From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 9
The next location was Beryl Ward. Again, though, I found myself unable to buy super potions because the way to the main part of the ward was blocked by mutant vines that threatened to asphyxiate anyone who approached them. Instead, I walked over to the long bridge, only to find an abandoned power plant shut off and a cave which had a giant boulder standing in the way.
Since obviously this was not the way, I changed my direction and went to the west side of the ward, where, again, I encountered a forest.
“Guess this is the Beryl side of the forest,” I mumbled to myself, not really liking the idea of getting lost in the grassy maze.
I was just walking and watching for any suspicious characters, when suddenly the ground sunk under my feet and I fell to the abyss, knocking the back of my head in the process.
I woke up after I don’t know how long, by sneezing into a white fluffy tail. It was Pikachu, who was instantly cheered up when I opened my eyes.
“Ow ow,” I complained about my headache. “Where am I?”
I remembered about entering the forest, but now I was encountering myself in a human-sized cage. Regardless of the situation, Pikachu still looked happy to be in the forest, where it could smell the grass and talk with the bird pokemon that watched us trapped.
I was about to set us free, when someone I didn’t want to see right then, appeared.
“Ha!” Fern laughed when he saw me in the cage. “This is too much. Only a sucker like you would fall into a trap like this. I guess nuzleaf are deceptively crafty, to be able to construct a sturdy cage like this.”
“I don’t need your opinion, and I don’t need to see your face.”
“Oh, I’m so scared. As if. If you’d like, I can help you out of there, since I can just pull on this little lever,” Fern said, and for an instance I was surprised he was talking sense. “I’ll do it only if you beg on your knees. What’d you say?”
“I should’ve known better,” I said to myself, but loudly enough for him to hear.
I picked myself off the floor, and took some seconds to stabilize my footing. Then, I walked over to the cage’s door.
“Are you going to make a deal or not? I don’t have time to waste much like you.”
“Shut up, who in their right mind would do that?”
I took a breath, stepped back a little and added some momentum into my kick. Fortunately, the junctions of the wooden door, which had been exposed to rain and dry weather over the course of a good number of weeks, broke off easily. It almost fell on Fern, but unluckily he dodged it in time.
“Well, that’s my cue to leave. See you, loser.”
True to his word, he disappeared quickly into the shade of some bushes. Not that I would’ve followed him. Today he didn’t do anything to get on my nerves, really.
I was picking up Pikachu, when I heard a voice. I thought it was a Meteor grunt or someone, but when I looked back, I only found a parrot looking back at me.
“You look familiar,” I said to it, and it spoke up.
“Liberate Vanilla, liberate Vanilla,” it said, but when I got close to it, it flew away.
“I’m sure that was that guy… the one with the red scarf, you know,” I scratched my head, but I could not remember the bloke’s name. “Not that it matters. Let’s get this business done.”
The forest was evidently less wild than the Jasper side. For one, there were few trees, and the bushes were smaller. Another thing was that there were man-made bridges and later on a little set up to slow me down by making me look for levers to flatten out the way. On the way, I found a narrow passage that led to a library, which if I must note, was in terrible shape. At least I managed to find something useful - the Field Effect read-out for corrosive field. I went out of the library, thinking I would definitely not want to be the librarian of that place.
Despite the cumbersome work, I managed to finally find the PULSE or whatever it’s called.
This time, though, I found not one, but three suspicious figures hanging in front of it. Multiple-personality-disorder ZEL pointed a finger at me, and the guy with the red scarf just waved when they saw me coming.
“Next time cut the puzzles. It only wastes time and does nothing to stop me,” I told them.
“Who’s this?” asked the third figure, who was wearing a tight black hood. Perhaps he’s bald underneath.
“This is Vanilla, who destroyed the PULSE in both Obsidia and Jasper,” answered the guy.
“Ah so that was you. The alley cat parading as a tiger,” the man said. “But we will put an end to that. I’ll let you know what it truly means to buy our wrath.”
“Hold it right there,” an additional voice said. I only know one person with that childish female voice, and I was not wrong. It was that crybaby whom I’d met recently on my way out of Jasper’s Malchous forest.
“Isn’t that Heather, the daughter to the Beryl Ward Gym leader and-”
“I know all too well who she is, but why is she here?” the man cut off scarf-boy short.
“Isn’t that obvious?” Heather answered as she unmounted her dragon. “I’m here to stop you evil people, duh!”
“How reckless. Weren’t you taught to exercise better judgement?”
“Who cares! I wouldn’t want to live by stupid rules.”
“Just because you do not understand something does not make it ‘stupid’.”
Ditto. Can’t believe I’m siding with the evil team on this argument.
“Would you shut up? I didn’t come here to get lectured, so get your team ready to get wrecked.”
The man, whose name I still didn’t know, accepted Heather’s challenge, and ordered ZEL and Taka (good, now I can refer to him by his name) to deal with me. Two against one? How is that even fair?
It didn’t matter in the end, because I ended up victorious. My team really is strong.
The PULSE was once again deactivated, and ZEL, noting this, decided to teleport out of the field. Taka also left, since there really was nothing left for him to do. The apparent leader, though, was audacious enough to just note his underlings’ escapade and try to walk away in style. Heather followed him, but he managed to escape*.
“Damn it! He got away,” Heather kicked a rock. “You probably remember those freaks say that I’m the Gym leader’s daughter. Might sound fun, but it’s far from it.”
“If you say so,” I said.
You could say I felt I owed her one for dealing with the third Team Meteor member, because I don’t think I could’ve battled against three at once.
“He just tries to keep me at home all day, and says I shouldn’t do anything at all ever. If you’re going to the Gym, give him a good beating on my behalf.”
“You don’t have to tell me.”
Heather seemed satisfied with my answer.
“One of these days I’m going to fly away and never return,” she said, and did something similar by getting on her dragon and flying away. I wonder why she doesn’t just go, given that her father has let her ride on that flying dragon? I may never know. Not that it’s important.
“Let’s go take a rest. I’m exhausted,” I told Pikachu, and walked towards the Pokemon Center.
VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS
*I didn't actually rescue all the officers before the Beryl PULSE battle, which is why my storyline doesn't include the police officers uncovering the identity of a certain Meteor Agent.
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