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What happened: Pick and I found a place to set down for the night waaay out in the forest. I'm pretty sure no human had been there in years. So what would cause us to leave? I'll tell you what, golfball sized hail pummeling you! We had absolutely no shelter, so the only choice I had was to load up Dustin and fly off to Azalea for the night.
And that leaves us off at where we are now: It's a beautiful cloudy morning, here in the Azaelea Pokemon Center. Nurse Joy was appalled at the condition of Pick, so she whisked off me and Dustin's pokemon to be healed. Yeah, Dustin finally woke up. I couldn't believe he slept through a raging hailstorm, especially because he got hit so many times.
I yawned as I forced down a bowl of cornflakes Nurse Joy INSISTED I eat. Meanwhile, she was fussing over the big welt on Dustin's forehead; applying salve, a big bandage, and lecturing him on how its dangerous to fly in a hailstorm. Dustin just kept mumbling generic "un-huh"s and "okay"s.
I sort of shook my head and laughed quietly, taking another bite. Dustin sat down across from me, rubbing his scalp where nurse Joy had pulled up his hair to stick on another bandage.
"I slept through a hailstorm?" He asked incredulously.
"Yeah, it took me and Pick hours to get outta that forest too. We were really far into it when the storm started."
"Should we go back into the forest after our pokemon are done?"
"We probably should." I said, "But I don't want to. I'm sure there's a better way to hide than that. Let's just stay in town until we hear news of people on our trail."
"Uh, okay. Can I have a bite of that? I'm starved." Dustin said eagerly.
"Have the rest." I said.
As Dustin reached over to slide the bowl to his side of the table, I noticed the fingernails on his index and middle fingers were about an inch long, and rather pointy.
"Hey sneasle. Ever thought about trimming those bad boys?" I joked.
"W-what?!" Dustin gasped, making the spoon clatter on the floor. "How did- y-yuo? You, I mean-" He stammered.
"Hey, hey, hey." I cooed. "Relax, I was only kidding." What in the world was he getting so freaked out about?
"Oh. Uh..." Dustin folded his fingers and thumbs in so only his middle and index were sticking out, and admired the nails numbly. "Oh." He repeated.
Before I could question him, the bell rang and Nurse Joy came out pushing a cart with our pokeballs on it. "Here you go!" She said sweetly.
"Thanks." I said as I clicked each ball onto to my belt. I looked at Dustin, but he was putting his pokeballs on his belt and wasn't looking back. Okay mister, I thought, you're safe. I won't ask for now.
Dustin and I walked outside. My only thought was to go to the gym. I kind of had a silly contest going on with myself to see how many badges I could before I was arrested. Sort of negative I know, but I really didn't think of it that way.
My feet were carrying me to the gym, Dustin was just following and not objecting or saying anything at all for that matter. When we were near to the gym, I noticed the gym leader Bugsy raising his arms up to a palm tree. As we got closer, I could here him saying, "Come on down now, come on."
"Something we could help with?" I asked Bugsy.
"Great. Good timing." Bugsy said. "My caterpie climbed up that tree because he didn't want to take a bath, and now he won't come down."
Trying to give a bug a bath? How rediculous is that? I thought.
Dustin sent out his golem, and it bent the tree over. Bugsy reached for the caterpie, but it scuttled onto the other side of the tree. I noticed it had begun to sprinkle rain a little. Then Bugsy went to the other side of the tree to knab his pokemon, but caterpie got away from him again by clinging to the underside of the palm fronds. Bugsy finally climbed onto the tree himself and snatched caterpie, "Aha! Gotcha!" He said triumphantly.
What Bugsy didn't count on though, was that it was starting to pour rain and golem was frantically trying to get away from the water. He let go of the bent over tree and Bugsy and caterpie were launched into the air. Bugsy landed a few feet away, but caterpie was catapulted all the way into the town fountain.
"Poppy!" Bugsy yelled as he got up and ran to the fountain in the pouring rain.
"Atleast it got its bath..." Dustin muttered.
