Neglect is neglectfully neglectful. And sad. Three days without a post and thirteen days without a new chapter. Good thing I have one now.
Chapter 5: Babysitting
“Team Hydro, please report to the main room!” a loud voice, which the four pokemon had learned belonged to Boomer, the guild’s Exploud guard, boomed.
“Okay,” Crue yelled back. “One second.” Him, Drew, and Helm were I their shared room playing poker. The room was large and painted blue with three small pools of water that acted like beds. “Pocket Snowmen.” He layed down his hand to reveal a pair of eights.
“I have four nines,” Drew replied, showing his hand of four nines and a six. “Looks like I’m winning.”
“Royal Flush!” Helm yelled, throwing down his hand to reveal a 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of Clubs.
“No way,” Crue muttered in disbelieve. “How did he do that? That was his second royal flush in an hour!”
“I have no idea,” Drew replied with wide eyes. “I’m just glad we aren’t playing for money, or we’d both be broke. Let’s get going to the main room so we don’t get yelled at by Sherman.”
“Agreed.” Crue crawled out of the room, Drew and an ecstatic Helm following behind him.
“There you boys are,” Sherman squawked as the boys came into the main room. “What took you so long?”
“We were playing a little poker,” Crue said, shrugging off the question.
“Poker, huh? Me and Bartleby enjoy a nice game of poker every now and then, but that’s not important. I have an important mission for you four.” Sherman pointed at the three boys and Spiral, who had beaten them there.
“What is I?” Spiral asked.
“It’s us!” Remy shouted, jumping out from behind Team Hydro.
“And me!” Kurt yelled, following him.
“Don’t forget this little cutie!” Kitty said, jumping in between her teammates.
“Team Awesome!” the three yelled in unison.
Sherman put a wing to his head before speaking. “Yes, Team Awesome. I want you guys to baby sit them for today.”
“Why us?” Drew questioned.
“They can’t be trusted by themselves, Donna has the flu, Team Wishers is doing a delivery mission, Team Aura is tracking an outlaw, Boomer and Bernie are busy on duty, me and Bartleby have dates with some girls, and I told you to. Any questions?”
“Yeah, how did you get a date?” Boomer yelled from the other side of the guild.
“Shut up Boomer or I’ll make you have to watch Team Awesome by yourself tomorrow!” Sherman yelled back. He turned back to Team Hydro to see them laughing and gave them an angry glare. “You know, maybe I should send you guys after that band of fire-types from before.” A shiver went down the water types’ spines- err, bodies. “That’s what I thought. Now then, I want you guys to escort Team Awesome to the Playground Forest. It is a small forest just to the south of Treasure Town and the pokemon there are rather weak and friendly, so it should be easy. Now, get going.”
()()()()()
Ten minutes later, the two teams came to the forest’s entrance. “Yay, we’re her,” Remy cheered.
“Double yay,” Kurt agreed.
“And a cute, third yay,” Kitty added. The three held up their necklaces and held them up.
“And here’s to a great adventure,” they said together.
“What are those?” Spiral asked, pointing at their necklaces.
“They’re our treasures. We got them on our first adventure. This is my Magby Claw which makes me stronger.” Remy flexed his skinny arm.
“And this is my Elekid Claw, which also makes me stronger.” Kurt flexed like his friend.
“And this is my Smoochum Song, which makes my sp-sp-sp, uhh. How do you pronounce it? Oh yeah, special! It makes my special moves more powerful!” Kitty laughed and twirled around.
“So cute,” Spiral said. “Maybe you guys could tell us about your first mission some time soon.”
“Yeah, but let’s get going so that we can get through this dungeon,” Crue suggested. The two teams then went into the Playground Forest.
The first floor started with a small empty room with just a passage in one of the tree-lined walls. The two teams walked through it to find a larger room with just a purple monkey pokemon with a bulbous, three fingered hand on the end of its tail.
