[Desolate Divine]
03-18-2015, 11:11 AM
One Last Look
“The most intriguing thing about Regigigas is the fact that even though this titan supposedly has immense power, at the start of a battle, it cannot use its full power or speed.” Said the droning voice of my lecturer. It was my second last day of university for the year. All my assignments had been completed, and we were getting a head start on next years work. Though in all honesty, I would have preferred to have the week off and do the work next year.
I sat at the back of the room, eyes fixed on my laptop. Open were four or five tabs. One of them was Facebook, the other were various forums, message boards and chat rooms, all about mythical Pokemon, specifically, Raikou.
In my concentration, I didn’t notice the droning voice stop. I didn’t notice any difference; until I felt a ball of paper hit me square on the head. I looked up and saw the whole theatre staring at me, some giggling, whilst the lecturer looked at me, seemingly irritated.
“Do you find your laptop more interesting than todays topic?” He asked. I hated it when people asked questions like that. Do they want me to lie to them?
“It’s not that.” I said confidently, “I just think I have that slow start thing you were talking about.”
The lecture theatre burst into laughter, as one of the veins in the lecturers head started to bulge slightly.
“Well we are 45 minutes in to our 70 minute lecture, so if it takes you this long to actually have some brain function, I think you should reconsider whether it is a good idea to return next year.”
Wow. That was a cheap shot.
“With all due respect, you are wasting everyone’s time here.” I said to the lecturer, “Nobody wants to be here when they have technically finished this years work, seeing as they aren’t going to graduate any earlier with this head start theory you guys have, and probably want to make sure that if the university insist on them being here, want to make sure it’s not a waste of time. And honestly, you are using said time to single out a student and pick arguments with them. Think about it, we probably would be three pages ahead of where we are now if you just looked away and kept teaching.”
I closed my laptop and looked him dead in the eye. A classroom full of teenagers and young adults can become like a lions feeding ground. All it takes is one quick and well placed remark and respect for the teacher can disappear.
“Now you have my full attention.” I said, “So maybe do what you are paid to do instead of wasting everyone else’s time.”
The lecturer began to speak but realised that he had been put between a rock and a hard place. Should he keep teaching, he will lose this argument. Should he not, I would be proven right.
“Anyway, back to Regigigas.” The lecturer said, slightly flustered. “The main theory about finding it is to have Regice, Regirock and Registeel together. However, there is more evidence to prove that Regigigas is somewhere in the Sinnoh region, and to capture the three golems, and bring them from Hoenn to Sinnoh would be quite the task. Though it might seem unusual for Regigigas to be in Sinnoh, it is not really a new concept. It has been recorded before that Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno have been sighted in Sinnoh, and even as far as Kalos.”
I tried my hardest to pay attention, but my mind still was on Raikou. In my breaks from university and high school between semesters, I had completed the equivalent of two tours of Johto trying to find the electric beast, all with no luck. I had even caught myself a Mareep in hopes of attracting the Pokemon.
In fact, other than that night in the tower, I had never even seen any hard evidence of its existence at all. The only reason I didn’t believe I just had an overactive imagination that night was the fact that there were images and reported sightings all over the Internet. I had been tracking the sightings for a long time, though they stopped nearly a year ago.
I tuned in to hear a few words of what the lecturer said. Those words triggered a thought, which exploded into an idea. Before I knew what was going on, I had packed up my laptop, and was powerwalking out of the lecture theatre.
“What do you mean you are deferring?” shouted my mom over the phone. I sat in my car in the university car park on my laptop and phone. “I swear to God Ethan, this better not be about Raikou.”
“It is only a year.” I said to her trying to calm her down. “I wanted to take a year off when I finished school, but you said you would kick me out if I did. You said I would never go to university. Now I am halfway done with my course, and will be able to pick up where I left off when the year is over.”
“But why do you want to take a year off?”
