Chapter 06 - Echo

Cerulean City – Main Street Café

We had just entered Cerulean City 10 minutes ago, so the first thing we did was head on over to a café to get a drink and some lunch before heading off towards Pewter City which by Brent's words 'Man, it will only take us 'bout 1 hour to get der.' The way he pronounced 'There' as 'Der' caused Espeon to laugh nonstop from when we had left the city, attacked by a few wild Pokemon, until we had entered the city.

The café here was nice and had this warm gold/red feel to it with the wooden walls and floor everywhere. The tables we sat beside only had two armchairs at one table so it was Brent and Lisa at one, and me and Espeon on the other. It was a café students from the city's college liked to hang out at lunch or after classes. They served of cause coffee and other caffeine drinks, sandwiches and donuts, something we ordered one of each.

"So Zackary," Espeon almost choked after eating a sprinkled donut entirely "You mentioned yesterday not mentioned in the story about your Dewott leaving to start up a family with some Pokemon day care group? Do you do that with all your Pokemon or just a select few?"

"Dewott is the only one I have sent. If my other Pokemon want to go, to start up a family I won't forbid them from going. Why do you ask?" Espeon looked down at her other gazed donut on the plate in front of her before taking a smaller bite out of it.

"It's… it's nothing. Just curious is all… yeah, I'll stick with that…" Espeon laughed at that before attempting again to eat the entire donut in one go.

"Did you want to go to day care?" I asked as Espeon almost choked on the half eaten donut.

"Um… n-no? I mean, is it mandatory that I should go to one? I know you said you don't force your Pokemon to go, but I don't see any reason to go there besides… can I swear in this story?"

"What's wrong Espeon?" Brent laughed leaning over to Espeon, "scared of catching the cooties, eh?" Espeon rolled her eyes at him and shook her head, "Just because I have- just because I am a living being doesn't mean I Have to mate and have children."

Espeon shook her head again turning to the half eaten donut still on her plate, "Let's change the subject, kay? LisaLisa; heheh… reference… so anyway, do you have a boyfriend?"

Lisa looked up from her cup towards Espeon and smiled shaking her head, "No, I'm still single."

"Nani?" Espeon raised her voice causing a few people to look over at us, "I thought when asked you'd be all like blushing madly, waving your hands like some weirdo and shouting out 'W-w-w-w-What? Pervert! H-how dare you ask me such a private question!' Well anyway, you are quite attractive to get the men lining up for you; I assumed you'd have one."

"I'm still waiting for the right guy. I mean, It's not like I am in a rush or anything." Lisa sighed as she picked up her cup and drank some coffee before setting the cup back down.

Lisa stared at her cup for a brief moment before looking up to us and asked, "That thing we saw… what was it? And why could no one else see it besides us?"

"Beats me," Brent said cracking his neck, "But whatever that thing is, it must have something to do as to why the Saviors have called us down to Pewter city for an important mission. But it was odd why no one else could see that thing… bizarre."

"Zack," Lisa turned to me and asked, "That creature we saw, in the Savior's report from last year you fought undead creatures created by Team Annihilation; do you think that creature was one of them?" I sat there thinking about its appearance in silence. The creature unlike the reanimated corpses that I fought off all were hybrids of human and Pokemon, but the creature we saw didn't have anything that resembled a Pokemon, and it was too thin to be human.

"I don't know what that thing was. Maybe members of Team Annihilation that fled after the downfall banded together to start up a new group." I paused for a short while until I remembered one more detail about the creature that the reanimated corpses didn't have, "Another thing about it; when that creature was defeated it never turned into ash, only it vanished. The corpses all turned to ash when defeated, this one didn't."

"If Annihilation did form a new group and started this zombie thing again, why call in Savior members from all over the place to Kanto about it?" Espeon said as she glanced over her shoulder, "Maybe the threat here is more extreme than we think."

