There's something I need to address. When I decided to rewrite this story, the idea was to make it better, almost perfect. While I am (so far) happy with how the events are being told this time around, trying to make the story "perfect" has been a real obstacle. These last two chapters—when I decided to stop trying to aim for perfection, I was able to just sit down and write them. But because of this, I know they're still going to come out flawed. For example, I know I struggle with keeping a consistent tense, and you're probably going to see a lot more of that here. If it bothers you, I'm sorry. I may never get better at it, despite my efforts to fix it. All I can do at this point is ask that you please enjoy the story for what it is.
tl;dr: I'm a dummy, my story isn't going to be perfect, but I hope you can still enjoy it.
There was a gentle warmth was wrapped around me. I hadn't slept this comfortably since I was home. I wanted to sleep in, but I knew I had important things to take care of. I sat up and stretched my leafy arms out, the weight of a blanket pushed back. My eyes opened. A large table, cabinets, crates, and lots of paper documents furnished the room. A large circular window was allowing the sunlight inside. PokeHeroes' base. I was lying in one of their beds, a soft pile of straw resting under me.
"Feeling better?" Siegfried was meditating in the bed on my left. He had some bandages wrapped around his body and a splint on his right arm. He was turned towards me.
"I should be asking you that," I replied with a gentle smirk. Siegfried… didn't seem to make any reaction. There was an awkward silence as he just kept staring at me. "Uh, okay. Um… so, what happened? How long have I been out for?"
"It's been a few hours."
"…" Why did he wait for me to do the talking? "And what happened to Crimson?"
"When Wayde and I were fighting Crimson back at Post Town, some of the Pokemon around us had contacted the officer Magnezone from the next town over. Thanks to the damage you caused Crimson, he couldn't fly away. He was apprehended and taken to jail." We were successful. I… changed fate.
"Maybe I should destroy this paradise of yours to really teach you a lesson." Crimson's words echoed in my mind. We changed fate. Paradise was still standing. I let out a sigh of relief.
"So, what now?" I asked. Siegfried stood up.
"Celeste told me to take you to her. Let me know when you're ready." He started heading towards the doorway. He certainly wasn't one for talk. Maybe he's still trying to recover from his injuries. I slowly stood up but winced at the pain in my tail. I gently pulled it around me to get a better look. The tips of my leaf-shaped tail were still scarred black from burns. It's going to be a while before they fully heal.
There was a small chair on my right. My cloak was folded up, and my sword leaned against it in its sheathe. I gently grasped the handle and drew the blade out. I held it with both hands as I stared again at the strange insignia near the hilt. The power of Zekrom resided within. It was a fighting chance for our future. But… how was I supposed to tell them about it? "Hey guys, check out this really cool sword that's made by one of the Legends!" Yeah. I'm sure they'd really believe that. Though, if they had seen that last strike I made against Crimson, the sword might not be too strange to them. I still decided to wait for the right time, though. Otherwise, they might have thought I was crazy or something. I sheathed the sword and wrapped my cloak around me.
Siegfried was standing to the side with his arms crossed as I stepped out. I threw my hands up in front of my eyes. The sun was finally out and shining brightly, its rays blinding me. The warmth it gave made me relax a little, though. My injuries would heal faster in the sunlight. I took a brief look around the area. The grass shined. The trees glimmered. The river in the distance was a bright blue. Paradise really looked beautiful. I was sure this is what Celeste had imagined it to be. I was glad to have protected it.
Straight ahead from Siegfried and me, I saw that red archway. A crowd of Pokemon were gathered around under it. They were all smiling at someone in the center. As an Emolga stepped to the side, I saw it was Celeste, Wayde and Brazen. I took another step towards them—
"Hold on," Siegfried called to me. "Don't go over there just yet." He let out a sigh. "The Pokemon from Post Town have been thanking us for over an hour now. I thought they would have left at this point. I'm not sure if you're up to it, but Celeste told me to keep you from them until you were feeling better."
