Lisa the Legend - Chapter 52 up!!
Thanks Powarun for the reply.
Twilight Lune: Thanks for reading! I hope you keep reading in future, in fact, here's your chance ...
Oz Andrew finally finished the crossover!!!! So, at last we can post. Without further ado, I present chapter 43, the second EBTV-LTL crossover!
Note: This chapter takes place immediately after Chapter 42.
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Chapter 43 – Return to Port Valeo.
A strong breeze threw Lisa’s hair back. It was night: a very clear, starry night, and it was quite the right temperature. She felt her body flying through the air, just beneath a couple of clouds. Beneath her, the lights of Ecruteak City glittered merrily. Lisa glanced down longingly at the pinpricks of light from the houses and apartment blocks. There were thousands of people down there who were having a nice, normal night at home, or with a couple of friends over visiting. Why couldn’t she be one of them? It seemed so cruel that everything had just been flipped upside down all of a sudden. One minute, Lisa had been singing and having a snack, the next, her home had been invaded, she had been attacked and shot at, and Marina … Marina had been blasted off her back by the jet of light from the stun gun. Her fate was anyone’s guess.
Lisa could not make sense of what was happening; one moment she had been cornered by Team Rocket, flames taking over her backyard; the next moment, she was being whisked away by some invisible force, rescued somehow and now was flying to some unknown destination.
The wind picked up suddenly and became much cooler. Lisa shivered, but tried not to think of the cold. There were so many more things to think about that were so much more important. Like what was going to happen to her now. Her home had been invaded by the people who seemed to have been tailing her for months. She was no longer safe there. Nor was she able to run to her parents for security: she did not know where they were anymore.
Just where was she going, anyway? Lisa felt lightheaded all of a sudden. How was she flying at such speeds through the night sky, and where to? Was she being teleported by someone, Gavin, perhaps? Lisa ruled that thought out immediately; teleportation had never taken such a long time, and besides, you could not see anything around you when teleporting.
Then what could be happening? The only time Lisa could remember being as confused as she was now was two months ago, when she had had a very odd experience indeed. It was a dream about Ho-oh, the phoenix, but the odd thing was not only the reality of the dream, but the fact that when it finished, she didn’t wake up, just sort of merged back into real life again. The flight she was going through now felt quite like the flight she had gone on in that dream, except there was no phoenix beneath her, only thin air.
Lisa relaxed slightly. After the events of the evening, she lacked the energy to question things too much.
The lights of Ecruteak gradually dispersed until Lisa could only see one or two scattered lights which were probably farmhouses. Then all light disappeared as she flew over the northern mountain ranges. Lisa began to relax after awhile, wondering if she would ever stop flying or just keep going forever. After a few minutes she began to feel a throbbing in her left leg, and when she turned, there was a deep gash in her leg that was bleeding slowly: a reminder of the hectic night before. Lisa clamped her hand over the cut, but there seemed to be nothing she could do to prevent the flow except to wait.
After a long time flying, Lisa’s relaxed state dissolved and she began to worry about everyone she knew, because her entire world seemed to be falling apart suddenly. Was Gavin alright? And Darius? What about Marina – had she been simply stunned by the light and captured by the Rockets, or had they set their guns to ‘kill’? Would the Rockets linger in the house long enough to capture Lisa’s Mum and Dad when they arrived home with Wes and Jean, or would Tom and Miki arrive first?
I’ll go to the police, thought Lisa, looking at the countryside whizzing past below her. I’ll tell them everything that happened tonight when I’m at the courthouse … OH! Something clicked in Lisa’s head. “Those Team Rocket people who attacked us … they must be in league with Lenina!” Lisa cried aloud. “Of course! She must have somehow communicated with them and told them to attack me to get rid of evidence … that’s IT!”
Lisa ran this theory through her head excitedly, wondering why it had not occurred to her much much sooner. Her red lips curved into a satisfied smile as she continued to hurtle through the air. Below her, but not too far below, a strong beam of light was cutting through the air from a tall building set alone; a lighthouse … she must be at the coast, which meant Port Valeo was coming nearer … Lisa flew past the lighthouse and over a dense forest …
It seemed very odd to Lisa that the flight through the air should take such a long time, seemingly accomplishing nothing, then suddenly it ended.
