Chapter 3: Electros?
My brain's a little stuck on Myra right now so this chapters probably going to be mostly her POV. Next chapter will be Celia.
Closer. Closer. Closer. Myra fell even faster to the ground than she would've if she hadn't taken the motorcycle. Her voice was thinning out, but she never stopped screaming. Wind blasted in her face, causing her to squint as she stared down. She was falling towards a forest. The thought of landing on a tree terrified her, but Myra knew there was nothing she could do to stop the fall.
Thunder roared in her ears, rain soaking her sweatshirt and the wind finally stripping her of her baseball cap. Her hands had a death-grip on the motorcycle's handlebars, her eyes wide with terror. She could now gage the trees' exact sizes.
Myra's eyes finally shut, waiting for the pain. An abnormally loud clap of thunder shook her to the core. She suddenly stopped falling down, and flew forwards. The rim of her sweatshirt started strangling her; she opened her eyes to see that she wasn't hovering over the forest anymore, but a flat, plain-like strip of land. The lack of air caused Myra let go of the motorcycle and pull at the collar of her shirt that was strangling her, gasping for air. She looked down again and saw a huge yellow paw just barely in front of her. Her heart beat even faster, her scream intensifying to the point where she couldn't hear herself anymore.
After what seemed like an eternity to Myra, she was on the ground. Well, dangling a few inches above the ground. She hung there, still screaming for a minute before she was dropped, hitting the ground with a light thud. Myra drew in a few ragged breaths before she finally turned to see what had stopped her fall. The beast stood behind her, its magnificent purple mane flowing in the breeze as it towered over her.
"Raikou." She whispered, staring at the electric type.
"Kou…" It chuffed, lowering its head down to Myra's level.
The girl quickly noticed that the beast was missing one of its fangs. Following her gaze, Raikou's tongue swiped over where the fang had once been; it came closer to Myra, sniffing at her hood. Alarmed, Myra rolled away from Raikou.
"What do you want from me?" She breathed.
Raikou gave her an annoyed glance.
"I don't get it, what-"
The legendary interrupted her with a roar and leapt back into the sky, leaving with the storm. Myra stared after it, wondering why it had saved her.
"Oh… my… Arceus! That was soooo cool!" A voice squealed.
Myra's gaze quickly hardened, staggering to her feet. "Who's there?" She asked.
"Great, Sunny, now look what you've done," another voice muttered. "You scared it away, and now she probably thinks we're freaks for watching."
"I said, who's there?" Myra repeated sternly.
Two girls around her age stepped out from a few sparse trees that stood awkwardly in the open space.
"Hi!" One greeted, skipping over to Myra like they knew each other.
Myra gave her a weird look and stepped away from the girl. The other girl sighed when she noticed that her friend had left to Myra.
"Sunny, get back here."
"Okay!" She grinned, skipping back to the girl and tackling her to the ground with a bone-crushing hug.
Myra sweat dropped as she watched the two grapple on the ground. "Um, you two okay?" She asked awkwardly.
"Yeah, just hang on." One grunted, throwing the other off.
She got up, dusting herself off and glaring at the girl. "Sorry about her." She muttered.
Myra sighed, "it's fine… but who exactly are you two?"
She blinked.
"Oh, right sorry. My name's Robin, and the idiot on the ground there is my sister, Sunny." Robin smiled, taking a few paces towards Myra and extending her hand in greeting.
"I'm Myranda, but please just call me Myra." Myra said, shaking hands with Robin.
"Nice to meet you, Myra." Robin replied. "So, was that your Raikou, because it was then I'm awfully sorry about scaring it away-"
"No, he wasn't mine."
"Really? Well to be singled out like that by Raikou, well that's a huge honor around here! Was that your first encounter?"
Myra nodded, "yeah before today I have never met Raikou."
"Well I'm really sorry about interrupting you and spoiling the moment…" She apologized.
