//------------------------------// // Mid-Morning Rapids (Episode 3) // Story: We All Live In A Pokemon World... // by 4428Gamer //------------------------------// Spike’s POV Santalune Forest Kooooom! Kooooom! Each of us all sat around the table with tired eyes and oran berry pancakes dangerously close to our faces. Eventually Max stifled a yawn and sat up, looking over his shoulder. “Is he at it again?” From beside him, I saw Kirlia’s horns glow a faint blue aura before her voice faintly echoed in our heads. “Yep.” Kooooom! Kooooom! “Fletch!” “Fletch-fletch!” “Fletchling!” As a distant tree started to shake again, several birds launched themselves into the sky before angrily chirping back down at the tree they once called a home. KRRK! “Fletch?!” All at once, the chirps went silent as the large tree instantly bent in an awkward angle. In moments, silence coated across the forest like a blanket as more and more birds started to rise up from the treeline and join the three that were already in the air. I kept watching the birds form a small cloud above the tree as sharp cracks sounded out from below. Slowly I started to realize what was going on. As the tree started to fall below the treeline. Careful not to make any sudden moves, I reached for my backpack. Aside from the plates of pancakes, everything was packed up. “Guys...I think Jet’s in trouble...Again.” As if to further prove the point, the birds began to attack. One after another, like arrows from their cloud, the birds dive bombed the fallen tree with tiny war cries. Only after half of the birds were out of sight did we have our packs ready to go. “maku-maku-maku-maku-maku-maku-” “Guys, we need to run!” This time Kirlia’s voice projected loud and clear and we were all suddenly wide awake. In seconds we were already coming up on the trail and leaving the park table behind as the sound of angry birds was already starting to get closer. “How many are there?!” I screamed. “You don’t wanna know!” “maku-maku-maku-maku-maku-maku-Maku-Maku-Maku-Maku-Maku-Maku-Maku-Maku-MAKU!” Right as we left the campsite, Jet burst out of the foliage and started to sprint across it in record time, reducing the park table to mulch as he slammed into it fist-first with every ounce of momentum going into it. Boards and pancakes alike went sailing all over the place as dozens of birds kept flying after him. Sadly, in their rampage several birds were knocked out of the air from boards and knocked to the ground unconscious while others were slowed by the syrup sticking to their wings. Meanwhile, Jet was already catching up to the three of us in a huge panic, still calling out “maku” repeatedly as he kept on running. Either he was oblivious to the pancake-induced carnage behind him or he didn’t care. Regardless, once he had finally caught up to us, Max skidded to a halt and the rest of us followed suit. “Okay Kirlia, get ready!” Kirlia and I turned towards him with Jet sliding to a heavy stop directly in front of us. “When I give the word, be ready to teleport okay?” Both of them then turned back towards our old campsite without saying another word. However, Max never ended up saying anything. Instead, both of them stood there like statues as the red and grey cloud started to die down. It only lasted for a minute or two more after that until every single bird stopped swarming the place and instead started to chirp happily as if nothing happened. “Huh. I guess the situation worked itself out.” Kirlia relaxed her stance and folded her arms behind her head calmly. “Still, I would’ve preferred it better without the wake-up call.” “Maku?” Slowly, Jet reached for his back only to pull out one of the stray pancakes that had landed on him in his panic. “Hita!” Aaaaaaand he ate it. Slowly a small fear started to dawn on me as I turned towards Max’s Pokémon. “Hey. Max? Kirlia?” Their attention went over to me. “You guys remembered to grab some of the food, right?” “...” Both of them blinked towards me with the same blank expression I was wearing. Finally, after what felt like hours of silence, both of them began to speak at once. “I thought you saved some.” “I thought you saved some.” The three of us continued to stand still with only the sound of the birds and Jet enjoying every single pancake I had made. And as Jet pulled another part of a pancake off of his arm to scarf down, three stomachs started to growl in protest. “They’re…” My knees hit the ground. “They're all gone…All those pancakes were…” “Uh, Spike?” I could hear Max from behind me. “Are you oka—” “YOU MANIACS!” Max stepped back as I drove my fist into the dirt. “You ate it up!” I looked up as the birds continued to feast on our pancakes. My pancakes. “CURSE YOU!” Max took another step back as Kirlia ended up mimicking my emotions, even with driving her own fist into the ground. “Dear Arceus, curse you all to—” “Guys, get over it.” Max stood there with a