Twisted Paths, Forgotten Pasts
Chapter 22
Mew looked over at Mewtwo, her blue eyes strangely void of their normal playfulness. /Mewtwo/ She called him mentally, for like him, she did not have the ability to speak as humans did.
/Yes Mew?/ He turned to look back at her, and frowned slightly at the look in her eyes. /What's wrong?/
The two had been sitting on the beach, watching over some of the clones that had decided to go swimming despite the treacherous waves. Mew floated off the sand and hovered in front of Mewtwo, her eyes locked on his.
/Something is going to happen./ She said, lowering herself to the ground where she idly traced patterns in the sand, enjoying the simple feel of the grains against her thinly furred paw-hands. Most psychics ignored anything physical that did not necessarily have to be done, but Mew loved to swim in the water or play in the sand. She had tried to get Mewtwo to go into the water without a bubble around him but he refused, saying he was above such meaningless things. Mew knew that the real reason was that being in water reminded him of being in the lab where he had been created, of being suspended in that cold liquid until he broke free.
Mewtwo sighed, knowing that Mew had more to say, but would likely take an hour getting it all out. Yet he did not want to rush her. A good word to describe Mew was eccentric, but then, that also described him, although in his opinion, he could never match Mew's eccentricity. /What is going to happen?/
Mew paused in her drawing of a diglet in the sand, looking thoughtfully over her shoulder at the water. /Someone is going to come here./
/Who?/ He pressed on, knowing that this was the only way he would get answers out of her. Mew was a genius. Maybe, just maybe, even smarter than him, but she had many of the faults of a young child, one of them being that anything could distract her. Yet somehow, he had a feeling she pushed things to an extreme just to annoy him.
/Two humans, one pokemon, one First. And one-/ The mew broke off abruptly, her eyes wide in surprise. /It is the child!/
Mewtwo stood, psychically brushing sand off of him. /The child? Coming here?/
/Yes, very soon. She needs our help./
Mewtwo looked at the water. /We should stand watch for her, the waters here are dangerous./
Mew nodded, resuming her drawing. /She will need our help, and we will assist her. That is how it should be, and that is how it will be. As the prophecies that the mews have passed down to each other said./
The mews, being such a long lived species, recorded nearly all the going ons of the world, monitoring anything worth keeping an eye on. They also, therefore, knew the truth about the Firsts, and about what was going on now. Both Mew and Mewtwo had been spying on the three groups, and had even successfully hidden themselves from the psychic Firsts. They were not to help any group unless told so by the child. She was the one they were to obey.
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Two hours Later
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"Blastoise!"
Mewtwo lifted his head at the call, floating out to the water and hovering just above the tips of the waves. /They are coming?/
"Blast."
/Go back inland, that water is too dangerous now./ He ordered the clone, who obeyed immediately and dove under the water, heading for the shore. Mewtwo scanned the waters with both his mind and his eyes, trying to find the child. A sudden burst of brightness filled his mind, and he knew without a doubt that he had come in contact with the mind of the child. Trusting his instincts, he floated in the direction of that presence, and found the child along with the three others that mew had said would come, and a fourth. Tentatively, Mewtwo reached out to the mind of the fourth, and found it strangely almost identical to the child's. Maybe that was why Mew had not realized that there was another one, she had not been able to tell them apart.
Without bothering to introduce himself, for that would only waste more time, Mewtwo encased their boat in a protective bubble and lifted it out of the water, floating back to the island with it. When they reached the land, he gently set the boat down on the shore and broke the bubble.
Mew, curious as ever, floated up to them and started inspecting them, flying around them and peering closely at them, giggling at their bewildered expressions. Done with her inspection, she floated to Mewtwo's side and they waited for the child to instruct them.
The white haired girl turned to look at the strange half pokemon boy, and he lifted her out of the boat and onto the sand, then stepped out and stood by her, a protective arm draped around her shoulders.
"We need your help," she said. "The psychic Firsts have captured the Mothers of Fighting, Electric, Poison and Ground types, and the Fathers of Fighting and Electric. They are in the cave of an island not too far from here, but I do not have the psychic power to break the barrier that is keeping them locked in there."
Mew's eyes twinkled, her version of a smile. /That will not be hard. I went there the other day. It will be easy./
The girl smiled back. "Great!" She looked at her heart shaped watch. "I think in an hour will be a good time to head for the island. I dont think my companions will be up for any kind of traveling just yet."
"Great assumption." Persian licked his wet fur ruefully. "I'm hungry, and I'm wet!" He looked at Mewtwo and blinked. "You!"
