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mysidewriting · 7 years ago

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Through the Storm

Through the Storm Page "Soundtrack" From the Start--Previous Chapter

Chapter Twenty Four

Steven hadn't heard back yet and he apologized for stressing me out when I went to ask for updates. He didn't expect to hear back from his friend until the evening and the information didn't sit well with me.

Aside from packing up all my stuff from the bedroom I had borrowed, I wasn't sure what to do with my time. I didn't want to bother Gladion while he was supposedly working, otherwise I would have gone to him to talk through plans for Kanto more. That and I was suddenly much more nervous about being around him since Lillie had convinced me to stop ignoring all the little advances he was making. So I was extremely hesitant and opposed to opening that door to see him.

Hau was heading out to find some ditto while it was still light out and despite the fact that I had silvally with me, he didn't let me go with to help. Green walked through the hallway as I was trying to convince him and made a stupidly good point about my presence making it harder for Hau anyway. There was a possibility the Pokémon were geared to attack champions and not necessarily champion's friends. So I was house locked until this guy with a plane got back to Steven and man was I bored.

I wandered through the house for a while in a partial daze; distracted by worried thoughts. All attempts to talk with the others failed as they were busy and distracted with their own planning and scheming. I ended up in the kitchen, seated on the counter and tossing my eager silvally treats out of a box from the cupboard, trying to make her do tricks and twirls with the food.

"Wow, bored enough?" Said Gold as he lumbered into the room, tugging open the fridge and searching for a snack. "I can't blame you, after a night like yours this waiting has to be just terrible." He shut the door and leaned against the counter opposite of where I was sitting with an apple in his hands.

Silvally span on him, eyeing that apple with a hungry look in her eyes. He pushed her snout away before she could get a big chomp in on the fruit and I laughed at the way her ears dropped sadly. Shaking the box of treats moved her attention back to me rather quickly though. "Yeah, I'm going a little stir crazy."

He shook his head, "At least you got out!" His eyes rolled as he took a bite of the apple. "Do you know when you're leaving?"

"Nope, Steven said he doesn't expect a response until sometime in the evening." Silvally started twirling in circles to get me to toss another treat and both Gold and I laughed at her. "What about you? Have you four figured out where you're going to look for kyogre and Aqua?"

He nodded, watching my Pokémon poke and prod at the box even as I closed it. "Brendan told us where to go, guess its 'resting place' is some sort of monument. We're heading out in a few hours."

"Oh, dang..." I hadn't realized that when we'd set all these plans that they would start happening immediately. I'd been so focused on mewtwo that I hadn't even considered what the others were doing. A bead of dread appeared in my stomach, afraid someone may get hurt while we were all apart. I had to trust them though, they'd all dealt with their fair share of problems in the past. I matched Gold's confused gaze, "Keep me updated? Please?"

He smirked, "As long as you keep me updated too. Be pretty dumb if I lost track of my new friend before we even got to properly hangout." A laugh left his mouth despite how chilling the statement was.

"Don't worry, eventually we'll get time to hang out without being in danger of death." A forced laugh escaped me as well.

Red popped his head into the kitchen then, shooting an uninterested glare at Gold and waving for him to follow before disappearing again. I laughed at the annoyed expression on Gold's face as he shoved off the counter and started heading out of the room. "Guess I should get back to 'work'." He grumbled, "I'll see ya later, good luck with mewtwo."

"Good luck with kyogre!" I said, waving my goodbye and immediately falling back into my anxious boredom. I really needed to find something productive to do with my time or I would go crazy in the next few hours...

By the time I would consider it 'evening' I'd mapped out every possible place I knew that mewtwo could have been hiding. Specific spots in multiple caves, some barren fields that were fairly uninhabited, some dark and creepy forests... there were a lot of options but I was hopeful we wouldn't need to transverse all of them. I'd learned and seen a lot of Kanto's land and remembered a decent chunk of it from my childhood, but there was certainly a lot of other places the elusive legendary could be hiding. We didn't have the time to scour across the entire region, I was really hoping my first guess was the right place. If it wasn't in that strange cave that Lillie and I had found, then we were probably screwed...

To cover my bases, I called Oak, having to get the number from Green which had resulted in a stupid goose chase around the house. Only after asking three different people if they'd seen the guy did I find him in a back room in the basement with Red playing some card game I'd never seen. I didn't bother asking questions about that, just stole his 'gramps' number from his phone and left the two to their game. The professor didn't have any idea of where mewtwo could be found, didn't even know where the destroyed lab had been located. The only thing he could tell me was that the beast wouldn't be anywhere nearby a city or highly populated area. Chances were it was deep in some cave in the middle of nowhere. He wished me luck in a regretful tone, upset he couldn't help more.

His words were helpful enough, though, I could cross off everything that wasn't a cave...or at least leave those areas to search as a last ditch effort if we didn't find the Pokémon in a cave.

The clock hit seven pm and I ran upstairs to find a mostly empty house. Cynthia had left, Gold and the rest of his group were long gone, and apparently Brendan and May had left almost immediately after finding out their share of the plan. Steven was seated at the table with Hau and Lillie, a laptop in front of him and his phone face up next to it. He looked up sorrowfully as I walked into the dining room.

"Nothing still?" I asked, hanging in the doorway.

"Well." Steven said, "He called back a few hours ago and agreed to take you two to Kanto. There are some adjustments he has to make with his plane first, so I'm not sure when he'll get back to us."

"A confirmation is better than nothing!" I reassured with a grin, even if it did take a while to make these adjustments at least I knew something would happen... that loitering around all day hadn't been just wasted time and resources.

"It is." Steven said, gaze flicking back to his laptop. Clearly busy with something. "I'm hopeful we'll have this mewtwo on our side within a day."

Hau shouted, "I got three ditto! So we'll be okay back here while you're gone!" He released one of his new friends and the pink goo smiled goofily to me. Lillie giggled and poked at the Pokémon, the creature doing a little dance in response. "I was thinking we should have it transform into another pokemon, so it can mimic their attacks." She said.

Silvally who had been keeping me company since this afternoon stepped forward and whined. "Would you like to mimic her?" I offered.

Hau bounced out of his seat, "Yes! Then I can finally have my own silvally!"

I laughed as he commanded his pokemon to transform, a mostly accurate mirror of silvally appearing in front of me. Of course the face was more than just a little wonky, but that wasn't the important part. It had better moves to use now and could possibly deter some weaker pokemon from attacking the two just by the appearance alone. Clearly, the ditto could take on the form and moves of anything more powerful than silvally if something drastic happened. Hau was skillful with pokemon as well and the thought eased some of my concerns about them being here alone. At least they had something to guard them...

Gladion had to be busy with that stuff for Aether still, I hadn't seen him at all since this morning. I didn't want to disrupt his work, especially if we were going to be leaving within a couple hours... hopefully... so I just texted him the information Steven had shared rather than heading to his room.

M//Hey, Steven's friend agreed to take us to Kanto. He has to fix his plane first though... Shouldn't be much longer

Not expecting a response right away or necessarily at all I set my phone down and plugged it in as I started to scramble together the rest of my stuff. I folded up the map and notes I'd made and put them in an easy to reach spot in my bag. Right next to the new holder I'd clipped in for silvally's ball. I wanted everything important to be easy to reach in a hurry. I grabbed a few other useful items from the house, things I knew wouldn't be missed. Some water bottles, a couple snacks, a handful of bandaids and ointment. I tried imagining the stuff my mom had carried around everywhere when I was younger and basically just recreated that. A 'mom bag' of my own.

Gladion had replied, I really shouldn't have been doubting that he would. He never ignored my texts, at least not anymore.

G//Good to know. G//You should get some rest while we have time, you'll need the energy.

The sentiment was sweet but I doubted I could sleep. Despite my exhaustion, I felt like a ticking time bomb going in slow motion... stuck right at that last second and no one could know what would happen when it hit zero or if it ever would.

M//You should too~ M//Did you even sleep last night?

G//Lol, I did... I'll get more sleep after I'm done with this paperwork.

M//And that will take how much longer?

G//Just another half hour... Don't worry. G//I'll see you soon, Moon, let me know if you need anything at all.

M//Same for you ^^

It wouldn't hurt to try to sleep... even if I felt like I couldn't. I was certain that the minute we got on the plane the exhaustion would hit and there was no possibility of sleeping at that point.

