In Progress The Galaxy Key; Remember me? (Dude... a new chapter!)

This will be updated every Friday, starting tomorrow with Chapter Two. SUSPENSE!

Well, I felt like migrating my (not so) MAJORLY SUCCESSFUL AND WIDELY LOVED work of fanfiction to The Cave of Dragonflies to share with you guys because quite frankly, I think it's a pretty good story and I'm very proud of it. (Despite what the first chapter looks like, it is NOT PMD in reverse. ;D) Uhh... yeah. There is a plot twist that I highly doubt anyone who hasn't read it already will see coming - unless they could find and analyze the Three Clues of Cleverly-Placed and Obscure Hinting, which I don't think any of you can do. xD) Anyways, this is the first chapter of The Galaxy Key in all of its glory and slight oldness...




A low buzzing sound filled the labyrinthine passageways and echoed off of the brown rock walls. This slight annoyance seemed innocent enough, being that one of the travelers in such a cave happens to be a Magneton, but a Raichu traveling with him sees things quite a bit differently...

“Holy Arceus! Helio, shut off that buzzing! It’s getting on my nerves!”

“I can’t help it. I am a Magneton, in case you hadn’t noticed. It is something that I just do.”

“Well, turn it off!”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“...”

“Ha! No comment. I beat you!”

“But, still.” Helio replied. “The natural buzzing I emit is nothing like what happens to you when a female Pokemon walks by. Your eyes start to get glazed over, you drop whatever you’re holding, little electric sparks start emitting everywhere from you, and you start speaking gibberish, to name a few sympptoms...I don’t know if you should be talking.”

Caro crossed his arms. “Well...at least I-“

“Both of you, stop arguing! You’ll wake up every Pokemon in this entire place.”

Kris scolded her two friends, paws crossed across her cream-furred chest. She was a female Persian who had developed the intriguing ability to navigate on her hind legs. Other than the fact that she ran a bit faster than a standard Persian, and she could reach higher and had greater ability to hold things, this... unique aspect of the feline Pokemon honestly wasn’t all that helpful. The blue gem on her head – yes, Kris’ gem was blue, not red as it is on your standard everyday Persian– glinted and shined from the light and slight static her two friends made.

Caro, the Raichu, wasn’t all too thrilled about the concept of his friend – friend, not girlfriend, that would be gross - ordering him around. “Hey! Who are you to order us about?! You’re hardly older than we are!” Helio, the Magneton Caro had mentioned earlier, lost his center of balance and stumbled for a second, but then regained control and moved on.

“Anyway...” Kris said with a little bit of a loud tone to get past the voices of the two Electric Pokemon – well, Caro, anyway, Helio never seemed o raise his voice often - doing her best to forget about how much her two friends squabbled and trying to change the subject to something a bit more interesting, “We need to keep going, you two. The Treasure is probably just ahe-“

“What is this treasure?” Caro cut in, a bit annoyed. “You’ve been talking about it the whole time we’ve been in this stupid mountain, but we have absolutely no idea what ‘it’ is! You’re always like this, Kris... Dragging us into things without telling us the whole story. So please, for the sake of sanity, tell us what the heck you are talking about.”

The Persian rolled her eyes and snorted loudly. “Well if you want to know about it, fine. We’re searching for the Dimension Key, a-“

“An ancient artifact said to be able to grant any wish its wielder commands. Correct?” Helio cut in yet again, stopping and turning o the cream-colored cat Pokemon who was standing in between himself and Caro.

“Well, yeah, but I wanted to say it!” Kris glared at her mechanical friend for a second. “What, were you trying to impress me or something?” Caro joked immaturely. “No! I just...wanted to.” Kris argued back, raising her snout higher into the air, determined to ignore Caro. “Ooh, stop arguing! You’ll wake up every Pokemon in this entire place!” Caro taunted, complete with Kris’ Persian ears imitation. The taller cat Pokemon whacked him on the side of the head with a clenched paw and went to catch up with Helio, who had moved ahead.

Quickly running past him, Kris squealed with delight.

“H-hey...there it is! The Dimension Key!”

“You mean it really exists?” Caro gasped. Kris pointed to the center of the room, where a shiny black rock was sitting on a small pillar, about as tall as a couple of Pikachus standing on each others head, with moonlight coming down from a crack in the roof and just being sucked in, seeming to be never to be seen again. “I’m gonna get it first!” Kris taunted at Caro, and then lunged for the Key. “No, I am!” Caro fought back. Helio inspected the key from where he was hovering for a few seconds, and then his pupils grew smaller as a sinking feeling flooded over him. “No!” He shouted. “Don’t touch that! That’s not the Treasure, It’s the Galaxy-“

Helio didn’t have time to finish his sentence. As he moved forward, a bright light flowed out from where Kris and Caro had touched it, at the same time. “Oh no…” Helio muttered as the light became brighter, eventually forcing the three adventurers to close their eyes.

High above, a bright light blasted out of the huge mountain next to Treasure Town, shooting up straight into the heavens and probably outer space, too.

