Pokémon: Agent of Fire

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Pokémon is not mine

I didn't really know what to feel as we went back to the house. The legendaries had emptied the entire forest onto Manson and me, just to test me. That made me angry and rather confused. The legends wanted to SAVE Pokémon, so they sent a whole forest full of them to their deaths and war? Impressive, yet so very wasteful. I had also captured a Poochyena, and then evolved almost instantly into a Mightyena. It probably wasn't anything to do with me, but I was still a little proud. My Pokémon had done excellent, simply shearing through the larger numbers. That was something I was proud of, yet also perhaps a little afraid of. The fighting was brutal and horrible. Was this just how things were in this dimension?

Manson was still grinning widely. All of the blood on him made him smell horrible, and it must really hurt him, but walked with a spring in his step. I made a mental note to involve myself with as few ghost types as possible. If they had turned Manson into what he was now I was happier with as little contact as possible.

We finally came within sight of the house. Belle wasn't outside. That was a good thing because I'm pretty Manson was scarier than the Boogeyman right now. "So, you should go in, I'll just go down to my room…" Manson said shiftily. "No way, I'm not letting you run off and make me explain this all by myself." I told Manson. He tried to make a run for it, but he slipped on his own blood and fell over. "Oh, it appears I'm rather dizzy. Can you perhaps help me inside?"

I picked Manson up. It was a testament to my strong will that I didn't throw up. He smelled so bad. "Why would you rush into the middle of a swarm of Pokémon who wanted us dead?" "The ghosts make me do things…sometimes. I normally listen to them. When I don't listen things go bad. Nowadays they tell me to jump, I jump. But it works both ways, I demand the same results." And with that Manson and I stumbled into the kitchen. Mrs. Sheldrake dropped the dish she had been holding on the floor. Mr. Sheldrake stared at us expectantly as if he had been waiting for this to happen. (Psychic's probably told him) Julia stood up suddenly and ran off in the direction of the bathroom. Belle was not present. "So, on a scale of one to ten, how much trouble are we in?" I asked innocently. "Jack! What happened!" "Well, I asked Manson to help me go through wilderness training again but when we woke up today every Pokémon in the forest attacked us! Manson and I hurt our Pokémon badly, and we ran out of healing items to fully restore them. That's the short version. In order to hear the long one I and Manson here will need some help."

My 'Parents' were horrified. I knew they would push back my date for leaving, but honestly, I was fine with that. I needed more training. If the Pokémon world was going to be like that, legendaries recruiting Pokémon to attack me just to test me; I felt that I didn't want to meet the actual trials they had in mind. What could be worse? A forest full of Pokémon; or a challenge that made a forest full of Pokémon seem like a small threat?

Manson hadn't really lost quite a bit of blood apparently. That or he was always that pale. Scratch that, if less blood made him pale; Manson might not have any blood in him normally. I gather that Mr. Sheldrake was going to take him to the hospital but the ghosts intervened. They warped him down into the cave, and he emerged half an hour later without so much as a scar. I learned all this from Julia, who had come to visit me in my room. As soon as I had gotten Manson into Mr. and Mrs. Sheldrake's care I had fallen down and passed out. Then Mrs. Sheldrake had incarcerated me to my room.

I had been playing video games when Mr. Sheldrake walked in. "Son, we need to talk". I stared at him, letting him know I was listening. "Your mother wants to retrain you before you set off. I know you don't want this but-" "I'm fine with that." Mr. Sheldrake stopped and stared at me, surprised. "You're fine with that? But…but this is what you've been talking about for months." "Really? That sounds rather stupid." I left my 'Dad' speechless. He stood there gawking. "Erm, are you okay?" "But….but this is what you've wanted! You wanted to go out when you were seven and Manson brought home the Duskull we caught him! Why would you suddenly change your mind!" I pondered how to act and what to say. "Well…being attacked has shaken me a bit, I'll admit. Perhaps this journey isn't what I thought it would be before?"

Mr. Sheldrake watched me carefully. It occurred to me he probably studied psychology. "I don't know what I used to want. I haven't got back any memories. Not-a-one. I have no idea what to think now. I'm a blank disk that's just now recording things. I only have basic knowledge on things, not applied knowledge on things. I don't know the worlds lay out, I don't know my middle name, I don't know where town is or isn't. I need time to learn things, but ultimately I do want to get out there."

Mr. Sheldrake stared at me. His face was passive, giving no sign of what must be his internal struggle. "I understand Son. You don't know much yet then. I'll start teaching you things again, but first for your education I think we need to go see Proff. Oak sooner or later. He can help some. We set off to days from now, so get some sleep."