Lisa felt the force driving her along suddenly weaken. A fraction of a second later, she was plummeting to the ground, windmilling her arms wildly, but to no avail. Air whooshed in her ears as she fell, then a new sound began to emerge: the ocean, breaking on the rocks somewhere nearby. Then Lisa landed on a soft bush very heavily. A number of branches cracked and broke and she fell through the very large bush, then landed very hard on the ground.
“Ow.”
She sat up, muscles aching and arms scratched up nastily by the bush she had landed in. She felt a little burrowing beneath her and turned to see a little Caterpie looking up at her angrily. Evidently, she had destroyed its home. The worm gave an indignant squeak and shot a small thread of string at Lisa’s head before crawling away.
Lisa didn’t know why, but after seeing the Caterpie she instantly threw up four pokeballs into the air. For a moment, the night was illuminated with the explosions of light from the pokeballs. Beside Lisa appeared her Fiskmire, looking sleepy, Vulpix, alert and tense, Dratini, looking confused, and a blob of light in the shape of an Elekid.
“What?” said Lisa loudly, feeling the cuts on her arm beginning to ooze blood, but she hardly cared. Where Elekid should have been standing was now a patch of glowing light. Lisa watched in fascination, as the small beast grew much taller, wider and musclier. It had been the very last thing she had expected, but it had happened – one of her pokemon had evolved.
“Rugghhhh!” said Lisa’s new Electabuzz, as the light subsided. All the other pokemon looked at it warily, especially Dratini.
“Bloody hell!” exclaimed Lisa in shock. “You evolved. Congratulations!!”
She moved to pat the Electabuzz on the back, but it grunted angrily and moved away. Lisa could see its arms folded in the night.
“Alright, I won’t hug you then,” she said defensively. “Good job anyway.”
Electabuzz, who was now taller than everyone except Lisa, stalked off a few metres to have a look under a rock. Lisa herself began to look around her in curiosity. After all, she had no idea where she was. It was difficult to see properly in the dark, but Lisa concluded after a minute that she was in a wooded area very close to a sea.
“Vul?” barked Vulpix loudly.
Lisa looked at the small crimson fox. She could see its eyes shining in the minimal moonlight that shone down through the trees that rose up around them. The eyes were asking ‘where are we?’
“I don’t know, near a beach I think,” said Lisa to Vulpix. She rubbed her hands together in the cold. “Want to start a fire off for us?”
Vulpix obediently opened his mouth and shot a stream of red sparks at the destroyed bush. It burst into flame immediately. Lisa moved closer to it and felt warm radiating around her. Dratini slithered over beside her, along with Vulpix and Fiskmire. Electabuzz was still some distance away, prodding around a pile of rocks.
Lisa released Aipom from the Pokeport around her neck with a cry of “Revelum Aipom!” The purple monkey appeared beside Fiskmire. Then Lisa spent a long time talking to her pokemon about what had happened to her - not just that night, but all the odd things that had happened since Gavin had disappeared. The pokemon were all surprisingly very good listeners and very comforting toward her, except Electabuzz, who gave a loud grunt every time Lisa finished a sentence. It was probably half an hour before Lisa finished talking. Miraculously, once she had finished, it was as though her shoulders and chest and mind were all as light as air. Lisa felt like something had been extracted magically from her – every worry and concern – and was no longer her problem. Once she finished speaking to her pokemon, she simply curled up into a ball, with Aipom latched onto her foot and fell into a pleasant, dreamless sleep.
*
“Good morning.”
Lisa opened her eyes, which felt very light. Right close to her face was a woman’s face that she did not recognise at all. The woman had a lined face and white wisps of hair, but she looked quite fit and was smiling benevolently at Lisa.
“Hello,” said Lisa, lost for words. Her mind – for the first time in months – felt perfectly clear, as though it had been spring cleaned while she slept. “Um, who are you again?”
The woman smiled as Lisa sat up from her sleeping position. “Oh, you wouldn’t know me, dear. Paula Somerville, I’m from out of town.” She held out a wizened hand to Lisa, as though to pull her up. Lisa saw what looked like fungus growing on her fingernails and pushed herself up instead. However, Paula didn’t look offended.
“Got lost, did you?” she said brightly. “Or are you a local?”