Mewtwo looked a Mew, an expression of slight alarm in his eyes. /Do you think he's remembering the incident?/ he thought at Mew only.
/No, probably just something he's remembering from Team Rocket./
Persian leapt out of the boat and walked over to where the two psychics hovered. "You're that clone that escaped, aren't you? Man, Giovanni was really pissed about that!"
/Giovanni deserved it, he should have known not to tinker with a species as powerful as the mews. And he still goes on with his experiments.../ Mewtwo shook his head a little. /Humans./
Mew floated up behind James and touched his hair. /Pretty color./ She went up behind Jessie and touched her hair too. /What happened to your old style? I liked it. It was interesting./
James laughed, remembering the day Jessie had decided to get rid of her old, odd style of hair. They had both agreed that it required more hairspray that they could afford, so now Jessie tied her hair back in a ponytail.
/It is still nice though./ Mew floated over to Firais. /Your mate is safe./ She said, noticing the thinly hidden concern in the First's mind. /You will see him soon. Maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but soon./
Firais blinked at the pink pokemon, a genuine smile spreading out on her lips. "You're positive?"
/I'm positive./
"Thank you."
/No problem!/ The legendary pokemon looked at the journey worn group. /You look tired and hungry. We will feed you./ She looked at Mewtwo and before the group knew what was happening they had been teleported inside the home of the clones. It was beautifully constructed, likely Mew's doing, and a very interesting design. They had likely marked off an area in the center of the island, and then built their two story 'house' without cutting down the trees, for one had to be careful not to walk into tree trunks while inside. Michi took in the light blue tiled floor and the walls painted with ancient mew legends with an appreciative smile. It was nothing short of breathtaking.
Takith snorted softly, for Michi was the more artistic of the two. He looked over at Mewtwo and an odd smile crept onto his face. Yes, Mewtwo was more of a kindred soul with Takith. Mewtwo was to Mew, as Takith was to Michi, in a way. Appearing to be opposites, yet at the core, very similar.
Mew disappeared off somewhere, and left Mewtwo and his fellow clones to tend to the tiny group. Normally he would not have 'gone down to such a low level', but this was for the child. Nothing he did for the child would be him degrading himself.
Exactly an hour after Michi and her group had arrived, Mew returned. Her baby blue eyes wandered over each of them, along with her mind. She carefully brushed over their thoughts, a light mental touch that they would not notice, and that would not invade their privacy. She only wanted to make sure they were feeling okay. /Ready?/ She asked the white haired child, who nodded in response. /We are going to draw the power from you for this, because we will need our own strength to break the barrier./ Mew reached into Michi's mind, and Mewtwo linked with hers before also reaching into that of the child. /One, two, three!/
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"Hey Terra, look at this." Lit grinned as she held her hands about a foot apart, then formed a thin line of crackling electricity between them. Kit did the same, and they both shaped the energy into star shapes.
Terra raised an eyebrow. The electric Firsts were as eccentric as always, easily amused and rather...strange. "Shouldn't you two be conserving your energy?"
They both blinked. "This takes no effort." Kit explained, crushing his star between his palms and re-absorbing the energy. "See? All recycled!"
She shook her head, looking down at Roux. /Beyond eccentric./
The sandslash nodded in agreement. /Beyond insane./
Terra smiled and patted him on his head, turning to face Kate who had just walked up to her. "What do you want?"
Kate crossed her arms and looked down at the Mother of All Ground Types. "We've already agreed that we dislike each other, but Lee sent me over here to tell you that we found some running water while we were actually doing something useful."
Terra resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Lit and Kit had provided them all with lighting. Without the two of them, Kate, Lee and Akitari could never have gone far into the cave. "Thank you for informing us."
"No problem." Kate whipped around and headed back to the area where the entrance was.
"I really dislike her. She's got such a hard to get along with personality." Terra thought out loud.
"Hm, well, one has to deal with people like that every now and then." Kit said, working on forming a stable ball of energy to light up that tunnel. His raichu, Tikki, tugged on his jeans, and he looked at the pokemon curiously. "You hear something?"
Lit looked down at her daughter, Tilli, who also nodded. "The raichus hear something Terra, think we should investigate? They have great hearing."
"We definitely should look into it. Where's it coming from?"
"They say near the entrance." Kit said.
"The entrance? Kate was heading there..." Terra frowned thoughtfully. "Be ready to attack."
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Mew inspected the barrier once more, running her pink paws over it carefully and testing the psychic energy.
Mewtwo reluctantly stood on the actual ground, instead of floating, so that he could try and figure out how deep the barrier went. /I think it goes down about twenty feet./ He told Mew.
