Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Chapter 5 - Inside the Radio Tower.
It was Saturday. Lisa had spent the planned to spend the previous day at the Radio Tower, but it was closed. The radios all over town were turned off, also. A few townspeople had been confused by the event.
"It's not normal at all," the Innkeeper with the Marill said to Lisa with a confused frown on Friday night. "The radio tower's closed, radio transmission's stopped ... there's something wrong."
Nevertheless, Lisa had shrugged off the bizarre happening, and spent the day training with Aipom, Wooper and Caterpie, who all had had a very tough battle each, and Lisa was extremely pleased when Caterpie grew a level and learned Smokescreen after a fight with a Drowzee, and had subsequently evolved. Lisa was very proud of her Metapod, weak or not.
Lisa strolled up Goldenrod Avenue and crossed the road on the pedestrian path, finally reaching the Radio Tower, which, black and shining, rose up steadily above all other buildings in the city. The tower was situated on a slight escarpment, and when Lisa looked behind her she could see the Pokemon Centre, and the small bed-and-breakfast she had stayed in overnight.
“ Here we are again.” Lisa said to Aipom, who was swinging on her shoulder. “ The Radio Tower. Hopefully there’s a lot of people in here who know about Legendary Pokemon … especially Suicune.”
Just before Lisa could enter the tower’s sliding glass doors, a man in black appeared from behind a corner building, and pushed her roughly over. She stumbled but recovered, and then turned to face him. He was clothed totally in black, and had a menacing look on his face. “ Oy, kid. Watch out where you’re going.”
“ Me? You ran into me!” Lisa argued quickly, as Aipom spat out at the man. However, the girl was slowly backing towards the doors of the Tower.
The man shrugged angrily. “ Just stop snooping around, kid. We’ve got enough problems without you.” He began to leave, when suddenly, a very odd look crossed his face – something like stunned surprise. But when he turned, Lisa was gone.
She had thought the man’s behaviour was pretty bizarre, so she sidestepped swiftly and sprinted through the electronic glass doors, and entered the busy radio station tower, escaping the shady character before he got any closer or any more annoyed.
“ Welcome to the Radio Tower.” A young woman said abruptly, as Lisa walked past a desk near the entrance.
“ Thanks.” Lisa replied, turning to look around the enormous foyer of the tower. “ Um, could you please tell me where I can find information on the Legendary Pokemon?”
“ Floor Four,” the receptionist said. “ It’s a cluster of bookshelves to your right as soon as you enter.”
“ Thanks again,” Lisa said, rushing off.
Lisa walked up to the fourth floor, and looked to her right. There was a huge collection of shelves immediately there, all of which rose up to the high ceiling which Lisa felt would surely accommodate for a Steelix. Aipom forgot to be hyperactive while they were entering the room, which was crammed full of all kinds of books. Lisa wandered over to one lower shelf and flicked through a thin book … she looked at the cover – Habitats of North South African Snails – and hastily threw it back on the shelf.
She perused the aisle slowly until she found a book about Pokemon habitats … she was on the right type of creature, at least. Suddenly, somebody tapped her shoulder, and she spun around.
“ May I help you?”
A boy about Lisa’s own age stood behind her. Lisa looked him over, and quickly decided he would be very good looking if he wasn’t wearing those clothes. He stood behind her wearing a fake grin, glasses which looked far too big, an officy shirt, a tie which looked as though it were strangling him and too-shiny shoes.
Lisa wrinkled her nose up instinctively and frowned. “ No thanks Eugene," she said bluntly, without even thinking.
The boy snorted suddenly, and began chuckling. “ You think I’m a nerd?”
“ Oh no ... well ...” Lisa muttered, embarrassed that she had not held her tongue.
The boy laughed again and Lisa stared at him as though he was a retarded Mr Mime. He gave out furtive glances up and down the aisle of books, and then suddenly pulled off his glasses and loosened his tie. He wiped the salesman grin off and Lisa noted he now looked human.
“ They make me dress up in 'costume' for work,” he sighed, rolling his eyes, and refitting his uniform. “ Except the glasses – they’re my friend Dave’s – I use them to keep all the dust out of my eyes. Except they give me headaches like all the time. So if I look nerdy then sorr-eee.”
Lisa blinked. “ You work here?”
“ Of course. Why else would I ask if I could help you?”
She blinked again. “ Dunno. Anyway, I’m Lisa. Could you please direct me to the legendary pokemon books?”
“ It’d be a pleasure Lisa. By the way, my name’s Wayne.”
“ Wayne what?”
“ King.”
“ Wayne King, that’s diff – oy!!” Lisa’s jaw dropped as the boy went off into fits of laughter and she realised she had been tricked easily. "That's just juvenile," she said flatly, looking at the boy with distate. It was such an immature joke. Once the boy had stopped laughing at his own weak joke, he lead Lisa into another aisle of towering books.
“ My name’s Gavin. Gavin Luper.”
“ That’s your real one, right?.” Lisa shook his hand slowly, taking a liking to the boy who surely couldn’t be much older than herself. “ My name’s Lisa Walters.”
