Well more and more manga is being red (pun!) and more and more information is being collected by moi. I'm at a point where frequent updates will start occurring regularly again.
As a general statement, I want to make it clear that if you are here as an anonymous critic, your word not only is null and void, it is also invalid and unwelcome. If you would not say it to my face under a username, then don't say it all. Not a whole lot is worse than cowardice and backstabbing.
However general criticisms are always welcome with open arms SO LONG AS YOU ARE APPROPRIATE ABOUT THEM. If you do not know what appropriate is in this context, you most likely do not actually know more than me. If your criticism is more subjective about the way you like it, then just be polite.
I work hard and long to edit these. Most errors are arrant and negligible. Most grammar malfunctions are on purpose.
...On a fluffier note, I am now 1000000% smitten by TranscieverShipping. Ohhh I can't wait for the manga and what it does with this...Sheesh I am just sooo giddy over this ^_^
Chapter 2
Wishful Thinking
*~*~**~*~**~*~*
Erika - Celadon City
*~*~**~*~**~*~*
Erika was in the most beautiful garden in the world. It was so natural it felt like she was actually amidst an untouched sanctuary of nature. There wasn't even a single spec or proof of human existence for miles around, nothing possible to be seen by the naked eye. It was a balmy, cool day outside with the sun beaming down on the world.
For some reason she could not identify where the place was or how she got there, but she brushed the notion aside, attributing the slight amnesia to bliss.
Mistaking the slight amnesia for bliss.
Regardless, Celadon's lady found herself in an overwhelmingly happy mood just being where she was. Her dreams were the only way she could ever find herself in such a location. Flowers bloomed without a single blemish or bite from a stray Caterpie or Spinarak. Water flowed in a nearby crystal river, flushing the world with nutrient and leaking its water onto the misty banks. Beautiful Pokemon were dancing and prancing and enjoying themselves all over this mystic utopia. Bellosom and Lilligant were dancing around the outskirts of flower gardens, Stantler families and Sawsbuck families were leaping among the bushes and taking sips from the water. Lumineon and Feebas swam franticly in the river and disappeared into the darker woods. Life was everywhere, and everywhere was life.
This was where Erika was truly happiest. This was her vision of a perfect nature. A place where she would love to spend her free time, all the time.
Or…almost perfect. There was just one person missing…
The girl with plum hair closed her equally lilaceous eyes and let herself fall backwards as if to let the slight breeze catch her. She hit the ground and let the aromas around her fill her nose with delight and grace. She peeked up at the sky and saw Jumpluff families riding the wind as clouds of beauty limbered across the sky. They seemed to be having fun, laughing with each other as they drank glasses of wine and took their precious little time, as if to say "I'm a cloud, whadya want?"
But from the corner of Erika's eye a dark haze started to creep across the sky. She peeked over to see what it was. She instantly wished she didn't.
A creepy black, red, and dark purple haze had crept into the area and was starting to flood the land. Pokemon tried to flee from it, but some did so unsuccessfully, getting caught in the creeping void and being petrified to a crude and grotesque obsidian. Everything the haze touched wilted, charred, and died instantly. Even grand trees as tall as a skyscraper instantly thinned down to a wispy willow.
Erika's eyes filled with terror as her mind raced with thoughts of despair and anguish. She quickly stumbled to her two feet, running before she was even completely up and tripping over herself because of it. She looked back at this death mist and saw that it was creeping up on her. She noticed her heart rate had risen to an incredibly fast tempo, and that she had been hyperventilating for some time.
Erika felt exhausted but she kept pushing onward.
Weird…I know I-I-I have m-m-more stam…-hah- stamina than…than this. Why do I feel so -breath- tired?
Not taking time to ponder that thought, she kept pushing herself onward.
As she picked her head up to see what was in front of her, she skidded to a halt.
She looked left, then right.
No…no no no no NO!
All around her, the black mist of death was encroaching her. She felt trapped, as beauty all around her seemed to die.
She looked down and saw one pretty dicot below her face. It was a beautiful and luscious green, and illuminated the dark world around Erika as if to fight an impossible crusade.
This touched Erika's heart.
So with tears forming in her eyes, she knelt down beside the plant and picked it out of the ground. She looked at it and turned it in her hands.
This thing…it, it-it-it…it is trying it's h-h-h-hardest to fight the black –hah- death.
What can –hah- I do to help it? What can, -ACKugh-, I do…
"ERIKA!"
