The Fortree Pokemon Centre smelled great. Like a Tropius's fruit. There was still two weeks until my next Skill Competition, so Sakura and I were searching for the man who saved Lavarige town from Team magma the week before. It was 6 am when Sakura woke me up. "Rise and Shine!" She laughed. I got up and ate breakfast at an empty table in the corner of the Centre. I was right, the Centre's cooks made Tropius Stew.
Sakura sat down next to me as I went to stand up. "By the way," she said. "I caught a new Pokemon last night when you were in bed."
"Really?" I said, wiping my face with a napkin. "What is it?" She took out a Pokeball and released the light onto the shining linoleum floor. A sky-blue monster with an oversized mouth emerged from the light.
"A Loudred!" I stood, studying the Pokemon.
"Where'd you get it?"
"Route 119." I frowned.
"How? You usually can't find them there. They're usually around caves on route 116 and places like that." She shrugged and walked into our room.
At 7 am, I left the Centre and explored Fortree City. There wasn't streets as such, but bridges connecting tree house to tree house. At the end of the bridge, a man with grey hair stood. I recognised him, he used to be the Pokemon League's champion. Steven Stone. He glanced over at me, and noticed me staring. "Hey." He said, as if he knew me.
"E- excuse me?" He frowned.
"Sorry, I thought you were someone else."
"Who?"
"A Skill Coordinator that I heard about. Takashi Sugimori I think it was." I breathed a surprised gasp of expression.
"Yeah, that is me!" Steven made a sound as if he was relieved and excited.
"I'm a big fan!" I frowned.
"How do you even know about me? Let alone be a 'big fan'"
"I've seen you on TV, and I was at your Competition in Lavarige town."
Steven and I talked for about half an hour, until he got a phone call on his PokeNav. "I can't talk." He said to whoever was calling. He stayed silent, probably listening to the caller. He soon hung up and said he had to go. "If you want to keep talking, I'll be at the Pokemon Centre at 3 PM." He said. I nodded and he left.
I stood there, wondering how Steven Stone, the former Pokemon league champion, could know who I was, let alone be a fan. I went back to the Pokemon Centre and told Sakura about Steven. "Steven Stone is a fan of yours?!" She exclaimed. "I love him! You have got to introduce me to him!" I chuckled and returned to my room. "Takashi!" I turned to see a man in crimson clothes with his arm around Sakura's neck.
"Sakura!" I screamed and ran at the man. He let go of Sakura and jumped out of the way. I was already going to fast, and I collided with her. "Oh my god" I said. "Are you Okay?!" She nodded and pointed at the man.
I grabbed my Pokeball from my bag and threw it up to the ceiling. It hit the ground and burst into white light, which soon revealed the brown-plated beast. "Kabutops!" I called. "Hydro Pump!" Kabutops stood still as it's mouth opened and shot a stream of powerful water at the man.
"Is it Team Magma?!" Asked Sakura.
"I'm not sure!" The Hydro Pump hit the man and he fell back, now reaching for his own Pokeball. He managed to release the beast inside. When the light faded a large Red Dinosaur Pokemon stood in the middle of the room, crouching to be able to fit in the Centre.
"Takashi! It's a Groudon!" Screamed Sakura. "Be careful!" She grabbed a Pokeball from her bag and threw it to the ground. Her newly caught Loudred stood before her.
"Loudred;" Called Sakura. "Uproar!" The blue beast began to scream as loud as it could and make noise any way it seemed fit. It stomped it's feet and it's speaker ears started to amplify the scream. Groudon wasn't affected by the Uproar in any way. On the other hand, Kabutops and I couldn't stand it. We fell to the floor and passed out.
I woke up in my room in the Pokemon Centre, Sakura was standing over me with Loudred standing next to her. Groudon was gone, and so was the man. My head was pounding from the Loudred's earlier Uproar. Steven Stone stepped in next to her and couched down. "You Okay?" He asked. I sat up and nodded to him. My ears felt like they were on fire. I looked at the watch on my wrist.
"How long was I out?" I asked.
"Since Yesterday." Replied the former Champion. I rubbed my head.
"That long huh? Damn, I've got a headache."
"Come on; we'll get the doctor to check it out.
I sat onto the stretcher and the Doctor came into the room with me. "So," he said. "what's wrong?"
"I've got this really bad headache." I said, pointing to my head. "After yesterday's 'Uproar'." He smiled at my joke and grabbed a small white bottle from a cabinet on the wall.
