Previously, in the Trip Chronicles…
SPOILERS AHEAD! Check my profile to access to CHAPTER ONE
Our hero, a young trainer named Trip, left behind his dishevelled home and mother to finally live his dream of becoming a Pokémon trainer. After carefully choosing Snivy from Nuvema Town's own Professor Juniper, Trip ran into a Kanto region trainer named Ash. Despite Snivy's inexperience, Trip used clever strategy to defeat Ash and his Pikachu. What Trip didn't know was that they had a strange admirer in the treetops…
In a nearby tree, the girl looked down in interest, a slight smile on her face. With a flash, she grabbed a vine and swang into the dank forest as well.
…the girl turned out to be budding Dragon-trainer Iris. The girl, along with her trusty yet weak Axew, eventually and somewhat begrudgingly began to follow Trip on his journey. It was not always smooth sailing, and the two did not always get along, even with Trip getting stronger and stronger…
Iris jumped down from the tree stump she had planted herself on and firmly patted Axew's head back into the safety of her luscious purple hair. "You know, it's great that you're winning all the battles and everything, Trip…but don't you think it might do you some good to lose every once in a while?"
The smile on Trip's face faded as Iris' words sank in. Had she said what she thought she did!?
"I just don't want winning to go to your head, that's all."
…but eventually, the two trainers came to understand and even admire each other, for they were more similar than both of them would like to admit…
"I've been caught so caught up with what I wanted to achieve…getting my first Gym badge, raising my Pokémon…that I forgot about you and what you need. What you want. How many battles did I let you take on our way from Nuvema to Striaton? None. I'm not the only one who needs to get stronger. It was selfish of me. And I'm sorry."
Iris found herself speechless, a state she rarely found herself in. How did he know what was bothering her? She knew that he was intelligent and perceptive, but all too often he came across as cold and uncaring. She had suspected it was not necessarily the truth about who he was, but she still found herself surprised whenever he did prove her correct. Pleasantly surprised.
…and the possibility of something even deeper, previously unthinkable, may have been developing…
But if Iris noticed, she at least had the sense not to say anything. She stepped forward, getting closer to Trip. Her heart beat faster as she reached out and grabbed the front of his tattered jacket, poking a finger playfully through one of the holes dotting the front.
"I…"
Say it.
…but, as with any young trainers, distractions were always sure to get in the way. While he was successful in defeating two of the three Gym leaders at the Striaton City Gym, his defeat to the green-haired connoisseur in Cilan led Trip to refusing his first Gym badge on his basis of seeking perfection. Worse still, a Voltorb-strung young man absent mindedly ventured into the Gym and detonated, leaving a path of chaos and destruction in his wake. The young man turned out to be Hecate, one of Iris' compatriots from the mythical Village of Dragons, and fears that it was an attempt on Cilan and his brothers' lives quickly turned into concerns for Iris and the other young Dragon trainers on their Laconrummen away from the Village, in the albino and hobbling Eurus and Iris' older best friend, the beautiful Arke. A mysterious and suspicious Chansey at the Pokémon centre led Trip into investigating himself, and he discovered three antagonists at a nearby hotel room, searching for a forth partner in crime…
"We just have to figure out where he will go next. How hard can that be? There can't be that many places to go in this stupid region."
The shaky voice of the 'man' again. "But…but…if the boss finds out that…"
A third voice rang out between the two squabbling adults. Trip couldn't quite place it…it didn't sound quite like any boy he'd heard, nor any girl…but it didn't quite sound like an adult either. Dare he say it, it didn't sound exactly human.
…Cilan followed the two from Striaton towards Nacrene City, sharing Officer Jenny's concerns about Iris' wellbeing. On the way they met Leo, a brilliant rocket scientist, professing crazy conspiracy theories about how the long defunct Team Plasma must have been behind the Gym attack. Cilan laughed it off, but Trip couldn't help but shake the feeling that there was a connection that he couldn't quite place…
The boy's fingers and eyes both ran over the strange insignia on his father's jacket at the same time. The logo jutted out from the rest of the jacket and sat proudly on the blackened breast pocket – a shield, white and black, with a blue 'P' and what could have constituted for a lightning bolt behind it.
…after witnessing the budding relationship between Trip and Iris, Cilan confessed about the identity of the Gym's attacked and revealed that Iris was in grave danger. Determined to find Arke and save her friend, Iris continued on to Nacrene City and witnessed Trip destroy Lenora and win his first Gym badge! In an attempt to reward him for his efforts, Iris went to the markets to acquire a badge case for Trip, but after being led into the Pinwheel Forest, found more than she had bargained for…
Iris had heard enough, as had Axew, who buried itself deeper into Iris' hair in fear. The girl stuck her hand in and rubbed Axew's head reassuringly. "Capture Axew? Are you insane? He's mine! Who would you want to steal somebody's Pokémon?"
Jessie, still chiding James, waved her hand at Iris noncommittedly. "Stay out of this, you. Why we need your Axew is none of your concern."
