125Happy New Year, everyone! I hope that 2015 was a good year for you guys, but I am also ready to grab 2016 by the horns and bring two new stories this year! At least, that's my goal! I can honestly say it's good to be back, and I hope you enjoy the story at hand.
For those of you reading my stories for the first time: Welcome to my page! I am glad to have you here, first of all, but sadly, if you haven't read my other stories, particularly Firestorm Origins and Light in the Storm, I cannot guarantee that you'll know what's going on. Like, at all. But for those of you that have read them already... enjoy!
Also, for the Insurgo (Amber's Friends) If you haven't read my Grovyle Stories, they are the main characters from those stories, so I don't really put a lot into developing their characters this time around. So go ahead and give those a read if you don't want to be confused some more!
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: The Blazing Hearts
-Chapter I: The Beginning of the End-
-Amber-
She stood tall in front of Team Firestorm and extended her hands to the pokémon behind her. "Connor. Vulcan. Team Firestorm. This is the Insurgo."
Team Firestorm stepped forward slightly, and Amber could sense their tension, especially Connor and Vulcan's. She smiled slightly as she introduced each member. She started by pointing to the two Sceptile. "This is Briar and Basileus. Two of the most powerful Sceptile I have ever met. Their strength knows no bounds, and that is no exaggeration."
Atlas had come out of the back, still limping and being supported by Alice, but he managed to say, "Basileus… I know you, don't I?"
"Yes, you do. I helped you train to capture Grovyle." Then he added on, "Of course, that was before I knew that he was my son from the future."
Amber smiled while Grovyle's eyebrow arched straight up. "...What?"
"These two are Tyranitar and Galvantula." Amber interjected. "They are a formidable force when put together. With Galvantula's unpredictability and Tyranitar's absolute power, they've faced an army of hundreds and won."
Galvantula leapt over Amber's head with a grin, and she sighed internally. Here we go…
"What up C?"
Connor reared back and arched an eyebrow at the yellow bug-type, "What?"
"That's your name, innit?" Then he blinked heavily. "Right… Amnesia. I keep forgetting about that."
Then he looked up at Connor, a goofy smirk on his face. "Heh. Bad pun… Too soon?"
Connor didn't react in any way she had anticipated, only asking, "How… How do I know you?"
Galvantula let out a short laugh. "Well, we only fought a huge freakin' army together, and you stopped the lord of time with your flashy aura powers. Also you fought off tons of stupid Sableye while I picked a magical lock to free Victini from a cage in Temporal Tower, all while the alpha Sableye of all pokémon helped us out because of G's temporal mark, which is gone now!"
Amber did an internal face-palm, but kept a straight face. Next time… she thought. Don't let Galvantula talk so much.
"Galvantula." She said.
He turned his head, "Yeeep?"
"Let them take in this information slowly. Not everyone can wrap their minds around this as easily as we can."
He shrugged. "Alright. Whatevs." And scuttled back over to Tyranitar.
Connor looked at her and raised an eyebrow, as if to say, what's his deal?
Amber blushed and suppressed a smile, but quickly turned away from them, "Um… This is Grovyle- and Celebi. A few of you already know Grovyle, but to the newer members… Grovyle, Celebi, would you like to introduce yourself?"
She secretly hoped that Connor hadn't seen her smile like that, but part of her insisted that he did. Not now. She gritted her teeth slightly, her smile fading. It's not about me. It's about them. They need him.
She regained her smile while Grovyle introduced himself to the newer 'recruits', as Connor had put it.
By the time she had turned around, Connor and Grovyle were already striking up conversation. She decided to focus her attention to the other pokemon. Namely Jade and Atlas at first. Atlas was lying on the ground and resting while Jade simply observed all of them without altering her neutral expression. Amber could sense her anguish and loathing from here. How that Froslass kept the maelstrom of emotions inside of her, she had no clue. But she was strong, and obviously had experienced death before. Her power had a direct tie to her emotions from what Amber had observed an hour ago. When she let out her emotion, the entire town had been enveloped in a snowstorm. When she kept it in, it also refrained her from using her power to its fullest potential. But when she let it out, she could easily lose control and end up freezing herself and everybody else in the process.
She directed her gaze to Mirage, who was talking to Galvantula. Tyranitar introduced himself to Caroline, who used vine whips like arms and hands. She waved and put on a smile, but she could feel her sorrow as well. The entire team, now that Amber had begun observing them more closely, appeared somewhat confident while introducing themselves, but she also felt that the only reason that they weren't completely breaking down was because she had given them something to distract them. Something to believe in other than themselves. They needed that. Their confidence had been destroyed along with their team during the battle.
She looked to the ground and saw a large shadow moving between the entire group. She nodded and reached out with her mind. When I say.