I coughed a laugh and immediately stopped when I saw Bugsy walking back over with his caterpie cradled in his arms.
"Sorry." Dustin said, but Bugsy only nodded and kept walking until he was in the gym.
I splashed over to the gym doors and tried to open them, but they were locked. I rapped on the doors a few times, "I wanted to battle for a gym badge!", I shouted.
"We're closed." Bugsy's voice squawked through a speaker box on the wall.
"That's not fair!" Dustin blurted, "The hours on the gym door here say you're open today, so open up or I kick this door right down!"
"Man, calm down." I said, "it's no big deal."
"Yeah it is! It was my fault this happened, why take it out on you? Why take it out on me even? He's acting really childish!" Dustin said a little angrily.
I looked at Dustin for a minute, then I said into the speaker box: "Please let us in, we're getting drenched out here!"
I waited a minute, then I heard the clunk of the deadbolt unlocking. Bugsy held the door open for us and we walked inside.
"Appreciate it." Dustin said.
"Let's get down to the battle." Bugsy said as we followed him into the arena. "one on one."
Dustin looked angry off to the sidelines, as if Bugsy was shortchanging me with only a one on one fight. I chose Junior as my pokemon and Bugsy chose an ariados.
The bell sounded and ariados dissapeared; Junior looked around stupidly. Without warning, ariados burst from the grass and sprayed a web right over the top of Junior. He thrashed wildly, but ariados crawled up and sprayed more web on until he was tightly bound.
'Burn the web Junior! Come on! You can do it!' I shouted encouragingly.
Junior wiggled, 'I can't!' He cried.
Ariados blew a dark mist at Junior; a night shade attack. The black mist was clouding all around Junior, he couldn't see or breathe. I knew it could kill him if he stayed in too long.
'Just try Junior! Burn the web!!!' I yelled.
'Don't... Know how!' Junior coughed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I could see that Bugsy was glaring at me, mystified at my pokemon language skills. Ariados, on the other hand, was charging into the murky black cloud to stab Junior with its horn.
'You can do it! Burn the web quick! I know you can do it!' I screamed.
I saw a faint glimmer within the black night shade mist and a houndoom came bounding from inside, chest heaving. 'I did it!' Junior panted. 'I did it!'
Just then ariados zoomed out of the cloud and landed behind him. It shot more web from its mouth but Junior used his newly discovered flame to burn it before it ever touched him. Junior howled impressively and bit ariados. He breathed his small ember on to the ariados while it was in his mouth. The poor thing was emitting high pitched screeching sounds and waving its legs crazily.
Junior dropped ariados from his jaws and kicked it across the floor with his hind legs. He ran after ariados as it tumbled over and over and headbutted it with his horns. It tumbled across the field some more and Junior chased after it again. He was about to kick ariados again, but Bugsy recalled it suddenly.
"Enough. You win." He said to me, clapping his hands. A beautifly fluttered to me carrying the hive badge.
'Thanks.' I said to it. "Thanks Bugsy."
He walked off down a dark hallway on the other side of the room, not saying anything at all.
"What a gracious host." Dustin muttered.
Junior came running up happily. 'Did you see me do that?? I was like Grrrr, and he was like Weeeeet, weeet!!!!! And then I---'
'I saw you, I saw you.' I laughed. 'You did a great job. Just remember you can do anything if you try.' I tapped the tip of his wet nose lovingly, and he licked the spot my finger had been, then I recalled him to his pokeball.
"Well let's go then." I said to Dustin.
We were walking out into the drizzling rain when Dustin said, "Sometimes I wish I could talk to pokemon like you can."
"Who doesn't?" I said a little jokingly.
Dustin didn't respond. He was standing very still.
"what's wrong?" I asked.
"Shh!!" He hissed. "Look!"
So I looked. Then I stepped backward so quickly I tripped over my feet and fell. "Woah." I mouthed.
There, just three feet away from me in a clump of bushes, was a pokemon most people wait their whole lives to see, and never do... One of the most powerful pokemon on the face of the planet: Ho-oh. My eyes were infinately wide and I swallowed hard, 'Hi...' I whispered in awe.