“Aip,” the pokemon said, turning its head. “Aipom!” Six other Aipom jumped out of the trees surrounding the room. The seven monkey pokemon formed a circle around the two teams. Team Hydro got ready to attack as the Aipom… started dancing around them in a circle.
“Watch out,” Crue warned. “Aipom are notorious thieves.”
“”Oh, these cute things wouldn’t steal from us,” Kitty said, jumping into the Aipom circle.
“And if they tried to, I’d sock ‘em right in the face,” Remy threatened.
“Yeah, sock right in the face,” Kurt agreed, the two also joining the dance.
“Aip!” The lead Aipom yelled, stopping. The other six followed. Suddenly, they grabbed the baby pokemon’s treasures and ran off into the trees.
“Wait, stop1” Remy yelled, running after the Aipom. They quickly left sight, however, and he fell to his knees crying. “They t-t-t-took our treasures.”
His two teammates also started crying. “Those meanies,” Kitty whined through her tears.
“I should have socked ‘em,” Kurt complained, punching the ground.
“D-don’t cry,” Drew tried to comfort them. “Please don’t cry.”
“Come on cuties.” Spiral pulled the three baby pokemon into a hug. “It’ll be okay. We’ll get your treasures back, I promise. Don’t cry.”
“She’s right,” Kitty said, rubbing her eyes.
“Y-yeah,” Kurt agreed. “Let’s go into those trees and get ‘em!”
“No,” Crue cut in. “The tree dense areas are filled with wild magic. If you go into them then you will go wild. The only hope is if we can run into the Aipom again.”
The two teams made it through five more rooms before coming to the one with the stairs up. “Sorry we didn’t run into the Aipom, guys,” Spiral apologized. “But the wild magic could’ve done anything. They can be on any floor, so let’s not give up yet.”
The seven went up the stairs to see a large, one room floor. In the center of the room, a mass of small pokemon surrounded a bipedal, dark green chameleon like pokemon. The chameleon pokemon looked up and smiled. “Hello explorers. I am Takuno, eldest of the Kecleon shopkeeper siblings.”
“Kecleon shopkeeper siblings?” Drew questioned. “Kind of strange that there are so many Kecleon shopkeepers, like those two in Treasure town.”
“Ahh, you know my younger brothers Desda and Ceista, the second and sixth of our siblings. There are sixteen of us and we cover all the dungeons and some towns.” The Kecleon turned invisible and then reappeared behind them, showing his bottom half, including a jagged red line around his waist and a long, curled up tail.
“Wait, how do you guys cover all the dungeons? There is a lot of them,” Remy asked.
“Well, you see, Kecleon are immune to the effects of wild magic. Me and my brothers have taken it a step farther and mastered the ability to use wild magic to transport us to other dungeons. I cover public dungeons were the danger is very low and wild pokemon are weak so that civilians may enter and buy from me. The wild pokemon will also occasionally trade items or money they find for food.” Takuno smiled and turned yellow. “So, how may I help you today?”
“That is so cool,” Kurt loudly whispered to Remy.
“I know,” Remy whispered back.
“Wait, wild pokemon trade with you?” Spiral asked. “Have you seen some Aipom today?”
“Oh yes, the Aipom trade with me regularly. They brought by a Magby Claw, an Elekid Claw, and a Smoochum Song around a few minutes ago and traded them for a dozen apples. Hey, would you like to buy them for the babies? Only 300 poke!”
“300 poke! Those are our treasures,” Remy yelled at the shopkeeper.
“Yeah, those Aipom stole them from us,” Kitty added.
Takuno’s smile fell to a frown and he turned blue. “Oh really? I am quite sorry, but I do need to make a profit. How about 18 poke so that I can replace the dozen apples I traded and make a little bit?”
“NO WAY!” Remy and Kurt yelled together. “THEY ARE OUR TREASURES, SO GIVE ‘EM BACK!”
Takuno’s face became angry and he turned red. “Look kids, you shouldn’t have lost you stuff to the Aipom in the first place. I’m trying to cut you a massive deal, so unless you want to start a fight, pay up.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” Remy said. “How about this, we fight and if I win we get our treasures for free. If I lose, then we’ll pay for them.”
