Chapter 27: Legends

The path through Route 210 was rough. Thick fog covered the valley, severely limiting visibility. To make things worse, the place was absolutely littered with trainers for some reason. After a particularly brutal match between two Ace Trainers and their Gyarados / Raichu combo, I was about ready to retreat back to Solaceon to rest, try again tomorrow. However, shortly after that battle the fog was lifted, and I realized I discovered I was right on the outskirts of Celestic Town.

The Town itself was nestled on a large flat crag in the foothills of Mt. Coronet. Small houses were strewn about randomly, no real pattern to their construction. I marched towards the one with a red roof, identifying itself to be the local PokeCenter. After getting my team healed and grabbing some grub from the mess hall, I stepped back outside, nibbling on an apple and pondering what to do next. I need to find Cynthias grandmother, but how am I supposed to know who that is? I thought, frowning. I guess since she's related to someone as famous as the Champion she couldn't be that hard to find.

I moved to begin my search when an annoying laugh filled the air. The fog had moved back in around the town, making it hard for me to find where the voice was coming from. "Listen up!" the voice cried. "You've all probably heard about the Great Marsh blowing up by now, right? Well I've got another bomb just like that one here! If anyone comes near me, I'm gonna blow this town sky high!" he crooned, his voice shrill.

I started running, trying to find the madman. If he does have one of those bombs, I need to stop him quick I thought, releasing Lola from her pokeball. I quickly explained the situation to her. "Try to find the guy, we need to handle this as quickly as we can." I urged. She nodded, running off into the fog. I was about to release Mufasa to help out when I heard the voice come back.

"What's this? Sending your pokemon in to fight? Didn't you hear me? Now this town is DOOMED!" he screeched. I sprinted as fast as I could in the direction Lola had gone. Suddenly the ground gave out from under me and I slid across the dirt. Getting to my feet, I found Lola facing down a Galactic grunt, his Houndour and Golbat by his side. He held what looked like some sort of trigger in his hand as he leered at the two of us. "Say bye bye to Celestic Town!" he crowed, raising the detonator.

"Lola! Take him out now!" I roared. She leaped forward, as the enemy pokemon moved to defend their master. She quickly kicked the Houndour out of the way, knocking the puppy flying. Spinning with the force of the kick, she brought a fist up and clocked the Golbat right in the chin. It flapped around drunkenly for a moment before collapsing, the Dizzy Punch to much for it. Free from any further attackers, Lola sped up and knocked the device out of the grunts hand. He howled in pain, gripping his shattered hand.

"Argh! You broke my hand! Why would you do something like that!?" he yelped.

I stared in disbelief. "Are you fucking kidding me!?" I asked. "You were going to blow up the town asshole! What was I supposed to do, sit around and do nothing! And on that note, what a stupid fucking plan! You realize you would have blown yourself up too, right?"

He glared at me while backing up slightly. "You imbecile, of course I knew that! I didn't have a bomb in the first place! I just wanted to get everyone away from the town! Do you really think I want to hurt anyone?"

I couldn't believe it. "Wow. I have seen Team Galactic do stupid shit in the past. Kidnapping pokemon in broad daylight, blowing up a tourist attraction, assaulting a respected Professor in the middle of a city, but that? That takes the cake. You guys are a bunch of dumbasses." By now the fog had cleared up and a small group of people had gathered. I realized that we were in the center of town, at the center of a good sized crater. The reason I had fallen was because I didn't see the stairs in front of me and I crashed down the side.

An older woman was walking down the steps, her cane making a light tapping sound on the stone. "Shame on you." she barked. "Threatening to blow up a town as peaceful as this one, I ought to whup you for saying such nonsense." She moved over, standing next to me. "Thank you young man for stopping him, even if there wasn't a bomb. As for you," she added, facing the injured grunt. "you're gonna have plenty of time to think about your actions in jail. Take him away." she called. Two large men slid down the side of the crater and grabbed the grunt roughly, taking him away. One grabbed his pokeballs and returned his fallen pokemon.

The old woman chuckled. "That was some fine battling sonny." she said. "I haven't seen anything like that since my granddaughter first started her journey."

I couldn't help but chuckle myself. Of course she's Cynthias grandmother. Who else would it be? Freaking game and it's instant plot solving I thought. "Your granddaughter wouldn't be Cynthia, would she?" I asked anyway, keeping up appearances. The woman nodded. "That's perfect then, I was actually sent here by her to give you this." I said, holding out the charm.

"Oh goodness, I was wondering when she would return it to me." the old woman said. She took the jewel and moved towards the other side of the crater. "Come on then boy, I think there's something you should see." I followed her obediently and motioned for Lola to do the same. As we got closer, I realized that the end of the crater was a sheer wall, a door with strange markings on it carved into the stone. There was a small hole in the center. Cynthia's grandma placed the charm into the hole and the markings lit up. The door slid open, revealing a passageway. "I haven't been in here in years." the old woman said, stepping inside. "Coming?" she asked. I followed her in.

