The world was at war. Human race had gotten greedy. There were few that still understood the meaning of the relationship between pokemon and trainer, and even fewer who would dare to have one on these days. So was the way of living. Nowadays people didn't gain fame and recognition by winning the Leagues or defeating the Liders of the towns, which had been forbidden by the new Govern. The Black Moon had destroyed the dreams of hundreds, and yet there were still those who opposed that repression and soon the dark era of the pokemon world had been put to a pause.
Like in any war, someone has to fight against the tyranny of, as we call them, the bad guys. Those who had started a small rebellion group were now known as the Preventors. They had started has a small group, but it wasn't after long that their numbers started to grow. Legendary trainers, gym liders and even common trainers, had all chosen to join the faction and fight for the future of the mystical creatures. The best friends of men had been threatened and not all had chosen to stay still and watch a bloody execution to the extinction.
The reason for this war was simple and clear to some, after all wasn't it obvious why they had started the war? Some said that the Black Moon wanted the creatures extinct because of the fear of overpower, others… well others had a more interesting theory. Some spoke of old rumours, rumours with over twenty-years of age. The whispers were that over twenty years ago the government of the time had discovered some really old ruins underground in a place that was now known as the centre of the earth. The ruins were a giant city made of the most bright and pure crystal, a fairy tale that spoke of ancient knowledge, of ancient existence. The city in itself had been completely destroyed, it seemed, but the untouchable palace in the centre had still a towering and majestic presence to it, as if it's inhabitants were still alive. Surrounding the great monument they had found nine pillars, nine pillars that told the story of people creating from pure 'magic' the creatures that were known as pokemon.
Strange enough no bodies were found, not human nor any other type, but even so, it seemed there were still remains of something that had originated the rumours. It seemed that some genetic material was left intact in a laboratory that would have and did put to shame the science of the time. They spoke that from that genetic material, something was created, something that had the power to destroy the world, power that would only bee possible to unleash with the help of the strange and mysterious creatures. So humanity had to try and play God, the government joined some of the best scientists to create a human with the genetic material, a human that would be dangerous, a human that would be in synchrony with pokemon. But things soon became wilder, when people started speaking of nine, not one, but nine humans with a genetic code found buried underground. Tension grew with the dangers that the matter presented, and so that, they say, was the cause of the war, a war that no one knew who had started.
It was refreshing and reassuring to see, that the scars of the war were healing on Mother Nature's body. Tall trees with lavishing green leaves, which caste shadows upon equally green grass. A stillness that was broke from the rattling of the leaves touched by the soft wind, and the grass bending creating a soothing and velvety effect to the eyes of the passer by. It was heaven, but even heaven has its troubles, and soon enough feet padded among the bending grass dispersing the velvety effect that it created. A tall and lean figure sped towards the opening of the forest, her green emerald eyes focused on the trail ahead. Black comfortable trousers rustling against the wind, she tried to ignore the approaching figure of her pursuer.
She was starting to feel tired. It had been two hours since she had first noticed her pursuer. A thunderbolt hit the path she was directing herself to, and she dodged the small fire it had created, avidly avoiding it, she turned to her right, catching a small glimpse of a baby green colour. He was close. Well, maybe it was time to confront him, it would do no good to run away without actually being able to lose track of him.
She saw the sun shine upon a clearing a few meters ahead of her, so she sped up a bit. Finally coming to the centre of the great green expanse, she turned around in time to see soft paws landing in the grass a couple of meters away.
He was small, with about 0.7m. He looked like a wolf cub, with green luscious fur, with little bits of yellow gracing his cute nose and pointy tail. The bit of yellow that graced his muzzle extended until it surrounded the sides of his head. He was everything but ferocious. She smirked; he looked angry his pointy teeth sticking out in an angry snarl and electricity sparkling all over his body, probably from the friction he had gained by chasing after her, he was probably charged by now. "So… you want to play?" she asked, her voice sounding just as tired as she felt. He growled at her, and a small thunderbolt landed just inches from her feet, causing the hairs on her arms to stand on end.
