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The Dark Type	By : Manifest Destiny Category: Pokemon > General Views: 36315 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Pokemon is copy write by GameFreak, INC. and Nintendo. I make no money from this story, nor do I seek any.

Chapter List
- 37
- 38
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Chapter 38: Housewarming
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After he and Rikalia had gotten caught red-handed by Pryce, Iruni had been afraid that his idea to return to his home in Mahogany Town would have to be thrown out. He didn’t have much of a backup plan to fall back on, and although he would have preferred not to, Iruni was prepared to go on the run and move place to place to stay hidden from anyone who might be pursuing him if he had to. Thankfully, the incident had ended with little more than a slap on the wrist.
While he had wished that he could’ve gotten Celebi healed without being discovered, Iruni always knew that he could trust Pryce if he had found out. Hearing the old leader’s agreement—though tentative—to keep his secret also helped lift a great deal of unease and paranoia Iruni had about returning to his hometown.
Some of these feelings still remained, however.
In the three days that had passed since he and his Pokémon had arrived in Mahogany Town, Iruni had kept a close eye on his surrounding neighborhood, as well as the town itself whenever he would leave the house. To his relief, everything seemed to be just the way he remembered it as far as he could tell.
Nobody came knocking on his door and there were no ambushes waiting for him around the next corner.
At least for the immediate future, Iruni would be able to hide out in relative safety while he tried to figure out what to do about Celebi.
His situation wasn’t ideal, but it would have to be enough.
“Okay then,” Iruni said, readying himself. He decided that he had waited long enough; it was time to let Celebi back out of her Poké Ball. Even though he’d done this once before, he knew that this time would be different.
The house had already been prepared; the doors were locked, curtains were pulled, and Iruni had bought what he hoped was enough food and other supplies so that they wouldn’t have to leave his home for as long as possible. He’d even prepared an emergency travel bag in case they needed to leave on short notice.
“Let’s let her out again.”
Iruni stood in the middle of the living room, speaking up as he brought out Celebi’s Dusk Ball. He looked around at the Pokémon that had gathered with him. Karros sat up next to him on his left and Atanya waited in front of the couch, the latter much more eager to be reunited with the Time Travel Pokémon.
This is going to be worse than last time.
“Ready?” Iruni asked them, keeping his thoughts to himself.
“Go.”
A serious nod from Atanya was the Bayleef’s answer.
As Iruni held up the Dusk Ball, he hesitated for a moment—a thought stopping him in his tracks—before pushing aside the idea that had just crossed his mind. He sighed, pressing the button on the ball.
I can’t do that. Not after everything that’s happened.
A splash of white energy spilled from the Dusk Ball and pooled onto an empty cushion on the couch. The light shimmered and quickly took shape, fading away to reveal the still-unconscious Celebi.
Iruni looked her over from where he stood, watching as Atanya gently placed a small pillow underneath Celebi’s head and adjusted her body into a more comfortable position. He hadn’t been able to see very well the night that she and Rikalia had fought in the forest, but he knew that she had received a few visible claw marks and other such injuries.
Given Celebi’s legendary reputation and her more or less unknown biology, Iruni had been worried that the recovery machine may not even be able to heal her at all, but he could clearly see that she was lying there peacefully and without a scratch on her.
“She looks healthy, at least…” he said.
“Now?” asked Karros.
“I guess we just let her rest.”
Iruni had things he wanted to discuss with Celebi as soon as possible, but he didn’t think rushing her recovery would be worthwhile in case the recovery machine didn’t completely fix all of the damage that had been done.
I guess an extra day or two won’t hurt…
“Can I see her?” came a voice, asking for permission from the next room. Rikalia peeked around the corner of the doorway that led to the kitchen, lightly gripping the edge of the doorframe with her claws.
Atanya spun around from looking over the sleeping Celebi to guard the entrance to the living room from her teammate, voicing a hushed warning lost on Iruni’s ears.