“Ha ha ha!” an old Alakazam chortled. “Looks like some more Pokemon got tricked by that stone!”

“Do you think we should take it out?” The Alakazam’s wife mused as she stepped out of the house, next to her husband. “It seems like a bit of a mean trick...” “No!” The old Alakazam shook his head. “They were destined to go there, otherwise they wouldn’t have made it that far. The Wild Pokemon would have probably defeated them by the time they got to the second chamber. It will be fun to see how they’ve changed if they return! Ha ha ha…”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

“-Key.” Helio finished, that sinking feeling in his stomach getting worse by the second. Yes, Magnetons have stomachs. They’re made of metal, like the rest of their bodies.

“Ugh…I feel sick…” Caro moaned. He hadn’t opened his eyes yet. “What happened? We touched the Dimension Key and then…”

“That wasn’t the Dimension Key.” Helio said. “It was the Galaxy Key, said to have the power to teleport the wielder to whichever world he or she thinks about.”

“But I wasn’t thinking about…here!” Caro and Kris objected at the same time. They glared intensely at each other for a moment, but then Caro looked away. “Ha ha!” Kris taunted and smirked at Caro. “I got you! Score one for me! Now all you need is one point, He-“ Kris stopped midsentence as she looked at her friend. She was about to open her mouth, when-

“BWAAAH!” Caro screamed. He looked down at himself – or, at least what he thought was himself. Instead of the sleek, streamlined, powerful body he had, there was a body that very vaguely resembled a Lucario’s and Machop’s in terms of anatomy. The tan-pink flesh on it was not hidden by any pelt, except for some pieces of a soft material on his torso and down to his legs, which also had no pelt covering the bare skin. He tried as hard as he could to lash his tail, but couldn’t. Turning around, he saw that the reason he couldn’t do such a thing is because he had no tail to lash! “H-h-human…? I’m a…Human?” he whimpered. Looking over at Kris, he saw the same thing with some slight differences, but he didn’t much care about those.

She was wearing a different pelt than he was. He had on an orange pelt on his chest, with a design that looked a bit like his Raichu torso – a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. His bottom pelt was a bunch of blues mashed together into little fragments. The only fur he had was some brownish fur on the top of his head, which cascaded down his back and stopped with what he thought was called a ‘Ponyta-tail’ collecting it all. She, on the other hand, had a cream pelt over her torso, and white pelts covering her pants.

“Uh…” Kris muttered, trying out her new human paws, “from what I know about Humans, we seem to be in the age range that Humans classify as ‘teenagers’. But you, Helio, look like what a Human classifies within the ‘Adult’ or ‘grown-up’ age range. Why is that?” She cocked her head, and yellowish hair flowed down her back, stopping near the bottom of her shoulder blades.

“So…Helio. Can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

“Why do we look like this…and you look like that?”

Re: The Galaxy Key; Yeah, it's finally at tCoD!


Caro’s confusion was not at all uncalled for. For, you see, Helio didn’t look much like his companions at all...

He was taller than the two teenagers looking at him, about six feet, give or take; a full foot taller than his traveling companions. He was also paler than they were, and obviously at least ten years older, if not more.

In fact, just about every visible part of him was different than those of Caro and Kris; his hair was not nearly as long as theirs, but was shorter, spikier, and a somewhat unnatural shade of blue; steel blue or something along those lines was what seemed to come to mind. His eyes were also slightly narrower than theirs were, but Caro wasn’t totally sure if he was doing this on purpose or if it was just a natural thing. His eyes were a rather odd gray color that seemed to look right through you sometimes, and other times were just there, not looking like they did anything.

The pelt on his torso was all white, though it was a bit hard to tell because there was a much more interesting gray one above it, with a medium-sized strip down the middle. This was all fine and good, but the thing that really made it set out was the unusual design. Two thick yellow lines seemed to be going around the gray pelt near where it ended, and a rather odd-shaped charcoal patch lay under the lines, in a pattern that is rather difficult to describe with words alone, and was by no means possible on paper to Caro and Kris’ knowledge. The parts of the pelt that went down his arms were also black, as was the longer pelt going down his legs.

However, the most important thing of all was also the smallest and arguably the least noticeable; a yellow image that seemed to resemble the Unown rune G was in plain sight on the upper right side of his gray pelt, over near the sleeve.

By now, you have probably figured out from the description who Helio was in his human form, if not even earlier.

“Yes...about that.” Cyrus muttered.

“Explain.” Kris quickly got up from her sitting position. She was a bit wobbly at first and lost her balance a few times, but soon got used to it due to the practice she had in her former Persian form. “R-right, me too.” Caro, on the other hand, was having a bit more difficulty stabilizing himself, but with Cyrus and Kris’ aid he got it down, sooner or later.

Cyrus turned and looked down at the two children who used to be his only allies – he wouldn’t call them friends, but allies seemed suitable - in the dimension where he had been imprisoned in for the last... ten years or so, was it? His human body didn’t seem to age during the period he was a Magneton, so it wasn’t so easy to tell.

