Chapter 7: Chapter 4: Return to Area Zero

        “Miraidon.” Arven reached his hand out to him, but Miraidon growled. He threatened him with his fangs.

        Dropping his hand, Arven fiddled with his fingers. “Celebi, I thought he was supposed to help me.”

        “Bi!” Celebi snapped at Miraidon. It floated in front of Arven and pointed at Miraidon, its face red like a Tamato Berry. “Bi! Bi! Bi!” Celebi flicked Miraidon’s nose.

        Huffing, Miraidon snapped his tail back and forth and approached Arven. He pointed his nose at the lab’s ceiling. Seriously? No wonder Arven didn’t like Legendary Pokémon. Koraidon ruined his childhood, and now Miraidon was going to ruin his teen years.

        Steam puffed out of Arven’s ears. “Fine. Be that way,” he told Miraidon. “I’ll go to Area Zero myself.” Arven pushed Miraidon away from him and hustled to the lab’s door. With Mabosstiff at his heels, he stepped back outside to Poco Path, only to hear Nemona.

        “Yo! Arven!” There she was, jogging up Poco Path’s hill, and she waved at him. “Let’s battle!”

        A tinkling sound behind Arven told him that Celebi had joined him outside. Miraidon followed it like a scared child and sat down next to Mabosstiff.

        One look at Celebi, and Nemona’s eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh! What is that?” She hurried to Celebi and plucked it out of the sky. “You’re so cute! Did you come from Area Zero? Oh, I just wanna cuddle you!” She squeezed Celebi to her chest, much to its discomfort.

        “Nemona, stop!” Arven said. “You’re hurting it!”

        “Oh, sorry,” Nemona apologized, and she let Celebi go.

        Coughing, it tried to catch its breath, but when it did, it asked Arven, “Who’s that?”

        Arven touched his forehead with his index finger and answered, “Nemona. She’s one of my friends.”

        “Whoa, you can understand that thing?” Nemona said, clapping her hands together. “That’s wicked! And… OMG!” That time, her eyes landed on Miraidon. “What is that? Dude, what’d I miss?”

        Miraidon perked up. Unlike Arven, he took an interest in Nemona, and he came within reach of her.

        “Oh, sure,” Arven complained. “Ignore me, but go to her.” How on Earth was a stubborn Miraidon supposed to get him to Area Zero?

        Nemona scratched Miraidon’s head, and he seemed to purr. “Wow. You’re like a futuristic version of Koraidon. Do you like belly rubs?”

        Nodding, Miraidon fell onto his back and stretched his four legs.

        While Nemona gave him the best belly rub ever, Koraidon appeared at the bottom of Poco Path’s hill, and he dashed up to the group.

        “Whoa! Whoa!” Penny shouted. She slipped from Koraidon’s back, and it wasn’t long until she hung upside-down from it.

        Scarlet quickly grabbed Penny’s hoodie before she could hit her head. She smiled, and Penny returned it.

        Arven merely stared. He sure hoped his friends didn’t bring the whole school.

        Still dangling, Penny caught his green eyes and blushed. She clenched her teeth and chuckled nervously.

***

        “What on Earth are y’all doing here?” Arven asked his friends, only a few minutes later.

        “Oh, that’s simple,” was Nemona’s answer. She got up from the ground. “You and me, Arven! One-on-one. Let’s battle!”

        “Nemona, slow down,” Penny said. She and Scarlet dismounted Koraidon. “I think the infrared sky is more important than a battle. Actually, Arven, we just wanted to make sure you and Nemona were okay.” Penny glanced from Arven to Celebi. “Oh, whoa! Is that a Celebi?”

        Next to her, Scarlet nodded.

        “Oh, come on!” Nemona complained. “How is it that y’all know this Pokémon, except me?”

        Penny closed her eyes. “Because unlike you, Nemona, we pay attention in Biology class.”

        Koraidon and Miraidon approached one another. They sniffed each other and walked in circles. The resemblance was phenomenal. Both Pokémon were reptilian-like; only Koraidon looked more prehistoric and Miraidon, futuristic.

