FSE

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REBIRTH

NEW PATHS

Pt. 2 Ch. 2

As I walked along with that of Lady Cresselia and Lady Suicune, I couldn't help but look back upon everything that'd happened to me since all this craziness had taken place. Born with that of a sick body, my mind transferred into the body of a Pokémon, rescued a legendary that I now thought of with the highest regard, battled against that of my childhood bully and rescued her mismatched/misnamed Absol to add to my team, stopped a rampaging Mew from utterly leveling or reducing a forest to ash when I'd rescued her daughter (Who it turned out to be the legendary Cresselia), and in the process of that same rescue I'd also rescued an abused Umbreon who I was now trying to help recover from the abuse of her previous trainer.

'All in all, I think I've had a pretty good start to my Journey away from home. I'd have to mail my dad soon, to let him know about everything that'd happened since my last letter.' A smile crept upon my lips as I thought of what his expression might be when he found out that not only had I met the extremely reclusive/legendary Pokémon Mew, not to mention as well that I now had the legendary goddess of good dreams traveling around with us as well. 'He's probably going to die of envy when he reads that letter,' I thought with a bit of a chuckle escaping my mouth.

Though through all that mirth, it slowly died off when I began to wonder what I was to do now. 'What am I going to do now?' It was then that I practically bumped right into that of the Pokémon center's doors and realized that this was the same that I'd last seen the rangers at. 'I wonder if any of them are still here since the crisis has been dealt with?' Though it would have been nice to go ahead and tell them that the crisis was over and done with, I knew that if the danger was done here that they'd be off taking care of something else somewhere else. Though as I stepped in with my friends and family behind me, I was surprised to see Blake Fisher standing right in the middle of the center, as if awaiting my or someone else's return.

"I take it that you're the same Gallade from before. The one that said, 'he'd take care of the problem with the wild fires." Something about his tone made a slight shiver run down my spine and something within his eyes told me that something was about to happen.

To prepare for the worst I quickly took up a fighter's stance, and extended both my elbow blades. 'I don't know what kind of problem that you've got with me, but you're going to leave everyone else out of this.' I said mentally to him to which he didn't seem surprised this time that I was the one talking to him. Though I knew that I could back up those words, it still puzzled me. 'Why in the world is this guy so bent out of shape? I stopped mother Mew from burning down the forest, returned Lady Cresselia to her, and put everything right back to normal...except for the areas that she'd burned. What more does he want of me?' I thought to myself, but didn't for one second take my eyes off the Red and Black colored outfitted Ranger.

Though I thought through all this I still wondered what he was so angry about. 'This is stupid. A mere human going up against a Pokémon...what is he thinking? I could easily defeat him in combat. He must have something else up his sleeve.' And as if to prove my thought process right, he slowly reached into the vest pocket of his jacket and seemed to grasp something within. I could feel my facial features begin to scrunch up and knew that I'd have to make the first move before something bad happened. 'Is he after Lady Cresselia? What about Lady Suicune, or even that of Trisha. Could he be after all of us?'

Almost as if time were to slow I watched as his hand grasped something within and slowly watched as his arm withdrew from within his jacket. Tension began to course through my body and I quickly ran through most of my attacks and the ones that I could use against a mere human and the ones he'd survive if hit by. It was upon the last moment that his hand that looked to be clutching something that I quickly decided on my attack and quickly vanished, only to stop mere inches from his neck, with my right elbow blade at his neck, to see that he'd pulled out...

'An envelope? He just pulled out an envelope?'

It was almost like one of those moments that you feel as if the whole world has stopped and held their breath to see the outcome of the next moment. I don't know how long the two of us stood there, me with my elbow blade near inches from his neck, and him holding that manila envelope within his right hand.

'GENII STOP! DO NOT HURT HIM. HE MEANS US NO HARM!' I heard someone yell and when I looked out of the corner of my eye to look over my shoulder, I found that it was Lady Suicune who'd just called out to me.

Ever so slowly I took a long and slow breath, then turned, walked over to Lady Suicune, and knelt down in front of her with my head lowered. 'My apologies Lady Suicune. I felt as if...' Though I didn't get a chance to finish as I felt a soft paw lightly touch down upon my shoulder.

'For mother Mew's sake Genii. You are to jumpy right now. Calm down a bit and let us see what the lead Ranger has to tell us.'