The ho-oh looked shocked. She eyed me suspiciously, scooting further back into the bushes. 'Are you addressing me?' She said proudly.
'Yeah.' I breathed. 'A-Are you alright?'
'Perfectly fine.' She said haughtily, 'Just because I'm sitting here doesn't mean I'm hurt...'
The ho-oh was masking her signals purposely, that way I couldn't sense her pain. 'I just figured you'd be hiding out or something, seeing as people are always trying to capture you and all...'
'Listen you!' She crowed magestically, 'I don't get how you understand me or how I understand you, but obviously no one has taught you proper etiquette when speaking to someone such as myself. I've lived for centuries, and I've never seen anything quite like this!' She puffed up her chest and added more calmly, but in a slightly ashamed voice, 'However, I sense something in you. You don't try and hide your signals, that means you have nothing to hide from me. I'll tell you my problem.'
The ho-oh lifted her right wing. Dustin looked away in disgust. There was a hole straight throught her wing, blood was crusted in all the feathers and greenish pus was formed around the edges of the wound.
'It won't recover, no matter how hard I try. The sickness has gotten to it.' The ho-oh said concernedly.
"What are you two still doing here?" Bugsy said behind us.
Dustin and I whirled around, trying to screen Ho-oh from view. "Nothing." I said quickly.
Bugsy crossed his arms, "I won't have you vandalizing my gym! Get out of here, before I call the police!"
"NO!" I blurted.
'Let me speak to him.' The ho-oh said imperiously.
'He won't understand you!' I whispered to her over my shoulder.
"What've you got back there? Leave! Go on, scram!" Bugsy ordered.
"We've got a right to be here just as much as you do!" Dustin said weakly.
The ho-oh shoved between Dustin and I and came out in front suddenly, 'Quit hassling them, you're not helping the situation!'
Bugsy gasped, I shook my head, and the ho-oh lifted her chin in a superior way.
I ignored Bugsy and went back to the business at hand,'What do you want me to do for you?' I asked ho-oh, 'I could take you to the hospital.'
'No. I don't want to go, please, anything else but that.'
"Do you know anything about bullet wounds?" I asked Dustin.
He shook his head.
'There's only one choice then,' I said to ho-oh, 'You have to see a doctor.'
Ho-oh hung her head in shame. I noticed that BUgsy was still standing there like an idiot. "Do you mind?!" I said.
"I do." Bugsy said back.
"WHAT?!" I snapped, brandishing my fist.
"I mean, I do, as in, I DO know about bullet wounds." Bugsy stammered nervously.
"Oh, sorry. Please, get to work on her." I said sheepishly. Bugsy nodded and ran into the gym for his supplies.
I smiled hopefully at ho-oh, 'He says he can help you out.'
'You don't like him, how do we know he can be trusted? What if he tries to capture me?' Ho-oh asked.
'I don't know, we don't have many options...'
"I got it!" Bugsy shouted as he came running out with his first aide kit.
He bent down and shined his flashlight into the wound, "There's actually a bullet wedged in the side of here, this ho-oh must've been shot twice." Bugsy muttered.
He disinfected the wound carefully and pulled out a shiny pair of tweezers. The ho-oh cringed at the sight of them. Slowly and gently, Bugsy reached in and removed the bullet. A little blood began to trickle out of the hole and Bugsy mopped it up with a cotton ball. "I need a good potion if you have one." Bugsy said to us.
I was all out after the fight yesterday. Dustin dug around in his black backpack, "I've been saving this." He pulled out an expensive max potion.
"Perfect." Bugsy said, taking the max potion and spraying a thick amount over the hole. Within an instant, the skin began to mend itself and tiny new feathers began to sprout. A few moments later, the wing looked good as new and Bugsy was busy cleaning dried blood out of the other feathers.
'Excellent.' The ho-oh said, 'This is what I call service.'
Bugsy had finished his work and was packing the first aide kit when suddenly there was a bright pink flash of light. Right in the center of us a mew had appeared, all of us gasped.
