The last chapter until February, and my personal favorite of any of them so far. I want everyone to review the story as soon as your done, specifically this chapter.
Chapter 25: The Story of the Wasteland
The doors of the elevator opened, Lloyd jumped out as soon as the opening was big enough, landing in front of the secretaries desk in front of the Captains office. He still hated going up the elevator with a passion, every time he rode it he felt sicker and sicker when it finally stopped.
The Lopunny secretary, who Lloyd remembered was named Lina, got up to help him up.
"Oh dear." She said. "You must have tripped, let me help you up!"
Lloyd was too sick to tell her he was just fine getting up on his own, so he just lifted up one arm so she could grab him and pull him up.
Rita came out of the elevator behind him, seeing him being helped up. "Lloyd, what are you doing?!" She asked.
"I fell."
Rita rolled her eyes, knowing the real reason he was on the floor. "Lloyd, you really need to get over this motion sickness problem of yours, we use the elevator single every day at least twice a day."
"Yeah, I'll get right on it when you get over your fear of spiders."
Rita didn't say anything.
"The captain is waiting for you." Said Lina. "You two should go right in."
Lloyd and Rita nodded, and went right through to door to the Captains office. They saw him immediately sitting at his desk writing something down on a piece of paper.
"Hello? Captain?" Said Lloyd, trying to get his attention.
"One sec, almost done here..." The Captain didn't look up, he just kept writing stuff down on the paper in front of him. Lloyd and Rita used the time they had to pull over two chairs to sit in.
A full minute later, the Captain threw down his pencil and let out a loud sigh of relief. "Sorry about that, my absence seems to have caused a build up of paper work for me and I've been busy none stop since I got back. What can I do for you two? And you'll have to tell me how your teams doing of course."
"Well, we managed to make it to the basement of Havok Sewers, and we found some strange stone down there that we thought you might know about, since you were the last one to make it down there."
"Well, take it out and let me have a look."
Rita did so, she rummaged around her bag until she found the stone. She pulled it out and placed it on the desk.
"Oh, yes, I remember now! That's an Infinity Stone, a stone that lets any pokemon evolve anytime that they wish, all they have to do is touch it and presto, they evolve!"
"But I just touched it, and nothing happened."
"Well that's because the things all dirty, those things collect dust like crazy and its been down in that sewer a long time you see. Here give it to me." Rita handed him the stone, he placed it in the middle of the desk. The Captain opened his desk and pulled out a tiny hammer, he took it and lightly tapped the stone, chipping off bit after bit of its outer layer, revealing a much different stone underneath. When he finished, the once dull looking rock now looked much like a large diamond. "There ya go, I completely forgot about this thing, such a long time ago I put it there."
"Captain..." Said Lloyd. "What exactly are Infinity Stones? I know about Fire Stones and Leaf Stones and all of them, but I've never heard of one that could be used on any pokemon."
"From what I know, Infinity Stones were created by humans soon before they all disappeared from the world. Nobody knows how they got created, some people say that they got created by mashing up all the other evolutionary stones somehow, some say they were mined like any other stone, but nobody really knows and its quite likely the true answer was lost along with the humans."
"What happened to the humans anyways? Everyone keeps saying their extinct."
"Have you been living in a bubble or something? That's a pretty well known story."
"He lost his memory." Said Rita. "He doesn't remember much."
"Oh, well, I guess I got enough time for some story telling." The Captain cleared his throat. "Long ago, about five thousand years ago, the humans were doing some experiments in a facility far to the north. In that facility one of the scientists was absolutely obsessed with two of his experiments, the first was transformation of one life form into another, he wanted to be able to turn pokemon into humans, humans into pokemon, pokemon into totally different species of pokemon, all with the flick of a switch. The second experiment was the cloning of pokemon using even the smallest amount of DNA, even something as small as a feather, or an eyelash. Eventually this scientist completed one of his experiments, the cloning one, and created a machine that could create any pokemon he wished."
"That doesn't sound very dangerous." Said Lloyd. "How did that cause all the humans to disappear?"
"I'm getting to that Lloyd! Anyways, he created the machine and what not. The thing he did wrong was he went way to far to fast, the first things he cloned were legendary pokemon."
"What are legendary pokemon?" Asked Lloyd.
"Legendary pokemon are much more powerful and rare then any normal pokemon. So much so many humans didn't believe they existed. This scientists though, knew they existed because he had so many pieces of evidence to prove it, including DNA of most of them. The first ones he created were the three legendary birds, Arcticuno, Zapdos, and Moltres. Unfortunately for him, they all escaped, destroying his lab in the process."
