Chapter 9: Born from shadows
Mid-afternoon
Johto
Ilex Forest
Ruby touched down the sun dappled grassy clearing to see Execution's team leader fast asleep. His Snorlax was summoned and the trainer was curled up and dozing peacefully on the bed-esque belly of the Pokemon. Both pokemon and its master looked so contented that Ruby, who was battling with inner turmoil, felt mad. The fashionista cast a look at the simple shrine and noted the doors were still shut. Thankfully, Celebi did not appear when Red was fast asleep. Leaving his senior in dreamland, he went closer to the memorial and began inspecting it from all angles, running a finger down its wooden slats and peering at the intricate decor on the miniscule doors. There was an intense green light behind it and raising his hands cautiously, he gripped the emerald doorknobs and gave it a gentle tug. He was mildly surprised when the doors opened with little resistance. Instead of a spacious interior, he stared at an acid green swirling vortex. Glancing back to see the older male still snoozing, he squinted at the vortex and was surprised by its view. A young child stared back at him, oddly the boy looked...
Looked just like him.
With a startled yell, he fell on his rear, his breathing became rapid. Scrambling up from the dirt, he made his way to the senior trainer and began shaking him awake in a frantic manner.
"Red...RED! Wake up!"
And the trainer shot up instantly.
"Is anything the matter?" he asked while fixing his cap, scanning the surroundings, he saw the shrine's doors was open. "Did you pull them open Ruby or did they open when I was asleep?"
"I opened them, more importantly..." he began dragging the older male towards the altar "look inside and tell me what you see." Taking a deep breath, Red did so and recoiled.
"What did you see?" Ruby's fingers were digging in his forearm and he scratched his head before replying.
"Green and I...Having a pokemon battle...back in the days when I wasn't too fond of him."
At the same moment, the forest began moving, a slight breeze rustled through the leaves and the two males got the queer sensation of the forest shifting. Thrown off by the out of place experience, they merely stared inquisitively at their environment as if it will somehow produce answers. Unbeknownst to them, the portal situated in the shrine began glowing intensely and out of it a green fairy-like creature issued forth. It fluttered around on a set of transparent wings growing from its back and the most distinguishing feature was its round head which was tapered to a point. Celebi flew around in circles and Ruby squealed in delight.
"It's beautiful!" he exclaimed and Red nodded in agreement, he took his Pokedex out and confirmed it was the legendary beast they were looking for. Pulling out a pokeball, he summoned charizard, the younger trainer's glassy eyes had also sharpened and he too brought out his mightyena, together the duo readied their pokemon and sent them to attack, however, the twin assaults were reflected by a barrier and the creature remained unharmed, it looked at them with large, unblinking eyes. The fire dragon was commanded to throw a flamethrower and it did so, Celebi flew towards the side and the scorching flames struck the trees boarding the glade, seeing the ring of fire behind it, the fairy was forced closer to them, right then Mightyena leaped up in a bite and almost crushed its colorless wings.
"Let's capture it" Ruby stated in a monotone, his glaring eyes was fixated on their target.
"Not yet," Red admonished, "Celebi is not weak enough, hit it with another dark type move, preferably a non-physical one, we don't want to hurt it very badly." Pulling his hat lower, they teenager nodded and complied with his orders.
"Nana, use Dark Pulse" he commanded and the air around them turned dark, at Mightyena's paws, on the ground, a ball of darkness rose and dispersed in all directions, enveloping the area like a cloud, the particles hit Celebi squarely and the little creature uttered a pained squeak, seizing the chance, Red threw an ultra-ball and without further fuss, it was secured. As the commotion died down, the two was alerted to the forest fire currently raging around them. The older trainer called out his poliwrath and the pokemon doused the trees with a jet stream of water, tossing a pristine white card down on the muddy floor, the two capturers left the scene, flying back towards Kanto.
Afternoon
Kanto, Celadon city
Dex criminal's hideout, legendary pokemon holding cell.
Curiosity killed the cat and it will also kill Green Oak one day. The brunette, along with his trusty (and innocent then most) secretary had currently set up a mini laboratory in the huge area. Emerald had come in a few moments later and was setting up a computer, after he finished, he was tasked to release the safety mechanisms on both Mewtwo and Darkrai, seems like his leader wanted to get up close and personal with them. Green for his part, was poring over the notes given to him by his grandfather, although he had successfully managed to clone a Mewtwo (using a Ditto instead of the original Mew as a surrogate mother) he was still far from satisfied with his project. Mewtwo was extremely powerful, yes, but in a battle, it would ignore commands from its trainer, this creature could not be tamed and also his current stats was far below other legendary pokemon...Say for instance the creation trio. Furrowing his brow, he began frantically typing away at his computer, inputting data and calculating them, after some tappings he lifted his head and asked:
"How is everything going Emerald?"
