540The Return of the Cursed Gift chap 1
Yes readers, it is I, it is I, Talkingbirdguy. (It rhymed and sounded cool, sue me! :P) And I have, for your entertainment and delight, the very first chapter to the sequel of Curse of the Lucario! *Roar of applause that reverberates around the planet* (is my ego out of hand? Yes. Do I care? Absolutely not!)
I suggest that, if you haven't read Curse of the Lucario yet, you do so. Even though this will be good even if you haven't, some details may be confusing and might seem random if you don't know the story behind them. But whatever, your choice.
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, just the story that I have created and all original characters I have created.
Without further blah blah blah that most will probably skip anyways, enjoy :).
Even after Team Styx had been wiped off of the face of the planet, I never really gave up that small amount of paranoia that made me think that some aspect of Team Styx had survived.
I always was watching the news, keeping an eye out for any signs of Team Styx's survival. Then I got complacent. I believed that Team Styx had finally and truly been eradicated. This turned out to be a mistake. A big, big mistake.
And while it hurt me, it hurt my family so much more.
Chapter 1
Constant Vigilance
JASON'S POV
After making sure I was mentally and physically stable, I was released from the hospital and returned home with my parents. (Narri left us to go traveling and returned to his home after travelling for a few years to different places.)
For the first year after I returned to being human, the biggest threats I faced were rabid reporters and overly enthusiastic people seeking autographs. I decided, so the reporters would back off, to grant an interview to a few of them. I told them my story from my perspective (leaving out certain details that would have landed me in an asylum) and they aired it on TV for years afterwards. Heck, I still see it from time to time.
Well, once I told them everything they wanted to know, they slowly lost interest in me and soon left me (mostly) alone. Surprisingly, there was even a movie made based on my story. It was pretty good, if a bit lacking on a few details. Since it was based on me, they legally had to give me some sort of compensation. So I got a small cut of the movie profits (which wasn't small in the slightest!).
Two years after I turned back human, I was able to go out in public without the need for someone accompanying me. I was still stared at and asked for the occasional autograph, but it wasn't usually too much of an irritation. The stares I had received as a Lucario had made me almost fully immune to the stares my blue hair and red pupils caused.
Five years after and I had already moved out and was living on my own near the Lucario sanctuary. I had accepted a job from Mr Ignacious that was involved in helping protect the Lucario sanctuary from trainers, poachers, and other threats. Being so close to the sanctuary, I was able to keep in contact with Narri, my best friend and oldest companion. My ability to channel and use aura made the Lucario that lived there respect me as though I was a Lucario myself.
I'm able to use aura to "see" about twenty meters around me with my eyes closed. I'm able to speak to others with aura, to a certain extent. I'm able to create a slightly smaller form of an aura sphere. And, only when I have meditated for a short time, I am able to mold my aura to create small objects that last for roughly half an hour before disappearing. Those are a few things I have managed to do with aura, but not everything.
After getting his education, Shade went to work for the WPO. His job required him to travel a lot, so I saw him pretty infrequently over the years. We stayed friendly and he stayed over at our house a few times, so we were still pretty good friends even if I didn't see him very often.
A side affect of working for Mr Ignacious, that I am incredibly grateful for, was that I got to get to know Hannah Ignacious. (Yes, the very same girl who's Ninetales tackled me and knocked me on my butt. Lucy is still being a pain in the butt all these years later). I started dating Hannah and ten years after I turned back into a human, and three years of dating, we got married. A year later, we had a son.
We named him Jacob. While we were both worried that he would inherit odd traits from me, due to the tiny amount of Pokemon DNA found in my system, it was not a problem. He had no odd physical traits and was deemed perfectly healthy by medical professionals. When he started growing hair, we saw that he would inherit some of my blue hair, but it was only shown in small streaks through his regular brown hair.
I watched Jacob as he grew up and checked to see if he had inherited any of my talent with controlling aura. I figured out that he had no skill when it came to using aura, but made sure to never make him feel bad about it.
Well, we bought a nice house close by the Lucario Sanctuary and raised Jacob there. It was in a small city that was not really too prominent on the map, but it was only a few miles away from the Sanctuary and was a pleasant place. It being so isolated had the added side affect of less people finding and bothering me.
When Hannah's grandfather, Mr Ignacious, died, she inherited both most of his fortune and his mansion. Combined with the money that I got from allowing a movie to be made about me, we were considerably wealthy. While we contemplated living in the mansion, we both knew that neither of us would like the amount of work (or money) needed for its upkeep. So we decided to continue living where we had chose to raise Jacob and sold the mansion. We made sure to add conditions to the sell, to make sure that those who lived there did not try to expand into the sanctuary and create problems for the Pokemon that were already there.