"Oh. Hm… Yeah, I think I'd rather avoid the attention." Having a swarm of Pokemon surrounding me, each one chirping out thanks and such as I'm spun around in the crowd, lost and confused… Yeah, I would have gotten really annoyed by them. I stood opposite of Siegfried and we both waited for when the crowd would disperse.
A few minutes passed. I thought more about Celeste and her rescue team. What made her want to create this place? How did she meet the rest of her team? I glanced over at Siegfried. He stared out across the field. Something was on his mind. I could tell because he had that kind of stare when you've experienced something horrible and don't want to talk about it. I was safe to assume he had it rough. Did Celeste help him? It wouldn't hurt to ask…
"Hey Siegfried," he looked over at me. "How'd you end up joining the rescue team?"
"Hm…" He closed his eyes and turned away. There was a brief pause. "I… had lost someone very dear to me. And in my weakest moment, Celeste was there to pick me up." He turned back towards me, a fierce look in his eyes. "I don't intend to make the same mistake twice." His sudden anger caught me by surprise.
"I-I'm sorry for asking!" I didn't mean to upset him.
"Celeste may see something in you—trust you, even. But I don't." I should have figured. They weren't all going to be friends so easily. Or rather, I guess I wasn't surprised that Siegfried's the one that had a problem with me. He said he lost someone close, so I guessed the rescue team was important to him. He didn't want an outsider like me to just waltz in. But if that was how he felt—
"Then why did you stop your friends from attacking me when we first met?"
"Because that is what Celeste wanted. Being in a rescue team means knowing your partners and learning to trust them." That's when it hit me. I was ready to help the team—join them. But I didn't stop to really think about what that would entail. They're a rescue team. That means I'd have to get close to all of them, not just Celeste. Paradise needed management, too. And saving the world meant saving everyone, big and small. It's going to be a lot of work learning to be on a team… learning to trust someone. But if father could do it, I knew I could, too.
Siegfried took a few steps closer to me. "I don't know everything, but I understand. You may have taken down Crimson, but you are still a Snivy." He leaned closer. "Don't give me a reason to fight you." I gave a stern look back at him. I would've apologize or something, but for Siegfried, that wasn't going to be enough. If I did truly care about the team, he's going to want me to prove it. He took a few steps back, closed his eyes and turned away. We continued waiting.
A few more minutes passed. The silence was heavy around us. The wind blew. The grass swayed. My back tensed as we patiently stood there. I glanced back at Siegfried. He made no response. The more I thought about it, I couldn't tell if he hated me, or just hated me being here. If I wanted him to trust me, I needed focus on befriending the others, first.
Thankfully, it wasn't much longer before the crowd of Pokemon began walking off into the forest, presumably back to Post Town. I could make out Celeste and the other two running over to us. When she realized I was awake, Celeste bolted right up to me.
"Strom!" Her hazel eyes shined. "I'm so glad you're okay!" I know I've mentioned how happy she made me feel, but seeing her smile again… I was thankful I didn't die trying to help her and her team.
"It's good to see you, too," I gave a gentle smile back.
Wayde and Brazen caught up and joined us. With the whole team here, now's my chance to ask them. I had to know about our world. Though, I feared they may not be completely open to me…
"Hey," I grabbed their attention. They all turned towards me. "I know we started on the wrong foot, but this is important. Please listen…" Celeste's ears perked up. Wayde and Brazen focused more towards me. Siegfried kept his stern gaze. "I've traveled these lands for the last few years, wondering why our world became what it is now. This… bitterness in the air. I've seen many hardships, many Pokemon hurt, myself included. Which is why I wasn't so open about myself when we first met. Now, you're a rescue team. You've probably seen and done so much— more than I could ever do on my own. And Celeste—" I turned towards her, "you said you know that our world is in a state of despair. So, I must ask… Do you know why our world is like this?"
The three of them (minus Siegfried) were surprised, probably by my change in attitude. They all exchanged quick glances. Then, Celeste looked back at me.