“As it stands, every second job description these days requires you to be good with Pokemon. Even being a clerk at a Pokemart, you need some basic knowledge about the products you sell.” I said, “I am nearly 21 with very little to no experience with Pokemon, and will be nearly 23 by the time I finish uni. By that point I will have to get a job, and will struggle.”
“Well there are other ways to get that experience!” she continued to yell, “You could volunteer at the Pokemon Center.”
“I handed in the deferral papers half an hour ago.” I said, “I have been tutoring for the last two years and have earned good money from that, and the scholarship has covered most of my expenses in that time. I am deferring. You can’t change my mind.”
There was a click as she hung up on me. I was in the doghouse. Luckily, living out of home means that it doesn’t affect day-to-day life too much.
I looked back down at my laptop, and opened a webpage I had seen a few days earlier but taken very little notice of. However now it intrigued me greatly.
It was a theory written by someone much like myself. It refers to a common legend around Johto of the Brass towers destruction. Legend has it that when the tower burnt, three Pokemon were killed in the blaze, however were raised back to life by the mythical Pokemon Ho-Oh. However this article takes it a step further.
The article coins the hypothesis that the Pokemon raised to life were Raikou, Entei and Suicune. However it also claims that they weren’t originally these Pokemon. The writer of the article believes that the Pokemon killed in the blaze were a Jolteon, Flareon and Vaporeon, however due to their unstable genetic code, the sheer energy emitted by Ho-Oh during their resurrection changed them into something more. This would explain how the three legends share the same abilities as the three Eevee evolutions.
I closed the tab, and continued to ponder the article. Though it sounded crazy, I found myself believing it. The links between the two trios were uncanny.
I opened up my Spreadsheet where I had listed all the dates people had posted online that they had seen Raikou. When putting this information in, I usually would put in all the details, but never pay much attention to anything but the location and the date. However this time I noticed something.
Out of every sighting, a solid half of them were in the same general area and timeframe of an Entei or Suicune sighting. What if when they were resurrected, they developed some sort of bond? Maybe to find Raikou, I should first try and find the others.
I looked at the locations again. I had done this a million times, but still couldn’t help but feel I was missing something. I closed the laptop, and put the car into gear. The car pulled out of the parking space and I drove back to apartment on the other side of the city.
When I got home, I contemplated making lunch, but decided it could wait. I had something I wanted to do.
I grabbed my giant map of Johto out of the drawer and stuck it on the wall. I grabbed my laptop from my bag and opened it, still on the database. I found a box full of pushpins and a ball of string.
It took me an hour, but I placed a pin in each location Raikou had been sighted, and linked them in order with string. I used a black marker to mark three months on the string, and stood back to look at my creation.
It was a mess. It literally had string zigzagging everywhere. Raikou would be in one corner of Johto one week and another the next. However there was something strange.
In the last six months that he had been sighted regularly, he didn’t move from the eastern edge of Johto. Always around New Bark Town and Blackthorn City, occasionally near Cherrygrove.
“What if it has left Johto?” I whispered to myself.
I opened up a new tab and loaded the Raikou forum, posting a new thread. I kept it short and sweet.
“On to something. Something big. I need the details of any Entei and Suicune sightings in the last year.”
After I posted the thread, I began packing my belongings, ready to disappear. If Raikou had left Johto, I was going to leave as well, and as it stands, Kanto is the most likely place for it to be. But there is something I have to do first.
I finished packing my belongings in the late afternoon, and made myself some dinner. When I had finished cleaning up, I opened the laptop again, and found a heap of replies to my post in the forum.
After half an hour of analysing what people had said, I had managed to come to some sort of conclusion. The data said that Entei hadn’t been seen in the last six months, and that Suicune was seen a few days earlier.
I always knew that Pokemon’s speed and power varied, but what if there was a big variance between the speed of the three legendary Pokemon? What if Raikou is the quickest, and leads. Entei is behind it, and Suicune is the slowest.
