A Maiden's Voyage

Chapter 9: The Collapsed Bridge

I set off from Eterna City that afternoon, after winning my gym battle and after that awkward moment with Medgar. Everything seemed to be in order except I didn't know he was actually gay. Rotom floated nearby and was confused when I had told him about it, but Rotom didn't care we were just psyched to have won another badge. In place of a bike path that used to be here, the bridge had collapsed long ago. I looked all the way across to where the bridge would have connected to a building, but now there was just a large expanse of land and a huge mess of rubble on the ground below. A staircase lowered us to the ground level and the first thing to my left was a cave I did not feel like exploring.

The Wayward Cave was a place people go to find new pokemon, and to train their partners. I don't know about Rotom but I wasn't feeling like going through some rotting cave after what we had just gone through. Apparently, a section of the cave was gone forever because of the collapsed bridge and Medgar warned me not to disturb any of the pokemon or people here because this was where the undesirables roamed. There were people who committed heinous crimes against Team Galactic and were deemed unsafe in the protection of Eterna City. Not even the homeless shelter could protect them from being cracked down by the Galactics. They flourished in this land because Team Galactic is unable to track them down. They would just hide among the rubble or run off into the mountains, never to be seen again.

These so called separatists wanted nothing more than to find a home in Society Sinnoh, but the Society has strict laws on immigrants from Galactic Sinnoh. Most don't ever make it in and there's a tough checkpoint near Floaroma and the northern gate of Oreburgh that ensure nobody from Galactic Sinnoh could sneak in. I remember hearing about it in the news that two bodies were found near the gates of Oreburgh, shot down by the Society who identified to be "Galactic Terrorists" when we all knew that wasn't true. They were probably trying to escape the desolation of Team Galactic's reign only to find solace in their deaths.

We walked through grassy plains, avoiding debris that had never been cleared up and even passing by some thugs who were gathered around a flaming garbage can performing some sort of demonic ritual. I noticed Rotom was looking at them with partial animosity, but Rotom and I kept walking and maintained our distance as we nearly avoided a poor confrontation with those thugs. Later up ahead, I could see up ahead a trainer practicing with a Buizel. He and his Buizel were working out in a clearing behind some trees and I could see the blue tracksuit he wore as well as the colorful body of his pokemon. Rotom and I passed by them without a seconds hesitation as we began descending on stairs that led upward. The trainer said something to his Buizel that I heard from behind us, and without turning around I climbed more of the stairs.

Mt. Coronet was only a short distance away and Medgar warned me to avoid sharp rocks and the water where dangerous pokemon lurked. He said the path leading to Hearthome City would be quick and painless and I took his word on it with a smile. The feeling of getting to travel back to Society Sinnoh made me warm on the inside because after the hostile interaction I had with Team Galactic, I'm happy to return to the Society.

Rotom turned to me as we were walking and we started talking about what had just befallen us back in Eterna. After the awkward moment with Medgar had been dealt with, I told him there wasn't anything for me to do in this city any longer.

"You don't wanna stay and I could show you around some more?" He said looking at me with blue eyes that held my attention right where I stood in his living room. Rotom and I looked at each other and agreed telepathically that this place wasn't for us and Hearthome awaited us. I did, however, see the spirit the resided in Medgar's eyes which ignited a spark in my soul that forced me to give into his request.

I wasn't sure why but this thing inside me has been telling me that this person, Medgar, the Grass Gym Leader was alright, that he was someone I should hold on to. I also felt this way with that goth girl with the Gengar that took down Rotom with a single Shadow Ball. These people just felt, I don't know, different and their magnetic personalities intrigued me as I trekked through Sinnoh. I was never exposed to such people back in my calm town. My friends back at home just felt warm and normal as opposed to here where I felt different from everybody else. Rotom was my reminder of home and a little bit of me felt uneasy when all the time. The rest of me felt right at home.