Narri also settled down and had a family (with Pip of all the female Lucario!). They had a kid, a female Riolu, that they named Luna when Jacob was five and those two became very good friends. I became a regular visitor to the Lucario village where Narri settled. I would visit sometimes on business. But most of the time I visited so Jacob could play with Luna, and partly so I could relax in those heavenly hot springs.
Though our excursions to said heavenly hot springs was cut down drastically when, unbeknownst to Narri and myself, Jacob (age 7) and Luna (age 2) decided to sneak off and play with the other Riolu in the village. While this in itself was a regular occurrence, the game that which ended in a pissed off Beedrill swarm attacking the village, however, was not. I still don't know how they managed to sneak close enough to the hive to drench it in berry juice.
But after that fiasco (or at least after Pip and Hannah heard about it) both me and Narri were forbidden to go anywhere near the hot spring while Luna or Jacob were out playing.
When Mr Ignacious passed, I lost my job. I didn't have to worry too much thanks to the substantial amount of money we had in the bank. At some point, I had a stroke of brilliance and asked the people in charge of the area for permission to take up Mr Ignacious' job. They gave their consent, and I was given the official duty of taking care of the Sanctuary. This was actually a big responsibility, but I managed to do it quite well.
When Jacob was ten, I made sure to bring him along with me when I went to the Sanctuary and taught him all about the different Pokemon that lived there. He always seemed to enjoy it, so I made sure to take him along after school and on weekends every chance I could.
Sometimes, when it was late and Luna was at our house, she would spend the night. And, when it was late and we were at the Sanctuary, I would let Jacob spend the night. Because of Jacob's closeness with Luna at such a young age, he began to understand a lot of what Luna said to him when she spoke in the Pokemon language. While he couldn't understand most other Pokemon, he could understand Riolu and Lucario with a high rate of success. I could understand a little, but not to the degree that Jacob could.
Luna, along with Narri and Pip, basically became family and we visited each other often. Though I would usually visit Narri more often since it was easier for me to drive the couple of miles than for him to walk them.
Luna evolved into a Lucario when Jacob was fourteen and just entering high school. While they remained friends, they started moving apart as they grew older. He also started to move away from me. He started coming to the Sanctuary with me less and less as he got older.
While I was put down by this, I knew that it was natural and didn't push too hard against it.
One night, I got a call from the local police about an alarming jump in aggressive activity regarding Pokemon near the Sanctuary. While this didn't happen too often, it did happen about 15 or so times every year. I would usually go in, sometimes with Jacob and sometimes alone, and try to find the aggressive Pokemon. I would then try to figure out what caused the Pokemon's aggression and fix it. If I was unable to figure out what was wrong or the Pokemon stayed violent, I would call the Pokemon Rangers and have them send someone.
I've worked with Roderick Greene (Rick, as he demanded to be called) on numerous occasions after he reached his goal to become a Pokemon Ranger. I managed to pull in his name when I was doing one of those interviews and made sure to put emphasis on his goal to become a Ranger. Three days after, I got a excited call from Rick thanking me for setting him up with a Ranger.
Well, he gave me his personal number to call if I ever needed help or a favor and thanks to the position he reached in the Ranger organization, I had the ability to get a Ranger to the sanctuary in under an hour.
I told the police that I would check in on the aggressive Pokemon and keep them updated on the situation before hanging up. As I gathered a few supplies, (a few pokeballs in case of injured Pokemon who need major medical attention, some medical supplies, some Pokemon food, and some energy bars), I visited Jacob's (age 16) room.
I knocked on the door and heard, "Come in."
I opened the door to find him studying on two shirts that he had laid on his bed.
I suddenly remembered about the date he was preparing for. He had informed me of it three days prior, but naturally, I had forgot.
"Whatchya need?" he asked while not taking his eyes off the two shirts.
I chuckled and said, "Well, I was about to invite you to come and take care of some aggressive Pokemon, but I just remembered about your date."
He took his eyes off the shirts and gave me an apologetic look.
"Sorry, I wish I could come. I really do!"
I raised my hand to ward off his apologies.
"It's no problem. Make sure you're back home by ten, please. And have a good time."
He nodded and said, "Wait!" I leaned back in and he held up the shirts.
"Which one looks better?"
I studied them for a moment before pointing and saying, "The blue one. The other has a stain on the sleeve."
