Arc 1~ An Unlikely Beggining

Chapter 7- An Offer of Choice 1


The Marowak and Medicham led us back into that stupid city (I think Water Gun called it Ivy Town though). And, once again, Pokemon all around stopped to look at the crap covered Charmander. I was really getting annoyed with all of the attention. So, a few well-set embers at a booth or two gave them something else to look at. As we were walking by, I noticed that most of the booths and stands were shaped like the Pokemon were running it. For example, at a big Kagashkan shaped booth, a regular sized Kagashkan was running the stand; which appeared to be a storage like stand. There were a bunch of Pokemon shaped booths, like Kelcon, Meowth, Marowak, Loundred, and a bunch more that I couldn't see. In fact, all of the buildings around here were Pokemon shaped except that pansy healer's place, which was a squarish dome building. Yeah, I'm not that great with detail. It was overused, but the Pokemon shaped buildings were creative, I'll give it that.

Dirge and Tarsal led us through the disorder and around the heart of the town until low and behold, right in the middle of everything was a giant Egg shaped building. It really fit in with its surroundings with the weird buildings and all. They led us through the doors of the building and to a desk where a female Delcatty was waiting in boredom for who knows what.

The Delcatty looked up to us and took a curious glance at my head before sighing. In all truth, she looked miserable, but I sure as Mew didn't care. I was hungry, and tired, and I had crap on my head. All I wanted to do was wash up and sleep, but no, Water Gun had to follow the idiots that wrecked my home for no freaking good reason at all.

"Hey, Tarsal. Back so soon?" Said the Delcatty in a tired voice. "I thought you had a mission."

In response, the Marowak nodded. "I did. It wasn't long-term. I'm about to finish it. All I have left to do is bring these two to the Headmasters. Are they open right now?"

The Delcatty sighed and nodded tiredly; I was really starting to wonder how long it'd take her to fall asleep. "Yeah, They have been for the last three hours. It looks like they're waiting for someone. It must be those two." She said whiled eyeing me and Water Gun. "I don't see what's so important about them; what ever it is, it must be troublesome— most things are.

"Don't worry Delly, you'll know soon enough." He replied with a knowing smirk on his face. And with that, we headed on through a door to the right of the desk. I could hear a faint but angered 'Don't call me Delly!' as we climbed up the stairs that were behind the door.


The Rescue Base's Headmasters' Meeting Room

The stairs led to a large room. There were torches on the wall to give the room lighting. The bright orange fire was reflected against the tiled floor that would otherwise be cold if there wasn't a big furnace against the far right wall. Above the furnace, I could see an old map that had several locations circled out. At the edge of the left wall, a giant bookshelf was stuffed to the brim with old and new books and scrolls. Further, away from the bookshelf, near the middle of the left side of the room, there was a pretty big table and around it were three Pokemon with their own hand of playing cards. A bluish dog-looking Pokemon was holding his hand, while two bird Pokemon had their hands floating in front of them and surrounded by some kind of pinkish energy. Pretty weird if I say so; and what do you know, I do! Of course, taking account of how weird they looked, the strange floating cards seemed to fit. Pretty strange that they didn't look at us. I guess all three were too absorbed in their game to notice our presence.

"Any twos?" asked the blue and black dog-ish Pokemon.

"Yes, I have three." Replied an owlish Pokemon while giving him three cards. I was surprised to hear a feminine voice come from the Owl. But now that I think about it, I could smell that she was a female. and I noticed the general female curves on her."How did you know, did you use your aura? Because if you used your aura-"

"No, I didn't use my aura sight. Even if I did, it wouldn't matter because someone used her physic abilities in the middle of the game. The game isn't fair when you read other people's thoughts." I guess the owl didn't feel like being humored, because she pouted (or as much as a bird can pout) and looked away towards the ground. Well, she would've looked at the ground, if my feet weren't standing on it. So, the owl noticed us standing there, watching the leaders of The Rescue Base play what I guess was a game of Magicarp.

"Oh? What's this? Jay, Raí, I think our guests are here." She said.

"I see. I was sensing their 'presence' quiet some time ago. Strong they are. I feel it." I guess the weird green bird talks as weird as it looks. As soon as that thought entered my head, I felt a sense of foreboding. All three of them looked a me with unpleased looks. Could they read my thoughts?

"Yes we can." Said the dog-Pokemon. As you can guess, that creeped me out to no end. These three looked like they could beat me to the dust with just a flick of their paw or…wing. Damn, I'm going to have to be careful of what I say and think…

"A Xatu I am. All of my kind speak and look like so. How am I weird?" Everyone in the room looked at me at in confusion, well, except the other bird and that dog Pokemon, he looked mildly angry. And, for the second time in my life, I felt like wetting myself. I was doing my best to think of some way to get out of this. Maybe… since there is a bunch of Pokemon that look like that Xatu, he isn't weird. Right? Please tell me I'm right…

"That is indeed a good answer. However, perhaps my appearance to you is weird because my kind you have yet to see. In the case of that, the appearance of anything and its descriptions is only in the mind of the beheld, yes?"

It took me a moment or two to figure out what he was saying, but even after I decoded it, I was as confused as a Psyduck with his head stuck in the ground. I thought he was offended by me calling him weird, but now he's agreeing and standing up for me? I starting to feel like going back to not caring again, at least things weren't so darn complicated.

"I nether agree nor disagree. But this I shall warn you: it is rude to talk in such ways about someone either in front of them, or behind their backs. You agree, yes?"

Deciding to use my actual voice instead of thinking, I nodded while mumbling: "Yes, sorry."

"Hey, what's this about? I don't have any idea what's going on." Asked Water Gun. Unfortunately, or not, his question was never answered. Or, at least I think it wasn't. Water Gun only gasped a second afterwards and then looked around frantically. Stupid water type antics.

Deciding to stop all of this weird brain talking stuff, the owl put her wing on the dog's shoulder. "Jay, Raí, let off a bit, he's a rookie after all."

"Yeah, you're right Tawn." Said the dog. "So, let's get on with this." he turned to Dirge and Tarsal, who were standing behind Water Gun, and smiled brightly. It was a different look than what he gave me, and it seemed more… comforting.

"Tarsal, Dirge, I appreciate you bringing these two here. You'll be rewarded with the normal amount of money you receive for a D rank mission. You two are dismissed." I guess they were expecting to be here during the meeting cause they were really surprised when he asked them to leave. They quickly recovered from their shock though, and after mumbling something or another, they zipped out through the door.

After they left, the three leaders faced towards us. "Now then," Said the blue dog, "Before we begin, we'll introduce ourselves and, seeing you're memories, I see that none of you have ever seen our kind, so we'll tell you that too. Let me start; Red Fire, Water Gun, I'm Jay, the Lucario." I flinched when he said he looked at our memories. I wonder…how far back did he go?

"I'll go next," said the owl. "I'm Tawny, the Noctowl, but you call me Tawn." She said, winking at us. The next to speak was that weir- Xatu.

"Raí is my name. The two of you already know that I am a Xatu."

"Okay Red Fire, Water Gun, we already know your names and species, so lets start this meeting." the lucario said.

"Yes, lets. But, how about we do this over a meal?" said Tawn. I gleamed excitably. Did she say food? Now we're talking! Besides those food pills that the pansy gave us, I haven't had anything to eat in the past five days! Just thinking about it makes me famished! Oh food! Glorious food…