So, if anyone noticed, I've been putting other stories off(Bedtime Stories and The Reality of Serenity). Simply because, this is going to become my main priority. I'ma gonna complete this story if it kills me, okay? Okay!
Amy47101 does not own pokémon. Only Vale. All rights go to their original owners.
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The Adventure Saga
Enlightening the Soul
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Gary was back to back with Leaf as Team Rocket grunts surrounded them. To say the least, he was annoyed. Finally, he managed to reunite with his girlfriend, and just as they began their stupid little date, these jerks had to ruin it.
Rather than express his anger, he instead chose to be arrogant, hoping to fool the grunts into rage and make their attack strategy more impulsive.
"Looks familiar, eh, Leaf?" he said, nudging the brunette with his elbow. He didn't get a response from her, which made him a little sad, to be honest. He missed prompting an argument out of her, he missed her heated comebacks and embarrassed responses whenever he teased her.
But now she was but a silent void.
It still saddened him to see her like this, and sometimes, he wondered if he could have done something to prevent it. Leaf could never handle attention as well as he could. Hell, he was used to any attention, craved it, even, what with having his last name being Oak. Leaf herself had a pretty legendary last name, but her fame as being a Green didn't last long. When her family's series of unfortunate events passed, she was at peace until she became champion.
And like that, the attention was to much, the rumors and tabloids to mean, everything… all of it was to overwhelming for her. She was a simple girl by simple means, and to suddenly be thrust into the limelight, to suddenly being criticized and praised for every little thing.
So she did the only thing she knew how to do when she got overwhelmed. She retreated.
Even when she was a child, back when they were friends, and she got overwhelmed by events, she never threw tantrums. She never expressed how upset she was. She simply hid on the top shelf of a closet, out of the reach of adults and anyone who would bother her. He remembered when they were little kids, roughly four or five, and Leaf went 'missing'. It was a big business party for all the gym leaders in Kanto, and for whatever reason, his family was also invited.
Now that he thought about it, that party had a lot of really important people there.
While the gym leaders were kind and such, the business people scared her. So instead of throwing a tantrum or crying as most children of that age would have, she snuck away and hid in a small tree, where he found her.
And like so many times before, when she wanted to escape, she isolated herself. At first, it was in her room, but reporters flooded the town, disrupting the peace. Leaf, instead of feeling overwhelmed, panicked. And at the age of fifteen, shortly after Serenity's birthday, she disappeared.
Months passed of desperate searching, but Gary knew where to look. He had a feeling she had scaled Mount Silver, trying to find a highest altitude in which to run, in which to hide. The highest she could manage, just as she did when she was children.
When he first found her, they argued. Not a playful argument, not teasing and retorts, but a full on argument.
"You don't understand, Gary Oak! This is hard for me!"
"Then stop running away! Stop being a coward!"
He was angry, he remembered. He was still an arrogant prick. Yes, he admitted it. He was mad about how she was irritated at him for finding her, for trying to bring her back. Eventually, it went from verbal insults to physical. He had lashed out, gripping her biceps and shaking her so hard her hat fell off her head.
"Arceus dammit Leaf, I'm putting myself out here for you! I'm here, doing everything to make your life easier! I could have any damned girl in this region or the next, and you know what? I settled with you! Get over your damned daddy issues, grow up, and appreciate the people around you for once!"
"… Settled with?"
That was all she said. That was it. He remembered releasing her arms, but all she did was collapse in the snow. And what did he do? Comfort her? Love her? Nope. He, his stupid, idiotic, sixteen year old self, turned his back on her.
"Open your eyes Leaf. We're done."
And thus, they were no longer a couple. He expected her to come crawling back to him in a week. But that week became a month, a month a year. Two years passed, and he pathetically found himself crawling back to her. She was still on the mountaintop, staring blankly at the earth. Every time he spoke, she didn't respond.
He's matured in the two years they were apart. At first, the week-long relationships were satisfying. He had girls flocking to him. But soon, he grew tired of not being able to have an intellectual conversation with someone of the opposite sex outside of his sister. He was tired of not finding a girl with brown hair just the right shade of Pallet Town brown. He was tired of all the eye colors that didn't match just the perfect cross between a leaf and an emerald. All the other girls were to short or to tall, to thin or to fat, to stupid or to obnoxious… He went from having a blast to becoming increasingly annoyed. Even more so when some of his fangirls began to dye their hair or get extensions or put contacts in to look just like his ex…
Arceus, he hated them more than the girls he found flawed.