I slept until midnight. I woke to the sound of my fireplace, crackling merrily. Odd, it wasn't normally that loud… I turned towards it and looked over the railing of my bunk bed. I didn't see Frash, but the fire was burning blue. I didn't know what to do. Was it the fault of one of my fire Pokémon? Did the gas valve get turned up too high? As I watched the fire shot something out, setting my carpet on fire. I was just about to scream when the fire suddenly went out and vanished without a trace. There stood Entei. He was looking straight at me. My fire Pokémon had all continued to sleep. "Errr, hello Entei. How's it going?" I was surprised when Entei spoke in my head. "Hello Jack. I see you survived the attack. An excellent selection of Pokémon, although you will need my help evolving half of them." Okay I thought, Manson lives with about 14 ghost voices in his head. I can handle one legendary. "Well…yeah, I didn't know what the original Jack was thinking. It is possible he was just acting on ideas without planning. But that's not important. I need to have a ton of my questions answered." "Come down, sit with your Pokémon on the lower bed. We must speak." I did as the Dog-cat Pokémon asked.

"I will answer all your questions, but I must be quick. Manson and Julia will soon sense me. Manson has enough power to potentially defeat me if he decides I want to do you harm. First off, why did I choose you? You were everything I was looking for. Traits I see in myself, but rarely show others. You're smart, cunning, and perhaps a little dark. You know what you have to do in a pinch, and you aren't afraid, even after all that's happened to you in your time here." I raised my hand like an elementary kid. Entei looked amused but let me speak. "Did you guide old Jack to these Pokémon?" "To some, yes. The girl you have learned about is Suicune's champion, like you are mine. The three fire dogs are connections to me. Frash is for brute strength and transportation when he becomes a Charizard. Flare was a gift from your family. An Eevee, proof you are one of them, no matter who you are. Your Mightyena is not connected to me, but he knows that he is now on an important mission with you. In order to settle your place in with the other champions you must meet some and show them you are out on the same mission."

"Your journey will not become hard until I have readied you for the world. I will not have a pup like you die on my mission. I am sorry you have lost some years, but it was necessary." I raised my hand again. "Yes?" "…Is Jack even my real name? Was my name Jack before I came here, or was it changed? Why are you taking my memories?" "Only Arceus knows what your name is now. I am sure you were always Jack though, if it helps. I am not taking your memories. They are being lost, a side effect of the human mind being moved from one dimension to the next without use of a proper gate. Trust me, in the past when the Trio beasts gathered humans up to move to another dimension we watched mass memory loss, turning the earliest arrivals into savages. From then on we did things more carefully, in order to keep their minds and memories more intact."

"Did I just hear what I thought I heard? You round up humans and took them to my dimension? What? Why!" "It was in order to lessen the pure number of our humans. You should be thankful, without the help of this dimensions legendaries you would never have been born. We legendaries created your dimension as a… holding pen of sorts for many humans and other Pokémon we didn't put into action here. I believe you call them animals instead of Pokémon. Next question?"

"How many champions are there?" " Not sure. I know that Julia is Raikou's champion, which you know. Giratina discovered your creepy ghost brother when he went to the lost city. He found Giratina. I can only assume since he still exists in some form that he is now the champion of Giratina. There's you, and the girl…oh what's-her-face that is Suicunes Champion… The lake trio and Mew are raising a champion…. At most I can see only 27 champions, and there won't be that many. See, champions are hard to raise right and instruct. Legendaries of the same type often sponsor the same champion in order to better prepare him or her and make them stronger. You happened to be ready made in the other dimension, a regular hero by standards. 'It's like he was born to do this', was what Arceus told me when he saw you. Julia was carefully raised by your parents and Raikou. Suicune's Champion was like you, except she wasn't very stable mentally back home. Manson is insane and years of corrosion by ghosts has made has will weak and defenseless. Giratina will bring him back to sanity, or at least, how he used to be. That's still not very sane, but if he was ever perfectly sane Giratina would have killed him."

"The bell duo are also raise champions, much like Genesect (to test his loyalty) and the weather trio. I also heard that Arceus himself has created a champion. Not raised or acquired, he created one. Like, it was from him and his powers, like how he created the legendaries. I also heard that Palkia and Dailga were ordered to make champions. They asked Jirachi for help. Hmmm… Celebi and Shaymin were ordered to make a champ. I think that's everyone doing it that was ordered too. The trio Bulls hate humanity in every form so they won't make a champ. I guess that everyone I know of."

