DISCLAIMER: I own many things. My thoughts, my imagination, my insanity.... but I ramble. My point is, of the many things I do own, pokemon (not counting figurines, cards, games, etc) is not among them.
Spirits of the Past
Part 6: Hurry!
The remaining trio of humans were shocked by the apparent proof of the validity of Cynthia's legend, but they knew that they had to keep moving. They left the kitchen, went back out through the dining room, and found themselves back in the main room. Evan was leading the way, with Cynthia and her lucario following behind. Gardenia, though reluctant to continue with their quest, made it a top priority to stay up with the others; she had no desire to be left alone when a ghost with super-powered pokemon was roaming the halls.
Evan took the first step into the room, and swore as every loose object in the room began its eratic movement. Evan swore, startling Cynthia - he hadn't struck her as one who was inclined to profanity.
"We don't have time for this!" He muttered angrily as he threw his bag on the ground, unzipping it and pulling out another piece of paper like the one Sandy had carried before. He quickly strung it and, with Cynthia's permission, tied it around Lucario's neck like a necklace. Once again, the motion stopped and the mansion was quiet, save for the creakings and groanings that came naturally from a place so old. As soon as it was calm, Evan grabbed his bag and, at a quick walk, strode over to the staircase on his right. It was the staircase closest to the glaring statue, which made Gardenia quicken her pace even more, so that she was almost stepping on Cynthia's heels.
They were now on the balcony, overlooking the massive room below. But they had no time for sightseeing. Ignoring some smaller passageways, apparently made for the use of servants, Evan went quickly into the room that stood directly opposite the top of the stairs. The door was totally gone from its hinges, and was slowly decomposing on the floor just inside the doorway. As soon as they were in, it was obvious that the Jenna and the spirit that controlled her was not there. Some flimsy boxes filled with remnants of what was once paper lined the floor on the left side of the room, and a bookshelf with only a few decaying books was in the far right corner. Once more, some small passages led off from the room, but Evan ignored them.
He was just turning around to leave when Cynthia asked, "Why aren't we taking any of those smaller hallways? Wouldn't it make sense that the spirit would use those, in order to avoid us?"
"That's the point." Evan said. "Those passageways would be the perfect way to avoid us, mainly because we have no idea how to get around in there. These old mansions often have a labarinth of small halls, so that servants - who would be wise to the layout - could get easily from one place of the house to another. If this butler did work here, then he would know all of the passageways like the back of his hand. We, on the other hand, would get hopelessly lost." He scowled, then shook his head as if to rid himself of something. The natu on top stayed firmly in place. "We don't have time for this!" he continued. "We need to keep on moving!" He started to head out of the door past Gardenia, then stopped as lucario stepped past him into the center of the room. It had its snout raised in the air, as if it was smelling for something. Sure enough, it seemed to zero in on its target, walking slowly to the back right corner of the room, where the bookshelf was. Apparently, there was a space in between the shelf and the wall, for Lucario reached his paws behind it. He came out holding something circular in his paws, with an odd lump on the top of it.
Cynthia barely kept herself from gasping as she had before. In between lucarios paws was plate. Of course, the plate itself was not the object of her surprise. Rather, it was the small, slightly moldy pastry that lay on top that shocked her. While she had never seen any type of gateau in real life, she knew it was a sort of cake, similar to what this item of food must once have been. Gardenia, who remembered -out of fear - every detail of the story Cynthia had told, recognized it immediately. At first Evan simply seemed agitated by this further delay and turned once again to leave, but the look of shock on the two women's faces made his realize that he had missed something. He turned back around and, after a couple of seconds, realized what it was.
Of course, with adrenaline now coursing through his veins, he could not stand and stare for long. "And so, yet more evidence in favor of the legend. But it does not matter whether or not we prove the legend right or wrong - we have to save the two possessed people in this house. We have to hurry." He paused briefly, as if to let the message sink in. "Now let's go."
