82So here is Chapter 6 everyone. I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda disappointed. So far Moths to a Flame has gotten over 1000 views, and only about 16 people left reviews. I really wanna know what you guys think! That being said I'm shocked that my tiny story has gotten that number, but I actually think it's a coding error for the website. Anyways thank you all so much and enjoy, but don't forget to REVIEW!
I realized I haven't gone over anyone's Pokemon team yet, so I decided to share with you what my ideas are. These are the Pokemon they currently have on hand.
Ash: Pikachu, Monferno, Staraptor, Gliscor, Buizel, Torterra.
Dawn: Piplup, Mamoswine, Quilava, Pachurisu, Buneary, Ambipom.
Brock: Onix (this is AU, so fuck Steelix), Crobat, Vulpix, Croagunk, Sudowoodo, Happiny.
Cynthia: Garchomp, Lucario, Spiritomb, Togekiss, Milotic.
So what should Cynthia's final Pokemon be? The choices are either Glaceon, Braviary, or Gastrodon. Just go to my profile and vote on the poll, whichever one is ahead by the time next chapter comes out will be her sixth.
Once again thanks to LightningBlade49 for your help, support, and ideas. I can easily say that this fic wouldn't be what it is without you. Thanks so much, and good luck with Ash's Unleashing, which I'm looking forward to as well.
Also thanks to the amazing FieryDarkWraith for all your help as well. Your a freakin genius, and your stories are awesome. I appreciate your help as well.
This beginning AN was way too long, hopefully the chapter will make up for it. Enjoy!
CHAPTER 6 ~ ~ ~
Cynthia was feeling much better, and after a nice hot shower and a good night's rest, Nurse Joy had declared her fit for travel. Now that she could walk around by herself, her first objective was to visit her grandmother, who she was planning on introducing to Ash, Dawn, and Brock.
Of course her visit would have to be brief, as she had wasted enough time being injured already, and the looming threat of Team Galactic wasn't going anywhere. Cynthia still had yet to ask the help of her three younger friends, which she was planning on doing as well. There was also the possibility that her mother didn't yet know of the threat that was Team Galactic, as the public was clueless and besides from Cynthia only a couple people knew what was going on at Mt. Coronet.
Cynthia sighed, just hoping that her grandmother already knew, less she be forced to explain it to her. 'How am I supposed to tell her that her greatest student, the man she raised from the ground up, now sits at the head of the most evil organization in all of Sinnoh?' she pondered.
Regardless, Cynthia was happy that she was going to see her grandmother again. Professor Carolina happened to be her last living relative, and as such they had grown very close since the deaths of Cynthia's family. Cynthia quickly shook these thoughts out of her head so they couldn't venture to dark places. Looking up she saw that she was only about a minute away from the large house on the hill where Carolina lived, so she continued walking, thinking about how her grandmother would react to her dropping in unexpected. 'Her old martial arts training might kick in and she might try and kill me if I sneak up on her.' the thought brought a smile to the champion's face. Her grandma always was cautious, but she had a warm heart.
Looking up, Cynthia saw that she had reached the path that led to the house where she was raised. As she reached the front door she frowned, and glanced at suspiciously at the lamp hanging above the door.
"That's odd, grandma always keeps that lit." she murmured, narrowing her eyes and slowly trying the door to see if it was locked. It surprisingly wasn't, and Cynthia had a bad feeling when she walked into the house. All the lights were off, but the sunlight that came through the windows lit the room well enough for her to see. Everything looked untouched, and the blonde woman slowly walked around silently, while eyeballing anything that might seem suspicious. The bad feeling in her stomach was growing worse and worse.
She cautiously walked through the main hall, thinking about why all the lights were off. 'Maybe she left the house? No no, then the door would be locked. I hope everything's alright.' she thought as she glanced into the empty kitchen, before moving on to the living room, where the TV and couches were held. As she entered she loosed a horrified gasp at the sight she was greeted to.
The room was torn apart, curtains were torn off the windows, the couches were torn up, the TV had a hole in it and was sparking, not to mention the bits of dried blood placed around the room. The sinking feeling Cynthia had was now at an all time high. Glass was shattered around the room as well, and it almost looked as if a war had broken out. Following the trail of dried blood around a torn couch, the blonde haired woman peered around and cried out at the sight.
