Chapter 7

For the next two days, I trained for the Tour de Altomare and Nurse Joy kept working on my wounds until they were completely healed. Overall, things were going pretty well. Not much happened during this time, so I won't recount it. But now it was time for the Tour de Altomare!

"Ready Michael?" asked Ash.

"I'm ready as I'll ever be," I replied.

"Hello everyone and welcome to the Tour de Alto mare!" I heard the announcer shout. "Racers, when you hear the Xatu, the race will begin!"

I didn't know what a Xatu was, but I did see three little birds perched on top of a big one and I just assumed that the larger one was the Xatu.

"Ready Politoad?" I asked the frog Pokemon.

He replied squealing happily. I couldn't make out what he was saying, so I just assumed that it was his way of showing confidence.

"Alright then," I said, "let's do our best!"

"Nau," "Nau," "Nau," "Xatu!"

"Let's go!" I heard Ash shout.

As soon as I started the race, however, I heard a familiar voice in my head.

"Michael!? Is that you?"

'Latias?'

"Yeah, it's me! Listen, before you say anything, I'm sorry I didn't come back for you like I said I would. Remember how I told you I wasn't supposed to leave Altomare? Well, my brother didn't believe that I had seen you and thought that I had just made it up so I could leave again. So he trapped me inside the garden and I couldn't come and get you," said Latias apologetically.

'That's what happened?' I asked.

"Yeah, I'm sorry you got hurt so badly, I spend the last few days hoping you were ok,"

'It's ok, I forgive you,' I said, thoughts whizzing around in my head.

"Thanks, Michael, I have to go now. Good luck racing!" Latias giggled.

'Ok, bye Latias!'

"Bye! I'll meet you later ok?"

'How will I find you?' I asked.

"Don't worry, you will!"

Before if could say, or rather think, anything else, I felt the connection break and realized that I was more than halfway through the race already!

"You can do it Politoad!" I said, realizing that we might have a chance to win! He didn't say anything, but I could tell we were going a little faster now. As we rounded a corner I saw Misty and an older boy struggling for the lead.

"Hi, Michael!" I almost jumped when I heard Ash's voice right next to me. I turned around and saw him smiling with Pikachu on his shoulder. His Pokemon, Totodile, seemed to be just as energetic as Politoad.

"Hi, Ash!" I said. I could see Politoad trying to keep up with Totodile. It seemed like the two pokemon were in their own little race, each trying to keep up with the other.

Ash and I were both neck and neck for the rest of the race Politoad and Totodile were panting heavily, but still kept up a very fast pace. Eventually, I caught sight of the finish line.

"Come on Politoad! Just a bit faster!" By now, we had almost caught up to Misty and the other boy. A few yards from the finish line, we caught up to them, and just barely crossed the finish line before them.

"An impressive show of speed!" shouted the announcer. "Judges, will you roll back the video?"

I looked up at a large screen to see a slow-motion video of Politoad and Totodile crossing the finish line. I held my breath as they inched closer and closer and…

"It appears we have a tie!" said the announcer. "Congratulations Ash and Michael!" I was shocked! I had actually won! The crowd erupted in cheers and Ash and I came up to the podium to receive our prizes. I was surprised when I received a glass medallion with what looked to be a Latios and a Latias engraved on it. I smiled. "Good job Ash!" He smiled back. "Same to you!"

Later…

"Great job Michael!" said Misty.

"Yeah," said Brock, "you sure worked well with Politoad considering it's your first time racing with him!"

"Thanks!" I said, feeling very happy.

"Can we get some food now?" asked Ash, "All that racing has completely emptied my stomach."

"Alright, I guess it's almost lunchtime anyway," said Brock.

"Alright let's go!" said Ash, running off.

"Ash!" called Brock, "The restaurant is in the other direction!"

Ash skidded to a halt and ran back. "Oops," he said.

Pikachu laughed. "You never change do you?"

"Hey it's not my fault!" said Ash.

"Don't worry, no one said it was," replied Pikachu, still laughing so hard that he almost fell off of Ash's shoulder.

I tried to restrain myself from laughing as well until I heard a voice in my head.

"Michael! Hi!"

'Latias?' I thought back.

"Yeah, it's me. Hey, you didn't tell me you were traveling with the Chosen One!"

'Who?' I asked, confused.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know." replied Latias, "It's kind of hard to explain, but that boy you're traveling with is the Chosen One,"

'You mean Ash?' I asked, still not getting this 'Chosen One' thing.

"Yeah, him. Anyway, to put it in short, the Chosen One and his friends are some of the few humans that Legendary Pokemon can completely trust. The Chosen One always had a pure heart and is chosen at birth to do great things."

'So I can trust him?'

"Yeah, you can trust him, in fact, you could even reveal yourself to him."

'I, uh…,' I replied.