"Fine" the teen muttered "Darkrai's cell's safety locks and valves have all been opened and I'm working on Mewtwo's, just rescue me from an untimely death should this pokemon decide to bash me with his tail."
His plea was bypassed.
"Yellow?" the leader quizzed.
"Mewtwo is still unhappy," she relayed, "I can't tell you anything more." He simply nodded.
Moving away from the computer, he re-read the notes and went to a briefcase; on opening it he scrutinized the two syringes and selected the empty one, leaving the other one in its padding. Striding over to Darkrai, he pressed a button on the little screen and a net came down on the dark pokemon, holding it still. Green pressed another icon on the screen and the thick glass encasing the monster lowered with a mechanical whirr, exposing it. Gingerly, Green inserted the needle into a spindly arm and extracted something akin to shadows. Satisfied with the amount, he put up the barriers again and released Darkrai; the mythical creature hissed and flooded the cell with darkness. Walking back, he held the syringe up to the light and examined it, like smoke, the dark particles danced in the slim plastic tube, rising and falling and writhing in a hypnotic manner. Taking a deep breath, he went back to the briefcase and extracted the other syringe. This one was filled with a semi-transparent pinkish fluid and Yellow questioned him on the contents.
"Pokerus," he replied and the blonde's eyes widened.
"You are infecting Mewtwo with Pokerus?"
"Yes, but first, I'm going to corrupt the virus with this" he held up the shadows he got from Darkrai "I want to ascertain if Pokemon typing can be changed via external methods, a virus is known to replicate by intruding the host's cell and injecting it's genetic material directly into the cell. So if the cells can somehow adapt to the new, intruding genetic material, then the Pokemon gains a new type...Theoretically speaking. If this does not work, then the only way to change a Pokemon's typing is via gene splicing. I don't want to go into specifics." Hearing his too scientific for ordinary minds to comprehend speech, Yellow meekly nodded and smiled. She observed Green mixing the two substances together till the final product resembled black ink. This was sucked into a syringe and this time he approached Mewtwo's cell. The minute he got close enough, the psychic Pokemon's eyes flew open and he glared at them with undisguised displeasure. Man and beast had a staring contest and knowing what disaster Mewtwo was capable of, Green took the safe option and tapped on the screen, in the fluid suspending Mewtwo, a cocktail of sleep inducing chemicals were released and before long, the monster started hibernating. Emptying the chamber of fluid and harnessing the feline-esque beast, the brunette tentatively grabbed a wet, limp arm and injected the virus into Mewtwo; thereafter he secured it once more and watched.
"Will the results come quickly?" Emerald, who had joined them, queried.
"No, it may take weeks or months to see a change. We are done here for today, let's go up." Saying this he left.
"Man...He sure leaves all the cleaning up for us to do doesn't he?" Emerald grumbled as he and his female senior packed up.
"Come on! We are only exploring!" Lack-2 insisted as he dragged an unwilling Whi-2 along on his grand mission of exploring the base, "I'm trying to find a loophole through here, if I do, I'm escaping. Apparently our meeting chamber has an entrance leading directly outside, there is a suspicious looking lever set in a panel at the back wall and after I tried yanking it, hitting it, and almost slicing it off, yet nothing happened. Let' see if there are other places we can discover." Giving up and simply going with the flow, the girl lagged behind her determined friend; she too had searched for a way out and found none. Besides, if these trainers and famous figures were able to keep their criminal doings a secret for so long, they obviously were able to stop any of their members from betraying or leaving the base. She took note of the fact that both her and Lack-2 were not given any tasks to participate into, clearly these trainers were not dumb, they foresaw the new recruit's desire to leave the place and simply kept them cooped up in here. And the more she stayed here, the more she liked it. There were no animosity in her group and Blue was very nice, she took great care of all of them. Unlike at school, she was never forced to speak up or participate in things she was uncomfortable with. Here, she had freedom to do what she wanted at her own pace. The exploring duo were once again lost in the twisting corridors, Lack-2 gritted his teeth and looked on his phone, muttering about making a map of the place. They went down several identical looking hallways and found themselves striding in team Constellate's room. Whi-2 comforted by her surroundings, brushed past her male friend and sat down on the couch before a large screen, booting up a game, she invited Lack-2 to sit with her and play.
