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 26: The Meeting
"So, your plea was accepted?" Zoroark asked the female meowstic when she burst into the room excitedly. She'd given the dark-type fox quite a start. He was just enjoying the silence when she came into the room babbling that their request was accepted.
She nodded eagerly. "Yep! He wanted us to bring the rest of the teams there. Do you think that you'll be able to get there?"
"It's not a trek up a mountain, is it?" he asked sarcastically. "We'll survive, Lizette. It's a small walk there. The trip to Mallowburn is longer."
"But you guys need more rest and stuff..." she trailed off.
He shook his head. "We're not incapacitated, Liz. We only have bruises. The only one who got a lot of injuries around here was Celebi, and even then she's a fast healer. And before you throw a fit," he started when he noticed how red her face was getting, "she's not coming. She vouched to stay behind to catch up on some more rest."
She released a grateful sigh. Zoroark turned to examine the other teams as they prepared themselves. "I don't see how this is something to get excited over." Lizette frowned and sighed. Her shoulders slumped.
"I'm sorry. I'm just happy that we won't be facing this alone. I'm glad that a chance was presented to us to get more help. We have a chance to make this mission a success and stop Zekrom. If they didn't accept it, then we would have been in major trouble. In our condition there is just no way-"
He raised a paw to stop her. "I know Liz, I know. I perfectly understand why you did it. I just hope that there will be pokémon willing to help us. Will you be speaking?"
She frowned, uncertain. She had no problem if she was expected to. While she wasn't necessarily a fan of speaking in front of large crowds, she would put up with it. It was her obligation to inform them of the dangers that lie ahead. After all, it had been her who sought their assistance in her mission to stop Zekrom, his army, and rescue the hybrids.
A brief thought of who would join their cause popped in her head. If there were any teams that had friends who were former humans and kidnapped, the chances of them joining would be very high. Perhaps there'll be pokémon with no connections to the humans there too. It was hard to tell, and quite frankly it didn't matter. They were rescue teams and rescue teams took their job seriously regardless of their background or reasonings.
She snuck a glance over to Aldous. Because of her psychic abilities, she was able to sense that he was just as nervous and worried as she was. The only difference was that he had a better grip on hiding his emotions. While she masked her nervousness with a cheerful and excitable front, he was acting no different from his normal, natural self. She found herself admiring that quality in him.
He was currently speaking with his team leader, laughing alongside Fiona. They were nervous too, she could tell, but for different reasons. Lizette could only guess it was a situation similar to Aiden and Celine. Drexel wouldn't admit it aloud, but she had a feeling he had a soft spot for the flower-fairy type in his heart. He was probably anxious of what would happen after the mission, and whether or not he would be able to stick around.
That's when it struck her. This would be their last mission, or at least for Celine, Drexel, and Rumi. Would they be forced to return to their human world? Or would they be able to stay? Her heart hoped for the latter of the two questions.
Her staring hadn't gone unnoticed. She caught Aldous looking straight back at her with a smile. She flushed, embarrassed to have been caught in her staring. She turned away from him in order to focus on something else. Don't worry so much, she heard his telepathic voice fill her head. The sensation was warming and comforting. Everything will be fine. I promise.
Lizette flashed him a weak smile. She wanted to believe in those words, she really did, but… there was a part of her that felt like not everything was going to be fine.
The sound of a door opening and closing caught everyone's attention. When Lizette turned to the entryway of the living room, she saw two pokémon. Both of their presences felt familiar, but neither of them looked familiar.
"Nova? Rumi?" she finally asked.
The two had different reactions. The altaria smiled weakly and nodded while the sylveon smirked and puffed out her chest proudly. "Yep! That would be us~"
Her change in demeanor had a few of the members in the room fairly concerned. Before she'd been this nervous, shy, and timid eevee. Now it seemed she was bursting with confidence. Which, in itself, really wasn't a bad thing. It was probably a result of her evolution.
Aiden was the first to notice that Rumi's shadow was nowhere to be found. "Where's Donte?"
She chuckled weakly. "Well, he's kinda big for the doorway and he didn't think breaking in through the door was such a good idea. So he voted to stay outside while we came in to check in with everyone. So what's up?"
"Congrats on the evolutions," Grovyle said, folding his arms. "You made it back just in time for a team meeting with the other teams at headquarters."
