RE: Mysteries of the Mind - A Trainer's Vision
Woo, PMJ was here too.
Both of you save me from double-posting here, so kudos for that ^_^
That's right, I found the time last night to go on and create the next chapter. This one sets the stage for a lot of fighting to come, and everything is building up to the climax! D:
A couple of points before we begin:
1) The first section is going to look oddly familiar to some. And by some I mean anyone who has read PMJ's fic. It dawned on me as I was writing this that the first section felt almost exactly like a less gruesome form of what he did with one of his characters... but that isn't where the inspiration came from. It actually came from Harry Potter, of all places.
2) Our maybe not so secret secret now - originally, me and MK63 were going to interlink our fics and write separate halves of this action section to come. It unfortunately dissolved though - Matt stopped writing his fic long before I stopped mine, and the plan sorta fell through. However, MY end is coming up now - the characters Gregor saw at the end of the last chapter? Those are his, and they are about to come into the fray now ^_^
(BTW MK, looking at the sprites you made for your group, I decided to change Ellen's clothes to red - two green people is boring ;D )
Now that THAT is done, enjoy!
Chapter 22 – Fates of the Chosen Ones
Life is a strange beast sometimes. One minute, everything is going fine, not a care in the world to be had. Next… you’re turned upside down, unable to contemplate how things could possibly be any worse. It is often said that one’s reaction to the latter defines you as a person. After all, how one handles adversity surely shows how much bravery one has?
Dealing with bad times isn’t the only thing that defines a person, however. It’s fair to say that all actions a person takes define who they are really… now, in the face of world-threatening danger, we finally get to see what our “heroes” are truly made of…
“Calum… please… you must awaken…”
No response.
“Calum… come on… you have to wake up! I know you’re still alive… you have to be!”
Still no response. Gardevoir became agitated.
“Calum… please…”
The room around Calum was completely devoid of everything – colour, decoration, even life itself. Calum lay on the floor, sleeping restlessly. A red and white Absol appeared out of nowhere with a loud pop – this was enough to wake Calum from his sleep. He groaned as he awoke, squinting to get a glimpse of what disturbed him, he noticed the white and red panther behind him. He quickly scrambled to his feet, tensely staring at the creature. He quickly made a move to send his own Absol out, but couldn’t; his poké balls had all disappeared!
He stood still, trying to stare the creature in front of him down. “You’re not my Absol,” he said quietly, not wanting to make a wrong move. “What are you? And where am I?”
The red Absol stared placidly back at Calum.
“Where do you want to be?” it replied, as calm as a summer breeze.
“This is YOUR world now… take your pick!”
Calum looked confused. “My world? But I wasn’t here before… the last thing remember was the storm, and a psychic voice warding me and Ryan away from the island.” He closed his eyes, concentrating on his final memory. “And then… when I said we weren’t leaving… the Gyarados came! Dragonite came to help us, but it only managed to pick up Ryan.”
Absol nodded.
“So you know what happened next then?”
Calum closed his eyes again, deep in his own thoughts now. “I… I remember telling Dragonite to get Ryan out of there. Then…” he gasped. “The whirlpool took me under the water! I couldn’t breathe, and I had no way of escaping…”
He froze on the spot. Almost not wanting to ask the question burning so deeply in his mind, he hesitated. But he couldn’t hold it back for long; he
had to know.
“Does that mean I’m… dead?
Absol’s expression remained unchanged.
“As I said, you are wherever you want to be. You should be thankful – very few people visit this place.”
Calum’s curiosity perked up. “Really? Why might that be?”
“This place… is a gateway. A gateway between the living and the dead. Normally, a person is either truly alive, or truly dead. However… in exceptional circumstances, one has the opportunity to choose whether they live or die. In this case, your body is living, but barely. It is just possible to go back now, resume the life you had. But of course, you could choose to end it here, go on to the other side… where you could truly have anything you wanted. That’s what this place truly is – for those who choose to die, this place serves as a taste of what’s to come.”
Calum couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “So lemme get this straight. I’m dead, but not quite dead… you’re saying that I can CHOOSE whether or not I die now? Is there some sort of drawback for those who choose to live or something?”
