C080 - Another legendary encounter

The next morning, Pete woke up very early. He wanted to stay in bed to reassure his girlfriend with his presence in case last night's talk stole some of her confidence, but there was a voice faintly telling him to get up. It drew him in a certain direction, and Pete felt compelled to listen to this voice.

The sun had barely risen from what he could tell, and it was a lot colder than usual. Still, it was just cool and nowhere close to freezing, but it was very noticeable in the usually almost tropical climate of his farm. Outside, Pete was surprised by a heavy mist hanging on the meadow.

From the glass dome of his lab where he gathered his equipment in case he needed it, Pete could barely see the Heart Tree he had planted all those weeks ago during the construction of the farm house. 10 meters away from the house where it stood, Pete could barely make out the tens of different colored branches and offshoots.

Yet as he balled the Klinklang resting in his lab, everything was quiet outside and inside the house. None of his pokemon were up and running about. The quiet was a bit eerie, all things considered. Not even his shiny Golurk, who usually stood vigil near the tree, was present.

When he finally walked outside in the direction of the tree to see if Golurk was still present, a sort of road manifested in the fog. It led straight to the lake in a narrow walkway, as if the fog had been cut with a knife.

Taking a deep breath, Pete slowly walked forward with Klinklang's pokeball in his hand. His ground and psychic affinities couldn't breach past the fog, and his water affinity yielded him no information from the fog, and he desperately hoped he was still dreaming.

Reaching the beach, an ethereal voice suddenly sounded inside Pete's head, "Fear not, human child. If another hadn't taken interest in you, I would have made you my avatar. Alas, it was not meant to be. Pity, you are such a kind soul. And that is why I approach you."

The fog on the lake lifted as if fading out of existence to reveal a majestic, towering Suicune calmly standing on the water's surface. White bands that were its tail gently swayed in non-existant wind next to it's body, same as the purple mane behind it's shimmering sea-blue crown and gave the legendary pokemon a truly otherworldly appearance - even in the pokemon world.

"The guardian has told you about a volcanic eruption in the near future when you met, correct? Its time is nigh, and since there is no need for mass migration to break the decade old stalemate of His forest, the guardian has allowed me to intervene."

Suicune calmly stepped forward until it stood in front of Pete. Their eyes were on the same level as Pete was too petrified to move or bow. Celebi was one thing, but Suicune was simply too pretty to look away.

An amused chuckle rang in Pete's mind, "Fufufu, I thank you for the praise. You are a curious child."

"Ah, Suicune! Thank you for blessing me with a visit! How can I help you with the eruption?" Pete asked as he finally snapped out of his daze.

"South of a city you humans call Mahogany Town, north of a city you call Violet City, east of the so-called Route 37. Some unsavory humans have unearthed something that was better left buried. In a crater you shall easily find, a cavern system with deep magma pouches was stirred. These caves have a resident that will wake up in three weeks-time."

Pete connected the dots to a pokemon she could refer to and paled. He gingerly asked, "I sincerely hope you don't mean for my pokemon and I to fight something as powerful as Heatran?"

After surprise flickered in Suicune's eyes at Pete's instant recognition of their 'foe', the legendary water pokemon reassured him, "No child, I shall deal with my fiery brethren."

"Phew, that's a relief," Pete whispered while scratching his ear. He continued unsurely, "I... will someone steal its Magma Stone? If so, how will you calm it down without harming it?"

"You truly are a curious one. This Heatran is different from the one living in Stark Mountain in Sinnoh, child. It will simply stir because it was awoken from a long slumber, causing the eruption. It holds no malice in its actions, which is why I will not stop it from awakening. Yet together, we shall reduce the resulting calamity to the best of our abilities," Suicune calmly answered.

"Three weeks, I shall be there! Is there something special I should do? Evacuation of certain pokemon, for example?"

"Just be there and be yourself. I have a feeling you will know what is required."

"Alright, I can do that!"

"Close your eyes and stretch out your hand, child," Suicune ordered as Pete seemed to understand her point.

When he complied, one of the white tail-bands softly flittered forward and touched Pete's outstretched hand. Something appeared in it, but he didn't open his eyes or move for a few minutes. When he was positive Suicune wouldn't give him any other orders because it had likely left, he finally opened his eyes.

A deep blue, tear-shaped pendant with a silvery white chain band rested in his palm. As he looked at it, the droplet shimmered in all the colors of water. From an icy blue to a deep green, the pendant exuded water and life.

"Mystic Water? The held item that increases the power of water moves? No, despite the grand name, it doesn't do this pendant justice," Pete murmured as he looked at the item.

As he put the necklace on, Pete finally noticed that the fog had fully receded. It once more hammered home just how crazy powerful legendary pokemon were. Yet he didn't much contemplate the fact as he finished putting on the necklace.

When the droplet on the necklace rested just above his heart, Pete suddenly felt a deeper connection to water than he was used to. He took of his shoes and walked a few steps forward into the lake until he was up to his knees inside the water. He lifted one hand forward with his palm downward and willed a slim pillar of water to move up.

"Crazy! It either is Mystic Water or its overpowered original item form! Huh, but nice of Suicune to reward me before I even held up my end of the bargain. Uh, not like I would dare not to go," Pete murmured as a water pillar twice its usual diameter shot up to greet his hand.

"But wait, it called Heatran its brethren... is that a legendary pokemon thing? And Suicune actually needs help with something?" Pete stood still for a moment to think. "Ugh, it should be fully focused calming down the Heatran and needs help since it can't divide its attention without accidentally hurting the fire/steel legendary."

He calmly walked back home with bare feet and saw that his pokemon had finally woken up. Suicune had probably forced them to sleep, and since it was a relatively more peaceful pokemon, none of his pokemon should have come to harm. Though, that still didn't solve the mystery of the missing Golurk.

'I'll quickly check with Zebstrika to see if she wants to do some riding exercise to look for Golurk,' Pete thought and slightly steered left so he would end up at the stables instead of his home.

Once there, he unexpectedly met with Iris, who was apparently raiding his pokeblock stock.

"You're up early. Can I help you with anything?"

Iris froze on the spot and stiffly turned around. With a wooden expression, she stammered, "T-this isn't what it looks like!"

"What does it look like?"

Iris gained a big smile that didn't quite reach her eyes, "Uh, like I'm graciously helping you feed your pokemon?"

"I take it one or more of your pokemon took a liking to the blocks?" Pete asked to ease Iris' growing anxiety.

"Uhuh, you can say that again. Fraxure has never looked so pleased with any other food I provide him," Iris eagerly agreed, happy that Pete didn't report her to the police immediately.

"Wait here for a sec," Pete ordered as he opened the shack with Klinklang's help to reveal all his farming tools and the machine which was about twice as big as a double-wide fridge that made his pokeblocks. Next to it were two currently unused pokeblock kits he had originally bought in Hoenn.

After taking one of them out, he handed it to Iris, who looked like a Deerling caught in headlights.

"Become someone strong and dependable, and I won't hold you stealing my pokemon's food against you," Pete offered, and the girl started deeply blushing at Pete's accusation.

"U-un," she stammered out as she took the machine and put it in the bag that she was shoveling pokeblocks into just moments ago.

Under Pete's amused stare, she started taking out bag after bag of the looted pokeblocks and quietly apologized, "I would have paid."

Pete just shook his head. Dragon pokemon trainer really were a breed of their own. When she was done, Pete threw her a bag of pokeblocks that she barely managed to catch because of its weight and asked, "Want to accompany me to look for my Golurk? I think Zebstrika would like a race against her husband Rapidash even more than just letting loose with me on her back."

"I-I've never ridden a pokemon like that before," Iris answered without looking at Pete.

"No worries, Rapidash will make it easy. Let me get those two and let me convince Grandma Rapidash to look after her grandkids while we're out," Pete waved off and stepped deeper inside the stable.

The stables had an opening to his own pokemon habitat cave, but usually, a lot of the pokemon slept outside when it wasn't raining. Pete had created all kinds of different sleeping opportunities in the cave, the stable and throughout the farm for his pokemon, and a stable room with a padded fire-proof floor was the go-to sleeping arrangement for the Zebstrika/Rapidash family of five.

"Hey girl, enjoying your life as a grandma?" Pete quietly asked as he went inside to see his second ever pokemon look at him with a fond gaze.

A small Blitzle and a small Ponyta, her grandkids, were resting against her flank as the parents were lying on the other side of the room were waking up because of Pete's voice. Pete walked forward and started gently brushing the older Rapidash to show his affection to her.

After a short conversation and some more petting, Pete walked over to the parents who were just now stretching on the same spot they just stood up at.

"Care for a little race, you two? Iris, the younger dragon trainer, volunteered as a rider," Pete offered with a smile. Zebstrika immediately looked very eager while Rapidash looked oddly resigned yet determined.

After getting stronger and older, Zebstrika rarely lost a race against anyone that wasn't his Arcanine.