"I could tell you but, Strom… I've already asked so much of you. Heh, I think that's twice now that I owe you. But I'm afraid of what you might do on your own. I don't want to put you in any more danger."
"Then let me join your rescue team!" This time all four of them were surprised. Celeste's eyes had widened, and her expression gradually grew into a great big smile.
"You want to join PokeHeroes!?" She was happier about the idea than I would have thought.
"I did some thinking. This," I gestured towards all of Paradise, "Protecting this. Saving Pokemon. It feels like this is where I was meant to be."
"What do you guys think?" Celeste excitedly turned towards the others. Brazen put his hand to his head.
"I don't mind but," he let out a sigh, "I get the feeling you've already decided, Celeste."
"I don't see a problem," Wayde chimed in. "I mean, he took down a Charizard. Having him on the team could really help."
The three of them looked at Siegfried. He folded his arms and thought to himself for a moment. "If that is what you all wish, then I have no objections." Considering what he had told me a few moments ago, I didn't expect Siegfried to be okay with it.
"Yes!" Celeste cheered. She began hopping around and singing, "We have a new team member~. A new PokeHero~." The name still seemed silly, but I was glad they were okay with me joining. I sighed in relief.
"Oh!" Celeste stopped. "So, Strom, you want to know…" They did know something! Finally, an answer! "You see—"
"Hey, Celeste!" I flinched at the unexpected voice. We all turned around. From Paradise, a large gray bipedal Pokemon was running over to us. Violet bulges covered his arms and chest. What the heck was a Gurdurr doing here? Was now really the time? When he reached us, he stopped to catch his breath.
"What is it, Haggar?" Celeste asked.
"We're ready to expand Paradise!" he smiled.
"Oh! You guys are fast!" Celeste turned towards me. "We'll talk more later, Strom!"
"Wait, what—"
"Siegfried, I'll need your input, so you come with me."
"Understood."
"But I—"
"Wayde, Brazen, help Strom settle in. We gotta get that paperwork done, too!"
"Roger!"
"Hold on—!"
"Alright! See ya' guys, later~."
Celeste, Siegfried, and Haggar walked off. Wayde and Brazen stood behind me.
I blinked my eyes a few times. "What just happened?"
Wayde walked next to me. "Celeste oversees a lot of the work on Paradise. She takes off like that quite a lot. But you'll get used to it."
I blinked my eyes again. Just like that, Celeste vanished right in front of me. So much for getting an answer. It greatly annoyed me...
"Do you know, then?" I looked towards Wayde, irritated. "Do you know why our world is on a path of destruction?"
"Uh…" Wayde flinched. "M-Maybe it'd be better if Celeste told you—"
"Ugh!" I looked towards Brazen. "What about you!? Do you know anything!?"
Brazen took a step back and started trembling. No response.
"Gah!" I kicked the ground. "Useless!" I heard my voice echo a bit beyond Paradise.
…
What was I doing? I had to earn their trust, not scare them away. Thank goodness there weren't any other Pokemon around. I took deep breaths… I had to apologize.
"Sorry." I glanced towards Wayde and Brazen. Wayde looked like he was ready for a fight, but Brazen kept shaking. I kept talking. "Like I said, I've been traveling for years. You guys know what I've been searching for, but you still want me to wait. That's fine," I turned towards them and put my hands up. "That's okay. I've waited all this time; I can wait a little longer."
Wayde lowered his guard but Brazen still seemed shaken up. There was an awkward silence. Neither one of them wanted to take initiative—not that I blamed them. I didn't get the same tension from them like Siegfried, so I assumed they didn't hate me as much.
"So… Celeste said something about paperwork?" I asked.
"Uh, yeah…" Brazen spoke. "Come with us."
"We gotta get you officially signed onto the team," Wayde added. I didn't think there was be much of a process to joining them, but it made sense. They started heading into the base. I followed them.
