Chapter 14: Fateful Encounters
I followed Barrys trail to the park he had mentioned. It was a simple place, just a field with benches really, and at the center stood the statue he had mentioned. Moving closer, I noticed Barry standing some distance away from the object. Curious, I changed course and walked over to him. "What's going on man, you were so excited about this thing I half expected you to be climbing on it by the time I got here." I joked.
He glanced over at me, then pointed. "Isn't that the guy from Lake Verity?" he asked, unusually quiet for him.
I followed his gesture and indeed, a man was standing in front of the statue. Squinting my eyes, to get a better view, my heart practically stopped. Oh shit, it's Cyrus! I scrambled at all my knowledge of the games, trying to figure out why Cyrus was here. Oh man, this is really not good. I glanced over at Barry, who seemed only mildly concerned about the blue-haired maniac.
"Maybe he's interested in legendary pokemon too." Barry mumbled. You can say that I thought sourly. "Hey! Let's go ask him if he knows how to catch a legendary pokemon!" Barry said, already halfway across the field. "Barry, wait!" I cried, running after him with Lola following.
I caught up to him right as he got to Cyrus, praying that the Galactic commander wouldn't risk doing anything in public. "Hey mister! My name's Barry. I saw you over at Lake Verity a few weeks ago?" Barry asked, being his typical friendly self.
Cyrus continued to stare at the monument. He might have glanced over at Barry, but I was to far away to catch it. Barry seemed to take his silence as permission to keep talking. "So I was thinking, if you were there, and now you're here, you have to know a lot about legendary pokemon, right? I want to catch one and was hoping you can give me some tips." Barry beamed up at the man, who continued to ignore him.
"Sorry about my friend here, I hope he wasn't bothering you." I piped up, standing next to the blonde. Now I knew Cyrus was paying attention, closing his eyes and sighing at the sound of another voice.
"Why do you want to catch a legendary pokemon?" he asked. The question caught Barry off guard, and certainly shocked me. Since when was Cyrus one for talking with anyone?
"Well, they're legendary!" Barry explained. "I mean, they're super rare, one of a kind! And they have to be really powerful, right? I bet I'd never loose a battle again if I had a legendary at my side!"
This seemed to finally grasp Cyrus' attention, the older man turning away from the statue. "All you desire from them is power?" he asked. Barry nodded. "What else is there?" he asked. I slapped a hand to my forehead and groaned over my friends stupidity. Cyrus didn't react other than narrowing his eyes slightly. "There is far more to the legendary pokemon than mere power. Learn more about them and maybe you will begin to see the possibilities. Good day." He turned and walked off, clearly done with the conversation.
"What do you think he meant by that?" Barry asked. "I mean, legendary pokemon are only legendary because they're powerful, right?" He turned to me, eyebrow raised.
"In a way, yeah. But it's more than that. I mean, look there." I pointed at the statue. It depicted Dialga and Palkia, the two major legendary pokemon in Sinnoh. "Dialga can control time itself, and Palkia can warp space. With both of those pokemon under your control, you can change the past, be anywhere at anytime. Hell, you can probably reshape the world to be whatever you want it to be."
Barry's eyes got wide. "Wow." he exclaimed. "I never thought about it like that. I always thought of those legends as stuff people made up about the pokemon, not actually true."
I sighed. "Barry, just because I think the legends are true doesn't mean that they are. Look, I'm late for lunch and I promised the team I'd take them all out tonight. I'll see you later." I walked off, pointedly going the opposite way Cyrus was headed. Unfortunately, that lead me to the outskirts of town, away from any restaurant I could eat at.
"Hold on, I thought we were going to grab something to eat?" Lola asked, looking around the rocky cliffs we found ourselves on.