/Deep./ She replied simply.
/If we simply dismantle it we might let loose a hidden trap, or it might go wild and injure someone. Do you think we can absorb it?/
/Yes, but too wild./ Mew turned her head to look at Michi. /Channel through?/
/Hmm, perfect idea./ He also looked at Michi, a feeling of satisfaction washing over him. Yes, he and Mew made a great team. Sometimes he could not resist treating her as a child, but he truly felt that she was one of the very few living creatures that could be considered his equal. /Michi, we're going to channel the energy of the barrier through you and then into ourselves. Let down any mental shields you have and brace yourself. It will feel rather odd./
The girl nodded, placing a reassuring hand on Takith's arm. "Don't worry, it won't hurt me."
/Ready Mew?/ Mewtwo asked.
/Ready./
Mewtwo placed his hands into the barrier, wincing a little at the jolt that his mind received. Together with Mew, they broke the barrier down into pure psychic energy, then passed the raw power through Michi's mind, where it was automatically tamed and safe to absorb.
Michi's eyes were shut tight throughout the entire process. As Mewtwo had warned her, she felt strange. Her mind felt tingly, almost as one's foot did after falling asleep. When they finished, she opened her eyes, and for a brief moment everything looked normal, with no auras around anyone, but she blinked, and the swirls of colors and the paths in front of people returned. She looked at Mewtwo, her full vision ability switched on, and she saw a strange mix of emotions. Behind she could see the dull black of a trouble past, the glossy navy blue of loss and grief, and the blood red of pure pain. She looked closer at the colors, and saw a tiny strand of reddish pink with navy blue entwined into it. So he had loved and lost at one point in his past.
She paid closer attention to his current aura, and saw remnants of what he felt from past, yet there was also a sense of belonging and being content. Mewtwo apparently was fine with his current way of life, yet at the same time felt something missing... Mew could not provide him with everything he needed, but he did not seem to mind too much. Her presence was a blessing when he thought back to his past.
Michi looked closely at Mew too, and was surprised to find that the pink pokemon had her own share of grief and loss. Michi had underestimated the legendary pokemon, forgetting to look beneath her surface of carefree playfulness. Mew understood what Mewtwo had been through in his life, and that was why they got along. She did not have his same arrogance, or confusion about emotions, yet they were kindred spirits.
Mewtwo shifted uncomfortably on the ground, floating a few inches above it after a little while. He was waiting for Michi to give them their next instructions, but she seemed absorbed in her thoughts, and he felt it would be wrong to disturb her.
She snapped out of her mini-trance, half-shutting off her ability to see people's auras, limiting her viewing to only their more recent feelings. "Jessie, James and Persian, you wait out here. We'll be right back. Takith, Firais, Mew, Mewtwo, you come with me."
Takith unfolded his wings and flapped them briefly, as they were cramped from neglect. His ears twitched slightly as he looked around before following Michi and the two psychic pokemon into the cave.
They had barely walked, or floated, thirty feet into it when they were spotted by a young lady with black, yellow and red hair. She looked at them with her bright yellow eyes and stared for a moment, as if debating whether they really stood before her or her mind was playing tricks on her.
"Are you Kate?" Michi asked. "The mother of all Poison Types?"
"Uh, yeah..." Kate managed to reply. "Y-you're here to rescue us, right?"
"Right." The girl said.
"Lee, Akitari!" She yelled into the tunnels. "We're saved!"
Two raichus, and a sandslash bounded in through a tunnel, followed closely by two blondes and a dark skinned lady with braided hair.
"Terra, Kit and Lit?" Michi checked, finding their names by gently probing into their memories. Before they could answer, a man and woman, who she guessed were Lee and Akitari joined them.
With a vaguely smug expression on his face, Lee turned to look at Lit and Kit. "Good things come to those who wait."
The two electrics simply glared at him, then turned to look at the girl and the four others with her. "Firais? What are you doing here?" Lit asked.
"Calisin hasn't been playing by the rules." She answered with a look of obvious distaste.
"That is not one of Ivan and Ivena's mews..." Kit observed. "So mews survived in the wild it seems..." He blinked at Mewtwo. "How did that one come to be?"
/Giovanni of Team Rocket had me made by his scientists from DNA of a Mew fossil./ Mewtwo explained. /I escaped./
"Ah, good for you. Those Team Rocket bastards..." The tips of Kit's fingers crackled briefly. "They've done a lot of harm to wild pokemon. As soon as this whole thing is over I'm going to see to their destruction."
