Chapter 4

The night passed quickly and before I knew it, I was standing in my human form right beneath the opening in the ceiling with my mom, dad, and David in front of me, all with a big smiles on their faces. I changed into my Latios form. 'Well, this is it,' I thought, feeling slightly sad because I had to leave my family behind. However, I was also feeling happy inside because I finally had the chance to leave the human world for the pokemon one, one that promised so much. I knew that no matter how much I loved my family, I did not belong here with them. First I flew to mom and dad and hugged them tightly. "Mom, Dad, I'll miss you both so much. I love you both!" I said while nuzzling my head against theirs. Mom giggled and stroked my slender neck. "I love you too honey. I'll never forget you," My dad also returned the hug. "I love you too son. I did a pretty dang good job in raising you,"

I chuckled. "That's right dad, you did," I said as I parted the hug, a few tears escaped from my eyes, but I didn't care about that. I blinked my eyes a couple of times before going to David who smirked. I smiled, flew to him, and just like I had done to mom and dad I captured him in a bone-crushing hug. "David, thank you so much for everything you have done for me," I said as I nuzzled him affectionately.

David chuckled and returned the hug. "It was all worth it brother. Just remember, keep an eye out for poachers and such, because even if it is a pokemon world that doesn't mean there aren't any humans there. You never know," He then slapped his hand against my back. "But most of all I want you to be happy, ok? Go with Latias and learn how you get stronger, how you use your powers and control that beam of yours,"

I thought about it for a moment. "Now that you mention that, I believe Latias called it Luster Purge or something like that," I sighed. "I have to go now. I'll miss you all and I'll never forget about you. Maybe I'll return one day to show how much I've improved, but I can't promise anything,"

"That's ok son, we know you are in good hands, or should I say claws,"' My dad said, chuckling at his joke. My mom, David, and I sweatdropped at his comment, but he's got a point. I do have claws, not hands.

I slowly started to fly up, waving to my family, more tears escaping my eyes. I looked away from them and used my invisibility. "Goodbye, I love you," I said one last time before I shot up in the air.

Meanwhile…

Latias panted heavily as she was forced down again after trying to escape for almost half an hour. "Brother! Let me go!"' She yelled, angry at the fact her brother, who would normally never even dare to harm a feather of hers, had now trapped her inside the secret garden, with the farthest she could go being Lorenzo's house.

Latios sighed. "Latias, this is for your own safety,"

Latias squealed in anger. "I AM SAFE! MICHAEL IS THE ONE WHO NEEDS HELP!"

Latios rolled his eyes. "Don't tell me you've also given him a name. Quit the act, ok? It's annoying. Both Lorenzo and I don't believe it and you aren't leaving Altomare until you finally learn that you can't just go out to the human world and play there. There is a lot to do in the pokemon world also, you know that,"

Now Latias was getting furious. "RELEASE ME!" She widened her eyes and they gave off a brilliant blue light, showing she was using psychic, trying to break the psychic barrier. But it was of no use, Latios always had been the more experienced and stronger one of the twins. She growled dangerously to him. "Brother, release me now," She sissed. "I'm coming back after I bring Michael here, at least if he is allowed to come with me,"

Latios sighed. "Latias, nothing you say will make you leave the garden, at least not today. You have to learn the consequences. You can't do everything you want. You are a legendary pokemon, one that has a big responsibility to keep the soul dew safe,"

"Aww c'mon bro, how many times we were needed? Not once. And besides, I'm sure you would be able to handle any troubles,"' Latias pleaded.

Latios sighed and flew away. 'She'll never learn,' He thought disappointed, leaving a pouting and worried Latias whole alone in the garden. She looked up to the sky. 'Please be safe Michael,' She thought, worried as to his fate.

Meanwhile...

