Heart of Steel [Pokémon Fanfiction]

10| The Depths of Granite Cave

When we entered the lobby, everything was a complete mess. Potted plants were overturned, the walls had deep gashes carved into them, and the windows and glass doors had been broken, littering the floor in the glimmering shards. In the middle of it all stood Wallace, looking scared out of his mind with Mudkip standing in front of him trying to be as intimidating as he could.

"Wallace, what happened?" I asked, carefully picking my way through the sea of broken glass to get to him.

"I was waiting for you to finish your battle, and these people in black suddenly broke into the building! They demanded that the attendant tell them where this thing they called the WaveOrb was and they attacked me with Pokémon wearing black collars. And of course, I sent them running!" He tried to hide his expression with a smirk and failed miserably.

"The WaveOrb?" Justine gasped. She ran out of the lobby and down another hallway, leaving Wallace and I alone.

Black collars? Were those crazy people here too? I thought, the image of Valerie's face appearing in my mind. "Where's Winona?" I asked frantically, my mind racing with every horrible memory of my encounter with the Valerie and the strangers. If she ran into them, she could get seriously injured, or worse.

"She was on the beach last time I checked, why?"

My heart nearly stopped. Oh no. No, no, no! "Wallace, those people are dangerous! Before I met you two, I was attacked by them and had almost gotten slashed by a Vigoroth!"

All of the color drained from Wallace's face. "Winnie..." he said faintly.

"We have to find her, now." I grabbed his arm and pulled him outside, ignoring the glass smashing under my feet.

When we got back outside, we found Winona sneaking up on a flock of Wingull resting on the nearby beach. Her steps were well-placed, making sure not to disturb the sand too much. She raised her right hand, which held a blue and red Poké Ball and took aim. She then completely abandoned her stealth by screaming, "Go, Great Ball!" and chucked the ball at the nearest Wingull.

As expected, the flock freaked out and took flight except for the one that Winona's ball hit. It was turned into a burst of red light and was sucked into the capsule, a small star emitting from the center button a second later. Winona squealed in delight and collected her newly-caught Wingull from the ground.

"Winnie! Thank Arceus you're all right!" Wallace ran to his sister and hugged her tightly, almost knocking the Great Ball from her hands.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why are you so worried?" She freed herself and looked at us, confused. When she saw the relieved looks on our faces, she frowned. "What's going on?"

"There are some bad people around here, Winona. I was afraid that they would hurt you, and I wanted to make sure you were safe," Wallace said, not bothering to sugarcoat his words. He seemed to be fine with telling her the straight truth.