“Hello and welcome to the wide world of Poke’mon”. Just a little disclaimer here: while Poke’mon, Ruroni Kenshin, and their characters aren’t copyrighted to me, characters  such as “Landon” and “Zeru” are. In this story, you’ll join our young hero, Landon, in his epic and unusual journey in the world of Poke’mon. Equipped with a magical bell, he and his friends must stare down the face of evil, win every challenge, make new friends, and claw their way to the top. But can they stop the ultimate evil that threatens their world? There are many twists and surprises, so you have to keep reading if you really want to “Catch ‘em all!” in: 

                    Poke’mon X

 

         The night fell into the sky and granted the forest of trees a dark, semi-eerie setting. A light breeze soared through the air and rustled the leaves, causing some of the Pidgey and Tailow to stir silently. The light of the moon shone on Zeru’s face as he snored in his Treecko-patterned sleeping bag. May’s sleeping bag was designed with burning red flames, Shoura’s was yellow with silver fists, and Landon’s was blue with bubble patterns. While everyone else lay in their sleeping bags, Landon had his back resting on a tree. Toya was curled up in his lap and fast asleep. Her body made slight vibrations from her snoring. Her tail would swish from side to side occasionally. Landon wasn’t really asleep; instead, he just closed his eyes to listen to the sounds of the night while he mindlessly stroked Toya’s back. “How am I able to talk to Poke’mon and why can’t I do it at will?” He thought to himself, “And how can I tap Toya’s EX power? So many questions…it’s as if Indigo and Teotan just chucked me into the dark all by myself.” Landon opened his eyes and stared up at the moon through the treetops. He wondered how long his questions were going to go unanswered; how long he would continue to see his “destiny” as a mystery.  Landon got to his feet with Toya stirring in his arms, but not bothering to move. “I don’t think I can get to sleep tonight. I’ll just take a quick walk and see how I feel after that.” Still holding his Poke’mon with one arm, he picked up his sword, put it on his belt, and started away from the campsite.
      

         It wasn’t really hard to see since the bright moon was like a midnight sun. Landon’s feet parted the soft grass upon which he walked. Toya was fully up now, but still didn’t bother to budge from her trainer’s arms. “An EX…” Landon continued to ponder, “A special inner power a Poke’mon possesses that makes them stronger—no, different—than other Poke’mon of their kind. I know what it is, but I don’t fully understand its power. To add to this plate, I have to try and figure out that chicken scratch in that old book.” “Mudkip?” Toya blinked at him. “Don’t worry about it, Toya. I’m just wondering about my…job, so to speak.” He started to stroke her back and her tailfin wagged wildly. “Well, you certainly seem to be lost in thought. You’ve become a lot more handsome since the last time I saw you.” A British accent sounded from behind the Landon and a grin spread on his face. “Is that who I think it is?” He asked without turning. “How could you know if you don’t look?” The voice laughed. “Indigo!” “What?” Landon spun around to see a smiling mew floating in front of him with a spiky tuft of hair. Tied around her neck was her usual indigo-colored ribbon.

 

                           Theme Song: Pocket Monsters X(treme)

Running at

The speed of sound

What adventures can be found?

Traveling the world all around

As fate just spins it upside-down

Little monsters

Everywhere

Find a knew one and I’m there

Victory is just for fun

There’s no stoppin’ till I’m number one



Crys-tal,

Clear, and Shadow

Three lights—

That fight the way

Protect those legendary

Is my destiny!



Poke’mon X

(Poke’mon X)

Leading the way

Is my sweet victory

Poke’mon X

(Poke’mon X)

A mystery

Behind each one we see

 

Poke’—mon X

(Ex—Ex)

This journey I’ll run

Has only begun!!

 

                    Episode 5: Three Pieces of the Legendary Fang Sword

 

         “It’s been too long!” without thinking, Landon went to give Indigo a big hug, but his foot caught an up-grown tree root and caused him to fall on his face. “Same ol’ Lan,” Indigo hovered down to the floor, giggling. “You haven’t really changed a bit…?” She blinked at Toya, then sprinted over to her and shook her paws. “You must be hanging around with Lan. I’m a friend of his from way back.” “Indigo,” Landon started and Indigo turned to him, “You’re such a ditz! What’s the big idea about leaving me in suspense for three years? Can you imagine the confusion I’ve been in?” He blurted out. Indigo frowned and folded her arms, “I wanted to talk to you the day you left town, but dad forbade it. You see, he still has trust issues with humans; he wouldn’t even let me talk through Telekinesis.” She floated up to him and sat on his shoulder. The warm night breeze blew against both their hair. “I was supposed to talk to you via your thoughts, but I couldn’t settle for that—like you said, it has been three years.” “You need to tell me something?” Landon asked her, prying her off his shoulder. “Yeah, but I can only tell you what you need to know…one thing I actually agree on with my father. Now listen carefully, Lan, because this is the first mission you’ll go on.” Indigo re-located herself back onto Landon’s shoulder, “I’m pretty sure you can’t read the Poke’sphere and that’s because only those of Poke’tilan decent are able to read the sacred writing. The writer of the diary made it that way so evil couldn’t read it, so I’m going to have to run you through it.” “But,” Landon held out his arms to the side and grinned sheepishly, “I don’t have the Poke’sphere with me; it’s back where my friends and I set up camp.” “Oh, that’s great, Lan! Now we have to—” Indigo’s ears twitched as she looked past him. “I’ll be following you.” With that, she disappeared into thin air. “But…what did she do that for?” Landon blinked. “Kip! Mudkip-Mudkip!” Toya clambered over his shoulder and pointed behind his back. “What is it, Toya? Is there someone behind—!”