I exited the room chuckling at his expression of surprise at the stain that he must not have noticed and would not have if not for me pointing it out.
I heard him yell, "Thanks!" as I walked down the stairs and smiled.
After double checking that I hadn't forgotten anything important, I kissed Hannah goodbye and carefully avoided Lucy's slumbering form as I went out the front door and to my vehicle. I drove to the Sanctuary and parked my vehicle on the side of the road near where the police reported most of the aggressive behavior happening. The sun had set a few minutes earlier, and while most would need a flashlight or something at the time I entered the forest, I just closed my eyes and extended my aura.
After making sure my aura vision was stable, I began walking deeper into the forest. While my maximum width with aura sight was almost twenty meters standing still, it was reduced to fifteen meters while walking. The quality of the sight did not get any worse while walking, so I was easily able to avoid trees and roots that would normally trip me up.
As I walked, I had a strange feeling that something was amiss. It was as though there was some sort of heavy presence in the atmosphere that seemed to whisper in your ear and rile you up. I felt strangely irritated, and knew that there was no cause to the irritation.
The deeper I went, the more I had to suppress the feeling of annoyance that got stronger with every step.
I couldn't concentrate well enough to continue using aura sight and opened my eyes. An added bonus I discovered a long time ago was that my night vision was very good. While not as good as an actual Lucario's eyes, they were able to see in the dark enough to make sure I didn't walk into trees or stumble over roots.
I realized, even through my strange irritation, that there were no sounds of life anywhere around me. I had a good sense of hearing from before I transformed, and my ears became 60% keener after my transformation. Even when I wasn't paying attention, I should have been hearing some of the nocturnal Pokemon flying or running about. When I concentrated, I could usually hear a subterranean Pokemon as it burrowed underground.
I concentrated, and heard nothing. Along with my irritation, I developed a sense of worry. Whatever was causing all these Pokemon to become aggressive, it had also scared them off. I continued to walk deeper into the forest and started hearing a ringing in my ear that seemed to urge me to punch a tree, a bush, the ground, anything and everything.
It was at that point that I pulled out my phone and dialed a number before putting it to my ear. After a few seconds of ringing, I heard someone say, "Hello?"
"Hey Rick," I said, using extreme self control to keep the strange irritation from creeping into my voice.
"Hey Jason, anything wrong? You sound a little tense." Guess he picked up on that.
"Well I got a call from the police about some aggressive Pokemon. You know, the usual. Well, I've been walking in the area where the Pokemon were reported to be and something strange is happening."
"Strange how?" He was using his "Ranger tone" as I liked to call it, and was paying full attention to my words.
"Well ever since I got into the forest, I've noticed a distinct lack of any Pokemon life. And for awhile now, I've had an unexplainable irritation appear. It's recently gotten stronger and evolved into anger. I can feel myself wanting to punch stuff. I'm hardly able to speak civilly right now."
There was a slight pause and Rick said, "Okay, well I'll send somebody over immediately. Do you feel like you should back off and-"
"I'm not a child who need your help!" I barked and immediately regretted it.
"Wait! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to say that."
Rick had a worried tone in his voice now.
"Look, I'm not being condescending, but you really should go back to your vehicle and wait for us to get there."
I started walking in the direction I had came and said, "Us?"
I heard some movement on his end and he said, "Yes. I'm coming along with another ranger who should arrive within the next twenty minutes or so."
"Wait, aren't you on the other side of the continent?"
"Yes, I'll have my partner teleport me to your location as soon as I report this to my superiors. Just get to your vehicle and wait there until the other Ranger gets there."
"Okay," I answered, feeling much less angry now that I had traveled away from whatever was causing my irritation.
He hung up and I made my way to my vehicle. I sat on the hood, feeling completely calm, when I saw a flash of light and a figure appeared a little ways from my vehicle. (The Rangers had developed a system where physic types were able to teleport people where they needed to go without having to go with them.)
The moment the figure appeared, I hopped off the hood and made my way towards the Ranger.
I saw the guy, who looked to be about twenty, tense up at the sound of my footsteps.
"Who's that?" he asked, searching his pockets for something.
"Relax. I'm Jason Simmons. Rick sent you here at my request."
He paused for a moment and got less tense, but continued to search through his pockets.
"Oh, sorry about that. Can't see anything out here. Don't you have a light or something?"
I shrugged and was thankful that it was too dark for him to realize the stupid action I had done in response to his question.
"Don't need much light to see. I can see very well in near pitch black darkness. But here," I got out my small flashlight I had brought and shined it to the side to avoid blinding him.
Even not shined directly at him, he still squinted when I turned it on.
"Thanks. Now can you please explain the situation? I was told a few details, but only the bare minimum."
"Sure. Here." I handed him the flashlight and waved for him to follow me as I walked towards the forest.
"I'll explain along the way," I said and he followed me. I explained to him why I was there and pointed out the lack of life around us. When we got close enough, I explained how I felt a sense of irritation that stemmed from no source that I could tell.
"And when I got closer, I felt this irritation turn into anger and felt like I needed to punch something. Can you feel it?"
He gave me an odd look and shook his head.
"I don't feel anything like you describe."
I stopped, confused and mildly irritated at his answer. After a moment, I asked, "Do you have a Pokemon with you?"
He nodded and grabbed a pokeball from a pocket.
"Yes. Why?"
"Let it out, I want to see something."
He opened the pokeball and a Meowth appeared. The moment the feline Pokemon came out, it was immediately apparent that something was wrong. The Meowth seemed to tense up and started growling at us in a threatening manner.
The Ranger looked at the Meowth with an expression of frightened confusion.
"Meowth? What's wrong? Why are you so tensed up?" The way he was acting told me that the Meowth's behavior was not its usual temperament and confirmed a theory that I had come up with.
"I think you should return him to his pokeball," I suggested and he nodded.
He raised the pokeball and the Meowth jumped to the side to dodge the red beam of light. He then got his claws out and lunged for the Ranger.
I shoved the guy, who was too shocked to move, and grabbed the Meowth's tail as it flew by.
I held the furious Pokemon away from my body as he tried to thrashed about furiously. I ran the way we had come, and stopped when the Meowth stopped trying to scratch me and instead hung limply.
I set him down, watching for any sign of aggression as I did so. The Meowth sat on the ground and he looked at the ground in what was unmistakably a sorrowful look. I couldn't feel the unexplainable emotion, so it was safe to say that the Meowth couldn't either.
I knelt on my knees and patted the Meowth on the head and said, "It's okay. I know that you didn't mean to attack me. It's whatever that is causing that feeling that made you. You don't need to feel bad. I'm sorry if I hurt you, I hope you can forgive me."
The Meowth purred and rubbed his head against my hand. I was forgiven. The Ranger jogged up to us and kept his distance as he asked, "Is Meowth okay?"
I nodded and said, "Yes. I think, whatever it is, only affects the temperaments of Pokemon. That's the reason it didn't affect you at all but has such a big affect on your Meowth."
"But why did it affect you if it only affects Pokemon?"
I chuckled and stood up.
"That's cause I've got some Pokemon DNA in me. About 17% according to my last checkup."
To answer the upcoming question before he even asked it, I raised my hand and brought an aura sphere into being.
His eyes widened when he connected the blue hair and my name.
One. Two. Three. Fo-
"You're that guy that turned into a Lucario!", he shouted after he figured it out.
"Yup, now can we focus on this problem first and then I'll answer any ten questions you ask me once we solve whatever is wrong. Until then, please hold off your inquisitive flood. Agreed?"
I had faced this problem before, but had developed a method that gave the curious person what they wanted and allowed me to do whatever I needed to do.
The Ranger took about ten seconds before nodding.
"Good." I let my aura sphere fade away as I turned to the Meowth.
"Go ahead and put Meowth in the pokeball while it's safe to do so. We'll have to solve this problem without Pokemon help."
He returned his Meowth and shrunk the pokeball before storing it into one of his pockets.
I waved for him to follow and started walking in the direction that the source of irritation originated.
I stopped a little ways from the point where the irritation began and said, "On second thought, go ahead and begin asking questions. Perhaps it will help distract me from the irritation and anger long enough for us to take care of the problem."
He grinned excitedly and asked, "Only ten, or more?"
"Go ahead and continue asking however many you wish. Just forgive me if I seem a little snappish or annoyed when answering."
He nodded enthusiastically and began walking.
"Okay, umm. Do you have any fur?"
I laughed at one or the most often asked questions I got and shook my head.
"No. Just the blue coloring in my hair. Next." Even as I felt the irritation creep in, I felt as though it was blunted now that I was distracted from it.
"Is it true your eyes are red?"
"Just the pupils. Next."
"Do you have any other Lucario-like characteristics that are not obvious?"
"I have better hearing and a better sense of smell. My eyesight is a little more sharp than before I transformed, but not enough to be superhuman. My sense of taste is also a little more keen than most. No other physical characteristics than my hair and eyes to note. Next."
