine said. "Well, see ya."

"Wait!"

She turned back.

"You've got to see how to catch one, it's very important."

Okay," Kristine said.

She followed the boy over to where they spotted a yellow Pokemon with white on its chest, tail, and lower portion of its face.

"Watch me catch this Sandshrew," the boy said. He held up a red-and-white sphere and tossed it at the creature. The sphere landed and red light shot out to draw the creature in. It closed up and the sphere shook a few times before coming to rest after around twenty seconds.

"And that is how it'w done," the boy declared.

"Sweet, that looked really cool!" Kristine said, eyes shining.

"I'm really shocked you've never seen a Pokemon get caught before, but at least now you can do it yourself."

"Yep, thanks for showing me!"

"Wait, do you even know where to find these?" the boy called, after her.

She came back, and unzipped the pack, giving him a look inside. He whistled. "Wow, you lucked out! Good thing you found that!"

Kristine definitely felt lucky as she made her way back to the bush where she left Hailey, she had so much to tell her. She even ran into a cute orange deer who gazed at her for a bit before prancing away.

Hailey had to be excited about being here, even with her concerns over big bugs. Surely even if those existed, well, you took a few cons here and there, right? Like how Kristine had to cut Scott loose when he wasn't paying attention to her when she was on the third most exciting hat-based social influencer design shows on basic cable. (True, some of that was very specific, especially the last part, Hat House had nothing on the streaming shows, Brim the Glitter or Sombrero Dome.)

And Hailey had promised to keep that vixen from swooping in and taking Scott for herself, which Kristen was grateful for.

So even cons could have their pros, and what could be that horrible about this place? It seemed so wondrous and fun, and Kristine couldn't wait to find out more about it. With her best friend by her side.