Instead of sitting down next to her he smirked and made a beeline for the lowered platform in the room. As he descended the stairs, he was startled to see Silver sitting there, eyes glued to an expensive looking computer. The elder noticed the new comer and trained his sharp, silver eyes on Lack-2 who smiled weakly.
"Sorry to interru...wait, you watch cartoons at this age?!" His eyes had caught a glimpse on the colorful screen and he gaped.
"...So does Gold" the adolescent reddened and countered.
"Oh...nice...So how is senior Gold like?" Grinning, Lack-2 pulled out a chair and sat next to Silver, the red-head scowled a bit at having his rare and private time disturbed, nevertheless, he paused his episode and faced the boy to answer his questions.
"He is an excellent trainer, one of the few who can beat Red with pure skill."
"Wow...so, uh, how did he get in here? Was he also, you know, kidnapped?" the boy squirmed in his seat in an uncomfortable manner.
"No, Red invited him after he was beaten and Gold gladly accepted, speaking of which, only you, Whi-2 and White was kidnapped, the rest came willingly." Silver pondered for a while and Lack-2 questioned him on the kidnapping of Whi-2.
"Black was openly hostile when we tried to recruit him, after he found out about Red, who was the youngest trainer in history to be crowned champion, he jumped at our proposal. White was defiant but Black forcibly dragged her along to our base...well it's not really kidnapping, the police call it as such."
"Thanks for all the explaining" Lack-2 hopped off the chair and glanced at his phone "by the way, does Gold have any weaknesses I can exploit? It'll suck if I lose a battle every time." Hearing this Silver grinned and said:
"That, you have to find out on your own." And he went back to watching Proteam Omega.
Late Afternoon
Johto
Olivine City, beach.
"GOLD!" Crystal screeched and the adolescent ignored her in favor of splashing around in the water wearing nothing but swimming trunks, a couple of girls giggled when he flirted with them. Black had run off to the nearest Pokemon center and now she was stuck with the totally unreasonable trainer who was more interested in impressing the ladies than his actual mission. Seething, she whipped her Poke-gear out and called Black, ordering the young trainer to return.
"I am leaving for Cianwood city in five minutes, be here by then or else you are on your own and no, I don't care if Gold comes or not, once we back at base, I'll report his conduct to Green, since Red won't do anything."
Five minutes later, Black returned and Crystal strode to the edge of the beach, she cast a fierce look at her friend and without further ado summoned her Xatu, the junior trainer called out Carracosta and together the duo went off, the one flying at a leisurely place through the air and the other surfing. Gold, who noticed his team mates leaving, gave the girls on the beach a simpering smile and followed them on his Politoed.
He was still wearing swimming trunks.
After crossing the wide stretch of water, they alighted on the shores of Cianwood city, wasting no time the trio made it to one of the research centers in order to get more information on the Pokemon hidden in the deep. According to the mythology, long time ago there was a huge land mass in the area that was now Whirl islands. Back in those days two kingdoms, riddled with greed, fought over this land mass and there was much bloodshed of both people and Pokemon. Seeing this catastrophe and lamenting the people's avarice, Lugia also known as the Sea beast, rose from the depths of the ocean and rained thunder down on the continent splitting it into four large pieces, between these four islands the current became treacherous and created whirlpools. It has been said that Lugia roams in this area and rests in a cave situated underneath the Whirl islands.
Gold, who was now fully dressed smiled.
"Sounds like an awesome adventure!" Black nodded vigorously, agreeing with his senior and Crystal too, beamed. Bit by bit, she noticed Gold's smile had turned rather perverse.
"Are you planning something stupid again?" she harshly asked.
"Nope! How rude of you super serious gal! I'm simply looking forward to seeing you in a swimsuit again, because you know...We have to dive"
The three of them were now standing at the edge of the sea and Gold sported a red hand shaped mark on his cheek. They all dressed in waterproof diving suits and were fixing the breathing aids and goggles on one another. After checking everything one last time, Black and Crystal (who were sharing one pokemon) launched first into the water with Gold tailing behind them, they surfed all the way to one of the land areas situated in Whirl islands and surveyed the area. Taking out a pair of binoculars, Gold gave the area a sweep and showed a thumbs up to the other two, signaling back, they dove into the water, wary of the whirl pools. The male trainer followed the duo several minutes later.
