The Path of the Guardian A “General” category By Mr. Highwind First things first: The character’s name is “Sparks”, not Sparks Highwind, or Jachyl (you’re not supposed to see the name yet XP). I accidentally made some typos in the first two entries, so ignore the opening area. Now that I got that off my chest, here’s the second chapter of the “book”. --------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 2: Wishful Planning Sparks opened his eyes to find out that he was somewhere else, not the Tahoe. He looked around in a huge and beautiful garden; with so many huge trees it reminded him of a forest. The only word that Sparks could say was: “Whoa…” Numerous wind chimes were all chiming at the same time, it sounded eerie. A shadow passed over Sparks and it made him look up. There was something falling down. Actually, there were MANY things falling down! Sparks squinted in the bright sun to see that they were red and blue feathers. Millions of ‘em kept coming down. Suddenly it got very bright. Sparks squinted his eyes even harder to find out what it was. Soon, it got so bright, all that he could see was blinding light. It was followed by surrounding darkness. Sparks opened his eyes slowly to see his sword through the back window of the Tahoe. He looked out the window to see a bridge leading to the interstate. He climbed out of the van and got a better view of his surroundings. He saw a Starbucks, Chili’s, McDonald’s, and many other fast food places. Sparks figured they were in Ennis. He could see the smoke from his town all the way from where he was, and so could everyone else. Two fire trucks and four police cars went to investigate the fire down the road. Sparks knew that it would probably not end well for them. He turned from the road to find his friend in the Jack-in-the-Box, so he decided to join them. The door opened as his friends turned to see who was entering, only to find Sparks there. “Nice to see you up and about,” said Josh. “We bought you a number 7, just like you like it,” said Lorenzo. “Man, my head hurts.” Sparks put his hand up to his forehead and cringed a bit when he felt a scar over his right eyebrow. “Must’ve been from that Shadow leaning over me when we got hit from the Shadow Lugia”. “That was pretty freaky what happened,” said Lorenzo. “It happened all so fast. Plus, I didn’t know that Pokemon existed.” “Exist,” said Sparks. “And I guess they do now.” “I take it that those Shadows were some form of Scyther?” asked Josh. “Yeah, an entire army of ‘em... all comin’ for us..,” exclaimed Sparks. After that discussion, they all ate quietly, thinking to themselves what to do next. It was a long silence, broken only when Lorenzo said... “Wait a moment. If we were attacked by Pokemon, doesn’t that mean there are more? And can’t we use them, like Pokemon trainers?” “Ya know, that could be possible,” said Josh. “Forget it,” said Sparks. “We have no money, clothes, or even a clue where to go to find out how to become Pokemon trainers. We’d have to go back to our homes and collect everythi-..Hmm...Maybe our homes aren’t completely destroyed. Let’s check! We’ll grab our clothes, whatever debit cards are laying around, any surviving cell phones, and hopefully my laptop. Oh, and we need a new van (we can’t go down the Interstate without attracting attention with a beat-up car).” “Alright! We got a plan!” said Josh. “I’ll get the car start-“. “Oh no you won’t, Lorenzo!” said Josh. “Your driving sucked. I feel much safer with Sparks driving.” “Wait, what!?” said Sparks. “But I’m 16, and you haven’t seen Sparks drive!” whined Lorenzo. “Exactly! Now hand Sparks the keys.” “Oh god...” thought Sparks. -------------------------------------------------------------- After fifteen minutes of driving, with Lorenzo fuming in the back seat, they reached their home. They passed by a couple of police cars and fire trucks on fire. Sparks should’ve known what happened to them. The three soon reached their homes. “Well that’s good. They’re not completely destroyed.” Said Josh. “And everything’s here in order! Our clothes and everything. Sure, most of the other part of the house is gone, but I have what I need,” said Sparks. “You guys go on to your homes and check, ‘k?” “Alright, we’ll stop by mine first to get my van,” said Lorenzo. He reached for the wheel, but Josh quickly sat down, so Lorenzo was still pretty angry. Soon they took off. Sparks climbed into what was left of his room and found a spare backpack to use. He filled in it a black, sleeveless shirt, a grey shirt, a black one, a long-sleeve dirty yellow one, and three pants, plus the essentials (underwear and a few bathroom items). Walking into what was left of his kitchen and living room, he found his mom’s laptop, her debit card, and her cellphone. He also found some bread that survived the fire and packed that too. Walking through his garage, he noticed that dad’s black truck was missing. “Did my family escape, or has someone that survived stolen it?” thought Sparks. Quickly shaking the thought out of his head, he sat down on the curb and waited for his friends. He sat there thinking for a while about all that has happened: “ok then, I dream about some sort of demonic dream, and it becomes a reality after all that I needed done was done. My dream catcher, various tests of skills, like the time I had to climb that 3 story tower with no support (man that was scary!). Right after Lorenzo and I learned gymnastics: it seemed all planned out.” There was an explosion coming from the direction Ennis was at. Sparks stood up and looked in the direction, coming to the conclusion that Shadow Lugia and his Scyther army was still chasing them. “Nice try, but too late, you bastard.” said Sparks. He walked out to the street after seeing his friends coming with a new van. “Well Sparks, take the wheel,” said Josh. “Actually, I’m gonna look up some Pokemon sponsors. You two take turns,” said Sparks. All of them loaded up and headed north, starting their huge adventure: becoming Pokemon trainers. ---------------------------------------------- End of Chapter Two Stick around for more of the three. spat1@sbcglobal.net is the e-mail to send a review to.