Don't know what the quotation marks mean.
Don't know what quotation marks you're talking about, Astinus.
Here's chapter 2.
--- Chapter Two ---
Mitch and Etch slowly waved goodbye to the young residents of Ilex Forest, their friends, a group of Bug-type and Grass-type Pokemon having long since overcome their fear of humans when Bugsy first became gym leader. Having never actually asked Bugsy about this, Mitch only assumed it to be true, not willing to find out if it was in fact some stranger that helped the bugs conquer their fears. He did know, however, that the group of Oddish, a small, blue plant creature with a leafy sprout jutting out of the top of its head, did look much better than they did two days before, the rain from the night before seeming to have provided them with much needed moisture in the dry forest that was Ilex.
Night had almost completely taken over the town as the duo slowly creaked open the door of Mitch's house. His parents weren't home. Again.
"Oh well," he whispered to himself, grabbing a plate of food from the fridge and sitting down at the table. Ever since moving to Azalea town from Heartholme City almost two years ago, they never spent much time together; his father having gotten a job in the nearby city of Goldenrod while his mother worked late at the local Pokemon Center. Their Pokemon matched their jobs by some strange stroke of luck, his mother having caught a wild Happiny outside of their house before and his father having had a wild Machoke for almost three years now. But, for as long as he could remember, the very same Machoke seemed to glare at him whenever he was near. It was as if the creature, a male if he could remember right, somehow tied Mitch to some horrible event in its life.
He glanced over at the giant insect leaning against the kitchen walls, inspecting his soon-to-be, week-old wings. The fact that he lost a race to his bug stuck in his mind. How could he lose a race to a bug that barely had his wings for a few days? It was absurd. He turned his attention back to the food on his plate: cold Volcano burgers, a regional specialty. He sighed, bored by the food and turned, once again, to the bug leaning against the wall. He had spread out his insectine wings and was slowly moving them as if he had forgotten how badly he had beaten Mitch using those same wings. Being a fairly immature Scyther, he was probably as surprised as Mitch to have grown his wings so early.
Taking his mind off the race and standing up from his cold dinner, he caught Etch's attention and put his hand on a small spherical object on his belt.
"Time to return, Etch. We don't want mom freaking out like she did when you were younger now do we?"
Mitch vividly recalled a time soon after Etch had hatched from the egg Bugsy had given Mitch about a year before. Mitch and the little brown bug that was then Etch, were sleeping in Mitch's bed when Mitch found himself being prodded by something. That something turned out to be the handle of a broomstick his mother was holding. When she realized he was awake, she quietly pointed a shaking finger at the brown creature in his arms and asked "What is that...thing?". She had almost chased them out of the house and probably would have if Mitch didn't end up catching Etch with the Pokeball Bugsy gave him along with the egg.
The giant bug slowly nodded, his eyes shut.
Hitting the button in the center of the ball, the ball quickly expanded to the size of a baseball. He pointed the ball at the bug and shouted "Return!" as a beam of crimson light shot out of the Pokeball, bathing Etch in red light. Etch slowly dissolved into the red light and, once the only sign that the green bug had existed, the shape of light that enveloped him, disappeared, the beam retracted into the ball with a satisfying click.
Sighing, Mitch placed the ball on his magnetic belt and cleaned up the plate from the table.
"Time for bed," he said silently, looking around the house for something to do to prevent himself from going to sleep.
"I think I'll tell Bugster about those weird dreams I've been having tomorrow," he said with a small pause, hoping that Bugsy wasn't still mad at him for waking him up so rudely earlier.
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The leader slammed his fist onto his desk, unable to control his rage any longer. That days search had been a complete fiasco. His team could not find a single trace that the creature even lived in that forest. There was nothing! All those expensive scanners for no use other than to prove the creature was not there in the first place.
He rubbed his eyes and glanced down at the black desk he sat at, his face slightly glowing with the lights of twenty-four red lights. But those twenty-four lights were not the ones that caught his attention; it was the six bulbs that had remained black for months now. He could barely restrain his rage.
Hitting a button on the desk and clearing his throat, he spoke.
