Summary: Human turned Pokémon have suddenly started disappearing without explanation. Their teammates and loved ones are left to scramble about in worry and wonder as to where their missing friends may be. However, the arrival of Celine, a newly human turned Pokémon, suggests that the Pokémon world is in danger once again. As she sets out on her journey, she is blissfully unaware of the darkness that follows her and her team…
-x-x-x-x-
Chapter 19: The Tower of Geoma Part 1
- Before their trip -
Drexel folded his arms in front of him with fixed expression. He was staring at their new team base. It was larger than he had anticipated. It was a wooden, two-story house with plenty of windows to let in the light. There was a small garden growing in front of the house with a small pond not too far away. Hedges were placed along the pathway to the door. All in all, it looked like a really cool place.
Except for the mailbox.
He hated it.
It was a mini version of his head with a pull out tongue serving as the place where mail would go. There was a mini yellow flag on the right side. It was currently down since they had no mail, but it was only a matter of time before it was pointed upward.
He wore a glowering expression every time he looked at it. It looked absolutely ridiculous, but Aldous and Fiona liked it. They thought it was cool and unique. A clear picture of who led the team, or so they put it.
And that gave him more than enough of a reason to hate it.
He sighed and shook his head. He hadn't expected to wake up the next morning to find out that their base was finished. It wasn't like he'd be using it. After all, Team Invincible Hope would be traveling to the Tower of Geoma, then after that, they planned to help Team Cosmic with the fight against the Dark Army.
"Still glaring at the mailbox?" came a familiar voice. "If you keep staring at it like that, the pokémon around here are going to think you've lost it."
Drexel turned to see Fiona. She was no longer the floette, but a newly evolved florges. True to her word, she evolved when they got home. And boy, did she look beautiful! She smelled nice too, but Drexel planned to keep that bit of information to himself.
"I hate it," he grumbled, turning his glare back on the mailbox. "It looks out of place."
"I think it compliments it!"
"That's what you said about the pink ribbon you attached to my ear when I first got here too."
She chuckled at the fond memory. "Hey, it looked adorable on you!"
"Do you know how many pokémon questioned my sexuality when I entered Town Square with that thing on?" he asked, eying her from the corner of his eye. "They didn't believe me when I told them I was a male."
Fiona rolled her eyes. "Oh shush. They believed you soon enough, didn't they?"
"Yeah, but only after I removed the bow."
"Just another fond memory in the treasure chest," she said, looking at their base. "I hope we can fill it up some more."
He didn't say anything for a bit. He just stood there, thinking. All their memories, all the fights, and all the things they said to each other. They certainly did provide him with a good chuckle or two. But then he wondered: what would happen after their mission?
"Fiona, if I were to disappear, what would you do?" he asked without thinking.
She looked at him in surprise. She hadn't thought of that, nor did she really even think it was possible due to there being a bunch of other human turned pokémon. "Drexel? Whatever are you going on about? Why would you disappear when there are many human turned pokémon living here?"
"I'm just saying it as a theory."
"Well, in theory, I would be heartbroken. Life around here just wouldn't be the same without you. But…if you had no choice in the manner, and you had to disappear, then I'd make sure that your team would live on. I would make sure to spread your heroic's through our lands, and tell everyone that our team was created and led by a wonderful man." She smiled sadly.
"You don't need to do that," he said.
She shook her head. "No. I must. Remember the story I told you about concerning Vivian and Annabelle after they defeated Diagla? Well, I would do exactly that. I would tell everyone about the heroics of Team Invincible Hope, Team Solar Spiral, and Team Cosmic. Even if you aren't here, your heroics will live on."
"You're acting as if this will be my funeral," he chuckled, making her blush.
"Well excuse me for wanting to keep your legend alive!"
"I'm no legend, Fiona. I never will be. I'm just someone who was called down to stop another disaster from striking." He had an absent look in his eyes, as if he wasn't paying much attention to the conversation anymore. "What about Aldous?"
"What about him?" she asked.
"How do you think he would take my disappearance, or rather leaving?"
She eyed Drexel from the corner of her eyes. Just what was wrong with him? He never acted this soft, or show worry for others. He was always the type of guy who held it in, and didn't let others know what he was thinking. She felt bad for thinking it, but she believed that he didn't care too much about the other members of Team Hope.
With a sigh, she looked to the sky. "He would be heartbroken too. He likes you, you know. You're like an older brother to him. He's never had anyone else – besides me – who credited him on his genius. Thankfully, he would have a girl to keep his mind off of it."
Drexel chuckled. "Lizette, huh?"