         BANG!! There were two grunts and two thuds as he fell to the soft ground. Toya skipped away from him sweating anime style. The night air had started to blow again, rustling the tops of the trees. It drifted against Landon’s forehead, which he had seemed to be prone to hit continuously that night. “Ohaaa…” Landon groaned as he got to his feet. “I’m so sorry; are you okay? You’re not hurt, are you?” Someone with a colorful French accent asked him. “Not to worry, I think my ears will stop ringing in a few seconds.” Landon replied and looked up. The girl had short red hair, and hazel eyes. She was wearing a blue shirt, tan vest, and a pair of tan pants with a huge black bag slung over her shoulder. “I didn’t mean to bump into you like ‘zat, but I am following a lead I just discovered.” She adjusted her glasses. Then her eys wondered down to Toya at Landon’s side. “What a beautiful Mudkip, it looks really tough and healthy.” “Thanks, her name is Toya…speaking of names, I’m Landon Himura.” Landon held out his hand. “Oh, you’re the gym leader’s kid, is ‘zat right?” The girl blinked as if she could be any more interested in formalities. “ But how did you know all that?” Landon asked her. “Everyone who’s been to Petalburg City knows who you are. Your dad talks about you all the time. My name is Emilia Dubois, but you can call me Emily. I’m a student archeologist in training.” She shook his hand with a smile. “It’s a pleasure…what does my dad say about me anyway?” Landon gave a curious grin. “Nothing bad or embarrassing.” Emily replied at the look on his face. “If you don’t mind me asking, Miss Emily, what are you doing out here?” A grin spread on her face and she pulled a sketch book from her bag. “I’m trying to track down the answer to an ancient mystery using this strange Poke’mon.” Emily flipped a couple of pages and stopped at one with a weird circular Poke’mon with an alphabet-like symbol sticking out of it. “It’s a Poke’mon, but it looks like the letter ‘T’.” Landon pulled his poke’dex from his pocket and used the search menu to pull up the Poke’mon.

         “Unown, the Symbol Poke’mon. It is rumored that Unown have something to do with the hieroglyphs found on ancient Tablets. This often makes them the leading cause to Poke’mon mysteries.” The machine said.  “For a year, I’ve been trying to decipher an ancient tablet known as the Impiety.” Emily flipped another page to the drawing of an old and tatty stone with even weirder symbols on it. There was something vaguely familiar about them, but Landon couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “For years, on one could decipher this tablet, but I’ve come up with a way to understand its origin.” Emily continued, “You see, about half of this stone is written in Unown and I figured that if I could read it, it would lead me to something big.” “Hey, since I’m in the area, why don’t I help you, Miss Emily? It could speed up your findings and, if we’re lucky, we could crack the Impiety’s mystery.” Landon suggested, figuring he didn’t have anything better to do. Mudkip nodded to the opportunity for adventure as well. “Great, ‘zen follow me.”

 

         Purple clouds drifted into the sky and obscure the pearly-white moon, forcing Emily to use her flashlight as they treated through the trees. Indigo was hovering above in the mask of leaves, arms folded. “Who does Lan think he is, anyway? He hasn’t seen me for three years and he completely tosses me to the side!” She thought to herself. Toya walked close to Landon’s side, a little nervous from the darkness. “Miss Emily, where are we headed for?” Landon asked after a while of silence. “People have been hanging around ‘zis route for ages, not knowing ‘ze mysteries that lay within. According to ‘ze tablet, there is a cave somewhere around here, but ‘ze last part is a little blurry.” Emily returned to the sketch of the Impiety. “I can’t locate it’s exact location.” “Let me see,” Landon and Toya walked up to her side and peeked at the symbols. “Yup, looks like gibberish. I think I just came up here for the sake of conversation.” Landon thought to himself, sweating anime style. “So do you see anything; a pattern we can follow?” “Not a cha—? Wait a minute.” He took up her notebook and looked at an arrangement of Unown, reading it silently. “….If I’m reading this right…” He stopped and looked up at the sky. The clouds were starting to move swiftly the air, being carried by the wind. “Emily, is this an exact replica of the Impiety?” “Oui,” Emily answered him, a bit confused on what he was going to do. “Then all we have to do is wait for the moon to come out.” The three stared up at the vast night sky through the tree leaves, anxious to see what would happen. Trains of purple clouds danced their exit off the stage and the moonlight shone beautifully in their eyes. “Okay, read the drawing before the clouds cover the moon again!” Landon warned, still watching the sky. “But nothing’s changed; we didn’t even do anything really.” Emily adjusted her glasses.

