Chapter 2 While I was sleeping, Kyle got up to check on Monique, who had been gone for an hour. He found her at the tip of the boat, looking up at the stars. “Are you okay?” He asked. “You’ve been out here for an hour.” “Yeah, I’m okay…” she looked at him. “ Did you ever have a gigantic crush on somebody?” I’ll tell him now, she thought, I’ll tell him how much I love him. “Yeah, “ he was quiet for a few seconds. “ And I still do.” Monique’s heart beat went up. “ On who?” she silently prayed it was her. “ I can’t tell you.” “ Why not?” she was crestfallen. “ It would ruin our friendship.” Her heart leapt once again. “ Please tell me,” she begged, “I won’t tell anyone!” “ I don’t know...” “ We’ve been friends for 10 years! Since we were 4! Don’t you trust me?” “ Okay! I’ll tell you... I’ve had a crush on...” he muttered something. “ Who?” He whispered something she could barley make out. “C’mon! You don’t have to whisper!” “ I HAVE A CRUSH ON JIMMY!!!” He yelled, “I’ve had a crush on her ever since I was 5! There! You happy?!” She felt like crying. “You didn’t have to yell...” Her voice was barely higher than a whisper. She sucked it in, and gave a fake, shaky yawn. “ I’m going to bed now.” She walked off. “ You promise you won’t tell her?” He asked quietly. She nodded and walked back to the room. She lied down and cried herself to sleep, quietly. Kyle came in long after she fell asleep. “ What was her problem anyway?” He wondered, as he lay down. He thought for a few minuets. When he couldn’t think of anything he went to sleep. I woke up around 6:00 in the morning. Kyle and Monique were still sleeping. I didn’t want to wake them up so I went to breakfast. I called Kakashi out so he could eat too. While we were eating, I noticed a bunch of people had Poke’mon but it didn’t seem like any of them were trainers. We were about to leave when... “ Hey you!” I turned around, “ Me?” A girl ran up to me. She had Strawberry blonde hair and deep blue eyes and she was wearing the stupidest outfit ever. She had on a bright yellow shirt and skirt, gold colored boots, and a gold “T” stitched onto her shirt. “ You look like a strong trainer.” I frowned, I was only a beginner, and I wasn’t that strong. She held up a Poke’ ball. “ How about a battle?” I still didn’t trust her but I did need to train... “ Okay, but I only have one Poke’mon...” She smiled. “ That’s okay, all you need is one for the team.” I frowned even deeper, “ What so you mean by that?” She turned pink. “ Nothing! Let’s Battle.” The battle lasted about 5 minuets. She used an Oddish at a very low level. I won in two hits. Some people stopped to watch us. They muttered words like “ Pathetic,” and “ Disgraceful.” But she smiled and called her Oddish back. She walked up to me, still smiling. That really creeped me out. “ I knew you were strong! How about an offer?” I frowned again, something about this girl wasn’t right. I quickly hid Kakashi’s Poke’ ball in my pocket, when she wasn’t looking. “ For what?” “ To join a fabulous team of strong trainers.” “ Tch! I just beat your ass! How could the ‘team’ be any stronger than you?” She stopped smiling.“ I’m only a grunt, a beginner, you could very well be in the next rank, with that Growlithe of yours.” “ What do you do?” “We’re Team Thunder, and we take Poke’mon from all over the world to grow stronger.” Immediately I suddenly knew what she was talking about. I was panicked but I kept my voice calm. “ No thank you. I’d rather not.” She frowned and reached into her coat pocket. She pulled out a radio. “ We got a code 12-15. Come and get her.” “ Wait a minuet! What are you talking about?” I yelled. A thick purple powder began to form around me. “ What’s going on?!” I screamed. I began to feel sleepy. “ What’s going on...” Just as I was falling over, someone caught me. I struggled to keep my eyes open. I heard loud buzzing noise and I felt myself being lifted up off the ground. Then it was all blank. I don’t know how long it took me to come around, but when I did, I was in a dark room. And I was sore all over. I groaned as I got up and looked around. I was in a sort of cell. There was only one door and the only source of light was coming from a hole in the ceiling. I looked up and only saw the sky, which had stars in them. “ So you’re awake.” A soft voice behind me said. I turned around and saw nothing. I fell over, it was too much. I closed my eyes. “ Are you okay?” I heard footsteps and looked up. A guy, about 15, kneeled next to me. He had black hair and red eyes, like me. I could see that he was wearing a black suit jacket, a black button up shirt and red tie. He asked me if I was okay again. “ I think so...” “ You hit the ground pretty hard.” “ Where am I?” “ I’m not sure, but I think we’re in one of Team Thunder’s hideouts.” I tried to get up again. “ Stay down. The same thing happened to me.” Holding my head, he gently pushed me down. I looked at him. He blushed and said, “ Sorry, I fell over and hit my head, trying to get up. “ “ Thank you anyway. What’s your name?” “ Patrick Red. Yours?” “ Jimmy Rose.” “ That’s an unusual name...for a girl I mean.” “ Yeah but I like...” I heard some footsteps. “Someone’s coming.” He started to pull me into the shadows. “ What are you