Who I Am - Lightning99
Chapter 51:
The Visitors
Red, Delia, and Misty were in the air before Blue could hang up the call. All he said after his startling reveal was, "Get back here right now," but those two sentences were enough to get them moving.
Cerulean City was behind them in seconds. They cut across Celadon and Routes 16 and 17, the sun dropping and the moon rising behind them. They hit Viridian City while the stars blinked awake and approached Pallet Town within minutes with their Flying-Type Pokémon pushed past their limits.
Given the urgency in Blue's voice, Red had expected to see Pallet Town aflame once again; the buildings reduced to rubble with plumes of smoke swirling and spiralling into the sky; to hear Pokémon's cries and their trainers' accompanying shouts as their moves illuminated the night. But Pallet Town was restful as always: there was no smoke, no moves, only silence and the golden windows shining into the streets.
But that silence, that usual atmosphere, made Red more uncomfortable than any battlefield could have. If there had been moves flying back and forth, battles ensuing among a destroyed village, he would have had a clear goal: end the fighting. However, in that atmosphere, there bore the promise of anything hiding in the darkness, in the silence. He could not help glancing side-to-side, scoping out every inch of the town. Yet, there was nothing there that he could see.
The trio touched down in front of the Oak's house. Red darted through the front garden and threw the door open, for the possibility that the trouble was inside the house instead seemed more likely now. His brows flew upwards: he immediately saw the problem.
"You!" a high-pitched female voice screeched at him from a short distance into the hall. Blue, who stood in the doorway to the living room, was grimacing, but Red only saw him in his peripheral vision. He focused on the casually dressed woman before him, whose beauty did not quite match the scowl on her face, the hunching of her shoulders, nor the way some of her hair was frizzed in the shape of lightning bolts.
"Leaf!" Delia exclaimed behind Red. Leaf did not seem to hear her.
Instead, Leaf marched forwards, her feet stomping with more force than necessary, and swung her arm back. Any sane person would, when faced with an incoming slap, dodge. But Red was saner than the average person. He dared not flinch away. He knew the consequences would be even direr, so he took the slap with all its force. Besides, he knew why it was coming anyway.
"How could you not tell me you're alive?!" Leaf screeched again as her hand followed through, and she knocked Red toward the wall. She flicked her long brown hair back over her shoulder after it fell from the exaggerated swing of her arm.
"Leaf, I keep tellin' ya–" Blue tried. Leaf rounded on him quickly, with such a look in her brown eyes that they seemed to have been sharpened by Hone Claws. Blue squeaked and shut up. She turned back to Red.
"Do you have any idea how much your death affected me?! I haven't been home in years because it was too hard to come back here after my childhood friend passed away!" Leaf grabbed Red by the shirt and started shaking him. "You… You Magikarp!"
While Leaf shook Red relentlessly, Blue snorted. "You Magikarp? That's the best you could do?"
"Careful, Blue, or else she'll get you next," Yellow's voice spoke from further in the house. Blue seemed to shiver at the prospect.
"Leaf, how did you find out?" Delia asked, gently releasing her hands from Red's jacket.
"I heard about your son on the news and decided to finally return. I wanted to see you, Delia, to make sure you were doing ok. I was in Almia at the time, and you won't believe how difficult it was to get a flight back out here so suddenly. When I finally returned, I met Blue when he was in the middle of a call with Red before you headed to Cerulean City. Now imagine my surprise to find out Red was alive. Of course, I had to ask Blue if it was true, and–"
"He can't lie to you, so you found out," Delia reasoned. Red and Delia stared at Blue, frowning.
"Oh, come on, guys! You know Leaf's the only one Red and I are scared of!" Blue countered.
Red shook his head and widened his eyes, trying to convey, Speak for yourself!
"Yeah, right, buddy. She's terrifying."
Red paused. Then he nodded.
"Oh, shut up!" Leaf said.
Red opened his mouth and raised his hand.
"Yes, I know. You didn't speak. I just – I can't believe this!"
Red turned to Misty, who was standing a little way behind them. He glanced at Delia, straight in her eyes, and it seemed she understood.
"Blue, where are Gary and the others?" Delia asked.
"They should be upstairs. Why?"