“ Pleased to meet you," Gavin said politely. " The legendary Pokemon books are this way, I think.” he continued, his brown hair messy as he led Lisa along the aisle towards . “ You see, I’ve only worked here for a week. I’m still getting used to the location of the books.”
“ I wish I had a job.” Lisa said. “ I don’t exactly have much money.” She jingled the pockets of her jeans, and reached inside them to produce barely fifty dollars. She wished she had taken her wallet to the Burned Tower two days ago, but who knew she would be swept away by Suicune?
“ There’s an opening on the fourth floor,” offered Gavin eagerly. “ Er … I think.”
Lisa laughed. “ I’m alright, really. I’m really on kind of a journey.” She paused. " Anyway, you do have any books here about Suicune?"
Gavin opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, and instead reached up to a high shelf and pulled down a fairly thin book. He opened it, and revealed pictures of Suicune, taken from many people over the last few years, including a picture of a Suicune statue in Ecruteak, which Lisa had seen many times before in the Floramenda Square, and an ancient drawing of the legendary beast which dated back 600 years.
“ So what do you need this for?” asked Gavin slowly, as he flipped through the pages. “ Essay for school?”
“ No.” Lisa laughed. “ I’m on a journey, remember? I’m a Legendary Pokemon Researcher.”
“ Really?” Gavin said, apparently interested. “ My Uncle’s a researcher too. Have you ever seen a Legendary?”
“ Yeah, two days ago. In fact, I actually rode one.” Lisa became suddenly quiet, thinking about Suicune and how it had been sighted so often lately in Ecruteak, and had now swept down south with her atop him.
“ Wow!” Gavin said, grinning, the pages of the thin book unturned as the two new acquaintances chatted. Lisa looked at him curiously; he didn't even doubt her. Most people would laugh or say "yeah, right", but Gavin just didn't.
His face turned dark. “ I hate people that don’t believe in Legendaries.”
“ Me too.” Lisa said, recalling Anna back on Route 36. “ They’re real, some have even been caught on TV for documentaries.”
“ Speaking of Documentaries, we have some videos of them in the video vault. I think. But most of out valuable videos have gone missing lately; nobody knows where they are. Someone might have stolen some, I dunno.” Gavin took a deep breath, looking concerned, presumably about the stolen - or missing - videos. “ Anyway, wanna rent one out?”
“ Sounds good,” Lisa agreed. She shoved the Suicune book back among the various other dusty volumes, and the two people set off behind the desk to a narrow door. Aipom perched itself tensely on Lisa’s left shoulder, as Gavin hauled the door open.
A musty stench arose from the flight of stairs behind the door. Lisa guessed the video vault had not been opened in a long while.
“ God – It stinks down here!” Lisa cried, pinching her nose and breathing in short, shallow gasps.
“ Ai!” Aipom agreed.
“ It didn’t smell like this on Wednesday.” Gavin said slowly. “ That’s when I last came here …”
Lisa sighed – her guess had apparently been wrong. “ How far down do these steps go?”
“ A fair way.” Gavin replied, a smirk on his face. “ Come on, you’ll really like this video I found, called ‘Sacred Suicune’.”
Lisa decided to distract herself by changing the subject, as they walked down the grey concrete steps. Aipom dropped from Lisa’s shoulder to the ground, and began sniffing around as he scampered ahead into the gloomy depths of the Video Vault.
“ So, Gavin, what do you do apart from work here? Do you live in Goldenrod?”
“ Yep.” Gavin said, still walking. “ I’ve lived here for about a year. My family live in Ecruteak still, but I came here to stay with my friend Dave – he’s fifteen too.”
“ Really? I’m fourteen!” Lisa cried, excited for no apparent reason. “ But … whoa, your parents must be really lenient to let you move cities when you’re only a year older than me. My parents wouldn’t even let me go training outside of Ecruteak.”
Gavin looked at her, and looked like he was about to open his mouth to talk when he seemed to think better of it. Moments later, he said something different.
“ So how many Pokemon do you have?” he asked, a slight shake to his voice.
“ Three.” Lisa said. “ A Wooper, a Metapod, and of course, Aipom.”
“ I train psychic pokemon.” Gavin told her. “ I’m kind of a weak psychic myself, but my abilities are too weak, because I never really had the time to practice them. I only have a Natu.”
“ Gee… why don’t you travel around to train it up, as well as train yourself?” Lisa was shocked to hear that her new friend was an actual psychic, but oddly enough she found herself believing him like he had believed her– usually people were cynical of psychics – she was too, usually – but she felt she could distinguish already between Gavin’s jokes and his seriousness. And it was proven that some psychics really could harness the power of their minds. " What can you do then? Do you perform telekinesis or what??"
" Just ... you know, uh ... premonitions," Gavin shrugged. “ But I don't really want to travel away. I like Goldenrod, y’know?”
“ Yeah, but travelling’s fun.” Lisa said, while they continued down the spiralling stairway, their steps echoing. Aipom crept around the corner rapidly, and Lisa suddenly lost sight of him. “ Don’t you have a dream Gavin? Like entering the Pokemon League?”
