ARC 3: The Reign of Relics

From what you’ve read so far, you might find it hard to believe that Anonami has a jailhouse. And in an ironic twist of events, it’s actually very heavily secured. Only the most dangerous of criminals get locked up there, if they get caught that is. And that unfortunately (for him at least) happened to Team X’s most bloodthirsty member. He should’ve known his recklessness would come back to bite him eventually; but then again, reason never comes to his mind. But boy, was he regretting it now. The worst part is that it’s boring as hell down here! He couldn’t go anywhere either, stupid ghost-proof cell. Luckily for him, though, he wouldn’t be staying here for another day.

An explosion rang out from across the hall, and bits of rubble flew across the room. Multiple guards immediately turned towards the source, and took action. But before they got far, they all got blasted away by a large Meteor Beam. Instantly, he knew who was the cause of this.

“There he is!” To many, that would be a threatening exclamation, but not to him, as he was soon greeted by an old friend.

“What took you so long?!” Darmur exclaimed as the Umbreon with him smashed the power box, disabling the cell’s ability surge. Darmur immediately Phantom Force’d out of the cell. “Shit was getting boring here!”

“It’s not easy to break into this jailhouse, you know.” Another voice said, who was soon to be revealed as Xenilis, followed by the rest of the team. “Lucky for us, we happened to stumble across something that made this possible.”

“Oh really?” the Dragapult said with mild interest. “What would that be?”

“Oh, I have a feeling you’ll get a firsthand look at what we’ve been cooking,” Xenilis responded. And sure enough, as the team were escaping the jail, they were stopped by a familiar group of Falinks.

“Team X, we’re putting a stop to this now!” Chase, the leader declared. “Falinks! No Retr-”

But before he could finish the command, a large pokémon crashed in between the two teams, shaking the ground, and causing the Falinks to freeze up. The pokémon in question was of the likes they had never seen before. It appeared to resemble a lizard of sorts, or at least half of one. Only its rear end and legs were there, and on its tail was what appeared to be a fish head.

Xenilis and his team didn’t share this same shock that Team Falinks did though. He just smirked and gave an order: “Show them what you can do.”

The monster let loose an unsettling roar at the rescue team, and at that moment, they knew one thing.

They were screwed.

“Thank you, Dreamsavers!” The small Lillipup gratefully took the Choice Scarf from the young team.

“Aw, it really isn’t a big deal,” Stella responded kindly.

“Sure it is! No one was answering my request for weeks! You’re the best rescue team ever!”

“Aww… thank you!” Zari cooed in recognition.

“Yeah! Bye, thanks again!” With that, the Lillipup scampered away.

Stella turned back to her team. “That was the last request for today.”

“Getting that Choice Scarf was not easy…” Larei sighed.

“It was worth it, though!” Zari exclaimed. “Seeing him smile was just what I needed.”

“Yeah,” Stella agreed. “Well, are we ready to go?” Her friends gave simple nods as answers, and they started walking back to the city.

Despite all their requests being finished now, it actually wasn’t too late in the day. It was only midafternoon, in fact. Today wasn’t particularly busy, or if it was, most of the requests for today had already been taken. The team didn’t mind a slow day, though; the hardest part was figuring out what to do for the rest of the day! For now, though, they could enjoy the warm, still weather as they walked back home.

On the way, however, they spotted another pokémon in their path. It was pretty short, but relatively speaking, it had a long neck, and was blue in color, with appendages above its eyes that resembled wings. They had never seen a pokémon like this before, but it was kind of cute. The pokémon also looked lost, however, so Stella did the only right thing to do in this situation.

“Excuse me?” Stella called. “Are you okay?”

The pokémon noticed her call, and turned to her. However, instead of a coherent response, it did something unexpected. Its eyes turned a deep shade of red, and it roared in their direction as it lowered its head.

The group’s eyes widened as they realized this pokémon was NOT friendly.

The foreign pokémon immediately charged at them. Thankfully, it was far enough away, and slow enough to where the team could react. Larei immediately pulled a Water Shuriken, and threw it at the pokémon once it got close. It got flung in the air from the attack that looked like it really hurt, yet it barely seemed to recoil, as large snow chunks built up around it. It immediately launched an Avalanche attack at the team. Zari stepped up in front of her team and held her arms out. A transparent wall formed in front of her. The snow chunks bounced off Zari’s Reflect wall, and with the threat out of the way, Stella jumped in. She sprung off Zari’s head, and in the air, she shot a Moonblast down at the offending pokémon. That did it in, and it crashed to the ground, not getting back up.

Before the Dreamsavers could catch their breath, though, something strange happened. The pokémon in front of them disintegrated before their eyes! Now, alertness wasn’t their biggest emotion, but rather confusion.

“Wait… what happened to it?” Larei asked as if not seeing what did happen.

“It… It just vanished?” Zari responded. “What even was that pokémon? I-I have never seen anything like it before…”

“Well, one thing’s for sure,” Larei voiced. “It sure didn’t like us. It didn’t hesitate to fight.”

“Something’s not right,” Stella said. Her team couldn’t help but agree. Only questions came out of this experience, no answers. “I feel like we need to investigate this.”

“Yeah, but…” Zari paused in her thoughts. “Where did it come from?”

A brief silence followed, though this one wasn’t of cluelessness. Stella examined the area where the strange pokémon once stood, and she noticed something. Tracks. She knew now what to do.

“Only one way to find out,” Stella said as she immediately started following the trail. Zari and Larei paused before they understood what she was doing. All they could do was follow her.

‘Here we go again…’ they thought.