Chapter 11: Another Queen!?

Hades0918 · July 7

Homare's P.O.V

I'm furious!

Why did I allow Lance to convince me into taking a break!?

We slept ALL NIGHT and through HALF OF THE DAY!!!

It is currently 2:00 PM and we are just now starting to walk again!

I JUST CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!

And Lance knows I'm mad. I can tell. He has been a lot more quiet than usual (thank Arceus for that because I really can't handle his annoying rambling right now) and seems to keep a bit of distance between us, walking silently behind me.

What angers me is the fact that I know there's no chance of finding Jasmine and Char now! They're probably long gone and in a completely different direction! But I make us continue where we were already going with pointless optimism.

This all just stupid…

From behind me I hear Lance's stomach rumble followed with a groan of pain. He doesn't actually say anything, though, so I ignore him. But then his gut follows up with a second, louder growl and he hisses lowly. I look back at him (with much unneeded attitude) and see the Gallade hunched over and holding his belly. He looks at me with a silent beg for food.

"Fine…" I grumble, reaching into my bag to grab a PokePuff for him. However, my hand comes out empty. "Umm…" I reach in again, still finding nothing. I nervously chuckle. "So… Uh… We're out of food…"

Lance's eyes narrow in on me, rage burning in them hotter than any Armor Cannon I have ever used. "I'm sorry, I think I heard you wrong," he says, a smile that's obviously fake on his face. "Would you please repeat that?"

"Uh…" I really don't want to repeat it, but despite being phrased as a question he demanded it, and right now I feel too scared to defy him. "We have no more food…"

"So you mean to tell me that all those times we passed through towns yesterday and I asked if we need more food, AND YOU TOLD ME NO, you were LYING!?" Lance is practically right up against me, spatting in my face with each word. I simply nod, because unfortunately he's correct. I wasn't technically lying, but I never actually checked any of the times he asked. I was more focused on continuing our travels.

"Y-Yeah…" I mutter. My companion walks past me, intentionally shoving his shoulder into mine as he goes.

"Great! This is just GREAT!!!" Lance exclaims as he pinches his nose with annoyance. "First we get destroyed by a mutant Wigglytuff, then you get all in a mood and refuse to explain, you wake up mad, and now I'm starving!" He snaps his body around to me, shaking as he rants out all of his stress. "THIS IS GREAT!!!"

I just stand there quietly, watching him pace back and forth as he continues to list the same things in different words furiously over and over again. I can't be mad at him for this reaction. I know I haven't treated him well lately, forcing him to exhaustion and leaving him in the dark about what happened, and he's incredibly hungry, another thing that I did to him because I made him only eat snacks and no real meal. I forget my own angers as I watch him rant, all my fury seeming ridiculous in comparison to his. He's been suffering a lot more than I have and it's all because of me.

But I'm still not ready to tell him about Jasmine.

I don't know why, but every time I think about telling him I can't get my mouth to open. I honestly think I'm scared to tell him she's here. I hate telling people about my sister. I was barely able to muster up the strength to tell him she existed! I'm just embarrassed about her and her actions and I don't want this Gallade that I've worked hard to build a friendship with to look at me differently knowing my sister is a villain that nearly killed us.

Huh, I guess I actually do know why.

"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING!?" Lance's voice suddenly screams at me, forcing me out of my thoughts. I look up to see him staring at me with wide, blood-shot eyes. He's panting heavily and looks exhausted. I haven't looked at him much since the Forrest Village, so this is my first time seeing what I've put him through.

He's in horrible condition.

"Um, sorry, what," I ask, which seems to make the Blade Pokémon angrier. He takes a few deep, calming breaths before explaining.

"I had told you that I see a town in the distance," he states, his voice forced into a low, peaceful tone that somehow scares me more than the screaming did. "I walked to the top of the hill and there's one a few miles away. It'll take about thirty minutes to get there and will probably use a lot of my little remaining strength, but there should be stores there to buy some food."

"Oh, that's great," I exclaim, trying to give him a smile but my lack of mouth preventing me from doing so. I guess I can temporarily drop my search for Jasmine. He obviously needs me to get over that and focus on us again. "Let's go!"

Going over to our super stressed Gallade, Lance!

