9 The Guardian
The consciousness of Gary slowly returns. As he forcefully opens his eyes, the rays of the sun grace his eyes. After 3 hours of facing constant darkness, his eyes involuntarily close up. He squints them and relish in the heavenly feeling of the soft and dry grass beneath him. He feels as if he had passed an eternity inside the path. The feeling of reaching the heavens after an eternity in hell is an apt description of his current situation.
As the sensation of life gradually returns to his body, he tries to move them. He realizes that except his disheveled outer state, all his injuries has been miraculously healed. As he tries to sit up from his laid position, he comes face to face with the dark gloomy entrance of the path. His body gives an instinctive shudder just by lookinf at it.
'Wait, I just traversed the entire path to come here. That means!....'
Gary stands up with a jolt disregarding any pain he felt and turns around.
The sight that greets his eyes simply blows his breath away.
The valley was like a piece of heaven on earth. Various types of colourful flowers were blooming there. Red, violet, indigo, the sea of colours was blinding to the eye, particularly after spending time in that hellhole.
Oddly enough, there were only one evolutionary line present in the entire valley clearing.
At first, Gary was a bit confused when he see a small hill oddly coloured, located in the center of the clearing, which was mostly barren with a few trees growing from here and there.
Focusing his sight, when the sheer gravity of the sight that he was witnessing dawned on him, he was literally shell-shocked!
There standing motionless in front of him was a monstrosity that could dwarf even some large legendart pokemons.
It was there, standing on four legs each of around 16 feet long, with its main body, suspended in between them, and its eyes perpetually closed.
It was A GIANT METAGROSS!
Even the giant adjective would be less in front of it.
Then a deep metallic voice that has persisted through the river of time for years resounded within the mind of the 10 year old.
(Welcome to the Valley, Conquerer of the Path.)
"Who.... are ..... you?"
(I am afraid, that is extremely irrelevant in the vast flow of time. I am a mere guardian and the brain of this clan. You can address me as Chief.)
The hive mind concept of Metagross surfaced in Gary's mind. Metagross colony has a central brain, that thinks and determines the path of the colony, under which there are five to six metagross that serve as the protectors of the clan and delegate the task to the respective division. Metangs serve as the nodes of connection and Beldums are nothing but the hands and feet that performs the laborious task.
(You are the first since the Fall to conquer the path and to see me. Your predecessor also only heard my voice and has directly interacted with the fourth protector.)
Gary was stunned to hear that he was one of the very few humans to come face to face with this living legend.
"So, Chief, what is the Fall? Gramps said you are guarding something, what is the secret that both of you are so fiercely protecting?"
(I am extremely regretful that you are still not qualified to get the answers, Conquerer. But I can answer any other question of yours.)
Gary was not a bit regretful at not getting the answers. After all, very few people get a chance to know from one of the oldest pokemons alive.
"Then, are you, in anyway, related to the Metagross colony of the Stones?"
(Two of my subordinates moved over to that landmass with their underlings. One settled with the Stone family, the other established his own colony deep within, what is today known as the Valley of Steel.)
Gary was speechless for the umpteenth time to know that the Metagross line that was originally considered as native to the Hoenn Region has its roots in Kanto.
"By the way, why are your eyes closed?"
(As a psychic, I feel more than I see.
"I have another very important question. What was that hellhole of a path that I had to travel?"
(That is the sacred path to this valley. For centuries, human psychics has traversed that perilous path to hone their senses, but none has been as young as you. The last part of the path is most perilous. At the end, the exit plays with one's psychic senses making them feel that it is receding with each step filling them up with despair. But, none enters the valley without my permission. Previous psychics who had succeeded in traversing the path were directly transferred to the other entrance of this valley. To them, this clearing does not exist.)
"Wow!" Gary marveled at the psychic prowess of this ancient pokemon. Psychics are naturally very sensitive to psychic fluctuations, to fool their senses for centuries without fail, the amount of finesse required for such a task, he couldn't even imagine.
(Now that you have passed the trial, you are eligible to choose a young member from our clan as your partner.)
The metallic voice filled with vicissitudes of time hummed telepathically.
The aged Metagorss left a telepathic signal that beckoned all the Beldums roaming around in the Valley to assemble in front of it.
Gary was momentarily taken aback at the large number of Beldums assembled in front of him.
He realised that the time has come for him to utilise his cheat.
In the heat of the situation, he had forgotten to analyse the Chief.
He approached the Chief and concentrated his eyesight on it, but the status screen popped up a message, "Not strong enough to analyse."
He realised that he will have to build up a strong team for himself and develop his psychic powers to inspect the Chief.
Focusing on the task at hand, he started to inspect the Beldums. The data simply blew away his mind. Around half of the Beldums were of Gold potential, while the lowest was of Shallow Silver.
