Here is chapter two, later rather than sooner!
Waking up the next morning was rough. My eyes refused to open despite the loud alarm from my phone that was being muted from being dropped on the ground. I stared at the roof for a few minutes, dreading the day ahead after how sore my body ended up after all that happened last nigh-
I jolted up and looked towards my desk. The food was still there but the Celebi was nowhere to be seen. I swung my legs off the bed and rubbed my eyes, grabbing the screaming phone from the floor.
"Take care of yourself," I said out loud, standing up. The glance towards the mirror reminded me that I needed to shower soon. I grabbed spare clothes and headed out of my room, dropping the clothes off in the bathroom, before heading downstairs quickly. "Morning, Grandma."
"Good morning, sleepy-head," said the voice of my friend, Noelle. I stared at her, sitting at our dining room table alongside her brother and my grandma. "We were about to go wake you up, how late did you stay up?"
"Not too late… just tired from work," I lied, walking over to the couch to sit beside the dog Pokémon. She looked forward quietly, looking like her old self under the towel. I began to idly pet the Pokémon while speaking to the table. "Sorry to keep you guys waiting. My phone fell and I didn't hear my alarm… are we gonna be late?"
"We should be fine, we got here pretty early to drop our stuff off," Noelle said, walking over towards me. She knelt to her knees and began to pet Dachsbun's face. "We should leave in half an hour though. You seem like you just rolled out of bed."
"I did just roll out of bed, you're right.. I'll go get ready," I said, standing up. Stopping by the table on my way back upstairs, I waved at the teenage boy at the table. "Sorry to keep you waiting, Leo."
"It's okay, I'm just glad we could go at all," the boy said, smiling warmly. He turned towards my grandmother. "And thank you for letting us spend the weekend here, ma'am."
"It's no trouble at all, dear. This one is always working like my darling son and his wife… it'll be nice to have someone to talk to about anything else," she said, smiling at me after her sarcastic words. I sighed and headed back upstairs.
The hot shower reminded me how uncomfortable the previous night had truly been. After the rush of everything had died down, my body had been so sore that I had trouble sleeping and my legs were still sore from the forced sprint through those woods. After checking myself in the mirror, no one would be able to tell anything was different. I still looked like me; an ordinary working adult living day by day. Closing the door behind me, I noticed Noelle in my room, sitting on my bed. She held a school yearbook in her lap, flipping idly through pages until she turned to me.
"You know, you really haven't changed since you finished school," she said, looking over at me. She tapped her chin. "Well, except for the hair and beard but that just shows the passage of time."
"I hope that's a good thing," I said, grabbing my stuff from my desk. I grabbed my backpack and turned towards her.
She also hadn't changed over the years. While I was a person who kept to themselves, she was the opposite; a popular, smart, and pretty girl that everyone wanted to be around. I had always thought the fact that we were childhood friends was why she even spoke to me during that time. Even now, I bet she's the most popular person in Cianwood and those people would wonder why she was spending time with someone like me.
"Of course it is," she said, closing the book with a smile. Her dirty blond hair was in a ponytail and her smile and green eyes were stunning; she was still very pretty. She stood up and put the book away before walking towards me. Her head tilted up slightly as she spoke to me. "You're alright, right?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a weird night," I said. She nodded. "You'd believe me if I said a legendary Pokémon was here last night?"
"I would if you said so. Is that why there's food on your desk? I doubt Dachsbun could reach that," she said, motioning towards the spot Celebi had been.
"Something… a voice spoke to me during the middle of the night. There was a light in the woods… my body just moved on its own, Dachsbun came on her own volition. She fought off a Houndoom while I climbed a tree and found… found a Celebi," I said, looking around as I spoke the last phrase. "It sounds crazy but…"
"Hmm… it does sound insane and very much like a dream but… it IS something you'd do," she said, tilting her head in thought. "I'm just glad you're alright. A Houndoom is weird to be around here but at least you had a Pokémon with you this time."