"We really should be going, Medgar, but I'll give you time of day. Before we leave do you take us to the homeless shelter and say goodbye to everyone?" Rotom bounced in the air happily and Medgar was obliged to take us there one last time. I walked beside him and my Electric pokemon as we wandered through the city streets as it seemed like I wouldn't be back to this place in a long time. A couple walking by us waved at Medgar and I as Medgar looked with his blue eyes at the homeless shelter on the other side of the street while we walked. We seemed to talk what seemed like an infinite number of words before we got to the quiet establishment. I talked to him about what he'd do in his next gym challenge and he talked to me about doing things different with his Shiftry so that a Dusknoir doesn't completely annihilate his strategy.

"I hate saying this but you know how I told you about Dusknoir's old trainer?" I looked onward. Medgar turned his head to me as we continued walking.

"Yeah?"

"I think this Dusknoir learned a lot of crazy battle strategies from that trainer and remembered them during our battle." I looked down.

"That's awesome, what are you saying?" Medgar looked at me excitedly with his blue eyes and I wondered why he was so happy. I would feel shame if I lost to a small challenger from another world, but Medgar was feeling joy and delight in being around me. A wave of realization hit me that I was being really selfish and tried removing that from our conversation.

"I wouldn't have won, that's all."

"On the contrary, Aria. You told me that Dusknoir hasn't had a trainer in decades."

"Right."

"So you must be such a great trainer that the Dusknoir remembered his adventures with his former trainer and remembered some useful moves from all those years ago." I laughed and put my hand on Medgar's shoulder. He smiled and shook his head at me and Rotom just stared at us like we were peasants as he floated near us while we walked.

"I'm serious." He said trying to pull the smile from his face, but being unable to do so.

"Pokemon develop a serious connection with their trainers and even though Dusknoir's former trainer... you know... died... he saw you as a worthy trainer and you took him in. He trusts you and would do anything for you because you saved him." He looked at me seriously now, his smile was gone. I nodded and looked onward. Rotom blinked at me, then looked at Medgar but still floated onward, unaffected by the moment that had just taken place. The shelter was in sight now and the three of us walked nearer to it.

"Rotom and I would do anything for each other, that much I know. There's a bond between us that I can't ever feel with anyone else. Like our spirits are bound together forever. I would give my life for him in a heartbeat and I know he would do the same." I looked my Ghost pokemon and we smiled at each other. Medgar approached the doors to the shelter and an eerie wind blew through us as it entered the quiet homeless facility. I could tell on Medgar's face that something was amiss.

"Mrs. Lewis isn't at the front desk." Medgar inquired. Mrs. Lewis was the woman in charge of the shelter and provided safe protection of all its recipients. The front room of the shelter had just her desk in the front. Her things: her computer, files, notebooks, pencils, erasers, staplers were all intact but she was nowhere to be found. Medgar and I walked into the dining hall and were in shock at the scene. The whole room was in disarray, tables broken in half, debris everywhere and no people in sight.

"Is anybody here?" Medgar said to the room where Rotom and I were looking at the room. We were horrified when we heard a faint whimpering sound coming from a pile of debris near the exit. Upon further inspection it was my acquaintance Old Mags, cowering behind the garbage.

"Oh. I thought you were Team Galactic." She rose up from the ground with trouble. Her hands were trembling and I could see her face was pale and her voice was shaky.

"Team Galactic did this?" I said with power. I couldn't believe they'd attack this peaceful place. It's their fault people are impoverished because of their protection fee, but attacking the defenseless people infuriates me.

"We're gonna go have a word with the Galactics." I looked at Medgar who nodded. "Mags, is everyone else safe?"

"No. The people in spacesuits came in and nabbed them all good. They used their pokemon to destroy the place and I think they were headed to the Galactic Headquarters building near the wall."