Her grin quickly fell from her face. "Team meeting? What happened?"
She got her answer when she noticed everyone giving each other a sorrowful look. There was a certain presence lacking. It only took her a few seconds to realize that Celine wasn't there among them. Her heart sank as the realization crawled its way into her brain. It all made sense now; that feeling she had experienced while they were at the tower had been pointing to this. It had been a sign that something terrible had happened.
Rumi took one look at her teammate. Besides a few scratches, Nova and Donte were okay. Rumi still had a slight limp, but it wasn't anything serious. On Donte's request, she had stayed on his back while they flew back. It gave her enough time to relax and let her paw heal.
Nova looked back to her leader. Her eyes said it all, and she had no doubt Donte would feel the same. The end was coming, and it was time. Things had spiraled out of control, and with Celine captured, it only made one thing certain: they needed to take action immediately. There was no time left to take a rest.
She glanced back to the waiting pokémon. She gave them a curt nod. "We'll be outside," she said. "I'll explain things to Donte and we will depart with you guys whenever you are ready."
Lizette offered a grateful smile. Rumi smiled back, and with one final nod, she left the room with Nova.
Now it was the feline's turn to look to the other pokémon in the room. "It's time to get going guys. We might be leaving tonight, early tomorrow morning, or in two days depending on how the others feel. So, with that in mind, be ready for anything."
-x-x-x-x-
The walk there was silent. Each of the members were holding their heads high, preparing themselves for the eventful meeting. With some luck, they would have teams willing to help. If not, then they would risk their safety to save the world. Lizette prayed it wouldn't be the latter.
When they entered the building, there were already several teams there. Griffin and Nora were already on the stage at the far end of the room. It was fairly large, used mostly for announcements and for occasions such as this. They nodded to Lizette and Aldous as they came up to the stage. Team PokéStars, Cosmic, Echo Hearts, Invincible Hope and Solar Spiral followed the two cat-like geniuses.
Griffin beckoned for Lizette and Aldous to stand behind him while Nora assigned the rest of the team to stand behind them. "Will you be announcing everything, or should we?" he asked
Aldous and Lizette exchanged looks. Lizette looked back determinedly. "We will. We were the ones that requested that this be set up, and it's only fair that we explain the severity of the situation to them." Her male counterpart nodded his head in agreement.
The shiny armored pokémon only smiled.
"You've gathered quite the crowd," Lizette said, surprised to see the room filling up fairly quickly. The male chesnaught chuckled.
"The situation called for all of local teams to attend."
Lizette and Aldous stared at him in shock. "What? All of the local teams are here?!"
"Griffin, it seems that we're ready," Nora said.
Griffin smirked to the sweat dropping, nervous Lizette. "Good luck! Just tap the mic there whenever you are ready to begin."
She reached out for him, stuttered slightly as he walked away. She paused and gulped when she turned to the large crowd standing before her. She could feel her instincts screaming for her to turn and run. If she were to be honest, all she wanted to do at that moment was to curl up into a ball and hide.
Gulping once more, she looked to Aldous for reassurance. He smiled and gave her a thumbs up. Be still my beating heart, she thought desperately when she turned back to the crowd. She could hear Aldous' light chuckle in her head and nearly shot him a glare.
With a sigh, she used her psychic power to adjust the microphone to her height and tapped it expectantly. Instantly the chattering in the room died down.
"G-good evening," she began, her nervousness clear in her voice. "I want to thank you all for coming to today's meeting. I can assure you all that it's for a very good reason that you've been called here today."
With one deep breath, she found her nervousness begin to fade. "We have called you here to ask for help. As I'm sure you're all aware, we have been plagued with calamities for quite a while now. The sleeping curse that puts pokémon in an neverending sleep; the horrid and unexpected natural disasters that have destroyed the homes of millions; and last, but not least, the disappearance of our fellow friends and teammates. I stand here before you today on behalf of my team to tell you that we have discovered the culprit behind these problems."
A rush of gasps and quiet murmurings filled the room.
"They found the culprit?"
"I wonder who it is?"