I changed into my most comfortable sweatshirt and sweatpants before flopping into bed, making sure I was ready to jump up and leave the minute I heard the news to go. It took a while of lying there and forcing myself to breathe deeply and keep my eyes shut before all that pent up energy gradually dispersed. My arms and legs got heavy and the sleepiness was uncovered, the sensation lingering over me like a dense fog... yet my mind refused to shut off.

I'd been ignoring everything about my dad for obvious reasons, shoving the thoughts aside every time they popped up. Now that I wasn't moving or distracted by other things, all those concerns swirled and raged in my head. That voice in the cave looping endlessly like a perish song I didn't want to hear. Was it his voice? It had to be. It had already been hard enough to attempt to distance myself from my father. As angry as I was about his choices to see another woman while my mom was away, he was still my dad. We'd been so close before and I'd been so excited to see him again... snipping away all that hadn't been easy to do and had involved many nights of nightmares and a fair amount of privately shed tears. All things I'd sealed up in a mental bottle and hoped had floated far, far away to never be seen again. Now, to find out he may have been tricked into working with this woman, possibly brainwashed into thinking he loved her...? Or none of those things? Well that thought was a whole lot scarier than the others but all of them combined weren't making me feel too well. The bottle had rushed back and crashed over my head to remind me what use to be and all the pain I'd been 'working through' for the past few months.

I wanted to tell mom, felt like she had a right to know what I had thought I'd heard last night... but I feared telling her about it would only make matters worse for her and everyone else. She was going through enough already, attempting to file divorce with someone totally unresponsive... her daughter hours away and in huge danger... She didn't deserve all these issues, and I didn't want to go and say things I wasn't sure about. The worst thing I could do was give her false hope for her shattering marriage to piece back together. I felt terrible, felt responsible for everything happening in both their lives... and to some realistic extent, it was my fault.

My chest seized and some tears pooled on my pillow. That woman wanted to kill the champions, she was after me and if she really was using my dad... then all of this pain was because of me. My Mom losing her husband, my father losing his wife and possibly his independence and sanity... all my fault.

My status as champion was a threat to my loved ones... I hadn't ever thought that was a possibility when I won and repeatedly defended the title. Hadn't considered the danger of it at all. Was the title really worth it? At the moment it didn't feel like it, it felt like an omen... but a tiny, very familiar voice at the back of my head kept saying 'yes, yes, of course it's worth it! It won't be hard forever'.

My stomach churned as the pillow I laid on progressively got damper and damper. All these self-deprecating thoughts swirling until I finally shot upright in the bed and snagged my phone off the table. The time of night shocked me... had I somehow fallen asleep at some point? Or had I really spent the past four hours agonizing over my parents? It'd only felt like an hour at most. My body still ached with exhaustion and my red rimmed eyes felt even heavier than they had before. This needed to stop, I couldn't spend every night struggling to sleep and blaming myself for everything. If I wanted to fix this problem I so thoroughly believed was my fault, I would have to be able to function properly.

I should have been able to handle this emotional crisis alone. Of everything I'd been through thus far, the charizard attacks, the ultra-beast invasion, the island challenges, moving to Alola... A bad train of thought should not have been what was hanging me up so much.... I was a champion after all, even if the title did bring such terrible occurrences... I was among the exclusive group of elites that should be handling the worst of problems.

But it didn't seem to matter, the constant river of salty tears streaming down my face made that obvious... I wanted to say it was my lack of sleep and the late hour that was making me so weak but redirecting the blame didn't help me feel better. I found myself doing the only thing that had seemed to help in these situations and my gaze drifted back down to my phone screen. The lock screen flashed the numbers 12:35 at me in a green font, resembling an alarm clock. Each flash of those numbers felt like a personal attack... like the device was laughing at my inability to sleep. I clicked the button to make it vanish and went straight into my messages.

M//please tell me your awake...

I didn't want to wait for a text back, I wanted to hear his voice. I wanted him to tell me I was overthinking things and wrong to blame myself for everything happening. It didn't matter how many times I tried to tell myself the exact same thing, it was different hearing it from someone I trusted, someone I could look up too and rely on. Not to mention how healing his touch had been last night when I'd felt just as bad, if not worse than I did right now.

I did need the emotional support, why try to work through this alone when I didn't have too...? I had someone who could help me and I needed him now more than I ever had before I left on this stupid trip.

Ten minutes past and I gave up waiting for a response. I carried myself on shaky legs to the door I'd been so afraid of opening earlier today and knocked as loud as I dared too, hoping to not wake up his sister next door. "Gladion?" I called softly.

No response, he was probably asleep. Was this really important enough to wake him up for?

The unsettled feeling in my gut told me it was and I tried the doorknob, unlocked. He had said to let him know if I needed anything and I did... I needed him right now. So I pushed open the door, letting the hinges creak and the dim lighting from the candles in the hallway cast a sliver of light over the bed. He shifted around, the light somehow enough to stir him awake and he sat upright after a moment, swaying a bit. "What...? What's going on...?" His voice was groggy and disoriented.

"It's me." I said at a volume just above a whisper, nervous again. What was I going to say...? How did I explain what was happening?

He rubbed at his face, grumbling. "Moon... Is that guy here...?"

"No!" I said fast, taking a step into the dark room. "No, I'm sorry... I just... I-I." Come on, seriously? You were so confident about coming over here and now you're being all weak about it? How much more pathetic can you be? I felt dumb all over again. "I can't sleep, I can't stop thinking about my parents." I finally forced out sheepishly.

He yawned, and all I could think in that moment was that my concerns were petty enough to be yawned at. Then he said very flatly, "Come here."

"What?" I responded far too quickly.

"Close the door and come here." He said again, sounding slightly irritated.

I did as he asked, shutting the door and carefully stepping across the room with the light of my phone to guide me. Once I was standing next to the bed he grabbed my arm and pulled me forward, throwing me off balance and I crashed into the sheets ungracefully. My phone hit the floor and all the light vanished as he guided me towards the pillows and had me lay down. "Everything will be fine." He grumbled, struggling to speak with a sleep laced brain and dropping down behind me. "Your mom is going to be fine and if your dad is... is involved... then we'll get him out of there." Another yawn escaped him and I felt the air against the back of my neck, sending a rush of goosebumps down my spine.

I couldn't manage to say anything, too shocked by how quickly he'd pulled me down. The silence drove him to speak again.

"Moon..." He said it in a way that was more air than word. "I don't know what you're thinking, but whatever is bothering you...." A pause and he groaned, his next words leading me to believe he'd lost track of his thoughts while speaking. “We're going to fix all of this, I promise."

"What if we can't though?" I muttered. "What if something is wrong with my dad after all of this? What if we can't stop that woman?"

His arm snaked around my waist, making me jump. His skin was burning hot, I could feel it through my shirt and as much of a shock as it was it felt nice. Comforting... those building anxieties crashed down suddenly and a wave of tranquility washed over me as I focused on that warmth.

"We will." Again, his words were more air than anything else and he pulled me closer to him. I could feel his chest against my back, rising and falling steadily in deep breaths and releasing waves of hot air against my neck. Though my heart pounded like a scared pikipek, his thumped calmly and rhythmically against my back.

I couldn't think straight, my whole being had melted into a ball of static electricity that pulsated with each of his exhales. My nerves were shot and everywhere he touched felt four times more sensitive than normal. All I could focus on was his breathing pattern, nothing else. No other thoughts flitted about my mind, there was no space for them. After a few, tense moments like that he leaned his head against the back of mine.

"S'okay?" He sleepily muttered and I interpreted it as him asking if this was okay to which I way to hastily agreed.

His arm tightened around me and I sunk closer to his body again, more of his warmth collapsing around me. "Jus' shove me away if I'm too much."

I didn't shove him away, of course. I made myself comfortable tucked against him like that and after maybe ten minutes of frantic heartbeats and the feeling of electricity hopping across my skin, I managed to completely relax. The calming repetition of his sleeping breaths and steady heartbeat coaxed my frazzled mind and exhausted body to finally shut down for the night. I don't think I'd ever felt as calm as I did nestled up in his arms like that.

Laying there like that I could feel my future stretching before me, after the woman and her machine had been taken down. I could see the champion's room again, my mom smiling at home, Lillie back in Alola with her mom, nights out with friends again, and more nights just like tonight. In that moment it all seemed so sure, like there was no way that future wouldn't come. It was all as mundane as Gladion's tired yawns had been.