I groaned in frustration as I kept waiting for Latias to show up. It felt like I had been waiting for hours, and it was starting to exhaust me. 'C'mon Latias, you promised you'd come,' I thought hopefully, imagining to myself that Latias would somehow reveal herself out of the nowhere and would guide me to the pokemon world. I sighed and kept waiting until it started to get dark. I let out a sad coo, taking in the fact Latias would probably never show up. While crying sadly I slowly flew down, trying to find an excuse for her not to show up but I couldn't find anything that made me feel any better. A shriek of fright abruptly shook me out of my thoughts. I looked down and saw several humans holding cameras and cellphones to me, filming my true self while a lot of humans ran off screaming. "IT'S A MONSTER! DO SOMETHING!"

My eyes widened in shock when I realized that I forgot to turn invisible. Within a matter of seconds, my body gave off a small shower of green light as I went invisible. 'Damn! How could you be so stupid Michael!' I yelled at myself, frustrated that I had forgotten something that important while everyone was still trying to find an explanation that Luster Purge. I quickly flew back home, startling my family with my appearance. I quickly explained that Latias didn't show up and that a lot of people had filmed me. I managed to calm down after a while but still was incredibly worried about what this event would lead to.

Later in the evening, David turned on the TV to watch the news to see if there was already news out about me. We gulped when a newsreader appeared on the screen. Under her read the words Breaking News. "There have been several reports of a flying beast of an unknown species that is purported to be able to turn invisible. We have gotten word from the government that the MI5 is being sent to conduct a joint investigation with the military into the creature's appearance," the reporter informed.

My jaw dropped. "THE MILITARY! THEY SEND THE MILITARY TO ME!" as much as I hated it to admit, I would be toast if the president did that.

"Don't forget about the MI5, Michael," My dad added, not exactly making me feel any better.

"Don't worry yet Michael, I don't think they will strike soon," David said.

I looked at my family. "I don't care, I'm not putting you three in danger. I'm leaving and just tell I died or something like that if the military asks questions about me, got it?"

My dad narrowed his eyes. "You're leaving already?"

I nodded. "It's the only way to keep you three safe. Bye, and don't worry, I'll be fine," I lied to myself. I had no idea if this whole this would turn out ok for me. I only could hope so.

Without looking back at my family I flew up again and shot through the hole in the ceiling. I took in my surroundings, taking note of everything that seemed to be unusual. I couldn't find anything that seemed like the hunt on me had already started but I knew it wouldn't take that long. I needed a safe place so I could hide from everyone until all of this was over.

At least I still had my invisibility to cover myself if things would go wrong. But at the moment my mind racing with thoughts again, mostly about Latias and why she didn't show up. I slammed my claw against my head. 'You fool,' I thought to myself. 'You know you can't trust anyone except your family. And now you're being hunted. All because of you believed Latias, if that's even her real name,' I sighed, starting to think that the whole story Latias told me was all a big lie. But I also realized that what had happened, had happened.

'I can't change the past so I better make sure I'm ready to at least defend myself. So how do I do that?' I thought to myself. I groaned when I remembered that I only could change into a human and turn invisible. 'I'm done for, this is the end for me, all because of you Latias,' I sighed sadly, taking in the fact that the only other being I had trusted except David and my parents had now betrayed me. I flew to a large building and lay down on it. But before long, I heard rumbling in the sky. I looked up and saw a few helicopters and a few jet planes fly right above me.

Meanwhile...

Inside one of the helicopters, a sergeant stood up and walked to the cockpit, where a few monitors were placed. "Give me intel," The sergeant commanded the guy next to the pilot who was operating the monitors.

The man nodded and pointed to one of the screens which was a thermal vision, seeing the city from above in black and white, white giving the color of something warm and black meant something colder. "You see that white spot?" he asked the sergeant, while pointing to a dragon-shaped white spot.

The sergeant growled. "I'm not blind officer! Just tell me what that is!"

The officer nodded. "That, sergeant, is the monster we are looking for. We prepared thermal visions since we knew from that video that this monster can go invisible,"

The sergeant widened his eyes. "What the hell are you waiting for! Chase that monster away from that building and blast the living daylights out of it!"