"You know it's coming. Once he works up the nerve, those two will be married and have kittens. Goodness, I wonder what their kittens would be like! If they're energetic like their father, then poor Lizette will have such a disaster on her hands!" she laughed.
He chuckled along with her. Their laughter soon died down and it was back to silence. Drexel was staring off into the sky thoughtfully. Fiona, on the other hand, was watching him from the corner of her eyes.
She lifted a hand and grasped it around Drexels. He looked down at her curiously. "I don't know what's going through your mind to have such depressing thoughts, but please don't worry. You won't vanish. There are countless human turned pokémon among us. What's three more?"
He was about to answer when he heard a familiar high-pitched voice. "Oh dear Drexel!~"
He had to refrain from letting the annoyance show on his face as the pink legendary flew in front of him with a big smile on her face. "Good morning!" she chirped. "How are you?"
"How in the world are you so loud in the morning? No, in fact, how are you so energized in the morning?" he countered with a frown. "That's not normal."
Celebi tilted her head quizzically. "It's not? I guess I'm just a morningmon!"
While she was laughing at her own joke, Drexel was cringing. Do…not…make…a…snappy…comment… he told himself.
Fiona noticed the tick above his eye and smiled weakly. "Very funny, Celebi. But what do we owe the honor to have such a beautiful legendary in our presence?"
"Well, a couple of things," she said, checking out the base from where she floated. "First off I want to say congratulations on the new house! It looks adorable! Oh, and this mailbox is just divine!" she floated around the mailbox, admiring the craftsman work. Drexel, on the other hand, was back to his routine of glaring at it.
"And second off…" she reached into the small bag hanging around her and pulled out a map, "I came to give this to you."
As Drexel grabbed it and opened it to examine it, Celebi explained what it was. "It's a map to the Tower of Geoma. Strangely enough, it's not too far. A day and a half's walk, I say. I'm going to assume that there are bound to be a lot of strong pokémon there, so I would really stack up on items and the like. Also, do you remember the colors of the tower?"
"Yes. It was red, blue, and green, but not in that direct order."
"Good. Those are hints to what kind of terrain you'll be facing in there, especially with the pokémon. It should be pretty obvious – red for fire, blue for water, and green for earth. Remember to adjust yourselves accordingly," she said with a rare serious look on her face. "And most importantly, be careful."
He rolled his eyes. "Yes mom."
"I'm serious!" she said, flailing her arms around. "This is not a place to be taken lightly!"
"I'm aware of that," he countered.
"Is there anything else we should be cautious of?" Fiona asked.
Celebi tapped her chin in though. "I don't think so. I honestly can't tell you anymore than I have considering I've never really been inside the tower. Everything I've told you is a mixture of truth and assumptions."
Drexel didn't like the sound of that. He wanted to cold, hard facts. Just having assumptions wasn't good enough in his book.
Fiona bought it though. It was better than nothing, and in her opinion, they were logical guesses. "Thank you Celebi. We'll be off shortly. Where are you going?"
"I'm gonna give Team Solar their map and explanation too!" Celebi brightened. "Then after that… I'm not sure. I might go with my dearest Grovyle and Team Cosmic."
"Well, if you happen to find the place where the Dark Army is hiding, then please tell Celine that we said not to be rash. We will be there as soon as we can," Fiona said, looking determined to finish their mission.
The legendary nodded her head eagerly. "Will do! Bye bye!" She flew off once she was done with her good-byes.
"I don't know whose worse," Drexel grumbled. "Her or Aldous. Both of them are energetic."
Fiona snickered. "It's refreshing to have someone around with a lot of energy. Helps us stay on our toes!"
"I'm always on my toes," he remarked.
She stared at him wide-eyed. "Did you just make a joke?"
"I dunno."
"You did! Wasn't very funny though. You better keep reading into comedy," she chuckled at his blank expression.
She turned back to the house, briefly wondering what in the world Aldous was doing that was taking so long. "Was he serious about those books?"
Drexel was about to reply when Aldous came out of the base with a stretch. "Everything has been organized! My books have been stacked, my room is clean and neat, and I am ready to show off."
"Yep. He was serious."
"Aldous, we won't have the time to show off," she said, approaching him. He looked at her confusedly. "Celebi just visited us and gave us a map to the Tower of Geoma. It's best we make haste and leave shortly."
Aldous' eyes narrowed. "So, its already that time?"
Fiona nodded sadly, looking over to Drexel who also nodded. "I have no doubt that it will be difficult. We need to go to the storage facility and gather the items we need. And Aldous, this is not the time to visit your girlfriend."