He now left the room, coming back out the way they had come. Once more, the two women and Cynthia's lucario followed. He strode purposefully towards the doorway at the center of the balcony, but the time it took him to get there was both tense and awkward at the same time. Cynthia studied a faded painting on the wall as they passed, which depicted a beautiful forest along the edge of a lake. At one point in time, it may have been priceless: now, it wouldn't even be worth the canvas it was painted on. No one spoke; it seemed inappropriate. Every now and then, a creak or a snap from another part of the house would sound, but they had no way of knowing if this was ghosts, pokemon, or just the natural noises of the house.
Their silence remained as they stepped into the hallway beyond. It stretched equal distances to the left and right. Five main doors - one right in front, two to the right, and two to the left - stood in the opposite wall, along with a few more small servant passages. Evan stood just inside the hallway, and asked "Natu, can you sense any spirits?"
Natu simple stared for a moment, then answered, "Natu."
"Can you tell which is which, or pinpoint where they are?" Evan asked in response.
"Na."
"Well, we'll just have to guesss and hope we can find them." Said Evan as he headed straight forward for the doorway in front of him. A cracking noise sounded from somewhere in the house, but Evan ignored it.
Natu remained silent as they entered the room, indicating to Evan that there was nothing unnatural about the sight before them. Two beds were main focus of the room, with a couple of paintings and old bookshelves as the only other furnishings. As Cynthia entered the room behind Evan, she asked, "How do you know what your natu says? I've heard of close bonds with pokemon, but you seem to understand exactly what it says."
Evan went over to a side passage and took a quick peek, checking to see if any ghosts or people were present there, but all was normal. "I understand natu because of our psychic abilities. While we can't necessarily talk with words, we can mentally give each other pictures and ideas to communicate with each other."
"Amazing..." Cynthia said as Evan glanced down a passage on the left side of the room. Once more, neither he nor his natu detected anything in the servant passage, physical or spiritual. He was heading over to the last passage at the back part of the room when Lucario suddenly tensed. The sound of running footsteps could be heard passing outside the room, in the main hallway. Cynthia and Evan turned around quickly, but only caught the briefest glimpse of pink tennis shoe. But Gardenia, who had been closest to the door at the time, had heard the footsteps before the others and had turned around in time to see Mia, the little girl were searching for, dart past. The look on her face, though only briefly seen by Gardenia, was one of fear and panic.
"That was her!" Gardenia said. Taking action for the first time, she dashed out of the room and chased after Mia. Lucario, Cynthia, and Evan followed in close pursuit. Despite the little girl's age and size, she managed to stay just ahead of Gardenia as she dashed down the hallway, towards the door farthest right from the entrance to the hall.
"Stop! It's me, Gardenia!" The little girl payed no heed to the shouts. She turned as she reached the open doorway and dashed inside, without slowing her pace. Gardenia had to slow down a bit to make the turn, and was afraid that she would lose sight of the girl. As she entered the room, the girl was heading for a servant hall at the back of the room. Gardenia put on an extra burst of speed to catch her, but there was no need. The girl lost her footing on a loose tile and stumbled, falling hard to the ground. Almost immediately, she attempted to get up and start running, but Gardenia caught up with her and held her firm. Gardenia knelt on the ground, holding the girls arms in her hands. Despite struggling on the little girl's part, Gardenia turned the girl to face her.
"Mia! Don't you remember me? I'm Gardenia, remember?!?"
The girl continued to struggle. "Let me go! I have to run! He's gonna catch me!" The fear in her eyes was apparent, and she seemed almost in hysterics. Gardenia, shocked by the Mia's apparent forgetfulness of her, loosened her grip and nearly let go. This was when Evan stepped in. He grabbed the girl firmly by one of her arms before Gardenia let go, and turned the girl to face him.
"Who are you?" asked Evan calmly, despite the girl's desperate attempts to break free. He was crouching, so as to be eye to eye with the girl.
"I'm Liza! Now let me go!"