"Understood, sir!" The officer said and he immediately got to work, commanding the guys from other helicopters to throw smokes out on that building.

I frowned when I heard a few things cling on the paved roof. I looked around and hummed in thought when I saw a few stick-like metal things on the roof. I flew closer to one of them until it suddenly hissed and blasted a white smokescreen out. I growled when I realized that I was found and that it was useless to hide anymore. Trying to save some energy I went visible, while the smoke made it hard for me to breathe. I quickly flew out of the smokescreen and gasped when I saw a few jet planes nearing me. 'Damnit!' I growled to myself. 'I need to get out of here!' I yelled in my mind, getting desperate as the jets neared.

Then I remembered Latias and more specifically, how fast she was. I knew that if I tried to fight back that I was screwed. I couldn't use any attacks yet so I decided to rely on something I hoped was one of my natural abilities, flying fast to get away. I concentrated and then burst off like a bullet, flying faster than the jet planes that were chasing me. I decided to hide in the oceans so they wouldn't see me that easily. But when I was nearing the ocean I heard a hissing sound coming closer and louder. I looked behind me just in time to see a rocket hitting me.

A terrible explosion racked my entire body with pain as I was thrown into the waters far below me. The impact, when I hit, was beyond anything I had ever imagined I could have experienced, and felt like pins had been jammed into my bones and then slowly moved around. I felt my body hit the bottom of the sea and I just stayed there, falling unconscious and unable to move.

Hours after that I woke up by a nudging. Painfully I opened my eyes and gasped when I saw a huge creature. It was at least three times larger than me. It had immensely large wings and blue wing-like plates that were fanned out of its back and was otherwise completely silver-colored. It had a long neck and a pointed head. It also had pointed ears, "What the heck happened to you?" The creature asked.

My eyes widened and I backed off, but it wasn't long before my injured wings stopped me from moving any further. "How can I understand you?" I asked, not knowing if I should be scared or happy this creature found me.

The pokemon looked at me. "What do you mean, all pokemon can understand each other. But what happened to you? You look absolutely wasted," The pokemon narrowed his eyes at me. "Wait a second...You're a shiny legendary, o why haven't I seen you before?"

I gulped. "I'm from the human world. they just discovered me and chased me out. Who are you?" I wondered.

The pokemon smiled. "I'm Lugia, the legendary beast of the sea and you are a Latios, it's too bad they had chased you out kiddo,"

I sighed and flinched when I felt a stab of pain when I tried to fly up. I looked around me in confusion. I wasn't lying in the sea anymore but now was on some rocky area. "Where am I?" I asked Lugia.

He smiled. "You're at my home. I knew you can't breathe underwater so I took you in safety. What are you going to do now?"

I hummed in thought. 'My best chance to find Latias is going to Altomare,' I thought to myself. "You know where Altomare is?"

Lugia nodded. "Yes I do, want me to take you there? I doubt you would find it,"

"Alright let's go," I said as I followed Lugia when he flew into the sea. I decided to stay invisible just above the water, but flying was painful for me since my wing was injured. "Is it far?" I asked Lugia who was easily gliding true the water. Since my wing was damaged I didn't know how long I could last. It was hard for me to stay in the air, let alone fly at speed across a long distance.

"Not that far, we'll be there in about half an hour. But you do understand I can't go in there? People will try to capture me. As they will try to capture you, be careful."

I nodded but my thoughts were different. 'People? But I thought Latias said that this was a pokemon world?' I sighed deeply, not really trusting her anymore. She had told me that she would come after me and didn't and now also lied about the pokemon world? 'Maybe I shouldn't go there…' I shook that thought off, knowing that this was the only choice I had.

Soon I saw a lot of buildings, clearly showing that a city was there. "That is Altomare, and here is where we part Latios,'' Lugia said.