"Shit… this is troublesome." she muttered. How was she to be able to fight the little not so ferocious thing in front of her? He was spiked and really pissed off. She was thinking of turning around and running again, but his next actions cleared any kind of thought from her. He leaped into the air, a yellow energy surrounding him and a lightning bolt landing exactly in the spot she had been before hadn't she jumped back. She saw some kind of twisted smirk grace his muzzle causing any kind of senses she had to stay on alert. It wouldn't do for him to kill her, not that he would do it anyway. "Nice Electrike… how about if I gave you a sweet?" she was still dodging his electric attacks, jumping and hiding behind trees and finally stopping behind a rock that was near the river banc of the forest. It seemed that her offer had interested him, since the electric activity had stopped for complete.
She smirked once again. Which creature didn't like a bit of candy, especially him? She turned around to pear over the rock, an electric ball just zooming a few centimetres from her brown chestnut hair. "Well it seems not…" she ducked behind the rock once again, thinking on a course of actions to take. She was really starting to feel tired, and it wouldn't take long for her to fall down exhausted. She was well aware of the thunderbolts hitting the rock behind her, trying to break it and get to her. 'Think Makoto, think…' she repeated in her mind, trying to see if that brought any kind of plan. She looked to the river that was flowing by her side, thinking hard and seeing each small wave of the current beating against the rocks. She sighed and smiled, if she couldn't win without doing anything drastic than she didn't have any other solution than to surrender.
"Ok. You can stop now, I give up." She waited to see if the thunderbolts stopped, and moments after they did. She peered over the rock and saw him sitting there on his hind legs, with a satisfied and maniacal wolfish grin. That infuriated her, so she got of the ground and stomped over to the small arrogant creature, getting close to him she huffed when he looked at her hair and opened his muzzle in an amused smile. He was going to pay for making fun of her and making some of her hair stick up in weird ways.
"How could you do it?! I was just fooling around and I felt hungry. That doesn't give you a reason to run after me and almost electrify me to death. And look at this," she pointed to her hair "I swear that if it doesn't get in the right place, as it should be, there is going to be a lot of pain. Gezz all this just because of some chocolate. That's it, no more sweets for you." She kept on rambling, trying to smooth her hair down.
Now he was the one to huff and stomp his little paws in annoyance "You still ask? How could I? How could I, you ask? How dare you even ask? It was my chocolate or did you forget you already had eaten yours? You are such a glutton at times it makes me remember the six year old Mako."
Even though the message had not sounded in her hears, she wasn't scared. After all, whatever he said only she could hear. It was a mental connection, an invisible bond between him and her. Well… not only between him and her, after all she could talk with all thunder-based pokemon, as well as grass and fighting types. She didn't know why or how she could do it but ever since she was a child she was able to mentally talk with those types of pokemon and understand them. She normally talked to him normally and loudly, since they spent most of their time alone, but when they were with other people then they would only talk mentally.
"It's not my fault. I only wanted something sweet, it has been a long time since I've baked or we've stopped somewhere to eat a nice piece of chocolate cake." She countered, blushing from embarrassment.
"Now that you talk about it, I do miss your cookies Mako-chan. Maybe we should stop at the next town and settle there for sometime." The little one cocked his head upwards in a thinking kind of way "We are in the need of some money as well, for food and other things." He watched her seat down and bring her backpack around to rummage through it. "What are you looking for?"
"This is a nice spot, the river is just by our side and we can keep open for wild pokemon attacks." She brought some cans out of the backpack she was carrying and set them down. She looked around and then got up "Lets stay the night here, we can continue travelling in the morning. You made me run a lot today, and I guess that can work as training for the day." She looked at Electrike who was by the river drinking some water "Maybe you're right. Maybe we should stop at the next town and stay there, to gather some money and continue on journeying, there might even be a Coliseum there. What do you think? Have a couple of fights and gather the first or second prize?" she was picking up some wood from the surroundings, smiling at the though of having some real fights.