"I'm not insane enough to wander into the woods without a Pokémon. That has been drilled into our heads since the day we turned ten," I responded. She chuckled and grabbed my hand.
"We should start going… Leo would kill me if we missed it after waking up so early to catch the ferry."
The three of us walked together in idle chatter. It was rare for all of us to be able to get together but it was even more rare on a weekend when they'd end up staying at my house. Our destination was the bug catching contest; as the region got more and more populated, they had been forced to have people sign up and wait in a queue. The teenager excitedly walked in front of us, turning around constantly to chatter.
"Hopefully you win… Anything specific you hope to find?" I asked the boy. He nodded.
"I'd love to run into something not native… maybe a Grubbin or a Sewaddle…" He said, staring at the sky as he thought. The people in charge of the tournament always sprayed some special pheromone half a day before the contests to attract rare Pokémon. Noelle dropped her fist weakly on his head. "H-Hey, whatcha do that for?"
"Seriously? Not like… a Heracross or Vespiquen? You really aim too low," She retorted. "When we were your age, the best we could hope for was a Scyther. The winners were always the ones that found one of those."
"I know, I know. I remember Dad telling us stories of always losing to the same guy… I think he said Nick?" Leo said, shrugging as he tried to remember. He turned back forward. "Anyways, it doesn't matter if I win… I just wanna catch something cool. Maybe they're not super cool at first but they'll evolve…"
"Big bugs are pretty cool," I said, stretching my arms as we saw the edge of the park coming into sight. Noelle's eyes lit up as I sighed. "Doesn't mean I'm gonna catch one."
"Aw, boo. This could be your glorious return, an excuse to leave Johto and conquer another region as a champion who started from the bottom with a measly Weedle…" She said, putting an arm around me. I smirked and shook my head. "Why not?!"
"As good as that sounds, and it sounds amazing, I'll have to pass. I just don't know if I can become a champion with my fictional Weedle," I said, dripping with sarcasm. "Plus, why would I leave everyone I know here? My life is comfortable as is."
"Yeah, comfortable enough that you never visited me in Unova," she said, feigning a pout. She quickly waved it off. "Kidding, kidding."
She wasn't kidding.
The quiet state her remark had put me in was luckily cut short by our arrival at one of the gates to the national park. The teen boy excitedly held a ticket in his hand as he walked over to give the employee his Pokémon he wouldn't be bringing. Noelle tapped my side and leaned closer to me.
"Wanna see if we can still get to our secret spot?" She whispered. I smiled and nodded. She turned to her brother. "Leo, we're gonna go walk around a bit, text me when you guys start!"
Once the boy nodded in affirmation, we stepped through the doors, telling the employee we were just here to visit the park. The park hasn't changed since we were kids, aside from minor renovations. The fountain in the center was what caught your eye initially where a few water Pokémon played around. Around the fountain, water adorned the majority of the area, creating a pokeball from an aerial view. We moved around the edge of the grass until we reached a part of the fence where one of the metal posts was bent, hidden behind a restroom building.
"You think they would've fixed this by now," Noelle said, lowering her head and slipping through the gap easily. She turned back towards me. "Can you even fit?"
"Probably… if not, I'll make the gap bigger again," I joked. I lowered my head and made myself as small as possible, barely squeezing through. Noelle smiled and looked around.
"Even though it's just the edge of the woods, it did feel like an endless maze when we were kids, didn't it?" She asked. I nodded quietly. She began to walk forward and I followed. "So… why do you think Celebi reached out to you?"
"I have no clue. Probably just shouted in general but I arrived first… Doubt it's first instinct was to ask a guy without a Pokémon for help," I responded. The river that surrounded the park's edge came into view as we parted a few trees. This used to be our hiding spot as kids; a small pocket of clearing able to be seen from the river and no one else. We sat on the grass almost on instinct. "Still feels so isolated."