He was sure that he was the one who had broke her. And he hated himself for it. He begged her to come back. He was prepared to propose if that's what it took. He said every single compliment he could think of, every promise he could make, and they weren't simply flattery or empty promises. He wanted her back, no, needed her back. He even got to his knees. He was a wreck.
For the first week, she didn't even respond to anything he said. He kept traveling back and forth, bringing her food and whatever else she needed. He didn't care how pathetic he was, he needed her back, and he was willing to give up any title he had to do it.
After two weeks of utter silence, she asked a simple question.
"Did you come back to settle on me again?"
And then he broke. Those words he ultimately regretted brought him to tears. He was a little embarrassed to admit it, but he was blubbering. He, an eighteen year old man, was blubbering. He felt like a little kid again, a little kid who could never do anything right, who could never live up to anyone's expectations. He knew they were cruel coming from him, but they seemed even worse coming from her.
Gary suspected that she didn't expect him to burst into tears, as she was suddenly by his side, kneeling in front of him in the snow. He latched onto her, not willing to let her go.
"I don't care if you take me back out of pity." he muttered after a few minutes. "I don't care if you take me back for my titles or my looks or whatever. Just take me back and at least pretend to be happy. I'm so sorry for everything and I would do anything to prove it."
Leaf was silent for a long time.
"I… am not the same person back then, Gary. I don't want to talk to people, or be around them." the pulled back for the briefest of moments. Gary was surprised to have seen tears of her own dribbling down her face. Leaf was never much of a crier to begin with, so this was a surprise in and of itself to see her cry, even in this state. "I'll come back to you… but you can't leave me again. I can't do it, okay? I'll might…"
"Deal."
And even though Leaf still didn't say much, they still managed to understand each other. They began the search for Serenity again. Slowly, they allowed the relationship to repair itself, and even though Leaf barely said a word unless they were in private, but he somehow managed to understand her.
Which is why he wanted to order Charizard to roast these grunts for interrupting their private time together.
"What's the plan, Leafy?" he asked. Leaf didn't say anything, but she did intertwine her fingers with his. He smirked as he heard a roar of her Venesaur, and knew exactly what she wanted to do.
She wanted to annihilate them.
o.0.o.0.o
Lyra sighed as she exited the frigid gym, basking in the warmth from the rays of sunlight. Lyra had never been a huge fan of the cold, and the ice type gym was a less than enjoyable experience.
Walking to the pokémon center, she thought back on the battle that ended in her getting her glittering Glacier Badge. When people said it was an ice-type gym, she was surprised to find that the gym leader dealt without a full ice type, and even a water type, making Growlithe's attacks almost useless. Thankfully, with the help of her other pokémon, she managed to to beat him.
"When the ice and snow melt, spring arrives. You and your Pokémon will be together for many years to come. Cherish your time together!"
Recalling his parting words, she smiled. No matter what, she knew that she'd always have these loyal creatures by her side.
As she patiently waited for Nurse Joy to call her name when her pokémon were fully healed, her pokégear rang. She blinked, wondering who was. Since she started her journey, she had gathered a plethora of numbers from trainers, having someone from probably every town. The only person she probably didn't have on her contacts list was Silver, but she was still saving a spot on speed dial for him.
"Professor Elm?" she blinked at the number. Why would he be calling? Professor Elm never calls, even to the point that Lyra honestly believes that he forgot he had a pokégear to begin with! Answering, she spoke. "Hello?"
"Lyra!" he exclaimed. Lyra blinked at his frantic voice, immediately thinking that something had broken into the lab again. "Oh, thank goodness you picked up! Krystal and Ethan have been trying to get ahold of you!"
"What happened?"
"Krys said something about the police and Ethan is saying something about the radio… I… I'm not entirely sure what's going on myself. Try contacting Krys. She said she was with him, maybe they can tell you."
"Um, okay. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
"Mm-hm. Goodbye."
"Bye." Lyra stared at her pokégear oddly for a moment, then clicked on Krys's contact. It didn't even get through one ring before the blue haired girl picked up.