Myra waved it off. "Um, now would you mind telling me where exactly I am?"
"We're on route one-"
"So we're still in Unova?" Myra asked hopefully.
Robin cocked her head to the side. "Uno-what? Is that one of those small towns out in the middle of nowhere?"
Her face paled. "What region is this?"
"You feeling okay? There's only one region."
"Wh-what? N-no! There's like fifty of them! Which one is this?"
Robin shook her head slowly, her cherry-red hair blowing in the breeze. "We're in Electros…"
"What? I've never heard of Electros in my life!"
"I think she's crazy." Sunny whispered loudly to Robin from the ground.
"I can hear you, you know!"
"Maybe Professor Maple will know what's going on… Here, um, Myra? Would you be willing to come with us to the City of Thunder to see the Professor? She might be able to help you." Robin asked.
Myra didn't respond, breathing heavily as she tried to make sense of what Robin had just said.
"Myra?"
"Wake up!" Sunny yelled, snapping Myra back into focus.
"S-sure… I guess."
"Okay, good. Now come this way."
XXX
The City of Thunder reminded Myra of Castelia City. It was surrounded by a rough-looking ocean and had tall buildings that were far taller than her home back in Striaton; the city also seemed significantly cleaner than Castelia City too. Although Castelia had just been completely restored a few years ago, the buildings were still gray and the streets were still crowded with grumpy, stressed looking people. This city's buildings… they were beautiful. Each was white and had plenty of windows with solar panels on the roofs. The people also seemed much happier than those of Castelia City.
The word 'thunder' made her shiver now though and reminded of the note. It reminded her of Celia.
"I'll find you, Celia. I promise." She murmured, careful so Sunny and Robin didn't hear.
"The lab's right over here, overlooking the Sea of Thunder." Robin said, snapping Myra out of her thoughts.
Myra nodded.
"Yay! I can't wait to see Professor Maple again, she's the one who helped me catch Precious!" Sunny exclaimed happily, skipping merrily along.
"Who's Precious?"
"My Pokémon of course!"
"What Pokémon do you have?"
"Oh, oh! Robin, can we please show her our Pokémon?" Sunny pleaded.
"Maybe once we get to the lab's front garden, we're sort of in the middle of the street right now." Robin said flatly.
"Right." Myra sighed as she thought about Nikko.
Was he alright? Did he dive straight into a rock or chunk of ice on accident? She gritted her teeth.
If I had only been faster, then maybe I could be with Celia and Nikko right now instead of these two. She thought ruefully.
Sunny fell behind Myra, observing the back of her.
"Um… you okay there?"
"Hm? Oh yeah! I'm great!"
Robin chuckled. "You have to tell her flat out or she won't get it."
"But she's our age, how could she not get it? Is something wrong with her?" Myra hissed back.
Robin shook her head, "nothing's wrong with her. She's just… slow for whatever reason; you know, like the village idiot. Anyhow, the lab's-"
"What's that?" Sunny interrupted, poking Myra in the back.
Myra looked back at the blond girl with slight irritation. "What's what?"
"That thingy." Sunny responded, tugging sharply at her hood.
Myra quickly yanked her hood from her grasp and examined it. Her heart stopped. Lodged in one of the holes that Raikou had made from carrying her by the hood was a tooth. She suddenly remembered the Raikou missing its fang.
"So that's why you were messing with my hood… it's probably the only reason you stuck around after saving me," Myra murmured, pulling the fang free and turning to face Robin. "It's nothing, there are just some holes in my hood."
Robin nodded. "Alright. Anyway, like I was saying, the lab's right here."
She shoved Raikou's fang in her sweatshirt's pocket and looked ahead. It was a large white building that looked as though it was made of glass and was longer and shorter than any of the other buildings in the city. Roses of all different colors were planted along the shale path and near-perfect green grass.
"I know it's small, but it looks bigger on the inside." Robin said, catching Myra staring.
