Episode 28: A secluded part of the world
"Wait! Niko!" Warren said as his two friends were setting off towards Icirrus City, just after watching the Team Plasma airship go off into the distance. When Niko and a skeptical Charlotte both turned, they noticed Warren pointing up to the sky. "Look up there!"
Up in the sky, far to the south, was a small plane following behind. As it got closer, Niko tried to see who was piloting, but couldn't even after squinting. He sighed. "Warren…why—how would we even see what Team Plasma is up to? It's probably nothing significant anyways…let's let the authorities deal with it." This is exactly what Niko wanted to do—he didn't want to once again entangle himself in a plot revolving around some evil gang. Earlier that year he went into the Distortion World to stop Hunter J from trying to take control of space and time. The year previous to that he stopped Team Aqua and Magma from taking control of land and sea. Both of those were physically and mentally exhausting endeavors that the regional champions or the police could have easily dealt with. He didn't want to put himself—or his friends and Pokémon—through that again.
Just then, much to their surprise, the plane took a turn back towards them, moving in circles around the trio, and eventually landing on the outskirts of the village with the Celestial Tower. Jumping out of the plane as it landed was none other than Skyla—the Mistralton City Gym Leader.
"Hey! I remember you three!" She said, running up to shake Niko's hand.
"Hi Skyla…" Niko said cautiously. "I'm confused, though—why are you here? Not to be rude…or anything."
"Don't worry! I'm actually in pursuit of Team Plasma. Professor Juniper and the authorities are on their way as well."
"Why are you after them? What did they do? And why are you telling us this?" Warren asked, his interest piqued.
"They're off to the Nature Preserve, as it turns out. At least, that's where we believe they're going. The trajectory of their airship would suggest as much. At the moment, we aren't entirely sure what business they have there, other than an attempt to capture the rare Pokémon that lives within the preserve. And as for your last question…I simply noticed you three down here, and I was impressed with Niko's abilities as a trainer that I got the idea to ask for your assistance."
"Assistance in…stopping Team Plasma…?" Niko asked. He could almost sense Charlotte's expression in response to this.
"Exactly! You and your friends are just what I need until we get reinforcements from other neighboring areas. The Nature Preserve isn't even in the Unova region—it's in a different part of the world, but it is close enough to here that it falls under our care. Plus, Team Plasma is still the Unova region's problem, and I'd rather not let them taint other regions, y'know? So…will ya help me out?"
Niko thought about it for a moment. Like Charlotte, he didn't want to get involved. He's made that much clear. But he couldn't deny someone assistance if it was really necessary. Plus, a gym leader is getting involved in this—it must be important enough to warrant the involvement of ordinary trainers.
"Alright, let's do it. But only if Charlotte and Warren are in." He turned to them. "We can say no if either one of you doesn't want to go. This is a group decision."
"I'm in." Warren said quickly. He and Niko then turned to their short, brunette friend, who nervously looked at the both of them.
"Let's go." Charlotte said, albeit hesitantly.
"Yes! C'mon!" Skyla said, running off towards her plane. "It'll be a fun ride! I promise!"
The trio each took a moment to place their bags in a cargo compartment in the middle of the plane before stepping inside with it. They quickly found themselves wedged in between one another as Skyla turned briefly to look through a small window separating them. She put a pair of sky blue goggles on before giving them a thumb up. Niko, Charlotte, and Warren all returned it, and instantly the plane began moving, rocking them back and forth.
"Oh no…" Niko immediately said, remembering that he got motion sickness. "I'm so sorry, guys."
"Niko…please don't…" Charlotte begged. Fortunately for the three of them, Niko kept himself together throughout the entire plane ride, which seemed to last an eternity for Niko.
As soon as he felt the plane come to a stop, Niko opened the door, ran to a nearby bush, and retched while Warren and Charlotte collected themselves, grabbed the pokéballs from their bags, and examined the area around them.
The Nature Preserve was, simply put, the most beautiful sight either of them had ever seen. The air and water were as clean as could be. Waterfalls, hundreds of feet tall, adorned the sides of the valley that held the Nature Preserve. In all, it looked like a scene from a prehistoric era. A small path led from the plane into a forested area which, after Niko's stomach had calmed down, they entered.
"This place isn't touched by humans, is it?" Warren asked Skyla as they entered the forest, walking past ancient-looking trees.
"Nope! Not at all! This is a home to the Pokémon—and only the Pokémon. It's one of the few parts of the world that has had little or no interaction with humans, so be careful. The Pokémon might be a little, well, testy."
"If humans haven't interacted much with this place, then how was it discovered?" Charlotte asked, finding a potential flaw in Skyla's explanation.
