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I was walking slowly through a misty wood, looking for pokemon. I saw a nidorino except it was much, much taller than me. I tried to capture him, but my pokeball just bounced right off and fell on the ground. The nidorino was looking at me incredulously, as if to say: 'Did you really think that would work?' I was smiling and backing off when suddenly I felt a pain in my leg and I looked down to see a large syringe embedded in my thigh. When I looked back up, the nidorino was gone and a towering shadow was looming over me. Its eyes were glowing blue and there was a ball of burning psychic flames all around it. I was terified, so terrified.
Then I woke up, it was just now sunrise.
I heard a thrashing sound nearby, looked over, and saw Dustin waving his arms frantically in his sleep. It might sound crazy, it did to me, but did I see a little of his dream? Dustin was making little crying noises now and scrunching into a ball. Then he sat up straight. Dustin rubbed his forehead, sighed, and walked over to the window.
I layed back down so he wouldn't know I had seen him and pretended to still be asleep, the only thing is, I actually did fall back asleep in a little while...
~
"Get up Azu."
Someone was shaking me. I rolled over and tried to say something, but it only came out as "mrrmmmhmmmm..." as I tried to go back to sleep.
"Get up Azu! This is serious!"
I recognized that voice... Then I popped up, wide eyed. "What is it?" I said worriedly.
"You might want to have a look at this." Dustin said, helping me up and leading me to the window.
I looked out and my hands clenched on the windowsill, there were four police cars parked outside. Cops were getting out now, and the monks who prayed at the Tin Tower came running out to meet them. I watched worriedly. The monks seemed to be trying to prevent the cops from getting in.
I sank to my knees and swallowed hard. It couldn't be over yet, it just couldn't. "I don't understand how--" I squeaked on the verge of tears.
Dustin put his hand on my shoulder to comfort me, but withdrew it shyly after only a moment.
'What's going on?' AJ asked, ambling over. I was too choked up to answer him. He stood on his back legs with his front legs against the windowsill to see outside. 'Oh no...' He murmured.
That pushed me over the edge. I buried my head in my hands and began to sob uncontrollably.
"They're trying to get in!" Dustin said frantically.
I looked up at him in horror, trying to blink the tears away to no avail. "What are we going to do?" I hiccupped.
'I can try and hold them off!' Mina crowed, surprising us all and flying swiftly out the window. Dustin, AJ, and I gazed out after her. She shrieked an echoing war cry and the cops and monks looked up in awe. SHe then spread her wings wide, a gold-transparent wall appeared in front of her, and it then stretched over the whole tower; locking out the cops, their growlithe squad, and the monks too.
Mina flew inside and landed on the floor next to me. 'That will keep them out as long as I can hold it. And trust me, I can hold it for a long while.'
I hugged her joyfully and she looked at me in surprise. 'Thank you!' I blurted.
SHe nodded, still looking at me strangely.
DUstin laughed suddenly and we all looked at him. 'They're surrounding us.' He said. 'And their growlithe are trying to ram down the wall, but they just smash right into it. It's pretty funny.'
"We need to think of a plan. " I said to him.
"Right, I know." He said back. "Do you think there are any secret passages out of here?"
'No, there aren't any.' Mina said, even though Dustin couldn't understand her.
"She said no," I explained to Dustin. "But what I'm thinking, is that we could somehow escape through that huge hole in the roof."
"But they'd see us!" Dustin protested.
"Let me think" I said, waiting for the burst of knowledge I needed. "We'll wait until night, get on the roof, then fly off on Pick. We'll have our other pokemon try and hold off anyone trying to attack us."
Dustin thought for a minute, chewing on one of his overly long fingernails. "Okay." He said. "It's our only hope." Then he released Pick. "Explain it to her."
I instructed every detail of our escape plan to Pick the pidgeot and she nodded intelligently. 'Excellent.' I said to her, 'with luck, your speed and everyone's help, we might just make it!'
Now all there was to do was wait- it was only 11am. It wouldn't get dark until around 8:45 pm or so... We had a while indeed.
'I'm so sorry Azu!' AJ suddenly blurted.
I looked at him, eyes wide. 'What do you mean?' I asked.
'This is all my fault! I should have never got you into stealing. If I hadn't, we never would have even gotten into this mess!' AJ said full of regret.
