Chapter 20

"Why do you have to lie about your injuries?" Archy demanded irritability as White combed her hair with her hand.

"You know why!" She snapped, wincing as she pulled her hair very hard.

"No, I honestly don't."

It has been a day since Amos, Hugh, and Leia had come to Castelia.  She and her Arcanine were in front of the gate to the sewers at one of the ports. White was waiting for Sky Blue, who requested to accompany White on her search of the sewers. Leia was always with Mira, and Amos and Hugh were always by themselves, so Sky was the only one who actually stayed with her anymore. Since they were both by themselves, White had been able to fill him in on the latest news about Team Plasma that she had received from N.

"I will not give them any reason to cause them to think I am unfit to fight! If N find out I'm weak-"

"You haven't told him?" interrupted Archy, his expression turning stern.

"No, I haven't." She snarled while beginning to blush.

The Arcanine groaned and pleaded, "Oh, come on, Whitney!"

"What?! It's a free country!" White snapped, flinching when he used her real name. "I can keep my secrets if I want!"

"I swear, your pride will be your down fall!"

"Thanks for telling me. Now I have something to look forward to."

Archy glared at her and growled, "Come on, you got to tell him."

"No." She said flatly.

"You can't hide it forever."

"Not if I can help it."

"You can't hide everything! You have proved that!" Sky's voice said.

White looked up to see Sky Blue leaning over the railing, looking down at her. His Chatot, Chatter, was once again perched on his shoulder.

"How did I prove that?" she asked as he leapt over the railing and jumped down next to her.

"By always telling people about how I lost my eye when I don't tell them the truth." said Sky, making White snort.

"I don't see how losing your eye to Team Plasma gives you shame." She sneered.

"It was a girl, and to be more specific, she was your foster sister!" Sky argued coldly.

"She's not my foster sister." She hissed furiously.

N wasn't the only child that had lived with Ghetsis. Two girls, Anthea and Concordia, were also adopted by Ghetsis. When White had heard that her brother had two foster sisters, she had felt more betrayed and hurt than before. Her hatred toward Anthea and Concordia had increased when Concordia's Gardevoir took out Sky's eye. He would have died if White hadn't been there.

Archy seemed to have known what she was thinking about, because he said, "That was an accident, White."

Sky glared at the Arcanine while White snarled, "That's what she says."

Archy rolled his eyes but didn't try to reason with her.

"Oh, by the way," Sky suddenly added, changing the subject, "Mira and Leia wanted to come along too. They'll be here in a bit."

White shrugged unconcernedly and replied, "Fine, I don't care who comes."

"Also, please tell your Zoroark to stop chomping on Chatter, he refuses listen to me." Sky Blue told her sternly.

"I can't control him," she told him, now noticing the scratches and teeth marks on Chatter's wings and tail. "He doesn't attack my pokemon much, but he'll attack others."

"So that's how he has always acted?" Chatter squawked nervously, speaking for the first time.

"Yes, his behavior is nothing new," She answered calmly, "Well, at least I think so."

"So, how is Purr doing?" asked Sky curiously, "I'm guessing she is more miserable and grumpy than ever."

"I don't know, honestly. Last I heard, she was scratching up N's arm. He claims the scratches spelt out, 'dumb dumb'."

Archy looked amused at this and Chatter sang a happy note.

"I'm beginning to like her." Sky sighed, stroking his Chatot.

"Let's talk about Archy's mother." Chatter suddenly squawked randomly, flying off of Sky's shoulder and landing of Archy's head.

"Yeah, let's talk about your mother!" Sky said, smiling as Archy gave a deadly growl.

White snorted. Sky Blue and Archy never got along, and she knew Sky had always enjoyed taunting the Arcanine. It was probably payback for all the horror Archy caused him in the past.

"Don't tease my mother, Azul!" snarled Archy, his eyes flashing red.

"But she's dead." Chatter pointed out.

"You can insult my father, my brothers, my sisters, and my beast of a mate, but don't bring my mother into it!" Archy growled.

"Ok, then I want to hear about your beast of a mate." Sky said, pretending to look interested.

White found herself trying not to laugh as smoke started escaping from Archy's tightly clenched teeth. She was surprised her friend nor his Chatot looked terrified. Maybe they had forgotten about how painful his Flamethrower is.

"She was a beast." Archy snarled after a minute.

"That's a lot of details, you needn't say more," Sky told him sarcastically, now looking very entertained.

"She was evil."

"How evil?" Chatter asked.

"Well compared to you two, she was very kind, thoughtful, and a lot less stressful!" snapped Archy.

"I will take that as a compliment, thank you very much!" Sky Blue said in a friendly voice.

"We're here!" Mira's voice sang, and she leapt down next to White from the railing above.

"Were you talking to yourself?" Leia asked Sky as she too leapt down next to Mira.

"Maybe I was, and maybe I wasn't." He replied seriously, ignoring Archy's continuing growls.

"Are the boys coming?" White asked Leia.

"Nope. Well, they said they would come down later." Leia told her.

White suddenly realized that a Pichu was perched on top of Mira's head. Sparky the Pichu was a pokemon that White had caught for Mira when she first met her. Mira had only one pokemon at the time, and that was her Steelix, Spika. Sparky squeaked at Archy and Chatter, and sparks flew from her pink cheeks.

"Do you mind if Sparky comes along?" asked Mira, noticing that White was watching Sparky.

White shrugged and answered, "I don't care, she's not my pokemon. I'd prefer it if you did."

"Well, I'm going to the sewers, you ladies coming?" Sky called, who was waiting in front of the sewer entrance.

White nodded and returned an irritated Archy to his pokeball.

