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Caught in Wonder
Epilogue of Echotrance Trilogy
I pushed though the undergrowth, leaves slapping my face and twigs barely missing my eyes. The floor was uneven and I constantly tripped as the vines all had minds of their own and coiled around my ankles, pulling my to the ground again and again.
"Fury! Come back, it won't do any good if I lose you too!" She heard me and slowed down, but only a little.
Since the Everstone incident Fury had be unsure of everything she did, unsure of what I would do. She spent the entire day subjecting herself to my every whim and not doing anything I didn't tell her to do, trying to be the perfect Pokemon. I tried my best to explain to her that I wouldn't trade her for any Typhlosion. She came back about how I'd traded Talon for Talorn and only tried harder.
Then as we had set up camp beside the path and were eating our meagre meal before the campfire, the familiar lullaby played through the air just as it had the day Chilun evolved. Fury saw her chance to regain her dignity and took off in the direction of the voice yelling behind her. "Don't worry Topaz, I'll get 'em for you!"
Of course I had to go after her and that meant Suma and Cal had to go after me, that meant that Marc, some annoying trainer that had decided to hook up with us, followed us. I had it easier then my to tall friends and flitted through the darkness only running into the occasional tree, but even I had a hard time keeping up with Fury. She leapt from branch to branch barely keeping up with the winged spectre sailing through the shadows.
Then up ahead I saw Fury hesitate for a moment. She stepped back wards and took a running jump. As she began her descent, she snatched a passing vine in her jaws, which swung her forward. The vine reached its peak and she let go, landing hard. She swivelled her head to see if I was still behind her and once that was confirmed, she spurred deeper into the forest.
"Fury!" I cried, but then skidded to an immediate halt. I glanced down and saw how close
I'd come to plunging down the 6m ravines. I swallowed hard and shook my head to keep my minds eye from imagining what could have happened.
I spun around as Cal crashed through the scrub. I waved my arms wildly, trying to get him to stop. He saw me, but not in time. Cal slammed into me and I teetered over the edge of the ravine. Cal reached out, grabbed one of my hands, and steadied me. We both breathed a sigh of relief. But before we could step away from the edge, Sumalee burst from the underbrush and just like Cal she didn't understand what was happening until it was to late. She collided with Cal and Cal hit me. Before I knew it, my feet had slipped from solid ground and I hung in midair. I was dashed against the rock face with stunning force and everything went hazy. I groaned and my grip on Cal's hand loosened.
"Sumalee, help me pull her up!" I heard Cal groaned likewise. "Gawd Topaz, for a someone so tiny, you sure do way a lot!" I was putting horrible strain on his arm.
I then heard Marc come puffing out of the forest too. They yanked me up and my hold slipped again. But being as big as he was, he had no problem pulling me up, even though, the sharp edges of the rocks had left long grazes down by bare skin.
I stood up, panting, until I remembered what we were chasing. I quickly got to my feet and searched the forests canopy. I grasped a thick green vine and put my weight on it. When I was sure it could hold my weight and was secure to the roof of the forest, I looked at Cal, Suma and Maverick and Marc. Maverick jumped from Suma's arms and took the bottom of the vine. Suma strode forward and placed her hands above mine. Marc put his above Suma’s, nudging as close to her as possible much to my disgust.
Cal stared at it suspiciously and finally placed his above Suma's. We stepped up to the edge and looked down.
"Think of it as exploring your horizons," Suma provided.
"Shut up Sumalee. No ones in the mood for your 'If life gives you lemons make lemonade” philosophy right now," I said irritated. I lifted my foot into the air and held on for dear life.
"AHHHHHIE AHHHHIE AHHHHH!" As the vine reached the pinnacle of its oscillation, it snapped and we fell to the other side in a helpless heap.
I crawled from beneath the tangle of arms and legs and tried to figure which way Fury went. Her sleek body did little damage to the foliage so it would be almost impossible to track her. After a moments thought I released Artemis and Cal released Azumarril. Artemis quickly picked up the scent while Azumarril was homing in on Fury's footsteps. Due to their enthusiasm we were racing through the forest once more. As it became obvious we were getting closer, low thuds and shaking of the trees, we recalled out Pokemon and continued by sound.