"I wasn't going to say that," he said with a huff, "I was going to say that I would get the bag and we could leave now. After all, the quicker we finish, the quicker we can help Team Cosmic, right?"
Fiona nodded once more with a smile. "Yes. Alright, so this is what we're expecting…"
As she told Aldous everything she'd heard from Celebi, Drexel looked at the base once more. His thoughts from earlier were still bugging him. He'd heard that some pokémon returned to the human world, but what about him, Celine, and Rumi? Did they have to return? Or could they stay here?
He found himself scowling. He hardly remembered the human world. Why would he want to return? His human life must've not been that important if he didn't remember much more than his name, his humanity, and his age. But the voice of reason told him that it was most likely some form of spell intended to help him worry less about who he had been in the human world.
In the end it didn't matter, or so he thought. He was happy here in the pokémon world. He was content working with Fiona and Aldous and explore and/or rescue other pokémon that needed their help. He found a girl who he'd treasure dearly and a friend who, albeit crazy at times, he could count on when the going got tough. In his eyes, he was living the perfect life.
"Yo, frog breath!"
Drexel shot a glare down at Aldous who stared back at him with a huffy expression and both her hands on his hips. "Sheesh, daydreaming of your free time with Fiona already?"
"A-a-aldous!" Fiona cried out, blushing furiously.
"What?" he asked. "I know he likes you and I know you like him back! I'm just stating the obvious-"
"If you keep talking, then I promise you that you'll have a reason to fear me," Drexel snarled, immediately shutting the male meowstic up.
Aldous snorted and went into the base to retrieve a bag. With one last huff and a flick of his tails, he walked off into town.
"Where the heck is he going?" he asked.
"To retrieve the items needed for our mission," she said, a look of brooding in her eyes as she looked at him. "Weren't you listening?"
He shook his head. "No, sorry. I was thinking about something else. So, what are the plans here?"
Fiona just stared at him before releasing a sigh. "Aldous believes that it's logical to believe that there will be fire, water, and grass-types in the tower. Of course, he's thinking that they will be in their 'respected' section of the tower. Though he's not certain what level is first. He's planned according with berries and orbs, but we won't know what we're really facing until we get there. He'll be back within ten minutes though. Do you think that there is anything we should bring along?"
"We should be fine," he said. "If he's got the items, then there's nothing to worry about. The kids a genius when it comes to sectioning out what we need and don't need for the mission."
She nodded slowly and approached him. He watched her as she rested a hand on his wrist and on the mega bracelet. "We might have to use this… do you know if it has any side effects…? Are we even sure it'll work…?"
He shrugged. "Dunno. I'll be fine and you should be too." He looked at the florgesnite around her neck. "Jirachi wouldn't have given us this if she wasn't sure it would work and with no bad side effects."
She still didn't look all that convinced, but she wouldn't argue any further. They wouldn't know until they used it, and for better or for worse, she was hoping it wouldn't come to it.
After ten minutes, Aldous returned to the base with a bag full of items and orbs. Fiona was surprised to see how full it was and even asked him why it was that full. All he did was turn around and tell her that there was bound to be a lot of unexpected things happening, so he wanted to be prepared.
Fiona continued her protesting, saying that the bag looked far too heavy for him to be carrying. He argued that it was necessary and that he was fine. Back and forth they went, neither giving up.
"Okay, you two, knock it off," Drexel said, putting his hand on his hip.
Fiona frowned, but gave up. Aldous grumbled, but also gave up.
"Are we ready to get going?" he asked, looking off towards the forest.
"I'm all set!" Aldous chirped, puffing his chest out proudly. Fiona rolled her eyes, but nodded towards Drexel.
"Then let's get going," he said and began the long walk towards the Tower of Geoma.
-x-x-x-x-
Celebi was right. It only took them a day and a half to reach the place mentioned on the map. There was only one slight problem: it certainly didn't look like a tower.
Instead of there being a tower in front of them, as they had expected, it was just a plain, old grassy field. There were no noticeable towers, or anything remotely close to a tower in the area. And if they didn't know any better, there was nothing special about the place.
But Drexel did sense something. He couldn't put his finger on it though. He was standing in front of the team with his arms crossed and his eyes locked on the field. He knew for a fact that neither Fiona nor Aldous felt anything; otherwise they would have said something. Instead, however, Aldous was ranting.
Aldous collapsed next to Drexel dramatically. He was panting heavily from the weight of the bag current tossed to the side of the meowstic. "Sheesh," he groaned, "I carried all that weight for nothing?"
"I told you that you brought too much, but you wouldn't listen!" Fiona said, folding her arms strictly.