"Lyra! I've been trying to call you all day!" she exclaimed. "Oh, this isn't good at all! Are you okay?"
"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"
"Team Rocket's on the radio broadcast!" Ethan's voice cut in. "And last night a couple of secret agents took an item Krys had into protective custody!"
"What?"
"I wasn't expecting it either." Krys said. "It was just an odd pokéball. They said that criminals were seeking it out. Could it have been Team Rocket?"
"What about the Masked Rockets?" Lyra pointed out thoughtfully. "They were originally after Krys, right? Maybe they wanted the item she had."
"But they wanted me to catch something." Krystal said. "You know that, Lyra. They mistook you for me, remember?"
"Oh, yeah!" Lyra giggled. "With all that's been going on, I kinda forgot."
"That's Lyra for you," Krys sighed. "Anyways, listen to the radio broadcast. We'll meet up in Goldenrod, okay?"
"Okay!" Lyra smiled. "I'll see you soon!"
Lyra hummed under her breath as she ended the call, then pressed on the radio app, wondering what everyone was so worried about.
Her stomach lurched at what she heard.
"...Uh… um… Testing! Testing! One, two, three…" there was an inhale, as if someone was preparing for a speech. "We're the amazing Team Rocket! It's been three years since that bitch Leaf took us down, but we've rebuilt the team and restructured! We're proud to announce that we're back! Mr. Giovanni Sakaki, if you can hear this, please return to us! We finally did it!" a pause. "I wonder where the boss could be…?" Something that sounded like a smack to the head resounded. "Ow! Okay, okay, sheesh!" a rustle of papers. "Leaf Green! Your judgement day has come! That's right, we're calling you out! We know you can hear this, and unless you come to the base and surrender, harm will come to your juniors!"
Lyra almost dropped her pokégear as she scrambled to get to the front desk for her pokémon.
"I need them back!" she exclaimed. The nurse blinked.
"What's the hurry?"
"My friends are in trouble! Please, give me back my pokémon!"
She was baffled at the fact that the nurse wasn't giving her what she needed. Suddenly, she noticed that she was surrounded. Gripping her bag, she hesitantly glanced at all of the shady looking people. Some of them were smirking, some of them were chuckling menacingly. All of them were gripping pokéballs. When…?
"You're one of the professors brats, aren't you?" the nurse asked as she slowly turned her attention back to her. Lyra swallowed. "Surrender quietly or-"
There was a sudden explosion and cries of exclamation and pain, and everyone whipped around to the side. Lyra widened her eyes as she saw Sara tossing a trench coat and shades aside, a Blaziken by her side.
"Agent Blitz, you ruined my super secret infiltration plan!" Lyra turned her gaze to Looker, who was also taking off sunglasses.
"I'm sorry!" Sara shot back in an irritated tone. "But if I had to hear you mutter 'must be one with the potted plant' one more time, I was going to smash the potted plant!" she glanced over her shoulder. Lyra blinked, seeing a small pile of dirt with ceramic shards around it, a plant perched on top. "Seems I did."
"Sara!" Lyra exclaimed.
"Hey," the older girl crossed the room and went behind the counter. "Lets see… Bayleef, Ampharos, Frosslass, Espeon, Dragonite, and a Growlithe… Whoa, when did this guy evolve?" she twirled Dragonite's pokéball on her finger with a grin.
"In my last gym battle…" Lyra trailed off as Sara crossed the room with her pokéballs. "Um, aren't we surrounded by bad guys?" Sara glanced back at Blaziken, then at Lyra.
"That is a problem, huh?" she shook her head. "We don't have time for wannabe weaklings! "Hey, Looker!" Sara glanced at her partner. "Unless you're trying to 'be one with' another object, think you could stay here and handle these guys for me?"
"Are you crazy, Sara?!" he shot back. "You can't handle a proper infiltration on your own!"
"Sure I can!" Sara smiled. She latched onto Lyra. "Have fun with the weaklings!"
And like nothing was wrong, Sara grabbed Lyra and dragged her out the door. Looker stared at his partner, then slowly turned his gaze back to the people in the room. They stared back at him. Almost immediately, they charged at him, trying to overwhelm him with the sheer amount of men.
Looker shook his head, tossing a pokéball in the air.