Suma was tiring quickly, not used to this long distance sprinting, not that I was having it easy myself, and Cal and Marc, found it hard squeezing between the trunks of the trees. I slowed my pace as the trees shook harder and dead branches fell form the canopy, showering me with leaves.
I finally reached Fury. She had stopped suddenly, her eyes wide. Curious of what she saw, I swept back a veil of vines to find a clearing similar to the one we'd left behind
I gapped. Inside the clearing was a massive Alavar, a poison dragon of the forest with one hell of a temper roared and frantically stepped back. It was at least 6 meters long! That meant it was only just beginning to grow!
The Alavar’s heavy green scales camouflaged it against the trees. A pair of ivory horns protruded his sharp, arrow like head. He slashed with his most deadly weapons. More ivory razors secreting the most toxic venom known of which took a powerful Antidote to cure. Along his back ran more sharp blades until they reached the tip of his powerful tail.
He snapped his enormous wings twice the size of his body, the wind blowing me backwards even further.
“Holy shit!” Sumalee bounded up behind me with Maverick at her heels. She gasped loudly resting her hand against a tree stared. Cal crept up behind us, giving me a quick glance and shifted beside me, finally Marc.
He inhaled sharply and “Bloody hell, look at that!”
A small golden dragon was cornered against the trees, frozen in panic as the Alavar lashed around again, but not at it. He struck at the air above its head as if swatting a fly.
Dodging its fatal swipes was a beautiful bird. Peacock like in appearance, but vibrant colours screamed at me, blues, reds and yellows, as wondrous as the sunset.
It dived low, the dragons claws missing it by inches. Suddenly it cut short in the air, staring at us.
“Humans?” I was amazed that the creature knew English but still watched ardently.
"Behind you!" I yelled. The bird whirled to see Alavar's massive maw opened wide ready to swallow it. It sheered left and missed the curving incisors and fired a golden flame.
Solar Flare, my mind answered, not knowing where it came from. It just seemed right.
The Solar flare collided with Alavar’s rippling armour, waving it away as if it were a hairdryer.
“Come on!” Suma whispered. “We have to help! There’s no way that bird could do it on it’s own!”
“So much for Miss Perky,” I muttered under my breath. “OK, lets go. Marcalark, you get that baby dragon, me, Cal, and Suma will help that bird.”
I swiped my Pokeballs of their belt and looked at Suma. She and Cal had their’s ready.
“GO!” Cal screamed and we burst from the trees, shocking Alavar for a moment. He stared at us curiously. The perfect break.
“Go!” we all cried releasing our Pokemon. Fury didn’t need to be told twice, she launched a Swift attack, aiming at Alavar’s bare skin, his obvious weak spot. Apollo leapt forth, looking eagerly for an opponent, Aria blasted a torrent of water at its face, shaking him from his reverie. He roared, bristling it’s spikes and firing at Chilun, but he was already on the other side, attacking with his Tundra Eruption. The attack froze Alavar’s left forefoot to the spot and it thrashed wildly.
His deadly tail lashed the air, coming within inches of Talorn. She seemed unfazed, blasting gust after gust into his eyes. Shrieking defiance, she dived at his bare face, slashing with her talons and digging them in. Alavar roared and shook her off. She flew though the air slamming into a tree, dazed.
“Talorn!” I yelled, dodging an barrage of poison stings. They flew past me, on catching me in the, ahem, arse. Still running, I yanked it out with a grunt. I leapt for my loyal Pidgeot to crouch at her side.
“How you doing Talorn?”
“I’ve been better dear,” she chuckled gravely.
“Well you better rest anyway.” I recalled her and looked up. Suma’s new Gehib tore Alavar’s breast, ducking away at the last moment. Cal’s Psyduck closed it’s eyes, concentrating on disabling him while he tried to snap down on Shahman’s left wing and yank his left foot out of its ice prison. He snarled cracking his tail and threw Typhoon aside, a poison barb in his chest.
