Chapter Five: Present

I shoved my PokéGear into my bag, stomping angrily into the cave. Who did Ethan think he was, anyways? I didn't need to rely on him just because I couldn't speak, and he had no right telling my mom and the police that I had flown to Mt. Silver. Besides, I wasn't lost. I didn't need anyone to come rescue me.

Not even the darkness of the cave, along with a soft rumbling of Pokémon cries, could distract me from my frustration with Ethan. My only consolation was that Red was definitely up there on the top of this mountain. I was going to find him, and we would just sit and talk for hours… in our own form of communication. Who needed Ethan when I could actually talk with someone else?

Reaching into my bag, I sent my Typhlosion and Sunflora into the cave with me. Typhlosion roared softly, nuzzling its head into my arm. I patted its nose quickly, pointing in front of me and spreading my fingers. It would know what to do. I had trained all of my Pokémon to understand my commands without speech.

It pulled away from me, flames shooting out of its back. The cave lit up at once, and I could see several Pokémon peeking out from behind boulders. Sunflora leapt ahead of me, waiting for my orders. But I wasn't here to train and battle; I was here to find Red. Those Pokémon weren't going to hurt me, so I didn't need to worry.

I climbed over the rocks, getting several boosts from both Sunflora and Typhlosion over bigger ledges. Now that the Pokémon in the save saw that we weren't here to fight, it was eerily quiet. Only the crackle of Typhlosion's flames echoed through the cave, a soothing song to fill the darkness. The cool, damp air didn't feel so cold now.

Maybe, in a way, I wished Ethan was here to see me now. I didn't need any help. In fact, I was wandering through this cave just fine by myself. I didn't need to speak to be able to navigate. I wasn't blind, just mute. Just like I was proving myself to everyone else, I was proving myself to Ethan, too. He needed to understand.

And his lack of understanding was exactly why I was going to see Red. I couldn't wait to talk to someone who truly knew how I felt about being mute. It was no handicap—it wasn't anything I was ashamed about. I just wanted people to know that I would be the exact same person even if I could speak, and I could do everything than everyone else can do.

We both became Champions, after all. Didn't that say something? Didn't that speak to the world what we could do?

But why did it even need to be us versus them? Why couldn't we just live together like people? We all looked like humans, we all liked Pokémon… the only difference was our inability to speak. Why did that make a difference? What were words? Usually they were empty vessels that only sometimes held deeper meaning. The deepest of it all was inside.

Red would know.

After climbing for about an hour, my arms and legs had gotten tired. There was something about climbing a mountain that really tested different muscles, and I clearly hadn't prepared myself for this. I wondered how often Red had to make this trip. It was impossible to fly to the peak of the mountain because of the strong winds and snow, and the safest way to get to the summit was through the caves. He was probably jacked by now.

Typhlosion retracted its flames, and both Sunflora and Typhlosion cuddled against me in the darkness. Sitting here in the pitch black cave didn't make me nervous in the least; in fact, with Typhlosion and Sunflora around me, I never felt safer. They would pick up on any threats before I could, and they had always done a good job of keeping me safe.

When Sunflora raised its head, therefore, I barely made a move. Typhlosion pulled away from me, flames shooting out of its back again. A lone Misdreavus was making its way towards us, a cocky grin on its face. I stood up, walking towards it with my hand outstretched. A small ball of energy materialized in front of it, flying from straight at me with great speed.

Sunflora jumped in front of me, barely wincing an inch as it took the hit. Well, all right. If it didn't get the memo, then I really had no choice.

I clapped my hands, and Sunflora pranced back towards me. Typhlosion stepped forward, roaring at the Misdreavus and communicating something I, as a human, would never understand. And this was exactly the premise for my battling style.

When I battled Silver the first time I met him, I realized something: Pokémon had very advanced communication skills. They could understand human speech, their own speech, and body language. Trainers without language disorders could shout commands at their Pokémon, and these creatures would easily comprehend them. Similarly, they could translate body language into something they could understand, as well; if I crossed my arms and furrowed my eyebrows, for example, they would know I was annoyed just as any human would.

The only difference, really, between human communication skills and Pokémon communication skills was that they could understand each other. Though we, as humans, could guess what Pokémon said to each other through their body language and tone, it was impossible for us to truly decipher what they were saying into our own languages. Pokémon could communicate with each other, but it didn't necessarily work the other way around.

Still, this was an important discovery for me to make, and I realized that I needed some way of battling after my difficult defeat over Silver. There had to be something I could do to make battling easier; Cyndaquil couldn't very well keep glancing back at me every second waiting for orders; it would be taking out quickly.

Unfortunately, it turned out that having only one Pokémon on my team wasn't working for me. Cyndaquil and I struggled until I was able to capture more Pokémon. And that was when I knew exactly what I needed to do. Maybe it was an unprecedented tactic, and perhaps others would question it, but it worked perfectly.

