Okay guys so I should say in advance this chapter is going to have quite a bit of jumping about! I don't know how well this will work so please let me know what you think, if it becomes too stop start. I always have the option to reduce chapter size and split it up and do chapters for the more significant bits. And there is a dream in this that will be in italics later on (it does get introduced).
Last time: May performed at the Aldham City Contest dazzling the crowds. However, she met the rather arrogant Luna Rose who won the contest but refused to have an exhibition battle with May. Following the contest Ash and May battled where three of the Pokemon gifted to Ash by Red were revealed. Gary also started his experiments to begin exploring the Heaven Reaching Slopes.
Chapter 4: Dreams
The following morning just outside Southfall City
"Go Pokeball!" This shout was followed by a momentary pause before the click was heard.
It was not the kindest awakening that Ash and May had ever had but they were glad Cedric had caught a new Pokemon.
"So guys I just caught a Lantern! Shinx and Litleo were training when we spotted it just over in the lake!" Cedric was giddy with excitement.
"That's great Cedric! Will help you at the next gym, I heard it's a water type gym!" May explained. Cedric responded with a goofy grin, not much unlike Ash's at times. "I say we get going, I have cereal bars that we can eat along the way. The Pokenav says we should only be about 2 hours away from Southfall City."
"Then let's go!" Cedric was off like a shot, clearly on a new high since catching his latest Pokemon.
2 hours and a brief Pokemon Centre stop later
Ash, Cedric and May walked into the entrance to the gym. A stone staircase led them down towards the battlefield, strange markings were on the wall. But this was lost on the challengers who felt the eeriness and lack of lighting a tad unnerving. It seemed that this was a theme for the Jiolt Gyms. The deeper they travelled they could see small trickles of water running down the walls, it seems that May was right.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs the lack of lighting was once again characteristic. A large pool with some stone columns rising out of it made up the battlefield. After a brief set of introductions with the leader Caleb the first battle had begun with Cedric.
"Go Lanturn!" Cedric shouted in response to Caleb releasing a Wartortle. "Lanturn us thunderbolt!"
The bolt of electricity fast spread throughout the water that the two Pokemon were submerged in. The Wartortle was clearly hurt bad but not enough to take it down. Caleb knew that with the battle occurring underwater there was no point in even attempting to have Wartortle dodge or protect itself as the water would get into its shell anyway.
"Wartortle use Rapid Spin!" Wartortle began spinning very quickly and jetted through the water towards Lanturn.
"Lanturn use endure!" As Wartortle crashed into Lanturn, Lanturn braced itself to ensure that it would endure the attack. "Now use thunderbolt!" The second thunderbolt proved enough, defeating Wartortle. After Wartortle was replaced by a Seaking, Lanturn was replaced as the damage had taken its toll on it. "Okay Lanturn, return. Go Shinx!"
Shinx stood atop the stone pillar looking over the edge with a fearful expression etched across its face. It clicked, Shinx must really not like water. "Okay Shinx finish it quick with the TM I gave you, use Thunder straight on the pool!" A huge bolt of electricity erupted from Shinx before dropping down to the pool defeating Seaking with ease.
"Well, well you put up a good fight! Here's your badge!" Caleb shouted over from the opposite side of the battlefield. A small noise was heard and a small hand extended from the ground holding a badge for Cedric.
After a brief changeover it was Ash's turn. Pikachu was raring to go…
At that very moment
"Boss! We have word from our agent, the experiment launched successfully. The first readings are expected tonight."
A man sitting at the desk in a black suit swivelled round in his chair to face the interruption.
"Excellent," he said. "Make sure our agent know that her work is of the utmost importance to our organisation."
"We will get right on it sir! But can we ask, why is the Heaven Reaching Slopes so important? It's meant to be empty, unfit for life?" The grunt enquired.
"Gary Oak published a paper. It hypothesized that many of the Legendary Pokemon may live there, but that is not why we want to know what is there. Can you guess why?" A brief look of confusion was enough to let "The Boss" know that he would be best explaining himself.
"Basically, the Hall Of Origin was apparently what humans came to call heaven. The reason for us looking is that early humans apparently were able to access the Hall Of Origin along with Pokemon from various points across the globe. However, as we became more powerful and dangerous, Arceus closed off all of the entrances bar one. Now we have seen the rest of the globe and the entrance is not there… Meaning the only place it could be is?"
"The Heaven Reaching Slopes" the grunts muttered under their breath. "Thank you sir! We will get back to work!"
The man turned round to face out of his window again. He had amassed so much in his lifetime but he wanted more. A typical side effect of the human condition, however, few get themselves into this position of power. As he stared out the window lost in his thoughts about the Hall Of Origin his phone rung.
"Is this the Mayor?" The voice on the other end of the line enquired.
Back at the gym
The trio were leaving the gym, Ash had won his badge with relative ease again and they were now dissecting Cedric's performance.
"So Cedric, you done really well there but I think you could improve." Ash stated.
"What do you suggest Ash?" Cedric was keen to improve.
"Well your battling style is too textbook. It is great that you know everything but if you cannot be flexible then you are going to struggle when you come up against someone really challenging. The other thing is that you need to get to know your Pokemon better, keep them outside their pokeballs. When Shinx was on that pedestal why do you think it was uneasy?" Ash had turned into a lecturer, but luckily enough Cedric really was happy for feedback from somebody as experienced as Ash.
"Because he doesn't like water?" Cedric enquired.
"Well why don't you ask Shinx?" Cedric obliged releasing Shinx and enquiring. Shinx shook its head.
"Just as I suspected. Shinx is afraid of heights right?" Shinx nodded affirmatively at Ash's statement. "See Cedric you need to get to know them, let them know they can trust you fully. Your reaction time will decrease and your Pokemon will respond quicker and not question what you do. I am not saying that has happened yet to any real extent, however, I fear it will for you if you do not work on this."
Ash's words hit Cedric like a brick wall. He felt he had been doing really well until now, but hearing Ash say this, it was the reality check he needed. He realised he had a lot more work to do before he could be considered truly strong. This was considering that Ash's comments were justified.
"We can work on it later if you want?" Ash asked.
"Sure Ash that'd be great!"
"Not right now though!" May exclaimed. "I haven't been able to go shopping or explore anywhere really yet and I really want to explore Southfall!" May subsequently grabbed each of their hands and proceeded to spend the next 3 hours visiting literally every shop she saw. As the boys followed her the amount of bags they were carrying increased by what felt like the minute. The three of them dropped down onto a bench in one of Southfall's many shopping centres.
"Jeez, I am all shopped out!" May said.
"Seriously? You weren't carrying the bags!" Ash chuckled as he spoke. Cedric on the other hand absolutely no idea why he was carrying some of the bags. He then remembered that Ash had warned him about May's temper and counted his blessings.
The afternoon had come and gone following the gym battle and shopping spree and the trio headed to the Pokemon centre and booked out rooms for the night mainly at Ash and Cedric's insistence. As they put it to May repeatedly that evening, "those backs were heavy!"
That night at Foxedge Towns Laboratory
Gary cut a lone figure asleep at the alert system that would let him know of any spikes in the thermal readings. Many empty cups of coffee were strewn across the floor, the initial results had been disappointing. From the live pictures they received they could make out what looked like Pokemon/Human made paths across the mountain range, but this could not be disproven as being due to the wind up there.
Hours had been spent looking at the computer screens, his aides bleary eyed were sent home by Gary as it hit 1am. He felt that at that stage they would have picked up something if they were going to find anything substantial on the first night. Of course the balloon, due to the equipment's weight was travelling relatively slowly and could only give accurate readings for parts of Mt Ysp and about 10% of the whole mountain range.
Suddenly, the alarms were triggered. Gary shot up with his blood shot eyes scanning the screens and what he saw amazed him. There were four figures on the live feed from the thermal camera. Two of them looked like large dragon Pokemon that were battling people but were not clear enough to be identified as it was night time so the normal camera feed would not be able to see. However, this was not what amazed him the most.
The other two figures appeared to be people. Normal people. Gary had hit the record button and began to capture this data but after a few short moments of footage the figures stopped the battle that was ensuing before the four figures vanished. Gary rubbed his eyes in disbelief as they had literally appeared to have vanished into thin air.
Gary sat back in his chair trying to process what he had just witnessed. Two large Pokemon were battling on the mountain, in such extreme conditions they would have to be very powerful in order to survive the weather and altitude. But the thought of two humans being up there was something previously unconsidered. He had two choices, wait until the morning before telling his aides or let them know now. He decided on the latter phoning all of their homes.
Within an hour all of his assistants had arrived and were keenly watching the readings with great focus trying to decipher what they had seen. Theories both plausible and completely ridiculous were being bounced back and forth from the scientific minds in the room. Some of the aides were online looking up historical rumours for guidance and began writing down old local folk tales and listing off the handful of people who could maybe survive these conditions.
The group worked long into the night and shortly after 4am Gary hit a spark.
"Guys! Can I have your attention?" The room fell silent. "Thank you very much. Now I know we are trying to figure out which Pokemon they are first and foremost and that is what we are here to research primarily after all. However, these two trainers must be incredibly powerful. We have no idea who they are all we know is they are people so I want to go out on a limb here. I believe one of them is Red!"
A few of the aides let out a laugh.
"Red is nothing but a legend. We should focus on real people Gary, stop getting involved with myths. Nobody can even prove that Red lived." The aide had a point, or at least so he thought.
"That's where you are wrong." Gary's words had silenced the room. "We know that before here I took over control of the Pallet Town Lab as my grandfather was getting too old to run it full time? Well he passed on access to the Hall Of Fame for me… This is something I really shouldn't be saying but allegedly Red told the Champion and my Grandfather to only allow his existence to be revealed when it would be worth it. I think this may be that time, that piece of history. And we are all a part of it!"
The aides had all gone starry eyed. This was the sort of revolutionary breakthrough that they had dreamed of since they were small. At least all except one who had snuck out the room.
The Mayor's Office
"Good work Agent 8." The Mayor put down the phone and stepped up out of his seat. He walked towards his office window and looked out at Aldham City.
"So, the fools are focused on the trainer's identity? If only they knew what really lives up there. They are looking for legendry's when this is the only place in the world the Hall Of Origin can be. Imagine, they don't even realise they are so close to Arceus."
He poured himself a small glass of whisky.
"It's funny, with Arceus here I will finally be able to fix the human condition. I can lead in a new generation, a new world order. One where I will rule and people will pay for the cruelty they have inflicted on Pokemon and the Planet. I will finally complete your mission father. I hope you are watching with pride because the next few months will change the world.
5am that same night at Southfall Pokemon Centre
The trio slept in their respective beds lost in their dreams. May dreaming of becoming Top Co-ordinator in Hoenn whilst Cedric dreamed of winning the Jiolt League. Ash was dreaming of reaching the top of Mt Ysp, but it was just as he reached the top in his dream the dynamic changed.
In an instant that step on to the top had left him in a dark room.
"Woah how did I get here?"
Ash looked around and he spotted Red amongst the darkness. Ash ran over towards him but again like on Mt Silver, could not reach him.
"What is going on?" Ash wondered as he stopped chasing Red.
He looked up, Red was gone. The room faded, replaced by images of Arceus and Red flickering between themselves slowly but increasing with each passing second.
"Find us." A voice rang out.
"Who are you?" Ash called out.
"Find us." The voice repeated.
"Please just tell me who you are?" Ash was getting desperate. He felt his palms getting sweaty, his heart racing struggling to cope with what was going on.
"Find us. Find the entrance."
"The entrance to what?!" Ash was almost screaming now.
"Find uss…." But the voice faded into nothing this time. Whatever that was about would have to wait. He shut his eyes.
As he opened them he realised he wasn't in his own body, he could tell. He didn't know why but it just didn't feel like him. He was standing on top of Mt Silver and could see himself looking back at him. Frightened would be putting it lightly. The body he was in turned around and walked towards the edge.
He was now just ready to look over the edge and he stepped off. He could see the ground ready to greet him, with a painful ending. Why couldn't he just wake up now?
A flash of red energy shot passed him, and Ash landed on Charizard before shooting away from Mt Silver at a phenomenal speed. Ash looked down, this Charizard was black, he recognised it as the mega evolution of Charizard. He looked up once more and could see himself looking at the edge.
Ash woke up, still sweaty, it was 6am, still too early.
"What on earth was that all about? That can't be what happened to Red… Could it?" Ash wondered aloud. "I better write this down."
And so Ash departed the room to get a pen and paper from Nurse Joy who as always was at the desk, albeit looking very tired. A few minutes is all it took to jot down the events of the dream as accurately as he could.
As he made it back to his room, May was awake.
"Ash are you okay?" She asked.
"Yeah I just had a horrible dream." She took his hand and sat him next to her on her bed. "Do you want to talk about it?"
"No thanks, it was really bad. I wrote it down so I would remember though, it was weird…" Ash had a pained expression across his face. He had experienced a lot but nothing like this.
"Well I can only try and make you feel better." She slid closer to him and hugged him. Ash reciprocated the hug and the pair lay down. Ash already felt better, his heart rate was regulating. May could feel the cold sweat on Ash's arms and could feel his heart beat against her. As Ash calmed down and his heart rate normalised, the pair grew more and drowsier until they drifted into a deep sleep in each other's arms.
This is something that took around 40 minutes, despite how tired they were. However, with Cedric's snoring that seemed awful that night, it was a wonder they had managed to sleep at all. May made a mental note to confront him about it in the morning. She knew herself and Ash could snore but Cedric's was worse than theirs combined.