Pokémon PrismGold

Chapter Fourteen: "Snakes & Schemes"

Sean discreetly peeked back through the bushes, watching as a group from Team Valor were capturing small pokemon and shoving them into cages on a cart. The pokemon were all the same. They looked like a tiny version of the large Melmetal that they had seen attacking the Ruby Steelix. They had bodies that looked like liquid silver metal with a hexagonal nut for a head and a small black sphere hovering in the center like an eye. It even had a red tail that looked like a wire with two tiny prongs on the end. He'd never seen them before, but Team Valor was loading them like they had found a nest of them. Over his shoulder, Nate whispered to him. "How many are there?" Sean quickly counted and held a hand up to gesture for five and up. Mark asked in a soft whisper. "What are they doing this far inland? Valor rarely leaves Fire Town." Nate tapped his shoulder, asking him hopefully. "Switch with me. Let me see." Sean lifted an arm to block Nate from moving up, growling over his shoulder. "Why? Expecting to see a friend of yours?"

Nate narrowed his eyes on Sean, growling back defensively. "Keep pushing it and I'll throw you out into the open. You know what a group of Valor will do to a lone Mystic? Cause I do!" Mark swatted them both in the chest, hushing them before snapping out quietly. "Stop it. Someone's coming..." They fell quiet and Sean risked peeking through the bushes again. A woman dressed in a white uniform was approaching the cart loaded down with pokemon. Sean locked his jaw when she turned enough for him to see the small red 'R' on the breast of her uniform. Turning slightly, he sneered at Nate. "Well, seems your people are the reason. Something you aren't telling us?" Nate raised an eyebrow, uttering out softly. "What? I don't follow. Who do you see?" Sean pointed a stern finger at him, about to say something foul, until Mark covered his mouth and yanked him away from the bush. Sean thrashed as Mark pulled him to his chest, holding him tightly. The moment Mark turned him to face the bush, Sean froze in place. A large Arbok was silently making its way through the bush. The large purple snake's long forked tongue flicked out sensing the heat in the air.

Zoey threw her hands up, her eyes a glowing red from forming an illusionary wall that only looked fake from their side. The Arbok curled up just outside the bush, looking into the cave with big black soulless eyes. The cobra hood on its neck slowly rising as it bared its sharp white fangs. It was searching for something. Sean swallowed hard. Arbok was poisonous and extremely aggressive. Arbok's long tail coiled up beneath it more, the tip shaking with agitation. Even if it couldn't see beyond Zoey's illusion, Arbok's tongue was sensitive to body heat and it was growing more agitated at sensing something that it just couldn't see. The Arbok jerked its head left and right, trying to spot anything. The Arbok flicked its tongue out close to the ground and Sean tensed. His foot was at the edge of the illusion and Arbok was testing the air just outside the illusion. If Arbok decided to strike... he was in trouble. Arbok venom was potent enough to kill him in fifteen minutes flat. Which would put him in respiratory arrest and cardiac failure.

Nate picked up a rock as the Arbok hissed and drew closer to the illusion. Sean felt Mark withdrawing a pokeball from his belt, before giving a nod to Nate. Nate nodded back, then tossed the rock to hit the back of the Arbok. The Arbok let out an aggressive hiss, thrashing violently to twist itself up around the rock. Mark used the Arbok's hissing to cover the noise of the pokeball opening. Beside them, Raichu appeared. Shaking its body a little, it rubbed its ears before turning to say in a cute voice. "Rai?" Mark pressed a finger to his lips and Raichu flinched, dropping to all fours with worry. Arbok squeezed the rock in a death grip, watching the rock closely. Its tongue sensing the heat on the rock from Nate's hand. It only took the Arbok a second more to realize the rock was just that. Its tail untangling to look directly in the direction of Nate. Its tongue flicking through the air as it tracked the chemicals from Nate's heat signature. Nate stayed very still, while Mark pointed at Raichu and then the Arbok. Raichu shivered in fear. Being an electric mouse didn't mean it was brave enough to start a fight with a snake of Arbok's size.