(OOC: Thanks for the welcome, Shiny, and I hope this will be a sufficient post. |D)
Meanwhile, in a Pokemon Center in Johto, a young girl woke up. She sat up and rubbed her eyes a bit before stretching her arms and standing. She wanted to become the best trainer in the world. A native of the Unova region, she was currently exploring Johto for the first time. She had slept well last night, which was wonderful to her because she tended to not sleep so well.
Valorie grabbed her satchel and headed into the local restroom, pulling out some clothes to change into. She had been wearing a modest pair of baby blue flannel pajamas. Changing out of those, folding them, and setting them back in her bag, she then went to pull out a pair of clothes worthy for the day. She first slipped on a pair of very short black modesty shorts, which were her justification for wearing a mini skirt, before putting on the rest of her 'standard outfit'.
Letting out a sigh, she peered in the mirror, looking herself over. She then frowned, realizing she still had to brush her hair. She took off her beanie and pulled out a small brush. After spending some time brushing her hair out so that she could look pristine she put her beanie back on over it, adjusting it and moving some of the hair out of her general scope of vision so that she could see. Looking in the mirror a second time, she became satisfied with herself, smiling at the image she had created.
She grabbed her satchel and exited the bathroom, making her way past a bystander waiting to use said bathroom to sit down in the Pokemon Center. Opening her satchel she began to rummage through it, checking to make sure she had everything she needed. She had her pokeballs, changes of clothes including a swimsuit, several bottles of fresh water, some instant noodle packages, a container of sunflower seeds, a bag of trail mix, a pair of rather thick winter pants and a blanket.
Valorie paused. Where were her healing items? She could've sworn she had some left. She dug around a bit more before coming across a couple of full heals, a super potion, and a single full restore she had been saving for quite a while for an emergency. She frowned. Only one Super Potion? That wouldn't do. She made a note to stop at the Pokemart before leaving. It was rather weird to her that there was a separate building for buying essentials in Johto. She didn't particularly understand why it was like that, but didn't really worry about it either.
"Alright..."
She was talking to herself. She abruptly realized this and grimaced, becoming self conscious of the fact that she felt unbearably alone. She made her way out of the Pokemon Center, walking over to the Mart and stopping in to buy two extra super potions before stuffing them into her satchel with the other one. Only, there was no one there to pay. This had become a theme lately. Where had everyone gone? It was honestly pretty scary. She didn't really understand. Was this something to do with her being in Johto? Was this a national holiday? What was going on?? Why were buildings unlocked? With guilt hanging over her head she stole the two super potions she was carrying by walking out with them. Would that really do though? Valorie considered the possibility of running out for a moment before smiling lightly at the thought. She didn't think she would. She decided to test her luck by only going with that much.
Normally she would've stopped somewhere for breakfast, but with no one to cook for her she was rather incapable of doing it herself beyond simple things. She often got sick of the sort of stuff she carried around in her bag, even if it was convenient and non-perishable. Her stomach growled, as if the empty feeling in her belly wasn't a hint enough. She took out her trail mix and began to snack on it, making an effort to take her mind off how much traveling alone bugged her sometimes. For whatever reason she just... couldn't get used to it!
After finishing her breakfast she proceeded to walk out of town at a brisk pace. After gaining some distance she reached into her bag and pulled out a single pokeball, pressing the button on it's face and letting out the dragonair contained within. Valorie's dragonair was pretty big, even for a dragonair. She was approximately twenty one feet long with proportions to match. To give a comparison, Dragonair was so big that she could literally not fit through most doors due to the sheer girth of her long body. Valorie reached out her arms up to Dragonair, inviting the large serpent pokemon for a hug while smiling pleasantly. Dragonair seemed happy to oblige, lowering her head down for Valorie to embrace. After a moment Valorie released Dragonair from the hug, looking off into the distance. There would be much walking to be done.
"Ready for a new day, Dragonair?"
She had spoken in an enthusiastic tone. Dragonair mewed in response. Valorie could not understand her, but she somehow felt as if they understood each other despite the language barrier on some level. It made her feel better. Her day seemed to be off to a good start. The sun was shining and there was nothing stopping her from training her heart out along the way to...wherever she was heading. The next town, she supposed. What had the sign said? She realized she hadn't read it and shrugged. Oh well.
After a while of walking, Valorie noticed something floating out of the woods. It was a strange pokemon the likes of which she had never seen. It had a primarily grey body and a primarily pink head. It seemed to be floating through the air towards her general direction. She turned her head to get a better look, noticing that it had two tails and yellow eyes. Yellow eyes... how eerie. She put this though aside and became alarmed as it became apparent that the pokemon was coming straight at her. It got right up in her face, startling her and making her very nervous. She held up her arms as if to shield herself and Dragonair made a threatening growl, not about to let some random pokemon hurt her trainer. The strange pokemon stopped and turned to stare at Dragonair. After a moment Dragonair mysteriously calmed down as if she had been spoken to or effected by some strange power. Valorie followed the pokemon's gaze and became mildly confused as to what was going on. She peered up at the pokemon, only to have it touch her forehead with one of it's arms. Almost immediately powerful emotions soared through her mind. Valorie grabbed at her head and pulled away, gritting her teeth and resisting the intrusion on her mind with all the might she could summon whilst startled. However, Mesprit was far too powerful and it was far too late. Valorie's resistance only served to make things harder by inducing strain, stress, and pain on her mind. She teared up a bit, quite frightened by the whole ordeal as her knees buckled underneath her. The The emotions spoke of a tragedy, of horrible wrongs, of a feeling of danger. The emotions began to paint a picture in Valorie's mind that gradually explained how the human race had been wrongly accused of, as a whole, keeping pokemon as slaves. The entire ordeal had Valorie squeezing her eyes shut as if to block out the feelings and crying, mostly due to fear and pain. It wasn't until she finally started to get that she was being told something that she started to ease up, even calming down some as the experience ended. Her muscles relaxed some and she collapsed, falling on her rear with her knees still buckled but her lower legs spread to the respective sides. It was then that she became aware of Dragonair vehemently attacking the strange pokemon from earlier to drive it away. Dragonair had seen the pain Valorie was in and no longer seemed to be capable of being fooled by whatever had happened earlier.
Valorie croaked out for Dragonair to stop, shuddering and hugging herself as she tried to regain her composure after the rather dramatic experience. Dragonair halted, turning around to look at Valorie in a confused manner. After a moment Valorie sniffled and wiped her cheeks. Well, so much for that great morning. The strange pokemon peered at Valorie, seemingly interested in her reaction to all this. After several more moments Valorie got up, bearing a mild frown. She was still quite shaken by the experience.
"It's... There's..."
She then realized that Dragonair was simply not capable of understanding an explanation and stopped, further annoyed by this realization. She brushed off the back of her skirt as she approached Dragonair. She gently patted Dragonairs side as she passed and Dragonair resigned herself to following along uncomfortably. Valorie approached the strange pokemon. What did she say? What did she do? After a moment she did the simplest thing she could think of. She nodded. The strange pokemon blinked before nodding in return. It seemed like it understood. It then proceeded to float off, surprisingly Valorie.
"Hey wait!"
Valorie called out, speeding up to chase the pokemon. The strange pokemon turned it's head and motioned for Valorie to follow. Valorie got the gesture and continued to give chase, silently this time. The strange pokemon lead her off the beaten path. She hesitated for a moment before continuing to chase, considering that she could get lost, or worse. She had decided that she was willing to take that chance. After all, she was sure she could handle the wilderness. Every so often a wild pokemon would attack, only to be quickly shot down by Dragonair. The strange pokemon appeared to stop and wait every time this happened, and the chance to battle eased Dragonair's frustration. After some time trekking through the wilderness they reached what appeared to be... nothing special at all. The strange pokemon stopped however and turned to face Valorie. Just as she was about to start trying to figure out why she was here something began to happen. A faint click was heard from the ground nearby in the strange pokemon's direction. The dirt then parted, moved by some invisible force, to reveal a metal door. The door then opened on its own. The strange pokemon quickly descended inside. Seeing as Dragonair was clearly too big, Valorie returned her as she approached the hole. She peered in, seeing that it had steel walls, on one side of which a ladder was located. She couldn't see the bottom as it was rather dark inside. Never-the-less, after a moments hesitation she began to descend into the hole, using the ladder. After she had proceeded some ways in, the latch abruptly shut above her, cutting off all light. She grimaced, hating the feeling of being blonde. It bothered her on many levels, and not just because she could potentially fall and hurt herself. Never-the-less, she proceeded further down. After a bit she felt solid ground underneath her, though it didn't sound like metal when she put her foot down. It didn't even make a sound at all! She rubbed her foot against the ground again. It sounded like... dirt. Lovely. She felt around her, finding that there were walls on all four sides and becoming frustrated. Was this a trick? Was she being buried alive?! Fears began to well up in her head until she felt a small hand tap her lower leg. She hesitated for a moment. Was that the strange pokemon? She abruptly felt a gentle but firm force pushing her downwards. She became further frustrated but allowed herself to get down to her knees. She then felt a tug on her arm and reached out. To her surprise there didn't seem to be a wall to touch. She moved forward, becoming aware that there had apparently been a low crawlspace. She was rather self conscious at his point that this was going to be a dirty crawl but trekked on anyway, silently cursing the fact that there was no light. At least if there was light she wouldn't feel so... alone, vulnerable. She realized what she was actually afraid of and became embarassed, ashamed of herself for feeling such. She immediately attempted to repress said feelings, replacing them with anger, which she used to fuel her crawl, feeling her way around the tunnel which lead her up and down slopes through the ground. After some time crawling, which she got the general impression was bringing her slowly higher, she bumped her head into a wall. She had reached the end, but she was still underground. She quickly considered that perhaps she would need to climb again, reaching upwards. She was pleased to discover that there was in fact somewhere left to go, that somewhere being straight up. Yet... there was no ladder! Valorie became momentarily alarmed until she heard another lock clicking and light flooded the tunnel from above. She didn't need a ladder. The exit was well within reach and she simply pulled herself up with some effort.
Who made that tunnel and why hadn't they heard of the magical invention of these things called doors?! They were in a building. Valorie looked around. Lots of science'y looking equipment and computers were laying around. She blinked and looked back down. The panel they had climbed out of was disguised as an ordinary floor panel. It must've been a secret entrance. Where was she, though? She looked around again and spotted the strange pokemon motioning for her to come. She had quickly began to calm down with the restoration of her sight, only mildly annoyed now, and proceeded to follow the strange pokemon even further. She was lead over to a table where a bunch of mechanical parts were strewn about, as well as tools and an odd bracelet-looking thing. The strange pokemon motioned to the bracelet and Valorie attempted to pick it up, only to find that it wouldn't budge! It was then that she noticed a metal loop wrapped around it holding it to the table. It appeared to be some sort of lock.
Valorie glanced at the strange pokemon as if to ask 'What, you can't open this one?' before looking around. What was she supposed to do? She then began to inspect the table. There didn't seem to be anything worth noting to see there. Looking around some more, she noticed a computer with the words 'Prototype Development Center' on the screen. It was rather large. Looking down she saw that there was a full keyboard and a command interface. Luckily, she wasn't exactly computer illiterate and recognized it almost immediately. The screen listed that she should type help for a list of commands, and so she did so. After reading through the list a bit she found a seemingly fitting option under Security>Unlock>Proto. After typing that in she was asked to confirm her actions, and after doing so heard a rather loud click. She was rather impressed that the computer hadn't even asked for a password of some sort. Deciding not to worry about the details she walked back over to the table, only to find the strange pokemon trying on the bracelet.
Strange Pokemon: "Thank you."
Valorie's eyes widened. The pokemon had talked to her! She was silenced for a few moments due to shock. What did she say? The pokemon's voice sounded female and rather small, though calm.
"...What are you?"
Mesprit: "I'm called Mesprit. This bracelet allows me to communicate with you in your native language."
Valorie raised her eyebrows in mock skepticism as Mesprit pointed out the obvious.
"What is this place?"
Mesprit: "A laboratory. We need to leave. The longer we stay here the more we risk getting caught."
Valorie's brow furrowed. Were they not supposed to be there? she had almost unconsciously assumed that they were allowed. It then occurred to her that she had just helped Mesprit steal. The feeling of outrage was quickly drowned out by one of fear. What if she was caught?
"...How do we get out?"
Mesprit: "Back the way we came, unfortunately."
Valorie grimaced, abruptly turning tail and running back to the hole she had emerged from and jumping in. Mesprit was mildly surprised by the speed at which Valorie had left and quickly turned to follow.
Mesprit: "..."
Valorie spared no time beginning to start crawling back down the tunnel. Darkness quickly consumed her vision as the secret door closed. For a few minutes she made an effort to move quickly before abruptly stopping when she felt a small hand tap on her backside. Rather irritated with the gesture she attempted to glare over her shoulder, only to realize it was completely ineffective. She noted that she hated the dark.
Mesprit: "I'm sorry."
Valorie blinked. Mesprit was /sorry/? Well she hadn't seen that coming. The pokemon hadn't seemed to care all that much about Valories frustration earlier.
"You're sorry?"
Mesprit: "You seem upset."
Valorie became unimpressed. It completely flew over her head to ask how Mesprit could tell she was still upset without seeing her. It wasn't as if she was seething with rage in tone here. Mild annoyance at best as far as tone went.
"Oh, you just led me on a chase to go steal a speech bracelet for you. No big deal."
The sarcasm in her words was evident, and they were followed by silence.
Mesprit: "You know I'm only trying to prevent a great wrong."
Valorie wanted to retort, but Mesprit was right. She did know that. She stopped to think a moment, feeling a floating pokemon bump into her and sighed. Apparently Mesprit was as blind as she was down here.
"Yeah... I know. I guess I'm just... This all seems so..."
Abruptly, she felt Mesprit's small form squirming past her. She silently agreed to this. It was less prone to awkward bumping this way. Only, she then felt Mesprit place her hand on Valorie's forhead again. This time, however, she felt her anger melt away, replaced with a feeling of comfort. Valorie did not struggle this time, thus avoiding any strain, stress and pain. Valorie's cheeks turned a bright pink, though nobody could see. Nothing Mesprit could have said would've had an effect anywhere near this powerful. After a moment Mesprit removed her hand and continued on, leaving a bewildered Valorie to shake her head in embarrassment as the feeling left her. Admittedly, she had loved the feeling she was given. Yet, it somehow felt as if it wasn't earned. She disregarded this for the time being, focusing on getting out of the dirty tunnel. Abruptly she felt an invisible force stopping her.
Mesprit: "Don't bump your head. The wall's right in front of you."
Valorie was half tempted to thank the pokemon but was more concerned about getting out of the tunnel. The hatch above them opened, spilling light into it. She quickly climbed up, pulling herself up and out and standing up, stretching.
"A-Aaaah...!"
Mesprit floated up in front of her again, drawing Valorie's attention.
"Who did we just steal from?"
Mesprit: "I'm sure the would appreciate us using their technology."
Valorie became somewhat skeptical, interrupting the pokemon.
"Why's that?"
Mesprit: "...They've been taken. For the slaughter."
Valorie's face paled a bit. The emotions she had experienced earlier on the road came flooding back to her.
"...Right, something about a tragedy..."
Mesprit then began speaking, and for once Valorie just listened.
