Pokémon

Okay, so most of you are probably like "AN UPDATE?! WTF?! If this is an author's note, she's going down!"

Yes, yes it is an update. SURPRISE!

I did NOT plan to go all AWOL on you guys! Things got a little hectic around the time University and scholarship applications came out, spent my summer working full-time so I could pay for University, then got bogged down with University work =.= But I'm back for a while! Or at least I'll try to be. I'm warning you now that I don't know how often I will be able to write. But I digress...

Thank you all who are still following, and especially to cpdx who cared enough to message me several times to see if I was still alive XP thanks so much for checking on me!

And there you have it. I'm going to vanish into a puff of smoke now so you may continue forth and read in peace...

*!SMOKE BOMB!*

Chapter 39 – Eye of the Storm

The unpleasantly cold black depths gave way beneath a body plunging under its surface. Given the amount of turmoil stirring the ocean water, nothing emerged within seconds like it should have given regular circumstances. The murky expanse continued its clawing and writhing as if nothing had disturbed it, immediately filling the momentary gap.

Below the surface, a young brunette trainer sunk lower with the force of a wave crashing down at the moment she dove into the water. With eyes closed and cheeks puffed with air, she pressed her clenched palm against the sphere at her hip and released. The red glow at the back of her lids affirmed the action had worked, along with the brush of sleek, smooth scales against the back of her hand and a soothing, gentle aura. A long, skinny body wound around the girl's waist and carried her through the heaving and towing surges.

Though the water was cold, it wasn't much of a change from the frosty downpour she had been soaked in before her plunge. She kept her eyes closed for the rather lengthy swim, seeing nothing but darkness as they charged though. Her lungs began to burn with the lack of oxygen and she lightly tapped the side of her pokemon's neck to signal her distress. A few seconds later, in which Alex assumed they were ascending, she was able to replenish her air supply in gasping breaths, nearly choking on the salt water.

Brown eyes fluttering open just in time to witness a jagged yellow streak sizzle inches above her, Alex shrieked and flailed like a magikarp on dry land in the grasp of her dragonair. Once her head was safely above the water and she was being dragged away from the electrifying zaps, she calmed back down and settled back against her dragon. Her gaze remained on the daunting streaks of yellow continuously surging earthward.

"Thanks, Tempest," Alex said as she sat on the hard, rocky surface of the island's coast. Her breathing had evened once again, and the adrenalin pumping through her veins was beginning to settle along with her thoughts. With her hand moving to stroke the tired dragon, she finally got a good look at her destination.

Though the storm was wreaking havoc outside the boundaries of the island, marked by the circle of lightning bolts encasing it, the inside was eerily free of it all. It rather reminded her of being in the eye of the storm. The sky was still dark with smog-like clouds, which spiraled outward from the tip of a black mountain that swelled from the far side of the landmass. Wispy white mist floated across the water and curled towards her feet with the placid lapping of the waves. The air was warm and sticky with humidity, and the rocks clammy and murky with moisture.

"Gross," the girl mumbled with a scrunch of her nose. The thin black raincoat rustled as she shed it off, followed by its under-layer that landed beside her with a loud shlop! Little streams trickled down the rocky slope from the discarded hoodie. Her rubber boots and soggy socks popped off next, spilling the pool they had contained. The brunette shrugged off her backpack, tugging uncomfortably at the tank top and sweats that suction cupped to her skin.

Alex heaved an exhaustive breath and hauled herself to her feet, not caring about her bare-footedness at the moment for the rocks, though a tad slippery, were quite smooth from years of water erosion. Her dragonair was still coiled up in the same spot, obviously having used a lot of energy to fight the strong current, as she pulled out a pokeball and told the dragon to rest up.

Another three red lights bloomed around the girl, releasing her eevee, lucario and houndoom into the humid air. They all blinked at their trainer in the shady light. Houndoom let out a large yawn, lightly sniffing the air. The fox twitched her long ears and eyed everything in sight with curiosity. Lucario, however, remained staring at his trainer with concern.

"I sense a very malevolent energy radiating from this place. Where are we?" The two-legged pokemon asked telepathically.

"It's a long story." Alex wrung some of the water from her hair while continuing, "But we need to find something on this island. Can you track the negative energy?"

Lucario sighed. "Why does it seem as though you're always in trouble?" He ignored the muttering of his trainer about how this was not an improvement over the old cute, innocent pup. "However, I believe the energy is coming from something within that mountain." He pointed a paw toward the large mound spearing the sky.

"That's a good guess," the trainer noted, watching the black clouds practically oozed from its tip. Calculating eyes raked the visible side of the conical mound occupying the vast majority of the island besides the narrow length of the coastline. 'Strange…' she thought, a tad wondrously. 'This place seems somewhat… familiar. But I've never been here before…'

Lucario watched the expression of his trainer's face change to one of befuddlement as she lost herself in her thoughts. Hesitantly, he decided to speak up. "Alex…" he started to gain the brunette's attention. Her head quickly turned as she blinked at him as if she had forgotten that anyone was there. He chose to ignore it for the time being. "The energy here seems extremely unstable. It is my suggestion that we get off this place as soon as possible."

Alex's face scrunched as she sent a cold glare towards the zapping and sizzling yellow bolts and shuddered. "You do have a plan to get off this island…right?"

"No, I haven't gotten that far yet," the girl replied haughtily, stingily placing her bare feet within the damp innards of her soggy-lined rubber boots. "We'll figure that out as soon as we find what we're looking for."

"And that is?"

"…A key…?"

"Are you sure about that?"

"…No, no I'm not," Alex admitted icily while grumbling something about a stupid man and his stupid plans and a stupid island.

The bipedal pokemon shook his head dejectedly. "I was afraid you would say that."

"Oh, quit complaining. The faster we find the stupid whatever-it-is, the sooner we can look for a way off the damn island."

"You know, I'm really beginning to believe that that Paul is having a negative influence on your attitude."

"Trust me, I bet he's not too happy I'm here either," the girl muttered. "But back to the task at hand, if only we could get to the top of that mountain without going through the mountain. I don't want to go inside another cave after the last few days and I especially don't want to go through one that's spouting out that nasty stuff." She was, of course, gesturing to the black smog creating a dreary gray blanket over the better part of the west coast.

"Why the top?" Lucario questioned.

"Because for some reason it seems like everything you're looking for in a cave is either on the very top floor, or the very bottom. And the source of that dark energy certainly looks like it'd be closer to the top."

"Grrruff!" Houndoom barked suddenly.

"What is it, Doom?" Alex asked, slightly put off by the wakefulness of the often-lazy canine as he raised himself to snarl at the mountaintop.

The telepathic pokemon appeared to know what the firedog had said, and sharply narrowed his eyes. "Don't spur her on. It's dangerous!"

Houndoom growled in response, lowering his belly to the ground without lying down.

"Wait, you're saying you can climb the mountain?" Alex exclaimed. She watched her pokemon nod confidently, sinking his claws into the relatively soft stone forming the island. "Great. Let's do this!" the girl declared assertively, allowing eevee to hop onto her shoulder and then squelching her way to mount the canine.

"This is…this is…this is outrageous!" lucario sputtered as the group readied themselves.

"Would you like to go back in your pokeball?" the trainer questioned blandly, taking hold of the curled horns atop houndoom's head to steady herself as he rose.

The pokemon blinked, unsure and somewhat startled. With one last look beyond the electric border at the ocean rolling with large waves. Finally, after a moment of gaining his wits, lucario slowly shook his head. "No, I shall accompany you. Somebody will have to assure that you don't get yourself into any more trouble."

At this claim, Alex rolled her eyes. "Well then let's kick it into gear, guys!"

With the call from its trainer, the black canine leapt forward into a sprint. The lean dog was muscular and fast, swiftly digging his claws to grip the stone and springing forth with gaining momentum. Alex bent forward to hug the pokemon's neck as the incline became steeper the higher they climbed. Eevee had also moved to secure herself between Alex and houndoom. To the side, the trainer could see lucario easily following their rapid pace with his arms out behind him and eyes trained on their destination.

Just under the smoggy-cloud ceiling, an opening was just visible to the pokemon by a shadowy patch. With one more powerful bound, houndoom's front claws caught the ledge of a rather surprisingly large opening and pulled them safely up and onto level ground. Lucario was right behind, gracefully hopping up to their side once again.

The brunette sat up gradually, head swimming a bit from the trip and sudden change back to level ground. Her brown eyes blinked for a few blurry seconds until she could make out her telepathic companion investigating the string of stalagmites and stalactites that had once been growing from the floor and ceiling of the entrance like a cage door, but now lay shattered in hunks at their feet. The red eyes glanced back to meet hers with worry.

"See, I'm not the only one crazy enough to come here," she joked softly, hardly able to manage a convincing smile. She knew this didn't look good. She did think Dimentio had mentioned something about 'hoping those other idiots weren't here', and now was even more irritated that he hadn't given her more to go on. If it was whom she thought it could be…she shuddered.

Lucario sent her a hard look, and she shook her head. "Come on. We'll go in quietly," she whispered, slipping her flashlight out of the top of her waterproof backpack -which she was thankful she had purchased quite a few drenched swims ago. Eevee was back on her shoulder, feeling her shiver in her tank top and waterlogged sweats as they stepped over what remained of the formations and into the cool, moist cave air.

With a wince, the bipedal pokemon said, "The dark energy is stronger up here."

Alex nodded and training her flashlight down the tunnel they trekked down at a crawling pace. Nothing seemed all that strange as they walked that few feet, but Alex didn't need to be able to sense wavelengths to feel a pressure pushing against her as she was about to step out of the pathway. She let out a silent groan and rubbed her forehead. Eyes squinting out around the corner, there was a coiling slope leading somewhere above their heads off to their right. Otherwise there was a rocky bed of floor, leading to a single other passageway that was closed off by naturally made bars like the ones once concealing the outside opening.

Shuffling around the corner, the girl held the wall with one hand and shone the light up the ramp to their right and began her ascent carefully, finding it a bit difficult with her water-repellant boots against the water-sodden rocks. Houndoom, who was traveling on her heels, urged her ahead with his horns every time she slipped. Steadily, they climbed higher and higher along the spiraling rise until a bizarre flickering began to shoot off the walls from around the bends.

Turning off the beam of light as the flicker grew into unsteady, but radiant flashes of crimson tinted with shadows of black, the group inched ever closer to the peak of the mountain. Frowning, Alex crept on her toes up the last few steps, staying close to the outer wall in the shadows until her head peered up to the floor of a cylindrical room. She stopped and mentally gasped at the sight.

In the very dead center of the room was a jagged rock structure stemming from the ground of rocks composing the mountain. It was about as tall as a small man, but too thick to wrap your arms around. Though thick, there was a series of cracks throughout the structure that discharged the scarlet light that glinted off the walls, and a hole in the top with an unwavering shaft of the red energy that shot upward and cackled with black streaks. The room had several openings that resembled windows looking out to nothing but black clouds, which were kept at bay with darting flashes of black lightning emitting from the rock.

What made Alex stop in her tracks, however, were the two men occupying the room. One was down on his knees with strange goggles covering his eyes and mahogany bangs spiked down over his forehead. He wore a dark, high-collared jacket with green bordering and cuffs and a grey shirt underneath. His hands were placed on the rock formation, covered with grey gloves with black fingers. One of the hands reached down and rooted through one of the many pockets of a black belt, holding up a pair of green slacks also bearing many pockets.

The other was a familiar pale-skinned, violet-hair-with-haunter-clawed-bangs boy whose shocking luminescent green eyes watched his partner grimly and thin arms covered in black crossed over his chest. "What's taking so long, Eddy? Just break the damn thing out."

"It's not as simple as that," the other male replied, lifting up his goggles slightly only to reveal a pair of green-rimmed glasses. He rather looked like your typical, stereotypical nerd, besides the dangerous glint in the corner of his eyes and the forcefulness of his tone. "We can't risk damaging it. We'll have to be careful about the extraction or we could end up not only destroying it, but unbalance the delicate system of this island and possibly cause an implosion or cave-in that would kill us along with it. Now please, if you don't mind, I need to work in silence."

"What the hell?" Alex breathed faintly, but evidently not quietly enough for the glowing green eyes of Gabriel and the hard, analytical seafoam green eyes of Eddy to swivel in her direction. "…Uh-oh."

Gabriel was aghast, throwing his finger out to point at her as if it wasn't evident enough he was directly addressing her. "Hey, you! I thought you were dead!"

Houndoom growled again like he had outside, leaping over the ridge created where the level floor met the spiraling slope to bare his fangs at the outstretched appendage. The canine tensed in a crouch, red eyes slit and darting to catch anything that dared move.

"I wasn't really in the mood for dying," Alex responded frostily. There was no other choice but to confront them now. Plus, now she had back up. She stepped up behind houndoom's whipping arrowhead tail, along with lucario who appeared to be shadowing her – not marching into direct view of the two men. Although he had changed his childish appearance, some of that faint-hearted attitude remained. Houndoom, on the other hand, seemed to have no problem showing his contempt for the two.

"Humph." The one called Eddy scoffed at the sight of the girl, not acting unsettled at all by the snarling dog. He turned his back to the scene and uninterestedly pulled down his goggles. "Look, I don't care who you are or what you want, just be a good little girl and be quiet so I can work."

Gabriel bristled on the other end of the room. "Why are you here? You've caused us enough problems over the past week."

"It seems the same thing as you are," the girl replied through gritted teeth. "Get away from the key."

"Oh, so you know about the key. Impressive. But what makes you think we'd do what you say, hm? If you haven't noticed, we outnumber you. Besides, if you're telling me that you can get that thing out of that rock without blowing this place up, then be my guest." The ghost-trainer smirked condescendingly, returning to leaning against the wall, eyes shining with amusement in the dark room.

Alex frowned, watching the nerdy guy run his hands delicately across the structure's surface from the corner of her eye, a pick, hammer and chisel lying next to his knees. Her gaze trained back to Gabriel, cursing in her head. "Why do you want the key, anyway?"

The boy raised his brows at her, a smirk stretching out on his lips. "You don't even know what this key is for, do you?"

"So why don't you tell me?" she snapped.

"Nah, that wouldn't be any fun at all. I can now see that you're just some lackey they sent in to take care of things for them while they sit back and watch - you poor thing."

Hand tightening into a fist and muscles tensing, Alex shot back, "Like hell! Let me guess, you don't know what it does either, do you?! That's why you won't tell me!"

"No, no, nothing like that." He waved his hand dismissively, shaking his head and grin still pulling at his lips. "It's not my place to tell you, anyway. If you come back with us, though, perhaps you'll find out."

"Again, like hell I'll go with you creeps!"

"Gabriel, I suggest you stop riling her up. Between the two of you, you're making an awful ruckus," Eddy's displeased tone rang through the small space, followed by the weak tapping of a hammer. His head turned slightly, only enough for Alex to see a glint from his goggles. "You don't want to make me tell you again."

The room went dead silent, minus the tapping of the pick as it struck the rock in a steady rhythm. Gabriel had closed his eyes and remained tensed with his back against the wall, lips pulled into a hard line. Though the girl had started off defiant, fists balled with a hateful glare and flaring nostrils, eventually she got tired and her anger dissipated. Her bottom found its way to the stony ground, arms crossed in an attempt to keep her front warm whilst her back absorbed heat from her houndoom, who though lying down remained on full alert. Lucario stayed standing, seemingly attempting to fight off the vibes that the island emitted with closed eyes and a slightly cringing expression.

Tap, tap, tap…chink! …

"Crap…!"

"What?" both Alex and Gabriel demanded with a start.

The brunette scrambled to her feet and shuffled over to look over the other man's shoulder. She was just in time to witness the spastic blackened-crimson sparks zap abnormally in the socket that Eddy's pickaxe had created before it gave one final, startling burst outward that made all three individuals fall backwards and went dead.

Again, nobody dared break the silence for fear of realization of what had just occurred. Alex produced her flashlight from her pants pocket and shone it to allow some light in the murky cave. Finally, the goggle-clad man reached forward with his gloved hand and delicately drew out a uniquely shaped golden trinket that was slightly bigger than his hand, however it was impossible to get a distinctive shape in the dull lighting. He made sure it didn't make contact with the suddenly brittle looking mound of stone it was contained in. Though it had most definitely been there for many years, there were no signs of rust or other blemishes from the elements. It gleamed brilliantly in the beam of the flashlight.

Eddy released a gush of air, whispering, "Nothing happened. For a moment I-"

But he had spoken too soon. The floor beneath their feet began to tremble, causing dust and small pebbles to rain from the spherical walls. The mound was reduced to rubble and they knew the rest of the mountain would likely end up with the same fate, burying them if they didn't move immediately.

"Alex, come on!" lucario ordered, forcing her to run in the direction of the ramp they had climbed up.

The girl halted at the top of the incline, the ray of light displaying a barricade of rocks continuously tumbling down from the darkness onto her path out. She swore, spinning on her heel with her eyes darting around for any possible way out of the suddenly claustrophobic cavern. There was only one.

"Need a hand?" Gabriel asked, smugly.

The dark smog was beginning to clear with the absence of energy. Apparently these people had come more prepared than she, for two long cords dangled just within arms reach of the window-like openings in the wall. Eddy had already disappeared with the key, but the key was no longer the first thing on Alex's mind. She wanted out of the cave. NOW!

"Lucario, houndoom, eevee, return!" she called, quickly reducing the number of bodies she needed to look after. Panicked, she rushed over to where the man was disappearing up out of view. But as she reached the hole, placing her hand on the rim above her head to give her leverage needed to step up on the narrow ledge, another hand glided into her view.

"We meet again, Alex," a dark voice uttered smoothly.

"Gah!" the brunette reeled. Her expression became even more pained as she gazed upon the devious, fedora-clad man that seemed to appear at the most suspiciously convenient of times. She muttered, "Damn, not you again."

"Is that any way to greet your savior?" A beckoning, gloved hand waited patiently for the girl, a shrewd grin rising on his lips as she glanced past the ledge at the drop below her and flinching as a rather loud crash rumbled through the cave. "Please, I wish only to help. You can't possibly stay here." Though, it was blatant that he was pleased with the circumstances.

A hum of disapproval emitted from Alex as she bit at her lip nervously. The cave was becoming alarmingly unsteady and the ledge she was pensively deciding to climb onto was beginning to crack beneath her hands. Resentfully, unable to come up with any other plausible options that would lead her to safety, her gloved hand grabbed his and pulled herself up onto the cavern opening.

The man with the obscured face simpered down at her fearful face as she stared reproachfully at the nearly camouflaged aircraft hovering in the gloomy sky. "Lovely," he whispered subtly, tilting his head slightly with intention to signal somebody onboard the aircraft before it snapped back.

A sudden burst of energy shot through the damp air. The grasping hands tore apart as the man recoiled his back to his chest to cradle the wound that burned through his coat sleeve. The sudden loss of stability added to the quaking under the girl's feet caused her to lose her footing atop the rickety ridge and with a frightened shriek gravity pulled her within its grasp and sucked her down. She twisted in attempt to catch onto the mysterious man, but she was already out of his reach. The smile had disappeared from the man's face altogether, replaced with a vengeful frown. The top of his face, even at the angle at which she was falling, was still invisible to the girl's eyes. That was the last thing she noted before her wide eyes squinted shut, once again helpless.

Phooop!

Alex felt a weight collide against her back and side. Instinctively, she instantly clung to whatever it was. A gust was still blowing against her skin, but not so much that it took all breath from her lungs. She gasped in a lungful of air, finally building the courage to peek her eyes open.

"…!"

"You really are a pain, you know that?"

She stole a glance toward the heavens and found the man and the aircraft were already gone. The mountain was tearing apart into an avalanche of rocks, annihilating everything on the mass of land. The electrical barrier encompassing the island was gone and the black smog was reducing into the blue atmosphere.

Looking back at the boy who had saved her, she muttered, "Paul…"

"Shut up. We're going back to the Pokemon Centre - like I told you to."

The girl lowered her face so it was partially curtained by her bangs and bit back a small smile with a dusting of pink coating her nose. She swiveled so she was mounted correctly on honchkrow's back, in front of the purplette as opposed to lying across his lap. Though, his arms remained around her torso to steady them both. She patted the pokemon's neck, hoping to hastily pacify her galloping heartbeat.

"Alright," she nodded in agreement. "But what happened to that sailor Eli?"

"Tch," Paul scoffed next to her ear. "I told him to stop being an idiot and get out of the storm. Now shut up, I don't need anymore of your bright ideas today," he growled, though it was clearly halfheartedly.

The brunette laughed softly to herself, taking full, soothing breaths to fight off her previous anxiety. She let her eyes serenely flutter shut as she enjoyed the slight breeze against her face, a warm material draping over her bare shoulders and arms that had long before risen with goosebumps. A smile remained on her lips for the remainder of the flight, a feeling of security wrapped around her and surrounding her with warmth.

Awe! Don't that just make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?

Well, off to the philosophy I go! Pip pip! Cherio! Tah-tah!