look of both confusion and worry as both of us kneeled in defeat at our fallen breakfast. Meanwhile, Jet was licking whatever syrup was left on his glove from eating his pancakes before giving me a joyful look. They will never understand what we’ve lost here today… Two Hours Later Spike’s POV Santalune Forest Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Somewhat irritated, I glanced over at my partner who was now clutching his stomach in grief. He wasn’t getting any pity from the rest of us though. In fact, the rest of us just ended up giving him curt glances. “Why is your stomach growling? You’re not the one who had to skip breakfast.” “Maku-hit...” He groaned. “You had three pancakes stuck to you.” Kirlia gave him a longer glance. “How is that barely a snack to you?” “Come on guys, please stop arguing.” From the front of the group Max was messing around with his PokéNav in an attempt to ignore his own growling stomach. “Look, it says here that there’s a Pokémon Center a ways up the road. If we keep walking like this we’ll make it there in time for lunch.” “As long as there aren’t any more angry bird clouds.” I started to check the sky for any sign of them, but thankfully I couldn’t hear a single chirp. Jet started to slump. “Hita…” “You don’t have to keep apologizing Jet,” Kirlia sighed. “I just wish you would stop using the forest as your own personal punching bag store.” Jet straightened back up with a guilty look on his face. The saddest part about all this is that this wasn’t the first time some Pokémon had gotten angry at us. This was our third day so far going through this forest and for all three of those mornings Jet gave us all a morning call with his loud training. Thankfully Max and Kirlia were pretty calm about the whole thing. That still didn’t mean that letting Jet wake us all up with falling trees could keep going on forever like that. We needed to find some type of solution. Jet’s morning training aside, the last few days had gone more or less the same way. Once we all woke up we’d walk for a while and eventually find a place to stop for lunch. Once we stopped I would be in charge of lunch and Max would be in charge of Pokémon food for Kirlia and Jet while Gastly just enjoyed itself in whatever shade it could find. Apparently he didn’t eat anything, but every time we all start eating I keep trying to figure out what would be weirder; if he could actually eating normal food, or the fact that he’s watching us eat normal food. After that we’d go a little further until we found a good spot to camp. We would set up tents, make some kind of fire, we’d train with our Pokémon for a while, and then by the time we’re done it’s time for dinner. It wasn’t a bad schedule, but it was definitely different than anything I was used to. “Oh, here’s something interesting.” As Max spoke, the two Pokémon stopped bickering and joined me in watching Max show us the PokéNav. “Apparently there’s a large garden between here and the Pokémon Center.” “A garden in the middle of a forest?” I contorted my face in confusion. “What’s it doing clear out here?” A few more taps on the Nav and Max studied the screen. “Well, it says here that the garden’s mostly cared for by the Pokémon of the forest which mostly includes Pokémon like Pansage, Combee, and…” Slowly I saw the smile vanish from Max’s face as he carefully reread the last part. “Uh...Something wrong?” I looked over towards Jet and Kirlia, but both of them only shrugged. “Well...” Max bit his lip for a second before looking back up. “One of the Pokémon that help out at the garden isn’t exactly...Friendly.” “Not friendly?” Instantly the bird cloud flashed in my mind for a second. “Well, can we go around it or something?” “Oh please,” Kirlia projected her voice as she started to take to the front of the group. “We’ve dealt with more difficult problems back in Hoenn. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?” “Heh,” I chuckled. “If I had a bit for every time I heard...” Before I could join them my senses started going into overdrive. Every time I heard that… “Maku?” Jet was the only one that noticed. “Makuhita?” “Get ready Jet,” I started to look around in the bushes and trees. “I think something’s gonna happen.” “Hiit?!” Instantly, Jet got in his boxer stance as now both of us were looking around. “Makuhit?” He looked at me for a second before going back to looking. I assumed he was asking what we were looking for. I took in a deep breath. “I dunno. But every time somepony says those words something happens.” Twilight and the others always think that I’m nuts whenever I say that, but that’s when panda bees or something jumps outta nowhere and— “Are you two okay back there?” “AHH!” “MAKU!” Both of us flailed are arms in response and turned back to see Max and Kirlia giving us somewhere between confused and concerned looks. As the both of us stayed with our arms up in defense, Kirlia slumped her shoulders in slight disdain. “Nothing is going to happen!” Oh sweet Celestia, she did it again! “Are you two really so worried about a bunch of gardening Pokémon?” “...” My attention kept going from one side of the path to the other with Jet acting just as attentive as I was. However, after a few more seconds of nothing Jet finally turned back towards me. “Maku, makuhita?” “Wait, what?” Kirlia’s scowl deepened. “Are you two on edge just because you think I ‘tempted fate?’ Seriously?!” Her hands settled in on her waist as she glared us down like some kind of disapproving mom. “Come on Kirlia you don’t have to be mad at them,” Max tucked away the PokéNav before folding his arms. “Besides, they might have a point. Those Pokémon are a lot scarier than you—” “Max, not you too.” Kirlia slapped her forehead in frustration before turning on her heel and marching forward with heavy steps. “Watch, I’ll show you.” Max started to scan the trees before quickly walking after her. “Wait, you shouldn’t just start stomping around like that. They might…” “OH, POOR DEARY ME!” Kirlia’s voice started to boom like a megaphone. “I AM SUCH A POOR. HELPLESS. FOOL OF A POKEMON WALKING THIS PATH ALL ALONE!” To help prove how much she couldn’t care, Kirlia began skipping. With a huff I started after them. “Okay, you don’t have to rub it—” “LA LA-LA LA-LALALAAA~!” Kirlia’s skipping was brought to an abrupt stop as she launched herself about seven or so feet forward with a ballerina’s leap. Upon landing the singing Pokémon instantly went into a graceful pirouette, making it three or four whole spins before having to give herself more momentum to repeat the same performance again. “OH DON’T MIND ME FOREST, JUST PRACTICIN’ MAH DANCE MOVES IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS SCARY DIRT ROAD A TERROR! I HOPE NOTHING JUMPS OUT AND KIDNAPS ME!” The three of us all watched unimpressed as Kirlia went into her fourth flawless quadruple pirouette. Finally, after two more pirouettes for good measure she stopped slowed to a stop to face us. “Now will you three calm down?” I rolled my eyes but nodded along as she casually folded her arms back behind her head with a victory grin. “Good! Now let’s hurry and get to that Pokémon Center. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can have lunch.” And with that, she turned on her heel once more and started to march down the path at the same pace as the rest of us. And once I was sure that Kirlia was just out of earshot, Jet and I turned to watch Max give us cheeky grin. “Heheh...Sorry about that. Kirlia can get a bit of an ego when she thinks someone’s worried over nothing.” “Ya don’t say…” I deadpanned with Jet backing me up with a nod of his head. As I heard her start to hum the same tune from before I snickered. “Does she always sing like that?” “Yeah, sometimes.” Max couldn’t hide his smile either. “But don’t worry, she doesn’t sing too often.” My smile only doubled in size. “Well that’s still better than how much my friends sing on a daily basis.” “I can still hear you~!” Her voice echoed in our minds this time as she began projecting her little song again. “La La-La La-Lalalaaa, La-Laalala~” She ended up repeating that tune several times only to stop as a black and yellow blur swept across the path, taking Kirlia with it. “Huh?” The rest of us came to a stop, staring at the now empty spot in the path. That, doubled with the very cowardly squeal coming from within the forest had managed to stop all of us from reacting. A few more seconds passed by us and after I had finally blinked, I heard three voices all screaming in terror. My voice being one of them. “WHAT WAS THAT?!” “KIRLIA!” “MAKU?!” All of us made a mad dash for the edge of the forest where we could see rows of branches and leaves having been snapped off from their trees, leaving nothing but a giant hole in the forest brush. Although by this point the screaming had already gotten too far away to actually for any of us to hear anymore. “Max, what was that thing?!” I tried looking back behind us to see if their were any more of whatever that thing was only for Max to start trying to push the first bush or so out of his way. “I don’t know, but we need to hurry!” Max tore away an entire branch and threw it off behind us with a pfft sound before moving for the next branch. “With how fast that thing flew in, there’s no telling what kind of damage it did!” Once I noticed that there were a few other branches we had to clear I quickly ran in help him out. And with each branch tossed behind us I could hear branch after branch collecting behind us freely. The last branch was torn down and not a second later did we start moving. Both of us vaulted over the remains of a bush and instantly we were running past more foliage. From behind I could hear Jet just stomping through the branches and keeping pace with us from behind. For the next