My face softened, 'Hey.' I cooed, 'It's no sweat. I'm glad to atleast had some excitement in my life. It beats being law abiding anyway!' I grinned and gave AJ a loving hug. 'I couldn't have asked for a better first pokemon.'
'We're partner's in crime then?' AJ asked with a smile.
'You know it.' I said back. Suddenly I felt very content despite the situation at hand. If I had to be arrested, then this is the way I wanted to go out.
'That's exactly how I feel about Dustin...' Pick said suddenly. 'I just wish I could tell him...'
'Don't you think he sort of knows?' AJ asked her.
'Maybe, but... well....' She looked up at Dustin very longingly; he only continued to gaze out the window.
'I understand.' I said, 'and I think I can help you.'
'No... It just wouldn't be the same if you translated it for me.'Pick said.
That's not what I meant. Look, we have loads of time to burn right now, I can begin to teach Dustin some pokemon. He won't learn it all in one day, but, it'll be a start...'
'You mean it?!' Pick said happily.
'Yeah! Of course!' I said back. 'I'll start right now.'
'Wonderful!' Pick exclaimed, brimming with happiness.
I walked over to Dustin, who was sitting down with his back against the wall now, looking distressed. "Ready for your first lesson?" I asked him.
"Whu?" He mumbled unenthusiastically.
"I'm going to teach you pokemon. You said earlier you'd like to know! Come on!"
"Seriously?" Dustin asked incerdulously, "Here? Now?"
"Why not?" I huffed. "It's not like we don't have the time."
"Alright." Dustin said
I took a seat on the floor in front of him. "Where to start, where to start?" I mumbled. "I've never taught anyone before, so I might be kind of bad at this. Here goes nothing though."
"Keep in mind that the pokemon language is highly emotional. 'Azu' can mean many different things depending on the way it's said." I paused. "But, you know, the speaking is only 80% of the language."
"What's the other 20%?" Dustin asked, looking puzzled.
"Remember? I told you a little about this once: The signals."
"Oh yeah..." Dustin muttered. "The colors in your thoughts... They stand for different emotions."
"There's more to it than that, but you've got the basic principle. The only way to really know what I'm talking about is to... see it.. err- hear it. Umm, you know what I mean!"
Dustin was watching me intently. I shifted a bit and decided to start over.
"You are sending out these signals as we speak. You always have, everything does- you just don't know it. Humans can't really detect them; I only can because I practiced, and it's still not as keen of a sense as a pokemon's. You see, pokemon have the ability to control these mental signals extremely well and can even use them as a form of communication."
"What are my signals like right now Azu?" Dustin asked curously.
I concentrated on him and saw that the main color in his signal was purple: worry (totally understandable there!), but there a little blue: happiness, and the tiniest flecks of the still unidentified white. I told him what I saw and what it all meant; he seemed impressed, but didn't say anything.
I rubbed my hands together habitually, "So now, the next thing we'll do is try and get you to recognize these signals. Close your eyes and really concentrate on hearing mine."
Dustin closed his eyes. We sat in silence for nearly five minutes before his eyelids started to twitch and his brow furrowed in frustration. I could tell he was really trying his hardest. Ten minutes later, DUstin still didn't seem to have it down.
"Why isn't it working?" He muttered with his eyes still closed.
"Relax." I said, "This is your first time, and like I said, I'm probably not that good of a teacher. I really didn't expect you to get it just yet." I yawned quietly. "Let's try again, this time I'll make it easier for you."
I leaned forward and put my cheek against his. "When we're closer together or touching, the signals seem louder and easier to hear. Go on and concentrate on my signals."
We waited; nothing so far. His signals were so loud to me that I was getting a headache when I finally decided to just try and send him a very strong signal. I closed my eyes and concentrated on a single image of he and I having a pokemon battle; an event I actually feared occurring.
Five minutes, ten minutes, twenty.... I had been continuously sending him the image for so long and he still wasn't getting it! "Do you see anything? Anything at all?" I sighed.
"I'm trying, I really am!" Dustin cried out in despair, "But I can't think straight. I must be going crazy, every time I try to concentrate, this random and nonsensical thought keeps invading its way in! It makes no sense at all! FOr some odd reason, I can't stop thinking about having a pokemon battle with you!!"
I stared at him blankly and then I burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?!" Dustin blurted unhappily.
I was laughing too hard to respond; I had to lean against Dustin's shoulder to keep from falling over.