Absol’s gaze and expression remained unchanged, despite the brutal questioning.
“There are no obvious disadvantages for going back… but be warned that this place is only available once. Once you have been here, you cannot ever return. The mind can only ever withstand one trip here, so choose wisely…”
“I don’t have to make a decision over this – it was already made a LONG time ago! I made a promise… a promise to my little Eevee… and that promise means more to me than ANYTHING. I CANNOT allow myself to break that promise, and not even death will stop me. I’m going back, and that’s the end of it.”
For the first time since it arrived, the red Absol’s gaze broke, as he closed his eyes.
“Very well. I can see that you have noble intentions indeed. Fitting of the chosen one really… so, all you have to do is make this place your own, and grant yourself the way back to the living. If your mind is capable of doing this, you can leave. If not… Giratina might have its next soul after all.”
And with that, Absol vanished, leaving with the same popping sound as it arrived with. Calum stood, staring at the spot that was until then occupied by the red and white panther.
“All I have to do is make this world take me back,” he thought to himself.
“But how do that exactly? Hmm… well, Absol said that this place is whatever I want it to be. So perhaps…”
Calum closed his eyes, willing something to happen. He was wishing with all of his heart that he could return, and that he could see his Eevee again. The white space around him erupted, startling Calum. He opened his eyes in a flash; just in time to watch the events unfold around him.
The walls were changing colour rapidly. A strange tie-dye rainbow was flooding the confines of the walls, which had taken a definite and solid form in the last twenty seconds. The ceiling changed completely, however – it became the sky outside. Or did it? Calum looked closer, and saw the ocean rippling on the ceiling!
“Woah…”
But the room wasn’t done yet – before long, a tall, black pillar erupted from the centre of the room. A spiral staircase constructed itself around the pillar. At the foot of the newly formed staircase lay a message carved in what appeared to be stone. Calum read it aloud, just to convince himself of what he was reading.
“This was your final resting place. Travel up the staircase and return to your world, and carry out whatever your heart desires.”
Calum shook his head in disbelief. “Now I
know why people never visit this place twice,” he muttered. “It’s too freaking crazy!”
“Calum… don’t leave us… please…”
Gardevoir was still trying to resurrect Calum above the surface of the now calmer waters. His body was hanging limp over Milotic, who had somehow managed to stay conscious throughout the entire ordeal. She was crying bitterly, unable to think that her trainer wasn’t able to come through that attack alive. Eevee was still in his poké ball at this point, but that was hardly a good thing for the little dog.
Calum’s eyes snapped open in a flash. His lungs were finally given an order to work, and he quickly took a huge gulp of air as a result. Milotic felt the disturbance on her back and instantly looked round in disbelief. Gardevoir closed her eyes, tears of relief clearly visible.
“Calum… we… we thought…
“I know, I know,” he replied sombrely. “But there’s no time to waste on me – Ryan’s in trouble! Gardevoir, do you think you could teleport us the rest of the way to the island?”
“Of course… let’s go find Ryan!”
Gregor looked around the island, still perched on his elevated cliffside. He considered his options for attack, to retrieve the Void Balls from the other island inhabitants. On his right lay Ryan, still in shock about what happened at sea. Whilst he would be an easy target, Gregor wasn’t so sure.
“That Dragonite is still around,” he thought to himself.
“Ryan himself would be easy to break; but Dragonite? That thing is connected to the void itself… and taking her down would require more than even my strength.”
He looked to his left, where the three young trainers had not long passed.
“I definitely saw a Void Ball in that kid’s hand… there’s three of them, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to silence them if I can take them on one at a time.” He smiled as the plan formulated in his head.
“Well, there isn’t a second to lose. You kids better be prepared…” And with that, he took off down the cliff to give chase.
“Come on you two, hurry up!”
Ellen ran impatiently onwards along the rugged forest path, unwilling to wait for her slower friends to catch up. Her red blazer and jeans perfectly matched her fiery personality, and her lack of patience was clearly showing here. Even her blonde hair billowed hastily with the wind, as if it was also sick of waiting for her friends.