Cal, running around like a manic trying to distract the thing, yelped and recalled him, putting the Pokemon in stasis until we could get to the PokeCentre. He yelled a command to his Pokemon and dived back into the fray of bodies. There was no way the Alavar could beat all of us.
I was wrong.
He threw his head back, spewing a toxic green slim. It rained down pittering and pattering against my skin, burning and making the skin blister. Again the feeling of dejavu tittered in the back of my confused brain.
Giving up on trying to remember what it was, I dashed back. “Aria, wash this stuff off! Dilute it!”
“Shahman, raindance!”
Raindrops pitter-pattered from the sky, first only a few drops but after a moment, it was coming down in sheets, blinding me. The rain stormed around as, working as an advantage hiding the smaller Pokemon completely. It was then I saw Bolt. That goddamned sheep was just sitting there! Just sitting there! I roared at the sheep, “Get off your arse and help them!”
He stared at me puzzled.
I threw my hands up in exasperation and grabbed his fleece, ignoring the small static shock. “Fine if you won’t I’ll make you! Now Thundershock!”
“Mareeeeeeeeeeeep!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
That bloody sheep attacked alright. The Alavar limbs jerked as he was encased in a vivid blue lightning. An acrid smell scented the air as the smell of something smouldering got worse. Regrettably, it was me. While he had attacked, I lacked the good sense to drop that stupid sheep and nick off. I danced and twitched as the lightning coursed through my body and when Bolt bleated and finished the attack, I managed to drop him and fall the ground panting. Oooooh! One day that Mareep was going to get it.
Dusting the ash of my shirt I wasn’t paying attention. My peripheral vision saw a blur of green sweep towards me at a hundred kilometres an hour. That damn tickle in the back of my head gave an insistent tug even though Alavars long barb tail was going to skittle me nine ways from Sunday.
“Oooph!” A force slammed me into the ground, then landed on top of me. I gasped trying to get from under the massive weight pinning me down. “Marc…Please….Need air!”
“Hey! I just saved your life. Next time I’ll just let you die!” he rolled off and yelled. “Singe! Flamethrower!”
The little Charmander grinned wickedly and a blast of fire scorched and melted the scales along his left side. Alavar bellowed snorting and pawing the ground like a Tauros. He swung his snakeish head at the Singe but he was already ducking and came from the other side with a Firespin. He roared in pain, flailing to catch the Charmander with its wicked fire attacks.
Of course! Fire! It was a poison type it so it was weak against fire! It seemed Sumalee had already thought of it and had her Fireline bounding along the dragons back melting its long ridges of spines.
“Fury! Apollo! Do the same! Use your fire! Everyone else return!” I held my Pokeballs up and each disappeared within. “Agility! And Flamewheel” My Pokemon complied with a boost of enthusiasm. The Alavar was tiring and we could see we were going to win!
“Hey Marc,” I said nudging him. “Where’s that little dragon?”
“In my Pokeball!” he smirked, flourishing a full Pokeball.
“You idiot!” I yelled punching his side. “It’s a baby and I doubt you could look after it!”
“I could too! And for your information, it was poisoned so it had to go to the PokeCenter anyway. Besides, who could pass up a chance to train one of these things!”
I smacked him again and ran closer to the Alavar. He wings beat sluggishly and he flapped his claws in a poor imitation of a slash attack. “One more attack and he’s done for!” I yelled to Sumalee. She nodded, thinking what I was thinking.
“Attack for his belly!” she screamed and all the fire types plus that bird blasted a long tongue of flame sweeping along his bare stomach. The Alavar moaned and collapsed to the ground with a rumble. The ground shuddered in a massive thrust beneath our feet.
“Pokeball go!” An Ultraball flew through the air, crashed into the fainted Pokemon’s heaving chest, and sucked it in with a flash of red light. The ball rocked and thrashed and rolled along the ground as the Alavar tried to escape his prison. The light flickered and still it teetered back and forth. Then, with a final PING, the light flicked off, indicating capture and returned to the hand of his new trainer.