Michi smiled. "You might not have to wait that long." She looked at Mew and Mewtwo. "If we get lucky we just might have time to destroy them before the battle." She looked at her silver watch and winced. "No more time for talk. We have a tight schedule here. It was nice meeting the six of you, but we need to send you back to your groups right away. Firais, stand with Lee, Akitari and Kate. Ah, there we go. Mew, Mewtwo, use the energy from the barrier to transport them to the area I have pictured in my mind."
The four members of the Peace/Patience group were basked in a warm glow of light blue and gray psychic energy. The light brightened to the point where it hurt to look at them, and when the light faded, they were gone.
"Alright, now let's send these three back to where they should be." Michi pictured the area where they would find Jay's group in her mind, and Mew and Mewtwo easily picked up on that spot and sent them there. "Great job you two."
/Naturally./ Mewtwo answered somewhat smugly.
Michi giggled. "You're an odd one, Mewtwo. Come on, let's get out of here."
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Jessie paced the entrance to the cave, unsure as to what else to do. "James, what are we going to do after this?" She looked over at where he sat on a stone,
James watched her walk up and down for a little while, thinking over her question. "Find somewhere to live, get jobs..." He shrugged. "What do normal ex-Team Rocketers do?"
Jessie smiled wryly as she continued to pace. "Okay, let's think of this. Suppose that this Michi girl actually does come up with a way to destroy Team Rocket, so we don't necessarily have to worry about being tracked down and murdered. Say we find a nice quiet town somewhere, we buy a house, we get good jobs, then what?"
"What do you mean then what?" He tilted his head to one side in confusion, trying to think of what she was hinting at, for he could sense that she was going somewhere with this. He tucked a lock of his semi-long blue hair behind an ear and looked at her, surprised to see that she had stopped pacing and was walking over to him. "Jessie?" He blinked as she stopped in front of him and then knelt down on one knee, looking up at him and staring straight into his green eyes. Slowly, it started to dawn on him on what was happening.
"James..." Jessie lifted a hand and placed it on his left cheek, gently stroking his shaven skin. "We've been through a lot together, and, well... I love you James." Her eyes never left his, and a nervous blush crept onto her cheeks.
"I-I love you too Jessie." His words came out in a rush, and he too blushed.
"James, will you marry me?" Jessie asked.
He blushed even more, turning almost as red as Jessie's hair. "Yes." He said firmly.
Jessie exhaled, for she had been holding her breath, not sure what his answer would be. Sure she knew they were close friends, but she was not sure if the affection James felt for her was just a sisterly kind of love, or something much deeper than that. She got up and hugged him tightly.
Persian gagged. He had known how they felt for one another, but had decided to let them figure it out for themselves. He had not, however, been prepared for any actual displays of affection. "Go get a room!"
He was rewarded with twin glares, and he nervously started to back away from them. "Uhh..." He looked for a route of escape. "Look, Michi's back!"
Jessie and James both stood, identical blushes on their faces. For a moment they had forgotten where exactly they were. "Hi Michi!" James said a little too cheerfully.
"Congratulations on your engagement." Michi said, a sly smile on her face as both of them blushed deeper again. Even Takith smiled a little, amused by the slight change in the two ex-Team Rocket member's behaviors.
Mew flew around the two, purring audibly. She had sensed the feelings the two humans had for each other the first time they had met, and had always been amused by the way they acted, and the way that the female was the more dominant one, as it was in the case of certain breeds of pokemon. After showering them with tiny bubbles, she returned to floating by Mewtwo's side and looked at Michi and Takith.
"Like Jessie, James and Persian, I sense that you two do not really have anything in particular to go back to. As I told them, I do not absolutely need any further help from you. However, it would be nice to have some extra company or some back-up. Would you be willing to leave your minds open to me, so that incase I need you, I can call you to my aide easily?" Michi looked at Mew and Mewtwo hopefully.
The two pokemon nodded, although Mewtwo hesitated at first. He never even let Mew have easy access to his mind. He had a certain reputation to uphold, and certain thoughts of his would go against his image. Yet this was the child, the one that he and Mew had been waiting for. How could he not do what she wanted? And she reminded him of her, of his first true friend... Without prompting, he remodeled his mental shields in a way that Michi, and only Michi could enter them without having to 'knock'.
Mew did the same, then floated up to Michi and allowed the girl to hug her, again showing how odd Mew was compared to normal psychics who would typically avoid physical touch, because at times it created an uncomfortable mental link. After the hug, Mewtwo floated down and shook the girl's hand, and then Takith's. The strange boy looked at Mewtwo, and their eyes locked while their hands were still in contact. Takith's eyes sparkled with an unusual light, and a barely audible purr like sound rumbled from his throat.