"No!" she shrieked and dashed towards the being laying on the floor. Lying there was none other than her grandmother, who was staring blankly into space. She wasn't moving, and there was a bloody knife in her hand as well. Cynthia immediately knelt by her side and grabbed her hand while begging to Arceus it wasn't what she feared. Unfortunately, there was no rise and fall of Carolina's chest and when she checked for a pulse she only found silence. Cynthia choked back a sob and slowly shook her head while she silently mumbled to herself in began to flow down her cheeks as she lifted up the body of her last living relative. Now she was truly alone. She dragged the body into her lap and in spite of herself buried her sobbing face in Carolina's shoulders and cried out.
This lasted for a few moments until Cynthia placed the body back on the floor and got back up to her knees. She wasn't too sad anymore, and her face had become the emotionless mask she was famous for. Despite this internally all she felt was rage and anger. She was furious.
'Who could've done this?!' the only sign of emotion on the beautiful woman's face were dried tears. It was time for vengeance. Whoever had done this would pay with their lives. She needed to find whoever did this, and as logic returned to her she instantly had a suspicion. Whether or not she was right, Cynthia would find whoever did this, and kill them mercilessly. It was long past time she got justice for her family.
Half an hour later, Cynthia hadn't found anything except blood and other parts of the destroyed room. The bloody knife in Carolina's hand made it clear that she put up a fight. Despite no evidence Cynthia knew it was Team Rocket. Who else would have done this? Team Rocket were the only people who had any desire to kill Carolina, and she had only made enemies with Team Rocket, whom hated her beyond measure. 'But what's the point?' she thought, 'Giovanni's dead, and he was the one with the problem. Of course even in death his evil lives on in his people. Maybe those sick freak decided that having grandmother come home from work to her dead family lying on the kitchen floor wasn't enough, and now they wanted to finish the job. But if that's the case, then that means they would've targeted Professor Oak as well. I have to warn Red!' she bolted up but paused when she reassessed the situation. Realizing that the remnants of Team Rocket were based in Kanto, Oak would've been the first one attacked. He might already be dead.
The Sinnoh Champion froze when she heard the a floor creaking from upstairs. 'So, somebody is still here. Good, because I'm gonna fucking gut the- Oh shit no Articuno's daggers!' in panic she threw all stealth out the window and ran upstairs to make sure her greatest find was secure. Surprisingly there was nobody on the top floor, and once she was sure of this she bolted into her room and shoved open the doors to her closet. Fumbling around, she eventually found the small button she was looking floor. With a hiss part of the wall on the other side of the room slid outward like a DVD player. She bolted over to it and sighed in relief at the site in front of her.
In front of her were two identical daggers with ancient runes on them. They looked exactly like the daggers she used except the runes on these were glowing a white/blue color, and a cloud of cool mist was coming off of the daggers as well. She reached forward, only to withdraw her hand with a childish yelp on contact with the handle of the deadly ancient weapon. 'I forgot how cold these are.'
After holding them and getting used the cold touch, she sheathed them in a hidden sheath on her back that blocked all the light and cold the artifacts emitted. 'These will come in handy against Team Galactic... wait! I can't use them? I promised Articuno I'd ensure that these would never fall into the wrong hands, and if I were to... fall... on Mt. Coronet... No. I'll send them to Red, better to stick with what I know. He better still have that epic sword from Sky Pillar.' she sighed, it seemed she finally caught a break. She went back to her closet to close up the hidden drawer in the wall, but paused when she saw her old outfit hanging in front of her.
Obviously it was too small now, but otherwise it looked just like the one she wore now, except that instead of the black it was gray, and the yellow parts were black on her old outfit. 'Sarah always liked this one.' She smiled sadly at the memories of her younger sister. With a deep sigh she closed the hidden drawer and after packing a few more identical combat outfits like the one she wore now (as well as changing out of her torn one), she decided to head back to the Pokemon Center and to her friends.
'Wait, I should probably tell Jenny what happened.' she realized, and changed direction to the Police Station.
Half an hour later the Sinnoh Champion returned to the trio, who were bickering at the moment. Dawn was the first to notice the sad expression Cynthia wore.
"Hey Cynthia, what's wrong?" she asked in a concerned tone. Cynthia smiled sadly.
"My grandmother just died." she said bluntly, surprising all three of the people in front of her.
