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The Johto League

Chapter 7

Illusion Confusion

Gary woke me up the next morning at some unearthly hour. There wasn’t much light, but there was enough to see that Gary was already dressed and ready. I grumbled and tried to go back to sleep.

‘It’s so early… the sun’s barely up…’ I mumbled.

‘That’s the point. It’s best to leave early so we can cover as much ground as possible during the daylight. Now come on, unless you want me to leave without you.’ He finished pulling on his shoes and left.

A few minutes later I was dressed and made my way to the Pokémon Centre lobby, wondering whether Gary going on by himself would really be such a bad thing. Meowth was still fast asleep, and feeling sympathetic, I just carried him around. I joined Gary for breakfast and Scout joined in, looking chipper as usual. Finally we were ready to leave and followed the road north, out of the small Cherrygrove City and off into the wilderness.

It must have been a long time since I last saw the world just past daybreak, because although the scenery was much the same, a difference hung in the crisp, cool air. There were different kinds of pokémon around at this time of day, too, which as Gary pointed out, was one reason why keeping to his schedule was so useful. He didn’t want to miss out on any different kinds.
On the way we passed many trees that were blossoming with cute pink or white flowers, and the area was teeming with Caterpie and Rattata, so I brought Scout out to challenge the wild local pokémon for experience. After a while we passed a tree in bloom that had a red insect pokémon hovering around the buds. It caught my attention, so I opened my Pokédex.

‘Ledyba, the five star pokémon. On its own it tends to be timid, but in a swarm they are more active.’

‘It looks interesting, c’mon, Scout, you can take it!’

Scout came forward and leapt up, but her flying opponent was more agile. It swooped to the ground to avoid the assault. However, now that it was closer, Scout successfully executed a scratch attack. The Ledyba used tackle and then tried to escape, but Scout recovered and shot off the ground so fast, she left a streak of light behind her, and collided with the Ledyba in the air.

‘That looked like a quick attack,’ Gary informed me, but I was busy reaching for a pokéball. A few seconds later the Ledyba was caught inside the ball.

Gary came over to interrupt my quick capture celebration. ‘It didn’t put up much of a fight. Why’d you want it?’

I shrugged. ‘I dunno, it’s quite cute I guess.’

I deliberately tried to annoy him by being vague. It didn’t matter to me why I wanted the pokémon, I just did. The pokédex told me that the new addition was male and at level 5. I decided to call him Vesper.

We continued walking for the entire day, stopping every so often for breaks and food. Gary did most of the talking, telling us about his adventures the previous year during the Kanto League. We came across several trainers who lived in Cherrygrove and who ventured out to look for pokémon. I fought many of them, starting with Vesper until he tired, then with Scout, who had an easier time because we’d had more practice. We won quite a few of the battles, save for a few against very a tough Weedle and Bellsprout.

Gary was adamant that we take the most direct route to the city with the nearest Gym, so when evening set in we were still miles away from any civilisation instead of stopping off at towns along the way. Or so we thought. At the entrance to a very dense forest area was a cabin with lit windows. We were just wondering why somebody would live all the way out here when somebody came out – an old woman.

‘Hello, youngins! Thinking of passing through these here woods, are you?’

We exchanged glances, then nodded.

‘Well, you won’t get very far in the dark. Nasty spirits live in these woods and the only way you can make it through without them bewitching you is to rent a pokémon from me.’

‘Malevolent spirits? Is it a pokémon? Maybe I could catch whatever it is,’ Gary seemed eager. I was apprehensive, myself.

‘You can try, dearie, you can try…’ the woman went on, ‘but you’ll need one of my pokémon for that too. Come on inside…’

We followed her into the cabin and found a few quaint little rooms. Two pokémon appeared to be residents there – a pair of Hoothoot.

‘Is that the pokémon we need? A Hoothoot?’ I inquired.

‘Yes indeed. Lucky for you I’ve still got a good one left. One of them isn’t properly trained for this,’ she motioned to one of the Hoothoot, who looked annoyed, ‘but the other one’ll see you through safely.’

We paid her a small fee for the rental pokémon and took the Hoothoot with us into the woods. It wasn’t completely dark out, but under the thick trees the light was so obscured that it was hard to see where we were moving. We had been instructed to follow the Hoothoot’s lead to get through the forest, give him to the old lady’s twin sister on the other side, and use its foresight attack on anything suspicious. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary for a while, until…

‘G-gary? Do you see that?’ I tried to direct his attention to a menacing face shape up in the branches. Meowth started freaking out.

‘What is it? Don’t let it eat me!’

‘You’re letting your imagination get the better of you. It’s just some twigs and stuff,’ he said confidently, but as I watched the grinning face, it began to loom out of the darkness and come towards us. I tripped over in shock.

‘Hoothoot! Get over here and use foresight!’

Hoothoot responded to me and shot blazing red beams from its eyes. The beams passed over the apparition, and as it happened, the threatening visage was wiped away and a confused looking Haunter hovered in its place.

‘So it is a pokémon!’ Gary said as the Haunter floated away.

But it turned out not to be just one pokémon. As we continued through the forest we were subjected to many apparitions, which Hoothoot successfully got rid of, caused by a vast population of ghost pokémon who lived here and enjoyed playing tricks on travellers. Some of the illusions were so intricate that I couldn’t help admiring the ethereal powers of the mischievous pokémon who caused them. Gary cornered one of the Gengar after an ambush and caught it using his trusted Eevee. Not long after that, we heard voices.

‘D’you think it’s real, or is it just another trap?’ I whispered as we made our way back to the path. The incomprehensible voices turned to screams and I shuddered. They were getting closer…

Gary looked around for the direction the disturbance was coming from and eventually pointed the right way, calling for Hoothoot to use its power. The red lights washed over the area and chased the mean-spirited pokémon away. Then I saw that three people had crossed paths with us, and it must’ve been them who were screaming. They all looked confused, even the Pikachu one of them was carrying.

‘That was just an illusion. Get over yourselves, guys.’

I assumed from that that Gary knew these people. He thanked Hoothoot and explained that it was impossible to get through the forest without using one, which we now knew to be true.
‘If you’ve got a Hoothoot, how come you’re still in here?’ asked the girl of the group.

‘I’ve been busy catching pokémon and we lost track of time, that’s why. Well, good luck, you guys, you’re gonna need it.’ He walked off and dragged myself and Meowth with him. We continued the march through the darkness.

‘Who’re they, then?’

‘Remember I mentioned Ash? He was the one with the Pikachu. The others are his friends.’

‘I hope they don’t recognise me,’ Meowth chipped in, ‘They’ll probably attack me or something…’

‘Aw, I won’t let them,’ I promised, ‘if they’re as nice and sweet as Gary moans about, then I bet they’ll forgive you eventually.’

The darkness got even deeper to the point where we could hardly move without falling over something, even though was had torches. I’d entertained the idea of catching my own Gastly from this forest, after seeing how effective ghost pokémon could be, but now I just wanted to get out as soon as humanly possible. Eventually the trees did thin out and we found an open area at last, along with a cabin just like the one we’d been in at the start of the woods.
We glanced at each other.

‘Err… we didn’t go in a giant circle, did we?’

For a moment we were scared that we had actually ended up right where we started when we found that the woman living in the shack looked exactly the same, then we remembered that it was her twin sister. We’d made it through okay. So, we returned the rented Hoothoot, and as it was well into the night now, we asked to stay in the cabin for the night. It was at least better than sleeping out in the open air, and she agreed, so we rolled out our sleeping bags, ate from our supplies, and rested.