“Well...I don’t exactly know all the details just yet.” Cyrus looked up at the sky for a moment, and then brought his gaze down again. “Maybe I did, and Uxie wiped my memory. I’m not sure.” He paused for a second, before continuing on. “I...have dome some things I can’t say have been very helpful in my life.” He folded his arms and leaned against a lamppost, looking up into the now darkening sky, Skorupius and Draconair shining brightly. “Most people have. They had stolen something, or told a lie, or something along those lines. I did...something much more complicated.” Caro and Kris listened, attention unwavering, as they learned the previous – and incredibly unexpected - human life of their best friend. They were fine with referring to him as a friend, even though they had only known him for six or seven months. (You see, time flows differently in Caro and Kris’ home universe. What was two years there could have been 25 here.)

After he had finished, Kris was silent, but Caro had a question, as usual. “So...how did you know about the Galaxy and Dimensional Keys?” Cyrus hesitated for a moment, and then replied in the standard monotone. “While doing research work on the Red Chain, the Galaxy and Dimensional Keys were both listed as required items in quite a few of my...resources. I couldn’t find them anywhere. So I think you can imagine my reaction when one of the two things that had doomed my plan to fail was sitting in front of me on a little stone pillar in some mountain in an alternate universe, with moonlight being sucked into it.”

Cyrus was silent after that. He quite clearly wasn’t planning on saying anything more. “So...what do we do now?” Caro asked, looking around, then cocked his head to one side. Kris seemed to have gotten over the fact that her best friend had once tried to destroy and recreate the human universe, but was still shaking a little bit. “I honestly don’t know.” Cyrus looked around, gaze sweeping over the marshy landscape, not noticing anything in particular except the expanse of mud.

“Y-you said you came from Sunyshore City, didn’t you? So let’s go there. You must be pretty eager to see your hometown after seeing nothing but talking Pokemon for what, nine, ten years?” Kris pointed out, still a bit shakily. She didn’t completely understand the different places’ timeflow yet. After all, they had only been here for one human-time day.

Nobody seemed to have had a better idea, so Cyrus removed a Pokeball from his pocket. He tossed it into the air, and it opened, spreading the red light into shape of a Honchkrow, much to Caro and Kris’ surprise and slight horror. Not a very happy Honchkrow, but a Honchkrow still. It squawked angrily at its owner, and then snatched the Pokeball from his hand and violently and angrily crushed it in two. Having broken the seal binding it to the person who hadn’t done anything Pokemon care-related to it in nine or ten years, the Honchkrow flew off into the night, heading in the general direction of what Cyrus could only assume to be Eterna Forest.

“Well, so much for air transportation.” Cyrus said blankly. “If we’re planning to go anywhere, it looks like we’ll be doing it on foot.”

“Well, then, let’s go!” Kris chirped, and immediately set off in a random direction. Caro sighed and put his hand on his forehead, and then glanced at his hand; he wasn’t quite used to this ‘Human’ concept yet. “Do you even know how to get to Sunyshore City?” He asked with a told-you-so tone, purposefully trying to provoke Kris. “Well, do you?” Kris turned around and huffed back, and turned to Cyrus – but he was already walking in the direction opposite of where Honchkrow had flew off in a very Honchkrowlike rage, probably to find itself some minions. Minions, it felt, were long overdue.

“Woah – hey, wait up!” Caro and Kris dashed after their friend, who had longer legs and thus was going much faster than they were, even though he was moving at a slower pace and had to dodge around the expanse of marshy mud. Caro was used to this speed difference, since he used to have stubby Raichu legs and could only get around anywhere near quickly on all four paws, but Kris wasn’t – her muscular Persian body could have outraced him in Magneton form in an instant.

As Caro chased along behind his friend, he took a better look up at Cyrus, who didn’t seem to be using much effort but was still going faster than they were. Was this Human really the same slightly creepy but lovable Magneton he had known just a few days ago? It didn’t make any sense at all.

“Hey, where are you going?” Kris asked, panting slightly. “Sunyshore City?” Cyrus shook his head, but didn’t turn around. “No.” he said. “I am heading in that general direction, but I have a few stops to make first. We will be circling around Sinnoh, and when we get back to our starting point, here, that is when we will set off for Sunyshore City.” And with that, he kept walking, checking back every once in a while to make sure Caro and Kris were still alive.

Re: The Galaxy Key; Remember me? (Chapter 2 is up!)

This story just got 10 times more interesting.

Re: The Galaxy Key; Remember me? (Chapter 2 is up!)

Chapter Two tends to have that impression on people. :3

Re: The Galaxy Key; Remember me? (Chapter 2 is up!)



About two seconds after this awkward interaction took place, the three felt a slight chill.

A couple seconds after that, they realized with a jolt where they were.

And then, reality set in with a generous helping of sheer cold.

Though they hadn’t realized it, they had not been near Pastoria City as Cyrus had originally thought. Far from it. As it turns out, they were actually in the forest near Snowpoint City, Sinnoh’s northern-most community, shivering violently from the cold, snow-covered mountain below their feet. The Pastorian landscape had just been an illusion caused by a particularly troublesome Medicham lurking nearby, snickering its little heart out.

As Cyrus shot a quick glance at the human-like Psychic and Fighting-type, he remembered something Caro and Kris would definitely need to get done. “Now. I don’t mean to sound like Professor What’s-his-tree, but you two are in a far more dangerous place than you were previously, without any self-protection at all. Both of you are going to need to find yourself some Pokemon, and register as Trainers.”

“Wh-what?!?” Caro and Kris shouted together, and then gazed up at him, eyes wide with horror. “So...you mean...we have to catch Pokemon in those...things?” Caro whimpered, remembering Medicham’s vision of the Honchkrow violently crushing its Pokeball and flying off into the twilight.

“That’s the general idea, yes.” Cyrus paused, and continued in the still-typical monotone. “Of course, you two need to decide. Would you rather wander around with no self-defense, or have an unbelievably powerful defense mechanism and ally at your disposal?” He looked down at them, waiting for an answer with another, as usual blank, face. “I, for one...well...I’m going to do it.” Caro raised his hand, still shivering. “It would help me look at Pokemon in a whole new way. And besides, if we ever get back to Treasure Town, we would have some new recruits...” He nodded his head. “So yeah.”

“Ah, what the heck. It’ll be nice to have a pastime in this ridiculously insane alternate uni- oh, sorry. No offense, Helio.” Kris stopped her sentence short, totally forgetting that the ridiculously insane alternate universe she was insulting and currently residing in was his home world.

“None taken.” Cyrus blinked once, and then turned. “You two, come with me. I can go with you as far as the city limits, but past that I can’t risk being recognized. That would be...more trouble than it’s worth.” Caro grimaced slightly as he spoke. Casually walking into a new place without their only guide would be a slight issue. “It’s not a problem.” Cyrus continued. “Find the white building with the red roof, go in, and ask the human behind the counter if you could sign up as Trainers.” They nodded at the same time, and set off, seeing as the three were now lurking in the shadows of the snow-covered trees near the city. “Go.”

They quickened their pace as Cyrus slunk farther into the snow-coated shadows, using his years of (childhood) experience of generally being invisible to hide from passerby.

“Whoaaaa.” Caro muttered under his breath as they looked around at the snowy town, and the huge temple near the back in particular. “Place with the red roof, that’s what Helio said.” Kris pointed out, snapping him out of the trance. “Over there. Let’s go.” She tugged on his arm, and set off at a brisk – or, at least as close to brisk as you could get in knee-high frozen water droplets - pace, trudging through the deep snow.

Finally, they arrived at the huge white building, and cautiously stepped in. Kris raised an eyebrow – this place was amazing. And big. There was a clear, unblocked pathway down the aisle to the human at a desk near the other end, but there were long, cushiony couches stretched along the sides of the aisle. There were also smaller couches nearer the wall, as well as a café in the corner. While she was gazing at the Pokemon Center in all of it’s splendor and pink-and-yellow glory, Caro was already chatting with the pink-haired woman behind he counter near the back. She quickly dashed over to him in case he tried to do or say anything too stupid.

“Yes, both of us want to be Trainers. No, we’re not on some far-fetched quest from Professor Lucas. Yes, we are over ten years old. Yes, we’re not from here. No, we don’t have any Pokemon at this time.” Caro was answering questions as the appalled receptionist woman shot them out. The Joy was surprised – she usually used her rapidfire questions as a way of filtering out the Trainers destined to fail. Only one other person had done them this quickly and accurately, back when she was working in the far east part of the region...

The woman shrugged and pressed some keys on the computer, and then nodded. She directed them over to near a Pokeball camera, which took their pictures, much to their amazement; “What, it’s like you’ve never seen a camera before! Ah, you were foreigners, I forgot...” And with that, she handed them both a card and some money. “Okay, you two. Good luck on your adventure!” Her beaming smile turned to a frown as some boy rushed in the door, cradling a Monferno in his arms. So that was why the pathway up here wasn’t blocked. Not paying much attention to Caro, the boy nearly plowed him over in his rush to get to the Nurse. “Hey! Watch where you’re swinging that Monferno next time!” Caro hissed. “Should we get back to Helio now? It must have been at least an hour by now...” he mused, brushing himself off. “Yeah, I think so.” With that, Kris and Caro left the warm, compelling Pokemon Center back into Nature’s unforgiving cold spell of a town.

Seeing Kris and Caro approaching, Cyrus put the two Ultra Balls back into his pocket and nodded when they approached. “You were taking a while, so I decided to catch you some starters. It would make things a lot easier later on.” He removed the Balls from his pocket again, and tossed them to the two Pokemon-turned-teenagers. Staggered, they sent the new Pokemon out.