"Oh god, I'm sorry..." said Dawn. Cynthia only shrugged.
"It's alright, I'm used to it by now." she said. Brock caught that and quickly responded.
"What?" he asked, curious but soft. Cynthia blinked, now realizing what she had let slip. She hastily recovered.
"I said 'it happens', after all nobody is above death." she finished. 'The last thing these kids need is to worry about grandma's murder too. I still have to ask them about Mt. Coronet.' she sighed before speaking up. "Guys, I need to tell you something." She briefly explained the whole situation with Team Galactic and Mt. Coronet, making sure to include the part with the League not willing to cooperate, and they all listened intently, stunned about the whole thing.
"So the point is, I was planning on going up their alone, but I'm aware of the fact that I can't succeed on my own. I'm climbing that mountain no matter what, but I need to ask, can you guys help?" she asked. Ash, Dawn, and Brock exchanged quick glances, and then Ash spoke up.
"We're in, and I actually know some people who could help out." he said. 'I could get Barry and Lucas to help out, and I heard that May's in Sinnoh right now, it'd be nice to see her again.' After the warnings of danger from Cynthia the group was unfazed, and Cynthia said she was going to go off into the Celestic Town woods to train for a couple hours. "Oh yeah we'll come too! But first, I need to contact Professor Oak." said Ash. Cynthia blinked as if remembering something.
"Oh yeah me too." she said, causing Ash to look at her confused.
"Why would you need to contact Professor Oak?" he asked.
'Oh shit I can't believe I said that out loud. I'm on a roll today.' she thought sarcastically. Try as she might she couldn't find any excuse to contact the Kanto Professor that wasn't personal.
"That is- Why- its cu-..." she stuttered pathetically, before narrowing her eyes. "It's none of your business." she huffed in embarrassment, causing Ash and Dawn to laugh at her red face. She stormed inside the Pokemon Center.
The video phone in front of her rang before the old man picked up. He put on his glasses but still took a moment to recognize the woman through the video screen. When he did her brightened. "Ah Cynthia long time no see, how have you been?" he asked cheerfully, but he paused when he noticed the emotionless face in front of him.
Cynthia swallowed her sadness before speaking. "Grandma's been murdered. I figured they'd go after you too, so I was calling to check up on you."
Professor Oak was stunned into silence. He sighed in grief as he processed the information. His oldest friend was now dead, and what would happen to Cynthia now that she had no living relatives? "Wow..." he muttered sadly, before looking back up at the champion. "Are you alright?" he asked in genuine concern. She nodded back to him but he could see sadness in her eyes, as well as great anger, which was only natural. Her eyes were still focused on the floor.
"How is he?" she asked quietly, causing the Professor to sigh again.
"I wouldn't know, he hasn't come down since his last visit, which was a year and a half ago. You'd think he'd visit his grandfather more often eh?" said Professor Oak.
'He's becoming part of that mountain every day he spends up there.' she thought with sadness. Professor Oak had a contemplative look on his face, as the legendary boy from the mountain came to his mind. He remembered exactly why he was up there in the first place, and Oak decided to ensure Cynthia wouldn't suffer the same fate.
"Cynthia." he said, causing her to look up at him "When you find whoever did this terrible thing, don't kill them." Cynthia looked shocked.
"What?! Why?!" she demanded angrily at the old man, who raised his voice as well to retort.
"You know damn well why not. You know exactly what killing Giovanni did to Red. Do you want to suffer the same fate?" he asked sharply. Cynthia was about to reply with an angry retort but stopped as his words went through her head. She sighed and closed her eyes, lowering her head in defeat.
"Yes, I'm aware, okay? I won't kill whoever did it." she said.
Professor Oak didn't buy it. This girl was like a grandchild to him, and he refused to let her kill somebody for revenge. Last time that happened a boy disappeared up a mountain, and the last thing he'd do is let it happen again.
"Swear it on Sarah's grave." he said bluntly. Cynthia's eyes widened in anger and she scowled at him, until she realized that the Professor didn't mean anything harmful. He had her cornered. She lowered her head in defeat again.
"I swear on Sarah's grave, I will not kill Grandma's murderer." she said slowly. He nodded and for some reason, she felt better. "I... I''m gonna go Professor. Ash wanted to speak to you, and remember, if he comes down make sure he comes to Sinnoh." she said, receiving a nod from the old man.