'Yes my lady. Forgive me.' I said as I slowly turned, and rose up by taking a step backwards and ending up standing next to her left side. After I'd calmed down a bit, after a few deep breaths, I finally nodded to the ranger. 'You must forgive my attitude. I've been through a lot in the last two days.'

The ranger lightly reached up and lightly rubbed at the area where my blade had just recently pressed against his neck. "I, guess so." He said after he'd finished rubbing his neck, but stopped when his eyes finally settled on someone beside me. "Wait a minute, that can't be..."

I slowly followed his gaze and smirked, then turned back to face him. 'Forgive me, where are my manners. Lead Ranger Mr. Fisher; allow me to introduce you to, Lady Cresselia. Lady Cresselia, this is the head Ranger and the one who led the others in beginning your rescue efforts.'

Lady Cresselia slowly floated on over, circled him as if measuring him up, then finally ended up floating back over to hover next to me. 'He may have been the one to start it, but it turns out that you were the one to finish his work.' I slowly looked up to her and saw that she had what appeared to be some kind of un-impressed look upon her face as she continued to look over at the Lead Ranger. Then as if to nail it home she quickly floated around to give me a hug from behind and whispered a slight coo in my ear, as well as a slight tingling breath. 'It was you who actually saved me from that awful trainer and helped our mother to calm down. You are the true hero here.'

'Cress...elia!' Lady Suicune growled out as if the mere act of giving me some kind of hug was upsetting her.

"I don't think that I really understand what is going on here but I was hoping that I'd be able to meet up with you Gallade." He said as he held out the envelope to me and notioned for me to take it.

With almost reverent/reluctant hands, I slowly reached forward and accepted the envelope. 'What is this about?' I asked him in general curiosity as I took the envelope and looked it over.

"Well, if the truth be told, we have a bit of a situation and I believe with your expertise, you could possible lend us a hand." He seemed to find this whole mess not really much to that of his liking as the mental vibes I could sense from him were looking red with anger (Probably from being left out of our conversation) and yellow with embarrassment/shyness (At least seeing how affectionate Lady Cresselia was being towards me).

Opening up the envelope I found that the contents contained only two items. The first item was a black and white photograph and the other was some kind of printout/document. Not giving the printout/document any immediate thought I returned it to the envelope and looked down at the picture. As I looked down at it I couldn't see what it was trying to show me due to the image being obscured by what appeared to be fog or the thing was moving too quickly. Not even holding the picture at different angles and distances could bring out what the picture was taken of. 'I'm not sure what you want me to see. What's this picture of?' I asked him as I handed him the picture.

Taking the picture he looked down at it then handed it back to me. "I know that the quality of the picture isn't all that good, but if you read the report then you'd know what it is and why the picture is like it is."

I slowly raised an eyebrow at the guy, but took the picture back anyways and then pulled out the document. What I was looking at was some kind of documentation that resembled something that my father would use. It was filled with different charts and graphs as well as a lot of technical terms. 'Can you actually read any of that?' Lady Cresselia asked as she continued to cling onto me.

'Actually yes.' It turned out that there were several pages, each of which depicted different kinds of information. 'My dad was...is a scientist and one of the things he wanted me to become was that of a scientist.' I flipped through the first couple of sheets and was slightly baffled by the information that they depicted. Most were that of some kind of journal of a Ms. Ross, and depicted her expedition into that of the forgotten ruins of a subterranean ruin. Though what really caught my eye was that of what she was studying. 'She was studying the...Unknown?' I asked out loud in my Pokémon tongue which got Trisha, Lady Suicune, and Lady Cresselia to give me strange startled looks.

"From the expression on your face, I can assume that you've come across the information of our 'Late' Ms. Ross." He stopped there as if reflecting on some bit of information or thought.

'Late? What do you mean by late?' I asked him as I slowly lowered the papers and looked over at him.

"We...we've lost contact with her. Not so much as she's passed on from this world but she just hasn't checked in with us for quite some time. She'd been in her third expedition into the ruins when we lost contact with her. We assumed that there was just something within the ruins that had caught her attention." Then as if like that of an after-thought he said the next bit under his breath. "She's known for not checking in at the proper times." (Meaning a little absent minded when it came to due dates).