Suddenly I realised how little time I had left. If Raikou hadn’t been seen for a year, and Entei for six months, chances are Suicune won’t be in Johto much longer.
I looked at the map again. The easiest way to Kanto from Johto would be via New Bark Town, and south of Mt Silver. However people travel through there all the time, and there were no sightings of Entei or Raikou through that section. They must have gone through the mountain ranges east of Blackthorn city. And if my theory was correct, that is where Suicune would go.
I grabbed my travel bag and ran to the car, barely remembering to lock the door behind me. I sprinted to my car, throwing the bags into the passenger seat, and drove as quickly as I legally could, and in some instances, illegally could, to get to the Eastern Freeway.
After four hours of driving, I arrived in Blackthorn City. I drove through the town, where everybody was starting to fall asleep, stopping at a petrol station to fill up and buy supplies, supplies being junk food and energy drinks for a stake out. Since I spend over $20, I was given a Scratch & Win card. I was tempted to put it off until later, but decided to see how lucky I was and how lucky I would be. Turns out I was lucky, as I won ten Pokeballs and a Dusk Stone.
I drove to the eastern edge of the city, and found what I was looking for. The rocky path into the mountains. Though the mountains weren’t as big and treacherous as Mt Silver, they still didn’t look too friendly. However I had one advantage. As far as the eye could see, there was only one path through. It seemed impossible for anyone to cross without using this path, due to the sheer size and slope. If Suicune wanted to cross, it would be here.
I parked my car off the main road, and turned off the lights as I cracked open my first can of energy drink.
I waited for hours, drinking energy drinks when I would start to feel tired. I knew their effects all too well from throwing all nighters to finish assignments. They would hype me up and make me run off the walls, but then they would wear off, and I would be twice as tired as I was before. By the time it was 2am, the caffeine wasn’t affecting me. I could feel my eyes drooping…
BANG!
I jerked my head up at the sound of a crash at my passenger door window. I looked over and saw a black bird Pokemon sitting on my chrome mirror, trying to pull it off, probably because it is shiny. Murkrow.
“Bugger off!” I yelled at the bird, whose claws were probably scratching my car. I used the driver controls to wind down the window, and threw an empty drink can at it. However that was a bad idea.
Sitting on the passenger seat was my laptop. The top panel of it was chrome, and shone under the light of my cars radio.
“Don’t you dare!” I yelled.
The Murkrow dived into the car, and before I could grab it, flew out the window, carrying my laptop with it.
“Damn it!” I yelled. The laptop had all the information I had collected on Raikou over the last four years on it. All the information that the Internet had to offer all, handpicked and compiled in one place. I had to get it back.
I got out of the car, locking it behind me, and pulled a torch out of my bag, as well as Circuit’s Pokeball. I let the Mareep out, who baa’d at me happily. His tail was brightly lit. Circuit and I hadn’t battled much before, and he had been storing electricity for a while.
“Circuit, we have to find a Murkrow. It took my laptop!” I said. Circuit nodded determinedly. In the distance I could hear it calling. It must have a nest in the nearby mountains.
I walked towards the path, trying to be as silent as possible, and shining the torch everywhere it could reach. I wasn’t going to leave until I got the laptop back.
I spent the next hour searching in vain for the Murkrow with no luck. However when I was nearing giving up, I had an idea which I was certain would work.
I rain back to my car and emptied the change compartment of all small coins. I then walked along the mountain track for a kilometre, dropping a coin every fifty metres or so. Once I did that, I began walking laps of the section of track, watching to see if any coins were taken. My logic was that now the Murkrow had found something big and shiny, it wouldn’t stray too far from its nest. And the first coin to be taken would probably be the one closest to it.
It took an hour and a half, but finally it happened. For the first time in my life, I was glad to have had my money stolen. The coin from the 200 meter mark was gone.