He walked over to where she sat trying to light a fire for the night and contemplated on the proposition. It had been some time since they had fought against real trainers and he kind of missed the teamwork they shared when they were in the rush of battle. It also meant that Makoto would be surrounded by people, which would be good since she didn't have any friends, any human friends for the matter. He knew she didn't mind, but even if she said that loneliness didn't bother her, he was sure it did have some effect on her. Ever since she was a child, she had to cope with being alone, since the other children showed fear and shunned her away. It wasn't her fault that she could understand some kinds of pokemon, or that she could power up and control…
"So… what do you think about the proposition? It would be great to win a good prize and it could work out as some good training." She looked down at the furry little thing sitting by her feet, with worry written all over his eyes. She brushed it aside, since she knew he had a thing to worry too much about her, and continued stirring one of the cans. She looked at the bright orange colours of the sun setting a light soft breeze playing with the bangs of her chestnut ponytail. She looked down at the green wolf, which was also staring at the sun. "And?" she asked a bit patiently "What do you think?"
He looked up lazily at her "It's a good idea, but first we settle in and get everything sorted out." He yawned and lied down on the slightly cold grass.
"Hey, don't you sleep now. Dinner is ready, let me just bring Treecko and Medicham out." She pulled her shirt up a bit, and removed two pokeballs from her belt, throwing them next to her. From one of the balls a green like lizard with a funny tail emerged, and from the other a rather tall humanoid creature with a headband and lose pants adorning his slender body. "Dinner is ready."
"Dinner?" the green lizard rounded the fire and sat side by side with Electrike. "Good, time to eat. I was getting rather uncomfortable inside that tinny thing." He said happily, bouncing from one side to the other while he sat with his legs crossed. To the passer by it would sound something like 'Treecko, Tree…' but to Makoto it sounded as coherently as any other human talking. It was another one of her traits; she could understand what pokemon were saying, but only if they happened to be grass, thunder and fighting type pokemon. When the four of them were together, they always talked freely, but if someone else was nearby only they could talk in their language and she would have to use her mind to respond.
"How was training?" she looked to her left side were the pink clad little fighter had sat with his eyes closed and his legs crossed.
"It was rather fun, though I had to eat Electrike's chocolate to bring him back to life." She answered, while smiling slightly and serving the food into small plastic plates. "He got rather aggressive, so I had to be happy with the fact that we didn't do much fighting but rather running. I guess that's fine; after all he was getting rather fat with all those sweets that we got from the last shop." She laughed when the wolf-like creature snarled and jumped on to his feet.
"Look who's talking. If I'm not mistaken, I've been having rather free help from someone to empty the bag of sweets." He looked indignantly at her and them rather mischievously to his fellow green companion. "You should have seen Mako when one of my thunder attacks zoomed over her head. It was hilarious to see her hair sticking up in weird places, really hilarious."
A long squeaky laugh from Treecko and a half sort-laugh from Meditate was what she gained. She stopped eating the contents of her plate, brow twitching has both of them tried to grab their shaking bellies and plate of food at the same time. She looked then at Electrike who was standing proudly by his food, with a smug air in his cute muzzle. Trying to ignore the cuteness of her first friend and companion, she bonked him on the head, earning an even stronger laugh from her other two companions, as the wolf cub look-alike laid his head on the grass with two paws resting on the targeted spot and tail dangling in the air.
"Now eat your food before it gets cold. You two stop laughing and do the same." She ordered in a motherly kind of way and smiled as both of them saluted her in a 'Yes Mam' military way as the shorter one wined.
"Tomorrow is my turn to train with you Makoto, I hope you haven't forgotten." She looked at Medicham who was looking at her with such intensity that she knew tomorrow was going to be a rough day. "Martial arts and meditation is what we shall improve." She nodded and he returned to eating. Well nothing new there since every time they both trained, it was always to improve his fighting ability as well as hers. She loved martial arts and had grown up fighting in a war torn world. She heard Electrike whine again.
