True Magic

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.

Chapter Four

"No!"

Dawn woke up and sent a blast of aura to fill the encampment. The shining light quickly startled Lucas.

"What? Dawn, it's two in the morning. We're supposed to be sleeping, remember?"

"I… felt something. It was bad."

"Really? Well, let's just be on the alert then. Guard duty?"

"I'll go first."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then…"

Lucas went back to sleep. The two had journeyed for the entire day, only to find themselves lost within the trees of Eterna Forest. They finally decided to rest and found the nearest clearing to set up camp in. Dawn sat on her sleeping bag and stared blankly into the darkness.

"They're so noisy," whispered a figure in the trees as he watched the pair.

"They're pretty stupid too if they didn't even set up any protections around their camp," said another figure. "As soon as they get unaware, we move in."

"How did the girl sense us the first time though?" asked the other figure. "She shouted and sent her aura in a bubble around the entire campsite just as we went in to attack. That aura froze us, remember?"

"Who cares?" said the second figure, although he was still shivering. "It doesn't matter."

"If she does it again, it'll matter," retorted the first figure. "Well, let's move in and try it again.

The two figures slinked into the campsite. They attempted to be stealthy and stick to the shadows, but their idiocy prevented that from happening; their figures were quickly illuminated by the dwindling campfire, clearly illuminating their Galactic Grunt uniforms.

Once again, Dawn's eyes snapped open and she quickly saw the Grunts.

"Lucas!" she shouted.

"What?"

Lucas quickly sat up. The Grunts jumped when they were discovered and tried to scamper away, but Dawn fired off an Aurora Beam from her hand, freezing the Grunts feet. Lucas leapt to his feet and grabbed his staff, turning to face the Grunts.

They quickly melted the ice around their feet by exuding a vortex of fire around them that Lucas identified as the Fire Spin Spell. They both jumped backwards, but not without exchanging a few more spells.

Lucas aimed an Extrasensory at them and snatched them with the spell before hurling them off into the forest. Just as the Grunts were relinquished, they fired darts from their hands as they were vaulted into the trees.

"Nice," commented Dawn as she saw the Grunts vanish. Lucas grinned, but it soon changed to a grimace as he noticed the darts stuck in his arm. The purple stingers slowly seemed to melt into him.

"Are you okay?" asked Dawn, gesturing at the two holes from the Poison Sting Spell. "Does that need medical attention or anything?"

"I should be fine," said Lucas, ignoring the pain rippling out from the spot where he was struck. "We really need to protect our camp with spells. Could you grab my bag?"

When Dawn handed over the white backpack, Lucas searched inside and found paper and a brush that exuded magical ink.

"If we want to be somewhat safe, we'll need to at least set up Reflect and Light Screen defenses," said Lucas, writing different diagrams onto a few, rectangular strips of paper. Soon, he had five diagrams of each spell. "Could you set these around the camp?"

Dawn took the papers and alternated the spell tag she placed down each time as she formed a rough circle of paper around the camp. Lucas then placed his hand on the ground and pulsed each tag with aura that he ran through the earth. Transparent barriers erupted around the camp, forming a dome of protective power.

"We should be fine now," said Lucas. "Let's just get what few more hours of sleep we can."

Dawn immediately complied, falling unconscious as soon as she was on her sleeping bag. Lucas, on the other hand, moaned in pain as spasms racked his body. He stayed awake the entire night.

When Dawn woke up, the first thing she noticed was that a few stronger rays of sunlight were streaming into her eyes. The next thing she realized was that someone was breathing heavily as though sick. Considering that she was not that someone, she realized that it must have been Lucas.

She scrambled over to the young man and quickly noticed something wrong. His expression was one of contorted pain, and he twisted back and forth every now and then. He was somewhat asleep, but the pain was still affecting him.

"It must have been that Poison Sting from last night," Dawn said, lifting Lucas's arm and examining the puncture marks. "But how do I cure poisoning?"

She crouched closer to Lucas and felt his forehead; there were no signs of fever, but he was poisoned, Dawn realized, not sick.

Abruptly, Dawn squeaked as she was pulled down by Lucas. He was hugging her to his body tightly and his head was buried in her hair. Dawn found her head pressed against Lucas's chest and felt a strange sensation of nuzzling on top of her head.