“Okay Circuit, we haven’t tried this yet, but I want you to make the biggest thunder sound you can.” I said to the Mareep. Now that I had a general idea of where it was, it was time to flush this thing out.
Mareep nodded and started to spark. Eventually the sparks turned into small arks of electricity, then to small lightning bolts, then to big lightning bolts. Finally with all the electricity consolidated, Circuit sent a lightning bolt into a tree, causing a loud crack and a flash of light.
As the noise was made, I focused, and heard exactly what I wanted to hear. The cry of a frightened Murkrow. I shone my torch in the direction of the sound, and finally found it. A ledge that stuck out from the cliff face, with a chrome plated laptop and Murkrow in. However the Murkrow wasn’t going to move.
I pulled the Dusk Stone I had won earlier out of my bag, hoping to tempt it down. I put the stone to the torch, and watched as it tinted and refracted the light. Soft purple light now bathed the cliff face, and seeing the stone that could evolve it was enough for the Murkrow to take a chance and try to steal it.
The Murkrow dived and attempted to grab the stone out of my hand. However it was rudely interrupted by a thunderbolt from Circuit. It hit the ground hard, twitching uncontrollably from the attack. I decided to use one of the Pokeballs I won, mostly for laughs. I really couldn’t care less if I caught it or it got away. I just wanted my laptop back.
The ball shook three times, and then stopped. I had caught it. However, I was not out of the woods yet. My laptop was still on a ledge about twenty metres off the ground, and I needed it back.
I was shaking in my pants at the thought of it, but knew I had no choice but to climb it. There was no other way. I spent the next half hour with my torch, trying to find the safest section of cliff to climb. The one with the most foot holes, and that wasn’t at a negative gradient. When I finally found it, I put my hand in the first hole, still shaking. One bad fall and I was gone. I wouldn’t be found until someone else walked through here, and honestly I felt sorry for whoever that would be.
I decided to push the thought out of my mind, and to just keep looking up. It was equally terrifying, but also somewhat comforting to see the ledge get closer. It took a while, and a couple of near misses, but I finally made it to the ledge. My laptop among other shiny possessions was in the nest. How many people had this Murkrow robbed?
The laptop was still working. However there were three deep scratches on the chrome plate, from what I assume was the Murkrow’s claws. The ledge seemed stable enough, so I decided to continue my stakeout from up there, as it provided a better view, and I was too scared to try and climb down in the dark.
I sat there for about half an hour, before the events of the day and the aftermath of copious amounts of energy drink caught up with me, and I fell asleep. I was awoken by the morning sun burning my face. Granted, when I woke up and saw how high up I was, I nearly was thankful for the spare change of clothes and underwear I keep in the car.
I made my way down, nearly kissing the ground beneath me when my feet finally were on the Earth I know and now love. However something was strange. It was the middle of summer, and the ground everywhere was dry, except for the path, which looked pretty damp.
I made my way to the path rubbing my eyes. Finally I found what I was looking for. The source of the wet earth. Footprints. It seemed like they were the centre of the dampness, with the footprint itself being muddy, and getting dryer further away from it. At first I thought it was a Vaporeon, however after a second I realised that the footprints were much too big.
I got back in the car, and turned around, making the trip back to the Eastern Highway and to Goldenrod City.
Suicune had come here. I was certain. I was also certain that like Entei and Raikou before it, it had left Johto and was now in Kanto. That meant only one thing…
When I arrived in Goldenrod, I packed the bare essentials, and locked my apartment for the last time for a little while. I drove from there to the Magnet Train station, parking my car in Long Term parking, before buying a one way ticket to Saffron City.
As I sat on the train, waiting to arrive in Saffron City, I filled in a form online, to apply as a Pokemon Trainer, and receive a starter Pokemon from Professor Oak. If I wanted to find Raikou, I would need help, and having a team of top Pokemon would give me the edge I need.
