PMD - Chapter 2-4

Sorbet lifted his foot high in the air and began to drive it down into the earth. "Look out!" cried Nate, as he pushed Zack out of the way and leaped to safety himself. Zack found himself diving head first into a pile of snow just before the large kyurem's foot slammed onto the space where they once stood. Zack pulled his head out from the bank and spat, "Bleck! This is NOT what I signed up for!" Sorbet turned to see Nate sprawling on the ground trying to get back onto his feet.

Zack noticed Sorbet eyeing his partner, "Yipe!" he exclaimed as he searched franticly for something to save the absol. His eyes fell upon the glass ball he had picked up, and an idea came to his head. Sorbet was almost ready to stomp on the defenseless pokemon once more, "HEY! Boulder brains!" Sorbet turned to see Zack holding the glass ball in his paws. Zack pulled his arm back, "Catch!" with that, Zack threw the ball straight at Sorbet's head. The glass surface shattered against the monstrosity's rock hard face, and a ploom of smoke billowed out from its container.

With the kyurem blinded by the smoke, Zack quickly unleashed his Aqua Jet and rocketed between Sorbet's legs to reach Nate. Zack landed in front of the absol and helped pull him up and support him as they both ran to a safe distance. "Thanks *cough* Zack." coughed Nate, "but how did you?" Zack smiled, "Smoke Ball, I TOLD you that item might come in handy. Now we're even."
"Yea I can give you that much." Said Nate, "Let's show this dragon what we can do." he looked up at the rampaging dragon, "But right now we really have to come up with a plan to lead him to the forest so's Gunpowder and the others can do their plan. Its times like this I wish we had more allies with us." Zack watched Sorbet continue to rampage across the town, "Too bad Alex and Mia don't have enough experience." he commented, "Mia's stun spore would be a life saver."

Nate used the ruble of one of the destroyed buildings to jump to a higher vantage point and get a better view of what's going on. When Nate was able to see the massive dragon again, he noticed something was off. A blacked aura was surrounding it. I don't remember seeing that when we first ran into him, or before the incident for that matter. He thought. Unaware to Nate, the gear marking on his right eye started to grow darker. It's the hate. It is his hate! A twisted voice said. Nate looked down to where Zack was standing. "Did you say something Zack?" he asked. "What? No, I didn't say anything. I was just trying to figure out what to do. Why?" Zack replied, looking up to where the absol was standing, perched on a long beam that once heal up a build, but has now toppled through the house's wall. "It was nothing, must have just been the wind." Nate said, shaking his head to try and clear it. The gear in his eye faded back to normal. "We won't solve anything by just standing around here. Let's go." He said before jumping off the roof and landing a few feet away from Zack, then ran down the back alleys to close in on Sorbet. Zack followed closely behind the absol's tail. "So, what's the plan?" asked Zack as he ran alongside his partner. "Um…" Nate was a loss for words. "You don't have a plan?!" Exclaimed Zack in a annoyed tone. "Hey, I'm thinking alright? Don't rush me." retorted Nate. Zack glared at the absol, "Fine, I won't. But HE will." The two exited out from the alleys just in time to see Sorbet's foot come down in front of them as he continued to stomp through the streets.

The two rescuers quickly darted back up against the alley walls to keep from being seen as the ice giant traversed past them. "Okay," Said Zack, "NOW what do we do?" Nate peeked around the corner, Sorbet was trudging directly back to Tao square. "We gotta get him out of the village and into Creeping Forest where he can't cause any harm, but how?" Zack leaned past Nate to look over his shoulder at the rampaging monster. "Why don't we bait him?" he suggested. Nate turned to look back at him with confusion. Zack sharply cocked his head as if to say "Well?" "If we agitate him by attacking, he'll no doubt come after us, then we can lure him to Creeping Forest." Nate narrowed his eyes at the buizel, as if to say "are you nuts?," he looked at Sorbet, then back at Zack. "You think it'll work? We'll be putting ourselves in his line of fire you know." Zack nodded, "I know, but that's how missions go. You put yourself in all kind of peril." Nate nodded in agreement, "I know…" he said, thinking about Mia. Was letting her be a rescuer really a good choice? She's so young. "Nate!" Nate was snapped out of his thoughts by Zack calling his name, "If we're gonna do this, then we gotta do it NOW. Sorbet's about to cross an intersection, we can divert him there and lead him down another road toward the forest." Nate nodded, "Alright, let's do this!" with that the two rescuers leaped out of their hiding place and charged the kyurem. Nate could see that Sorbet was already about to cross the intersection, and they were too far away to reach him. Darn it! he thought, we're not going to make it. Suddenly Zack hollered out, "Hey, boulder brains!" Sorbet stopped, and turned his head to eye the two rescuers coming from behind him. Zack then spin his twin tails around, and rocked forward in an Aqua Jet attack. Nate watched Zack leave him far behind, zipping forward low to the ground like a crop dusting plane, when he was close enough Zack angled upward and shot up straight into Sorbet's turned head. The collision caused the kyurem to falter, but he quickly regained his balance. Zack wasn't hurt, but he felt like he had just rammed a mountain side. His attack hit its mark, and Zack was bounced outward, where he landed on the road that crossed Nates.

