Chapter 21 – Reunion in Chargestone Cave Part 01

Earlier that morning after resting within that tree before heading back out, we successfully crossed the bridge without any trouble or human wanting to catch us or paying any attention to us. We entered the city and almost immediately we searched for some food and water to take with us before making our way out and continue on. Although the food stalls at the time were all closed by the time we entered the city, so we had to search other places for food and water, interior locations instead of on the outside. Entering the buildings through the back via by an open door or open window, it did provide us with some good sources of the things we needed; food, water, maybe some medical like bandages if we could access them or without being seen doing so. After I'd say between an hour or two of entering these buildings through the back and getting our paws on whatever thing we could, we managed to find a good amount to last us all the way beyond Mistralton city. So with all that done we left the city and continued through the route all the way towards Chargestone cave.

While walking, I remembered back to the dream I had last night. I was floating in a dark place, no light visible anywhere. But the only thing I could hear were voices of people and Pokemon I knew. Old memories from the past brought back to life through a dream.

"Using Psychic, Protect, Razor Shell, Rain Dance, or any other existing move in general for a Pokemon requires energy, small, moderate amount or big. All moves require energy to use up, no exceptions. Most moves require a year or more to fully master, others in a matter of weeks. Some moves require little energy to use up to perform at max volume, while others need so much more." It was Espeon's voice again, but it all sounded so familiar to me, like I had heard it before. Before I lost my memory, Espeon told me this when she taught me to use Psychic. "So in order for one to become strong with these moves you must train with them, master them so you can understand them. Using Psychic to attack or any other move to use against your foes, moves are more than that; they can be used to help yourself and your allies in so many ways; defend them from attacks, block an attack, or even combine moves to create a stronger variant. Oh! And also to be used out on the field. But don't get carried away and cause chaos out there."

"Hey… w-where friends, right?" Sakura's voice. Hearing her voice even though I didn't know who it was because of my lack of any previous memory before this, it made me feel sad and yet happy. During our final fight with Team Doom, Sakura Kanai was killed by the enemy along with my other friend Isaac Anderson. "I want to become a nurse and help Pokemon. Wanna be my first Pokemon I treat on when I fully become a nurse at a center? It'll be on the house."

"Dictionaries are sooo cool, don't you agree Zack?" Another voice appeared in this dark floating dream echo around me as if close by. It was Gardevoir, a Pokemon I had met during my second year as a Savior during the Time Crisis going on at the time. She had a bizarre obsession with dictionaries; collecting them, cleaning them, uh… strangely hugging them and cradling them as if they were a baby. But besides that, she was a good friend.

"Don't sweat it, buddy. I'll teach you how to use Razor Shell in no time." Dewott this time. When I first became a Dewott and during the time me, Espeon, Latias, Sakura and Isaac left on our journey to stop Team Doom, he became sort of distant in a way, refusing to talk to me mostly, even refusing to participate in the final battle against Team Doom, a battle all of my Pokemon except him were involved in.

"That cake you made me the other day was really sweet. I really wish my birthday was every week so I could have that delicious cake sooner rather than having to wait another year." It was Latias' voice this time, the last voice I heard in the dream, but I didn't know whose voice it was or how important she was to me. All of the voices I heard in the dream except for Espeon's, every time I heard them I always wanted to know more about them, a question that was bugging me ever since I first heard them; 'who were they?' no answers I get from either one of them, so all I could do was to listen and wait wondering who these voices were to me. "A 'Latias Cake' a cake in the shape of a Latias… I saw this being baked on the TV you and your mother were watching before my birthday, should've guessed. But I was still surprised by it when you presented it to me early that morning. But we can always make it again, maybe on special occasions."

The voices of friends, people who I had connected with over the years. Was hearing their voices enough to spark an old memory to return? Or did it need more than that? Looking them into their eyes, their faces, being in familiar locations. How would a memory come back to me I thought. On this journey, the longer way through the Unova region just to reach Nuvema town instead of going through Castelia City and going to the town the quick way, I would see locations I had been to, even reuniting with Pokemon and people I have seen before.

The dream however was short since we had to wake up early to get a move on before the city became too crowded. I guess the sunlight shinning right at us early in the morning was the best alarm clock we could ask for.