For the first time in two days, I closed the laptop, and allowed myself to go to sleep. It was going to be a long journey, and I would need all the rest I can get…
“The most intriguing thing about Regigigas is the fact that even though this titan supposedly has immense power, at the start of a battle, it cannot use its full power or speed.” Said the droning voice of my lecturer. It was my second last day of university for the year. All my assignments had been completed, and we were getting a head start on next years work. Though in all honesty, I would have preferred to have the week off and do the work next year.
I sat at the back of the room, eyes fixed on my laptop. Open were four or five tabs. One of them was Facebook, the other were various forums, message boards and chat rooms, all about mythical Pokemon, specifically, Raikou.
In my concentration, I didn’t notice the droning voice stop. I didn’t notice any difference; until I felt a ball of paper hit me square on the head. I looked up and saw the whole theatre staring at me, some giggling, whilst the lecturer looked at me, seemingly irritated.
“Do you find your laptop more interesting than todays topic?” He asked. I hated it when people asked questions like that. Do they want me to lie to them?
“It’s not that.” I said confidently, “I just think I have that slow start thing you were talking about.”
The lecture theatre burst into laughter, as one of the veins in the lecturers head started to bulge slightly.
“Well we are 45 minutes in to our 70 minute lecture, so if it takes you this long to actually have some brain function, I think you should reconsider whether it is a good idea to return next year.”
Wow. That was a cheap shot.
“With all due respect, you are wasting everyone’s time here.” I said to the lecturer, “Nobody wants to be here when they have technically finished this years work, seeing as they aren’t going to graduate any earlier with this head start theory you guys have, and probably want to make sure that if the university insist on them being here, want to make sure it’s not a waste of time. And honestly, you are using said time to single out a student and pick arguments with them. Think about it, we probably would be three pages ahead of where we are now if you just looked away and kept teaching.”
I closed my laptop and looked him dead in the eye. A classroom full of teenagers and young adults can become like a lions feeding ground. All it takes is one quick and well placed remark and respect for the teacher can disappear.
“Now you have my full attention.” I said, “So maybe do what you are paid to do instead of wasting everyone else’s time.”
The lecturer began to speak but realised that he had been put between a rock and a hard place. Should he keep teaching, he will lose this argument. Should he not, I would be proven right.
“Anyway, back to Regigigas.” The lecturer said, slightly flustered. “The main theory about finding it is to have Regice, Regirock and Registeel together. However, there is more evidence to prove that Regigigas is somewhere in the Sinnoh region, and to capture the three golems, and bring them from Hoenn to Sinnoh would be quite the task. Though it might seem unusual for Regigigas to be in Sinnoh, it is not really a new concept. It has been recorded before that Moltres, Zapdos and Articuno have been sighted in Sinnoh, and even as far as Kalos.”
I tried my hardest to pay attention, but my mind still was on Raikou. In my breaks from university and high school between semesters, I had completed the equivalent of two tours of Johto trying to find the electric beast, all with no luck. I had even caught myself a Mareep in hopes of attracting the Pokemon.
In fact, other than that night in the tower, I had never even seen any hard evidence of its existence at all. The only reason I didn’t believe I just had an overactive imagination that night was the fact that there were images and reported sightings all over the Internet. I had been tracking the sightings for a long time, though they stopped nearly a year ago.
I tuned in to hear a few words of what the lecturer said. Those words triggered a thought, which exploded into an idea. Before I knew what was going on, I had packed up my laptop, and was powerwalking out of the lecture theatre.
“What do you mean you are deferring?” shouted my mom over the phone. I sat in my car in the university car park on my laptop and phone. “I swear to God Ethan, this better not be about Raikou.”
“It is only a year.” I said to her trying to calm her down. “I wanted to take a year off when I finished school, but you said you would kick me out if I did. You said I would never go to university. Now I am halfway done with my course, and will be able to pick up where I left off when the year is over.”
“But why do you want to take a year off?”
“As it stands, every second job description these days requires you to be good with Pokemon. Even being a clerk at a Pokemart, you need some basic knowledge about the products you sell.” I said, “I am nearly 21 with very little to no experience with Pokemon, and will be nearly 23 by the time I finish uni. By that point I will have to get a job, and will struggle.”
“Well there are other ways to get that experience!” she continued to yell, “You could volunteer at the Pokemon Center.”
“I handed in the deferral papers half an hour ago.” I said, “I have been tutoring for the last two years and have earned good money from that, and the scholarship has covered most of my expenses in that time. I am deferring. You can’t change my mind.”
There was a click as she hung up on me. I was in the doghouse. Luckily, living out of home means that it doesn’t affect day-to-day life too much.
I looked back down at my laptop, and opened a webpage I had seen a few days earlier but taken very little notice of. However now it intrigued me greatly.
It was a theory written by someone much like myself. It refers to a common legend around Johto of the Brass towers destruction. Legend has it that when the tower burnt, three Pokemon were killed in the blaze, however were raised back to life by the mythical Pokemon Ho-Oh. However this article takes it a step further.
The article coins the hypothesis that the Pokemon raised to life were Raikou, Entei and Suicune. However it also claims that they weren’t originally these Pokemon. The writer of the article believes that the Pokemon killed in the blaze were a Jolteon, Flareon and Vaporeon, however due to their unstable genetic code, the sheer energy emitted by Ho-Oh during their resurrection changed them into something more. This would explain how the three legends share the same abilities as the three Eevee evolutions.
I closed the tab, and continued to ponder the article. Though it sounded crazy, I found myself believing it. The links between the two trios were uncanny.
I opened up my Spreadsheet where I had listed all the dates people had posted online that they had seen Raikou. When putting this information in, I usually would put in all the details, but never pay much attention to anything but the location and the date. However this time I noticed something.
Out of every sighting, a solid half of them were in the same general area and timeframe of an Entei or Suicune sighting. What if when they were resurrected, they developed some sort of bond? Maybe to find Raikou, I should first try and find the others.
I looked at the locations again. I had done this a million times, but still couldn’t help but feel I was missing something. I closed the laptop, and put the car into gear. The car pulled out of the parking space and I drove back to apartment on the other side of the city.
When I got home, I contemplated making lunch, but decided it could wait. I had something I wanted to do.
I grabbed my giant map of Johto out of the drawer and stuck it on the wall. I grabbed my laptop from my bag and opened it, still on the database. I found a box full of pushpins and a ball of string.
It took me an hour, but I placed a pin in each location Raikou had been sighted, and linked them in order with string. I used a black marker to mark three months on the string, and stood back to look at my creation.
It was a mess. It literally had string zigzagging everywhere. Raikou would be in one corner of Johto one week and another the next. However there was something strange.
In the last six months that he had been sighted regularly, he didn’t move from the eastern edge of Johto. Always around New Bark Town and Blackthorn City, occasionally near Cherrygrove.
“What if it has left Johto?” I whispered to myself.
I opened up a new tab and loaded the Raikou forum, posting a new thread. I kept it short and sweet.
“On to something. Something big. I need the details of any Entei and Suicune sightings in the last year.”
After I posted the thread, I began packing my belongings, ready to disappear. If Raikou had left Johto, I was going to leave as well, and as it stands, Kanto is the most likely place for it to be. But there is something I have to do first.
I finished packing my belongings in the late afternoon, and made myself some dinner. When I had finished cleaning up, I opened the laptop again, and found a heap of replies to my post in the forum.
After half an hour of analysing what people had said, I had managed to come to some sort of conclusion. The data said that Entei hadn’t been seen in the last six months, and that Suicune was seen a few days earlier.
I always knew that Pokemon’s speed and power varied, but what if there was a big variance between the speed of the three legendary Pokemon? What if Raikou is the quickest, and leads. Entei is behind it, and Suicune is the slowest.