Still, he did not see any pokemon with Platinum potential. When he was inspecting, his eyes fell upon a white Beldum floating around close to one of the legs of the giant.
'That's a freaking shiny', was the first reaction of Gary. The rarity of Shiny Pokemon is on another level in this level. Even, Steven Stone's freak of a Metagross is a normal one. Only the Kanto Champion Lance has a shiny Dragonite.
A few days back, in an auction in the Viridian City, a shiny Rattata was sold at a whopping five hundred thousand pokedollars. Even a low rated rated pokemon like Rattata was sold at such a high price, let alone a pseudo-legendary and popular one at that like Beldum.
Gary inspected the stats of that pokemon.
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Pokemon:— Beldum (shiny)
Type:— Steel/ Psychic
Potential :— Shallow Platinum
Rank:— Novice
Moves:— Takedown(N), Iron Head(N)
Hidden Ability:— Clear Body, Heavy Metal
Innate Talent:— Psychic(N)
TM:— None
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The stats surprised Gary on many levels. Firstly, the starting potential of Shallow Platinum was very high. Even Smaug, his grandfather's Dragonite had a starting potential of Pseudo Platinum. The double hidden abilities was surprising too. But the Innate Talent of Psychic was what made him ecstatic. Beldum as a pokemon was unable to utilize psychic as an attack until it evolved into Metang. But right in front of him, was an exception.
He slowly approached the Beldum and stood in front of it and took a deep breath, "Beldum, will you be my partner? I will not make false promises of making you the strongest Metagross like your Chief, but I will try my best to train you into an otherworldly powerhouses. So, what do you say?"
Saying this, Gary enlarged the great ball and extended his hand out. The emotional eye of Beldum observed him for what seemed like an eternity before it pushed the pokeball button with his head and got itself captured.
Looking at the pokeball in front of him, Gary was unable to react at the turn of events. He had just captured his first pokemon!
As if on cue, the rest of the Beldum dispersed returning to their respective duties.
(I see, you have made your choice. Beldums have very small amount of consciousness, so they are basically like tools that follow orders. Beldums take a large amount of time, typically four to five solar years to accumulate enough psychic energy to form a stable consciousness to evolve into a Metang. Your choice already knows psychic as a Beldum. So, it will have to accumulate more than normal psychic energy to evolve. So, you will have to be patient with it and train it well. If it feels satisfied at your care after its first evolution, you will gain its absolute loyalty.)
"Exactly, how much time will it take?"
(Around 7 solar years. But... there is a way around it. You can bring down the time to the norm by making a psychic bond with it.)
Gary was taken aback at the suggestion.
"There is no free lunch in this world. What are the risks?"
(You are quite intelligent, conquerer. Yes, your mind might collapse if the bond is not successful. But, I will supervise the process to lessen the risks.)
Taking a deep breath, he decided to take the risk. He believed that 'Greater the risk, greater the gain.'
(Bring it out from the device.)
Gary released Beldum who floated quietly at his side.
(Face him and place your hand on its head and calm your mind.)
Gary turned towards his first partner and slowly put his hand on its metallic head.
Instantly, he was sucked into a black space where he could see a bunch of psychic threads from two sides merging with each other. As each thread successfully merged, the pressure inside his head increased bit by bit. At one point, the pressure became so unbearable that he was starting to lose his sense.
(Endure it.)
Came a deep authoritative voice. Gary gritted his teeth and endured the pain.
As the last thread merged, there was a loud explosion and he was momentarily blinded. The shockwave from the explosion jolted him back to the real world and a large amount of psychic power poured into his consciousness. He immediately started consolidating the large amount of psychic energy.
As the psychic energy stopped its flow finally. Gary felt as if he was in heaven. His pyschic sense had increased to a radius of whopping 30 meters and he felt as if he could easily lift a 10 kg weight which was ten times his previous limit.
Ecstatic, Gary closed his eyes and entered his psychic realm.
He saw that he was already inside the psychic web!
He was unable to express his joy at the discovery. The obstacle that had been impeding him for the entire last year has finally been conquered.
He opened his eyes and hugged Beldum who was floating in front of him and profusely thanked the Chief for helping him.
(So, the bond helped you in entering the web. Good for you. Now that your job is over, I will have to teleport you out. After Beldum undergoes the final evolution, bring him back here. It will have to undergo the Rite of Passage of the Clan and remaster its powers.)
Gary recalled Beldum into its pokeball and bowed to the Chief, "Thanking you for giving me this opportunity."
The ancient Metagross left a low hum to express its approval.
And finally, with a silent flash, Gary was teleported out..
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END.
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I am trying to build a realistic world here, so there will not be any Pikachu defeating a legendary Pokemon and I am against giving Tobias any legendary Pokemon.
Author signing off.