"Is your best friend a Lucario?"
"Yeah, his name is Narri. And no. Before you can ask, I'm not going to introduce you to him."
I saw by his expression that I had hit his next question spot on. I was surprised when Narri was sometimes liked more than myself in the movie based off my life. Because of this, I was often asked to introduce fans to him.
He recovered and said, "Does anybody else in your family have the same amount of control over aura that you do?"
That caused a pang of sadness that the irritation multiplied and caused me to snap out, "No. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with that!"
I stopped when I processed my own words and said, "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."
He waved his hand, "It's okay. That was kind of personal. What moves can you use? Aside from aura sphere, of course."
I let the distraction from the question quell the irritation and anger as I answered. "Metal claw, bone rush, close combat. Though that last one causes me to nearly pass out after using it. The strain is just too much for the human body. Next."
"Can you hear that?" he asked and I stopped, confused. I then noticed that there were sounds coming from in front of us.
I waved for him to follow me and I began jogging in the direction of the sound of life. As we got closer, I felt the thing causing my anger SPIKE! I felt myself shaking from the fury that coursed through my body. Finding no reason and needing none, I began sprinting. The adrenalin that pumped through my body let me far outpace the Ranger that tried to catch up to me. His cries for me to stop fell unheard.
I saw, from a sort of displaced viewpoint as though from a distance, people standing in a well lit clearing and I sprinted at them.
The moment I entered the clearing, I felt most of my fury drain away, leaving me with a lot of adrenalin but little common sense.
I bellowed at the top of my lungs in a voice that, frankly, scared me, "What have you done!"
The whole clearing had frozen, shocked that a random man had barged in and screamed at them with, seemingly, no provocation.
I felt my anger drain away completely and I was able to analyze the situation better.
The clearing was lit by four large lights set up on trees. This showed that they (whoever they are) planned to stay for awhile. The clearing had a large machine which was humming and had a big sphere, the size of a basketball, on top that seemed to vibrate menacingly. Two separate tents had been put up that held computer equipment and other machines that I didn't recognize.
The people themselves (there were seven of them doing various tasks) were all wearing the same general clothes, nondescript black jackets with black pants and brown gloves. The similarities in clothing told me that they wore uniforms, but for who?
They came out of their frozen state and a man who looked to be about my age faced me and said, "You are Jason Simmons?"
This sent alarm bells ringing through my head.
"Are you the cause of that infernal irritation?" I asked, deciding on the spot that whoever they were, they did not mean well.
The man smiled and nodded to two other people who had been in one tent. They reached down at their hips and that was all the incentive I needed to form two separate aura spheres and chuck them into their midst.
The man who had nodded jumped out of both of the aura spheres blast radius'. But the two I had aimed for had been effectively taken out along with two others who had been nearby. My other sphere was successful in connecting with the machine at the middle of the clearing and blew it to bits.
Before I could react by sending more aura spheres and taking the other tent down, the feeling of rage returned with an avenging spirit. I fell to my knees as I grabbed my head and screamed in both fury and pain. It is debilitating to have emotions that do not stem from natural sources shoved into you.
I could hardly stop screaming, let alone stop the man when he walked up to me and smirked before smashing his elbow into the back of my head, stripping me of all vestiges of consciousness I had.
And there it is people, the first chapter of The Return of the Cursed Gift. If you've read Curse of the Lucario, you'll understand why I chose the title. If you have read COTL and still don't understand the reason I chose this title, PM me and I'll try to explain. If you have yet to read COTL and ask me, it'll ruin a little bit of the story and you won't be able to appreciate it fully, so please don't ask if you've yet to read it.
Also, the next chapter will be in the POV of Jason's son, Jacob. In fact, this story will be in Jacob's POV. At least, most of it will. It will occasionally switch back to Jason, but in the most part it will be in Jacob's POV.
Any and all questions are welcome via PM and review (as long as I am able to respond to it. That's means to please not ask me anything I can't answer directly, guest reviewers!)
But anyways, review please! It's food for the soul and constructive criticism keeps my ego in check :P. So if you noticed anything, don't hesitate to say so.
(Ps, since school literally started about 6 or 7 hours before I posted this chapter, that means that my writing time will be severely cut down. I apologize for this, and will spend most of my free time writing and posting.)
With all that taken care of, Talkingbirdguy is outta here!
UPDATE: 5/23/15. I have gone back and fixed the mistakes and hope that I found most of them. Please inform me of any I have missed.