Medgar took Mags to his house and told her to remain put. I got a head start on the Galactic building. Medgar said the headquarters was located underneath Commander Jupiter's study. I knew exactly what that looked like and went onward. I ran through the city until I was running on a sandy surface and the huge barricade was before me. Geraldine's private building was on a higher elevation than the ground I was at, so I had to ascend the sandy surface. Rotom and I followed the very steep trail up towards Jupiter's private quarters when I looked back and saw the rising city behind me. If it weren't for the crisis at hand, I would've stopped to marvel at the beauty of the skyline. Below us on the sandy ground, a grunt yelled after us. His Croagunk ran very quickly up the sandy slope and I was forced to stop and battle it before it could attack us with its poisonous fingertips.

"Stop there!" He shouted after me. Rotom turned around mid-float and used a Discharge on both the Croagunk and its trainer and they tumbled down the sandy slope, only to stop when they both struck a barrier.

The entrance to the place was desolate. I couldn't get the door open and had Rotom use another Discharge to blast open the door. Two more Galactics inside where startled and sprang into action. Two Carnivine flew out from the door before me and attacked us. Rotom used an Ominous Wind to blow them away and used a Discharge on one of the Grass pokemon. The other Carnivine appeared in front of me and prepared to use a Bite on me. I backed up, unable to protect myself while Rotom dealt with the other Carnivine when a shadowy body emerged out of nowhere and struck the Carnivine with its body. I identified the pokemon as Medgar's Shiftry.

I looked around but couldn't find Medgar so I asked his Shiftry where he was and his pokemon pointed back to the city. Medgar was on his way but thought I could use some help. I can help myself.

Rotom fried the other Carnivine so the three of us ran in, the Grunts were on hiding from us now and I looked for a door that wasn't there.

"One of you open the door! Now!" I yelled. One of the scared grunts got off the ground looking frightfully at Shiftry and pushed a button underneath the table, opening a staircase on the floor. I had Medgar's Shiftry and my Dusknoir keep an eye on these Grunts until Medgar came back. Rotom and I descended the dark staircase and I used Rotom's light to illuminate the way until he turned a corner. When I turned the same corner we were met with a brightened, metallic headquarters with some Grunts working. I ran down the rest of the stairs with Rotom and ducked behind a large computer when two talking grunts passed by us not noticing we had entered their sanctuary.

We ran down the metallic floor and as the grunts were busily working on computers near the side wall, I ran past them, avoiding anyone at all costs. When we came to the door it opened automatically and we continued running. However we ran into my favorite Galactic operative, Murphy Varin. He was startled when I ran into him and then his face grew hot with frustration.

"It's you." He said angrily. He ran for the door but Rotom zapped him. Then he turned around, winced in pain and released a pokemon from his pokeball.

"So you wanna play like that?" Varin stared at me. Varin unleashed a vile Swalot that oozed as soon as I appeared from its pokeball. Swalot looked at Rotom and voraciously grinned at Rotom, as though he was to become Swalot's next meal. I ordered Rotom to use a Discharge and it struck the Swalot dead center in the belly, but the Swalot looked almost unharmed.

"You pitiful little child. Swalot, use a Sludge Bomb and show them oblivion!" Varin roared. His Swalot puffed up its stomach and prepared to blast myself and Rotom with a deadly Sludge Bomb attack. Of course Rotom wouldn't be affected by poison because he's a Ghost-type but I'm not so lucky. I backed away again and this time there was no Shiftry to save me. The Swalot unleashed a massive load of poisonous material at me while Rotom desperately tried to shield me with his own body, most of the poison went through him and splattered on the floor near me. I jumped out of the way before most of the poison could hurt me, but some did splash on me and it burned to the touch. When I tried getting it off me it just spread to my hands and burned even more. I winced with pain and fell on my knees. The ooze leaked near me and I flinched with pain as I crawled away from the liquid poison.

"Rotom..." I said with great difficulty. I coughed, unable to utter words because the burning feeling was so mighty. "Use Ominous Wind." Rotom obeyed without question and Varin and his Swalot were blasted back, through the automatic door and into the lab smashing things as they flew along. Then Rotom floated to me, trying to coax me back up. I looked into the laboratory and saw the grunts gathered around their lieutenant and as the door closed, I gasped again because of the brutal burns I had sustained.