"All combat-ready personnel are to immediately depart for the Hoenn region and commence "Project TMC Mark II". Repeat, all able units are to leave for Hoenn to initiate Project TMC Mark II."
He took away his finger from the button that activated the microphone unit within his desk and grabbed a black remote from the black wire basket while quickly swinging his soft leather chair 180 degrees to face a screen built into the entirety of the of wall his office. Pressing a button, the screen slowly lit up, resolving into a gray room built of the finest steel his group could ever had found. But that was not what his attention was directed at; it was the large creature relaxing in the center of the room, a white creature surrounded by a golden ring embossed with four small green gems. He scowled, having thought that of all the things to have also gone wrong today, he could not take his rage out on the creature.
He turned back to the desk and turned on the microphone.
"Foreman! Report to my office immediately!"
Contemplating the punishment that Foreman would receive, he was quite shocked to hear a pounding on his door almost as soon as he turned off the microphone. He was almost equally shocked to see Foreman open the door and enter his office, papers in hand as he jogged over to the desk.
"Sir, there was minor damage done to the generators while we were away finding the creature. Our repair crews are already in repair and here is the damage report, sir!"
He took the papers and carefully examined the actual damage report.
Deep gashes in metal? Cracked steel?
"What happened Foreman?"
"As I said, sir, someone attacked the generators while we were away. There is evidence to conclude that there was a Scyther in the attacker's party as well as a fire-type and an ice-type or a water-type who knows ice-type moves, sir!"
"What happened to our base defenses? Those guns should have had enough power to stun a Steelix."
"The defenses are intact, sir! Whoever did this got away with no scratches as the computer does not have any recordings of the guns firing."
"Who are we dealing with?"
"We do not know, sir."
A radio cackled to life on Foreman's belt.
"Foreman, sir, this is Roberto from Damage Control. The generators are fixed, sir."
The radio cackled out of life.
The one in charge turned to the still-lit screen behind his desk. He was pleased to see the thunderbolts hitting the white creature yet again.
"You're safe Foreman. Make sure you head out with the other teams when you're done with base surveillance."
"Yes sir," saluted Foreman as he turned around and quietly shut the door behind him.
"Arceus," said the man as he turned to the monitor, pleased at the sight of bolts of electricity striking the creature," you will give me your power."
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Mitch jolted awake.
Again?
But it was different this time, he thought, contemplating the dream he had just had. He could not remember anything distinct about it. Nothing really happened except a vague feeling of calm and a jolt of pain like electricity, as if he was just shocked laying in bed by some rogue electric-type Pokemon.
He shook his head, slowly getting out of bed and walking to the moonlit window. Out of the corner of his eye, he could just make out a red three on his alarm clock.
"Three A.M.," he groaned, wishing he could stop having these weird dreams. Swallowing his misery, he looked out at the moonlit forest that was next to his house. It was so serene, so not annoying as these dreams. He could not make out much, the normal light shade of green replaced with a black that swallowed all worries and shrouded them from view. But he could make out something strange, something different than the other nights he was awoken by a dream. There was a person standing by the tree line, staring at the moon that was slightly shrouded by the canopies of the trees.
"He must be a stranger to the town," he thought quietly, recalling all the times he was told not to go out after dark. But, as he watched the man, he seemed to disappear, becoming one with the forest as he was enveloped by its branches.
"Where is he going?"
This was too suspicious. He just happened to wake up and see a man dissapear into the forest. Was this man tied with his weird dreams? Was he the voice he heard in some of them? Why was he going into the forest at night, being secretive and going out in the dead of night as to avoid detection by the town? No one stayed out past nightfall in Azalea and went through the tree brush surrounded by darkness.
Before his mind could catch up to his body, Mitch found himself with his outdoor shoes on, walking towards the forest, Etch's Pokeball in hand as he marched out the front door and towards the forest, still in his bed clothes. After entering the forest, Mitch could not tell where he was going. But he felt that the direction he was walking was the right direction he wanted; his eyes blind to everything around him as he wandered through the darkness in a seemingly pointless effort to catch up the shadowy figure of the man he had saw enter the forest. He heard nothing except for the snaps of twigs under his feet and the occasional Hoothoot. This was the exact reason people didn't did not go out after dark in Azalea, it was too darn scary. People could easily get lost in the forest now. But he could not tell his legs to stop and his body to turn around; his body refused to respond to any command other than move forward.
