Watcher of Arceus
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Only the idea and OC's.
Author Notes:
-X-This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.
~xXx~ This will identify where each paragraph breaks.
"Human Speech" 'Character Thought' {Pokémon Speech}
Co-author: Catsithx
The following is a total and complete Reboot of the story "Watcher of Arceus".
~xXx~
Chapter 25 : The Choice to Run
Although lunch was a bit slow to be made given the lack of cooking gear and the amount of rice and curry being made, it was still a worth while meal even if vita-curry wasn't as entirely good as proper curry.
With the meal done, and Mew pulling up a large table and lots of chairs for everyone setting it over the in corner where they could still see, the group then released the rest of their pokemon. Rebecca quickly moved into Thomas's arms, giving him a large hug, and then finding her spot where two plates were side by side by a larger chair, clearly hers and Thomas's. It was clear that she was still emotionally strained from last night and the news still hadn't fully sunk in yet as she stayed silent and confused.
As they finished setting up though, something else moved up into the chamber, both Xent and Sarah quickly raising their arms again as Registeel just silently entered the room.
"Its fine, he knows we are guests now." Thomas added, though Radara and Juno did quickly move positions, moving next to Mew. With Mew having picked his place though, Xent quickly opposite side of the table though as he released all of his pokemon, Sarah doing the same as they prepared everyone plates.
"Hey... why does it look like your pokemon are avoiding Registeel. I thought that they were pretty much family with all the legendaries?" Xent asked, only for Thomas to look over and then see it himself.
"Oh, that. Like I said, the Regi pokemon are all just part of Regigigas. They aren't fully alive and aware, but they do sometimes have quarks. Its not that they dislike all Registeel, its that there is one specific Registeel that they don't like." Thomas explained as he set down the bowls for Juno and Radara, and went about preparing a bowl for Mew and Suicune.
The Registeel did see them as it looked around, but for now it just moved over and carefully navigated the various toys, before putting something away in a chest, and then turning back to the table where everyone was starting to eat now.
"I see... man you guys are weird." Xent added.
'I have no problem throwing more water in your face again Xent.' Radara added as she started on her curry and rice.
Registeel had silently approached though as they ate, only for it to just thud as it sat down directly behind Xent and Zia.
"Hey hey, watch it!" Xent quickly grumbled as he turned to face the Registeel that was sitting pretty much behind him, making sure to show off the crystals on the bracelets again.
The Registeel just ignored him as Zia growled a bit, but quickly went to her curry, knowing that she needed something to eat. Like Xent she was hungry even if she didn't want to admit it, but at least she knew that she actually had to eat.
"So... Mew's got lots of different kinds of drinks up here, like lots lots. I see soda, juices, water..." Thomas started, only for Xent to get up, not feeling too happy about the Registeel right there behind him.
"I'll just go see what he has myself." Xent stated as he got up again, only to see a number of various bottles starting to float up.
'Radara... don't. There's no reason to actually throw out his drinks. We'll just take them with us when we leave.' Suicune stated. Xent just grumbled a bit again, only to look at the various bottles of juices just floating in a cold water spring, grabbing a few bottles of juice with Thomas. Before he could grab the last one though, there was a loud snarl and unhappy yip.
[Let me GO!] Zia snarled loudly, the Registeel having grabbed her and replaced its lap with her seat. One hand was now firmly holding her and the other was over her head, two fingers rubbing her ears as it held her. [Stop! Stop it! That's for Xent only!] She yelled out throwing her arms up and her claws grew and gathered a dark purple grow before pounding them all into Registeel's arm that was holding her.
The attack just utterly bounced off though entirely harmless and not stopping it at all in fact seeming to hurt Zia from the rebound of the attack.
"HEY!" Xent screamed as he threw the bottles down and rushed up, quickly grabbing Zia's pokeball and calling her back, attempting to save her. "You leave my pokemon alone! I thought you said that they wouldn't bother any pokemon!" Xent snapped, as the Registeel looked a bit to the left and then the right, before standing up.
"I swear they don't attack unless attacked first!" Thomas countered. "I've never seen one of them do that before, but it wasn't trying to hurt Zia."
The Registeel did get up though and turned towards Xent, moving towards him as Xent backed up, already in a corner for the most part though. Thomas and even Radara rushed up to stand between them. Registeel just leaned forward a bit, rubbing Radara's ears now, before carefully pushing them both aside and gently grabbing Xent even as he tried to dive and roll under it. It proved far faster though, easily catching him mid action but still being surprisingly gentle with him though, holding him up by his belt and waist and then taking Zia's pokeball.
With Zia's pokeball in hand, it set Xent back down who quickly tried to hit him, but only hurt his own hands as Registeel walked back to the table and just thudded down again. Now in position once more, it released Zia in his lap, held her with one hand, and then put her pokeball on top of its head, before going back to petting.
Zai quickly started to struggle again, trying to pound it with a night slash again, and then threw her arms up and fired off several swift stars into the air, before they quickly turned back and hit the Registeel repeatedly in the face, but still did nothing as it just kept petting her head and rubbing her ears entirely oblivious to the situation. She even tried to summon up several zoroark clones that all jumped up all over him to try and get his attention, before they ran off and hid, while Zia herself tried to make herself invisible.