“No,” Spiral interrupted, pulling into her shell. She came back out holding a small pouch and pulled out six coins, three white and three pink. “Here you go.”
Takuno instantly brightened up and turned back to his original green. “Thank you, here you go.” He grabbed the money and handed over the three necklaces. “Now then, I have more customers to deal with, but please come again any time.” Takuno disappeared again and reappeared in the middle of the mass of wild pokemon who have been waiting patiently for him.
After Team Awesome shared a tearful reunion with their treasures, the pokemon continued on. The next two floors were uneventful with the wild pokemon staying away from them to avoid battles. However, when they reached the fifth, and final, floor, they saw a small pink blob pokemon standing in front of a closed white treasure chest.
“Now all I need to do is open this and take the Ancient Ice Plate,” the Ditto said to himself, having not noticed the two teams. He tried to open the chest, but the top wouldn’t budge. He let out a curse and tackled the chest.
“Watch your mouth!” Helm yelled at the Ditto.
“What the?” The Ditto turned around and growled. “Sorry kids, but I can’t have any witnesses, so I’ll have to kill you all. Transform, Garchomp.” The Ditto grew from one foot to just over six feet tall and started transforming. He took the form of a bipedal shark with arms that had large fins on them, a tail with two small fins on it, and a large dorsal fin on his back. Two spikes were on each arm and leg, with a large claw on the tip of each arm. He turned from pink to a dark blue, except for a large red spot on his chest and stomach, a yellow patch on his lower stomach, and a star on his streamlined head. “Dragon Rush!” A blue aura surrounded him and he charged at the main characters.
“Protect,” three voices said in unison. A thick blue shield of energy surrounded the two teams. The Ditto-Garchomp rammed into it and bounced off.
“Who did that?” He angrily yelled.
“We did,” a British accented voice replied, jumping into view to reveal itself as a Riolu. A Mienfoo and Togepi followed him.
“Team Aura?!” Crue yelled in surprise. “How did you guys find us?”
“We didn’t find you weaklings,” Yumi replied. “There was an aura distortion here so big we could sense it from Treasure Town. After we dropped off the outlaw we were tracking down we came here.”
“Get out of here, you guys,” Odd told the two teams. “Our protect won’t survive much more.”
“No, we’ll stand by you guys and help you fight him,” Drew said.
“How heartwarming,” Ditto-Garchomp growled. “Too bad I’ll have to end this. Transform, Giga Hydreigon.” He grew much larger, almost twelve feet tall. He grew more bulbous, becoming a large blue dragon. Two purple stripes appeared down his chest, mixing into one that went down his tail, which had extended to five feet long and became more serpentine. His arms turned into snake like heads with black fur on their necks. His legs shriveled and became useless, but he also grew a half dozen thin wings that lifted him an inch off the ground, he couldn’t float any higher because of his size. A patch of black fur appeared on his upper chest, surrounding his three necks and a purple collar appeared around his main crocodilian head. “Flamethrower, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse.” A black ball of energy appeared in his left head’s mouth, while a blue one appeared in the right head’s mouth. He shot the two energy balls at the protect, causing it to shatter and fade away, as flames gathered in his middle head. “Die.” He shot the flamethrower at the explorers.
“Attack now to stop it,” Ulric ordered. “Vacuum Wave.” He jumped into the air and spun around, shooting a wave of energy at the flamethrower.
“Swift.” Yumi karate chopped the air, sending out a wave of stars.
“Mirror Move.” A mirror of energy appeared in front of Odd that shot out a Swift.
“Acid.” Crue built up a ball of acid and threw it at the opponent’s attack.
“Bubblebeam.” Drew shot out a high speed stream of bubbles at the fire.
“Scratch!” Helm jumped at the flames, ready to scratch them.
“No,” Spiral said, grabbing him with one of her tentacles and pulling him back. “Just sit here. Watergun.” She sent a torrent of water at the fire attack.
