Chapter 20: I Dub Thee, Dreamwalker!
“Wake, up, C!” said Marie, excessively shoving Ceailean in his bed. The sun was well over their heads pouring through the widely opened curtains. Scorbunny shared the discomfort that Ceailean was receiving and rolled away from Marie as far as it could.
“Just… five more minutes, Marie.” Ceailean responded drowsily.
“It is almost ten! You do not need anymore sleep!”
“We have all day. Why do we need to rush?”
Marie slapped him some more. “I don’t want to start our journey and only be a mile out of the Lumiose city limits! So hurry up and get ready!”
“Alright fine, I’ll be ready in a minute.” Ceailean said while curling up in the bed.
Marie sighed. “Yeah sure.” She made her way to the bathroom to make any finishing touches on her hair. “I swear you better not take forever!” She barely came out of the bathroom before running into Ceailean standing in front of her.
“‘Kay, done.” he said simply. Marie looked him up and down. His hair was combed perfectly, clothes and shoes were on, all his stuff was already packed into the duffle on his side.
“What? How did you do that?”
“I wake up late more than you think.” Scorbunny however dragged its feet next to him, looking barely able to open its eyes. It had also sub-consciously dragged over a sheet of the bed along with it. “Scorbunny, drop the bed. We’re gonna get going soon.” It rubbed its eye and nodded.
“Alright, I guess. Fennekin, Snom, you two ready to go?” Fennekin barked in agreement. It jumped off the bed with Snom on it’s head. “Come on Snom, at this point I think you like being on Fennekin’s head more than mine. Why don’t you come with me today. Snom reluctantly agreed. Marie picked it up and put it under her beanie. “Hurry, I can’t wait!”
“I can only open a door so fast.” Ceailean gave one last look at the room before moving on down the hallway. Fennekin followed while Scorbunny tried drowsily to keep up.
“Thanks you two. We hope you make another visit to the Kodoarla sometime in the future.” said the clerk as Ceailean turned in the key.
“No problem.” said Ceailean.
Outside the hotel, Marie stretched her arms as hard as she could, admiring the air all around her. “Mm, it feels so liberating to finally not be holed up in a singular room anymore.”
“We’ll see what you say when we walk 3-4 miles everyday.”
“I’m confident that that will not be a problem.” Marie skipped down the steps down to the street, but she noticed something that made her stop in her tracks. A car. A very familiar car. The one that her driver uses, Christianson. Why was he here? She knew why, but why now? Panic started to set in. Luckily, the car was one street down and facing the opposite direction. With quick thinking, maybe she could avoid confrontation.
“H-Hey C, I want to go this way.”
“Huh, why? It’s this way down to the professors, isn’t it?” He gestured unknowingly towards the direction of Christianson’s car.
“It’s like you said, w-we have all day. So why don’t we spend some time getting one last look at Lumiose city, yeah?”
“I guess, but you were quite eager earlier-”
“Great! Let’s hurry up!” Marie started to push Ceailean across the intersection.
“Are we going fast or are we going slow?!”
Marie had managed to get Ceailean across the road, out of sight of Christianson’s car. Fennekin seemed oblivious to the situation and Scorbunny came up to them yawning.
“Scorbunny, you’re still tired?” asked Ceailean. “Why don’t you go for a run. You’re never gonna get any energy by just moving around sluggishly like that.” Scorbunny shrugged its shoulders at the suggestion. It cracked its neck and ran down to the end of the sidewalk then came back. “Whoa, you’re practically shining with energy. Did that help?” Standing triumphantly amongst the group seemed to speak for itself.
“That’s pretty cool. Fennekin, do you want to go for a run?” It nodded no. “Oh yeah, that reminds me. What about Crisis?”
“Oh yeah. He wanted to come with us on our journey. I would think that it's a good idea since he’s probably the more experienced trainer than the both of us combined. He could help us if something strong were to show up.”
“Didn’t he lose in Tuviere?”
“We technically lost to the same thing.”
“I guess.”