Dustin just stared at me with a semi-hurt look on his face. I finally managed to wipe the tears from my eyes and gasp for breath. "You've done it!" I said, giggling.
His eyes were wide. "I did it?"
I nodded, on the verge of bursting into laughter again. "I was sending that thought to you, and you got it! Way to go!"
"I did it..." Dustin said in awe. "So, what do you mean? You want to battle?"
I stopped sniggering abruptly. "NO! No, I was just using that as an example."
"So... I could do something like that too?" Dustin asked, making deliberately intense eye contact with me.
"Uh, sure." I said, a little startled. We put our cheeks together again and I waited for whatever it was he wanted to show me.
I had been waiting for a while and still hadn't seen anything. I was about to give up on him when a wavery and very unclear signal reached me and fizzled out too quick for me to make sense of it.
"It's not clear, but nevertheless, it's an improvement. Try to send it to me again."
I sensed a flutter of purple and white in Dustin's signal; he was emarrassed. "Go on, you can do it." I said encouragingly.
"Okay." He whispered.
This time I saw the signal appear and quickly fizzle out after only a minute of waiting. He was getting better very quickly indeed. Then the signal came back again. Although it was still pretty wavery, I could it make out fairly well. My heart thumped in embarrassment.
AJ growled jealously, 'Humans!' He sniffed. Pick turned away from us unhappily.
The image became even more clear and distinctly showed Dustin kissing me.
His cheek was sliding away from mine; he was gonna do it! Sure, I liked Dustin a whole lot, but the angry red pulses in the room told me otherwise.
"You do know that everyone in this room heard that right?" I said quickly.
"H-huh?" Dustin said dejectedly.
"Concentrate and hear those angry red signals. They're incredibly jealous." I explained, motioning to Pick and AJ.
'Am not!' AJ snorted, squinting his eyes shut childishly.
"I'm sorry." Dustin said, "I--
"Don't worry about it. It just wasn't the time or place, but who knows, maybe tomorrow will be." I said mischieviously.
I saw AJ roll his eyes. 'Sorry you guys.' I said to him and Pick.
'Don't apologize!' Mina suddenly said, making us all jump. 'It's their fault for getting so worked up about it!'
No one wanted to argue with that, Mina being a goddess and all.... I just blinked at her in surprise.
A sudden ruckus outside caused us all to rush to the window and glare down at the scene below. Vans were pulling up and dozens of umbreon were being unloaded from inside.
'They're going to break the barrier!' Mina gasped.
My mind raced, the second they touched the barrier, it would disappear. We needed a dark pokemon's weakness....
'I got it!' I exclaimed. 'Dark pokemon are weak against bug attacks. Dustin and I have bug pokemon!'
I threw out Benny's pokemon and told Dustin to send out Vice.
'Get down there and stop those umbreon!!!' I shouted. Benny flew out the window and Vice jetted down behind him. They both swooped gracefully low over the umbreon, just to start it off. Benny zapped a group nearby and Vice bashed oncoming umbreon aside with his pincers. The battle was going extremely well.
"Azu." Dustin said. "I just thought of something. There are growlithe down there too, our bugs are in trouble!"
I was completely blank. Barbie was my only water type and she definately couldn't make it down five stories without killing herself. Hopefully, they wouldn't use the growlithe?
"Get your vaporeon to spray water out the window, then the growlithe won't want to get near the battle." Dustin suggested.
"Brilliant!" I said, calling out Barbie and instructing her to do what Dustin told me. Down below, Benny and Vice were wrapping the battle up very nicely. They didn't flinch a bit when the water began to fall, and didn't stop until every unbreon was K.O.ed. Then Benny and Vice flew straight up to us and back inside quickly, leaving the cops to run to their injured dark types.
'Great job you two.' I said.
'What's going on Azu?' Benny asked curiously.
'I was wondering that myself.' Barbie said.
I was silent, come to think of it, AJ was the only one who knew the WHOLE story (and maybe Claudia, since she's a xatu)-- Would they want to leave me if I told them? Anyway, I let Claudia, Pegasus, and Junior out so I could tell the group all at once. I straightened my shirt nervously and looked around at my pokemon, what if they DID leave me? I cleared my throat quietly as I could and started my speech, 'We're in real hot water now you guys...'
