Chapter 10 - Deep Thoughts and Unexpected Rescues

Last time on "Tale of a Legend"…

The mysterious Plasma King sent two of his grunts to Striaton City to find Volan as well as a substance called Dream Mist. Meanwhile, Volan, Thrin, and Bianca found out that the Striaton Gym was closed for renovations, and decided to train in the Dreamyard. But before they could, they came across a Munna that took a liking to Thrin. Upon following it, the three friends encountered the two Plasma grunts bullying it for its Dream Mist. Volan grew angry and unleashed Grunge upon their Zubat and Timburr, easily defeating them. Then the man named Ghetsis appeared, and he didn't seem pleased…

-.-.-.-.-.

"Is there a problem here?"

Subdued at the sight of the unpleasantly familiar man, Volan's anger ebbed away. Thrin and Bianca both stared in bewilderment. The two grunts looked relieved and frightened at the same time. Oliver, Lillipup, Bernice, and Grunge were all distasteful.

"Dove dove, Pidooove," Bernice cooed. "It's the man that spoke of Pokemon Liberation in Accumula Town."

Oliver shivered and nodded at her words, remembering the man as well. "Tepig? Pig, Tepig. What's his name again? Maybe Gilbert or Garry, or something like that."

"Gar, garbo! Odor Garbodor!" Grunge growled. "It's Ghetsis! He's the person who persuaded my Trainer to abandon me!"

At these words, Lillipup became frightened. "Pup, pup?" she whimpered. "What if he gets Mistress Bianca to get rid of me?"

Completely oblivious to the chatter of the Pokemon, Ghetsis stepped into the ruin, a regal presence even when not surrounded by his Plasmas. His single exposed eye seemed to take in everything. He was calm and didn't sound angry, instead seemingly bewildered at the sight of his lackeys and the Trainers fighting. Everything was silent as he advanced farther into the room, finally coming to a stop in the middle of the battlefield. At the sight of the injured Munna cowering on the floor, his mouth tightened. Volan wasn't sure whether or not he was concerned or upset, or something else entirely.

Finally, Ghetsis spoke. "Did you get the Dream Mist I requested from you?" he asked the two grunts, turning himself so that he faced them. Immediately, they recalled their fainted Pokemon and rearranged their faces so that they showed no emotion, bowing as they did so.

"Lord Ghetsis of the Seven Sages," Tough Girl – the one who had instigated the battle – intoned. "We indeed found this Munna and tried to get some of its Dream Mist, but these three brats stood in our way. They defeated us soundly when we tried to use force. We stood no chance."

The green-haired man turned to the Trainers in question. Volan was surprised to find that he looked almost impressed. "Really?" Ghetsis said curiously.

The Gurei boy was confused as to who he was talking to – was it his grunts still, or them? Nevertheless, Ghetsis was looking straight at him, so he felt obligated to speak. Keeping his voice as steady as possible, he took a deep breath and replied to the man's question.

"Yes, we did defeat them," Volan said. "But we didn't do it just for the sake of interfering. They were beating that Munna to get that Dream Mist. We couldn't just stand there and let it suffer."

Behind him, Thrin and Bianca nodded fiercely in agreement.

"I see," was Ghetsis' only reply. His frown deepened slightly.

"A-Are you angry with us, sir?" asked Bianca tremulously, nervous of what Ghetsis might do to them for attacking his minions.

These words caused Ghetsis to break out in a calm smile. "Not at all, miss," he said politely. "On the contrary, I am quite glad that you Trainers put a stop to this… less than admirable act."

The two grunts gulped in the background.

Ghetsis stepped forward and peered at Volan. "I recognize you from Accumula Town," he said in recognition.

Bernice bristled and clamped her talons tighter on Volan's shoulder.

Unsure of what to think, Volan simply nodded. "You're the leader of Team Plasma, right?" he asked uncertainly. "Why aren't you upset that we beat your lackeys?"

The man only shook his head and smiled again. "Mister Gurei, Team Plasma wishes to separate Pokemon from those who are cruel to Pokemon. Seeing two of my underlings commit an act that violates such a wish is something I do not wish to see again. Therefore, I thank you for helping this poor Pokemon."

