Harry and Iriana made their way through the cavern, admiring it. The rock surrounding them was a gray stone with torches lighting the way. They cast a glow that made the rock glitter like diamonds. There were also side caves that branched off, but since the torches didn't go that way, they left them alone. The cavern itself was huge! The doors leading into it didn't do it justice.
"I bet you could fit a couple houses in here side by side." Iriana said, glancing around.
"Got that right. It's a good thing the torches are here." Harry added. "Without them we probably would've taken a side cave and gotten lost forever!"
Iriana mock-groaned, "Spending the rest of my life in a dark cave with you? Gods take me now!"
"Oh ha ha…huh?" Harry suddenly stopped, looking around.
"What's wrong?" Iriana asked, glancing around herself. They were in one of the few areas of the cave that had no side branches anywhere. She even looked up and only saw stalactites glistening in torch light. "Harry there's nothing here. What's up?"
"I'm not sure…but there is something here." Harry said, staring at one of the walls.
Remembering that her friend has a knack for sensing weird stuff, she believed him. "Okay, so something on the other side of that wall? Should was go back and take a side cave to try to get to that area?" Iriana asked. Harry didn't answer but put his hand through the wall itself. "An optical illusion? Should we take it?"
But before the teen could answer her, a loud roar shook the cave. They had to jump back to avoid a Flamethrower attack. A large bluish and yellow Pokémon landed right in front of them. It reminded Harry of a hammerhead shark and a dragon put together.
"Harry that's a Garchomp, a Ground/Dragon type, they're strong and vicious." Iriana said, always knowledgeable about Dragon-type Pokémon.
The emerald eyed teen grabbed a Pokeball, "I got it. Servine, I choose you!"
Garchomp just growled at the Grass-type. "Looks like someone got up on the wrong side of the bed." Servine taunted his opponent.
"Servine now's not the time to tease the Wild Pokémon. Use Leaf Blade!"
Servine's tail began to glow green and he took off towards Garchomp, slamming his tail into the back of the Pokémon, knocking him down.
"We did it!" Harry cheered.
"Uh…I don't think so." Iriana said nervously. "I think all you did was made it mad."
Growling louder than before, Garchomp stood up and tried to swipe at Servine, who was dodging with the grace of a snake. The Ground / Dragon type though, managed to get a hit and tossed Servine into the cave wall, making a couple large rocks land on the prone form.
"Servine!" Harry called, worried.
Deciding that the other was no longer a threat, Garchomp turned its glaring eyes at the two humans who were frozen by the look. But before he could attack, a wave of leaves attacked Garchomp and knocked him away from Harry and Iriana.
"That was Leaf Storm." Iriana said, a little out of breath from the scare.
"Servine?" Harry called, looking at the pile of rocks where his Pokémon had been buried. But Servine wasn't there, another Pokémon was.
"Servine evolved!" The black haired girl cheered happily.
The Pokémon was primarily pale-green and looked a lot like a snake. It had curled pale-green patterns on the sides of its face and snout, and small, pointed pale-yellow extensions on the back of its head. Its face and upper neck were white colored, and curled, tendril-like dark blue extensions spread out from the sides of its lower neck, forming a curling patter lower down the sides of its lower neck. It reminded Harry of a fancy collar. Its eyes were narrow and red. The upper section of its body was dark blue and pale-green. Curled pale-yellow patterns adorned its body, and a sprig-like feature of several leaves tip its tail. It had no legs, and had small stubby hands that looked more like a decoration. Harry brought out his Pokedex while Iriana was fawning over the noble-looking Pokémon: Serperior, the Regal Pokémon. They raise their heads to intimidate opponents but only give it their all when fighting a powerful opponent.
"Are you two alright? That Garchomp didn't hurt you did it?" Serperior asked, looking them over.
Harry hugged the Grass-type, relieved that he was alright, "No, thanks to you we're fine."
"Uh…I don't think so." Iriana said eyes wide.
All three turned to Garchomp, who was actually glowing slightly red in anger. "Once again, I believe you just made him angry, well, angrier." Iriana said conversationally, like when she first met Harry and they were chased by the Bug-type Pokémon.
"I believe you're right." Harry said in the same tone.