"So these birds killed all the humans?"
"Oh heavens no, they just tore down that lab and went to go hide somewhere. The scientist wasn't about to give up though, he took his machine and went somewhere where nobody could find him, and continued his experiments. He recreated his first creations, the legendary birds, then moved onto all the others. It was his final experiments that caused the extinction of the human race, as well, made most of the world the desolate wasteland it is now."
"You mean it wasn't always like this?"
"Not at all, I heard you went to Oasis Island correct? Think that, everywhere, and not just the island. Anyways, his final two experiments, the first, he cloned the two biggest rivals to ever be known, Kyogre and Groudon, the next, he created the worlds most mysterious pokemon, Mew. After what happened last time with the legendary birds, he made sure to keep them all asleep with a specially chamber he created, that way they couldn't escape and wreck havoc again. But unfortunately, the Groudon escaped his prison, freeing all the others. If the scientist never created Groudon and Kyogre, they would have just destroyed his new lab and went away like last time. But once those two enemies spotted each other, they instantly started to battle causing the other legendaries to go berserk as well, fighting amongst each other. The scientist, seeing the danger of his work, decided it would be best to pull the plug on the whole experiment and kill his creations before things got worse, but his final creation, the Mew, wouldn't have any of it. This Mew was strange, it was supposedly much larger then a normal one, with slightly different features, almost like an evolved form, which the scientist called Mewtwo. Mewtwo wanted the others to fight, he killed the scientist, and freed the crazed legendaries out into the world."
"So it was Mewtwo's fault that all that stuff happened?"
"Thats right, with Groudon and Kyogre there to fuel the fire, and Mewtwo there to spread it, the world didn't stand a chance. Humans were the first to go, all of them all around the world killed within a week, the legendaries went after pokemon as well, killing entire species. The fire type legendaries burned forests to the grounds, the electric types leveled mountains with there thunder, ice types froze whole oceans solid, by the time they were done, everything except the most hardy pokemon died off. The legendaries, eventually disappeared as well, no trace ever to be found again, and the evidence of their destruction covered up by sand blown in from far away, covering the charred earth and the scorched plants, turning most of the world, into a desert. The next few years were hard for the remaining pokemon, many of them became carnivores like their long gone ancestors just to survive, eventually losing their mind and becoming wild pokemon. After everything, only about five percent of the pokemon population remained true to themselves, they all gathered together where ever it was safe for them, which was typically long abandoned human towns. It wasn't long before these towns became real communities, with shops and all that stuff. Since then, not much has changed, were still living in the once human towns trying to survive the now broken world."
"Isn't there some way to change all that? Someway to return the world to the way it was?"
"Ha, and exactly how would we go about that? Go back in time or something?"
Lloyd didn't say anything.
"Listen Lloyd, the only thing you need to worry about is the here and now. The sole purpose of the Brotherhood is to keep the dying world from completely dying, not cure it and make it brand new again, that's long been impossible."
"Ok... I understand."
"Now, I think its your turn to tell me a story. How's the team going? You find yourself another member yet?"
"Several actually." Said Rita. "A recruited a Piplup named Isaac a few days ago, then not long ago another two members, Regal the Caterpie and Jennifer the Buneary."
"Wait... Jennifer? I always thought she was a total nut job!"
"Yeah, so did we." Said Lloyd.
"Well, that's great to hear, its nice to see a fledgling team grown so quickly. What about your missions, how have they been going?"
"Well..." Started Rita. "First we went to Pipton to help them get their food supply back again, but they all got killed by another fugitive who was after Lloyd."
"Oh yes, I heard about that from Ewan, terrible tragedy that is."
"Then we went to Pokemon new Radio to fix the signal, which was a complete success. Then the team split up for two different missions, me and Lloyd went to Oasis Island, as you heard, and helped the queen get her throne back from some guy named Noah. Meanwhile Lloyd brought Jennifer along to some mountain to pick up an egg, which they're taking care of right now."
"Did any more fugitives attack you since Pipton?"
"Actually..." Started Lloyd. "We were attacked, on Oasis Island, by Zar."
"What?! The same one you captured in Havok Sewer?"
"Yeah, except he had evolved, not once, but twice, and I'm pretty sure its permanent now."