"Take these." He handed me the bottle and I read the label:
'Pain Killers - Specialised Migraine Protection'
"You're free to leave when you're ready." He smiled.
"Already? That look like ten seconds."
"Headaches are common around here, ever since Team Aqua started up."
"Team Aqua?"
"You know Team Magma? Team Aqua is their Counterpart. Team Magma wants to expand the land of the world. But Team Aqua, wants to expand the sea. Team Aqua built a machine that sends out brainwave signals and planted it somewhere in Fortree. The police have been searching for years. Still nothing."
The Centre was quiet despite the construction due to the building being attacked by a giant dinosaur. I lay there and thought. I thought about home and I thought about travelling. After the Pokemon Centre attacks I was seriously considering just going home back to Slateport. But I decided to stay, to fulfil my dream, of becoming the worlds number one Pokemon Skill Coordinator!
After a couple of hours Sakura came into my room and sat on the bed. "You doing alright?" She asked. I closed my eyes and put my hands behind my head.
"Not really, no." She sighed.
"Do you need anything?"
"After all that's happened recently - my competition failure, the attacks - I really just want to keep going."
"What do you mean?"
"Just keep exploring. I'll try again next year."
"Takashi. It was one loss. You can't keep yourself down for that."
"I'm serious. There. I'm gonna just train for the next year. Then, when the time comes, I'll win every competition in the tournament." I smiled thinking about it. I sat up, laying a hand on Sakura's shoulder. "Thanks for trying to help, but I've got it covered."
I walked down the dirt path of Route 121 and came to a large patch of grass. Kabutops was following behind. I pointed to a nearby Mightyena and Kabutops darted at it. It jumped to the sky and crashed down on top of the dog and it squealed. It stopped breathing and lay there dead. Kabutops stood over the deceased Mightyena and breathed heavily, and I returned him to his Pokeball. Sakura walked up behind me and stared in horror. I walked through the grass, the rest of the Pokemon avoiding my step. She ran back to Fortree, tears developing in her eyes from the sight of me killing the Pokemon.
1 Year Later...
I stepped up to the top of the Sky Pillar discovering he green electric dragon sleeping peacefully at the top. I approached it quietly and sat down on a boulder nearby, putting my bag on the floor next to me. The Rayquaza lay there in it's slumber as if it was not disturbed. Just then, the doorway leading downstairs started to rumble, and pebbles fell from the already crumbled ceiling and found there way onto Rayquaza's face. It moved it head, and I fell back, onto the ground with a large bang. The wingless-dragon opened it's eyes immediately and raised it's head.
It stared at me cluelessly and then made a distressed roar then flew recklessly out of the ceiling, collapsing a large portion of the wall connected. I ran to the window, looking downwards to see anything that could have caused the rumbling that led to the dragons awakening. I looked to see a group on men-and-women in white-and-black T-Shirts and blue trousers. I had heard of this uniform, Team Aqua. Also approaching from the Surf of Route 130 was a large group of Team Magma grunts. The green dragon flew into the distance toward Mt. Pyre.
I catch the eye of an Aqua Grunt, a girl with short-cut green hair and shorter than the rest; Sakura Akihiko. "Sakura!" I called, catching her attention fully. "What are you doing with those freaks?!" She glared at me.
"Shut Up!" She screamed. "These are my friends!; My Family!" I knew if had to get her away from them, as she wouldn't be safe otherwise. The Magma grunts made the coast and were now releasing their Pokemon onto the Aqua Grunts. The Water-Lovers released their own Water Pokemon to counter Magma's ground types.
"Kabutops!" I called. "Stop this!" I released the beast, crashing down on top of an Aqua Grunt's Pelliper, crushing it's bones. Kabutops ripped the wing off of a nearby Magma Talonflame, and crashed it's Scythe arm into a Donphan. Sakura released her Loudred -now evolved, into an Exploud - and ordered it to attack Kabutops. Whilst Kabutops was stabbing it's arm violently into the shell of a Magcargo, Explod caught it off-guard and used it's Stomp attack on it's foot. It fell back, into the water and darted at Exploud, hacking it's Scythe at it.
