Pokemon World Online

Part 16: Jungle Fever

Disclaimer: I don't own Drix, Aura, household cleaners, pokemon, or the song 
Jungle Fever XD which does not appear in this fic, but I did use the title... 
Anyways, part 16 is up, and a thanks to Moya for helping me with a part I was 
having trouble on. Also thanks to drix, who is the one who got me off my lazy 
butt to type.

Dedication: I dedicate this part to Ri2 because I always look forward to 
their reviews. They are always the most fun to read ^_^ so this part is for 
you.

ooo

After having witnessed Dream's acts and Ontaro's betrayal, Twilmer and her 
party had decided that it would be better to skip Fuwaru town and cut through 
the jungle beside it, which was the quicker route to the higher level areas 
and Firewall Mountain. Now that Twilmer had two high level gamers with her, 
she didn't worry about taking the slow route through areas that could provide 
many level up oppertunities. Emily23 and Helium would catch up eventually, or 
they would trail behind. This thought didn't please Twilmer, but she had no 
choice. This glitch had to be eradicated and the nature of it discovered 
before it disrupted the enitre system.

The problem with the jungle was that it was very humid and while Helium's 
Gloom was enjoying the current atmosphere very much, Victoria was lagging due 
to being part ice type, Sparia wasn't at her best stength due to being a 
penguin, even if she wasn't an ice type (hot locations were not her forte), 
and Emily23 was getting receiving a bad hair day, which was perhaps the 
greatest down side to traveling through the jungle of all. "Look at my hair! 
My Bunneary ears don't even stand up as well as they usually do in this 
humidity. It'll take me hours to straighten this mess out," she complained 
hwile looking at herself in a Wobbuffett Mirrorcoat mirror.

"Stop complaining! At least you have hair," Twilmer complained. Though she 
had little room to talk as her yellow furr, which was usually fluffy, was 
becoming matted down and slightly damp.

Aura then began to laugh, "You see, this is why I don't let my hair grow out. 
Long hair just gets in the way in situations like this," Aura laughed with a 
smirk, running a hand through her short, raven hair.

"Can it," Drix muttered. He didn't like the humdity either, but he wasn't 
about to let that show.

"Make me," Aura said dangerously, but with a playful smile, hands on her 
katanas.

"Oh I'd be glad to," Drix grinned, pulling out his sword.

"Uh, guys, we have ground to cover," Twilmer pointed out, motioning towards 
the wide expanse of jungle. The jungle may have been the quickest route, but 
it was still a long way to get out of the area they were now in.

"Don't worry, I can make this quick," Aura shouted before lunging forward and 
lashing out with both katanas, striking the place where Drix's chest had been 
seconds before.

"You little b-" Drix cursed, side rolling, then striking feircely.

"They do that all the time, but it always ends in a tie," Sparia commented. 
Twilmer started, surprised that she could perfectly understand the Empoleon. 
She had noticed recently that pokemon was becoming more understandable to 
her, but it had never hit her before this moment. Pokemon, though, wasn't 
actual words, it was more feelings and tones in order to get a point across, 
and other pokemon were more intune to nature and these feelings, so they 
could understand what was being conveyed as if spoken in actual words.

"Calm down, Twilmer," Twilmer told herself. She had become frightened that 
perhaps the glitch was overcoming her for a second, but the fact that she 
could still talk and use items meant nothing of the sort had yet happened. 
Yet...did that mean it could? Twilmer was a little bundle of nerves as she 
pondered over this unpleasant thought.

Meanwhile, Drix and Aura exchanged blows, sword and katana clinging loudly as 
they struck one another. Twilmer tapped her foot impatiently and watched as 
Aura dodged one of Drix's blows. "We don't have time for this," she 
complained, gesticulating with her little paws, however her words fell on 
deaf ears.

After a semi-epic struggle, Aura and Drix felt the effects of the humidity as 
both were sweating profusely. It got to be to much as the two stopped, 
panting. "D- it, why do they always end in a tie?" Aura asked, more to 
herself then anyone else, frustratedly. She turned her back to the group and 
walked ahead silently.

"I take it that this has happened before," Helium commented to Drix in a 
whisper so the swordswoman would not hear him.

"The first time we met, we fought and I won, being of a higher level then 
her. She, however, never allowed herself to accept that defeat. Everytime we 
meet, we pretty much begin with a battle. Ever since that first fight, they 
have always ended in a tie. I think it's her main goal to defeat me," Drix 
smirked somewhat cockily.

"That sounds like me and Elra," Twilmer commented, riding on Helium's 
shoulder.

