Almost a year had passed since the Kanto and Johto champions had first made their way to Sinnoh. Having trekked its length [Asterik having been miserable in both the swamp and tundra parts of the map for her refusal to wear shoes and seen the Pokemon, now was the chance they had been looking for to return home. With Lance riding on Tsunami and Asterik on Cryo's back, the lugia and articuno seemed to be making good time.
"It'll be good to go home, eh?" Asterik asked of the other champion, riding the bird of ice like a professional - which she happened to be, specializing in bird Pokemon before her time in Sinnoh. Her red hair, still tyed back for the length of it but having some hang in her face like the unruly mop it was, seemed even more tangled and knotted. The black sleeveless tank top she wore was covered by a brown jacket she had taken to wearing, and the fact that her loose jeans seemed even more ripped and stained than ever made quite an... odd sight, riding majestically on the Cryo's back.
"I guess," the other trainer responded, feeling quite a lot better to be flying on the back of the cloned lugia. It was so odd how he could fly anywhere, despite being blinded...
Lance was always so soft-spoken, really... he wasn't one to speak much, let alone show a lot of enthusiasm. Inwardly, he was all but ecstatic to finally be returning to Johto. He'd have to manage the battles backed up for him, yes... but for once, he was almost looking forward to returning to Blackthorn.
Wow, that was a surprise-- he NEVER wanted to go back.
He rode on his pokemon's back in near silence, looking straight ahead of him into the artificially-created legendary's head. His pale blueish hair was, as it had been almost twelve months ago, completely unkempt and untied... just a noticable bit longer.
His jeans weren't the tattered black ones he had worn on the trip into Sinnoh-- instead, they were tattered, half-destroyed blue jeans. Oh yes, big change. His other clothing was simple-- the same, even-more-destroyed white tennis shoes, and a black t-shirt. Unless you counted the wrapped bandages around almost all of his upper arm. Sneasel were nasty things.
He gave a sigh of relief, hardly able to believe he was finally going to go home. Admittedly, in Kanto, he could have always flown back to Johto at any time.
Lance mused inwardly if his father would even notice how long he had been gone. Probably not.
"I think I see Sandgem Town," he said, a bit louder than his typical voice... seeing as he had to call to the bird trainer. They just had to give their pokedex data to the professor, and they could be off.
Spotting said town, Asterik nodded. "At the rate we're going," she called over, "It should be just over two minutes until we're at landing distance."
Trust the bird freak to be able to calculate things like that.
"Never thought Pallet town would seem so exciting," she grumbled to the giant bird whos back she sat on, "But compared to this, I need a vacation." The Articuno, in response, gave a laugh-like coo, agreeing. Once the two minutes were over, Cryo turned on an unspoken signal, wheeling down and hoping that Tsunami sensed that and followed. Folding her wings to drop quickly, then spreading them once more to break the fall, blue talons touched the grass, effectively freezing over where it touched, only to be melted again in a few seconds by the sun.
"Thanks, Cryo. Return," Asterik put out, making room for the blinded Lugia who was soon to follow.
Despite his impairment, the lugia managed to do the same as the articuno had... ... err, minus the fact that he was quite a few times larger.
"Thanks, Tsunami," Lance said quietly to the sea monster, stroking the creature's neck for a moment. "It's been so odd not to fly on your back..." he muttered, before recalling the lugia back into his ultra ball. Of course, as soon as TSunami had vanished into red light, a red and white ball popped off of Lance's belt of its own accord, splitting on the ground, the red light within forming into an anthropomorphic dog-like creature.
"Hey, beeyotches," the Rukario known as Anubis greeted in plain english, picking up the pokeball he was contained in. Unlike the most of his kind, he wore a fairly new belt around his waist, which the sphere was clipped onto; a pokeball belt. He grinned, giving the peace sign as best his paws allowed and sticking his tongue out.
"I see you're back," the white-haired professor by the name of Rowan noted, stepping out of his lab with a smile, though not paying attention to people's odd stares at the two who had just ridden in on legendary pokemon.
"'Ey, Anubis," Asterik chuckled at the rukario, then nodded to Rowan. "And, got the Pokedexes and stuff finished. Some odd Pokemon you have in Sinnoh," she muttered, and to Lance lowly, "WHY didn't he know that himself? He lives here."
"Exactly what I said when we first came here," Lance replied back quietly, before nodding, pulling out his pokedex, scrolling through it quickly to make sure they hadn't forgotten anything that would force them to go back anywhere again. Frankly-- Lance wanted to scram.
"Excelent," Rowan remarked, walking back into his lab, suddenly seeming to be lost deep in thought. "Come along, Trainers, we'll upload the data to my computer," the professor said, indicating for them to follow him.
"I don't suppose he means me, eh?" Anubis remarked dryly, smirking slightly as he followed Lance in, either way.
Asterik, who had a Pokeball-explosion of her own with the Butterfree known as Sally floating by her side, followed Anubis, Lance and Rowan in an odd-looking game of follow-the-leader-so-we-can-leave. "So, professor," she chimed from the back of the line, "What're you planning on doing with this data?"
"Inspecting it, of course," Rowan remarked. "Sharing it with the other professors," he added, snatching their pokedexes from them for a moment, plugging them into his main computer. After he typed a couple lines of-- well, something, Lance couldn't tell-- he handed the devices back to the trainers, nodding.
"Impressive," Lance remarked in sarcasm, very quietly. "So we can go back home now?" he inquired, now in his normal tone of voice.
"Actually..." Rowan remarked slowly, frowning a bit. "No, I have one more thing I need to you to do. Have either of you heard of the Sytar reigon?"
"Sytar? Sounds familiar," Asterik frowned, then thought back to Blake. "Is that the new region? That the raccoon Pokemon thing came from?" Of course, with her having taken Diamond, the Piplup, and Lance having Hakame, his turtwig, they met April, the girl who had taken the Chimchar and named him Helios. For Trevor, the fourth person they traveled with for a short while, a completely new Pokemon had been seen with him, looking like a green raccoon with leaves jutting from its shoulders. Over time, though, they found that it had evolved to be more draconic than raccoon-like, something that still baffled her to this day.
"Well, yes, the Teracoon I gave to Trevor was from Sytar. My friend, Professor Sequoia, in fact, hands them out to new trainers in Sytar," Rowan explained, taking a seat.
"I've heard of it," Anubis cut in, folding his arms with a frown. "It's supposed to be bad luck," the Rukario said, looking at the ceiling. "And there aren't many new trainers there. A lot of people are afraid of--- something, I don't know what, exactly," the dog admitted, Rowan raising his eyebrows slightly. If he weren't on a subject right now, the professor probably would have questioned the pokemon.
"You'll be fine," Rowan assured the trainers. "It's just that the communication between our labs has... well, short circuited," the professor sighed, shrugging. "If you two could go to Sytar to find him and give him your pokedexes, just so he could get the information..."
I agree with Anubis, Sally muttered, Something just doesn't seem right with what I've heard about that place. It's... Weird. Dangerous weird.
Well, two talking pokemon graced them today.
"Well, if it's so close we're running an errand, we can easily fly back to Sinnoh, and from there home, right?" Astrik chirped.
"Right," Rowan piped up, nodding. "Do you have any objections, Lance?" he inquired, sitting back in his seat.
Of COURSE Lance did-- he wanted to go home, bluntly speaking. And even though he was egotistical, Anubis was usually right in his predictions and gut feelings.
But he wouldn't say anything. The male teenager shook his head, in complete silence.
"Ah, good," Rowan replied, clapping his hands together. "I'm sure you'll be able to find it-- just fly southeast for a short while. It shouldn't take very long at all... just land in the southernmost town you see, you can get a map there... I'm afraid I don't remember where his lab is..."
Here, Anubis slapped his forehead.
Sally's wings stopped fluttering for a moment at this, her version of a headslap as she dropped a couple feet and came back up to height. THAT's a help, she snapped sarcastically.