"Well, whoever discovered it decided that it was too precious to touch. That's really all there is to it, sorry to say." She said with a friendly shrug. "Either way, we have a bigger task at hand—finding Team Plasma. How do you feel about splitting up?"
"Sure, how should we do that?" Warren asked.
"How about you and me, and Charlotte and Niko?" The Gym Leader suggested. The trio nodded, and so Skyla took Warren in a leftwards direction, while Niko and Charlotte went to the right.
After walking in silence for some time, Skyla finally attempted to make conversation. "So, you're from where again?"
"Castelia City." Warren said joyfully. The two engaged in brief conversation after that, with Skyla asking about Warren's background, his reason for travelling, and his thoughts on his companions. The writer answered each one in turn while also putting the questions back on the gym leader. As it turned out, Skyla was a part time pilot, and part time gym leader, following in the footsteps of her grandfather, Miles.
They continued this conversation until Warren heard a loud noise, and Skyla identified smoke emitting from their immediate left. Quickly exchanging looks, the two dashed off in the direction of the smoke.
"Are you alright?" Niko asked, hands in pocket, as he and Charlotte traversed the rightwards path through the Nature Preserve. "You seem…almost on edge."
"I'm fine, Niko." Charlotte said, looking ahead but still conjuring a smile. "Why do you ask?"
"You just seemed a little off, that's all. As your companion, it's my job to make sure you're doing alright." He said, returning the smile with a smirk. "You know you can tell me anything—I'll listen."
"I know that but…I don't know, there's just a lot going on, you know? I don't want to get involved with Team Plasma all the time."
"Oh trust me, neither do I. I've had my fair share of gangs." Niko said, this time with a nervous laugh. When Charlotte seemed confused by this, Niko explained that he and his friends have dealt with Team Rocket, Magma and Aqua, and Galactic before. Much to his surprise, Charlotte knew what he was referring to. "You do?"
"Yeah, I just never heard who stopped them. Funny how it was always you. That can't be a coincidence."
"Oh it absolutely was! I didn't want to get involved!" Niko protested.
"Sure you didn't…" Charlotte said with a playful grin. Niko then pulled his hand out of his pocket and lightly pushed his friend aside, eliciting a laugh from the both of them. "Still…what you did was pretty incredible, when all is said and done. Glad we have you around."
"Pfft, I couldn't have done those things without my Pokémon…or my friends." Niko replied.
"You've got some pretty incredible Pokémon and friends, then."
Niko nodded solemnly. "I do…or, did."
"I'd like to meet them all one day." Charlotte said plainly. "If, of course, you want me to."
"Oh, of course. Thing is…I don't know if they'll accept me after what I did."
"Is that what's been bothering you?" Charlotte asked. When Niko turned to look back at her, they both stopped. "I've noticed that, on occasion, you seemed lost in your thoughts. That's it, isn't it?" Eventually, Niko nodded. "Well, I don't know exactly what to tell you, but I think reuniting with everyone will be easier than you expect."
"…thanks, Charlotte." Suddenly, they both heard a loud noise, and smoke billowing from the way they had come. Abruptly turning around, they locked eyes with one another, and dashed off in the direction of the smoke.
It didn't take long to get there—they hadn't travelled too far at that point—and when they did they found themselves in a large clearing with a lot of new sights to take in. The Team Plasma airship that they had seen fly over Celestial Tower was parked off to their right on the edge of the clearing. Then, to their left was Skyla, her Swanna, Warren, and his Pidove attempting to battle two of the grunts, both female.
Lastly, in the center of the clearing were three grunts trying to fight a large, black Pokémon. It looked to be about a tall as Niko, and was bipedal. It had a dark gray covering along its head and most of its back and front. It bore two large tusks that resembled scythes. Each one was black with red edges, and were located on its upper jaw on the side of its mouth. Niko could hardly see them, but its eyes looked red. Its hands were small and circular with small red claws.
"I never thought I'd see one of these in person…" Charlotte said, eyes widening. Confused, Niko pulled out his pokédex:
"Haxorus, the Axe Jaw Pokémon. Dragon type. Its tusks are incredibly destructive. They can easily slice through a thick, sturdy steel column every time."
"Wait, so Team Plasma is trying to catch this thing?" Niko asked, holding his hand out to motion towards the creature.
"Yes!" Skyla interjected before commanding Swanna to use surf on the Plasma grunt's Pokémon. "This is a special Haxorus—it's an odd color, very old, and very powerful. It's the protector of the Nature Preserve!" She shouted, watching as a wave crashed down on the Trubbish and Purrloin they were fighting. Meanwhile, Warren commanded an air cutter on the Purrloin, who was clearly faster than the Tiny Pigeon and swatted him out of the way before making a run for Swanna.