"Who's going to get you?" Evan asked. Though his demeanor stayed calm, his eyes were intense, like when he had talked to the spirit in possession of Jenna.
"The butler! Alfred! He's gonna get me and kill me! I need to go!" She scratched and clawed at Evan's arms, but his grip did not loosen. Suddenly, she went still, her eyes wide. She looked fearfully down the side passage at the left side of the room, then resumed her attempts to break free with new urgency.
"He's almost here! LET ME GO!"
Evan looked worried. "Get out of the girl's body. If you get hurt while in her body, the girl your possessing gets hurt, too! Do you really want that?"
The girls attempts at escape got a little less vigorous as she replied. "No. But I can't get out! I'm stuck in here!"
"Why don't you pass on?" asked Evan.
"I can't leave daddy here!" Suddenly, a noise sounded from down the left servant passage. Lucario tensed, and the girl grew completely hysterical.
"He's here! He's gonna kill me! I don't want to die! I can't leave daddy here all alone!" Evan dragged the now weeping girl to the right side of the room, opposite of where the noise had been heard. Another servant passageway was right next to them, and Evan was ready to drag the girl down it with him if need be. Gardenia stayed near him, and Cynthia and her lucario stood in the center of the room, ready for a fight.
First, they heard the steps. The hall was too dark to see who was coming, but the steps were deliberate and calm. It didn't take long for the person they were dreading to come out from the gloom, though. Jenna's body walked slowly into the room, her eyes taking in the sight before her: Cynthia and a lucario ready for battle, with Evan and Gardenia hunkered down behind them. But, of course, she cared little for these people. What her eyes focused on was the girl, who had now ceased her screaming and was attempting to hide behind Evan. A cruel smile lit up Jenna's face as she stood in the doorway of the servant hallway. The spirit inside her wasted no time getting to the point.
"Give me the girl. She is a murderer, and I will have my vengeance. Either that, or the girl whose body I'm in - Jenna, wasn't it? - will die. If you give the girl to me now, I will leave Jenna unharmed."
Cynthia, afraid of doing anything that would condemn Jenna, turned to Evan for guidance. Lucario kept his eyes trained on Jenna.
"The spirit still needs Jenna's body to get around. He's not going to be rid of her that easily." Evan assured.
Cynthia turned back to Jenna, confident in Evan's advice.
Jenna's body sighed as the spirit said through her, "Very well. This girl still has more pokemon; I'm sure they will be more than happy to take my threats seriously." Jenna's hand reached into her bag, pulling out two more pokeballs. She tossed them into the air, releasing a charizard and a nidoqueen. The nidoqueen did not seem to see anything out of the ordinary, and prepared itself for a fight. The charizard, on the other hand, looked back at Jenna and immediately knew something was not right.
"Okay, Flame and Stella. You will beat the people who stand in my way so I may get my hands on that little girl. Either that, or your trainer dies." Flame, though she had sensed something amiss, was confused by Jenna's words. Once more, Jenna hand reached into her bag and pulled out a pocket knife. She made another, longer gash next to the still oozing first one. Flame, though still confused, asked no more questions. Immediately, she turned and sent a powerful flamethrower attack at lucario, catching him by surprise. He held his ground, but took alot of damage. Cynthia, reacting quickly, sent out her garchomp to help.
"Lucario, use aura sphere on the nidoqueen!" A blue ball of energy began to accumulate in lucarias paws, which he shot at the Stella. She took the hit and held her ground. She hardly seemed phased by the attack. She began to glow with a mysterious energy as she prepared for a superpower attack.
Cynthia recognized the danger. "Lucario, use quick attack before it can charge!" Lucario ran forward, but was stopped as a flamethrower from Flame hit the ground in between him and Stella. The tiles blackened and the floor groaned treacherously, but it held together. Stella, who had used the distraction to finish powering up her attack, charged at the unprepared lucario.