It all amounted to nothing though as the Registeel just kept petting Zia against her will entirely uncaring for any distractions. [Hurry up and help me!] Zai screamed at Akra and Verna, who were just sitting there still. Akra however quickly responded by just leaning down for another beak of curry, and then leaning right back up again, some still dripping from her beak.
Verna was still just holding the spoon of curry she had been holding when this all started, a little worried and not sure what to think at all. 'How? Like... well he's not hurting you... and what... just... like I can even do anything?'
"Let her go!" Xent finally snapped and just climbed entirely on him, trying to but failing to get his pokeball back as it was just stuck to its metal body, and then rolling into his lap and trying to force Registeel's arm off of Zia by pushing himself entirely against its body. No amount of struggling worked though and Registeel just kept up its gentle rubbing of Zia's ears until she twisted around and full on snapped her jaws as tight as she could on one of Registeel's fingers.
She held her bite for a few seconds before letting go and whining out loudly, a chipped tooth for her efforts before large tears spilled from her eyes, Zia wiggling more and trying to thrash a bit as she put everything into a fake tears attack, even giving a few unhappy yips.
Registeel slowly stood up, Xent toppling over from the movement and just landing face first into his plate of curry as Registeel just held Zia a bit more, even turning her around and holding her to its shoulder. Moving along slowly, it began to massage her entire back with one hand, and started to collect flowers and leaves from the walls with its other hand.
"Xent... are you just cursed or something?" Sarah asked as Serenity and Flare just kept eating, leaning up from time to time to keep looking over the place, Rebecca finally giving a few giggles from Xent's face.
'If he is, then we had nothing to do with it. Out mother was VERY against trying to do something like that, and none of our brothers and sisters would even have any reason to do something like this as a curse.' Suicune stated.
As Registeel moved along the wall though, Zia gave up her fake tears seeing that it clearly did not work and only made things worse. As she was being moved though, she did grab something though, seeing a giant blue metal boat oar like thing hanging on the wall, and being held up almost six feet off the ground, this left it in easy reach. Swinging the giant metal boat oar above her head readying a strike, she let out one more yell.
[Fuck off, I belong to XENT!] She screamed and brought it down as best she could, only for Registeel to stop and grab it.
"Woah, hey hey! Careful with that!" Thomas quickly scream out now seeing what it was that Zai had grabbed, rushing up as Registeel held it, before stuffing the thing into Thomas's hands.
"Mew, where did you Spanky?" Thomas demanded as he held the metal oar and looking at Mew now. "I thought this was lost when the Northern Sails went down and Lugia's been looking for this for over four hundred years!"
'Spanky?' Radara asked quickly looking now, bouncing down from her seat and moving over to Thomas to inspect the boat oar in full along with Thomas. Almost six feet long, with a two foot long head with a wide handle and Arceus cross on other end. It was the same blue as Thomas's sword that he just lost and of course the spear that he still had.
[I finded it years ago. Fishing men grab it with the big krabby and not know what it means. I keep it safe here.] Mew stated as Xent finished wiping his face off and then moving up to Thomas.
"You said this oar was called Spanky... well give it here, I'm about to give that damned mon a solid spanking." Xent grumbled, and at last Verna rushed up and pulled Xent back.
'And you need a time out too. Look, I don't know even know what we can do for Zia right now, but it won't hurt her... well not physically... I'm sorry, but I don't know what we can do!' Verna now stated, holding onto Xent as Thomas kept the watcher weapon out of Xent's reach now, just moving past him and setting it down, only to notice Registeel braiding Zia's hair with flowers and crystals, making a crown over her ears and in her hair while she still tried to wiggle herself free.
"Mew... do you have any other more of the weapons of our brothers and sisters?" Thomas asked, now thinking about it and how Mew did just collect pretty much everything.
[I have Sheena's big pointy stick, and Mocha's mallet, and Ravick's curly walking stick... oh oh, and Cedo's Fists!] Mew explained, flying up and around, looking through the various chests and more, before pulling out a large lance taller then Thomas was himself, a very ornate mace with a head as big as a metapod, and a large staff that might as well have been shepherds crook that was lined with gems. The last one was of interest though as Radara turned to face him as he flew back down with the three weapons letting them gently fall to the floor, before pulling out a pair of tonfas.
Not to big, not to small, a very smooth finished surface and easy for almost anyone to use, the tonfa's only problem as far as Thomas was concerned were the sharpened spikes on the longer end of the tonfa's. Cedo has often used them as a means to help him puncture stone and ice since he loved to climb anything tall and they had helped him climb Mount Silver and Mount Coronet many times in the past. Of course, the sharped spikes also had other uses, and Thomas never fully got use to them in the times he had tried to use them himself. In truth, it was constant desire not to really hurt people that gave him the most trouble with tonfa, too worried about really hurting someone with them that made it hard for them to use, he just had so much more control with his own blade.
"Cedo's tonfas could certainly prove useful." Thomas managed though as he thought about it, looking to Radara for her opinion.