“I believe it to be an isolated incident. I’m sure he hasn’t shown us his true power yet. That is practically all there is to say, I’m willing to do whatever you want though.”
“I would like to-” Marie remembered something, “Actually… maybe he could help us.”
“What was that?”
“Um, sure. I think it’s cool. The more the merrier, right?”
“Okay, I’ll uh, huh, that’s weird. It would seem that he hasn’t left me any contact info actually. Don’t blame him though, dude was tired out of his mind.”
“So how can we call him?”
“Don’t know, I don’t know a bunch about him. He could be anywhere in the city at this point.”
“Well we know he’s part of an organization, Team Harmonious wasn’t it? Sounds wholesome enough for me to think that they have a website. How else would they get recruits?”
“Okay, I’ll check.” Ceailean pulled out his pokédex and searched Team Harmonious. Sure enough, it existed. The name in a fancy font with a picture showing people working around a white table smiling and a smooth animation to wrap it all together, introduced them to the site.
“Wow, a lot of work went into this.”
“You can tell?”
“I live in a family who owns a company that specializes in visual effects for movies. I would think I know at least a little bit about websites.”
“So practically nothing at all?”
“Shut it, C.”
“Ha ha! I kid. But where do we even start looking, are we even on the right website?”
“Usually important people have their contact info in their own tab on the home page.”
“Hmm, I can’t seem to find it”
“Ugh, give it to me I’ll do it. You do it too slow.” Marie swiped the pokédex from Ceailean’s hands.
“Well sorry, I happened to not have a lot of electronics before you showed up.”
“Yeah yeah, here.”
“That was fast.”
“Well I just so happened to have a lot of electronics my whole life.”
Ceailean tsked. He took back the pokédex from Marie and viewed the page. In a 2x2 formation, it showed the names and faces of four people over the header that listed them as admins. Two were familiar. Rival, who had saved all the Pokémon that Darke took, and of course Crisis, the one he met on the train going to Lumiose. The other two he had never seen before. They were named Slaughter and Debt.
Marie looked at the pokédex from over Ceailean’s shoulder. “Are we ever gonna talk about how weird their names are? They’re scary and practically contradictory to their own team name.”
“Eh, I’ve heard weirder ones before. It’s probably not their real names anyway, just code names.”
“Even still, why choose code names like that?”
“That is what I don’t have an answer for.” Ceailean tapped the number link and the pokédex went to speed dial. After a few rings, it gave them a voice playback.
“Hello, Team Harmonious admin Crisis is currently unavailable and is currently on leave. If you would like to contact this admin, please leave a message after the beep. We will try our best to make sure your message is heard. *Beep*”
“Crisis, it’s Ceailean. We’ve come to a decision. Call back and we’ll let you know.”
“Think he’ll get it?” asked Marie.
“Dunno, if he’s handling stuff like this he could be busy.” Not even a few steps after saying this, his pokédex rings. “I guess not. Hello?”
“Ceailean. You have no idea my relief you had called amongst this sea of other calls I’ve been getting. Has the day been fair to my friend? And why did you happen to call my work number?” asked Crisis.
“Um, yeah I guess. And you never gave me any contact information after we talked.”
“Is that so? I am very sorry to inconvenience you in such a way. But good to hear you’ve had a fair day. So, to the main topic at hand. What is your decision?”
“We’ve decided that it’s fine for you to come along with us.”
“I am elated to hear that. So where might you be planning to go first?”
Ceailean looked to Marie for an answer but only got a shrug. “It would seem that we haven't thought that far.”
“Oh. Well, I won’t influence you too much. I am very used to being all around Kalos so it seems very minuscule to me.”
“So do you wanna meet up somewhere?”
“Not quite, I still have some business of my own to attend to. I’ll leave to the two of you to decide where to head first. I’ll be available in three hours. So long now.” He hung up.
“Well that seems to fit into our schedule.” remarked Marie.
Ceailean stuck his arm out and stopped Marie from walking further. “Woah wait hold on. Where the heck are we?”
Marie took a moment to check her surroundings. Sure enough, they seemed to be in a part of town they’ve never been in before. “I have no idea.”