#gladion x moon #gladion #gladion fanfic #lonashipping #mahinashipping #pokemon #romance #adventure #Hau x Lillie #through the storm #through the storm chapter twenty four

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crystalelemental · 7 years ago

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It’s been a while, but I think I’ve finally decided roughly where Gen 7 is going to fall for me in terms of the general Pokemon Game Rankings. There’s still a chance for Ultra Sun/Moon or hypothetical remakes to chance this, but I’m gonna put it below Gen 5 and 4, but above Gen 2, leading to:

Gen 5 Gen 4 Gen 7 Gen 2 Gen 3 Gen 1 Gen 6

Explanations for Gen 7′s ranking below.

I’ll start positive. Gen 7′s introduction of the Ultra Beasts is probably my favorite thing the series has ever done. These weird alien horrors are fantastic, and I love them so very much. Especially Nihilego, obviously, but they are all fantastic and I wish them the best.

The story and characters are also quite strong. Story especially. The emphasis on Lillie’s family was divine, and allowed for some great development for Lillie, Gladion, and to some extent Lusamine through the unraveling of her backstory. I’m still a little salty about Mohn actually being alive and rendering a lot of this almost trivial, but oh well.

I’m a big fan of the island setup. I think the different regions within the islands are cool, and the concept of their respective guardians and the different challenges in the games makes it fairly distinct from other entries.

Alolan Variants, while also going to be listed as a negative aspect later, are a cool idea. I kinda like the concept of offering variants based on region, and the fandom has been offering those kinds of variations for ages now, so it’s cool to see a few show up in-game.

Changes to general Pokemon in the form of updates to moves or increases in base stats were also divine. The changes this time were actually significant, with some Pokemon gaining like a cumulative total of 40 base points. Compared to last gen’s pathetic attempt at altering stat totals by offering a mere 10 points, this actually felt significant, and it’s nice to know they’re trying some things to improve the status of certain Pokemon. Also let’s not forget that EXP Share with the Gen 5 experience gain mechanics are a brilliant solution to the Gen 6 problem of over-leveling.

Lastly, some of the mechanics changes were solid. Most notably, no more HMs. It’s all done through calling different Pokemon to serve as the HMs. This is quite possibly the best mechanical change in the entire series, rivaled only by the changes to moves like Wrap and Rage from Gen 1 to Gen 2.

As for the negative aspects, let’s start with the most personal gripe: the Pokemon. While there are some excellent stand-outs, I feel comfortable saying that this generation had the most disappointing batch for me thus far. In some cases, it’s the stat allocations. Pokemon like Tsareena and Lurantis should’ve been incredible, and the allocations of their stats pretty much damns them to removal from standard use. For others, it’s a movepool that’s lacking needed tools, that better be fixed when move tutors arrive. For some, like my dead Pikipek, it’s an evolution line that is neither required nor welcome. I would’ve preferred to just keep a basic woodpecker. I love woodpeckers. But now the only woodpecker in the game, which is cute and has a great ability, evolves into some angry toucan thing whose speed tier is way too low to make any sort of use of Skill Link. Even Pokemon that turned out well, like Tapu Lele, have been incredibly disappointing to me, just based on stat allocation and movepool. Lele’s description talks about out-lasting opponents with status and the energy in its shell, yet it has no means of natural recovery and only the most basic of status options. It’s a super strong offensive unit, but that’s not what was advertised, and frankly, not what I wanted.

Speaking of not what I wanted, Alolan Variants. I feel like these were a neat idea, but kind of damning. The Alolan Variant is either way better than the default version, and thus gives the player no reason to ever use the default version, or isn’t any better or even worse and thus served no purpose. It’s the curse of competitive, I suppose; one of the two was definitely going to be worse than the other. But it’s frustrating to know how few Alolan Variants actually...did anything for the Pokemon? Not like megas did. Speaking of...

The biggest negative of all: Z-moves. I don’t like them. They’re interesting, and I’ll pull this criticism back the instant we get back to having real game-changers like mega evolution. A universal buff changes nothing for anyone. Your bullshit mentality of “We wanted something to help all Pokemon!” fell flat on its ass because all you did was give Garchomp and Lando-T more tools to use. Nothing changes. Nothing is beneficial from this. Just go back to making megas before you make a Gen 4 remake we’re all going to regret.

Also what do you mean Super Training only works with level 100s? The solution to over-leveling was brilliant, but now you make it a massive pain in the ass to grind up to 100, then lock the IV improvements behind that progression wall? Pokemon, when are you going to get rid of this arbitrary shit? Just let people obtain items for dramatically fewer BP, re-introduce Super Training to make EVs easier, and remove the level requirement for IVs since it’s hard enough to just get bottlecaps. Just make it easier to construct competitive teams in general. There’s a reason so many people cheat in Pokemon, and it’s because we don’t have time for this shit.

Related: why are so many of the new Pokemon so hard to get? So many exist only as like 1% or 5% encounter rates, while the common stuff is all from previous generations. It makes it really hard to build a team of all new stuff when your Pokedex is small, and half the new things are absurdly rare, you know.

On a less competitive, more game-oriented note, I’d like to offer linearity as the first complaint. You have all these islands that have massive, interconnected routes...and come up with the most asinine reasons we can’t just explore. “Sorry, my Stoutland is sniffing for treasure and is REALLY INSISTENT that it finish before anyone crosses.” Fuck off. Let me go that way. Honestly, we have a solution. Pokemon Origins offered it; just let the trial captains get stronger depending on how many of them you’ve beaten. If you do Water first, it’s the lowest level; if you do Water last, it’s the highest. There was such great potential here for a more open experience and they wasted all of it by constantly railroading you along a specific path. I might be more willing to go with it if the world were more of a straight line like in Unova, where there aren’t many opportunities to deviate from “go forward,” but the way islands are designed, it becomes super transparent how hard they’re forcing you to stay in line.

Another is trials, and how they impact the captains. While an interesting concept, I feel that gym leaders are more effective as characters. Trial captains are largely irrelevant for their trials, and you never get a sense for how they are in battle or what their tactics are. You can battle them, but odds are you didn’t, because the conditions to battle them are so obscure. I only ever battled Lana, and it was post-League. Her team was all level 30. That’s unacceptable. If I get to battle them, at least have it be a situation where they’re a challenge. I don’t dislike the concept of the trials, and think they’re definitely neat. But I also feel like substantial battles with the captains should happen at some point as well. Worse, because it’s only one real Pokemon in the form of the Totem, it’s hard to really...appreciate them when you have any form of type advantage. Plenty of them are easily removed in one turn with a strong enough super-effective attack. While the set-up for trials can be interesting, they’re only interesting if you get to see them.

Which brings me to the last one...the League. Trials are interesting. They’re a way to introduce a puzzle of some kind before a major battle against a single, super-strong Totem Pokemon. I don’t dislike the idea. I feel that Gym Leaders are more engaging characters most of the time, but it’s a fun variation for a region that’s meant to be distinct. But then you learn about the League. And the League opens up. And suddenly you realize...oh god. There were seven trials, with Mina being an eighth who just doesn’t do her job. The same number of trials as there would be gyms. And oh god, the grand trial was basically just this anyway. And suddenly the cool variation crumbles apart as you realize nothing was all that distinct after all, they just gave up trying to hide it at the very end and just made a Pokemon League. I honestly think that, if it had just stayed as the Grand Trial, I would’ve been happier. But this breaks that illusion so hard. I don’t like.

Oh, and they should’ve let me fight Mother Beast. Cowards.

#pokemon #pokemon sun and moon

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mysidewriting · 8 years ago

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Through the Storm

Note: I will totally be updating the playlist for this chapter, just not right away. It's late haha

"Soundtrack" From the Start-->Previous chapter

Chapter Fourteen

I was shaking as I opened the door to Gladion's cell and slid into the small confined space. He sat on the edge of the bed, his face downcast and suspended by his hands, elbows propped up on his knees. I swallowed the nervous lump in my throat and focused on the even sound of Lillie and Hau's sleeping breaths to calm down. Brendan had recommended I go help him, to my surprise... but I hadn't even thought about how grueling it would be for me to stand in his cell and pretend to be someone else still.

"You really took a beating today, huh?" I asked, struggling to continue using that deeper voice yet still sound calm and playful.

His emerald eyes flicked up to meet my gaze momentarily before he looked back down to the ground. "What are you doing?" He asked, sounding exhausted and defeated.

I took another step forward, showing him the first aid kit. "I'm going to patch up your eye and cheek." When was the last time I was this close to him, Arceus.

He stared at the box, still unmoving from the slouched position. "Why?" He asked, sounding disinterested.