"Niko—a little help!" Warren said. "Pidove, return. You did great buddy. Swadloon, I choose you!"
Niko nodded, turning to Charlotte before pulling out a pokéball. "Litwick, let's go!" He shouted.
"Oh, it's kind of cute." Charlotte added, looking down at the Candle Pokémon. "Hi there Litwick. I'm Charlotte."
Litwick shyly nodded back at Charlotte before turning to Niko, who reassured her. "Now, Litwick, let's use…err…I'm sorry, I don't know what moves you know." He said, laughing nervously. Litwick, who seemed oddly amused by this, floated towards the Haxorus and used a flame burst on the grunt's Pokémon. I didn't even have to tell her who we were fighting…it's like she had some sort of intuition about it… "Litwick, use flame burst again!"
"Deerling, I choose you! Use double kick!" Charlotte shouted. Both Pokémon dashed towards the trio of grunts, who were using Garbodors and Raticates to challenge the Haxorus. The massive trash Pokémon turned to face Litwick and shot out a series of sludge bombs from its tube-like hands, to which the Candle Pokémon dodged agilely and commanded another flame burst, which inadvertently hit the two accompanying Raticates as well. It soon seemed that they had the upper hand, since with the addition of Warren and Skyla—and their Pokémon—the grunts were defeated, and the Haxorus seemed to find safety.
"Great job everyone. Team Plasma—leave." Skyla finally said, turning to the grunts. Scared, they began to make a run for the airship when suddenly a flash appeared in front of them, attacking Niko's Litwick and Charlotte's Deerling, immediately knocking them to the ground. In their place was a small, red and grey metallic Pokémon with blades for hands and a metallic helmet with a scythe-shaped blade on the front. Another then showed up to attack the Haxorus by surprise, but was knocked back by what looked like dragon tail, launching the strange Pokémon across the clearing.
"Who—what? Litwick, are you okay?" Niko said, running over to his Pokémon. He was, however, stopped as a tall man in a ninja outfit stood in between them. "Wh—who are you?"
"Shadow Triad. Get away from the Haxorus. It is Team Plasma's now." He said in a soft, but authoritative, tone."
"Like hell we will! Litwick, use flame burst!"
"Absol, night slash." Another man, dressed in the same clothes, said as he summoned a familiar dark-type Pokémon to challenge Niko's. Litwick was hit by the Disaster Pokémon's crescent-shaped horn, launching the Candle Pokémon clear across the field.
"Swadloon, razor leaf!" Warren commanded. Skyla re-summoned her Swanna and called for it to use surf on the two Pokémon just as Charlotte identified the one with hand-blades:
"Pawniard, the Sharp Blade Pokémon. Dark and steel type. Ignoring their injuries, groups attack by sinking the blades that cover their bodies into their prey."
Both Pawniards—the one attacked by Haxorus returned—and slashed at Swanna and Swadloon, largely ignoring their attacks. One of them hit Swadloon, sending her rolling across the field.
"Swadloon, are you alright?" He asked to his Pokémon, who was taking hit after hit from the unusually agile Pawniard, unable to get an attack in edgewise. Meanwhile, the absol—along with two more Pawniards—were fighting the Haxorus in an attempt to capture it. One of the members of the Shadow Triad was now taking steps towards Niko and Charlotte, who had both reached for another pokéball to challenge him.
"Swad!" Swadloon shouted as she rolled across the ground from Pawniard's slash attack. Warren then ran over to his Pokémon's side, kneeling over her protectively.
"It's okay Swadloon. Here, return." He said. However, just as he was about to pull out a pokéball, it was swatted out of his hand and tossed across the field. Pawniard then raised its arm-blade to attack Swadloon, but Warren grabbed her, covering her in his own body. "You're going to have to get through me first." He said, tightly holding Swadloon. Pawniard then prepared to land its attack on Warren, just as a flash of white light engulfed the area. Warren was forced to let go of Swadloon as she grew much larger, now only a couple feet shorter than him and Niko.
The new Pokémon was bipedal, unlike Swadloon, and had a broad, split leaf around her large, round head. In between the leaf were long antennae that ended in semicircles. Its eyes were now red, and a dark green thorax. Its long abdomen was yellow and covered in a green leaf. Its hands were long and leaf-like with a piece taken out of each.
"Leavanny, the Nurturing Pokémon. Bug and grass type. Upon finding a small Pokémon, it weaves clothing for it from leaves by using the sticky silk secreted from its mouth."
