Chapter 6: Terror

Inside the Restricted Zone, North of Route 212, Sinnoh Region, 0200 hours:

Eric was still watching the tree line ahead of him as we listened to the approaching footsteps that came from behind. It had been an hour into his guard shift in that same, boring fighting position. He slowly turned and was happy to see it was Joe, coming to relieve him of his duty.

"Hey, man, you're good to go back to sleep," Joe said quietly, crouching down once he reached the sandbag-walled hole. "I got it from here, get some rest, bud."

Eric silently thanked him, crawling out of the dirt hole. Once he was standing, he wiped the dirt from his pants, then bumped elbows with his childhood friend. Joseph didn't waste any time. He quickly jumped down into the fighting position and began his guard shift. Eric watched for only a split moment, then turned and made his way back to his one-man tent. Once there, he made no time removing his vest and helmet, quietly tossing them to the leaf-covered ground and sat on his sleeping mat. Removing his boots and socks, he turned and laid down, allowing himself a sigh. He rubbed his eyes, closing them to finally get some sleep after a long day of drilling.

As the young man was just about to drift off into a deep, dreamless sleep, he felt a presence. Opening his eyes once more, he looked to the opening of his tent. There she was, sitting with her legs tucked under her. The creature's perfect, white dress was spread along the ground around her, with spaces created between the long, wide strips of the silk-like material. Between some parts of the dress, her thin legs were exposed. Her skin was as white as her dress, and was without a single flaw.

The Pokemon looked at the human with the smallest grins, as if she was shy and nervous to be where she was. Eric at the moment could only stare in disbelief at her, into her ruby-red eyes. What was this Pokemon doing? He thought to himself. He was scared to a small extent. Scared that someone in his squad would spot her, and then he would be in trouble for interacting with the wildlife. He continued to stare at her blankly, causing her to tilt her head slightly.

She felt his concern. She knew that he was worried about her being spotted by the other humans, though she did not understand why he would be fearful of it. Maybe it was because the others would attempt to capture her? The Gardevoir did not know, so she decided to see if the human male before her would instead come with her somewhere where nobody would be able to bother them.

The Gardevoir still had her head tiled slightly, only moving it to tilt the other way. After another moment of silence, the psychic-type held out her hand towards Eric. The soldier shifted his gaze from her emerald hair-framed face and down to her three-fingered hand. He then placed his hand onto hers, and her fingers wrapped around his. She then concentrated her thoughts, thinking of the perfect place to go with him. She then thought of the spot, then squeezed her mind to teleport.

Eric felt the world around him twist and smear as the two was both consumed by a dim flash of light. When the light faded away, there was only a sleeping mat in the now empty small tent.

Nuvema Town, Unova Region, 0200 hours:

The local police never saw them coming. They could never be prepared for the Hell that would be unleashed upon this small town. Gunfire erupted, and the Unovan officers fell without barely a fight. The grunts of Team Plasma, wearing their black and gray uniforms but without any insignia, advanced down the street with their captured Type 89 rifles, stolen from armories in Sinnoh.

What Team Plasma had planned to do here, was nothing more than an act of terrorism. Bloodshed of innocence to make a statement and rouse a response from the Unovan government. They wanted to cause chaos in order to push their objectives closer to what they ultimately wanted them to do. The leaders of this assault on the town, Schwarz and Weiss, motioned to their grunts to enter homes. The civilians of the town were beginning to panic already, having been woken to the sounds of gunfire and the screams of the now-dead police.

Doors got kicked in. Men, women and children, all still in their sleeping wear, were dragged to the streets and lined up. Several men tried to fight back, but being unarmed only meant their quick and bloody death. The remaining civilians begged for mercy. They cried and pleaded with these mysterious black and gray-cladded soldiers. Their pleas fell on deaf ears, though. One by one, the grunts of Plasma began executing the civilians, starting with the men who did not fight initially.

"Stop this madness!" a woman screamed, her Pokemon at her side.

The grunts of Team Plasma turned, some scoffing and others laughing at the woman who now stood before them. She wore the long, white lab coat that was common among Pokemon Professors, with light brown hair that was still neatly done. Her green eyes stared daggers into the souls of Schwarz and Weiss. At her side was her partner Pokemon. It was barely less than a meter in height, and was what appeared to be wrapped in a cloth-like membrane, almost like bandages. Only its pink head was exposed, with a pair of green stripes running down its face. A black star adorned its forehead, with a pair of small eyes glaring at the grunts of Team Plasma. The Accelgor crossed its arms, determined to fight these invaders.