"Garchomp, dragon rush! Stop that attack!" Garchomp glowed with an energy of its own as the two charging pokemon met head on. They stayed in a deadlock for a moment but, to Gardenia's amazement, Garchomp was the one to get sent flying back. Gardenia knew the power of that garchomp; she couldn't believe any pokemon could best its dragon rush. Stella, though lacking intelligence and agility, was a nidoqueen with an extreme amount of stamina and power. Gardenia had heard this from Cynthia herself, but still could not believe it.
Admittedly, the nidoqueen seemed to have taken quite a bit of damage as garchomp got up from the ground. Charizard could not fly in the small room, and was more or less condemned to battling from its current spot. She launched another flamethrower at lucario, intending to finish it off, but Cynthia ordered Garchomp to take the hit. Little damage was done to the ground type pokemon, and Cynthia ordered a dragon claw attack. Garchomp charged forward, its claws lit up, and struck charizard in the stomach. The flame dragon roared in pain and loosed another flamethrower at garchomp, which once more proved uneffective.
Now Stella was once more ready to fight, and she charged towards Lucario for a body slam attack. Cynthia saw an opportunity.
"Lucario, jump on to nidoqueen's back when she gets close!" Stella, too intent on her attack to notice, was oblivious to Cynthia's order. Lucario jumped on the nidoqueen's back, and she immediately stopped and attempted to shake him off. Cynthia ordered a force palm, which lucario delivered right to the back of Stella's head, who went down for the count.
It was now that Evan gave a yelp of pain, causing Cynthia to turn around and loose her focus. She caught a glimpse of the little girl, running down the servant hall, with Evan getting up to give chase. Flame the charizard took the opportunity to use another flamethrower on lucario, knocking it out.
Jenna's face had had a calm look of malevolent contentment throughout the course of the battle. Now her face was contorted with rage.
"Get that girl!" the spirit inside Jenna ordered. Flame tried to run forward to fulfill the demand, but was stopped by a glancing blow from another dragon claw attack. Flame and Garchomp faced each other, Flame with grim resolution to save her master. They stared each other down for about twenty seconds before the spirit in control of Jenna lost his patience.
"Get rid of those people now!" Shouted Jenna. Flame, realizing that a flamethrower would do nothing, began flapping its wings to create a strong wind. Cynthia and Gardenia had to bend away from it in order to avoid being blown back. Garchomp was able to dig its fins into the floor beneath it, holding its ground. Flame stopped, and it was then that Evan came running back into the room.
"I- " He gasped for breath, then continued, "lost her!"
Jenna's face was livid. "You incompetent fool! How could you loose her?!?"
Evan's eyes narrowed as his breathing slowed. Focusing on Jenna, he said, "I do not need to respond to the likes of you. Release that girl from the hold you have on her."
Jenna's eyes narrowed as well, but the spirit inside seemed to be calming down. "No matter. I will find the girl myself." Jenna's hand once more dove into her bag and came out with one more pokeball. Out came a tyranitar, a full foot taller than the charizard next to it. It looked prepared for a battle, but like Flame upon coming out, realized something was wrong. It turned back to Jenna as she began to speak.
"Flame, Rasu, keep these nuisances from leaving this room. You know what will happen if you fail." She eyed Flame meaningfully at this. Rasu, the tyranitar, looked very confused. Charizard growled something out to him, and his eyes hardened. The two turned back to Cynthia and Garchomp, ready to do whatever it would take to save their trainer. Jenna's body ran back down the servant passage, in search of the butler's quarry.
Cynthia looked grim. Rasu was like Stella, not because of any special training or ability on his part, but just because of his species; tyranitars in general are formidable opponents. Cynthia, thinking quickly, sent out Milotic, who was strong against both opponents' types. She was about to order a hydro pump when Evan began talking.
"Tyranitar, Charizard, you don't have to fight us. The spirit in Jenna's body has too much use for her. That is, until he kills the little girl that just ran away. If we don't get that girl, then the spirit will kill the little girl, then your trainer. Do you want that? If you just let us knock you out, the spirit will be none the wiser. Then we could save your trainer. What do you say?"
