Opal & Topaz

S1 Ep 9: The red orb

                                 
"Well, you could try retrieving him into your pokeball?" Deimos suggested to an ever so frustrated Sanford. Froakie gently croaked on his shoulder. Thankfully he turned out to be right, and Froakie was able to scale the wall. The same couldn't be said for Tugg, though. The pokeball clicked, but nothing else happened.

"Out of range." Sanford frowned, putting it back onto his belt as he looked down into the lava.

"What are you three doing?" A new voice chimed in, thoroughly startling him. It didn't help either that he recognised him. Well, he recognised his Decidueye anyway, and it clearly recognised Hank, too.

"Tugg's stuck down there. Pokeball's out of range, too." The man didn't reply, instead he just looked at his Decidueye. It nodded back, before it spread its wing and charged one of those phantom arrows they were so famous for. He felt oddly privileged to see such a thing in real life.

The man took a loop of rope from around his waist and tied it to the back of arrow, before backing away. Not that anyone would like standing closer to that thing considering its attitude.

It edged closer to the cliff, standing right over top of the drop before firing the arrow down toward the lava. For a moment, he thought the arrow was headed for Tugg, before it planted into the wall beside them.

Tugg pulled the arrow away from the wall, having to use surprising effort to do so. Once it was out it took hold of the rope itself, holding on as tight as it could, as its hands proved a little clumsy to work with.

Without hesitation the Decidueye slung the rope over its shoulder and began trying to pull them up. Unfortunately it didn't quite work, and it's talons scraped uselessly against the stone as it strained against Tugg's weight.

"Let's go." The man gestured for everyone to help before grabbing the rope and pulling with his Decidueye. The other two joined rather quickly, though Hank hesitated for a moment, wondering why he should listen to this guy, before realising it was Sanford's Pokémon on the line. Of course everyone would help.

As they pulled he couldn't help but worry about the edge of the cliff behind them. He could imagine himself falling back into the lava due to being unable to tell how close he was.

Then, he heard the familiar noise of a pokeball retrieval, and the rope became weightless, making them all fall back onto their asses. As he dusted himself off, the Decidueye ruffled it's feathers and stood back next to the man.

"Thanks, 2B." Sanford placed the ball back on his belt. 2B, huh? He wondered if they'd need to have codenames, or if they were free to keep using their regular ones. Preferably, he'd like if he didn't need to adopt some shitty codename. He could imagine he'd get the short end of the stick somehow.

"Don't thank me." 2B gestured his head toward the Decidueye. Finally, someone else with some sense.

"Thank you, Henry." Sanford spoke slowly, like he was talking to a toddler. 'Henry', was clearly taking offence, glaring at Sanford with a deep hate as Sanford kept being condescending.

Though he couldn't get over the name. Henry? Really? Although, he was in no position to judge. His Pokémon was called 'Sparks' for crying out loud! That reminded him, though; he needed to give Froakie a name. Gently, he scratched under their chin again as he considered, watching the others slowly trying to regroup.

"So what now? I mean, there's still a bunch of guys down there, right?" Deimos asked, to which 2B shook his head.

"We handled them already," He turned his attention to the red orb tucked under Deimos's arm, "now, I'm assuming that's what they were guarding?"