"So it doesn't get infected or worse." I explained. The brutish grunt who had punched him must have been wearing some sort of jewelry... Gladion's face was scratched up and bloody where he had been hit, a wound much worse than what I had expected from a few punches. His left eye was growing dark with a bruise and the skin around it looked tender and red. The edge of his cheek bone was caked in dried blood and seemed painful just by the looks of it.

It made my chest ache... How bad does that hurt... and after being electrocuted earlier too...

He sighed, shifting his position so he was no longer slouched. "What's it to you? You've got no reason to give a shit about what happens to us."

I shrugged, expectant of him saying something along those lines I simply muttered in response, "I'm not a shit person."

His gaze hit the floor again. "I suppose that's true." I wouldn't have heard his voice if I hadn't been standing so close at the moment. He looked back to me, "Alright, let's get this over with." He adjusted to make room for me, holding his chin out to make it easier for me to reach the wound.

I'd forgotten, or maybe just hadn't realized, how gorgeous he was. After only seeing him behind screens and hearing his voice over the phone, I'd forgotten the way his presence seemed to steal the entirety of my attention. Clearly with a sister like Lillie and a mother like Lusamine it was impossible for him to not have such stunning looks as well. The other two were so feminine, and I knew nothing of his father's appearance... But he had this perfect balance of strong and defiant with the angle of his brow, yet sweet and caring below those hard masculine lines. It was like all three of them had been born to be front page magazine models. My heart raced as I held a finger on the edge of his jaw, tilting his head so more light would fall across the spot he'd been hit. He could probably hear the sound of my heart pounding in my chest but I hoped to Arceus he couldn't.

Setting the first aid kid on the bed I popped it open and went straight for the alcohol pads to try to get that built up dried blood off his cheek and clean off the rest of the wound. I carefully dabbed at his skin, noticing that the sidecut he'd given himself after growing out his already crazy hair, was growing out as well. Though it wasn't as long as the rest of his hair it was a pretty decent length compared to how I remembered it from last time. I tugged at some stray strands of hair with the wipe, pulling the dried red blood from the blonde. He winced as I dabbed directly on the wound, the corner of his mouth twitching.

"Sorry." I said before I could think about it.

"Don't worry about it." His gaze rested beyond me on the corner of the room. Up close his eyes were even more breathtaking, a brilliant green speckled with different shades of the same color...

Damnit, focus! Stop thinking so hard about him! I swallowed my nerves and emotions, forcing myself to stop worrying over my racing pulse and work on fixing up his cheek. I cupped the other side of his face in my free hand as I carefully scrubbed the blood off the wound. His eyes squeezing shut and body going tense as I did so. Once I'd totally cleaned the area I ran some ointment over the cuts, warning him that it may burn. He sucked in a sharp breath as I rubbed the gel on before finally sticking a small bandaid over the cleaned wound. Once that was over I regretfully took a step back, releasing his face.

He looked up then, meeting my gaze. "Done?"

I nodded in response, hoping the warmth in my cheeks wasn't visible to him. One of the only parts of my face that wasn't covered by fabric or sunglasses... I shouldn't have to hide much longer.

"Thanks." He grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest as his posture relaxed. His eyes were clouded over, distracted.

I shifted uncomfortably as I backed towards the cell door. I wish I could actually talk to you right now... "How did you guys get out." I asked hesitantly, aware that I was just milking this moment with him.

He didn't move for a moment, not hearing my question. He looked up fast as something else seemed to spark his interest. "What?"

"How did you guys get out of the cells?" I asked again.

"Oh..." Reluctance flashed across his face before he spoke again, gaze on Lillie's cell. "We stole some grunt's Pokémon and broke out." He faltered for a moment before continuing. "You have an umbreon?"

I nodded, hand drifting to Rosemary's ball on my waist. Did I tell him about my shiny eevee? I think I did? I don't remember, I can't remember if I told him it was shiny...

"You must be a decent person then, they only evolve for people they trust." It sounded like he was thinking aloud. I hoped he wasn't planning on attempting to steal Rosemary, I wouldn't be able to stop him... His gaze landed back on me, determination evident in the set of his jaw. "Where is Moon, where are they keeping her?"

I flinched and looked away, not able to come up with a place or wanting to encourage him to try to escape again I just said, "I don't know." Hoping he wouldn't push the issue further. "Is that why you tried to get out? Were you looking for her?" I asked.

"Of course." He mumbled. My heart skipped a few beats as I realized he'd grown distant again, a look of worry crossing his face. He's really worried about me... And, unbeknownst to him, for no reason.

"You really care about her, don't you?" I asked, partially wanting to hear him say he did and partially because it could deter him from any suspicions that I was who he was worrying over.

He didn't say anything more, though, his face only grew more stressed and he looked away. "Keep her safe, please."

"Don't try to escape again." I said, waging him an offer and crossing my arms. "She wouldn't be happy to see you hurt either." It's true, I hate the fact that he put himself in this mess. That he'd gotten punched and electrocuted. I just can't actually angry with him in this situation. I wondered if he would be pissed knowing what I'd done. He'd said before he wasn't upset with me for being dragged into danger, but rather putting myself into it was what bothered him. This could be considered dangerous, but at the same time the only other option was to sit and let someone else deal with it. That or probably end up dead myself, since that was Aqua and Magma's plan. I wasn't about to sit this out and leave it up to other champions. This was a joint effort for all of us, at least in some ways.

"I'm not agreeing to that. I'll do anything to keep everyone safe and get everyone out. Especially Moon." He snapped, the defiance on his face sending a shiver down my spine.

"What's going on?" Both of us flinched and turned to see Lillie standing near the side bars between her and Gladion's cage, rubbing tiredly at her eyes.

"Nothing, Lill. Go back to sleep." Gladion sternly ordered, looking away.

"I bandaged his face." I said quickly.

Lillie smiled sweetly, "Thank you, Rhea. His face was pretty nasty." I twitched as I heard the stolen name, of course she'd heard it.

"Oh! Right!" I grabbed the sack of bread from my belt and handed it to Lillie through the bars. "I brought you three these rolls, try to make them last. There's enough for you to each have two. I trust you can hand them out when needed."

She nodded, taking the bag and sliding it under her bed. "Thank you, I don't know what we'd do without you around."

"We'd be fine." Gladion snapped. Typical.

"We'd be okay, but probably starved and sleep derived." She laughed, sitting back on her bed and thanking me once more.

I nodded curtly before sliding back out of Gladion's cell and locking the door behind me. Tomorrow... tomorrow they'll be free and okay. Tomorrow I can talk to them again.

It's just a few more hours is all.

"Did you get him?!" I asked, quickly chasing Brendan through a doorway to avoid a small group of grunts, "Did you save Gold?" I reiterated.

I'd been looking for Brendan all morning, wandering the majority of the building as I searched tirelessly. The night had been long, Lillie falling asleep relatively quickly after she had woken up to see me in Gladion's cell. He, on the other hand, had not slept a wink. I'd spent a majority of my time sitting near the main doors of the jail room counting off the hours until Brendan was back. Trying to ignore Gladion's pacing and heavy sighs until the sun had come up.

Brendan simply smiled at me and that was enough for me to know that he had liberated the other missing champion. Relief washed over me, "So where is he?" I asked.

"With May, he said he'd come help us out when we need him too." Brendan explained, pulling a set of keys from a rack in the small surveillance room we stood in.

I stared at the ring of keys in his hands, "Are we doing this now?"

He twirled the metal around his pointer finger, nonchalantly. "Soon, we have to wait for Archie to show his face. First I thought we should get all of your friends stuff out of the lock boxes and put it somewhere we can get it quick."

A huge grin burst across my face as I thought of showing myself to them, though I was hesitant of their reactions since I had allowed them to be locked up, I still couldn't wait to talk to them. "That's a great idea." I said, taking the lead as we marched off towards the back storage rooms that everything was locked up in.

Brendan observed the hallways in a calculating manner as we walked, "So the plan currently is to just stun Archie somehow, probably put him to sleep with my alakazam, then snag the orb off him and book it out of here before anyone notices."

"Seems simple enough." I said, though many factors could steer that plan off in the wrong direction. Like the fact that hypnosis doesn't always work... or the fact that Archie seemed to never be alone.

"As for your friends, I want to leave that to you and Gold. Since it'll probably be a lot messier breaking out three inmates than trying to steal an orb from someone's pocket." Brendan explained as he tossed the storage room door open.