After clearing her head, she walked back to the lobby and nodded to Ash, who got up and went to the booths. Cynthia sat down next to Dawn and laid back on the couch and let out a sigh.
"Hey Professor! How ya been? I just have a small request, is it okay if I send Torterra over for Sceptile? Also, can you send a small request to the Charific Valley..."
Cynthia had found a circular clearing to train in, and the first thing she did was bring out a practice mat she had borrowed from the Pokemon Center. She laid it out to its full length, which was about 15 feet in diameter, and it seemed as if she had a sparring ring set up. The ground below was almost completely flat, and regardless the mat protected anyone who should fall. Since the others had elected to wait at the Pokemon Center for Ash, the incredibly fit woman had to choose a sparring partner.
'Lucario is probably the best choice, but I've trained with him the most in the last week. Ah fuck it lets try Garchomp.' and with that she summoned the enormous shark-like dragon, who upon materialization let loose a might roar that shook the whole forest. Cynthia sighed, this was gonna hurt.
"Garchomp come on let's spar." she said to her flagship pokemon, who roared in agreement before entering the makeshift sparring ring. Cynthia took of her weapons, which were still sheathed, and laid them against a tree. She also took off her black trench coat and laid that down as well. Now in combat pants and a sports bra, she entered the ring as well, cracking her knuckles as she did so. She did a couple stretches while Garchomp ran around sharpening it's claws on the massive trees. After this they both entered the ring and Cynthia got in her unarmed combat stance. Garchomp got ready as well, it's knees bent and arm blades a good distance apart.
Cynthia smirked, and rushed the massive dragon. She started out on the defensive, dodging all of Garchomp's precise bladed attacks, and soon she realized that though Garchomp was much faster than she was last time they spared, she still couldn't compete with Cynthia's speed and finesse. Unfortunately Cynthia couldn't compete with Garchomp's power, and it didn't help that Garchomp was extremely smart.
The Sinnoh Champion decided to go on the offensive after dodging a few more attacks, kicking out sharply at Garchomp's left leg. Her kick hit right below the knee, and actually caused Garchomp to grunt and almost stumble back. Cynthia smirked cockily, and took advantage of the momentary loss of balance. She landed strike across Garchomp's face and torso, although she only caused the beast to grunt a few times, clearly not very injured. Garchomp quickly regained it's balance, now pissed off at it's trainer, and let out a monstrous roar which didn't seem to faze the champion at all. Cynthia was smirking cockily at the dragon almost mocking it.
Garchomp narrowed her eyes. Time to show Ms. High-and-Mighty who's boss. But nobody said she couldn't have a little fun first. She smirked evilly.
Cynthia had accomplished her goal of pissing Garchomp off, and now all she needed to do was wait for the pseudo-legendary to move. 'I've got you right where I want y- Ugh!' Cynthia stumbled, completely unprepared for the glob of spit that landed on her forehead, almost blocking her vision. She quickly wiped off what she could with one arm, and only narrowly dodged the vertical slash from the Mach Pokemon, and also ducking underneath the follow-up horizontal swing by a small margin. But Garchomp quickly spun around in a circle, and used her tail to bat Cynthia right in the midsection.
"Ooof!" said the blonde woman as she was swatted by the enormous tail, causing her to go airborne and fly back a couple feet before smashing into the mat on her back. She groaned and sat up, glaring at Garchomp, who was chuckling.
Cynthia huffed "You cheated!" she said angrily at the the laughing dragon. Cynthia stood up and got a towel and rubbed the remaining... unmentionables of her face in disgust. She turned back to Garchomp, who now had her back to the Sinnoh Champion, and was still laughing. Cynthia huffed again, and decided to catch the mach pokemon off guard. She quickly charged it from behind and launched herself at the beast, wrapping her arms around her neck from behind and trying to wrestle it to the ground.
Cynthia's small frame didn't bring down the dragon, but the surprise of the move caused Garchomp to make a weird surprised noise and stumble forward, tripping over it it's own feet and falling onto the mat, Cynthia on top. They spent the next several minutes rolling around the mat wrestling and grappling for dominance, Cynthia only able to keep up due to her flexibility. The Sinnoh Champion soon wormed her away into a position where she had Garchomp in a choke-hold from behind, and had maneuver herself so that Garchomp couldn't reach her despite it's protests.