"This is unbelievable, last time I saw Zar was when he was being brought to our prison, barely any life left in him... This is very bad... I think its best if you guys went now, I got some calls to make, I'm sure you'll understand."
Lloyd and Rita both knew he was going to investigate about Zar. "Yes captain." Said both Rita and Lloyd. They both then got out of their chairs and walked out of the office, closing the door behind them.
"Lloyd... How sure are you that your really human?"
"Its my only memory, but its so clear, I just know I was human."
"But you just heard, humans have been extinct for over five thousand years!"
"So have Pikachu."
"Well... I guess your right there. Oh well, lets not worry about it, its been a long day so lets go do something."
Lloyd wanted to do something as well, but had no idea what he wanted to do. "Like what?" He asked.
"Well you can't go in the pool, little early in the day to go to the casino, and I don't think reading would be very fun right now."
"What about the spa? We could go there again."
"Oh, good idea Lloyd! I could really go for another one of their mud baths!"
"Ok, sounds like a plan, lets go then!"
Rita and Lloyd both boarded the elevator, taking it straight down to the ground floor. They both went straight to Sunshine Spa, ready to relax, and for Lloyd, think about what he'd just learned from the Captain.
---
"Ahh, this is great." Said Jennifer as she stepped into the hot tub. "I love this thing so much."
"You come here a lot?" Asked Isaac, who was holding the egg, wiping it with a cloth that he soaked in the tub a moment ago.
"All the time, when I could. Home was no fun and I needed a way to relax."
Jennifer scooted over to Isaac and put her head on Isaacs shoulder. "This place is pretty romantic, don't you think?"
"Uh, I guess."
She lifted her head. "What do you mean, I guess?"
"Well, its just this egg, kinda hard to clean it and be romantic at the same time."
"Well, yeah I guess your right, we came down here because of it I guess that should be our focus."
Splash! Something small jumped into the tub, sending water flying everywhere. "Oh goodness me, this is just what I needed!" it was Regal, the Caterpie that Lloyd and Rita brought with them from Oasis Island.
"Regal! Be careful around the egg!"
"Oh, I apologize, I just was a little excited is all, I never had time off before!"
"Why?"
"Well, I worked at the castle all my life, serving the king and or queen, I was always either serving them or sleeping."
"Then why are you here?" Asked Isaac.
"My job, I'm here to serve the future queen!"
"... And she is?"
"Your friend, Rita."
Isaac and Jennifer stared at him, mouths wide open. "Your kidding!" They both said.
"Nope, Rita is the future queen, in other words, Princess of Oasis Island."
"Wow..." Said Isaac. "I never would have imagined."
"Lucky her, I've always wanted to be a Princess."
Regal unexpectedly changed the subject. "What are you doing to that egg?"
Isaac looked at it. "Cleaning it?"
"No, no, your doing it all wrong! Your supposed to wipe is circles, not up and down like that!"
"How would you know?" Asked Jennifer. "Do you have kids or something?"
"Oh, heavens no, I haven't even found my true love yet. No, my experience with eggs was from long ago, when I was the eggsitter of the Princess's egg."
"You took care of Rita when she was just an egg?"
"Yes, the king and queen were very busy at the time, so they had me clean, warm and carry around Rita's egg. It was a fairly easy job too, got me out of all my other responsibilities so it was the closest to a vacation I ever got. Rita took a full year before she hatched, that's when the vacation ended."
"What do you mean?"
"Rita had to be the most terrible hatchling I ever had the misfortune to meet! You can't believe the things she put me through!"
"Like what? What could a little baby do that could be so bad?"
"You have no idea, she spat her food at me when I tired to feed her, she escaped from her crib constantly, making me look for her before her parents found out she was missing, she kicked me around like a ball... Oh the mere memory of it sends chills down my spine."
"Do Caterpie even have spines?" Asked Jennifer.
"Umm... Well... I think we do."
"Well..." Started Isaac. "If your so good at eggsitting, why don't you take care of the egg then?"
"Well, I guess I have to since you seem to know nothing about taking care of it. Hand it over."
Isaac shifted over to where Regal was sitting and handed over the egg, then returned to his seat beside Jennifer. Regal took the cloth Isaac had and wiped the egg, moving the cloth in circles.
"There we go, nothings going to happen to you little egg... Oh, this brings back such memories, how I love the feeling of nostalgia."
Meanwhile, on the other side of the tub, Jennifer placed her head back on Isaacs shoulder. Isaac responded by putting his wing around her neck, hugging her gently.