I snagged the keys from his hands and unlocked the box that held everyone's bags and Pokémon. "When should we do that?" I pulled my phone from the bottom of the box as well, checking to make sure it still had a charge and smiling as I saw it flick to life. It was still open to my messages with Gladion from earlier in the week.

"Probably around the same time?" Brendan said in a high pitched voice, clearly unsure himself. I slid my phone into my back pocket, taking a mental note to be careful whenever I finally got to change out of these uncomfortable Aqua clothes.

I scooped out the three back packs... "Wait.... Brendan...?"

"What?" He stood next to me then, staring down into the empty box.

"Where are the Pokémon?"

"Aw, crap."

Someone had moved the pokeballs and we didn't know who or where or even when it had occurred. Our tasks were split further down the middle, Brendan tasked with getting the orb still, Gold now tasked with getting my friends out and keeping them safe, and me tasked with finding their Pokémon.

Brendan went off on his way, loosely following Archie throughout the day and waiting for a moment that he was alone to spring a stealthy attack. He flashed me the screen of his phone, wordlessly saying we'd keep each other updated over text. I split off to start searching any reasonable places that may have been hiding the pokeballs, at least until I'd received a message from May telling me that Gold was here.

Once he was here, I had to direct him to the cells with the keys and hope that he was self-sufficient enough to handle any complications along the way. I wished I could have had that job, but I actually knew the layout of the building and had a general idea of where things were kept so I was more suited to finding the Pokémon.

I searched through the big warehouse like room, digging through cabinets and shelving units that had a lot of random crap. I came up short though, and had to move my search off to various intelligence rooms, where the crazed scientists worked to make Aqua's plans somewhat feasible. It wasn't until after I'd gone through four separate rooms and received weird stares from at least three different people that I got the text from May and excitedly ran back to the main foyer. I told the grunts there that they had donuts for free taking in the kitchen and it was enough for them to rush away from their posts.

The heavy door slid open slowly, the first thing I saw was an angry, flaming typhlosion and it rushed forward at the sight of me. Roaring as it knocked me to the ground.

"Hey! Hey! It's me! It's okay!" I said as it bared over me, its mouth wide open and the back of its throats glowing as flames rushed up to roast me. "Exbo!"

"Moon?" I glanced up to see Gold step over me as well, calling off typhlosion as he realized it was me under the weight of his trusted fire Pokémon. "Shit." He laughed, "Sorry 'bout that."

The typhlosion backed off of me with a guilty grumble and Gold recalled him to his pokeball before extending a hand to help me to my feet. I gratefully accepted and he pulled me up much harder than I expected, slamming me into his chest as he squeezed me in a hug. "So glad to see ya, dude." He said.

I returned the hug, though I couldn't muster the same amount of strength to do so after he'd crushed me. "Same to you! I was really worried for a while there." I stepped back, some muscles that I hadn't realized were tense released as I saw his laid back smirk.

He shrugged, "I'm a champion for a reason. Same for you, I'm sure."

I nodded, returning the smile. "I'd love to talk about what happened after the charizard attack, but we need to get moving first." I glanced to my phone to see if Brendan had sent any updates. He'd found Archie, but he was with the admin heads again so Brendan was just waiting for them to leave. "I still haven't found the Pokémon."

"Take me to the cells" He waved his hands out dramatically.

With a nod I brought him towards where my friends were being kept, pointing out the area we had hidden their bags just in case we didn't end up escaping at the same time. We exchanged numbers before separating and he wished me luck before ducking into the room.

I created a group message between the two guys and sent out that Gold was here now and I still hadn't found the Pokémon. I let Rosemary out for help and we wandered off to search some other possible locations the balls could be held.

"You already got nailed in the face, Bub. We're not going to try and break out again." Lillie scolded as I attempted to encourage another go at our plan.

A shrug of my shoulders brought a glare to her face and I looked away again. Crossing my arms.

"Do you think Archie will talk to us again?" Hau asked through a mouthful of bread. "Do you think Rhea will come in soon?"

"I hope so." I grumbled. The air felt sour and heavy, the kind of feeling that came before a large storm struck. Like something big would happen today and I desperately wanted to control that 'big thing' and not be a victim of it. The small confined cell was driving me mad, I wanted out again.

"I'm sure she'll come by if she hears anything about us!" Lillie said cheerfully, "she seems to care a lot."

"I bet she'll bring something for Gladion's black eye." Hau said, pointing to me through the cell bars. My eyes rolled and I turned my back towards them with a heavy sigh.

They seemed to have the impression that I'd purposefully started a fight with that brute of a grunt, though I'd had no intentions of doing anything along those lines. He had been following us around with the other two delinquents and I didn't want either Lillie or Hau to be hurt or held hostage by the crazy men. There seemed to always be a few grunts that were not all there in the head in these criminalistic organizations. Team skull had some nasty guys that did some nasty shit to girls and I refused to even let Lillie have the chance of experiencing something like that...

What about Moon.... fuck I hope she's okay, where ever she is.

The door slid open and the air grew tense as all three of us turned to see who was entering. Whether it was the night guard that Hau and Lillie felt totally comfortable addressing by name for some reason, or another group of grunts to drag us off to Archie's torture device... Clearly the ladder of the two was a bit more worrisome. I knew Hau and Lillie would prefer to be here at the moment, but I wanted out no matter where it meant I was dragged too. But the person who stepped through didn't seem to be a member of Aqua at all, at least he wasn't dressed in the typical blue striped shirt and ripped pants. He was dressed in a hooded sweater, jeans, and a backwards facing hat and seemed very nonchalant considering where he was.

"Oh, shit." The guy looked down to a pokeball in his hand and ducked his head out of the door, like he was looking for someone.

"Who are you?" Hau asked, stepping as close to the guy as he could within the cell.

He stepped back into the room, a grin appearing on his face. "I'm here to get you three out."

"But who are you." I restated for Hau with a much more intimidating voice, passing him a harsh glare as I demanded an answer. Just because he's trying to get us out of here doesn't mean he has good intentions... especially when Magma is another issue.

"I'm Gold, the Johto champion." He said with the same grin.

Wait... Gold...?

"Whoa really?!" Hau shouted, his eyes sparkling in amazement. "You're really one of the champions?"

But...

Gold nodded, "Yeah, I'm one of the select few on a hit list made by these idiots." He snickered a laugh before pulling a set of keys out.

Gold was with Moon when the attack happened, Gold was the champion that had gone missing with her. She'd talked about him a few times before she'd disappeared. Now he was here in Hoenn unlocking the doors that held us captive. I almost didn't believe it, but I saw the full set of pokeballs he had on him... Could tell by the way he presented himself that he was the guy Moon had talked about briefly.

"Didn't you get attacked by a charizard? You and Moon?" Lillie asked before I could say anything myself. "Then you guys went missing?"

"Yeah." He said as he tossed open her door and waved for her to step out of the cell, Hau rushed her with a hug as Gold moved on to unlock my cell. "We were held hostage at Magma before two Hoenn League challengers broke both of us out."

I stepped out of the cage with my arms crossed, "Where is she then?" I asked.

"Here?" Gold replied, looking confused at the statement. He glanced back down to the pokeball in his hands as it started moving. "I was going to bring her this but...."

The ball bust open and Gold stumbled back as the Pokémon appeared in front of him. My mouth gaped as the red light from the ball faded and a slightly smaller silvally than mine shook out the feathers on its neck. No way.

"Silvally! Whoa!" Hau danced, "Now we can get out of here right, Gladion?"

"It's Moon's! She evolved!" Lillie filled in, pointing to a thin multicolored strand of yarn that was wound around the silvally's neck. "Moon and I made that collar and she has a matching bracelet."

Hah, cute.

"Yeah." Gold dragged the word out as Moon's silvally stood and growled playfully to him. "It evolved when the charizard attacked us, probably the only reason we didn't die." He laughed despite the dark connotations to his words.

My chest squeezed, hearing anything about Moon being close to death stressed me out. But at least the Pokémon I'd given her had kept her safe. The silvally turned to look at both Lillie and I and cooed curiously before bounding forward and ramming into Lillie excitedly. She stumbled back with a laugh as she stroked the Pokémon and a small smile came over my mouth. Moon...

I turned back to Gold once again, he had busied himself with his phone as the three of us gawked at the newly evolved Pokémon that belonged to our missing friend. He had a perplexed look on his face and started tapping out some message. "So Moon is okay?" I confirmed with a regretfully shaky voice.