"Ouch! That really hurt." He rubbed the spot between his ears with a fluffy paw "It was just a joke. Don't you know you're supposed to laugh not hit people when they tell a joke? Geez you mean inconsiderate chocolate lover." And he resumed his eating activity for the rest of the evening, ignoring the snorts of laughter around him and trying to suppress his own.
It was pitch black around her and extremely cold. She didn't know were this was or when, since the time seemed to had stop. A dark purple glow under her feet alerted her to the appearance of a path running along the darkness and glowing more and more, giving her figure an ethereal glow. Images flashed around her, memories that were hers and she wished not to remember. Images of a tormenting and distant past a past that became brighter and brighter by the appearance of a baby green wolf. Among those green happy moments there was one as tormenting as a grey thunderous storm. She stopped at that image and once again in thousands of times, she saw that film play again. A lone tear running down her cheek and she turned to continue down the glowing path.
The images still flashed around her head. Ones that made her forget the before and after of the grey storm in her life; it was always comforting and warming to remember the times where a green, jumpy lizard had landed in her path and a pink clad, short fighter had fought for his space in the hearts of those around him.
Her path ended in an equally purple glowing clearing of which she walked to the middle and watched as the images halted and changed from being hers to belonging to someone else. A small dark haired child ran after a petite grey puppy dog look-alike. Smiling slightly, she watched as the small girl squeaked and danced around the fresh flowers spread out in the grass.
It was peaceful to watch the girl laugh and squeak as the small Poochyena gave playful barks and whines. The girl fell back on the grass and giggled uncontrollably as the puppy dog licked her face. This was something that reminded some of the moments when she and Electrike had met for the first time. She watched as the black haired girl sat up, her big purple shinning eyes grinning down at the friendly grey creature.
"You are so cute Poochy! I'm glad I found you." She heard the shy voice of the girl whisper and giggling as the cute Poochyena rubbed his muzzle in the palms of her hands.
Makoto watched with curiosity as the girl turned her head upwards as if someone was calling, and saw a man come towards the small cheerful child. He was talking to her, but to Makoto it looked only like the man was moving his mouth in a silent prayer. The girl shook her head, at what Makoto though was a question from the man, and stood to her feet putting Poochyena on the floor. The man spoke again and the girl shook her head more viciously, shutting her eyes and kneeling down to embrace the puppy.
"No. Please don't… please don't make me…" she sobbed. The man kneeled down to her level and talked again, this time grabbing her arm and looking pleadingly at her. She shook her head again and pushed his arm away, only to be grabbed again more forcefully by a man that Makoto hadn't seen present. She watched as the girl struggled harder, trying to free herself and returning to the snarling little grey beast, who was looking ferociously at the man grabbing his friend.
Anger gripping her heart, Makoto watched as the girl cried harder and tried to reach the small puppy, only to be stopped by another men injecting something into her system. Makoto leaped forward as the attacking Poochyena was kicked and went flying towards a tree, only to pass through the image and continue watching from the other side. The puppy tried to rise from the grass only to fall unconscious as the girl whispered only one word as the world darkened for her as well.
"Poochy…" Felling helpless as the girl was carried away, she watched as the image went black, joining the darkness of the surroundings. Only one question ran through her head, what had that been? She looked forward were a tall wall had appeared and saw a little figure crouching against it, arms enveloping knees and head resting in between. She felt herself being pulled forward, and without noticing it she was eye level with the girl, knees resting on the floor and sitting on her legs.
She heard the girl sob silently, something she remembered to have done so many times when youth was still allowed from her part. Resting a hand over one of the arms she spoke in the suffocating darkness "Hey, are you okay? What are you doing here alone?" The girl raised her head slowly and in her, Makoto saw an older version of the girl in the images, older but younger than herself. Her eyes were devoid of the shinning innocence she had seen at first, an innocence Makoto remembered to have lost herself a long time ago. Though the violet eyes were devoid of innocence, she could see something that had replaced it, something that she knew all to well, pain and loneliness.
"I'm waiting. Waiting for what is to come and be gone." She brushed the tears in the corners of her eyes away and continued to look at Makoto "What are you doing here?"