Just as it seemed like all hope was lost for the two, a bright flash of light enveloped the clearing and the pair disappeared. Trip and Cilan, worried for their friend, eventually found their way into the Forest to find Iris gone. The only witness was a strong Sawk, who eventually agreed to join Trip to help find his friend. Meanwhile, Iris found herself in the company of Lance, a strong Dragon-master from Kanto who claimed to be a childhood friend of her Village leader Drayden, who had tasked Lance with locating the young Dragon trainers around Unova and bring them back to the Village unharmed. Lance claimed that Team Rocket were behind the murders, which prompted Iris to convince Lance to search the region for Arke together. Lance agreed. Trip, mind on Iris instead of his journey, found assistance in Leo, but had to give up his only badge to Leo's brother Locke as payment. The three trainers made their way across the region, using Leo's Psychic types as a guide, to save Iris for what had been predicted to come.
"She's…she's unharmed. Unharmed, but not safe. The quest she is on…in not as it seems. A great betrayal is coming, one which will change her life forever…and perhaps even end it. I see…mountains, rivers…trees, everywhere…a forest, no doubt…I see a girl, dark skinned, crying over…something…I can't see what…and…dragons…dragons. Dragons everywhere!"
…all of our heroes descended onto the unnamed mountain range at the very top of the Unova region, where Iris believed Arke to be hiding. She found clues to confirm this and, after a long and dreary search up the steepest mountain, she came across her friend, barely alive. Trip, Leo and Cilan arrived at the base of the mountain just in time to find Team Rocket in position, considering their options for finding Iris and Axew. A battle ensued, with the extremely powerful Leo holding off Team Rocket, while Trip scaled the mountain, a girl's screams piercing the area. The screams of Iris. Fortunately for Trip, the screams were not Iris' last, as she finally discovered the source of the betrayal…
Iris muffled her own screaming and scrambled backwards away from Arke. The single tear that had made its way down her arm had not been a tear at all – but a single drop of blood. The source of the blood was the thick, but precise, cut that had been made from one end of Arke's throat to the other. Iris had not even been awoken by the attack, but Arke obviously had. Her eyes were wide open and her mouth was agape, screaming the scream that Iris had taken care of only moments before. Her arms clawed at the ground and her hair was rustled everywhere. In death, it was as if all of Arke's beauty had been stripped away. Iris could have even wondered if there would be any beauty left in the world again. She stayed huddled, afraid of being left alone with the dead body of her friend.
But, as it turned out, she was not alone.
"Chansey."
"I didn't want it to come to this, you know."
…Lance was revealed as Hecate and Arke's killer and the pursuer of Iris. His Chansey, actually a Ditto from the Kanto region, revealed his plight – Dragon types around Kanto and the entire world were dwindling in numbers, and the only man with the resources to help – Drayden – refused to open his Village and share his fabled supply of Dragon eggs with the world. He had even released his own powerful Dragonite into the wild to find any traces of wild Dragons remaining in Kanto. Having found nothing, he decided to attempt to force Drayden to tear down the Village's walls. To achieve this, Lance had taken the extreme steps of targeting the youth on Laconrummen, crippling the future of the Village with them. Afraid for her own life, Lance had larger plans in store for the impressive Iris…
He turned to her, pointing straight at her heart. "I will freely admit to using you to locate your friend, and for that, I am truly sorry. But I have seen your true heart, Iris…your potential. If we work together, we can destroy Drayden…we can take the Village…we can secure the Dragon eggs and we can secure the future for Dragon types around the world…you can truly become the Dragon master that you are destined to become. Are you with me, Iris?"
…one glance at the body of her friend was all it took Iris to spit on this offer, sending the rebellious Excadrill out to battle with Lance's Ditto as she managed to wrestle the distracted man over the edge of the mountain, seemingly to his death. Trip finally made his way to the mountain side, finding the dead body of Arke, but Iris nowhere in sight.
oOoOo
It was pitch black by the time Cilan pulled himself up the last rocky ledge to find Trip sitting silently, looking over the magnificent view that lay before him. A slender figure lay in his arms, and Cilan's heart leaped in his chest as he ran up. He realised that the girl was not Iris, and his heart fell into complete relief, before he felt so ashamed at his relief at the girl's identity that he could have thrown himself right off the cliff then and there.
"Trip, is that…"
"She's gone home, Cilan."
The green-haired Gym leader stood, stunned, trying to tear his eyes away from the poor girl's body laying strewn on the ground before him. "What do you mean, Trip?"
"She's gone home. She's alive. But she's not here."
"But how do you know that she's gone home? Trip?"
The intense boy gazed up at the Gym leader. The same determined look that he had worn when he turned down the Trio Badge was now firmly on his face again. "I just know."
"Well…what do we do?"
"We follow her and get her back. We're going to the Village of Dragons."
oOoOo
Welcome back to the Trip Chronicles! Thank you if you have read Chapter One, and if you haven't, read it! The first new chapter of this section of the story will be up shortly. Don't forget to fave/follow if you want to read more, and any feedback/reviews are very much appreciated!