DISCLAIMER: As much as I wish I did, I don’t own Pokémon or Warcraft. Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment do respectively. Anything I write using their characters or settings are not for profit. Bringing a lawsuit against me will cost you more than you’ll get in return. AUTHOR’S NOTES: After reading this chapter, you may be wondering where I got the names of adventurers from. Well, to answer your ponderings in advance, they’re all characters I’ve played with or know of from World of Warcraft. For the most part, I matched them up with their character race and class. If anyone reads this and recognizes those names, I officially surrender; you can probably figure out who I am and what servers I played on. No, I did not use my own character names anywhere, so that should offer you some clue about my identity =D Anyway, on with the show; any feedback is welcomed as usual. ----------------------------------------------------- Through Azeroth – Chapter 2 Written by daBOSS Misty closed her eyes, fighting back her tears of grief. How in the world did it come to this so suddenly? Minutes ago, she sat in the arms of her lover gazing at the full moon and stars from atop a majestic cliff along the Pommelo Island coast. Now he lay bruised and beaten beneath her in an alien land they had never visited before on the verge of death at the hands of two colossal demonic figures. There was nothing either of them could do. Misty let her mind ease listening to the demons charge up their energies for the killing blow, focusing her thoughts on how much she loved the man she was trying to protect, the man she had just married that morning, as she prepared to make a final peace with herself. “Banish!” A high pitched feminine voice exclaimed loudly from nearby, startling both the demons and the young couple. Misty and Ash turned toward the origin of the sound only to hear one of the demons in sudden pain, surrounded by a thick layer of translucent green smoke. The channeled spell was broken and the demon found itself unable to move or cast. Its partner, angered with the unexpected interruption of their death spell, immediately stormed off in the direction of the noise. “Enslave demon!” the same voice cried. Chains appeared out of nowhere in midair and tightly encased the demon, weakening its free will and forcing it to submit to a new master. The Pokémon trainers darted their eyes, watching as the demon walked over to a tiny figure whose face was covered in a violet-colored horned hood. “Handil, tank the other one after the banish releases. Larien and Balstadme, go help them out,” the figure directed. “I’m going to keep this guy as my slave for awhile.” Two people came running toward Misty. The taller one, a woman, was dressed in light blue robes with shoulder pieces that emitted two huge beams of turquoise aura. The shorter one, a man, stood only half her height and had an extremely bushy orange beard hanging from his chin while the rest of his face was covered behind a black masked helmet. “Oh god, are you two all right?” the woman asked, extending her arms out to Misty. “M-m-my husband!” Misty beckoned, choking back tears. “He’s badly injured!” “Don’t worry dear,” the woman reassured her. “We’ll take care of this. Balstadme, heal him quickly!” “You got it!” the short man nodded and placed a hand on Ash’s chest. A white aura surrounded the two of them as he began charging up a spell. “Holy light!” he shouted softly, watching his spell finish and accomplish its task. Misty looked on in complete astonishment as Ash’s cuts and bruises simply vanished. He sat up straight, waiting a few seconds for his breath to return to normal. “Ash!” she almost screamed, flinging herself into his arms. Tears, this time of joy, continued falling from her eyes while she clung tightly to him. “Get up,” the woman ordered, breaking their short-lived moment of relief. “We need to get you two to safety.” “What about our Pokémon?” Ash asked. “They’re really hurt!” The woman looked over at the two mysterious creatures, hearing their soft cries caused by the pain that the demons had inflicted on them. She waved her hand upward in their direction. “Remove curse!” she called. Instantly, Snorlax and Gyrados got back up, eager to battle once more. Ash and Misty looked at each other dumbfounded, naturally wondering how in the world she was able to cure them without any recovery items. As if she read their minds, the woman responded to their sudden state of shock. “I’ll explain later. Right now, you two need to be away from this area.” Deciding to not take any time to question her due to their near encounter with death, Ash and Misty called back their Pokémon and turned toward the blue-robed woman. Her eyes shifted to the portal behind them first before returning their glance. “Follow me,” she directed before turning to the tiny figure whose voice began the entire rescue process. “Viviane, make sure you and Handil destroy the portal while it’s still weak. Don’t forget to collect the dust and bring it back to the camp.” “No problem!” the short feminine figure replied. “Leave it to us.” The woman started running off in one direction, gesturing Ash and Misty to follow. They did so obediently, not having time to ponder their situation anymore. All they knew was that this group saved their lives when hopelessness seemed to be the only guarantee, and that they would be grateful once they found the opportunity to talk. The woman stopped after covering a small distance. “Put your hands on my shoulders,” she requested. “Don’t worry, the light won’t