I told Aqua about the dream that I had and we began to discuss the possible ways I could regain my lost memories again.

"You seem to be having a lot of these dreams, Zack. Maybe dreaming will help you remember all that you have lost."

"I should definitely write about these voices I hear. What they say, how I can recognize each different voice that I hear, things like their favorite hobby or maybe a reference to a location of other humans and Pokemon I might know." I said after adjusting the bag I was carrying in a more comfortable position rather than having a water bottle stab into my sides. "Wish we could find a notebook and pencil so I could do so."

"Tell me more about it." She asked, walking beside me instead of skipping along. "What did the voices say?"

"There was this Espeon I had seen in a dream, her actual appearance instead of just hearing their voices. She told me that we were friends and to come back home to Nuvema Town. But it was strange; it was as though as if it weren't a dream… I mean, that it was kind of real in a way; me and this Espeon were actually speaking to one another… I don't know. A few of these dreams that I have are kind of like that; it feels real."

"Espeon… that's a Pokemon, evolved from an Eevee, right?" She asked. "I remember seeing a Pokemon like that in one of the books I read back in the hideout. You must know a lot of interesting Pokemon. I hope I get to meet her."

"There was also this other Pokemon I heard speak to me. She was talking to me about this cake or something… a Latias cake?"

"What's a Latias cake?"

I tried to remember the dream, about Latias talking to me about the cake I made for her. What sort of frosting did I use, the ingredients used to make such a cake, but nothing came up. What did the cake look like? In that moment, I had no idea what a Latias looked like or what a Latias was. "I don't know. But in the dream the Pokemon told me it was delicious. I must've made a cake in my trainer's home or something."

"A cake, huh? I never thought I would meet another Pokemon who knew how to make food like that. It's very rare to meet a Pokemon who can do the things humans do. Remember anything else from the dream?"

"And I do remember one Pokemon who was talking to me about how cool dictionaries were. Not sure what she meant by that, but uh… well there ya go."

"Dictionaries are cool? You knew a lot of uh… 'Interesting' Pokemon, Zack. I'd like to meet them someday."

"That you can do when we get to Nuvema Town. If my memory hasn't all been recovered by then, I'll uh try to introduce you to them and learn about their hobbies and more with them."

"At least the Espeon is a start on who to talk to first. Perhaps you'll remember other Pokemon and humans you can speak to on our journey, but it won't reduce the number of people and Pokemon you'll have to introduce me to you know."

"Alright, fair enough."

Chargestone Cave

Chargestone cave from the outside had a signpost on the outside reading; 'Be on the lookout for wild Pokemon within the cave. Pokemon within Chargestone cave will not attack unless provoked.' And this way being the only way we could get to Mistralton City without having to make a long detour around this mountain, a detour which would last us almost an entire days walk, we had to risk walking through the cave and expecting to run into Pokemon looking to start trouble. It would be faster going this way, yet also a little on the dangerous side. Maybe it would've been better off if we went around the mountain other than through it, but with the supplies we had we would run out by the time we left Mistralton City, and who knows how long it would take for us to replenish our supplies in the next settlement. No, it would be better to just go through the mountain.

But for some reason, it had felt as though I had been to this cave before, that on the inside we would be alright.

The entrance as well as the tunnels leading into the inner sections of the cave were lit up by glowing blue rocks at the sides or stuck on the ceiling illuminating our path, otherwise navigating through the cave would be impossible without a source of light. It was surprisingly quiet when we first entered the cave, expecting to hear some wild Pokemon or some other ambient noise like water drip nearby, but it was silent. Two tunnels, a tunnel to the left and a tunnel to the right. The right tunnel had a sign saying; 'This was to Route 7 and Mistralton City.' And the other tunnel only had a 'Danger!' warning sign. Walking up the right tunnel I noticed on the tunnel walls, scratches, and blast marks made by Pokemon, still warm to the touch. "Perhaps there was a trainer or wild Pokemon battle recently." I thought to myself as we passed through the tunnel, seeing more marks of a past battle throughout the tunnel stopping until we reached the next section of the tunnel. A round circular area with three tunnels this time, but unlike the entrance this area had no signpost to help guide travellers towards Route 7 anywhere, no broken shards or nothing. The only thing remained in this section were the glowing rocks above us, leaving us with a choice of three to take.

