Chapter Three
"Realization of Disaster."
By Shadow~Of~Shadows
Disclaimer: Pokémon isn't mine, and suing me wouldn't do a whole lot of good anyway...
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Lyra finally awoke from her induced slumber a considerable amount of time later. She stared around, and saw only darkness. Shaking the fuzziness of sleep from her eyes, she blinked. It was still dark.
She reached out and felt of one of the walls. It was cold, damp stone. Tracing it to the bottom, she found that a small pool of water had collected there. She shuddered, for who knew what was hidden down here?
Certainly not her...
All of a sudden it came back to her in a flash. The strange contraption, the two strange people, the equally strange Pokémon, and how her and Rex and Blood had been...
Blood! Rex! Where were they? Could they be in this same cell? She didn't know how large it was.
"Blood?! Rex!" she said, quietly, voice scratchy from being unused for so long. She swallowed, throat barely functioning, and heard an answering whimper from somewhere to her left. She shuffled in that direction. "Rex?"
She heard a weak bark, from directly in front of her, and threw herself forward, wrapping her arms around the Growlithe. "Rex, are you okay?" she asked him. He barked in reply. She didn't know how she could understand him, but she could. Yes, he was okay, just a bit shaken and his head was a bit fuzzy. Lyra smiled. At least he was okay. She carefully led him back over to the pool of water, because she'd felt a piece of somewhat dry wood around here somewhere. Maybe she could use it as a torch.
She found it again, and picked it up. She grabbed it by the narrower end, and held the larger, thicker end up to Rex's nose.
"Here, Rex, can you light this?" she asked. He barked an affirmative and spat a tiny, very tiny ember on it. The drier wood at the top caught flame and Lyra held the torch up to look around.
The room wasn't very big--it was almost medieval as cells go. The walls were dank, damp gray stone, the floor the same. Water trickled down some walls and collected in pools, like the one she'd originally found. She held up the torch a little and looked around, sadly. Blood wasn't here. She wondered where he was. The only way in--or out--was a VERY thick and equally solid metal door. It was so thick that if Rex could work up a blaze big and hot enough to melt through it, she'd burn to death. She sighed, sadly, and looked around again, then put the torch in the gap between two stones and began collecting loose spars of wood. They weren't sturdy enough to use for weapons, and she didn't know where they'd come from, but they'd be excellent as torches.
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Merlin Darkmoon leaned against the bars of the Dragonite's cage and looked inside. His tranquilizer rifle was leaning against a nearby wall, but he hoped he didn't have to use it. This magnificent beast was obviously mourning. He rubbed one of the cold, metal bars with his glove, and felt the chill come through the black leather. The Dragonite was lying on that same cold metal. Why didn't he get cold?
He then heard something. At first he thought it was his imagination, but then he realized it wasn't. He heard a pitiful whisper, barely loud enough to register or dicepher, and leaned closer to the metal. He realized it was the Dragonite.
"Lyra...Lyra...where are you?" he whispered, over and over, unceasing. Merlin walked around to that side of the cage, his natural compassion towards Pokémon overcoming his Rocket training. His own Pokémon were his friends until the end, and he felt sorry for this one. He kneeled in front of the cage and looked into the Dragonite's sad, crimson-tinted eyes.
"Is Lyra...your trainer? The girl who was with you?" Merlin asked quietly, but sure that the Dragonite could hear him.
"Lyra...is not a trainer yet...she only has me, and Rex..." he coughed. "Plus, she comes from the ... past."
Merlin looked at Dragonite. "What do you mean?"
The Dragonite turned his full attention and gaze to Merlin. "You must promise me that you will never tell anybody, not even your friends or your boss, even under pain of death. If you tell anybody you will be responsible for the destruction of a civilization."
Merlin turned his icy-blue gaze to the Dragonite's. "I promise."
The Dragonite nodded. "Call me Blood, that is my name." he said, then began his tale.
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Many, many years ago, a group of settlers struck out to find a new place to live. They travelled across the ocean and finally found a lush island. It was rather big, on the very brink of huge, and had natural springs that would last them a lifetime, the sea for fishing, forests for fruit and natural trade, and several natural species of Pokémon, mostly of the bird-kind. They settled down to enjoy a good life.
However, they did not know that they had disturbed the secret island of the ancients. The ancients decided to ring in the island as a punishment for the unholy tresspassing, and enlisted the help of the almighty Black and Crystal Dragonites to do so. With a crack and a pop, the Black Dragonite used his powers to make the night unearthly, frightening all but one back to their homes. The Crystal used her powers to ring the island with lava, then they both pulled it up into the ring that surrounds the island to today. Though it appears to be rock, it is an amalgam created by the two most powerful Dragonites in history. Acid, carving, nothing will go through it. A few things might, but they would be equally destructive to the rest of the world, I imagine. Anyway, the Black and Crystal Dragonites were my mother and father. They had several other children, I understand, which escaped and formed the first colonies, but they dropped my egg onto the beach on accident. The one person that had been brave enough to watch it all picked up my egg, and had the intelligence and compassion to hide it.
His name was Terrence Quicksilver. An odd last name, but it fits. All of his kin are somewhat small, but quick, both of body and mind. Lyra is his grand-daughter. They all have the same characteristics. Silver hair, violet eyes, bold spirit. The truth about your "Legendary Ring" is that it surrounds the island. They have no advanced technology. They still use horse-pulled carts and plows today. Girls still wear dresses, and children are strictly obedient, except for her. She was amazed at your...helicopter? I'm still new at this...and wanted to know what it was. She doesn't know that much, but she is so willing to learn.
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Merlin listened to it all in a dumb silence. Two legendary Dragonites had created the ring? It seemed crazy...impossible...but it all fit. He nodded dumbly when Blood finished, and uttered a single phrase. "I understand. I won't tell anybody. I'm going to help get you and Lyra and Rex out of here. Stay here, in this cage, and don't misbehave. That way if I'm gone it'll make less of a fuss." with that, he walked over to the other wall, picked up his tranq rifle, and walked towards his room.
He reached it a few minutes later. It wasn't a bad room, just a little small. A bed, a desk, a tiny bathroom with barely enough space for a shower and a toilet, a small table, and a fairly small color TV. He threw the rifle onto the bed, pulled out a drawer in the desk, took out a sheet of paper and a pen, and wrote some things down. Another drawer and he found rounds of ammunition. Opening the closet door, he pulled out some 'normal' clothing, in this case, black jeans, a black t-shirt, and black combat boots. Even when in his Team Rocket uniform, his theme was obsessively black. He also pulled out a pistol and two knives, which went into hidden sheathes on his body. He then sent out his Umbreon, nicknamed Midnight. She looked almost out-of-place in the brightly lit room, the light surrounding everything crashing against the dark shadows that framed her body. Her golden rings gleamed dully.
He then proceeded to tell her what Blood had told him. He might have been breaking his promise, but he trusted Midnight deeply, and she in return respected him greatly. She nodded when he was done. Changing into his street clothes, he tucked his pistol into a hidden holster and gritted his teeth as he laced up the combat boots as tight as they'd go. Midnight trailing behind him, he walked to Maria's room.
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Maria had never revealed her past, or her sixth Pokémon, to anybody. Was it because they went together? Yes, and more than that, it was because of an expression of trust.
Her sixth Pokémon sat before her now, her past locked safely away inside. Her sixth Pokémon was a wonder, and if Giovanni ever found out, he'd clone it within an inch of its life.
She didn't want to tell anybody she had what she thought to be the world's only Fleureon.
Many scientists and geneticists would pay millions, even billions, perhaps more, for a grass Eevee evolution. It shouldn't have been possible--an Eevee just did not have the genetic makeup to support evolution by a Leaf stone. Not even the newly discovered Solar stone had any effect. It seemed that Eevee DNA had three empty spaces, and when a radioactive stone was presented, it filled in one of these three, causing a shift in the DNA and a radical change, an evolution. A similar thing happened in almost every other Pokémon, with a handful of exceptions. Two more 'empty spaces' were found later on the Eevee DNA, though these were triggered, oddly enough, by a severe release of hormones for happiness. Several other Pokémon were catalouged that had this same effect. But, even MORE oddly in Maria's opinion was the fact that a SIXTH, VERY tiny and unreactive 'open spot' on the Eevee genetic code had been discovered.
Odder still was the fact that nobody cared.
She'd never told anybody that her parents and brother were geneticists. That they'd created an ultra-powerful Leaf stone that had had horrific and terrible, terrible affects on her brother. And that it had evolved an Eevee. Into a plant type Pokémon.
In the end, both her parents and her brother died. The reason she hadn't? Away at summer camp. She returned, learned, and felt helpless. Finding a note in code on the table from her long-gone brother, she followed it to a secret room at the back of the lab. And found her Fleureon.
She was delicate, and looked almost weak from a viewpoint, like a delicate flower. However, her powers were not weak. Her legs were thin, her body a pale, delicate green, her paws and whippy, vine-like tail the soft tan of a rose's thorns. At the end of her tail, a leaf bobbed. Its edges were, miraculously, sharp. A small clump of leaves sat in between her two long ears, which were tipped in tan as well, and her neck was frilled by a large mane of beautiful petals, which ranged from a beautiful dark pink to a lighter, softer pink.
She was proud of her fighter, even though she didnt' fight much.
"Fleu?" Fleureon inquired in her soft voice. She heard somebody coming.
Jerking out a Pokéball, Maria put Fleureon inside quickly, just as Merlin rapped on the door.
She walked over and opened it. "What's going on?"
"We have to rescue the girl and her Dragonite. No time to explain, we just have to do it." he said.
Still confused, Maria, who was already changed from her TR uniform to jeans and a t-shirt, followed him out and down to the brig. He'd used his superior hacking abilities to get through this. "Direct order from the boss, we're to take the girl and the Growlithe for questioning." Merlin said with all the gruffness he could muster.
The guard nodded and shook his head, then opened the door. Merlin was amazed at what he saw. She'd found spars of wood and had her Growlithe light them, then set them in cracks in the stones, like torches. Her plain blue dress was muddy in places, and those uncomfortable looking leather shoes couldn't be holding up too well. The Growlithe sniffed, and gave his bushy tail a wag.
"Don't worry, follow us. I'm helping save you and Blood." Merlin said quietly. Lyra nearly jumped when he said Blood but nodded and stood, then snapped her fingers for Rex to follow. She followed them out of the cell, down the hall, and back to Lyra's room. Maria had noted that Lyra was about her size, so she tossed her some clothes and some shoes. Lyra noticed that Maria had given her pants instead of a skirt and inwardly wondered, but decided to wear them anyway.
I don't understand this place... she told herself, But I do need to blend in!
When she was done getting dressed, Merlin walked back in the room and started outlining his plan for an escape. However, what he didn't know was that there was a surveilance camera in every room...or that the boss was watching at this very moment...
To be continued...