Startled, Mewtwo withdrew his hand from the boy's, but still kept gazing into his black eyes. What was it about the non-human that made him feel connected to him?
"It was a pleasure meeting you." Takith spoke, again startling Mewtwo for he had never heard the boys voice. "We will meet again."
/I do not doubt that./ Mewtwo replied, tearing his purple eyes away from Takith's black eyes. /Where do you five want to go next?/
"Back to our hotel room." Michi answered. "We can travel to our next destination from there on our own."
Mewtwo and Mew joined together again for one last teleportation. They had just enough of the energy from the barrier left to move the small group back to their hotel room, and it took them less than a minute to get it done.
Mew looked over at Mewtwo, a knowing look in her eyes. /You've made a new friend./ Her bubbly voice giggled into his mind.
/What do you-/ He started to ask her, but she teleported herself back to their island. Mewtwo sighed, then followed her back. As usual, she would not answer his question for at the very least, a few hours.
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Garis looked at Jay, his distaste at his current situation plainly obvious on his face. He ran a tired hand through his forest green hair and then sighed, patting his vileplume on one of its large petals. "Jay, it's three in the morning, why couldn't you have picked Kevin or Taie? Why me and Rosc?"
Jay looked slightly sheepish. "You two were the closest ones to my room, and I was too tired to walk down the hall and chose someone else."
Rosc groaned. "Well mind at least telling us what you need us for and where we're going? We've been walking for half an hour, we're almost out of town."
Jay kicked a small stone that lay on the road. "Our creator appeared to me and told me to grab two of you guys and then head to the pokemon forest just outside. She didn't tell me why though."
"Oh." Garis sighed. "I didn't get any sleep on the trip to this tiny little place and right when I was getting some good rest, I just had to be in the nearest room to you, didn't I?"
"Don't complain Garis, just being in the sun is enough to give you an energy boost, sleep is just extra icing on the cake for you." Rosc shot a slightly look of contempt at Garis.
"Hey, cool it you two or you're gonna be doing some of the driving next trip. See how you like driving a van full of people over rocky roads meant for pokemon, not cars." Jay glared at both of them and they shut up promptly.
Within six minutes they made it to the clump of forest outside the town where they had stopped. It was an unimportant little town really, just a tiny place for trainers to stop when traveling from Pewter to Cerulean, or vice versa. The only noteworthy thing about the town was it happened to be near Mount Moon.
They walked into the forest, and Garis looked at Jay expectantly. "So, what's gonna happen?"
"I told you, I don't-" Jay got no further, for a blinding light filled the forest, causing him to cut off his irritated reply.
The three men shielded their eyes, only daring to look up when the light had disappeared completely.
Rosc immediately grinned. "Terra! Lit! Kit!" He ran to the three newcomers and managed to smother all three of them into a hug. "Thank the Gods you're safe!"
"Rosc, we can't breathe." Terra gasped out, and Rosc immediately let them go, blushing a little. Grinning, Terra hugged him, looking rather tiny compared to his large form. "Haven't seen you for a while."
Garis groaned. "Great, now we've got another Taie and Kevin."
Rosc shot a dark glare at him over Terra's head, but Garis simply smirked.
Jay looked over the three newcomers. Terra was a rather slim woman, slightly taller than Akira, Sarina and Taie, which made her an average height since those three were rather short. She had braids that reached to her shoulders, and her skin was a somewhat light tone of brown. Lit and Kit seemed to have been made from the same mold. Both of them were tall and slight, and they had light brown eyes, and blonde hair that seemed somewhat spiky from their inner electricity. Lit's hair was longer than Kit's though.
"What happened to you three?" Jay asked.
"Who're you?" Kit asked back, his natural paranoia coming to play.
"I'm you're Guide," Jay answered.
Kit looked at Rosc and Garis for confirmation, then turned to look at Jay again. "It's a long story, and I'm not going to tell it twice, so it'd be best that we head back to wherever you guys are staying."
"I don't think they'd be happy to be woken up at such an unearthly hour though, so we can wait till the morning to tell." Terra pointed out. "Come to think of it, why are you three awake?"
Rosc and Garis glared at Jay.
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"So that little girl appeared with a mew and a mew clone and freed you guys?" Sajoya asked, putting down her now empty glass of orange juice.
"Yeah." Lit replied. "This food tastes heavenly after being starved for a few days." She closed her eyes and sighed happily after taking the last bite of her pancakes. "I should be starved more often if it makes food taste this good."
