~PMD: Explorers of Destruction~
Chapter 1: A New Discovery
The city lights glowed in the nighttime sky, and ominous clouds and baleful clouds were rolling in from the near distance. On ground level below the heavens, multitudes of people roared through the busy streets of the massive city, also known as Castelia City.
In the huge moving crowd of people of all kinds, great and small, it would seem impossible for one to find someone even of specific qualities unless they got lucky. However, none of this mattered, as two mysterious individuals still resided in the midst of this humongous crowd.
As they broke from the congregation of people, some with their Pokémon companions by their sides, they gazed out into the nearby sea. "It looks like a storm's approaching…we'll need to get to that ferry as quickly as possible." The figure on the left said to his companion.
The streetlights above them radiated them with the absence of darkness, revealing their identities.
The one who just spoke was a teenager, at least 14 years of age. He wore a Fedora and had a red scarf tied around his neck in his attempt to keep warm from the frigid effects of the winter.
His companion was a rather rare one at best; its claws were red and gleaming into the city's array of lights, which were from sources all around them. It had eyes the color of an immersive, gleaming teal and a long ponytail of hair with a sapphire bead holding it all together at the near end. It's fur, save for its chest and body, was the color of a deep red, almost as if it were dyed with paint…
The two continued to stare out into the abyss, and only seconds after, the teen straightened his hat and turned to the red-clawed creature and nodded his head.
"Were off." The teen said, and he began to walk away from the railing that separated them from the threatening sea.
"Zor-zor…" the creature responded and followed closely behind. The two moved in silence, and kept to the sides and away from the crowds to avoid the potential of being slowed down.
Then something platted against the teen's hand, immediately gaining his attention, "Ahh, great…it's beginning to rain." He turned around and notified his companion. 'Come on, Dusk, we need to run or we'll never make it there dry." His partner nodded in complete agreement as they both broke into a dash.
The world around them both looked more like a huge rush of blurriness as they ran through the streets of the more than big city.
Their destination: the Castelia City harbor. After more than four minutes of non-stop running, they finally stopped in front of the harbor itself.
Exhausted from the sudden change in pace, the teenager bent forward and rested his hands on his knees, trying to take in the air through his lungs. However, the red-clawed Pokémon was physically unwavered. It just looked at its partner, trainer if you will, and gave an audible sigh. The fedora-wearing teen, who was still recovering, rose from his tired position and looked at his Pokémon.
"Well, it's not like I'm a Zoroark just like you!" he shouted in a humorous tone. His Zoroark just closed her eyes and smirked. But then his Zoroark opened her eyes again – this time trained on something behind him. The trainer noticed her train of vision change, and just then he heard a familiar voice call his name from behind.
"Hey, Arno…is that you?" the voice asked.
All the trainer could do was turn around before he finally recognized the person calling him.
"Professor Juniper!" he replied back, quite surprised by her sudden appearance. The trainer walked up to the Professor with his fox Pokémon right behind him.
"Arno...it's been a long time." Professor Juniper said, her eyes closing as if she was contemplating something of the past.
"Yeah, it has been, hasn't it?" Arno replied back, scratching the back of his head in realization. Juniper's gaze then shifted to Arno's Zoroark, who he named Dusk.
"Well now," Juniper started. She walked up to the Zoroark and looked at her from head to toe.
She then backed up and looked her right into the eyes. "It looks like you've finally evolved Zorua." She said, turning back to Arno, who in return replied.
"Yeah, it took a while, though. We didn't really get along very well in the beginning!" Arno laughed, causing the Zoroark to close her eyes in reflection.
"Well, she WAS your first Pokémon after all." Professor Juniper added. "I remember when you first arrived at my lab a little too late, and I had to lend you one of my assistants to aid you in finding one yourself in the wild. "Wild" guess what you ran into next!" Juniper quipped, taking the still-vivid events that took place afterwards. Arno could only close his eyes and lower his head, sighing in the process.
