Pokѐmon Journey II: Gwyn's Passage
Chapter 10: The Burned Tower
Third Person Point of View:
In the dawn of the new early day, within a quiet little house on the edge of the old city, many people and pokemon were sleeping there after the events of the night before. One person in particular, a boy of the age fourteen, got up from his sleeping place, unable to go back to sleep and rest further. A person he thought he'd never meet again was asking him to join her on her journey to help him with his ambition, to take down those of his family that have stained his name with the blackest of sins.
He got to his feet in the room he was staying in with another young woman who was still seemingly fast sleep with her six pokemon huddled around her. His pokemon were inside their pokeballs to reduce suspicion upon him and he gathered up his things.
"Where are you going Tristan?" The boy froze as he heard the woman speak. He looked over to her and watched that one of her eyes was tiredly looking over at him, all the rest of her team had yet to stir.
"I need someplace quiet to think, I thought I could leave now before a lot of people were up."
"That wasn't what I asked."
He sighed. "The Burned Tower, I thought I could really get some thinking and training done in an abandoned place like that."
"Oh, okay. Do you want me to come by later to get you?"
"No, I'll be fine." He pulled his black back pack over his shoulder. "Where do you want me to meet you tonight so I can give you my answer?"
"It doesn't matter, I tend to move around quite a bit so I don't get bored or I take a nap, with a side dish of keeping an eye on Gwyn and Team Rocket in my free time. You choose."
He paused for a moment. "The basement of the Burned Tower, I think that'll work just fine."
"And what if someone else finds you before I do?"
"If it's anyone that I don't know or are from Team Rocket, I'm going to show them just how powerful I've gotten." His eyes got dark as he spoke. "But if it's that Aaron bastard who keeps hurting Gwyn, I'll show him no mercy." His eyes softened a bit and he turned away so Violet wouldn't see his softening face. "But if it's Gwyn… I'll show her that I'm strong like she is, I'll test my strength against her!"
He ran off through the house without another word. The woman couldn't help but laugh as she watched him run off toward the rising sun. She sighed as she curled back into the bodies of her family and team.
"He's just as bad as Alex was, I just wish… I wish he didn't have so much anger along with it…"
Gwyn's Point of View:
Violet had landed us on the edge of town that was closest to the edge of town that led to route thirty-seven, where I would head off to after I got my next gym badge here. Apparently the people that lived here were a set of four siblings that Violet had saved in the past when Team Rocket's boss at the time, Rose, had forced them all to join and help her after she murdered their parents.
The eldest was Isabella, or Izzy for short. She out of all the four of them was the only girl and all four of her brothers seemed to listen to her. The next eldest, Ian, he was a quiet person who hardly talked, but you got used to it pretty quick, when he did talk, it was pretty strait forward, he wasn't much of a joker or sarcastic guy. The second youngest of the four was Ivor, a very… expressive person. He was loud and outspoken, he wasn't afraid to speak his mind. The last of them was Issac, the youngest of the four. He was a almost child like adult at heart and held his family and Violet in high regard, calling her Champion Violet even after she told him not to since he felt it wasn't respectful.
I was surprised to see that the family felt quiet a bit of sympathy for Tristan when they found out who he was from Violet, but she still hadn't told me yet. I was already on the defensive to protect him if they flipped out, but Izzy was the first to accept him and the rest of her family quickly agreed. Tristan almost instantly felt at easy with them and Violet was happy to see that, as well then myself.
I yawned as I got up the next morning. My pokemon were all sleeping around me while we slowly got up and ready for the day. Once I was done, I headed downstairs only to be met up with Izzy and her two houndooms in the kitchen. She was feeding the two of them a fried sausage and hamburger mixture before she noticed me come down for breakfast.
"Good morning Gwyn. Is there anything you and your pokemon would like for breakfast this morning?" Izzy stood before the island in her kitchen with a few dishes going, apparently making multiple breakfasts.
"Um… I'm not sure just yet, but if you could warm up a bottle of milk and get me a tiny bit of something extremely soft to eat, I'd like to feed Ticky before she gets cranky, and it's about time I started her on some normal food. I've already caught her getting into some of my food and I'm worried it may choke her if I don't start it now." The woman kindly nodded to me before she headed to the fridge.
"How about we give her some corn beef hash? I have a whole two cans cooking right now since my brothers both love it and I know that some of Violet's pokemon love it too. And I can make more, so don't worry about the amount." She flipped a few things in the pan, and then she poured some milk into a bottle and put into the microwave. "It's quite a soft food and doesn't require a lot of chewing."
"Sounds good to me." Izzy was kind enough to help me get a plate of the food for myself and set a tiny bit off to the side for Ticky to try when she was done with her milk. Just as the food had all been prepared and the milk cooled to a delicate warm, Ticky came down the stairs and hiccuped as she crawled down toward me. She had tears in her eyes and I saw that she had a scratch on her hand.
"Ticky! What happened?" I hurried off my seat toward the baby pokemon and she sobbed into my shirt, effectively not telling me what happened to get her hurt. "Oh sweetie… calm down… Momma will make it all better." I kissed her little hand as gently as I could and her sobs quieted a tad. "It's alright Ticky, no need to worry. Momma made it all better with a kiss."
"Your quite good at taking care of her you know." Izzy told me. Her two houndooms stood at her feet and nuzzled her legs while she talked with me.
