- Ñëò journey -

- Neojourney -
.:.6.:.
Neverending Night

"Oh now feel it comin' back again
like a rollin' thunder chasing the wind
forces pullin' from the center of the earth again
I can feel it."

--Lightning Crashes-- by Live

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"Gary!" I exclaimed, watching him pick at a twig from his hair.

"Yeah, it's me." He seemed indignant and I glared at him as he recalled his Alakazam.

"What are you doing here?"

"I could be asking you the same." He glared back at me. "Why did you take off like that? We were supposed to come here together."

"Where are Ash and Misty?" I asked, deliberately changing the subject.

Gary looked worried. "Misty fell and Ash flew back to Goldenrod with her. I don't know how hurt she may be. We had all gotten here by flying; Ash and Misty on Charizard and me on Fearow. We were...I was worried about you. Why did you run off?"

I recalled my Pokemon, even a protesting Moonsong, and walked towards the waterfall. "Why don't you tell me Gary? Why not enlighten me with the fanclub you found at the 'Nightwalker'?"

"What's the 'Nightwalker'?"

"Do not play dumb with me Gary Oak!" I hissed, spinning around to face him. "I'm not an idiot and I know what I saw!"

"What did you see?"

I felt my throat tighten as I remembered. "You. I saw you in a club surrounded by girls and I saw you kissing one full on the lips. I could only wonder how many more after I left."

Gary looked shocked. "You came looking for us?"

"Yes!" I cried out. "You'd been gone nearly the whole night, what else was I supposed to do?"

"We did go clubbing and I was approached by some girls, but I never, never kissed any one of them. Ash and Misty can vouch for me." He paused, scratching at his nose. "We were playing video games the rest of the night in Ash's room. When we heard the explosion, we ran for you. When we saw that Pikachu had blown out the bathroom and found you gone, we started searching for you. When..."

"You expect me to believe that bullshit lie?" I inturrupted him. I paused and he flushed. "I knew it, all lies! You were just playing me after all." I bolted, running away again. I didn't know where I was running, just that it was away from him. I ran through more brush and suddenly the ground vanished from beneath my feet and I fell, screaming through the air.

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The act of falling head over heels wasn't something one only did when in love. After tumbling down a steep slope, I came to an abrupt halt; the ground that decided to catch me was hard and several unwelcomed pebbles felt like they'd taken up permanent residence in my back. I'd ended up sprawled on my back at the base of a hill that had a steep slope in what looked like a ravine of sorts.

Tall cliffs faced me and a stream gurgled over rocks about a hundred feet in front of me. I sighed and carefully took inventory of my body by moving one limb at a time. My neck and arms sore but otherwise okay, but my left leg felt like a Rhydon had stepped on it. I looked around to see how steep the hill was and I felt a flush creep up my neck. I could've run down it, but I had not been paying attention. I would've been fine.

I pushed myself into a sitting position against the hill and looked down at my leg. It was a mess, definately broken. My lower leg had twisted up and to the left, and bone was sticking through, obscenely white against the red blood. I closed my eyes against the gruesome sight, stopped trying to move when the pain got so bad that I saw stars against my closed eyelids. I opened them to see blood trickle coldly down the back of my leg. Blood. There wasn't a lot of blood, so hopefully I wouldn't bleed to death. Then again, I was no nurse so I could still be in huge trouble.

"Cirrus!" I heard a voice yell out.

"Stop running," I yelled back hoarsly. "There's a cliff, a cliff I've fallen off of."

"Whoa!" I heard Gary cry out. Small pebbles and cliff grit fell in a slight shower and I shielded myself from them with raised arms.

I looked up, but the hill was sloped so that I could only see the top fringe of his hair. I was sure he couldn't see much of me either.

"Can you walk?" He called down.

I shook my head, then yelled back, "My leg is broken, can you get to me?"

"No, and Mystikal can only teleport one person at a time."

"What about your Fearow?"

"The area is too small for it," He paused. "I'll fly back to Goldenrod and get someone for you. Don't move!" He called out his Fearow and the two took off in a snap of wings.

"Like I can go anywhere." I muttered, flicking a pebble with my fingers.

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Time passed very quickly and it got dark quickly in this valley I'd fallen into. Though the sun wasn't set fully yet, the walls on the opposing side were high enough to block it. I got cold quickly too.

Taking a last sip from my canteen, the water had gotten warm and tinny tasting, I considered releasing one of my Pokemon, but something held me from it. Probably the cold or maybe it was shock. Yeah, that had to be it, shock.

Then the howling started.

The sound was bouncing off of the walls of the ravine I fell into and I was unable to tell in what direction it came from. I looked up at the stars that glittered coldly, as if mocking me from their lofty heights. What had I gotten myself into?

Footsteps came from the bend in the ravine to my left, more from the darkness to my right. I grabbed at two Pokeballs from my waist, any two, I didn't care who was inside. Wait...Something wasn't right, the Pokeballs I held were sparking. I looked down at my belt to see that one more was doing the same...the other two were gone.