Despite Cynthia's athletic build and the fact that she was giving it all she could, Garchomp didn't feel her air supply being cut off at all. But it couldn't do anything to the annoying gnat hanging off her back because she couldn't reach her. Garchomp smirked when she saw a massive tree by the edge of the clearing.
Cynthia was confused at first but soon realized what her starter had in mind when she stormed over to the tree and lined up in front of it, but with her back facing the tree. Cynthia panicked "Nonononono-augh!" she was cut off as Garchomp slammed its back into the tree, effectively crushing her trainer.
Garchomp smirked as she felt her trainer's hold weaken, but somehow the blonde woman still held on. The dragon lined itself up against the tree again.
Cynthia had gotten her breath knocked out of her, but somehow managed to hang on. 'I'm not losing this!' she was determined, and she had been thrown into massive objects with a lot of force before, but getting full body-slammed into a tree by a massive dragon still hurt. A lot. Cynthia regained her breath and gasped for air.
Garchomp smirked and took that as her cue to once again throw her whole body backwards into the tree. She heard her trainer yelp in shock and she lost her grip, causing Cynthia to fall face first onto the ground when Garchomp removed itself from the hole it had created in the tree.
Cynthia groaned and tried to make sense of her blurry vision, which was flashing colors left and right. Eventually her vision returned to normal and she looked up to see a massive Garchomp looking down at her with interest. "Oh no..." she murmured but and tried struggling when Garchomp lifted her up and brought her to the center of the mat, where it dropped her right back onto the floor. Cynthia was lying on her stomach now and was still trying to find the point of this, but she soon figured it out as Garchomp put it's right foot on Cynthia's back and did it's best to pose in victory, as if it were some sort of trophy.
"Hey! This isn't over yet! I haven't given up ye- OW OK I YIELD I YIELD!" the Champion was cut off as Garchomp put more pressure on Cynthia's back. "Why are you posing, there's nobody here?" she said to the attention loving pokemon. Just then she heard a cough and Dawn, Brock, and Ash stepped into the clearing, and they looked as if they had been laughing. Cynthia hadn't noticed them approach.
The Sinnoh Champion paled. "...how long were you guys there...?" she asked from underneath Garchomp's foot. This caused the group to snicker.
"Long enough" joked Dawn, before breaking out into laughter.
"Oh Arceus that's embarrassing." Cynthia muttered as she buried her face in her arms in shame. Of course this caused the group to laugh more. Thinking it's trainer had suffered enough, Garchomp released Cynthia and stalked over to a tree. Cynthia got up and looked angrily at the trio.
"I'd like to see you guys try and fight a pseudo-legendary dragon. Wouldn't be so funny then would it? Hmpf!" Cynthia said before stalking to the side and getting a water bottle.
"So Cynthia," said Ash "what are we going to do for training?" he hoped he didn't have to wrestle with Garchomp. Cynthia smiled and responded while drying herself off.
"Get out your preferred weapon, I want to see what you know." said the blonde woman. Dawn got out her quarterstaff, Brock got out his machete, and Ash got out his baton. Cynthia raised an eyebrow when she saw his weapon.
"Really? That's... that's all ya got?" she said sarcastically. Ash flushed in embarrassment.
"Hey this was all I could afford okay? And anyways I'm good with this!" he claimed, causing the Sinnoh Champion to roll her eyes.
"You'd look better with a sword. A matter of fact, I know a guy who has a really awesome sword, and I'm sure he'd be willing to give it to you." said Cynthia, before adding to herself "if he'd get off that damn mountain." Nobody seemed to hear her second comment though, and Ash was beaming up at her.
"Really? Cool! Where did he get it?" asked Ash, who was daydreaming what the sword might look like.
"Sky Pillar." said Cynthia, "now enough chatter, let's go to work!"
~ ~ ~ CHAPTER 6 END ~ ~ ~
So what did you think? Leave a review and let me know. If u have any ideas PM me and I'll get back to you. Make sure to vote on the poll at my Profile to decide what Cynthia's 6th Pokemon should be! This is my 3rd Upload attempt FF screwed up the first two taking out some words and replacing symbols with fucking Chinese letters or something. I didn't even notice and when I thought I fixed it nothing happened, so maybe this one will be better.
REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW