Chapter 14: The Alfronda Ruins
It was finally the weekend, and Iono was stoked to tune in to Fanny and Dishon's newest live stream on Pokelive.
"Come on guys!" She called out to her Pokemon as she grabbed a bag of chips and a large bottle of Soda, hurrying over to her computer.
"Misdreavus," Her starter chimed at her as she floated over, quickly followed by her Wattrel, Luxio, and Bellibolt.
The Girl from Levincia quickly logged into her account and opened her following page, consisting of her alt-account she made for streaming and her first follow, "Fanny and Dishon,"
And as Iono sat in front of her screen, the clock on her table ticked down, until the empty screen suddenly turned on and the stream started.
"Dendra give me my phone back!" Only for the screen to show someone else's face.
"Huh?" Iono questioned, not expecting to see a woman on screen, only for the camera to get snatched out of her hands, revealing the face she expected to see. That of Dishon, of course.
"You can't just grab stuff out of people's hands, especially not super expensive stuff like phones," He chided her, as he turned the camera away from himself so he could see the screen. The camera pointed down to his legs, and a small black claw could be seen from where his Salandit was hanging on to his waist.
"Sorry!" Dendra shouted as she quickly jumped onto Dishon's shoulders, looking over them at the screen he was holding, "But I was so excited! You're telling me there are people watching you through this phone now?"
Dishon sighed as he nodded his head, shaking the girl off his shoulders, "Yes, This is now streaming live all the footage that the camera and microphone are catching," He told her.
"Huh? Tulip will love something like this," The Girl said, introducing another person to the talk, serving only to confuse Iono further.
"Sure," Dishon answered nonchalantly before turning the camera back to himself.
"So, Last week somebody asked me to stream again, so here we are," He said with a smile.
Iono vibrated on her seat as she pointed at the screen, "It's me! I'm the one who asked him!" she shouted, receiving a "Wattrel Watt," and a slap on the top of the head from the wing of her flying type.
"Sorry," Iono whispered, rubbing the top of her head.
The Stream continued, "Today I decided to go check out the old ruins just outside of Alfronda, and hearing that I won't be staying inside doing nothing all day, my good friend here-" He lifted his hand to introduce the black-haired girl with him "-Decided she would be joining me, as Security from wild pokemon," He explained before pointing the Camera at her.
"Dendra, would you like to introduce yourself?" He asked the girl in the black and yellow tracksuit.
"Yosh!" The girl shouted, gaining a head tilt from most of the people watching the stream, "My name is Dendra! I'm a Fighting-type specialist! And Dishon said this is going to be a date!" She yelled, gaining a spit-take from Dishon which caused him to almost drop the camera.
And a laugh from the audience.
"That, ahem, Was a joke," Dishon quickly added, the Camera still pointing at Dendra, and at her wide smirk, "That Dendra, such a jokester huh?"
"I don't know," She said, the Camera still pointed at her, "I remember it almost as if it was yesterday," She said as she looked up at the clouds, ignoring Dishon saying that it was, in fact, Yesterday.
"We were sitting in Cortondo," Ignoring Dishon saying that she was standing and he was the one sitting, "And you asked me to join you on your mission to survey the ruins," That didn't happen, "And I agreed, why wouldn't I help one of my best friends," Dishon coughed loudly, as if in pain, "And you said how much you would be looking forward to our date! Hahaha!"
Dishon coughed and turned the camera away from the Fighting-type specialist.
"Okay, Let's just start walking, It'll be twenty minutes by foot to reach the ruins," He said as he started moving away from the girl.
Iono was laughing hysterically at the comedic back-and-forth between the two older teenagers.
It wasn't long before the small stream of ten or so viewers grew to have around forty different people watching, enjoying the relaxing atmosphere of the travel-vlog-like stream that Dishon was doing, mixed with the unique Comedy that Dendra brought to the screen.
But Dishon wasn't looking at the numbers, he was looking at the ruins outside of Alfronda, where an ancient city from thousands of years ago once stood, now only broken husks remained.
A sign reading "NO GRAFFITI" was placed in front of a tall fence surrounding a gate, taking over a large part of the mountaintop outside the city.
"'Ello there," A voice called out to the two trainers with the camera, which quickly pointed down in order to hide the identity of the person, which resulted in the audio for the next few minutes being slightly off, but once the camera was back, Dishon explained what just happened.
"So, That was a ranger," He told the camera, "He just gave us a quick rundown of what's allowed and what's not in this area," He looked over at Dendra who was off-screen, one of her Pokemon already out of its ball.
