bootlegs

IGN: Bootlegs A Lost Friend 2000 feet beneath the surface of Hoenn's oceans. A beautiful and lonely pokemon glissaded it's way through the deep blue water. It's colors were as vibrant and unique as the region to which it belonged. It sang a beautiful song that could calm angry nerves, or lift the emotional weight that lied on it's friends shoulders. This pokemon, was Milotic. Arcing through long, slow curves Milotic was finding it's way through an abyss. It was a particularly cold night in the ocean. And Milotic was grazing on patches of seaweed that bedded themselves in the walls of the abyss. The moonlight shimmered through the ocean's surface and reflected off the coral reef above. She would often look up at the other pokemon, dancing in the light bouncing between the surface and the reef. And she'd wonder what it was like to know so many friends of the same kind. What was it like to truly belong? Suddenly, she hears a cry. She tries to locate the sound, but the abyss is vast. The light from above lets a slight glow onto a shelf in the abyss. The mouth of a cave lies beyond it. She's sure that the cry came from inside. Milotic uses her long, slender yet strong body to push through the water with force. Rushing towards the entrance, she glides into the mouth of the cave. She hears the cry again echoing from deep inside. She comes to an opening, and there are four tunnels in front of her. There's no way to tell which one the cry came from. Before she can decide, she sees a flash out of the corner of her eye. Then a heavy weight drops onto her back, and she begins to sink to the underwater cavern floor. She feels a sharp pinch in her side, and uses her wide, fanned out tail to slap the source as hard as she can. A trail of bubbles and a crash, she sees Crawdaunt with his back to the wall. Crawdaunt's pincers are snapping one after the other. He shoots off the wall straight towards her. Quickly, she maneuvers her body into a ring. Crawdaunt passes through it, just barely missing her soft scales with his claw. Milotic takes in a deep breath of water, her cheeks and chest expanding. With all of her might she blows out a hydro pump, and places it with precision. Crawdaunt, feeling the force in his chest first, slams into the rock wall behind him. His hard carapace cracks slightly under the force. Milotic watches as he sinks down the wall and onto the cavern floor. Then, she escapes through one of the tunnels in front of them. She hears the cry again, urgently and desperately trying to place it. She thinks she's getting close as the cry echoes in her ears. She sees an end to the narrow tunnel she's swimming through. As she reaches the threshold of the opening, a blast of hot air and water shoots from below. One second later and she would've been thrusted upwards into oblivion. When the air clears, she sees a small, helpless Corsola stuck in a tangle of weeds on the other side of the opening. Milotic begins to think critically about how she can get across, not knowing when the next blast will come through. She begins to sing her song, trying to calm the panicking Corsola while she comes up with a plan. Corsola's eyes gaze at Milotic as if she were from a dream. Milotic waits patiently as two more blasts go off, and realizes that the blasts are happening in a pattern. She waits for the next blast to finish, and then quickly swims across and begins to assess the tangled Corsola. Milotic begins to nudge the Corsola in different directions, trying to free her from the weeds. She realizes that one of the Corsola’s coral branches is broken at the top. Corsola whines in pain as the weeds slip over her rough body. Time is running out. Milotic begins to feel heat beneath her, and tries to nudge faster, desperately trying to free Corsola in time. Corsola breaks free, Milotic grabs one of her still intact coral branches and springs off the wall back into the tunnel. The blast goes off just barely scalding the tip of Milotic's tail. As they reach the other side of the tunnel, Crawdaunt is waiting for them. Milotic tosses Corsola gently but swiftly away from her, and draws Crawdaunt's attention. His dark glare is fixated on her. He moves in for another crab hammer, but Milotic dodges him, shifting her head as he passes her and blasting him with a water pulse. Crawdaunt is unphased. Suddenly, Corsola begins to hum and rocks break off from the wall beside her. They gather together in a cluster, and blast towards Crawdaunt. Milotic shoots out another water pulse at the sight of this, both attacks land simultaneously. Crawdaunt smacks the cavern floor and looks at the ceiling completely dazed. Wasting no time, Milotic grabs Corsola and swims back out of the cavern to the abyss. As they swim towards the top of the abyss towards the coral reef, Milotic thinks about the family and friends of this poor lost Corsola. Who knows how long she was missing or what would've happened if Milotic never found her? They swim gracefully up towards the dancing light of the reef and begin to hear the pokemon above playing and having fun. Milotic glides upwards out of the abyss and all the pokemon in the reef gasp and stare. She floats, glowing in the moonlight, and showing this Corsola to all of the starstruck pokemon. Then, two larger Corsola emerge from the crowd and come to Milotic. Their eyes wide and mouths open in awe. Milotic softly and gently stoops her head down, and places the baby Corsola between them. The three of them begin singing and crying with joy. Shortly after, a silence falls and the parents begin humming. As they hum, a green glowing aura envelopes their bodies, and baby Corsola's branch starts to recover. The three of them look to Milotic, and nod their heads with respect and eternal gratitude. All of the pokemon in the reef begin cheering and swirling creating a beautiful cloud of bubbles rising in the light. It was then that Milotic knew, where she truly belonged. The end.