Cheryl stared at the wild Murkrow, her mouth firmly set in a small, determined frown.
"Chansey, Growl."
Chansey nodded almost imperceptibly and made the most threatening warning sound it could. The Murkrow hopped to a new branch and cackled quietly, not caring about the effects of the technique.
"And now, Tail Whip."
Chansey had barely moved when a black haze washed over them all, obscuring Cheryl and Chansey's vision for a few crucial seconds, and more important tactically, completely negating the effects Cheryl had been trying to disadvantage the Murkrow with.
This isn't working.
"Very well. Chansey, Egg Bomb."
The Murkrow watched in polite confusion as an egg launched through the air at it. A couple seconds later, an explosion blast knocked it out in a wink. Young green leaves lazily rained down around the trainer and her Pokémon partner.
"Well done." Cheryl's expression softened as she smiled at Chansey. She walked forward and placed a hand on Chansey's head, stroking its soft skin. "Yes, well done indeed. It's too bad about the poor thing…" she said, gazing at the fainted Murkrow. She sighed. "I know it will be all right after a few hours' rest, but it still seems a little unkind to them." Chansey nodded a little in understanding.
"Come now; you're going to make me feel like I should be repenting for being a trainer."
Cheryl looked up at the blonde woman striding towards her on the overgrown path. The woman's long black coat fluttered behind her with every movement. Cheryl always wondered that it never snagged on anything, at least not when anyone else was around.
"You know how I feel about guilt trips," she continued, tilting her head a little.
"And you know how I feel about the wild Pokémon."
Cheryl pulled away from Chansey just as Cynthia threw an arm around her, gently resting it there while hugging her friend, then she also pulled back so that each of the three was standing looking at the other two.
"I presume your appearance means you've finished your battle?"
Cynthia grinned and pulled the Forest Badge from her pocket. The silver and green surface gleamed beautifully in the sunlight streaming through Eterna Forest's treetops.
"Congratulations!" Cheryl clasped her hands in front of her, eyes shining. Cynthia shook her head once.
"You know, I've seen you and Chansey battle. You'd fare just as well against the gym leaders. Why you don't as long as you're travelling around, I'll never understand."
Cheryl merely smiled back at her. After a pause, Cynthia shrugged with her hands in the air and then waved for Cheryl to come along. Giving Chansey a quick glance, Cheryl returned her healthy but tired partner, then trotted to catch up after Cynthia started back without her. Falling in step beside her, Cheryl and Cynthia swept up the path to Eterna.
Though Eterna was well-known for its tall, modern architecture, Cheryl couldn't help taking pause every time she saw the Galactic building looming on the north side of town. Even a glimpse out of the corner of her eye, a single glint of sun or starlight on a wall spike was enough to make her smile disappear and her steps falter. She resumed walking after a couple seconds and was surprised to see Cynthia staring at her expectantly. Hurrying forward, Cheryl kept her head bowed as they walked to the PokéCenter.
"Why are they here?" she whispered underneath the sound of the doors automatically whooshing open to let them enter. She lifted her head up to watch her Chansey bound forward to greet its fellow nurse Pokémon. Glancing around, she took a seat on the nearest vacant chair, folding her hands on her lap and quickly getting lost in her thoughts again.
"Who where?"
Cheryl gasped and flung her head back, nearly hitting her head on the wall behind her. Cynthia sat down beside her, oblivious to how much she had been startled. A pink tinge coloured Cheryl's cheeks as she answered.
"Oh, Team Galactic. Here in Eterna."
"They're just here on business." Cynthia shrugged.
"Does anyone even know what kind of business they are? It's an odd business name isn't it?"
"It's not a business itself; they're some kind of activist organization. They still need offices for, I don't know, paperwork. Membership fees."
Cheryl leaned back. It was hard not to be suspicious, especially of anything calling itself a team. Rocket, Neo Rocket rumours, Magma and Aqua... She looked sideways at Cynthia, lounging on the chair and humming without a worry about Galactic affairs. She closed her eyes, wondering if she was being excessively mistrustful. Team Galactic had yet to be accused of any criminal activity; the worst the public had charged them with so far was a bizarre sense of style.
The worst... so far, the voice in the back of her mind reminded her.