"I can't. It hurts too much." I wept. My body was in complete pain.

"This is not good. What'll we do?" Rotom became supremely tense when he saw I began to cry a little. When two grunts ran into the hallway we were in, Rotom used a Discharge on both their pokemon and they ran back into their lab, unsuccessful.

"I will protect you, no matter what. They will have to bind my spirit to a boulder before I'll let them get to you." I released a painful laugh followed by more waves of agonizing burns.

"You need to go find Dusknoir get help, Rotom." I looked at him. His back was to me and I saw his electric shoulders were tense as he waited for more grunts and their pokemon. Rotom was my hero and protected me with his life. I almost could reach out to him with my arm if it hadn't been burning like I had just come out a kindling furnace.

"That's not happening. I refuse to leave your side."

"Please. I'm not able to fight anymore I need to get out of here." Rotom turned to me as I said this. He was so conflicted at this moment, I almost felt sorry for him if it hadn't been the torment I was undergoing. If he stayed and protected me, I would suffer more, but if he left and went to get help I would be further endangered when in my weakened state and alone.

"Aria. I don't know about this." Just as he said this, the automatic doors opened Shiftry and Dusknoir bolted through, into the hallway where Rotom and I were. Behind them Medgar ran and his blue eyes broke open when he saw my condition. He ran up to me and I shooed him away.

"Medgar no, there's poison all over me and you'll get burned if you touch me." I coughed and flinched again in agonizing pain. I moaned and toppled to my side, when I heard Medgar release a pokemon. Shiftry, Rotom and Dusknoir all watched as Medgar's Roselia waddled up to me.

"Aromatherapy, quickly, please!" Medgar said to his Roselia when he spread out his twin roses and showered me with glittering powder. My pain had subsided and I felt no more the effects of the poison. Rotom regained color in his face when Medgar helped me sit up and I didn't wince from the damage, but that feeling was forever branded into my skull. I would never forget the pain I had just felt. Once something like that happens to you. It becomes a scar on your body, whether physical or mental. I possessed both types. Thinking about this made me tear up even more and Medgar just sat next to me, amid the chaos around us.

"I dealt with all the grunts back in there. Your Dusknoir was invaluable to us getting here, you know." He smiled and wiped a tear from my cheek. I looked up at Dusknoir as he modestly put his hand behind his head and his yellow belly chuckled. Rotom also smiled at me and floated happily again when I laughed a little, too. Life returned to me when I could see my pokemon were happy and I realized we weren't finished here.

"We need to go." I said getting up. Medgar pulled on my leg, to regress. He said in my weakened state I wasn't fit to conduct anymore battles.

"What about the people Team Galactic kidnapped?" Medgar this isn't the time to argue now let's go, I pulled his arm and he sprang up. We avoided the sludge, flowing next to us as we ran through the long narrow hallway which felt like we were running through an eternity until the six of us reached another automatic door, this time to a huge room lined with cells full of people. They were all people I knew and some of them I didn't even recognize. A small group of grunts noticed us and ran at us with their pokemon. In a matter of seconds a Houndour, Keckleon, Hypno and Cloyster were facing all of our pokemon.

"Roselia, use Giga Drain." Roselia ran after the Cloyster and drained it of its energy. I asked Dusknoir to use a Shadow Punch on the Hypno. Then a huge battle ensued between a total of eight pokemon and six trainers. The entire room was silent except for the grunting pokemon and the words of a command everywhere seconds, overlapping. A Tri-Attack had nearly missed Rotom and it used an Ominous Wind on the pokemon. A Keckleon ran through Rotom's attack and used a Mega Punch on Medgar's Shiftry, who immediately used a Faint Attack and knocked the chameleon pokemon back.

