Chapter 10: Pokestar's Princess
(Plasma Frigate)
"Lord Ghetsis, I have come with some news." A man with white hair and a purple overcoat with black lines and a purple pope-like hat walked into a room. In there, there was a light green haired man, wearing a red metal eyepatch over his left eye with a star-printed purple cape around his pearly white armor.
"Ah, Zinzolin, what brings you here." Ghetsis asked.
"Well, my lord, according to one of our grunts, it would appear that Princess Petra is now traveling with a young and upcoming trainer. He was recruited to the Plasma Knights after he rescued her from our attempted kidnapping in Aspertia City."
"Hmmm." Ghetsis looked down at his tablet as the image of a boy with Hazel brown eyes and dark black hair wearing an outfit going into a dark mage's style.
"Erick Heart…" he said, leering down at the boy. "A young trainer originally from Sinnoh…noted to have an incredible mind and knowledge of Pokemon and their capabilities. As well as having...an unnatural amount of...luck?"
"Lord Cyrus, if Cloress's Hypothesis is correct, we could have a young keeper on our hands."
"I see…" he growled. "Well, in any event, we still need to focus on the capturing of Zekrom, we have Kyurem, and the damn traitor has Reshiram."
"I understand…" Zinzolin replied. "But...what about Victini and Meloetta?"
"The princess will have her use to us...but she isn't necessary until later. Meloetta could be of use to us if we were to get our hands on the Forces of Nature Kami Trio. But that requires us to get our hands on the Princess."
"Lord Ghetsis, she is in the accompany of still a developing trainer. Wouldn't it be best to kidnap her now? We have the ability to do so!"
"I want to focus on getting everything ready first." Ghetsis snarled. "If we take the damn princess now, we'll have a bigger issue."
"But sir...you must know that if our grunts suddenly stop trying to apprehend her, then it will look suspicious right?!"
"Who said anything about calling the grunts back?" Ghetsis asked.
"Sir...forgive any rudeness that may rub off, but, do you not have confidence in those that remained loyal to you? All of their performances are exceedingly well."
"Then why haven't we won yet?!"
"Sir, this seems a bit unorthodox."
"Give the boy and the princess a bit of time together." Ghetsis said, turning away. "The more he plays hero, the more she'll fall for him, and then, we can strike at the perfect time."
"Wow! This place is incredible!" Petra exclaimed as she and Erick exited the route gate.
He had to admit, she wasn't wrong. The place looked fabulous, compared to the polluted looking city, a royal red carpet was the flooring towards a large studio and movie hall where films were created and then shown. He saw large studio trucks and trailers for actors, as well as import ships for popcorn and soda.
"Truly stunning…" he said, sighing a little.
The Unovan Princess gave him a playful little punch. "Come on, you can't say this isn't fun," she said. "They usually have starter film productions for people if you want to try. If the show is good enough, they'll even air it on television! How about we do that?"
"I don't know a damn thing about acting." Erick replied.
"Vee, Eevee!"
"Oh, come on," Petra pleaded, "Sunny says he wants to try!"
"I thought they used Rental Pokemon or something like that?!" Erick replied.
Petra rolled her eyes as she grabbed his hand, making Erick blush heavily as she dragged him across the red carpet walkway and up to the studio, where there were a bunch of Pokemon movie posters advertising for help.
"These all sound stupid…" Erick muttered. "Zubatman and Starly 2? Dawn of Planet of the Mankeys? The Epic Adventures of Rioluman? Snorlax in Dreamland? Ariados 3?"
Petra sighed as she turned to her Knight-in-training. So much for trying to spend some bonding time together. What was the point in doing something if he didn't want to do it?
"OH MY MY MY! You're just stunningly perfect!" Both trainers turned their heads towards a tall man with ginger hair and blue eyes, he walked up to them and immediately walked through Erick, going straight to Petra.
"You have the looks, the charm, and the beauty!" the man said. "You'll be perfect for this movie!"
Erick rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. Petra, seemed rather taken aback.
"Come now," the man grabbed her hand and started to move. "I'll take you to the make up truck so we can get you ready for filming-"
"Sunny, Take Down!"