"Miss, your Pokémon are ready!" Nurse Joy called to Cynthia. Collecting them and giving the nurse her thanks, Cheryl and Chansey followed in Cynthia's wake as they left for the 'mart one block down. As they turned around the street corner, a man in the odd silver uniform of the Galactic members ran past, bumping into Cheryl's shoulder bag. She twisted aside just in time to protect him from smashing its contents, and watched him continue running off down the road while the glass jars gradually stopped clinking together.
"I wonder what his deal is," Cynthia mused before walking up the sidewalk to the small shop. Cheryl said nothing.
Inside, they quickly exchanged wares and stocked their inventory. Carefully passing the shopkeeper the jars of Honey she had collected that day, Cheryl told him she would be leaving for a while and didn't know when she'd be able to resume collecting it for him. Cynthia jumped in at his hurt expression.
"It's no insult to you. She's going to travel with me for a while. You don't expect her to be in here each weekend when she might have to commute from someplace like Snowpoint, do you?" she teased, checking how much room was left in the medicine pocket of her own much larger bag.
Cheryl smiled, avoiding the shopkeeper's eyes nonetheless while she packed the pouch of berries she received as her bartered payment for the Honey.
"I want to do something before we go," she announced outside. At Cynthia's nod, she took the lead, and the small group made its way to the north side of town. Cheryl looked straight ahead as they passed through the shadow of the Galactic building.
Hopping up the hillside steps, Cheryl stopped at the base of the ancient statue staring down over the town from the top. Like everything about Eterna, the statue too was over-sized. Some claimed it was a life-size scale, but looking up at the imposing figure, Cheryl was skeptical at best of those claims. She ran a hand over the half-worn, half- crumbled inscription plate.
The Pokémon itself was a mystery. Folktales were abundant about its sovereignty over the dimensions, but none of them mentioned a name. As its name faded over time, the statue had slowly begun breaking down as well – the tail had broken off before Cheryl had been born, and the polished dark stone set in its chest had a forked crack splintering it like a tree of lightning.
Cheryl stepped back, staring silently into its dead eyes as she asked for the ancient guardian's protection. Cynthia didn't comment right away but hung back, arms folded over her chest.
Chansey broke the moment, mumbling a question as it watched a pair of Galactic members sprint away in the opposite direction, towards Eterna Forest. Cynthia looked over while Cheryl was preoccupied. She was stunned by what she saw.
"Cheryl!" she hissed.
"What is it?" Cheryl had only half turned around when Cynthia explained.
"Those are Gardenia's Pokémon!"
Cheryl quickly looked where Chansey was still staring off, but the pair in question had already disappeared into the thicket around the edge of the forest.
"How do you know?"
"Custom pokéballs." Cynthia looked grim. "Green with two black spots."
"Are you sure?"
"... Yeah."
Cheryl clasped her hands tighter, the knuckles turning pale. She hadn't moved yet from where she stood, and Cynthia seemed to expect more from her. She didn't know how to verbalize for her friend that she wasn't a real trainer; that that if they were right, and Galactic was crooked and criminal after all, it would be a risk she had never faced before. A real danger. She fell back on her most reliable decision-maker.
"Chansey." The Pokémon blinked at her. "Are you ready for this?"
Chansey looked from Cheryl to Cynthia without a sound, then faced towards Eterna Forest as an answer.
Cynthia grinned wryly. "We're a team now. I've got your back, so just make sure you've got mine." She paused, staring thoughtfully at the sky for a second, then turned with a flourish of her coat and walked off. "I think that was sentimental enough to last for a while. Let's go be heroes." Cheryl laughed despite the situation. She smiled at her friend's back as the blonde girl strode back towards the Forest, leaving the mysterious statue behind them.
A/N: Hello! I felt I should pop in here to let you all know just a little more background on this fic.
Ivy League is an altered time-line based on gameverse canon. Chronologically, it takes place a few years earlier, when Cynthia the Sinnoh Champion is merely Cynthia the up-and-coming trainer, although many events will parallel the D/P/Pt storyline. And many won't ;) What age are Cheryl and Cynthia exactly? Well, I'm going to deviate from that whole "Ten-year-olds are clearly the perfect age for conquering Pokémon that created the universe" thing the games have going and say they're somewhere in their late teens.
And that should be the only A/N you have interrupting your fanfiction fix. I hope you enjoy reading Ivy League!