Ash blinked and then looked at Akira. He had, of course, already demolished his own food. "Are Lit and Kit always so...odd?"
Kira nodded, smiling slightly. "Yes. Electrics are a rather quirky type. Jolteons are a perfect example."
Ash nodded in understanding. "True, Jolteons are a rather strange species of pokemon..."
Gary eyed Ash's empty plate, then looked pointedly at his ex-rival. "Where the hell does all that food go?"
"Huh?" Ash blinked, thrown off track by the sudden question.
"You ate three pancakes, two sausages, some fruit, and an omelet. Plus two glasses of orange juice. Where'd it go?" Gary paused, thoughtfully staring at Ash. "Maybe your brains really a second stomach, that's why you're so dense."
Ash flushed dark red in a mixture of embarrassment, frustration, and anger. "Gary!"
"What?" Somehow, the spiky haired pokemon master managed to look innocent. "I was simply trying to figure out how you can eat so much and still keep in shape. There are people all over the world dying to have that ability."
"He has a high metabolism." Akira put an arm around her guardian's shoulder. "And he needs the energy to protect me, right Ash?"
"Right." Ash looked around curiously. "Where'd pikachu go?"
Kevin overheard the question and pointed over to Lit and Kit at the end of the table. "He's rubbing noses with the first two pokemon of his species."
"Oh. Makes sense." Ash sat back in his chair. "So we're heading to Pewter next?"
"That's what Jay said." Gary answered. "We'll stay at Pewter overnight, and then head through the Viridian forest to Viridian, stay there overnight, and go to Pallet. You said May had some information for us, right?"
"Yeah." Ash looked at Gary curiously. "Don't you two talk to each other?"
Gary shrugged. "Every now and then we'll call just to say hello or something. Why?"
"I'm just wondering... I don't have any siblings."
"Oh, well it always depends on the people. Some people love their siblings, some people hate them, some people just don't really care." Gary stretched. "Usually the main reason I ever go to visit May is when she's been taking care of Errol and I need to pick him up."
"Can't you just transfer him?" Sarina asked.
"He's scared of being transferred."
Ash blinked, then grinned. "Why Gary, I never knew you actually cared about your pokemon!"
Gary's turn to blush. "A scared pokemon can't fight." He tried to cover it up.
At the head of the table, Sarina and Jay had finished drilling the newcomers, and decided it was high time for the group to head to Pewter city. Jay paid the bill, ignoring Jyp's mental snort of contempt as he pulled the money out of his wallet to pay.
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Brock cringed as his ninetales started to howl shrilly, signaling the approach of someone near her precious babies. Before her mate rushed over to kill the intruder, Brock ran outside of the little kennel like structure, wondering who on earth had dared to come onto the breeding grounds. He had left strict orders not to let anyone-
"Ash?" Brock blinked in surprise. "Hey! How've you been?" Annoyance forgotten, Brock drew Ash into a hug. Noticing the blue haired girl behind Ash, Brock raised an eyebrow.
Ash pulled out of the hug and looked at the Mother of All Dragon Types. "Meet Kira and her dragonair, Arika."
Brock smiled and then took her hand gently, bowing down to kiss it. "How did such a beautiful lady like you come to be with Ash?"
Akira blushed slightly, but regained her composure quickly. "Well he's my Guardian,s so he has to be with me at all times."
"Guardian?" Brock blinked in confusion.
"Have you ever heard of the Firsts?" Akira asked.
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Brock sat in the living room, staring at Akira. "So you're not human?"
She shook her head. "No, I'm not. Far more superior than a human, and all pokemon."
Brock turned to look at Ash briefly. "And Ash has some normal pokemon and lightning pokemon in him?"
"Yes." Akira sipped at the glass of apple juice that Brock had offered her. "There are more humans with pokemon blood in them than many would think. All psychics do, for example."
Brock sat back in his chair, having resumed staring at Akira. She was gorgeous, easily a threat to any Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny with her long, wavy, dark blue hair, and her beautiful light cerulean eyes. Though thinking back to that morning, she was a rather pale comparison to the vision that had visited him while he tended to his rapidash and ponyta. He had been so taken in by her purple eyes that he could barely remember what the rest of her looked like, except that she was the most beautiful being he had ever seen.
At first he had thought that he had dreamt up her appearance, but now listening to Akira's story, and seeing her exquisite dragonair, a perfect specimen that he would not mind breeding... Everything pulled into place.
The purple-eyed...goddess, yes, that title fit her perfectly, had instructed him to convince Ash and the rest not to stay in Pewter overnight. She had not told them why, only told them that it was necessary that they made it to Viridian that night. Brock would have preferred to catch up with Ash a bit more, and get to know Akira better, but he could not disobey those purple eyes.