As we entered, Wayde walked over to a cabinet and started rummaging through papers. Brazen and I stood by a table and waited. I glanced at Brazen. He had his hands clasped together. It looked like he was still shaking. That wasn't good. If we were going to be teammates, I had to break the tension. I hoped I wouldn't make things worse.
"Hey, uh," I tried to make small talk. Brazen turned towards me, his eyes showing caution. "How… did you join the rescue team?" He looked away. No response. It was kind of annoying, but it was my fault. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," I added. There was a short pause; We continued waiting for Wayde.
"Well…" Brazen put his hand to his chin. "I ran into Celeste at one town. And…" He paused. "I can't explain how, but she gave me the confidence to stand up to something I feared for a very long time."
"Hm." I nodded in response. More silence. I had to say more. "Does she have that effect on everyone?" I asked, jokingly. Brazen gave a light smirk.
"I didn't think anyone else would notice. Probably, heh." He chuckled. I gave a faint smile. He kept talking. "So, after I got my problem sorted out, Celeste asked me to join her team. I wasn't sure if I really wanted to join a rescue team, but looking back on it now… I'm glad I stayed with her."
"What did she help you with?"
Brazen's eyes trailed off. "It was… my brother…" It was probably something he didn't want to talk about.
"Oh, sorry. You don't need to explain."
Brazen let out a sigh. "I hope he's doing okay now."
"Hm…" I had to change the subject. "So uh, a brother? What's his name?"
"It's Brayden."
"Well that must have been nice, someone to travel with." I tilted my head back. "I'm an only child, so all the traveling I've done, it's just been me."
"Yeah…" Brazen seemed to relax a little. "Yeah. It was nice." He gave me a soft smile.
"Here!" A piece of paper was slapped in front of me on the table. Wayde let out an annoyed sigh. "We really need to get our papers organized better."
"We'll get to it at some point, I'm sure," Brazen commented. "Hey, we got a new member, maybe we'll do it soon."
"I didn't realize there was so much paperwork involved with a rescue team," I added.
"Well, it's mostly just forms for the jobs we've completed," Wayde replied. "But things like our rescue team certificate and member forms—and that," he pointed to the paper in front of me, "are all buried in the same drawer. Sorry for taking so long to find it."
I looked closer at the paper.
"I, the undersign, solemnly swear to be a loyal member to rescue team PokeHeroes and agree to carry out my duties assigned to me to the best of my abilities, and always with a smile."
"Always with a smile"? I was sure that was Celeste's addition. I thought that would be a bit tough for me to do. Below the text, the rest of the paper was a darker shade.
"Just place your handprint on the paper," Brazen spoke.
"You know… It's gonna be hard for me to always do everything with a smile…" There was a pause. Brazen covered his mouth and began snickering. Wayde laughed.
"We don't really enforce that as a rule or anything—just don't worry about it, man." These two were certainly laxer than Siegfried. It was faint, but I was glad a friendship started to form. I smiled in response.
I looked at my right leafy hand. This was it. Joining the team.
"Well then, here goes." I firmly pressed my hand on the paper, and gently pulled away. I could see a faint shadow of my handprint was left in it.
"Welcome to the team," Brazen smiled. Wayde went to go store the paper away. Honestly, I wasn't feeling it. I mean, it was only a piece of paper. Maybe in time, after working with them, I'd feel like I belong. I decided to just focus on trying to fit in for the time being.
"So, Wayde," I called to him. He glanced back at me. "How did you join the rescue team?"
"Ugh. I'm bad at telling stories," he replied. He closed the cabinet and walked back over to Brazen and me. "I guess if you really wanna know…" he paused for a moment. "I've always wanted to join a rescue team—like my dad!" His purple eyes lit up. "My dad's always going out on adventures! But-" he looked down. "My mom wouldn't let me go. With dad being away all the time, mom didn't want me going off either."
"Well, that must've sucked," I commented.
"She said it's dangerous, which is fair," Wayde shrugged. "But I didn't have many friends. I spent a lot of time indoors, fixing things in our workshop."
"Oh? You know how to fix things?"