“Hey now,” Iruni spoke up. “She’s not going to hurt her anymore.”
“She just wants me to be quieter…” Rikalia said, lowering her voice and walking into the room. She moved around behind Iruni to the opposite end of the room.
While that may have been what Atanya had told Rikalia, Iruni could see his Bayleef follow the Weavile’s every move as she made her way around the room.
Is this going to be a problem?
Rikalia quietly crept up to the side of the couch and peered over the armrest furthest from the sleeping Pokémon.
“Is she okay?” she asked.
“I think so,” Iruni said, lowering his own voice now. He walked over to the end of the couch with his Weavile, kneeling down next to her. “How about you?”
“I think I’m—” she looked away from Celebi to meet Iruni’s gaze, but the moment she did, a pillow flew through the air and hit Rikalia in the side of the head with enough force to send her stumbling to the side.
“Hey!” Iruni yelled, standing and looking for who he’d thought thrown the small pillow, but he was surprised to see that it was Celebi.
The Time Travel Pokémon was clearly awake now and standing up on the same section of the couch she had been lying on, arms held out in front of her in defense. Floating in the air around her were the rest of the couch’s seat cushions, ready to be launched at any moment.
“Put those down.”
‘Why the hell is she still here?’ Celebi asked. ‘I know you know what she did to me!’
“I said,” Iruni stepped forward and grabbed the cushions out of the air, “put those down.”
He was a little surprised that Celebi didn’t fight to maintain her telekinetic grip on them. Celebi seemed to let them fall once Iruni laid his hands on them.
‘Answer my question!’ she demanded, floating up into the air. Celebi looked down at the Weavile standing a few feet away from her.
Rikalia held the pillow in her clawed hands, staring up at Celebi.
‘She tried to kill me! Why is she still around?’
“You need to calm down,” Iruni told her. He knew that he needed to put a stop to this kind of discussion as soon as possible. “Yeah, I know what happened, so I get why you’re upset, but you need to hear the whole story.”
‘“Upset”? Well, obviously! First I’m captured and have all of my plans ruined, and then this one tries to kill me just because I kept her alive? “Upset” doesn’t even begin to describe it! And if all of that wasn’t bad enough, the fact that this mundane little brat thought that she even could kill me is so insulting, that—’
Just as Iruni opened his mouth to cut her off, Karros spoke up to interrupt what seemed like the beginning of a long-winded rant.
“Could have, didn’t. Changed her mind.”
‘Yeah, right. And I’m my own grandmother,’ Celebi shrugged the idea off, barely breaking her momentum. ‘I think I know bloodlust when it’s staring me right in my face. She was trying to kill me.’
Iruni was glad that his Houndoom said something before he did. It hadn’t bothered him much before, but the way that Celebi used the word “mundane” in such a belittling way had almost gotten the better of him.
“It’s true,” he said. “Take a look through my memories if you have to, but none of us stopped Rika from killing you. She very much could have done it, but she stopped herself.”
Celebi’s mouth hung open slightly, staring at the human in disbelief. Floating over closer to Iruni, she curiously reached out and placed a hand on his head.
At the touch of psychic intrusion that he felt come from her, Iruni helped Celebi by recalling the memory of that night in his head, of how he’d ran through the dark and rainy forest to find Rikalia standing silently and still in front the helpless and unconscious Celebi.
‘As if I can trust your memories…’ she said, floating back away from Iruni. ‘Your mind is way too saturated in Dark energy for me to read it clearly anyway.’ Despite her own words, Celebi didn’t look entirely convinced.
“Then how else are you even alive right now? I wasn’t able to catch up to you two until you were already out cold on the ground. I don’t know how long she had you there like that, but if she really wanted you dead, you would have been.”
Iruni could see that Celebi was wrestling with her own thoughts. She crossed her arms and frowned as she tried to come up with some sort of response.
“Well? If you’re so sure that Rika was going to kill you, then why aren’t you dead?”