        “Celebi brought that Pokémon from the future,” Arven explained, noticing Scarlet and Penny’s bewildered expressions. “It says that it will help me find my mom.”

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        “Your mom?” Penny wanted to know. “But, Arven, your mom is—”

        “Let’s go, Miraidon and Celebi,” Arven interrupted before she could finish her sentence. He was not ready to hear the word—not when there was still a chance. Arven removed Mabosstiff’s pokéball from his belt and pointed it at him. “Return, Mabosstiff. I don’t want you pushing yourself.”

        “Arf?” Mabosstiff questioned before he turned into red energy and disappeared inside the pokéball.

        Flash! The second Mabosstiff returned to his ball, the sky once again turned into a computer performing an emergency reboot. The infrared light shone even brighter that time.

        “What in the world—?” Arven said, holding his arm up to his face. “What is that?”

        “This is why you have to return to Area Zero,” Celebi explained in his head. “Miraidon, please.” It faced Miraidon, who had ducked his head in between his front legs. “Do me this one favor, and then you’ll never have to help me again.”

        “What’s it saying?” Penny inquired. All she heard was “Bi! Bi! Bi!”

        “It’s asking for Miraidon’s help,” Arven answered, right when the sky returned to normal again.

        Arven’s friends straightened up, and they gave him a nervous look—even Nemona. She and Scarlet studied the sky, while Penny tried to knock some sense into Arven.

        “Arven, we know you miss your mom, but do you remember what AI Sada told us?”

        “Don’t call her that!” Arven snapped. The image of Sada confronting him and his friends, after Scarlet beat her in the Zero Lab, re-played in his head. He shivered just thinking about it. Even Paldea’s warm, summer air didn’t warm him up.

        “Okay… Professor Sada,” Penny corrected. “She said that—”

        “I don’t want to hear anymore, Penny!” Arven barked. “Celebi is taking me to Area Zero, and that’s final.”

        “Bi,” Celebi interjected. It knew what it was doing. It touched both Arven and Miraidon’s shoulders, and a light green outlined them. Their feet lifted off the ground, and they floated toward the stratosphere.

        Shocked, Koraidon sniffed the area where Miraidon used to be and scratched the ground.

        It was at that moment that Scarlet finally said something, which was unusual for her. “Arven, wait!” She recalled Koraidon and grabbed her friends. They jumped at the same time.

        Scarlet took hold of Arven’s wrist, and Nemona and Penny snatched Miraidon. As soon as they did, Celebi’s green light outlined them, too, and all four of them disappeared.

***

Poco Lab

Eleven years earlier

 

        Five-year-old Arven snapped awake when he heard the lab’s door open and slam shut. He leaped out of bed and rushed to it. Arven threw it open, just in time to see a Flying Taxi take off. His eyes caught his mom sitting in it, and he yelled, “Mom! Mom!”

        Behind him, Mastiff squeezed through his dog door. He barked at Arven and then at the Flying Taxi.

        Professor Sada, who rested on the taxi’s black, leather chair took one look at her wailing son and shook her head. Grief tugged at her heart, but she did not let it take the upper hand over her. “I’m sorry, Arven,” she cried, and she peered up at the Squawkabilly lugging the taxi. “Go faster,” Sada ordered.

        “Mom!” Arven yelled below. He chased the taxi for a good while, but then he slipped and rolled down the long hill that led to Los Platos. Sticks scratched his skin.

        Arven stopped rolling when he reached Los Platos’s bridge. It covered a small river that led to the ocean. By then, the Flying Taxi was already high above Los Platos. One at a time, the windows of its small buildings lit up, as people started to wake.

        Covered in dirt, Arven watched the taxi grow smaller and smaller in the yellowish sky. “Mom,” he whimpered.

        Mastiff soon made it to him, panting. He whimpered and lay down next to his partner. Mastiff stuck his nose and neck under Arven’s arm and licked his cheek.

        Tears rolled down his dirty cheeks, and snot dripped from his nose. “Why?” he cried. “Mommy, why?” Little Arven clutched Mastiff close to his chest and buried his face in his brown fur.

        “Woof,” whined the Pokémon. “Don’t worry, Arven,” he said in his head. “I will never leave you.”

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