"This is way bigger than Unova's lab, and you're telling me this is small?"
Robin gave her a worried look for bringing Unova up again, but forced a nod and started up the path. Myra and Sunny followed.
The red-head opened the big glass doors with ease, passing on the surprisingly light door to Myra, who held it for Sunny before coming in herself. Several wall waterfalls were plastered to the walls of the brightly-lit room. Robin led her and Sunny through a short hallway that was connected to what looked to be a waiting room. Plush-looking red chairs sat in two rows of three against the shell-colored walls accompanied by chocolate-colored coffee tables with magazines stacked on top. A desk sat at the back of the room with a lady behind it.
She greeted the three with a smile, "hello do you have an appointment- oh, it's you guys. You can go into the lab."
Robin flashed her a smile and walked behind the desk as though she did this often. Sunny followed her without hesitation, humming an annoying tune. With a sigh, Myra stepped behind the desk. Robin opened a door behind the desk and held it for Sunny and Myra.
"This place is more like an office building than a Pokémon lab." Myra said, looking back at the waiting room for a moment longer before entering the next room.
"Well, Professor Maple's really popular and people come in all the time to ask her questions, reserve starter Pokémon for their children, and sometimes just to get her autograph." Robin giggled, taking the lead again.
The room was much larger than the waiting room. A large portion of the walls were windows, letting in natural sunshine which reflected off the polished white tile flooring. It was rather empty, but it looked cleaner that way. A few scientists wandered around the room, coming in and out of doors throughout the building while a few others were clustered together in the back as they murmured to each other.
"Professor? Are you here?" She called, taking a few steps forward.
A shorter scientist separated from the group in the back and came towards the group.
"Ah, Robin, Sunny. How's everything going?" An elderly voice asked.
Myra hung back, feeling uncomfortable in the building. It was too professional for her liking, and that was saying something. Myra remembered her grandmother taking her to some of her meetings so she could wait outside the door and learn 'how adults talk'.
Her brown eyes took in the short, elderly woman's appearance. She wore glasses that hid her squinted eyes and had soft-looking wrinkled skin. The woman looked like how she wished her grandmother looked like: soft and inviting. Her silver hair was shoulder length and curled at the tips.
"Oh, and who'd you bring along?"
Myra snapped back into focus, preparing to answer any of the woman's questions. Sunny gave the old lady an excited look and began speaking.
"That's Myra. We found her on route one with Rai-"
"Rye bread! That's right, they found me with a loaf of rye bread." Myra interrupted, shooting Sunny a glare.
The Professor gave her a puzzled look but continued. "So what brings you here, Myra?"
Robin answered this time. "I think she hit her head too hard or something, she says she's from this place called Unovy or something."
"Unova." Myra corrected.
"Oh, that's nice." She smiled.
"But, Unova doesn't even exist! Professor, how can you just condone this-"
"Robin, nobody knows what's past those storms, for all we know there could be something." She replied calmly.
Robin angrily sighed and fell back so Myra was more exposed.
"Oh, ma'am, I was wondering if you knew of a place that was really cold and had a lot of water." Myra asked, recalling the conditions of the place that she last saw Celia.
"Was there a storm?" Maple asked, clearly deep in thought.
"No, but there was a forest nearby."
"Hm… Perhaps you are talking about Lake Faith? It's nearly big enough to be called a sea and it's awfully cold, half the time the lake's frozen."
Her blood ran cold. "Is it frozen now?"
"No, it's summer time now. It should be mostly thawed now. It's frozen for the second half of fall, all of winter, and the first half of spring." She answered.
"Thanks." Myra said.
"Not a problem," she smiled. "Now, may I ask you a question?"
"Sure."
"Do you have any Pokémon?"
"No, why?" Myra responded, not knowing if she was lying to the old professor or not.