"Leave at once!" Professor Juniper yelled. Her emotions were high, as she saw the bodies of the innocence already littered in the streets. "I don't know why you all are here, but leave us now! No more innocent people need to die!"

She knew that what she was doing was practically suicide, but she also knew that she needed to stall the attackers just long enough for the distress signal to be sent to Castelia City. From there, more police or even the Unovan Defense Force could try to respond.

The members of Team Plasma laughed even harder at her. Schwarz stepped forward, reaching for a pokeball on his belt. As he did, though, Weiss stopped him.

"No," she ordered, lowering her voice to a whisper so the Professor couldn't hear from that distance. "You know our orders. No Pokemon. This needs to look like a straight-forward attack on Unova."

Schwarz glared at the Professor, then to his partner. He nodded, then turned and stepped away.

"I will not say it again!" Professor Juniper screamed out as tears streamed down her face. "Leave Nuvema befo-"

A gunshot rang out, silencing the Professor before she could finish her last words. Weiss stared down the sights of her pistol, that which was aimed directly at the Pokemon Professor. Smoke lightly wafted from the barrel of the gun, then dissipated as she lowered it.

Juniper slowly looked down at her chest. The red of her blood was already seeping through her clothing as she dropped to her knees, then fell to her side. Within moments, she was dead. Her Accelgor let out a heartbreaking cry for its trainer, but was then too dropped to the dirt by several bullets from one of the Plasma grunts. The members of Plasma then all turned their attention back to the civilians that they gathered. Bringing their rifles up, they readied themselves for what they was about to do.

"Let's make this quick!" Schwarz yelled out his order. "Kill them all, then burn the homes before we ditch this place! We need to leave before the Unovan Army gets here!"

The grunts all silently nodded in response to their commander, then opened fire on the innocents as they pleaded and begged.

Inside the Restricted Zone, North of Route 212, Sinnoh Region, 0215 hours:

Eric's head swirled, and he almost felt like vomiting. It was as if he was weightless, then suddenly all his weight hit him at once. He was standing in a small clearing. The moonlit sky was clear above him in the circle of trees. The stars shone with their dim lights, with the moon giving a nice, blue light over the area. It was still hot at this time, though the humidity of the day was no longer hanging in the air.

Eric kept his eyes to the sky, wondering where he was at. The Pokemon he met those several days ago had brought him here, and he was curious as to why. He took a step forward, his bare feet crunching the leaves beneath him. Slowly, he brought his gaze straight forward, towards the center of the clearing. At the middle was a small pond, about ten meters across, and appearing no deeper than waist deep.

He was taking in the view when the Pokemon who brought him here slowly hovered up to be next to him. Her sudden presence somewhat startled him, but that feeling quickly went away when he saw her. She had a friendly smile, and had her hands clasped behind her back. Her eyes were fixated on him, and her mouth opened and let out a slight vocalization. The sound of bells were let out, and Eric smiled back, though he did not understand what she had said.

The soldier found himself fixated on her wholly. He was studying her appearance, taking in more now in the brighter moonlight than what he could those nights ago in the dark fighting position. Her dress was much longer than her body, trailing behind her. As loose and floppy as it was around her waist and below, it was much more form fitting around the torso. As her garments reached her chest and shoulders, the color changed from the snow-white to the same shade of emerald-green of her hair. The young man wondered to himself if it was actual clothing, or merely an extension of her body, as with some other Pokemon that appeared to be wearing clothing. His eyes marveled her form with no more than innocent curiosity than a child. His attention then drifted to the horn sticking from her chest. It was most peculiar. It had the appearance of something like a shark fin, though not pointed, with a slightly more pointed end. It was scarlet-red, and appeared to be rock hard, almost like granite.

The Gardevoir watched the human study her, and she was not offended in the least as she was doing the same to him. Never before has she ever gotten to study something like a human. She took in every detail she could make out. His dark blond hair. His blue eyes. The small scar just below his left eye. His hands intrigued her, with their five digits versus her three. It amazed her as to how similar the basic shape of her people to his could be, with yet so many differences. She found him to be most aesthetically pleasing to her, as odd as she found that with herself. The Gardevoir could feel that he felt the same about her, and was warmed by the silent compliment.

After several moments without a word, it was the human who was first to break it. The words he spoke almost startled the Gardevoir, bringing her back into reality.

"So, why did you bring me here?" he asked.