‘How should I know what she thinks? I can’t read her mind.’
“Then ask,” Iruni said, gesturing to his Weavile. “She’s right there.”
Celebi’s confusion and anger were plain on her face.
‘That’s my point! How is she still here if you know what she did to me? You must be keeping it a secret to protect her, aren’t you? You like doing that.’ Celebi turned to look down at Atanya. ‘You! Didn’t he tell you what happened?’
“No, I did,” Rikalia spoke up. She still held onto the pillow that Celebi had thrown at her in one of her hands, stepping forward into the middle of the room.
“I told them everything,” she continued. “About how you kept me alive, how you made it so Iruni would find me, and what’ll happen if something goes wrong…”
The Weavile closed her eyes, her voice wavering as she continued.
“And I told them about what I did! How I tried to get you to leave us for good!”
Rikalia held up her empty hand, opening her teary eyes.
“I told them how… I thought I could kill you… how I tried to… how close I was to just—” she clenched her hand, “—ending it.”
Celebi hovered silently in the air, staring down at the crying Weavile.
“But I couldn’t do it… Even with your life in danger, you wouldn’t give up on helping Coralis…” Rikalia wiped her face clean of tears.
“I called you selfish for taking him from his own time… but you were willing to die for him. I’m sorry.”
Rikalia held up the pillow Celebi had thrown, offering it back to her.
‘Seriously?’
Celebi floated down to the floor, landing in front of Rikalia.
‘After everything that’s happened, that’s all you have to say? “I’m sorry”?’
“What else do I have?” Rikalia asked, dropping the pillow back onto the floor. “What more do you want from me?”
‘Do you actually think just giving an apology is enough?’ Celebi shook her head. ‘I guess you didn’t grow up after all.’
“Celebi.” Iruni warned. “We’re not doing this again.”
‘I’m not doing anything. Just stating the facts.’ Celebi crossed her arms and turned away from Rikalia. ‘This one’s got so little spine I’m surprised she can even stand up on her own. I can’t believe this is the same little knifecat that somehow got the better of me.’
“Fine!” Rikalia growled. “You want more?”
Karros and Atanya both moved closer to Celebi, ready to protect her if the need arose, but Iruni waved for them to back down. While he still held onto Celebi’s Dusk Ball and would recall her if things got out of hand, he had faith that even if Rikalia’s emotions ran high that she would keep herself under control.
“I might be sorry for the other night, but I still hate you! I hate that we have to drop everything and stay here while you try and figure out how to use your stupid powers! I hate that everyone’s lives are in danger because of you…”
‘Oh come on, I’ve heard all this before. Don’t you have anything else?’ asked Celebi, still facing away from Rikalia.
Rikalia clenched her paws, frost starting to coat the ends of her fur, and grit her teeth as she struggled to continue.
“I hate… that you’ve done so much that I’m grateful for…”
‘Wait, what?’ Celebi’s superior attitude fell away in an instant, turning back to look at Rikalia with a surprised and perplexed expression. Her arms fell to her sides and she took a half step back away from the Weavile.
“You… gave me a life to live. When I was all alone and I had lost my family, you made it so I would find another one. A better one than what I had before. One with… more.” Rikalia’s eyes drifted over to look at Iruni for a moment, then shifted back to Celebi. “So, thank you. There. Okay?”
Celebi fidgeted with her hands in an uncomfortable silence.
“Well?” asked Iruni.
‘I was expecting more… claws and ice, you know?’ she responded.
“I’m not going to do that again,” Rikalia told her.
‘So, that’s it? She says “sorry” and everything is all forgiven?’ Celebi asked, looking around the room at everyone else.
“It’s not that simple,” Iruni said, sighing.