"Ah, we'll find it," Asterik muttered, frowning, "Southeast, right?"
With your sense of direction, we'll wind up somewhere in Hoenn, Sally muttered at her trainer, causing the Kanto champion to glare at the butterfly.
"Right," Rowan said, glaring a bit at the bug-type. "You may go on your way," he finished, as once again, as they had been at the start of their journey, the trainers (and pokemon) were forcibly escorted by several assistants.
"Some things never change," Lance remarked with some sarcasm, sighing. "Well, Tsunami, looks like you're out again," he muttered, opening the ultra ball so that the lugia would materialize above their heads before landing, as did Asterik with the articuno. "Joy of joys..."
"This doesn't feel right," Anubis pointed out, folding his arms again.
Upon arriving in the southernmost town["Ha, I DO have a sense of direction," Asterik would later point out to Sally, Cryo was once again withdrawn as the Kanto champion looked around. Something just didn't feel right- even in such a small town there were normally... People.
Guess what was lacking.
The air? No, no there was plenty of that. It just lacked things to breathe it.
Conveniently, a scrap of paper that fluttered by, blown by the abundance of air, landed at Asterik's feet. Bending to pick it up, she frowned at the ratty-looking map and tried to somehow get it straightened out. "We're in... Relar town?"
"Looks like it," Lance replied after a moment, not responding until he had recalled the blind lugia, looking over the girl's shoulder at the map. "Gee, what a warm welcome," he added with a trace of a dry smile as he looked around him. Normally, he would have liked a quiet town...
But, this was too quiet. As in, way too still... even though you could see some people shuffling about inside the few houses, it seemed like there was nothing truly ALIVE to be found.
"I told you," Anubis said, shuddering. He was, after all, an Aura pokemon -- and the very way this place felt, what little he could pick up from the people inside the buildings-- it was creepy to him. "I've spoken to pokemon from Sytar... they were all too traumatized to tell me anything..."
Do you blame them? Sally asked, having appeared yet again without warning. As a psy, the place must have been as bad as it was to Anubis. I bet if we knocked on a door they'd- like- shove some charms at us to make sure we're not evil. Can we just get out of here as soon as possible?
"Planning on it," Asterik muttered, then paused. "Hey- it looks like that dot on the map- right there? In... uh..." She paused to read it, the letters faded and scratchy, "Grature? Might be an indication of the Pokemon lab."
Or a food stain. A pause as Sally recieved a questioning look. What, you never know what happened to it when you find a map on the floor!
"Ground," Anubis corrected quietly, but sighed. The sky was clear, it was a nice day; the scenery was good enough. And... it still felt as though it may as well have been cloudy and barren, for what it felt like.
However, suddenly, a loud -- no, loud wasn't the word; perhaps piercing or shrill fit better -- cry from another part of the small town caused both the dog and the Johto champion to jump slightly. It had been all but silent except for them.
That was... well, unexpected.
"Was it just me," Anubis said quietly, "or did that--"
"Sound like a pokemon?" Lance finished, knowing exactly what the dog was going to say. "Guess we have to check..." he muttered, though there was an uncertaincy in his stomach, something that told him not to check.
Obviously rather shaken, Asterik paused and then started off for the part of town it had come from, rolling the map up and putting it in her pack. As she turned the corner, a suspicious lump stood out against the barely-paved streets. Picking up the pace, she fought the urge to gag as the fact that it was a pokemon- much less a bird. Falling to her knees - after all, if it were injured, it wouldn't fight too much- she cautiously picked it up.
Laying limp in her hands was a tiny bird Pokemon, similar to pidgeys save for feather colouration- It was a pale blue, splashed with- sickeningly- red. As Lance and Anubis pulled up, Sally flashed them a warning look. Asterik, without looking up, obviously shaken by such a thing, gave them two words with a trembling voice- "It's dead."
A new foice came, then, softly. Not trembling as Asterik's was, but still mild, "Depressing, isn't it?"