"I'm just trying to be a good trainer and mother to her, she needs that." Ticky looked up at me in question, but I only chuckled and held the bottle before her, which she gladly and greedily took and began to eat.
"Well it looks like you're doing a pretty good job." She smiled before she turned away from me to look up the stairs and her look turned to a worried one. "Hey Gwyn? Have you seen Tristan yet this morning?"
"No…" I shook my head. Ticky finished up her bottle that moment and burped before laughing. "Should I have?"
"No… I don't know… I think I might have heard him leave at dawn this morning…"
"Dawn?" I blinked worriedly at that. "But I thought that he was staying around until he gave Violet his answer on something?"
"We can only pray that he's still in town," she sighed. "I don't know if Violet knows that he's gone yet or not."
"Oh he left, a short while ago to collect his thoughts and decide what best for him and his team right at this moment." I blinked and turned my head to see Violet walk down to the stairs with my pokemon in her arms. "He left pretty early. He tends to think a bit better when it's just him, his pokemon and training."
"Does he plan to be gone all day?" I questioned her worriedly. "What about lunch and dinner?"
"I guess he's planning to get that on his own. I think he's got some money on him now that he's a trainer and battles for money so he doesn't have to steal any or anything."
"I can make something for him!" I volunteered really quickly. Once I realized that I'd shouted, I quieted down and began to stutter a bit. "S-sorry! I just meant to say… that I don't mind taking him something to eat so he doesn't get hunger and have to waste some of his hard earned money on food when I can make him some."
"Are you sure Gwyn? Tristan told me that he plans to battle anyone that comes toward him while he's in the tower." Violet warned me, but my plans were already in mind. I hurried into the kitchen and brought out some ingredients for food.
"Do either of you know what he likes to eat?"
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A couple hours later, I'd prepared a large lunch for all of us, including all our pokemon with the help of Violet and Izzy. We had lots of cooked meats that Izzy had grilled and flavored while Violet made us a pasta salad. I made us a few sandwiches and chopped up a few berries that I put together into a berry salad. We also had some chips and some small sweets in the end of little packages of ice cream that Izzy had managed to find in the back of her freezer that she hid from her brothers.
With all of it packed in a large bag that Violet had given me (thankfully with wheels because of how heavy it was) and with it in tow, we hurried off to where Violet had told me Tristan had gone off to, the Burned Tower. All my pokemon were taking in the sights of the city while we made our way to the burnt building that was on the northwest edge of town. A few modern buildings were here, but most of them were refurnished ancient Japanese homes and buildings. The curved wood architect, the stained brown woods compared to the black roofs and edges and all the trees and bushes around that carried sakura blossoms trees, where their pink petals flew in the wind… it was so much to take in… It was like we had traveled back in time just to see this place.
I arrived at the Burned Tower a short while later and it showed me just how damaged the place was. All levels of it had been burned down to the ground without remorse, but somehow the first floor and just the skeleton of the second floor had survived from where I was standing. If that part of the building was still there, then the basement, if there was one, would have to of been mostly intact too. Cynder gasped at the amount of damage, claiming that she wasn't powerful enough yet to cause that much damage. I could see the little pokemon scurrying around inside of the building and around it, meaning that they'd infested it long ago.
"Hey girl!" I blinked in surprise and turned my head to look over at a young man that was heading over to me. He had spiky bronze-ginger hair that was styled so that it was angled from the back of his head to over his forehead and he had a set of lightly colored hazel eyes. A set of black jeans were over his legs and a brown jacket with a thick furry inside to keep him warm was around his neck. I could see the outline of a green shirt under his jacket and boots were on his feet.
"Yeah?" I turned to face him and pulled the rolling bag of food to a stop.
"Are you Gwyn Jalen?" He pulled his pokegear out of his bag and held it up before himself to look at the device. He looked at whatever was on the screen before he looked back at me. "Yeah, it is you…"
"Um… what do you need?" The young man took care of his pokegear and crossed his arms before he looked at me.
"A friend of mine asked me to be keeping an eye out for you, I'm sure you know him." He paused for a moment, debating on telling me. "His name is Aaron-"
I gasped and lept backward while Cynder instantly produced a smokescreen. I heard him shout my name, but I'd already taken off into the tower. I nearly choked on the smoke as I somehow turned Ticky into my chest and ran with the case of food rolling dangerously behind me. I suddenly felt a hand reach out and grab both my body and mouth before it dragged me into the darkness of the tower. I tried to scream and get away from the person, but they had a harsh grip.
"Gwyn calm down! It's me! Tristan!" I instantly froze when I heard that name and allowed him to drag me out of the smoke cover before in the darkness I saw his face with a small amount of light from his pokedex. "What are you doing out here? Better yet, what the hell happened?"
"I think that was Alex Oak, he was apparently keeping an eye out for me for Aaron…" I let out a heavy sigh and fell through his arms to the ground. "Just thinking about facing him makes me anxiously worried."
"So you came to the tower to escape him?" He got down on the ground with me and looked me in the eyes.
"No… I was already on my way here for a small bit of training and to bring a lunch for our pokemon, you and I. We spent all morning working on it so you wouldn't have to worry about the amount of money you had on hand, at least, not now anyway with us still being only beginning trainers."