Warren stood up in awe, but wasted no time in attacking, using the evolution sequence to his advantage. "Leavanny, let's go! Attack Pawniard!" He shouted, giving his friends an opportunity to do so as well.
"Servine, leaf blade!" Niko shouted, sending out his own Pokémon.
"Smeargle, ember!" Charlotte said as well. Both of them ran towards the Pawniard and Absol attacking the Haxorus, distracting two of the Sharp Blade Pokémon while Haxorus dealt with Absol. Meanwhile, Skyla's Swanna slashed at one of the only Pawniards left, an extra boost of optimism giving them the help that they needed.
Leavanny—now with a new move, slash—attacked Pawniard relentlessly, bringing her leaf-hands down on the Sharp Blade Pokémon that assaulted her previously. Pawniard attempted to parry each blow, but eventually fell victim to the onslaught of attacks by the far larger and quicker Leavanny.
"Finish it off with bug bite!" Warren commanded. Leavanny kicked Pawniard to the ground before bringing her mouth down to its leg. She bit down hard, picking Pawniard up and throwing it high into the air. "Now, razor leaf!"
Leavanny opened her arms out wide, summoning a flurry of leaves into the air at Pawniard, enough to defeat it before it hit the ground. Unable to control her newfound energy, Leavanny turned to the lone Absol and rushed towards it. Haxorus, noticing this, grabbed Absol's horn and tossed it towards Leavanny, who used slash to finish it off. Just as she did this, Servine, Smeargle, and Swanna all managed to defeat their opponents as well.
The Shadow Triad, now also defeated, turned to the grunts. "Leave." They said before phasing away as well, leaving Niko, his friends, and Skyla alone with the Haxorus.
Warren immediately ran up to Leavanny and hugged her. "You did amazing out there! I'm so proud of you!" As he did that, he felt an odd sensation in his wrist. Looking down, he noticed the Nurturing Pokémon using her string shot to wrap it up. "Oh…looks like I must've sprained my wrist during all of this."
"Now we've got a medic on our team." Niko said with a wry smile as he walked over to Warren with Servine. Charlotte returned Smeargle and quickly joined them. "By the way, congrats on the evolution, Leavanny. You really saved us."
Leavanny smiled as she turned to look up at Niko. Soon enough, they were all joined by the shiny Haxorus, who tried to embrace Skyla.
"Oh! Oh! You're welcome, Haxorus! I'll tell Drayden that you're doing just fine. If he knew what had happened here, he would've come in an instant." Haxorus nodded before going over to Niko, Charlotte, Warren, and Leavanny and thanking them as well. "They don't look like it, but Haxorus are very friendly Pokémon. They can be a little territorial, though…" Skyla said. 'I can't thank you three enough. You really saved the day here."
"No problem." Warren said, his wrist now tied up in string. "Happy to help. Right, guys?"
"Indeed!" Niko said, patting Servine. Litwick was now floating beside them. "Oh, Servine, meet our newest team member, Litwick. I don't think you've gotten a chance to meet yet. Litwick, this is Servine, my first Pokémon in Unova."
The two exchanged greetings before Niko returned them. Skyla then walked them all back to her small plane with plans to take them back to Celestial Tower where she found them. On the way, Niko pat Charlotte on the top of her back.
"You did good today." He said. "How do you feel about it?"
"Fine. It was nice to help out Haxorus. I kind of see why you've done this stuff before—helping people." She said quietly, out of earshot of Warren. Niko simply nodded, and the conversation quickly ended.
They had finally reached the plane when Niko took a deep breath and found his way into the cramped compartment, soon joined by his friends. Before they realized it, they were landing back at the base of Celestial Tower. Niko got out, feeling nauseous once more, but was able to get over it when Warren grabbed an ice pack from his bag and placed it on the back of Niko's neck, soothing him.
"So, what's next for you three?" Skyla asked as she placed her hands on her hips.
"Icirrus City." Niko said plainly, trying to focus his breathing to calm his body down.
"Oh! That's pretty far. Do you plan on going around Twist Mountain?"
"Through it." Warren said. "But we'll probably head out in the morning." He said, noting the fact that it was now nighttime.
"Well, I wish you the best of luck. I'd take you there myself, but I'm running low on fuel and need to stock up back in Mistralton City. Got another trip I'm going on in the morning. But again, thank you for everything. I really appreciate it!"
"Glad to help, Skyla." Niko said, suddenly feeling himself again.
The Mistralton City Gym Leader nodded. "And best of luck in your upcoming gym battles. I believe you'll do swell!" She said before hopping back into the cockpit of her plane, putting her goggles back on, and flying off minutes later, leaving Niko, Charlotte, and Warren alone in the small village at Celestial Tower.