The passage was short, opening up into a large cavern. Markings covered the walls and even the pillars that held the roof up. The old woman ignored the pictures and kept walking towards the other end, the sound of her cane echoing in the dark. "Hey uh...Cynthias grandma? What are these pictures?" I asked, looking at them.

"You can call me Granny Shirona, everyone else does." she said. "Those pictures are hieroglyphics. They were put here a long time ago by the ancestors of humanity." I nodded, thinking about the Egyptians from the real world. I jogged forward to catch up to Granny Shirona as she stopped at the end of the cave. "Can you make some light dear, the sun won't get in this far." she said. I released Mufasa from his pokeball. "Give us a small glow please." I asked. He merely shrugged and started charging, static electricity arcing across his fur. The light coming off of him illuminated the wall we stood in front of.

More hieroglyphics covered the wall, surrounding an immense carving in the center. Three beings surrounded a large circle, more pictures carved inside it. "What's this?" I asked, in awe of the ancient wall. Lola seemed pretty interested too, leaning in to get a closer look at the pictures. "They're so pretty." she whispered.

"This, child, is a legend." Shirona said. "Get comfortable, this might take some time to explain." I sat down on the stone floor next to Mufasa. Lola did the same, focusing her attention on the old woman. I would have found it funny if I wasn't doing the same thing.

"A long time ago, so long that no one knows for sure, the great god Arceus roamed the universe. He realized that he was lonely, and wished for a home. So Arceus created the world. He created the trees, the ocean, the mountains and the sky. But Arceus' heart was one of adventure, and he couldn't stay in one place for to long. So he left the world, but he didn't leave it alone. For the world was his precious home, and it would need to be taken care of. Arceus created the caretaker of the world, Mew, and gave her the power to create.

Mew wasted no time using this power. She created the other legendary pokemon, beings that would watch over the different parts of the world. But soon, everything was done, and Mew was left alone. She was a playful soul, and wished to run and laugh with her friends, the other pokemon. But they had their duties, and could not play with Mew. So, Mew decided to create new friends, ones that were completely unlike anything she had made before. She made the first humans, a man and a woman. But something was wrong. Unlike the pokemon that she had created, the humans had no will, no emotion, no knowledge. They could do nothing on their own, and had to be told what to do.

Mew didn't like that, but her powers of creation had been drained from making all the other legendaries. It was at that moment that Arceus returned from another of his many journeys. He saw the humans that Mew had created, and heard her plea to fix them.

"Little one, I cannot undo what you have made." he told Mew. "But I can add to it to make it whole." So Arceus made three beings specifically for the humans. They were Azelf, the Being of Emotion, Uxie, the Being of Knowledge, and Mesprit, the Being of Willpower. Through them, all human gained these three traits which allowed us to become what we are today.

Now we fast forward in time. The legendaries have had many disputes by this point, all of them settled one way or another. But the three Beings had never fought, for if one of them died, then humanity would be lost. The last of the great fights was between the Guardians of Time and Space, Dialga and Palkia. They were created to keep the flow of time stable, and to make sure that the world does not move from its place, or Arceus would loose his home. The two guardians got into an argument over whose was the greater task. Their battle raged, tearing apart time and space themselves, bringing destruction to the world. As they fought, the three Beings stumbled upon them. They tried to reason with the Guardians, but their voices were not heard.

Finally, Arceus himself arrived. He saw the destruction they had caused in their feud. Angry at the Guardians, Arceus imprisoned them, creating the spirit dragon Giratina to watch over them, to make sure that they would never fight again. Before he left, Arceus thanked the Beings for their attempt to stop the violence, and asked that they help Giratina in this world by splitting the key into three parts. He also spoke a prophecy.

Each of you will be given a champion among the humans.

One of these champions will turn on his brothers,

and release the Guardians from their cage.

And he will shape the world in his image.

The others will rise to confront him.

But if the wrong champion fights,

the world is lost.

And so Mesprit, Azelf and Uxie hid themselves from the humans, and waited for the day that their champions would arrive."

Granny Shirona paused, catching her breath. Lola clapped happily, and I joined in as well, though not as excitedly. Mufasa, however, jumped to his feet and growled at the entrance to the cave. Looking back, I saw a man silhouetted in the sunlight. "So the legend is true." he said. I recognize that voice! I thought.

"Allow me to introduce myself." the man said, stepping into the cave. He was illuminated by Mufasa's glow, revealing his pale, gaunt face and spiky blue hair. "I am Cyrus, leader of Team Galactic. I apologize for the actions of my man earlier. I merely instructed him to prevent anyone from entering the cave. I did not wish for him to act so rashly."