"No, Aura and I tie; you are always defeated by Elra," Drix said, taking 
slight pleasure in the dirty look Twilmer was giving him. She, however, 
remained silent because there was bitter truth to his words. Drix was not one 
to sugar coat things.

The group continued their path through the jungle with difficulty as the 
rough underbrush raked against their legs. Emily23, the only one of the group 
not wearing pants, was holding back gasps of pain. Unable to take the pain 
anymore, she hastily did a costume change back into her full-body Bunneary 
suit for the time being. "About time, I was tired of seeing you in that 
skanky outfit," Twilmer remarked. Emily23 chose not to resond.

"I think we're lost," Helium finally spoke up after about thirty minutes of 
heavy traveling.

"Much as I hate to admit it, I think you're right," Drix admitted. Aura still 
hadn't turned to face them. She had been, after all (though unintentionally) 
leading them. She knew no one was blaming her, but she still felt that the 
blame fell upon her.

"It's times like this that I wish that traitor and backstabber, Ontaro, was 
still on the party," Twilmer sighed, remembering how Ontaro checked his map 
religously every five minutes.

"Maybe if we had appreciated him more, he wouldn't have betrayed us," Emily23 
suggested, crossing her arms and sighing, Bunneary doing the same. Suddenly, 
out of no where, a Staraptor dived down into the clearing and grabbed 
Bunneary in it's talons. "Bunneary!" Emily23 shouted, running after the 
Staraptor as it flew away. Thr entire party followed behind her, though 
running was extremely difficult in the humid jungle. The Staraptor wasn't 
having an easy time flying through the trees either, which Twilmer found odd 
as Staraptor weren't programmed to fly through forests or jungles, but rather 
above them. Was this a glitch?

"Wait a second," Twilmer jumped off of Helium's shoulder and onto Aura's. 
Aura was near the front and much taller than the herbalist. Twilmer released 
a spark attack, which hit the Staraptor, but also hurt Bunneary. 
Unfortunately, the attack wasn't strong enough to do much damage.

"Twilmer, watch the attack," Emily23 warned.

"It seems you still have some work to do on your Pichu related attacks," Aura 
commented as they ran, slightly miffed that a pudgy Pichu had just landed on 
her shoulder.

"I guess so," Twilmer admitted with a shrug. The Staraptor turned abruptly 
and let out an ear-peircing screech. It sounded exactly like a real life 
raptor. Twilmer nodded, impressed at the graphics team for their work in this 
area, but still, something seemed off with the Staraptor. Could what Dream 
had said about pokemon becoming real be true? Twilmer pushed aside this 
thought with a snort. As if a no talent mediocre hacker like her could ever 
meddle with the intricate system that ran PWO.

They continued their chase, however the Staraptor was soon out of sight. 
"Bunneary," Emily23 began to cry softly as she fell to her knees.

"Hey, kid, do you have a tracker on your Bunneary?" Drix asked.

"What's that?" she asked, sniffling.

"It's something you can ask a moderator or admin to place in your pokemon's 
programming when you first register them as your partner. I have one in my 
Salamance, which is how I keep track of where he is." Drix looked up, knowing 
his faithful partner was above him, making sure nothing happened that could 
endanger Drix.

"Oh, yeah!" Emily23 jumped up excitedly, but then she sank back down. "I 
don't know how to use it," she mumbled

"Argh! How dense can you get?" Aura slapped her forehead in great annoyment. 
"You look on your map and the blinking red light is your pokemon." Aura 
couldn't see how Twilmer had let such n00bish members on her party with such 
a great task as she had, but then again she supposed that no one really 
wanted to help the admin, judging that she had only found three gamers to 
help her when Aura had been sent to help and one of those was a traitor. She 
could only imagine how frustrated the admin must be.

"Let's see," Emily23 opened up her map screen and began to search the area 
around the flashing yellow dot, which marked her location. "WHAT!?" she 
shouted.

"What is it now?" Twilmer grumped.

"The red dot isn't on her anywhere!" she screamed, tears coming to her eyes. 
Twilmer was amazed at how fast her mood could changed. Perhaps if she had 
been more girly and less of a tomboy, then perhaps she could have mood 
changes like that, too. Wait, what was she thinking. Twilmer shook her head, 
deciding the humidity of the jungle was playing with her brain.

"Let me check my map. There may be a glitch with yours," Helium pulled his 
map out to a dirty look from Twilmer for his glitch comment. "Gloom is right 
next to me so...Whoa! It's not just you. Gloom doesn't appear on my map 
either."