“Guess we should pay more attention to where we’re going while we’re talking on the phone. Scorbunny, Fennekin, where you at?” Each pokemon got the attention of their respective trainers. “Okay, be sure to stay close.” They both nodded.
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()The door to the pokemon lab creaked open. Ceailean and Marie walked in to see that no one was in the lobby. Scorbunny and Fennekin went off on their own.
“Hello? Is anybody here?” called Marie. Shortly after, running could be heard coming from upstairs. The two looked up to see that Bonnie was atop them, stepping foot to foot with excitement.
“Oh! Oh! You two! Ceailean and Marie! Come up here quick! The most exciting thing in forever just happened!”
“Really? How so?” asked Ceailean.
“I’ll tell you up here. Hurry, Clemont and the professor are already talking about it!”
“Okay okay, we’re coming.” assured Marie.
At the top of the stairs, they headed towards the same office where they first met Sycamore.
“Hey you two, guess who came by to visit.” said Bonnie. Clemont and Sycamore were pleasantly surprised to see Ceailean and Marie again.
“Well this is unexpected. What might bring you two down this fine day?” asked Sycamore.
“We were going to give the Pokémon from Tuviere one last visit before we head off. As you can see, I’m able to walk just fine now.” said Marie. She demonstrated by spinning around on her left leg, only to wince. “Ow.” She stood up straight, acting as if that didn’t happen.
“Such a bad li-”
Marie interrupted Ceailean, “So anyway, what has Bonnie all excited?
“Squishy! Squishy came to visit me today!” Bonnie cheered.
“Squishy who?”
“Squishy is a nickname given to the great friend of ours and the legendary Pokémon, Zygarde.” explained Clemont.
Marie’s jaw dropped. “What?! Zygarde! It’s your great friend? How’d you get away with calling it a name like squishy? Isn’t it scary?”
“What, no!” defended Bonnie, “Squishy is a very caring Pokémon. He wouldn’t hurt anyone that doesn’t deserve it. He came along with us and I took care of him in my little bag next to Dedenne.”
Marie seemed even more flabbergasted. “H-How did you fit something that large in your bag?”
“Large?”
“Isn’t it like the size of a house? Along with all those ribbon-like things that come out of it’s shoulders and that huge tail?”
Bonnie was very confused. “What’re you talking about?”
“I believe she is talking about Squishies perfect form.” said Clemont.
“Perfect form?”
“Yes, Squishy is actually no bigger than the size of an Oran berry,” Marie had a wave of deja vu. She decided to ignore it for now and kept listening. “It has three forms that it could transform into. The one you described was it’s complete form or perfect form or 100% form.”
“That’s a lot of names for just one form.”
“Hm, pick your favorite. The other two forms-”
“Oh shush Clemont, we’re getting off topic!” interjected Bonnie.
“Well I suppose it's still exciting to talk about them.”
“Them?” asked Ceailean curiously.
“Oh yeah. Squishy also has a brother. Together they’re able to kick some serious butt!”
“Hey Bonnie, why don’t we get to the story?” asked Sycamore, “I’m sure these two are eager to here you two’s interactions with Squishy as am I”
“Well Clemont has to tell the first half since I wasn’t awake for it.” said Bonnie, slightly whining.
“I’ll try my best. So it went like this-”
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() The streets were dark, but still early goers drove round the streets. The doorbell of Clemont’s house rings. No one stirs. All were laid to rest in the residence. It rang a second, third, and fourth time. On the fifth, Clemont finally gathered enough strength to lift himself off the bed.
“Oh, who could that be at this hour. It’s too early.” he complained as he picked up his glasses. He sluggishly made his way down the stairs. Midway through the sixth ring, Clemont opened the door to find a Pokémon in front of it.
“Huh, a Greninja?” The Greninja only nodded and held out its hand. It had something on it.
“Oh, something for me?” Greninja panics a bit and tries to stop him but it was too late.