But before long, she had found herself at a crossroad. Unsure of where her quarry had ran of too, she let out an impatient tut and decided that it would be best to wait for her allies this time.
It was clear that the trio were moving through a wild track, way off the beaten map. The entire “path”, if you could call it that, was overgrown with shrubbery and littered with dead leaves. Tree roots frequently protruded out of the ground, strategically placed in the worst possible positions… as if they were determined to hinder progress along the track. The trees that owned them were extremely tall, and mostly deciduous in nature. They grew so wide that they overshadowed the path, giving the odd impression of twilight within the day. Two boys were catching up to Ellen. Her hazel eyes scanned them impatiently as they caught their breaths after a difficult run. One decided to speak out.
“Well,
we aren’t the ones with the Rapidash Ellen, so of COURSE we will be slower! What do you expect!?”
The retort came from a tall boy in green, whose dark brown hair was as dishevelled as ever. Max was always known for his sarcasm, and frequently fought with Ellen as a result of her impatience. Today was no exception; however, Matt decided to intervene before things got out of hand.
“Quiet Max, this is serious.” His preference was for brown shorts and a blue hooded sweater. His sapphire eyes turned back to Ellen, who had waited long enough for them to catch up again. “Now, did you see which way that baby Eevee went?”
Ellen shook her head. “No, that’s why I wanted you two to get here faster. You’re so slow!” Max grunted, showing his disapproval. Ellen ignored him. “Well, we need to find it, it could be in real danger… Espeon, let’s go! We have one of your kin to find!”
With a flick of the wrist, the young female sent out an odd purple doglike creature with long, pointed ears and a forked tail. The ruby gem on her forehead glowed momentarily as she stood, facing her master.
“That Eevee child has to be around somewhere… can you find it?”
The purple creature’s eyes closed slowly. Her red gem shone brightly as she freely controlled her psychic abilities in order to assist her trainer. The wind billowed vigorously through the trees, as if trying to guide Espeon towards her intended target. This must have worked; before long, the forked tail was directed towards the trio’s left.
“There?” Ellen asked tentatively. A nod confirmed her assumption. “Alright, let’s go!”
The group started again, with Espeon taking the lead. Her four legs were clearly an advantage over this rough terrain, as she agilely leapt from root to root in pursuit of the young Eevee pup. After a brief minute along the path, Ellen had noticed a rustling in the bushes, followed by a flash of brown fur darting through the undergrowth.
“There!” she exclaimed, pointing to the spot. “The little Eevee just ran through those bushes! Come on, let’s go!”
“I’m afraid you won’t be going
anywhere.”
Ellen gasped and turned round on the spot. Before her stood Gregor, smiling callously as he confronted the trio. Matt, sensing danger, took a step forward.
“Who are you?”
“I am Gregor, former head of Team Leafre.” He paused, looking for a reaction. “I have come for the Void Ball. If you hand it over nicely, nobody will have to get hurt… now, where is it?”
The trio looked at each other, confused. “Void Ball?” Max asked, dumbfounded. “Just what the heck is that? I’ve never heard of anything like it!”
Matt and Ellen looked at each other for a second. Neither knew anything of the ball that Gregor referred to, although Matt had a feeling that he had encountered something like it before…
“Look, there’s no time to play games. I know one of you has it, now hand it over before I take action!” Gregor reached into his emerald blazer and pulled out a pair of poké balls. Matt saw the quiet rage building in his eyes; he wasn’t going to play nice for much longer.
Max looked over at Ellen. Both of them had seen this change in expression, and neither liked it. “Looks like he means business,” Max said softly, with one hand reaching towards his belt. “What do you think, Ellen? Think we can take him?”
Ellen smiled. “Is that a challenge Max?” She turned round to address Matt. “Look, Matt, take Espeon and find that Eevee pup. It is still in danger, and we can take this guy no sweat, so go make sure he’s safe!”
