From the Ashes

[LKWayvern]

Chapter 2

Eric’s eyes slid open and the Scyther took in his surroundings. He seemed to be in a hut made of elaborately woven grasses. They seemed so fresh that roses still remained in them, adding color to the room.
A figure approached Eric. He turned towards it, vaguely wondering if it was Yveltal.
It was the Roserade.
“Who are you?” Eric asked, pushing himself into a sitting position.
“This is my house,” the Roserade said, simply. “Several of my friends helped me grow it to be like this.”
“But what is your name?” Eric asked.
“You may call me Raider,” Raider replied. “I’m sorry for hitting you with my Grass Whistle. I meant to make the remaining Fossil Pokemon fall asleep long enough to flee with whatever members of Rahzyne Clan I could.”
Eric stared at Raider for a few moments. “When I fell asleep… What happened?”
Raider sighed. “I tried to wake up the rest of your Clan, to warn them. However, very few listened to me. They dragged you away, but soon more Fossil Pokemon arrived, and I was overwhelmed and forced to retreat. Most of the Rahvyne Clan was taken by them. I believe this includes your leader.”
Eric nodded slowly. “These ‘Fossil Pokemon’... They were the Rock types that knocked out Arkon?”
“Your Scyther friend? Yes,” Raider said. “They are… Your clan is gone.”
Eric stared at Raider for a few more moments. Then the realization suddenly hit him.
My Clan is gone.
(RL) He doubled over, pain stabbing through his abdomen like his own scythes. Hot tears oozed out from his eyes. Raider watched impassively.
“You…” He choked out. “How… Who… How…?”
He roughly shook the tears away. “Who did this? How did they accomplish it?”
“They only used Fossil Pokemon in their attack,” Raider said. “Fossil Pokemon all are Rock types… And Rock types have a vast advantage over Scyther. Especially since your kind is so set on never evolving.”
Eric gave Raider an ‘I-know-right’ sort of look. “Who did this?” he asked again.
Raider sighed, closing her eyes and leaning back. “I do not know for sure, but I have my suspicions. Right now you are addled by sorrow… We’ll discuss this later.”

It was a restless night for Eric. He tossed and turned, and his nightmares were filled with strange rock-like demons, wielding scythes that were twisted variants of his own.
When he awoke again, sunlight was streaming through the spaces between the blades of grass that made up the walls.
Blades.
Feeling nauseous, Eric made his way out of the grass house, to find himself in a beautiful garden.
(RL) The sunlight blinded him at first, but then as his eyes adjusted he saw the garden in all its’ glory.
Trees of all variety grown into various shapes perfectly, climbing vines adorning their trunks. Spiraling out around the trees were a myriad rainbow of flowers. Roses, violets, daisies, sunflowers, dandelions, lilacs, lavenders, and practically every other kind of flower that Eric could name. It didn’t seem possible that a garden like this could exist, but it somehow did.
In the center of the garden sat three Pokemon. Raider, a female Lopunny, and a Pokemon Eric had never seen before. It looked a lot like a small white hedgehog with bushy green fur like overgrown grass covering its’ back, and dainty pink ears shaped similarly to five-petalled flowers.
Unable to speak, Eric made his way over to the three. The Lopunny looked up, and smiled at him.
He dug the tips of his scythes into the soil so none of the Pokemon would know his legs had just dissolved to water.
“Hello!” the Lopunny said. “You must be Eric, right? I’m Kai. You’ve already met Raider, and the hedgehog is Shaymin.”
Kai was wearing a pair of earrings that looked like a brass chain crawling up each of her ears and connecting a small tiara. At the end of one chain was a Lopunnite, and the other ended with a Keystone. Kai also had a light cream jacket on, which accented the fluff on her arms, legs, and ears.
Raider, meanwhile, was now wearing boots. They seemed to be made of very tough looking cloth, were pale yellow in color, and the edges were spiked with thorns. Around her torso Raider sported a bright red scarf with a pocket in the side. The pocket seemed to be stained dark purple.
“What’s in that pocket?” was the first question that came out of Eric’s mouth.
“Black Sludge,” Raider replied. “For Poison types like me it restores health when I’m touching some, but if it contacts the skin of a different type of Pokemon… Well, it’s not pretty.”
Eric’s mind went blank for several moments.
“Where is this?” he finally asked.
“You’re in Vibrant Meadow,” Shaymin answered. “I created it as a safe haven for Grass type Pokemon. Although lately it seems all kinds of Pokemon are taking refuge here.” Shaymin looked pointedly at Raider. “I took Raider in when she was a lost little Budew. Taught her everything I knew about battling.”
“She’s quite good,” the Scyther complemented.
“Shaymin’s like a mother to Raider,” Kai chimed in. “I only just came here, myself. My trainer got old, and they sent him to a retirement home where Pokemon weren’t allowed. So all his Pokemon got released.” She fingered her tiara. “This was my Mom’s. She was really good at contests a long time ago. My trainer bought it with the prize money from some of their first contests.” Kai bit her lip. “She died when she was released.”
Eric wanted to comfort Kai. He didn’t want to see a Pokemon that pretty crying. But he knew that if he tried to put his arm around her shoulder he would probably decapitate her, and that would be very messy, so he refrained from doing anything.
“I assume you’re doing better than you were last night?” Raider asked. “This place… Simply seeing it calms the soul greatly. Do you want to talk about the events of last night now?”
Eric nodded. “Yes. Who did those… Fossil Pokemon, you called them? Who did they belong to?”
“I believe they are part of a group called Team Reva,” Raider explained.
“I’ve done some spying missions,” Shaymin added. “They have multiple leaders. The big one is a Shiny Delphox, named Nekra. She seems to know black magic, particularly necromancy. The other leaders I’m not so sure the identities of. But there are rumors that one of them is a Latias or Latios…”
“It’s also unknown what the intentions of Team Reva are,” Raider concluded. “I personally think Nekra is trying to bring something very powerful, or a large group of Pokemon, back to life, and requires Pokemon sacrifice to do it…”
“What!?” Eric yelled, panicked. “My clan… The entire Rahzyne Clan is going to get sacrificed for some… Some… Dark arts ritual?”
“We don’t know for sure,” Shaymin admitted. “But we’re highly suspicious.”
Eric stared at the three Pokemon. “I… I’m going to get my clan back. They may shoot Razor Winds first and ask questions later… But all my friends and family are in there. I can’t be left disconnected like that. I simply can’t. I would go insane.”