After Team Annihilation was defeated and most of the members being sent to jail, a handful of them had fled escaping to many different regions to avoid capture. Clark believes that those that escaped capture may start up a new group of their own, take revenge even. Maybe I thought that this creature belonged to that handful of escaped Annihilation members, the start of their revenge. But a part of me said otherwise, it was strange… like trying to remember a dream, cloudy, bits and pieces I could remember like broken fragments. It was like for some reason I already knew the creature was not created by Team Annihilation, but by someone else.

Cerulean City

After eating our quick lunch at the café wanting to leave the city as fast as possible to arrive at Pewter within the hour, we stopped as we noticed grouped outside the city's police station about 10 men and woman in their late 30-50s arguing with a lone police officer trying to calm the situation down as best he could but to no avail as the crowd raised their voices at him chanting that something needed to be done.

"Want to check it out?" Lisa suggested after we had stopped. Espeon looked up at her and asked, "This is kind of like side quests in video games; complete a side quest to unlock new areas/cash/rare items whilst walking around quest givers home looting whatever one can find… cool, let's talk to the police guy so we can mug the heck out of that station." Espeon smiled as she walked over to the crowd but quickly stopped when Brent stepped forward towards her saying,

"In case you forgot Espeon, we ain't got time for this. The Savior's have called us to Pewter city for an important meeting, one we cannot miss. Let the police or some other Savior member handle this one."

"You sure you want to leave? It could be ipmortnat. Something like…a child went missing, a wild Pokemon attack, or the author typing 'Important' incorrectly in my early sentence just now."

Brent sighed "Alright, fine. As long as it isn't a task that last too long." Brent said walking together with Espeon towards the shouting small crowd. Espeon winked at him and smiled,

"Gotcha, quick task. Tap the action button to skip the convo."

Walking up to the crowd I asked to a random person from the crowd, "Uh, hey, what's going on here?" an elderly woman noticed me and turned a she narrowed her eyes.

"I'll tell you what's going on here; the police of this wretched city refuse to investigate the Cerulean Cave after numerous reports from us citizens about hearing a young child screaming and crying out for help."

"They refuse to help?" Lisa asked raising an eyebrow at her and tilted her head to the side asking, "But why?"

The old woman groaned "It all started about 2 days ago; most of us had heard strange noises coming from the inside of the cave. We at first assumed it was an injured Pokemon, that is until we heard the voice call out for someone outside the cave to come and rescue the poor child. We tried asking from outside the cave what the child's name is or where their parents are, yet they remained silent about that only calling out for help."

"So has anyone entered the caves yet? Or do you wait around all day for a 10 year old to solve your problems?" Espeon spoke up beside me alerting the old woman to her presence. The old woman didn't seem fazed by a talking Espeon or by her question. She stood there looking down at Espeon as if she was asked that question a hundred times by now.

"Everyone has tried at least to help enter the caves, but those officers will stop anyone who enters the caves, saying things like 'please go on home, there is nothing inside those caves.' And the most common one of all is 'it's just the wind, nothing more.' What a joke to think we are losing our marbles or something. They claim not to hear a lick of a damn thing in there, oh no! but we hear it clearly!" The old woman returned to the group yelling insults and light threats at the lone officer standing in between the yelling group and the entrance to the station.

"It may be an actual child, or it may be something else, an injured Pokemon maybe. C'mon, let's check it out." I said as we left the group to search for the caves.

Cerulean City – Cerulean Cave Entrance

Like the woman said, the cave had a few other people trying to get inside but where stopped by about 5 police officers and their Growlithe's barking at them to step back. Just seeing those Growlithe's bark like that reminded me of Isaac's Growlithe barking at random things like a tree, trashcan, even a flower with Isaac revealing to me and Sakura 'He's just being Growlithe.'