“ Well..” Gavin began. “ I guess I do. My dream is … uh … to be a great Psychic trainer; and have my own gym here in Goldenrod. Or my own really big company. Or a writer. Or even be an actor." He paused, and Lisa grinned - he had a lot of ambitions. " That’d be awesome!” he finished, and there was a broad, genuine smile on his face.
“ Have you ever even battled, though?” Lisa asked curiously. “ Once you do, it’s really fun, you get interested in Pokemon training. I tell you, it’s addictive – I never would've thought I'd be this into them until I got Aipom a month or so ago.”
Gavin shook his head. “ I haven't really done much battling ... Natus aren’t exactly the strongest battlers.”
“ Either are Caterpies, but I manage fine,” Lisa said slowly. “ Listen, I’ll tell you what. When we get into the Video Vault, you find me the video and in return I’ll battle Natu with Metapod for you, just to give it some experience.”
“ I can’t battle in here. I’m at work. I'll get in trouble.”
“ When do you get off?”
“ Five.”
“ It’s a date then," Lisa said in a final tone. " Meet me outside the Pokemon Centre, on the grassed area to the side.”
Gavin gave another genuine smile, apparently chuffed that he had made a friend so quickly. He opened his mouth to say something, when there was a sudden clatter from below. As as they rounded the stairway, Lisa and Gavin emerged into a vast, low-roofed room, stacked with Videos. Gavin explained that the video vault was kept on the ground floor, because they were actually too heavy to be kept on the weak fourth floor’s floor. Lisa was about to point out the floor managed to hold up with all the books, but suddenly she shivered, as there was another clatter. “ Hey, there’s someone in here.”
“ Yeah, us,” Gavin said.
“ No, I mean … someone else. In the Video Vault.”
The room was smelly and damp, not to mention gloomy. Lisa brushed Spinarak webs away from her face as Gavin led the way along the dark corridor. Aipom was standing still at the foot of the stairs still, not making any movement, except for sniffing the air with a sense of danger.
“ I don’t see any ...” Gavin began.
Suddenly an ear-piercing screech filled the corridor an echoed around the entire chamber.
“ Ow!” Lisa yelled, clasping her hands over her ears. The chilling screech echoed and rebounded within Lisa’s head, and she screamed too.
“ Lisa?” Gavin asked. Then he looked over her head, and leapt out swiftly in front of her, thrusting her down onto the concrete floor before leaping down himself.
There was a blast of green light which whooshed past Lisa’s head; it only missed because Gavin had pushed her head down two seconds before. There was a sudden silence. Gavin was on top of Lisa, who was now laying on the ground, mouth open and jaw dropped down.
“ You … risked yourself...” she muttered. She found her body shaking with fear and panic. “ You risked your own life ... Oh my God, What WAS that?”
Gavin blushed a deep red, and opened his mouth to say something when he, yet again, thought better of it, and shut his mouth. Then he said something different again.
“ Y’know – there’s a pokemon in here. That was a Pokemon.”
Lisa thought about it. “ You mean – it’s still here? But… I can’t see anything.”
“ WE can’t.” Gavin told her, his voice very strong and definite. “ But I know who can.”
“ Who?”
“ Natu, go.” Gavin called, throwing a Moon Ball into the air. “ Natu – Radar Eye now. See if you can pick up any form of other Pokemon in this room.”
“ Tu!” Natu called, zapping out of the odd pokeball in a flash of radiant light and opening it’s small eyes as wide as possible. Suddenly, it leapt up and down on Gavin’s shoulder.
“ Natu – show us where the pokemon is!” Gavin cried urgently. There was a strange look on his face, as if he were staring off into another world.
“ Tu!” Natu flapped it’s tiny wings while Lisa thought Natu should hardly be classified as a flying type pokemon; it could barely get five feet up off the ground.
After what seemed like an eternity, Natu came to a rest ten feet up in the air.
“ What’s Natu sitting on?” Lisa cried, confused.
“ A Pokemon!” Gavin cried, his face breaking out into a grin. “ And now I know where it is ... I can catch it!”
Gavin threw another pokeball; this one had a large “U” engraved into it. It headed for the mysterious invisible Pokemon, when suddenly there was a whoosh, Natu fell out of the air, and the Ultra Ball landed on the ground and shattered into a hundred, splintery pieces.
“ What the hell was ..?” Gavin began, panicking.
Suddenly, on the other side of the video vault, a shelf of videos toppled over. And then, beneath Natu, a huge, black pokemon appeared out of nowhere; it was at least 10 feet tall – yet it was similar to the legendary beasts; it had four legs and was growling. It had a head which looked too big in proportion with it’s body, and an enormous orb of green light was forming within it’s sharp jaws, growing rapidly, aimed for Lisa and Gavin, who stood there, unprotected and vulnerable.
“ Holy CRAP!” Lisa screeched, more as a conscious reaction than a reflex of fear. Then she figured, in an abrupt moment of realisation; this was a legendary Pokemon …
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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