Mesprit: "Mewtwo has convinced many of the other legendary pokemon from around the world that humanity is set out to enslave pokemon world-wide. The ones that believed him have... decided to attempt to eradicate humans. I need your help to stop them."
Valorie became very concerned. Eradicate... humans? Mewtwo? Legendary pokemon? What the heck was going on? The thought that the human race could actually be being wiped out baffled her. That only happened in movies! It wasn't possible! None of this was possible! At least, that's what she thought. It was overwhelming.
"W-What?"
Mesprit: "You're one of the only free humans. I need your help."
Valorie raised a hand to her forehead, holding her head. She couldn't breath. She couldn't think. Though, that was probably a result of the whole not breathing thing.
Mesprit: "Are... you o-"
And then Valorie just sort wobbled and proceeded to faint, being caught by Mesprit's psychic powers. Breathing. She had neglected to do it for too long.
Mesprit: "..."
Mesprit seemed rather disappointed. It was hard for her to understand that Valorie came from a world where people who claimed humanity was coming to an end were usually laughed off the stage, let alone taken remotely seriously. If it weren't for the fact that she hadn't seen a human in a significant period of time she wouldn't have believed it herself. What Mesprit had told her had rocked her world hard though. To her, the whole fainting ordeal seemed a bit... pathetic, to be blunt.
Not long after fainting Valorie began regaining consciousness, as she had started breathing again after losing it. She groaned and reached up again, clutching her head. She felt nauseous. After a few moments what had happened came back to her and she began to panic. Mesprit promptly set Valorie back on her feet.
"What about my friends?! What about... What about my parents?!"
Valorie had always missed her parents after leaving them, though she would never admit it. The thought that they were gone, possibly dead, hit her like a truck. Tears welled up in her eyes and she gritted her teeth again. She wanted to hit something, but wouldn't dare strike Mesprit. She was not a violent person, and was very against hitting others, regardless of how angry she was.
Meanwhile, Mesprit seemed disappointed. It wasn't that she thought Valorie was hopeless. Strange in that she somehow managed to forget to breath, perhaps. But her disappointment stemmed from watching Valorie suffer. Regardless of how necessary it was, she felt wrong putting a child through this sort of torment.
Mesprit: "There... is still a chance to save everyone. I /need/ your help though."
Mesprit had put a lot of emphasis on the word need. Valorie wiped the tears from her eyes and looked into Mesprit's. She might not have had a lot of friends, but back in her home town she had a few childhood friends, not to mention her parents. She took the hope that they might be alive and clinged to it, clinged to it for all it was worth. She then used that hope to fuel her determination. She abruptly realized what a miserable mess she must look like. Wiping her eyes a second time she put on a brave expression.
"...Alright..."
She wasn't emotionally stable. Her right eye twitched a bit, but Mesprit could tell what she said was genuine. Perhaps the whole ordeal had simply been too hard on her and she would feel better later. Mesprit reached out and touched Valorie again, filling her mind with soothing emotions. Valorie blushed, except this time she was so touched by the gesture that she simply reached out and grabbed Mesprit, hugging the pokemon to her affectionately. At least she had someone to talk to, to relate to... sort of anyway. Mesprit was... startled, to say the least. She accepted it after a moment though. Abruptly, Valorie felt a sort of foreign power filling her.
Mesprit: "I've given you the ability to use my power as you wish. ...It might take some getting used to."
Valorie paused to consider what Mesprit just said,still holding Mesprit rather tightly to her. She had been given... power? What was Mesprit's power? She decided it would be better to ask.
"Power..?"
Mesprit: "Levitation, control over emotions, teleportation, as well as many of the other skills I possess."
Valorie seemed mildly confused, but then got the gist of it, though it was slightly hard to believe. All of a sudden something occurred to her.
"Wait a second... teleportation? You could teleport that /entire/ time?"
She spoke in an accusing tone.
Mesprit: "...I didn't think you would trust me to, after our initial meeting."
Valorie stayed silent for a few moments before deciding that she no longer cared. It was all over and done with. The question now was... where to go from here?