Lisa didn’t know how to answer. After stuttering for a moment, she replied, “No, I’m from out of town too, actually, I kind of got lost … Do you know how far into town?” As she spoke, she realised she had no idea what town Paula was referring to.
“It’s about thirty k’s from here, love,” said Paula, brushing down the front of her bright orange top and jeans. She had a large bag on her back and Lisa spied two pokeballs on her belt. “I’d tell you the way, but I don’t really know myself. I haven’t been backpacking out this way for a long time – I’m a backpacker, you see. Still,” she added briskly. “The scenery is worth it.”
Lisa nodded absently. She was looking around her. Vulpix, Fiskmire, Dratini and Aipom were asleep at her feet, and Electabuzz – yellow and black striped fur looked very ruffled – was curled up near the rocks he had been looking at the previous night. Near Vulpix was a pile of charcoal – the remains of the bush – and Lisa’s backpack. She had not even noticed that she had it on last night. The little campsite they had made was in a thick cluster of woodland. There were many high trees surrounding them, with saltbushes and woodwebs at the lower level.
“Sorry to wake you up,” said Paula softly. “But you looked quite alone, and it is quite dangerous in these parts.”
Having five pokemon around you wasn’t what Lisa would call alone, but she nodded vacantly, now digging in her backpack for something to eat. She found a long-lost muesli bar and began munching away at once.
“Thanks anyway,” said Lisa, spraying a chunk of muesli from her mouth accidentally; Paula blinked but didn’t seem to mind. “Um … where am I exactly?”
“In the Valeo Forest of course, south of the port,” Paula said as she admired a caramel-coloured Pidgeotto in a tree feeding its young.
This time muesli flew everywhere. “Port Valeo?” Lisa choked. “It’s not Thursday is it … no, it’s Wednesday … I have another day yet …” For Lisa had just remembered that she was needed for Lenina’s trial on Thursday the 27th, and it was in Port Valeo.
Paula brushed some muesli off her top. “Yes, Port Valeo. You alright love?”
“Yeah, fine …” said Lisa. “Come on guys …” She reached into her bag, found four pokeballs and called “Return!” The sleeping forms of Fiskmire and the others – except Aipom – dematerialised in a flash of red light. Lisa reached to her necklace to withdraw Aipom, but the silvery chain was not there.
“Oh, no WAY!” moaned Lisa, looking around frantically in the soft grass of the clearing, but she could not see it anywhere. With her luck, a Murkrow had stolen it in the night … still, Aipom would be able to walk the thirty k’s with her, surely?
Paula was now hoisting her own backpack onto her back, which had been on the ground before. “I’ll be off then, love, as long as you’re alright. Wouldn’t want to be attacked by any of the creatures in this forest … Good day then …”
With that, the white-haired lady waved cheerily and disappeared through the undergrowth. She had barely gone when Lisa began to trek out of the forest herself, heading north to the peninsula and Port Valeo.
*
Nothing had changed in the last two months. Port Valeo was still the same resort village; the main street markets were, as usual, crowded with shoppers; the slopes around the village were looking more verdant than ever; and the small port was bustling with pleasure cruises and brightly-coloured yachts.
Lisa emerged over the crest of one of the green slopes to see the village below. It looked quite picturesque, set aside the aqua shallows of the ocean. Aipom was on her head like a turban, calling out “Leeeeeeeeeeesa!” repeatedly as the girl made her way down into the buildings which were the town.
“It is quite nice, isn’t it?” remarked Lisa to Aipom, as they weaved through the colourful markets.
“Ai!” Aipom agreed, tying Lisa’s black hair into knots while she was distracted.
“Oh look, a Berry Shop!” said Lisa eagerly. “What say we have a look in there?”
“Pom … Ai pom.”
She yanked Aipom off her head, set him on her shoulder instead and entered the cool, shadowy store, which was built into a stone building. There were a few shelves in the shop, but behind the counter were hanging baskets and jars which looked most interesting. A plump woman with dangly earrings was showing a furry green cluster of berries to a young male trainer.
“You’ll love our ExtraBerry,” said the woman in deep, mystic tones. “It can give your pokemon extra battle powers … they need only eat a bit, though it does poison them rather badly …”
“I don’t think my Magikarp will like them,” said the boy quickly and nervously. “Um … bye!”