He blinked in surprise at me. "Oh… thanks." He moved over a bit to the side and called out his pokemon. "Here, let me lead you to a spot further in the Burned Tower where we can eat and not have to worry about them finding us quickly." I nodded and allowed him to pull me to my feet before my pokemon and I followed after him further into the tower filled with darkness.
Alex's Point of View:
Damn, I lost her… Violet was always a hard person to track, and apparently she was passing on her trade of hit and run to this girl she's been hanging out with too, a girl named Gwyn Jalen. The girl had been right before me only moments ago, but once I brought up the topic of her so called best friend that she'd been arguing with as of late, she took off in a field of smoke that was brought upon by her quilava. When the smoke had cleared and I looked before me, the girl was gone, and so was all her pokemon.
I sighed. I guess I better check out the old tower then, with that quick smokescreen she couldn't have gotten far. I turned to face the black tower that was only a rough skeleton of its old self and began walking toward it when I felt a hand grab mine and it suddenly pulled me out of the public eye within the sakura trees.
As soon as I couldn't see the town so easily anymore, I ripped my hand away and took on the traits of my blastoise to have more weight on me from a shell and armor all over myself while my hair turned blue. I looked around the area wearingly.
"Show yourself!" I growled. "I know your there!"
I suddenly felt a way of physic power come over my body and it shut down my sense of sight, my eye lids were forced to close and I suddenly felt something soft on my lips while I couldn't see.
"Now is that anyway to treat your girlfriend?" The soft lips pull back from my mouth and the next time I felt them was when her teeth were out, they pulled on my upper lip to drag my body closer to her and allow her access within my mouth. I felt her tongue enter and I felt in entire bliss, no longer upset that I'd lost the girl, Gwyn, but that didn't mean I didn't forget about her.
"Well what a surprise, I thought that I'd have to chase you all over before I'd find you." Violet only chuckled at me from what I heard.
"Oh don't get so full of yourself Alex, you haven't found me yet, your eyes are closed." I roughly pulled her closer to me and kissed her again.
"So that's why I can't see. I'm guessing Chalcedony, unless you made a new friend?" She pulled back from me, but gave me another kiss.
"Chalcedony." I felt a rough push to my chest and my changeling form faded as my back hit the ground and I felt her body a top of mine. She giggled as she kissed me and I felt it more powerful then I ever had before with my sight being forcibly taken out of the picture. I could feel the palms of her hands, there were smaller compared to mine and held my face close to hers as she emerged herself in her pleasure with me. I could smell the lavender in her hair and the light scent of the sakura blossoms all around, or maybe it was just the nature in general that I could smell? But no matter. All that mattered was that she was here now.
"Wait," my mind suddenly came back to the thought of that girl that I promised to help Aaron find. "Gwyn, I have to find her for Aa-"
"Don't worry about the three of them Alex, they're fine for now." Violet hushed me and continued with her attack of kisses upon my lips, face and neck. "Things will work out as they must, it would be wrong for us to interfere right now."
I wanted to question what she meant but she sucked on my neck, intently trying to give me a hicky as she bit down on the skin and the cords of muscles. I couldn't help but moan in pleasure and she could only chuckle at my response to her.
Aaron's Point of View:
I sighed as I waited over at the gym for Alex to return with any information or the actual best friend of mine that I'd hurt time and time again. I sighed. I can't believe how stupid I've been, if she actually manages to forgive me this time it would be a miracle.
"Calm yourself Aaron, I'm sure she'll turn up in time, but you really need to think before you act." Eusine, a legendary pokemon researcher, told me. He was an older man that was probably in his late twenties possibly and wore a purple suit with a white cape. His hair was a light brown, a little longer in the back and seemingly held back with gel or some sort of hair product, other then the two thick batches of bangs that hung before his eyes. "She may not ever forgive you if you do this a third time. They always say that one's the charm."
"Don't be like that Eusine, let the guy find out on his own." Morty, the gym leader of this town, told his old friend before he looked back at me. "Don't listen to him Aaron, I'm sure Gwyn will forgive you in time, but I must agree with him on the fact that you should control your temper and think before you act more." The young man was in his mid twenties and a ghost type gym leader. He had on white pants and a black shirt with a purple scarf around his neck and a purple hat over his shaggy, yet somewhat long blond hair that was between his chin and shoulders.
Morty placed a hand on my shoulder. "Why don't we have our gym battle now while you wait for Alex to come back with information or your friend? It will pass the time and you said yourself that you were eager to get on your way if you had the chance."
"I guess so… I'm just not sure if I can battle at full strength with Gwyn so angry at me still."
"You were able to beat Whitney back in Goldenrod though," Eusine said.
"Yeah, after she kicked my butt and booted me out of her gym the first time because apparently Gwyn told her to take me down. It was my second time battling her before I got my badge, and she almost didn't give it to me then because of how mad she was at me."
"Well I can assure you that if you do win, then you will get my badge, I won't hold it from you if I hold a grudge," Morty said. "Clair may do that when you go for your last one… but that's a long time to talk about that now, lets go, shall we?" He gestured toward the gym and I turned to him and finally nodded.
"Sure, let's do this!"
