After the Storm

I'm so tired.

I lay there on the ground, my muscles refusing to move. I couldn't see clearly, couldn't think clearly. I closed my eyes, desperately wanting this nightmare to be over. I heard footsteps approach me. Was it Ryan coming to check on me?

"Everyone seems to be unconscious. That Aurora Key is very powerful," I heard an unfamiliar male voice say. The voice was silky yet cold. "That Scizor certainly paid the price of underestimating this girl. What a waste of a Crystal."

I opened my mouth to call for help, but nothing came out. I strained to see who was coming, but everything was beyond recognition.

"This human exceeded my expectations," another voice said. I saw two shadowy figures approach me, but I had no idea who or what they were. One could have been a Pokemon. I felt my hand being forced open, the hand that held the Umbra Crystal. "She managed to purify the Crystal as well as get rid of the dark aura around this forest."

No! I can't let him have it! I tried to hold onto the Crystal, but I was so weak. I felt fingers, human fingers, force my hand open and take the Crystal. I struggled to my feet, determined to take it back. "Give…it…back," I said wearily.

"Don't worry. It's in good hands now," the taller shadow assured me. I felt a soft human hand touch my cheek. The world became black and silent.

What happened?

"When is she going to wake up?"

Am I alive?

"I'm starting to worry."

Did I win?

"You think she's dead?"

"Nah, she's just in a coma or somethin'."

"She's sleeping, you dummy."

I was sleeping? For how long?

"No one sleeps for three days."

"They do if they're in a coma."

"She's not in a coma!"

I hope I'm not in a coma.

"I bet youse my quarter she'll wake up if I shock her."

Oh man! I opened my eyes to find myself in a bed. Just not my bed; I was in Ryan's room. Cinder and Artemis was sitting on the bed, but I didn't see Static. I did see a Raichu sitting with them, though. They hadn't noticed that I was awake yet.

"Stand clear! This could get messy!" the Raichu said, his cheeks sparking.

"No!" I blurted out, shooting up straight in the bed. Cinder gave a squeak of surprise and fell off the bed. The Raichu stopped sparking and smiled.

"Yo, Shonta! Glad you're up!" he said.

"Hey Static, you owe me your quarter!" Artemis crowed.

I looked over the Raichu, going from being braindead to very thoughtful. "Static, is that you?" I asked him in a shocked tone.

Artemis smirked. "You're in trouble now, Static. Char told you not to touch the Key while it was glowing and you did it anyway."

"The Key did this?" I asked him. Static and the others nodded.

"Notice that he doesn't sound like the Crocodile Hunter anymore," Artemis joked.

"I told youse, it was British, not Australian!" Static shouted.

I reached out and scratched Artemis behind the ears. "What happened? I remember telling the Crystal shards to stop."

"They did. They just disappeared, we just don't know where or how," Cinder replied, climbing back on the bed.

A light came on in my head. "Where's Ryan? Where's Enigma and Athena? Where's Raikou?"

"Ryan's okay," Artemis moaned. "Now get back to scratching."

"Enigma and Athena were freed, probably from that light that came from the Key," Cinder said. "Raikou went somewhere, but he told us to tell you that he'll be watching you and Ripper."

I couldn't stop myself from letting out a small shriek. "Aah, I forgot! What happened to Ripper?" My heart worked double time. Where was Ripper now?

The Pokemon looked at each other and gave a nervous laugh.

"Explain, guys," I said sternly.

They hesitated for a minute before saying anything. "Ryan! Shonta's up!" they called out together. They were hiding something.

Ryan walked in the room. "Hey, you're finally up!"

I glared at him. "Where's Ripper?"

He looked down at the floor. "Well, you see, I kinda…" He trailed off from there, mumbling the rest of the sentence.

"Talk louder!" Static told him.

"I caught him in a pokeball," he forced out.

"WHAT! YOU CAUGHT HIM!" I screamed.

"It was the best thing to do at the time," Ryan said, his eyes looking at the ground.