Without saying anything, we walked through the first tunnel on the right hoping it would lead us were we wanted to go. Should it be a dead end we would just turn right back around and try another tunnel until we had gotten at least some sort of progress in this mountain cave. Well, I'd say this tunnel out of the other two did lead us somewhere, a long and somewhat narrow tunnel big enough for a human to venture through with more glowing rocks than the tunnels behind us the more we ventured further inside. We then thought that this was the correct way to go, a one in three chances and we took the correct tunnel, and very soon we would hear the sound of the outside, but instead we heard something different, we heard the noises of Pokemon speaking up ahead, many Pokemon echo throughout the tunnel growing louder as we approached.

Then we saw them as we peeked the corner, a large cavern with hundreds of different Pokemon gathered around a large collection of illuminated glowing rocks in a circle arguing amongst themselves; 'Intruders!' 'Our lives are at risk!' 'They're a danger to us all!'

"What's going on, Zack?" Aqua whispered. "Who are they talking about?"

I didn't reply at first, wanting to listen in more and trying to find out if these 'intruders' they caught in their argument didn't mean me and Aqua.

'We have suffered daily attacks from them for the last three days, we have to hit them back and make sure they stay down! Will all of us out there, we can take them!'

'We can't leave the cave! The cave is our home! And not only that we have old Pokemon and young Pokemon, sick and wounded, who cannot fight against this new enemy, who will protect them if all of us leave?'

'I'm not saying all of us should leave! Only those strong enough to take down the enemy while the rest stay behind to protect those at the cave.'

"It sounds like they are being attacked by Pokemon? I can't tell who it that are-" Was all I could whisper to Aqua before the both of us had our arms grabbed by a Graveler appearing from behind us. Him just being there startled us as we didn't even hear him approach us, he must've been camouflaging amongst the rock wall behind us, maybe on guard duty or something.

"Intruders listening in on the conversation, huh? Liked what you two heard?" He grunted, lifting us both off our feet as he carried us down towards the Pokemon down below. "Well, don't be shy. Let's introduce you both to the family. Get you acquainted with them and hope they don't crush your heads in for how troublesome you Pokemon have been recently. Cause me and a few others want to pay you Pokemon back for all the damages you and your friends have done."

The two of us were thrown in the center of the once arguing crowd of Pokemon stopping once they saw us. The Graveler walked into the circle and stood before us. "Found these two spying on us. Sent here to spot our weaknesses or something. But I found them, I stopped them."

"Spies!" Yelped one of the Pokemon from the crowd.

"Tear them to shreds!" Screamed another.

"Wait!" I interrupted them, shielding Aqua from the Pokemon as they slowly drew near to us, wanting them to see reason that we weren't any threat to them. "We are just travelling through the region trying to get home. We are not a threat to any of you!"

A Boldore emerged from the crowd, kicking small rocks at us. "You are definitely spies sent by those horrific Pokemon. Trying to find our weaknesses and sending them back to your allies. We won't be fooled by your lies! Kill 'em!"

The crowd roared, preparing their moves one by one to attack us, an attack we might not come out of it alive if we didn't act fast enough, talk our way out of it to convince them in some way we weren't their enemy… or unless someone intervened and stopped everything, and so someone did.

"Hold up!" A Muk emerged from amongst the crowd and came up to us holding his arms up to silence the crowd. "Now don't tell me you forget about this Dewott? What he did for us?" The Muk approached me and patted my back. Both me and Aqua looked at one another, confused at what he was saying.

'What is he talking about?' I thought as I looked back at the Muk, not remembering anything about this Pokemon. But before I lost my memory, I rescued this Muk inside this cave. When the three clans of this cave were almost at war with one another, the water was poisoned and so they blamed each other for it, mostly the Poison type clan for contaminating the only water supply that flowed through the cave. We wanted to pass through the mountain cave, but until the dispute was solved we couldn't go anywhere, so to solve it I went inside the narrow tunnel were the water was to find further down to find an injured Muk collapsed near the stream of water, its sludge had contaminated the water supply. So after taking the Muk back to the others, the war between the three clans was resolved and peace was restored.