"Right? It always sucked when there were other kids here!" She said, giggling. "Always delinquents skipping something."
"Y-Yeah… I remember those…" I tried to say. My head left light as words struggled to come out. The girl turned to me, lunging forward to grab me as I closed my eyes.
"What are you doing? Did you stay up all night playing games again," I heard a familiar voice speak as a finger flicked my forehead.
My eyes opened slowly to see myself surrounded in trees and bushes. The weather was warmer than I remembered as there wasn't any breeze anymore. My forearm wiped away sweat as I focused on the source of the voice in total shock. It was Noelle but she was… younger. My hand moved to my face; no facial hair at all, what the hell was going on?
"You're acting weird, are you okay?" She asked, tilting her head as she moved herself a bit closer. I nodded quickly as I tried to compose myself the best I could. She sighed. "Doesn't matter. Those middle schoolers are at our spot, we should leave."
"Uhm… alright," I said. I probably said the same thing when I was this age.
'Help them!'
Another familiar voice… somewhat. I looked around behind Noelle as Celebi appeared from nowhere. I stared in silence as it flew around the frozen girl and stopped in front of me. I reached for it but it quickly dodged my hand.
"What do you mean help them? Nothing happened today," I said. The Pokémon made a few noises and pointed me towards the river. "I'm not your errand boy, you know."
'Good person.'
With that, the Pokémon vanished as Noelle continued talking as if nothing had happened. I put my hands on her shoulders and she stopped talking, looking up at me.
"I need to go talk to them, you should head back," I said, seriously. She shook her head immediately.
"What do you… you need me around! What if something attacks you?" She said, grabbing my arm. I shook free of her grip and ran forward.
From my memory, Noelle looked like how she did when we were in grade school. I watched my hands as I ran; I was at most eleven years old but with my adult mind. I stopped a few yards away from the group of teenagers, who turned to me holding Pokémon eggs. Examining the scene and remembering stuff I had heard about all those years ago made me realize why Celebi might've brought me here. I clenched my fist and two of the boys stepped forward as the biggest one still held an egg.
"Hey, stop doing that," I said, eyeing the pair. They looked at each other and pulled out Pokeballs.
"Just walk away and we won't pummel your little Pokémon," one said.
"I don't have any Pokémon," I responded. The pair looked at each other and laughed before the apparent leader stepped forward.
"Don't they teach you to not walk into dangerous areas without a Pokémon?" He said, stepped up to me. He was almost a foot taller than me and, while not intimidating to my 24 year old brain, a bit stronger than me. He tossed the egg he held up and down lightly. "How about I give you one because I'm such a great guy?"
As I stared at him, he tapped his chin. I reached out for the egg and he pulled it above me. He continued this before shaking his head. "Fine… If you don't want it, we'll keep playing with them." His fake smile distorted as he turned around and flung the egg hard towards a tree before I could grab his hand.
"You fucking-" I muttered, kicking the back of his leg. I closed my eyes as I heard the impact before jumping on the kid and landing a clean punch on the back of his head before the other two kids pushed me off. "What the hell is your problem?!"
"You little-," The boy said, standing up and grabbing the back of his head. He stepped forward. "Hold him still."
At this age, I would've panicked at this moment… hell, I wouldn't have hit anyone else but I got ready to fight back. The two boys held my arms as the bigger boy walked towards me with a fist drawn back; I kicked forward and pushed the boy back again. When one of the boys holding my arms turned to me, I swung my head forward to hit him in the nose. The final boy hit me on the cheek as I turned around but the adrenaline kept me focused as I shoved him towards a nearby tree, pushing him with the arm he was holding. I walked back over to the leader and stared down at him after giving him a kick to his sides. He raised his arms to his face and spoke. "P-Please, stop!"
"How many eggs did you kill?" I asked, kneeling down and staring at him.