They looked at each other, growling a bit to each other in discussion. Flame looked about ready to answer when suddenly the floor groaned, creaked, and gave a resounding crack where Flame had hit it with her flamethrower earlier. The whole center section of the floor broke under the combined weight of the four pokemon, causing Rasu, Flame, Garchomp, Milotic, and Cynthia to go crashing downwards. Milotic, knowing that her trainer would not survive the twenty foot fall to the dining room below, wrapped her tail around Cynthia and held her above the main part of her serpentine body. Flame tried to open her wings, but debris got in the way and she fell with the rest of them. The impact of the pokemon and remnants of the floor made a huge boom, with the vibrations being felt throughout the entire house.
Gardenia and Evan, who had escaped into the servant passage, looked down in worry and horror. They were not too terribly worried about the KO'ed pokemon - all were strong and could handle a fall, even if it was twenty feet down. Who they were worried about was Cynthia. They could see her, lying on top of a coil of Milotic's body. From their height, it was hard to tell how badly she was hurt - at the very least, one of her arms was sticking out at a wrong angle, and they assumed it to be broken. She could live with a broken arm; but what about her back? Or her neck? It was impossible for them to tell from their position.
Even Evan, who normally remained so calm, was speechless. Gardenia was the first to talk.
"W-we have to go down and h-help her." She was shaking all over, and it was a miracle she was able to say anything at all.
Evan got back his voice, though his face remained pale. "No." he said.
"What?! We have to help her!" Gardenia exclaimed.
"If she is injured seriously, there is nothing we con do about it. What we can do is save Jenna and the girl, Mia. We can help Cynthia as soon as we do that."
"But what about Jenna's last pokemon! I don't know what it is, but it's sure to be as strong as the last ones, meaning neither of us could defeat it! If we have to confront Jenna again, we will die here!"
Evan, who had just looked pale, now turned a sickly tint of green. "I didn't realize she had another pokemon. We'll need to go down to Cynthia then, and either wake her up or use her pokemon for the moment. I really don't think she'll be in any condition for battling."
"But-"
"No arguing. My decision is final on this. If Cynthia has to wait a bit for medical attention, she can wait. But we have to save Jenna and the girl, since that is in our power to do. We don't have time to argue. We have to hurry!"
OMG, I was totally and completely not expecting the floor to collapse. This may sound strange coming from the author, but I seriously didn't know that it would collapse until the paragraph before it happened. I was really surprised, to understate it. I wasn't expecting Cynthia to be put out of action like that, which makes the rest of the story all the more interesting. You have no idea how seriously surprised I was it happened. I'm still trying to take it in (well, that's exagerrating it now, but you get my point.).
Anyway, a couple of fun facts about the Jenna's pokemon:
1. A sandshrew was my first pokemon card, hence my abiding love for Sandy the sandslash.
2. Silver, Flame, and Stella are all pokemon I made for a RP, which is currently (at a slow place) taking place at 81. com. The name Flame is obvious. Silver because the word 'golduck' always makes me think of 'gold' which makes me think of 'silver'. Stella was originally going to be Luna, but someone had used the name Luna for an umbreon at Poketto, and I didn't want to copy. The next thing I though of (since luna is italian for 'moon') was Stella (which is Italian for 'star').
3. The name Rasu for Tyranitar comes from the part of the Japanese names for larvitar, tyranitar, and pupitar that stays the same (like 'tar' for this language's version of the names). I was thinking in vain for a name for him, and so I tried looking on Serebii .net for a pokedex description to give me an idea, and the name 'bangirasu' (tyranitar's full Japanese name) struck me as cool sounding.
4. Well... I'll tell you about my last pokemon when you meet her. I'll give you a hint: Flame isn't the only fire pokemon on my dream team.
I hope your enjoying the story as much as I am! It took me three hours or so to write this chapter. I don't like the first half of it or so - I just wasn't getting into it then. Anyway, I will once again implore you to comment! I want to become a better writer, and reviews will help me do just that!