Mira and her Pichu gave gleeful squeals and ran into the sewers as if this was nothing but an exciting field trip. Then again, Mira was taught by Sky to be weird that way. White sighed and grabbed her walking stick, which was leaning against the wall, before following them inside.

"Ladies before beauty." Sky Blue sneered as White limped inside. She scowled at him and Leia giggled. She held back the urge to hit him on the back of the head.

The sewers were dark, and there was lots of water. Water dripped down from the ceiling, and the sound echoed all around. White looked up and saw a few Grimer hanging from the pipes. They quickly scuttled away once seeing that White had noticed them.

"Lovely place, isn't it?" Sky Blue hissed in Mira's ear, which made her let out a small scream.

"Cut it out!" White snapped at him, and he laughed.

"How are we going to see?" Leia whispered, squinting to see through the darkness.

"Well that's easy!" said Mira, still glaring at Sky, "Sparky, Flash!"

Sparky gave a small cry, and light glowed around the small Pichu. The light didn't shine that far, but they were able to see up to twelve feet a head of them.

"Chatter, use Mimic." Sky Blue said to his Chatot, who had just flown inside. Chatter gave an almost silent squawk and he to began to glow as well.

"How do you learn that move? That Flash, I mean." Leia asked Mira excitedly, though looking slightly jealous.

Mira grinned and admitted,  "I used a TM. A guy was digging in a trash can, and he threw it out. I guess he didn't need the TM, he needed a flashlight."

"White, why don't you use Tiny? Three are better than two." said Sky with a smirk.

White didn't answer. She honestly didn't want to let the Espeon out when two other pokemon were out of their pokeballs. If Tiny didn't get her way, she would probably kill one of them. She'd rather not have that on her conscious, but Sky was right. Three was better than two.

"Very well..." She finally muttered and unclipped a pokeball from her belt. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she tossed the device into the air. Tiny the Espeon burst out of the pokeball gracefully and looked around

"Oh, it's you two." Tiny sneered as she saw Chatter and Sparky. "Shame, shame."

"Is something wrong with that?" Chatter snapped, his feathers puffing up threateningly.

"No, it's just that you're very annoying," sighed the Espeon, her lip curling slightly. "You both talk way too much. How long has it been since you've had a three hour lecture? Please tell me you talked yourselves out already."

"That's not nice!" Sparky huffed.

"You know nothing about-"

"Tiny, Flash." White commanded harshly, cutting through Tiny's taunts.

Tiny scowled at her, and red light flashed from the red jewel on her forehead. The light emitting from the Chatot, Pichu, and Espeon combined and expanded even farther. The light

"I've always liked your Espeon!" Leia told White as they started walking.

"Well when I die, you can keep her." promised White, wishing that that day would come quicker. Sky snorted while Tiny hissed but said nothing.

"Do we have to cross the water?" Mira asked, looking at a large body of sewer water on their right.

"Only if you're very unfortunate." Sky Blue teased her while pretending to push her into the water below. White and Leia jumped as Mira gave a small scream and rounded on her brother figure.

"They don't seem to like each other." Leia said in a low voice as Sky and Mira started arguing. White smiled.

"They do, but sometimes they get annoyed with each other. Would you like to travel with Sky Blue all the time?"

Leia gave a small sheepish smile and admitted, "Well, no. I suppose not."

"UGH, why did you bring me here?" Tiny complained as she stepped into a mud puddle, "It's so wet and filthy!"

Sparky giggled and Chatter chuckled, "Well you need to get out more, and what's better than a walk in the sewer?"

"Hey, look, it's a Grimer!" Pichu squeaked as a purple slime-like pokemon suddenly slid into their range of light. The Grimer didn't seem to care for them because it gave them one glance before edging down the path and into the water.

Before anyone could do anything, Tiny gave a screech and clawed the Grimer. It moaned and fainted. The Espeon quickly leapt back before the Grimer fell into the water below. It seemed to regain consciousness once it hit the water because a Grimer head appeared where it disappeared. It groaned angrily, but swam away from her quickly,

"Carry on!" Tiny announced to the humans as she ran around the corner of the path.

"You should be very proud of your Espeon, White. Imagine after all that complaining, she took down a baby Grimer." Sky whispered to her, so Leia wouldn't hear.

Before White could retort, Mira had stopped and whispered, "Do you guys hear that?"

Leia looked around nervously and asked quietly, "What is it? I don't hear anything!"

"I can hear... voices." Mira explained, apparently still listening.

White stopped as well. She listened carefully and after a moment, she too heard voices. They weren't too easy to hear, but the voices were definitely human.

"Did you hear that screech?" a man's voice echoed from somewhere ahead.

"Probably a Rattata having a heart attack." another voice replied . "I don't want to lose my rank, so let's hurry it up."

"Do you think," Sky started, staring at White. "Do you think it might be them?"

But White held up her hand, trying to listen to the voices. She was straining her ears to listen. It was very possible that it was Team Plasma, but there were street gangs lurking in the city as well.

"Where are the other patrols?" a female's voice asked. "They should be here!"

"I don't know, but they're probably having better luck then us!" answered the first man's voice.

White turned to Mira and Leia, who were both looking scared. "I want you two to go get the boys." She hissed to them.

"White, is it Team Plasma?" Leia whispered frantically.

"I'm positive." She replied, now picking up Tiny. "Sky, you're with me."

Sky Blue nodded and the girls ran toward the entrance. They didn't move till Sparky's light disappeared.

"Why do you think they're here?" he asked her as they started running down the path. "Surely there's no one else here besides us to steal from!"

White didn't look at him, but only growled, "I don't know! I'm not sure why they're here in the sewers, but whatever the reason, it's nothing good! We need to stop them from causing harm to anyone else!"