It was a simple question, yet one that she was ill-prepared to answer. It wasn't as if she could answer with words anyways, as she did not know the human language. She was barely able to make out his own words, only instead feeling it through his thoughts, intents and emotions. She thought for a split moment, deciding how best to respond and get him to understand her. After a moment, she gave her response.

Eric's head could now feel something prodding around in his mind. He instantly knew it was her. It was a feeling like she was trying to tell him something, and that she was trying to avoid using her vocal words to express it. After several moments, he finally began to feel the message within his thoughts. Images. Images of the first time they met, though through here eyes. She was sharing her memory of that night. It was followed by feelings of happiness, friendliness and curiosity, followed by slight shyness. Her eyes began to wonder around aimlessly, as if she was trying to think of other things to show and convey. After a split second, her eyes concentrated on him again. In his mind, there was images of him and her talking, and within this particular thought the two were sharing random things between them. Eric smiled slightly, allowing a small chuckle that was responded by her with a slight blush of her cheeks.

"You want to us to get to know each other." he stated. In his mind, he felt an elation, as if she was telling him that he was correct. He took a step towards her, then continued, "Well, let's start with names. I'm Eric."

The Pokemon tilted her head, then let a smile, followed by feelings of friendliness that flowed from her to him. She gave emotions that conveyed that she liked his name, then pointed to herself, then up to the star-covered sky.

Eric was confused. He glanced up at the sky, then back to her as he tried to think about what she was trying to tell him. The human knew she was telling him her name, but he didn't understand. He pondered it more, but still didn't know.

"Y-your name is Sky?" he asked, to which she shook her head, her forefinger pointing more at the stars themselves now. He tried again, "Star?"

She bit her lip, shrugged, then lightly shook her head, but then conveyed in his thoughts that he's not entirely wrong. The Gardevoir then gave thoughts of her as an egg laying under a starry night, followed by thoughts that told Eric that she was in fact female.

While Eric blushed slightly at the gender confirmation, he pondered more to the mental images of the egg under the stars. After a moment, he gave his best guess. If it involved her gender, and her as an egg and the starry night, the idea of her name came to him. He was unsure of how correct he would be, but decided to say it out loud.

"D-daughter of the Stars?" he asked, much to her elation of happiness.

Her entire body almost glowed in a dim, blue light as her mind conveyed happiness at his correct guess. She smile widely, her hands clapping together quickly as she jumped into the air momentarily with the excitement of getting her message across.

"Daughter of the Stars," Eric repeated himself. "It's a beautiful name, though now I have to ask: What kind of Pokemon are you?"

The Daughter of the Stars knew this should be a much easier answer to give. While her native language of the Pokemon would be impossible for him to understand, there would always be one word he'd get: her species' name.

With a smooth breath and sublime voice, she said, "Gardevoir."

"Gardevoir," Eric parroted her. He had heard of that Pokemon before, and was surprised that he never had encountered one before her.

Still, he was happy to finally meet one, and even more so now that he knew they had more capabilities to communicate than other Pokemon.

"A Gardevoir," he said again. "Daughter of the Stars."

She gave a slight curtsy with her name, elating a small chuckle from the two of them. Another moment of silence went by, before Eric decided to speak up once again.

"While I find your name beautiful, would it be okay if I gave you another to call you?" he asked her.

The Gardevoir pondered the question, then decided to give him consent to do so. With a nod and a smile, the soldier continued.

"Well, I would want it to be something that honors your actual birth name...," he thought for several moments, looking up at the sky. Finally, he had it, "Alright. Your named for the stars that you was born under. Stars are referred to by humans as being celestial bodies. How does Celestial sound, or even Celest for short?"

The Pokemon didn't even have to consider it. She loved the sound of it. With no time wasted, she conveyed her love for the name to him, earning her a smile from him.

"I'm glad you like it, Celestial," he said before happening to glance at his watch. When he saw the time, he almost panicked. "Oh no!"

Celestial jumped with his reaction, showing and giving off feelings of worry. He quickly felt her, then waved it off.

"No no, not you," he explained, "It's just really late and I need to get back to sleep in my tent."

The two made eye contact again, and the Gardevoir smiled to him, relieved it wasn't anything bad. She then floated to him, and gently reached out and touched his chest.

At that moment, Eric felt the entire world twist and blur around him again. Within a split second, he found himself back at his tent.

He looked around, trying to find the Pokemon he was just talking with. Not to his surprise, she was gone, leaving him alone at his tent. The soldier smiled, turning to sit on his sleeping mat. Letting out a sight, he pivoted and laid down. Closing his eyes, he whispered one last thing before falling asleep.

"Goodnight, Celest."