The archer with plum hair perked her head. She turned on her heels to locate the source of the cry.
"ERIKA HELP!"
Her eyes frantically jumped from thing to thing as she tried to locate the distressed voice's source.
"ERIKA PLEASE!"
Where can you be?
Her breath had returned to her somehow. The mist kept enclosing on her, but there was very little cover left untouched by the shroud, so she can't have too many places to check…
Where?
"ERIKA I NEED YOU!"
Oh maybe fro…wait…that voice…
Her eyes shot open in sheer fear and terror.
THAT VOICE!
She called back out, "Hello? Hello can you hear me?"
"ERIKA!"
Erika started jogging in one direction.
"I'm coming!"
I KNOW that voice!
"ERIKA I NEED HELP!" it called to her
Please…it can't be…
"Hold tight!"
She seemed to be getting closer.
"QUICK ERIKA!"
Erika seemed to be closing in on the voice's owner, and was getting more and more scared the closer she got to it.
Her jog transformed into a run.
"PLEASE!"
Run into a sprint.
"ERIKA!"
There was a rock ahead.
Please don't be who I think it is…
The black mist kept getting closer and closer. Her grip around the plant grew tighter and tighter.
The rock seemed to get abnormally larger the closer she got to it. When she finally reached it, she called out one more time:
"Hello?"
"ERIKA, QUICK BEFORE THE-"
The voice was muffled and it sounded like the owner had been muzzled and left unable to speak.
Erika pulled together her courage and rounded the corner.
Into the most frightful scene of her life.
In front of her was a shady person masked by shadows with a knife in his hand. But this part didn't scare Erika.
What scared her were the frightful eyes piercing hers. Belonging to a person whose neck the attacker's knife was pressed against. His hands and feet were locked in chains, bound to the ground.
Erika froze in her tracks and backed away. Even more painful tears started forming from the emotional trauma of the scene.
"…"
Her mouth opened but no words came out. She choked on her own fear.
The masked person raised his sword as if to signify a future strike on the muzzled person.
Words finally came to her as Erika lunged forward in a futile effort to save the victim.
"NO!"
All of a sudden a flash of blackness engulfed her midlunge as everything slowed down to a crawl. The man's sword came closer and closer to the victim, and all poor Erika could do was watch in fear. Erika's lungs stopped functioning and she started painfully trying to gasp for nothing as her eyes stayed glued to the traumatic event in front of her. As the sword was about to finish it's strike, blackness totally enveloped Erika, and she fainted into a dismal oblivion.
"NO DON'T DO IT!"
Erika thrust herself forward, screaming these words in a frantic panic, as if her life depended on it.
"…hahhh….hahhh…FFFFF…HAAAHHHHHhhhhhh…"
Erika was trying to catch her breath. She felt like she had just ran up and down Mt. Silver ten times without a break. Everything around her was a blur, and her eyes couldn't make much of anything besides the fact that, wherever she was, there was light.
"…hah…hah…"
She dabbed the back of her hand against her forehead and brought it to her eyes to try and register what was feeling awkwardly weird against her bangs.
"hah…"
…
…
Sweat…
…
"…hah…"
Erika looked to her left.
She looked to her right.
She rubbed her eyes to clear out whatever grogginess was overcoming them.
After blinking a couple times shapes started forming around her. It was now clear where she was.
She was sprawled out on the floor, wrapped up in a scrunched up sheet that was barely clinging for dear life to the corner of her bed, which she had journeyed a solid 5 or 6 feet away from. Her hair was ruffled up in a complete mess, and a mysterious ache had appeared in her leg.
What could th-…ahh a bruise.
Erika picked herself up elegantly and brushed herself off, favoring her left leg just slightly. When she did this, she realized that not only her forehead, but her entire body was coated in sweat. She totted forward to her bed and felt around. It was clear her bed was drenched in perspiration.
Erika sighed and shook herself off. She tore off the remaining covers and bedspreads and traveled down to her laundry room to put them in the hamper.
A couple hours passed and Erika was now suited up in her usual attire, prepared for her daily routine. Seated at her gym's tea table, she closed her eyes and tipped some hot, citrusy drink into her mouth, sipping it silently. She brought the cup down, still pursed against her lips, and took a breath of tranquility.
She laid the cup down and reached down to her PokeNav…her new one, by the way, she never did get her old one back from Ash…and clicked it open. The girl with plum eyes navigated her way to the "Messages" screen, setting filter to "challengers." Here is where she found what new brave soul was daring enough to confront her in a Pokemon Battle.