"I know, I just wanted to see if we could find a new pokemon to catch over here." I lied. Glancing around, I noticed we were pretty much at the base of Mt. Coronet, the large mountain range that split Sinnoh in half down the middle. I looked over at the top of the tallest peak, knowing what awaited me there. Man, that whole event seems a long way away I thought to myself. Shaking all thoughts of the future out of my head, I focused on the present. Which, as it turned out, was a small lavender pokemon calmly meditating on a nearby rock. "Sweet, a Meditite! Lola, knock it down!"
A short and uneventful battle later, Yaddle the Meditite was added to the PC, her pokeball being zapped away. "You know, I've always wondered how they managed to get the crazy amount of technology required to do something like that, but space travel and other futuristic stuff isn't around."
"You think to much. Let's go eat!" Lola declared, in a good mood from her victory over the fighting-type. A short while later, I had managed to find a restaurant that let you eat outside with your pokemon. I let the whole team out, putting food down for them while I ordered a cheeseburger meal for myself. "Man, at least the food hasn't changed." I muttered to myself through a mouthful of burger. While I ate, I watched the group and how they interacted with their newest member. It was quite a sight.
"Hey! Watch where you're poking rock-head!" Lola yelped, glaring at Lin. The ever-curious Geodude had gone about her normal routine of poking and prodding the new pokemon. It was almost an initiation thing. In order to officially be part of the group, Lin had to inspect you.
"Shut up, I'm not hurting you." Lin grumbled, grabbing the clump of fur at the end of Lola's ear.
"Owowowow! Quit!" Lola cried, violently kicking at the rock-type. Thankfully, the super-effective move missed and Lin let go of the ear. Unfortunately, Lin didn't get the hint and came back for more. I was about to intervene when a flash of gray and a flurry of feathers interrupted them.
"Enough!" Sora barked. The bird pokemon turned towards the Geodude. "Lin, leave Lola alone. We all want to eat in peace and you've done enough already." Sora turned to face the Buneary. "Lola, I believe that Nick explained the way the challenge works to you?" Lola nodded, still holding her ear tenderly. "Then I'll say this once. Don't ever attack a teammate with a super-effective move. If that Jump Kick had landed, Lin could have died. Next time, let Nick deal with it. Are we clear?" Sora's tone was gentle, but stern enough that it was clear she was mad at both of them.
Lola nodded, then leaned around Sora to talk to Lin. "Sorry Lin, I didn't mean to kick at you like that. But you still should've left me alone!"
Lin shrugged and moved over to her food. The situation resolved I relaxed a bit and returned to my burger.
"You've got an interesting group of pokemon there." a voice said. I turned and found myself face to face with a very nice chest in a revealing dress. Hey, it wasn't on purpose, that's just how it happened. I quickly looked up to the face of whoever was talking to me.
"Oh shit, you're Cynthia." I gasped, probably coming off a lot dumber than it should have. She was wearing a long black dress with fur trimmings. Black slacks and shoes with slight heels finished the outfit. Her long blonde hair fell to her waist. To her credit, the Sinnoh champion didn't seem to mind my reaction. Probably because she got it all the time.
"Yep. I'm Cynthia. Mind if I ask your name?" she sat down at the table across from me.
I was still in a stunned silence for a few seconds before recovering. "Uh, yeah, I'm Nick. From Sandgem." I said. I turned over to my team, who were all mostly staring at the new arrival. Except for Mufasa, who never reacted to anything that went on around him. "That's Lin, Sora, Lola, Mufasa, Franklin and Armstrong." I said, pointing to each pokemon in turn.
"Aw, so you're someone who nicknames their pokemon." Cynthia said, looking back at the group of pokemon staring at her. "Hello!" she waved cheerfully.
"Hi!" Lola piped up, bounding up to the woman. I knew Cynthia probably couldn't understand her, but I'm sure she got her point across.
"So what was that you said? Something about my team being interesting?" I said, taking another bite of burger. I mean, sure, I was talking to the highest ranked trainer in the region, but I was still hungry.
