TO BE A TRUE MASTER - THE JOURNEY OF A LIFETIME (Part 14) Part 25. I Take Up With a New Company Ten minutes later we turned off the path and doggedly walked across a barren, grass rippling land. Five minutes later, we came over a tall hill into a clearing surrounded by small grassy hills. A large bonfire was roaring, and there were three girls just taking cooking equipment off of it. Three boys, Josh, Trevor and another, were ravenously devouring their dinner, which looked to be actually cooked, not trainer rations. With whoops and hollers, the once orderly line of Southerners dissolved and charged into the camp, hurling their packs into a pile and surrounding the three girls, who were hard put to the task of feeding the mob. Ten minutes after the mad rush, I settled down about a hundred feet from the fire, having finished my meal. Lark and Jessie were questioning the other three girls, and Meowth and James were eating dinner with the other southerners, telling apparently hilarious stories. "RRRaticate!" Shrieked Jamie's Raticate as it hopped over to me and started running in swift circles, sniffing me and chirping in its own language. It lost interest in me as it noticed Arcanine, laying down behind me. Jamie jogged up, a canteen clinking at his side, and grinned at Raticate, who was bouncing up and down on Arcanine's head, trying to wake him up, and even snapping Arcanine's eyelids. "Hey," Jamie greeted me and sat down. He casually reched over and jerked Raticate back by the tail. The foolish rat was "exploring" the inside of Arcanine's mouth, which snapped shut instantly, barely missing him. "Hi," I said, and petted Arcanine. "You said you'd tell me about Fuschia now." "Oh. Yeah..." Jamie's mood darkened and he started tying knots. With Raticate's tail. "Well, we came into Fuschia sometime 'round 3 today, healed our pokemon at the pokecenter, and came up this way, when Trevor reported seeing some pokemon in the air high above us, he was using his binoculars. He said some giant kind of flying monster, then then about thirty other flying types around it. Scythers, Pidgeots, Fearows, and even some gastlies. HE couldnt' be sure, but he thought he also saw some Drowzees being carried." "When we looked back at Fuschia, there was this terrific explosion, which was the power plant blowing. By the time we got there, running at full tilt, half the city was burning, and that monster was circling and blasting the entire area. His escort pokemon were attacking the people, and adding whatever attacks they could muster. We all threw out our pokemon, and knocked out some twenty of them, before our pokemon turned on us, at the same moment as the big guy flew away. That was when you came." "What were those other guys on Rapidashes doing?" I asked. "Oh, Trevor, Josh and Adrian were chasing that thing. They're the expert riders among us, so they all just went bolting off after him, chased him about a mile past here, and then had to turn back, partially because Adrian got hurt, as you can see." Jamie pointed towards the campfire where a 13 year old boy, short and dark-haired sat. "Looks fine to me," I said with a laugh. The three girls were arround Adrian, fascinated by his tale and spoon-feeding him. He was cradling his arm in a rather fake way. I stared at the bonfire for a full minute, watching the boys in the light, laughing and talking as if nothing had happened. Several had their pokemon out, showing them off proudly to Jessie, James, Lark and Meowth. "What do you plan on doing now?" I sked, breaking away from my stare. "Jamie took a long pull from the canteen at his side, then pointed north, towards a range of mountains. "Trevor says it was headed that way, so we plan to chase it and take the southern vengeance to it. Give it a little payback for Fuschia." I sighed, seeing he was going my way too. So, I had no other choice, and I explained to him everything about Ultrareon, from the capture of Eevee to his fearful evolution, to his attack on me and my friends near Cinnabar Island. Jamie was fascinated by the entire tale. When I was done he surprised me by laughing and getting up quickly. "Well then, you better get to sleep then boy!" I looked at my watch. "It isn't that late." Jamie grinned and started to walk away. "Yer goin' with us, and we rise early." True to his word, Jamie woke me up at 6 am, a good two hours earlier than I was used to. Add to that the fact that all I'd had for a bed was the cold, hard ground. Arcanine had stolen my sleeping bag and the pillow that one of the other boys had given me. After a breakfast of toast and scrambled eggs, and a brief fifteen minutes to pack up and get ready for what Jamie warned us would be a hard ride, all our group gathered in the field. "Right! Let's saddle up!" Trevor yelled, and with a whoop, threw out a pokeball, releasing a sleek, beautiful Rapidash, which he mounted in a breeze. Flashes and zips accompanied the arrival of many other pokemon that a trainer could mount. Mostly rapidashes and arcanines, but a Nidoqueen for one of the girls and several dodrios. A trainer who identified himself as Mark offered us the use of his 6 rapidashes, but I chose Arcanine and James used his Dodrio. Jessie and Lark accepted however, and Meowth rode with Jessie. Then we all started off, a great parade of speedy pokemon thundering off in one great herd, pouring quickly into the gap between two tall hills, and into the unknown. Hours later I was growing surly and tired of the constant pounding of rapidash hooves. Presently we were thundering through a seemingly endless stretch of dusty canyon. Rock walls rose beside us, about 100 yards to each side and a little over 200 yards high. Several southerners who were riding around me started to quarrel as they rode. I had noticed them talking most of the ride, apparently swapping directions or opinions. They stopped, arguing fiercely, and all the rest of us halted as well. Trevor and Jamie pushed their way through the mess of pokemon and riders. "I'm tellin' you Josh, we're goin' the wrong way, we need to go back and turn right at that last pass," argued one "That was six miles ago! If you're wrong, we'll waste the rest of our day going back and checking it out!" countered Josh. Trevor growled and reared his Rapidash high in the air, startling the two boys out of the fight. "Shut it up you two! I'll go higher and check on the radar!" The boys gave each other the evil eye, but silenced as Trevor pulled out a black box, then galloped off through our crowd again. After a moment I saw him again, climbing up a tall pile of broken rocks. He gained the cliff and stood high above us in ten minutes. We all watched him, but several of the southerners started talking, or eating a quick snack. High above us, Trevor gave a loud shout and we heard the distinct crack of his whip. He disappeared from our view for a moment, and Jamie looked worried. A terrific explosion shook the canyon walls and sent dust and small stones raining down on us. Trevor gave a yelp and suddenly came charging back into view, his rapidash gone. To all our surprise, he dove off the cliff with a "kyaaaaaaa!" Fire blew from the place where he had just been, and Trevor seemed to hang in the air for a moment as something struck him in the lower back and he began to tumble, lifeless through the air. Jamie gave a cry and hurled out a pokeball, launching a Charizard. "Gettim!" Jamie barked, anad the Charizard flew off like a thunderbolt, snatching Trevor from the air a mere 30 feet before he hit the ground. Then all hell broke loose as Trevor got up and stumbled back to us. A swarm of Beedrills came pouring into the canyon from above, and hundreds of poison stings started darting in at us. A boy instantly flew off his arcanine, his jacket ripped open by a stinger. "Get behind those rocks! Go go go!" Yelled Jamie as all the pokemon and trainers started panicking. I grabbed Lark, pulling her out of the way of a diving Beedrill, and ducked behind a large boulder in the middle of the firing zone. Arcanine breathed an arc of fire at the thick group of Beedrill, then followed me. Trevor slammed down beside me, breathing hard and groaning. "What's goin' on? yelled James over the drone of Beedrill. He, Jessie and Meowth had taken shelter with the other southerners behind the pile of rocks. "Just some stupid swarm of dumb beedrill, are you blind?" yelled somebody. "No it ain't!" Trevor yelled back. "I found a whole ton of pokemon up there, waiting for us or something. They all just sat there, not noticing me, just staring with weird glowing eyes. Then an Alakazam pointed at me and these Beedrill had at me!" Trevor grunted and pulled a large white stinger out of his back. "I'm lucky these things aren't poisoned. It takes about a minute for Beedrill to charge up their stingers." The beedrill were still firing their stingers at us persistently through all this, but had not moved for some odd reason. "Pfft!" I jerked as I heard that sound from Trevor, and heard a Beedrill go crazy. I looked at him, or rather, at the small, black gun he was holding. He grinned and showed it to me. "Not bullets, it shoots a very sticky and durable paste made for taking down enraged wild pokemon." All of the southerners started pulling out similiar weapons, though some looked more worn, and others were different colors, covered with graffiti, or slightly modified. In perfect harmony, every southerner started firing. Small white pellets filled the air all at once. When they struck a beedrill, they exploded open and coated the giant bug with the paste, bringing it down in a straightjacket instantly.