"Let go of me!" hissed Dawn, trying to push away. Lucas had none of it, clamping his hands around her even tighter. "Are you really going to make a habit out of this?"

Lucas's only response was to nestle his head deeper into Dawn's hair. His spasms lessened in severity as he took deep breaths of Dawn's scent.

"Flowers…"

"Are you saying I smell?" asked Dawn indignantly, before realizing that it was a compliment, or as much of a compliment as it could be given Lucas's unconscious state. "Oh… you want flowers? I'll go pick some."

Lucas nuzzled Dawn's hair with his nose.

"Or maybe I won't."

Dawn found herself comfortably warm and shrugged, figuring that she might as well make the most of the situation. She relented her thrashing and relaxed into Lucas's grip. Lucas almost immediately responded by relaxing as well, and soon, even though it was already mid-morning, Lucas was sleeping peacefully. Dawn quickly wriggled out of his grip.

"Whew," sighed Dawn. "You really are a snuggly sleeper, aren't you?"

She stood, stretched, and then shrieked as she noticed a green-haired figure standing outside of the protective barrier. The person had long, green hair done in a braid at the back while, in the front, her hair split into two leaf-like shapes. A stray strand of hair was at the level of the woman's green eyes. In fact, Dawn noticed, pretty much everything about the woman was green.

"You're friend needs help," she said. "Please let me through and allow me to assist him."

"Who are you?" asked Dawn, picking up her wand. "How do I know you won't just attack us?"

"My name is Cheryl. I won't attack you. In fact, I've been looking for someone to help me lately. I need to get out of Eterna Forest, but I'm afraid that those strange people from that strange Team Galactic will bother me. Would you please help me?"

"I still don't know if I can trust you," said Dawn doubtfully.

"You can keep that wand on me the entire time. I'll heal your friend, but please, assist me out of the forest."

Dawn finally relented and removed the spell tags, placing them in a pouch on her bag. The woman sat down next to Lucas.

"He's been poisoned. I'll use a healing spell called Refresh. It heals poisoning, burns, and paralysis," said Cheryl. "Where was he injured?"

Dawn showed the woman Lucas's punctured arm. She nodded and placed a hand on the wound. A shimmering, green glow enveloped Cheryl; she focused this glow into her hand. The shimmer slowly sank into Lucas's wound, and Lucas's spasms and twitches halted.

"Wow!" exclaimed Dawn. "I definitely need to learn that!"

Cheryl smiled softly. Lucas groaned and sat up, grabbing his injured arm.

"What happened? Who are you?" he asked, directing the question at Cheryl.

"You were poisoned," explained Dawn. "This nice old lady is Cheryl; she healed you. She needs our help getting out of the forest."

"Old lady?" asked Cheryl, an eyebrow raised.

"Uh… okay? But why do you need our help? You've proved that you're capable of using powerful spells," said Lucas.

"I'm afraid I'm only a healer," sighed Cheryl. "I'm not very good for anything else."

"Well, considering that we need to get out of Eterna Forest too, we don't mind helping you at all, right Dawn?"

"Right!"

"Alright, just let us pack up and we'll be on our way."

As soon as the two finished gathering their things, the group set out into the woods again, following the well-worn path before realizing one more problem.

"Uh, Cheryl?" said Lucas.

"Yes?"

"We don't know how to get out of Eterna Forest."

"Oh, you don't need to worry about that. I know the paths."

"Really?" asked Dawn. "Great!

Past that difficulty, they made it out of the forest with no interference.

"Oh, I'm so relieved… We finally got here. I would never have been able to get through myself. Thank you so much," said Cheryl, bowing and then walking away.

"We're on the northern half of Route 205," said Lucas, examining a map he brought. "Eterna is east of here, right across that bridge."

"We'll go and take out that Block Spell then!" exclaimed Dawn, sprinting to the city.

"Dawn, wait!"

She skidded to a halt halfway across the bridge.

"What?" asked Dawn as Lucas caught up to her.

"You don't know the boundaries of the spell, so you might accidently step too far," said Lucas exasperatedly.

"Well, how do we find the boundaries?" asked Dawn, tapping an impatient foot.