"You came in with your newly caught Zorua and you shouted to the high heavens, "Yes!", let her loose, and she leapt right at you and used Tackle!" Professor Juniper's recalling on that particular part nearly caused her to fall over in humorous tears. Arno's head only sunk further to the ground in embarrassment.
After a moment, Professor Juniper managed to compose herself, and continued.
"After a long while, I observed improvement. It was a hard journey for you and your Pokémon, but you managed to pull through in the end." She finished. Arno looked over to his Zoroark and grinned. "Yep, where practically inseparable now." he said with zest, bringing out his arm forwards toward Dusk, his fist balled into a fist. His Zoroark did the same, giving each other a fist bump.
Professor Juniper couldn't help but sport another smile as the two brofisted. She then snapped back to attention the main reason why she came looking for him. "Oh, I almost forgot..." she says suddenly. She reached inside of her purse that she had strapped around her shoulder. Arno and Dusk could only wonder what she was searching for exactly. After a good few seconds, she had finally found what she was looking for.
"Aahaah!" she exclaimed as the Professor pulled out the object of focus; a sapphire blue orb, no bigger than a simple, unactivated pokéball. The orb that resided in hers hands reflected brightly in the midst of the city lights that surrounded them. Arno's eyes widened at the sight of the artifact that was in her hands. Dusk's eyes narrowed slightly, quickly identifying what was in the palm of the Professor's hands.
"T-the Temporial Orb…h-how did you-"Arno started to question, not able to finish his sentence due to Juniper doing it for him.
"-Find this orb? You'd be amazed at what Team Plasma had in their files. They had blueprints, maps, all that good stuff. But more importantly…" Professor Juniper reached into her pocket and pulled out a worn-looking map. "They had this."
She handed the map to Arno, and both he and his Zoroark began to analyze it as best as they could. It was a map of some sort of foreign land, a land in which they all had never seen before. Then, he noticed the legend of the map. "Flourishing Cave…The Virulent Empire…Tower of Justice…" Arno read out, trying to decipher the rest of the names of what seemed to be locations on the map. Sadly, most of the map had been worn out, making reading or figuring out any other information virtually impossible.
"The rest is practically undecipherable." Arno said to no one in particular. Professor Juniper came closer towards the two. "That's not all. I found this orb; the Temporial Orb, along with the map." Juniper stated, tossing the artifact up slightly into the air before catching it.
"It was located inside of a secret, unexplored room inside one of Team Plasma's secret hideouts while we were there exploring for any more vital information on their agenda. We can successfully say that we found it now." the Professor proclaimed, giving Arno the gleaming orb. The orb's natural color could easily be called out as the same as the moon's silver glow. Outside of any form of light it was a simply clear one.
"I want you to have it, Arno." The professor said, "I know you'll need it, especially since this is a part of the whole reason you're leaving on the ferry, correct?" Arno remained silent, still staring at the sphere- shaped artifact. He then looked up at his mentor, and longtime friend-in research.
"You know about my search for these things?" Arno asked the Professor, a slight look of surprise on his face. "Why of course I do. Professor Rowan told me all about your discovery on how these artifacts being thousands of years old, and you wanting to discover the real meaning and purpose behind them. He also inferred that there is actually more than one of them."
Arno sighed once again, and looked at Dusk, who just looked back at him and shrugged. "I guess I really can't hide anything from you, Professor." Arno admitted, giving her a joking look. Professor Juniper just crossed her arms.
"Not that I wanted to!" he quickly interjected. She simply smiled, unfolding them.
Just then, something dark swiftly flew past them, but it felt more like it passed straight through him than anything else. Arno felt his body go limp just for a second, but Dusk caught him before he could stumble to the ground.
"Goodness! Are you alright?" Juniper asked worriedly as she helped bring him back on his feet.
However, his eyes were closed shut. Slowly, Arno reopened his eyes, but instead of seeing his mentor and companion, he saw only complete and utter darkness. Suddenly, out of this darkness arose some sort of shadowy figure. "W-what's g-going on?" Arno asked weakly, stumbling in his words.