Gwyn's Point of View:
Eating lunch with Tristan was pretty nice to say the least. All of his pokemon were friendly and kind, I was kinda shocked to see that. Tristan had also explained how he hadn't technically stolen Croconaw back when he was a tododile, and I was going to try and clear that up with the professor later if possible. As for the pokedex, Tristan seems like a person now worthy enough to entrust it too, so I let him keep it and promise to lift any thievery charges that may be put against him by myself. After that it was a little quiet between us as we finished up our food, or at least, it was until the pokemon got into the pasta salad Violet made…
"Would you guys cool it? You'll all get some!" I was holding back all three of my older pokemon while the youngest cried on the floor because her older siblings were being selfish. Tristan was having a hard time of keeping the lot of his pokemon from attacking the bowl as well. It was a hard struggle, one that wouldn't easily be won.
"Alright! That's it!" Everyone froze as I snapped. "No one's getting any pasta salad unless you all calm down this instant!" Six bodies then neatly lined up and watched the bowl behind me. Tristan sighed and fell down to the ground.
"All for a bowl of pasta salad?" he muttered to himself angrily. I sighed and grabbed a bit of it for Ticky, Tristan and I to share while I left the rest of it as it was.
"Have at it." No sooner then my hands left the actual bowl did the pokemon leap at it. I grabbed Ticky in my arms and placed the bowl and a couple spoons in it in Tristan's lap before I sat down next to him. Once I was seated I grabbed a single spoon and grabbed a tiny bit for Ticky to try. She stopped her crying and gently took some of the food while she curled into my lap. She nibbled on that little piece while I ate the rest of the spoonful. Tristan even started in on the bowl and was surprised to see why everyone liked it.
"This is good…" he muttered quietly.
"You can thank Violet for it. She's the one who made it." He stopped and looked over at me in surprise.
"Violet made this?" he asked while pointing to the bowl.
"Yeah, it's her mom's recipe." Tristan looked down to the bowl with a sad set of eyes and I looked over at him worriedly. "What's wrong?"
"Aren't you were curious about my past? What happened to me? Who I actually am? How I'm connected to Team Rocket?" He never looked at me while he ranted off the questions.
"Well, yeah." I shrugged. "But I also know that it's not fair of me to demand something like that from you. It's your past, your story, your choice when to tell. It's not my business to demand you tell me. Unlike Aaron…" I sighed when I though to my best friend and his… eager nature.
Tristan pushed away the bowl and set it between us before he leaned his head into his hands that rested, by the elbows, on his knees. "Do you want to know?"
"I think it goes without saying that I'm curious Tristan, but I'm not going to force you to tell me anything." I looked over at him questioningly and gently lifted a hand to brush some of his fallen hair out of his face so I could see it. His face was torn with anguish and worry. "You don't have to tell me, I don't need to know."
"No, I think you do. It's past time for me to tell you about my past anyway." He sighed and his eyes flooded forward to where his pokemon were with mine that were just finishing up the meal that they dived into. His pokemon worriedly looked back at him before they rushed to his side and tried to comfort him. "I'll start with my real name, its Tristan Agustino, and I was the son of the two leaders of Team Rocket, past and present, Giovanni and Rose."
I gasped and my hand flew before my mouth as I watched him. He angrily looked down to his legs and grasped the open air over them while his body shook.
"Three years ago, before Violet saved me from their base in Viridian; I was a slave, servant and heir to their organization and themselves. Everyday I was forced to battle and train, watching the horrid beatings and killings of pokemon and humans who either opposed or disobeyed. The only one who ever made it out alive was Violet, her pokemon and her friends and family." He paused for a moment. "After I was rescued by Violet, I ran away from her when her brother mentioned taking me to an orphanage, I couldn't go there, I had to amend for what my parents had done and take them down. I've been on the run for a long time now, and I only came out into the public when I became partners with Croconaw."
"So… that's how this is all connected?" Tristan nodded.
"Yeah," he smiled a bit. "And I feel a lot better now that I've told you Gwyn. Thanks for listening to me."
"No problem." I smiled at him. "So, now that you feel better, you want to have a battle with me?" My words caught everyone's attention, especially Shocker who sparked his ears and the end of his tail in anticipation.
"Are you sure? We just ate; won't one of us get sick?" Tristan stood up from his spot and looked at me worriedly, but I brushed it off with a smile.
"Oh, don't worry about that, we'll be fine! And everyone's eager to prove their strength after our last close run in with Whitey, she was a hard battle to win." I sighed and stood up with Ticky in my arms, who cheered at the memory. "She took out almost all my pokemon with just that miltank of hers." I raised an eyebrow before him. "Don't tell me you had an easy time against her?"
"She was a tough battle…" Tristan rubbed the back of his head nervously. "It took a long time, but it was Ghastly that handled most of it, being a ghost type and not affected by most of the moves she threw at us helped. Normal types are nearly helpless to ghost types."
"Oh okay, but still, battle me? Please?" I begged him and pouted with my arms wrapped around Ticky's small frame. She only laughed though at how I was acting and not helping my cause.
"Sure, I've been meaning to pay you back for what happened over in Cherrygrove." Tristan moved away from me to provide us with some sort of a battlefield.
"Alright! Who wants to go first?" Sunrise popped out of all my three active pokemon and grinned at the other side of the field. "Alright Sunrise, lets go!"
"Oh, you're making it almost too easy then." Tristan looked back to his pokemon. "Let's go Ghastly!" The ghost pokmeon floated out before its trainer and grinned happily before it faded into the darkness of the tower.