“Augh, unhand me you fiend!” Clemont gasped, tossing what he picked up in the air. Greninja caught it and sighed. “Truly such a reliable source.”
“He must be disoriented, it is still quite early.”
Clemont rubbed his eyes in order to focus. A second glance revealed that what Greninja was holding were the two cores of Zygarde. “S-Squishy?”
“Hello Clemont, it is great to see you again. And don’t you look… dashing.” said the red Squishy.
Clemont that he was still in his pajamas and his hair must’ve been a mess. “Oh! I’m sorry! If I had known you guys were coming over I would’ve been prepared.”
“It is quite alright, we do not plan to stay for very long. May we come inside?”
“Um, sure.” Clemont stepped aside and let them in. Greninja placed the Squishy bros on the coffee table then leaned against the wall.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“So this is what a human accommodates in? Highly unusual.” said blue Squishy.
“It is their area of zen and solitude. I cannot blame them, for we have done something similar have we not?”
Clemont turned on the light. “So, what might you guys be doing here? Have you come to visit Bonnie? I know she would be psyched to see you guys again.”
Blue looked to Red for him to answer. “Unfortunately no, we’re in quite the hurry. Anyone of your family would have sufficed. I’m sure it will be better to leave her at rest.”
“What’s the hurry?”
“My brother has gone delusional,” said Blue snarkily, “He wants to follow this trail of nonsense in hopes of finding a quick way of easing Kalos’s pain.” Red did nothing to refute this claim.
“Well you must be at least a little bit willing if you have already come this far.” pointed out Clemont. Blue sulked slightly, unwilling to admit such a thing. “So just what is this trail you’re following?”
Red sighed, “It started as just a theory. You remember the pain we speak of right? We had encountered it just before Greninja parted ways with Ash.”
“I remember. Negative energy can pool into hot spots under the ground. Eventually that energy is able to sustain a life, those red vines that tore through Lumiose in the Battle for Kalos.”
“Correct. Greninja has been vital in the suppression of this pain, we owe him great thanks. We have decided to call those hot spots ‘Hate Wells’ for simplicity's sake.”
“Hate Wells, so what do they have to do with you guys having to come here?”
“After a long time of observing running in circles, we had noticed two things. We have been able to keep these Hate Wells within the borders of Kalos, along with an anomalous occurrence. The settlement you humans call Snowbelle has remained relatively unaffected.”
“You mean you haven’t found any in that area?”
“We do not quite know when it started. All we know is that no matter how much we patrol that area, there was never a sufficient amount of negative energy to even suggest that a Hate Well could form. My brother has found it quite concerning.”
“How so.”
“Team flare of course.” said Blue. “I was the one to suffer at their hands. If the negative energy is sparse in only that region, then it is reasonable to assume that it is being taken.”
“That is a possibility. There could still be some Team Flare members that we haven't caught.” Clemont pushed up his glasses. “But you said this was only a concern for your brother, what do you say?”
Red hesitated. “Go on brother, tell him. It’s the primary reason we have come this far.” urged blue.
“Like I said, it started as a theory. The negative energy was at its scarcest directly inside the settlement. Houses, roads, buildings, practically nothing. Then we return no more than a week ago, all the sudden it’s filled with it. The negative energy levels were now consistent with everywhere else in Kalos. It didn’t make sense to me.”
“I believe it to be that the person siphoning the energy saw us coming and simply stopped before we could see any changes.” jumped in Blue.
“But that would not explain why they didn’t do that for the last two years since we’ve noticed.” Blue remained silent.
“So what was your theory?” asked Clemont.
“I believe it to be-”
“Squishy?” called a small voice from the stairs. The group turned to see Bonnie at the bottom of the steps. Her blanket hung over her body like a cloak. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. “Squishy! It really is you!” Bonnie ran over and clasped both Red and Blue into her hands, giving the two of them a great big hug.
“Oh hello Bonnie! It is so great to see you again!” said Red.
“If I had lungs, I believe I would have been asphyxiated by now!” said Blue.
“It is the human way of showing affection. I’m sure if you were to interact more with them you would be acquainted.”