“Ember!” Remy shot out three little balls of fire which were absorbed into the blast.
“Thunder Shock.” Kurt rapidly turned his arms, building up a weak electrical current that he shot our at the Ditto-Hydreigon’s Flamethrower.
“EEK!” Kitty let out a scream and ran to the stairs.
As the attacks slammed into the Flamethrower, a smoke overtook the room. “Surf!” The smoke cleared as the Ditto-turned-Hydreigon summoned a large wave of water.
“Escape orb!” Ulric’s eyes glew blue and he summoned a blue orb that he smashed on the ground, causing a cloud to surround the ten guild members. When it cleared, they were back in the guild building.
“What happened?” Sherman yelled, running out of Bartleby’s office.
“We got attacked by a Ditto,” Ulric calmly replied as the members of teams Awesome and Hydro were trying to catch their breaths. “He transformed into a Garchomp and then a Hydreigon and tried to kill us. I was forced to use an escape orb to pull us out when he summoned a Surf.”
“Do you have any idea why he was trying to kill you?” Sherman asked, concern pushing into his voice.
“No, but on the way down the stairs we heard him mention an item called an Ancient Ice Plate. Do you have any knowledge on this object?” Ulric questioned.
“No, can’t say I have,” Sherman replied. “Although it must have been important if he wanted to kill you over it. Do you know anything about this, Bartleby?”
“No!” Bartleby yelled from his office.
“Oh Barty, you’re so cute when you yell,” a female voice came out of the office.
“Shermy, you aren‘t going to just leave me here, are you?” a second female voice said, also from the office.
“Who are they?” Crue asked, having caught his breath and returned it to normal. “Wait, you brought your dates back here? Things must have gone good, eh?”
“Uhh, errr, umm…Well, I guess you could say that. But that isn’t really important. Are you all safe? Were any of you hurt?”
“No, we escaped unharmed. But his threat was very chilling and he seems like the kind of person to track down targets that escape him.” Crue said.
“This is bad, quite bad. I want all of you to take a break for a while, just relax around the guild and do not leave Treasure Town for any reason. Now then, I have a Murkrow to get back to.” Sherman left back to the office.
“Hmm, relax. Well then, I’m going to rest a little. Wake me up sometime tomorrow.” Drew floated off to his room to take a nap.
“Anyone want to play some poker?” Crue asked the others.
“Sure,” Ulric replied, most of the others agreeing.
“Naw,” Remy replied, however. “I think I’ll go take a nap too.”
“Me three,” Kurt said.
“And me five.” Kitty smiled, not realizing that she missed four. The babies left the room in one direction as Crue went in another to get his cards.
Crue entered his room to see Drew getting into his pool. “So, Drew. How does all this make you feel? You weren’t exactly big on the explorer idea when there wasn’t a psychotic Ditto who wanted to kill you.”
“I don’t know what to think, truthfully.” Drew replied, closing his eyes. “But I am going to try and take a lesson from Helm and just be happy while I can. Night.”
“Night Drew. See you later.” Crue grabbed his pack of cards and left the bedroom, hitting the lights for his teammate.
Looooong chapter is long. Seven pages to be exact. That’s almost double an ordinary chapter. But I introduced the Kecleon shops, money (the money is Poke and they are coins that share colors with Monopoly money, so white 1, pink 5, so on. ), and the bad guys. Well, a bad guy. On a side note, while not stated in the story, the Ditto’s name is Psuede (Pronounced Suede). And just some extra little things. Firstly, there will be a little side chapter stemming from this chapter. Secondly, I am going to be doing a little contest. When you review, you can suggest a team of three pokemon, including names and personalities. I will pick the one I think is best and they’ll have a cameo. You must review at the same time, so don’t just be posting teams here. And KatieKitten, for some reason I’m having a bit of trouble getting your story to load. I’ll get it read and reviewed as soon as I can, but I’ll read and review it as soon as I can.