Investigating Johto

[Deleted]

A young lass of five feet and brown pigtails ambled down the steps leading to her kitchen. Amongst the ornery knick-knacks and dust within the calm room, she sensed something strange, and knew all too well what it was. It had been 13 days since her father was due to come back, 13 days too late. He was never late. Not before this time, that is.

Her mom, a mellow women of a tall stature, seemed to be losing hope with every coming day. The halls drew more drear as the days passed, and Lyra could sense it. Lyra, oh poor, young Lyra. Bless the heart of such a callow girl.
She couldn't stand it any longer, seeing her mom's worries cascade, her hope was soon fading. She knew her father was somewhere, just somewhere. She had to find him, and she knew exactly how to go about such a grand expedition.

"Mom, I'm going to be away for a bit. I'm going to search for Papa, and maybe bring back clues about him and all, I simply need to do at least something!"
Her fingers tensed, a sudden worry had overtaken her.

Ohh, she won't go for this! She's already lost one dear person, now possibly another?!, thought she.

"Ahahaha, aww you got me good. Now can you help me out by doing the dishes tonight? Oh and your homework, don't forget!!"

How insensitive of her, she just passed it off for nothing! Ohh, I'll show her!

Lyra felt her blood boiling, she was fuming up. She acted just as she thought, nothing less of a great performance in rough parenting as always.

"Mom! How could you even- you jsut don't understand! I'm trying to help out, i wanna find out what happened to Papa! Don't you wanna know?" Her voice cracked upon the last note, growing short-breathed and sad. Before her mother could respond, she trudged off herself, right through the front door.

"Hmmph, she's so stupid sometimes. She didn't even consider me, or what I want. I don't need her permission, yeah, I'm doing this myself..!"
Lyra muttered under her breath.

And thus, she rooted off like a bullet. With her bag of goods and her Pokémon with her, what else could she need at the moment? The poor, callow girl.
Stomping off through the confines of New Bark, she was officially on her trek.
Eventually she felt a nudge or two coming form her bag. It was one of her pokéballs! Alas, her Togepi had been urging to come out. She released the Pokémon, and swiftly rustling it's body and wiping it's eyes, the little guy lit up with joy. His cute behavior and little squeaks and squirming made Lyra giggle, oh how she loved her Pokémon. She allowed it to walk with her.

Eventually, after a few trials of wild Pokémon, they reached cherrygrove and obtained some advice from the locals. Good, weathered people they were. They were a little odd, apparently. They sternly warned of a coming danger to the forest, a mass horror for it's faithful, eerie guardian. Lyra wasn't too quick to eat into the gossip, she thought it pish-posh. Togepi, wandering around aimlessly, seemed to be overcome by the locals and their tales. He ran back to Lyra, taking cover, as if the danger were coming straight for him.

After a moment's rest, she started again on her journey. It seemed that few locals were out in the routes that day. Maybe the dreadful gossip had spread?

Lyra tried still tried to pay no mind to it, and walked onwards. Togepi was nearly clinging to his companion's leg.

After a while of ravaging through tall grass and keeping out of the way of Pokémon, as well as going through a murky cave, she reached the homely heights of Azalea Town. The little Slowpokes nearby all seemed to be revved up with bad omens, for their tails were stiff with fear. The town seemed to be empty, like a ghost town in a way. It was usually lively with friendly faces and tourists visiting the famed Slowpoke well. Today, it was a completely different picture. Lyra still tried not to mind, and carelessly strode through.

[Mrdaimion]

Drew was lying down in his worn out bed, a few broken springs poking into his back, as he faced towards the ceiling, eyes closed, imagining life before... Johto, to summarize it.

Sure, he was incredibly stupid with the things he did in Hoenn, had much less friends than he did here, and really, the whole "wow we live in trees!" thing wore off pretty quickly.

But at least there he lived with his parents. Not his grandmother- he loved her, God bless her soul, but it still hurt a little for his parents to have sent him away to her so quickly instead of trying to help him themselves. Granted, Azalea Town was significantly less flammable, but... Still.

He sighed, rubbed his hands over his eyes, and told himself to stop whining over having an overall better life now (except for the fact that he didn't live with his parents, and he still talked with them and stuff), and he glanced out the window. He noticed a girl walking by, and only one thought came to mind:

Wow, that is such a stupid hat. He shook his head a little to himself. Seriously, why would anyone ever wear that- isn't it uncomfortable? He sighed inwardly. Whatever, her choice.

