Chapter 6: The Guardian of the Forest
Lyss and I finally made it back to the Nova League Headquarters. We made our way to the place where we first got our Area assignments. As we walked over, we saw a large, bulky man in the standard League Headquarters uniform. We walked to the man and handed him our trainer cards. We were ready to explain everything to him.
"Oh, it's you two. Yes, Draco called us already, and informed us of the situation at hand. Everything is has been arranged for you two to go to the forest next. It all works out now anyways, we were putting in a new rule that says you can choose which area you wish to go to. This allows for trainers to form travelling groups and be safer. We decided we needed to introduce this for the safety of trainers now that we have the problem with Team Cataclysm" the man explained. It now seemed that Team Cataclysm had struck fear even in the authorities of the League.
"What you two need to do" the man said "is go northeast of here. You'll come to a place in the road that forks three separate ways. You need to take the road on the right, it leads to the forest. The one to the left leads to the Swamp Area and the one in the center leads to the Meadow Area. You two are going to the Forest Area, so take the right road. Don't forget it. "
"Okay, northeast, right road at the fork." Lyss repeated. "Thank you, sir."
"You're welcome, and you two be very careful, we don't know what this Team Cataclysm is up to, but they're very dangerous."
With that, we left and headed to the Northeast. We walked along a green, meadow path for a long time, about an hour and a half. We eventually came to the aforementioned fork. The left path looked as if it were in a desperate state. It had decaying trees and looked incredibly dangerous. The center path continued with the grassy field. The right path was very heavily wooded with dense, colorful trees all along it. That was the path we needed. Lyss and I went to the right, straight into the forest.
We walked through the forest for a while. It was truly a beautiful forest. The leaves on the trees were just beginning to change. The leaves were wonderful shades of yellow, orange, and brown that were falling all around with the gentle breeze of autumn. As we walked, we could hear the soft crunch of leaves underneath our feet. The gentle breeze kept us very cool. This area was incredibly different from the Castle, more in tune with nature. Just being here made me calm.
As Lyss and I continued walking through the forest, we saw a person standing in the middle of the road. It was a girl who wasn't much taller than Lyss. She was skinny, yet looked like she had very toned muscle as well and was very tan. She had long, violet hair that covered one of her indigo eyes and reached all the way down to her waist. Despite her appearing to be around our age, she had royal blue tattoos that spread across her chest and down her arms. The tattoos were in some strange, swirled pattern that made no sense and the pattern was perfectly symmetrical on both sides of her body. She wore a short-sleeved, blue-green shirt that cut off at her belly, showing off her tattoos and stomach, that had purple edges and tear shaped beads decorating the end of it. She wore a long, flowing skirt that was icy blue on top, but faded into a dark blue as it went down and light, a strange, violet net thing over the skirt, four belts, one dark orange, one red, one yellow, one green, each of which held at least one poké ball, and blue ballet slippers that laced up her calves in a crisscross fashion. She had a pink bandana on her head, a red dragon pendant around her neck, a gold chain necklace with a teardrop pendant, large, gold hoop earrings, bangles on her wrists and right ankle, eyeliner and sparkling lip gloss. She appeared to be a beautiful, young gypsy girl who was looking for a challenge.
"Well, well, what have we here? Two young trainers I see! My name is Kairi Adrika and I would like to challenge them!"
"Okay, I'm always up for a challenge! My name's Lyss!" Lyss said, happily accepting the challenge.
"Oh no, no, no, you don't seem to be near my level of skill. I want to challenge the strong looking boy next to you."
"You mean Andrew?" said Lyss questioningly, sounding a little hurt that she wasn't invited to challenge the new challenger in our path.
"M-me!?" I said. I began to blush at her compliment, as was usual because of how nervous I tend to get around girls. "Wh-why m-me?"
"More importantly, WHY NOT ME!?" Lyss yelled, she was taking this really very seriously.
"Well, simple" said the gypsy girl. "He seems like a tough competitor, and you do not."
"Oh THAT'S IT! GO RAICHU!"
A brown mouse with yellow electric sacs on its cheek, a long tail with a lightning bolt shaped end, a white belly, long, dark-brown ears with yellow insides, and brown paws and feet appeared in front of Lyss. The gypsy appeared shocked, but then she seemed to accept the challenge in front of her.
"I see, so I guess I will fight you then, but don't cry when you lose. Go Pachirisu!"
In front of the gypsy girl appeared a small, white squirrel Pokémon that had a blue strip running from the top of its head, along its back, all the way down its tail, with three blue spikes protruding from its tail, blue ears, and the same yellow electric cheek sacs as Raichu.
"Pachirisu use swift!"
