AN: Since I promised a longer chapter this time, I'm not going to say much further on an author's note until the end of this chapter. Also, for dramatic effect, I'm not leaving an Author's Note at the bottom of the page this time. You'll see what I mean by the time you reach the bottom of the page.
Also, without giving any further hints, I'll edit this in; how many main series anime references can you spot in this chapter?
Truth and Ideals Chapter 8:
As soon as Ash, Cheren, and Bianca had approached the statues of the monkey-like Pokémon, they immediately came to life after their seemingly rocky exterior fell apart. As prompted by their awakening, Ash and co. used their respective Pokédex to scan the three Pokémon.
"Pansage, the Grass Monkey Pokémon. It shares the leaf on its head with weary-looking Pokémon. These leaves are known to relieve stress."
"Pansear, the High Temp Pokémon. This Pokémon lives in caves in volcanoes. The fire within the tuft on its head can reach 600°F."
"Panpour, the Spray Pokémon. It does not thrive in dry environments. It keeps itself damp by shooting water stored in its head tuft from its tail."
The three Pokémon looked down at Bianca, Ash, and Cheren respectively as they cheerfully leapt towards them and prepared for battle.
"Looks like they want to battle us." Cheren spoke, about ready to draw out Purrloin's Poké Ball, as all three of them heard something not far away.
"Hey, hold up a second!" A girl spoke as she ran up towards Ash and co. "They don't want to fight you, they want to join your side." She explained, as Ash blinked.
"Um… A-Are you sure about that?" Ash asked, as he was acting… off, at the moment, which Cheren quickly noticed.
"Oh what, so you're saying I need to man up when speaking to a girl alone and here you are having trouble speaking to a girl right now?" Cheren asked Ash, not trying to sound rude, but he did say what he could without trying to imply anything directly.
"Yeah, these are three Pokémon I've trained with the intent on donating them to challengers of the gym. In fact, they're also the same species of Pokémon used by the gym leaders themselves. How neat is that?" She spoke up, before noticing Ash's expression at the moment.
"Hey, are you alright…?" She asked, as Ash stuttered a bit, before slapping himself all of a sudden, and finally calming down afterwards.
"Y-Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about zoning out there." Ash said, as he calmed down, before looking at Pansear in particular. "So, you're actually alright if we take these Pokémon as our own?" Ash asked again for clarification, as the girl giggled.
"Of course, no need to be so selfless about it! You can choose which one of the three you want to train and then you'll have a new Pokémon to challenge the Gym Leader with!" She offered, as Ash, Cheren, and Bianca nodded.
"Do you want anything in return miss, uh…"
"Giselle." She introduced, she added in, "And no, I don't want anything in return. I just want to know that these three Pokémon finally have good trainers to look after them, that's all…" She spoke, as Ash looked at her and blinked, as did Cheren and Bianca.
"Why? What happened?" Bianca asked, as Giselle sighed.
"Well… you see… Somebody abandoned them here after ordering them to use Substitute to allow their original trainer to get away. He seemed to be saying one thing consistently, though; he wanted to avoid some people called "Team Plasma" if I remember correctly." Giselle explained, as she looked at Ash and co. again to get a final answer.
"So will you be so kind and-"
"Yes! We'd be honored to take care of them!" Ash and co. said at once, startling Giselle a bit with their answer.
Later, at a restaurant in the city…
"So, you know of these Team Plasma folk?" Giselle asked, as Ash, Cheren, and Bianca nodded.
"One of the people we know didn't want us spreading word just yet, but we're a bit familiar with the fact they're apparently harassing some trainers behind their nicer side they show in public." Ash explained, as Bianca and Cheren nodded.
"That, and this one trainer in particular has had one of his Pokémon go missing as a result of Team Plasma's interference in his life." Cheren explained, being careful as to not even remotely bring up N or Zoroark from before.
"Sounds like a bunch of tall tales to me, but I wouldn't deny it, either." A man from another table suddenly spoke up, as he showed a robust, aged look and having white, lengthy hair. "Although I'd more than inclined to see if I can help at all once I get the chance." He spoke up, as he picked up the newspaper in front of him to resume reading the news, with Ash noticing that the man in question had an identical twin sitting next to him, but didn't want to be rude and simply remained quiet and sticking with his own group and Giselle to talk to.
"… So… Anyways, you said that Team Plasma caused a man to abandon three of their Pokémon out on the streets? Are they really harassing people that much?" Ash asked, as Giselle nodded.
"Yeah. In fact, I've heard from a friend that they're trying to go after a mysterious energy in the Dreamyard just outside of the city's premises." Giselle began to explain, as Bianca looked at her.
"If there's anything more you can tell us, we'd be glad to listen." Bianca asked, as Giselle nodded and began to talk a bit more about what she's heard about Team Plasma. Meanwhile the two men sitting at the other table silently talked between themselves.
