"Those Team Galactic goons are always up to no good," a viridian-haired woman mused with a sigh as she watched the news. Apparently, the nefarious gang had taken a group of workers hostage at the Valley Windwork power plant near her hometown. This Team Galactic was notorious for snatching up people and Pokémon alike and performing all sorts of terrible experiments on them. Cheryl shook her head. While she feared for their safety, there was simply nothing she could do about the situation. She was an ordinary botanist whereas the Galactic Admins were rumored to have voluntarily undergone experiments to give themselves superhuman abilities on par with Pokémon themselves. Cheryl shuddered to think about running into them.
"Goodness, just look at the time!"
It was now 8AM, meaning that she was to leave for work right away. Despite all the chaos in the world, Cheryl loved her job. As a little girl, she had loved to walk outside and study the flora in her hometown. Floaroma Town was a lovely little place during the spring, and it was where Cheryl gained her love of Combee honey. Even so, little Cheryl could not help fantasizing about traveling Sinnoh and seeing other types of plant life. Today, she had been assigned to study the tall trees of Eterna Forest, but she would never have expected the events that would follow.
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"…Yes. Everything seems to be falling into play, Commander Saturn," a teal-haired grunt spoke into a futuristic headset. Surrounding her were two other grunts, all of whom were armed with sleek machetes.
"Excellent," a sinister voice replied. "Bring us the Moss Rock immediately. It is said to be at its highest peak of power at this time of day. Saturn out."
With that, the transmission ended and the grunts began to move out into the forest. At the same time, Cheryl was hiding behind a tree eavesdropping.
"What could they possibly want with the Moss Rock?" Cheryl asked herself in a whisper. The Moss Rock was not particularly well-known for anything aside from evolving Eevee into Leafeon, and Cheryl doubted Team Galactic even had that many Eevee to begin with. Besides, the fabled rock was rumored to have existed in the forest since the beginning of time! What right did those Galactics have to interfere with nature?
'Still, what could I possibly do about it?' Cheryl wondered internally. Pokémon battles were out of the question. In the past few years, Team Galactic had really stepped up its game and would not hesitate to cheat by attacking and slaughtering Pokémon and trainers alike. All Cheryl had with her was her Chansey, and she was more of a healer than anything else. Besides, Cheryl refused to jeopardize her Pokémon's safety. Finding a safe little nook in a tree, she carefully placed her Chansey's Poké Ball in it and taped a piece of paper to the tree so that she wouldn't forget where it was. With this done, Cheryl left to confront Team Galactic and attempt to appeal to their better nature.
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To say that Cheryl had failed was an understatement. Not only did the grunts laugh in her face after she poured her heart out to them, they actually took offense and pointed their weapons at her!
"N-Now, now," Cheryl stuttered, backing away with her hands raised in surrender. "Let's not do anything crazy-"
"HA! You already crossed that line when you decided to get in our way!" the head grunt scoffed, her male companions laughing along with her. "Now stand aside or die!"
Looking back at the Moss Rock, Cheryl turned to the despicable people with a firm expression on her face.
"Never."
The head grunt and her squadron looked surprised for a moment, but then regained their composure. "My, my," she claimed in a condescending tone of voice, "I knew botanists were a bunch of tree huggers, but who would be foolish enough to put their life on the line for a grassy rock?"
"Not foolish. Fortitudinous."
"… What?"
"It takes courage to defend something you believe in even when the odds aren't in your favor," Cheryl spoke. "Courage and fortitude indeed."
"… But not brains, apparently," one of the male grunts snarled.
"You got guts, girly," another continued. "It's a real shame we gotta cut 'em outta ya now."
With that, the lead grunt stepped forward and slashed at Cheryl, who had just barely backed away enough to avoid taking a fatal hit. Her shoulder had been nicked slightly, but she was too frightened to notice. As she continued to back away, Cheryl tripped over a root and fell backwards onto the Moss Rock, wincing at the impact. The lead grunt walked up to her and raised both arms over her head, intending to finish the green-haired woman off. But fate had other plans that day.
"I'd say it was a pleasure meeting you, but it's not good to lie to a dying person," she said with a malicious grin, bringing the machete down. Time seemed to slow down as Cheryl raised her arms in defense, shutting her eyes tightly. Suddenly, large vines emerged from the ground and lifted the grunt off the ground by the neck.
"What-!?"
"The hell!?"
Cheryl slowly opened her eyes to see the grunt dangling a long ways from the ground, her companions desperately trying to cut her down.
"N-No, you… idiots…" she choked out, pointing a finger at Cheryl. The grunts immediately understood, charging headfirst at a frightened Cheryl, who instinctively raised her arms again. They were stunned when several grass knots appeared at their feet and left them tied to the ground. As they reached for their machetes, their arms were also tied down by the aggressive grass. Cheryl didn't know what to do.
'What is happening? Is… Is the forest protecting me? Am I doing this?'
Cheryl watched in shock as the horror unfolded before her. Lost in her thoughts, she was unable to stop the vines from strangling the female grunt. She was powerless to prevent the more vines from appearing and pulling the other grunts higher and higher into the treetops, hanging them like puppets on strings. An audible crack sounded as the large vine dispatched the lead grunt, finally retreating back into the earth and letting the body to the floor. Cheryl felt sick to her stomach and as she attempted to get back up, she sank to her hands and knees and began to whimper. She would have cried then and there if she didn't feel vines creeping up her legs and wrapping them together tightly.
"What…? No…! Let me go!" the woman protested, thrashing about violently in an attempt to free herself. Unfortunately, this only made the vines and bark surround her even more, almost completely enveloping her body. As the plant life made its way to Cheryl's face, the last thing she saw was a glowing Moss Rock attaching itself to one of the vines and a person a fair distance away walking towards her…
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And that about does it for this chapter, ladies and gents. Apologies for taking so long to update this one, school has really taken its toll on me. Also, I'm preparing to move into a new house. But enough excuses! Thank you to that special guest who reviewed and those who followed/favorite this story so far! Next chapter should be up sometime tomorrow probably. In the next chapter, Cheryl will team up with our heroes, Riley and Mira, to take on the forces of evil! ... But not before some Chateau shenanigans first. Until then, au revoir!