"Oh well I have three new trainers coming in today, and all four of my starter Pokémon are really eager to start traveling-"
"Wait, four? There's only supposed to be three." Myra stated, giving her a skeptical look.
Professor Maple chuckled, "well here there's four. Would you like to pick one out now?"
"If you're willing to part with one than yeah, I'd be happy to."
The old lady beamed and motioned for an assistant to come. A tall, young man nodded from the back and left to a different room.
"Now, since you seem a little… out of it, I'll just give you a refresher on what the starting Pokémon for Electros are. There's P-"
"Professor Maple! We're here for our Pokémon!" An obnoxious voice boomed from the opposite side of the room.
All heads turned to the door that connected the lobby to the actual lab. Three boys charged into the room. Two followed the one that had rudely announced their presence. The one furthest back had dark gray hair that was neatly combed back and wore a baggy sweatshirt and baggy pants; the boy closest to the 'leader' had brown hair that nearly came down to his shoulders and wore a track suit. The leader himself was blond haired and wore a plain green T-shirt and baggy jeans.
Robin sighed, "oh. I forgot that you were getting your Pokémon today."
The blond smirked and flipped his shorter hair, removing his hands from his pockets.
"Hi, Christmas-Tree, didn't know you would be here."
"Whatever, Jason," she muttered, coming to Myra's side. "Don't listen to a word that bastard says, he's a huge flirt."
Myra nodded warily, not taking her eyes away from the boy. Before anyone else could speak, the assistant came back with a tray in hand. Professor Maple happily took the tray and dismissed him, turning back to the teens.
"Anyway, before I was interrupted," she said, giving the blond and his friends a warning look. "I was telling you what our lab offered for starter Pokémon."
"Wait, Sweatshirt over there doesn't know what the starter Pokémon are? That's sad." He laughed.
Myra glared at him, causing him to laugh harder. The Professor rolled her eyes and continued.
"Well I offer Pikachu," she said, plucking a poke ball from its depression and releasing it onto the ground.
"Chu!" It cried, staring curiously at the people in front of it.
"Tynamo," Maple continued, releasing another Pokémon from its ball.
"Ty!"
"Along with Blitzle," almost on cue, Blitzle released itself, stamping its hoof in excitement.
"And Electrike." She finished, pulling the last Pokémon from the tray and releasing it.
"Trike!" It barked, sitting down.
"Before-"
"I choose Blitzle because he's a badass!" The blond announced, smirking at everyone else as though everyone had wanted Blitzle.
Blitzle happily stepped to his side, happy to be claimed first.
"Everyone-" Maple said, only to be interrupted by the gray-haired boy.
"Pikachu, you're coming with me!" He called, holding his arm out.
"Pika!" Pikachu cried, hopping onto his forearm.
"Tynamo, come with me!" The guy in the track suit shouted, pleased when the electric fish floated to his side.
Myra stared at the Electrike. "Looks like you're stuck with me."
"Trike." It nodded, getting up and sitting again at her side.
Professor Maple looked slightly angered that the four had ignored her, but regathered herself and spoke.
"Well, since you all picked your Pokémon, I guess I'll just give you your pokeballs." She sighed, leaving the room.
The blond walked past the other boys towards Myra. "Well, you going to tell me your name and number? 'Cuz if not I'm going to be calling you 'Sweatshirt' forever."
Myra rose an eyebrow. "Why Sweatshirt?"
"You know why." He scoffed.
"Who are you?"
"I asked first."
Both locked gazes.
"I'm really stubborn, don't try with me." He warned.
"Same goes for you." Myra replied.
Electrike and Blitzle did the same, mimicking their trainers.
"Oh my Arceus, he's Jason and she's Myra." Robin shouted from the side of the room.
"Myra? You don't look like a Myra." Jason said.
"Well maybe you don't look like a Jason." She retorted.
Jason ignored her, "I'm going to keep calling you Sweatshirt, okay? Okay."
"Damn you..." Myra grumbled, her fists clenching tightly.