"Hypno, use Psychic!" A Galactic Grunt called from behind another, cowering. His Hypno raised its hypnotic tool and looked at Medgar's Roselia, but before any attack could be used, Dusknoir used another Shadow Punch and the Hypno fell over, faint. The Houndour barked and sprang at Dusknoir, but Shiftry struck it down with its leafy hands and used another Faint Attack followed by a Leaf Tornado.

We all stood in silence as the faint pokemon were retreated back into their pokeballs and the four grunts ran away through the entrance we had come from in panic. I looked to the prisoners and saw many old and many sickly from the harsh treatments these fiends had done unto them.

"Over there!" Medgar pointed. We all ran after him and stopped before a cage. Inside of it was a woman who was hunched over, crying into her hands. Medgar tried to shake the woman back to reality and she immediately regained life when she saw Medgar.

"Mrs. Lewis!" Medgar gripped the bars of the cage. We all stepped back as Shiftry sliced through the bars, as though they were bread and Mrs. Lewis got up from her spot and ran over to us. She told us of how the Galactic grunts came into the shelter seeking more money from them. The shelter wasn't paying dues to Team Galactic and they were "forced" to take precautions and arrest the people inside.

Medgar and I looked at each other, before running in completely opposite directions, liberating people from cages with our Ghost and Grass pokemon. I saw his Roselia behind me slice through metal bars and an old man was elated to be free. I freed many people with the help of Dusknoir's fiery punches and it didn't take us too long before everyone in the dungeon was freed. Medgar and I rounded up all the people in a small group of bodies and looked around the rest of the room. There was another door leading further into the fortification. Medgar asked Mrs. Lewis if she knew where that door led and the only thing she told us was that a dark-skinned woman had gone through that door after spitting into her cage.

After some persuasion, I got Medgar to lead the freed prisoners to the city in a huge march of freedom while I pursued Commander Jupiter. Dusknoir, Rotom and I ran past empty cages and reached the bolted door. Dusknoir was able to break through the door and we came into a smaller room where three more grunts got up and had minds to attack us.

"Don't." A familiar, female voice was heard. I looked to the center of the room and behind a chair, I could see the the top of a head that sported long curly, brown hair. The woman was typing something on the large computer in front of her and stopped. She turned herself to face me and once again I was acquainted with the make-up stained face of Geraldine Swan, better known as Commander Jupiter.

"Aria." She smiled and stood looking at me. She walked down three steps so that she was directly in front of me and held up her arm as the grunts vacated the room for us. At this time I was sensing a battle would take place.

"We can't forgive you for what you've done today, you know that?" She crossed her arms.

"I've had it with you Galactics. I've gone through enough to have to clean up the mess you've caused." I stepped closer to her and spat my words like daggers aimed at Geraldine's colorful face.

"Oh I was watching you when that Sludge Bomb infected you, Aria. It made my coffee taste better when you were crying on the floor." She cackled. Rotom and Dusknoir tensed up when she was laughing and I narrowed my eyes in hatred when she stopped and stared straight at us.

"Today isn't the day that we fight, Aria. But you can bet your little Ghost pokemon that later one when we next meet that I will take you down myself. You will regret coming into this place and making Team Galactic look like a bunch of fools. You will not interfere with our goals. We are at war for crying out loud and you, a mere child thinks she can meddle with the affairs with adults? The insolence." She still crossed her arms, but her ferocious smile changed into an ugly frown that held my pokemon and I still.

"How about I show you what my pokemon can do, Jupiter." I said to her. Rotom floated before me and I could already tell he was about to use a Discharge on the woman.

"Are you still calling me that? Only the newly chosen baby grunts call me by that name. It's because I fill the position of a woman from long ago." She said, still looking at me. I told her I didn't care and she just nodded her head at me. Rotom floated a little closer before releasing a dazzling blue light that was about to strike Geraldine.