No one replied.
The shadowy figure grew closer, and Arno was terrified at what he saw. Its body became even clearer in structure, revealing that it was floating and it had only one eye, which glowed a brilliant sapphire, the only source of true light wherever he was.
"Where is it? I know you have it boy!"
Arno was trying to comprehend what exactly was happening. "What are you talking about? Arno choked out, nearly losing his composure.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about. The Orb, where is it!?" the shadowy creature screeched impatiently. "I-I don't…" Arno stuttered out loud. He was too confused and scared to fully explain anything. The dark figure stood quietly in front of him, before finally speaking again. "Fine then…" it spoke in a cold, bitter voice. "If you won't talk, then I'll just make you!" It said as it reached it's hands towards Arno's head.
"No…n-n-n-no...NOOO!"
Arno's eyes shot open at once, and quickly arose from the bed. "Wait, bed?" he thought as he finally caught on to reality. He was in some sort of facility as far as he could tell. Just then, down the hallway outside of his room, he heard a pair of voices, one he couldn't quite place. "Don't worry, he'll be fine-should be up within a few more…" As the voice was about to finish, the owner had just opened the door to his room. As it opened up, a lady with a pink hat, along with the attire of a nurse was revealed, and soon after her, a very well-known face.
"Pr-Professor? What's… going on? Arno asked her weakly, his body still a bit feeble to any response of moving. Professor Juniper left the nurse's side and approached Arno, stopping at the side of his bed. "You passed out on us while we were conversating outside. Your Zoroark caught you before you could fall to the ground, but you still remained unconscious."
Her face then changed to one of confusion. "While you were, you started mumbling and screaming things like "no' and 'what do you want'. I was really worried."
Professor Juniper gave a deep sigh and closed her eyes, reopening them a few seconds later. "Then we carried you here…" Arno was at a loss for words. He remembered vividly of what happened to him, and he would never forget. Silence enveloped the room for the second time before Arno raised another question.
"Where's Dusk?" The Nurse Joy suddenly alerted to her duty as he asked. "You mean the Zoroark? Oh, don't worry. He's resting in his pokéball in the healing chamber. You can retrieve him anytime you'd like…but for now-"
As if on cue to cut Nurse Joy off, a sudden beeping sound emitted from inside the room, echoing off the walls. Everyone seemed confused for a second before realizing where the source of the noise originated from. Arno quickly darted his eyes downwards to his Pokétech (which he still favored from his previous journey through the Sinnoh region) and realized that the watch app alarm had gone off. A sudden spark of remembrance shot through his brain as he realized the purpose of the notification.
"Oh crap, the ferry!"
Arno swiftly rose out of the bed, his body still coping with the change in position. "W-what are you doing? The Nurse asked, still greatly concerned about his current state.
"I'm going to be late for the ferry! It's about to leave!" Arno stated hurriedly as he stumbled for his hat and bag.
As he put on his backpack, he turned around and faced Professor Juniper. "Thank you." Nurse Joy took a step forward as Arno ran for the door, and opened it, but suddenly felt a hand on her right shoulder. Professor Juniper approached her from the side, now standing next to her. 'He'll be just fine, trust me.' She said, not taking her eyes off the door.
Arno dashed for the healing chamber, which contained his fellow Zoroark's pokéball. It was then when he realized that he was inside of a Pokémon Center. As he headed for the Pokémon Center's entrance doors, he heard a voice call from behind him.
"Wait, you forgot this!" Arno turned around just in the nick of time to catch the vital artifact which he had nearly left behind. "Of course, the Temporial orb!" Arno said, face palming himself. "Thank you, Professor Juniper!" he said aloud as he turned back around and ran to the automatic doors.
"Good luck!" the Professor shouted. "And remember to update me on your research!" Arno gave her a thumbs up as he bolted out the Pokémon Center and back on the streets of the busy city, pokéball in hand.