Bonnie held the two out in front of her and said, “Oh you even brought your friend, and Greninja too.”
“Greninja helped me figure out that I was annoyed, to say the least, to only be addressed as the brother and the friend. We have chosen to name ourselves Zygarde Blue and Zygarde Red.”
“Oh that’s cool!” Bonnie turned to Red, “Do you mind if I call you Squishy Blue and Squishy Red?”
“I would be elated!” said Red.
Blue sulked, “Do you not find the name somewhat demeaning?”
“I find it to be somewhat endearing. It reminds me of good memories.”
Bonnie giggled. “So what have you guys come over for? Did you guys want to hang out today?”
“Unfortunately-” Red summarized what they and Clemont had just discussed.
“Oh wow.” said Bonnie, who was now seated on the couch.
“Now that we are caught up, I believe this strange occurrence to be the deed of that of just a single individual.”
“What do you mean by that?” asked Clemont.
“I mean that this individual, whether they are willing to or not, is dissipating or possibly even absorbing this negative energy. They bear a mark, they are cursed, and it is my assumption that it was either I or Blue that has placed it upon them. So for that, I am willing to take responsibility.”
“What? How can you be so sure? So many people could’ve been affected. And what does it have to do with getting rid of the negative energy?” asked Clemont.
“I am aware of the monumental task that lies before us in just trying to identify this individual. But I believe my theory to at least hold some ground after a certain um, ‘incident’.”
“What happened?”
“The delusion-”
Red cut off blue, “A random telepathic link with an individual. I just… found him. At the time, they were resting, most likely asleep.”
“But aren’t we talking using your telepathy?” asked Clemont.
“This is different. It felt almost natural. As if I was speaking to Blue, as if they were a part of me. I pointed it out to Blue and they seemed to hear us. He, sorry they, spoke. They asked who we were. The voice was very faint but still I was able to at least get a location. Here in Lumiose, somewhere. We tried pressing for more information, but their mind was not interested in conversing with us. I quickly lost the connection as their mind slipped into a fever dream of some sort.”
“Very interesting. How many times has this happened since then?”
“Unfortunately, that was the only occurrence.”
“I still believe it to be a delusion, Red.” said Blue, “We were active all through that night, the fatigue must’ve gotten to you.”
“The way it sounds to me you can only connect with this guy while he’s sleeping.” suggested Bonnie.
The group turned to her. “By what means have you come to this conclusion?” asked Red.
“Well you know, you only talked to them at night. And usually when I dream they’re so fanatic and unfocused that it just seems like nonsense.”
“So it would be no wonder why you couldn’t maintain a connection. A dream uses memories to play out a scenario in your head. During that time it would probably be a mess, you couldn’t get anyone to focus in such an environment.” explained Clemont. “If this were true to the nature of dreams though, it could also mean that this individual doesn’t even remember your conversation.”
“There is still much we don’t know. The last thing I remember before the individual slipped away was that they had a friend with a name that starts with the letter M.” said Red.
Bonnie and Clemont recognized a potential match. “Well we just had a couple visitor’s a while ago. They were named Ceailean and Marie.” said Clemont.
“Really? Where are they now?” asked Red with great interest.
“We don’t know. The last time we saw them was at the Pokémon lab about a week ago. We didn’t really ask for their plans but they said they were going to take on the Kalos Pokémon league. They could’ve left the city by now.”
“Back to square one again huh?”
Greninja told Blue and Red something. “An astute observation Greninja, why haven’t we thought of that before?” stated Blue.
“What did Greninja say?” asked Bonnie.
“The letter M is perhaps more vague than we thought. It could refer to a male or a female.” explained red.
“Or perhaps even a Pokémon.” added Clemont.
“Correct. This is not the lead I thought I had.”
“Still though, with what you told us, it still somewhat lines up with the events that you described to us. Ceailean and Marie had come from Snowbelle in hopes of obtaining a starter Pokémon.”
“It is a description that can fit this individual.” Bonnie seemed to be slightly restless.