Garchomp it seemed, had had enough of the humans, and gave the loudest roar they had ever heard. The vibrations were so bad that it shook the cavern, causing the stalactites to start falling. Behind them it was already caved in, and in front the rocks were falling at random patterns. Realizing what it did, Garchomp flew back to wherever it came from.
"Serperior return!" Harry called over the sound of the cavern falling apart. "Let's go!"
"Where to?" Iriana yelled, having trouble finding her balance.
"Through the wall, where else?" The teen grabbed the other's hand and pulled them through the wall, just in time because the area where they just were was completely buried.
Taking a moment to catch their breath, they stood up to see their surroundings, Harry pulling out a flashlight from his pack. One way ended about ten feet later, the other continued around a bend.
"Well, since we're here, let's go see if we can find out what I was sensing." Harry said. He glanced over at Iriana, who was writing something in a little notebook. "What are you doing?"
"Making a list of things that needed to be remembered." Iriana said matter-of-factly, scribbling something.
"Like what?" Harry asked bemused.
The lavender-eyed girl started flipping through the notebook. "#1, always send Harry to find Gym Leaders, if he can't find them, they'll find him. #2 Never take him shopping because he'll become a millionaire doing something, doesn't matter what it is he'll find a way. #3 Never let Harry near a supposed Boss of anything; he'll have them wrapped around his little finger faster than you can say 'Pikachu' (Kesorir is the one exception). #4 Trust Harry's instincts, they are always on the dot. #5 Harry has the weirdest luck of any human, so be prepared for some weird stuff to happen" She ended reading and put the notebook Harry.
Snickering, Harry says. "You forgot #6, never let Iriana talk to a bad guy; she will provoke them to try to get to start ranting just to see if they will."
Laughing they set off down the passage in higher spirits than what they were a few minutes ago. As they walked, Iriana asked, "So Harry, how's your meditation coming along? Is it helping any?"
The teen gave his friend a grin, "Tons. Every night I work on it, basically just adding Pokémon we've met to the defenses, so I think they're pretty strong now. And I haven't had any nightmares. I owe you big time for that."
Iriana grinned and gave a sweeping bow, "Glad to be of service."
After walking in silence for a minute, Harry asked, "So do you still want to get a Dragon Mastery?"
The lavender eyed girl thought for a second, "While it would be cool to get that Mastery, it's not my main focus anymore, but I'll still try to get it eventually."
"So what are you focusing on now?"
"Two things, the first is just traveling the world. I wanna see things no one else has before as well as new Pokémon." She started smirking. "The second is figuring out the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything."
Harry just had an anime sweatdrop. "Good luck with that….I think." He just rolled his eyes when Iriana started to laugh.
They walked for a few more minutes and came to the cave's exit, though it was blocked by a large rock, there were beams of light filtering through the cracks. Harry put away the flashlight and leaned against the rock. The rock shifted slightly. "I think we can move this easily, what do you think?"
Iriana copied Harry and leaned against it, making it shift even more and more light beams to enter the cave. "Yeah, I think we can. Is your feeling on the other side?" Nod. "Okay, on the count of three, give it all you got."
Nodding, they both placed their hands on the rock. "One…two…three!" As one they shoved against the rock, making it groan and finally fall. Without the rock blocking it, the light nearly blinded the two Trainers from being in the dark caves for so long.
When their eyes finally adjusted, they walked out of the cave, and two things greeted their eyes, causing them to gasp. The first was that the new cave they were in was huge, with large cracks in the ceiling to let in light. It was bright enough that they had to make sure they weren't outside. Small ponds were scattered around, their water crystal clear. Bushes with all kinds of Berries were everywhere. There were even a couple trees bearing fruit scattered around.
The second thing was that all the Legendary Pokémon were there, from Articuno to Lugia to Cresselia, every single one injured and laying in a large circle, surrounding a heavily injured Pokémon.
"Oh my…" Iriana gasped out, hand over her mouth in shock. Harry's and her eyes were impossibly wide. They made their way carefully down the stone steps, staring at all the Legendary Pokémon. Some were injured worse than the others. Though their wounds would eventually heal after many days, they would scar. As they approached, the Pokémon nearest would watch their movements.