Underwater was a whole new world. Crystal had at first gasped at the coldness of the water and once she got used to it, she looked at the scenery around her. It was breathtaking. Schools of luvdisc and basculin swam past. The reefs were decorated with corals, corsola and clampearls. Tentacruels and mantines slowly drifted across and as they sunk deeper, the blue haired trainer spied a Gyarados and a Wailord, the humongous pokemon floated amiably. Carracosta, dragged down by two trainers, was doing his best to descend in a smooth manner. As they went lower, the sun's rays dimmed and the water turned inky blue. It was cold and the trainers shivered, few pokemon occupied this depth and Crystal began to see higher evolutions and sharpedos. On top of this, she had an inkling that something was watching her and on occasion she snapped her head around to see behind her, it was in one of these moments she saw a pair of large glowing eyes observing her.
Observing them.
Shoving the frightening thoughts to the back of her mind, she continued forward, a short while later, something grabbed on her leg and her heart nearly exploded from her chest, a huge stream of bubbles came out of the breathing device inserted in her mouth and she kicked with all her might. Spinning around, she saw Gold curling up in pain and her irises shrunk in anger. To placate her, he pointed to the right and once again, all the blood drained from her face.
A large beast was tailing them, the thing was HUGE! How she did not notice it before was something Crystal did not comprehend. The Pokemon resembled a fusion of a dragon and a bird, in the inky blackness, Lugia glowed silver white, she was faintly able to discern a blue underside and a large beak like mouth. It hovered in the water. Beating its wings; it propelled itself backwards and disappeared. Awestruck, she simply watched and Gold seized her hand and pulled her close. With Black tailing alone, they gave chase and she snapped back to reality. The legendary creature left a trail of ripples and bubbles as it surged forward and the Dex-holders pursued it relentlessly, at one point, the beast disappeared. Coming to a halt, the trainers looked around and found themselves at a new area deeper in the sea. They could see the sea floor and several underwater caves and tunnels. Picking a random one, they swam inside and were surprised (and happy) to see it open up to dry land. Hauling themselves out of the water, they dried themselves the best they could and stripped themselves of the speech hampering equipment.
"Crystal...the next time you kick, please check before you do so, you almost smashed a dent in my head!"
"Sorry Gold, I guess, I got a bit frightened, anyway, Black where to?"
The youngster had musharna stuck on his head. His face was blank and he started muttering in robotic manner as countless bits of information flowed in and assembled in a coherent manner. As the flower patterned creature was put back in its ball, the boy marched ahead without a word and seemingly unaware of events taking place around him. Sighing, the two adolescents followed him without a word. Black led them deep inside the twisting caves; the floor was sandy and littered with seashells, stones and fossils of ancient pokemon. Wild Pokemon charged out of grass and were promptly dealt with by a meganium, galvantula and politoed. The group advanced with the salty tang of the sea assaulting their nose and the cavern was lit by pokemon bioluminescent, tunnel walls coated with a pastel blue light. Without warning, Gold took hold of Crystal's hand.
"What are you doing?" she hissed.
"I bet we are the first couple to take a romantic stroll underneath the ocean" he declared mischievously, his gold tinted eyes reflected the pale blue light and the female found herself blushing in spite of her efforts not to. Exhaling, she gave his hand a tight squeeze.
"It's not romantic, besides Black is here and we have a mission, get your head out of the clouds." Nevertheless she kept on holding his hand.
Several twisting tunnels and hordes of Zubats later, they entered a large cavern and paused. A bit further away, on a raised rocky platform stood Lugia. The guardian of the seas stared impassively at them and the trio found themselves humbled in his presence. Crystal, remembering her mission, took out a ball from the belt clipped on her waist, the legendary beast's tiny irises locked on to her and on seeing her aim the ball at him he opened his jaws wide. In a split second, a cyan sphere of energy formed in its gaping maw and this was shot at the intruders. Shockwaves followed the ball and the cave rumbled and cracked. The three trainers were flung into the air and they went soaring, a second Aeroblast brought the cave down and seawater flooded the area. Arms flailing and lungs crushed by the water pressure, Gold frantically pulled on his goggles even though he was cartwheeling along, dragged by the water's resistance, he fished inside the pocket of his diving suit and found the micro aqualung shoving it into his mouth. Righting himself, he searched for his team mates.
They were nowhere to be seen.