“So those two are our best option we have right now. An incident has recently occurred at the town of Tuviere-” Clemont explained the events of the Battle of Tuviere.
Red was amazed. “To think such a thing would escape my knowledge. I applaud this Ceailean and Marie, as well as your father and the professor, well done. As it stands now, the situation may have caused something to happen. We will monitor the negative energy levels at this abandoned settlement you call Tuviere.”
“But what if it ends up not being them?” asked Bonnie.
“Then we will just have to work as we had before. Not particularly ideal but, someone has to do it.”
“Why not have us help. The future is now thanks to science! I could build machines to help the two of you.” suggested Clemont.
“Your offer is quite tempting Clemont. However, this energy is beyond the understanding of even us. I fear that Kalos may never be rid of it. If you were to hurt yourself researching it, I would never forgive myself. Our hopes must be placed in this individual. If there is the slimmest of chances that they are able to control this energy, perhaps even dissipate it, then it is a solution I’m willing to investigate.”
Bonnie stood up. “Hey, could we stop calling this person ‘the individual’. It makes them seem like a test subject and it’s just boring.”
Blue and Red looked at each other. “Just what might you suggest, Bonnie?” asked Red.
Bonnie pressed her knuckles to her temples and thought hard. “Um, well. Since it appears you can only find them in your dreams, maybe the dreamer?”
“No, that sounds generic,” said Clemont. “I’d prefer a more scientific name, perhaps the telepathic sleeper.”
“No Clemont! That sounds longer than the individual. We should name them something cool and mysterious, like from those cool shows. Hrmm, oh I know! How about the Dreamwalker!”
“What does the walker part have to do with it?”
“You know, because um… they might like, wander in their dreams?”
“You could’ve just said it sounded cool.”
“Well I thought everything in the name needed a meaning! Hmph!” Bonnie crossed her arms and turned away.
“Well I thought it was quite appealing.” complimented Red. “You have quite the way of naming things Bonnie. Very well, we will refer to this individual as the Dreamwalker.”
“Huh? But I wasn’t done listing out the names I had!” exclaimed Clemont.
Bonnie stuck her tongue out at him. “Too bad, he chose mine first!” Clemont held his head in despair.
“Gren, Greninja.” Greninja pointed out the window. The sun's rays were finally peering into the household.
“My my, it would seem that we have been here for quite a while. I believe we should get going.” said Red.
“Aww, so soon?” asked Bonnie.
“I know, but time is of the essence. It is imperative that we find the Dreamwalker as soon as possible. I bid you two farewell. Greninja, let’s move.” Greninja nodded and picked up Blue and Red.
They were standing outside the front door when Bonnie came and asked, “You’ll visit again right? For real next time?”
Red nodded, “Yes, I promise.” Blue and Red jumped from Greninja’s hand as streaks of light green poured into them from the sky. They landed in their ten percent forms. Bystanders had noticed the light show and were already looking over to see what happened. Red gave Bonnie one last nod before running off with the rest of the crew.
“Bye Squishy Red and Blue! Bye Greninja! Be safe!” waved Bonnie.
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() -and that’s what happened.
Ceailean and Marie sat in their seats flabbergasted.
After a moment, Marie finally said, “What?! Why are we the best option?”
Ceailean sighed, “Technically it makes sense. The negative energy did come back to Snowbelle after we left.”
“Then it's just a coincidence. You don’t actually buy into this do you?”
Ceailean leaned towards Marie, “I don’t know, maybe I am the Dreamwalker.”
“SHUT, UP, C!” Marie said while hitting Ceailean.
“Okay okay, you know I’m a skeptic.”
“Ugh, I just hate the feeling of something following us.”
“Come on, you know the letter M is in quite a large spectrum.”
“One that I’m in!”
“Look, maybe one day they’ll show up. We’ll just answer their questions and once they figure out we’re not related to the Dreamwalker, we’ll never have to worry about it again.”
Marie sighed, “I guess.”
“I suppose nothing is for certain.” said Clemont.
“Which reminds me. Ash’s Greninja split up from him? You know Zygarde on such a personal level? You have to tell me everything!” urged Marie.
