Pokémon PrismGold

Chapter Thirty-Five: "Alolan Ranger"

The ship lurched, causing Mark to slam his shoulder into the doorframe. His Raichu was the only one not affected by the ship since she was hovering on her surfboard like tail. Watching Nate fall across the floor, Mark cursed and forced his way over to him. Wasting no time, Mark grabbed his wrist and hefted him up over his shoulder. Wrapping his arm firmly around Nate's legs, Mark yelled out to Raichu. "Cover me!" Raichu saluted with her little hand and surfed back out into the hall to check for more guards. Rushing back down the hall, Mark panted heavily as more guards were running up the steps and down the hall behind them. Mark turned back into the room where Aerodactyl was waiting. Behind him, Raichu was electrocuting a few pokemon that had reached the doorway. Grabbing the saddle bar, Mark pulled himself up onto Aerodactyl with all the strength he had left. Laying Nate out in front of him, he let out a loud whistle to signal Raichu to retreat and shifted his weight to inform Aerodactyl to leave.

Aerodactyl turned to face the broken window, spreading his wings for takeoff. Raichu surfed up to them, letting Aerodactyl smack a lean black dog with curled horns away with the powerful strike of its long tail. The Houndoom yelped as it was sent into the wall and before the others could enter the room, Aerodactyl took off into the rainy night sky. Mark squinted into the pouring rain, trying to steer Aerodactyl to the shore of Shamouti Island. It was too dangerous to be flying in the middle of the storm, but he had no choice. Overhead, lightning flashed across the sky, revealing everything in a bright light before sending it back into a pitch black darkness. The heavy rain was starting to fall sideways as the winds picked up. He could hear Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres's sharp cries carrying on the wind, making their positions hard to determine. Through the Ranger Styler on his wrist, he could feel his Aerodactyl's fear. It didn't want to fly anymore, but Mark kept his emotions calm to help encourage it on at a steady pace.

The wind blew them off from the course that Mark wanted, but he stayed calm and tried to adapt to it to get generally where he wanted. Seeing shore, Mark coaxed Aerodactyl down to it. Aerodactyl was thrilled to be landing and headed for it a bit faster than Mark wanted. Just as Aerodactyl landed on the wet sand, a lightning bolt struck the sand by his wing, causing him to jerk wildly. Mark and Nate were thrown into the sand as Aerodactyl let out a panicked roar and took off into the wood line. Stiffly rolling to his feet, Mark limped and staggered across the sand to heft Nate over his shoulder. They had to get under cover. Zapdos's lightning was wild and he knew better than most that in rain like this... Lightning traveled sporadically until it found a grounding source. Things like wet sand were beckons for lightning. Raichu helped Mark when she could, warning Mark to places on the beach that she thought were hot spots. Trudging into the woods, Mark calmed down a little. Lightning would hit the treetops before hitting them, but he still wanted to find better shelter. A cave was preferred. If lightning hit ground it would disperse itself.

Raichu scouted for him, her cheeks sparking from the static in the wet air. Her curled ears twitched as she looked around with her keen rodent eyesight. Finding a nice big tree, she pointed to it and chipperly hovered around it. She felt it was safe and that was good enough for him. Laying Nate down carefully beneath it, Mark fell to his knees to pant hard. They were both soaked to the bone, but the rain was less under the big trees many leaves. Raichu patted Mark's shoulder comfortingly as she hovered nearby. It was a comfort to have her close. Raichu could absorb lightning if she had too but would have to release it somewhere or risk being overcharged to the point where she'd get sick and sluggish. Wincing, Mark looked over his hurt leg. Seeing a piece of sharp shell in his leg, he groaned in frustration. He wanted to remove it so badly but left it in for now. Sitting down, he relaxed his leg and tried to think of a way that he could find Sean and Pryce. He'd left them outside of Ice Island and was worried about them. The seas were getting rough.