"Whoa, I didn't know ghastly could do that… keep an eye out Sunrise! It'll try and surprise you!" My normal type nodded and slowly moved about the field.
"Ghost types and normal types never do well against each other on the field." Tristan told me from his side. "And my pokemon knows moves that can hit your eevee, so I'd be careful if I were you."
I choose not to reply to him and quietly looked about the field. I saw that for a battlefield we'd choose a dark and gloomy section that was toward the back of the tower and behind a wall that still somehow has had some strength to it and would conceal most of what we did, other then noise or anything visible if it went past the wall. Apparently Tristan had been here a while to know all of that and choose a great place to hide and have a battle.
A sudden flash caught my eye and I watched as the air behind my eevee moved. I gasped and gritted my teeth. "Sunrise! Use shadow ball right behind you!"
"Your pokemon knows shadow ball?" I ignored the comment for the moment and watched as my normal type flipped her body in a back flip while firing away a shadow ball at the ghastly that was directly behind her. It cried out in pain and was thrown back toward the solid wall of the tower that had yet to move. I heard it creak and squeal as it moved slightly, but stayed steady and in place with the ghost then stuck in the wall.
I turned my head toward Tristan. "I never told you whether or not that I had a move or two that could work on your ghastly." I called Sunrise back and out went Shocker next, ready for his battle with Tristan's next pokemon. "So who are you going to send at me next?"
Aaron's Point of View:
"An incredible job there Aaron, I didn't think you were going to beat me there for a moment," Morty congratulated me on my win at his gym as he walked me outside. "That beedrill of yours really knows how to put up a fight."
"Yeah, he's like that a lot." I shook the man's hand as I thought back to what had happened just a while ago. Beedrill had lost his temper in the battle and went out on a nearly killing streak toward Morty's pokemon. I had to have the help of my other pokemon to get him to stop and calm down and tell him that we actually won.
"I wonder where Alex is though, I still haven't seen him since this morning, and it's been a couple hours since then." I looked worriedly around with Morty until my eyes landed on a groaning figure to my right that sat outside the gym doors. I saw a dark hicky on the side of his neck and he tiredly looked up at both of us.
"Don't look too hard kid." Alex sighed as he slouched against the bench. "Sorry Violet kept me up so long, she wanted to make up for lost time."
"Dude! Is that a hicky on your neck?" I poked it on his neck. "Did you give her one too?"
The next thing I knew I was thrown onto the ground and Alex stood over my head, his eyes dangerously angry and black in color as a green color came to his hair and he took upon the traits of one of his pokemon.
"I dare you, ask me again."
"I'd… rather not…" He snorted and released me from his grip. "So… you said you saw Violet, does that mean you saw Gwyn too?"
"Nope- uh wait, yes I did for a moment actually." He rubbed the back of his head before I saw him squeezing at the cords where his hicky was on his neck. He sighed at the pleasure of it. "Excuse me, sorry. I saw Gwyn in front of the Burned Tower with a large case of some sorts that she was taking with her there; my guess is a large lunch. I could smell the pasta salad from it; it had to be from Violet. She's the only one who can make it and it smells that good. Well… so does her mom, but that's beside the point." Alex jerked his finger toward the Burned Tower. "So that's where she's gotta be right now, or else I would have seen her again by this point and time."
"Thanks!" Before he could get out another word, I took off toward the Burned Tower. I had to find Gwyn!
Gwyn's Point of View:
"Hang on Cynder! Use flame wheel to avoid his attacks again and hit Croconaw when you get the chance!" I called out to my pokemon on the field and watched as she turned left and right with her rolling fire attack to avoid Croconaw's water moves. Tristan had certainly improved his team since the last time we battled and it was now an even battle with one pokemon left. Somehow, and I don't really know how, but Tristan's zubat managed to stay well enough for most of the battle and knocked Shocker out with poison, but was knocked out itself by his lighting.
Now it was down to our starters, though I did still have Sunrise left over from battle one, it would be called my victory even if this was a draw, but I wasn't about to take this for granted, nor hold back. Battling with Tristan was so much fun, I'd wished I'd battled him more often, he tends to make faces when his pokemon is hit back, but if it's the other way around, he shows some real excitement by pounding a fist to the air and cheering out, before shyly putting it back to the way it was and praying I hadn't seen a thing. I couldn't help but snicker to myself as I would watch that occur.
"Now Croconaw! Use water gun at her quilava!" His water pokemon grinned and fired the water right at Cynder as she was racing to get as close as she could. She dodged left and right. She was able to nick her opponent's body with her attack, while still avoiding its attacks on her, but it was hard wonk and a long process to bring them down.
"This isn't working…" I muttered quietly to myself. "We need a better tactic… but what to do? If we get too risky, Cynder will get hit and knocked out and that leaves me with Sunrise only, not that it's a bad thing, but I feel a bit edgy about this… distance attacks only work if they're a large scale hit… wait a minute! That's it!" I turned toward Cynder on the field. "Back to me Cynder, stand right before me!" My pokemon's fire ball of movement that glided over the charcoaled floors rushed back toward me and she jumped out of her attack to stand there. "Smokescreen and then ember!"