He quickly scurried away from the dark shop and into the rectangle of light that was the door, dodging around two more people who had been coming in. Lisa, who had been looking at some Self-Watergun Berries, suddenly caught a familiar voice.
“… and he reckoned I shouldn’t be wasting time shopping when he’s getting closer to the League Battles. What a self-centred lahoooser!”
Lisa jerked her head up to see the people who had just walked in and gasped. “ Jessica!”
The two teenage girls both looked up. One familiar girl, with sleek blonde hair and bright eyes, grinned. “ Hi Lisa!”
Leaving Aipom to look at a Breadfruit Berry, Lisa jogged over to the girls. “Hi Jessica,” she said, smiling. “I hoped you’d be here for the trial. I just got here.”
The girl beside Jessica Hall looked curious. “What trial?”
Lisa exchanged looks with Jessica; Lisa’s was apologetic, Jessica’s was annoyed. “The trial run for the Discount Rates at the Resort,” lied Jessica after a pause, then she pointed enthusiastically at a collection of baskets. “Look, Olivia, Beauty Berries!”
“Where? Oh, pink ones … cool …” The other girl, who had bleached blonde hair, drifted over to a hanging basket and began reading a caption hanging from it.
Once she had gone, Lisa turned to Jessica. “Sorry.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “That’s okay, Lisa. She doesn’t know anything about the trial yet. Andrew reckons we should just never tell her, but I don’t know what she’s going to think when we go off to the courthouse for a few hours.”
Lisa laughed. “It’ll be interesting to see Lenina again, won’t it?”
“Wonder if her hair’s grown back yet?” Jessica mused with a bleak grin. Her teeth were clenched, though. “I hope they use Capital Punishment, I mean, honestly …”
Last time they had met, Lenina had injured Jessica’s Eevee. It was evidently not safe to harm anything of Jess’s; she had delivered a sharp kick to Lenina’s shins in retaliation.
“We got into town yesterday,” said Jessica brightly. “Me and Andrew and Olivia … she’s our cousin. Glenys and Ripper are letting us stay at the resort again; it’s going really well. Where are you staying?”
Lisa hesitated. Before she could start to reply, however, Jess smiled. “You can stay at the resort if you want to, Glenys and Ripper wouldn’t mind at all, you know that!”
“Oh, well, I already … I mean, well … thanks Jess.”
Jessica smiled more broadly, but sincerely. “Nice top. Where’d you get that?” She gestured to Lisa’s white top.
“Oh, I got it for Christmas, I think it might have come from the Surf Shop in Ecruteak.”
Jess nodded vaguely. Lisa could not be sure, but from the expression on her face, it looked like Jessica was thinking ‘Thank God she got rid of those overalls’.
“Where’s Gavin?” she said suddenly.
“Hm?” said Lisa, though she’d heard perfectly well. “Oh, he’s coming later … he had to go somewhere, family stuff. Yeah. So … let’s go to the resort then, hey? Come on, Aipom.” Aipom came running up to her and clambered onto her shoulder. “I just came in here to have a look,” Lisa told Jessica. “But this place seems dodgy …”
“I reckon,” agreed Jess, pointing to a hanging basket filled with electric blue berries. “As if there are such things as Speedshock Berries. The stuff in this shop has gotta be fake. Anybody who buys any of this stuff has rocks in their head.”
As she finished her sentence, there was a clinking of coins on the counter. Olivia came over to them, smiling naively and carrying handfuls of Beauty Berries.
*
The sun was beginning to set by the time Andrew Hall met up with Lisa, Aipom, Jess and Olivia at the resort.
“I had to chase that bloody thing for an hour before it gave my backpack back,” he grumbled, sliding into the seat between Olivia and Lisa. The three girls had been having a milkshake at the café beside Glenys and Ripper’s hotel, staring through the huge glass wall at the sunlight rebounding off the ocean.
“At least you got it back,” said Jessica, sounding like she hardly cared. “Now you see where being rude gets you.”
Andrew muttered something under his breath and sank back into his chair when he suddenly realised Lisa sitting beside him. His eyes widened. “Sorry, didn’t see you. Hi Lisa.”
“Hey Andrew,” Lisa grinned, while Aipom played with her hair aggressively. “Long time no see … what happened to your backpack?”
He shot Jessica a distinctly accusatory look. “Well, we were going into town to do some shopping-”
“I needed those shoes!” Jessica interjected.
