Chapter 17: Justin

We split up, Maria went one direction with her Magmar, Ace went another with her Flareon, and I turned down the dark path where I was supposed to go with Ace's Amphardos, since I didn't have a Pokémon to light up the path for me. "Well, let's go, Amphardos."

He ran around me, went ahead, stopped to look at something and fell behind, but was overall a perfectly well-behaved Pokémon. I called out, "Dialga! Palkia!", making myself look like a complete idiot. If I were in a movie, I was sure some half-witted guy would be screaming, "SOMETHING'S GONNA JUMP OUT!" repeatedly in the movie theater while everyone else covered their eyes and braced themselves. Sure enough, I heard a roar and froze. Minutes later, Ace and Maria Force-jumped next to me, Flareon in Ace's arms and Magmar, I assumed, was safely tucked away in its Pokéball.

Ace turned to me. "Was that was one of them?"

"It might have been," I responded.

The forest shuddered and two giant forms extended to the sky.

"Yep, that's Dialga and Palkia." Maria sounded terrified and Magmar popped out of its Pokéball. I noticed it jumped in front of us. Flareon bounded after it, growling; and Amphardos hurried over too. I realized they were trying to protect us, but none of them had ever acted like that before. These guys were major threats to them especially since one head reared back and proceeded to attack us with its fire-like breath.

"Magmar! Get back!" Magmar's Pokéball flew into Maria's hand, but Magmar repeatedly dodged the red light, growling in an attempt to get its trainer to cooperate.

"Flareon, use flamethrower!" Ace called.

Maria screamed "NO!", and froze Flareon with Gardevoir's psychic. "We're not supposed to make them mad!"

"They're already mad at us! It's self-defense!" Ace said angrily. "Now let my Flareon go!"

The ground shook. "Don't move a step," Maria warned. "You could end up in another region or another time."

Suddenly, an attack slammed into Amphardos. It jumped quickly up, anger in its eyes.

"Amphardos, thunder!"

In the flash of lightning, I saw the two giants: one blue, the other pinkish. It had missed, but a tree was hit and fell burning to the ground. I could see a new Smokey the Bear poster: "Always be careful when playing with your electric-type Pokémon, kids!" and "Make sure you have a water Pokémon on hand at all times when playing in the forest with your favorite fire-type!"

"Okay, try signal beam this time!"

Maria jumped up, and deflected the attack with the Force. "Seriously, Ace?"

She blocked another attack from the giants. "EVERYONE STOP FIGHTING!"

Nothing happened, and Maria had to try to block an attack that shot her backwards with its power. She flew back on the Force.

Finally, she shouted something like, "Eka fricai!" Immediately, everything became still. I wasn't sure I'd heard her correctly, but I was certain that wasn't English. The giants took careful steps forward and Ace tensed beside me, but Maria just smiled and petted their heads.

"It's okay, I'm sorry we startled you," Maria said. "Yes, of course we'll put out the flames. Come on Vaporeon!"

The little Vaporeon hung onto Maria's arms for dear life as she descended into the forest fire.

I turned to Ace. "We'd better go help."

She nodded quietly. I ran over to the fire, but as soon as Ace moved, Palkia growled. She gulped and stepped back into place, and they were quiet. "I think I have to stay here. Go help Maria as best as you can. Here, take Dragonite and Dewgong. They can help put the fire out."

I caught her Pokémon, and thanked her before running off. I told myself to always be more polite to everything, because I never wanted to end up in her situation.

Maria was handling the firefighting job well. Vaporeon blasted the bases of the flames with hydro pump, Onix used rock throw to suffocate them, and Gardevoir used psychic to move dirt, rocks, and extra water onto the fire. Maria had even put herself to work, using the Force to move rocks.

I quickly let out Ace's Pokémon, telling them to use aqua tail; then my Tentacruel would switch between hydro pump and water pulse so it wouldn't tire out too quickly. I joined Maria with the Force, wordlessly lightening her load. In five minutes, we were done.

"Good job…guys…" Maria sank to the ground in exhaustion. All the Pokémon crashed as well, so I spent a lot of time trying to find the correct Pokéballs for all her Pokémon. I helped Maria up and she thanked me. We Force-jumped into the air, back toward Ace, Dialga, and Palkia.

When I reached them, I sustained my height with the Force, as Maria had been doing before. It was incredibly hard, and I had no idea how she'd done it and talked at the same time. Needless to say, I left the talking to her.

"We stopped the fire. I'm very sorry about the accident." She paused, like they were talking to her, then said, "Yes, we're the Jedi trainees. You two kind of startled us back there. We had been attacked by a Sith fire master before, so we were definitely scared when you showed up. Our time training here is up, but we liked it. Your help in getting us home would be appreciated." Dialga snorted a remark, and Palkia grunted in approval. "No, she would have to come with us. It was truly an accident, and she's very sorry. Aren't you Ace?"

"I'm really sorry! I would have gone to help fix it, but you two wouldn't let me move, so I gave Justin my Pokémon instead. That was the most I could do without taking a step!" Ace yelled, loud enough to reach my ears clearly.

"See, she's sorry and she tried to fix the problem she created. Can you forgive her?"

The giants looked at each other, for a moment, and then seemed to shrug slightly.

"Thank you!" To me, she said, "They'll take us. They said to hold on to our little metal thing, and we can go."

I thanked them, and began to descend slowly.

"Hey, you'd better not forget about us!" Red, Blue, and Yellow emerged from a dark footpath led by Charizard. Palkia growled, and Maria said, "No, they're not coming with us."

"Here, take this to your Jedi Master, but don't look at it." Red told Ace. "If you do, they'll know."

"Okay…" She said, accepting the letter, then carefully moving to say her final goodbyes. Palkia and Dialga looked on without a sound.

I took Maria along to Blue, who quietly looked at us, saying nothing. Maria extended her hand. "Thank you for our training." I felt her consciousness touch his, but I didn't try to figure out what she said. Then he blushed, and suddenly, I really wanted to know. I looked into his mind, and he was thinking about some girl in a blue shirt and red skirt. Maria slapped my arm, and I lost focus. "What?"

"Say goodbye, you're being rude," she whispered. Then quieter, "I'll tell you what I said later."

"Uh… Thank you so much! Your training helped me improve a lot!"

"It better have," he said, but without the usual sting of his words.

We moved on, but when I looked back, he was genuinely smiling.

"Goodbye! Thank you for all your training, Red!" He accepted Maria's hand, saying, "Oh, just my job, you know?" I felt her consciousness barely tap his, and he looked at Yellow, blushing. When she looked up, he looked away, and both of them blushed a brighter red.

Well. That was obvious. "Thanks for everything, Red."

"You're welcome. And, um… Are you guys… together?"

"Uh… N-no, we're not…" Maria said, tensing and blushing furiously, and refusing to meet my eyes.

"Oh, um… Never mind then… sorry…"

I reached out and touched his consciousness. I thought it was my turn to say something, after all. Red looked at me and smiled. I really hoped Maria hadn't tapped into the link between Red's and my consciousness, because there was no way I'd have been able to detect her there and I didn't want her to know what I said. I looked down, and she questioned me with a glance. I smiled, and she rolled her eyes. I heard her speak in my head. "You tell me what you said to Red, I'll tell you what I said to Blue, Red, and what I'm going to say to Yellow."

Uh, oh… How was I going to get out of this?

We walked over to Yellow, and exchanged our goodbyes. Maria gently touched her consciousness, she blushed, looked at Red, and we moved back to join Ace with the metal triangle.

We all grabbed one handle of the metal triangle and Maria gave the two giant Pokemon a signal.

Dialga and Palkia roared loudly. I took one last look at our trainers. Blue stood a little off to the side, hands in pockets, still smiling. Red reached for Yellow's hand and held it, waving with his other hand. The area around us seemed to warp, and there we were, back in the Jedi temple with the other 24 trainees. We grinned at each other, thrilled that we had, at last completed phase one of our knighthood training.

Okay, guys. That's the end. I know it probably wasn't the most interesting thing you've ever read, and one of the worst endings, but honestly, I am done with this story. I have had very little motivation, and no readers ever reviewed to let me know how I was doing. To me, this feels like no one liked it enough to spend time reviewing it. Thank you for reading whatever you have, and please enjoy reading better-written stories by other writers. As for me, I am going to start a Pokemon Adventures story. Don't expect any chapters yet, I want to write as much of the story as I can while I have the motivation to do so myself. I hope you enjoyed your time here, and have a wonderful day filled with smiles!