"Darn it! And here I thought we'd be the ones to find the culprit…"
She raised a paw to silence the chattering. As the noise began to die down, she turned to Drexel and Rumi and beckoned for them to step up. Standing on either side of her, Lizette continued on with her speech. "Thanks to the efforts of Team Invincible Hope and Team Solar Spiral, two of these three problems have all been solved. However, there remains one last problem: our friends and teammates are still missing."
She paused. Should she tell them about her leader? About the fact that Rumi, Celine, and Drexel were all former humans themselves? Would it make a difference? Would she get in trouble? She looked to Aldous for some form of answer. How would he know her internal struggle?
Biting her lip, she decided against it. It wasn't up to her to delve out that information. If they wanted it to be known, they would make it known.
"The members of Teams Cosmic, PokéStars, and Echo Hearts have all worked towards a similar goal: to find those responsible for the kidnappings and, if there was one, the pokémon who ordered for their kidnapping. Because of how close we were getting to finding out the ones responsible, we were attacked on multiple occasions. On two of these occasions, one of our friends would be captured. Vivian, the co-leader of PokéStars, and Celine, the leader of Cosmic. It was only recently that the leader of Team Cosmic was captured by the hands of the culprit himself, and it is because of her capture that I stand before you all here today.
We have decided that waiting is no longer an option. We will be marching towards Mallowburn Palace to rescue those who have been captured and defeat the culprit. We are limited in both strength and numbers, and we hope that you will march with us. All that we need is for you to distract those who would stop us. As easy as it sounds, I'm afraid it's far from the truth. Because of my leaders dreams, we suspect the culprit is building an army of pokémon. This army… will most likely be our friends twisted by some dark force. I can't explain much more than that because… in all honesty, I don't understand it either. However, I am not letting that stop me. If any of you have lost a friend or teammate to these kidnappings, then I understand if you're hesitant. There is a way to save them, I just know it. But it will take the defeat of the culprit to do that."
"Who's the culprit already?!" someone shouted from the crowd.
Lizette closed her eyes. This was the moment of truth. With one last deep breath, she opened her eyes and stared out into the crowd. She eyed each and every one of them. She wanted to make sure that they saw that her eyes were holding no lies in the information she was about to give.
"The culprit behind the kidnapping of the human turned pokémon… is a legendary dragon pokémon named Zekrom."
The room was in silence. Nobody dared to move, or even make a sound. Lizette remained firm in her stance, having expected that something like this could happen.
"You want us…" a random pokémon within the crowd began, "to fight a GOD?!"
"We can't possible fight someone so powerful!" someone else shouted.
"We'd be annihilated!" another agreed.
And just like that, the room went from being silence to completely engulfed with chaos. Everyone was shouting at the female feline and was declaring that she was crazy. She stook a step back in pure horror. She had expected a small outburst, but nothing like this!
"E-everyone, please!" she pleaded. "Calm down!"
"Like hell we will!"
"You're nuts, lady!"
"You're basically asking us to commit suicide! If you're so bent on doing so, don't let us stop you! You can do the honors first!"
"Not only are you asking us to challenge the impossible, you're asking us to fall down with your failures! Thanks, but no thanks. I would rather live than let you drag down my team!"
"She must be a traitor!" someone shouted. She froze in her spot, her eyes widening in disbelief.
"Yeah! Traitor! You're trying to bring down the entire headquarters!"
She let out a whimper and took a step back. Several similar shouts filled the room, each more crueler than the last. A "traitor" chant was overtaking the room. Tears were threatening to spill from her crimson eyes.
From where he stood, Aldous grinded his teeth. How dare they speak to her like that?! He could feel the pain and hurt radiating off of her. It rocked him to his core and fueled his anger. How could they be so insensitive?! He was about ready to stomp up to the microphone to scream at them, but someone else had already beat him to the punch.
"Why don't all of you…" Aiden started as he stood in front of the microphone, "be QUIET?!"
The crowd silenced their chants, but kept their glares. Aiden glared back with just as much ferocity. He stood tall, his voice booming as he spoke. "None of you know the first thing about her. She came here in hopes that she would get the help she needed to help her team succeed!"
Nora was about to step up to stop him, but Griffin stopped her. She looked at him in disbelief. She wanted to prevent Aiden from causing a riot! Griffin shook his head. He had an idea of what Aiden was about to say, and it was something everyone needed to hear.