"Were you certain hiding here was a good idea?" One of them asked, as the other groaned a bit.
"Trust me, our senior member has this in the bag. Besides, we didn't come here to hide. We came on a whim… To vent… To pass time… It doesn't matter. Now just sit back, relax, and eat while we can before we're too late to see the Gym Leaders go up against our targets…" The other spoke, as both of them silently began to eat their meal, as one of the restaurant owners, a man in green hair with green eyes, handed them their plates of food, before moving to the next table with Ash and co.
"So, I see you four are a talkative bunch. Are you here to challenge the Gym?" The man asked, as Ash nodded.
"Yeah, we were told this Restaurant was also a gym, so we didn't waste time in heading here to prepare for our Gym Leader challenge with whoever is in charge." Ash told the man. "My name is Ash, by the way, and my two friends here are Bianca and Cheren, and this here is Giselle, who helped show us around." Ash introduced, as Giselle was about to stand to leave.
"Well, I'm glad we got to meet, Ash, but I need to get going. Let's just say when you're one of many girls who idolizes the gym leaders in this city, well… You've better run while you can before the less sane fans come screaming." Giselle said, as she began to walk out of the place, before turning to Ash and winking at him, before she was gone soon after.
"Wait… Gym Leaders…?" Bianca asked, as right behind the green haired man appeared two other men with red and blue hair respectively.
"Yes, this Gym has three leaders, and which of us you face, out of Chili, Cress, and myself, Cilan, are determined by who your starter Pokémon was." Cilan explained to them, as Ash, Cheren, and Bianca nodded in understanding.
"So basically, I'll challenge you because my starter is Oshawott, Bianca will challenge Cress because her starter is Tepig, and Cheren will challenge Chili because his starter is Snivy, correct?" Ash asked, to which the three Striaton brothers nodded.
"Precisely! Although, if you're looking for a Gym Battle, you three probably should've showed up at the courtyard area of the place. The rest of the building is just a Restaurant that my brothers and I own, after all." Cress explained to them.
"But regardless, we'll be looking forward to the battle either way!" Chili spoke up, as Cheren nodded.
"I'm looking forward to it as well, since the sooner I get my first badge, the less it'll take for me to become the Champion of Unova." Cheren said, as Bianca nodded.
"So, could we arrange a time for the match to take place?" The three brothers asked, as Ash, Cheren, and Bianca began to discuss a schedule for today's gym battle; their first gym battle.
Sometime before the first match…
"So, Ash, mind telling me why you sort of froze when Giselle was with us earlier?" Cheren asked Cheren, as he was walking through the city with Bianca in tow trying to find Fennel's house, as they were nearing Fennel's house.
"Well, for one, I'm not exactly used to talking to girls that are not anybody I already knew…" Ash said, as Cheren raised an eye.
"… And?" Cheren asked, clearly unsatisfied with the answer, as Ash visibly flinched.
"W-Well, u-um… s-she's cute, I'll say that much…" Ash admitted, as Cheren sighed.
"She's cute? That's it? Here I figured you'd be more interested. I mean, surely there's somebody you're interested in in life, right?" Bianca asked Ash, as Ash had a faint blush on his face after that remark.
"Well, um, er… You see… There's this OTHER girl I recall seeing on TV as a kid, during one of the World Tournaments. She seemed about my age at the time as well, and her name was M-"
Before Ash could finish what he was saying, he was caught off guard by crashing into someone due to not paying attention to where he was going.
"Oh! S-Sorry, I didn't mean to-"Ash said, as he noticed the person getting up, a woman around Juniper's age with dark violet hair, and her eyes closed, as she had what appeared to be some kind of Pokémon attached to her head.
"Um… Cheren, mind checking the Pokédex while I help her up?" Ash asked, as he moved to help up the mysterious woman he crashed into, as Cheren checked his Pokédex to see the type of Pokémon that was on her head.
"Munna, the Dream Eater Pokémon. It eats the dreams of people and Pokémon. When it eats a pleasant dream, it expels pink-colored mist." The Pokédex explained, as Bianca eyed the Pokémon with keen interest.
"I'll say this much, it looks incredibly adorable!" Bianca said, as she moved to grab the Pokémon off of the trainer's head, as the small, pink colored Pokémon let out a mooing sound of sorts. Just as she removed the Pokémon from the woman's head, the woman's eyes opened up as she looked down at Ash, Bianca, and Cheren.
"Ah, so you three must be the new trainers that Juniper informed me of. My name is Fennel." Fennel introduced, as she held out her hand.
"I'm Ash. With me are Bianca and Chere-AH!" Ash was introducing themselves until Fennel dragged him into her own home, which doubled as her lab, with Bianca and Cheren following them both.