'Mina! Here you are! We've been searching for you for weeks!' The mew said.
'I'm fine, Feni, absolutely fine. These humans--'
'What? these humans giving you a hard time Mina?! I'll take care of em!!' Feni the mew huffed.
'No, these humans were HELPING me.' Mina said with a chuckle.
'Oohhh.' Feni said. 'Then is it off to your tower for you now?'
'Probably, the monks must be wondering where I ran off to...' Mina said.
'Here, I'll teleport you there!' Feni said.
That gave me an idea, 'Wait!' I interupted.
'What?' Mina said, glancing at me.
'Could Dustin and I come with you? We need a place to lie low for a while.'
'It wouldn't bother me, just as long as Feni wouldn't mind teleporting you along with me.' mina shrugged.
'No problem, you helped my friend, it's the least I can do!' Feni said cheerfully.
A pink light engulfed us all and suddenly I was standing in a completely different environment: The top floor of the Tin Tower in Ecruteak City.
'You can stay as long as you like,' Mina said, 'But I was wondering, why do you need to hide?'
'Uhh.' I said nervously. What if she kicked us out when she found we were on the run from the law?
'Don't be shy.' Mina said kindly.
'We're thieves.' I blurted.
Mina looked appalled. 'So, you steal pokemon? That's why you're so nice to me? So you can steal me?!'
'No!' I said in defense, 'That's not it! We've never stolen a pokemon. Ever! That'd be like kidnapping someone!'
Mina gave me a piercing stare; I was holding my breath without knowing it. Then she nodded in approval, 'I see.'
I exhaled, 'I thought you were going to burn me to a crisp.'
Mina laughed quietly. Then there came footsteps; I turned toward the dusty stairwell.
'Monks?' Mina suggested, crowing loudly to scare them off.
The footsteps didn't stop though.
"What is it?" DUstin asked.
"Someone's coming." I whispered out of the side of my mouth nervously.
All eyes were fixated on the stairwell to see who it was. The steps were getting louder and louder, I wiped my sweaty palms on my shorts and tried to keep breathing.
A blonde head was bobbing up the stairs, the person emmerged on the wooden floor and I clenched my teeth. "Get out!" I snarled.
It was Terry Surge, one of the few people on my bad side.
"Ah! Ha ha ha ha, hello challenger! Fancy seeing you here!" He grinned devilishly.
"Leave. You have no right to be here!" I snapped.
Terry chuckled with a sickening, smug look on his face. "I'm afraid I do have the right to be here."
He slid a long, beautiful feather from his pocket; it reflected all the colors of the spectrum in the light. "You see, I have the rainbow wing." He laughed calmly.
Terry stepped forward and ran the feather under my chin, taunting me. "Don't start!" I warned, my hands balled into fists.
"Why not? There's nothing more in the world that I would love better than to do so! You may be snide, and so very rebellious, but what can I say? I like it."
"Hey back off!" Dustin said suddenly.
"So," Terry started coldly, "it's you."
They were glaring at each other so intensely I expected lasers to come shooting out of their eyes any moment now.
'Want me to take care of him?' Mina sked me.
'I think we can handle it, thanks.' I said.
Terry broke his gaze from Dustin and a menacing smirk spread across his face. "You're no matter, I'll still get my prize!"
He threw three pokeballs all at once at Mina; three blastoise appeared from within them.
"No way!" I shouted at Terry angrilly.
Mina's eyes were wide with terror, Terry merely chuckled. "Ripper, Claude, Sebastion! ATTACK!!!"
"NO!" I yelled as I leapt between the blastoise and Mina, throwing out Benny's pokeball. 'Thunder!' I shrieked.
Instead of Benny coming out of the pokeball it seemed to be a blinding flash of electricity. The blastoise were shocked into unconsciousness in the blink of an eye.
Terry recalled his blastoise in frustration, "Good as you ever were." He grumbled.
Another wicked grin flashed across his face. "Say, why not have another battle right now.... Two on two. If I win, you step aside and this ho-oh is mine. If you win..."