"Misty, would you be so kind as to wait with them for a little bit? I think Red would like to talk with Leaf, but he needs certain conditions to do so."
"Oh, umm…" Misty looked like she would retort, possibly due to her desire to see and discuss Ash's predicament, but then she refrained. "Yeah, ok. I don't mind," she said, and she wandered towards the small imperial staircase. She looked back at Leaf once, then, Blue, and shook her head. Red could only shoot her an apologetic smile.
"Up the left, two doors down the corridor," Blue said.
"Thank you," Misty said.
Misty disappeared upstairs. Red ushered everyone into the living room and shut the door. He approached the windows, scrutinised the dark street outside, then pulled the curtains across.
"Red? What's going on?" Yellow asked.
After ensuring the windows were covered, Red moved into the centre of the room so that his three childhood friends were sitting around him.
Red opened his mouth to speak, but his voice caught. He gave it a moment, coughed, and tried again.
"I–" That was all he got out at first. After another cough and another moment, he found his voice. "I'm sorry, Leaf."
"As you should be," Leaf said, folding her arms.
"I would have told you if I could have contacted you. I had to get rid of my Pokégear so that I couldn't be tracked."
"That explains why every call I made went to voicemail."
"Yeah, probably," Red said. He gave Leaf one more long, sorry look, then rounded on Blue, his eyes tweaked to a frown and his lips curled up at one corner.
He didn't say anything for a moment.
"What?" Blue asked.
Still, Red said nothing.
"C'mon, don't just stare at me like that."
"Blue."
"Yes?"
"Given the complicated and dire situation we are currently in regarding Ash, myself, and all of us, frankly–"
"I vaguely know of such a situation–"
"Did you seriously have to make Leaf's return appear so serious?! We thought something had happened!"
Blue cringed. "Uhhh…"
"When we were talking with Misty, a woman stood outside, and it looked like she was eavesdropping. She could have been doing several things when she pulled out her phone. Perhaps she was contacting some accomplices. Who knows? When you called, I thought something terrible had happened."
"Ah, no, it was just Leaf."
"Just me, huh?" Leaf asked.
"I-I mean, yes, my urgency was well-founded when such a lovely person had returned to our midst."
"Oh, for the love of Arceus," Yellow said, but she could not suppress her laughter. And neither, it seemed, could any of them. That was the first time they had reunited in over a decade, and that realisation came to Red precisely at that moment. He joined in the laughter and decided to postpone his complaints for now. Nothing had happened, so they were safe for the moment.
When their laughter died down, Leaf was immediately on the offensive, asking question after question to piece together the goings-on throughout their years apart.
They discussed everything from their activities after Red's 'death' – including Blue's travels and Yellow's research and discoveries regarding Pokémon healing – to their children's exploits, involving a heated debate between Delia and Blue over who was the better trainer, Ash or Gary. They then explained how Ash was alive, at which Leaf seemed thoroughly relieved.
Red sat back throughout their discussion, voicing his input whenever he could but listening for much of it, revelling in the fact that they could still act like this after so many years apart. He peeked through the curtains every once in a while to confirm their safety, but by the second hour – at which point Yellow and Leaf were calmly discussing Gary's current researching endeavours and how proud Yellow was of him – his caution started to ebb away somewhat.
Until the doorbell rang.
The two-toned ring seemed to invade the whole house. Whatever joke Leaf had been about to say died on her lips. Silence fell upon the living room. All Red could hear was the blood rushing to his ears, his heart beating faster and faster, thumping harder and harder.
Red looked at Delia. Blue looked at Red. Leaf and Yellow looked at him. Red looked back at them all. He did not say anything.
The second ring sounded like the clang of a bell would at Lavender Town's Pokémon Tower in the dead of night. Three quick knocks that could have been the clack of Marowak's bone on the cold, hard stone followed the doorbell. Red's heart quickened, his skin feeling icy all of a sudden.
Blue looked at Yellow. Yellow looked at Delia. Delia looked at Blue. Red looked toward the curtained windows.
Slowly, he stepped toward the windows, suddenly aware of his footing and breathing. When one of the floorboards squeaked the slightest bit – which, in the silent room, was louder than it should have been – Red cringed. He curled open the tiniest sliver of the curtain he could, enough that he could look out of but not enough to reveal his position.