He groaned, lifted his legs off of the bed, and forced the rest of his body to follow suit. He quickly checked to make sure his Pokéballs were with him (like he did everyday). When he was sure that all of his Pokémon were with him, he began to head out the door, but his grandmother stopped him.

"Drew, where are you going?" She wheezed at him. Drew forced himself to not sigh, and he turned around to face her.

"Nowhere, grandma." He assured her, and he put his hand on the door-knob again only to hear his grandmother call out to him once more.

"Young mister, get back here right this instant!" His grandmother said, before giggling a little to herself, even she recognizing how ridiculous she sounded. "Please tell me where you're going, though, son- seriously."

Drew bit his tongue, not wanting to tell her that he was planning to go outside the village for a walk- he was supposed to stay inside it at all times, as although he was finally trusted with Pokémon again, they still wanted to keep an eye on him as much as possible. "Uh, just going to greet the new girl," he informed her, pointing out the window to where the girl known as Lyra was walking.

His grandmother stared suspiciously at him. "Huh, that's a first..." she said, eying him accusingly.

Starting to get backed into a corner, Drew did what any normal person would do: lie through his teeth. "I'm a teenage boy and she's the only girl my age to pass through here in a while- what do you expect?" He grinned.

Though she still looked at him with some suspicion clearly remaining, she finally nodded. "Okay, you can go."

Sighing with relief, he opened the door and stepped out into the town, stepped outside and- positive that his grandma was watching him still- walked over to Lyra at what was as casual a pace as possible and stepped in front of her.

"Hey- you new here? Cause if so, my name is Drew, and it's a pleasure to meet you." He then proceeded to say in a more hushed tone, "and you wouldn't happen to be going out of town, would you?"

[Deleted]

Lyra stopped, and nervously glared at the boy.
Who is he, and why is he interesting in my business??, she wondered.
She decided to respond, albeit in her own cold manner. She wasn't going to spare a smile for this guy.
"Why do you need to know? I could be a criminal for all you know. You don't know me, I am just a passing person. I mean, who are you?? Why don't you tell me first!"
She crossed her arms and eyed him coldly. All she wanted was to pass through unnoticed, but no, apparently fate had strung it's course upon this encounter. Hopefully it'd go quickly.
"Oh, and for your information..." Her view subsided to the outlying forest.
"I am heading somewhere, somewhere wooded, somewhere gloomy as of recent, according to some people."
She showed a faint smile at the thought of the lovely forest, the lovely shades the trees provide, the lovely times she's had with her Pokémon. But a shadow was growing on such a divine place. She needed to help her father, she needed to help the forest.

[Mrdaimion]

Drew bit his tongue (albeit a bit harder then he meant to so it bled slightly) to stop himself from groaning. Why is it that the one time I actually want visitors, the only one I get acts like a bitch to me? He complained to himself, before forcing a grin at her.

"Well, for one thing, if you really were a thief I should be worried about, you would have stolen a much more comfortable hat." He chuckled to himself. "Seriously, not trying to be rude, but how does that thing even stay up?"

When he paused to look at her hat, he also noticed her crossing her arms, which made him almost roll his eyes a little- could this girl try to not be a jerk for one second?

His wish was answered as she actually continued to tell him where she was going, surprising him.

"Heh, you want a place that got gloomy out of nowhere? Look around you- even though we have Kurt here, who makes state-of-the-art Pok?balls for people, we haven't gotten very much visitors in a long time- granted, the tourists were annoying, but still- you're," sadly, "the first I've seen in a while now.

But I digress- that sounds interesting, mind if I tag along?" He grinned again. "And I hope you say yes, because I'm leaving with you whether you want me to or not."

[Deleted]

"Heh, I can see why, who'd wanna come to this dump? There's nothing fun here except the Slowpokes and the free pokéballs. Besides that, it's just another dull town. I want excitement, not this, but I've already got something to do."
Lyra relaxed, slumping backward a bit. He doesn't seem too bad, I mean, he could be useful somehow. Plus he's kinda cute. But I shouldn't think about that..eheheh..
"And hey! Don't make fun of my hat. Hmph, it's comfortable."
She pulled her hat down hastily and pouted. On the inside she wasn't really all that offended, her hat was rather silly. But she found it pretty nonetheless.
"Well, if you help me I'll let you tag along. I need you aid me in an investigation. My father's gone missing I think, he hasn't returned from a recent business trip, he was running through Goldenrod to get home, and well it's a long story, but I think something happened to him. Plus, have you heard the rumors about Illex lately? I wanna check that out too..."
A sudden burst of joy came over Lyra, maybe having him along would be a good thing after all!
"The name's Lyra, I'm an average Pokémon trainer aiming to become better and reach new heights. So what do you say? Wanna join me??"
Togepi had waddled over to the boy, and was tugging at his feet, inspecting him suspiciously.
"Oh, haha, and that's my Togepi. You'll get used to him I think..."