The explosion went off in the remains of the once tower and the fiery haze of flames quickly spread over the field. I lost Tristan and Croconaw from my line of vision as the blackness took over. Cynder was still well out before me and was watching and listening, feeling and sensing the very presence of that water pokemon in case it survive the attack.
"Damn it!" I heard Tristan shout from the other side. I watched as the smoke slowly faded away from our battlefield and Croconaw was out for the count, lying down on the ground with its tongue sticking out, x's over its eyes.
"Yes! We won!" I turned to all my pokemon. "You guys were awesome!" I quickly looked back over at Tristan thought as he returned his pokemon. "And you did an amazing job yourself Tristan; I was really on my toes with this battle."
"But I still lost…" he sighed and sulked as he took a seat from where he stood.
"That doesn't mean you'll lose the next time, and didn't you have fun while you battled me? You can't tell me no, I saw your face while everything was going on. You really seemed to be enjoying yourself." Tristan blushed and turned his head away. I'm sure his team would've laughed at him if they had the chance and weren't so beat up by my own team.
"Gwyn!" I gasped as I heard a voice call my name off in the distance. I quickly returned Cynder because of how tired she was and Sunrise growled at my side and Ticky worriedly cried out while I hurried and placed myself behind Tristan. He easily turned tense and guarded me with his body.
I saw Aaron round the corner and as soon as he saw us his face went blank. He stood there for a few moments, just watching us, me hidden behind Tristan with Sunrise growling and snarling at him the whole time. He looked all over at our situation before he apparently noticed something and took a step toward us. "Gwyn-"
He was cut off by Sunrise's snarling and my foot unconsciously moving back away from him, but I felt it scream under the weight of my foot and it suddenly snapped and I felt my foot fall out from under me. I screamed and Tristan rushed around to grab me, but from the sudden break in the floor and the rapid pace that I was starting to fall at, he was dragged down with me. Aaron rushed at us, grabbing onto Tristan's arm to keep together with us.
My first worry was my pokemon. Sunrise and Ticky were falling with us and I had no flying pokemon on me. I quickly pulled out their pokeballs and returned them while the boys apparently tried to shift our bodies in the air so that they were below me and going to take the hit of the ground first. Both Aaron and Tristan looked so determined as we practically flew to our deaths.
"PYSCHIC!" I suddenly felt my body halt its decent and I looked around us to see how we were only inches from the ground. I let out a breath of air that had been trapped in my lungs despite my screaming. I suddenly felt our bodies hit the ground and I crashed into both of my friends' chest, mostly Tristan's from the softer feel it had too it from his thicker jacket. I quickly looked up only to be met with Tristan's deep onyx eyes. I was frozen in place by them. I couldn't move even if I wanted to…
"Hey! You guys alright down there?"
A third voice was what broke the spell. I nearly jumped off Tristan's chest and backed away from him, falling on my own back in the process, landing before some kind of statue that was behind me. It startled me and I rolled onto my hands and knees before I backed up between the boys behind me.
Apparently my first thought of them being statues was very wrong. All of them were living and moving. There were three of them, one that each looked at one of the three of us. The first of them was a yellow four legged creature that had a short, yellow haired body with grayish black markings on it and a white underbelly. The beast had a thin, light blue, zigzag like tail that had what almost looked like a sparked shaped tip to the end of it. Along its back was some kind of bright, dark thick swirls of fur that turned thick and solid, almost ball like on the ends. Its face was oval like, sideways. Its fur was a bit thicker on its head and came up into two identical little ball like curls on the top of its head. Right over its head was almost like a black plate with a spike in the center of it while the plate was spiked slightly under its curled fur. This plate sat over its red pupil eyes, and under those was a light blue x of sorts that hung right below the plate on its head and eyes. I saw two fangs under this blue x on its face and it almost seemed to be grinning slightly over at Aaron.
The next was a shaggy, long haired, brown four legged beast that had its deep red eyes calmly, yet intensely on Tristan. Its fur for its upper chest was a light tan with an edging of grey. It had four grayish black bands, one of them on each of its legs about where the leg would bend. On its back was what seemed to be curly, almost cloud like silvery white fur with some spiked bits on it as well, under what looked to be fluffy. Its face almost looked like it had a mask on it. It was triangular to a certain degree. On the top part of its head, just over its eyes was three, thinned out, yellow triangle ends. On either side of its head was the exact same shape, but in a deep red, just under both of the eyes. It also almost looked like it had on a mustache. It had smaller fangs then the first beast, but I could still see them over the lip of the beast's mouth.
From the last beast, who seemed to have its elegantly gentle red eyes on me, it seemed to be another four legged beast, though this time its fur was so thin, I could see every curve of this beast. In my mind it almost made me think it was the female of its group compared to the bodies of the two others that were much more filled out and masculine, but I was taught never to judge since I could be wrong. The beast had a light blue body with large white spots all over it. It also had a white underbelly and flowing, long, purple fur that cascaded behind it's head in waves. Before that hair was a large, tall and thin, hollowed out pentagon like shape that sat just above its eyebrows, almost attached I think to its eyebrows. Its tail came off like a ribbon from its back that flowed around strangely to the front of its body and waved about with the slightest of wind.
"Whoa…" I muttered softly under my breath.
I suddenly felt something behind me and I almost panicked and the sudden new person to arrive here with all that was happening. I felt a hand gently place itself on my shoulder and I turned to see Violet gently looking at me with Chalcedony on her shoulder before she returned him to his pokeball and looked over at the three beasts.