'They would be far more manageable on the road then any thing else we have collected at the moment, and as a defensive tool, they would be highly valuable. They would also be easy to hide and remain quite with. I might suggest Ravick's crook, but those gems would make it stand out far too much, and the other two just will not be useful for staying hidden in the current times.' Radara said, looking over the other weapons presented before them before looking back to the tonfas again.
"Mew, may I have these?" Thomas asked, knowing that he really did need something small to held defend himself with until he full use of all of his abilities again.
[Yep yep! You can take all but Spanky!] Mew happily stated, thinking that maybe he wasn't in trouble anymore, as well as giving a laugh as he said the name Spanky. [Aunty Lugia always has best stories to tell searching for Spanky!]
'I am ratting him out about Spanky as soon as we leave.' Radara quickly stated, moving back and jumping up on her seat once more.
Suicune and Thomas just gave a small sigh as Thomas took the tonfa and moved them to Sarah's bag, before setting down all the other weapons nearby as well. As he returned to table though, Sarah just looked at him.
"A... boat oar named Spanky?" Sarah asked.
"It belonged our sister named Ether. While she had the same psychic traits like all of us, more of her abilities were plant focused, like a lot of grass type pokemon. She loved the water though, and her brother Bishop, a member of the spearow family, was always there with her. Because Ether didn't have water traits when we were offered what kind of "weapon" we wanted, Ether took a different route and wanted a boat oar that would let her always have one at the ready." Thomas explained.
"It was over 1600 years ago, and it was just kinda thought that we would always need oars for out boats if we didn't want to have them towed along by water pokemon, so an oar that would never break was just kinda a nice though for her. The nickname came a few hundred years later though, when a pair of snorlax were causing massive problems throughout what would be the northern parts of the Kanto region and just east of the Cameran Kingdom." Thomas continued as Mew flew over and quickly started laughing loudly, just floating above them now.
[Ether used Spanky to punish them so much! They gots a major whooping and made them red red!] Mew laughed out, Sarah just looking on confused.
"Mew... she can't understand you..." Thomas sighed as he just shook his head.
'They were cowards against anyone stronger then them at first, and despite being a snorlax, they could run alright... or well, roll. We never did figure out who taught them to use the roll out attack or how they stayed awake so much, but they caused a lot of trouble and smashed several markets and more just to get at the food, terrorize the locals, and then run off at the first sign of something that they couldn't handle. Ether was a fairly small girl though, and looked innocent. These snorlax learned the hard way how not so innocent she was.' Radara smiled.
"Although it was never really intended for battle, it was still made of god blessed metal. So, when they showed up having heard about the thousands of berries and sugar cane that was used to lure them in and all they found guarding the berries were just Ether and Biship, they thought that they had an easy time and could even make the town give up more." Thomas said, before just giving a small nod as he thought back about it.
"Gali and Koris, and Radara and me were there as well just in case, but Ether had personal reason to want to stop it and handle things. In one of their little attacks to eat everything they could in a town, they hurt someone that she fancied. So when they came to town and tried to bully her, she just humiliated them rather thoroughly. Forty-seven... forty-seven hard strikes to their backsides each, one spank "awarded" for each town that they demanded food from, just treated like little children, and spanked hard." Thomas said giving a sigh.
'Mew was also there, and kept cheering about the power of Spanky now, just giving it the nick name. Those two snorlax never forgot it either, and anytime that they acted up, just the mere mention of Spanky was enough to get them under control easily.' Radara explained, before pulling Mew down into a seat next to Sarah.
"And so, now Mew only calls it Spanky, and almost a thousand years of calling it Spanky now, it just what it is now." Thomas finished.
"I... I see." Sarah said, rather confused still, only for a thought to cross her mind. "That's... not where spanking children came from did it?"
'Not exactly, no. It was around before then, which is where Ether got the idea to humiliate them and treat like children to make a point with them, and their backsides are not too different from human ones, so it wasn't vital, but as Ether certainly proved, it can be very painful if spanked.' Radara explained, thinking back on it.
"I would say that her incident certainly stood out among instances of spanking, but no, I wouldn't say she inspired it." Thomas added.
Another loud yip got their attention as they looked over where Verna was trying to reason with Zia and Registeel. Most of Zia's hair had now been braided, and a large crystal like crown was woven into her hair as she was forced to sit still in Registeel's lap. Xent was still trying to get close, but clearly Verna had put up a barrier was keeping him away from Registeel.
"I said let her go!" Xent yelled again, as Registeel just suddenly stopped. As it did though, Thomas, Radara, and Suicune all gave a curious look though, Thomas pulling Ravick's crook to his side as he slowly stood up.
"Uh... Thomas?" Sarah asked, quickly noticing that something was happening judging by their reactions.
"Just stay here, Registeel is responding to something." Thomas said as Registeel just got up, still holding Zia, but carrying her back to the table and setting her on a seat. Once more she started to struggle hard, even as she was sat down in front of her plate of curry again. Registeel gave her one more soft and caring full rub of her head and ears, before letting her go and Zia instantly rushed away, bouncing off the chair, rushing to the other of the room and climbing up several branches until she was well out of Registeel's reach.