Suddenly I realised how little time I had left. If Raikou hadn’t been seen for a year, and Entei for six months, chances are Suicune won’t be in Johto much longer.
I looked at the map again. The easiest way to Kanto from Johto would be via New Bark Town, and south of Mt Silver. However people travel through there all the time, and there were no sightings of Entei or Raikou through that section. They must have gone through the mountain ranges east of Blackthorn city. And if my theory was correct, that is where Suicune would go.
I grabbed my travel bag and ran to the car, barely remembering to lock the door behind me. I sprinted to my car, throwing the bags into the passenger seat, and drove as quickly as I legally could, and in some instances, illegally could, to get to the Eastern Freeway.
After four hours of driving, I arrived in Blackthorn City. I drove through the town, where everybody was starting to fall asleep, stopping at a petrol station to fill up and buy supplies, supplies being junk food and energy drinks for a stake out. Since I spend over $20, I was given a Scratch & Win card. I was tempted to put it off until later, but decided to see how lucky I was and how lucky I would be. Turns out I was lucky, as I won ten Pokeballs and a Dusk Stone.
I drove to the eastern edge of the city, and found what I was looking for. The rocky path into the mountains. Though the mountains weren’t as big and treacherous as Mt Silver, they still didn’t look too friendly. However I had one advantage. As far as the eye could see, there was only one path through. It seemed impossible for anyone to cross without using this path, due to the sheer size and slope. If Suicune wanted to cross, it would be here.
I parked my car off the main road, and turned off the lights as I cracked open my first can of energy drink.
I waited for hours, drinking energy drinks when I would start to feel tired. I knew their effects all too well from throwing all nighters to finish assignments. They would hype me up and make me run off the walls, but then they would wear off, and I would be twice as tired as I was before. By the time it was 2am, the caffeine wasn’t affecting me. I could feel my eyes drooping…
BANG!
I jerked my head up at the sound of a crash at my passenger door window. I looked over and saw a black bird Pokemon sitting on my chrome mirror, trying to pull it off, probably because it is shiny. Murkrow.
“Bugger off!” I yelled at the bird, whose claws were probably scratching my car. I used the driver controls to wind down the window, and threw an empty drink can at it. However that was a bad idea.
Sitting on the passenger seat was my laptop. The top panel of it was chrome, and shone under the light of my cars radio.
“Don’t you dare!” I yelled.
The Murkrow dived into the car, and before I could grab it, flew out the window, carrying my laptop with it.
“Damn it!” I yelled. The laptop had all the information I had collected on Raikou over the last four years on it. All the information that the Internet had to offer all, handpicked and compiled in one place. I had to get it back.
I got out of the car, locking it behind me, and pulled a torch out of my bag, as well as Circuit’s Pokeball. I let the Mareep out, who baa’d at me happily. His tail was brightly lit. Circuit and I hadn’t battled much before, and he had been storing electricity for a while.
“Circuit, we have to find a Murkrow. It took my laptop!” I said. Circuit nodded determinedly. In the distance I could hear it calling. It must have a nest in the nearby mountains.
I walked towards the path, trying to be as silent as possible, and shining the torch everywhere it could reach. I wasn’t going to leave until I got the laptop back.
I spent the next hour searching in vain for the Murkrow with no luck. However when I was nearing giving up, I had an idea which I was certain would work.
I rain back to my car and emptied the change compartment of all small coins. I then walked along the mountain track for a kilometre, dropping a coin every fifty metres or so. Once I did that, I began walking laps of the section of track, watching to see if any coins were taken. My logic was that now the Murkrow had found something big and shiny, it wouldn’t stray too far from its nest. And the first coin to be taken would probably be the one closest to it.
It took an hour and a half, but finally it happened. For the first time in my life, I was glad to have had my money stolen. The coin from the 200 meter mark was gone.
“Okay Circuit, we haven’t tried this yet, but I want you to make the biggest thunder sound you can.” I said to the Mareep. Now that I had a general idea of where it was, it was time to flush this thing out.
