Chapter Seven: Tracey
Japan, ca. 2010
SNAP!
Tracey, his black hair tangling in the vines that restrained him, tried to look up, despite the bright tropical sun, despite the black spots he was seeing as the vines tightened around him. He had fallen into a ten-foot deep ditch near the stone shrine where Celebii had brought him. He was sore, thorns embedding into his torn flesh. He strained to see, but he knew that he might just have to return home without either target. Celebii was none too happy about being tricked about going this far into the past, a past only recently discovered by an old agent of Team Rocket's - Jesse's mother, who had long been lost in the forest where Mew's fossils were rumored to reside. He knew Celebii hated Mew. The hard part had been discovering this and why two legends hated each other.
A year ago, Tracey was cleaning out Professor Oak's closets and bookshelves. In one dark closet, covered in an inch-thick layer of dust and cobwebs from neglect (Oak liked Pokemon, not cleaning - Tracey thought Oak should borrow Mrs. Ketchum's Mr. Mime for its remarkable attention to detail), Tracey uncovered a small notebook filled with the professor's own drawings - drawings made with simple charcoal pencils on white heavy paper - drawings of pokemon, like one with a Celebii sleeping next to a Pikachu.
Here were pokemon that Tracey's father had been DYING to get, because of the information, recently discovered, that Celebii might have been present when Mew was created, back before any reliable histories were available. His father had long ago found electric pokemon stronger than Ash's Pikachu, but Celebii continued to be foremost on nearly every collector's/hunter's/thief's list of powerful pokemon. It's time-traveling ability made it the most useful of any pokemon, with maybe the exception of the Unown, but those creatures were far too unpredictable, their strength unreliable. If a suitable Mew fossil could not be found, then the other obvious solution would be to enter the past, before Mew knew the extent of its true power, and returned to the future to be experimented upon to create a kind of SuperMew. Tracey's father had ordered him to track down Ash Ketchum, to see if he could get into good graces with Professor Oak. Some executives wondered why Tracey just couldn't go to Pallet and search Oak's lab, but Tracey agreed with his father - that Tracey had to be seen as a friend, one who appreciated pokemon in a manner similar to Oak. Tracey's father was a true genius; he knew Samuel Oak had been involved with Celebii as a child, and he loved to draw pokemon when he wasn't researching. Tracey was elected for this indefinite mission because he too enjoyed observing the fascinating attributes of the natural world.
Tracey took a small knife that he used for cutting paper in fine detail and snapped the last remaining twigs that kept him from seeing the carnage, the screaming and explosions and snapping of foliage, that he had heard from deep within the ditch. With great effort, hampered by the exhaustion of being wrapped by vines more ruthless than an Arbok's muscular snake-tail, Tracey climbed out of the ditch to see two of the three World Changers in battle.
Lavaridge, ca. 2509
"... and Mew and Celebii looked at each other and decided to work together to stop this mean boy from picking on them," Molly typed as furiously as she could in her hunt-and-peck way, "but the damage was done. They had no fight left within them, so they made up and erased everyone's memories and slept soundly."
"NOOOOO!" yelled Max, pushing Molly out of the chair where they had been typing their story in the Lavaridge Pokemon Center. "We promised that Mew and Celebii were going to fight - you can't just have one sentence that stops the battle of the century!"
Molly, her long brown hair wrapped around her as she sat all sprawled out on the tile floor, crossed her arms in indignation, seething, steam practically bursting from her ears. "Legendary pokemon wouldn't hurt each other like that, Max!" she yelled back.
Max clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Haven't you heard about the Orange Island Disaster? Lugia had to battle three other legendary birds because they were fixated on destroying the world! I think that qualifies as trying to hurt each other. History proves ME right, you're wrong - so there!"
Max turned his attention to the computer. They had been writing this cooperatively (mostly), but Max, soon after they began writing a story that they had started out of boredom, began to feel one with the story - that they had tapped into an important part of their world's history - that their story was the RIGHT one. Max began to type, but gasped as he saw tiny white and black figures dance across the screen. He thought that maybe a screensaver had kicked in, but his heart told him to turn around. Molly was standing there, staring at him (no, THROUGH him), staring at the computer as the air around her warped as creatures, the Unown, began flying out of her purse that she had left beside the computer. Her father didn't know she still had the tiles of Unown left from the time he disappeared. He'd ground her for all of eternity if he ever found out. Worse, she thought to herself with great trepidation, maybe she'd lose any hope she might have of EVER seeing Entei again. She was glad her father had returned, but she would never forget the powerful warmth that had come from her legendary protector. Molly gritted her teeth as she channeled the psychic energy of the Unown, saying, "Show us the truth. Unown, if Mew and Celebii were ever together, how did they act?" The unown continued to dance around the computer, typing their knowledge about Mew and Celebii without using the keyboard. Max sat in the chair, too stunned to breathe, as some of the most ancient pokemon in the world spoke their minds about that fateful day.