Registeel didn't seem to care though as it approached Xent again, reaching up and grabbing Zia's pokeball as it approached, Verna trying to stay between Xent and it though, only for it to reach out and gently hand Verna the pokeball. Afterwards, it turned towards the balcony and just ran right out and jumped off the edge, Thomas, Radara, and Suicune all moving to follow, at least towards the balcony.
Looking down, they all watched Registeel just fall and fall, before getting hidden in the branches and leaves, before a loud crash sounded showing that it had landed. Looking up though, they all saw the source of the problem, Hunter J's airship had just appeared, its cloak broken somehow as it was approaching the Tree of Beginnings. "This is why we wanted to go the Tree of Beginnings despite the risks I guess." Thomas grumbled, Radara giving a nod.
A large rock was quickly sent flying up towards it, smashing into its port side engine though, smoke quickly pouring out of the side as an ice beam attack quickly followed suit. The ship responded by firing something round and pink from its underside cannon as Thomas looked down.
"What's going on?" Xent quickly demanded though as he moved up.
"Stay here. Protect yourselves and Mew... and Mew, stay with Juno!" Thomas stated firmly, before looking to Suicune and Radara, who both gave a nod.
"Is that... oh for fuck's sake. Your not really going down there to fight her are you?" Xent asked even as the airship started to lose altitude, and then a loud explosion rang out from the same engine that Regirock and Regice had been attacking, the airship quickly falling now.
"It was her choice to come here, so I won't apologize if she dies. I'll try not to kill her if she survived, but if she's here eitherway, then I need to act. Someone here is in trouble, I can feel the call even now, we're needed, which means I have a task to do." Thomas explained as Radara jumped up onto Suicune's back.
"Listen, you need to wear a mask or something, she records everything. If the knights are paying for information about you, she'll take the payday. Its her main driving force, she's really just in it for the cash." Xent stated looking to Sarah's bag.
"Sarah, do you have masks or anything with that costume stuff you still have?" Xent asked, but Sarah shook her head.
"It won't do much good, we've met before." Thomas sighed as he got up up on Suicune as well. "Just stay here. This place is still dangerous to you and Sarah, and someone needs to keep Mew from putting himself in danger. Juno is in charge, listen to her, Verna will help translate."
"Just trust me." Xent quickly started again, still getting into the bag and ripping off a large piece of that knight's tunic, and then handing it to Thomas. "If she gets word that the knights are after you and want you dead, she might offer them footage of you for a payday since you clearly won't just let her capture any legendary pokemon."
'Perhaps he does have a point... We will not try kill her even if the Regis might, but she does seem to follow the flow of cash. Given the knights newfound courage for public assaults, they might be willing to offer her something for any footage that she might capture.' Radara sighed, taking the ripped sleeve from Xent.
"Just stay here please. The Tree won't care about things right now, you're only safe in this room." Thomas repeated as he tied the sleeve around his face, and then carefully took hold of some of Suicune's fur. "Let's go." He stated, and Suicune instantly rushed off again with Thomas and Radara leaving Sarah and Xent behind, Juno still looking down off the balcony.
~xXx~
As Suicune rushed down the branches and through the tunnels of the side of mountain, she ran partially on the walls in her rush even to get them to the crash site as fast as possible. It took a few minutes due to the twists and turns, but at last they were outside, and the crash site was below them. It wasn't a pleasant sight, and it was clearly costly and would leave a scar on the mountain for maybe a hundred years. Most of it was on fire and the smoke was billowing forth into the sky and would be seen for miles.
Thomas only hoped that no people would come to help. Even now he saw several poliwrath and vaporeon rushing the crash site, all of the knowing that they were needed already to protect their home, rushing up to help other pokemon already using some form of water gun or ice beam to limit the fires. Taking a chance to make sure that his makeshift mask was still on tight, Suicune rushed down towards where the sounds of fighting was taking place on the other side of the crashed ship.
Suicune rushed to the other side of the ship and then jumped off the cliff side, rushing down its rough but not impossible slope to land where Regirock, Registeel, and Regice were all fighting already. There was a number of dead bodies around the three pokemon already and Thomas couldn't bring himself to care right now.
They were all dressed in similar outfits to each other, the same outfit that a number of live people were wearing, although many were retreating. It wasn't the first time that Thomas had faced off against Hunter J, and he knew that anyone employed by Hunter J was in it for the cash, just like she was, those with genuine morals didn't need to apply. He knew that these kind of people wanted profit and payment, they didn't desire peace and they wouldn't care who stood in their way. By coming here with intent to steal pokemon and cause harm, they had chosen their own fates and while Thomas, Radara, and Suicune would try to avoid killing, it wasn't the same with Regirock, Registeel, and Regice.
Using the crook, he quickly picked up a large rock while moving and then diving off of Suicune into the thick of things, he used the rock he had hooked to slam it into a leg of a man who was pulling up what looked like a large cannon similar to the one he knew Hunter J used. He couldn't risk them capturing any one right now as he fulled the crook full of electrical power and then slammed it down on the cannon destroying it.
The roar of an engine caught his attention, only to quickly ignore it seeing an armored truck speed out of the airship and then just take off, some of them not willing to further risk their lives further on this failed mission.