"Harry, I recognize these wounds." Iriana whispered, fists shaking in silent fury. "Take a closer look."
The black haired Trainer leaned closer to Darkrai and examined the wounds. Long, ugly lashes decorated its body, around the wounds you could see burn marks from both fire and electricity.
"Quasso." Harry spat in anger. "What happened here?"
Thanks to the Legendary Trio of Mew, Celebi and Jirachi quickly explaining telepathically about Harry, the Legendaries knew that Harry and Iriana could be trusted and that he knew their language. Zapdos answered, "We were trying to rescue our friend and leader Arceus."
"We're not sure how they got him, but these humans with whips of fire and lightning had captured Arceus and tortured him. For what we do not know." Ho-oh went next. "Maybe because he is the most powerful Pokémon out of all of us."
"When we realized what had happened." Regigigas added, "We invaded the humans' hideout. They attacked us with the whips and their Pokémon, but we managed to get Arceus out and we all came here to try to heal."
"Our friend is doing all he can, but…" Mesprit trailed off sadly.
"Your friend?" Iriana asked, having had Harry translate the entire conversation. "There's someone else here?"
"That would be me." A male voice said.
Harry and Iriana turned to see a teen a few years older than them walked from behind Entei, carrying bandages. He had spiky black hair under a red and white cap, deep brown eyes and was slightly tanned. He wore a short sleeve black shirt with a sleeveless blue and yellow open jacket over that, blue jeans and black and white shoes. On his shoulder was a Pikachu.
"My name's Ash and this is my buddy Pikachu."
"Pi!" "Hello!"
"Hello, I'm Iriana and this is Harry." Iriana introduced.
"Wait, is your last name Ketchum?" Harry questioned, thinking the other looked familiar. Surprised, Ash nodded yes. Harry gave a small grin, "I've heard a lot about you from your mom."
Recognition lit in Ash's eyes, "So you're the kid Mom keeps talking about. Pleased to meet you, though I wish it was under better circumstances." Ash went over to Arceus and started to bandage what he could, the Pokémon watching them all with pain-filled eyes. Iriana and Harry went over to help, Iriana feeding Arceus some Oran Berries from her pack for strength and energy, while Harry used different Sprays to try to heal its many burns.
As they worked, they talked, partly to get some questions answered, and partly to distract the Pokémon from their pain. "So how did you two find this place?"
"We were walking through the cave to get to the Naturis League when I sensed something." Harry began.
"Since Harry's instincts are nearly always right, we looked around a little bit and found a wall that was an illusion. But before we could go through it, we were attacked by a Garchomp. Harry fought it, but it became so mad that it caused the cavern to cave in." Iriana finished.
Ash whistled, "Close call guys, but congrats on getting to the League. I was heading that way too, but Mewtwo came to me, explained what had happened, and teleported us here." Mewtwo waved its hand from where it was leaning against Palkia. They could see that the Psychic was one of the few Legendaries with the least amount of injuries.
After a few hours of working, with not much change from Arceus, Harry stood up, "I'm gonna start working on the other Legendaries, can you two handle Arceus?"
"Yeah, though I wish we had some more help, but the Legendaries only trust me." Ash said, fishing around his backpack for something. "I'm actually surprised that they haven't attacked you two yet, injured or not. There must be something about you two that they trust."
"Understandable, not many humans would be able to resist trying to capture any one of them." Iriana said, mashing up more Berries into a paste.
"I've met three of them before, Mew, Jirachi and Celebi." At their curious looks he added, "Very long story, I'll tell you guys some other time. Now, what about our Pokémon?" Harry suggested. "They could help gather Berries or something."
Blinking, the two humans smacked their heads. "Why didn't I think of that earlier?" Pausing in their work, the three humans tossed their Pokeballs.
From Harry's Pokeballs came Medieon, Ninetales, Absol, Froslass, Metang and Serperior.
From Iriana's came Gardevoir, Flygon, Dragonair, Shelgon, Gyarados and Lucario.
And finally Ash's was Charizard, Glalie, Sceptile, Staraptor, and Lapras. His sixth being Pikachu of course.