On the left, in front of Kris, stood a vaguely human Pokemon, about a foot shorter than she was. There was a magneta-colored circle on the Pokemon’s head, sporting three smaller oval-shaped appendages out of it; one on each side, and one out the back. Its arms were long and slender, and its legs were covered by a large mass of magenta-pinkish skin, for isolation or decoration Kris didn’t know. Its lips seemed to be slightly larger than normal.

“Yo! Nice to meetcha!” It chirped, and then bowed to its new mistress. “Yeah, nice to meet you too, Medicham.” Kris nodded back a bit absentmindedly, turning the Ultra Ball over in her hand.

Caro chuckled as his Pokemon was sent out, on the right. There was a slightly rodent-like Pokemon smirking there on its hind legs, long, bright white claws shining in the moonlight. It was mostly black, save its eyes, a few golden rectangular shapes on its forehead and torso, and a large red featherlike thing growing out of...its ear? No, that feather thing was its ear, just shaped different than the other, which was more catlike. As a cold wind blew, Caro noticed there were three more red feathered thingies making up its tail.

“Hmph. So you’re the guy I’m serving for the rest of my life...sweet.” The Pokemon cackled as it flexed its claws at its new owner, red eyes shining brightly, eager to size this kid up.

“Hey, wait a minute! Can’t humans not understand Pokemon?” Kris objected, confused. “Usually, you would be correct. But in our case, where we have all lived a percentage of our lives as Pokemon, we must have retained the ability to communicate with Pokemon from our previous...forms.” Cyrus replied. Kris nodded. “O-kaay...”

“Well, now that you all have introduced yourselves, let’s keep moving.” Cyrus turned and moved towards Lake Acuity. The other four turned and ran beside him, eager to warm up.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Uxie smiled, eyes completely closed.

The three travelers were coming, along with some Pokemon natives. Oh, what a joyous reunion this would be... waving farewell to his sisters, the Legendary Sprite Fairy Levitating Blob Thing of Knowledge teleported down to Earth with a flashy light show to be positioned in a dark corner of his cave in the middle of Lake Acuity, laughing to itself all the way down.

Uxie couldn’t wait to sense his old friend’s feelings when he came into his domain. That would be fun.

Re: The Galaxy Key; Remember me? (Chapter 3 is up!)

Finally, after what seemed to be hours of trudging through deep snow, the three adventurers – for the Pokemon had been returned to their Balls – finally stopped in front of the opening in the trees known as the entrance to the Acuity Lakefront. Caro stared at the entrance for a while, then shrugged and barged right in. Kris shook her head and followed, tailed finally by Cyrus, who didn’t seem to be cold at all.

You really couldn’t see it in the dark corner of the cavern, but Uxie felt like he was just about at his bursting point from silent laughter. He clammed up immediately when the crash of a Gyarados splashing into the water blasted from outside, echoing all around the cavern and really, really hurting Uxie’s ears.

He bit his lip, trying to keep silent from the excitement and loud booming splash. Eventually, the splashing and flailing stopped, the stifled sound of something landing on the snow-covered rocks, and trudging through the thick white mass of snow.

The three were coming.

Kris, Caro, and Cyrus had made it to the center of the landmass, where an opening in the rocks loomed above them. “And here we have it,” said Caro sarcastically, “an old cave. Now what did you need to do here again?” He turned to Cyrus with a cocked eyebrow. Cyrus gave no response, but walked into the darkened rock cavern anyway.

A few minutes pass. And then a few more. Silence.

Unless Uxie wasn’t here, there should have been some reaction by now. Right?

“There’s nothing here! Let’s go.” Caro impatiently commented as he turned to leave. Kris shot one last look at the cave and turned to depart, but stopped when she noticed Cyrus wasn’t following. “Why are you still here?” She asked. “It’s deserted. Whatever you were looking for isn’t here.”

Cyrus stood there for a few more minutes, and finally accepted the fact that the cave really was deserted. As he turned to leave, though, a few flickers of light swirled around one point in the center of a large puddle, hovering a few feet above it for a few seconds, before materializing with a little whoosh.

“Hello again.” Uxie smiled warmly. “Been a while. Ten years, in fact. Exactly ten as of yesterday. Did you know that?” Uxie crossed his arms. Cyrus, Kris, and Caro stopped in their tracks and turned around, the latter two with surprised expressions on their faces.

“U-Uxie?” Kris took a step back. “Uxie.” Cyrus confirmed. “What do you want?” He turned to the floating blue-and-yellow blob that was the Knowledge Pokemon.

“Nothing much, actually. I just came to check in on you to make sure that you don’t get in to any more...trouble.” He hovered up to get face-to-face with the tall human male, and poked him squarely in the middle of his forehead, smiling. Cyrus was unfazed.

“What do you want?” He asked again. “I already told you, dimwit.” Uxie said with a laugh. Cyrus really didn’t appreciate being called a dimwit, but he didn’t show it – and even if he had, Uxie wouldn’t have stopped anyway.

“I’m just here to check on you. Oh yeah, and keep an eye out for Mesprit. She’s gotten pretty riled up since...you two last met.” Uxie cocked an eyebrow, and Caro did the same. “You met Mesprit? And Uxie? And what about Azelf?” He asked.