[Mrdaimion]

"Well, you're forgetting about the fact that this place has the second Gym leader," he stabbed a finger towards Bugsy's gym, "who, might I add, has Scyther, one of the most bad-ass Pok?mon out there." He sighed slightly dreamily. "Seriously, Scyther is like the best Pok?mon ever, I would kill to have one of my own." He shook his head a little, though, smiling to himself. "Enough about my gay crush on Pok?mon, though.

"I'm not trying to make fun of your hat- I'm legitimately curious, how does it even stay up? It's bigger than your head." He laughed a little though. "Never mind, it's a stupid and pointless question, I apologize for asking- don't exactly have much up here." He hit himself on the head, then winced. "For example, any smart person would know to not hit themselves." He chuckled a little.

Now, he was lying a bit about exactly how smart he was- he wasn't a genius, but he wasn't dumb either- he wasn't entirely sure why he was lying like that for the sake of a bad joke either, but he figured pointing out that he wasn't actually stupid would just serve to make him seem dumber and awkward.

"Hm, alright, that's odd- what does your dad work as?" Drew frowned. "And the rumors... sorry to report, but I haven't heard much about them aside from the fact that some- for lack of a better word, don't worry, not turning old on you- hooligans have been attacking it and ruining the trees and stuff; including hurting where Celebi is and stuff. Does that help at all, or did you already know that?"

He looked down at the Togepi and smiled. "Nah, it's fine, I'm used to it- I met my Eevee the same way, actually." Now that he brought it up, Drew decided that would be a good time to let Carol out of her Pok?ball to roam around for a little- Lucy too, while he was at it (he stopped from letting Damien out though in case Lyra was afraid of ghosts).

"Anyways, yeah, I'll tag along with you- truthfully, I'll talked to you mostly as an excuse to get out of the house anyways, my grandma doesn't trust me very much." He smiled at Lyra, not elaborating the reason for the distrust. "Don't get me wrong, though- I like talking to you and stuff."

[Deleted]

"Yeah, I know about the little bug guy, he's not a concern of mine. And Scyther's okay I suppose, but it's not match for my Pichu. Do you have any Pok?mon? Who am I kidding, everyone does these days.."
Lyra remembered the moment she first got her Chikorita, the feelings of joy and inexperience came over her, oh the nostalgia!
"Yeah, you are kinda stupid, heh.." She leered at him, smirking.
"But if you were stupid i wouldn't trust you with this mission I'm on. Or at least it's somewhat of a mission. It's a mini-mission."
"My father is a merchant, he travels a lot on business trips, sometimes to other regions as well...that's how I got my Deerling, Enya. He brought her back as a gift for me once. But that's not very important right now, we should be off!"
She grasped his arm and darted away towards the nearby Illex Forest.

[Mrdaimion]

"Well, yeah, I have Pokémon- that's what I just let out, don't know if you noticed." He teased her. "I actually wasn't able to have any until last year, though, when I rescued Lucy, because they... Thought I couldn't take care of one. But yeah, I have Lucy," he pointed at Zubat, "Carol," he pointed at his Eevee, "and Damien, a Duskull who I'm keeping in his Pokéball for now... mostly cause I don't completly trust him to not attack your Pokémon." Drew chortled a little. "But seriously, my Duskull is a little crazy."

"And hey, don't call me stupid- I'm the least dumbest guy I know. For example, there's one guy I know that actually thinks that there are more than 150 Pokémon- can you believe him?" He paused. "You know, that joke would have worked better if we were actually in Kanto. Or came from Kanto, for that matter- I'm from Hoenn, where there's actually more Pokémon then there are here." He shook his head. "Sorry, getting off topic, back to your dad."

Drew continued to ask her questions as she began to drag him along. "What do you think happened to your Dad then?

"Also, by the way, what's your name? I don't think you've ever told me."

[Deleted]

Lyra had somewhat of a hard time keeping up with his questions. They were a bit too fast for her, one after the other. He surely was curious. After answering more questions about her father and how she originally lived in Goldeonrod, she halted. Lyra shortly noticed that he had led her into a less trodden area of the forest, and probably lost.