minute or so none of us looked back and just kept rushing forward after the trail of branches and leaves that were left on the ground. Whatever got Kirlia must’ve flew into every branch it could. Still, we had the occasional broken branch or vine to push out of the way as we kept running forward. At the second minute mark we all saw the edge of the forest and gave one last push until finally bursting out of the tree line and reaching the edge of a sheer drop down some rocks and into some small river. Both of us quickly slid to a stop before just barely falling down into the stream ourselves. Or rather, Max came sliding to a stop. “WoOoOoOoOah!” In an attempt to keep myself from sliding straight off the edge I tried coming to a faster stop by dropping to my knees. However, that did nothing other than light my knees on fire from the pain and dislodge one of the rocks that were peppered along the edge. “Crrk!” The rock tilted toward the rapids below with a jolt with me slowly grinding my knees further into the rock as I started to slip off. “Spike, hold on!” Just as the rock was about to give out I felt something grab the back of my collar and yank. And aside from choking me, that was all it took to help me fall back onto solid land with a cough. From behind me I heard Max quickly jumping back up to his feet. “You alright?” “Ye,” My coughing cut me off, but I scrambled up to my feet to help answer the question. “Yeah, I’m good.” “Guys! Water! Help!” Kirlia’s voice rang in our heads like bells as all of us, Jet included, started looking around in the stream for any sign of Kirlia. “Maku!” Jet caught our attention as he pointed further down the rapids right as something breached the water. “Makuhita!” Max didn’t even respond. Instead, he started taking off along the cliff side that followed the rapids in hopes of chasing after Kirlia. With little choice, Jet and I followed suit and started to look further down the rapids. Except, it wasn’t what we saw that made us start running faster but rather what we didn’t see. “Max!” I called out from behind. “We’re running out of rapids!” Ahead of us I saw the water behind pushed up into the air before dropping out of sight behind some rocks. The cliff edge went a few feet past it with a tree growing out the side, but after that it would’ve been another sheer drop for us. Max tried running faster, still nowhere near caught up with her. “Kirlia, you’ve gotta teleport outta there, quick!” “No! He--y! --lp!” Slowly the telepathy cut out and Kirlia was left with little more than calling out with her name before she started disappearing back underwater. “Hold on! I’m coming!” Max tried to run as fast as he could to match the speed, but by the time Kirlia came back up above the water she was even further ahead than last time. Although now I saw that it wasn’t just her. It was proving difficult for her, but floating next to her was this yellow and black looking thing that was stay above the water but it was having an even tougher time than Kirlia was. It barely managed to make some type of noise and catch some breath before ducking back under water, but that was all we needed to get us all running even faster. “Spike!” Max tried looking over towards Jet and I as we were starting to catch up. “We need to get to that tree!” “Tree?!” I watched as he started fishing for Kirlia’s Pokéball and looked around. “What do you mean the tr...OH!” My attention went back to the tree jetting out from the end of the rapids that Kirlia and that other thing were heading for. Wait a second, jetting?...JET! “Jet!” I pointed towards the tree. “Get to that tree as fast as you can and get ready to catch the yellow thing! I have an idea!” After hearing the command, Jet leaned forward and sprinted ahead of me and passing Max just as he had finally pulled out the Pokéball. “Max, can you catch Kirlia?!” “Sure thing!” He ran a little bit closer until he was close enough to the edge. From there, he planted himself in the ground as I ran past him. He needed to aim carefully to be able to catch Kirlia. “Kirl!” Kirlia burst out of the water in time to see Jet leaping onto the sideways tree and holding on as it bobbed up and down from the sudden pressure of weight. “Kirli—!” She tried to yell something out, but again had some trouble staying above the water with the yellow thing in her grasp. Instead, Jet steadied his footing and leaned out as much as he could with his arm, yelling something back to Kirlia right as I was starting to close the distance between me and the tree. The next few things all started to happen simultaneously. To start, Kirlia apparently took in one last breath of air before ducking back under water right as Jet grabbed one of the upward standing branches to use as an anchor. Next, right as I made it to the roots of the tree, Kirlia launched out of the water one last time as she pushed the yellow creature ahead of her. From