"Excuse me." I interupted. "If I ever even WANTED to battle you again, I would state my own prize. It's only fair."
"So it is. Name your price and let's get going shall we?" He said silkily.
I felt bad putting Mina's fate on the line like this, but I was so sure I would win. Terry twiddled the Rainbow wing in his fingers, still smiling poisonously. The more I looked at him, the more I wanted to punch him in the nose.
"Alright!" I blurted. "I accept your challenge, and if I win, you give the Rainbow Wing to me, get out of here, and NEVER show your stinkin' face around me again!"
"HA!" Terry laughed wildly. "Get ready!" He hurled out a pokeball from which an ampharos was released. It lowered its head in a battle stance.
I sent out AJ and he appeared, growling and pawing the ground fiercely.
Terry, Ampharos, AJ, and I stood terribly still; the tension piling on heavily. Then, as if a switch had gone off, the two pokemon flung theirselves at each other. Ampharos was on the recieving end of the blow thanks to AJ's horn. Better yet, it looked as if it was poisoned too.
Ampharos whined and tried to run at AJ, but its knees buckled and he tripped over. Down on its hands and knees, ampharos tried to use thunderbolt, but he was so weakened by the poison that the electricity stopped about a foot away from AJ.
'Poison sting!' I called to AJ. He obediantly used the attack and ampharos passed out.
"Oh well." Terry said unconcerndedly as he sent out his next pokemon; a jynx.
I was a little worried since AJ was weak against psychic... AJ decided to start off with hyper beam. The glowing grains of light collected in the back of his throat and shot out into a blaring beam. He actually made a direct hit on jynx, but the psychic pokemon was only slightly damaged and began to dance.
AJ started to sway back and forth in time with jynx, but then snapped out of it and rammed into jynx's belly. He was biting and slashing in a viscious frenzy, but then an espeon, girafarig, and alakazam surrounded AJ.
"What is this?!" I yelled. "You're cheating!!! This isn't a fair fight!!!"
"well life's not fair." Terry said maliciously, "And besides, I'm not about to let anyone keep my prize from me. Stand aside and let me take the ho-oh or I attack you and your friend there."
"You're insane!" I shouted. "I can--" But before I could say anything else, Terry's psychic pokemon blasted me to the ground.
'Azu!' AJ cried, leaping forward to come to my aid. The psychic pokemon took him down before he was even close to me.
"You monster!" I hissed, still lying on the ground. Terry smirked and nodded to his psychic pokemon, they let me have another psychic blast so harsh my head felt like it would explode.
My head swimming, I struggled onto my hands and knees. In my blurred vision, I could see AJ on the floor with blood trickling from his ears. His breaths were sharp and ragged.
"That's enough!" Dustin said boldly, with his scizor, Vice, his bayleef, Lucy, and Pick in front of him. Dustin's pokemon grappled with Terry's and Dustin ran over to help me up.
"Are you alright?!" He asked, clenching my hand in his.
I tried to say somehting, but I felt too dazed. My knees collapsed, but I straightened back up; my eyelids were drooping uncontrollably.
"AJ." I said oddly, wobbling over to him.
"Not so fast." Terry said, releasing two new pokemon; an exeggutor and, though I couldn't believe it, a lugia!
'NO!' Mina shrieked. 'Not you Ki! NO!!!!'
Lugia turned its cold eyes on her, 'There is no Ki here.'
'What has he done to you?' Mina wept.
"Now my pokemon, now!!!!" Terry yelled wildly.
All of Terry's psychic pokemon dropped whatever they were doing and attacked Mina at full strength. Her scream seemed to echoe through my whole body and it made my hair stand on end.
Terry hurled a great ball a Mina, his smile glinting wickedly. Dustin appeared and grabbed the ball right out the air, almost magically.
"Just try it again you bastard." Dustin sneered.
Terry began to laugh, "Alright then, I will!!! Everyone! All together, just like we practiced!!!" He commanded his pokemon.