Matt hesitated, unwilling to leave his friends when they could be in danger. His will faltered somewhat when he looked at the determination in Ellen’s eyes, however. With a quick nod, he turned to Espeon. “Let’s go Espeon!” The purple dog looked at Ellen. She nodded reassuringly, promising her that she will be fine in this battle without the aid of the psychic pokémon. This was all that was needed to persuade her to leave. Both Matt and Espeon ran off into the bushes, following the trail of the little Eevee they were chasing. Gregor made a move to stop them, but was quickly blocked off by the remaining two.
“Hmph, you fools…” he said, his temper rising. “He probably has the ball, knowing my luck. No matter, it won’t take long to destroy you two.” He revealed two dark green poké balls and flung them onto the battlefield. “This is what you get for interfering!”
“Calum… no… he can’t be gone…”
Ryan was kneeling on the cold beach sand, trying to take in just what had happened. He was determined not to believe what had happened at sea… determined to believe that his best friend was still alive. He wasn’t
here beside him though… and there was no sign of him… could he really be gone?
Dragonite merely stood over Ryan, doing her best to console the distraught teenager. Not even she knew of the fate of Calum. In her mind she was in a similar position as Ryan; unwilling to believe he was gone, but unable to shake the very obvious facts that seemed to be present. She looked out to sea, as if attempting to find some final desperate sign that he was alive still. Finding nothing, she turned back to Ryan, tears welling up in her eyes. The young boy looked up to face his saviour.
“Oh, don’t cry, please!” he pleaded. “He IS alive, I’m SURE of it! He has to be…”
Ryan looked around. He could see the lush trees of the island forest behind him. It was a vast wilderness that seemed to stretch out for miles without an end, with all of it looking basically the same. In the undergrowth, something caught Ryan’s attention. Could it be…?
“Is that…? Eevee?”
Upon hearing its name, the tiny brown creature took one quick look up and saw the person who called it. Clearly not liking what it saw, it darted off into the undergrowth. Ryan got up instantly.
“Hey, wait!” He gave chase, calling back to Dragonite to thank her for her assistance. The sombre orange dragon merely looked into the ocean, still searching for signs of life.
Ryan’s initial assumptions about the forest all proved to be correct. He had never encountered a place that was so wild, so chaotic, and so arcane. There was no path for him to follow – he had resorted to sending Sandslash out to cut down any particularly nasty bushes, vines or shrubs that were in the way of his path through the trees. The little Eevee child was somewhat quicker than the teen, and had managed to build a fairly large lead. Ryan called out to it again.
“Hey, why are you running Eevee? I thought we were friends? Or… are you showing me where Calum is?”
Ryan clung onto this belief as he continued to chase the little dog through the forest. The path jerked distinctly upwards, up the side of a fairly large hill. Despite running more and more out of breath by the second, Ryan was determined not to give up, and continued the chase. The undergrowth began to thin out as he and Sandslash climbed, and before too long the pair had made it to a mysterious clearing. The Eevee child had managed to get away by this time, but Ryan had forgotten completely about it as he saw his surroundings.
“Woah… where is THIS?”
He had made it to what appeared to be a run-down temple. The ceiling was non-existent, and many of the pillars had crumbled a long time ago. The scene bore all the markings of a catastrophe. Ryan cautiously moved towards the ancient relic, looking for any signs to indicate just what the place was. He found only one – a worn tablet with a collection of odd symbols that resembled pokémon.
“Unowns…” Ryan muttered to himself, relieved to find that he understood what the tablet depicted. “It’s times like this that I thank my father for making me sit through that class… let’s see here.” He carefully translated the symbols.
“Herein lies the Void Gate. When the four chosen ones, guided by the sacred Void Balls, arrive with the Pendant, the Void will open.”
“Four sacred Void Balls…” he recited, trying to decipher what was meant He instinctively reached into his pocket and pulled out the brilliant blue poké ball that held his beloved Dratini. “Does it mean these? Calum has one as well… and I’m sure the man who saved me from those thugs had one too! But who WAS he…”
Ryan stepped inside the weathered temple. The inside room was gigantic; he presumed it would’ve looked fantastic when it was still intact. All that remained now were loose fragments of the walls and a large silver chest in the middle of the weathered stone floor. There was a small, delicate lock in the centre of the chest – as Ryan edged closer to it, he noticed that the shape of the lock was exactly like the shape of Eevee’s pendant.