Me and Homare manage to get to the entrance of the town. I look up at the bright blue sky, estimating that, based on the location of the sun, it's about 3:30 PM, maybe 4. I can't be sure, though. Homare is the one that's good at reading the time like that. But I'm not going to ask him. I'm a bit too mad to speak to the Armarouge right now. I'm not sure if he deserves all the things I said about him in my rant of rage, but I at least know he's done me a lot of wrong lately.

"'You're now entering Vaporia,'" I state, reading off the sign. "I guess this town is named Vaporia."

"Huh, that's weird," the Armarouge says, rereading the sign in his head. "I've never seen this place on a map before."

'Since when do you read maps," I question as we continue into the town.

"Since school," he replies. "My parents made sure we had the best education possible and cartography was included in that."

'We had.' My brain immediately latches onto that. I forgot all about his sister Jasmine. The one that disappointed the family and left, never to be seen again. I honestly relate with her a lot based from what I've heard. Parents always looking down on me, not fitting in with the family, running away from home… The only thing we don't have in common is she's a genius and I'm an idiot. The lack of smarts isn't my fault, though. My parents couldn't afford to send me to school

"Hey, Lance, check this out," Homare says, snapping me back to the present. I see him over by a wall looking at some posters. I come to stand with him and see they are all pictures of a Vaporeon. "'All hail Queen Vapor,'" he reads from one of the papers.

"Queen Vapor," I repeat with question. "Since when is there a second Queen of the region?"

"There's not…" Homare mutters, suddenly seeming in edge. "Look, there's something wrong with this place. We need to go."

I look around at the area. Small grey houses line the street on one side, Pokémon tending to their gardens and waving at their neighbors. The other side has many stores, restaurants, and other businesses. None of them sell the same things, so it doesn't seem like they have to compete for customers. I look down the street to see a large fountain in the center of the town, statues of Malamars in a circle spraying arcs of crystal blue water with a giant Vaporeon at the center, shooting one large stream into the air. All the way at the other end of Vaporia is a giant castle made of white bricks with black pointed roofs.

The place is built kinda weird and my companion is right about something feeling off, but I'm too hungry to let that bother me. "I'm not leaving until we have completely stocked up on food," I demand, my tone allowing zero room for argument. Homare doesn't even try to defy me, giving a sigh as he follows me to the berry shop.

"Hello," the Shuckle running the place exclaims with a friendly smile as we approach. "Lovely day to praise Queen Vapor, isn't it?"

"Sure," I reply absent mindedly as I scan the goods. "We'll take five Sitrus, four Cheri, three Lum, and seven Tamato."

"Okay," the shop keeper says happily as he begins to load up the requested items. As he works, he keeps looking back up at us with a look that slowly becomes less friendly and more suspicious. "Hey… Are y'all from here?"

"Nope," I answer simply, and Homare looks at me with horror, shaking his head. The Shuckle seems terrified by my response.

"Then you're dangerous," he exclaims, pushing the berries he was loading to the ground. I don't have time to say anything as he begins shouting "GUARDS" at the top of his lungs. I look down the street and see an army of Pokémon in gold armor running towards us.

"Well that's not good…" I mutter, unsure how to react. Homare is the one that moves, grabbing me by the wrist and immediately running down a nearby alley way. The soldiers follow us in, so my companion drags me through multiple lefts and rights, me just following through all the twists and turns. I have no clue where he's going but I trust that he'll get us to safety.

After one of our sharp rights, a bright red blur tackles us into a pile of trash bags, its paws covering our mouth as we try to cry out. It holds us down as the guards rush by, the bags hiding us from their sight. Once they're gone, our attacker (or was it a savior? I'm not too sure yet) gets off of us and helps us to our feet. I can now see it was a Flareon the tackled us.

"Follow me if you want to make it out of here sane," he states, immediately walking down the alley. I look over at Homare, who's looking at me with the same expression of confusion. He gives me a shrug and I nod in response. This guy is our best bet. So, in silent agreement, we follow this Flareon with hope of safety.

— — —

So the ending was a bit rushed and I apologize for that

But I wonder who this Flareon is

Hmmm…

@PokeMom244 (who requested this), @Dragonfly102024 @fineasmatei @UnovanZorua @Evolve8eon @Thur55555555555

Sorry if I forgot anyone

Enjoy!

Evolve8eon · July 7

i find it funny how you still tag thur even do he is banned and if he makes a new account it won’t notify him still because different account and he’d also be banned again