“Atanya hates me…” Rikalia said in a low voice, looking down at the floor. “I think Kreen’s afraid of me now too; he hasn’t come in the house since we’ve been back. When I told everyone, Hadarah said he understood why I did it, but he didn’t want to see you hurt either. I don’t know what he really thinks…”
“For now, everyone is still committed to helping you,” Iruni told Celebi, taking over. “But after everything’s said and done? I’m not sure what will happen. So, until then, we just need to try and put our personal feelings aside and focus on getting Coralis home.”
‘Just not the feelings between the two of you, huh?’ Celebi asked, peering up at him through with mocking eyes.
“That’s not—!”
‘I’m messing with you. We need to “calm down”, remember?’ she said, waving him off. Celebi moved closer to Rikalia, putting one hand on her shoulder.
‘Hey.’
“Yeah?”
‘Are you still going to help me get Coralis back home even though you hate me?’
“Mhm,” Rikalia nodded.
‘Good. I meant what I said back after you let me out of that ball the first time. I can’t do this alone. If anyone comes after me, I hope you’ll show them the same kind of reckless violence you threw my way.’
“Anything to get you out of our lives quicker,” Rikalia told her.
‘Agreed. The less I’m stuck here in this time with you and your little “family” the better. And I better not see you shedding any tears over me when I finally go on my way either.’
“Don’t count on it.”
“Okay,” Iruni said, diffusing the argument he could feel coming. He motioned for the Time-Travel Pokémon to follow him. “Celebi, why don’t I show you around the house? I have a feeling we’ll be staying here for a while, so you should get to know the place.”
‘Fine,’ she said, floating back up into the air. As she followed Iruni out of the living room, Celebi threw one last jab at Rikalia.
‘I’ll be sleeping with one eye open, you know!’
“You won’t need to!” Rikalia called back at her.
—————
Yeah right.
I rolled my eyes, finding it hard to believe my situation.
I’ve got to live with my jailer and my attempted murderer? I’ll be lucky to get any sleep at all…
As I floated through the air behind him, Iruni led me from room to room of his home; an activity which I had expected to be an easy-going and simple little tour. However it quickly became a guided laundry list of what I could and shouldn’t do. I could see the logic in most of his rules, but I didn’t understand what would be so bad if I were to go into his father’s bedroom or office, but the obnoxious young human still forbade me from going in those rooms.
“This is still my family’s house and he still lives here,” he told me. “Just because he’s not here right now doesn’t mean you get to invade his privacy.”
‘Yep, you can add it to the list…’ I said. Just another reminder of how I’ve affected this family’s lives.
“And this should obviously go without saying, but you’re going to have to stay inside the house,” he added.
‘What, the entire time?’ I asked.
“Yeah? What do you think would happen if someone saw you? Anyone who already knows about you is trying to hunt you down, and everyone else would, at the very least, be interested in a Pokémon they’d never seen before and start asking questions.”
‘Well it’s not like I was dying to go explore your hometown, but I’m going to need some fresh air every now and then, you know.’
“Then you can go out at night in the backyard as long as you’re with someone else,” he offered.
‘Sunlight too.’ I shook my head. ‘I’m not one of your nocturnal Dark types, you know. I don’t know how Atanya copes with it.’
“Then— I don’t know,” he shrugged in defeat. “This must be how Silver felt…”
‘If you didn’t want to get so frustrated, then maybe you should’ve thought about your plan a little more before taking me prisoner,’ I scolded him.
“You’re not— I mean…”
‘What else would you call this?’ I asked, gesturing around at the house around us. ‘I can’t leave, I’m being watched all the time, I’m here because of something I did…’
“If that’s how you want to think about it, go ahead.” Iruni crossed his arms, not willing to be the one to budge in our little battle. “You’re the only one who can get yourself out of this situation.”
Ugh… I hate when he makes those little one-liners.
“But, I guess you do have a point. I should have thought about this a bit more thoroughly. I’ve got an idea, though,” Iruni said, showing me up the stairs.
I smiled to myself; amused that I had gotten Iruni to admit that he was wrong about something.