Sorbet roared with outrage and began storm off toward Zack. "It's working!" said Nate in awe. Zack grinned, he was rather far off from Sorbet so he stood where he was to let Sorbet come closer. Sorbet's movement was slow, every step he took made the earth rumble a little. Zack was getting impatient, come on, come ON. Hurry it up. Nate however, was happy about Sorbet's slowness. He hurried along the streets, trying to pass the boundary pokemon and meet up with his partner. Neither pokemon had to wait for long. After a few more steps Sorbet suddenly stopped and opened his mouth. A blue glowing sphere appeared between his teeth and began to build. Nate saw this, and he knew what was about to happen. "Zack, RUN!!" Zack heard his partner's cry, and quickly spun around and activated his Aqua Jet to dive away from the oncoming attack. It was no use. Sorbet unleashed his attack, A bright blue beam shot from the glowing sphere and hit the ground where Zack was just standing on. The tail of Zack's Aqua Jet suddenly froze into ice and quickly traveled up the stream. Zack found himself frozen solid in mid jump in his own Aqua Jet. With his attack done, Sorbet continued to walk again up to Zack. When he reached the frozen buizel, Sorbet lifted his foot high in the air intending to stomp down on the helpless pokemon. "ZAAAAAAAAAAACK!!" Nate cried, be he knew he couldn't get there in time.

Meanwhile…

The atmosphere gradually changed as Alex and Mia walked deeper into the tunnel. Alex could feel a small sense of claustrophobia wafted over him, but he shook it off. Now's not the time to get scared. He thought to himself, I made a promise to Nate that I would keep Mia safe, a promise I WILL keep. Surprisingly, the tunnel didn't lose its source of light as the two adventurers moved onward. As the light from the tunnel opening began to fade, a new one slowly took its place. When all of the bright, warm radiance of the sun vanished into the rocks, Alex and Mia stopped to finally see where the new light was coming from. "Whoa…" the two young pokemon said in unison. Lining the cave walls on each side, nestled in small alcoves carved into the rocks and partially buried to keep from falling from their assigned perches, were red jewel-like stones. The stones radiated a bright orange and red glow that flickered, waxed, and waned like fire burning from torches. Alex padded up to the walls to take a closer look. "Wow," he breathed, "what are these?" Mia's face to the expression of exasperation, "you really don't know much do you?" Alex smiled back sheepishly, and rather embarrassed. Mia sighed, "Those are ember crystals." Alex stretched his paw out to touch one, but hesitated. "Are they…like the evolution stones? Will I evolve if I touch them?" Mia shook her head, her leafy "hair" waving this way and that like a palm tree in the wind. "No silly, ember crystals are different from evolution stones. They're used to bring light into the dark caves of mountains or mine shafts." Alex had set his paw back down to the ground, "how do they glow like that?" Mia froze, speechless. "I, uh… Don't know…" said the oddish shamefully. "But I'm told that they only glow in dark places. When brought into the sunlight, they fade out and stop glowing. But they can still glow again when pulled out into dark places, they make great book lights." Mia smiled seemingly proud that she recovered herself with a bit of knowledge.

Alex gazed at the fiery gemstones, and then turned to smile back at Mia. "You really know a lot about crystals and evolution stones." Mia blushed, feeling a bit of pride at his compliment. "I just knew these things because I researched them." she said, "I actually want to evolve, that's why I know so much. I really want to become a bellossom, that way I can be of help to Nate on his missions. I always cause trouble for him, and he's always worried about me. That's why I want to evolve." Alex was silent for a moment. He remembered seeing what a bellossom looked like, a small bipedal creature with two flowers on its head, and its legs hidden within a dress of thick flower pedals. Alex compared his mental image with the current oddish, and then he smiled. "I'll bet you'd make a beautiful bellossom." He said sincerely. Mia blushed, "thanks Alex, you're a real friend." Alex felt happy at her remark, "If you evolved too, I wonder what pokemon YOU would be. I bet it'd be a COOL pokemon!" Mia's added comment made Alex's smile fade into a thoughtful awe, he had never thought about evolving before. His thoughts turned to the thunder stone nestled in the tangled mess of his tail fur. What would he evolve into? His mind broke its concentration as a small rumble came from deep inside the cave.  A resounding bellow shook the earth beneath the two pokemon's feet. The walls were so rattled, that one of the ember crystals was dislodged and wriggled out of its alcove to land between Alex and Mia. Soon, the low rumble faded away, leaving the two rescuers, who holding on to each other, scared and confused.