"Thanks for everything Lugia, hopefully we'll meet again,"

"Sure kid, we'll meet again," Lugia said, pretty sure of himself. 'At least if he's allowed at the councils of Arceus,'

I saw him leaving and realized I was now whole alone. I looked around and saw a ship that was just letting her passengers disembark. 'If I go with them I'll stay unnoticed,' I thought, hoping my plan would work. Turning human was a source of relief for me, as I didn't have to deal with the pain of my broken wing as humans don't have wings. Besides, maybe I would befriend someone. I flew to the ship and carefully made sure nobody saw me. My hiding place was just a hallway. I quickly went visible and changed into my human form. Calmly, I walked out, trying not to have any attention and I saw only one more group walking off the ship. I ran closer to them and heard them talking. "C'mon Ash, don't be so sad you lost in the Silver league. I'm sure you'll win next time," A larger guy said to a younger kid with messy black hair.

"Yeah, at least Charizard listened this time," A red-headed girl said, around the same age as Ash.

Ash sighed. "Thanks, guys, but it's just, that my pokemon trained so hard to be strong and we still lost,"

A yellow mouse-like pokemon patted Ash's head. "We'll win next time, I'm sure of it Ash!" I heard the pokemon whose name is apparently Pikachu saying his name over and over again, and somehow, I could understand him. What I did notice was that Ash could understand him also because he just replied. "Thanks, buddy, we'll be stronger next time,"

Pikachu smirked. "You bet we will!" he released sparks out of his cheeks, making me gasp at that. The group had probably heard it because they turned their heads. "What's wrong mister?" Brock asked.

I gulped. "Sorry, I was just startled when that pokemon released sparks," I hoped I could hide my fear for the pokemon well because I didn't want them to investigate I didn't know a thing about pokemon except I am a Latios, there is a Latias also and the newly met Lugia.

Pikachu scratched his head. "Uhm…sorry for that, I didn't know you were there,"

I waved it off. "No problem, I was just thinking a bit too much and wasn't paying any attention," I said and immediately regretted my action when I saw their amazed faces.

"You understood him?" Brock asked.

"Uhm…yes I did," I said with a sigh.

"But how? Only Ash can understand him,"' Misty said.

'And other pokemon,' I added in my mind. "Well, it is something I could do from the moment I was born. I can talk to pokemon freely and understand them perfectly,"

Ash looked very jealous of me. "Wow, that's amazing! I always wanted to be able to do such a thing,"

"Hey, what's your name? I'm Brock, former gym leader from Pewter City," The man with squinted eyes said.

"I'm Misty, gym leader from Cerulean City," The red-headed girl said.

"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town, I'm a pokemon trainer," the kid with the messy black hair introduced himself as he held a hand forward.

I smiled. "I'm Michael, nice to meet you," I said as I shook his hand, hoping that they wouldn't ask me where I was from because I couldn't just answer I was from the human world.

When we released our handshake Pikachu startled me again by engulfing Ash with electric power. When he stopped electricity still crackled around Ash. "You forgot to introduce me!" Pikachu scolded. "Well since you can somehow understand me, I'll do it myself. I'm Pikachu, I'm Ash's very first pokemon and we're best friends,"

But I wasn't listening because I was trying to get over the shock that Pikachu was just able to control electricity. "You…you…can control…ELECTRICITY!" I ended up yelling.

The four looked oddly to me. "Never saw an electric pokemon before?" Brock asked.

I gulped and shook my head. Ash smiled. "Well you see, this is Pikachu. Pikachu is an electric-type pokemon. Pikachu, want to give a small demonstration?" Ash asked the yellow mouse. Pikachu smirked and hopped off Ash's shoulder. "Pikachu use thundershock," Ash said calmly. Pikachu crackled his cheeks again and fired an electric surge into the sky, making me look in awe into the air. 'Amazing. Maybe I can use that also. Who knows…'

Misty frowned. "You look at that attack like you've never seen one before,"

I widened my eyes. "Of course I have!"