"He said we're allowed to film, there's nothing against that, but we do need to still respect other visitors' privacy," He looked left and right before continuing to walk, "Catching Pokemon is fine, as long as you don't harm the archeology of the area, as this is a sort of preserve," He explained.
Iono nodded her head at the screen, already understanding how these types of places worked. For all intents and purposes, they were still part of the wild, meaning trainers were allowed to catch Pokemon or pick berries, and even hold battles. But by making the area a preserve, that means that you can't cut down any trees, break any boulders, or destroy the ruins.
Unless you want to get fined, of course.
"Belli!" Iono looked back at the screen as her Bellibolt pointed at something, A small pink creature walking near the side of the dirt road.
The Camera moved to the small Pokemon, which paused and looked up at the two trainers, Its Steel colored eyes gleamed as it held a baby-rattle-sized hammer made of scraps of metal it must have found on the ground.
"HOW ADORABLE!" Iono squealed as the camera focused on the tiny Mon, only to freeze as she heard her mother yell at her to be quiet.
"Hey there little one," Dishon said as he got closer to the ground, his voice softening as he sat in front of the small pink Pokemon while still keeping his distance from the tiny thing.
"Tinka!" The small Mon sounded as it locked eyes with him, waving its arms around in an attempt to appear threatening.
Something it desperately failed at doing considering its size, color, and voice.
"Sorry pipsqueak," Dishon said to the Pokemon as he stood back up and took a few steps away from the Mon, something that must have been the wrong thing to say to it, as the Mon started running at him.
Very slowly, as a result of its tiny legs, but running altogether.
"Dendra!" Dishon yelled to his friend, who responded by allowing her Pokemon to move and stand in the tiny Pokemon's way.
"Falinks Falinks Falinks Links!" The head of the squad yelled, repeated by his followers, as the Tinkatink stopped in its mad dash.
Iono looked at the fighting type on the screen, Admiring how strong it looked.
"Lux," Her Luxio scoffed as it looked at the Fighting type, sure that she could beat it.
Back on the screen, the tiny Tinkatink looked at the wall of Pokemon standing in front of her and quickly came up with a plan on how to deal with it.
It cried.
Iono cringed as the Fairy-Steel-type Pokemon cried, small tears rolling down its eyes, causing Dishon to start panicking.
"Dendra! I told you to stop the little thing, not make it cry!" He yelled as he quickly pointed the Camera at his friend who stood there in shock, horror on her face.
"Dishon, we need to get out of here," She told him, her voice serious as she took another Pokeball out, revealing a large, muscular Tauros, its black fur surrounding its head like a mane of a lion, its three tails hanging behind it, and five blue marks were under its head, shaped like water-droplets.
"Dendra, what's going on?" He asked her as she quickly grabbed him and walked him towards her Tauros, the Camera still rolling.
"Tinka!" A Pokemon yelled near the road, catching the attention of everybody in the vicinity.
The Camera quickly moved to capture what it was, but quickly had to point elsewhere as a small rock was thrown at it, luckily missing it but causing Dendra to start working faster, quickly returning her Falinks to their ball and climbing onto her Tauros, lifting Dishon up behind her.
It was then that the Camera caught what made her so panicky.
"Tinkaton!" A Smiling pink Pokemon, holding a gigantic hammer in her hands, as it threw another small rock into the air, hitting it like a baseball, and shooting the projectile toward the two trainers, fortunately missing them and rolling to a stop in front of the Fighting-water type Tauros.
"Uh oh..." Iono said as she leaned towards the screen, seeing the Tinkaton readying another hammer swing, and even worse, a small army of Tinkatuff and Tinkatink walking out of the nearby woods.
"There are way too many Tinkatinks in here," She could vaguely hear Dendra telling Dishon as the Tauros started to run away back to the entrance of the site, the Camera still filming the small army of Fairy-Steel types.
"I think we'll be ending this stream here," She could quietly hear Dishon over the sound of the Tauros running, "Thank you for joining, hopefully, you'll be back next week,"
And just like that, the stream ended.
"But it was getting exciting!" Iono cried as she slumped down on her chair, her Bellibolt waddling over to hug her.
"Next week?" She asked her mons as she moved her hand to grab a bag of chips.
"Misdreavus" "Watt" "Luxio" "Bolt!" Her friends nodded their heads and Iono smiled, before grabbing the mouse and opening a game.
It was still the weekend, after all, time to have fun!
Only to suddenly pause in thought as she remembered something from earlier in the stream.
"Are they dating or was it a joke?"