"Uum, excuse me, Mr. Park." Naevia says timidly, grabbing his belt.
"Yeah?" He asks in response not dropping his guard nor lowering his weapon.
"Um, I-I'm hungry." She says quietly looking away as he looks down at her and both men stop and look at each other. It had been almost a day and a half since they got left behind. They had been running off their training and completely forgot about the 10-year girl.
"Understood." He replies warmly and she smiles. They break off from their path in search of a safe place to take a break and as luck would have it, they stumble upon a small cave. After a quick investigation it was deemed safe, and they take refuge inside.
"Hey, how come you guys don't remove your helmets?" Naevia asks, frowning at the bitter instant meal Parks had given her as she scoops another mouthful. "Aren't you hungry as well?"
"We only require the bare minimum." Dict answers leaning back against the wall. "As for the helmets, they are our life source you could say."
She frowns again trying to figure out what he meant but quickly gives up. That was an adult problem, so she would just learn what it meant then. "Oh well, if it's too complicated then ain't no need to worry bout it." She says to herself as she continues to eat.
"GYRADOS, HYDRO PUMP!" Misty yells throwing her right hand forward.
"TORKOAL RAPID SPIN AND DEFEND!" The challenger commands as the giant stream of water flies towards his Pokemon.
"Fuck. Dragon Breath!"
"Smokescreen!"
Misty clicks her tongue in annoyance as she looks around the arena. "SKULL BASH!" Misty grinds her teeth as Gyrados roars in pain after receiving the attack.
"Fuck it, Gyrados, use Hail! Take out that whole field!" She commands. Gyrados roars in acknowledgement and soon baseball sized chunks ice fall from the sky. After about 15 seconds the hail stops, and Misty nervously bites her thumb nail. Soon the smoke from the smokescreen clears and Torkoal is laying motionless on the ground.
"TORKOAL IS UNABLE TO BATTLE! THE WINNER AND STILL TEMPORARY LEAGUE MASTER IS MISTY!" The referee exclaims and the crowd goes wild. This had been the first time in almost three months someone hadn't been completely stomped and almost beat the current (Temporary) Champion.
"Huuuff. That was too close." Misty says to herself as she walks to her and Ash's office. She opens the door and walks over to the desk and slumps into the cotton soft chair. She props her elbows on the table and puts her face in her hands. "Why haven't I gotten anything from them?" She asks herself. She'd never gone more than a month without getting a letter from Ash and now she had stopped receiving letters from her son too. Normally she would be okay with it, but it's been almost four months and she hadn't received anything from either and she was getting extremely worried. It was really starting to affect her mentally and at this rate she might actually lose a match.
Harley had tried on numerous accounts to cheer her up but none of it would work. She just couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
"Hey girl. That match was wild. You really had the fans going with that almost loss." Harley says seemingly as if she was summoned.
"That wasn't planned. It did really come down to the wire." She says not looking up.
"Still hung up on your boys?" Harley asks sitting on the desk by her and she nods. I'm sure something important must be going on. They wouldn't just forget about you." She says patting her shoulder.
"Thanks, Harl." She says still not looking up. "Maybe I am just over thinking it."
"We should be arriving soon." Dict says as they reach an overlooking ridge. "That… one, right?"
"YES! That's my house!" Naevia says excitedly.
"Hey, Dict. I'm going to prime an ASLB." Parks says through ragged breaths.
"What that?" Naevia asks, tilting her head to the side.
"It's an All-Surface Locator Beacon. It'll tell our friends where we are." Dict explains.
"So I'll be able to see Agron again?" She asks excitedly.
"Something like that." Parks answers. "Come on now. It'll be dark soon if we don't get a move on."
THUMP
"That you Jinx!?" Harley calls out, turning away from the mirror after hearing a heavy thump from downstairs. "If the wrong person saw these, they would definitely believe Polaris beats me." She thinks to herself with a giggle looking at her hickey covered body. "Well, it's not like he doesn't beat a part of me…"
CRASH
"FUCK!" She shouts in surprise as her door bursts open, sending splintered wood in all directions. She stands frozen staring at the dirty and battered metallic looking being that had destroyed her door staring at her.
"Aah. Mrs. Quinzel. Please, give this to Commander Nightwing…" He said and, as if he was running out of power, dropped to his knees before holding out a tiny rectangular item. "Tell him… We did our best… to return. However, the girl… was more important."
Still completely stunned at what was going on, she just watches as he slumps onto the floor and the little object clatters lightly as it falls from his hand. After a few seconds passes she creeps over and slowly picks up what seemed to be a flash drive of some type.
That's when his last words ran through her mind. "However, the girl… was more important." What girl? It couldn't be.
She quickly jumps over the body, completely forgetting that she was completely naked and rushes to the stairs and from the top she can hear her daughter talking to someone. "Dict! Dict, please get up! Parks is bringing my mom." She got halfway down, and she stopped in shock as she saw the dirt covered figure of her daughter pulling on the arm of another collapsed metallic person.
"Naevia?" She asks and the little girl turns around.
"MOMMY!" She shouts letting go of the man's arm and runs up to and hugging her. "I was so scared mom."
"It's alright dear. But who are these people?" Harley asks after hugging her for a bit and it seemed like a switch flipped and Naevia quickly tries to get out of her arms.
"Let me go! Unhand me! Where is Parks? He said he would bring you down if you were upstairs." The struggling 10 year asks as she fights against her mother's hug.
"Okay, okay. Calm down. He collapsed like that one did." She says but Naevia only gets more restless.
"What do you mean?!" She exclaims and fights even harder to break the embrace.
After a minute or so she finally calms down and goes down and checks on the one she had called Dict. She rolls him over and looks over the body. There was dents and what looked like holes in his body. She looks at his head and after a short debate decides to pull on his head. Sure enough, he was wearing a helmet. She takes his pulse and lets out a sigh of relief. She didn't know what she would have told Naevia he was dead. She tells Naevia he just passed out, and then hurried upstairs before her precious little angel started to get upset about the one called Parks. Luckily, he was in the same state as his partner.
A cold breeze flows past, and she remembers that she was currently in the nude. She quickly grabs some random clothes and calls her husband to help her with the two unconscious men.