His real concern right now was Hunter J herself as he rushed towards a few more grunts for Hunter J, only to finally see her, and dive forward, catching himself with his own psychic power. While he could technically "fly" to some degree when at his prime even he hated, just gliding forward was an easy task if he had the space. Landing several feet forward, he used the rock still caught in Ravick's crook to block a beam fired from Hunter J at Regice.
"Damn you boy!" J screamed out as her ariados was forced on the defensive, trying to use string shot to avoid damaging the legendary pokemon. Like she would always do, she wanted to avoid damaging the goods she intended to sell. "You think that cheap mask means I don't know who you are, Thomas Falston!"
Thomas just didn't say anything though even as Regirock smashed another grunt under its weight, the others all running or dead leaving just Hunter J to deal with. Suicune and Radara were at his sides as he stood slowly, taking a defensive stance with the crook for now, while Regirock, Regice, and Registeel all took their own positions around him.
"Lucky for me, my client only wants you brought in alive, and he'd even prefer if you were hurt on arrival." Hunter J yelled out as her ariados quickly fired off another much large string shot intending to try and slow them all down.
Hidden behind the large web of string, further hidden when Regice froze the entire web with an ice beam attack, J took the skies calling out her salamance. Hopping on and taking to the skies, Regirock smashed the frozen web with a rock throw. A drapion was quick to rush through the shattered ice though as Regice was charging up a zap cannon to fire at J, Thomas rushing up with Radara at his back. He tried to strike it with the rock still caught in the crook, only for it to counter and crush the rock with its claws, trying to follow up with a cross poison as the sky light up a bit behind them.
Registeel had fired off a small volley of flash cannon attacks, its ranged capabilities very limited compared to Regirock and Regice, but still powerful in its own rights. As salamance avoided the attacks against it, and tried to retaliate, Thomas and Radara joined up to block the attack the drapion came at them with using a combined barrier attack, and then Thomas struck it hard in the face with the straight end of the crook, charged full of electricity.
It gave a weak cry, but Thomas was blown to the side with a yell, J having targeted him while he was occupied. Salamance proved powerful easily and with J commanding it, it was no easy thing to deal with. The dragon pulse attack intentionally not aimed directly at him, but near his feet that sent him flying while he was distracted, but even with the intentional indirect hit, it had hurt a lot, even a bit more with Thomas still recovering from the last major incident.
Suicune went on the offensive now, a hydropump finally striking salamance when it slowed to make the attack against Thomas, the salamance taking a solid hit, but not slowing much as it retreated again. Registeel seeing another opportunity lashed out at the ariados though as it tried to pin Thomas, the ariados quickly dealt with by a sudden metal claw attack, barely a whimper to sound from the full force attack.
Once more, J tried to use her arm cannon to turn Registeel to stone, but Thomas had already recovered and rushed in once more, this time using psychic to pull various metal plates from the fallen airship and with Radara's help, several large rocks to block the beam again.
It easily safe guarded Registeel, and then the wall of debris opened up and Registeel counted with another flash cannon that J's salamance avoided in the air once more. Thomas quickly charged the crook with electricity once again, and when he thrust it forward into the air, his own attempt at a thunder attack flew from the crook in a large unpredictable cone in the general direction that the crook was pointed.
"What the hell are you boy?!" J screamed out as she was forced to keep evading, Registeel having dealt with one of her pokemon and now keeping her ariados under control all by itself, the two just locked in a grip with each other, neither one letting the other go and unable to really hurt the other. The sudden stalemate between the two of them though seemed to remove both of them from the real fight now however.
As Regirock and Regice aided Thomas in trying to take down the salamance now, things were quickly getting out of control for J as she realized at last that it was only her left, seeing the last few of her living crew having already gotten a fair deal of distance between them and the fighting.
Throwing something down, Thomas and Radara just barely had time to cover their eyes from the flashbang, but Suicune was still blinded and seeing a chance, J went to try and turn her to stone for easy capture, only for Regirock and Regice to attack again, entirely unaffected by the light.
Her beam easily missed the intended target and was harmless as it just struck the canyon walls when her salamance had to move to avoid getting hit. Looking back down towards Thomas again, she saw him just holding his hand out in front of him, a number of large rocks just kind circling him now as his eyes gave off a bright now. Radara was doing the same, and a number of large rocks were also circling her as they gathered power, the two working well together before the first rock was just thrown at them, quickly followed by the next.
The string of over a dozen rocks being tossed right up at her was supposedly easy to avoid as salamance just tried to get out of the way, but it was soon revealed that Thomas and Radara weren't attacking directly, they were just giving Regice a way up. The makeshift set of stepping stones were easy for Regice to just jump from one to next one rushing up the improvised stair case and gaining on them fast.
"How in... he's not even giving orders, how are they doing this?!" J snarled as she dropped from just standing salamance's back into a proper riding position, legs on either side of its neck. As soon as it jumped off the last stone though, it finally released the attack that it had been building up, and there really wasn't anywhere to run.