"What are you saying? The guy's a menace. He's an Umbra Demon, for crying out loud!" My hands were clutching the collar of his shirt.

"He was an Umbra Demon. That light from your Aurora Key purified everything, and I mean everything. The Pokemon that Ripper was controlling, that dark aura that was covering the forest, even that Umbra Crystal that Ripper was wearing. Ripper's not evil anymore, but he's still bitter."

"You could've found something else to do with him."

"Like what? Raikou was going to kill him, and even I didn't trust him going out there in the world alone. I had to catch him." He played with a pokeball from his pocket. "As you can see, Ripper was so weak I didn't even need any special pokeballs to catch him."

"When are you going to let him out?"

He laughed. "When he learns his lesson and starts to behave like a good boy."

I chuckled a little from his remark. "So how are our moms doing?"

"Your mom's just fine, physically speaking. It turns out that she wasn't even near your house; she was at mine, worrying herself gray. She turned as white as a sheet when I told her about Rod's death. My mom threatened to ground me for life and beyond if I ever pulled something like that again."

"Hey, guess what?" Artemis spoke up in an attempt to lighten the mood. "Your room's still standing!"

That broke me out of my stupor. "Really? How?"

"The bomb was outside the house, so it only blew up half of the house. Your brother must either have had gotten a soft spot or he was just very stupid."

I gave a huge sigh of relief as she said this. Somehow I believed it was the first guess and not the second. Rod had a few stuff in his room that was sentimental to him.

"What about the Umbra Crystal that I was wearing? It may have been a dream, but I think someone came and took the Crystal. I couldn't see their faces, but I think they were Aurora Knights."

Ryan groaned. "That must be Circe's human friend that Char told me about. I think his name is Riku Iwata or something. His specialty is Psychic-type Pokemon."

"He's mad because he said you looked cute when you were sleeping," Cinder said with a smile.

"So you get mad just because someone complimented me?" I said with mock anger in my voice. I looked outside; it looked like early afternoon. It was time to get out of this bed.

I sat on the steps of Ryan's house with a new set of clothes, enjoying the warm sunshine and the gentle breezes. With only a couple of weeks left before I leave for Ecruteak College, I wanted to relax as much as possible.

I looked to my left and spotted a bandage-covered Reaper who was sitting under a tree. "How are you today?" I asked him.

Reaper looked up at me and gave a small gasp. "Hello, Shonta. I did not know you would be up at this time."

"Thanks for having confidence in me," I said sarcastically. "Where are Char and Feather?"

"Sadly, they left. They said they had business to take care of, like giving a report to their superiors. They also mentioned recruits."

"Great. They just leave us here with me still kind of drained, which means unless the Crystal can work on autopilot we're done for." I plopped down beside him.

"You slept for three days. How can you be drained?"

"I need some lightning here!" I yelled up at the sky.

Reaper laughed. "Do you think he'll hear you?"

"Someone will hear me." I watched a flock of Pidgey fly by. "Something tells me this isn't over."

"Your destiny has not been fully revealed yet, Shonta. Your adventure is far from over."

Mom really gave me an earful when she came back from work. She thought I was in a coma, she thought that I wouldn't come back from the forest alive, she thought that I was foolish to try to face those vicious Pokemon without the "proper authorities", etc. Then Ms. Steele gave me pretty much the same earful when Mom got done with me. They only stopped when I asked about my stuff that I had in my room.

I pigged out on dinner that night. Everyone did; those that didn't fight that night almost starved themselves over those that did. Artemis told me that Ryan had to separate Ripper from the rest of us; he was still bitter over the idea that he was no longer wild. I thought he was still in his pokeball, until I heard angry shouting from the attic.

I know that I'm lucky that I survived the battle. I know that I am not done suffering losses. I know that many challenges lie ahead. But I will spend every day and night reflecting on what Reaper told me:

"Your destiny has not been fully revealed yet, Shonta. Your adventure is far from over."