“Your mine! Alavar!” Sumalee whooped, spinning the ball on her index finger before disappearing back to her box in the Pokemon PC. “I always wanted a dragon for my own! I love him and feed him….” Suma beamed and continued to praise her Pokemon for their efforts, lavishing her attention on Fireline.
Cal was also very pleased with himself as his practically worthless Psyduck had evolved. If you could trust one thing, it was Cal’s ability to evolved his Pokemon and probably now had the most out of the lot of us.
“Onya Apollo! Thanks Fury!” Apollo’s tongue lolled in a dopey grin while Fury sat quietly in front of me with a bemused statement. “Oh no, come on Fury! Don’t go on about that again. I love you more then anything so don’t go saying your not good enough.” Her ears pricked up a bit but nothing more. With a frustrated sigh, I recalled Apollo who was limping pretty badly and looked around.
“Whoa!” I gasped softly. That weird bird was still there, leaning exhausted again a tree. Thinking of Suma’s Alavar, Cal’s Golduck and Marc’s little golden dragon, I was the only one with out a new Pokemon and this was perfect. It was obviously powerful and fatigued from the battle.
“OK Fury, you want to prove your good, lets go! Swift attack!” Fury launched herself across the clearing, spitting out a thousand tiny stars of energy. The bird, not aware of the attack was pummelled ruthlessly.
Squawking with ire, the bird took to the air again, but not to flee. It pumped its wings furiously, whipping the air about it into frenzy. The winds picked up speed and could now take hold of debree on the forest floor, tossing it at Fury. Fury stood firm against the raging storm, head held high in defiance. She glared at him with the same intensity.
Without warning The bird snapped its wings together with a deafening crack and the winds ceased to whine around our ears. A glimmer of respect twinkled in its eyes and they hardened once more. Before it react or defend himself, Fury hurled her own tornado of flame. It roared around the bird, hiding it beneath the shroud of the inferno. The tongues licked the air hungrily before returning to feast on the Pokemon within.
Suddenly a set of blazing wings cut through the storm and brushed away the sweltering flames that threatened to engulf it. The bird's vivid plumage was choked with soot and grim and the fringes of its delicate tail were severely charred. The bird gasped for clean air.
Fury held a triumphant grin but it wavered as the bird shook himself and turned to face her again.
The bird seethed. It breathed in short sharp breaths as it raged at the indignity of being caught of guard. Violent violet flames flared around him and erupted skyward with every flap of its illustrious wings. The orange disks on its breast and tail had expanded and flushed a bloody crimson. Its ruby red eyes blazed with their own angry light until the pupil was intangible.
"I was angry at ya before Quilava, but now I'm really pissed off!"
The aura of flames thundered to life and radiated a torrid yellow. They leapt across the clearing and snatched at Fury but she easily twisted away.
She evaded each burst of light, rolling under, leaping over or firing a flame shield to hold off the hail of sunlight for a moment to escape. Each attempt made the bird more enraged then before, and each narrow escape after another made Fury's ire more fierce then her fire. She dodged her way closer and closer to the bird until she was just beneath him. She vaulted into the air and took the bird by its delicate throat, wrestling him to the ground and ignoring the sting of the amethyst flame.
They now resorted to physical attacks. Fury slashed and snapped with her tiny maw while The bird tore with its razor sharp talons and jabbed its predatory beak in Fury's eyes. Each seeking to gain the upper hand or looking for a gap in the others defence to use the finishing blow.
"Ya mine!" The bird sneered as it had its knifelike talon resting beneath her collar and onto her bare neck. Fury shrank away and desisted struggling lest she be the one to cut her own throat.
"Say goodbye to ya trainer." It pressed against Fury a thin red line appearing but before it could go any further Fury opened her mouth wide and released a cluster of stars. They burst, blinding The bird in an explosion of golden sparks.
The bird flew off Fury and high into the canopy, hissing and spitting. Now its plumage was almost overcome by the tempestuous red with only hint of the blue it once was. Its tail flourished behind him, fanning the air lightly.