         “Not the Unown symbols themselves, Miss Emily, read the shadow. Even if it’s on paper, the tablet should still create the same effect. Emily didn’t have the slightest clue what Landon was asking her to do. It was as if he was asking her to read thin air—his explanation wasn’t exactly that clear. With an annoyed sigh, the student archeologist looked down at the paper, holding her glasses to keep them from falling off the bridge of her nose. “….Huh!” She gasped and nearly let her glasses slide completely off. The words on the rugged sketch of the stone and the shadows of the Unown started to stretch across the page. As the pictured moved magically, Landon’s Crystal Bell started to vibrate lightly. “Even as I write ‘zis sign, our world is crashing before our eyes.” Emily started to read, “To those who sought our secret lives, one must look where moonlight shines. Cross ‘ze tree and with the rain, our dreams and hopes have drained away.” “Mudkip-kip! Mudkip-mudkip!” Toya jumped and pointed to another clearing in the trees. A hefty bit of moonlinght beamed into it like a spotlight on a stage, illuminating the grass. “You don’t think…” “I think zee’s found something important!” Emily walked over to Toya. The mudfish Poke’mon pointed to the clearing again, this time with her tailfin. The two humans looked to each other with searching looks before they nodded to each other; they dashed towards it with the anxiety to solve a mystery of the ancient past.

 

         Meanwhile, the bushes a couple of feet away started to rustle wildly and two hooded cloaks stuck their heads out, watching Emily, Landon, and Toya closely. “I can’t believe Miru wants us to keep an eye on that kid.” Yoshimari grunted. “He does have special powers, so I guess Miru has good reason to watch him…unless he’s afraid he might get too powerful.” “If that’s what Miru thought, he would’ve destroyed him instead of sending us to follow him.” He told Tsubimi. “All we have to do is toughen him up and make sure he discovers the truth of the Crystal Bell’s deep mysteries. Now let’s go before we lose them.” The two pulled themselves out of the underbrush. “Besides, if that little girl does lead him to some ancient ruins, that means ancient treasure for us to sell and become rich.” “I’ve always liked the way you think, bro.” Tsubimi stated, giving a mischievous smile.

 

         Landon, Toya, and Emily stopped in the middle of the clearing, their eyes wandering around frantically. “See anything, Toya?” Landon asked his Poke’mon and she shook her head. “Mudkip…” “Miss Emily, I don’t see anything out here and we need to hurry.” Landon watched the clouds slowly inch towards the moon, sucking at their light. “You’re so polite—just like your dad. In any case, the tablet says ‘cross the tree’…but what tree do we cross?” Emily took her glasses off to clean them with her shirt end. <“Lan,” Indigo communicated with Landon via his mind, “Tell her it’s the tree.” “The tree?” Landon asked aloud. “Huh?” Emily stared around, then grinned. “Thanks, Landon; you’re a genius!” She started towards the trees, leaving him with a ‘What did I do?’ expression on his face. “Thank you, Indigo.” He whispered and hoped she heard. Emily stopped at a particularly large tree with a big claw mark scratched across the bark. “’cross the tree’! It was talking about a Poke’mon claw mark across the bark of the tree. And if I’m not mistaken…” Her voice trailed off for a little bit as she rummaged through her bag. Another breeze blew across their faces and pushed the clouds even faster. “Got it!” Emily exclaimed and held up a glimmering gold ring with a crimson ruby on the top of it. The jewel was shaped like a sun on one side and a moon on the other. “Now, it’s around here somewhere…” Emily felt across the claw marks with her hand until she found a small hole in the shape of the jewel. “Whoa, is that like a key or something?” Landon asked as he and Toya walked up to her. “That exactly what it is and I’m going to be the first archeologist to actually use it.” Emily stuck the ring jewel-first into the slot and stood back to gaze. The ground rumbled a bit and the claw mark began to glow in the moonlight. The illumination lit their faces a little bit as they stood in awe and amazement. Yoshimari and Tsubimi were utterly frozen on the tree limbs they were standing on as they witnessed the claw mark split in two.



This is the end of Part 1 of episode 5.