"First of all, MY NAME IS LYRA. How could you be so pretentious to not hear me say that earlier? And secondly, where the heck are we? Even I don't know."

Togepi looked around the heavily wooded area nervously, some of the trees had been felled, plants burnt to a crisp. Something bad was going on around here. Lyra scooped the scared Pok?mon into her arms.

"Don't worry Togepi, it'll be okay. If it weren't for this doofus, we wouldn't be lost in the middle of nowhere..." She sneered at him.

"Plus, you didn't even tell me your name!!"

[Mrdaimion]

Drew looked around as well, and pretended to be shocked that they were in a part of the woods unfamiliar to them. Of course, he led her there on purpose so he could show her the way out, but hey- she didn't need to know that.

"Ehehe, sorry, I was focusing more on the 'wanna join me' part then your name when you said it- now I remember." He scratched the back of his head, grinning sheepishly. "And also, truth be told... I'm not completely sure. I was focusing more on what people did to the woods then where we actually were in them." He blushed. "Pretty sure I can lead us back, though..." He glanced at the area, then pointed at the path they just took. "Onward!" He smiled at her, leading the way.

"Anyway, geez, for someone who was just getting on my case about not knowing her name when you already told me, you sure seem to be awfully forgetful today- my name was literally the first thing I told you." He laughed a little. "It's Drew, though."

He then frowned, looking at the surrounding area. "Anyway, what do you think is the cause for all of... This?" He began to frown, as the ashen remains reminded him of why he left Hoenn, but he didn't mention that and instead just continued to frown.

[Deleted]

She walked onwards with him, Togepi still in her arms. Lyra was still skeptical about his knowledge of the forest, she had never seen him before within it. Why was she following him around in the woods, it was her choice to come there in the first place. But she was hopelessly lost, the only one beside Drew that could possibly lead her into the right direction...would be her Pichu! Her spiky-eared Pichu Aceria knew the forest inside out for some reason that Lyra has yet to find out.

Lyra released the Pichu from her pok?ball and let her roam about the forest floor. She scampered about with a cute aura to her, sniffing the fallen branches and ashen flora. her expression was rather grim, for she never that tehre definitely was danger afoot. But what was it, she couldn't put her claws on it.

"That's my Pichu, Aceria. I found her near the forest's shrine, when I brought my other Pichu out once during an exploration of the forest. According to the day care guy, she's very special. She helps me out a lot..."

Lyra noticed his grim expression upon looking over towards him.
"Hey, are you okay? Anything on your mind?" Her tone turned more mellow, like her mother's.

[Mrdaimion]

Drew did his best to hide his disappointment about her having a good guide to get her through the forest- he was supposed to be the one that found the right path again, he was supposed to get praised, he was supposed to be the really awesome one... He sucked it up, though, and quickly changed his thoughts to other subjects.

One of them being: "uh... is it healthy for your Pichu's ear to be... like that?" He asked, choosing his words as carefully as possible. He wasn't even really jealous of the Pichu at that point, just worried about whether it was healthy or had a bad accident or something.

Drew tried to put on a faint smile, though, when she asked him about what the issue was. "Oh, don't worry, I'm fine- just thinking about who could have done this."

That wasn't completely a lie- he was really curious about who destroyed the forest like this, partly because he was scared of their power if they managed to destroy so much of the forest so badly, and partly because, well...

Am I seriously impressed by the guy? Drew asked himself internally, still not believing it. I mean, sure, this was a pretty impressive feat, but... just... it's so terrible... He shook his head to clear himself of the thought, before noticing how stupid he must look to Lyra.

"Don't worry, I'm ninety-nine percent sure I'm not insane- fire just brings up bad memories."

[Deleted]

She glanced at her Pichu calmly, she seemed to have a content air to her at this point. The forest was withering, the Pokémon were so caring for the place though, and there was still the ever-present hope of conquering the defendant. The forest was oddly peaceful and beautiful. The ashes and smoke bellowing into the air looked vibrant by the mark of the sun. It'd be some time until the area would be restored, but alas everything goes through changes. Lyra snapped out of her daze for a moment.
"Hm? Aceria's just fine- she's uh..she's special! Don't make her feel bad, she's no different from any other pichu on the inside, she's just seasoned i think, she's gone through a lot. She knows this forest quite well I'd say!" said she.
Aceria went forth with confident strides.
Lyra, walking slowly now, noticed his tone become somber. She halted and grabbed a hold of his arm, turning him towards her.
"Mister, I want this forest to be safe as much as the next person! Don't be so sad, cheer up! You won't get anywhere being sad! Now, what's got you down about fire? Don't mind my asking, please!"

[Mrdaimion]

Drew was looking around the forest once more, seeing more and more trees being damaged, and this both saddened and terrified Drew.

What if whoever somehow managed to do all this is still in here?

Drew shook his head apologetically once he noticed she was getting offended about him asking about Aceria's ear, though.

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that! I was legitimately curious about if it was actually healthy or not- I think it looks good, and I like how it makes her look unique and stuff." He explained himself, shaking his head.

As he began to divert his attention back to the forest again, though, Lyra grabbed his arm, bringing him to a halt.

"Er, though I don't mean to sound like a Final Fantasy main character, I really don't feel like talking about it- they're really bad memories." He glanced at his arm, hesitating slightly, before figuring they had more important things to talk about then how her touching him was causing sexual tension.

[Deleted]

She backed off and swept forward.
"Well okay. Let's keep going. We should be nearing the shrine shortly."
They continued to walk through the wilted flora. Soon they took a bend, and ended up in an open area instead of a sea of woodland. In the midst of it all was the shrine, damaged as well, sadly. Smoke arose from the old red-hued shrine.
"Oh! Now who would've had the nerve.." Lyra walked over to the shrine and tried patting out the remaining embers.
"Ey, Drew! Help me out!"

[Mrdaimion]

Drew, for the umpteenth time, looked around at the surrounding area, still having trouble believing who could be so- for lack of a better word- heartless to destroy a forest as completely and totally as this. Even damaging a legendary Pok?mon's shrine? How could you be so stupid? He felt sorry for the person who did this for a second, knowing they'd get punished for it, but then he remembered that they did this, and all of his sympathy instantly disappeared.

The flames still making him uneasy, Drew just kind of awkwardly stood there for a second, taking a while to completely take in the fact that someone could actually do this.

However, Lyra's cry to help him out snapped him back into action, and he ran over there- at first he started to take off his shirt to put out the smoke, but when he realized what a moronic idea that was and that the shirt was incredibly flammable, he slid it back down and just stomped on the embers instead.

"So, uhm... Wow. Apparently someone was stupid enough to fuck with a legendary."

[Deleted]

"Not just any legendary...the time-traversing, unpredictable voice of the forest: Celebi. Oh, how I've longed to see this Pok?mon..."
Lyra stopped in her efforts to put out the dying flames. She slumped down beside the shrine, with a rather sullen look to her. She seemed frozen, her eyes wandered to the skies.
"They say that my Aceria came and gone with celebi..that's why she's so special. She has some sort of wisdom from going through time so many times. But she's still a quirky little Pichu to me, and she's mine. "
Lyra suddenly became alert, she pounced up, looking around doubtfully, full of suspicion.
"Drew...I feel it, the same feeling I got when I met Aceria..." She trembled.
A rustling could be heard through the surrounding trees - a fast-paced object of sorts was seen breezing through, being trailed close behind by something else. Suddenly, bursting from the woods, was the pixie-esque Pok?mon, much to the surprise of Lyra and Drew. Togepi nearly fainted then and there!
Celebi jolted like a bolt of lightning past Lyra and Drew, into the shrine. Out of the woods came a fiend of sorts, a masked fellow with a heavy pack. He seemed very discreet with his actions, but now he was scuttling. He stopped short in front of the kids. They were hunched and ready to challange.
"Who do you think you are, chasing Celebi?! Are you the one responsible for this whole mess??" Lyra stepped and stood stright in front of the man, leaning up to meet his height, still she fell short of it. She seemed fearless in that moment.

[Mrdaimion]

"Wait, so Aceria is basically a time-traveler who knows a legendary, and that's why it has the ear? Wow, that's pretty awesome."

Wow, this girl is full of shit. She's still cool, though, so I can live with her being a pathological liar- not like she's much better than me.

Drew frowned. "What do you mean, 'that fe-'"

Before he could finish his question, though, Celebi soared by, nearly causing Drew to fall over out of shock, not quite believing his eyes.

"Wa... Was that really...?" He was again interrupted, this time by a masked fiend following close behind Celebi, trying to get hot on it's tail. Drew just sat there stunned for a second, thinking.

Is... is that the bad guy?

However, he leaped up when he thought some more.

Is that the bad guy?

Drew- partly to get justice, partly to impress Lyra- began to run after the masked crusader as well, leaping over a fallen tree.