On the second floor of the house there were two rooms across from one another down a short hallway, with a third doorway leading to what looked like a washroom at the end of it.
“My room’s here,” he told me, pointing to the room on the right. “And this one was Kate’s.”
Iruni opened the door on the left, revealing a mostly empty room with nothing more than a bare desk and a bed along the far wall.
“She’s been moved out for a while now, so I doubt there’s anything in here you can really mess with.”
The human walked into the room and motioned for me to follow as well.
“This room’s window faces the backyard, plus we’re on the second floor, so as long as you don’t hang around the window itself, no one should be able to see you in here,” he said, pushing the curtains aside and lifting open the sliding window pane. A slow, pleasant breeze blew in from outside, immediately breathing some life into the barren room.
“You think you’ll be able to get plenty of sunlight and fresh air in here?”
‘I guess…’ I floated away from him and began to look around room, taking in the space around me.
He’s giving me my own room? This whole place?
Before now, I would have slept anywhere I could be alone. Usually up in a tree’s branches or in some small caves. When I had lived with Coralis and his family, their home was much smaller than the Thomas’s. Back then, I was happy to share the limited space with others that I had trusted. To be given so much space to myself in a house mostly filled with others who generally dislike me made me feel uneasy.
My face must’ve been too easy to read, because Iruni brought up my concern almost immediately.
“I’d planned on having Atanya staying with you at night so you won’t be that lonely up here.”
‘Are you sure you want me staying right across from you and Rikalia?’ I asked, knowing this subject would get at him. It felt humiliating to have a human, let alone one who’d captured me, act like he knew what was going on in my own head. ‘You don’t want me hearing anything, do you?’
Iruni’s kind, but clearly anxious expression fell from his face, leaving nothing but a blank, serious wall I couldn’t read. Luckily his mind told me that he wasn’t angry.
He felt sad more than anything.
‘What? Too soon? Trouble in bed?’ I asked.
Iruni stepped away from the window and walked over to the door, closing it shut. With just the two of us in the room, he turned around and faced me once again with that flat expression.
Clearly, he needed another push.
‘Whoa, I didn’t think you wanted some alone time with me too.’
I floated down onto the bed and grinned up at him.
‘Such a lady’s man,’ I teased.
“Celebi,” he said, keeping his voice low. Iruni leaned back against the closed door, rubbing his forehead with one of his hands. “Please.”
Oh boy. Serious talk.
‘Do you want to talk like this?’ I asked, tapping the side of my head.
“No, just,” his voice was almost a whisper. “I know we’ve probably given you more grief than you deserve, and I know that I should have said this already, but I’m sorry about what happened with Rika. That shouldn’t have happened and I feel like it wouldn’t have if I had just been open with her from the beginning. So, I’m sorry. Really.”
‘Oh…’
I wasn’t expecting this. Sincerity.
“That’s why I’m also going to be open with you,” he continued. “Rika is… I know it looked like she was fine for the most part just now—”
‘That sobbing wreck is ‘fine’ to you?’ I asked.
His blank stare told me all I needed to know.
‘Sorry. Go on.’
“She’s upset, but like you said,” Iruni nodded at me, preparing to feed me my own words, “that word doesn’t do it justice.”
He shook his head.
“I won’t go over everything since I doubt you care that much, but I’ll put it this way; I was surprised that she even showed her face today. And not just to you.”
‘Oh right… Anya and the bird.’
Iruni sighed, sliding down to the floor with his back still against the door. He sat on the floor with his elbows on his knees, holding his head in his hands.
“Yeah. I really don’t know what to do about them…”
A tense silence began to continue on and on, neither of us knowing what to say next.
‘So… where are you going with this?’ I asked.
“Just—I know you were the one wronged with this whole situation. I get that. But can you please lay off Rika with you usual… jokes and insults?”
‘Are you sure you should be making more secret pacts with me for her sake?’ I asked, knowing full well how the last one had panned out.
