Season 2: Galactic Enemies

Chapter 2, 15: In-Floaroma Patterns

Ethan hastened down the stairs, his hat falling onto his head. He grabbed his backpack off of the couch where he set it before when he forgot his hat upstairs. Quickly, he barreled out the front door of the Pokemon Center. Outside, the wind was blowing harshly and almost knocked him off his feet.

Across the whole town, people were swaying violently, trying to walk to their destinations. The fierce push of the wind was too much, however for some of them. Suddenly, Ethan's hat was lifted off his head and it was whisked away through the air. The wind picked it up and tossed it away. He scrambled for it, reaching a shop before it landed abruptly in the grass. He dove for it and snatched it up. He stood and his eyes caught sight of the little shop.

It was similar to a lemonade stand, except with a back wall. A sign was at the top, but it had nothing written on it. He spotted a pair of black goggles hanging on a hook on the wall. He stepped closer to the counter and looked around. No-one was inside, the he could see.

As he reached for them, the air vibrated and something faded into his vision. It was a man in a brown-tan, same as the color of the wood, that stepped out and slapped Ethan's hand away.

"You gotta pay for those!" He snapped. His eyes were baggy and his skin seemed flat and airy.

"Oh, sorry. Didn't see anyone." Ethan retrieved some money from his bag and handed it over to the man. The man handed him the goggles. Ethan strapped them around the hat he had placed back onto his head. Waving, he departed.

"Now to find Jim," he whispered to himself, taping one of the lenses of the goggles.

As Ethan walked on, he found Jim and his Elekid practicing their appeals in a field on the west side of Floaroma Town. Cody was aiding him in practices.

Elekid bounded into the air, arms sparkling. It fired two bolts of electricity towards Kabuto. It then dropped and started spinning. Kabuto curled in Harden and lightning sprang off of him and back towards Elekid. Elekid continued to twirl, and as the lightning struck him, he thrust his arms outward. The lightning fizzled away past Elekid, leaving a stream of yellow sparks glittering around him.

"Jim, that's a pretty excellent move you have going there. How're you going to incorporate it into a Single Performance though?" Ethan asked as he stepped up to the area, nodding his head side-to-side.

Cody nodded and stared at Jim.

"S-Single Performance?"

-.-

"Can't you take a break Jim?" Cody murmured as Jim repeated a new appeal for the fourteenth time with Elekid.

"No! Elekid, use Hidden Power and Shock Wave!" Elekid formed spiraling spheres around its prongs and fired them in the air. Second, it generated electricity and fired a wave of electricity into the air. Before the Shock Wave struck, the Hidden Power spheres burst and the Shock Wave was given nothing to strike. "GAHHHHH! Elekid, again!"

Ethan groaned. As Cody and Ethan lounged on the ground, heavily sighing due to Jim's charisma, a girl hastened her step to approach the group. Ethan looked up and his eyes flickered. It was a familiar person. Someone they all knew.

Cody stood up faster than Ethan did, however. "Dawn!"

Dawn smiled perkily and stuck her tongue out. "Hey, guys! What's up?"

Ethan stood and hurried over to Jim, where he then proceeded to tap him on the shoulder. Her turned, after angrily snapping at Ethan, then his mood was uplifted. "Oh, hey Dawn!" Dawn rejoined them and they started chattering amongst themselves.

"So I decided to take off from Oreburgh after I beat Roark. Since I figured you guys would have been way ahead of me by now, I was gonna just keep going through Floaroma until I found you. But, apparently you weren't far off from where I originally thought!" Dawn explained.

"So, you beat Roark?" Ethan asked excitedly.

"Yup. With my new Pokemon, mostly over anything," Dawn replied, holding the Pokeball.

"Does it have a type advantage over Rock?" Cody asked, whipping out his notepad where he had all 16 types listed then the Rock type to the side. Jim scooted next to him.

"Do you have one of those on every page...?"

"Well, no, it doesn't..." Before Dawn finished, Cody had scratched off the types that had an advantage over Rock-Ground, Ice, Grass, Water, Fighting-and he was left with all the other types. "But if you think I'm going to answer all your questions to find out what type it is..." She placed a hand on his forehead and shoved him away playfully.

Ethan grinned. "Well, we got caught up in a tournament two days ago..."

"A tournament? Sounds exciting!" Dawn was beginning to get riled up.

"Yeah. Some other guy named 'Dento' won with me. It was a Double-Tag Tournament. Anyway, there's a contest going on tomorrow. Jim's competing in it and he's been training for awhile..."

"Ya know, guys, we should go to the Floaroma Meadow on the West side of town. It's a very peaceful place and the gentle wind and fragrant aromas can soothe the hearts of people!" Dawn exclaimed the suggestion with the utmost surprise.

"Hey! That sounds like a great idea. It'll be a great charisma boost before your contest, anyway!" Ethan snapped to Jim.

Flowers swayed in the brisk wind, rubbing against each others stems, as if to give a gentle caress. The tension in the air shattered when three figures bounded through the thick meadow of hot pink, blue violet and goldenrod flowers.

"Woo hoo! There's a Honey Tree!" Dawn hollered.

"I know! I see it...There's another one!" Jim pointed toward an autumn colored tree. They broke away to the trees, two to one and one to another. Jars contained in their hands were filled with a goopy golden colored substance. As they landed in front of the trees, they took knives and slathered the goo onto the dark brown bark of the trees.

Before they had come, they stopped by the Flower Shop and purchased a few jars of Sweet Honey. It was Honey that some makers gathered from the nearby forest from Combee hives.

"Gross. It's all sticky and stuff!" Ethan added with an air of joke.

"I know right...but, we'll get a good heap of Pokemon out of this, right?" Cody wondered.

"Right...I can't believe how amazing this place feels!" Jim sighed as his Pokemon started to play in the flowers. As he stepped forward between two daisies, two men approached, backing another man up through the meadow.

"What's going on...THOSE GUYS HAVE THE SAME OUTFITS AS THAT OTHER LOSER!" Dawn shouted abruptly. The air stilled and the flowers grew stagnant, the Pokemon froze and the expressions hardened.

"...other loser?" One of the men said. His outfit was of the same natural design as Saturn of Team Galactic, and the same the man that Dawn had excused from a small lake.

The other man was now finished with all the fighting. He waved his hand his deep, angry expression shot through the group of kids.

"Dawn, do you know how to keep your mouth shut?" Ethan asked through clenched teeth. Starly was perched upon the tree behind Ethan, while Piplup and Aipom were at his sides.

"Yes, that's a good question. Anyway, as we were saying..." The more mature man turned his attention back to the elderly man they had confronted. The younger Grunt stepped forward towards the group.

"You kids should depart and leave this up to grown ups..." As soon as he turned to face his partner, powerful bubbles smacked into his back and sent him rolling. The leader of the duo stepped aside and drew a Pokeball.

"Useless partners always hold me back! Stunky, let's go!" The man tossed the ball and released a small purple skunk with a distinct light violet streak running down the center of his back and the top of his head. Its claws were sharpened to a tip, and gleamed in the sunlight.

"Easy." Ethan uttered simple words, then lowered his new goggles. "Aipom, Swift!" Aipom danced on its hand and released a twister of sparkling stars. They crashed into the ground directly in front of Stunky, creating a dustscreen.

"Kabuto, Rock Smash!" Kabuto darted forward, claws gleaming, and slammed into Stunky. Stunky was barely shoved backwards, and held its ground. It used its tail to smack away Kabuto.

"Grah..." The younger of the duo stood and tossed a ball. It released a long, light pink bug. The tiny bug reared its tail, as it glowed white. "Poison Sting, Wurmple!" The Pokemon released thin poison barbs from the tip of its tail.

"Piplup, Bubblebeam! Dawn, we need some back up."

Piplup spiraled into a flurry of bubbles. The crackling bubbles shattered the poison barbs in a clash. Turtwig darted forward through the soft flowers and hopped into the air. It started spinning sideways in a spiral and came shooting down sharply. It crashed into Stunky.

Stunky slid back on the loamy soil. Turtwig quickly recovered and released blades of sharp leaves. They smacked incessantly onto Stunky. Stunky was plowed into the air, flipping, and landing on the ground with a thud.

"Elekid, Thunder Punch!" Elekid powered a rough fist into Wurmple, shocking it and giving it an abrupt thrust. It scooted sharply across the ground, then settled in a patch of petunias, fainted.

The grunts recalled their Pokemon.

"You weren't very cooperative, old man...but, since we failed in our operation, you're free for now..." The grunts quickly hurried off into town, and out of sight.

Silence was broken.

"Thank you, kids, gratefully so!" The elderly man, who wasn't as old as he seemed now that they took in a good look at him. "They were trying to steal me of my Sweet Honey...My name is Kiron, and I'm the owner of the Combee Honey shop in Floaroma Town and the head of gathering the honey on most expeditions."

"My name's Ethan and these are my friends, Dawn, Jim and Cody. Nice to meet you!" Ethan flicked his goggles back to sit on the tuff of his hair. He shook Kiron's hand, and Kiron suggested they head back into town.

Before so, however, the tree behind them started shaking and they could see movement from inside.

"Oooh, you guys must have slathered some honey on the tree, am I right? Some Pokemon have been attracted to it! Check it out," Kiron exclaimed excitedly.

The group hurried over to the tree and examined it. More than one movement was going on inside, and suddenly four shadows appeared from the tree's insides. They landed on the ground behind the group, all poised for battle.

"Guys, this is a chance for new Pokemon!" Ethan shouted.

Jim and Cody were both staring down at two baggish looking Pokemon with black stems protruding from their heads and cloaks of leaves for bodies.

"Interesting..." Cody wondered. He readied Kabuto. "Use Cut!" Kabuto dashed forward and slashed at the Pokemon. Jim opened his Pokedex quickly and examined them, finding they were Burmy.

Cody's Burmy fell backwards, eyes with a faint expression. He drew a Pokeball.

"Bidoof, use Rollout!" Bidoof curled into a tight ball and zoomed across the ground. It slammed into Burmy, and took it into the air, after smashing into a rock. Bidoof let Burmy hover, then twirled backwards and came down, crushing Burmy into the soil below.

Jim drew his own unused Pokeball.

Ethan and Dawn both had Pokemon that weren't the most impressive in the world. A bunny-like Pokemon, in stature anyway, was standing in front of Dawn, looking into her eyes with a charming glare.

Dawn thought it was the most adorable thing. After using her Pokedex to examine it, she found it was a Buneary. "Oooooh, so cute! But I recently caught a Pokemon, so I probably won't even try here...Buneary, please just hop along! It was cute seeing you but..." The Buneary, without a second glance, was gone into the tree. Dawn stamped a boot.

Ethan was looking over a bipedal cricket Pokemon with red as its primary color and two antennae looking rather intimidating. It had a collar around its neck and seemed rather royal.

"A Kricketot. I've seen one of these...I'm not sure about it though."

Ethan drew a Pokeball, and was lost in thought.