"Ya wretch! Ya gonna pay!" it screamed. The birds wings beat feverishly and its eyes had a maddened gleam.
"Put it on my tab" Fury snarled back.
The bird shrieked and gave an almighty pump of its tail. A blaze of sunset light tore through the forest ripping trees of their branches and knocking them to the ground. The earth quaked and nothing seemed stable. I ignored it all, all I saw was Fury cowering as the tsunami of radiance threatened to overwhelm her. My parents had called that type of concentration, 'being in the eye of the storm', when you can focus on something so strongly that nothing else around you seems to exist.
"Fury!" I screamed. I broke from where I stood and leapt into the clearing hoping to save her. But hope is the denial of reality; there was no way I could save her from such a force. I skidded across the dirt and snatched Fury into my arms.
Fury opened her eyes, seeing my only for a second before realizing both our lives were in jeopardy and focused on the bird's attack. She sundered from my grasp and stood defiant. She roared and a huge mushroom flame escaped her mouth curling upward. The flame twisted its shape until it manifested into the awesome fiery form of Phaenix, the bird of the Rebirth Flame.
The two powers collided, struggling against each other. They weaved and snaked and entwined and writhed until the two seemed one. A huge ball of blue and red energy whirled in above the clearing. Streaks of blue and red lightning crackled through the air.
Behind me a tree split in two as blue thunder ripped down the middle. I whirled around to see Cal push Suma aside and the half crash where they had been a second ago and Marc was hiding behind a tree, the coward.
A peal of thunder echoed through the forest and shock waves pulsed through the ground.
I screamed again and again as the lightning struck closer and closer.
Suddenly the Phaenix emerged from the ball of energy, as if guiding it, and flew at the bird with a resonating shriek tearing my eardrums. It flared its wings and wrapped around the bird with massive plumes of smoke curling around us. The energy ball careened after them and engulfed the bird, the Phaenix and everything else in an explosion. I was propelled backwards, blind and deaf, my skinning burning from the heat of the blast. I choked and coughed, slamming into a tree. My head pounded and I squinted at the pulsating light playing before me. It looked like the birth of a galaxy. Colours twisting and turning and spiralling in and out and under. I breathed in awe.
Standing strong against the gusts of energy was Fury. She stood frozen, snarling viciously. An aura of flames flared skyward as the Phaenix razed her opponent. It was then I realized that Fury controlled Phaenix by some unknown force. Every time Fury growled the flaming spectre shrieked, echoing her own.
“That’s enough!” I screamed from where I lay, slightly dazed. Any more and that bird would be burnt into KFC. Fury yelled and the Phaenix dispersed into the winds and let the bird fall to the ground with a small thud. It was shattered. Charred feathers, sooty and choked with dirt. It’s wing was twisted at an odd angle and its beautiful tail was nothing but a stump, a shadow of its former glory. I gasped in horror of what we, Fury, had done.
“Throw a Pokeball! Come on Topaz!” Fury screamed with exuberance, her eyes alight. Stumbling to my feet and waiting for the stars to clear from my eyes, I yanked a Fastball from its clip and hurled it across the clearing in a blur of speed. Practise as a child payed of and it struck the bird on its delicate breast. It was evaporated into the ball in a twinkle of light and then it fell to the ground shuddering as, like Alavar fought to escape. Despite being nearly dead, it insisted on being free. The ball bounced up and down and suddenly split apart, the bird lifting into the air with sloppy beats of its wings.
It glared at us fiercely, and loosed a Solarflare. Fury dodged it easily, jeering the bird on. The night air was lit up again as she belched a tongue of flame that lashed the bird. It fell to the ground squawking fearfully. Not letting that soften my resolve. I tossed another ball and it disappeared inside again, still pitching in its place, refusing to go down.
“Come on!” I pleaded watching the light flicker. Flash! The bird was out again, not even fly, just dragging itself across the ground, still eager to battle.