“Tell her about it if you want, I don’t care. What’s important is that it’s not just for her, but you, me—hell, everyone’s. Any kind of delay we run into now is just going to keep Coralis here longer, and that affects every one of us.”
Iruni closed his eyes and hung his head, letting his arms fall onto his lap.
“And I just can’t stand to see her destroy herself on the inside. I know it’s happening. I can see it.” He looked up, eyes watery with tears. “If it sounds like I’m begging it’s because I am. Please. She doesn’t need this kind of thing right now. She means too much to me to see her suffer any more than she already has.”
‘Jeez…’ I said, looking down at him. ‘What’s with the two of you and crying your eyes out at me? Do I look like some neglected house plant that needs to be watered?’
I floated down, closer to his level. I reached out my hand to help him to his feet, but he stood up on his own.
“I mean it,” he said. “Please, just give her a break for now. I’m really worried about her.”
‘Of course you are, you idiot. You’re in love… if you can call it that.’
I rose up to meet his eyes with mine.
‘I’ll lay off. I’ll be civil.’ I held out my hand again, offering to seal the deal. ‘I promise.’
“Thank you,” he said, shaking my much smaller hand with his. “And again, I’m sorry. For everything.”
‘I’ll let it slide… if you let me ask you something…’
“What?” Iruni asked, already expecting something.
‘I just gotta know; do the two of you get off on beating me up?’
It was tough not breaking out into laughter as I watched his face. Iruni’s look of utter confusion and surprise was just what I needed to get back in a good mood.
“What in the world are you talking about?”
‘Well…’ I said, floating around the room. ‘The past two times I’ve been beaten up and crammed into that ball, you and Rika get all kissy with each other.’
I gave Iruni my best impression of how I thought he looked by acting like kissed the open air between us.
“And how do you know about that?” he asked.
I was surprised he didn’t try and deny it. I guess he really was committed to being “open” now.
‘Well, it’s not like I asked around or anything, but Rikalia told me what happened after you two ambushed me,’ I told him. ‘Then you two put everything on hold until last— no, it wasn’t last night was it? I swear if you kept me in that thing for another two months…’
“No, it was four days ago, but that doesn’t explain—”
‘You let me into your memories of that night, remember? I saw everything.’
Iruni sighed and dragged a hand across his face, “Are you seriously asking, or just getting one more jab in at me?”
‘Oh the latter, trust me. I don’t really want to know about your “bedroom” troubles.’
“Then I take it I’m not a part of our deal then?” he asked.
‘It’s your own fault. You didn’t ask me to not mess around with you.’
Iruni shrugged, resigning to the fate I’ve made for him.
“I guess I can live with that.”
‘So, what now? How is staying at your old house going to help me get Coralis back home?’
“Other than hiding from the people who’re trying to catch you and rewrite history, I thought we’d need a nice, safe place for you to practice using your powers. We can start today, if you’re feeling up to it. I’m still not sure if our modern healing machines even fully work on you.”
‘I’m fine, don’t worry about me. Wait… You didn’t take me to one of your Pokémon hospitals, did you?’
“No, not exactly…” Iruni winced as he answered me that, telling me there’s more bad news coming my way. “Come on, I’ll explain what happened.”
I followed Iruni out of the room that would be mine, listening to him recount what he had to do to get me medical attention. Before we descended the stairs down to the ground floor of the house, my own curiosity demanded that I should take a peek into Iruni’s room.
Other than it being much more furnished and lived-in than his sister’s old room, I didn’t end up taking in too many other details about the space.
What had caught my attention was Rikalia, who was sitting on the bed all by herself. She sat staring down at the foot of the bed, sitting with her legs pulled close to her chest like I’d seen her do before. I couldn’t tell if she was hiding from everyone else, or if she was just waiting for Iruni to be done with showing me around the house.
The Weavile noticed me hovering in the doorway after a few moments, almost recoiling at the sight of me. She unfolded herself and braced herself on the bed, unsure of what to do next.