“All three of them, yes.” Cyrus nodded. “Just...not in the way you expect. Anyway, it looks like we’re done here.” As Uxie seemed to have no objection, he glanced around the dark cave once more, and then turned around. He walked right past his friends, beckoning for them to follow.

“Oh yeah.” Caro nodded, remembering the story Cyrus had spilled earlier on, in Snowpoint.

“I’ll remember that. You two, we need to get through Mt. Coronet.” Stepping out of the cave, a Gyarados roared. A few swishing noises, and silence descended once again over the freezing lake.

“Wait a second.” Kris pointed out, once they had landed back on the snow-covered mainland. “Why should we need to go through some big mountain if we can just use your Gyarados?” Cyrus blinked. He had forgotten for a moment that there were different laws of Water Pokemon mobility in Treasure Town.

“No.” He replied. “Where we are, Water Pokemon do not have the ability to go much farther than a few inches off the ground. We do, however, have Honchkrow, since the little escapade it threw happened in some Medicham’s prank.” To prove his point, he jammed one hand into his pocket and pulled out a red-and-white sphere.

Caro and Kris both cringed. They weren’t yet completely used to the concept of storing Pokemon in those...things, but they would just have to deal with it. Oh well.

Cyrus tossed the ball into the air, and a Honchkrow looked back at him, chirping happily. For, time was distorted in these Pokeballs, so the Pokemon inside learned to not trust their sense of time while in the Arceus-forsaken things.

“’Ello there! What’s up with you? Been a while, hasn’t it?” Cyrus just now remembered how much his Honchkrow seemed to talk, and made a silent oath to never attempt conversation with it again. “Yes, it has. Fly along Mt. Coronet with the three of us – if you can’t handle three, we’ll get some Golbats – and head for Eterna City.”

Honchkrow, needless to say, was stunned. As far as he knew, humans couldn’t understand what he said. “How did you...when did you...how d’you understand me?” Cyrus blinked. “Time goes faster outside a Ball. Now, can you carry one adult and two teenagers?” Honchkrow wasn’t satisfied with his owner’s answer, but the large bird Pokemon let it slide anyway. “Oh, no way. You would need Golbats for that, sorry!”

“Can’t be helped. To the nearest Golbat nest, then.” Kris shrugged, and turned to face the large mountain. “Finding a Golbat shouldn’t be that hard, right?”

“More common than a Magikarp dealer.” Cyrus started towards a large opening in the wall and poked his head in. Honchkrow did the same. “Yep! There’s millions of the things. I’ll leave the rest to you two, mmkay?” Honchkrow turned to Caro and Kris. “They’re your Golbats, after all.”

Cyrus tossed some Great Balls over his shoulder. Caro and Kris caught them, still a bit surprised. “Attack the Pokemon until it obtains a red Aura emanating around it, and when that happens, toss the Pokeball and hope for the best.” Cyrus stood to the right of the gap in the rocks to give the two teenage children access to the cave.

“Look! Red aura! Like Helio said – these guys must have been recovering from an attack by another...what are Golbats in again? Colonies? Eh, what the heck. Catch one!” Kris chirped.

“All right!” Caro laughed. He tossed a Great Ball into the mob of glowing red light. Kris did the same. A few screeches and thunk noises later, two red spheres fell to the floor of the cave, shaking at first. Slowly but surely, they stopped quivering and lay there, solitary.

And then they abruptly flew into their owners’ faces with all swiftness. “OW!” Caro shouted.

“Maybe we should send them out.” Kris shrugged, still massaging her head from a metal ball hitting her square in the forehead, much as Uxie’s tiny fist had done a little while before. “Yeah, I guess we should.” Caro whimpered, doing the same thing. With the hand they were not currently using for massaging their heads, the two teenagers flung the balls into the air...

Re: The Galaxy Key; Remember me? (Chapter 4 is up!)


High, high above the region of Sinnoh, there stood a staircase composed of fragments of light. Should a human ascend up this staircase – which they could not, for it was composed of fragments of light, which humans cannot climb – he would be greeted with a large tunnel shimmering with crystals inserted into the rock. Should a human walk down this tunnel – which they could not, for the light would surely blind them, even if they closed their eyes – they would be greeted with very big marble doors. Should the human open the doors – which they could not, for the doors were incredibly heavy – they would behold an amazing sight indeed – the Spear Pillar as it was before it was cracked, broken and destroyed, columns of shimmering crystal, a floor smooth and shiny and cold as ice, and, most of all, a Pokemon researcher’s dream; a huge room filled to the brim with Legends.

Of course, the Legendaries had put all of these human-stopping traps in place to stop them from trespassing and hence saving them from the possibility of having their minds wiped at the absolute least.

At the back wall of this enormous, sparkly, brilliant room, there was the Origin.

The Origin was a luminous white creature that resembled a Rapidash ever so slightly in terms of anatomy – four long, powerful legs, a fairly long neck, and a somewhat similar body shape. But this was no Rapidash – it’s head, instead of having a long muzzle, had what looked like some sort of horned helmet shape on its head, cutting out a piece for the eyes and rest of the face, then closing it again and merging the helmet piece with the rest of the body, also a luminous white.