Gold nodded, "She should be coming by soon hopefully....? She had to go find all your Pokémon I guess." His eyes were still on the screen of his phone for a moment before finally looking up. "So you're Gladion then, right? The one who was looking into the charizard attacks? Moon talked about you a bit."

I nodded, muscles tensing as he spoke of her. We'll see her soon... another thing I almost couldn't believe after months away from her. That I would actually get to see her again, not through a screen or through pictures. Seems too good to be true.

Gold nodded and looked to the others. "So then Lillie and Hau?"

They each nodded to their respective names as Gold tested himself. He grinned as he realized he'd gotten all the names right. "Cool, I paid attention then." Another snicker left his mouth.

A scratch at the door dragged everyone's attention to the metal barricade. My pulse stumbled, immediately thinking this had to be her, it had to be Moon on the other side if what Gold was saying was true. Hau stepped forward and excitedly pulled the door open, likely thinking the same thing I had.

The night guard's umbreon bounded in to my dismay, though all three of the others seemed to get excited. It was then that I noticed the bag that hung from its mouth, dragging heavily across the cement floors.

Moon's silvally ran forward and yipped at the umbreon happily, the other Pokémon reacting similarly and hopping in place. Do they know each other...? Gold grabbed the bag that the excited umbreon had dropped and tossed Hau a pokeball. "Are these you're Pokémon?" He asked, sounding weirdly frazzled as he looked anxiously out to the hallway again. The door was slowly sliding closed by itself.

"Let me see." I said, grabbing the bag from Gold and searching through the sack of pokeballs. Just as I picked out the ball that held my crobat, the ball that Hau held burst open and a pidgeot sang out as it appeared.

Lillie cheered and hugged the Pokémon, Hau's face lighting up as well to see her so excited. "So they are yours then." Gold said with a look of concern that baffled me.

"Yes, they are." I said, pulling the rest of the balls that were mine out before handing the bag off to Lillie. I'm one short.... I'm missing...

A loud crash echoed from outside and two shouts sliced the air. One desperate and one menacing. Without any hesitation both Gold and I raced out into the hallway, Hau and Lillie trailing behind.

The woman in front of me looked oddly familiar but I could not place a face to a name whatsoever. The only things I was totally aware of was the knife she held over me that had already sliced a fine bloody line through my right cheek, Gladion's angered silvally readying a direct attack on the woman on its own accord, and the sound of people rushing into the hall behind me.

My face stung like I'd been attacked by fifty beedrill and I worried that the knife was laced with some sort of poison. My free hand that wasn't already defending myself from another strike went to cover the cut and I winced at even the slightest pressure on the wound. The attack from silvally struck the woman blind and she stumbled back, three deep blood soaked scratches stretched down her forearm from the beast's attack.

Arms came around my waist and yanked me backwards, a short shout leaving my mouth and my legs flailing before I realized it was Gold pulling me away from the crazed woman. I glanced over my shoulder to see all three of my friends behind him with shocked faces as well.

Rosemary and, oh! My silvally! Both burst forward to help Gladion's Pokémon as well, approaching the knife bearing woman slowly. All three of them growling at her.

She cackled, the sound of it sending an intense shiver down my spine. "I guess it's not surprising that you champions could overthrow my underlings. Don't think you're out of the water quite yet."

"What are you saying!" I shouted, "Who are you?!" Gold's grip around my stomach tightened and his breath tickled my ear.

"You shouldn't yell at someone with a knife!" He said frantically.

"She has the orb though!" I yelled anyway squirming from his grip and taking a few steps forward so I stood behind the wall of powerhouse Pokémon.

The woman tut-tutted and the Pokémon on her shoulder let out a small chiming cry before they were both enveloped in a bright light and popped out of sight. The area they previously stood shimmering as though time and space had been ripped through for her escape. The affect was so eerily similar to the ultra-beast wormholes that my skin broke out in goosebumps and another intense shiver fell down my spine.

"If she had the orb, then where is Brendan?" Gold asked as I span to face everyone, my heart skipping a good ten beats as I saw Lillie, Hau, and Gladion watching me with wide eyes.

I shook my head, the scratch on my cheek throbbing with the movement. I winced and pulled off both the glasses and the handkerchief covering my mouth. I balled the fabric up and lightly pressed it to the scratch to halt the bleeding. "I don't know, hopefully he got out already." I said hesitantly. "Apparently Archie wasn't the only person in charge of this place."

"What was she a Magma chick?" Gold questioned, looking confused.

I shook my head again, "I don't know." A sickening feeling wrapped around my stomach and I nearly hurled, but I managed to suck it down and just looked away. "I don't know what to do now. They're going to try to flood the world and Magma is going to try to burn it."

" It's okay, we'll figure it all out!" A voice called and I turned to see May standing in the hall nearby with a big, optimistic smile on her face. "Are you okay, Moon?" She prodded as she approached.

"Moon!" Hau's voice bellowed and I turned to face him just before he locked me into a crushing hug, spinning me around until I was green in the face. Once he let go I stumbled until my back hit the wall and a nervous laugh left my mouth. "I'm so glad you're okay!" He shouted gleefully.

"I mean, kind of." I smiled at him despite the throbbing knife wound on my face.

Lillie greeted me as well, a huge beaming smile on her face as she gave me a much more delicate hug. "So you were the person keeping such careful watch over us." She said.

"Yeah, I promise I'll explain everything once we're out of here and safe." I apologized with a frown and she brushed it off, understanding of the severity of our current situation and location.

I flinched as a firm hand wrapped around my wrist, pulling my hand away from the cut. My eyes met Gladion's cool, collected gaze as he peered at the scratch. My breath stuck in my throat and I knew for certain that he could tell my pulse had picked up pace. His hand rested right over it as he held my wrist. "H-hey." I stuttered in a hushed voice, feeling stupid for my own faltered words.

Lillie giggled as she stepped next to Hau, watching both her brother and me with this knowing gaze that made me feel even more uncomfortable.

"I think you're poisoned." Gladion said, drawing my attention back to his face. His brows pinched in the middle out of concern.

"I was worried about that." I mumbled, my stomach bubbling with that nauseous feeling once again. Though I wasn't sure if it was the possible poison or just my nerves from him gripping my arm so firmly and his face so close to mine.

"I have antidotes, they should work just as well on you as they do on Pokémon. It's not like the chemistry is any different." He said calmly before his eyes finally matched my own and a genuine grin fell across his lips. Breathe, come on, Moon. Breathe! "And hey, I'm glad to see you." He pulled me into a tight hug as well, but not nearly as crushing as both Hau and Gold had been. Just a firm, comfortable hug that made my chest seem to expand twice its size. I don't think we've ever hugged. It certainly felt great, and I hated the fact that he had to let go and I nearly didn't take my arms off him either. "You better be planning on explaining everything." He said before stepping away from me, his grin falling to a sweet smirk as he held my gaze.

"You four should head out towards the car." May said, drawing my eyes up to her. "It'll be big trouble if any of the Aqua guys find you." She stated. "Gold and I will go find Brendan."

"Sounds good!" Hau cheered happily, "I don't know who Brendan is but okay!" He laughed and started off towards the main entrance without a worry. Lillie looked between the separating group worriedly before racing off after Hau, calling his name.

May tossed me the keys to the truck and asked me to park it somewhere hidden so we didn't seem suspicious. "Got it! Get Brendan back safe!" I said with encouragement as I recalled Rosemary to her ball.

Gold handed me silvally's ball so I could recall her as well, though it looked upset as I held it up and I remembered how shortly we'd been together since it evolved. "I'm sorry." I said dejectedly as it stepped over to me and rubbed its head against my shoulder with a purr.

I tossed Gladion his silvally's ball as well, muttering another apology awkwardly as he recalled his Pokémon after lovingly patting its side. "I didn't mean to hold onto him, he just wouldn't let me do anything alone." I explained sheepishly.

Gladion grinned, "Good."

My face grew hot and I hugged my own Pokémon before recalling her as well, Gladion waved to lead the way towards the entrance and I wished May and Gold good luck before making my leave. Way too excited to see Hau and Lillie ahead of me and have Gladion walking next to me.

I parked the truck in a thick patch of trees not too far from the headquarters, I could still see the front entrance to the building just in case we had to rush to get the other three. I checked my phone to see if Brendan had sent any messages since I'd confirmed that I'd found the Pokémon. He hadn't, and Gold had already attempted to text him to see what was happening.

"Moon." I looked up as Gladion half snapped my name and was slightly surprised to see the water bottle he held out to me. I took it from his hands, him understanding the look of confusion on my face as he answered my question without me having to ask it. "It's the antidote, I mixed it with water. Drink all of it, please." He ordered, looking stressed.

I wanted to ask why he was stressed, considering the fact that we'd just gotten out of a far more stressful situation. But instead I just followed his orders and drank as much of the water in one go as possible. It tasted bitter and my face totally expressed it, Gladion snorting at my reaction to it.

"That should clear the poison, let me know if you start feeling sick." He said, zipping his bag and tossing it down by his feet.

"I'm sure I'll be okay." I said as I finished off the bottle, sticking my tongue out in disgust.

He shook his head in response, a small smile resting on his lips.

"So who is Brendan?" Hau asked from the back seat.

I twisted in the driver seat, crossing my legs so I could turn almost completely around to face everyone. My hands rubbed my goose bumped arms, I thought May would have brought my clothes but she hadn't and I was stuck in these revealing Aqua clothes until we got to wherever we were going after this. "Brendan is the guy that told you three that Aqua had me tied up somewhere... That guy I was with after bringing you back from the..." I stopped, looking to Gladion again. His face was bruised, yes... his eye swollen and dark and painful looking... but I had noticed the welts on his arms as well, marks from the electric shock he'd been forced through. I felt ill, and not from the poison, from the guilt.

"Oh! That makes sense." Hau said, letting his head hang for a moment before another question popped to mind. "But who is he other than that?"

"Oh." I laughed though the sound was very forced. "He's a Hoenn League Challenger."

"So he's one of the two who saved you and Gold from Magma?" Lillie asked.

I nodded, "Brendan and May. They figured since they weren't actual champions they'd be able to do something about this mess and I mean... it's kind of working."

"After being freed from Magma..." Gladion spoke up, "since we're sticking to recent things here." His eyes rolled. "You decided to join Aqua under a fake name?" His voice oozed confusion.

"Kinda." I said, twirling a piece of hair on my finger. "Brendan and I stole some clothes and names of former Aqua grunts to infiltrate and try to figure out what was going on and how to stop it." My gaze met Gladion's once again, "When I called you before… That was like the second day I was here. I'm glad you told me you were coming because Archie had already picked some other guys to go look into the people from Alola. If I hadn't realized it was you three coming in, things would have been a lot messier."

"There are so many questions to answer." Lillie giggled before reaching out for my hand, I took hers and she held onto me with a tight grip. "I'm just glad to see you okay."

I smiled to her, "Thanks, Lillie. I'm glad you three are okay too...." my face fell, "But I kind of got you all wrapped up in stuff that isn't your issue."

Gladion's head shook, "If you're in danger, it is my issue." My cheeks are going to be red forever, Arceus.

"Our issue." Lillie corrected with a glare towards her brother that elicited another eye roll from him.

"I can't believe you were the night guard the whole time, it's like one of those mystery shows for kids. Like, 'oh it was Rockydoo the whole time!'." Hau said with a laugh.

"Rockydoo?" Lillie questioned with a slight giggle to her voice, "What is that?"

His mouth gaped, "You don't know Rockydoo?! Didn't you have a childhood?"

"We established the 'lack of childhood' years ago, Hau." Gladion grumbled with an eye roll. "It was some kids show, Lillie."

"There was a team of kids trying to solve mysteries and they had their pet rockruff help them with it." I explained, "It was a growlithe in Kanto."

Hau looked shocked and excited but Gladion cut him off before he could say anything else about the show. "Anyway!" He snapped, "Back on topic..."

"Sorry." I laughed, when was the last time we'd all been together like this? Falling off topic so easily and talking about stupid things. It had been Hau, Gladion, and I a few times, but not all four of us. "Yeah Brendan got me the night guard position. If it hadn't been me, it would have been that really dumb grunt that punched Gladion."

Lillie gasped and my phone started vibrating. I quickly answered as I noticed Gold's name on the screen. "Hello?"

"We found him! Where are you parked?"

I readjusted in my seat so I was facing forward and started the truck up again. "In some trees not too far from the entrance, I can pick you guys up if you come outside."

"Okay, we need to hurry. All of Aqua is after us and pissed." He said frantically.

I hung up and quickly drove the car up to the front of the building, instructing Hau and Lillie to try to make as much room as possible. I glanced back as Lillie made a sort of squealing noise and saw that Hau had pulled her onto his lap. I couldn't help but grin at both of them. I hadn't even thought about that, them spending time together now... I'd been so focused on my own flustered thoughts and emotions for Gladion.

The side doors opened and I quickly turned again to see Gold, May, and Brendan squeeze into the back of the truck. Brendan shooting at me to "Go, go, go!"

Where though?! I ignored the anxious thought and floored it on the gas. Fish tailing onto a dirt road and going anywhere that wasn't the headquarters. My stress slowly shrinking in unison with the fading sight of the building in the rear view mirror.

Note: This isn't for sure... But there may not be another update until next week. If that does end up happening, I'm super sorry. At least this is a kind of good spot to pause on instead of a total cliffhanger haha. c:

#gladion x moon #fanfic #lonashipping #mahinashipping #gladion fanfic #pokemon #romance #adventure #Hau x Lillie #through the storm #through the storm chapter fourteen

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mysidewriting · 8 years ago

Text

Through the Storm

Prologue

Chapter One:

Two weeks after Kukui had informed me of his "champion travel plans" I was put on a plane and sent to my home land in Kanto. Now there, in the Celadon City airport I was tasked with finding champion and ex-champion Red and Green. About a week from now I was due to spend a few days in Professor Oak's lab and review his research on the Kanto region's flora and fauna.

Before any of that though, there were two people I had to find. My father, who lived only a city away in Saffron, and Lillie who was last residing just north of Cerulean.

G//when are you free?

A frown creased my face as I read the text. I'd made the decision to not tell anyone other than my mother and the league that I was leaving for six months. I hadn't wanted to spoil my surprise visit with Lillie on accident and didn't want Hau to attempt to discourage me from the plan. I'd already been hesitant as six months was such a long time to be away, but I seriously wanted to make the trip.

Now, seeing Gladion being oddly persistent to do something, I was starting to feel bad not telling my friends about traveling. Sure, I didn't get to hang out with them all that often but that once a month was still special. Now I wouldn't see both the guys for six months and the thought was sour on my mood.

I shook myself from the thoughts and exited the airport, the heavy scent of thousands of people living within seconds of each other hitting me like a rock. Cars whizzed passed me in the streets and crowds of sightseers, businessmen, and locals pushed and shoved me around.

Kanto.

One of the busiest and most populated regions. I loved and hated it for that reason, I for sure hadn't yet missed it.

Working my way against the crowd of moving bodies I finally made my way out of the city and onto a side route that would lead me towards Saffron, where my father lived. My hand instinctively drifted to my bag for the useful ride pager but I fell short of the pocket it was normally kept in, Pokémon Ride was only in Alola. I would have to ask my own team of Pokémon to travel around Kanto unless I wanted to foot it everywhere.

The only current team member I had that was large enough to carry me around comfortably was the Type:Null that Gladion had entrusted me with and I hated the idea of forcing it to do such a task. I would need to make some new friends and team members here in Kanto to make transportation easier. Not that I hadn't already planned on doing so.

The trek to Saffron would only take about twenty minutes with the newly paved footpaths that had been placed in recent years. With all the commuters between Celadon and Saffron it had been a necessary implementation to make by the cities. Otherwise the route wound through the countryside where unsuspecting civilians could clash with potentially dangerous Pokémon.

I released Kai and Type:Null to walk with me, making sure to move the ladder of the two off to the side whenever someone passed by. Kai was cute and lovable by appearance and many passerby stopped to gawk at the rare species. Null, on the other hand, was far more intimidating... but I wanted it to feel comfortable with me so it could evolve and walking was a great way to build a bond.

M//idk really...

//my life is about to be super crazy busy

I can't tell him yet, but I feel bad brushing him off like that. I would go to Lillie soon, then I could tell both Hau and Gladion about this.

The door to my father's house creaked open once I had unlocked it, announcing my arrival rather unceremoniously. I called out a timid 'hello' but no response came. Every room was empty save for the living room where my father's pet growlithe, Brutus, was curled up in his bed. He watched me with a wise gaze, tail wagging back and forth furiously in excitement but he couldn't be bothered to drag his old bones out of his comfortable position.

I stroked his head, checking my phone to see if my father had called me while I was on the plane. He hadn't contacted me at all... before leaving I'd made sure to tell him when I would be over, figuring that meant he would be home to see me as well. It had been a few years since I had last seen him...

I bit back my disappointment, telling myself he had run out to grab something super quick and hadn't expected me to be here so promptly. I took a seat on the couch after setting my heavy backpack on the floor. Kai popped out of her ball and sniffed at Brutus curiously, pulling back in surprise as he huffed a small plume of smoke in her direction. I couldn't help but laugh at the Lycanrock's shocked expression. She was behaving much more warily now that we were in a new place.

"Watch out, Kai. Old Brutus is a real master of fire." I said with a giggle as a small flame left the greying growlithe's mouth.

She glanced back at me, grumbling before turning to sniff around the house. I watched her fluffy white tail disappear around the corner before looking down at my phone once again.

G//well...let me know when you have time

M//for what? Do you actually want to hang out with me??

G//I guess

//don't go and make me change my mind

M//haha ok

Guilt wrecked my gut and I quickly sent another message out to him. Why didn't you ask last week?! He never wanted to do anything, he'd never been the one to initiate anything.

M//seriously though, I don't know if I'll have any free time whatsoever for a long time. I'm sorry... just bad timing.

A long sigh left my mouth and I locked gazes with Brutus, the Pokémon mirroring my noise and settling it's head down against its paws. Kai paced around the corner again and I laid across the couch, stretching my arm as far as possible to run my fingers through her coarse fur.

I attempted calling my father after an hour had passed, but he didn't answer. Worry had started to set in, my overly exposed mind rushing through terrible scenarios of what could have happened to him in the few hours since we had last spoken. I paced the living room, attempting to quiet those thoughts, telling myself I was being paranoid.

Finally the door opened and I span fast to face the balding man, a single plastic bag in his wrinkled hands and a shocked look on his mustachioed face. "Oh, Moon! I thought you said five!"

A sigh of relief left my mouth and I quickly closed the space between us to give him a hug. "No, Dad. Four." I laughed. "It's okay though, Brutus and my Kai kept me company."

My father's gaze drifted to the living room to see both Pokémon lying near the window. He grinned as he saw the Lycanrock and she stood, barking a kind hello towards him. He chuckled a hearty laugh.

"It's still so hard for me to believe you have your own Pokémon, Moon."

I scoffed, "Why's that? Couldn't you tell how much I loved Pokémon when I was younger?"

"Of course I could, but I had this strange idea in my head that you would go on to be a researchist. Not a trainer, or champion at that." The smile he gave me, half hidden by that thick dark beard my mother always loved, seemed oddly awkward and nervous.

I brushed it off, figuring he was intimidated by how long we had been apart. I'd only been seventeen when Mom and I left for Alola. Now I was twenty, a smidge taller than him, and much more experienced and matured.

"Well, anyway. Make yourself at home, deary. It is still your home, whenever you need it to be." His eyes crinkled at the corners, the age lines much more significant than they had been last time I'd seen him. "I was planning on ordering a pizza and watching a movie tonight."

I grinned, that was still the same. His love for lounging, something we had always shared.

I'd left most of my team back in Alola to train by themselves and spend some time relaxing. The only two I had brought with me were Lycanrock and Type:Null. My own personal goal for this trip, aside from exploring and learning from all the professors, was to form a new team for each region. It sounded like a decent challenge, and making new friends was always a plus.

As such, I spent the first few days in Kanto exploring and catching new Pokémon. I'd found a dragonair near the ocean and caught him - naming him Tsunami. While exploring Mt.Moon I met a small fairy type Pokémon that rotom dubbed clefairy and I added her to my team too. I found the name Cecil to work well for the small pink fluff ball.

One rainy day on the coast of Fuschia I ran into a man with scruffy dark blonde hair and an ego that outstepped most bounds. He didn't flinch when he saw Type:Null bounding around in the sand beside me and he looked at me as though he knew who I was.

"You look strangely familiar." He said, a smooth grin on his face.

"Do I? Well that's strange considering I don't live in Kanto." I acknowledged, having Null take a seat next to me.

"Lemme guess, Alola?" The man assured, his smooth grin becoming smug.

"Yes" I laughed, unfazed by his arrogance. "I'm Moon, you are?"

"Green." He extended a hand to me, "ex-champ of Kanto."

I shook his hand with a smirk of my own. Finding Red and Green was on my task list for the week, but I hadn't expected to run into either of them so easily.

Green and I spent a few hours inside a small cafe chatting and learning more about each other. He was twenty five and although he reeked of narcissism, he was still a half decent guy. A great sense of humor and a real knack for Pokémon by the sound of it. Around seven years ago he had been the champion of Kanto, but his reign had only lasted a couple hours before his rival Red stole the seat. He's been pissed about it for a while but apparently the feud between the two had long ended and he now considered Red to be his closest friend.

He was currently the final gym leader of Kanto. I spent a good forty minutes explaining Alola's trials and how we didn't use a gym system at all. He was baffled by it, but interested.

After the rain subsided he introduced me to his current team and challenged me to a friendly battle. I explained that I didn't have my normal team with me at the moment and wouldn't be able to put up a proper fight against him. He was disappointed but agreed to a rain check, forcing me to promise that the wait would be worth it.

We parted ways after agreeing on a day to meet up with Red as well. The two had been wanting to explore a strange cave located a ways out on the ocean and he invited me along, figuring it would be a good chance to exchange tips and tricks between fellow champs.

The sun had set and the sky had cleared as I walked back towards my father's house. The large expanse of night sky was nearly empty in comparison to Alola's skies. With all the light pollution from the large cities it was nearly impossible to see the stars.

The moon looked lonely in the vast empty sky and I felt a strange hollow sensation in my chest, as though I was sympathizing with the large rock soaring up in the heavens

My mind drifted off to wonder about my mother, how she was doing knowing that most of her family was hours away from her. Only reachable through phone or internet. She struggled just being away from Dad half the time, I'm sure her only daughter being gone didn't make things better.

One of the pokeballs at my waist burst open, Cecil the clefairy appearing on my shoulder. I shrugged a bit, knocking her enough off balance for her to cry out in annoyance and settle on top of my head instead, pushing my hat off.

"Hey hey hey! What's going on, Cecil?" I asked with a playful laugh.

She sang out in a rhythmic matter, I felt her weight shifting back and forth as though she were dancing.

I stopped walking as I heard more chanting from the woods on either side of me, other clefairy hiding in the bush and singing with Cecil. Three of them were hiding in the branches of a pine tree and I gawked in amazement as they wiggled their fingers back and forth in rhythm with their chant, their claws glowing and a strange sparkling mist hovering around their small bodies.

I reached for my rotom dex and asked what the heck was happening at the moment. It replied in it's signature staticky voice 'on the nights of full moons many clefairy gather to chant a mystical spell towards the sky. This has lead researchers to believe they originally come from the moon.'

A large smile fell across my face and I carefully picked Cecil off my head and cradled her in my arms, "you come from the moon?" I asked her.

The clefairy simply smiled at me, not breaking from her harmonious song.

How extraordinary and fascinating.

Hau texted me later that night after I had gotten back to my father's. I was curled up in my bed and talking at Kai about my day when my phone started vibrating endlessly. I was surprised to see his name only for the fact that there was a six hour time difference between Kanto and Alola - meaning that Hau was up and bursting with energy at nearly one in the morning.

H//MOON!

//WHERE ARE YOU

//Why was Kukui the "champion" today?!

//what the heck

//ARE YOU OKAY?

M//calm down, Hau!

//I'm fine, just taking some time off haha

H// why tho?!?!?

M//just to take a break

H//what is it getting too hard for you?

//I could take the job over if you're tired of it 😉

M// ha ha ha no

//you have to win it fair and square

H//I miss you... hang out with meeee

//if your off than you have tiiime

M//I don't have time too actually

//sorry

He continued on, complaining about how I never had time to see him in general and it wasn't fair that I was doing something else with my free time. I tried to ignore the guilt tripping since I knew he was just messing around... but I still felt bad anyway.

He drifted off to just chat with me about random things after that and I let the conversation go on for about an hour before I gave him crap for staying up so late. He fired it back at me and I struggled to not point out the fact that it was only nine where I was.

#gladion x moon #fanfic #lonashipping #gladion fanfic #pokemon #romance #adventure #Hau x Lillie #through the storm #through the storm chapter one

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