"Don't worry," said Latias, "you can do it when I take you guys to the garden."

'Garden?' I asked.

"Yeah!" said Latias, "You know, where my brother and I live,"

'Right,' I said, 'so when are we going to go?'

"How about right after you have lunch with your friends? Speaking of which, I should probably cut the telepathy, it looks like Ash is trying to talk to you. Bye!"

Again I felt the telepathy cut before I could reply further. I sighed. 'Oh, well,' I thought, 'Guess I'll just have to wait a little longer.

"Michael? Are you ok?" I turned to see Ash waving his hand in front of my eyes.

I jumped. "Yeah, I'm ok,"

"Are you sure?" asked Brock, you were out for almost 2 minutes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, "just lost in thoughts."

"If you're sure…"

"Don't worry," I said, wishing Latias had picked a different time to talk to me, "I'll be fine."

Thankfully for me, Ash, Misty, and Brock seemed to take it pretty well. Pikachu gave me a little glance before seeming satisfied. I sighed in relief. "So, are we going to get lunch now?"

"Oh yeah, it's lunchtime!" said Ash.

Later… (again)

After we ate lunch, we started to walk back to the Pokemon Center. I wondered when Latias would come, as she said that she would come to get Ash and me after lunch. I didn't know it at first, but I got my answer when Pikachu suddenly jumped off of Ash's shoulder and into an alleyway.

"Pikachu!" called Ash, "Where are you going?"

Ash ran after Pikachu and I followed.

*pant* "Pikachu! Come back here!" yelled Ash.

Pikachu suddenly skidded to a halt in front of an alleyway. Ash and I ran up to him, gasping for air. Even though Ash was 5 years younger than me, he still ran nearly as fast as I could. I assumed Pikachu could run faster than both of us due to him being able to control electricity.

"Pikachu! What was that for?" asked Ash once he had caught his breath.

Pikachu looked around. "I don't know," he said, "I just felt something strange and ran over here I guess…"

Just then, I heard some struggling and a few laughs coming from one of the alleyways.

"Sounds like someone's in trouble!" said Ash.

"Let's go!" said Pikachu.

I followed as they ran, wondering what the source of the yelling could be. I soon got my answer as we turned a corner I saw a girl with brown hair a green top and a white skirt. She was being attacked by some kind of giant spider thing. Next to them, in one of the channels, were two shady-looking women in some kind of motorboat.

"Hey stop that right now!" Yelled Ash.

The two women looked around. "Well well, it looks like we have a visitor. Espeon, get him!" The one who had spoken threw a sphere which I assumed to be a Pokeball. The Pokeball opened and a purple fox-like pokemon appeared. "Use psybeam!

"Pikachu!" yelled Ash, "Counter with thunder!"

"Alright take this!" yelled Pikachu as he fired off a huge bolt of thunder. The two attacks met in mid-air, causing a large explosion. As I watched, I felt the familiar waves of telepathy come back to me again. 'Michael, it's me!' I looked around. The girl from before was looking directly at me. 'No time to explain, just follow me. Oh, and grab Ash as well!'

I nodded, assuming that the girl was really Latias in her disguise.

"Ash let's go!" I yelled.

"Right!" said Ash, "Pikachu, thunderbolt one more time!"

Pikachu launched another large bolt of lightning. This time, it made contact sending Espeon into that spider thing. This diversion gave us enough time to dash out before they could recover. We rounded the corner just before we heard their pokemon recovering. After a few minutes, we stopped running to catch our breath.

*pant* "Whew," *pant* said Ash, "looks like we got away,"

I nodded, still a bit winded. Latias seemed ok and Pikachu was also unharmed.

'Michael, have Ash follow me!' said Latias telepathically.

"Uh Ash, I think she wants us to follow her," I said.

"Huh? Ok," said Ash.

We followed Latias down the maze of alleyways that ran through the city. I couldn't make out where we were heading to, but Latias seemed to know exactly where she was going. Eventually, we stopped at a brick wall.

'Uh Latias, this is a dead end,' I thought.

'Looks can be deceiving,' telepathed Latias back, 'just follow me.'

I was about to question her logic when she stepped right through the wall! I noticed Ash and Pikachu were also visibly shocked by this.

"Uh, what just happened?" asked Ash.

"I don't know," I replied, "should we give it a try?"

Ash shrugged. "I guess?"

We walked through the 'wall' a bit puzzled. On the other side of the wall, there was a long dark alley with light shining at the end.

"Hey Michael," said Ash.

"What?" I asked.

"Race you there!" Ash yelled before sprinting off towards the exit.

"Hey, no fair!" I yelled, chasing after him. We ran all the way to the end but before we got there we stopped, awestruck at what we saw. In front of us was a garden but not just any garden (as I later found out). It was an incredibly large place surrounded by a stone wall, and had many fountains made of brick with grassy fields, all sorts of flowers, both natural and man-made ponds, and trees of all kinds. It looked a lot like a Venetian garden but 100x more beautiful.