With Aj's occasional help, I told them every little detail. The pokemon didn't interupt a single time. '-And I don't care what I have to do, I'm not letting them take Pegasus back to that lab. I know stealing is wrong but... I understand if you want to leave, I wouldn't want to be around a dirty rotten theif like me either.' I concluded.
'But, why would we leave?' Barbie aksed, 'You don't seem so dirty or rotten to me... Even if you DID steal the coins to buy me with, AND the stone to evolve me with... hee hee hee.'
'Yeah, we know you're a good person at heart!' Benny added in. 'I wouldn't just leave you now, not after you taught me to believe in myself. Especially since this is your time of need.' He turned to the other pokemon, 'What would become of us if she were taken in? We'd be freed and adopted by some little snot-nosed brat is what! Any of you want some inexperienced kid pulling at your ears?'
'I'm with you.' Junior barked.
'I wouldn't've joined you so willingly in the first place if I didn't intend to stay!' Claudia said.
'You're my protector! My rescuer! I wouldn't dream of just ditching you like that!' Pegasus chimed in his childlike voice.
'Well, you know me. I got you in this mess. I'm worthy enough for an arrest as well, so we might as well stick together.' AJ said jokingly. I knew what he really meant deep down though.
I beamed at them all. Hopes seemed a little higher for me now for some reason. The only thing left to do was wait, then we'd know just how far our bond would take us...
Hours passed slowly, but surely. Most of us spent those hours just sitting around staring into space, Dustin was humming the tune I heard him sing the day of the Flower Ball absentmindedly.
I was clicking my fingernails and worrying what my dad would think if I were caught. Mina was sitting in a dignified way, but her clouded signals lead me to believe she had something on her mind. I didn't pursue the subject.
Around 5PM it began to pour down rain; water was pounding in through the hole in the roof. The cops down below were taking shelter in the trucks, lucky for us. It would make things go much smoother, the cops might even doze off I thought gleefully.
A few hours later it was finally beginning to get dark and last preparations were being made. The plan had been revised and all the details were clear now. Dustin I were going to climb to the roof, get on Pick's back, and Mina was going to lead us to Mount Silver. She insisted it was the safest place around.
With a deep breath, I recalled all my pokemon; Dustin recalled Vice. He and I exchanged serious looks and began to climb the rafters. Mina and Pick flew up to the topmost rafters to wait for us. Dustin made it to the roof before me and reached down to pull me up. It was absolutely pitch black outside.
Mina, Pick, Dustin and I crouched tensely on the wet roof with the rain pelting us from above. Then something sticky suddenly plastered my arm to my side. I whirled around, police spinarak were swarming over the edge of the tower and crawling straight toward us. How had they gotten through the barrier?!
They covered me in web tightly and I fell over. 'Please stop!' I pleaded with them.
My words didn't affect them whatsoever, and they splattered Dustin until he was tightly bound.
Mina breathed a cloud of fire on a swarm of about twenty spinarak and they retreated squealing. One spinarak launched itself onto her back from behind though, and jabbed it's poison stinger into her neck. Mina's eyes rolled, she swooned, and fell over. The barrier dropped.
"NO!" I shouted, thrashing wildly in my webbing.
Pick had been caught as well, she had done her best to blow them away with whirlwind, but it wasn't enough. 'We have to get out!!!' She wailed.
I was wriggling as hard as I could, so were Dustin and Pick; Mina was passed out cold though. I could hear cops pounding up the stairs below us; I flopped with all my strength, but the web wasn't even getting loose.
"Climb those beams men!" A voice shouted.
I struggled frantically, but no sooner had the voice been heard than had a hand been seen coming over the edge of the hole. The cop hoisted himself up and removed his gun from his holster, "you have... the right to remain- silent" He panted.
I could hear a helicopter coming toward us from someplace, it shined its intense, white light on the five of us; probably filming us as well. I squinted and turned away, staring into the face of the officer holding us.
"AAAARGH!!!!!!" We heard from the floor below. The was a loud crash, followed by more screams. The cop on the roof turned and looked into the hole nervously when suddenly something struck his hand, making him drop the gun. It slid off the side of the roof and fell into the abyss of back up cops and growlithe below. He glared at us with a look of sheer terror, before being struck by a lightning-quick blur and tumbling down through the hole. We all cringed as we heard the sickening thud; but who in the world was helping us?
"Do you know what's going on?" I shouted to Dustin through the noise of the rain and the helicopter.