"F-Four…" he said with fear in his voice. I stood up and kicked him three more times. "S-Stop!"
"Don't ever let me catch you doing this, this is like… It's fucked up," I said, angrily stumbling on my words. I walked over to the edge of the water and grabbed the sole remaining egg.
"You're… not gonna get away that easily…" one of the two boys spoke up. The pair stared at me, holding pokeballs. A Totodile and Cyndaquil came out as one helped their boss.
"R-Riley, what's going on here?" a familiar voice yelled. My heart sank as she appeared, holding her own pokeball. She tossed her pokeball, releasing her Chikorita.
"Noelle, get out of here!" I said, stepping forward. The pair of Pokémon moved towards me, stopping me; Even Pokémon this young can be taught to act like this? The Cyndaquil turned towards Noelle's Chikorita as the Totodile maintained its focus on me. Its trainer commanded it to use Water Gun towards me, causing me to block the egg as the water hit me hard, nearly pushing me into the water.
"I can't leave you now," Noelle said, staring at the fire type with worry. The Cyndaquil was stronger at this point since she would've just gotten her starter.
"Crap… where's this Celebi when I need its help most…" I thought to myself, looking around in a bit of a panic. As the Totodile reared back to release another torrent of water, a black orb shot forward from behind me, knocking the Totodile out immediately. I turned and saw an Octrillery climbing up the side of the lake and standing next to me. It looked upset… were these its eggs? I looked at the Pokémon and pointed at Cyndaquil.
"R-Run!" The trio said, in almost comical unison. The trainers withdrew their Pokémon and took off running. I slumped to the ground in a bit of pain as Noelle rushed over towards me, keeping an eye on the Octillery.
"W-What happened?" she asked, staring at the egg in my arms.
"They were… breaking eggs for fun. Something told me to stop them… My body moved on its own, I guess," I said, stretching the truth at the end. The Octillery slithered over towards me and I placed the egg down in front of it. It seemed to examine it for a few seconds and stared at me, saying its name a few times. It moved the egg towards me and began to head back into the waters. I grabbed the egg again and stood up, watching the evolved Pokémon vanish.
"Are you gonna… keep it?" The girl asked. I stared at her as time stopped around me again. Celebi appeared around me and tapped it's hand on my head.
"Are you… patting me?" I asked. It nodded and spoke to me. "Good job!" I looked down at the egg and then back to Celebi. "I should leave this here, right? I wouldn't be able to explain this."
"Trusted!" It said, pointing towards the water. The Pokémon began to glow as my hands instinctively covered my eyes.
My eyes opened to see Noelle staring at me. She looked her adult age again as she moved back to give me space.
"Your legs are comfortable," I joked. She sighed and flicked my forehead. I pushed myself up with effort. My body felt weak as if the injuries to my eleven year old body transferred equally to my current body. "What happened?"
"You just… passed out for a moment. I was about to go get help but you came to almost immediately," she said, reaching into her bag for a bottle of water.
"Where's the egg?" I asked her. She tilted her head. "R-Right… remember how I mentioned Celebi…"
Her gaze turned from thinking I was insane to seemingly understanding as I explained what happened. Anyone else would've called me a madman but Noelle seemed to understand my madness. After regaining some strength, I stood up and grabbed my bag.
"That's something you would've done… Especially ignoring the danger part," She said, looking at me.
It feels…" I began, opening it up to see the egg from the past. I took it out and showed Noelle. "I found it…"
"Are you… gonna keep it?" She asked again, thirteen years later. I stared at the egg and nodded. "Don't force yourself, Riley… I could take it if you…"
"I couldn't help most of them but I can… I'll help this one," I said, looking out towards the lake. I wondered if the Octrillery would still be around nowadays as I put the egg in my bag until I could find a safer place for it. "We should head back, we need to cheer Leo on."
"Right!" Noelle said, grabbing my hand with a smile as we ran together back into the park.