Red did not feel his heart stop as shock had once caused to happen. Instead, his heart sped up again when he saw a black-clad squadron and their miscellaneous Pokémon scattered around the Oak's front lawn, the woman among them. Suddenly, the world seemed to move at hyper-speed, and Red stepped back from the window, rapidly assessing the situation.
"Don't answer it!" Red whisper-shouted when a third ring of the doorbell ensued, and Blue rose confidently from his seat. "I was right. That woman was suspicious. Don't look!"
Yellow, who had been moving toward the windows, backed away.
"What did you see?" Delia asked.
"There's a whole team of people out there, all with their Pokémon at the ready."
"What?! Why are they here?" Leaf asked.
"I don't know exactly, but I have my suspicions–"
Another ring of the doorbell came, followed by the padding of feet on the stairs. Gary, Misty, Bonnie, Barry, and Paul appeared in the living room, cutting Red off. His voice constricted, and he internally screamed. Now was not the time.
"What's going on? Aren't you going to answer the door?" Gary asked, making for the door.
"Don't!" Delia cried, and Red flinched, looking out the window again. Was she too loud? Was there even a point in being quiet?
"What's going on?" Misty asked.
"I-I think it might be the people after Ash," Delia said, looking to Red. He nodded.
Another ring of the doorbell came, followed by some more frantic knocks.
"Really?! Then let's go beat 'em–"
Blue smacked Barry over the head lightly, shutting him up.
"As much as I'd love to, it's more complicated than that," Blue said. "Whaddya want to do, Red?"
Red thought for a moment.
Another ring, even more impatient knocks.
He took a deep breath, calming himself, and thought once again. He gathered everyone's attention with his arms, but they looked at him anyway. He pointed toward his belt of Pokéballs, then the garden.
"I think he's saying to get your Pokémon and head to the garden?" Leaf said.
Red nodded.
"You're good at charades, Leaf." Everyone just stared at Blue like he was an idiot. "Alright, alright, I get it. Just get your things," Blue said, and everyone dispersed.
Red felt his voice open up when the kids were out of the room – some more rings and thuds on the door. He coughed a few times.
"We're getting out of here," he said. "If they have flying types they can ride, get them to send them out and wait by the back door. When we're all ready, we'll start flying. But be ready. It won't be long before they notice."
"But where will we go?"
"Alola."
Suddenly, a loud thud came from the door. Its hinges rattled.
"They're trying to get in," Leaf said, and she sent out her Venasaur. "We'll stop them, so get everyone ready."
"Got it," Yellow said, and she rushed upstairs, probably to convey Red's message.
Leaf rushed to the door just in time for another thud to hit it. She and Venasaur started pushing against it, holding firm. Red nodded to them, then rushed through the kitchen to the backdoor – he left the lights off.
Upon glancing out of the window, it seemed there were a few grunts out back, too, covering that door. Red grimaced, but it was okay. A few mere grunts wouldn't stop them, even if their black attire nearly camouflaged them in the nightlight.
As he waited for the others, Red considered who to send out. He settled on Charizard. Although he wasn't the fastest flier out of his many Pokémon, he was up there, and he was one of his strongest. And something told Red that they would not escape this situation without a fight.
"Is this everyone?" Delia asked a few minutes later. She had Red's Swellow's Pokéball in hand - which she had ridden on their flight back to Kanto – and a hall crammed with people in front of her.
"Everyone 'cept Leaf," Blue said. He grabbed the door handle. "Yellow and I'll lead the group. You guys follow behind, ok?"
"Got it," Delia said.
"What's happening?" Paul asked.
"As I said, we're getting out of here," Yellow said. "We don't exactly know why these people are here, but they are, so we need to escape."
"We're flying out of here, so does anybody need a Flying-Type Pokémon?" Delia asked.
Nobody did. They let out their Pokémon, making the hall feel even more claustrophobic. Everyone except Red climbed on, and Blue stepped up to the doorway.
"Leaf, we're leaving!" Delia shouted.
"Ok, get going!" Leaf called, her voice strained.
Red nodded to Blue, and he threw the door open. Blue and his Pidgeot were the first out, followed swiftly by the rest of the group, one-by-one. Among the sound of flapping wings, Red heard the startled cries of the grunts outside, and he saw them ducking under talons, diving for the ground as the group took off.