He gestured to the Munna, who only whimpered and curled up defensively. Volan could only stare at the man.

Is he telling the truth? he wondered, subconsciously asking the mysterious voice in his head for the answer. Although the voice never spoke up, the world turned monochromatic for only an instant.

Ghetsis paused at the sight of the boy's eyes. A white shadow had flitted across those orbs, hadn't it? But that could only mean…

"I will be taking my leave now," Ghetsis said, hiding his surprise well. "And rest assured, these two perpetrators will be punished for such offensive behavior."

He motioned for the two grunts to come with him, and they both exchanged terrified glances. Dutifully, though, they shuffled out of the ruin, with Ghetsis close behind. Before he left, though, the Team Plasma leader paused and turned so that he was looking over his shoulder at the Trainers he was leaving behind.

"And I'd recommend taking that little one to the Pokemon Center," he advised.

With a final wave farewell, he disappeared along with his minions.

Questions whirled in Volan's mind, but one repeated itself, loudly and endlessly.

How did Ghetsis know my name?

-.-.-.-.-.

Back in the Pokemon Center, some hours later, Volan lay awake in his bed even as the sun outside began to sink below the horizon. The events of the day were preventing him from getting any sleep, as the memories chased themselves around and around his head.

First and foremost, he was worried about the Munna. Thrin had carried it to the Pokemon Center with Oliver following behind concernedly. It was good to see that the Tepig was worried about his fellow Pokemon, even if it was from the wild and hadn't been domesticated… yet.

That reminded him of what Ghetsis had said. Team Plasma wanted to separate Pokemon from cruel people. Was Ghetsis telling the truth?

And when the world had turned monochrome like that, the man had paused and looked at him oddly for a brief instant. What was with that? Was there a visible reaction, something that appeared or happened on his face, whenever he saw the world change color like that?

Volan shook his head to clear that thought – he was getting off topic. His original idea was that Team Plasma wanted to rescue Pokemon from those who were cruel to them. That did sound nice, but it brought some questions with it.

How can the Plasmas possibly separate the good from the bad people? Volan asked himself. It's a big region, after all. No, they must have some other goal in mind.

His mind wandered back to the Munna. Thrin was watching over it even as Nurse Joy checked it over and healed its wounds, most likely having already fallen asleep in the process.

At one point, Volan had offered to carry it. When his sister had allowed him to cradle the poor Psychic-type in his arms, it had woken up drowsily and looked up at him. He could see the confusion in its eyes as it wondered who he was.

Then Munna had done that inhaling thing to him, the same one where it had projected a memory from Thrin's mind. In the mist that emanated from Munna's forehead, Volan saw with a jolt a younger version of himself, picking up Bernice and sobbing.

He knew instantly what the memory was about. It was that fateful day. Bianca had seen it too, and she had looked at him questioningly until he had given her his iciest look. There were only three other beings that knew about that day – Thrin, Bernice, and…

Caitlin.

Volan forced himself not to think of the girl, and he immediately wondered why. Was it because the thought of her possibly moving on and forgetting him was too much to bear? Was he scared of meeting up with her again one day, only to find that she had no recollection of that fateful day?

One thing was for certain – as much as Volan didn't want to think of Caitlin, he still wanted more than anything to see her again someday. Another thing that he found odd was that he always blushed faintly and turned to face a different direction whenever he remembered her, as if she was right there and he was too embarrassed to look at her.

What's with that?

Finally, Volan fell into a troubled sleep. His dreams were filled with uncertainty. In the labyrinth of his nightmares lurked a one-eyed, cloaked man, Plasma grunts, injured Pokemon, and a certain blonde watching him from the corner of his eye…

-.-.-.-.-.

Morning was a relief. As a bonus, Volan wasn't woken up by Bianca this time.

On second thought, Volan decided he preferred Bianca over Grunge's morning breath.

"Yuck…" Volan muttered, sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He put on his glasses and stared balefully at the grinning behemoth standing over him.

"You're sleeping in your Poke Ball from now on," the boy growled, much to Grunge's amusement.