"I saw what happened just now between your Geodude and this lovely little lady." Cynthia said, picking Lola up and hugging the little bunny. Lola seemed quite pleased with this reaction so I didn't protest. "Most trainers would either let them fight or intervene themselves. Your pokemon though, they worked it out among themselves, without your help. They must have a tight bond."
"You have no idea." I muttered, unconsciously scratching at the back of my hand. Cynthia noticed this, and I saw her eyes grow sharper, quickly darting from pokemon to pokemon.
"Oh! So that's why!" she said, looking down at Lola. Her eyes were suddenly a lot softer. "You're a Nuzlocker aren't you?" she asked.
I sighed. "Man, how am I supposed to keep this thing a secret if all of my pokemon are running around with that damn mark on them? Yes, I'm a Nuzlocker." I answered, this conversation quickly turning bitter in my opinion. I took another bit of the burger to calm my nerves.
Cynthia seemed to notice my change of attitude. "Hey, I'm not totally against it. I'm just worried about your team." She put Lola down and leaned closer. "You have to challenge the Elite Four to finish this challenge, right?" she asked. I nodded. "Well, that means we'll have to battle one day." she leaned back, looking pretty carefree about the whole situation.
"Yep." I muttered. "And just to let you know, I'm not planning on loosing. Or loosing anyone. My whole team is going to make it through." I noticed the look Sora gave me but ignored it.
Cynthia seemed interested in my declaration. "Really? That's a pretty big boast. I take it you haven't lost anyone?" I flinched at the question. My reaction was all the answer Cynthia needed. "I thought so. Listen, Nick, I want you to succeed. Not just for your pokemon's sake but for your sake. So, in order to do that, I'm going to give you this." She reached into a pocket and pulled out a HM case. It had the imprint of the Forest Badge on it. "This is HM01. It teaches the move Cut. I know it's not much, but it's the best I can give. Take it." she said, placing the case on the table. "I guess I'll see you around. Don't give up." She stood up and walked off. I stared at the HM, slowly chewing my food. After what felt like forever, I swallowed and grabbed the disk, shoving it into my bag.
"She was pretty." Franklin piped up. I couldn't help but burst into laughter. Of all the things to walk away from that conversation with, that was the last thing on my mind. "C'mon guys, let's head to the gym. I want to get this badge as soon as possible." I said, returning the group to their pokeballs.
Arriving at the gym, I noticed the building looked pretty much the same as Roarks gym. The trim around the edges was green instead of brown, and it looked like the ceiling in the back was entirely glass to make a kind of greenhouse, but for the most part it wasn't any different. After handing my ID to the front desk, which earned me another interesting look, I made my way inside, the glass doors opening automatically. I expected the maze of trees that I had gone through multiple times on my game. What I got was something completely different. A large flower filled the center of the room. It was obviously made of metal, but the effect was still striking. Two long leaves extended from the base of the flower, one pointing towards me and the other pointing to the left. A gym trainer stood in front of me.
"Welcome, challenger, to the Eterna City Gym!" she cheered. "In order to reach our leader, Gardenia, you need to beat all four trainers spread throughout the gym. Every time you beat a trainer, hit the switch behind them to move the leaves and move on to the next area. Got it?" I nodded. "Then let's go!" she said, tossing a pokeball and releasing a Cherubi.
I released Sora in response. The cheerful expression fell from the girls face. "Why does everyone have a Staravia?" she sighed.
The rest of the gym trainers went similarly. Sora made quick work of most of the opponent pokemon, and eventually I let her rest in favor of Mufasa. Quickly making my way through the puzzle, I finally found myself standing at the end of a grassy arena. A figure stood at the other end. She had red hair cut short and held out of her face with a black headband. She wore a dark green cloak that reached her elbows over a black belly shirt. An orange pair of worn shorts and green boots completed the getup. "Congratulations on making it this far challenger!" Gardenia said. "Unfortunatly, I'm not going to hold back just because you're a Nuzlocker. Hope you're ready!"