"Ghastly, hypnosis!"
o.0.o.0.o
"Sara! What's going on?!" Lyra called over the cold winds nipping at her skin, clinging to Dragonite's neck as Sara gripped the legs of a Ledian she had named Ritoru.
"I think the radio broadcast was pretty obvious." Sara replied. "Team Rocket. Of course, my assigned mission is the missing children, being Felicity and Nathaniel, specifically, buuuut," she grinned as they landed in Goldenrod. Returning Ritoru with a wink, she spoke. "I've got the time to take down a few baddies while I'm at it."
As Lyra returned Dragonite and let out her faithful Bayleef, Sara glanced around.
"This place is vacant." she said with a frown. Ritoru hummed in agreement, fluttering beside his trainer. Sara glanced about the streets.
"What are we going to do?" Lyra asked.
"I'm not really-"
"You!" Lyra jolted as both turned, seeing a Rocket grunt stomping towards them. "This city is under lockdown! What are you doing out in the streets?!"
"Tell me, is it true that Mr. Giovanni is coming back?" Sara asked. The grunt blinked, the puffed out his chest proudly.
"Yes, he will, if he go the message we sent out."
"That's so great! You see," she gestured between herself and Lyra. "We're new recruits." The lie came out smoothly, as if she rehearsed the whole thing. "You really need to work on communication. We're new recruits!"
The grunt blinked, looking skeptical.
"You two are new recruits?"
"Yep!" Sara nodded. "We got the message he was coming back, but no one told us where to go after that."
"...Okay, then." he shook his head. "Sorry for the hostility, anyone could be a spy, you know."
"Tell me about it." Sara said with a wave of her hand. Lyra wasn't sure what to do or say, so she kist kept doing what she was the whole time: smile. The rocket grunt shot her an odd glance.
"Your friend there okay?" he asked. Sara blinked, looking at her.
"Who, this gal?" she patted her on the back. "She's fine. All smiles, this one. Very excited to join."
Lyra nodded enthusiastically. The grunt swallowed.
"We'll work on that later." he finally seemed to settle. He led them through the streets and down to the entrance to the underground tunnels. "Go down there and to the dress-up center. We have a grunt handing out uniforms. Tell them executive Proton sent you."
"Right!" Sara chirped. "Thanks again!" As they left the grunt behind and descended the stairs, Sara spoke. "Listen, sorry for dragging you into this, but the only way we're getting in there is by disguising ourselves."
"It's no problem!" Lyra grinned. "I'll do whatever I can to help!"
"Glad to see the enthusiasm." Sara smiled. "Though, i would appreciate it if you tuned it down a bit. You're at a ten, and I need you at a six."
"Okay!" Lyra nodded. Sara blinked, then sighed.
"Just… leave the talking to me."
"Yep!"
They approached the dress up corner, they saw a single male grunt sitting there with a rack of uniforms next to him. He glanced at them, then smirked.
"Can I help you, ladies?"
"New recruits." Sara responded. "You have uniforms here?"
"That we do!" he grinned, smacking his hands on his thighs and standing up. "Man, they're joining young. All the better, I say! Do you-"
"We'll be fine." Sara said, pulling Lyra alongside her as she flicked through the uniforms. Lyra went to the smaller sized uniforms while Sara already had her own. She was keeping an eye on the grunt who was still staring at them. Pulling her by the arm, the older girl took Lyra to the dressing rooms. "You two," she glanced at Bayleef and Ritoru. "Stand guard."
Lyra ducked behind the curtain, switching out her clothes. It was a typical uniform for the female grunts, a tight, long sleeved black shirt with gray boots and a black miniskirt. A small miniskirt…
Woefully, she stared at the white hat in her hands before she tucked it away in her bag with the rest of her clothes. She'll be wearing it again once this was all over, after all. After clipping her pokéball belt around her waist, she adjusted the black hat on her head, thinking how odd it was that the visor seems to shade her eyes just perfectly. Staring at the red R that stuck out on her shirt, she prayed her fellow dexholders, specifically, Silver, wouldn't be to disappointed about her wearing the logo of their enemies, then stepped out of the dressing room. Sara was waiting for her, dressed similarly, and smoking.