“So this is where the pendant goes,” he whispered. “But where is Calum?”
“Hey! What have you done with that Eevee?!”
“Huh? What the-“
Ryan jumped to the side as a powerful bolt of lightning came his way. Looking frantically for the source of the attack, his eyes met an orange mouse pokémon, much like his own Raichu. Unlike his, this one’s tail was whole; Ryan quickly concluded that it was a male Raichu. “Not that that will help me,” he muttered. “Who are you, and why did you attack me?”
The owner of the Raichu stepped forwards, accompanied by a somewhat calmer Espeon. “My name is Matt,” he said boldly, trying to assert some authority over Ryan. “Tell me now, what have you done with the Eevee pup that ran through here?”
Ryan looked confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about… I lost sight of an Eevee child before I came in here, but the last I saw of that little guy he was running in the direction you just came from!”
But Matt was having none of it. “Lies! I’d have seen it if it ran by me!” His Raichu gave a low growl, signalling his intentions quite clearly. “You WILL tell me the truth… or you will face the consequences!”
Ryan instinctively reached to his belt. “Oh yeah? We’ll see about that! Let’s do this!”
Calum appeared alongside Gardevoir and the worn out Milotic on a pebble beach. All that he could see for miles on either side was a glimmering array of stones; some crystalline, others mere trash. In front of him lay the same thick forest that Ryan traversed earlier, although the trees facing the young man were mostly evergreens.
Calum turned to his pokémon. “Thank you… both of you. Really, I would be dead in the water if it wasn’t for you two, literally!” His attention turned to Milotic. “
You need a long rest!” He pulled out a Full Restore, sprayed Milotic all over with it (the slender sea-snake showed her affection as the marvellous healing spray took effect), and returned her to her poké ball, where she was to stay for quite some time. Calum grabbed two further poké balls from his waist as he put Milotic’s back, and sent out Skarmory (to dry off, much to the metal bird’s relief) and Eevee. Eevee looked round for a minute, taking in the surroundings.
“This is it, Eevee! Your home!”
The little dog made no response as it continued to gaze in awe at the forest in front of it. A quick rustling in the bushes brought him back to reality, however. His attention snapped to the site of the disturbance. A small brown bundle of fur was watching the group from what it deemed to be a safe distance. Curious to see what Eevee was looking at, Calum looked in the same direction, and spotted the little creature. Big mistake. The little doglike animal instantly spotted that Calum was also looking at it, and made a run for it. Calum, still unsure of the exact identity of the animal, turned to Eevee.
“Was that…?” he started. Eevee nodded; it was a family member. Calum wasted no time. “Alright, Arcanine, go! Let’s find that Eevee!”
Calum’s immaculate red dog came out, standing proudly by his trainer’s side. As he returned all of his other pokémon, the young man picked up Eevee (
“there’s no way Eevee can keep up with Arcanine,” he thought), got on Arcanine’s back, and gave the order for the pooch to run as quick as he could to catch up with the young Eevee child.
“Something tells me that following this Eevee will lead me to something rather important… although I still don’t know where Ryan got to at all! Hang on…”
“Well well… I thought Calum was finished off by that storm for sure! Seems that he is tougher than I thought then…”
Jason stood on the beach where Calum had just left, having just come out from the undergrowth. He hadn’t seen what the boy was chasing, but he didn’t particularly care at this point. All he cared about was the fact that the Void Pendant was still in his possession, and that he was moving as expected.
“I guess I need to get going myself. My little tracking device here will lead me directly to Calum, and the rest when they meet up. Then I can claim what’s mine!”
He tossed a poisonous looking poké ball onto the beach. A flash of purple light revealed the form of a large green dinosaur-like creature with a vivid red flower blooming on its back. The flower was covered in vicious purple spots; clearly there had been a little redecoration by the trainer.
“Hmph, Venusaur, let us go! Time to retrieve our power!”
The beast roared in delight as Jason mounted it, positioning himself behind the gigantic flower. With a familiar rage flooding through its bloodshot eyes, it took off into the forest, with only one goal in its mind.