"To tell the truth, not even I know an answer to that." Makoto smiled lightly at the girl and continued "Why don't we try to look for someplace where it's brighter. It's kind of cold as well."
"I really don't want to. This is were I belong, I can't move to somewhere else." She sighted and looked down at her hands "I'm supposed to find some people, but what I really wanted was to find my friend."
"You mean your pokemon? Your little Poochyena?" she watched the girl look hopefully at her and then nod "Then why don't you look for him? I'm sure he would love to know that you are looking for him, and I'm even more certain that you would love to go and find him."
"I… I can't. They will never let me leave… if only I could get out of here." The dark haired girl once again rested her head on her knees. "I'll never be able to leave until I find the people they want… that's what they said, but I don't know if I can believe in them."
Her heart gripped at the sadness in her voice and Makoto asked for her name to what the girl answered Hotaru. "Hotaru… it's a nice name. I'm Makoto." She paused as the girl nodded slowly and raised her head to her again "Why don't you tell me where you are, so I can help you. Then maybe you can go and find your friend, you'll just have to trust me."
The girl looked to her left and said in a low voice "I've trusted once and because of that, I ended getting lost and losing my friend. Bound to the darkness, one with the darkness. Humans are to weak to be trusted, because they trust to much." Makoto flinched at the words; she couldn't believe she was hearing what her own heart screamed to her every time someone approached her. Sitting herself next to the girl with her back against the wall, she sighed.
"I know what you mean. In the world we live in nowadays, everything is more complicated and hateful, but believe me because I wish you no harm." She looked upwards into the infinite darkness and continued pensively "It was not my choice to come here, normally I only dream with things that happened in the past. Maybe you shouldn't trust me, since I don't trust me myself, but even so I believe I can help you just tell me where you are or where Poochyena is and I'll go look for him for you." She looked to the girl who was opening her mouth to talk only to shut it again and stand to her feet startled.
"I've got to go. It's better if you go and don't return ever again." Makoto saw her look to her sides, her shoulder black hair rustling on the fabric of what seemed to be a jumpsuit. "Just forget about Poochy and whatever you saw." Hotaru turned and started to walk into the darkness.
"Wait!! It's like I've told you, it wasn't me who brought myself here." She scrambled to her feet and followed after the girl, her body glowing a soft green as she indulged into the darkness "Let me help you, because I know how it's like to be away from a friend."
The girl looked at her, and she saw her eyes enlarge with surprise. She turned around and started to run deeper into the pitch black, her body shining a dark purple colour. Makoto followed soon after, muttering about brats making her run all day. Hotaru turned to her and raised her hands in the air.
"Please, don't follow me. You should be worried with getting out of this place, you are not used to the darkness and if they find out that you…" Makoto watched with surprise as the girl was enveloped in what seemed ribbons born out of the eternal dark and envelop the girl, shutting of her speech and forcing a faint scream from the younger teen. She tried to reach her, but every time she took a step forward, the ribbons pulled the girl further into darkness. She watched hopelessly as the girl was submerged into the pitch black completely, painfully aware that it was the second time she couldn't have helped. A simple word resonated in her ears 'Go…' and she felt her body fall backwards and eyes shutting heavily.
Makoto woke with a start, well aware of her surroundings and the small creatures sleeping next to her. Yawning and stretching from the remains of the weird dream, she went to prepare for the day ahead. Starting with a refreshing wash from the river she prepared breakfast as her pokemon started to wake up. Cleaning everything up from the fire and any resulting garbage, she called Medicham and Treecko into their pokeballs.
She had talked with them about staying in the next village once again, and the other two agreed, though it had been hard to convince Medicham that they would train later. Seeing as Electrike loved to travel by her side, and refused plainly to be locked in his ball, she swung her backpack on her back and set towards the opposite side of the forest, towards the next village and blissfully unaware of the pair of eyes that followed her every step and action.
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Disclaimer: own nothing but the plot and a pair of sneakers.
Hope you liked it, so review and stay tuned.