The blizzard chilled a massive space in all directions around it, snow starting to pelt everything as the salamance raced to get away even as its wings grew heavy with snow, making it hard to maneuver. It was going down quick even as Regice started to plummet, but it didn't care. It would survive without much issue, Radara and Thomas helping to slow its fall as not to let it hurt itself.
The salamance was quick to try and retreat though, even with its nearly frozen wings holding it back, forced to only glide out of range and behind a hill. As Thomas rushed up with Radara and Regirock at his side, racing up a hill, once more they heard an engine. Reaching the top of the hill, they could only see the rapidly retreating J on a motorbike, racing off quickly away from the mountain and Thomas knew that he couldn't catch her on foot.
Looking back to Suicune, she was still blinking and using her ribbons to rub her eyes, and while Regirock, Regice, and Registeel were fast, none of them would be fast enough to give chance. Moving quickly back towards where Registeel was still locked in the duel with the drapion, it was now easy prey and it knew that, giving one last desperate strike, Registeel blocking it, but also letting its hold on it fade.
As soon as it was released from the grip though, it turned and ran. With no trainer to give it orders and left on its own, it knew that this was over and it couldn't do anything but try to save itself. Seeing the fight was over though, Regirock, Regice, and Registeel just stood down, going back to neutral poses and standing there, before Regirock and Registeel turned back towards the mountain.
Regice turned back towards the craft which was still burning, and moved to aid the water pokemon still fighting the fires, adding its own ice beam to freeze entire chunks of the vessel where the flames were the biggest.
It took another minute, but Suicune just moved up as well and finally able to see mostly. With Radara giving her some help, Suicune made her way to the top of the vessel, and with a powerful howl and aura about her, her rain dance attack quickly summoned a heavy downfall of water.
From there, the fires were easy to deal with as Thomas looked over the crashed ship. "Well... I think we need to be seen somewhere else now." Thomas said looking down at Radara, who gave a clear nod.
'If they believe we are still here, more will come. If we are really needed, we shall feel the call once more, but until then, it will be best if we move away from Kanto and quickly.' Radara agreed quickly, looking over the mess that could be considered their fault.
"If we have to be seen, then we could go south. The fastest way to go somewhere else would be by boat, and the nearest ports are all along the coast of Kanto. It would be easy to charter a small boat there in a little town where they wouldn't be actively looking. If we hurry, we could move past the knights under cover of darkness, we would only need to find a river and Suicune could really rush us to the coast easily, and whose going to question someone riding a pidgeot following the river. Only someone looking specifically for a pidgeot would think twice about it here in Kanto." Thomas suggested.
'It would allow us to travel fast, and if we are heading away from the tree, there wouldn't be a need for us to go slower for Xent to keep pace. Akra seemed eager to race Suicune after all, it would all be a matter of how easily that Akra could carry with next to no obstacles for either of them.' Radara agreed, and then turned to look up the tree.
'We will … we will have Sarah return any stolen pokemon we find on the ship to the authorities of a small town, while we make a withdraw beside Xent. It will give him the chance he may need to access the only funds he may be able to withdraw for a while and we can use the chance to stock up on cash as well since we don't want to pay for anything digitally for a while.' Radara started, only to look at the ship and then remember that there was a good chance that Hunter J had some stolen pokemon on board the ship, Suicune moving back down off the ship, having been listening in the whole time thanks to Radara.
'I agree. If we must be seen away from here to not risk this paradise, then let us use it well. I may need until nightfall to get my vision back in full however... I've never been hit by such a strong flash attack before.' Suicune grumbled a bit, but was happy enough it was settled quickly.
"Humans are genius's... and they are called flashbangs for a reason. My ears are still kinda ringing as it is." Thomas stated, moving up and rubbing Suicune's ears a bit, and even leaning down to do the same for Radara.
'We should go back to the others after securing any stolen pokemon still on the ship. Its not right to let them rot here. After that, we can discuss our options further with Xent and Sarah.' Radara said, looking to the ship and waiting for the last of the fires to die down fully, the Regice still helping with the group of wild water type pokemon that were almost done with the fire.
Just sitting down and waiting, there wasn't much more that Thomas and Radara could do until the fires were finally put out entirely, and then they began exploring the ship. Regice stayed behind them now as they entered the ship from the back, thinking that maybe any pokemon would be held near the back cargo hatch, or at least that made sense to Thomas and Radara.
It would make it easy for them to be unloaded since J tried to make sure that anything that she had captured with the intent to sell was immobile and defenseless anyway. Starting their search in the mess of cargo hold, there were a few more flipped trucks, and lots of gear that was scattered all over the place. It was slow going, and they even considered collecting some of the gear that was laying about.
Nearly twenty minutes of just looking around though, they found a still working computer, and while it demanded some form identification, they were lucky that one of the bodies laying around kept their ID card on a lanyard around their neck. While the ID belong to just an officer and not anyone really high ranking, it was enough to get a map of the ship, which quickly pointed out a few things and made everything else far easier.
Hunter J only had five captured pokemon on hand, all stolen from trainers and all already locked down by J's cannon. They were also stored in a nearby room, right next to the pantry and a gear storage room, which gave both Thomas and Radara a few ideas.