"So you must be the scientist we're to be looking for, yes?" Bianca asked, as Fennel looked back at her and nodded.
"So you research the dreams of trainers?" Cheren asked, as Fennel nodded again.
"Precisely, Cheren! I'm glad you already knew. Do you want a demonstration? Is that alright with you, Ash?" Fennel asked of both of them, as Ash stuttered a bit as he was let go of once they reached the top floor of the building that Fennel occupied. Inside showed a lot of her laboratory equipment, including a monitor which is hooked up to a Munna.
"I apologize if I'm rushing things at all, guys. It's just, well, I'm excited that my old college colleague has new trainers to help with her project on the Pokédex." Fennel said, a little too excited for her own good regarding her tone.
"So, if I let you examine my mind, could you possibly check all of our Pokémon as well?" Ash asked, as he prompted for Bianca and Cheren to let out their Pokémon, Bianca calling out Tepig and Lillipup, Cheren letting out Snivy, Purrloin, and Patrat, and Ash letting out Oshawott and Tranquill.
"Oh? So you want me to examine your Pokémon as well? Perhaps I can do that step first, then. I can work better with Pokémon at times more than just trainers, so I can get through them easily. Really, though, my own personal dream is to see if a Pokémon Egg can dream at all." Fennel admitted, as Ash got an idea, quickly putting down his backpack and grabbing the incubator and taking Pichu's Egg out of the incubator.
"Would this work?" Ash asked, as Fennel practically squealed at the sight of Ash's Pichu Egg.
"Oh my! I was never informed by Juniper that you had a Pokémon egg with you!"
"Yeeeah… He sort of never told us until after we left Accumula Town, though he did at least intend to try and tell us earlier." Cheren explained, as Fennel carefully picked up the egg to place beside Munna.
"Alright, Musha! Time to examine this developing Pokémon's dream!" Fennel cheered, as Munna, nicknamed Musha, grabbed hold of the top of Pichu's egg with her mouth and trunk attaching to it, her Psychic abilities causing her to temporarily glow a little… As Musha began to freak out and emit black smoke from the pink spot on her head.
"HUH?! What's going on?!" Ash asked, as he looked at the monitor, as the monitor began to showcase a cavern of sorts, with the inside of the cave being pitch black save for electrical currents from oddly shaped rocks causing some places to illuminate.
"It looks like your Pokémon is having a nightmare, and-"
{I'll get you… Pokémon…}
A voice, appearing to originate from the monitor showcasing the egg's dream, began to deliver audio from some unknown source, as a very shady figuring was briefly seen in the corner of the screen, before it disappeared, with the view point of the unborn Pichu following the strange, pitch black being to see what was going on.
'Why is Pichu going near it…?!' Ash thought, freaking out from the fact Pichu is experiencing this in its dreams.
{Even if in fire, in water, in grass…} The voice spoke, as the voice was soon made clear to sound very robotic and monotone in sound, despite its quiet, tranquil emotions it displayed.
{In ground, in clouds… in that girl's skirt!} Without warning, the Pokémon in shadow suddenly charged somebody in the distance, and the moment it finished its line, a girl's horrified scream was heard as what sounded like a mauling took place out of view of Pichu. This alone had Bianca holding onto Cheren in fright, with Cheren's eyes wide as to what he was even seeing.
"Fennel, what is the meaning of this…? What is Pichu dreaming about?!" Ash asked, his tone clearly that of panic since he had no idea why a Pokémon, still in an egg, was experiencing a nightmare involving a practically murderous Pokémon hunting itself down. Fennel, confused, frightened, yet equally curious as to what Pichu was dreaming, calmed Musha's panic until any of them said they couldn't see any more of what was being shown…
{It's very, very… very, VERY… difficult...} The last word was drained out as a loud, scrapping noise was heard, as it sounded like solid metal was being scratched against a rocky surface. From Pichu's point of view, the view on the strange Pokémon began to show itself, but it was still too dark to see entirely. From what could be seen, the Pokémon had a metallic, single toed set of legs, and long, semi-bladed arms with ending in a single claw. The Pokémon stood very tall, with the back and head of the Pokémon obscured by some large sized, metallic structure attached to its back.
As the Pokémon turned its gaze at an alarming speed, it's red, bug-like eyes were seen glowing in the dark, as Pichu moved to duck behind a rock to hide. Without much warning, the strange, almost robotic Pokémon moved closed towards Pichu in a very, very slow fashion.
{I'm sure I'll get you…}
As Pichu was trying to hide, the Pokémon pushed the rock aside with a great amount of strength, with a powerful surge of energy appearing above the Pokémon's head, illuminating its purple body, the robotic structure, and the overall Bug-like appearance it had. The energy glowed with an increasingly intensity, revealing the structure on its back to be a cannon.
{I'll get you, Pokémon!}
To be continued…