hurt you at all.” The young couple did as she told them, placing their hands over the brightly glowing aura emitted from her shoulder pads. The woman started channeling a spell. “Teleport: Outland base camp!” she ordered to no one in general. Then in a sudden flash, all three figures disappeared from the area. * * * * * * * * * * It took a split second for the three to arrive at a small camp. The landscape remained the same red, dry wasteland littered with boulders beneath a dark, stormy sky, but the portal and the three others who came with the woman to stop the demon attack and save the Pokémon trainers were nowhere to be seen. Replacing them were a few guards geared in medieval style knight armor. Each guard wore a blue tabard over his or her armor that bore a gold lion’s head insignia. Still with their minds full of questions, Ash and Misty looked on while the woman walked up to the only guard not wearing a helmet and spoke to him briefly. Several minutes later, she bowed and walked back in their direction. “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “I was talking to Commander Thatchet about what we’ve just discovered. He heads our operations for this part of Outland.” “No need to apologize,” Ash said. “You saved our lives. We owe everything to you.” “It was nothing,” replied the now blushing woman. “I’m used to this kind of task.” Ash was about to continue pouring her his gratitude when he recalled the last thing she said. “Wait, Outland?” he piqued, clearly unfamiliar with the term. “Yes, you are in a world known as Outland,” the woman replied. “This place was once known as Draenor, the former home to two races who’ve since moved to our world of Azeroth.” Ash stared back at his wife before returning his attention to her. “I’m lost,” he admitted. The woman smiled. “I take it you two came from the portal?” she asked, receiving two nods in return. “That’s understandable. You may be from a world that’s not familiar with intergalactic travel.” “Intergalactic?” Misty popped up. “You mean we’re not even on the same planet we were on a few minutes ago?” “That’s correct,” the woman answered. “The portal you came through was a link between this world and yours. The demons you witnessed were part of a larger force known as the Burning Legion, and they were the ones responsible for creating it. Although we have no evidence regarding this particular case, we’re very familiar dealing with their kind, and we can with a good degree of certainty conclude that they were plotting an invasion of your world.” The Pokémon trainers looked at each other for a moment, bewildered at this new information. Having felt their powers firsthand, they both realized the potential consequences of a demonic invasion. “We have to stop them then!” Ash declared, leaping to his feet. “We already did,” said the woman. “The three who were with me should be finished killing them and destroying the portal by now. They’ll be back at the camp soon.” “Wait a minute, destroying the portal?” Panic began to rise in Ash’s voice. “How can we get home if the portal’s gone?” The woman looked at him sympathetically. “Right now, we have to be focused on the bigger picture,” she said. “If the portal exists, then a link to your world from this one does as well, which would mean that those demons would have a gateway to your world. By destroying the portal, we’ve severed the link and kept them here.” Misty opened her mouth to speak, but stopped herself ahead of time as she let the words sink in. She tried to think as the woman continued on. “I know you two want to go home, but for the safety of both our worlds, we need to find out exactly what the Burning Legion has planned first. After we’ve deciphered enough, we can work to stop them. And do not worry, because I had Viviane collect dust from the portal so if we ever wanted to open another one, we could.” “So we’re stuck here until that happens?” Misty asked, already knowing the answer. “I’m afraid so,” said the woman. “But I’ll make sure we find you a safe place to stay in our world of Azeroth.” She gradually scanned her eyes around to observe the scenery before looking back in Misty’s direction. “You don’t want to stay in Outland. The Burning Legion and other threats are everywhere here.” Ash was ready to declare that such threats struck no fear into his veins, having conquered his share of dangers from Teams Rocket, Magma, and Aqua to the Pokémon League challenges, but realized that this was not the time. This Burning Legion was an alien force to both him and Misty, and the injuries he sustained from the life-or-death encounter a few minutes ago validated the theory that this was a group far more powerful than anything that existed in the world he was familiar with. “Okay then,” Ash adhered. “I guess we have no choice.” “All right then, I’ll take you to Azeroth,” said the woman. “I’ll explain more about this world along the way.” She then extended her hand at the young couple. “I’m Larien by the way. I’m a mage.” “I’m Ash, Pokémon master. This is my wife Misty.” “It’s nice to meet you Ash,” Larien replied. “I look forward to learning more about your world and what a Pokémon master is.” ----------------------------------------------------- AUTHOR’S NOTES: All right, that’s that. Originally I planned a ton for this chapter, but I’ve decided on an alternate plan to keep all chapters shorter so I can upload them faster instead of writing fifty pages before doing so. Everything I want to cover will still be covered though. As always, feedback of any kind is welcomed. Stay tuned for the next chapter!