"My plan for you is a simple one. Teams Aqua and Magma were dangerous, but they're not in Hoenn anymore. But there is an uprising group that's going by the same names, led by old remainders of the former groups. They're acting more like an unorganized team Rocket though, so they aren't dangerous. As you travel around Hoenn getting stronger the Trio beasts will have our champions take them out. When you're ready we'll send you off to other lands to defeat larger crime organizations. That's everything I can think of. Any other questions?"

I swear Entei made my mind bleed. Telepathy hurts a little, and long conversations made me want to go back to sleep. I looked at the clock. 12:12. "I probably would have other questions, but right now I can't think of them….I need my sleep too". Entei nodded. "Yes, humans and your sleep. Did you know humans spend about a third of their lives asleep? Horribly inefficient we all told Arceus but noooo, he was divine and he was perfect and…..Manson's coming. I have to go, see you in a week!" Entei jumped into the fire. I didn't see any sign of Manson. I quickly climbed back into my upper bunk. My Pokémon continued to snore.

Manson arrived at 12: 15, three minutes after Entei had left. He was sleep walking, hands forward like a zombie. But his eyes were open and they glowed an eerie purple. His whole body was covered in the same purple aura. Three green souls danced into and around Manson's body. Spiritomb was using him as a puppet to spy on the unusual energy or power source or whatever Entei radiated that made him legendary. Manson stood in my door. (Literally stood INSIDE the door, half his head poking through.) When Spiritomb spoke it was raspy, a high pitched whiny voice, like Spiritomb didn't know how to work Manson's vocal cords. He looked straight at me, unfooled by my fake sleep. "So, Jack, you are the play thing of a legendary now?" Spiritomb asked me.

"What's it to you!" I hissed back. Spiritomb blinked, and the light coming from his body shimmered. Where his eyes had been looking the glow stopped, like he had turned off a search light. "Shhh, do not speak, just listen. To talk would wake Manson. I must tell you some things for you to understand. First off, Manson caught me when Giratina met him. As a Spiritomb and one of the most powerful Spiritombs to ever have lived, Giratina used me to guard the ancient lost City, his second most famous portal to the light realm. Giratina instructed me and Manson to fight. Manson won. I could not destroy him, as I was supposed to. He was stronger than me. I wanted that power. Giratina told Manson to catch me. I see his plan now, even if I was angry and hurt then."

"All the years of unfriendly Ghost types had crushed Manson's soul, but barely touched his mind. This made him think he was still strong, that he was in control over his ghosts. He dismissed the whispers in his mind. He was close to being lost. Giratina saw this. He pushed me onto Manson. I was to save him. I help him remain sane, even if working to restore his soul was beyond me. I turned some of his more evil ghosts to a chaotic neutral. I helped tame the stronger ones. I slowed the corruption. I worked closely with his more loyal ghosts to keep him earthbound."

"The combination of my and Giratina's work on Manson has made him much saner than he was when he came to the city, even if his soul is irreparable. He needs us now, and knows this. He would do anything we ask, and we would help him however we could. This is a dual relationship. He needs us, we use him. We use this to OUR benefit, true, but we honestly care for his well being. He's in the group of oldest of the current champions. Manson is important to all the Champions. He will either save you all, or be your end."

I wanted so desperately to ask questions, but if I woke Manson then Spiritomb couldn't talk to me. So I stayed quite. "This will all happen soon, but also far in the future. It's not a perfect world. I must warn you as a friend to be careful when dealing with the legendaries. See, Giratina helps and will continue to help Manson. Other legendaries only see the champions as tools. I hope for your sake that the legendary whom sponsors you doesn't see you as a tool. I must warn you. I wish I had more time. And with that the glow around Manson vanished. Manson did not wake, instead he fell face forward. He didn't hit the ground, instead vanishing. (I assume he shadow warped back to his basement.)

I gave Spiritomb's warning much thought. Entei had said some similar things. Not everything made sense now. It made sense that the Legendaries might see their champions as little more than tools, they were mighty and powerful, while we are mere humans. Entei had said the Trio bulls absolutely hated humans. That could fit in with Spiritomb's warning. Were their other legendaries like that? It was entirely possible. Could Spiritomb be telling the truth about Manson's mind and soul? Was he really helping? I doubted it. Spiritomb was obviously Manson's strongest ghost. Manson had carried it with him into the field, and when things looked grim he had unleashed Spiritomb onto the Machoke and Slaking. A ghost that powerful would probably resent being captured. But it did say it was hurt and felt betrayed by Giratina. Perhaps it really was a gift. That made more sense. If Spiritomb recruited some friendly ghosts in Manson's team then it would explain why he had so many ghosts but was still sane. Could the ghost be trusted?