Almost an instant before it could hit her, a huge boulder-shaped rock fell from the ceiling and cracked the ground where it had dropped. The rock sprouted arms and I discovered, to my horror that the rock was a pokemon. The Discharge attack was just absorbed into the Pokemon's back and it jumped from its position back into the burrow it was nesting in. Geraldine was gone as well. My pokemon and I ran over to the spot she was standing in and we saw the faint light of a glimmering sun as the hole from which we were looking at it shined down to us as we stood in the basement watching it.

Medgar and I spent the next hour or so relocating people back to their homes and helped clean up the shelter with Mrs. Lewis. When things looked where they should be, we left the establishment and Medgar asked why I looked so uneasy.

"I hate that woman with a burning passion." I said not looking at him or his blue eyes. When he asked who I told him about my second confrontation with Geraldine Swan. He nodded when I told him about the burly pokemon whose image I couldn't make any sense of but Medgar told me that pokemon must have been a Ground-type because of how it absorbed the Electric attack.

"I still can't believe they had the audacity to do that to their own citizens." I looked at Medgar who also shook his head at the ground, sporting a serious frown.

"They've committed a heinous crime today. It's my responsibility as Gym Leader to protect these people from harm. Team Galactic is supposed to me policing the rules of the city, not punishing those who don't pay their protection fees." Medgar continued shaking his head. We kept walking and I just talked to him about our experience in that rat hole. I talked for a few seconds about the treacherous poison that befell me and thanked Medgar again for being there to save me. If Medgar wasn't there I don't know what we would've done.

It was twelve o'clock to the minute when I left Eterna City. Medgar walked me to the building that once held many people excited to ride their bicycles down the newly constructed bridge. He told me that the view is still breath-taking but sad to look at. The bridge was in millions of pieces on the ground below but you could still see the other building connecting to city to a route the led one way to Oreburgh City and another way to Mt. Coronet.

Medgar warned me about the people I might find down there who were evading Team Galactic. Medgar said some of the people we liberated would return to the cold, unsafe refuge of the collapsed bridge as their only solace. Those people were true criminals but there was no way I would be able to tell so we just rescued them all. I was embarrassed to hear that I had unleashed criminals into the city and also realized that Team Galactic was doing something right, by keeping them out of the city.

Most of the criminals lived in packs in the valley created by the collapsed bridge in homeless groups that fended for themselves. At least in the shelter people had a nice play to stay that provided warmth and food unlike the harsh cold environment of the valley, despite the season of summer.

We hugged for a long time and I said to the back of his head that I would definitely return to visit. He told me that he would be keeping a closer eye on the activities of Team Galactic and he would increase his responsibility as Gym Leader to protecting the people of his city.

"Stay on the ground, though okay?" I said looking at his tantalizing blue eyes. He smiled at me and sent me off to the wasteland following Eterna City's modern appearance.

Rotom and I walked on the trail away from Eterna City and saw down a large hill, the bustling city of Oreburgh. I saw the gates with Society guards patrolling them with pokemon next to them, dressed in Society garb. I turned away from the familiar environment and looked up at the peaks of snowy mountains. Rotom and I identified the biggest one, Mt. Coronet and we approached a cave. The cave itself wasn't too bad to get through. Medgar told me to avoid the water inside the cave and pursue the quick trail between the rocky steps. I climbed over some uneven rocky surfaces but I was able to find the other side of the cave with ease.

Inside the cave, there was bountiful light and I saw a single Crobat nesting on a ledge, sleeping soundly. I also saw a family of Geodude and a Golem keeping them safe with its round body up top on a section of the cave I would have to have used the rocky steps to reach. Rotom and I talked a little when we were navigating the rocks to reach the end of the small cave and I was really excited to be back home in Society Sinnoh.

"It's not like we're home or anything." Rotom said, not looking at me but floating around stalactites that reached like claws from the tall ceiling above.

"It definitely beats being in that hellhole." I said. "I'm kind of excited to be around people that will treat me respectfully unlike that grunt who shot me with a Sludge Bomb."

"Yeah." Rotom said as we crossed that last rock keeping us from the end of the cave.