I got to my feet, fists clenched. "I don't care if you apologize, you're still a bunch of criminals." I spat. Cyrus turned his eyes to me, and I noticed how dead his eyes looked.

"Interesting to see you again, here of all places." he muttered. "It seems that you have a bigger part to play in this than I thought. Perhaps, you're the missing piece?" He reached into his pocket and produced a pokeball. "Why don't we find out?" he asked, releasing a Sneasel. "Use Slash." he demanded, not holding back at all.

"Lola, counter with Jump Kick." I called. The brown bunny was up and moving before I could even finish my sentence. The Sneasel ran forward, arms flailing as he moved to cut Lola to ribbons. She dodged under his claws and kicked out faster than I could see. The dual ice/dark-type didn't stand a chance, sliding back to its masters feet.

"Hmph. You seem to be more powerful than I expected." Cyrus droned, returning the fallen Sneasel. "But how will you answer this?" he asked, sending out a Golbat and a Murkrow. Lola stepped back defensively, ready to fend off both opponents. Before she could, a flash of blue moved past and Mufasa leaped up, fangs bared and sparking in a Thunder Fang attack. The Golbat panicked, sending a Supersonic blast at the electric-type, but in his fear he missed. Mufasa clamped down on a wing, shocking the bat into unconsciousness.

Spitting the bat out, Mufasa moved to attack the Murkrow. The bird didn't even try to move out of the way, sounding alarm bells in my head. "Mufasa, wait!" I cried, to late. He bit down on the Murkrows wing, but hit nothing. The bird faded into black energy, which wrapped itself around Mufasas body, draining his energy. He fell to the ground, hurt pretty badly as the Murkrow flew out from behind a pillar.

"Night Shade, a nasty attack." Cyrus explained.

I scoffed at him. "What, do you think one lame attack like that is going to take Mufasa out of the fight?" I asked. On cue, Mufasa jumped back up into the air, snatching the real Murkrow in his jaws. The dark-type squawked in surprise before being shocked just like the Golbat. Mufasa dropped his defeated foe on the floor and roared, the sound deafening in the cavern. "Jeez, Mufasa! You want me to go deaf?" Lola yelped, hands trying to cover her huge ears.

Cyrus seemed unfazed by the show of dominance. "It seems you are what you appear to be." he said, recalling his pokemon. He turned his gaze back to Granny Shirona. "You said that the three Beings hold the key to releasing the Guardians? That matches what I read as well. But it seems you're missing a piece of the legend."

"Oh? And what is that?" Granny asked, not even remotely fazed by the battle that had just taken place.

Cyrus turned his back, walking towards the exit. "That only one of the champions can retrieve the keys. Goodbye."

"Like I'm going to let you leave!" I roared. Mufasa charged forward, fangs coated in electricity. Suddenly smoke filled the entrance, obscuring Cyrus from view. Mufasa skid to a stop, growling in anger. "Shit." I cursed, running into the smoke. I burst out of the exit and saw a helicopter sailing away, already out of reach.

"Nick!" someone called. I looked around before a shadow passed overhead. Glancing up, I saw a Togekiss coming in for a landing. Clutched in its talons was Cynthia, who easily landed a few feet away, the flying-type pokemon roosting not far behind her. "What happened? I heard something about a bomb and Team Galactic, I came as fast as I could!"

"It's quite alright Cynthia." Granny Shirona called, walking out of the cave behind me. "This young man you sent managed to scare them off. Even beat their leader apparently."

Cynthia's eyes widened. "Cyrus was here!? This is a lot worse than I thought."

"Wait, you know him?" I asked.

Cynthia brushed the question off. "Look, Nick, thanks for protecting the town. Ever since the Great Marsh thing, people have been a lot more careful around Team Galactic. Some surveillance footage from Veilstone showed that they've been kidnapping pokemon. There's an ongoing investigation, but Cyrus was supposed to have disappeared, according to their HQ." She sighed looking around. "I don't know what they're up to, but it can't be anything good."

"Well, thanks for that enlightening conversation, but I have to go." I muttered, walking away.

"Hold on one moment dear, I've got something for you." Granny Shirona piped up. She reached into a pocket and produced a HM. "Here, something I'm sure you'll find useful in your travels."

I thanked her, pocketing the HM before recalling Mufasa and Lola. I sent Moka out and the Golbat perched on my shoulders. "Let's get back to Solaceon Town. I've got someone to see." I ordered.

A few hours later, I was at the top floor of the Lost Tower, looking at a fresh grave. I scrawled a note out on an index card and slid it into the slot on the tombstone.

Here lies Sora the Staraptor.

May you soar through the sky,

forever above the clouds.