"Look," the police officer stated ceasing the crowds yelling and drawing our attentions to him, "There is nothing inside the caves. A team this morning have already searched every section and rock wall for any sign of an injured child or Pokemon, we have come to the conclusion that it was either a prank or-"

"STOP IT!" Yelled an elderly man from the back of the crowd holding a walking stick with both hands in a threatening manner as if it were a sword. "All of us heard the child inside, no doubt about that." The crowd cheered and let him continue, "I doubt you searched the cave properly for that youngin' I say we push pass them and search for the child ourselves!"

"Hold it!" Brent raised his voice as he held up his hand alerting the crowd and the police officers. Brent stepped in between the police officers and the crowd. "Listen; fighting won't help anybody, it'll only make matters worse."

"Then what do you suppose we do then?" A woman in her late 20s asked him with a glare. "Just wait for the kid to suffer any longer?"

Brent turned to the officers and held out his Savior's ID, "I'm with the Savior's, and so are they." He said pointing at us and gestured we approach him. "How about we enter the cave and search for this child?"

One of the police officers approached us and sighed, "Listen, I get it that you are trying to help these people, but Savior members or not I can't just let you inside, I have rules I need to follow. Orders are not to let anyone inside, even Savior members."

"H-hey, listen!" a man from the crowd spoke up and all of us where silent for a short moment…

"H-help… *cough*" a voice from a child echoed out of the cave followed by worried gasps and murmurs from the crowd. "Hear that!? I told you clunk heads that there was a child in there!"

Looking at the police officers, the continued to stare at strangely and continued to shoo them away from the cave as if they didn't even hear them. Someone from the crowd, a man tried to push pass the police officers, but they easily held him back allowing Brent to run past the officers.

"H-hey! Stop! Get back here!" one of the officers ordered removing his baton from his belt, but was pushed to the ground with Espeon's Psychic with ease. Lisa, with me and Espeon ran into the cave to follow Brent as he ran ahead.

I expected as we ran to hear a few voices or footsteps from one of either a civilian or two, or a police officer to return us to the entrance of the cave, yet I heard nothing. I wonder what would've happened if we didn't enter that cave that day, would anything we did in that cave have affected anything at all, or would it be when we had left it, like nothing had happened at all?

Cerulean City Cerulean Cave 1F

A dark and wet cave with the only light source multiple small holes leading outside. This cave is said to be the location of Mewtwo, a legendary Pokemon often sighted deep within. I thought at the time when entering the cave knowing what Pokemon was inside that if the 'child' calling for help was in fact Mewtwo for some reason calling out for help. But little did we realize that this was not the cry of either child or Pokemon crying out.

"Brent, wait up!" Lisa called out to Brent as he stopped running as he heard her voice echo throughout the cave.

"Bent, you shouldn't just run into a cave like that… a wild Zubat would most likely attack you after the first 4/8 steps." Espeon said with a smile.

Brent turned around to face us and wiped a sweat off his forehead, "Didn't think we could've got past those cops like that, kinda thought there would've been some persuasion involved or something like that… I don't know…"

"Huh…" Lisa looked back to the entrance of the cave, "I can't hear anything out there… any of you guys hear anything?" Lisa asked as we stayed silent to hear anything from a sudden shout to a footstep or more… we heard nothing but the occasional water dripping into the water in the cave.

"Well anyway, let's search the cave for this child, we can then return to the entrance and hopefully end the arguments between the crowd and police officers outside." Lisa said before looking down at Espeon as she began to walk until she stopped at the entrance of another cave path leading further inside.

"I sense something, a presence down this section of the cave. Something odd about it though, sadness, anger… and regret." Espeon continued to stare at the dark path of the cave in silence only until we followed her down the dark path.

I would say that the cave was quiet, too quiet to be exact. The first thing we noticed was that the cave from the entrance until we reached the deeper sections of the cave we encountered nothing, no wild Pokemon appeared to battle us. When asked if anyone had used the item repel or a stronger variant, both Brent and Lisa said they didn't use or had any in their inventory.

Also another thing was that we never heard the child cry out anymore, yet Espeon claimed that there was something alive deep within the cave.