"Raichu use Iron Tail"
Pachirisu let out a barrage of stars that homed in on Raichu. Raichu retaliated by turning its tail into iron, smacking the stars away, and then charged at Pachirisu and slammed his tail into the foe. Pachirisu was sent flying with the sheer force of the attack. The little squirrel got back up, determined to fight back.
"Pachirisu, use Charge! And then use your Discharge attack for maximum power!"
"Raichu use your Double Team!"
Pachirisu began to charge up electricity into it as Raichu began to create illusionary copies of itself, making it difficult to determine which one was the real one. Pachirisu let loose its stored energy into a powerful electrical attack that caused all the copies to disappear and hurt Raichu pretty badly.
"Pachirisu, finish this off with Last Resort!"
"Raichu use Volt Tackle!"
Pachirisu was cloaked in a star shaped aura and began to charge at Raichu. Raichu let a lot of volts of electricity that surrounded its body. The two charged at each other, appearing to be on equal terms. Eventually, Raichu won, forcing Pachirisu down. However, Raichu;s attack was so powerful, that it ended up fainting as a result. Both female trainers recalled their Pokémon.
"Not bad, not bad. But let's see how you will truly fair against my next pokemon. Go Medicham!"
"All right then, come on out Lucario!"
Lyss sent out the blue dog pokemon that I had seen as I passed out that one night. The gypsy had on her side a gray humanoid Pokémon that appeared to be wearing baggy, red pants with yellow dots on the knees and a red headpiece that had a yellow dot in the center and three lobe like extensions, two hanging down near its ears and one sticking straight up.
"Lucario use Aura Sphere!"
"Medicham use Confusion!"
The Medicham let out a psychic wave. Lucario gathered energy in its paws that formed into a light blue ball and then launched it at Medicham. The two attacks collided, battling each other for dominance. The Aura Sphere won out and successfully landed a powerful hit on Medicham.
"Medicham, attack with Hi Jump Kick!"
"Lucario, use Flash Canon!"
Medicham jumped up incredibly high, and then extended one of its legs in preparation for a powerful kick. Lucario fired a powerful silver beam from its paws. Medicham went straight through the beam, landing the powerful kick on Lucario. Both pokemon had suffered a considerable amount of damage. They both stood up, ready to fight again as both female trainers readied themselves to give another order to their faithful team members. However, they could not finish this with their battle. We had a few uninvited guests join the party.
"Well, well, a fight going one here I see" said a man's voice. We looked around and there we saw the familiar black jacket with a white hood. There were two of them, one male, one female, just like last time, but these grunts were different from the ones I faced last time. The male grunt had frizzy red hair and a strong jawed face and the girl had long blonde hair and a pale, delicate face. Both of them were looking to start something here.
"What do you two want?" I said, my anger growing at the sight of them.
"Simple" said the girl "We're here on a very important mission, and you're in our way. Go Houndoom!"
"Wh-what are you doing?" Kairi said "If you use a single fire type move, especially at this time of the year, you'll start a forest fire!"
"And that, my dear girl, is the plan" said a third voice as he stepped out from the shadows. This man was wearing a silver suit with a black bowtie and black dress shirt with one black glove on his right hand and one silver glove on his left. He had silver dress pants and black loafers on his feet. He carried a black cane with a silver handle. He had long black hair that went down to his back and was perfectly straight. His face was hidden behind a silver mask that was black around the eyeholes and the border. The mask bore the hourglass symbol in black in the center of the mask.
"That's right, little lady" said the male grunt. "Go Magcargo!"
"You see…" said the masked man "We need to start a fire in order to draw out the Guardian of the Forest. If we can draw her out, we can proceed with our plan. "
"You-you're Crazy!" Lyss shouted
"No!" said the masked man. "We are visionaries! You two, take care of them, make sure to start a fire here with your Pokemon. I will go on ahead and start a second one that will increase the surface area of fire and double the success rate of our plan!"
"Yes sir, Count Silver, sir!" the grunts said in unison.
The one called Count Silver ran on ahead as the two grunts prepared their Pokémon. They had a black dog Pokémon with a skull on the base of its neck, bone like structures on its back, rings around its feet, long bone-colored horns, a long black, pointed tail, and an orange snout and underbelly. They also had a snail like Pokémon that appeared to be made entirely of red hot magma and was inside a stone colored shell that had cracks with flames spewing out from it.
"Kai, Lyss, do you two think you can handle this here while I go after the silver-clad freak?" I asked
"Yes, I believe we can, go Pidgeot!" Said Kai
Roger that, Andrew, GO BLASTOISE!" said Lyss.