"Leaf!" Red shouted when Delia took off after the rest of them, Bonnie sat just in front of her on Swellow's back since she couldn't fly herself.
"Coming!" Leaf yelled. There was a loud crash from the other side of the house, the rapid patter of feet slamming the wooden floor, and Leaf emerged in the hall, exchanging what was probably Vanasaur's Pokéball for another.
She charged out the door, and Red followed. They almost simultaneously sent out their Pokémon and leapt on, soaring high into the sky after the rest of the group. Charizard's wings blew back a few of the approaching grunts, and one unlucky lad was slammed in the chest by his tail, but Red paid no mind to that. He focused on joining the others because, as he expected, the grunts were already preparing Flying-Type Pokémon of their own.
Red kept an eye behind him as he flew. Seeing so many people and Pokémon soaring into the sky was quite the sight. It made him wonder just what the Pallet residents thought as they watched, but he rid his mind of that thought and focused on the task at hand.
The first attack came when they were flying over Viridian Forest. Red didn't see from which Pokémon or person it came, but a jolting line of electricity shot towards him. He swooped to the left, avoiding it, and it continued through the air.
Putting on a burst of speed, Red flew to Delia's side.
"Do you have your Pokégear on you?!" Red shouted over the rushing of the window around him. An Air Slash sliced the air between them. They swerved opposite ways to dodge, then met in the middle again.
Delia nodded and passed her Pokégear to him, ducking her head below a Signal Beam.
Red quickly called Leaf, who picked up after several rings.
"Are you insane?!" Leaf yelled.
"Probably," Red shouted back. "Look, they've started attacking!"
"Yeah, no shit!" Blue's voice called out.
"Let everyone up there know!"
"Yellow and I are on it!" Leaf said.
Red strapped the Pokégear to his wrist and left the call on. As soon as he looked behind him, a frosty Ice Beam darted towards his back.
"Go left!" Red shouted, and he and Delia swooped in different directions. "Leaf! If you can attack back, do it, but only to deter them! We don't want to injure anyone!"
A Flamethrower shot past Red's right-hand side. Charizard didn't even flinch.
"Why can't we just KO these idiots?!"
"Blue!"
"Right, right! Hey, Barry! Dodge!"
Ahead of him, Barry's Staraptor dived, avoiding the Flamethrower.
Red pulled his Charizard around then, nodding to him. Charizard unleashed a Flamethrower of his own, one wider and faster than the enemies'. It shot through the air in front of a grunt's face, causing their Pokémon to falter and drop into the trees below, taking three others with him. Charizard spun back around, and they continued flying, manoeuvring in a corkscrew around a Psybeam, diving to avoid a speedy Hyper Beam.
For the following ten minutes, the sky over Kanto looked like a spectacular firework show. At least from below because in reality, moves of all types, be they Thunderbolts or Psybeams or Rock Blasts, shot through the sky, and Red's group all ducked and dived to dodge. One of them spun around and retaliated whenever they could, their moves more precise and effective than any grunts'. Barry caught one grunt's Pokémon in the leg, causing it to have to land. Paul clipped another's wing, causing it to land somewhere in a forest. Misty deterred three at once with a barrage of Water-Guns, and Leaf blew several into the forest with a well-placed whirlwind.
But no matter how many they deterred, it seemed that the numbers would not thin.
Red tugged Charizard left and barrel rolled to avoid a Thunderbolt. Then he feigned a dive and rose instead, avoiding a Dark Pulse, transitioning smoothly into another barrel roll to the right. Red nodded, and Charizard charged Flamethrower in his mouth. Red pulled him around in a quick spin, and Charizard unleashed the move, making the flames form an arc. The grunts were so close behind him that they couldn't dodge. They fell into the trees, and the branches seemed to cushion their landing – Red checked over his shoulder.
Ahead of him, Leaf and Delia were flying in a double helix pattern, avoiding move after move. Every time Leaf completed a rotation, she had her Togekiss fire back with a Moonblast. As the large pink blast knocked grunt after grunt from the sky, Blue's Pidgeot swooped side-to-side, cutting the air apart with Air Slash. One curved blade of air cut across one of the grunt's Pokémon's wings, and another cut across its back.