But just then, the blur sped back past us and sliced our webs off. The blur was coming back toward us, slowing down and landing near the hole; it was a scyther.
The scyther reached it's scythe down into the hole and lifted up a figure totally clad in black from head to toe so I couldn't identify who it was at all.
The figure didn't waste any time, but hurriedly went to Mina and stuck a syringe filled with antidote into her neck. "Quickly now." He said climbing onto a fearow. "I'll lead the way!"
Dustin and I loaded Mina onto Pick's back and climbed on. Pick started flying so fast that the thick rain felt more like bullets. Lightning flashed and I could just barely make out the fearow and the mysterious person way out ahead of us. 'Keep your eyes on that fearow Pick!' I shouted.
The helicopter was trying to follow us, the wind was blowing us up and down and all over the place. I clung to Dustin fearfully, my face buried in his back. All I could feel was the sting of the wind and rain and the motion of Pick underneath of us. I shivered and peeked around Dustin's side, there was the fearow just ahead; we were still on the right track.
A heard a roar by my side suddenly, then on the other side. I sat up straight and looked around wildly. Growlithe were inside of that helicopter! They were blasting their flamethrowers at us!
'Pick! Watch out for the fire!' I screamed at the top of my lungs.
I was turned, watching the helicopter and the growlithe behind us. The fire was blasting to the right, the left, above us, below us. Pick had dodged them all very swiftly and I could still see the fearow up ahead.
But when I turned around, I saw a ball of flame headed straight for us. Almost simoutaneously, Dustin shouted "Hold on!"
It was all too fast for me to react when Pick suddenly did a barrel roll to evade the fire. I felt myself falling through the darkness, I was turning over. The wind was rushing past my face, my eyes wide but seeing nothing at all. Lightning flashed and suddenly I shook all over. I felt sharp talons clutched on to my shoulders.
I looked up, but it wasn't Pick, it was Mina. SHe was carrying me back to Pick, when she stopped. We were right smack dab in front of the helicopter.
'What are you doing?!' I yelled nervously.
Mina crowed a long, piercing note and fire seemed to come raining out from between the folds in her feathers. The fire was building into a beautiful twisting wave, suspended in midair. The growlithe tried to blast her, but their flame was sucked up into Mina's wave.
Mina screeched and the wave rushed at the helicopter. Then she began to fly away as quick as she could back to Pick. I twisted my neck trying to look back at what was going to happen, but the helicopter had already exploded and the burning shards were dropping to the ground.
'That was sacred fire.' Mina explained wearily. 'Few humans or pokemon ever get to see that.'
Mina lowered me carefully onto Pick's back and released her talons. But then, her neck drooped and she passed out in midair. I latched onto Pick with my legs and caught Mina's heavy form before she fell to her death.
I grabbed onto DUstin tightly with Mina between us, trying to shelter her from the driving rain, 'Let's hurry!' I shouted.
Pick started flying faster, and faster and soon we were flying right next to the mystery person and his fearow. After flying for an hour more, the figure pointed down and veered off to the right, getting lower to the ground. We went in for a landing behind him.
We were in a tiny clearing at the edge of a cliff; I could hear the sea tossing down below.The figure had leapt off his fearow, recalled it, and was unlocking the door to a small hut on the cliff and going inside. Dustin recalled Pick, and we carried Mina inside.
We laid Mina carefully on the couch and covered her with a throwrug we found on the floor. The person who had saved us was standing a few feet away.
"Thank you." I said shivering, "but why would help us just like that?"
The figure was silent. "I don't know." He finally said quietly, "I just, saw you guys on the news and couldn't believe it."
His hand reached for the soaked mask over his face and pulled it off.
"Bugsy?!" Dustin said, amazed. "Why would you help us? I thought you hated us!"
Bugsy rustled his wet purple hair that was matted against his head. "I don't know... I guess, I just figured since you guys were in league with legendary pokemon like mew and ho-oh, then maybe the authorities were wrong... It wouldn't be the first time they were."
I was still gaping at him in amazement. " Bugsy, thanks. I really appreciate this. I- You know that we were really sorry about before, right?" I stammered.
Bugsy's face was serious. "You both have much more important things to worry about now. I have to go. And I was never here, got it?"
We nodded and Bugsy stepped outside, pulling his mask back over his face. "Bye." He said before closing the door.
"He turned out to be alright." Dustin said with a grin. "Wonder if he left any food in this place...."
NEXT
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