"You know, ever since you evolved, you've been annoying!" Aldous groaned, covering his ears in an attempt to drain out her voice.
She gasped a bit at the insult, but otherwise said nothing. She just glared at him with one of her eyebrows raised. Looking over to Drexel, she asked, "So now what?"
He didn't answer her right away. "I'm not so sure. It certainly feels off around here, but… I don't see anything off."
While he contemplated about the field and why it felt off, Aldous continued his ranting beside him. Drexel toned him out, still examining the field, leaving poor Fiona to listen to his endless supply of rants. He got to his feet and started pacing behind the ninja-like pokémon.
"There is absolutely nothing here! Celebi knows that time is of the essence, yet she sends us here? What the heck?! We don't have time to be frolicking around and enjoying the scenery! We could have been using this time to search for the real location of the tower! But no, instead we had to listen to some shiny legendary who clearly didn't know the real location of the Tower of Geoma!"
"Now, now, I'm sure there is a reason-"
"A reason for what?" he snapped, "Making us waste time? I thought she said that the future looked dire, yet she's playing games!"
"You don't know that!" she said. "The tower might be nearby, we just have to look for it!"
"I'm pretty sure that we would have noticed said tower! It's a tower, not some rinky dinky old house!"
Fiona was about to respond when Drexel spoke, "Unless it was hidden to prevent intruders from entering the place. Then anyone who is not aware of the tower just sees a plain field when in reality it's there."
Aldous furrowed his eyebrows together. "Well that is a possibility, but how in the world are we supposed to make it reveal itself? I thought that you being the chosen one and all would be enough!"
That's when the feline stopped in his tracks. His eyes locked on the mega bracelet around Drexel's wrist. "Unless there was an item that the chosen one needed in order to reveal the tower…"
He didn't waste time developing this new theory of this. He ran over to his friend's side and pointed towards the mega bracelet on Drexel's arm. "Stretch out that hand and point it towards the field. It might do something."
Drexel looked at him oddly, but complied.
What happened next surprised all of the members of Team Invincible Hope. The stone on the mega bracelet began to glow with a bright light, releasing a beam of light, which shot into the plains. The beam hit the center of another resonating stone floating high above the center of the plains. After a few minutes of nothing, the ground began to shake violently. Slowly the Tower of Geoma came into view, proving the male meowstics theory.
Once the tower was completely in view, the shaking stopped. A pathway from where the trio stood appeared and directed them to the entrance of the tower.
Fiona stood there gawking at the tower while Aldous tapped his chin, impressed with the display. "That's one heck of a security system. It's completely hidden from the naked eye unless someone has the 'key' to get in, or if you're a native of the tower, the knowledge of a secret pathway."
"It's just as I saw it in my dream," Drexel murmured, staring at the tower. The bottom of the tower was colored green, the middle being water, and the topmost portion of the tower being red.
"So our fight begins with grass-types," Aldous said with a calculating look, "Oh how joyous that'll be."
"After we complete the grass-type level, it should be smooth sailing from there, right?" Fiona asked.
Aldous shrugged. "That depends entirely on how strong the pokémon inside are. For all we know, it won't be smooth sailing at all."
"Jeez, thanks for the vote of confidence," she mumbled.
He looked at her with a deadpan expression. "Would you rather I sugarcoat everything instead?"
"No, but you could've said something along the lines of 'regardless of how strong the enemy is, we will persevere!'" she countered with a pout.
"Knock it off you two. Standing out here and discussing it won't get us anywhere. Let's move," he said, beginning the long march to the tower.
Aldous followed after him quickly. Fiona, however, lingered where she stood. For some indescribable reason, she had a bad feeling in her gut. Something was telling her that something bad was bound to happen while they were inside. That feeling along was enough to make the florges freeze in her spot.
"You coming or what?" Aldous called out to her.
"Y-yeah!" she said, hurrying after her teammates. Just have to stay on my toes is all, she thought worriedly. And be observant of our surrounding area.
-x-x-x-x-
- Tower of Geoma, Earth Level, Level 1 -
The tower was well lighted thankfully. The walls and floors were colored in various shades of green with floral life growing all over the place. There were even a couple of trees around the area, providing plenty of shelter for the enemy pokémon to hide in.
Currently, all three members of Team Invincible Hope were engaged in battle.
Drexel did a backflip to dodge one of his opponent's moves. He was currently facing off against a scolipede. The scolipede charged him, ramming its tail into Drexel. Drexel was able to block it with his arms, but he immediately felt sickly after. He knew that the attack had poisoned him, but that didn't stop him. Before the scolipede even had the time to turn, Drexel turned around and kicked the pokémon as hard as he could into the wall. He then charged the scolipede with his shadow-covered hand into the air. It took the shape of a three-fingered claw before he hurled it downward, slashing the scolipede and knocking it into unconscious.
