…Sorry this is out so late ^.^' Quite frankly, I was just being lazy at first, but then I got a porn virus –yes a pornvirus- on by computer (which was actually just part of it, but that's what I'm calling it) so I've been using my dad's computer for the last while; which doesn't have any of my stories on it. The people in India (who McAfee always hires) finally fixed it though, so we're all good!
Thanks to:
Spartan20
Mo12341234
Absh
Korona Karyuudo
Shadowjohn 101
LightningThieves
The Lemonator
Song of the Moon
For Reviewing! And congrats to Shadowjohn 101 who got all of Amethyst's team right, except for the normal pokemon (and since there are a lot of them, I'd be surprised if you could single one out) I hope you enjoy your mega cookie :3
This is the last chapter before the invasions begin yay!
Disclaimer: Would I be writing a fanfiction about pokemon if I owned it? I think not.
Welcome to the Family
The ocean sprayed into the faces of the traveling Team Gem members as they traveled across the ocean. The beautiful blue water matched the sky with the exception of the fluffy white clouds traveling across it.
Elizabeth Michaels sighed in mild irritation at how long this search for the Team Avian base taking. The original hype was all fine and well, but they had been searching for nearly a week and had been disappointed to find that the base was nowhere to be found in Johto.
Diamond had reassured all of them that Ruby was absolutely sure that the base was located on a cliff overlooking an ocean; though how she could be so sure Elizabeth would never know. Though she trusted that the leader of the team must know what she was talking about (even if she was a little uncomfortable with her motherliness), she was sure she would scream if the base wasn't located in Hoenn; their current destination.
"Starrr," crooned the pokemon she was riding. Elizabeth fondly patted the staraptor –her first pokemon- and murmured, "I hope we find it soon too, Zodiac."
"Don't be so stiff, Lissa!" a cheerful voice called from bellow her.
Elizabeth's blue-gray eyes peered down from her bird pokemon to see the cheerful yellow-gold eyes of her six year junior. Yuzuki was riding on top of the shell of her gentle lapras. Unlike Elizabeth, she was enjoying traveling and not being stuck in one place.
"Pras…" the lapras spoke gently, also looking up at the older girl and her pokemon.
"See, Nikita thinks so too," Yuzuki chirped happily.
Looking down at her teammate with a perfect poker face, Elizabeth stated, "I am not stiff Yuzuki; I merely think we're wasting time by not having a more efficient way to search besides looking all over the oceans of every region."
"Isn't it fun to travel though?" Yuzuki argued –though not very seriously- back, "You don't have to be so business-like all the time Lissa."
Elizabeth opened her mouth to respond, but was rudely interrupted by a gush of water spraying up and hitting her head; thoroughly soaking it. She twitched in mild agitation as her chestnut brown hair was plastered to her face and darkened to the point where the black streaks blended in. Though the soaking was quick, it was hard and had left her sopping wet.
Almost mechanically, she turned her head and looked to the source of the water. At the source was a shocked and mortified Toby clutching his blastoise, Squirt, and staring right at her. If that wasn't enough evidence, one of Squirt's large cannons was aimed directly at her; well, her head to be more specific.
"Oh- I'm-I'm so sorry! I-I was aiming for the wingull behind you and I guess it was closer to your head than I thought….please don't kill me!" Toby cried and appeared terrified that she would kill him. Toby hadn't previously been this scared of the consequences of his actions, but after causing Kallen to mess up one of the drills she was having her pokemon do by distracting her, he learned to fear the wrath of an angry woman.
Glancing back behind her shoulder, Elizabeth saw a wingull –not very surprising since the sea was full of them in Hoenn- that was fluttering about. Why was Toby even aiming for the stupid bird? She really didn't care at the moment.
"…It's fine," the nineteen year old said stiffly, not attempting to even sound sincere.
"Really? Thank Arceus you never get mad! You're the best Lissa! The B-E-S-T!" he cheered, automatically brightening up, chocolate brown eyes shimmering. How was this guy the same age as her?
"Hey, why were you even shooting at the wingull in the first place? It's not very nice to pick on weaker pokemon and hurt them," Yuzuki accused, slightly mad that black-haired boy was planning on hurting the bird pokemon.
Uninterested in his reason, Elizabeth began tying up her shoulder-blade length hair into a neat ponytail and removed her wet white coat and tied it around her waist, leaving her in a fitted black t-shirt and black pants. She then directed Zodiac towards where Onyx was pestering Kallen, who looked ready to smack him. She wasn't particularly good friends with either of them, but she knew Toby was scared of Kallen and didn't like Onyx, so he wouldn't follow her. She didn't get irritated easily, but Toby reminded her of her cousin a lot…
Yuzuki and Toby took no notice of Elizabeth's departure, since the younger black haired blond banged girl was too busy glaring accusingly at her older counterpart and Toby was too busy trying, and failing, to explain.
"Don't mind Toby; he's an idiot. He was trying to blast down the bird because he saw that it was holding something," a smooth voice said as Luke Avery pulled up next to Toby.
"You know, if Kit had been trying to blast down that wingull, she wouldn't have missed," he pointed out and patted his swampert.
"Swa!" Kit agreed, nudging Toby's blastoise teasingly.
"No way! If anything, Kit has worse aim –no offense Kit- and Lissa was right in the way!" Toby argued back, glaring at his best friend.
"Don't be stupid, Squirt may be a good pokemon, but having a screw-up trainer like you train him probably threw off his aim," Luke smirked, green eyes flashing.
"Why you-"
"Wait, so you were trying to shoot down the wingull for the letter it was holding?" Yuzuki butted in incredulously. She had been trying to wait for the boys' argument to end, but she got the feeling it wouldn't be anytime soon. While they had been arguing, Yuzuki had been looking at the white and blue bird pokemon who was still hanging around by them, and even though it took a bit, she recognized the object it was holding as a letter.
"Hm? Oh, yeah!" Toby grinned when he turned his attention from his older blond friend to Yuzuki.
"Why?"
"We're nosy," Toby grinned wider with absolutely no shame.
"Hey, what's this 'we' stuff? You were the one trying to shoot it down!"
As another argument exploded between the two with Yuzuki and a cowering Nikita (the lapras' timid disposition caused her to fear loud arguments) in the middle, another two Team Gem members watched them in amusement and slight exasperation.
Sapphire giggled as she watched the two older boys argue, "Aren't they funny?"
Erika sighed slightly at the fight but chuckled a little bit too; she was beginning to think that the only way the boys knew how to interact was by yelling at each other, "I guess, but they might be going a little overboard."
"Probably, but they really are nice. Toby even let us ride Roger!" Sapphire smiled happily.
"GYAR!" Roger, the twenty-one foot long snake-like water pokemon, roared. The first time he did this Erika had been mildly terrified, but Toby assured her that this was a sign of affection. He seemed to really like Sapphire (who didn't). Her? Not so much.
The seventeen-year-olds nose crinkled as water was once again splashed into her face. Sapphire, who was sitting a bit in front of her, hadn't gotten one drop of water on her.
Lup," the small blue penguin-like pokemon in her arms comforted. Bubbles was her only water pokemon, but since she was only a small piplup and didn't plan on evolving anytime soon, she wouldn't be a very comfortable ride for their voyage on the sea. She did make a great traveling companion though, and enjoyed being able to jump in the water whenever she felt like it.
"I'm fine Bubbles, it's just-" Erika stopped mid-sentence has a particularly big splash of water drenched her. Again.
"Pip!" Bubbles cried angrily, glaring at the body of the sea serpent that was harassing her trainer. She hopped out of Erika's arms and began to stomp angrily on the body of the gyarados; firing off drill pecks here and there. "Lup, piplup!" she cried and preformed a particularly hard drill peck.
Before Erika could tell her pokemon what she was doing wasn't a very good idea, Roger bumped the segment of his body that the small penguin was attacking and popped her into the air; causing her to land in the ocean.
"Bubbles!" the brunette called worriedly after her pokemon. She was very relieved when she saw her pop her head from out of the water and begin yelling indignantly at the sea serpent. Bubbles' efforts were rewarded by being ignored by the huge pokemon and being unable to retake her place on his back.
"That's what you get for losing your temper!" Erika called down. Though she appreciated how protective her pokemon was of her, she really needed to learn that she couldn't attack any pokemon or person when they bugged her.
"Hey Storm, why don't you go down there too and make sure Bubbles doesn't get lonely?" Sapphire suggested to her eeveelution, who nodded and hopped off Roger.
Erika smiled at the younger girl in thanks and Sapphire smiled back. They spent the next while in silence, listening to the waves, the cawing of pelipper and wingull, and watching Storm and Bubbles play in the ocean. Right when Erika began dozing in the sun (which had thankfully dried her), a loud buzzing sounded in her ear, causing her to jump awake with a little scream.
Next to the blue eyed girl hovered a dark green and red dragonfly pokemon that made a constant buzzing. "What's this?" she muttered, eyeing the pokemon warily.
"Oh, I think that's brother's yanmega!" Sapphire announced, studying the bug pokemon closely.
"Onyx has a yanmega?" Erika questioned. From what he boasted about, it didn't seem like the bug pokemon would fit his "bad boy" image.
"No, silly, Emerald's," the blue haired girl giggled, "It looks like he wants to give you something."
As if to confirm Sapphire's words, Emerald's yanmega nudged Erika and lowered his tail over his head; revealing a letter clamped in his pincer. Erika gingerly removed the letter and studied it. The envelope was a light green with pink flowers doodled all over it; she expected no less from him.
"Read it," Sapphire urged.
Erika nimbly opened the envelope, took out the paper, and began reading:
Dear Eri-Love,
Hello Eri dearest! How are you doing out there on the high seas? It must be depressing since there's no green there; it's my fa~vor~ite color. Oh! But your eyes are blue, so maybe blue is your favorite color?
Things are wonderfully wonderful here at the base, though it's really quiet since we're missing so many people (sad face). Also, Rhina keeps getting mad at me because I wanna look at her a~ma~zing workshop. Everyone's so mean to me Eri-Love! You're the only person who will listen to me without yelling naughty words at me or committing violent actions; I hope you come back soon!
I hope you're doing super fantastically awesome my dear. Tell Saph-Baby I send love and tell Ony-Dear that the poochyena stuffed animal he had hidden under his pillow is cute. (heart)
Make sure to thank Dragon for being a sweetheart and delivering this! Oh- and I know how much you love those cute hair clips you wear so I got something for you to remember me by~
Hugs and Kisses,
Emerald (star)
Erika's blue eyes sparkled in amusement as she read the letter and laughed when she got the part about Onyx having a stuffed poochyena. She didn't think she'd be delivering that message because the brooding boy seemed like the type to shoot the messenger pidgey.
After folding up the paper, a claw/leg was shoved in her face. Seeing that there was something in the claw, she put out her hand for the yanmega to drop it in. A small object was dropped into her hand and she smiled at what she saw. A little silver clip rested in her hand with an emerald (she had no doubt that it was fake) decorating the end. It was simple, but it was probably her new favorite.
She quickly unclipped her old clip from her shoulder length brown hair, put it in her pocket, and popped her new one on. "Thank you very much Dragon," she then thanked the yanmega who nodded in acceptance and wasted no time fluttering off to his owner; quickly disappearing over the horizon.
Erika stared after the bug pokemon in surprised, "Wow, he's really fast."
Sapphire nodded, "Brother specializes in speed with his pokemon. So, what did the letter say?"
"Oh, your brother says everything at the base is good, though a little quiet, and sends you love."
"That's good! I also see that he gave you a present," Sapphire teased and grinned mischievously.
"Yeah, well, he's my friend and…" Erika's face began to heat up as she stuttered slightly in embarrassment.
"Aw, Emerald loves you! Do you love Emerald? Are you gonna get married? Are you gonna become my sister? Amethyst says that you're nice, and I think you're nice too, so you don't have to worry about us! Oh, I can't wait! Can I be the flower girl? The wedding should be-" Erika watched, mortified, as the little girl bubbled over with childish glee.
Now, she was sure she was not kidding herself when she said Emerald didn't love her, and she didn't love Emerald. She might, might, have a small crush on the childish man. Emerald? Who ever knew what was going through his head? The idea of them in a relationship…she didn't really know how she felt about it, but, she did know there were those times when something about Emerald seemed off, darker, more dangerous…
Sapphire studied Erika inquisitively as the older girl sat behind her with a contemplative face. She had long ago stopped gushing about their weddings –which she knew would happen- and had been sitting for a few minutes in silence. A frown tugged at her lips. Though she was sure Erika liked Emerald, it seemed like something about him bugged her a little bit. Amethyst…Amethyst had freaked out way more than she should have when it was announced she'd go on the mission. Amethyst was also always mumbling when she thought Sapphire wasn't listening about her mother not having good intentions. Maybe…maybe something really was wrong…
…
"Will you be quiet you little pest?" Kallen hissed as she glared at the teenage boy hovering above her.
"Oh, so you finally decided to talk quiet girl?" Onyx smirked as he looked down on the older girl; both literally and figuratively. He mused, "You did last a while- well over an hour."
Onyx Jewels was a cocky little shit. Kallen had decided that if there was a dictionary definition for the dark haired brat that would be it. The younger boy had flown over to her over an hour ago, and though she had started out responding, she grew increasingly silent as her anger began to build up.
Their (one-sided) conversation ranged from him talking about how great he was to how he awesome he was, with little in between. She was sure he managed to throw in a couple degrading comments in there somewhere, but she had begun to tune him out after a while.
"Would you be quiet and go away?" she growled, attempting to calm down.
"I would, but everyone else is even bigger losers than you, not that you're better by much," Onyx sneered.
The black haired girl gave him a dead pan look and said, "You know, my dewgong could shoot your charizard out of the sky in a matter of seconds."
"Hah! You couldn't even hurt Inferno if you tried," Onyx declared, chuckling at her absurdity.
Really, was he an idiot? What dimwit rides a half fire pokemon over the sea? If there was one angry water pokemon that decided to attack him, he would be screwed. This guy needed to get taken down a notch.
"Why don't we test it then? Lance, use-"
"Attention underlings!" a slick voice called, gaining Kallen's attention before she issued her command. Her black eyes were drawn towards the figure of a busty woman standing on top of what looked like a garchomp on steroids. She had a devious smile, confident stance, and ice blue eyes. Behind her sat the calm, but tense, form of Gordon Jameson. Having no pokemon of his own, he had no choice but to ride on somebody else's pokemon. Diamond had already announced that he would be staying close to her on the mission, leaving the man no choice. The team felt varying degrees of pity for him.
"Thanks to ghost boy here, we have –finally- located the Avian's base!" Diamond announced. She was just happy she could get off the sea for a while; it was making her hair frizz.
Next to the floating dragon pokemon was the form of "ghost boy", or Ace Break, hitching a ride on his intimidating ghostly companion; Dusknoir. As Ace opened his mouth to speak, Diamond curtly cut him off, "I ordered Ace to scout ahead with his Dusknoir's shadow sneak in the shadow of the cliffs to see if he could find anything. I wasn't very surprised when my plan worked and now I have shaved off days of searching- feel free to thank me. Anyway, ghost boy, could you direct them to where you found it?"
Ace spared a half glare at her before saying, "You can see it from here; it's that speck on the last cliff that's in sight." He pointed down the opposite way that they were going to travel.
"I can see it!" Yuzuki and Toby announced excitedly at once, happy that their squinting had paid off. Yuzuki glared at Toby as he cheekily waved a piece of paper in front of her; it turns out, Kit's aim was better. Toby wouldn't let her read the letter though; he said it was punishment for trying to get the bird to fly away, though the stupid thing didn't.
"Finally," Elizabeth murmured; she had abandoned Onyx and Kallen quickly after discovering that they would probably end up being just as loud as her previous company. She had lead Zodiac into some higher altitude flying until she saw Diamond prepare to make an announcement.
"Get ready Team Gem, we have a base to invade," Diamond smirked.
And that, really, was when it all began.
…
Dear Lord, that was like pulling teeth =.=" I'm ready to get to the invasion(s)! Sorry for any grammar mistakes; I didn't really feel like thoroughly re-reading this.
Oh, check out the new OC submission story I'm doing! It's called "A Pirate's Life" :)
I think I'm going to take a nap now, R&R!