Thomas went to collect them some gear, while Radara and Suicune who had finally recovered went off to save the pokemon. Thomas found a pair of large travel bags in the gear room, found some rope and other essentials, before going to the pantry and started to fill the two bags with lots of quick meals. Hunter J's team seemed to favor vita-curry, instant ramen, and lots of jerky. It wasn't exactly the best menu for easy meals, but they barely had any options themselves to start right now. Just filling the bags that they would get rid of later, Thomas came back down into the cargo bay again, Radara and Suicune there waiting for him.
'We are lucky, they are all ready to believe us and trust that we really intend to help them all. They are eager to be returned to their trainers. All five of them are from Sinnoh however. It would be best to turn them in at one of the main line regional pokemon offices however, and that may cause some problems. They will ask a lot of questions and only being found in large towns, this may invite trouble for the knights or Team Rocket. Sarah will be the best choice to turn them in, and it will help prove her innocence in some ways if she continues to do good things, but the time that it would take to file the proper reports would be very time consuming.' Radara explained as looked over to the five pokeballs that were setting in a tray next to her. It wasn't the first time that Thomas and Radara had turned in lost or stolen pokemon before and there was always paper work these days. Now though, it wouldn't be a good thing for them.
Thomas just nodded as he took the small tray and secured it to one of the bags. Giving one last look at things, he wondered what do with the ship for now though, it would easily cause a mess of things and there was no telling how well it just stay sitting there. "Any ideas on how we deal with the ship itself though? Its too big for Mew to just teleport away and we can't exactly just move it easily."
'Palkia could easily throw it somewhere it wouldn't cause problem and Heatran could easily deal with, he may love the snack if offered I suppose. Of course, we would need to call them and tell them about this first. I lack the power to fold a crystal to my will entirely and quickly, we would need to go to a sanctuary to ask for help.' Suicune suggested, Thomas and Radara quickly nodding.
"There's a large one not far from Lavander Town, but its really out of the way, and there's another large one deep deep in Mount Moon, but that one's just really hard to get into anymore. There's also one near Gringey City, but until they finish the clean up around the city, there is no point to get caught trying to sneak past all the environmental workers still cleaning up that mess." Thomas said, knowing that while there many sanctuaries throughout Kanto, most of them were smaller ones, and not all the small ones had crystals containing the essence of every legendary pokemon.
'It may be unsettling somewhat, but the remains of Pokemopolis still houses a temple. We would find crystals of all our elder brothers and sisters there and its not that far from Pallet Town, which one of the rivers near the mountain cuts through.' Radara sighed, not liking the idea, but it was the closest location that would be aligned to their goals.
Thomas just shook his head and shivered a bit though, turning away some, and even Suicune looked down a bit. "I would prefer not treading in that tomb if we can avoid it."
'There are many bad memories there, but if all we need do is head to the nearby temple, we need not enter the city proper at all. Let us see if we can inform Palkia of this from the Emerald Lake sanctuary first though.' Suicune said.
'That is a bit out of the way, but Emerald City would be the prime spot to get anything we would want in terms of new gear. The fairgrounds there are a year long attraction for high ranking trainers and coordinators. We would never need to enter the city proper to get whatever supplies we might want, and its close enough to Celadon City, that we could be seen there.' Radara agreed.
"The heavily wood space around the lake would make it easy to hide, and Celadon City does have all sorts of various trainer banks. Its not exactly the fastest way to get to the coast, but its an option. We'll discuss this with the others then when we get up the tree."
'We shall discuss our options with Sarah and Xent then and plan from there.' Suicune nodded, getting up and waiting for Radara and Thomas to get on.
~xXx~
Suicune took her time getting back, and after almost two hours since Hunter J had attacked the tree, Thomas, Radara, and Suicune walked back into the room.
"Well that took you a while... you sure your okay?" Xent asked as he put down Mocha's Hammer.
"Please be careful with that... and don't make a serious effort to really really use it." Thomas sighed.
'Those weapons, while they can be wielded by mortals, can also defy them and assault their wielders.' Radara warned, Xent suddenly and very carefully put it down on the table next to him.
"You could have mentioned that detail sooner." Xent grumbled, only to see the two bags that Thomas was carrying. "I hope a share of that is mine since its kinda your fault that my stuff got lost."
"Its just temporary replacements. Food, some basic gear like rope, tents, a few thick coats, that kinda stuff. No cooking gear though. Got lots of water and some more canteens though until we ditch this stuff for new ones." Thomas said, setting the two bags down on the table, and then pulling out the pokeballs.
"And five stolen pokemon that we should return, all from Sinnoh though." Thomas added.
"That's a trip to a Regional Trainer's Office, and a lot of unneeded paperwork to go with. This is the part where you're supposed to tell the good news, right?" Xent asked.
"What's your primary bank? We need to go make a withdraw. I need to get caught on tape, so we might as well just risk it all at once." Thomas added.
Xent quickly knew that there wasn't going to be much in the way of good news by the way that Thomas was asking now. "How much do you need? I'd rather not touch my primary one, especially right now." He said while opening his pokedex.