The last time Erika lost was a month and a half ago. Her opponent was a quirky yet intelligent businessman – he's also beaten everyone except Janine and Blue – who found a way to edge around her. Other than that, she has an unblemished record since the incident in Johto. After that, and the new rule stating all trainers bearing 8 badges from a given region can participate in the respective league tourney without facing preliminary rounds, ALL gym leaders received an absurd influx of trainers after that, and most started proving why they were considered gym leaders.
She, Blaine, and Blue all had only suffered one loss in light of those events. Truly though, the gym leader with the most losses was Janine, and she only had 4. Kanto was a tough region to nab the badges from. Today, Erika didn't plan for it to be any different.
Well, something different did happen.
Erika required everyone to present him or herself over a message before she accepts their challenge. She had actually officially instated her "challenge system," what had originally simply been a test to see if Red was trustworthy of the Gym Leaders of Justice's plans to overthrow Team Rocket. These days, the challenges were less difficult to compensate the difficulty curve between Red and most other people.
Plus, if one gives a challenge like catching something rare like a Porygon to 40+ people, disastrous riots were just bound to happen surrounding one unlucky, sad Porygon.
So Erika had a self-employed challenge system—you make your own challenge, own rules. If Erika deems it a worthy indication of valor and character, she would accept the challenge. It was not necessarily whoever had the hardest challenge, or the most accomplished one, it was whoever gave the most sincere, honest effort. More than anything, Erika wanted to see self-integrity.
Self-integrity is a form of indifference that Erika oh-so-incredibly loves. It strikes down the power of a humble advocate in shining cloth armor.
One time Erika even accepted a challenger who said his challenge was confronting her. He came to her in person with scared eyes and wobbly knees, but he came with a courageous fire that showed the power of self-integrity and bravery.
He lost in a 3-on-3 battle, 2-0. It was her closest match of the week.
Typically Erika accepts 2-3 challengers a day.
"Hmmm what do have we today..." she mused out loud.
A gentleman who had claimed he went and helped nurse a sick Growlithe pup back to health had curtsied her yesterday morning, and asked for a challenge today. He explained he needed to go check on the pup one last time that afternoon to make sure the validity of his own comment was correct. Erika gladly accepted, and after some thought decided to face him first thing in the morning.
However she still needed to find another challenger today to make sure she didn't leave anyone out or dent anyone's legitimate want to battle her.
The PokeNav buzzed and whispered like a muffled dryer as it searched for the inquiry she punched in. The first link was from…
URGENT MESSAGE TO ALL GYM LEADERS.
"…huh…"
She curiously pecked the message with her finger and read the given text:
ATTENTION TO ERIKA…
The Pokemon Association has made an executive decision to assemble all gym leaders in a coordinated meeting this coming Saturday to discuss pressing issues, including, but not limited to, interregional harmonization and the recent influx of organized crime.
Those who chose not to attend will have their gym leader status revoked and will be stripped of all honorary Pokemon Association titles. Permission to bypass other activities is permitted granted the security protocol level Rindo.
Heading the meeting shall be the Chairman of the Kanto Pokemon Association.
The meeting will take place this Saturday at dawn, starting at 1:00 and proceeding to an indeterminate time. Location will be just outside of Viridian City at the chairman's mansion, whose location should be known to everyone in the meeting.
All Pokedex holders will drop their current duty and help discuss all issues.
You, Erika, as currently positioned captain of the Kanto Gym Leaders, are to lead the preliminary meeting for Kanto. More information on this will be provided at outset of location.
First, we are issuing a required vacation, effective tomorrow until after the meeting, unless decided otherwise during the discussions.
Second, all gym challenges from tomorrow on shall be denied under all circumstances except the Red Case.
Third, a friendly Pokemon tourney is being held from tomorrow until Friday at Indigo Plateau involving all Pokedex holders plus other honorary guests. We encourage, but by no means require, attendance.
Good Day,
The Pokemon Association
…
Executive order? Erika pondered, I haven't heard one of those since the Hoenn incident a few years back.
…
Well regardless, I have orders to fulfill.
So Erika snapped shut her PokeNav and curtly laid it out on the table. She took a breath and then sipped some more tea…
Erika I love more and more as I work with her. My head is starting to come together with my idea for this story. I already knew the basic plot, but the specifics are starting to come to me.
Next chapter is focused on someone a bit different...perhaps in a different time...
R&R