Soon, however, he came to a clearing in the forest, an area he recognized as the area where he and Etch had played with his wild Pokemon friends just that afternoon; an area he could recognize with his eyes closed. But that caused him to ask himself a question: Just how far in was the man going? Was he even on the man's trail anymore? He knew there was not much of relevance to a normal traveler in this forest, all of its residents not worth much to the travelers who passed through. Most travelers didn't even bother to look through the forest and enjoy its beauty in the daylight. But there was one thing that seemed to warrant visits from visitors, it was as important to Azaleans as the yearly Azalea Town Foundation Commemoration. That was the Shrine of the Protector, said to be home to the guardian of the forest, a creature unnamed by the people of Azalea.
Could that man want to desecrate it in the darkness, away from prying eyes? The thought made Mitch's blood boil, having spent hours cleaning the day before as part of his duty as a child in the small town. But he knew where he was now and since he could assume where that man had gone, he knew which direction to move in as well.
As he broke into a sprint, he hoped his mother wasn't home yet.
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"Sir, we've found something unusual outside the compound," said Foreman through the radio he had brought to his mouth.
There was a pause on the other end. Was exhaustion finally taking effect on their leader?
"What is it Foreman?" Indeed, the voice seemed tired.
"Sir, we've just found something very strange."
"Well, what is it!?"Foreman could feel the leader's impatience through the radio.
"It's...the Silver and Rainbow Wings, sir."
Another pause.
"That's absurd! I have the wings in a glass case in my office!"
"And they were there earlier when I reported the damage to you, sir. It seems that whoever caused the generators damage has also been in contact with Ho-oh and Lugia."
An alarm went off on Foreman's hip.
"What is that Foreman?"There was worry in his voice now.
"Sir, it's one of the scanners we used while exploring the forest today."
"But that means..."
"We must have missed it, sir. But now it's here," a slight tone of excitement in his voice. "And nearby, "he added quickly.
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It was just as he'd thought. The man WAS at the shrine. But what he was doing wasn't defiling it. But he did do something. Something that was causing one of the strangest sights Mitch had ever seen.
The shrine was aglow with pulses of green light.
"Just what is he doing?"He thought.
Whatever he was doing wasn't normal. He felt compelled to rush in and knock the man away from the shrine but caught himself before he did something reckless again. He then realized that the pulsing glow from the shrine was reaching the ground and trees near himself. Subconsciously knowing that whatever that man had started was going to be big, he stepped out from behind the not-safety of the tree he was watching from and walked towards the man. But, he realized as he grew closer and closer to the man, a pain started to develop in his stomach.
He ignored it, keeping his pace as he walked towards the man. But, the closer he got to the man, the father the forest seemed to be. The pain increased. He kept walking.
When the pain got to the point where he could no longer ignore it, he found himself directly behind the man. He reached out his hand, determined to get a hand on the man who had started these unnatural disturbances. Just as he had put a hand on the man's shoulder, the man seemed to disappear before his eyes, fading away in a flash of green. Before he could discern what had happened to the man, he felt the pain in his stomach reach an unbearable level. His stomach felt like it was being shredded.
Everything turned black as he fell towards the ground.
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The pain was gone. There was dirt in his mouth. He looked up from the ground, noticing the distinct smell of something unpleasant. There was the shrine in all its normalcy, casting a shadow on him. There was something lying in front of it, just out of reach from his arm. Two somethings, infact. A black fedora and a gold and white ball lay on the ground, right in front of the shrine. He passed out again, the shade of the shrine casting an awkward shadow on his unconscious body.
[S-HIGHLIGHT]Author's Note
Special thanks to "Life is a Highway" by Rascall Flats for the motivation to fix up some parts of the story.[/S-HIGHLIGHT]