She cleared her throat and let out a sharp whistle to capture the group's attention, and when she had every pair of eyes on her, she spoke up. "Team Firestorm… I have one more member I would like to introduce. A few of you might know him. But…"
"But…?" Connor pressed.
"But… Many of you might not know him as an ally. I assure you, however, that he is."
As if on cue, all the shadows on the bluff condensed and morphed into a spherical shape. The trees began rustling and a strong wind picked up, seeming to swirl around the expanding darkness. Really? He had to put on a show? Amber thought to herself with annoyance.
Connor turned around to face the pokemon that rose out of the shadows. A single red eye looked down to him. "Hello, Connor."
"Dusknoir!" Connor sounded more angry than surprised. A chunk of earth peeled itself from the ground and hurled itself at the ghost-type, but he phased through it and floated in place. Connor growled and used ice beam. Dusknoir was frozen solid, but he quickly burst from the ice and brushed himself off nonchalantly. Connor narrowed his eyes. "What's wrong? Can't handle us now that we're evolved?"
"Sorry to disappoint you, Connor, but i'm not here to fight. I'm actually here to help."
Atlas' eyes glowed white and he grabbed Dusknoir by his throat, his muscles radiating a slight orange hue. "We don't need your help."
"Apparently not," Dusknoir replied through his stomach-mouth. "You obviously have everything under control."
Connor gritted his teeth as more pieces of stone dislodged themselves from the bluff and floated in the air. "Enough with all the lies! Go back to whatever part of the distortion world you came from!"
"Connor, that's enough!" Amber shouted.
He turned to her, and Atlas released Dusknoir, the rest of the team now eyeing her warily. "Amber, You never said that Dusknoir would-"
"I know what I said, and did not say." She interjected. She walked closer to him, but he backed away and dropped the boulders. She winced slightly at his sudden defensiveness. "Connor… Do you trust me?"
He hummed slightly and appeared to be in thought. She tried her best to not let her nervousness show through. If he refused her help, then her group had no choice but to leave. And if they left, Team Firestorm was finished.
Connor glanced back and forth between Dusknoir, and strangely enough, Amber noticed, nobody else was making any attempt at attacking, aside from Atlas. They all looked at Connor and waited patiently. She realized in that moment that he wasn't just the one in charge of the team. He was truly their leader. The one they looked to for direction. They looked ready to fight, or die trying, if Connor gave the command.
Finally, after what seemed like forever, he nodded slowly, "I don't have a problem trusting you, Amber… But Dusknoir… That's a different story."
She nodded silently, and Roy casually floated over to him. "Um… Connor, may I interject-"
"You weren't there when Dusknoir almost killed us, Roy! You don't know what it was like!"
"On the contrary," He replied with a hint of annoyance. "I had been monitoring your team for a long while before I made myself available for you to recruit. I know all about Dusknoir, how he betrayed your trust and dragged you into the future. I was there for all of it. Although… Not physically. I made sure to stick to the shadows."
Amber found herself staring at this Mismagius, just like everyone else. He looked all around him and smile mischievously. "Oh, goodie! I get all the attention!" His smile contorted back into a neutral expression as Connor replied, "You didn't see what Vulcan and I saw, Roy. The cruelty, the darkness, the wretched, horrible future Dusknoir wanted to keep alive for the sake of self-preservation. Death was all they had to look forward to in that world."
Roy let a saddening smile appear on his face. "If only I knew what that was like… Death. It's the kind of thing you'll never think about until it happens to those around you."
Connor took a deep breath and turned away, "Roy, you're a ghost-type. Death doesn't exist for you."
Amber swore she saw shadowy tears in the Mismagius' eyes, but he blinked and they were gone. She figured she must have imagined it, but something in her told her otherwise. He spoke with a newfound confidence. "Connor, listen to me. Right now, these pokemon are all that stand between us and that group. Without them, we cannot win. We will all die."
Connor looked at Dusknoir once more, then at Amber and Roy. Then he turned to the rest of his team, "Well? What do you guys think I should do?"
After a brief hesitation, the Flygon, -Mirage, Amber remembered- said, "Roy's right. We need all the help we can get. Even if it is from… from Dusknoir."
Connor nodded and looked at the rest of his team, his eyes scanning over them. "The rest of you agree?"
Slowly, one-by-one, they slowly nodded in agreement. Jade crossed her arms and looked disinterested, but she nodded as well.
Connor turned back to Amber. "Well… It looks like we've made a decision."
She heard a grunt of approval, and shifted her gaze to Briar, who had a hardly noticeable smile on her face.
Vulcan murmured something to Manaphy, and he held on tighter to his leg. Vulcan shook his head, and Manaphy whimpered for a moment before pushing past them and muttering, "'Scuse me."