Entei had provided answers to my questions. I liked him enough, he seemed to like me too. Could he be trusted? All the possibilities hurt my head. I drifted off to sleep. In my dream I pictured Entei making me dance as a puppet on strings. Then I turned into Manson, being pulled along by Giratina and Spiritomb. The dream shifted again. My dogs visited my dream, running along with Entei in grassland. The scene changed to spots around Hoenn from the game. The desert that you couldn't enter without goggles. The city of Sootopolis you had to enter from underwater to get in. The city in the trees. Pacificlog town, floating on the ocean. What a weird place they lived in.

I woke up at around noon. My dogs were barking at me, telling me to get a move on.

[Get! Up!](Sune) [Take! Us! Out!](Flare) [Feed! Me!](Ripper) They all chorused. "All right! All right! I'm up. Now be quite and let me get dressed. On the way out the door I snagged some buttered toast from a plate on the table. I stood on the cement in the back by the pool while the dogs raced off to different areas. (Frash hobbled off into the woods on his small legs) "Well, at least it looks to be a normal day." I told myself. "Are you trying to jinx it?" asked Manson as he walked out of a dark corner of the house. I was so surprised I dropped my toast into the pool. A Pokémon jumped out and grabbed it, sinking back down to the depth. "What? There wasn't a Pokémon in the pool earlier?" I asked Manson. "Correct! Dad caught that yesterday in a stream. It's a Poliwag!" "Poli!" [Got anymore?] The Poliwag asked me. "Eh, sorry, no I don't have any more toast." "Poli!" [You're useless!] Poliwag told me before sinking to the depths. "See, Dad was told by Mom it was time to introduce another Pokémon to Belle, before she gets an Eevee. This wasn't his first choice but he admits it's better than what he had in mind." Manson informed me. "What was he looking for?" I asked him. "See, he was training himself in a stream by the pound because he's not an avid fisherman. He was planning on going to the coast to catch the Horsea he had in mind. But then he caught this and he thinks it will be a good Pokémon. Personally I think he'll try again for a Horsea in a couple years." Manson told me.

The Poliwag got mad at me for hanging around the pools edge and shot water at me. I retreated with Manson to the forests edge. "Reckon its safe in there? We must've killed half the forest." I asked Manson. "You underestimate the natural powers of Pokémon. What we did will probably only kill half as many as you're thinking we must've. Pokémon are extremely hardy. I heard once of a Pokémon that got cut in half yet still won the battle. I almost re-killed my Duskull when I used it to help me take on the Hoenn fire gym. He was tattered and falling apart, but he won by evolving. Evolution occurs in the Pokémon if it is in extreme danger too, it's just less powerful right off the bat as a Pokémon that evolved regularly. Dad's own Metagross was torn in two back when it was a Metang, turning it in two Beldum. Those recombined by the time the fight was over." Manson told me.

My Pokémon were arriving again, gathering around. "Okay, Frash, Ripper, Sune, Bones, Jackal…where's Flare?" "Whee!" [Oi! Help!] I took off in the direction of Flare's call. Flare was sitting high up in a tree branch about sixteen feet in the air. At the base of the tree was Lombre. The Lombre turned to face me. "What's up?" I asked it. "Lomb!" It shouted at me before charging. I booted it in the face when it got too close. Then Manson put his metal soled boot on its chest. "I'd hold still. I would deeply like for you to move, but it's in your best interests to stay still." (Manson's Rotom appeared, floating behind his head.) "Okay Flare, how'd you get up there?" I asked Flare. "Whee!" [I climbed the trunk with my claws.] Seeing how I had all my Pokémon's ball on my belt I took it off and lazered my Eevee out of the tree. Releasing Flare again I went over to the Lombre. "It looks young. It's not yet very well suited to its body, or you couldn't have knocked it over the way you did. It's owned by somebody, there's a collar on its neck." Manson bent down to read it. "If found, please return to..." (Lombre takes a swipe at Manson's eyes, but he misses and Manson crunches it underfoot.) "The Pokémon adoption Facility in Petalburg." He announces. "Reckon we should take it there?" I ask. "If we leave now Mom would put us in massive trouble after everything that went down yesterday. How about we tie it to the tree and then come back after lunch, then take it? Manson asked while producing a large length of rope from his coat.

"Sounds good to me!"