Japan, ca. 2010
Mew hovered in the air, high above the forest, VERY high up, as Celebii's plant monster easily stretched up to about a mile in height. Just above her floated the stone shrine that acted as a gateway for the time-traveling grass-type pokemon. Mew had to make sure that no one else from unknown times came for her. It was bad enough to be dealing with a boy and a psychic pokemon that seemed to know everything about her powers and tactics before SHE even knew what to do.
Mew glowed bright pink, although from Celebii's viewpoint the pink bubble of light was nearly lost against the bright sun. However, Celebii was a grass-type pokemon, so he simply absorbed sunlight as he waited to see what Mew would do with that shrine. If she decided to hurl it toward him, he'd catch it with his substitute.
Already Celebii had scored some hits on Mew's tender white-pink hide, slashing a good deal of fur away from the feline pokemon's body, despite the powerful barrier thrown up to protect her. Celebii had decided to use its plant creature because it turned out that nice, sweet little Mew was also capable of handing out damage. They both could recover energy, too, so this battle might take a while to settle. Celebii was absorbing energy both from the sun and from the ground, preparing for a long struggle. A part of Celebii hoped that the evil child stopped the battle early with that wickedly strong pokeball of his, but the rest of him yearned for a fight with the Origin itself.
Five hundred years in the future, Celebii hovered over a desert close to the equator, launching different seeds and berries into the ground below as a young Suicune inundated the new life with fresh water. It had been a long time since any human or pokemon had lived in this region, so now was a perfect time to restore the forests to their former glory, before civilization destroyed them. The night before, a giant meteor had streaked through the sky, a remnant of the Millenium Comet that had passed by two centuries ago. As Celebii descended into the quickly-growing forest to rest, a human appeared. Not really, although Celebii could see a female human form behind a strange white light. The trees surrounding Celebii shimmered, and he realized that he was seeing through time. Then, an explosion knocked him backwards, and the vision faded. He chafed at the thought of the young woman, with her long red hair flowing behind her. Fifty years ago, he had been caught by such a woman, THAT woman, a woman who had once been friends with Mew, before Mew was even going by that state of existence. He had been caught in a stupid pokeball, a gold and silver one. Celebii had been hunted for the past decade because there were humans who wanted to cheat Jirachi back to life. He awoke only once every thousand years if conditions were right, and some genius humans had understood that waiting was foolish if you had a time-traveling pokemon. Jirachi could be caught at any time with a pokemon like that. Mew had found out about the plot, and instead of trying to help protect Celebii from the hunters, Mew had learned how to boost its teleportation powers from the Unnatural One and had sent Jirachi's cocoon into the sun itself, watching the solar flare come screaming toward the earth as Jirachi vaporized in the cornea of the Great Star. Mew, imbued with the same type of hatred for humans that had once paralyzed the heart of the Unnatural One, vowed to stop humans from destroying the planet - permanently. Celebii had finally stopped Mew, but now he spent most of his time restoring the earth to its former glory, painfully aware with every beating of his wings that the best tactic would have been to stop Mew before it had ever reached the zenith of its powers. It had tried, once before, although the battle had occurred far too long ago to remember the exact details...
Mew continued to hover high above Celebii, despite the annoyance of the sound of jet planes rushing toward them. Mew glanced in every direction quickly, not wanting to take her eyes off of Celebii, and shot a psychic wave of energy in every lateral direction, shutting off the engines to the fighter planes, sending them to a watery crash into the Pacific, trying to maintain awareness of the falling parachutes while guarding against her opponent. Mew had no time for human interference. She could see a bright light coming from the mouth of the gigantic plant creature, and she knew Celebii was preparing to attack. She had to find some way, some means of taking out this powerful pokemon.
Tracey sat in awe behind a tree, barely able to see past the massive, twisting, snapping vines and branches that formed Celebii's defensive substitute. Whatever Celebii had planned, it was going to do it soon, and Tracey believed a solar beam would be the most likely choice. The sky (well, what could be seen of it) was clear on this bright sunny day, and Tracey felt a tinge of fear. It wasn't the idea of watching two powerful psychic pokemon duke it out - it was just a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, a thought that made the hair on the back of his head stand on end. It was the feeling of déjà vu. He wiped away the sweat that began to pour off his face, and he realized that it was suddenly EXTREMELY hot.