Feeling a presence before him, he wheeled around and saw Lugia; the beast's eyes were glowing eerily. Quickly, he summoned his Politoed and secured his arms around the pokemon; it dodged the beast's attacks and swam away. Gold, now feeling desperate, scanned the area for signs of Crystal and Black and despaired when he found none. A giant disturbance in the water alerted him to the pokemon chasing him. Helplessly, he clung onto Polibo as the green frog pulled him away from devastation. At one point he spied Black's body sinking into a trench and with a harrowing jolt, he swam towards the barely conscious trainer and thrust a breathing aid on his mouth, a few seconds later, the boy stirred and Gold's thumping heart calmed down. He motioned Black to return to the surface but the boy refused, having no other option and not being able to communicate effectively, he pushed his junior up. Polibo getting the gist of his trainer's wishes let loose a bubble beam and the boy was effectively ushered along with a large stream of rising bubbles. As Lugia swam close, a whirlpool burst beneath him and Gold and his pokemon made a hasty escape. With one eye on the dangerous monster he went around in circles searching for Crystal, with each passing moment, his spirits sank.
There was no sign of her.
Inhaling deeply, he renewed his grip on Polibo and kept on searching, he was definitely not giving up on her. The thought of her drifting alone on the wide sea without an aqualung scared him senseless and soon he lost sensation in his fingers. The mythical pokemon was still tailing him and he often had to pause in order to slow down so his pokemon could create a whirlpool, ironically, it was these vortices of water that were the most effective in delaying Lugia. Since he was underwater, he was unable to summon sunflora; the grass type would make this battle much easier.
He searched and searched.
And came up with nothing, not even a glimpse of her.
Nothing.
Nothing
Lugia flapped his hand-esque wings.
The water swelled and surged, detaching the forlorn trainer from his partner. The second time, Gold gave up, he simply recalled his pokemon and let the tide push him around, underwater cyclones appeared and he got sucked in one and tumbled around, the pressure was making him dizzy. An energy ball exploded close to him and the water erupted, propelling his battered body like a rocket to the surface. It hurt. With a loud splash both him and the protector of the seas surfaced and the instant they did the skies turned dark. Winds howled and he could hear the rumbling of thunder.
Storms lasing forty days, he recalled Red saying something akin to those lines. Hmpf, what did it matter anyway? Crystal was gone. He was supposed to keep the team safe and now she was gone, dead most likely. What was the last thing he said to her? His head ached as he fell down back in the ocean and floated listlessly. Oh yes, he was flirting and holding her hand and against all odds, instead of getting kicked or assaulted by her pokemon, she held his hand as well.
It was warm and tiny and calloused from all the work she had to handle. But to him it was perfect.
The moment Gold's body shot out of the water along with Lugia's, Crystal and Black heaved twin sighs of relief. Already having a good grasp of what the sea beast was capable of, they both hit the beast with a multitude of attacks and yet, the legendary had enough energy to instigate a storm. Both trainers had landed themselves on an island and prepared for the Pokemon's appearance. Mega began draining its energy and Tula had thunder raining down on the creature. After an exhausting battle, Crystal kicked an ultra-ball at its head whilst Black surfed across the ocean to retrieve his senior. As Gold was hauled on the sandy beach Crystal stowed the pokeball back in her bag, approached and called out his name.
The effects were instantaneous. The black haired adolescent scrambled up from his comatose position and ran to her, engulfing her in a bone crushing hug. Crystal's first impression was to kick a dent in his skull; however the thoughts ebbed away when she realized that he was sobbing. Slowly he reached around and hugged him back.
"I'm fine Gold" she soothed the traumatized trainer "see, not a scratch, I apologize for worrying you, I searched the area around a bit and when I didn't see any sign of you or Black, I surfaced."
He sniffed and held her tighter.
"I was scared" he admitted in a trembling voice "I thought...I thought..." he broke off and reluctantly let her go, imparting a small smile. Black shuffled in the distance, not quite knowing what to do.
Maybe it was time for musharna to suck his brainwaves again.
"We've captured Lugia" Gold stated in a shaky voice and laughed, "so let's head to Goldenrod city to rest the night at a hotel and spend the morning at the game corner, what do you say Black?" The young trainer nodded his consent whilst Crystal shook her head in disbelief, "and Crys, after Goldenrod, we'll go to the Safari Zone that opened up in Cianwood so you can capture some new Pokemon if you like...See I'm as good as senior Red when it comes to taking care of my underlings!" he puffed his chest out and grinned.
Under twilight, the three soaked and shivering trainers shared contented looks.
Far away, another trio balanced precariously on the tiled roof of the Bell Tower.
A/N: Guys, thanks for the reviews, my flu is totally gone! Seriously! Oh no wait! I still have a cough *coughs exaggeratedly* So more reviews? :P No really, thank you, I'm going through a tough period in my life and seeing people enjoy my stories really helps, so once again thanks. I'm a bit late, but here is another chapter. Please read and enjoy *whispers: and review*