I always sent out two Pokémon when I battled, but only one did the actual battling. The other Pokémon remained by my side, taking my silent orders and translating them to verbal commands for the Pokémon in battle. If I couldn't speak, I would let my Pokémon do it for me. That way, the Pokémon in battle wouldn't have to keep looking back for my visual orders—and in a dark cave like this, anyways, relying on my body language wouldn't have worked well.

It took some practice to acquaint my Pokémon with my tactics, but they always picked it up quickly. They were far more talented than I.

I looked at Sunflora, despite Typhlosion being the one in battle. Then, putting the back of my hand against my mouth, I flicked my fingers out, blowing against my skin to make a very soft whooshing noise. Sunflora nodded once, crying out to Typhlosion. Without skipping a beat, Typhlosion used Flamethrower, exactly as planned.

Misdreavus didn't stick around long. Its eyes widened at the sight of Typhlosion's powerful attack, and it fled before the attack made contact. Typhlosion roared at it as it soared off, huffing in apparent satisfaction as my Pokémon made their ways back over to me. I patted its head, careful to avoid the continuous flames shooting out of its neck.

Well, as lovely as that break had been, I had better things to do than wait around for Misdreavus to come back.

We didn't stop climbing again until I could see light peeking its way through the cave. I paused before breaking into a run, nearly slipping on a patch of ice near the mouth of the cave. Catching myself just in time, I grabbed the rocky edge of the mouth and narrowed my eyes, trying to give them time to adjust to the blinding white.

When I realized that the blinding white was all I'd ever see, I stepped out into the light. It wasn't that my eyes weren't adjusting—it was snowing like crazy out here!

I grabbed my Poké Ball, sending Sunflora back into a space where it could be warm. I picked another Ball out of my bag, clicking the button and bringing out Espeon to accompany Typhlosion. Its tail dropped between its legs almost immediately, its fur standing up on its back.

Whether I should have taken that as a warning of future events, I didn't know. But at the time I just thought it was cold.

I continued my ascent of Mt. Silver, realizing now that I should have prepared better for this trip. I wasn't dressed for the weather in the least. Grabbing onto ledges was hard when those ledges were covered in snow and you had no gloves—not to mention I kept slipping on the ice. My only hope was to have Typhlosion keep using Flamethrower on all the ledges I wanted to climb up.

All I could do, at this point, was hope that the police would have a tougher time climbing the mountain than I did. I didn't want to reach the top and then have to go back with them—I was eighteen, anyways, so didn't I have every right to leave if I wanted? They couldn't make me go back with them. Or so I hoped.

Finally, after what seemed like days—though it was truly only hours—I made it to the summit. The trees had cleared, and the snow thickened. And yet, through the white I could see just the outline of another person. Standing tall at the top of the mountain, a Pikachu sitting on his shoulder, was Red, the boy I had been searching for.

I didn't know how to approach him. I had never wanted to call out a name so badly in my life, to scream that I had been looking for him, that I wanted to talk, but that would defeat the purpose of why I came—and I wouldn't be able to do so even if I wanted to. But seeing him standing there, his back to me, made me wish I had a voice.

I stood silently for a moment; he couldn't hear me approaching, or if he did, he ignored my presence. How did I approach him? What did I say? Well, what could I say through sign language? Hi, my name is Lyra, and I came all the way up here just to talk to you about the fact that I'm mute, too? That sounded ridiculous, even if it was true.

Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward. Pikachu's ears perked, and it turned around. It tapped Red's head, and the boy slowly looked back. There was a small smile on his lips, and just seeing him—really alive, really there in front of me—made my heart jump a little in my chest. I couldn't stop myself from smiling back at him. He was real.

I curled my finger down from my lip, signing his name. That was all I said—all I felt I could say. He would understand.

I took another step closer, stopping a few feet in front of him. My Typhlosion and my Espeon stood closely behind me, and his Pikachu jumped off his shoulders, its cheeks sparking. Typhlosion roared at it, and I smiled.

Well, sure… a battle between mutes would be interesting. It would be surprising, to say the least, and I seriously doubted anything like it had happen in Pokémon history. Besides, I was interested in seeing how Red went about his battles.

So, I nodded, taking a few steps back and tapping my Espeon on the head. It bounced forward, its tail no longer between its legs, but its fur was still standing straight.

"All right, Pikachu," Red said, his voice clear as day, "let's go."

My heart stopped jumping.

Author's Note: Wow, it's been awhile. Hopefully I can get back into this—actually, no, hopefully everyone else can get back into it, haha. A little rereading might be necessary.

So, as predicted by many, Red talks. He may be a man of few words, but he still speaks nonetheless. Poor Lyra. I think she had her heart so set on his inability to speak that she convinced herself that it was one-hundred percent certain.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.