'I really don't see how the four of us could possibly help you out with finding her. This is more along the lines of...' But I stopped in mid-sentence when I saw a strange look on his face. Taking that look upon his face into account I thought a little deeper into the matter. It wasn't for a moment or two that a strange idea came to mind and I turned to look back up at him. 'Wait a minute. Are you suggesting that you can't go into the ruins and bring her out?' To which he nodded.

"We have tried multiple ways to get into the ruins, but for some reason we are being blocked." He then looked as if he were a bit ashamed to admit defeat on such a silly matter as this.

'Then why don't you send in a Pokémon to do the finding for you?' Lady Cresselia asked aloud. Though as it turned to look over at her still clinging to my back I saw a look of resentment on her face. It was almost as if she were pointing out the most simplistic answer to the question that seemed like that of an impossible question.

"As simple as that answer might seem, it's not possible." I could see that Lady Cresselia was about to add in another two bits to the conversation, but was held up at that when the lead Ranger held up his hand. "We have tried that and it won't work."

'And why is that. Surely even that of a Venonat can use its radar like abilities to find your lost Archeologist.' It was then that I realized that Lady Cresselia was beginning to show the signs of losing her temper.

'The reason, Lady Cresselia, is that a caught Pokémon can't stray too far from the one who's caught them. Sure they might be able to go a little ways into the place where the lost archeologist is, but she must be further than they can go.' I interjected in hopes that my explanation or simplification of how a Pokéball works as well as it's limitations. 'And in that, you need a Pokémon such as ourselves to go into the ruins, since we aren't limited by a Pokéballs distance meter and able to pass through the barrier that keeps humans out, to go within and reclaim and/or rescue your lost archeologist.'

"That's it in an Apricorn." He said in such a simple matter that it seemed like I should have gotten that information right from the start.

I knew that I wanted to sneer at that remark, but being as courteous as I was, I simply sighed and nodded to the man. Replacing the papers back into the envelope, I once again pulled out the picture and turned it to face him. 'And I take it that this picture was taken of the Unknown as well. To which it explains the reason behind why the picture is slow blurry or out of focus.' Again there came a nod from him and I turned to look down at the black and white photo. Though as I was about to think a little more on the matter I felt a paw lightly touch me on the leg and looked down to see that it was coming from Lady Suicune.

Not really knowing why she'd done so, I knelt down so I was a little closer to her. 'Yes my lady?'

'Genii, I would like to speak to you in private for a moment or two.' She then turned and looked up so that her gaze met that of Lady Cresselia. 'And I mean...privately.' I could almost feel the hostility to that from Lady Suicune to that of Lady Cresselia, and I hoped almost to God that this wouldn't end up in a fight between the two, though somewhere I knew that there would be a fight coming, someday.

'You will have to excuse us Mr. Fisher, Lady Suicune wishes to have a few private words with me.' To which I saw him nod and the two of us slowly walked off, but not before Lady Suicune gave a growl to Lady Cresselia. I don't think Lady Cresselia took too kindly to being growled at, as she gave a bit of a huff to Lady Suicune then release me to go hover near that of Trisha. A few moments later found the two of us outside the center and under a tree nearby.

'I swear that she gets on my nerves just to see how far she can push me.' Lady Suicune said as she looked over her right shoulder at the door leading into the center and gave another small growl towards it.

Not wanting to add in my own to bits, as I had to agree with her, I just sighed and took a knee before her. 'You wished to speak privately with me, my lady?' I asked her to which Lady Suicune simply turned and gave me a pleasant smile.

'I don't think I'll ever get tired of you referring to me like that.' She said with a bit more a smile that made her look even more radiant. But after a while her smile slowly faded and it took on a more serious tone/expression. 'I have to admit Genii, I'm a little nervous about us taking on or doing this favor for this Ranger.'

'And why...' "And why might that be, my lady?" I asked her as I switched on over to using my regular voice since we were speaking alone and away from prying ears that might realize that I was able to speak not only that of the Pokémon tongue but also that of humans.

'If you have forgotten, you are not wholly that of a Pokémon. I shouldn't have to remind you that a part of you is still human.' It was then that I realized or knew now why she had on that of a serious expression. If they were to find out that I wasn't able to enter that of the ruins, then it could spell trouble for us.