Misty narrowed her eyes. "Then name one,"

I gulped, there was only one move I knew about but Latias had said it was an attack only Latios can use. I didn't exactly understand what she had meant with legendary but I had thought it was a very rare pokemon. But it was my only shot. "Luster Purge," I said.

Ash frowned. "Never heard of that one before," I started to fear for my safety and it only became worse when Misty had also said that she didn't know it. I saw Brock taking a book and flipped the pages quickly. Soon he spoke. "Here it is, Luster Purge. It is said that only the legendary pokemon Latios can use such an attack. It has very high power and can also weaken the opponent's defenses," Brock said, "But why did you say such a rare attack?"

"It's just a cool move, I'm a fan of Latios and Latias," I said, faking I knew a lot about pokemon "That's why I came here in the first place, it's said that Latias and Latios live here," I said, trying to change the subject.

Ash smiled. "Yeah! I want to see a pair of legendaries!"

"Sorry to disappoint you two, but it's said that Latias and Latios rarely reveal themselves. They also can turn invisible," Brock informed.

'How the heck does he know that!' I thought worried. "How do you know that Brock?" I asked politely.

"Because I want to become a pokemon breeder, so I have to know a lot about every pokemon," Brock said while smiling.

I nodded and sighed, deciding I'd better part this group before they find anything out. ''Well, I'm going. I hope we meet again," I was about to walk off but Misty stopped me by running in front of me.

"Why don't you come with us? Or did you come to meet someone here at a certain time?"

I didn't have much of a choice. Making up an excuse would be noticed and it would probably be a bad one, so I just complied. Besides, being alone was boring and I didn't have a clue where to search for Latias, at least not yet. "Ok, I'll go with you guys. Where to first?"

Brock smiled. "First of to the pokecenter,"

"Alright! I'll lead the way!" Ash said excitedly earning himself another shock from Pikachu. "You know very well that you aren't good at all with directions!"

"Hey, I'm not that bad!" Ash yelled to Pikachu.

''Yes, you are Ash,'' Pikachu said dryly.

'What is a pokecenter?'I asked myself as I followed the group, being led by Brock. From what I heard from Pikachu it would have taken days before we would have arrived there if Ash had been navigating. I wondered if Ash was even worse with directions than me. I chuckled slightly while thinking. 'I sure hope so.'

When we went inside the pokecenter, it wasn't really busy and just a few trainers were there. We walked to the front counter where a Nurse was. "Hello, Nurse Joy," Brock said over excitedly. He ran up behind the counter and grabbed her hand. She was very surprised as she looked at the man as he kneeled in front of her. "Nurse Joy, I came from very far to get here, only to hold your hand and tell you I…" he stopped talking and screamed in pain when Misty grabbed his ear and dragged him along with her, away from nurse Joy. "Stop it, Casanova, nobody wants to hear this,"

I saw Pikachu and Ash shaking their heads in disappointment. "Sorry for that Nurse Joy,"

The lady behind the desk smiled. ''No problem, what can I do for you?'' She asked us.

''We'd like to have a room for 4 please," Ash answered.

"OK, there should be plenty of rooms left," She checked the computer and gave Ash a key. "Here you go, your room is number 16, it's on the second floor,"

"Ok, thanks. Ash, you can go ahead, I want to ask Nurse Joy something, ok?" I asked a confused Ash, who was probably wanting to know what I wanted to ask Nurse Joy in private. However, he nodded and walked upstairs with Pikachu. I looked back to nurse Joy. "What did you want to ask me?" She asked also a little confused.

I looked around. ''Ok, I just didn't want them to know but…what is a pokecenter? I'm very new to all of this,"

Nurse Joy smiled. "Well, here we heal pokemon when they are injured from a pokemon battle. We can almost heal anything. Also when trainers want they can stay here for the nights,"

'So she can heal pokemon? That means…she can help me,' I thought hopefully, but scared. 'What if she wants to capture me?'