He realized that he had been staring at Akira the entire time, and focused his attention on Pikachu instead. Ash had constantly declined Brock's requests to breed Pikachu, and it always seemed as if Pikachu was relieved when Ash did. No matter, maybe someday they would give in. Pikachu would father wonderful pichu.
"So, you guys are staying in Pewter overnight?" Brock asked.
"Yeah, do you know a good place where we all could stay? There are..." Ash paused to count everyone in the group. "There are about thirteen of us, not counting pokemon."
/Perfect chance to turn them on their way./ Brock pulled his features into a thoughtful look, pretending to think over where they could stay, and then after a little while, shook his head. "Pewter's a really small place, and we've had an inflow of trainers lately."
Ash nodded. "Trainer season."
"Exactly. And I don't have enough room at my house... Maybe you guys should just head for Viridian? It's only an hour drive if you know the right route."
Akira sighed. "An hour?" She hated traveling in the car. It was not something she had gotten used to in either lives. "Well, I suppose one more hour wouldn't hurt." She looked at her watch, then at Ash. "We should be leaving."
Ash nodded and Pikachu jumped back onto his shoulder before he stood. "It was great seeing you Brock."
Brock smiled. "You should stop by more often. I would visit you but you're always running around in some far off corner of the world, and I have the gym and my pokemon to look after."
Ash grinned sheepishly. "I'll try to come back more often."
"Pika!" The electric mouse nodded. "Pikachu pika pika."
"Heh, thanks Pikachu. Make sure he comes back, soon."
"Pika."
Akira looked at Ash, noticing how much more alive he seemed when in the presence of his old friends. Being her Guardian was not the right job for him, despite his ancestry. Lial was her only true Guardian, and he had died a long time ago... "Ash, we're going to be late."
"Oops, sorry Kira. Bye Brock!" Ash waved and then hurriedly followed Akira out the door.
Brock watched Ash go. He never changed... Sure he had grown more patient, and actually thought things out more, but his heart remained the same. Amazing that one could retain such a caring heart in this world.
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Kiajis emerged from the bathroom to the room he shared with Jizo wearing nothing but a pair of navy blue jeans. Rubbing his hair dry with a towel, he looked around the room for the ninetales. "Sijia? Siari?" No answer. Odd. They probably had gone to Rezia and Gilisia's room or something. He returned to the bathroom and finished pulled on a black t-shirt, then hastily tied his hair back. He felt something...
No sooner than he had exited the bathroom than he was hugged tightly by a red-haired girl about a year or so younger than him with bright red hair.
"Firais?" A look of pure joy crossed over his face and he hugged her tightly, picking her up off the floor and twirling her around. "Where the hell have you been?" He asked as he set her down.
She looked defiantly at him, crossing her arms. "Freezing my ass off while you're staying in posh hotels."
"Not my fault your older brothers are jerk-offs." Kiajis snorted softly.
"Yeah, well you could at least show some fucking sympathy for me."
"What? You want me to show sympathy for you? I think when you were re-born they forgot to give you back your mind."
Jizo watched their exchange with a confused expression on his face. Hadn't Kiajis been complaining about them not rescuing Firais for a long time? He looked closer at the couple, and realized that their eyes sparkled mischievously. So they were just playing around... Strange beings.
Reika giggled in his arms. "Hey Jizo, look at the Ninetales."
He looked around the room for them, then found them crouched on the bed, ready to pounce. Right as Firais was about to retort to something Kiajis had said, they pounced on her, knocking her and Kiajis onto the floor and in each other's arms.
Their forced embrace did not last long, however, and Jizo had to move out of the way as the two parents chased their children out of the hotel room.
Kate laughed. "Siari and Sijia will no doubt find some way to hide before their parents can catch them."
Her arbok, Shay, lifted his head and nodded in agreement. Jizo eyed the snake pokemon warily, but decided that if Reika was comfortable with it, he shouldn't have any trouble.
"So, where's Gilisia?" Kate asked, her yellow eyes all but glowing. She made Jizo uncomfortable, likely the fact that she could kill him very easily through even just a simple touch.
"She's with my sister."
"And Reprith and Levreh?" Lee asked, the first words Jizo had heard him speak. Akitari had spoken once before.
"They are either in their own room, or with Gilisia and my sister. We just arrived, so everyone is settling in." Reika responded, sensing Jizo's discomfort with the situation. "Well show you the way, and then we will try and see if we can dig up some food, you look hungry."
"That will be much appreciated." Akitari said. "Lead the way."