Getting dressed quickly, Volan packed up his things and walked out the door, after calling Grunge back into his Poke Ball and letting Bernice perch on his shoulder as usual. They reached the lobby soon enough, where, as predicted, Thrin was sleeping on one of the lounge chairs.

Volan gently nudged his sister, trying to shake her from sleep. Then he tried again when she didn't wake up, a little harder this time. She still didn't awaken, so Volan decided to try one last time.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" she screamed, bolting awake.

Her panic lasted only for a few seconds. The Gurei girl squinted up at her brother and became more aware of her surroundings, and promptly calmed down.

"Oh, it's just you," she sighed in relief, stretching out her arms and yawning deeply.

"You were dreaming of the Jelly Bean Incident, weren't you?" Volan teased as he helped her up off of the lounge chair.

She swatted him upside the head before bending down to pick up her bag. "Temporary insanity, that's all it was!" she objected, slinging her backpack over her shoulders.

There was a sudden *ding* noise, and the doors to the examination room opened to reveal Nurse Joy and Audino walking out. A tray was being wheeled in front of Audino, upon which perched a wide-awake Munna, looking as if she had never encountered those Plasmas.

"Muuun muuun!" she hummed delightedly, jumping off of the tray and floating to meet Thrin. The Gurei girl laughed and was forced back onto the couch as Munna happily tackled her, suffocating her with love and gratitude.

Nurse Joy giggled and said, "I'm happy to report that this Munna has made a full recovery! She's perfectly able to take care of herself in the Dreamyard now. And here is your other Pokemon – a good night's sleep was all he needed to become fighting fit again!"

The nurse handed her Oliver's Poke Ball, and she managed to get her arm out from underneath Munna in order to take it.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy," she grunted, finally managing to sit up, as Munna moved onto her lap submissively.

"I'm happy to help! Good luck on your Pokemon journeys, both of you!" Nurse Joy beamed at them, and then walked away with Audino at her side.

"It's good to see that you're all better now," Volan said to Munna, sitting beside his sister and giving the Psychic-type a friendly pat on the head. "Now, should we take you back to the Dreamyard where you belong?"

It seemed to Volan as if Munna sagged at those words.

"Hang on, Volan," Thrin said. She looked down at Munna and asked softly, "I was wondering, do you want to travel with me and my brother as my Pokemon?"

Munna stared up at the girl, startled at her proposition.

Thrin continued, "If you don't want to come with us, then you can just go back to the Dreamyard. But if you do want to come with us, then I'd be happy to give you a place of your own. You could become part of our little family. What do you say?"

"Mun mun, Munna! Yes, yes please!" the pink tapir-like Pokemon cried, leaping up on Thrin and nuzzling her gratefully. Thrin and Volan both laughed as Munna continued giving short little cries of happiness, ecstatic over getting to stay with these nice humans.

"Alright then, if you say so," Thrin said, her laughter slowly dying down.

She suddenly stopped, thinking of something. "You need a name, don't you?" she asked, mostly to herself.

Munna stopped as well and regarded her new Trainer curiously. She had been called 'Munna' by other Pokemon all her life. Being called by a distinct name was an alien concept to her.

"I know," Thrin said, snapping her fingers. "I'll call you Luna! How does that sound?"

The newly christened Luna looked a little confused, but soon brightened and chirped happily. "Mun mun!"

Thrin pulled out a Poke Ball and offered it to Luna. "Welcome to the group," she said with a smile.

Luna smiled back and bumped the Poke Ball with her forehead. The capsule opened and sucked her in, before closing up and wobbling for a second. It stayed still after that, signaling that Luna had been successfully caught.

"Helloooooo~!" a voice sang.

Volan and Thrin looked up to see Bianca skipping toward them.

"Morning, you two~!" she greeted them, clearly ready to roll this morning. "How's our little Munna doing?"

Thrin laughed out loud and held up Luna's Poke Ball. "I caught her! She's part of my team now!"

"Awwww, lucky!" Bianca pouted. "I was just thinking that I wanted to catch Munna!" But she brightened immediately and said, "Oh well, I can just catch another in the Dreamyard later! So, how about we get breakfast and then head over to the Gym?"

