Chapter Eight: Helicopter

“Ira?”

“Yes, Nurse Joy?”

“The helicopter’s here.”



Cedus followed Ira out the Pokemon Center. With each day, his haste grew. “Where does the skull come from?” Ira asked one day when she noticed his helm.

A gigantic Gyarados.

The helicopter landed right before the Pokemon Center. The door opened as the propeller whirled, and Nathan stepped out and bowed. “I’m Nathan Marksman, and I understand I’ll have the pleasure of your company on this trip to Cianwood,” he said. The screeching Haunter came up behind him. “Comedor Humano. My friend.”

“Um, how do you do,” said Ira.

“Well, then, come on! Hello, big guy,” he greeted, noticing Cedus.

“Gy yasha,” muttered Cedus.

“So... you’ll be flying us?”

“That I will be.” He seemed very jolly.

“Um, okay,” said Ira. The two boarded the large helicopter (it was larger than usual as to fit Cedus) and the door closed.

“Hope you enjoy the friendly skies,” said Nathan, and Ira felt herself leaving the ground.

Cedus immediately looked uneasy. “Gy?” he asked.

“This is a machine that humans use to fly in. It’ll get us there faster than any other method of transportation. Look out the window. It’s pretty to watch the scenery as we fly.”

Cedus turned his head as the twilight made his bone helm glimmer bright as a Meowth’s coin. He stared out the window at the shades of pink, purple and orange. Orange was farthest towards the horizon. Orange. Lugia’s color. “Gyasha,” he whispered in awe.

“Have a seat, Ira,” came Nathan’s voice, magnified over the speaker.

Cedus expressed his confusion as Ira took a seat.

“It’s this electric speaker thing that projects someone’s voice over a long distance.”

“Want me to give you a tour?” Nathan continued. Maybe he was showing off. All the same, Ira agreed. Even though she already had seen the landscape after riding on Taglio’s back.

“Below us,” began Nathan, and Cedus listened too, “you see we’re leaving Maghony and approaching Mt. Mortar. Round that’s a bunch of water and trees. You can go fishin’ in the water for Tentacool. ‘S all I ever caught, anyway. You can go inside the caves in Mt. Mortar, but it’s all dark. Gotta have a Pokemon with Flash to see anything.”

They neared the large mountain. The top couldn’t even be seen from the helicopter. The waters rippled below them like a huge blue flag in the wind. Cedus was fascinated. He had never been outside the Lake of Rage. Once he could have swore he saw a Pokemon jump out of the water and splash back in. It was white as the fur of a Persian, with fins on its side and tail and a horn on its head. Phoro had told stories of a Pokemon like this once. It must have been a Seel or Dewgong. Meanwhile, shadows of other large sea Pokemon danced beneath the surface.

They were now right beside Mt. Mortar. On its surface were land Pokemon that walked like humans, and others that looked like big moving rocks.

The helicopter eventually passed the mountain. It cut through a low cloud, and when the whiteness cleared they were in a completely new place.

“Ecruteak City. Historical place. The Tin Tower jumps out at you immediately, the people say that’s the roost for a legendary flying Pokemon. The Burnt Tower over to the east used to be big like the Tin Tower, but there was a big fire and it got trashed.”

A legendary flying Pokemon? thought Cedus. Lugia wasn’t a Pokemon- not to the Gyarados, anyway. He was higher than a Pokemon. But all the same, he could be considered that by humans. Of course, there were several other flying Pokemon the humans called “legendary.”

Ecruteak was larger than Maghony and it took a while to pass it, but they did, and were eventually over a route where they saw lots of wild Tauros and Miltank, along with a few other species. Afterwards they headed south. The sun had now caught up with them, and night had fallen.

Now that it was dark, Comedor Humano got up to monkey around. He was in fact playful by nature, so he wondered if it would make them laugh if he switched some of the wires around in the copter’s control board. Just a few, so something funny would happen. He really didn’t know which wires he was switching, but what did that matter?

However, once he had played with them a little, nothing unusual happened. Comedor sighed and returned to the cockpit with Nathan, rather disappointed.

Nathan, meanwhile, was still conducting the tour. “You see lots of lights up ahead, that’s Olivine City. On the southern peninsula there’s the lighthouse. There’s an Ampharos at the top. It keeps the sea lit. Looks like we’re going to be movin’ on to Cianwood Ocean now. Which means soon we’ll be arriving at the Vapor Sea. I hope you enjoyed your flight.”