Alex and Mia separated when they noticed everything had gone quiet again. "That must have been that heatran." Alex said with a slight nervous voice. Mia agreed, "It s-s-sounds b-bigger than I thought…" she stammered. Alex noticed the ember crystal lying at his feet and picked it up. "Come on Mia," said Alex bravely, "we still got a mission to finish." With that, Alex pocked the glowing gem inside his tail and padded forward, with Mia following behind him. The tunnels seemed a little more threatening after their little fright. Everything was disturbingly quiet as they continued on. No life seemed to exist in the tunnels save for the flickering ember crystals. "Um, Alex?" asked Mia as she followed closely by the eevee's fluffy tail, "what do you think this heatran will look like when we find it?" Alex thought about this for a moment, "I don't know. From that sound we heard it seems like it could be a big and bulky pokemon." Mia shuddered and maneuvered closer to her partner, "I hope it'll be in a good mood to talk to." Alex turned his head back to look at her and smiled. "No worries," he said, "I'm sure we'll be just fine. All we got to do is find him first, what happens next we'll play by ear." Mia was unsure of his words. Alex could see her nervous expression in her face. When they started this journey, it was Mia who encouraged Alex to venture forth. Now it was Alex who was feeling confident, and he knew he had to encourage Mia with it. "Hey, it's still a ways off before we meet this guy, the ember crystals brighten up the tunnel very well, and no tremors as of yet. What could hap-OOF!" Alex wasn't looking where he was going and collided with something.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEK!!! It's got MEEEE!" Alex winced at a high pitched voice screaming in his ear. When Alex opened his eyes, he found he had run into a living creature. The creature was a four-legged pokemon, almost as big as he was. Its upper half was covered in short, blue fur, with a black collar-like fur pattern around its neck. Its head was round, with large, oval ears on its head. The pokemon was hunched over with its forearms protecting its head from an invisible monster. The lower half, which was still standing with its rear facing Alex, was all back with a long, thin tail. The tail had a yellow star on its end, and it waved back and forth as if swatting a fly, threatening to smack Alex in the face. "What's going on now?!" said a rather annoyed male voice. Alex was surprised to see a lime green looking pokemon float around the first pokemon's form with a very irritated look on its face. The new pokemon looked rather peculiar, its body was nothing but a light green brain-like mass suspended in a jell-like substance as the whole thing floated in mid-air. Alex quickly recognized the two pokemon as a shinx and solosis respectfully. The jelly pokemon noticed Alex, and made a surprised face that quickly turned to anger.

"YOU!" he cried. Alex was startled by the solosis' voice. "M-me?" he stammered.

"You…" confirmed the solosis.

The shinx lifted its head to see who its partner was talking to, "who?" she asked, her voice obviously belonging to a little girl.

"You!" hollared Alex to the shinx in a surprised voice.

"Wha?! M-M-ME?!" exclaimed the shinx.

"Her?!" added the solosis, who seemed rather confused.

"Hey, what about ME?!?!" exclaimed Mia from between the whole bunch.

All went silent, their chests heaving as they panted for air, trying to calm themselves down from the excitement. "Who are you?" demanded Alex, who now started to breath normally. The solosis glared at Alex, "You should know," he said, "WE were the ones who stole the kyurem book from you at Lexy's Library." The tunnel went silent again. Alex stared at the two pokemon with confusion. His memory sifted through the events of his first mission, he was told to get a book about kyurem by Mike, made it to Lexy's library and faced off against his riddles, found the book, fought a deadly sneasel hoard, Alex couldn't remember seeing a timid shinx and a bad mouth solosis on the mission. "I…Don't remember ever seeing you." He said with a bit of embarrassment. The snolosis looked angry, "what do you MEAN you don't REMEMBER?! WE kicked your furry little TAIL then FLATTENED you to the ground!" Alex stared directly into the solosis's eyes. Then his gaze shifted to the shinx who peeked out from behind her partner. Her solemn face and puppy-dog eyes quickly sparked a remembrance in Alex's memory. I HAVE seen her before… After retrieving the book for Mike, he said that there was a second volume to it, and told me and Zack to go back and get it. "Now I remember," said Alex in a serious tone, "you two broke into Lexy's library and stole the book we were sent to get for Mike." Alex's eyes narrowed at the shinx, "and you used bite on Caldera and made him come crashing down on me and my partner." The solosis smirked, "now you come to life. We're Vic and Alex of team Storm Heart." Alex now knew he was dealing with Rogues. Rogues… he thought, the worst kind of beings in this world. "So why are you here?" asked Alex. "We've been sent by Devonshire to flush out that heatran that's been clogging up these tunnels." Replied Vic. "But that's OUR job!" piped up Mia, who was standing right up against Alex's side for protection, but now jumped in front to glare daggers into the eyes of the cell pokemon. "Hey, I don't remember Devonshire ever giving such missions to little PIP SQUEAKS!" retorted Vic.

"'PIP SQUEAKS?!' We could've taken on Sorbet if our partners let us."

"Sounds like your partners knew you'd just be a nuisance to them. Why don't you two run back to your nanny, and let the grownups take care of this?"

"We're not running, and WE'RE gonna take out heatran FIRST!"

"Is that a challenge? Then bring it ON flower girl!"

"Baby face!"

"HA! Look in a mirror why don't ya?"

"MEANIE!!"

"RRRRROOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!"
Mia and Vic were nearly touching noses when a sudden roar filled the caverns and shook the earth. "What's that?!" cried the shinx. The ground shook viciously, causing cracks to appear and stretch through the cavern walls and floor. "Hang on!" hollered ranger Alex, as he wrapped his tail protectively around Mia and braced himself for whatever happens. Storm heart Alex, on the other paw, was clutching onto her floating partner like a pillow. Vic was none too happy about it. Before anyone took a second guess, the cracks under them began to widen, unleashing a hot breath of air from underneath. "Look out!" exclaimed Alex, as he picked up Mia with his teeth and leaped to safety, dog-piling team Storm Heart in the process. A large stump of a foot, that looked like it was made from cooled magma, rose out of the crevasse that opened up and stomped down onto the ground to lift up the remainder of its body.

"Oh, my…" said Mia in a state of complete awe. The creature that now stood before them towered over the smaller pokemon like a mountain. The monstrosity's body was rounded in shape. Its underbelly was a layer of long humps that stretched from its lower jaw all the way back to his short tail. Its hide was auburn red with grey lumps that looked like pebbled rocks. It appeared to have no neck. Its head was connected to its torso so you couldn't tell whether he actually had a head to begin with. Its fore head had a large, grey crest with two fins on each side. It looked hard enough to smash anything it rams into without even receiving a scratch. Its gargantuan mouth hung open, with lave spewing out between its teeth to slowly spill all over the ground the creature stood upon. And its eyes, its eyes were a blazing orange that emanated a seething rage that seemed to burn hotter than the molten magma that began to cover the ground.

"Heatran…" gasped Alex in a whisper. "A-all right, Vic. N-now you can show us what your m-made of." stammered Mia, who eyed the fiery lava with great fear. "Don't tell me you're chickening out already!" replied Vic, "Fine. We'll show you how it's done. Hey lava boy!" Vic hollered up to the bulky pokemon. The heatran's eyes moved to view the speaker. "Yeah you. Leave this area at once or we'll be forced to take action against ya! Failure to comply will result in us kicking you're-" The heatran bellowed at Vic, its roar was so loud everyone had to cover their ears. Then the heatran raised one of its forelegs into the air, and brought it down onto the ground to release an Earth Power attack. The floor rumbled again. "RUN!!" exclaimed Alex, and all four of the pokemon ran in unison away from heatran and down the tunnel, but it was not use.

Spouts of magma erupted from the ground, causing the floor to break up from the pressure. The magma towers kept erupting in a line straight towards the company. Alex looked back just in time to see another spout of lava erupt just a few feet from the tip of his tail. The ground beneath them shook, then shattered, exploding from the pressure of the magma underneath and sending our heroes hurtling through the air. Everything went by so fast Alex couldn't see himself flying into a dark tunnel that branched off from the main, with the Alex of team Storm Heart falling along with him. Mia and Vic ended up thrown farther down the main branch of the tunnel, not knowing that they had suddenly been separated from their partners. The heatran stomped on the ground repeatedly to unleash another attack: Earthquake. The sealing began to crumble, and large amounts of rubble caved in and blocked the two entrances, trapping their captors in separate tunnels. Satisfied, the heatran burrowed into the ground, and disappeared, leaving his enemies behind, with possibly now way of escape.