I hadn’t meant to startle her—I was also not sure what to do about our awkward little encounter—so I just waved at her and tried to give her a kind smile.
I did promise I would be nice, after all.
Rikalia looked confused, but waved back at me anyway.
I left and followed after Iruni down the stairs, hoping I hadn’t missed anything important in his story.
—————
“…then we brought you back here.” Stepping into the kitchen, Iruni wrapped up his retelling of the past few days without realizing he had been speaking to the empty air behind him.
He doubled back and made it a few steps toward the stairs before he met Celebi coming down after him.
“Did you even hear anything I just said?” Iruni asked her.
‘Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry, I heard you. I was just getting a better look around the upper floor,’ she explained.
“Uh-huh. Where did we have to get you healed up then?”
‘Is this going to be on the test?’ Celebi rolled her eyes, floating past him. ‘I don’t really care as long as Coralis or any of the people he’s allied himself with don’t find out where I am.’
Iruni sighed, “If you say so, but you were the one who asked in the first place. Come on, we should get something productive done today.”
He motioned for Celebi to follow him back to the kitchen. Sitting on the table in the middle of the room was a large shopping bag tied shut by its own handles.
‘What’s in there?’
“Don’t open it yet. Hey Karros!” Iruni called into the house. Moments later, the Houndoom in question appeared in the kitchen’s doorway.
“Find any?” Iruni asked.
“None yet.”
“That’s promising, I suppose. You check upstairs?”
“I did,” said Rikalia, who had just joined the small gathering. “Nothing.”
“Okay, then we can start.” Iruni turned back to Celebi and picked up the bag, preparing his explanation.
“So, in order to get Coralis back home, we’ve gotta train your time travel powers. Given how you can’t really control them at all makes it seem pretty much impossible.”
‘Please tell me you’ve got more than that.’
“Let me— Okay. So, you’ve never tried to practice with your time powers, right?”
‘Pretty much. Before Coralis, it never mattered when I jumped to, and since bringing him to this time, I couldn’t risk leaving him here without a way home,’ Celebi explained.
“And before ‘me’, you said you had some other allies you’d tried to get on your side, right? I know you said they don’t matter now, but can you tell me about them? Do you think they could help with this at all?”
‘No,’ Celebi said. ‘They were just supposed to be extra “muscle” to protect me from Coralis if he’d ever come after me. I was supposed to meet with them back when you had me trapped in that ball to see if they would agree to help me, but now I have no idea where they are.’
“Alright… just seeing if there was anything else I was missing.” Iruni shook the bag in his hand once again, drawing attention back to it. “I spent a lot of time thinking how we can experiment with your time travel powers without jumping to random places in time and ruining everything. I think I came up with something that can do that.”
‘What was it?’
“Time Capsules.”
Iruni pulled open the shopping bag and spilled the contents out onto the kitchen table. Dozens of plain, ordinary Poké Balls rolled around on the surface of the table, followed by a notebook and a few pens and markers. Iruni stood by the new mess he created, trying to ignore the few balls that rolled off the table and onto the floor.
Celebi looked entirely uninterested in the display before her.
‘What?’
“I thought you’d be at least a little intrigued, but fine,” Iruni shrugged.
‘Am I supposed to be impressed by a bunch of junk you bought at the store?’
“Maybe not the ‘junk’ itself, but this experiment should hopefully give us an idea as to how your time travel ability can vary from one try to the next.”
Iruni picked up a marker and one of the Poké Balls. He drew a large “1” on the upper half of the sphere.
“It’ll go like this: This is “ball one”. You’ll try and send it an hour into the future. Then, we’ll record when it actually comes back and adjust from there.”
He picked up the notebook and pen, offering it to Celebi.
She took the objects in a telekinetic grip and looked over them.
