Emotional

Prologue - The Heroine's Return

Cheren crushed a can of lemonade in his hand, sighing. Tossing the container into the recycling bin by his side, his hands clenched fistfuls of his silken hair as he bent double in his seat on the bench.

Touko...

Cheren snarled and tightened his hold on his hair.

It was a week before her birthday today. How could he forget? His best friend...

"Stop...goddamn...thinking," he groaned, falling on his side and ruthlessly smashing his head against the hard wood of the bench seat.

Cheren's headache increased in intensity. The humid July air in Nimbasa City wasn't helping, either. Cobalt-blue orbs still half-closed, Cheren slogged toward the vending machine nearby, inserted a dollar into the slot, and punched in the letter for another lemonade.

The Aspertia City Gym Leader allowed his eyes to droop. There weren't any challengers in the summer...and besides, he deserved a day off.

The dull clunk! of the can hitting the machine bottom awakened Cheren from his stupor. Sighing, he retired to the bench once again, popping open the lid and chugging half of the tart liquid down in one gulp.

Touko, please come home...!

Cheren jumped as his Xtransceiver rang. Carelessly flipping the cover of the device up, he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and calmly faced Professor Juniper on the screen.

"Hello, Professor. Can I be of assistance?" he courteously asked.

"No time for pleasantries, Cheren. There's reports of a huge Pokemon rampaging in the Desert Resort. Where are you now?" the Professor asked, a frown replacing her usual sunny smile.

"Nimbasa City. I'll report to the Resort immediately."

"You'd better hurry, Cheren. The ruins might collapse at any time now..."

Cheren snapped his Xtransceiver shut and took out a Pokeball from his belt. Tossing it into the air, a large bird Pokemon erupted from the capsule and flapped its wings once, tossing its head back to reveal extravagant red facial wattles that extended like ribbons to its shoulders.

"Let's go, Unfezant. To the Desert Resort," Cheren commanded wearily, clambering on to his Pokemon's back.

Cawing in response, Cheren's Unfezant launched into the air and swiftly glided to the Desert Resort in the south.

Huge Pokemon, huh? Cheren thought as his Unfezant winged its way through the sky. It's probably a legendary, since it's large enough to destroy the ruins...but the problem is...what legendary Pokemon is it?

Cheren jolted forward as a huge burst of blue light erupted from the Desert Resort. "Quick, Unfezant, let's go!"

Squawking, Unfezant hurtled toward the ruins. Tears formed in Cheren's eyes from the pressure as the wind whipped at his cheeks. Swiping them away hurriedly, he leaped off of Unfezant at the front of the ruins, while shooting a jet of reddish plasma to return Unfezant to the Pokeball.

"All right, I'm ready," he murmured to himself, entering the Relic Castle.

He had to steady himself as the ceiling shook from the force of the Pokemon's howls. Sand seeped into the Gym Leader's shoes, and sprinkles of sand entrapped in the ceiling shook down onto Cheren's hair as he descended farther into the castle. He waded through waves of sand that came up to his thighs, narrowly dodging the frantic Pokemon fleeing the castle. As he traveled farther, Cheren had to travel against the shaking walls to prevent himself from falling into multiple quicksand pits.

"Crap, that sounds like..." he mumbled, traveling deeper to get to the heart of the castle. He swept some sand away to clear the passageway to the bottom of the ruins. An inexperienced traveler would have never discovered the entrance.

His blood froze when he heard the roars reverberating inside the ruins, causing the ground to tremble and stone pieces to fall from the ancient ceilings. Swiftly slipping through a narrow passageway, Cheren adroitly made his way to the heart of the castle. His heart pounded in his throat as he looked up to behold Zekrom, the deep black deity Pokemon, rampaging and summoning thunderbolts through the crumbling ruin walls. Its turbine tail glowed bright blue, and it discharged a devastating blast of electricity from its tail into the air, incinerating a hole in the ceiling big enough for it to fit through.

Coughing as sand entered his mouth, he raised an arm to protect his face from the whirlwind of heat and soil particles that gusted out from Zekrom's frenzy. As he expelled the last of the sand from his throat, Cheren screamed so Zekrom could hear him.

"Zekrom!"

The gargantuan Pokemon reduced its awesome screams to snarls of barely suppressed fury.

"Hraaahgh..."

Cheren swallowed as he met the Pokemon's furious gaze. "Zekrom, please remain calm. What happened to make you so aggravated?"

Zekrom bellowed at the sky, impatiently stepping to the side. A crumpled figure was curled on a carefully-cleared patch of tiles.

Cheren stepped forward. "Touko?" he whispered, slowly drawing closer.

He flinched as Zekrom flapped its wing-like appendages and rumbled ominously, shielding Touko with a careful guardedness.

Cheren met Zekrom's fierce scarlet gaze once more. "Thank you for getting Touko here safely, Zekrom, but you don't have to see her suffer any longer. I promise she'll come to no harm while I'm here. Please...trust me to help your trainer."

Zekrom's eyes lost their cold glare, and it uttered a soft growl as it shifted its massive body to allow Cheren to Touko's petite figure. Cheren immediately rushed to Touko's side and recoiled at what he saw.

Touko's skin was a pallid grey, and cold to the touch. Her clothes were in tatters, and multiple bloody gashes covered her entire figure. A large pool of blood was gathered around her right leg, which was still growing larger as the crimson liquid from the largest wound bled freely. She weighed no more than an underfed Herdier, noted Cheren, as he slung Touko over his shoulder, with the upper half of her body facing the opposite direction that he was walking in.

"Zekrom."

The legendary Pokemon snorted, waiting for Cheren to continue.

"Could you please get us out of the Relic Castle? I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay in the Desert Resort once you get us out, because it'd cause an uproar in Nimbasa City if anybody caught sight of you."

In response, the dragon took off, its claws gouging the soft sand. Zekrom soared toward the open hole in the ceiling, circled in the sky once, then dove at a frightening speed and hoisted Cheren into the air. Cheren's clothes tore from Zekrom's front claws, and he gritted his teeth in pain as one of the deity's talons poked him on the bare back, drawing blood.

After gliding for a few minutes, the dragon deposited Cheren and Touko at the entrance of the Desert Resort.

"Thank you, Zekrom. I'll come find you here once Touko has recovered," said Cheren, raising an arm in farewell.

Zekrom rumbled in response, taking off and further fouling Cheren's shirt with gusts of sand.

"Oh, Touko...what in the world happened to you?" whispered Cheren, cradling her head in one arm while calling out his Unfezant once again.

.~*Please review! I need all the help I can get if I want to edit it. Criticism is welcomed. [Later chapters will be considerably longer than the prologue*~.

.~*Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.*~.