"How can any of you call yourself a rescue team? Is this what a rescue team is now? To show cowardice the minute a legendary is brought into the equation? I thought that rescue teams were supposed to be fearless. We all took this path because we knew the risks it would entail; we knew that sooner or later we would have the chance to face someone so strong that it would shake us to our core. But that isn't what ticks me off. What ticks me off is that all of you have forgotten what it means to be a rescue team. What it means to bear the badge!"
"Being a rescue team means that you are expected to save or help those in need," Aldous piped in. He scanned the crowd with his arms folded. "Even if the odds seemed against them, there have been few who have risen above those odds. It's those teams that risked their life that will go down in history and always will be the ideal team. Not only did they have strength and willpower, they had people to support them."
"Furthermore," Grovyle said, surprising everyone when he stepped forward. There were whisperings and gasps as the crowd recognized the infamous thief. "I don't remember Lizette ever mentioning that any of you would be facing Zekrom."
The three males glared at the crowd, their words sinking in. Aldous scoffed. He had hoped for a better outcome. Closing the gap between him and Lizette, he embraced her lightly sobbing form. As he held her close, he understood the very reason why humans were called down into their world. It was because they were fearless. They had the strength to pull those around them and make a difference. It didn't matter who the pokémon they were forced to face was. Legendary or not, they would fight until the end to make their adopted home better for their loved ones.
It's okay, he whispered to her telepathically. She sniffled and lifted her head to look at him. The sight of tears running down her cheek only fueled Aldous' anger further. He pulled her tighter into his embrace. Ignore them, Lizzy. We don't need the help of cowards. If they don't want to lift a paw or claw to our cause, then so be it. We will still fight. You still have me and the others. You aren't alone.
Thank you, Aldy. She snuggled into his embrace thankfully.
He smiled lovingly down at her. He looked to his teammates. Drexel was smirking in his direction and Fiona was winking with a thumbs up. He flushed and turned his attention over to Zoroark and Aiden. The two were whispering. Aiden looked infuriated and snorted. Storming away from the dark-fox, Aldous watched as Zoroark took his turn to stand in front of the now quiet crowd.
"We understand if you are scared. We don't look it, but we are as well. However, we can't let that stop us. Our friends are in grave danger and each second that is wasted here is a second that they endure further torture. Regardless if the former humans are your friends or not, you should be grateful. It's thanks to their sacrifices that our world is as stable as it is. There have been countless times that we could have lost it, but they stood against those who pushed them down. They stood against the wave of despair and came out victorious."
Zoroark turned to the group behind him and nodded. Lead by Drexel and Rumi, the group began to leave. Zoroark began to follow them, but paused. He closed his eyes and sighed. "We will be leaving in two days time. We will wait in front of Team Cosmic's base for half an hour. You are all welcomed to join us, if you desire it so."
With that last statement, he left the headquarters with the rest of his team.
-x-x-x-x-
Lizette's eyes drooped as she fought to stay awake. She was sitting beside Aldous in the living room, listening to the idle chatter that was going on. They were still appalled from what they'd seen and heard.
She'd been appalled herself, really. But not by how harsh the crowds reacted. No, she was surprised with how badly those words had hurt her. She could still feel the sting of their words lingering on her heart, and whispers of "traitor!" in her ears.
"Do you think anyone will come?" Kalista inquired.
There were a few scoffs in the room. Mainly from Aiden who was still fuming over the event.
"They were cowards," he said. "We'd probably spend more time saving them than we would the actual kidnapped pokémon."
Celebi rose her hands in a placate matter. She'd been wide awake when the group returned, and claimed that she was feeling much better. Lizette would have thoroughly examined her, but she wasn't in the mood. "Now, now… they probably went into a panic the minute they heard Zekrom's name is all."
"Oh yes, so terrified they called Lizzy a…" Aldous pressed his lips together in a firm scowl. He refused to utter the word in her presence. "You would have needed to be there, Celebi."
The legendary grimaced. She noticed that Lizette was falling asleep. In fact, Drexel, Fiona, Rumi, and Nova all looked tired.
From the window that Donte was peeking his head through, he could see it as well. "Perhaps we should not dwell on the matter anymore. If they come, they come. We've all had a very long day. I think we should all return to our bases and get some shut eye. We have two days to rest and prepare ourselves, so let's take that chance."