“We’ll keep track of when we send them out and you’ll write down ‘how much’, ‘how little’, or whatever it’s like to use your time powers in a way that we know what we have and haven’t tried. You just need to write it so you’ll understand it. Here,” Iruni held out the ball he’d already numbered as “1” to Celebi. “Our first trial run.”
The Time Travel Pokémon lifted the red and white ball with a telekinetic grip, pulling it towards her.
“Just try to send it forward one hour, and try and do your best to remember what it feels like when you do.”
‘What if it doesn’t come back in an hour?’
“Depending on when it shows up again, we’ll be able to work from that and figure out how to gauge what kind of power you need to control your time powers. If comes back sooner,” Iruni explained, “you either used too much or too little of your power, and we’ll fine tune it from there.”
‘What if I send it to the past by accident?’
“Well, you haven’t yet,” Iruni told her. “I’ve already touched and handled all of these already, and I’ve had Karros make sure they have my scent. In the few days we’ve been here we’ve been checking around the house for any Poké Balls that shouldn’t be there, and we’ve haven’t found any.”
‘And if it doesn’t come back at all?’ she asked.
Iruni sighed, wishing Celebi would at least attempt to be optimistic.
“How about we try just a few a day?” Iruni suggested. “We’ll do our best to write down how you felt on each one so we don’t end up trying the same thing over and over again. We won’t do too many a day either, just in case you forget what each experiment felt like.”
‘This just feels like it could just be a waste of time.’ Celebi looked at the objects floating in her psychic power and tossed them down to the floor.
‘What’s the point of training my power to go to the future?’ she asked. ‘That’s what got us in this mess in the first place!’
“It’s better than nothing, isn’t it? Look,” Iruni knelt down to the floor and picked up the few balls that had fallen, along with the things Celebi dropped. “I don’t really have anything else here. This is my idea to help train you. I’m hoping that if you can at least get an idea on what it’s like to use your powers in one way, that will help you figure out the other. I’ll do my best to think of other ways to figure this out—I’ll try to do some research online, I can try asking Sabrina again, anything—but for now; it’s just this.”
Iruni offered the marked ball, pen and paper back to Celebi.
“You’re the only one who can really do this. We have to try.”
‘Okay…’
The #1 ball floated back into the air, coming to a stop just before Celebi. She took it in her hands and closed her eyes.
‘One hour… One hour…’
“Try and only send the ball. Don’t jump yourself.”
‘I know.’
“Rika and Kar will try and interrupt you if you feel like you can’t stop yourself. Just let us know.”
‘How reassuring. If that could even work.’
“It’s something,” he offered. “Remember, if it feels like you’re about to jump in time, stop it immediately.”
‘I get it! Just let me concentrate! I haven’t tried anything like this in five years!’
The floating green Pokémon closed her eyes and took a few slow, deep breaths. She stayed still, hovering in place in the air in the middle of the kitchen.
Suddenly, Celebi’s eyes shot open, glowing with bright green energy. Her breath became heavy and increased in pace.
Iruni raised a hand, ready to order his Pokémon to unleash their Dark type attacks to try and disrupt Celebi’s time abilities.
“Is everything all right? Do you need us to stop you?”
‘Shut up! Don’t make me— lose this! ’
Suddenly, the Poké Ball in Celebi’s hands began to shine with the same emerald light that was coming from her eyes. An instant later, the ball disappeared and Celebi’s hands clapped together now that there was no longer anything keeping them apart.
Celebi hovered in place for a moment, staying perfectly still, as the green light faded from her blue eyes.
‘I did it.’
“Are you okay?” Iruni asked.
‘Yeah… it’s just been a while since I’ve… really used that power…’
“Quick; write down what it was like so you know what that was like.”
He held up the notebook and pen to the floating green fairy, who took them gently from his hands.
Celebi opened to the first page, and wrote down how their first experiment felt to her.
‘Well?’ she asked once she finished. ‘What now?’
“We wait and see.”
—————
To Be Continued…
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- 37
- 38
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The Dark Type