The younger trainers acted in kind, rolling, spinning, and attacking whenever possible. Paul had his Honchkrow expertly use Haze to blind the enemies, while Barry moved into close quarters, using a variety of Wing Attacks and Close Combats on the stunned grunts. Misty and Gary worked together, swerving and blocking and attacking, clearing the sky around them whenever a grunt came too close.
A few grunts claimed some hits on some of their group, after which someone else in the group ensured that they paid them back for it. It looked as if Barry were hanging on by a single feather on Staraptor's back at one point.
"What're we going to do, Red?!" Delia shouted when they were about twenty minutes into their non-stop flight. "We're slowly getting through them, but not all of us can keep going like this."
Delia was right. Their Pokémon were all but sprinting through the sky. They wouldn't be able to continue forever or endure the strain of constantly attacking. And the grunts had large numbers. Even if a good chunk of them had already fallen, they could just get back up and replace the others in their formation.
"We have to land," Red reasoned, scoping the land below him. They had been flying so fast that Mt Silver was beyond them, and they were now flying over Johto.
"What about going to Alola?"
"We still are, but we need to throw them off the trail," Red said. He leaned forward slightly, patting Charizard's head. "Charizard, do you think you can remember how to use Smoke Screen? It was years ago, but can you?"
Charizard nodded confidently and started puffing out small plumes of smoke from its nostrils, perhaps to practice.
"I'll have Charizard make a giant smokescreen. Leaf, can you tell Paul to start using Hase again, on my command?"
"Got it!"
"Thanks! When it hits, half of us will need to land to our right and the other half to our left. We'll split up, but I think that'll help us stay out of sight."
"Ok. Let's do it."
"Did you hear that, Leaf?" Red shouted.
"Yeah, I got it!"
"Pidgeot, Hurricane!" Blue's voice shouted in the distance of Leaf's call.
"What?!" Red shouted as a Hurricane formed, catching three of the closest grunts in its winds. "Careful!"
"Careful, Blue!" Leaf called.
"Sorry, sorry!"
"Blue, you take Yellow, Gary, Paul, and Barry to the left," Leaf said.
"Ok. That leaves Delia and us to go to the right with Misty. That should work. Good luck, all."
"You too. Who am I kidding? You don't need luck."
Red laughed and watched as Leaf and Delia flew around to each person. Red made the command when they all turned to look at him. With a deep inhale and a heavy puff, Charizard blew out a massive plume of Smoke Screen, and Paul's Honchkrow used Haze, engulfing the air behind them and obscuring them from view.
Red dipped down to the right as he had planned, watching the others move with him. In seconds, they shot through the canopy just in time for the Grunts to get their bearings and blow the smoke away.
Red was the first to touch down, and he leapt off Charizard expertly, withdrawing him to his Pokéball in the same swift motion. The others landed then, mimicking his actions. He looked around the forest quickly, then Delia led them behind a fallen tree. They hid there, backs pressed to the wood, chests panting.
Some shouts echoed above them, the grunts claiming they couldn't have gone far. They started searching the area from above, but for now, it seemed, hidden as they were behind the tree and canopy, they were safe.
Red breathed a sigh.
"What now?" Leaf asked.
"We just have to wait until they start looking for us a safe distance away," Delia said, steadying her breath. "When they do, I'll call Blue, and we can meet up again. Then we continue flying. We can't go back to Pallet Town for a while."
Red made himself comfortable. They could be there a while.
Thank you for your patience, everyone! And if you're new, and have yet to see an upload, apologies for the long wait!
I've been on a long break for a few reasons. I definitely burned out. This story was all I was writing, so I decided to leave it and do some other writing for a while. I even wrote another story on here in the meantime, which you can find on my profile if you want. It was nice to try doing different things, especially that being a little funny story. I think I'm finally ready to jump back into Who I Am.
And, of course, I was bombarded with IRL stuffs, as is the way of the world. It was more stressful than getting Crit in a Nuzlocke. Actually, scratch that. The Nuzlocke thing is definitely worse.
This would have been up yesterday, but I was too busy crying over trying to complete the Blooming Villain remix on All Night mode. If you get what I mean, I appreciate you. It took way too long, I'm telling you, but I did it. It's a good feeling.
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think, and I'll see you soon!