My heartbeat began to race and I looked around to see if I could see them, but I couldn't. They were gone and I didn't know who had been contained in them. I tried to release the Pokemon I held in my hands, but the Pokeballs wouldn't open. They had been too badly damaged by my fall. Once more, I cursed my stupidity.

Soft growls caught my attention and I looked up to see red eyes peering out through the darkness, several pairs of red eyes, gleaming and vanishing and reappearing. Then one stepped closer so that I could see it....it was a Houndoom! They were all Houndooms!

Freaking out seemed to be a good option and I kept repeating, "Oh. My. God." while trying to back closer to the wall. Pain was fueling me to move and my fingers dug into the crumbling hillside behind me.

They edged closer and closer and I closed my eyes, praying for a quick death when suddenly a stiff wind gusted up and the Houndoom closest to me yelped in surprise.

I opened my eyes to see a huge dark shape taking down the Dark Pokemon. It roared as one attacked it and with a laugh, it attacked them with...blue fire. Suddenly, the last of the Houndoom ran off and the big black shape turned to face me, and I fainted.

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I woke to a crackling noise and I cracked one eye open to see a small campfire. I opened both eyes to see that I was in a small cave, a blanket was tucked around me. I had been propped half-sitting up against a wall. A small tin of water was near me and I drank it greedily. I had just set the empty tin down when someone walked into the cave. I tried moving, but my leg protested and I sank back against the wall. Celui qui soit, soyez.

"Hello," A male voice echoed around me. "Are you feeling better?"

I looked up to see, to my surprise, the guy from the 'Nightwalker.' "What are...how did you get here?"

His blue eyes twinkled with mirth. "By Seel. The ocean has been very calm lately."

"Okay, then how did I get in here?"

"By Rapidash. After that Black Charizard fought off the Houndoom, it left. I had seen the whole thing and decided it would be best to move you to a safe place. You won't be bothered by any stray Pokemon here." He settled on the other side of the campfire and looked at me.

Something about him was odd, he was too different to be normal. "I don't believe you."

"Maybe you should and maybe you shouldn't." He paused. "You're very perceptive, Cirrus Blaine, very smart."

"How do you know my name?" I was suddenly chilled.

He closed his eyes. "I know a lot about you. How you're from a parallel dimension, how you saved this one, how you are going to try to save the same one again...and I know that you will fail."

"How."

"Because I will stop you."

It was then that I noticed his eyes were reflecting like a cat's would, how...how the old lady's had. "You are the Dark Charizard."

He smiled broadly. "Very good!"

"You were also the guy at the Adoption Fair and the old lady."

"Ah-ah," He shook a finger, "You forgot one more. Does the name Mystique ring a bell?"

I gasped, "But..how? I..I..I paid a lot of money for you!!!"

"No, I am not that Pokemon. I merely created her," He stretched like a cat. "But you are still mine."

"Say what?"

"I can't have you going around, threatening to take care of me. I know you mean to kill me. How do you think that makes me feel?"

"I don't care," I looked away from him, from the mesmorizing campfire. "I don't care because I don't think you have any feelings. How could a monster like you, have something as normal as feelings?"

He sat back, looking aghast, and held one hand to his chest. "I do so have feelings! Why, when I shoved that sniveling, yet incredibly annoying, red head off the cliff I felt so happy! You couldn't possibly understand the...the satisfaction such an action brings. Then there is a feeling called...smug...I think that's correct. That 'Nightwalker' club never existed, it was all an illusion to get you to become jealous and suspicious. It also came with an unexpected bonus, it caused you to become as stupid as all humans are and you fell down a hill." He laughed, finding it hysterical.

"I still don't care," I glared at him, feeling horrified inside. "You killed people, you terrorized people, you hurt my friends, and you will be stopped and it will be by me."

"Oh really?" He got up, circled around the campfire. "Why don't you see, what it's like to have people wanting to kill you?"

"I don't think so. You see, people like me and nothing you do can make a difference."

He stood in front of me, then crouched down. His features wavered, as if in a heat wave, and suddenly he looked exactly like Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire and in Brad Pitt's voice, he said, "But you have no choice."

He leaned closer to me and I could feel the heat from his body and I fainted again.

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A.N.: Uh-oh. Looks like this is one tricky Pokedemon. Uh, okay, so like, how is this coming along? I'm trying to get Gary's character down, but I think he's pretty o.o.c. What do you guys think?
Oh, BTW, for those of you who don't know French (like me), Celui qui soit, soyez means What will be, will be. I think the Latin was something like Que serra, serra, but I don't know Latin. Or whatever.

Teaser: What has the Pokedemon done? How will it get people to suddenly hate Cirrus? Will it force all Trainer's Pokegear to play Mmm-Bop on repeat? Boy, Mew is gonna be pissed when she finds Cirrus disobeyed her...

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