"Let me try," Twilmer said, deciding her word would be the end-all. Victoria 
was looking at her from next to Aura. Since Twilmer was the party leader, all 
the members and their pokemon would appear on her map. She saw the various 
colored dots for the party (she smirked to herslef as she had made Helium's 
dot pink) but the pokemon weren't on the map. Victoria wasn't and neither was 
any of the others, let alone Bunneary. "There must be a glitch in the system 
with the pokemon locators. I'll have to PWO mail PWO Corp about this later."

"Well, how are we supposed to find my Bunneary now?" Emily23 asked, her voice 
frantic.

"Gloom!" Helium stated.

"Gloom?" Twilmer, Aura, and Drix said in unison with equal levels of humor in 
their voices. Aura raised an eyebrow and Drix snorted. Emily23 merely looked 
up, desperate enough to try anything.

"Gloom helps me find the plants and herbs I'm looking for with his sense of 
smell. I'm sure we could use Gloom similar to the way people use dogs to 
track people." Helium looked around the group, waiting for a response.

"Uhh..." Twilmer simply stared at him.

"I'm desperate! I'll try anything," Emily23 really was desperate and her eyes 
were red and puffy from all the crying she had done.

"Okay, so do you have anything with Bunneary's sent on it." Helium looked at 
the girl clad in a Bunneary suit and shook his head. "Never mind, I'll just 
have Gloom sniff you. You and your Bunneary probably have each other's scents 
on you two, so that should make things easier."

Gloom approached Emily23 and took a deep breath. He then choked a bit and 
sniffed the air. Gloom stood dumb founded for a few seconds before stumbling 
off to the east. "Oh THIS was a brilliant plan," Aura mumbled to Drix who 
shook his head in agreement.

The group followed behind Gloom, who made his way precariously through the 
jungle. Following Gloom seemed to be like following a small child that 
constantly forgot what he was following and seemed to be in no rush. Gloom 
would ofton stop to smell a flower and then lose the scent, so he'd have to 
resmell Emily23. The thought of smelling Emily23 made Twilmer want to gag. 
Finally they reached a point wher eGloom stopped and looked up. Twilmer was 
just glad to stop, as was the rest of the party who were hot and sweaty from 
running through the jungle.

"There, up in that tree," Helium pointed. The group looked up to see Bunneary 
asleep in a tree with Staraptor curled around it. That seemed odd to Twilmer 
as well, but she figured the jungle area must be going through an upgrade in 
pokemon personality.

"I'll handle this," Twilmer said with a grin, releasing a spark attack before 
anyone could stop her. This time she managed to miss Bunneary, but the attack 
wasn't powerful enough to really damage the Staraptor. It woke with a start 
and let out an angry, ear-peircing shriek. It then swooped to attack, 
knocking Twilme rinto a tree.

"Wea!" Victoria shouted, running over to her fallen partner.

"I'll handle this," Helium said, gaining confidence in himself as his Gloom 
had managed to find the Bunneary. "Gloom, stun spore!" he shouted. Gloom 
complied, shooting a powerful dust at the Staraptor, who became paralyzed. It 
hit a nearby tree as it crashed to the ground, having been hit in mid-flight, 
and an item chest fell out. It opened as it fell to the ground and a leaf 
stone flew out, landing on Gloom. Gloom began to glow and change shape. 
Helium's eyes grew wide as his partner evolved into a Vileplume before his 
eyes.

"Vileplume," Helium smiled, looking proudly upon his partner. Vileplume 
smiled back and looked determindly at Staraptor. Vileplume began a petal 
dance attack and Helium combined with one of his powders that caused skin 
irritation. The Staraptor, finally able to move and not liking the abuse, 
flew off with one last shreik.

"I did it," Helium looked surprised, blinking as he looked up in the tree. 
Bunneary had slept through the whole thing and stretched as she woke up.

"Bunneary!" Emily23 cried. Bunneary smiled and jumped into the arms of her 
partner.

"Not bad, flower child," Twilmer congradulated, making Helium turn a shade of 
pink that matched his robe. Twilmer smirked at this and was glad her own 
cheeks were already pink so no one could tell if she were blushing or not.

"Alrighty, now that we've finished that annoying little side quest, lets 
hurry up and ge tout of this jungle," Aura stated, snaping the group back 
into reality. Victoria and Sparia readily agreed since the humidity was not 
kind on eithe rone of them, however Vileplume seemed to love it. Aura smiled 
to herself as the group continued along. Perhaps those two weren't the n00bs 
she thought they were.

End part 16

---

FInally finished that part mainly so Drix will stop bugging me to finish it. 
Part 17, I will try to make it come faster than this one did.