Instead of hooves, it had yellow arrow-shaped patterns coming up from its pointed feet. There were what seemed to be yellow rings protruding from behind it, though on a side view you would see that the yellow rings were actually another part of the body. White, wispy things flowed from the back of it’s head and around its hoof area.

This was the Origin. Arceus.

There were countless other brilliant forms in this spiffy white room, though to describe them all could fill an impressively-sized book by itself. So I shall continue to call the Legendaries by name, and you will need to either look them up on the Nets of Inter or find them in some sort of guidebook, should such a miraculous thing exist, of course.

Suddenly, the huge marble doors slammed open. Mesprit was standing there, paw extended, gritting her teeth, eyes filled with rage.

“How could you?” She spat at everyone in the room, looking around, eyes shooting daggers and laser beams.

“I cannot say I know what you’re talking about.” Uxie said calmly, glancing at his sister, eyes half-open.

“What I’m talking about? WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT?!?” Mesprit shouted. “YOU let him pass! You had a little chat and let him pass! YOU LET HIM! Yeah, you know who I’m talking about! YES! The useless Magikarp with the Links! YEAH, HIM! Mister what’s-his-planet!”

“Cyrus.” Uxie pointed out calmly.

“YEAH! HIM!” Mesprit roared.

Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina turned to Mesprit. “Hush up, for Arceus’ sake.” Giratina growled. You would imagine Arceus would take offense to this, but he did not take any at all and allowed the others to use the term. “You know what happened. We gave him his punishment, he survived it, he’s going to face the consequences, and now he is no more malicious than a newborn Riolu.”

Mesprit snorted. “Oh, yeah. That puny little vacation? We should have gone with Darkrai’s suggestion!”

“Well, finally.” Darkrai rolled his eyes, one covered by the white wisp protruding from his black head. “See, Arceus? Both Mesprit and I think he should have been destroyed. It would have been so much easier that way!” He put his arms behind his head, and leaned back in the chair-like structure he was sitting on, wispy shadows at the bottom of his body turning into Blaziken-like black legs with shadows swirling around near the bottom.

“No, it would not.” Suicune blinked, and when his eyes opened again, they were glowing white. He spoke in a very deep voice unlike his own. For, you see, Arceus did not speak; he roared, he growled, he snorted, but he did not speak. He would manipulate one of the other Legendaries and speak that way. That’s just one of the things Arceus does; nobody questions it and it poses no problems so nobody really cares.

“For if we had destroyed him as you suggested, he would have been reborn, in a form with the potential to be much, much, much, worse, if such a thing was possible for a human.” Suicune spoke in the deep voice, and when he blinked again, his eyes were back to their regular luminance.

“Ha!” Mesprit spat, now overflowing with rage. “Well, you know, if you all are going to just ignore this...this...this TRAITOR’s actions-“ She pointed a finger at Uxie, who raised an eye a bit higher- “Well, then, Darkrai and I will stop him and his Pokemon underlings ourselves.” She began to hover back out, and then noticed Darkrai was not following. “DARKRAI! You’re supposed to be coming with ME! THIS WAY!”

Darkrai shook his head. “Nuh-uh, miss. No can do. Sure, I want the stupid guy gone, but I’m not gonna go against the most powerful forces known to anything at all to do so. You’re on your own this time. Bye, now. Don’t come again.” And with a flick of his finger, the door pulsed with dark energy and slammed in Mesprit’s twisted face.

“YOU WILL...YOU WILL ALL...”


“YEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!” With a final slam and kick on the door, Mesprit was gone, off in a blind rage to do whatever she could to stop Link man in his tracks. Grinning wickedly, she shot down the corridor, around the stairs, and down to the scene of the original rime – the Spear Pillar as it is right now. Floating over to a hollow pillar, she dived down. At the bottom, light was pouring in from Mesprit’s luminescent jewel on her forehead. Glancing around for a second, she finally found what she was looking for.

She flew out of the pillar, down Mt. Coronet, and off to the tiny Town of Twinleaf, clutching pieces of a broken, blood-red chain for dear life.

One certain piece of this chain fell out of her grasp without her noticing in her blind rage, and flew down into a crumbled ruin near or in Eterna City...

Re: The Galaxy Key; Remember me? (Chapter 4 is up!)


As the two red-and-white metal spheres flew through the air, all three pairs of eyes focused on them. Time seemed to slow itself down. Nobody actually knew why – it wasn’t anything terribly important, Caro and Kris were just sending out a couple of Golbat – but it still did nonetheless.

Everyone was silent as the Pokéballs made an indent in the snowy ground with a soft thump. They then began to open and released a red, swirling, luminescent energy into the air, which soon took the form of two Pokemon.