Mew, meanwhile, realized that the bright yellow beam coming for her was designed to hurt, so she flung the shrine toward the beam, flying backwards at supersonic speed as the shrine burst into tiny pieces of gravel. Well, thought Mew, that should take care of any future time travelers.
Celebii couldn't hold the form of the plant beast anymore. Tracey cried out as he dived into the ditch he had only recently crawled out of to avoid the heaping mass of plant life that came crashing down around him. Celebii threw up a barrier as he flew upwards toward Mew. Celebii was preparing to launch some seeds that would suck away Mew's energy, when a great scream was heard from above. Celebii, Mew, and Tracey glanced up to see a tremendous winged figure with gold feathers that shimmered in rainbow colors as the bird closed in on the two warring psychic pokemon. The colors of the giant bird seemed to be green one moment and gold the next, although in reality the sunlight separated into all the colors of the rainbow. The bird squawked, the sound reverberating throughout the hemisphere as it reared its head back, a bright glow of fire gathering in intensity in its beak.
Peru, ca. 2010
Jacob and Janice sat staring at each other as they watched the soil from the earth drift back to the surface in large clumps. They were in Peru, traveling by Jeep to the site of the giant bird drawing that spanned at least a quarter of a mile in length. Janice herself had had to spend countless dollars and time to convince someone to take a picture of the design, remarkable in that it had been formed only two weeks ago.
They had just arrived to the site when the earth rumbled with the mother of all earthquakes. Janice, the ocean-lover who was driving the beat-up green vehicle, slammed the brakes just as fire and lava burst from the design, flowing high up into the air. Janice and Jacob found they had been gaping like schoolchildren in front of a tyrannasaur as a bird bigger than the biggest plane squawked and screeched, flapping its flaming wings, encircling the entire area in a giant wall of flame. Then, as suddenly as it had arisen, the bird was in the sky and disappeared to the west, taking with it the blaze, leaving anyone within a ten-mile radius charred-but-otherwise-okay bodies.
After the bird had left, Jacob and Janice felt it was okay to breathe again. They looked down to find they were holding hands. Janice blushed as she looked away toward the horizon.
Japan, ca. 2010
Mew and Celebii sat high in the sky, their barriers wavering in strength, betraying their lack of confidence in facing down such a terrifying creature. In Mew's heart, although she lacked Celebii's knowledge of pokemon seen often in the future, she knew this was the Sacred Fire - Ho-oh, a phoenix-like pokemon that lived in the Americas thousands of years ago. There had been a couple of them, one for the East and one for the West. The eastern phoenix had already been revived at the same time as Zapdos, a Moltres who sprang from a mountain in the middle of Asia. Ho-oh, on the other hand, had only been on the planet for an hour, because it had sensed the coming deaths of the Voice and the Origin. If they died now, Ho-oh wouldn't have much time before the end of the space-time continuum to revive them. It fired a warning blast of fire above the two sparring pokemons' heads, then climbed higher into the sky, circling the battle scene with a focused attention that sent shivers up the backs of Celebii and Mew. With one giant motion, Ho-oh thrust its wings toward the battle (which had stopped in the face of this obvious danger). Mew and Celebii had no need to look at each other for advice; they reinforced their barriers with all their strength as a tremendous force of wind tore through the air and knocked them clean out of the sky back into the forest below. Ho-oh screeched in anger, then, sensing that the two pokemon had survived the attack, left to awaken the three Elemental Dogs, who would pronounce sentence on such an uncaring population of human beings.
Mew and Celebii lay motionless on the ground amidst the fallen brush from Celebii's plant monster, only their heaving lungs betraying any sign that they were still alive, their barriers having been destroyed soon after being hit with such a strong current of air. They could barely hear the crunching sound of footsteps and laughter, followed by the zapping/chiming sound of a pokeball capturing their data, storing them away as Tracey prepared to return to the future to hand over his greatest triumph to his father, the wonderfully-powerful former leader of the Viridian City Gym, Giovanni Sketchit. Tracey smiled, wondering about how pleased his father would be when his unfailing custom pokeball was returned to him at last. After Celebii's data was returned to the pokeball, Tracey waved a silver version of the Earth Badge, which resembled a leaf or a feather, over the GS ball, finally inserting it into a hidden slot behind the button that opened the device. He could have saved Ash and Kurt a lot of trouble had he only explained that Giovanni's own Earth badge was needed to unlock the ball, but he couldn't let Ash get such a wonderful pokemon, now could he?