doing?!” I asked in a panicked whisper. “ They take prisoners to a torture chamber until they agree to join Team Thunder.” “ How do you know?” “ One of my friends had to join Team Thunder against his will. He wasn’t supposed to tell me.” He whispered. “ That's why I’m here.” “ Hey you in there!” A cold harsh voice came out of the darkness. I sat up. Patrick put his arms around me and held me close. “ Don’t move.” he whispered. “Where do you think you’re going?” Patrick didn’t say anything. The voice laughed lightly. “ Come on you two lovebirds, let’s go.” Two buffed grunts came in and came toward us. I suddenly felt stronger (physically I mean). I turned around and held on to Patrick. They came at us and tried to tear us apart. As hard as we tried we weren’t strong enough. And they held us back. “Is there anything you two would like to say to each other, before you’re separated?” One of them asked. Patrick looked at me. “ I think you’re the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met.” I blushed. Then I had an idea. I relaxed and the grunts grip relaxed too. In one quick motion, I jabbed my elbow into the grunt’s face and reached for Kakashi’s Poke’ ball, which was in my pocket, and threw it like a baseball. “ Kakashi, use Flamethrower on the guy dressed in yellow.” I yelled. Kakashi immediately spit flames out of it’s mouth. The grunt let go of Patrick and fell over, crying out in pain. I grabbed Patrick’s hand and pulled him down another hall way. “ What do we do now?” Patrick whispered, when we were sure we were safe. I thought. “ We should find some uniforms like theirs. They know what we look like.” Patrick opened a door at random. “ I found the uniforms.” “ Attention Team Thunder,” a female voice said over the intercom, “ Be in the lookout for two trainers dressed in black and red, a boy and a girl, both teenagers, if you capture them, bring them to the front.” “ Let’s get dressed.” I said. “ We don’t have that much time.” “ What about our old cloths?” I looked around the room. There were rows of bags. I picked out two medium bags. “ We’ll put them in here.” Patrick and I got dressed and put our cloths in the bags. I called Kakashi back into his Poke’ ball. I slung the bag over my shoulder. He and I grabbed a hat, just in case. “ Okay let’s go.” I said. We walked around the hideout for what seemed like forever. We stopped in the middle of an intersection. “ We’re never going to find the way out.” Patrick said. “ Let’s ask someone.” Just then another announcement came on. “ Attention grunts, we are about to start the mission. Please report to the east wing.” “ That sounds promising.” I said. “ Let’s go.” Then I stopped. “ Which way is east?” “ I know,” Patrick reached into his bag and took out a Poke’ ball. He tossed it, and a Nosepass appeared. “ Stone, which way is north?” The Nosepass pointed to our left. “ Good job, return before someone sees you.” Stone disappeared. “Let’s go.” I said. We headed toward the hall in front of us. I slowed my walk so Patrick could catch up. “ What did you think when you first saw me?” he said out of the blue. I thought for a few minuets. “ I guess I thought ‘ Who the hell are you? And why do you care so much?’” “ What do you think of me now?” He stopped walking. “ Why are you asking me weird questions?” I stopped too. “ Because... I was serious when I said I thought you were the most beautiful girl I’ve ever met.” “ Hey, you two!” a voice rang out,“ Didn’t you hear the announcement?” a real Thunder member came up to us, “ They want all grunts to the east wing.” “Sorry, sir.” I felt stupid for apologizing. “ Let’s go.” Patrick held my hand and we left. We went down the hallway hand in hand. Then out of nowhere, he gently kissed me on the cheek. He blushed and said, “ Sorry...” “ It’s okay.” He coughed. “ We better hurry.” We walked until we reached a door. I opened it slowly and looked inside. A girl was typing behind a desk. When we walked in she looked up, “ Finally, you’re here, we’ve been waiting for you.” She said in an annoyed voice. “ The car is waiting for you two outside.” She pointed to another door. “ Get in and they’ll escort you to Post Town.” My heart skipped a beat. That was where Monique and Kyle should be. “ They’ll give you instructions when you get there. Got that?” “ Yes, ma’am.” Patrick said. Patrick lead me out side the door and two other grunts lead us too a car. I looked around, all I saw was a forest, I turned around. The hide out went deep underground and was barley visible. We got in the back and the other grunts got in the front. We drove for two long hours in silence, I let go of Patrick’s hand when it got too hot. Finally we reached a city. The grunt stopped at in front of a building. He turned around. “ Headquarters is around the block. When you get there, tell the woman at the desk you came from ‘ The Base Hidden In the Leaves’ okay?” We nodded. “ Now get out, we’ve got other business to take care of!” We immediately got out and the car sped away. “ Let’s change out of these cloths.” Patrick suggested. We went into a nearby restaurant and used the bathrooms to change. “ We should go to the Poke’mon Center first.” I said. “ Why?” “ My friends might be there.” “ What friends?” I forgot I