Reika nipped one of Jizo's hands lightly, bringing him back into focus so he could show the Firsts to Rezia's room. Before Rezia could even ask him what was going on though, he treated to his own room, shutting the door behind him and setting Reika down.
One hand rubbing his left temple, he stumbled over to his bag and pulled out a bottle of painkillers.
"Jizo?" The little eevee ran up to him.
He did not reply, simply opened the container with shaking hands, and then took three pills out.
"Aren't you only supposed to take two pills?" Reika's black eyes shone with concern.
For a moment, Jizo seemed as if he was about to retort, but instead he put one pill back, and then rushed to the bathroom to get some water to swallow the pills with. "It hurts..." He whispered.
"What hurts?" Reika asked, following him from the bathroom to his bed, where he lay down and curled up. She jumped onto the bed and lay down near him, touching his nose to hers.
"My head... Like the time we tried that spell but it didn't work." He said, his voice sounding as if it hurt to talk, which it probably did.
Reika frowned. Whiplash? Why would Jizo be experiencing whiplash...? And of the magical sort no less. Then it dawned on her. To teleport the Firsts here, Michi must have used Jizo to make sure they got to the right place, but not being fully trained for something like that, something had backfired on Jizo. That would explain how long it took to fully effect him.
She snuggled close to him, physical contact strengthening their link so that she could half his pain by feeling it too. She winced, wondering why Jizo had not blacked out from such pure pain...
Yet she decided to push all thoughts aside, and figure out how to heal him before the 'whiplash' did any permanent damage to him. Before she slipped into the healing trance, however, she contacted Janyin and informed him not to let anyone bother them.
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Catalyst looked at the sleeping Calisin, frowning down at the navy haired Father of All Dragon Types. Such an un-cooperative fellow. All of the other Firsts in his group were now under Catalyst's control, including the psychics, who had foolishly thought they could evade it. Yet Calisin somehow managed to slip out of Catalyst's hold all the time, and the fickle being was not happy about that.
Thin tendrils of blood-red mist surrounded Catalyst, twisting and turning as if they were live snakes. Catalyst lifted one of his delicate arms and pointed it at the sleeping form. Obeying an unspoken command, the red ribbons of vapor shot at Calisin, binding him to his bed, tightening themselves around his limbs and neck, one gagging him.
As the last tightened around his wrist, Calisin's eyes shot open, and he stared at Catlyst with un-hidden contempt. "You!" The muddle of sleep vanished from Calisins mind. Despite the fact that he knew it was no use, Calisin struggled against the tendrils of mist. Last time this had happened, he had killed his own son, and his daughter, and his wife had killed him because of that. Akira... He could not let this happen again, he wanted to be with Akira, not to hurt her, not for her to hurt him. That was not how things should be between lovers!
Silac opened on eye sleepily, but as soon as he saw the strange silver haired visitor and what had happened to his father, both eyes opened. How badly he wanted to help his father, but he could not. Catalyst would kill him in the blink of an eye. /Father, I will always be with you./ Calisin whispered to his father. /No matter what happens, I will support you. Things will end right./
Calisin heard his son, and realised what he was doing. Catalyst was going to take away his love for Akira, but what he could never do was take away Calisin's love for his son. Focusing on the day that Silac had been born, the day that he had held the little boy in his arms and felt as if everything would be alright, Calisin closed his golden eyes.
Catalyst had not noticed the exchanged between father and son, so he went on with his job. A black mist surrounded Calisin, so that all that could be seen were the red tendrils that held him down. A throbbing orb of pure red love and passion floated out of the first dragon, and Catalyst picked it up. "Goodbye Calisin. Maybe you won't struggle against me so much anymore." Laughing, Catalyst left, and Calisin was automatically freed.
Silac slithered over to his father's bed and hoisted himself up onto it, managing to maneuver himself to hover his head over his unconscious father's. A single pure draconic tear trailed down off his little snake like head and fell onto his father's cheek. Right as that contact happened, Silac felt a tingle throughout his body, and for one moment, his human form could be faintly seen. His second evolution was near, Silac realised. Resting his head on his father's just, he curled up by him, and then fell asleep.
Sian looked in from a crack in the door, feeling something stir within him despite the strong hold Catalyst had on him. At his feet, Sazet, now a dewgong, looked up at his own Father, inspired by what Silac had down. There was hope for their group after all. If all the first Children could get their parents to concentrate on their love for them...
The dewgong nodded to himself. This would work. He had a hard task on his hands, getting the Father of all Water and Ice types to remember how he felt for his son, but he had to do the job.
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