Clemont held out his hands trying to diffuse the mood. “Well, if you have some time-”
()Much time has passed. The sun was now making the blue sky the slightest tinge of orange. Ceailean and Marie traveled down a street with their pokemon in the middle of the starting rush hour. Marie however, wore an expression of amazement.
“Can you believe that C? They know so much.” she said.
“Yes, I know. I was there.” said Ceailean, clearly uninterested.
“The bond phenomenon! Ooh, I can’t wait to see if I can achieve that with my own Pokémon.”
“Yep.”
“Come on, can’t you sound excited too?”
“No. All my energy was used up when you completely fangirled over the countless questions you had for Clemont. I swear I could recall almost every detail in the Kalos league finals.”
“Oh shut it C. If it's so boring to you, what do you want to talk about? It would be pretty awkward just walking without talking.”
“We’re going to do a lot of walking. I hope you have a lot of topics in mind. Besides, we need to figure out where we’re going to meet Crisis.”
“Oh yeah. We tend to forget about him a lot.”
“You tend to forget about him a lot.”
“What-ever. Where did he say we could meet again?”
“He told us to decide first and call him back in three hours.”
“Hm, we still haven’t decided where we were gonna go first.”
“Well, we’re getting your Kalos league badges right? You wanna challenge Clemont for real this time?”
“What no! I wanna try my luck with other gyms first. He seems pretty strong, so I wanna get stronger.”
“Who’s to say that the other gyms won’t be as hard?”
“I’ll be ready for them, I’ll train hard. You’ll help right?”
“Sounds like a lot of work though. Plus, you probably just wanna dunk on a noob again don’t you?” said Ceailean sarcastically.
“Don’t be such a downer C. Even someone as experienced as me could tell you still battled well. Also, it’s not like I was just gonna let you do nothing, so.”
“Hmph, looks like I’ve got my time cut out for me. Now let’s see where the nearest gym is.” Ceailean brought out his pokédex to look up Kalos gyms but Marie stopped him.
“I already know which gym we’re going to first, and it’s the Cyllage gym.”
“Huh? Why? From here that's literally the farthest gym.”
“Well, going to Santalune feels like going back home. Laverre is in the direction of Tuviere and I am not eager to go back that way again. And I guess the distance from here to Coumarine is a little short and gives us less time to train and catch Pokémon.”
“You could just you’re nervous for that last one.”
“No, I don’t think I will.” Ceailean chuckled. “So it's southwest to Cyllage right?” asked Marie.
“We’re gonna have to pass another city. You still sure?”
“I’m positive. Tell Crisis the news, I’m ready to get going now.”
“Alright then. But I’m too lazy to call him so I’ll just text him.”
Having sent the information, Ceailean made their way to the southwest end of Lumiose city. The buildings grew sparse and the land slowly transformed into grass. Marie checked the walking Pokémon.
“Hey, you guys okay?” Scorbunny gave an approving cheer. Fennekin however, was out of breath and asked to stop. “Oh Arceus, I’m sorry we didn’t notice sooner. C, let’s take a break for a while. Fennekin probably hasn’t walked for this long before.”
“Sure thing.”
The group rested under a tree. Fennekin stretched all of its legs while Scorbunny laid upon the trunk. Ceailean looked back to the city. It was now dark enough to see the lights illuminate the skyline.
“Looks like we stayed too long. We probably won’t be able to make it too far from the city like you wanted to at this rate. Maybe we should put Fennekin in its pokéball.”
“Hey, I have a bad leg. I need a rest too.”
“I guess I can’t argue with that.” After a moment, Ceailean’s pokédex rang with an unfamiliar number. He answered it and asked, “Hello?”
“Ceailean. It is I, Crisis.” The background noise made it seem like he was in a loud vehicle. “I am currently southwest bound. May I receive your location?”
Ceailean gave a quick look around, “We uh, didn’t actually keep track of that. The road has turned to dirt now and we’re resting under a tree.”