The blonde began dragging Volan and Thrin over to the cafeteria without waiting for an answer. The siblings exchanged an exasperated glance before shaking themselves free of Bianca's grasp and walking freely along behind her.

But then, an unexpected voice spoke up from directly behind them. "Excuse me, did I hear you say something about catching a Munna?"

The three Trainers immediately spun around to meet the eyes of a woman with sleek black hair and a white lab coat over her regular clothes.

"Yes…?" Thrin confirmed cautiously.

The woman clapped her hands together delightedly and said, "Oh, that's wonderful! Might I see it?"

Still a little hesitant, Thrin took out her Poke Ball and opened it. Luna popped out in a flash of blue light and gave a happy little chirp.

"Oh, look at it!" the woman enthused, bending down to be on eye level with the Psychic-type. "I've never managed to look at one up close! Oh, I'm so jealous of you! I've been trying for ages to catch one, but with no luck!"

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Volan asked her, somewhat coldly. The woman started and stood back up.

"My name's Fennel," she said, giving them a friendly wave. "I'm an old friend of Professor Juniper. I've been working on a machine that's able to scan the minds of Pokemon, but I need Dream Mist for a Munna to help it work. Do you mind if I collect some Dream Mist from your Munna?"

All of this was said so fast that Thrin barely caught the question. Volan was still a little wary. Bianca, though, somehow managed to follow Fennel's rapid speech – maybe because they operated on the same frequency – and nodded furiously at Thrin.

"Um, sure. As long as Luna doesn't mind," the Gurei girl said with a nod.

Fennel clapped her hands together again and said, "Splendid! Now, wait just a second…"

She dug around in her pockets and pulled out a small glass jar, like the kind you'd put jam in. She then knelt down to Luna's eye level and held out the jar for her.

"Hello there," Fennel cooed to the Psychic-type.

Luna just stared back, bewildered, as Fennel gave her a big, friendly smile. Everyone present waited for Luna to do something.

It took what seemed like forever, but Luna finally did that inhaling thing and absorbed a memory from Fennel's mind. Then in a big puff of pink mist, she expelled the memory from her forehead. In the mist, a five-year-old Fennel could be seen playing in a sandbox with a brown-haired girl, which Volan guessed to be Professor Juniper.

"I miss those days," Fennel sighed as she opened the jar. She quickly scooped up as much Dream Mist as she could before it evaporated.

"Thanks so much!" Fennel beamed, patting Luna on the head and then shaking Thrin's hand. "This will be a huge help for my research! Bye now!"

The woman then dashed out of the Pokemon Center just like that.

"Wow, she reminds me of Bianca," Thrin commented. She then called Luna back into her Poke Ball, saying, "I'm sure you were a big help."

Through the Poke Ball's transparent bottom, Luna could be seen floating around merrily in circles.

Volan turned to Bernice, who had remained silent the entire time they had been in the lobby, and asked her, "Breakfast?"

She cooed hungrily and nodded enthusiastically.

"That settles it then!" Bianca cheered. "First we eat, then it's Gym time!"

-.-.-.-.-.

Volan begins to suspect Team Plasma's true motives and realize his true feelings for the girl haunting his past. Meanwhile, in the real world, there's a Gym battle to get to! We'll be covering that next chapter.

Also, Thrin has finally gotten herself a new partner – Luna the Munna – tying her with her brother and Bianca for a total of two Pokemon each.

Check back soon for Volan's first Gym Battle!

Luna: "Mun mun! For my new mistress, please review!"

Chapter Question #1 (please answer these!): Who is your favorite of the Unovan Gym Leaders?

Mine would have to be Roxie, followed by Clay and Burgh.

-.-.-.-.-.

Volan's Party:
Bernice (Pidove, female)
Ability: Big Pecks
Attacks: Air Cutter, Gust, Quick Attack, Hypnosis

Grunge (Garbodor, male)
Ability: Weak Armor
Attacks: Pound, Body Slam, Poison Gas, Solarbeam

Thrin's Party:
Oliver (Tepig, male)
Ability: Blaze
Attacks: Tackle, Tail Whip, Body Slam, Ember

Luna (Munna, female)
Ability: Synchronize
Attacks: Psywave, Defense Curl, Yawn