Mareep nodded and started to spark. Eventually the sparks turned into small arks of electricity, then to small lightning bolts, then to big lightning bolts. Finally with all the electricity consolidated, Circuit sent a lightning bolt into a tree, causing a loud crack and a flash of light.
As the noise was made, I focused, and heard exactly what I wanted to hear. The cry of a frightened Murkrow. I shone my torch in the direction of the sound, and finally found it. A ledge that stuck out from the cliff face, with a chrome plated laptop and Murkrow in. However the Murkrow wasn’t going to move.
I pulled the Dusk Stone I had won earlier out of my bag, hoping to tempt it down. I put the stone to the torch, and watched as it tinted and refracted the light. Soft purple light now bathed the cliff face, and seeing the stone that could evolve it was enough for the Murkrow to take a chance and try to steal it.
The Murkrow dived and attempted to grab the stone out of my hand. However it was rudely interrupted by a thunderbolt from Circuit. It hit the ground hard, twitching uncontrollably from the attack. I decided to use one of the Pokeballs I won, mostly for laughs. I really couldn’t care less if I caught it or it got away. I just wanted my laptop back.
The ball shook three times, and then stopped. I had caught it. However, I was not out of the woods yet. My laptop was still on a ledge about twenty metres off the ground, and I needed it back.
I was shaking in my pants at the thought of it, but knew I had no choice but to climb it. There was no other way. I spent the next half hour with my torch, trying to find the safest section of cliff to climb. The one with the most foot holes, and that wasn’t at a negative gradient. When I finally found it, I put my hand in the first hole, still shaking. One bad fall and I was gone. I wouldn’t be found until someone else walked through here, and honestly I felt sorry for whoever that would be.
I decided to push the thought out of my mind, and to just keep looking up. It was equally terrifying, but also somewhat comforting to see the ledge get closer. It took a while, and a couple of near misses, but I finally made it to the ledge. My laptop among other shiny possessions was in the nest. How many people had this Murkrow robbed?
The laptop was still working. However there were three deep scratches on the chrome plate, from what I assume was the Murkrow’s claws. The ledge seemed stable enough, so I decided to continue my stakeout from up there, as it provided a better view, and I was too scared to try and climb down in the dark.
I sat there for about half an hour, before the events of the day and the aftermath of copious amounts of energy drink caught up with me, and I fell asleep. I was awoken by the morning sun burning my face. Granted, when I woke up and saw how high up I was, I nearly was thankful for the spare change of clothes and underwear I keep in the car.
I made my way down, nearly kissing the ground beneath me when my feet finally were on the Earth I know and now love. However something was strange. It was the middle of summer, and the ground everywhere was dry, except for the path, which looked pretty damp.
I made my way to the path rubbing my eyes. Finally I found what I was looking for. The source of the wet earth. Footprints. It seemed like they were the centre of the dampness, with the footprint itself being muddy, and getting dryer further away from it. At first I thought it was a Vaporeon, however after a second I realised that the footprints were much too big.
I got back in the car, and turned around, making the trip back to the Eastern Highway and to Goldenrod City.
Suicune had come here. I was certain. I was also certain that like Entei and Raikou before it, it had left Johto and was now in Kanto. That meant only one thing…
When I arrived in Goldenrod, I packed the bare essentials, and locked my apartment for the last time for a little while. I drove from there to the Magnet Train station, parking my car in Long Term parking, before buying a one way ticket to Saffron City.
As I sat on the train, waiting to arrive in Saffron City, I filled in a form online, to apply as a Pokemon Trainer, and receive a starter Pokemon from Professor Oak. If I wanted to find Raikou, I would need help, and having a team of top Pokemon would give me the edge I need.
For the first time in two days, I closed the laptop, and allowed myself to go to sleep. It was going to be a long journey, and I would need all the rest I can get…