"Our deepest apologies for disturbing your slumber, sacred beasts, this was simply an accident. I hope you may accept my sincerest apology for all that has taken place and awoken you." She bowed to them, and while the two larger of the beasts did not apparently accept or hear her apology, the blue one, the one looking at me, looked up at the woman and nodded before bowing to her, then returning her eyes to me.
I blinked my eyes at the woman who spoke to the beasts as if they were royalty compared to her. I'd never heard Violet speak like that. She'd always been the authority over most everyone else, especially humans; apparently even she falls short to some of the pokemon in this world.
"I-I'm sorry too." The blue beast looked up at me in shock and I heard Violet suck in a breath. "I mean… we didn't know that anyone was living here, if we did, we won't have come and disturbed you. I'm so sorry for that…"
I heard what almost sounded like a pokemon version of a chuckle and I tilted my head at the blue pokemon that made its way toward me. Its friends finally looked up from the two boys that were on either side of me and watched it move. It stood before me and I realized that it almost seemed like I was a tiny kid again looking up at a larger person before me. The beast laid itself upon the ground before me, leaning a bit onto its side, and allowed only a foot of distance between us.
"Can… can I… touch you?" The beast nodded its head and slowly I allowed one of my hands to drift forward from where it was rested on my lap. I touched the short fur only to find how soft it was under my hand, it was quite surprising since I thought it would almost feel spiky rather then soft and smooth under my fingers from how short it was.
"Your fur is so soft… I didn't think it would be first glance from how short it is, but it feels really nice, and it looks so pretty on you too." The beast only laid its head against my hand, releasing the weight of it into my palm. "You're a really pretty pokemon…" I sighed, content to just look at it all day. "What's your name?"
"There they are! I knew the beasts would be here! It's the sacred beasts!" The pokemon instantly lifted their heads to where the voice came from above. The beast, who's head was in my hand, jumped away from me to get to its feet and quickly nudged me to my feet with its head before it and the other beasts took off. They dug their paws into the old wood of the building before throwing themselves up into the air and dashing off. The voices seemed to follow after them and it was soon quiet in the bottom of the Burned Tower.
"I believe its time we left, we can talk things out back at Izzy's place." I nodded and Chalcedony came back out of his pokeball to look at his trainer. "If you would please Chalcedony?"
The pokemon nodded its head and its eyes glowed purple as it used its powers to lift all of us off the ground and send us out of the Burned Tower and back to the home where everything started today.
HalloweenWitchHalloweenWitch
Violet had denied us knowledge of what had just taken place until a proper dinner was in all our stomachs once we got back to Izzy's place. We were lucky that she and her brothers were already had at work on the meal, so we wouldn't be waiting long on the information that nearly burned a hole in our heads to know.
"Alright chick, I really wanna know what happened back in the tower, we've had our dinner like you asker, so can we please talk about it now?" Aaron had finally had enough of Violet's dallying on the subject and was desperate to hear about the beasts that had such an interest in the three of us.
I slapped the back of his head. "Show some respect you idiot! You don't talk to people like that." Aaron only rubbed the side of his head and pouted while he looked at me, a look which I ignored. "She'll never talk to you at the rate your going, and for your information, that's Violet Vilmos, one of the most powerful trainers in the world that could kick your ass from here to literally the moon if she wanted." His eyes went wide as he looked back at the woman in fear.
Violet sighed. "It's alright Gwyn; it's about time I told you of the legends of that tower and this city, which plays a part all over this region. You have a right as any trainer does, and especially as citizens of this region." Violet placed down the steaming mug of tea she had in her hands and pulled out a book she had in her side bag. It looked to be well worn on the outside from age and use, but the pages, when she opened it, almost made it looked as if it was brand new. "I have to start at the beginning for this all to make sense, so listen to me carefully and don't miss a detail, all of it matters when it comes to the legends of the Johto region and its legendary pokemon."
"Whatever…" I'm not sure if Violet heard it, but Aaron muttered that under his breath. Tristan caught on too and together we both hit him upside the head. He cried out and hissed at the hit but quieted right down for the story.
Violet turned to the first page in the book, which showed two towers and two large birds atop of them. "It started over seven hundred years ago, back when two identical towers were built in this town to honor the two legendary birds that lived here, Ho-oh, the rainbow pokemon and Lugia, the diving pokemon. Both of these pokemon had a tower to call their own. The tower that Lugia lived atop of was called the Brass Tower, while Ho-oh lived atop of the Tin Tower, named after materials that were used in the constructions of the tower that were opposite of each other."
"But there are no towers called that now, only the Burned Tower and the Bell Tower," Aaron argued with her.
"I'm getting there Aaron, just be patient a bit more with me." Violet didn't seem phased at all by his energy, in fact, she almost looked bored listening to him whine. "As I was saying, these two legendary birds lived atop of these towers. Now here's the part where things changed up a bit." Violet turned a few pages to show us a large wide spread picture of two pages that showed one of the towers being struck by a large bolt of lighting, catching fire and burning crazy like, and a thick down pour was all around it. "About a hundred and fifty years ago, a great storm suddenly appeared over the town of Ecruteck, a large lightning bolt struck the Brass Tower, Lugia's home. The tower all but turned to flames and Lugia fled, but not before three pokemon become trapped in the fire of the tower, perishing in its basement."