"Yeah!" Wayde perked up again. "I love seeing how things work! When Celeste, and Brazen, and Siegfried showed up in town, I showed them what I was capable of! That's when Celeste asked me to join!" he smiled.
"But what about your mother?" I asked.
Wayde's gaze trailed off. "I…" he paused. Like with Brazen, something bad must have happened.
"Sorry," I waved my hand. "Forget I asked."
Wayde looked down. He spoke faintly, but I heard him say, "I'm sorry mom…"
Siegfried, Wayde and Brazen each had some kind of dark past. It probably wasn't right for me to ask, but I wondered if something happened to Celeste.
"Hey, what about Celeste?" I asked.
"Hm?" Brazen tilted his head.
"Like, why did she want to make a rescue team in the first place?"
Wayde and Brazen looked at each other. Then Brazen lowered his head and sighed. Wayde looked back to me.
"It's… not our place to say," Wayde sighed. "I know I said it before, but again, it'd be best if she told you herself."
I assumed that something bad had happen to Celeste, too. "I understand," I nodded.
Celeste said she made Paradise to bring peace to all Pokemon, but now I knew there was a bigger reason than that… So, she formed a rescue team and gave the three of them a chance to better themselves. Even if it wasn't for the state of our world, there was truly a strong bond between everyone in this team. Fate must have brought them together for a reason. And now I was here… What did Arceus have planned?
"Hey!" I was surprised by Wayde. "Now you have to tell us more about you, Strom!"
Brazen perked up, too. "Yeah! What gives?"
"M-Me!? Like what?"
"Like… your sword!" Wayde asked. "I thought that it was weird you had it. Where did you get it from? Why do you fight with it?"
"Well, I…" I guess it was only fair I tell them about me. But the sword… I looked back and forth between the two of them. No. Now wasn't the time to tell them it's true power. "Uh, I got it from my father. He gave it to me before I left on my own to see the world." I drew the blade out from its sheathe. Brazen flinched and took a step back. Wayde leaned closer for a better look. "The reason I fight with it is to honor my father. He must have given it to me for a reason."
"What's with the symbol near the hilt?" Wayde asked more questions and got closer.
"I… don't know," I answered. (Honestly, I wasn't sure why Zekrom put that symbol there. Maybe just to mark his power?)
"And how did you learn to fight with it?"
"I mostly taught myself, so I'm sure I'm not that great with it. But I also have this—" I formed my leaf blade in my left hand. "I think knowing how to use the leaf blade helped me better understand how to use this sword. Not that I use it more than the sword…" I put the leaf blade away. Green particles dispersed from my hand and faded into the air.
"Oh, wow! That's so cool!" Wayde leaned forward. I wasn't expecting him to take such a strong interest in my sword. I figured he liked studying different weaponry. "Can... Can I see it?" He reached for my sword. As his hand got closer to the blade, my senses froze. I snapped.
"No!" I took a step back and raised my blade. "No one else can touch it!" I felt my body tense, like I was ready to fight. I gripped the sword tightly, but… I looked at the two of them. Brazen was shaking. Wayde's eyes widened. It took me a moment to understand that they clearly meant to harm.
I couldn't believe I did it again. "I-I'm sorry…" I sighed. I sheathed my sword and sighed. "I didn't mean to react so strongly."
"That's okay," Wayde relaxed, too. "I should have known better. You said it's from your father, right? That explains why you got angry when Celeste took it." That was right… I couldn't believe I was so bitter to her at first.
"I hate to ask you again, but I hope you can forgive me," I closed my eyes.
"Hey, like I said, it's okay!" Wayde walked over to me. He gave me a friendly smile. "I think that's enough getting to know each other for now. Brazen and I still gotta show you around Paradise!"
"That's right!" Brazen perked up and ran over to the doorway. "Wait 'till you see all of Paradise. You're going to love it here!" Wayde walked over to him. They both had smiles as they waited for me.
The kindness they showed—and their forgiveness… I was glad I could call them friends. I smiled as I headed outside with them.