"So, you wanna see a movie later Jennifer?"
"Sure, sounds fun. Actually... Wanna go now? Nobody usually goes this early so we could be all alone."
"Uh, ok I guess, we'll see you later Regal."
"Yes, yes, whatever, go about your business." Regal didn't even look at them as they got out, his focus totally on the egg. Isaac swore he could hear him singing softly to the egg.
Jennifer and Isaac were gone, Regal was now the last one in the hot tub. Isaac was right, Regal was singing very quietly to the egg as he slowly wiped it with the cloth. "Don't worry little egg, you need not beg, I'll be here for you. Keeping you safe is my goal, I'll never drop you and let you roll, you'll always be in my care. I'll make sure you grow up nice and strong, but for now just listen to my song..."
---
It was later in the afternoon, everyone had returned from the places they had gone and were all ready for bed. But now they faced a new problem, five pokemon, four beds.
"Great." Said Rita. "What are we gonna do?"
"Why don't I just sleep with Isaac in his bed?" Suggested Jennifer.
"Why would you wanna do that?"
"Didn't Isaac tell you? We're a couple."
"Isaac and you are boyfriend and girlfriend?" Asked Lloyd.
"Yup, that's why I was sneaking around the last few days, I was going to visit Jennifer and stuff."
"Ok..." Started Rita. "But that's not what I was talking about, I think your gonna have a hard time getting any sleep with Isaac laying next to you."
"Oh, please, I'll be fine."
"Ok... Now what do we do with the egg?"
"I'll keep it with me in my bed." Said Regal. "I'll keep it warm and make sure it doesn't fall off or anything. It needs to stay warm all night."
"Ok, lets all go to bed then." Said Rita. Lloyd and Rita climbed into the two beds on the right side of the room, the ones they always slept in. Isaac climbed into his bed on the left side or the room, Jennifer climbing up right after, and Regal took the last bed, which was the closest to the door.
"Good night everyone." Said Rita.
"Good night." Said Lloyd.
"See you tomorrow." Said Jennifer.
Regal and Isaac said nothing, a second later everyone heard a loud snore coming from Isaac.
Rita laughed. "I told you so Jennifer." Everyone went to sleep, except for Jennifer, who lied down with a pillow over her ears, trying to block out the thunderous noise coming from beside her. Eventually she gave up, pulled the blankets off of Isaac, who didn't react at all, and went over to the other side of room to sleep on the floor. But even still her enormous Buneary ears still heard the snores, only a little bit quieter then they were when she was beside him. It took her almost three hours to fall asleep along with everyone else.
---
It was morning, for the first time since Team Valiant's creation, everyone was awake nice and early. Everyone was in a good mood, and was well rested, except for Jennifer, who looked terrible in both aspects.
"What's wrong Jennifer?" Asked Isaac. "Have trouble sleeping or something?"
Jennifer pushed him over. "Of course I did! You snore so loud it was like there was thunderstorm above our bed!"
"Huh, I snore? Didn't know that."
Jennifer buried her face in her paws. "I'm going to get some breakfast in the cafeteria." She turned, opened the door and left.
"Jennifer, wait!" Isaac went through the door and chased after her.
"I'll be off too, I'm going into town to buy some stuff for the egg." Regal began to head for the door, but Rita stopped him. "Wait a sec, your supposed to be helping me, not taking care of that egg."
"Actually, my largest responsibility is to take care of any eggs belonging to royal family, and this responsibility goes above all others. Since this egg technically belongs to Team Valiant, and you're one of the leaders of Team Valiant, that technically makes this your egg, meaning until this egg hatches and you've taken over the responsibility off the hatchlings care, I'm completely off the hook. Bye!" Regal continued his way out, carrying the egg in front of him as he crawled away.
"I guess its just you and me then Lloyd. Lets go get our next mission, shall we?"
"Yeah, ok..."
"What's wrong Lloyd?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. Lets go."
---
"So, have you sent the mission yet?"
"Yes, and I specifically asked for Team Valiant to come. I'll have Lloyd brought to you by tomorrow night."
"Good, good, Raticate and Gastly are still with you correct?"
"No, I sent them back, they know them too well and I don't need my cover blown. They we're useless to me anyways."
"Completely understandable, just don't fail me."
"I won't Boss. What should I do with the others?"
"I don't care about them, kill them if you wish."
"Ok, I'll call you when I've succeeded."