Cerulean Cave B1F

The dark path we walked down with its only light source small tiny holes throughout the cave from wild Pokemon long ago was the only thing we had otherwise we would've turned back. Espeon continued to walk ahead of us a small distance away to lead us to the source of this 'Presence' that remained deep within Cerulean Cave.

"Ow!" Brent grunted as he gritted his teeth after hitting his forehead on one of the cave rocks that stuck out from the cave ceiling, "Dang it old rock… ugh-"

"H-help…" The voice louder from when we last heard it out of the cave echoed throughout the path ahead of us like whoever called out was just around the corner from us.

"H-Hey, the kids just up ahead, c'mon!" Brent ran ahead of us but Espeon looked unsure as she continued looking in the direction the voice came from.

"Anger… fear… sadness… death? Bent! Wait!" Espeon called out to Brent but he had already run behind the corner before we heard him scream followed by a low growl. At this, we ran together quickly around the rocky corner to find Brent lying on his back holding his chest whilst gritting his teeth.

"Brent, are you alright?" Lisa asked kneeling beside him; Brent quickly nodded and said repeatedly "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Until we noticed something moving in front of us, the source of the cries for help wasn't a child or Pokemon… it was a strange large glowing white ball of some kind sticking out of the cave wall pulsating like a heart.

"Help… Please…." The sound came from the white glowing ball.

"The heck is this supposed to be? A gag of some kind, cause whatever hit me in the chest needs to show there selves so I can break their twig-like necks!" Brent yelled as his voice echoed throughout the cave.

"This ball…" Espeon said stopping in front of us. "or whatever it is; this is the source of the anger, sadness and fear I felt when we first entered the cave… it is like… like this is the same beakman bird-like creature we saw- or read about in the previous chapter... Reference"

The ball pulsated again and continued to glow much brighter than we first saw it creating sounds from it like a stereo but broken.

"You're saying this thing is like that creature we saw?" Lisa asked Espeon watching the ball pulsate continuously for a while until it stopped and played the child's voice again "Where are you?… help…"

"Why is it doing that?" I asked before I had came up with a theory as to why the Savior's had brought us here, "Do you think the reason that the Savior's had called us to the Kanto region… was because of this and that creature we saw in the city?"

"What should we do about- what?" Lisa uttered before the ball began to fade away slowly like the creature after we had defeated it leaving behind a dark-like mist and a note lying on the ground below where it once was. Espeon walked over to the note cautiously and levitated it in front of her face with her Psychic to read it:

To whoever finds this note; please tell my parents that I am sorry, sorry for hurting them, making them angry because of me. I am sorry for getting your Pokemon killed because of me.

I ran away to this cave to… I just wanted to pain to end. But I decided to come clean and tell you, to admit what I had done. But there was a cave-in, landed on top of my leg, crushed it really bad.

I was afraid of getting yelled at, guess I got the worst of it in my position…

Mom, dad… I am sorry…

Espeon finished reading the note, all of us searched the small section of the cave for the child… or anything else, nothing but dirt and rocks remain here.

"Let's leave this place and tell the others outside…" Brent paused for a moment, "I mean, who would believe all of that? A damned white balloon which no one cares about, knocks me down whilst attached on a wall with some kind of unseen force… let alone the talking balloon part leaving behind letters is one thing-"

"Let's just return to the cave entrance and explain what happened with the police." Espeon interrupted Brent looking at me. "You can then call the Savior's about the ball thingamajig and move on to Pewter. The crowd outside will eventually calm down and return with their daily activities and such."

Cerulean City Cave Entrance

"Yo! Anybody here!?" Brent called out immediately as we left, but outside we found no one. No angry crowd desperate to get inside the cave, or any police officers guarding the cave.

"We should contact the Savior's about the creature in the cave." I suggested to Lisa and Brent as they gave a nod, Brent used the Savior's device to contact HQ about the creature and the note we found.