“My, quite unfortunate for my situation. Is there any way you could possibly light some kind of beacon to reveal your location?”
“I don’t think-”
“I can do it.” jumped in Marie.
“Really, how?
“You weren’t there when we did it in Tuviere. Just watch and learn. Fennekin you remember what I’m talking about right?” It nodded. “Cool, now for Snom.” She pulled it out from her beanie, only to find it fast asleep. “Oh. Snom please wake up.” She poked and prodded in an effort to wake it. “Come on, you’re making me look bad in front of my friend.”
Ceailean stood up. “I suppose I’ll have to do it, since Snom is being such a sleepyhead.”
Snom took that personally, immediately waking from its slumber and jumping to the ground, encouraging Marie and Fennekin.
“I guess it didn’t like hearing that.” said Marie. She smiled, “Okay, you two ready for this?” Both Pokémon gave a determined nod. “Alright, use icy wind and ember! Give it all you got!” The attacks illuminated the dark ground with an icy white and fiery yellow mixture, the light combining like water. Ice crystals and cinders mixed together, creating a whirlwind that climbed to the sky.
“Keep going! Create the biggest one you can!” Marie shouted. The Pokémon continued their attacks, surging even more power into the whirlwind. It grew to such a size that Marie could tell that it easily dwarfed the one she made at Tuviere. She laughed at the achievement. “This is so cool!”
“Indeed. It is quite the spectacle. I’ll be there shortly.” said Crisis through the pokedex. Ceailean then noticed the slight noise of a helicopter through the winds of the whirlwind. Then, directly descending upon it was the helicopter. It quickly dissipated the whirlwind, sending the particles swirling just over the grass. Marie bent down and let the particles run through her hand, laughing even more as she enjoyed its beauty. Scorbunny jumped around in excitement as Ceailean sat back down upon the tree and smiled.
The helicopter landed and out jumped Crisis wearing a large backpack. He turned around and said to the pilot, “My condolences for the transport Rival, I’ll see you sometime soon.” Rival, sporting a pair of shades, nodded with a thumbs up. She then took off back towards the sky.
Crisis walked towards the group, prompting Ceailean to say, “You’re here.”
Crisis held out his hands, “I’m here.”
“Well now is as good a time as any to get to know each other.” said Marie walking up to him. She held her hand out and said, “I’m Marie Visu. Nice to meet you.”
Crisis shook her hand. “Likewise. I do not believe we have properly introduced ourselves to each other. As you may have deduced, I am Crisis. Very nice to meet you too.”
“These are our pokemon, Fennekin, Snom, and Scorbunny.”
“Very interesting. These ones were the ones that helped you so significantly at Tuviere?”
“The ones and only. Do you want to show us yours?”
“I suppose.” Crisis took three pokéballs from his pocket and threw them into the air. Out came Gurrdurr, Sirfetched, and Decidueye. “These are my partners. I trust them with my life.”
Marie’s eyes sparkled. “Woah, they look so cool and strong!”
Scorbunny gave a glance to the Pokémon. It found that Sirfetch'd was eyeing it directly. It quickly looked away and whistled as if nothing happened.
“Everyone return!” Crisis recalled all of his pokemon. “Well then, I would suggest we start moving. It would seem that we could probably move another mile or two before complete darkness falls upon us.”
“I suggest the mile. Marie still has a bad leg from the battle.” pointed out Ceailean.
“Is this true?”
Marie nodded. “Yeah.”
“Then my apologies for being so eager. We will travel at the pace that you set for us. I will also assist you in any way I can.”
“Thanks Crisis. Fennekin, Snom, let’s get that mile in.” Fennekin and Snom agreed. Marie placed Snom inside her beanie and started the trek. The whole group behind her followed her lead.
Ceailean walked next to Crisis and asked quietly, “I don’t suppose Crisis is your real name. Mind telling us what it really is?”
Crisis chuckled slightly. “You could figure out that much huh? Unfortunately it was forgotten along with many other things long ago. This is who I am now. I hope that answers your question.”
Ceailean sighed. “It lets me know enough.”