there, Jet grabbed the side of the thing’s stinger. Jet’s grip was tight enough to hold onto the creature, but Kirlia wasn’t so lucky. Instead, her grip slipped and she was forced into a free fall. With no way of catching her fall and no time to teleport, she was helpless. “Kirlia, return!” Right as the branch Jet was holding snapped, a bright red laser shot out beneath him, striking Kirlia’s chest before enveloping her entire body. Within seconds, her form turned entirely red and was drawn into Max’s Pokéball. Now only leaving Jet and the creature in free fall. “I…” Not even thinking, I dove for the tree myself and clutched to it with everything save for one arm. That one was instead holding onto Jet’s now free glove. “...Gotcha!” “Hita!” It was strained, but while I couldn’t see Jet with the giant tree trunk in my face, I could hear him shouting above the rapids to the right of me. “Alright Spike!” On the other hand something that I could see was Max running over from his spot. “Are you all okay over there?” “Oh, we’re fine. You know, just…” I couldn’t stop myself from saying it. “...Hangin’ around.” He stopped just short of the tree roots with an unimpressed look on his face. “...Really?” He didn’t stop me from laughing it away. “Okay, hang...wait a second, for me to get some rope ready. I’ll have you guys back over in a second.” “Got it,” As I fixed my grip I could feel some of the bark beneath me started to break apart. “Uh, m-might wanna hurry,” “Don’t worry, I already got it set up.” Max made quick work of tying up the rope and lowering it down towards the yellow creature, which I only assumed Jet managed to help get secured around the thing. Once it was up Max did the same thing for Jet and then threw it out for me to grab hold of. All in all, each of us had made it back onto solid ground just as the roots started to rip out of the cliff side. As the tree finally gave away and fell onto the rocks below, Jet and I started to back away from the ledge. “Wow. Good thing we weren't still on that...” “No kidding.” As Max started to pull the rope back into his backpack and looked over towards our new friend who was now unconscious on the ground beside us. Back when it was in the water I had never gotten a good look at it. Except now that I was able to I sort of wished that was still the case. The yellow and black creature was unsurprisingly some sort of bee with bright red fly-like eyes on its face. With those things, even though it was unconscious it still looked like it was staring directly at you. What made it even more terrifying is that instead of having only regular arms, they were just giant stingers that looked more like somepony strapped lances onto its body. Add to the fact that this thing was almost as tall as me or Max and it was almost something I would expect Luna to be blasting out of nightmares. Finally Max looked back towards me with a worried glance that mirrored my own. “Well, I guess all that’s left is to try and help this guy get to the Pokémon Center.” “All the way back there, huh?” I tried looking for good place to get back through the trees, but with all the brush I only started to see even more problems. “That means we’re going to have to carry him, huh?” Max looked it over, cringing just as much as I was at the stinger-shaped arms it had. “Yep...Seems that way...” “...Right…” Swallowing all the fear I could, I approached the bug and with all the hesitation, I started to get my arms under it. Once I was sure that it wouldn’t wake up, I slowly lifted it up off the ground with a bit more trouble than I wanted. After I was sure that it wasn’t making any sudden moves other than breathing, I waddled around until I was facing Max and Jet, who had at some point given me a good five or so feet of room to move. “Well…” I clamped my mouth shut and once I was again sure that this giant bee in my arms wasn’t waking up I let out a nervous breath. “I’m carrying a bee in my arms...At least it can’t get any worse, righ...” Oh Sweet Celestia, I said it! Jet’s eyes widened, or it at least seemed that way as he now started to give me ten feet of space before looking around frantically. “Maku-maku?!” “Wha-What’s wrong, now?!” Max started to stand his ground as he darted around the area, looking for whatever we were freaking out about. Thankfully, nothing started to burst out of the treeline like before with the bee. No, instead it came in the form of a water droplet hitting Max’s glasses. “Huh?” Max focused in on his glasses just as another one fell on his shoulder. And then Jet’s head. Then my nose. Suddenly, water started to drop on all of us and we were forced to start running for some type of cover from the impending rain storm that the world had made on us. Now if only Kirlia were out to see this. Then she would know what happens when you start saying those six words. What’s the worst that can happen? Rain. Rain can happen.