"I don't know. We need someone on the inside of the city to communicate with us."

Dawn pondered this for a moment before slapping her forehead.

"How about those things Mom gave us?" she said, quickly taking out her lens.

"Oh, I forgot about those," said Lucas, fixing his to his head. "Let's see… Yep, there it is."

Through their lenses, they saw a glimmering dome surrounding the entire city.

"Now the problem is getting rid of those spell tags," said Lucas. "Where would they be?"

"If the magic originates from the tags, won't the spell be stronger near the tags?" asked Dawn.

"It would make sense to think so, but how do you detect magical strength with these things?"

Lucas tapped the headset and fiddled with a few buttons on the side of the metal.

"Hmm… that can't be right… that just turned the world upside down… ah, right-side up again… hmm… oh, here we go."

He and Dawn both pressed one of the buttons, and the magical barrier became brighter in a few areas and remained dim in the rest.

"Okay, you were right. Let's head over to those brighter places," said Lucas.

"The first one is right in front of us," said Dawn. "I don't see a tag anywhere, though…"

"Underground?" suggested Lucas. He poked the dirt with his staff. A section of the ground cracked off from the rest and flipped over, revealing a piece of paper clearly issuing magical power.

"Now, to incinerate it," said Lucas, sending small pieces of flame from his fingertips at the paper. It quickly burned to ashes.

"Why is the barrier still intact?" asked Dawn, looking through her lens.

"There are other tags. If one tag is destroyed, then the rest have to compensate for the loss and extend their reach. That weakens the spell, but ensures that the spell still functions. Of course, you could also just remove the barrier from this section of the city while the rest of the spell maintains normal strength, but that would be useless."

"Lucas, come this way. I think there's another tag here."

"Yeah, could you take care of that one? If we split up, we'll get rid of them faster," said Lucas, sparing her a quick glance before heading in the opposite direction.

"Alright," said Dawn, scanning the area around her. She glanced into the trees and spotted a rectangular leaf; the tag was disguised. "Bye, little tag!" she said cheerfully, raising a hand and casting the Razor Shell Spell. A blue curve formed from her aura and she quickly bisected the spell tag. She glanced back at the Block Spell and saw it become dimmer.

"Great," she said, moving on to the next spell tag. The spell became even dimmer, and Dawn realized that Lucas must have dealt with another tag. She grinned and kept searching.

Meanwhile, inside the city, a purple-haired woman seethed as she received reports of the Block Spell around the city weakening.

"Well, I guess I saw this coming eventually," she said, rolling her eyes and calming down. "They wouldn't have left us alone for that long. Too bad they can't do anything to stop us. Even Gardenia can't since we've got so many of their wizards to use as hostages."

Jupiter descended the stairs to the basement of the building and smirked at the sight of almost all of Eterna City's wizards hopelessly scattered. She saw a group attempting to use magic and scoffed.

"Don't even bother," she said. "We've set up this room to stop magic. The entire place is coated with a Disable Spell."

"Jupiter, you'll go down eventually," said one woman with orange hair. Her poncho shook as she shuddered fiercely. "We just have to wait."

"Oh, shut up, Gardenia," said Jupiter.

A Grunt ran over to her.

"Commander, the Block Spell has been eradicated."

"Fine. Dismissed."

The reporting Grunt went back to his post, leaving Jupiter to contemplate.

"Who could it be? We received no news of incoming forces…"

"Nice," said Lucas. "The spell is gone."

They put away their lenses and entered the city cautiously.

"Maybe we should find the wizards here. Professor Rowan did say to do that," said Dawn, glancing around.

"Where would we find them?"

"The rest center?"

"Best chance."

They immediately made way for the red building, but stopped when another towering sight caught their eyes.

"That doesn't really match up with the whole old-town idea of Eterna," said Dawn, pointing at the vibrant building, complete with its own orbiting ring.

"No, it doesn't," remarked Lucas dryly, looking away and entering the rest center.

"Nurse Joy?" called Dawn. Nobody answered the call.

The two looked around at the depressing center. It was clearly empty; dust was beginning to gather amidst other things.

"Nobody…" said Lucas. "Looks like they were all taken away."