The White Eevee charged into the man with full force, knocking the man down on the ground.
"Well that was rather rude Erick…" Petra scoffed.
The man pushed himself up and released a Grimer from his pokeball. "Damn brat." he snarled. "What gave me away?!"
"You overplayed yourself. Plus, you didn't even acknowledge her." Erick replied, shrugging. "Sunny, use tackle!"
The White Eevee charged into the pile of sludge, pushing it back, Petra took her opportunity to move over behind Erick, then pushing Ares out.
"Help out Sunny," she said. "Use Headbutt!"
The mushroom Pokemon headbutted the Grimer with a powerful push of force. The Grimer retaliated by firing a mud bomb back at them, the ball of mud exploded on the ground, covering the Eevee and Shroomish in mud as they both suddenly found themselves stuck.
"Poison Gas! Then Sludge!" The Plasma Grunt snarled.
The Grimer unleashed a purple cloud of gas that surrounded both Pokemon, then, it fired a purple ball of goo, that exploded on the crowd, launching both Pokemon back.
"Sunny, Heal Bell!" Erick commanded.
Sunny let out a purr in the chime of a bell ringing, a light green light surrounded him and Ares, removing the poisonous bubbles from their bodies.
"Ares, use attract!" Petra commanded.
Ares gave a little wink as pink light in the shape of heart shot out, the hearts surrounded the Grimer and pushed in, the pile of sludge's eyes suddenly became heart shaped.
"Grimer...use Sludge again!"
The Grimer refused to move, almost as if it was infatuated by Ares.
"Go Sunny, take your opportunity, use Iron Tail!"
Sunny's tail turned to steel as he smashed it down on the pile of sludge's head. Grimer swirled into the ground and melted down, swirls developing in its eyes.
The Plasma Grunt scowled as he returned Grimer to its pokeball
"Curse you princess…" He muttered. "Just you wait...our lord will get his hands on you one day, it's only a matter of time." He released a Honchkrow from his pokeball and hopped on the back of it. Soaring off into the air.
"Well...he's certainly not very bright." Erick said, rubbing the back of his head. "I don't think our Pokemon could've taken a Honchkrow on. Especially if it had Superpower."
"Those who remained loyal to Ghetsis were often given Knighthoods simply as favors." Petra replied. "These Knights were notorious for their awful decision making when it came to battling. I'd assume this one still hasn't learned his lesson. Or maybe he's concerned that an actual Plasma Knight will show up after being stalled."
"Alright...now that this is over with," Erick replied. "Let's find Roxie's father, I suppose we should check the theater."
The two of them arrived at the golden movie theater and walked in. As they approached the reception desk, the door to one theater opened, showing a bald man with golden hair on his sides walking out, followed by an older man wearing a captain's hat. The man in the hat looked awfully similar to Roxie.
The two approached the reception desk, and the bald man spoke to the woman at the desk.
"Lay it on me, Dianna," The man said, wiping his brow. "What's our score."
"Professional Criticism gives it a 4/10" The woman said. "Rotten Tomato berries are 2.1/10. Audiences are calling for us to throw the series out the window. Claiming "Shameful attempt at a revival, nothing more than a cash grab."
"I see...rather unfortunate...but we were prepared for this, eh Captain?"
"Yep, I guess being an Actor is tougher than I thought…"
"But sir...what about our main mascot? We can't keep him under this."
"Hmm…." The director's eyes fell on Erick and Petra. "Hey! You two over there with the Eevee and Shroomish! Are you all trainers?!"
"Uh...yeah? Why do you ask?"
"Splendid!" The director said. "We just hit rock bottom in the industry for a failed reboot of a rather popular series...I'm not sure if you've watched it...but...it's called the Incredible Darumaka! Starring, Damage, the Darumaka. Well...long story short, the industry can't allow us to hold onto it any longer, so, would you be willing to take care of it?"
"Uh...sure…" Erick said. "I guess I could take care of it."
"Splendid!" The man took out a luxury ball and handed it to him. "He might take some getting used to at first, but he'll be fine."
Erick just blinked as put the Luxury Ball away. He felt the ball close off as it was magically transported to Professor Juniper's lab. "Don't worry, he shouldn't be too much trouble for us."
"Anyway, I assume Roxie sent the two of ya?" The captain hat man asked. "Well, in that case, you must be trainers...I assume you want to take the ferry over to Castelia City?"
"Yeah, if that's alright with you at least." Petra replied. "We would be grateful if you could."
"Well, don't you worry about a thing, young lady." The man chortled. "I can get ya there in about four hours, of course...based on the time, you'll have to come to the Ferries tomorrow."
"That's fine by us," Erick muttered. "Not like I have anything important I need to do."
"Splendid, I'll see you two kiddos tomorrow in that case!" Roxies father then began to walk out of Pokestar studio.
Erick sighed as he and Petra made their way back to the Pokemon Center, the theatre had closed down for the night, so they were unable to see a movie. However, his thoughts were more focused on the princess's pendant. He would love more than anything to run tests with it, be the first person to learn more about them. Unfortunately, that seemed outside the realm of possibilities.
His head suddenly flashed again, getting the image of an island with a large lighthouse looking structure in the center. The small weird rabbit-like Pokemon flew around for a little, giving a smile as it landed on top.
He clapped a hand to his head, snapping himself back to reality.
"Erick-kun?" Petra asked.
"Don't do that…" Erick muttered.
"You uh...you sorta spaced out...what's wrong?"
"I'm uh...I've been getting these weird visions, it's of this weird rabbit-like Pokemon. It's got an orange V on the top of its head. Two little Hermes wings. Big blue eyes. It's on some island looking place. It's got this weird lighthouse on an island, it looks like a tourist destination."
"Oh, Liberty Island?!" Petra asked. "That's an island off by Castelia City, it's said that a Legendary Pokemon called Victini lives there. It...it actually happens to be on our way to Castelia City, we should go check it out! It could be fun! Maybe you'll find the Pokemon your visions are about!"
"Um...well…" Erick replied. "I...I suppose we could. As long as it's on the way."
"Superb! Now, because you were spaced out, I had to go ahead and rent us our rooms tonight in the Pokemon Center. Now, because all the double bed rooms were booked, we'll have to share a bed again and-"
"Excuse me?!" Erick sputtered, his face going bright red again. "We have to share a bed again?!"
"Hey, don't give me that look, it was either we stay here for free and get access to showers and stuff. Or, you waste a lot of our spending money on the fancy hotel up the street! OR we go back out to the outskirts of Virbank and campout."
"Fine, whatever," Erick muttered.
The two opened the door to their room, it was a small room, akin to a cheap little hotel room, almost maybe like a skimmed down apartment, and, as Petra had stated, only one bed.
Erick muttered to himself as he fixed himself up and climbed into bed, the princess joining him a few minutes later. He watched as she took off her tiara and placed it on the nightstand next to the bed. He noticed that her chocolate hair almost sparkled in the moonlight, feeling another blush arise over his face.
"Am I...Am I falling for her…" he wondered. "No, no, that's stupid. She's a princess. Of course she'll look pretty."
He turned over, lying on his back and started to drift away to sleep, Sunny at the foot of his bed, Ares by Petra, but he drifted off before her could feel the princess's hand fall on his chest, to feel his heartbeat once again as they both drifted away into a nice, long sleep.
That's all for today's chapter, I hope you all enjoyed it. I really don't like how in the anime, Ash and Co can never recognize a trap from Team Rocket, I've always much preferred smarter protagonists in all honesty, that's why Erick is a lot smarter than average.
Oh well, I do plan to continue certain tropes that started in my Alolan story A Galactic Alolan Journey, so expect to see more from Battle Bonding, and Legendary Pokemon lore.
If you enjoyed this chapter, you can let me know, thoughts are always appreciated, or just a nice chapter.
PKMN Teams:
Erick Heart:
Sunny - Eevee
Nagini - Servine
Slippy - Poliwhirl
Terra - Espurr
Trinity - Toxel
Argon - Aron
Damage - Darumaka
Petra Gropius:
Ares - Shroomish
See you all, next time!