“Swift!” The stars battered the Pokemon, exploded in its eyes and feathers. “Third time lucky!” I yelled, aware of how much I sounded like Sumalee. The Heavyball knocked it backwards before swallowing it up as before and clamping closed. As it rocked I held my breath. One, I murmured to myself watching the light sputter. Two, I thought, running out of air. Three. Here it was, if I couldn’t catch it now I never would. Time stretched an eternity and finally, PING! The light switched!
“YES! WHAHOO! WE DID IT!” I grabbed Fury round the middle and threw her into the air, whooping like a madman.
“Put me down!” Fury wailed and scrambled from my arms, but you could see how happy she was. I grinned and laughed. I felt as if a great burden had been lifted from my shoulders, now that she was Ok.
“OK, Ok, you have your Pokemon, no lets go!” Marc whined. “I’m hungry, Charmeleon’s hungry, I bet the rest of my Pokemon are hungry and I want to sleep!”
“Baby,” I muttered, suppressing a smile.
“Anyone know which way we came in?” Cal said slowly looking at the destruction around us. We had made quite a mess.
“Yeh, it was over there,” Sumalee said pointedly.
“Toto!”
“No it wasn’t, we came in by that tree.”
“I thought we came from that direction.”
“Uhuh, there.”
“Oh man, we’re screwed!”
* * * *
Echotrance, her consort, Celebi and Sunsear watched on as the humans argued. It was comical how each thought they were right. Echotrance sighed sadly. Two of her children were going away and as in the last reality, Celebi had shown her that her adopted children were ordained for great things.
Like all of the legendary Pokemon, their memories had been left in tact by Celebi’s great powers and she knew that in what ever case, she preferred this reality to the last. All that pointless destruction done by those Rockets! She had a hard time convincing Sunsear not to tear through the forest and rescue his baby brother but to let fate take its course. Unlike her and Celebi, her consort and son knew nothing of what had happened and how much the girl had done. She would rise to meet her destiny and take it in both hands. A brave child she was.
The Rockets were gone; in fact they had never been here. Celebi had switched the timelines so that Giovanni, their horrid leader had changed his mind at the last minute, and didn’t know why. She chuckled to herself causing her husband to look at her queerly.
“Will we help them my dear?” he asked, flushing his long tail so that it sat perfectly in place. He was vain, her husband.
“Yes, I will take care of it. You go take care of our own brood, I’m sure they’re squawking for their daddy by now.” With that she dropped from the trees to land in front of the humans as graceful as a feather in the wind. The ceased their yammering and stared at her, the girl gawking and the colour flooding from her face. Echotrance smiled as she mouthed wordlessly. None of them said a word, just stared at her in wonder.
“Are you going to help us?” The Water Master stammered.
She nodded, and spread her. “Climb on.”
Their mouths fell open but hurried to follow her commands. When the four human, the Quilava and that tedious little Totodile from the last reality were cradled safely between her wings, she lifted into the air and up to the canopy. She murmured a command and the branches parted wide enough for her pass through.
Echotrance soared above the treetops, the night air rustling her feathers gently. The moons luminous glow shone brightly tonight and she felt more frisky then she had in a millennium. She could feel the humans gaping on her back, the Totodile chewing on her feathers much to her disgust, the girl only watching the back of her neck and her antennae like crest.
She’s sharp and I best watch out for her, Echotrance laughed quietly. Soon she saw their campfire and carefully began her descent. Again she whistled and the forest swept back to make room for their queen to land. The humans crawled off her wings and stepped back, drinking in the image of a legendary bird, one of the Council no less. The girl stepped forward reaching her hand towards her.
“Topaz,” Echotrance whispered so that only she could hear.
Topaz cocked her head confused, a glimmer of recognition in her eyes. “I know you.” More of a statement then a question. Echotrance nodded. Stretching her beak, she reached to her back and plucked a long green feather out, tipped with black notched it in her hair. Leaning closer she murmured into Topaz’s ear, ”My name is Gaia, Topaz, remember it, but don’t tell.”
With that, she flared her wings and rocketed into the sky leaving the girl’s eyes wide and full of awe. Laughing out loud this time, a musical sound, she disappeared in a glimmer of green and black.
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