"Wow," said Ash, completely forgetting about the race.

I noticed Latias coming up to us. 'Hello Ash,' she said, 'It's nice to meet you,'

"AH!" yelled Ash, "Who was that?"

'It's me," said Latias, giggling slightly at his reaction, 'I think I'd better show you something,' With those words, she lifted her disguise and revealed her true Latias form.

"L-latias?" asked Ash, still dumbfounded.

Latias giggled. 'Suprised?'

"I knew it!" said Pikachu, jumping from Ash's shoulder, "The way you and Michael communicated without talking, with my logic skills, I cleverly deduced that you must be Latias!"

"Then why didn't you tell me?" asked Ash.

"Because I didn't want to ruin the suspense," replied Pikachu.

As we were talking, I sensed another disturbance in the air. I turned around to see a pokemon that looked like me, except for the feathers which were blue instead of green. I assumed that this was the brother that Latias had been talking about. 'Hello, Ash, Michael,' he greeted.

Ash looked around. "Latios? Wait, is this your guy's home?"

'Yep!' said Latias, 'Welcome to the secret garden of Altomare! Hey Michael, want to show him?'

"You know her?" Ash asked me.

"Yeah, it's a long story," I said, "but anyway, there's something you should know about me, Ash,"

"What?" asked Ash.

"Well, I might as well show you," I said, allowing the energy inside of me to come out and transform me into my true form.

Ash jumped back in shock. "You too?" He asked. Pikachu just smirked. Ash seemed to have noticed as he said, "Pikachu, you knew about this?"

"Well, I knew about him, just not them," he said, gesturing to Latios and Latias.

Ash groaned. "Why does everyone get to know except me?" He muttered.

Latios cleared his throat, (something I didn't really think was necessary as we were using telepathy) 'Anyway, now that that's done, we may as well go through introductions. I am Latios and you've already met my sister Latias. It's an honor to meet you Chosen One, and you Michael.'

"You can just call me Ash," said Ash, "I'm kinda getting tired of the 'Chosen One' title,"

"Nice to meet you," I said.

"Latios! Latias! We're back!" I turned around to look at the entrance of the garden. There were two people there. One was an elderly man and the other looked almost exactly like Latias in her human form.

The elderly man came up to me. "Hello, I assume you are the Michael that Latias was talking about. My name is Lorenzo and this is my granddaughter, Bianca. We take care of this garden as well as Latios and Latias."

"Latias!" said Bianca, "I'm glad you found him! But who is this?" she asked, gesturing to Ash.

"I'm Ash, from pallet town, and this is my partner Pikachu!" said Ash.

"Why are you here?" asked Bianca suspiciously.

'It's ok Bianca,' telepathed Latios, 'I asked Latias to bring him here with Michael. He is the Chosen One who is chosen at birth to help legendary pokemon like us,'

"Ah, I read about that once," said Lorenzo, "quite fascinating, so you're the Chosen One Ash?"

"I guess," said Ash, "I mean, all the Legendaries seem to call me that,"

After talking and playing for a few hours Ash spoke up.

"Well, that was a lot of fun, but I should probably go now. It's getting late and if I miss dinner Misty and Brock will be REALLY worried."

I turned to Latios and Latias. "Do you two mind if I stay here for the night?" I asked.

"Not at all," said Latios, "we'd be happy to accommodate you,"

'Well, Ash, I guess I'll see you tomorrow,' I said.

"Ok, see you!" said Ash.

Several Hours Later…

I woke up from my sleep to a strange buzzing noise. I noticed that Latios and Latias were awake as well, so I flew up to them.

"Is something wrong?" I asked Latios.

"I'll go check," he replied, and flew off.

A few seconds later I heard him call, "Michael! Latias! We have intruders!"

I gasped and flew in the direction of his voice. I saw those women from earlier, they had just taken a blue orb out of one of the wells and their pokemon looked like they were charging up attacks.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"Turn invisible!" I heard Latios yell.

I activated my invisibility and Latios and Latias did the same.

"Try to hit them!" said Latios.

I didn't know how to use any of my moves, so I just shot off and tried to ram one of the women. I saw them put on some glasses, but I didn't know why. Then I heard Latios yell, he was trapped in a net that was shocking him! I saw one flying toward Latias, but Latios got in the way so it hit him instead.

"Latios!" I yelled.

"Michael! Latias! Dive into the pool in the garden!" said Latios.

"But Latios-"

"Now! Go!"

I didn't want to leave Latios, but knowing it wasn't safe anymore, I dove into the pool and swam away. I came up in a random alleyway with Latias right behind me.

This is my first original chapter for this book!

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