"This Dewott here, he saved all of our hides from a war we almost started amongst ourselves. He's a hero is what he is." Muk chuckled after patting my back with his sludge hand. "Can't believe you guys forgot about that."

The crowd of Pokemon spoke amongst themselves for a moment, pointing at me and Aqua. From what I could hear from the crowd, I heard; 'Is this him?' 'Are you sure?' 'He didn't have an eye patch over his left eye then.'

A Magnaton levitated to the front of the crowd and asked "Are you sure this Dewott is the same Dewott from before? We know what that Dewott's name is. Has this one even told us his? It may be a different one. So go ahead, tell us what your name is."

The crowd including the Muk all looked at me; the cave was now silent waiting patiently for me to tell them my name. "My name is Z-Zack…" Just as I had said that, the crowd began to murmur quietly, some gasping. "Um… this is Aqua, my friend. We're just passing through this mountain cave-"

"Zack, it's so good to see you again!" A Zubat flew up face to my face as other Pokemon from the crowd came rushing towards me, all of them happy and smiling.

"Nice to see you again! It's been too long." A Joltik hopped around me in a high pitched voice. A Ferroseed, a Tynamo, a Klink and a Drilbur all saying the same kind of things to me, greeting me and welcoming me back after not seeing me in so long.

Sitting around a small collection of glowing rocks gathered as if sitting around a campfire, though like a fire it still gave off a slight warm heat from it, Aqua and I were with the Muk from before, a Voltorb, a Boldore, and a Golbat, three leaders from the three clans of Chargestone Cave; Poison, Rock, and Thunder types sat together amongst the glowing warm rocks to talk. To talk about things I didn't remember, a reunion from almost a year ago, and then it would be about this enemy showing up at the cave.

"So you're telling us that you lost your memory? All of your memory; who you are, where you came from, everything?" The Voltorb asked, usually sounding a little angry as he spoke, but before the memory loss he sounded worried.

I nodded and spoke. "My name, and where I think I am from as well as a few snippets of my life are the only things I know about who I am. I don't even know how I ended up like this, covered in so many scars and with a left eye scratched out." Without realizing, my paw randomly moved up to my left eye and slightly rubbed it a little. "And this Oshawott here is my friend, her name is Aqua. She and I have been travelling to my hometown together for some time while she helps me regain my memory back."

"It is a pleasure to meet you Aqua." The Boldore greeted, introducing us to the three clan leaders and Muk. They didn't have nicknames and were just called by their species name; Voltorb, Golbat, and Boldore. "It saddens us to hear that you have lost your memories. If you'd like, we would gladly recall the things you did for us here, as well as talk about other things about your team you were travelling with that may help jog your memory."

Aqua and I looked at each other and nodded, so we asked them; "We would like that. Please tell us all you can." Seeing as though this was a good place as any to get some rest before heading back out, and a great opportunity to refill out water bottles and also gather more information about my past.

"Alright, let's start with Zack and his team showing up at the cave for the first time." Muk started, warming himself up with the glowing rocks in front of him. "There were five who entered the cave; two humans, and two Pokemon, oh! And let's not forget you; totalling to five who had stumbled upon the three clans all at each other's necks about to start a war with one another. The five wanted to pass through the mountain to reach the other side, but the clans of the mountain wouldn't allow anyone to pass unless the quarrel was resolved here first."

"He was travelling with two humans. Can you tell us about them?" Aqua asked.

"He was with two humans, a boy and a girl in their late teens I'd say." Boldore spoke up first, letting Voltorb speak next after that. "Their Pokemon were an Espeon, and some other Pokemon I don't really know what. It was red and white with amber eyes. It was also flying in midair. I believe the group Zack was with were on some important mission, a dangerous one if I remember correctly, not sure what it was to be honest."

"An Espeon travelling with me… so when I had that dream A few days ago meeting and talking to that Espeon, so I did know her. What were we travelling for?" I thought about the other two humans I was with, my trainers I had thought. But what about the red and white Pokemon we were with. "What Pokemon was I travelling with? And why can't I stop thinking about it?"

"Not sure which human Zack belonged to, might have been the both of them. I don't know how this whole Pokemon/Trainer thing works."

"What did they look like? Can you describe them?" I asked, wanting to know more about them. A description, hair color, or clothing, anything that may help me remember something about them.