After all the Pokémon got over the shock about what had happened, along with getting a quick briefing from Harry (who explained to Ash about his ability), Ash gave the orders. "Okay, I want you all to split into groups. I want one group going around the trees and bushes to try to find some Berries. Ones that give energy and heal status problems will be best but bring whatever you can find. I want another group to create bowls out of wood, stone, or whatever you can find, fill them with water and bring a few to us so we can clean some wounds, and the rest to the Pokémon so they can drink."
Iriana took over next, "I want a group to go around this cave and try to find something that can be used as bandages because we're running out. If you can't find anything, just take the old bandages, wash them out thoroughly and have one of you that know a Fire-type attack to dry them out quickly."
Harry went last, "If any of you can use a healing move or something that can calm the Legendaries, get in a group and try to calm the worst ones and work your way down."
Having their orders, all the Pokémon split up in their designated groups, thankfully none of them had any complaints about working with new Pokémon. They all worked for the rest of the day and long into the night, working at a frantic pace to try to heal all the Pokémon. The three humans would have worked themselves to an early grave if it hadn't been for Lapras, who used Sing to make everyone get some rest. They woke several hours later and were forced by their own Pokémon to eat something, even if it was just a few Berries and some water.
They checked on all the Legendary Pokémon whose injuries were starting to look a little better but they still had a long way to go. But Arceus' wounds, even with all the care of over fifteen hours of straight work, didn't change in appearance at all. What's worse was now the Pokémon's breathing was labored and he couldn't even open his eyes. The day before Arceus would watch them for a few minutes before falling back asleep, gratitude in his eyes for their help.
"Guys…I don't think Arceus is gonna make it." Iriana said in a small voice, tears running down her cheeks at the horrible truth.
Ash had tears running down his as well, "We tried our best, but I guess it wasn't good enough."
By now, every Pokémon and humans were crying, unable to tear their eyes away from the slowly dying Pokémon. Harry was taking it the hardest though.
'Why is it that I can never save anyone? Why must I watch them die in front of me over and over?' The teen was shaking in suppressed fury, sadness and frustration at being helpless to help another. He then finally snapped. 'NO! I will NOT allow another to die when I could have done something!' Harry ran over to Arceus and placed his hands on the Pokémon, causing everyone to watch him through their tears.
Harry ignored them all and started to meditate, reaching deep down in himself for something that he knew was still there, even though he was told it was gone in this world. His magic. 'Please, please help Arceus. Heal him!'
So focused on his task that he didn't notice what was going on. Everyone else though, watched in awe as Harry started to glow white which spread over Arceus. The light was so bright that they all had to shield their eyes, though they could still feel the raw power rolling off the Trainer.
When the light died down, they stared at the sight before them in amazement. Arceus was completely healed! Not even a single scar marred his body. A surprised gasp from one of the Legendaries drew their attention around, causing their eyes to widen even more. All the Legendaries were completely healed as well.
"That was awesome! Great job Harry…Harry?" Ash said with a grin, which turned to a frown when he couldn't find the younger Trainer.
"Harry!" Iriana called, trying to find her friend.
"Keep it down to a dull roar please." A groggy voice said. Their attention was drawn back to Arceus, who was helping Harry to his feet. "Man, I feel like I just got run over by a train, then got blasted by a cannon, and finally ran straight into a brick wall." Rubbing his eyes, he glanced around. "What'd I miss?" This caused everyone to laugh at the clueless Trainer.
"Oh, nothing much Harry, you just saved Arceus from dying, as well as healed all the Pokémon's wounds. Not much really." Iriana said, wiping a tear from her eyes.
After helping him over to lean on Ash, Arceus turned to the three humans and began speaking telepathically so they all could understand him. "I thank you for saving me and my kin. You have shown true kindness and compassion. Not many humans would have helped like you did. For this we name you all our friend and kin as well. If you ever need help, call upon us and we will answer." Arceus' eyes started to glow and the three Trainers and their Pokémon vanished.
Blinking at the sudden change of scenery, the three humans recalled their Pokémon. They stood in front of a huge white and red building with a Pokeball symbol over the main doors.
"Where are we?" Iriana asked, glancing around.
"That's the Naturis League building. It's where competing Trainers stay for the League." Ash answered.
Harry blinked, and then started running towards the door. "Come on guys! We need to sign up!"