She flipped the page and showed us another picture, this time of three black bodies that had a symbol of lightning, fire or water over them and a gold light, along with one of the birds. "Ho-oh also fled its own tower in the mist of the chaos, but it had seen the lives that had been taken in the basement of the Brass Tower. Ho-oh took pity on these creatures and revived them, having them take on one of the features of the events around the tower as it crumbled. These beasts, reborn as the Scared Beasts of Johto, were called Entei, the volcano pokemon which took the event of the blazing fire of the tower, Raikou, the thunder pokemon which took on the feature of the lighting bolt that struck the tower, and Suicune, the aurora pokemon who took on the event of the heavy down pour that put out the fire of the Brass Tower, which from that point on was then called the Burned Tower, from its destruction."
She then turned the pages again to another large picture that showed the top of one of the towers with a bird pokemon that was hidden under the colors of a rainbow while the other side was a storming sea where the eyes and an outline of the other bird could be seen below the water and in the dark. "Since that day, it is unknown if either of the two legendary bird pokemon have returned to the city, even after all the time that's past. Lugia was thought to have found a new home beneath the waves in the area of the Whirl Islands to the west of the region, and Ho-oh is just purely unknown, since throughout history its been seen to wander the region from time to time. Its tower was also renamed to the Bell Tower from the Tin Tower, after the fire, from all the bells that were hung from it as presents to the bird in hopes that it would return to the city."
She then turned the page to the near end of the book and showed us a picture of the three beasts that we encountered in the tower. "These three beasts are said to roam around the region, but tend to sleep in the bottom of that tower, their birth place. They tend to only show themselves to trainers or people who have great potential, but I was shocked to see how comfortable Suicune was with you Gwyn."
"Suicune was its name?" I blinked at the woman as a short yawn over took my mouth for a moment. "Does it normally do that?"
Violet shook her head. "No, while I will say that Suicune was recorded to be the most interactive of the three of them, I've never heard nor saw of it actually being so lax about you and a few others there, especially a legendary beast such as itself." She sighed. "Look at me; I'm fuckin' turning into Professor Oak…"
Tristan had been quiet the whole time while listening to the story. I turned to him as she scanned the page that was still left out before us.
"So… which of these pokemon are which?" He finally questioned her while she was muttering to herself. "I'd like to know the name of the one who was looking at me."
"The brown furred one is Entei, the fire type," Violet said as she pointed it out. She then pointed to the yellow one. "That one is Raikou, the electric type." She then pointed over to the blue one that had lay down with me. "And this is Suicune, the water type."
"Wow…" I shook my head slowly as I tried to grasp all this information. "But why did they take such an interest in us?"
"That I really don't know Gwyn." Violet sighed before she closed the book and put it back in her bag. "Well, its getting late. You have a gym battle in the morning Gwyn, so you'd best get your rest. Same goes for you Tristan, and I'm sure you'll need all the rest you can get for more training and what not Aaron." She made a shooing motion at us, but it was mostly directed at Aaron. "Go on, get to bed and get some good rest."
"What!" Aaron lashed out verbally. "You can't make us-"
I grabbed on his ear before he could say another word and dragged him away from the room. "Its bed time Aaron, let's get going or you'll be all cranky tomorrow."
"Oww! Gwyn! Let me go!"
Violet's Point of View:
I watched as Gwyn dragged her sorry ass best friend off to his bedroom where he'd be spending the night here and all that remained after they left was the red haired boy who apparently needed to speak to me. He seemed a bit hesitant, his eyes clouded over and his fists opening and closing. It was only after a few moments that Tristan then looked over at me. I patted to the open spot next to me on the couch and he nodded and easily sat in it.
"So?"
"I've decided, even if I'm still a little worried."
"Well, to be honest, it's alright to be, and you should be a bit. I'll have to leave you with Gwyn every now and then if I think I may be cornering in on Rose and you can't be there until you're much stronger, and Gwyn can also help you with that. She's already taught you so much, even if you haven't noticed it."
"No I have, Gwyn's done me a lot of good." His eyes floated away from me and I saw them cloud over again. I almost could have sworn I saw a tint of red in his cheeks, but I wasn't positive at that moment since he shook it off too quickly. He looked back at me. "Violet… did they say anything about what would happen to Rose when she was caught?"
I sighed and nodded to the poor boy. "Yes, it took them a total of half an hour to decide her fate if she was ever caught. Rose is simply too dangerous leave running amuck in our regions and all over this world."
Tristan sighed and nodded.
"Tristan, I don't know if you know this or not," the boy looked back up at me with knowing eyes. "But just to make sure, if she isn't killed in the field, which I've been given permission to do for the sake of our regions, then when she's caught, it's either life imprisonment or the death sentence."
Witch's Note:
Oh I'm so mean! I didn't tell you Tristan's answer! And I left you off knowing that if Rose is caught, she either dies on the field or dies in captivity! Wow! Did anyone notice that Aaron still hasn't apologized to Gwyn yet? Yes? No? Maybe?
Anyway, here, as you can all see, is another chapter for you guys to enjoy (or not if you don't like the story for some reason) and I'll be working to get out the next chapter soon for the next due date!
Love you all and see you next week! And don't forget to send in Questions and Reviews please!
Halloween Witch