I had managed to make my way to AJ's side by now and I was hugging him tightly. Terry's espeon, alakazam, girafarig, exeggutor, and lugia were all lined up before us. Their eyes were all glowing the same color blue and psychic flames were flaring all around them. The flames were getting bigger and bigger until they were just one big blue fire surrounding the psychic pokemon.
AJ huddled against my stomach, Mina lay groaning directly behind me, Dustin was standing in awe off to the right, and Dustin's pokemon were lying, injured, behind the psychic pokemon group. The psychic flames were burning so high now that they fanned out against the cieling. I remember looking down into AJ's glassy eyes, the blue flames reflected in them strangely, and kissing him on the side of his face.
I could see Terry's face illuminated by his pokemon's powerful attack, he was grinning ear to ear. "DO IT!!!" He screamed to his pokemon.
The flames blasted forward in an extra concentrated beam aiming straight for Mina. Since she was behind me, the attack had to go through me first to get to her. The beam drew closer and closer, almost in slow motion. I could feel each blink of my eyes, each beat of my heart; each beat of AJ's heart as he rested in my arms. I braced myself just as the beam was only a foot in front me.
Almost just like I was watching this all from outside of my body, I saw Dustin dash forward and shield me, his arms spread wide. Before I could do or say anything, the beam hit him. I stared in horror, my jaw hanging wide open. But what was happening?
The attack wasn't decimating him.
Was I dreaming, or was the psychic beam deflecting off of him? I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them wide, the beam was definately hitting Dustin's chest, but bursting off and away from him in every direction. This was real. This was actually real.
Terry was gawking and his pokemon were shocked, but they kept the attack coming. Dustin turned his head slightly and looked back at me with a surprisingly serious and mature look on his face. He nodded at me and I knew what I had to do.
I sent out my remaining pokemon; Benny, Claudia, Junior, Barbie, and Pegasus. 'Attack the psychic pokemon!' I yelled over the roar of the psychic flames.
They ran off, Joined Dustin's pokemon, and attacked as a team, sucsessfully taking out everyone- even the lugia. The beam ceased and Dustin staggered over, breathing heavily. Terry's eyes were wide with fear as he tried to edge his way toward the stairwell. Mina, who had recovered by now, stepped in then. She blasted a torrent of fire at Terry, but he jumped out of the way and only his jacket caught fire. It was utterly satisfying to see him wailing and thrashing around to put it out.
When he finally managed to tear the jacket off and stomp the flames out, he found himself surrounded my me and Dustin's pokemon. Panic flashed across terry's pale face. He burst through the circle of glowering pokemon and flung himself down the stairs, crying out cuss words occasionally. He even left his unconscious pokemon behind.
Dustin faced me beaming, but I only smiled faintly. AJ was still out cold on my lap, his muscles were twitching and there were dried streaks of blood on his pink-purple face. I rubbed his back softly, staring intently at him.
'Don't you worry Azu.' Mina said softly, 'I can heal him quite easily, just watch.' Mina brushed her wing tip across AJ's side gently. Just a second later, AJ opened his eyes and stood up. I smiled and hugged him tightly.
'What, were you worried about little old ME?' AJ joked.
'Aaw, stop it you!' I said affectionately.
I gave AJ one last pat and attempted to stand, but I seemed to have lost all balance from the psychic blasts I had recieved. So from my less intimidating position on the ground I said to Dustin: "you've got a lot of explaining to do, you know!"
Dustin smiled mischeiviously, "Who's gonna make me?" When I didn't respond he smiled even bigger and said, "I'll just be freeing that moron's pokemon outside now if you don't mind." and he walked out, hearding the psychics down the stairs.
The lugia stayed behind and was glaring at Mina.
"Ki, you're free now. Are you coming back to the gods?" Mina asked timidly.
"I told you!" Lugia roared. "There is no KI here!!! I MUST FIND MY MASTER!!!!" And with that, lugia reared up and flew straight up through the cieling, showering us with dust, roofing tile bits, and wood.
"Ki..." Mina said sadly.
What a day, what a day, I thought.
NEXT
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