"You almost look like a real mafia member like that." Lyra complimented. Sara seemed to jump at that, as she coughed and quickly threw the cigarette on the ground and snuffed it out with her boot.
"Just to calm me down!" she snapped at her. "Don't… Don't tell Looker." Lyra cocked her head, but said nothing. "How you feeling?" she asked.
"Kind of… dirty." Lyra said, not sure how to describe it otherwise. Sara laughed, shaking her head and adjusting her purple bag over her shoulder.
"Tell me about it." Sara said, stepping out of the changing area. The grunt grinned upon seeing them.
"Much better! Now how about we-"
"We're going to see the executives." Sara responded curtly. "Come on, Ritoru." The Ledian, plus Bayleef, stood defensively beside their trainers, making sure to follow them out. As the cruised through the streets of Goldenrod, Sara was giving her instructions. "Act confident, like those grunts. Smirk, don't smile. I'll lead, okay?"
"Got it!" Lyra winked. The two walked into the radio tower. Almost immediately, Sara pointed to the receptionist behind the counter.
"You! Tell me what's going on!" she demanded. As if to prove her point, Ritoru, despite being a Ledian, seemed to take on a threatening position beside his trainer.
"N-Nothing, ma'am! I've directed all guests to leave the tower, as instructed!" the receptionist blurted, holding up her hands as if afraid Sara would whip out a gun and shoot. Lyra nearly sighed. With no one other than Rocket grunts in the tower, it meant that no civilians would be seriously injured.
"Heh," Sara stood back, the expert actor, crossing her arms with a cocky smirk. "Good work." the receptionist sadly nodded, and all Lyra wanted to do at that point was to tell her that help was here, so she would be happy.
But she knew that everything relied on them getting in the tower, and she wasn't about to blow their cover now.
They approached a staircase with a single grunt guarding them. He stood up straight, holding his hand up.
"Hold it you two." he said. "I need ages."
"Ages?" Lyra echoed, furrowing her brow.
"Ages so we know which executive to send you too. Ariana will probably want to train you," he nodded to Sara. "But Proton likes training the kids. So, I need an age, little miss."
"Fifteen." Lyra said. "Are you…?"
"Yeah, I'm going to have to separate you two." he said. He turned, and yelled up the stairs. "Yo, Raimy! We've got a recruit for Ariana!" A female grunt came down the stairs, glancing them over. "You," he pointed at Sara. "What's your name."
"Blitz." Sara responded.
"Blitz?" the female said. "Odd name."
"Odd world." Sara shot back
"Anyways, uh, Blitz. This is Raimy. She'll be training you and all that."
"Got it." she turned to Lyra. "Good luck, Soul." she said, following Raimy up the stairs.
"So Soul, huh? Pretty young to be joinin' Team Rocket."
Lyra nodded, smiling.
"Anyways-"
A sudden and loud crash echoed throughout the room, and Lyra whipped around, only to see the doors had pretty much been blown off, smoldering the corner. One of the receptionists was trying to frantically put it out with a fire extinguisher while another was speaking.
"I'm sorry, sir, but everyone must lea-"
"Shut up you over-cheery, fake, bimbo." a familiar voice hissed. Lyra felt her stomach drop as she pulled the cap down over her face. Of all people, he had to come? She would've been less disappointed in herself is her idol, Leaf, saw her in this outfit. But him? He would go from being annoyed with her to hating her…!
"Hey, Team Rocket!" Silver nearly roared, crossing the room in a few quick strides with his Quilava at his side. "Stop going around troubling people! Damned cowards!"
"You little prick!" the grunt shot back, obviously insulted. "Go play somewhere else, kid."
"Says the guy who has a girl my age standing next to him." Silver said. Lyra stiffened, turning away from him and studying the fascinating patterns on the wall. "What's with you? Can't speak?" a pause. Lyra could practically sense him connecting the dots. "What the…?"
Suddenly, a strong hand gripped her shoulder and whipped her around, pinning her to the wall. Silver had both his hands on her shoulders, practically poking holes through the shirt he was gripping her shoulders so tight. A long moment of silence as he took in her face. A long moment of confusion, then…
"Lyra?"
o.0.o.0.o
Well, yeah. I was feeling uninspired for some reason. I mean, i expect this to pick up after this, but yeah…
Anyways, review and stay tuned!
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^