[3] The Daughter of Nurse Joy: Johto Journeys

The Johto League Torch

After reuniting Larvitar with his mother, the gang were now on the way to Silver Town. Along the way, they noticed a crowd of people outside a very large gate. Cora asked someone from the crowd what was going on, and that person explained that everyone was waiting for the torch of the Silver Conference. Another person explained that they were at the Ho-oh shrine and running of the torch started here. Those words made the gang feel excited about the torch.

"How about we go see the torch too?" Cora suggested, "There's no way I would miss the running of the Johto League torch; especially since we ran carrying the flame for the Indigo League, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" Mairin remembered.

"That was a great time!" Ash beamed.

So they all agreed to watch the running of the torch. Everyone waited and waited for the torch running to start, but so far nothing was happening.

"I hope the runner is okay. I mean surely it doesn't take this long for them to start the running." Cora said.

Just then a man came out of the gates.

"I'm very sorry everyone," The man apologized, "but due to circumstances the torch will take a bit longer to start."

The crowd started to groan because they didn't like waiting.

"Something must be wrong here, if we are being told to wait more." Brock stated.

"Let's find out what's wrong." Cora decided.

The gang asked the guard of the shrine what was going, and the guard led the gang into the shrine. The guard explained that there was actually trouble at the shrine.

"If you've got trouble, I can help." A voice said.

The voice came from a trainer, about the same age as Brock, with a Houndoom at his side. Cora remembered that this was Harrison, a trainer from Littleroot Town in the Hoenn region. The gang introduced themselves to Harrison and also told him that Cora, Ash, Misty and Brock were from Kanto and Alain and Mairin were from Kalos.

The guard explained that the torch and runners were ready, but the flame for the torch wasn't ready.

"The truth is our flame is actually from the legendary Ho-oh," The guard admitted, "and there's a legend about it too."

"What kind of legend?" Misty asked.

The guard explained that the legend was that a long time ago, there was a terrible war within the area, and both Pokémon and humans were hurt from the battle. After the war was over, the land became a wasteland because of all the fighting, and then Ho-oh appeared. Ho-oh blew its flame at all of the humans' weapons, ending the war. After that, the land was really lifeless then, but because of Ho-oh's ashes the land started to come to life again and soon the land was back to what it was again, and peace reigned. But one flame of Ho-oh remained one a tree and the people called it the Sacred Flame.

"They built this shrine to worship Ho-oh, which is why it's called the Ho-oh shrine. And the sacred flame had stayed in the shrine ever since." The guard said.

"Wow, what a story." Mairin said in awe.

"And I thought it was only the Tin Tower and the Burned Tower in Ecruteak City that were the places to worship Ho-oh." Cora commented.

"We learn new stories about the legendary Pokémon of Johto all the time." Brock added.

The guard showed Harrison and the gang to the staircase that led the way to the shrine where the sacred flame was kept.

"We can't seem to get the flame, because a wild Sneasel is guarding the shrine." The guard explained.

"A Sneasel huh?" Cora looked up Sneasel on her Rotom phone: