~ Countdown ~

Chapter Four

In which different things happen in different places at the same time, and ultimately ends with the conclusion of the mystery

Since Oshawott, Timburr, and Tepig were in different places at that moment, they saw different things.

Tepig suddenly saw Snivy walking alone to the exit of Verdant Court. She was OK, but she seemed to be about to leave the party.

Oshawott and Timburr had finally made it past Gatekeeper Krookodile before they heard a kid's voice cry out, "Hey! Look at that balloon in the sky!"

Horrified, Oshawott and Timburr looked up and saw a red balloon floating into the air.

Snivy let go of the balloon, was Oshawott's first thought.

Something's happened, was his second thought.

"Come on!" Timburr jolted him out of his thoughts by grabbing his hand and pulling him to the front of the crowd. If the crowd earlier was a sea of Pokémon, then now it was a sea of Pokémon in the middle of a storm. Since the countdown was over, everyone else was now cheering at the coming of spring.

At the front, they saw Queen Serperior chatting with Bisharp. She didn't seem to notice that her daughter had slipped away.

"I saw Snivy!" Tepig exclaimed breathlessly. "She was going to leave the party!"

"We have to catch up to her and see what's wrong," Oshawott said urgently. "Did you see where she went?"

"I think she set off in the direction for the Arcane Area," Tepig said. "I saw Gothorita..."

"THERE!" Timburr suddenly hissed. "You may have seen Gothorita, Tepig, but I'm seeing her right now!" He pointed at the Psychic-type trying to melt into the crowd.

"OK, you two go after Gothorita and catch her," Oshawott said with determination. "I'll go after Snivy!"

And they split up, Tepig and Timburr diving into the crowd again while Oshawott set off for the Arcane Area.

...

Timburr dreaded going back into the crowd, but it had to be done. Tepig was a trifle luckier than him, because Victini had reappeared and offered to give Tepig a lift again. That had left Timburr to go back into the crowd the hard way.

Everything was going well despite the fact that Timburr's foot had gotten stepped on too many times for him to count - or the fact that someone accidentally spilled berry juice on him - or the fact that he accidentally stepped on an agitated Stunfisk who gave him a mild electric shock - but he was in real trouble when he slammed into Area Keeper Conkeldurr, making him fall flat onto his backside.

"Timburr, you again!" Conkeldurr exclaimed. "I wasn't kidding when I said ye were getting flimsy. You've already bumped into me twice! It ain't acceptable for a construction worker to be clumsy - they must be precise and careful and-"

Oh, no, Timburr moaned, zoning out of Conkeldurr's words.

Meanwhile, from the sky, Tepig saw both Timburr and Gothorita. In the confusion in the middle of the crowd, Gothorita was instead straying to where Conkeldurr and Timburr were standing. Tepig was sure she didn't mean to, though - she was probably confused since there were so many Pokémon there. He had an advantage over the Psychic-type because he was chasing her from the sky.

"Victini, follow that Pokémon, please!" he exclaimed, pointing at Gothorita. Victini flew lower and zoomed just above the Pokémon's heads, chasing after Gothorita. The fugitive looked up and promptly saw that she was being chased, so she started to push through the crowd, creating a displeasing commotion. As she did so, she was involuntarily nearing Timburr and Conkeldurr.

Now to catch her!

As he zoomed right above Conkeldurr's head, Tepig heard that the area keeper was still reprimanding Timburr about the dangers of being flimsy when carrying squared logs in crowded places.

"Imagine the size of the bump ye could get when ye slam into one of those things," he said, nodding at Timburr's squared log.

And it was that exact sentence which gave Tepig an idea.

He just needed to time it right...

Tepig told Victini to hover just behind Timburr. He saw Gothorita get nearer. And nearer. She was almost there. She was right behind Timburr now. And...

"HEY TIMBURR!" he suddenly shouted.

"Huh?" Timburr whirled around with his squared log tucked under one arm. Of course, it swung around when he did so, and Gothorita was struck right in the forehead with a block made of heavy construction wood.

"STRIKE!" Tepig crowed as Victini lowered him to the ground. "You're out."

...

Meanwhile, Oshawott was running after Snivy into the flower-dotted meadows of the Arcane Area. Unlike Tepig who had an advantage over Gothorita, Oshawott was at a disadvantage because the grass snake was much faster than him.

"Snivy!" he shouted. "Snivy, wait! What's going on?!" But his calls all went unheeded.

Oshawott followed Snivy as she jumped onto several grassy plateaus until they were high above ground. OK, maybe Snivy was jumping, but Oshawott was actually holding on while desperately looking for footholds.

What's she going to do so high up? he thought as she jumped onto another plateau.

Once they had reached higher ground, Oshawott followed Snivy again. She was walking to the edge of the rocky plateau they were standing on high above ground...

Until Oshawott realized that it wasn't a rocky plateau - it was the Serperior statue they were standing on.

Snivy was walking towards the end of the snout of the Serperior statue.

"Snivy!" Oshawott yelled again as he ran after her. "What's going on?! What are you going to do...?"

But still Snivy didn't stop.

That was when it hit Oshawott.

Snivy wasn't going to stop.

For some unknown reason, she was going to keep walking until she fell off the Serperior statue. And even now, she was already at its edge.

"SNIVY!" Oshawott yelled, springing off in a full sprint.

The princess was only a few steps away from thin air.

Oshawott made a final lunge when she was only a step away. He grabbed her hand.

Snivy blinked...

...and was horrified when she saw that she was a good many meters above the ground.

⌣»̶✽«̶

...

In Verdant Court, the party went on.

However, eight Pokémon weren't partying. They were standing in the empty Windmill Way.

"All right." Queen Serperior glared at Gothorita, who was helpless in Bisharp's grip. "Do explain again why you were trying to murder my daughter in this party tonight?"

Gothorita grumbled, "Well, isn't it obvious? I wanted to rule the Arbor Area! Have you ever been to Wish Park? I don't plan to tell this to Darkrai, but I think Wish Park sucks. You never see sun or blue sky or anything there. I had to rule the Arbor Area. I decided to start with the princess first. So if you were out of the picture, there wouldn't be anyone to replace you and I'll have been able to come swooping in...!"

"Does that mean you were planning to harm the queen next?" Bisharp exploded, but quieted down when Serperior looked at him sternly.

"Well, technically, yeah," Gothorita said nonchalantly.

"How did you do it, anyway?" Timburr asked. "Oshawott said that Snivy was walking into the Arcane Area alone, as if she was doing it by her own free will!"

Gothorita snickered. "Well, think! Of course she wasn't doing it by her own will, she was simply in a trance! I had put her in a trance by grabbing her hand at the party, right after the countdown."

Oshawott looked dubious. "How did you do that? Is that even possible?"

"Of course it's possible," Gothorita snapped impatiently. "I've been practicing in Wish Park for a long time. First, you have to get the victim to concentrate first - that's why you have the countdown. See, the victim will pay full attention to the countdown, so it'll be easy to hypnotize her. In the princess' case, once the countdown was over, I grabbed her hand while at the same time using Psychic on her, shocking her mind into a trance. Then I told her to use Metronome on herself, to kill herself using whatever means available, and she happened to choose falling off a cliff..."

She quieted down when Serperior gave her a murderous look.

"What about Magikarp?" Tepig spoke up. "Did you have anything to do with his weird fainting, too?"

"Oh that, yes," Gothorita answered. "Magikarp was merely my practice field before targeting the princess. In his case, I simply used Confusion to get a milder result. That's why he only fainted, right? But in the princess' case, it was going to be like a big project. That's why I chose the Coming of Spring countdown - it'll be like everyone's indirectly counting down to her doom! But Magikarp doesn't have anything to do with this, so I only made him faint. I'm not a murderer that way."

"Oh no, you're not," Snivy sulked. "You're a would-be murderer."

"Well, I'm glad you kids did the right thing." Serperior turned to Oshawott, Tepig, and Timburr. "Thank you, for if it wasn't for you, my daughter wouldn't be here right now!"

Oshawott smiled. "You're welcome, Your Majesty," he said. "It was lucky Gothorita made the wrong move of writing us the warning note!"

Suddenly Gothorita, who had been sulking and listening with mild interest, jerked up. "Wait. What warning note?!"

"The one you taped on the door of Samurott's lighthouse, silly," Timburr said lightly. "If it wasn't for that, we wouldn't have known anything funny was going on."

"BUT I DIDN'T WRITE ANY WARNING NOTES!" Gothorita protested. "I'm not THAT much of an idiot!"

"Oh, of course you're not," Timburr said. However, Oshawott, Snivy, and Tepig were actually looking at one another.

After scrutinizing her expression, they decided that Gothorita looked as if she really meant what she had just said.

So if Gothorita didn't write the note, who did?

...

Little did they know that a pair of eyes was watching them from the entrance of Windmill Way. It belonged to someone who had sneaked out of the party in Verdant Court.

Keeping hidden behind a tree and some shrubbery, Pawniard allowed himself a small smile.

Those kids may have weird ideas such as playing with cannons and calling me Mister Pawniard, he thought, but they always have what it takes to get the job done. He had to admit that he would rather warn them about Gothorita's plan, which he had overheard in Wish Park, than tell Bisharp. After all, if he had told Bisharp, he would probably have had told the whole army, and it would have caused a considerable uproar. That was the last thing he needed, because the uproar might have warned Gothorita so that she stepped up her guard. That was why he had even warned those kids not to tell anyone else, for fear that it would cause an unneeded uproar.

So it turned out that telling those kids was the right thing to do.

He melted more into the shadows when the eight Pokémon started to leave Windmill Way and go back into Verdant Court. Serperior and Bisharp were at the front with Gothorita still in Bisharp's grip. Tepig and Timburr followed behind them, still chattering about their misadventures trying to catch Gothorita in the crowd.

Meanwhile, Oshawott and Snivy were bringing up the rear.

The grass snake cleared her throat. "Umm, Oshawott. I just wanted to, you know, acknowledge the fact that you kept me from falling to my doom back then. So, uh, th-"

"What?"

"Tha- Thaa-"

By now, Oshawott seemed to understand what she was trying to say, and he was enjoying every minute of it.

"Say what? I can't hear you." He snickered.

The snake took a deep breath and finally blurted out, "Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaank youu. There. I said it, OK?" She scowled and looked away. Her cheeks were red. "I said it, OK? You were a brave Pokémon to follow me to the top of the Serperior statue and foil Gothorita's plans. Like what my mother said, I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you. There. I said it."

"Uhh, y-yeah..." For some reason that made Pawniard want to chuckle, the sea otter Pokémon also lost his composure and blushed and stammered. It seemed as if he hadn't expected her to blurt out that much.

But then his "cool" act came back. "Well, 'course I had to do it. It's good manners to do nice things to a lady, isn't it?"

Snivy glared at him. Pawniard knew she hated being called a lady. "Don't toy with me," she snapped sternly. "I've said it once. Don't push your luck, Oshawott."

"Ha ha. If you say so. Can't argue with a lady." Oshawott sneered, but his cheeks were still rather red.

Snivy glared at him and punched his shoulder.

"Ow!"

~END~