"I've never really needed much cash, but if the knights found us, we might not be able to safely get into a bank for years possibly. They are very persistent, and Team Rocket is not above hacking into things to find the information that they want. If you want to keep giving your pokemon spending cash, this might be the only chance in a while to get it. Sarah will do the same, but we need to figure out what town we can all withdraw from in the same day, and since me and Sarah currently have Hoenn addresses, its going to take a little bit just to get, the same for you if you don't have a Johto or Kanto address." Thomas sighed, moving over and taking a seat.
Xent remained silent for several moments, thinking it over while tapping his chin. "I can make some arrangements down the line, without any banks involved. But, my primary bank for this region is Golden Dragonite Banking, I'll withdraw and close. It was just a checking account not under my actual name. Assuming the knights haven't linked it yet, it shouldn't be an issue."
Thomas just nodded. "We need to leave and do it fast, so we'll leave early in the morning again, and this time rush away from the tree. Mew has some boats that we can use in the under ground rivers that flow out of the mountain that will get us outside, and with the rope, we can climb down safely with ease. We'll rush straight south, trying to get to the outskirts of Pewter City and take a break there long enough to see what cities have all of our banks then. We'll then rush there, get whatever cash we'll think we'll need for the long term, intentionally make sure that the cameras see us for a bit so that Team Rocket and the Knights will start looking away from the Tree of Beginnings so we don't put the Tree at risk again." Thomas sighed loudly and just held his head in his hands. Once more, he couldn't help but feel that part of his was his fault that his family was getting attacked and more.
'Our goal is to get to the coast and take a boat somewhere else after we finish with things here. Along the way, we need to make a stop and contact one of our elder brothers, likely either Palkia or Heatran.' Radara added, only to notice that Sarah had shifted a bit and cringed in pain some.
'I hope no one made it in here during the attack, but are you okay?' Radara asked.
"Zia is in time out. Apparently she really did not take well to Sarah commenting her on the crown that Registeel gave her and scared her out of the chair she was sitting on into some wooden blocks." Xent quickly stated. "But, other then that, there was no trouble here."
'She did seem to be very possessive about fact that only you were allowed to touch her ears or pet her.' Suicne said as she moved up behind Sarah, rubbing her shoulders.
"I'll be fine, I'll be fine. She was just angry and didn't mean it when she scared me with that illusion." Sarah quickly stated, just adjusting herself a bit, only for Thomas to notice that Juno wasn't there as he finished looking around as well. He quickly found her resting on a box in the corner though.
"And where's Mew?" Thomas asked, not seeing him anywhere.
'Time out as well. He chugged a whole bottle of dew and decided that he wanted to help, so I used hypnosis and put him in the box. He's sleeping off a sugar high now.' Juno quickly explained, slowly getting up and stretching.
"Ya know... there might also be another way to turn those pokemon in without lengthy paper work. If we have to go south anyway, Pallet Town is on the way right? We could stop at Professor Oak's Labrotory there. He'll be there consistently for the new few weeks." Sarah suggested.
"You personally know Professor Oak?" Xent asked, knowing that people didn't normally know someone else's schedule unless they actually knew them.
"Yeah actually. I studied under him for... eight weeks over six years. This time of year he runs a pokemon study course in the summer. I know I can't do contests forever, and my parents were always reminding me to make sure I know what I want to do when I'm ready to settle down, and I've been training to be a Pokemon Field Researcher. It would let me keep traveling some, but it also meant that I would never have to give up my pokemon, and when I'm ready, I could move to a different lab position." Sarah explained as she pulled out her pokedex and pulled up a few things, before showing off a flier that she had saved.
"I was considering taking another course this year, but missed the initial dead lines to make my choice, so I was hoping he would have a few slots left over for the final set of courses in early fall. Guess that's not happening now, but it still helps. Pokemon trainers and more can turn in pokemon from all over to Professor Oak, and he's always encouraging trainers to be nice about things like helping return lost pokemon. I've seen a few cases of out of region lost pokemon turned into his lab and he really doesn't do a lot of paper with the people turning them in." Sarah explained.
"And I guess it would be the small town we can use to call our friends and your families about what happened and... and tell your foster father where to send my pokemon." Xent stated.
'Well, I suppose that settles it. We'll rush to Pewter City long enough to figure out where we can get to all of our banks in one trip, and then head to Pallet Town. If that really is the best place, we'll make our side stop to Pokemopolis and then get out of Kanto quickly.' Radara said, Thomas and Suicune giving a slow nod.
As Thomas looked back up though, he looked to Sarah and just wondered about things as she just glanced back to Xent curiously. "Are you sure nothing happened here while we were defending the Tree of Beginnings."
'Aside from Zia's scare and intent to punish Sarah for getting close to and I'm quoting here, "My Xent", things were rather quite if annoying to keep Mew here. You did well and no one managed to reach us here.' Juno reassured Thomas.
'You didn't actually tell Xent that did you, right Radara... right?' Verna stated now, looking to Xent quickly.
Xent was staring right at them with his jaw hanging open. He remained silent for a rather tangible yet intangible amount of time before he finally closed his mouth and took in a deep breath. "I'll... be talking to her later... looks like..." He said, giving a small look to Zia's pokeball on the table beside them, Sarah also giving a similar look.