hadn’t told him about Kyle and Monique. “ I was abducted from a ship and I left my friends behind.” “ Oh...” Patrick’s face fell. “ I thought you were traveling alone.” “ No, I forgot to tell you I was with some friends, I’m sorry.” He looked up at me. “ Do you think I could go with you guys? I mean, I don’t want to travel without you...” He blushed deeply. I hugged him. “ I know I wouldn’t mind.” We ran toward the Poke’mon Center. When we got inside I began to look around for Kyle and Monique. Nurse Joy came up to us. “ May I take your Poke’mon?” “ Yes, thank you.” I handed over Kakashi’s ball. Patrick held out 4 Poke’ balls. I stared at him. “ I’ll be back with them in 30 minuets or so.” Then she left. “ Let’s go to the lunch room.” I said, still eager to find Kyle and Monique. We found the lunchroom and I looked around. In the very back I spotted them and walked toward them. They didn’t notice me. Kyle groaned, “ What are we going to do?” “ I don’t know,” Monique sniffed. “ How could this happen? What if some old fucked up perverted guy took her?” “ Don’t say that!” Kyle glared at her. “ Don’t even think that!” “ I’m sorry.” Monique started to cry. “ She was my best friend!” she sobbed. “ Was?” I asked. They looked up and gasped. Monique stood up “ Where were you?!” She hugged me tightly and began to cry again. “ You idiot! You had me worried to death!” Kyle eyed Patrick, “ Who’s this?” He asked, though Patrick weren’t there. Patrick held out his hand and forced a smile. “ Patrick Red, pleasure to met you.” Kyle gripped his hand. “ No, the pleasure’s all mine.” He also forced a smile. “ So where were you anyway?” Monique asked, oblivious to the tension. We all sat down and I told them the whole story. When I was done, Kyle was the only one who really talked. “ I think we should find out what their up too.” “ I do too.” Patrick stood up. “ Let’s go.” “ But what’ll we tell them? I mean, they’ll get suspicious if we don’t have a good excuse.” Monique stood up too. “ Easy, we’ll just tell her we came from ‘ The Base Hidden In The Leaves,’ like that grunt told us to.” I stood up. “ We have to go now.” We left the Center after Patrick and I got our Poke’mon back, after that we left for the building. It took us a while to find it, but we did. As soon as we walked in the door, a woman jumped all over us. “ Where did you come from?” “ The base hidden in the leaves.” Kyle said. “ That’s funny, you don’t look like grunts.” She looked us up and down. “ They usually arrive two at a time.” “ We all came together on ‘ The Assignment’” Patrick said quickly. Her eyes grew wide. “ Oh! I’m so sorry!” she bowed to us. “ I didn’t know, please don’t tell The Boss!” she kept on bowing. “ It’s okay.” I said, felling like a queen. “ I had no idea you guys were the Element Masters. I’ll get your new Poke’mon.” she left in a hurry. As soon as the door shut, I blurted out, “ Who are the Element Masters?” “ I don’t know, just play the part.” Kyle said. Monique took out her Dex and dialed the Police Department, explained the situation and turned to us. “ They don’t know how long they’ll take, we’ll just have to play along until they get here.” She came back. “ Fire Master,” she looked at me, I stepped forward. “ This is a special, rare Poke’mon.” She held out a ruby Poke’ ball. “ The top half is pure ruby, inside it, it contains a Vulpix.” I took it from her, amazed. “ How’d you get it?” Vulpix’s were hard to find in the Jewel Region. “ We had our top trainers look for one, we also trained it to a very high level.” She continued, thinking we were the Element Masters, giving us new Poke’mon. Patrick, the “Water Master” got a Seel, Kyle, the “ Grass Master” got a Treeko, and Monique, the “ Thunder Master” got a Pichu. All of which were hard to come by in the Jewel region. “ The Boss wants to see you.” She opened a door and we went through. As soon as she closed it a trainer came out. “ My name is Jordan, and you’ll have to battle me to get to The Boss.” “ Fine by me!” I stepped forward. “ I’ve been waiting for a good challenge!” Jordan held up a Poke’ ball. “ Go Electrike! I choose you!” I gave him a weird look. No one had used the “I choose you line.” Since the Poke’mon Champ, Ash Ketchum. “ Show ‘em what you’re made of Kakashi!” I tossed Kakashi’s Poke’ ball up and he appeared. The battle raged for half an hour or so. In the end I wound up winning. Jordan gave shot me a dirty look as he called his Poke’mon back. “ Fine you can go through...” “ Let’s go guys.” “ No! Let go of me!” Someone screamed. I turned around. Two grunts dragged in a girl, about 13 years old. She was struggling pretty hard. “ I said I won’t! You can’t make me!” “ Shut up!” shouted one of the grunts. Jordan spoke to him. “ What’s going on?” “ This prisoner refuses to join. We have orders to take her to The Boss.” “ Let go of me!” she yelled. I took a closer look at her and gasped. It was my cousin, Joey Fall. I had to figure out a way to get her out of there. “ Put me down now! You’ll be sorry!” Another grunt thumped her on the head pretty hard. “ Hey!” I yelled. “ You can’t do that! Stop!” “ Make me!” “ Fine!” I took out Vulpix’s Poke’ ball. “ Just remember, when I kick you’re but, you asked for it!” TO BE CONTINUED...........