A Thread by Bri

Gobrianna was floating, and it felt *so* nice. The heat of summer didn't feel so opressive as she lay motionless on the surface of her pool. It was so relaxing....

Suddenly a giant splash sent a wave of water up her nose. Sputtering, she sat up and rubbed the water out of her eyes. "All right, who did that?" she demanded.

"Vap?" a small voice whimpered pitifully. Gobrianna blinked and finally the Eevee evolution came into focus. It gave a Pokemon grin of apology.

Gobrianna sighed. "Well, it's too hot for you to be out of the water anyway. Where's Charizard?"

"On!" The Vaporeon lifted its fish-like tail out of the water and used it to point to the shore. The massive winged lizard gazed at them disgustedly (*Water,* it thought. *Ug!*) and pointedly turned away, being careful to keep its tail away from the waves.

Gobrianna laughed. "Hey, I'm not a Charizard!" she called to her first Pokemon. "I can only take so much heat!" She kicked off the bottom and headed for the deeper end. Vaporeon followed, swishing its tail and twirling above, below and around her as smoothly as the liquid they swam through. Gobrianna touched the bottom and pushed off for the surface.

Breaking into the air with a gasp of breath, the Pokemon trainer crawled onto the shell of her floating Lapras, careful of the spikes. She leaned back and let the sun shine on her face, closing her eyes.

"Hey, Bri!" a voice called out close-by. Gobrianna looked up in time to see Blu dive into the pool with a small splash. She wore a two-piece bikini (blue, of course) and surface alongside the Lapras, grinning. "This is nice. You *only* got this for your water Pokemon?" Without her shades Gobrianna could see her blue* eyes sparkling with life and good humor.

Gobrianna leaned back again. "Yeah, but it sure comes in handy on summer days!" After a few minutes she realized her purple swimsuit was drying in the heat. *This is too intense,* she thought, and slipped back into the water.

Blu had splashed off and was playing with Vaporeon. They were racing from the bottom of the deep end up, and Vaporeon was (of course) far ahead. It broke the surface and leaped into the air, coming down in a bellyflop that covered Lapras and Gobrianna in a wave of water just as Blu surfaced. The four swimmers all paused to get the water out of their eyes.

Blu paddled to the steps. Because her back was to her friend, Gobrianna didn't see the suddenly serious look on her face. The blue-haired girl purposively kept her voice light as she pulled herself out of the water. "That was fun, Bri, but I gotta run. Catch ya later!" She grabbed her towel and disappeared around the side of Gobrianna's Gym.

Gobrianna frowned. She had known her friend for a long time. Blu did have a tendency to vanish as quickly as she came, but she always gave a friendly explanation or made plans to meet again. Something was up.

"Vaporeon!" the Pokemon trainer called. The aquatic Pokemon popped up by her side as she headed for the side of the pool. "Will you go get my clothes, please?" They were on the other side of the wide pool, and Gobrianna yelled as she began vigorously towelling off her long copper hair, "And walk around the pool this time! I don't want my clothes soaked." When Vaporeon trotted up with her clothes in its mouth she was dry enough to slip on a T-shirt and shorts over her swimsuit. "Thanks," she told it. Then she slipped her feet into sandles and padded off in the direction Blu had disappeared.

"What's going on with her?" Gobrianna muttered to herself.

*********************************************

Blu flipped her long azure hair over her shoulder as she leaned against a tree far enough away from Gobrianna's backyard that she wouldn't be overheard. She cast a look around to make sure no one was in view, then pulled a small device from beneath her damp hair (OOC: Ya know, kinda a Marge Simpson thing. Sorry Blu, no offense. *BG*)

The girl snapped open the device and spoke into it. "Blu Flyer here, I got your message." She grinned. "I was under water at the time, but I got it. What do you want?"

A deep voice came from the five-inch long object. "Sorry, Blu, but this is important. You really need to know this. I'm sending you a file through the TDT. Read it asap."

Blu tapped her foot in a gesture of impatience, but as the line of text appeared on the tiny screen she promptly forgot all gestures and just devoured the information as fast as it could scroll down. Her eyes widened, and she wished she had her shades. She felt kinda incomplete without them.

"What?!" The word exploded from her lips. "That's impossible! An Aliroo?!" Blu had completely forgotten where and even who she was suppose to be at the moment. Her thoughts were in a whirl. An Aliroo...an Aliroo!? "This just doesn't happen these days," she muttered to herself. "Missing Aliroos...no one notices them gone...a species that can appear on ¤ without our notice and disappear just as quickly...and a kid...."

The deep voice emenating from the TDT broke her out of her stupor. "Blu? You get that?"

Suddenly Blu Flyer was angry. "Ya, I got that!" she snapped. "How the hell does something like this happen?! What do we know about this species?"

"Nothing," the voice answered immediately. "We don't know what they look like, what they call themselve, the limits of their technology...nothing."

"Great," sighed Blu, "just great. That kid, the son of the missing Aliroos, you're sure he's here on Pokeworld?"

"Yeah," came the reply. "We've exstrappolated (spelling?) with his last-known location, direction, and time. He would have hit Pokeworld deadcenter an hour ago, within five miles of your present location. Blu, you gotta find this kid. He hasn't even been on ¤ since he was an infant. Never got his license, doesn't know about TDT's or shifting shape...and I don't have to tell you what that means."

Blu shook her head. "Yeah, if he's seen by any of the locals...Well, I'm on it. I won't stop until I find him. Blu out." She snapped the TDT shut and for a moment just stood there, clenching the device in her fist. "A kid alone all his life...doesn't even know he's an Aliroo...." She trailed off in a growl and stormed away. She had to find this guy now!

* * *

Gobrianna was frozen. She couldn't move, she couldn't breath. All she could do was think, and lean against the side of her Gym as if it was the only thing holding her up. Blu was stomping off in the opposite direction; she hadn't even looked up, and she didn't know that Gobrianna had heard everything. *My best friend!* the girl thought it disbelief. *All this time, all these years. Why? What is going on!?* Gobrianna knew this was way over her head. She hadn't even understood what most of that deep voice and Blu had said in their conversation. The only thing she was clear on was that there was a boy out there somewhere, and Blu wanted to find him very badly.

*Pull yourself togather Gobrianna!* the Pokemon trainer finally thought. *Something's going on here, but Blu will always be my friend. I can't believe all these years of friendship were a lie. I'll...I'll go talk to her!* Nodding decisively, she pushed herself away from the wall. Talk, that was it. Blu would explain everything...

...she hoped.