To Bloom Again

Chapter 14: Facing her fiery fears

It was 1995 and the stage was set for the upcoming contests that's taking place in Fallarbor town. The crowd cheers as Marina, who wore a long pink dress, prepares to do her performance.

She throws the pokeball in the air, spinning around elegantly, "Momo, time to take the stage!"

Emerging from it was a beautifly who flew above the stage gracefully.

"Use attract, then psychic!"

With her coordinator's commands, Momo unleashes a plethora of pink hearts of all sizes that surround the center stage and the area where the audience were sitting. The hearts glow with a bright blue aura, lighting up the place.

"Now, pop the hearts!"

Using her remaining psychic energy, Momo pops the floating hearts, creating blue-ish, pink fireworks that explode gloriously.

The move wasn't much, but it was so spectacular that the crowd screamed with excitement and demanded to see more from Marina and her pokemon, including her at the time 'completely embarrassing' parents, who were dressed up as her and holding up signs that said "You're rad!" and "Marina, you're da bomb!" in an effort to stay hip.

Heck, even the judges gave her the greenlit to do another performance, since there's plenty of time left and with very little coordinators participating in the event.

"Are you ready for more?" Marina happily shouts at the audience.

Once again, the crowd screams back.

And with that, Marina brings out her pink ribbon, "Alrighty, Momo use sil-"

As she and her pokemon were about to attempt their next move, a wave of flames began to make its entrance by scorching the back rows. The scent of smoke quickly surrounded the area as everyone frantically evacuated the contest hall.

That is when Marina stopped her performance and ran to the nearest emergency exit. She didn't have time to return Momo back into her pokemon and just told the bug Pokemon to follow her.

She ran and ran and ran, but the fiery flames spread quicker and wider. Marina tried to not breathe in the smoke, but it was getting more difficult with each heavy pant she produced.

Finally, Marina found the exit door, but to her inconvenience, slipped on a puddle of what seems to be fruit punch and hit her back, hard.

The fire was approaching her now and struggling to stand up, Marina crawled her way to the outside with barely any strength she had left in her.

However, it was too late. The flames trapped the two inside and pieces of debris scattered on top of them.

But both Marina and Momo were still alive and still able to move. They find a hole in the wall beside them that leads to the outside, but it was only small enough for Marina to fit through.

"Momo," Marina called her pokemon, "aren't you coming?"

Momo attempted to follow behind her trainer, but got stuck in the hole. In a panic, Marina tries to pull Momo out, but her wings begin to burn at the touch of the flames.

After five minutes had passed with no progress being made, Momo's eyes glowed a bright blue and used psychic to push Marina outside.

"Momo what are you doing?" Marina attempted to move closer to grab her pokemon, but Momo pushed her away.

Then, Marina landed outside, near a tree away from the building, distraught by what Momo decided to do. She didn't even bother to search for her parents to make sure they were okay.