Panting, he backed away from the downed pokémon and looked over to Aldous who was using his psychic ability to dodge each of his opponent's attacks. He was facing off against an infuriated simisage. It was obvious that the money-like pokémon was growing even more furious with each attack that missed and the smug look written all over Aldous' face. He let out a loud shriek, making everyone who heard it wince. Aldous in particular, having sensitive ears, had to cover his ears to block out the shrill cry. This moment of carelessness was all the grass-type needed as it called down three hard-shelled seeds and watched as the attack knocked the psychic to the ground with a hard thud.
The simisage was about to end it when Drexel intervened with his hydro pump, sending the grass-type barreling into a nearby wall. Drexel rushed to the felines side and stood in front of him protectively as the simisage got back onto it's feet shakily.
"I…I can handle it!" Aldous said, getting back to his feet. He noticed that Drexel wasn't look too good and, assuming that he was poisoned, tossed him a Pecha berry before jumping back into the fight.
"Now I'm angry!" Aldous shouted as his ears straightened out to reveal two more eyes. The four eyes glowed simultaneously as he called upon his strong telekinetic power. What followed was the simisage being plucked off the ground and repeatedly slammed into the wall until it fainted. He released the fainted pokémon, panting from using so much of his psychic power.
"Watch out!" He looked over just in time to become wrapped tightly in a serperior's grip. He let out a sharp gasp; he could feel his air supply being cut.
"Aldous, brace yourself and Drexel get out of the way!" Fiona yelled, a ray of silver light engulfing the fairy-type pokémon. She pointed her hand in the direction of the serperior and released a strong ray of moonlight. It hit the grass-type square in the face, forcing him to release his grip on Aldous who fell to the ground. Drexel jumped in, grabbed the coughing feline, and narrowly dodged a swipe of the angry serperior. He tossed down a smoke pellet, immediately obscuring the grass-types sight.
Once the cloud of smoke disappeared, the serperior saw Fiona as she raised both of her hands up into the air and summoned a strange, but powerful wind that sent the pokémon flying down one of the hallways and into a wall. The sound of him slamming against the wall echoed in the tower.
The trio stood there for a moment, each of them trying to gather their breaths.
"Well," Aldous began, "that went well!"
Fiona gave him a look. "How are you feeling? You were literally crushed!"
Aldous raised one of his arms and grinned. "I'm dandy! But that moonblast attack of yours is getting stronger!"
She blushed at the compliment. "Thank you."
Drexel straightened himself out and looked around for the stairs, not seeing them that far off. He was partially listening to his teammates as they complimented each other's work. "We're not out of the woods yet," he said, causing the two pokémon to pause, "that was only round one."
Aldous walked up beside him and flashed him a confident smile. "If the enemies are only this tough, then we're gonna be just fine. So as long as we're working together nobody – not even the scums of the Dark Army – can get in our way!"
He watched as Aldous scurried off to the stairs and sighed, a small smile on his face. Fiona strolled up beside him. "How are you handling yourself?"
"Sore," he admitted, rubbing the spot where he'd been stung, "but I'm still in commission. What about you? You usually need a break after fighting."
"Not this time," she smiled happily. "After evolving I feel as if I have enough power to power through a whole monster house! Though I'm hoping we don't face off against one of those," she quickly added.
He chuckled and began walking towards the stairs with her by his side. "How many levels do you think this place has?"
She frowned. "Not sure. It is a mystery dungeon. It could have up to a hundred floors, but I'm hoping that we won't have that many here. But I've noticed a lot of places usually have up to twenty floors. Perhaps we'll have that."
"That sounds like a lot," he grumbled, not enjoying the prospect of having to travel through twenty floors.
Fiona giggled. "But who knows? We might only have three floors!"
"That's just wishful thinking and you know it."
She rolled her eyes and went on ahead after Aldous who was standing by the stairway and waving his hands. Drexel also picked up his speed and followed after his two teammates as they began climbing the stairs to the next level.
As you may have noticed, this chapter is filled with only Team Invincible Hope's journey. From here on out, I'll be separating the teams as they climb their respected towers and fulfill their missions. Each teams development from here on out is very important, as you will later see, and I thought it would be a good idea to show you their travels individually.
There will be little to no time lapse between the teams. Meaning while Team IH (Invincible Hope) climbs and conquers the Tower of Geoma, Team SS (Solar Spiral) is climbing the tower of Spirals, and so forth.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Also, happy 4th of July!