"The boy was wearing some kind of white and blue jacket, black pants and shoes, all looked tattered and old. The boy had blonde hair with blue eyes, slightly tanned and looking like he hadn't eaten anything in months if not years for how skinny he looked." Golbat was talking about Isaac, but to me at that moment I could only try to imagine what this boy looked like, no sudden jolt in the brain or anything to help me remember anymore about him, there was hardly anything.

"The girl you were travelling with; black shirt, pants, boots, all black including hair. She looked kinda pale like she hadn't seen the light of day in a good while. She had a few Pokeball's attached on her belt, and since you as well as the other two Pokemon were there with them, maybe she belonged to you. I'm not really sure." Again like with Isaac, I tried to imagine what Sakura looked like, tried to remember her voice, her name, things we did in the past. But like with Isaac, no memory ever came.

The only things I got out of them were that the girl and boy I was travelling with seemed to talk quite a lot when they were together and while I was helping Muk and bringing him back into the cavern and healing him up. As for the other two Pokemon; Latias and Espeon, they were together most of the time while I was away often seen hanging around one of the tall glowing rocks coming out of the cavern wall near the entrance, talking about this cave, how it was nice, bluish and kind of cold.

"You know, Zack here after getting me outta that water and dragging my sludgy body back to the cavern, I was singing and wailing like a mad Pokemon as if I were a level 100 or something! Top of the world I was feeling. And ya know what?" Muk pointed to me while still talking to Aqua. "The moment he found me lying there in the water, I was all delirious, almost drunk-like; walls and floor moving like everything was all dizzy. I even got him to sing one of famous shanty's."

"Really?" Aqua smirked as she looked up at me, nudging my sides with her elbow. "Didn't take you for a singer, Zack. Was he good or was he bad at it?"

Muk laughed and turned to the other three leaders who laughed with him and Aqua shortly after. "He sang like a drunken singer filling the caves with a darn good tune that would make anyone's day if they ever heard it! So yes, it was pretty good!" I didn't remember that at the time, but I would and I remembered doing that, 'singing' only because I didn't know what the rest of the lyrics he was singing were or what to do in that moment. Unsure if it would help get the Muk moving faster than it was slow when trying to get him out of that tunnel.

So after I had helped Muk out of that tunnel, the clans stopped the war from ever starting and there was peace finally at the cave and the team I was travelling with were finally able to pass on through to proceed on to what only my lost memory knew what. I didn't remember any memory of the last time I was there, saving an injured Muk and restoring peace to the cave. But it was nice to learn about myself and the team I was travelling with, even learning that I sang with a Muk despite how embarrassing that sounded when he told to everyone.

I wanted to know more about these humans and the other two Pokemon I was with, perhaps they knew more. But before I could ask, several Pokemon approached the three leaders alerting them of the news of the intruders. Voltorb turned to the other two clan leaders and nodded. "Let's deal with this, here and now."

"Everyone, prepare for battle!" Ordered Boldore as the three leaders including Muk got up and ran as fast as they could towards the tunnel which would lead them towards the entrance of the cave, and we followed closely to investigate this enemy, curious as to whom it was at the entrance, and yet also fearing that it might be Pokemon we didn't want to see again.

"What's going on?" I asked as me and Aqua had to run to keep up with Muk moving as fast as he could to the entrance of the cave.

"A vile bunch of Pokemon appearing for the past three days now. They have done nothing but terrorize the Pokemon who live within this cave and the surrounding area in search of missing Pokemon from their clan. We have told them since day one we have not seen any Pokemon belonging to their clan and they still do not believe us, attacking any Pokemon they see. We believe a battle could start any day now with them."

Aqua and I glanced at each other as we ran together. Had Purrloin's gang already got this far searching for us? Or was it another clan searching for different Pokemon and we were alright to continue on without fear?

To be continued...

Trivia:

This chapter wasn't originally a two part chapter, or set within Chargestone Cave, they would've gone an alternative route. But this was changed after the alternative route version of this chapter seemed to be a filler story with nothing much else. So after remembering about how Zack had been to the Chargestone Cave in the previous story and met Muk and the three clans within, I thought it would be best for a reunion chapter of a sort.