The two fought until they were both tired. All of the Pokemon were dead or severely injured. Sakura and I had our own fight though. She swung a punch at me, landing her fist in my face. I lashed out at her, my leg ramming into her side, blood dripping from my nose. I then landed my elbow into her chest and she dodged my next kick. She roundhouse kicked my head and jumped back. I ran at her, starting to question why I was fighting her. Just when I was about to strike, she almost fainted, and her legs gave out. I caught her and held her in my arms on my knees. She opened her eyes and softly smiled. I lay my head onto her shoulder and teared up. "I'm so sorry." I said. She rubbed my head and wrapped her arms around me. I stood, placing Sakura firmly on the ground on her feet.
She stared at me, a large blush covering her face. She jumped onto me and wrapped her arms around my body. I put my hands on her back and she squeezed. "So... Are we gonna go together again?" I looked down, disappointed in myself.
"What about Aqua?" I said. "Your Friends, sorry, your Family? What about all that?"
"I never cared about them. I heard they were searching for you because you knew how to take down Magma. I tagged along in any attempt to get close to you again." She looked back in my direction and made a disturbed face. I looked around, and remembered all of the injured and dead Pokemon and Grunts.
"Ugh..." I managed. "We should probably take care of that." An Aqua grunt managed to stand despite the deep gash on his arm.
"Seriously, Akihiko?!" He grunted. "You never cared about us? Never?! Not even when we took you in when we found you passed out on Route 120?!" She made a sad but angry face.
"Exploud...!" She said. The grunt backed up, and ignored her, in fear of causing an uproar. "So?"
I looked at the ground, pondering. "I can't think of a reason why not." I looked at her and smiled. She made a relieved face and fell into my arms.
It was then I noticed the deep wound on Sakura's back. "Oh my God, Sakura!" I said. No answer. I pulled her up, she had passed out. Kabutops had now almost fully recovered and I put Sakura on my back and jumped on Kabutops's. We rushed to the Sea Town of Pacifidlog. I had heard that there was an Unovan healer there named Henry Walters. I ran from house to house trying to find the man, but each I checked was empty. I finally came across a torch-lit hut, the whole town inside.
They were all hanging out of a window pointing toward Mt. Pyre. There was a perfect view of Rayquaza circling the volcano. I found Henry and showed him Sakura. His eyes widened the minute he saw her. "My Friend is badly-" I began.
"Sakura!" He grabbed her from my back and lay her on a stretcher nearby. His eyes started to tear up. "What is your name?!"
"Takashi, Sir. Takashi Sugimori."
"Thank you Takashi. For saving my daughter."
"Sakura is your daughter?!"
"She is! And I wouldn't have forgiven myself if something worse had happened!" He inspected her back rushingly. He rushed over to a cabinet and pulled out several packets of bottles and bandages. He opened up a bottle, revealing the squirter in the lid, he slid a green liquid into the wound. He then covered the gash with a dozen large bandages.
Henry left Sakura on the stretcher to rest and sat down on an empty stool. "So what's happening around here?" I asked. "Why is everyone in here looking at Mt. Pyre?"
"Are you serious?!" He replied. "Haven't you seen the Rayquaza?! It flew across the sky from Sky Pillar all the way over to Mt. Pyre! Something must have woken 'I'm up!" I hesitated.
"Uhhh... I... May have something to do with it..." The rest of the town overheard me, even over all of the noise and stared at me, glaring.
"What the hell?!" Said a blonde boy about 16 years old.
"That thing almost destroyed my house!" Said a dark-skinned bald man.
"Get 'Im!" Said the blonde boy. A few trainers opened their Pokeballs to release a Greninja, a Politoed and a Metagross. I released Kabutops from his Pokeball and let him ravage the three opponents.
"Don't kill them, Kabutops." I said calmly. The brown beast darted from side to side of the room dodging ranged attacks from the three Pokemon. It then dug a Scythe into the Greninja and pulled outwards, developing a large wound on it's torso. It then drove it's arm into the Politoed's head, falling back onto Metagross. Greninja shook off the pain and ran at Kabutops, slamming his bent leg into it's Schthe, knocking it into the wall of the room. I turned to see Sakura waking up. I ran over to her, making sure she didn't see Kabutops do anything extreme. It recovered immediately and hacked it's arm into the Metagross's X plate. It reflected the hit, but Kabutops then slammed its hand through its eye socket, penetrating the metal on the other side. The blue metal beast dropped to the ground. "Kabutops! I said don't kill them!" It looked over to me and Politoed shot a powerful blast of water at it. It hit Kabutops directly, sending it slamming into Sakura and I, and sending us out the door, into the water.