"Want to battle, Sweatshirt?"
"Fine… Blondie!" She spat, mentally slapping herself for not finding a better nickname for him.
"Let's go, Electrike!" Myra shouted, getting behind the electric type.
"Alright, Blitzle, let's show Sweaty here who's boss."
Myra gritted her teeth and felt her face redden in anger at her new nickname's nickname.
"Tackle, Blitzle!" Jason commanded.
Blitzle gave an excited whinny and charged forward.
"Dodge to the side then thunder wave!" Myra countered, watching as Electrike rolled to the side and shot a weak thunder shock at Blitzle, paralyzing the zebra-like Pokémon.
Jason gritted his teeth, "come on, Blitzle! Tackle again!"
Blitzle nodded and started at Electrike only to cringe and stop.
She smirked, "leer then tackle."
"Trike!" He cried, glaring at the Blitzle before ramming into it, knocking it over.
"Tackle!"
"Don't you get that won't work on us?" Myra laughed. "Dodge again, then leer and tackle!"
Electrike easily dodged Blitzle's pathetic tackle and repeated its last attack, knocking Blitzle out.
"Blitz…" It moaned.
Myra smirked and held out her hand. "Pay up."
Jason glared at her and slapped one hundred Poké in her hand. Professor Maple reemerged from the room with an armful of supplies, laughing when she saw Jason paying Myra.
"Already done your first battle?"
Myra nodded as she happily pocketed the cash. She looked down at Electrike. "Good job."
He barked happily at her compliment, his tail wagging. The Professor smiled at her as she handed Myra her pokeballs.
"At least there are ten like in Unova." She muttered, stuffing them in her sweatshirt pocket with Raikou's fang.
The old lady then handed some to Jason and his friends. Myra approached Robin and Sunny, who congratulated her on winning against Jason.
"Nice battle, you seem like you've done it before." Robin said suspiciously.
Deciding against telling them anything else about her, she changed the subject.
"Hey, now that I've got my Pokémon how about you two show me yours."
Before Robin could object, Sunny spoke up. "Oh my gosh, yes!" She squealed, fumbling around her pockets for her poke ball.
"Precious, come out and meet Myra!"
The ball opened to reveal a Rhyhorn.
"Eek! Isn't he sooo cute?" Sunny beamed, getting on her hands and knees and hugging the annoyed looking ground type.
"Horn…" It muttered.
"Yeah… totally." Myra said awkwardly, exchanging weirded out glances with her Electrike.
Robin cleared her throat, gaining Myra's attention. "Here's mine." She said, pulling a poke ball from her jean pockets and releasing a neon green Espeon.
"Speon!" It cried happily, nuzzling Robin's leg.
"That's Neon." Robin smiled, patting Neon's head.
"How'd you get a shiny?" She asked.
Robin shrugged, "I don't know, it just happened. I didn't buy her from a breeder or anything though if that's what you're wondering."
"How'd you get her then? Eevee aren't the easiest Pokémon to find." Myra asked again, her curiosity growing.
"My mother's Flareon had her, so she gave her to me." She explained.
Myra was about to respond when she felt a weak jolt of electricity. She turned around and saw Jason with his Blitzle.
"What?" She asked.
Jason shrugged, "just wanted to say that I'm leaving and that next time we fight, I will win."
"You can think whatever you want."
"Whatever, by Sweatshirt." He said with a wink, leaving the lab.
The two others quickly followed. Myra stood petrified at his wink. Robin came to her side and stared at her frozen face.
"You okay?"
Myra managed a nod, "yeah… fine."
She gave her a weird look. "Whatever you say."
Before you guys freak out on me about Robin's name, I just want to say that although a 'robin' is a bird in real life, it is also a name. So I don't want to hear you guys complain about it! XD Anyhow, hope you guys like the idea so far and I'm crossing my fingers for some reviews. :) ~Spottedeyes