"Yeah…"

"Quite an awful situation they're in, isn't it?"

Dawn and Lucas whipped around to see a blonde woman walking into the center. Her gray eyes were filled with worry.

"I've finally arrived and everyone has already been taken. Quite the awful situation, I'd say."

"Who are you?" asked Dawn.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't introduce myself. My name is Cynthia. I'm a wizard, and I presume you two are as well."

"We are," confirmed Lucas. "What are you doing here?"

"I was hoping to assist Gardenia, but she wasn't anywhere to be found. I can only assume that she was taken."

"They defeated the local master wizard?" asked Lucas. "That's not good."

"They might have taken her, but I doubt that they could defeat here," said Cynthia. "They probably used the other wizards as hostages and forced her to cooperate…"

"There's no time to rest, then!" yelled Dawn. "We'll find Team Galactic and get all the wizards back safely!"

Cynthia chuckled.

"I admire your determination, but I doubt they'll let us get near them that easily. I'm pretty sure that the strange orbiting building is their hideout, so we'll need to find a way to sneak in unnoticed. Why don't we team up?"

"Sure!" said Dawn. "It's nice to get some help."

"We could use some spell that would create a diversion, or maybe a sight-obscuring fog," suggested Lucas.

"It's our best bet, but the fog will let them know we're here," sighed Cynthia. "This is very troublesome, but we'll have to do it."

"Alright, then Dawn, we'll need you to use the Mist Spell," said Lucas.

"Got it."

They headed outside and Dawn subtly let a stream of fog flow from her fingertips.

"Let's move so they don't know where the fog is coming from," whispered Cynthia. She snapped her fingers and the trio were suddenly relocated to a bike shop.

"Whoa," said Lucas. "How did you do that?"

"Teleport Spell," replied Cynthia.

"You can use that spell without the diagram?" asked Lucas, amazed. "That requires a lot of power!"

Cynthia smiled.

"Yes, it does."

"Incredible," said Lucas, fitting in the word before they were moved again.

"What's this fog?" demanded Jupiter, who was peering out the window. "It's popping out of random places everywhere in the city! A counterattack?"

"Ma'am, the fog is getting steadily heavier," reported a Grunt. "It is clearly infused with magic as well."

"Well then, get rid of it," said Jupiter. "I want to see whatever is going to happen."

"Yes, ma'am!"

Dawn was a little short of breath once the entire city was coated in the thick mist. Cynthia smiled appreciatively at her.

"Alright, now, let's head into the building. Dawn, since you cast the spell and thus can see through it, you'll have to lead. Could you also use Mist again when we get into their hideout?"

"Of course."

"Good. Now, I'm going to use a spell on all of us that will distract Team Galactic, even if only for a little while. Are you ready?"

"Yes!"

"Uh-huh."

"Here."

Cynthia clapped her hands together and all three wizards were encompassed in a dull light. Suddenly, copies of each of them materialized next to their original counterparts.

"Whoa!" said Dawn. "What's this?"

"It's a spell called Double Team," explained Cynthia, organizing everyone into groups of three consisting of one of each person. "It creates illusory copies of oneself. They vanish the moment they're hit, though. Now, each Dawn will be able to lead through the fog and the others will follow. The illusions will be a distraction; this way, Team Galactic won't know who the real people are until they destroy all of the illusions."

"Cool," said Lucas. "We've got ten different groups including us."

"That's should be good enough. We'll need to get into the building, find the wizards and help them out quickly without causing too much ruckus," said Cynthia. "Then we'll go back and deal with Team Galactic later."

"Wait a second," said Dawn. Her eyes darted around. "My Mist Spell is dispersing."

"They must be using the Defog Spell," said Cynthia. "Alright, Dawn, we'll need you to keep using mist even as we get in there. Lucas and I will do the fighting if need be, alright? You just focus on Mist."

"Right! Well then, let's go!"

"We'll need to have a nice welcoming party for our guests, won't we?" snickered Jupiter.

"Um… shall I set the dining room, ma'am?" asked one of the Grunts.

"YOU IMBECILE! SET THE TRAPS, NOT THE DINING ROOM!"

"Oh, of course! My bad," said the Grunt, rushing away.

Jupiter snorted.