“Anyway,” said Andrew. “Some psychopath woman was selling sandals made of seaweed at half-price, and when I said they were stupid she set her Ekans onto me. It took my bag and just … took off. I had to chase it all the way outside town and back again before I thought to use my Quilava. That stupid woman’s not getting her Ekans back in one piece anyway … Quilava showed it …”
Jess rolled her eyes at her brother and Lisa knew he was joking, but Olivia’s eyes widened in horror.
“You snapped it in half?” she said incredulously, her green eyes huge. “You can’t be serious!”
Lisa wasn’t sure whether to take her seriously, but judging by the looks that Andrew and Jessica exchanged, she inferred that Olivia was perhaps not the brightest crayon in the box.
“AAAAAAANNNNYWAY,” said Andrew, yawning loudly. “I reckon we should get a good night’s sleep if we’re supposed to testify tomorrow.”
“It’s only six thirty!” squealed Lisa and Jess in unison.
“You know, in City Beach, we don’t have to go home if we don’t want to,” said Olivia abruptly. “The shops are open for a full 24 hours on Saturdays, too.”
“That’s great,” said Jess, flicking her sleek blonde hair impatiently. “But Andy, we’re not going to bed at all if we don’t want to.”
Andrew looked insulted. “I didn’t mean now. Just earlier than usual. We haven’t eaten yet, anyway. And Edward and Glenys said they’d take us on their boat for a night-time cruise. D’you wanna come, Lisa?”
“Sure.”
The boy eyes suddenly narrowed, as though he was trying to remember something, then –
“Hey, where’s Gavin?”
“Coming,” said Lisa, as she had done with Jess. “He had some family business but he’ll be here.” By now, she had practically convinced herself of this tale.
“He’ll have to be quick,” said Andrew. “The trial’s at eleven.”
“He’ll be there,” said Lisa quickly.
The night-time cruise was quite enjoyable. The sky was clear and filled with stars, and the seaspray that fell about their faces as the boat churned through the Valeo Cove was refreshingly cool. Lisa talked with Jessica mostly, because Andrew was trying to straighten out his backpack and a conversation with Olivia was too much of a struggle. She of course met up with Glenys and Ripper (Edward), the elderly couple who were good friends of Jess and Andrew’s. They once again insisted that she stayed with them for the time she was in Port Valeo. As Glenys often said, “We’ve won the lotto, we have all the money we want!” which was perfectly true.
Lisa and Jessica swapped stories of what they had been up to since the last time they met. Jessica told Lisa that she and Andrew had gone separate ways for awhile, but eventually joined up again. Olivia had joined them, and Phil had left on his own path with a girl called Rose.
“I don’t know where he is now,” admitted Jessica. “But he’s not coming to the trial. He sent the Ministry a written statement instead.”
Lisa nearly exploded; all she needed was a written statement? That meant she hadn’t needed to come here in the first place! Still, it would be better – this way she could see Lenina properly. And it wasn’t like she had spent any time coming to the trial … it had happened without her consent.
She went on to tell Jessica of her travels; the call from Hiro, helping him win the League, meeting Darius, losing Darius, meeting up with Marina, and Christmas. She conveniently glossed over the fact that Team Rocket seemed to want her dead, and that the legendary pokemon kept appearing, and she changed Gavin’s running-away to sound like he had left only a day ago for his Uncle’s Funeral, rather than more than two months ago. Lisa wished it had been, but what did it matter?
After all, what Jessica didn’t know couldn’t hurt her.
*
It was past midnight by the time Lisa and the others got back to the resort that Glenys and Ripper owned. Lisa dumped her backpack in a fairly large room with a TV and kitchen facilities, as well as an ensuite. She sank onto a very springy bed, which backed onto a window, and sighed. Aipom was at her feet, trying to tie her shoelaces together.
“Get out of it, Aipom!” Lisa cried, kicking at him half-heartedly. Aipom shrank away quietly and went off to inspect the kitchen.
Lisa untied her black hair and pulled her shoes off herself. She turned to draw the curtains shut, to block out the strong beam of the moon, but her hand had barely reached the edge of the maroon curtain before she gave a loud squeal of surprise.
Gavin Luper was standing outside the window.
Originally Posted by mr_pikachu
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