Lyss and Kai had recalled their Fighting type pokemon. In their place, there was a large brown bird with tan colored feathers in the front of its body, and dark brown in the back. It had long, red feathers for its tail, a sharp beak, fierce eyes, and a long plumage of red and yellow feathers extending from its head, being about as long as its entire body. There was also a large, bipedal tortoise Pokémon with a thick brown shell covering its back and torso, stubby arms and legs, and two powerful looking canons mounted in its shell on its shoulders.
"We'll be sure to put out any flames these guys start, you go on ahead after that weirdo!" said Lyss
"Yes, go on. We can take things from here" said Kai.
I ran off after the one called Count Silver. I ran deep into the forest. I sent out my trusted Staraptor so that he could help me fan out any flames we may find on our way. As I got closer to where Count Silver was, I began to feel an intense amount of heat. There was fire beginning to spread all around me. Eventually, I got to a point where I was completely surrounded by flames. The beautiful trees were now engulfed in a harsh orange flame and the wonderful leaves of fall were now flaming on the ground, about to become nothing but ash. In the center of this once beautiful, but now harsh area there was Count Silver with his fire starter, a tall Pokémon with yellow fur on its front, dark blue fur on its back that fringed at the bottom, and a ring of orange flames around its neck.
"Good job Typhlosion. Keep it up! At this rate, the Guardian will be here in a matter of seconds!" exclaimed Count Silver in a gleeful frenzy.
"Not if I can stop you, Staraptor, fan out these flames!" I commanded.
Staraptor tried his best to put out the flames around us, but the fire kept spreading further and further. It all became too much for Staraptor. It didn't help that the Typhlosion began spewing flames in order to stop Staraptor's vain efforts in putting out this unbelievable fire.
All of a sudden, a small green fairy-like Pokémon appeared. It had round, toeless feet, three fingers on its tiny hands, a large head that came to a point at the very end, looking like some sort of pointed hairstyle, a pair of clear wings on its back, large, baby-blue eyes, big black circles surrounding its eyes, and a pair of green antenna with baby-blue tips.
"At last, you appear before me Celebi, oh Guardian of the Forest!" Count Silver exclaimed as he pulled out a strange looking poké ball. It was gold on the top half and silver on the bottom half.
The fairy Pokémon, Celebi created a very powerful psychic field around us. Just as suddenly as she had appeared, the flames surrounding us were gone, leaving us with the familiar autumn colored trees and leaves around us. She then turned to Count Silver and his Typhlosion, a very angry expression on her face.
"Oh, no need to be angry with your new master, oh Legendary Guardian of the Forest! We request your powers to further our plan. Now, Typhlosion, use Flamethrower!"
"No, Staraptor, protect it! Use Close Combat!"
Typhlosion sent a powerful stream of flames from its mouth, Staraptor intercepted it, but was too weak from trying to put out the flames. He fell before he could land his attack. Celebi saw its fallen savior and became even angrier. She released another powerful psychic wave that hit Typhlosion full on, hurting it badly, but not enough to count it out.
"Fine, you asked for it Celebi! Typhlosion, use Flame Wheel!"
Typhlosion become enveloped in powerful flames as it rushed at Celebi. Celebi tried to create a powerful psychic barrier around us, but was too late. Typhlosion's attack connected and Celebi went down. The Guardian of the Forest was beginning to burn up from the flames of the attack. She was severely injured and couldn't fight anymore. Stopping the spread of the forest fire and returning the forest to its original state took a toll on the little green fairy. She was too vulnerable now.
"Very good, now you're MINE!" Count Silver exclaimed as he launched the half gold, half silver poké ball. It connected with Celebi and she went in without any sort of fight.
"HAHAHAHA! I, COUNT SILVER, COLLECTOR OF RARE POKEMON, HAVE DONE IT! I CAPTURED THE LEGENDARY CELEBI!" Count Silver boasted.
"Y-you…. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HER!?" I asked, my emotions getting the better of me.
"You see, dear boy, this is the GS Ball, the only ball capable of successfully capturing Celebi. I obtained it and have now captured Celebi for us of Team Cataclysm to use her!"
"N-no… I won't let you… I WON'T LET YOU!"
I began to charge at him, my fist ready to connect with his head and reveal the face underneath the mask. As I got closer, he recalled his Typhlosion and sent out a light purple bat with two wings on top, two wings on bottom, large, yellow eyes, and teeth that jutted out. He hopped on to the bat and flew off.
"Good try, but you can't stop Team Cataclysm! Our plan is in motion and all events are set to happen! Be prepared boy!" he said as he flew off.
As the silver clad masked man flew away on his purple bat, I fell to the ground and began to weep. I failed in my revenge for Marcus and I failed in saving the legendary Guardian of the Forest.
A/N: A very special thanks to Vexenna for an awesome new travelling companion! Still accepting OCs! Hope you guys like this chapter! :)