One was a large blue thing, with a gaping mouth that opened almost as big as it’s body; Small, beady eyes glanced around. Purple bat-like wings with blue edging beat in the air, sending drafts of wind down to the snowy mass below. It let out a piercing screech, which everyone translated to mean, “Oww...my wing hurts...”

The other did not have a giant gaping mouth like the first, but was rather a purple, footless blob with two sets of streamlined wings. The upper set of wings had purple edging and blue membrane inside, instead of the other way around. The lower set was entirely purple. Its mouth was twisted into what seemed to be a deformed frown. “What?” It rumbled in a hiss-like whisper.

Caro blinked. “Wh... Why does she get a Crobat?” He glared over in Kris’ direction, who was now in conversation with her newfound friend. “Huh...” He muttered, and turned to his Golbat. “Oh, hey. What’s wrong with your wing? Did I hit it too hard or something?” He stepped up to the large bat Pokémon.

“But...humans can’t understand Pokémon...” The Golbat muttered, staring at the teenager with curiosity. “Yeah, well... I’ll let you in on something. I used to be a Raichu and I’m from a different universe, and- Yeow!” Caro looked down to see that Cyrus had slammed down on his foot. “What was that for?!?” He whined, glaring up at the taller male.

“I don’t know if it’s such a great idea to go off telling your life’s story to a Golbat, who could very well sneak off in the dead of night while you’re asleep and babble to the whole world, do you?” He asked blankly. “Uh... oh yeah... I knew that!” Unfortunately, Caro was not a very good liar.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

Cyrus kept his legs in a squatted position, to make flying easier for Honchkrow. All Caro and Kris needed to do was hold on, but a flat disk with wings has a much different method of flight than a large bird does. (Yeah, yeah. I know. A Honchkrow isn’t large, but how would a six-foot-tall man get around on a three-foot-tall bird? I tend to make things taller than they should be, but eh. Maybe it’s because I’m unnaturally tall too?)

“You okay up there?” Honchkrow called. “Yes.” Came his master’s blank response. At least they were at a high enough altitude nobody could see anything but a Honchkrow, a Crobat, and a Golbat having a pleasant flight...

Glancing back, Cyrus saw that Kris seemed to be holding on to the Crobat’s head, which the ridee didn’t seem to mind that much. Caro was having a bit of an easier time, though, as he had the Golbat’s feet to hold on to.

How did this...happen? No matter how many times Cyrus had tried to ignore – and eliminate - that thought over the past few days, it just wouldn’t die. He knew exactly how it happened, of course. After what happened at the Pillar, he had slunk off into a side cavern. The police force didn’t want anyone to know he was still out there, and he wasn’t showing any rebellion, so they kept their mouth shut and he did too.

Of course, he couldn’t hide from everyone. Or, rather, everything.

He remembered the scene vividly; it was hard not to. After all, it was only an ancient messenger for the higher powers in the universe sending him an invite to a divine trial up above the Spear Pillar, nothing too important...

Mt. Coronet had so many useful little passages. It was quite an aid when you were being tailed by a couple of women in blue suits and a ‘detective’ who could not be bothered to do any detective work at all.

With every step, Cyrus progressed farther and farther away from his failed... experiment. He couldn’t call it a dream – a dream is the product of hope, the second weakest of all emotions. The first, of course, was love... but trivial things like that hardly mattered right now. What really mattered was that he get as far away from the idiots back at the Pillar as possible, and not be caught by any of them.

He wasn’t caught by the police.

He was caught by something much, much worse.

The Arcanine watched with glowing eyes – literally glowing, as they were emitting a brilliant white light – as he put one silent paw in front of the other, making sure not to make his presence known to the Human he was pursuing. That was one of the most important parts of the mission – to keep himself a secret until he felt the time was right to reveal himself.

He glanced down at the paper in his jaws. It was in Unown runes, so he wasn’t sure if his target would even understand what it said. But the runes these people used were unknown to the Pokemon, so hopefully Unown is one of their understood languages. This target was a smart one, anyway.

Finally, the target had stopped. This was his chance. Pawstep by pawstep, the glowing-eyed Arcanine quickened its pace. The target didn’t need to think he wasn’t there anymore; that wasn’t important anymore. What was important was that he got his invitation and accepted.

The large orange-and-cream dog Pokemon soon caught up. He didn’t go unnoticed – as soon as the target noticed something was behind him, he turned around and blasted the Arcanine with a blank but extremely creepy stare. The Pokemon shook this off, and then walked up to his target. Dropping the letter at his feet, the Arcanine walked back a few paces and sat down, waiting for an answer.

“Well,” The target said. “It seems your owner isn’t capable of using proper English. This is all in Unown runes...hmm. You Legends certainly do have fast postal service, don’t you?” He put the letter into his pocket, and stared the dog in the eye. “Fine.”

Happy that the objective had been completed, the Arcanine blinked.

When they opened, the bright white glow in its eyes had disappeared.

The startled caw of his Pokemon brought him back into the present.

“Swellow at twelve o’clock! I repeat! Swellow at twelve o’clock! And... It’s got a rider! Swellow with rider at twelve o’clock...!”