Again they told us to hurry to HQ immediately as the situation may be more problematic than originally thought. We were told two things;

"A team of Savior members are on their way shortly, I expect you three to head on over to HQ ASAP, we'll explain what is going on when you arrive." The man over the device paused until he spoke,

"As for the police you claimed where stationed just outside the cave early, we checked, there were no police stationed outside that cave today or reports from an angry crowd. I know it seems strange, but we will explain what all of this means when you arrive here in Pewter." The device shut off leaving us standing there stunned.

"B-but, who where those people we spoke to? Was it more of those creatures trying to trick us or something?" Lisa said, but none of us could answer her. 'Whatever was going down here in Kanto must be much more than a band of soldiers from a fallen team' I thought. Questions we would ask will finally be answered, about those creatures and why the Savior's had call us here.

Cerulean City – City Exit

A lone man leaning against the city gate exit watched as we walked away from the city with a smirk,

"So, there you are Espeon, travelling with a group this time I see?" The man watched Espeon walk alongside us for a few more seconds before he stopped leaning against the gate and stepped forward away from the city exit, "See you soon, friend." The man chuckled lightly as he stepped forward again.

As we walked, Espeon suddenly stopped and turned to look back at the city gate only to see the gate with no one there.

To be continued...

Secret Message 01/02 The First of a small but powerful team

Entry 01:

About five of us... Five. Yep, I repeated, I SAID FIVE! Who am I talking to in these ruins? Oh that's right, an electronic box that records every word, every sound, and everything it can pick up... Only five of us here... and I already hate them... I hate them all, every single life that exists on this beautiful yet fragile planet… maybe I should just start with my plan to kill them all now instead of waiting within this damp rundown building?

Entry 02:

Who does she think she is telling me that I can't go outside until our team has assembled? I am The true leader of this group, and yet she tells me that if I leave this building then she will rip my head off, killing me... I would love to see her try...or perhaps I should let her do it, I wonder if I will smile when she does it, maybe I should try it out and end my poor happy life?

No, I must train some more and learn their moves before leaving here… I am still patient, remember that.

Entry 03:

They call him Zack Raines, a Savior member and one of the ones responsible for destroying Team Annihilation and killing Juro a year ago. If the kids smart, he will stay clear of our so-called 'leader'... I'm the leader you mind twisted eon, not you!

Entry 04:

Xavier Stewart died yesterday... suicide. The man apparently had two sons at a point in his life, but due to the Savior's and Annihilation war they got caught in the crossfire. Xavior was a captain of Annihilation and recently joined are team after the fall of Annihilation. A week ago he was told his sons, wife and house burnt to the ground by the saviors. At first he just continued to work... he just kept working, working and i repeat for the third time working nonstop, it was as if he were not told this news.

The doc stopped him from working; he did, but never left his room. He left his room after four days and acted differently to his calm face and tone, he was smiling *Chuckles* He was smiling as if he had nothing to lose. Then immediately after he left the diner after a long meal he walked back into his room and all we could hear was a loud bang.

The poor bastard shouldn't have wasted the bullet. It should've been used for the enemy instead of himself. Most of us have said it and I'll say it now; Fucker should've uses a pill or something. *Cackles*

Entry 05:

We welcome you to the neighborhood... nah that doesn't sound good.

Get your game on? Is that what that kid said? The kid that lived on that academy island? Anyway, SL sitting or pressing her body on her bed mentioned that all troops and us special ones to train for our day to shine and reveal ourselves to the world... fuck training.

If i were leader, I could've ordered the attack on all major cities around the world and make all tremble before me as I become the final thing on this beautiful planet as I live for years and years to reshape it in my pleasant image… a silent one with nothing but the wind, the warm sun, and a pleasant peace I know will be great to endure.

*Laughs*

Entries status Finished

No. of entries 05

Dates recorded Unknown

Subject-01/08 C.S.

AN: And so that is part 2 down for this year. I will be back sometime mid January to start up the story again. So have a nice christmas and a new year. And finally, thank you for reading.