I grabbed Sakura in a panic, she was now unconscious again. She could drown. I made sure her head was above the water at all times. I struggled to grab onto the logs of the town and pull myself up but the current was too strong, and Sakura was weighing me down. Kabutops dived under the water and boosted us up onto the land. Henry came outside and helped Kabutops out of the water while I got Sakura inside. I lay her back down where the stretcher once was and Kabutops stepped beside me.
"Kabutops," I said. "destroy them." The brown beast held out it's Scythe arms and ran towards the Politoed. It executed a powerful X-Scissor attack, sending the green frog flying. It crashed hard into Greninja, losing it's concentration it was building up. It's Scythe made a 180° arc through the air and stabbed straight through the Politoed's head, sending blood everywhere. Greninja stuggled it's way to it's feet and extended it's tongue, wrapping around Kabutops' left arm. It dug it's free arm into the tongue and Greninja screeched in pain. It stumbled backward onto it's back. Kabutops raised it's Scythe and cut straight into. Greninja's torso.
The room went silent. The three dead Pokemon draped in the arms of their trainers. Everyone began to approach me - Mob style - and Henry stood in the middle. When he stepped in the crowd stopped and started shouting. "Calm down, Calm Down!" He ordered. "This boy is not the enemy!"
"He killed my Greninja!" Said the trainer with the blue ninja-frog lying next to him.
"And he told his Kabutops not to kill it!"
"It still did..." I looked down in serious regret. Sakura started to open her eyes. She sat up.
"What's happening?" She said, and spotted the three dead Pokemon. "Oh my God!" I put my hand on her head.
The people of Pacifidlog put me on a raft and I drifted to the west toward Slateport. Sakura ran down the log path to catch up and jumped onto the raft. "Sakura!" I said. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Sakura!" Screamed Henry running down the path where Sakura did.
"I'm not staying there!" She said. "Practically everyone hates me there. That's the main reason I left!"
"We'll looks like we're gonna hit Slateport, by the direction we're going."
"Didn't you say you live there?"
"I did."
"Will your family be there?"
"They should be."
"Cool! You just met my family, now I'll meet yours!"
After about twenty minutes of silence on the raft, we landed on the shores of Slateport City. I hopped off onto the white hand and held out my hand to help Sakura off. She grabbed my hand and pulled to propel herself upwards. We made our way to the house beside the Boat House. I knocked on the door and a 13 year old girl answered the door. "Takashi!" She exclaimed and hugged me.
"Hey sis'!" I said and she noticed Sakura.
"Who's this?"
"Oh, sorry!" Said Sakura. "I'm Sakura Akihiko! I'm a friend of your brother!"
"I'm Aki!" She held her hand out to Sakura signalling a shake. Sakura shook.
We stepped inside and each took a seat at the kitchen table. "Where's Mum?" I asked.
"She's in Mauville for a business trip." Aki answered.
"She got a job?"
"Yeah, at the Boat house."
"Next door, convenient."
"Anyway, so why are you back?"
"I was at Sky Pillar, and I-"
"Oh my God."
"What?"
"The Rayquaza at Mt. Pyre... You woke it up didn't you?"
"Uhh... It was also partially Team Aqua and Team Magma's faults!"
"Hey!" Said Sakura. "How the hell did we do anything?!" Aki stood from her seat.
"She's a Magma Agent?!"
"I used to be an Aqua Agent." Aki sat.
"Anyway," I said. "How about Dad?"
"He's at the Market."
There was a noise of keys rattling at the door. A man with thin black hair wearing a grey vest walked through the door. He walked into the kitchen and didn't notice I was there. He put down the groceries and his eyes met mine. "Takashi!" He exclaimed. "You're back!"
"Hey Dad!" I stood and held out my hand to shake. He grabbed me and pulled me into a hug.
"When'd you get back?" I opened my mouth to speak when a load roar came from Mt. Pyre and something came crashing through the window.
A small green Pokemon lay there in the glass. I knelt next to it and my eyes widened. "A Celebi!"
"The Pokemon that lives in Johto?!" Asked Aki.
"Why is it here?" Wondered Sakura. Dad looked at Sakura in wonder.
"Who's this?" He asked.
"Sakura." I said. I reached for Celebi and it shone a bright blue light. My sight was enveloped in white light and I fell asleep.
To be Continued