She raised an eyebrow as the child threw down a warp orb, but decided not to concern herself. "...Very well. Let's gather supplies and-"
All of the sudden, several boulders dropped out of the air and crashed through the ground, directly into Sharpedo Bluff. Amber stumbled backwards and coughed up the dirt that had been sprayed all over her. She only had time to register the the three boulders as a trio of Golem glowing white before she shouted, "NO!" and they all exploded at once. She saw a blur of motion before they were all blasted away from each other. The ringing pain in her ears made her scream and grab at the sides of her head, but she forced herself to her feet. She could make out her hands glowing, but she willed it to stop using her remaining strength. No! She spoke with her mind. She looked around frantically for the rest of the group, but so far only Briar, Tyranitar, Galvantula, Celebi, Atlas, Mirage, Vulcan, Dusknoir and Roy were to be seen.
She screamed as tears of pain streaked her face and she fell to the ground. "NO!"
Galvantula scrambled frantically up to her and spoke, but she still only heard ringing. Nothing else. Galvantula's voice broke through her thoughts with his electrokinesis. "Amber! Are you alright?!"
She nodded slowly, still unable to talk. But her mind replied for her. "I'll live."
Galvantula appeared to sigh with relief, "That's good…" Then he looked around, "But… the others…"
Amber gasped and tried to sit up, but she felt several points along her back that exploded in pain. She rolled onto her stomach, and the ringing seemed to lessen. She could hear Galvantula's muffled voice. All she could make out was, "Not good."
She groaned, "What's not good?"
Briar grimaced and placed a hand on Amber's back, her voice coming through clearly. "Hold still child… This will hurt."
Amber gritted her teeth and braced herself. "Who are you calling- Aaauugh!"
She heard a sickening sound just after the pain of serrated shards of stone being pulled out of her shoulders, and her vision became red and blurred.
Tears streaked her face as Briar pulled more and more stone fragments out of her back and shoulders. She screamed in agony as the blood poured down her sides, and after what felt like an eternity, Briar bandaged them with a special plant fiber and used aromatherapy. "There, there… It's all done. The pain is over." Amber tilted her head to the side, and Briar grew several plants that were absolutely gorgeous, their fragrances seeming to numb the pain and the sight of them making her relax. Briar teared up as she looked out over the ocean. "The others… Grovyle… Basileus..."
When Amber's vision started to clear up, her entire view was sideways. But she saw Tyranitar pulling stone fragments out of his skin. One sizeable piece had embedded itself only inches below his eye. He pulled it out like a needle and said, "I tried to shield them… All I got to was Celebi and Atlas. I...I'm sorry."
Briar looked up at the stone colossus. Even though he was sitting down and leaning against the only tree on the bluff, he made everyone else look miniscule by comparison. "I am grateful that you saved those you did. None of us had anticipated that this would happen. ...Thank you."
Dusknoir and Roy seemed unaffected. Amber didn't know how. They were both floating there, in shock. But not shock as in pain, just shock as in how did this happen so suddenly?
Galvantula crawled over to the ruins of Team Firestorm's old base, then called back, his voice sounding like he was about to burst into tears. "...Are they dead?"
"No… At least, not any of ours," she replied through gritted teeth. She could sense their power from here. It was a special gift she had possessed for as long as she could remember.
Atlas struggled to his feet, using a nearby boulder for support and stammered, "H… How…"
Celebi walked along the ground, her wing bent at an odd angle. She closed her eyes and started to hum. Amber looked to her for a moment before Celebi said, "Yes… They're alive. At least, most of them." She grimaced when she moved her wing, but she continued standing.
Amber extended her wings and tried to stand, but the muscles in her back had been torn too much, and the stone shards had pierced holes in her wings, to the point that they resembled tattered, bloody fabric rather than crimson sails. She continued lying on the ground and clenched her fists. "Why does it have to be so hard?!" She cried out. She knew it wasn't going to be easy. That all the odds had been stacked against her from the beginning. She knew that the only reason that they were allowed here was because Team Firestorm was needed. But the Mafia had almost erased that branch of reality, so they needed to intervene. Tyranitar helped her up and propped her against the nearest boulder. She groaned and stared wordlessly over the ocean, praying to Arceus that the rest of them had somehow survived.
Once again, thank you guys for making this all possible! Without the support of my reader people, I would never have begun working on this story, let alone another one after this. And yes, this story will be three seperate parts, each one consisting of about 25-30 chapters. So I will be writing for a long while. As always, let me know if you enjoyed the chapter with a quick Review or PM! You don't have to be a registered user to leave a review, so don't be shy to critique! Much Love!
-PL